2007
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Attend the Game Developers Conference for free!
Not enough bling in your pocket and want to attend the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco for free? Now you can. If you sign up to be a conference associate, you'll get a full Giga pass with privileges when you're not working (an $1850 value).You'll be taking part in helping the conference run, and working extremely non-demanding jobs like: Guarding doors Monitoring conference sessions Checking badges at meals and special events Stuffing conference bags Data entry ...And much more! Leaving your brain free to figure out what you want to see and deciding which lectures you want to sit in on. The GDC is a great opportunity to get a behind-the-scenes look at the game industry, and to witness first-hand all of the work that goes into building a game from scratch. Tim Brengle and Ian MacKenzie who run the CA program are top-notch guys, so you'll be in good hands. You'll make friends, attend parties, and get all the benefits of the Giga pass (including free breakfast and lunch on workdays, toastyyyyy!). Several Joystiq readers went the volunteer route last year and were able to enjoy the program gratis, so what are you waiting for?The GDC is in San Francisco from March 5th through the 9th in 2007. We hope to see you there.
Play what in 2007?
With the recent release of Gears of War you may be asking yourself, "man this game roxorz, but what other games can I look forward to in 2007?" It's okay my friend we're here to enlighten you, because About.com compiled a nice list of the most anticipated Xbox 360 games dropping in 2007. I'm already saving up for games like BioShock, Lost Planet, Halo 3 (duh), Alan Wake, Too Human, Assassin's Creed, and Guitar Hero II. I'm going to shed a tear ... just look at what we'll be playing in 2007.[Via, Digg]
Hitachi to offer auto-encrypting hybrid notebook HDDs in 2007
We already knew Hitachi was planning to unveil 20GB Microdrives and perpendicular notebook drives in 2007, but now the HDD giant is one upping itself by adding some juicy details about next year's 2.5-inch hard drive roadmap. Aside from offering both 5400 and 7200RPM units "in the quarter-terabyte range," next year's Travelstar lineup will likely boast "hybrid" technology in order to conserve battery life, enable zippier bootup times / recovery from hibernation, and provide "greater reliability and higher performance" -- oh, and it's seemingly a requirement to rock Windows Vista Premium (on a laptop), too. Moreover, the firm is touting its "HDD-level encryption solution" as being "virtually impenetrable" (read: fuel for a hacker's fire) and it reportedly won't bog your machine down the way similar software-based security applications will; Hitachi's version "scrambles data using a password-generated key" as the data is written, and then descrambled with the key as it is retrieved using the highly-touted Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. Consumers can expect 7200RPM 200GB flavor to be available in "the first half" of 2007, while the larger (albeit slower) 5400RPM 250GB edition should land in notebooks before the year's end.[Via CNET, thanks resource]
Gazing down Intel's roadmap: quad-core Yorkfield set for Q3 2007
If nailing down the specs to Intel's Classmate PC wasn't thrilling enough, and you were left neck deep in transistors after wading through all those CPU announcements, how about a taste of next year, only right now? DigiTimes has it that Intel's roadmap (which has been surprisingly accurate thus far), already has plans for the next, next quad-core processor, dubbed Yorkfield. Slated to hit motherboards in Q3 2007, the Yorky builds on the forthcoming Kentsfield chip by operating in a "more efficient" manner. Whereas the Kentsfield rocks two separate L2 caches, shared separately by each pair of processors, the Yorkfield sports just a single L2 cache shared directly by each pair of chips, enabling more streamlined quad-core operation with less front side bus bandwidth. Manufactured on 45nm process technology, next year's quad-core CPU will be paired with the impending Bearlake chipset family (which will support a 1333MHz FSB and a PCI Express 2.0 interface), and will target that oh-so-lucrative "high-end gaming" market when it drops.[Via TGDaily]
Confirmed wonderfulness: Opera browser free for all until June 2007
With the slightly higher than expected price of the Wii, consumers further lamented Nintendo's insistence on squeezing us for every penny we could find under the cushions. The Opera browser would cost twenty dollars or more, and after they promised it to be free? Blasphemy! But soon, news from Japan came that over there, they could download Opera for free, until June 2007. Yet, confusion reigned. What about us, we cried! And moaned. And whined. And apparently, Nintendo took note. We've been on top of the situation, but now it's confirmed in this official press release from Opera: the browser will be absolutely gratis for all regions until June of next year. That means us early adopters actually get a little bonus, whereas normally the late-comers and lazy gamers always get the best deals. Hah! Serves you right, luddites!And look! Ecstatic Wii-loving swimmers! Wooooo! [Thanks, Nushio!]
CMO jumping into 52-inch 1080p LCD market, QuadHD delayed
Just because they don't have a shiny new 8G plant yet isn't stopping CMO from getting in on the 52-inch 1080p LCD battle. HDTVs from Sharp, Samsung and Sony are already on sale or coming soon, and Chi Mei Optoelectronics, plans to join them in the first quarter of 2007. While you may not know the name, their panels are in many HDTVs you do know like Westinghouse and Toshiba. They'll be showing their 52-inch LCD next month at FPD International 2006 in Japan, and plan to upgrade production to 180,000 glass substrates by December. Their current 5.5G plant can only get two 52-inch LCDs from each substrate however, while the newer plants produce six at a time. Either way, next year will have a lot of players competing in the 40 to 50-inch LCD space driving prices down, we see what they've been able to do at the 47-inch tier. It's not all good news though, CMO may be having trouble mass producing the 56-inch 3,840×2,160 resolution LCD they showed off last year. With four times as many pixels as current 1080p screens, they promise all new debates over how much resolution is actually necessary...whenever the technology is actually released.
Details on Microsoft Office 2007 for the Mac
APC Magazine had a chance to sit down and snag some juicy details from Mary Starman, group product manager for the MacBU, on the next version of Microsoft Office for the Mac. Probably the most significant change will be a UI redux (while still accounting for Apple's UI guidelines), borrowing from the controversial new 'ribbon' UI Microsoft is introducing in Office 12 for Windows (if you want a rundown on the new Office for Windows UI, check out Download Squad's killer video review, but remember - that isn't exactly what we'll be getting). For standards buffs, the new versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint are adopting the new native XML file format.The next version of Office for the Mac will, of course, be a Universal Binary, and Mary referred to that alone as a big milestone for the team, as they cited many of the same major challenges as Adobe in updating a lot of really, really old code for Apple's Xcode. This challenge, however, is one of the reasons we aren't going to see a new version of Office for the Mac until sometime between July and September of 2007 - as long as everything stays on track.For more details, check out APC Magazine's interview with Mary for more details on what to expect in this major Office update.
Niveus announces Rainier and Denali Edition Media Center PCs
Niveus has just announced its latest media centers, dubbed the Rainier and Denali Editions, the two products that comprise the 2007 Summit Series line at this year's CEDIA, being held in Denver. The just-over 4-inch tall Rainier ($3,500), runs Windows Media Center 2005, and is loaded up with HDMI, WiFi, an SD/MMC reader, IEEE 1394, dual USB ports, VGA, composite and S-Video in, eight-channel analog audio out, S/PDIF, and of course, Ethernet. Further, it boasts up to three television tuners (two NTSC and one ATSC), 750GB of storage, 2GB of RAM, and an ATI X1600 Pro graphics card. If that wasn't enough to whet your appetite, the 8-inch tall Denali ($7,000) is even more loaded, with an Intel Core 2 Duo (no word on what speed yet), four television tuners (a pair of NTSCs and ATSCs), NVIDIA's GeForce Series 7 graphics card, a full terabyte of storage, a whopping 4GB of RAM, and even has, as we previously reported, built-in support for CableCARDs. Expect both editions to ship on September 30, but while you wait we've got more pics of the Rainier and the Denali Editions on the other side.
IFA 2006: Flat panel prices dropping in 2007
No surprise there, but the question is how much? LG was quoted a few days ago as saying they expect LCD prices to plunge as by 30% or more next year, mimicking their behavior in 2006, while today Hitachi says they expect plasmas to drop around 20%. Both have big plans for next year, with LG rolling out their first 47-inch 1080p LCD this year, along with 1080p 65- and 70-inch PDPs, followed by smaller versions of both the LCDs and plasmas next year. Hitachi has a few tricks up their sleeve as well, with their own 50-inch 1080p plasma slated for next year and a high-powered advertising campaign. Still, with so many competitors, both know that increasing production and cutting prices will be the key to keeping/increasing their marketshare. Now the hard part for consumers is knowing when to jump in, that prices have and will continue to drop is nothing new, but even when what is now a brand-new TV is 20% off, you'll have to choose between old technology, a shiny new LED-based set, SED or even something else.Read - LG Elec sees LCD TV prices down 30% plus in 2007Read - Hitachi sees smaller fall in plasma TV prices
802.11n getting prelim certification in March 2007
Starting in March 2007 the Wi-Fi Alliance will start certifying next-gen WiFi products, which puts us at ease a little bit. As CNET reports, the ultimate goal is, of course, to make sure that all the prelim 802.11n stuff out there plays nice with each other, which currently can mess up existing legit WiFi networks. For those of you who haven't been keeping score at home, 802.11n has been fraught with total confusion since the beginning. Back in May 2006, the IEEE rejected the first 802.11n draft by a wide margin, failing to garner a simple majority, let alone the required 75 percent supermajority. Later that month, Glenn Fleishman at Wi-Fi Net News told us that Task Group N received around 12,000 comments on the proposed draft -- compared to the 2,000-some that most drafts generate -- which is another very bad sign. Unfortunately though, it still looks like the real deal officially official final ratification won't be done until 2008. The short version? Just to be safe, stick with your current WiFi setup until there's a new man in the White House, ok? [Via Wi-Fi Net News]
Kicking back with Winning Eleven 2007
There are some great previews coming out of Leipzig, and GameSpot has a look at Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 that compares the game now with the build available earlier this year at E3. The control scheme for this forthcoming DS title seems very similar to older versions. The DS's left trigger feints, the right trigger is for a dash, and the d-pad moves your player. The Y button shoots, and the X, A, and B buttons all perform various passes. For anything more complicated, a series of buttons is required. Further, they report the game seems to be playing faster now than at E3, and the movement and graphics seem to be improved. Unfortunately, for the purpose of the preview, only the single player mode was activated, but GameSpot reports the following menu options: world tour, network, Konami Cup, original team, and training. Sounds like a bevy of options for the soccer fan with a DS.
Virtual PC goes free - but not for Mac OS X
Good news everyone: Microsoft has released Virtual PC into the wild for free - but not for 'the rest of us'. That's right: an announcement on a MSDN blog (Microsoft Developer Network) has released Virtual PC 2004 as a free download for Windows users, and it offers details of VPC 2007 along the lines of support for Vista and improved performance over version 2004 (who on Earth thought it was a good idea to use years as a versioning system?). Of course, there isn't even an ETA that Microsoft can start delaying for version 2007, so we're guessing around 2010/2011 for the new version. This move makes sense in light of Parallels making headlines virtually overnight (pun intended), sparking what seems like a renewed interest in the virtualization market.[via Daring Fireball]
Windows Vista delayed until 2007... taking Halo 2 with it?
Microsoft's announced that Windows Vista will be delayed until January of next year for most consumers. Some businesses will get an early crack at the OS this November, however.Other than Vista's touted advantages for gamers (and its enormous technical requirements), we care about a delay because certain games may not release, run, or run "optimally" with anything less than Vista, including Halo 2 for the PC, MS Flight Simulator X, and CryTek's Crysis ("the first DirectX 10-enabled game" for the new OS).Of course, release plans, optimizations, and compatibilities could change from here till the end of 2006, but Microsoft will probably try to support its upcoming OS upgrade with as many titles as it can in the coming year. Vista was supposed to spark a new renaissance in PC gaming after its long and drawn-out development grind. At least corporate testers will get to check out the new version of Minesweeper before Christmas.
Windows Vista delayed - again
I almost decided not to post this on the grounds that a lot of us probably won't be surprised, but then I figured it might still be good for a laugh.A friend passed me an article at CNET which reports that Vista has been delayed yet again to January 2007. Windows chief Jim Allchin explained that a few complications would force some PC vendors to wait until '07 to get their hands on the über-delayed upgrade to Microsoft's OS, while others could have it as soon as November 2006. As a result of this quirk, Microsoft ultimately decided to push the hold button again, kicking Vista's debut into January of 2007.Here's hoping Apple will capitalize on this latest roadblock in Vista's development. With Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) still slated to land this year, along with the recent announcements of a new chip from Intel and WWDC's move to August (perhaps for a Leopard release?), I wouldn't be surprised if 2006 turns into a fantastic year for Apple.[thanks to Damien for the pic]
