Rockstar to Use NaturalMotion Technology in Upcoming Games
February 28, 2007
CVG reports that future Rockstar titles will feature NaturalMotion technologies in an effort to make the games more realistic. Specifically, Rockstar will be licensing the ‘Euphoria’ engine, an advanced physics and substance simulation model already in use in several upcoming LucasArts titles. There’s no word in the article on which games will feature the technology, but this certainly seems like something that would fit well with the sandbox style games of the GTA series. ” Employed in the recently revealed The Force Unleashed, euphoria simulates the human body and motor nervous system. It means that in-game characters are fully interactive and always react differently to external influences, ultimately leading to a more life-like experience for the player. Specific reference to how euphoria ‘uses the processing power of PLAYSTATION 3 and Xbox 360′ to simluate the human body and motor nervous system was made in the announcement. While Rockstar is yet to name games using euphoria, its integration of the tech is well advanced.”
MobiTV reaches 2 million users
February 28, 2007
AP - MobiTV Inc., which transmits cable TV channels to cell phones, said Wednesday it has surpassed 2 million users, doubling its subscriber base in less than a year.
Andreessen wants to social network
February 28, 2007
AP - Web browser pioneer Marc Andreessen helped bring the Internet to the masses during the 1990s. Now the Netscape Communications co-founder is trying to help Web surfers build online communities outside the walls of social networking leaders MySpace.com and Facebook.com.
Trading hurt by failing servers
February 28, 2007
FT.com - The global drive to make trading ever faster and more efficient through the use of technology was put to the test earlier on Tuesday when record trading volumes triggered by an equity market sell-off put the US system under severe strain.
Apps Not ‘Certified’ for Vista May Still Work
February 28, 2007
PC World - Although some widely used applications from top software vendors haven’t been certified for use with Windows Vista, they may nonetheless work with the Microsoft Corp. OS.
Casual Play on 360 Live Arcade
February 28, 2007
twoallbeefpatties writes “Columnist Chris Suellentrop writes an article for Slate describing how his desire for casual gaming is fulfilled more by the 360 than the Wii due to the presence of simpler games available over Live Arcade. The availability of oldschool Nintendo games on the Wii network fulfills his nostalgic hardcore gaming side, but when he really wants to just relax, he’d rather be trying to top his Live high score on Root Beer Tapper. Says Suellentrop: ‘The Nintendo Wii will transform the way we play games at home. But the Xbox 360, through its Xbox Live service, is building something equally compelling: a celestial arcade, where casual and hard-core gamers alike can connect over the Internet and find like-minded souls. For an old-timer like me, the celestial arcade also lets me feel like I still have some of my old gaming mojo.’”
SpikeSource’s Polese faces the heat
February 28, 2007
InfoWorld - SpikeSource CEO Kim Polese is an industry veteran who was head of the Java team at Sun in the 1990s and also founded "push" software company Marimba, which was eventually bought by business software company BMC Software.
Mass. man arrested in Cisco fraud plot
February 28, 2007
AP - A Massachusetts businessman who resold Cisco Systems Inc. networking gear was arrested on charges he defrauded the technology company out of millions of dollars by cheating its program to replace broken or defective hardware.
New Deals Show Software-As-A-Service More Than A Niche
February 28, 2007
TechWeb - Salesforce.com and IBM write up new contracts with partners willing to adopt an on-demand software model.
First Graphene Transistor
February 28, 2007
An anonymous reader writes “UK researchers are announcing the first ever workable transistor made of graphene — that’s one layer of carbon atoms. It’s thinner and smaller than a silicon transistor can ever be, and it works at room temperature. When silicon electronics are dead, this is what many speculate is going to take over. There’s slight controversy as they decided to announce their results via a review article, rather than wait for their (submitted) peer review paper to come out.”
