Everyone who participated in “Download Day” for Firefox 3 should pat themselves on the back. It has officially been given the Guiness World Record kudos for the most downloaded piece of software in 24 hours.

The final figure was 8,002,530, which is pretty impressive considering the servers didn’t respond too well to the huge amount of traffic initially. However, once they came back up they were pretty solid. If you are one of the people who participated in download day, you can fill your name out at spreadfirefox.com and get a certificate to print-out and keep. Just their little way to say thank-you I guess!

Firstly no-one really understood skymonkey. It’s an interesting name but doesn’t mean anything. TechSnake is obviously about technology, and a new character, “Harvey”, will be making his appearance known soon!

Secondly it appears domain squatters have decided that rather than read about tech news, the readers of skymonkey would rather gamble, or click on Google ads to do with Sky television. Skymonkey.com & .co.uk were stolen away and are now in the hands of the other side. I know that nobody (especially readers) wants confusion and I certainly don’t want to be associated with that stuff. So rather than compete, I thought I would move the traffic away from the name, and towards a new image - that of the Tech Snake. Snakes because they’re slippery, cunning and always hunting out their prey - kind of what I do on a daily basis trying to get the best news and interviews for you, the readers of the site.

So there we are - news over. Enjoy the tech. Also worth noting is a great post by Dazza today, about the different gaming engines available in the market today and what we can expect for the future. Plus why not check out the archives on the left? Some of the news is topical but it’s normally always interesting too! Enjoy!

Paul Godden

The last 12 months have seen new game engines coming out left right and centre. While most casual gamers wont know they are there, some of these engines look and feel great to use and really change how we play.

Last year it was Call Of Duty with it’s new proprietary engine which featured HDR lighting and depth of field, not forgetting bullet penetration - the engine taking factors such as the type of surface and the thickness into account thoughout each map. This year saw GTA with a new game engine RAGE. Whilst this is impressive, the Euphoria engine devolved by Natural Motion was a leap in a new direction for everyone. It can be worked into any game engine bringing life into the ageing ragdolls formula. Then, ahead of us we have Far Cry 2’s Dunia which looks untouchable in technical terms with things such as real-world weather, dynamic fire propagation and non-scripted enemy A.I.

But the one I want to talk about is one that has been made for one of my favourite games series, Battlefield. It’s called Frostbite (hence the article title, it’s there for a reason!). Currently only being used by the latest Battlefield game, Bad Company, the engine’s main and most visual effects are the real-time destruction - meaning you can blow a hole in just about anything. 90% of the gaming world can be destroyed with frames of buildings and other stuff remaining indestructible, to prevent the landscape from becoming completely flat. Remember, shooting a wall in any of the other BF games creates a big cloud of smoke and rubble but still the wall is intact. Well now the walls can be destroyed in some way - more so if its a more powerful weapon. To go along with this is one of the best sounding systems I’ve heard, with the HDR audio system, making the world feel like a battlefield with louder bangs and real-time sounds for weapons. Where games would use a sounds loop or sample for a firing gun, the Frostbite engine plays each sound as it is so a firing gun has sounds for every bullet. I don’t know the technical stuff behind it but it works a treat. I do know the game can play the more important sounds over the top of not so important sounds in real time, making the battlefield sound great with distant battles sounding like they are just that, distant. The engine also has new lighting to go with the dynamic battlefield with shadows changing with missing trees and walls.

Whilst I love DICE and their Battlefield series including the new Battlefield Bad Company on my Xbox, I am at heart a PC gamer. And to know that at the moment there are 5 BF titles in the wings (one being Heroes and a second for Korean gamers) I am feeling good this engine is making its way over to the PC. My problems with this engine is the fact you can blow a hole in the wall but can’t shoot through it like the CoD4 engine. I believe the features of the Frostbite engine and the CoD4 engine, if combined, would go hand-in-hand to make a great playing experience. Clipping is also a big problem for Frostbite with trees staying in shape for online play and branches resting through the ground. While it’s not a big deal, it’s still noticeable.

All in all I can’t wait to see the engine on future titles, with tweaks worked out and with the better processing power of PC’s should (I hope) see an improvement. Well done DICE you’ve made a great engine and I know you’re going to continue to make some great games.

• Full integration for TV as well as Radio
• A rewind and Fast-forward function for Radio, as per TV
• Easier Navigation, including Last Played option
• Combined categories for TV and Radio, allowing easier access to relevant content
• Larger TV viewing area
• A TV Schedule for viewer planning

So all-in-all a better experience for your online pleasure. But then we do actually pay a license fee for this stuff, so maybe we should demand it. Either way the iPlayer should be a bit more user friendly for the future after the updates.

After all the talks have turned to nothing, and shareholders prepare to oust the current board, there are tiny whisperings that maybe the Microsoft/Yahoo deal isn’t over - just yet.

Most of this is speculation, but there are already rumours about a renewed bid, far below what Microsoft originally offered. So is it just more gossip? Or (tin-hat time now I think) is it Microsoft using the public to revise interest in an otherwise dead pursuit? Maybe it’s true and Yahoo aren’t interested. Or maybe Jerry Yang has realised all the bad press for his failure to accept Microsoft’s offer has meant he’s had to go crawling back to accept a worse offer and retain his position in the company? All these questions, and only time will give us the answers.. Original source is this Reuters Article

You all know the story right? Ian Usher has put his life up for sale on the internet, with the aid of Ebay. By his life I mean his home, his job, his friends, his car - everything except himself. Interesting, quirky, but why did he trust the users of Ebay to “play fair?”

Just 24 hours after the bid began it was swamped with pranksters. People using other people’s accounts, people playing tricks on each other - you name it. At what point did Ian Usher actually think this wouldn’t happen?? It’s far too tempting for people to put in stupidly high bids - then “blame it on their friends.”

The current (authentic) bid for his life, as of this post, is about £189,000 ($372,000) which he says isn’t enough to cover the cost of the house! Check out the auction here, it ends in 3 days if you fancy moving to Perth.. And no fake bids please. I mean it.

This day 60 years ago, the first modern computer, nicknamed the Manchester “Baby” was switched on to run it’s first successful program. Baby was the first computer to store information digitally, using a Cathode Ray Tube (or CRT), and is the predecessor for how we store information in modern RAM chips.

The invention and concepts 60 years ago were monumental after people realised for the computer to be of any real use, the information would have to be stored permanently and electrically by the machine. Although the data was added by hand, the Baby would constantly read and refresh the bits on the CRT, it’s memory, electronically to keep them from decaying, and is a concept still in use by RAM today. By the time it was revealed this method was capable of storing 4096 bits.

The first program was run on the Baby, this day 60 years ago. One of the inventors, F.C. Williams, spoke of the monumental occasion, “A program was laboriously inserted and the start switch pressed. Immediately the spots on the display tube entered a mad dance. In early trials it was a dance of death leading to no useful result, and what was even worse, without yielding any clue as to what was wrong. But one day it stopped, and there, shining brightly in the expected place, was the expected answer. It was a moment to remember. This was in June 1948, and nothing was ever the same again.”

Firefox 3 is available for download from here right now. As you know if you’re a regular reader of the blog, I’ve been trialling the latest release builds and I can’t recommend them enough. Very stable and quick with improved security and features. If you think you’ll pick up the latest version, make sure you do it within the next 24 hours - Mozilla are trying to get into the Guiness book of World Records for the most downloaded piece of software in a day! Help spread the word!

Yeap - that’s right - in my opinion, Yahoo! has definitely done the wrong thing. They have struck a deal with Google, so that their search results display Google-ads. Why would Yahoo do this? Sure you can understand the temporary shareholder value increase, but in the long term can only spell death for the search engine.

So the company is worth more, at least in the eyes of the shareholders and Microsoft, but does that mean Microsoft are interested anymore? I don’t think so. Of course, we can only speculate on the intricacies of the contract struck between Google and Yahoo!, but I’m sure Google have worded the legalise to make sure their ad deal sticks, no matter who buys Yahoo! - you would be stupid not to. By penning this one deal, I think the following will happen:

• Google will remove Yahoo! slowly from the search arena and gain monopolistic proportions themselves - 82% according to ComScore
• Microsoft will instantly been turned off by a Yahoo! deal, partial or otherwise - Jerry Yang’s plan?
• The replacement of Yahoo!’s board with Icahn’s influence may actually carry some weight now
• An anti-trust lawsuit to follow if Yahoo dips out of search?
• Yahoo! to switch tactics and focus fully on community driven projects, with Google supplying the ads

So what next for Yahoo!? It looks as though they’re getting out of the search game to me, either by choice or by Google sucking them dry.. Anyone remember AOL as search? Didn’t think so..

We want to see an end to the Yahoo! Microsoft battle that will hopefully benefit the whole online community. However, with the current tit-for-tat goings on between Jerry Yang and Carl Icahn, it looks like the dispute over who’s more capable of running the company will go on for a few months yet - at least until the board of directors get a vote of confidence, or otherwise.

With a reply to Carl Icahn’s recent ramblings about whose is bigger than whose, Yahoo! are appealing to the stockholders to hopefully see the light and retain their confidence in an otherwise chaotic company’s recent history. Is Steve Balmer still rubbing his hands, ready to exploit the spoils? Or is he thinking of distancing himself further from this self-imploding wreck of a company? Only time will tell I guess..

So here we are, with the second instalment of Apple’s global domination plan, and what difference is it making to our lives?

OK, firstly I must hold my hands up and say that I am not an iPhone owner or user. I haven’t gone out of my way to get one, because to be completely honest I have more important things to spend my money on. Not that I begrudge anyone who has a few extra notes to spare, to throw it in Apple’s direction. One question really does keep popping up in my mind though - and I’m struggling for the answer..

Does anyone actually care about the iPhone? I mean, I’m in the UK so obviously it’s not going to be as big as it is in America - and also there’s the whole “if I subscribe to a contract, I expect a phone for free” mentality in this country, but I don’t think that explains the whole deal here. When I look around at the average person, I see people who have Nokias, and Samsungs, and Sonys and any other mobile phone make you’d like to throw in there. I don’t see many iPhones though (Not even a handful, to be completely honest.)

So it lead me on to a question (I’m getting good at these). Who actually buys iPhones? With millions and millions of them sold, surely I would be able to see a few in the street when I walk about, without living in San Francisco? And with the new version coming out very soon, with 3G and GPS and all other good things like that, surely everyone would be talking about them, no? Well no, and I think I know the reason. Bloggers. People like me and others spend all our time talking about them, and buying them, that everyone else is quite content to read it and move on. I think the vast majority of people that have bought iPhones are either bloggers, people involved in the tech industry, people who want or associate themselves with the tech industry or people that are quite happy thinking they’re with the “in crowd” (iCrowd?) and also believe that having an iPhone is the reason people will think they’re “cool.” Don’t get me wrong - it’s a great piece of kit, with some really intuitive and useful features - but does that make it essential to your average Joe in the street?

On my morning stroll though the news pages of the online gaming world I wandered into an old friend, “IL-2″. As it’s been so long since I’ve heard that name, I was drawn into what I was hoping to be some Storm Of War: Battle of Britain news. Unfortunately I was to taken to an Xbox360 news area. What I was to read and what I was to view was enough to make me want to put on my goggles and scarf and fire up the old boy.

The game I’m going to tell you about is IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey. Now it’s only a short piece but it does come along with a video and some screens. The game is the first console game from the makers of the hardcore PC flight sim. With arcade style controls and chase view HUD for the console world, it also has options for hardcore flying. With large scale combat and a new damage and physics engine the game looks impressive, with a large 3D landscape that tops the PC counter-part. Until any more news of Storm of War comes to light and if you own a 360 or PS3 this may just have to do until then!

August 1st is the date when a new board will be proposed by Carl Icahn, shareholder and expert at releasing cats amongst pigeons. Mr Icahn has publicly stated he will sack Jerry Yang, one of the co-founders of Yahoo, if he’s successful with his bid, along with a lot of the other directors.

I personally don’t think Carl Icahn is going to be successful with his bid - he’s starting to come across as a bit of a mad man, with his intimations of “showing Microsoft Yahoo! are serious about a deal.” Serious? Don’t you mean desperate? I’m sure Steve Balmer is rubbing his hands with glee at the moment with the negative discourse and division in the Yahoo! camp - ready to pick up the pieces once the dust settles.

Don’t worry - the Mission Impossible link is completely warranted here, as this idea was launched with Mission Impossible 3 in Japan last year. So the idea is Flexplay made a DVD with a certain air-reactive chemical on the surface, that when opened from it’s air-tight packaging makes the DVD useless in 48 hours.

So what’s the point? Why not just go to Blockbusters - why would the film studios think this is a good idea - other than as a gimmick? Then there’s the question of what happens to your DVD player if it’s playing one of these when the chemical goes off! Plus if you wanted to keep it, what’s stopping you making a copy like a regular DVD? I think I’m saying that I’m struggling to see the benefit (cost or otherwise) to this idea! Thankfully not available in the UK yet (if they ever will be).

Google Earth is soon to release a plug-in that will allow 3D content from the Google Earth archives to be displayed within your browser window - rather than using the stand-alone Google Earth app. The plug-in currently supports, in it’s Beta form, Firefox 2 and IE6/7.

This is a move, I think, that spells the end for the application, that has always seemed to fit strangely with the rest of Google’s ideals. The concept of cloud computing is lost a little when you have a clunky OpenGL app that needs to be fired up every time you want to find a location. To be honest I always use Google maps as I find it easier just for this reason. To me it looks as though Google realise this and are moving Google Earth over to a browser-only platform.