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Interview: EJ Moreland, lead designer of APB
APB was probably one of the most impressive games we didn't actually see played at E3 -- while Realtime Worlds didn't have any actual gameplay to show off, they did have a nice demo session (in a booth guarded by these two tattooed ladies -- don't worry, EJ's wife, we asked him to pose for this one) where they talked about how their persistent MMO shooter will combine emergent cops-and-robbers gameplay with an extremely impressive level of customization.After the demo session, lead designer EJ Moreland sat down with us, and cleared up most of the wanted bounties we still had on the game: what's advancement like? How is the game using Last.fm? And just how will they balance out the ad-hoc gameplay of criminals committing crimes and enforcers catching them with the usual MMO process of character advancement? Read on for more.%Gallery-65497%
New Lord of the Rings Online screens show Book 8's fiery crafting halls
Massively has been keeping an eye on what Turbine will deliver with Lord of the Rings Online Volume II Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm; in fact, we were given a dev tour of the Book 8 content and showed you some of the quest revamps and new instances. Beyond that we've taken a look at the Scourge of Khazad-Dûm teaser trailer and highlighted some of the crafting enhancements that are coming with Volume II Book 8. Now Turbine's given us a look at some more Book 8 content, with six new screenshots released today that show off the fiery crafting halls. Click on through our LotRO Volume 2: Book 8 gallery for a peek at what you can expect in the June release of Scourge of Khazad-Dûm.%Gallery-64288%%Gallery-64417%
A photo frame for your pocket and desk
DreamStream [App Store] is a new piece of software for the iPhone and iPod touch that gives you a personalized wireless portable picture frame. It can access photos you have on your phone, or with internet connectivity provide you with links to MobileMe galleries, Facebook, Flickr tags and RSS image feeds. I tried attaching to my MobileMe account and Flickr images and it worked just fine.You also get widgets that display the time, weather in cities you select and the date. Happily, the app runs in either portrait or landscape mode.I thought the documentation was a bit thin, and adding images from your camera roll on the iPhone is a bit time consuming as there is no way to select multiple photos -- you have to add them one at a time.I'd love to see a method to add scrolling news feeds from selected sources, and perhaps an option to add music from your on-board collection. Remember that iPod touch users will only have Wi-Fi as an option for connectivity.As it is, DreamStream is a nice, well performing app, and certainly worth the $1.99US asking price. I like the ability to see the photo streams from friends around the country, and now when my iPhone is idling and charging on my desk it has something to do.Here are some screen shots of Dreamstream in action: %Gallery-63886%
Well-loved gaming consoles exposed in shocking x-ray portfolio
Gamers will no doubt be interested to see that their favorite consoles -- the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, and Sony's Playstation 3 (just to name a few) -- are just as beautiful to behold on the inside as they are on the outside. A courageous enthusiast named Reintiji's uploaded a whole set of x-rays to Flickr, and we have to say they turned out pretty artistic. There's one more image (of the Xbox 360) after the break -- but be sure to hit the read link for the entire, captivating set. [Via Technabob]
Now even wider -- Pano 3 for iPhone
Pano, a fun iPhone app for taking panoramic photos, has been around since last fall and the developers at Debacle Software have been hard at work improving the app ever since. While the first iteration stitched together a maximum of 4 photos, the 2.0 version of the app upped the limit to 6 photos.Now Pano 3 (click opens iTunes) rewrites the rules for taking panoramas with your iPhone. The new version can automatically meld up to 16 photos, providing 360 degree panoramas. The team at Debacle added a way to resume interrupted panoramas, so if Mom called right as you were taking the fifth shot in your series of sixteen, you can pop back into Pano 3 and start right back up. While the capabilities of Pano have increased, the price remains the same low $2.99US. I use this app a lot, and it's just about the most fun that you can buy for $3. If you have an iPhone and love to take photos, Pano's deserving of a place on your home screen.After you've shot a few panoramas with Pano 3, take part in Debacle's I Love Pano Pano Panorama Contest. A group of TUAW bloggers are judges, and there are some great prizes.
MSI X-Slim X340 photographed, benchmarked in mysterious hotel room
We've seen plenty of photos of MSI's X-Slim X340 floating around as of late -- but these ones -- which were taken in a Las Vegas hotel room at CTIA, are pretty interesting, artistically speaking. More interesting, however, is the fact that the lucky chap from Laptop Magazine also did a little preliminary benchmarking of the laptop as well. He found the display to be quite satisfactory for viewing videos from any angle, though the speakers (housed on the bottom of the system) produced disappointingly weak sound, and that performance-wise, the CULV CPU is speedy enough to run Windows Vista without any hitches. Applications also loaded quickly, and things like multiple browser tabs didn't strain the system either. They're planning on running the full battery of benchmarks at a later date, but hit up the read link for further impressions. Also, there's one more snap after the break.[Via Slashgear]
Dallas News goes inside the belly of the GameStop repair beast
If you've ever wondered how GameStop is capable of breathing new life into your battered and bruised console trade-ins, you might want to check out a recent pictorial submitted by Dallas News staff photographer Louis DeLuca. If your mental image of the GameStop console repair ward involved kind, bespectacled seniors (and possibly jolly, miniscule elven craftsmen), you may find the snapshots a tad jarring. There seems to be very little Keebler-esque magic going on within that warehouse -- though it certainly looks like they've figured out the science behind the mass resurrection of corpsified consoles.
LG Xenon appears in semi-unflattering photoshoot
LG's Xenon has just shown up over at Smartphone Nation in an impromptu photoshoot, and it's not looking too bad. There's nothing out of the ordinary here -- slideout QWERTY keyboard, resistive touchscreen, 2 megapixel camera -- you get the idea, right? Seems to be expected on or around the month of April on AT&T, and we hear it will come in three colors -- red, black and something else -- and that it'll run somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 after a mail in rebate. Of course, none of that's official yet, so we'll just have to wait and see, won't we? One more shot after the break, hit the read link for the whole set.[Via Boy Genius Report]
Radar.net wants to be your iPhone's photo sharer
We're at a new juncture in the course of iPhone development, I believe. Twitter has basically monopolized the "text exporting" function of your iPhone -- if you want to broadcast text from a mobile device, most of us do it through Twitter. But now, we're seeing a whole host of sites and services aiming to be the distributors for your richer media: photos, audio, even video (as well as the iPhone can handle it, anyway). Radar is one such service, and they'd really like to handle any photos you want to send out into the world. But unlike a site such as Twitpic, they're not content with being just the repository. They want to host, share, and deliver. Whenever you want to mess around with pictures on your iPhone, whether that be taking them and sharing them, browsing your friends' pictures from Flickr, or looking at funny shots from CollegeHumor, Radar wants to be there.They gave TUAW an early look at their new software, just released to the App Store, and we were duly impressed -- they've got hooks into a surprising number of places, and it's clear they've worked hard to make themselves fit somewhere into your photosharing flow. But is it worth it to have yet another site acting as a go-between for you and your photo content? Read on to find out.%Gallery-47505%
QWERTY iDEN Motorola i465 official press shot leaked
Well, what do we have here? Yep, that's the Motorola i465, the first iDEN phone with a full QWERTY keyboard in the entire universe in a seemingly official press shot. Mobile Review's somehow gotten ahold of this slick piece of photography, which shows the dumbphone off in a much better light than we've previously seen. We still don't know much else about the specs, or when this Sprint-Nextel bound puppy will show up. [Via Unwired View]
Blizzard finishes courtyard statue
That statue of an Orc on a Wolf (the same one that every Blizzard employee got a copy of when they moved into their new HQ a little while back) is now completed and standing outside of their main building in Irvine, California. The OC (don't call it that) Register took a trip over and got some pictures of it, and you can see the whole amazing thing in their photo slideshow.Cool office decoration or the coolest office decoration? The statue was sculpted by the Weta Workshop in Australia, and shipped all the way into Irvine. No easy task, considering it's bronzed and 12 feet tall. Though from the pictures, it looks like it was installed in two separate pieces -- the wolf mount first, and then the Orc on top. And it also looks like Blizzard had a short unveiling ceremony, but it seems like it may have been just for employees from inside the building.Bet that statue is more awesome than whatever's outside whatever building you're in right now. It's more awesome than what's outside mine, and I'm in Chicago.
Acer Aspire One D150 unboxed, looking cool
The Acer Aspire One D150 (which just hit our very own FCC) has hit the streets in several places, so the unboxing photos were just a matter of time. There's nothing totally groundbreaking here -- but the 10.1-incher (unboxed in white) is looking fairly solid. This model, the D150-0B, boasts a 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a 1024 x 600 display, and a 3-cell battery. Future iterations including the D150-1B and the D150-2B will include 6-cell battery and Intel Atom 1.66GHz N280 processor options. Check out a few more photos here after the break, and hit the read link for the full, lovely set.
Air Photo prints photos directly from iPhone or iPod touch
Our good friends at Download Squad found a great app on the App Store called Air Photo that will let you wirelessly print pictures directly from your iPhone or iPod touch. Just install the app (for $1.99, cheap if you print your iPhone's photos often) on your mobile device, put the server on your Mac (or PC, if you swing that way), and then you can snap and print at will. Connecting to the server from your device opens up a Bonjour window, where you can crop or adjust the picture and then print whatever you like. While the technology itself won't be that helpful for everyone (who really prints pictures any more, especially iPhone pictures?), it is interesting to see this done so easily and well with a wireless connection. Sure, there's apps like Remote and the Keynote controllers, but it seems like the iPhone-as-wireless-accessory idea is still relatively untapped on the App Store.
Macworld 2009 sights and exhibitors
As you may have guessed, Macworld is a rather large event with lots to see and do. With so much under one roof (well, two roofs actually -- if you count the North and South halls) it's sometimes difficult for us to show you everything in great detail.Sometimes we need to resort to more of an overview of things so you can get an idea of the sights, sounds and perhaps even smells that comprise an event like Macworld. Fortunately, that's one of the reasons the photo gallery was invented. So far, we've had galleries featuring a brief bit of the North Hall, an event with our partner Stylit.tv, day one photos and a whole bunch of others. This time around, its more of the main show floor featuring many of the bigger vendors that make up this year's Macworld.Check them out!%Gallery-41153%
Macworld 2009 -- The TUAW and Stylit.tv giveaway
Here at TUAW we try very hard, but we can't do everything ourselves. Sometimes, we need a bit of help from our friends. This time around, we teamed up with Stylit.tv to have a giveaway event at Macworld. But, in true TUAW fashion, it wasn't just any giveaway -- it was a big one.Thanks to the generous participation by many great Macworld Expo exhibitors like Dr. Bott, G-Tech and Blue Microphones, TUAW and Stylit.tv were able to give away over two thousand dollars in prizes to two lucky winners. And of course, we have pictures. There's also going to be video as well so check back for that.Until then, thanks to those of you who made it out for the giveaway. We do appreciate it. If you didn't win this time, don't worry, there's plenty more of these events to come -- so keep checking back at TUAW for all the details.%Gallery-40955%
Macworld Expo booth photos, part two
For your overnight viewing pleasure: More images from the show floor at Macworld Expo.%Gallery-40771%
Animal Crossing: City Photo Contest
One of the more fun, and less discussed, new gameplay additions in Animal Crossing: City Folk is the ability to take snapshots and save them to an SD card for sharing. Nintendo and their Digicam Print Channel partner, Fujifilm, are taking advantage of the new functionality with a new contest for Japan designed to encourage online photo sharing.Until January 28, photos uploaded to the special Animal Crossing section of Fuji's photo sharing site, Fotonoma, will be eligible for entry in a contest. Winners in each of two themes (favorite photos and shots showing off fashion) will receive prizes, including a new Fuji digital camera, a Wiimote and Nunchuk, or Animal Crossing postcards. It sounds like a fun and novel way to interact with other Animal Crossing fans while possibly winning stuff!%Gallery-27704%[Via Inside-Games]
Social networking getting bigger on mobile phones
This is a big duh to anyone (like me) who's switched to a smartphone within the last year or so, but according to "new research" (I've never heard of them either), social networking applications and websites are blowing up on mobile phones, including none other than the iPhone. Things are going both ways -- social networks are reaching out to mobile users with mobile versions of their sites and device-specific applications, and mobile phones are reaching back by allowing quick and easy ways to take pictures or upload text or video. That dude on his phone in the bar next to you is just as likely to be texting his entire network as he is texting that friend he's waiting for. The end of The Guardian's article about this notes that search is up on mobile phones, too. Throw one more tick on the list of ways the iPhone has influenced how, when, and where we're using the Internet on our phones. [via textually]
First Look: OldBooth
Remember going to the circus as a child and putting your face inside one of those painted façades? Well, you can do the exact same thing on your iPhone, except it's slightly more fun. OldBooth [iTunes link] lets you snap a picture and morph it with some predefined templates for both male and female bodies. All of the templates range from mid-20s to 80s fashions -- and they are quite hilarious when you see your face in them. You can import a picture from either the iPhone's camera, or from the photo library on the device. Once you import the picture, you are able to shrink the image by pinching, rotate and increase the brightness to match the template image. When you are done, the morphed image will be saved in your photo library.If you are looking for a cool iPhone application that can provide hours of fun (and laughs), then look no further than OldBooth. You can download it from the iTunes App Store for 30% through Christmas (regular $4.99). By the way, can you guess who is in the picture to the right? Give us your best guess in the comments. We'll update the post tomorrow with the correct answer. %Gallery-39411%
The sun-stamped Apple doesn't fall far from the iTree
Some forms of Apple fandom are quick and simple -- the button, the tote bag, the temporary tattoo (not to be confused with the more permanent variety). Some forms, however, require commitment and patience. I don't speak the predominant language over at useloos.com, but I can guess that the translated caption for this photo gallery might be "How do you like them apples?"Update: Per Cult of Mac, It looks like the source for the tattooed apples is this Japanese site -- translations welcome.Yes, one very patient apple tree owner applied icon stencils for the Apple & iPod logos to a treeful of apples, and then let the sunshine do the work. The results can be seen to the right and at the gallery -- a bushelful of neatly logofied fruit, ripe for the munching. Talk about living your brand.Thanks Tim!
