sessions
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US charges Chinese, Taiwan firms for stealing secrets from Micron
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Department of Justice has filed charges against a Taiwanese company, a Chinese PRC-backed company, and three Taiwanese nationals of economic espionage against Idaho-based semiconductor manufacturer Micron over the production of F32nm DRAM. Sessions also announced the creation of the China Initiative, led by Assistant Attorney General John Demers, to identify Chinese trade theft and allocate the necessary resources to go after these cases.
Vine now lets you edit and work on multiple posts over time
Vine may have caught on in a fairly big way, but it's been a decidedly limited app even beyond the six-second constraint on videos. It's become a bit more capable today, though, with two new features giving users more room to work with. The first of those, called Sessions, will let you save and work on up to ten posts over time before sharing them, which should please those looking to cram as much into those six seconds as possible. The other new feature, Time Travel, will let you go back and edit a post and remove, shift or replace shots as you like. The update covers both iOS and Android versions of the app, and is available for download now.
The Daily Grind: How long are most of your play sessions?
How long we play changes as times change. When you first start playing RIFT, for instance, odds are good that you'll be playing for several hours at a stretch. It's possible, however, that by the time you've reached endgame you'll be logging on briefly, seeing if anything is going on, and then logging right back off. That's not even discussing the difference between games where you can log in, do something quickly, and then log right back off (City of Heroes) versus games where you need to take the time to assemble a group before doing anything (Final Fantasy XI). Despite all of that, most of us generally has a certain amount of time we expect to spend in an MMO when we log on. So on average, once you click the button to enter the game, how long do you expect to be playing? Are you generally just clocking an hour or two a night, or is it the whole of your evening from the time you get home until the moment you go to sleep? And does it vary by game -- do you spend more time quietly mining in EVE Online than actively smashing villains in DC Universe Online? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
CCP Games to present at Game Developers Conference 2009
CCP Games, the developer of EVE Online, has announced that they'll have a presence at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) next month. The company's CMO, Ryan Scott Dancey (aka CCP RyanD), is slated to speak about how CCP uses social network engineering to reach out to more subscribers. Specifically, he'll describe how the company puts Tipping Point theory (about how information spreads) into action. That session is titled: "Network Marketing: Leveraging Social Networks to Grow an MMO".On the technology front, CCP's CTO Halldor Fannar will speak at GDC 2009 in a session geared more towards programmers and technical artists, "From Evolution to Revolution: Upgrading the Graphics Engine of EVE Online". Fannar will lay out the issues CCP has faced with upgrading EVE's graphics engine, and explain how their ideas went from being on paper to a shipping game. His presentation will show the tools in action that allowed them to "take the required generational leap in art production." Game Developers Conference 2009 runs from March 23-27 at the Moscone Center, San Francisco, and as we've mentioned previously, will have a lot to offer MMO fans of all genres.
New iTunes protocol calls unearthed
The always-awesome Evan DiBiase has decoded iTunes' "initiateSession" call, which can be found in this online file, encoded with Base-64. In it, he found quite a few interesting calls that support the announcements made by Steve Jobs on Tuesday[1], including references to a relatedItemsShelf for AppleTV, checking in and checking out the rentals, rental recommendations, a "Digital Copy Wizard". Neat stuff. If you want to look for yourself, head on over to an online base64 decoder and make sure to cut the results into pieces around the double-equal signs (==) and omit the names, e.g. for == bag PD94bWwgdmV start the decoding with PD94b... [1]Just for the sake of recognizing his sheer awesomeness, let me note that he actually called the Apple TV update before Jobs announced it...
Jammin' Guitar Pick stylus lets us shred our touch screens
We've seen a GameStop.com listing for a product called the "Jammin' Guitar Pick" for a while, but we've been patiently waiting for a picture to show up. Today, one day before the product's release, one has surfaced. It's a very simple idea: a guitar pick with a stylus stuck to it, and it comes in a pack of three for $8. Oddly, the pointier part of the pick doesn't appear to be the part where the stylus is attached.We're just thrilled that someone at Naki thought Jam Sessions was going to be big enough to call for its very own third-party accessory. Too bad the picks are coming out just as word comes out of the game's delay. We're thinking about picking up the accessory now in anticipation, and so we can pretend we're giving one of them sexy solos while we're playing Meteos.
Jam Sessions delayed until September
Ubisoft's Jam Sessions, which would officially be our personal most-anticipated game if it were a game, was originally slated for a summer release in both Europe and the US. It was going to be a beautiful summer of trying to play metal on a fake acoustic guitar. But fate (or Ubisoft; the two are interchangeable) had other plans.Cubed3 reports that Ubisoft has confirmed a delay for the European release of Plato's guitar simulator, to September 28th. We don't have an official word on the US version, but GameStop lists the release date as September 11th, which is corroborated by Ubisoft's website. How long does it take to translate guitar notes?
Apple releases more WWDC 2006 videos on iTunes
Apple must be happy with having the WWDC06 video sessions available via iTunes for ADC members, as another set of videos has just been rolled out for developers. This latest collection includes: Graphics & Media State of the Union Welcome to Xcode Taking Advantage of Leopard Features in Cocoa Mac OS X State of the Union IT State of the Union But don't get too comfy with last year's programming; lest ye been living under a rock for the last year or so, we probably don't need to remind you WWDC07 is fast approaching, and more and more signs are pointing towards a debut of both the iPhone and Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard - especially since Apple said the big cat is still on schedule.
We're hot for the Van Halen-style DS
Now this is how you play Jam Sessions. Flickr user Mr. Atrocity and his girlfriend gave their DS systems (both Phat, and we're happy to see people sporting them) custom paint jobs-- his a replica of Eddie Van Halen's guitar finish, and hers a lavender with gold details. Not only does the gallery contain pretty pictures of modded systems, but it is a great tutorial for spraypainting your own DS, which is exactly the kind of thing you should have a tutorial for, unless you want to play New Super B Button Is Stuck Down Bros. or Trauma Center: Under the Red Blob.
DS Daily: We just want to talk about Jam Sessions some more
It's been a popular topic of discussion lately-- the DS guitar simulator/toy/thing that Ubisoft is surprisingly localizing for a US audience. For some of us, weirdly enough, it was the biggest story to come out of GDC. We're still actually not sure why Ubisoft, a company generally known to play it safe and never release anything that hasn't already been released on other systems, decided to pick up something that isn't even a game. A misguided attempt to jump on the Guitar Hero bandwagon, perhaps?Whatever the reason, we heart Ubisoft for doing it. We haven't made any attempt to hide it: we are eager to try Jam Sessions. We want it to be out right now. We don't care that it isn't a game, or whatever.So what about you commenters? Are you ready to strum-- but not solo-- on a virtual guitar doodad? Have you learned to stop worrying and love the non-game?
We love non-games now: Jam Sessions preview
We know Electroplankton sort of covered the musical DS toy thing, but we are so impressed with every aspect of Jam Sessions. It sounds great, it looks fun, the interface, while a little homebrew-looking, is just ... pleasant. Look at that floral background!We now know a little more about Jam Sessions, like that it will come loaded with 20 licensed songs to play along with, complete with lyrics, and that your playing is limited to strumming rather than picking individual notes-- sorry, no solos. You can also change the sound of your guitar, adding distortion and delay effects. There's still no game attached, just songs you can play along with, or freeform strumming.This game (well, toy) just goes so far against what usually gets released in the US in so many ways. It looks totally fun and totally relaxing.Check out a couple of screens after the break.[Via GoNintendo]
From Eigo Zuke to Jam Sessions
Newsweek's N'Gai Croal, who reported the news that Ubisoft would be localizing Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 as Jam Sessions, has posted an interview with Seth Delackner of Plato, the director of the "game". The story of how Delackner got to create a guitar simulator is pretty surprising: he was hired to program a sequel to the English training game Eigo Zuke. But Nintendo decided to handle the programming themselves as they had for the first game, leaving Plato with a DS programmer, a DS development kit, and no projects. The team brainstormed new ideas, and came up with a music game.As a demo, Delackner put together a little program that allowed the user to "strum" over a line on the touchscreen to play guitar samples. Plato loved it, Nintendo loved it, and Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 was born.It's no secret that we love music games, so expect more on Jam Sessions as we hear it. We want the story on that beautiful, but random boxart.
Ubisoft is going to publish Jam Sessions
Remember that Guitar-type game on the DS? Well, we're happy to inform that Ubisoft is going to be publishing the title stateside, allowing all of us to live the dream of being a rock star whilst still getting our gaming fix. It's like a delicious sandwich that is chock full of peanut butter (that would be Jam Sessions) and fluffer nutter (and that would be the DS Lite). Wait ... what would that make the bread, then? You? We didn't really think that through and are, honestly, kind of hungry right now ...Grumbling stomach aside, the game will be releasing in June. For those unaware, the game turns the DS into a tiny guitar, where the stylus is used to pluck strings and create music. Using the d-pad and shoulder buttons, you can switch the tone of the notes you're playing, allowing for a wide variety of different tones from your virtual guitar.
WWDC sessions available to all ADC members on iTunes
Back in October, Apple dropped DVDs as their distribution system of choice for WWDC sessions and presentation slides. The company moved all this content to iTunes - but only for Select and Premiere members of the ADC (Apple Developer Connection). Today I just received an ADC email titled "Watch Mac OS X State of the Union," re-announcing the availability of this content, but seemingly for all ADC members. This time around there is no talk of access only for specific members, so it sounds like anyone with a valid ADC account of one level or another can access this library of Mac OS X development goodness. We would post the URL, but it seems as though it is only accessible by logging into one's ADC account online.[Update: According to readers, it sounds like only the general State of the Union sessions are offered, while access to "the juicy stuff" still requires a Leopard Early Starter Kit.]
Forget Me Not - Safari session saving
Forget Me Not 3.0 is a good example of the 3rd party plug-in and add-on support for Safari that is slowly but surely growing. FMN is a basic a session saver plug-in for Safari that can reload any tabs that were open the last time you quit Safari. It isn't quite as powerful as, say, Tab Mix Plus for Firefox, but it does a good job of bringing this increasingly popular feature to Apple's darling browser.Forget Me Not can be had from Jim Fowler's site.[via Daring Fireball]
Disco public beta and today-only macZOT price
Disco, the new burning app with so much buzz, has transitioned from a private beta to a public one. We've covered our fair share of Disco already, but to summarize: it has burning features that place it somewhere in between the Finder and Roxio's $99 Toast 7. One feature I didn't know about before though is Discography, a built-in search engine that lets you search through all the files you've previously burned. Users can search when the file was burned, when it was last edited, and to what disc it was burned - now that's innovation, boys and girls.However, today is the last day Disco can be had for the introductory price of $14.95. While you can purchase at this price straight from Disco's site, macZOT is running one of their zany deals where three lucky buyers will win a Lacie DL DVD Burner with LightScribe, and some sort of a bonus is included with every purchase. You'd better hurry though: as of this writing you have just under 14 hours to hop on the Disco + macZOT bandwagon, and after today, Disco's price rises to $24.95.
HDMI issues at GDC? Or simply no cable?
The PS3 dev kits on display at GDC apparently skipped the HDMI connection for some of their demos, casting doubt on how far along Sony's come with its hardware and digital standards compliance.During GDC, Sony brought along a few PS3 demo units to show off audio and video, which TG Daily spied from a distance. As you can see above, the PS3 graphics demo unit used a standard AV Multi-Out connector while the "two HDMI ports right below the AV Multi-Out port were unused." TGD apparently offered to lend Sony officials an HDMI cable of their own to connect to the system, but they were turned down.Of course, there's also a conflicting pic which Chris Grant took for us on Joystiq Central that seems to show that very HDMI connection being used, probably with another unit. (Scroll down to the second pic here to see it.) So what's the real story? Was Sony lacking enough updated HDMI 1.3 hardware and/or 1.3-compatible TVs to show off the HD goods, or were they simply short on cables? Maybe their budget was a bit tight for GDC (what with Phil's focused keynote and abundance of GDC sessions from Sony), so hopefully we'll see everything hooked up nice and tidy for E3.[Thanks, Michael, Racky, pheen, and DocEvil; via TechSpot and CD Freaks]
