Bruce
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Bruce: Moving Mac computing to Apple TV output
What's Bruce? Aside from being a punchline to a rather silly Monty Python video, it's also an amusing little testbed that I've been putting together to see how far I can push the Apple TV's utility, whether for creating information kiosk installations or bringing rich information out from the office and into the living room. Bruce is basically an image server. The images served are generated on the Mac side of the world and pushed through to a vanilla, unjailbroken Apple TV. Bruce currently offers two modes: a date/time/weather display that updates in real time and a screenshot mode that pushes updates to the Apple TV every few seconds. The engine under Bruce's covers is essentially the same one that powers my AirFlick application, which allows you to push videos and photographs to Apple TV. Bruce plays a different role in that the focus isn't just on relaying pre-existing content but generating new content live. It's not just about creating smarter screen savers (which is, basically, what the weather report option is all about) -- it's also about thinking how to publish compelling information snippets to what is, otherwise, a passive public display. It's all about pushing information to the Apple TV from the computer, rather than pulling requests by the Apple TV user. This is not an unexplored arena by any means, but for just US$99 for the Apple TV, it's a newly affordable and hackable one. If you want to give Bruce a try, I threw a build up on my website for you to play with. I'm particularly interested in hearing from readers as to how you think the Macintosh/Apple TV relationship can grow and what kinds of rich information the Apple TV would benefit from receiving passively.
Sony Ericsson's "Bruce" and "Tobey" C905a pictured with AT&T in mind
Here are a couple Sony Ericssons we've known AT&T is planning on releasing, but it's always good to see some more confirmation. The "Bruce" appears to be the W518a, which is a North American tweak of the W508a -- nothing mind-blowing, but it's got a 3.2 megapixel camera, QVGA display, external music controls, and HSDPA on board; maybe the coolest thing here (and something we didn't know before) is that AT&T intends to let buyers design their own custom covers for the phone online. The Tobey is really where it's at, though. This is the C905a, the big shooter -- literally -- that should do battle with T-Mobile's CS8. It's got an 8.1 megapixel camera with xenon flash in a slider form factor, accompanied by a 2.4-inch QVGA display, Video Share, TV-out, and HTML browsing. Disturbingly, both of these devices have already missed their target availability dates -- and anyone still reeling from the K850 disaster has to be a little concerned that one or both of these could be delayed indefinitely or canceled.
EVE PvP Tournament assassination: Machiavellian or bad form?
Struggle between player alliances in EVE Online is very much at the heart of the game. While most conflicts play out in sweeping alliance warfare, with its requisite fleet battles involving hundreds of players, some alliances also choose to face one another in arena combat with the rapt attention of many thousands of their fellow pilots: the Alliance PvP Tournament. The Alliance Tournament in EVE Online provides a way for players to demonstrate what they're capable of under controlled conditions, and offers a shot at fame or notoriety among the playerbase. In some cases, alliances may face off in the PvP tournament to settle a score in a very public way. The rules of engagement in place ensure that all alliance teams are on equal ground with one another. EVE players can be devious though, if nothing else... as one match this past weekend proved: one alliance competitor assassinated his team's captain once the match had begun, and then self-destructed his own ship. The would-be saboteur, ironically named "Happy Joymaker", later announced he had infiltrated the alliance for the express purpose of a public execution of his target.
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 12 - Feb. 18: Cool stuff edition
Perhaps naught ever changes in the land of the rising sun, but this week felt especially mired in consistency. Christmas-colored arrows would tell you otherwise, but in fact the only changes in rank were the Game Boy Micro and the GBA SP swapping out the number seven and eight slots, respectively.So, what to do without our usual fountain of inspiration from which to draw? Part of our jobs include scouring the internet for days, nay, weeks straight, searching far and wide for things to make you, our readers, feel cool and well-informed. In our trek across digital lands we find many awesome things that may not relate to the Wii directly, and yet, we wished we could share them with you regardless. Now's our chance! You may have seen these three web-gems before, but for those who haven't, we do hope you enjoy. Now click that "Continue reading" link. Do it. - DS Lite: 136,846 64,331 (31.98%)- Wii: 63,618 14,932 (19.01%) - PSP: 34,505 2,330 (7.24%) - PS3: 20,676 2,755 (11.76%) - PS2: 16,192 159 (0.99%) - Xbox 360: 5,210 399 (8.29%) - Game Boy Micro: 953 69 (7.81%) - GBA SP: 843 137 (13.98%) - Gamecube: 347 36 (9.40%) - DS Phat: 153 32 (26.45%) - GBA: 40 4 (11.11%)[Source: Media Create]
