LG has announced it will reveal a 77-inch TV at CES 2014 which will be capable of a 3840 x 2160 pixel resolution and use an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display, giving above HD graphics on an OLED TV for the first time.

The 77EC9800, as it is being called, will join a few other smaller TVs such as the 55-inch 55EC9700 and 65-inch 65EC9700 as part of three OLEDs in LG’s twelve-model strong 4K lineup for CES. Given LG’s track record of being first to market with new technologies, the EC9800 series is likely to be one of the first shipping 4K OLEDs in the United States.

The 3840 x 2160 resolution is one of a number of recent standards TVs are adopting which have commonly been nicknamed “4K HD”. The name refers both to how close the width is to 4,000 pixels (even though it’s still a distance away), and because it’s more than twice the current HD standard in pixel density in both directions, making for a supposed 4x improvement. One of the advantages of 4K is that you can sit closer to it than regular HD TVs and not see pixel structure–making this similar to the effect given by an Apple Retina display, and particularly handy for larger screen sizes – although one must remember it is unhealthy for the eyes to get too close to a TV.

LG’s new high-end TVs including the EC9800 also feature an upgraded Motion Remote. Though most specifications are still undisclosed the company has confirmed the EC9800 will include HDMI 2.0 and HEVC decoding. It will also have a curved screen – LG’s recent innovation for supposedly improving viewing angles, although it sometimes results in a glossy screen that is not particularly good at reducing reflections.

The television will be available in June 2014 but pricing is yet to be announced.

Not long ago, Typo Products LLC – a company part-founded by American Idol host Ryan Seacreast – revealed its first new product, an iPhone case with a difference, which was scheduled to release next month. The “Typo Keyboard” case covers over the iPhone’s dedicated button and utilises the bezel below the screen to add a physical QWERTY keypad directly below, for easy typing without using the touch-screen – at the cost of a slight increase in the phone’s length; and the dedicated iPhone button replaced by a single, tiny key. Many who saw the Typo case commented that the keyboard seemed to take design cues from the keyboard found on some BlackBerry phones – and it looks like BlackBerry themselves just took notice.

A Typo Keyboard case, minus the attached iPhone (courtesy Typokeyboards.com)

BlackBerry Ltd – the company behind the eponymous smartphones and systems – have filed a legal complaint in federal court in San Francisco, officially suing Typo Products for infringement on the basis that the Typo case’s keyboard too similarly copies the design of BlackBerry’s own patented keyboard as used on many of its own keyboard-equipped smartphones, most notably the recent BlackBerry Q10. “Typo chose to copy BlackBerry’s iconic keyboard design as embodied in, among others, BlackBerry’s Q10 smartphone, seeking to trade on BlackBerry’s commercial recognition and goodwill,” the Waterloo, Ontario-based company said as part of the complaint.

Left: The Typo Keyboard case attached to an iPhone. Right: A BlackBerry smartphone. Could you tell the difference between the two keyboards?

BlackBerry is seeking a court order preventing Typo from infringing BlackBerry’s designs; and another order for taking those designs off the market – effectively stopping Typo Products LLC from selling the Typo Keyboard from being sold or any similar products being created in the future. The first order also sets down that should BlackBerry win the case, the requested payment from Typo Products is all the profits made from the Typo and other infinging products, plus triple damages – which could total a substantial sum and would help BlackBerry greatly in its current financial situation.

Naturally, Typo Products disagree with BlackBerry’s claims, stating that the design of their own keyboard was independently developed based on years of development and research. “Although we respect BlackBerry and its intellectual property, we believe that BlackBerry’s claims against Typo lack merit and we intend to defend the case vigorously,” Erika Gutierrez, a spokeswoman for Typo, said in an e-mailed statement.

For those of a legal mindset, the case is BlackBerry Ltd. v. Typo Products LLC, 14-00023, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

A lot of Steam users today will have been met with a frustrating sight if they tried to access the Store or Community through their Steam launcher – that of a grey screen with only an error code upon it.

This is the second time in recent days that Steam has been hit with problems, apparently caused by a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack on the system by two people, both of who have taken to their Twitter accounts (@chFtheCat and @LARCENY_) to boast of their ‘feat’. The reasons behind the attacks, the first one which took place over the 1^st and 2^nd of the month (depending on whereabouts in the world you live), are still unclear at this point but for lack of a better reason e-fame seems to the goal of the pair.

As of writing both Store and Community can still be accessed through the Steam website 90% of the time, so this attack has been nothing more than a minor irritation and won’t really make much difference to Valve, except possibly a negligible hit in the sales of the days these attacks have happened. Twitter has also acted by suspending the account of @LARCENY_ although his friend is still active, tweeting in a manner you’d expect from someone who does this sort of thing for kicks.

Valve still hasn’t commented upon the attacks, but the Launcher being taken down twice in so few days is somewhat concerning even if the site still works. It’s currently unclear how long everything will be down this time.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning closed down this Wednesday (18th Dec 2013), when the licensing agreement Electronic Arts had with Games Workshop ended. A developer who worked on the game says there is a way to preserve its world in a kind of museum-exhibit way, should EA choose to release it.

Andrew Meggs, who was the lead client engineer for Warhammer Online when he was at Mythic Entertainment, says there was an option to run the game without a server in an unreleased, developer-only build of the Warhammer Online client. If EA released this, then fans could run around in the virtual world, explore it and remember the good times.

“There were no login or character selection screens,” Meggs wrote on his blog. “There were no NPCs or other players. There was no gameplay of any kind. It was just you and the entire world spread out before you. You could fly around like Superman, or teleport anywhere at will.”

An MMO without other players or quests is not an MMO, and Meggs isn’t pretending this would be one. He’s more suggesting it as a memorial to Warhammer Online’s five year run. “It’s a double-clickable museum exhibiting much of what WAR was, so it won’t be forgotten completely. It’s an effort by all of us, as developers, to preserve a living record as our transient medium is created and destroyed. I can’t do this; I left behind the code when I left EA. But there are people inside EA who can easily make this happen.”

It’s a nice thought but it leaves me feeling like the mere suggestion creates a no-win situation to crap all over EA, as if that’s not a forum pastime already. First, they’d have to release it for free, because otherwise, the story becomes “EA Wants Warhammer Fans to Pay for an MMO with No Quests or NPCs.” Secondly, this is a licensed game, which means the licensor would have to consent to all of this, and the agreement has expired. I’m guessing that contract is pretty absolute on proscribing EA from continuing this game in any form past the expiration date.

Closing an MMO is always painful to those who played it. Sometimes it’s best to just say goodbye and move on, rather than dredge up another reason to be disappointed by the company shutting things down.

WAR in a Bottle [Shiny Toys/Andrew Meggs, via Polygon]

Free browser game also an international success

All players of My Free Zoo will receive an extraordinary log-in bonus

Bamberg, December 19th 2013. German developer and publisher of free-to-play browser games Upjers is delighted about 8 million registered players in My Free Zoo. This highly positive number confirms the developer team’s efforts to implement new content into the game on a weekly basis. By way of thanks for their loyalty, all players of My Free Zoo (www.myfreezoo.com) will receive a unique log-in present.

My Free Zoo is celebrating its 8 millionth registered player. This success is due to enthusiastic zoo directors all the world over, and of course to the hardworking developers of My Free Zoo. Since its release not even two years ago, more than 100 animals have been added to the zoo simulator. Among these are several extraordinary specimen, such as the white lion or the Western Crowned Pigeon.

Almost weekly, new animals and new features are implemented into the game. Besides the possibility to breed animals, organizations have been introduced to the game. In these organizations, the players can help out their fellow organization members in their virtual zoos as veterinarians, mechanics, shippers and as environmental officers.

Upjers would like to say thanks to all 8 million players in My Free Zoo. That’s why all of them will receive a unique log-in present with their next log-in into the game. In accordance with this cold season, every player who logs into the game up until January 9th will receive an Ice Castle.

My Free Zoo can be played for free on https://en.upjers.com/my-free-zoo.