We've seen the Large Hadron Collider running at a record-breaking 7 TeV for short periods, but now CERN is turning it up a notch (to 4 TeV from 3.5) for the rest of the year. The decision comes after an annual performance workshop last week in Chamonix and a report from the CERN Machine Advisory Committee (CMAC). The increase may seem modest compared to the knee-trembling levels of 7 TeV, but it's all part of a broader optimization strategy. Scientists state the new approach should increase the data collected in 2012 to 15 inverse femtobarns -- a three-fold jump from 2011. Even more encouraging is a statement from CERN's Research Director, Sergio Bertolucci, who claims that we should finally know for sure about the existence of the Higgs boson -- either way -- before the LHC enters a temporary shut-down period at the end of the year. Beam yourself over the break for the full press release.
Since it was announced last August, we've anxiously been waiting for Sony's flagship Walkman Z (the first to feature Android) to hit US shores. (It made it here well after the holidays passed. Better late than never, right?) While Sony is billing the Z as a Walkman first and foremost, its spacious 4.3-inch display and 1GHz Tegra 2 SoC ensure it's powerful and well-sized for playing games and generally making the most of Gingerbread. The device will be available in a variety of flavors, with up to 32GB of storage ($330), though for the purposes of this review we've been rocking the entry-level 8GB model ($250). Although we haven't exactly been charmed by similar devices vying for a piece of the iPod Touch's market share, the Walkman Z has plenty of promise. The question is, does it deliver? And does it deserve your $250 when it goes on sale in March? Let's find out.
Corel seems to be on a roll lately; after releasing WinZip System Utilities just last week, this morning the company announced VideoStudio Pro X4. VideoStudio Pro is aimed at home users and small business professionals who want to create professional-looking videos, but without the hassle, steep learning curve and price of Adobe Premiere Pro and the likes. This new version introduces several features:
Stop motion animation: You can now capture still frames using a webcam, camcorder or DSLR and use them to produce an animation. Tools such as "onion skin view" let you compare the previous image in the sequence with the current one and make the animation as smooth as possible.
Processor optimization: Corel says the app is optimized for Intel's new Sandy Bridge systems, and have shown us some graphs with very impressive numbers. We've been unable to test this particular point, but if you have a recent-generation Intel or AMD Fusion system, VideoStudio performance should be blazing. Even on our older test system performance was quite impressive.
Customizable workspace: You can drag the video preview window to your secondary monitor (if you have one) and tweak just about any other element in the window layout. Once done, you can save your ideal workspace in one of three slots.
Share-to-Web: VideoStudio Pro X4 hooks directly into YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and Flickr, so you don't even have to launch a browser to upload your final product. Edit, produce and share from within the app itself.
Smart Package: Video projects typically consist of many files; Smart Package lets you bundle all video assets for a given project into one ZIP file which you can password-protect and keep in a safe place once you're done editing.
I've had a chance to play around with a pre-release version for a few days, and have put it through its paces editing a short video for my day job. Overall, I've been impressed with how easy it was to create pro-looking results. If you do any sort of video editing but are leery of the investment other apps require (both in dollars and effort), VideoStudio Pro is well worth checking out. To see a bit of the interface itself and what the app can do, watch the video after the jump. Note: We'll be running a give-away of ten VideoStudio Pro X4 licenses later today, each worth $100 USD. Keep your eyes peeled for the giveaway post!
Inside the new offices of OkCupid Labs, you won't find beakers. The experiment happens here on the couch, where engineers brainstorm ways they can use data to be the ultimate matchmaker. More »
MTV is unveiling an update to its Music Meter mobile app today. This is version 2.0, and also the first version to abandon the "beta testing" label, suggesting that MTV has worked out any early kinks — and is ready to make money. The app first launched in March 2011 as the mobile equivalent of MTV's Music Meter website. The goal is to track the online buzz for musicians, and to use that data to create a daily ranking that helps fans find new music. If you see an artist who interests you, the app offers songs, photos, and videos, as well as news and a brief biography. Senior Director of Product Development Mark Mezrich calls it an "artistic snacking" experience that should give you everything you need to get acquainted with a musician. Nor is that snacking limited to the daily list — Mezrich says there are more than 1 million artists in the system.
MTV is unveiling an update to its Music Meter mobile app today. This is version 2.0, and also the first version to abandon the "beta testing" label, suggesting that MTV has worked out any early kinks — and is ready to make money. The app first launched in March 2011 as the mobile equivalent of MTV's Music Meter website. The goal is to track the online buzz for musicians, and to use that data to create a daily ranking that helps fans find new music. If you see an artist who interests you, the app offers songs, photos, and videos, as well as news and a brief biography. Senior Director of Product Development Mark Mezrich calls it an "artistic snacking" experience that should give you everything you need to get acquainted with a musician. Nor is that snacking limited to the daily list — Mezrich says there are more than 1 million artists in the system.
Oh, how I love me some tower defense games. Between classics like Robo Defense, Fieldrunners HD, and even GRave Defense HD, I'm never hurting for ways to stretch my brain and figure out the best way to mow down hordes of hapless enemies entering my territory. (As a matter of fact, should Earth ever be invaded, tower defense-style, I'm on retainer to get us out of the mess.)
The problem with the myriad of tower defense games out there, though, is that mechanically, they're all the same. You can vary the enemy, add in cool, unique towers (suited to your game's environment, of course), but at the end of the day, it's the same. They walk in, I pew-pew, end of story.
Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD looks to change this. Instead of you setting up the towers, the bad guys do that. What does that leave you to do? Be the hapless hordes of invaders trying to show them who's boss. At face value it sounds insane awesome, and let me tell you, it is quite excellent, indeed.
Let's start by just talking about the graphics -- they're gorgeous. When these guys say "HD," they mean it. On a tablet or on a phone, Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD shines. (Now let's all just ignore my little mistake in saying the HD version is only, for tablets, shall we?)
Explosions are satisfying and, well, explosive. Firepower coming off of mechs from both sides looks impressive, and the environments are as beautiful as they are haunting. The destruction looks great. Simply put, Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD offers as much eye candy as it does great gameplay, and that's saying something.
Because we're talking tower offense here, the folks at 11 bit studios had to get a bit creative in how you pick your troops, send them on their way, and keep them from being obliterated whilst in a mission. The first (and perhaps most impressive) of these is Tactical View.
Tactical View is your first line of offense, and it's where you plan your route before you actually drop your units in and start fragging aliens left and right. It's a nice, bright blue, and has a real military operation feel to it, which I totally dig. You change your route by tapping the arrows on the map, and like magic, new routes are made (and displayed) right before your very eyes.
Hostiles are colored red, and Tactical View makes sure you can tell the difference between different enemies by keeping a true outline of their shape. If you've got enough cash on hand, you can also buy your own units from the Tactical View page.
Once you leave Tactical View (and your invasion starts), things heat up a bit. Your motley crew of diehards casually sashay into enemy territory, guns a'blazing. With a mere three of four units to start, how can you expect to survive the onslaught of guns firing at you? With power-ups, of course!
Things like repair, smokescreen, and even unit upgrade will all be revealed to you, and for the first two, using them is as simple as tapping their icon and picking a place on the map for them to be used. For the repair, make sure it's always a little bit ahead of where your units are going or else they'll drive right past it (a lesson learned the hard way for me), but otherwise, it's all incredibly intuitive.
You can also earn medals at the end of each successful mission, for both your ruthlessness and your efficiency. As far as I can guess, the former is for taking out as many enemies as possible and the latter is for accomplishing your mission objectives by taking the path of least resistance, so I don't think you can get a gold on both on a single pass-through. Still, it's something to consider, especially if you're an achievement hound.
For a game so great, it's not without one hugely distracting niggle in my mind. You have to hold down the double-speed button to keep it going! What's the deal with that? If you're holding, say, a 10-inch tablet (especially one with a little extra heft), things get awkward, thumbs get tired, and you'll start asking yourself "Why am I not playing this on a phone, where my tiny, woman-sized hands are comfortable?" But that's not fair, because your hands are totally average-sized.
Anyway, despite that one complaint, Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD is an absolutely stellar game with killer graphics, and awesome story, and gameplay that makes other tower-related games slink away in shame. It was part of the Humble Bundle for a reason, and even if you missed it there, you should definitely pick it up.
Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD can be had for $3.99 in the Android Market. Download links are after the break.
While this slick little HTML5 audio player might not pack all of the features of your favorite desktop media application, it's still a very cool demonstration of what a Web app can do with access to local resources -- like MP3 and OGG files. Just fire up http://antimatter15.github.com/player/player.html in your HTML5-compatible browser and browse to the topmost folder in your music library. The app will quickly build an index of all your tunes and let you start listening right inside your Web browser. Click on the filter library text, and you can enter a search string -- results load as you type. There's a volume control, shuffle mode, play/pause control, and you can click and drag to skip forward or rewind during playback. As OMG! Ubuntu points out, you can even save the app to your hard drive and run it offline, which is pretty darn cool. Not all browsers are equal when it comes to HTML5 implementation, of course. We found that Chrome worked the best, and Firefox was OK. It's also worth noting that this music player comes from the same developer that created one of our favorite restartless Firefox 4 add-ons, drag2up.
A few weeks ago I posted a review of Zevia Stevia sweetened soda where I told everyone about my quest to find a healthier replacement for Diet Coke. While I really enjoyed some of the Zevia flavors, the price was way too high for me to justify buying it on a regular basis, so it [...]
While not a game per se, I found Mitoza intriguing enough to spend quite some time with it. You start off with a seed, and are then presented with two choices: you can either click a flower pot, or click a cute little birdie. If you click the flower pot, a flower pot appears and the seed is planted inside. You're then presented with two further choices -- a water can or a bottle of fertilizer. Each choice you make causes your creation to morph, and presents you with two other choices. There's no winning or losing, really. Each "game" usually lasts around four or five choices, at which point the plant/animal dies in some creative (but not too gruesome) way. At this point you instantly start over with a new seed. The graphics are captivating; the whole thing has a cinematic feel to it, with a bit of artificial camera shake added for style. All in all, it's a fun, peaceful way to spend a few minutes, and it might even make you think a little bit while you're at it.