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Ask the Devs round 5 achievement questions answered
Ask the Devs, Blizzard's developer community question and answer feature, continues with round 5, an in-depth look at achievements detailing the difficulty of changing achievement, making certain rewards account-wide, and whether removed content is ever going to be a part of the game again. Check out the full question and answer session after the break. Quote: Q: When will achievements finally be awarded account-wide? – Larosh (Europe [German]), Eneia & Payasos (Europe [Spanish]), Rageudder & Kellgros (Europe [English]), ??????? (Europe [Russian]), Nyn (North America/ANZ), ?????? (Korea) A: Making achievements Battle.net account-wide is something we'd like to do, but it's not a goal we could provide a current timetable for. All of the original World of Warcraft coding was done with the expectation that the data on every realm would always be independent. Now that we are trying to make as many things as possible account-wide, we're having to rebuild all of those systems. It is absolutely something we want to do, but it will take a lot of time away from other features. source
Leaked K-Touch W700 bringing Tegra 2 to China Unicom, abandons hope of affordability
Chinese phone manufacturer K-Touch has set out to prove domestic manufacturers are not solely KIRF in their intentions. Taking a huge leap into the high end, China Unicom's WO network will soon be graced with the W700, a Tegra 2 beast that's certain to instigate a double-take at China's design ambitions. As for specs, look for a 3.8-inch, 480 x 800 capacitive screen, 5 megapixel shooter on the back, (0.3 megapixel up front), and 512MB of memory keeping everything in check. K-Touch has previously dipped its toes into Android's currents with its more pedestrian W606, but this appears its first attempt a Froyo release. This powerful slab is set to retail for HK$4,200, or approximately $540 in actual money. Looks like the Optimus 2X is finally getting the company it deserves, eh?
China Unicom hits a million 3G users, only sells 5,000 iPhones so far
Nearly six months after large-scale trials kicked off, China Unicom -- the only carrier among China's nationals to be deploying HSPA -- has broken the magical million-subscriber mark that have made the leap to its "Wo" 3G network. If you're wondering whether the recent launch of the iPhone on Wo has contributed to that count, the answer is a definitive "no" -- amazingly, a mere 5,000 units have apparently been sold so far, likely due to the phone's prohibitive cost and the availability of unlocked devices and interesting alternatives. Be that as it may, the carrier seems convinced that the iPhone will contribute to Unicom's bottom line in the fourth quarter, countered by continued marketing and build-out costs for Wo. Networks aren't cheap -- particularly when you're dealing with a country the size (and population density) of China.
Spiritual Guidance: Healing throughput or mana regeneration?
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a UI and addons blog for WoW. This week, it's a reexamination of spell power throughput vs mana regeneration.Update: Couple of errors have been fixed along with extra clarification added. My apologies. These two sides have had strong arguments over the past several years. This is more of a debate between play styles among Priests and how to build their characters. Some people favor getting more mana regen as much as possible. Others prefer a balanced attack between mana regeneration and spell power throughput. Is there a right answer? Technically, no as this is a matter of personal preference. It depends on largely on how you heal. Other factors include which fights, which consumables you use regularly, and so forth.
China Unicom denies having bought 5M iPhones
We'd still venture to say that all signs are pointing toward an iPhone launch on China Unicom before too long, but one key element of the launch -- Unicom's upfront buy -- is now in question. A spokesman for China's third-largest carrier (which is an amazingly low rank considering they've got about as many subscribers as Verizon and AT&T combined) has denied earlier reports that they've stockpiled five million handsets in preparation for launch, saying that negotiations with Apple are still ongoing. We imagine that when you're dealing with a nine-figure subscriber count, any hardware negotiation is complex, tense, and filled with counteroffers, so there's no telling how much longer this process could take. [Via Unwired View]
China Unicom finally bringing iPhone to world's most populous country?
Is it really happening? Is the world's most thickly settled nation finally getting the iPhone in earnest? If a bold (albeit woolly) report from China's own national news agency is to be believed, China Unicom has just locked down a deal that'll grant it exclusive rights to sell Apple's heralded smartphone in mainland China for three whole years. Unfortunately, most of the nitty-gritty details are absent, but we are led to believe that this will be the first-ever iPhone sold with any branding at all outside of logos splashed on at Cupertino. The "Wo" icon you see just below the speaker signifies that this here device is ready to rock on the carrier's 3G network, though we still can't say with any amount of certainty if said image is fully legitimate. We're also waiting to hear whether it'll be the iPhone 3G or 3GS (or both) that's sold, and we're particular curious as to whether or not these handsets will include WiFi modules. In related news, it does sound as if China Unicom bent over backwards a bit to make this all come together, with the article stating that it signed on to move between one and two million units per year regardless of how many consumers actually show up to buy one. If you'll recall, an eerily similar agreement has Russian operators in a world of financial hurt, but we get the feeling the reception in China will be quite a bit warmer. At any rate, it's noted that Unicom will be snapping up the devices from Apple at a cost of around 3,000 Chinese yuan apiece ($439), with end users being asked to pay an undisclosed lesser amount on contract. If all goes well, the units could hit Chinese shops as early as September, though only time will tell how everything shakes out. Oh, and considering that Apple can hardly keep up with iPhone 3GS demand as it is, we suspect it'll want to wait a few months anyway before stressing its supply channels further. Update: A China Unicom spokeswoman has now been quoted as saying that "we have made progress but there are still some problems to be resolved." Really? Another round of this?
ZTE shows off recent smartphones at Wireless Japan
China's ZTE is still sticking to the low end in North America, but in its home country, the manufacturer is a huge player. Evidence of that lies strewn about ZTE's booth at Wireless Japan this week, where it's showing a pair of WinMo devices plus a Linux-based model that look ripe to compete with some of the best in the world. First up, the RAISE and XIANG do WinMo and HSPA for China Unicom's Wo network, rocking 5 and 3.2 megapixel cameras, respectively. The D820 reps the open-source world (though we're not sure what kind of Linux distro is running on it -- it's not Android, if we had to guess) and runs CDMA with WiFi, GPS, and a 2 megapixel camera. We're not sure if ZTE is using phones like these as warmups for more global launches, but given what we're seeing here -- and the low price points they're likely looking to hit -- we're all for it.[Via Pocket PC Thoughts]
China Unicom gets rolling with 3G trials
Following China Telecom and China Mobile, China Unicom has now become the last of the big three Chinese operators to begin trials of its 3G network -- christened "Wo" -- with some 55 test markets lighting up this week. Happily, the trials are purely UMTS / HSPA, which means you won't need a pesky, proprietary TD-SCDMA handset to take advantage; unfortunately, though, regular commercial service won't begin until the end of the year. In the meantime, Unicom is expecting an expansion in the September time frame that would see the high-speed service expand to some 284 cities.
China Unicom's 3G network to be called "Wo"
We all had that "whoa" moment the first time we browsed, streamed, or torrented off a 3G network -- well, okay, many of us didn't have a "whoa" moment, but stay with us here: China Unicom has officially branded its nascent 3G offering as "Wo," which we think is a pretty cool and appropriate name all things considered. For comparison's sake, this lines up with China Telecom's "e-surfing" brand and China Mobile's "G3" -- so yeah, you might be able to argue that Unicom didn't have any serious competition in the marketing department. Wo's trials kick off on May 17 in 55 markets while construction simultaneously begins on the second round of launches, so it looks like China's finally getting really real with this 3G jazz. Cheers to that, we say.
