Developages - Development and Technology Blog

Filed under: Laptops

It’s with palm planted firmly on forehead that we announce ASUS’ Eee PC 900HA. For a brief moment in time, we actually thought that the outfit was finally realizing that the moniker needed a break, and considering just how fantastic the N10 performed without three vowels preceding it, can you really blame us? Nevertheless, the company seems to have strayed back into familiar territory with the 900HA, which is essentially a 900A with a hefty 160GB hard drive. Other specs include a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP Home, a 4-cell battery, 802.11b/g WiFi and an 8.9-inch 1,024 x 600 display. Expect it to ship just in time for the 900XXLHA’s introduction for $349.99.

[Via jkkmobile]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Laptops

Don’t hold out on us — we know good and well you’ve been eying HP’s bigger than big HDX 18 ever since it got real last month. For those unable to resist the urge to find out what life’s like with an 18-inch entertainment notebook gracing their lap (and likely the lap of the guy one cube over), you can order this sucker up right now. Yep, the HDX 18t Premium series gets going at $1,549.99, but it won’t take too many configuration tweaks to push that figure well over the $2k mark. Have fun!

[Via Laptoping]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless

Is it really time to shine, BenQ, or are you just foolin’ again? Judging by a product page at Italy’s TIM website and a fresh report from the Italian branch of Tom’s Hardware, the S6 (or MID Aries2, or BenQ MID… gosh, we’re so confused!) is finally ready to order. The Atom-based MID impresses with built-in 3G capabilities, 512MB of RAM, a 2GB SSD, 4.8-inch 800 x 480 resolution display, WiFi / Bluetooth 2.0 and — just to really pound the message home / incite jealously — 7.2Mbps HSDPA. The current asking price sits at €429 ($626), and while the value proposition may be debatable, the amount of possibilities packed into a frame this small (6.2- x 3.5- x 0.86-inches) definitely isn’t. Let’s get these out to other nooks and crannies of the wide world, eh BenQ?

[Via UMPC Portal]

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Original post by Darren Murph

simoniker writes “Following the recent announcement that Microsoft-owned Age Of Empires creator Ensemble Studios would close after the completion of Halo Wars, Gamasutra has discovered that a now-canceled Halo MMO was in development at the studio, unearthing prototype UI and level screenshots of the Ensemble-developed project. The prototype art, which was at one point made available on an Ensemble-linked online artist portfolio website, further confirms previous rumors that the studio was working on an MMO based on the Bungie-created sci-fi franchise.” We discussed the future closing of Ensemble Studios a couple weeks ago. The set of pictures which seem to be screenshots and graphic models from the canceled Halo MMO has been posted on Flickr. In other Halo news, Bungie may be teasing the announcement of the next game on their website.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Soulskill

Parz writes “Gameplayer has gone live with their winners for the best gaming laptops money can buy as of Q3 2008. The analysis is broken into three sections to cater for three different budget requirements. There is a detailed explanation of why each laptop was selected, going into each hardware component individually. Regular slashdot users will remember the site’s article from a few weeks ago, which analysed the Best Gaming PCs that Money can Buy. Prices may vary depending on where you live.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

Crazy Taco writes “The heavy Amazon.com protest of Spore’s DRM appears to have caught the attention of executives at EA. IGN reports that DRM for the upcoming C&C: Red Alert 3 will be scaled back. Unlike previous Command and Conquer games, the CD will not be required in the drive to play. The online authentication will be done just once (rather than periodic phone calls home), and up to five installations will be allowed, as opposed to three for Spore. While I still think five installations is too few (I’ve probably re-installed Command and Conquer: Generals 20 times over the years for various reasons), EA says they will have staff standing by to grant more installations as necessary on a case by case basis. So, while this still isn’t optimal, at least we are getting a compromise. Hopefully, if the piracy rate for the game is low, perhaps EA will get comfortable enough to ship with even less DRM in the future.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Soulskill

IceDiver writes “I used to be an avid PC gamer. However, I have only bought 1 game in the last 18 months because I am sick and tired of the problems caused by the various intrusive, and sometimes damaging DRM schemes game publishers insist on forcing upon their customers. Once burned, twice shy! The EA announcement that upcoming releases will include SecuROM, along with verification requirements and major restrictions on installations left me wondering which recently released or upcoming games (particularly major titles) are being released without DRM? Are there any? How has DRM affected your game purchasing? Will EA be negatively affected by their DRM decision?” The ongoing DRM controversy was stirred by the recent launch of Spore. We discussed the public outcry from Amazon’s reviews (which were subsequently taken down and then re-posted). EA’s response to the outcry was to say that only one percent of accounts tried to activate the game more than three times, which is the limit without help from their customer service. Meanwhile, their efforts to find a “balance” between preventing piracy and not hampering legal users may not have been as successful as they hoped. According to Forbes, a P2P research firm found that illegal copies of Spore had been downloaded over 170,000 times already. So, is it time to create a whitelist for game publishers and developers?

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Soulskill

In the iPod age, music sound quality has been dumbed down to “Fisher-Price toy” levels, said one of my all time favorite rockers, Neil Young, at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech Conference.

“Apple has taken a detour down the convenience highway,” he said, talking about what he considers to be the poor audio quality of MP3.

He’s currently working on a multimedia archiving project of his entire career, which he says should be available as a series of Blu-Ray discs later this year. He hopes that becomes the basis for an alternative digital platform featuring higher audio quality that will be made available to other musicians. 

Read more at Fortune.

Or check out the unique NeilYoung.com.

Tags: audio, blu-ray, Fortune, ipod, neil young

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Gaming

Sony’s official blog says PSP firmware 4.05, out now, contains “other features” in addition to a couple new music visualizers, but it’s not clear what they are, apart from a slightly tweaked XMB animation if you’ve got a wallpaper set up. Go forth and download — let us know if there’s anything earth-shattering in there, won’t you?

[Via Joystiq]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Displays, Gaming

It’s never clear how a company plans on implementing a given patent, but Sony’s patent application for a haptic touchscreen composed of “tactile pixels” lists former Sony Computer Entertainment chief Phil Harrison as the inventor and makes several references to potential use in “a game device” and to “game events,” so it’s a safe bet that it was at least developed with the PSP in mind. The patent app describes a sophisticated haptic feedback system that goes well beyond the basic rumble of today’s device — the pixels themselves are able to move up and down between two positions, providing direct feedback to user actions. That’s certainly an interesting idea, but like all patent news, we’re not going to hold out hope for it to surface in a consumer device anytime soon — but we’re willing to be surprised, you know?

[Via PSP Fanboy]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Gaming

Kaz Hirai took to a Tokyo stage today to give us a peek at the Playstation’s future, and he let slip a couple of interesting tidbits. First, Sony will be launching a new program called “Life with Playstation” that will give users real time news and weather, using a globe metaphor reminiscent of the Wii’s News Channel. Of course, since the PS3 has considerably more horsepower under the hood, the globe is a rendered weather satellite image showing cloud patterns, and it also supports geo-tagged photos and other content. Kaz also previewed the video-download service set to launch next month at E3, which will allow you to download or stream video to the PS3 and PSP. The store looks a lot like the current PlayStation Store, and it looks like HD rentals will run around $6 while SD purchases will clock in around $13 when it launches in the States this summer. We’ll learn a lot more at E3, presumably, but for now we’ll just settle for a decent screen shot of that globe interface.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: Gaming

Sony Europe president David Reeves has never been one to shy away from making bold statements in the past, and he’s now come out and weighed in on another touchy subject, with him flatly telling attendees at the DevStation conference in London that “there is a piracy problem on the PSP.” What’s more, Reeves went so far as to admit that it “sometimes fuels the growth of hardware sales, but that “on balance”, Sony is “not happy about it.” To that end, Reeves says that Sony will soon be unveiling new ways to combat piracy on the handheld, although he unsurprisingly isn’t getting a whole lot more specific than that at the moment.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

There’s no indication of an exact release date just yet, but word just dropped on the official PlayStation blog that the PSP will be getting a boost to firmware version 4.00 “soon.” That’ll bring with it the addition of Google search directly form the XMB interface, which Sony says “replicates the Google Internet search experience.” Apart from that somewhat notable upgrade, the only other new feature they’re talking about at the moment is the ability to change the viewing speed during playback of videos stored on a Memory Stick. Not exactly the upgrade we would have guessed for a milestone like 4.00, but we can always hope Sony has a couple of surprises up its sleeve.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

It’s not the first time we’ve seen a controller hacked for use with the PSP, but this mod by Acidmods member Blizzrad takes things a bit further than most, with it relying entirely on hardware modifications in order to work, meaning it can be done on any PSP regardless of the firmware. It’s also one of the cleanest-looking mods we’ve seen to date, with the only evidence of tampering on the PSP itself being a discreetly placed controller connector right above the power switch. Of course, that also means it’s considerably more difficult for most of us to do ourselves, but we can at least get a glimpse of what’s possible courtesy of the video after the break.

Continue reading PSP hacked for use with DualShock controller

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

It looks like Sony is aiming to put ColorWare out of business with all the new, brightly-colored PSP models it’s introduced as of late, a streak that continues with the company’s just-announced metallic blue model. This one is available exclusively in a new Madden NFL 09 bundle, which includes said game, along with a 1GB Memory Stick, the NFL: In Just One Play video on UMD, and a PSN voucher that’ll let you download the Beats rhythm game free of charge. Look for it land on August 12th with the usual bundle price tag of $199.99.

[Via Joystiq]

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Original post by Donald Melanson