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Google wants its Project Ara modular smartphone to cost $50
How much will a modular smartphone set you back? If Google gets its way, about $50 -- assuming you forgo all of the bells and whistles. The team behind Project Ara wants to launch what it calls a "grayphone," a barebones customizable exoskeleton that comes with little more than a screen, a frame and a WiFi radio. That wouldn't be much of a phone, of course, but it's only the bait. Google's Paul Eremenko told Time Techland that users would customize their underpowered husks at special kiosks outfitted with tools to help customers build the device that's right for them. Sounds bold? It is, a little; the team admitted to Time that it hasn't actually reached its price target just yet, and between the FCC and public opinion, it still has more than a few hurdles to leap before its modular cellphone is ready for market. That said, Eremenko says the focus is to make Ara great, not profitable -- a statement that adds to the nebulous handset's allure. Skip down to the attached source for Time's full rundown of Project Ara, Google's ATAP group and Eremenko's thoughts on redesigning the smartphone.
Google's Project Ara modular smartphone gets a trio of dev conferences
Google's got plenty of moonshots brewing in its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP), but one of the most intriguing is its modular smartphone design, called Project Ara. Because Ara's a platform designed to lets users swap out hardware (processors, cameras, or sensors) on the phone, it presents unique opportunities for developers to build different kinds of modules and the software needed to make them all work. That's why ATAP's going to be doing three developers' conferences this year, with the first one set to happen April 15-16 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Folks that want to attend, but are outside striking distance of the Bay Area need not fret, however, as there will be a live webcast and interactive Q&A sessions of the conference, too. This initial event will focus on building the modules themselves, as Google will be making an alpha version of its Module Developers' Kit available at the beginning of April. We don't know what the other two conferences will be about (though software development for Ara seems a good bet), but more info and the conference agenda can be found at projectara.com in the coming weeks.
Steam Dev Days offers an 'off the record' developer conference in January
Valve is hosting a developer conference dubbed "Steam Dev Days" in Seattle, Washington, from January 15 to January 16. Valve promises a "relaxed, off the record environment" where developers can attend lectures from industry veterans and participate in round-table discussions. "Off the record" means there will be no press at the event, but hey, there's free wi-fi. The Steam Team will be on-hand, along with SteamOS, prototype Steam Machines and the Steam Controller. Valve is emailing registration codes to developers, and there is an attendance fee of $95 per person. The specific schedule, speakers and sessions will pop up here closer to Steam Dev Days.
Steve Wozniak headlining Apps World Europe in London on October 23rd
iOS developers in and around London might want to take note: Steve Wozniak will be the keynote speaker for Apps World Europe on October 23rd. Apps World Europe is now in its 4th year and is quickly becoming the conference of choice for mobile developers in Europe. The two day event sees over 8,000 developers, mobile marketers, mobile operators, device manufacturers, platform owners and industry professionals meet for workshops and discussions. Of notable interest this year will be a heavy focus on iOS 7, its hundreds of new features, thousands of new APIs, and brand new look. In announcing his keynote role, the Woz said. "I'm delighted to be speaking at Apps World, sharing my experience of 30 years in the mobile and computing industry, as well as learning from and feeding off the passion and enthusiasm of the app developer community in attendance." In addition to Wozniak, leaders from Google, Microsoft, Twitter, Shazam, the BBC, and dozens more will be in attendance to share their latest thoughts about mobile. Apps World Europe takes place from October 22nd-23rd at Earls Court 2, Warwick Road, London SW5 9TA. Tickets can be purchased here. And if you're an iOS developer who's going, I'll be wandering around both days, so give me a tweet during the event if you'd like to share what you're up to.
MacTech Conference offers TUAW reader pricing
You know how you see TUAW staffers on the ground at various conferences? Well here's another to add to the list: TUAW is once again sponsoring the MacTech Conference, and as in the past, you can find some of us in attendance. If you haven't checked out MacTech Conference 2013, this year's speaker lineup is (as usual) fantastic -- including keynote speaker Jacqui Cheng from Ars Technica, and an incredible cast of IT leaders, as well as developers from around the world. Not to brag, but I've made it on the speaker list too, so you can hear me talk about things in person instead of on a podcast! This year's event has not only a new venue, but also an expanded schedule, a wide array of pre-conference workshops, more sessions, more labs, more certifications and a new Vendor Forum. Here are the two most important things to know about MacTech: You've heard me talk about the "hallway track" at conferences, and particularly for developers and IT folks, this hallway track is second to none. So not only do you get to hang out and chat with awesome attendees, but you also get to do it over some of the finest food available at any conference I've attended. Organizer Neil Ticktin has said on more than one occasion, "You will never walk away hungry from a MacTech event." Truly, if you are hungry at MacTech, you are actively doing it wrong. Not only is the conference full of great material, but also this year, MacTech has added four full-day pre-conference workshops. They are: iOS Development 101 by RayWenderlich.com; Mastering Auto Layout for developers by Rich Warren; The Automation Mindset-Scripting, Command Line, and More by Scott Neal; and iOS Mobility Solutions by Russell Poucher. Pricing for the pre-conference workshops is currently US$299, and includes lunch. Early Bird pricing of $999 for the three-day conference will end Monday, September 30. However, as a TUAW reader, you can save an extra $100 -- but you need to act quick. Discounted hotel guest rooms are selling out fast, and you don't want to miss out!
PSA: Sony Japan conference begins at 2AM ET on Monday
Make a cup of tea, put on your bunny slippers and curl up with a laptop for Sony Computer Entertainment Japan's press conference at 2AM EDT on Monday, September 9 (7AM BST on Monday; 11PM PDT tonight). This is a PlayStation conference, meaning we can expect some PS4 provisions. It'll be streamed with English translations on the European PlayStation Blog, Sony tweets. This conference hits 10 days before Japan's Tokyo Game Show 2013, which runs September 19 - 22 at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba. We'll have all of Sony's conference news right here as soon as it breaks, so keep the front page as fresh as that cup of tea, night owls.
DICE Europe conference debuts in September
The DICE Summit is spreading its wings with an inaugural European conference, in addition to the annual Vegas get-together. Similar to GDC, DICE's first Euro-venture takes place this fall at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. In terms of speakers, DICE Europe will have one of the industry's most prolific in ex-Lionhead chief and 22 Cans founder Peter Molyneux. Also confirmed are EA Chief Creative Director Rich Hilleman, Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi, and Natural Motion CEO Torstein Reil. The conference itself will play out similar to the Vegas summit, with the first day dedicated to networking and the second for speaker sessions. Registration for the event, scheduled for September 24-25, is open now.
Dropbox to hold its first DBX developer conference on July 9th
While there's an abundance of cloud storage services, few of them have dedicated conferences to help developers exploit that online space. Dropbox could well be a vanguard on that front, then -- it just announced its inaugural developer conference, DBX. The initial event takes place on July 9th at San Francisco's very familiar-sounding Fort Mason Center. Along with providing help straight from the source for the Sync API and other coding tools, DBX will serve as the launch platform for "new products." There aren't any clues as to what that entails, but we suspect that's enough of a tease to have some Dropbox diehards booking their flights.
Tim Cook will headline All Things D conference next month
The Wall Street Journal's AllThingsD blog has announced the lineup for its 11th AllThingsD conference happening later this month, and the lead draw is Apple's CEO. Yes, an interview with Tim Cook will headline the show. He appeared at the conference last year to talk about Apple's present and future, and he's planning to do the same again this year. New products will definitely be a subject. Apple hasn't revealed anything new in quite a while, so the second half of 2013 could be a big one for Apple. And it'll be nice to just hear what Cook has to say -- these talks are generally pretty open, and Cook always reveals one or two good tidbits about life on the Apple campus. Sony's Kaz Hirai, Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, and a number of other tech-related executives are also set to take the stage at the 11th All Things D show as well. It'll be held from May 28 to 30 later on this year.
Nokia aims to take the drudgery out of concalls with its Conference app
Is your organization still on the fence about BB10 and casting around for alternatives? Then here's a little first-party business app for Nokia Windows Phones that might be worthy of some evidence-based evaluation. It's called Conference and it's only at the beta stage, but it's already able to serve its primary purpose: namely, letting you join a conference call on your Lumia without needing to grab details out of your calendar and key them in. The app receives the invite, with the necessary ID/PIN details supplied by the sender, and then lets you join a call with a single tap -- or a voice instruction if you're on a WP8 handset. It also integrates with Lync and vibrates whenever someone uses corporatese in lieu of gravitas.
Path of Exile interview reveals plans for player-generated races
Although there is no Some Assembly Required in the title, don't let that fool you; today's focus is on one of the founding precepts of this column, player-generated content. It's just not sandboxy player-generated content like we've covered before. Today's special edition explores the PGC proposed for the decidedly non-sandbox action RPG Path of Exile. At GDC I sat down with managing director Chris Wilson and technical director Jonathan Rogers to discuss Path of Exile and their idea of adding player-run races to the game. A fan favorite, these timed gaming experiences are currently only officially sponsored events grouped into seasons, the first of which just concluded. However, devs would like to give players the opportunity to create and host unofficial events (meaning results won't have any bearing on the seasons) to allow players to enjoy this wildly popular facet of the game in a place where they can practice skills, test themselves against friends, or just enjoy a unique challenge.
Wings Over Atreia Exclusive: Aion 4.0 launches in June!
Good news! (Well, at least for my police record.) As it turns out, I didn't have to resort to kidnapping to convince someone from NCsoft to talk to me about Aion at this year's GDC. I swear, Sean Orlikowski, the game's associate producer, came willingly. It does, however, appear that in the fine print of the meeting proposal, I agreed to be outfitted with a special electronic device that would send massive jolts of electricity through my system if I tried to speak about something I shouldn't. So let's see how much I can share with you before this apparatus leaves me unconscious. Can I tell you that Aion has a special celebration planned for the first anniversary of the Truly Free conversion? So far, so good, folks. Hmm... can I add that the next big expansion has a North American launch date planned without going unconscious... oh, appears so! OK, let's push this a little further: How about if I happened to mention that 4.0 will hit servers in June 2013 -- would I be zapped? Nope! So there you have it, folks: 4.0 is indeed going live in just two short months!
GDC 2013: City of Steam demo showcases crafting and other streamlined features
It may seem like a while has passed since we last experienced City of Steam, the fantasy steampunk MMORPG that fits in your browser. That's because it has! The game's last closed beta testing round was back in December, and fans have been eagerly waiting to get back into the city-state of Nexus. Of course there has been some news to tide us over in the meantime while developers have been turning all of that beta feedback into fixes and updates, but that's not the same; people want to play. Luckily, it's GDC to the rescue! While the rest of the world won't actually get to access City of Steam until it launches open beta (which is anticipated to be within the next two months!), I was able to dive in and explore the fruits of the devs' winter labors. And let me tell you, they've put their time to good use! I met with Communications Manager Gabriel Laforge and Operations Director Andrew Woodruff from Mechanist Games who showed off all the work that has gone into the game since the beta closed, from graphics to crafting to airships. They also highlighted the game's cash shop and revealed numerous rewards players can earn simply by playing the game.
GDC 2013: Activision's pursuit of photorealism
At a GDC panel titled "Next Generation Character Rendering" last week, research and development staffers at Activision-Blizzard showed off some stunning computer-generated portraits. The catch? They don't represent in-game assets; instead, they showcase the tech behind the graphics. So while these we won't be seeing the lady above as the protagonist of Titan, it's reasonable to expect that the characters of Blizzard's future games could look just as convincing and real. As I looked on from the audience, my iPhone's camera focused on the projected slides as if they beheld actual faces.
GDC 2013: Hands-on with Vendetta Online on the iPad
When we talk about getting our hands on a game at GDC for a little playtime, we don't usually get to literally grasp said game in our fingers. But that's exactly what happened when I tested out Vendetta Online on an iPad 3; instead of just relating to the space-based sandbox through the standard accessories like mouse, keyboard, or joystick, I held the entirety of the game universe in the palms of my hands. My own 10 digits were the only accessories. And the experience impressed me! I had the opportunity to sit down with John Bergman, Founder and CEO of Guild Software, to talk about the new iOS platform for Vendetta Online while doing my best Goose impersonation (he's way better than Maverick) playing it.
GDC 2013: The MMO impact of the Webzen and Gala-Net merge
Acquisition. Though it sounds pretty benign on its own, when used in reference to one developer taking over another, the word can inspire fear in the hearts of gamers. Questions quickly arise about the future of titles that fall on the acquired side of the equation. How will the games and players be affected by the change? Will there even still be a game? I sat down with Claas Wolter (European PR Manager) and Deanna Peter (Marketing/PR Associate) to discuss just this topic regarding the recent purchase of Gala-Net (the parent company of gPotato) by Webzen and how that acquisition will affect Allods Online, Age of Wulin, Terras Militaris, and the company's other MMORPGs.
GDC 2013: World of Warplanes keeps flying toward the horizon
World of Warplanes is still in testing, but it's been playable at a few events now and has staked its claim as a distinct entity from World of Tanks. Wargaming.net's CEO Victor Kislyi and global operations director Vlad Beloserov were at GDC recently showing off more highlights from the game, which promises to deliver exactly the sort of high-energy dogfights you would hope for. As it stands now, the game has about 10 maps and 100 planes. Each of the planes can be fully customized, while each map is meant to play differently rather than just being different background scenery -- some maps are foggy, some have skyscrapers or mountains, some are set at different times of day, and so forth. Actual gameplay has continued to receive polish tweaks; the game retains both easy and expert control modes, with the latter playing more like a flight simulator and the former allowing you to simply point your mouse in the direction you want to fly. Enemy planes and your own can be riddled with holes that show the sky through your shredded wings, and the UI allows you to track your plane's optimal speed and altitude to maximize performance in combat. One extra tidbit revealed on the show floor was that players of both World of Tanks and World of Warplanes can reap extra benefits from both games, as experience earned in the former can be used to improve in the latter. While there's no set release date for the game at this time, the game continues to impress and will be flying into more open testing as soon as Wargaming.net's teams are happy with its performance in smaller test venues. %Gallery-130862% Massively sent its ace reporters to San Francisco to bring you back the biggest MMO news from this year's GDC, the largest pro-only gaming industry con in the world! Whether it's EVE Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic or that shiny new toy you've got your eye on, we're on the case, so stay tuned for all the highlights from the show!
Leaderboard: Which convention reveal excited you the most?
So March's gaming convention madness is in our rearview mirror (although some coverage is still trickling in during the early part of this week). There were plenty of big reveals and plenty of smaller details, too, and chances are there was something that caught your eye from our GDC and PAX East coverage over the past two weeks. For today's Leaderboard, let's pit a few of the noteworthy reveals against one another to see which game excited the Massively commentariat the most. Vote after the cut. Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
GDC 2013: How APB exploded into a franchise
By now, pretty much everyone knows the story of how GamersFirst swept in to save the DOA All Points Bulletin by relaunching it as APB: Reloaded. Since then, the title's done immensely well for the company and has prompted Reloaded Games to look into turning APB into a bona fide franchise. How this happened was explained to us by PR Manager Darek Connole at GDC. Connole said that the devs are constantly taking suggestions from the community and sorting them into different buckets. While some of the buckets represent doable ideas, one bucket is full of great ideas that are impossible to implement in the current game. "We're taking the NPCs from APB: Reloaded and bringing them into their own game," Connole said. "It's going to be a traditional first-person shooter, but it's also going to have non-traditional elements." Read on to discover how APB's world is going to get a lot more crazy with APB: Vendetta -- and how the team is even thinking about future games in the same world.
GDC 2013: Catching up with Gas Powered Games' Chris Taylor
Hey, is that CEO Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games? By jove, it is! At GDC this past week we had the opportunity to catch up with Taylor and see how his studio is doing following its acquisition by Wargaming.net. He said that the synergy between his studio and Wargaming.net is powerful: "Our overlap is enormous between what we believe in as a company and what Wargaming believes in." We were most curious about the "mystery MMO" that Taylor and his team is constructing. "We are doing research and prototyping on our first Wargaming game," Taylor said, "which will be a huge PvP, free-to-play MMO. It's going to take a little while to get it rolling, and we'll talk about it more once we know it is exactly. We'll announce it down the road." Is there anything else that he was willing to share about it? Taylor paused and said, "It's going to be the biggest game we've ever made." Massively sent its ace reporters to San Francisco to bring you back the biggest MMO news from this year's GDC, the largest pro-only gaming industry con in the world! Whether it's EVE Online or Star Wars: The Old Republic or that shiny new toy you've got your eye on, we're on the case, so stay tuned for all the highlights from the show!
