Third Generation
Latest
TUAW Social Club: Chat about your new iPad and Apple TV
Happy iPad day, boys and girls! Congratulations on your new 3rd generation baby -- and possibly on your new 1080p Apple TV. If your gadget household just grew in size -- or if you're trying to decide whether to pull the trigger on buying some new tech -- come join the discussion in our comments. We and the TUAW social braintrust are here to help you get your new equipment set up and to answer questions to get you going. So jump on in -- whether you've got questions, or answers, or just want to brag about your new baby. We're excited, too!
The Daily Grind: Do you want directed content in a sandbox MMO?
XL Games' ArcheAge has been generating a fair amount of buzz lately, in no small part due to the fact that some starving sandbox fans are pinning their hopes on the upcoming Korean import. One thing worth noting, however, is that XL is positioning ArcheAge as a third-generation MMORPG that combines the best of the previous generations as opposed to a throw-back to the days of Asheron's Call or Ultima Online. To borrow a phrase, ArcheAge will be a "sandpark." What this means isn't completely clear, but we do know that the title will feature quests, lootable gear, and a class system of sorts (albeit one designed to provide a much larger range of player options than your typical themepark). ArcheAge's "sandboxiness" seems to stem from its deep crafting, housing, and farming/gathering systems, plus its flexible progression options. For today's Daily Grind, we're curious as to your thoughts on such an amalgamation. Are you looking forward to ArcheAge and other potential third-gen games like it? Put another way, do you want directed content in your sandbox? 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!
Apple updates iPod touch line, drops prices, adds top-end 64GB model
Couldn't see this one coming, right? Apple just announced an update to the iPod touch line. It's not exactly a major overhaul to the player, but prices have fallen, and it appears that the new models use the same CPU as the iPhone 3GS, since they can run OpenGL 2.0. The big news is actually no news, however: there doesn't appear to be a camera, contrary to all the rumors. You'll just have to make do with 8GB of storage for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for a whopping $399.
Toshiba's HD-A30 hits new low: third-generation HD DVD player for $200
How convenient. We whip up our HD-A30 review for you to take a peek at today, and P.C. Richard & Son goes and drops the price of this very unit to an oh-so-tempting $199.97. We'll go on and assume you know good and well what's expected of this third-generation player by now, but just in case you still aren't moved by the price, it should be noted that both 300 and The Bourne Identity come right in the box, and five other titles are included for free after mail-in rebate. Best of all, shipping is thrown in gratis, but it looks as if the unit has slipped out of stock for online purchase. 'Course, there's always the in-store pickup option if you're located near a B&M location, but if you're more the armchair shopper type, just keep refreshing (and checking other sites for similar slashings) and hope for the best.[Thanks, Chris W.]
Hands-on with Toshiba's third-generation HD DVD player lineup
As you're well aware by now, Toshiba came out today and got (really) official about its third-generation HD DVD lineup, which includes the HD-A3, HD-A30 and the HD-A35. The company was most certainly pushin' HD DVD at its booth today, so it made sense that these three units were the first most people saw when entering through. Each device looked fairly similar to its siblings, but we went ahead and grabbed photos of 'em one by one just to be safe.%Gallery-7031%
Toshiba third-gen HD DVD players at CEDIA, 2nd gen 1080p24 firmware update
The constant stream of Toshiba news continues to flow in, and this go 'round its focused on the firm's newest generation of HD DVD players. After Amazon revealed most of the deets on these units, Toshiba seemed pressured to release the official details sooner than they wanted to. As expected, Toshiba is showing all three new models at CEDIA, like the low-end A3 that only supports 1080i, and the latter two that handle 1080p24 and CE-Link, but all three will reportedly be "approximately 1/4-inch slimmer than second generation models," which Tosh isn't forgetting about, as the long-awaited 1080p24 firmware update for the HD-XA2 and HD-A20 models is also going live, and it should be rolled out in "mid-September."
