BioWare releases Dragon Age II demo

With Dragon Age II slated for a March 8 debut in North America, BioWare has decided to rev the hype engine a little by releasing a new playable demo. The sample is available on PC, Xbox 360 as well as PlayStation 3, and PC gamers can grab the installer from our download section. GameSpot has posted an interview and gameplay video with a Dragon Age II developer if you want to kill some time while the demo downloads.

The demo kicks off with the game's prologue and allows you to choose from three different character classes before throwing you into Kirkwall, a new key location in Dragon Age II. You'll experience the sequel's updated combat mechanics and graphics, and you'll learn more about the new main character, Hawke. To preview the game's romance system, BioWare has also included a potential love interest named Isabela.

Players who complete the demo will unlock a special weapon called Hayder's Razor, an ancient dwarven blade that increases health, mana and combat abilities in the full game. This offer expires on May 31. Preorders are open online and early customers will receive two exclusive in-game items, the Fadeshear Sword and the Lion of Orlais Shield. The sword sounds especially cool as it improves every time your character levels.

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Source: http://www.techspot.com/news/42534-bioware-releases-dragon-age-ii-demo.html

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You can now use Bing to stalk celebrities, thanks Microsoft!

You can now use Bing to stalk celebrities, thanks Microsoft!

We understand that Bing needs to differentiate itself from Google to grow, but this time it may have missed the mark.

Bing has worked hard to become, and tell the world, that it is not a poor man?s Google. It has done so by branding itself a decision engine, not a common search tool, and by using dramatic imagery in marked contrast to Google?s white theme. In some cases, Bing is even pushing the envelope of technology. Today?s news is not such a case.

Fresh from the presses is a new Bing announcement that the team has linked up with Zimbio to, get this, stalk celebrities. Yes, with Bing and Zimbio you can find where celebrities currently are and have been, with the data coming from tour schedules and the like.

We aren?t kidding, this is Rihanna?s page on Zimbio:

Bing has done some very neat and interesting things in the past, including creating full walk-throughs of restaurants around the United States. This is not one of their best creations.

I hate to say it, but I can?t see Google ever doing this. Bing has a large number of good things going for it, to tout this is just odd.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2011/02/23/you-can-now-use-bing-to-stalk-celebrities-thanks-microsoft/

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Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Enermax to launch CPU coolers

Posted on 19th Feb 2011 at 10:32 by Richard Swinburne with 18 comments

During a brief discussion with Enermax recently, a PR person let slip that the company's planning to launch a new CPU cooler range, which will be based on the principles of vortex generator flow technology, while featuring a couple of Enermax's Twister bearing fans.

The cooler has six heatpipes that get direct contact with the CPU, while a Twister fan sits on either side of the tower. Meanwhile, the LEDs can be switched off using the little buttons below each fan in the picture. The fans *should* feature 4-pin PWM power connectors as well, but we don't know whether they'll be tied together with a single connector yet.


More information about the coolers is likely to start doing the rounds soon, though, as Enermax is encouraging folk to visit its booth in the usually wet (sometimes snowy), cold and miserable surroundings of the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Germany, at the start of March.

Does this design look like a winner to you? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/v-oENFSSRoA/

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The Caucus: More Signs That Huntsman Is Preparing for 2012 Run

Jon Huntsman Jr.?s campaign-in-waiting has launched a Web site declaring that ?maybe someday? the country will find the right leader, another indication that allies of the ambassador to China are preparing for a presidential campaign.

The Web site for the Horizon PAC cleverly opens with a logo of a big letter ?H? with the words ?Maybe? and ?Someday? on either side. Is that for Horizon? Or is it for Mr. Huntsman?

Advisers to Mr. Huntsman insist that the political action committee has no formal or informal connection to the ambassador, who once served as the governor of Utah. But they acknowledge that the committee is being designed to make a campaign possible if Mr. Huntsman decides to run for the Republican nomination.

?H-PAC isn?t your typical political organization,? said Tim Miller, a spokesman for the committee. ?Neither the design nor messaging are what people have come to expect from traditional political organizations or campaigns. You won?t see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC Web site.?

The Horizon PAC also announced on Tuesday the addition of two more advisers to its staff. Al Shofe will serve as congressional liaison, and Craig Engle, the founder of the Arent Fox Political Law Group, will be the committee?s legal counsel.

The Web site appears designed to make the case for Mr. Huntsman, who would be an unusual candidate if he decides to run. A moderate Republican as governor, Mr. Huntsman joined President Obama?s administration in 2009 to put his China expertise to use. If he seeks the Republican nomination in 2012, he would in essence be seeking to oust the man who has been his boss for the last two years.

In one section, the Web site asks: ?What happened to common goals? To calm? To respect? What happened to actual, lasting solutions to problems? When were they replaced with anger? Slammed fists. Divisive words. Winning at any cost??

In a second section, called ?The Politician,? the Web site suggests that politicians are ?an unusual animal. The firm handshake. The frosty smile. So often driven by ego alone.? And it argues that ?America can do so much better. Maybe someday.?

And in a third section, ?Maybe Someday,? the Web site hints that an announcement from Mr. Huntsman could be coming. ?These leaders exist. We will search the country. We will find them. Stand behind them. They will win. And, America will flourish. Someday COULD be today.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6569f46ad61ffc67cee79bf6cab780bb

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The Daily ?iPad newspaper? will reportedly launch on Android this spring

The Daily ?iPad newspaper? will reportedly launch on Android this spring

As first reported by AllThingsD, sources say Rupert Murdoch?s famed ?iPad newspaper?, The Daily will be coming to Android tablets this spring.

At its launch event earlier this month, Murdoch said he expected The Daily to be on all major tablets in the future, but was quoted saying that ?last year, this year and maybe next year belong to iPad.?

So it is a bit surprising to hear that the ?iPad newspaper? could appear on tablets like Motorola?s XOOM in just a few months time.

For now The Daily is sold exclusively through the Apple store.

Read here for Everything You Need to Know About the Daily?s Launch.

About the Author

Courtney Boyd Myers is the East Coast editor of TNW, based in NYC. She began her career writing about robots @ Forbes and has also written for PCMag, PSFK, IEEE Spectrum, the Huffington Post + Pocket-Lint. She loves magnets + reading on her Kindle. You can follow her on Twitter or e-mail her at Courtney@TheNextWeb.com.

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Source: http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/02/23/the-daily-ipad-newspaper-will-reportedly-launch-on-android-this-spring/

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Thoughts on The Arctic Cooling GCM

This isn?t really a review, and I can?t label it as such, if only because Arctic Cooling?s GCM isn?t really the type of device we usually cover. Still, when it landed in the office I just couldn?t help myself. It looked so cheap and nasty that the other guys in the office recoiled from it in melodramatic disgust. I had to write about it.

You?ve seen gizmos like the GCM before, probably. It wouldn?t be out of place on the prize rack of a fairground attraction, or in a machine at that really run-down arcade that your parents never let you go to. The packaging is emblazoned with bold claims that try to sell the GCM to you on a sheer value factor ? 80 games in 1? Wowee! ? all of which strengthens the impression that it?s going to be rubbish.

But, hey, at least it comes with its own Arctic Cooling batteries!

Of course, you can tell from the moment you turn it on and first hear those tiny, tinny speakers squeak into life that the 80 games it offers are going to be terrible; the lowest, cheapest emulations of the franchises and games that the creators feel they can get away with. You know that they?re going to be full of simplistic knock-offs at best, if they work at all.


Still, if you?re anything like me, you can?t help but hope a little. Maybe one of those games could actually be quite good, eh? Or maybe it?ll be just entertaining and cheap enough for it to be worth shoving the GCM into the bottom of your rucksack and keeping it for an absolute last resort ? those times when your DS, PSP, iPod Touch, Gameboy Color and mobile phone are all out of battery life. And your solar charger is broken. And you?ve not got a book. Then the GCM might sputter its way towards usefulness, maybe.

As soon as I picked up the GCM, however, all these ideas scuttled out of my head and it suddenly dawned on me what the others knew intuitively ? that there is no way the GCM could ever be good at anything, ever, for whatever reason. It?s too light and flimsy to even make a good paperweight, too bulky to fit into a pocket and too flimsy to feel satisfactory in your hands.

The GCM seems to sum up everything bad about mass production; vomited onto the market thoughtlessly and crudely because ? and I'm guessing this is the extent of any executive approval it might have received ? ?someone must want to buy this crap.?

And, seriously, it?s so badly made and designed that it makes broken glass look like a solid product. The sensitive Reset and Main Menu buttons are on the shoulders, right where your fingers normally rest. Even the screen rattles.


And the games? Sheesh. There are 80 of them, but they're all even worse than you might have feared ? mostly boring one-button affairs with no depth or excitement, in which bland Mii-like avatars drift floatily around boring backgrounds and respond to your button presses after a half-second delay. There are a few titles in the mix, such as the obligatory Breakout clone and Schmup, which work OK, but even they lack enough lustre or speed to encourage more than the first five-minute fiddle.

Most of the included games don?t even work, in fact. The GCM has got more bugs than an ant farm, and it crashes regularly too. One time I tried to boot up Jet Girl, one of the less obnoxious titles in the Racing Games category, but got nothing more than a 12 second loading screen followed by a burst of numbers running across the screen. A moment later the Fencing game loaded up instead. In French.

The GCM is really a joke, and its punchline must be the price. £40 for this pile of cheap, worthless trash? It?s one thing for the GCM to fulfil expectations by turning out to be a poorly built and cheaply produced pocket-toy full of games you wouldn?t play if you had to. It?s something altogether to charge such an outrageous RRP ? you could have a nice meal for two for the cost of this bloody thing!

As I predicted earlier, the GCM is indeed the type of product you?d expect to see in an oversized gumball machine outside a hairdresser in the bad part of town. No wonder this isn?t a proper review; there just isn?t a score low enough.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/Y0xOeP4qYOQ/

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The Caucus: More Signs That Huntsman Is Preparing for 2012 Run

Jon Huntsman Jr.?s campaign-in-waiting has launched a Web site declaring that ?maybe someday? the country will find the right leader, another indication that allies of the ambassador to China are preparing for a presidential campaign.

The Web site for the Horizon PAC cleverly opens with a logo of a big letter ?H? with the words ?Maybe? and ?Someday? on either side. Is that for Horizon? Or is it for Mr. Huntsman?

Advisers to Mr. Huntsman insist that the political action committee has no formal or informal connection to the ambassador, who once served as the governor of Utah. But they acknowledge that the committee is being designed to make a campaign possible if Mr. Huntsman decides to run for the Republican nomination.

?H-PAC isn?t your typical political organization,? said Tim Miller, a spokesman for the committee. ?Neither the design nor messaging are what people have come to expect from traditional political organizations or campaigns. You won?t see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC Web site.?

The Horizon PAC also announced on Tuesday the addition of two more advisers to its staff. Al Shofe will serve as congressional liaison, and Craig Engle, the founder of the Arent Fox Political Law Group, will be the committee?s legal counsel.

The Web site appears designed to make the case for Mr. Huntsman, who would be an unusual candidate if he decides to run. A moderate Republican as governor, Mr. Huntsman joined President Obama?s administration in 2009 to put his China expertise to use. If he seeks the Republican nomination in 2012, he would in essence be seeking to oust the man who has been his boss for the last two years.

In one section, the Web site asks: ?What happened to common goals? To calm? To respect? What happened to actual, lasting solutions to problems? When were they replaced with anger? Slammed fists. Divisive words. Winning at any cost??

In a second section, called ?The Politician,? the Web site suggests that politicians are ?an unusual animal. The firm handshake. The frosty smile. So often driven by ego alone.? And it argues that ?America can do so much better. Maybe someday.?

And in a third section, ?Maybe Someday,? the Web site hints that an announcement from Mr. Huntsman could be coming. ?These leaders exist. We will search the country. We will find them. Stand behind them. They will win. And, America will flourish. Someday COULD be today.?

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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6569f46ad61ffc67cee79bf6cab780bb

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Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Hardware 19 - The Cockney Cast

Posted on 18th Feb 2011 at 10:18 by Podcast with 6 comments

This week's bit-tech and Custom PC podcast is brought to you by Clive, Antony and Paul.

First on the agenda is the continuing Intel Sandy Bridge saga, and what motherboard manufacturers are doing to sort it out. We also comment on MSI's returns strategy, which the company announced on Wednesday.

Next we make some time to talk about the gorgeous Silverstone FT03. It's a pretty peculiar case due to its inverted design, but it's always refreshing to see manufactures taking a different approach.

Finally, Antony gives us a sneaky look at the CPU cooler group test from the latest issue of Custom PC, which went on sale at newsagents yesterday. Make sure you pick up a copy if you want to see which new CPU coolers offer the best combination of cooling and value.


As always, we've also set up our weekly competition, although there's a slightly different twist on it this week. The lucky winner will be able to get their hands on a Mionix Propus 380 mousepad, which will provide the perfect tracking surface for whichever mouse you choose to use.

As ever, the bit-tech hardware podcast features music by Brad Sucks, and was recorded on Shure microphones. You can download the podcast direct, listen in-browser or subscribe through iTunes using the links below. Also, be sure to let us know your thoughts about the discussion in the forums.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/bit-tech/blog/~3/9YDeYBokO2k/

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The Caucus: More Signs That Huntsman Is Preparing for 2012 Run

Jon Huntsman Jr.?s campaign-in-waiting has launched a Web site declaring that ?maybe someday? the country will find the right leader, another indication that allies of the ambassador to China are preparing for a presidential campaign.

The Web site for the Horizon PAC cleverly opens with a logo of a big letter ?H? with the words ?Maybe? and ?Someday? on either side. Is that for Horizon? Or is it for Mr. Huntsman?

Advisers to Mr. Huntsman insist that the political action committee has no formal or informal connection to the ambassador, who once served as the governor of Utah. But they acknowledge that the committee is being designed to make a campaign possible if Mr. Huntsman decides to run for the Republican nomination.

?H-PAC isn?t your typical political organization,? said Tim Miller, a spokesman for the committee. ?Neither the design nor messaging are what people have come to expect from traditional political organizations or campaigns. You won?t see the same tired tropes and images that are the hallmark every other PAC Web site.?

The Horizon PAC also announced on Tuesday the addition of two more advisers to its staff. Al Shofe will serve as congressional liaison, and Craig Engle, the founder of the Arent Fox Political Law Group, will be the committee?s legal counsel.

The Web site appears designed to make the case for Mr. Huntsman, who would be an unusual candidate if he decides to run. A moderate Republican as governor, Mr. Huntsman joined President Obama?s administration in 2009 to put his China expertise to use. If he seeks the Republican nomination in 2012, he would in essence be seeking to oust the man who has been his boss for the last two years.

In one section, the Web site asks: ?What happened to common goals? To calm? To respect? What happened to actual, lasting solutions to problems? When were they replaced with anger? Slammed fists. Divisive words. Winning at any cost??

In a second section, called ?The Politician,? the Web site suggests that politicians are ?an unusual animal. The firm handshake. The frosty smile. So often driven by ego alone.? And it argues that ?America can do so much better. Maybe someday.?

And in a third section, ?Maybe Someday,? the Web site hints that an announcement from Mr. Huntsman could be coming. ?These leaders exist. We will search the country. We will find them. Stand behind them. They will win. And, America will flourish. Someday COULD be today.?

EnvisionStar Hosting

Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=6569f46ad61ffc67cee79bf6cab780bb

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