Nintendo presser: 3DS analog add-on, and possible 100 hour Zelda
One day ahead of the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo held a press conference where it revealed new details about the 3DS, including new features, new games, and a $20 peripheral that adds a second analog nub. Oh, and Kid Icarus has been pushed back to next year and Skyward Sword could takes dozens of hours to complete.
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No Beatles for you! EU adds 20 years to music copyrights
It took three years of doing, but the music industry has finally won its European battle to lock up in-copyright sound recordings for another 20 years. Looking forward to The Beatles' music entering the public domain as the 50-year copyright terms expires? Not going to happen.
The Council of the European Union, where the various member state governments all have a say, voted yesterday (PDF) without discussion to increase the copyright term in sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. Small countries like Belgium, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden voted against the extension, but it passed anyway.
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Liveblog: Microsoft previews Windows 8 at BUILD
Microsoft's hotly anticipated BUILD conference kicks off Tuesday, September 13, with a keynote expected to focus on the future of Windows 8. We know a little about Microsoft's new operating system already: that it will feature a Metro-style interface similar to Windows Phone 7 and that it will be optimized for both touchscreen tablets and traditional desktops and laptops.
Windows 8 will also be the first version of Windows to run on ARM chips in addition to Intel processors, and will feature a faster boot process. Support for USB 3.0 and the inclusion of Hyper-V has been confirmed, while an app store is likely.
Peter Bright and Jon Brodkin will liveblog the keynote here at Ars, which begins at 9am Pacific time, and you can check out the BUILD conference site as well.
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PHD Comics Movie is coming, providing an inside view of science
Earlier this year, graduate students suddenly found themselves deprived of a major source of procrastination when updates of the Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD) Comics suddenly reduced to trickles. The hiatus led to a widespread speculation that Jorge Cham, the creator of the comics, fell victim to (*gasp*) procrastinitis after advocating for the habit over many years through his worldwide speech tour titled "the Power of Procrastination."
PhD Comics is a humorous and point-blank accurate take on the everyday struggles scientists face in grad school that are often hard to explain to people on the outside—like our parents. The comics earned their worldwide popularity soon after Jorge started writing them in 1997 for this exact reason—they finally gave us a way to laugh at ourselves for banging our heads against the lab benches and computer monitors.
While graduate students everywhere were waiting impatiently for a new comic strip, the reason for idleness was soon revealed: Jorge teamed up with some uber geeks at
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Apple's AirPort Express may soon get a speed bump
Apple appears to be on the verge of releasing an updated AirPort Express base station, possibly adding some of the same improvements recently made to the Airport Extreme. Third-party resellers have begun noting that their current stock of AirPort Expresses have been discontinued, and one source speaking to AppleInsider claims knowledge of a second-generation device.
Both Amazon and DataVision show the current AirPort Express 802.11n, model number MB321LL/A, as being unavailable—the first sign that an update is imminent. Additionally, AppleInsider's source says that Apple is about to release AirPort Utility 5.6 (the current version is 5.5.3), and the software refers to a second-generation AirPort Express 802.11n.
It's not the most exciting evidence, but that's about as straightforward as it can get. No details were given as to when Apple might release the software or hardware updates, nor were any details given on which parts might be updated.
Apple released updates to the Airport Extreme and Time Capsule in June of this year; at the time, it was unclear what was different about the new devices, but a thorough review by Anandtech revealed that both devices had much faster WiFi throughput and range than their predecessors. The logical assumption to make would be that the soon-to-be-updated AirPort Express will get those same WiFi improvements—as noted by MacRumors, similar references to the updated Time Capsules and Airport Extremes popped up in the AirPort Utility before the devices' public release.
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Forza 4 Interview: Turn 10 talks UGC, strain, and hints at tracks
A new installment of Microsoft's marquee car franchise, Forza Motorsport, is set to arrive in October. We've not had a chance to turn any laps in Forza Motorsport 4 yet, but in anticipation of a full review in the coming weeks, I spoke with Dan Greenawalt, Lead Game Designer at Turn 10, about the studio's latest arrival and the nuts and bolts of making a driving sim.
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Feature: The quest for the golden Nintendo game
One Friday afternoon in 2010, Pat Contri got the Facebook message of every video game collector's dreams. A friend who worked at the local game store started texting him cryptic photographs of something a customer had just traded in.
He stared at the blurry, gray-and-green pictures. What at first looked like a row of shelves, he eventually realized, was a close-up of several exposed DIP switches. Just then, like a Tetris block dropping neatly into place, it clicked. Contri slammed his finger on the "Call" button.
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Apple: Google acquisition means Motorola lost its patent rights
Apple has filed motions to stay two of its Android patent lawsuits against Motorola, arguing that Motorola has lost its patent rights because of its pending acquisition by Google.
Apple sued Motorola because of similarities between its Droid smartphones and Apple’s iPhone, but that was before Google decided to spend $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola, a pending merger that would make Google owner of one of the largest smartphone manufacturers and 17,000 mobile patents.
According to patent watcher Florian Mueller, Apple filed stay motions on Friday, claiming that Motorola Mobility has already ceded control over its patents to Google.
“Motorola has ceded control of the most basic rights regarding the patents-in-suit,” Apple’s lawyers wrote in a court filing, according to Mueller. “Absent Google's consent, Motorola cannot: (1) sue for infringement of its patents in any new action; (2) settle pending litigation (including this case) that would require a license to any of its patents; (3) license or sublicense its patents except in limited circumstances relating to the sale of Motorola’s products; (4) assign its rights in its patents; and/or (5) grant a covenant not to sue for infringement of its patents.”
Apple further argues that Google also lacks standing to enforce the patents, Mueller writes. Instead, "Google only has the right to veto actions taken by Motorola with respect to the patents," Apple argued. Apple's stay motions concern one lawsuit filed by Motorola and another filed by Apple, Mueller writes.
Google says its acquisition of Motorola is expected to close by the end of 2011 or early in 2012, pending regulatory review. For Apple, Motorola is just one of its targets in an ongoing effort to stifle Android-based competitors based on intellectual property lawsuits. Most recently, Apple was able to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Tab in Germany because it allegedly infringes upon iPad patents.
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Review: ViewSonic makes 3D easy with new console-friendly monitor
Marketing 3D products has always been an interesting challenge, since you can't see the 3D effect without actually using the product. If you want to see just how clumsily companies deal with this, look at the promotional image of the ViewSonic V3D245 that opens this article. Images do not fly off the screen, and they certainly do not appear past the boundaries of the screen. I get that it's supposed to feel that way, but there still must be a better way to get your point across.
That being said, ViewSonic wants to make you a deal. If you give them $500, they'll give you a 24" monitor for your PC and gaming consoles that does 3D like a champ. There is nothing extra to hook up, nothing to be added; it's an all-in-one solution that does 3D as well as anything I've seen on the market. At $500, this display isn't cheap, but the quality is such that you'll be happy about spending the money.
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Separating a single photon from the flock
Measurements are funny things sometimes. It is, on the whole, pretty easy to detect light. It is even pretty easy to detect single photons. But a single photon has very little energy in it, so a single photon detector can't easily distinguish between one photon or two photons. Instead, the experimenter needs to arrange things such that only a single photon is around at any one time. Likewise, in a large light field, it is very difficult to selectively remove just a single photon with any certainty.
Riding to the rescue comes the weirdness of quantum mechanics. A group of researchers has shown that by carefully coupling lasers together, an atomic gas can be set up to absorb just a single photon. And that absorption can be efficiently detected with a third laser.
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Authors' Guild sues universities over book digitization project
With the planned settlement between Google and book publishers still on indefinite hold, a legal battle by proxy has started. Google partnered with many libraries at US universities in order to gain access to the works it wants to digitize. Now, several groups that represent book authors have filed suit against those universities, attempting to block both digital lending and an orphaned works project.
The suit is being brought by the Authors' Guild, its equivalents in Australia, Quebec, and the UK, and a large group of individual authors. Its target: some major US universities, including Michigan, the University of California system, and Cornell. These libraries partnered with Google to get their book digitization efforts off the ground and, in return, Google has provided them with digital copies of the works. These and many other universities have also become involved with the HathiTrust, an organization set up to help them archive and distribute digital works; the HathiTrust is also named as a defendant.
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Android 2.3 Gingerbread coming to Atom—after Ice Cream Sandwich arrives
According to a slide in an Intel video, the chipmaker intends to officially support Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) on its Atom E6XX series of processors. The slide says that the port is coming in January, 2012. The move will make it easier for hardware vendors to ship Android on Atom-based devices.
The ability to run Android on Intel chips isn't new. A community-driven Android x86 project, which first emerged in 2009 and offers unofficial builds that are fairly mature, already has a Gingerbread test release available for download. Google is also planning to support Android on x86 to a limited extent in order to accommodate Atom-based Google TV products, which are reportedly going to get a full port of Honeycomb soon.
What makes the news of Intel's official Gingerbread support puzzling, however, is that the platform will soon be deprecated. Eric Schmidt recently revealed that Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS), the next major version of Google's mobile operating system, will launch in October or November. This version of the operating system is designed to work across multiple form factors, including tablets and phones.
Intel's plan to launch Gingerbread support on Atom a few months after the ICS release makes the company seem behind the curve. It's possible that Intel is simply not among the favored few who are given early access to the source code by Google.
Another interesting detail that surfaced in the video is the inclusion of MeeGo in Intel's platform lineup. Intel recently reaffirmed its commitment to the MeeGo platform amid rumors that it planned to discontinue its MeeGo development efforts. The slide describes MeeGo as being suitable for a wide range of devices and "perfect" for any developer. Other platforms shown in the list include Windows 7, Windows Embedded, and Fedora. The slide lists Windows XP alongside other Windows variants and uses the anachronistic "Fedora Core" branding to describe Fedora, so it's possible that it's partly based on outdated information.
Intel is still struggling to deliver an Atom chip with a low enough energy footprint for smartphones and competitive tablets. Atom chips are currently used in netbooks, set-top boxes, and other similar hardware applications.
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Natural CO2 seeps suggest carbon storage is low risk
Progress toward limiting carbon emissions continues to be slow, which has helped maintain interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS). This approach involves separating out carbon dioxide from other gasses, often directly from the exhaust stream of a fossil fuel power plant. This gas can then be pumped under ground for storage on time scales that can exceed thousands of years. In some cases, chemical reactions make the sequestration essentially permanent, but in others, geological features will be counted on to trap the CO2.
The potential for leaks from this storage has raised safety concerns, with some pointing to the Lake Nyos disaster in which about 1,700 people were killed by an eruption of CO2 from a volcanic source. How large a risk could carbon capture and storage pose? To get a greater feel for the typical situation, a group of Scottish researchers looked at Italy, where naturally occurring carbon dioxide seeps are common.
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Report: iOS 5 golden master at end of Sept. for Oct. iPhone 5 launch
Already in its seventh developer beta, iOS 5 is supposedly scheduled to reach golden master status—the official version which will be available to end users—during the last week of September. This latest tidbit comes from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who believes Apple will unveil what is essentially an updated iPhone 4 model in mid-October.
According to a research note supplied to MacRumors, Kuo said that Apple's contracted iPhone assemblers, Foxconn and Pegatron, are set to receive the final version of iOS 5 between September 23 and September 30. This version will supposedly be flashed on to existing iPhone 5 units that have already begun production, allowing for the devices to roll out around mid-October. The information aligns with some previous rumors that pegged the device to ship in the same time frame.
Also, according to Kuo, supply chain checks haven't revealed any evidence of a rumored new form factor. Instead, all evidence supports our belief that the next-gen iPhone will be largely the same as the current device with a few minor changes. The iPhone 5 will continue to use a 3.5" Retina display, and will likely retain the full glass front and back. Upgrades are expected to include an A5 processor with 512MB of RAM—the same as the current iPad 2—and an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera.
While analysts are often wrong in their prognostications, the firm date for the expected golden master release of iOS 5 has piqued our interest. While Apple only promised a "fall" release for iOS 5 in June, this seems to be the closest we have heard of a final release date, and it makes sense. Apple is currently releasing beta updates to Mac OS X 10.7.2, iTunes 10.5, iOS 5, and iCloud on a regular basis. All these pieces of software will have to be ready and vetted to launch iOS 5 and ostensibly an updated iPhone.
Apple has yet to send out invitations to the media for what had become an annual early September announcement of new iPod models. Such an event seems the most likely time to announce a new iPhone as well. However, it looks as though it won't happen until late September or even October this year—when iOS 5 is in final form and ready to show off to the public.
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Microsoft BUILD: what we expect to see about Windows 8 this week
After months of rumors, speculation, sneaky peeks, and anticipation, Windows 8 will have its first truly public outing this week at Microsoft's BUILD conference in Anaheim, California.
BUILD replaces Microsoft's previous PDC developer event. Though PDC was most often held in Los Angeles, the move to Anaheim is a historical reference to 1993's PDC event: 18 years ago, Anaheim was where Microsoft first showed Windows 95 to the world. Windows 95, with its radical new UI, revolutionized Windows and became the product that enabled Microsoft to attain a nigh unassailable monopoly on desktop computing. Microsoft hopes that Windows 8, described by the company as its "riskiest" product yet, will be just as important a milestone. Windows 8 will be the platform used for desktops, tablets, TVs, and beyond.
So what can we expect to see out of BUILD?
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Available Tags:Nintendo , Windows 8 , Microsoft , Windows , Google , Motorola , ViewSonic , 3D , Android , iPhone 5 , iOS , iPhone , Windows 8 ,
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