Code Retard

Software launches are always hit and miss. Some features end up working just as planned, and others end up breaking or completely disabling your system. Win some, lose some. However, in most cases, the bad things that come with a software update are unexpected problems a developer must race to fix – not well known bugs that have been reported time and time again by your beta community.

This is exactly the case when it comes to the new Microsoft Xbox dashboard. The latest update, titled “Metro,” added all sorts of interesting features to the Xbox dash. It also, however, seems to have had a negative impact on the way videos appear on your screen. While not hugely different from the original dashboard video playback system, whatever Metro uses to show video is washing out colors and making videos look a little less vibrant.

The issue was reported several times by the beta testing community that had early access to the Metro dashboard, and Microsoft’s response was apparently, “Yeah, we’ll get right on that.” The video playback issue is especially strange when you consider that Metro is billed as the Xbox’s huge multimedia update, and it’s very annoying that they’d run a beta then ignore the feedback of their testers.

Overall, feedback for Metro has been mixed. Personally, I like some of it, and hate other parts. The Netflix update, for example, is pure garbage. But I like the revisions to the main screen; they make it easier for me to push through my most commonly used applications (read: Battlefield 3, Netflix).

Have you had any issues with Metro? What are your thoughts on the new dashboard?

[Edge]

In 2011, the new millennium entered its awkward tween years, and so did gaming. The videogame industry grew like a weed, although some of its rapid developments were of the squeaky-voice and facial acne variety.

The editors of Wired magazine, Wired.com and Ars Technica have joined forces to bring you this year’s list of gaming disappointments. This should not be considered a list of the worst games of the year, as we assiduously strove to not actually play those.

No, the following are the games that we let ourselves get at least somewhat excited about — even putting some on our Most Anticipated Games of 2011 list earlier this year — that just ended up letting us down.

Above:

9. Dead Island

This game represents a stupendous achievement for Axis Animation. Unfortunately, Axis Animation is the team that made the riveting CG trailer that convinced over a million people to shell out for a buggy, mediocre open-world zombie game made by Techland. Its previous series Call of Juarez was a poor man’s Red Dead Redemption, just like Dead Island is a poor man’s Dead Rising. The most unforgivable element was the inconsistent combat: I’d swing an axe and bury it in an enemy’s chest, and it wouldn’t register. Then I’d swing again and miss them by several feet, and its arm would fly off. –Chris Baker

Image: Square Enix

The iPhone 4 can now run Siri–legally.

(Credit:
Apple)

If you own an
iPhone 4 and really want Siri on it, a new update has paved the way for you to get your wish.

Apple yesterday launched a new version of its iOS 5.0.1 update that, according to well-known iPhone hacker MuscleNerd, leaves the platform’s RAM disks unencrypted. Because of that, those with a little technical know-how can write a script to extract from the software update all the files needed to bring the virtual personal assistant to the
iPhone 4.

Apple’s update can be automatically downloaded to devices that currently aren’t running iOS 5.0.1. Those who are already running the software version will need to download the revised iOS 5.0.1 update from Apple’s direct link.

The new method for getting Siri onto the iPhone 4 stands in stark contrast to the other methods folks have used to run the software, including obtaining an
iPhone 4S‘ unique identifier and so-called “validation tokens.” Those methods have been viewed as potentially dangerous, since Apple likely wouldn’t take kindly to users obtaining another device’s files. This new method, on the other hand, uses the user’s device files, leaving no doubt of its legality.

Exactly why Apple left ramdisks unencrypted in its latest iOS update is unknown at this point, and it should be interesting to see if they’re back to being encrypted in iOS 5.1. But until then, folks hoping to run Siri on the iPhone 4 can download the new iOS 5.0.1 update and get started.

(Via Cult of Mac)

Those excited about the new title will be pleased to see the inclusion of the new game mode, titled ‘Raid Mode’. A co-op and online mode, this seems like a nice replayable addition to what looks like a solid single player campaign.

The game’s graphics wowed me back when I first seen them, and seeing this may push me to get a 3DS (along with Pokémon, Mario and Zelda). Resident Evil 5’s co-op was something else, and Left 4 Dead also set the standards of zombie co-op, and both were fun as hell, so I’m looking forward to seeing how well this plays out.

The new mode was announced during a Capcom live stream, which can be viewed at the link below.

Source and video:

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Update:  Wololo has commented on this Hello world. Its using the PSP Emulator part of the PS Vita. So its not a Vita exploit as such. More of a PSP exploit running on the PS Vitas’s PSP emulator.

Japanese PSP scener Mamosuke announced today on his blog that he was able to confirm a “Hello World” running on the PS Vita through the embedded PSP emulator. The exploit was made by developer teck4, and most likely relies on one of our good buffer overflow friends. and for those who are wondering “is it real?”, my current answer is that I haven’t tried it yet, but knowing Mamosuke fairly well I can tell you it’s true.

Technically, the idea behind the hack is simple but brilliant: the PS Vita has a PSP emulator, and we have plenty of PSP game exploits lying around… can we assume they will work on the emulator? That’s what teck4 tried, and the answer is yes, so he managed to run unsigned code on the PS Vita.

For those who join this blog for the first time, basically how this works is that a special save data file is crafted for a specific game. When the game is asked to load the save data, through a flaw in the game code we manage to re-route the game into executing code that we wrote ourselves. That code is usually very simple, displaying a simple message (typically “hello world”, hence the name).

From there, what happened for the PSP was that we integrated these exploits into our homebrew loading tool, Half-byte Loader, which allows people to load more interesting homebrews such as emulators, etc…

Now this was quick, the PS Vita -Just released in Japan has apparently run a Hello World user mode homebrew! Yep running unsigned code and so soon. I know what your thinking a blurry crap photo and its saying FW 6.31 which is a PSP Firmware.

Explaination is its a 6.31 modified save game exploit to work on the PS Vita. A user mode exploit. This all came from Japanese hacker teck4. This guy hasn’t released the code or the game details yet as he is planing to port a HBL for this. We will see. The screenshot below is some proof. But I could do that myself with a screen dump from my PSP and then load it on the PSV. Here’s hoping some video proof will be released soon. That is much clearer.

From Mamosuke:

[UPDATE: my additional comment in english]
I read lot’s of article around the world about this Hello World on Vita and I found so many “this is fake,right?”…No, this is not a fake. But you have to think this is inevitable result because of emulation.

And you can find “Hello World for PSP Firmware 6.31 by Teck4? and say “Why 6.31?”

Teck4 have some savegame exploits. These were found when PSP lastest firmware was 6.31. He tried to run his unsigned code without any modification..including the letter “6.31?

That’s why “6.31? was displayed in his Hello World.

His exploit use buffer overflow of the system and, you know, what we call “Usemode exploit”, So do not expect kernel hacking from it.

I know his exploit and I know he is not a faker. That’s real. But I think this shows us that emulation tech on vita is brilliant, NOT “PS Vita is hackable!”

Source: Game Gaz

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If you think this little guy looks cute here, you should see him frolic around your screen.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

First came OneNote, then SkyDrive. Now, Microsoft is jumping into the iOS games market with Kinectimals, a mobile version of the popular Kinect console title.

“Game” might not be the right word. Kinectimals simulates adopting and playing with a tiger cub (your choice of five breeds at the beginning, with five more you can unlock). Target audience: 3-year-olds.

OK, slightly older kids might enjoy this as well, but Kinectimals is so simplistic that I think anyone over the age of 7 is likely to lose interest pretty quickly.

That’s not to say this Tamogotchi-style experience is bad, because it’s not. Rather, it’s cute as the dickens, with frisky tiger cubs who jump and coo and catch (or at least paw at) tennis balls. Soothing new-agey music plays in the background.

For the first few minutes, it’s not immediately obvious what you’re supposed to do with your cub. If you tap him, the camera zooms in and lets you “pet” him. Eventually he’ll wander off and get a ball or a jump-rope, both used for kid-friendly mini-games.

Tip: tap the trophy icon, which offers challenges (starting with basic tutorials) that earn you experience points and coins you can spend on extra items.

Those items can be found by tapping the inventory icon, which also reveals options like Food, Care Items, Trick Mode, and so on. There’s even a weird but cute Camera option that sends you to a studio for a photo shoot with your cub. (The snapshots are automatically saved to your iDevice’s photo library.) You’d think each photo would show just your pet, but they include the studio surroundings–lights, backdrops, etc.–as well. Like I said: weird.

Some of this can be figured out just by tapping around, but I think parents should read the How to Play guide so they can properly instruct kids, who might get frustrated by the lack of progression. (Embarrassing admission: I didn’t read the instructions, and I got frustrated by the lack of progression. Once I learned the basics, however, I started having some fun.)

By the way, Kinectimals for iOS has the enviable capability to transfer cubs to and from the
Xbox version.

Speaking of which, the latter costs $50 at Amazon. Kinectimals for iOS is $2.99. I think I know which one I’d start with.

These are instructions on how to make Siri speak selected text on your iPhone 4S.

Step One
Press to select Settings from your Springboard.

Step Two
Press to choose General from the Settings menu.

Step Three
Select Accessibility from the Settings menu.

Step Four
Tap Speak Selection from the Accessibility menu.

Step Five
Make sure the Speak Selection switch is turned ON. You can also adjust Siri’s speaking rate using the slider.

Step Six
Press the Home button to return to your Springboard and launch an app such as Safari.

Step Seven
Use your finger to select and portion of text then click the Speak button the pops up to read it aloud. You can press the Pause button to stop reading.

It’s just one browser version during one particular week, and only one research firm is making the claim–but according to StatCounter, Google’s Chrome 15 is the world’s most popular browser.

Chrome 15

(Credit:
Google)
In the last week of November, StatCounter says, 23.6 percent of the browsers tracked by its global system were Chrome 15. Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer 8 accounted for 23.5 percent.

Add up all versions of IE and Chrome and you still get a different story: IE is the most popular browser overall, well ahead of Chrome. StatCounter’s numbers still show all versions of IE taking a total of 40.09 percent of the market, vs. 26.31 percent for all versions of Chrome.
Firefox is at 25.07 percent, Apple’s
Safari is at 5.86 percent, and Opera gets 1.91 percent.

Chrome 15′s victory isn’t hugely meaningful. Google’s built-in updating system quietly but insistently auto-updates users to new versions, reducing the number of people who are running old editions of the browser. Microsoft, by contrast, is less pushy. That helps explain why a meaningful number of folks still run the ancient, obsolete, insecure mess known as Internet Explorer 6.

In January, Microsoft plans to use Windows Update’s Auto Updates to upgrade recalcitrant Windows users to newer versions of Internet Explorer–IE 8 for Windows XP, and IE 9 for Windows Vista and 7. Given Chrome 15′s extremely narrow victory over IE 8 and the massive number of Windows XP PCs in the world, IE 8 presumably has a decent chance at snatching its crown back next month.

The real history-making moment would come if Chrome–or any non-Microsoft browser–overtook IE to become the world’s most popular browser, period. (The numbers reported by StatCounter and its rivals vary enough that I wouldn’t believe it had happened until every major stats service agreed.)

The last market-leading browser that wasn’t IE was Netscape Navigator. When its share crumbled in the 1990s, Internet Explorer gained a monopoly on the market that looked like it would probably be permanent.

By coming pre-installed on Windows, Internet Explorer still gets a huge head start over every other browser on the planet: It’s remarkable that the race is as close as it is. I wouldn’t reject the possibility of Chrome eventually overtaking IE, though, particularly given how rapidly it’s improving and how aggressively Google markets it.

Of course, a few years ago I thought that Firefox also had a shot at surpassing IE . Back in the days when Internet Explorer 6 was the current version of IE, and commanded more than 90 percent of the market, Firefox was downright dazzling. Simply by being wonderful, it quickly racked up millions of users–and forever disproved the depressing conventional wisdom that it was impossible to compete with Windows’ default browser.

When Google unveiled Chrome a little over three years ago, Firefox probably lost its chance at taking the top slot. All of a sudden, Chrome was the fresh, innovative alternative browser–and recently, Firefox’s share has flatlined, then dipped.

If open-source Firefox had managed to overtake IE, it would have been one of the great stories in tech history: A bunch of volunteer geeks banding together to beat the world’s biggest software company. If Chrome takes the lead, it’ll be one huge company beating another huge company. For me, at least, the emotional impact wouldn’t be the same.

And in a strange way, Microsoft is also a scrappy upstart when it comes to browsers. IE 9, the current version, is downright good, and admirably progressive when it comes to new technologies and standards. (Microsoft does its best work when its products have meaningful competition. Weird, huh?)

So I’m not rooting for any particular browser, and won’t take it badly if IE remains the most popular one for years to come. But boy, am I glad that the browser wars–which some once thought were over–show no signs of ending anytime soon.

The Sony Playstation 3D Display is a nice move by Sony to get 3D into more households; it’s basically a 3D monitor aimed at being of ease of use to gamers, PS3, 360 and PC alike.

Their bundle, which includes the Monitor, Motorstorm Apocalypse, a pair of 3D glasses and a HDMI cable, was set at $499, up until recently where BestBuy advertised it at $399. Now Sony are doing the same, with their online store also selling it at the price.

This, combined with the recent Skyrim price drops, makes me wonder; is the age of heavily demanding and reluctant prices in videogames gone? Saints Row 3 is currently going for £19.99 brand new at GameStation.co.uk.

Madness I tell you. Will you be jumping into the 3D realm and be picking this up?

Thanks again to Mr Pham for the update!!