Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday

Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday

The Unreal Engine 3 already made a quite spectacular debut on iOS with Epic Games' own Infinity Blade, but the company's decided it's time to finally stop teasing and give us the software to really play with it. Tomorrow's planned update to the UDK will deliver iOS support, meaning that all the fancy tools that helped make Infinity Blade such a blindingly gorgeous game will be at your fingertips should you be feeling creative. Licensing for the Engine is free for testing and non-commercial use, but you'll have to pay $99 if you want to sell anything you produce with it, to be followed by a 25 percent slice of your earnings beyond $5,000 and, of course, Apple's 30 percent cut of whatever's left. That might not sound like the best business plan in the world, but consider that Infinity Blade is estimated to have racked up over $1.5 million in sales already -- we're sure there'll be enough change left for ice cream even after Epic and Apple have had their share.

Unreal Engine 3 dev kit adding iOS support tomorrow, Infinity Blade clones coming Friday originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 10:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW, Joystiq  |  sourceWall Street Journal, @MarkRein (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

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Meizu M9 christens site launch with full specs list

Meizu M9 christens site launch with full specs list

Meizu CEO Jack Wong has been teasing the M9 handset for some time now, and if we're not mistaken, the official site just went live with a full list of specs to boot. As promised, there's a 3.5-inch 960 x 640 resolution screen (reportedly the Sharp ASV display), and we're also apparently looking at a 1GHz S5PC110 processor (just like the Samsung Galaxy S), Android 2.2, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, A-GPS, 802.11b/g/n, microSDHC, a removable 1370mAH lithium-polymer battery, and support for (drumroll, please) GSM, GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSDPA,and HSUPA. Too good to be true? Word on the street is this very phone will be available December 25th in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, and will expand to the rest of China days later. We'll believe it when we see it.

Meizu M9 christens site launch with full specs list originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 11:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Micgadget, Meizu Me (1), (2)  |  sourceMeizu  | Email this | Comments

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How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the World [Howto]

How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the World [Howto]

How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the WorldSo you're jetting off to a tropical island in uncharted waters. But how are you supposed to enjoy paradise when copyright laws put the international hammer down on Netflix? Winter travelers, meet your new best friends: Proxy and VPN services.

How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the World

Getting Started

Watching geographically restricted content can be tricky. Streaming services like Hulu and Netflix (as well as other network sites) employ geotracking software to make sure nobody outside of the US can dip in to watch The Office or Exit Through the Gift Shop. And it's not just Americans who have this problem: Foreigners traveling to the US can't watch their obscure racing leagues and alternative ball sports. It's lame, really. But don't fret. There are fairly quick ways to get around these pesky barriers—namely, by using either a proxy or VPN service. Both of these options reroute your computer's network connection and change your IP address to make it look like it's coming from somewhere else—like, say, the US. They work in slightly different ways.

Think of the proxy server as a kind of browser-based filter. In simple terms, it sends your traffic through another IP address that is located somewhere else. Then, when you fire up Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Chrome, web pages are routed to you via the proxy server with whatever benefits are associated with it—security, speed, geographic location etc. VPN ( which stands for Virtual Private Network), on the other hand, actually encrypts and reroutes all of your Internet access, effectively replacing your local ISP. We'll go over both options for the expat or jetsetter jonsin' for his home-cooked entertainment.

The Proxy Method

Netflix, Hulu, and sites like ABC.com look at your IP address to determine where in the world you're browsing from. But fooling them isn't all that hard. If you want a quick and easy way to bypass these annoying roadblocks, you can sign up for a proxy service like IP Hider. There's a free trial version of the software you can try, although it's PC-only. If you use Firefox, it'll provide an easy way to change your settings so that once you have IP Hider up and running, you can appear to be anywhere on the connected planet.

THE PROXY METHOD
What it is: Software that redirects your Internet traffic through anonymous servers.
What you'll need: A PC, an internet connection, and strong yearning to watch geographically-restricted content.
What it costs: Nothing! All you need is the trial version of IP Hider and you're ready to rock.

How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the World

Here's how to do it:
• Download the free trial of IP Hider; install it on your PC.
• Click on the country you want to change your IP address to (might we suggest the United States?). Click the 'Check IP button.
'
• If it doesn't work (or the connection is super slow), click the 'choose next' box to switch a (hopefully) a faster proxy connection.
• Browse the ole WWW and watch videos as you normally would.

The VPN Method

Going with a VPN service is another way to access your favorite content back home. It's also the most general-purpose way to view video content that has been restricted online. For one thing, proxies that support video must be custom coded to support each site so, for the most part, only the biggest sites will work. Unlike a proxy, a VPN will grant you a secured connection for all the programs you use, whether it's ICQ, email, or anything else. The only downside is that you usually have to pay for it if you want any kind of decent speed.

What it is: Essentially, a second ISP. Like a proxy, you get a new IP address to show the world.
What you'll need: Again, an Internet-connected computer is your ticket.
What it costs: Free versions limit you to crappy bandwidth. A good, publicly accessible VPN will cost around $10/month.

Here's how to do it:
• First, choose a reliable (and well-established) VPN service. We like StrongVPN or HideMyAss Pro.
The former offers accounts from $7/month, while the latter will cost you $11.50/month. You'll get better deals if you opt for longer time periods. Both are Mac, PC and Linux compatible.
• Choose your time length and sign up for service.

• On a Mac, open up your System Preferences. Click on Network.
• Click the '+' button to add a VPN (PPTP) connection.
• Enter the server, username and password you received in your greeting email
• Click 'Connect' button and then 'Apply.'
• Almost done. Next, go to Network Preferences and click the advanced button. Select Session Options and check the "Send all traffic over VPN connection" checkbox.
• You can check the speed of the VPN servers here.

How To Watch Streaming Video Anywhere in the World

A quick note: Just because we showed you how to do this, doesn't mean we endorse it. Please consider this guide a useful thought exercise—and nothing more.

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My Bike Keeps Me Juiced Up

My Bike Keeps Me Juiced Up

I think the I-Green concept is brills. Designer Fandi Meng already has an iF and Good Design award for previous work so I’d expect nothing less. The I-Green is a small bike peripheral that turns kinetic energy into electrical to charge nearly any portable device. I like to ride my bike with my phone to track my progress but the GPS sensor kills the battery. This seems like an awesome idea to keep my phone juiced up. I’ll take one but please but, maybe in another color?

Designer: Fandi Meng

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Yanko Design
Timeless Designs - Explore wonderful concepts from around the world!
Yanko Design Store - We are about more than just concepts. See what's hot at the YD Store!

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Further Narrow Down Duplicates in iTunes with the Option Key [ITunes]

Further Narrow Down Duplicates in iTunes with the Option Key [ITunes]

Further Narrow Down Duplicates in iTunes with the Option KeyWe've mentioned iTunes' "show duplicates" feature a few times before, but on its own, you might still have to sift through a lot of songs. With the ever-useful Option key, however, you can narrow down those results to show exact duplicates only.

The problem with iTunes' default "show duplicates" feature (for some) is that it shows anything that might be construed as a duplicate—which means live tracks, bootlegs, alternate recordings, or tracks that show up on compliation albums are all shown as duplicates even if they're different tracks. This means you'll narrow down your choices, but it'll still be a lot to sift through, especially if you have a big library. Reader Sikstik, though, shows us how to narrow the search for duplicates down to exact duplicates only:

To see all Exact Duplicates in iTunes, Click File from the iTunes menu and then hold down the Option key. Display Duplicates should now change to Display Exact Duplicates, which should result in a shorter list of duplicates.

If you're on Windows, you can do the same thing by pressing the Shift key instead of Option. This feature may have been there for awhile, but we hadn't seen it before, so we thought we'd share. It's just another example of the great features that Option key keeps hidden away for you.

[via #tips]

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