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August 1st, 2006, 19:32 Posted By: wraggster
Apple may think that future of iPod control lies in a virtual, on-screen scroll wheel, but we know better. As it turns out, the best way to change tracks, adjust the volume, etc. is by attaching your DAP to an...umbrella? Well, it may not actually be the perfect input method (or even in the top 10), but the homemade iBrella (in white, of course) certainly takes Apple's suggestion to "think different" to a whole new level. The makers of this strange device crammed a two-axis accelerometer, Hall-effect sensors, and a gyroscope into the handle of a standard umbrella, and using a PIC microcontroller programmed with the so-called iPod Mini Protocol, were able to translate the sensors' motions into commands that the 'Pod can understand. So, opening and closing the iBrella will play / pause the current track, while rotating the handle could either tweak the volume or change songs, depending on what mode it's in (mode changes are achieved by stabbing the umbrella skyward). There are obviously a thousand reasons why this device is completely impractical -- especially if you happen to be using it in the rain -- but we prefer to concentrate on the innovative design rather than the lack of real-world applications; after all, it's the seemingly useless projects that often inspire folks to go out and build stuff that really will make a difference.
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August 2nd, 2006, 15:28 Posted By: wraggster
Thought you could slip one past us, didn't you Apple, just like you did with BAPco? Well, let's be fair, it wasn't entirely a low profile day for Khronos, the media software consortium that Apple just joined today along with the likes of Dell and Google (among others), and we do know it's not so much like insular Cupertino to lower the drawbridge and send out envoys to industry groups with goals as nebulous as creating open APIs for the "authoring and playback of rich media on a wide variety of platforms and devices." Other Krhonos members of note include, well, just about every major tech company around, but since that also includes names like Symbian, Motorola, Samsung and so on we'll hold on tight to the iPhone angle. Because really, at this point it's just easier than spending yet more time with the tea leaves and divining stick.
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August 4th, 2006, 15:10 Posted By: wraggster
TransGaming Inc. is making its 'Cider' portability engine for Apple's Intel-based Macs available to Windows game developers. The software promises to let Windows games run on Intel Macs without Windows or Apple's Boot Camp. 'Cider works by directly loading a Windows program into memory on an Intel-Mac and linking it to an optimized version of the Win32 APIs,' the company claims. Cider is a software for game developers, not end-users. Cider-enhanced games are scheduled to appear as soon as October. If Cider works well, will there be any more Mac-specific game development? And if not, will it matter
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August 4th, 2006, 16:48 Posted By: wraggster
S60SpotOn is a small, freeware program which keeps the display backlight tuned on on S60 3rd Edition smartphones. New version 0.04 also lets you control the LED Flash of your phone's camera so that you can use your phone as a torch.
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August 4th, 2006, 16:52 Posted By: wraggster
Squidge posted this news:
Got a bit of time on my hands tonight, so I thought I'd look at sweetlilmre's Grodo. I've optimized it slightly:
Now instead of :
50 fps without sound (fs0), 25 fps with sound (fs1)
It's:
75 fps without sound (fs0), 65+ fps with sound* (also fs0)
You could say many games play a little too fast Best use the frame rate limiter to keep the speed closer to 50 fps (it's on by default).
* = in game speed whilst playing music/sound effects. When a game isn't running, expect over 70 fps.
Also, I've added a user activity simulator, so if you want to watch some C64 demos or whatever, the LCD doesn't dim whilst the emu is running.
Now, as this is a hack, I might have broken something. I've been playing The Last Ninja 2 for the past hour and everything seems fine, but you never know...
*** The archive below contains the executable ONLY - you need to get the other files from an official release ***
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August 6th, 2006, 10:29 Posted By: wraggster
Just when we think these explosive batteries can't get any worse, then you see a PowerBook that looks like it was hit with a high powered explosive charge -- which, in a manner of speaking, it was. This unit was apparently a year old and wasn't even powered at the time it, um, went off -- 6:00AM. Talk about your rude awakenings. So please, people, learn from this rash of Li-ion explosions: you lessen your chances of battery combustion by returning them wherever possible, so return your frickin defective batteries, ok?
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August 6th, 2006, 22:54 Posted By: wraggster
Reesy has ported his awesome Megadrive emulator over to the GP2X, heres what he posted:
Hi,
As a lot of you know already, zektor kindly donated his old Gizmondo to me. In return I promised to port DrMD to the Gizmondo. I'm a man of my word, so I'm pleased to announce that I'm releasing DrMD for the Gizmondo. I'm using the same code base as the GP2X version, so I shall be keeping the versioning as it is. So the first Gizmondo release of DrMD is version 5 beta 6.
Just in case you do not have a clue what DrMD is.....DrMD is a Sega Megadrive/Genesis, Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear emulator.
This version include the new cyclone core from Notaz and hopefully I've also fixed the save state problem which is currently in beta 5.
I've haven't had chance to test everything but its now in a stable enough condition to make a release, obviously if you have any problems please let me know.
I've included a readme which has some instructions on how to install and configure DrMD. Setting up your default rom directories is a bit fiddly but I'm sure you will all cope.
Have fun
Reesy
P.S I forgot to mention in the readme but the full screen mode for Master System and Game Gear do not give you full screen. I'm still looking into the best way to do this on the Giz, so at the moment the options are there for completeness only.
Also I've forgotten to thanks sweetlilmre for creating the SDL port, thanks for that it made porting a hell of a lot more easier and also to Kingcdr for releasing his SDK which has helped enormously.
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August 7th, 2006, 17:08 Posted By: wraggster
GSMMon by Carsten Knuetter is a GSM network monitor for Nokia 9300(i) and 9500. GSMMon can also show your position in the German O2 network, in some regions of the German T-Mobile network and in the Köln/Düsseldorf/Ruhr area of the German Vodafone network. GSMMon is a freeware program written in OPL.
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August 8th, 2006, 17:48 Posted By: wraggster
Final Fantasy developer and Japanese publishing giant, Square Enix is moving into the hardware market, according to translated reports from Japanese news outlet Nikkei Business Online.
Speaking to the news outlet, Square Enix president Yoichi Wada spoke on the importance of creating games that differ from tradition, citing the Nintendo DS and Apple's iPod as examples. "The strategy behind Nintendo and the iPod, to create a new environment based on hardware, is completely valid," he said. "But, this is impossible if you don't have experience making hardware. This is one of the reasons Square Enix will collaborate with Taito, a company that produces physical hardware."
Square Enix completed its acquisition of Taito in September last year, but Wada had nothing to offer on the eventual hardware the two will be releasing, other than it being "not the sort of thing you expect from Square Enix."
But we wouldn't get too excited about a full-on Square Enix console just yet; the company has recently committed significant resources into mobile development, and has also announced plans to move into content delivery platforms for mobile phones. Whatever Square Enix's hardware plans turn out to be, our guess is they'll likely be mobile related.
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August 8th, 2006, 18:24 Posted By: wraggster
Great article from Modojo, heres an excerpt:
Ever since it was revealed, Nokia's N-Gage has been the butt of jokes from gamers all across the world. From its awkward, taco-shaped style, to the dorky side-talking design, the N-Gage seemed destined to fail before it even hit the market. But even with a system redesign, and Nokia's determination to succeed and appeal to gamers, the N-Gage was simply unable to make its mark. Now, after nearly three years since its debut, the N-Gage platform has finally died, with support dropped not only by third parties, but from Nokia themselves. While Nokia still has plans for the N-Gage name (something that should resurface in 2007) the poor old N-Gage as a closed platform has all but been abandoned.
However, many gamers have found that the best time to give a system a chance is during its death throes. The N-Gage is no exception. The system initially failed because there were far too many dry spells during the systems lifespan, with only a little over 50 games released for the platform over the course of three years. It was easy to see why being an N-Gage owner didn't always seem like a smart decision. But now that the system has shown everything it has to offer, the laggards can finally move in on a quality piece of equipment while losing little out of their wallets.
Why the N-Gage you might ask? It might be hard to look at what appears to be an outdated electronic with all the new flashy gaming devices now in days. For one thing you have the DS (and more recently the DS Lite) continuing to "wow" gamers with innovative game design, and then Sony is making their mark by providing gamers with a console-like experience on the go. Heck even the archaic Game Boy was given a sexy redesign with the Micro.
So where does Nokia fit in? Like most mobile games you find on phones, the game design often revolves around the idea of "pick up and play" format. Rather then being engaged with a massive and deep story line in, say, Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth or complicated and complex control schemes such as Metroid Prime Hunters, the majority of the N-Gage library is built around being able to play a quick five minutes of gaming while, for instance, sitting in a waiting room for your doctor's appointment. This instant gratification is becoming scarce on the current handhelds (to a lesser extent with the GBA). That's not to say the N-Gage doesn't have deep titles however - even with a small library of games you can get the best of both worlds.
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August 8th, 2006, 19:08 Posted By: wraggster
The gameboy emulator for the Ipod has been updated, heres whats new:
New Configuration Menu Fixed scaling on Nano changed keyhandling for 3g and mini1g ...
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August 9th, 2006, 20:35 Posted By: wraggster
Given that the WWDC was pretty much a flop for anything iPod or portable media related, we present to you more and more iPod accessories to feed that need until Apple gets off their lazy asses to give us something new. Logitec—note the lack of the "h" at the end—has released the LDS-Ri700 iPod speaker dock. It has a DBSS for bumpin' and thumpin' along with a AM/FM radio, LCD screen, alarm clock and TV-out for use with the video iPod. Should be available later this fall for around $170,
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August 10th, 2006, 04:41 Posted By: Wally
iPod Linux is an open source venture into porting Linux onto the iPod, it is based on uClinux's kernel.
iPod linux features additional applications which have not been written for Apple's Firmware.
It is safe to install on 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation iPods, Development is currently underway for the later iPods with click wheel, mini, U2, Photo/ Color, Nano and Video.
A list of compatible ipods can be found here
To Download click the link that corresponds to your Operating System
Windows Installer
Mac OS X Installer (0.4b R4 alpha)
Linux x86 Installer
Linux AMD64 Installer
Note: Debian/Ubuntu users must install the libpng3 library (apt-get install libpng3) before attempting to run the installer as it is not installed by default.
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August 12th, 2006, 17:43 Posted By: wraggster
I have now given the control of the former Ipod site to Wally who will turn this into a Killer Apple site covering all things apple related including Macbook and Ipod etc.
The new url is now http://apple.dcemu.co.uk which is now fully working.
If you can help wally then please do 
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August 13th, 2006, 01:35 Posted By: wraggster
Reesy has released a new version of his Genesis/Master System and Game Gear Emulator for the Gizmondo, heres whats new:
Hi,
DrMD v5 beta 7 has been released. This version adds an option to choose which type of control pad you are using. You can choose from a 3 button pad or a 6 button pad. The reason for this additional menu option is because 6 button support does not work correctly on all games.
Altered Beast and Fantastic Dizzy should work correctly if you use 3 button mode. There may be other games that are affected. If you see sprites that do not appear to be animated correctly, it may be that the game you are using doesn't like the way the 6 button pad is currently emulated. Try switching to 3 button mode and see if it makes a difference.
By default 3 button mode is enabled, so be warned.
Oh and I've also removed the 44100Hz sound mode again from the MD options screen. I had enabled it again while I was testing but in the end I could not get it working. Unfortunately I forgot to remove the menu option before I made the last release.
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August 14th, 2006, 18:54 Posted By: wraggster
Paris-headquartered mobile games publisher Gameloft has announced the signing of a new multi-year, multiple title deal with Touchstone Television, for the development, publishing and distribution of mobile games based on two cult TV series.
Scheduled for release early in 2007, Gameloft will be bringing the mystery and drama of J.J. Abrams' Lost to the mobile platform. Lost details the exploits of a group of strangers thrust together and fighting for survival on a strange and dangerous island; characters are haunted by the events of their past lives and must strive to unravel the secrets of their subconscious and those of their fellow survivors.
Desperate Housewives is the second television property secured under the terms of the new deal. A huge hit in both the US and Europe, the show focuses on the darker side of suburban life, adding a little humour and intrigue to the complex relationships of family and friends in middle America.
Gameloft president Michel Guillemot commented: "Gameloft is proud to partner with ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television to bring the popular Desperate Housewives and Lost series to mobile gamers. We are excited to develop and deliver games based on these shows to over 1 billion mobile users worldwide."
"Both Lost and Desperate Housewives have loyal and dedicated fans, and we are excited to be able to bring them more ways to interact and engage with their favourite shows and characters," added Bruce Gersh, ABC Entertainment and Touchstone Television's SVP, business development.
"We look forward to working together with Gameloft to develop games that capture the defining essence of each show."
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August 17th, 2006, 17:33 Posted By: wraggster
This is pretty crazy, given that Apple's asshole puckers up tighter than a snare drum regarding statements about future products. The DigiTimes is reporting that Apple Taiwan has dismissed the claims of the future iPod having Wi-Fi capabilities—kind of. They originally said that Apple is sending staff to the major markets in Asia to teach retailers how to demo the product. This was the claim that Apple promptly denied.
So in all reality, it is still a possibility for the next-gen iPod to have Wi-Fi capabilities, but highly unlikely in my opinion. They have enough battery-life problems as it is and they are no way ready to tackle the power-sucking Wi-Fi adapters. But really, does it even matter if it has Wi-Fi? Probably not, because we will all buy the next-gen iPod anyway.
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August 17th, 2006, 20:12 Posted By: wraggster
ScreenSnapS60 by TerraMobilis is a freeware screenshot application for S60 3rd Edition allowing to take screenshots in different capture modes (single shot, multiple or continuous shots) and save them in a variety of file formats (JPEG, BMP, PNG, MBM) and qualities (JPEG quality 1...100, true color, 8 bits). It is possible to set delay and interval times, customise the notification message (visual message and/or tone), define the number of shots, configure the shortcut keys, specify memory location, and more.
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August 17th, 2006, 22:40 Posted By: zodttd
Hi everyone!
GREAT NEWS!
I have the dynamic recompiler for ARM based psx4all ports working!
It's fully functional, including cache and register mapping.
As soon as I get my GP2X it should be ready for a release!
By tests on the Gizmondo, the dynarec currently doubles the speed of most games. There is still lot's of optimizations that can be done. This includes recompiling the GTE (math for 3D games) which currently slows things down for the recompiler. So 3D games aren't seeing their full potential yet, but soon it will be. Regardless, performance increases are noticable!
Ports of psx4all that's next release will use the dynarec include: GP2X, Gizmondo (PocketPC), Sharp Zaurus, and possibly PalmOS.
I have selected one specific person to help get the dynarec up to speed for it's release, as there's some cosmetic things to work out. I'm sure he'll be updating everyone shortly with performance reports. smile.gif
So what started out as a quick project on the Tapwave Zodiac with dreams of being a PSX emulator for handhelds, has now received the dynarec it's needed. Thanks everyone for your support!
ZodTTD
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August 18th, 2006, 17:34 Posted By: Hungry Horace
theli posted this on the World of Spectrum Forum.... i figured it would be of interest here.
if anyone interested in spectrum emulator on audio player ....
i've recently ported spectemu to rockbox
http://www.rockbox.org
and anyone interested in running it on any of these players:
- Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
iRiver: H100 and H300 series
Apple: iPod 4th gen (grayscale and color), 5th gen (Video), Nano and Mini 1st/2nd gen
iAudio: X5 (including X5V and X5L)
is welcome to test it ...
it is currently posted as a patch to rockbox tracker here:
http://www.rockbox.org/tracker/task/5400
pretty cool stuff i thought!
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August 21st, 2006, 03:41 Posted By: Wally
BSNES has a somewhat different purpose to most emulators; it focuses on accuracy over performance. To that end, it does not include any game specific hacks, or idle-loop skipping optimizations commonly found in other emulators. To add to the fun, it uses a cycle accurate hardware emulation. The net result of all this is the highest system requirements of any software I've released to date; those without a G5 class machine need not apply. If you meet the requirements, however, this is the most accurate SNES emulation available on the Macintosh platform.
BSNES requires a minimum of a PowerMac G5 to run. The current release is unlikely to run at full frame rate on anything less than 2.3GHz. Those who do not meet the minimum requirements should be able to run the program anyway by command-clicking the OK button in the system requirements dialog box, but this facility is completely unsupported.
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August 21st, 2006, 03:56 Posted By: Wally
Arnold is an Amstrad CPC/CPC+/GX4000 emulator. It can also emulate the KC Compact, a bootleg CPC clone.
Arnold was originally written by Kevin Thacker. The MacOS port was developed by Richard Bannister. The documentation was written by Jacques Azoulai, with updates and minor tweaks by Richard Bannister. The icons were designed as a special favour to me by PB1400c - thank you very much indeed!
When the CPC was originally developed, the code name of Arnold was used. This is where the name of the emulator comes from.
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August 21st, 2006, 04:02 Posted By: Wally
Boycott Advance is a Gameboy Advance Emulator for Mac OS.
Boycott Advance is not a fast emulator. You will not get consistent full frame rate on this emulator if you do not have a G4 running at at least 600MHz. Boycott Advance is not designed to be a substitute for the real system - if you want to play GBA games, buy a GBA.
Boycott Advance can use a real Gameboy Advance BIOS image, although it is not required. This must be named gbasys.bin and be placed in the Boycott Advance folder. DO NOT ASK ME TO SEND YOU THIS FILE. Note that some games work better with the real BIOS, and some work better without. Your mileage may vary
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August 21st, 2006, 22:22 Posted By: wraggster
In a speech delivered at the Leipzig GC Developer Conference, I-play's Stephane Labrunie has declared that mobile gaming is set to overtake console gaming by the end of the year.
According to Labrunie, mobile gaming "is the definition of a true mass market; it's not a niche market, as is console gaming."
To support this argument, Labrunie pointed to the fact that 48 per cent of mobile gamers are female, while 58 per cent are aged between 18 and 34. Although he conceded that the market "will take time to grow", Labrunie stated that "This market will sell more games on mobile than traditional consoles in 2006."
He went on to quote figures which forecast sales of 1.8 billion game-enabled handsets by 2008. By 2010, the number of paid downloads per year is set to reach 1.7 billion, while gross revenues will rise to US$ 5.9 billion.
However, Labrunie said, there are still problems to overcome. Around 33 per cent of handset owners don't know they can play games on their phones, and while more than 50 per cent have played embedded games or demos, just 5 per cent have actually downloaded a game. In addition, 16 per cent of gamers say pricing is a barrier to downloading more games.
"We have customers, but definitely not enough," Labrunie stated.
"Some have no more credit on their pre-pay card, some do not have time, some don't know how to download games... Trust is a very important factor, because you need to buy in a safe environment.
"If you keep all that in mind, it will help us to build a good strategy to perform well in this business."
Labrunie said that the emergence of new technologies, such as 3G, will help to boost the mobile gaming market. "New technology, from my point of view, is really about faster, easier access to the network... You will have a much more intuitive experience - you will know where to download mobile games, and you will know how to do it."
He went on to encourage designers to "think simplicity, traction and innovation" when creating games, and he also had some advice for fellow publishers: "We need to put the customer in the middle of our thinking. I'm saying that because you have to remember that mobile gaming is not a retail market; it's very much driven by the carrier industry."
Concluding his speech, Labrunie said that "the best is yet to come", reaffirming that "Mobile gaming will be the fastest growing segment of the total videogames industry".
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August 23rd, 2006, 12:44 Posted By: wraggster
You gotta love the litigousness of youth -- especially when there's an iPod involved. A spat over a missing iPod resulted in a lawsuit in Wheaton, Illinois, when 14-year-old Shannon Derrik sued her (now former) friend Stephanie Eick for losing her brand new iPod. It seems that Shannon made the fool mistake of lending her iPod to Stephanie, who decided it'd be a good idea to give back the iPod by leaving it on Shannon's desk rather than waiting for her to return from the restroom to hand it over in person. The iPod managed to disappear -- apparently someone in that classroom had some sticky fingers -- and so Shannon sued for $475 in damages and court fees (she says she did a LOT of babysitting to pay for that iPod). The case was initially tossed because of an improper filing, but it looks like the two girls will finally square off in court in about a month (the word on the street is that they're gearing up for a serious showdown in the cafeteria when school starts up again).
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August 23rd, 2006, 12:46 Posted By: wraggster
Nobody touches Big Brother's Apple's OS until they're good and ready -- not nobody. Apparently not even Apple employees are beyond the long arm of the law, since a few Apple Retail employees have been sacked after being overheard by the Thought Police co-workers while discussing their evil deeds, and were subsequently reported to corporate. Their crime? Downloading the WWDC edition of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that was handed out to developers at the recent keynote and has been popping up on file sharing sites of late. At least five employees have been fired so far, with "dozens" more facing electroshock therapy expulsion. When questioned about their actions, the employees fessed up to the crime, and they seemed to think Apple was in the right for giving them the boot, though they do wonder if they'd still have their jobs if they'd hadn't admitted to downloading Leopard. Guess you'll never know now, eh Honest Abe?
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August 23rd, 2006, 12:47 Posted By: wraggster
So even though Apple's investigation of the Chinese manufacturing plant that's come to be known as "iPod City" found no egregious violations in the working conditions (except for, you know, the long hours, military-like punishments, and not exactly "Cribs"-style living arrangements), at least one major trade union conglomerate isn't all that happy with its conclusions. Speaking to BBC News, the director of human and trade union rights at the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Janek Kuczkiewicz, noted that his organization was "not impressed either by the report or by the findings of Apple." Most troubling to the ICFTU was the fact that only 100 of the over 30,000 employees working at the Foxconn-owned plant were interviewed by Apple's special investigative team; and since the conditions under which the interviews were held is unknown (i.e. were they being watched by supervisors and told to just smile and nod?), Kuczkiewicz stressed that "we have serious reservations about the report." He went on to point out that there are other labor standards such as the freedoms from discrimination, of association, and to bargain collectively that were not necessarily enjoyed by the Foxconn employees. While it's certainly admirable that not everyone is simply lauding Apple for its inquiry and assuming massive changes are underway, it's also important to realize that when doing business in a foreign country, outside corporations don't always have the final say on how things are run; so as much as Mr. Kuczkiewicz would like to see the workers band together and demand $5.15 an hour, we're not sure how well that would go over with the Chinese government. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that manufacturers are driving each other to find cheaper and cheaper labor in order to maintain already thin margins, and when that's the case, even a company as rich and powerful as Apple can do little to create the utopic working conditions that we'd all like to see.
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August 24th, 2006, 01:14 Posted By: wraggster
If you can't beat 'em, sue 'em, right? That's the American way, after all, and it's serving Singapore-based Creative very well. As some may well remember, not even four months ago Creative filed suit against Apple for violating their "Zen patent," which pertained to a hierarchical menu system for portable media players; Apple countersued Creative, and then in the true Jobsian style of raining down on his foes, launched a second suit pertaining to icons and data display and entry in such portable devices. (Apparently two other suits also went down behind the scenes.) Guess those didn't work too well, as today Apple announced they'd be handing over $100,000,000 US (would you look at all those zeroes?) to Creative to license the "technology" outlined in the Zen patent -- the exact amount Creative pledged to spend on advertising against the iPod in 2005. It also looks like Apple scored a deal wherein they'll recoup some of those costs if and when Creative extorts leverages the patent on other media player companies. But perhaps the most bizarre bit of all, Creative seems to be jumping right into bed with Apple now that their spat's over, and is now officially a Made for iPod program partner with iPod accessories expected this year. This abusive relationship is starting to turn a little weird, like divorced parents getting back together or something -- can't we just go back to the days when the two had nothing but vitriol and recrimination for one another? Still, gotta love the vaguely optimistic spin Jobs put on the sitch: "Creative is very fortunate to have been granted this early patent..." Yeah, we'd say you're damned right, Steve.
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August 24th, 2006, 13:01 Posted By: wraggster
New from Divineo China comes an excellent Ipod lookalike with MP4 capabilities and much more, heres the full Details:
Main Features:
- Built- in Memory: 2GB
- Display: 128x128dots 65536 color liquid crystal display
- ID3: 16 Multi Language
- Equalizers: Normal, Rock, Jazz, Classic, Pop, Bass
- Play Mode: Intro, Normal, Repeat One, Repeat All, Shuffle, Shuffle Repeat, Random
- FM Frequency Range: 76 Mhz -96 Mhz / 87.5Mhz – 108.0MHz
- FM Recording: Ready
- Digital Voice Recording: MP1/ MP2 /MP3 / AMV support ( MP4 movie )/ WMA / WMV / ASF / WAV
- Digital Voice Recording: ACT/ WAV
- Power Supply: 3.7V Li-Polymer Battery
- Connection: High speed USB 2.0
- Supported OS: Windows 98/ 2000/ ME/ XP / Mac OS 10.3 / Linux 2.4.2
- Dimension(cm)g: 4cm x 9cm x 0.8cm (g)
- Firmware Upgradeable: Ready
- Lyric Display: Ready
- S/N Ratio: > 85dB
- Output: 5mW + 5mW (32 OHM)
- Frequency Range: 20Hz – 20KHz
- Encoding Format: 5Kbps – 320Kbps
Accessories (included):
Earphone, USB Cable, Install CD, Manual, Line-in cable, USB adaptor connector, Warranty card
Looks an excellent Device and cheap at only $79.99 too. More info at Divineo China
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August 25th, 2006, 16:14 Posted By: wraggster
The UK is poised to drop that crazy law that legally prevented people from using FM transmitters to send their iPod's buttery beats to their radio, so Britons will need to start shopping around for the myriad FM transmitters, the most promising of which is the iCast from iStuff. Given the official seal of approval from the UK's Ministry of Truth (or whomever), the iCast plugs right into the iPod's headphone jack, so it should work on other, non-iPod DAPs, too.
The iCast is capable of transmitting music between the frequencies of 88.1 MHz and 107.9MHz and is powered by a single AA battery (or you can plug her into the cigarette lighter).
More info
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August 25th, 2006, 17:33 Posted By: wraggster
MyUAE is a Palm OS (and works on Tapwave Zodiac) port of E-UAE, the Amiga emulator. MyUAE is written in C and needs CodeWarrior to compile. It needs PalmOS 5.0 or better and a fast processor. MyUAE supports sound, a virtual keyboard and a configurable button assignment.
Heres whats new
removed debug output
number of drives selectable
Cloanto kickstart support (put the keyfile as "rom.key" in the MyUAE folder)
Download Here
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August 26th, 2006, 10:56 Posted By: wraggster
So apparently Pioneer's shooting their mouth off about their new DEH car stereo system with Bluetooth, which apparently will work wonderfully with the Bluetooth adapter they claim Apple has planned for the iPod. Something tells us that a Pioneer spokesman by the name of Michael Broadhurst either a) doesn't have the kind of access to the information he thinks he does on this one, or b) is about to get in a whole lot of trouble. Either way, we'd wager Pioneer's about to sell some of those $1000 DEH-9850BTs and $800 DEH-P7850BTs to those who think they might be able to get it going wireless with their little white friend, and as always we remain one step behind the elusive wireless / Bluetooth iPod.
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August 26th, 2006, 11:06 Posted By: wraggster
A poster on the Word of Warcraft forums claims that he accidentally dropped his iPod into the toilet of an airplane on a flight to Canada, and one of the stewardesses found it. This then triggered a series of events that lead to an emergency landing, the passengers being evacuated and him spending several hours being grilled by the authorities. At the risk of spoiling the ending, it all turned out allright in the end, but he doesn't say if he took the, erm, soiled iPod back. Personally, I'd just write it off to experience and buy a non-flushed one.
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August 27th, 2006, 08:24 Posted By: wraggster
Zodttd has posted a new build of his port of his Playstation Emulator PSX4all to the Gizmondo, heres whats new:
have sorted out tons of issues with the dynarec, and it's starting to get up to speed. Thanks to Tinnus and Unai I have been busy with lots of ideas on optimizing this crazy code.
Things that are broken in this version:
- Save states do NOT work
- Changing games within the in-game menu do NOT work
- Compatibility might be different than previous releases, most likely theres a portion of games working on beta 2 that won't work on alpha 3.
- Sound is still disabled in this version.
- Interlacing is on by default, there's still small issues with interlacing, besides it decreases visual appeal.
- Some text in some games such as FF Tactics will be hard to read. Unai is working on fixing this.
- FF7 takes awhile to load (black screen on boot for about 1 minute) but it works. It's just skipping a splash screen. smile.gif
- The framerate indicator is on by default so...
*** VSyncRate gives the number of frames being displayed a second! ***
*** Framerate isn't the FPS, it shows how many *unique* frames are displayed a second ***
*** The FPS is BETWEEN the Framerate and VSyncRate ***
It's hard to give a good accurate FPS since we are using optimizations for only drawing frames if they changed since the last blit.
If you make a video of psx4giz in action, you might want to disable the Performance Stats in the in-game menu.
Let me know how this version handles. The more info, good or bad, on it the better.
Thanks!
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August 28th, 2006, 18:37 Posted By: wraggster
Metaview posted this news
ZHexen2 was updated to version 1.5 on my site: www.metaviewsoft.de. Changes in this version are:
- [FIX] "progs2.dat" was called "progs2.da", added a fix for it (many thx to Thomas Nosutta for testing and reporting this bug)
- [FIX] code update from uhexen2 repository
- [FIX] allows to restart a new game (keydown fixed)
- [FIX] slightly enhanced config file autoexec.cfg, goes into the game directory this config update also brings back an opaque water surface, better then no surface :-) (many thanks to Hans Schmucker for finding some good settings)
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August 28th, 2006, 18:39 Posted By: wraggster
Metaview posted this:
Hi, I've updated Timidity and allow it to be called by the latest 2PlayMe. In 2PlayMe check for applications/Timidity, select "Random" and "continuesly playing" and have a midi jukebox which just sounds great. Look for pointers to Timidity and 2PlayMe on www.metaviewsoft.de
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August 28th, 2006, 18:41 Posted By: wraggster
csalveson posted this news:
just posted a new theme for the Zodiac on the Zodiac Gear Website. It has been a while since I have released a new theme, but I think you will agree that it was worth the wait. I have been getting into Photoshop very heavily lately and you can see the difference in my themes.
I will have some more themes out very soon, probably within the next week or so. Lately I have been very busy so if you could post that the new Zodiac theme is available on the other Zodiac sites you visit, I would appreciate it. I usually post it on most of the Zodiac boards myself, but like I said, I have been very busy.
Let me know what you guys think! Everyone Enjoy.
Carl
More Info
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August 28th, 2006, 19:26 Posted By: wraggster
Hangman by Arjen Broeze is a classic game in which you have to guess a word. With every mistake a gallows is built. The game is over when you guess the word or when you're dangling from the gallows. Hangman is a freeware game written in OPL.
More Info
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August 29th, 2006, 22:18 Posted By: wraggster
On Thursday, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported the first flaming Apple laptop in Japan -- and has thusly begun its official smackdown on Apple. The Associated Press is reporting that Japan's trade ministry has ordered Apple's Japan branch to figure out what the hell is going on with those batteries of theirs by September 5th, or the company could face a fine of up to Ą300,000 ($2,570) under local consumer safety laws -- a make-or-break amount of cash for small-time upstart Apple (unless they're referring to Ą300,000 per day per Apple laptop sold in Japan, which would be, uh, bad). It's still a mystery to us why the trade ministry is going after Apple and Dell directly though, instead of focusing its efforts squarely on the source. Sony and Dell have, of course, been previously dinged in Japan due to Sony's little error (which, as you might recall, affects a combined total of nearly six million batteries worldwide, and don't forget those exploding Vaio batteries, either), so remember Apple, you wouldn't like the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry when it's angry.
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August 29th, 2006, 23:31 Posted By: wraggster
Reesy posted this news/release:
Hi,
I've done a basic port of Squidge's excellent Snes emulator to the Gizmondo. I doubt very much that I will do any more work on it, its just a stop gap until the sound in GizSnes is fixed. This port has pretty good sound on most games but if you try and run any things with mode7 graphics it all goes horribly wrong. Luckily none of the games I want to play use Mode 7 so I'm sorted
Save states work but are very slow, it can take 40 seconds to save a state. I have no idea why and I can't be bothered to find out. Ignore the SRAM menu options, they are disabled at the moment. Currently SRAM is loaded automatically when you load a ROM and it should be save automatically as well, although I have not tested it at all because....yes you guessed it, none of the games that I want to play need SRAM, so once again I am sorted.
Anyway I thought I'd share just in case this can help anyone else out.
Later
Reesy
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August 30th, 2006, 16:58 Posted By: wraggster
ELSPA has published the Java download chart for June, revealing that mobile gamers just can't get enough of ancient falling block games - with EA's mobile version of Tetris still in the number one spot.
There's no change in second or third position, either, where THQ's Worms and Glu Mobile's Sonic the Hedgehog: Part One are holding steady.
For some reason, FIFA World Cup Germany rose up the charts to reach number four during June, while The Sims 2 remained in fifth place.
At six it's Who Wants to be a Millionaire? 2nd Edition, which appears to be on course to repeat the success of its million-selling predecessor. Quiztastic.
Eidos's Championship Manager 2006 is down three places to number seven, followed by movie tie-in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. At nine it's Gameloft's Block Breaker Deluxe, can't imagine what the gameplay's like, while Glu Mobile's Monopoly gives us an opportunity to pull out some clichés by passing go, collecting Ł200 and landing in tenth place.
The mobile games Java download chart is compiled from information supplied by 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone.
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August 31st, 2006, 02:56 Posted By: wraggster
Nokia's N-Gage was the last mainstream video game platform to call it quits due to poor sales, at least until 2007. With that, the recent September issue of Business 2.0 (online article pending) explores the secrets to a successful product launch and cites the N-Gage as failing one of the most important product development metrics: The "Sky Mall" test. That is, if your product can be found in Sky Mall magazine (that poopsky product magazine on planes that you read out of boredom) then don't launch the product if you hope to reach the masses. Generally speaking, "do-all" products with poor messaging are an easy find in the magazine.
So what other gaming products might be found in Sky Mall, and will selling convergence to a large audience ever be easy?
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