Dave at the guys at the Home Server Show have released episode 191.
Here’s what Dave has to say about this weeks show:
You are in luck! Dave is out and Jim and John take over. The big topics are Outlook.com, Raspberry Pi, and some Home Server talk as usual. Jim called this episode an extra edition but I think it is worthy of the full deal! Enjoy number 191.
Listen to the show from here.
Today saw an update to Angry Birds bringing new levels and power-ups.
The piggies continue their beach vacation with fifteen new tropical levels — but the vacation’s gonna end when the birds show up! PLUS: Angry Birds now has power-ups! With these four special power-ups — King Sling, Birdquake, Super Seeds, and Sling Scope — you can three-star even the most challenging levels!
Download Angry Birds from the App Store now
An all new Assassin’s Creed 3 trailer featuring the power of AnvilNext has been released.
Assassin’s Creed III lets gamers experience the power of Ubisoft-AnvilNext, the new game engine that brings Colonial America to life. Revolutionary physics, animation and weather systems deliver unprecedented realism and a revamped combat systems that delivers the most intense and vivid Assassin’s Creed experience to date.
Here is the trailer – I don’t know about you but I really want this game.
Only Ubisoft-AnvilNext has the power to deliver the scale and scope of the biggest Assassin’s Creed game ever on October 30.
Since Microsoft announced the conversion of their Hotmail product to Outlook.Com, we’ve noticed two issues. Read on for details.
We told you here about Microsoft’s conversion of Hotmail to Outlook.Com, and today we have a few issues that we’ve noticed that we wanted to highlight for you.
Some users converted their old Hotmail or Live account to a new Outlook.Com account. For Windows Phone users, that means that they lost all of their contacts and XBOX Live integration. If you are a pre-existing Hotmail or Live user, implement an Outlook.Com alias instead of converting your account. Here is a great article that explains how to do that.
I am a daily user of OneNote and I am running OneNote 2013 Beta in Windows 7 and Windows 8. After upgrading my Live.com login to Outlook.Com, I am no longer able to synch OneNote notebooks to SkyDrive. This is a bug and I reported it and logged it on a OneNote forum. Here is the error message (I obscured part of the message):
I reported this as a bug by clicking on the smiley face at the top right of the screen in OneNote 2013 Beta. I hope that they fix this one soon!
UPDATE–a user on the OneNote support forum reports that opening a Word document in Word 2013 from SkyDrive solves the OneNote synching issue, and I tried it and it works! Give it a shot if you have the OneNote synching issue!
The Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Season of Content wraps up with the last two Content Collections — Collection #3: Chaos Pack and Collection #4: Final Assault — set to release on the Xbox 360 on August 9 and September 6, 2012 respectively.
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Call of Duty: MW3 Collection #3: Chaos Pack offers extensive solo and co-op gameplay for the Special Ops enthusiast, featuring four brand new Special Ops Missions — Vertigo, Arctic Recon, Light ‘Em Up and Special Delivery — and FACE OFF maps — Vortex, U-Turn and Intersection. Introducing a new way to play Call of Duty®, Special Ops Chaos Mode delivers a frenetic form of combat that demands players to outlast waves of enemies, while chaining kills on maps littered in power-ups to achieve the highest possible score on fan-favorite multiplayer maps Resistance, Village, Underground and Dome.
The final act of the Call of Duty: MW3 Content Season, Collection #4: Final Assault, is tailored toward hardcore multiplayer fans, and features five all-new multiplayer maps. “Gulch” sends combatants into a forgotten mining town with mine shafts and equipment sheds for cover. In “Boardwalk,” fun in the sun on the Jersey Shore means facing enemies on the beach. “Offshore” and “Decommission” will test players’ sea legs on deadly oceanic oilrigs and among a maze of rotting ocean liners respectively. Rounding out the collection is a trip to the French Quarter in a war-torn New Orleans, where “Parish” pits players against one another amidst the city’s rubble.
Both Collection #3: Chaos Pack and Collection #4: Final Assault will release first on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 1,200 Microsoft Points, or $14.99. The Collections will be released on other platforms shortly thereafter.
Check out our review of Call of Duty: MW3Have you tried any of the packs yet?
This weeks Digital Lifestyle Show has just been released – and it’s show 365.
Here’s what Ian says about this week show:
Welcome to a special show, Daniel Vieria (@dangelus) joins me to talk about MediaPortal as an alternative to Windows Media Center. Daniel talks about his experiences with the open source application, the pros and cons and how you can use it to record 5 simultaneous HD channels are once. We also talk about XBMC, Raspberry Pi and take a look at some items from the weeks news.
When I was a kid I had a ZX Spectrum – our arch rival was the Commodore 64, and yesterday it turned 30!
The Commodore 64 made it’s debut at CES and it took until the Autumn to actually get released.
This is what Wikipedia say about it:
The Commodore 64, commonly called C64, C=64 (after the graphic logo on the case) or occasionally CBM 64 (for Commodore Business Machines), or VIC-64, was an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International.
Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$ 595.Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM, and had favourable sound and graphical specifications when compared to contemporary systems such as the Apple II, at a price that was well below the circa US$ 1200 demanded by Apple.
During the C64’s lifetime, sales totalled between 12.5 and 17 million units, making it the best-selling single personal computer model of all time. For a substantial period of time (1983–1986), the C64 dominated the market with between 30% and 40% share and 2 million units sold per year, outselling the IBM PC compatibles, Apple Inc. computers, and Atari 8-bit family computers. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore’s founder, said in a 1989 interview “When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years.”
Part of its success was because it was sold in retail stores instead of electronics stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control supplies and cost. It is sometimes compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative mass-production.
Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles were made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and games. C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible video game console, to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists.
Did you have a Commodore 64? Share some of your memories with us by leaving a comment below.
Over the last few weeks I have had the opportunity to test a few different smartphones, and so it’s time to the review the HTC One S Android Ice Cream Sandwich powered smartphone.
HTC One S boasts a head-turning design on our thinnest phone yet. With beauty both inside and out, our new display delivers a rich viewing experience like you’ve never seen before. You’ll love the camera that captures every moment (even in low light) with crisp, vivid, beautiful photos.
We didn’t have the full retail box, so what we got was the HTC One S, a set of earphones and a charger.
The phone has three buttons on the front – I just spent a few weeks using a Samsung Galaxy S3 so it took me a little time to get used to the buttons being the other way around on this phone.
Robots and Pencils, together with First Star Software, Inc. and Warner Bros. have launched Spy vs Spy for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, featuring the famous Black and White spies from DC Entertainment’s MAD Magazine with online and local multiplayer matches, 16 new embassies (plus the original 8), and a pixel perfect retro mode as well as a modern mode.
Based on the original “Spy vs Spy” game, the iOS title brings back all the humour, action and fisticuffs that made the original an all-time, multi-million-unit-selling hit.
This modern update takes the original gameplay as designed, developed, and published by First Star Software in 1984 for the Apple II, Atari 400/800 and Commodore 64, and adds HD visuals; support of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Apple’s GameCenter as well as four remixes of the original music and many other new features.
Spy vs Spy features:
· Online + Local Multiplayer Support – sabotage and intrigue included.
· 16 Brand New Embassies – for a total of 24.
· Play alone in Custom Matches for all 24 embassies, each with 5 levels of difficulty – you select the IQ of the opposing spy.
· Retina graphics for the new iPad and iPhone.
· New, full screen club-to-club Combat in Modern mode.
· Modern & Retro game modes – both featuring Simulvision™, Simulplay™ and your very own Trapulator™.
· 5 types of Booby-Traps – play as the famous Black and White spies from MAD Magazine.
· Integrated Game Center Leaderboards and Achievements.
· Includes the original theme music plus 4 new remixes.
· Universal app – play on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
The Retro mode is fun – I remember playing it on my trusty Spectrum, many, MANY years ago and it really brought back memories.
Basically you can’t go wrong for $0.99 and it’s a lot of fun! The addition of Retina graphics really make a difference too.
The gameplay can get a little frustrating at time, but that’s half the fun with Spy vs Spy. If you want to relive some of your childhood, and have a fun time, go get Spy vs Spy now.
Spy vs Spy is now available on the iTunes App Store: http://itunes.apple.com/app/spy-vs-spy/id514737089
Have you played it? Tell us what you think by leaving a comment below.
Crucial has introduced a new range of Solid State Drives (SSDs) called the V4 range designed to provide SATA 2 (3Gb/s) Systems with Enhanced Start-Up Times, Transfer Speeds, and Durability.
The Crucial v4 SSD offers read speeds up to 230MB/s and write speeds up to 190MB/s, enabling faster start-up times, faster application downloads, faster transfer data speeds, and increased reliability compared to traditional hard drives. The v4 SSD joins the m4 SSD and Adrenaline Solid State Cache Solution to round out the award-winning Crucial SSD portfolio.
Leveraging the industry-leading memory, design, and manufacturing capability of Micron Technology, Inc., the Crucial v4 SSD is backed by a three-year limited warranty, and is compatible with both PC and Mac systems.
Available in 32GB, 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB capacities with MSRPs of £31.99, £44.99, £63.99, and £122.99 respectively, the Crucial v4 SSD can be purchased now from www.crucial.com/uk.
This year is rather important to London and the UK – we had the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, and we also have the 2012 Olympics. To celebrate that there are a number of items available to show the Pride of London including some Jubilee and London souvenir coasters.
The coasters are UK made, quality cork-backed drinks mats; mementos that can be used every day.
There are lots to choose from, including coasters featuring the official Jubilee logo, normally restricted Royal crests & marks and also London landmarks such as Buckingham Palace and Big Ben.
These coasters are available now from Play.com and Amazon.co.uk, and retail for £2.25 so they really won’t break the bank!
Learn more about the range from the Coaster Company website Celebrate London with Revell’s London Bus and Taxi model kits
Earlier today, Microsoft announced that Windows 8 had gone to RTM. In addition, they announced that the Windows Store can now accept paid apps. Read on for details.
We told you about Windows 8 RTM’ing here. Now, we also see that Microsoft has opened up the Windows Store for paid apps. Up until now, developers could only populate free apps in the Windows Store. Here is what they announced:
Starting today, any qualifying business in a supported market can now submit a Metro style app for Windows 8! Companies qualify through account registration, which includes an account verification process.
Just so you know, to upload apps to the Store, you’ll need an RTM build of Windows 8. On August 15, we’ll be making the build available to MSDN subscribers and we’ll have a trial version available via TechNet. (Keep your eyes here and on the Windows 8 app developer blog for more info.) Until then, keep building your apps using the Release Preview, and don’t hesitate to register your company account now—it takes a little time to get a company account verified. Registering now will help ensure you can hit the ground running when the RTM build is released.
If you’re an individual looking to submit apps to the Store, stay tuned—we’ll have more info to share with you soon.
More markets
Not only is the Window Store now open for company accounts, but we’ve also taken a significant step forward toward our goal of providing a truly global Store – both for developers and for customers looking for great apps. At each major milestone – Consumer Preview and Release Preview – we’ve increased language and market support. With this latest release, this trend continues with more catalogs and app submission languages, as well as increased localization of our developer experience.
Today, we add 54 new markets to our list of distinct catalog offerings, giving developers more specific market opportunities and more chances to provide truly relevant apps to customers.
We’ve also added 24 new app certification languages, bringing our total to 38 app submission languages and more than doubling the number we supported in the Release Preview. Developers can, of course, also choose to make their apps also available in other languages beyond those used for app certification, so that they’ll be available in other Windows Store app catalogs. We’re excited to expand that number and give developers more language choices for submission and publication in the Store.
The developer dashboard is now available in an additional 11 languages, allowing you to choose the language you want for submitting apps, checking the certification process, and viewing analytics. And, as we noted at previous milestones, we will keep expanding.
Paid apps
Previous posts described how to implement trials, paid apps and in-app purchases. Transaction support is now enabled, and registered developers can submit paid apps to the Store, including in-app purchases.
The Application Developer Agreement (ADA) has been updated to reflect the financial details we announced back at our Store Preview event: the base Store fee is 30% of revenue for any transactions occurring through our transaction platform; we reduce the fee to 20% for any app that achieves $25,000 USD (or equivalent) in total revenue using our transaction platform, and for the lifetime of that app.
We’re excited to release full transaction support as part of the platform and offer industry-leading economic terms to developers. But we don’t require developers to use our transaction services for their in-app purchases. Favorable economics and flexibility in transaction providers are critical to maximizing the business opportunity for every developer.
Go ahead and read the whole post; there are some new procedures to follow when submitting apps, but you can now load up paid apps into the Windows Store.
Windows Store Blog Post
On the heels of announcing that Windows 8 is RTM, now Microsoft announces the release of Server 2012 to manufacturing. Read on for details.
Microsoft also just announced that Server 2012 has been released to manufacturing. Here is what they said:
Howdy! Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for. I’m proud to announce that Windows Server 2012 has been released to manufacturing. That means the final code is complete and we are delivering it to our hardware and software vendor partners this week. We will also make the software available to our volume licensing customers in the next couple of weeks.
Get out your calendars and free up some time on September 4. That’s when Windows Server 2012 will be generally available for evaluation and purchase by all customers around the world. On that day we will also host an online launch event where our executives, engineers, customers and partners will share more about how Windows Server 2012 can help organizations of all sizes realize the benefits of what we call the Cloud OS. You will be able to learn more about the features and capabilities and connect with experts and peers. You’ll also be able to collect points along the way for the chance to win some amazing prizes. You don’t want to miss it. Visit this site to save the date for the launch event.
On behalf of the Windows Server engineering team, I can tell you it has been a thrill and honor for us to deliver this product. Most importantly, we thank the many thousands of you who have provided your input and guidance throughout the process of designing and building it. So far the hands-on feedback on the product from you, industry analysts and press has been phenomenally positive. I attribute that to the fact that, from the outset, we committed ourselves to building Windows Server 2012 around the needs and goals of our customers and partners. It feels great to ship software that so squarely addresses customer objectives, both in the here and now and in the future.
General availability will be on September 4, 2012, just around the corner.
Server 2012 RTM Blog Post
Microsoft announced today that Windows 8 has been RTM’d. Read on for details.
Microsoft announced today that Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing, meaning that hardware partners are now getting the final code to implement into new hardware. Here is what they announced:
Today, I am excited to announce that Windows 8 has been released to manufacturing (RTM)! This means we’ve completed the product development and testing of the product and have started handing off the final code to our OEM partners. They can now begin preparing new Windows 8 PCs and devices they’ll introduce starting with General Availability. For more on RTM, I suggest reading this blog post from Steven Sinofsky on the Building Windows 8 blog.
So when will folks be able to get their hands on the new Windows 8 RTM code?
People will be able get Windows 8 starting on October 26th either by upgrading for $39.99 or on a new PC or device. And if you buy an eligible Windows 7 PC today, you will be able to purchase an upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for $14.99 (U.S.) through the Windows Upgrade Offer.
However, we have a number of programs that provides various audiences early access to the Windows 8 RTM code to help prepare for Windows 8 as it enters the marketplace this fall:
- August 15th: Developers will be able to download the final version of Windows 8 via your MSDN subscriptions.
- August 15th: IT professionals testing Windows 8 in organizations will be able to access the final version of Windows 8 through your TechNet subscriptions.
- August 16th: Customers with existing Microsoft Software Assurance for Windows will be able to download Windows 8 Enterprise edition through the Volume License Service Center (VLSC), allowing you to test, pilot and begin adopting Windows 8 Enterprise within your organization.
- August 16th: Microsoft Partner Network members will have access to Windows 8.
- August 20th: Microsoft Action Pack Providers (MAPS) receive access to Windows 8.
- September 1st: Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers.
Please note: if a program you are in is not mentioned, please be patient as dates for Windows 8 RTM code availability for other programs will be communicated when the information becomes available.
For more information on what the RTM of Windows 8 means for businesses including Volume License customers, see this blog post from Erwin Visser on the Windows for your Business Blog. This post, also from Erwin, on how Windows 8 will work in your business is also a good post to read.
On August 15th, developers will be able to visit the Windows Dev Center to get access to all the tools and resources they need including the final build of Visual Studio 2012 to design, build, and sell apps in the Windows Store. Keep your eyes on the Windows Store for developers blog and Windows 8 app developer blog for more information. I am super excited to see the kinds of apps developers build for Windows 8! If you have the Windows 8 Release Preview installed, you can already check out some apps developers have created for Windows 8 today.
In the meantime, if you’d like to give a pre-release version of Windows 8 a test-run, feel free to download the Windows 8 Release Preview! You can also read about my personal experience with the Windows 8 Release Preview here (hint: I put it on all my PCs!).
Good news! Windows 8 is on track for October 26th general availability.
Windows 8 RTM Blog Post
