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Star Wars: The Old Republic is looking for corporate troubleshooters on the test server
Sometimes, being a corporate troubleshooter means that your job is identifying weak points in a company and strengthening infrastructure. Other times, such as in the Star Wars: The Old Republic update available on the test server, it means that your job is shooting trouble. Seems that Czerka Corporation has sort of lost control of an important test moon, and that means that player characters will need to visit a new daily hub as well as two new level 55 Flashpoints. These Flashpoints aren't the usual fare; they feature both a Hard Mode and a Story Mode, with the latter allowing any combination of roles to clear the flashpoint for shorter queue times and a more relaxed experience. You've also got two new reputations to explore, one for the daily hub and one for the upcoming Bounty Broker event. If you've done all there is to do on Makeb, the patch means you'll have plenty more to do soon. There's also a new Companions 101 piece on Corso Riggs, but really, a new patch is a bit more interesting.
Star Wars: The Old Republic talks instanced regions and hubs at NYCC
Last weekend's big convention, New York Comic Con, hosted another panel on Star Wars: The Old Republic. And perhaps to the surprise of the fans, this panel was all about numbers. Specifically, it was all about the numbers for upcoming content in the game, such as Flashpoints, Operations, and Warzones. Stephen Reid took his time to lay out what players can expect from this content and how many different areas players can expect, starting with 15 different Flashpoints at launch. The Flashpoints will not all be story-focused, according to Reid, with some focused more heavily on the puzzle or gameplay aspects. All of them, however, can be replayed at higher difficulties in the endgame. In addition, Reid showed off the upcoming fleet hubs for the game, the central gathering areas for players that feature vendors, auction systems, and a special "VIP Lounge" for people who purchased the Collector's Edition. With only a little over two months remaining until the game's launch, there's not much more time before these promised features become a reality.
Microsoft outlines new features for Windows Phone Mango's Music and Video Hubs
When Microsoft unveiled Windows Phone Mango last month, the company spent a lot of time walking us through some of the 500-plus changes to the OS -- most notably, conversation threads, people groups, enhanced search functionality, Twitter and LinkedIn integration, IE9, and the instantly responsive Bing Vision. It's no wonder, then, that Redmond didn't have much time to talk multimedia. Well, the company just spilled the beans in a blog post, laying out a raft of new features that run the gamut from podcasts to improved playback controls. We've got a lot to recap, so join us past the break, won't you? %Gallery-125313%
Newest producer letter for Final Fantasy XIV talks patch 1.18, dungeons, and camps
Starting in the next patch for Final Fantasy XIV, the little aetheryte camps won't be the only signs of civilization outside the main cities. According to the newest producer's letter from Naoki Yoshida, new camps and hamlets will be added to the map with the next patch, which is also slated to include the first changes to the game's battle system and instanced dungeons for ranks 30 and 50. These are features that players have been hearing about for some time, and it's excellent to have a more definite timeline for the implementation. The down side to this, of course, is that the larger dose of content and upgrades will mean a longer gap between patches, as patch 1.18 is currently set to be released in mid-June. Yoshida goes on to say that it's quite possible the team will break some of the content down and release a 1.17b patch at some point in May, just to help tide players over. Final Fantasy XIV players are encouraged to read the full letter and get ready for more sweeping changes, along with further previews of the dungeons due in the near future.
Check out our Droid X hub!
Engadget's review isn't in yet, but we've gathered everything we know and love about the Motorola Droid X so far into one convenient stop for all your Android-loving needs. Check it out!
Check out our NVIDIA Optimus hub!
If you're really, really into NVIDIA's Optimus switchable graphics (like some people around here) then you'll certainly want to hit up our brand new hub, which features all the products we've reviewed and all the things we know about our favorite topic.
Check out our E3 2010 hub!
This E3 was a big one -- Kinect, the new Xbox 360, and Nintendo's 3DS, just to name a few of the major developments in gaming. Either way, if you missed some of the action, you can head on over to our brand new E3 2010 hub and get caught up. Do it!
Check out our Dell Streak hub!
This one's been around quite a long time, but we've finally managed to cobble together just about all the knowledge we could dig up about the Dell Streak into one delicious, beautiful hub. Make sure you check it out.
Check out our Nintendo 3DS hub!
Nintendo officially rolled out and showed off the 3DS at E3 2010, and it's looking pretty good. If you missed any of the 3D action, be sure to head over to the all new Nintendo 3DS hub where you'll learn everything we know, as we find out. Enjoy.
Check out our PlayStation Move hub!
We've had our eye on Sony's motion controller for quite a while now, but at E3 2010 we finally got the pricing and availability we'd all been waiting for. If you've missed anything -- well, here's your chance to catch up on all the details at our PlayStation Move hub.
Check out our new Xbox 360 hub!
Did you hear? Microsoft just unleashed a new Xbox 360! You can get all the info we have on it at our new Xbox 360 hub!
Check out our new Kinect hub!
Just in case you missed the big announcements and news at E3 2010, we've gathered everything we know about Microsoft's latest in gaming, Kinect -- formerly known as Project Natal -- into one where you can study to your heart's content. Hit it up.
Check out our All Things D: D8 hub!
Couldn't get on the guest list for D8? Well then pop on over to our All Things D hub and check out all the news from D8 -- including Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Peter Chou and more!
Check out our Computex hub!
If you missed any of our Computex 2010 coverage, head on over to our Computex hub and catch up!
Confirmed: "Not charging" iPad does recharge
When TUAW reader Gregory P. wrote to us yesterday, claiming his "Not charging" iPad was, in fact, charging, I admit I was pretty skeptical. After all, the new iPads have been widely reported to be incompatible with USB hubs and lower-power USB ports. Gregory claimed to have charged up his new iPad even when the device reported that it wasn't charging. Gregory writes that he plugged in his 63% iPad into his Lenovo T61, where it reported itself to be "Not charging." Several hours later, the iPad reported an 87% battery level. As I've been plugging directly into A/C power or using a dedicated onboard port on one of my desktop because of those reports, I decided to give Gregory's suggestion a real world try. Last night, I plugged in my 83% iPad into one of my USB hubs. The unit reported "Not charging", as expected. Regardless, I left it plugged in and revisited it this morning. Sure enough, my battery was completely 100% charged. As Gregory wrote in his letter, "Maybe when it says it's not charging it is just charging slower due to less voltage or something, but it is actually charging!" It worked for me. Results may not be typical, so make sure to chime in below in the comments to let us know if it worked for you too.
Windows Phone 7 Series Marketplace gets pictured
Microsoft's Joe Belfiore did a really thorough job yesterday of walking us through the key hubs on the shiny new Windows Phone 7 OS, but one area that was conspicuously missed out in the overview was the Marketplace. Well, let us fill in that gap of knowledge right quick with the above image of the interface. As you can see, the first thing visible when you enter the hub is a full-screen feature for individual games or applications -- this could either work as with the music hub, wherein you see the last bit of content you accessed or, less awesomely, could function as a promotional (read: advertising) spot before you get into the market proper. The Marketplace is then fragmented into its constituent elements, with apps, games, music and podcasts leading you into their respective subsections. We've grabbed an image of how the Applications section will look as well, which you can see for yourself after the break.
Check out our new feature hubs!
You know, Engadget is a big place. Huge, really, and we hit a lot of news. Tons even. Metric tons. When there's a big story happening, we often do a number of posts covering every possible angle imaginable. We love being super thorough -- and we know you love it too -- but sometimes you don't want to go searching all over the place for that news (or searching for all the news on that item). So we've introduced individual pages for the big stories of the moment (or "hubs," as we've been calling them) -- they're just over there, on the right rail. They basically put all the really high priority material we have on a given device / event / experience in an easy to reach place, along with our hand plucked videos and galleries, so you get the whole story, not just little bits and pieces. Of course, they also let you see every single thing we've tagged for that particular story too, if that's your cup of tea. Our hope is that it makes it easier to make sense of the loads of material we write... and not-so-secretly, we think they look pretty cool too.Read - Palm Pre: The full storyRead - MWC 2009: The aftermathRead - Amazon's Kindle 2 unveiledRead - Windows 7 beta examined
Belkin takes USB hubs to the next level
Belkin has introduced three new clutter-destroying, space-saving hubs that will have you straightened up and back in business in no time. First there's the Swivel Hub ($29.99), which allows you to swing its four USB ports in any direction you'd like instead of having to use totally bendable cables to determine the angle of hub entry. Next up is the Clip-On ($29.99), a two port hub which opens up your workflow by clipping to the side of a desk and wrangling your loose cables -- unless your desk is thicker than 1.25 inches, which would make this product worthless. Finally, Belkin wants you to get acquainted with the Hub-To-Go ($49.99), a base of three ports which has a travel adapter containing four more that you can "take on the go", although you'll probably have to cancel your vacation plans since you just spent $50 on a USB hub.
