Pyro
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Serato's DJ tech is ready to mix playlists on your iPhone
Creating a great playlist is tough. It's more than just throwing a bunch of songs together and hoping for the best. You have to make sure the music melds together smoothly, with no jarring transitions. It's time-consuming, and if you don't add enough songs, well, it's just embarrassing when the music ends in the middle of a party. Serato's new Pyro app for iOS solves many of those problems by keeping the jams going long after you've given up trying to mix Kanye with Beyonce.
Pyro Mini turns your boring old wrists into flamethrowers
In 2014, magic retailer Ellusionist released a device called Pyro that shoots fireballs from your wrist. Now, a year later, the brand is releasing a smaller, more capable version of its predecessor; meet the Pyro Mini. The new device is half the size of the original so it's far less noticeable when strapped to your wrist. It doesn't require disposable batteries either, trading in triple A's for a microUSB charger. Like the original, the mini uses a remote with a 30ft range to trigger individual fireballs or two at once with the new Burst fire feature. Let's face it, two is always way cooler than one. Pyro Mini managed to upgrade almost every feature it offers all the while slashing the price of the unit to $147. If you want to impress friends, family or just to pretend you're a badass supervillain, you can grab a Pyro Mini via the Ellusionist's website.
Shoot fireballs from your wrist with Pyro
Who hasn't dreamed of having the ability to shoot fireballs from our hands? Thanks to a new device from magician Adam Wilber, you can do just that. The appropriately named Pyro is controlled with a remote switch from up to 30 feet away and tucks under your sleeve to remain hidden. Worn on the wrist like watch, the gadget can shoot four fireballs, one from each of its four barrels, a distance of 10 feet before needing to be reloaded with flash paper. Pyro is currently sold out, but shelling out $174 will secure one when the new stock arrives December 17th. If you're not into practicing illusions, at least now you won't have to hold a Roman Candle during those real-life flamewars.
Super Time Force Ultra adds Left 4 Dead, Team Fortress 2 characters
Capybara Games has turned the proverbial Valve, and now three characters drawn from Left 4 Dead and Team Fortress 2 are pouring forth into the upcoming game, Super Time Force Ultra. Zoey from L4D uses twin pistols and propane tanks to destroy her foes, while the Pyro and Saxton Hale - both from TF2 - roast baddies with a flamethrower and punch them into oblivion, respectively. STFU (get it?) is an updated version of Capy's Super Time Force, which released earlier this year for Xbox 360 and Xbox One. We thought it was quite good, though not without flaws. Ultra adds not only the new characters mentioned above, but a new Ultra Force power mode and 50 Helladeck challenge levels. STFU will complete its journey through time and space and arrive on Steam on August 25. [Image: Capy Games]
Chaos Theory: The Secret World shaken, not stirred
For all those who've been trying so hard to predict gloom and doom for The Secret World, I say Nyeh nyeh because the April producer's letter announcing Issue #7 pretty much flies in the face of all your it's-gonna-die whimperings. In fact, I can't believe we still hear them because TSW just keeps getting better and better. Where's the duct tape when you need it... While it's true we don't have monthly updates anymore (and that's totally understandable, given the restructuring that devs certainly couldn't predict), Secret World fans are still getting frequent, and more importantly extremely fun, updates. Just look at The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn and The Last Train to Cairo; both of these issues brought interesting new storylines and a decent helping of new features. Some even say these updates introduced the best content so far. With that track record, who can't help but be totally psyched for the upcoming Issue #7?
Team Fortress 2 Demo and Pyro action figures now available
If your childhood was/is anything like our own, a good majority of it was probably spent blowing up and/or incinerating action figures that totally had it coming, on account of being found guilty of being the bad guy or belonging to one of our siblings. Valve and NECA's shiny new Team Fortress 2 figures follow a somewhat similar theme, though they typically prefer to be on the giving end, rather than the receiving. Available at Toys 'R' Us, Amazon or directly from Valve's own store, both Demo and Pyro figures measure 7 inches tall, feature 25 points of articulation, include codes for in-game goodies, are individually numbered (1 to 10,000) and cost about $22.%Gallery-177568%
Adult Swim and Valve teamed up to give us... yep, a hat
When Valve and Adult Swim announced a partnership involving the Team Fortress 2 universe, we winked at each other, throwing out the tired joke that it would probably just be a bunch of hats. Today, we're not sure if we should be laughing or weeping silently into our keyboards: Adult Swim has revealed a free, limited-edition Robot Chicken hat for any class in TF2, as the first iteration in a series of new stuff coming from Valve and Adult Swim.To get the Robot Chicken hat, just sign up for the Adult Swim newsletter by July 4.In related, not-completely-predictable news, the FAQ for redeeming the Robot Chicken hat asks and answers an intriguing question: Q. Are you making a Team Fortress cartoon? A. Go ask your mother.As long as it's not called "The Hatsure Brothers" or any variation thereof, an Adult Swim Team Fortress 2 cartoon sounds like something we could get behind.In still-related, by-now-old news, Valve launched the "Meet the Pyro" video and announced the Source Filmmaker movie-creating tool today.
TF2 in 2012: 'Meet the Pyro' is coming, more secrets
Valve has finally put together its schedule of events for 2012, announcing the big things happening in Team Fortress 2 in the coming months. Most notably, Valve says its final character video, Meet the Pyro, will air in 2012 and it will feature "lots of blood pretty much all the way through."The TF2 team is also working on a secret project that isn't a hat or a map, Valve reports. This leaves speculation open to new characters, a feature-length film, a live-action feature-length film, or a live-action feature-length film starring Brendan Gleeson, Jude Law and Emma Stone. These are the only options.The Steam Workshop has a shiny new blog, and Valve says it plans to unveil another secret at the second annual Saxxy Awards. We're pretty sure this secret will be the announcement of the TF2 movie's sequel, starring Katherine Heigl as Brendan Gleeson and Brendan Fraser as everyone else.
The educational potential of class-based achievements
Early this morning, a player by the name of Koosh posted an idea to the official achievements forum: Why not add class- or role-specific achievements? If implemented, could these achievements be used to help players learn the specifics of their class? Koosh uses Team Fortress 2 as an example, and I think it's an excellent one. If you're unfamiliar with the game, Team Fortress 2 is a competitive (but light-hearted), class-based first-person shooter. Here are some examples of Team Fortress 2 class achievements: Scout Brushback: Stun 50 enemies while they are capturing a point or pushing the cart. Pyro Hot Potato: Reflect 100 projectiles with your compressed air blast. Soldier Death from Above: Rocket jump and kill 2 enemies before you land. Achievements like this push you to learn how to play your class and how to play it well. It might be a very strong tool for training players in World of Warcraft. Interrupt 1,000 spells as a rogue? Use Anti-Magic Shell to absorb 1,000,000 damage? Replenish 150,000 points of other players' mana with Innervate, as Koosh suggests? Readers, do you think this would be a viable way to teach players how to use all of the tools at their disposal? What achievements do you think your class should have?
See TF2's Pyro's new weapons, achievements
The big overhaul of Team Fortress 2's Pyro class won't arrive until tomorrow, but Valve is pulling the veil off of the changes today, including three new weapons and 35 new achievements for the firestarter. At the top there, you see the Flare Gun, which replaces the Pyro's shotgun and lets you light up enemies at long range. In the middle? It's the Axtinguisher, the melee weapon that always makes a critical hit on flaming enemies. Finally, there's the Back Burner, which is guaranteed to crit if it hits a foe from behind.If we still haven't cured your pyromania (we've been waiting all post to say that) check out all the details right here.
Team Fortress 2 Pyro update coming Thursday
We didn't think it possible to get more satisfaction out of setting people and property ablaze, but the eternal optimists at Valve are attempting to improve on the experience with an update to Team Fortress 2's Pyro class, which the company has announced will arrive on Thursday. Expect the Axtinguisher (which sounds like something Strong Bad came up with) as well as two other weapons and 35 new achievements for the Fortress firebug.What's more, all Steam users will be able to try out the new enhancements with a free Team Fortress 2 weekend beginning this Friday. (Note to new players: TF2 is not always a hellish world of flame, populated only by masked men spraying fire in every direction. That will pass, we promise.)
Team Fortress 2 update nearly complete, Sniper getting intro, Pyro getting axe
Don't misinterpret that headline -- the much anticipated update for Valve's cartoony multiplayer run-and-gunner, Team Fortress 2, will not see the dismissal of the game's most burninating class. No, we simply mean that Valve has revealed one of the unlockable weapons for the Pyro: the mighty Axtinguisher. Well, the sometimes mighty Axtinguisher -- Valve explained in a recent Steam blog post that the weapon only deals half as much damage as the standard fire axe, unless used against engulfed opponents, in which case it deals a guaranteed critical hit.We've yet to learn the achievements required to unlock this powerful armament, or the other equipment that will be made available to the flame-obsessed archetype -- though in the same news post, Valve confirmed the Pyro-centric update will be accompanied by one of their popular video introductions for the most steady-handed TF2 character, titled "Meet The Sniper". Also, Valve confirmed that they've "almost completely wrapped up" the update. Arsonists, rejoice![Via Evil Avatar]
Team Fortress 2 Pyro class next in line for upgrade
Following the generous upgrades given to Team Fortress 2 Medics earlier this year, it now appears that the Pyro class is next to be doused in flame-retardant achievements and fiery, unlockable weapons. Citing the latest issue of PC Gamer, CVG also reports that Valve plans similar additions for the game's remaining classes, though the timing of these future updates has not yet been revealed.Likewise a mystery is what Pyro players can expect from the new achievement-fueled equipment roll out, though we expect it to mirror what was given to Medics, only with less healing and more toasting anything that moves.[Via Big Download]
Pyro 1.6: Campfire client gains search, drag and drop file transfer enhancements and more
It's been over a year since we first mentioned Pyro, the powerful Mac OS X client for 37signals' Campfire web-based chat service for groups and businesses. While I personally didn't pick up a copy back then since I wasn't a Campfire user, I'm not entirely familiar with every change that has come since April '06. Still, even the most recent list of changes warrants Pyro another mention, especially since I'm looking at using Campfire for a few uses and projects. In addition to already offering a dashboard and central location for all your Campfire chats and displaying message status alerts in the Dock icon, check out what's new in Pyro 1.6: Any file type can be dragged onto Pyro to share in a Campfire chat Pyro will automatically zip a folder or .APP Dragging an image from a web browser will insert a URL for that image instead of uploading it Campfire's new sidebar search field now works in Pyro Support for the new WebKit installed by Safari 3 beta (mentioned on the Pyro development blog) and of course, bug fixes As Campfire's example uses page details, there are a lot of great scenarios for such a slick web app, and Pyro looks like the perfect tool to bring together the coolness of Campfire with the power of Mac OS X. Surprisingly, Pyro is still offered free, and even though Campfire primarily focuses on business users by offering a few paid accounts, it too has a free account with which you can register and tinker around to see if Campfire is right for your use.
Use Campfire? Check out Pyro
Campfire is the web-based chat application by the folks at 37 Signals. It's full of Web 2.0 bells and whistles, and looks like a good means of cross-platform, application independent collaboration. Earlier this week, 37 Signals released the initial beta of Pyro for Campfire users who have Macs. They're calling it a "site-specific browser," in that its primary purpose in life is to interact with Campfire.* Enhancements Pyro offers include: A single location for all your chats Chat room/message status in the dock Access all open rooms in a single window Pyro is universal, free and requires a Campfire account (obviously). No specific OS requirements were given.*No, the irony of using Mac OS-only application to interact with an application independent, cross platform chat system is not lost on us.
