Thursday, 12 July 2012
TRIFECTA TECH: CBS Films To Adapt ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’ Vid...
TRIFECTA TECH: CBS Films To Adapt ‘Deus Ex: Human Revolution’ Vid...: Michael Fassbender surprised everybody yesterday by attaching himself to star in and produce a film based on the Assassin’s Creed vi...
Game Review: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
The Deus Ex franchise has been a favorite of gamers everywhere since the first title arrived in the year 2000. Its sequel, Invisible War, wasn’t quite as well–received as the original, but an impact was surely made with the two games. So, as you might have imagined, when a third game in the series was announced fans were elated.
The new game, titled Deus Ex: Human Revolution, is the first since 2003 and is a prequel set in 2027, 25 years before the events of the original game occurred. It follows Adam Jensen, the head of security for Sarif Industries headquarters in Detroit. The company specializes in the booming human augmentation field, replacing lost or damaged human limbs and organs with powerful new robotic replacements.
The game opens with a couple of cinematic sequences before picking up with Jensen and his ex–girlfriend, Dr. Megan Reed, who are preparing to set off on a trip to Washington D.C. to show off their research. The two take a scenic walk through Sarif Industries—including a peek at the exciting new weapon, the Typhoon—before splitting up. Jensen heads up to see David Sarif, the founder and CEO of the company, when something goes wrong. Sarif sends Jensen to check it out and make sure everything is okay, but little do they know, things are very much not okay.
When he gets down to the floor where the disturbance is, Jensen finds a gruesome scene. Bodies are everywhere and alarms are going off left and right, so he sets off to find Megan. At one point, a giant augmented man appears from a wall and guns down one of the employees. Jensen eventually discovers that the giant man is one of three augmented people leading the attack on the building, but by the time he realizes this he’s already being attacked by the apparent leader of the trio, who quickly hurts him badly before putting a bullet in his head.
In true RoboCop fashion, Jensen is then fixed up with multiple augmentations to repair the near–fatal damage he received in the attack. When he returns to work things are unsurprisingly much different, and Jensen begins his quest to find out who did this and why.
When playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, approach it with much patience. The great thing about the game is you can play it however you want—run and gun like an action movie star, stealthy like a master spy, or a combination of the two—but it’s a lot to take in at first, especially when you get into the augments and upgrades. Augment upgrades are what you purchase to accommodate the type of game you’re playing. If you want to play stealthy, there’s augments for silence and invisibility and hacking computers, doors, and other things that will help you through quests. Or, if you’d rather become a superhero, you can augment yourself to be better with weapons and enable yourself to jump higher, run faster and quieter, or fall safely from any height.
But once you get a significant chunk into the game and you’ve learned all of the ropes, it’s a tremendous amount of fun. Personally, I like to dabble in everything, and so I wait for particular situations to arise that cause me problems, and then I’ll acquire the augments that I need to get through that situation. It’s a good way to try everything the game has to offer out, and then when you replay the game, you can go at it the way you liked best.
And speaking of replayability, there’s plenty of value there as well. The game offers many side quests—which are all fresh and interesting, not repetitive at all—and a great deal of conversations that will require you to choose what dialogue to use, which can swing a situation one way or another depending on your choices. These things, plus the multiple gameplay options, means you can start a new game and go a completely different way with it—something everyone can appreciate.
One of my favorite things about Deus Ex: Human Revolution also falls under the lines of replayability, and that’s the outcomes to the choices you make. A lot of popular RPGs have you make huge decisions that have monumental impacts on where the story goes, but many of these decisions are obviously important and can feel a little staged. In Deus Ex, however, there were multiple instances where something huge will happen and it feels so natural, as if it were going to happen no matter what. But then, going back and replaying that part, you’ll discover that it could most definitely go another way.
If you have the hard drive space on your system of choice, it has to be said that you should absolutely install the game before playing. Playing on the Xbox, I had never installed a game before (never really had the space to do so) and don’t recall a time where I needed to. But with this game, the load times were unbelievably long. To a point where it was almost a deal–breaker early on. But after installing it, everything moved much faster and smoothly, enhancing the overall experience.
When I began playing this game, I really wasn’t sure if it would be my thing—especially considering the fact that I’ve never played a Deus Ex game before this. Hell, even a few hours in I was beginning to think I wouldn’t like it (especially with the load time issues mentioned above). But once things started to click and come together, I quickly realized something: I love Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
I love the story, I love the gameplay, its many options, and the amount of detail put into the world. I love the Blade Runner feel to it and the soft ambient music that sets such a perfect tone to your experience. I love everything about it, and the game has become one of my favorites of the last few years.
Human Revolution is a must–play for you gamers who truly appreciate a beautiful and well–crafted game with a lot of customization and gameplay options, and take my word: most of you would be missing out to pass it by.
Trailer
Sunday, 27 May 2012
iPhone and iPad Get Military Upgrade
If you've ever wanted geotagging or any kind of military style lens for your iPhone or iPad, you may be getting it soon.
A new hardware system aims to combine the best of consumer smartphones and tablets with military-grade optical systems. In short, the Special Operations Apps / System for Optical Attachments or [SOA]2 is a set of adapters and apps that allows soldiers and such to connect infrared, night vision or long-range cameras to the iPhone 4S or the new iPad.
Once the lens is connected, the phone or iPad acts as an external display, with the ability to record video and mark the location on where the video was shot. Future versions could possibly include facial recognition and/or tracking.
Xbox 9mm buttons
DieselLaceDesign is selling a set of wireless Xbox 360 controllers which use 9mm bullet shells as the buttons. They're also selling Do-It-Yourself kits so you can achieve the same effect on your own.
Friday, 25 May 2012
Visual Studio 2011 - Windows 8 Dev Kit Only Does Metro Apps (Unless You Pay)
Microsoft has said that the upcoming free version of its new Visual Studio 11 programming kit will only be used to build applications with the new Metro touch interface that debuts with Windows 8. And some developers aren’t too happy about it.
Those wishing to build traditional desktop apps for Microsoft’s Windows operating system will have to use the for-pay version of Visual Studio 11, an older version of the free tool, or some other tool entirely.
The news was delivered last week, buried at the bottom of a webpage posted by Microsoft, but the developer world is just now waking up to the implications, as Ars Technica reported on Thursday.
“Visual Studio 11 Express for Windows 8 provides tools for Metro style app development,” Microsoft said. “To create desktop applications, developers need to use Visual Studio 11 Professional, or higher.”
Developers who build applications for Windows typically use Microsoft’s Visual Studio to code and deploy products, and though the full version of Visual Studio that sells for around $500, Microsoft has long offered a free version with a more limited set of tools. But the limits on the free version of Visual Studio 11 — the Visual Studio that dovetails with the upcoming Windows 8 — were unexpected.
Commenting on a Microsoft blog post that linked to Redmond’s statement, several developers expressed their disapproval. “Wait… what? Did I read that the express editions do not support developing non-metro apps? ” wrote one commenter.
“I was looking forward very much to the release of VS11 but this is really a punch in the face. I know Microsoft is pushing metro like crazy but I never expected that you’d leave all desktop hobby developers behind like this. I’m very disappointed with this decision and I really hope it changes before release. 
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Indeed, Microsoft hopes to encourage developers to build Metro applications, applications meant for Windows 8 tablets and other machines with touch screens. But it may mean that hobbyists developers — developers unwilling to pay the $500 — will defect to other development tools.
In its blog post, Microsoft did say that the free version of Visual Studio 10 will remain available. But the company declined to comment for this story.
Absinthe 2.0 has arrived!
After copious amounts of work and many sleepless nights Absinthe 2.0 is finally here to jailbreak your device. This release has been a large collaborative effort between Chronic-Dev Team and iPhone Dev Teams (Jailbreak Dream Team)
This jailbreak supports firmware 5.1.1 ONLY and is again one of the most easiest jailbreaks to use (so easy your grandma could do it ;D)
Press release: http://conference.hitb.org/hitbsecconf2012ams/ios-jailbreak-dream-team-releases-absinthe-2-0-ios-5-1-1-jailbreak/
Absinthe 2.0 supports the following devices:
iPad1,1 – 2,1 – 2,2 – 2,3 – 3,1 – 3,2 – 3,3
iPhone2,1 – 3,1 – 3,3 – 4,1
iPod3,1 – 4,1
(Support for iPad2,4 will be added at a later date)
How To Use Absinthe 2.0 (if you're unjailbroken):
1. Make a backup of your device in iTunes by right clicking on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu and click ‘Back Up’.
2. Once your backup is complete return to your device and go to Settings – General – Reset – Erase all Content and Settings. This will make the jailbreak process much faster.
3. Open Absinthe and be sure you are still connected via USB cable to your computer.
4. Click ‘Jailbreak’ and wait…. just be patient and do not disconnect your device.
5. Once jailbroken return to iTunes and restore your backup from earlier. Right click on your device name under the ‘Devices’ menu in the left panel of iTunes and click ‘Restore from Back Up…’ then select the latest backup you created before. (restoring this backup will return all the content previously on your device ie, apps, photos, etc.)
6. Thanks for using Absinthe, enjoy your jailbroken iDevice! 
How To Untether 5.1.1 (if you're already jailbroken):
Just search for and install "Rocky Racoon 5.1.1 Untether" from Cydia.
Download Links
IBM Outlaws Siri, Worried She Has Loose Lips
If you work for IBM, you can bring your iPhone to work, but forget about using the phone’s voice-activated digital assistant. Siri isn’t welcome on Big Blue’s networks.
The reason? Siri ships everything you say to her to a big data center in Maiden, North Carolina. And the story of what really happens to all of your Siri-launched searches, e-mail messages and inappropriate jokes is a bit of a black box.
IBM CIO Jeanette Horan told MIT’s Technology Review this week that her company has banned Siri outright because, according to the magazine, “The company worries that the spoken queries might be stored somewhere.”
It turns out that Horan is right to worry. In fact, Apple’s iPhone Software License Agreement spells this out: “When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text,” Apple says. Siri collects a bunch of other information — names of people from your address book and other unspecified user data, all to help Siri do a better job.
How long does Apple store all of this stuff, and who gets a look at it? Well, the company doesn’t actually say. Again, from the user agreement: “By using Siri or Dictation, you agree and consent to Apple’s and its subsidiaries’ and agents’ transmission, collection, maintenance, processing, and use of this information, including your voice input and User Data, to provide and improve Siri, Dictation, and other Apple products and services.”
Because some of the data that Siri collects can be very personal, the American Civil Liberties Union put out a warning about Siri just a couple of months ago.
Privacy was always a big concern for Siri’s developers, says Edward Wrenbeck, the lead developer of the original Siri iPhone app, which was eventually acquired by Apple. And for corporate users, there are even more potential pitfalls. “Just having it known that you’re at a certain customer’s location might be in violation of a non-disclosure agreement,” he says.
But he agrees that many of the issues raised by Apple’s Siri data handling are similar to those that other internet companies face. “I really don’t think it’s something to worry about,” he says. “People are already doing things on these mobile devices. Maybe Siri makes their life a little bit easier, but it’s not exactly opening up a new avenue that wasn’t there before.”
But other companies have been pressured by privacy groups over the way they store customer data. Google, for example, has come under fire in the past for the way it handles a massive database of user search data. But IBM doesn’t ban Google. An IBM spokesman declined to comment further on the Technology Review story, saying “we prefer to let the story stand on its own,” but there are a couple of important differences between Siri and Google that may have IBM worried: For one, Siri can be used to write e-mails or text messages. So, in theory, Apple could be storing confidential IBM messages. Apple couldn’t immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Another difference: After being dogged by privacy advocates, Google now anonymizes search results — making them difficult, if not impossible, to trace back to an individual user — after nine months.
Maybe if Apple agreed to do something like that, Siri would be welcome over in Armonk, New York
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