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Early apps for touch-based Ubuntu reveal a mostly clean aesthetic
The clatter of ergonomic keyboards is already bearing fruit, just two months after the Ubuntu developer community was let loose on the SDK for the newly touch-enabled OS. Canonical's Michael Hall has posted an update on his personal blog detailing progress with some core apps, such as Calendar and Weather, as as well the broader effort to give mobile Ubuntu a sense of personality. The source link shows off some nice-looking puzzle games, news readers and even an app built around the disembodied head of a strapping lad called Jono, who in many ways symbolizes the minimal-but-cheerful look of the emerging ecosystem. A bit of debugging here, a swoosh of the razor there, and it could be perfect.
Core Online videos detail avatar creation, PvE, PvP
Last year we told you about Core Online, an upcoming fantasy MMO and the latest in a long line of slickly visualized Asian imports. Today, Steparu.com gives us a longer look via a hands-on report and a series of gameplay videos. Character creation is extremely detailed, though it's worth noting that the game's classes are gender-locked. Core features traditional tab targeting, a mixture of open-world maps and instancing, and massive server-vs.-server-vs. server PvP. Steparu ultimately concludes that the game needs work, citing wonky animations and the lack of any differentiating features as major concerns. You can check out a trio of gameplay and character creation videos after the cut.
Canonical outs project to help Ubuntu smartphones launch with over 10 core apps
Canonical's Ubuntu handsets are expected to be upon us very, very soon, and given that some say a phone is only as good as its apps, the firm wants to make sure the experience is indeed a great one right out of the box. To help accomplish that, Canonical has announced the CoreApps project, setting its sights on about a dozen default applications which should give Ubuntu devices ample functionality from day one; this, of course, includes essential ones such as a calendar, calculator, clock / alarm, weather and email client. That's not it, however, since the project also lists plans for social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as an account and file manager, document viewer, RSS reader and even a terminal -- the latter, naturally, should make Android rooters feel right at home. Canonical is seeking help from the community to make the CoreApps project a reality, so those devs interested in helping may want to click the source link below to learn all the nitty-gritty.
Intel confirms new lower power 4th generation Core Haswell processors at CES
Intel just confirmed its 4th generation Intel Core Processors at its press conference at CES. They'll run on as little as 10W and are designed to enable thinner devices thanks to smaller cooling systems. These are the very same 22nm Haswell chips we've been hearing about since late last year, and Intel promises they'll represent one of the largest generational leaps in battery life in the firm's history. In fact, it's already shown off a reference design for a 17mm-thick Haswell hybrid laptop, aka North Cape, nestled amidst other goodies that you can catch up with in our liveblog. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
RIFT reveals the Tactician, master of flamethrowers
RIFT has been updated with new areas and content since launch, but the upcoming Storm Legion expansion is set to seriously kick things up a notch. As if tripling the size of the game world weren't enough, the expansion will raise the level cap and add a new technology-based soul to each of the game's core classes. The battle-mage style Harbinger soul was revealed at Gamescom 2012 in August, followed by the Tempest, and data from the test server hinted that the remaining pair might be named Defiler and Tactician. Last night Trion Worlds confirmed our suspicions by revealing the new Rogue Tactician soul to livestream viewers. The Tactician uses a magical weapon that's part flamethrower and part fire extinguisher, able to deal incredible area-effect elemental damage to enemies but actually heal allies. Players using the soul can also place small devices called Cores on the ground to provide area-effect healing, buffs, and additional damage. The flamethrower-like weapon is directionally aimed and can be channelled while the player is moving, so clever positioning is required to get the most out of this unique soul.
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%
Bit.Trip Core joins Beat and Runner on Steam
The Bit.Trip series continues its strange, out of order journey to PC and Mac. Following successful releases of the first game in the series (Beat) and the fourth (Runner), Bit.Trip Core is available today on Steam for PC and Mac. It's $9.99 alone, or $11.99 with a downloadable soundtrack.The chronological second game in the pixelated series uses nothing but a D-pad (or, we suppose, keys to represent four directions on a D-pad), and involves deceptively simple rhythm gameplay. All you have to do is press a direction when a dot reaches the middle of the screen. Of course, it's a Bit.Trip game, so you'll be screaming and wailing at that "simple" gameplay within a few minutes. In a fun way.
MediawavePC's MW6110 is a multipurpose Intel Core i7-supporting media player
Nettops and media-center PCs in many ways hang on opposite sides of the same saddle. MediawavePC's new MW6110 "Ultra Small Media Player" tightens the straps between these two types of machines, and adds an extra satchel with it. The 7.87 x 7.28 x 1.57-inch form gives it a discreet footprint, and supports Intel's Core i3- i5- and i7 chips. You can also add-in up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM, along with 1TB of storage. Connection-wise, you're well looked after with 6 USB ports, HDMI, LAN, plus Audio in / out and WiFi. So, plenty of scope to configure to suit your needs -- you'll just need the $499 base price to get started.
Jason Citron picks up funding with new gaming company Phoenix Guild
Jason Citron was one of the iPhone's first big name developers. He and partner Danielle Cassley created a game called Aurora Feint way back in the early days of the App Store, and while that game didn't do as well as hoped, the duo and their backers eventually catapulted that title into its own social gaming platform called OpenFeint. That platform was later acquired by Japanese social network GREE, and Citron left the company that he originally founded last September. Now, Citron's back with a new venture, called Phoenix Guild. He's working on assembling a team that will, as he says, build "core games for gamers on post-PC devices." Citron's always been a fan of traditional gaming and "really rich, engaging games," and his new company, which was just funded to the tune of $1.1 million by venture capitalists (including his former OpenFeint supporters at YouWeb), is aiming to build those types of core, traditionally console style games for modern mobile devices like Apple's iOS devices and even Microsoft's upcoming Surface console. "It seems obvious to me," Citron says during a chat this week with TUAW, "that core gamers are moving from PCs to other devices and tablets," and Phoenix Guild's goal is to provide great core games on those new platforms. What exactly does Citron mean when he says "core games"? "Mass Effect, Call of Duty, and even Bastion," he says, rattling off a few popular and well-received console titles from the past few years. Citron agrees that you can't just "take what works on an Xbox and put it on an iPad," but he says there's a deeper experience that consoles currently provide that's not yet reflected on a lot of mobile games. Citron's also convinced that free-to-play is the way to go, but he's cautious of doing the model wrong. "You need to do free-to-play in a way that respects players," he says. "Not in a way that makes players feel nickle-and-dimed to death." Citron says on the traditional PC, games like League of Legends and Team Fortress 2 are examples of how to do microtransaction based games correctly, and he wants to bring that generous polish over to tablet-based games as well. Citron can't say anything about what Phoenix Guild's first game is like yet, but he says he's hiring AAA talent (including an artist from id games), and wants to put a solid, very social, very polished free-to-play game together (he even mentions the recent popular Magic: The Gathering iPad app as an example of the kind of game he wants to build, though he says that's not exactly what he's aiming for). So we'll have to wait to see exactly what Citron is building. But he does say that while OpenFeint was a nice success, what he really wants to do is "build a large successful gaming company," not another social gaming platform. OpenFeint came out of the ashes of Aurora Feint, which Citron admits didn't do as well as hoped "because it wasn't free, and because there was no free-to-play at the time." But this time around, while Citron is returning to the original game design ideas he started with, the goal is to aim for what Citron says Blizzard and Valve have built, big game companies founded on quality, classic releases. "I want to have a company like that," he says. It'll be a lot of work for sure, and as much as Citron is convinced there's a large hardcore audience ready to play games like that on mobile devices, he also agrees that it's so far "definitely unproven." And it's possible, he says, that he's wrong, and he's not able to make a company like this. Maybe he'll have to go the way of Aurora Feint, and turn the company he's growing into something else, a separate platform or some other important technology. But he hopes that doesn't happen. "If the universe will permit this sort of game company," Citron says with conviction, "I will build it."
Researchers partially automate CPU core design, aim to fast track new PC processor production
Tired of the year wait (or more) in between new silicon architecture offerings from Chipzilla and AMD? Well, if some Wolfpack researchers have anything to say about it, we'll measure that wait in months thanks to a new CPU core design tool that automates part of the process. Creating a new CPU core is, on a high level, a two step procedure. First, the architectural specification is created, which sets the core's dimensions and arranges its components. That requires some heavy intellectual lifting, and involves teams of engineers to complete. Previously, similar manpower was needed for the second step, where the architecture spec is translated into an implementation design that can be fabricated in a factory. No longer. The aforementioned NC State boffins have come up with a tool that allows engineers to input their architecture specification, and it generates an implementation design that's used to draw up manufacturing blueprints. The result? Considerable time and manpower savings in creating newly designed CPU cores, which means that all those leaked roadmaps we're so fond of could be in serious need of revision sometime soon.
Sony, Panasonic OLED partnership is official, aims for mass production in 2013
The rumor that Japanese electronic giants Panasonic and Sony would team up on OLED HDTV technology has been confirmed by a press release (included after the break), and the two plan to establish mass production in 2013. Together, they'll be able to utilize the core and printing techniques that each has so far developed separately to roll out HDTV-sized OLED panels. Still, while they will be BFFs behind the scenes don't expect any crazy cross-branding of releases, as the release notes each company plans to "develop and commercialize its own competitive, high-performance, next-generation OLED televisions and large-sized displays." Can this combination help them catch up to Korean counterparts Samsung and LG? Those two will individually put super-skinny, ultra high contrast ratio OLED HDTVs on store shelves this year, but if Panasonic / Sony can get prices down from the $10k~ range then we're sure most consumers will be able to overlook their tardiness to market.
An ARM core in an AMD device? It just happened, but not the way you think
Yes, you heard right. AMD just added to ARM's burgeoning heap of gold coins, having licensed the British company's Cortex-A5 design for use in its own hardware. While this might sound like a dramatic capitulation on the part of the struggling giant, particularly after yesterday's news, it probably isn't. AMD says it'll use the ARM component solely for adding better security features to its next generation of business-focused laptops and tablets. A spokesperson told us the company's "commitment to x86 hasn't changed," referring to the fact that it'll continue to use its regular in-house chip architecture for the primary task of running applications. The Cortex-A5 will be one tiny core squeezed in amongst everything else on the future 28nm silicon. It'll be dedicated to running ARM's proprietary TrustZone technology, which protects sensitive apps from tampering -- stuff like mobile payments, DRM, and nudge, nudge corporate documents. Rather than invent its own system for doing the same thing, AMD reckoned it'd be easier to work with ARM's, and who can blame it? If we remember rightly, even Intel made a similar call five years ago. [Tentacles via Shutterstock]
Gigabyte makes 975g X11 official, claims 'world's lightest' 11.6-inch notebook (update: hands-on video)
Well hello there again, Gigabyte X11. Hot on the heels of yesterday's leak, Gigabyte's just made its 11.6-inch X11 laptop (or is that an Ultrabook?) official. At 975g (2.15 pounds) it claims the title of "lightest notebook on earth" -- and weighs even less on Mars. Design-wise, you're looking at a 16.5mm (0.65 inches) to 3mm (0.19 inches) thin Macbook Air-like body made of real carbon fiber (!) with an aluminum hinge. Under the hood you'll find unspecified third generation Intel Core processors (read Ivy Bridge), 4GB of DDR3 RAM, Mobile Intel HM77 Express chipset with Intel HD Graphics 4000, a 128GB SSD, WiFi b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. Ports include power, USB 2.0 and mini DisplayPort on the left side plus microSD, combo audio and USB 3.0 on the right. While the specs also mention gigabit Ethernet, there's no sign of it anywhere in the press shots. The display is a 1366x768-pixel LED-backlit affair dotted with a 1.3 megapixel webcam. A chiclet keyboard, buttonless trackpad and 4730mAh 7.4V Li-ion polymer battery (likely sealed) complete the package. There's no word on availability, but prices will range from $999 to $1299 with Windows 7 Home Premium and Professional in tow. Expect more information when we get our hands on this sexy beast at Computex next week. Update: Our colleagues over at Engadget Chinese just got to spend some time with this svelte black slab. Take a look at the gallery below and hit the break for the hands-on video.%Gallery-156515% %Gallery-156511% In addition, Gigabyte's announcing two 14-inch laptops -- the U2442 and U2440 -- which feature third generation Intel Core processors and NVIDIA GeForce graphics. Unfortunately, we're still busy drooling all over the X11 gallery, so we'll direct you to the full PR after the break for the complete details. Andy Yang contributed to this report.
Lenovo swings out diminutive ThinkCentre M92p Tiny, bevy of all-in-ones and VoIP-ready ThinkVision display
Lenovo's going all-out on Ivy Bridge-based ThinkCentre pro desktop updates this evening, and the centerpiece is the smallest of the lot. The ThinkCentre M92p Tiny -- yes, it's officially nicknamed Tiny -- is about as thick as a golf ball at 1.4 inches and ready to tuck behind your display, but packs up to a third-generation Intel Core chip, vPro for IT control and your choice of spinning or solid-state hard drives. The M92p Tiny and a lower-end M72e should arrive in June, although what the respective $799 and $499 prices will get you are still mysteries. There's no shortage if you prefer your desktops slightly more upsized. The all-in-one pack is topped by the 21.5-inch ThinkCentre Edge M92z, an uncommonly thin (2.5 inches) desktop using an IPS-based LCD with optional multi-touch that's due in July for $699. The 20- and 23-inch M92z AIO models start off at $799 for their June releases and pack up to 1TB of storage and dedicated AMD Radeon HD graphics, while a more modestly equipped, 20-inch M72z AIO will appear the same month for $599. And if you've just got to have a traditional box, Lenovo will gladly sell you the budget ThinkCentre Edge 72 ($439) or slightly uprated ThinkCentre M82 ($599). Everyone has the option of the 23-inch ThinkVision LT2323z display, which touts an IPS-based LCD and a webcam with Lync VoIP-certified, noise-cancelling microphones. The screen's price hasn't been set, but it does have a locked-in June release. You can delve into the full details of Lenovo's massive ThinkCentre revamp in the releases after the break.
AMD Piledriver cores will clock over 4GHz, employ 'resonant clock mesh'
AMD's Trinity APU can do some remarkable things, but we still don't know exactly what magic ingredients make its Piledriver cores superior to the tepidly received Bulldozer. Now though, a firm called Cyclos claims it's supplying 'resonant clock mesh' power-saving technology for use in the new module. In speaking to the media, it's revealed that this will help to enable a "4+ GHz" factory clock speed, which sounds high if it definitely refers to an integrated chip with low-power credentials. As for the resonant clock mesh itself, it's a bit like KERS for processors: it recycles clock power instead of letting it dissipate and thereby enables higher clock speeds in "next generation SoCs that also require ultra-low power consumption." We also know that the technology is financially backed by ARM and Siemens and has seen precious little implementation prior to AMD -- which is fine, so long as all that resonance doesn't make our rig hum even louder.
Haier reveals new HDTVs and audio gear at CES
Haier just unleashed several new HDTVs (as an update to the one we saw a this time last year) and home audio gear here at CES. First up is the EV series of 3D HDTVs that sport a "virtually edgeless picture" thanks to a super thin bezel, and come in both 65- and 55-inch versions. The EV Series also packs 2D to 3D conversion tech, Yahoo Connected TV and the company's new Smart Home UI to access all of your media content, plus a double-sided QWERTY remote to navigate it. Next is the 23-inch Designer Series that sports an edge-lit 1920 x 1080 LED screen that comes in your choice of black, white, metallic grey or red to fit your every mood (and room color). Price has yet to be determined, but you'll be able to get a Designer TV of your own in Q2 of this year.Lastly, Haier is unveiling several new audio products. First, there's the $400 3D model that has an iPhone dock built in and delivers 230 watts of 5.1 surround sound using Absolute 3D technology. Next is a super slim profile soundbar that pumps out 280 watts of sound through 2.1 channels through a speaker that's only 1.07 inches deep for $350. Rounding things out is a ViewHD iDevice dock that works with iPads, iPhones and iPods. Priced at $99, it comes with a remote for controlling it from afar and has HDMI out in case your mobile's meager screen simply won't do. All you Haier-philes can dig deep into the details of all of these in the PR below.
AMD shaves 800 million transistors from Bulldozer chip, swears nothing's wrong
When a company cuts 40 percent of its transistors from an upcoming processor, one question comes to mind: why? According to ExtremeTech, AMD issued an update stating that its Bulldozer eight core / four module CPU would feature 1.2 billion transistors, as opposed to the previously stated two billion transistors. The reduction occurred despite the fact that the die size remains unchanged at 315 square millimeters -- putting it on par with AMD's lesser Llano chip -- and depriving the chip of valuable horsepower before I/O, an integrated memory controller or HyperTransport are added. When approached for comment, company representatives stated they were simply correcting a mistake regarding the chip's actual specifications. Before you bemoan the fate of the Bulldozer chip, remember that the drummer from Def Leppard has had a terrific musical career with only one arm, so what's the loss of several hundred million transistors to AMD's latest?
Behind Amazon's Silk browser lurks a really fast supercomputer
We were hardly shocked to see Fujitsu atop the most recent list of the world's fastest supercomputers, but perhaps more surprising is the fact that Amazon cracked the top 50, as well. Turns out, the company's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) servers are powered by a Linux-based, 240-teraflop beast that boasts 17,024 cores, 66,000 GB of memory, and a ten gigabit Ethernet interconnect. That's good for 42nd place on Top 500's global rankings, and it's also good enough to power Silk, the browser you'll find on the Kindle Fire. But Amazon has a long way to go before catching up with the Fujitsu K, which recently cracked that vaunted ten petaflop barrier.
Sonim brings a trio of rugged devices to CTIA E&A 2011, we go hands-on (video)
Sonim doesn't crank out smartphones. It's too busy flooding the earth with uber-rugged featurephones that would most likely withstand an actual flood, and it's darn proud of that fact. That's the impression we got, at least, after visiting the company's booth at this week's CTIA Enterprise & Applications. We had the opportunity to play around with Sonim's three new devices: the XP1301 Core NFC, XP3340 Sentinel and XP1330 Core PTT. Announced on Monday, the first two phones are already available in the US while the third is targeted squarely at Latin America over the next two months. Quite frankly, the new GSM / EDGE lineup looks so similar that it'd be incredibly easy to forget which one was which -- aside from having an appearance not unlike a tank, all three devices seem to come from the same mold. As similar as they are, each one has its own specialty: the XP1301 offers a Near-Field Communication tag reader, the XP1330 takes advantage of Push to Talk and the XP3340 Sentinel throws in a customizable man-down sensor that triggers an emergency alarm when something is awry. But we'll tell you what won't require emergency assistance -- viewing the galleries and videos below. %Gallery-136315% %Gallery-136316% %Gallery-136328% Zachary Lutz contributed to this report.
NC State researchers team with IBM to keep cloud-stored data away from prying eyes
The man on your left is Dr. Peng Ning -- a computer science professor at NC State whose team, along with researchers from IBM, has developed an experimental new method for safely securing cloud-stored data. Their approach, known as a "Strongly Isolated Computing Environment" (SICE), would essentially allow engineers to isolate, store and process sensitive information away from a computing system's hypervisors -- programs that allow networked operating systems to operate independently of one another, but are also vulnerable to hackers. With the Trusted Computing Base (TCB) as its software foundation, Ping's technique also allows programmers to devote specific CPU cores to handling sensitive data, thereby freeing up the other cores to execute normal functions. And, because TCB consists of just 300 lines of code, it leaves a smaller "surface" for cybercriminals to attack. When put to the test, the SICE architecture used only three percent of overhead performance for workloads that didn't require direct network access -- an amount that Ping describes as a "fairly modest price to pay for the enhanced security." He acknowledges, however, that he and his team still need to find a way to speed up processes for workloads that do depend on network access, and it remains to be seen whether or not their technique will make it to the mainstream anytime soon. For now, though, you can float past the break for more details in the full PR.
