Devices Site

Microsoft has always offered its software applications to students and educators at a reduced price, but a new initiative called DreamSpark sees pricing scrapped completely for development tools.

What that equates to is free access to the Professional edition of Visual Studio 2008, Expression Studio, Windows Server 2003, and XNA Game Studio 2.0. Not all countries are catered to at the moment, but you can take full advantage if you reside in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium. Other regions will be added throughout the year.

In order to verify your student status, Microsoft requires a Windows Live ID login. It then has links to education institutes within each supported region, so you can verify your student status. Once verified, the software becomes available as a download. The process of verification then has to be repeated once every 12 months.

Microsoft has said the initiative is to ensure students get access to the tools they need to develop the skills required for jobs in the I.T. industry. Joe Wilson, Microsoft’s senior director of Academic Initiatives, was asked in a recent interview why DreamSpark was started. His response was:

We believe students can do amazing things with technology if given access to the right tools. This is a way to make sure that they have what they need to test the boundaries of what today’s technology can do and also prepare for a great career at the same time. The added benefit to industry is that we’re addressing one of the toughest challenges confronting employers today: attracting and developing qualified IT professionals. We’re trying to help close this gap by giving students globally the opportunity to get the tools they’ll need after they graduate and jump-start their careers to land that first job.

Read more at NewsFactor.com and the Microsoft press release.

Matthew’s Opinion

Microsoft has seen a lot of success and positive feedback from its Visual Studio Express range of development tools. For those who don’t know, the Express editions are working versions of the Visual Studio development tools for C++, C#, Visual Basic, Visual Web Developer, SQL Server, and more recently Popfly.

Those tools don’t go far enough for some students, however. For example, the Express edition of Visual C++ does not have an optimizing compiler like the Professional version does. If you are doing a games programming course, access to the full capabilities of Microsoft’s compiler is going to help and make a difference to your final demos. Although the Express editions offer you working tools, they are there for hobbyists and therefore students needing the tools to help them become professionals are going to hit the limits in some of cases.

Ultimately, Microsoft wants you to use its tools, and if you get them for free when you are a student, then it is more likely you will continue to use them afterwards. However you view this move and Microsoft’s motivations behind it, this is only a positive for students. They now have the choice of using free tools or Microsoft’s free tools. It may mean paying for the software after being a student, but at least you have the knowledge of using them and still have access to other free tools instead.

Looks like LG’s LN840 personal navigation device will be heading towards our way real soon after receiving approval from the FCC. Very little is known about this device other than the fact that it carries :-

• At least a 4″ touch screen display
• Bluetooth connectivity
• SD memory card slot
• mini USB port
• Music and photo playback

No idea on when the device will actually hit the market, but it would be nice to know if video playback support is confirmed or not.

Posted Feb 21st 2008 12:48PM by Joshua Topolsky
Just when you think all of your nostalgic fantasies have all been fulfilled, along comes Nintendo with a little extra joy for your retro heart. That “little extra” in this case happens to be Commodore 64 games for your Wii. You read that correctly, people — C64 games are headed to the system’s Virtual Console, starting with International Karate and Uridium, which will run you 500 Wii points apiece. Right now, the rollout appears to be taking place in Europe only, though we suspect it’ll head over to our shores sooner rather than later. While you’re waiting for that to happen, maybe now is a good time to exercise your digits and polish up on your IK trash talk.

[Thanks, Nico]

Read - Virtual Console: C64 is back! [Finnish site]
Read - C64 on Wii Virtual Console

Interactive entertainment website Next-Gen.biz compiled a list of who it believes are the top 100 hot game developers for 2008. The list is quite extensive, giving details of each developer and the company each represents and it makes for an interesting read.

In the list, you are bound to find a few surprises with developers you recognize featuring higher or lower than you would have expected. For example, Cliffy B of Epic Games at 78, Tomonobu Itagaki of Team Ninja at 54, Sid Meier of Firaxis at 46, and Shigeru Miyamoto at 26. Others you may have never even heard of, but if Next-Gen is right, they will surely become more well-known in the next year.

The top 5 contains quite a mix of developers if you look at the games they have released, and I see this as a big positive for the industry as a whole.

At number 5 is Greg LoPiccolo of Harmonix and Rock Band fame. At 4 is Rob Pardo of Blizzard and the ever growing World of Warcraft MMO. Number 3 is Jason West of Infinity Ward and the uber-successful Call of Duty 4. Number 2 is Harold Ryan of Bungie and Halo, and the number 1 spot goes to Ken Levine of 2K Boston who all gamers will be thanking for the experience that was BioShock last year.

Before anyone disagrees with the ordering, it is important you read the big notice Next-Gen put on the first page of the article, repeated here:

IMPORTANT NOTE: This list represents the commercial realities of the products released last year or in the next year. It is not in any way a leaderboard of native talent or ability. We understand that game development projects have a three-year lifecycle and therefore an individual’s placing on this list may simply be a matter of timing. It’s about who’s hot RIGHT now.

Read the full list at Next-Gen.biz.

Peanut Emergency Lights

You can have this for ?14.95

Posted Feb 21st 2008 8:02AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: HDTV
var In an attempt to clear their shelves of dead HD DVD weight, retailers are taking the obvious step of slashing prices. Others, like play.com are renaming the players. Thanks to the magic of Google cache, we see that Toshiba’s “HD-EP30 HD DVD Player” (as it was known on February 15th) is now listed as the “HD-EP30 HDMI Upscaling Player with hd dvd High Definition Playback.” Caveat emptor, as they say.

[Via TechRadar, thanks David]

Read — Old listing (via Google Cache)
Read — Current listing

Posted Feb 21st 2008 8:34AM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Sure, it’s one thing to hear about that satellite getting blown to bits, but there’s nothing like cold, hard video evidence to really cement our belief in the Navy’s extreme skill at hitting fast moving objects in space with huge missiles. Yes — the video is grainy and hard to make out, but if you can’t tell how bad we blew that thing out of the sky… well maybe you’re not looking hard enough. See it all go down (literally) after the break.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Posted Feb 21st 2008 5:33AM by Thomas Ricker
Filed under: Wearables
Well what do you know, the Nike+ product line continues to evolve. This time, however, Apple’s ipod appears to be out of the picture. Based on that illustration above, the 2.62 x 2.62-inch Nike+ SportBand device wedges its way into a bracelet where it communicates with the standard Nike+ shoe adapter. You then insert the USB device into your PC or Mac (presumably) to track your runs. Be sure to peep the actual device in the gallery — looks like the FCC managed to bust the SportBand’s USB connector during their tests. That doesn’t bode well for final product now does it?

Gallery: Nike’s SportBand passes FCC, bypasses Apple

The Alter-G anti-gravity treadmill is just what the doctor ordered, and thankfully it has been approved by the FDA. This unique treadmill reduces the user’s weight by up to 80% thanks to the built-in NASA-designed air pressure regulation system. In addition, the Alter-G also maintains user movement, enabling one to walk, run or jog is one chooses to without experiencing the pressure of the force used to hold one’s weight. This won’t be used in homes though as it will probably make its way to medical facilities and gyms instead.

From now on, you don’t have to worry about your pet not eating their meals while you’re away. With the talking pet bowl, your little bundle of fleas joy would be chowing their meals obediently.

Manufactured by Candian firm, Contech Electronics, the talking bowl aptly called “Chatterbowl,” makes pets feel fuzzy inside even without you around. The bowl has a sensor which detects movement within six inches of it and sets off a 10-second recorded message. Pets are reportedly finding it satisfactory, that they’ll deliberately set it off. Invented by Jay Taylor of Arizona, USA, the Chatterbowl is sold to British pet owners at 14 plus postage.

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