Next Generation Portable by Sony

In a move that shocked precisely no one, Sony confirmed months of speculation by officially unveiling their next handheld video game system at a press event in Tokyo on Thursday.

Codenamed "NGP" for Next Generation Portable, the system packs a load of impressive technology, including two analog sticks, a 5-inch OLED touchscreen (for reference, an iPhone's screen is 3.5 inches), a second touchscreen on the back of the device, and a new flash-card media format.

Sony announced that the system will be released before the end of 2011, though no word on whether that's a worldwide date or just for Japan. No pricing details were released.

To better compete with longtime rival Nintendo's soon-to-be-released 3DS system and Apple's formidable iOS devices, the NGP will also feature 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity, front and rear cameras, an electronic compass, and six-axis motion-sensing capability. Yikes. Five to one it will also cut through this tin can!

Sony revealed a few other NGP functions, such as a location-based application that lets users find nearby players and a user-interface that ties social-networking features to every game.  The system has a new rounded form factor as well (Sony calls it the 'Super Oval Design') and is physically a bit larger than the current PSP-3000 model.

A slew of first-party NGP games were announced -- including new titles in the Hot Shots Golf, LittleBigPlanet, WipeOut, Killzone, Resistance and (gasp!) Uncharted franchises -- as well as games from publishers like Capcom, Sega, Tecmo, Konami, and Activision, who will be bringing blockbuster franchise Call of Duty to the system.

Much of Sony's presser focused on the NGP's varied control schemes. In addition to standard game fare like a D-pad and shoulder and face buttons, the system is the first of its kind to include dual analog sticks -- a feature widely requested by PSP fans. Motion-sensing control via the built-in gyroscopes was also on display, but perhaps most impressive is the dual touchscreen interface. The touch pad on the back of the device is positioned directly underneath the main screen, which allows for innovative 'pinch' control by using the two touchscreens simultaneously.

The device is a serious step up from Sony's last handheld release, the underwhelming PSP Go, which did little to help Sony gain ground on Nintendo's league-leading DS line. However, DS sales have slipped in recent months in anticipation of the 3DS, which produces 3D visuals without the need of special glasses.

While Sony failed to announce a PSP-capable phone (as many had expected), the company did find time to unveil the Playstation Suite, a cross-platform service that will make Playstation games available on Android phones and tablets.

[via Yahoo]

Key Coder

Key Coder is a useful tool for coding in actionscript, it provides the character keys for all the keys on the QWERTY keyboard excluding those on the num-pad.

http://goo.gl/efbbZ

Geek Test

InfoWorld, a news website dedicated to the decidely geeky-side of infomation technology, has posted it’s 2010 InfoWorld Geek IQ test. 

The quiz posits 20 multiple choice questions designed to cull the average users from the decidely hard-core tech gurus.  Hint: if you were once a fan of The Big Bang Theory, but stopped watching because you found their computer jokes too rudimentary, you may score well.  But watch out, as some of the questions may serve as a history lesson to anyone born after 1990.  It’s a fun quiz, as most geeks have a sense of humor:

[InfoWorld Quiz]

iOS 4.3 Launching Next Month?

According to a source for MacStories, the next release of iOS, 4.3, will be released on December 13th. This is surprisingly close to the release of the current version, 4.2.1, which just went public this week. Of course, the current release had a few delays due to bugs, so Apple may have been thrown off schedule by quite a bit.

The update will supposedly include needed bug-fixes and code maintenance, along with support for News Corp’s tablet-only publication, “The Daily”.

News Corp. has spent the last three months assembling a newsroom that will soon be about 100 staffers strong. The Daily will launch in beta mode sometime around Christmas, and will be introduced to the public on the iPad and other tablet devices in early 2011. It is expected to cost 99 cents a week, or about $4.25 a month. It will come out — as the name suggests — seven days a week.

An update to iOS would be necessary due to a possible change to iTunes’ back-end, in order to support a new recurring subscription model, which could also affect App Store application. (Changes in code would need to be made to add the necessary API.)

Optimistically, Apple may also be using this release to introduce the long-awaited iTunes cloud music service, though there are no additional rumors of this happening at this point.

[MacStories]

iPod Touch 4g Vibration?

Vibration hasn’t been included on the first, second, or third generation iPod touch devices, so it is strange that this wasn’t mentioned at the Apple Music Event on Wednesday. Regardless, it appears that the newest incarnation of the device will ship with vibration for use with notifications, such as incoming FaceTime video calls. Read on for more information, and evidence of this new feature.

Apple's Own Site

span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; font-family:Verdana;font-size:12px;">Here is the first piece of evidence, and it is on Apple’s very own website. Located on the Accessibility page for the iPod touch, you can scroll down to the ‘Video calling with FaceTime‘ and clearly see the following: “… If somebody wants to start a video call with you, you’ll receive an invitation — along with a vibrating alert — on your iPod touch asking you to join. …”

Of course, this could be the result of copy/pasting the info from the iPhone’s Accessibility page, which reads exactly the same. However, after multiple people from our forums chatting with Apple Experts, would the page still, after at least a day, read the exact same? You can’t tell me that all of Apple has been on coffee break for that long.

Mixed Messages from Apple Experts

Here’s where things get even more confusing. Instead of getting a straight, yes or no answer from anyone at Apple, many in the forums, including myself, have received very mixed messages. For example, this chat I had with an Apple Online Expert named

Tim.

• Tim: Hi, my name is Tim M. Welcome to Apple!
• Tim: Good Afternoon! How may I help you with your online shopping today?
• Me: Hi, I’ve got a question about the new iPod touch and something I read on your accessibility page.
• Tim: Certainly!
• Me: http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/features/accessibility.html under the ‘video calling with facetime’ it lists vibration as a feature. Is that true?
• Tim: Yes, that is correct- as a notification feature when you get a video call!
• Tim: Do you like that option?
• Me: Wow, that’s is insane. I didn’t think a vibrate would be able to fit. Now I’m very excited for my iPod to get here. I pre-ordered it just yesterday.
• Tim: Outstanding! Did you add the AppleCare plan to extend your warranty and get unlimited support for 2 years?

As you can see, this particular Apple ‘Expert’ believes that there is, indeed, a vibration motor used for notifications. However, in a VM to me, forum member Jawcl says the following: “Lol, I just talked to an Apple person on the phone. She said hold on and then she talked to the engineers for ten minutes and came back to say no it doesn’t have vibrate.”

That’s just one of the many instances where these so called Experts have come back with very mixed messages regarding this feature.

Of course, I’ve reached out to Apple PR regarding this, and have yet to receive a reply. So that is a dead-end.

Pictures

This is where everything gets a little bit more concrete. Thanks to the FCC for tearing apart an innocent iPod touch 4G, we got a look at its innards. At first glance, you can’t see much. But, looking a little bit closer, like matt912836 did, we see something a little out of place.

The ‘Vibrate Motor’ was added by matt912836, but the original picture can be seen here. For comparison’s sake, here’s some other vibration motors found in cell phones:

The above vibrate motor, from what I can gather, is mostly seen in Samsung phones. Having an old, beaten up, and non-booting Verizon Samsung Alias on hand, I proceeded to tear it down, limb from limb. And, of course, I found a part resembling this:

From what I can tell, this type of vibration motor is extremely good for small spaces, where parts and components are jam packed to make the device as thin as possible, à la iPod touch 4G. From my experience with the Alias, the vibration isn’t the most aggressive, although it definitely isn’t terrible. If that component in the iPod touch is a vibration motor, and does perform like the one to the right, then I’d say that this is something interesting, and possibly extremely useful to some.

Something else to note is that this vibration motor may be locked down to being notifications-only. It may not be available for third-party developers to utilize, at least not at first. In other words, you may not get vibration on the iPod touch 4G like you would on a Dualshock 3, iPhone 4, or Xbox 360 controller.

Of course, this is still a rumor. However, from those three pieces of information and evidence, it isn’t impossible to jump to the conclusion that that mystery component is, in fact, a vibration motor. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time Apple included something that they didn’t advertise.

via [iPTF]

Spy Party [UPDATE]

A while back we posted about a neat little game, Spy Party. We've done some more digging and found that it was playable at PAX, the people there loved it. (PAX is a three day festival for tabletop, videogame, and PC gamers with tournaments, concerts, and other interesting things. [PAX Website] )

You can follow SpyParty on Twitter and Facebook. You can also visit the SpyParty website HERE

Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries Free Download

Microsoft has made Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries available for free download

Download it here: http://goo.gl/im7A

iPod Touch 4g Specs

iPod Touch 4th Generation Hardware Technical Specifications

• 960x640 Retina Display at 326 ppi
• Apple’s A4 Processor
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• HD Video Recording (720p) 30fps max
• VGA Quality Photos (960x720) Back Camera 
• 40 Hours Audio Playback, 7 Hours Video
• Thinner Design

(We’ll have comparative photos of the iPod Touch 4g, iPhone 4, and a standard DSLR camera as soon as we can get our hands on an iPod Touch 4g)

iTunes 10 Tweak

Relocate Window Controls (Mac only)

The traffic light controls on iTunes 10 have been flipped vertically in order to save space and make the program more streamlined, but many users don’t like this change. Luckily, there is a quick fix to put them back to where they belong.

Just type the following into the Terminal and hit enter.

defaults write com.apple.iTunes full-window -boolean YES

If you want to change it back, trade “YES” for “NO”.

via CNET

New iTV?

AppleInsider has found evidence of an unknown device lurking in the USB configuration files of iOS 4.1.

“According to people familiar with the matter, the latest beta of iOS 4.1, due to ship in the coming weeks, includes three new “Configuration Descriptors” within its USB configuration files — all of which pertain to devices that list “Apple, Inc.” as their “manufacturer” — as can be seen in the screenshot below.”

“Finally, and most intriguing, is a previously undiscovered mention of a mysterious device listed only as “unknownHardware.” Although the configuration files tag this device with a unique Apple product ID of 20547, it’s textual descriptor is similarly listed as “Unknown- Add device descriptor info for this device.”

The unknown device has an Apple product ID in the 20,000s, suggesting that will be the reincarnation of the Apple TV, which is rumored to be compatible with the App Store. (Making this theory even more likely.)

As rumored, the IDs point to the iPod Touch getting a major overhaul, as well as the iPad. (Cameras, anyone?) For a closer look at when these Apple product IDs actually mean, check out this post at the Boy Genius Report.

[AppleInsider]