Stardock announced the third major update to its digital distribution platform, Impulse today. Known as Impulse: Phase 3, the update includes a host of new features.

Impulse Phase 3 includes five major new features that developer Stardock believes will be compelling to both PC users and software publishers. These new features are:

1. The Impulse client has had its user interface significantly improved and updated with features such as player rankings, achievements, intelligent match-making, and more. It also includes a new tray application that lets users track friends, receive update notifications, and much more.
   
2. The beta of Impulse Anywhere, a new web-based method for users whose home Internet connections are non-ideal to download their software on another machine, take the files home and install them.
   
3. The release of Impulse Reactor, a development platform that lets users add many new features to their games without having to re-distribute a third-party client (i.e. users don’t have to distribute the Impulse client). Impulse Reactor includes features such as intelligent match-making, multiplayer tournament support, NAT negotiation, friend lists, rankings, community features and much more. Gas Powered Games’ much anticipated PC game, Demigod, is being released next week and makes full use of Impulse Reactor.
   
4. Impulse Reactor Overlay, an in-game overlay that lets users instantly access chat, friends lists, profile data, micro-expansions, and more. Demigod will also be the first title to make full use of this.
   
5. Game Object Obfuscation (Goo) - An alternative method for developers to protect their intellectual property. Goo allows developers to associate licenses with people rather than their PCs which will eliminate the issue of “limited activations”. It also provides the underpinnings to support vendor neutral software downloads and transferring of licenses.

“One of the key things about Impulse Reactor and Goo is that it’s a win-win for users and publishers. For users, it begins the process of our customers owning their software license. For publishers, it provides the highest level of security for their software but in a way that doesn’t inconvenience legitimate customers,” said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. Stardock is in the process of migrating from traditional activation on its digitally distributed software to Goo and working to incorporate Impulse Reactor into its existing titles.

One of the first publishers to adopt Goo is Paradox Interactive, whose titles on Impulse will soon be protected via the new technology.

In addition, Stardock and Activision Publishing, Inc. recently signed a distribution agreement which will make select Activision titles available on Impulse in the near future. Stardock expects to add additional major publishers this spring.

“With Phase 3 of Impulse completed, we are now focusing on bringing the catalog of games and applications on Impulse up to parity with what is available on other services,” said Wardell.

For further details about Impulse please visit www.impulsedriven.com.

This May we intend to launch a completely re-designed WinCustomize.com. The new site will be a major departure over the existing site with an emphasis on speed, ease of access, and efficiency.  The site will “seem” a lot simpler because there’s a lot fewer clicks.

What you see above is an early version of it (all the thumbnails will, for instance, be re-created as high quality PNG’s instead of low quality JPEGS).

One thing not shown here is that the Library list in the Explore menu won’t say “CursorFX” of “Dream” but instead say “Moue Cursors”, “Animated Wallpapers”. When the user’s mouse cursor goes over it, the right-side will explain what it used to make it happen. This way, new users understand intuitively what they are customizing and experienced users can quickly see which programs are being used for it.

With over 3 million monthly users, WinCustomize is the world’s most popular site dedicated to desktop customization so we’re putting a lot of work to make sure it’s done just right.

Even in beta, one of the things that’s really amazing is how easy to navigate the new site is versus the existing site.  For example, on WinCustomize today, if I want to read articles I have to click on”Articles” and wait wait wait for the articles page to come up. Then I get a list of top articles and newest articles along with a running log of featured articles.  It’s just a lot of “stuff” to deal with.

By contrast, on the new site, I click on articles, a menu comes down that quickly lets me navigate to what I want to get to, often without having to go to a seperate page.

Same thing for the community page.  Right now, users click on community which then takes them to the master forum list page which takes a good 5 to 10 seconds and then they decide what they want to read.  On the new WinCustomize, a user clicks on community and the menu pops up listing the most recently responded to threads along with options to jump to a particular forum right away.

Of course, it’s in the libraries (which are currently called galleries but are being rebranded as libraries to support Sins, GalCiv, Demigod, and Elemental mods along with other mods in the future) that the magic will really come in handy. For instance, right now, if I just want to find a wallpaper, it’s a pain to find one that fits my monitor.  On the new WinCustomize, I’ll be able to just search on 1920x1200 wallpapers and then download.  IF I’m a WinCustomize subscriber, you’ll be able to simply press a button to make that wallpaper your background immediately (to give you an idea of the direction we want to take for subscribers).

Stay tuned for more info.

Fences is one of my favorite applications I have running on my desktop.  Having a clean and organized desktop is very important to my productivity, and Fences solves any issues I had with a messy desktop due to icons scattered all over the place.

I wanted to give another quick walkthrough of Fences in case this is the first time you have seen it.

Fences is available as a free community preview, which you can download from here.

https://www.stardock.com/products/fences/

Fences on the Desktop

You can organize your Fences however you want on the desktop, but there are also pre-defined styles you can also use.  You also have a preview Windows shows an example of how they will look.

There are also a variety of options for customizing the look of Fences.  You can easily adjust the opacity of Fences by using the slider control, and you can even adjust the colors to fit the theme you are using.

My favorite feature of Fences is the ability to hide the icons currently on the desktop.  By simply double-clicking the desktop, the icons will disappear and re-appear when double-clicked again.  As you can see in the screenshot below, the Recycle Bin icon didn’t change.  That is because you can right-click an individual icon and exclude it from being hidden.

Stardock announced today that the forthcoming update to its digital distribution platform, Impulse, will include a new technology aimed to pave the way to solving some of the common complaints of digital distribution.

The new technology, known as Game Object Obfuscation (Goo), is a tool that allows developers to encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock’s virtual platform, into a single encrypted file.

When a player runs the game for the first time, the Goo’d program lets the user enter in their email address and serial number which associates their game to that person as opposed to a piece of hardware like most activation systems do. Once validated, the game never needs to connect to the Internet again.

Goo has a number of unique advantages that developer Stardock believes both gamers and developers will appreciate:

1. There is no third-party client required. This means a developer can use this as a universal solution since it is not tied to any particular digital distributor.
   
   
2. It paves the way to letting users validate their game on any digital distribution service that supports that game. One common concern of gamers is if the company they purchased a game from exits the market, their game library may disappear too.  Games that use Goo would be able to be validated anywhere.
   
   
3. It opens the door to gamers being able to resell their games because users can voluntarily disable their game access and transfer their license ownership to another user.

“One of our primary goals for Impulse Reactor is to create a solution that will appeal to game developers while adhering to the Gamers Bill of Rights,” said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. “Publishers want to be able to sell their games in as many channels as possible but don’t want to have to implement a half-dozen ‘copy protection’ schemes. Game Object Obfuscation lets the developer have a single game build that can be distributed everywhere while letting gamers potentially be able to re-download their game later from any digital service. Plus, it finally makes possible a way for gamers and publishers to transfer game licenses to players in a secure and reliable fashion.”

Because Goo ties the game to a user’s account instead of the hardware, gamers can install their game to multiple computers without hassle.

Goo will be released on April 7 as part of the upcoming Impulse: Phase 3 release. Stardock also expects to be able to announce multiple major publishers making use of Goo in April as well as adding their libraries to Impulse.

Impulse is poised to exceed one million customers in the next week despite only being launched nine months ago.

To learn more about Impulse, visit www.impulsedriven.com .

An update to WindowBlinds is available today bringing it to version 6.4.110.  WindowBlinds is an application that allows you to completely change the look and feel of Windows XP and Vista by applying visual styles, also known as skins, that change the Graphical User Interface of Windows.  Thousands of skins are available for download on WinCustomize.com, and WindowBlinds is safe to use as it does not alter or patch any system files.

This update brings:

• Updates for Safari, Skype 4, and IE8 tweaks.
• Bug fixes

Current users can download this update via Impulse.  WindowBlinds is available stand-alone, or as part of the Object Desktop suite of desktop enhancements.  A free trial is available and the full version is only $19.95. 

For your free download, and more information about WindowBlinds, visit www.windowblinds.net.

GDC (Game Developers Conference) is going on this week, so Brad Wardell along with other members of the Stardock team made an appearance on the ExtremeTech.com podcast.

They talk about Impulse, skinning, gaming, Windows 7, and more!  It’s a great episode so be sure to check it out!

• A Closer Look at Windows 7 with Impulse Podcast
• Podcast

Windows XP is not down for the count yet, and I still use XP on a daily basis with VM’s and with my Acer Netbook.  Speaking of Netbooks, since their popularity is really taking off I thought it would cool to feature some XP theme and WindowBlinds skins that really work well with the smaller screen on the Netbook. 

Many of us enjoy some of the wild and bold themes available, but in all reality, they are a bit difficult to work with on a Netbook, so these skins I have found to be more minimal and look great at the same time.

SouLuna

This skin by The Morphium has a basis in the Windows XP luna theme, so it’s good for people who don’t want to stray too far from the default look. 

Arzo

If you want to get a just a little bit more wild with a theme, then Arzo by JJ Ying might fit the bill.  Arzo makes great use of transparency that will surely make other jealous of your desktop.

Chocolate

This skin by patrick24 is a beautiful minimalist skin, that also includes a few substyles with different colors.

OpusOS

One of my all time favorites is OpusOS by b0se, ported to WindowBlinds by Snidely Whiplash.  This works perfectly on a small screen, and has a very clean design that is easy to work with.

As you might know, we announced that Stardock will be giving away a custom built gaming PC worth over $4000 to the millionth Impulse customer.  I was told the specs, and I’m just in awe of what an awesome machine this is.

I wanted to share the specs of the gaming PC just to give you a taste.  I will update the post once we get some pictures taken.

Custom Built:

• Case: Ikonik RA-X10 Full Tower
• Processor:  Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz
• RAM: 12 GB DDR3/1600 MHz Corsair
• CD:  Sony 5X Blu-Ray Player/DVD-RW Burner
• Power: 1,000 Watt Power Supply
• Video: 2xATI Radeon 4870x2 in Crossfire
• Monitor: 24" LCD Widescreen
• Sound: Creative Labs SoundBlaster X-Fi Fatality Pro
• Speakers:  Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround System
• HD:  2 TB RAID-0
• OS:  Microsoft Vista Ultimate 64-bit

Whoever ends up with this, is going to be one lucky gamer.

Stardock Corporation announced that its digital download platform, Impulse has grown to close to a million users since its launch last summer. Impulse (www.impulsedriven.com) enables users to purchase and download PC software including games, utilities and applications. The nine-month-old Impulse platform now boasts games from THQ, 2KGames, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcatcher, Epic, Paradox as well as numerous new applications, utilities, anti-virus and more. To celebrate its success, Stardock will be giving its one millionth Impulse customer a brand new top-of-the-line gaming PC worth more than $4,000.

Impulse attributes much of its early success to customer-friendly experience as well as aggressive pricing such as its "Weekend Impulse Buys" in which selected titles are up to 70 percent off for that weekend.  Another reason Stardock cites for Impulse's success has been its support of local currency conversion which has been popular with both users and publishers that use it. 

"We're very pleased with how quickly Impulse is growing," said Brad Wardell, president & CEO of Stardock. "The digital distribution market is still in its infancy, ensuring that publishers and consumers both have choices this early on ensures that this market will continue to be dynamic and competitive."

Stardock will be at the Game Developer's Conference meeting with publishers as it prepares to formally unveil Impulse Reactor, a library that allows publishers to provide effective protection for their software, in-game chat, ‘friends’ lists and micro-expansion purchasing. Impulse Reactor does not require publishers to change any code in their software or include a third-party client with their title. This allows publishers to have a single executable to be sold at retail or digitally that is vendor neutral.

Wardell continued, “A big part of our upcoming focus with Impulse is to work with publishers to ensure that they don't lock themselves and their customers into a particular vendor. That means providing technical alternatives to publishers they can count on and the best possible user experience for our users."

Next month Stardock plans to release the third major update to Impulse since its release which will include features such as Impulse Anywhere (ability to download your title from a web page on one PC and then install on your home PC), and the full release of Impulse Reactor, which will provide in-game features from Impulse seamlessly and an updated Impulse client with a host of tweaks and changes.

Gas Powered Games' new real-time strategy game / RPG Demigod will showcase the new Impulse Reactor features on April 14th.

"By Impulse's first birthday, we expect Impulse to be the 2nd largest digital distributor of PC games and to have nearly all of the major PC game publishers on board," said Wardell. 

To learn more about Impulse, visit www.impulsedriven.com.

I was happy to see so many people found the first edition of Impulse ‘Tips and Tricks’ so helpful, so I was anxious to be able to write the next one.  In the first article we covered the 'Blue Orb’, and some of it’s basic functions like pre-release versions, log-in’s, etc.  I wanted to expand more on the Orb as it holds much more than what we first discussed.

Download Impulse from www.impulsedriven.com.

The Orb….continued

As mentioned, we will continue on with our journey with the ‘Orb’ in the upper left-hand corner of Impulse.

Reset Data

Clicking the ‘Preferences’ text will open a new settings Window that holds more settings, including some advanced ones.  Lets start with the ‘Reset Data’ button as seen in the screenshot below.

Pushing this button will redownload the XML data, and can be used when you are encountering some problems.  Those would include having trouble updating or installing applications or games. 

Folders

Choosing the ‘Folders’ link under the advanced settings option, will give you access to install, archive, and temporary files locations.

This area is pretty self-explanatory, and if you need to change the location of any of these directories, then just click the ‘change’ button and select the new location.

That covers a majority of the settings found in the Orb, and should be enough information for most users to know their way around preferences now.  Next up, we’ll talk about organizing and customizing Impulse to your liking.