General Gaming Article |
- Hulu Revenue Up 60% in 2011
- Google Launches Android Design Site to Promote Better App Design
- How To Permanently Turn Off G+ Personal Results In Google Search
- The Game Boy: Best Games You Missed in 2011 – To The Moon
- Symantec Called A Scareware Scammer, Slapped With Lawsuit
- CES 2012: What We've Seen So Far
- Browser Extension of the Week: Google Translate
- ARM Boss Disses Power Performance In Intel's Mobile Processors
- 2011 Ranks as "Second Worst Year in History" for PCs in the U.S., IDC Says
- Roundup: AMD Flaunts Next-Gen Trinity APU At CES
| Posted: 12 Jan 2012 03:08 PM PST
Kilar also updated us on Hulu Plus numbers, which are growing at a rate double that of 2010. There are now 1.5 million paying subscribers, and Kilar expects Plus subscriptions to account for over half of the business in 2012. Hulu hopes to attract those users by adding more content. In 2011, the site's selection increased by 105%, Kilar said. The blog post goes on to praise Hulu's innovative dual revenue stream, meaning both ads and subscriptions. Kilar suggests that content owners would be much better off with Hulu over other streaming services. We know who he was talking about, but he failed to mention Netflix by name. How do you feel about Hulu? |
| Google Launches Android Design Site to Promote Better App Design Posted: 12 Jan 2012 02:51 PM PST
The entire Android framework has been overhauled with the new Holo theme, which is based on sharp edges, blue tones, and clarity. The Android design site is not written in a way that only programmers can understand, a nice departure for Google. it explains how icons should be designed, where to use gestures, how navigation should work, and a lot more. It's not like Google is going to reject apps from the Market for not following this document. The entire thing is framed more as a polite suggestion. Going forward, Android developers will finally have a readily available guide for designing attractive apps. Do you think developers will embrace Google's new dev guidelines. |
| How To Permanently Turn Off G+ Personal Results In Google Search Posted: 12 Jan 2012 01:24 PM PST Two days ago, Google started mixing Google+ connections with general search results. Pics, photos, shared links, posts, authored articles – if someone in your Circles shared something related to what you're looking for, it shows up in your search results. Google calls it "Search Plus Your World;" I call it annoying. When the first page of results is dominated by "Personal Results," that's a problem. And to make it worse, Google doesn't exactly make it easy to turn the "feature" off for good.
The "Hide Personal Results" button on the search page is a temporary solution but the problem rears its ugly head again the very next time your search for something. If you're drowning in useless search results suggested by your 2000-plus Circle buddies, here's how to swing the Personal Results banhammer permanently in less than 15 seconds. First saunter over to Google.com, then open up your options by clicking on the gear icon in the upper-right hand corner of the screen. Select "Search Settings" from the list of options. (If you have a customized iGoogle setup, get to the classic Google homepage by selecting the gear icon, then the "Classic Home" option. You can return to iGoogle after disabling Personal Results. Thanks to Ghost6007 and Frances the Mute for pointing this out in the comments!)
Scroll down until you see the Personal Results options. By default, "Use personal results" is selected. Click the "Do not use personal results" bubble.
Now, just click "Save" at the bottom of the screen and you'll never be bothered by those annoying and only tangentially on-topic Personal Results again! We're interested in hearing what you think, though: do you like the inclusion of G+-related Personal Results in your everyday searches, or are you on your way to disable the feature right now? Connect with Brad on Google+, just don't expect him to see your posts in Google Search results! |
| The Game Boy: Best Games You Missed in 2011 – To The Moon Posted: 12 Jan 2012 12:49 PM PST
My favorite games of the year were Bastion, Skyrim, and the Witcher 2. Wow, that was easy. And hey, I already wrote extensively about all of them. Convenient! So instead, I'm gonna discuss some of 2011's lesser-known greats. Previously, I turned into a quivering pile of mush on BioShock 2: Minerva's Den and The Binding of Isaac. And now, a game that may very well top both of them: masterful indie heart-breaker To The Moon. To The Moon made me cry. Like, eight times. And I don't mean in the "single dramatic tear meandering down my cheek" sense. I'm talking about gushing waterfalls of salty face liquid. You'd have thought everyone I'd ever known and loved acted like they never knew or loved me and then promptly died. Of a disease whose main side effect is tragic irony. And that's weird, because I figured myself one who'd be impervious to the game's barrage of gut-wrenching sadness bullets. I mean, its two controllable (notice I didn't say "main") characters often turn humor into a weapon of mass face-palm-worthy irritation, and – aside from largely unneeded end-of-area puzzles – there's hardly even any interactivity to speak of. You walk around and click on predetermined objects. That's it. I'm a gamer. Why should I care about any of that? However, if nothing else, let To The Moon serve as a lesson on why reductionist thinking is Bad and Wrong. Because if I'd given the game the cold shoulder over those concerns – or even just written it off as another tear-jerking, smile-seeking indie missile – I'd have missed out on one of the most genuinely heartfelt stories I've ever experienced. Videogame or not. The gist of the game is as follows: You "play" as – or really, experience events from the perspective of – two Future Doctors, Rosalene and Watts, with a machine that allows them to grant people's dying wish by altering their memories as they lay at death's door. In this case, it's an old man named Johnny who's dealing with a rather pesky, er, coma. He wants to go to the moon, but here's the thing: he honestly doesn't know why. So you hop inside his head and go on a big scavenger hunt for items from his past that might reveal the origin of his oddly uncharacteristic desire. Basically, it's Inception meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. But there's that pesky reductionist thinking again, and as before, it doesn't hold water. To The Moon's conceit is just a vehicle for incredibly nuanced characters and a story that unfolds, well, backwards. But it still somehow feels like it's moving forward. Ultimately, the game explores characters' entire lives from finish to start – acting as the boat-rocking cannon blast to games like Dragon Age II, which have merely dipped a pinky toe into exploring their timestreams. I'm pretty sure its creators are story wizards. Moreover, unlike, say, Final Fantasy VII – whose most-revered moment is undoubtedly its Shocking and Unexpected Death Scene – To The Moon prefers to extract all sorts of tears for all sorts of different reasons. Whether in action or storytelling, most games know only one language: brute force. To The Moon, on the other hand, applies a far gentler touch and runs a full gamut of emotions. It's not really about the tears at all; it's about the moments in between them. That, above all else, is key, so let me explain. (SKIP THE FOLLOWING IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS.) To The Moon first made me cry when I realized why there were so many origami rabbits. Before she passed away, Johnny's wife, River, obsessively crafted mountains of the fuzz-free fuzzballs, but her intentions were a complete mystery to Johnny. Ultimately, he wrote it off as yet another quirk that arose from River's rather severe case of autism, which – for obvious reasons – always put a strain on communication in their relationship. Slowly but surely, however, the game peeled back the layers of meaning surrounding River's excessive obsession. The large-scale arts and crafts project began after – when they were middle-aged adults – Johnny confessed the reason he first asked River out way back in high school. He thought she was unique, and he wanted to use her to avoid being another "typical" person. "Points is, I know what I need," he had told a friend over lunch. "And she has it." It was, admittedly, sickeningly self-serving, but he was a dumb kid at the time. Clearly, that wasn't how he felt anymore. From that day forward, however, she became an origami machine – right up to the day she died many years later. And Johnny kept each and every rabbit – right up to the day he finally joined her.
(SPOILERS CONTINUE.) So, mystery solved? Hardly. Rabbits appeared elsewhere in Johnny's memories as well. On Johnny and River's wedding day, the mostly happy couple encountered a bunny that'd lost a rather lopsided battle with a truck. River refused to leave the flattened, obviously flat-lined animal's side even though she and Johnny sort of, you know, had something of an important engagement to attend. It didn't make any sense. The memory ended with Johnny simply pleading for River to join him instead of mourning some random forest creature. That, however, didn't bring Rosalene and Watts any closer to the bottom of the rabbit-themed rabbit hole. Stumped, they nearly gave up on fulfilling Johnny's last wish. But then Watts discovered that – for reasons a bit too complicated (and messed up) to go into here – Johnny had been put on memory destroying drugs as a very young child. So Rosalene and Watts managed to force their way into memories Johnny didn't even remember. And, among other things, they discovered the real first time he met River. Johnny had wandered away from his mother during an annual festival. In doing so, he discovered a cliff-side with a positively glorious view of the stars. "Hey," a voice rang, piercing clean through his moment of silent awe, "that's my spot." It was, of course, River. Eventually, the two began to discuss stars – specifically, what they were. In confidence, she revealed that she believed stars to be lighthouses – shining and beautiful, but individually separate from all others. Though she never admitted it, the implication was obvious: she identified with them. Her autism alienated her from other people. She was alone. She quickly changed the subject to tracing constellations, presenting Johnny with a puzzle: what did the moon and its nearby star clusters form? He studied it intently before reaching an age-appropriate loud and overjoyed conclusion: A BUNNY. "...And the moon is its big, round tummy!" Then Johnny's mom came a calling. Before he fell in step behind her, however, he made a promise to River: he'd meet her same time, same place next year. "But what if one of us moves or gets lost?" she asked. "Then we'll meet on the moon," was his exuberant reply. And then everything clicked for me. The origami began when River realized that Johnny didn't remember the first time they'd met. Rabbits always meant so much to her because she linked them to her love for Johnny. But he didn't get it. And she didn't understand how to express it. And she died without being able to do so. As soon as the lightbulb went off in my head, I put on a waterworks show that probably could've put Seaworld out of business. (SPOILERS END HERE.) And that's barely even touching on all the incredibly happy moments in their relationship that To The Moon depicts. Or the myriad of other equally important items the game constantly references. Or the entire third act, which could have told me I'd won the lottery and the chance to punch each and every person involved in the creation of SOPA, and I'd have still started bawling. Or the ending, which is one of the most happysad things I've ever seen. I still can't even read about it without tearing up. But there's one commonality between all those events: They are by no means flashes-in-the-pan. To The Moon builds to them meticulously. Item-by-item. Moment-by-moment. It rarely spells things out for you, though. This is a game that expects your brain to flex its cortexes and do some very heavy lifting. Don't take that to mean, however, that To The Moon blindly shoves you into shark-infested waters and expects you to sink, swim, or cry so hard that the sharks actually evolve a conscience. It's not merely some ill-fitting story masquerading as a "smart" work of "art" – a square peg forcing its way into the gaming medium's round hole. To The Moon works well as a game precisely because it so thoroughly focuses on one gameplay element. You collect items. Over-and-over-and-over. That's pretty much it. But in doing so, I became extremely well acquainted with each and every one of them on an individual basis. I was better able to remember details: when, where, how, why. As a result, I rarely had to short circuit my brain to understand more nuanced plot points. The entire process was shockingly natural. In its mechanical simplicity, To The Moon is utterly brilliant. It is not, as one might say, rocket science. Neither, might I add, should be your decision to buy this game. Even my spoiler section hardly scratched the surface of what makes To The Moon so wonderful. Play it. Experience it. Love it. Oh, and don't forget to bring some tissues. |
| Symantec Called A Scareware Scammer, Slapped With Lawsuit Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:37 AM PST
James Gross claims that Symantec's PC Tools Registry Mechanic, PC Tools Performance Toolkit and Norton Utilities software all claim, "in an extremely ominous manner, that harmful errors, privacy risks, and other computer problems exist on the user's PC, regardless of the real condition of the consumer's computer." Forbes reports that Gross ponied up $30 to fix the problems found by Registry Mechanic, but "computer forensics experts" he hired later told him that Symantec programs are full of crap and always say that systems have issues. Skimming through the complaint – which Forbes reproduces in full – Gross says that Symantec knows that the tools' claims of "Low System Health" and "High Priority Errors" -- in big, red, scary letters nonetheless -- are false. Symantec, of course, disagrees, and when Forbes reporter Andy Greenberg tried out Registry Mechanic, it never asked him to buy the full-fledged program despite finding high priority issues. In fact, it fixed them for free. Then again, Symantec has been criticized for its heavy-handed scare tactics before. Do you think the case has any merit? |
| CES 2012: What We've Seen So Far Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:29 AM PST
CES, that craziest of trade shows, is underway again and two of our intrepid editors are exploring the show floor and getting a first look at some of this years biggest tech products. We'll have a more detailed writeup about CES 2012 tomorrow, but for now take a look at some of the most interesting things we've spotted so far. Read on for images of 36 killer new products from CES 2012! |
| Browser Extension of the Week: Google Translate Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:02 AM PST
Leveraging the same power as Google's website-based translation service, the Google Translate extension cuts out the linguistic middle man by translating whatever page you're currently viewing into the language of your choice. Once installed, all users need do to translate a page is click the icon and wait. In under a minute you'll be reading the best english Google's translation algorithm can afford.
While the extension's default language is set to English, there's nothing stopping users from switching it up to any of the other language options offered by Google. Want an American English language newspaper translated into Welsh? By tinkering with the extension's settings, making the linguistic leap takes nothing more than the a single mouse click.
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| ARM Boss Disses Power Performance In Intel's Mobile Processors Posted: 12 Jan 2012 11:01 AM PST
"(Intel has) taken some designs that were never meant for mobile phones and they've literally wrenched those designs and put them into a power-performance space which is roughly good enough for mobile phones," Reuters reports East as saying. Tell us, Warren, what do you really think? He didn't stop there, though; East was kind enough to deal Intel a back-handed compliment, too. ""Are they ever going to be the leaders in power efficiency? No, of course not. But they have a lot more to offer." Nothing beats a cat fight between C-Level executives. Speaking of which, did you see how Microsoft vice presidents began mocking LG on Twitter this morning after the LG patent license was announced? No? Head over to TechCrunch for a synopsis – it's funny stuff. |
| 2011 Ranks as "Second Worst Year in History" for PCs in the U.S., IDC Says Posted: 12 Jan 2012 10:34 AM PST
"The U.S. market had its second worst year in history in 2011, dropping nearly 5 percent from 2010. Although not as severe as the 11.7 percent contraction following the Y2K buildup and subsequent tech crisis of 2001, 2011 was particularly affected by HDD supply constraints, weak demand, and a difficult competitive landscape," IDC said. "The fourth quarter's HDD supply shortage has had a notable effect on fourth quarter shipments." Egads, that's pretty rough. Worldwide shipments did much better and totaled 92.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011, down 0.2 percent compared to the same quarter in 2010, but was up 1.6 percent for the full year. In addition to the HDD crisis caused by flooding in Thailand, IDC blamed the weak regional performance in the U.S. to "market saturation" and a struggling economy that "continues to weigh considerably on consumer demand." At the same time, IDC notes U.S. consumers are waiting on new products and technologies, "promising a new refresh cycle starting in 3Q12 and beyond with a return to positive growth in the mid-term." |
| Roundup: AMD Flaunts Next-Gen Trinity APU At CES Posted: 12 Jan 2012 10:33 AM PST
We'd tell you about the tech demo, but the guys from HotHardware caught it on tape. Check out the video below, and make sure you watch it all the way to the end. Computerworld caught up with some AMD execs at the show and quizzed them on the company's plan for Trinity. AMD marketing manager Raymond Drumbeck told the publication that the company plans on pushing hard in the Ultrabook market – oops, "ultrathin;" Intel owns the rights to "Ultrabook" – and said the company can hit a starting price of $500 or less for Trinity-sporting notebooks. Both dual-core and quad-core mobile Trinity APUs are planned; Drumbeck claims the 17w chips will offer the same performance as current A-series Llano chips, but consume only half the energy. More powerful desktop variants of Trinity are also planned. Meanwhile, the folks at TechPowerUp managed to snag a pic of the ultrathin, standard laptop, and desktop variants of the Trinity APU. They're lined up in that order in the image at the top of this post. AMD's analyst meeting is scheduled for February 2nd; expect to hear a lot more about Trinity and the rest of AMD's plans for 2012 then. |
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has posted on the Hulu blog a rundown of how the video streaming service did in 2011. Despite the general annoyance many users express about its content restrictions and ads, Hulu had quite a good 2011. Revenue was up 60% last year to $420 million, which exceeds the company's expectations. 
Google's Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update is perhaps the biggest departure for the platform since its inception. There is a completely new visual style, and Mountain View is finally approaching the platform with design in mind. To those ends, Google has launched the new 
We've all seen scareware in action: that especially annoying type of malware that pops up thousands of windows, each shrieking OH NO YOUR COMPUTER HAS UMPTEEN MILLION VIRUSES and extolling users to purchase fake antivirus software (using a credit card, of course). Real antivirus programs like Symantec's Norton line are designed to ferret out malicious programs like that and kick them to the curb. However, one unhappy user claims that Symantec's nothing better than a scareware-peddling scammer itself, and he's slapped the company with a class-action suit for falsely pushing its wares. 
Depending on your state of awareness and the depth of your internet search habits, you may have noticed that not everyone posting content to the internet can speak or write in English. Shocking, right? You could disregard the foreign characters and move on to the next page returned to you by your search results, but there's a very good possibility that the piece of information you've been looking for is hidden amidst all those crazy looking words. Instead of risking the loss of an important piece of data, Chrome users can turn to 
As we've already told you, Intel's finally – after what seems like ages – 
Market research firms International Data Corporation (IDC) and Gartner typically post similar numbers when analyzing the PC market, and so when 
AMD didn't stay silent while Intel and Qualcomm were talking up their new chips and business opportunities this week. In fact, AMD made waves of its own at CES with an impressive tech demo that showed off the capabilities of its next-gen Trinity APU chips, which are scheduled to launch later this year. The company also outlined some of its plans for the ultrathin notebook market.| You are subscribed to email updates from Maximum PC - All Articles To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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