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Games

Submission + - First part of Black Mesa released (blackmesasource.com)

ProbablyJoe writes: The long awaited Source engine remake of the Valve's original Half Life has finally been released. The initial release only includes the story up until Xen, but the developers say they'll be adding the rest of the story, along with an online multiplayer Deathmatch mode, soon. The game is available to download for free, and only requires players to install the Source SDK (included with all Source games, or a free download.

The highly anticipated release has also caused a huge amount of traffic for any servers hosting the files, with GameFront, GameUpdates, and Black Mesa's own CDN brought down within minutes of the release. The project has also been approved by Steam's Greenlight program, and will hopefully be available through Steam soon, though no timeframe has been given.

Software

Submission + - Microsoft discontinues use of Metro name (geek.com) 1

An anonymous reader writes: If you’ve read any news coming out of Microsoft over the past year relating to Windows 8 or Windows Phone, you’ve heard the name “Metro” used quite heavily. Metro refers to the design language and overall style of the interface Microsoft is using for both its desktop/tablet and mobile operating systems.

As of today, Metro is no longer a word Microsoft will be using to describe anything to do with their product line-up. It has officially been killed off as a term Microsoft’s staff and marketing is allowed to use.

The specific reason for this sudden change remains unclear. It was first thought to be due to a trademark infringement Microsoft couldn’t settle with German company Metro AG. Microsoft has since sent around an internal memo stating Metro will no longer be used following “discussions with an important European partner.”

Comment Re:No Flash...No Point (Score 1) 58

It's not available on the Play store in JB, or installed by default, but you can still install the APK manually, and it still works in browsers that support it. (Firefox, Opera, Dolphin. Not sure if the stock browser still does on JB)

Besides, if people cared about Flash that much then the iPhone/iPad wouln't be so popular. It's nice having the option of Flash on my phone, but I didn't even realise until last week that I didn't have it installed, after having my current phone for 3 months. It's rare that I have a need for it on my phone.

Comment Re:Old Horses and New Carts (Score 1) 58

Well, yes and no. You can't just take the code they've released and put it on your phone, since that lacks a lot of the hardware drivers and such that are needed to make it compatible with each phone. It's possible for developers to get it to work on most phones, but it takes some time. At the moment, pretty much the only phones which you can put a fully functioning Jelly Bean ROM are the Nexus phones. A lot other recent phones have already got people working on JB ROMs, and many of them have beta versions already, but most of them have problems with various things (eg camera, wifi, audio not working). Chances are they'll get it working before the manufacturers actually release updates.

Once there is a ROM available though, the process of installing it is pretty simple for most devices. Anything that could run ICS should be able to run JB, assuming people are able to port it.

Science

Submission + - Scientists store information in quantum bits for nearly two seconds. (thebunsenburner.com)

FBeans writes: "Using a pair of impurities in ultra-pure, laboratory-grown diamonds, the researchers announced earlier this week that preliminary results show the ability to create quantum bits and store information in them for nearly two seconds — an increase of nearly six magnitudes, say the scientists. The work, described in the June 8 issue of Science, is a critical first step in the eventual construction of a functional quantum computer that could one day allow for advanced computations."

"One challenge facing quantum computing is creating computers that can remain in a solid-state at room temperature. Most systems rely on complex and expensive equipment designed to trap an atom or electron in a vacuum, and then cool the entire system to nearly absolute zero, or 459.67 Fahrenheit. Researchers say the experiment is an essential finding for the evolution of the quantum computer, saying it will likely serve as cornerstone in the coming years."

"The practical purposes of a quantum computer are nearly endless, say scientists. Quantum computers are expected to play an important role in future information processing since they can outperform classical computers at many tasks."

Comment Limbo Linux port (Score 4, Informative) 145

Unfortunately the Linux 'port' of Limbo is actually just a Wine wrapper. It doesn't even run for me, some say it works worse than running the Windows binary in Wine, or have reported various problems and bad performance.

Pretty lazy when every other game has managed to make a proper native Linux port.

Comment Re:I thought this was already refuted? (Score 1) 272

So are MS just complaining about a problem which was already fixed before Chrome topped IE in their rankings? That's how it sounds at least.

From StatCounter's FAQ, and also noted on all of their graphs for this time period:

"Further to a significant number of user requests, we are now adjusting our browser stats to remove the effect of prerendering in Google Chrome. From 1 May 2012, prerendered pages (which are not actually viewed) are not included in our stats."

http://gs.statcounter.com/faq#prerendering

Comment Re:On The Other Hand, Could It Be... (Score 1) 272

It's Webkit based, and that's about where the similarities end (so is Safari and a lot of minor browsers). You could say the same about Chrome for Android too really, there's nothing particularly "Chrome" about it besides the branding. Not sure what sync feature you're referring to, but I think it's probably more of a Google account thing rather than a Chrome browser thing, there were definitely things like that before Chrome was released for Android.

The User Agent doesn't specify it as Chrome anyway, and I believe that they count mobile browsers seperately. Even if it is included, Android browsing only accounts for about 2% of the total (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#StatCounter_.28July_2008_to_present.29), so it's not really significant enough to sway things.

Facebook

Submission + - Facebook's Revenue Forcasts cut in the middle of IPO Roadsow (yahoo.com)

FBeans writes: "Reuters' Alistair Barr is reporting that Facebook's lead underwriters, Morgan Stanley (MS), JP Morgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS) all cut their earnings forecasts for the company in the middle of the IPO roadshow."

"If there was any communication at all between Facebook and its underwriters regarding the analysts' estimates, Facebook will likely be on the hook for this, too."

United Kingdom

Submission + - Everything Everywhere begin campaign to speed up the UK 4G roll-out (bbc.co.uk)

FBeans writes: "The firm is urging business leaders and consumer champions to join 4GBritain — a campaign calling on the government "to do whatever is necessary to move forward" with the roll-out."

Olaf Swantee, chief executive of EE since September, told the BBC that he was surprised how far behind the UK was.

"The UK had struck me as a place where mobile technology is deployed first and yet the infrastructure is behind Germany, Scandinavia and the US. I want to do something about this issue," he told the BBC.

Should the UK be keeping up with other countries around the world — probably. Unfortunately, with so many companies wanting to get in on the new tech first, and many lawyers being called into action for various reasons, it seems this campaign won't speed thing up too much...

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