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| 06-27-10 / 11:51 PM : Spectrum games from a browser (cjed) |
| The site zxspectrum.net allows to play Spectrum games from a browser. For year 1988 for example we can find Gauntlet II (choose the Keyboard option for characters control, and then use shift 1 to go up for the first character, Q to go down, S for left, D for right, and Z to fire). |
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| 06-27-10 / 11:05 PM : Sarah McLachlan Laws of Illusion (cjed) |
| New album of Sarah McLachlan, Laws of Illusion, has been available for close to two weeks. The sound is great (very warm and strong piano, that reminds Galaxy Vintage D or Roland's Complete Piano), and one song distinguishes from the whole, Love Come, also provided as a solo piano version. What seems uncommon is that we can listen to the full songs at deezer. |
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| 06-27-10 / 06:11 PM : ZX Nostalgia for iPhone (cjed) |
| A ZX Spectrum emulator, ZX Nostalgia, appeared at the AppStore (0,99$). It is bundled with 14 games (among those the famous Manic Miner) and allows 100% of original performance, on all iPhone models. Display can be set to portrait or landscape. The developer stated that a future update will bring an Add buton for in-game purchase of new games. First users reviews report that the provided virtual joystick (that is displayed contextually) isn't well suited for some games, and that a fixed virtual D-pad option would be required, as well as a virtual keyboard if adventure games are added later. Games license question (not easy as most companies do not exist anymore, and rights owners often prefer not giving written agreement) is explained further at worldofspectrum site.s |
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| 06-27-10 / 06:00 PM : Dragon's Lair not working with iOS4 (cjed) |
| Dragon's Lair does not work anymore since iOS4 update (no controls displayed). We can find a related thread here at EA forums. |
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| 06-26-10 / 01:04 AM : Lemmings porting to iPhone (cjed) |
| The site mobile1up opened a blog about porting Lemmings to iPhone and Palm Pre (from Palm OS). It only took 31 hours ! |
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| 06-26-10 / 12:59 AM : Hollywood Strings 1.0.1 update (cjed) |
| EastWest provides a 1.0.1 update to Hollywood Strings. |
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| 06-26-10 / 12:35 AM : IE9 / HTML5 rocks (cjed) |
| The latest IE9 preview brings support for GPU accelerated 2D Canvas, as well as Web Open Font Format management, and some of CSS3. We can then expect Silverlight's core moving to HTML5, in the same way as Adobe's supposed Flash transition. Google provides HTML5 tutorials. |
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| 06-23-10 / 12:43 AM : X-Plane 9.55 update (cjed) |
| A 9.55 update to X-Plane is available for iPhone. It brings a new option (storms) in wheather conditions settings. |
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| 06-23-10 / 12:16 AM : Real Racing 1.22 : better textures/gyroscope (cjed) |
| A 1.22 update of Real Racing is available at the AppStore : it brings higher resolution textures, better performance and support for gyroscope on iPhone 4, anti-alisasing on iPhone 3GS (not 3G) when using iOS4, multitasking, and various fixes and enhancements. |
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| 06-23-10 / 12:11 AM : EA discounts at AppStore (cjed) |
| EA provides discounts on some of its games at the AppStore during 48h (are available for 0,99$) : Need for Speed Shift, Need For Speed Undercover, Sim City, Dragon's Lair, etc. |
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| 06-23-10 / 12:03 AM : OnLive review (cjed) |
| At Wolfwire blog we can read a review of OnLive gaming platform (provides FPS games whose images are computed on remote data centers, in the same way as Quake Live). The used bandwith is 5,5 mbits/s (700 kbyte/s), as required to transfer at least 30 (compressed) images per second. Recent famous game Mass Effects 2 is however missing, due to exclusive avaibility for Windows and Xbox. |
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| 06-22-10 / 12:18 AM : EastWest 22nd Anniversary Sale (cjed) |
| EastWest offers 50% discount until end June, and Silk is now part of this special sale: we can get it for 247$. |
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| 06-21-10 / 11:45 PM : iOS4 and iBooks available (cjed) |
| The iOS4 update is available through iTunes (400 Mb), as well as iBooks application (free), that allows sharing of PDFs with the mac. |
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| 06-21-10 / 01:18 AM : CP2JavaWS 1.0.2 update (cjed) |
| A new release (1.0.2) of CP2JavaWS is available. It fixes the following bugs : - number attributes having 0 as a value or boolean attributes set to false weren't encoded by CP2JSCoder. - CPDictionary now requires string type for keys : fixed relating problem in CPRemoteService and CP2JavaWSHttpSender. - Generated textField (Direct2CP mode) for object's attributes whose type is number was set initially with the right number object, however it was returned (by the field) as a string once edited, leading to a wrong type. Fixed CP2JavaWSDetailView to convert the string back to a number when setting the modified value on the object. - Fixed a problem with references path encoding : now uses a IdentityHashMap (see CP2JavaWSJSONUtils). - Now manages Enum (see CP2JavaWSJSONUtils). Thanks to Dimitris Tsitses for his main contributing in this update. |
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| 06-20-10 / 12:42 AM : Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (cjed) |
| Game Prince of Persia : Warrior Within is back at the AppStore (after having being pulled of for bug fix), priced 9,99$. It is a full port of original PS2 version (553 Mb to download, 700 Mb once installed), despite some missing effects (reported in comments on FR store). We can watch videos here and there. |
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| 06-20-10 / 12:31 AM : Mac mini : best power and 3D (cjed) |
| The site pcmag provides a review od the new mac mini. It features the lowest power consumption (6W while displaying a web page without Flash) and best 3D performance for a chipset : 21 fps in Crysis (under Windows), while a Dell mini (Inspiron Zino HD), 2,5 times taller, only reaches 5 fps.s |
| 3 comment |
| 06-18-10 / 11:16 PM : 10.6.4 update / security update 2010-004 (cjed) |
| Apple provides a 10.6.4 update for Snow Leopard. A special version is available for new mac mini, that fixes compatibility and performance problems with graphics, and compatibility of SDXC port. A 2010-004 security update is also available for Leopard. |
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| 06-18-10 / 12:49 AM : Vienna : special offer (cjed) |
| Vienna offers a download instrument for each purchase of a product from those series : Vienna Special Edition, Vienna Suite or Vienna MIR. |
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| 06-18-10 / 12:45 AM : Portal 2 : preview and teaser (cjed) |
| The site joystiq.com provides a preview of Portal 2. We can also watch a teaser (in 720p format). |
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| 06-18-10 / 12:43 AM : Colladia Nostradamus (cjed) |
| Colladia presents Nostradamus: the Last Prophecy, also compatible with PPC (29,99$). A demo is available as download. |
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| 06-18-10 / 12:36 AM : WWDC2010 sessions available (cjed) |
| Apple provides through iTunes the whole WWDC2010 sessions (more than an hundred, and average 50 mn duration per session !) We just have to connect using an ADC account (including a free account). Sessions videos are available in SD and HD, as well as corresponding slides. These are sorted in following categories : Application Frameworks, Core OS, Graphics and Media, Developer Tools and Internet and Web (that includes among other two sessions about iAd JS). |
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| 06-17-10 / 12:21 AM : iTunes 9.2 update (cjed) |
| A 9.2 update to iTunes allows PDFs synchronizing with iPhone (reading of these files will require iBooks application, that will be available with iOS4). The new iTunes 9.2 (when using iOS4 on iPhone) will also speed up backup. |
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| 06-15-10 / 11:12 PM : New mac mini / iMac (cjed) |
| The new mac mini (1,4 cm flatter however 3 cm larger and deeper) is priced 799 euros (and 699$, that is a high margin), only 2 Gb ram (+90 euros for 4 Gb - then 889 euros) and a lower cores frequency (2,4 Ghz) than the previous model (2,53 Ghz and 4 Gb for 749 euros). However it features the 320M chipset (up to twice as fast as the older 9400M), upgradable ram to 8 Gb max (through easy access) instead of 4 Gb max previously (2x4Gb can be found at 280 euros in shops - 450 euros as an option at the AppleStore !), a new fan that can be useful under intensive work (audio) and hot ambient temperature (now required due to included power supply). Number of USB2 ports is down to 4 (from 5), however an HDMI port appears (HDMI to DVI adapter bundled). The hard disk (320 Gb) is still 5400 rpm. Max power consumption is down to 85W (from 110 W previously) and 10 W when idle (on an old G4 MDD 1,25 Ghz it was respectively 360W and 80W). The mac mini server now includes two 7200 rpm hard drives (500 Gb each), that is interesting for audio (does not require to chain external firewire hard disk and firewire audio interface). At 1149 euros it provides 4 Gb memory and also faster processor cores (2,66 Ghz). We will have to add the external USB (auto-powered) superdrive originally targeted to MacBook Air (+89 euros), therefore the whole is finally priced 1238 euros. However we can find at only 111 euros more (that is 1349 euros) an iMac fitted with even faster processor cores (3,06 Ghz), a dedicated Radeon HD4760 graphics card with 256 Mb (known as a very good entry level card one year and a half ago on PC, and at least two times faster than 320M chipset), a nice 21,5' display (1080p, and more readable than a Samsung 20' display at 1680x1050 resolution), an acceptable weight (9 kg), a 1 To 7200 rpm hard drive, 8 Gb ram option (4 Gb by default) priced 180 euros only, a wireless keyboard and Magic Mouse. The power consumption is 241 W (70 W for the Radeon HD4760). We can expect that next iMac update will feature lower features/price ratio. A mini tower quad mac pro (Core i5 or i7) around 1500 would be better, as any problem with the iMac (display, etc.) requires to replace the whole computer. |
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| 06-15-10 / 12:06 AM : NI Session Strings (cjed) |
 NI presents Session Strings, a 2,3 Gb strings samples library (ensemble made up of 4 violins, 3 violas, 2 celli and 2 double basses) targeted to disco : included articulations are Sustain, Falls, Scoops, Staccato. An Animator module allows (in the same way as an arpeggiator) to transform a chord into staccato, spiccato or pizzicato phrase.Audio demos are available. It is priced 99 euros. |
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| 06-13-10 / 11:08 PM : Katie Melua The House (cjed) |
 New album from Katie Melua, The House, has been available for some weeks (we can listen to wav samples here). While we understand the idea for change (as her latest album was deceiving), and we can agree that the new gothic (symphonic metal) way seems an interesting/promising one, there isn't many songs to remember yet in the new album (that is however based on samples listening and The Flood clip).Work on sound is nice however, and first reviews seem positive. We may better listen to Live At the O2 Arena, that provides nice version of previous songs (22 songs at iTunes Store, at a somewhat cheap price). |
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| 06-13-10 / 10:57 PM : Galaxy on Fire 2 announced for iPad (cjed) |
| FishLabls announced Galaxy on Fire 2 pour iPad (due in september). We can watch a first video here. |
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| 06-13-10 / 10:38 PM : Return to Mysterious Island for iPad (cjed) |
| Colladia submitted an HD (iPad) version of Return to Mysterious Island (should be available soon), that features the same/complete experience as the Mac/PC one (800 Mb - 320 Mb for the iPhone version). Other games will also be ported (see a video of Treasure Island running in the iPad simulator). |
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| 06-13-10 / 10:26 PM : iPhone HD / iPad HD (cjed) |
| While applications specifically made for iPhone 4 (that is 960x640 resolution) will work on iPad (using close to the whole screen space - 1024x768), we don't know if iPad HD applications available now at the AppStore will work on iPhone 4... or they may be interpolated, or truncated. If not there will need to be two HD versions per application (one for iPad, the other for iPhone 4). Applications can still include many binaries (iPhone standard, iPad), therefore a third binary could be added. There is to note that the iPhone 4 automatically scales standard iPhone applications, with some smoothing effect (whose isn't avaialble yet for iPad - may be when using iOS 4). Finally iPhone 4 can manage playback of 1024*768 video (seems logical as it can still record 720p video, that is 1280x720=921600 pixels, while only 786432 have to be managed in 1024x768 resolution). |
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| 06-10-10 / 12:18 AM : iAd JS / AdMob/Smokescreen (cjed) |
| Besides XCode 4, Apple unveiled iAd JS : provides you with the foundation to design and create rich media ads that incorporate audio, video, graphics, and animation. It displays full-screen video and interactive ad content without ever leaving the app. iPhone SDK 4 for iOS 4 lets developers easily embed iAd opportunities within their apps, and the ads are dynamically and wirelessly delivered to the device. Apple will sell and serve the ads, and developers will receive 60 percent of iAd revenue. AdMob (Google)'s answer and Adobe's one (Flash to HTML5 converter for ads) seem to confirm high chances of success for this evolving of AppStore's economic model (was still great both for creators and consumers), that will allow creators to publish "free" apps, while keeping revenues. |
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| 06-09-10 / 12:57 AM : Safari 5 : Websockets / Coda Notes (cjed) |
| Apple presents new features in Safari 5 : Safari Reader, HTML5 features (including Websockets), better performance, extensions (see Coda Notes). |
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| 06-07-10 / 11:32 PM : iPhone 4 / iOS 4 (cjed) |
| As expected, Apple presented iPhone 4, whose resolution is 4x higher, with HD video and iMovie (5$ at the AppStore). We can see details of iOS4 here (available starting June, 21). |
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| 06-04-10 / 12:57 AM : New mac mini ? (cjed) |
| An update to mac mini might bring HDMI support and 320M chipset, as found on the entry level MacBook Pro. Such model fitted with 4 Gb of memory, if priced 699$, could be interesting against the new MacBook Pro 13' (1199$). |
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| 06-02-10 / 12:05 AM : NI Kontakt 4.1 / discount on upgrades (cjed) |
| NI provides a 4.1 update to Kontakt, that brings background samples loading (and whose priority/order depends from previously used samples), and full 64 bits support on mac (doesn't use anymore the memory server). NI also provides 50 percent discount on update/crossgrade in June : notably upgrades to Kontakt 4 (from versions 1, 2 or 3) is available for 64,50 euros (see this threadabout compatibility/merge of libraries from various versions of Kontakt). |
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