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Robot performs complex 'keyhole' intestinal surgery on pigs without human aid
A robot has successfully performed "keyhole" intestinal surgery on pigs without any aid from humans.
Researchers partially revive pig brains four hours after 'death'
Used to be that once someone cut off your head, your life was over. That may no longer be the case. A study published in the journal Nature this week illustrates Yale researchers' successful efforts to restore and preserve the cellular function of pig brains up to four hours after their decapitation at a local slaughterhouse. Miracle Max, eat your heart out.
A VR video made me rethink my relationship with meat
Barbarism. That's the best word to describe the events depicted in iAnimal, a 360-degree video that takes you inside a pig farm. Shot by animal welfare charity Animal Equality, the experience lasts seven minutes and may cause you to rethink the food you put on your plate. Narrated by BAFTA-winning actor Peter Egan -- perhaps best known internationally as Downton Abbey's Hugh "Shrimpie" Flintshire -- it starts in a tiny cell, with not enough room to even turn around in. "You don't know what you're in for," says Egan, "but you're behind bars ... it's been this way for as long as you can remember." Rust is everywhere, and you're flanked by countless pigs on either side. First-person perspective is a tried-and-tested VR strategy, but I've never seen it used to such arresting effect.
Bad Piggies, the alternate-universe's answer to Angry Birds, lands September 27th
Imagine a world where everyone's evil and wears a goatee, while our avian allies from Angry Birds are actually the villains of the piece. That's the premise behind Bad Piggies, Rovio's newest productivity killer, which promises entirely new game mechanics (and no slingshots!). It'll arrive on iOS, Android and OS X on September 27th, with Windows and Windows Phone 8 versions following shortly afterward.
Pigs beware: Angry Birds Trilogy coming to 3DS, PS3 and Xbox 360 later this year
Despite already being a massive success story on the Android and iOS platforms, Rovio's clearly not planning on slowing down its Angry Birds adventure any time soon. Speaking to IGN earlier today, the company's Executive Vice President of Games, Petri Järvilehto, told the site that the Angry Birds Trilogy is headed -- in physical form, no less -- to the 3DS, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 later this holiday season. Sadly, Järvilehto didn't say how much we'll have to spend on the bird-slinging trilogy, or when exactly it'll be available at retail shops -- though he did say you should "think of the game as the ultimate collector's edition." The Trilogy's set to include the original Angry Birds title, Seasons and Rio, with the set expected to offer support for Kinect, Move and StreetPass on Nintendo's three-dimensional handheld.
Rovio makes a Mighty Eagle's $68 million in profit in financial squawk
Rovio has announced that in 2011, it made a huge $106.3 million turnover and a whopping $67.6 million in profit (before tax), showing that flinging feathery fowl is a very serious business. Fueled by the success of Angry Birds, Seasons and Rio, the company grew by a factor of eight in the last year, from 28 employees all the way to 224. The company adds that the three games were downloaded 648 million times and are now used by 200 million daily users, while sales of merchandise contributed to around 30 percent of the total revenue. The report adds that the only barrier to future profits is if people stop buying new smartphones, but we're not sure that's likely to be the case for a while.
Leaderboard: Spider vs. pig
If you search the loftiest heights of fantasy, the dank dungeons of horror, the far-out locales of sci-fi, or the war-torn post-apocalyptic highways, chances are you'll stumble upon two creatures that are near-universal in MMOs. Whether you be swinging a sword or firing off compressed photonic bursts, chances are sooner or later you'll face off against a giant spider. And, later on, a giant pig. Pigs and spiders, spiders and pigs: MMO devs do love both equally. They're convenient fodder for heroes to use as training on their way up to slaying dragons, as nobody likes spiders and everyone likes ham and bacon. And while they almost never stand a chance against the never-ending player onslaught, what would happen if spider fought pig in-game? Who would emerge triumphant and who would slink back to its trough/web in shame? Take some time to weigh the pros and cons of each contestant, and let us know which you think would win in a one-on-one scuffle! (And for those of you out there itching to make a spider-pig reference in the comments, I'm preempting you. Booyah.)
Plundering the free seas: Pirates of the Burning Sea dev talks about F2P
Curious about how a subscription-based MMO makes the transition to a free-to-play model? It's not as easy as one might assume, and Pirates of the Burning Sea was no exception. In a recent devlog, PotBS's Misha takes us behind the stage to look at the logistical details and hurdles that had to be taken for this jump between business models. While the team had been mulling over a microtransaction model from the beginning, it was only after a lot of discussion with SOE that the publisher showed the team a way this could be implemented. Following that, the team had to tackle several tricky issues, such as expired trial accounts, boxes still in the stores and all of the subscription types it had in place. Next, the team ran the system through quite a bit of testing to iron out the snags. "Those who helped us test F2P in the early days will recall pets on their own little boats in the midst of battle, trying desperately to help out. You could zoom in and see a pig or chicken standing in a commanding position overlooking their hardworking crews. This bug is one of my favorite ever, and I'm still a little sad that we fixed it." It wasn't just the software that needed to be tested but also the physical setup. At one point, Misha writes, "For whatever reason, we were suffering hardware failure after hardware failure." While the F2P transition was slated for Thanksgiving 2010, it failed to hit the date. "We hit a major issue on our side and SOE hit a major snag on their side. So, no Thanksgiving F2P. On the one hand, we were really discouraged that we hadn't met our target. On the other hand, we were incredibly glad we had tackled these issues before we went live," she writes. Eventually Pirates of the Burning Sea "soldiered through it all" and made it to the live servers, much to the team's delight. For a full rundown of this saga and the true tale of commanding pigs, head on over to Pirates of the Burning Sea.
Speakal's iPig speaker system rolls in the mud with your iPod
For those of you (we know, pretty much everyone in existence) who already picked up a set of Pink Pig PC speakers a few years back, you can carry on with your daily routine. For everyone else that owns an iPod, hold it right there. Speakal is delivering the iPod docking iPig, a unique speaker system that packs five total drivers (including a 4-inch subwoofer), adjustable bass controls, 360-degree sound distribution and a very debatable design. You'll also find a 3.5-millimeter auxiliary jack for hooking up every other source, and the bundled remote makes it easy to switch tracks and such from your sofa. The only problem? That $139.99 price tag. Check the full release after the jump.
Apple relents, sanctions custom ringtones!
So how do you know if Apple has made a big policy change and snuck it through the back door? Is it because: Porcine aviation establishes itself as a viable transportation mechanism. Chicken entrails begin to dance and rearrange themselves into oracular shapes while you're fixing up some nice korma. Apple sneaks in a new technical support page adding a "Share > Send Ringtone to iTunes" option to Garage Band. The answer is, if you've been playing along at home, three. One more blow against the official iTunes extortion and shakedown store. Thanks Jerrod
