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iPhone 4 has 802.11n, but not the "awesome" 802.11n
I suspect many people were very happy to see that the iPhone 4 was listed as having 802.11n. I know that I was. I have a dual-band network at home which separates 802.11n from 802.11b/g, and that's made a huge difference in transfer times. But there's also another benefit of 802.11n: it can use the 5GHz frequency band instead of the 2.4Ghz. Without going into too much detail, most (but certainly not all) of the benefit of 802.11n comes if you use 5Ghz, because it isn't cluttered with other devices like 2.4Ghz is. So imagine my dismay when I went to the iPhone 4 technical specifications page and saw "802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi (802.11n 2.4GHz only)" listed there. I wanted to double check my suspicion that this was bad news for people who want to avoid the interference issues that come with 802.11b/g. When you have a question about Wi-Fi, especially in the Mac world, the guy to ask is TidBITS & Seattle Times columnist Glenn Fleishman. If you've ever read a great, informed (and informative) article on Wi-Fi that even a mere mortal could understand, chances are pretty good that Glenn wrote it. He wrote the most thorough analysis of the Wi-Fi woes at the iPhone 4 demo that I have seen anywhere. I asked Glenn about this on Twitter, and he confirmed my fears that 802.11n in 2.4Ghz will suffer from the same interference that b/g devices do. This makes "802.11n" partly just a marketing bullet point for iPhone 4 instead of a truly beneficial feature. If you're currently running a 5GHz-only N network, your iPhone won't take advantage. For 2.4GHz N networks, you will probably get some speed boost over G (Glenn estimated perhaps 1.5x when using an 802.11n base station). When copying a 940MB file over my home Wi-Fi network between a Mac desktop and laptop, 802.11n took 2 minutes, 14 seconds compared to 15 minutes 45 seconds on 802.11g. Then again, most people won't be doing large wireless file copies to/from their iPhones until/unless wireless synchronization comes along. So yes, Apple can boast that the iPhone 4 has 802.11n and they're telling the truth, but don't expect much practical difference day-to-day. Glenn suspects that given the newer chip and more efficient use of the radio spectrum, we might get better battery life on N than on G -- but we won't know for sure until the iPhones arrive.
NAB has a new ad in the hopes to retain spectrum
We just knew that although re-appropriating the DTV spectrum for broadband might be in our best interest, the broadcasters wouldn't agree. So in the hopes to bring their perspective to the people, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has distributed a 30 second ad that it is encouraging broadcasters all over the country to play as often as possible while most people are at home enjoying their holiday break in front of their HDTVs. We tried really hard to find it online because we just can't wait to see this one. We suspect that one thing it won't say is "help your poor local broadcasters who's antiquated business model is in jeopardy because the FCC doesn't want to artificially make us valuable anymore." Don't get us wrong, we love us some free HDTV, but we can't stand behind any entertainment industry if it requires government backing to make it economically viable.
Broadcasters predictably unsettled about FCC taking away spectrum
You had to know that the FCC's investigation into other uses for current broadcast DTV spectrum wouldn't be met warmly by broadcasters, now the NAB has come out and said it needs every bit of frequency available. Apparently up for discussion are its reasons why, as the group is at odds with FCC advisor Blair Levin over whether retrans fees are the only issue or, as NAB VP Jane Mago states, preserving HD for consumers is key. We're sure OTA viewers of channels leaving bandwidth on the table for multicasting, or worse simply unused as we discussed on the podcast would beg to differ, but the one thing that is for sure is the current broadcast TV system won't go quietly into the night, no matter what potential a new paradigm might hold.
Harmonix founders detail the company's failure-ridden road to success
Believe it or not, things weren't always going so well for Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchise developers Harmonix. Starting out in 1995 as a "music tech" company, founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy took four years of "misstarts and product concepts that never made it anywhere" before they had any success. Talking to CNN Money, the two detail five years of strange, misguided, or ill-informed ideas that eventually somehow lead to The Beatles: Rock Band.First up: "The Axe," something that Rigopulos describes as "a joystick music improvisation system." In so many words, you moved the joystick around and various sounds were produced. Unsurprisingly, only 300 were sold -- "a horrendous failure that led to a painful lesson," Rigopulos says. "You can't really build a business on an entertainment experience that only keeps people entertained for 15 minutes." Second, the two tried breaking into the (at the time) $10 billion Japanese karaoke market ... and met with resounding failure once again. Luckily for us, lessons learned overseas came back with the duo and Harmonix became a game company. Rigopulos and Egozy quickly changed their company's focus from "music tech" to "gaming," creating Frequency and Amplitude soon after. Though the games didn't directly lead to the financial success achieved later with Guitar Hero and Rock Band (GH didn't get off the ground until RedOctane approached Harmonix in the early oughts), both helped the now major developer to get a foot in the door.
Harmonix to 're-energize' its franchises after The Beatles: Rock Band
Sure, The Beatles: Rock Band developer Harmonix has been busy working on next week's big release for some time now, but did you know it's also working on "re-energizing" its "core franchises?" Harmonix PR overlord John Drake told CVG as much, saying that while the studio is ready to refocus on its existing portfolio, it's been busy making sure it got The Beatles game 100 percent right. "We were terrified while making the game, hoping we don't make [Apple Corps] mad at any point -- they're really nice and easy to work with, but this is The Beatles, you can't afford to mess this up." Considering the longtime rhythm game developer more or less re-energized its Amplitude and Frequency franchises with Rock Band Unplugged, we're taking a wild stab in the dark here when we suggest Drake's likely talking about Rock Band 3. And does "re-energizing" in this case mean "adding Project Natal functionality?" We're not sure yet, but we've got our fingers as uncrossed as possible, just in case.
Panasonic pries open room for WirelessHD availability in the UK
Panasonic has cleared a path for its WirelessHD equipped HDTV to launch in the UK now that Ofcom has opened up the necessary radio spectrum for use by all manufacturers. As it stood, manufacturers needed to get permission to use any part of the wireless spectrum, but now anyone should be able to use the 57-66GHz range. Expect the 54-inch version of Panasonic's wireless set to run around £5,000 when it becomes available in a few weeks, with other wireless TVs from LG and other coming later in the year.[Via Stuff]
Harmonix CEO wants an Amplitude sequel for PS3
Before they were cranking out unwavering weekly DLC and allowing single-minded fathers to finally form that family band they've always dreamed of (despite having thoroughly untalented children), Harmonix produced a little-known gem titled Frequency, and shortly thereafter, a sequel named Amplitude. While attention on these titles was washed away by the rising of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band tides, we might be seeing more of them yet.In a recent interview with Ars Technica, Harmonix CEO Alex Rigopulos declared his love for Amplitude, and mentioned his wishes to eventually revive the series. Considering that Sony owns that particular property, it would likely come in the form of a PSN download -- however, given their tireless Rock Band DLC schedule and their rapid, company-wide expansion, it might be a while before they can divert the necessary amount of focus to put Amplitude back on the multi-colored, instrument-specific tracks.
Intel's Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 overclocked to 5.5GHz
Right, so Intel's 3.73GHz Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 is fast enough for the vast majority of PC users across the globe, but not for Japanese overclocking enthusiast duck. Oh no -- duck decided to pair the chip up with ASUS' ROG Rampage II Extreme motherboard, which facilitates hardware-based OC'ing, in order to reach a top speed of 5510.09MHz. The point of the exercise? Just to say he could, not to mention set the bar for OC Team Italy to try and demolish.
Castcounting macro counts your spellcasts
Xalit is entertaining himself before the expansion by crafting some macros, and he's come up with a pretty clever one that will count the number of times you cast a certain spell. He's got a few different versions (including one that pushes the total out to "say" occasionally), but here's probably the most helpful:/cast Water Shield/run i="Water Shield" if ws==nil then ws=0 end t=GetSpellCooldown(i) if t==b then else c=0 end b=GetSpellCooldown(i) if b==t and c==0 then ws=ws+1 c=1 endWhich will both cast Water Shield for you (obviously, you'll have to change the name if you want to count casts of a different spell), and then use:/run SendChatMessage(ws,"SAY")To kick the count out to the Say chat channel. Naysayers among you may say "well that's pointless," and they're kind of right -- it doesn't really matter how many times you cast something, and the macro doesn't do anything else for you besides update a variable to keep track of that number.But it is interesting to see just how many times, say, you pressed the Fireball button during the raid last night, and maybe there is some use for this information somewhere (maybe checking the frequency of use or viability of certain spells or trinkets?). Might be a good macro to have when you want to know more about what you're casting.
Wii Warm Up: By the numbers
After some of the responses to yesterday's morning question, we thought it might be time to revisit something we've asked before: how many Wii games have you purchased? If you include renting and borrowing, how many have you played? Of course, this leads us to also ask ... how many "big" games (defined as you like) do you want to see Nintendo releasing for the Wii in a year's time? How many would you like to see released each month? Or, let's try it this way: if new Zelda, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, Metroid (we'll include Samus for the hell of it) and Mario games were all released within six months of one another, along with, let's say, a Kid Icarus game, would you buy them all (assuming you enjoy all those franchises)? What if, in that same period, we also saw games like Fatal Frame IV, Madworld, The Conduit, Samba de Amigo, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Dead Rising, and more, would you get them all? Right away? Or would it take you more than six months to accumulate the funds (and time) to play them all? Feel free to substitute with games you prefer if these aren't to your taste.Of course, this isn't even considering WiiWare and Virtual Console releases.
Open access: everything you always wanted to know, over at Engadget
Feeling frightened, confused, or tingly due to all this 700MHz auction talk and its "open access" rules? Truck on over to Engadget classic and get the full rundown on what you need to know.
Sony hates music games: no Traxion or Frequency?
IGN's David Doel recently had a conversation with Harmonix, the development team behind games like Frequency and Guitar Hero. The team proposed a sequel to the fan-favorite Frequency and Amplitude for the PSP, however Sony declined their request. The music game would've been well suited for the PSP, as the excellent gameplay of other music games, like Gitaroo-Man, show.However, to add insult to injury, it appears that the other music game heading to the PSP, Traxion, has also been canned. This music game from LucasArts was supposed to allow players to import their own songs into the game, a "Frequency-killer," as reported by IGN's nixice. He didn't give a reason, but it's sad to see that the music genre seems to be so neglected on our handheld.
CoreDuoTemp 0.8
CoreDuoTemp, the handy little app for monitoring your Intel Mac's temp, CPU usage and frequency, has been updated to version 0.8. New features include: window position saved menu extra indicator new panel prefs correction of the English translation German language added You can grab your own copy here.
