Hasta La Gadget!

Game piracy isn’t just something that affects big studios, and it can have a huge impact on smaller teams; that’s why the coders behind Game Dev Tycoon decided to release their own cracked version, albeit with a moral lesson hardcoded for pirates. Fully expecting a cracked copy of the game to surface shortly after the $7.99 Game Dev Tycoon was released, Greenheart Games pipped the pirates to the post and added a torrent of their own. However, what downloaders didn’t realize was that the cracked version had a bug the authentic one didn’t: players would inevitably run into the effects of game theft.

After a period of play – particularly if the pirate gamer is doing well, their in-game studio creating highly-rated titles – a message from one of the virtual dev team pops up warning them that piracy has become a problem:

“Boss, it seems that while many players play our new game, they steal it by downloading a cracked version rather than buying it legally. If players don’t buy the games they like, we will sooner or later go bankrupt”

After that point, it’s pretty much game-over for the player’s studio, with their bank account shrinking and bankruptcy the only result. Unsurprisingly, the clueless pirates weren’t too keen on a game that seemingly had no outcome but failure, missing the irony of their own behaviors in the process.

“Why are there so many people that pirate? It ruins me! I had like 5m and then people suddenly started pirating everything I made, even if I got really good ratings (that I usually get). Not fair” Anonymous complaint

After a single day out in the wild, over 90-percent of those playing Game Dev Tycoon were using the cracked version, Greenheart Games discovered, thanks to some phone-home anonymous usage code built into both versions. Unfortunately, attempts to actually encourage those who might be tempted to pirate the game to instead pay for a legitimate copy have floundered, the developers say.

Whereas Greenheart Games says it will still continue with non-DRM on its titles, that isn’t the approach some teams have decided to take. Notably, Microsoft is believed to be adding a mandatory internet connection requirement to its next-gen “Xbox 720” which would require titles be installed to the console’s hard-drive, and then connect to a server to be validated before play can take place.

Greenheart’s site is currently up and down, probably due to interest in this little life-lesson, but you can find the Google cache here.

Game dev releases sabotaged torrent to teach pirates with irony is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Efforts to hack Google’s Glass have already seen unofficial Android apps running on the wearable, as Explorer Edition early-adopters get to work tweaking and modifying the headset. Google recently released the kernel source for Glass, but Mike DiGiovanni already has regular Android software up and running, as per this blurry screenshot through the compact lens block.

Google had always been clear that Glass was Android-based, but it was uncertain how much the OS had been modified in order to rework it for wearables duty. In fact, DiGiovanni discovered, “pretty much nothing has been stripped out” and the Glass functionality is simply slapped on top of the core platform.

That opens the door for modifications outside of what Google expects through its official Mirror API, the cloud-based system that funnels apps and services through to Glass as a display of sorts. Regular APKs can be loaded on the Android wearable itself, but if services want to take advantage of the inherent advantages of Glass that Google has on offer, they have to operate within the company’s relatively strict guidelines.

When a native Android app is side-loaded, meanwhile, the regular Android theme shows itself, complete with the usual drop-down notification bar. The touchpad on the side of the headset works for navigation, going left and right through the interface with side-swipes, and back with a downward swipe, just as per Glass’ own UI cards.

What remains to be seen is how the battery of the headset holds up when running native code. One of Google’s aims by treating Glass’ display as a window on the cloud is apparently to minimize just how much processing the device needs to do: that prolongs battery life. As we’ve already seen from other early reports, heavier use of the local hardware – such as when recording video clips – quickly takes its toll on runtime.

Still, the Explorer Edition is intended to be just that: an early iteration of the gadget for developers to pick apart, and Google undoubtedly expected just this sort of tinkering to take place. That should mean a far better product for the consumer market by the time the mainstream Glass edition arrives, tentatively predicted to drop in 2014.

Glass hack runs native Android code on wearable is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Etsy stickers adorning your MacBook’s lid, oft making a cute play on the presence of that glowing Apple? That’s so 2012. Uncover, a Dutch company showcasing its talents here at The Next Web Conference in Amsterdam this week, has crafted a new method of customizing one’s MacBook lid. And, perhaps most importantly, it involves the seamless removal of the Apple logo altogether. In essence, these guys use a specialized laser cutting process that can etch out anything your brain can muster — from band logos to company mantras. And, as you’ll see in the gallery below, the Apple logo doesn’t have to be a part of the equation.

The outfit will take in any aluminum-faced MacBook from around the world, and once it lands in Holland, you’ll typically see it headed back to your domicile within four to five days. If you’re selecting one of Uncover’s designs, you can have your machine tweaked for as little as €249 (around $325), while completely custom work starts at €599 ($780). (And yes, you can just buy a totally new Mac from Uncover as well.) We spoke to Jasper Middendorp, the company’s CEO, and he confessed that only MacBooks are being accepted due to Apple’s unique backlighting arrangement. They’re obviously keen to offer similar work for PCs, but to date, every one he has seen blocks or covers the backlight in some way. For those looking to get it on the fun, allow the source link below to be your guide.

Filed under: Laptops

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Source: Uncover

The iPad 4 sports a pretty impressive resolution at 2048×1536, a display which Apple refers to as Retina which is also higher than Full HD displays at 1920×1080, a display which some notebooks are still missing. Unfortunately monitors with higher than Full HD resolution aren’t exactly cheap, and if you could, wouldn’t you want to turn your iPad’s display into an external monitor? Granted you could probably do that with Air Display, it means you will need an iPad to begin with, but a Polish hacker by the name of Emeryth decided to save money but purchasing the display unit online, before hacking it to run as an external monitor at full resolution, a project which cost him about $70 in total ($55 for the display, and $14 for a DisplayPort connector). This is probably a project not for everyone since it does require a bit of technical skills, but if you’re interested and think you have the chops, or simply because you’re curious, Emeryth has detailed the process online at his website.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Apple’s WWDC Starts On June 10 With Focus On iOS 7, OS X, Refurbished iPad 2 And iPad 3 Prices Slashed By Apple,

A 3D touchscreen display prototype that can be pinched, pulled, and pushed around might represent the future of digital interaction, allowing immersive data to be physically manipulated. The concept, Obake, is named after Japanese shapeshifting folklore and the handiwork of an MIT Media Lab team led by Dhairya Dand, combining a flexible rubber surface, a Kinect sensor for motion tracking, and a projector for creating a dynamic image your fingers can dig into.

In a way, Obake is similar to a drum head, only one which is considerably more flexible than you’d find on the average snare. By pulling and pushing on the silicone surface, the user can navigate through the projected image, with Kinect sensors tracking where the layer is flexed to.

However, an array of linear actuators underneath the surface are also present, and used to maintain shapes even when the user stops pinching and twisting them. So, you could pull out a “mountain” peak and have it stay protruding, with the projected data – which could be mineral content, for instance, or geographical level lines – adjusting to suit the 3D worksurface.

The team behind the prototype has also had to come up with a new palette of touches and gestures
to suit the touchscreen’s new abilities. That includes “intrude” and “extrude”, where you can push through the screen or pull it up, and “S bend” which – though it sounds like a Samsung plumbing tool – involves pulling in one area and pushing in another simultaneously. “Stitch” is where two points are pulled out and stretched together, linking data, and there’s the ability to make more complex shapes by, for instance, “extruding” a mountain and then “prodding” an “intrude” indent into it. More moderate use of the actuators can introduce friction, too.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen touchscreen technology that tries to escape from two-dimensions, though it’s certainly the most complex. Nokia demonstrated its Kinetic concept smartphone back in 2011, for instance, which mounted a flexible display in a rubberized chassis that could be bent and twisted to navigate the interface, though no production version ever arrived.

Meanwhile, other companies are working on the sensation of touch, if not the physical movement. Senseg uses an electrical field to fool the user’s fingertips into feeling different textures on what is in fact a smooth glass screen, and at one point was rumored to be included in Apple’s iPad. Rather than deforming the display, Senseg’s “tixels” stimulate the nerves in the fingers which normally register vibration, giving the feeling of sandpaper, silk, or anything else the UI designer requires.

Obake is currently a working prototype, though there’s no telling when it might ever cross over into a commercial product.

[via Phys]

Obake stretchy touchscreen concept lets you pinch, prod and pummel data is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.