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Steam Greenlights 100 games: Black Annex, Escape Goat, Reprisal, more
Steam greenlit 100 games today in order to "stress test" its system, and maybe to mess with everyone who thought they'd get smaller batches of Greenlight games more frequently. The mega-round of Greenlight games includes 8BitMMO, A Walk in the Dark, Against the Wall, Black Annex, C-Wars, Delver's Drop, Dino Run SE, Doorways, Escape Goat, Knytt Underground, Mutant Mudds, Paranautical Activity, Ray's the Dead, Reprisal, Shadow of the Eternals, Shantae: Risky's Revenge, Signal Ops and Teslagrad, to name a few (comparatively). "This latest milestone is both a celebration of the progress we've made behind the scenes and a stress test of our systems," Steam writes. "Future batches are not likely to be as large, but if everything goes smoothly we should be able to continue increasing the throughput of games from Greenlight to the Steam store." Read through the hefty list on Steam.
Distro Issue 100: A look at our all-time favorite gadgets
Well folks, we've reached the century mark. The publication started nearly two years ago has churned out a collection of 100 issues with a bit of blood, sweat and tears shed along the way. In this celebratory special edition of our weekly, we gathered up our favorite tech of all time. From smartphones to tablets and laptops, there's quite the collection to take in. Heck, we even have a blender that blends! Eyes-On takes an electric ride to the Golden Gate, Weekly Stat examines this e-mag's lineage and Visualized checks in at Comic-Con. All the requisite download links are down below, so join the party -- and here's to another hundred issues. Special thanks to the crew that had a hand in pushing Distro on its way: Jeremy Lacroix, Aaron Martin, Portia Monberg, Candy Mayo, Will Lipman, Davy Reynolds, David Robinson, Greg Grabowy, Josh Klenert, Troy Dunham, Susana Soares, Eve Binder, Anna Dickson, Wendy George, Peter Niceberg, Tim Stevens, Christopher Trout, Billy Steele, Jon Turi, Landon Peck, Daniel Stegemiller, Philip Palermo, Luan Tran, Mimmie Huang, Sharon Kasimow, Julie Vaughn, Carlynne Bradley, Jesse Chambers, Shen Lu, Sudheer Agrawal, Carl Haines, Scott Tury, Ronald Anderson, Scott Basham, Terry Worley, Todd Brannam, Mike Levine and countless others. High fives all around! Distro Issue 100 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro in the Windows Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Tilera's new 100-core CPU elbows its way to the cloud, face-melt still included
Hundred core chips might not be breaking news -- especially if the company announcing it is Tilera -- but what if that new multi-core CPU drew an insanely lower wattage and set its sights on powering a few cloud server farms? Well, that's exactly what chip maker Tilera has up its silicon sleeve. "Co-developed with the world's leading cloud computing companies" -- take a guess who that might include -- the new 64-bit TileGx-3100 clocks in at up to 1.5GHz while sucking down a lighter 48W. Line that up next to the current cloud favorite, Intel's Xeon, and your power consumption is slashed nearly in half. Of course, the barrier to entry is high for the nascent chip developer since most code written is for the x86 -- requiring a whole new set of instructions for data centers to play nice. Expect to see this face-melting monster sometime early 2012, by which time, you'll probably have your 50,000 strong music library synced to the cloud.
IBM looks back on 100 years of history, finds plenty to be proud of (video)
Want to know who the self-confessed "mother of the motherboard" is? Or why every piece of organically farmed, tenderly loved food at your local Trader Joe's has a barcode on it? Or perhaps you're curious to learn more about how millions of airline reservations can be made around the world with unfailing reliability? All those queries have their answers in IBM's self-congratulating videos after the break. Commissioned as a celebration of the company's upcoming 100th birthday, they chronicle some of its more notable moments in the global spotlight. Our favorite little nugget of discovery was finding out that testing for the IBM Personal Computer included the question, "would it run Pac-Man?" -- conclusively proving that the foremost reason for the PC's existence is, and has always been, gaming.
LG LSM-100 Scanner Mouse hands-on
We just made our way to the LG booth here at the Consumer Electronics Show and found this multifaceted gizmo that the company is dubbing the Scanner Mouse. It does exactly what you think -- works as a mouse and scanner. You might recall something similar from back in the day, but LG is looking to commercialize the idea. The bottom of the rodent has a clear (glass or plastic sheet, we're not sure) packed with five LEDs for the camera to see the image being reflected off of the mirror inside. To kickstart the scanning process on a Widows or Mac machine, you simply press the scan button and huzzah -- the software will activate and display the area the scanner is hovering over. Thanks to the dual lasers found on the top and bottom of the underside, you can actually rotate the mouse in any direction and it'll pick up whatever it's looking at -- it'll even translate copy on a page into editable text within a document editor. It also functions as a proper mouse (duh!), featuring a scroll wheel as well as left, right and back buttons. The software, in case you were wondering, couldn't be any simpler to use. Formats such as JPEG, TIFF, PDF and PNG are exportable to your favorite social networks, and you've got basic editing functions to make your scans just right. Head on past the break to see an in-action demo. %Gallery-113346%
U.S. government hits snag printing new $100 bills, prints old ones instead
The U.S. Treasury Department may have been eager to open the doors to its money printing factory back in July to show off its brand new $100 bills, but it looks to be a decidedly different story today. As CNBC reports, all of the added security measures have apparently been harder to print than expected, and have resulted in a creasing problem that has left some bills with a blank portion on the face. The real problem, however, is that it's not clear how many bills have the flaw, which has forced the department to "quarantine" some 1.1 billion bills until they can be sorted -- one person familiar with the matter says as many as 30 percent were affected at the height of the problem. As you might expect, that accounts for a pretty big chunk of the bills intended for circulation, which has forced the fed to print some more of the older $100 bills that still feature Bush Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson's signature in the meantime.
Exclusive: Samsung NX100 in the wild
Looks like we can take the guesswork out of today's leaked render, after all. A generous (and, as usual, anonymous) reader just sent us a handful of pictures of what appears to be -- quite convincingly, we might add -- the Samsung NX100 we've been eying since a low-res snapshot came to light last month. According to our tipster, video on the camera is great and changing settings is easy, on par with DSLRs, but the of course size still doesn't compare to point-and-shoots. And to repeat the earlier specs, now that they seem more likely: 4.74 x 2.8 x 1.36 inches, 9.95 ounces, an external GPS receptor, an external EVF with 201K resolution, and a (non-articulating) display that's 921K AMOLED. A shame we can't claim those fingers for our own just yet, but patience is a virtue. Or something like that -- it's not like we have a choice, might as well say something to feel better about it. %Gallery-101507%
Verizon testing a $99 unlimited plan that simply matches Sprint's famous offering
Carriers test the waters on new plans all the time, but this new one from Verizon seems -- at least at cursory glance -- squarely aimed at its CDMA competitor. According to research from Current Analysis, the nation's top carrier is trying out an unlimited Nationwide Talk & Text plan for $69.99 in San Diego and Los Angeles retail outlets. That's $20 less than the current price, and coupled with a $29.99 data plan, we're looking at a monthly fee that's within pennies of Sprint's Simply Everything plan. As with other network trials, this one may never expand beyond certain test markets -- but needless to say, this seems to indicate Verizon's taking its smaller CDMA rival a whole lot more seriously. Amazing what a quarter of positive subscriber growth can do, isn't it?
Apple's App Store breaks 100,000 apps
Look, App Store, we just wanted to take this opportunity to say we're sorry about all the fart app jokes. We know it's not easy being a new App Store, making your way in the world, and when juxtaposed against the struggles your competition has had with putting together a compelling app gathering, we know now that our words in those early days were hurtful and lacking in understanding. With 100,000 apps in your store and over two billion downloads, we hope you can be the bigger man here and forgive us. Also, if you have any tips for improving our Canabalt score that would be much appreciated. Thanks.
Tilera's 100-core Tile-GX processor won't boil the oceans, will still melt faces
Sixty-four, sixty-shmore... that's so 2007 in terms of processing cores found in a single CPU: one hundred cores is where the future of computing resides. This magnificent engineering feat isn't from AMD or even Intel, it's the latest Tile-GX series of chips from the two-year old San Jose startup, Tilera. Its general purpose chips can run stand-alone or as co-processors running alongside those x86 chips that usually ship in four-, six-, or now eight-core configurations like Intel's upcoming Nehalem-EX chip. Tilera's 100-core chip pulls 55 watts at peak performance while its 16-core chip draws as little as 5 watts. Tilera uses the same mesh architecture as its previous 64-core chip in order to overcome the performance degradation accompanying data exchange on typical, multi-core processors -- or so it says. Tilera's new 40-nm process chips have cranked the clock to 1.5GHz and include support for 64-bit processing. And while its processors could be applied to any number of computing scenarios, Tilera's focusing on lucrative markets like parallel-processing where its meager developer and marketing resources can extract a relatively quick payout. The fun begins in early 2011 with volume pricing set between $400 and $1000.[Via PC World]
Sony PlayStation 2 just $99.99 starting tomorrow
We're really hoping that this isn't Sony's global announcement. Nevertheless, starting tomorrow April 1st, the PlayStation 2 will be available for less than $100 (down from $129.99), exactly as rumored. Hoozah?[Thanks, Ris]
"I Play WoW" Facebook app reaches 100,000 users
"I Play WoW" is probably the premiere World of Warcraft-related application on social networking site Facebook. We reported on it a while back, and since then, it's come quite a long way, including bringing in Armory updates when that became possible, and slowly growing over the past six months. And now they've hit another milestone -- Korale of Medivh (who runs the app with his wife Jeanelly, also on Medivh) has announced that they've reached over 100,000 users tracking over 260,000 characters. That's quite an undertaking. He also says that over 70% of people invited to the app actually use it (which is fairly high, we'd imagine, for Facebook), and that over 40,000 people visit the app at least once a month to update their status.Congrats to Korale and Jeanelly on all their hard work. Our own Facebook page isn't quite as big -- it's at 2,601 fans so far, but we're aiming higher. Our very own Turpster from the WoW Insider Show has promised us a brand new song if we can break 4,000 fans, so if you're on Facebook (or even if you're not yet, it's free to sign up) and have a few WoW-playing friends to invite, send them our way -- the sooner we get 4,000 fans, the sooner we get that song (and Turpster tells us he might even have a few other familiar faces on WoW Insider join in, too). Sure, it's not 100,000, but if we can hit that magic 4,000, the results should be worth it.
Yivvits and MrBubble celebrate their 100th SWG podcast episode
If you're a die-hard fan of Star Wars Galaxies, there's a good chance you've heard of the Yivvits and MrBubble SWG podcast. This show has been going on since 2005, and has finally just released their 100th show. Why is this news? One hundred episodes of a podcast about one specific MMO is quite a feat, as any regular podcast fan can attest."When we started the show in 2005 we had no idea where it would lead or if we'd even make more than six episodes," The two wildly popular hosts write in the episode's show notes. "This episode is packed full of everything you love about our show. Who is the Grand Admin and what the heck is "The SWIG?" Join Yivvits and MrBubble as they find out just how important their show is... to everybody! Two very special guests join us for this milestone episode, we play the dozens of congratulatory messages you left us, and we round things out with cake!"
Asheron's Call's 100th update is live and kicking
The much-heralded 100th Asheron's Call update has finally arrived! In addition to new areas and monsters, it notably adds in the highly anticipated faction system, with three distinct societies that players can join. There are also two new towns which may be captured in PvP. The society that controls a town will have access to the Black Market, which sells special items unavailable anywhere else.A new tier of loot has been added -- mostly for levels 150 and up -- which includes armor sets for players above level 180 and items used in crafting new spells. Yep, there are new spells -- a whole level of them in fact! Level 8 spells may either be researched in the traditional way, or learned via combination of certain item drops from the new tier.The complete release notes, including details on how to acquire items in the new loot tier, are available at Turbine's AC website. This is a huge update (accompanied, of course, by the August event), and it's a great time to feel proud that you're among the special few playing Asheron's Call today.
Gen Con 08: Turbine tells us what's in store for Asheron's Call
At Gen Con, we spoke with Turbine's Andy Cataldo, the Community Manager for Asheron's Call, about the future of this historic game. Cataldo told us a lot about AC's epic 100th update. The update is coming within the next few weeks, and it's a doozy. According to Cataldo, AC players will get a whole new faction system, three land areas to battle over, tons of new loot and spells, and various other improvements to the game, particularly to enemy AI.In addition to working its regular monthly event and patch schedule, Turbine is attempting to respond to player demand for a variety of new features in the 100th and all future updates. Particular emphasis is being placed on adding features common in modern MMOs, such as a quest tracking menu. AC has been around for almost ten years, so it has some catching up to do!Learn more about Turbine's big push to modernize the game, add lots of new content, and more in the interview after the break.
Cinemassively: The Orange Island 100
(In order to avoid confusion created by the comments below, we would like to note that there were two fan-made videos of the event, and the one we chose to feature has music created by Orb Gettarr and Spiraling Cycling.)If you've never been to a popular Second Life event, you wouldn't have experienced the pain of a packed sim. The number of avatars in a single sim usually gets to around 70 or 80 before people start crying of lag, ruths, and missing images. However, those wacky Metaversatility kids took to Orange Island in an attempt to set a record for most avatars in a single snapshot. Jade Lily was shooting for 100 -- and it wasn't easy. As documented by Daneel Ariantho and Natty Foggarty in pictures, and Osprey Therian in this video, people wouldn't rez properly, floated away, and lost connection. After many minutes, they were able to reach their goal, but it took about two hours without SL before this blogger's computer felt right again!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them. Please note that due to the high volume of Second Life submissions, we would prefer submissions from other platforms.
iRobot intros the Verro 100 and 500 poolbots
The folks at iRobot updated the Verro pool-cleaning robots much to the chagrin of our pool boy, Philip, who's getting his walking papers next week. The new 100 and 500 models join the current 300 and 600 to cover a wide array of price ranges, and probably meet most -- if not all -- of your exacting standards for water-body cleanliness. The 100 comes in at the low-end of the spectrum at $399, though it will navigate and clean any flat-bottomed pool you throw its way; the Rolls-Royce of poolbots, the 500, will do floors and walls alike for $999. Of course, you won't know anything about that -- you'll be busy lounging, working on your tan, and trying to figure out whether you want the Bentley Brooklands or Azure (hint: the Azure!).
HP's iPAQ 110 and 210 PDAs get shipment date, prices
We know that you're all on pins and needles right now waiting to find out when you can get your hands on those new HP PDAs, the iPAQ 110 and 210, and how much it will cost you when you do. Well, you're in luck, because the company has just added shipping dates and pricing to its website, thus making your Fall plans a little bit easier. If you'll recall, both WiFi equipped, Windows Mobile 6 devices feature color TFT touchscreens, Marvell PXA310 624 Mhz processors, and Bluetooth 2.0. The devices will be shipping on October 8th, with the 110 selling for $299, and the 210 for $399.[Thanks, Speed]Read -- HP iPAQ 110 Classic HandheldRead -- HP iPAQ 210 Enterprise Handheld
HP unleashes iPAQ series 100 and 200 PDAs
As we've mentioned recently, HP has been readying a handful (no pun intended) of new iPAQ handhelds. Luckily, today we get to move from rumor to fact, as the company has officially announced the next wave of its mobile line. Along with new 3G phones and a GPS navigator, HP is launching the 100 Series "Classic" and 200 Series "Enterprise" edition (pictured) PDAs. Both models are based around Windows Mobile 6 Classic, and sport 64MB of RAM, 256MB of ROM, a Marvell PXA310 624MHz CPU, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, and color touchscreens. There are some notable differences between the two models, however, with the 100 sporting a 3.5-inch, 240 x 320, RGB screen, Mini-USB, and SDIO card slot, while the 200 sports a 4-inch, 480 x 640, 260k screen, 24-pin and Mini-USB connectors, plus SDIO and CF card slots. No word yet on pricing and availability, but you'll know when we do.
Universal releases over 100 HD DVDs to date
Break out the party hats and streamers folks, as according to the well-compiled statistics over at HD DVD Stats.com, Universal has cranked out 104 high-definition titles to date. Of course, the number in and of itself is essentially meaningless, but when you consider just how critical the studio is to the HD DVD camp, one could easily envision the format war shifting should the firm eventually decide to support Blu-ray. Unfortunately, it still seems that we're quite a ways from seeing that come to fruition.
