CrunchGear |  |
- Mini robot climbs up and down water and gas pipes to inspect them
- Daily Crunch: Goodbye to the Dream Edition
- RED Scarlet gets specs and release window
- Verizon will push software updates to the Samsung Intensity and Trance beginning tomorrow
- Apple opens up iTunes LP to you and me
- Why the CrunchPad mattered
- Custom Band-Aid dispenser for those foot-long paper cuts
- UK’s Sun gooses Apple in this fun little ad
- Let’s blame Leno’s decline in ratings on the DVR rather than trying to acknowledge that media consumption is changing
- Review: 2TB G-Drive External Hard Drive
- Get PlayOn for only $20 through tonight
- Electric skateboard features 600-watt motor, top speed of 19 miles per hour
- Want a free PSP? Join the Royal Navy!
- 10 minutes of Avatar footage for your viewing pleasure
- Review: TomTom Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch
- CrunchDeals: DJ Hero for $85
- Celebrating Cyber Monday? Then join me in celebrating Awesome Tuesday tomorrow.
- LG announces GW820 ‘eXpo’ smartphone w/ 1GHz processor and optional projector
- Canada finally gets the MiFi via Bell Mobility
- Cyber Monday CrunchDeal: “Free” Droid Eris
| Mini robot climbs up and down water and gas pipes to inspect them Posted: 01 Dec 2009 03:00 AM PST
A research group from Japan’s University of Electro-Communications has developed a mini robot that’s able to move freely inside water and gas pipes with a diameter of 10cm or more. The robot can climb up and down pipes as long as they are made of iron as it uses a magnet for its magic. It’s equipped with a CCD camera, a LED light and a battery. The robot travels inside the pipe on four wheels, shines light into it and sends images it captures, for example of a crack, back to the user through a cable. The developers say their prototype can be remote-controlled and is equipped with a magnet that moves like a pendulum. The vibrations it creates keep the robot stuck to the iron pipe at all times. The magnet and the pipe pull against each other, making it possible for the robot to smoothly travel inside the pipe. According to the developers, the current prototype is just 11cm long and 8×8cm wide and tall, meaning it’s suitable for most water and gas pipes and eliminates the need to dig them up for inspection. Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]
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| Daily Crunch: Goodbye to the Dream Edition Posted: 01 Dec 2009 12:00 AM PST |
| RED Scarlet gets specs and release window Posted: 30 Nov 2009 07:46 PM PST
We heard about some of this stuff about a month ago, but these specifics are good to have.
It’s being offered with a fixed 8x zoom or an regular interchangeable mount; the spec sheet actually doesn’t note the F values of the lens, which suggests it’s not finalized. I’d guess it’ll be T/2.8 or thereabouts. There are a lot of specs and modes listed in the announcement which you can read there, but the price is quoted at $4750 at the moment for the fixed lens and $2750 for the brain only. The fixed lens version comes with an LCD, battery, and other accessories however, so for a filmmaker on a budget it might be a good unit. Plus, everything about it is compatible with the Epic modules, so you’re not wasting money on two different systems if you’re going for both. There are other devices outlined as well — a new pro Redmote, the Red Ray Professional, and others. Head on over to the announcement thread to get the whole story. Mmm… I’m liking the look of those new primes.
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| Verizon will push software updates to the Samsung Intensity and Trance beginning tomorrow Posted: 30 Nov 2009 06:23 PM PST  If you're one of the 600,000 people who bought a Samsung Intensity (SCH U-490) or Samsung Trance (SCH U-450): good news! You've got an over-the-air update coming your way. One of our sources just came through with the patch notes for both handset's respective updates, which are scheduled to begin as early as tomorrow.
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| Apple opens up iTunes LP to you and me Posted: 30 Nov 2009 05:30 PM PST
It looks remarkably straightforward and there’s no flimflam to be found on the iTunes LP for Developers page, so I think that it really is what it looks like. They’ve included some templates and design guidelines as well, and you better stick to them; Apple will be scrutinizing all submissions, and once it really opens up in Q1 2010, you better be ready for as long a wait as if it were an app. [via Gizmodo]
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 05:20 PM PST
There’s already been quite a bit of ink spilled over the demise of the CrunchPad but I thought I’d add a few drops. My opinion is this: the CrunchPad was a testament to the power of online media and a fascinating study in the ability of new media to enact real changes on the real world. While the product faltered, it’s fascinating that the project went as far as it did given the forces arrayed against it. Think about what happened: if we reduce this to its component parts you have some dudes in California who talked to some dudes in Singapore and who agreed to work together on a piece of hardware. I’ve seen the prototypes and the thing worked and worked well. Most hardware manufacturers can barely take each others meetings let alone coordinate a massive project while separated by a culture and an ocean. Other organizations should learn from this or ignore it at their peril. It would behoove the New York Times, for example, to build something like the CrunchPad for consumption of the newspaper. They won’t do it because it is seemingly off-mission. This is what separates new media from old – the acceptance of risk. You can inject that instinct into old media but, as Devin wrote, “old” media can’t make the same mistakes we can. Trust me: I’m not patting TC on the back here. I had very little to do with the design of this thing and I was as excited – and incredulous – as you were in regards to this product. It was great being part of the organization that began it and it’s sad to see it go. Michael wanted to make a CrunchPad. It very nearly happened. This marks a sea change in what our media can accomplish as well as a testament to the good will it has engendered in its readership. In the end, a harsh accident intruded. This is an important distinction because from where I sit this clearly wasn’t a case of harsh reality striking down this project but something far stranger. So goodnight, sweet CrunchPad. Some day your time will come.
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| Custom Band-Aid dispenser for those foot-long paper cuts Posted: 30 Nov 2009 05:00 PM PST
I appreciate the concept, but I don’t think this machine will… cut it. (da dun tssh) [via Gizmodo]
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| UK’s Sun gooses Apple in this fun little ad Posted: 30 Nov 2009 04:30 PM PST
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 03:30 PM PST
I’m pretty sure I wrote the complete opposite story several days ago, but who cares, right? It’s cold and rainy and there’s not much else to talk about. So! As you’re probably well aware, Jay Leno’s new show isn’t doing too well. Why is that? Well, you can try to sit down and analyze if the show is any good or not (note: I haven’t seen the show), or if the show’s earlier time slot isn’t conducive to that type of show. You know, just try to examine what’s going on. That, or you can blame those damn DVRs for ruining everything. Let’s go with that one. DVRs are now in one-third of Americans households. In the past year, according to Nielsen data, NBC has lost an average rating of 1.8. Simultaneously, DVRs use is up by a ratings point of 1.4. Coincidence? Maybe, but that’s not how the powers that be are reacting. Network executives are complaining that, yes, people can skip commercials when viewing shows via DVR. At the same time, they admit that they’d rather have DVR viewers than no viewers at all. That sounds like having their cake, and eating it, too. Leno’s new show is an interesting one to study. It’s the first really big show to have launched in the DVR era, one that NBC put an awful lot of money behind. (Or don’t you remember all the ads for Leno when the show first debuted?) NBC wanted to make it a nightly show, as opposed to weekly like Saturday Night Live (which would have made it a lot easier to come up with material), so that it would be "DVR-proof." Like, you can’t DVR the show because he’s talking about today’s news… today. Only that didn’t happen at all. If people know that a show is all about topical humor, why would they go back and watch Monday’s show on Thursday night (when they have two hours free)? Let’s assume that tonight Leno runs Tiger Woods jokes, but that on Wednesday, I don’t know, Rush Limbaugh slips on a banana peel while at a political rally. So, do you want to hear Tiger woods jokes or Rush Limbaugh banana peel jokes? You know what I mean. Because the show is so tied to the day’s events, unless you watch it on the day of release it won’t be worth your while. So, not DVR-proof but rather DVR cryptonite. It’s one thing to watched a recorded sitcom a few days later, but a recorded, topical, variety show? That’s a hard sell. This is before you even factor in that today’s 18-49 year-olds aren’t necessarily going to either A) sit down and watch some TV show live or B) a few days later on DVR delay. We live in an age of streaming Netflix movies, Spotify, iTunes, Xbox Live, PSN, Steam, Twitter, nook and Kindles, etc. Believe it or not, people can entertain themselves these days without having to sit back and watch TV. And here’s another idea: maybe Leno’s show just isn’t any good? Again, I haven’t seen it, but I can’t imagine it’s easy coming up with material five days a week, so maybe the product suffers? I never found Leno funny during his run on The Tonight Show, but I know he’s a funny guy. You have to play to your audience. He can’t exactly get away with comedy club-level content on NBC, now can he? In conclusion, I’m not sure that DVRs, per se, have killed Leno’s show. That’s a gross oversimplification of what’s probably going on: people’s media consumption habits are changing, and NBC relied on people staying in tune with the old model. But what do I know, I’m over here trying to figure out if I should go AMD or Intel with a gaming PC I’m very close to building.
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| Review: 2TB G-Drive External Hard Drive Posted: 30 Nov 2009 03:00 PM PST
Features
Pros
Cons
Design Let’s get one thing out of the way first. This could be the best-looking external hard drive on the market. It looks amazing even if you don’t have a Mac Pro. It’s housed in an aluminum enclosure with a modestly-sized heat sink on the bottom and a very bright activity light that could double as a strobe on the front. At 2.6 lbs, it’s actually quite beefy, too. The backside houses the power rocker and all the ports: a Kensginton lock port, eSATA, twin FW800, USB2.0, and the power input. It’s just an external hard drive, folks. Really nothing fancy here.
Performance
A 6.7GB file
Those numbers are right on par with what a 7200RPM hard drive with a 32MB cache should do. Of course eSATA was the fastest but Firewire 800 isn’t a slouch either. For comparison, a USB 2.0 bus-powered drive transferred the same file in 4:48 @ 24MB/s.
Unlike a lot of other external hard drives, the G-Drive doesn’t make that much noise. I heard occasional clicks of the hard drive but it’s definitely one of the quieter drives I’ve heard. The solid aluminum enclosure and noise dampening feet are probably to thank for that. Features As the Mac-inspired design suggests, the drive is aimed at the OS X crowd, but it works just fine on PCs too. The hard drive comes HFS+ formatted and Time Machine ready, but the included software, or Windows’ Disk Management tool can easily reformat it to NTFS. Surprisingly, given the $349 price tag, there isn’t any included backup software. I guess Hitachi feels most buyers are probably Mac users and therefore will stick with Time Machine. Still, some users might appreciate and use a basic backup software program. Overall The 2TB G-Drive delivers. It can hold a crap-ton of data and manages to keep its transfer speeds up with the best thanks to the fast Hitachi hard drive. Plus, it looks great next to a Mac or a PC. Too bad the $349 MSRP sets it north of most other options and therefore out of sight for some potential buyers.
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| Get PlayOn for only $20 through tonight Posted: 30 Nov 2009 02:30 PM PST
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| Electric skateboard features 600-watt motor, top speed of 19 miles per hour Posted: 30 Nov 2009 02:00 PM PST
It accelerates from zero to 19 miles per hour in four seconds and weighs 40 pounds. So if you don’t hurt yourself falling off of the thing, rest assured that you could incapacitate would-be skateboard thieves with a swift knock to the head delivered by a 40-pound longboard. The battery is good for a range of 10 miles and takes about 4 hours to recharge. The maximum rider weight is 225 pounds, and I don’t have to tell you that if you see a 225-pound man careening towards you on a 40-pound skateboard at 19 miles per hour, your day is about to get a whole lot more interesting. The 19 MPH Skateboard [Hammacher Schlemmer]
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| Want a free PSP? Join the Royal Navy! Posted: 30 Nov 2009 01:30 PM PST
What a coup for Sony’s marketing men. The Royal Navy will be handing out PSPs to its sailors so that they can brush up on their maths and whatnot. The PSP was selected because it’ll work wonders in the closed, confined spaces of Navy quarters. The PSPs will be pre-loaded with specialized coursework (slides and the like… it’s shocking how much of college consists of reading PowerPoint slides projected onto a white wall), so that, instead of knocking about while not actually inside a classroom, sailors can stick to their work. The program is being trialed (is that a verb? It is now.) with engineering students first, being that they’re a bit rubbish, failing classes and whatnot. And here’s some silly joke about the men spending their time playing, I don’t know, Tekken 6 on the PSP instead of reading up on functions and Nelson. via Kotaku
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| 10 minutes of Avatar footage for your viewing pleasure Posted: 30 Nov 2009 01:00 PM PST
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| Review: TomTom Car Kit for iPhone and iPod Touch Posted: 30 Nov 2009 12:30 PM PST  $219.94. The price says it all. The TomTom Car Kit is great; it works perfectly, and I loved using it. In fact, I wish I could keep the review unit that TomTom sent me. That said, would I ever spend 2 bills and change on it? Mayyyybe, but it's unlikely. A standalone TomTom GPS unit can be as cheap as $100, which is twice the price of the TomTom Car Kit ($119.95) + TomTom GPS App ($99.99) for the iPhone. Furthermore, it's hard to justify buying both the hardware and the software when there are cheaper options for both (more on that later). Of course, the product does serve multiple purposes as an in-car iPhone charger, Bluetooth speakerphone and GPS unit. All in all, I was fairly impressed with the device and think those that aren't turned off by the price might consider its purchase. The convenience of an all-in-one device is compelling. Hit the jump to read on...
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| Posted: 30 Nov 2009 12:23 PM PST
Amazon is unloading Activision's new-ish DJ Hero package for $85 across all current-generation systems – that's down from $100+ elsewhere. The bundle is also available on PlayStation 2, although it's priced at $98.99. That's "whack" as most popular DJ's might say. That's a thing, right? Whack? The standard bundle includes the DJ Hero game with over 100 songs and the turntable controller. DJ Hero Bundle with Turntable [Amazon via dealnews]
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| Celebrating Cyber Monday? Then join me in celebrating Awesome Tuesday tomorrow. Posted: 30 Nov 2009 12:00 PM PST
Today is Cyber Monday, a fact you may have already noticed. Oh, and tomorrow, I hereby declare, is Awesome Tuesday. Because if you look at the history of Cyber Monday, then you realize that my creating Awesome Tuesday two seconds ago is just as valid and authentic as the existence of Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday is fake. It was created only a few years ago to take advantage of the fact that, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, online retailers saw a huge increase in sales. So, if there’s already an organically created spending surge, why not make it an event? Let’s throw a few marketing dollars behind it, and turn it into a second Black Friday. (Black Friday, you’ll recall, is named thus because it was the day that retailers around the country got out of the "red" and into the "black." Does that even happen anymore, when people have next to no money to spend on anything?) This isn’t to say that Cyber Monday is a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with buying a computer monitor for $40 less than it cost a month ago, or buying The Secret of Monkey Island for $2.50 from Steam. All I’m saying is that it’s complete, made-up nonsense. We benefit, yes, but at the same time we’re buying into marketing malarkey. So, seeing as though we’re all cool with today being Cyber Monday, then I ask you to join me in celebrating Awesome Tuesday, which is the Tuesday after Cyber Monday. What do you do on Awesome Tuesday? Be awesome, obviously. Eat some pretzel rods, drink pink lemonade till you pass out, then, when you wake up, play Super Nintendo emulators till the sun rises. And then you’re in Sucky Wednesday. That’s not a fun day. Besides, we all know that Cyber Monday is just a complete rip-off of ECW’s CyberSlam. "Cyber(Anything)" should be putting money in Paul Heyman’s pockets.
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| LG announces GW820 ‘eXpo’ smartphone w/ 1GHz processor and optional projector Posted: 30 Nov 2009 11:37 AM PST  LG has announced a new Windows Mobile 6.5-based smartphone, the eXpo. But unlike other 6.5 smarties on the market, the newest member of the LG family is packing just about everything but the kitchen sink including a 1GHz processor, a built-in fingerprint sensor, and an optional Pico Projector. Maybe they should have named it the LG SwissArmy
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| Canada finally gets the MiFi via Bell Mobility Posted: 30 Nov 2009 11:30 AM PST  Damn it, Canada. As an inhabitant of another country on the same continent, it is my duty to highlight all of the things we have that you don't. I'm running out of stuff. I mean, who needs universal health care when you've got truck nuts? Every time someone would bring up the US' lack of Poutine, I'd counter with the fact that Canada still didn't have the MiFi hotspot. Alas, I can no longer do so.
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| Cyber Monday CrunchDeal: “Free” Droid Eris Posted: 30 Nov 2009 11:20 AM PST  It may not have seen as much hype as it's big brother, the Moto Droid, but the Verizon Droid Eris is still one helluva handset. Generally coming in at around $99 bucks, it's one of the cheapest ways to get in on all this Android-hullabaloo - and for one day, it's even cheaper. And by "cheaper", we mean free.
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I won’t speak on the problems with Fusion Garage but up until a few hours ago the entire TC/CG team expected to see the CrunchPad at some point in our lives. This is a massive change in this industry. A few years ago a blogger couldn’t get a press pass to CES let alone enough attention to build out a massive and mass-market hardware project. 
Finally an answer to the age-old question of what can be done to improve skateboards and/or make them more dangerous. Hammacher Schlemmer's doozy, "The 19 MPH Skateboard" is the answer.
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