It’s time to kick off your Wednesday with some free Android apps. GetJar, a third-party Android app store, has created its December 2011 Gold Apps catalog. This catalog is filled with premium apps that are now free. These aren’t a bunch of throwaway applications either. Some of the games and applications Getjar is offering were also a part of the recent 10 cent app promotion the official Android Market held for 10 days. Others have been featured as the Amazon Appstore’s Free App of the Day. It’s worth your time to take a look at the many things you can get for free.

Activision has remained silent about the details surrounding its premium Call of Duty service. Before today, the only details we knew about what is now called Call of Duty Elite was that it would be included in Modern Warfare 3, and would be an optional service. The in-game content is created by a studio named Beachhead, a studio that seemed to be created specifically for this purpose.

According to the PlayStation blog, this “regularly scheduled” maintenance will keep online services for the PlayStation Network down from 8am Pacific to 8:30pm Pacific. Though the blog insists that this could last for “several hours,” some simple math seems to come to the conclusion that this will last 12 hours, otherwise known as all day.

The first enticing offer involves Sony giving away one free PSN game from a list of 2-4 each month. Most PSN games cost $9.99 so if this is true, technically every other feature can be seen as free. PSN+ subscribers will also be given the privilege of getting exclusive DLC and the ability to demo the first hour of certain retail titles. After the hour is up, the game will allow you to purchase an unlock key to free up the rest of the game.

This probably won’t surprise too many people who’ve been waiting on the first English Sakura Wars game, but Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love has once again been delayed. So now the strategy game/visual novel/dating simulation, which was originally supposed to be released For a while, it looked as though NIS might be releasing Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love before 2009 ended, but it quickly slid back to a March 23, 2010 release date. It’s happened again, and now the final, official, it’s-really-going-to-definitely-be-out date is March 30, 2010.

Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love will be available in both premium and standard forms, though only Wii owners will have the option of purchasing a standard edition. The premium PS2 and Wii copies of the game will each have dual-layer discs, so people have the option of playing with the original Japanese voices or English dubbed. It also comes with an art book and poster, and costs $39.99….

Ah Nexon – just when I’m starting to get weaned off of Mabinogi by some other game, or due to just general boredom, you lure me back in with shiny new features or items. The holiday season has come to the free-to-play MMO, and it seems like there’s a Christmas spirit in the air. Aside from some spiffy general updates to the game, like the ability to own castles and houses, gestures for paying players, party boards, guild battles, a postal system and some guild updates, there are also some limited, special Christmas and wintery events, items and pets.

First of all, the events – frankly, there’s a staggering amount. Its a good thing people will be getting some days off soon, because they’ll need the spare time to take advantage of these new quests. The first event is Santa’s Requests, and it lasts from now (December 18, 2008) until December 28, 2008. Five Santas are scattered throughout Mabinogi, and they have some serious issues. If you help them out, you’ll get socks and cards you can trade in for gifts. A GM Housing sale is also being held from December 19 to January 6, 2009, so if you’re looking for a cheap home with low taxes, stop by the residential areas in Sen Mag and Dugald during this time…

The Premium Services in Mabinogi are a helpful way to make gaming a bit easier in Nexon’s free-to-play MMORPG. They aren’t necessary, but all four options make adventuring quite a bit easier, if you decide to take advantage of them. Plus, all four options will allow you to take part in the story quests, which is an automatic bonus.

They’re also fairly affordable as well. The Advanced Play, Extra Storage and Nao’s Support Services all cost $9.50 (9,500 NX) for 30 days. The Fantasy Life Club, which bestows all three services at once for 30 days, costs $14.90 (14,900 NX) for 30 days.

Since you may not want to jump right in without knowing what each service is giving you, Gamertell is testing and looking in-depth at each service, to analyze what kind of player might want each one and how helpful each is…

All pets in Mabinogi cost real money. This means you can’t just pick one without at least a little thought. After all, you don’t want to spend $5 on a pet that isn’t going to compliment and assist your character.

Your best bet is to learn about the best parts of all the pets available so you can make an informed decision before adopting.

I’d suggest going with two pets for your primary character and one for any secondary characters you may play as. For the two primary pets, go for those that compliment each other. Perhaps choose one pet that boosts critical hits or one who boosts strength. Then, for the secondary characters’ pets, choose pets that directly affect those characters’ strengths.

Click through for a list of all the Mabinogi pets organized by the type of player who will get the best use out of each pet…

Pokemon fanatics will want to borrow a kid and head to Burger King after the Fourth of July. Burger King will be running a special, worldwide kid’s meal Pokemon promotion from July 7 to August 3, 2008.

The official website (which isn’t open yet) will display the prizes that will come with the meal. Along with the obligatory toy, each meal will also come with one of 12 Pokemon Trading Card Game: Diamond & Pearl cards. The cards will likely be handed out at random, so visitors might have to eat quite a few meals to collect them all.

The land of the stiff upper lipped has officially received its long-awaited Xbox 360 price cut. Microsoft today announced that the Xbox 360 would be cheaper, effective August 24, 2007, to coincide with the launch of the title Bioshock.

Both the Core and Premium versions will be cheaper at £179.99 and £249.99 respectively, making the Core 360′s price identical to the Wii’s. This should appease the Brit gamers who were sobbing about not getting a 360 price-cut along with the US. There is more in store for them as the Xbox Elite will also launch on Friday, August 24, 2007, at a lower than expected price point of £299.99.

Microsoft hopes to woo more mainstream and first-time gamers with…