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BOSS eBand Audio Player lets you rock along to its tinny accompaniment
Are you sick of the guitar player in your life anachronistically asking you to reset the needle on their turntable so they can rock out to the Electric Light Orchestra? Maybe the eBand JS-8 from BOSS will shut them up. The unit (which doesn't float in the air casting reflections upon jeans, as the horrible Photoshop above might suggest) can play tracks off of a USB stick or SD card, with the ability to change the pitch and tempo of songs, as well as some audio engineering magic to kill the guitar or vocal parts. They can then plug your guitar in and rock out over the built-in speakers, and tap record to immortalize their roughly hewn pentatonic scales up against the backing tracks. It's sort of a less-portable version of Tascam's MP-GT1 DAP, and perfect for the guitar player who doesn't have everything.
EVE Evolved: Graphical upgrades for EVE Online
Some time ago, I looked at the different graphical updates EVE Online has received over the years and what was to come. The ship graphics were renovated years ago with the Trinity expansion and much of the rest of the game was left looking dated in comparison. The Apocrypha expansion picked up on the upgrades where Trinity left off, with re-developments of asteroid graphics and most of the game's special effects. Future updates were planned, with promises of bringing new life to planets and everything else that hasn't been improved. With the Dominion expansion on the horizon, it now seems that those promises are being fulfilled. We've seen new planet graphics and even shiny new starfields on the test server but are there other parts of the game that could benefit more from a graphical overhaul?In this short opinion piece, I take a quick look at the graphical overhauls that are coming with the Dominion expansion and ask which other aspects of EVE's graphics are long overdue for an upgrade.
First Look: Best Camera App for iPhone
The first thing I normally do when someone names their application "The Best..." is roll my eyes and delete the PR email. However, when I saw a press release about the Best Camera app for iPhone, I decided to take a look and I'm glad I did.Best Camera [iTunes link] is a collaboration between professional photographer Chase Jarvis and iPhone dev firm Übermind. The app gets its name from Jarvis's book "The Best Camera is The One That's With You," a collection of photos taken all over the world by Jarvis with his iPhone. The US$2.99 app features 14 useful filters and effects that can be stacked; in other words, you can take a photo with the iPhone camera, then apply several filters and/or effects before sharing your handiwork. The filters and effects are on a side-scrolling "dock" at the bottom of the screen, and you apply them by simply tapping on the icons. Sharing includes saving the photo on your iPhone camera roll, sending it out via email, or blasting it to your Facebook or Twitter account. There's also one more place to share your photo. While filters and effects are nothing new, Jarvis has created a community at thebestcamera.com where photos that have been submitted are displayed on a constantly changing photo wall. These photos are also viewable in the app itself, and by tapping a photo in either location, you can view information about the photographer. On the website, the information also includes a list of the filers or effects that were used on the original photo so you can re-create photos that you find fascinating.Check out the gallery below for some screenshots of the Best Camera app in action. %Gallery-73749%
'Wuhhh!!' See Bayonetta without its visual effects
The latest post on the Platinum Games blog comes from an employee named Kudo, who is currently working on effects for Bayonetta. To explain what that means, he demonstrated what Bayonetta looks like both with and without effects in two video clips, embedded after the break. The fog, flashes of gunfire, and ... ethereal purple mist are all surprisingly important to the look of the game! Discussing another effect, Kudo recounts a rather amusing encounter with producer Hideki Kamiya. Kamiya decided that he wanted Bayonetta's blood following an attack to appear as a rose, because, " If it isn't pretty, then it isn't Bayonetta!!" He then went on to physically, and vocally, demonstrate Bayonetta's damage animation. "She just goes, 'Wuhhh!!'" Kamiya said. "You know... 'Wuhhh!!'" You can see footage of the results of that meeting after the break as well.
Hellfire Fortifications grants an Insignia
Reader Zanthix of Gul'dan let us know, and I just confirmed, that the Hellfire Fortifications PvP quest in Hellfire Peninsula now grants a little extra welcome gift to Outland when you do it. In addition to the Marks of Thrallmar or Honor Hold that you get as a reward, you also now get an Insignia of the Horde or Alliance, to get you started on PvP.And yes, it is just a start -- the Insignia removes all movement-impairing effects, but it doesn't have any extra resilience like the epic PvP trinkets you can get from turning in honor, so if you're doing lots of PvP, you'll still want to grind for the other trinkets. It is equivalent to the trinket sold for ~2800 honor (that used to be a class-specific trinket, but is now basically faction-specific), just a little easier to get.I also checked the Halaa PvP quest in Nagrand, but there's no extra trinket reward there, just the usual daily gold and the extra honor. The Armory shows that this is the only place you can get it, save for the usual honor vendors. So if you haven't nabbed a PvP trinket yet, go take some fortifications in Hellfire.
Totem tracking for Wrath beta
As promised Blizzard is giving Shamans some love in the next expansion. The Beta patch notes deliver on some of that. Most of what we're seeing at this time is changes to talents, but there's quite a bit of totem news in there. Some totems stand to get buffed, others nerfed and some removed from the game altogether. As expected totems will be placed in the physical school, rather than magic. To date, one of the major downfalls of totems is that has been if the Shaman is locked out of the Nature school of spells, they are more or less out of luck until the effect wears off. Even when completely silenced it will still be possible for Shamans to drop their totems. This will be handy in both PvE and PvP, but will probably be more influential for PvP Shamans.
WoW graphics engine to be overhauled someday
World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack and designers Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton were interviewed by Eurogamer today. Most of the interview dealt with Wrath of the Lich King content like the Death Knight, 10-person raids, and world PvP objectives. The most interesting bits of the interview were on the last page, though; the Blizzard reps talked about WoW's future.According to Kaplan, a major graphics engine overhaul is "probably" part of that future. While he himself is not convinced it's necessary (he cited players' lukewarm reception of similar moves by the developers of Ultima Online and EverQuest), he said: "That's actually something we talk about every expansion ... and I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."In the meantime, WotLK will allow "people with high-end machines some additional graphical effects." WoW Insider joked that future graphics engine updates might be dedicated entirely to producing even larger, more detailed shoulder pad armor. We wouldn't be surprised![Via WoW Insider]
New fire animation in 2.4
As you all know by now, patch 2.4, currently up on the PTRs, is going to bring many changes (although not as many class changes as I would have liked, but what can you do). Here's one more: a new animation for fire! As seen in the YouTube video above, it currently seems to apply to outdoor, stand-in-one-place type fires, but we can only hope it will be applied to fire effects from spells as well. Mm, fire...[via Warlock Therapy]
Frostbite's shared diminishing returns are a bug
There's been a lot of hemming and hawing on the mage forums about the upcoming changes to Frostbite-- the latest test notes revealed that the talent, which gives a chance to freeze anyone hit by a "chill effect" (that's Frostbolt, Cone of Cold, Ice and Frost Armor, and Improved Blizzard), will now be subject to diminishing returns in PvP.Which even mages agree is doable-- but their problem is that those diminishing returns are shared by other, controllable, freezing effects-- Frost Nova and the Water Elemental's Freeze. Basically, an accidental Frostbite proc, which can't be controlled by the player, could make the opponent immune to controlled freezes. And considering that Frostbite, when talented out, procs a lot, that puts a damper on regular frost mage abilities.The good news, however, for mages is that the problem is being addressed. Tseric says that Frostbite's diminishing returns are meant to only affect itself, not other Freezing spells. They're working, he says, on fixing it.Which is great (well, not so much for people fighting mages, but for mages it is). But this is the second big mage "change" we've seen on the PTR that turned out to be a bug. What's going on over there at Blizzard in the mage department?
Wii Loop Machine utilizes Wiimote to manipulate beats
It takes a certain level of determination and creativity to shun the smorgasbord of other music-related Wii mods already out there, and to be quite honest, the Wii Loop Machine does a fair job of putting the other alternatives to shame. Taking full advantage of the Wiimote's ability to be used at will with a Bluetooth receiver and the right coding, the music manipulation software allows beat lovers to scroll through loops, twist up the jams, drop the bass, toss in a delay, and pretty much hack up the tunes at will with a combination of button mashes and Wiimote slinging. Currently, the software is only compatible with OS X, but the creator is definitely interested in your contact information if you can port this stuff over on the Windows side of life. So if you've already got a home-based studio set up, and your Mac just isn't getting enough love, be sure to hit the read link and check out the deets, or click on through if you're yearning for lesson in geekified mixing.[Via Joystiq, thanks Andy]
Windows Vista includes HD audio enhancement
Two of the five versions of Windows Vista recently priced will include the functions you remember so fondly from Media Center, Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate. Although it might get delayed in Europe, probably won't play HD DVD or Blu-ray out of the box and only recently got that silly SD tuner requirement straightened out, a few features giving you good reason to upgrade are the audio upgrades included. Loudness equalization, bass management, speaker fill, room correction, speaker phantoming, surround headphones and microphone arrays are all sonic effects available in the new OS. You'll even be able to set volume independently for separate programs, so you don't get that instant messenger ding full blast when you're trying to watch a movie. They've even apparently improved how the audio portion is handled in the OS, hopefully preventing crashes due to the audio driver. It appears there will be more reason than to have an HTPC in the home theater setup once Vista launches, now lets see if Microsoft swipes the Xbox 360's blade interface like their friends at Sony.[Via Ars Technica & PVR Wire]
Star Wars Kid revisited with MacBook
I'm finally done being in pain from laughter to post this hilarious revisit of the Star Wars Kid using that MacSaber app we found over the weekend. Great work, YouTube user mathowie.[via Waxy.org]
ChatFX - video effects within iChat
ChatFX can bring some fun to your iChat video conferences by adding quirky video effects; basically it's like Apple's Photo Booth for iChat. Using the power of Quartz Composer (built into Mac OS X 10.4), ChatFX can apply eight different effects to your video conference in real time, including a green-screen effect for that perfect "sure, I'm still at school/the office" cover story. Using the green screen, you can even place a movie in the background - the sky's the limit with that feature.ChatFX offers a demo download and sells for $20.
Apple releases Final Cut Express HD 3.5
Apple has released Final Cut Express HD 3.5, what they are calling "a significant upgrade" to their "software solution for video enthusiasts, schools and small businesses". It is now a Universal Binary, and amongst its new features is Dynamic RT for real-time playback of multi-streamed effects and multi-layered HDV. Also, all effects, transitions and motion parameters can now be keyframed and saved as favorites for use on other projects.A new version of Soundtrack included with Final Cut Express HD 3.5 includes "improved multi-track audio editing and recording tools with tracks, busses, outputs and real-time effects processing just like a professional recording studio". Apple has also improved recording of single and multiple takes for a better way to record and edit dialog and other kinds of performances.The version of LiveType included with Final Cut Express HD 3.5 has also been upgraded to version 2.1, including 70 new animated objects, 15 new textures and 60 new customizable preset effects for text and titles. With the new LiveFont technology, animated text styles can also now be scaled to any resolution - including HD - "with blazing rendering performance, especially on the new generation of Intel-based Macs". Hint hint.Final Cut Express HD 3.5 is available now through Apple's online store for $299 USD. Owners of earlier versions can upgrade for $99 USD.
ChocoFlop - powerful image editing
Even as an alpha image editor, I think it's safe to dub ChocoFlop a true "poor man's Photoshop." It offers layers, real-time preview of filters and effects (of which there are many), a slew of selection tools, blending modes, masks, color adjusting and a whole bunch of file formats it can save to and even more it can read from - including many versions of RAW. For the full details, check out the longest image editor feature list I've seen in a long time.As an alpha it's free, and the author has stated on his blog that, once it goes official and commercial, ChocoFlop won't cost more than $50 USD. I haven't cracked this open yet myself, but if you've been looking for a powerful image editor that offers quite a bit more than the standard CoreImage-based options out there, ChocoFlop should be right up your alley.
Image Tricks 2.0
I'm beginning to think that today is some kind of image editing holiday, as Image Tricks, the freeware image editor that leverages Mac OS X Tiger's Core Image features, has been updated to version 2. New features include 'generators' - the ability to "randomly and manually generate images with mathematical algorithms," a fit-to-size option, PDF export, file size adjustment when exporting to JPEG, and other minor fixes and improvements.Image Tricks has also been divided into Free and Pro versions. For a mere $9.95 the Pro version will give you six more generators than the free version, and BeLight software has stated they have more generators they can add from their todo list if enough customers show interest.Check out BeLight Software's Image Tricks product page for more details on its abilities, and the downloads page for a copy of the upgradable Free version.
ImagePlay, an open source, layered image editor
I stumbled across another interesting (and free) image manipulator in Apple's downloads section by the name of ImagePlay. It's actually an open source editor with versions available from Sourceforge for OS X, OS 9 and even Windows, but because of that open-sourceness it doesn't appear to be utilizing all the abilities of CoreImage like ImageTricks does (correct me if I'm wrong). However, ImagePlay does offer a few key features, such as layers, various effects and filters, as well as the incredibly handy ability to offer an estimated file size when exporting various image formats such as JPEG, PNG, BMP (uh, why?), Photoshop, TIFF and even QuickTime.While it obviously isn't Photoshop, I'm sure ImagePlay can still find its place in plenty of people's Application folders. This handy little image editor is available at either Apple's Downloads section or from its home at Sourceforge for the amazingly low price of $0.
