Comcast Sets Data Cap at 250 GB

Subscribers now have a visible limit on their internet usage

ISP giant Comcast announced an official, 250 GB usage cap for its subscribers Thursday, which it plans to deploy October 1.

"250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of data," reads its official release, "much more than a typical residential customer uses on a monthly basis."

The "median" usage per customer is within 2 - 3 gigabytes per month, says Comcast. In order to exceed the data cap, a customer would have to send more than 50 million e-mails, download more than 62,000 songs, or watch more than 125 standard-definition, 2 GB movies per month.

Comcast's new policy on data consumption appears to be just a part of an overall initiative to reshape the way customers use its network. Last week the company announced its "fair share" program, which is designed to throttle a customers' connection when they consume too much bandwidth. Rumors of a bandwidth cap had been in circulation for quite some time -- Comcast, AT&T, and Time Warner were reported to be experimenting with the concept -- but the actual thresholds implemented proved to be much higher than predicted.

With the increasing popularity of internet-based video and software distribution, ISPs throughout the world are finding ways to curb customers' internet usage. While data caps are commonplace outside the United States, publicly-announced limits are incredibly rare among the U.S.' largest ISPs. Particularly egregious users have run into invisible limits, however, and a handful of heavy downloaders have seen up to a year's suspension of service due to crossing the company's "invisible line in the sand" despite paying for service advertised as unlimited.

Curiously, the announcement hints that the invisible threshold may have been 250 GB all along. "This is the same system we have in place today," says the announcement. "The only difference is that we will now provide a limit by which a customer may be contacted. As part of our pre-existing policy, we will continue to contact the top users of our high-speed Internet service and ask them to curb their usage."

AT&T Wireless users who exceeded an invisible 5gb quota -- a lot, considering that the network is designed for PDAs and Smartphones -- quickly learned of similar sanctions last year.

Subscribers who exceed their quota "may be contacted by Comcast to notify them of excessive use."

"At that time, we'll tell them exactly how much data per month they had used. We know from experience the vast majority of customers we ask to curb usage do so voluntarily," reads the release. Customers will be notified of the change through banner ads posted on the Comcast.net home page, as well as flyers to be included in upcoming billing statements.

A previous attempt to curb subscribers' usage, which ended up selectively meddling in a few different types of internet traffic -- BitTorrent, namely -- attracted the ire of the Federal Communications Commission due to a "discriminatory" preference against certain kinds of data. After almost a year of this, Comcast answered the FCC's demands with a handful of new programs designed to clamp down on excessive usage regardless of the protocols involved.

DailyTech - Comcast Sets Data Cap at 250 GB

IE8 Beta 2 shows Microsoft is serious about playing catch-up

As promised back in June, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 has been released. Beta 1 showed promise, but true to its billing as a developer-only release, had a lot of rough edges and was painful to use for any prolonged period. This new beta is meant for everyone, and should be usable day-to-day. As well as a host of security, stability, and privacy features, the new IE has a raft of new features and user interface improvements that should make using the browser much more enjoyable.

Suggestions and accelerators

Launching IE8 for the first time after the (sadly) obligatory reboot, the browser asks the usual questions about default browsers, default search providers, and so on. As well as these typical questions, a couple of more unusual ones are asked. First of all, you're asked if you want to enable Suggested Sites, one of IE8's new features. This off-by-default option lets you discover sites that are similar to the ones you've already visited, based on which sites other people look at.

The list of suggested sites is shown in a little popup using IE8's Web Slices technology.

The other new feature IE8 asks you about the first time it runs is "Accelerators." In beta 1 these were called "Activities"; along with the new name is a wider selection of third-party accelerators in five categories: blog, define, map, send/e-mail, and translate.

The way these work is the same as in beta 1; translation, mapping, and definitions are shown in situ in little balloons allowing quick and unobtrusive access to the Accelerator features.

Tabs

IE7's major addition to the Internet Explorer browsing experience was to finally add tabs, years after competing browsers supported tabbed browsing. IE8 lets you quickly reopen the last few tabs that you closed, which, given the number of times I've closed the wrong tab by accident, is a godsend. Similarly, you can reopen every tab that was open when you last quit the browser. Neither of these features is unique to IE8, of course, but that doesn't make them any less welcome. One refinement I'd like to see is the option to automatically reopen the previous session's tabs as my "home page."

What is new is IE8's new tab grouping feature. Whenever you open a link on a page in a new tab (whether by middle clicking, ctrl clicking, or right click, open in new tab) the current tab and the new tab both become colored to indicate that they are now part of a group. Any further tabs spawned from the group take on the same color. The grouped tabs can then be closed in a single action. Tabs can be dragged between groups to regroup them, or ungrouped completely. I can certainly see myself using this to clear up after epic Wikipedia sessions, although I would like to see a few more tab group features; for example, though you can close every tab in a group in one action, you can't close every tab except those in the current group.

Redmond, start your photocopiers

IE8 plays catch-up in other areas, too. The Address Bar replicates Firefox 3's Awesome Bar; no longer used just for typing in addresses, it searches your history and RSS feeds to provide alternative results. I like the presentation of results, but having gotten a taste of the feature, I want it to do more; I want it to show actual web search results (as it does in Google) and to also show me anything found in my system (much like the Vista Start Menu does).

Searching for text within a web page highlights all matches simultaneously, which makes scanning pages for the word you're looking for much easier. There's also a new "Caret mode" for keyboard-based browsing. When Caret Mode is enabled, a caret (the blinking indicator to show where the keyboard cursor is) appears in the page and can be moved with the cursor and page navigation keys. This option may assist screen-readers used by the visually impaired, as the caret position is typically used by such software to determine which bit of the screen gets read. It's also far more convenient than using tab to jump between links. The execution isn't flawless, however; sometimes the caret gets stuck or jumps around randomly, I suspect as a result of the page's underlying HTML structure.

The new InPrivate Browsing mode is another feature found in other browsers. Each InPrivate window has a clear indicator in the address bar, and the feature appears to work very much as advertised. Any activity performed within the InPrivate session is forgotten as soon as the window is closed.

Standards

As covered in the beta 1 review, a key feature of IE8 is its improved standards compliance. To recap, IE8 will use "quirks mode" for pages that are missing proper HTML version information, and will default to its new "standards" mode for pages that include the information. One of Microsoft's (not entirely unreasonable) concerns was that this would break many websites; many sites that enabled standards mode would actually break, because they were expecting standards mode to be nonstandard, as it was in IE7.

In recognition of this problem, Microsoft has provided the ability to switch between IE8's true standards mode and IE7's fake standards mode. Beta 1 used an ugly button that we were assured was temporary, and indeed beta 2 no longer includes that button. Instead, whenever IE8 shows a page that's using IE8's true standards mode, an extra "broken page" button appears in the address bar. If a page appears broken using IE8 mode, clicking the broken page button switches to IE7 mode, which will often be sufficient to fix the page. IE8 also allows you to default to IE7 mode in three ways: you can add sites to a blacklist, you can use IE7 mode for all intranet sites, and as a last resort, you can revert to IE7 mode for all sites. I think this range of options is a pretty good compromise.

More disappointing (although not IE8's fault as such) is just how broken many of Microsoft's own websites are when forced to use IE8 mode. Windows Live Mail, for example, is quite unusable in IE8 mode:

I haven't obfuscated this picture to hide private information; that's how it actually appears. The Windows Live sites are due to be updated soon, so perhaps these issues will be fixed. Nonetheless, it would be nice if Microsoft would take a lead here; it will be difficult to convince third parties to update their sites for IE8 if the company cannot itself be bothered to do the same.

Conclusion

IE8 has me surprised. Internet Explorer has fallen a long way behind Safari, Opera, and Firefox. IE7 brought the much-needed tabs, but was still a long way behind the competing browsers. And honestly, even IE8 hasn't caught up with the competition. But it's a great deal closer than I thought it would be. The standards compliance is certainly still a big issue, and the reality is that IE8 still won't be nearly as good on that front as the other three major browsers. Nonetheless, as an overall package, IE8 is a far better product than its predecessor.

A lot of its features have been copied, sure. But they're good features. They're worth copying, and I'm glad they've been copied, because they make IE8 much more usable. There are IE8-unique features too, and though I think they still need polish, I think that the tab groups and accelerators, in particular, are compelling additions to the browser experience. Beta 2 still has bugs; in my brief usage so far I've seen a number of pages that have appeared with pieces missing (though each time refreshing has restored the missing parts), and on a couple of occasions the browser froze for several seconds, but it's a beta; I wouldn't expect it to be bug-free.

After using beta 2, I am now confident that Microsoft actually cares about creating a good web browser, and I haven't felt that way since the days of the browser war. My only worry now is that MS will once again lose interest in its browser; I hope not.

IE8 Beta 2 shows Microsoft is serious about playing catch-up

Mars Rover Begins Climb Out of Vast Crater

NASA's Opportunity rover is slowly but surely hauling itself out of a vast Martian crater after nearly a year plumbing the interior for secrets of the red planet's ancient past.

Opportunity will take the same route it used to enter Victoria crater on Sept. 11, 2007, after a year of

scouting from the rim. Engineers want the rover to make a graceful exit after seeing an electric current spike in its left front wheel — a reminder of a similar spike that occurred when its robotic twin Spirit lost use of a front right wheel in 2006.

"If Opportunity were driving with only five wheels, like Spirit, it probably would never get out of Victoria Crater," said Bill Nelson, a rover mission manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif. "We also know from experience with Spirit that if Opportunity were to lose the use of a wheel after it is out on the level ground, mobility should not be a problem."

The rover drove close to the base of a cliff that makes up part of the crater rim, called "Cape Verde," and snapped detailed images of rock layers reaching 20 feet (6 meters) tall.

Opportunity's samples of the layers inside Victoria crater suggest that the wind-blown sediments later met the influence of groundwater sometime in the ancient past. The crater itself stretches half a mile (800 meters) in diameter and is deeper than any previously seen by the rover.

"The patterns broadly resemble what we saw at the smaller craters Opportunity explored earlier," said longtime rover science team planner Scott McLennan of the State University of New York, Stony Brook. "By looking deeper into the layering, we are looking farther back in time."

Neither Opportunity nor Spirit has escaped the ravages of time and exposure, despite working far beyond the intended 90-day lifespan. Opportunity currently drives with its robotic arm out of stowed position, in case a worn shoulder motor stops working and keeps the arm locked in storage.

Opportunity is now gearing up to check on some fist-size and larger rocks that scattered across the Martian plains after huge objects blasted craters deeper than Victoria in the surface.

"We've done everything we entered Victoria Crater to do and more," said Bruce Banerdt, project scientist for the rovers at JPL.

Spirit has also woken up from its winter hibernation on Mars, but will not move from its current haven until enough the available solar energy reaches increases within a few months. That rover continues to work on its masterpiece, full-circle color panorama while facing the sun from the north edge of the "Home Plate" plateau.

Spirit will eventually head south of Home Plate to examine some bright, silica-rich soil that it discovered last year — possible evidence of the effects of hot water.

The rovers originally landed on Mars in January 2004.

SPACE.com -- Mars Rover Begins Climb Out of Vast Crater

New Dimmable Bulbs Could Save Gigawatts

Twenty-two percent of America's power is used to create light. But a well-kept secret is that over half of that light comes out of bulbs that you've likely never seen up close, and certainly haven't ever bought.

They're the high intensity discharge (HID) lights that give the world's supermarkets and Wal-Marts that brighter-than-sunlight feel.

While HID lights are pretty efficient, especially when compared with incandescents, they have a few pretty serious problems. They take about 10 minutes to warm up, and they can't be dimmed. And, of course, no one would complain if they were a bit more efficient.

Well a startup called HID Technologies has developed a new digital ballast for HID lights that fixes all of those problems. The new technology could cut energy use by HID lights by 40%. Altogether this tremendously unsexy technology could save gigawatts of power.

The power would be saved by allowing stores to dim lights on sunny days (in concert skylights), allowing lights to turn on instantly (so they wouldn't have to stay on all the time), and simply because the new technology makes the lights more efficient, with a 320 watt new HID lamp being roughly as good as an old HID lamp.

Of course, it's a change that none of us will likely even notice, but in the end, that's the best kind of environmental innovation.

New Dimmable Bulbs Could Save Gigawatts | EcoGeek

Rock Band DLC: Upcoming Albums Include No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Megadeth, Vaughan & Chili Peppers

Rock Band developer Harmonix and Entertainment Weekly have revealed the next six full-length albums that will arrive as downloadable content for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the multi-instrument music game:

• Foo Fighters - The Colour and the Shape
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
• Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
• Megadeth - Peace Sells... But Who's Buying
• Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
• No Doubt - The Best of... Rock Band Edition

No dates or pricing details were provided.

Though Harmonix has released new downloadable songs for the game each week since its launch last November, the studio traditionally debuts full-length albums in the last week of a month. That streak was broken this week, as the release of Rush's Moving Pictures was delayed by technical issues.

As previously reported, Rock Band 2--due on Xbox 360 September 14, with PS2, PS3 and Wii releases in October--will be fully compatible with all Rock Band downloadable content released thus far, and content released after the sequel arrives will continue to work with the original.

Rock Band DLC: Upcoming Albums Include No Doubt, Foo Fighters, Megadeth, Vaughan and Chili Peppers - Shacknews

TV's 'Mythbusters' Tackle Moon Landing Hoax Claims

In 2005, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, special effects experts better known by the title of their popular Discovery Channel series, "MythBusters", were asked during an interview about the myth they would most like to test provided an unlimited budget.

"Jamie and I have done the research, and figured that the only way to end the debate about the 'myth' of the Apollo moon landing is to go there," Savage replied to Slashdot, a technology news website, about the belief held by some that the United States

faked the lunar landings.

Three years later, the Mythbusters are ready to share the results of their 'trip' as they devote their next show, airing on Wednesday, to the moon landing hoax claims.

"We built a hybrid rocket that was fueled by poo and nitrous oxide — thought we had enough Teflon tape on the seals but the stink got through anyway. Too bad that the footage got lost in transit to the editors," Hyneman told collectSPACE.com, explaining that their limited budget would not cover the cost of regular rocket fuel.

Of course, he was joking.

"Dude, I sooo wished we could have gone there," Savage admitted.

So, with their feet firmly planted on the Earth (at least for most of the time, but more on that later), Hyneman and Savage, along with fellow Mythbusters Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara, set out to use science to 'bust' or confirm the truth behind the hoaxers' claims.

Low hanging fruit

Hoax believers have had 40 years to devise reasons why the Apollo moon landings must have been filmed in an Earth-based studio. As special effects experts, Hyneman felt they were well suited for the subject.

First however, they needed to choose which parts of the myth to test.

"We looked at the ones that for some reason or other, seemed most prevalent," Savage explained in an e-mail interview.

"We took the low hanging fruit," Hyneman added. "The key idea was that the footage that proved we were there was a special effect. Adam and I are experienced effects artists, so it was natural for us to dig into it."

"We wanted to tackle the ones that actually take some experimentation to prove," Savage said.

To narrow the field however, the Mythbusters sought the assistance of someone very familiar with debunking the moon hoax myth, or they would have if he had not come calling first.

"I was actually first involved with the Mythbusters early on, when I was contacted by one of their producers asking if I had any astronomical myths for them to bust," shared Dr. Phil Plait, a.k.a. "The Bad Astronomer", in an interview with collectSPACE.com. An astronomer who worked with the Hubble Telescope, Plait created a website, Bad Astronomy, aimed at dispelling astronomy and science based myths, including the moon hoax, which expanded into books and his recent appointment as president of the James Randi Educational Foundation.

"I made some suggestions but sadly they didn't use any of them," Plait said. "I guess most of them don't make very good TV."

That early interaction, which was followed by meeting the Mythbusters at conferences, led to Plait establishing a relationship with the show. So he was surprised when a fellow astronomer contacted him about the Mythbusters investigating the moon hoax.

"I hadn't heard anything about [this show] so I fired off an e-mail to Adam Savage and said, 'What gives?' and he e-mailed me back and said, 'Oh oh oh, we're going to ask you about this,'" recalled Plait.

"Over the course of a few days, they were on the phone with me and a lot of other people who knew about, for example, the properties of the lunar surface, to try to figure out not just the best way of debunking the moon hoax but the best aspects of it... so they wanted to know which ones that they had found were the ones that I ran into and what were the best ways to tackle them. It was actually a lot of fun."

Ultimately, Hyneman, Savage and the others settled on three major areas of the hoax: how light interacted with the lunar surface, how the astronauts appeared to move in the low gravity of the Moon and how items behaved in the airless void of space.

Continue reading on collectSPACE.com about how the Mythbusters tested the moon landing hoax claims.

SPACE.com -- TV's 'Mythbusters' Tackle Moon Landing Hoax Claims

Firefox to get massive JavaScript performance boost

Mozilla is leveraging an impressive new optimization technique to bring a big performance boost to the Firefox JavaScript engine. The code was merged today (but is not yet ready to be enabled by default in the nightly builds) and is planned for inclusion in Firefox 3.1, the next incremental update of the open-source web browser.

I discussed this new optimization strategy with Mozilla's VP of engineering Mike Shaver and Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, the creator of JavaScript. They are concerned that sophisticated web applications are being held back by the limitations of JavaScript interpreter performance. They aim to improve execution speed so that it is comparable to that of native code. This will redefine the boundaries of client-side performance and enable the development of a whole new generation of more computationally-intensive web applications.

They are "getting ready to take JavaScript performance into the next tier" with a radically innovative optimization tactic called tracing that has already produced performance improvements ranging between 20 and 40 times faster in some cases. They believe that this is just the beginning of what can be accomplished with tracing, and they expect to be able to achieve even better speed as the work continues.

The theories behind tracing optimization were pioneered by Dr. Michael Franz and Dr. Andreas Gal, research scientists at the University of California, Irvine. The tracing mechanism records the path of execution at runtime and generates compiled code that can be used next time that a particular path is reached. This makes it possible to flatten out loops and nested method calls into a linear stream of instructions that is more conducive to conventional optimization techniques. Tracing optimization is particularly effective in dynamic languages and also has a very light memory footprint relative to alternative approaches.

Mozilla already incorporated tracing optimization into Tamarin, a next-generation JavaScript runtime engine that leverages Adobe's ActionScript virtual machine. Tamarin, however, still lacks maturity and doesn't yet deliver significant performance gains—partly because Tamarin's ActionScript heritage means that it is optimized for efficient execution of code with type annotations. Tamarin is a long-term project and won't be ready until Firefox 4.

To get a real-world performance increase right now, Mozilla has adapted the tracing technology and Adobe's nanojit so that they can be integrated directly into SpiderMonkey, the JavaScript interpreter that is used in Firefox 3. This has produced a massive speedup that far surpasses what is currently possible with Tamarin-tracing. In addition to empowering web developers, the optimizations will also improve the general performance of the browser itself and many extensions because many components of the program are coded with JavaScript.

Bringing more power to client-side scripting will move the web forward and create new opportunities for web developers. Eich says that Mozilla wants to "get people thinking about JavaScript as a more general-purpose language" and show them that "it really is a platform for writing full applications."

Apple has also been implementing some extremely impressive JavaScript performance improvements with its compelling SquirrelFish virtual machine engine, which will be included in Safari 4. Like Mozilla, Apple says that the current performance gains delivered by the latest optimization techniques only scratch the surface of what is possible.

JavaScript isn't just a clumsy solution for client-side form validation anymore. While the implementors are aggressively addressing JavaScript's performance limitations, the ECMAScript standards community is making progress on addressing some of the language's historical syntactic weaknesses. The addition of some rather nice Pythonic sugar in JavaScript 1.7 and 1.8 is a great start, and the recent emergence of consensus in the standards community on the future of ECMAScript lifts some of the roadblocks that had prevented those efforts from going further.

With so much forward momentum and rapid evolution, JavaScript appears capable of meeting the demand for a more robust web programming platform. As more applications shift into the cloud, these capabilities will be essential for building the future of the web.

Further reading

• Mike Shaver: The birth of a faster monkey
• Mike Schroepfer: What can you do when your browser is 7 times faster?
• Brendan Eich: TraceMonkey: JavaScript Lightspeed
• John Resig has instructions on how to enable tracing in the latest Firefox nightly build

Firefox to get massive JavaScript performance boost

Solar Plane Doubles World Record, Inches Tech Closer To Deployment

New design could be a boon to the reconnaissance, small plane industry

As the Olympics close, a dizzying couple weeks of record breaking have come to an end.  In total 43 world records were smashed.  In this spirit aerospace startup QinitiQ announced an important record of its own in the field of alternative energy.

In Phelpsian fashion, QinetiQ's Zephyr Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) obliterated the previous world record for continuous solar flight, though some technical disputes may hold off its place in the records books for a short time. 

According to QinetiQ, the Zephyr flew for 83 hours and 37 minutes, more than twice the longest flight time of Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk, holder of the current record.  The two craft are radically different.  The Global Hawk is almost the size of a fighter and requires a full runway to launch.  The Zephyr is much more petite and can be launched by hand.

The Zephyr features an ultra-lightweight carbon fiber skeleton, weighing less than 70 lb.  Its 18m wingspan is paper thin and plastered with amorphous silicon solar cells made by United Solar Ovonic in Michigan.  The cells pump power by day to the engines and to Sion Power lithium sulfur batteries to store power to continue flight at night.  The craft also features a specially designed charging mechanism, and highly refined autopilot software, according to QinetiQ.

Paul Davey, Development Director for the Zephyr UAV, stated of the flight, "At present long endurance is measured in terms of hours. Ultimately we are thinking in terms of months. The current development programme has the potential to extend Zephyr’s mission endurance to around three months, which could force a wholesale change to the way in which the industry thinks about UAV operations."

Unfortunately QinetiQ's celebrations may be put on hold.  The World Air Sports Federation--the governing body for air sports and aeronautical world records said QinetiQ's flight times failed to meet certain criteria it holds.  Thus the Northrup Grumman record may live to see another day.  This is not the first time that QinetiQ has had such difficulties -- last year it completed a highly publicized 54-hr. trek, which would have set the record, only to be disqualified for similar timing violations.

Nonetheless, with UAV military applications booming and UAVs being discussed as a possible means of massive climate data collection, QinetiQ seems poised to capitalize on its success.  And with designs like that of Northrup Grumman showing that full size solar aircraft are possible, it seems possible that a solar-powered composite ultra-small manned plane might even be viable in coming years.

The Zephyr is very large, but ultralight and launchable by hand.  (Source: QinetiQ)

 
The Zephyr flies proud as the current unofficial world record holder for solar powered flight. The craft could provide a big boost to the UAV industry.  (Source: QinetiQ)

DailyTech - Solar Plane Doubles World Record, Inches Tech Closer To Deployment

Screamer: Portable Internet Radio Streamer

While I know it's no big deal to dump a couple of gigs of music onto my 8GB flash drive, sometimes it's nice to fire up some streaming radio for a change of pace.

Screamer is available both as an installable application and as a portable executable. Go with the portable version, and you'll be able to take your presets with you wherever you can plug in your USB flash drive.

Click on presets, and Screamer will bury you under a mountain of radio streams. Browse by genre, geographical location, network, or language. Once you make a selection, its category heading will automatically be added to the bottom of the preset list for easy channel changing.
I tune in The Edge, and Screamer adds the rest of the Modern Rock category for me. Slick.
Favorite your top feeds and Screamer saves them in a simple XML file - handy for emailing your faves to a buddy, if you feel like sharing.

Recording is supported, though only on streams that provide track information. You'll still need an app like StreamRipper for recording other feeds.

Development is very active, and new streams are added frequently. You can request a specific one by visiting their forums. Screamer is freeware, Windows only.

Screamer: Portable Internet Radio Streamer - Download Squad

Intel wireless power is pure magic, most efficient yet

The final frontier of wireless tech is upon us, with Intel showing off its electricity flying through the air with better efficiency than ever. While it’s not the first wireless power transmitting device we’ve seen, this one uses resonance rather than induction, and boasts 75% efficiency. Hey, that means if you send 100 watts across the room, 75 of those watts will actually make it to the other side.

For now, the prototype is in the form of two copper rings that resonate together at a certain frequency, magically transmitting electricity from one to the other. Of course the tinfoil hat-wearing cranks will want to know where that extra 25% of the obviously deadly radiation goes on its way from here to there, but Intel says never mind that; it’s safe for us, it’s just that the gadgets will get fried with the current tech.

As soon as this is perfected, we’ll be in for a techno treat. Imagine wirelessly charging up your cell phone, or quickly installing some truly wireless speakers, or placing a wireless toaster on your kitchen table. The possibilities are endless. But in this era of energy price hikes, do we really want to throw away 25% of the power just for the sake of convenience?

DVICE: Intel wireless power is pure magic, most efficient yet

AMD (ATI) Catalyst 8.8

AMD/ATi has released version 8.8 of its Catalyst drivers.

Download: Catalyst Driver Page [43.0MB]

Resolved Issues for the Windows Vista Operating System
This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows Vista. These include:

• Setting the language option to Greek no longer results in cropped text being noticed in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Component Video page
• Adobe After Effects: Exiting the application no longer results in the Windows Vista (64 bit version) operating system intermittently failing to respond
• Call of Duty 4: Corruption is no longer noticed when having Quad CrossFire™ enable and an HDMI 1080p display device connected. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35112
• Devil May Cry 4: Anti-Aliasing no longer fails to function when playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled
• Dirt: Playing the German Crossover track (Rally World Event) no longer results in the grand stands and chain link fences not being display correctly when CrossFire™ is enabled and MSAA is disabled
• Hellgate London: Setting the display resolution to 2560x1600 no longer results in the game failing to respond
• Linage II: Switching between the game and the Windows desktop no longer results in the desktop appearing brighter than its original setting. Exiting the game and restarting the operating system may also result in the desktop brightness failing to be restored to its original setting. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35108
• Lost Planet (DX9): Enabling CrossFire™, AA to 4x, AF to 8x, and having all of the in-game options set to high no longer results in the game failing to respond when running the performance test
• Mahjongg Artifacts: Flickering is no longer noticed when playing the game on pre-configured name brand systems
• Mass Effect: Playing the game with CrossFire™ enabled no longer results in corruption being noticed on the AA menu
• NASCAR demo: Setting all the in-game options to the highest levels no longer results in corruption being noticed on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 series of product and running Windows Vista
• Quake 4: Corruption is no longer noticed when starting a new game on systems running either Windows XP or Vista and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product
• Second Life: Playing the game on a CrossFire™ configured system (ATI Radeon™ HD 2400 and above) no longer results in corruption and slow performance being noticed
• Unreal Tournament 3: The game no longer intermittently fails to launch when a map has texture detail set to maximum. Further details can be found in topic number 737-31189
• World In Conflict: Setting the video quality to high no longer results in corruption being noticed
• Installing a newer version of the Catalyst™ Control Center without removing the older version no longer results in a windows error message appearing when attempting to launch the Catalyst™ Control Center
• The Reduce DVI frequency on high-resolution displays is no longer missing in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Digital Panel (DVI) page when hot un-plugging and then hot-plugging a display device using the HDMI port on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 3100/3200 series of product
• The Display Management options are no longer missing or corrupted when switching between profiles in the Catalyst™ Control Center
• Clicking Start->All Program->Catalyst™ Control Center->Restart runtime twice no longer results in the two ATI Restart icons appearing on the Windows taskbar
• Setting the DPI to 120 or 144 no longer results in cropped text being noticed throughout various pages of the Catalyst™ Control Center
• Making changes to the default values in the Avivo color page and closing the Catalyst™ Control Center without applying the changes no longer results in the default values failing to be restored
• Cropped text is no longer noticed in the VPU Recover message when the DPI is set to 144
• Checking the Use application settings in Avivo Video->Basic Color no longer results in the preview failing to be updated with the default color settings
• Corruption is no longer noticed when entering the Catalyst™ Control Center->Basic Quality page on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 4800 product
• Setting the language option to German and the Catalyst™ Control Center skin to ATI_Crimson no longer results in text appearing cropped within the Catalyst™ Control Center
• Catalyst™ Control Center: Enabling the option for Always on Top no longer results in dialog boxes failing to appear on top of the Catalyst™ Control Center
• Running through a custom install of the graphics driver and installing the driver to a directory of choice no longer results in a C++ error message when right clicking on the Windows desktop
• The pulldown menu options found within various pages of the Catalyst™ Control Center are no longer mis-aligned
• Setting the language option to Russian no longer results in cropped text being noticed within the Catalyst™ Control Center
• Using the Catalyst™ Control Center Setup Assistant no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center Advanced View text is appearing greyed out
• A restricted number of HDTV custom modes no longer occurs after deleting all of the custom modes that were previously added
• Catalyst™ Control Center: The online help links for Color->Full Screen3D are no longer missing
• Catalyst™ Control Center->Help->CrossFire™: The help file no longer states that CrossFire™ is enabled by default under the Windows XP operating system
• Incorrect help hardware configurations are no longer described for CrossFire™ in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Help contents
• Setting the language option to any of the supported languages now results in the translated language web pages being displayed (if in existence) when clicking on the Welcome link
• Corruption is no longer noticed in the lower portion of the HDMI display when using certain display modes
• Disabling the graphics driver while clone mode is enable no longer results in corruption being noticed on the display devices
• Connecting an HDMI display device and entering an S3 state no longer results in the operating system failing to respond or VPU Recover to activate
• Connecting an HDMI display device to the DVI port using an HDMI to DVI dongle no longer results in the display mode of 720x480 failing to be in the display mode list after hot-unplugging the HDMI display device and hot-plugging a DVI display device. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35105
• Screen flashing no longer occurs when connecting a display device that has incorrect Extended Display Identification Data information (EDID)
• An error message indicating that the display driver stopped responding and has recovered is no longer displayed when playing a DVD title using the Windows Media Player on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ 3100/3200 series of product
• Connecting a dual link display device to a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 36x0 series of product no longer results in the display device failing to display an image when enabling the option to reduce DVI and setting the display resolution to 1280x1024 60Hz 32bpp
• Connecting an HDMI display device and setting the display resolution to 1600x1024 or higher with a refresh rate higher than 60Hz. no longer result in the display device failing to display an image
• Logging off one user and logging on as another no longer results in CrossFire™ failing to be enabled or disabled when logging back on as the original user
• A CCCPrev.exe has stopped working error message no longer appears when selecting any 3D settings in the Catalyst™ Control Center when extended desktop mode is enabled
• Connecting a CRT as the primary and a DFP as a secondary display device followed by enabling extended desktop mode no longer results in clone mode becoming active when hot-unplugging the DFT and the hot-plugging it back on
• Connecting a TV as a secondary display device and attempting to enabled extended desktop mode no longer results in the TV format failing to change
• Connecting a secondary display device and enabling it as the primary display no longer results in the resolution being set to it maximum display resolution when enabling CrossFire™
• Clicking on the seek slider when playing a DVD title using the PowerDVD player no longer results in corruption being noticed on the playback window
• Switching from h.264 to MPEG2 video titles no longer results in the operating system intermittently failing to respond
• Playing VC1 video clips no longer results in green corruption being noticed in the player window
• Seeking or fast-forwarding in a media player application no longer results in corruption being noticed on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 3600 series of product and running Windows Vista (32 bit version)
• Enabling BOB de-interlacing no longer results in a green line being noticed on the bottom of the playback window when playing a 1080i clip
• Playing a standard definition DVD using the Windows Media Player no longer results in the player window flashing when closed captioning is enabled
• Playing a DVD title using the PowerDVD player no longer results in the PowerDVD player failing to respond when DXVA is disabled, closed captioning is enabled and the user is fast forwarding the DVD title anywhere from 4x to 32x

Resolved Issues for the Windows XP Operating System
This section provides information on resolved issues in this release of the ATI Catalyst™ Software Suite for Windows XP. These include:

• 3 Kingdom OL: Playing the Asian game with CrossFire™ enabled on a system running Windows XP no longer results in texture corruption being noticed during the fight preparation menu
• Assassin's Creed: Setting all in-game options to 3 and the display resolution to 1024x768 no longer results in flashing being noticed around the character
• City of Heroes: Character stretching and double character reflection is no longer noticed when the in-game resolution is set to 2560x1600. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35757
• Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts: Enabling CrossFire™ no longer results in the displays flashing corruption when setting the in game graphics options to off or their lowest settings. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35118
• Enemy Territory Quake Wars: Intermittent corruption is no longer noticed when playing the game on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product
• Fear Perseus Mandate Demo: Launching the game on a system running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 2600 series of product no longer results in the system failing to respond
• Just Cause: Setting the in-game display resolution to 1280x1024 and all of the other game options to their maximum levels no longer results in corruption being noticed in the lower portion of the display
• Lost Planet: Task switching between the game and the Windows XP desktop no longer results in texture corruption being noticed when switching back to the game. This issue was known to occur on systems containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 36x0 series of product
• Witcher: Enabling AA and setting the in-game options to their maximum levels no longer results in background colors being missing and the game play back being choppy. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35898
• Witcher: Game corruption is no longer noticed when setting all of the in-game options to their maximum values and having CrossFire™ enabled along with AA set to 16x and AF set to 8x
• Witcher: Enabling CrossFire™ on a system containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product no longer results in game failing to respond
• Using the WinDVD player (versions 14.x, 11.10x, or 9.xx) to play VC1 video content no longer results in corruption being noticed when hardware acceleration is enabled. This issue may also be experienced under the Windows Vista operating system. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35293
• Installing the HDMI audio driver and the VIA audio chipset driver no longer results in a compatibility issue being noticed and a yellow exclamation mark showing up in the Sound, Video and Game Controllers. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35119
• Connecting a display device to the display port no longer results in the Catalyst™ Control Center->Advanced View detecting the display device as a Digital Panel (DVI)
• Hot-plugging an HDMI display device to a system that has a CRT connected to it no longer results in the CRT becoming disabled after the system reboots
• Choppy DVD playback is no longer noticed when enabling the option cinema enhancement and closed captioning within the WinDVD player
• Corruption is no longer noticed in the lower third of the WinDVD player window when cinema enhancement is enabled
• Hot-plugging a display device while the system is in standby state no longer results in the display device failing to be detected
• Hot-plugging a display device no longer results in the display device failing to display an image
• ATI icon corruption is no longer noticed on systems running Windows XP and containing an ATI Radeon™ HD 48x0 series of product
• Resuming from a standby state and right clicking on the Windows desktop no longer results in menu items appearing corrupt when moving the mouse pointer over the drop down menu
• Playing a Blu-ray DVD title using the WinDVD player no longer results in only audio being heard
• Playing a DVD title and selecting the option to use basic color setting to default in the Catalyst™ Control Center now results in the option being applied. Further details can be found in topic number 737-35803
• A green tint is no longer noticed around the closed captioning when playing a standard definition DVD using the Cyberlink player

Neowin.net - AMD (ATI) Catalyst 8.8

Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager

Microsoft's Sysinternals team has released a new, free, light weight virtual desktop manager for Windows called Desktops. Yes, Microsoft already had a virtual desktop manager called, well, Virtual Desktop Manager. But Desktops offers a few advantages. First, it's a single, tiny executable file. No installation necessary, which makes this a good candidate for carrying with you on a USB flash drive. And second, Desktops offers a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to choose from, which could come in handy if your Alt+1 key combo is reserved for something else.

If you're scratching your head trying to figure out what a virtual desktop is, here's how it works. You can create up to four different desktop spaces and switch between them. In other words, you can load a few programs in desktop 1, a few more in desktop 2, and a few others in desktop 3. They'll all keep running as you switch back and forth. So if you have iTunes playing in desktop one, and an Office document to edit in desktop 2, you can keep listening to music while you're typing away.

The advantage is that if you've got, say a 1280 x 1024 pixel monitor, but you like to have umpteen applications open at once and there's no way to keep them all visible on that display. A virtual desktop gives you another 1280 x 1024 pixel canvas or two, or three to work with.

Microsoft releases Desktops, new virtual desktop manager - Download Squad

Seinfeld to sing the praises of Windows Vista

"If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?" Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The campaign will be one of the largest in Microsoft's history, and is expected to begin on September 4.

In fact, Seinfeld may not be the only celebrity involved in the new Windows Vista campaign. The ever-popular "people close to the situation" have informed the Wall Street Journal that Seinfeld is simply "one of the key celebrity pitchmen" that will appear alongside Bill Gates to discuss Vista's merits. According to the WSJ's sources, the company has also considered Will Ferrell and Chris Rock among a multitude of other personalities, although there was no indication as to whether they had also been hired as part of the campaign.

The new ads will be spearheaded by a new agency for Microsoft and one famed for a number of Burger King ads, Crispin Porter + Bogusky (boy, would I hate to be at that agency right now—talk about pressure!), and are expected to center around the slogan "Windows, Not Walls." Clearly, the idea here is to emphasize that Vista can help users connect with others and complete their tasks instead of providing obstacles. And of course, employing well-loved celebrities that are known for their widespread appeal can't hurt either... Microsoft hopes, anyway.

The move comes almost two years after the operating system was first launched to the public. Since then, there has been an unending stream reports about users and businesses downgrading from Vista back to Windows XP, spurred by any number of issues from sluggishness to numerous driver issues. Manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo have even offered to downgrade customers to XP for free thanks to user demand.

Vista's reputation has certainly taken a beating since its launch, and Microsoft said last month that it was finally going to do something about it. Microsoft's VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing Brad Brooks mentioned Apple by name as being a "noisy competitor" after having taken a number of pot-shots at Vista in its own Get a Mac campaign, and vowed to strike back with its own ad campaign. "You thought the sleeping giant was still sleeping? Well, we've woken up, and it's time to take our message forward," Brooks said during the company's Worldwide Partner Conference.

The new ad campaign will be part of Microsoft's general "Vista really is better than you think!" push that began earlier this year. Microsoft first started advertising the "real Vista story," and then soon followed up with the now somewhat-infamous Mojave Experiment, the Pepsi Challenge of the Windows world, where users learned that Vista isn't so bad after all. The question remains, whether the new advertising push will end up being too little, too late. Had a similar campaign been launched soon after Vista's release (and of course, if Vista's launch was a little more smooth for some users), perhaps the company wouldn't be scrambling right now to fight back against the little guy in order to resurrect sales.

In the meantime, Apple will continue to pummel Vista with its own somewhat-annoying, but apparently effective "Get a Mac" campaign. Will Seinfeld be able to out-funny John Hodgman and Justin Long? We await the results of this new front on the platform war with bated breath.

Seinfeld to sing the praises of Windows Vista

Rock Band 2 Charges for RB1 Song Imports

Owners of the Xbox 360 edition of Rock Band 2 will have to pay a small fee in order to import "most" of songs from the original, developer Harmonix has disclosed.

That fee will be no greater than $5, studio representative John Drake assured MTV.

 

Drake explained that the fee stems from licensing costs. The developer previously told Shacknews that similar licensing issues were the reason that it had yet to specify which songs from the first Rock Band disc will be playable in the sequel.

The fee does not apply to all of the downloadable Rock Band tracks that have arrived across the last year, which will be playable in Rock Band 2 at no extra cost.

Along with the fee, the import functionality requires players to have the original Rock Band disc, as those songs will be installed on the hard drive. After that initial installation, the Rock Band 1 disc is not needed to play the tracks in Rock Band 2.

Rock Band 2 hits the Xbox 360 on September 14 with 84 on-disc tracks. Harmonix has yet to detail the import process for the PlayStation 3 version of the multi-instrument music game, which arrives in October, but it is assumed the process will be similar.

Though the Wii edition of Rock Band 2, also due in October, is said to support downloadable content, it is not yet known if that version will support song imports from the original Rock Band, especially as the Wii only has 512MB of internal storage space.

However, the PlayStation 2 release will not support song importing, at least in the same form, as only the first few models of the system allowed hard drives to be connected.

Rock Band 2 Charges for RB1 Song Imports - Shacknews

Facial animation reaches new heights with 'Emily'

The above video is of a woman named Emily discussing the new process that allows company Image Metrics to create highly-realistic computer animations of people. Sound boring? Maybe, until you realize that Emily is a product of that system. Yes, she's an animation.

She was created by taking a number of photos of the real Emily and creating a model of her face. They were then able to use that data to create the above animation. Image Metrics has done work on projects such as Grand Theft Auto IV. Are we finally reaching the time where computer animations are indistinguishable from reality? If we aren't there yet, we will be soon. Amazing stuff.

DVICE: Facial animation reaches new heights with 'Emily'

Microsoft Unveils SideWinder X6 Keyboard, X5 Mouse

SideWinder X6 keyboard has movable number pad

Today at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany Microsoft made the SideWinder X6 keyboard official. The new X6 keyboard's most innovative feature is the ability for the number pad to be moved to the right or left side of the keyboard.

This is an interesting feature for gamers, who can move the number keypad from the right side where it normally sits, to the left side of the keyboard where they can access the number keys without having to remove the right-hand from the mouse. In addition to the movable number pad, the SideWinder X6 also offers the ability for gamers to program up to 90 macros per game and bind them to dedicated macro keys as well as the fully programmable keypad.

The keyboard features mode switching that allows toggling between standard mode and two different gaming modes with LEDs to signify what mode is active. The keyboard also supports automatic profile switching to detect the application running and apply custom profiles to the keyboard.

Microsoft also added features specifically with the gamer in mind including a new Cruise Control feature that continues a key action without having to hold down the key or keys assigned to the action. The new Cruise Control feature works with up to four keys simultaneously. The SideWinder X6 also features in game macro recording and macros are stored directly to the computer's hard drive.

Other features of the X6 keyboard include WASD gaming keys with front-face lighting for enhanced visibility as well as full backlighting. The keyboard features two different backlighting colors with red backlighting identifying standard keys that are not programmable and amber backlighting identifying keys they can be custom programmed with macros. The SideWinder X6 also features a complete array of media keys and controls for volume and backlighting.

In addition to the SideWinder X6 keyboard, Microsoft also announced a SideWinder X5 mouse. The SideWinder X5 mouse has nine buttons with five of them being fully programmable. The mouse sensitivity is adjustable on-the-fly up to 2000dpi. Both the SideWinder X6 keyboard and SideWinder X5 mouse will be available in September. The SideWinder X6 keyboard will retail for $79.95 and the SideWinder X5 mouse will retail for $59.95.

When Microsoft relaunched its SideWinder brand in August of 2007, the first product was a SideWinder mouse for gamers that featured adjustable sensitivity, an LCD screen, and adjustable weight. The new SideWinder X5 mouse lacks the adjustable weight and LCD screen displaying the sensitivity setting of the mouse.

Microsoft SideWinder X6 Keyboard  (Source: Engadget)

Microsoft SideWinder X5 Mouse  (Source: Engadget)

DailyTech - Microsoft Unveils SideWinder X6 Keyboard, X5 Mouse

Xbox 360 Gets Instrument Cross-Compatibility for Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Rev

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox 360 editions of Harmonix's Rock Band 2, Neversoft's Guitar Hero World Tour and Zoe Mode's Rock Revolution will feature instrument interoperability, as revealed on Microsoft's Gamerscore Blog.

Citing a similar announcement made yesterday in which Sony revealed that the PS3 editions of the upcoming rhythm titles would see instrument cross-compatibility, Microsoft representative Chris Paladino stated, "For the record, we also do that."

"Consider this an official announcement," Paladino added. "All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible. In other words, welcome to the party."

While neither Microsoft nor Sony specified whether the three titles' guitars, microphones and drums would also see cross-platform compatibility between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the announcements bring the long struggle between rhythm game developers over peripheral compatibility to an end.

Xbox 360 Gets Instrument Cross-Compatibility for Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Rev - Shacknews

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update: Arena Mode Detailed, Coming with Five New & Retooled Maps

New details on Team Fortress 2's Arena mode have been unveiled, shedding light on the multiplayer shooter's newest gametype set to arrive with tomorrow's release of the Heavy class update.

According to the update's website, the gametype "keeps the class diversity of Team Fortress 2 while focusing goals around combat between two teams." Rounds are won by eliminating every member of an opposing team, or securing a map's central capture point, which becomes unlocked after 60 seconds of play.

 
Left, Arena map Lumberyard. Right, Ravine.

The gametype's debut is accompanied by five Arena-specific maps, including Lumberyard and Ravine, two maps built specifically for the mode. Moreover, three previously available TF2 maps—Well, Granary, and Badlands—have been remade to suit the mode's play style.

Arena rounds on these smaller maps feature shorter time limits, and are said to work well in both smaller, three-on-three skirmishes as well as full-scale 12-on-12 assaults.

As evidenced by the above screenshots, Lumberyard marks the first departure from TF2's familiar desert environs, taking the player to a new Alpine-themed backdrop.

The company stressed that it took "great care was taken to ensure the art style kept to the unique look and time period of the TF2 universe, while still feeling like a departure from the usual maps players are familiar with."

In addition to the new gameplay mode and above-mentioned additions, the Heavy class update will bring another new map, class-specific achievements and three new weapons for the Heavy, which include the K.G.B. and Natascha.

The final remaining weapon is expected to be unveiled alongside the update's release sometime tomorrow.

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update: Arena Mode Detailed, Coming with Five New and Retooled Maps - Shacknews

PC Gaming 'Far Stronger Than Anyone Has Reported,' Digital Distribution Neared $2 Billion in 2007

The recently formed PC Gaming Alliance industry consortium today unveiled the initial results from its first Horizons Report, highlighting what PCGA president Randy Stude refers to as "incredible growth in online PC Gaming."

According to the report, PC gaming was a $10.7 billion industry in 2007, with sales from digital distribution nearing $2 billion and in-game and web advertising bringing in $800 million. Online PC gaming brought in $4.8 billion, almost double that of retail PC sales.

"Our analysis clearly shows incredible growth in online PC gaming, proof that this industry is far stronger than anyone has reported," explained Stude. "Today's consumers shop where they live--online."

Overall, the study found that growth was driven by online revenue from Asia, which accounted for almost half of the total worldwide sales, and noted that revenues are expected to grow as developers embrace online distribution and other opportunities.

"By pioneering new business models, the PC has quietly remained the single leading platform for games, not only in terms of consumer usage, but revenue generation," commented DFC Intelligence analyst David Cole. "The most fascinating thing about PC gaming is its ability to attract such a diverse audience, both demographically and geographically."

PC Gaming 'Far Stronger Than Anyone Has Reported,' Digital Distribution Neared $2 Billion in 2007 - Shacknews

Spacetime Fusion breakthrough combines digital stills and video for miraculous results

Here’s a breakthrough in video effects. Researchers at the University of Washington have figured out a "Spacetime Fusion Technique" that uses pictures from a digital still camera to enhance video in a variety of ways. For instance, you can make blurry video sharper, fix exposure problems, remove unwanted objects or create high dynamic range (HDR) videos. This is downright amazing.

To use it, shoot some video and then take a few still photos with an ordinary digital camera of the same scenes, and then this remarkable software can work its miracles. What’s the catch? So far, it only works when objects in the scene are stationary, and the unoptimized software takes five minutes to render each relatively small 800x600 frame.

Click Continue and you’ll see this innovative technique in action, combining the resolution of still photos with the movement of video.

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

DVICE: Spacetime Fusion breakthrough combines digital stills and video for miraculous results

Duke Nukem 3D XBLA Finished, Coming 'Soon'; Rewards Stripper Tipping, Stepping in Poop

Update: 3D Realms' George Broussard has confirmed to Shacknews that the Xbox Live Arcade edition of Duke Nukem 3D is indeed complete, has passed certification and is due out "soon."

"We officially passed final cert on our first try Friday, August 15th," said Broussard. When asked about a possible price point, he noted that it will be "about what you'd expect."

While Broussard's comments are open to interpretation, most Xbox Live Arcade releases sell between 800 Microsoft Points ($10) and 1200 Microsoft Points ($15).

Original Story: The achievement list for 3D Realms' downloadable Xbox 360 port of Duke Nukem 3D has appeared on the internet via Achieve360Points.com, a sign that traditionally indicates the game has passed certification and is due for release soon.

 
The original PC edition of Duke Nukem 3D

Per the Xbox Live Arcade standard, the classic PC shooter sports a total of 200 achievement points. Included in the 12 achievements are rewards for tipping a stripper, stepping in excrement, beating the game's various missions in singleplayer or co-op, and hitting a specific number of kills in the ranked online Dukematch multiplayer mode.

The complete achievement list follows

1. Piece of Cake - 25 Points
   Complete "L.A. Meltdown" on any difficulty or in co-op.
2. Let's Rock - 25 Points
   Complete "Lunar Apocalypse" on any difficulty or in co-op.
3. Come Get Some - 25 Points
   Complete "Shrapnel City" on any difficulty or in co-op.
4. Game Over - 25 Points
   Complete "The Birth" on any difficulty or in co-op.
5. Duke's Mighty Foot - 10 Points
   Step on 40 enemies after using the Shrinker on them.
6. Looks Like Cleanup on Aisle 4 - 10 Points
   Step in a pile of excrement.
7. Shake It Baby - 10 Points
   Tip an exotic dancer.
8. Oomph, Uugh, Where is it? - 10 Points
   Find 70 secret areas.
9. Alien Maggots are Gonna Pay - 10 Points
   Finish the "Hollywood Holocaust" level in under 3 minutes.
10. Gonna Rip Em' a New One - 10 Points
    Get 100 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).
11. See You in Hell - 15 Points
    Get 250 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).
12. Hail to the King, Baby - 25 Points
    Earn respect and get 500 total kills in ranked Dukematch games (Online).

Duke Nukem 3D XBLA Finished, Coming 'Soon'; Rewards Stripper Tipping, Stepping in Poop - Shacknews

Pandora can't make money, may pull the plug

Buckling under the weight of the Internet radio royalty hike that SoundExchange pushed through last July, Pandora may pull its own plug soon. Despite being one of the most popular Internet radio services, the company still isn't making money, and its founder, Tim Westergren, says it can't last beyond its first payment of the higher royalties.

SoundExchange offered a potential reprieve from the royalty hikes, but that turned out to be a red herring to sneak DRM onto web radio. In the end, SoundExchange was able to initiate a massive (and retroactive) royalty hike on Internet radio stations, imposing per-user fees for each song. Adding insult to injury, the royalties on Internet radio will double for big stations by 2010, to an estimated 2.91 cents per hour per listener—far higher than the 1.6 cents that satellite stations would pay. Radio stations don't pay fees like these yet, but don't worry. SoundExchange is working on fixing that problem.

Pandora, its peers, and many of their collective users have petitioned SoundExchange and politicians multiple times, but nothing has worked. According to the Washington Post, Representative Howard L. Berman (D-CA) is attempting one more last-minute deal between webcasters and SoundExchange, one that could lower the per-song rate set last year, but he isn't optimistic. "If [the negotiations don't] get much more dramatic quickly, I will extricate myself from the process," Berman said.

If Berman is unsuccessful, Pandora will have to pay 70 percent of its projected 2008 revenues of $25 million. "At the moment we think this problem in Washington is not going to get solved," Pandora's founder Tim Westergren told the Post, "we have to pull the plug because all we're doing is wasting money."

While it's true that SoundExchange has had DRM and radio broadcast flags on its agenda for some time now, representatives of the company have also justified its stance on higher royalties from revenue and profit standpoints. Stations like Pandora, SoundExchange argues, have a higher profit margin and more value because they can broadcast an unlimited number of songs to their users. This dynamic ability stands in contrast to traditional and even satellite radio stations that broadcast a single song on a finite number of channels.

SoundExchange also argues that Internet radio stations could do a lot more to increase their revenue, become profitable, and pay their (arguably high) fees. As much as it pains us to say it, there may be a point here.

There's no doubt that SoundExchange has been strong-arming the Internet radio industry into oblivion. But most Internet radio stations like Pandora offer their services for free, or they offer accounts with more features at incredibly cheap prices. While some stations display ads on their website, Pandora hasn't done itself any favors by offering desktop clients and a wildly popular iPhone application (iTunes link) that rake in millions of users without so much as a single ad. Perhaps, for now, the "just build it and we'll figure out the business model later" approach won't be enough to save this experiment in new media.

Pandora can't make money, may pull the plug

GM Provides Teaser Shots of Production Volt, 33K People Express Intent to Purchase Vehicle

GM offers a glimpse at its production Volt

If previous reports are any indication, General Motors is likely a month away from fully revealing the production version of its Chevrolet Volt electric vehicle. The Volt has generated a lot of buzz for the company and the vehicle's success is critical in showcasing GM as a major player in eco-friendly, high-technology vehicles.

GM, however, is whetting the appetite of car enthusiasts around the U.S. with a few teaser shots of the production Volt. The sole picture of the front of the vehicle shows off the halos around the headlights (similar to those seen on BMWs and the new Camaro) and LED driving lights in the lower fascia. The picture of the rear is less revealing and just shows a large Chevrolet badge under the deck lid spoiler.

Despite the lack of full body shots, the pictures are likely sure to excite the 33,411 people that have already expressed their intent to purchase the vehicle even though a price has not yet been set for the vehicle according to GM-Volt.com.

Not surprisingly, buyers most willing to snap up a Volt are located in California which was followed closely by Texas, Florida, and Michigan.

Of the potential buyers surveyed, the most people were willing to pay for the car was $31,261. This figure is quite a bit less than the $40,000 that GM is projecting for the vehicle, but roughly in line with what the Volt would cost if federal tax breaks are taken into consideration.

The Chevrolet Volt features a lithium-ion battery pack which allows the vehicle to travel 40 miles on battery power alone. The vehicle can also have its battery pack replenished via a household outlet with its plug-in charger.

In addition, the Volt can also recharge its battery pack on the go with its 1.4-liter naturally-aspirated gasoline engine once the Volt travels past its 40 mile all-electric range.

 
Production Volt  (Source: Autoblog)

 
(Source: Autoblog)

DailyTech - GM Provides Teaser Shots of Production Volt, 33K People Express Intent to Purchase Vehicle

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update: First Unlockable Weapon, Achievements Revealed

An update on Valve Software's Team Fortress 2 blog has unveiled more of the content planned for the Heavy update, scheduled to hit the multiplayer shooter next Tuesday.

The first of three unlockable weapons planned for the Heavy are Killing Gloves of Boxing (or K.G.B., pictured left), which replace the Heavy's bare fists as his melee attack. When landing a killing blow with the K.G.B., the Heavy receives five full seconds of guaranteed critical hits, which can be used to kill more foes and further extend the remaining time.

The crit bonus can also be used with the Heavy's other weapons—the shotgun and the minigun—allowing the class to lay waste to enemies at a distance. The gloves offer a slower swing speed than the Heavy's uncovered fists, making use of the item somewhat riskier than the standard equipment roll-out.

Along with two yet-unannounced unlockable weapons, the K.G.B. will be obtainable via a total of 35 class-specific achievements. The Heavy's new weaponry will likely see a similar structure as the previously released Pyro update, which granted unlockable weapons at 10, 16, and 22 earned achievements.

While the names and iconography for the 35 achievements were unveiled in today's update, their requirements have not yet been specified. More information about the achievements is expected later this week.

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update: First Unlockable Weapon, Achievements Revealed - Shacknews

NASA Celebrates Hubble Space Telescope's 100,000th Orbit

NASA plans one final update to keep Hubble going until 2013

It's hard to believe that NASA first launched the Hubble Space Telescope in 1990, making 2008 its 18th year of service. During all its years of service, it has seen numerous shuttle missions to fix and upgrade its systems. According to NASA, Hubble orbits the earth every 97 minutes at about 360 miles above the surface of the earth.

NASA announced today that the Hubble Space Telescope completed its 100,000th orbit. To celebrate its 100,000th orbit, NASA scientists aimed the telescope at a small portion of the Tarantula nebula that is a hotbed of celestial birth and renewal. With the myriad of updates and fixes the Hubble has seen during its 100,000-orbit voyage -- spanning the last 18 years -- it is easy to see the parallel NASA is trying to draw between the telescope and the image of the Tarantula nebula shot today.

NASA says the Tarantula nebula is near star cluster NGC 2074, which lies about 170,000 light-years away from the Earth. This region of space is the most active star-forming region in our local group galaxies according to NASA. NASA describes the image as containing dramatic ridges, valleys of dust, serpent-like "pillars of creation", and gaseous filaments glowing fiercely under torrential ultraviolet radiation.

NASA says that high-energy radiation coming from young, hot star clusters is sculpting the wall of the nebula and is slowly eroding it away. NASA reports that another young star cluster could be hidden beneath a circle of brilliant blue gas in the image. It's hard to get any sense of scale from the image, but NASA says the image is of an area almost 100 light-years wide. The seahorse shaped cloud pillar to the right and the image is 20 light-years long on its own -- roughly four times the distance between our sun and its nearest star Alpha Centauri.

"This morning, the greatest scientific instrument since Galileo's telescope has reached another great milestone - its 100,000th orbit around the Earth. Hubble has given us amazing insight into the origins of our universe, and I'm so proud of the men and women at Goddard and the Space Telescope Science Institute for their contributions and dedication to these great discoveries,” Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee that funds NASA said in a statement. “The entire world is looking forward to the Hubble servicing mission in October 2008, when Hubble will get new scientific instruments, new batteries and new gyroscopes. The servicing mission will extend Hubble's life and give it a more powerful view of our universe. Hubble is the telescope that could, and its best years are ahead of it!"

The Hubble Space Telescope has one more repair and updates slated for October 2008. This will reportedly be the final update or repair to the Hubble space telescope and is expected to allow the telescope to continue operating through 2013.

DailyTech - NASA Celebrates Hubble Space Telescope's 100,000th Orbit

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update Coming Next Tuesday; Includes New Maps, Game Mode, Heavy Weapons

The largest update yet to Valve's online shooter Team Fortress 2 is set to go live next Tuesday, August 19, according to the developer.

The update will include seven fresh maps and a new game mode, in addition to new unlockable weapons and achievements for the Heavy class.

Valve plans to reveal each element of the patch--as well as a "special installment" to the "Meet the Team" video series--in a series of daily updates to its website.

 

The first announced map was revealed to be community-created level cp_steel (pictured above). Described as a "complex Attack/Defense control point map" by Valve, the arena was created by Jamie "Fishbus" Manson, and marks the first of six website reveals.

The mysteriously unannounced game mode will come supported with five Valve-crafted maps. A "new Payload map focusing on more open spaces than Goldrush" will also be released, according to Valve's Robin Walker.

Team Fortress 2 Heavy Update Coming Next Tuesday; Includes New Maps, Game Mode, Heavy Weapons - Shacknews

Nvidia Adds Free PhysX Support to Graphics Cards via Drivers, Can't Wait for Customers to 'Get Wet'

While ATI launches new hardware, rival Nvidia today released a new set of drivers that adds support for AGEIA's PhysX physics acceleration technology to the existing GeForce 8, GeForce 9, and GeForce GTX 200-series cards.

The new drivers are part of the free GeForce Power Pack, which also contains a PhysX-enabling mod for Epic's Unreal Tournament 3, the full version of NetDevil's physics-heavy title Warmonger, and a few tech demos, including a fluid simulation.

In addition, the drivers add PhysX support for the PC version of GRIN and Ubisoft Paris' Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. The functionality comes after Nvidia announced plans to acquire AGEIA earlier this year, with many developers since pledging support.

 
Left, Warmonger. Right, Unreal Tournament 3.

"Seeing really is believing and is the reason why we compiled all of this great PhysX content into a free download," commented GeForce GPU general manager Ujesh Desai. "We can't wait for our customers to jump in, get wet, and tell us what they think!"

The complete contents of the first free GeForce Power Pack are:

• Warmonger--Full free game! Destroy walls, floors, and whole buildings to open up new paths or close existing ones. Destructive power is more than eye candy here--it's a tactical weapon in this ground-breaking action game.
• Unreal Tournament 3 PhysX Mod Pack--includes three maps with amazing effects that fundamentally change the gameplay (requires full version of Unreal Tournament 3)
• A sneak peek at the upcoming Nurien social networking service, based on the Unreal Engine 3 (with built-in benchmark)
• A sneak peek at the upcoming game Metal Knight Zero (with built-in benchmark)
• All new NVIDIA "The Great Kulu" tech demo that showcases the use of PhysX soft bodies in a real game play environment
• All new NVIDIA "Fluid" tech demo--a simulation of realistic fluid effects with a variety of liquids

Nvidia Adds Free PhysX Support to Graphics Cards via Drivers, Can't Wait for Customers to 'Get Wet' - Shacknews