Evening Techniquenchers! I’m Rob, a new contributor to this blog bringing you some of the best indie games I come across from the World Wide Web.
Generally, the games I cover will be by small developers, students and institutions. Some new, some old, some bad, some good and best of all many will be free to play!
So without further ado… I present to you The Week #1 Roundup!
Today is the day of that mysterious Facebook event, but thanks to a bunch of leaked press images over the last couple of days we have a pretty good idea of what’s coming up for the rumoured Facebook phone around the corner.
I don’t think I speak for just myself when I say that the whole news world goes mad sometimes. Everyone has had that moment where they read something from their most beloved news source and say, ‘Wow, could that have been any less true?’. Unfortunately it happens to me on a daily basis and most of these come from the media’s obsession with one thing; Patents.
The Windows 8 hardware requirements from the start have been 1366×768. This means that any hardware builders who want to create a device with a screen resolution lower than this should turn around and go home. This now has all changed. Although this may sound trivial, the requirements have just changed to 1024×768. However, Microsoft do make it clear that developers should not regularly create devices with this screen resolution, and it would disable Windows 8’s split screen feature. So why change it?
Sorry about the lack of posts over the Easter Weekend – we’ve got a few great stories coming up! -Chris
After all the rumours surrounding the HTC Myst, it seems Facebook are to hold an android-related announcement. There is no information as to whether this is their own phone, one created in collaboration with HTC or just a major revamp of the android application.
Recently Facebook have focused their attentions on features like Graph Search and News Feed but Facebook’s been clear that mobile is a top priority for 2013. Hopefully we’ll see some interesting devices.
Another interesting patent has just appeared from Apple, showing a phone which is 100% screen. The method of production would involve unfurling a flexible display inside a glass enclosure. An interesting concept, but considering how easy it is to shatter an iPhone at the moment anyway, I’m not sure how I feel about an ALL glass iPhone.. Some sort of method to make sure it lands on an unbreakable part would be useful… Ring any bells?
Microsoft have recently released Windows 8 (or should I be calling it Windows Blue now?) which I’ve had the misfortune of using. On a touchscreen it’s great. I wouldn’t choose it over iOS as a tablet operating system, but it works pretty well regardless.
Ahh Bliss.. The Universally Identifiable XP Background
Windows XP. The operating system we look fondly back on as the pinnacle of Microsoft Computing. It was snappy, it looked pretty good, and best of all, it just WORKED. Which is far more than can be said for Windows Vista. But take off those rose tinted nostalgic glasses for a second. Having been a user of Windows 7 since the first leaked beta I’ve been a long term user. Today a client of ours asked whether our software would work on XP and IE 7, so I dove deep into our cupboards and dusted off a Dell Inspiron 9400 – a behemoth of a laptop with an incredible 1900×1200 screen. I booted into XP and started my work.
It’s been a long long time in the making, with many delays, but finally the F-35 has achieved what it was actually made for – a vertical landing!
It’s a pretty impressive sight to behold from an absolutely gorgeous aircraft. Hopefully we’ll (the British) be able to deploy our F-35Bs now before they’re obsolete.
techniquench 