Over the weekend, Blizzard Entertainment revealed details about the next major installment of its long-running World of Warcraft game – Mists of Pandaria. No release date was offered (standard operating procedure for Blizzard, which won’t ship a product before it’s ready to go).
The Pandaren – a race of bipedal panda-like creatures – have been peripheral to Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft series since Warcraft III, the final installment of the original real-time strategy game series.
Pandaren society is modeled after Asian cultures, and the early screenshots (and a promo movie) showing Pandaria reveal a heretofore unseen portion of the game world of Azeroth that looks like China and southeast Asia. The Pandaren themselves will be the first “neutral” race in the game – aligned with neither the Alliance nor the Horde. The expansion will also introduce a new playable class, the Monk.
Other enhancements coming in Mists of Pandaria include a higher level cap, 90; new zones to explore; the addition of “Scenarios,” a flexible new type of Player vs. Everything (PvE) challenge that lets friends join up to achieve a common goal; Five-player time trial “challenge” modes in dungeons; a new “Pet Battles” mini game; and a new talent system.
In related news, Blizzard, which held its annual BlizzCon event over the weekend, announced a deal for gamers interested in pre-ordering its forthcoming dungeon crawl action adventure game Diablo III: players who sign up for an “Annual Pass” – a 12-month pass for World of Warcraft – will be able to download Diablo III for free.
Other announcements include a teaser cinematic for the forthcoming StarCraft II expansion pack Heart of the Swarm and the first official trailer for Blizzard DOTA, a custom game for StarCraft II inspired by the Defense of the Ancients (DOTA) custom map for Warcraft III.
There were several reasons for the departure, which was amicable and has been planned for a while, sources said. They included Kittlaus’s family being in Chicago, a desire to take time off and an interest in brainstorming new entrepreneurial ideas.
From what I heard, Apple moved Siri along quite a bit since acquiring the company, so I think they have a good handle on the technology.
Now it is not exactly news that Apple products are overpriced and of relatively low quality…
To prove his point he shows an iPhone 4S being dropped from shoulder height. I think the writer must have been dropped on his head from shoulder height.
Talking about Siri, Vongehr again shows how moronic he can be.
Customer: “Where do babies come from?” Instead of perhaps answering “sorry, I do not understand this question”, which is likely what happened in this case, Siri suggests two JCPenny Stores. You get the gist – this is nothing but aimed advertising wherever possible.
Our state-of-the-art interactive map allows you to see which trucks are in your area RIGHT NOW. You can also search for your favorite trucks by cuisine, and hear about new trucks.
One of the best things about New York City is the food, and that rarely means fancy restaurants for me. I’ll definitely have this app to find truck food the next time I’m in the city.
Tumult Hype lets you create animated HTML5 content that will wow your website’s visitors. Its output works on all modern browsers and mobile devices like iPhones and iPads. No coding necessary.
Tumult Hype has a trial available, and can be purchased on the Mac App Store or its own Tumult Store for $29.99.
Apple on Monday updated its MacBook Pro line of notebook computers, adding faster processors and graphics cards.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro now comes with 2.4GHz and 2.8GHz processors, up from 2.3GHz and 2.7GHz in the previous models. The hard drives on these models have also been bumped from 320GB and 500GB to 500GB and 750GB, respectively.
The 15-inch models now feature 2.2GHz and 2.4GHz processors, replacing the 2.0GHz and 2.2GHz processors in the previous models. The graphics cards have also been updated in the 15-inch models — the base model now comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB GDDR5, while the higher-end model has an AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5. The older models used the AMD Radeon HD 6490M and the AMD Radeon HD 6750M.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro comes with a 2.4GHz processor and the AMD Radeon HD 6770M with 1GB GDDR5, replacing the 2.2GHz processor and AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5.
My friend Anthony Stauffer is celebrating his fourth anniversary of running his blues-based guitar Web site, StevieSnacks.com.
Stauffer is one of the best blues guitar teachers I’ve come across on the Internet. He delves into the legends like B.B. King, Albert King and of course, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and teaches you everything from the basics to more advanced playing.
Stauffer has lessons available online and DVD, including a new offering called B.B.’s Influence.
People describe the app using female pronouns. Her gender has even prompted some users to flood blogs and online forums with sexually suggestive questions for Siri such as “What are you wearing?” (Siri’s baffled response: “Why do people keep asking me this?”)The fuss over Siri’s sex also raises a larger question: From voice-mail systems to GPS devices to Siri and beyond, why are so many computerized voices female?
Siri isn’t universally female, either – Siri’s voice is male in its British and French implementations.
Apple, for its part, isn’t saying why Siri’s apparent gender assignment is as it is. But experts suggest that people are hard-wired to find female voices more pleasing than male voices, and many associate female voices with communication and relationships.
Walter Isaacson recounting a conversation with Steve Jobs about an Apple HDTV
“‘I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,’ he told me. ‘It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.’ No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.’”
For those that had doubts that Apple was working on an HDTV. Of course, it doesn’t mean we’ll ever see one, but they worked on it.
With SoundCloud baked into Pro Tools 10, audio producers from all fields can share their sounds privately with collaborators for feedback or share polished works to the world. Throughout the creative process, Pro Tools and SoundCloud make audio production and promotion easier.
With the iPhone 3GS now available for free with new cell phone contracts, are people still interested in the aging device? After all, the 3GS has been on the market for more than two years, eclipsed by the iPhone 4 and, most recently, the 4S. Turns out the answer is an emphatic yes, according to AT&T.
AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega said in a statement that the iPhone 4S is selling like hotcakes. But in a discussion with analysts to talk about AT&T’s most recent financial report, de la Vega is also very positive about the contributions Apple’s iPhone 3GS continues to make to his company’s bottom line.
In a Q&A with analysts, de la Vega said:
I also mentioned in my notes that we have another device that I think is going to dramatically change those people that are on smartphones and quick messaging devices, the 3GS, which is free with a 2-year contract. We’ve seen a tremendous, tremendous demand for that device even though it’s a generation old. And actually, we’re getting more new subscribers coming on the 3GS on the average than other devices. So we also have an inventory sold out on that device. So I’m very, very optimistic on what the fourth quarter is going to look like in terms of smartphone growth.
Since Apple launched it last week in the latest version of its iOS operating system, its impact has been immediate and significant. Many Newsstand apps now rank among the top free apps overall, and magazine and newspaper apps are benefiting from a surge of downloads and subscribers.
And some people said the App Store wouldn’t impact magazine and newspaper subscriptions at all.
The Clip-Based Gain feature in Pro Tools 10 provides a much quicker and visually appealing solution. Using the clip gain line you’re able to adjust the gain for individual clips and match their relative levels. You’ll notice right away how the waveform view updates in real-time to reflect the clip gain changes. Very impressive!
There are some great looking features in Pro Tools 10 — this is just one of them.
I’d like to thank Smile and PDFpen for sponsoring this week’s RSS feed on The Loop.
PDFpen is a great application for editing your PDFs. You can add signatures to PDFs and email them back, instead of resorting to printing and faxing. You can even make corrections and edit images. There’s also OCR for scanned documents — essential for those going paperless.
An excerpt from Walter Isaacson’s book looking at a meeting between Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt:
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”“I don’t want your money. If you offer me $5 billion, I won’t want it. I’ve got plenty of money. I want you to stop using our ideas in Android, that’s all I want.”
Avid on Thursday unveiled the next major version of its digital audio workstation, Pro Tools.
The company updated its Web site tonight with all of the information on Pro Tools 10, and there certainly looks like there’s a lot to be excited about.
Some of the new features are:
Speed up editing and mixing with Clip Gain, and easily adjust and match gain levels, pre-mixer
Use multiple audio formats in a session—including interleaved—without file duplication
Record higher resolution sound with more headroom in 32-bit floating-point format
Get great responsiveness on slower hard drives with the enhanced disk cache
Record in low-latency mode, with direct monitoring when using third-party audio interfaces
Get the sound of System 5 console EQ and dynamics with the Avid Channel Strip plug-in
Get access to over 500 additional Pro Tools commands when using EUCON controllers
Work more easily with AudioSuite-rendered clips with reverse processing, handles, and more
Create extra long-format projects for sequential versioning with the extended 24-hour timeline
Open fade-heavy sessions faster and get better responsiveness with real-time fades
Fold down 5.1 surround mixes to stereo with the Down Mixer plug-in
Export mixes directly to SoundCloud to share and promote your music to the world
Shop for virtual instruments, effects, and sound processing plug-ins in the Marketplace
I’ll post a more detailed look at Pro Tools 10 when I’ve had a chance to use it myself.
I’m asked to test quite a bit of software and give feedback to the developers. Sometimes that goes well, others times, not so well.
To me, making an app simple to use — whether on the iPhone, iPad or Mac — doesn’t mean stripping out all of the features. All that does is make the app less useful for the user.
Rather, making an app simple to use is about hiding all of the complicated pieces of the app in a way that the user can get things done easily and quickly. That way features, and the end result of those features, seem almost magical.
Of course, apps like Photoshop and Pro Tools can’t do this for everything because we want that control, but in recent years, even these apps are including some of these types of features.
Reader Matt tells the story of how an Apple store manager broke a little rule so as not to dash the hopes of his 10-year-old daughter, and, in the process, made a little bit of retail magic happen.
A really sweet story about a girl who wanted an iPod when the Apple Store was closed, and the Apple Store manager who helped make it happen.
2011 marks the 30th anniversary of Blizzard Of Ozz (U.S. release) and Diary Of A Madman. Both landmark albums took metal in a new direction in the early 1980’s, inspiring new generations of rock bands and fans. Both of these Hard Rock Masterpieces showcase Ozzy’s musical collaborations with late guitar hero Randy Rhoads. These Limited Edition Picture Disc LPs have been restored and remastered from the original source tapes and feature the original cover artwork printed on the LP itself.
The MobileMount is a universal mount/kickstand for virtually any hand held device with a flat surface, like smartphones and tablets. Comprised of two twist-to-lock suction cups and one ball joint, this device’s unique design allows for superior suction and durability. The “Patent Pending” Twist-to-Lock suction cups can hold devices for weeks at a time rather than simply a few hours like other competing mounts. Additionally, the universal design allows for users to mount their phone without removing the case.
This is the best looking idea for a mount I’ve seen. Support the project if you can.
Usability and user experience testing is vital to creating a successful website, and only more so if it’s an e-commerce website, a complex app or another website for which there’s a definite ROI. And running your own user tests to find out how users are interacting with your website and where problems might arise is completely possible.
Great list of tools. I didn’t know about most of the services and tools on the list.
In just the three episodes that have aired thus far, it has become clear that Bloomberg had a character in mind for each of us – and edited footage according to the story they choose. I happened to get it the worst in Episode 3, but I’m sure another victim will emerge in future episodes.
iZotope has greatly expanded Ozone 5’s modules with a focus on pristine sound, enhanced DSP, optimized workflow, and an updated interface. Ozone 5 Advanced builds on the product line’s reputation for superior sound quality with extended features and controls, including new innovations in visual feedback.
I know a lot of people that use Ozone and like it a lot.
