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TUAW's Daily App: Darkroom Pro
I've been a fan of the Darkroom app for the iPhone almost since the beginning, only because it contained a bit of functionality I think that should have been included in the device from the start: a steady mode. The original Darkroom offered up a steady-shot mode that let you press a shutter button at any time, but then waited to actually take a picture until the iPhone's accelerometer told it that the phone was steady in place. The iPhone's camera has gotten better over the years, but especially in low-light situations, making sure the camera is steady is reason enough to use this app. And newer versions (after a short buggy delay right around iPhone OS 3.0) have added even more functionality, including a fullscreen shutter mode (no toolbar, just press anywhere on the screen to shoot a picture) and a timer mode as well. They've also added an online photo album into the app using StepCase's official service (which I've never used), but you can also just funnel pictures into your normal camera album if you'd rather upload them somewhere else. The latest update, released just this week, lets you tag your photos by place, so you can browse them later according to the location they were taken at. Darkroom Pro is definitely worth the 99 cent price if you do any regular photography with your iPhone at all. There's also a free version available, and while the functionality on that one is limited, it still does have a steady mode included, so you can at least jump in and give that a try.
10.6.3 update hiccups and workarounds
Although it's been relatively quiet in the mailbox over the past 48 hours with regard to Mac OS X 10.6.3 issues and outcomes (probably because everyone is too busy refreshing their delivery status), every OS update comes with a few problems. In this case, the reports we've gotten include the usual mix of stalls, slow reboots, and even one very unhappy graphics card. Fortunately, the team at cnet's MacFixit site has a solid list of seven recommendations for managing a hung update process, including using the Combo updater and going to safe boot if necessary. If you have been having issues with the update and need a quick fix, run through their list and see if you can't get it working. Oh, and we'll add one more tip, just in case: be sure before you start that your backups are current. Good luck!
In-Game Fixes for March 4th, 2010
Bornakk has announced a handful of in-game hot fixes on the official forums today. They're pretty much all Icecrown Citadel boss ability nerfs and tweaks, and should fixes a few annoyances with some battles, stretching from Marrowgar to Sindragosa. The full list is after the break.
In Game fixes for January 4th, 2010
Bornakk recently posted a nice short but sweet list of fixes for the new year. There's a couple gear fixes and one little dungeon tweak that should make a lot of frustrated dungeon finder runners happy: The mail Bloodsunder Bracers have had their appropriate socket bonus added. The proc on Zod's Repeating Longbow should no longer reset auto shots. The gear requirement for heroic Halls of Reflection has been increased. Like I said, short but sweet. Of course, we do have an extended downtime coming up tonight, and there's a few of us here at the WoW.com secret headquarters who are thinking (and it's just a gut feeling, mind you) that we'll see a few more patched in bug fixes in the morning. Regardless of what comes though, we will, of course, have all the news right here.
Wizard101 releases December patch
Fast turnarounds are always nice. It's been a little over a week since we posted the first news about Wizard101's upcoming school-specific housing, and it's already moved from "upcoming" to "live." The December patch has just been released, and in addition to giving players the opportunity at having the literally hottest house around (among others), it brings a number of other improvements to the game's client. Most notable is the option to block chat from your opponents in PvP, a welcome feature to avoid the frequently non-stop boasting that seems to go hand-in-hand with the playstyle. It is an option that can be changed even in the middle of a duel, and while it's not game-defining it should be a welcome addition. Much of the meat of this update comes in the form of the team relentlessly hunting down bugs and squashing them, with a long list of prior bugs that are no more. The team even notes that some of the killed bugs are ones the majority of players didn't even know about. While the update is a little lighter on actual content compared to the last one, fewer bugs and a better all-around experience are nothing to sneeze at, not to mention some exceptionally nice new houses. Wizard101 players still have a few days until the main event, but they still got a nice early Christmas present.
In-game fixes for December 9th
Blizzard poster Bornakk announced a whole batch of hotfixes and updates to issues that cropped up after the launch of Patch 3.3 earlier this evening. A few of the juicier fixes are just below, and you can find the rest behind the cut. Do note that some of these changes will require a server restart to kick in. Running up the ramp at the end of the 3rd encounter in Halls of Reflection will no longer disconnect players. Onyxia has settled down and is once again killable and flying in the proper areas during phase 2. Bosses no longer respawn in the new Frozen Halls 5 player dungeon after being defeated.
Tamed Worgen have become Winterskorn Worgs
And here lies the final chapter in the Taming of the Worgen saga: Mania reports that, just a little while after the troublesome Worgen Garwal was hotfixed to be untameable, Blizzard has magically changed all of the already-tamed Worgen to level 68 (or Hunter's level minus five) wolves. Why level 68? Because, Mania says, they've all been turned into Winterskorn Worgs, a level 63-69 NPC that wanders around the Howling Fah-jord.So that's the end of that. Obviously, no one really expected to keep those pets as their own, and especially with all of the Worgen-as-playable-race speculation flying around, it wouldn't do for Hunters to have one of those humanoids at their beck and call. Some Hunters who went to the trouble of taming probably won't be too happy. But the good news is that the new white wolf in your stable is completely fixed -- it has all of the normal talent trees and abilities that wolves are supposed to have. Guess you and your pet Garwal were just never meant to be.
Simple fix for the USB monitor black screen of doom
If you use a USB display adapter to add a 2nd screen to your Mac, you may have noticed that ever since Mac OS X 10.5.7 came out, they have been mysteriously failing. This morning, after logging out and logging back in, the black-screen-of-doom scenario happened on my Mac mini's second monitor. By searching around, I came across a DisplayLink FAQ that seemed to provide answers. Mind you, I don't own a "DisplayLink". I use an eVGA UV Plus on my mini. Like many other external monitor devices, however, my eVGA uses the DisplayLink chipset and drivers. So even if you think this solution doesn't apply to your USB monitor solution, it very well may. I didn't just upgrade to 10.5.7 yesterday. It's been running on my system for ages. So why did everything fail after my log-out/log-in? I seriously have no idea. Following the suggestions on the DisplayLink site and on several Mac support boards, I re-installed the 1.1 drivers and rebooted. My monitor is now back to life. So, bottom line, if you are using an external USB-powered display on your Mac and it stops working, try re-installing drivers. You'll find the latest Mac drivers here, plus the newest beta releases. You'll need to agree to the DisplayLink EULA before you're permitted to download the software. And you will need to reboot. However, on an annoyance scale between 0 (everything working) and 10 (losing access to your second monitor), a simple reinstall & reboot clocks in at about a 3.
Tuesday's in-game fixes
We love in-game fixes, right? Blizzard blue poster Bornakk has announced a couple new in-game fixes. The updates are as follows:First, the nerf to the Paladin's Vindication talent that set the Pally community on fire yesterday is now live. The nerf removed stamina and intellect from the 20% reduction that Vindication gave. All other primary statistics are still affected by Vindication.Secondly, Maim, Bash, and Hammer of Justice will no longer cause a player's spell to be interrupted when they're immune to stun. They will still interrupt the NPC's spells however.There have been a handful of other hot fixes that we've covered the past few days, and those are recapped after the break.
Wintergrasp lag a big issue after patch 3.1
Zarhym has got some answers to the widespread problem of lag in Wintergrasp after patch 3.1 the other week. He says Blizzard figures the problem is simply population based -- there are many more people playing in the battleground than there were before the patch. For that reason, they're having trouble coming up with good solutions: the battleground is designed to be non-instanced, and that's why a lot of people like it, so putting a limit on the amount of people in there is not the way to go. Hardware isn't a solution either -- Blizzard's hardware is already top-of-the-line, and not only would upgrading it take a while anyway, but my guess is that most of the lag issues come not from Blizzard's side, but from the connections between players and them, which they may not have any control over anyway.So yes, we're more or less out of luck -- as long as Wintergrasp is extremely popular (and even Zarhym remembers the naysayers before the release with a smirk), there will always be a certain amount of lag in there. There are a few good suggestions floating around the comments thread -- one is that Wintergrasp should always be conquerable, which seems like it would keep down on the flood of people, though of course there'd be other issues if that were implemented.At this point, Wintergrasp lag may just be something we have to live with. Eventually, you have to think the population will drop back down, and then those of us still in there will enjoy lag-free battles again. But Blizzard has taken on quite a goal trying to do non-instanced PvP full of vehicles and towers without any lag at all.
Hotfixes for Hunters over the last few days
Mania's got info on a few Hunter pet-related hotfixes that have found their way into the game recently. There's nothing really earthshaking in there, but there are at least two points of interest: because players can no longer flick the "at war" switch on for the Sunreavers with the Horde in Dalaran, that means Hordies can't pick a fight just to tame the Sunreaver Dragonhawks, which unfortunately were the only "already 80" Cunning pets in the game.And a bug with Hunter pet talents was fixed -- supposedly now, when Hunters switch talent specs, Hunter pets will get their talents refunded. That's surprising to me -- though I kind of appreciate the chance to respec our pets whenever we switch specs, I sure would have thought that our pets would just get two trees as well. But then again, people might want to mix and match pet talents and talent specs, so I guess though it'll be a pain to re-punch in those talents (and remember to do so), it's the better way to go right now.Great insight from Mania as always. And yes, outside of the Hunter domain, I, like many of Mania's commenters am slightly tired of the talent resets. With Hunter talents and all of the shots we learn from each tree, and pet talents and all of the decisions to make there, I'm pretty talent-ed out. Hopefully this 3.1.1 refund is the last one we'll see for a while.
Additional in-game fixes
There's been more in-game fixes, besides yesterday's patch 3.1.1 and the long list of bug fixes associated with it.Some of the more interesting changes: The Yogg-Saron encounter has received the following changes: Guardians of Yogg-Saron in phase 1 and Immortal Guardians in phase 3 have had their health reduced by 15% in heroic mode, the Destabilization Matrix cast by Mimiron will now correctly hinder the casting speed of Crusher Tentacles in both normal and heroic modes. Players can no longer summon the Black Knight unless you are riding an Argent Warhorse. Critical strikes from the Hunter ability Explosive Shot should properly trigger Thrill of the Hunt again. The full list of the additional changes after the break.
EVE Online Apocrypha patch notes detail a host of improvements
EVE Online's latest expansion had a fairly smooth deployment, particularly considering how many radical changes were made to the game. Premium graphics were extended to all celestial objects, with entirely new models for asteroids. The Apocrypha expansion also introduced a new, extremely deadly NPC race with an AI far more advanced than what's been experienced pre-Apocrypha. However, this huge list of new features has also led to a number of smaller issues that CCP Games will patch this week. The patch was originally slated for today but considering the laundry list of fixes CCP plans to make, patch 1.0.2 will deploy on Thursday instead, with a slightly extended downtime. Downtime should last from 11:00 GMT to 12:30 GMT, and will fix issues with Epic Mission Arcs, the Skill Queue, and many other fixes are on the way, as detailed in the patch notes. Players into exploration (or hunting down other players) who've been taking advantage of the strength of Deep Space Scanner Probes should note that they've already been nerfed; tomorrow's patch will reduce their strength. Given that there are quite a number of minor changes being made, EVE players may want to skim over the patch notes before the end of Thursday's downtime.
Official 3.0.8.9506 patch notes
Nethaera has posted the official "patch notes" for patch 3.0.8.9506/3.0.8a today. They are listed in their entirety after the break.These notes mirror what Ghostcrawler said in a series of posts last night. I imagine that these patch notes could be updated at some future time, listing more bug fixes if they're present. So you'll probably want to check back later and see if that's the case.If you're looking for a download mirror for the patch files, check out our listing.
Patch 3.0.8.9506 mirrored at Big Download
Big Download has mirrored today's patch for us all. You can head over there and grab both the Mac and PC versions. While the download is small, just under seven megs, the Blizzard downloader has been known to lag out and not work correctly at times. And these times usually occur right on patch day, so we've got you covered.This patch fixes some bug that have been around since 3.0.8 went live last Tuesday. We know at least three confirmed bugs it fixes, but we're not sure about the rest. This patch is being called 3.0.8.9506 or 3.0.8a.Happy patch day!As usual, please do not leave comments with external download links as we cannot verify their integrity. We have this rule for your safety!
Bug fixes for Hunters, Locks, and Death Knights tomorrow
Ghostcrawler has updated us on the status of three major bugs that have been present since patch 3.0.8 went live last Tuesday. The Hunter Aspect bug, in which aspects are on a global cooldown like mechanism. The Warlock Ritual of Summoning, which had a two minute cooldown implemented to prevent some sort of undisclosed exploit. Howling Blast, which showed to not have a cooldown, but in reality had a five second one. "Assuming nothing comes up at the last minute", Ghostcrawler says, "[these] will be fixed tomorrow."There is no word if these fixes will come in the form of a small patch to the client, or if they are going to be done server side. Since the Howling Blast is a bug that is linked to client data files, I would assume that fixing it necessitates rolling out a minor patch. However that's just an assumption based on the way things were done in the past, and Blizzard could have other technology present to circumvent the need for a full patch.Nonetheless, a couple more bugs will get fixed tomorrow. This is a good thing.
WAR's Mark Jacobs on fixes and holiday experience bonuses
Fans of Warhammer Online will have noted a great deal of patching over the past few weeks. In fact, even the patches needed some patching. Some major issues Mythic Entertainment has been working to fix are the frequent crashes-to-desktop and other lockups players have been reporting. The latest word from Mythic's Mark Jacobs is that the client crashes have been drastically reduced, down by 75% (in North America). In fact, client crashes are now at their lowest point ever, either in development or since Warhammer Online went live, Jacobs said. But he wasn't writing to the Warhammer Online player base just to talk about patches and crash fixes. Jacobs also announced a holiday gift for all WAR players that doesn't involve dwarves and debauchery. Warhammer Online players now enjoy an experience bonus, as of December 18th. Jacobs stated Mythic decided to increase the rest experience multiplier bonus, while "...reducing the time that it takes you to earn rested xp while logged out of the game, especially in Tiers 3 and 4. This will result in players' time to level being approximately 10% faster in Tier 2 and 20% faster in Tiers 3 and 4." Jacobs didn't state how long this revved up leveling curve will last, but stated it would be for "a few weeks." WAR has gone 1.1! Check out our full coverage of the 1.1a patch, along with our interviews exploring upcoming content and the open RvR changes. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
PTR 3.0.3 Patch Notes
Looking for the Patch Notes that are being pushed to the live servers? We've got that, too.Blizzard has released the notes for the Patch 3.0.3 on PTR (Public Test Realm). With the PTRs going to patch 3.0.3, I wouldn't be surprised to see 3.0.3 hit the live servers next week. Also, please note that these patch notes appear to be in flux and are being updated. We'll keep you posted with any changes.While patch 3.0.2 has a lot of great new content, there have been a fair share of bugs in the game. This patch will fix some of those, and change around a few other things. Remember, there will be an ongoing series of changes – the game itself won't seem normal until Wrath of the Lich King.Some highlights of this patch include: Druid talent points are refunded (only Druids) Hunter aspects are off the global cooldown Vampiric Touch has had its spell power coefficient doubled Warlocks can now use an Infernal indoors Bloodthirst cooldown is now 5 seconds No more level requirement to train gathering skills Read on after the break for the full PTR patch notes.
The Daily Grind: What does Mythic have to fix to make Warhammer truly great?
Despite the launch of Warhammer Online being so recent, Mythic is not sitting idly or letting up the energy level in the wake of their title's release. Yesterday they announced the addition of cross-pairing queues for RvR scenarios. Judging by reactions in guild chat last night and in comments to the post, this change has been very well received. But, of course, nothing is perfect. It only make sense that they're moving ahead with the game's framework and design. From our point of view, and the view of a few other bloggers, there are still issues to be ironed out.Snafzg at the Greenskin Blog offered up a list noting issues he'd like to see addressed by the developers sooner rather than later. Snaf primarily runs down technical issues and crunchy design decisions; he'd like to see Alt-Tabbing made friendlier, for example, a sentiment we wholeheartedly share. Meanwhile over at Nazgum's blog the author has a more 'high-level' to-do list for the Mythic designers. He wants more incentives for open field RvR, and even laments the absence of a third faction to do battle with.We want to hear from you, though. What does Mythic need to fix in the next few weeks to ensure that you're going to stay a subscriber next month?
City of Heroes patch tweaks, refines, and fixes
NCsoft released a new patch for City of Heroes/City of Villains and published the update notes on its website yesterday. Like this post's title implies, most of the changes are tweaks, refinements, and fixes. For example, the patch fixed a rather annoying graphical glitch that occurred on the very popular GeForce 8 series video cards.It's not all about bugs, though; there are lots of balance changes to character abilities (like slight nerfs to Fire Control/Cinders and Plant Control/Roots), and a few tweaks to badges (for example, Ourobos missions "will now issue a gold star and the proper badge"). Also notably, you can no longer drag-and-drop items into an allied super-group's storage. This change was made to address an exploit which allowed folks to grief by completely cleaning out others' storage. Various class changes are buried in the notes as well, including further changes to Mastermind pets intended to improve their combat performance.So if you're a player, you'll want to read the notes to make sure you're up to speed. Maintenance is better than nothing, right? The complete notes are included after the jump.
