Hasta La Gadget!

Mac gamers are grateful for Blizzard, because it’s one of the few major companies that release Mac versions of their games alongside the more popular Windows version. ArenaNet says better late than never by announcing that they will be releasing a Mac version of their new MMORPG Guild Wars 2. You can even play the beta of said Mac version right now… as long as you buy or already bought the Windows version of the game. Weird, but it’s better than nothing.

So what do we Mac owners have to do to play the beta? Buy the PC version – the only version that’s out now. This will allow you to make a Guild Wars 2 account, which in turn will grant you the privilege of downloading the Mac beta client online. And don’t worry about having to pay twice. Similar to what Blizzard does with their games, your purchase of Guild Wars 2 nets you both the PC and Mac version when the latter finally comes out.

If you think of it as a pre-order that grants you beta access, then it’s not so bad. If you then think harder and wonder why ArenaNet didn’t just have an open or even closed beta for Mac users without requiring a purchase, then it becomes weird again. Head to the Guild Wars 2 website for more details on the announcement.

If you’ve got massive amounts of historical data to backup and have had trouble finding a low cost storage solution, then you should check out Amazon Glacier.

There are plenty of archiving services out there, but most of them will cost you a lot of money, compared to what Glacier is offering. Glacier’s data vault is a lot slower, but it will cost you just a penny per gig per month. This amounts to 10% of what Amazon charges for its S3 storage service. There are no setup fees, and Glacier can handle petabytes without any problems. However, the service is designed for data that is infrequently accessed and where retrieval times of several hours are acceptable. Accessing more than 5% of your data per month costs $0.05 per 1,000 requests. Requests take between three and five hours to process, and that’s before they’re ready to download.

It’s a safe way of backing up all your precious photos, music, and other stuff that’s vulnerable to a hack or data loss, which could be irreplaceable if not properly archived in redundant systems.

Just one year after its Zagat acquisition, Google has made a move on another trusted lifestyle brand. John Wiley & Sons Inc., the current owner of the Frommer’s network of travel sites and guide books, confirmed the Mountain View acquisition, with a closing expected shortly. According to The Wall Street Journal, Google hasn’t made a call concerning Frommer’s printed guidebooks, which don’t necessarily fall in line with the company’s otherwise online-only model. It’s also unclear whether or not the new content arm will fall under Zagat’s leadership, though a department executive did comment on the acquisition in an interview, saying that Google planned to keep Frommer’s on its current path for the time being. Neither company was able to confirm pricing for the buyout, which could help Google boost its reviews portfolio, backing user-submitted travel content with professional credibility. Full details are at the source link below.

Update: As it turns out, Google will reportedly be keeping the print staff on board, moving the team to its NYC offices. Online editors are less fortunate, however, with layoffs having already begun.

Filed under: Internet

WSJ: Google set to acquire Frommer’s from Wiley, add trusted travel reviews originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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European gamers are warned to get something else to do from Thursday afternoon. Sony’s PlayStation Network is set to go offline on that side of the Atlantic starting from 4PM GMT tomorrow, through to 8AM Friday. Maintenance work will pull the PlayStation Store, account management and registration offline for this time, although anyone looking to play online can still do so — as long as they’re signed in to PSN before network… work begins. Updates on Sony’s network tinkering will be posted on both on its own blog and twitter — linked below for your convenience.

Filed under: Gaming

PSA: PlayStation Network scheduled maintenance in Europe starts tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Jul 2012 06:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest fan-submitted timepiece from Tokyoflash bundles together 10 distinct lines to tell the time. The Kisai Online’s built-in accelerometer means as you rotate the watch to view, an otherwise cryptic mess of lines transforms into something (a little) more readable. Toting the watchmaker’s typical always-on display, the watch can be picked up in a choice of black and silver-finish stainless steel bodies, alongside three LCD colors; natural, blue and red. The limited edition design is available direct from the source link below — but be ready to part with $170 for the privilege.

Continue reading Tokyoflash Japan unveils the Kisai Online, tells the time in vertical lines

Filed under: Wearables

Tokyoflash Japan unveils the Kisai Online, tells the time in vertical lines originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 Jul 2012 07:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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