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Embers of Caerus website is nuked by its host
Website woes have hit Caerus hard in the embers, if you get our drift. Embers of Caerus' site was nuked by its host, and it looks as though some data may have been lost for good. The problems began back in early February, when the sandbox MMO's website went down. Regular posts on Facebook indicated that the site would come back, but that changed when the game's creator realized that agreements between the company and the website host lapsed. Subsequent renegotiations did not go well, and the site has remained offline. "After lengthy discussions with the host, it seems they're absolutely unwilling to work with us," the team posted on Facebook today. "They're basically wanting a big chunk of change that Forsaken Studios can't afford. Unfortunately, because they shut everything down without us being aware that it was happening/impending, they also have a lot of data on their servers that we no longer have access to. Obviously, some of that which was hosted was the website and everything on it. I'm not certain where we're moving to from this point, but this monkey wrench definitely hurt."
Jagged Alliance Online starts Spanish open beta
Jagged Alliance Online's community has expanded to include our Spanish-speaking gaming brethren, as the open beta has started today for Spanish and Latin American markets. The Spanish beta has been tailored to provide localized translation, community management, and customer service. IDC/Games will be publishing the Spanish version of Jagged Alliance Online. The company reported that 300,000 players "showed interest" in the two-week closed beta period. If this is of interest to you, you can sign up for the open beta on IDC/Games' website. [Source: IDC/Games press release]
Home page of Apple.com displays Mandela tribute
The splash page of Apple's US website changed this evening from the usual product displays and content links to a spare, elegant black and white portrait of Nelson Mandela. The South African activist, decades-long political prisoner and statesman who served as the first black president of a post-apartheid nation died Thursday at age 95. The tribute page appears only on the US site at this time as far as I can tell, although it may end up on Apple's international web pages soon. While this "takeover" style of front-page tribute is unusual, it is not unprecedented on Apple's site. Founder Steve Jobs took over the home page in the days following his passing in 2011 and again on the first anniversary of his death. Longtime Apple board member Jerry York was memorialized on the front page in 2010, and other notables (cited by 9to5Mac) include dancer Gregory Hines, civil rights icon Rosa Parks and musician George Harrison. Musical legends get memorialized via the iTunes splash page when they shuffle off this mortal coil. Soul singer Isaac Hayes was remembered there in 2008, and Lou Reed in October this year. The iTunes tribute practice may be considered somewhat crass, as it does capitalize on the surge of consumer interest when a performer dies. [Hat tip Mark Gurman/9to5Mac and Steven Aquino]
Archiving iPhone app workflows
For app developers and bloggers, it's very instructive to have an idea of what has changed in the user interface of an app. App developers can look back and see how both the "look and feel" and steps required to perform a workflow have changed, while bloggers and other writers can use the information to update books or write posts about upgrades. Fortunately for both parties, there's a website called UX Archive run by two French developers (one of whom has moved to the Bay Area) and an American that plans to be an online museum of sorts, exhibiting the changes in app user interfaces and workflows over time. The site neatly divides the screenshots by app and task, so you can narrow down a search to just one particular task -- like creating, deleting, recording, sharing or uploading -- in one specific app. While there aren't a tremendous number of apps and versions currently archived (I counted 60 apps, with only a few showing the changes between iOS 6 and iOS 7 versions of those apps), it's a good start and UX Archive will be a helpful tool in the future provided the curators keep up with the updates. If you sign up for a free email list, UX Archive will ping you when a new workflow is added to the site.
Bing's overhauled News layout highlights trending social topics, rapid downfall of humanity
You know who seems like someone well equipped to dictate what shows up on a news site? That weird guy in your Facebook feed who is way, way too vocal about his political beliefs. Blatant sarcasm aside, Bing News has overhauled its web portal in order to accomplish two primary goals: look less like Google News, and surface stories that are trending. Naturally, the new look is built for touch -- you did buy a touchscreen-enabled laptop, didn't you? -- and it'll "automatically adapt to fit your browser width." Furthermore, "the latest buzz" from social channels will be highlighted, leaving news that actually matters to languish somewhere in the abyss. But hey, the next Casey Anthony trial is totally the most important thing ever, right?
One HTML novice, a Mac and a website dream
I have a secret. I can't write HTML to save my life. For most people, that would be okay. But as a tech journalist, it's a bit embarrassing not to have fluency with the language that underlies the World Wide Web. My lack of HTML savvy is one reason why I loved Apple's old iWeb Mac web-composition app so much. Sure, the sites were a bit formulaic and clunky, but for someone who wanted more than a Facebook page, it was great. But when MobileMe's one-click hosting for iWeb went away, so did my site. [For readers who found themselves in the same hostless boat, Steve's tips on replacing the iWeb / MobileMe team are still valuable. –Ed.] But no longer. Though I still haven't learned HTML, I've decided I'm going to make the effort to create a new website based on the current crop of tools available on the Mac. Each month, I'll be using a different tool (be it an app, a Mac-only website builder or a hacked-together website from apps that aren't really meant to build websites). Along the way, I'll report on my journey, and I hope to get lots of feedback from those of you who were in a similar situation and tried different things. To start with, I'm going to try to design a version of my site using RealMac's capable RapidWeaver app and some pretty slick themes from designer Michael David. Next month, I'll report on how that went and show you my results; then I'll try to build the same site using different tools. In the end, I'll be able to know which Mac web tools are the best for folks like me, and which only say they are. You can follow all the posts in the series using our tag for My Mac Site. With all this in mind, I'd love to get your input on what you've found useful. Feel free to leave your comments below or tweet your advice to @michaelgrothaus.
'Possible' loss of user information in Crytek security breach
Crytek took down four of its websites due to "suspicious activity" over the weekend. According to a statement from Crytek, the security breach "may have resulted in some users' login data being compromised." "Although it is uncertain whether the incident led to the copying and decryption of email addresses and passwords, it is possible that users with accounts at these websites have had personal data copied," Crytek said. "On Friday afternoon we started to contact all affected users via email and informed them of the potential security breach." The four sites in question, crytek.com, mycryengine.com, crydev.net and mycrysis.com are still offline. Crytek said that "final details of when our sites will be back online will be communicated as soon as possible." Additionally, "no payment information from users was stored at all" on the sites in question.
Report: Microsoft registers bundle of 'Halo Spartan Assault' domains
Microsoft, by way of private domain registrar service MarkMonitor, has registered a handful of domains related to the Halo universe, Fusible reports. The addresses, HaloSpartanAssault.com, Halo-SpartanAssault.net and similar other variants were all registered within the last few days, and while Microsoft's name is not explicitly attached to any of the related whois reports, the behemoth company has historically used MarkMonitor to claim sensitive URLs in the past. As of press time, the newly-registered domains do not resolve or redirect to any websites, Halo-themed or otherwise. If we had to guess, which we absolutely do not, we'd wager that Halo: Spartan Assault is the name of an Xbox One football game set in the Halo universe, running on the NFL Blitz 2000 Gold Edition engine.
New video details the website changes for RuneScape 3
What's in a website? Quite a lot when your game is based in a browser client, as it happens. With RuneScape 3 around the corner, the team at Jagex is hard at work putting together a new and improved website, and a new video from the development team shows off just what players can expect. Which is quite a lot. For example, one of the centerpieces of the revised design is a series of six buttons front-and-center on the page. The trick is that three of the buttons can be customized by you, allowing you to immediately jump to the most useful parts of the page for your particular playstyle. The team is also revamping the high score pages to incorporate weekly high scores, meaning that newer players can still have a shot at the top. There will even be rewards for people who do well in a given interval. For more details, check out the full video past the break.
Daily iPad App: Quicklytics is the Analytics client that Google should have made
If you obsess over your website traffic and bemoan the fact that Google doesn't have a decent iOS Analytics client, then you should take a moment to check out Quicklytics. Quicklytics pulls your Google Analytics data and gives you a detailed look at your almost realtime** website traffic in just a few taps. The iPad version of the app has an attractive, split-pane layout that places the most commonly checked statistics at the top of the screen in portrait view or on the left in landscape. This section includes a graph and six smaller panes that show metrics like pageviews, visits, goals value and more. Tapping on the pane changes the graph, which now shows the data for the metric you just selected. Tap and hold on one of these panes, and you can change the metric. It's an intuitive layout that packs a lot of information into a relatively compact space. The other section of Quicklytics contains the bulk of your metrics. You can view your audience information, sources of your traffic, content information and ad conversions. Each one of these sections has between 10 and 30 variables that you can pour over. Quicklytics also supports multiple Google analytics accounts, and you can easily switch between each one with a swipe to the left or to the right. It's a staggering amount of data that you can carry around with you in your bag. There are several smaller features that make Quicklytics useful for anyone who is involved in running a website. With a single tap, you can compile a report and share the metrics for a variable like visit duration, device information and others. There is support for filters so you can curb the firehose of data when you need to look at the little picture instead of the big one. A series of tabs let you view your traffic data for today, yesterday, the month, or a custom time frame. Quicklytics is available in the iOS App Store for US$1.99, down from the regular $4.99. This sale price is available through Friday. **How quickly you will see your data change is dependent on your site's traffic. Smaller sites, like the ones I tested with, will see changes hit the app faster, while larger sites may take longer to update. In general, the developer says most sites will see traffic updates every 5-10 minutes.
Apple.com world's 8th most popular website in new ComScore ranking
For 2012, Apple's website was ranked as the world's 11th most popular. However, that ranking did not take mobile access into account -- just desktop access. Now web analytics firm ComScore has added mobile visitors and viewers to their count, pushing Apple up to the No. 8 spot on the MMX Multi-Platform Top 50 Properties list. The first five sites on the list are not surprising, with Google sites taking the lead followed by Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon. Sites run by TUAW parent company AOL are in the sixth spot, followed by Glam Media and, finally, Apple. Rounding out the top 10 are Wikimedia sites and CBS Interactive. Apple's total "digital population" on the ComScore list is counted as 115,920,000 unique visitors/viewers, about half that of list-leading Google's count. Not surprisingly, Apple's mobile audience viewed as an incremental percentage to the desktop numbers was 54 percent, indicating a strong mobile presence on the web.
Zynga's website removes Facebook login requirement
Zynga has redesigned its website, no longer requiring gamers to log into the site using the Facebook credentials.Once upon a time, Facebook and Zynga were the best of pals, with Zynga's titles driving engagement on the big blue social network and Facebook providing a steady stream of new users to play Zynga's offerings. Last year, however, Facebook and Zynga decided to start parting ways, and that's led us to this current situation, where Zynga is pushing its platform beyond the walls of the Facebook system.Not completely outside, however: Zynga players can still log into Facebook on Zynga.com if they like, and as you can see on the site, the Facebook logo and login box are still prominently displayed. But players are no longer forced to use that process to partake in Zynga's library of games.
BiteMyApple.co: A web store for all of those Apple-related Kickstarter projects
There's a new website in town, one that is an online storefront for nothing but Apple-related Kickstarter projects. BiteMyApple.co is a Shopify store that sells many of those nifty Kickstarter products that you may have missed out on backing, but always wanted. There are a number of items in the store that we've covered on TUAW in the past: Une Bobine, Adonit Jot Pro stylus, the ChargeCard iPhone charger in your wallet, the Glif, the Olloclip, the very cool OCDock, the SensuBrush brush stylus and the Woxom SlingShot. But the fun for me lies in the number of Kickstarter products I didn't even know about that are available for purchase. Best of all, the products have all made it through the Kickstarter process and are in production, so there's no worry that you're going to be a backer of a project and then wait for your sample to show in the mail a year later. BiteMyApple.co is a perfect place to find those cool gadgets to make your Apple life complete.
PayPal offers preview of much-needed site redesign, finally enters Web 2.0
While PayPal's recently revamped homepage looks fresh and modern, the actual account interface is still mired in the past, seemingly unchanged since the early aughts when the company first hit it big alongside Ugg boots and American Idol. As the online payment giant seeks to reinvent itself however, it's finally bringing the site design into the future. PayPal has offered a sneak peek at the new look, and it's certainly more in line with current design tropes, with a cleaner and clearer aesthetic and improved navigation to boot. The refreshed design also hints at the company's upcoming retail efforts like in-store checkouts and purchasing grace periods where you can buy the item at the store, bring it home and then decide where the funds should come from. We're still not sure when the redesign will roll out, but we're guessing it'll be around when those Discover Network cards come into play. For more screenshots of the new PayPal, take the design tour at the source.
How Apple's iPhone 5 website works
Apple is full of incredibly clever people who not only develop the devices that we know and love, but some who also have amazing tricks up their sleeves for making sure that Apple websites are viewable on a variety of devices. @dbloom posted a website teardown focusing on the Design page of Apple's iPhone 5 site, finding some programming trickery was used to mimic video without having to actually embed video. Why would Apple want to do this? Well, if a traditional video embed had been used, iOS device users would have seen the video go full-screen instead of being neatly placed in the midst of the explanatory text. The "videos" in question on this page display an iPhone 5 being unlocked as well as a drag-to-rotate EarPod animation. Instead of using video, some brilliant minion at Apple came up with the idea of compressing animation into a handful of JPEG images by showing the starting and ending frames, then using special JPEGs like the one at the top of this post that contain only the updated and animated portions of the image. A JSON file is used to specify how the updated bits are positioned, and the actual logic for displaying the "video" in a <canvas> element is found in a tiny Javascript. The result is viewable on iOS devices and takes just a fraction of the bandwidth that a full video file would. Brilliant! [via MondayByNoon]
Core Online says hello to the world
We have a new MMO on the block, and its name is Core Online. Entwell introduced the fantasy title with a spiffy website that's unfortunately only in Korean at the moment. According to Steparu.com, Core Online's been in development for over three years. It boasts at least eight classes that fall in line with fantasy terminology, including the Magician and Warrior. Core Online will also offer a cross-server PvP battle system. We will wait and see how Core Online attempts to stand out in the extremely large crowd of gorgeous-looking Asian MMOs, but for now we'll have to be content to scope out the few screenshots below. %Gallery-167641%
Amazon launches Vine.com for shoppers who live life on the 'green' edge
Love Amazon's renowned two-day shipping? How about organic eats and other miscellaneous environment-friendly products? If so, then today's your very lucky day. Adding to the endless list of shopping sites it already owns, Amazon has just introduced Vine.com; a site which aims to be a one-stop web store for folks looking to snag anything from organic ingredients to beauty products like all-natural shaving oils and Kiss My Face foam soaps -- and yes, as we stated earlier, there's an option to get that speedy two-day delivery service. While chatting with Bits Blog, a Vine representative said the goal isn't "necessarily about saving the planet," but that his team does "feel the products are useful in that regard." Currently Vine.com is live in beta form, though that doesn't mean folks interested can't go browse around and order some goodies -- to do that, give the source link below a quick tap.
Vevo's website redesign simplifies the video watch page, adds artist pages
Chances are you've enjoyed Vevo's music video catalogue in one form or another, and purists who prefer .com access are being rewarded today with a fresh website design. The "video watch page" was previously littered with related clips, a playlist and other distractions, which have now been dispatched for greater focus on the tune at hand. Much of this has been moved to "artist pages", a new pop-up hub (pictured above) which is full of extra info on your chosen act. Head over to Vevo to see the enhancements for yourself, and with impending OUYA support, you might want to consider it your primary dispensary for that daily dose of Biebzilla.
Jagged Alliance Online launches
If you're fondling fully-automatic weapons in the dark right now, just wishing that you had a target for your elite skills, then... please don't tell us. Please. We'd be forced to report you. But you might be interested to hear that gamigo has ended the beta for Jagged Alliance Online, which means it's transitioned into an official launch. The turn-based multiplayer strategy title has recently implemented special contracts known as warzones, a crafting system, alliances, and the ability to respec skill points. The company has also released a brand-new website and trailer to commemorate the big occasion. Executive Board Member Patrick Streppel explains the lengthy beta for JAO: "Together with the developers, we have put a huge amount of effort to get the best performance possible in a browser. It pleases me to see that the long open beta testing of more than six months has well and truly paid off. We really wanted to avoid releasing an unfinished game and this has worked out brilliantly for all involved." You have our full permission to relinquish your weapons and watch the launch video after the jump.
Blade & Soul opens Western website, debuts trailer
If you've been long awaiting NCsoft's Blade & Soul, then today might be the shot in the arm that your anticipation needs. The publisher unloaded a brand-new website for its Western fans as well as a North American trailer. The website offers many goodies right out of the gate, including an overview of Blade & Soul's world, races, and classes; screenshots, concept art, and videos; a newsletter signup; and frequently asked questions and answers. As for the trailer, it's a high-octane mix of splendid videos and flashy combat, as you might have expected. Massively recently met with NCsoft to talk about the title's voyage to the Western market, and the following trailer is certainly part of that transition.
