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Band streams concert live via iOS app
A band named Everything, Everything is streaming a concert live today from London, and they're sharing that content on the App Store. NME says that the Manchester band has released a free app for iOS that will not only stream the show live, but will eventually have an archive of the show available, along with information about the band and backstage pre- and post-show access. Unfortunately, I don't know if everything is working as planned -- the concert has probably finished up by now, and I don't see the app live on the US App Store, even though it was supposed to have been released worldwide. It's possible that the band figured they'd release the app quickly, without realizing that Apple's approval process is a little busy around this time of year. But at any rate, it's an interesting idea. We've already seen musical acts use Apple's platform to share content with fans, and live streaming shows as a "virtual ticket" is another cool idea that even smaller bands can use to gain an audience. I think we'll see more of this in the future (and maybe then it won't be so lost in the huge rush of apps during this holiday season). [via Macgasm]
British police force tweeting every emergency call over 24 hours, ironically keeps getting TwitJailed
The Greater Manchester Police team has decided to show the world how busy law enforcement can get by tweeting out every enquiry/emergency call it has to deal with. Only problem is that it keeps ending up in Twitter jail for posting too much. This one-day-only experiment (or is it a publicity stunt?) will detail every local call to 999 (the British 911) and the GMP's switchboard, uncovering such exciting episodes as "concern for welfare in Rusholme" and "report of threats and abuse on Facebook in Salford" (we're not making this up). It's intended to illustrate to the public and politicians alike the real life daily grind that police officers go through; and we see their point, it must be hell setting up all those new accounts to avoid Twitter's own rule enforcers. Tsk tsk.
New Hampshire man is victim of first recorded iPad theft
Someone has to be first, I suppose. Straight from the police iBlotter in Manchester, NH, the Union Leader reports that a broad-daylight iPad theft was perpetrated in the parking lot of a Best Buy on South Willow Street. Mohamed Aboutaleb of Dover had just bought his new iPad in the store (capacity and accessories not known) when he was the victim of a shove-and-grab theft. The teenage thief then fled with Aboutaleb's magical and revolutionary shopping bag via a getaway car driven by another teenager. While progress is being made on the iPad jailbreak (via Dev Team member MuscleNerd), these real-world lawbreakers are still unidentified and on the loose. Anyone with information about the iMugging is encouraged to contact the Manchester police department. As a public safety reminder, whenever you are carrying easily-identifiable high value packages around (such as an Apple Store or other electronics chain shopping bag), be aware of your surroundings as you return your purchases to your car or if you are using public transport. Putting your new gadgets in the trunk and proceeding to do other shopping isn't advisable either. To answer the question posed in comments: yes, you can activate MobileMe's location tools with your iPad to track it down, but that's not really an option if it's grabbed in the parking lot before you sync it up. Thanks Marc! Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/banspy/ / CC BY 2.0
Realm Championships and a 2010 preview for the TCG
The WoW TCG has just finished up their year with the World Championships, but apparently they're not sitting back on their laurels -- they've just sent word that their Realm Championships will be going down November 14-15, 2009, in cities around the world like "San Diego, Philadelphia, Helsinki, Manchester (England), Singapore and Melbourne." These are invite-only tournaments, but they're always accompanied by events that are open to the public, including lots and lots of TCG playing, giveaways and door prizes, and sometimes even special realms of the online game set up for players to join. If you've never seen a TCG event and one is headed to your city, it's worth checking out. Additionally, the TCG folks have outlined their plans for 2010 over on their website, and it sounds like it'll be a busy year. They're kicking things off with the Scourgewar release, including the TCG loot of the mini-mounts (finally, a pony!), the Tuskarr Kite, and a Spectral Tiger Cub. And later in the year, you can look forward to a Naxxramas dungeon deck, another expansion called Wrathgate (with likely more in-game loot to go after), and finally, an Icecrown Citadel raid deck release. Should be an exciting 2010 for the trading card game -- we'll definitely be watching for that new expansion and the loot items due out with it.
Freeview HD sets a date: December 2
Finally, after much delay, we have a date to expect Freeview HD service in the UK, at least for those in range of the Winter Hill transmitter (Manchester & Liverpool for sure,) it will go live December 2. elsewhere, you'll be waiting until at least 2010 to experience the joys of OTA HD as has been promised, but keep an eye out and the Beeb, ITV and Channel 4 should be coming your way. Anyone know if those New Zealand PlayTV Freeview HD adaptations will be back-compatible to the UK?
Priceless tapestries of Henry VIII now priceless projection screens
Modern HD projection technology is being used to restore the grandeur of some of the 2,000 tapestries collected by King Henry VIII, which are starting to fade and deteriorate. These pieces aren't as easily replaced as that velvet Elvis you love so much, so researchers from Manchester University were called in. By analyzing individual threads from the less-faded backsides of the tapestries, they were able to simulate the original color of the dyes and then create a "color correction" image of over 2-million pixels (1920x1080, perhaps?) that when projected on the front restores the original brilliance of the artwork. Considering that the tapestries are woven with threads of gold and silver and originally cost as much as two battleships, it's safe to assume that these are the world's most expensive (albeit heirloom-quality) projection screens. [Photo courtesy Inventory of Henry VIII -- Tapestries & Royal Wardrobe]
UK researchers take us one step closer to quantum computing
You know, at some point we're going to grow tired of just getting closer and demand that we arrive, but thankfully for a smattering of UK-based researchers, we're not yet to that point. Reportedly, brainiacs from Edinburgh and Manchester University have created a molecular machine that could be used to develop quantum computers for making "intricate calculations" far more quickly than current supercomputers. Essentially, these gurus relied on molecular scale technology instead of silicon chips; more specifically, they achieved the so-called breakthrough by "combining tiny magnets with molecular machines that can shuttle between two locations without the use of external force." Not surprisingly, there's still more work to be done, with Professor David Leigh of Edinburgh University noting that "the major challenges we face now are to bring many of these qubits together to build a device that could perform calculations, and to discover how to communicate between them." In other words, check back in 2012.
Gold farmers top the 500k mark worldwide
We all knew it was a big problem, but gold farming has reached record proportions, despite the constant enforcement by game developers. In a recent study by the UK's Manchester University, nearly 500,000 people in developing countries now earn their living by farming for virtual gold, with 80% of this industry centered in China.Professor Richard Heeks, head of the development informatics group at Manchester and author of this report, says that gold farming has gone from a cottage industry to a significant economic sector in many developing nations. In fact, the industry has seeped into criminal gang territory with credit card fraud and violent crime being introduced to the mix. Yet despite this illegal activity, we get a nice summary quote from Steven Davis, the chief of game security firm Secure Play: "You could get rid of it, but you would get rid of one of the most fundamental parts of player-to-player interaction."
Sony apologizes about Manchester Cathedral ... again
Sony has apologized again, this time "unreservedly," to the people of Manchester and the Church of England for the depiction of Manchester Cathedral in Resistance: Fall of Man. In response, the cathedral has created a set of "sacred digital guidelines" and the Very Rev Rogers Govender said, "We still fear that the next buildings to be cloned for virtual desecration could be a mosque, synagogue, temple or other church." There is no word if money changed hands, but according to the Manchester Evening News Sony did admit to "using the images" of the cathedral without permission. Sony also placed an apology advertisement in the newspaper to the people of Manchester. The newspaper then shows its gratitude by calling Resistance a "bloodthirsty game." Dr. David Reeves, president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, said, "We have offended some of the congregation by using the cathedral in our science fiction game. It was never our intention to offend anyone in the making of this game, and we would like to apologize unreservedly to them for causing that offense, and to all parts of the community who we might also have offended." So, does this mean the Church of England is over wanting money, or was that just done under the table? [Via NextGen]
Church of England seeks to remove Resistance from shop shelves
The Church of England today has stated that if Sony do not remove Resistance: Fall of Man from the shelves then it will consider legal action. The Church is outraged at Insomniac's inclusion of the nave of Manchester Cathedral in the game. More specifically, that they "encourage people to have guns battles in the building." Why the C of E have chosen now, seven months after its original release and two months since it was made available in Europe, is a mystery. The worry seems to be that people will assume that shooting a gun within the cathedral is "acceptable" and try to emulate it in real life. Or that it will act as a catalyst to increase the already present gun-crime problem in the city. The Church of England seems to have the idea that Resistance "shows a virtual shoot-out in the cathedral's nave in which hundreds of soldiers are killed". This is only true if you consider crawling Chimera beasties as "soldiers." The cathedral section is a very small fraction of the entire game, lasting only 20 minutes, if that. It contains only alien enemies, as the rest of the game does, and includes no cutscenes or story elements which show a single human death.Sony have yet to officially respond to the Church but a spokesman told the Times newspaper that "It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all." He also states that permission was sought when necessary, throughout the entire development process. Funny that they mention Doctor Who, considering the recent episode which ended with a man transforming into a monster and chasing his victims through Southwark Cathedral before being killed. We wonder if we'll see a battle to get those DVDs removed from shelves, once they're released.[Thanks to everyone who told us about this]
Armed cops burst into home to neutralize... Lara Croft mannequin?
Considering just how chaotic a police scanner can become when the crime lords decide to hit the streets, we can't fault the boys in blue for showing up at the wrong address or completely missing a shoplifter with a projector in his shorts, but this one's just absurd. Apparently, a Manchester man had his home invaded by squads of armed police after a pistol-wielding Lara Croft mannequin served as cause for concern. The officials mistook the ominous silhouette for an actual gunman, and took it upon themselves to rush in and attempt to save the day. Interestingly, the homeowner was actually arrested for "suspected firearms offense," but he's currently speaking to lawyers about "a possible claim for wrongful arrest." Man, publicly humiliating yourself and begging for a lawsuit -- now that's a full day's work.[Thanks, Dan G.]
UK seniors are crazy on the DS
Today's edition of the Manchester Evening News is quite the read for DS lovers, as a rather large story focuses on Nintendo's handheld and how seniors in one community are utilizing them. Playing titles such as Pac-Man and the requisite Brain Training, older folk in this community are doing away with the normal nights spent at the Bingo Hall for that of the ultra-bright dual screens. The manager of the community home, Gil Menguy, says the handhelds have become so popular that they're already looking to add more titles, such as "murder mysteries, fighting games, and football games." We're pretty sure we can think of at least one that falls into that category.[Thanks, Joby!]
200 miles later, ambulance crew learns to be skeptical of GPS
As much as we like playing with GPS devices and using them on the road, there's no substitute for good ol' fashioned maps (not to mention, um, common sense) for navigating unfamiliar territory. An ambulance crew attempting to transfer a patient from a hospital from London (King George Hospital) to another in Brentwood -- a mere 12 miles (19.3 kilometers) to the northeast -- ended up blindly following their nav unit, which somehow guided them 200 miles to the northwest, all the way to the outskirts of Manchester. Eight hours after setting out on their journey, the ambulance finally made it to the appropriate destination (Mascalls Park Hospital) -- luckily for them, according to United Press International, the "patient's health was not jeopardized" and "the drivers have been told to study their geography and learn to think for themselves." What a novel concept.[Via UPI, thanks Dan]
Manchester man uses DAP to siphon cash from ATMs
While sniffing out ATM info has been used by tricksters criminals for years, a Manchester-based bloke was trafficking private bank information from various cards to illegally purchase goods -- with the help of DAPs, no less. Although your evil twin could manage to reprogram an ATM to disperse 300 percent more cash than it really should, this fellow secretly attached an (unsurprisingly anonymous) "MP3 player" to the backs of free-standing cash machines in "local bars, bingo halls, and bowling alleys." The device recorded the tones from transactions, which were then decoded and "turned into information used to clone new credit cards." The fellow learned his savvy computing skills from "a friend in Cambridge," and was oddly not caught jacking cash or throwing down on a new HDTV; rather, police caught on to his scheming when they located a counterfeit bank card in his vehicle during a routine traffic stop, which led them back to his presumably disclosing home. While we applaud the ingenuity, the motives are certainly below traditional moral standards, but this certainly isn't the first (nor the last) criminal offense involving DAPs.
