Friday, April 24, 2009

As of this morning, you can download the brand new Peggle for WoW addon from PopCap's site.

WoW Insider got a chance to play with the add-on from its early beta on, and it's extremely impressive -- not only will you find the usual addictive peg-hitting gameplay that we've come to know from Peggle, but PopCap and creator Michael Fromwiller (whom we interviewed about Bejeweled, and who we're told is actually being hired on full-time at PopCap as soon as he finishes school this spring) have really added a new level to the game by tying it right into World of Warcraft. The game rewards you with "Talent points" that can change the game play itself, and you can challenge other players within World of Warcraft to duels and score battles. There's even a "Peggle loot" setting, which, when used as Master Looter, will let your guildies and friends with the add-on actually take Peggle shots against each other to determine who gets loot drops.

If you've never played the game Peggle you should try it out. It's much more mindless than WoW, but sometimes your mind needs a break while still being entertained. My five-year-old loves Peggle and so do I. You'll love it.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 12:51 PM | 2 comment(s)! |

    Friday, March 27, 2009

    For our young bloggers out there...

    The Youth Bloggers Network is officially joining the Teens in Tech network. They have been communicating with CEO Daniel Brusilovsky of Teens in Tech over the past month or so, discussing the best course of actions for both of their endeavors to take. They decided that by joining forces, their projects could help each other vastly. They figured that YBN and TinT complement each other very nicely. TinT offers a place where teens can get set up with a free blog, while YBN offers a community for young bloggers to collaborate, communicate, and grow their blogs and projects.

    *~*~*

    What is WiMax?

    WiMAX, is the cutting-edge network technology is the successor to Wi-Fi and is presently only open through Sprint to residents of Baltimore. However, that strictly limited availability should expand notably during 2009 and 2010 as communications giant Sprint extends its WiMAX reach to a number of major cities across the country.

    "Sprint continues to lead the wireless industry by harnessing the power of WiMAX," enthused Spring 4G vice president Todd Rowley in an official statement.

    "The availability of Sprint 4G in more places this year and our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G service demonstrates our commitment to provide 4G capabilities and devices nationwide for our business, consumer and government customers," he added. "These capabilities enable significantly enhanced performance and productivity for our customers."

    Specifically, 2009 will see the technology rolled out in Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle, while 2010 will introduce Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington D. C. into the 4G mix.

    *~*~*

    Looking for a BlackBerry Bold but don't want to pay the full price for one? Well, if you're willing to accept a refurbished unit, then AT&T certainly has a deal for you. The carrier is currently offering refurbished BlackBerry Bolds for free, as long as you're willing to commit yourself to a new 2-year contract. Considering that the price of a normal refurbished BlackBerry Bold is $199.99, it's quite a good deal. It seems that this promotion is only valid for a very limited time, so check it out as soon as you can.

    *~*~*

    Intel engineers are detailing the inner-workings of the company's first graphics chip in over a decade at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco--sending a signal to the game industry that the world's largest chipmaker intends to be a player.

    During a conference call that served as a preview to the GDC sessions, Tom Forsyth, a software and hardware architect at Intel working on the Larrabee graphics chip project, discussed the design of Larrabee, a chip aimed squarely at Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit.

    This is "Intel's first many-core architecture," Forsyth said. "The first product will be very much like a GPU. It will look like a GPU. You will plug it into a machine and it will display graphics," he said.

    The centerpiece of the chip's core is the vector unit, used to process many operations simultaneously. "The interesting part of the programming model is the SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) vector unit and the instructions that go with it," he said. "We want to show off this big new vector unit and the instruction set," he added.

    He described what the vector unit can do and how it works with the scalar unit. "(The vector unit) can do 16 floating point operations every single clock. That's a lot of horsepower. Even in just one of these cores--and we have a lot of these cores. So it's a very high-throughput unit. The good thing is that it's independent of the scalar unit. You can issue instructions on the scalar unit and vector unit at the same time. The scalar unit is extremely useful for calculating addresses, doing flow control, doing housekeeping--and keeps all those miscellaneous tasks off the real powerhouse, which is the vector unit."

    *~*~*

    It looks like Blizzard is stirring the pot again for some juicy developments behind the scenes. As some of us probably know, they're currently working on (or at least maybe still in the planning stages) five games. They are, in no particular order:

    * StarCraft II
    * Diablo III
    * a new World of Warcraft expansion
    * a next-gen MMO
    * and a yet to be revealed game

    This last item was first hinted in a statement from Blizzard's COO, Paul Sams, back in 2006. At that time he said, "I wouldn't be surprised to see a new franchise from us at some time in the future; there's certainly a desire to do so."

    Now it seems that we're getting some developments on that new game that they've yet to be revealed. Two new job postings from Blizzard indicate that they're looking for software engineers (one for gameplay, another for client) to work on "an unannounced title."

    rumor has it they are talking with Microsoft about being part of the next-gen Xbox 360, which they want to be more RTS-friendly.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 2:53 PM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Tuesday, March 24, 2009

    Personal savings site BillShrink has a new feature: a gasoline pricing database that directs you to gas stations based on the route you take on your daily commute, not just how close you are to the stations.

    The Web app isn't just for finding prices. It actually helps you plan your refueling stops along the way. You start by telling it about your car and its mileage, and your home and work addresses. You get back a results page that shows you a Google Map of all the gas stations along your route. You can zoom in and out to expand or limit the search area.

    Beneath the map is a listing of all the gas stations BillShrink was able to find, followed by their location, price, and amenities.

    *~*~*

    The PC Gaming Alliance has issued its state of the industry report for 2008 and it makes for interesting reading for those who think gaming is all about consoles like Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

    Here are the highlights:

    The PC is the largest single platform for games with annual worldwide revenue of about $11 billion. This is more than any of the console and portable systems from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

    In emerging markets such as Asia and Eastern Europe the PC has become the de facto platform of choice for games as console systems have not had major penetration in most countries.

    Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) are the leading products for both revenue and profits. Several Asian MMOGs are generating over $100 million in annual revenue after 5+ years on the market. World of Warcraft is generating over $1 billion in annual revenue.

    In 2008, two major new subscription MMOGs (Warhammer Online and Age of Conan) sold over 1 million units at retail.

    *~*~*

    Epson America has just released its new document camera known as the Epson DC-06 which is able to deliver flexibility, ease-of-use and affordability to today's K-12 classroom. This $399 device comes with an easy USB connection which enables educators and teachers alike to hook up to one of the new feature-rich Epson PowerLite 85, 825 and 826W projectors or alternatively, to a computer using included software for easy operation. The Epson DC-06 document camera will come with XGA resolution that allows you to show off detailed reproductions within a 10.7"x 14.3" capture area, making it a snap for educators to share information from text books, journals, models, and even 3D objects to keep students riveted.

    *~*~*

    A few years back, a company called Infinium Labs introduced a new game console, The Phantom. It was going to change the face of PC and video gaming by offering a downloadable catalog of titles available by subscription. It was an aptly named product: The Phantom never shipped.

    Yesterday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, a similar sounding service was announced: OnLive. The major differences between The Phantom and OnLive seem to be that first, OnLive doesn't deliver games to your house, it delivers output (more on that in a minute) and second, OnLine doesn't appear to be vaporware.

    Game publishers could also frequently update their games on OnLive by changing the code running on the servers. If one part of a game is too hard, the publishers can simply patch that part and then everyone will play the new version the next time they log in. Publishers can also pull the plug on games that aren’t selling well without taking a big inventory hit.

    You'd have no control over these changes, since the game doesn't exist in your house. So if you liked that challenging part of the game, you'd lose it (rather than opting not to patch, as you would now).

    *~*~*

    And here is a link to The Ultimate Guide for Everything You Need to Know About Twitter >>

    One of the guidelines is as follows:

    Twitter will allow you to import e-mail lists, contacts from instant messaging services, and you can find your friends on their search engine. The best way to build a list of interesting people is to go to the Twitter search engine at search.twitter.com and plug in your interests. This will then spit tons of people back out at you that you can choose to follow. Twitter will also give you some suggestions for people to follow.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 8:44 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Tuesday, March 17, 2009

    The company that operates World of Warcraft in China, The9, has told the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) that it will go bankrupt unless the game's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is approved by the regulator.

    Reports last week claimed that The9 was having trouble getting the game past the regulators. A substantial sum was paid the the game's developers, Blizzard Entertainment, in April last year to secure the license, and without the sale of the expansion The9 will not be able to recover the cost. An article on JLM Pacific Epoch reports GAPP has said that the issue lies with the game's unhealthy content, which was the same problem faced by WoW's first expansion, The Burning Crusade. This resulted in a delay while the game had to be redesigned to remove some of the scarier aspects, namely covering exposed bones on skeletons and replacing corpses with graves.

    *~*~*

    There has been something of an outpouring of bile directed at NBC for its decision to change the name of the Sci-Fi channel to Syfy.

    "Syf" is the Polish word for "total bloody mess." (It seems to have its roots in the lesions of syphilis.) And "Syfy" would be, well, the plural.

    The Sci-Fi channel doesn't actually present all that much programming that might strictly be defined as science fiction.

    However, I suspect that somewhere beyond the arguments for wanting a name the channel can trademark is an argument that the phrase "science fiction" has become a little old.

    *~*~*

    With DS sales continuing their astronomical climb and people still snagging Wii consoles off of shelves faster than you can say: "Your princess is in another castle," Nintendo's doing pretty well for itself in these difficult economic times. It's doing even better today on news that the lawsuit filed against it two years ago by Fenner Investments has been dismissed. The suit alleged that Nintendo inappropriately infringed on a 1998 patent relating to the monitoring of the position of analog joysticks in the Wii and GameCube.

    *~*~*

    After getting an earful from disgruntled testers of its revamped home page, Yahoo is working on a new incarnation that will dramatically speed up access to e-mail.

    The new home page, code-named Metro and due to launch later this year, will let users customize what they see and install a range of applications. But upon beginning "bucket testing" last September, in which different subsets of Yahoo users are involuntarily presented with variations of the new home page, Yahoo found out it was making it too difficult for people to continue with their accustomed practice of dropping by the page to scan for changes, said Burke Calligan, senior director product management for Yahoo front doors, in an interview at Yahoo headquarters here.

    In particular, people were incensed that it took too many mouse clicks to glance at their e-mail inbox. But changes are coming to fix that, Calligan said.

    "We have moderately addressed it in this round and we're going to radically address it in upcoming testing," Calligan said. "We've rethought the flow and design based on feedback we've gotten from users. I think users will...feel much better about it."

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 8:58 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Thursday, March 12, 2009

    In World of Warcraft: The Undermine, you will be adventuring to the homeland of the Goblins. The future new expansion to be released in last quarter of 2010!

    New continent: Kezan; New playable race: Goblins; New class: Barbarian; and much, much more!

    "A popular possibility for the next expansion after Wrath of the Lich King is either The Undermine or an entire great sea expansion, with The Undermine being one area of the expansion. Undermine is the center of goblin civilization."



    *~*~*

    20 months after acquiring Internet phone services startup GrandCentral for around $50 million, Google's finally re-packaged its technology into a Google-branded product. It's called Google Voice and it launches today.

    Google Voice is currently only available to GrandCentral subsribers. But when it opens to the general public in a few weeks, here's what Google Voice will do:

    Will Google Voice make money? Charging for international calls, it already earns enough to pay for itself, GrandCentral cofounder and Google product manager Vincent Paquet told the New York Times.

    Eventually the service could compete with Skype. But not yet, says RBC Capital Markets analyst Ross Sandler.

    "Skype is light years ahead in terms of video, simultaneous chat and voice, and the installed base is huge," Sandler told the Times. "I don't think they have anything to worry about."

    *~*~*

    A team of MIT scientists have invented a new battery technology that is able to recharge in mere seconds. Best of all, this breakthrough simply enhances traditional lithium batteries - the kind found throughout all manner of rechargeable tech, from mobile phones and MP3 players, up to electric cars - so there's a much better chance of it actually reaching our pockets in the near future.

    The MIT boffins discovered that changes to the surface of the lithium iron phosphate electrode allowed it to absorb ions 100 times faster than normal. The upshot: ultra-fast charging.

    The report of their findings was published in Nature. "The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes," it concluded.

    Finally, we'll be able to crack a shiny new mobile out of its box and play with it straight away without having to wait forever for the battery to charge up. Fantastic.

    *~*~*

    Dell today unveiled the company's first all-in-one PC to bear the Studio badge. The Studio One 19 is more consciously fashionable than the XPS One and has the same basic "hanging" design concept as the iMac. Like the Studio Hybrid, though, Dell lets users customize the Studio One's colors (here the outer frame and wireless input devices). It centers on an 18.5-inch display with a 16:9 ratio, 1366x768 resolution that optionally supports multi-touch input for media playback as well as image, music and video editing.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 8:31 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Tuesday, March 10, 2009

    Shanghai-based online game company The9 reportedly has not won approval from the Chinese authority to operate Wrath of the Lich King in Mainland China.

    After the Spring Festival, The9 again filed an application for the operating right in the mainland. To reach its goal, the company intentionally deleted the game's new contents about death knights and Dalaran. However, the expansion pack still contains contents such as massacre, and the Chinese authority considers them as dangerous.

    Then, rampant rumors arose saying that The9 would postpone the release of Wrath of the Lich King, annoying Blizzard Entertainment, the game's developer, and that both sides broke up in their negotiations on the renewal of their contract relating to the further operation of World of Warcraft (WoW) in the mainland.

    There were some reports that The9 President Chen Xiaowei privately met with top executives of Electronic Arts (EA and Nasdaq: ERTS), talking about operating games of EA. The Chinese company has denied the story, explaining that the localization of the new expansion pack is being sped up.

    In other WoW related news...

    In its first week, Dawn of War II managed to take the PC sales crown from the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. One would've expected Lich King to retake the top spot the following week now that the die-hard fans of Dawn have bought their copies but it seems that scrappy little real-time strategy game's got legs.

    *~*~*

    Microsoft is boldly entering a new category of accessories with the introduction of the USB-powered Notebook Cooling Base, which sports a built-in fan and cooling channel to prevent overheating. The whole thing is just 1.16 inches thick, and there's even a cable management clip if you find yourself in need. As for pricing, you can expect the breezy pad to land this July for $29.95.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 9:21 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Monday, December 3, 2007

    Headline of the morning: Guitar Hero meets Warcraft

    Without reading the article on the ABC news website, I immediately pictured my Blood Elf Mage walking through the Hinterlands with a guitar strapped to her back. I wonder how much armor it would give? I imagine it would definitely increase stamina and spirit. =o)

    This could be the deal of a lifetime for Vivendi SA. The company wishes to acquire a "controlling stake" in Activision, Inc. This would be great for gamers because it will force Electronic Arts Inc. to start competing with another big gaming company.

    In the Blizzard world I would fear taking on Activision might cause patches and expansions for WoW to become even more few and far between. We're already being forced to wait until next December for the "Wrath of the Lich King." But who knows what will happen, it's just a very interesting plan.

    Labels: ,

  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 11:09 AM | 0 comment(s)! |

    Thursday, October 25, 2007

    Holy ethernet batman!

    D-Link's DGL-4500 Xtreme N Gaming Router has a GameFuel Engine to keep your game running smoother. Brian would this help with our latency troubles in WoW? It has Gigabit LAN and WAN ports to power a wired network. AND Xtreme N Duo wireless technology for data transfer rates of up to 300Mbps!

    Product specs say the wireless signal will be just as strong in the basement as it is in the attic. Awesome! I mean with Gigabit ports, high-performance CPU and backward capability you have got to admit this is drool worthy.

    There is even a Network Activity Display to show you what's going on with your router. You can see the securities immediately and you can also see how much is sending and receiving on the display.

    For any of you who ever doubted my nerdiness...you really should have no doubts now.

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  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 9:10 AM | 1 comment(s)! |

    Wednesday, September 26, 2007

    When I first saw this I didn't believe it.

    It's true though, GameGoods, is a website created for gamers who play WoW or other MMORPGs in an online gaming community. And instead of going through killing enemies to pick up their gold, you can buy wow gold using paypal and have it sent to your server and character.

    Me? No, I can't do it. I have far too much fun gaming of my own accord. But sites like this only exist if people can profit and take advantage of buying their game money on the sly.

    If you're not familiar with WoW, then you might be wondering what the big deal is, but wow gold can be used to buy items, armors, weapons etc. It even helps you to fly from one place to another and stable your pet if you happen to have one.

    So if you like the quick and easy method, then I suppose GameGoods is for you. EBay banned the ability to sell WoW goods like this, so other people are picking up on that I suppose.

    Sponsored post.

    Labels:

  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 11:20 AM | |

    Tuesday, August 7, 2007

    I wrote the post under Entertainment, because to me that is what WoW really is...

    But to sum it all up...you can look for a big screen WoW movie to come out in 2009 AND there is a new expansion for those who are itching to reach level 80.

    More information here...

    Labels:

  • Written by: Christy"
  • | 8:50 PM | 0 comment(s)! |