CrunchGear

---

• Hello Kitty Music Player Premium
• Daily Crunch: Classic Showdown Edition
• Dell took a beating in Q3
• Motion blur is a big fat lie
• Netbooks are forcing YouTube to conform to their twisted will
• Core i7 not hot enough for you? Pick up your prototype Core i9 on eBay
• School estimates $1m to remove SETI@home software
• Luckily, only 500 of these ridiculous Pac-Man watches will be made
• Wearable ContourHD cam gets lens kit and waterproof housing accessories
• Space-age collapsing lampshade looks like a fractal sun
• The fitPC2i: a baby computer for almost anywhere
• Contest: Design an awesome GelaSkin, win an awesome GelaSkin
• Sony will film the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 3D
• Oops! Verizon’s update for the Samsung Trance allegedly breaks things
• Canon submits touchscreen DSLR patent – good idea, bad idea
• Public Service Announcement: Holiday Shipping Deadlines
• Medal of Honor reboot marks the end of an era
• Hybrid garbage truck picking up trash in NYC
• Tons of new Android handset codenames unveiled in HTC’s Android 2.1 ROM
• Yes, Virginia, the Internet is for porn

Hello Kitty Music Player Premium Posted: 04 Dec 2009 02:20 AM PST The Hello Kitty Music Player Crystal, made in cooperation with luxury brand Swarovski, I blogged about in October drew the attention of quite a few (mostly female) CrunchGear readers. One of the problems was the price: $150 for a fairly basic music player isn’t cheap. But now Japan-based Mouse Computer, in cooperation with iriver Japan, is offering a similar device. And their so-called Hello Kitty Music Player Premium [JP] is less expensive. The device comes with 4GB of internal memory (the Swarovski model had just 2GB), which – according to Mouse Computer – should be enough for around 960 songs. It weighs 16g and is sized: 45.2×17.0×35.5mm. You can connect it to your PC (Windows only) via a cute USB cable (pictured above) that’s included in the price. The player supports MP3 and WMA files. It’ll hit Japanese stores on December 18 for $90. If you’re interested but live outside Japan, I suggest you contact import/export specialists The Japan Trend Shop, Geek Stuff 4 U or Rinkya.

Daily Crunch: Classic Showdown Edition Posted: 04 Dec 2009 12:00 AM PST School estimates $1m to remove SETI@home software Space-age collapsing lampshade looks like a fractal sun Contest: Design an awesome GelaSkin, win an awesome GelaSkin Luckily, only 500 of these ridiculous Pac-Man watches will be made Confirmed: Michael Jackson composed the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3 Convert a standard outlet to a USB outlet

Dell took a beating in Q3 Posted: 03 Dec 2009 07:43 PM PST While the rest of the PC-making world – Acer, Lenovo, HP – were up at least 7 percent this year, poor old dell dropped 5.9 percent and to third place. And, as we all know, being third place means you’re the second loser. Tech analysts iSuppli estimate that Dell sold 10.34 million PCs and laptops. This means that Acer, once an also-ran in the industry, has hit number two. This is a huge deal. While there’s no accounting for taste, it’s clear that Acer and HP are selling what people want. Lenovo has always been popular with business and Toshiba is, well, Toshiba. Dell basically needs to step up its game or get left in the dust.

Motion blur is a big fat lie Posted: 03 Dec 2009 07:34 PM PST Ever since Area 51 and the grassy knoll, we’ve all known the government was hiding something. What, exactly? Was it that Spain is really France? That hemp makes great rope? No. It’s that motion blur in LCDs isn’t that big a deal. And it’s time to blow this cover-up wide open. Dr. Raymond Soneira at DisplayMate has blown the lid off this whole thing by writing a detail and somniferant look at LCD motion blur. His conclusions will surprise you: it doesn’t exist and all that talk of megahertz and poodlefurtz was all smoke and mirrors. We are down the rabbit hole, people. Wham. Taste this science: LCDs have their own gorilla: limited response time, which causes motion blur. As with plasmas and burn-in, this was a significant problem many years ago, and it too is no longer an issue now. But unlike plasma manufacturers, makers of LCDs have turned this into a brilliant marketing strategy, offering increasingly sophisticated and enhanced motion processing and ever higher 120- and 240-Hz screen refresh rates to repeatedly oversell a solution to a problem that is no longer a problem. Why is some dude from a monitor calibration company doing going against the party line? Well, either the LCD manufacturers tried to kill him or this goes deeper. Maybe he’s sick of people talking about 240-Hz refresh rates, sick of people talking about lies and lies and more lies. The sad part? Most people won’t read this story because it’s really long and about LCD refresh rates. But I’m here to tell you this goes all the way up… and all the way down.

Netbooks are forcing YouTube to conform to their twisted will Posted: 03 Dec 2009 07:20 PM PST I’ve been down on netbooks because a) they suck and b) they’re underpowered. Now, however, if your $299 kleinewunderbuk is too slow, the Internet has a fix. YouTube, for example, can be a big resource hog on many netbooks. Streaming video through a Flash player? As if! The Space Shuttle can’t even do that kind of processing on the freaking fly! Now there is YouTube Feather a stripped-down version of YouTube for people who can’t handle the full ‘Tube. Here’s how they describe it: This is an opt-in beta for “Feather” support on YouTube. The “Feather” project is intended to serve YouTube video watch pages with the lowest latency possible. It achieves this by severely limiting the features available to the viewer and making use of advanced web techniques for reducing the total amount of bytes downloaded by the browser. It is a work in progress and may not work for all videos. Look, YouTube videos are up there with Christianity and Big Macs in terms of Things Americans Deserve. If you bought into the netbook craze and can’t use yours to watch YouTube, then by all means force the Internet to work around your limitations. I mean you NEED to watch this, don’t you?

Core i7 not hot enough for you? Pick up your prototype Core i9 on eBay Posted: 03 Dec 2009 06:44 PM PST ‘Tis the season for building systems — well, ’tis always that season, but right now you’ve got a pretty nice spread of components to pick from, whether you’re into the AMD or Intel flavor of things. Of course, if you’re feeling really spendy, or just want to have a different top-end processor from the guy next to you at the LAN party, then sometimes you have to get creative. eBay, as always, is the place for semi-shady transactions like that. Right now (oops, it ended a while ago) There’s a prototype 6-core Westmere Gulftown 2.4GHZ LGA1366 CPU being auctioned off with a reserve of $1200. There’s no guarantee this is going to outperform a regular Core i7 or Phenom II, but it might just be worth it for the look on your friends’ faces when you say you’re running a Core i9. If you want it, better bid quick; I don’t think these engineering samples are labeled for individual sale. It does say “Intel Confidential” on it, which doesn’t suggest public availability to me. [via Tom's Hardware]

School estimates $1m to remove SETI@home software Posted: 03 Dec 2009 06:00 PM PST One overzealous IT worker. One school. One chance to run up your ratings on the SETI@Home scoreboard. Estimated cost to remove the software (according to the school): one… MILLION DOLLARS!!!! A well-meaning IT worker decided that it’d be all right to install the SETI@Home client on the school computers. Sounds good in theory, but the school administrators certainly didn’t think so, and he promptly resigned. Of course, he installed the software back in 2000, if the report is to be believed (probably not). They are now pressing charges against the worker, and the school superintendent was quoted as telling a local newspaper that it would cost an estimated $1 million to fix the problem and remove the software. I say screw that, turn the computer club loose on the computers and promise them a trip to the Smithsonian or something. It’ll be done in an hour. [via Neatorama]

Luckily, only 500 of these ridiculous Pac-Man watches will be made Posted: 03 Dec 2009 05:30 PM PST As a fan of retro game stuff in general, I’m always on the lookout for cool Pac-Man/Space Invaders/Robotron 2084 stuff. Unfortunately, retro game gear isn’t usually very understated. When it comes to watches, I’m more of an old-school guy, but even if I were into cool new watches, I’d probably skip this one. I’ll tell you what, though. Make a sweet Tempest or Gyruss watch and I’ll eat it up. No need to change anything, just design a display that looks like one of the levels! The ship could spin round the outside and shoot baddies every minute. Now that I’d buy. Thinking of those games reminds me of these great long exposures of ‘em. The Gyruss bonus round is trippy and that Tempest one is actually quite beautiful. [via Technabob]

Wearable ContourHD cam gets lens kit and waterproof housing accessories Posted: 03 Dec 2009 04:40 PM PST Devin recently reviewed the ContourHD 1080p, a wearable HD camcorder designed to be worn during activities that would cause other camcorders to self-destruct. One thing it couldn’t do, however, was go into the water (though it resisted some splashing). It’s not designed to be waterproof out of the box, which definitely could be a problem for divers, rafters, or other water-sport enthusiasts. The makers were clearly aware of this shortcoming, and they’ve come out with a waterproof housing that will protect the camera to a depth of 10 meters. This will help the ContourHD reach the level of the more ruggedized sport camcorders, but keep in mind that the added layer of plastic will likely cause some distortion and chromatic aberration (which will be more noticeable on the 1080p version). In addition to the waterproof housing, ContourHD also announced a lens kit today. The kit includes a replacement lens cover, and an adapter ring that allows you to attach 37mm filters to the camera, for when you need that ND or polarizer.

Space-age collapsing lampshade looks like a fractal sun Posted: 03 Dec 2009 04:02 PM PST I know, I know — this isn’t LampCrunch. But this is just too cool of a home accessory not to share. It’s designed by algorithm, I assume, and produced by a rapid prototyping machine. It can collapse like that because of science. [via FastCompany and Dvice]

The fitPC2i: a baby computer for almost anywhere Posted: 03 Dec 2009 03:00 PM PST Here’s another option from the ultra small computer crowd; the fit-PC2i is the latest miniature PC on the market, and it’s an interesting bit of technology. The new fit-PC2i is an Intel Atom based system, capable of running up to a 2 gigahertz CPU, up to 2GB of RAM, with enough room for a 2.5 inch hard drive. While I personally would run something like Ubuntu, the fit-PC2i is capable of running Windows 7. Now for the bad news. The fit-PC2i won’t be available until January, and we don’t know how much it costs yet. Considering that the case is made from an aluminum diecast body, it’s probably not going to be cheap. [via Engadget]

Contest: Design an awesome GelaSkin, win an awesome GelaSkin Posted: 03 Dec 2009 02:42 PM PST When we mentioned a few weeks back that GelaSkins was now printing custom skins for mobile phones, MobileCrunch reader Ankit Gupta said “This is something you guys should just do a contest for… give away 5 of these or something, you know?” Yes, Ankit – we know. Ask, and you shall receive. We’ve teamed up with GelaSkins to give away skins to 5 lucky TechCrunch Network readers, custom printed for any one of 13 different phone models they support. Want one? Find out how to win after the jump. Read the rest of this entry >>

Sony will film the 2010 FIFA World Cup in 3D Posted: 03 Dec 2009 02:00 PM PST Tomorrow is the big day, fellow football fans. That’s when FIFA announces the full brackets for next year’s World Cup, to be held in South Africa. Yes, there’s a tech angle here. Sony has said that it will film the entire tournament, from the very first kick-off until the final whistle of the final game in Johannesburg, with 3D cameras. As you can imagine, this is the first time that the World Cup will be filmed in 3D. What that means to you, the average football fan, is still sorta hazy. Sony says that it will release a number of 3D-capable products (including TVs) before the tournament begins on June 11. Presumably we’ll see some of these products at CES in January. In other football news, did you know that Cristiano Ronaldo does 3,000 sit-ups per day? The time commitment alone is impressive, never mind that he can actually do that many. (Yes, it’s a slow news day!) Come on, USA! Win a game! That’s all I ask for.

Oops! Verizon’s update for the Samsung Trance allegedly breaks things Posted: 03 Dec 2009 01:54 PM PST After we found out about the Samsung Trance’s then-impending software update a little early, I honestly didn’t expect to hear about it again. If things had gone smoothly, I probably wouldn’t have. Read the rest of this post >>

Canon submits touchscreen DSLR patent – good idea, bad idea Posted: 03 Dec 2009 01:30 PM PST Touchscreens on cameras aren’t so much a bad idea as one that should be used in moderation. A nice slim Panasonic that doesn’t want to ruin its look with buttons should certainly have a touchscreen. But a DSLR? I don’t think it would work out, but Canon has apparently put enough thought into it that they’ve decided to file a patent. It’s nothing revolutionary and it’s far from a full product walkthrough, but it’s worth taking a look at, if only to recognize how simple it could be when implemented. The most frequently-adjusted settings, aperture and shutter speed, would be changed by vertical or horizontal swipes. Other settings would be accessible through simple touchable menus; the simple rear LCD layout of current Canon LCDs would be easy to modify to allow this. It would disable the touchscreen when you put your eye up to the viewfinder, much as it does today. It’s not a question of whether it can be done; if they wanted to, they could have made something like this years ago. The question is whether they can make it better than the dials and buttons SLR users have been thumbing for decades. Being able to adjust the shutter down a couple steps without removing your eye from the viewfinder is an example of something that might be difficult with a touchscreen. At the same time, navigating and editing your photos in-camera would be simpler if you could swipe, zoom, and so on. At any rate, it’s not a product announcement. Canon merely had some ideas and wanted to get them on the record as their intellectual property. Maybe in a year or two we’ll see something more substantial.

Public Service Announcement: Holiday Shipping Deadlines Posted: 03 Dec 2009 01:00 PM PST The fine folks over at dealnews and Dealhack have put together a list of shipping deadlines for popular online retailers so you can make sure to get that special gift sent out on time. Here are some of the more gadget-oriented retailers for your reference. The dates below are to ensure delivery by December 24th. Amazon.com Free Shipping – December 17th Standard Shipping – December 20th Next Day – December 23rd by 3:30PM Pacific Time Apple Store Standard – December 15th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Best Buy Standard Shipping – December 21st by 10:59AM Eastern Time Next Day – December 23rd by 10:59AM Eastern Time Brookstone Standard – December 11th Expedited – December 17th by 1PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 1PM Eastern Time Buy.com Standard – December 17th Expedited – December 21st by 12PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 22nd by 12PM Eastern Time Circuit City Standard – December 9th Expedited – December 16th Fastest – December 18th CompUSA Standard – December 11th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Crutchfield Standard – December 16th by 5PM Eastern Time Expedited – December 21st by 5PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 5PM Eastern Time Dell Standard – December 9th Expedited – December 11th Fastest – December 15th EB Games Standard – December 18th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Etronics Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Expansys Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd FedEx Ground – December 17th Express Saver – December 21st Standard Overnight – December 23rd GameStop Standard – December 18th Expedited – December 19th Fastest – December 21st Geeks.com Standard – December 17th by 2PM Pacific Time Expedited – December 22nd by 2PM Pacific Time Fastest – December 23rd by 2PM Pacific Time Hammacher Schlemmer Standard – December 11th by 6PM Eastern Time Expedited – December 18th by 6PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 21st by 3PM Eastern Time Hewlett Packard Standard – December 15th Expedited – December 22nd by 10PM Eastern Fastest – December 23rd by 10PM Eastern J&R Computer and Music World Standard – December 15th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 22nd KB Toys Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Kmart Standard/Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 23rd by 9AM Eastern Time Kodak Store Standard – December 16th by 12PM Eastern Time Expedited – December 22nd by 12PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 12PM Eastern Time Lenovo Standard – December 16th Expedited/Fastest – December 18th MacMall Standard – December 17th by 6PM Eastern Time Expedited – December 22nd by 9PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 9PM Eastern Time Newegg.com Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd Office Depot December 23rd by 5PM local time (Office Depot does local next day delivery) OfficeMax December 23rd by 5PM local time (OfficeMax does local next day delivery) Overstock.com Standard – December 17th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 23rd by 10AM Mountain Time Palm Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 17th Fastest – December 18th PC Connection Standard – December 11th Expedited – December 19th by 2PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 2PM Eastern Time PCMall Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 22nd by 7PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 3PM Eastern Time Philips Standard – December 10th Expedited – December 21st by 1PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 22nd by 1PM Eastern Time Radio Shack Standard – December 11th Expedited – December 22nd by 11AM Eastern Time Fastest – December 23rd by 11AM Eastern Time Ritz Camera Standard – December 15th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 22nd Sears Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 22nd SonyStyle.com Standard – December 15th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 22nd Staples Standard – December 11th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 20th Target Standard – December 20th Expedited/Fastest – December 21st at 11:30PM Central Time ThinkGeek.com Standard – December 18th Expedited – December 21st Fastest – December 23rd at 12PM Eastern Time Tiger Direct Standard – December 17th by 7PM Eastern Time Expedited – December 21st by 5PM Eastern Time Fastest – December 22nd by 5PM Eastern Time Toshiba Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 22nd ToysRUs.com Standard – December 18th by 12PM Eastern Time Expedited/Fastest – December 22nd by 12PM Eastern Time UPS Standard – December 16th Next Day Air – December 23rd USPS First Class/Priority – December 21st Express – December 23rd Walmart Standard – December 16th Expedited – December 18th Fastest – December 22nd Sources: dealnews, Dealhack

Medal of Honor reboot marks the end of an era Posted: 03 Dec 2009 12:30 PM PST Look at that beard. That beard screams freedom. It also screams "we’re in Afghanistan with zero idea of how to win or how to get out." The beard is the star of Medal of Honor, EA’s rebooting (please consider "rebooting" to be a noun here) of a franchise that fell off the cliff, oh, after Medal of Honor: Allied Assault. It’s due next year for the usual platforms; more info will be revealed at the Spike TV Video Game Awards, which I wouldn’t watch if my life were on the line. The game, to be set in Afghanistan, is said to be inspired by "real events," i.e., the sales of Modern Warfare. It’s a pretty big deal, inasmuch as a video game story can ever be a big deal. The very first Medal of Honor, confusingly also called Medal of Honor, released for the PlayStation in 1998, essentially invented the WWII shooter sub-genre. Call of Duty, I think we can say, was Activision’s attempt to cash in on the success of Medal of Honor. How the tables have turned! So let’s take a moment to reminisce about playing Operation Market Garden over and over again for the past 11 years. The question now becomes, how long till we’re tired of the modern setting? I think we’ve all shot our fair share of Nazis in various video games over the years, but how long till we’re bored shooting nondescript "ultra-nationalists," "separatists," or any other word but, gasp, "terrorist?" And does it ever weigh on your conscience as you’re playing these modern games, "Hey, there are guys my age in Afghanistan for real doing this"? It’s one thing to land on the beaches of Normandy over and over again, or recreate some Napoleonic era naval battle, but dodging IEDs from the comfort of your big comfy couch while that same thing is happening for real right at that very moment… I don’t know, modern war games are just unsettling to me. But the people have spoken: modern warfare is here to stay. Given EA and Activision’s track records, I fully expect to be see Modern Warfare 7: Waiting Around for Orders All Day Long by 2012.

Hybrid garbage truck picking up trash in NYC Posted: 03 Dec 2009 12:00 PM PST Hybrid commercial vehicles are the answer to the environmental crisis, not passenger vehicles. Sure, your Prius is greener than, say, a Suburban, but even the large GM SUV has a lot smaller carbon footprint than full-size commercial vehicles. But slowly hybrid powertrains are being tested for commercial applications. NYC is currently testing a garbage truck that uses a 120-kilowatt electric motor and a 500-pound lithium ion battery to supplement a six-cylinder diesel engine. The application is perfect if you think about it. Hybrids generally have high city MPG ratings because the electric motor is there to assist in acceleration and regenerates when the brakes are used. The daily life of a garbage truck is stopping to pick up trash and then racing to the next grouping of trash cans 100 feet down the road. All they do is accelerate and stop. Plus, these trucks are already built on platforms large enough to support the extra weight of the battery and electric motor. Designers do not need to worry about aesthetics or design either. They could probably mount a big ol’ battery on the roof and no one would complain as long as it works. But the hybrid garbage truck that is being tested in NYC, doesn’t look any different. There are apparently only a few extra lights on the dash although drivers have said that it drives much better with quicker acceleration. They were unveiled back in August but now are actually getting down and dirty. According to IBM sourced by the Detroit News article, a hybrid 18-wheeler can save more fuel than two dozen hybrid cars. This isn’t really new though. During my test drive of the 2010 Fusion Hybrid across country, I had a chance to check out plug-in hybrid utility truck tested by Edison’s Electric Vehicle Technical Center back in 2004. It’s shame that commercial hybrid development is so far behind that of passenger vehicles. Think of all the large delivery vans, service trucks, and utility vehicles that roam your local streets everyday that get about 5 MPG and could benefit greatly by the mileage savings a hybrid powerplant offers. It probably keeps Al Gore up at night.

Tons of new Android handset codenames unveiled in HTC’s Android 2.1 ROM Posted: 03 Dec 2009 11:54 AM PST Remember that leaked Android 2.1 ROM for the GSM HTC Hero from a few days ago? Looks like there was more to it than meets the eye. Tucked deep inside the ROM was a list of around 20 Android-based handset codenames, nearly all of which have never been seen. Remember that leaked Android 2.1 ROM for the GSM HTC Hero from a few days ago? Looks like there was more to it than meets the eye. Tucked deep inside the ROM was a list of around 20 Android-based handset codenames, nearly all of which have never been seen.

Yes, Virginia, the Internet is for porn Posted: 03 Dec 2009 11:30 AM PST I’m sure you’ve heard that song from that play called "The Internet is for Porn." Turns out, it is! Researchers from the University of Montreal were trying to determine to habits of men in their 20s vis-à-vis pornography, but they ran into a problem: they couldn’t find enough men who said they didn’t watch porn! Men are dogs, et cetera et cetera. So what were the results, seeing as though they couldn’t find anyone who didn’t watch porn? • Single men watched an average of 40 minutes of porn three times per week • Non-single men watched porn a little bit less, 20 minutes and 1.7 times per week • Men have "conventional" sexual habits, whatever that means • Porn hasn’t changed men’s perception of women And there you have it: men watch a lot of porn, presumably all of it online. It’s just so easy nowadays. You could be looking up the history of the automobile then wind up on some streaming site watching What Moves You. Or maybe you’re trying to find benchmarks of a certain video card, and before you know it you’re knee-deep in something. Flickr

You are subscribed to email updates from CrunchGear To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610