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MIDI 2.0 overhauls the music interface for the first time in 35 years
About 35 years after the MIDI 1.0 Detailed Specification was established, instrument manufacturers voted unanimously on January 18th to adopt the new MIDI 2.0 spec. So what's changing for audio interfaces? The "biggest advance in music technology in decades" brings two-way communication, among many other new features while remaining backwards compatible with the old spec. Companies like Roland, Native Instruments, Korg and Yamaha are part of the MIDI Manufacturers Association behind the update, and we've already seen Roland's A-88MKII keyboard that will be ready for the spec when it goes on sale in March.
Get ready for simple USB-C to HDMI cables
More devices are starting to ship with USB-C connectors built-in, and today groups behind HDMI and USB announced another way to take advantage of it. That method is HDMI Alt Mode, which means cable manufacturers can build a connector that plugs directly from the port on your phone, laptop or other device into the HDMI port on a TV or monitor. With this spec, there's no additional dongle or adapter needed in the middle.
Google engineer takes on subpar USB Type-C cables
Trying to save a few bucks by purchasing offbrand cables? We've all done it -- but there's something you should know about new USB Type-C connectors popping up on cellphones (Nexus, OnePlus), laptops (Macbook, Pixel), tablets (Pixel C) and even Apple TV. The reason why they can charge so many devices, is their ability to transmit currents up to 3A, which could be 50 to 100 percent more electricity than older standards. That's why Google engineer Benson Leung has been putting various USB-C cables sold on Amazon to the test. He worked on both of Google's recent Pixel devices that use the new cable to charge, and found that many of the cables advertised as Type-C aren't actually suited for use with the laptop. They might not be wired properly to charge a laptop, or they don't accurately identify the power source -- something that could damage your laptop, USB hub or charger.
Ultra HD Blu-ray is bringing high-res movies home soon
After Blu-ray and HD DVD ushered in the age of HD and 1080p movies for the masses, discs were beaten to 4K by streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon. While the internet is still doing most of the heavy lifting for 4K, the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification is finally complete which means we should see movies and players arriving later this year. Besides being compatible with the 10,000~ Blu-ray discs already out, Ultra HD Blu-ray players will be ready for high-res 3,840 x 2,160 video, "next generation object-based sound formats" (think DTS: X and Dolby Atmos), more colors, high dynamic range (HDR) and even high frame rate video. That's a lot of buzzwords to say movies will have the capability to look and sound better at your home than they ever have before. The BDA also made vague reference to a "digital bridge" setup for extending your movie purchased on a disc to other devices like phones and tablets, but didn't say exactly how that will work, or if it's going to be any better than Ultraviolet.
WoW Archivist: WoW's talent system has come full circle
WoW Archivist is a biweekly column by WoW Insider's Scott Andrews, who explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? It first appeared on our sister site on April 11th and is included here by permission. The Warlords of Draenor patch 6.0 notes have revealed the latest changes to WoW's ever-evolving talent system. Talents have remained a core system in WoW since its earliest days; it's the primary method that allows players to make their characters distinct. In the beta for WoW and throughout vanilla, talent trees were a bit of a mess, as Archivist covered. Today, we'll examine how those early trees came to be expanded, refined, and then scrapped for a very different system. We'll also look at how Warlords is bringing back the earliest version of talent trees in a brand-new way.
The Crew's five swappable classes, er, specs
What you call "classes" in other MMOs, The Crew calls "specs." There are five of them and they are swappable on the fly, offering the player control over his or her racing destiny. A new official blog post today details these five specs. Street specs are versatile jack-of-all-trade cars, Dirt specs are great for off-roading, Perf specs sacrifice maneuverability for speed, Raid specs are terrific for exploring rough environments, and Circuit specs are built for top-notch technical racing. If a player has not attained a certain spec yet and a mission requires it, the game will provide a loaner for the duration of the mission.
A foundation for future growth: Examining LotRO's class restructuring
Let's start out with the elephant in the room: The comprehensive and radical class changes that are coming to Lord of the Rings Online with Helm's Deep have a portion of the community rattled. After all, we are protective of our characters and concerned about changes that affect them, and this looks to be a doozy. You want to hear a secret? Turbine's a little scared too. When asked if this might become LotRO's NGE -- the reviled shift in Star Wars Galaxies' gameplay structure -- the devs said it's something they've been asked a lot these days. They know that there's a part of the playerbase that's fearful, and in all honesty, the devs have had a few sleepless nights over the changes too. But past the fear is the certainty that this is the course the game needs to take right now, and that certainty grows by the day as they continue to test the changes on the beta server. The team told us as such during a class tour today, going on to show us the scope of what's going to happen. What we're looking at here is the old class trait system thrown in the trash to be replaced by specializations and trait trees, as well as the paring down of many class skills into a more manageable number. It's going to impact everyone all at once, so if this is your game of choice, you'll want to read on.
You have questions about The Elder Scrolls Online, the development team has answers
Prospective players have a lot of questions about The Elder Scrolls Online. What will I need to do to be a tank? How will I heal other people? Will I be carrying around every wheel of goat cheese in the world for no reason? The development team has sat down and answered a variety of player questions in a new feature addressing several assorted topics. Players interested in tanking will be happy to know that while you will generally want to be in heavy armor, a properly designed character should be able to last for quite some time in light armor. Those who prefer playing a pure role will also be happy to note that while the developers have harped on hybridization a bit, being a "pure" role will be perfectly viable and possible. And lore fans will be happy to see a variety of lore questions answered, especially concerning organizations and races that are important in later games but aren't necessarily around in The Elder Scrolls Online. So odds are good that when you read through the answers, you'll be happy.
Sony A99 rumored specs leak: 24.3 megapixels, 921k-dot LCD and 14 bit RAW output
Sony's not unleashed a full frame camera for some time, so when a purported spec-sheet for the upcoming Alpha A99 breaks cover, we're elbowing our way to the front to see it. According to Sony Alpha Rumors, it'll be a 24.3-megapixel CMOS Exmor sensor with an ISO range of 100-25,600, 14 bit RAW output and a 1/8000 maximum shutter speed. Other nuggets of interest include a 102 point AF system, full 1080p HD video recording (at 60fps) and a 921k dot LCD (like that seen on the A77 pictured). When might we see this come to market? According to the rumor-mill, sometime in October, with an official unveiling in early September. Along with everything else, it seems. Head on down to the source for the full spread.
CompactFlash Association develops XQD 2.0 spec, promises up to 8 Gbps throughput
Just as were starting to get cozy with the still vastly unavailable XQD format, the CompactFlash Association is back with version 2.0 of the spec, which it says could provide transfer speeds of up to 8 Gb/s (1,000 MB/s). You'll need to have access to a PCI Express 3.0 interface in order to take advantage of that throughput, however -- a boost from the 5 Gbps offered with the previous-gen solution. XQD 2.0 is still under development, with Sony footing the bill, and the organization is welcoming "additional participation" as it works to refine the standard. There's no saying exactly when we'll start seeing devices that employ the new tech, though CFA is aiming to make the spec available "in the second half of 2012." Cards that utilize the new format will enable video capture at higher bandwidth that the SD and CF media of today, and while we seem to be managing just fine with the current stock for capturing 1080p, faster storage will certainly be welcome in the future, once 4K, and perhaps even larger formats, make their mainstream debut.
USB Power Delivery spec upped to 100W, aims to make proprietary power connectors obsolete
The battle between Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 has only recently begun in earnest, what with mobo's finally emerging to give non-Mac computers access to the 10Gbps interface. While USB 3.0 can't match Thunderbolt in terms of data throughput, it now has the upper hand in power capabilities, as last week the 100W Power Delivery spec was approved for both USB 2.0 and 3.0. That's ten times what Thunderbolt can do, and it means that you can charge up your laptop or power most any peripheral via Universal Serial Bus. Naturally, the new specification relies on beefier cables to deliver maximum juice, but we won't have to go replacing all our old wires -- it includes a means to check attached cables and devices and set the voltage and amperage accordingly. Perfect, that means we won't have to carry around bundle of proprietary power cords when we travel, and we get peace of mind that charging via USB won't have any, ahem, unpleasant side effects.
The Heart of the Wild controversy: Should players be allowed to change specs in combat?
In a recent Mists of Pandaria beta build, the tooltip for one of the currently inaccessible druid talents, Heart of the Wild, was significantly rewritten and updated. The full tooltip is long, but the key assumption is that every six minutes, a druid of any spec can click a button and automatically be able change to another combat role for 45 seconds, with little drop-off in effectiveness. Restoration druids can start dealing damage, DPSers of either persuasion can throw around some heals or tank an add, and guardian tanks can even spread around a few HoTs without having to leave Bear Form and turn into paste. That's the theory, anyway. As you can imagine, this idea generated some heated debate in the druid blogger community. The noted Lissanna of Restokin called it "(likely) the the least used talent out of any talent tree in the history of the game" Murmurs also agreed, saying "HotW has a pure functionality problem. It can never truly fulfill the position that it is attempting to grasp." In opposition, Tangedyn, the co-creator of the Mew feral druid simulator and frequent contributor to The Inconspicuous Bear, wrote "... there's no reason to deny druids that want the versatility the capability to perform to their best of their abilities." So who's right? Well, let's take a closer look at both sides of the argument, since this debate brings up several important issues to any WoW raider.
Ghostcrawler explains spec-specific quest rewards in MoP
If you've been following the Mists of Pandaria beta at all, you may have heard that questing players discovered that they were only getting one choice for quest reward items. Many recent MMOs such as SW:TOR use this model; it's generally agreed that the system of multiple possible quest rewards is yet another "bad player trap," like Ghostcrawler described lots of talents pre-Cataclysm. Players can miss out on quest rewards accidentally, and since there's no in-game way of switching your quest rewards, well, that can be a headache (especially since reports say that GMs are no longer switching quest items for you). When asked about the issue on the beta forums, Ghostcrawler offered a pretty reasoned explanation for the change. He says that most quests with green rewards will only give you one choice (that matches your current spec). However, there'll also be vendors in every zone from whom you can buy sets of gear that aren't quite up to the item level of quest rewards in that zone, so you can fill in itemization holes or help bolster an off spec a little more. Quests that offer blue rewards will usually offer rewards for any spec your class can be, giving you some flexibility when it comes to rare rewards. Also, Mists of Pandaria questing is more non-linear than Cataclysm's, so you'll be able to hit up a different zone in the event that you need gear for a specific level range. Ghostcrawler's full response (and an image of one of the vendors) is after the break.
Raid Rx: Can healing be diversified further?
Every week, Raid Rx will help you quarterback your healers to victory! Your host is Matt Low, the grand poohbah of World of Matticus and a founder of Plus Heal, a discussion community for healers of all experience levels and interests. Catch his weekly podcast on healing, raiding and leading, the Matticast. Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street (lead developer) published a developer blog post a few days ago and shared thoughts about roles within the game. DPS classes tend to have multiple specs that can be switched to in order to provide a different set of damage spells and utilities. Some of the examples cited included warlocks and rogues, since they're straight DPS classes. Would it be possible to hypothesize and think about single-role healing classes with varied specs? While I don't think it is unheard of, I can already think about the different logistical and gameplay difficulties that are going to come with it. For DPSers, you have that role divided between those players in the ranged group and those belonging to the melee. With healing, you're limited with just being purely at range. There isn't a classified melee-only healer (and we don't know entirely how the monk will play out).
Breakfast Topic: How often do you switch specs?
Last night, I did something I don't do very often: I made my way to my class trainer and went through the trouble of respeccing into disc. My goal was to muddle my way through a few heroics without having to sit through a queue. Admittedly, the experiment didn't go well. I make a bitchin' shadow priest, but even with stellar gear, I make a terrible disc priest. That's part of why I don't respec very often. How about you? Do you change your character's spec to meet the needs of raid bosses several times a night? Do you respec to run heroics or dailies? Or are you absolutely adamant about playing your favorite spec, no matter what?
Breakfast Topic: Why do you love your spec?
It's no secret: I love being a shadow priest. I've played plenty of other characters over my lengthy World of Warcraft career. My first character was a fury warrior. I've leveled a balance druid and shammy to 80 and then to 85. I've even started rogue and mage alts. But for all of that, there's no class I love more than my priest, no spec I love more than shadow. There are many reasons why I love my class. I love the mana system more than the other systems of energy and rage. I love the unmatched power of the Dispersion defensive cooldown. I love how every point of damage I do rewards a small percentage back to me as self-healing. I love shadow priest lore. And most of all, I love how badass I look in Shadowform. I love shadow priesting so much that I cannot begin to comprehend why anyone would play any other spec ... which is why I'm putting the question out there: What do you love most about the class and spec you play?
Captain's Log: To spec or not to spec?
Captain's Log, Stardate 65340.3... Hello, computer (and players)! Unlike an answer to Shakespeare's original question, the answer to the question in this week's title is probably a no-brainer for most of you: Yes! Choosing a specialization, or "speccing," in MMOs is something that stretches across most titles out there, and Star Trek Online is no different. Whether you wish to resist attacks longer, do more damage, or add strength to your powers, choosing a customized spec can be rewarding and a challenge at the same time. With so many variables and places to spend your points, the possibilities are endless. While this week's Captain's Log is not here to tell you what you should spec into for your particular class or ship set-up, I would like to go over the space skill point overhaul that STO is about to go through. In the past, one of the biggest complaints from players was that they did not have a clear understanding of which skill tree affected which ability. The devs heard this feedback and have been working on a complete revamp to make these decisions simpler. Hopefully, this will allow you to have a better understanding of where and why to spend your points in a particular skill when you do have to re-spec at the launch of F2P on January 17th, 2012. Ensign, warp 10! Let's get our readers' bookmark buttons ready...
Captain's Log: What's your (energy) type?
Captain's Log, Stardate 65244.9... Hello, computer (and players)! Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, happy birthday dear meeeeeee, happy birthday to me. Sorry, I couldn't resist. Yes, today is my birthday, and the best present I could receive is being able to share this week's Captain's Log with you all. As we get closer and closer to the F2P re-launch of Star Trek Online, I expect that there will be new captains tuning into this column each week, so to help support our new comrades in between the weeks that feature an influx of breaking news and developments, I am going to be taking some time to educate everyone on a few of the game's mechanics. When I first started playing STO, I often found myself wondering about many of the choices available to my different characters. From armor to shields, deflectors to engines, and kits to weapons, there is an endless array of options that we can decide to play with and use. One of the most frequently asked questions I get from new players is, "What is the best energy type to use for my ship's weapons?" In the past, when I really did not know much, I would choose my type by the color it emitted. I now know that "pretty" does not equal "power." While each type has its own special bonuses, it's up to you to decide which to use and why. Here's to hoping I can aid in that decision. Ensign, warp 10! Let's take a look at the spectrum of colors and their abilities...
Intel's 710 'Lyndonville' and 720 'Ramsdale' SSDs see full spec leak well ahead of release
You may recall Intel's 710 "Lyndonville" and 720 "Ramsdale" enterprise SSDs outted by a leaked roadmap back in April, but details were as thin as high mountain air. Luckily, German site Computer Base has obtained what appears to be a full spec sheet for the aforementioned drives. Starting with the 710, this 25nm HET MLC -- a more durable variant of MLC -- device will come in 100GB, 200GB, and 300GB flavors, and it claims to have read and write speeds at up to 270 MB/s and 210 MB/s, respectively, along with a 3Gbps SATA connection. Things are a bit wild with the 720: not only does it have 34nm SLC chips making up the 200GB and 400GB versions, but it also boasts some truly insane read and write speeds of up to 2200 MB/s and 1800 MB/s, respectively. Yes, 2200 MB/s and 1800 MB/s, garnished by the fast 4K IOPs as well. We had our doubts initially, but looking at the previously stated 6Gbps PCIe interface and the much higher power draw, we think there's a good chance for this to come into reality. Well, only time will tell if these numbers will stick around for the Q3 launch this year -- not that our wallets will want to know, mind you. Hit the source link for the full lowdown. Update: As pointed out by our readers, it looks like the 720 will need more than 6Gbps at the PCIe bus to accommodate its maximum read and write speeds. At this point, we can only assume that there is indeed a typo somewhere -- either on the roadmap or on this table.
BMW, Porsche, others announce support for HomePlug's EV networking spec
The HomePlug Powerline Alliance already wants to tether your entire household to the Internet, and it may soon extend its reach to your garage, as well. At Computex today, the company announced that Audi, BMW, Daimler, Porsche and Volkswagen have all agreed to support its HomePlug Green PHY (GP) technology as their EV charging interface of choice. The networking specification would allow electric car owners to link their plug-ins to the Smart Grid via the same ports used to charge their batteries, opening up new, Powerline-based possibilities. Once your EV hooks up to the network, it may be able to conduct system checks in real-time, for instance, or provide instant feedback on performance or the condition of your battery. The low power GP spec will also be interoperable with HomePlug's forthcoming AV2 spec, though it's still not clear when we can expect to see Germany's automakers incorporate it into production. Zip past the break for the full PR.
