Ars Technica
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WWDC Bingo
John Siracusa is best known for writing in-depth and incredibly geeky pieces about Apple technology. Who knew that in addition to being a hardcore geek John can be a whimsical geek as well (I consider myself to be an uberwhimsical geek. It is a fact that I have never lost my child like wonder)?Case in point WWDC Bingo. Simply print out (or play online) the Bingo card and mark an 'X' in the box whenever Steve does, or you think he does, what is noted on the card. I am certain that 'Boom' and 'Otomatic' are two squares that'll be filled early on.Oh, and bonus points if you do this at the actual Keynote, just don't forget your lucky Phil Schiller Troll doll.
Ars reviews Parallels Desktop 1.0
The Intel chips really have ushered in a new Era for Mac users. No longer do you need to keep a crappy Windows box around for those tasks that require that other OS. Boot Camp, as you know, is Apple's utility that turns your Intel Mac into a dual booting dream machine.But who wants to reboot their machine just to check their bank account? Luckily Parallels, virtualization software, is available for the Mac. The good folks at Ars Technica take the newly 1.0'ed software for a spin and they like what they see. The only drawbacks are the lack of support for burning CD/DVD's and you won't be gaming on your virtual Windows machine.
Lossless downloads coming to iTunes?
A recent upgrade to the iTunes Producer software used by studios to encode tracks for iTMS distribution may be a good sign for the discriminating audiophile community, as Apple has included the necessary tools to create lossless AAC content that could presumably be uploaded to the online store. While the simple availability of this option certainly doesn't mean that higher-quality downloads are on the way -- for one thing, the so-called Apple Lossless Encoder still lacks the required FairPlay support -- Ars Technica points out that Cupertino and Hollywood could both potentially benefit from a less lossy option. Since tracks encoded in this format can be almost ten times as big as equivalent MP3s, widespread availability of lossless music may convince consumers to step up to higher capacity iPods, which would seem to be in Apple's best interest. As for the music studios, these high-fidelity tracks could presumably fetch more than the 99 cents that 128Kbps files go for, opening a door for the tiered pricing structures that content providers so desire. For now, though, these crystal-clear downloads are still merely speculation, so hardcore audio snobs enthusiasts will have to continue buying and ripping their own CDs for the foreseeable future.[Via Ars Technica]
Vista Premium logo requirements: no hybrid HDDs after all?
Ken Fisher over at Ars Technica has done us all a good turn and pored over the latest version of the mind-numbingly boring Windows Vista Logo Program Device Requirements documentation, summing up the key features that consumers can expect to see from machines sporting the Vista Premium logo. Effective immediately, PCs wishing to display the coveted sticker must rock only USB 2.0 ports, at least one digital output for all add-in video adapters, 100Mb Ethernet and/or WiFi (which must be of the 802.11g flavor), and HD audio quality that passes some kind of "high-fidelity audio experience test," with other requirements concerning Serial ATA drives, HDCP compliance, HD playback, and support for bootable USB drives going into effect on June 1, 2007. Also noteworthy in Fisher's analysis is his claim that hybrid hard drives will not in fact be necessary for laptops to flash the Premium logo, as previously reported by TG Daily based on a conversation with Microsoft at TechEd. Instead, Fisher argues that the so-called "Storage Requirement 0005" in question is only a list of technical standards that need to be met by hybrid HDDs should manufacturers choose to include them in their devices, which makes sense after considering how unlikely it is that Redmond would force such a new and unproven technology down people's throats.Read- Vista Premium logo requirements [Via Slashdot]Read- Hybrid HDDs not required after all
The Big M's Matt Lee dishes on 360 vs. PS3 [UPDATE]
Major Nelson points 360 Fanboy to an Ars Technica (comically misspelled as Art Technica by Nelson) interview with Xbox 360 developer Matt Lee. The interview covers a wide range of topics but doesn't get truly interesting until Lee starts discussing the differences between Xbox 360 and the upcoming PS3. To wit: "In terms of performance, I think that the PS3 and the Xbox 360 will essentially be a wash. We ran the numbers a while back and the two systems come up surprisingly close in theoretical peak performance, despite the one year difference in release dates." Despite the one year difference? Oh, snap. The article has lots and lots of techno-babble that I won't pretend to understand, but it's sure to be a good read for the technically oriented. Oh, and it sounds like Matt Lee is all about Wii60. The best quote in the piece: "When we announced 512MB of unified memory on Xbox 360, I think all of our game developers (and the artists too) did a little happy dance." Hey Matt, put that on YouTube and we'll blog it. [Via Major Nelson] [Update 2: Fixed a rather grievous typing error. Added category.]
The DS Lite is "smaller than a brick"
Arstechnica has posted a comprehensive five page review of the DS Lite, with a large portion dedicated to comparisons with the DS Phat. This isn't the first review of the DS Lite, but it could possibly be the most well thought out. Here are the key points of the review:The screens Greater viewing angle - "it's now possible to watch someone else playing the system and actually see the screen" Brighter - "the upgraded screen may be worth the price of an upgrade alone" Dead pixels - "my unit has a stuck pixel on the top screen" Flimsy? - "the bottom screen seems to be floating in the system case, not held down tight like the DS [Phat]" The feel Lighter - "the system is lighter, making it easier for me to cradle it using the tips of my fingers" Buttons - "The D-pad is a touch smaller... and a bit less satisfying in the click department" although "the buttons on both DS products are a little bit on the small side" Central microphone "makes games that use voice recognition easier to play." The battery Six hours usually, although "it's not hard to get eight hours of battery life as long as you don't continually keep the system on its brightest setting." The overall feeling from the review is that if you're a DS virgin and have been mulling a purchase, now is the time to jump in. If, however, you're a DS Phat owner and haven't decided whether it's worth trading in for the updated hardware, the suggestion from this review is go for it. "If you're a casual gamer or a hardcore fan who takes your portable everywhere, you'll like the way your games play and look on the DS Lite".
Ars Technica reviews the MacBook
Clint Ecker over at Ars Technica has given his new MacBook a through looking over and has written up his findings. Clint had a hard time finding any negative things to say about the MacBook (he points to the integrated graphics card, and the glossy screen as potential downsides).The most interesting section of the review is how the new MacBooks perform as compared the the first rev of MacBook Pros. They are pretty much neck and neck for most of the benchmarks.
Ars on Aperture 1.1.1
You may recall that Ars Technica's Dave Girard wasn't a fan of Aperture 1.0. His lengthy review lambasted the product for failing to do the one thing that it claimed it was good at (i.e. RAW support). Now that Aperture 1.1 is out Dave takes a look at how Apple did at improving the application.Dave's verdict is that Apple did an amazing job improving the software, and the lowered price was a very smart move. There is no way I can give justice to his review here, so just head on over and give it a read.
Alcohol and micropayments mix all too well
Micropayments are already flowing freely on Xbox Live and are becoming increasingly popular in MMO circles. However, Opposable Thumbs points out an unfortunate problem with any micropayment-based system that stores your payment details--it's all too easy to buy things when intoxicated.Of course, this problem extends beyond the realm of gaming, to websites and even real-world transactions. However, the nature of gaming as an entertainment activity means that perhaps enforced self-controls may help those of us whose wallets get looser with liquid.
What if the DRM on your DVD player didn't work?
Yeah that might make you happy, but it could be a real problem for the manufacturer. Enter Samsung's DVD-HD841, an upconverting DVD player sold in 2004; it didn't sell well until a key "feature" was uncovered, you could hack it to turn off region coding and HDCP protections. The player has long been off the market, but now several movie studios have brought lawsuits against Samsung for their failure to protect content.But we all know that there have been ways around the CSS encryption practically since DVDs launched, so why sue now? Ars Technica supposes that this is more about setting an example for the next generation of DVD players, and I tend to agree. If/when someone finds a way around AACS and HDCP expect the lawsuits to come hard and heavy.
AACS still not finished: is this intentional?
That's the word according to German mag heise; apparently disagreement from within the Blu-ray Disc Association over how AACS and BD work together means no high definition DVD formats yet. Beyond just noting the delay, they also dropped a few dimes on what we can expect from managed copy: the content holder gets to decide how many copies can be made and any device they are copied to requires an Internet connection for verification. Microsoft's COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocol) makes sure you're actually watching a movie and not dumping the video to a file, after which that HDCP-compliant videocard that doesn't exist yet finally lets you play HD-quality content on your monitor.I really have to wonder, is the BDA that far apart on the DRM issue, or is there any possibility that this is intentional to delay the launch of HD-DVD, which was supposed to debut last year but can't until AACS is finished. Being the first mover was part of HD-DVD's advantage in the face of Blu-ray's greater storage capacity but that continues to shrink and may even be nonexistent by the time they launch. I'll tell you what though Toshiba, how about we just forget the whole AACS, DRM thing? We won't tell if you won't.
