SimCity Getting Offline Mode Nearly a Year After Launch [Mac Blog]

EA is adding an offline mode to SimCity, nearly a year after saying it would require “a significant amount of engineering work” to do so. It should launch in the “near future”, according to EA.

SimCity launched on the Mac last August and immediately ran into a number of problems including installation issues and more, but they were resolved fairly quickly — particular in comparison to the extremely poor launch of SimCity on the PC.

SimCity‘s PC launch was more than a little rocky, largely because the game can only be played online. EA requires that the game be connected to its servers at all times. At launch, SimCity‘s servers were overwhelmed with traffic and the gameplay experience was extremely poor. Today, EA seems to have ironed out most of the bugs and users are playing the game as intended.

However, with offline mode “in the late phases” of development according to a post on EA’s SimCity blog, it remains to be seen if it is too little, too late, for the game’s fans.

Yes, Offline is coming as a free download with Update 10 to all SimCity players. When we launch it, all of your previously downloaded content will be available to you anytime, anywhere, without the need for an internet connection. We are in the late phases of wrapping up its development and while we want to get it into your hands as soon as possible, our priority is to make sure that it’s as polished as possible before we release it. So, until then… testing, testing and more testing. As one of the final steps, we’re putting Offline into the hands of some of our most hardcore players, the DevTesters. This group of volunteers is going to put Offline through its paces before we release it.

In Update 10, you can still play solo in Regions on your own, or in Multiplayer with people from around the world. What’s new is the Single Player Mode, which allows you to play the game Offline by yourself. And because your saved games in this mode are stored locally, you can save and load to your heart’s content. Our team will be delivering a follow-up blog that will outline the full details in the near future so stay tuned.

SimCity is available through EA’s Origin store at $40 for the standard game, or $60 for a Deluxe Edition that includes additional content. Purchases cover both PC and Mac platforms.

Apple Interested in Liquidmetal Alloys for Home Buttons, Touch Sensors, and Tamper-Resistant Screws

Back in 2010, Apple signed an exclusive agreement with Caltech spinoff Liquidmetal Technologies, providing Apple with the rights to use Liquidmetal’s advanced metal alloys for consumer electronics purposes. Liquidmetal’s amorphous metal alloys or bulk metallic glasses posses a number of characteristic properties such as high strength and corrosion resistance while remaining relatively light and able to be cast into a variety of forms.

Apple quietly tested Liquidmetal’s alloys in the SIM card eject tool for the iPhone 3G, but the materials have otherwise not been confirmed to have appeared in any other Apple products, as one of alloys’ inventors noted in 2012 that their use as major design materials was still several years in the future.

Evidence of Apple’s continued interest with Liquidmetal alloys has surfaced a number of times over the past several years, including in a granted patent from July covering a process for mass producing thin sheets of the Liquidmetal alloys and a series of technical patent applications published in November describing methods of working with the alloys to create products.

A number of patent applications addressing additional innovations with Liquidmetal alloys have been published since that time, including a batch of 17 applications published just this past Thursday. Many of these applications are not yet listed as being assigned to Apple, but the inventors listed on the patents are Apple employees who have routinely been associated with the company’s work on Liquidmetal alloys in the past.

One of these patent applications proposes using Liquidmetal alloys in pressure sensors such as those found in buttons and switches on mobile devices, offering greater durability under repeated use. Figures accompanying the patent application closely resemble the iconic home button found on Apple’s iOS devices.

Because switches on consumer electronic devices are operated frequently, the materials used to fabricate the switch must be capable of repeated deformation and return to their original configuration. The ability of a material to deform reversibly under stress is known as the material’s elasticity. Above a certain stress, known as the elastic limit of a material or the yield strength, the metal material may deform irreversibly, becoming inelastic, exhibiting plasticity and adversely affecting the function and utility of the switch. […]

A proposed solution according to embodiments herein for pressure sensors is to use bulk-solidifying amorphous alloys as the deformable material, and to measure the pressure based on the physical changes of the bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy as it is deformed.

Button or switch using Liquidmetal alloy as deformable material
Another application published in mid-December describes how Liquidmetal alloys could be used as material for tamper-resistant screws to help secure devices against unauthorized access.

A proposed solution according to embodiments herein for tamper resistance is a fastener having a head portion and a tamper resistant bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy interlock portion, wherein the fastener and the substrate into which the fastener is fitted into are permanently fastened via an interlock formed from the interlock portion during the fastening process.

Tamper-resistant screw made of Liquidmetal alloys
A third patent application addresses the use of Liquidmetal alloys as a substrate for touch sensors found in displays such as in Apple’s iOS devices. Apple describes how discrete areas of crystallinity can be created on the amorphous metal substrate, allowing for greater control and higher density of touch sensing arrays, thus giving greater positional precision for touch sensing.

Touch sensor grid using Liquidmetal alloy as substrate
Most of the remaining patents are more technical in nature, addressing methods for working with Liquidmetal alloys or assessing their characteristics. One such patent application does, however, address methods for applying or transforming coatings to an amorphous material, allowing for increased durability and strength by protecting the underlying metal.

All of these patent applications were filed in June or July of 2012, suggesting that Apple may have made significant progress on these disclosed inventions since that time. It is unclear, however, whether any of the techniques or proposed components have made their way into shipping products or if they remain in the research or prototyping phase.

(Thanks, David!)

Griffin and ShopKeep POS Announce ‘ShopKeep Mobile’ POS Case for iPod Touch [iOS Blog]

Following the release of an iPad point-of-sale (POS) stand last year, accessory manufacturer Griffin and ShopKeep POS have once again partnered up to announce the ShopKeep Mobile, a specialized POS case designed for the iPod touch. Using Griffin’s Olli technology and the ShopKeep POS app, the case features an encrypted credit card reader and laser barcode scanner to accept payments.

ShopKeep Mobile also comes with support for QuickBooks and the ability to create customer and item databases, along with the inclusion of an offline mode and printer support. The accessory can also email receipts to customers, with options to toggle discounts and sales tax also included.

Griffin also announced a partnership with Square at CES 2014 to release the Merchant Case + Square Reader for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5, which is a specialized case that integrates itself with Square’s mobile card payment system for added convenience.

The ShopKeep Mobile accessory is in production beta and is expected to be available soon.