Diablo III will feature old standards such as the quotable Deckard Cain, as well as a new version of Tristram and a fresh class dubbed the Witch Doctor. The jungle-born warrior will use ancient tribal magic to cast disease and mind control spells, in addition to utilizing pets such as locust swarms and mongrels.

The game will also include several control improvements, including full zoom capability and a hotbar to easily access skills. Players will be able to quickswap between skills using the mouse wheel or tab key.

Armor will now be class-specific, designed to provide each character a unique look. Classes themselves are more diverse, as it was noted that there will be female versions of both the Barbarian and Witch Doctor.

In a demo of the Barbarian class, the company noted that less of an emphasis will be placed on potions for health. Instead, red orb-like items will drop that immediately recover health once the player picks them up.

Environmental destruction was also shown off, with a character at one point busting through a solid wall. The environment can also be used to kill enemies, as in the case of objects that fell from a wall, killing a group of monsters.

Enemies were shown to be larger in scale than in past games, with giant evil trees and a massive demon called a Siegebreaker.

via ShackNews

“Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”

- Apple CEO Steve Jobs, Feb. 2007

Sun’s announcement that they will create a Java platform for the iPhone is like a wet noodle hitting the ground. “Plop”… who cares! The very specific wording used in the Apple iPhone SDK is as follows:

An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built- in interpreter(s).

Thus the only way Sun can maybe enable Java on the iPhone is to create a developer API / library that is used to build standalone Java applications. These could then be sold individually on the Apple store, if Apple permits this. This of course would also prohibit a Java runtime and the running of local jar files. The last thing I need on an iPhone is another layer of interpreted byte code so I can see some shitty swing interface, some slow running monstrosity, a java.io.exception, and random reboots. For that, I have a Blackberry 8800. I think I will take a silky smooth UI that has $100 million in application innovations around the corner. Apple knows best for consumer electronics. Also, some great slashdot comments (1 2) on this issue!

post title concept from Digital Daily

via nytimes.com

Now thats just epic! Also found this photo on Yabitt.net

via Yabitt.net