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BetaNews.Com (9 non lus)

Big Fish Games brings real-money gaming to Apple's App Store

Publié: août 16, 2012, 9:30pm CEST par Wayne Williams

Social gaming just used to be about having fun, but now there’s a real-money element creeping in. First Gamesys launched a Facebook app that allowed UK residents aged 18 and over to play for real cash prizes while interacting with friends, and now Big Fish Games is getting in on the act with Big Fish Casino for iOS devices. The game is a relaunched and rebranded version of Card Ace: Casino, from recently acquired Self Aware Studios, that offers new games and additional social features, and will soon also allow UK users to play slots for real money.

If the thought of wagering your earnings on spinning reels doesn’t do it for you, you might be more interested to hear that the real-money feature, powered by UK-licensed online gaming company Betable, will also be available in blackjack, roulette and video poker in the coming months.

Paul Thelen, Founder and CEO of Big Fish, says of the new game, "We have a strong conviction that mobile apps that combine social and real-money gambling are a powerful way to engage more users and increase overall monetization. With its real-time social interaction features and the thrill of real-money gambling, Big Fish Casino is the closest mobile users can get to the buzz and excitement of playing these games in a real-world casino".

More and more real-money apps are set to arrive on Facebook and in the Apple App Store in the next few months. Although they’ll only be available in the UK to begin with, due to the country’s well regulated gambling controls, it’s possible they may spread to other English speaking countries in due course and possibly even to the US, if lobbying efforts by the likes of Zynga succeed in getting the Internet Gambling Consumer Protection and Public-Private Partnership Act of 2012 through the House and Senate.
Early adopters rush to Windows 8

Publié: août 16, 2012, 9:21pm CEST par Joe Wilcox

A month ago today I asked: "Will you buy Windows 8?" About 1,500 of you answered the poll and offered more in comments -- to the story and others that followed. Now that Windows 8 is released to manufacturing and available to developers and to enterprises, it's good time to review your answers.

About 45 percent of respondents plan to buy Windows 8 as soon as it's available -- more consumers (25.06 percent) than business users (19.55 percent). All total, 55.71 percent of you plan on buying Windows 8 within six months of availability (from August for businesses and October for consumers). Given our select audience, I don't expect adoption to be that high that fast for the broader market. However, considering that analyst data -- from Net Applications, among others -- puts XP usage higher than any other Windows version, there is potentially huge pent-up demand for Win8. Then there is something different -- the new user interface formally known as Metro. (Say, what's its name this week?)

Microsoft needs Windows 8 to be big, as do its partners, particularly OEMs; it's more desperate now with most analysts reporting tablets sapping PC upgrades. Developers can always swim in the iOS tank. But, hey, do watch out for that Apple shark. This big white makes "Jaws" look like a guppy.

The overall global PC market was flat year over year during calendar second quarter, according to Gartner and IDC. By comparison, US PC shipments were disastrous, falling 5.7 percent year over year, according to Gartner, and declining 10.6 percent by IDC's reckoning.

Slow PC shipments sapped Microsoft's Windows & Windows Live division yet again during the quarter, with revenue down 13 percent. Operating income fell by 18 percent, or $511 million, in part because of a deferral related to Windows 8 upgrade guarantees. Microsoft and its partners need Windows 8 to start great out of the gate.

So Will You Buy?

Ben Craib answers "Yes! Go Windows 8!"

Jeremy Poynton says "No way. For a simple, home, one desktop user very happy with Windows 7, Windows 8 is a ghastly mistake. Metro is grotesque. Fergeddahbahtit. And yes, I have tried a couple of previews, and given up in despair in no time at all. WTF were they thinking? If it had W7 interface, no problem".

"Sold", skruis comments. "Three copies of Win8 for existing pc's/slates and two Surface likely orders (one Pro/one RT)".

"I don't want to like Win 8 but, unfortunately, I seem to be pulled into its maw", reader TomL_12953 writes. Everything is faster and smoother than on Win 7 Ultimate SP1 even though 8 hasn't been optimized yet. I was determined to dislike it but the more I use it, the more I like it. Rats".

Faith Roby: "Windows 8 is a no go. Hate the Beta Version and it is like Vista all over again!"

"Windows 8 is far better then any operating system that's currently on the market. I use the beta version of windows 8 on both my desktop and laptop. It works flawlessly", Fred Reed comments. "Microsoft has finally come out with an operating system that actually works the way it's suppose to. It loads up without problems".

Parker Kincaid: "The only way I'll wind up with Windows 8 is on a tablet like the Surface and that's if I even purchase a Windows-based tablet which will likely never occur. For a PC/laptop I am completely disinterested in Windows 8 and will be waiting until Windows 9 or whatever is is called".

srkelley:

Despite my Linux love I'm actually going to buy this. I'm mostly enjoying the Preview so far. I mean there are a few points of annoyance but in the end I'm liking the performance gains that I've received along with the knowledge that I'll be able to play the games I love more easily in Win8 (as compared to a Linux-only route). Wine works excellently most of the time but why bother with it when you can get the platform at a fair price?

All the comments above are from a month ago to the original poll story. mshulman writes yesterday, following Windows 8's posting to MSDN and TechNEt: "Download complete and now installing Windows 8 on a new 8-core AMD system".

Enterprises can get Windows 8 in August 2012, while consumers wait until October. Will you buy Windows 8?

But dizzydavidh isn't as enthusiastic: "As a former system builder I just cannot see how anyone in their right mind can ever justify moving to a Windows 8 platform from 7...I have to agree with so many others that 8 will be flop and Microsoft is going to have to swallow a bitter pill as a consequence washed down with a large slice of humble pie for not having listened, at all it seems, to it's existing user base as to what they do and more importantly don't want from a new Windows release".

WP7Mango: "I can certainly see the huge MS developer network making a lot of apps in a very short time frame...This is exactly what Microsoft need to deliver a large app store for Windows RT / Windows 8 as quickly as possible. As a developer myself, I'm delighted to see this".

So, if you have access to Windows 8 already, did you download and install? And are you happy about it?
Haiku Deck is the mobile app to destroy the boring PowerPoint stigma

Publié: août 16, 2012, 7:37pm CEST par Tim Conneally

This week, a new iPad application called Haiku Deck launched the iOS App Store, and it's a must-see. The free application gives users the tools to create aesthetically appealing PowerPoint slide decks that are punchy and -most importantly of all- not boring.

PowerPoint has existed for almost 28 years, and it has created a culture of tedious presentations where shaky presenters fill their slides with too much information and use them as a script rather than as a tool for engagement.

Haiku Deck strips out all of the superfluous capabilities of PowerPoint, and gives the presenter only a couple of lines to fill with text. The majority of the app is for creating style and selecting appropriate images to drive the presentation. It kicks out the proverbial PowerPoint crutches.

"All of the presentation best practices say things like: One idea/slide. Use one powerful image. Don't mix fonts. Don't read off your slides…All of the competitive action in the category has been about adding features that give users more rope with which to hang themselves," Haiku Deck CEO Adam Tratt told BetaNews on Thursday. "We're delivering a tool that empowers communicators to be more effective and protects audiences from having to endure eight point font."

Haiku Deck presents the user with five different presentation theme packs, which assign the presentation default fonts and image filters. The themes were designed by Luz Brachter of Seattle-based agency Design Commission, and they fit right alongside the designs found in Instagram, Jux.com and Flavors.me. Users can upload their own pictures for their slides, or they can search through Creative Commons images in the app's built-in search interface. The app is free, but Haiku Deck is monetized by including 11 bonus themes that cost $1.99 each.

"We looked at a range of pricing options across competitive offerings," Tratt said on Thursday. "As a newcomer in the field, we decided to make the app itself free and try to build the business around premium content, starting with themes. The app economy and in-app purchasing in the productivity category is so new that we didn't have a ton of data to light the way here. At the end of the day, it felt like $1.99/theme was a good place to start."

By limiting the amount of text and highlighting the visual aspect of presentations, Haiku Deck effectively unlocks the PowerPoint presentation from its old roots as a tool for meetings and staid lectures. On the company's own site, they utilize Haiku Deck to create visual resumés for the executive team. The effect is powerful.

"Once we built the app, we realized there are all of these great uses for presentations that nobody considers because the process of creating traditional decks is so dreadful," Tratt said. "Now that Haiku Deck makes it awesome, we want to help users discover great new ways to think about creating and delivering rich content with it."

Haiku Deck is available right now in the iTunes App Store
Download video clips with YouTube Mate

Publié: août 16, 2012, 6:05pm CEST par Mike Williams

Visit YouTube in your browser and it’s easy enough to search for and play any videos you like. Downloading individual clips and using them offline is a little more difficult, though -- unless you get help from a third-party tool like YouTube Mate.

Launch the program and it’ll immediately begin monitoring your clipboard for YouTube URLs. If you find a video you’d like to save, just copy the address to the clipboard, and YouTube Mate will pop up a Download dialog. Click OK, choose the video format and resolution you’d like to save (there’s full HD support here) and watch as YouTube Mate downloads and saves it for you.

You have lots of clips to save? Not a problem. YouTube Mate can download multiple clips at the same time, just keep copying the URLs and deciding exactly which files and formats you’d like to grab.

Everything you download appears in a list on the program’s interface, and if you want to play a particular clip then just double-click it to view the movie in a simple video player.

Or, if the downloaded files aren’t in a convenient format for you, YouTube Mate can quickly convert them to something more suitable.

First you’ll need to define your output format by selecting the appropriate Profile option. There are profiles for specific devices (iPad, iPod, iPhone, and many other phones, portable video players and other hardware), and a lot of more general format options: you can save clips as Flash (SWF)movies, audio files, DVD-friendly MPEG’s and others (and you can even customise these profiles to take fine control over the frame video, video sample rate, whatever you like).

Then select an Output folder, click Convert, and YouTube Mate will quickly convert each clip to your chosen format. We would rather it converted only the selected clips, actually – there doesn’t seem to be any way to convert a specific file, other than remove everything else from the list – but it’s still a useful option.

YouTube Mate does have one potential annoyance, in that you must provide the authors with your email address before you can activate the program. They promise they won’t share it (and we’ve no reason to believe otherwise), but it just makes us wary.

If that’s not an issue for you, though, the program provides a quick and easy way to download and manage YouTube clips, and there’s certainly far more functionality here than we’d expect from a free tool.

Photo Credit: cybrain/Shutterstock
Use Oracle VirtualBox to test Windows 8 Enterprise edition

Publié: août 16, 2012, 5:31pm CEST par Mike Williams

Windows 8 is finally finished, and we now know it’ll be available from October 26. If you really need to see what it can do right now, though, Microsoft have just released an evaluation edition of Windows 8 Enterprise that can download and try for free.

And that means you’ll get access to several more corporate features which aren’t available in the regular or Professional Windows 8 editions. Like Windows To Go, for instance, which allows the operating system to boot and run from USB drives.

Beware, though -- this isn’t quite as generous as it sounds. The build will expire after 90 days, and you won’t be able to revert to a previous edition of Windows, or install a new copy over the top of the evaluation build. It’s really just for testing, not long-term use, so once the 90 days are up you’ll probably want to reformat and start again.

Still, if you only want a quick look at “what’s new” then the Enterprise edition is a simple way to do it. Especially if you run it from Oracle VirtualBox, say, which will allow you to run Windows 8 in a window on your Windows 7 desktop.

And this is very easy to set up. Install VirtualBox, click New, give your VM a sensible name and choose Windows/ Windows 8 as the operating system and version, give the VM as much RAM as you can spare, but otherwise accept the wizard’s default settings.

Then launch the VM, point it at your downloaded Enterprise edition ISO file, and within a moment or two the Setup program will launch. Follow this as usual and you’ll be viewing the Windows 8 desktop surprisingly quickly (the entire process took under 10 minutes on our trial PC).

Just keep in mind that Windows 8 introduces some new issues with screen resolution. In particular, you’ll need at least 1024×768 to access the Windows Store and run apps, and to snap apps – run two side-by-side – requires a resolution of at least 1366×768. If this is a problem then launch the Desktop app, right-click an empty part of the desktop, click Screen Resolution and choose whatever you need.
Android Modding: Unlocked Bootloader + GSM support for Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III

Publié: août 16, 2012, 5:09pm CEST par Mihaita Bamburic

For Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III users feeling locked in, there's freedom ahead. Thanks to the effort of an "African-Canadian Sock Monkey" bootloader, the S3 can now be unlocked. Modding fans get a green light to… mod.

Stock ROMs can be replaced with modded Android versions, making custom Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean ROMs a possibility on the Galaxy S III. Samsung has yet to release an upgrade to Jelly Bean from the stock version installed, Android 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, but it's likely that the upgrade is in the pipeline by now. If you're not a big fan of waiting for official upgrades, the modding community already has a solution for the International Samsung Galaxy S III, through a CyanogenMod 10 custom ROM.

It should be mentioned that unlocking the bootloader is no easy-peasy and it involves a certain degree of risk, among which is the possibility of having the warranty voided. That hasn't stopped modders before and it certainly will not stop them from now on, but don't say you haven't been warned.

The unlocking solution has been tested on a Sprint kernel; the Sprint version already benefits from CyanogenMod 10 official support, as well as having an AOKP custom ROM available for it. Now that the Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III has an unlocked bootloader it's only fair to assume that the Verizon model will get its fair share of support from Android developers, which already started with the unofficial CyanogenMod 10 build.

The modding community has also given the Verizon version another "trick" to boast with: it can now work as a GSM phone. It takes a bit of effort to get it working, but it can be set up if you're interested in taking your US device outside of the United States, without leaving it at home and getting another phone abroad.

The Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III is similar to other US-variants of the smartphone, with a 4.8-inch SAMOLED 1280 x 720, 720p display, packing a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU, Adreno 225 GPU, 16 or 32GB of storage, an 8MP back facing camera with 1080p video recording and LTE support among the most noteworthy features. The unlocked bootloader and GSM support adds flexibility to an already great smartphone that benefits from 4G LTE speeds.
Photobucket gets major redesign in new beta, apes Facebook with 'Stories'

Publié: août 16, 2012, 2:00pm CEST par Tim Conneally

Long-running photography management site Photobucket on Thursday unveiled the beta version of its redesigned user experience, which gives the service more competitive footing against the Web's dominant --some would even say default-- photo-sharing site, Facebook.

How could it possibly compete with Facebook? Well, that's the thing. Photobucket obviously understands that it would be silly to even try to compete. So if you can't compete with Facebook, you hook your service into Facebook and add bonus features.

That's one of the main features of the new Photobucket, it hooks into your main content streams seamlessly. The new desktop photo uploader, paired with the site's social importer and mobile apps, pull photographs and video from wherever they're captured or uploaded, and consolidates them under the single Photobucket account without much effort.

And In the event that you decide to abandon Facebook and shut down your profile there, you can transfer every photo to your Photobucket account in about three clicks. That is also pretty effortless.

One area where Photobucket clearly outshines Facebook is in content privacy. On Facebook, photos generally have four settings (Visible to the public, to friends, to the user only, and to a custom list.) Photobucket has settings to keep people from copying your content, settings to permanently remove location information from photos automatically, and settings to scramble filenames so photo links cannot be guessed and navigated to despite being unlisted. Albums can also be password protected to provide an additional layer that keeps unwanted traffic out.

Then there's the newest feature, which doesn't roll out with this beta, but is instead available as a sneak peek, with launch expected in the fall. Photobucket calls it "Stories," but it is clearly influenced by Facebook's Timeline feature. It lets users to create, collaborate upon, and share visual narratives based upon photos, videos, and other content.

However, rather than being a single, overarching timeline of all content uploaded to the site, Photobucket Stories can be used to create small, enclosed vignettes that can be shared and, you guessed it, embedded on Facebook, or Twitter, or Pinterest, or whatever social network.

Since Photobucket already includes editing and filters in its web interface (something that Facebook only has within Instagram and not Facebook proper,) the addition of Stories will give Photobucket a complete package that Facebook does not yet have, one that lets users take photos, edit and filter them, and arrange them into narratives that can be seamlessly shared elsewhere. It's a strong position for the site to take.

The first 50 people to click through here can test the new Photobucket beta. If you can't get in, let us know, and we'll work it out for you.
Sky+ 4 turns your iPad into a TV remote

Publié: août 16, 2012, 9:53am CEST par Mark Wilson

When you’re watching TV the remote control seems to have a life of its own, often resulting in it disappearing when you decide you want to switch channels. Being somewhat larger than a standard Sky remote, your iPad is far less likely to go missing, so wouldn’t it be great if you could use the tablet you’re using to check emails while you watch TV to control your Sky+HD box? The release of Sky+ 4.0 means that this is exactly what you can now do.

Getting up and running is very simple -- just make sure that your Sky+HYD box and your iPad ate connected to the same network and you’re ready to go. While the app itself is not new, many of its existing features have been updated and there are plenty of new options that have been added as well. The big new feature is remote control. Using gestures you can control the playback of whatever you’re watching, tapping to play and pause, and swiping to skip back and forth.

This is by far the biggest new feature of the app, but there’s more too. You can also connect to your Planer and schedule programmes to record, check what you have lined up for recording and add reminders. The TV guide has been improved so that navigation is easier than ever and you can tab on the icon for a channel to switch your TV to that station. It would have been good to see more of these feature implemented in the iPhone version of the app, but the extra screen space of a tablet makes all the difference.

In addition to this, there is also an improved search tool that can be used to search for programmes from within the planner as well as when looking at TV listings. There have been general improvements to the look, layout and navigation side of things; whether you are an existing user of the app, or you’re yet to try it out, this is a great tool to supplement your TV viewing.

Note -- this app is only available in the UK.

You can find out more and download a free copy of the app by paying a visit to the Sky+ 4.0 review page.
Photivo gives more power and control over your images

Publié: août 16, 2012, 7:30am CEST par Mike Williams

Some photo correction programs are optimized for simplicity. If you want to sharpen an image in Paint.NET, say, you’ll select Sharpen from the menu, and drag a slider to represent the amount of sharpening you need: easy.

Photivo is more about giving you power and control. Instead of just a single sharpen algorithm, for instance, it supports Gradient sharpening, Wiener, Inverse Diffusion, Unsharp Mask, Highpass and more, and each of these in turn has multiple settings you can tweak.

It’s much the same story with other photo processing tools. Go looking for a denoising option, perhaps, and you’ll be spoiled for choice, with tools for impulse noise reduction, wavelet denoising, luminance denoising, pyramid denoising and more.

There’s an extensive list of other options, covering geometry correction, demosaicing, vignetting, texture overlays, and the list goes on.

And just about everything here offers a considerable degree of fine control. Wavelet denoising, for instance, provides ten associated values for you to configure and adjust. And even apparently simple tasks, such as converting an image to greyscale, gain a host of useful tweaks to help you deliver precisely the results you need.

Of course all this power does greatly increase complexity. The program definitely isn’t for photo processing novices, and even experts may occasionally wonder exactly what they should be doing next.

You don’t have to understand every single detail to get something from the program, though. And Photivo’s lengthy feature list – which includes RAW file import, batch processing, Gimp workflow integration and more -- mean it may be worth keeping a copy around, if only for those times when your regular photo editor just isn’t enough.