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EVE Evolved: Music to watch the stars by
EVE Online received some big graphical overhauls with the recent Crucible expansion, and every ship will have its graphics iterated on in future patches as part of with the ongoing V3 project. A great deal of time and money is poured into keeping EVE's graphics at the bleeding edge of the industry, and yet the game's music has barely changed since launch in 2003. Warped ambient compositions like Red Glowing Dust gave a feeling of depth and scale to early EVE's empty universe, and the electronic beats of tracks like Below the Asteroids and Merchants, Looters and Ghosts have become iconic sounds of EVE. The music still manages to impress new players, but with so much of EVE being overhauled, I think it's time to give the music another look. Very few game studios pay as much attention to music as to graphics, the user interface, or gameplay, but the right music has the power to completely transform a player's experience. Just like in a movie, music can evoke an emotional response and so alter a person's perception of events. Fighting monsters in a fantasy MMO or shooting down pirates in EVE might not be a terribly epic activity, but throw in some epic music and suddenly it feels a lot more real. I wrote about the psychological effect of music in MMOs several years ago, and the topic is as relevant today as it was then. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at three different types of music that could improve EVE and suggest how CCP could take advantage of each type to give EVE the soundtrack it deserves.
Nokia experiments with Drop, elegantly shuttles photos and web links to mobiles (video)
Proving not all clever projects need witty names, Nokia introduced an experimental project known as Drop -- and it's likely to make your web browser and Symbian phone the best of friends. Intrepid testers may now push links, pictures, and even apply wallpaper to linked mobile devices, all from the comfort of Firefox or Chrome. While Nokia intends to add more features as development matures, what we're previewing appears decidedly familiar. Symbian^3 and S60 5th Ed. users can get a taste of the clever trickery right now, though considering Nokia's excitement in heralding this innovation late in Symbian's life cycle, we wonder if our friends from Espoo are pondering Drop's future for Windows Phone handsets. Want to join us in the speculation? Take a gander at the video after the break to see what these wide-eyed developers have in store.
iTunes 9.2.1 arrives in Software Update -- many fixes, new features
According to the update, the new version disables older versions of incompatible third-party plugins, addresses minor issues, with dragging and dropping items, addresses a performance issue when doing a first sync to some devices, addresses an issue upgrading to iOS 4 on an iPhone or iPod touch with encrypted backups, and fixes some stability and performance issues. The new features and improvements include syncing with iPhone 4, synchronization and reading books on iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 4 and iBooks 1.1, organizing and syncing PDF documents as books for reading in iBooks 1.1, organizing apps on your iOS 4 home screens using iTunes, faster backups while syncing iPhone and iPod touch with iOS 4, and album artwork improvements to make artwork appear more quickly when exploring the library. Information about the security aspects of the update can be downloaded from Apple's Support page. Enjoy!
Exchange users on iOS 4 need an updated config profile
The path to ActiveSync nirvana for iPhone 4/iOS 4 users has not run all that smooth over the past couple of weeks. There were dramatic slowdowns for Google Apps and Exchange users who tried to synchronize calendar and mail data, although matters improved after the first day or two. Worse, some Exchange administrators noticed a drag on their servers associated with the influx of iOS 4 devices. Not so hot. Good news, though: Apple has a suggested solution for these issues, and all it requires is downloading a new Exchange/ActiveSync configuration profile to your device (or, in the case of corporate deployments, scores of devices) and installing it. The new profile doesn't do much except extend the timeouts for contacting Exchange servers, but in this case that should get the job done. If you've experienced this issue (or tried the fixed profile), let us know. [hat tips to Engadget, Macworld]
My anticipation for a full day of iPhone 4
I'd love to give you my first impressions of the iPhone 4, but unfortunately only impression to date is how long my library is taking to synchronize. That's not new to the iPhone 4; I've been through this with previous Apple product releases. The difference today is how amazingly long it took to get my iPhone. In the past, I've been able to scoot in and out of the mall, or have the unit delivered to my home. Today is the first time that I actually spent multiple hours in line. I ran out of battery on my 3GS. I ran out of books to read (real ones, not iBooks). On the other hand, Apple kindly catered with coffee, water, egg rolls, and pizza. "I'm so excited about today," one of the Apple employees told us. "Last night I could barely sleep."
Enter Gmail contact syncing and DropBox; exit MobileMe?
Well, that's that. I have whittled MobileMe down to two useful functions: Find My iPhone and Remote Wipe. And yes, I use one of those functions quite often, say, when my husband is off on some 80 mile jaunt on his bicycle. I have, thankfully, yet to require the services of the other one. But the rest of it: email, syncing, and online storage? Gone the way of the dodo. Initially, I moved mostly over to Gmail to take advantage of its more robust email aliasing. I have several email addresses on personal domains, and Gmail gave me the best mix of domain use, plus sophisticated filtering and spam identification. MobileMe just doesn't play nicely with personal domains, and once Google enabled IMAP for gmail and then push email, I basically abandoned my .me address, relegating it to receiving Apple Store retail receipts and my Apple ID for iTunes.
Confirmed: BlackBerry two-way sync for Gmail is now live
We've just heard from the boys and girls at RIM that the company did, in fact, deploy the long-awaited two-way Gmail synchronization capability to North American BIS users this week. What does that mean, exactly? Well, it means that if you've got a BlackBerry on any North American carrier that isn't going through BES, Gmail should behave more like it should -- deleted items will disappear from your phone, emails read elsewhere will show up as read on the device, and you'll have access to all of your sent items. Oh, and you can create and delete labels from the comfort of your QWERTY thumb board, too, which is a sweet deal. Sure, the feature might be literally years late as far as we're concerned -- but hey, better late than never.
Microsoft Kin notifications have up to fifteen minute delay
Microsoft's new Kin phones promise to let "Generation Upload" stay in touch with their friends via integrated, streamlined social networking. It's the main draw, the big selling point, the reason why teens, tweens and those who want to share pictures of huge fat men eating Chipotle burritos will get one. But unless you hit a manual refresh button, Microsoft says Kin will only let you stay in touch in fifteen-minute intervals. That's how often the company's servers will ping Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and Windows Live to grab info from the cloud. "We didn't want the device always pulling data from the network," said one engineer, citing battery life and immature social network APIs as primary reasons why. Our take? This might be how Microsoft intends to leverage cheaper data plans out of Verizon -- by subtly throttling data usage -- providing an always-on 3G experience at a tween-affordable price. We'll just have to see if "Heather M." appreciates that, when her clothing recommendation is subject to a quarter-hour delay.
iPhone and Windows 7 don't play nice, Intel P55 chipset to blame
The iPhone is one of the most wildly popular phones the world has ever seen, while Windows 7 is well on its way to becoming the globe's most ubiquitous OS. So compatibility between the two would be kinda sorta important, right? Tell that to Intel's quality control team who seem to have somehow missed an issue between Apple's app carrier deluxe and the P55 Express chipset's USB controller. Consistent (and persistent) syncing issues have been reported on Apple's support forums, wherein iTunes on Windows 7 machines recognizes the iPhone, but spits out an "error 0xE8000065" message whenever the user attempts to sync. While some have found limited success with using PCI-based USB cards (and bypassing the chipset), this is clearly a major issue and something Apple would expect to be fixed before shipping its Core i5 / i7 iMacs, which are likely to sport the chipset. Hit the read link for the original thread of sorrow and regret, and do chime in with your own experience in the comments. [Via The Register]
MobileMe media sync detailed in Apple patent application
What do you know? It looks like Apple's filed yet another patent application. The company's newest is named (in the short, pithy way that patents are named) Synchronization of Media State Across Multiple Devices. Combining the ubiquity of MobileMe with the media syncing that goes down when you dock your iPod or iPhone, the application suggests that soon you might find all your Engadget Show episodes automagically picking up where you left 'em when you switch devices -- without any lag time or any pesky cables. As Macworld points out, also included in the paperwork is distance tracking functionality -- just the thing for automating sync operations when two devices come within range (it's unclear whether this will be done via Bluetooth or WiFi). Perhaps this news isn't exciting to the couch potatoes among us (you know, because they never leave the couch) but all you TV addicts "on the go" must be psyched.[Via Macworld]
Palm WebOS 1.2.1 now available, 'fixes' iTunes media sync
The game's back on. Palm just announced the availability of its 1.2.1 update to WebOS for the Palm Pre and, well, that's it for the time being. It fixes Exchange mail syncing issues experienced by some users, which is nice, but for everyone else it re-enables media sync with iTunes 9.0.1, with or without the USB-IF's support. In fact, Palm has signaled its commitment to its rogue approach by improving synchronization with the Photos app to keep the album structure in tact while allowing lower-resolution images to be synced to the Pre. Oh happy day -- enjoy it while it lasts Pre owners.
iPhone app Feeds handily synchronizes with Google Reader
Google Reader is unarguably an extremely popular RSS news reader with a very good mobile interface for the iPhone. But as good as the mobile interface is, for me well done native applications will always beat an in-browser experience. A good iPhone app that synchronizes with Google Reader already exists by the name of Byline ($4.99, iTunes link), but a new one has just been released that is worth your attention.I used Byline for a few months before finally tiring of not having the ability to unsubscribe from feeds that I'd lost interest in. In fact, I switched to NetNewsWire (free, iTunes link) on the Newsgator platform for just that reason. But this new RSS reader has come along with not only the ability to synchronize with Google Reader, but also the ability to manage my Google Reader subscriptions right on my iPhone. This new (to me, anyway) app is called Feeds ($2.99, iTunes link).
Synching iTunes Libraries Take 2: Syncopation
After testing TuneRanger over the past few days and not getting very good results, yesterday I had a chance to test Sonzea's Syncopation, which was recommended by several TUAW readers. Like TuneRanger, Syncopation works by synchronizing multiple iTunes libraries. Unlike TuneRanger, Syncopation is a Universal Binary Mac-only product. Syncopation has a free 30-day demo which you can install on one computer. For access to all program features you must buy the full license for $24.95. This allows you to synchronize up to 5 Macs. The initial install was simple, and I had it up and running quickly -- until I discovered I was quickly running out of space on my Mac Mini. Normally, the mini uses an external drive for the iTunes library given that space on the core drive is limited. I wrote to the developer who responded quickly.
iPhone 101 (Canadian edition): Don't forget to sync with iTunes
For the past year when it comes to the iPhone, us Canadians have had to watch enviously as our American neighbors got to have all the fun. Well, no more! As of today I have joined the ranks of the enlightened -- at least, my wallet has been "lightened". I am, like many of you, a software junkie. As such, one of things I am really excited about is the App Store. Imagine my surprise today when I tried to access it from my gleaming new device, only to run into an error message when I attempted to download my first app. The error stated "Your account is only valid for purchases in the Canadian iTunes Store." Huh?My first thought was, "this darn thing has GPS on it, doesn't it know I'm in Canada?" So I went looking in the international settings on the phone, and sure enough the region format was set to United States. I dutifully changed it to Canada and tried again, to be met again with the same error.At this point I should mention that I had, up until this point, not synchronized my iPhone with iTunes. I had not planned to, since my MacBook Pro is currently down for the count with a dead video card, and it will be a week before the Apple Store has one in stock to repair my machine. Frustrated by my inability to download apps, I finally threw caution to the wind and synchronized my new iPhone with a newly downloaded copy of iTunes on the Windows desktop I am relegated to using while waiting for my laptop to be repaired. Unfortunately, I still had no luck. Then it occurred to me to log into the iTunes Store in iTunes using my account. It was at this stage that iTunes informed me that I was viewing the wrong store, and transferred me over to the Canadian iTunes Store. One more synchronization of the iPhone was needed to transfer my iTunes Store credentials into the phone, and I was finally able to waste untold hours downloading applications. I imagine this tip will apply to almost nobody, but here's hoping that if there's someone else out there that is so dazzled by the iPhone that they are unable to think coherently, as I was, that they will find in this post the help and understanding that they so desperately need. Or something like that.
A quick rant about Notes
You got your iPhone. You got your computer. Your emails sync. Your contacts sync. Your calendars sync. Your music, your podcasts, your photos, all your stuff: it just syncs. This is good.Your notes? They don't sync.This. Is. Bad.Not just bad, but actually driving me nuts. It drives me nuts because I can't believe there's a technical challenge to be overcome here. On the iPhone, you have your Notes app in which you write text notes. How hard can it be to sync them up with something on the computer to which the iPhone is attached?A friend says to me: "Sync them where? With Stickies?" He has a point - there's no obvious, existing place for text notes to go, but again, that doesn't sound to me like something that need be a problem. Let's have a simple desktop app called, um, Notes, with which the iPhone version syncs. OK, even Stickies if we have to. All I want to do is easily reach my iPhone-jotted notes when I'm working on the Mac. Yes, I know about the work-arounds. I could use a Drafts folder in an IMAP account. I could add notes to a contact. I could just email stuff back and forth to myself. But none of these fits in with the way I work already, all of them are work-arounds. We're talking about text notes here: there shouldn't be any need for work-arounds. I look forward to a simple solution appearing in the App Store soon.That said, despite the horrible Marker Felt font, I quite like the Notes app. I just wish it would sync. Is that too much to ask?
Keep your bookmarks in sync with BookIt
I have an admission to make: I change browsers on a fairly regular basis (normally, I'm found swapping between Camino and Safari in short succession as I struggle to find a nirvana between the two of them). But what to do with my favourites? Some people I know like to keep browser favourites separate, but I can't stand that. If anything, I've yearned to be able to simply use the same bookmarks (and keyboard shortcuts for Bookmark-bar items) on all the browsers I possibly can.That's where Bookit comes in handy. There's three options: Manage, Migrate or Restore. You can manually edit bookmarks, and compare them to a 'master' set (in my case, Camino); Migrate will allow you to take a browser's bookmarks, and completely over-write existing bookmarks on any other browser (or overwrite a synchronised copy of your Bookit bookmarks on .Mac), while Restore will allow you to retrieve a previous configuration. With only Safari able to synchronise bookmarks via .Mac, the ability to do so with Camino and Firefox is a welcome relief for those of use who don't (always) use the default OS X browser.I've used Bookit on three of my Macs around the home and office, with the application working perfectly in bringing my bookmarks across to all of them. Given that the application costs just $12, if you're working with multiple browsers, favourites and machines, I'd highly recommend Bookit.
Beta Beat: Simple sync with Changes
This one is ostensibly for developers, but if you ever rock a revision control system or get excited about a little late-night diff-and-merge for whatever reason, your life may have just gotten easier. Changes is an app designed to simplify project synchronization and differencing for groups or individuals working locally or remotely. It provides a GUI and an impressive list of features for an initial release, including MacFuse support, Subversion and other SCM integration, a TextMate bundle and a command line utility. Yes, it bears a resemblance to FileMerge, but Changes offers features and options well beyond Apple's aging utility. Because it uses existing systems (chdiff) and provides a plugin SDK, it's both easy to implement and extensible. The command line utility and F-Script support provide additional options for incorporating Changes into your existing workflow. I appreciated the familiar interface and was impressed by how simple it was to integrate Changes into my existing TextMate/Subversion workflow with a few keystrokes. Changes, which is a Leopard-only release, is currently in beta and is available for immediate download. As of today, the download requires registering for a beta key but the developer has let us know that an upcoming build will switch to a simple time-locked beta. If you dig the software you can get a pre-release discount on a full license, receiving $10 off the $39.95 release price, but the offer is only good until the end of the beta period. And, less importantly, I made it through the whole post without a Bowie reference. Phew. Update: The new build mentioned above has been released and no longer requires registering for a beta key. An email address is still required for download, but it's less hassle now.
Sync folders to your iPhone with iPhone-iSync
Aptly named app, eh? Yeah, it'll obviously have to change prior to final release to avoid the full force of the Apple police, but name controversies aside, it looks like we've got a winner here. iPhone-iSync's eventual goal is to enable full PIM and iTunes synchronization from Macs, Linux, and Windows PCs to iPhones and iPod touches -- but the interim beta functionality is still pretty hot, offering simple folder sync instead. Automatic sync can be set up, too, which suddenly makes Apple's fanciest iPods among the coolest pocket drives on the market. Better than AFP, is it not? Only Macs are supported with the final beta release that's floating around at the moment, but look for it on ModMyiPhone shortly with Linux and Windows support.[Via TUAW and Appletell]
Study investigates relationship between walking and talking
In of the less glamorous studies we've seen, a team of researchers from a variety of universities came together to study the possible link between walking and communicating via cellphone. In essence, researchers reckoned that by rigging up a Windows Mobile-based handset to vibrate slightly to the rhythm of one's footsteps, the other participate would simply fall in line (and have a more enriched experience) without actually being near the other individual. In testing, however, it was noticed that although the vibrations did help synchronize participants' steps when they were reciting scripted dialogue, a fair amount of subjects managed to mimic each other's gait sans assistance when carrying on a genuine conversation. If you're not snoring by now, feel free to hit the read link to view the research in its entirety. [Warning: PDF read link][Via Textually]
Getting the most out of synching and backing up with ChronoSync
I picked up a license for Econ Technologies' ChronoSync a little while ago, as I didn't want an app like SuperDuper which simply backs up an entire machine. ChronoSync offers a ton of options for fine-tuning your backup operations and synchronizing a machine with a backup folder or even another Mac, scheduling backups / synchronizations and even backing up to optical media. ChronoSync also has special options for performing operations like syncing Home folders between Macs, and even backing up to an iPod. Long story short: if you're looking for a highly flexible backup solution, I definitely recommend ChronoSync.The one catch with ChronoSync can be summarized with a twist on an old phrase: with great power sometimes comes great confusion. ChronoSync has a slight learning curve due to all its flexibility, but thankfully, 43Folders just pointed out a great ChronoSync Tips page with backup scenarios for a number of different users. Listed on the page are a dozen sets of instructions with screenshots for setting up operations like synchronizing/backing up iPhoto, synchronizing to a disk image or another Mac and even using the Document Scheduler to automate as many different backup and synchronization operations as you can dream up. For anyone trying to wrap their head around what ChronoSync can actually do for their backup and synchronization sanity, this is a great one-stop case study page that should convince any potential customers to take the dive.
