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Things to know about Patch 2.2
As is common with any major patch day, there are a few issues. Here are a few from the forums and what I've experienced:Instance servers are crashing on many realms. From AV to Tempest Keep, players are having a hard time completing instances. Raiding is particularly hard hit.It's OK to delete the Auction Sale Pending notice from your mailbox. You will still get your cash when the new 1 hour delay is up. And, yes, everyone else seems to hate the new delay, too.Windows resolutions and UI Scaling have been tweaked. It's not your imagination and it also, according to Hortus, isn't a bug. Changing resolutions of the same aspect ratio will only give you a higher or lower image quality, but otherwise your view will not change. Windows are automatically resized to maintain aspect ratios and to reduce issues with stretching and distortion. If you aren't happy with the new size of your UI, turn on UI Scaling in the Video menu and adjust it accordingly.Hopefully the instance servers will have been fixed by the time the patch is live in Europe. Sometimes it's better not being first.I also recommend checking out the undocumented patch notes.
Researchers developing ultrathin Origami lens for mini digicams
The constant battle between companies trying to shove the most megapixels into the smallest frame at all costs just might have some serious competition on the horizon, as researchers at UC San Diego have built an ultrathin, high resolution digicam by simply "folding up the telephoto lens." The aptly-named Origami lens hopes to "yield lightweight, slim, and powerful miniature cameras for unmanned surveillance aircraft, cellphones, and infrared night vision applications," and was constructed using the same basic principles found on the Cassegrain telescope that was crafted in 1672. On a disk of calcium fluoride, the engineers "cut a series of concentric, reflective surfaces that bend and focus the light as it is bounced to a facing flat reflector," creating an area where incoming light will follow a zigzag path until it reaches the CMOS light sensor. The biggest drawback, however, is the new camera's "limited depth of focus," but the folks behind the creation are already designing variable-focus folded optical systems to hopefully cure that nagging issue. Ideally, the team would like to see their work bring high resolution, respectful imagers to cellphones, doing away with the relatively antiquated sensors on most mainstream mobiles, but even under the best conditions it's probably a few years away.
Japanese hardware sales, 18 Dec - 24 Dec: New Year's Resolution Edition
As we here at the Fanboy ready ourselves for the revelry of a new year, we must turn back and view 2006 through shiny, gold-tinted glasses. It's been a full twelve months of taking names and kicking ass (look forward to a special Review of 2006 series), but we can't help but think that we could do better.What's in store for 2007? The Wii looks to hit it's stride with games like Sonic and Secret Rings, Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3, and dare we even say it, Super Smash Bros: Brawl. As online play is finally implemented, we're going to bring over Game Night from DS Fanboy, so you can have your chance to beat the crap out of us bloggers. We'll be starting up a series of Fanboy podcasts quite soon, and we'll be bringing some new talent into the fold as well.Let's not forget, of course, the reason you guys come here in the first place: the weekly Japanese Hardware Sales posts. In case you've missed the hilarity (most of the posts came on DS Fanboy exclusively, as Wii numbers were obviously not available for most of the year) there's a run-down of every edition after the break. We're curious: which were your favorite? Let us know! We look forward to 2007, readers, and have a wonderful New Year's!And holy hell look at those DS Lite numbers.- DS Lite: 485,584 165,876 (51.88%)- Wii: 279,277 171,040 (158.02%) - PSP: 138,588 89,626 (183.05%)- PS3: 76,882 5,940 (8.37%) - PS2: 46,209 8,479 (22.47%) - Xbox 360: 17,213 45 (0.26%) - Game Boy Micro: 2,394 903 (60.56%) - GBA SP: 1,858 9 (0.48%) - Gamecube: 1,250 98 (8.51%) - DS Phat: 380 222 (140.51%) - GBA: 57 15 (35.71%) - Xbox: 11 8 (266.67%)[Source: Media Create]
University of Florida students grumble over Cingular service
While Cingular has claimed that its GSM network integration with AT&T Wireless is complete (thus more reliable), and throws out a bajillion advertisements gloating about the "independent research" proving the company's lack of dropped calls, you'd probably have a hard time convincing the Florida Gators that those statements are entirely accurate. While we know that Engadget has been banned from Cingular's forums, there's no denying the bevy of complaints from UF students regarding the atrocious service around the Gainesville campus. Things got so bad that students rallied around the issue of Cingular improving its service, finally escalating it to the Student Senate, where unfortunately it was voted down after "fierce debate." The resolution called the carrier's service on campus "unacceptable," and cited problems ranging from consistently dropping calls to receiving error messages when trying to dial out. When local Cingular representatives were asked to comment on the outcry, they reportedly blamed the students "lack of reporting problems" as the culprit, curiously omitting the entire debacle that just went down. Nevertheless, we don't expect the members of the Swamp to take this subpar play laying down, but you may want to think twice about which provider to snap up if you're headed to UF next fall.[Thanks, Anthony]
Full resolution videos possible on firmware 2.80! [m]
One of the biggest complaints about the PSP's video playback interface is how limited it is. There used to be a strict naming scheme involved, and videos were limited to 76800 pixels, only 59% of what the PSP is actually capable of (480x272 resolution). PSP-Vault has uncovered a long-unknown secret: you can play full resolution videos on the PSP, as long as they're encoded with the highly size-inefficient Motion JPEG codec, the same kind used by Chotto Shot. Sony never advertised this fact, but you can see for yourself! Download the following sample video and place it in your PSP's VIDEO folder:As you can see by this download, the Motion JPEG codec is not a very efficient one at all. One minute of video takes 29MB, which is highly restrictive for people with smaller memory sticks. It's an interesting find, and it shows that Sony's taking tiny steps towards fully unrestricted video on the PSP. If you'd like to encode your own motion JPEG videos, download 3GP Converter, and PSP-Vault's INI file. The INI file is placed in 3GP's "default_settings" folder. When you're done converting, simply place your video in PSP's VIDEO folder.
Newly resized iTS video content just a bad upsample?
It seems like not all larger iTunes Store videos are actually worth their new dimensions. Reader Paul did some investigating on the newly resized videos (i.e. - ones that were 320 x 240 before the new store, and are now 640 x 480), as a few seemed suspiciously like bad upsamples, rather than truly re-encoded masterpieces of H264 quality.Unfortunately, for this investigation Paul had to reveal he is an Anastacia fan, but that isn't important right now (just kiddin' with you Paul). Engadget has put together a good post with example screenshots (like the one above) of upsampled content that looks worse than its smaller predecessors. Some of the videos look great - like Paul's Anastacia examples, but others like Madonna's and Elton John's vids ultimately take the more jagged route.The thing I'm wondering is: who does the encoding? Apple, or the studios? This page at Apple's site for music labels interested in getting onto the store offers software called iTunes Producer to allow them to do the encoding, which makes me suspect this video upsampling issue could be the fault of the labels mistakenly assigning the video encoding and re-encoding work to some rookie intern.This is about all we know for now; Apple I'm sure is unavailable for comment, but check out Engadget's post for more screenshots and details of what's going on here.
Rumorang: Xbox 360 HDMI cable officially yanked
A newly discovered Gamestop and EB Games listing reveals an Xbox 360 HDMI cable, a rather ponderous product considering the fact that the console does not have the necessary port to accomodate such a miraculous transmissive device. Is it an expensive adapter that automagically goes from the bulky 360 AV connector to an HDMI output? Feel free to entertain such a possibility, so long as you remember that Microsoft wants nothing to do with it. After constantly pestering them for a comment, they informed us that the product was not one of theirs and that "Microsoft has not announced any additional support beyond component video for HD output. MS is watching the market closely and they will continue to evaluate any options in the face of consumer demand." Unless the face of consumer demand becomes crumpled in a furious frown regarding the lack of HDMI support, don't expect this retail listing (and they're usually so reliable!) to signify a change in Microsoft's strategy. Back in July, when handed the rumor of a new Xbox 360 equipped with an HDMI port, Microsoft promptly tossed it away and insisted that "you don't need HDMI for HD gaming." We fully expect the HDMI rumorang to return again sometime in the future -- catch it here when it does.[Via Digg, Xbox Evolved. Thanks Jayman16]See also: High-end PS3 shipping without HDMI cable
But wait! 1080p really DOES make a difference! ...If you have the connectors
Our favorite HDTV celebrity-basher Phillip Swann has a guest column up on today's TV Predictions, with a couple of responses to the recent Microsoft exec announcement that "1080i is just as good as 1080p." One of the columns points out that people are probably using component cabling for their sets, which means they'll only be getting 1080i in the first place, so they can't do a good comparison between the 720 lines versus the "540p x 2" that 1080i gives you. If they'd just move up to HDMI (or presumably DVI as well) then they could really see the difference, says the columnist. Then there's a rebuttal to that, saying that many first-generation sets (like the CRT RPTV I have) only had component connectors, so HDMI makes no difference to the quality of picture they can get.Of course, we pointed out when we covered the Microsoft story that they have a vested interest in making 720p sound as good as possible, given that they are pushing it as the "best" resolution for gaming, and viewed in the light that the PS3 is capable of outputting 1080p (on the HDMI-equipped model). I also believe that when more 1080p content and equipment -- Blu-ray and second-gen HD DVD players, for example -- take full advantage of its capabilities, 720p will look less appealing. Compare the 921,600 pixels of 720p versus the 2,073,600 of 1080p, and you'll see the benefits of the progressive scanning and the increased resolution of 1080 lines, while dropping problems with bob and weave (at least, for natively-progressive content). Then again, if someone smarter than me, like HomeTheaterMag, says it doesn't matter, then what do I know?
Pioneer releases "1080p-compatible" 720p plasmas
This is becoming a trend. Much like the just announced Hitachi plasma line, Pioneer's flat-panels will accept a 1080p/24hz signal via two HDMI inputs, but downscale it to display on a 1024x768 screen. The PDP-4270HD, PDP-5070HD and PDP-6070HD are available now and will retail for $3,500, $4,500 and $7,500, respectively. The 50- and 70-inch models have a native resolution of 1365x768. The sets feature detachable bottom-mounted speakers, ATSC and NTSC tuners, CableCard support and 3:3 pulldown for film-based material. They've also made many improvements to the construction of the screen (Crystal Emissive Layer, red and blue phosphors, color filter, etc.) to improve viewing quality.It seems not-1080p has a new wrinkle, where first we had TVs that displayed it and couldn't accept it, we are now seeing a bevy of of panels that accept it but don't display it. A few posters on AVS Forum were very impressed by the glass technology in earlier models and anticipate even better performance with 1080p inputs, but we're not convinced. Anyone out there ready to drop 3 large on a 1024x768 plasma and tell us how satisfying it is?As it stands, we will likely have to wait until Pioneer ships their (now-delayed) Blu-ray player before we get a true 1080p plasma.[Updated native resolution of 50- and 70-inch, title for clarity]
Hitachi 32HLT79 and 37HLT79 1080p LCDs...aren't
Remember those too good to be true priced to move 32- and 37-inch Hitachi 1080p LCDs we told you about? Turns out they were just that, while the image processor inside the panels is 1080p, the screens themselves are 1366x768 (720p) native. The guys at TG Daily spoke with Hitachi and confirmed this, looking at the original press release it is easy to see how the mistake was made. It doesn't mention the actual resolution of the screens anywhere, despite highlighting the aforementioned processing, refresh rate model #s and price. The Hitachi rep is quick to tell us that for typical viewing distances for that screen size 720p will be just fine which may be true for most, but we'd prefer less processing instead of more, even if it is 1080p. Worse, such terminology makes the 1080p debate just that much more confused.However if you really need a sub-$3,000 1080p TV LCD the Westinghouse 37-inch LVM-37w3 is available for much less than $2k and supports 1080p input, while the just announced LVM-47w1 47-inch model will also retail for less than $3,000. As an additional bonus, they have a very clear list of specifications on their website. We'll be watching to see if that Hitachi Ultravision 32HLT79 and 37HLT79 hit our local electronics store with big 1080p stickers on them.
Will Australia get the first look at Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard?
Tim Gaden (of Hawk Wings fame) has written an interesting article for his 'day job' column at APC Magazine about the possibility of our friends down under getting a first peek at Apple's forthcoming update to Mac OS X, 10.5 Leopard. Apparently, Apple has sent emails stating that they will be previewing the August WWDC during special seminars in Australian capitals during the month of June - nearly two months before the real WWDC takes the stage.If this is true, it would be great to hear real details of what Leopard is going to bring, as opposed to mere rumors of a re-built and Spotlight-dependent Finder, Windows virtualization and resolution independence. Here's hoping our Australian neighbors can't keep secrets very well.
On resolution independence
There is a lot of buzz and speculation floating around as to what we'll see in the Mac OS X 10.5 update that will be previewed (and I suspect released) at this August's World Wide Developer's Conference. One exciting 'fundamental feature' John Gruber hinted at last November has been mentioned again by a developer named Dustin MacDonald: resolution independence.Gruber broke this concept down in a November '05 post titled Full Metal Jacket (under the Display heading), but to summarize: most of the dimensions of elements in Mac OS X (and other OSes to my knowledge) are defined in pixels - the menu bar is 22 px high, for example. This explains why things 'seem to look a little smaller' when you move from the 1024 x 768 dimensions of a 12" display to the 1440 x 900 resolution of the latest 15" PowerBook G4 or MacBook Pro displays. Conversely, if you decrease the resolution on the machine you're working on now, things will look a bit bigger; you have smaller resolution and fewer ppi (or dpi) on screen, so some elements change size. This can become a problem in the context of notebook displays and their resolutions - if you take the 15" MacBook Pro's resolution higher than 1440 x 900, things could become smaller than what many might consider usable (these same rules apply to Windows and I believe Linux as well). Further, you can't just keep increasing notebook display sizes like you can with desktop displays; I've heard of the 19" notebooks Engadget has come across, and I personally don't consider a 16 lb computer worthy of the 'portable' adjective.
Virtua Fighter 5 only for PS3 next spring
There was a time when Virtua Fighter 5 was considered a strong candidate for an arcade port to the Xbox 360, but that multiplatform hope's been dashed with the official announcement that VF5 will appear only on PS3 in the spring of 2007. Sega's technical fighter is a Sony exclusive once more.While home-console online play remains doubtful at this point, next-gen PlayStation owners can now securely look forward to facing off as El Blaze and Eileen (the new luchador and monkey kung-fu artist, respectively) along with the other 15 fighters, decked out in all sorts of items purchased in the in-game store with prize money earned through in-game matches.VF5 will support up to 720p HD resolution and will be featured in game footage in the SEGA booth at E3 (South Hall, Booth #946) later this week.[Thanks, Matt; also via Joystiq]
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children reports from Hollywood
For the Final Fantasy fans lucky enough to be near Hollywood yesterday night -- and in line for free tickets during the middle of a regular workday -- there was much rejoicing to be had as Advent Children celebrated its U.S. theatrical premiere in style.Siliconera has a write-up on the event with quotes from most of the American voice actors in attendance, who, along with the audience at hand, watched the film in English for the very first time. Lip synching may have been off due to the low-resolution print the actors had to work with, but even Rachel Leigh Cook -- pictured here with her character Tifa Lockheart -- declared herself a new fan of Final Fantasy after the show.Helpful Joystiq Contributor epobirs also had something to report from the screening yesterday, where he gives us an Ain't-It-Cool style rundown of the event. If you want the rest of his reflections on the requirements of the Academy in Oscar nominations, as well as what it takes to "assert your hetero nature ... after watching a movie packed with metrosexual men," simply continue reading below for more. Siliconera's report can be found by clicking on the image of Ms. Cook above or the Read link below. Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children will be out on DVD/UMD April 25th.[Thanks, epobirs; image of Tifa courtesy of Eyes on Final Fantasy]
HDBeat Poll: which resolutions are high-def?
We warned you the poll was coming and here it is. This poll allows for multiple choices, meaning you can "vote" for more than option here. Right off the bat, we better see everyone vote for the 1920 x 1080 resolution because we all see eye-to-eye on that one, right? Let's forget progressive and interlaced for a second and keep this simple: which of the resolutions listed in the poll do you consider to be high-definition? The voting is open now; let's keep the fight clean, OK? No rabbit punches or discussion of frames per second; just a pure vertical by horizontal show-down. Which resolutions are high-def? Which resolutions here are "high-def"? 1024 x 768 1280 x 720 1366 x 768 1920 x 1080 Other (list in post comments) view results
