Monday, April 12, 2010
Just Cause 2
I started playing this game and I am Amazed at the sheer scale of the game. Its like they have given an entire Country for us to play. You just have to see it to Believe it. the game is very demanding on your hardware but thankfully thats not a problem for me . The Graphics are very stunning and cool. The Character you play has a grapple which you will love to use. and also a nice parachute. there are numerous number of vehicles to play with on land sea and air. Go get the game I am sure you will have a great time playing it. I know i am.
Batman Arkham Asylum
well if you want a great game to play then this one is one of the best ones I have played in a while.... I have finished the game a few days ago and i am going to play it again... Its good for even the person who is not a batman fan... The AI in the game is very nice and the graphics are stunning. so try it out if you are in the market for a new game.
Surround vision' takes viewers beyond TV screen
Surround sound? That's old technology. How about surround vision?
The folks at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new system called surround vision that can let you follow objects outside of your regular TV screen by viewing them on smartphones and handheld Internet devices. Imagine you're watching a movie on your regular TV, and a car drives off the screen. You could follow and view that car as it drives away by looking at and pointing your smartphone or tablet in its direction.
MIT's surround vision in action.
(Credit: MIT Labs)
The person leading this promising new project is Santiago Alfaro, a graduate student at the lab. To kick-start his testing, Alfaro attached a magnetometer to an existing handheld device. A type of digital compass, magnetometers are already used in smartphones like the iPhone to detect the direction the device is pointing. He then created the necessary software to sync the magnetometer with other sensors on the device.
After outfitting the handheld with motion sensors, Alfaro shot video on campus from three different angles--center, left, and right. Watching the TV screen straight on played video from the center. But by pointing the handheld to the left or right, Alfaro was able to view the footage shot from both side angles.
As a further test of the technology, Alfaro took advantage of the alternate takes found on many DVDs. He created a demo that let him switch between the final footage and the alternate takes and angles by changing the direction of the handheld device.
Though the technology may sound like it needs further development, it's designed to work with existing Internet-enabled portable gadgets, including smartphones and tablets. Since a lot of today's handheld devices already have magnetometers, no modifications would be necessary. Further, TV stations wouldn't have to change their broadcasts or equipment, according to Alfaro and his adviser, Media Lab research scientist Michael Bove.
"In the Media Lab, and even my group, there's a combination of far-off-in-the-future stuff and very, very near-term stuff, and this is an example of the latter," said Bove in a news release Friday. "This could be in your home next year if a network decided to do it."
The MIT researchers plan to test surround vision on other users this spring and summer using content developed by Boston Public TV and other partners. They're keen to try it out on sporting events and live TV shows since those broadcasts already shoot footage from different angles. Even crime shows like "CSI" could benefit from the surround vision, said Bove, by letting people view what the medical examiners see when they peer through a microscope.
The folks at the MIT Media Lab have developed a new system called surround vision that can let you follow objects outside of your regular TV screen by viewing them on smartphones and handheld Internet devices. Imagine you're watching a movie on your regular TV, and a car drives off the screen. You could follow and view that car as it drives away by looking at and pointing your smartphone or tablet in its direction.
MIT's surround vision in action.
(Credit: MIT Labs)
The person leading this promising new project is Santiago Alfaro, a graduate student at the lab. To kick-start his testing, Alfaro attached a magnetometer to an existing handheld device. A type of digital compass, magnetometers are already used in smartphones like the iPhone to detect the direction the device is pointing. He then created the necessary software to sync the magnetometer with other sensors on the device.
After outfitting the handheld with motion sensors, Alfaro shot video on campus from three different angles--center, left, and right. Watching the TV screen straight on played video from the center. But by pointing the handheld to the left or right, Alfaro was able to view the footage shot from both side angles.
As a further test of the technology, Alfaro took advantage of the alternate takes found on many DVDs. He created a demo that let him switch between the final footage and the alternate takes and angles by changing the direction of the handheld device.
Though the technology may sound like it needs further development, it's designed to work with existing Internet-enabled portable gadgets, including smartphones and tablets. Since a lot of today's handheld devices already have magnetometers, no modifications would be necessary. Further, TV stations wouldn't have to change their broadcasts or equipment, according to Alfaro and his adviser, Media Lab research scientist Michael Bove.
"In the Media Lab, and even my group, there's a combination of far-off-in-the-future stuff and very, very near-term stuff, and this is an example of the latter," said Bove in a news release Friday. "This could be in your home next year if a network decided to do it."
The MIT researchers plan to test surround vision on other users this spring and summer using content developed by Boston Public TV and other partners. They're keen to try it out on sporting events and live TV shows since those broadcasts already shoot footage from different angles. Even crime shows like "CSI" could benefit from the surround vision, said Bove, by letting people view what the medical examiners see when they peer through a microscope.
Google acquires visual-search provider Plink
Google has added another company to its shopping cart--this time it's U.K.-based Plink, a visual-search provider.
In a blog post Monday, Plink co-founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin announced the deal as "exciting news," especially for a company that only went public four months ago.
Plink apparently caught Google's eye by developing an Android app called PlinkArt, which lets you photograph and upload a snapshot of a painting that Plink then identifies to provide details about the artwork and its artist. You can then share that artwork with other people via your smartphone. PlinkArt seemed to hit it big with Android users, with Plink claiming more than 50,000 downloads of the app in just four weeks.
Though Plink's co-founders stressed that PlinkArt will still be available, they won't be updating it further and will instead switch gears to focus on Google Googles, an Android app from Google that also attempts to identify images. With Google Goggles available but still undergoing development, Google is hoping to employ the talents of Cummins and Philbin to add new features and functionality.
"The visual search engines of today can do some pretty cool things, but they still have a long long way to go," they wrote in the blog. "We're looking forward to helping the Goggles team build a visual search engine that works not just for paintings or book covers, but for everything you see around you."
Details of the acquisition, including the purchase price, were not released.
Google's Plink purchase is just the latest in the company's growing shopping spree. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt told Reuters in September that Google expects to buy one company a month as it tries to kick business into high gear following the economic downturn. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly close to deciding whether to challenge Google's deal to buy AdMob.
In a blog post Monday, Plink co-founders Mark Cummins and James Philbin announced the deal as "exciting news," especially for a company that only went public four months ago.
Plink apparently caught Google's eye by developing an Android app called PlinkArt, which lets you photograph and upload a snapshot of a painting that Plink then identifies to provide details about the artwork and its artist. You can then share that artwork with other people via your smartphone. PlinkArt seemed to hit it big with Android users, with Plink claiming more than 50,000 downloads of the app in just four weeks.
Though Plink's co-founders stressed that PlinkArt will still be available, they won't be updating it further and will instead switch gears to focus on Google Googles, an Android app from Google that also attempts to identify images. With Google Goggles available but still undergoing development, Google is hoping to employ the talents of Cummins and Philbin to add new features and functionality.
"The visual search engines of today can do some pretty cool things, but they still have a long long way to go," they wrote in the blog. "We're looking forward to helping the Goggles team build a visual search engine that works not just for paintings or book covers, but for everything you see around you."
Details of the acquisition, including the purchase price, were not released.
Google's Plink purchase is just the latest in the company's growing shopping spree. Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt told Reuters in September that Google expects to buy one company a month as it tries to kick business into high gear following the economic downturn. In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission is reportedly close to deciding whether to challenge Google's deal to buy AdMob.
Ads to blame for malware in Facebook's FarmTown?
The 9.6 million players of the Facebook game FarmTown are being warned about fake security warnings popping up that are designed to mislead people into paying for antivirus protection they don't need.
"We are aware and have reported to the developers that many of our players have encountered the malware/spyware while on the FarmTown Site," the moderator of a user forum for FarmTown maker SlashKey warned over the weekend. "We believe at this time that it is harmless to your computer and a result of one or more of the ads on the site, but you should NOT follow any links to any software claiming to 'clean your system.'"
Sophos' Graham Cluley said it appeared that third-party advertising displayed underneath the FarmTown playing window is to blame.
"In all likelihood, hackers have managed to poison some of the adverts that are being served to FarmTown by the outside advert provider," Cluley wrote on his blog. "Rather than SlashKey simply asking its players to report offending adverts when they appear, it might be sensible for the company to disable third-party adverts appearing alongside FarmTown until the problem is fixed."
SlashKey could not be reached for comment on Monday. FarmTown competes on Facebook with FarmVille, which has 86.6 million users and critics of its own.
Malware has been found in ads delivered by Yahoo, Google, and Fox ad platforms, as well as on high profile sites like The New York Times and the Drudge Report.
Last week, Facebook was hit with another scam involving a fake Ikea gift card offer. Nearly 40,000 Facebook users signed up for a $1,000 Ikea gift card offer and joined a related Facebook fan page and were duped into providing personal information on an outside Web site including birth date and home phone number, according to IDG News Service. The latest scam follows a similar Ikea gift card ripoff and a $500 Whole Foods gift certificate on Facebook.
A Facebook spokesman said the company is trying to head off such scams by researching specific dubious groups and pages and developing technical systems to surface them more quickly.
"We advise people to be suspicious of anything that looks or feels strange online--whether it's an unfamiliar link in a message from a friend who hasn't contacted you in a while, or a promise of something valuable if you take a certain action or provide personal information," Facebook said in a statement. "It's a good idea to also check with the retailer whose gift cards are being offered to verify that the offer is legitimate. Be wary of groups and pages that don't appear to be the retailer's official Facebook presence, as well as those whose only purpose is to promote the offer (for example, those that have the offer in their names)."
"We are aware and have reported to the developers that many of our players have encountered the malware/spyware while on the FarmTown Site," the moderator of a user forum for FarmTown maker SlashKey warned over the weekend. "We believe at this time that it is harmless to your computer and a result of one or more of the ads on the site, but you should NOT follow any links to any software claiming to 'clean your system.'"
Sophos' Graham Cluley said it appeared that third-party advertising displayed underneath the FarmTown playing window is to blame.
"In all likelihood, hackers have managed to poison some of the adverts that are being served to FarmTown by the outside advert provider," Cluley wrote on his blog. "Rather than SlashKey simply asking its players to report offending adverts when they appear, it might be sensible for the company to disable third-party adverts appearing alongside FarmTown until the problem is fixed."
SlashKey could not be reached for comment on Monday. FarmTown competes on Facebook with FarmVille, which has 86.6 million users and critics of its own.
Malware has been found in ads delivered by Yahoo, Google, and Fox ad platforms, as well as on high profile sites like The New York Times and the Drudge Report.
Last week, Facebook was hit with another scam involving a fake Ikea gift card offer. Nearly 40,000 Facebook users signed up for a $1,000 Ikea gift card offer and joined a related Facebook fan page and were duped into providing personal information on an outside Web site including birth date and home phone number, according to IDG News Service. The latest scam follows a similar Ikea gift card ripoff and a $500 Whole Foods gift certificate on Facebook.
A Facebook spokesman said the company is trying to head off such scams by researching specific dubious groups and pages and developing technical systems to surface them more quickly.
"We advise people to be suspicious of anything that looks or feels strange online--whether it's an unfamiliar link in a message from a friend who hasn't contacted you in a while, or a promise of something valuable if you take a certain action or provide personal information," Facebook said in a statement. "It's a good idea to also check with the retailer whose gift cards are being offered to verify that the offer is legitimate. Be wary of groups and pages that don't appear to be the retailer's official Facebook presence, as well as those whose only purpose is to promote the offer (for example, those that have the offer in their names)."
Key Google Docs changes promise faster service
Google has made some under-the-hood changes to its Google Docs product, promising faster service and real-time collaboration tools.
The changes address many of the demands of Google Docs users for more speed and better compatibility with offline products like Microsoft Word and Excel, said Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager for Google Apps. Google's Dave Girouard, president of the Enterprise group, is expected to introduce the changes at Google's Atmosphere conference Monday in Mountain View, Calif.
Google has had some success getting companies to switch to its suite of Web-based office productivity software, but there's still an awful lot of corporations using the tried-and-true desktop-based software. But Google's long-term vision of computing is based around the notion that the Web and the browser become the primary vehicles for applications, and Google Docs is an important part of realizing that vision.
The main improvement was to create a common infrastructure across the Google Docs products, all of which came into Google from separate acquisitions, Rochelle said. This has paved the way for Google to offer users a chance to do character-by-character real-time editing of a document or spreadsheet, almost the same way Google Wave lets collaborators see each other's keystrokes in a Wave.
Those changes have also allowed Google to take more control of the way documents are rendered and formatted in Google Docs, instead of passing the buck to the browser to make those decisions. This allows Google to ensure that documents will look the same on the desktop or in the cloud, an important consideration for designing marketing materials or reviewing architectural blueprints, for example.
Rochelle acknowledged that for certain tasks--for example, huge spreadsheets riddled with complex formulas--Google Docs can't quite replicate the desktop experience. But the company grows closer to that goal with each new release, and the improvements rolling out Monday get Google closer to that ultimate goal, he said.
In addition to the long-term strategic vision, Google Docs is a key part of its quest to find something other than search ads to keep the dollars flowing. This is one of the few areas in which Google actually charges for its services, asking for $50 per user per year for access to Google Apps Premium, which also comes with a more traditional take on customer support than Google usually employs.
It has the added benefit of tweaking long-time rival Microsoft, which makes a ton of money from Microsoft Office sales. Microsoft is also intent on delivering online office-productivity services to its customers, with plans to release online versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint to users with Office 2010. That will be introduced in May for business users and June for consumers.
Google plans to discuss its plans for the enterprise and cloud computing at the Atmosphere conference, which around 400 CIOs are expected to attend Monday.
The changes address many of the demands of Google Docs users for more speed and better compatibility with offline products like Microsoft Word and Excel, said Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager for Google Apps. Google's Dave Girouard, president of the Enterprise group, is expected to introduce the changes at Google's Atmosphere conference Monday in Mountain View, Calif.
Google has had some success getting companies to switch to its suite of Web-based office productivity software, but there's still an awful lot of corporations using the tried-and-true desktop-based software. But Google's long-term vision of computing is based around the notion that the Web and the browser become the primary vehicles for applications, and Google Docs is an important part of realizing that vision.
The main improvement was to create a common infrastructure across the Google Docs products, all of which came into Google from separate acquisitions, Rochelle said. This has paved the way for Google to offer users a chance to do character-by-character real-time editing of a document or spreadsheet, almost the same way Google Wave lets collaborators see each other's keystrokes in a Wave.
Those changes have also allowed Google to take more control of the way documents are rendered and formatted in Google Docs, instead of passing the buck to the browser to make those decisions. This allows Google to ensure that documents will look the same on the desktop or in the cloud, an important consideration for designing marketing materials or reviewing architectural blueprints, for example.
Rochelle acknowledged that for certain tasks--for example, huge spreadsheets riddled with complex formulas--Google Docs can't quite replicate the desktop experience. But the company grows closer to that goal with each new release, and the improvements rolling out Monday get Google closer to that ultimate goal, he said.
In addition to the long-term strategic vision, Google Docs is a key part of its quest to find something other than search ads to keep the dollars flowing. This is one of the few areas in which Google actually charges for its services, asking for $50 per user per year for access to Google Apps Premium, which also comes with a more traditional take on customer support than Google usually employs.
It has the added benefit of tweaking long-time rival Microsoft, which makes a ton of money from Microsoft Office sales. Microsoft is also intent on delivering online office-productivity services to its customers, with plans to release online versions of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint to users with Office 2010. That will be introduced in May for business users and June for consumers.
Google plans to discuss its plans for the enterprise and cloud computing at the Atmosphere conference, which around 400 CIOs are expected to attend Monday.
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