Hands on: Trillian conversation sync is mobile messaging bliss
Cerulean Studios recently introduced an impressive new "continuous client" feature in its Trillian instant messaging software. It automatically synchronizes conversations between multiple devices, allowing users to seamlessly carry their chat sessions between multiple computers or from a computer to a smartphone and back again without any disruption.Most of the mainstream instant messaging protocols already allow users to establish multiple connections or run multiple client instances at the same time, but they don't echo the full conversation on all connected devices or allow you to see the contents of your existing conversations when you establish a new connection on a different device. Trillian's continuous client functionality remedies those issues by fully synchronizing the contents of your open chat windows between instances of the client.
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Double the playtime? We test Nyko's third-party 3DS battery
The 3DS is a great system, and I've found myself using it daily—with the 3D turned on, thank you very much—even though our primary coverage is finished. However, when not being used, the 3DS lives in its charging cradle, as the standard battery runs out quickly unless you start from a full charge. Nyko claims that its Power Pack + can double the amount of time you can play on the system, and it sent us a unit to put to the test.Installation is a breeze, and while it adds some bulk to the system it remains comfortable to hold and play. But more importantly, we now know how long it will allow you to play... and those results were impressive.
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Cable-backed anti-muni broadband bill advances in North Carolina
The North Carolina bill is called the "Level Playing Field/Local Gov't Competition" act, intended to "protect jobs and investment by regulating local government competition." Opponents call it just the opposite—a cable industry-backed proposal intended to make it almost impossible for cities to build their own broadband networks.Whatever you call it, H129 passed the state's House of Representatives on Monday 81 to 37. Its sponsor, Marilyn Avila (R-Wake), told WRAL TV that the legislation would protect businesses from "predatory" local governments that want to build their own ISPs. "We have to have some sort of framework that everybody understands when you go into this," she explained. "This bill is going to establish those rules."
Baloney, responded Rep. Bill Faison (D-Orange). The law will "make it practically impossible" for cities to provide a "fundamental service," he insisted. "Let's be clear about whose bill this is. This is Time Warner's bill."
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Games work "neurological magic," says QWOP creator
Bennett Foddy, deputy director of the Institute for Science and Ethics at Oxford University, makes games about embodiment, and the “neurological magic” in gaming which allows us to inhabit the heroes on screen.But unlike most artsy, experimental games with a point to make, Foddy’s free Flash games are hilarious, alarmingly addictive and eminently playable. His latest, a fiendishly compulsive rock-climbing simulation called GIRP, is a masochistically difficult game that turns your keyboard into a cliff face.
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Feature: Ars System Guide: March 2011 Edition
Some days we love the PC; other days we curse it. The past two or three years, though, seem to have been full of more love than hate, thanks to several major innovations hitting the PC market. Solid state disks (SSDs), several GPU updates from minor to major, and significant updates in the CPU market have left us smiling. Monitors have also seen updates, although changes there have been somewhat more mixed—nicer IPS (in-plane switching) monitors have become slowly more numerous again, but we've lost vertical height in the most common monitor sizes as aspect ratios have shifted.The gory details aside, computers today are what we say about almost every update—the System Guide gets faster and cheaper, and we get more and more happy with the performance.
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Amazon on Cloud Player: we don't need no stinkin' licenses
"Cloud Player is an application that lets customers manage and play their own music. It's like any number of existing media management applications. We do not need a license to make Cloud Player available."That's Amazon spokesperson Cat Griffin's response to questions over whether the company's new music storage and playback services require licenses from the record companies to operate. Amazon seems to insist that since users are uploading and playing back their own music, the original download licenses still apply and no new licenses are necessary—a seemingly logical conclusion that the record industry disagrees with.
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Rustock repercussions: Spam down by a third, at least for now
It's sure to be temporary, but we should enjoy it while we can: Microsoft's action to behead the Rustock botnet has seen global spam levels drop by about a third, according to Symantec-owned messaging and security provider MessageLabs.The full report shows that there's still a lot of work to be done. In 2010, 88 percent of all spam emails were sent by botnets, and of that botnet-originated spam, Rustock was responsible for an average of 28 percent. Taking out Rustock has unsurprisingly had a substantial impact on spam levels. However, MessageLabs reports that other botnets have increased spam production over the same period, making it likely that previous spam volumes will be resumed soon enough.
It's a one-time drop, but it's a big one.
That future is, alas, still some way off; in the meantime, aggressive spam filtering at the server and client level is the only viable recourse. A case might also be made for better legislation—one of the more surprising aspects of Microsoft's Rustock lawsuit was the circuitous route by which the company had the server hardware used by the botnet seized. The company had to use trademark law—claiming that Rustock's spam infringed on both its own and Pfizer's trademarks—in order to have the server hardware seized. Existing anti-spam legislation only allows domain names to be taken—an insufficient tool for taking down Rustock.
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Microsoft expands Hotmail Active Views, hopes you never leave your inbox
Active Views were introduced to Hotmail last year to allow links to Flickr, YouTube, and Hulu to be viewed without ever having to leave your inbox. Instead, the content shows up within the e-mail message itself, allowing direct access to videos and slideshows. Today, Microsoft has announced that it is expanding the feature to include mail from LinkedIn, blogging service Posterous, Netflix, and deals site LivingSocial.Read the comments on this post
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Accurate and credible news tweets? Automated system finds them
The rise of social media has turned it into a source of basic news for many people; even Twitter's character limit allows for a brief description of a newsworthy event, along with a link to more details. However, the ease of creating and sharing information through social networks has also raised concerns about how easily they can be used to spread misinformation, either accidentally or with intent. Some researchers at Yahoo have tracked the spread of news (reliable and otherwise) through Twitter, and found that it's possible to create an automated system that identifies newsworthy events and judges their reliability with an accuracy of nearly 90 percent.
The authors (who are based in Barcelona and Chile—working for Yahoo might not be all bad news) note that assessing credibility is not simply an academic exercise, as a hacked Twitter account produced a fake tsunami warning last year. A lot of people aren't very good at it, and the lack of easy indications of credibility online lead readers to focus on irrelevant items, like the visual design of a source's webpage. Tweets, which often contain little more than an icon associated with a source, would seem to make matters even more challenging.
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DUST 514 makes contract killers out of EVE Online players
A trailer showing off the future of EVE Online was released by CCP this week at the EVE Fanfest, showing the interaction between the well-established MMORPG, EVE Online, and its upcoming sister game, the first-person shooter DUST 514. The trailer features lots of explosions, as well as land and space vehicles that play a role in characters' fates. Read the comments on this post
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Copyright troll Righthaven's epic blunder: a lawsuit targeting Ars
Not content with just suing sources, small out-of-state nonprofits, bloggers who get 20 hits per day, and other massive copyright pirates, newspaper litigation firm Righthaven this week trained its guns on Ars Technica. The company filed a federal lawsuit against one of our freelance writers over a post (about Righthaven) that appeared on the site back in December—only to dismiss it this morning. Why was the case ever brought? It was (cough) a "clerical mistake."
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Rumor: voice-controlled, cloud streaming LTE iPhone this fall
Several rumors popped up this week suggesting that Apple might push the release of both the next iPhone hardware and the next major iOS update from its usual summer release to the fall. In the wake of those rumors, which claim the announcement will coincide with a new cloud-based iTunes "locker," it's possible that Apple may use the extra time to integrate newer technologies, including Siri's AI-based, voice-controlled searching, improved mapping, and possibly LTE compatibility into next-generation iOS and iPhone hardware.So far, it appears that Apple will end up focusing on Mac OS X Lion and updated cloud-based services which are said to integrate with Lion during its annual Worldwide Developers Conference in early June. Apple is also likely to at least give an early sneak peek at iOS 5, which is believed to be slated for a fall release. iOS 5 is planned to integrate with any new Apple cloud services.
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How Amazon could loosen Google's iron grip on Android
The Amazon Appstore for Android launched last week. Although the online retail giant's new software storefront still has some rough edges, it could eventually have significant ramifications for the entire Android ecosystem. If Amazon's Appstore proves to be a viable alternative to Google's own Android Market, it could weaken the search giant's control over the Android platform and shift the balance of power in a direction that favors hardware makers—opening the door for forks and deeper differentiation.This could prove to be especially significant right now, because Google's decision to withhold the Android 3.0 source code for the foreseeable future has created a need for Android hardware vendors to pursue more autonomy and insulate themselves from Google's increasingly dictatorial control over the operating system.
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Dragon Age 2's gay character controversial with straight, gay gamers
There is a male character in Dragon Age 2 who will make advances towards your own male character. If you spurn those advances, you will receive rivalry points. This makes sense; after all, who likes being rejected? The problem is that the character is gay, and that means that people who dislike gay characters in games are upset because of his existence, and a group of gay gamers are upset over how the character is portrayed.This debate continues to be played out across the Internet, and the biggest takeaway appears to be that it remains incredibly difficult to portray characters that seem both real and human. It's doubly so when they belong to a group that inspires so many strong feelings.
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"Don't filter me": ACLU fights schools that block LGBT websites
If you've got a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) club at your high school, can you access the sites of major LGBT civil rights and advocacy groups? If not, the American Civil Liberties Union wants you to report the blocking to its Don't Filter Me campaign. Read the comments on this post
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Amazon beats Apple, Google to music storage, streaming service
There are plenty of cloud storage services to choose from, but there are few that are particularly good. Amazon hopes to become part of the latter group with the introduction of Amazon Cloud Drive, a consumer-oriented service that allows users to back up their local music libraries and play them remotely from anywhere via the Web or Android device. According to Amazon, all US-based Amazon customers automatically get 5GB of Cloud Drive space where they can upload their music libraries. The files must be unencrypted AACs or MP3s, and they can be uploaded at their original bit rate. Those who purchase an album from Amazon's MP3 service get the sweetest deal, though—20GB of space—and all new MP3 purchases will be automatically copied to your Cloud Drive without counting against your storage quota (you can still download the MP3s, too).
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Blizzard founder sticks up for Activision's Bobby Kotick; we don't
Blizzard cofounder Mike Morhaime recently spoke about Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in an interview with MCV, and he had nice things to say about the often-criticized figure. "I have an advantage there because I know Bobby personally and we have very long, in-depth conversations, so my view of him is not limited to small sound bites taken out of context," Morhaime said. "I can tell you that Bobby has been very supportive of Blizzard and that we have a great relationship with him. I don't think the public image that some people have of him is fair or accurate."This may be evidence that Kotick isn't the demon we like to portray him as, but it's not surprising that Morhaime is sticking up for him.
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