Impulse Phase IV Released
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 by Island Dog | Discussion: Personal Computing
Stardock is excited to announce the release of the fourth phase of its popular digital download platform, Impulse .
Impulse enables users to quickly purchase, download, install and update any of thousands of available games, applications, and utilities to their machine. Once purchased, the program becomes associated with their account. If a user purchases a new PC or reformats an existing PC, a user can install Impulse, log in with their account and instantly re-download all their programs.
In the year since its initial release, Impulse has garnered widespread support from major game and application publishers. Most new PC games, for example, are now released on Impulse and a growing number of application developers are releasing their titles on Impulse as well.
“The objective of Impulse is to make it so that your software truly belongs to you,” said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock . “Anyone who has ever dug through boxes of CDs or looked through old emails to find a serial number can recognize the advantages of Impulse.”
In addition, PC gamers will soon be able to make use of a new Impulse feature called “Ready to Play”, a revolutionary new free program that allows users to create instant virtual communities based on profiles in order to quickly get multiplayer games going with like-minded people.
“Imagine Match.com or eHarmony for PC gamers where users enter in their gaming preferences and some profile data and with that data, Ready to Play can recommend other gamers with similar gaming preferences. My idea of what is ‘fun’ in an online game is probably different from that of say a teenager,” said Wardell. “With Ready to Play, now you can quickly get games going with ‘recommended’ friends.”
Ready to Play will go into wide beta as part of the Impulse Phase IV roll-out this week. To learn more about Impulse visit www.impulsedriven.com .
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Reply #22 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 6:11 PM
That's odd. For me, it defaults to whatever tab was opened when I closed it last.
Reply #23 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 6:34 PM
Hmm. So the update appears to be an overhaul of the interface. Didn't quite know what to expect from the OP. And ready to play sometime this week.
Reply #24 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 7:31 PM
Man, that is pretty jarring to go to the Impulse site now versus just the other day when I put in my Elemental pre-order! I'd definitely agree to at least some darker, earthier colors---quite liked the sleek black of the other day!
Reply #25 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 7:43 PM
Well as far as I see it - this looks pretty good. That is with Vista so far. Will boot into Win 7 to see how that one goes. But the Impulse team should be rewarded for all the hard work.
I like it! 
Reply #26 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 8:36 PM
I for one really like the new design, especially the white background. Looks much "tidier". But I noticed one thing that's broken: The prices are finally displayed in my currency (€), but when a game is discounted, the original price is in €, but the new one in $.
One more thing I'd like to see changed: The list/overview of games should be scrollable by mouse, I don't like to have to click buttons to switch to the next page. And at the left side under "Availability" there should be a point for all the games which are on sale, too.
Reply #27 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 8:52 PM
I'm a fan of the new look. It's less fischer-price than the last one 
Suits my desktop more!
Reply #28 Thursday, September 10, 2009 2:23 AM
I like the new look, too... I was expecting more due to the buzz, but it looks to be nice step in the right direction for Impulse.
Reply #29 Thursday, September 10, 2009 2:27 AM
Woo. No more having to tell people that the orb is a menu.
Reply #31 Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:46 AM
"Click the Orb in the upper left. Yes, the one with the lightning bolt icon; it's actually a menu. Yes, I know it's wierd. No, I can't get it changed." Over and over again!
Reply #32 Thursday, September 10, 2009 3:56 AM
The orb was nice but it wasn't exactly obvious it was the main menu button.
Reply #33 Thursday, September 10, 2009 4:34 AM
Maybe some office software company didn't like it other people were using the orb too 
Reply #34 Thursday, September 10, 2009 6:30 AM
i agree, ditch the white background. It's horrible
Reply #35 Thursday, September 10, 2009 7:01 AM
I only use Impulse because I'm told to, i.e. for software downloading/updating. But I dont care for the new white background. The old one with the gradient effect was much nicer. Also, restore the Orb and nothing will be said!
Reply #36 Thursday, September 10, 2009 7:10 AM
Yes, I don't think much of the white background either.
Everything else is a step in the right direction.
Reply #37 Thursday, September 10, 2009 7:21 AM
Well folks the orb in Office 2010 is also gone. Kind of replaced by a tab like button! Thus the new look is consistant with other software of the future. But not all completely alike...
I like the part where it automatically resizes the page to view of the page. That and it is a bit smaller more tightened up a bit.
Reply #38 Thursday, September 10, 2009 9:37 AM
Reply #39 Thursday, September 10, 2009 10:29 AM
That doesn't mean that I have to like it.
I don't like the direction that MS has taken with Vista and Office 07, and I don't like the new Impulse GUI.
At least give people a way to choose (with an option button to switch or whatever).
Reply #40 Thursday, September 10, 2009 11:34 PM
Why does the "community" tab bring up NVIDIA drivers?
*EDIT* uninstalled and reinstalled impulse and found out it was caused by me previously intalling the NVIDIA version.
P.S. I like the white background.
*EDIT, EDIT*
Please bring back the old orb menu.
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Reply #21 Wednesday, September 9, 2009 6:02 PM
I agree, background needs to be a little darker. I would sure like to see the ability to set your default tab when opening Impulse too, it always defaults to the My Games tab, and if you don't play games, it becomes quite irritating.