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Abode’s DIY home security system is now compatible with HomeKit
Abode's Iota smart home security device is now compatible with Apple HomeKit. If you're an iOS users, that means you'll be able to control your Iota through the Home app on your iPhone or iPad. You'll also be able to control any Abode-branded motion, door and window sensors through the Home app if they're connected to the Iota gateway.
YouTube Music now plays nicely with Siri
Siri can now play YouTube Music, meaning you'll no longer have to choose between Apple Music or Spotify to listen through the Apple assistant. The change was made possible by iOS 13, and it works with Apple CarPlay, so you'll get hands-free control of YouTube Music as you drive.
NVIDIA certifies another 16 gaming monitors as 'G-Sync Compatible'
Earlier this year, NVIDIA began testing a wide range of gaming monitors to determine which play nicely with its GeForce GPU. Initially, the company tested 400 monitors and said only 12 met its standards. Now, NVIDIA has expanded its list of "G-Sync Compatible" monitors to 28. But, the company tested 503 variable refresh rate (VRR) monitors, meaning the vast majority (94.4 percent) failed.
Some caveats come with Xbox One headset adapter [update]
Not all models of headset will be compatible with the Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter coming out in March. Tritton's Warhead model, as well as the Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and Xbox 360 Wireless Bluetooth Headset are incompatible, as is any headset with the type of dongle you see pictured above. Even if your headset is compatible, however, there are a couple caveats to keep in mind. According to an Xbox One troubleshooting page, a 2.5mm-to-3.5mm adapter cable included with the Xbox One Stereo Headset Adapter will allow you to connect to the device for chat audio, but not game audio. For that, you'll need additional cables. If your headset uses an optical audio cable, plug one end into the headset or headset receiver, and the other into the Xbox One's optical audio output port. If your headset connects using RCA, you'll need RCA audio output ports or a 3.5-mm headphone jack output on your TV. If you've got the latter, you'll also want a 3.5mm mini-to-RCA adapter cable. The upcoming Xbox One Stereo Headset uses a single 3.5mm jack for both game audio and chat audio, so using it is a simple matter of plug and play. Mostly. Before you use either the Xbox One Stereo Headset or the Stereo Headset Adapter, you'll need to update the firmware on your Xbox One controller. And how do you do that? You connect to Xbox Live, remove the controller batteries, plug in the adapter and headset of choice, install an update, and replace the batteries. Update: While Microsoft's support page also lists the Tritton Primer model as an incompatible headset, a Mad Catz representative told Joystiq that information is incorrect. "The TRITTON Primer should work fine via the adapter," Mad Catz PR Director Alex Verrey tweeted.
Modder adds Oculus Rift support to Crysis and CryEngine 3
Modder Nathan Andrews, last seen working on an Oculus Rift mod for Half-Life 2, has set his sights on making the head-tracking 3D rig compatible with another popular shooter: Crysis. Andrews has released a video showing off Crytek's initial suit-powered shooter being controlled with the head-tracking system and a Mag II gun controller, and says that Crysis Wars and CryEngine 3 compatibility aren't far behind.There's still a bit of work to be done, as Andrews notes the head-tracking isn't quite right yet with the crosshairs on the screen. Still, it look impressive, and considering how far the Rift itself has come, both software and hardware are getting polished up. The Rift headset went out to developers starting last year, with a consumer version supposed to arrive sometime in the future.
Tesla's Supercharger not compatible with competitor's EVs, keeps electricity within the family
Planning on juicing up your Chevy Volt, Mitsubishi i-MiEV or Nissan Leaf with Tesla's Supercharger? Hold your horses, vaquero. The nighttime unveiling stressed that the quick-charge solution was Model S-friendly, but we should also note that it's only compatible with the firm's automobile. Vehicles from other automakers won't be able to jack into the station thanks to a 20-kilowatt hour converter, which would zap other batteries with too much electricity, and a proprietary plug. Unless something changes, those planning cross-country trips using EVs from other manufacturers will just have to find an alternative to Musk and Co.'s white obelisk.
Use the Xbox 360 controller on your Mac
TUAW reader Jon emailed in the other day to ask about possible game controllers for Mac, and while we've covered this issue before, it has definitely been a while. In short, the best way to use a game controller with your Mac is just to use one of the better controllers out there: the wired version of Microsoft's Xbox 360 controller (or, if you wish, any compatible third-party version). The port on it is just a standard USB, so it should plug right into your Mac. And in some cases that's all you need -- the OnLive app, for example, will make use of your controller right out of the box (which is actually easier than it works on Windows, incidentally, where you need to install an official driver), and there are other games around (I've been playing AirMech in my Chrome browser quite a bit lately) that will work great right away. I haven't tried Steam's Big Picture mode on my Mac yet, but I presume it too will work just as well. If the game you're trying to play doesn't directly support the controller, however, then things get a little more complicated. There is a very nice driver for the Xbox 360 controller available for free online, and it will cover you for a lot of games that already support controller setups. But every once in a while you'll come across a game that requires you to use a keyboard, and for those times, you'll need to download a helper app, something like the Gamepad Companion (from the Mac App Store). That app will let you map the Xbox 360 controller's buttons to standard mouse and keyboard functions, so you can use your controller to do anything you want. Apple seems closer than ever to actually bringing full apps to the Apple TV, and when it does, you have to think it will also create some kind of controller device (or include that functionality directly in iOS somehow). Until then, however, Microsoft's controller works perfectly well, and with a little bit of tweaking, you can get it to do whatever you need.
Snapstream industrial-strength DVR gets Mac browser client
Snapstream is an enterprise-level TV monitoring service. It's used mostly by news organizations and companies to keep an eye on what's happening on television every night, looking for a certain piece of video or bit of text or speech (the Daily Show famously uses it to keep track of all of that news footage John Stewart makes fun of every night). And despite its popularity, it's only been available on Windows -- until now. Unfortunately, there's still not a dedicated Mac client, but there is a new web interface that Macs can access and use through the browser. The browser client will do everything the full client can, which means even users on Macs can search through TV broadcasts and find what they need. Users can grab that video and transcode it on the server off to a more web-friendly format. If your company uses Snapstream (or has been thinking about using it), but was waiting for a Mac client, now's your chance.
Belfry brings Stocks and Weather, other native iPhone apps to jailbroken iPads
Rounding out the honeymoon period with that freshly jailbroken iPad 2? Well now we have some new apps for you to play with, and you may already be acquainted. iOS hacker Ryan Petrich's most recent project, dubbed Belfry, lets you install stock iPhone apps that are otherwise absent from both versions of Apple's tablet including Clock, Voice Memos, Stocks, Calculator, Compass and Weather. As to why these aren't included already is beyond our knowledge, but at least there's an alternative. Users can install Belfry directly within Cydia for free from the BigBoss repository. If you're looking for proof to seal the deal, you can catch the bashful Belfry and his silent film antics after the break.
Bloomberg: RIM working to let BlackBerry PlayBook run Android apps, but Dalvik's not the way
We'd heard sweet, sweet rumors that RIM would include a Java virtual machine in the BlackBerry PlayBook and even bring Android apps on board -- and lo and behold, Bloomberg's corroborating those claims with no fewer than three anonymous sources. Where the new rumor diverges is that the Dalvik virtual machine used in Google's OS reportedly won't be part of the formula; RIM considered it, these sources say, but decided it didn't want to get involved in the Oracle / Google legal fracas. Apparently, the company's working on this secret project in-house and targeting a possible release in the second half of the year. We have to say, the ready availability of roughly 200,000 Android programs could be quite the shot in the arm if WebWorks and AIR don't produce killer apps right away.
European Union's 'One charger for all' starts sampling, coming this year
It was way back in summer of 2009 that Nokia, Apple, RIM, and the rest of the mobile world agreed to make micro-USB the connector around which all future European chargers would be built. Since then, most of those companies have transitioned their hardware to micro-USB without further prompting, but the European Union is still pushing ahead with a universally compatible charger standard to make sure everything is nice and harmonized. The details of what's expected of these chargers were published in December and now the first samples of the new hardware have been produced. The EU expects all manufacturers to have chargers adhering to the new guidelines by the end of 2011 -- and if you're wondering about how Apple, one of the signatories to this agreement, will handle it, there's a note to say that adapters will be allowed on phones without a micro-USB port. Full press release after the break.
TUAW's Daily App: Tilt to Live HD
The quirky and fun Tilt to Live is one of the most-loved iPhone games out there, according to its fans, and now, lucky iPad owners get their very own version of the title with Tilt to Live HD. Rather than just a port, the big-screen version updates the graphics and brings a new model into the mix. It's a free download, which means you can try out the tilt-controlled chaos at no charge, then pay a US$3.99 in-app purchase for three new modes, plus a few new powerups and weapons to try. If you're going to make your app iPad compatible, let's be honest: the best way to do it is to just go universal, since no one likes re-buying the same software for a new device. But if you want to make a completely new experience, Tilt to Live HD does it exactly right, offering up the same thrills as the popular iPhone version, with the option for more. If you somehow missed the game on the smaller screen, check it out on your iPad right now.
Rumor: BGR says Verizon Wireless currently testing iPads
Bad news about the AT&T iPad data plans got you down? Want to grasp at any strings you can about a possible Verizon announcement next week? We've got just the thing for you: Boy Genius Report says that Verizon is currently testing iPads out on their network. Rumor has it that they've got CDMA-compatible models running on the network right now, and they're checking them for stability and performance. Of course, a rumor is a rumor, and despite from the constant speculation and endless denials by both AT&T and Apple, there's no indication that Verizon is getting their own iPhones, much less an alternate deal for the iPad. But with WWDC going down next week and customers frustrated with AT&T's plans, the time might be ripe for Verizon to provide an alternative.
iTunes now segregates apps that are optimized for iPad and iPhone
We posted a short while ago that iPad apps are now in the App Store. An interesting feature we just discovered is that iTunes now splits your downloaded apps in the Apps library in the iTunes source list. Any iPhone app specifically optimized for the iPad is now segregated into its own category. In your iTunes App library you'll now see two headings: the top heading is "iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad Apps" with all the non-iPad optimized apps relegated to an "iPhone and iPod touch Apps" category. An iPad-optimized app is an iPhone app that supports both the iPhone's and iPad's native resolution and thus doesn't need to use the iPad's 2x zoom feature to display the app full screen on the iPad. And while we haven't gotten a chance to sync up an iPad yet, we'll presume that iPad-only apps will have their own section as well. Update: Apple is now featuring iPad apps on the App Store homepage in iTunes. Looks like the iPad App Store is officially live. Get those iPad apps while they're hot.
Nyko FrontMan guitar compatibility chart
Click to embiggen During E3 we spoke with third-party peripheral manufacturer Nyko about its line of FrontMan guitars and which games the different versions were compatible with. We did a quick and dirty post on what we were told during the E3 madness, but Nyko just sent over the chart above, which, admittedly, is much easier to understand.For first-party guitar compatibility, check out our Guitar Hero / Rock Band guitar compatibility matrix v2. We're sure to have v3 available as soon as we confirm Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution guitar compatibility.
Little Snitch updated to 2.0, Leopard compatible
Macworld brings news that everyone's favorite tattletale, Little Snitch, has been updated to version 2.0. The new version brings a whole host of updates, including a new Network Monitor, which will let you know about all outgoing and incoming network traffic. There's also support for IPV6, and a better help and traffic filtering system. Oh, and perhaps most importantly, the whole thing's been overhauled and is now compatible with a little thing called Leopard. I haven't upgraded yet, but considering those other "next-gen" operating systems, I'm not sure if I should.Little Snitch 1 users may be able to upgrade for free (if your version number starts with "32"), if not you pay a discounted rate. If you haven't started using Little Snitch yet, you can try the eval version, or pay $24.95 for the full app. If you have a lot of network traffic coming in and out of your Mac, you might want to consider it-- how else will you know what's coming through there?
CrossOver 6.2 supports Team Fortress 2
The latest version of CrossOver, Codeweavers' Mac and Linux application designed to get Windows games and applications working on those systems, has been released. CrossOver 6.2, now available, features a number of different updates both to increase compatibility and to make Windows applications run faster than ever.And first among these updates is the fact that it will now run Team Fortress 2 right out of Valve's new Orange Box, as seen in the video above (caution: awkward narrative and bad acting ahead-- skip to about 2:09 to see the actual product). They're also saying it features improvements when working with Outlook, and, in the strangest feature description ever, they say it really will work much faster-- when you install Leopard.CrossOver is available as a free trial on their website, and to promote the new release, you can get it for 10% off when you enter "zomg" as a special deal in the shopping cart. Has anyone tried running TF2 in Boot Camp yet? If that doesn't work so well, and you've really got to play Valve's new game, CrossOver might be the way to go.[via IMG]
Bonjour for Windows 1.0.4 released
Apple has released a new version of Bonjour for Windows, 1.0.4, just in case you're zero-configuration networking with any Windows PCs in the area. There's no changelog available, but this version dropped as a preview onto the ADC page last month, and apparently "includes Windows Vista support and various other bug fixes and enhancements." The release is good, of course, not only for Vista, but also for Windows 2000/2003 and XP. Additionally, Apple's covering their 64-bit bases as well-- they've got a 64-bit compatible release ready too. Like it or not, we can't all be on a Mac all the time, and fortunately, Bonjour makes networking without the hassles possible on both platforms.[via Ars Technica]
Radio Allergy delayed to March
Bad news for both of the people that preordered this one. O3 have delayed the US release of Milestone's shmup Radio Allergy until March 30th. The game, known as Radilgy in Japan, was released on the Gamecube in May of last year. We understand the delay-- shooting games have so much text to translate. Or maybe they didn't want to bring the game out in the midst of a busy Gamecube release season. Also (and this is what makes this news item explicitly appropriate for Wii Fanboy) O3 have deployed the "Rhythm Tengoku trick" in marketing their game-- there's a little "Wii Compatible" icon on the box. They might as well use every tactic they can think of; we get the feeling that selling a shmup for the Gamecube in 2007 is harder than, well, a certain kind of frantic videogame that is notorious for difficulty.We'd actually like to see the "Wii Compatible" tactic used by other developers to sell localized versions of obscure titles from the Gamecube back catalog at budget prices, but we think it would take a more popular game to start a trend. What do you think?
Get your Zune to play nice with Windows Vista
It's been well-established that for some strange reason the Zune doesn't work with Windows Vista -- yet, anyway. (Hey, it's not out yet, ok?) Fortunately for those of you Microsoft überfanboys who suffered much frustration after buying a Zune and trying to install its software on your Vista machine, there's now a solution. While we won't regurgitate the exact step-by-step instructions outlined on MoDaCo, we will tell you that it involves your Zune CD, WinRAR and a MyZune.msi patch. If that method doesn't work for whatever reason, you can always try a similar strategy that Andre de Cavaignac found, which involves Orca (a Microsoft-made disassembler for MSI). As usual, we take no responsibility if either of these methods turns your Zune or your box into a brick, but be sure to let us know in the comments if one of these methods ends up doing the trick.[Via MAKE: Blog]Read - MoDaCoRead - Andre de Cavaignac
