Software News

With the launch of Mists of Pandaria Blizzard is aiming to give World of Warcraft a shot in the arm, and one of the main ways of doing it is by adding more gameplay features for veteran players while also trying to attract new players.

One of the more controversial new ideas is the pet battle system, which is clearly inspired by Pokemon and seems to go against the structure of the game world.

Scott Mercer, who is a senior software engineer at Blizzard, told VG247 that, “we’re planning new content for it. We have trainers in the world, like master pet trainers that you can take your team to battle them or get quests from them, and we’re looking to expand that too. At the moment there are so many pets you can collect in the world, and that really is now such a big part of the game, and there’s still a lot of room for expansion there.”

He also detailed the appeal to newcomers, saying, “It’s so much more about experiencing much of the game, and it helps that the starting area on the Wandering Isle is much more friendly for players. The guys have done a wonderful job in giving players a lot of stuff that helps them understand the game’s core concepts.”

Both old and new players will also have more options when it comes to customizing their character, including purely cosmetic abilities that will differentiate them in the game world.

Mists of Pandaria is now out and players can get it both as a retail package and as a digital download from Battle.net.

Gamers who get it will be able to play as the new Pandaren race and as the new monk class, and there’s a whole new continent filled with raids and dungeons to explore.

Via: Blizzard Developer Reveals Newcomer Appeal for Mists of Pandaria

Wireless services provider T-Mobile has officially confirmed the upcoming release of HTC’s Windows Phone 8X smartphone on its network.

The company hasn’t provided a specific release date for the new mobile phone, but chances are that it will add it to its offering as soon as November, when the handset reaches other carriers as well.

“The Windows Phone 8X by HTC is coming to T-Mobile! The 8X by HTC features a beautiful 4.3” Super LCD HD screen, a dual-core processor and will run on T-Mobile’s fast HSPA+42 network,” the wireless carrier announced in a post on Google+.

“Customers will enjoy access to the Windows Phone’s Live Tiles, an iconic design, immersive studio-quality sound with Beats Audio and incredible camera capabilities.”

The smartphone has already been listed on the company’s website with a "coming soon" tag attached to it, and those who would like to learn more on when it will be launched should head over there and sign up for updates on the matter.

HTC has unveiled the Windows Phone 8X smartphone last week with a 720 x 1280-pixel touchscreen display, as well as with a dual-core Snapdragon S4 application processor packed inside.

Moreover, the new mobile phone comes to the market with 1GB of RAM, as well as with 16GB of internal memory.

There is also an 8-megapixel photo snapper located on the back of this smartphone, capable of recording videos in full HD resolution, complemented by a front camera for making video calls.

Windows Phone 8X by HTC also features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity capabilities, along with the full range of sensors, and built-in GPS receiver to enable navigation features.

No specific price tag for the smartphone has been provided as of yet but, based on the info that emerged not too long ago in Europe on the matter, we should expect it to be a rather affordable device.

Via: Windows Phone 8X by HTC Confirmed for T-Mobile

Since South Korea is Samsung's home market, the company often begins shipping its products there, before finally extending availability to the rest of the world. The EX2F camera was no different in this regard.

Fortunately, it didn't take too much more than a month for the corporation to send the EX2F to the United States of America (shipments in South Korea began in August).

Though the 3-inch AMOLED screen is a nice touch, EX2F does not look all that unique on the surface, but that isn't surprising, since it is the insides that matter here.

While a 12.4-megapixel CMOS sensor takes pictures or shoots video (1080p Full HD Movie Recording at 30 frames per second), a Wi-Fi chip allows owners to transmit the files to PCs or post them straight to social networking sites.

On that note, the ISO sensitivity is of up to 12,800, while the zoom ratio is of 3.3x.

"Samsung continues to blaze the trail in the SMART Camera space and the addition of Wi-Fi to the EX2F, coupled with the brightest lens, give this camera a pedigree far above others in its class" said Reid Sullivan, senior vice president of mobile entertainment, Samsung Electronics America.

"As consumers start to compile gift lists for the 2012 holiday season, the EX2F has the prowess and flexibility to be at the top of the lists for even the most tech-savvy."

When considering the f/1.4-2.7 (24-79mm) lens and everything else so far, Samsung has everything it needs to argue in favor of the $550 price tag (426-550 Euro).

Thus, it comes as a nice surprise that the IT player has reduced the required sum, from $550 to $500, or 387-500 Euro.

Go here to see what other cameras may spark interest, and to compare their prices (some truly immense) to those of the Samsung EX2F.

Via: Samsung Finally Ships EX2F Point-and-Shoot WiFi Camera, Lowers Price

Japanese watch maker Casio has just launched a new compact mega-zoom digital photo camera that comes with various useful features to make a tourist’s life easier. The new model can also film HD movies in 720p mode and sports sensor-shift image stabilizationn.

The official denomination of the new model is Casio Elixim EX-H50 and it features a 1/2.3” CCD sensor.

We’d really like all compact cameras to move away from 1 / 2.x” type of sensors and to stick to 1 / 1.1x sensors, but it seems that pennies matter much more than quality or user satisfaction these days.

The new camera can’t film in FullHD, but it features an impressive 24x optical zoom and this is quite an achievement in such a small body and brings some competition to Panasonic’s famous TZ line.

Via: Casio Launches EX-H50 Compact 16.1MP Photo Camera with 24x Optical Zoom

Google has been long rumored to plan the release of new Nexus smartphones this year to celebrate the launch of Android 5.0, and some more info on the matter has allegedly emerged.

Photos taken with what is said to be the next-generation Google phone are now available online, showing a GT-I9260 model number and an 8-megapixel camera attached to it.

This is the same model number that has been spotted recently in a User Agent Profile, and which was said to be designating Samsung’s next Nexus smartphone.

A series of details on the handset have been spotted before, confirming the 8MP photo snapper on the back, as well as a 4.65-inch HD display on the front.

The aforementioned images that have been reportedly taken with the handset also show that its camera will sport F/2.65 aperture and a 4mm focal length, which could point at the same sensor as the one present in Galaxy S II, GSMArena notes.

Two firmware flavors are listed in the EXIF data attached to the leaked images, namely I9260XXALI5 and I9260XXALI6.

Packing 8GB/16GB of internal memory, the handset is also said to be powered by a 1.5GHz application processor and to sport a 2MP camera on the front, along with a microSD memory card slot to allow for storage expansion.

Some of the previous rumors on this device suggested that Samsung might be set to release it as Galaxy Premier, yet nothing has been confirmed on the matter for the time being.

The smartphone is powered by Android 4.1 Jelly Bean at the moment, it seems, but it could be launched with a new flavor of Android, provided that Google is indeed getting ready to make the new OS release available before year’s end.

For the time being, we’ll take all the info on this smartphone with a grain of salt, but we’ll keep an eye out for more details on it, so stay tuned.

Via: Camera Samples from Alleged Future Google Nexus Emerge

Apple has updated a flurry of in-house developed applications recently, including Cards and Podcasts, to take advantage of the advancements in iOS 6, as well as to include additional features and enhancements.

Cards is now a universal app with native support for iPad featuring six new letterpress holiday card designs, new layouts that support up to 3 photos on a single card, and customized cards to send to up to 12 recipients in the same order via Mail.app.

Images in iPhoto can now be shared directly to Cards and there’s an automatic image sharpening feature that improves print quality, Apple says. Furthermore, the Card History view on iPad has been enhanced a bit.

Some improvements have been made to the address verification and the checkout process as well.

Cards 2.0 is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad and now requires iOS 6.0 or later.

Download Cards iOS (Free)

Podcasts 1.1.1 adds support for iOS 6 and now uses iCloud to automatically keep your podcast subscriptions up-to-date between devices.

There’s a bunch of new settings to choose to automatically download new episodes only when on Wi-Fi, as well as to choose whether to play episodes by oldest to newest or newest to oldest.

You can now pull-to-refresh a subscription to check for new episodes, just like in Mail (on iOS 6 only).

The usual performance and stability improvements have been made, including a fix for issue with playback stopping when leaving the app.

Podcasts is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPod touch (3rd-generation), iPod touch (4th-generation), iPod touch (5th-generation) and iPad and only requires iOS 5.1 or later for its original functionality.

Download Podcasts iOS (Free)

Via: Download Apples Cards 2.0 and Podcasts 1.1.1 iOS Apps

One of the leading executives of developer Zynga has labeled the new website that the company is promoting as the Steam of social games, a platform which allows gamers to play their favorite titles while also discovering friends and engaging with them.

Rob Dyer, who is a vice president at Zynga, told GamesIndustry International that, “Zynga.com brings people a new way to connect with friends and meet new people who love to play, and it gives our players an easy way to discover new games they might enjoy.”

He added, “We’re thrilled to be working with our partners to bring the first set of third-party games to our network of players on Zynga.com and Facebook, and are excited to help our players discover new games by shining a light on some of the most talented game developers in the industry.”

Dyer acknowledges that, at the moment, Zynga.com has some problems and that players can at times experience glitches, but he also says that the company will continue to improve the infrastructure while also making sure that gamers have more occasions to discover new experiences.

Of course Steam, the digital distribution service from Valve, is so successful on the PC because it also carries third-party titles, something that Zynga is unlikely to do.

Zynga has made a strategic decision earlier during 2012 to start and separate its efforts from the Facebook social platform, inviting players to sign up and play on the new Zynga.com website.

It’s not clear how successful Zynga-made social titles can be if they no longer benefit from the Facebook infrastructure.

The company has also been accused of copyright infringement by publisher Electronic Arts over similarities between The Sims Social and The Ville.

Zynga has also been affected by an exodus of high profile game developers and executives, which has prompted a decline in its share price.

Via: Zynga Says New Website Is Like Steam for Social Games