WIn5t0n - Slashdot User

Submission + - Sony Exercising Its Acquisition of GaiKai, Plans To Stream Games To PS4 (theverge.com)

Submitted by dmfinn on Friday February 15, 2013 @11:35PM

dmfinn writes: With less than 5 days until the reported PS4 launch event, new details are emerging regarding some of the console's next-gen capabilities. Since last june, Sony has been quietly sitting on its $380 million dollar acqusition of Gaikai, a cloud based gaming company. The Wall Street Journal, among other sources, is now reporting that the PS4 will have GaiKai's cloud-based gaming technology directly integrated, thought it is unclear exactly what types of games will be available for streaming. Back in June, a rumor circulated that Sony was planning to use the technology to support backwards compatibility with PS2 and PS1 games, though no further details have arisen regarding whether or not the new console will be able to play previous generation games. It appears that Sony will most likely be using the service to stream PS3 and indie games to the console, as the current technology only supports 720p, not high enough quality for blockbuster games.

Constantly streaming interactive graphics, even if only at 720p, will still require a fast internet connection. Services like OnLive have struggled in the past due to the large amount of bandwidth they require, and many consumers complained of laggy connections and horrendous graphics. There is no word yet regarding the features of the games being streamed, including whether or not they will support online or local multiplayer.

Submission + - President Obama Calls For New 'Space Race' Funding (theverge.com)

Submitted by dmfinn on Thursday February 14, 2013 @10:59PM

dmfinn writes: While his union address covered a wide range of topics, President Obama made sure not to skip over the U.S.'s space program. The talking point was nearly identical to the one he gave in 2009, in which he called for space R&D spending to be increased past the levels seen during the the original cold war space race. Now, 4 years after that speach, it appears things have gone the opposite way. Since 2009 NASA has seen some serious cuts. Not only has the space-shuttle program been deactivated, but the agency was forced to endure harsh funding cuts during the presidents latter term. Despite an ominous history, it now seems that Obama is back on the space objective, pushing congress to increase non-defensive R&D spending to 3% of the U.S. GDP. It's important to keep in mind that not all of this money goes directly to space related programs, though under the proposed budget the National Science Foundation, Department of Energy Office of Science, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Laboratories will have their budgets doubled.There will also be an increase in tax credits towards companies and organizations working on these R&D projects.

Should the U.S. go back to its 'Let's put a man on the moon" ideology, or is the federal government fighting an uphill battle against newly emerging private space expeditions? Either way, the question remains whether or not Obama will act on any of the propositions.

Comment Re:So (Score 1) 105

by WIn5t0n on Thursday September 06, 2012 @12:28PM (#41249481) Attached to: AT&T Promises To Expand LTE To More US Markets

Any chance they'll raise the data caps high enough to make LTE actually useful?

A water pipe that can fill a football stadium in 1 minute flat does no good if it will only dispense half a glass of water a month.

Currently AT&T has no plans to increase data caps for those using their 4G network. 3rd Gen iPad users have been running into this problem al lot.

Submission + - AT&T Promises To Expand LTE To More US Markets (theverge.com)

Submitted by WIn5t0n on Thursday September 06, 2012 @10:54AM

WIn5t0n writes: Even though AT&T has now promoted itself to the "Largest 4G Network" (HSPA+), it is still lagging far behind in advancing its LTE Coverage. AT&T's largest competitor, Verizon, has turned up the heat on the company now that it claims to cover 75 percent of US population with LTE, while AT&T's network only fully covers a few cities. However, AT&T has recognized consumer unrest and has planned to expand its 4G LTE coverage into "48 new markets" by the end of the year. With the iPhone 5 (rumored to have LTE capabilities) likely to be in consumers hands by the end of this month, AT&T is now feeling the pressure to make sure its customers can take full advantage of their new phones on a faster network. The company's full rollout of 4G LTE coverage is not scheduled to be complete until at least 2013.

Comment More Information Regarding new ID system (Score 2) 104

by WIn5t0n on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @08:04PM (#41241577) Attached to: Apple Denies FBI Had Access To UDIDs

Sorry guys, this should have been in the original post but somehow (whether by my revisions or another's) it was left out. First of all the Apple representative has been identified as Natalie Kerris. Kerris, while discussing Apple's removal of the UDID, says this, "Additionally, with iOS 6, we introduced a new set of A.P.I.’s meant to replace the use of the U.D.I.D. and will soon be banning the use of U.D.I.D.” . So currently all devices are still operating with UDID's, and will continue too do so until the entire program is removed once the GM of iOS 6 is approved and released, probably around early October

Submission + - Apple denies FBI had access to UDID's (cnn.com) 2

Submitted by WIn5t0n on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @03:46PM

WIn5t0n writes: Just a day after the alleged leak of 12million Apple UDID's, both Apple and FBI have denied the story that Anonymous, a global hacking community, gained access to the files by hacking into an FBI laptop through a Java vulnerability. Earlier this morning the FBI claimed that, even though the agent cited in Anonymous's story is an actual FBI operative, neither he nor anyone else in the agency has or has had access to Apple device information. This afternoon Apple followed up on the FBI's statement, with an unidentified Apple representative claiming that, " The FBI has not requested this information from Apple, nor have we provided it to the FBI or any organization. Those willing to check if their device has been compromised can visit this link. , and follow the instructions in the document. It should also be noted that while the hackers claim to have accessed 12 million UDID's, only 1 million were publicly released. The Apple representative who made the previous statements also said that, "Apple has replaced the types of identifiers the hackers appear to have gotten and will be discontinuing their use" (CNN). Even though neither Anonymous nor the FBI/APPLE will admit where the data actually came from, it does appear that at least some of the leaked UDID's are legit and can be tied back to current, privately owned devices. So far no information besides the devices UDID, DevToken ID, and device name has been released, however the original hackers claimed that some devices were tied to details as exact as phone numbers and billing addresses.

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