Apple drops secrecy, confirms iOS 5, iCloud on tap at WWDC 2011
Apple announced today that it plans to introduce the next generation of its mobile platform, iOS 5, as well as a new cloud service called iCloud at the Worldwide Developers Conference next week on Monday, June 6. This is a highly unusual move for Apple, which normally tries to keep their center-ring announcements secret until the scheduled event.
In a press release, Apple says that iOS 5 will be unveiled alongside iCloud and OS X 10.7 Lion. However, there are no follow-up details on any of the software; the only official tidbit on iCloud is that it is an "upcoming cloud services offering."
There have been unofficial trickles of information on all three products over the last few months. iCloud is rumored to be a "digital locker" type service, not unlike Amazon's recently released cloud services for storing music. iOS 5 is expected to be a major overhaul to the operating system and may include features like over-the-air updates and a new mapping capability, though it will likely not make its way to related devices until this coming fall.
The week before any Apple event is often a time of rabid speculation and digging on the part of news outlets because Apple usually tries so hard to keep its new products under lock and key. Now that Apple is trying to take control of the information flow nearly a week before WWDC starts on June 6, we wonder if we'll see more official details emerge on iOS 5 and iCloud in the next few days.
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Call of Duty Elite is a for-pay social, content service for MW3
While many people claimed that $15 was too much for a map pack, the DLC was purchased by the millions. Activision knows how to profit from the secondary and even tertiary content that gamers are keen to access, and the just-announced Call of Duty Elite is the newest weapon in the war for higher stock value. The concept is interesting: Elite is an interactive strategy guide that's constantly updated with your stats and playing habits, along with a full suite of social networking functions.
Activision has been adamant that the company will never charge for multiplayer play, but it has found a way to charge for multiplayer data.
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XBLA, PC Bastion mixes Diablo, D&D, and hand-drawn art
Bastion is a game that seems like it was built for narcissists. The world is created, piece by piece, as you explore it. Panels fly into position in order to give you a path to walk on, while inaccessible areas are blocked off. There is plenty of exploration to be had, but the aesthetic makes it slightly unsettling. This is what must have happened in The NeverEnding Story after the Nothing destroys the world and it's recreated by our dreams.
The artwork looks hand-drawn, and the enemies and settings are delightful. The action brings to mind the hack-and-slash action of the Diablo series, but with ranged weapons and a shield you can bring up to deflect attacks, there is a little more thought needed to defeat enemies. The real beauty, however, comes from the fact you're the star of a story being told via a deep narration system, as if you're living out an epic that's being passed down in the oral tradition. The effect, in a word, is mesmerizing.
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Plankton may hold up to ocean acidification better than expected
England’s White Cliffs of Dover are certainly an impressive sight. The sheer cliffs, made of bright white chalk, rise as high as 350 feet above the shoreline. Despite the fact that the chalk is over 65 million years old, it may have something to tell us about how the ocean will react to the continued use of fossil fuels.
Chalk is composed of tiny calcite (calcium carbonate) plates called coccoliths. These are sections of the intricate spherical housing secreted by a type of phytoplankton smaller than the width of a hair, known as coccolithophores. The coccoliths in ancient chalk deposits like Dover’s cliffs have maintained their microscopic size, resisting the natural tendency of calcite to partially dissolve over time and recrystallize into larger clumps. This left researchers at the University of Copenhagen pondering if there might be something special about the calcite secreted by coccolithophores.
If that’s the case, understanding the details could help us predict how these phytoplankton will respond to ocean acidification—global warming’s oft-overlooked (but equally ugly) twin. The rising concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doesn’t just change the climate; it also lowers the pH of ocean water, and that’s bad news for things made of calcite, which may dissolve as the pH drops.
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Feature: From execution site to gaming icon: the story of Wake Island
Few levels in modern multiplayer gaming have been more beloved than Wake Island, first released as the Battlefield 1942 demo. I was one of the players who became hooked on the game after that first nibble in 2002. Wake Island was devilish, a horseshoe-shaped piece of land that had to be defended both from air attacks and from Japanese landing craft arriving from the ships in the distance. The island's airfield was of utmost importance for both sides, and became the site of the most brutal virtual battles in the game.
I remember being a part of a league that played Battlefield exclusively; at one point, a teammate drew a map of Wake Island on a whiteboard and we studied it, planning our defenses and how to best attack the island. Jeeps allowed soldiers to move across land at great speed, while tanks could make both an imposing attacking force and an easy target. Whenever I think of Battlefield, I think of Wake Island.
EA and DICE are including the "Back to Karkand" DLC in the package when you buy Battlefield 3; Wake Island will be included once more, marking the fourth time the map has popped up in the series. We're going to look at the real-life history of Wake Island, as well as the history of its virtual re-creation. Grab your gun, watch the skies, and plan your attack: we're going in.
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Finally, a real scientific controversy: arsenic in DNA
We spend so much time discussing manufactured controversies about science that it's a bit refreshing to be able to report on a real one. And one has been brewing since late last year, when Science released a report that suggested that researchers had forced bacteria to evolve to the point where they no longer simply tolerated arsenic, but incorporated it into their DNA. The publication quickly attracted criticism on a few blogs that were written by scientists, leading mainstream reporters to dig into matters. Now, the scientific community is having its say in the pages of Science, with eight separate technical comments on the work.
We covered the publication when it was first released, describing the major claims of the authors. They had isolated bacteria from an environment (California's Mono Lake) that is naturally high in arsenic, and then grew them in the lab, gradually raising the levels of arsenic while dropping those of its close relative, phosphorous, which is a component of DNA. After sufficient selection, they tested the surviving bacteria, and found some evidence that indicated arsenic may have been used in place of phosphorous in DNA.
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Wii, Kinect, Move organization problems? The TriMount has you covered
The Nintendo Wii requires its sensor bar to be placed above or below your television. The Kinect is nothing but a camera that senses your movement during gameplay. The PlayStatIon Move requires the PlayStation Eye in order to work. If you're a hardcore gamer, that means you have three sensors hooked up to your television to keep everything in working order.
As someone who makes a living playing games, this is a problem I've wrestled with, but I'm not sure how widespread a problem it is among the rest of the gaming population. Just in case there is a market here, dreamGear has announced the TriMount, a product that holds all three sensors and clips to your television. This is something you need to see.
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Is our scientists learning to write?
In a recent issue of Science, Cary Moskovitz and David Kellogg consider the way students are taught science and science writing in laboratory courses, and whether current approaches really provide the best tools for the job. They conclude that inquiry-based writing might be better than the current approaches—writing to learn (WTL) and writing as professionalization (WAP)—at developing students' skills of scientific inquiry.
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Weird Science enjoys a pint of Guinness more in Ireland
Those pretentious beer snobs may be right: Ever get told that, to really appreciate a Guinness, you have to travel to Ireland? Four researchers took it upon themselves to travel the globe and find out, collecting "data on the enjoyment of Guinness and related factors." The enjoyment of the stout was tested in 71 pubs spread over 14 countries, and the conclusion is that it really is more enjoyable on its home turf, a finding that "remained statistically significant after adjusting for researcher, pub ambience, Guinness appearance, and the sensory measures mouthfeel, flavor, and aftertaste." However, the researchers admit that their study has some limitations, so they're hoping to expand on it a bit.
The illusion of being Barbie: This paper is actually focused on a rather significant cognitive question: what's the ultimate reference point for our visual system? Is it our body, or do we piece together a reference point from our surroundings? It's the method for getting at the question that's a bit weird: the authors used virtual reality goggles to convince people they are the size of dolls—they literally call one of their setups the Barbie doll experiment. Another setup gave people the sense they were giants, up to 13 feet tall. "Our own body size affects how we perceive the world," the authors conclude.
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Week in Apple: defending against patent trolls and Mac Defender
Apple acknowledges Mac Defender malware, promises software update: After avoiding making any public acknowledgment of the recent Mac Defender malware, Apple has posted a support document that instructs users how to remove the program. The company also promised a software update that will automatically remove it.
New Mac Defender malware variant drops admin password requirement: There's a new variant on the Mac Defender malware that appears to be making its way around the Mac-using community. It's called Mac Guard, and this time, you don't have to enter your admin password for it to install.
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Week in gaming: Bioshock Infinite, Modern Warfare 3
This week we had a lengthy early look at both Bioshock Infinite and Modern Warfare 3, and we explained why we're excited for Battlefield 3. We learned that Minecraft is coming to the Xperia Play as a timed exclusive, and Duke Nukem went gold.
There is also the small matter of a disfigured doll's head we received in the mail. This has been quite an exciting week.
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Week in tech: civilizing the Internet edition
Doctors and dentists tell patients, "all your review are belong to us": An organization called Medical Justice is encouraging doctors and dentists to use copyright law to censor their patients' online reviews. We found one of their clients in the wild and report on what we learned.
Smartphone, the abridged version: Ars reviews the HP Veer: The latest entry for the webOS platform, the HP Veer, is an unusually compact sliding smartphone with a 2.6-inch screen. Ars goes hands on to see if it how it fits into a field filled with competitors of greater size and power.
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