MODDING: blogs

Nokia’s latest Flash-based novelty site is about to go live. The Mapsters are a small tribe of robots and err… aliens, who specialise in trampling on perfectly good cities and turning them into two-dimensional maps. For a preview go to www.themapsters.com/preview and use username ‘mapsters’ and password ‘preview’. And there we were thinking that Nokia’s Maps were created by the Navteq people…. (watch out for the jaw-dropping Flash earthquake effect in the opening sequence)

With version 1.76, out an hour ago, Sports Tracker’s name continues to seem a little restrictive - Nokia just added support for user-shot video clips (taken during your walk/run, which then appear on the Sports Tracker web site), plus support for devices like the N78 and N96. Comments welcome on how they’ve handled video resampling during the scan and upload process - if at all. Comments also welcome on whether videos are compatible with the Sports Tracker widget.

The gang over at Futuremark have been busy cranking out a hotfix for 3DMark Vantage and version (1.0.1) has been released for use. Futuremark has made a number of changes in the product editions to make running the benchmark better for everyone. Off-line score are now available in the Advanced edition, and ad banners have been totally removed. Error messages have been improved, and various bugs have been fixed. The best part of the hotfix is that the scores are NOT affected and will remain compatible with build 1.0.0 scores. A new full install for 3DMark Vantage Build 1.0.1 is also available for those that want to download 414MB

The hotfix fixes the following:

• An issue preventing valid serial key entry in some cases has been fixed.
• An issue causing “boost::filesystem::create_directory” error message after registration has been fixed.
• Added a check and error message for hardware that is not DX10 capable.
• Improved detection of supported resolutions so that CPU test minimum requirement (1280×1024) is now taken into account correctly.
• Fixed an issue where pressing the ESC key during CPU test loading screen, the user would be taken to a score view with score -1.
• The entire 3DMark Vantage application is now elevated to Administrator rights, rather than only the SystemInfo component. This will ensure more robust SystemInfo and benchmark functionality, and fixes the “pop-behind” elevation dialog.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused “WM_QUIT” error messages.
• Post-processing scale is now displayed correctly in the UI for the Extreme Preset.
• Fixed an issue that could cause resolution switches at test runtime.

VIA Technologies today announced the VIA EPIA M700 Mini-ITX board, the first to feature the VIA VX800 chipset, for sophisticated digital signage and retail display systems. The VIA EPIA M700 is the first board to feature the new VIA VX800 digital media chipset that delivers enhanced video playback, dual display and dual Gigabit LAN.

Featuring a 1.5GHz or a fanless 1.0GHz VIA C7 processor, the VIA EPIA M700 leverages the uncompromising multimedia performance of the VIA VX800 unified chipset with its integrated VIA Chrome9 HC3 integrated graphics core for DirectX 9.0 3D graphics and up to six-channel VIA Vinyl HD Audio rich surround sound, while the VIA Chromotion video engine provides advanced hardware video acceleration and an improved visual experience for MPEG-2, MPEG-4, WMV9, VC1 and DivX video, plus a VMR capable HD video processor.

With panel makers pushing 16:9 ratio panels in 2008, Acer has decided to open up all its notebook product lines to be based on the ratio, while other notebook vendors are readying to push at least 14- and 15.6-inch lines in the third quarter this year. Notebook makers predict the proportion of 16:9 models will increase 10% per quarter during in the second half of 2008.

In addition to 14- and 15.6-inch panels, 17.3-inch, mainly supplied by AUO and LG, and 18.4-inch, supplied by Samsung Electronics, Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) are also sizes Acer plans to introduce. Meanwhile, most other notebook vendors are still evaluating which of the two larger sizes they will bid on. Currently, Dell and Toshiba are planning 17.3-inch lines while Asustek Computer is also leaning towards this size.

Find motherboards.org's ASUS P5E3 Premium WIFi-AP @n Edition Review and other reviews from around the web by visiting our forums!

ASUS has done it again with their P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP@n motherboard. The board features everything you could possibly want from a new motherboard today including DDR3 support, external SATA support, Crossfire support, and saves energy while delivering the features and performance you want from a new motherboard. The P5E3 Premium WiFi-AP@n board has a high price online but you get what you pay for when paying that price. Performance is in line with the P5E3 Deluxe board which uses the same chipset but has similar performance though the other board has with the exception of SYSmark 2007 Preview. One important consideration with new motherboards is the official support of the 45 nanometer 1600MHz FSB Yorkfield CPUs and the P5E3 Premium supports those new CPUs which gives a nice upgrade path

[updated] Nokia has announced that Maps 2.0 is finally available, after several months in (a very wide) public beta. The press release, with official changelog over v1.2, is below, plus also the less formal changelog for the full v2.0 release over the v2.0 beta. See also my preview of the Nokia Maps v2.0 beta. And here’s the all important download link (build 2102 available for many devices now). Nokia Maps (as referenced in my recent Location Based Search feature) is a core product for the next five years and has enormous potential, both standalone on devices and as part of (Maps on) Ovi.

Nokia has announced that Maps 2.0 is available today, after several months in (a very wide) public beta. The press release, with official changelog over v1.2, is below, but see also my preview of the Nokia Maps v2.0 beta. And here’s the all important download link. Nokia Maps (as referenced in my recent Location Based Search feature) is a core product for the next five years and has enormous potential, both standalone on devices and as part of (Maps on) Ovi.

Orange and Nokia today announced a three year strategic international partnership on mobile services. The two companies will work together to provider users with an offering of music, games, advertising, maps and location based services. The relationship will see 10 Nokia handsets added to the Orange Signature range with services integrated into the familiar Orange user interface.

In the third part of his review of the Samsung i450, Ewan reckons that devices like this are key to the future of S60 - with the technology becoming both less visible and incumbent in low to mid-tier phones. He also looks at the standard application set and at third party application compatibility.