(Credit:
Valve)
If you enjoy (legally) downloading PC game content over the Internet, then you're most likely familiar with Valve Software's Steam, a platform for the delivery and management of PC games.
On Tuesday, Valve announced an upgrade to "Steamworks," a suite of publishing and development tools available to, well, publishers and developers for free.
The first of the new notable features include Custom Executable Generation (CEG) technology. According to Valve, CEG makes unique copies of games for each user, allowing them to access the application on multiple machines without install limits and without having to install root kits on their PC. Players that like to play from multiple locations (home, a friend's house, and definitely not work) should find this news heartening.
Another new feature is the in-game downloadable content (DLC) and matchmaking system. Developers can now deliver new content from inside the game itself. Users can now make new content purchases and immediately experience the new content in the same same game session. Without necessitating a restart.
The new "Steamworks" matchmaking system utilizes the same lobby system used in Left 4 Dead.
These new additions are good news especially for smaller developers that need this kind of regular support from Valve, when using Steam as a distribution system.
Much more information can be found in Valve's "Steamworks" brochure.
Also, check out the Games for Windows - LIVE announcement made by Microsoft today to see if you can pick out the similarities.
There's a lot of action in the browser market these days: Google just launched its Chrome browser, Firefox 3.1 is due in months, Apple hopes Safari will spread across the world of Windows, and Microsoft is touting its second beta of Internet Explorer 8.
But a huge swath of Internet users is still getting by with IE 6, which is no doubt is why Google just released a new version of Gmail for the vintage 2001-era browser.
The update means IE 6 users will get access to colored labels for messages, Gmail Labs features, integration with AOL Instant Messenger, and invisible mode for IM, Google engineer Jon Perlow said on Google's Gmail blog on Friday. The upgrade catches IE 6 users up to features available to users of Firefox 3, IE 7, and Safari 3.
Google said it worked with Microsoft's IE engineers on some of other issues, including memory-related performance issue when running JavaScript programs in the browser, and Google pared back some user interface features that had been causing trouble for IE 6 users.
It shouldn't be like this. Technology and engineers' capabilities are advancing so fast right now that everything that is good about a current product can, in theory, easily be built into its successors. But sometimes this doesn't happen. Here are a few choice examples of upgrades that are downgrades, and why you're better off with the older tech:
Vista
Apple's ads run in the most creative places.
The obvious number one product for this list. Vista is the new shiny operating system Microsoft released to replace Windows XP. Except it hasn't, because it's a poor upgrade. It's slower, bigger, and buggier. Many people, not just those in the opportunistic Apple ads (and Apple has its own problems), would rather get a new computer with the old XP operating system.
Why it happened: Books will be written about Vista's failures, which, in fairness, probably have as much to do with Microsoft's need to support a vast universe of third-party hardware and software products as with flaws in Microsoft's marketing and software development strategy.
Quicken
Ouch.
Intuit apparently believes that new users won't buy a personal accounting product if it's last year's model, and it also wants to upgrade its current users each year. So it "sunsets" older versions after three years: it turns off online access to bank updates and eliminates support. Sadly, some older versions of Quicken are faster and more stable than the new versions. But if you're a Quicken user, you can't stick with "classic" versions without giving up useful online features.
Why it continues to happen: Intuit has locked itself into a yearly upgrade cycle on a product that clearly takes more than a year to update.
Linksys WRT54G
The old WRT54G wireless router was a reliable and economical product, but a few years ago Linksys released a version 5 of the product that they knew was buggier. Knowledgeable users were able to get the older version by shopping online for the special "WRT54GL" router, which was really the previous version. It cost a few extra bucks, but it was a far better value.
Why it happened: Cost cutting, pure and simple. I covered this in 2006.
... Read more
Facebook has a new group called Facebook Sneak Preview that is the social-networking equivalent of a focus group. The Facebook team will be showing off screenshots of upcoming Facebook features to get feedback to potentially avoid another user backlash like the one that came with the news feed privacy hullabaloo of 2006.
Right now there are three screenshots showcasing an updated layout with less clutter and more commonly used navigation put in the right places. One change in particular shows the networks selection option and the message in-box in a tabbed menu bar at the top of the screen. Normally if you're a member of multiple networks, you have to select between them halfway down your profile. Putting that and your message in-box on the top is just a good idea. There are other little tweaks, but it's good to see them taking an active approach to making the site more user-friendly.
Not new--but cool nonetheless--is the option to comment on each screenshot, allowing users to add their opinions on the changes. The same goes for a general forum on the main page of the group, which is currently being moderated by Facebook staff to keep conversation on-topic. We've got all three screens below.
[via Facebook Blog] ... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
