Duo
Latest
Breakfast Topic: Do you play WoW together with your significant other?
The good news: Success! You've managed to recruit your significant other into World of Warcraft! The bad news: He thinks your raiding guild is boring and he's off to dive back into retro content and enter transmog contests with a guild you consider suspiciously silly. From the sound of your comments earlier this week, many of you who've successfully recruited friends or family members into Azeroth are feeling lonely once again. It seems that many of the new recruits simply move on, move up, move over ... Less moving, more partnering, please! Today's Breakfast Topic is designed for those of you whose significant others also play World of Warcraft. You play the same game -– but do you play together in the same content? Do you play as a team or in the same guild or raid? %Poll-84669%
How to help a friend or family member join you in WoW
You love this game with a passion. We get that -- so do we. All too often, however, our best friends and significant others don't share that passion. They might not have a scrap of interest in playing any video game at all. But you want them to experience the World of Warcraft with you. We get that, too. Close relationships benefit from shared experiences and fun. You want your other half to at least bite off a taste of Azeroth and savor this feast that's captured you body and soul. How can you convince your partner, buddy, or significant other to give WoW a try? Warning: This question represents merely the tip of the iceberg. Brace for impact with the true issue: How can you help a non-playing friend or family member get into WoW in way that's enjoyable for both of you?
Sony gives the slider another shot with the VAIO Duo 13: coming June 9th for $1,400
Thanks to the magic of leaked YouTube videos, we already knew Sony was working on another slider Ultrabook to replace the failed Duo 11. Now it's official: the company just formally announced the Duo 13, and if Sony's to be believed, it addresses many of the original's shortcomings. For starters, the new "Surf Slider" hinge is supposedly easier to open -- Sony even says it's possible to maneuver with one hand. If you look at those product shots below, you'll see it's also prettier to look at from behind (guess Sony heard us complaining about the exposed cabling on the Duo 11). What's interesting is that the Duo 13 has similar dimensions as its predecessor, and it only weighs a fraction more (2.93 pounds vs. 2.87). The trick was to shrink the bezels, and also to switch to a carbon fiber design, similar to what you'll find on the old Z series and the new Pro line. Oddly, though, while the dimensions haven't changed dramatically, Sony still made room for a less cramped-seeming keyboard, one that even includes a proper trackpad. That's right, folks, the optical tracking stick is gone. We have a feeling you won't miss it. Some other design notes: the Duo 13 adds a place for stowing the digitizer pen, which the Duo 11 lacked. What's more, while the Duo always had a scratch-resistant 1080p IPS display, this one also makes use of Sony's Triluminos technology, originally used on the company's Bravia TVs. Additionally, it has the same X-Reality processing engine you'll already find on some Xperia smartphones. Rounding out the spec list, there's NFC, Haswell processors and optional AT&T LTE. The main camera, meanwhile, has been upgraded to an 8-megapixel shooter with an Exmor RS sensor; the front webcam now does 1080p video. As for battery life, it should last about 10 hours, thanks to Sony's Active Sleep technology. Look for it to arrive June 9th, in both black and white, with a starting price of $1,400. We've already given the Duo 13 the full review treatment; check that out here.
Breakfast Topic: Do you play WoW with a family member?
I have two duos going right now. I'm playing a mistweaver with The Spousal Unit's brewmaster and I'm playing a windwalker with The Spawn's frost mage. Both are good times but very different. My daughter and I are leveling very slowly. We stop to smell every peacebloom and sometimes the only questing we get done are the Ironforge cooking and fishing dailies. But we're having a great time tooling around on my two-seater rocket and generally being silly. The duo with The Spousal Unit is completely different. We're speeding through dungeons on our monk experience buffs and he's definitely a GOGOGOer. I prefer a slower pace -- enough to actually see my surroundings rather than just running from place to place watching health bars. But he wants to get through as many instances as possible in a session. This has led to some discord, but for the most part we are happily GOGOGOing. Are you playing with a significant other, sibling, parent, or child? Or are you the lone WoW player in your family? Or do you purposely not play with family because of possible out-of-game drama being brought in game or vice versa? The family that plays together stays together? Maybe? Let us know.
Sony PC shows up at FCC, hints at 13-inch VAIO Duo
When a "personal computer" from Sony lands at the FCC, with very little else to identify it, we have to put the pieces together ourselves. With the model number SVD132A14L, we can divine that it's very likely a Sony VAIO Duo and a 13-incher at that. Radio-wise, it shows dual-band WiFi in a/b/g/n flavors, Bluetooth (regular and low energy) and NFC. Then there's the label image you see above. It doesn't give away a lot, but it does seem to match that mysterious 13-inch slider we saw, as seen from the rear with the screen hinge, and what looks like the angular front section. Is there a larger version of the 11-inch Duo Windows 8 hybrid on the way? Place your bets now.
Insert Coin: Duo kit lets you build your own 3D motion tracker
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. Between the Kinect and Leap Motion, gesture control's on just about everyone's minds these days. There's still a ways to go, certainly, before such devices become a mainstream method for interfacing with our PCs, but they've already become a ripe source of inspiration for the DIY community. Duo's hoping to further bridge the gap between the two, with a "the world's first 3d motion sensor that anyone can build." The desktop sensor features two PS3 Eye cameras that can track hands and objects for a more natural interface with one's computer. Duo's unsurprisingly looking to crowdfund its efforts. A pledge of $10 or more will get you early access to the company's SDK. For $40 you'll get the case and instruction. Add $30 to that number, and you've got yourself the kit, which includes everything but the camera ($110 will get you all that). Check out the company's plea after the break, and if you're so inclined you can pledge at the source link below.
CES 2013: Duo Gamer controller sees success after a half price cut
We posted about the Duo Gamer iPhone controller back when it first released in October of last year, but I hadn't gotten a chance to try it out yet. Fortunately, Duo is here on the floor of CES this week, and they of course had the controller on display and available for a demo. It's actually a really great controller -- the form factor is a little strange, but the buttons are quite responsive and the analog sticks are especially impressive, something that not a lot of iOS controllers have gotten right. Plus, the Duo Gamer is actually half the price it was when it started out. The company dropped the price from US$79.99 to just $39.99 late last year, and the company's rep says that (surprise) sales have gone up considerably since the price drop. So where's the catch? The biggest problem with the Duo Gamer is that because Duo has made a deal with Gameloft, this controller only works with Gameloft's games. Those games aren't bad -- they include big iOS hits like NOVA, the Asphalt series and Gameloft's Warcraft clone Order and Chaos Online. But that's it -- if you want to use the controller with any other titles, you're out of luck. That's kind of a shame. And Duo's representative told us that there were absolutely no plans to open up the controller at all. The company picked Gameloft to pair up with because it believed those were the most console-like apps on the store (not necessarily an invalid claim), and Duo says that even if it wanted to allow other app developers to make their apps compatible with the Duo Gamer, that decision would be out of their hands. Which is too bad -- it'd be nice if a solid controller like this had a more open API (stay tuned for news on the Phone Halo controller, which has a slightly more promising future). The Duo Gamer is a good piece of hardware, and it provides an impressive way to control these games. If you're a fan of Gameloft's titles and would like to use some buttons to control them, this is obviously a great option for you.
Breakfast Topic: The best and worst of playing with that special someone
I used to play WoW with my husband. Since the earliest days of beta testing for classic World of Warcraft, we terrorized the mobs and player enemies of Azeroth with various incarnations of our priest/warrior combo. But Cataclysm leveling tore our duo asunder, as every conceivable phasing bug in the book conspired to slow our progress, keep us apart, and wreak havoc on what should have been a natural partnership. Even worse, I seemed to draw the short straw for technical chaos every single time -- doubly depressing after a while, when it began to feel like I had a giant "Problem Child" sign around my neck. Even after we'd finished leveling, the frustration had put a sour taste in our mouths, and my loyal tank fell to the siren call of another MMO. Despite those problems, our partnership in any game has developed an easy rhythm based on years of playing side by side. Duo issues like choosing compatible classes and playstyles, staying in level range of one another, and choosing what to do on any given evening have become a given. Even before the days of theorycrafted precision, our familiarity with the level of insanity we can tackle as a twosome was legendary among our little group of friends. Short of that big kill your guild has been working on for months and finally downs amidst deafening cheers and howls on Vent, I really haven't found a more satisfying feeling than the times I set out with my partner in crime. So it's been a while -- a whole expansion now, /sob -- since we played together, and I'm missing that feeling of someone always having my back. If I pour you a virtual cup of coffee this morning, would you let me peek in on your own dynamic duos? Tell me about your favorite class/spec combo -- and the combinations that didn't work for you at all. What have you found to be the most frustrating parts of playing WoW with someone close to you? And its greatest rewards? I'm curious how you think Mists has affected the picture. What's the most enjoyable new content or feature Mists offers for diving into with a partner? Is there anything new that isn't so great for a duo that sticks together?
Drama Mamas: The dull, gray blur of skipping content
Whenever I struggled with some painful but ultimately voluntary "solution" in my young life, my mother was fond of reminding me, "If it hurts, stop banging your head against the wall." Motivational monster Susan Powter put the idea a little more forcefully for her legions of followers in the '90s: "Stooooop the insanity!" This week, an admittedly WoW-obsessed player overshoots the mark while ramming his partner through what was intended to be an enjoyable Recruit-A-Friend introduction to WoW. I have a little problem that the two of you may be able to help with. I am a slightly obsessive WOW player (9 max level toons) who is currently in the honeymoon phase of a relationship. I have been able to convince my partner to join me in game and we are currently using the recruit a friend option. I am running him on my Protection Warrior while he plays his Mage. The thing is we are leveling so fast in dungeons that I am unable to convey the lore behind the things we are doing. All of the things that I loved about the game when I first started (the discovery, exploration, story etc.) are not carrying over to his experience in game. And when I look at things through his eyes I feel as if we are indeed playing a very boring game. He seems more glad it's over when we finish dungeon rather than excited and ready to see what's next. I know he only joined the game to spend more time with me since I would regularly leave him to his own devices while I got my WOW fix in and I would really like for him to enjoy it as much as I do. And who am I kidding the more time he wants to play with me the less time I spend feeling selfish and guilty that I am not spending time with him outside of the game when I play. I suggested that we do BG's but he is a little bit apprehensive about diving into those and who could blame him he is a level 70 Mage with barely enough play time to be level 20. What would you guys suggest that I do or incorporate into our playtime with each other to make it more interesting for someone seeing WOW for the first time but playing the game with a seasoned vet? Should I bite the bullet pull off my heirlooms and quest alongside him even if doing this would make me into the bored one? He is really eager to learn the game and I am sure that he would enjoy it as much as I do if I could convey even a little bit of the experience that I had in the beginning. Sincerely, No time to smell the roses
Discovery Bay Games raises $15M for iOS "Appcessories"
Seattle-based Discovery Bay Games, a board game company turned iOS accessory maker, announced today it has raised $15 million in Series B funding, according to a report in TechCrunch. Big name investors include accessory maker Logitech and Trilogy Equity Partners, an investment firm led by Clearwire board chairman John Stanton. The company will use this money to further its line of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch accessories. Discovery Bay Games has been making iPad accessories since December 2010 and is most well-known for its Duo iPad game controller. The company also recently announced a partnership with Gameloft which will bring Gameloft's games to the Duo line of accessories.
MMObility: Utilizing Windows 8 to help with MMO chores
Not so long ago, I told you about my acquisition of an Inspiron Duo netbook, a 10-inch device that was not only a small laptop but also a touchscreen tablet device. It is a very sturdy device, and the flip-around screen works well. The main problem with the device was that it came with Windows 7 while only sporting a dual core processor and two gigs of RAM. The other main issue was that the 10-inch screen has a 1366x768-pixel resolution, meaning that it was often uncomfortable to read on it or play games unless I zoomed in. Recently Microsoft released the Windows 8 public preview, so I downloaded it after reading that it was really geared for tablet or touchcreen devices. Sure enough, the same 10-inch netbook that was not getting a lot of use around here suddenly became faster and much more friendly to the eyes. It's perfect timing, as well, especially since I will be starting my "chores" experiment in which I see whether scheduling my gameplay each day will help me with an issue I have been having.
DCUO's Battle for Earth pack spells the final confrontation with Braniac
The confrontation between Brainiac and the world's most superpowered figures is coming to a head, as SOE announced that a final confrontation with DC Universe Online's premier villain will take place in the game's third DLC pack. Titled The Battle for Earth, the pack will pit players against Brainiac's final avatar, the Avatar of Magic, during a raid on Wonder Woman's home of Themyscira. To assist players with this new raid, SOE is arming superheroes with the game's ninth powerset: Earth Powers. Earth-using heroes can excel at both tanking and damage by using earthquakes and constructs to bring the pain to enemies. The core of the pack's storyline will lead players through the struggles against Brainiac as he creates Prime Avatars to conquer the world. The Battle for Earth DLC pack also includes an invasion in South Gotham, another raid, duos, and a Courthouse Alert. SOE says that the DLC pack is coming "soon" and will be included for Legendary members or available to purchase for Premium and free players. You can check out screenshots from the pack in the gallery below. [Source: SOE press release] %Gallery-128108%
Drama Mamas: Love and marriage and WoW
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. This is the story of how a World of Warcraft duo saved a marriage and how the end of the duo now threatens that marriage. Drama Mamas, Hi! I'm a newlywed, but I have been with my husband for the better part of three years and I have been living with him for about a year now. When I first moved here, I didn't play WoW -- I was mostly into console gaming. However, our relationship began to get rocky and we decided that we needed something to bond over. He seemed to have so much fun playing WoW, so I decided to give it a try, and I loved it. He created a character specifically to play with me, and it was a blast. Five months of playing and six days /played on my main character, I finally hit 85 and got into some minor endgame content -- the quests, the heroics, the gear. All of this was leading up to the hope that I could join his guild with him -- the top raiding guild on our server -- and continue to play together.
DC Universe Online's Lightning Strikes DLC pack announced
DC Universe Online has had a lot to say about its recent free-to-play transition, with the game boasting a one million player increase since the change took place. But that's in the past already; what's en route in the near future? Well, today Sony Online Entertainment is announcing the latest round of DLC for the freshly F2P superhero game. The new DLC is entitled Lightning Strikes, and it focuses on everyone's favorite speedster, Flash. The update will bring a variety of new content for veteran and fledgling players alike. So what can players look forward to when Lightning Strikes? We sat down with some of the game's developers to find out, so follow on past the cut and have a gander.
Drama Mamas: How to share choosing what to do in a duo
Drama Mamas Lisa Poisso and Robin Torres are experienced gamers and real-life mamas -- and just as we don't want our precious babies to be the ones kicking and wailing on the floor of the checkout lane next to the candy, neither do we want you to become known as That Guy on your realm. Once upon a time, two shy people made a duo. They leveled happily ever after ... except one of the players always had to choose the activities. So are they both actually happy? I am very very close friends with my guildmate, oh let's call him Sam :). We're a guild of two and have been playing together for roughly two and a half years. Ever since RealID came out, we've been getting closer -- I'm very much an altaholic and being able to talk even if I wasn't on my main server was a huge blessing for us. When Cataclysm came out, he rolled on all the different servers I play alts on, created vanity guilds for the two of us, and now we have over a score of pairs that we play exclusively with each other! Now, every single toon he created was his own idea. I'll admit I definitely encouraged him to sprawl out with me but I never once said "You should come play on x server now!" or bullied him in any way.
Korg launches two new Monotrons, Duo and Delay: the clues are in the names (video)
Remember when Korg dropped a bomb with its pocket-sized-pocket-money Monotribe synth last spring? Well it's done it again, and this time with two analog boxes of badness to salivate over - the Duo and the Delay. Those aren't just cute names, either; both feature the same ribbon based sonic goodness as before, but the Delay packs a dub-tastic space delay, and the Duo rocks a second oscillator, for those juicy thick timbres. No word on price or availability just yet, but we're guessing they'll pop up for around the same as the original -- around $60 -- which is almost as pleasing to the ears as the Monotron's themselves. Check the videos after the jump to see / hear both in action.
Pioneer's new music players give dancers some Steez
A walk in the park may never be the same again now that Pioneer has announced its new Steez range of dance-troupe friendly portable music players. In what appears to be a tango using its DJ and audio player skills, Pioneer's Steez relieves dancers -- solo or otherwise -- of the tyranny that is static music sources. Forget about getting your groove on in the privacy of your own condo, instead get busy on the subway, the drive-in car park, or with your favorite monkey. You have a choice of three models to express yourself in front of: the STZ-D10S-L "Solo"($299), STZ-D10T-G "Duo" ($349) and STZ-D10Z-R "Crew" ($499). Each model comes with the company's own special software which keeps your beats in time, lets you set cue points, change tempo along with many more booty shaking functions. Best of all is the special Battle Mode which plays your chosen sequence of tracks and lets you know when the next dancer, or robot, is up. These ghetto-blasters for the Tecktonik generation won't hit the shelves until next month, but feel free to tap your toes and read the PR below while you wait.
The Mog Log: Duo feature
A few weeks back, I got an email from a reader talking asking about getting back into Final Fantasy XI after a long absence. As he put it, he and his girlfriend were thinking of going back to the game together, duoing their way through Vana'diel. Which is a great idea, as it's a game very well suited toward duoing, now more than ever with the existence of varied regimes and training manuals. Of course, there's more to the equation than just throwing two classes together and hoping for the best. There are a lot of things that you can do to make your experience harder than it needs to be, something that I'm unfortunately familiar with from my own experience. So this week, I'm going to take a look at what you can do to make your life easier when running as a team, no matter what resources are available to you in terms of jobs, gil, and fellow players.
How would you change Dell's Inspiron Duo?
We aren't ones to knock a company for throwing convention to the wind, and frankly, we were downright excited to see how Dell's Inspiron Duo would revolutionize our mobile lives. During our own review, we found the design to be top-notch and the build quality to be world-class, but the sluggish performance, annoying software overlay and lackluster UI didn't exactly earn it any brownie points. Enough about us, though -- this is your time to shine. If you bit the bullet and picked one of these multifaceted laptops up, we're interested in hearing how you'd change things. Would you ditch the swiveling LCD? Would you prefer a dual-boot setup as found on the ViewPad 10? How's the hardware standing up over time? Would you have rather seen AMD's Fusion platform take the place of Intel's Atom? Speak out in comments below, won't you?
Sony Ericsson Xperia Neo named and previewed in one fell swoop, bringing Gingerbread to MWC 2011
We said it at the Show and we'll say it again, Sony Ericsson just doesn't know how to keep a secret. One of its phones set for launch at Mobile World Congress 2011 has just slipped the net (again) and this time we have its full product name to boot, the Xperia Neo. You'll be familiar with this Android 2.3 handset already from mobile-review's thorough preview a couple of weeks ago, though at the time it was known under its codename of MT15i. This latest hands-on look at the hardware is similarly positive about the Neo, describing it as a well constructed phone and praising Sony's Android modifications as restrained and actually useful. Talk about a 180-degree turn from the way things used to be.There's another reason to be excited about this phone, however. Back in December, Sony Ericsson registered trademarks for Xperia Arc, Xperia Play, Xperia Neo, and... an Xperia Duo. We expect all four to be out and about at MWC this year, and we may have already seen the latter device in yet another bit of leaked photography.
