We all remember the embarrassing and annoying episode of the unreachable activating servers for the game Spore when it was released. Electronics Arts has decided to add DRM in this game to prevent its illegal distribution on P2 network. At the end it really annoyed people who purchased the game, as pirates quickly found a way to bypass the protection, making it useless. EA even had to use one of the bypass procedure to help customers to activate their legally purchased copy of the game as its serves were not able to deal with the requests.
To avoid any repetition, EA decided that Sim3, whose release date is expected for June 2009, will not include DRMs. It will only be protected by a serial number. this announcement might promote the sale of the game, as some Spore gamers claimed to have downloaded the pirate version of Spore as it was not possible to play with the legal original one.
Google Chrome Beta For Mac Might Be Released By Fall
The open source Google Chromium repository now has an OS X Cocoa shell. We downloaded and compiled the latest OS X build of Google's browser, and we talked to the developers to get a sense of how long it will be before Mac users can get their hands on a working beta.
Road Tested: EcoRunner by Marware
Filed under: Accessories, iPod nano, Road Tested
As promised, we're launching a new series called Road Tested where we try out various products for a month or more, see how they hold up to extended "real world" use, and report back our findings. To kick things off we're looking at the EcoRunner from Marware [thanks to our friends at Dr. Bott for the review unit].The EcoRunner is a "green" product in that the primary material is not neoprene, but "a revolutionary environmentally friendly material." I'm not sure what that is, but I can say I like it better than neoprene -- it feels just as soft, but the cells are smaller and thus the material is more supple. The EcoRunner can be worn on the wrist or arm (using an extender strap, included) and is designed for the 4th-gen iPod nano. There's the requisite vinyl window for controlling playback and viewing the screen, plus the case can be used with the Nike+ Sport kit attached (there's a strap to keep everything in).
Does it work? Well, there's one caveat to our test: we used a 1st-gen nano, the white model that was infamous for being easily scratched. It's increasingly tough to find cases for this model, but we found the EcoRunner is stretchy enough to accommodate the slightly thicker model. The side effect of this, possibly due to thickness or the more squarish design: the vinyl window busted (see gallery), leaving the unit exposed and capable of falling out. Call it a "stress test." It's definitely a design challenge to secure the vinyl in a way that won't get too stressed, especially in cases where everything else is so stretchy.
The softness of the case can't be understated. It is really smooth and lightweight and stretchy. I'm partial to wrist straps, because I tend to skip around my playlists depending on my workout. If you find yourself monkeying with your nano during a workout, this is a terrific wrist strap. The extension strap to use it on your arm adds virtually no weight, and holds up well, but bulging biceps might strain that window. The Velcro used is very high quality, but the stitching on the end can sometimes be a little tricky to thread through the grommet -- so I recommend not removing it entirely. Just pull it off your wrist. One upside is that you can charge the nano in the case, so the entire unit becomes home to your nano. If you only use your nano for working out, you'll never have to remove it from the case.
After a month (OK, nearly 2 months) of solid use -- we're talking about near-daily use on the treadmill and at the gym -- the EcoRunner holds up well. As I said, using a 1st-gen nano isn't recommended by us or the manufacturer, so I don't know if the thinner nanos would bust the window after prolonged use. Other than that, there's very little visible wear-and-tear, and I'd recommend this especially if you a) prefer your nano on your wrist, and b) need a case that'll hold the Nike+ Sport kit. Your choices are pretty limited when it comes to both of those criteria, but the EcoRunner is a good bet either way. If you've had experience with this particular model, let us know in the comments.
TUAWRoad Tested: EcoRunner by Marware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Official Skype App is Now Available in the App Store
Skype, Inc. has just released their official Skype application for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Skype is a very popular voice-over-IP (VOIP) and instant messaging application that allows you to make phone calls over the internet. Call...
NVidia Launched New Pro Graphic Cards
NVidia unveiled its new graphic card models dedicated to Pro users: Quadro FX.
The high-end model, aka FW 58000 is quite impressive. It sports 4 GB of VRAM working on a 512 bits bus, offering a theoretical bandwidth of 102 GB/s. Regarding the GPU, we only know that it includes 240 CUDA Parallel Processor Cores. The card remains sober regarding power consumption despite its hardware and should "only" drain 189 W.
We currently do not really understand why Apple did not offer any Pro graphic cards with its new Mac Pro whose prices are rather Pro-oriented. Of course the lack of dedicated drivers might be the explanation, however, Apple and NVidia might be able to work together to make it possible...
LG details specs of GD900, adds multi-touch
First spotted in mid-February at Mobile World Congress, LG's GD900 handset has received more specifications from its maker. The full touchscreen phone is expected to appear at this week's CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas and will feature haptic feedback for its 3-inch touchscreen and signature and unique transparent touchpad. LG also claims the touchpad will support finger-writing recognition rathe...
Presented By: Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p
 Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo |
Skype for iPhone Available [updated]
Skype for iPhone is now available on the AppStore.
This free application can be downloaded from the following link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=304878510&mt=8
Update from one of our readers Dana:
First Look: MLB.com At Bat 2009
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Opening Day of the Major League Baseball 2009 season is just around the corner, and MLB.com At Bat 2009 (click opens iTunes) has been released. Beware -- this post contains bad baseball metaphors.This year's app has all the tools. After you agree to a list of Terms and Conditions as lengthy as a major-league player contract, a list of all of the games currently in progress or scheduled for the day appears. Starting on April 6th, every game will have Gameday enabled, which lets you view stats and a pitch by pitch recap of what's happening. Tapping a player's name brings up a virtual baseball card, complete with career and season stats and a line score for the game in progress.
Also on April 6th, a new feature will touch all the bases -- live Gameday Audio from either the home or visiting team radio announcers streamed to your iPhone. As with last year's At Bat app, you'll be able to pull up video clips of games shortly after key plays occur.
Do you miss plays while buying a beer or standing in line for the men's room? No problem, since the app also has a live box score.
MLB.com At Bat 2009 hits a home run! You can get the entire season (including postseason play) for US$9.99. Note that you'd pay $14.99 for just the Gameday audio on MLB.com. There's also a rookie (lite) version available for free that doesn't include the streaming audio. Check out the gallery below.
TUAWFirst Look: MLB.com At Bat 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Open CL to become the new Standard?
When Apple announced that Snow Leopard will use the Open CL API, not many analysts or websites had ever heard about it before. things have dramatically changed, and AMD already made demo of GPGPU based on ATi graphic cards via Open CL. If NVidia is heavy relying on its CUDa technology, it recently repeated that it is also supporting this API. It seems that all main players do not want to miss the Open CL train. Technically, ai all graphic card manufacturers/designers consider Open CL as a standard and adopt it, it will make things much easier for all developers and customers. Indeed, any card will be able to interpret instructions and speed some GPGPU processes. Of course, some GPU will remain faster than other, so it should not kill competition, and manufacturers will keep promoting their models based on higher component quality, more VRAM, more shaders, and not necessarily on the support for one API or another (such as support for DirectX 7, 8 ,9 ,etc.).
Electronic Arts Announced that Sims 3 Will Be DRM-Free
We all remember the embarrassing and annoying episode of the unreachable activating servers for the game Spore when it was released. Electronics Arts has decided to add DRM in this game to prevent its illegal distribution on P2 network. At the end it really annoyed people who purchased the game, as pirates quickly found a way to bypass the protection, making it useless. EA even had to use one of the bypass procedure to help customers to activate their legally purchased copy of the game as its serves were not able to deal with the requests.
To avoid any repetition, EA decided that Sim3, whose release date is expected for June 2009, will not include DRMs. It will only be protected by a serial number. this announcement might promote the sale of the game, as some Spore gamers claimed to have downloaded the pirate version of Spore as it was not possible to play with the legal original one.
Google Chrome Beta For Mac Might Be Released By Fall
The open source Google Chromium repository now has an OS X Cocoa shell. We downloaded and compiled the latest OS X build of Google's browser, and we talked to the developers to get a sense of how long it will be before Mac users can get their hands on a working beta.
Road Tested: EcoRunner by Marware
Filed under: Accessories, iPod nano, Road Tested
As promised, we're launching a new series called Road Tested where we try out various products for a month or more, see how they hold up to extended "real world" use, and report back our findings. To kick things off we're looking at the EcoRunner from Marware [thanks to our friends at Dr. Bott for the review unit].The EcoRunner is a "green" product in that the primary material is not neoprene, but "a revolutionary environmentally friendly material." I'm not sure what that is, but I can say I like it better than neoprene -- it feels just as soft, but the cells are smaller and thus the material is more supple. The EcoRunner can be worn on the wrist or arm (using an extender strap, included) and is designed for the 4th-gen iPod nano. There's the requisite vinyl window for controlling playback and viewing the screen, plus the case can be used with the Nike+ Sport kit attached (there's a strap to keep everything in).
Does it work? Well, there's one caveat to our test: we used a 1st-gen nano, the white model that was infamous for being easily scratched. It's increasingly tough to find cases for this model, but we found the EcoRunner is stretchy enough to accommodate the slightly thicker model. The side effect of this, possibly due to thickness or the more squarish design: the vinyl window busted (see gallery), leaving the unit exposed and capable of falling out. Call it a "stress test." It's definitely a design challenge to secure the vinyl in a way that won't get too stressed, especially in cases where everything else is so stretchy.
The softness of the case can't be understated. It is really smooth and lightweight and stretchy. I'm partial to wrist straps, because I tend to skip around my playlists depending on my workout. If you find yourself monkeying with your nano during a workout, this is a terrific wrist strap. The extension strap to use it on your arm adds virtually no weight, and holds up well, but bulging biceps might strain that window. The Velcro used is very high quality, but the stitching on the end can sometimes be a little tricky to thread through the grommet -- so I recommend not removing it entirely. Just pull it off your wrist. One upside is that you can charge the nano in the case, so the entire unit becomes home to your nano. If you only use your nano for working out, you'll never have to remove it from the case.
After a month (OK, nearly 2 months) of solid use -- we're talking about near-daily use on the treadmill and at the gym -- the EcoRunner holds up well. As I said, using a 1st-gen nano isn't recommended by us or the manufacturer, so I don't know if the thinner nanos would bust the window after prolonged use. Other than that, there's very little visible wear-and-tear, and I'd recommend this especially if you a) prefer your nano on your wrist, and b) need a case that'll hold the Nike+ Sport kit. Your choices are pretty limited when it comes to both of those criteria, but the EcoRunner is a good bet either way. If you've had experience with this particular model, let us know in the comments.
TUAWRoad Tested: EcoRunner by Marware originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Official Skype App is Now Available in the App Store
Skype, Inc. has just released their official Skype application for the iPhone and iPod touch.
Skype is a very popular voice-over-IP (VOIP) and instant messaging application that allows you to make phone calls over the internet. Call...
NVidia Launched New Pro Graphic Cards
NVidia unveiled its new graphic card models dedicated to Pro users: Quadro FX.
The high-end model, aka FW 58000 is quite impressive. It sports 4 GB of VRAM working on a 512 bits bus, offering a theoretical bandwidth of 102 GB/s. Regarding the GPU, we only know that it includes 240 CUDA Parallel Processor Cores. The card remains sober regarding power consumption despite its hardware and should "only" drain 189 W.
We currently do not really understand why Apple did not offer any Pro graphic cards with its new Mac Pro whose prices are rather Pro-oriented. Of course the lack of dedicated drivers might be the explanation, however, Apple and NVidia might be able to work together to make it possible...
LG details specs of GD900, adds multi-touch
First spotted in mid-February at Mobile World Congress, LG's GD900 handset has received more specifications from its maker. The full touchscreen phone is expected to appear at this week's CTIA Wireless show in Las Vegas and will feature haptic feedback for its 3-inch touchscreen and signature and unique transparent touchpad. LG also claims the touchpad will support finger-writing recognition rathe...
Presented By: Inside Guantanamo: Sunday at 9P e/p
Guantanamo Bay is one of the world's controversial prisons. This may be its final chapter. With unprecedented access, National Geographic has the story you haven't heard. Both sides, told from the inside, before its doors close forever. Click to learn more and go Inside Guantanamo >> natgeotv.com/guantanamo |
Skype for iPhone Available [updated]
Skype for iPhone is now available on the AppStore.
This free application can be downloaded from the following link:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=304878510&mt=8
Update from one of our readers Dana:
First Look: MLB.com At Bat 2009
Filed under: Software, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Opening Day of the Major League Baseball 2009 season is just around the corner, and MLB.com At Bat 2009 (click opens iTunes) has been released. Beware -- this post contains bad baseball metaphors.This year's app has all the tools. After you agree to a list of Terms and Conditions as lengthy as a major-league player contract, a list of all of the games currently in progress or scheduled for the day appears. Starting on April 6th, every game will have Gameday enabled, which lets you view stats and a pitch by pitch recap of what's happening. Tapping a player's name brings up a virtual baseball card, complete with career and season stats and a line score for the game in progress.
Also on April 6th, a new feature will touch all the bases -- live Gameday Audio from either the home or visiting team radio announcers streamed to your iPhone. As with last year's At Bat app, you'll be able to pull up video clips of games shortly after key plays occur.
Do you miss plays while buying a beer or standing in line for the men's room? No problem, since the app also has a live box score.
MLB.com At Bat 2009 hits a home run! You can get the entire season (including postseason play) for US$9.99. Note that you'd pay $14.99 for just the Gameday audio on MLB.com. There's also a rookie (lite) version available for free that doesn't include the streaming audio. Check out the gallery below.
TUAWFirst Look: MLB.com At Bat 2009 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Open CL to become the new Standard?
When Apple announced that Snow Leopard will use the Open CL API, not many analysts or websites had ever heard about it before. things have dramatically changed, and AMD already made demo of GPGPU based on ATi graphic cards via Open CL. If NVidia is heavy relying on its CUDa technology, it recently repeated that it is also supporting this API. It seems that all main players do not want to miss the Open CL train. Technically, ai all graphic card manufacturers/designers consider Open CL as a standard and adopt it, it will make things much easier for all developers and customers. Indeed, any card will be able to interpret instructions and speed some GPGPU processes. Of course, some GPU will remain faster than other, so it should not kill competition, and manufacturers will keep promoting their models based on higher component quality, more VRAM, more shaders, and not necessarily on the support for one API or another (such as support for DirectX 7, 8 ,9 ,etc.).
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