Saturday, March 31, 2012
Deborah Roach, One-Armed Pole Dancer
ne-armed Deborah Roach stole the show at the International Pole Dancing competition held in Hong Kong, and won the ‘Ultimate Pole’ title. Her facebook-post revealed her elation: “Last night I won my division in IPC. I came, I saw, I conquered!” In her competitor profile page she wrote: “as a child and teen with low self esteem I believed that aesthetic and athletic pursuits were not for me, not for my “different” body… Luckily as an adult, I learned to challenge my assumptions” and she thanked her two friends for their untiring support and deep conviction in her abilities. The teen who took refuge in underground Goth scene dance floors to escape from the ‘normal’ society later grew in boldness and took a job in IT, later quit it to devote fully to pole dancing, learned bike-riding, got a prosthetic limb. But she competes without the aid of the artificial limb.
Australian Deborah Roach, who is missing an arm, claimed the Ultimate Pole title in the disabled division and said she had always loved to dance."I actually got into an underground Goth scene in my teenage years because I didn't fit into normal society. I loved dancing the night away on the dance floor, and that led to stage dancing in clubs," she said.In 2006, inspired by a circus-themed double act she saw at a club she was dancing in, Roach took up pole dancing and aerial acrobatics, and hasn't looked back.
Read More : http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/deborah-roach-one-armed-pole-dancer-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fdeborah-roach-one-armed-pole-dancer-slideshow%252Fultimate-pole-championship-photo-1332827611.html
Controversy - instant claim to fame for Bollywood wannabes
Starlets like Noopur Mehta, Poonam Pandey and Veena Malik have proved that there is nothing like a controversy to get instant fame. From fighting to stripping to romantic linkups, their much talked about acts have been grabbing headlines. (Text courtesy: IANS)
Rakhi Sawant:
She is tagged as drama queen by many. Item girl Rakhi Sawant has always made headlines either for making sarcastic remarks on actresses like Katrina Kaif or Malaika Arora Khan or her kissing episode with singer Mika or for her fight with her ex-boyfriend Abhishek Awasthi. It helped her become so popular that she appeared on Karan Johar's chat show and bagged item numbers in big banner movies.
Read More : http://in.omg.yahoo.com/photos/controversy-instant-claim-to-fame-for-bollywood-wannabes-slideshow/controversy-queens-photo-1333219151.html
Jalandhar girl wins Femina Miss India World title
Mumbai, March 31 (IANS) Jalandhar girl Vanya Mishra was Friday crowned Pantaloons Femina Miss India (PFMI) World 2012 title at a gala event here.
She will represent India at the global pageant later this year.
Rochelle Maria Rao from Chennai won the title of Miss India International, while Prachi Mishra from Pune is Miss India Earth.
The winners were decided by a jury panel that comprised of actresses Sonam Kapoor and Sonali Bendre; filmmakers Ekta Kapoor and Rohit Shetty; cricketer Harbhajan Singh; designer Raghavendra Rathore; singer Sonu Niigaam and TV actress Sakshi Tanwar. They picked up the best three out of 20 contestants.
The deciding question was - "If you have an option, will you create thousand jobs or feed thousand children daily?"
Miss India 2011 title holders Kanistha Dhankhar, Hasleen Kaur and Ankita Shorey crowned the winners.
The event, which took place at the Bhavans Ground, saw scintillating performance by Bollywood actress Nargis Fakhri. Singer actor Ali Zafar enthralled the audience with his power packed "Madhubala" performance from the movie "Mere Brother Ki Dulhan".
Ayushman Khurana and Manish Paul hosted the event.
--Indo- Asian News Service
Vidya Balan in Sari
We used to dub her as 'fashion disaster' for her poor sartorial sense; until she discovered that she can never go wrong in sari. The many looks of the mesmerising diva in six-yard wonder. (Pics: Yogen Shah, MovieTalkies)
Vidya Balan was spotted flaunting her beauty in a green sari and sexy blouse. The oomph queen is credited for the revival of 'curve furore' in Bollywood. Out goes size zero; in comes Vidya Balan!
Read More : http://in.omg.yahoo.com/photos/vidya-balan-in-sari-slideshow/#crsl=%252Fphotos%252Fvidya-balan-in-sari-slideshow%252Fvidya-balan-photo-1333178930.html
Legally blind man takes to wheel of self-driving car
Steve Mahan 'drove' along a carefully-planned route on his first solo car trip since turning losing 95 per cent of his sight, stopping in at a Taco Bell restaurant and picking up his dry cleaning during the short journey in the specially adapted Toyota Prius.
As he set off for his drive in the preprogrammed car, designed by Google, Mr Mahan said: "Look ma – no hands. No hands, no feet."
Afterwards, he added: "Where this would change my life is to give me the independence and the flexibility to go to the places I both want to go and need to go when I need to do those things."
The vehicle comes with a heavy pricetag, with one key piece of equipment – a laser-range finder which maps out surroundings and responds to GPS signals – alone costing $70,000 (£44,000).
Google posted a video of Mr Mahan's journey on its Google+ account, saying it showed the possibilities self-driving cars offered to the blind and other people with disabilities.
The company added: "There's much left to design and test, but we've now safely completed more than 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, gathering great experiences and an overwhelming number of enthusiastic supporters."
Authorities around the world have already begun making plans to accommodate self-driving cars. Last month, the American state of Nevada became the first in the country to legalise self-driving vehicles.
The company added: "There's much left to design and test, but we've now safely completed more than 200,000 miles of computer-led driving, gathering great experiences and an overwhelming number of enthusiastic supporters."
Authorities around the world have already begun making plans to accommodate self-driving cars. Last month, the American state of Nevada became the first in the country to legalise self-driving vehicles.
BlackBerry - Dying technology: modern hardware that's on the way out
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RIM, the embattled BlackBerry maker says it has not given up on the consumer market, despite its new plan to focus on enterprise customers. But has the consumer market given up on BlackBerry? The mobile has never really recovered the position it had in the mid-2000s, before the arrival of the iPhone. The subsequent rise of Google Android and a trend for consumers to use their personal mobile as their work phone too have left BlackBerry looking increasingly isolated. Don't be surprised if RIM is forced to sell before the end of the year.
Kaz Hirai: there's a lot to fix at Sony
Can Kaz Hirai, Sony's new chief executive, bring together all of the parts of the sprawling technology giant? Matt Warman finds out.
It was not so long ago that the most recognisable gadget in the world was the Sony Walkman. Now more than half of all homes in America own an iPod. Meanwhile, the Japanese company’s television business has accumulated total losses of $10billion. Its mobile phone business, jointly run until recently with Ericsson, all but ceded the battlefield to Apple and Samsung. Today a new, brave man takes over at the top.
Kaz Hirai is 51, the incoming Chief Executive after Welsh-born Sir Howard Stringer, 69, announced his intention to step down. Brought up in both America and Japan, Hirai has run the successful, profitable PlayStation business and may yet be the man to meld together the parts of Sony that make music, films and games with the parts that make televisions, cameras, phones and even medical equipment.
Hirai concedes that “there’s a lot to fix”. He says “I think the most important thing as we start on April 1st is to understand where we need to be headed”. To imply that Japan’s biggest brand doesn’t know that already may be shocking, but it’s not surprising.
Sony has been dogged for nearly two decades by a worsening split between device and content divisions. Hirai is touted as the man who can make one complement the other, but his loyalty seems pretty clear: “I’ve said all along whether it’s smartphones or any other device; it’s about the
consumer experience it’s not about the device itself. Having great devices in and of itself? It’s not what the consumer is looking for. We need to bring a great experience.”
That’s easier said than done – Sony’s products have not, outside the PlayStation business, succeeded in their aim to revolutionise markets. At the Consumer Electronics Show, a new generation of ultrabook laptops was launched by rivals, while Sony’s only version was a concept model in a glass
case. Only now is its release imminent. In television, the company is betting that the technology powering much-heralded, ultra-thin televisions shown off by LG and Samsung will take years to catch on.
Hirai may prove to be right on the latter. But he admits that, in mobile phones especially, Sony has done itself few favours. A “marketing underspend” hasn’t helped, but he volunteers that “speed of execution is more at the heart of challenges we’ve faced”. He says unwinding the joint venture with Ericsson will fix much of that, and is embarking on a marketing blitz that senior Sony executives describe privately as unprecedented.
The new phones are, however, very impressive: “First and foremost you need to have great products,” says Hirai. “But as with a lot of our porducts, from cameras to phones, features and functionalities are becoming more involved. We’ve got to get a concise, comprehensible message out there when customers’ attention spans are five seconds at best.”
Some analysts believe Sony could be a target for a takeover, or could be broken up into its constituent parts. Hirai maintains that only his company can be the media powerhouse that technology is increasingly demanding. He suggests the future could be finding new ways to make Sony movies or music available for a limited, initial period exclusively on Sony devices, highlighting that stars such as Will Smith have already embraced this approach.
“If we can structure it in the right way, so something’s only available on the Sony or PlayStation products, we can create the buzz. It’s a very nice platform to have exclusivity on for a limited period of time because we’ve got 90million subscribers in a hard to reach demographic.”
Existing contracts may make some of this difficult, but Hirai observes “The right balance helps us to differentiate our hardware. It will help us revitalise our TV business.”
That balancing act would look difficult enough if the competition were Apple alone – add in the recent tsunami in Japan, the strong yen, electronics rivals Samsung and LG, content rivals such as Amazon and all of Hollywood too, then it starts to look like Mission Impossible.
But if anyone can do it, the urbane and businesslike Hirai would be the man to back. Sony’s latest product, the portable games console the PlayStation Vita has already sold 1.2million units in a market that many feared no longer even existed thanks to mobile phones. And it’s typical of the new approach Sony is taking. Matching top-quality hardware to great games, it’s a modern “convergence product”. Little wonder Sir Howard is keen to dub his successor “the convergence executive”.
case. Only now is its release imminent. In television, the company is betting that the technology powering much-heralded, ultra-thin televisions shown off by LG and Samsung will take years to catch on.
Hirai may prove to be right on the latter. But he admits that, in mobile phones especially, Sony has done itself few favours. A “marketing underspend” hasn’t helped, but he volunteers that “speed of execution is more at the heart of challenges we’ve faced”. He says unwinding the joint venture with Ericsson will fix much of that, and is embarking on a marketing blitz that senior Sony executives describe privately as unprecedented.
The new phones are, however, very impressive: “First and foremost you need to have great products,” says Hirai. “But as with a lot of our porducts, from cameras to phones, features and functionalities are becoming more involved. We’ve got to get a concise, comprehensible message out there when customers’ attention spans are five seconds at best.”
Some analysts believe Sony could be a target for a takeover, or could be broken up into its constituent parts. Hirai maintains that only his company can be the media powerhouse that technology is increasingly demanding. He suggests the future could be finding new ways to make Sony movies or music available for a limited, initial period exclusively on Sony devices, highlighting that stars such as Will Smith have already embraced this approach.
“If we can structure it in the right way, so something’s only available on the Sony or PlayStation products, we can create the buzz. It’s a very nice platform to have exclusivity on for a limited period of time because we’ve got 90million subscribers in a hard to reach demographic.”
Existing contracts may make some of this difficult, but Hirai observes “The right balance helps us to differentiate our hardware. It will help us revitalise our TV business.”
That balancing act would look difficult enough if the competition were Apple alone – add in the recent tsunami in Japan, the strong yen, electronics rivals Samsung and LG, content rivals such as Amazon and all of Hollywood too, then it starts to look like Mission Impossible.
But if anyone can do it, the urbane and businesslike Hirai would be the man to back. Sony’s latest product, the portable games console the PlayStation Vita has already sold 1.2million units in a market that many feared no longer even existed thanks to mobile phones. And it’s typical of the new approach Sony is taking. Matching top-quality hardware to great games, it’s a modern “convergence product”. Little wonder Sir Howard is keen to dub his successor “the convergence executive”.
Fracking could foil carbon capture plans
Talk about the law of unintended consequences. Cracking open solid rock in a bid to squeeze out natural gas could spoil future efforts to store the carbon dioxide we release from burning fossil fuels.
Gas companies are increasingly using hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" to reach natural gas trapped within impermeable shale rock. Fracking activities have been blamed for contaminating drinking water, causing small earthquakes and driving up greenhouse gas emissions.
But Michael Celia of Princeton University says the biggest threat may be to carbon storage.
Eventually, the CO2 generated at power plants could be stored underground, in highly porous rocks that form deep saline aquifers. However, such aquifers remain useful for trapping gas only as long as there is a layer of impermeable caprock above them, to keep the CO2 from seeping back to the surface.
That's where fracking might cause problems. Celia says 80 per cent of the US's potential CO2 storage volume overlaps with shale gas fields. In time, the impermeable shale will be poked through with so many holes from fracking that it will no longer form an effective seal for any aquifer below.
"Somebody should have thought of this before," says Stuart Gilfillan of the University of Edinburgh, UK. "The key thing is to work out how much of a problem it is." It is unlikely that all the affected storage volume will be lost, because some aquifers are deeper than the gas fields and have their own shale caps.
The US has pushed ahead the most with fracking; other countries have so far left their potential storage sites untouched, Gilfillan says. There are also many offshore saline aquifers – particularly in north-west Europe – which no one wants to frack.
Praim Announces Support for Virtual Bridges VERDE VDI Gen2 Across its Thin Clients powered by ThinOX
Praim, manufacturer of thin client devices and market leader, announces the integration of Virtual Bridges VERDE VDI Gen2 for its thin client products.
Through a technology partnership with Virtual Bridges, Praim Thin Clients are now certified with Virtual Bridges VERDE, the industry’s only VDI Gen2 solution.
In addition to the certification of the Praim Thin Clients running Microsoft XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard 7, Praim releases the integration of VERDE across its Thin Client models powered by Praim ThinOX OS, embedded Linux.
The support for the XT models “Powered by ThinOX” offers a very competitive solution taking advantage of Thin Client technology developed by Praim, thereby offering high performance and a high level of centralized administration of the Thin Clients.
Virtual Bridges VERDE with ThinOX, features the SPICE protocol, providing a high-quality user experience for remote access, similar to being in a LAN environment. It also includes USB Redirection which allows full support for USB devices connected to the Thin Client towards the Virtual Desktops residents in the VERDE 5.5 Data Center.
“Praim is one of the major players in the market since 1987, we have always been very careful to follow the evolution of the architectures with our products, hence offering our customers innovative solutions” – says Franco Broccardo president Praim – “the integration with the Virtual Bridges solution is a demonstration of it, we are confident that supporting this technology we will expand our market in VDI solutions.”
“VDI Gen2 is proven to reduce the cost and complexity of managing desktops, while minimizing security concerns and business risk,” said Jim Curtin, CEO of Virtual Bridges. “Praim thin clients are an excellent option and with VERDE, users can access desktops from any location or device while at the same time, organizations can manage the desktop environment centrally, reducing the costs and challenges associated with provisioning, updating and securing PC environments.”
The Thin Client running Praim ThinOX including support for Virtual Bridges 5.5 is available immediately to the market with the following models: Ino Series XT9200-I, Compact series XT9200-C, Ultra Series XT9200-U, Atomino Series XT9050-A, All-In-One Series XT9050-TC180.
Through a technology partnership with Virtual Bridges, Praim Thin Clients are now certified with Virtual Bridges VERDE, the industry’s only VDI Gen2 solution.
In addition to the certification of the Praim Thin Clients running Microsoft XP Embedded and Windows Embedded Standard 7, Praim releases the integration of VERDE across its Thin Client models powered by Praim ThinOX OS, embedded Linux.
The support for the XT models “Powered by ThinOX” offers a very competitive solution taking advantage of Thin Client technology developed by Praim, thereby offering high performance and a high level of centralized administration of the Thin Clients.
Virtual Bridges VERDE with ThinOX, features the SPICE protocol, providing a high-quality user experience for remote access, similar to being in a LAN environment. It also includes USB Redirection which allows full support for USB devices connected to the Thin Client towards the Virtual Desktops residents in the VERDE 5.5 Data Center.
“Praim is one of the major players in the market since 1987, we have always been very careful to follow the evolution of the architectures with our products, hence offering our customers innovative solutions” – says Franco Broccardo president Praim – “the integration with the Virtual Bridges solution is a demonstration of it, we are confident that supporting this technology we will expand our market in VDI solutions.”
“VDI Gen2 is proven to reduce the cost and complexity of managing desktops, while minimizing security concerns and business risk,” said Jim Curtin, CEO of Virtual Bridges. “Praim thin clients are an excellent option and with VERDE, users can access desktops from any location or device while at the same time, organizations can manage the desktop environment centrally, reducing the costs and challenges associated with provisioning, updating and securing PC environments.”
The Thin Client running Praim ThinOX including support for Virtual Bridges 5.5 is available immediately to the market with the following models: Ino Series XT9200-I, Compact series XT9200-C, Ultra Series XT9200-U, Atomino Series XT9050-A, All-In-One Series XT9050-TC180.
Gamer entitlement on the rise: Call of Duty fans call for 24-hour blackout
A group of angry Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 fans is trying to round up support for a 24-hour multiplayer blackout in an attempt to make the hit military shooter’s developer alter certain aspects of the game. A video uploaded to YouTube on March 26th lists about a dozen gripes that range from the specific – like lag compensation and the need for an "Akimbo machine pistol nerf" – to the vague, including demands for “more hardcore game modes” and “better elite playlist options.”
To show developer Infinity Ward and publisher Activision that they mean business, the group is asking the game’s fans to not play online for a full day on April 20th. It looks to be a small but growing movement; the YouTube video had 18,000 hits as of this writing but had seen a substantial upswing in traffic on Friday, gaining nearly 5,000 views in the space of just a few hours.
Given the timing, it seems likely the movement's founders were emboldened by Mass Effect 3 fans who successfully petitioned developer BioWare to revisit the game's controversial conclusion. Studio head Ray Muzyka said last week that his team was working on new downloadable content that would address fan concerns.
The troubling thing about these consumer-orchestrated campaigns is that they seem composed of people who passionately believe they have been grievously wronged and deserve compensation for it. In the case of the Call of Duty video this sense of entitlement is plainly evident when the narrator confidently states: “We are the community. We are Call of Duty. And we will not be denied.”
Interestingly, many fans clamouring for change seem to believe their demands are justified due to what they consider to be “promises” made in pre-launch interviews with the games' developers. BioWare’s Casey Hudson apparently pledged that players would experience closure and divergent endings depending on the choices they made. Infinity Ward’s Rob Bowling said in an interview that his team would focus on listening to fans and addressing their concerns during Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’s post-launch period.
Whether they’ve accomplished these goals is open to debate. And, in truth, it doesn't really matter. When investing in any form of entertainment the audience assumes a risk: They may not like it. Up until recently, I thought this risk was plainly obvious to all concerned. Apparently not. Some people seem to think it's okay to demand that the creator continue working until the entertainment in question satisfies their own personal criteria for enjoyment.
Me, I'd voice my disappointment another way: I wouldn't buy their next product. Call me old-school.
My worry is that a dangerous precedent has been set. Clearly, BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts felt their businesses were being threatened by angry fans. But by promising to address concerns regarding something as fundamental as the ending to a painstakingly crafted 100-hour narrative, they have essentially said that their creative license is held hostage by consumers. Of course this has always been true (game makers who make games no one likes quickly go out of business), but it’s never before been so explicit, nor such a danger to developers' artistic integrity.
The outcome of the Mass Effect 3 lobbying movement was bound to fuel others. For all we know, it served as inspiration for the Call of Duty campaign. It doesn't take much for people to learn that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that’s bound to make many angy gamers even squeakier.
Given this new climate, were I a game maker I’d strongly close the tap on the flow of pre-release information and reconsider giving any pre-launch interviews. At the very least I’d force my staff into some intense media training sessions outlining all of the topics that ought not to be broached prior to sitting down with journalists or bloggers. After all, why offer tantalizing words about the concepts you’re trying to construct when fans now seem bound to spitefully throw them back in your face if, in their minds, you fail to succeed?
Of course, it might be hard for developers to keep a lid on things when publishers are breathing down their necks to build awareness and excitement prior to a game’s release. But there are good reasons to stay mum. Not only can a lack of information help build hype (Rockstar Games disseminates tiny morsels of information about their titles at the pace of a slow but highly addictive IV drip), it also helps manage expectations and mitigate post-release outrage.
It comes down to this: If a developer, excited about his game, promises what sounds like the world to equally excited gamers, he's bound to wind up with plenty of fans punching out exhaustive, point-by-point accounts explaining how his game did not, in fact, deliver a living, breathing globe into their hands. Better instead to leave the content of the game to players' imaginations for as long as possible. At least that way he won't run the risk of incurring the wrath of what has become an overly entitled gaming public.
Data mine your body with biometric devices
It takes 2,886 steps to get from my house to the offices of The Globe and Mail, a trip I make in 26 minutes and 41 seconds, in the process burning 185 calories.
Pretty much everything you do, from the type of breakfast cereal you buy to your decision to read this article, generates data. As such, one of the holy grails of the digital age is to capture as much of that data as possible and analyze it for useful information. Usually, the entity doing the collecting and analyzing is a corporation, and the end-goal is to find some novel way of getting you to buy something. Change your relationship status on Facebook to “Engaged?” Ok, here’s an ad for a wedding-dress store. And so on.
The data-capture revolution isn’t really new. Supermarkets have been doing it for years. The Web, and the arsenal of high-end gizmos we carry around with us every day, have just made it much easier to do. But over the past few years, big-data analytics went from a mostly corporate pursuit to something more personal. With the advent of all-sensing smartphones and all-encompassing web access, people quickly realized they could easily collect and all kinds of data about themselves – from fluctuations in heart rate and weight to sleep cycles to general happiness. The theory being that somewhere in this onslaught of numbers lies the secret to a better, more efficient life.
For the most part, the personal metrics thing has played out in the realm of health and fitness. It started out pretty small, with projects such as 100 Push-ups, which, as you may have guessed, help people get fit enough to do 100 push-ups. The project’s web site gets users to log their progress over six weeks, doing more and more push-ups every week. There’s nothing overly complicated about this set-up. In fact, you can recreate it yourself with a single spreadsheet and about 30 seconds of work. And yet the site proved sneakily effective – something about seeing your progress quantified on a screen sparks the natural human fear of regressing, and acts as a driver to push a little further next time. And if you can also chart the progress of your friends, well, that’s even more motivation.
Today, the personal metrics industry is booming, in large part because the devices you carry in your pocket can readily measure your speed and location, among other things. Perhaps the most well-known fitness data gizmo right now is Nike+, a software-hardware combo that lives on your iPod or iPhone and collects information about your running history. Besides helping you build a detailed database of your progress, the program has a major social component, letting you challenge your friends and boast of your achievements in recurring and somewhat annoying Facebook posts.
But while Nike+ may be the best-known of the fitness metrics devices, there’s no shortage of new ones hitting the market. Some of these new gadgets are extremely niche, focusing on a particular set of information. Others are designed to be as multipurpose as possible. Over the past couple of weeks, we took a device from each of these two categories out for a test drive.
In the niche category, the SleepTracker watch does pretty much exactly what you’d expect. The gadget, which will run you about $150, measures your movement during sleep to determine at what points during the night you’re getting a decent rest, and at what points you’re not.
My first impression of the watch wasn’t all that great. Like most wrist-based computers, it’s ugly in a bulky sort of way. The digital readout and backlighting is pretty standard for a digital watch. In short, you’re not buying this thing for the looks.
The company behind the SleepTracker bills it as a smart alarm. The idea is that you set a time to be woken up (say, 9 a.m.), and a sort of plus/minus window (say, 20 minutes). The watch then wakes you up at whatever point in that window it senses you’re not in the middle of a deep sleep cycle. Presumably, because when you’re not woken out of the most restful period of sleep, you wake up more refreshed. To be honest, that feature didn’t really do much for me, although I guess some people will like it. In reality, there’s a much cooler reason to pick up the SleepTracker – it’s ability to collect data.
After my first night using the watch, I downloaded the information it collected onto a web-based piece of software provided to SleepTracker users. Within a few seconds, a long bar graph appeared on the screen, showing exactly when I was getting decent rest – which, it turned out, was only 33 per cent of the time. I quickly saw that the single longest period of deep sleep I’d gotten all night was for half an hour, between 4:30 and 5 a.m.
For all I know, the watch might have been making all this data up. I mean, I was asleep throughout the info-gathering process. And yet there was something intriguing, even oddly empowering about having that data. Presumably, with enough aggregate sleep data, a SleepTracker user can start to figure out exactly what factors affect a good night’s rest: eat carbs for dinner, check the results the next day; listen to whale sounds before bed, check the results the next day, etc.
If the SleepTracker is a no-nonsense, single-purpose device, the MOTOACTV from Motorola is an all-round fitness analytics gizmo.
(As an aside, Motorola inexplicably continues to name its products in all-caps. From this point on in the review, I will not).
Roughly the same length and width as an iPod Nano, the Motoactv comes across as a kind of Nike+ for multiple exercises. It lets you quickly generate fitness goals for walking, running, cycling, elliptical or step-machine workouts. You can set time, calorie or distance goals. It’s also a pretty good MP3 player, with some great features (the ability to pull playlists straight from your iTunes) and some gimmicky ones (the ability to quickly launch your “fitness song” when you need to get fired up during a workout).
I’ve been a big fan of Motorola recently. The new Razr was the first phone I liked better than the iPhone, and the Motoactv is a pretty cool device. Where it really shines is post-workout, when it downloads all the data onto Motorola’s on-line hub and lets you sort through it. That data includes detailed maps showing exactly where you’ve just been running/walking/cycling, coupled with charts showing your rate distance/calories burned/pace (I’m pretty sure the calories burned data is, at best, a guestimate). In what has to be a simultaneously awesome and ridiculous feature, the software measures your workout performance against whatever songs were playing during the workout, thus figuring out what tracks get you going the most.
Before you go out and buy one of these things, however, you should know there are a couple of drawbacks to the Motoactv. For one thing, it’s expensive, and if you don’t end up making good use of the exercise-related features, you’re basically paying $250 for an MP3-player (that’s the 8-gigabyte version. The 16-gigabyte version will set you back $300). Motorola also has a nasty habit of asking its customers to splurge on myriad accessories. They’ll throw in a (hideously ugly) wristwatch band for free when you buy the Motoactv online, but if you want sports headphones, a heart rate monitor, rubber bike mount or armband, you’re paying extra. Motorola isn’t the only company that does this, but they really should have included at least one more of those accessories with the actual gadget.
Increasingly, you’re going to see a lot more of these types of personal metrics devices pop up on store shelves. The early players in the market (most notably, Nike) have an advantage on the social side, for much the same reason Facebook has an advantage in social networking – people join up because their friends have joined up.
But if you’re interested purely in the data-collecting aspect of these things, there’s plenty to choose from. Just make sure you know exactly what kind of data you want to collect. Both the SleepTracker and the Motoactv are very good at what they do, but if you don’t end up using all the functionality built in to the gadgets, you’ll basically have paid a whole lot of money for a wristwatch and an MP3-player.
For all I know, the watch might have been making all this data up. I mean, I was asleep throughout the info-gathering process. And yet there was something intriguing, even oddly empowering about having that data. Presumably, with enough aggregate sleep data, a SleepTracker user can start to figure out exactly what factors affect a good night’s rest: eat carbs for dinner, check the results the next day; listen to whale sounds before bed, check the results the next day, etc.
If the SleepTracker is a no-nonsense, single-purpose device, the MOTOACTV from Motorola is an all-round fitness analytics gizmo.
(As an aside, Motorola inexplicably continues to name its products in all-caps. From this point on in the review, I will not).
Roughly the same length and width as an iPod Nano, the Motoactv comes across as a kind of Nike+ for multiple exercises. It lets you quickly generate fitness goals for walking, running, cycling, elliptical or step-machine workouts. You can set time, calorie or distance goals. It’s also a pretty good MP3 player, with some great features (the ability to pull playlists straight from your iTunes) and some gimmicky ones (the ability to quickly launch your “fitness song” when you need to get fired up during a workout).
I’ve been a big fan of Motorola recently. The new Razr was the first phone I liked better than the iPhone, and the Motoactv is a pretty cool device. Where it really shines is post-workout, when it downloads all the data onto Motorola’s on-line hub and lets you sort through it. That data includes detailed maps showing exactly where you’ve just been running/walking/cycling, coupled with charts showing your rate distance/calories burned/pace (I’m pretty sure the calories burned data is, at best, a guestimate). In what has to be a simultaneously awesome and ridiculous feature, the software measures your workout performance against whatever songs were playing during the workout, thus figuring out what tracks get you going the most.
Before you go out and buy one of these things, however, you should know there are a couple of drawbacks to the Motoactv. For one thing, it’s expensive, and if you don’t end up making good use of the exercise-related features, you’re basically paying $250 for an MP3-player (that’s the 8-gigabyte version. The 16-gigabyte version will set you back $300). Motorola also has a nasty habit of asking its customers to splurge on myriad accessories. They’ll throw in a (hideously ugly) wristwatch band for free when you buy the Motoactv online, but if you want sports headphones, a heart rate monitor, rubber bike mount or armband, you’re paying extra. Motorola isn’t the only company that does this, but they really should have included at least one more of those accessories with the actual gadget.
Increasingly, you’re going to see a lot more of these types of personal metrics devices pop up on store shelves. The early players in the market (most notably, Nike) have an advantage on the social side, for much the same reason Facebook has an advantage in social networking – people join up because their friends have joined up.
But if you’re interested purely in the data-collecting aspect of these things, there’s plenty to choose from. Just make sure you know exactly what kind of data you want to collect. Both the SleepTracker and the Motoactv are very good at what they do, but if you don’t end up using all the functionality built in to the gadgets, you’ll basically have paid a whole lot of money for a wristwatch and an MP3-player.
Obama clears sanctions to squeeze Iran’s oil exports
President Barack Obama is moving ahead with tough new sanctions aimed at squeezing Iran's oil (CL-FT102.930.150.15%) exports after determining there is enough crude on world markets to take the step without harming U.S. allies.
Mr. Obama's move allows the U.S. to go forward with sanctions on foreign banks that continue to purchase oil from Iran. The sanctions aim to further isolate Iran's central bank, which processes nearly all of the Islamic Republic's oil purchases, from the global economy.
U.S. officials hope ratcheting up economic pressure will both push Iran to abandon its disputed nuclear program and convince Israel to give sanctions time to take hold before pursuing a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The U.S. and allies believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear bomb; Iran denies that.
Under a sweeping defense bill Mr. Obama signed at the end of December, he had until Friday to determine whether there was enough oil supply on the world market to allow countries to cut their oil purchases from Iran.
Mr. Obama announced his decision in a statement Friday after a source initially confirmed the news to The Associated Press.
The President said he based his determination on global economic conditions, the level of spare oil capacity and increased production by some countries, among other factors. He said he would keep monitoring the global market closely to ensure it can handle a reduction of oil purchases from Iran.
With oil prices already rising this year amid rising tensions over the nuclear dispute between Iran and the west, U.S. officials have sought assurances that pushing countries to stop buying from Iran would not cause a further spike in prices.
That's particularly important for Mr. Obama in an election year that has seen an increasing focus on gas prices.
The congressionally mandated sanctions target foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank — barring them from operating in the U.S. to buy or sell Iranian oil. The penalties are to take effect at the end of June, around the same time Europe's embargo on Iranian oil kicks in.
Countries can still avoid the sanctions if they take steps to significantly reduce their imports before then.
Domestic and foreign policy concerns have complicated the administration's decision to pursue the oil sanctions.
Many of the countries that buy oil from Iran are U.S. allies, including several European Union nations, Japan, South Korea and India. In order to provide flexibility to countries friendly to the U.S., the sanctions bill allows the U.S. to grant waivers to nations that significantly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil.
Even before Friday's decision, the State Department announced that it would grant waivers to 10 European Union countries and Japan because of steps they have already taken to cut back on Iranian oil. An E.U. oil embargo, approved in January, is set to take effect in July.
Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who co-authored the sanctions legislation with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, said he welcomed Mr. Obama's support in targeting Iran's Central Bank. Mr. Menendez's office says he was also notified of the decision earlier Friday
“Today, we put on notice all nations that continue to import petroleum or petroleum products from Iran that they have three months to significantly reduce those purchases or risk the imposition of severe sanctions on their financial institutions,” Mr. Menendez said in a statement.
He predicted most countries would cut their purchase of oil from Iran, either out of fear of sanctions, or a shared fear over the Iran's pursuit of nuclear weaponry.
The United States has not said what constitutes a significant reduction in Iranian oil purchases, and analysts believe the administration could use different metrics for different countries.
Administration officials say a February report from the Energy Information Administration shows there is excess oil supply on the global market. But the report also showed that prices are high.
Mr. Obama's move allows the U.S. to go forward with sanctions on foreign banks that continue to purchase oil from Iran. The sanctions aim to further isolate Iran's central bank, which processes nearly all of the Islamic Republic's oil purchases, from the global economy.
U.S. officials hope ratcheting up economic pressure will both push Iran to abandon its disputed nuclear program and convince Israel to give sanctions time to take hold before pursuing a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. The U.S. and allies believe that Iran is pursuing a nuclear bomb; Iran denies that.
Under a sweeping defense bill Mr. Obama signed at the end of December, he had until Friday to determine whether there was enough oil supply on the world market to allow countries to cut their oil purchases from Iran.
Mr. Obama announced his decision in a statement Friday after a source initially confirmed the news to The Associated Press.
The President said he based his determination on global economic conditions, the level of spare oil capacity and increased production by some countries, among other factors. He said he would keep monitoring the global market closely to ensure it can handle a reduction of oil purchases from Iran.
With oil prices already rising this year amid rising tensions over the nuclear dispute between Iran and the west, U.S. officials have sought assurances that pushing countries to stop buying from Iran would not cause a further spike in prices.
That's particularly important for Mr. Obama in an election year that has seen an increasing focus on gas prices.
The congressionally mandated sanctions target foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank — barring them from operating in the U.S. to buy or sell Iranian oil. The penalties are to take effect at the end of June, around the same time Europe's embargo on Iranian oil kicks in.
Countries can still avoid the sanctions if they take steps to significantly reduce their imports before then.
Domestic and foreign policy concerns have complicated the administration's decision to pursue the oil sanctions.
Many of the countries that buy oil from Iran are U.S. allies, including several European Union nations, Japan, South Korea and India. In order to provide flexibility to countries friendly to the U.S., the sanctions bill allows the U.S. to grant waivers to nations that significantly reduce their purchases of Iranian oil.
Even before Friday's decision, the State Department announced that it would grant waivers to 10 European Union countries and Japan because of steps they have already taken to cut back on Iranian oil. An E.U. oil embargo, approved in January, is set to take effect in July.
Senator Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who co-authored the sanctions legislation with Republican Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, said he welcomed Mr. Obama's support in targeting Iran's Central Bank. Mr. Menendez's office says he was also notified of the decision earlier Friday
“Today, we put on notice all nations that continue to import petroleum or petroleum products from Iran that they have three months to significantly reduce those purchases or risk the imposition of severe sanctions on their financial institutions,” Mr. Menendez said in a statement.
He predicted most countries would cut their purchase of oil from Iran, either out of fear of sanctions, or a shared fear over the Iran's pursuit of nuclear weaponry.
The United States has not said what constitutes a significant reduction in Iranian oil purchases, and analysts believe the administration could use different metrics for different countries.
Administration officials say a February report from the Energy Information Administration shows there is excess oil supply on the global market. But the report also showed that prices are high.
Does the New iPad Have Wi-Fi Reception Problems? (Update 2)
Users are reporting new problems with the new iPad: the Wi-Fi seems to be a lot weaker than the iPad 2, the iPhone or MacBooks, according to numerous reports on AppleCare support thread. Could this be another antennagate? Have you experienced the same?
Updated with new information on this apparently very real problem.
This AppleCare support thread started like this:
Update: One of the commenters in the Apple forums had this to say here:
Updated with new information on this apparently very real problem.
This AppleCare support thread started like this:
I am in a hotel with my laptop and new ipad3. The laptop wifi reception is as strong as it gets, but the iPad only registers a weak signal. Anyone else having similar problems? Any suggestions?From there, the answers started to pour in with people reporting the same problem and comparing it to other Apple devices. There are already 63 replies in that thread. Some of them:
Same here ipad2 has twice the wifi range with the same settings as the ipad3. The screens nice but I may return mine if this is the way they all are.
Same here! Will not hold WIFI for more than a few minutes. Two MacBooks and iPhone working fine from same router. Ready to return iPad!!!!!
Same problem. Have the Decorah Eagles live cam running on my MacPro, Mac desktop, and Mac Air on home network no problem. The New IPad - continually loading with occasional brief connection. THIS IS A PROBLEM APPLE YOU NEED TO FIX IT!And it goes on and on. Of course, this is not proof that there's a generalized problem with the iPad's Wi-Fi connectivity. But it's a strong indication that something may be wrong, at least in some manufacturing batches. The random sample is too high to think otherwise. [AppleCare Forums via AppleInsider]
Thank you.
Update: One of the commenters in the Apple forums had this to say here:
I'm one of the people referenced by Jesus Diaz in his story today on wifi issues. It's not a fabrication, and it's happening geographically across the globe, judging by the comments on the Apple forum. I switched out my iPad 3 three times, and all had the same problem.Update 2: Another reader told us a quite enlightening story that happened to him at an Apple Store's Genius bar:
Side by side with iPad 2, using speedtest, a government site and a Danish testing site, the wifi connectivity speeds of the new iPad were 1/10th to 1/2 of iPad 2, most often about 1/4 the speed. When you're adjacent to the router, speeds are fine. But as you move away, say, to the bedroom, like I did, my iPad 2 was blazing fast, and I had trouble getting a connection with the iPad 3.
One of my iPad 3's I got from Apple online. The other 3 exchanges were from Glendale, Ca. I saw posts on the forum from across the u.s., and England.
And today, the frequency of the posts is accelerating quickly. I was one of the first posts, almost as soon as I got the iPad 3, over the weekend.
I spent 90 min in the store. We compared the speed on the 3 and my 2. Wasn't a dramatic difference (because we were in the back of the store, closer to the router mothership!) But still there was a difference.Have you noticed this problem? Have you compared your new iPad's Wi-Fi signal to your other Apple or non-Apple devices? Tell us in the comments.
They did an exchange—but we all decided to test the new iPad 3.
We tested it, and still there was a difference - about 2/3 the strength. It wasn't that big.
Then the clerk suggested we try another machine to compare two 3's—and my 2.
When we went to the front of the store—at the entryway to the mall—I was vindicated! Because the signal was weaker—the the 2 was flying—getting 12 or 15—while the 3 was lagging at 3 or 4.
So the manager was called over. It was decided to swap it for yet another 3.
Tested it again and it was still the same problem.
But now everyone was aware that there is a problem with the 3.
Bottom line: I returned it, got my money back - and am back to the 2. It's not as sharp, but it's fast! So, I'll wait a month or so, and see if they manage to improve the wifi issue.
A New iPad Annihilated in a Storm of Lasers and Flame
It's only human to want to destroy beautiful things. We smash temples, palaces, vases—sometimes you just need to let loose. Now, here's an iPad being lasered and torched into a flaming heap.
Wicked Laser enthusiast and proficient hater of objects Lowell Niles put together this little video, in which he uses a terrifying selection of beams to burn apart a brand new iPad. Make sure to stick around for the part where two flashlights melt their way through the iPad, producing great plumes of what you can only assume are toxic fumes that spared Niles' life long enough for him to email us.
Wicked Laser enthusiast and proficient hater of objects Lowell Niles put together this little video, in which he uses a terrifying selection of beams to burn apart a brand new iPad. Make sure to stick around for the part where two flashlights melt their way through the iPad, producing great plumes of what you can only assume are toxic fumes that spared Niles' life long enough for him to email us.
Is It a Good Idea to Root or Jailbreak My Friend’s Phone?
Dear Lifehacker,I have a friend who isn't super tech savvy, but wants me to root his phone after seeing what I've done with mine. Sounds all right in theory, but I don't want to get stuck with "tech support". What are the pros and cons to doing this for someone else?
Sincerely,
Hacking Helper
Dear Hacking,
I've actually done this for a number of people, and while it worked out okay in one of the situations, it turned out to be a bad idea for nearly all the others.
Rooting is complicated...
Rooting is a complicated process, and jailbreaking isn't all that simple either. When you root someone else's phone—especially someone who isn't very tech savvy—you're altering it in a way they don't understand (because they haven't researched the process). That means that any problem they have, they're likely to come to you for help or at least blame it on "what you've done to their phone"—even if their problem has nothing to do with your rooting it. And, either way, you've voided their warranty, so they can't take it into their official source of tech support anymore—that responsibility falls squarely on your shoulders....and you're responsible if trouble arises...
This is not only annoying, but it poses some serious issues if, say, their phone becomes unusable for any reason. Our phones are pretty central to our lives, and while you may have a contingency plan or an old phone to save you in such emergencies, those less familiar with the process won't—and if you can't be around to solve emergencies, your friend is now phone-less (and probably pretty ticked).I'm not saying all of these things will happen, of course. If you're just rooting to remove some of the crapware or install a tethering app, you might be okay. You're less likely to cause problems they can't solve, though they will still come to you for phone issues, root-related or not. I definitely wouldn't recommend flashing a custom ROM or performing any complicated jailbreak tweaks (in the case of the iPhone), since those are a lot more likely to break or cause problems.
Maybe the New iPad Is Hot Because Its Processor Is 210% Huger
Apple's unapologetically selling a new iPad that'll go up to 116 degrees in your hands while playing a game. Maybe they should have done something about that, yeah. But the tablet's new processor is so massive, we shouldn't be surprised.
Chipworks, which compared the new hotness (am I right?) on the right to the first iPad's A4 processor on left, has a pretty striking comparison on its hands:
The Apple A4, which by all accounts is still commercially viable given the price of used Apple products on craigslist, measured in at 53.3 mm². Only two (and a half?) generations later, we have the Apple A5X weighing in at 165 mm² – a whopping 210% larger.It's worth noting that the A5X is still built using a 45 nm fabrication process—which in human English refers to the size of the tiniest parts each chip is made out of. The smaller the number, the more transistors can be packed onto a processor, which generally translates into a more efficient, cooler chip. Apple didn't make its CPU more sophisticated in order to crank out more retina display-filling power—it just made it humungous. [Chipworks via Cult of Mac]
Angry Birds Space Has Launched. Download It Now.
Angry Birds: Space has launched on iOS (iPhone/ iPad) as well as Android (Google Play), Kindle Fire, and PC. Download it now! And while you are waiting, watch the game's trailer.
Republished from http://kotaku.com
Thank You Team : Source : http://gizmodo.com
You’ll Be Able To Play Baldur’s Gate On Your iPad This Summer
PC role-playing game Baldur's Gate will soon be living in a post-PC world. The beloved classic will be out for iPad this summer, developer Overhaul Games said today.
It will also feature new content (!) and a new party member (!!!).
Overhaul writes in a press release:
Running on an upgraded and improved version of the Infinity Engine, Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition™ will include the entire Baldur's Gate adventure, the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack, and never before seen content including a new adventure and new party member.Miniature giant space tablets!
Thank you : http://gizmodo.com/
iPad 3 Review: Better Than Anything Else, but Kind of a Letdown
There are many things the new iPad is: - A lovely object
- A spec bump
- The future of home computing
- The best tablet on the market
- And there are many things the iPad New is not. But we're going to skip right to the end of that list and hit you with the main point:
- It is not worthy of a press conference.
- We've spent more than a week with this thing, and yes, the screen is lovely. That A5X processor is a tab-loading, game-rendering beast. Yes, the optional stupid fast LTE connection smokes even my leveled-up home cable connection. And yes: It is pretty. But if you've owned—or even played with—an iPad before, Cupertino's new hotness will leave you cold. It's an upgrade. It feels like an optional configuration rather than something, shall we say... resolutionary. And that, frankly, is a bummer.
Why it Matters
Make no mistake: This is the best tablet any amount of money can buy: the successor to the best tablet money could buy, which was, in turn, the successor to the best tablet money could buy way back when Steve Jobs was alive and Palm was alive and Android was still a scrappy upstart. But Palm and Steve Jobs are both dead, and Android is a no-foolin' juggernaut now. There are more expensive and more powerful and faster tablets to be bought. But they're substandard.
Another year has passed; a hundred trillion zillion Android devices have come and gone, and the iPad remains comfortably at the top of an ever-growing hill by virtue of the most refined mobile operating system on the planet and an industrial design that even looks decent when it's poorly copied.
But here's the thing: This iPad is cruising. It's still living off its predecessors' reps and some seriously excellent inherited software. Its design isn't new, and, in fact, it violates one of Jobs' Laws by getting thicker instead of thinner. And on the OS side, Apple seems to have stopped innovating. The opportunity for a competitor to crash Apple's party is now.Like
Swipe. Tap. Play. Watch. You know how a tablet works. In this case, it's wonderful. iOS 5.1 is incredibly refined and mature. Touch-events are instantaneous, and everything loads with a dual-core spring in its step. The extra RAM keeps even complicated Web pages at the ready during a multi-tab browsing sesh.
The difference in power between an iPad 1 and a new iPad is dramatic; but when you compare Apple's latest tablet to the one that came right before it, the difference is imperceptible unless you're running a seriously heavy app. Real Racing 2 HD, for example, loaded an average of 6 seconds faster on the iPad New than the iPad 2. But in races to run image-heavy websites like Gizmodo or must-have apps like Netflix, the discrepancy is negligible—if you pick it up at all.
The 2048 x 1536 pixel Retina display is positively lickable, bursting with color and sharpness and saturation that make comics and high-res photographs look impossibly good. Text looks sharper on the new iPad than on any other electronic device; an e-reader is still easier on the eyes, but that's because light coming off a screen can wear out your peepers. In terms of glowing electronic displays, there is none better than on this device. Anywhere. There are a million more pixels in the new iPad than in a 1920 x 1080 HDTV. Think about that: This little 9.5-inch slate has more dots than the 50-inch flat screen you ooh and aah over. The effect is dramatic—sometimes.
Other times, frankly, you don't notice it. Because it's not like the iPad 2's display is bad. It isn't, not by any stretch. And most of the time, you aren't close enough to your tablet's screen to pick up the pixels anyway. Yes, the Retina display is an unquestionable upgrade. But it is an upgrade you can live without.No Like
Thanks to that bigger battery, the iPad New lasts just as long as the iPad 2—an exactly-as-advertised 10 hours of real-world use and days upon days of standby time. But the differences end when charging time comes around. In our tests, it took up to twice as long to charge new 'Pad's 42.5-watt-hour battery—as many as nine hours of plug time. That means that an average American sleeper could plug his iPad in at night and wake up to one that's still not fully juiced. That sucks. You know what else kinda sucks? The new iPad gets warm—a well-documented 116 degrees. No, it's not gonna burn you. But it does make you want to put the thing down. That is a problem for a device that's meant to be held.
One way you shouldn't hold the new iPad is like a camera. Even though Apple wants you to. This is messed up: Apple's engineers worked some serious magic on the rear-facing "iSight" camera, bumping it up to 5 megapizzles and outfitting it with an infrared filter and side illumination tricks like you'll find on the iPhone 4S. Congratulations: You have a capable digital camera the size of a magazine. But while the iSighter got all fixed up, the front-facing "Facetime" camera remains VGA. Which is stupid. Because videochatting on an iPad is really wonderful. Talking with far-off friends or family members and actually seeing them react to the conversations is one of those legitimately magical moments when you realize that yes, technology can make your life better. But not any better than it can with an iPad 2.
But the biggest issue with the new iPad is buyer's remorse. If you own an iPad 2 and buy an iPad 3, you will feel it: that sightly nauseous sensation that you just spent $500 on something that isn't much better than what you already had. If you took all the hype around this thing at face value—yes, we were part of it, but nothing compared with the breathless pomp and braggadocio of Apple itself—you'd think the new iPad was a miracle. It's not. It's little more than marketing, and that's a change for Cupertino, which has a long history of delivering on huge promises. Fortunately, Apple has a 14-day return policy.Should You Buy This?
If you don't have a tablet and you want to buy a tablet, buy this tablet. It's excellent. But unless you are a comic book fanatic or do a ton of reading on your previous-gen 'Pad, there is no reason to upgrade from an iPad 2. It's simply not that much of a difference. Yes, it's better brighter faster stronger, but the hard truth of this new iPad is, it's not very new.
Apple iPad
Price: $500 - $700 Wi-Fi; $630 - $830 LTE and "4G"
Screen: 9.7-inch 2048 x 1536 pixels
Processor and RAM: Dual Core Apple A5X; 1 GB of RAM
Storage: 16GB, 32GB, 64 GB
Cameras: VGA front-facing; 5 megapixel rear
Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.3 x 0.37 inches
Weight: 1.43 pounds
Gizrank: 4.5 - Thank You Team Source
- : http://gizmodo.com
This Week in the Business: ‘Pre-Owned has Really Killed Core Games’
"Pre-owned has really killed core games."—David Braben, founder of British developer Frontier Developments, talking about how single-player core games are dying.
QUOTE | "By pushing Durango's unveiling back a year, Microsoft could find itself going head to head with Sony."—Chris Morris, veteran games industry journalist, on why Microsoft is keeping the Durango under wraps this year.
QUOTE | "I look forward to the end of boxes and disks. Kill them with fire for all I care."—Runic CEO Max Schaefer , creators of Torchlight, blaming triple-A titles for stifling the industry.
STAT | $227 million—Value of the shares that Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, is selling in a secondary stock offering, which reduces his voting power from 36.5% to 35.9%.
QUOTE | "This is the war for the desktop, the mobile device and the couch."—Grant Goodale, CEO of Massively Fun, talking about HTML 5 and how the browser is the next entertainment platform.
QUOTE | "Apple's readying for the next console war with its new iPad."—Steve Peterson, West Coast Editor at GamesIndustry International, talking about how Apple is preparing to do battle for the living room.
QUOTE | "Josh and I pushed Activision to do it repeatedly."—Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder, talking about how he and Josh Tsui of developer Robomodo got Activision to agree to bring back Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
QUOTE | "A step to the next generation of classical consoles seems to have fear in a lot of peoples' eyes."—Doublesix CEO James Brooksby, talking about how developers and publishers are looking at the new wave of console hardware coming up.
QUOTE | "Never have I been at a better place to just make the games I love to make."—Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile entertainment, talking about the success of the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign.
STAT | 25-30%—Percentage of the 20 million+ players in World of Tanks actually paying for content in the free-to-play game, one of the highest ratios in the industry.
QUOTE | "Unreal Engine 3 appears set to dominate state-of-the-art mobile gaming."—Richard Leadbetter, tech-savvy Eurogamer journalist talking about the future of Epic's engine that powers many of the best-selling console games.
QUOTE | "The scary thought is that it's kind of turning out to be like the rest of the industry."—Ready at Dawn boss Ru Weerasuriya, talking about how big companies have the best success in the mobile game market.
STAT | 1 in 10—Number of teens in Western countries that have registered on Habbo, the social network for teens that's now opening up to third-party game developers.
QUOTE | "By pushing Durango's unveiling back a year, Microsoft could find itself going head to head with Sony."—Chris Morris, veteran games industry journalist, on why Microsoft is keeping the Durango under wraps this year.
QUOTE | "I look forward to the end of boxes and disks. Kill them with fire for all I care."—Runic CEO Max Schaefer , creators of Torchlight, blaming triple-A titles for stifling the industry.
STAT | $227 million—Value of the shares that Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, is selling in a secondary stock offering, which reduces his voting power from 36.5% to 35.9%.
QUOTE | "This is the war for the desktop, the mobile device and the couch."—Grant Goodale, CEO of Massively Fun, talking about HTML 5 and how the browser is the next entertainment platform.
QUOTE | "Apple's readying for the next console war with its new iPad."—Steve Peterson, West Coast Editor at GamesIndustry International, talking about how Apple is preparing to do battle for the living room.
QUOTE | "Josh and I pushed Activision to do it repeatedly."—Tony Hawk, pro skateboarder, talking about how he and Josh Tsui of developer Robomodo got Activision to agree to bring back Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
QUOTE | "A step to the next generation of classical consoles seems to have fear in a lot of peoples' eyes."—Doublesix CEO James Brooksby, talking about how developers and publishers are looking at the new wave of console hardware coming up.
QUOTE | "Never have I been at a better place to just make the games I love to make."—Brian Fargo, CEO of inXile entertainment, talking about the success of the Wasteland 2 Kickstarter campaign.
STAT | 25-30%—Percentage of the 20 million+ players in World of Tanks actually paying for content in the free-to-play game, one of the highest ratios in the industry.
QUOTE | "Unreal Engine 3 appears set to dominate state-of-the-art mobile gaming."—Richard Leadbetter, tech-savvy Eurogamer journalist talking about the future of Epic's engine that powers many of the best-selling console games.
QUOTE | "The scary thought is that it's kind of turning out to be like the rest of the industry."—Ready at Dawn boss Ru Weerasuriya, talking about how big companies have the best success in the mobile game market.
STAT | 1 in 10—Number of teens in Western countries that have registered on Habbo, the social network for teens that's now opening up to third-party game developers.
This Week in the Business courtesy of GamesIndustry International
(Image from Shutterstock)
Republished from http://kotaku.comThank You Team And Source link
http://gizmodo.com/ The Fanboy and the Phone: A Love/Hate Story
In the ‘90's, no nerd-debate was more contentious than that over the "Best" computer operating system. Were you Windows or were you Mac (or Linux)? Rifts formed in communities, hateful epithets were hurled, and friendships were destroyed. It was the geek equivalent of the abortion rights debate.
This war is still being fought, but its once-blazing fires have been reduced to ever-smoldering coals. Why? Because there's something better to fight about, and this time… it's in your pants.
Today, the fight is over phones. Especially smartphones. We defend, with venom, not only our chosen operating system, but also our chosen hardware manufacturer, and even our chosen service provider. Was a similar phone war waged when push-button began supplanting rotary? Probably not? Nor was the battle as fierce when cell phones just made calls and sent text messages. It's the "smart" in our smartphones that seems to have really set this quarrel ablaze, and maybe with good reason.
In 2009, famed Dilbert creator Scott Adams wrote one of my all-time favorite blog entries, wherein he claimed that we are already cyborgs, and that our smartphones are, in essence, a sort of exobrain.
Your regular brain uses your exobrain to outsource part of its memory, and perform other functions, such as GPS navigation, or searching the Internet. If you're anything like me, your exobrain is with you 24-hours a day. It's my only telephone device, and I even sleep next to it because it's my alarm clock.This really resonated with me. I think about how many phone numbers I had memorized before I had a cell phone. Sure, I wrote many down, but I had dozens stored in my head. Now? Maybe… five? And I don't even know if all of those count, because some are family members who haven't changed their numbers since I was a kid. The last five times I've visited L.A. I haven't looked at a map once. I just paired my phone to my rental car via Bluetooth listened to the turn-by-turn directions. The fact alone that we now have constant access to online dictionaries, encyclopedias, music recognition apps, and everything else that the internet can provide is a very serious augmentation in knowledge and function, even if we don't then store what we learn in our meat-brains.
I don't want to get sidetracked talking about whether this is good or bad for human evolution – that's another question for another day – my point is just how incredibly personal these devices are to us. It's no wonder this debate is hotter than the Windows vs. Mac War of olde. I spend a lot of time with my computer, but I definitely spend a lot more time with my phone. Even if I don't use it as heavily (I don't write long documents or edit tons of video), it's always near me, and therefore I am always connected to that host of information and extra-sensory perception (GPS and communications, for example). While this augmentation is wonderful in many ways, it has also created a level of dependency. If I'd lost my phone while in L.A., I would have had no idea where I was and I would not have known anybody's phone number there. Yes, I realize I could go to an internet café to solve these problems, but you get my point: without access to technology, specifically the internet, I would have been paddleless in a very poopy creek.
Because we have invested so much of ourselves in these devices and rely on them so heavily, we want to believe that we have chosen the "right' one. The "Best" one. We see them as an extension of ourselves, and, at least subconsciously, we know they are extensions of our brains. Naturally, we don't want to think that we have chosen stupid brain-extensions for ourselves. Each of us wants to believe that the exobrain we have selected for our self is the smartest, fastest, most capable, "Best" exobrain there is. This is where "Fanboyism" begins to creep in.
Fanboys (and, of course, Fangirls), those who believe their device/brand/OS/etc. is so clearly the "Best", exhibit brand loyalty at a fever pitch approaching religious zealotry. This is a natural follow, of course, because the very concept of "Best" is entirely subjective, and therefore necessitates belief. There cannot be any one "Best" smartphone any more than there can be one "Best" beer or potato. But these are not mere beers or potatoes, they're our exobrains. They're a part of us (even if they're removable), so it's no wonder that this gets extra personal. We see people with their different exobrains, and they are trying to be faster, smarter, and more capable than our exobrains! There are two divergent paths from here.
Some people say, "Wow, that's a really nice exobrain. I really like my exobrain a lot, but I wish it had that feature." Or they may even say, "Daaaamn that exobrain is awesome! My exobrain is so slow and janky. I totally wish I had your exobrain. I can't wait to upgrade to something like that!" This is the path of, shall we say, most people. These are pretty reasonable thoughts and reactions.
The Fanboy's path looks a lot different. It is filled with defenses and counter-attacks. Upon being shown a feature in someone else's exobrain which does not exist in the Fanboy's exobrain, response is more likely to be along the lines of, "That's stupid. I would never use that." Or they may divert the conversation away from their exobrain's perceived weakness and redirect it toward one of its strengths. "So? Can your exobrain do this?" They are also more likely to defend, attack, flame, and troll in comments, forums, and even status updates, canonizing their own exobrain whilst deriding the exobrains chosen by others.
Well, so what? Other than excessive shit-talking and just generally being super obnoxious, does it do any harm? Possibly.
Innovation is fueled, not merely by competition, but also by customer demand. Generally, the need Fanboys and Fangirls have to believe their exobrain is the "Best" seems to lead them away from being critical enough of their own devices. It's rare to hear a Fanboy admit that there is anything wrong with their device until their device's parent company announces a soon-coming update that will patch that hole (think notifications on iOS or copy/paste on Android). When people demand less, they get less. This sort of consumer complacency leads to corporate complacency. If a company knows, regardless of what they put out, that people will line up for it and buy it, this decreases their motivation to push the envelope (which requires a lot of time and money spent on R&D). They will still have motivation from competing companies, but they know they have a certain number of devotees they can fall back on, and that gives them a sort of a cushion (and it may be a rather large one). When companies kick back on cushions, innovation slows, and consumers lose out.
What is interesting about smartphones is that people who have never before exhibited the characteristics of Fanboyism are sliding down that path. It's not just for geeks anymore! Or, one could argue that because so many people are now carrying cutting-edge technology in their pockets – previously the domain of geeks, more or less exclusively – that now the world is just much geekier? It seems like every other week some friend on Facebook or Twitter posts, "I need a new phone. What should I get?" After just a few comments the thread usually devolves into a morass of iPhone/Android/Windows Phone stroking/bashing. These were once reasonable men and women. Sad. Very sad.
At the end of the day, it's hard to admit your faults and the faults of your exobrain, or acknowledge where others may surpass you. If we can just breathe and get our egos out of the way, however, we can love our own exobrains AND respect the exobrains of others. My primary exobrain is an Android device. I put a lot of weight on customization, and that's one of the reasons I chose it. In general, it's a great device for my needs. That said, I think iPhones are awesome and they have some features I totally covet. Windows Phone 7 has some tasty stuff I wish my phone had, too. Would I ever leave Android? Of course. If Google fails to keep up with the rest of the pack, why wouldn't I? I'm not a stock-holder. I have no more fealty to Google than I do to brands of toenail clippers. Well, I haven't purchased any apps for my toenail clippers… yet.
The point is, there is no "Best" device. Now or ever. It's a myth that companies create and Fanboys/Fangirls buy into. A critical eye and a little humility will ensure not only that you really do have the best device for who you are and your specific needs, it will also motivate companies to strive to produce the most incredible exobrains possible, and that is something I think we all very much want to see.
Image credit: Shutterstock/michaeljung
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These Are the Apps on Mr. Burns’ iPad
Mr. Burns used his iPad in the recent Simpsons episode Them, Robot, and, like the rest of us, he loaded it up with apps. They are funny: Am I Alive, Ukulele Hero, Google Naps, Captain Billu's Whiz-Bang, Angry Burns and the one I really want to buy at the App Store: Trap door. Actually, the whole episode was quite good. Notice he's using a first-generation iPad, unlike the real Mr. Burns. [Thanks Robyn!]
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