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BlizzCon schedule posted
Blizzard has posted the schedule for this year's BlizzCon event, and there aren't too many surprises at all. We already expected to see most of the panels, so while there'll be the usual favorites like lore and art panels for each game, and two different World of Warcraft class panels (those are always fun, with devs confronted by players with class balance issues), there aren't any unexpected sessions popping up. They haven't revealed, say, a "new WoW expansion" panel, or a "next-gen MMO" panel.That doesn't mean those won't happen -- it probably does mean we won't see demos for anything announced at Friday's keynote, as the schedule is pretty full already, but in the past when Blizzard has announced an expansion, for example, they usually spend a lot of time in the "Dungeons and Raids" panel talking about what they're doing with the new material. We'll have to see.Finally, it appears, somewhat strangely, that the live DirecTV broadcast on Friday might actually cut off the end of the popular contests at the end of the day -- the broadcast ends at 8, and the contests end an hour later. Hopefully stream subscribers won't miss out on some of the fun. They won't have that problem on Saturday, as the broadcast runs all the way through Ozzy's concert. And of course, don't forget to add our meetup on your own schedule -- we're kicking things off on Thursday night. Sounds like fun!Update: Blizzard has since retracted the schedule.Update x2: Blizzard has posted a new schedule. BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there's some great looking costumes.
Pocket Books releases signing schedule for BlizzCon
Our friends at Blizzplanet have posted the official Pocket Books signing schedule for BlizzCon -- both Richard Knaak and Christie Golden will be live in attendance and signing throughout the weekend, and you can find the full schedule after the break. Both Knaak and Golden have written popular Warcraft novels, so bring your copies and you might walk away with them signed.As far as I know, this is the first sign of a schedule we've seen for the convention. Blizzard usually does announce a schedule of panels and events a few days ahead of time (and of course, when you get your packet there at the door, there's a program with the full schedule inside), but they usually cut it pretty close. As of this writing, eight days until showtime, there is no official schedule yet posted on the site.But this will give you at least one thing to plan on seeing (and we can tell you for sure that Friday morning will be the official keynote, with Saturday evening being the Ozzy show, if the way they've done it in the past is any indication). And as long as you're making a schedule up, don't forget to stop by our meetup on Thursday night -- not only will we have WoW.com staffers live in attendance, but there will be door prizes galore. More info on that soon.Schedule after the jump.BlizzCon 2009 is coming up on August 21st and 22nd! We've got all the latest news and information. At BlizzCon, you can play the latest games, meet your guildmates, and ask the developers your questions. Plus, there are some great looking costumes.
Blizzard headed back to PAX this year
Can't make it to BlizzCon but still want to check out Blizzard's latest offerings? Blizzard has appeared on the list of sponsors for Penny Arcade's PAX convention, which takes place later this year on September 4-6, 2009 in Seattle, Washington. PAX is a great time and a ton of fun -- I went a few years ago, and really enjoyed it. In addition to a terrific lineup of geeky musicians and demo panels from game developers, they always have a nice open floor full of the latest games to check out and play. And since PAX will be going down after BlizzCon (which takes place in two weeks), if you go, you'll likely have a chance to check out whatever Blizzard wants to put on display, be that Starcraft II or Diablo 3, or, you know... anything else they might announce.Plus, tickets to PAX are cheaper and even easier to get than BlizzCon tickets anyway, not to mention that you'll be seeing way more games and companies than just Blizzard. In fact, why am I going to BlizzCon again? I'd almost rather go to PAX this year. I'd love to see Freezepop!Oh, right, I can't miss our legendary meetup (wait until you guys see the giveaways we have planned!). But even if you're going to Penny Arcade's show because you can't make it to Blizzard's convention, stay tuned here to WoW.com -- we'll make you feel like you're there anyway.
Blizzard fills out the BlizzCon site
We covered the ticket FAQ for BlizzCon a few days ago, but there is more news up on Blizzard's official site about the event we all want to attend later this year. They've got an early list of developer panels to browse through, and there are sessions planned, as you'd expect, for Diablo III, Starcraft II, and World of Warcraft (though there aren't any surprises -- if they are going to do a "next expansion" demo panel, obviously we won't know until we look in the programs that weekend). Zarhym has also posted links to the usual contests, tournaments, and information on how to order up the DirecTV coverage.Unfortunately, it's all pretty rote -- these are basically skeleton pages from what Blizzard did last year, and there's no actual information specific to BlizzCon '09: what the DirecTV purchase might get you, or any new events coming up. But if you haven't been to BlizzCon before, these pages will start giving you some idea of what you'll find there, from the lore and art panels (hint: any panel called "lore" usually has Chris Metzen being extremely entertaining, and any panel with "PvP" in the title will involve people asking question after question to the devs about why one class -- usually Paladins -- is over- or underpowered) to the ongoing competitions you'll see around the event all weekend.And heck, if you have been to BlizzCon before, maybe these scant notes on what is happening will get you even more excited. Ticket sales begin next weekend -- good luck to everyone trying to buy.
Toshiba to buy Panasonic's shares in LCD joint venture
Around seven years after it was originally established, Toshiba has decided it best to stop waiting for Panasonic's input on decisions regarding Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Company. If all goes to plan, Toshiba -- which currently owns a 60 percent stake in the joint venture -- will buy out Panasonic's 40 percent stake on April 28th. For those unaware, the venture was responsible for developing, manufacturing and selling LCDs and OLEDs, most of which were classified as "small to medium-sized." After the share transfer is finalized, TMD will change its name to Toshiba Mobile Display Company, and according to the jointly-issued release, it'll allow Tosh to "further accelerate decision-making and promote comprehensive restructuring of TMD's business." The consumer takeaway here? "Looking to the future, TMD aims to establish OLEDs as an engine for growth and to enhance its display business in the medium- to long-term." Boom.[Via Wall Street Journal]
Sharp Display Products emerges from Sharp / Sony joint venture
It's been just over a year since we first heard that your next Sony LCD TV may actually be a Sharp, and while the joint venture has been flipped on and off again during the past 13 months, it seems that the stars are finally aligning in order to make this thing happen. Sharp is preparing a unit that will be launched on April 1st in order to act as "a base to be transformed into the joint venture." The unit will be christened Sharp Display Products Corporation, with Sharp owning 66 percent (and thus, the namesake) and Sony taking the remaining 34 percent. The two currently plan to start up production of LCD panels by March of 2010, which gives Sharp a solid dozen months to construct the facility in Sakai, Japan. Better hurry, folks -- it's not like OLED is breathing down your neck or anything.
Sony Ericsson outs CNN, Skype, Mytopia panels for XPERIA X1
Sony Ericsson's Panels interface hasn't taken off the way HTC's TouchFLO 3D has, but it's still a nice way to momentarily forget that you're being forced to use Windows Mobile 6.1. At any rate, those who plunked down some eight bills to procure an XPERIA X1 should probably give this a look, as SE has just unveiled the latest Panels for its first (and likely last) HTC-designed smartphone. Available starting in mid-March, users will be able to suck down CNN, Skype, Mytopia and 'On the Road' Panels. For specific details on what each will provide, you know where to head.
LG to trim plasma panel output, ditch 32-inch line altogether
Come one, come all to the flat-panel production cutting party. Just look at these spectacles on stage -- AU Optronics, Sharp, LG, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Hitachi, et al. We'd say that this is getting downright bizarre, but we suspect that's plainly obvious by now. As the output-cutting bandwagon continues to take on passengers, LG has too decided (purportedly, at least) to downsize its plasma panel output starting in 2009. Potentially more striking is the assertion that it may "completely halt production of its 32-inch panels," which are losing it money hand over fist. The interesting bit is that nearly half of LG's PDP output is at the 32-inch level, so unless it starts digging into another size, it'll have quite a bit of equipment (and employees, we imagine) sitting idle. And to think -- things looked so much brighter just three years back.
Sharp closing down two LCD panel production lines, hacking 380 jobs
It's not pulling a Sony or anything, but even Sharp has been unable to absorb the downturn in flat-panel demand. We already knew that the firm was looking to scale back production by as much as 10% from the middle of this month, and our deductive reasoning skills are leading us to believe that this is the cutback we've been expecting. The outfit will be closing down two LCD panel production lines in Japan in order to "move production to a newer and more cost-efficient plant as the global downturn hits demand for electronic goods." Along with the closings will come 380 job cuts -- all temporary workers -- which will presumably be sent home when the lines halt for the final time in January.
AU Optronics delays construction of two LCD plants
Man, what a difference a year few months makes. At the front end of 2008, panel makers the world over were boasting about big investments to expand production lines and live large on Malta. Now, it's tough to go a week without hearing of at least one plant closing. Take Taiwan's AU Optronics, for instance -- in February of this year, it pledged $9.3 billion to build a pair of LCD factories. Now, it's placing those lofty plans on hold, noting that construction on "two new LCD plants" would be delayed by at least six months. According to chairman KY Lee: "One has to use the brakes and slow down a bit on a downhill path." A curious analogy, but we suppose it works.
Sharp, LG to pay big fines for LCD price fixing
There may have been a long shot in Hades that Sharp and LG would navigate their way out of paying a full $120 million / $400 million fine for their respective roles in a recent LCD price fixing bust, but that shot has apparently failed. It was announced this week that both firms would indeed be sentenced to pay the full fine "for their role in a price-fixing scheme that forced millions of US consumers to overpay for gadgets using liquid-crystal displays." The other culprit, Taiwan's Chunghwa Picture Tubes, has already agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and will be sentenced in January. Happy holidays, huh?
CCP Games releases more EVE Fanfest 2008 video footage
For most of us who weren't able to attend EVE Fanfest 2008 earlier this month in Reykjavik, at least there have been videos of the various presentations and panels. CCP Games released quite a number of these just over a week ago, but they recently went ahead and added more. The new footage, which can be seen in higher resolution on the EVE Online Videos page or on the CCP Games YouTube page, gives viewers a look at: Designing the Walking in Stations expansion The Fanfest 2008 PvP Tournament Roxor QA! Are we ready to ship? TQ Servers: Making mountains out of molehills All footage on the EVE Online Videos page is available in two resolutions, viewable as embedded video or downloadable.
CCP Games releases EVE Fanfest 2008 videos
Most EVE Online players didn't have the opportunity to attend EVE Fanfest 2008 in Reykjavik earlier this month, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to miss out on what was revealed. CCP Games and EVE TV have made good on their promise to release video footage of Fanfest presentations and panel discussions. While they did make live audio of some of this available in-game over EVE Voice, it was difficult to follow without the visuals to tie it all together. Now, they've put up a new video page dedicated to EVE Fanfest 2008, with both low res and high res downloads. They culled roughly 30 hours of raw footage down into 12 videos. We've listed them below, accompanied by the CCP descriptions and video links, for both YouTube (when available) and high resolution versions:
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 makes date with US: Black Friday for $799.99
At long last, the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 has a firm date for its launch into the topsy-turvy US market. Those who've been holding off time and again in anticipation of this WinMo 6.1 powerhouse can finally pat themselves on the back, as those rumors of the handset slipping into next year were greatly exaggerated. In fact, SE's doing itself a huge favor by getting this gem into the market place prior to the holiday season, and better still, on Black Friday proper. You heard right -- while most folks are frantically scouring B&M floors for door buster deals, those with copious quantities of disposable income can waltz on over to a Sony Electronics outlet or any of its authorized retailers on November 28th and pick one up. Wondering if this marvel is worth $799.99? Check out our review for a little insight, and peek the full release just after the break. Oh, and before you ask, there's no word yet on a subsidized version for any US carrier.
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 review
Sony Ericsson has produced some exceptional handsets over the years, with certain gems like the W950, W300i and W580i (just to name a few) catching the eyes and hearts of casual and hardcore mobile fanatics alike. Even so, it's hard to argue that any single phone in the outfit's history has caused more of a stir than the XPERIA X1. Sure, half of that is because we here in America have been waiting on the thing since February, but the other is due to pure, unadulterated sex appeal. 2008 has been a banner year for smart- / touchscreen-based handsets, and even though this one is lagging behind most of the other guys in terms of time to market, the X1 is still a formidable rival. We had a chance to spend a few quality days with the North America-bound X1a ($799.99; ships November 28th) -- which is different than the X1i that has already landed in certain parts of the globe -- and if you've come here looking for opinions, you haven't come in vain. Follow us past the break for a look at the pros, the cons and the middling minutiae of SE's slickest smartphone yet. %Gallery-35886%
Video: TouchFLO 3D demoed on Sony Ericsson's XPERIA X1
While SE's Panel interface is a nice XPERIA X1 extra on top of the otherwise vanilla Windows Mobile 6.1 load, we know just how fond of TouchFLO 3D some of you characters are. There's really not too much to say beyond that -- we mean, it's TouchFLO 3D on an XPERIA X1 -- but there's plenty more chatter in the vid just past the break.
NEC's fancy new wiring technology could lead to slimmer LCD HDTVs
While it's pretty much a given that HDTVs are going to slim down from one CES / CEDIA to another, you probably wouldn't think that wiring schemes would be the catalyst for making it happen. NEC Electronics has just revealed a "next-generation connection technology for the circuitry in large LCDs" that will enable big screens to get all the more thinner. Essentially, the tech is "specific to the wiring used to transfer signals from the image processing board to the driver chips that are fitted to the periphery of the LCD panel and control the pixels." Currently, a Full HD 37-inch LCD TV requires right around 21 wires to make the magic happen; with NEC's approach, just 8 would be needed. The company expects to have a "practical version" ready to roll sometime in 2009, so we're totally expecting credit card-thin LCDs in January 2010.
LCD maker Chi Mei Optoelectronics suffers $125 million loss in Q3
Chi Mei Optoelectronics, one of the world's leading manufacturers of TFT-LCDs, is licking its wounds after announcing a staggering $125 million loss in Q3 of this year. Of course, it's not like this was difficult to see coming -- after all, those plummeting LCD prices that we consumers love so dearly have to be detested somewhere along the supply chain. At any rate, CMO's profit suffered a " three-fold decline compared to that in the same period last year," and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight for the free fall of LCD panel prices. President Ho Jau-yang asserted that the company would "review and modify its operational orientation" while "safeguarding liquidity" as it rode out the storm. We could be badly off, but we'd say the real beatings are yet to come.[Image courtesy of GigaComputers]
DirecTV replay still available, showing tomorrow
Reader Stephen dropped us a note to let us know that if you missed the DirecTV stream of BlizzCon the first time around, you've got another chance tomorrow: they're going to show the whole thing again starting tomorrow morning. Seems pretty meh to us -- from what we heard, the stream wasn't all that great. And what you missed in terms of official panel information, you can get right from us here on the site. Anybody hear otherwise? Is this worth watching at all?Of course, even if it's not, there is still one reason to order it, and that is of course the BlizzCon bear. Apparently people who purchase this replay will still get a code good for an ingame bear, and given that the bear and the Starcraft II code from the convention is going for as high as $200 already on eBay, shelling out $40 for just the code might be worth it to you.And you'll pick up 16 hours of high-quality video along with it -- who wouldn't want to see Ghostcrawler in HD, right?
Samsung scales back flat-screen output by 5% to fight bulging inventories
Ah, how quickly things can change in this volatile, volatile world. At the tail-end of June, Samsung seemed pretty adamant that it would be keeping its flat-panel production lines humming along as usual. Enter a tiny factor called the worldwide credit crisis, and that plan begins to look terrible. In an effort to "cope with excess inventory amid lackluster demand from global markets," Sammy has decided to lower its panel output by about 5% (which it has been doing since August, actually), though it is keeping a close eye on demand in case it needs to ramp back up in short order. Whatever happens, we're just hoping for lower prices for consumers come Black Friday (and beyond).
