Zachtronic’s latest programming game, Shenzhen I/O, has exited Steam’s Early Access program. Vaguely similar to PICO-8’s fantasy console, but Shenzhen should be most familiar to people who played TIS-100. I wrote a little bit about TIShere last year, where I wondered “who the heck writes assembly today unless they’re writing code for embedded systems?” That was a little bit of a premonition, as Zachtronic’s Shenzhen I/O is all about writing assembly code for tiny embedded computers with a light helping of laying out circuits. Those layouts are (so far in my game, I’m still not far in) just connecting inputs and outputs between multiple embedded computers that you’re programming at any time.
The version of solitaire included on the fantasy desktop in Shenzhen is good fun, but maybe one of my favorite parts is getting the feelies together. I don’t have a printer anymore, so I had to get the manual printed out at an office store and order the binder online. Putting something physical together for a game is so strange anymore.
Shenzhen I/O is a ridiculous programming game that is available now for Windows, macOS, and Linux/SteamOS, on Steam for $15. It’s on sale for $13.49 until the 24th.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is coming out tomorrow and it turns out that players on Windows will be split depending on which digital store they buy the game from. If you buy the boxed copy you get a Steam code and can only play with other players who bought the Steam version. If you buy the game from the app store built-into Windows you can’t play with Steam players. This is according to an FAQ on Activision’s support site for Call of Duty, via IGN, and goes for both Infinite Warfare’s multiplayer as well as the remastered version of Modern Warfare.
If you’ve been playing Call of Duty on Windows for a few years you’ve probably seen what I’ve seen, it feels like there are fewer players in multiplayer than ever, and it’s impossible to find anyone playing any modes except for team deathmatch. I can’t believe anyone would splinter the smallest of the three groups of players (Playstation 4, Xbox One, Windows) intentionally.
Rocket League has cross-platform multiplayer across Xbox One and Steam, so it doesn’t seem like a policy prevents multiplayer from functioning between Microsoft-purchased games and other platforms. Really strange move on Activision’s part.
Apple held an event today at their Town Hall in Cupertino to announce new Macs. Here’s what got announced.
Accessibility
Apple opened with a video produced using their accessibility features, and announced a new accessibility website demonstrating them. As I get older I find myself using more of these features, so I am glad they are there for everyone. We will all need to use accessibility features eventually.
Apple TV
Tim Cook announced Minecraft coming to the Apple TV before the end of the year.
The big Apple TV announcement was a new app simply called TV. Apple’s Jen Folse demonstrated the new app that gathers together all of the shows and movies you are watching from any source (iTunes, Showtime, CBS, etc) in one place. It’ll keep track of what you’re watching, and let you know when a new episode is available. Or offer new suggestions from whatever apps support the feature.
The TV app will also keep track of your television service authentication. So, if you’ve signed into your brother’s Comcast account, you shouldn’t need to re-authenticate into every new app that supports that login.
Folse also demonstrated viewing live programming via Siri. Tuning into the news or football worked smoothly, but It is kind of strange that live TV isn’t part of the TV app.
TV will be available for Apple TV, iPhone, and iPad, this December.
Touch Bar & New Macs
Macbook Pro photo by Apple
Tim Cook introduced a video featuring their new MacBook Pro with a touchscreen bar at the top of the keyboard that dynamically changes to suit whatever applications you’re using. It’ll replace the row of function keys. Phil Schiller was on stage to introduce the new Macs and explain Apple’s reasoning behind the change. The marketing name for the touchscreen bar is Touch Bar. That sounds like a place I wouldn’t like to drink.
Schiller’s reasoning for this change was that the function keys are 45 years old, and that Apple had been replacing them by default for years with various overlaid functions like laptop brightness, multimedia keys for playback and volume, and other functions specific to macOS.
These overlays on the function key strip have changed to accommodate new features in macOS over the years, and it was always strange if you had a laptop that didn’t have the most current function-key overlay to launch features like expose that gave you an overview of all your open application windows.
The function keys are still available by holding down the function-key (fn) modifier on the keyboard, but the Touch Bar is split into a few sections.
An application area to the left displays functions relevant to the currently running application, like a photo carousel to swipe through. Craig Federighi demonstrated a series of functions for Mail that give quick access to replying to a message and then once you’re typing the Touch Bar will display suggestions similar to an iPhone’s predictive suggestions. While typing up these impressions and switching between the Notes app on my Mac and iPhone I noticed how much more annoying it is to have to reach into the right-click menu on the Mac, which is full of options, just to get the most important ones like replacing a spelling mistake with a suggested word.
As someone who is frequently in the terminal, I appreciated that Apple demonstrated a set of touch bar keys for their Terminal application. That is particularly handy for getting back an escape key even if it is virtual. While macOS is going to offer a setting to use caps-lock as the escape key, I would probably still prefer a permanent physical escape key on the keyboard over a virtual one.
To the right of that, in about a third of the Touch Bar area is the control strip that gives you access to all of the features that were previously overlaid on the function-key area like volume control. Since macOS Sierra introduced Siri to the Mac, there’s a button to access Siri in the Control Strip and that is a feature you might have previously expected to replace a physical key on the keyboard.
Each of these first two sections, the application area and the control strip, are customizable to display the controls you want.
Many of the new virtual controls on the Touch Bar will offer functionality that was previously only available through keyboard shortcuts, but will now be surfaced to anyone who jumps into an application on one of these MacBook Pro laptops.
All of the way to the right of the Touch Bar is a Touch ID sensor as seen on the iPhone. In addition to replacing the power button, this fingerprint reader logs you into your Mac and authorizes Apple Pay purchases through websites that support the functionality. Users can also switch to their desktop by scanning their fingerprint.
The new MacBook Pro laptops have a T1 chip which includes a version of what Apple calls the Secure Enclave that stores your fingerprints and protects them from being accessed by malicious software.
This is the first major MacBook Pro redesign in a long time and both the 13 and 15 inch versions are thinner and weigh less than the previous versions of the MacBook Pro. The new design is more in-line with the MacBook. New color options for the finish are silver and space gray.
Unfortunately these new MacBook Pro’s are losing the MagSafe connector. Before it was introduced, I had broken at least two laptops by tripping over the power cord and pulling my MacBook off a table like an idiot. The magnetic connector of MagSafe was one of the most important quality of life improvements to Mac laptops and a feature that I can’t ever recall a Windows laptop successfully cloning.
Replacing the MagSafe power connector, and all of the older USB options, are four USB 3.1 Gen 2 type-C ports. Intel and Apple call these Thunderbolt 3 ports. Any of the USB-C connections can be your power adapter port. Apple demonstrated them alongside a new 5K monitor from LG that also charges the laptop. It’s called the LG UltraFine 5K display, it is also a signal that Apple is unlikely to be in the monitor business in the foreseeable future.
Although both laptops are faster than their previous-generation counterparts, the 13 inch MacBook Pro only has integrated graphics while Apple has chosen AMD’s Polaris architecture chips for the 15 inch MacBook instead of Nvidia’s 10-series.
There is also a new 13 inch MacBook Pro without some of the new improvements like the Touch Bar. It’s designed to be a step up from the regular MacBook and MacBook Air. The Air is now the thickest laptop Apple sells, which is kind of ridiculous given the name.
All of the new MacBook Pro laptops have a base configuration with 256 gigabyte SSDs, the 13 inch models have 8 gigabytes of RAM. The 15 inch has 16 gigs.
They’re all available from Apple to order today, although the 13 and 15 inch models with the Touch Bar won’t ship for a few weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVPRkcczXCY
The new 15 inch MacBook Pro looks like a great laptop to replace my late 2013 15 inch MacBook Pro some day, but it has been 742 days since the Mac Mini was updated, and 1,044 days since the Mac Pro was updated. Apple sells a lot of laptops, but I’m disappointed that desktop Macs without integrated screens are dying and Apple did not address users looking for those options during this event.
The Dungeons of Dredmor developers have taken their new clockwork empire management sim, Clockwork Empires, out of Steam’s Early Access program and released it to the world of steampunk fans. If you enjoy murdering fishpeople, or being terrorized by them, this is the game for you.
Nintendo teased that the NX would get revealed in a short video today and here it is. The device codenamed NX now has an official designation, the Switch, a docking combination of home-console and portable device with a detachable controller that splits off of the main tablet-style unit to become two smaller SNES-style controllers for multiplayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI
This is a path that Sony had been going on with the Vita, which was the first major console to bridge handheld and console play. You could remotely play games from a Playstation 4 to the Vita. Some Playstation 4 and Vita games could also be purchased digitally for one device and that would provide players with both versions.
The Wii-U has not sold well and I don’t imagine many people were going to buy one as a gift later this year, but if anyone were going to they might want to consider waiting for the March release of the Switch. The Switch looks like it’ll run many games that people might have missed out on if they didn’t get a Wii-U like Splatoon and the Wii-U‘s iteration of Mario Kart.
In comparison to the 3DS, the Switch is a portable that is explicitly designed for and sold to adults and perhaps will not so much replace the 3DS as exist alongside it. You can’t put the Switch in a pocket, the tablet center of the device is too large. Nintendo handhelds have always been a little bit more durable than other companies portables and iPhones, but the Switch looks more fragile than the 3DS and comparable to an iPad in that respect.
Like the Wii-U and Wii before it, there will be a more traditional Pro controller available for the Switch.
Nvidia announced that a custom version of their Tegra system is powering the Switch. This will mean it has performance capabilities closer to a high-end tablet than modern x86-based home consoles. While a Tegra-based system will be easier to develop for than previous Nintendo hardware, it will still be more difficult for third party developers to bring Xbox One and Playstation 4 games to this hardware. However, 48 developers, publishers, and middleware providers announced support for the Switch. You can even see Bethesda’s Skyrim in the video above.
