oQlz Blog

iPad keyboard dock, power adapter delayed until May

Dave Caolo — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0000

Filed under: iPad

Earlier today, Apple pushed back the availability of some iPad accessories, per Electronista; namely, the iPad Keyboard Dock and the 10W USB Power Adapter. Additionally, the Apple-branded iPad case won't ship until mid-April.

Which Apple accessories will be available when the Wi-Fi iPad ships? The non-keyboard dock and the Dock Connector To VGA Adapter. There's still no word on the much-anticipated camera connection kit.

As with the iPhone and the iPod before it, a cottage industry of accessories is rapidly growing around the iPad. We saw some cool cases at Macworld Expo, another that looks an awful lot like a plastic bag, a vest with a huge pocket, several bags and a scarf. Notable accessory manufacturers Griffin and Belkin have also announced their initial offerings.

They're mostly cases for now, but it won't be long before we see something like this.

TUAW iPad keyboard dock, power adapter delayed until May originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hack to increase the screen resolution on Windows 7 netbooks

Brad — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:04:15 +0000

Roughly 90% of all 10 inch netbooks on the market today have 1024 x 600 pixel displays. OK, I made that number up off the top of my head, but aside from a handful of models with 1024 x 576 or 1366 x 768 pixel screens, it’s pretty much true. Most netbooks have the same display resolution. And while it’s generally good enough for viewing most web pages, videos, and other apps, every now and again you’re likely to run into an application that requires a higher resolution screen to run. Fortunately, there’s a way to trick your netbook into thinking it has a higher resolution display — assuming you’re running Windows 7.

Here’s how it works. You have to search for a registry setting called “Display1_DownScalingSupported” and change the value from 0 to 1. You can find step by step instructions at Netbook Live.

Once you’ve made the change and rebooted your computer, you should be able to use the built in display resolution tool in Windows 7 to try out two new resolutions: 1024 x 768 and 1152 x 864. Both will provide a bit of extra space on your screen, making it easier to work with programs that have large windows or minimum display resolution requirements higher than 1024 x 600.

This solution is similar to the driver update I told you about last month.

But there is a catch. You’re not actually creating more pixels on your display. That’s physically impossible. Instead you’re using software to emulate a higher resolution screen. And that means some of those pixels are going to be shaped funny. The result is that text will look a bit fuzzy and hard to read. To be honest, I wouldn’t recommend you try this at all unless you’re desperately trying to get run some game or other app that won’t run under any other conditions.

Post from: Liliputing

Hack to increase the screen resolution on Windows 7 netbooks

Zotac nettops with Intel CULV, AMD chipsets coming soon

Brad — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:59:16 +0000

Hot on the heels of the recently announced Zotac ZBOX HD-ID11 nettop with an Intel Atom Pine trail chip and next-generation ION graphics, Zotac is introducing two new models. Blogeee has the details on a new model with an Intel CULV processor and ION graphics and another with an AMD/ATI chipset.

The Zotac ZBOX HD-ND21 will feature a 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics, HDMI, DVI, and VGA output, as well as 6 USB ports and an eSATA port.. This model will sell for around $300.

Meanwhile, the Zotac ZBOX HD-AD01 will have a 1.6GHz AMD Athlon X2 Neo L325 dual core processor and ATI Radeon HD3200 graphics. It will have the same connectivity options as the CULV version — and the Intel Atom models, for that matter. But it will sell for closer to $240.

If those prices sound almost too reasonable, that’s because Zotac tends to sell barebones units that come without operating system, RAM, or hard drives — although from Blogee’s description, it sounds like these machines might ship with 2GB of RAM and 160GB hard drives.

Post from: Liliputing

Zotac nettops with Intel CULV, AMD chipsets coming soon

DSiWare developer wants 3G and GPS on Nintendo DS2

Techradar - All the latest technology news — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:57:00 +0000

A top DSiWare developer has outlined his wish-list for the next-generation Nintendo handhelds and it includes features usually found on a mobile phone – 3G and GPS.

According to Official Nintendo magazine, Nic Watt, Games Creative Manager of Nnooo and creator of the first and best WiiWare download Pop Plus Solo, wants features like 3G and GPS included as it would enable users to "play online wherever you are."

Feature focus

He notes that having GPS as a feature would enhance the games available as it would add some decent location-based functionality.

There's rumours abound about what new features will be found in the Nintendo DS2.

The handheld has been mooted for a launch at this year's E3 and it is said to use a Nvidia Tegra chip, instead of an ATI CPU chip. Other features rumoured include an iPhone-style accelerometer.

Nintendo recently launched the DSi XL in the UK, which offers a notably bigger screen and a wider viewing angle, compared to the original DSi.

iPad UK pre-orders put on hold

Ben Sillis — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:30:42 +0000

The iPad went up for pre-order in the US last Friday, and the orders have been flying in, but not just from within the fifty states. Apple’s online store has been barraged with UK orders too, to the point where one import service has had to stop taking orders!

We told you how Bundle Box would allow you to ship an iPad to the UK weeks ahead of schedule, but if you were planning on doing just that, you’ll have to wait a bit: the company has told us it’s had to put iPad orders on hold temporarily while it processes current purchases.

iPad pre-orders: one sold every second

Despite the border obstacles (Apple US only ships to US postal addresses), the iPad pre-orders have come through at a rapid pace too. From Friday afternoon through to Sunday iPad orders came through at a rate of one a minute, dropping to one very five minutes on Sunday before surging once more on Monday morning.

While Apple has been keeping schtum on which iPad is proving most popular, leaving analysts to make the estimates, Bundlebox has revealed to us that 55 percent of its UK orders have been for the 16G Wi-Fi only model, a quarter for the 32GB iPad, and 17 percent for the 64GB Wi-Fi. Two percent of people are taking their chances with a 32GB iPad 3G model, and one percent for the 64GB iPad 3G, so we hope the networks come through with the right micro SIM cards if you count yourself amongst them.

Bundlebox’s CEO, Andre Schmidt, assures it’ll open up for pre-orders once the current batch are processed, so it’s not too late to nab an iPad early.

Out 3 April | $499 | Apple and Bundle Box

GDC 2010: Interview with Faraway’s Steph Thirion

Mike Schramm — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:30:00 +0000

Filed under: Gaming

Steph Thirion is a game designer who's been releasing some of the most inventive games I've seen on the iPhone. He started out with Eliss a little while back, and he recently announced Faraway, which I got to play at GDC. The night after I played the game (it was at a party called Gamma IV), I sat down with him to chat about developing for the iPhone, why Eliss wasn't bigger, and his biggest inspiration for the more casual gameplay of Faraway.

Read on for the full interview.

Eliss was your first title on the iPhone. How do you think that it did?

Well, I think it did well. I'm really happy with the result. I'm really proud of it and really happy that it got such a good reaction from all the fans.

What did you learn from your experience of releasing a game like that?

That leads to the second part of my answer, which is that I didn't playtest the game enough. Eliss is very, very hard. That's the number one complaint. I was aiming for a casual game, and I ended up making a hardcore game. I talked to a lot of people that actually appreciate that, and they've been playing for like the full year. But what I intended to do was make a game that you could beat in an hour and a half. And that's absolutely not the case because I didn't playtest it.

So you say the mistake was to not make the game you wanted rather than... some developers say that the iPhone is only a store for casual and easy games. Do you think there is a space for harder games like Eliss on the iPhone?

There is -- I think it's definitely a smaller space. I will leave Eliss the way it is, I don't want to patch it. I might release a new game related to Eliss that is more casual than Eliss was. But yeah it's definitely not a hardcore market.

As you told me last night, you're working on new games all the time. But this is the second one you've decided to bring out, called Faraway. For people who haven't seen it, which is most everybody, how would you describe this new game?

This game is about traveling in an infinite space. You're a comet, and you gravitate around stars to get where you want to go. And then you get inside of clusters, inside those clusters, you draw constellations, and the better constellations you draw, the more time you get to play and stay in the game. It's a casual, endless game, and it's a one-button game.

Right. That's interesting -- Eliss uses the touchscreen well, and it's complicated, but this is much more simple, and at the show here, you've got it running on the Mac, so it's possible to even play it on a screen that's not a touchscreen. Was that a choice you made or did it just sort of come up as you were making it?

No, it was a specific choice. A key point was playing Canabalt. And I was like wow, the iPhone works really well as a one-button device. I was really surprised, and I was like I want to try that, I want to try that simplicity, which is like the opposite of Eliss' controls. So yeah, that was one of my intentions, going realistic, going one-button.

It's interesting you brought up Canabalt -- just like that game, it's easy to pick up, and then by the time you start to get better at it, there's a little more depth that reveals itself.

Right, exactly. Like Canabalt, it's a casual endless game, so you want to get better and better and better, and I'm very happy that there's actually evidence of this -- since yesterday at the party, I've been watching people play, and they've been getting better and better, which is a good sign. I've also seen people sucking, but they go to the back of the line to play again. So it's working already.

I think for an iPhone game, that's a good sign to have. In terms of a release, I think you said you're aiming for a little while longer yet, right?

Yeah, I don't have a date yet.

Eliss you told me a while ago that you were kind of torn on pricing and how to release it and how to bring it out, do you have a better plan on Faraway?

I think again Canabalt set a very good example, where they surprised everybody by releasing at $3 and it went great. They went against the $1 market, which is like destroying the iPhone market. It won't be less then $3. It might be more than that, I don't know yet.

As with everybody else we're talking to, we have to ask you about the iPad. What do you think of the device, have you messed around with the SDK at all? Does it strike you as a gaming device?

Oh yeah, I'm so excited about the iPad, I think it's going to be really big. I haven't played with the SDK because I don't want to play with the SDK before I have the device in my hands, and I can start playing then. Because it doesn't make sense if I don't have the device in my hands. I couldn't get my hands on a device.

No one could -- we couldn't either, so you're fine there. Do you think it's the same experience, or would you build a completely different game on the two devices?

In terms of Faraway, I think it's pretty much the same experience -- it's a one-button game. In the case of Eliss, it gets very interesting. There's a whole new world of possibilities.

All right, thanks very much.

TUAW GDC 2010: Interview with Faraway's Steph Thirion originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sony Ericsson X10 Mini and Pro shipping by June

Techradar - All the latest technology news — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:17:00 +0000

Sony Ericsson will be able to begin the X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro in the next few months, according to shipping forecasts (not those kind).

The new phones will be shipping from the manufacturers during the first half of this year, according to Digitimes.

Foxconn is manufacturing the phones in Asia for the European markets, and the reports state that the stock will head to the big and mysterious Sony Ericsson warehouses soon.

Various smartphones ahoy

The same company will also begin shipping various smartphones to Acer in the same period (which we assume isn't the Liquid as this has already started selling) - which might mean an Android upgrade soon.

In related news, Sony Ericsson will begin marketing the big brother to the X10 Mini (you've guessed it - the X10) on 18 March - which means it's not long until we get it here either.

The Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has a lot riding on it - not only is it the first Android phone from the Swedish-Japanese alliance, it's also the next flagship device since the maligned Sony Ericsson Satio - and we have to hope it can better that.

tsutenkaku towerbot makes almost as much sense as a godzillabot

range — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:10:26 +0000

You got to hand it to the Japanese, they’re always coming up with the wackiest concepts. In an era in which we are trying to make robots look more human or just make them more useful, there’s nothing like this tower-shaped robot to get to the heart of the matter.

Tsutenkaku is its name, and from the promotional video, it makes me think that the goal is to actually produce a gigantic building Transformer robot. This robot is about 5′6″ high, and no less than 7 different Japanese companies thought that it was a good idea to produce a walking tower robot like this.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Apparently, the robot was created to help make Osaka cooler. For some reason, they thought that a robot, which could strike poses and light up like a Christmas tree, would accomplish this. It’s scheduled to make its debut next week in Tokyo.

[via Plastic Pals]

über-cute rilakkuma netbook: aww.

range — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:06:25 +0000

Whether you’re a Japanese toddler or teen, you love Rilakkuma. Apparently, this cute teddy bear is on its way to dethrone Hello Kitty in the realms of cuteness. This makes Rilakkuma perfect for companies trying to make their devices cute.

This Rilakkuma netbook is actually a tablet as well, although the Japanese like to call it a UMPC. It’s got a 8.9-inch touchscreen, 60 GB HD, TV Tuner, DVD drive, 1GB RAM, and two USB ports. It comes with a webcam, SD card slot, WiFi and Bluetooth. And teddy bears. Eating pancakes.

The most important thing for the target audience is that this Rilakkuma netbook comes with a bunch of pre-installed Rilakkuma wallpapers, super-cute icons and screensavers. The best part is that when users turn on the webcam, they can choose to see their faces in five different virtual Rilakkuma picture frames!

It will go on sale in Japan at the end of June for around ¥90,000 (appx. $990 USD). If you want it, you’d best contact Japan Trend Shop or Geek Stuff 4 U for help.

[via CrunchGear]

gaikai cloud-based gaming service: onlive killer?

lambert v. — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:03:45 +0000

Currently in beta, Gaikai will let gamers try out all sorts of games and software – Eve Online, Mario Kart, WoW, Photoshop – with only a browser and Flash as requirements. No need to install anything. Sound familiar? The truth is that Gaikai and OnLive are quite similar: both are cloud-based gaming services – their servers handle everything from hardware to software, theoretically enabling users to play the latest games over a broadband connection without the need to have the latest hardware or even the game itself. But Perry claims that Gaikai has a more palatable marketing strategy.

Co-founder Dave Perry says that Gaikai wants to work closely with game publishers, whereas Onlive’s marketing strategy is to go up against the console makers. OnLive recently revealed their pricing scheme: $15 a month, aside from the cost of purchasing games. Perry thinks that OnLive will kill itself. Gaikai on the other hand, seems to be more of a way for publishers to let customers try their games using as little equipment as possible – an internet connection, a browser and Flash. Watch Dean Takahashi interview Perry as the latter fiddles with Gaikai (very weird name by the way).

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So what is Gaikai’s push? Perry revealed a bit of the company’s plans in an interview with Eurogamer. The plan is for Nintendo, Sony et al to leverage Gaikai’s technology to let users try games for free, again using only a browser and Flash: “Say you’re going to Nintendo.com. We’ll actually look at your geographical location, see we’ve got a server near you, and pop up a button that says ‘play Mario Kart now’. You click the button, up pops Mario Kart and you can play it… Our objective is to make you fall in love with Nintendo and have a great time playing Mario Kart. And this is the big difference. We’re not running the games, it’s the publishers running the games. We supply the service to them to let them do this.” But at the same time, as you can clearly see in this demo, Gaikai is also considering something very similar to what OnLive is offering:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So… it seems that Gaikai offers a much simpler interface than OnLive and that the company is offering their tech to game publishers. But the question here is: will there be a dedicated Gaikai service for gamers similar to what was shown above, or will the tech be found embedded in publisher’s websites? Or will it be both? And if there will be a Gaikai service what then makes it different, marketing wise, from OnLive? So many questions.