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FedEx will use smart glasses to help pilots land in emergencies
Smoke is understandably a serious danger for aircraft, and not just in life-threatening situations -- the FAA notes that there's typically one smoke-related landing per day. But how does the pilot land with a smoke-filled cockpit where they might not even see the instrument cluster, let alone the outside world? FedEx and the Osterhout Design Group have an idea. They're showing off SAVED (Smoke Assured Vision Enhanced Display -- yes, it's a forced acronym), a hybrid smart glasses and oxygen mask system that provides data from the aircraft's HUD and external cameras to help with emergency landings. Pilots won't have to fly blind or risk passing out just to avoid a disaster.
Instagram now lets you bookmark photos and videos
For some, Instagram is a place to see what your friends and family have been up to. For others, it's an app for marvelling at beautiful food, furniture and places captured by skilled photographers. Like Pinterest, these photos can serve as inspiration for users' own dreams and personal projects. With this in mind, Instagram is adding a bookmark icon underneath each post in your feed. Tap it and the relevant photo or video will be added to a private page accessible from your profile. There are no folders or "boards," so everything is lumped together, but it's certainly simpler than keeping a text document full of random Instagram links.
Pox Nora transferred from SOE to original developers
Desert Owl Games has announced it has taken control of Pox Nora from Sony Online Entertainment, a transition that's been months in the planning. "It's unprecedented to have a big game studio return a title to the original creators. Sony Online Entertainment could have easily gone the more common route: stopped producing content and letting Pox Nora fade away. Instead, they chose to do what is best for the players! It's amazing, and we are so excited to continue to support such a great game," said Art Griffith, CEO of Desert Owl Games. Pox Nora is a free-to-play, collectible digital miniatures game that was first launched in 2006 but was officially transferred to its new owner last month. It was developed by many of the same people who make up Desert Owl Games today, including the three founding members of the new indie studio. Be sure to visit this page for more information on transferring your existing SOE account, and keep an eye on the Desert Owl Games forums for the latest updates. [Source: SOE press release]
EverQuest Mac saved by the fans
EverQuest Mac, or EQMac, is a fascinating version of the very popular (and classic, at this point) MMO EverQuest. The title is basically an unsupported version of EverQuest, still running on Sony's servers, but a version that does not include most of the current PC game's expansions and new features. In that way, fans see it as a time capsule of EverQuest's history, a way to go back in time on the constantly evolving MMO, and not only play the game on the Mac, but also see what it was like way back when. EverQuest announced plans a little while ago to go free-to-play, and with those plans, the company also decided that it would finally shut down EQMac, closing the book on that chapter of the game's history. Fan outcry, as you might imagine, was huge, and Sony's John Smedley has now tweeted that thanks to the outpouring of fan voices, EQMac is here to stay. Unfortunately, that's just one tweet from late last night, so there aren't any details on exactly how Sony will navigate the changeover to free to play from an EQMac point of view. But it is at least good news for Mac users still playing EverQuest and a sign that there are tons of passionate and active gamers on the Mac platform.
Emblems to be easier to loot in 3.1
Here's a nice and simple change that recently showed up in the official patch notes on the 3.1 PTR: Now, when someone loots a badge or emblem, everyone in the raid or party will automatically receive their proper emblem. This doesn't apply to people outside the raid instance though, so no twinking your lowbie second account character while they wait outside the instance, sorry. It's a minor change, but still a welcome one, since it's sometimes easy to forget to check the corpse when you're not in charge of loot and would rather be focusing on getting ready for the next pull.Speaking of nice instancing changes, this is something we've actually reported on before, but now it's officially in the patch notes and everything: Come 3.1, you will get a confirmation box when you're in danger of being saved to an instance so you know what you're getting yourself into. If you click no, you'll be teleported to the nearest graveyard. Hopefully that'll cut down on those annoying instances where one of your group members forgot he already cleared Sarth that week and got you all saved. Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.
RPers distraught to see saved letters soulbound
Here's a really interesting undocumented note from the latest patch: Angelhunter on LJ says letters (as in saved copies of mailed ingame letters) are now soulbound. And that's a huge deal, apparently, to roleplayers -- they used those little scraps of paper for everything from treasure hunts and "official" documents to invitations and tickets.Now, I'm not quite sure exactly why this change would be made -- for what possible reason would you want to keep people from trading saved copies of in-game mail? It's not like it would stop anyone's communication -- anything goldsellers could say in these sheets of paper, they could say in in-game chat just as well. And I can't think of any possible way that these saved letters could be used to do something devious like pass secret letters or communicate across factions-- there's no reason to make them soulbound by default.Of course, it may just be a bug -- that's what someone was told by a GM, so maybe Blizzard will put a fix in, and RPers can have their murder mysteries again. Unfortunately, I can't seeing it justifying a hotfix -- odds are that even if it is just a bug, RPers will be waiting quite a while until they can trade letters again.
iPod: media player, cultural icon, and rescue beacon?
Sure, we've heard the heartwarming stories of SMS savings a boy's life and TiVo preventing a man from heading to prison, but this round of "Gadgets Saving Lives" features none other than the token iPod as the center of attention. While Griffin has long since had the idea of using the iPod to power a flashlight-type device, a mushroom hunter (yes, they do exactly as the title describes) resorted to the backlit LCD in his Apple in order to lead rescuers to his location. While enjoying a presumably thrilling evening of picking 'shrooms from the wild brush in Vancouver, Washington with his mother, Pini Nou somehow found himself off the beaten path and lost under a cover of darkness (and wild grass, too). By phoning in authorities and faintly describing his surroundings, troops were able to get close enough to view the white glow emitted from his PMP, and 20 minutes later he was safe and sound, albeit "cold, tired, and aching." So, there you have it kids, the ultimate excuse to get an iPod for the holidays -- safety.[Thanks, Napo M.]
SMS to the rescue: texting saves boy's life
Granted, it's incredibly annoying to be unknowingly tracked and monitored by your superiors, but you know what they say, you really can never be too careful. In the case of a Bourne, Massachusetts boy, the cellphone his parent's presumably used to keep a short leash on him ended up saving his life; after being duped on MySpace (haven't we learned by now?) and flown to a small town in Georgia, the hopeless kid was held captive by a crazed (albeit technically illiterate) maniac. By making the mistake of leaving the clever youngster alone -- and assuming all communication required spoken words -- the child was able to warm up those texting fingers and shoot out an SMS to his folks containing his exact location and precarious environment, which eventually led to his rescue. While specialized SOS phones are making emergencies easier to evade, it's good to see texting finally get some positive PR love for a change.[Via Textually]
