August 31, 2012
Samsung Galaxy Camera ‘is buggy and slow’ ∞
Nick Barber writing at Macworld:
Samsung Electronics’ Galaxy Camera, introduced at this week’s IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, takes clear, colorful images but is buggy and slow.
App Store pricing ∞
App Cubby developer David Barnard posted an interesting piece on pricing apps.
Tweetbot for Mac Beta ∞
It’s important to realize that with this build you can’t add or reauthorize any accounts. If you delete an account or de-authorize an existing account you will not be able to add it again until the final version comes out.
Amazing that these developers are still trying to improve their apps and Twitter can’t release an update for their piece of shit app.
Thanks Twitter.
The Quebec tax at Vermont restaurants ∞
But at some local restaurants, the hospitality appears to be wearing thin. At least two eateries admit they allow servers to add an automatic gratuity on the bills of diners who appear to be Québecois. Why? Because Canadians are presumed to be bad tippers. A few local servers even have a nickname for the surcharge: They call it the “Queeb tax.”
It’s not just Vermont. Quebecers are notoriously bad tippers, even in Canada. Slap the tax on them.
City of Heroes shutting down, along with Paragon Studios itself
In a sad and surprising Friday announcement, Paragon Studios community manager Andy Belford announced Friday that his company will be shutting its doors and with it, the City of Heroes online role playing game will cease:
“Effective immediately, all development on City of Heroes will cease and we will begin preparations to sunset the world’s first, and best, Super Hero MMORPG before the end of the year. As part of this, all recurring subscription billing and Paragon Market purchasing will be discontinued effective immediately. We will have more information regarding a detailed timeline for the cessation of services and what you can expect in game in the coming weeks.”
City of Heroes has been around for Windows PCs since 2004, though in 2008, its developers contracted TransGaming to develop an OS X version as well. It’s a massively multiplayer online role playing game set in a world populated by costumed superheroes and supervillains.
Belford cited “a realignment of company focus and publishing support” as the reason for Paragon’s closure. Paragon and City of Heroes are owned by NCSoft, which recently released the hotly anticipated PC MMO Guild Wars 2.
The news comes as a shock to many City of Heroes fans.
Layoffs at Freeverse ∞
Matthew Handrahan for Gamesindustry.biz:
Ngmoco has laid off up to 20 people from the team at Freeverse, a Mac and iOS developer it acquired in February 2010.
The report comes from an anonymous source cited by TechCrunch, but layoffs were confirmed by a statement released by the vice president of studios for Ngmoco, which acquired Freeverse before it itself was acquired by Japanese mobile game company DeNA.
Freeverse was long associated with the independent Mac game market, having produced beloved titles like Burning Monkey Solitaire, WingNuts, Big Bang Brain Games and many more. The company leapt into the iOS gaming market with the advent of the App Store and were one of the App Store’s early success stories, earning high praise (and lots of money) with early releases.
Last week, company co-founders and brothers Ian and Colin Lynch Smith e-mailed friends and colleagues to let them know they had left the company.
Work on several projects continues among the remaining staff members, and the studio is now run by Nathan Camarillo, most recently an executive producer at Freeverse, whose resume also includes stints at Crytek and Electronic Arts.
Who has less integrity, Samsung or The Verge? ∞
There’s a question for you.
OmniFocus nerdery ∞
Shawn Blanc put together a few tricks he’s come across for OmniFocus users.
Pixelmator 2.1 ∞
Many thanks to Pixelmator for sponsoring The Loop’s RSS feed this week.
Pixelmator – beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editing app for Mac OS X.
That’s exactly what Samsung did ∞
Charles Babcock:
What a patent and legal system should aim to prevent is theft by copying, such as stealing the technology of a competitor’s product, or creating such a conscious, copycat duplication that one product can be confused with another, thus letting the profits of an originator be taken by an imitator. Samsung did not do this.
Did Charles not see the same trial the rest of us saw? That is exactly what Samsung did. Documents from Samsung’s own executives proved that’s what they did and the jury said that’s what Samsung did.
Terrible Microsoft education policy ∞
So Microsoft will help teachers out on pricing, sort of.
Samsung will sue Apple over LTE iPhone ∞
Samsung confirmed that it will immediately sue Apple if the latter releases products using advanced long-term evolution (LTE) mobile technology. LTE has been emerging as the top standard in the global mobile industry. According to data from Thomson-Reuters, Nokia ranked top with 18.9 percent in terms of the number of LTE patents, followed by Qualcomm with 12.5 percent, Samsung Electronics with 12.2 percent and Ericsson with 11.6 percent.
This is going to be an interesting year.
Maple syrup heist ∞
About 10 million pounds of syrup was stored at the site, at a value of more than $30-million.Anne-Marie Granger Godbout, executive director of the federation, said the organization is still trying to determine how much is missing and declined to offer an estimate. But a spokesman from the Sureté du Québec said the loss was significant.
Only in Canada.
Endless Space strategy game released for Mac
If you’re a fan of the “4X” genre of computer strategy game, rejoice. Amplitude has released a Macintosh version of its recently-introduced “Endless Space,” now available for download through Steam for $29.99.
In Endless Space, you assume leadership of one of eight spacefaring civilizations, using your skills and your civilization’s abilities to gain control. You can try to manage efforts using diplomacy and trade, find resources to exploit, discover artifacts, develop technology and deploy massive armadas to crush your enemies if you choose.
The game features hundreds of star systems to explore, hire heroes to lead your fleets or become system governors, customize ship configurations, and much more in turn-based gameplay that you can play by yourself or with up to seven other players.
Endless Space echoes the gameplay of games like Masters of Orion, Civilization V and others, in which you must build a mighty empire among the stars by exploring, expanding, exploiting and exterminating your opponents (hence, the “4X” designation).
Pangea releases Nanosaur 2: Battle for iOS
Pangea Software has announced the release of a new iOS game called “Nanosaur 2: Battle.” It’s a 3D flying game focused on an old favorite from the Pangea back catalog: a time-traveling pterodactyl, and it’s free to download.
Nanosaur 2: Battle lets you challenge up to three other players in multiplayer combat using Game Center’s auto-matching functionality to find other opponents to play, around the world. The game sports voice chat functionality so you can talk to your opponents as you try to shoot them down using a variety of different weapons.
Nanosaur 2: Battle also works with Nanosaur 2: Hatchling, so you can play against players who use that game and are looking for multiplayer challenge. Nanosaur 2 is a pay-to-download game that features a full single-player campaign as well.
The game supports AirPlay, so you can view the game on an HDTV connected using an Apple TV.
Pangea president Brian Greenstone said the success of an earlier free download game, Air Wings, means that he expects “most if not all” of Pangea’s games to be free going forward.
August 30, 2012
Interesting numbers regarding Amazon’s fake market share ∞
It’s just not possible that Amazon has 22% tablet share.
This is why you’re fat ∞
I don’t care, I want some of that.
‘Wow, Was I Wrong About Apple’ ∞
Earlier this year, I made a few bold CAPScalls. Of course, as with many moves one might consider “bold,” you can find yourself boldly wrong.I put red-thumb, underperform calls on Apple and Netflix, two stocks that have long been among individual investors’ favorites. This was despite the fact that I had previously called out both stocks with “outperform” ratings in the Motley Fool’s CAPS database for years.
Good to admit when you’re wrong.
“Desserts for dudes” ∞
Cool Material:
For some inexplicable reason, dessert has never been seen as a man’s game. Yeah, we’ll eat it, but baking never seemed to be nearly as manly as tossing a steak on the grill. If you’re ready to put your ego aside (at least partially) here are some desserts you could whip up that have a bit of macho in them.
“Chocolate-Dipped Beer Marshmallows”? “Bourbon Marshmallow Bacon S’mores”? “Beeramisu”? Well, there goes my diet. But “….for dudes”? I know lots of woman who will happily eat these.
Apple, Google meet to discuss patents ∞
Eric Slivka for Mac Rumors:
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Larry Page have been participating in active discussions to address patent issues relating to the two companies, “keeping the lines of communication open” as patent battles between Apple on one side and Google and its Android hardware partners on the other side continue to rage.
I would love to be in that room.
New Jackson guitars ∞
I’m particularly fond of the Soloist and the King V.
Apogee Quartet ∞
I love Apogee gear. This teaser looks very interesting.
Firing the biggest gun on the USS Barry ∞
I can’t imagine what it’s like when that gun goes off.
Great beer commercial
It’s not Heineken, but kudos for the ad.
Amazon bullshit ∞
Today, Amazon announced that Kindle Fire is sold out, and that in just nine months, Kindle Fire has captured 22% of tablet sales in the U.S.
The mainstream press is jumping all over this pile of shit like it’s real news.
First, if a company announces that it sold out of one of its best selling products, it stopped production. Which means Amazon issued a press release saying it stopped production of the Kindle Fire. OF COURSE YOU’RE GOING TO SELL OUT!
Second, how can Amazon claim it has 22 percent market share when it has yet to share any sales numbers. Amazon will not say how many Kindle Fire tablets it actually sold.
Apple haters ∞
There’s a lot of truth to this.
Looks like that site got “Looped” so here is a Google cache version.
Etchings for iPhone ∞
Instantly create beautiful etched illustrations from any photo! Experiment with eight stunning styles you can tweak to fit your image perfectly — it’s easy and fun to turn your photo into a unique work of art.
This looks cool.
Yip-yip-yip-yip
I guess this is me as a muppet.
Activision Anthology comes to iOS
Activision is revisiting its roots with the release of Activision Anthology, an iOS collection of video games originally made for the Atari 2600. It’s a free download (unlockable using In-App Purchase).
Today’s gamers know Activision as one of the modern era’s most popular video game publishers: the Call of Duty series, Guitar Hero, and many others have come from Activision. But 30 years ago, Activision was the first third-party publisher of video games for consoles, making titles for the legendary Atari 2600.
Forty-five of those cartridge games made for the Atari 2600 are available in Activision Anthology, unlockable using in-app purchases either in “game packs” or complete for $6.99.
You can play the original Pitfall, for example (recently resurrected as a rather disappointing run-and-jump game in the vein of ‘Temple Run’); River Raid, Barnstorming, Demon Attack and many others.
Admittedly, this may only appeal to a segment of retro-gaming enthusiasts who remember the Atari 2600 with fondness, but for those of us who cut our first teeth in home console gaming on systems like this, it’s a lot of fun.
TiVo Stream ships Sept. 6 ∞
Eric Abent for SlashGear:
TiVo has finally given a release date for its incoming Steam [sic] transcoder, which was unveiled back in May. Pre-orders opened up for a select few yesterday, and the company says that the device will be arriving on September 6. When it launches, it will set you back $129.99, which doesn’t seem to bad for what it does.
The TiVo Stream is a hardware device that lets you stream or upload content from your TiVo DVR to an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad.
There are other ways to get content from TiVo to iOS if you’re so inclined. I’ve used Roxio Toast 11 Titanium with my TiVo, for example: it includes a TiVo transcoding app for the Mac which converts TiVo content to something you can watch on your Mac or sync to iOS using iTunes. But this seems like a pretty simple alternative for TiVo users who don’t want to futz around with intermediate steps.