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New Signal Process introduces BreakOut Stereo and Stomp for the most serious of iOS musicians
If your iPad or iPhone is set to play a starring role at your next, sold-out concert, you may want to check out two new, iOS-friendly interfaces from New Signal Process. Pictured above is NSP's BreakOut Stomp -- a die cast aluminum-encased pedal that promises to transmit guitar signals to and from your iDevice, without any unwanted distortions or detection interference. All you have to do is slide the stompbox into your pedal board, hook it up to your iPhone's headphone jack and fire up your favorite recording or mixing apps. Whereas the stomp was designed with guitarists in mind, the recently unveiled BreakOut Stereo is geared more toward the DJ demographic. The device offers essentially the same iOS-interfacing capabilities of its pedal-based counterpart, serving as a portable conduit between an iPad and an amp or tabletop unit. Boasting two mono output jacks, this little guy can also be used with guitars, mics or mixing boards and is durable enough to survive the rough and tumble of your next world tour. As far as prices go, the BreakOut Stomp is selling for $155, whereas the Stereo will set you back $135. Groove past the break to see an image of the latter, or hit the source link to find out how to order one.
Aventurine looking for feedback on Darkfall siege revamp
Aventurine is in the process of revamping Darkfall's siege system, and the devs are in need of your assistance. A new entry at the Darkfall Epic Blog fills in the details, and perennial coolest dev name contest winner Tasos Flambouras has published a snippet of an internal design document in order to give players a better understanding of why some changes are necessary. Flambouras lays out four key points of particular interest to Darkfall's devs, and interested players are invited to leave feedback via the blog's comment system. Topics up for discussion include minimum numbers of active clan players, win conditions, timer issues, and automatic vulnerability. Head to the official Darkfall blog to make your voice heard.
Apple launches 'Apple Customer Pulse' feedback site
Apple has launched a new site called Apple Customer Pulse which allows select users of Apple's products to submit feedback on a variety of issues. Currently the site is only accessible to those users who have received an email invite from Apple. Several TUAW reads have contacted us saying they have received invites, but there is no firm way to know what the total numbers of invitees are or how Apple goes about choosing them. The site launched quietly a few weeks ago and represents an expanded effort on Apple's part to generate relevant and focused customer feedback. MacRumors did some digging and found out the site is administered by Socratic Technologies, a San Francisco-based market research firm that has worked with other tech companies, including Adobe. A WhoIs search lists the domain management MarkMonitor Brand Protection, a company Apple frequently uses to secure domain names. Additionally, the administrative registrant contact is Apple's Ken Eddings.
Darkfall siege revisions, dungeon reworking, and more
Aventurine has posted its most recent Darkfall activity report, and it covers quite a bit of ground. The first highlight is on the studio's worldbuilder team and its recent work remaking dungeons and clan cities and testing a new lighting system which should allow you to see yourself getting ganked in a brand-new light (rimshot). The art team, meanwhile, has completed numerous new assets including some truly towering trees, flags and banners, and ruins. On top of this, Darkfall players will have some new enemies to slay in the form of newly created monsters like the Imp. To finish this off, players will soon be able to pretty up their characters with the addition of fabulous new hairstyles. The key piece of information offered is about the new siege system, which has been entirely revamped and is ready for testing. For the full onslaught of information on all this and more -- including interactive map changes, blood spatter behavior (oh boy!) and racial/capital quests -- head on over to the full piece on Darkfall's official site.
State Farm app uses iPhone sensors to grade your driving habits, oh joy
Remember when you took your driving test and had an inspector second-guessing your every stop, turn, signal and lane choice? State Farm's new Driver Feedback app is like having said individual with you all the time. Simply put, it uses your smartphone's accelerometer and GPS to gauge your acceleration, braking and cornering habits (sound familiar?) and spit out a score, letting you brag to your (parents / significant other / stranger / the family dog) just how safe and secure you are. State Farm claims it doesn't collect any information and won't adjust your insurance rates based on your score, which is a bit of a bummer if you ask us -- wouldn't it be nice if you could earn some cash back for perfecting your heel-toe? Either way, you'll find it for free in the iTunes App Store.
Aventurine discussing major prestige class revisions for Darkfall
Aventurine is looking for your feedback on Darkfall, and while there's no official survey, there is a lengthy list of bullet points that the developers are debating internally -- as well as an ongoing discussion in the comments section of the Darkfall Epic Blog. Topics include the possible implementation of lawless/lawful areas, clan vendors, capital city tower buffs (which would essentially turn Darkfall's starting areas into safe zones), and a recycling component for the game's crafting system. Producer Tasos Flambouras also addresses some huge theoretical changes to the game in the form of the prestige class system. "We're working on an improved concept to prestige classes where players get to make 'class'-based selections which can lead to the ultimate specialization, especially combined with the right equipment. The philosophy behind this is that while the armor system limits, the new 'class' system extends a player's specialized powers to new levels. [These] are major changes to the game to say the least," Flambouras writes. Head to the Darkfall Epic Blog to make your voice heard.
Minmatar captain's quarters coming to EVE Online test server this week
Get ready, capsuleers. Captain's quarters are coming, and sooner than you might expect. CCP Tanis breaks the news that a rough version of the Minmatar captain's quarters will be making an appearance on the Duality test server this Thursday, April 21st. That's right: Two days hence, all you Brutors, Sebiestors, and Vherokiors will finally be able to walk around on your own two legs inside of the EVE Online client. CCP's newest dev blog cautions that the test environment is a true work-in-progress, and Tanis states that "we're still at the chisel-in-hand-in-front-of-a-marble-form stage." Why make the environment available to the public at this point? CCP is mainly looking to gather feedback and general impressions on usability, since the captain's quarters interface is eventually slated to replace the current in-game hangar view. The test run will also feature new in-station and crash course tutorials as well as interfaces for planetary interaction, corporation management, avatar re-customization, and ship fitting. In other EVE Online news, the new Council of Stellar Management held its first fireside chat a few days ago, and an audio recording of the broadcast is now available for download on the official EVE forums.
Enzo's Pinball gets you all touchy-feely with your phone
We got a hands-on sample of Haptify's haptic-powered apps a couple months back and came away intrigued, but yearning for more. Well, the company is finally ready to sate our penchant for playtime physicality with its first game, Enzo's Pinball. The game debuts with three tables ("more coming soon"), and is designed to let you feel every bump, rattle, and ricochet as if it were the real thing. It isn't identical to its tangible counterpart, but it is an upgrade over the rumble-free digital competition. Haptify's haptic black magic works with handsets running Android 2.1 and up, so there's an awful lot of potential pinball wizards out there. You can grab the game in the Android Market and it'll cost $1.49 to give in to your tactile desires.
Researchers enable tactile feedback for e-readers using real paper, just like the olden days (video)
Brainiacs from Osaka University have created what they've called the Paranga -- a device that fulfills the lack of tactile feedback of page turns when using an e-reader. It's got a built in sensor that detects when the book is being bent and will rotate a roll of paper strips against your thumb. The force exerted against the device will control the speed of the paper roll. Although it's not accurate enough to turn one page at a time, the researches believe that if foil is used instead of paper, the voltage will be discharged as soon as a page is turned, ensuring single-page accuracy. If you want to see a video of the Paranga imitate page-turning, press play on the embed below the break.
Immersion releases SDK to put haptics in Android, helps smartphones move what their makers gave them
About a month ago, we told you about Immersion's MOTIV dev platform to design Android apps with tactile feedback, and today its release has finally arrived. The SDK comes with predesigned haptic effects, sample code, and the ability to tweak the duration and intensity of the feedback -- allowing developers to perfectly tailor the amount of shake in your groove thang. Interested parties can hit up the source link for the SDK download and start indulging in the haptic dark arts immediately.
Windows Phone's new UI and Xbox games are most exciting aspects of Microsoft deal, says Nokia poll
In search for feedback on its momentous decision to dump Symbian in favor of Windows Phone, Nokia has put up the above poll on its Conversations website canvassing opinions about what users anticipate most out of the new deal. There's no consensus choice, with the equivocation of reactions being underlined by the fact that the "Other" option was the modal response, however of the given categories, a UI refresh and Xbox-related gaming boons turned out to be most important. No surprises there, Symbian's touchscreen UI shortcomings are well known about while the Xbox tie-up has been one of Microsoft's big selling points for Windows Phone 7 since its start. We'd just ask Nokia to be quick about delivering on these things -- spending too long in anticipation mode won't be good for our health.
Child of Eden supports four controllers for full-body feedback
Back at E3 2010 we learned that Tetsuya Mizuguchi's latest creation -- Child of Eden, the spiritual successor to Rez -- can be played using a standard controller, not just the Kinect sensor for which it's become a showcase title. Last night at Microsoft's preview event in San Francisco, we found out that Child of Eden can use 360 pads, plural, for more than aiming and shooting. A rep for developer Q Entertainment told Joystiq that the finished game will support vibration feedback effects spread across up to four controllers, the idea being that you can stick them in pockets, rolled-up sleeves -- anywhere, really -- to über-compensate for Kinect's lack of physical feedback. Mizuguchi himself told us "When I play the Kinect, I need some feedback" at last year's E3. It would appear that he's devised a quite novel, if not a bit absurd, way to satisfy that need -- not to mention out-crazy Rez's Trance Vibrator peripheral.
Global Chat: Behind the scenes edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! This week much of the community's focus was on what goes on behind the scenes. Our readers chatted about development decisions from launch onward; from the brand-new Earthrise to the reincarnated Gods & Heroes, "how it's done in MMO development" came under scrutiny. Each discussion of individual games branched into interesting insights regarding MMO development and mechanics in general, so follow along after the jump to see what everyone had to say this week!
Immersion's MOTIV development platform integrates haptics into Android, we go hands-on
You may know that Immersion's haptic technology is in everything from surgical simulators to game controllers, but we're willing to bet you didn't know it's already baked into over 200 million existing devices -- including every Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and handsets by Nokia and LG. Now, using Android handsets' existing vibrator motors, a cheap software upgrade can inject force feedback into existing elements across the entire Android UI (2.2 and up), and with future devices -- built with multi-dollar piezoelectric actuators that vibrate the screen itself -- the haptic experience goes hi-fi. Now that it's revealed that little easter egg to the world, Immersion wants you to build some apps, and to that end it's releasing the MOTIV developer platform this March. Read all about it after the break. %Gallery-116198%
The Daily Grind: If you could design an in-game holiday, what would it be like?
For some, in-game holidays mark the highlight of certain months as the game world brings a limited-time event to the forefront of our consciousness. Others find themselves annoyed at the perceived waste of developer resources on such fluffy nonsense. But truth be told, in-game holidays are popular and welcomed by many -- plus they give marketers something to crow about. Today we're turning The Daily Grind into a collaborative workshop of sorts. Instead of arguing over a topic, let's turn our creativity towards designing a theoretical in-game holiday. If you could make one up, what would it be like? What game would host it? What would you do to make this holiday special or personally interesting? Would it tie in to a real-world holiday or stand on its own? Drop a paragraph or two in the comments below and show us just how brilliant and clever you are at designing your own holiday. Don't forget to give it a name, either. When you're done, read through the other submissions and give them your honest (and kind) feedback! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Global Chat: Stop the presses edition
Welcome to this week's Global Chat! We love hearing what you have to say at Massively, and we love it even more when we can share the best comments with all of our readers. Massively staffers will be contributing some of their favorite comments every week, so keep an eye out every Sunday for more Global Chat! We had some hot topics on Massively this week! From business models to combat style to the hottest beta events, the Massively staff had plenty to talk about. Thankfully, you, the readers, chimed in too. The great thing about so many of these conversations is that they often extend far beyond the game the original topic was about and turn into a discussion of different MMO mechanics in general. If you missed out on some of these posts and discussions this week, follow along after the break. We've gathered up the best and most thought-provoking, so we're ready to hear more of what you have to say!
Drama Mamas: Letter-writers tell what happened next
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. Now that's drama. That part when Onyxia lays the smack down? Squee! Anyway, here it is: the long-delayed (by me), greatly anticipated (also by me) results edition of Drama Mamas. Woohoo! We took the responses we've received from those we've given advice to over the recent months and compiled them here, with links to the appropriate columns. There are other results from our advice that we know of but don't have permission to discuss in public here. For example, sometimes letter-writers will post in the comments with explanations, but they've chosen not to identify themselves -- so we're not outing them here. But that doesn't mean we're hurting for responses. Join us after the break for results from some of the most controversial letters we've posted.
Critical feedback on the road to RIFT's launch
Criticism, even well-meaning constructive criticism, is never easy to take. "Dealing with constant, live feedback is not always easy. Sometimes it can be a morale hit when people are overly critical of a feature," Trion Worlds' Russ Brown admits. In a new dev diary over on ZAM, Brown explains just how important feedback is to the development process, and how Trion is handling it as the team fine-tunes RIFT for launch. According to Brown, working on an MMO is different from working on a single-player title because one encounters -- and invites -- a lot more feedback on an ongoing basis. This turns out to be a double-edged sword: It can be disruptive to the team's schedule and require a lot of extra work in response to concerns and issues, but the feedback can also result in a much better product all around. Ultimately, Brown feels as though the team is actually paying attention to the players: "There have been times when I've come into the office in the morning to find work done by an entire group of developers staying late the night before to fix an instance or invasion. Not because some stuffed shirt told them to, but because they care, and just like the players in our alpha/beta, they want to make the best damn product possible. The only way to do that is to listen to your customers and react."
Update to the Massively makeover
Hello, readers! It's been a few weeks since our massive Massively site overhaul landed, and our web gurus have been scurrying in the background fixing bugs and responding to your reports. Not all of the bugs have been vaporized just yet, but we'd like to update you on the status of some of the problems that most affect you. RSS -- Our most-reported problem over the last few weeks revolved around our RSS feeds. Many users reported a doubling-up of posts as the site spewed out two copies of every post. Others reported an inability to subscribe to specific categories and bloggers, and still others were finding that every RSS feed was producing copies of the podcast (great news for podcast fans, I guess!). Our techs currently report that all of our RSS feeds should be functioning now, but they note that many RSS readers do not well tolerate the kind of switcheroo we had to do. If you're still having problems, unsubscribe again from all of your Massively feeds and try resubbing one more time. I can tell you that I am using Google Reader and stopped having problems a few days ago. If you need to resub to specific feeds, this will help: for the writers, visit the individual pages on our team portal; for columns and features, hop over to our columns list; and for specific games, click on your chosen game in the games list for a category with a feed button. There's more behind the cut... follow along!
RIFT's first closed beta produces "a hell of a sight"
This past weekend, RIFT played host to thousands of brand-new testers with its first closed beta event. The three-day event featured the first 20 levels of the Defiant experience and wrapped up early Monday. According to a forum post by Trion World's Executive Producer Scott Hartsman, the team couldn't be more pleased with the way things panned out. RIFT's team received over 20,000 pieces of feedback from the event and learned quite a few things, including, as Hartsman put it, "answers to some critical questions." These answers included how the servers would hold up with so many people in so few zones, if they could deliver quick patches, and how rifts would happen with the crowd density. In fact, there were so many people that the team had to double the amount of servers almost immediately, although fortunately the servers held up under the strain. Hartsman identified a number of problem areas that would be addressed, such as mob respawn rate. Because of the massive population, RIFT's titular feature had a difficult time being a challenge until the team made some adjustments: "Where we had hoped and expected to see invasions rampaging across the countryside, instead the population density had become far too high, such that invasions weren't even getting off the ground. We updated the game with even more insanely active tuning on Saturday night to give the invaders a chance to come out and play too, and the response in chat and submitted feedbacks was overwhelmingly positive once that started. By the time it worked, it was a hell of a sight -- Huge invasions finally freed up, setting up footholds, wiping out the local populace, and eventually being repelled by defenders." Trion is working on a number of improvements as it prepares for its second closed beta event, which is prepped to start December 17th. Stay tuned to Massively for a special upcoming post-beta interview!
