Plenty of new features for the latest version of Google's mobile OS

Google

Google has announced that its new version of the Android operating system will be called Jelly Bean. Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S, and Motorola Xoom will receive Android 4.1 Jelly Bean sometime in July.
Android hardware developers will also be getting a platform development kit (PDK), designed to port Android to their gadgets. It will be available to Android device partners two to three months before the planned release of a new Android platform going forward.
"We want things to be simple, beautiful, and really smart," said Android product management Hugo Barra at the Google I/O developer conference.
With Jelly Bean, users will be able to arrange icons in a way similar to Apple's iOS. Users can move apps around the screen or delete them completely, with similar additions made to the Camera app.
There will also be voice typing, with automatic interpretation of English (other languages following) into text even while offline. There are also ways to pair and connect a phone with an NFC-enabled Bluetooth device, such as a speaker, by tapping phones. "It takes one second," Barra said.
Jelly Bean will also integrate "Knowledge Graph" to give better search results. There will also be a new service called Google Now, designed to use search history, location history, and your calendar to ascertain what information you need and when.
The latest release of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich, was running on 7.1 percent of Android devices as of June 1, according to the Android developer website. Still, Gingerbread is the most popular version of the mobile OS, with 65 percent of devices running Android 2.3.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...an-due-in-july

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Digital Foundry takes a look at SmartGlass, the Wii U GamePad and the PS3/Vita connection.
Eight years after the release of the Nintendo DS, it seems that all three major platform holders now believe that dual-screen gaming is an integral part of the future of console gaming. At E3 this year, we saw the launch line-up for the new twin-screen Wii U, an announcement for smartphone/tablet support from Microsoft in the form of the SmartGlass initiative, while Sony offered up some interesting new integration ideas for PlayStation 3 and the PS Vita handheld.
The move towards dual-screen functionality is most likely prompted by a number of factors. Firstly there's a growing belief that gaming is moving away from the living room TV and towards discrete screens per player. It's an idea fuelled by the amount of time that people are spending using their mobile devices in the home, not just outside of it. Secondly, with the heavily rumoured Apple TV display just around the corner, we can almost certainly expect to see a greater level of convergence between the Cupertino giant's devices and there's a definite sense that the established forces in the games industry don't want to be caught off-guard in embracing the ideas this represents. Finally, for Sony at least, it represents a big opportunity to sell Vita to its mammoth PS3 installed base.
"The Wii U GamePad is the star of the second screen movement, but Microsoft SmartGlass and the PS3/Vita hook-up each have their own specific charms. It's all a question of take-up."

The very different approaches we see from Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are intriguing. Each implementation appears to have its own relative strengths and weaknesses, but it's clear that in Wii U, Nintendo is very much in the driving seat. The advantages of its tech are numerous - the most strikingly obvious being that every single Wii U owner will possess the requisite technology out of the box, meaning that developers can concentrate their efforts on supporting the tablet knowing that it will reach every owner of the console.
There are also the fundamental strengths of the technology itself. There's a latency free connection between the tablet controller and the console, so game control is as fast and fluid as a conventional joypad (something you can't say for Apple's AirPlay) and the ability to mirror HDTV gameplay onto the tablet screen is an excellent ace-in-the-hole. For the first time, console gaming needn't encroach on regular TV viewing - the action can be switched between the main screen and the tablet simply and quickly.
Nintendo describe the tablet video feed as being latency free - something we were dying to try out. At a recent press event in London, we had the ability to film both tablet and screen simultaneously, and found that with mirrored content, the tablet actually received a fresh image up to seven frames - or 116ms - earlier than the LG HDTVs to which the Wii U was connected. This may suggest that the main displays were hopelessly laggy of course, and we need to factor in that the dev Wii U hardware was tethered to the unit (the suggestion being that AV data may have been beamed across from it) but even in a simple wired HDMI vs. tether contest, the results are still highly revealing about how seriously Nintendo is taking latency. WHDI technology operates with 1ms lag, and if Nintendo has opted for this solution, there should be no problem at all in this regard.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-screen-gaming

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One of the key figures in the recent history of PlayStation has distanced himself from the business.
Kaz Hirai has resigned his position of chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment. His role as Sony Corporation president remains unaffected.
He will retain the role of part-time board member of SCE, meaning that a small link remains between the pair.
Hirai played a key role in stabilising Sony’s games business after the departure of “the father of PlayStation” Ken Kuturagi in April 2007.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kaz-h...hairman/098590
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Kinect title Haunt is currently being offered for free to US Xbox 360 owners.
It’s part of a new dashboard feature called ‘Kinect Central’ which looks to promote the motion-sensing camera to owners of the console.
The promotion is for a limited time and will expire on Monday July 2^nd.
There’s no indication as of yet that the offer will be replicated in other territories.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/micro...ct-game/098598
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BAFTA has appealed for nominations for the Video Game category in this year’s 2012 British Academy Children’s Awards.
Former winners in the category include LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (2011), Rabbids Go Home (2010) and LittleBigPlanet (2009).
Other categories include Animation, Channel of the Year, Feature Film, Independent Production Company of the Year, Pre-School Live Action, Presenter, Short Film and Writer.
The deadline for nominations is Monday July 9^th. Entrants can be submitted on the official site.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kid-s...nations/098602 ...

[Michael Dornisch] was surprised to find that the main processor of the Raspberry Pi reaches about 56 degrees Celsius (about 133 degrees F) while streaming video over the network. He thought it might help the longevity of the device if he was able to cool things off a bit. But why stop with just the processor? He added heat sinks to the SoC, Ethernet/USB chip, and voltage regulator.
From his parts bin he grabbed a small heat sink that was probably used on a graphics card. After measuring the three chips with his digital calipers he cut out the footprint he needed, resulting in three smaller heat sinks. We didn’t realize that thermal compound has enough gripping power to hold the sinks in place without any mechanical fastener, but apparently it does. [Michael] mentions that it’s possible to use other adhesives, like JB Weld. What’s important is that you use something (ie: thermal compound or a liquid adhesive) to prevent any air gap from coming between the chip surface and the aluminum.
He measured the result as a 17.3 degree C (31 degree F) drop in temperature. We looked around and it seems there’s no internal temperature sensor on the Broadcom chip so these surface readings will have to suffice. Do you think this will prolong the life of the board if it is used regularly to play back high quality video? We already know that these temperatures are within the specifications for the hardware.

http://hackaday.com/2012/06/26/addin...-raspberry-pi/ ...

[Thice] discovered a vulnerability in encrypted portable storage a few years ago. He’s just pointing about the exploit now. He mentions that he notified manufacturers long ago and we’d guess the wait to publish is to give them a chance to patch the exploit.
He calls it the Plug-Over Attack and for those who were involved with original Xbox hacking, this technique will sound very familiar. The Xbox used hard drive keys to lock the device when not in use. When you booted up the console it checked the hardware signature to make sure it was talking to the right motherboard. But if you booted up the device, then swapped the IDE cable over to a computer without cutting the power you could access the drive without having the password.
This attack is pretty much the same thing. Plug in a drive, unlock it on the victim system the normal way, then replug into the attacking system. In the image above you can see that a USB hub will work for this, but you can also use a hacked USB cable that patches a second jack into the power rail. For some reason the encryption system isn’t able to lock itself when the USB enumerates on the new system, only when power is cycled. Some of them have a timer which watches for drive idle but that still doesn’t protect from this exploit.

http://hackaday.com/2012/06/27/encry...-xbox-hacking/ ...

DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson has hit back at industry "naysayers" proclaiming the death of console gaming in the face of a growing mobile market.
"People are generally correct that things are changing, and a lot of people in this industry are acknowledging that - some people don't want to see it, though," Troedsson, whose studio produces theBattlefield series, told us. "But I would also say the people who are painting such a grim picture of where we're going are wrong."
In fact, far from damaging it, Troedsson believes wholeheartedly that the broadening of available platforms will benefit the traditional game industry.
"Yes, people are playing more on their mobile devices, but I don't see people playing on other SKUs as a problem for triple-A developers, it's actually the contrary," he said. "I think people engaging in any kind of gaming is good for all games, because it means that people will play more.
"I consider myself to be a hardcore, triple-A kind of player, and I definitely play more on my mobile devices now, but I don't play less on my other devices as a result. When I'm home, I want to play games with the absolute most hi-def, best audio, best visuals that I can get out of a gaming session. And that will come from dedicated hardware or a very high-end PC."
While Troedsson wouldn't be drawn on predicting whether or not the next round of hardware will represent the final home console generation, he believes that powerful hardware accessible in the home will remain a permanent aspect of gaming.
"There will always be a demand for games that require a lot of hardware to deliver a really hi-def experience," he explained. "Whether that will be delivered by CPUs and memory sitting in your room, or somewhere else, I don't know. Probably both. But one thing is for sure, people will continue to want to play the best-looking games out there."
Of course, as the head of a company making big-budget home console games, Troedsson position is unsurprising. His sentiments echo those of Xbox co-creator Seamus Blackley, who made similar assertions last year.
And if genuine, the recently leaked next-gen Xbox roadmap - which lays out a ten year plan for Microsoft's next assault on the living room - adds additional weight to the continued rude health of console gaming. Even so, it remains a refreshing point of view given the industry-wide gold rush towards the bright, if not so new, frontiers of mobile and free-to-play - areas DICE is itself already experimenting in.
Speaking at GDC Taipei, which took place over the past two days, Ngmoco boss Ben Cousins became the latest industry veteran to predict the death of consoles in the face of mobile.
"There's a potential for mobile gaming to kill console gaming," he said, according to Gamasutra. "I'm talking about a significant reduction of market share with no chance of return."
"I believe Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo won't produce dedicated hardware past the next generation. Further, I believe traditional game companies like EA will be purchased by existing digital companies, or close entirely."
Cousins' was careful to broaden his definition of mobile, however: "When I'm talking about mobile, I'm talking about the operating system, not the device.
"I believe these operating systems will start to appear in other classes of devices, other than just mobile phones and tablets. In the future I think mobile gaming maybe won't be so mobile, and we may need a new definition for them."

http://www.edge-online.com/news/dice...hreat-consoles ...

Eidos life president Ian Livingstone says the upcoming reboot ofTomb Raider still features a strong, capable heroine and believes reaction to the game's controversial trailer have been blown out of proportion.
Livingstone describes an E3 PR disaster, when executive producer Ron Rosenberg said players would want to “protect Lara”, as a “live interview that went slightly wrong. Quotes were misinterpreted and blown out of proportion,” Livingstone adds.
“There was a momentary threat to Lara which she overcame in two seconds. The reaction has been quite extreme.”
It was never the intention to imply sexual threat to Lara, Livingstone said - and he doesn't see much place for such themes in games in general.
“I think about my responsibility as a developer – films can deal with these themes, but it’s different in games when the user controls the action," he said. “We should be celebrating what’s great about the game.”Livingstone, a keynote speaker at the GameHorizonconference in Newcastle, was keen to celebrate the storied heritage of the Tomb Raider series as he addressed delegates.
He highlighted Lara’s late '90s domination of pop culture through myriad past and present tie-ins, including Larazade – a limited edition Lucozade drink – and some obscure French adverts made to promote SEAT cars.
Overall, this type of brand exposure helped make a total of $1.5bn - not a bad return from a series whose heroine was first perceived as a male Indiana Jones clone.
Establishing IP, Livingstone said, has many uses: by linking Lara with Pepsi, the game’s publisher can bring in more revenue. “Owning a licence is like leasing a gold mine," he said. "Own the gold mine and you can profit from it forever.” He urged developers to create their own IP whenever they have the opportunity.
Despite his love of new IP, Livingstone argues that Lara is ripe for a return 16 years after her debut. “There should always be new icons,” he said. “No-one would advocate binning Lara Croft, just as they wouldn’t want to bin James Bond. She has a huge fan following.
“She has had her ups and downs – The Angel of Darkness was not a great game, though it was aptly named. The fanbase will forgive you if they still love the character.”
For Livingstone, the key to a series’ longevity is to ensure successive iterations always go one better than the ones that came before. And he’s confident that, when Lara's next outing is released next February, the fuss over Rosenberg's interview comments will be swiftly forgotten: “I guarantee fans will be delighted with the newTomb Raider.”

http://www.edge-online.com/news/livi...out-proportion ...