Nvidia’s just scored a major victory – Electronic Arts decided to adopt PhysX technology as a development platform “available to EA’s studios worldwide”. If Nvidia gets a second publisher as large as EA, the company will win the Physics war.
GPGPU is the future: Khronos releases OpenCL API
With Khronos group officially launching the OpenCL 1.0 specification, GPGPU computing is now officially covered with a open-source, royalty-free cross-platform API that enables parallel programming on the GPUs, regardless from whom they’re coming from.
Logitech ships one billion rats
In a month that we celebrate the 40th birth of computer mice, Logitech announced that the company shipped its billionth mouse. The company was founded in 1981 in Switzerland, shipped its first product in 1985. 23 years later, the company shipped its one billionth el Raton. More interesting number is just how fast the computer industry developed – between 1985 and 1996, Logitech shipped 100 million mice. In 12 years between 1996 and 2008, Logitech shipped another 900 million. Out of these 900 million, roughly 500 million were shipped in the last five years. This number is also a testament at what rate the company
Sony demonstrates Gran Turismo 5 in 4K resolution
Past couple of weeks brought two big anniversaries. Gran Turismo dinged 10 years in October, and then Half Life celebrated its won 10 years. Both games changed the world of their respective platforms. Personally, I’ve stated numerous times that the only game I would play on PS3 was Gran Turismo series (borrowed PSOne to finish GT1 and GT2, bought/sold PS2 for GT3 and now considering getting that legacy-enabled PS3 for GT3, GT4, GTHD and GT5 ;-). During Downshift Session 2008 event, Polyphony Digital held an impressive demonstration, showing Gran Turismo 5 (I guess Prologue) in 4K resolution. Sony provided the SRX-S110 digital cinema projector, outputting
Happy Birthday, Half-Life
Today is a special day, since it marks 10th birthday of Half-Life, game that changed the world of shooters and brought then unknown Valve into the limelight. Half-Life titles sold in over 20 million units, and with launch of Steam, the company confirmed that it will remain innovative in the future. I’ve met Gabe and Doug on several dozen occassions, and these guys are just “body of evidence” where bold thinking can lead you. Gabe Newell wasn’t afraid to show how crappy his code runs on GeForce FX 5800/5900 cards, the company launched distribution model that changed the way how games are bought and there
Left 4 Dead available now: go, try or just buy
I’ve received word from Doug Lombardi that Valve officially released Left 4 Dead, brilliant survival shooter. I fell in love with the game at this years’ E3, when my team of four people came closest to getting alive from undead-infested building. Those darn developers, we died roughly 10 seconds before mission’s end. But anyways, this game is not to be missed, and I would highly recommend that you check out Steam and download the demo. If you want to take my word on it, just buy it and enjoy. I am not going to do a massive review of the game and tell you all
Croatia: World of Warcraft beats iPhone 3G
After all the media fanfare about iPhone 3G and the goodness that the gadget brings, we have heard reports about T-Com demanding 6-month subscription in advance and similar consumer-unfriendly tactics. However, mainstream media didn’t exactly show in droves to see more several thousand people that waited in Zagreb and hundreds of people in several other cities in Croatia – these people waited for World of Warcraft: The Wrath of Lich King add-on. The price was set at $60 for the regular and $120 for the Collector’s Edition – and yes, there were many happy faces walking off with the Collector’s Edition. However, during the great
OCZ Brain-thingie hits $99 for Black Friday/Cyber Monday
One of major obstacles that any new revolutionary technology has to overcome is the question of affordability. Recently, I published my four-months-and-counting experience with the OCZ’s NIA, and in the end of the review, my only advice to OCZ was to target $99 price-point as the magical mark. Earlier today, a good friend of mine from Sacramento pinged me and told me that NIA hit $99 on Newegg after MIR check comes at your door. I went to Newegg and checked it out, and is true – now you can get NIA for $119.99 with a $20.00 check “is in the mail” http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=26-100-006 . Now,
Is OCZ’s NIA the most important thing in IT industry?
Two weeks ago, a very high, S-level exec from the automotive industry asked me about upcoming technologies, since he didn’t understand the importance of new interfaces that are coming in mainstream computing. I was shocked, since operating the car interface while driving should require minimum attention. Drive on the highway in Germany at 150 mph and play with BMW’s i-Drive, Mercedes’es non-touch COMMAND or Audi’s Futuremark-designed MMI3D and you’ll see where you feel the safest (hint, the one that cannot be benchmarked, but still comes from a benchmark maker ;-). There is an obvious need for development of true user-friendly computer interfaces. In this long
Spore and Warhammer Online rule the sales charts
I’ve been following NPD Sales charts for ages now, and it was always interesting to see how long can a title hold on them. Blizzard and EA/Maxis are long standing legends – in the past eight years, there haven’t been a weekly or monthly sales chart where at least one title from these companies didn’t occupy spot or two. NPD Group decided to combine their weekly charts into monthly ones, probably for easier tracking – and making annual reports will be much more easier. But getting back on the subject, sales results for North America are quite interesting: Top 5 PC Games for September 2008
How to name a SVGA projector today? It’s a Wii projector!
Going through dozens of e-mails can only lead to depression… or revelation. I’ve encountered a press release stating that BenQ is releasing two short throw DLP projectors: MP512ST and MP522ST. The former is targeting gaming market with quotes such as “ideal for playing the Wii”, while the latter should excel in business and education. Or so the press release goes. The fact of the matter is that MP512ST is geared towards the Wii because it sports a resolution of 800×600 pixels (SVGA), and if it stayed there, we would be happy. But the release continued quoting that an 800×600 projector is ideal for “PlayStation 3
Looking forward to Left 4 Dead
I just got news from Doug Lombardi that Left 4 Dead is available for pre-purchase. All that I can say is – YES!!! It’s been a while since we saw a good co-op game that will shake up small LAN parties (such as office brawls), and this game has everything that’s needed. I had the opportunity to play the game at this years’ E3 Summit in Los Angeles, and honestly – I was delighted. The game has everything that’s needed to be great: it is fun, fast-paced, survival horror themed game. Of course, Left 4 Dead has single player and multiplayer modes, but the real
