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- Spend Christmas In Hell: Dante’s Inferno Demo Comes Just In Time For The Holidays
- Yamaha Japan announces new digital sound projector for home theater systems
- Is Sprint letting the police follow us around?
- Kenko-Tokina’s super-cute Mickey Mouse camera
- Daily Crunch: Floor Pie Edition
- Redbox still working on getting games to its rental kiosks
- New HourTime Podcast now live
- New Micron SSDs fastest in the world – but for how long?
- Free to a good home: Booq Nerve laptop bag
- The Freedom Tray: Made in America, used everywhere
- Review: Assassin’s Creed 2
- New off-road military vehicle for Afghanistan looks solid as hell
- Potentially hilarious: Logitech rumored to be making a UMD drive for the PSP Go
- Get excited: The Chevy Volt hits California late next year
- Comcast unloading bum modems on customers
- Video: Watch Me Swipe The Time Inc. Tablet
- Review: Dyson DC31 handheld vacuum
- Video: Emulated New Super Mario Bros. in 1080p makes us want Wii HD even more
- BlueAnt updates the Q1 headset for A2DP streaming audio support
- Video: Black Friday, greatest country in the world edition: Manic scenes from a Wal-Mart show people fighting over plastic junk
| Spend Christmas In Hell: Dante’s Inferno Demo Comes Just In Time For The Holidays Posted: 03 Dec 2009 05:16 AM PST
If you haven’t yet seen or heard of the game, check out the trailer below.
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| Yamaha Japan announces new digital sound projector for home theater systems Posted: 03 Dec 2009 04:01 AM PST
The 120W（2W×40＋20W×2) projector sports five HDMI interfaces, an iPod port and an additional sub woofer connection.
It will be out at the end of this month in Japan (price: $2,280). The projector has both Japanese and English menus so we can expect it to hit international markets soon, too.
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| Is Sprint letting the police follow us around? Posted: 03 Dec 2009 02:18 AM PST
My initial take on this story is that we’re dealing with an absurdly inflated number. I doubt in all seriousness that any police department could process even and use a thousand geo location records let along some proportion of eight million. While I don’t doubt our boys in blue are out to help us and catch criminals, there are more pressing budgetary issues in most departments than hiring a data mining expert. That said, this insane number brings up an important question: how much does the government know about us and how much of that data is gathered “to be safe” when it doesn’t need to be gathered. Our data is, for the most part, free for the taking. I have no expectation of privacy on my phone, email, or web browsing habits. Given enough interest and perhaps cash, anyone can track my every move. This is a given. We cannot change this. That rabbit has left the building, as they say. What we can change is how much of this surveillance is known to us during or after the fact. The innocent have nothing to hide, obviously, but data dumps, especially for police organizations, rarely stay within the lines. Someone at Sprint, for example, probably saw the subpoena and decided to give up all the goods they had. Database administrators see data as data and it’s as easy to return 10 rows in a database as it is to return all of the rows. As technologies designed to track us get easier to use, people will use them. My concern is not that they’re watching us but it’s how careless the watchers are in handling the data. This is the real concern.
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| Kenko-Tokina’s super-cute Mickey Mouse camera Posted: 03 Dec 2009 02:00 AM PST
Tokyo-based Kenko-Tokina, normally known for its camera accessories, has announced a cute Disney-themed digital camera [JP] for the Japanese market today. Spec-wise, this 8MP point-and-shoot camera isn’t anything special, but that’s what you’d expect from a camera whose case shows Mickey Mouse giving Minnie a bucket of hearts. You’ll get a 1/2.5 CMOS sensor, 4x digital zoom, 16MB of internal memory, an SDHC/SD memory card slot (up to 8GB), a USB 2.0 port and a 2.36-inch TFT screen. The camera will let you shoot Motion JPEGs with 640×480 resolution and at 24fps. Sized at 91×24.6×56.5mm, the device weighs 86g.
Kenko-Tokina already started selling the camera in Japan where it costs $113. If you want to surprise your sister or girlfriend but live outside this country, I suggest contacting the usual suspects (the Japan Trend Shop, Geek Stuff 4 U or Rinkya).
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| Daily Crunch: Floor Pie Edition Posted: 03 Dec 2009 12:00 AM PST
Review: Assassin's Creed 2
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| Redbox still working on getting games to its rental kiosks Posted: 02 Dec 2009 08:37 PM PST
Actually, Redbox is experiencing some technical difficulties. You see, Warner Bros, Twentieth Century Fox, and NBC Universal have cut off access to their collective libraries because they do not get any revenue from the rental kiosks. Plus, Redbox is stating that 20th Century Fox and Warner Home Video are somehow stopping the company from purchasing movies at retail from Target and Wal-Mart. Welcome to the jungle, Redbox. The movie industry makes it worse here everyday. The company is staying somewhat quiet about its gaming plans. Redbox hasn’t officially announced any partners or game publishers that are on board yet, but trials are underway in Reno, Nevada and Wilmington, North Carolina. Some kiosks in those areas have been renting out discs for $2 a day since this summer. Mitch Lowe, president of Redbox, at the Reatuers Global Media Summit,
Redbox is likely learning from its trials with the movie studios and probably do not want the same thing to happen if they do in fact offer games. But if all the kinks are worked out, games should be a big hit for Redbox. The expensive infrastructure is already in place. The company already has 20,600 kiosks nationwide, with further expansion planned for the northeast and Florida. Throw some Assassin’s Creed 2 and Modern Warfare 2 discs in the machines, and they will likely be sold out within hours.
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| Posted: 02 Dec 2009 08:07 PM PST
Even from China Ariel and I did our fancy watch podcast. Listen in to learn about Bell & Ross selling online and why you need a nice watch to go with that suit.
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| New Micron SSDs fastest in the world – but for how long? Posted: 02 Dec 2009 07:30 PM PST
I don’t want to downplay how awesome these drives are, but I’m guessing that they’ll be leapfrogged just as quickly as they’ve leapfrogged the last leader. The good news is all these improvements trickle down eventually, but the bad news is that the constant revision of the technology results in continuously high prices. Once this big R&D period is over (probably at least another year or so) you’ll see big price drops on drives that outperform today’s by huge margins.
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| Free to a good home: Booq Nerve laptop bag Posted: 02 Dec 2009 07:00 PM PST
Good evening and welcome to the laptop bag adoption program from your friends at CrunchGear. Today we have this charming Booq Nerve laptop bag, your choice of sizes. It needs a good home. Won’t you open your heart to this bag? This bag can be yours if you comment below. Please give this bag a merry holiday?
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| The Freedom Tray: Made in America, used everywhere Posted: 02 Dec 2009 06:30 PM PST I have written about gadgets and tech and whatnot for four long years now, but this is by far the greatest thing I have ever seen. It’s called the Freedom Tray, and it’s going to rock your world… with freedom. (Freedom haters need not apply.) What is the Freedom Tray? Well, obviously, my fellow freedom-loving Americans, it’s a tray, one that’s "made in America [and] used everywhere." You put things on the tray that scream "freedom!," like big cups of beer, cheeseburgers, soda, and hot dogs. Hold the relish, Geroge Washingfreedom; let me get a side of freedom instead. As the video shows, the Freedom Tray can be folded up in a moment’s notice—perhaps rain has come out of nowhere during your big Nascar tailgate party? And don’t worry about putting too much freedom on the Freedom Tray, for it can hold up to 75 pounds of freedom! Think of how many double bacon cheeseburgers that can hold! Like, two! Perhaps best of all, it looks like there will be accessories for the Freedom Tray in the future. Maybe it’ll be like the iPod: buying the iPod is just step one, but then there’s cases, docks, and more cases and docks for you to choose from. This is just the beginning for Freedom Products. Soon, we’ll be writing our delinquent mortgage cheques with Freedom Pens, talking to debt collectors on Freedom Phones (or should that be Freedom Fones?), wearing size 58 Freedom Pants, and listening to the same four classic rock songs over and over again on our Freedom Radios. Freedom is a dish best served… on the Freedom Tray.
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| Posted: 02 Dec 2009 05:05 PM PST
If you never played Assassin’s Creed, I suggest taking the time to look online for synopses of the game so that you get a feel for what happened as Assassin’s Creed 2 does a poor job of rehashing the tale. I played the first game almost a year ago so i was hazy on the plot and was a bit disappointed that I had to look up the Wikipedia page to figure out what was going on. Ubisoft could have done a better job here by having some flashbacks, or even some dialogue at the beginning of the game to help those who are new, or haven’t played in a while. This installment of Assassin’s Creed has you playing as Ezio Auditore, a suave ladies-man hell-bent on exacting revenge upon those who took part in the killing of his father and two brothers. His blood lust carries him throughout Italy, assassinating all who he deems guilty. As you progress through the game, you learn new techniques, as well as acquire new weapons–through the help of Leonardo DaVinci. Each weapon has different assassination traits, and I highly suggest trying them all out–they are extremely satisfying and awe-inspiring and keep the game from becoming stale. My favorite however, is the dual-hidden blades, because let’s be honest, there aren’t many things cooler in video games than jumping from three stories in the air and assassinating two unsuspecting guards below. Don’t believe me? Just try it.  Simply Awesome. The first thing you notice when playing this game is the awe-inspiring graphics. The engineers in this game went through a lot to make sure the game looked absolutely amazing. Whether it’s the movements of Ezio himself, or the structures he ascends, every detail it painstakingly detailed. The combat in Assassin’s Creed 2 is good, but nothing exceptional. It actually reminds me a lot of the combat system used in Fable 2. Controls are simple–one can get through this game by simply mashing the attack button over and over again–but using combos and making sure your weapons match up well against your opponents (for example, using your knife is better than your sword against a spear) make the game more strategic. Like many games, throwing an enemy is obscenely overpowering (think Super Smash Brothers). You can grab a guard and throw him off a roof and watch him plunge to his death, or simply throw him to the ground and assassinate him quite easily. Unlike in the first Assassin’s Creed, you can swim, while your enemies cannot. Thus, grabbing an enemy and throwing them in the water is a sure-fire way to kill a pesky guard. As I said before, you get most of your combat pleasure through the use of various assassinations. As such, I used the counter-assassination move quite often simply because of the animations which followed. Assassin’s Creed 2 adds the concept of an economy this time around. You can use money you collect to upgrade the villa you’ve been put in charge of, as well as to buy supplies such as weapons, medicine, or art. Everything you collect in the game, whether it be new weapons, armor, or paintings, adds to the value of your villa which is proportionate to how much money you get per 20 minutes of play time from the villa chest. This, while a good idea in concept, makes it very easy for people to game the system. By upgrading your villa early on, you make enough money to buy anything you need later on in the game. By the time I had progressed far enough to purchase a certain set of armor for instance, I had triple what was needed to buy everything in the store. Like any good RPG, Assassin’s Creed 2 has a multitude of side quests. For the most part, these are quite enjoyable and add to the scope of the game. There are over 20 assassination contracts you can fulfill, all with a varying degree of difficulty. Races and beat-up events were introduced as well. The beat up events are pretty pointless in my opinion, but the races are quite fun, as they take full advantage of the free-run capabilities of the game. The races start with a timer and you must run through checkpoints before time runs out. One fall or a mistake and you’ll have to start over. Luckily, these races are only about two minutes, so messing up a few times isn’t going to want to make you quit playing for a while. This brings me to my point: free-running. I spent a great deal of time just jumping from rooftop to rooftop and it was extremely enjoyable. The grace and precision in Ezio’s movements is simply astounding. When scaling buildings, you’ll always find Ezio grabbing onto a ledge or a crack in the wall while placing his feet in supports as well. You will hardly ever find Ezio grabbing onto an invisible ledge or putting his feet somewhere where he shouldn’t be able to. It was small details like these which makes you actually believe some of the things Ezio is doing are possible, and they did not go unnoticed.
The controls in this game are pretty basic and intuitive, which is a major plus. Since there are so many things going on at once in this game, the game does slip up every once a while. It was frustrating to be scaling up a wall and then suddenly diving into a bale of hay twenty stories down when in fact you wanted to simply jump to another building. There were also times when I wanted to assassinate a certain individual and ended up killing nearby civilians instead. While these occurrences were rare and far-between, it was annoying nonetheless, but did not however detract significantly from the game. For the most part, Ezio did precisely what you wanted him to do, with grace and swagger to spare.
As you can see, all my gripes with this game are small and nit-picky. Assassin’s Creed 2 excelled in every way imaginable, from the story line to the gameplay. I have not had this much fun playing a single-player video game since Mass Effect. It is a shame that we have to wait for the next installment of Assassin’s Creed to come out. Hopefully Ubisoft can correct the few flaws in this version, and make a perfect ending to this epic trilogy. When thinking about game of the year for 2009, Assassin’s Creed will definitely be in the running. The gameplay is smooth, the story is compelling, and it was a hell of a lot of fun to play. If you have $60 to spare, I would suggest going to the store and buying this game right away, you will surely not regret it. If you’ve already beaten the game, don’t be hasty and trade it in. Ubisoft will be releasing two DLC packs, one in January and the other in February, for your enjoyment. CrunchGear score: 9.45
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| New off-road military vehicle for Afghanistan looks solid as hell Posted: 02 Dec 2009 04:30 PM PST
Danger Room has a detailed write-up which I won’t duplicate here, but I have to say I’m glad these are headed over there. I don’t think it’s political to say that no matter the popularity of the war, our soldiers deserve the very best support we can give them, and these should have been standard years ago.
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| Potentially hilarious: Logitech rumored to be making a UMD drive for the PSP Go Posted: 02 Dec 2009 04:00 PM PST
“A source” has said that Logitech is working on a UMD drive add-on for the Go, which is a bit like a gas-powered engine add-on for an electric car. Logitech UK denied knowing anything about it, but Logitech USA and Sony have yet to comment. I think it’s pretty funny, but somehow I don’t think Sony is laughing. [via Kotaku]
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| Get excited: The Chevy Volt hits California late next year Posted: 02 Dec 2009 03:30 PM PST
Man, this thing is actually going to come out. GM said today that it’s going to release the Chevy Volt late next year in California, giving the Golden State first dibs on the car. GM also said that it’s teaming up with local utilities companies, including Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison, to make sure the state is ready for the car’s launch. You’ll recall that the Chevy Volt is really, very important, particularly for GM’s future, being one of the first, practical electric cars on the market, and one that’s supposed to travel some 40 miles on purely electric power and some 300 miles with the help of the on-board 1.4L generator. That’s good, I think. Presumably it’s faster than Top Gear’s Geoff! Can you tell I know next to nothing about cars? They have wheels, right?
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| Comcast unloading bum modems on customers Posted: 02 Dec 2009 03:15 PM PST
Mine looked like the one at right; I forgot to note the model number, but if you had it installed in the last year and it’s blue, it’s probably one of these. Call Comcast right now and set up a date for it to be replaced. Even the guy I talked to on the phone spoke of this thing with distaste, so I’m guessing it won’t be a lot of trouble. If they ask, say you’re having connection problems — even if you aren’t, you probably will be in a month or two.
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| Video: Watch Me Swipe The Time Inc. Tablet Posted: 02 Dec 2009 02:30 PM PST  Earlier today, I got a look at Time Inc's new digital magazine concept. While I was there I captured some of the demo on video. Actually, Sports Illustrated editor Terry McDonnell was kind enough to shoot the video above while I played with a prototype version of the tablet mag showing an SI issue on an HP tablet computer with a touchscreen. You can see how quickly the digital magazine lets me swipe through pages and photo slides, and get a general idea about some of the navigation elements. When you tap on a page, a navigation wheel pops up with different sharing options and ways to call up additional information, live stats, photos, and videos. The voice explaining the features belongs to David Link of the Wonderfactory, who did much of the conceptual design.
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| Review: Dyson DC31 handheld vacuum Posted: 02 Dec 2009 02:00 PM PST
The DC31 is a handheld Dyson. That’s probably all I need to say for you to know that it’s awesome. Features
Pros
Cons
What is the only company that could get away with selling a $219 handheld vacuum? Dyson, of course, but only because its vacuums are outstanding — and the DC31 is no exception. The DC31 combines a very powerful motor with a minimalistic design that almost anyone can use.
There are really only five parts to the whole system: suction nozzle, waste bin, filter, motor, and battery pack. That’s it; the simple design is one of the vacuum’s best features. Anyone can put it together and use it. Even my 2-year old son picked it up and immediately started cleaning with Mom right away. He even figured out that the big, red sliding button opens the waste bin and dumps the contents on the carpet, which was only cute the first time. The simple design is very obvious when you compare the new DC31 next to the older Root 6 model. The new model is lighter and more compact, but still manages to have a larger waste bin — as well as a stronger motor, according to Dyson. I can find no fault in the DC31’s suction power. It’s as strong as can be expected, especially when the turbo mode is engaged. But all this power must be used conservatively and in short bursts because the battery doesn’t last very long. Worst yet, when the battery is low, the vacuum just stops working instead of gradually losing suction. The first time it happened to me, I thought I broke the damn thing. I’m sure battery life will probably improve with each upcoming model, but what the vacuum really needs is a simple battery meter. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, just a button with four little LEDs would be sufficient. I appreciate the high-power mode, but I didn’t use it frequently because I didn’t know much longer the battery would last. Conclusion Just like every other Dyson, this vacuum isn’t for everyone because of the high price. But if you need a serious handheld vac, the DC31 deserves your consideration. Update A Dyson rep dropped me a note stating that there is in fact a battery indicator on the vacuum. I guess I should read the manual.
Great, but I used the vacuum over a dozen times and never noticed that. The battery indicator should be on the battery itself. That way you can easily check how much life is available instead of relying on a “one minute left” warning. Just saying.
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| Video: Emulated New Super Mario Bros. in 1080p makes us want Wii HD even more Posted: 02 Dec 2009 01:30 PM PST This here is a video of New Super Mario Bros. Wii in 1080p, thanks to the wonders of emulation. (I had completely forgotten about the Dolphin emulator!) If there were ever a reason for Nintendo get off its backside and fully commit to the Wii HD, this is it.
You really ought to go to YouTube proper to see the video in the highest resolution possible. Wii HD. Make it happen, Nintendo.
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| BlueAnt updates the Q1 headset for A2DP streaming audio support Posted: 02 Dec 2009 01:00 PM PST
But whatever, I guess you should probably update the headset anyway. Maybe it improves battery life too. Head over to BlueAntWireless |
| Posted: 02 Dec 2009 12:30 PM PST American exceptionalism! Don’t scenes like this make you proud of your country? Then again, maybe these people really wanted that copy of Guitar Hero World Tour? ::shoulder shrug::
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There’s a bit of a tizzy this week about 
It turns out that all the techs recognize this modem as junk. It craps out on everyone the way it crapped out on me, and the guy who came today said he flat out refuses to install any. Yet the higher-ups insist that some techs do so, due to a backup of Terayons in the warehouse. It’s not that this surprises me or is some big scoop — I expect this kind of behavior from telecoms — but you should probably look under your desk and make sure you don’t have one of these duds.
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