We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is coming to us from Dustin, who wants to turn the humble iPod Touch into a cash register for live events. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com. “We currently have 10 credit card terminals we purchased three years ago, and we’re looking to replace them thanks to their horrific failure rate and replacement cost. We only use them for special events, but they account for $24 million of our credit card revenue. Ideally I’d like to replace them with iPod touches and a wireless printer, but I can’t seem to find a solution that offers printing — but it’s essential to what we do. Thanks for your help!” We found that Square lets you connect to a Star Micronics receipt printer, and Intuit GoPayment accepts Bluetooth-enabled P25 Blue Bamboo printers — so those could work for you. Of course, Ask Engadget is about sourcing the opinion of our hive-mind, so 
if your business has already conquered this problem, why not share what you know?
Month: October 2019
Sprint to begin offering Microsoft Office 365 for enterprise clientele
Suit-and-tie types looking for that virtual office on-the-go experience might want to hitch a ride on Sprint’s cloud. Starting today, the wireless operator’s introducing an add-on package designed for small to medium enterprise clients that bundles Microsoft’s Office 365 with other unnamed “value-added services.” The move, which gives power users access to MS’ web-based apps, video conferencing and shared calendars from anywhere, is part of the Hesse-led company’s Software-as-a-Service portfolio that culls together a suite of remote solutions tailored to the button-down set. According to the carrier’s site, plans kick off at $6 per month, but you needn’t worry about being nickel-and-dimed, your corporate overlord should be footing this bill. Head past the break for the official presser. Show full PR text 31 July 2012 Sprint to Deliver Cloud-Based Business Productivity Solutions from Microsoft OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), July 31, 2012 – Sprint (NYSE: S) today announced that it will deliver Microsoft Office 365 to small and mid-sized businesses this year. Joining the power of Sprint’s network with Microsoft’s cloud-based productivity and collaboration solutions will bring organizations new ways to enhance productivity, reduce costs and collaborate with customers and partners while also extending the cloud-based communication tools to mobile workforces. Office 365 brings together cloud versions of the most trusted productivity and collaboration products with the latest version of Microsoft’s client software and companion Web applications. It provides for secure and virtually anywhere access to email, calendars, Office Web Apps, instant messaging, conferencing and file sharing,
allowing employees to work on the go, on nearly any device. Easy to set up and use, it includes built-in anti-virus and spam-fighting technology and 99.9 percent uptime guarantee. Companies can deliver the right set of tools to the right users with flexible per-user, per-month subscription plans for predictable annual costs and scale with changing needs. When Sprint makes Office 365 available, it plans to bundle it with value-added services to create solutions that further increase productivity and unleash the power of today’s mobile workforce. Small and mid-sized companies will be able to access some of the most comprehensive enterprise- class solutions available today, and Sprint will make it easier for them to take advantage of cloud services and experience the cost savings, scalability and flexibility needed to help them grow. “Sprint’s open approach to cloud includes teaming with trusted industry leaders, like Microsoft, with proven solutions with which businesses are very familiar, to enable them to achieve greater agility to compete in today’s economy,” said John Dupree, senior vice president – Business Sales, Sprint. “Our focus on seamless integration of mobility with cloud services allows companies to extend our reliable and secure networks to their mobile workforces, so they can confidently use hosted services anytime, virtually anywhere and from any device.” This marks the expansion of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio already available from Sprint which includes support, office and field-productivity services. Using the “as-a-service” model, Sprint will deliver new applications to round out its portfolio and enable customers to take advantage of the benefits of cloud-based services. “Combining Sprint’s wireless data plans, access through its 3G and 4G networks and scalable services with Office 365 will provide businesses with the tools needed to grow,” said Kirk Gregersen, general manager, Microsoft Office Division. “We’re delighted to join with Sprint in offering this compelling set of cloud solutions to small and mid-sized businesses.” For more information about Sprint’s upcoming offer with Microsoft Office 365, visit www.sprint.com/office365. This collaboration builds upon the expanding portfolio of cloud-based solutions that Sprint has been focused on launching this year. The portfolio also includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) planned for launch in late 2012 and Sprint Complete Collaboration, a Unified-Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution launched earlier this year.
WRUP: There might not be 50 ways to leave your lover after all edition
It always bothered me that the song referenced in the title (and if you haven’t heard it, take a listen) doesn’t list a full 50 ways to leave your lover, not to mention the fact that pretty much all it does list is just the act of departing. After wracking my brain, I found the highest number I could get to was 25 ways to leave my lover, and that included the genuine possibility that I acquired superpowers and had to travel to a secret dimension to fight the ur-demon Zalgamorn.Are there 50 ways to read WRUP? Probably not. But there are at least 50 things we could all be doing over the weekend, and until you jump past the break, you’ll have no way of knowing. We also talk about whether or not we really want innovation in our games, and as always, we’ve left you plenty of room in the comments to tell us what you’ll be up to. Also whether or not you can come up with lover-leaving method number 26. @Beau_Hindman: I’ll be trying a deeper look at Vendetta Online, a multi-platform space MMO. I’m going to try to stream it live on my tablet, which is a challenge but could be interesting. I’ll also be playing some Mabinogi and plenty of an undisclosed beta!I think most players want to see innovation in MMOs, but most of us are pretty used to the sluggish pace of development of new and interesting systems. While indie developers seem more willing to put something new out there, the standards of MMO design are standard because the audience tends to scoop up anything new if it is hyped enough despite how old the game’s systems are. The more people pay for it, the more those standards will stay in place.@nyphur: I’m testing out the newly revamped EVE Online tutorial, frigates, and mining ships this week in an effort to re-evaluate the new player experience. If you’ve ever wanted to get into EVE but had difficulty starting, check out this week’s EVE Evolved column on Sunday for my verdict on the new tutorial and some tips for getting started.I think most developers misunderstand the concept of innovation in game development and just call anything new and different innovative. Historically, the most successful innovations have been incremental improvements on existing ideas rather than completely new ideas that come out of nowhere. In that sense, yes, I would love to see more innovation on server models, PvP systems, dungeons, quests, item systems and countless other features we take for granted. To think we’ve plumbed the depths of what’s possible with even those basic mechanics is frankly ludicrous.@nbrianna: I’ll probably poke my head into City of Heroes a bit because I think my superheroines might be seeing less playtime once a certain game prelaunches next week. NCsoft wins either way, I guess.I like to see studios trying new things, but new doesn’t always mean better. Bad innovation is a good thing for figuring out what works and doesn’t, but if it sucks, it sucks, and saying so doesn’t mean we’re anti-innovation. In many cases, what I really want is something that’s already been done to be done again with way more awesome. I don’t think I’m alone, else World of Warcraft wouldn’t exist.@Eliot_Lefebvre: It’s pretty much the same routine I’ve had for the past several weeks — Star Wars: The Old Republic, RIFT, Final Fantasy XIV, and Persona 4 Arena. (Well, the last one is pretty new because it wasn’t available until recently. You know what I mean.) Unfortunately, my new computer was supposed to arrive this week and won’t be here until Monday, but I can at least spend some time backing up important files.Asking whether or not I want innovation is a kind of silly question; of course I do. But innovating just because you can is generally a bad idea; you have to understand why you’re adding something new, why you can’t stick with existing ideas, and so forth. Refining existing systems well is just as challenging as creating innovative systems, and it sadly doesn’t receive enough credit.@elixabethclaire: I’ll be taking my last Guild Wars 2-free weekend to play some The Secret World, which is exciting. A little more Guild Wars adventuring is in order to get some folks a few extra Hall of Monuments points.I am a fan of innovation, in MMOs as in most things. Is it always necessary? Nope. But it can be healthy.Skyrim and The Secret World for me.And I dunno, it depends what is meant by innovation. If you mean thinking of MMOs as virtual worlds with lots of non-combat features, sure. If you mean more attempts to put lipstick on the same old progression pig, then no.@Jeremy_Stratton: Haven’t had much time for gaming, lately. I’m playing around with a MUD codebase to try and tweak, change, and add enough of my own ideas to make it my own game and world. If I do get any MMO-time, I think I’d like to run around in Vanguard and see what the F2P conversion has done for the community.@Sypster: This is the final pre-Guild Wars 2 weekend, so I’ve got to make the most of my time… by just being lazy and enjoying myself. Maybe I’ll take some time to check out an unnamed closed beta I’ve been wanting to experience, hm?Innovation? I know not the word. Regression, that’s what we need! Go back to the days of text-only MMOs and their ilk and consider ourselves fortunate for it!@JayeRnH: I’ll be up to the usual, RIFT and EverQuest II, but it will be limited because family game time lately has been dominated by a certain pirate MMO that’s still in beta.I do want to see innovation, but more importantly, I want to see MMOs get better, and I agree with Justin that looking back on the past could be just as valuable as a forward thinking approach.@mvmatt: 
I’ll be playing “holy crap my lease is up in a week,” which entails furiously cleaning and packing my apartment. If I manage to find some time for R&R, though, I’ll be hopping into The Secret World for some delicious investigation mission goodness.And do I want to see innovation in MMOs? Of course I do. Do I think that every new MMO has to be innovative? Of course not, that’s just silly. Not every title needs to be groundbreaking, but at the same time, studios should be constantly looking to see which areas could use further development and refinement. There’s always room for improvement, as they say, and it’s silly not to try to improve; otherwise, the genre becomes stagnant and we get stuck with years and years of every major developer trying to clone the most recent “big thing,” and that’s not good for the players or for the genre itself.@MJ_Guthrie: ZOMG! I haz twitterz! Wait, does that make me twitter-pated? Oh sorry, you were talking about gaming. Let’s see… this weekend I will be finishing up Blue Mountain in The Secret World; I really want to finally feel the sand between my toes in Egypt. I also have plans to finally snag another level in Aion and redecorate my little condo. And because I am sooooo excited to be participating in the ArcheAge beta, you better believe I will be spending oodles of time there! In between that, I get to hang out at a chili cook-off! Yum!To me, innovation means stretching beyond the same old, same old, so yah I want to see it in MMOs. It isn’t always about mind-blowing paradigm shifts but about just doing things a bit differently or a little better. I mean, who really wants everything to be the same experience? Not I!@terilynns: To say that I’m not sure what I’ll be playing is an understatement. I’m exhausted. The Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas was a blast, and the Star Trek Online Discussion with the Devs panel and the Hangin’ with the Devs gathering that followed were both great successes. Alas, along with success comes the con crud — that nasty nasal virus that gets spread around in large groups of convention-goers. I think I just might end up sleeping all weekend.I would love to see innovation in MMOs. I think the problem with the genre is that MMOs are too much alike. I like games that provide an alternative to the grind structure that seems so prevalent in most MMOs.At the start of every weekend, we catch up with the Massively staff members and ask them, “What are you playing this week?” (Otherwise known as: WRUP!) Join us to see what we’re up to in and out of game — and catch us in the comments to let us know what you’re playing, too!
Storyboard: Guild Wars 2 roleplaying thoughts
Somehow I managed to completely miss the fact that this was the Guild Wars 2 launch week when doing my planning, which means that I’m going to bump things around slightly. After all, this is launch week, and whether or not you’ve been looking forward to Guild Wars 2, you can’t deny that it’s the biggest thing to happen to MMOs since the last one.But at Storyboard it’s not just about the MMO impact; it’s also about the roleplaying impact. And I’m happy to say that while I haven’t had a chance to roleplay in GW2 just yet, the game is significantly more friendly in its mechanics. You can walk, you can emote, and you can even make use of a fair number of roleplaying outfits. All fine additions.Can I talk about the GW2 roleplaying culture? Not yet, sadly, because I haven’t gotten a chance to explore it myself yet. But I can talk about some of the peripheral elements and how they might both help and hinder roleplaying within the game. Some stuff is obviously meant for roleplayers, but there are other mechanics that can certainly be adapted. Predictable dynamism… has its usesThere’s really no need to cover the game’s dynamic events again, especially since they aren’t really dynamic in the f
irst place. They’re random events to an extent, and several of them have branching paths depending on what players do, but they’re not truly dynamic. You can’t exactly set your watch by them, but they aren’t entirely freeform, and none of them has a lasting impression on the game world. If you wished to dedicate your character to hunting bandits in Queensdale, I’m sorry to inform you that Queensdale will remain as bandit-infested as the day you found it.In an odd way, this is actually better for RP because it allows you to add some potential spice to a scene without a whole lot of ornate staging.Let’s say, for example, that there’s a farmstead that suffers from periodic Flame Legion attacks. This, for whatever reason, is very relevant to something you’re doing with roleplaying. So you hold your next roleplaying event at that farmstead. Maybe nothing happens. But maybe the event spawns, and suddenly everyone has to deal with this event popping up in the middle of whatever else you’re doing, possibly beating back the legion or possibly failing and pursuing the aggressors after a moment to recuperate.Regular readers know that I’m a huge fan of tossing roleplaying into the game when you’re in the thick of gameplay. The game’s events help give you means to do precisely that. It’s not a perfect solution, and you need to watch for events that might serve your purposes, but it’s definitely a potential tool.Roleplaying and the cutscenes, part oneLet’s start off with the negative: The cutscenes in the game are just not good. I really don’t know why. Part of it might be that there’s no real presentation of sense of motion in the cutscenes, just two full-body shots talking at one another, but a big element is that every single line is spoken with no sense of context. Why that is I couldn’t say. I know ArenaNet hired people who can act, so that’s not it.However, this works wonderfully as an object lesson for roleplayers. When you’re roleplaying with someone else, do not make it sound like this. Lines are delivered not to another person but in a vacuum. If you learn more through bad examples than through good, really listen to the cutscenes and watch what’s being done wrong. There’s no emotional connection given for the characters, no changes in emotion, no actions taken by the speakers. You can learn from this.Intermission on character creationI absolutely adore the character creator, and not because it’s particularly full-featured (although we’ve come a long way from creators that had four sliders with five options each) but because it encourages you to think about who your character is beyond the obvious choice of race and class.When the character creator is asking questions about your major regrets or your social strata, don’t simply page through quickly because you want to get into the game. Think about these elements because they can turn a stereotype into a full-bodied character. An avaricious Human Thief is nothing new… but if your Thief is a noble, suddenly that avarice isn’t just a matter of wanting things. He has things. What he wants are mementos, signs that he can take what he wants. Or perhaps he’s reached his status through thievery, stealing enough to enlarge his gate. There’s a lot of subtlety to be explored; don’t skip over it.Roleplaying and the cutscenes, part twoGW2 is not Star Wars: The Old Republic when it comes to character choices. But they still exist, and they still give you a chance to say something important about your character. There are a few little social gauges that measure your personality, and that’s well and good, but more importantly they help you file away some rough parts of your character concepts.I’ve talked before about the conundrum arising from games with a strong personal storyline, and that applies here as well, but you can still use the story to get a better handle on the sort of person your character is suppose to be. Dynamic events contribute to that as well, although you can’t really opt out of those on a regular basis. Seeing your character reflected through the choices you’ve made along the way, though, is a useful tool.Yes, I should probably roleplay moreI still haven’t spent much time in GW2, although I’m looking forward to diving back in. If you see Rhio Aldul running around, you can feel free to tell her what you think of this column out-of-character. Or you can let me know in the comments or through that magical email. (Eliot@massively.com, you know.)Next week, as I mentioned in the beginning, we’ll cover characters that don’t transfer well from one setting to another. And perhaps I’ll invest in a calendar to keep track of launch dates for once.Every Friday, Eliot Lefebvre fills a column up with excellent advice on investing money, writing award-winning novels, and being elected to public office. Then he removes all of that, and you’re left with Storyboard, which focuses on roleplaying in MMOs. It won’t help you get elected, but it will help you pretend you did.
ARM and Globalfoundries hammer out deal to promote 20nm mobile chips
Sure it’s British, but ARM’s mobile empire is being built through careful alliances rather than conquest. The chip designer’s latest deal with Globalfoundries, which mirrors a very similar agreement signed with rival foundry TSMC last month, is a case in point. It’s designed to promote the adoption of fast, energy-efficient 20nm processors by making it easy for chip makers (like Samsung, perhaps) to knock on Globalfoundries’ door for the grunt work of actually fabricating the silicon — since the foundry will now be prepped to produce precisely that type of chip. As far as the regular gadget buyer is concerned, all this politicking amounts to one thing: further reassurance that mobile processor shrinkage isn’t going to peter out after the new 32nm Exynos chips or the 28nm Snapdragon S4 — it’s going to push on past the 22nm benchmark that Ivy Bridge already established in the desktop sphere and hopefully deliver phones and tablets that do more with less juice. Show full PR text ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES Collaborate to Enable Next-Generation Devices on 20nm and FinFET Process Technologies ARM processor, GPU and Physical IP technology-based solutions optimized to accelerate production in critical mobile markets MILPITAS, Calif. & CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM today announced a multi-year agreement to jointly deliver optimized system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for ARM® processor designs on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 20-nanometer (nm) and FinFET process technologies. The new agreement also extends the long-standing collaboration to include graphics processors, which are becoming an increasingly critical component in mobile devices. As part of the agreement, ARM will develop a full platform of ARM Artisan® Physical IP, including standard cell libraries, memory compilers and POP™ IP solutions. The results will help enable a new level of system performance and power-efficiency for a range of mobile applications, from smartphones to tablets to ultra-thin notebooks. The companies have been collaborating for several years to jointly optimize ARM Cortex™-A series processors, including multiple demonstrations of performance and power-efficiency benefits on 28nm as well as a 20nm test-chip implementation currently running through GLOBALFOUNDRIES fab in Malta, N.Y. This agreement extends the prior efforts by driving production IP platforms that will enable customer designs on 20nm and promote rapid migration to three-dimensional FinFET transistor technology. This joint development will enable a faster time to delivering SoC solutions for customers using next-generation ARM CPUs and GPUs in mobile devices. GLOBALFOUNDRIES plans to develop optimized implementations and benchmark analysis for next-generation, energy-efficient ARM Cortex™ processor and ARM Mali™ graphics processor technologies, accelerating customers’ own SoC designs using the respective technologies. The comprehensive platform of ARM Artisan Physical IP for GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 20nm-LPM and FinFET processes and POP IP products provide fundamental building blocks for SoC designers. This platform builds on the existing Artisan physical IP platforms for numerous GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ process technologies including 65nm, 55nm and 28nm, as well as the Cortex-A9 POP technology for 28nm SLP, now available for licensing from ARM. “This early engagement promotes the rapid adoption of ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES technologies in future SoCs for several important markets,” said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, Processor and Physical IP Divisions at ARM. “Customers designing for mobile, tablet and computing applications will benefit extensively from the energy-efficient ARM processor and graphics processor included in this collaboration. By proactively working together to enable next-generation 20nm-LPM and FinFET process technologies, our mutual customers can be assured a range of implementation options that will enable two more generations of advanced semiconductor devices.” ARM POP technology accelerates the core hardening for ARM’s Cortex-A series CPUs with market-leading performance, power and area. POP IP products are comprised of three critical elements necessary to achieve an optimized ARM core implementation. First, it contains Artisan physical IP standard cell libraries and memory cache instances that ar
e specifically tuned for a given ARM processor and foundry technology. Second, it includes a comprehensive benchmarking report to document the exact conditions and results ARM achieved for the processor implementation across an envelope of configuration and design targets. Finally, it includes the detailed implementation knowledge including floor plans, scripts, design utilities and a POP Implementation Guide, which enables the end customer to achieve similar results quickly and with lower risk. The GLOBALFOUNDRIES 20nm-LPM technology is a comprehensive, cost-effective platform, delivering up to 40 percent performance improvement and twice the gate density of 28nm. Since it will offer a range of transistor capabilities, 20nm-LPM will serve a broad range of power and performance points across high-volume market segments. By offering a full scaling of the transistor and metal pitch, the resulting 20nm-LPM devices will be highly competitive in cost and area to suit the requirements of next-generation devices. This collaboration also extends to GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ FinFET-based process technology. By anticipating this process technology from the beginning, the partners will jointly optimize both the physical IP and process technology to assure a rapid migration path from 20nm-LPM. As a result, this collaboration will result in a range of implementation solutions available sooner and at lower risk than ever before. “ARM technologies are at the heart of many of the world’s highest volume product categories, and we believe will only grow in importance for our customers in the years ahead,” said Mike Noonen, executive vice president, worldwide marketing and sales at GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “By leveraging our implementation knowledge and applying it to a next-generation, energy-efficient ARM processor and graphics processing unit, we believe we can jointly offer a compelling differentiation to our mutual customers that will power innovation into the next two generations.”
Sony’s Yoshida: getting third-party support on Vita more difficult than anticipated
Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studio president Shuhei Yoshida says the manuacturer is having a harder-than-expected time conv
incing publishers to develop game for the PlayStation Vita.”We’re having a more difficult time than we had anticipated in terms of getting support from third-party publishers, but that’s our job,” he said in an interview within the latest pages of PlayStation: The Official Magazine.In its recently released Q1 2012 results, Sony’s gaming division was hit with a $45 million loss, forcing its sales forecast to be “downwardly revised.”Despite big ticket franchises coming to the platform – with specifically designed versions of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 in the works, for example – other major publishers have yet to promise any major potential blockbuster releases for the platform.Speaking with Gamasutra, Yoshida pointed out that Sony has seen some success attracting independent developers to the platform, such as Sound Shapes dev Queasy Games and Knytt Underground developer Nifflas.”We will continue to talk to development communities and publishing partners and tell them why Vita can provide a great experience for the IPs they have and I hope the Assassin’s Creed game will prove that,” Yoshida added in his interview with PTOM.
Gamescom 2012: Funcom teases The Secret World’s New York raid with new screens
Funcom has let slip the first details of The Secret World’s first raid at this week’s Gamescom convention in Germany. Said details take the form of four screenshots showing player characters duking it out with some sort of tentacled monstrosity in the streets of New York.A company press release says that “players will be introduced to the story by listening to the accounts of characters that have taken refuge in the New York subway system, and eventually players will battle a monster that towers over the skyscrapers in the middle of Times Square.”Also of note is the game’s new three-day trial. Registration is free (but must be completed by August 19th). If you manage to finish 30 missions during your trial period, you’ll earn an extra two days of play time. Check out the new screens in the gallery below.[Source: Funcom press release] Gallery: The Secret World Gamescom Gallery | 22 Photos 22 +18 
Every summer, the gaming industry descends on Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, the world’s largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Massively’s on the scene in 2012, bringing you all the best scoops, impressions, and interviews from MMOs at the show!
The Daily Grind: Is it lazy to retool classic dungeons for endgame?
Over the last few expansions, Blizzard has been attempting to transform antique World of Warcraft dungeons into modern, heroic experiences, from Cataclysm’s reimagined Deadmines to Mists of Pandaria’s level-cap Scholomance. But most of WoW’s dungeons — and most dungeons in ever-changing MMOs period — languish in the past with outdated mechanics and loot surpassed by overland quest drops. You might go there as a tourist occasionally, but no one takes those places seriously.I like a chance to go back to reworked older zones to get my nostalgia fix on boosted, endgame content. But I can see why players might object to the practice. After all, a fresh coat of paint doesn’t really make it a new room. It can feel as if the devs cheaped out and just pasted some new textures and mechanics into an already-built zone instead of implementing something truly new.What do you think — is it lazy to retool classic dungeons for a new endgame?Every morning, the Massively blogger
s probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today’s Daily Grind!
Samsung’s defense against Apple patents begins with DiamondTouch table, LiveTile UI prior art
Samsung may have convinced Judge Koh to toss a few international handsets out of Apple’s lawsuit, but the Korean firm still has Cupertino’s patent licensing accusations to contend with. Their tactic? Convin
ce the court that Apple’s claim to the inventions are invalid, and that the technology was developed prior to the disputed patent’s filing. It’s called showing “prior art,” and Sammy’s done it before — famously showing a scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey in an attempt to put Apple’s iPad design claims to rest. Today’s examples were more grounded in reality, focusing on debunking Cupertino’s claim to the “bounce back” effect that happens when a user reaches the end of a page and common multitouch zoom / navigation gestures. Samsung pitted the famous “bounce back” feature against an old PocketPC interface called LaunchTile, which allowed users to navigate through 36 applications by zooming in and out and a panning across a grid-like “world view” of said apps. Movement between grids snap to each zone, marking the end of a page. Apple shot back, noting that LiveTile’s snapping navigation didn’t work on diagonals, and cited other differences as well. Samsung wasn’t deterred, however, and brought out DiamondTouch, a projector based multitouch table that utilized both one touch scrolling and pinch-based zoom gestures. The table even takes aim at the aforementioned bounce-back patent with a technology called TableCloth, which bounces back images that are pulled off screen. DiamondTouch’s creator, Adam Bogue, told the court that he had demoed the technology to Apple privately back in 2003, noting that it was also available to anyone who visited the Mitsubishi Electronic Research Laboratories’ lobby. If the jury takes to Samsung’s claims of prior art, it could severely cut Apple’s claims against it. Even so, Cupertino’s lawyers aren’t going down without a fight, and still have a number of navigation and design claims that Samsung hasn’t addressed. The two parties are expected to keep up the fight for about a week, we’ll keep you posted on the inevitable revelations as they come.
Hybrid pulled from Xbox Live Arcade [update: issue resolved]
Hybrid, 5th Cell’s third-person shooter that’s been suffering server issues throughout its launch day, has been pulled from the Xbox Marketplace.”We’d like to confirm that we have identified a problem and are in the process of finding a solution,” Microsoft wrote in a statement. “We will make the game available as soon as we can, and we apologize for the inconvenience! Thank you for your patience in the meantime.”5th Cell creative director Jeremiah Slaczka wrote on 
the game’s forum: “We are working with Microsoft to fix these server issues. Many people from both 5TH Cell and MS are working together to sort the problem out. We are making progress, but it will take time unfortunately. Sorry for the inconvenience, however we don’t foresee this problem to continue once it’s fixed.”We’ve been in touch with Microsoft for an estimated time of a fix. We’ll update as soon as we hear more.Update 2: Hybrid is back on the Marketplace.Update: 5th Cell has told Joystiq the issue has been fixed, and the game will be back on Xbox Live tonight. Creative director Jeremiah Slaczka issued this statement:”We have worked with Microsoft to diagnose and resolve the server issue surrounding Hybrid. Our entire team appreciates the overwhelming response of fans logging in on day-1 and for bearing with us during this short downtime. We expect a smooth gameplay experience from here on out.”