It was only meant to be a prototype. But 40 years after the computer mouse first scrolled its way into the public consciousness, new touch-screen technology could be about to consign the mouse to the annals of history.
The computer mouse was the creation of Doug Engelbart and his team at the Stanford Research Institute in California, who needed a simple way of controlling their computers. The result was a carved wooden block mounted on wheels, with a long cable trailing out the back. One researcher nicknamed it a mouse, and the moniker stuck.
"We thought that when it had escaped out to the world it would have a more dignified name," said Mr Engelbart. "But it didn't."
The mouse made its debut at a presentation in San Francisco in 1968 to show off a working network computer system. Before the invention of the mouse, people working on computers used a light pen, similar to those wielded by radar operators during the war, to navigate around... More »
Empire: Total War, is the new installment in The Creative Assembly’s Total War RTS franchise and will maintain the series 3D battles, grand turn based campaign map and rich historical flavor; while for the first time introducing 3D naval combat into the series.
Below is an interview with one of the game's developers:
WP: Who has the honor to speak with us? State your name, rank, and occupation!
Kieran Brigden, studio communications manager for Creative Assembly.
WP: Empire Total War marks the first time that the Total War series has had really intricate naval battles. Why have them now?
KB: Well, it's a combination of factors. One, we've wanted to do it for a while but the technology was ready now. Two, it's the period that's right for it. When you add naval battles to the game, you have to do it when it's interesting, enjoyable, and fun. The 18th century was the absolute height of cool naval warfare. You had thi... More »
According to Spanish Web site PSNow, Capcom will soon release a selection of Street Fighter gear.
When confirmed, players will be able to dress up as fan favorite brawlers Ryu, Chun Li, Guile, and Zangief.
To quote: Why not? It seems the best way to promote your game today is to dress up Media Molecule’s lead character as that of your own.
If you’re a fan of the Capcom fighting series, you will apparently be able to pick up the character costumes shown above individually and as a package deal.
No word on price or release date just yet. Sit tight.
A couple days ago we reported on a few holiday adverts that are part of a “bigger campaign”.
Today Sony's Senior Vice President of Marketing & PlayStation Network Peter Dille detailed their PlayStation: Entertainment Unleashed ad campaign officially via PS Blog as follows:
This is one of the fun parts of my job, when we get to unveil our TV commercials and give you, our loyal fans, a preview of our spots before they hit the airwaves. This year’s campaign is dubbed “Entertainment Unleashed” and for good reason.
The campaign actually began quietly a few weeks back with three fifteen second “tease” executions. Hopefully, you’ve seen these by now. These initial ads depicted various people catching glimpses and reflections of beautiful PS3 game footage magically appearing ... More »
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At a 10-year anniversary event, Polyphony Digital presented two technological trials for the next generation.
Both of the presentations were founded on the philosophy of “achieving the highest possible quality” held over the years by Gran Turismo... showing it off that at 2160p.
It was all part of a time trial showcasing Sony's latest SRX-S110 projector technology, which can support resolutions of 4096 x 2160 pixels.
To quote: One of these, was a time trial competition using Sony’s newest digital cinema projector, the “SRX-S110”. Gran Turismo 5 prologue is already in Full HD resolution at 1920 x 1080 pixels, providing the highest resolution possible in today’s TV content.
However in this time trial, the Full HD image was increased to twice the resolution both vertically and horizontally (4x the surface area), enabling game play at an ultra high resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels.
This was performed by conne... More »
There's general agreement that Sony stumbled out of the gate with the PlayStation 3. Months of intense hype were followed by a late launch (fully a year after the Xbox 360) and a staggering $600 price tag for the deluxe model.
Even worse, the PS3 didn't initially have any real must-have exclusive titles, and despite the power of its vaunted Cell processor, multiplatform games from third-party developers didn't look appreciably better than the respective titles on the Xbox 360.
Since then, the company's been modifying the PlayStation product line to better fit the competitive market landscape. As of August 2008, a new "bargain" PS3 is available with a larger, 80GB hard drive, and a "deluxe" model is due in November, doubling the capacity to 160GB.
Both, however, lack backward compatibility with PS2 games and do not come with flash card readers. If those features are a must, it might be best to pick up the 80GB "Metal Gear" bundle version on eBay w... More »
Movie pirates are distributing fake Blu-ray movie titles in China, which are essentially ordinary DVDs passed off as Blu-rays.
According to a WSJ report, the counterfeit Blu-ray discs are ordinary DVDs that hold the same movie content as the original Blu-ray but it is encoded in the AVCHD format. AVCHD is based on the MPEG-4 AVC (H.264) video format, enabling recording of high-definition 1080i and 720p video onto cheap DVD discs.
"We are concerned and are assigning priority to this issue," said Mike Ellis, the Asia-Pacific managing director for the MPA.
The issue came into the surface last month when authorities raided a big stash of the new pirated discs in China, which is often at the leading edge of piracy trends.
The MPA estimates that within the next six months the high-definition discs could account for 10% of $224 million that its m... More »
Sony is introducing a new accessory for the PS3 controller, first announced a few months ago at Leipzig.
Soon, gamers will be able to snap on a wireless keypad that supports typing on the Playstation 3, including texting in the new Home environment and games like LittleBigPlanet.
In addition to the QWERTY keyboard, there are a couple of shortcut buttons – a Message Box button and a Communication button. But what’s most interesting from a interaction standpoint is the new Touch Pad feature.
The Touch Pad button allows PS3 users to use the entire surface of the keypad as a touch pad, allowing them to easily maneuver the pointer while web browsing, simply by sliding their finger on the keypad surface.
That’s pretty clever. Rather than cramming in a trackball or trackpad (making it heavier and larger), Sony extended the keyboa... More »
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