Week in gaming: Evony, water balloons, PAX East
Evony has one of the most annoying ad campaigns in gaming history, at least since John Romero began referring to the gaming community as female dogs, but the problems with the game run much deeper than a few softcore ads. Sony drops Linux and in response finds a hacker very upset at the decision. On the lighter end of things, we explore the latest in water balloon technology.
We also check in with PAX East to see how the expansion to the Penny Arcade Expo turned out. The full write-up is an interesting look at what happens when you pack 60,000 gamers into one location.
Week in gaming powers activate!
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Week in tech: decide your own hot stories edition
Beware, mortals: Cthulhu has returned, and he's armed with bacon and an unhealthy obsession with geek brains. Battle your way through our first-ever interactive adventure and discover the mysterious country of "Googuela"! Try your hand at booth babery! And find out who's really driving the geekerati mad at a Vegas convention!
Most of the talk about future fourth-generation (4G) mobile broadband networks appears to focus on speed—and 4G will definitely be fast. But the real reason that carriers are scrambling to upgrade is for capacity. Existing networks are too overcrowded.
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Did the FCC leak those iPad pics early? Nope
We didn't do it! a source over at the Federal Communications Commission pleaded with us on Friday night. Calm down, we replied. Didn't do what?
Didn't deliberately upload all those revealing take-apart photos of the iPad early, we were told. Adding to all the excitement and hoopla over the release of the yummy gadget on Saturday was the discovery that graphic internals of the device were up on the FCC's website before it was available for sale. This might lead some to conclude, as various bloggers and journalists have implied, that federal regulators made a decision to release the specs prior to the iPad's retail release.
But our source says the Commission had nothing to do with this call.
As device makers everywhere know, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology certifies a wide variety of devices before they go on sale. One big concern is checking that the actual retail item doesn't release a power signal that might interfere with other systems, but there's a whole Equipment Authorization process that the OET oversees.
The actual inspection of these machines, however, is done by third-party Telecommunications Certification Bodies which have been approved by the OET. Some of them reside in the United States. Many do not. According to the agency's drop down TCB search menu, these organizations include Industry Canada, the Czech Office for Standards, Metrology, and Testing, and the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment. The iPad's review can be found here.
And not only do they make the Equipment Authorization calls, but they, independently of the FCC, decide when to upload all that graphic equipment data to the OET's public database.
Still, it seems to us that, for the sake of device makers everywhere, somebody ought to have a little chat with the certification body in question. Fun as it is to get these photos early, Apple did request confidentiality on them for 180 days after getting an EA grant.
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Week in Apple: Verizon iPhone rumors, Mac OS X update,
Even if you haven't bought one, it's probably pretty clear that the iPad has officially launched. During the week leading up to iPad Day, however, much of our top Apple news involved the iPhone, how it's doing against Android, and whether a Verizon iPhone is coming this year. A Snow Leopard update gave some love to our sometimes-neglected Macs, too. Read on if you need a break from iPad mania:
Report: Verizon iPhone finally coming; will you switch? The vetted sources for the Wall Street Journal claim that the Verizon iPhone is a reality, and it's coming this summer. If true, will you head over to "America's most reliable network"? Vote in our reader poll.
More on next-gen iPhone and Verizon iPhone dreams: Several details have leaked about the upcoming "A+ update" to the iPhone hardware and OS this summer. Whether Apple follows up with a CDMA iPhone model for Verizon or other carriers is a matter of debate, but might be the best chance for growth in the US market in the near term.
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