Unreal Tournament 3 to use Gamespy technology for PC and PS3

GameSpy will be incorporating its multiplayer tech into Epic's Unreal Tournament 3 for PC and PS3.

The big question sitting in gamers' minds is whether or not the deal will mean cross-platform console-to-PC fragging for UT3.

GameSpy's technology does allow for cross-platform gameplay between the two platforms, but Epic has said UT3 will not be shipping with such a feature. There is still a possibility of an update down the line that incorporates cross-platform play. GameSpy's features include multiplayer matchmaking, in-game and out-of-game messaging, player statistics, voice-over IP and a leaderboard and ranking system.

GameSpy recently became part of Epic's Integrated Partners Program, which means GameSpy's multiplayer tech would be integrated into Epic's popular Unreal Engine 3. Turning Point: Fall of Liberty from Codemasters and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway from Ubisoft are a few games that will feature PS3-to-PC cross platform play, thanks to the agreement.

UT3 ships on PC in November, while its PS3 counterpart is expected to be pushed back into Q1 2008. An Xbox 360 version is coming next year at an unannounced date, and will instead use Xbox Live for multiplayer.

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40Gb PS3 SKU using 65nm afterall :)

Well well, even though it was reported that Sony was using the 90nm (nano metre) Cell processor in the new 40Gb Playstation 3 console units, Sony boss Kaz Hirai confirmed it in fact uses a 65nm processor.

Today, Sony Computer Entertainment boss addressed the issue directly. In an interview posted at Japan's Impress Watch, Kaz Hirai confirmed that the new model uses a 65nm process for the Cell chip.

The system's RSX graphics chip, on the other hand, still uses a 90nm process. However, the shrinkage of the CPU alone was enough to cut the power usage of the system considerably.

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What makes this noteworthy is the fact that a smaller die size Cell processor (from 90nm to 65nm) means it generally costs Sony less money to produce these processors, less power consumption (less on power bills overall) whilst bringing down the price retail.

Explains why the ventilation holes on the newer 40Gb SKU is less whilst remaining cooler whilst being quieter at the same time. :)

New iPhone Firmware 1.1.2 Hacked Before Release

When Apple announced the release of the iPhone for the UK, it also announced that iPhone and iPod touch firmware version 1.1.2 would be released at the same time. Released today, firmware 1.1.2 closes the TIFF vulnerability in mobile Safari that was used to jailbreak firmware 1.1.1.

Confirmed by DailyTech, the TIFF vulnerability no longer works. However, despite Apple's effort to lockdown the iPhone and iPod touch, firmware 1.1.2 has already been jailbroken.

Credit go to the people behind AppSnap, the same utility used to jailbreak 1.1.1 devices. According to TUAW, testing of the new jailbreak began several nights ago, when the new 1.1.2 firmware was made available for download not through iTunes, but through Apple's website.

In its current stage, the new jailbreak requires several steps in order to complete, and is by no means release ready and user friendly. AppSnap and jailbreakme.com still remains open for 1.1.1 only, but the new jailbreak is being prepared for the same single tap installation.

According to TUAW's report, firmware 1.1.1 is required in order for the jailbreak to work with 1.1.2, although it is unclear at this point whether or not this will still be a requirement once AppSnap is officially updated.

Those with hacked 1.1.1 devices may wish to hold off from upgrading to 1.1.2 since it does not appear to provide any significant upgrade. The only noticeable change is the inclusion of several international language packs.

Jailbreaking may become a thing of the past if Apple keeps its promise. Apple announced in early October that come February 2008, developers will have an official iPhone SDK. The announcement was well received by the developer community. Currently, third-party applications for the iPhone are done via web applications and are mostly cumbersome to use and slow in nature.

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Download Free Windows Vista Enterprise

Microsoft is offering Windows Vista Enterprise as a free download in combination with the Office 2007 Professional System.




While all editions of the Windows Vista operating system can be test driven from anywhere from a month to 120 days, this copy of Vista Enterprise is limited to only 30 days. This coincides with the Initial Grace period of the latest operating system from Microsoft.

The limitation is associated with the whole Vista Enterprise and Office 2007 professional bundle. The marriage of Microsoft's flagship products comes in the church of virtualization. The download Microsoft is providing is in fact nothing more than a pre-configured Virtual Hard disk. The Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD is essentially an installation of Windows Vista Enterprise with Office 2007 Professional deployed on top of the platform.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has made the bundle available for download, but the VHD was updated on November 5. "This VHD contains both the 30 day edition of Windows Vista Enterprise Edition and an evaluation of Office 2007 Professional which includes Publisher, Excel, Outlook, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access, and Word. See how with these new platforms can simplify how people work together, find information and improve business insight, help protect and manage content, and reduce IT costs and improve security. Test drive today to experience how Windows Vista and Office 2007 work better together", Microsoft informed.

All other SKUs of Windows Vista can have their Initial Grace period prolonged up two 120 days via the slmgr -rearm command. The same is not valid for the Enterprise edition of the operating system, which comes to the table with an entirely different activation mechanism. The various editions of the Office 2007 System are also available as stand-alone downloads 60 days trial versions.

Microsoft Office 2007 Professional VHD weighs in at a maximum of 2678.9 MB, coming with no less than 12 archives (238.4 MB each with one exception) and is available for download via this link.

Leopard and Vista - More alike than you think?

When Vista was released the chorus of complaints and criticisms quickly grew from a low hum to a near deafening roar. A little more than a week since Apple released Leopard and that low hum of discontent has already been amplified to the point where it’s starting to hurt my ears.

Within weeks of Microsoft unleashing Vista on the buying public the issues facing those making the switch from XP to Vista were clear and you could sum them up in a few bullet points:

* UAC too intrusive
* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the XP now falling over regularly

Now that Leopard has been in the hands of users for a little under ten days and you can draw up a similar list for Apple’s latest OS:

* Too many bugs
* System slow-downs
* Too many compatibility casualties
* Glitchy interface
* Baked-in vulnerabilities
* Install buggy and prone to crashing
* Systems that were rock-solid under the Tiger now falling over regularly

Dave Winer does a good job of summarizing the problems affecting Leopard:

I’ve given Leopard a chance, but it’s pretty clear, this is not a good operating system release.

I’ve been out of the Mac loop for most of the last decade, just got back in a bit over 2 years ago. I don’t know if early OS releases are generally as crappy as this one, but I wasn’t prepared for where we’re at now. If I had known, I would have waited, instead of upgrading most of my Macs to the new system.

In fact, Winer also goes on to compare Windows to Mac OS X:

Talking with a friend a few days ago, he asked what I thought of Leopard. He had installed the new version, like me, the first day it came out. “I’m not liking it,” I said. He said something that was simple, profound and revealing: “It’s like Windows.” It is. It’s that unpleasant to use. It disappears for long periods of time. Systems that didn’t used to crash now crash regularly. On one system three hard disks were rendered unusable, and I lost a couple of full days restoring them (luckily I had good backups). The user interface is quirky. The new networking interface is a big step backward. The firewall moved and lost features! That’s simply never done, you don’t charge customers to remove features, esp security features. I think Apple doesn’t understand how many people depend seriously on their Macs.

I’m guessing that the root cause for these problems echoes Vista too - a rush to get the OS out of the door. It makes me sad to say it but we as consumers are now having to put up with buying far too many flawed products because companies are rushing to get products out to market and leaving us (the poor saps stuck with the defective product) to road test it properly, I’ll bet that the road to fixes for these problems will be as long and rocky as the one for Vista. Something else that the two operating systems will have in common.

Leopard’s not generating good press for Apple at the moment (actually, when you stop and thing about it for a moment, not much is generating good press for Apple lately) and it might help is affected users were given a timetable of when to expect robust fixes to come down the tubes.

The strange thing is that I’m quite happy with my Mac and Leopard. I’m guessing that this is because I’m still near the bottom of the Mac OS X learning curve and not pushing the OS too hard.

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Windows 7, to Take Networking Up a Notch

Microsoft has yet to define Windows 7 (Seven), the successor of Window Vista, when it was announced that it planned to ship the operating system in mid 2010, but the next Windows platform is slowly starting to take contour.

Back in mid 2007, when Msft first started to talk Windows 7, there were approximations made that the reason why Microsoft was failing to provide any palpable details about its next operating system was the fact that the product was still yet to take shape.

Now Msft is promising that while Windows Vista has evolved wireless networking in comparison to Windows XP, Windows 7 will literally blow your mind.

Vista was about making Wi-Fi connections as seamless, manageable and secure as wired networks. The next Windows version is really about taking Wireless networking to the next level by enabling new complete end to end scenarios and experiences that are going to change how windows PCs interact with each other and other devices and nodes over a wireless network

Microsoft revealed in the details for the job of Software Development Engineer.

The Windows Networking Ecosystem Technologies team will center on a range of new development scenarios focused on building new wireless networking capabilities into Windows 7. In this context, Windows 7 will bring to the table virtualised Wireless design to permit connections to multiple networks simultaneously. On top of this, Windows 7 will enhance wireless throughput and latency for Windows to Windows wireless connections.

As a part of this work, you will be working closely on existing and in-works wireless standards such as IEEE 802.11s, 802.11k, 802.11r, 802.11w. This position will provide you the unique opportunity of working on core wireless areas as well as collaborating with several other key Windows technologies to deliver a complete functional end to end scenario. The work will be in both the Windows kernel and user space.

Personal Note: Even though I personally like Windows Vista and can vouch for the beta SP1 available for the latest public Windows Operating System on the market today, I do look forward towards Windows 7 and believe Msft will prosper in the areas they originally hoped to with Vista. I see this upsetting many 'Vista Ultimate' owners but I still rather Msft progress than sit still. Vista will still blossom as Windows XP has and still continues to, so I see this as good news myself.

Sony says the 40GB PS3 is still using 90nm chips

We've all been hearing that Sony's new 40GB PS3 featured a revised design with a 65nm Cell processor and improved cooling, but sadly it looks like those reports were in error.
A Sony spokesperson has told Heise Online that the 40GB model continues to use 90mn processors, but does feature an updated design with a lower power consumption of just 120 to 140 watts, compared to 180 to 200 watts for the older models. Sony says its still planning on moving to 65nm processors in the near future, but for now, it looks like the PS3 is 90nm across the board.

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