Posts Tagged ‘news’

Bed readers rejoice: iPad gains last-minute rotation lock

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

When Apple first introduced the iPad in late January, we noted with much disappointment that the device had no way to lock the screen orientation. This is apparently no longer the case, however—according to an updated iPad specs page , there is now a screen-rotation-lock switch on the right-hand side of the device, seemingly replacing the mute switch that was there when the media first played with it. In January, Ars confirmed the lack of a screen-lock option with an Apple representative at the iPad event. At that time, the Apple rep reminded us that individual apps give users the option to lock the screen into portrait or landscape mode (which is already the case on a number of third-party iPhone apps), but that the iPad itself had no universal control like on the Kindle or Nook. As a serial in-bed Kindle and iPhone user, this was disappointing to me and a number of other readers. There are few things on earth more annoying than trying to type on your iPhone at a strange angle and have the screen rotate four times before you’re finished. Apple apparently heard our cries. 9 to 5 Mac first pointed out the difference in specs this morning, which is now reflected on the official iPad spec page. Yep, that sure does say “screen rotation lock,” and that option was definitely not there when Ars played with the iPad on January 27. For those of you who forgot, today is iPad preorder day as well. You can now reserve one to be picked up in-store on April 3 (WiFi only) or you can preorder either the WiFi or 3G versions to be delivered to you. As usual, you can count on Ars to have a review up not long after the iPad launch! Read the comments on this post

Firefox 3.6 sees 100M downloads, now pushing notifications

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Firefox 3.6—the latest version of the popular open source Web browser—was officially released in January, but there are still many users who have not yet updated. In an effort to increase awareness about the availability of version 3.6, Mozilla announced today that it will start rolling out upgrade notifications to its users through the browser’s built-in update system. According to Mozilla’s statistics, the new version has already been downloaded over 100 million times since its release in January. That doesn’t include the significant number of existing users who have already migrated to 3.6 by using the browser’s built-in upgrade system without being prompted to do so. Firefox is arguably one of the most successful open source software projects. Mozilla celebrated last year when Firefox surpassed 1 billion total downloads . The current number of active daily users is said to be over 350 million. Getting such a large user base to migrate to the latest version is not an easy task, but Mozilla always manages to get the job done. Studies show that Firefox ranks high in update effectiveness, getting over 85 percent of its users to switch to a new version within 21 days after release. The only browser that has a better upgrade penetration rate is Chrome, due to its highly aggressive background updater. Firefox 3.6 is a somewhat modest incremental update. It brought several noteworthy new features for users, such as the Personas lightweight theming system. It also offers some compelling new capabilities for Web development, including CSS gradients, client-side filesystem APIs, and the @font-face feature. For more details about the automated upgrade process, you can refer to the announcement in the Mozilla Developer Center. Read the comments on this post

Five insights into the behaviors of social media users

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

We do a decent amount of social media coverage here at Ars, but not everything that happens with Facebook, Twitter, and the like is worth its own story. Sometimes, though, we happen across things that make us say “huh, that’s interesting.” It turns out there are a lot of things we thought we knew about social media users, but not all of them are true. Here are a few tidbits we gathered that may surprise some of you. Read the comments on this post

New WMAP data can’t erase "dark flow"

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

About 18 months ago, we discussed a mysterious ” dark flow ” that was seen in early releases of the data from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe data. At that time, we remarked that it was little more than a cosmic curiosity and possibly a statistical blip. New research from the same group, using the more complete five-year data set from the WMAP cosmic microwave background imager and X-ray luminosity data, reveals that the dark flow is still there, and that it runs deeper than previously thought. In a paper published in the March 20th issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters , the authors report that they have followed the dark flow—which appears to involve matter streaming either into or out of the constellation Centaurus/Hydra—to a distance of 2.5 billion light years. So far, even with the full five-year data set available, the authors can detect motion, but not whether the matter it coming towards us or moving away from us. But they can tell that it is moving, and in a definite direction. Relative motion of matter in the Universe is to be expected, but motion in a preferential direction is not. According to our best understanding of how the matter in the Universe was distributed, there’s no way of accounting for this flow. The obvious alternate explanation is a little unnerving: something outside of our visible universe is pulling on the matter that we can see. The researchers are currently adding more galaxies to their catalog in order to track the dark flow to twice its current distance. They hope that improved modeling of the motion of hot gas within galaxy clusters will lead to further refinement of the measured speed and direction of motion. Fortunately, we’ll soon have even newer data from the WMAP project, as well as upcoming data from the ESA’s Planck mission. The Astrophysical Journal Letters , 2010. DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/712/1/L81 Read the comments on this post

Comcast-NBCU merger: how the regulators will decide

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

“Good morning, this hearing will come to order, and we welcome all. I notice that there are a few people in the room,” declared Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV). “We’re here to discuss consumers—they’re the good guys, right? The people we try to protect.” The Senator’s comment about a “few people in the room” was sarcastic, of course. The hall was filled because the subject was, once again, the proposed merger of Comcast and NBC Universal—this one held on Thursday under the auspices of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee . Read the comments on this post

Hands on with Bit.Trip Runner: don’t watch, listen

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

The bit.trip series of games combines simple graphics with catchy songs, and then blends both together into an addictive soup. The past games in the series for the Nintendo WiiWare service have all been gold, and at GDC we were able to put our hands on the fourth title: Bit.Trip Runner . The concept is simple: you are a man who has to run from left to right. You can’t stop or slow down, but you can jump over and slide under obstacles while collecting the gold bars. Everything you do makes a note, and the notes mix with the music to give you timing cues. Does it seem like a series of jumps is complicated? Simply time your jumps to the music. The difficulty is not low, but once we stopped trying to force the gameplay and instead listened to the music and moved to the beat, it became easy. The game was on the show floor, in the corner of Nintendo’s booth, but it seemed to captivate everyone who played. Read the comments on this post

Beautiful innovation: the first 20 hours of FF XIII

// March 12th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Final Fantasy games often seem like a mixed bag. One one hand, they tend to take too long to get into; the first ten hours or so always feel like something you have to slog through before things really become exciting. After a while, the battles can start to feel repetitive. They eat up more of our time than we really should allow. But they’re also beautiful. And epic. Once the stories get going, they’re fascinating. More importantly, they become addictive. Such games are definitely an acquired taste, but they’re a delicacy for those of us who have come to enjoy JRPGs. Final Fantasy XIII is particularly noteworthy in an already extraordinary series, though, because it brings about a number of design changes. While the game retains the amazing production values that the franchise is famous for, its gameplay has been modified to deliver something that feels faster paced than its predecessors and often seems more like an action title than a proper RPG. This might sound worrying to dedicated fans, but rest assured: based on our first twenty hours with the game, the outcome is excellent. Read the comments on this post

Family of four gets their genomes sequenced

// March 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

Late last year, we described a genome sequencing technique that brought the price of consumables down to under $5,000. That technique, offered by Complete Genomics, has now been put to use: all the genomes have been obtained from a family of four in which both children suffer from two genetic disorders. In addition to identifying likely causative mutations, the full family pedigree has produced new measures of human mutation and recombination. So far, as each genome has been completed, it’s typically been compared to a reference genome that’s meant to represent a “typical” human. But the human population is large and diverse, and the differences between a typical person and the reference may have been present in our population for thousands of years. In contrast, by knowing the sequence of a child and both its parents, the changes in DNA that occur as a result of recombinations and mutations in each parent’s germ cells can be tracked in exquisite detail. Read the comments on this post

SOCOM 4, played with PlayStation Move: our thoughts

// March 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

We played with the PlayStation Move at the party last night, but at Sony’s more intimate gathering at the W Hotel today it was easier to get a better picture of the peripheral. The main games on the floor were interesting, but the game we wanted to play? SOCOM 4 , with the PlayStation Move. This was the game that was aimed at hardcore gamers, and the guys from Zipper told us that they were able to get this build up in a matter of weeks; the tools Sony was providing its developers for Move support were intuitive. This was also the first time we were able to use the secondary, nunchuk-like controller to add analog movement to the Move. We were able to play the game for about 20 minutes. Aiming the crosshairs with the Move worked well, and I didn’t feel any lag. While I was new to the game, the firefights and encounters were a blast with the controller; there is something much more satisfying about aiming at the screen with a controller instead of moving an analog stick. This is a controller that’s ready for more mainstream use in shooters, and the fact that Sony already has a high-profile release that uses the technology so well is heartening. The d-pad allowed you to give commands to your squad, and you can send two groups of soldiers to different objectives. It almost felt like a real-time strategy game; you can set up some series covery fire if you’re able to think that far ahead in the combat. “We’re looking at gestures,” we’re told when ask about things like throwing grenades and the like. “[The Move] leads a lot of accessibility to a hardcore game like this.” The team at Zipper spent three months with the controller, and the work has paid off. Will we use the Move when we’re playing online and care about our score? Maybe not. But it adds an extra layer of fun to the gameplay of a title that already looks mature. It took a little bit of talking to get behind the velvet rope to play this demo, but it was worth it. We’re starting to see the promise. Read the comments on this post

Or will I go from rags to riches? Hands-on with Mafia 2

// March 11th, 2010 // No Comments » // Tech News

With Mafia 2 , developer 2K Czech is leaving the optimism to Tony Bennett: this is not intended to be a rags to riches crime story. Don’t expect golden dreams to come true. This is the story of a man trying to keep his head above water, a man who returns to America after seeing the devastation of World War 2 Europe, and tries to make his way in an unforgiving city. When the game opens, Vito Scaletta has just been granted leave from the war to return home to his mother and sister after his father passes away. Settling a $2,000 ($2K) debt his father owed now falls squarely on Vito’s shoulders, and he’ll need to accept any job from every wiseguy and hoodlum he encounters to make ends meet. It’s a deeply personal narrative, and to hear Denby Grace, the senior producer from 2K Czech, describe his team’s game, it’s more Sopranos  than Scarface, more Godfather than Goodfellas . Read the comments on this post

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