CrunchGear

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• Nintendo announces new Pokemon game, wiimotes, and hardware bundles
• This is what happens when your mother-in-law uses Internet Explorer
• Comcast launching “HomePoint” technology; welcome to 2001
• AMD’s Eyefinity reviewed on video for your pleasure
• Apple, Psystar ask for summary judgemets, looking to avoid trial
• Serious Sam HD’s “Sunshine and Lollipops” trailer is hilarious
• Is this my new laptop bag? The Chrome Buran
• Bookies think Modern Warfare 2 will be the best seller this year
• Crazy like a fox? Microsoft to release an ad-supported, introductory version of Office 2010
• Sound & Vision goes ears-on the Lincoln MKT THX II sound system
• Today on the CrunchGear Live Podcast
• Ticonderoga Antimicrobial Pencils: Say what?
• CrunchDeal: The Hitman collection for the PC
• If you live in Philadelphia, you have plenty to do this weekend
• Review: Canon Color ImageClass MF8050Cn all-in-one printer
• Reminder: We’re giving away an HP Envy 13
• Will Project Natal be anything more than a glorified tech demo? Here’s hoping!
• This is the problem with being charged to receive text messages
• Apple buying up so much flash it’s causing a bit of a shortage
• This is a voice guided coffee maker. Yes, you read that right.

Nintendo announces new Pokemon game, wiimotes, and hardware bundles Posted: 09 Oct 2009 08:52 PM PDT This is a good news, bad news, type of thing. Nintendo Japan just announced some really cool new hardware (including two new bundles) that’ll be out this December. The bad news is, it’s not coming to the US. So Japan gets a new Pokemon game, two new wiimote colors (blue and pink), and a new three new bundle options that we don’t get a crack at. Doesn’t seem fair does it? The bundles include games that aren’t going to be released in the US (Tales of Graces & Samurai Warriors 3) with special branded controllers and other goodies. In one case, the “treasure box edition” there is an action figure, a soundtrack, and an artbook. So tell me Nintendo, where is the love for us here in the US?

This is what happens when your mother-in-law uses Internet Explorer Posted: 09 Oct 2009 08:17 PM PDT I removed IE from the desktop, taskbar, Start Menu, and even hid the icon in Windows Explorer. I then installed Firefox and Chrome and renamed them both “Internet.” But yet somehow my mother-in-law still found a way to use Internet Explorer and wonders why her computer runs like poo. Oh, and she wants to keep all of the toolbars. She uses them.

Comcast launching “HomePoint” technology; welcome to 2001 Posted: 09 Oct 2009 04:30 PM PDT Comcast is preparing to launch their new service, Homepoint, which will provide a VoIP handset with integration to email, news, weather, and other services. Wait, doesn’t my mobile already do that? Honestly, this technology seems a bit outdated to me. You’ve got a VoIP handset that works with a wireless router to provide easy access to your email, weather, news, and contacts. Most mobile phones already do this, so why is Comcast doing this now? Admittedly the service will only cost $39.95 a month, but still, what’s the point? I mean, most mobile phones have this functionality by default, so it doesn’t really make much sense to offer it on a handset that’s tethered in your home. On top of that, it only works with one phone number, and requires that you also have broadband in order to get the full functionality out of the device. Rumor is that there will be a $5/month charge for the hardware, and then access to the service will cost you $39.95 a month. I’d be hard pressed to find someone who this would appeal to, even if they do bundle it with other services. Of course, Verizon tried something much like this before, and we all know how that turned out.

AMD’s Eyefinity reviewed on video for your pleasure Posted: 09 Oct 2009 04:00 PM PDT Some day, I too will have three identical monitors for gaming purposes. It’ll have to be in my game cave once I retire as an eccentric millionaire, though. Don’t have room for it here. That’s probably a good thing, though, since I also don’t have the money required, and besides that there are still a few quirks to be worked out. Not to mention the fact that the best games are barely playable on current hardware, since you have to run them at resolutions like 7680×1600. First, they need to shrink the bezels on some monitors. I’m tired of a big-ass border between my screens. Come on, guys, make it happen! Second, there needs to be no weirdo stretching on the games. Anamorphic widescreen is one thing, but having a 150-degree viewing angle is something you need to deal with more carefully than simply giving the player a fisheye view, or zooming in and giving them a portion of what they’d normally see. I know it’s hard, but do I look like I care? Back in your hole! Glitches or no glitches, it’s still out of my price range. It’s still enticing to be playing a game with full peripheral vision. Just git them bezels outta here! Check out the full review and other videos (Resident Evil 5, Left 4 Dead, etc) over at PC Perspective.

Apple, Psystar ask for summary judgemets, looking to avoid trial Posted: 09 Oct 2009 03:30 PM PDT This Apple-Psystar business sure is hotting up! Both Apple and Psystar have asked for summary judgments based on what they believe to be What’s Going On. Such an action would avoid a pesky trial, which would necessarily costs both companies a whole lot of money. Apple wants Psystar to be found guilty of copyright infringement and for violating the DMCA. Psytar wants Apple’s case thrown out because it says hasn’t violated a single thing. Its evidence? Parts of the EULA found in Mac OS X 10.5 and 10.6, as well as part of a Phil Schiller deposition. Psystar, you’ll recall, is that company that sells computers pre-loaded with Mac OS X. Apple says that doing such a thing is a violation of the rights of man and of the citizen. If the judge doesn’t issue a summary judgement in the favor of either Apple or Psystar, then we’ll be looking at a trial, and we all know that trials are treated as circuses in this country.

Serious Sam HD’s “Sunshine and Lollipops” trailer is hilarious Posted: 09 Oct 2009 03:00 PM PDT Video Games | Serious Sam HD | Exclusive Sunshine and Lollipops Trailer XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii If this is real, I’m gonna buy this game all over again, even if it means I have to pick up a 360. I love Serious Sam to an almost unhealthy degree, and this trailer makes the HD upgrade look even more awesome. In “Super Happy Fun Time” mode, the usual gibs and gore are replaced with stars, lollipops, and other pleasant things — not unlike Penny Arcade’s Gears of Conflict Resolution. Watch it in HD over at GameTrailers if you want to get the full effect. They’ve really gone all out on an advertising campaign for what is essentially a game that came out almost a decade ago. Remember the creepy supermercial from a couple months back? I’m sad this redux is going to be XBLA-only; I would love to have it on my PC. Who knows, maybe they’ll surprise me yet again.

Is this my new laptop bag? The Chrome Buran Posted: 09 Oct 2009 02:30 PM PDT I make no secret of my bag fetish. I love ‘em. And what with Seattle winters being as cold and wet as a dog’s nose, I’ve been thinking for a while of getting a weather-resistant laptop bag. My Manhattan Portage is far from a sponge, but I still feel the need to hold my umbrella over it when it’s pouring. I’d rather have something a little more… like this. The new Buran, from well-known bagmasters Chrome, is lined with “truck tarp,” which sounds pretty waterproof to me. In addition to that, the laptop-holding bit is further protected from the elements, in case… I don’t know. Just in case. It looks like it ratchets down pretty tight, too — I appreciate that, don’t need the cover flopping around all over the place. Makes a noise, and that’s bad news if you’re a ninja. It’s also a very handsome bag regardless of its ruggedness. I suppose that makes it ruggedly handsome, like Daniel Craig and myself. We’ll see how handsome and rugged it is in real life, anyhow, when I review it.

Bookies think Modern Warfare 2 will be the best seller this year Posted: 09 Oct 2009 02:00 PM PDT Anyone who has any doubts over what will be the best-selling video game this holiday season needs to check himself. It will absolutely be Modern Warfare 2. And while I can say that without anything real being put on the line, Irish bookie Paddy Power has given the game 8/13 odds as being the best-selling game. Here’s the top 10: 1. Modern Warfare 2 8/13 2. FIFA 10 3/1 3. Assassin’s Creed II 6/1 4. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games (what?!) 6/1 5. Wii Fit Plus 12/1 6. Halo 3: ODST 16/1 7. Uncharted 2 18/1 8. New Super Mario Bros Wii 18/1 9. Need for Speed: Shift 25/1 10. The Avatar Game 33/1 In other Modern Warfare 2 news, that up there is 20 more minutes of gameplay footage. It’s very exciting.

Crazy like a fox? Microsoft to release an ad-supported, introductory version of Office 2010 Posted: 09 Oct 2009 01:30 PM PDT Years ago, when Microsoft started pushing Internet Explorer, it enjoyed favorable adoption rates because, well, it’s already on there, so why not use it? (Law-breaking aside, of course!) That may be what Microsoft is thinking this time around with Office 2010. Redmond will allow OEMs to install Office Starter 2010 on brand new Windows 7 PCs. It will be a pared down version of Office, and one that will be ad-supported. That, of course, has caused the Internet to freak out. Microsoft is doing this to get people hooked, I guess, on the real version of Office, and to prevent people from using free, online alternatives like Google Docs. The theory is, if you give people a taste of Office, and let them use it without too many restrictions, then why would they go out of their way to find an alternative? Not everyone wants to replace their Windows shell with some fancy thingamajig. So you’ll have this ad-supported version of Office, which doesn’t include Power Point or Outlook, but then PC vendors will be able to sell license cards at retail, sorta like how you can buy Microsoft Points at Best Buy or Wal-Mart. You buy the card, then use the printed serial number to "upgrade" the starter edition to the Real Deal. That’s the thing: even though you’re limited in what you can do with the ad-supported version of Office, it’s 100 percent the full software suite residing on your hard drive. That mean cracks will be available within 15 seconds of the first ISO leaking from the manufacturing facilities. What this means for Microsoft’s online version of Office, which was also supposed to be a sort of introductory version of Office, is totally unknown. And yet I wonder how many people out there in Radio Land are still running Word 97—Word is the one application that pretty much everyone can use; not everyone needs Outlook or Power Point, you know—because it works just fine?

Sound & Vision goes ears-on the Lincoln MKT THX II sound system Posted: 09 Oct 2009 01:00 PM PDT The days of automakers shoving the same OEM radio into all of their cars are long gone – at least for vehicles over $20k. Now if you drop enough coin, you can get a system that will rival your home theater gear. Sound & Vision recently spent sometime with the THX II sound system found in the Lincoln MKT crossover. Spoiler: your audiophile dad should like it. I won’t give you all the details, but the article points out that the system’s sound is clean and detailed no matter what the volume is set at. This is thanks to a dedicated system of amps and processors, along with acoustical enhancements to the vehicle. The system’s single 8-inch sub does not pound per se though. Chances are that the people that can buy the $45k Lincoln new aren’t looking to bump. They just want to make sure El Rushbo comes in nice and clear. AUTOMOBILES

Today on the CrunchGear Live Podcast Posted: 09 Oct 2009 12:45 PM PDT Here are some of the topics from today’s podcast… HP Envy 13 giveaway Phishing! Multitouch mice Avatar toys New Wii Mario Bros. game LISTEN: Show Link | RSS Feed | iTunes Link

Ticonderoga Antimicrobial Pencils: Say what? Posted: 09 Oct 2009 12:27 PM PDT Two things I learned today: there is a blog dedicated to office supplies and on that blog is a set of Ticonderoga pencils with antimicrobial coating. OfficeSupplyGeek apparently bought these latex-free and antimicrobial pencils so he could test out a new pencil sharpener. He, like me, feels this is a bit disingenuous: My non-scientific opinion here is that if you want to make sure your kids, or you yourself dont pick up some germs at work or at school, wash your hands with warm water and regular soap, get a good nights sleep, and eat a healthy diet. Dont let manufacturers of office supplies or other products convince you that the way to go is lathering up everything with chemicals and relying on a quick and easy short cut to protect you from the Swine Flu or some other virus or epidemic. Seriously. It’s a pencil. It’s probably covered in e-coli, herpes viruses, and poop and, if it was in my pencil box in grade school, powdered Smarties. It also seems like OfficeSupplyGeek is very worried about people stealing his pictures of pencils so I left his warning in the image as a fairly accurate representation of the work we do here at CG in the first place.

CrunchDeal: The Hitman collection for the PC Posted: 09 Oct 2009 12:00 PM PDT Fan of the Hitman series? I am. Played the first one all the way through, killing off russian mobsters and blowing things up the whole way. Never made it through the other two though, got distracted by other games along the way. I’m going to try again though, because Valve is running a special on all three games for just $10. I just bought all three, since I misplaced my original CD years ago. If you’re better at keeping track of your software, you can buy the individual titles for just $4.99 each. Helluva deal any way you look at it. [via Dealnews]

If you live in Philadelphia, you have plenty to do this weekend Posted: 09 Oct 2009 11:30 AM PDT Philadelphites (Philadelphanaes? Philadelphonistas? Philadelphonzos?) – Philadelphians! You have your weekend all mapped out for you, assuming you're a geek. Start by going to the 2009 Video Game Expo today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Then either at 3:00 or 7:30 on Sunday, swing by the Kimmel Center and catch the magical sound shower that is… Video Games Live. It's a full orchestra that plays music from video games. You will like it. Speaking of Magical Sound Shower, here's Video Games Live playing songs from OutRun. You'll recall that OutRun is one of the greatest games in the history of gaming. That is all. Video Games Live [VideoGamesLive.com] Video Game Expo 2009 [VideoGame.net]

Review: Canon Color ImageClass MF8050Cn all-in-one printer Posted: 09 Oct 2009 11:23 AM PDT There is a code to which a cowboy cleaves. He never shoots first, he’s always kind to ladies, and he never buys more printer than he can handle. While I can’t speak for those out on the lone prairie, I can report that the 52-pound ImageClass MF8050Cn by Canon may be the heaviest printer I’ve had in my office to date. This isn’t a printer for scrap-booking or creating beautiful photomontages of your grandmother. The color printing is delightfully sharp but the speed and on-board features – the lack of a picture preview screen, for example – makes this an office printer through and through. It also has a built-in copier and fax machine if you’re into that stuff. It also scans from PCs or Macs. Because we’re basically talking about a large job printer here you won’t be printing many photos on this printer. However, it has excellent color reproduction and is just fine for color prints. A slight concern: the “media capacity” is 150 sheets on this puppy, which means you’ll have to refill it every few if you’re doing a few dozen pages per day. A 215 page document took 35 minutes – about 6 pages per minute. This included two paper jams and paper replacement. A full color, edge to edge photo took 30 seconds while a single black and white page, from warm-up to print, took 17 seconds. If you’re printing in bulk you can hit Canon’s expected rating of 12 pages per minute (B&W) or about 5 seconds per page. The thing is chock full of inputs including a front USB port, a rear port, and an Ethernet port. The include drivers automatically add the printer the printer over IP, which is an important consideration for offices with multiple PCs and Macs. Setup was seamless and quite simple. So who is this printer for? It’s for a small home office or small office with about ten users. It’s a massive printer and it’s built to survive heavy traffic. The color toner comes in four user replaceable packages and the printer itself costs $499 while the cartridges cost $75. I’m still into the Samsung CLP 315, a small, more compact printer, but if you need a monster with a scanner and fax machine, this is definitely a contender.

Reminder: We’re giving away an HP Envy 13 Posted: 09 Oct 2009 11:22 AM PDT You heard about this, right? We’re giving away a brand new HP Envy 13 (our review) to one lucky reader. But we’re asking you to do something a little more than just leave a comment for this contest. It is, after all, a $1700, unreleased notebook. Check out this post for all the details. Good luck!

Will Project Natal be anything more than a glorified tech demo? Here’s hoping! Posted: 09 Oct 2009 11:00 AM PDT Maybe I’m speaking for the minority here, but I have to get this off my chest: Project Natal is sorta "meh," no? I attended Popular Mechanics’ Breakthrough Awards for a few minutes last night, and they had on display Project Natal. It was that paint-throwing game. Now, I know that’s just a tech demo, but I left feeling a little concerned about its future. Now, it’s no secret that I’m an old school gamer who’s both afraid and annoyed by excessive change. I never bought a Wii for that very reason: I really don’t fancy flailing around like a fool when all I want to do is play a round or two of Street Fighter or whatever. (Admittedly, the Wii is fine for party situations when you’re all making fools of yourselves, and it’s about atmosphere more than anything else.) And while Natal—which always reminds me of Christmas for some reason—definitely gives off the initial, "Oh, that’s neat!" feeling, I really can’t see myself playing an entire adventure game using it. At the event was Natal, of which we were not allowed to take photos or video of, and a bunch of other inventions and whatnot that I can’t remember right now. I hung around for a hot 20 minutes, and the Natal demo was the same one that was shown at E3. You know, the one where you move your on-screen avatar to throw paint and whatever. And hey, it worked as advertised: you move your arm this-a-way and your avatar moves right along with you. It’s damn near 1:1. So again, the tech behind Natal is great. I’m just worried about the implementation. How many Wii games do you know that made real, clever use of the controller? How many shooters have tried to replicate the precision of a mouse and keyboard by having you move the controller in 3D space? What’s going to make Natal so different? At the very least it’s going to be a little while before we see the project’s Super Mario 64, something so radically different, if not radically better, than what preceded it. I don’t know, I’m rambling here, and lost my point several sentences ago. I guess I can boil it down to this: Yes, hooray for Natal and the underlying technology, because, yeah, it’s pretty damn amazing, I’m just having a hard time seeing it develop into anything more than a glorified tech demo. How would you play a Halo or Tekken with it?

This is the problem with being charged to receive text messages Posted: 09 Oct 2009 10:30 AM PDT Well it looks like my not-even-a-month-old new cell phone number is already out in the wild somehow. I received this unsolicited text message from a 718-area phone number, which Nicholas tells me is Brooklyn or Queens, New York (I’m in Boston). Couple problems here. First, I don't own a home and I'm not looking to buy one anytime soon. Second, I'd probably look for a reputable lender. Nicholas also said, "You can basically assume that if someone has a 718 area code they at least have a small knife on them at all times." I'm just not comfortable meeting with knife-wielding mortgage lenders at this stage in my life. Third, I'm not going to blame AT&T for this particular message. I can't say for sure that they sold my phone number – I doubt they did. If anything, my new number is someone else's old number – a number that could have been entered into one of thousands of web forms, reputable or otherwise. Whatever the case, it's out there now. I will, however, blame US wireless carriers in general for charging people to receive text messages, wanted or unwanted. If I didn't have an AT&T texting plan – I do, I pay $5 per month for 200 messages – then I would have had to shell out 20 cents to receive this unsolicited text. So it's either add a texting plan or pay for every text message that gets sent to me. What a racket. Now to be fair, I could turn off text messaging completely by calling up AT&T customer service and telling them to nix all text messages to and from my account. But what if I was a guy who wanted the ability to send a few text messages each month? I’m exactly that guy. I'm okay with spending 80 cents to send four text messages every month, I'm not okay with paying 20 cents for each text message that my dumb text-happy friends want to send me and I'm really not okay with paying 20 cents for Liberty Mortgage to invite me to a Beat It-style knife fight over a mortgage I don't need. If someone calls me and I don't answer, I don't use any of my plan minutes. That makes total sense. If someone sends me a text message I don't want, my options are to either pay 20 cents or to add what I believe to be a wildly-overpriced texting package. Doesn't seem right.

Apple buying up so much flash it’s causing a bit of a shortage Posted: 09 Oct 2009 10:00 AM PDT It seems that Apple has such of thirst for flash memory (for use in its iPods, iPhones, maybe tablets, etc.) that it’s having a profound effect on the flash suppliers. Tighter supplies, uncertainty about where to go for more flash, etc. Apple gets most of its flash memory from Samsung, but other people get flash from Samsung, too, and now they’re all, "Um, hey Samsung, do you have any flash for us?" Then Samsung shrugs its shoulders, "Yeah, man, Apple just paid us $80 zillion for the lot of it. You’ll have to go somewhere else. Sorry." With Samsung so busy filling Apple orders, other companies have stepped in to fill the void. The biggest one is called IM Flash, based in Utah (of all places!). How does affect you? I’m going to guess that it won’t affect you in the least. Where Apple (or Microsoft, or Dell, or YourFavoriteCompany) buys its flash should never cross your mind. I just found it interesting that Apple needs flash oh so bad that it’s freaking out other companies, and directly impacting their behavior. Oh, Apple. I like you better when you were the underdog. via 9 to 5 Mac

This is a voice guided coffee maker. Yes, you read that right. Posted: 09 Oct 2009 09:30 AM PDT You know which sector has been aching for interactive voice command features? Coffee makers. For instance, if I were to set the timer on my own personal coffee maker, I'd have to press the timer button, select the time I want the coffee to brew, and then press the timer button again to set it. That's two button presses with some button holding in between! Thankfully Hammacher Schlemmer is selling "The Only Voice Interactive Coffee Maker" for $100. Space-age stuff, to be sure. According to the product description: This is the first voice-interactive coffee maker that asks, “Would you like to set the clock or set the coffee brewing time?” and operates in response to your verbal commands. Simply saying, “Set the coffee brewing time,” or “Set the clock,” will prompt the machine to reply, “Please say the time, including AM or PM.” It uses an advanced voice recognition system to identify any time of day you speak, eliminating the hassle of fussing with buttons. I'm almost certain that this product is positioned at the aging baby boomer crowd but if there's one thing baby boomers hate more than trying to set digital clocks and timers, it's talking to machines. In that case, this coffee maker can be operated the old-fashioned way, too. The Only Voice Interactive Coffee Maker [Hammacher Schlemmer]

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