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Microsoft-approved tool fixes your 'walshed' Windows Phone, helps you get official updates once more
There are certainly advantages to rooting your Windows Phone 7 device, but there's a heck of a downside too -- Microsoft can't update your handset to the latest and greatest build if you've unofficially patched your phone. Good to know, but what if you've already done the deed? That's why you'll want the application above, a ChevronWP7-tested, Microsoft-approved program for pulling your phone out of Bizzaro World and setting things right. Find it at our source link, follow the instructions carefully, and don't fret if the official update doesn't immediately appear after you're done -- developer Chris Walsh says availability of the build depends on carrier approval. [Thanks, Brianna]
EVE Online player creativity -- Ship fitting edition
Two months ago, CCP started a new series of monthly EVE Online devblogs showcasing the game community's creative efforts. The EVE community is known for its artwork and incredible fan-made videos, but through CCP Fallout's monthly blog series, we've come to see some of the community's other creative endeavours. In previous editions, Fallout looked at in-game news and politics website EVE News 24, question and answer site Skill Training Complete, an impressive minecraft video of a scale Gallente shuttle, and a collection of EVE podcasts. In the latest issue, CCP looks at some of the latest developments that have drawn attention during December. There's an impressive video showing off the new EVE character creator that will be going live with Incursion 1.1 later this month. The video shows off both male and female avatars. Also covered is the Python Fitting Assistant, a cross-platform offline ship fitting tool similar to the very popular EVE Fitting Tool. The highlight of this month's blog has to be LOLFITS, a website where players can post some of the monumentally bad ship setups they've seen players use. If you think your ship setups are poor, I guarantee they're spectacular compared to some of the hilarious setups on LOLFITS.
Apple iAds Producer helps you produce iAds for iOS devices
We know how it is, you want to be a hotshot developer, but all that coding sounds like daunting work. Never mind, Apple's got your back with its new iAds producer, which automates all the HTML5 and CSS3 stuff into the background and leaves you to focus on the crucial task of picking out templates and components for your perfect iAd. To be fair to this new dev tool, it does more than merely dumb down the design process. It also includes "sophisticated" JavaScript editing and debugging, a built-in simulator for testing your creation, and a project validator that checks your code for common errors. Hit the source link to give it a try.
Google App Inventor opens up access to everyone, clings on to beta tag
Google's famous penchant for keeping things in beta doesn't seem to have changed lately, as the company's App Inventor for Android is still keeping its Greek lettering, but at least access has now been opened up for everyone to enjoy. The switch from private to public beta isn't the most significant thing in the world -- up until now you just had to ask for an invite to get one -- but we're sure amateur Android coders and experimenters will appreciate not having to go through that extra step. The App Inventor's sitting in Google Labs right this minute, waiting for you to magic up (no coding skills required!) a finely crafted solution to modern living of your own. Hit the source link to get your mouse pointer dirty.
Crytek interested in offering free development platform
When Epic offered the Unreal SDK free to all users, it got Crytek to thinking -- specifically, thinking about doing the same thing. Speaking to Develop, Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said that his company is looking to offer a free platform for budding game developers "that will be up to speed" with CryEngine 3. It's nothing new to Crytek, which offered free versions of its previous platforms to the modding community, but this new venture is something different -- a "standalone free platform that people can run independent of CryEngine that will also be up to speed with the latest engine," Yerli hopes. While he's quick to point out it's not the same thing as what Epic and Unity are doing -- another popular game development tool that offers a bit of variety in free and premium toolsets -- we're hard-pressed to find much of a difference between the two. Crytek curently has no timetable for release of the new platform, nor has it commented on potential tech and licensing agreements stemming from the new venture.
GDC 2010: From concept to Top Paid with Unity iPhone
Unity Technologies hosted the sponsored lunch panel during GDC 2010 today, and their "product evangelist" Tom Higgins gave a quick rundown of the software platform that enables developers to assemble and release games extremely quickly on multiple platforms. The company was actually founded in Denmark, but has since expanded around the world with just two products: Unity Pro and Unity iPhone Pro. The second product, as you might imagine, allows developers to put together an application that can then be exported out into an Xcode project and released on the App Store. Higgins said that they've had over 90,000 people download the software since it was released for free last fall, and that more than 500 games in the App Store were authored by Unity. He also ran a short demo of the software at the panel. While some of the coding got a little technical (the system allows you to create and change variables on in-game objects even while the game is running in the engine), the coolest feature was the way they simulated iPhone controls: by using a real iPhone as a remote. They've released a free app on the App Store that will connect via Wi-Fi with a copy of the development tool running on your Mac, and as you touch and turn the iPhone, the editor reacts, and sends the (slightly lower resolution) output to the iPhone's screen. You can also make changes to your code as the game runs in that mode, so you can be playing and coding at the same time.
Pocket Tool X's Piranha looks like it's a multipurpose animal
How many uses can one tool have? If you think the answer is "never enough," the Piranha by Pocket Tool X might just be for you. A multipurpose job (which kinda reminds us of a dinosaur's head), the Piranha boasts a double-ended bit holder, both open and box wrenches, a bottle opener, a nail puller, a scraper, and pry ends -- and it's made of heat-treated S30V Stainless Steel -- which means it should be sturdy enough to make it through a few family camping trips. The tool is available for pre-order now, with shipments heading out sometime in December, and for $49 it could be all yours.
American Airlines launches online widget to sniff out WiFi-equipped flights
You may bang on the legacy airlines, but American Airlines has a good thing going here with Gogo. The outfit has just completed installation of in-flight WiFi on 150 of its MD-80 aircraft, and in order to give you a better idea of how to prepare, it's now launching an online widget that'll let you know if your bird will enable web surfing when you get on. The tool is completely web-based, so any PC or smartphone can access it; the only real knock is that it only informs you of a "yes" or "no" 24 hours prior to departure, so it's still impossible to book a flight 3 months out and know for certain if you'll be able to hop online. This is definitely something that should be adopted by the other airlines (pronto!), but we can't help but dream of the day when something like this is unnecessary due to in-flight internet becoming completely ubiquitous. Ah, the future -- how you tease us so. Demonstration vid is after the break.
Upcoming LittleBigPlanet DLC to make creation more 'versatile'
Save for a few of the game's beefier DLC packs, a majority of the downloadable content for LittleBigPlanet has been purely aesthetic. Not that we mind being able to dress our Sackboys up like Cole McGrath -- but we'd prefer something that makes the already rich level creation engine just a little bit richer.Fortunately, during the Develop Conference earlier this month, Media Molecule co-founder Mark Healy announced that an upcoming piece of DLC will add "lots of exciting things that make it into more of a versatile creation tool." He didn't get any more specific than that, but added that it would make fans "very happy." Hey, if it helps our levels not look like something a six-year-old drew in Sunday school, we'll be pleased as punch.
WWDC Demo: MercuryMover and Highbrow
If you prefer to keep your fingers on the keyboard and away from mice or trackpads, MercuryMover will allow you to do something simple: move and resize windows with the keyboard. There are a number of hotkeys for wiggling the windows into place, in 2 different increments, and a method of resizing windows via the keyboard.Highbrow gives you fine control over which browser opens a certain link. For example, if someone sends you a link in IM and you want to open in it Firefox, but your default browser is Safari, you'd have to copy/paste that link into Firefox, or Safari will open it instead. But with Highbrow, you can quickly choose which browser opens what. Instead of mucking around in Safari prefs, Highbrow sets the default browser via handy menu bar item. Plus, you can opt for a floating window each time you click a link, and choose on the fly.MercuryMover is $20 and a free trial is available. Highbrow is $12 and a free trial is also available.
Loot Council splits your loot up for you
Bonkers of Vek'nilash, creator of the very useful Gear Wishlist that we posted about a while back, has sent along a new site he's been working on called Loot Council. Basically, you throw the names of every character in your instance group into the system along with the name of the instance you're running, and you get a quick list of all the loot available from the instance and which character it's best for, according to class, need, and spec. You can use various rankings for the item, but eventually, all you have to do to determine who needs the item is look it up on the list and then see who has the biggest improvement from what they're wearing.Very useful, though this might not be quite as tough to figure out as getting gear for yourself: in most of my instance runs, it's usually pretty clear who gets/wants what. And if you do happen to be in a PuG where people don't understand why a certain stat is better for one class or spec than another, you're probably not going to get them to open up the webpage and follow what they see there.But for a quick no-brainer loot solution while instancing with a group of friends (especially in 25mans, where it's often tough to see who really needs an upgrade), it seems helpful and works well. Another great app from Bonkers.
Sting, Tool join Guitar Hero World Tour's lineup
Joining Hendrix, Ozzy and others, Sting will be walking around the virtual concert halls of Guitar Hero World Tour. According to the press release, you can play as Sting during the vocal career "or play alongside him" in the Police track, "Demolition Man." Additionally, three songs from Tool (who are not bringing their likenesses to the game) have been confirmed: Parabola, Schism, Vicarious. We now know about 65 tracks of the reported "over 85" tracks. With about seven weeks to go before its October 26 North American launch, when do we get to learn the rest of the tracklist? More importantly, where's our virtual likeness of Lars Ulrich?
Gem Finder helps you find just the right gems
I can't remember if we've posted about the WoW Gem Finder or not, but the last gem list I posted about has gone missing, so if you've never heard of this one, it's new to you. WoW Gem Finder is a quick web tool that you can to quickly find exactly the gem you're looking for -- just choose the colors, attributes, and/or abilities you want from the checklist on the side, and it'll narrow down exactly the gem you want and where to get it. And all the gems link to Wowhead anyway, so even if the little description isn't enough for you, you can go searching for it elsewhere as well.Pretty great resource for anyone (like me) just starting to pick up epic gear on their latest character and looking into where the gems are coming from. One thing players might still need help with is when to put which gems on which gear (most people wouldn't throw epic gems in gear you get at 61, I'd think, and I personally usually don't bother with anything but vendor gems until I get an actual epic), but that may be all outside the ken of this finder. As a tool to help you find exactly the gem you want, it's a good one.
Apple ProRes QuickTime Decoder 1.0 for Mac and Windows
Earlier tonight we saw the release of the ProRes Decoder tool for QuickTime. According to Apple, this tool will allow QuickTime to play Apple ProRes 422 files, using the codec that provides "visually lossless, uncompressed HD video at SD data rates" for Final Cut users. This is the first version of the codec that includes playback on Windows machines."It is an excellent choice for mastering and can easily be transcoded to distribution formats like H.264. With new support for playback on both Mac and Windows computers, Apple ProRes can also be used for review and approval of Final Cut Studio sequences," says Apple.The Mac update/plug-in can be downloaded for free from Apple's support downloads website, and if you are using QuickTime on Windows, there's a separate download.
Wayfaring through New Eden with EveMap
EVE Online has an active community of 3rd party developers who release free tools for the benefit of other players. While tools like EVEmon, used to plan skill training, and EVE Fitting Tool, used to experiment with ship fittings, are widely used by players, there are a number of other great programs out there that have gotten less attention. One of those out-of-game tools is EveMap, created by Paul van Santen -- otherwise known as "AcriQuo." The galaxy of New Eden has over 5000 solar systems, and plotting safe routes or simply some optimal wayfaring can be a bit involved. When in-game, you can pull up an interactive map to help navigate, but it takes up the entire client window while active. Some players prefer to view their maps off-screen, and there are some 2D options available to help in this regard, but until recently, going 2D was the only option players had. That's all changed with EveMap, which is a fully-functional 3D map of the EVE universe, with myriad display options and filters. The beauty of the program is that it literally displays all of EVE's systems without being confined to the client. The system requirements to run it are minimal: Java Runtime Environment version 1.5 or higher, and an OpenGL-capable graphics card. EveMap has been well-received on the official EVE Online forums. If having another way to navigate in EVE sounds good to you, why not fire up EveMap and see how useful it can be?
WoW Heroes sets you right at endgame
We've covered sites like this before (Be Imba is probably the one best known), but here's another character comparison/improvement tool for you to use online. WoW Heroes is a site that will look up your character's significant info from the Armory, put it in an easy-to-read format, and then help you check out all your stats, enchants, and gear, and help you find improvements to what you're wearing. It's not as judgemental as Be Imba -- you just get the stats and the facts, not yelled at for not having gems in your sockets (though getting yelled at might be just the motivation you need to get better), but it does provide suggestions in a much gentler way, including what kinds of enchants to use and what kinds of instances to run.And one fun feature that isn't as easy to do on Be Imba is the comparison tool -- you can put in two characters' names and servers and very easily look at both at the same time, comparing item levels and/or seeing where the gear came from. Neat feature, and very easy to get up and running, no login or signup needed.There is one drawback -- you can't see any characters in the system that are below level 70, so WoW Heroes is only for people trying to find improvements and options in the endgame -- if you're below 70, you'll have to go elsewhere. But as an endgame character improvement tool, it's another good option to use.
Ping faster with Faster Ping
Recently members of my guild have been using a tool called Faster Ping to achieve better ping rates in game. My guild is a West Coast based guild, and attracts a lot of people from Hawaii and Australia, so they naturally have higher ping rates than those of us in the States. Faster Ping seems to be working wonders for them. It is not so much of an addon as it is a tool for Windows (though lots of people mistakingly call it an addon).My first reaction to this was what thinking this sounded like something out of the mouth of Cliff Clavin. I mean, how can a piece of software impact something that is mainly due to physical limits? Well, after thinking about it for a bit, and reading up on what the tool does, it can. WARNING! This paragraph will be the only one that contains technical content! Faster Ping works by removing the acknowledgement delay from TCP packets. This delay happens inside the kernel's TCP stack, and is a necessity for a lot of functions that go on inside a TCP stack. The other modification Faster Ping does is to remove delay in sending small packets (think anything less than a dozen or so bytes). These changes, at least theoretically, should not impact system stability if the Windows kernel has proper TCP/IP stack implementation. Okay, end technical content.
Warcrafter does the heavy math on your character's stats
Amanna is the latest blogger to bring up Warcrafter, a nifty little online application that is basically the Armory on speed. It'll not only pull up your character, your gear, and your talents, but it'll use all of that information to calculate everything you'd ever want to know about your stats, including DPS, crit percentage, spellpower, and even where all of those things come from. It'll even go into your spells, and calculate the average heal or average damage of your most-used spells and abilities. Warcrafter tells you everything it can calculate about your character, directly from the numbers pulled out of the Armory. Fascinating to see.There is also a sandbox page, which is everything an aspiring theorycrafter would ever need to make up the character of their dreams. Punch in a class, race, and gear, and then go to town shifting around buffs, weapons, talents, and anything else you'd want to check. Cerberus is an attentive creator, too-- if there's a calculation off or a piece of gear missing, he seems more than happy to add it in. I only hope that we don't crush the site with our exposure.The sandbox page mentions something about "locking" the character, and it would be cool to have a quick permalink setup for created characters (we could have someone show off all the buffs/gear needed to get the Ghost Wolf taming cast time down, or show off the highest possible spellpower available in the game so far). But other than that, Warcrafter is a great piece of web-based software. Very cool way to inspect every single aspect of your character out of game.
New Sega tool automates 3D lip-syncing
Nothing takes away from a good, in-game voice acting performance than lip-syncing that looks like it came from a badly dubbed kung fu movie. But what developer wants to go through the painstaking process of modeling every minute mouth movement? That's where Sega comes in, with a new software tool that analyzes a voice sample and automatically matches a characters facial movements to the spoken words. The tool can even reportedly detect "happiness, anger, surprise and sadness" in the voice and change the character's facial expression accordingly.Of course, Sega's lip-syncing solution isn't the only one out there, but this new tool reportedly "increased efficiency nearly 100-fold" in internal tests. That leaves plenty of time for more important things, like selling your body on the street to pay the tool's 207,900 yen ($1,862) asking price. That might be chump change for the big guys, but bedroom programmers should work on their come hither smile.
Liquidor's EU Rep Calculator shows the way to Exalted
Liquidor posts on the forums about a cool little tool he's put together. His rep calculator is a one-stop shop for everything you need to know about where your character is at in terms of rep, and what you need to rep up. There's just one little catch-- since Liquidor plays on Boulderfist EU, the calculator only works for EU characters at the moment.So those of us on US realms are out of luck, but maybe if we give Liquidor a little more attention here, he'll be convinced enough to let us Americans in on the fun. As much as rep grinding is required in the game now, it's interesting that there's not a lot in terms of reputation tools out there-- WoW Wiki has those cool charts for each rep and the quests that can be done to level it, but Liquidor's guide is unmatched in terms of utility-- he even tells you mobs that can be killed for rep, and how many are needed of each type to rep up. Hopefully, especially as we move toward the next expansion (where even more factions will likely be introduced), players will get better and better tools like this to help their rep grinding.
