firehose

Asus is making its VivoTab Note 8 official today. The 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet includes a 1280 x 800 display that packs in a Wacom digitizer. It’s the standout feature of this otherwise fairly standard small Windows 8.1 tablet. While other competitors like Lenovo’s Miix 2 and Dell’s Venue 8 Pro have offered optional stylus support, none have opted to include full Wacom capability with a pen that sits inside a holder attached to the tablet.

Wacom support is the standout feature of a fairly standard 8-inch Windows 8.1 tablet

Asus is aiming this particular tablet at sketchpad users or those who like to jot down notes, making it an obvious companion for Microsoft’s OneNote or Fresh Paint Windows 8.1 apps with its full stylus and ink support. Inside there’s no surprising specifications. Asus has opted for an Intel Atom Z3470 Bay Trail processor clocked at an unspecified speed, 2GB of RAM, and up to 64GB of storage. A microSD slot allows you to boost the storage, but there’s no Micro HDMI option to extend this particular device to a monitor. Wacom support is the clear selling point here, but other alternatives like Lenovo's ThinkPad 8 offer more power and ports inside a small Windows 8.1 tablet. It appears that Asus has followed Dell and Lenovo with a lack of a Windows button at the bottom of the front of the device.

At 10.95mm thick, the VivoTab Note 8 is a slightly chubbier alternative to other 8-inch Windows 8.1 rivals, but at 0.83 pounds in weight it’s not the heaviest out there. A recent Microsoft presentation listed Asus’ VivoTab Note 8 with a price of $299 and a holiday availability. It’s clearly debuting a little later than Microsoft expected, but Asus isn’t providing an exact release date just yet. A 32GB model will launch at $299, and a 64GB version is priced at $349. Asus says both models will be available in late Q1 or early Q2.

I moved here from New Orleans and really want to watch the game with other Saints fans and not a be the only Saints fan around strictly Seahawks. Does anyone know of a Saints bar in Portland?

By Jim Rossignol on January 6th, 2014 at 9:00 pm.

Plenty of people who were veterans of the original DayZ mod had been wondering whether the magic of the original experience had survived the making of a standalone game. I’m pleased to report that not only has it survived, but there’s new magic, too. Rocket and his team know what they are doing, and the changes they’ve made have created some tense and terrible moments in this new game. The realism it strives for is simultaneously unreal and dark, and creates some of the most awkward and sinister roleplay situations I’ve experienced in any game.

Surviving is back. And it is horribly compelling.

Initially there’s a concern that survival aspect of the game forces you into “vole person” territory: eating and drinking continually, just to stay alive. This can be hard to get past at first, but the truth is that once you’ve done a bit of scavenging, and become used to collecting water, the actual eating and drinking becomes a rhythm. Learning to eat and drink as soon as you are hungry gives that aspect a back seat, at least once you’ve managed to get some supplies together. It’s the heartbeat of the game, a heartbeat that drums pretty fast when you don’t find what you are looking for.

This aspect of course provides additional reasons for the players to encounter each other in tense, unpredictable situations. The most common of these is probably the encounter at the water pumps. We all need fresh water, and so more often than not you’ll meet at these places, getting a drink or filling up a container. I’ve encounter numerous players this way, and most have moved on, not wanting conflict. Will someone kill me for this plastic bottle? (Not if my buddy is standing behind me with an M4.) There have been people laying in wait at these locations, too: hyper-patient bandits simply hoping for some loot. It’s already fascinating to see people experimenting with approaches: from full bandit to the cautious, fleeting survivor who keeps to himself.

Patience, of course, is something that DayZ demands. It is one of the most slow-paced action games imaginable. It’s possible to spend hours without seeing another human being, as Chernarus’ hills and forests spill away into endless rolling vistas that you find yourself hiking across, just to explore that next town. It’s all too easy to find yourself miles from anywhere, and in bad shape. Perhaps ending up back on the coast with a blank slate would be the best option, but the truth is that this is a game that is all about the journey. While that journey grips you, this is one of the most rewardingly threatening games available.

Once again Arma’s in-game voice comms make for some weird experiences when you do run into other humans, as you get the actual reactions of the players you encounter. The panicked deference of the European guy we cornered in a barracks made us stand down. How can we actually do anything to this terrified loner? Meanwhile the cold “where you going?” calls of the guy with the axe I just gunned down in Elektrozavodsk, moments before sitting down before writing this piece (hi, if you’re reading), are still giving me goosebumps. I’d just watched him murder another player, presumably persuaded that the axe man wanted to trade peacefully.

Oof. This game.

These tools are just a small part of what Rocket and Bohemia are doing here. They want survival, interaction, and team work to take us to some strange places, and already it means that much of the interaction between players is moving away from instant gun violence and towards a bleak sort of co-operation. You’ll want a friend, because chances are you’ll want a blood transfusion. Let alone the other sort of situations you’ll get into. When surviving is all that matters, will you risk your life against the armed bandits? Or simply give them what they want?

Bohemia have facilitated this idea of the need for negotiation with the introduction of two systems. The most important is that any item can be damaged. If you gun down that well-equipped survivor, there’s a chance his pristine goods are going to be ruined, and not be all that much use to you. Better to corner him at gunpoint, or simply offer peaceful trade. The second system is slightly more sinister: handcuffs and ropes make it possible to actually capture someone, and then keep them a prisoner. This aspect of the game isn’t particularly well developed, but I’ll be interested to see where it goes.

Seeing where it goes is part of the appeal of DayZ in its current state. It might have been delayed, but there’s a long way to go yet. That there were 250,000 people buying in on the first couple of days (and that the game has sat sternly atop Steam’s top sellers list throughout the Christmas sales) suggests that there are a lot of people interested in following that patch note saga wherever it might go. Right now I am beginning to believe that Bohemia have the resources and the popularity to take it as far as Rocket had been suggesting they would in his many hyperbolic talks and interviews about the game over the past year. With the patches now arriving daily, I would expect to see a huge amount of territory covered in the next six months.

In the meantime, well, I’ve got a rifle and a big backpack. And I mean to survive.

The Powerpuff Girls, one of Cartoon Network’s first breakout original programs during its run from 1998-2005, returns for an all-new CGI special on January 20—albeit without the involvement of creator Craig McCracken, who has moved onto Disney’s Wander Over Yonder. In it, former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr voices Fibonacci Sequins, a “flamboyant mathematician” who's kidnapped by Powerpuff Girls arch-nemesis Mojo Jojo. To promote the episode, Starr recorded a minute-long novelty song entitled “I Wish I Was A Powerpuff Girl.” And that song now has a video, featuring an animated Ringo Starr—wearing a yellow Powerpuff-style dress with a pink bow in his hair—accompanied by Blossom on keys, Bubbles on bass, and Buttercup on lead guitar. It offers a glimpse at the new animation style that will be used for the special, as a well as a glimpse of Ringo Starr being really weird.

AT&T today announced a new "Sponsored Data" program that lets developers and brands pay to deliver content to your mobile device outside of your data caps. It sounds great for consumers on its face — you'll be able to get more stuff without paying for it! — but in reality it's a huge blow to the free and vibrant market of the internet economy, and the first step towards a new era of carrier control.

Here's just a simple example: right now you can rent Elysium from both Apple and Google for $4.99. In addition to the amount you'll pay to rent the movie, streaming that movie over mobile broadband will also obviously count against your data plan, an additional cost that you pay monthly to carriers like AT&T. Sponsored Data allows companies to eliminate that extra charge by paying AT&T directly, so if Apple wanted to stick it to Google, it could subsidize Elysium rentals and advertise that renting the movie from iTunes won't hit your data cap.

That's not fair competition; that's just pay-to-play

Again, that sounds great — as consumers, we'd get more for our money — but in reality it's a way for AT&T to levy taxes on companies who can afford to pay. That has huge implications for the free market of the internet: if YouTube doesn't hit your data cap but Vimeo does, most people are going to watch YouTube. If Facebook feels threatened by Snapchat and launches Poke with free data, maybe it doesn't get completely ignored and fail. If Apple Maps launched with free data for navigation, maybe we'd all be driving off bridges instead of downloading Google Maps for iOS.

That's not fair competition; that's just pay-to-play.

Pull the thread out even farther and it gets even more evil: if sponsored data becomes a de facto cost of business in the exploding mobile market, those costs will just get passed right back to consumers. That "free" $4.99 Elysium rental will just end up costing $5.99, and advertising in apps like Facebook will just get more intrusive and creepy. And rest assured that AT&T will find a way to keep your service rates high and your contract terms restrictive; nothing about this plan involves shifting AT&T's profits, just increasing them. Lower-income customers on cheaper plans will be disproportionately affected: you and I might still pay for data and use whatever services we want, but anyone counting bits will be buffeted into a world of corporate control.

We're paying the price for a huge policy mistake

If AT&T can levy taxes on access to a hundred million subscribers who are increasingly turning to mobile devices over traditional PCs, that turns the wireless behemoth into major economic gatekeeper on the internet — a situation that would flagrantly violate the net neutrality principles that govern landline internet but were waived for mobile. That was a huge policy mistake, and now we're paying the price.

The smartphone revolution was all about escaping the stifling and restrictive control of the carrier walled garden for the freedom of the internet. With Sponsored Data, AT&T is trying to put those walls back up.

Aurich Lawson / Thinkstock

AT&T today confirmed a long-rumored plan to monetize wireless data caps by charging content providers for the right to serve up video and other media without chewing up consumers' monthly data limits.

Sometimes called 1-800-DATA, AT&T billed the plan as "a new way for eligible 4G customers to enjoy mobile content and apps over AT&T’s wireless network without impacting their monthly wireless data plan."

Basically, the price of data is being charged to content providers instead of consumers. The rates for consumers and business will be similar. "We will offer AT&T Sponsored Data providers a wide range of options," an AT&T spokesperson told Ars. "Customers will be billed according to usage, with costs varying by amounts of usage. Rates are comparable to consumer rates."