Week in gaming: Bad Company 2, Mario Galaxy 2, Steam
This week in gaming we looked at how DRM hurts soldiers stations overseas, we share some tips on getting the most out of Heavy Rain, and take an early look at the upcoming Mario Galaxy 2.
Nintendo had some more big news this week, with the final pricing and release details of the DSi XL, and some screenshots and information on Metroid: Other M. Steam was updated, and of course we jumped online to see how that went. Let's get this week in gaming rolling!
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Week in tech: we're all so predictable
We'd like to think of ourselves as dynamic, unpredictable individuals, but according to new research, that's not the case at all. By looking at how customers moved around, researchers found that it may be possible to predict human movement patterns and location up to 93 percent of the time.
Internet experts agree: the Web isn't making us "stupid," but it is fundamentally changing how humans process and produce information. The age of the long-form novel is over; get ready for the "haiku century."
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BBC blocks open source software from iPlayer video service
The BBC has enabled SWF Verification for its iPlayer streaming video service. This content protection mechanism has locked out users who consume the iPlayer video content with open source software.
Adobe has publicly documented the Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) that is used by Flash for streaming video, but the company has fiercely guarded RTMP content protection measures, making it impossible to create a fully compatible open source RTMP client. SWF Verification is one such security measure.
An RTMP streaming video server that has SWF Verification enabled will terminate connections from clients that fail to supply an authorization key. The purpose of this restriction is to ensure that the content is only accessible to specific SWF files, thus preventing third-party software from downloading the video.
Although SWF Verification is principally intended to serve as a barrier to piracy, it also blocks regular users from legitimately viewing content with open source video players. Fans of the popular XBMC media center application have discovered that the application can no longer be used to watch iPlayer content. The Totem BBC plugin, which was developed by the BBC itself in collaboration with Canonical and Collabora, is also apparently blocked.
Although it's technically possible to circumvent the blocks, Adobe has previously used DMCA takedown notices to stifle open source software projects that attempt to do so. Because SWF Verification makes it impossible to view iPlayer with DMCA-compliant open source software, users will now have to rely exclusively on Adobe's proprietary Flash plugin in order to view iPlayer content.
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Week in Apple: The Great Sexy App Purge of 2010
News about the iPhone OS was all over the place this week, from Apple's plans to expand to more devices to hints in the latest SDK beta. We also discussed why NVIDIA's Optimus is ready to be dumped into some new MacBooks and why a paid version of Hulu on the iPad would make sense. What, you thought this week was all about the sexy app purge? Read on to get the low-down:
Apple VP attempts to explain double standard for risqué apps: Apple's Phil Schiller has addressed the issue of the recent purge of sexually themed apps from the App Store. However, it seems an arbitrary double standard still remains.
Apple releases, pulls iPad SDK beta, camera hints inside: Several tidbits were uncovered in the latest iPad SDK beta before it was pulled by Apple, ostensibly to address a "major bug."
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Week in Microsoft: more Windows Phone 7 Series details
Let's look back at the week that was in Microsoft news. Here were the top stories:
Leaked: WinPhone 7 Series dev to use almost all managed code: More details are emerging about the application development situation on Windows Phone 7 Series. We now know that managed code is the order of the day. But many questions still remain.
Windows Phone 7 Series to have three chassis: Microsoft will reportedly have three separate chassis for Windows Phone 7 Series for its partners and customers to choose from.
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