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Lytro pre-orders start shipping, infinite focusing now within reach
Those of you that scurried to get an early spot in the pre-order cue for Lytro's upcoming camera, ought to carefully skim your inboxes for an email confirming shipment of your infinite focusing shooter. Per a ton of tips from you, in addition to a post from the company's official blog, early orders of the unconventionally shaped camera that allows you to refocus after the fact are now en route to abodes stateside. When we played with it at its launch event, we came away impressed, yet ultimately longed for the underlying technology to be licensed to others -- something the company maintains it's actively exploring. No matter, with a unit in hand, look for our full review in the coming days.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Galaxy S II coming to SaskTel next month, we embark on northward migration
The Samsung Galaxy S II has yet to make its US debut, but it looks like our neighbors to the north will be getting it as early as next month. Yesterday, Canada's SaskTel announced via Twitter that it would launch the phone "within the next month," making it the first North American carrier to confirm the S II. Earlier this month, it looked as if Verizon would be the first to bring the device to the New World, but our hopes were crushed when the carrier debunked rumors of a July launch. It remains to be seen whether Sasktel's announcement will pave the way for a wider North American release, but we'll let you know as soon as we hear more.
Wall Street Journal confirms iPhone coming to Verizon
Rumors of the iPhone coming to Verizon are almost as old as the iPhone itself, and earlier today we heard about a Verizon event next week, cleverly timed for 11 AM on 1/11/11. That set off speculation across the Internet, but we paid special attention to when the Wall Street Journal confirmed the rumor, citing "a person familiar with the matter." The WSJ has a solid history and isn't prone to confirming without good sources, so it seems a sure thing at this point. While Apple has not been involved in this announcement (the WSJ says Apple declined to comment), many people have noted that Apple has generally not been involved in the "second carrier" in any country getting the iPhone. I will be glad to see the iPhone on Verizon for the same reason that I am glad The Beatles are finally on iTunes: so that people can stop talking about it and speculating about when it is going to happen. That said, I've paid enough attention to Verizon's customer service reputation that I'm not convinced that I would switch. Competition is almost always a benefit to customers, so I am hoping that the arrival of the iPhone on Verizon will give customers more choice about calling plans, data plans, and (heck, let me dream) more reasonable SMS pricing. Fingers crossed?
Ballmer: Microsoft will eventually support Kinect on PC
Now that Kinect competitors have begun to spring up, Microsoft's tipped its hand -- CEO Steve Ballmer told the BBC that his company will officially support the depth camera in Windows PCs at some undisclosed point in the future, confirming earlier suspicions. Whether that will just be part of a risky new operating system or just another notch in Games for Windows' belt is hard to say, but it's nice to know that there will be uses for those eight million cameras when we're done hacking and dancing our hearts out.
HTC Mozart slips out on official Orange UK website, shows us how to replace its SIM and battery
This is so bad, it's hilarious. As if the HTC Mozart needed any further confirmation of its existence and imminent arrival to British shores, Orange's official web portal has decided to instruct us on how to replace the internal bits of this unannounced Windows Phone 7 handset. That's right, even though HTC and Microsoft are acting all cloak and dagger about it, the freaking phone's name and likeness are hanging out on Orange's official website. Have we said the word "official" enough times already? Skip past the break for a couple more image grabs which are sure to disappear just as soon as Orange finally figures out what day of the month this is.
$149 WiFi-only Nook confirmed, 3G price dropped to $199 (update: official)
Turns out all our snooping was spot on with this one. We first spotted a simpler, cheaper Nook making its way through the FCC late last month, and then only last night we got tipped off to a $150 price point for the e-reader sans cellular connection. Now Best Buy has confirmed the whole thing with its listing of the BNRV100 model, which comes in over $100 cheaper than Barnes and Noble's original ($259), although Best Buy has seen fit to give that a price trim as well. We like where this is going, especially if it triggers B&N's competitors to lower their own fees. [Thanks, Paul] Update: Barnes and Noble has now gone fully official with its new $149 Nook. The 3G version has taken a price drop to $199 as well, matching the pricing indicated by Best Buy. B&N is today also outing its firmware version 1.4, which allows the free use of AT&T wireless hotspots everywhere.
Official Patch 3.3 confirmation and patch notes [Updated]
Confirming our earlier post, Blizzard poster Zarhym has just announced the release of Patch 3.3: Fall of the Lich King today on the official WoW forums. The complete patch notes are available here on WoW.com or on Blizzard's patch notes page. There are still several hours to go until the patch goes live, so until then, check out our Patch 3.3 resources: Guide to Patch 3.3 Patch 3.3 patch notes By the way, commenters -- this is official! You owe us 10g. You know who you are. We'll be watching our mail! Update: We will be seeing the trailer tomorrow (not tonight). Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
Argent Hippogryph cost lowered
It's been rumored already, but now we've got Blizzard confirmation: the cost of the Argent Hippogryph (obtained as a final reward from the Argent Tournament) will be lowered in "the next minor patch" to 150 Champion's Seals. We don't know exactly when ("next minor patch" could be 3.1.2, or possibly a quick hotfix before then), but Blizzard is for sure lowering the price.And to make it even more confusing, they're already telling us ahead of time that it might be bugged: the display may not get updated right away, which would mean that ingame, it'll still say that the bird sells for 250 seals, when it really only sells for 150. Don't ask us how, if they know the issue is coming, they can't fix it when they change things, but who knows how Blizzard's code works anymore? At any rate, if you're planning on buying the 'gryph and want to save some seals, hold off on buying for now.
Tracking dead bosses in the instance you step into
As you will have noticed by now if you've entered an instance in progress since patch 3.1, Blizzard's new binding notification system is in effect. Whenever you join an instance in which bosses have already been killed, you get a warning that staying in there will bind you to that instance -- thus hopefully preventing you from accidentally sticking to an instance you don't like.However, as a few players have noted, there's still some functionality missing there. While the notification will tell you that bosses have been killed, it won't yet tell you which ones, so a malicious or confused guild could invite you a Naxx in which only one wing has been downed, when really all they've got left is Sapphiron and KT (or no bosses at all, if they really wanted to ruin your week). Fortunately, Zarhym agrees, and says that discussion about adding a little bit to the notification is incoming. It seems a little bit weird to just have a list of killed bosses on your screen when you first walk into the instance, but maybe they could add some sort of "boss tracker" to the instance maps, where you could see at a glance what was going on in any instance you join.As a few other people say in the thread, most of you may never have seen this notification pop up -- if you only join instances where nothing is killed yet, you'll never see it. But for those of us who take boss kills where we can get them (in PuGs and guild runs where an opening appears), it's a nice feature to have.Thanks, Medros!
In the category of "finally": Raid ID confirmation windows in 3.1
The 3.1 PTR has brought a lot of wonderful quality of life improvements, but here's one that players and GMs alike will undoubtedly appreciate more than a lot of them: you finally, finally get a confirmation window when you enter an instance that would lock you to it. You get the option to accept the lockout and stay in the instance or leave the instance and save your ID for later. You have 15 seconds to make said choice. This means no more getting screwed out of heroics by some idiot who forgot he already ran Violet Hold today or any other of the myriad ways you can lose your ID for the day (or week). It's about time. Our good friend BRK found this feature without even realizing it, as WI reader Brandon Tilley discovered it in BRK's screenshots of a PTR raid last night. Thanks for the heads-up on this exciting change, Brandon, and way to miss the boat, BRK! Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
Patch 3.0.2 finally confirmed to arrive today
Slorkuz, a blue poster on the EU forums, finally confirmed outright that the realms are down to apply patch 3.0.2. I always find it odd that Blizzard waits until the last possible second to confirm any sort of release date – no matter how many hints and "read between the lines" announcements they make.And as usual, the announcement is coming off the EU official forums. I'd bet some money that we'll see the patch notes up in EU before the US.
Tigole confirms dual specs are still in the works
Many people have been wondering about when the promised dual specs will appear in the beta. For those that don't remember, back at the World Wide Invitational the developers said that they would be rolling out the ability for players to switch easily and quickly between multiple specs. At the time one of the main points was that these quick changes between specs would not require gold.Tigole confirmed last night that dual specs are currently being worked on. They are figuring out all the details internally still (which is a good thing). When a poster asked "I imagine by this stage we wouldn't see it until a patch after release?" Tigole replied "Most likely in a patch but it's not too far off." Now you can interpret that different ways. Perhaps he means in a beta patch or a patch immediately following Wrath's release. Either way the fact that these dual specs will eventually be here will make many people quite happy.Last night I was talking to some guild mates about it and the word that was thrown around was "game changing" for Protection Warriors and other low DPS specs. Since the Protection Warrior would just be able to flip into a DPS spec for farming, he would no longer need a farming alt – significantly changing the way the game is played.
Palm to close all retail locations but one, for real
If our solemn word wasn't enough to convince you of trouble in retail-ville for Palm, take this news as empirical. According to the smartphone-maker, it is officially shuttering all of its retail locations but one over the next five weeks. Originally, we thought that the airport locations would steer clear of the axe, but news today is that 34 stores total -- 26 airport-based and eight branded stores -- will be saying adios before long. Sure, this news doesn't sound real hot, but Palm claims they want to cut costs and focus on its next-gen phones, which is what we've been asking them to do all along... so maybe this is a blessing in disguise?
The case of the missing resolution independence
What the heck happened to resolution independence?In Gruber's review of the Powerbook a few years ago, he trumpeted the coming of a feature long evading the Mac faithful, a resolution independent interface. Others at the time expected the same thing to appear in Leopard: UI elements that were completely independent of the screen's resolution, and, finally, a fully scalable interface, and freedom from whatever screen you were working on. Higher resolutions without squeezing down the UI elements. And as we got closer to Leopard, more and more word went around that OS 10.5 would have it. At WWDC 2006, some developers even confirmed it. And Apple even filed a patent to get it done.Except now it's November, Leopard is out, and resolution independence is nowhere to be found, at least at the user-accessible level. What gives?
CNN re-confirms iPhoneSIMfree's iPhone SIM unlock hack
Independent verification of seemingly dubious claims makes the world go 'round, which is why we're a little thankful the iPhoneSIMfree crew has deigned CNN worthy of having the second shot at verifying their iPhone SIM unlock software. We know it won't quiet all the conspiracy theorists out there, but their news wire reads as follows: Los Angeles software consultant Brett Schulte, who is not affiliated with the developers, demonstrated the software for CNN Friday evening. An iPhone that had the new software appeared to work on the T-Mobile system just seconds after Schulte replaced the AT&T SIM card with a T-Mobile SIM card. We followed up with Brett, a consultant with CNN, and he confirmed the iPhoneSIMfree unlocked his iPhone as well -- we also really wanted to ask about getting in touch with Ted Turner for a summer internship, but we got the vibe that it'd be a no-go. Now, if only iPhoneSIMfree would release that product of theirs to the public -- perhaps that might land along side the CNN story they're gunning for?Update: CNN's full story is now live. Still no software. Read - CNN re-confirms hack (brief) Read - Our original hack confirmation
WotLK trademarked by Blizzard
And it looks like the final nail has been hammered in to support the "Wrath of the Lich King" speculation-- as MMO Champion points out, Blizzard Entertainment has registered "Wrath of the Lich King" as a trademark (you've got to do a search for it on the USPTO's website, as they don't allow links to searches), all but confirming that the next expansion will take us to Arthas' domain in Northrend.Now, just to play devil's advocate, there is still a chance that Blizzard did this as a smokescreen, and that the expansion has nothing to do with the Lich King. But the trademark was filed on July 28th, which by my estimation puts it a few days ahead of the speculation-- that's a pretty strong indication that while Blizzard waited until the last minute to do it (knowing BlizzCon was only a week or so away), they didn't wait long enough to keep us from leaking it out.The other note is that the patent trademark (note to self: don't piss off the lawyers!) covers not only computer games, but also "comic books," "trading cards," "coloring books," and "greeting cards," among a number of other types of items. I don't know if I ever saw any Burning Crusade greeting cards, but maybe Blizzard expects their little WoW empire to get even bigger in the future.So: Friday. BlizzCon. Wrath of the Lich King. Be there!Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Microsoft confirms Zune project
Well, it's not much, but we've got a quote and an official confirmation of the Zune project at Microsoft. The Zune brand is being billed as a "music and entertainment" project aimed at "connecting with others to discover new music and entertainment and will deliver a family of hardware and software products." Here's what they sent over, by way of Microsoft's GM of marketing, Chris Stephenson:"Today we confirmed a new music and entertainment project called Zune. Under the Zune brand, we will deliver a family of hardware and software products, the first of which will be available this year. We see a great opportunity to bring together technology and community to allow consumers to explore and discover music together."We've got a lot of questions waiting to be answered (as we're sure you do too), and we'll post updates here as we find out more information from our peeps at Microsoft. In the mean time, keep yourself occupied with their official announcement in Billboard Magazine, as well as two new Zune blogs sprouted by people working on the project.Update: Billboard confirms that "additional Zune-branded devices will follow, including a portable video player and, potentially, a portable game device," as well as an initial device offering WiFi and drive-based storage. The WiFi won't just be for moving around music files, as in the MusicGremlin, however. Apparently other "seven or eight" wireless usage scenarios are envisioned, as suspected, and aims at providing "ubiquitous access to digital media from a wide range of Windows-powered devices in what ultimately aspires to be one part MySpace, one part iTunes and one part Xbox Live." Yikes. Zune will definitely be a general media player, though at launch music will be the "primary content," later also including video and "other types of media." More to come...
Rumor: 360 wireless gaming receiver $20; wheel $130; headset $60; camera $40; Halo and Forza faceplates $20 [update 1]
Thanks to a reliable source from Microsoft, we've learned some important details about the new peripherals announced for the Xbox 360, including pricing and a few Halo faceplate (non)specifics. Check out the leaked info and prices below: 360 wireless gaming receiver (which enables wireless 360 controllers, headsets, and wheels on your PC): $20 Wireless racing wheel: $130 Wireless headset: $60 Xbox Live Vision Camera (with headset, one month of Live Gold, and one arcade -- presumably Xbox Live Arcade -- game): $40 New faceplates for Halo (with the Master Chief on 'em, but not Halo 3 specific) and Forza (no word on connections to the sequel): $20 each 256 MB portable memory unit (MU): no official price yet, but definitely not four times the cost of the older 64MB MU Besides acknowledging that the PC is "the biggest gaming device of all," MS appears to be setting an agressive price for its most relevant new PC accessory, the wireless gaming receiver (at least in comparison to the outrageously priced 360 wireless networking adapter). Unfortunately, no price was revealed as of yet for the USB-based HD-DVD add-on.We've speculated in our recent podcasts as to what would happen to the various 360 SKUs when price drops inevitably occur. An interesting theory bandied about by prolific Joystiq Contributor epobirs (on our earlier bump-to-256MB-MU post) was that a $20 price drop for the Core system, coupled with a $20 price drop on the 64MB MU, would finally allow folks to pick up a capable non-Premium bundle for the original $300 Core price point. (Not a bad way to undercut PS2 memory card prices, too.) We hope to get official confirmation on this info in the not-too-distant future.[Update: Sorry, had the camera price wrong in the headline; it now matches the price of the bundle listed in the body of the text below.]See also: 360's Mem Unit getting a bump to 256MB? (Comment from epobirs) Use 360 wireless peripherals with a PC Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event Joystiq / Engadget podcasts from Day One and Day Two of E3 2006
Region-free PS3, free online multiplayer confirmed
During a Q&A session with media over lunch after yesterday's GDC keynote, Sony's Phil Harrison confirmed that PS3 software will be region free and that multiplayer gaming will also be free.While we'd heard rumblings of the region-free set-up for games back in early November, we hadn't heard any official confirmation outside of Australia until just the other day. Importers (as well as online gamers) should be quite pleased with the development, though this move likely won't follow for Blu-ray movie discs. It's good to see the region-free status of PSP games spread to the PS3's.If online multiplayer is included as part of Sony's free basic service (known internally as the "PlayStation Network Platform"), then what would constitute Sony's premium service besides the typical content downloads for games? Subscriptions for movie and/or music services, perhaps? And going back to the region-encoding news, it's heartening for our friends on the Continent to hear Phil's following statement: "It's possible for developers to put all the TV formats - PAL, NTSC, HDTV, and so on - on the disc." Can Sony bring the world together with games?[Thanks, DarkFlash; image taken from Final Fantasy Odyssey]See also: Free basic service on "PlayStation Network Platform" GDC: The PS3 keynote blow by blow ["P(S)NP" just an internal name] PS3 region encoding unlikely? [from Sony Computer Ent. Australia] PS3 to share region encoding on Blu-ray [for the U.S. and Japan?]
