Battlefield 3 closed beta launches, servers begin to creak
The Battlefield 3 beta is now live for players who have preordered the game via Origin or have bought Medal of Honor on the PC. Codes have been sent, the servers are getting slammed, and those of us with access have 48 hours to play the game before the beta opens to all comers.
Judging by the reaction on Twitter, there are swarms of gamers descending upon EA's servers, and they've already begun to strain under the load. During my first few minutes with the game, I had an error message, but I was able to join a game on my second attempt. Others are having similar experiences, indicating that, so far at least, Origin seems to be up to the challenge. We'll see how much worse it gets as gamers get home from work and begin to attack the servers en masse.
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Samsung's Galaxy expands with Players and the Tab 8.9
Samsung announced the imminent launch of two handheld media players and a third tablet in its Galaxy line on Tuesday. The Samsung Player 4.0 and 5.0 occupy a similar product space as the iPod touch, while the Galaxy Tab 8.9 is intended to provide more “consumer choice” in form factor when it comes to size and feature arrangement.
The Galaxy Tab 8.9 (named for it’s 8.9-inch screen) runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb, has a 1280x800 resolution, 1.5GHz dual-core T250S processor, and 1GB of RAM, and provides a middle ground between the more standard 7- and 10-inch screen sizes. “One size does not fit all, and that’s why we have choices for the consumer,” said Shoneel Kolhatkar, Samsung’s director of product planning, at a press conference Tuesday. Given that the Galaxy Tab 8.9 outstrips the 10.1-inch and 7-inch versions in specs, though, all entries in the line are not on even footing.
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Microsoft: SSL/TLS attacks highly improbable, but may require patch
Microsoft has issued a security advisory about an exploit that can decrypt SSL and TLS Web traffic. While actual attacks are considered improbable, a security patch to protect Microsoft software is likely on the way.
As noted by Ars last week, security researchers have developed a hacking tool called BEAST, or Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS, which can decrypt “secure Web requests to sites using the Transport Layer Security 1.0 protocol and SSL 3.0.” In the Microsoft advisory released yesterday, Microsoft listed affected software as Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. A patch may be issued either in Microsoft’s usual round of monthly security updates, or in an out-of-cycle update “depending on customer needs.”
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The HeloTC falls short, even for a $50 RC helicopter
Update: I'm being told that this is just a re-branded Syma S107, a $20 product that seems to have unanimously positive reviews in our comments. Save your money and buy one of those with physical controls.
The HeloTC is a $50 remote-controlled helicopter that seems like it would be a good buy. The helicopter itself looks great and is constructed of plastic and metal; this is a much more robust package than other similarly priced helicopters that sport foam bodies. You're also given an extra set of rotors, a charging cable, and a dock so your iPhone can be used as the remote control.
The problems become clear once you start trying to fly the thing, unfortunately.
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Apple sends invites for October 2011 event: "Let's talk iPhone"
Apple has formally announced its upcoming media event after months of rumors and speculation. The event will take place on Tuesday, October 4 at 10am Pacific Daylight Time on Apple's campus in Cupertino—just as the latest rumors predicted—and will be led by Apple's new CEO Tim Cook.
Apple's invitation graphics (shown above) include four iOS app icons (Calendar, Clock, Maps, and Phone) along with the quote "Let's talk iPhone." Apple doesn't usually get this specific when sending out its invitations, but apparently it's trying a new, more direct approach this time around. (As an aside, the icon choices are quite clever. The calendar says October 4, clock says 10:00, map points to Apple's campus, and the phone icon shows one phone call.)
Still, Apple fans are left wondering exactly what may come out of this iPhone announcement. At the moment, it's widely expected that Apple will make iOS 5 available to the public and possibly even roll out an all-new iPhone 5, a slightly modified iPhone 4 in the form of the iPhone 4S, or both at the same time.
There's also some talk of a white iPod touch—a relatively minimal detail that reminds us that the fall event was originally about iPods. What will happen to the rest of Apple's iPod lineup? Will it get rolled into Apple's iPhone announcements from here on out? All we know is that the holiday shopping season is looming and Apple is undoubtedly working to get new products on the shelves in time for Creditcardapalooza, and it's only a matter of time before Apple tells us what's up.
As always, Ars will be at the event to cover the announcements live, so stay tuned for October 4.
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Pro note-takers, take note: hands on with the Lenovo ThinkPad tablet
The ThinkPad tablet is Lenovo’s second recent entry into the tablet space, a professional cousin to the cutesier IdeaPad. Adorned with a stylus and a full complement of ports, the heavy Android 3.1 ThinkPad tablet favors flexibility over portability, but its performance is middling at best when compared to other Android devices.
The ThinkPad doesn’t escape the thick-and-heavy profile that plagues Android tablets. It's not as hefty as the Toshiba Thrive, while still managing to offer up a decent number of ports. The ThinkPad tablet has a soft rubberized back that curves sharply into the front, and is thinner and lighter than the Thrive at 0.55 inches and 1.57 pounds (but still significantly bulkier than the iPad).
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Apple rejected over "multi-touch" trademark application
Apple won't be able to use the term "multi-touch" as part of its patent and trademark arsenal, thanks to a decision handed down by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The organization's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board has denied for a second time Apple's application for the term, reiterating that the term has become generic and now refers to a wide variety of tech involved in the creation of various gadgets.
Apple applied for the "multi-touch" trademark when it first introduced the iPhone to the public at the Macworld Expo in January of 2007. At the time, Apple was one of the only major consumer electronics companies to use the term multi-touch to describe the functionality of its products, but other manufacturers were quick to follow Apple's lead. Today, touchscreen smartphones, tablets and other gadgets can be found everywhere—many, but not all, of them capable of processing more than one touch event at a time—resulting in a pretty broad use of the term multi-touch by just about everyone.
The USPTO denied Apple's original application and Apple appealed, arguing that the term had "acquired distinctiveness" and should only be restricted to Apple's own products. During the appeal hearing, USPTO lawyers discussed the degree of descriptiveness needed in order to keep the term limited to Apple products, but concluded that the term has grown much broader over the last several years and could not be restricted.
"Again, simply because the applied-for term has been used in association with a highly successful product does not mean the term has acquired distinctiveness," wrote the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
This is not to say that Apple doesn't own other intellectual property related to multi-touch functionality, though there has been plenty of debate on that side as well regarding whether some of those patents are too broad (or even too narrow) to be used properly against Apple's competitors.
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Bit.Trip Saga for the 3DS is a hallucinatory journey through rhythm madness
The six Bit.Trip titles were first released for Nintendo's WiiWare platform, where they received critical acclaim, but they failed to take off in the same way as a popular Xbox Live or PlayStation Network game. Nintendo has never been a company to fully support online offerings, so it's great that the games have been collected in both a Wii and 3DS package—called Bit.Trip Complete and Bit.Trip Saga, respectively—so you can buy them all at once without suffering through the Wii's online interface.
Each game plays differently, but the retro aesthetic and mixture of music and graphics brings them all together into a thematic whole. You may be running, playing a psychedelic version of Pong, or even just avoiding colored dots as a growing or shrinking blob, but each game is easy to understand and play. The music is always entrancing, and it syncs up with the action of the screen, making you feel like you're conducting a chiptunes orchestra as you play each game.
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The US Navy goes green with solar and biodiesel
The Clinton Global Initiative is all about forging partnerships between industry and non-governmental organizations, focused on sustainable economic development. It is not the sort of place you'd expect to find a discussion of the challenges of military deployments. Yet this year's CGI meeting featured a talk by someone who spends his days at the Pentagon, as the US Navy's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Thomas Hicks told the audience how the Navy has taken sustainable technology from testing to deployment in six months, and is gearing up to make the largest purchase of biofuels ever.
Saying "We rely too much on foreign oil," Hicks told two parallel tales of how the Navy was pushing ahead with sustainable technology. The first focused on the support of US Marines (ground troops that are part of the Navy) in forward bases in Afghanistan. The electronics that now support the Marines require significant amounts of electric power which, in the past, has meant diesel generators. That, in turn, has meant a series of tenuous ground convoys that start in Pakistan and face frequent insurgent attacks on the way to their destination. The Navy estimates that it costs one life for every 50 of the convoys they run.
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Feature: Tutorial: OS X automation with MacRuby and the Scripting Bridge
Mac OS X provides rich scripting and automation tools that can simplify everyday tasks—if you know how to use them. The roster includes the venerable command line, the graphical Automator utility, and the traditional AppleScript natural-language scripting environment. Although these tools all have value in certain situations, they each have some real limitations.
For instance, AppleScript benefits from extremely tight platform integration and powerful support for manipulating user interface elements, but its eccentric syntax and limited functionality constrain the scope of its applicability. AppleScript simply isn't designed to serve as a general-purpose scripting language.
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Hackers turn MySQL.com into malware launchpad
As if the MySQL community doesn't have enough to worry about, a security firm is reporting that the MySQL.com website has been commandeered by hackers. And recent visitors to the MySQL.com website may have downloaded something other than the database software to their systems.
Web security firm Armorize reported in its blog today that the MySQL.com website has been turned into a launchpad for serving up malware attacks. Visitors to the home page of the site are hit with a JavaScript injection attack that has been planted on the site. The script opens an IFRAME to a malicious site, which in turn launches a BlackHole exploit "pack" that probes for known browser and plugin weaknesses and then stealthily installs malware on the visitor's PC. There's no warning button or action required by the user other than visiting the site to trigger the download.
Security blogger Brian Krebs reports that he had seen a post last week on a Russian hacker forum by a member offering to sell root access MySQL.com for $3,000. The site is owned by Oracle.
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Citrix drops dependencies on Windows to boost XenServer with v6.0
Citrix today released XenServer 6.0 with greater disaster recovery protection that removes dependencies on Windows virtual machines, but Citrix and Microsoft were still able to bolster their virtualization partnership with increased integration between XenServer and Microsoft’s management software.
Although Citrix and Microsoft have a strong virtualization partnership on both the technical and marketing fronts, several improvements listed in the XenServer 6.0 release notes include dropping requirements to use Windows to perform certain tasks.
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Mac trojan pretends to be Flash Player Installer to get in the door
Hot on the heels of last week's Mac malware posing as a PDF is a new piece of malware posing as something even more insidious: a Flash player installer. Security firm Intego was the first to post about the new malware on its blog, noting that although the company has only received one report so far from a user who downloaded it, the malware does exist in the wild and may trick Mac users who don't yet have Flash installed.
The malware in question is a trojan horse called Flashback (OSX/flashback.A); users may end up acquiring it by clicking a link on a malicious website to download or install Flash player. If those users also have their Safari settings to automatically open safe files (which .pkg and .mkpg files are considered to be), an installer will show up on their desktops as if they are legitimately installing Flash.
Continuing through the installation process will result in the trojan deactivating certain types of security software (Intego specifically noted that the popular Little Snitch would be affected) and installing a dynamic loader library (dyld) with that can auto-launch, "allowing it to inject code into applications the user launched." The trojan then reports back to a remote server about the user's MAC address and allows the server to detect whether the Mac in question has been infected or not.
The threat is currently marked as "low," but Mac users are advised to follow safe security practices—don't open files or attachments that you don't remember downloading, and turn off Safari's setting for opening safe files automatically. It's also worth noting that Apple now updates its malware definition file on a daily basis, and has already updated it to address the PDF trojan discussed last week. If you haven't already scoured the Internet for a malicious version of the Flash installer, then it's likely Apple will have added the new malware to the file by the time you run into it.
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Oracle may "fork itself" with recent MySQL moves
Oracle's recent release of three new commercial extensions to the MySQL database has caused an outcry among some in the MySQL community. Some, including project founder Michael "Monty" Widenius, are concerned that Oracle, by moving to an "open core" model, will slowly move more and more of the database project to commercially licensed code—and to licensing terms that make it difficult for users to escape.
Ulf Sandberg, CEO of SkySQL, a year-old firm made up largely of former MySQL AB employees that offers a subscription-based support for enterprise MySQL users that competes with Oracle's, believes Oracle risks cutting itself off from the community by taking more of the project to a commercial model. "We think they might actually 'fork' themselves," Sandberg tells Ars, as the MySQL user base resists signing on for Oracle's more onerous licensing and moves away from MySQL Enterprise toward alternative releases.
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Feature: Masterpieces: Sony's PS3 re-release of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is a must-buy
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are both modern gaming masterpieces. Both have achingly beautiful art direction, subtle but moving stories, and a following that's mortally insulted if you speak ill of either game. Sony has wisely decided to upgrade the graphics and framerates of both titles, to add support for stereoscopic 3D, and to package them together in a ridiculously lush $40 package. Heck, you can even reverse the cover art to make it look classier on your shelf. This is a simple review: you should buy this package.
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Star Wars: The Old Republic finally gets release date, monthly fee details
EA and Bioware announced the release date for Star Wars: The Old Republic over the weekend, and boy are my wife and kids going to be upset when I'm leveling my Jedi instead of doing things like wrapping presents, going to church, or being a passable human being in even the tiniest way. The game is launching on December 20 in North America, and December 22 in Europe.
If you think that's too long to wait, EA offers the following:
Star Wars: The Old Republic is available for preorder now at participating retailers while supplies last. All players who pre-order will receive a redemption code that will unlock Early Game Access, granting them access to the game before December 20, 2011 in North America and before December 22, 2011 in Europe. Pre-order quantities are limited and Early Game Access will only be available to those who pre-order the game and redeem their code before the game’s official release
The game will come with one free month of service, and after that you'll be able to buy more game time at the following prices in North America:
- $14.99 per month
- $41.97 for three months ($13.99 per month)
- $77.94 for six months ($12.99 per month)
You can read our hands-on report from the two days we spent with the game if you're still on the fence. We'll start playing SW: TOR the second the game becomes available and will share our thoughts with you as soon as we can.
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Richard Dawkins' weasels beat random monkeys to Shakespeare's work
There's a classic example of probability that focuses on the question of whether a million monkeys, given a million typewriters, could ever recreate a work of Shakespeare by chance. A programmer from Nevada is now giving virtual monkeys a chance, having them pop out random strings and matching the results against the complete works of Shakespeare. But the details of the work suggest it's not really a demonstration of brute force producing a low-probability result; instead, the system appears to mimic one used by Richard Dawkins to demonstrate the power of evolutionary selection.
Jesse Anderson, who's running the virtual monkeys on a home computer, describes his system using text and video on his site. One thing that's very clear is that he made the challenge a bit simpler than it might have been. Each virtual monkey on his machine only spits out a string of standard ASCII letters—no punctuation, no capitals or digits, not whitespaces. This cuts the potential space he's searching down considerably.
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VMware Fusion 4 hands-on: Lion, Windows 7, Windows 8, and more
Virtualization has long been important for Mac users, especially those who have to manage multiple platforms for their work. With Apple’s small share of the desktop market, virtual machines are a necessity for Mac users who can’t get by without access to Windows applications.
While virtual machine products from the likes of VMware, Parallels, and VirtualBox provide convenient ways to run Windows and other operating systems on your Mac, Apple’s recent upgrade to OS X Lion has the software makers scrambling to ship updates. VMware and Parallels have both released new versions that let Windows applications integrate with Lion-specific features such as Launchpad and Mission Control, and take advantage of Apple’s decision to let users run additional instances of Lion in virtual machines.
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