CrunchGear |  |
- Daily Crunch: Human Assist Guidance Thanksgiving Edition
- Buffalo announces world’s first 12x Blu-ray burner (and it’s USB 3.0, too)
- Video Game Network Machinima.com Gets $1.7 Million In Funding
- Winter is coming; modify your gloves to work with your phone’s touchscreen!
- Chevy Volt’s UFO noise to be driver-controllable
- Awards: Best of Black Friday
- Yahtzee semi-likes Modern Warfare 2
- Gift Guide 2009: Best Gifts for Nostalgic Gamers
- The 5 Rules of Black Friday
- 4iThumbs: The craziest way to make your iPhone keyboard slightly more physical
- Study: Nobody pays attention to video game scores (especially Metacritic ones)
- Steam to come pre-installed on Alienware PCs
- Psystar, she is dead
- Those stolen Antwerpian iPhones? They’re in Russia
- Pirate Bay co-founder now part of digital receipt start-up
- Sad-Eyed TiVo of the Low Subscriber Rate
- Mobile “Human Assist Guidance Robot”
- CrunchDeals: $99 LG Blu-ray player
- The Xbox 360 Elegant Edition
- CrunchGear/HourTime secret contest: Win a Swatch Right Track
| Daily Crunch: Human Assist Guidance Thanksgiving Edition Posted: 26 Nov 2009 12:00 AM PST
Here are some of yesterday’s stories on CrunchGear: Awards: Best of Black Friday
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| Buffalo announces world’s first 12x Blu-ray burner (and it’s USB 3.0, too) Posted: 25 Nov 2009 11:02 PM PST
USB 3.0 is just around the corner (kind of), and the first computer hardware manufacturers are getting ready to deliver products supporting the new standard (even though there were some backlashes along the way). Last month, Asus announced the world’s first USB 3.0 + SATA 6.0 PCI-E card. In May, NEC said they’re going to release the first USB 3.0 host controller. And now Japanese computer hardware company Buffalo has announced [JP] the world’s first 12x Blu-ray burner, which supports USB 3.0 on top of that. The BR-X1216U3 is backward compatible with USB 2.0 but will burn your Blu-rays with “just” 7x speed in that case. You can only use it with a Windows machine (XP/Vista/7). But actually there are no Blu-ray discs which could be used with a 12x burner and no USB 3.0-equipped computers out there at this point, but Japan is known to be a tad quicker than the rest of the tech world sometimes. Buffalo says they will roll out the burner at the beginning of next month. Japanese street price: $460. The company hasn’t said anything yet about international sales.
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| Video Game Network Machinima.com Gets $1.7 Million In Funding Posted: 25 Nov 2009 04:33 PM PST
Machinima.com has become quite the growing viral attraction in the last year. They hover around 60 million monthly video views spread across their network, up from just 20 million a year ago, with most of the views coming from their hilarious YouTube channel and the website itself. Machinima’s makes their own content, as well as showcasing the content of private contractors, and has many popular series including Halo’s “Red vs. Blue.” This announcement comes just before Machinima’s Inside Gaming Awards, which will air on December 15th. Nominations for the Inside Gaming Awards, which include 18 categories such as Game of the Year, Best Weapon, and Best Multiplayer, will open on November 27th.
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| Winter is coming; modify your gloves to work with your phone’s touchscreen! Posted: 25 Nov 2009 03:40 PM PST
Really, it’s as simple as picking up a spool of conductive thread, sewing a few loops, and tying it off. Do you think you can handle that? Now, conductive thread is pretty coarse, so you shouldn’t try this on your fine kid leather gloves, but any pair of cheap wool or cotton gloves should hold up just fine to a bit of poking. [via Lifehacker]
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| Chevy Volt’s UFO noise to be driver-controllable Posted: 25 Nov 2009 01:30 PM PST
Good, but any noise, however beautiful, may become a bother if you hear it all the damn time. So Chevy has stated that its noise, “a series of low horn audio signals,” will be driver-controlled. I have to say, I’m glad of that, because “a series of low horn audio signals” sounds like it’d really bug me. You’ll be able to turn it on and off like any other safety features, like high beams and hazard lights. I wonder if in the future of car marketing there will be major competition between brand noises — if they’re all quiet, there’s no distinctive engine note, but they still have control over how the sucker sounds. I can just picture it now: “Yeah, the Toyota gets 50 more miles per charge, but have you heard the sweet woom-woom noise the new Fords make?” Or maybe you’ll be able to buy “roll tones.” Okay, I’m a genius. I’m patenting that.
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| Posted: 25 Nov 2009 01:00 PM PST
Black Friday is just two days away. If you have what it takes to wake up at the crack of dawn, brave the crowds, and spot the best deals, there are plenty of savings to be had. Here's a quick list of some of the best deals from the most popular product categories being offered by brick-and-mortar stores, followed by a few prestigious awards that have been given to various retailers. Doorbuster deals have been marked with and asterisk and, where applicable, the next best non-doorbuster deal has been listed as well. Best TV Deals
Best Netbook Deals
Best Notebook Deals
Best Desktop Deal
Best Blu-ray Deals
Best GPS Deal
Best Hard Drive Deals
Best Digital Camera Deals
Best Monitor Deals
With the best deals in the most popular product categories out of the way, we can now move on to the awards section of the program. Please hold your applause until all of the winners have been announced. The "So… Are You Guys Actually Having a Sale?" Award And the winner is… GameStop. Aside from a few anemic doorbuster deals, the store's Black Friday ad is chock full of plenty of regularly-priced items. Wii Fit and Balance Board for $99? Gee, thanks. The "Why the Hell Are You Opening So Early?" Award And the winner is… Old Navy. No electronics deals to speak of other than getting Lego Rock Band for free with any $20 purchase but for some crazy-ass reason, the stores are opening at 3AM on Black Friday. Because the only thing better than being in an Old Navy store is being in an Old Navy store at 3AM and then having to kill time until all the other stores open. The "Doors Will Probably Literally Get Busted" Award And the winner is… Walmart. Just like every other year, the retail giant will be offering plenty of insane deals to plenty of insane people. If you're planning on shopping at Walmart this Black Friday and you're reading this, you are not insane. Everyone else around you will be, though. Not you. I don't want any trouble. I'm just a guy with a keyboard. The "Under the Radar" Award And the winner is… Target. The store lulls everyone into complacency with everyday household items and then sweeps the 32-inch and 40-inch TV deal categories like a ninja, with a 32-inch LCD TV priced at $246 and a 40-inch 1080p doorbuster TV priced at $449. Well played, Target. Well played, indeed. The "One-Stop Shop" Award And the winner is… Best Buy. Pretty good all-around deals, plenty of video game deals (especially the Xbox 360 bundles), and 18-month interest-free financing on all purchases totaling $249 and up if you have a Best Buy card make the store a good option if you want to immerse yourself in the Black Friday madness for an hour or two before going back to bed. Walmart is another worthy option, although Best Buy’s “everyone waits in line for a ticket to buy doorbusters so there’s no mayhem when the store opens” policy seems a little less chaotic than Walmart’s “holy crap I thought there’d be more cops here now who’s going to stop these crazies from ripping the doors off the hinges sweet jesus they’re just like living zombies except much faster and exponentially angrier” Black Friday sales of years past. See more Black Friday ads here…
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| Yahtzee semi-likes Modern Warfare 2 Posted: 25 Nov 2009 12:30 PM PST Another week, another Zero Punctuation. Not surprisingly, this week has Yahtzee taking on Modern Warfare 2. In a nutshell, he finds the gameplay a mixed bag, co-op fun as hell, and the plot and controversy beyond ridiculous. That sounds about right. I haven’t played the game yet, but it does strike me that the realism has completely gone. COD4 walked that line successfully, but it sounds like MW2 is (as fun as it may be) a collection of “wouldn’t it be cool if” set-pieces. Still, all the players will tell you that it’s the multiplayer that’s the real draw, and I’m completely out of the loop there. Time to go play some Excitebike!
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| Gift Guide 2009: Best Gifts for Nostalgic Gamers Posted: 25 Nov 2009 12:15 PM PST The nostalgic gamer — you know the type. Maybe you are the type (I'm definitely the type). The nostalgic gamer is in his or her late twenties to early thirties, was brought up on the Nintendo Entertainment System, and sometimes longs for the good old days when controllers featured only a few buttons (at most). Here's a list of gift ideas for the nostalgic gamer. EA Sports Madden 95/NHL 95 Plug and Play TV Game: $16 (Amazon.com)
ExciteBike: World Rally: $10 (Nintendo Wii/WiiWare)
Portable Handheld Emulator: Starting at around $30
The ultimate portable, perhaps, would be the GP2X Wiz, a $180 handheld that runs just about every available retro system available and is backed by a vibrant community of users. Nobody beats the Wiz. Retro Duo Twin Video Game System: $43.99 (Amazon.com)
Less than $50 for a console that plays NES and SNES games and includes two controllers? There's not much to consider there – it's pretty much an impulse buy. USB NES Controller: $29.99 (ThinkGeek.com)
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| Posted: 25 Nov 2009 11:00 AM PST
1. Doorbusters are stripped-down crapWhat we call doorbusters, stores call loss leaders. These items are heavily advertised and retailers will lose money on them. Because of this, the doorbuster items are generally older products repackaged as something new or current models stripped down to the bare essentials. Take a look the advertised doorbusters this year. Best Buy has a notebook for $197, but it’s built around a Celeron CPU. Walmart has a $78 Magnavox Blu-ray player, but is only Profile 1.1 compatible. These are older items with a new model number. They will probably work, but you’re not getting a gadget worth your time. The goal of these doorbusters is to draw in people that will hopefully buy other merchandise and extended warranties. 2. Don’t buy non-advertised itemsJust because it’s Black Friday, it doesn’t mean everything is on sale. In fact, a lot of retail stores mark up items from their standard price hoping to squeeze a little extra out of unknowing shoppers brought in by the doorbuster items. Other retailers like jewelery or specialty stores will not offer any additional discounts at all. Black Friday isn’t a day for impulse shopping. It’s a day that needs to be carefully planned. Know what you are buying and avoid everything else. 3. Shop now or on Cyber Monday insteadHalf the fun of Black Friday is the experience of waking up at 3 a.m. and standing in line at Target for a mini fridge that’s $15 off. Fine, but if you’re sane, you’ll shop the deals available now or wait until Cyber Monday instead when online retailers put up their best sales. BlackFriday.info has all of the Black Friday deals listed. Spend some time there and ensure that you’re not wasting your time on Friday morning. For instance, West Marine has the same deal right now on the Garmin nuvi 265WT GPS that Radio Shack will make you wait in line for on Black Friday. Staples is also advertising the Sony Reader Pocket Edition for $199 for Black Friday; it can be had for less online now. Shop around. 4. Partner up for maximum efficiencyShop in groups of three. Two people rush around the store while one person stands in the long line. This works especially well if you’re not the first person in the store. Generally Black Friday involves 5 minutes of crazy shopping and 5 hours of waiting to check out. With this strategy you can get in and out of the store quickly. 5. People are crazy, but you should be niceBlack Friday can be scary. Children and small men often get trampled by large women rushing to score special deals. Parking lots are filled with NASCAR drivers and everyone is hopped up on coffee and Red Bull. The best thing to do is sleep right through it, but if you must shop, please be nice. Smile at the cashier. He doesn’t want to be there and hates you for perpetuating the tradition. Smile at other shoppers too because you are all in this together. If you must shove someone out of the way to grab the last $79 GPS at Radio shack, do it gently.
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| 4iThumbs: The craziest way to make your iPhone keyboard slightly more physical Posted: 25 Nov 2009 10:52 AM PST
Remember the iTwinge, that crazy slide-on plastic sheath for the iPhone that would give you a physical keyboard by overlaying real buttons on top of the virtual ones? This is just like that, except it’s clear, rather than opaque black. Oh, and it requires you to stick a bunch of adhesive crap all over your iPhone.
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| Study: Nobody pays attention to video game scores (especially Metacritic ones) Posted: 25 Nov 2009 10:00 AM PST
I’ve never hidden my disdain for Metacritic (and GameRankings, but mostly Metacritic), the Web site that aggregates review scores for video games (and movies and so forth). It’s an insane concept: let’s round up all of these ostensibly separate opinions, throw ‘em in a blender, and come up with a single, solitary number that conveys a game’s entire worth. Balderdash, I say. Review scores aren’t a standardized measurement—a 9.2 over at IGN doesn’t mean a 9.2 at Edge, or an A over at 1UP. This latest news pleases me. The Cowen Group (one of those fancy research companies whose analysts are always quoted in news stories) has released the details of a study that shows, plainly, that a game’s review score is the least important barometer that people pay attention to when shopping for games. That is to say, whether a game gets an 8 or higher (or lower!) matters very, very little to a person when they’re at Wal-Mart or Best Buy, or cruising the latest releases on Amazon or Steam. The study found that people pay attention to the following items, in order of most important to least important, when shopping for video games: genre; whether or not it’s a familiar game series; price; word-of-mouth; advertising; publisher reputation; and, lastly, Metacritic score. Let’s look at this. • Genre Obviously. If you don’t like FPSs, odds are you’re not going to like Modern Warfare 2 or BioShock or Left 4 Dead 2. If you are a fan of the genre, then it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ll derive some entertainment out of said games. • Familiarity This helps explain why all the big games for the past few years have all been sequels. If you liked Left 4 Dead 1, you can pretty safely assume you’ll enjoy Left 4 Dead 2. Well, unless you’re one of the boycotters. It’s merely more of the same. New Zelda? Sign me up. Final Fantasy XXXIV? I loved the other thirty-three! • Price Well, yeah. How many people enjoyed all those Guitar Hero games, but then bailed out when it became a yearly $150+ affair? (Not that you have to re-buy the instruments every year, no, but you play one of these games and you’ve played them all.) Remember when PlayStation games were $40? • Word-of-mouth You’re at the store with your friends, "Oh, don’t buy that, I heard it sucks." Or, "Dude, did you buy Game yet? The multi-player is wicked awesome." • Advertising I readily admit to being susceptible to advertising. I had zero interest in buying Assassin’s Creed II until I saw that slick Justice trailer on TV. A few days later, and I’m jumping around the rooftops of Renaissance Italy. • Publisher reputation Remember a few years ago when everyone hated EA? You know, ea_spouse and all that. (By the way, what publisher do we all hate now? My guess is Activision.) I’m going to assume that only the "hardcore" gamers give a turkey what company publishes (or develops) a video game. Why haven’t I bought Call of Duty: World at War? Because it was developed by "the other guys," Treyarch, and not good ol’ Infinity Ward. • Score Who honestly walks through a Best Buy and says, "You know, I was going to buy Game 2: The Sequel, but IGN (or whomever) only gave it a 7.3"? The number itself is meaningless, and if you’re even remotely interested in a game you’d do well read every single review you can stomach. And by read the review I really do mean sit there and absorb what the writer is trying to convey; don’t just skim it and say, "eh, looks neat." In conclusion, review scores are dumb; aggregating review scores is monumentally dumb.
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| Steam to come pre-installed on Alienware PCs Posted: 25 Nov 2009 09:40 AM PST
The software will come ready to use and preloaded with Portal to sweeten the deal. I’m sure this move will expose Steam to some new gamers, but chances are that if you’re buying an Alienware, you already know about Steam. Maybe Steam will eventually work its way onto standard Dell Inspiron and Studio lines for real exposure.
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| Posted: 25 Nov 2009 09:30 AM PST
Apple has been fighting for a permanent injunction against Psystar, preventing the company from selling Hackintoshen and their Rebel EFI software. The company has been accused of “trafficking in circumvention devices.” Oh well. You can always do this.
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| Those stolen Antwerpian iPhones? They’re in Russia Posted: 25 Nov 2009 08:25 AM PST
TouchMyApps has the hot tip on those 4,000 iPhone stolen in Antwerp. The iPhones are now being fobbed off in Russia and salespeople are a little wary of getting their gear confiscated and or shut down.
If you buy an iPhone in Russia, confirm the model number doesn’t end in NL. Your stuff could be shut down remotely if it is.
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| Pirate Bay co-founder now part of digital receipt start-up Posted: 25 Nov 2009 08:00 AM PST Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, is now part of spiffy Web site Kvittar—"does not matter" in Swedish, according to the Google. It’s a site that purports to do away with paper receipts. You need to sign up with a credit card. The concept is easy enough to understand: you create an account on the Web site, linking your account to one of your credit cards. You then use this credit to buy whatever it is you buy—food, clothes, video games, etc.—then, instead of taking the paper receipt, you get an electronic receipt sent to your Kvittar account. These electronic receipts are searchable, which should be handy when tax season rolls around. One thing I’d like to point out: the snazzy video that describes the service, which is embedded in this post for your convenience, suggests that people are tired of killing trees. That’s fine, and they may well be, but then why does the video show a receipt being printed out, which the woman refuses? The tree still died, even when the woman had a Kvittar. Yes, I’m being pedantic. It’s pedantic Wednesday. I think this story will go around as, "LOL, do you really want to give your credit card number to The Pirate Bay Guy~!" You’ll notice that’s not how I presented it.
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| Sad-Eyed TiVo of the Low Subscriber Rate Posted: 25 Nov 2009 07:30 AM PST
And… it’s… outta here. TiVo is down to less than three million subscribers and they sold about 500 DVRs a day last quarter, giving it 8% of the 38 million US DVR market. That’s not much. TVByTheNumbers has the numbers. They’re down 314,000 subscribers to 2.76 million and lost 146,000 last quarter. Rough stuff. Listen: I loved TiVo for years, but after the TiVo HD rolled out to a resounding plop I knew the end was near. We just cancelled our account after years of accepting sub-par video playback – we stuck with the SD TiVo and never upgraded – and it can only get worse. Godspeed, happy dancing TiVo mascot. We loved you, once.
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| Mobile “Human Assist Guidance Robot” Posted: 25 Nov 2009 07:20 AM PST
Tokyo-based (and globalized) bearing supplier NSK has announced [JP] the development of an autonomous mobile robot that one day will be able to assist people in wheel chairs. The main selling point of the so-called “Human Assist Guidance Robot” is that it can detect obstacles and guide users through them. And uneven surfaces or slopes aren’t a problem either. The robot uses lasers and virtual repulsive forces to calculate distances to obstacles and their location. It’s able to guide people smoothly through minimizing those repulsive forces.
The way the robot works is that users apply force to a handle inside its body to control the speed and direction of travel. The harder you push, the faster the robot goes. An independent two-wheel drive and a caster mechanism (pictured above) make sure the robot drives smoothly, even on corrugated surfaces. Via Tech-On
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| CrunchDeals: $99 LG Blu-ray player Posted: 25 Nov 2009 06:40 AM PST
Don’t get me wrong, $99 for a name-brand Blu-ray player sounds great, except it’s missing several key features. The player doesn’t have an Ethernet connection and so it’s only a Profile 1.1 player and cannot display any of the BD-Live content on newer titles. The player also doesn’t have compenent, optical or 7.1 analog audio outputs so your A/V receiver must be able to decode the digital audio from the HDMI stream or from digital coax. But if you don’t care about any of that and are just planning on running an HDMI cable from the player to the HDTV, this unit seems just fine. Plus, it’s only $99 today.
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| Posted: 25 Nov 2009 06:00 AM PST
The aluminum case not only refaces the 360, but also throws in extra cooling by way of three 120mm fans to help prevent the RROD. Now if I could only figure out how much it costs and how I can order one. [Industrirepro via technabob]
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| CrunchGear/HourTime secret contest: Win a Swatch Right Track Posted: 25 Nov 2009 05:58 AM PST
I wanted to offer HourTime listeners a bit of a head start but there’s a secret contest going on inside my latest podcast with Ariel Adams. Feel free to fast forward to about 20 minutes in to figure out what’s going on but rest assured you can win the Right Track from Swatch, Swatch’s latest automatic chrono running a beautiful Lemania-inspired automatic chrono movement. This beast has a leather strap and a cool plastic case. I’m really excited about this move – it’s the first Swatch automatic I’ve seen since about 2000 – and it’s a great watch. Get crackin’! Remember, comments should go on the HourTime site. I’ll pick a winner on Monday.
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Video game online network 
I take this thing with me whenever I travel. It contains two of the greatest old-school Sega Genesis games of all time: Madden 95 and NHL 95. It plugs into any standard TV via white and yellow AV cables and this two-player version here is perfect for reliving the glory days of mid- to late-adolescence with an old buddy. For best results, have Pearl Jam’s “Ten” album playing in the background and sit on a beanbag if there’s one available. 
Oh man, I downloaded this the other day and played it for about six hours straight. It's ExciteBike, through and through, with the added bonus of online multiplayer and all new graphics. The game itself is still as simple-yet-addicting as ever, you can still build your own tracks, and the $10 price tag isn't too bad considering the multiplayer feature augments the otherwise short single player mode with nearly infinite replay value.
Nothing gets a nostalgic gamer excited like the idea of taking old school games everywhere and, thankfully, there are plenty of portable emulation machines on the market. From the very-reasonable NES emulator 
If your favorite gamer hasn't had the heart to sell, donate, or toss a single NES or SNES game cartridge despite numerous advancements in the magical field of PC-based emulation, then this Retro Duo console is a no-brainer. It's cheap, too! 
Playing old emulated NES games using anything other than an original controller just feels so… wrong. But if you don't have the tinkering prowess to convert an original NES game pad into a USB version that can be used with your computer, you still have options. The $30 RetroLink USB gamepad takes care of the dirty work for you, allowing you to play those old NES games the way the gaming gods intended.
Black Friday is almost here. It’s a great time to score some deals, but don’t go at it willy-nilly. Follow these 5 simple Black Friday rules to avoid the scams and wasting time.
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