E3 2012: Singing along with the Nintendo Wii U SiNG game

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At the Nintendo press conference at E3, one of the forthcoming Wii U games announced is called SiNG, and I somehow got roped into a singing session at the Nintendo booth.

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Get the party started with SiNG (which is the current working title), from FreeStyleGames, a new, interactive musical performance game that will get you and your guests singing and dancing well into the night.

With dozens of popular songs to choose from, everyone from novice singers to experienced
entertainers will be able to join in the fun. While one person steps up as the main performer, others can dance, sing and clap along with the prompts on the TV screen, making sure everyone at the party is rocking out together.

FEATURES
• In “Party” mode, the lead singer uses the Wii U GamePad controller to view lyrics and receive cues, freeing them from the TV and allowing them to interact with the audience, making each performance more engaging and enjoyable.

• There’s no limit to the number of people who can join in at one time. Audience participation, such as singing, dancing, interacting with the lead singer and playing instrumental sounds with the Wii Remote controllers, is the key to a great performance.

• In “Sing” mode, up to two singers’ vocal and overall performance quality are evaluated on the TV in real time.

• The GamePad can be used as an audio mixer and to create a playlist.

• A variety of song selections, from the ‘60s to current pop hits, makes it easy for players from any generation to put on a show.

So, on to the SiNGing….

On the Nintendo stand, there was a specially designed room so that a small group could experience the game, sing along, and dance too! Somehow I ended up in that room!

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The room was set up like an average living room. The Wii U was under lock and key though!

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For this session, we were only offered a choice of three songs, and as there were no willing victims, er, I mean volunteers one of the Nintendo girls offered to sing, and she had a great voice!

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One of the main differences to SiNG is that you actually face away from the screen, reading the lyrics on the GamePad rather than on the TV screen.

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While she was singing, everyone else was dancing along by following the instructions on the TV screen. The screen contains all the dance moves to follow, so it basically combines two games in one.

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It was actually a lot of fun, and I can see this being one of those games that people buy with the Wii U.

It is important to note that the pictures above show the Wii U GamePad connected to the Wii U via a thick cable – this won’t be on the final version of the Wii U.

SiNG is due for release this Holiday for the Wii U. A specific date and pricing have yet to be released. So watch this space.

Twitter app for Windows Phone updated to 1.2.4525.19177

The official Twitter app for Windows Phone has been updated to 1.2.4525.19177.

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Discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world, with the official Twitter for Windows Phone app. Tweets, real-time search, Suggested users, top Tweets, trending topics and maps show what’s happening everywhere—and nearby.

There doesn’t seem to be a changelog available so it’s not really obvious what is included in this update! So if you figure it out, let us know!

Download now from the Windows Marketplace

E3 2012: A look at Star Wars 1313

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When I was at the airport heading out to E3 I received the press release about Star Wars 1313. When I was at E3 I was lucky enough to be invited to a private demo of the game and some insight into the making of it.

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The private demo took place in a room that had been designed to look like the inside of a transport ship. There was actually a lot of detail considering most people would be only interested in what was on the screen!

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LucasArts is bringing in top artistic and technical talent from all parts of the Lucasfilm organization, including Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound and Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. Through shared tools and technologies while using the Unreal engine as a foundation, the teams are able to create a more emotional and visceral connection between the game and the player. With cutting edge full body performance capture, high-end Hollywood visual effects techniques and leveraging Lucasfilm talent across the board, Star Wars 1313 promises to deliver a completely immersive experience set in a brand new mature Star Wars world.

Here are some screenshots of the game:

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The game demo itself was amazing – the graphics were nothing short of breath-taking and the game looked amazing.

The character we were seeing is not the final character – LucasArts are keeping the identity of that character under wraps for now.

A few people had asked if the demo was running on a “next-gen” console, but we can reveal that it was actually on a PC!

At the start of the session we were told that it was running on a Core i7 processor with 16GB ram, and the amazing graphics were provided by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 graphics card.

More details about Star Wars 1313 will surface in the coming months.

All I know is that I want this game!

Visit www.StarWars1313.com for the latest updates.

E3 2012: Hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2

Samsung were at one of the events at E3, and they were showing off their Galaxy Player 4.2, and we got to spend some time with it.

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This is how Samsung describes the Player:

Get instant access to your music with WiFi, without any monthly service fees. The Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 gives you a choice among the top music apps, and the tuner radio function turns your player into a fully functioning FM radio. Use the music shortcut bar to easily play or pause your music on the go.

Explore all of the content you could ever want. Fast. The Samsung Galaxy Player 4.2 features Android’s Gingerbread OS, and a blazing fast 1GHZ processor, bringing you great performance and speed for multimedia and browsing Adobe Flash Player compatible websites. Fully integrated with services such as Google Maps and YouTube, you can search, view and easily download any of the over 450,000 apps available in Google Play.

With so many incredible applications available, you won’t know where to start. Discover the largest collection of applications for your Galaxy Player 4.2 with access to Google Play and Samsung Apps. Now you have the fastest growing app store and apps designed just for the Galaxy, together on one device. With two app stores at your disposal, you’re bound to find what you are looking for.

Basically it is a music and video player, that has WiFi access, can play games, download things from Google Play and much more. The only thing it can’t do is make phone calls!

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Games worked very well on the Player.

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And as with any Android powered device, it was easy to surf the Internet.

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It has a 4.2” WVGA TFT display, and is 8.99mm thick. It has a Cortex A8 1Ghz processor, 802.11 b/g/n, bluetooth, Front and Rear cameras, a MicroSD slot, and FM Radio built in!

Here is a closer look at the Player:

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At first glance it looks like another Samsung Android phone, and you would be right, sort of. It just can’t make phone calls.

I found it very responsive and easy to use, and because it’s running Android 2.3 you have access to all the usual features. Samsung couldn’t tell me if or when it would be upgraded to Android 4.0.

The speakers are on the front of the device (at the top and bottom to be precise). This means that the sound isn’t distorted if you use it on a surface.

The Galaxy Player 4.2 is available now and retails for $199.99.

Learn more from the Samsung website

WD Sentinel DX4000 firmware update released

WD have released a firmware update for it’s Sentinel DX4000.

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Version 01.02.23.395 released last week resolves the following 3 issues:

  • Updated compatible hard drives (Knowledge Base 9443) for the Sentinel Storage Server
  • WD Monitor functionality during Server Recovery (6TB units)
  • Manual Software Update functionality in Japanese
Download the updated firmware from here

Dragon Dictation App for iOS Updated to Version 2.0.22

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The Dragon Dictation app for the iPhone and iPad has just been updated to version 2.0.22.

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Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon NaturallySpeaking that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.

With Dragon Dictation you can also update your Facebook status, send notes and reminders to yourself, or Tweet to the world….all using your voice. So when you’re on-the-go, stop typing and start speaking – from short text messages to longer email messages, and anything in between. For best result, speak calmly and clearly.

Dragon Dictation supports a multitude of global languages. For a full list of currently supported languages visit www.dragonmobileapps.co.uk/.

Features

• Voice-to-text transcriptions that may be sent as SMS, Email, or pasted into any application using the clipboard
• Submit update to Twitter & Facebook
• Convenient editing feature that provides list of suggested alternatives
• Voice driven correction interface

What’s New in Version 2.0.21

Localisation updates

Download from the Apple App Store

electrongoo Releases Update to ISO Mounter

electrongoo has released an update to their ISO Mounter add-in for Windows Home Server.  Read on for details.

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electrongoo has updated their Windows Home Server add-in ISO Mounter.  We first told you about it here.  As a refresher, here is how electrongoo describes the program.

ISO Mounter is a software add-in for Microsoft Home and Business server which allows you to mount ISO files (DVD and CD images) stored on your server so they can be viewed directly through your servers folder share on all of your PC’s and laptops.

Are you tired of burning ISO images onto physical CD and DVD and media?
Would you prefer not to install ISO mounting software containing ad-ware and annoying toolbars on all of your PC’s and laptops?

 

Product features:

  • Supports Windows Home Server 2011
  • Supports Windows Home Server (V1)
  • Supports Windows Small Business 2011 Essentials and Storage Server 2008 R2
  • Streams DVD and Blu-ray movies to approved DLNA devices
  • Creates bootable USB disks. Burn ISO images directly to removable USB devices
  • Integrates directly into the Server Console/Dashboard for simple administration
  • File system browser allows for searching and manually selecting of any ISO file
  • Mounted ISO files persist across server reboots
  • Configurable “Auto-mount” folders allow automatic mounting of new ISO files
  • Mounted ISO files will appear in the Server folders as a browsable read-only folder
  • “Relocation folder” to view all mounted ISO files in a single folder (WHS/SBS 2011 only)
  • Simple, easy-to-view heads-up status display to monitor status
  • Quick-launch feature allows viewing contents of ISO files directly from the Dashboard

Now for the change log:

New Features:

  • Support for Blu-ray iso images (now you can stream Blu-ray movies from your WHS to your XBOX or other DLNA device)
  • Added a 15 day free trial
  • Updated user interface for German localization

Enhancements:

  • Fixed issue where some iso images would not automatically remount after a server reboot
  • Updated the installer package to be friendlier with older versions of the Microsoft “C Run Time Library”
  • Minor bug fixes and enhancements

Anyone who has already purchased the add-in can upgrade for free.  Simply check for new updates directly from the ISO Mounter add-in by selecting More Tasks | Check for Updates.  If you are running ISO Mounter, go ahead and upgrade!

electrongoo Product Page

Sony Google TV OTA v.2.1.1 available now

Sony devices are getting OTA update v.2.1.1 for GoogleTV right now and will be completed in the next couple of days.

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Enhancements include:
– Watch movies rented through Google Play
– YouTube.com/movies on YouTube

Stay tuned for news on updates for Logitech Revues.

Let us know if you get the update.

Microsoft Releases WHS2011 Update Rollup 3 Beta

Microsoft has released a beta WHS2011 Update Rollup for registered Connect users to test.  Read on for details.

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Microsoft has released a beta for WHS2011 Update Rollup 3, good through July 4th.  Here is what they sent out:

1. Summary

This Beta guidance applies to following updates:

1. Update Rollup 3 for Windows Small Business Server 2011 Essentials (KB 2705117) Beta

2. Update Rollup 3 for Windows Home Server 2011 (KB 2705118) Beta

3. Update Rollup 3 for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials (KB 2705122) Beta

4. Update Rollup 3 for Client (KB 2705129) Beta (This is the client package for UR3; It is included with the server package.)

Update Rollup 3 Beta includes 19 bugs fixes found since products RTM.

Note UR is accumulative; UR3 also includes UR2, UR1, as well as hotfix for Computer Monitoring Error KB2685867 KB2686867 or KB2686857

Please file bugs through connect feedback site, using “UR3 Beta Preview” in title.

2. Installation Guidance

Special notes-You will need to uninstall UR3 Beta once UR3 RTM is released.

Installation

1. Download the package to any folder on your server.

2. Double click the .msu file to install the package, make sure the package installs succeed.

3. Open the dashboard, navigate to Help->About, make sure the Dashboard version is 6.1.8800.16397

4. As part of UR3, you also need to install KB 2578133 from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2578133

5. To help us better understand the real customer impact for the bug fixes, we strongly recommend you to turn on the SQM reporting. To do that, open the dashboard, click Server Settings -> General, check the option of “Help us improve quality”.

Uninstall

You will need to uninstall Beta once UR3 RTM is released.

1. Open the Program and Features from Control Panel.

2. Select “View install update”

3. Search for the update KB name in the update list

4. Uninstall the UR3 update, as well as KB 2578133, and make sure the package uninstalled successfully.

5. Log on to the client computer, open control panel, follow the same steps to uninstall client update. Not you must first uninstall Server update before the client update can be uninstalled.

LaCie Announces the 4big Rack Office

LaCie announced a new WHS2011-powered rack-mounted NAS unit.  We have the details!

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LaCie announced a new WHS2011-powered NAS in rack-mount form factor the other day.  Here is the press release:

LaCie 4big Rack Office – Essential Backup for Businesses

PARIS, FRANCE – Building on the legacy of its most successful rack storage solution, LaCie introduces the 4big Rack Office. With full data protection, superior data sharing, and industry-trusted components, the 4big Rack Office is a solid investment for small businesses.

INDUSTRY-TRUSTED COMPONENTS
The 4big Rack Office is powered by Windows Home Server 2011. With a straightforward setup process and familiar Windows environment, the 4big Rack Office deploys quickly for small businesses. Powerful software demands high-performance hardware and resources. The 4big Rack Office features a 1.6GHz Intel® 64-bit Atom™ processor and 2GB of RAM to ensure simultaneous data access and backups.

COMPLETE DATA PROTECTION
With a pre-configured RAID 5 array on four disks, and automatic backups for up to 10 PCs and three Macs, the 4big Rack Office is a secure vault for company files. It automates backups of computers, from individual files – even open ones – to the entire system. With real-time, anywhere system monitoring and status console alerts, the administrator can easily ensure that all computers are backed up regularly.

The 4big Rack Office supports secured RAID 1 and RAID 5 modes for automatic, software-level protection. If a single disk fails, simply replace it without losing a single byte of data. For an additional level of data protection, the administrator can back up data to an offsite NAS. With Wuala, LaCie’s secure cloud storage service, critical files are easily backed up in the cloud.

SHARING DONE RIGHT
The 4big Rack Office helps businesses collaborate easily with file sharing in the office and via the cloud. It can serve files to any operating system – PC, Mac, or Linux – on the network. Employees can even access files stored on the NAS from the road using Windows’ remote access feature.

With 100GB of Wuala Secure Cloud Storage complimentary for three months, users can share, sync, and collaborate in the cloud. Employees can securely store their files in Wuala and access them from anywhere, even from a smart phone or tablet.

WARRANTY
The LaCie 4big Rack Office is protected by a three-year limited warranty. It includes comprehensive, complimentary web-based resources, expert in-house technical support, and worldwide repair/replacement coverage. Additional services can also be purchased. For details, see www.lacie.com/warranties.

AVAILABILITY
The 4big Rack Office is available in 8TB capacity through the LaCie Online Store and LaCie Storage Partners starting at the suggested retail price of $1,299.00.

ABOUT LACIE
With operations in the Americas, Europe and Asia, LaCie is the leading manufacturer of storage devices for Apple®, PC and Linux. LaCie has differentiated itself through sleek design and remarkable technical performance. Find out more about our products at www.lacie.com.

New Sky+HD EPG rolling out this year

Sky are giving everyone a sneak peak at the new Sky+HD EPG that will be rolling out later this year.

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This is what Sky posted:

With all of this in mind, today we’re beginning to roll out a new-look Sky Guide for customers with Sky+HD boxes. It’s a phased roll-out which will last throughout this year, starting with ten of thousands of boxes from today and expanding to millions more before the end of 2012.

One of the key changes that customers will notice over the next few months is that the design of the pages reflects the increasing popularity of on-demand viewing, following the success of our internet delivered video on-demand service Sky Anytime+, which as of last month is now available to 5 million homes with a Sky+HD box through any internet connection.

Integrating our on-demand and other options into the landing page for a particular genre gives our customers a snapshot of all the different viewing options available to them, helping them make the most of the choice of high quality content available through a Sky subscription.

Sky Movies customers, for instance, can chose between viewing movies live, watching movies that they’ve previously recorded to their Sky+ planner or on on demand through Sky Anytime+ and renting a film through the Sky Store. There is also a search function available on the page, which allows Sky Movies customers to search for a particular film they may have in mind.

Other changes include a larger number of channels available per page, increasing from six to eight channels, making it easier to Sky customers to browse through content.

Meanwhile, in the Sky+ Planner, customers will have the option to browse through their recordings by genre, so that where previously recorded programmes were displayed chronologically, they are now collected together so that customers can browse through shows belonging to the same genre.

And, on top of this, the whole Sky Guide will also be available in pinpoint HD, delivering sharp graphics consistent with the stunning quality of our HD channels.

The launch of the new Sky Guide also marks the first time that we’ve involved Sky subscribers in the development process, having invited a selection of our customers to test the design over the last few months. This approach has proved to be a big success, since testing the functionality and features with such a highly-engaged group has identified a number of improvements that have since been incorporated into the new look. We’re very grateful for the invaluable feedback.

What was also noticeable was how much these customers enjoyed playing a part in helping building this new product, and it’s certainly something that we will be looking to repeat with other software trials.

As I say, these developments are being introduced over the coming months, so customers with Sky+HD boxes shouldn’t expect to see them immediately – but please be assured they will appear sometime before the end of the year.

Let us know when you get upgraded!

The Home Server Show Episode 186 Out Now

Dave at the guys at the Home Server Show have released episode 186.

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Here’s what Dave has to say about this weeks show:

We’re back and there is still more Microsoft stuff to discuss. XBox Music and Smartglass. How will these changes effect the home server user? We’ll talk a little about that as well as some Windows Home Server news and show you a couple of cool add-ins for Office and iTunes.

Listen to the show from here.

Microsoft talks about building a rich and extensible media platform in Windows 8

In the next in their Building Windows 8 articles, Microsoft talks about the rich and extensible media platform in Windows 8.

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This is how Microsoft starts the new article:

Engaging with rich media—whether watching a movie, video chatting, or playing music—is one of the most prevalent and enjoyable things we do on our PCs today. I’d like to talk a little bit about the work we’ve done in Windows 8 to make a rich variety of multimedia activities possible, and to extend those capabilities to third party developers through an extensible media platform.

We had three goals in mind when designing the Windows 8 media platform:

  1. Maximize performance. We wanted media playback to be fast and responsive, enabling the full power of the hardware while maximizing battery life on each PC.
  2. Simplify development and extensibility. We wanted to provide a platform that could be easily extended and tailored for a given application, setting the stage for innovative custom media apps on Windows.
  3. Enable a breadth of scenarios. A high performance, high efficiency, extensible platform can then enable a wide range of music, video, communications, and other multimedia apps.

With these three goals in mind, we set out to reimagine the media experience on the Windows platform.

To continue reading it, click here.

DVBLogic releases DVBLink v4.5 Release Candidate 1

DVBLink TVSource, DVBLink Connect! Server and DVBLink EPG Loader for Digiguide v4.5 are now at release candidate 1 stage!

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Release Candidate 1 of DVBLink products v4.5 is available!
What is new/fixed from beta2:
General

      – Fixed: parental lock feature did not work in beta1/2
      – Added: selection of categories on the channel selection tab
                 – Added: new layout for DVBLink media library items

DVBLink TVSource

      – Added: Unicable support (only for tuners, which support raw diseqc commands. Most of them do, but for example for DigitalDevices tuners users need to use their own Unicable configuration management)
      – Fixed: EIT scanner consumes a lot of memory to keep collected EPG data
      – Added: raw diseqc command support for Twinhan clones (Terratec S7, SkyStar HD2 etc.)
      – Fixed: “PAT scanning times out message” when scanned transponder id does not match the actual
      – Fixed: no signal on TBS5980 when going from qpsk to 8psk transponder
                 – Fixed: no signal on DVB-S2/QPSK transponders for Twinhan clones

DVBLink Connect! Server

      – Added: display total/available disk space in recorder web interface
      – Fixed: system does not wake up for recording on WinXP machines
      – Fixed: when several changes are done to the recording schedule options only the last one is saved
                 – Fixed: built-in recorder slow epg update process

Notes:

      – This version is not binary compatible with version 2.x, 3.x and 4.0/4.1. You will have to uninstall them completely before installing this version. Do not forget to make a backup!
      – 1geek1tool products are not supported (yet) in this version
      – v4.5 products use new licensing engine. This means that at the moment only trial activation is possible (e.g. your licenses for already purchased DVBLink products cannot be used with this version while it is in beta phase).
                 – The 4.5 update will be free of charge update for all v4 users. For v3 users the current paid upgrade rules apply.
Learn more and download from here