I was reading about a recently announced bug that I can confirm works on the iPhone software 2.0.1 and 2.0.2.  The bug allows someone to access your phone even if it is locked.  To test your phone do this:  1. Lock your phone,  2. hit the slider, and then press the emergency button then press your home button twice.

If it takes you to your favorites, your experiencing the bug.  By selecting the users there, and hitting the blue arror next to their names, someone could access addresses, email link (which will launch the email app), text people, etc.

THE SOLUTION:

Unlock your phone and go to Settings > General > Home Button (scroll down) and then change the functionality from Favorites to "Home".

Now go back and try to reproduce the bug.  It will not just go back to the locked screen.

Thanks to "hypnocat" in the Macworld forum for sharing this.

Wired.com’s iPhone 3G Survey Reveals Network Weaknesses
By Brian X. Chen

"The Image Metrics proprietary facial animation system is a Markerless motion capture method in which an actor’s performance is filmed and a 3D animated model is generated directly from the raw images.The process uses pre-existing or newly recorded video of an actor’s facial performance shot with a video or High definition camera. All detail seen in the recorded video is then analyzed and mapped onto a computer-generated 3D model, including the detailed movements of teeth, tongue, lips and eyes.

The Image Metrics animation process captures facial details like eye movement, lip and tongue synching, subtle expressions and skin textures that can be compromised in the use of traditional motion capture methods. Advanced mapping technology allows Image Metrics to deliver facial animation results up to five times faster than motion capture methods and ten times faster than key frame animation."

What does it look like?

[RATINGS]

Smartdust is a hypothetical network of tiny wireless microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, robots, or devices, installed with wireless communications, that can detect (for example) light, temperature, or vibration.

Tons of cool info on this, and just thought I would mention it in case you had not heard of it.

‘Smart dust’ to explore planets
By Paul Rincon
Science reporter, BBC News, Preston

Berkely research info on the subject 

WiFi: 2,616 kbps
EDGE: 167 kbps
3G: 900kbps (had to reboot the phone to get a signal.  First switching from Edge to 3G rendered NO SERVICE)

I have noticed the pause from doing something in your CONTACTS and hitting your HOME button no longer leaves a black page for a few seconds.  At 250+MB there hopefully will be some speed increases for the user experience.  The 3G service is so poor where I live that I actually just use the EDGE network.

Apple provides no intel regarding the changes other that saying "Bug Fixes".
 

2009 might end up being one of the most significant hardware shifts for gaming in a long time.

Intel’s Larrabee will be based on the universal Intel x86 architecture and will be a stand alone chip.

Larry Seiler, a senior principal engineer in Intel’s Visual Computing Group said, "A key characteristic of this vector processor is a property we call being vector complete…You can run 16 pixels in parallel, 16 vertices in parallel, or 16 more general program indications in parallel."

More info:
CNET

: ExtremeTech

This title *could* be upon us at the end of the year.  Story picks up 50 years after the first one (which I did not play myself), and changes from a FPS, to a 3rd person. 

The developer is stressing the  "cover system" and mixed with the open world and destructable environments there are the ingredients of something great, if they can get the receipe right. 

3rd person allows for a better perspective and allow the player to see more of the wold the game makers have spent so much time on.  I see the point, as I still find the high FOV setting in BF games annoying as it doesnt even match normal human vision and gives you that paranoid-someone-is-about-to-stab-me-feeling.

So maybe this will work?  Hope they have learned from the BF games, that team / squads / commander / and VOIP are MUST HAVES…………..

Check out some Mulitplayer beta vids to see how things are progressing:

Video Link

G4 tv E3 video Link

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.
 

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36298.html

 
 [RATINGS]

[Full scoop here]

What makes a good multilayer FPS?  I specify FPS, because at the moment I don’t play MMO’s and don’t have enough experience to comment.  There are some key components that most FPS games incorporate:  Game engine technology, goals and objectives, number of players, communication, stats, and really all of this combines is game play, which sums up the whole enchilada.

Game engine:

I’m near the front of the line when it comes to interest in new game engines and what they bring to the gaming experience.  More and more, as games have become as expensive to produce as movies, there is a drive for graphics above anything else.  Crysis was a good example.

I timed out building a new machine in anticipation of this game and it was gorgeous but the game play was really nothing beyond what the developer had done in Far Cry.  Game development can’t be an easy thing to do, and I wonder how much company’s like EA push to get something out, that might have a pretty exterior but not any substance to keep players on well after the single player.

There are so few online options for Crysis server wise, and the game itself had so many holes in multiplayer it never had a chance to be successful.  Sad since Far Cry was similar and the marketing machine pushed how great Crysis multiplayer was going to be.

Goals:

Multiplayer games have to have goals and structure or we regress to a Quake mentality, which back in the late 90’s was great fun, but over time the online gaming experience had matured and player are more sophisticated and want more options (classes, vehicles, in game comms, etc.)

Few games, if any have refined that more successfully than the BF series.  BF games are not perfect by any means, but the structure of the game and its goals create an opportunity for some great team play and a lot of fun.  Goals that require the team to work together to be successful seems to be the key.  Imagine if a football team was playing for every man for himself.  How much fun would that be to watch or play in?  Not much, which is the point.  Just like any other sport, team play is the key to enjoyment.

When Quake Wars came out I had the demo, day of, and was excited by what I thought would be an evolution.  But instead you had: every weapon has equal damage, so you could use a pistol on a tank and the same number of shots would destroy it as a rocket launcher.  NO IN GAME VOIP………  That wasn’t added until a patch4+ months after the game came out.  There were no squads, so you had people just doing whatever they wanted and no cohesion.

I think more and more adult gamers look for the team play.  Maybe kids don’t care, but adults, like myself have much more disposable income and I would hope the game developers, many are in the same age group, would be given the opportunity to make games they would want to play themselves.

Number of players, communications, and stats:

Goals in place, you need the right number of people to make it happen.  32 players is about the minimum for a map large enough to have vehicles on it and not have everyone be within one block of each other (like COD4 multiplayer).  Comms are so important.  Many people have access to a separate VOIP option (TeamSpeak, etc) but it should be INGAME.

TS solutions are great for clans, but you need to be able to speak with your team mates.  This also allows for you to identify people you enjoy playing with and if the game offers it, add them to your buddy list.  This is another reason people continue to play multiplayer games that are old.  Stas are another tie into the sports world and it should really be a part of every online game.

PS3 network is adding it, XBOX360 has had it, BF games on the PC really broke ground with their ranked servers concept and weapons unlock.  It adds a level of persistence to the FPS world, which MMO’s have had forever.  MMO’s  are based on the idea of "building up your character", and its a wonder why not every online FPS out there doesn’t do this.

Final thoughts:

All of these elements, end on the key fact.  People make online gaming successful.  The players, and their ability to communicate, find and be able to play with the players they enjoy playing with, and the game structure that allows them to play as a team.  I can only hope FPS game developers and their publishers can focus on this and then reap the benefits of successful efforts, even a year after the game has launched. 

A couple of suggestions: Release a demo BEFORE the game comes out and don’t make the demo a "beta".  Push to get more games to support "other platforms" within the same game.  As consoles become more and more popular it looks obvious to get the Mac users who want to buy and play games on their Macs, to be able to play those games with their PC counterparts.

Note: There is a poll within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post’s poll.