Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday
December 15, 2010 No Comment
The Unreal Engine 3 already made a quite spectacular debut on iOS with Epic Games’ own Infinity Blade , but the company’s decided it’s time to finally stop teasing and give us the software to really play with it. Tomorrow’s planned update to the UDK will deliver iOS support, meaning that all the fancy tools that helped make Infinity Blade such a blindingly gorgeous game will be at your fingertips should you be feeling creative. Licensing for the Engine is free for testing and non-commercial use, but you’ll have to pay $99 if you want to sell anything you produce with it, to be followed by a 25 percent slice of your earnings beyond $5,000 and, of course, Apple’s 30 percent cut of whatever’s left. That might not sound like the best business plan in the world, but consider that Infinity Blade is estimated to have racked up over $1.5 million in sales already — we’re sure there’ll be enough change left for ice cream even after Epic and Apple have had their share. Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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The UK’s very own Alarm Monitoring Company has developed what it’s calling the world’s most annoying alarm. The cheeky VuVutech 5000 starts with the company’s own AMCO alarm system attached to five powerful air horns topped off with a vuvuzella quintette pi
Continue reading …GNU founder Richard Stallman and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit hate on Chrome OS
December 15, 2010 No Comment
There are a lot of things to like about Google’s prototype Chrome OS machine, the CR-48 , not the least of which its name that makes it sound like a relic from the future. Indeed that’s what Google wants it to be, a sort of beacon of our instant-on, cloud-based tomorrow, but that’s rubbing a few industry pioneers the wrong way. One is Friendfeed creator and former Google employee Paul Buchheit, aka the dude who created Gmail. He’s a bit confused about the overlap between Android and Chrome OS, as indeed many of us are, saying flat out that “Chrome OS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android” — or, at least, it won’t when Android gets some tweaks to make it work better in a traditional laptop-style environment. Meanwhile, GNU founder and free software pioneer Richard Stallman is lashing out a bit more strongly, calling cloud computing “careless computing” because it causes users to give up rights to their own content: The police need to present you with a search warrant to get your data from you; but if they are stored in a company’s server, the police can get it without showing you anything. They may not even have to give the company a search warrant. As we’ve recently learned that is at least not the case for e-mail, but what about Google Docs and browsing history and all those private musings you made on Google Buzz ? Will ease of access trump data security fears? Will Cara on All My Children ever stop having flashbacks about Jake? Important questions, these. GNU founder Richard Stallman and Gmail creator Paul Buchheit hate on Chrome OS originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Hey, you know that Kinect thing that Microsoft recently launched and hasn’t been heard of since ? Well, it’s such a boring and useless creation that somebody had to try and spruce it up. Enter DS Styles, with a bag of 5,000 Swarovski crystals and the courage to use them. The result of that coupling has been the (quite literally) unmissable concoction you see above — a Kinect that will blind you first, then record your clumsy reaction for posterity second. And it only costs $632, what a steal! Continue reading Kinect meets Swarovski crystals, gaudiness ensues (video) Kinect meets Swarovski crystals, gaudiness ensues (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Mark Zuckerberg named Time Person of the Year, Jesse Eisenberg sadly not listed
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Sorry, everybody, you’re not Person of the Year in 2010. For the fourth time in a row someone other than you has won the honor, and this time it’s Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Why? Well, Time says it’s because his creation has “wired together a twelfth of humanity,” but we think a certain highly dramatized blockbuster movie might have something to do with it. Really, it’s not luck the Zuck did that much in 2010, except tell some uncomfortable stories when launching Seamless Messaging . Runners up include Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who had another rough year, and Wikileaks’ Julian Assange, who is currently having a rather rough December after shaking up international relations all year long. Mark Zuckerberg named Time Person of the Year, Jesse Eisenberg sadly not listed originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Apple TV updated to 4.1.1, aims to fix resolution and download problems
December 15, 2010 No Comment
See, sometimes dreams do come true. Just days after we asked how you’d tweak the second generation Apple TV , in flies an update that a good many TV owners have been anxiously awaiting. The 4.1.1 update purportedly solves “an issue that causes some high-definition TVs to incorrectly display at 480p,” as well as an issue that “may cause a movie or TV show to be re-downloaded.” It’s pretty obvious that Apple’s aiming to correct a nagging color / banding problem that has been plaguing some owners since day one, but according to users over at Apple Insider ‘s forums, it’s not a cure-all solution. A handful of members have stated that their sets — typically using an HDMI-to-DVI adapter — still display incorrect colors after the update. Flip on your own box and get the download started, and let us know if it’s the fix you’ve been after down in comments below. Apple TV updated to 4.1.1, aims to fix resolution and download problems originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …DirecTV survey hints at NFL Sunday Ticket on Apple TV, Boxee and Roku players?
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Marketing research surveys have proven a good source for yet-to-be-announced information in the past and a recent one by DirecTV may be a good sign for those who prefer their NFL Sunday Ticket over the internet instead of satellite. According to a tipster, some of the questions asking about potential pricing setups indicated the digital version would be available via currently unsupported devices including internet connected Blu-ray players & TVs, “game machines,” Apple TV, Roku and Boxee. Another new wrinkle is a $19.99 per weekend pricing plan for streaming NFL Sunday Ticket access among other options. Currently, Sunday Ticket streams in HD to PCs and a bevy of mobile platforms ( even without DirecTV’s TV service ), but it’s possible we could see that list expand to several if not all connected TV platforms in the near future — assuming this isn’t just pie in the sky dreaming of course. The NBA, NHL and MLB already play ball with some but not all of the streaming set-top boxes, if the NFL follows them by adding alternate viewing options — assuming a new labor deal is reached and we actually see football played in late 2011 — would it make you more likely to subscribe? [Thanks, Anonymous] Continue reading DirecTV survey hints at NFL Sunday Ticket on Apple TV, Boxee and Roku players? DirecTV survey hints at NFL Sunday Ticket on Apple TV, Boxee and Roku players? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Whoa, Nelly! ThinkFlood won’t like this… not one bit. If you’ll recall, the RedEye universal remote dongle was well received, as a simple 3.5mm adapter added IR beaming to Apple’s slate of iDevices. But now, Mashed Pixel has taken the integration one step further, seamlessly embedding an Infrared emitter into a case . Simply pop the Surc around your iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4, download the (free) accompanying app and start programming. Before long, you’ll be dictating your home entertainment setup sans any external accessories, and heck, you may even improve your phone’s reception all the while. The only downside to this approach compared to ThinkFlood’s is that the iPad is obviously not supported, and once you upgrade to the iPhone 5, your trusty IR case becomes a glorified paperweight. If you’re kosher with that, though, you can get your pre-order in now for $69.95, with initial shipments expected to make their way out in Q1 2011. Continue reading IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote IR-embedded Surc case converts iPhone into a universal learning remote originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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Remember the Windows Phone 7 ads, the ones that promised to ” save us from our phones ” by giving us more “glance and go” information? For the most part, these phones haven’t delivered on that promise due to the relative dearth of apps taking advantage of Microsoft’s live tile concept. That changes a bit today thanks to an update to the HTC Hub app that ships with every Windows Phone 7 device manufactured by HTC . Now, instead of a generic double-wide icon, the HTC Hub presents you with the current weather condition and temperature and the forecasted highs and lows. As such, you’ll never have to click through and be subjected to HTC’s overwrought animations that feel so out of place on Microsoft’s more demure user interface. More please. HTC Hub update helps save us from our Windows Phone 7 phones originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …Fragrance Jet II receives video demonstration, still looks like a terrible idea (video)
December 15, 2010 No Comment
Ah, those zany Keio University researchers trying to recreate Smell-O-Vision , do you want to know what they’re up to these days? They’re still trying, of course, but now they’ve taken the opportunity to demonstrate their hardware — which uses basic inkjet printer tech to fire off very short bursts of fragrance — to tech lovers in Japan while still tweaking and refining it. Primarily aimed at helping healthcare professionals in assessing a patient’s sense of smell , the Fragrance Jet II has a high degree of control granularity, permitting the varying of both intensity and duration of a scent, which in turn can provide a very accurate measurement of a given person’s olfactory acuity. A mobile prototype has also been trotted out (pictured above), hinting at the possibility of eventually shrinking these modules to fit inside cellphones and thus leading us to an awesome future of customizable “incoming call fragrances.” Awesome indeed. Video after the break. Continue reading Fragrance Jet II receives video demonstration, still looks like a terrible idea (video) Fragrance Jet II receives video demonstration, still looks like a terrible idea (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 06:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
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