two
Latest
Microsoft One and Two Project Pink phones appear in Verizon database? (updated)
What's this? Two devices apparently of Microsoft origin in Verizon's database prefixed by MSONE and MSTWO on the eve of Microsoft's big presser -- an event widely thought (and even announced) to be the unveiling of Project Pink. We're also seeing Sharp, the Sidekick manufacturer named on the Turtle and Pure looking handsets that passed through the FCC. Really though, "One" and "Two?" Surely those words are just placeholders awaiting today's event before getting properly named, right? Who knows... when you're believed to be launching a competing platform against your own Windows Phone 7 OS while simultaneously keeping the WinMo 6.x dreams alive for businesses, hell, anything goes. Update: 9 to 5 Mac is suggesting that the actual retail names of the devices will be Kin. As in next of, as in family. Since the company has an event in just a few hours, we'll obviously know for certain very soon, but it does look likely given the use of Kin in the listing above.
Polaroid PoGo instant digicam on sale next week, toilet graffiti will never be the same
We still don't have the European or US release dates for the Polaroid Pogo instant digicam but they can't be far behind the February 26th date just announced for Japan. Looks like we might see a price cut too, given the ¥10,000 (about $110) price in Japan compared to the $199 price announced at CES. Of course, you still have to shell out for the ZINK instant photo paper 10-packs scheduled to run for $4.99, or $12.99 for the 30-pack variety. As a camera, it's not much with its 5 megapixel sensor, SDHC storage, weak-sauce LCD, and 0x optical zoom as we discovered during our hands-on. What it lacks in specs, though, is made up for by its novelty. 2-inch by 3-inch photo stickers in 60 seconds? Urban ego tagging just got a brand new playbook. Also announced is a bevy of forgettable budget shooters, including the 12 megapixel t1235, 12 megapixel i1237 with touchscreen LCD, and 9 megapixel a930. Lady GaGa must be so proud.
Polaroid announces new OneStep film and instant digital cameras, some branded LCD TVs
Knowing the drive and tenacity of Lady Gaga, we expect that any day now we'll she'll be the president of PLR IP Holdings within the week. Until that fateful day when Polaroid becomes the Haus of Gaga, it looks like the company will be keeping busy by continuing to slap its name on consumer electronics. Probably the coolest of the lot is the PIC 1000, the future-retro Polaroid OneStep film camera developed in part at the urging of The Impossible Project. Just like its namesake, this guy uses Polaroid Color 600 Instant Film. This bad boy will be available at national retailers in 2010. If digital instant shooters are more your speed, The company's newest Zink-enabled camera, the obviously named Instant Digital Camera, boasts 12 megapixels and 3 x 4-inch prints. And rounding things out, the company has a slapped its name to a handful of LCD TVs from 42 to 65 inches in size. You're psyched, right? Hit the PR after the break for all the shocking details.
Polaroid's One Step film camera relaunching in 2010, nostalgists unite to celebrate
Call us crazy, but we never had much faith in the power of The Impossible Project to bring back the legendary Polaroid instant-print film camera. Despite our doubts (and those of the world), that very group has evidently caused quite a stir in the offices of Summit Global, which has today announced that the film-based One Step Camera is on track for a mid-2010 release. The Impossible Project will be in charge of producing a limited number of Polaroid-branded color and B&W Instant Films along the way, and just in case film isn't really your bag, Summit is planning to issue a Polaroid TWO -- described as the "digital version of the traditional camera that produces instant digital photos" -- sometime next year. It's all about bringing sexy back, y'all.Read - Summit Global's releaseRead - The Impossible Project's release
It takes two to duo content
Spinksville has a great post up about the great benefits and joy of duoing in MMOs, or playing alongside one other person as you level your way up. I haven't been able to duo in a while, but I have done one character with a good friend -- he played a Priest and I tanked on my Warrior, and we shot up through to max level (even before the leveling changes) just because not only did our characters compliment each other, but we knew each others' play styles and were able to take on lots of big mobs and quests without a problem. I agree with Spinks: playing the game alongside someone you know well is the perfect mix of a singleplayer and MMO game.There are certainly issues -- if one of you plays more than the other and pulls ahead or falls behind, it's not quite as fun for either of you. But especially if you're both playing alts and you've got good, regular amounts of time to play together, it can be really fun. In fact, it's kind of surprising that Blizzard and other MMO companies haven't gone in for more of the very-small group play -- singleplayer instances got a pass, but then again, phasing has changed things since then, and the LFG system has improved, so maybe it's time for Blizzard to put some two-player content in the mix.It would definitely be great to see some official support for two-player content -- not everyone has a partner to play with all the time, but I think you'll find way more two-player groups in the game than you will find full raids of 25 people, and that group certainly gets their share of things to do. Spinks makes some great suggestions about duo content, and it's definitely a realm of gameplay that a lot of MMOs haven't yet officially explored.
Spiritual Guidance: Are 2 Discipline Priests a problem?
Every Sunday (usually), Spiritual Guidance will offer practical insight for priests of the holy profession. Your host is Matt Low, the grand poobah of World of Matticus and a founder of No Stock UI, a new UI and addons blog for WoW. What do you do as a raid leader with 2 Discipline Priests in a raid? What do you do if you're one of the Priests? Find out! I received a kind email the other day from a raiding Disc Priest. Their Priest is already established within the raid. They've been Holy for many years and decided to try Discipline. Like many Holy-to-Disc Priests, they discovered they really liked it. An issue that I can see some guilds experiencing is when they have more than 1 Discipline Priest within their ranks. Is that a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Understand that having two Disc Priests is a sign. It's an omen that your guild is going to be crushed and destroyed because no organization can withstand the egos of two similarly specced classes. Well, okay, maybe it can.
The CyrusLink LinkMini Two iPod speaker system
UK-based CyrusLink has released a few iPod speaker systems, but we hadn't heard anything about the outfit's latest effort, the LinkMini Two, until the crew at ShinyShiny spotted its nondescript Amazon page. Featuring a 10-watt sub and two five-watt satellites with aluminum cones, the Two probably won't win any design awards any time soon, but Cyrus is known for solid audio and the £61 ($126) pricetag seems fairly reasonable. Available now to our British friends, but there's no word if we'll see this bad boy in the States.[Via Shiny Shiny]
Red Steel 2 semi-confirmed
Sorta kinda maybe. Everyone's favorite overly-hyped-shooter-with-glitchy-aiming-mechanisms-and-unintuitive-combat seems to be gearing up for another go. Ubisoft's Paris division has posted a big digital "Help Wanted" ad on the internet, whose transcript shall be withheld to save the reader from silly BabelFish translation errors. In any case, it asks for a game designer for the "continuation of the Red Steel franchise". There is no direct confirmation that the sequel will be on the Wii, but come on. It's pretty damn obvious.One must wonder if the world really wants this. If they can iron out the bugs, improve level design, and add more realistic melee combat, maybe they'll have a winner. If not, we'll always have Super Smash Bros. Brawl to fall back on, right?
New Prince of Persia game confirmed for the DS
Ubisoft recently confirmed that they're working on a Prince of Persia title for the DS. Instead of being a sequel to the card-based game Battles of Prince of Persia, the next outing for the Prince on the dual-screened beauty looks to be based on the franchise's latest installment, with the game having a placeholder name of Prince of Persia: Rival Blades, a name that was previously scrapped as the title for Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones. [Via Joystiq]
Call of Duty 2 demo released
At long last, Aspyr has released a demo of the hugely popular sequel to Call of Duty, the aptly named Call of Duty 2. No matter how badly I wanted to run to the Apple store and pick up the retail version, I knew I would feel horribly foolish if I got the game home only to find that it wouldn't run on my PowerBook. I knew I had to wait for the demo. MacGameFiles has the 665MB file as either a direct download, or a deliciously communal bittorrent file (doesn't the sharing just make you want to hug someone!?). If you've been waiting to try the game before you buy it, there is no better time than the present to kick some virtual Axis butt. [Via The MacObserver]
Enable two-finger right-click on 15" MacBook Pros
Rejoice, fellow 15" MacBook Pro owners, for the enterprising hackers over in the OSx86 Project forum have put together an installer package that enables the fancy two-finger right-click for 15" MacBook Pros. This is a standard feature of the MacBook and 17" MacBook Pro, but the early-adopting 15" MacBook Pro owners were left out in the cold with this most essential and highly-requested of features.The installer is linked in a forum thread here. An uninstaller is included, and you might want to peruse the rest of the thread for experiences and tips in case you run into issues. After all, this is a hack, so remember to cross your t's, dot your i's and post in their thread if you run into any speedbumps.[via macosxhints]
Dear Apple: stop leaving your early adopters out in the cold
Dan Lurie from The Apple Blog pointed me towards an early MacBook review at Macworld in which Jason Snell points out the new MacBook's ability to right-click when you have two fingers on the trackpad. It's a setting you can toggle in the MacBook's System Preferences, and it apparently also exists on the 17" MacBook Pro (and possibly on the revamped 15" models; reports pending).But not on the 15" MacBook Pro that I bought three weeks ago.Dear Apple: please stop leaving your early adopters out in the cold. I realize you're a company whose purpose is to make money. That's fine, in fact: I can't think of many other companies I'm happier to give my money to. That said, tiny new features like this which you aren't even bragging about on your product sites obviously aren't crucial selling points designed to sell X many more MacBooks and 17" MacBook Pros. They're small but important innovations that all MacBooks to date should have, especially when you consider the fact that right-clicking on a Mac has been a topic of geek controversy since someone first took a side on the Mac vs. PC debate.Apple, if you're listening (of course, you aren't), please give your early-adopting MacBook Pro buyers (what I'm hoping is) a simple software update so they can right-click with the rest of their MacBook brethren.
