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Cable-free elevator moves you in any direction
Elevators are absolutely vital in tall buildings, but they have their limits -- they can only move so quickly, and they can't usually move sideways to fetch you from the far side of a building. Both of those problems should be solved at once if German firm ThyssenKrupp has its way. Its new Multi elevators ditch cables in favor of magnetic linear motor technology (also used in maglev trains) to move both horizontally and vertically, letting them service very wide or unusually shaped buildings. They can operate in loops and aren't limited by heights, either, so it's easy to put multiple elevator cars in one shaft. You'll ideally never wait longer than 30 seconds for a lift, and the space-saving design lets building owners offer more (or at least larger) apartments and offices.
Xbox Marketplace: RE6 features 6-player online co-op, 8-player online multi [update]
The Xbox Marketplace listing for Resident Evil 6 appears to contain some exceedingly juicy and entirely unannounced secrets about Capcom's upcoming thriller. If the listing is to be believed, Leon and Chris' latest adventure will include 2-player couch co-op, 6-player online co-op and 8-player "online multiplayer," which we're assuming will be some sort of group Mercenaries exercise.What's even more astounding is all of this information is just out there, floating around the Internet. We didn't have to collect masks or unlock a blood-filled casket or find key cards or anything. For now, we're cautiously taking everything we read with a grain of salt, even if it is the Xbox Marketplace. We've also reached out to Capcom for confirmation of these features.Update: We have received a missive from Capcom: "We'll have further clarification in the coming weeks." Tantalizing!
Beta Beat: Firefox 3 betas add support for multitouch
Do you own one of those fanciful new MacBooks? You know, the ones with the cool multitouch trackpads? Do you envy Safari users that can take advantage of multi-finger scrolling, pinching and squeezing in their web browsing? If so, you might be a perfect candidate for the new Firefox 3.1b2 beta. Since October, Mozilla has been releasing preliminary builds of Firefox that allow you to use the gestures that are common among the Safari browsers out there; however, they've added some special gestures that are unique to Firefox. Some of these 3-finger gestures include: Swipe Left/Right to move backward/forward through browsing history Swipe Up/Down to move to top/bottom of web page Pinch in/out to make the text larger or smaller Twist left/right to move between open tabs If you want to get your hands (quite literally) on the newest beta of Firefox, then head over to the Firefox 3 beta download website. There's still no word yet on when the final release of Firefox 3.1 with touch support is expected.Special thanks to Tom Dyas for sharing his early builds.[via MacRumors]
DS Daily: Multi-touch?
Touch-screens have been around for quite some time; why, we can nary remember a time when our fancy high-tech bowling alley didn't use such contraptions as input devices. Attaching one to a portable game system was certainly innovative, but not exactly ground-breaking in terms of new technologies. Multi-touch, on the other hand, is a relatively new and possibly exciting feature that might find its way quite soon to the PC consumer market. For an excellent demo of its capabilities, check out this video.Our topic today is purely hypothetical: do you think a device like the DS could have benefited from such a technology? Certainly it would have driven the cost higher, but is the touch screen too small to effectively make use of dual inputs at the same time? Can you think of any situations where you sought such magical wonders?
Lost Planet multiplayer demo coming out on turkey day
Capcom announced today that the multiplayer demo of Lost Planet will (finally) be available as a free download on Xbox Live come November 23rd. Stuff yourself with as much food as possible (although not turkey, you don't want to pass out) while this thing downloads and see what all the hubbub is about. Invite a few friends too, it supports 16 players online. We've enjoyed the time that we've spent in both the single-player and multiplayer versions of the game, and the response to the XBL demo currently available, which is single-player only, has been very favorable. If you want to know more about what you can expect, check out the videos from the multiplayer demo at the Leipzig Games Convention.Retailers will also give gamers a chance to preorder the game on November 24th, which has been dubbed "White Friday" by Capcom. Anyone who preorders the game will be given a token card containing a code for XBL that will let you download a separate version of the multiplayer demo that contains an extra map, "Dilapidation." People who pony up for the collector's edition of the game will likewise be given access to a second bonus map which won't be released until summer of 2007 as a free download. So by spending ten bucks extra, you'll get a special case, an art book *yawn* and an extra map. A whole set of extra maps might be worth the extra dough, but just one? Still not sold. With so many companies offering collector's editions of their games (Gears of War, Halo 2 & 3, Perfect Dark Zero, World of Warcraft), they really need to make it worthwhile to justify the extra cost, a flimsy tin case just isn't going to cut it anymore. Check out the Burning Crusade collector's edition to see what every publisher should be offering in these fancy packages.Capcom will also be running a 60 second theatrical trailer for the game in front of movies like Casino Royale on over 2,000 screens, which = a buttload. With Gears of War using movie theaters for their "A Match Made in Hell" event, gamers will stop wanting to game on small(ish) screens, and will take the action to their local multiplex. We hate commercials in front of our movies, but we might be able to start making an exception for well-done game trailers. They are really trying to spread the word on this one, the image for this post was taken from an insert in at least one of our Gears of War game cases.Hit us on Thanksgiving on XBL and we'll see how drowsy you are.
Samsung universal HD DVD/Blu-ray player still a possibility
Their BD-P1000 isn't even -- officially -- on shelves yet, and already Samsung is talking about their next Blu-ray player. Well, not their next Blu-ray player, their next Blu-ray and HD DVD player. Samsung announced the possibility of a dual-format player last year, but later drew back from such plans, saying licensing agreements made such a player "impossible". According to Digital World Tokyo the unit may still see daylight, "if HD DVD proves as successful as Blu-ray disc". While we didn't think the battle would be decided so early, this could be a crucial period for Toshiba and their supporters to gain traction and force compromise from members of the Blu-ray camp. With shaky early reviews, Blu-ray may not be coming from the position of strength we previously expected.
