CrunchGear |  |
- EEE PC 1218 leaks, and wins awards
- $18,000 Verizon bill? Oops!
- Bottle opener wears like a ring, punches like brass knuckles
- Zune HD battery life personal testimonial
- Facade printer creates wall-size illustrations with paintballs
- New webcam improves eye to eye contact, costs too much
- Yes indeed, the iPad 3G is already jailbroken
- Questionable keyboard hack: glow-in-the-dark key toppers
- MechWarrior 4 available for free right now
- Stargate Universe episode 115 Lost trailer
- A rebuttal of Roger Ebert’s diatribe against 3D cinema
- A sneak peak at the Scosche in-vehicle iPad mount
- 3G on the iPad is all or nothing
- A fun look at the North Korean film industry
- The iPad 3G has arrived
- The best part of waking up…
- Incredible photos of the oil slick need to be seen
- Dynamism now has the Viliv S10 in stock, shipping same day as orders
- Contest: iHome wants to help you wake up
- Apple stores closing before iPad 3G launch, Best Buy will also sell new iPad
| EEE PC 1218 leaks, and wins awards Posted: 30 Apr 2010 10:00 PM PDT
Here’s what we do know, the body is made aluminum, and it’s finished in either silver of black. It appears that Asus was going for an ultra-thin form factor, so they’ve moved all the ports to the back of the case. This means that we can’t clearly see what ports are there, since the only thing we have are a few crappy pictures from the Asus “We’re so great!” award page. What we can see (barely) is 3 USB ports, an ethernet, headphone and microphone jacks, and and HDMI video output. Of course, no idea on how much the system costs or when we should expect to see them on the market. I want one. [via Cnet UK]
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| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 08:40 PM PDT
Turns out the the this particular Verizon customer missed exactly when that 2 free years of data expired. After the end of that special offer, Verizon started billing per kb, as data plans do. Unfortunately, the customer didn’t know that the plan expired until he got the bill. For a rather shocking $12,000. It was even more shocking when the customer called Verizon to complain, and told there was nothing that Verizon could do. Oh, and there was another bill on the way, this one for $6000. The customer is now suing Verizon, saying that they should have notified him when his bill was climbing so high. Verizon says too bad, and promptly sent the bill to the most understanding of people, a collections agency. [via Technically Correct]
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| Bottle opener wears like a ring, punches like brass knuckles Posted: 30 Apr 2010 08:20 PM PDT
The bartender ring is made from stainless steel, and is worn like a, well, a ring. It’s handcrafted and sold by Dustin Wallace, and each one is made to order apparently. We don’t know how much they cost, but you can order one from the Maker’s Market. Perhaps you might be better with the Ring Thing, which will set you back $7.99 and isn’t considered to be a deadly weapon in California and New Jersey.
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| Zune HD battery life personal testimonial Posted: 30 Apr 2010 07:51 PM PDT
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| Facade printer creates wall-size illustrations with paintballs Posted: 30 Apr 2010 07:30 PM PDT
I wonder if they put their “paintings” together in a pixel editor, or just something like Paint. The resolution looks… well, not high. But the dripping effect ends up giving it a unique look for sure. Not that I support graffiti (or can even tell what’s being painted in half the videos). Cool though.
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| New webcam improves eye to eye contact, costs too much Posted: 30 Apr 2010 05:45 PM PDT
[via Dvice, Red Ferret]
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| Yes indeed, the iPad 3G is already jailbroken Posted: 30 Apr 2010 04:50 PM PDT
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| Questionable keyboard hack: glow-in-the-dark key toppers Posted: 30 Apr 2010 03:53 PM PDT
I know, I know. Pretty weak… but they’re no worse than the keys you already have, and under the right circumstances they might be a little better. I do have to say, though, if you have light around to “charge” the keys, why are you typing in the dark? Not quite as nonsensical as the submarine screen door and other inventions, but all things considered, actual backlighting is probably the superior option. [via Gadgetmix and Lilliputing]
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| MechWarrior 4 available for free right now Posted: 30 Apr 2010 02:30 PM PDT
All the info, along with the 1.7GB download, can be found here.
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| Stargate Universe episode 115 Lost trailer Posted: 30 Apr 2010 02:10 PM PDT Season one of Stargate Universe is wrapping up in the next few episodes. We’ve seen aliens, space battles, and more recently, huge eff’n spiders. Last week’s episode wasn’t too bad and tonight we’ll see if Eli, Matt, Chloe and Greer make it back to the ship. Up top is the trailer to get you pumped and below is a teaser trailer that shows a couple of plot twists if you’re into spoilers.
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| A rebuttal of Roger Ebert’s diatribe against 3D cinema Posted: 30 Apr 2010 01:00 PM PDT
So with that softening agent duly applied, let’s take a look at his specific issues. 1. It’s a waste of a dimension 2. It adds nothing to the experience 8. I cannot imagine a serious drama, such as Up In The Air or The Hurt Locker, in 3-D Ebert’s complaint, perfectly admissible in one sense but ludicrous in another, is that because there are no masterpieces of 3D yet, that there will be none, and that even as a tool (he asserts that directors are unable to imagine a serious 3D movie either) 3D is useless for creating “real” movies. It seems to me a bit early to make that determination. He mentions the launch of other major features in movies we now take for granted: surround sound, widescreen, color — all of which are essential components of the movies he cites, as early as Lawrence of Arabia, for their traditional brilliance. It doesn’t bother him that Lawrence of Arabia was shot in an absurdly wide aspect ratio because that was a “premium feature” to be sold at the time, apparently. 50 years later it’s still a brilliant film, apparently in spite of its use of widescreen.
What about 3D, though? One might argue that 3D’s debut wasn’t really any of the amateurish CG efforts like Beowulf, the same way as Singin’ in the Rain wasn’t really the debut of “talkies.” With a toolset in its infancy, the first fruits thereof are bound to be babyish. It’s as silly to suggest today that 3D will amount to nothing as it would have been in the 20s to say that talkies were a fad and masterpieces like Way Down East and Sunrise were indicative of the fact that dialogue was not necessary in a film. After all, if you really needed to say something, you could put up a text card! Perhaps if we had a few solid years of 3D films under our collective belts and none was worthwhile, this complaint might be worth taking seriously. Thankfully, the imaginations of the critics and directors of the previous generation of filmmaking are not the ones conceiving the masterpieces of the next. Herzog and Scorsese are of the old school — formerly known as the new school — of filmmakers, and to expect them to appropriate 3D as anything but a gimmick is to forget their entire history and style of art. Hitchcock and others went on with black and white long after color was available, but that doesn’t mean that the new filmmakers working in color in the ’40s and ’50s were no good. At any rate, Ebert torpedoes his own argument later on, when he says “Avatar used 3-D very effectively. I loved it. Cameron is a technical genius who planned his film for 3-D from the ground up and spent $250 million getting it right. He is a master of cinematography and editing.” So his issue seems to be more with filmmakers not embracing 3D enough. 3. It can be a distraction 4. It can cause nausea and headaches 5. Have you noticed that 3-D seems a little dim? You know, I’ve always thought that the color in The Wizard of Oz was a bit… oversaturated. You know, when Dorothy comes out of the house (and the first ch-ching from “Money” sounds)? And there’s that incredible set and the munchkins and all? Too colorful! Doesn’t reflect the natural tones of real life at all! Distracts from the movie-watching experience, in my opinion. And watch out for that train it’s coming right at us oh my god Of course, that’s ridiculous. 3D technology is still taking baby steps, and as always with stuff like this, it’s two forward, one back. Or some other ratio, but the point is that in the end you’re moving forward; as the saying goes, you never step into the same river twice, and to complain about current technology (other than to direct its improvement) is like complaining a stick hit your leg. There will always be sticks in the river. His objection in #3 is to the current 2D-to-3D technologies, which I have to heartily agree are total garbage, and create a 3D effect in a way that is even more foreign to our eyes and brains. That’s going the way of the dodo, take my word for it: it’s horribly labor-intensive and the results are crude at best, but you can still expect conversions of classics for the next couple years. My recommendation is to call your local Senator and suggest that this technique be outlawed as cruelty to art school students, who are employed en masse to rotoscope every scene, object by object. Won’t somebody please think of the art students?
As for the nausea and headaches, unfortunately that’s something that requires working out as well. The flickering LCD shutters can send some people into seizures, and people with vision defects (even mild ones) are finding they are incompatible with certain types of 3D stereoscopic splitting. Furthermore, he mentions a very important point, and one I’ll be writing about soon, having to do with the way depth of field, convergence, and other factors can create a jarring effect. Point for Ebert, but remember the river. The technology that seems to be faultless except for one thing is the circular-polarized glasses — though the fault is admittedly Ebert’s #5. He quotes an expert as saying 3D projection is “intrinsically inefficient. Half the light goes to one eye and half to the other, which immediately results in a 50 percent reduction in illumination.” There isn’t, really, or if there is, Ebert needs to re-evaluate his love for 48Hz projection, which he is bullish about later. One way or another, the fact is that “inefficient” is the wrong word here, and the quote likely has a context that makes this clear. If half the light goes to one eye and half to the other, well, that’s all the light total, isn’t it? Doesn’t sound inefficient to me. But that’s a pretty pedantic point. The fact is that yes, things are a bit dim now, but consider that the projector desyncs that ruined early Cinerama showings didn’t sink the whole ship; they simply figured out how to do it better. It’s worth saying that not all the technologies used to display 3D even cause a reduction in brightness. The prism glasses used for Beowulf, for instance, result in a lower effective resolution, not lower brightness (if I’m not mistaken). Futhermore, projectors are only getting better, and there’s no longer a risk of melting the film. The issues Ebert has are either on their way out or far from universal. There’s much to improve, to be sure, but to dismiss the technology because none of the first films get it exactly right technically is a complaint writ on water, as it were. 6. There’s money to be made in selling new digital projectors 7. Theaters slap on a surcharge of $5 to $7.50 for 3-D.  [image: Slashfilm] I was tempted to lapse into sarcasm here, what with the revelation that movie theaters are chiseling us, when they are perhaps the best example in the world of mercilessly exploiting a captive audience. But I’ve overcome that urge. Ebert’s complaint is actually a little more nuanced. Is this an extra cost that will go away? It’s hard to say, but I’m going to guess no, since the price of movies has been steadily increasing for so long that I can no longer afford to go without checking my bank account. The surcharge sucks, and it may or may not normalize a bit, but 3D is not to blame for the business decisions of evil theater chain conglomerates. And of course theaters have been charging for premium showings for decades. Consider the “matinee” price. Is it really a discount, or is it the normal price and watching a movie in the evening costs an extra few bucks? At any rate, to blame the increased price on buying new projectors is silly. There’s money to be made selling the projectors, sure, the way there’s money to be made on every aspect of movie-going. The truth is that those projectors are saving cinema’s ass, or at least its bottom line. The cost of film storage, transport, and operation is enormous, and when someone comes to Regal or Cineplex Odeon or whatever, and explains how using a high-Hz 4K projector will enable all-digital distribution and so on, all they hear is cash register noises. There was trepidation, I’m sure, but those projectors probably paid for themselves with the first hour’s receipts from Avatar. With all due respect to the past (I’m saying this as a film fan), digital distribution and projection is the future, and it wouldn’t pay to be the last theater in a city begging for the film version of a movie that was shot, edited, and distributed digitally.  9. Whenever Hollywood has felt threatened, it has turned to technology: sound, color, widescreen, Cinerama, 3-D, stereophonic sound, and now 3-D again. The only argument necessary here is to point out that nearly all of these “premium” features are now part of the standard movie-going experience. I would guess that many of Ebert’s favorite films incorporate most of them. No, 3D is here to stay. To abandon it would be a boondoggle of proportions Hollywood is unwilling to make. And ten years from now, we’ll be looking back on a library not of a dozen, but of hundreds of 3D films, some of which (we may hope) will rise to the level of quality set by the classics of the past. Let’s not judge a book by the author’s childhood scribblings. Could anyone really argue that the only “true” films are those which do not include such gimmicks (as they surely were called at the time) as stereo sound and color? More interesting is Ebert’s plug of a 48FPS film standard. I have to quote him here:
It may not be a misprint, but it is misleading. 24FPS has remained a standard through the last 80 years not because of some outdated analog sound format, but because 24 (25 in PAL countries) is a frame format that looks good. There is a wealth of literature having to do with the eye’s native “refresh rate” and a number of other psychovisual factors that contributes to the excellence of a sub-30 frame format — for certain applications. I don’t want to make the same mistake Ebert makes in the rest of his article and say that high-framerate video is no good, it just has its applications, and I think that cinema is not one of those applications. Nature documentaries in 48Hz or 60Hz 3D would be so immediate and lifelike (Cameron actually wanted to shoot Avatar at 48) that I truly believe people would flinch in the theater. Perhaps even without the 3D. Earlier, while watching a documentary about nature photographers in Africa filmed digitally at 60FPS, I found myself constantly “disbelieving” what was on-screen: the lack of internal interpolation (which is what happens with 24 FPS material) made my mind reject the image rather than accept it. What are those tiny lions doing in my monitor? Can’t be real. That’s a debate to be settled over the next few years, though, and I’m glad Ebert is not simply neophobic, however his recent writings have suggested that. If I may be allowed to interpret his complaints into a single meta-complaint, it’s that 3D is being shoved down everyone’s throats by the industry, and I absolutely an with him on that. But don’t let an avaricious, insolvent, and generally hasty industry color your perceptions of a genuinely useful tool. I take it personally because people I know and respect in the industry are working to make 3D cinema more than a new way of making exploding debris fly into the eyes of viewers. I hope that Ebert agrees that that sort of filmmaking, 3D or not, is a greater threat to movie lovers than the growing pains of a new cinematic technology filled with, but not yet reaching, its potential. But all these words (2017 at this moment, Jesus) won’t be effective as a single good film. I know I’m right, but I can’t force him to see the way I see. Filmmakers, you have a job cut out for you: disprove everything Ebert has said in a way I’m not capable of. I’m sure he’d like nothing better. [comments disabled themselves; they're back on now.]
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| A sneak peak at the Scosche in-vehicle iPad mount Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:35 PM PDT Here’s a quick look at the upcoming Scoshe in-vehicle iPad mount that’s set to come out this summer. Looks awesome, right? Hopefully there is a single or 1.5 DIN version in the works, too. The double-DIN requirement really limits the vehicles that can be installed in. But Scosche probably already knows that. Who knows, maybe there will be other versions available when it launches. You knew these were coming. Now it’s only a matter of time before some lawmaker deems it unsafe and pushes through legislation banning dash-mounted iPads. Jerks. Update: The lovable Joel Johnson over at Gizmodo got a few more details. There will be single-DIN options at launch and the kit will cost $200 to $250.
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| 3G on the iPad is all or nothing Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:26 PM PDT
If you notice this screen, adding 3G a la carte to the iPad is all or nothing. Either your account will automatically debit itself monthly for 250MB – or unlimited – or you’ll have to cancel the account and re-enter your information. It’s a pretty dire choice. We have more images from the 3G set-up over at the original unboxing. To be clear, the only apparent way to prevent AT&T from charging you again after the 30 days are up is to delete your account on or before your renewal date. I didn’t test it, but presumably you have to re-enter your information when you request another unlimited or 250MB month. In this way it isn’t truly a la carte in that you can’t “suspend” the renewal process until you’re ready for another dose of data. It does allow you to add international roaming packages, though, which is sweet. A note just came from AT&T:
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| A fun look at the North Korean film industry Posted: 30 Apr 2010 12:10 PM PDT I’m fascinated with all things North Korea. I don’t know why, but I am. VBS.TV has an amazing 14-part look into the country and just posted this 3-part supplementary look at the North Korean film industry. I have nothing else to say. Just watch it. The first episode is above with part two and three at VBS.TV.
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| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 11:45 AM PDT
I’ll fire the old girl up and put her through her paces. Expect a full report shortly.
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| Posted: 30 Apr 2010 11:30 AM PDT
Too bad the bacon will have been sitting there in that tray, raw, congealing, all night. I applaud this invention — really, it’s breathtaking — but it wants something in the way of… not getting food poisoning.
[via Reddit]
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| Incredible photos of the oil slick need to be seen Posted: 30 Apr 2010 11:00 AM PDT
This oil slick is serious business. So serious, in fact, that I’m going to mention it right here. By now you’re well aware that an oil rig is leaking an incredible amount of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. We’re talking 210,000 gallons per day here. It’s very much a disaster in the making, especially as the slick begins to approach the Gulf coast. So, in the interest of sharing some of these photos, um, here’s some photos. I’d write more about this, but we’re already stretching it as it is. It’s sorta sciencey, and that’s good enough for me. I mean, I can write the Internet’s 900th Apple vs. Adobe thing, or expose y’all to something slightly different on this Friday afternoon. I go with slightly different.
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| Dynamism now has the Viliv S10 in stock, shipping same day as orders Posted: 30 Apr 2010 10:00 AM PDT
We just got word directly from Dynamism that they have the Viliv S10 convertible netbook in stock and are shipping them out the same day as a customer places an order. While I found there to be some build quality flaws, this netbook / tablet can easily satisfy all of your Windows 7 tablet needs now that HP has canceled its Slate program. It comes loaded with the Windows Touch Pack that takes full advantage of the device’s multitouch capabilities. But then it also has a keyboard for banging out those longer emails. Plus it has 3G, a large SSD, and more goodies. Trust me, you’ll forget about the Slate soon enough.
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| Contest: iHome wants to help you wake up Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:30 AM PDT
The iA5 looks like your standard iPhone dock. Except that it has a standalone clock built into it, which is nice if you or your spouse goes on a trip, taking their iPhone with them: you still have a useful alarm clock sitting on your nightstand, instead of a useless chunk of plastic that won’t do anything until the iPhone comes home. The clock on the iA5 can be set directly from your iPhone, so you don’t need to do the “crap, I pressed the hour button one time too many and now I need to press it eleven more times!” dance to set the time on your clock. I bet that’s handy for Daylight Savings time, too. And it has a programmable snooze, so if you want your snooze to be ten minutes instead of nine, by gum you can do that! You can snooze up to 29 minutes, if that’s your thing. The iHome app is a fancy programmable alarm clock for your iPhone. It uses a “cards” metaphor, which allows you to define a number of alarm situations: for example every weekday at 6 AM, with a snooze of 5 minutes; or 10 AM on weekends with no snooze. You slide the “card” into a virtual slot to activate it, which doesn’t seem entirely intuitive, but I suppose that’s easily overcome. You can connect the app to your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that you can broadcast to the world when you go to sleep or wake up; and the app will helpfully collect all the Twitter and Facebook traffic you missed through the night so that you can review it as soon as you wake up! The iA5 normally sells for one hundred US dollars, but we’ve got one to give to a lucky reader. All you need to do to win is leave a comment with your worst snooze button experience. Whether you missed a job interview, or overslept for an important exam, or whatever, share you embarrassment with the world, and get a chance at redemption with the iA5! The winner must have a US or Canadian mailing address. Sorry about that. We’ll pick a winner on Monday morning based on our totally subjective opinion of what we consider to be the most interesting story shared. I can’t stop you from embellishing, or even outright fabricating a story, but you’ll have to live with the guilt of knowing you’re a fraud if your phony story wins. Keep that in mind.
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| Apple stores closing before iPad 3G launch, Best Buy will also sell new iPad Posted: 30 Apr 2010 09:08 AM PDT |
4 years ago, a Verizon customer signed up for a plan. Said plan included 2 years of free data usage, which the customer did take advantage of, and use to tether his laptop. Then one day, disaster!
While cool, I dunno that I’d recommend wearing this very often. Particularly around law enforcement, since the bottle opener ring could definitely be mistaken for brass knuckles. 
So this evening I’m going to take a shower and I grab my 
This is definitely not a device intended for the home market. I’m not even sure it’s something that a business would need, but perhaps I’m wrong. Regardless of my opinion, the 
Looks like the 
Oh dear, there goes the weekend. I’m already splitting my time between catching up on Lost, reading David Copperfield, and playing Harvest Moon, but now MechWarrior 4 has been re-released, complete and free, along with MekPak 3.1, which adds a number of chassis and weapons to the mix. Are you kidding me?
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