Computing – Page 23

OnLive US launch set for June

March 11, 2010March 11, 2010 Doug Groves Mac gaming, OnLive, PC gaming0 comment

Remember OnLive, the cloud gaming service that promises to handle all the computational power of video gaming at their servers, requiring only a browser plug-in (Windows & Mac) or MicroConsole? Yesterday OnLive announced that the service will officially launch for US consumers (well, the 48 contiguous States) starting June 17th during the E3 2010 show. Access to the service is $14.95 a month, although that’s on top of game rentals or purchases. There will also be lower prices if you sign up for multi-month plans, though details haven’t been announced…

OpenGL 4.0 is here and ready to compute

March 11, 2010 Doug Groves 0 comment

Announced today at the 2010 Games Developers Conference, the latest version of OpenGL is available to developers for use. A cross-platform system for rendering graphics, OpenGL and it’s variants, such as OpenGL|ES for mobile devices, basically deliver the 3D goods on just about any platform. OpenGL 4.0 builds on past iterations, offloading more geometry and lighting tasks to the graphics processor. One of the biggest impacts that end users will see is battery life on mobile devices such as smartphones and notebook computers when using 3D applications. Normally ‘3D applications’ would mean…

Full 3D gaming on Microsoft’s Windows Phone demoed

March 10, 2010March 10, 2010 Doug Groves Microsoft, Visual Studio, Windows Phone, WP7S, Xbox, XNA5 Comments

Engadget managed to get a hands on of a couple of Windows Phone 7 games built with XNA Game Studio 4.0. Although they weren’t allowed to take any video of the games in action, they said it did work, including unlocking achievements. The more impressive of the two was a top down sci-fi looking dungeon crawler called The Harvest, running at the full 800×480 Windows Phone 7 resolution. The other is called Battle Punks and is a one-on-one fighting game. Although there’s no in-game action of either, they did post…

Attend SXSW virtually

March 9, 2010 Doug Groves festival, SXSW, torrent1 Comment

Every spring, the SXSW music festival invades Austin Texas. In the early days, it was purely a musical affair, but since then has also grown to include both film and interactive festivals that run more or less concurrently. Twitter, for example, launched at SXSE interactive in 2007. As part of it’s musical side, artists both new and established have made MP3s available free to download from the SXSE website. In more recent years those files have been compiled by the public into a huge repository of RIAA safe torrent files….

Photoshop turns 20

March 7, 2010March 7, 2010 Doug Groves Adobe, Photoshop1 Comment

Adobe’s Photoshop, which has become the industry’s leading image manipulation tool, recently turned 20, and Adobe has posted the above documentary on their site that’s somewhat interesting. It’s also just a smidge hyperbolic, as I can think of a lot of other events that did more to “spawn… a cultural paradigm shift unparalleled in our lifetime”.

Ford Sync Demo

February 26, 2010February 26, 2010 Doug Groves automotive, demo, Ford Sync, Microsoft0 comment

Dave was at the Canadian International Auto Show and got a demo of Ford Sync which provides in-car entertainment and communications via wired or bluetooth connected devices.

Google’s Buzz rolling out.

February 9, 2010 Doug Groves 5 Comments

Are you a lonely soul, wandering the streets, not knowing what to do? Or more accurately, are you a stalker wanting the mobile net making your life easier? heck, maybe you want to be a ‘stalkee’. If any of these apply, you have to absolutely, right this minute, check out the hot new Google social networking tool Buzz. They’re still rolling it out, so it’ll give you plenty of time to go pick up a trenchcoat and some dark sunglasses. Okay, so it’s not THAT creepy. Maybe it’s the mellow…

Rightware unveils Kanzi 3D developers tool

February 2, 2010February 2, 2010 Doug Groves 3D, development tool, Kanzi, Mobile5 Comments

Late last year, upstart Rightware acquired futuremark’s Mobile and Embedded Business Unit, and out of that comes the Kanzi development platform. Aimed at providing a complete pipeline from 3D content creation to deployment to mobile and embedded devices that support OpenGL ES 2.x and 1.x, it looks to be very scalable. What also makes it very interesting is that the 3D format they support, COLLADA, is supported by just about every 3D animation and modeling application out there. Rightwave will unveil more about Kanzi during Mobile World Congress starting February…

March 1st 2010 – double tech D-day

February 2, 2010 Doug Groves Google Apps, Google Docs, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows 71 Comment

Well, Groundhog Day has come, and with it the rodent prognosticators have come to a consensus with regards to how much more cold we’ll have to endure. Don’t let that get in the way of getting a jump on spring cleaning though. At the beginning of March, two things happen that will probably affect a large number of people. First, if you’re using Google Apps, and for some reason still use Internet Explorer 6 (which is still estimated at a shockingly high 10% of all internet users), you’ll start running…

Translating Fraser Speirs on iPad

February 1, 2010February 2, 2010 Paul L app store, Apple, computer, future, iPad, iPhone, man knows mac0 comment

Giving you the likely thinking behind this post by Fraser Speirs, quoted in its entirety [and translated] below… I’ll have more to say on the iPad later but one can’t help being struck by the volume and vehemence of apparently technologically sophisticated people inveighing against the iPad. [Many who normally love everything Apple and defend their products at length have a serious problem with this product. These traitors must be dealt with.] Some are trying to dismiss these ravings by comparing them to certain comments made after the launch of…

Chinese iPad-like Tablet Netbook – Out for Months

January 30, 2010 kingpinlei 0 comment

Okay, just found out about this. Apparently the Chinese company “Great Loong Brother” has been selling a tablet netbook since August that looks a lot like a big iPhone.

The iPad: Did Apple jump the shark, or is it a tablet for the masses?

January 28, 2010January 29, 2010 Doug Groves Apple, eBook, Gaming, iPad, netbook, tablet10 Comments

Well, iPad day has come and gone, and with it the dreams of many an Apple fan, if our internal emails here at rgbFilter are any indication. In the weeks leading up to the announcement of the new iPad, there was all kinds of rampant speculation. Will it be iPhone OS, or OS X? How big will it be? Will there be a stylus? Will it magically kill both other ebook readers and netbooks in one fell swoop? If you followed the standard commentary, not just in the tech press,…