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MAG Public Beta enrollment begins
A lucky few individuals will discover this invite for the MAG beta in their inboxes. The e-mail includes a unique code used to access a closed application form. According to the beta enrollment page, Sony "will be adding people in waves." If you don't see an invite in your inbox right now, don't worry: you may be invited later. "If you do not receive an invite for the first wave you may still be invited in a following MAG Public Beta wave."Sony has already conducted a closed beta for MAG for over a month. The expansion of the beta to the public gives us hope that maybe -- just maybe -- we'll be able to see MAG's 256-player online battles hitting the PS3 sooner rather than later.
Fantasy MMORPG Alganon to hold public beta in September
This is our first post about Alganon, so we've gone and done a bit of digging to find out more about it. If the game has flown under your radar too, the results of our research might be of some interest to you: It's a fantasy MMORPG with seven classes of the sort you might expect, but each class will be able to slightly alter their capabilities at will to better fit different group situations. This is known as the "Dual Role System". The "Studies" system will allow for offline progression, to make it easier for casual players to keep up with those that are more active. MyAlganon is a social networking site linked to the game for in-game data, communication with other players, guild hosting and (currently) beta information. It also links to "The Library", which is a repository of game knowledge and a place to view various leaderboards. The game is currently planning to use a subscription business model but this may change later on. These are but a few of the features that Alganon has -- you can see more on their About page (you also might want to have a look at their FAQ). If you've read through the information and think you might want to get involved with the game, you'll be pleased to know that a private beta test is currently underway and a public beta is scheduled to launch in September. To get into the tests, register at MyAlganon and then make a post in this thread.
Video: Google Wave public beta rolling out in September
It's hard to tell if Wave -- Google's new collaborative, universal messaging platform -- is revolutionary or simply, well, neat. It's like a telephone, great when everyone else has one but not so useful if you're the only one. At least that's how it seems after watching the near-universally acclaimed demo presented at Google I/O back in May. Starting September 30th, Google will open up the beta to 100,000 of its closest friends. Just hit the appropriate read link below to register for an invite or click through to watch the 1 hour and 20 minute demonstration. Go ahead, work can wait, innovation can't.[Via PC Mag]Read -- Sign up for WaveRead -- September 30 beta
Windows 7 RC 1 now available for public consumption
Looks like Microsoft decided to pull the trigger just a hair early on this one. Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 is now available to the public at large. If you haven't gotten your hands on it, now's your chance to try it out well into 2010. What are you still reading this for? Hit up the read link to download. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Ether Saga Online enters open beta
If you need a game that's sugary and saccharin-y cute to the point of inducing cavities via the internet, then look no further than Ether Saga Online, the latest game from the people who brought you Perfect World International.Ether Saga has just entered their open public beta, meaning you can mosey on over to the website and sign up to try the game. Like Perfect World, Ether Saga will be a free to play game, supported by the usual cash transactions from an item shop.The game does have some interesting features, including the ability to level up your character's affinity to the various elements in the game, adding a new dimension to each class beyond how the class normally functions. Past that, skills can be learned on the fly in the field without the need to visit a trainer, and characters get skills relating to their "birthday," the day of the week that they were born.For all the information about Ether Saga Online, check out their website at http://eso.perfectworld.com.
DVD Jon's Doubletwist sends and shares your media
Why, you might wonder, would we want another media program -- isn't iTunes enough? But a new app called Doubletwist (by DVD Jon, creator of the old DeCSS DRM-stripping software) looks to answer that question by taking an iTunes-style interface, and expanding it to pretty much anything you'd want to do with media -- send it to your own phones and portable devices, upload it to sites like Facebook or YouTube, or even send it off to your friends, even those who don't have the app. We first heard about Doubletwist about a year ago, but there wasn't a Mac version to speak of (so who cares, right?). But the Mac version is now out in public beta, and it's pretty impressive -- you can basically ignore file types, formats, or anything else that would keep you from sending a video, audio, or photo file from your computer out into the great blue yonder. There are a few other screencasts floating around as well, including this demo of the way the app works with pretty much any device you want, from iPod Blackberry to Android, the Sony PSP, and soon, the Nintendo DSi. [Note that the current build only supports the iPhone and iPod on the Windows side, but they say that Mac support for our favorite devices is forthcoming.] It seems very enticing (though I'm doubtful that all of the video converting and sharing really goes as fast as it looks in the video). But if you want to find out for yourself, have at it -- DoubleTwist is currently a free beta download for Intel 10.5 and up users. Thanks Sebastiaan!
Microsoft puts full-scale Windows 7 Beta back in action
Nice going, guys and girls. You had officially brought the servers that Microsoft used to host up Windows 7 Beta on to their knees. According to a statement received from the company by ComputerWorld, Microsoft had to put things on hold for some time in order to "add some infrastructure support to Microsoft.com properties." The spokeswoman continued by saying that the company "wanted to ensure that customers had the best possible experience when downloading the Beta." Now, however, we're receiving word that everything is back in action, so we'd suggest getting those bits and bytes a-flowin' before we end up in the very same position again. [Via Digg]
Windows 7 Beta goes public
But this time, you don't have to head over to your favorite torrent tracker to get it. Microsoft just began its Windows 7 Beta Customer Preview Program, which means you can head on over to your favorite internet, download the ISO, burn a DVD and start living the ultra-fantastic lifestyle of a Windows 7 user. The Beta expires August 1, 2009, and Microsoft is of course piling on the caveats in case this destroys your computer with fire -- and limiting this first run of downloads to 2.5 million users. We're hearing reports of sluggish downloads at the moment, but we're sure with a bit of patience you can be rocking this OS -- or, you know... find it on the torrents.Update: Oops. Microsoft's Windows 7 download servers have crashed under the strain as has the Microsoft blog reporting the crash. We'll let you know when the servers (and Windows 7 beta) return.%Gallery-41385%
SOCOM pre-order comes with 3 beta keys
click to embiggen You and a friend can now join in the SOCOM Confrontation beta just by bullying some other friend to pre-order the game from Gamestop. According to an email sent out to the PlayStation Underground members, a Confrontation pre-order will net you participation in the public beta and the ability to invite two friends for free. If you read the fine print, however, the deal is rendered immediately null and void should either party decide to end the friendship. Sony keeps a very strict "friends only" policy. The public beta begins September 1 for pre-orders and September 8 for Qore subscribers.[Thanks, Noshino]
Freaky Creatures offers limited public beta on July 15th
Players craving hot hybrid monster-on-hybrid-monster action can rejoice in the news that Freaky Creatures will be hitting shelves on July 15th. The will be the public beta launch, so it's open to all and sundry, but there is a limited number of spaces available, so fans are encouraged to go to the Freaky Creatures site and sign up early.A few more reminders to whet your appetites: You'll be able to customize your creature to the tune of over three billion possible combinations; you can play against opponents PC-to-PC or PC-to-phone; and to support the launch of the title, Alienware is holding a contest that will win some lucky player an Area-51 m15x Notebook. Sign up now, before it's too late!
Members of APB-Evolved.com "guaranteed beta access"
Hot on the heels of the announcement that an APB public beta is in the foreseeable future comes this message from fansite APB-Evolved.com to its forum members: "Whilst I can't give you any more specific info on the beta at this time, I did come over to give you one bit of information exclusive to you guys. Everyone who is a member of APB-evolved as of the time and date of this post, is guaranteed beta access as soon as we reach a suitable stage."Now, it's assumed that the "suitable stage" the poster, Ulric, is referring to belongs to Realtime Worlds, and not APB-evolved; he's saying that as soon as the game is ready for beta, members will get first crack at it. It's also assumed that he's worked out some sort of deal with Realtime to provide this promise, else why bother announcing it? But there's been no mention of this on apb.com, even as a possibility, so until the actual day arrives, we'll just have to potentially envy the forum-goers of this site. [Thanks, Tom!]
Fully public APB beta on its way
We haven't heard too much in the past month about the cops and robbers MMO All Points Bulletin from developer Realtime Worlds. At least not until recently, we haven't. While gameplay information may still be scare at least we now know that APB is entering its Alpha stage with an eventual fully public beta on the horizon. This information all comes from Mario Rizzo, Realtime Worlds' business development manager. While it's no official announcement, it is the next best thing. We can certainly understand why a public beta would do a game like All Points Bulletin a lot of good -- it's not exactly your typical MMO or sandbox action game. Heck, it's very likely that many players will simply be enamored with the character creation process that was such a smash hit at GDC this year. You can count on us spending the first hour or two of our time with the game's beta making an awesome character.
Dreamlords: The Reawakening now in public beta
Dreamlords: The Reawakening has been in closed beta since April, and according to a new press release has entered "public beta". At the time of this writing, the official website has not been updated with any information relating to this update. Do we dare assume that "public beta" means "open beta"? While at the site, however, notice the latest news regarding the server move on the 9th of June to "prepare for launch". So, we might be in open beta right now, and we might be seeing a full launch of the game fairly soon. We can't take this tension! When we know anything for sure, we'll let you know.[Thanks, Marcus!]
Requiem: Bloodymare slashes its way to open beta
Temperions to arms! The battle against the darkness of Ethergia has begun again as Gravity announces the start of the open beta for their newest title, Requiem: Bloodymare. The doors to Ethergia will open up once again starting this Thursday, May 15th, at 7 PM PDT (10 PM EST) and will stay open for an undisclosed amount of time.This phase of the beta will be open to everyone, both closed beta players and the public. All that's required is the new Requiem client, which can be downloaded from the playrequiem.com website, and a Requiem account. All prior accounts will be reset, and all new characters will start off in a totally new tutorial space called Turba Island.This change already addresses one of the large gripes from the previous test - the lack of a decent tutorial space. It seems that Gravity has been listening to all of the feedback they've received about Requiem during the closed beta, and are working to improve upon their game. However, only time will tell as to what else has been changed and added to by the Requiem team.
WeGame records their way into my heart
Having to find quality Machinima for two blog posts daily can be torture. Most people won't spring for a paid copy of Fraps or gamecam, so I'm stuck looking at watermarks. That's almost an instant disqualification for consideration.Enter WeGame, which would be just like any other video sharing site if it didn't have one major difference. They offer free, easy to use recording software to their users. As a matter of fact, it's so simple that I was able to record six quick videos, review them, and choose one to upload within 30 minutes of downloading the program. I'm getting ahead of myself, though.Read on after the jump to find out more about WeGame ...
Twiterrific 2.0 public beta announced
Well that didn't take long - Glen Wolsey caught a private beta sneak peek at Twitterrific 2.0 just two days ago, and now The Iconfactory has announced a public beta, not surprisingly, via their Twiterrific Twitter account. This new version includes a veritable landslide of new features, and in addition to the ones we've already mentioned, here are some highlights of the new goodies (though we highly recommend reading the What's New readme included in the download): Twitterrific can now update your iChat/Adium/Skype status using your last tweet. Select the "Update chat status" preference in the configuration panel and the status in all running chat applications will be updated (though note that AIM/iChat apparently only allow a total of 44 characters, including spaces, for available statuses. Away messages don't seem to have this limit though) The main window snaps to the edge of the screen Tweets can be marked as a favorite by clicking on the tweet's heart icon Added Cmd-2 to send a response to the author of the selected tweet Added Cmd-D to send a direct message to the author of the selected tweet The text of the tweet is no longer truncated. The size of the tweet view adapts to the length of the tweet and much, much more! The Iconfactory hasn't updated their official Twitter product page yet, so be sure to pick up the new download from this tweet. A few of us have been using the beta since we heard about it Friday night (thanks again Glenn!), and I can personally say this is a stellar update to what is now quite possibly the best darn Twitter client out there.
Spanning Sync public beta re-opened
Fellow Mac users looking to sync iCal and Google Calendar - rejoice! For the Spanning Sync crew have re-opened their public beta to one and all. After their servers buckled under their first attempt at opening up the beta, they had to shut down temporarily. Fortunately, Spanning Sync's own vendor stepped up to the plate and offered some serious upgrades in infrastructure horsepower, and new users can officially begin signing up to use the beta once again. If you head over and sign up, however, be sure to back up your calendars - after all, beta means beta. Doing something as simple as browsing to your ~/Library/Application Support/ folder and pressing Cmd + D on your /iCal/ folder to duplicate it will do just fine. To grab your own copy of the beta, head over to their re-opening announcement post for the latest version. Simply log in with your Google Account (or go create a free one) to get swept off to a land of desktop + web service synchronization.
