StarCraft 2's game designers have hidden in game, easter eggs which will for sure make the sharp-eyed gamer happy. There's a delightfully punny iPod-esque ad for a fictional iPistol which would let you "take a shot at life."
There's also a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) reference to Microsoft's Windows located on a control console of a drill in the game. There are other numerous easter eggs in the game, like a Tauren Space Marine and a Night Elf from World of Warcraft, as well as an in game homage to one of Blizzard's earlier franchises The Lost Vikings.
Although Blackberry does not indicate any touch device development in their current line of keyboard-equipped mobiles, there has been talks about an upcoming tablet device. Word is that the device is coming this November.
We are expecting the dimensions to be similar to iPad, wireless and bluetooth-enabled and of course the inclusion of popular speculation: tethering with your Blackberry mobiles. At least now you can share your oft-unused mobile data with your BB tablet, saving dollars on new data plan. It is also obviously predicted to come with touch keyboard interface.
The word Blackpad has also been suggested by various sources to be the likely name of the new device. Interesting as it may be, I guess the mysteries will be slowly unveiled, hopefully starting for the Tuesday RIM event where the touch screen 9800 will be unveiled.
After all the hype, the handset is officially on sale in Australia with midnight launches at certain cities across the country. At 4pm Thursday evening, there were 3 people in line at the Telstra (T-Life) store on Bourke Street in Melbourne. By 7pm, the line grew to approximately 100 people.
The line at 7pm (Telstra)
The line at 7pm (Optus)
At around 10pm, both Telstra and Optus World across the street were bringing out speakers and DJs to entertain the crowd. As the hour grew closer, the line at Telstra stretched to Target, while the line at Optus was up to the Commonwealth Bank.
But by midnight, none of the people in line at both Telstra and Optus were moving forward nor getting their handsets. Joyous whoops were nowhere to be heard. As of 12.15am, there were no changes. We'll know by tomorrow if everything went off without a hitch.
Update:Those who waited in line for the midnight launch got their iPhones. But as of lunch time today, there was an hour long wait at the T-Life shop. Most major Telcos in Melbourne have either sold out or will be sold out on the handsets over the weekend. Optus is expecting more stock to arrive next week. Telstra spokesman Peter Symons said that customers are being placed on waiting lists but it remains unclear how long it would take Telstra to secure more stock. (@ The Age)
Update 2:Optus has tweeted that there is a 4 week time frame for online and rain checked orders. (@Optus)
Update 3:Apple has announced that there is an estimated 3 week delay for new orders. Although, those really impatient to wait and have cash to burn can get the iPhone 4 at ebay. Some of the phones listed there have a markup price of more than 50%. Expect to pay at least $1300. (@ The Age)
The Magic Trackpad works like any other trackpad on your Macbooks, just bigger. It is almost 2x the surface area of your regular trackpad and the whole thing is powered by battery รก la the bluetooth keyboard. Note as well that the whole thing is a giant click button and multi-touch-enabled.
So far we've yet to figure out why we would need such a device. But we would imagine it will be pretty cool if you have your desktop wired to your 43" LCD and controlled with your bluetooth keyboard and trackpad from your bed. Now who said we need to get out of bed to do some work?
The long wait has finally come to an end. Telstra, Optus and 3 have all released their pricing plans for the iPhone 4 and they all look pretty competitive.
The following is the comparison table for iPhone 4 plans
Cost/ month
Telstra
Optus
3
$29
value
$180
data
50MB
additional cost
MONTHLY $18/$24 (16GB/32GB)
extras
Bonus 500MB data/month. Unlimited call 3-3 and 3-Voda
$39
value
$250
data
50MB
additional cost
MONTHLY $18/$24 (16GB/32GB)
extras
Bonus 1GB data/month. Unlimited call 3-3 and 3-Voda
$49
value
$400
$450
$450
data
200MB
1GB
500MB
additional cost
UPFRONT
$149/ $299 (16GB/32GB)
MONTHLY $8/$15
MONTHLY $5/$10 (16GB/32GB)
extras
Bonus 1GB data/month. Unlimited call 3-3 and 3-Voda
$59
value
$550
data
2GB
additional cost (16GB/32GB)
MONTHLY $0/$10
$69
value
$650
data
750MB
additional cost
MONTHLY $0/$5 (16GB/32GB)
extras
Bonus 1GB data/month. Unlimited call 3-3 and 3-Voda
$79
value
$800
$800
data
2GB
1GB
additional cost
$0
$0
extras
Bonus 1GB data/month. Unlimited call 3-3 and 3-Voda
$89
value
Unlimited
data
3GB
additional cost
$0
$99
value
$1000
data
500MB
additional cost
$0
Special mention goes to 3's plans which allow international calls and SMS to be included in the plans meaning that international calls are not charged as additional costs but can be deducted from the plans' values. That's a very good news!
Tron is Disney's upcoming sci-fi action movie planned to hit the cinemas later this year. It revolves around the premise of video-game going all wrong when the video-game outsmarts its developer. Sounds crazy, but it still looks pretty good to me. Watch the following shaky snippet before Disney pulls it.
While Apple may think that everyone will be merry and happy again after Antenna-Gate and a bit of bumper-love, Samsung is obviously more on a it's-payback-time route with their new ad.
Love the not-so-subtle insinuation. Now let's see if Nokia and Motorola can top this off.
It's hard to believe that after 12 years, StarCraft 2, the sequel to the best selling PC game in 1998 is finally getting it's retail release on July 27. The game will be available to play on Mac OS X and Windows. With less than a week to go, Blizzard has released the final trailer of StarCraft 2. This is truly epic.
In many ways the single-player game is going to be more interesting than multiplayer, with units, levels, and characters that won't be appearing in multiplayer. (@arstechnica)
It seems that Szymon Weglarski took Steve Jobs' joke about band-aid and Eminem during Antennagate a little too seriously.
But he is not joking, these colourful stickers called Antenn-Aids apparently does help with the iPhone 4's crippled reception. Perfect for those who hate bumpers and those who also want to rub it in on Steve (and for those who think iHand is a wee bit inconvenient).
This quirky tongue-in-cheek fix is available on Etsy at $4.99 for a pack of 6.
We may be sickened by the abundance of magazines sprawled across the Appstore, but a magazine about ourselves?! Now that doesn't seem like something I will get sick of.
Flipboard, a 'magazine' about you converts all your Facebook and Twitter news into visually-stunning image rich interface laid out like a real magazine. Generally, it converts text-laden information from your social network into beautifully-rendered images overlaid with titles and snippets of paragraphs from your friends' stories. This results in a more user-friendly interface, making catching up with so much news a lot less painful and a lot less boring.
Flipboard is founded by the former CEO of Tellme, Mike McCue and former iPhone engineer, Evan Doll and backed by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. With such strong powerhouses behind Flipboard, this app oozing with quality and innovation has already been hit hard by the Appstore community. Currently, Flipboard has already maxed out its servers' capacity rejecting signups of new accounts, although it's been reported that the company is working on addressing this issue.
If you haven't got your hands on a copy of this app, did I mention that it's free?
Chris Hallberg, a Marquette University student, has created 'Smug,' a smart travel coffee mug. TheSmug is a coffee mug with embedded Radio Frequency Identification Chips (RFID) which are linked to a gift card account. The RFID chip stores a customer's order history and account information.
A barista at your favourite coffee shop can just scan the chip to automatically deduct funds from the account. No mess and no mistakes made to your personalised drink, which may give you more time to flirt with the cute barista you've been eyeing.
It also makes ordering your 'usual' less painful when your favourite barista is not working, a definite plus point.
The Smug is reusable which cuts down on waste while you're on your daily caffeine fix. (@switched)
Have you ever been frustrated when you do a search on Google for a specific information only to let Google flood you with millions of irrelevant results? Looking for information on Beat Solo headphone, but getting Michael Jackson's Beat It Solo Guitar tab as your top results? It may be that Google is the best search engine out there having billions and billions of information waiting to pop up upon your pressing of the ENTER button. However, it always seems that the computer just doesn't get you what you really want or what you really mean.
Well, that problem is about to go away. Google has taken the first step to making your search more meaningful through its acquisition of Metaweb. What is Metaweb, you ask. Well, according to its introduction video, Metaweb categorises information into 'entity' which is like barcodes for information. These barcodes are like ISBN on books, they are the information's identity making googling more accurate and useful. To understand this cool technology, check this video out.
It seems that the application of Metaweb also extends to social networking as well, part of the market that Google have yet to dominate. Imagine having Google's version of Facebook, connecting not only you and your friends but every single information you are interested in. Now, that's what I call social-networking.
When you imagined a God of War movie, you'd expect dismembered limbs and testosterone laden action. Not Kratos with real life problems. Definitely nothing like a Zooey Deschanel type indie movie.
With a carefully crafted and clever script adapted from the video game franchise God of War, the guys at Gamervision are able to expand upon characters we all grew to love, but know very little about. (@Gamervision)
In case it wasn't obvious, this trailer is a spoof.
Surprise surprise. Google is ceasing its production of Nexus One and seemingly going to completely retract its short-lived attempt in the smartphone market.
Despite its popularity amongst the mobile geeks, Nexus One seems to fail to embrace the interest of a broader audience. It was weird to begin with anyway for Google to compete against its own partners in the Android market. This one step back may actually help Google focus more on its Android software development that is beginning to have more and more grapple in the mobile software arena especially after its recent release of Android 2.2.
For now, Google may seem to accept its defeat, but this software giant will definitely not stop its search (no pun intended) for a better, improved smartphone possibilities.
