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Epic Mega Sale loses two pre-order titles on day one
Yesterday, Epic launched a "mega sale," offering games at up to 75 percent off and additional $10 credits for purchases over $14.99. It looked like Epic was preparing to go head-to-head with the Steam Sale, which is scheduled to arrive at the end of June. But by the end of the day, fans noticed two titles mysteriously vanished from the Epic Store, and the price of another seemed to increase.
Apple pulls Bitdefender's privacy app Clueful
Apple has pulled an app named Clueful from the App Store, though it hasn't been completely forthcoming yet as to why the app was pulled. Clueful is an app from a company called Bitdefender that's designed to let iPhone users monitor what their other apps are doing or sharing in terms of usage. One of Bitdefender's reps does say that "most app developers use [Clueful's] information for legitimate purposes, others might not," so it's possible that the app allowed for some less-than-secure activity on the part of app developers or users. It's unclear what that is, however. It seems from the project's FAQ that Clueful did try to interact with other apps on the iPhone, and that seems like something open to exploits and issues. At any rate, the app's gone now. If you already have it installed, you can obviously keep it, but for now, there won't be any new installs from the App Store. The big question here is, of course, why the app was approved in the first place. Bitdefender didn't add any functionality to the app to get it removed, so there must have been something Apple missed. Hopefully, we'll hear more in the future about the problems behind Clueful, and we'll get a good reason why Apple suddenly changed its mind.
T-Mobile UK quietly retracts Pulse's buggy 2.1 update, Huawei says it was non-final anyway
Remember T-Mobile's money-saving, finger-friendly Pulse? You know, the Huawei Android handset that received a 2.1 update in Hungary back in May? Earlier this month (on the 6th, to be precise), said phone's British counterpart also received its share of cream-filled pastry, but perhaps one with cream gone sour. How so? T-Mobile UK didn't explain when it quietly pulled the plug shortly afterwards, but some users were reporting problems with SMS and 802.11x enterprise WiFi authentication. Pretty serious stuff, especially for the former. A few developers from MoDaCo got in touch with us as they struggled to get a reply from T-Mobile about the retraction, which got us curious. After all, a working 2.1 update would make the Pulse -- now priced at £99 ($153) on pay and go -- a pretty good buy, so we tweeted the carrier on Tuesday for an update. Coincidentally, the next day T-Mobile finally caved in and let loose on what happened: "After receiving feedback on the recent T-Mobile Pulse Android 2.1 software update we've decided to suspend it temporarily. We're working with the phone's makers on an updated version which is expected in October." Yikes. But just you wait -- read on for the juicy part.
Five tips to minimize raiding downtime
I'm a rather avid raider, putting in a solid 20 hours a week on my Warrior. One of the major things about the time spent raiding is that it can be very precious. There is only so much time that 24 other people, plus appropriate class substitutions, can be available each week. It's critical that the time spent raiding is used well.Unfortunately, using raiding time well is about as much of a challenge as is downing Illidan. In preparation for this article, I've spent the past three weeks keeping track of the down time in raids. We raid Sunday through Thursday nights, from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. We experience a downtime of about 51 minutes for each raid, which is about 20% of the time. Down time is defined as the time that my character is standing still, not attacking, not moving, and not being MDed to.Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not really sure. Tip #1: Chain pullingPersonally, I do my best at the main tank to chain pull and push the trash through as fast as possible. This works out 99% of the time, however the 1% of the time it doesn't work out can grind the raid to a halt. Case and point: The trash to Supremus isn't too bad, and is a lot of packs where the MT, OT, and Pally tank each have some mobs to tank. There are also some ranged dragons that the Warlocks tank. These pulls can go very fast, and are very predictable. Pulling slowly we can do this in about 40 minutes, while chain pulling each group, we can push through in 15.Tip #2: Fully self buffed, all the timeIt doesn't take much to buff yourself. Every class has some buff they can apply to themselves, be it food buffs, spell buffs, or shouts. The key here is that you can find a minute or two to always buff at least yourself, if not others. Although, it might not always be possible to buff others as you're going along - and that's okay with most raid leaders for trash pulls.
Addon Spotlight: Prat (and PitBull_Prat)
The basic chat interface in WoW is pretty limited. It's easy to miss what's happening in the chat window while fighting, for example, and there are many other ways in which the chat windows are not very user-friendly. Prat helps solve a lot of these usability problems, and since it's modular, you can turn its features on or off easily. New functions are being added over time, too. Here are a few of the things it can do: Enable mouse scrolling in the chat window. Abbreviate the channel names (from [Guild] to [G], or just the green color, for example) Add keybindings for various chat channels. Add a slash command (or keybinding) to whisper to your current target. Add timestamps to the frame (so that you know when someone sent a message). Color player names according to their class, and add their level beside their names. Toggle the chat buttons on or off, or move them about. Turn on chat logging. Move the chat input box (the Editbox) to a different location. Copy text from the chat frame. Shorten existing commands to your own personal alias comands. (eg: "/say "Get ready, I'm pulling now!" could be shortened to "/pull". This is like a macro, except that it is executed with your own shortened command instead of a button to click on, which is handy for things you say or do often, while out of combat.) As for that problem many of us have, where, in the thick of battle, someone will say something like, "WAIT! DON'T PULL!" or "Help me! I'm being attacked!" and you miss it because you were looking at the fight, not at the chat window: a recently developed addon, blandly named "PitBull_Prat", helps solve this problem by working in conjunction with PitBull and Prat together, by adding the text of what you and others say to a colored speech bubble right next to that player's unit frame in your interface (as you can see in the screenshot above). Since you're more likely to be looking at your friends' health bars to keep aware of how the battle is going, hopefully this will help you to see what their saying in time to help them too. Click here to download Prat and PitBull_Prat from files.wowace.com, and remember, PitBull_Prat will only work if you have both PitBull and Prat installed.
1UP pulls Neverwinter Nights 2 review
In a move reserved for only the most high-ranking of screw-ups, 1UP.com has pulled their review of Neverwinter Nights 2. Stating that the review did a "disservice to fans of the RPG genre." We have what is said to be the original review after the break.It's a very difficult decision to pull a story. An editor would normally rather suffer the wrath of an angry readership than go forth with a retraction. Not only does it show a lack of respect to the writer of the piece, but it shows a collapse in the editorial chain of command at a publication. As our metareview showed this morning, 1UP gave NWN2 a 5 out of 10, which was quite the departure from the rest of the reviews. Not that publications can't have different opinions, but seriously, when was the last time you saw a decent game get below a 7?
Pull-handle alarm clock concept
No matter how much sleek design, aromatherapy, USB power, WiFi connectivity, advanced technology or medieval torture companies manage to cram into their alarm clocks, they still remain one of the most hated devices in our electronics arsenal. Designer Duck Young Kong is hoping his hip new concept clock's pull-cord operation is charming enough to keep you from hucking it out the window. To set the alarm you simply pull the cord on the bottom of the unit until the numbers on the LCD screen reflect the time you wish to get up. The cord then slowly retracts into the clock as your awakening approaches, until it reaches the end and the alarm sounds. The alarm can be turned off by pushing (punching?) the LCD screen, so we're hoping the production models are made with durability in mind. Of course there's always the chance that like some alarms it'll kill you instead, but at least you'll have fun setting it.
