Raven Studios release source code for Star Wars games after Disney shuts down LucasArts

Charles Gantt | Gaming | Apr 4, 2013 12:26 PM CDT

The developers of the vastly popular Star Wars game Jedi Outcast, have released its source code in the wake of yesterday's closure of LucasArts. The development company has also released the source code to the games sequel, Jedi Academy, as well.

In a statement Raven said:

"Raven is sad to hear about the closing of LucasArts today, we respected them and enjoyed working with them over the years. We wish the best for all the talented people who were let go and hope they find good work in studios in the industry. We loved and appreciated the experience of getting to make Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy for LucasArts. As a gift to the persistently loyal fanbase for our Jedi games and in memory of LucasArts, we are releasing the source code for both games for people to enjoy and play with.

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Google and Mozilla develop new web rendering engines that replace WebKit

Charles Gantt | Internet & Websites | Apr 4, 2013 9:46 AM CDT

Just as web developers across the world were settling down to enjoy the good life, Google and Mozilla have walked in the door and thrown a wrench into their smoothly running machines. This morning both Google and Mozilla announced that they are moving their browsers to new rendering engines.

Google has announced that it has forked the popular WebKit engine off into a more "manageable for chromium" engine called Blink. Google says that Blink will focus on speed and simplicity, and will still hold true to its WebKit roots. Opera, who just switched to WebKit says that they will follow Google's lead and fully embrace and contribute to Blink.

In a blog post, Adam Barth, a Software Engineer at Google said:

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RumorTT: Doom 4 to be released on next-gen consoles, Rage 2 gets cancelled

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Apr 3, 2013 11:36 PM CDT

Around six years ago, a rumored sequel to Doom was talked about, but it didn't excite id and Bethesda envisioned according to Bethesda vice president of marketing and publications, Pete Hines.

Kotaku have reported that the game was then thrown in the bin, with Hines backing up this claim stating that id Software refocused their efforts into a new version of Doom 4 that promises to meet the uber high expectations of the game and the Doom franchise. Hines has said that when they're ready to talk about it, they'll let people know.

The problems reportedly lie within id Software itself, which is described as a company that was once full of the world's best talent, but lacks direction. Politics and mismanagement all played a negative role at the company, with executives more focused on getting Rage shipped in 2011 rather than pay attention to what was happening with Doom 4 - how that happens, I just don't know.

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AMD says NVIDIA bitter over Sony using AMD in PlayStation 4

Trace Hagan | Business, Financial & Legal | Apr 3, 2013 6:24 PM CDT

AMD's representitive believes that NVIDIA may be bitter over Sony's choice to go with AMD in the PlayStation 4. His reasoning? A statement by NVIDIA's Tony Tamasi saying how the GTX 680 outperforms the PlayStation 4. He added that the 680 had been out for a year and a half.

If the PS4 ships in December as Sony indicated, it will only offer about half the performance of a GTX 680 GPU, which launched in March 2012, more than a year and a half ago.

AMD's director of ISV relations Neal Robinson responded:

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RumorTT: Google to launch revised Nexus 7 this July

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Apr 3, 2013 11:25 AM CDT

A new Nexus 7 from Google could arrive as soon as this coming July, if rumors we are hearing are true. Reuters is citing two separate sources that claim that Google is preparing to ship roughly eight million new tablets by the end of the year.

The sources say that the new Nexus 7 will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon instead of an NVIDIA Tegra 4. One source says that we could see a the new Nexus 7 drop down to the $150 price point, while the other stated that $200 was the magic number.

If these rumors are true, then we will most likely see the device surface at next month's Google I/O event, which has been sold out for months. Last year's event saw the original Nexus 7 unveiled as well as a demo of Google Glass.

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BlackBerry offers Android and iOS users a BB10 demo via a web app

Charles Gantt | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Apr 3, 2013 10:31 AM CDT

BlackBerry is hoping to convince Android and iOS users to switch over to the dark side by offering up a demo of key BlackBerry 10 features through a new HTML5 web app. Dubbed BlackBerry Glimpse, the app walks users through 10 demonstrations that include the BlackBerry Hub, Screen Share, Time Shift and the unique BB10 predictive keyboard.

I tried out Glimpse on my very dated Sprint Motorola Photon 4G and the "demo" felt more like a slideshow that used gestures to control rather than a true interactive demonstration. The keyboard demo was so fast that I barely caught what it was trying to illustrate.

Not all was bad though, I actually do like the UI that BlackBerry has created. It does have a very Android feel to it which is something that I prefer. Will this "demo" cause a mass migration to BlackBerry 10? I doubt it, but it is a pretty cool marketing idea. If you would like to try it out for yourself head over to the Source #2 link below.

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the very first cellular phone call

Forty years ago today, then Motorola exec Marty Cooper walked out of his office, met with a reporter on the sidewalk in front of his office building and proceeded to make a world-changing phone call to the CEO of Bell Labs (a division of AT&T).

This event was most likely one of the top 3 most significant phone calls in the history of the world, as it was the very first cellular phone call ever made. Sure there were car phones at the time, but this was a completely mobile, hand held all-in-one device. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X that Cooper used went on to be known in pop culture as "The Brick" because it resembled one in both size and weight. The 2.5lb device would set you back a cool $3,995 and featured a single line LED text display.

Fast forward 40 years and Google now owns Motorola's mobile division and modern smartphones are tens of thousands of times more powerful. Instead of being limited to the uber rich, now even the poorest people communicate via cellular phones. If you were wondering, in the first cellular call Cooper said to the Bell Labs CEO "I'm ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end."

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RumorTT: Windows Blue to be known as Windows 8.1

Trace Hagan | Software & Apps | Apr 2, 2013 7:07 PM CDT

According to ZDNet's sources, Microsoft's upcoming Windows Blue will be known as Windows 8.1 to the public. As you can see in the screenshot below, the operating system is clearly labeled as "Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro." It looks like Windows Blue could be similar to the service packs of yesteryear.

The update appears to follow along the lines of Windows Phone 7 and 7.5. Windows RT is said to be known as "Windows RT 8.1." Microsoft envisions Windows 8 as a multiple selling season product meaning these refreshes every year or so, somewhat like how Apple updates Mac OS X in that they have 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 each with their own codename.

It's not clear whether Microsoft intends to charge customers to update, though I would venture to guess they will charge a fee. If I had to guess a number, I'd guess $20.

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Nokia Lumia 810 users on T-Mobile won't be getting LTE support

Trace Hagan | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Apr 2, 2013 6:34 PM CDT

I've got a spot of bad news for Nokia Lumia 810 users on T-Mobile. Even though the Lumia 810 hardware has support for LTE, it looks like users won't be getting access to T-Mobile's LTE network, despite earlier remarks that the device would be upgraded to LTE in the future through a software update.

T-Mobile said in a statement:

While the Nokia Lumia 810 features a chipset, which provides the hardware capability to support both HSPA+42 and LTE, the device will not automatically access our LTE network and, at this time, it will not receive an update to do so.

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Firefox 20 comes with per-window private browsing

Trace Hagan | Internet & Websites | Apr 2, 2013 6:05 PM CDT

Mozilla has updated its Firefox web browser with per-window private browsing that functions much the same as Chrome's private browsing feature. In addition to per-window private browsing, Firefox 20 comes with stability improvements, bug fixes, HTML5 additions, and a new download experience.

As part of the stability improvements, users can now close a frozen plugin without the entire browser crashing. This is also similar to how Chrome handles plugins. The improved download experience features a new interface and a button that makes opening the downloads list much easier. When downloads are active, the button shows an estimated time to completion.

Probably the largest change with Firefox 20 is the ability to have both normal Firefox windows and private browsing Firefox windows open simultaneously. As previously stated, this new method is how Chrome has handled private browsing from the get-go. Firefox used to require the entire session to either be a normal session or a private browsing session.

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