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Chaos Theory: A Secret World lexicon
LF3M 18/24 EXP KKTXBAI Look familiar? If you play The Secret World, you've likely seen this string of characters, or something similar, a thousand times over. Anyone who has done any MMO gaming is used to seeing a flood of acronyms fly by in chat channels. It's a special shorthand to convey as much information as possible without spending all that time and effort typing out whole words (which certainly comes in handy when you are busy dodging incoming attacks). Some terms are fairly common to the genre as a whole, but others are game-specific. So what happens when players jump into The Secret World for the first time? They can be left scratching their heads wondering what weird language people are speaking. But with everything else there is to get a handle on in the game, like the ability wheel and builds, who wants to spend time deciphering every communique? New players could speak up and outright ask what a certain term means, but who wants to expose his newbness for all to see? Instead, many just try to deduce the meaning or ignore the message all together. The problem with that is you might get something wrong (and look worse) or completely miss out on something worthwhile. To help allay confusion and give everyone a fair chance at understanding TSW-speak, I've gathered the most relevant terminology here in a handy guide. Not only can you decode what you read with it, but you'll have the key to sending your own messages like a pro.
HTC Merge accessories in the wild -- nope, still not official yet
Here's what we know about the HTC Merge: it's also been known as the Lexicon, it's a dual-mode phone with GSM and CDMA heading to Verizon, it's got a slide-out QWERTY, an 800MHz processor, Bing and Bing Maps (a popular trend these days), and now we know, too, that it has a Body Glove snap on cover available to protect its metallic exterior. Here's what we don't know: why no one's yet to officially acknowledged this phone.
HTC Merge / Lexicon prototype previewed, 800MHz processor produces sweet scores (video)
Here's a little something to make your weekend fly by -- Android Central scored a hands-on look at Verizon's dual-mode CDMA / GSM worldphone, the HTC Merge (or is that Lexikon?) and it's looking like one hell of a handset. Though the prototype's Android 2.2 build is saddled with HTC Sense and Bing for search, the hardware's reportedly superb, with a "clicky and responsive and very well spaced" slide-out QWERTY keyboard with no Desire Z hinge nonsense, and a weighty, solid feel. There's also a 5 megapixel shooter that does 720p video, a likely 2GB of on-board storage and 512MB of RAM, not to mention an 800MHz processor that'll surely help derail the megahertz myth with superb benchmark scores. See it pull a 1,500 in Quadrant after the break, and start dropping those nickels into your piggy bank.
Verizon scoop extravaganza: Motorola Venus with portrait QWERTY, Stingray LTE tablet, and more?
We've been tipped by multiple sources today on some interesting developments in Verizon's roadmap over the next couple quarters, and if you're a BlackBerry fan, an Android fan, or a fan of exceptionally fast data, you're probably going to want to tune in. Let's get right into the meat of it, shall we? Follow the break!
Lexicon busted passing Oppo off as a $3500 Blu-ray player
If Lexicon is your favorite brand then here's a shocker, the company figured if it isn't broke, then don't fix it and grabbed an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player and encased it into a high end chassis and listed it for $3500 -- a $3000 case, wow? We know this type of thing goes on all the time in the world of electronics, but wow, this is just unbelievable. The folks at Audioholics didn't believe it either, so they stripped the two players down and did some bench testing to reveal that indeed both were identical -- other than the case that is. Now to be fair, we realize that companies like Lexicon probably sell this to distributors for $1000 and the rest is all retailer markup, and of course Lexicon insists it has made upgrades beyond that of the Oppo, but come on, this is just wrong.
Harman Specialty Group shows off new gear to bust your wallet
When most people with sub-seven figure incomes hear "Harman," they think "Kardon." High-enders with more... advantageous... economic situations might think of names like Mark Levinson, Revel and Lexicon. For them, the Harman Specialty Group is rolling out some appropriately over-the-top gear to go along with the Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray deck. The Mark Levinson No. 500H-series amplifiers continue with the familiar tower design, but tout new circuit topology -- we're assuming Class H -- into the various multichannel models, with the top-dog 535H punching out 1,000-Watts. On the speaker side of the house, Revel is bringing the Ultima Rhythm2 and Performa B150 powered subwoofers to the party. Revel considerately throws in amplifiers (2,400-Watts for the Ultima and 1,200 for the Performa) rather than forcing you to pick up another Mark Levinson amp. Pricing undetermined, but you can look to other offerings from these brands for suitably stratospheric guidance.
Lexicon prepping BD-30 Blu-ray deck for CEDIA
Lexicon owners who have been holding out for a brand-matched Blu-ray deck will want to turn an eye towards CEDIA, where the company will debut its BD-30 player. Hopefully by then, the Profile 2.0 player will also be wearing a THX-approved badge on the fact-tag that includes universal disc support, fast loading, Anchor Bay VRS video processing, and -- wait for it -- RS-232 control. The tin-foil hat crowd will find something to like in the PR that touts the decoding and mixing of lossless codecs in the player for LPCM streaming to downstream Lexicon gear, and makes no mention of bitstreaming. You know this isn't going to be priced for mere mortals when it releases in September, and Lexicon doesn't disappoint -- $3,499 should fit in with cross-shopping against Denon and Marantz.
Patch 3.1 PTR Priest glyph changes thus far
One of the things Patch 3.1 is supplying in spades is glyphs and glyph changes. Every class is getting a ton of them, and it's really hard to keep up with them there are so many. Priests are coming out alright so far through the whole process, with a lot of our current glyphs being improved and our new glyphs being legitimately useful, if situational. Let's see what's new, shall we? Glyph of Fade - Reduces the cooldown of your Fade spell by 9 sec. (Old: Increases the duration and cooldown of your Fade spell by 50%.) This is massively better than what it was previously, and I suspect that this will become a popular Shadow Priest glyph in PvP. Two points in Veiled Shadows plus this glyph means a 15 second cooldown on Fade. Every 15 seconds, a Shadow Priest will be able to clear all movement impairing effects, assuming they have Improved Shadowform. That's pretty friggin' sweet.
Lexicon announces I???ONIX line of USB desktop recording interfaces
If Line 6's POD Studios just weren't down your alley, Lexicon's hoping to suit your fancy with its new line of I???ONIX Desktop Recording Interfaces. The USB-enabled I???ONIX U22, U42S, and U82S were designed to fill the obligatory void between your keyboard and monitor, and each one features dbx microphone preamps on all analog inputs. The U22 can record two channels simultaneously and includes a pair of analog combi-jack mic / line inputs, two TRS balanced line outputs, a Hi-Z instrument input, a 0.25-inch headphone output and MIDI I/O; the U42S and U82S include four and eight analog combi-jack mic / line inputs (respectively), S/PDIF I/O, two instrument inputs, and two 0.25-inch headphone outputs. Full specs for each box are listed in the read link, though -- strangely enough -- prices are not.
Breakfast Topic: Rerolling our roots
The question arose in the WoW official forums "Why do they call it 'rolling?'" This is of course in reference to creating new characters. The original poster pointed out that there really is no rolling involved just selection. I'm sure its obvious to most of us that the terms comes from pen and paper role playing games where we roll dice to determine character statistics and sometimes other attributes. But it got me thinking of terms that we use for WoW that came from other games: The battleground Zerg comes from Starcraft's Zerg race which was kind of a fast, battle driven faction. DKP is short for Dragon Kill Points, a term that dates back to EverQuest when the main bosses were dragons. Nerf means to make things less powerful, and refers to the Nerf brand of spongy toys. For some reason we refer to instances as dungeons, despite the fact that Stockades is the only actual dungeon that comes to mind. Though I have to admit, even in D&D dungeon crawls were typically done in caves or castles. It's surprising how terms seem to stick with us even when they're obsolete. Speaking of rolling, when was the last time you actually rolled down a window in a car? It's good to go back and remember out gaming roots. I'm sure there are many more crossover terms, and terms from the World of Warcraft lexicon like Leroy Jenkins, will out live Azeroth. For the life of me I can't find the etiology of the term "twink." What else am I missing?
We hope Matchman matches our expectations
One of the more interesting games that's been announced recently is Matchman, which is being released for the DS, the Wii, and (oddly enough) the PS3. The developer for this one is TH-F, who normally develops Chinese games. Thanks to a partnership with Lexicon Entertainment, though, Matchman is slated for a worldwide release.Blah, blah, and so on -- not that that's out of the way, let's get into the juicy, colorless details. We're not calling the game "colorless" as an insult, mind you; it's just literally in black and white. (Hey, it worked for Echochrome). Aside from that little detail, you may also be interested to know that Matchman is a side scrolling shooter with a storyline that's based on a combination of classic fairytales.As for the enemies, don't expect to always kill them with a classic "shoot 'em up" mentality. Some bosses you might have to feed until they explode (it's just a wafer-thin mint!), while others you'll have to manipulate (we're not sure how). The game will feature a "Commuter" mode, too, designed for people who take public transportation (so that they can play with one hand and drink a cup of coffee in the other). That sounds like a funny enough idea, we only hope that the rest of the game has the same sense of humor.Check out the gallery below to see the concept art for Matchman.%Gallery-24271%
Test your useless knowledge with Super Brain Tease
From the consistently high Brain Training sales in the UK, we have to assume that at least some of you Brits are nuts for the kind of games that give you a mental workout. Lexicon Entertainment is even banking on that assumption, as the company is releasing five different trivia games under the Super Brain Tease license. Each game will have a different subject, giving you a choice from the following: Football (aka soccer, for those of us in the U.S.) History Geography Music Movies We find it amusing that you Brits are so crazy about your soccer, er, football, that Lexicon has ditched a broader "Sports" category in favor of something so specific. All poking fun aside, though, should these titles sell well enough they'll only be the first of many. The main allure of such games, we're sure, will be their budget price points, as each edition will be offered for £9.99. If the idea of trivia at such a cost interests you, you can expect to see the Super Brain Tease series hit retail in Q4.[Via press release]
iPhone 101: Hacks Vocabulary Primer
We here at TUAW are always on the lookout to help you, our dear readers, understand what is going on in the crazy world of Apple related technology. The biggest news, as of late, has been the continued efforts to hack the iPhone. A rich language has developed around the iPhone hacking community, and we thought it might be time for a primer of sorts. Never again will you confuse your jailbreaking with your bricking. Jail. The public areas of the iPhone or iPod to which, by default, Apple allows read/write access via USB. In Unix terms, this refers to the /private/var/root/Media folder. Jailbreak. The iPhone and iPod touch hacks that allow users to gain access to the entire Unix filesystem. In Unix terms, this refers to changing the root of the directory tree to /. Activation. The process that allows you to move beyond any of the various screens that instruct you to connect your device to iTunes before it can be used. On the iPhone, you can only make emergency calls until your iPhone is activated. Bricking. To render an iPhone or iPod touch inoperable. The 1.1.1 firmware update turned many iPhones into iBricks. Users could not reactivate their iPhone to get past their "Please connect to iTunes" screens. Although the phones could still be used for emergency calls, users were locked out from all normal iPhone operations.File system. The way your iPhone or iPod touch uses its memory to store data and applications. The iPhone and iPod touch use two "disks": a smaller private file system that contains the operating system and a larger public one that contains your media (songs, videos, etc), preferences, and data.
Tetris and Boggle's illegitimate love-child
Though we've already spent the afternoon filling your plate with enough puzzle posts to feed you for the next week, we'd be remiss not to mention today's full-version release of WordUp!, one of the finest homebrew games to ever hit the Nintendo DS. WordUp! follows the footsteps of other stylus-driven puzzlers like Tetris and Zookeeper, combining accesibility and portability for an addictive mix.Linguaphiles will take great pleasure in connecting the game's adjoining letter blocks, spelling out words to clear chunks of the playfield. The top screen serves as a window to your inevitable doom, colorcasting the continuous stream of blocks piling on top of letters you've neglected. The game ends if you go too long without clipping a column, but you're presented with a satisfying record of your longest word, the number of words rubbed out, and which word was repeated most often.In addition to its solid gameplay, developer Superpanic sweetened WordUp! with an unlockable arcade mode, three difficulty options, and an original and catchy soundtrack. Drop past the post break for more screenshots of this excellent game.[Via Drunken Coders]
Dream a little Dream of Neko
Have you ever idly wanted to be a cat? Well, perhaps the felines dream about being you, as well -- at least, that's the story behind Dream of Neko, a new game headed to the DS. Neko, a kitten (how's that for an original name) who dreams of the freedom of humans, awakens one day to find that he's become one ... but it must not be all it's cracked up to be (we'll vouch for that), because Neko sets off on an epic quest to regain kittenhood. Hey, we're all about the good things in human life, like video games and steak, but sometimes, we'd just like to relax with a ball of string and a pillow as well. We can relate. Dream of Neko has a tentative third quarter release for Europe so far, and little else is known at this time.
