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World of Tanks sets world record for most players concurrently online on a single server
Wargaming has made its mark in gaming history. World of Tanks has staked out a place as the Guinness World Record holder for most players logged onto an MMO server, with 190,541 players simultaneously logged in on one of the game's Russian servers. This blasts the game's previous record of 91,311 players to smithereens. Andrei Yarantsau, VP of Global Operations at Wargaming, calls this "an important and exciting milestone for the company," adding that, "if World of Tanks keeps growing at the rate it is, the game will soon top the current total and secure another world record." [Source: Wargaming press release]
Ion reveals digital conversion turntables for iOS, PC and Mac, we go hands-on (update: video)
Vinyl may be the format of choice for discerning audio connoisseurs, but those harboring love for both digital and analog options may have their interest piqued by Ion's latest lineup of turntables. The iLP Lightning takes a traditional turntable, replete with RCA outputs, and adds a 30-pin dock connector that's compatible with Cupertino's Lightning to 30-pin adapter. Leveraging a free app, the table converts a record's audio to MP3 files, separates it into tracks and saves it to docked iOS devices. If you'd rather not have songs sent to your iDevice of choice, the rig also includes a USB cable for routing tunes to a Mac or PC with a gratis desktop app. Ion is also serving up the Pure LP, which removes the 30-pin dock from the equation. As for availability, the iOS-compatible tables are expected this summer for $99.99 in white, red, blue, black and a woodgrain finish. Analog diehards can have some fun too with the Live LP table, which packs stereo speakers, standard RCA outputs, a natural wood finish and nothing in the way of digital conversion. Click on to the break for photos and the full press release. Update: We've just given Ion's record player a test drive, and we've posted the footage after the break. Initially, we had some concern about how anything larger than an iPad Mini might dock to the hardware, but it handled one of Apple's miniature tablets well enough. Audio quality from the turntable -- at least from what this editor could hear over the din of other journalists -- passed the ear test. Though we weren't able to try out the desktop experience for converting audio from vinyl records to MP3 files, the conversion experience on the iPad itself was a breeze. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
KCRW launches MALCOLM music service to help indie bands in need
Being a DJ at radio station can be an embarrassment of riches. And really, who's going to listen to you complain about having too much music to listen to? Santa Monica's terrifically wonderful public radio station KCRW is looking to take a little bit of the pain of finding new music for its DJs, with the launch of MALCOLM, a site that lets artists submit their music for consideration -- a nice attempt at continued outreach in a medium so dominated by charts and major label interference. Bands can create profiles with images, bios and social media links, alongside up to three tracks. MALCOLM serves as a bit of a social network for the station's DJs, letting them share tracks and interact with profiles, alerting artists via email when someone has commented on or rated their listing. More information on the service, which borrows its name from KCRW's old internal record filing system, can be found in the press release after the break. Interested bands can submit songs in the source link below.
Mischo Erban breaks skateboard speed record, captures the run with camera-equipped Recon
We know Quebec well for its maple syrup, poutine and fresh mountain air, but the French Canadian province also has a more sprightly side, renewing our neighbor to the north's status in the athletic arena from time to time as well. This month, it's BC native Mischo Erban, who broke a Guinness World Record for the "fastest skateboard speed from a standing position" with a 129.94 km/h (80.74 mph) downhill run. Better yet, Erban caught the record-breaking journey with his custom-built Recon heads-up display / camera combo mounted inside a rather beastly jet-black helmet. The Android-powered HUD theoretically enabled Erban to know he broke the record before he even came to a stop, while also motivating him to keep pushing as he approached that 130 kilometers-per-hour top speed. There's no way to replicate the feeling of flying down a hill aboard a skateboard at 80 miles-per-hour without hopping on some wheels of your own, but you can get a taste of the action in the new record holder's POV video after the break.
Browse John Peel's legendary record collection, travel back in time
The Peel Sessions -- those are three blissful words to any music enthusiast. John Peel's BBC radio show was the stuff of legends. It launched entire careers and created a legacy of eclectic and intimate musical snapshots by our favorite artists. Can you imagine exploring his record collection? Well, now you can. The Space has created a wonderful site that lets you browse the late DJ's record archive one virtual shelf and album cover at a time -- complete with links to iTunes and Spotify. It looks and feels like the real thing, and provides a fantastic journey back in time. Only the letter A's been cataloged so far -- additional letters will be added (one each week) over the coming months. This is your chance to discover music curated by a man with impeccable musical taste over a period of four decades. Just follow the source links below.
Ancestry.com offers 'most comprehensive' Titanic records, not in 3D
You could mark the 100th anniversary of Titanic by going to see a 3D version of a 15-year-old film. Or, if you're so inclined, you can do some more serious research on the matter, checking out what Ancestry.com claims is "the most comprehensive online collection of records relating to the passengers and crew aboard the legendary luxury liner." The genealogical site is opening up records relating to the famous ship for free searching from now until April 15th. Thousands of records on the subject are available, including passenger and crew lists, deaths and headstones. It's all a bit morbid, but it certainly beats sitting through the James Cameron movie again. More information is available in the press release after the break.
RIFT players set record for most in-game weddings in one day
It wasn't but yesterday that we ran our feature on the gaming achievements of the Guinness Book of World Records: Gamer's Edition 2012, but between then and now, a new MMO-related record has been set. As many of you know, RIFT recently added marriage to its plethora of features, allowing players to make the ultimate commitment in Telara. Well, the ultimate commitment besides joining a raiding guild, at any rate. A press release today announced that RIFT players banded together with the goal of setting the record for the most in-game marriages in a 24-hour span. We're not certain what the previous record was if there was one at all, but RIFT players managed to set the bar with a staggering 21,879 marriages performed between noon on February 14th and noon on February 15th. RIFT executive producer and Trion Worlds CCO Scott Hartsman is pleased with the outcome, stating in the press release that "Ascended Weddings were a great way to lift the veil on RIFT's new 'Gatherings' feature, social experiences that bring players together in new and interesting ways." He goes on to add that "[the studio] looks forward to expanding this great new gameplay element in the always-evolving world of Telara." So congratulations to all of the lucky couples. Enjoy your new ball-and-chain! [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
Achievement Unlocked: A look at the Guinness world records of online gaming
We're just over a month into the new year, and already we've got plenty to look forward to: The Secret World is expected to hit in April, TERA will follow shortly in May, and Guild Wars 2 will be out... sometime this year (we hope). But before we all start looking toward the future, let's take a moment to look back at some of the gaming achievements of the past. Thanks to the handy-dandy Guinness Book of World Records 2012: Gamer's Edition, we've got a quick compendium of MMO-related records from the past year and then some, so if you're at all interested in the shortest-lived MMO to date or the longest time anyone's spent playing MMOs from inside a crate, join us as we take a stroll down memory lane to take a look at some notably (in)famous MMO achievements.
Star Wars: The Old Republic gets into the record books
It remains to be seen if Star Wars: The Old Republic will set a number of records in its lifetime, but it's already made its way into the Guinness Book of World Records for 2012. At over 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue, the game has scored a record for having the largest amount of voice acting not only for a video game but for any entertainment project. The record appears in the Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition, on the stands now in the US and on sale in the UK on the 19th. Of course, considering the amount of press the game has received for its voice cast, we suspect this won't come as a huge surprise, but it's interesting to see. The book also includes a list of the best Star Wars games in the franchise's history, which unsurprisingly includes Knights of the Old Republic, perhaps a harbinger of SWTOR's future.
2011 boasts record holiday season for online shopping, especially from mobile devices
2011 has only just ended, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even when we look back on it in another 12 months from now, we'll find a pretty revolutionary year in terms of the quality and quantity of our shopping. For example, UI expert and project leader Luke Wroblewski has compiled a list of facts about shopping during the holiday season last year, and the list provides a lot of solid insight on just how different 2011 was. Online buying was up both on Christmas Day and during the holiday season as a whole, and a large percentage of that buying was done with mobile devices. Over 90 percent of mobile device shopping was done with iPads and iPhones, making 2011 a really landmark year in how we use these devices to make purchases and spend money. Spending on these devices wasn't always for material goods, either. App downloads were up by 125 percent on Christmas Day last year, which makes it a record day not only for 2011, but for the history of both the iOS and Android marketplaces. The week ending December 18 and the last shopping weekend before Christmas were both record periods for spending overall. In other words, this past holiday season was kind of a landmark in more than a few different ways. We'll have to see how the industry reacts to this next year; there will likely be an even bigger emphasis on spending and shopping from mobile devices in the future.
Scientists scan damaged audio discs, resurrect fresh beats
Digitizing your analog archives? Vinyl to CD / MP3 / iPod turntables might do well enough for your old 45s, but the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory prefer to listen to their old beats by taking pictures of them. More specifically, restoration specialists are using a system called IRENE/3D to snap high resolution images of damaged media. The cracked discs -- often made of wax on brass or composition board -- are then repaired digitally, letting researchers play the digitized discs with an emulated stylus. So far, the team has recovered a handful of 125 year old recordings from a team in Alexander Graham Bell's Volta laboratory. The all digital system gives researchers a hands-off way to recover audio from relic recordings without running the risk of damaging them in the process -- and no, they probably won't let you use it to listen to that beat up copy of the White Album you've had in your closet since eighth grade. Hit the source link to hear what they've recovered.
Feats Per Minute record playing bike helps you kickstand out the jams (video)
If you're like us, you spend most of your waking hours attempting to figure out a way to enjoy your vinyl collection on the go. Feats Per Minute offers a simple and handy solution, incorporating a turntable onto the rear wheel of a bicycle -- you spin the record player as you ride, and the sound plays out of an old timey horn on the back. There were a few obstacles to overcome: like getting the record to play vertically and making sure the needle skips as little as possible while riding the thing. As evidenced in the video below, the team managed to overcome these problems. However, you have to maintain a constant pace if you want the record to play right, of course -- and as for the record itself, we recommend staying away from, say, that mint condition copy of The Velvet Underground's first LP. It may not travel well.
iPads used for diagnosis and treatment in Texas hospital
You can add another hospital group to the list of those already using iPads in a medical setting. Texas Health Resources will be using Apple's magical and revolutionary tablet to help test patients' recovery, check the status of inpatients, and share and view medical records around the hospital. There's a whole strategy called mHealth built around mobile devices like the iPad in the company, and a recent survey of employees suggested that 40 percent of the doctors in facilities are already using iPads or another tablet. Texas Health is also running their own apps -- they have six up and running at the moment, with even more being tested and worked on. One reason the iPad is so helpful for them, they say, is that they allow doctors and nurses to stay mobile rather than sitting on a computer at a desk, which means more hands-on time with patients. Of course, that also means more IT workers to keep the mobile devices updated and running well, but apparently Texas Health is all over that one. It's good to see Apple's tablet being put to good use in health care facilities where it can really make a difference.
Researchers create 26 terabit-per-second connections with just a single laser
Remember that pair of 100 terabit-per-second connections we told you about earlier this moth? Impressive? Sure, but not entirely practical thanks to the massive banks of lasers (370 to be exact) that guzzled several kilowatts of electricity. Researchers at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany haven't hit 100Tbps yet, but they were able push 26Tbps using just one, lonely laser. The new single-laser fiber-optic speed record was set using a technique called fast Fourier transform that pulses light at an incredibly high rate with data encoded in 325 distinct colors across the spectrum. A detector at the receiving end is able to distinguish between the various colored data streams, based on tiny differences in arrival time, and recombine them into a high-speed torrent of ones and zeros. The scientists behind the project believe that, eventually, the technology could make its way into commercial use and be integrated into silicon chips. Now, someone needs to hurry up and jack our FiOS connection into this thing -- all this talk of terabits-per-second and graphene modulators, yet we're still jealous of grandma Löthberg.
Eurocopter X3 hybrid sets new speed record of 430km/h, readies for next search and rescue mission
See that chopper right there? That's the Eurocopter X3, and as of last week, it can cruise at more than half the speed of a commercial jet. Although the helicopter was striving to hit 220 knots, it actually blew past that milestone to maintain 232 knots (450 km or 279.6 miles per hour) in level, stabilized flight -- a new record for this aircraft. For the uninitiated, the X3 earns its "hybrid" moniker by combining two turboshaft engines that power five-blade main rotor system and two propellers installed on short-span fixed wings -- which, in layman's terms, allows it to hover like a helicopter should while reaching the kind of speeds you'd expect from a turboprop-powered aircraft. (And before you get too excited, yes, this one requires pilots.) While we love the idea of a high-speed joy ride for tourists, this thing will be used for long-distance search and rescue missions, along with border patrol, coast guard duties, offshore operations, passenger and troop transport, and medical evacuation. So no ride for you, but you can get your vicarious thrill anyway with a short, percussion-heavy video after the break.
Researchers create two 100 terabit per second optical connections, dare us to torrent something
Even a woman with a 40 Gbps internet connection might feel a twinge of jealousy at this news -- Japan has successfully tested two separate 100 terabit per second data links that use a single optical fiber to carry their loads. New Scientist reports that NEC scholars stuffed the light from 370 lasers into 165 kilometers of fiber to achieve a speed of 101.7 Tbps, while NICT researchers set a new record of 109 Tbps using a special fiber with seven cores to manage the trick. We imagine that Alcatel-Lucent and NTT aren't sitting still. Not that we really care who has the fastest fiber... just so long as one end leads to our house.
iPhone turntable concept brings dropped calls to your record collection
Any audiophile worth their weight in 180 gram vinyl will gladly tell you that nothing sounds quite as good as a record. Unfortunately, the format has a few major drawbacks, like a lack of portability and the fact that it really sucks at making phone calls. The iPhone, on the other hand, is light years ahead of those fronts -- well, one of out two ain't bad. This new concept from designer Olivier Meynard offers the best of both worlds, embedding a horizontal iPhone dock next to a wheel of steel, so you can play back your favorite LP through the built-in speakers and encode those tracks as MP3s, which are uploaded to your handset as it charges. Finally, a way to turn your long out of print prog rock albums into ringtones, as they were meant to be heard.
Nintendo says 3DS sets day-one handheld sales record, doesn't quantify it
How many Nintendo 3DS handhelds got sold stateside after Triforce Johnson got one? Enough for Nintendo to boast: "U.S. day-one sales numbers for Nintendo 3DS were the highest of any Nintendo hand-held system in our history," the company claimed today, adding that the volume of tech support calls it received was also "well below the rate experienced during past hardware launches," and that there are no widespread issues with the handheld. That may sound a bit premature, considering Nintendo won't provide actual sales figures until April 14th, but we're willing to consider the possibility that the Virtual Boy's legacy is done: perhaps this time, the only major headaches Nintendo's handheld will create are for the likes of Sony and Microsoft.
Jon Bon Jovi accuses Steve Jobs of putting a shot through the heart of music
Steve Jobs, according to musical legend Jon Bon Jovi, is "personally responsible for killing the music business." This strident (and economically false) accusation comes from an interview he conducted with Britain's Sunday Times, where he candidly sets out his dismay at this century's move away from music distribution on physical media and toward ubiquitous download portals. Bon Jovi's nostalgia shines through in his detailed account of the "magical" experience of picking up records and enjoying their sweet touch and soothing analog tones -- though we're not sure how he missed out on the fact that CDs, not downloads, were the first to stab a dagger of digital convenience through the hole in his record collection. Still, Bon Jovi thinks Apple's iTunes success is to blame for the loss of our collective innocence and bright-eyed enthusiasm for music. What do you think?
Australia election campaign promises iPads in every hospital
In what I can comfortably say is a previously unimagined application, the iPad is now being used as an election promise to entice voters in Australia. ZDNet notes that the promise was made last week by Victorian Premier John Brumby as part of a proposed new state health policy, which would see iPads given to every doctor in Victoria's public hospitals, "noting their potential to impact positively on long-term hospital problems such as scheduling across the health ecosystem". Australia-based iSoft, an e-health vendor, has welcomed the policy due to their interest in targeting the iPad for use with its medical applications. Victoria has invested $360 million in an extensive overhaul of its record-keeping systems and iSoft is a key supplier of their efforts. My own dermatologist uses an iPad during exams and has said it makes record keeping much easier for his nurses and assistants. Meanwhile, I just sit there thinking it's cool to see my doctor carrying around an iPad. It's only a matter of time before tablet computing takes over for paper records in medical settings. [via MacDailyNews]
