Synology Introduces DiskStation DS213air

Jim McCarthy
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Synology Introduces DiskStation DS213air

Synology® has released a new DiskStation, including wi-fi functionality to extend the usefulness of their NAS solutions for small businesses and home users.  Read on for details.

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Synology® has released a new DiskStation, including wi-fi functionality to extend the usefulness of their NAS solutions for small businesses and home users.  Here is what they announced today:

Going Beyond NAS Servers and Unleashing the Freedom of Connectivity with Built-in Wi-Fi Support

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom—October 2, 2012—Synology® UK Ltd. today introduced DiskStation DS213air, a 2-bay NAS server with built-in Wi-Fi support for home and small office users.

“Synology boasts cutting-edge technologies that deliver seamless integration, of which the DS213air is a great example,” said Rosiel Lee, product manager of Synology Inc. “By incorporating Wi-Fi technology into a feature-rich DiskStation, the DS213air has changed the way people think about NAS servers,” added Lee.

With a built-in Wi-Fi adapter, the DS213air provides a wide range of wireless configurations that fit perfectly into different user scenarios. It can be connected wirelessly to network without cumbersome cabling, or be configured as a hotspot to extend the range of an existing Wi-Fi network. Users can even deploy the DS213air as a wireless router to create a wireless environment at no extra cost.

The DS213air features Web Assistant, an intuitive web-based system that completes installation and setup with only a few clicks, and takes the lead to let users install Synology DSM operating system using a mobile device. Combined with the Quick Start widget, users can tour the DSM during installation and begin using it immediately thereafter.

Powered by a 1.6 GHz processor and 256 MB RAM, Synology DS213air delivers reading and writing speeds at 108.07 MB/sec and 58.66 MB/sec respectively under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows® environment. It is equipped with the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 interface, offering file transfers up to 10 times the speeds of USB 2.0. The DS213air is built on Synology’s signature design featuring two additional side ventilation openings and a 92mm rear fan, which can keep the system running cool 24/7 and minimize its noise level to 19.0 dB(A).

The DS213air runs DiskStation Manager (DSM) 4.1, the operating system of every Synology DiskStation and RackStation. DSM 4.1 provides rich features to boost productivity and simplify tasks, all on a sleek interface optimized for multitasking. Synology has received numerous media accolades and the DS213air is no exception. It has been named “Best Storage of Computex 2012” by Computeractive, U.K.

Availability

Synology DiskStation DS213air is now shipping globally.

DS213air

This is an interesting take.  For my use, I need to connect NAS units via ethernet for best file transfer performance, but in a small business or home scenario, the wi-fi repeater or integrated router would be of value.  What do you think: are you interested in using your NAS as a router or repeater?

DS213air Press Release

Hitman: Absolution Contracts play through video released

Andrew Edney
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Hitman: Absolution Contracts play through video released

Square Enix has released a play through showcasing and explaining the new multiplayer-mode CONTRACTS. The 18-minute play through includes commentary from HITMAN: ABSOLUTION game director Tore Blystad and Travis Barbour, part of the community team at IO Interactive.

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CONTRACTS is a new online mode which allows gamers to create and share their own custom hit challenges within the HITMAN: ABSOLUTION game. Players will choose a level, targets, weapons and then set their own rules for completing the contract based on time, style and witnesses. There are no clumsy editors or complicated mechanics to learn; in CONTRACTS you simply play to create. As an asynchronous mode, CONTRACTS allows fans to compete against friends at any time, regardless of whether they are online. HITMAN: ABSOLUTION will also ship with many pre-set CONTRACTS, each designed by the very best assassins at IO Interactive.

Here is the play through:

Hitman: Absolution is scheduled for release across North America, Europe and PAL territories on November 20, 2012 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows PC.

Are you getting Hitman: Absolution? If so let us know by leaving a comment below.

StableBit DrivePool for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta 1.0.2.6962 released

Andrew Edney
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StableBit DrivePool for Windows Home Server 2011 Beta 1.0.2.6962 released

There has been another beta build from CoveCube! StableBit DrivePool development marches on – now its version 1.0.2.6962.

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Here is how CoveCube describes this application:

  • Combine all your hard drives into one big storage pool (except the system drive with the OS).
  • Add and remove drives from the pool at any time without re-partitioning or manually moving folders.
  • Create duplicated folders on the storage drive pool that are protected against single drive failure. If a drive fails on which a duplicated file was stored, the contents of that file will remain readable even without the drive.
  • All your data is stored in standard NTFS files. You can always access your files even if the Windows Home Server completely crashes or this add-in can’t be used.

This beta version’s change log:

1.2.0.6962

    • Added byte deltas to re-balance markers.
    • The StableBit Scanner balancer will now respect existing limits and use protected vs. unprotected limits when deciding how to best evacuate files.
    • Changed the drive emptying algorithm to not empty a drive beyond the point which was computed at the time of the balance model calculation. This caused unintentional drive overfill and perpetual balancing under some circumstances.
    • When removing a drive, DrivePool will scan for any local server processes / services that are using any files on that pool part and attempt to gracefully close them (or restart them, if supported).
    • [D] Added workaround for a bug in Windows. The bug seems to manifests itself only on domain controllers (such as the Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials). The user sees “Insufficient resources” error messages when copying files to / from the server. The error is actually coming from the server and not from DrivePool. Apparently, Windows inadvertently exhausts an internal pooled resource when sending network based read / write requests to the file system. This doesn’t typically happen on NTFS because of the different timing semantics there (but it seems possible). CoveFS will now limit the number of “in-flight” requests in order to keep the overzealous Windows component from asking for more data than it can handle. (yes, this one took a bit of doing to figure out)
    • Added polish translation (Credit: Marek)
    • Drive removal would fail if a duplicated file was in-use with a non-descriptive error message.
Download the latest beta version from here

Ubisoft announces Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Khyber Strike DLC Package

Andrew Edney
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Ubisoft announces Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Khyber Strike DLC Package

Ubisoft have announced the Khyber Strike DLC pack, the third Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier DLC package.

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Khyber Strike will feature three new multiplayer maps, a new multiplayer game mode called “Takeover,” a new Guerrilla Mode co-op map, new achievements, and an increased level cap.  Khyber Strike will be available for download on October 9th on Xbox 360 and October 10th for the PlayStation 3.

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Khyber Strike DLC features:

· 3 new multiplayer maps

o Switchback: Step off the main road leading down into the city and into a maze of ancient buildings and narrow alleys. The twists and turns of the alleyways turn every corner into a close-quarters deathtrap.

o Palace: There’s no time for reflection even in this magnificent relic. What once was a museum dedicated to showing the glories of the past is now a battlefield, with a massive courtyard at the heart of its contested ground.

o Transit: A Moscow metro station makes for close quarters and close-range combat. Trains pulling into and out of the station add to the danger as Ghosts and Bodark slug it out underground.

· 1 new multiplayer game mode: “Takeover”

o Similar to a classic team deathmatch, score points for your team by eliminating enemies.  Tip the scales by taking control of the enemy’s objective and earn a score multiplier to your team.  Defend your team’s objective to prevent the enemy from gaining the same advantage.  Choose to split your team to defend and attack at the same time, or move as a group and overwhelm your enemy.  When the mission ends, the team with highest score wins.

· 1 Guerrilla Mode map “Village” (4 players online / 2 players in local split screen)

o A peaceful country village finds itself transformed into a battleground, as fighting rages around its central bus station. Long alleyways that run between war-damaged buildings make a perfect hunting ground for snipers, and a shootout near the town’s gas station could turn explosive.

· New Achievements

· Level cap increase of +10

Khyber Strike will be available for purchase for 800 Microsoft points on Xbox Live or £7.99 on the PlayStation Network.

For more news and information, please visit the game’s official website at www.ghostrecon.com.

Do you play Ghost Recon? Let us know what you think of the game by leaving a comment below.

Apple updates iPhoto for Mac to version 9.4.1

Andrew Edney
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0
Apple updates iPhoto for Mac to version 9.4.1

Apple has just updated it’s iPhoto for Mac application to version 9.4.1.

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This update includes:

  • Improves the reliability of syncing to iOS devices via iTunes
  • Fixes an issue that could cause iPhoto to quit unexpectedly when using the Export command
  • Addresses an issue that could cause iPhoto to quite unexpectedly when upgrading multiple books, cards and calendars
  • Resolves an issue with downloading and viewing photos synced from Facebook albums

Do you use iPhoto? If so, tell us what you think of it by leaving us a comment below.

App Update: Twonky Beam Browser for Android updated to 3.2.1

Andrew Edney
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0
App Update: Twonky Beam Browser for Android updated to 3.2.1

Twonky have just released an update to its Beam Browser app for Android.

Twonky Beam Browser

Twonky Beam Browser provides you with a simple and familiar way to discover and enjoy Internet videos with your tablet or phone and beam them to your TV or other media players on your home network.

When you visit your favourite websites, or discover new ones, Twonky Beam Browser will display a Twonky Beam button over the media files that you are able beam to your TV or sound system. The home page of Twonky Beam Browser contains links to popular websites with great content you can beam. Browse many pages at once through tabs, with the home page always available to you as the main tab. You can also create and manage bookmarks, so that you can easily find your favourite sites.

A simple tap of the screen will beam the chosen content to your selected player, such as your Airplay enabled, UPnP or DLNA certified device. The beaming mode in Twonky Beam Browser can be toggled on and off, allowing you to use the application to discover and enjoy content locally on your tablet or phone.

What’s in this version:

• Improved address bar (provides visual cue that address bar can also be used for entering Google search terms)
• Improved accessibility of side panels (configurable option to show buttons at the edge of the screen for accessing side panels)
• Automatically select “This Device” as the renderer when it is the only renderer available
• Improved reliability playing long DTCP-IP encrypted videos
• Resume playback automatically when interrupted by screen lock/unlock

Download from Google Play

The Final Hours of Tomb Raider Episode 2: Origins of a Story

Andrew Edney
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0
The Final Hours of Tomb Raider Episode 2: Origins of a Story

Crystal Dynamics today launched the second in their series of behind the scenes documentaries entitled, The Final Hours of Tomb Raider: Origins of a Story.

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Hosted by Zachary Levi at Nerd HQ in San Diego during Comicon, this episode dives deep into the heart of Tomb Raider through an exploration of character development and narrative. Featuring Lead Writer Rhianna Pratchett, Narrative Designer John Stafford, and Creative Director Noah Hughes, the trio elaborate on the immense responsibility of reimagining gaming’s leading lady.

Featuring clips of never-before-seen footage, The Final Hours of Tomb Raider: Origins of a Story allows these writers a chance to open up about creating a believable and motivated character, the marriage of gameplay and story and the unique (and often complex) nature of interactive fiction seen through a lens of survival. Camilla Luddington also returns, discussing the emotional spaces and extreme circumstances she’d find herself written into.

Filmed whilst the team were waiting anxiously for the worldwide debut of Tomb Raider’s hands-on demo earlier this year, simultaneously excited and apprehensive for the raw, unfiltered feedback it entails.

Earlier this year Crystal Dynamics announced that they had partnered with Geoff Keighley to produce The Final Hours of Tomb Raider. Each one of the episodes being released goes behind the scenes of specific aspects of the project as they come to a close. At launch, Geoff Keighley will also be releasing an interactive app that will document the entire development process of this iconic reboot.

Here is episode two:

My Movies for iPad version 1.85 Released

Andrew Edney
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My Movies for iPad version 1.85 Released

Brian has just released and update for My Movies for iPad – its now at version 1.85.

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What is My Movies for iPad?

My Movies for iPad allows you to catalog your entire movie collection from our high quality online data service containing data for more than 475,000 DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD titles from various countries. If you have one or more titles that is not in our service, you can report it and it will be created within 48 hours by our staff.

If you would like to evaluate the application, you can install My Movies for iPad Free, which is a freely available identical version with the exception of it being limited to 50 titles, and only 10 items in release and trailer lists.

You can use My Movies for iPad as a standalone product by adding titles by barcode or title searches, use it along with My Movies for iPhone Light or Pro or use it as a companion to our My Movies software packages for Microsoft Windows, allowing you to keep your movie collection synchronized between all devices and clients.

My Movies for iPad requires you to create a user account, or log on to an existing My Movies account to be able to use the program. Your collection will follow your user account through our online servers, allowing you to switch between different clients without ever losing your data. If you log in to an existing My Movies account, your current collection will automatically be synchronized to your iPad, and users of My Movies for iPhone can use it’s batch barcode scanning functionality to quickly add titles and automatically have them synchronized to their iPad.

You can within the program activate an online collection website of your movie collection, allowing you to send friends and family a website that allows them to browse your entire collection.

With My Movies for iPad, you can keep track of movies you own, previously have owned, rented or movies you wish to purchase. Never again will you have to purchase or rent a movie twice. Users of My Movies for Windows Media Center can also use the application to start playback of movies on their Media Center.

Features:
– Add titles by barcode, title search or manual creation.
– Preview titles with complete details before adding to your collection.
– Add titles to different groups (Owned, Wished, Rented, …), and move titles between groups.
– Report missing titles to our staff to have the titles created in our service.
– Report incorrect data to our moderation team if you find an error in our database.
– View movie trailers for titles in your collection.
– Management loans to friends and family by selecting from contacts or typing name.
– High resolution front and back covers.
– Search your collection.
– Browse using our movie wall or list views with large or small thumbnails.
– Sort titles using advanced data options.
– View actors and directors with photos, biography and list of titles the person stars in.
– Update movie profiles from our service to always have the latest, most complete and accurate data.
– Create an online collection website to share with friends and family.
– Upload your collection directly from My Movies Windows software suite as an alternative to synchronize through our online servers.
– See weekly releases of titles on Blu-ray and DVD including all details and trailers. (Release lists are not complete in all countries).
– Start playback of movies in My Movies for Windows Media Center.

What’s New in Version 1.85

– Change of internal images to reduce size.
– Fixes issue with playing YouTube trailers.

Download My Movies Pro for iPad

Windows Home Server Add-in: Lights-Out Service Pack 3 Released

Jim McCarthy
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Windows Home Server Add-in: Lights-Out Service Pack 3 Released

Martin Rothschink of AxoNet Software GmbH has been in touch to announce Service Pack 3 for Lights-Out, now formally supporting Essentials 2012 and Windows 8.  Read on for details.

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Lights-Out Service Pack 3 has been released.  First, a little bit about the application:

Lights-Out enhances a Windows Server Solution in these areas:

  • Power management, to run your server on demand
  • Client backup, to run a scheduled backup and use Wake-On-Lan
  • Uptime chart, to give a graphical overview of device activity in your network
  • Client management, wake, suspend or reboot your client computers
  • Mac OS X Support for WHS v1 and 2011!

Now for the release notes for Service Pack 3:

Current Version 1.5.3 Build 1803

  • Fixed missing next calendar events for a task which spans midnight and runs every day
  • Fixed high CPU load in client service if server is offline
  • Fixed missing status for Apple Mac and mobile devices
  • Fixed a problem with special characters in name of IP based devices
  • Fixed a problem with identity mapping in Mac Agent
  • Changed client standby action initiated from dashboard or Lights-Out Mobile App. Uses hibernation if configured as action after backup, standby otherwise.
  • Changed network monitor to better handle pulsed transmission used for example by XBMC
  • Changed uptime chart to suppress server if running 24/7 (Lights-Out configured to do nothing)
  • Added official support for Window Server 2012 Essentials
  • Added official support for Window 8
  • Added official support for Apple Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion)
  • Added better support for mobile devices in computer properties
  • Added detection for WebDAV issues in Mac Agent and Lights-Out Mobile
  • Added different product titles
  • Added backup command to client context menu (this combines wake-up, backup and action after backup)
  • Added backup command to command line client
  • Added correct sorting to all columns in computer tab
  • Added Polish translation

Known issues

  • Resizing the Dashboard to the smallest possible window size creates a distorted Status sub-tab. Workaround: resize the Dashboard
  • You can’t load an existing Windows Home Server v1 Lights-Out license into this version. Lights-Out for WHS 2011 requires a new license file.
  • Client GUI application is not started automatically after first client push installation. Workaround: Run via Start->All Programs->Startup, Lights-Out Client or log off and log on again.
  • Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials and Windows Server 2012 Essentials wake up every 30 minutes by Server Infrastructure License Service (silsvc). This bug is logged in Microsoft Connect. See ID 669083 (SBS 2011, closed), ID 761637 (Windows Server 2012 Essentials) and ID 757760 (WS 2012 Essentials, German) and vote for this bug!

If you are running Lights-Out, go head and get your upgrade.  And if you are deploying a new Server 2012 Essentials box, look into including this application to improve your control over server power management and WOL for clients!

Lights-Out Service Pack 3 Release Notes

An interview with Frank O’Connor from 343 Industries about Halo 4

Andrew Edney
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An interview with Frank O’Connor from 343 Industries about Halo 4

We recently had the opportunity to play a few hours of the new Halo 4 game. After that we got to chat with Frank O’Connor about it!

CDW interview Frank O'Connor

Set almost five years after the events of “Halo 3,” “Halo 4” takes the series in a bold new direction and sets the stage for an epic new sci-fi saga, in which the Master Chief returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. In addition to a rich story and campaign, “Halo 4” introduces a groundbreaking new multiplayer offering, called “Halo Infinity Multiplayer,” that builds off of the “Halo” franchise’s rich multiplayer history and promises to continue to innovate and redefine the way people think about storytelling and multiplayer experiences.

So here is the interview with Frank:

What do you think of Halo 4, is it a game you will buy? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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