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Rescue teams will soon have access to global aircraft tracking data
The disappearance of flight MH370 taught the general public one thing: that flight tracking technology isn't as comprehensive as many might have thought. Current radar doesn't have global coverage, and if a transponder fails (as was the case with the Malaysia Airlines flight) there's little that can be done. Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast (ADS-B) promises to improve things, but still won't cover the whole planet. Aireon (a subsidiary of Iridium Satellite) has an implementation of ADS-B that promises global reach (a leap from 10- to 100 percent coverage according to its claims). It uses 66 of Iridium's "Next" Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites which is what allows it to cover remote, or oceanic regions out of reach by current systems. "Aireon Alert" has been in development for some time, and is scheduled to launch in 2017. What's new, is that Aireon has announced it'll be providing the it's Alert data to emergency services and the aviation community free of charge. Soon after launch, approved search and rescue teams will then be able to get the location of any ADS-B enabled flight without needing extra avionics.
Rebellion acquires Vivendi properties, details future plans
You may recall that, last week, Rebellion announced plans to release several of its titles on GOG.com. Here's the thing you might have missed: Rebellion didn't actually make the games that it was releasing on the service. As it turns out, Rebellion purchased the rights to several of Vivendi's properties in the wake of its merger with Activision last year. Big Download reports that Rebellion has "complete ownership of the IP" to Evil Genius, Ground Control, Empire Earth, Lords of the Realm, and Lords of Magic.In addition to allowing the release of previous titles in each series, Rebellion also has the right to create new entries if it so wishes, with CEO Jason Kingsley telling Big Download, "we're putting our plans together for new titles in each series." Any sequels are on hold for the moment, though, as Kingsley notes that Rebellion is "super busy" with both Aliens vs Predator and Rogue Warrior.Rebellion is offering the Vivendi properties via GOG.com and Steam as part of its first steps into digital distribution, which Kingsley calls an "exciting area" for the company; one that "makes developing a smaller high quality game more possible for a developer working on their own."
Rebellion games hit GOG.com, we give them to you (just like that) [update]
Before teaming up with Sega recently for a new iteration of Aliens vs Predator, UK development house Rebellion made a handful of classic PC titles (yes, we know, including the original Aliens vs Predator). Starting today and continuing over the course of the next few weeks, GOG.com will be offering the company's titles through its site (DRM-free, XP and Vista compatible game, priced to move), starting with Ground Control (Dark Conspiracy expansion included) and Evil Genius. Lords of Magic, Empire Earth, "and more" are in the pipeline for the next few weeks.To celebrate the release, the fine folks at Good Old Games were nice enough to hand us a few codes -- seven in all, just to keep you on your toes -- for not just the games released today but, well, anything on the site you'd like. That's right, folks, you can use the codes on anything from Elixir's Evil Genius to Ubisoft's Beyond Good & Evil to Epic's Unreal Tournament (and everything in between, in case you were wondering). All you have to do is keep your eye on the Joystiq Twitter page over the course of the day to try and win one of them. Hit the break for an exhilarating explanation of how to redeem a code.Update: All codes have been redeemed! Thanks to everyone who participated and to GOG.com for providing us with the codes.
