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HTC EVO Shift 4G vs. Motorola Cliq 2... fight!
HTC's ThunderBolt along with Motorola's Atrix 4G and Droid Bionic might be taking the overwhelming majority of the attention here at CES over the past few days, but remember that both companies have introduced some other models that are expected to be serious midrange breadwinners for their respective carriers. One of the most obvious head-to-head matches would be the HTC EVO Shift 4G taking on the Motorola Cliq 2, both launching this month on Sprint and T-Mobile, respectively. %Gallery-113461%
iPad patent suggests landscape dock connector ... again
We've heard about this before, but a new patent illustration hints again at a second dock in a future version of the iPad, one that will enable you to both charge and sync your iPad from a landscape setup. Honestly, it seems a little redundant to have two dock connectors on there, since you'll never use more than one at a time anyway. Still, competitors are already making use of a landscape charging setup, and Apple's been hinting about switching to a landscape charging display for a while. Could be that when we do see the next version of the iPad announced (likely next January), you'll have your option of which way to display it while charging.
Patent illustrations hint at double-dock iPad, touch-based corner button
Patently Apple has a few new patent illustrations from China that may hint at future iPad hardware features. The first is a second dock on the side of the tablet. As you can see above, the connector would come in handy if you wanted to view the iPad in landscape form, but didn't want to have a cable sticking out of the side. Personally, I can't really see Apple duplicating functionality in this way, though -- while a second port would be handy, it seems a waste to have a completely separate port used only half the time. Like most patents, this is only an idea at this point -- Apple isn't required to actually use it in a future release. The second idea is more interesting, in my mind: the images show what seems to be a touch-sensitive area on the corner of the front of the iPad. PA presumes that this would be a button-less button, an area you could tap or press to do things like return to the iPad's homepage or flip pages in iBooks. Now that's a really interesting idea -- the front glass section of the iPhone and iPad is pretty much unused at this point, and if Apple could work it out so that even part of it could become functional (even in a limited way), that would be exciting. And finally, it's worth noting that quite a few of these pictures have what's presumably a small camera sitting at the top of the iPad's screen. Yes, by now it's pretty much a given that the iPad will come with a camera in the next iteration, but there's another slice of evidence to stick in the growing proof sandwich.
Sports Illustrated: Cost-cutting has hindered iPad app
If you're a regular reader of the Sports Illustrated (SI) publication for the iPad, you may have noticed something unusual / different in the latest issue. The SI iPad edition is now only viewable in landscape mode, no longer supporting portrait mode as it did in previous issues. If you hold your iPad in landscape mode and then turn it to portrait mode the message, "This page is intended to be viewed in landscape mode. (There's nothing wrong with your iPad -- just turn it horizontally.)" appears. Guest editor of the SI iPad edition, Josh Quittner (Time Magazine), comments on this change in his personal blog. Quittner says that he believes the optimal viewing experience for photo-driven magazines, like SI, is in landscape mode. He also adds that by not editing in two formats (landscape and portrait) some innovative new features have been introduced, like "Super Loooooong View" - bringing a "reveal" effect to photos "akin to centerfold, or poster view." Quittner points out that another advantage of a single format issue is its reduced size. Coming in about 30% smaller than previous issues, SI can be downloaded in under a minute. But Quittner points out that download time isn't the only consideration, here. With other magazine publications reaching and even exceeding 500 megabytes, Quittner asks, "Who wants to store media that big on a 16 gigabyte device?" Finally, Quittner does admit that economy comes into play, too. He says that by implementing the landscape-only format their work load is reduced by at least a third. "Why not add more designers?" Quittner responds, "Well, if we were able to build a real business, with subscriptions that offered our iPad versions to readers at a reasonable price, that would be a no brainer. But we can't yet, so the best approach for us is to experiment with the format, marshal our (human) resources and start building products on other platforms that will allow us to scale up as our business grows." You may remember this video from way back in December of 2009 demonstrating Time Inc.'s vision for a tablet-based version of SI - prior to the announcement of the iPad. Back then, Time Inc. would have users download the SI app from the iTunes Store, but pay Time Inc. directly for further issues. Naturally, Apple didn't like this. Currently, Apple doesn't allow publishers to offer subscription based content on the iTunes store. But if rumors of the iNewsstand are to be believed, it's going to be pretty interesting to see how all this pans out. [Hat tip to AppleInsider]
The cities and world of Final Fantasy XIV
If you're all about living the life of a pirate, then odds are good you don't mind being restricted to Limsa Lominsa in the Final Fantasy XIV beta. But if you've done the sea serpent tango more than once, Ul'dah and Gridania are no doubt sounding pretty good. So it's a good thing that MMOSite is reporting that the next phase of beta will start in September and will include the two heretofore unseen cities as playable areas. Considering the recent hands-on experience with the starter cities, we think it's well within the realm of possibility. Of course, one of the major components to making each of the starting cities and subsequent areas stand out is the worldbuilding efforts of the development team. The most recent Making of Eorzea documentary covers precisely this, and not coincidentally, it can be viewed past the cut. With a discussion of the scenery and the visual culture of the game's landscape, the video is something every Final Fantasy XIV player can enjoy, and it shows that the vibrancy of the world has been a big priority during development.
Breakfast Topic: So we were driving through The Barrens ...
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. My husband and I have been playing since he bought the game for us on Valentine's Day of 2006, while we were dating. In June, we got engaged and I started planning the wedding. We drove from the Phoenix area through the Hoover Dam and desert to Vegas in April 2007. Our human characters were around level 40 or so when we set out on our adventure, so we hadn't seen too much of Azeroth. It's hard to look around when you're running from ?? beasts just for a flight path, but what we did see stuck with us. The entire drive to Vegas was filled with arguments and discussions about the landscape we saw as we drove. I thought it looked like Westfall, and he claimed it was more like the Redridge Mountains. Well, maybe some areas, I conceded. We agreed that none of it looked like Elwynn Forrest. I don't think we even mentioned The Barrens, but we had only traveled through The Barrens briefly for his warlock quests. It was a fun drive filled with WoW, even though we were nowhere near a computer. What places have you been that remind you of the Azerothian landscape? Do you see the World of Warcraft everywhere you look? Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions, and be sure to sign up for Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!
iPhone OS 4 beta 3 adds orientation lock, iPod controls to multitasking bar
9to5Mac reports that new features have been added to the iPhone's multitasking bar as of the release of iPhone OS 4 beta 3 earlier today. Swiping left from the multitasking bar now accesses a new set of controls. On the far left is an orientation lock, which disables the iPhone's auto-switching between portrait and landscape orientation. This achieves via software the same thing as the iPad's dedicated orientation lock hardware switch. It will make using the iPhone in a reclined position much easier; no longer will the iPhone switch between orientations seemingly at random as you're catching up on e-mails just after waking up. And there was much rejoicing. To the right of the orientation lock is a set of three controls for play/pause and track skipping in the iPod app, as well as a dedicated icon for the app itself. It seems likely this will replace the current "notification window" method for accessing iPod controls via a double-tap of the Home button. Cool bit of functionality coming soon in the iPhone OS 4.0 release. [Via MacRumors]
What's in the iPhone 4.0?
Willkommen, Besucher von spiegel.de. Möchten Sie ein Übersetzung? Hier drucken. Well, we didn't really expect this to come so soon after the iPad release, but sure enough, Apple is going to show us the iPhone 4.0 operating system this Thursday. That doesn't give us a lot of time for speculation, but I'm sure we'll squeeze it in. As per our reader expectations, various rumors and leaks, and other random news and scuttlebutt, what can we expect to see in a new iPhone OS? Multitasking. Yup. If Apple's going to answer the naysayers, this is when it will happen. Of course, it will be done Apple's way (as we've heard, the new OS will probably still rely on notifications for most apps, and incorporate more of an "app-switching" idea rather than full multitasking), but the iPhone 4.0 will likely be able to run more than one third-party app at a time. A new home screen. This one's probably a little more of a guess, since Apple didn't mix up the home screen, even for its historic iPad. Though, since the iPhone is a smartphone, and since this is one of the most vocal complaints we've heard from actual users of the iPhone, a new screen of information would be very welcome. Better app management. With iPad and iPhone apps now out there, we've all got a lot of apps to deal with. From the longtime idea of "stacks" for apps, to the ability to remove official apps, to app gestures and navigation, the iPhone needs a better way to browse through apps, and it's likely that we'll see it this week. Landscape mode/switch. This one's a shot in the dark from me, but when you play with the iPad, one of the first things you notice is that it's able to adapt to any kind of usage situation; even when you turn it on the home screen, the icons adjust to the way that you want to use it, rather than the other way around. What else can we tell you? With just a few days to speculate, that's probably a good start. We've waited a lot longer than three days to hear about a new Apple product before, but three days has never seemed so long.
Tricking your iPhone to play TV shows and movies in portrait view
By default, movies and TV shows in the iPod portion of the iPhone and iPod touch play in landscape view. The biggest change with respect to video orientation came about with iPhone OS 2.0, which provided the option for landscape-right viewing (that is, with the volume and silent/vibrate buttons facing up). While most videos could, and should, be viewed in landscape, there are times that call for a portrait perspective -- for example, when placing your iPhone into a dock, which is what I do when working out. Getting your iPhone to play a movie or TV show in portrait mode requires a simple change in the video's tag, from TV Show or Movie to Podcast. Simply right-click on the file and select "get info "(or you could use the Command-I shortcut). Then, in the "Media Kind" section within the "Options" tab of the video, select Podcast. Now, the videos will show up in both the Podcasts and Videos section of the iPod portion on your iPhone. Obviously, this isn't something you'd want to do with every movie or TV show in your library. So, to revert the file back to its old self, you'd want to follow the same process and change the video back to a TV show or movie.
Leaked Sense ROM with landscape mode looks wider than it is tall
Landscape orientation: a bastion of width-lovers everywhere. Indeed, hearts have to be melting on news that the leaked T-Mobile USA-branded HD2 ROM -- which has somehow made it onto some Touch Pro2s thanks to xda-developers' usual black magic -- seems to have revealed a new landscape mode for Sense, the beautified WinMo skin formerly known as TouchFLO. Though this makes a ton of sense for devices like the Touch Pro2 that actually need to be used sideways when the keyboard's deployed, we think it'll find plenty of use on slates like the HD2, too. Won't it?
Nokia N900 glitch leads to useful portrait mode, caught on video
File this under "it's not a bug, it's a feature" if true. According to Guyver at the maemo.org forums, some glitch in the OS caused his Nokia N900 to switch into portrait mode for everything, not just dialer and photo apps as previously allowed. We'd love to eliminate the need for two hands to run our favorite chunks of mobile software, but so far we haven't been able to recreate his trick. Try it at home if you'd like by tilting the device to launch the phone app, then sliding up the screen and closing the app. Perhaps the gang at Espoo can turn this into a legit update -- if they're awesome people, of course. Video after the break.
Building MMO landscape scenes
Landscapes have been a staple component of almost every MMO in recent memory. With the exception of some sci-fi titles, most MMOs take place on the land of some imagined island or continent. Some use stylised fantasy landscapes that run smoothly on even low-end computers while others have managed almost photo-realistic visuals at the cost of performance. But have you ever thought about what's going on behind the scenes in your favourite MMO? Most of us don't think about how the computer is actually drawing the terrain we run around on. We don't give much thought to the different ways each MMO renders the water in lakes, rivers and oceans. And just how does your computer render so many trees and plants without grinding to a halt? As part of my masters degree in computer science, I got to grips with a number of these techniques and found it a fascinating thing to learn about. Now when I play a new game or see MMO screenshots, I can't help but think about what the computer is doing in the background and how particular visual effects could have been achieved. In this technical article, I talk about some of the components of an MMO landscape scene and a few of the techniques used in creating the graphics behind them.
Building MMO landscape scenes, part 2
From oceans and rivers to ponds and puddles, water is one of those things that really improves an MMO's visual quality. Practically every fantasy MMO makes use of water in one way or another and they all do it a little differently. This gives the appearance that the water is moving and I've seen the technique in World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2 and a few other MMOs.
Frustratingly long secret code enables totally useful landscape email on Pre
It's one thing to bury something like developer mode -- a mode that the average Pre user will never need -- behind a cute-but-exhausting throwback Konami code, but it's quite another to hide useful stuff that way. A PreCentral tipster discovered that entering "RocknRollHax" on the keyboard (and yes, capitalization is important here) while in the email app enables the previously missing capability to use it in landscape mode; presumably Palm hid it from end users because they thought it was too buggy or weird for mainstream use, but it certainly works alright for us. Worst part is that the code needs to be re-entered each and every time the email app starts, so you'd better really want it -- but at least you don't have to root to get it.
iPhone app roundup: Quickoffice, Otto Matic, Evernote 2
In the hustle and madness of yesterday's wayback machine activity, there were a couple of App Store introductions (and a notable upgrade) that might have slipped through... First up: The long-awaited version of Quickoffice for iPhone that allows editing of Word and Excel files hit the store today and was demoed at CTIA. [Looks like the new Quicksheet is available now, but the full bundle and the Quickword standalone app aren't on sale yet as of Thursday morning.] While QO has had a 'mobile files' tool on the iPhone for a while now, this is the first build of the venerable portable office suite (which has been a favorite on Palm handhelds for years) that can do editing in both formats. Quickoffice for iPhone can do font formatting and cut, copy and paste within Word documents -- presumably to be tied in with system-wide C/P in the OS 3.0 world-to-come. Both the Excel and Word tools will support landscape mode for extra editing area. Files on the iPhone can be transferred off the device using WiFi to a local Mac, or straight to a MobileMe account. Quickoffice for iPhone is shipping now for an "introductory price" of $19.99, but if you just want the Excel spreadsheet editor (formerly MobileFiles Pro) you can have it for $12.99; the Word document editor is also $12.99. Quickoffice Files (previously known as MobileFiles 2.0) is $3.99 and offers similar file transfer capability to Readdle and other file managers. We're getting a review copy for a more thorough walkthrough later this week. It's worth noting that a Microsoft exec hinted at a version of Office itself for the iPhone that may be coming sometime in the not-too-distant future. Second... who doesn't love a good robot game? For $4.99, you can now dive into Pangea's classic Otto Matic series with the company's new title for iPhone, Otto Matic: Alien Invasion. The B-movie style game pits Otto against the attacking Brain Aliens from Planet X; his job is to save as many humans as possible. Otto Matic: Alien Invasion features 10 levels and 25 different enemies, multiple weapons and activities, and quite a bit of fun. Lastly, the TUAW top pick Evernote has been updated with a nifty landscape mode, thumbnail viewing, improved performance, favorites sorting, and an embedded web browser to reduce the tap a link --> Safari --> back to home screen --> scroll around --> relaunch Evernote loop-the-loop annoyances. Evernote 2.0 for iPhone remains a free download, and the basic Evernote service is also free; a year of pro-level service costs $45.
One Shots: Dark Elf Moonrise
A darkening sky, a distant castle, and twisted greenery; Warhammer Online's art direction conveys a twisted world. You can almost feel the chill in the wind, as the clouds scuttle across the sky, retreating from the darkness to come. Today's picturesque Warhammer Online One Shots comes to us courtesy of Gitwit, Rank 8 Goblin Squig Herder from the Casualties of WAR guild on Thorgrim US. He ran across this great view in his recent travels, and decided to share it with the rest of us here on Massively. Gitwit noted: Taking a moment from the hunt to admire the moonrise in the Dark Elf area. Now ... back to the regularly schedule slaughter of beasts and High Elfs.While you're traveling this weekend, why not take a moment to stop and show off the world around you? We love to see reader-submitted landscapes that show off game design. (Or, sometimes just how awesome your computer is to be able to render it all.) We can always use more landscapes! Just send them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name and a quick description. (Guild and server welcome too!) We'll post them out here for people to snag and make into their desktop backgrounds, and give you the credit for the great eye.%Gallery-9798%
Apple to release new iPhone/iPod touch dock?
Electronista reports on a patent filing for an iPhone/iPod touch dock that could allow you to both charge and play video in landscape mode, simultaneously. The patent was filed on September 5, 2007 -- near the time of the iPod touch debut. The so-called "dock" looks more like the tiny holder that ships with the iPod touch, with the exception of a dock connector plugged in.Apple does, however, file patents that it might not ever use -- as do most other companies. What do you think? Could this be a new dock design, or is it the patent for the included iPod touch stand?
Player vs. Everything: Loading...
A few weeks ago, I was reading an Age of Conan interview with Shannon Drake where he was discussing several of the features that would be present in the game. One of the questions he was asked was why Funcom made the choice to use world zones for AoC instead of a seamless world. If you haven't heard the terminology before, games with world zones are games like EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and Guild Wars, where you have a loading screen when you pass from area to area. Seamless worlds include games like World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, where you can pass between different game areas without a loading screen. Seamless worlds still have loading screens, of course-- just not for most major zones that you'll be traveling through. Shannon's answer was interesting. He admitted that their choice was partially due to the trade-offs required when designing a next-gen game (graphics are a major resource hog), but then he also talked about immersion and world design. Although Hyboria was supposed to be an enormous landmass, they didn't want to make a game that took forever to walk across. On the other hand, they didn't want to reduce the epic scale of the world by reducing a cross-continent journey to five minutes. Now, maybe that's just their canned answer to keep the fans happy with loading screens, and maybe it really was part of their game design-- probably a nice helping of both. Either way, it's worth considering. Do loading screens really help your game immersion?
Nokia N95 gets iPhone-like screen rotation via rotateMe app
This looks to be a pretty handy app, rotateMe for Symbian OS 3rd edition devices -- a version for UIQ is also available -- lets you quickly switch between portrait and landscape modes on your handset. The neat bit is that by apparently making use of the N95's camera sensor, iPhone-like switching will become possible with the upcoming v2.0 software. Word has it that we can expect the auto switch feature in November but until then you can either run it manually or just watch the vid after the break again and again.[Via All About Symbian]
A face in Searing Gorge
Folks are saying this has been around since release, but I've never seen this before, either-- Serevarno found a face in the landscape of Searing Gorge. You can really only see it on the minimap, and while it is pretty messy, it's too clean to have happened by chance. The image almost looks like that "Andre the Giant has a posse" picture, doesn't it?Bornakk jokes that the Titans left their face there before heading off to another world, but while that's probably not the case (Titans aren't that grubby), it is interesting that he should say the Titans leave their images sitting around-- we've already seen Titan statues appear in the videos for Northrend, and it's been confirmed there's a Titan instance up there. Leaving their images sitting around is definitely something they are wont to do.But of course it's doubtful this has anything to do with the lore-- at most, it's just a developer hiding an Easter Egg, and at least, it's just a coincidence. Still neat, though.
