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IEEE begins work on new cellphone battery standard, we circle 2029 for ratification
You'll excuse us for poking a bit of fun at the IEEE, but after it took seven years to finalize a wireless standard that didn't change for most of that time, we have to wonder how long a new battery rulebook is going to take. IEEE Std 1725 is the current set of commonly agreed rules, in effect since 2006, but apparently "the cellular industry has grown tremendously since then" and our needs as consumers have changed. No kidding, 1GHz processors and 1080p video recording can kind of do that. The Cell Phone Battery Working Group (a real entity!) will hold its first meeting on the topic in February, and the final outcome will lay out up-to-date rules on the requisite quality, reliability, construction, and discharge characteristics of modern cellphone batteries. Let's hope "smartphones that last more than a day" figures somewhere on that list.
Speaking up for what's right
This is a pretty insightful thread, from all sides, on what the forums and customer feedback are really for. Rekker on Detheroc makes a good point, and that is that while people will complain about anything, almost no one speaks up when things are working right. We talked a little bit about this on the podcast this past week: are Blizzard's decisions based on a player base that never seems to be happy, no matter what you throw at them, or on some arbitrary design guidelines that Blizzard has stuck with from the beginning? Ghostcrawler, as you might expect, says it's a little bit of both. Blizzard doesn't just do what players say -- they consider player feedback and then make decisions from there. But at the same time, they can't ignore what players say, either. GC agrees that the forums are not the best sample of feedback, for the same reasons that Rekker gives: players go there because something is bothering them and they want it changed, not usually because they really love something in the game and want it to stay the same.Of course, forums are not the only form of feedback from the community, and there are many places Blizzard can get feedback about things in the game that players like (ahem). But just like Blizzard does, whenever you look at the forums, you have to realize that you're looking at just a slice of the feedback. People don't make QQ posts about the stuff they appreciate and like having in the game.
Officers' Quarters: /annoyed
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.All the great new content in Wrath has brought a number of my guild members back to the game. It's great to see their names lit up in the roster again. But I imagine that, in some guilds, players have come back that no one is particularly happy to see logging in again. This week, one reader wants to know how to handle a member that annoys just about everybody. Hey Scott!I'm an officer in a pretty big, casual guild (roughly 100 people). One issue that [. . .] has caused quite a lot of discussion in officer chat and forums alike is a few of our members. These members are disliked by many people in guild, due to their overall behavior, as in repeatedly asking for the same things in chat, and complaining during raids (among other small things, that over time drives people crazy). Now, this have gone on for a fairly long time, and we have come to the place where most officers just want to get rid of them. Problem is, they have not actually broken any of the rules. They are close to at many times, but they never actually cross that line and do something that is clearly against the rules. We don't have a "no annoying people rule."
WoW Rookie: Embracing the official forums
WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know. I spend most of my evenings perusing the North American and European WoW Foums for interesting topics for our Forum Post of the Day feature. I've come across all kinds of threads from the uplifting, to the whiney, to the popular discussion. They are a great resource for tips and strategies. Blizzard welcomes constructive criticism and suggestions from the WoW community. You are welcome to be a part of it as well. There are a few things you should know about the forums.
Reader UI of the Week: Selece of Deathwing
World of Warcraft allows all of us an unprecedented ability to modify our user interface to meet our needs. Each week WoW Insider will bring you a fresh and detailed look at reader submitted UIs. Have a screenshot of your UI you want to submit? Send it, along with your character name and server, to readerui@gmail.com.This week the column returns to give you your dose of regularly scheduled UIs. We'll be looking at the UI provided to use by Selece of the Deathwing server. He's submitted a UI back in March of 2007, but the one he sent us a couple weeks ago was so slick we just couldn't pass it up.Selece tells us his UI is designed for end game Hunters and has four primary goals: Clean lines – He needs to see what's happening without the UI getting in his way. Readability – Text elements need to be clean and crisp, everything has to be easily identifiable. Clear center – He needs to be able to see what's going on around him, and the center of the screen is his place for that. Visible cooldowns – Cooldowns need to be easy and quick to see, so he knows what's up next. I really find those four pieces of advice to be very useful for not only a ranged DPS class like Hunters, but also for any class. %Gallery-19902%
Adium's icon designer on its past, present and future
You might not know who Adam Betts is, but you've probably seen, or at least heard of, some of his work which includes the icon of a pretty famous Mac OS X chat client: Adium. The animated, quacking duck icon has made a bit of a name for itself, and Phill Ryu (of MacThemes and Widget Machine fame) decided to sit down with Adam Betts and quack ecstatic about the icon's past, present and future. Check it out for Adam's take on everything from Apple's icon guidelines (believe it or not, they have them) to whether Adiumy the Duck will get his own MySpace profile.[via diggdot.us]
