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The long-troubled — and previously aborted — development of Duke Nukem Forever is getting a new life, as 2K Games revealed Friday morning at PAX that the game is not only in development but is playable on the show floor.

The game’s coming to the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC for 2011. Gearbox Software is finishing development. GamePro is checking out the game later today — check back this afternoon for a preview.

“I can’t believe it, either,” said Gearbox Software CEO and President Randy Pitchford in the livestream showing off the game. ” You guys [the crowd at PAX] are among the first people in the world to play it.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but it’s totally real. We can’t let the Duke die.”

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The U.S. and Canadian governments this week said that Toshiba is voluntarily recalling some Satellite laptops for posing a burn hazard to customers.

Laptops could overheat and possibly melt the area around the notebook’s plug-in to the AC adapter, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada said in a joint statement.

The burn hazard results from a faulty component. Laptops being voluntarily recalled include the Satellite T135, Satellite T135D and Satellite Pro T130 models. The model and part numbers are located on the bottom of the laptops, and begin with PST3AU, PST3BU, or PST3LU, according to Toshiba’s support Web site

The laptops were sold in stores and through online retailers, including Toshiba’s Web site, from August 2009 through August 2010 for between US$600 and $800.

The hazard affects about 41,000 laptops worldwide. Toshiba has received 129 reports of either overheating or of plastic casing melting around the AC adapter plug, the CPSC and HC said. The reports included minor burn injuries and property damage.

Toshiba has released BIOS revisions for the laptops that can disable external power after failure. Toshiba said batteries cannot be recharged until the problem is fixed. Toshiba has asked customers to call the company’s product support line for repairs.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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Orange claims to have introduced technology that will lead to the end of distorted and crackling mobile phone calls. The company’s high definition (HD) voice service is being offered to 3G customers of the France Telecom-owned mobile operator.

The move follows a survey in which 75 percent of mobile phone users said that call quality was the most important feature of their device, Orange said that the new technology would help mobile phone users handle calls in the noisiest environments.

The technology will mean that mobile users will be able to pick up nuances in callers’ voices, something that is not always possible with conventional mobile telephony.

Martin Stiven, VP of Business at Everything Everywhere, the company which runs Orange UK, said: “HD Voice is going to change the way businesses are able to communicate through our mobiles from conducting calls in places that were not previously possible to the ability to hear emotions in people’s voices. People are going to love the clarity of calls and the lack of background noise.”

The Orange HD Voice system uses a different voice codec to standard mobile calls. It uses a wider range of bandwith – 70 to 7000Hz – compared to the narrower 300 to 3400Hz used by conventional mobile telephony.

At the moment, Orange HD is confined to just two models, Nokia E5 and the Samsung Omnia Pro 5230, although the company has said that further models will be introduced in the coming months.

All contents copyright 1995-2010 Network World, Inc. http://www.networkworld.com

The New Meadowlands sports complex has once again proven that a gigantic stadium also requires a gigantic IP network.

10 sports technologies to love and 5 to hate

In less than two-weeks, when the New York Giants inaugurate the New Meadowlands stadium with its first regular-season game, fans will have the benefit of using a massive IP network that will be responsible for HD video displays, processing credit card transactions and delivering Wi-Fi connectivity to fans’ wireless devices.

How big is this network, you ask? Let’s start with the 60 telecom closets dispersed throughout the stadium that provide connectivity to the roughly 10,000 IP ports in the complex. Each closet is an estimated 200 square feet in size and contains a Cisco Catalyst 6500 switch, a Catalyst 3750 switch, a cellular antenna system for wireless connectivity and an uninterruptable power supply system to protect the infrastructure from power surges. Each closet receives a 40Gbps Ethernet connection from a telecom base system that acts as the center of the massive IP network.

Branching out a bit, the telecom closets are used to provide Web connectivity to the stadium’s 2,200 HD video displays that provide customized content for users depending on where they are in the stadium. For example, different displays will provide advertisements for different shops that are closest to where fans are standing. They can also provide customized information for the nearest exits from different areas as well as menus for different restaurants in the area.

Click to see: Picture of the new Meadowlands Stadium

 The IP network similarly provides Wi-Fi connectivity for any Wi-Fi-capable device in the stadium, allowing fans to access similar promotional content and stadium information on their smartphones. All of this content will be managed through StadiumVision, Cisco’s content distribution system designed specifically for major entertainment venues.

“Each display can have customized content pushed to it, not just in terms of media content but also different types of information for each area,” explains Ron Ricci, Cisco’s vice president for corporate positioning. “The Internet is the most efficient and effective content distribution system on the planet.”

Even more intriguing is what Cisco and Verizon have set up in the stadium’s high-priced luxury suites. Among other things, the suites are equipped with touchscreen Cisco IP phones that act as remote controls for HD displays and also have apps that let fans order food and merchandise that will be delivered directly to their seats in the suites. The phones will also come equipped with an ever-expanding array of applications that can provide them with additional entertainment or information during the game.

“If a fan is a fantasy football player, we would develop applications where you could have their fantasy stats for the day pop up in real-time as games are played,” says Peter Brickman, the CTO of New Meadowlands. “You can even start initiating little competitions for games like with other people in the suites.”

Brickman says having every function within the stadium go through the same IP network has provided a strong cost advantage to the stadium as it doesn’t have to maintain multiple networks that cover entertainment, video and the Internet. This is in contrast to the old Giants Stadium, where he says that “we had separate networks for everything and a lot of control rooms that weren’t IP-controlled.”

He says in addition to its massive size, setting up the network was particularly challenging because it had to be done while the stadium was still under construction. So instead of coming into a finished building and installing equipment, technicians had to wade through sawdust and construction workers to install the entire network without even having the benefit of air conditioning. In the end, though, Brickman says all the work and toil that went into installing the network will be worthwhile as it will give fans a more integrated game experience.

Read more about lans & wans in Network World’s LANs & WANs section.

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Pixelmetrix, the global expert in Preventive Monitoring for digital television and IPTV networks, will be at IBC, Amsterdam, to demo its slew of comprehensive TV Monitoring Solutions. Featuring new and enhanced applications, these are built to help operators optimize their operations while reducing operating costs.

Industry watchers and TV specialists alike can check out these solutions at the Pixelmetrix booth 1B24:

• Automated Channel Package & Parental Control Audits featuring the Electronic Couch Potato™ (ECP) with these newly introduced applications for viewer experience monitoring.

• Affordable TS Monitoring featuring the DVStation-MiniІ TSP Lite for terrestrial and cable networks.

• Contribution Monitoring featuring the DVStation-Remote with TSP120, ASLF090 and DVProbe-S2 providing in-depth TS analysis with H.264 video stream support.

• Terrestrial Network Monitoring featuring the DVStation-MiniІ DVB-T with RF measurements and TS analysis.

• Time-shifting with Logo Insertion featuring the DVShift which can also be used to delay programming or accomplish ethnic rebroadcasting.

• IP Headend Monitoring featuring the DVStation-IPі and IPGen for complete video over IP monitoring and stress testing of network interfaces.

• Transport Stream Recording and Playout featuring the DVStorІ that offers a highly scalable, stable compliance recording with hot standby redundant switchover.

• End-to-End IPTV Quality of Service Monitoring featuring the EndGame DVAgent, the answer to quality management for IPTV content aggregators and operators.

Danny Wilson, Pixelmetrix President & CEO said, “We have an exciting line up of products at this year’s IBC. In these times, operators are looking for new, innovative and cost-effective solutions to their problems. We are ready!”

Pixelmetrix develops a host of IPTV and Preventive Monitoring systems that offer unique attributes and versatility, allowing operators to achieve end-to-end visibility and keep tabs on their network architecture.

The IBC show will be held from September 10 to 14 at the RAI Convention Centre, Amsterdam.

I’m not sure I’ll ever care about 3D, which seems like a slick, gimmicky additive to me, but if you do, Sony says its first stereoscopic 3D laptop will hit the grid next year. The laptop (or a prototype, depending who you read) was in fact just demoed at the IFA 2010 technology fair in Berlin.

It’ll sell under the company’s Vaio brand, and include a 3D button that, when pressed, will lend three-dimensional depth to a 2D image. Tap the button again, and you’re back to classic two-dimensional viewing at 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution. The idea’s to let you play video games or watch high-definition movies in 3D (the laptop will presumably have a Blu-ray player).

Ah, but here’s the catch: You’ll have to wear a pair of active shutter glasses to make it work. Which means you’ll have to haul potentially scratch-able, bendable, and eminently smudge-able shades around with you everywhere. Oh, and no hunkering in your basement to avoid stares (or smirks) from curious onlookers, or the fashion police, warning you Devo wants its eyewear back.

Why Sony isn’t launching a model that works glasses-free, like Toshiba’s standalone TV, or Nintendo’s ultramobile 3DS, is anyone’s guess.

HP’s apparently planning much the same: The company just announced a similar 3D laptop in its Envy family (it’ll also require glasses) due out by the holidays.

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer says the laptop will be available through regular retail channels next spring. No one’s certain what it’ll cost, or how much of a premium Sony will charge for the 3D angle, but Sony says it’ll be fast, display up to 240 frames per second, which would put it well ahead of the competition. It’ll also use Sony’s version of “black frame insertion,” which inserts a black frame between normal video frames to improve pixel response and improve black levels.

All that sounds well and good, but do you want a 3D laptop? Do you really care about this sort of pseudo-3D (still just a trick, after all)? Do you want the added eyestrain, if you’re one of those (like me) who experiences it? The extra gear to carry around and worry about scratching or breaking?

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Mobile operator O2 published a study today suggesting millions of broadband users were wasting money buying broadband services too fast for their needs.

O2 head of home and broadband Felix Geyr said, "Sixty-two per cent of broadband consumers in our survey would prefer their ISP to provide packages based on their specific needs."

He added that the industry therefore needs to "tailor its services to people’s needs, help consumers understand exactly what they should be buying and avoid marketing based solely on speed".

The survey of 2,000 consumers found that although the average UK user has an "up to 20Mbit/s" broadband package, the large majority only require an up to 8Mbit/s package.

O2′s reasoning is based on what customers said their top three most frequently used applications were.

Email was the top application for 77 per cent of respondents, while 74 per cent said they used broadband for general web browsing, and 51 per cent for paying bills and online banking.

"On the other hand," said O2, "services that require high bandwidth and more expensive packages are used much less frequently."

These include streaming multimedia content through iPlayer or other streaming applications (18 per cent), and downloading music and films, five per cent and three per cent respectively.

Thinkbroadband.com co-founder Sebastien Lahtinen said that O2′s research "clearly highlights the need for the industry as a whole to re-think they way it sells broadband".

"Consumers need to be educated about what kind of service they need to cover their daily usage and the industry needs to help them to make informed choices, " said Lahtinen.

"While some users will want the fastest possible package, others may find they can save money by picking a package that is more suitable to their specific needs," he pointed out.

Microsoft on Thursday started featuring a small advertisement on its Bing home page for Internet Explorer 8 in an apparent effort to encourage more people to migrate to the latest version of its browser.

With the launch of Bing, Microsoft came up with the unique concept of displaying a new photograph on the home page each day, but it also generally followed Google’s precedent of an otherwise sparse page. The Bing site features the search bar and a few links along the outer edges of the page.

Now, it also features a small link in the right corner of the photo that says: “Fast. Easy. Get Internet Explorer 8.” The link goes to a page that presents IE8 as optimized for Bing and MSN and lets people download the browser.

Bing users can scroll through past photographs that appeared on the home page, and doing so now includes the ad overlaid on the previous photos.

Microsoft did not immediately reply to a request for comment about its strategy for ads on the Bing home page. But on Wednesday, it said in a blog post that it planned to continue to encourage people to upgrade from IE6 to IE8. IE6, the widely used browser released in 2001, is notorious for security holes and incompatibility with some Web standards.

“Over the past several months, you have seen us talk about some of the ways we’re helping customers get off IE6 and onto IE8 and soon IE9, coming in beta in just a few weeks,” Ryan Gavin, senior director of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer business and marketing, wrote in the blog post. “From our work with enterprise customers, to consumer campaigns like adios IE6 and spoiled milk, to joining the fun at the IE6 Funeral — these efforts will continue.”

The blog post followed Net Applications’ release of browser market share figures for August, showing that IE 8 continues to grow its market share while IE 6′s share continues to drop. Overall, however, market share for Internet Explorer was down slightly, according to the report.

Nancy Gohring covers mobile phones and cloud computing for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy on Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy’s e-mail address is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

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The Apple TV was launched back in 2007. Over the past four years Apple has received a fair bit of negative feedback about the device, which it always referred to as a hobby.

The problem with the Apple TV is it’s always lacked content and cost far too much – for the device itself, and the content.

On stage at the keynote announcing new iPods, Apple CEO Steve Jobs summarised some of that feedback, claiming users wanted a device that was more consumer electronics and less a separate computer. He added that consumers also wanted something considerably cheaper.

As a result of the feedback, Apple TV is now cheaper. Previously the device cost a whopping £223 now it retails at £99. There’s been some debate about the pricing comparison between the UK and US. In the US the device was previously £229, and now costs $99. Clearly the pricing comparison has always been unfavourable to the UK shopper. Bearing in mind that the US price doesn’t include sales tax, the UK price before tax, should be more comparable with the US pricing, but excluding VAT the UK price is £84.26 (or $129.76), which leaves UK shoppers paying around £20 ($30) more. In a press release, Apple claims the extra cost “includes approximately £23 VAT, duty, and levies”, and notes that, “VAT, duty and levies may vary over time”.

Not a computer

Due to Apple’s feedback from consumers that they would prefer the Apple TV to be less of a computer, Apple has removed the hard drive. When the Apple TV launched in 2007 it had a 40GB hard disk. The most recent model had a 160GB hard disk. Removing the hard drive is certainly one way to keep the cost down.

Due to the lack of storage the Apple TV will simply stream video from either the iTunes Store or the local network. The good news is that on the inside the specs have been updated to support 720p video at 30 frames per second (the previous model could only hack 24fps, and even then there were often issues). This is a big deal because a lot of TV-show content is shot at 30 frames per second, and Apple wants everything on the new Apple TV to be in HD, including TV rentals (although Apple does appear to plan on offering SD TV show rentals – presumably for any content not available in HD).

There’s no support for buying stuff anymore, just renting movies and TV shows – if you want to buy stuff and keep it forever, you’ll want to do that on your computer and then stream it to the Apple TV.

The Apple TV’s video features rely heavily on an iTunes Store rental model. In the US Apple has deals in place with ABC and Fox. In UK Apple has no such deals in place, but still offers movies and TV shows for rental and to buy on the iTunes Store. It’s unclear how the rental scheme will translate in the UK when the Apple TV goes on sale here in late September. In the US TV shows can be rented for 99c, while movies can be rented for $4.99 for the newest titles. Apple says HD versions of the newest movies in the UK will be available to rent for £4.49. Currently new movies can be rented for £3.49 for newer films, or £2.49 for older films. Apple has a deal where films are available to buy for £3.99 at the moment on the UK iTunes Store.

UK TV shows are currently available to buy for anything from £1.19 for an episode of Red Dwarf, to £1,89 for an episode of Grand Designs, and £2.49 for an episode of Ugly Betty. Buying a whole series outright lowers the per episode price.

As previously, rentals must be watched within 30 days; once you begin watching a movie, you need to finish it within 24 hours – a feat we have found often isn’t possible. Television shows, on the other hand, get a 48-hour window. For TV shows, the Apple TV will also track which episodes you have watched.

In the US Netflix subscribers can get access to the entire Netflix streaming library on their Apple TV. Apple has not disclosed whether the Apple TV will stream from any of the UK online TV offerings, which include BBC iPlayer and Channel 4OD, or whether it will work with movie rental services such as SeeSaw.

As an alternative to TV and movie rentals direct to the Apple TV it will be possible to stream movies and TV shows from your Mac (or PC) or even your iPod touch or iPhone running iOS 4.1 and using AirPlay. The successor to Apple’s AirTunes media streaming feature, AirPlay allows you to begin watching a video or listening to music on one device and then switch to another device. You can start playback on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and then switch seamlessly to your Apple TV with just a few taps. AirPlay will require iOS 4.1, which Apple will ship next week.

The interface itself, it’s going to be pretty familiar to current Apple TV users. It’s the same remote-driven UI, with a series of menu items from left to right.

Size wise

The device is small – a quarter the size of the original measuring 9.91 cm square and 2.29cm high. The tiny black box that will likely run cool and quiet due to its lack of a hard drive. You can pick it up and hold it in the palm of your hand, easily. On the back is a small selection of ports, far fewer than on the previous model. If you don’t have a TV that supports HDMI, forget it – this device has only an HDMI port for video out (and you’ll need to buy the HDMI cable). There’s also an optical-audio port, an ethernet jack (along with built-in 802.11n networking), and a USB port that Apple says is for support use only and not for any end-user functions.

The back panel sports interfaces for HDMI (with resolutions up to 720p), optical audio out, 10/100 Ethernet (complementing the built-in 802.11n wireless), and a Micro-USB port for service and support.

It also ships with the same Aluminum Apple Remote that Apple released last year; you’ll also be able to use Apple’s Remote app for iOS devices to control the Apple TV.

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Apple’s big overhaul of iTunes, announced Wednesday, turns the media management software into a fledgling social network thanks to a newly introduced feature called Ping. I would have expected more from Apple with this first attempt at building a community around iTunes. It’s not all bad, but if Ping doesn’t improve soon this music-oriented social network will bomb faster than an American Idol wannabe.

Of course iTunes also received a facelift with an improved interface and new logo. But with Ping baked into the new iTunes 10, the software is so much more than media management, offering now a music discovery service powered by recommendations from your friends and favorite artists. You can use Ping to share albums or songs you like, display your iTunes purchases and concerts you plan on attending.

To get started with Ping you set up a user profile and then find other people to follow including friends and artists. The activity for everyone you follow shows up in an activity feed where you can comment, like or re-post items to your followers.

I’ve only been trying out Ping for a few hours, but here are some early impressions of Apple’s new social networking service.

Friend Discover: Not so good

Ping lacks an easy way to find out who among your friends is already using the service. You can’t integrate with Facebook Connect, Twitter or an address book to find people you know. Perhaps Apple is concerned about the privacy headaches that type of contact integration would entail. Importing contacts could raise questions about how long Apple is storing your information, where it is storing it, how secure its storage practices are and so on.

But Ping really needs some sort of discovery mechanism that allows people to easily find their friends. The only option you have right now is to send out e-mail invitations to specific people.

Ping in iTunes App: Not so Good

Ping is integrated right in iTunes with no Web-based alternative. That prompted Twitter user Jason Mauer to comment that Ping feels like “a social network in prison.” That may be a little harsh, but there’s no question that Ping is a walled garden where little external information can get in or out.

You can, however, share album information out to Facebook and Twitter, just like you can through the iTunes Store. But with Ping being so locked into iTunes instead of a browser, I have to wonder how many people will become frequent Ping users.

Privacy: Good

Apple’s privacy settings are very straightforward with three simple options. You can set up your account so that everyone can follow you and see all your iTunes activity including album likes, comments and iTunes purchases. If that’s too public, you can authorize anyone who wants to follow you, but your name, photo and the city you live in will be made public. If you want to go completely private, you can lock down your Ping profile so that no one can see you or find you on iTunes, but you still have the ability to follow others.

Sharing: Pretty Good

On Ping, you can make comments on someone else’s iTunes’ activities, such as what albums or songs they purchased. Correspondingly, Ping displays your iTunes purchases. If you discover music through someone you follow, you can also re-post that music to your activity feed so that the rest of your followers can see it.

Right now, Ping is solely for music so you can’t add likes for videos, podcasts, audio books, or mobile apps. However, considering that iTunes is all about helping you discover content and make purchases on the iTunes Store, I would expect to see Ping’s focus expand over time. It would also be nice if you could share albums and songs stored in your personal music library.

One other thing to note is that Ping is a tiered service in the sense that there are two levels of users: artists and consumers. If you’re just a regular consumer, you can’t submit content such as photos and videos from recent concerts you attended.

Photo Approval: Strange

When you sign up for Ping, you are given the option to upload a profile photo, but it won’t show up right away. For some reason, Apple says it has to approve your profile photo. I assume Apple does this in case you try to post something the company considers obscene or infringes copyright claims. Perhaps, and this is only a guess, since Ping is inside iTunes, Apple has to take greater responsibility for user activity than they’d have to with a Website. Whatever the reason, I have to wonder if approving every user photo isn’t overkill on Apple’s part.

Overall, Ping is an interesting service, although it’s nothing to get excited about. If I had to guess user adoption for Ping won’t be that high. It’s a nice service, but it just doesn’t have the sharing flexibility that are a part of other social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

Connect with Ian on Twitter (@ianpaul).

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