CrunchGear

Funny/Not funny: Volvo’s crash avoidance feature fails during demo
HTC applies for thin-film speaker patent
Quick PSA: Eyjafjallajökull is erupting again
Gadgets of days gone by: the round-up
Amazon selling Dreamcasts again
Video game maps: even bigger edition
Gadgets of days gone by: Sega Nomad
Iwata: Nintendo 3DS’s 3D functionality can be turned off
Will Algeria use technology to win the World Cup?
We demand Steam rentals, now!
Monstrous Steam deal this weekend: Civilization IV and all its expansions for $10
Gadgets of days gone by: Sony MiniDisc recorder
New rescue robot pulls victims inside its body
Stargate Universe episode 116 Sabotage trailer and teaser
iCitizen 2010: Dinosaurs in your phone?
Bumblebee is getting new digs for Transformers 3
Civilization V to be distributed by Steamworks
The Nimbus 64 might be huge, but that’s okay
New NEC technology detects pirated online videos “in seconds”
Gadgets of days gone by: 10 Gaming Commercials from Days of Yore

Funny/Not funny: Volvo’s crash avoidance feature fails during demo

Posted: 07 May 2010 05:18 PM PDT

Boy, I feel for Volvo right now. During this UK demonstration of the new S60’s collision avoidance system, something… went wrong. Nobody was hurt, luckily, but I get the feeling somebody’s paycheck is going to be hurting pretty soon. Apparently the engineer who prepped the car just messed up the batteries. Sure, this kind of things happens, but man, when you invite a hundred journalists to watch you not crash a car, there’s really only one thing you absolutely cannot do. Guess what that is?

Check out the video over at Wired UK.

HTC applies for thin-film speaker patent

Posted: 07 May 2010 05:02 PM PDT

We’ve seen thin-film speakers around, but generally they make for pretty poor replacements for regular speakers. I mean, think about it: for bass frequencies, something actually has to move, like, an inch back and forth. I don’t care what kind of promises these gadgets make about turning your wall into a speaker, they’re just going to be completely missing out on a whole segment of sound.

But what’s a device that’s never had, and likely never will have, any bass? Yes, every mobile phone ever made.

Quick PSA: Eyjafjallajökull is erupting again

Posted: 07 May 2010 04:00 PM PDT

Looks like you’ll have to put off that vacation to beautiful Iceland yet again. The volcano whose name must not be spoken has resumed erupting and is at this moment spewing potentially flight-grounding ash and silicates into the brisk Scandinavian air. Seriously, though, if you were planning on a trip or shipment to or from the area affected, better make alternate plans. [image via Wired Science]

Gadgets of days gone by: the round-up

Posted: 07 May 2010 03:30 PM PDT

It’s been an emotional journey, friends, but I think we’ve found that our attachment to these gadgets of yore is not merely a sentimental one. Indeed, many commenters have chimed in to let us know that some of these devices are still in use in their households. Admirable! We’ll be adding to the series as time goes on and more of our tech lapses into “nostalgia” status, but here’s a little summary of our memories so far.

The workhorses of the week were the HP DeskJet 500 and the Super Nintendo, both of which found many current fans among our readers. Simplicity and good construction go a long way towards legendary status (the Game Boy shares these merits as well). With cameras, quite a lot has changed (and for the better), but the memories Matt captured to floppies on his Mavica will remain forever (now that they’re on YouTube), and the Kodak DC50 reminds us of the days when Kodak made more than just sensors.

The Palm III and Newton Messagepad recalled for Scott and John days of productivity gone by, when your address book wasn’t also your handheld games device, phone, and television. Nicholas rifled through a box of VHS tapes to our infinite amusement, and I can’t be the only person who is hypnotized by the ability of the Samsung Trace to spin endlessly on its face. Greg eulogizes the hulking Sega Nomad, which you may have mistaken for a live black bear prowling the streets back when

I miss the days when everybody had a different music player. Before the iPod took over, we all had our own solutions: a brilliant MP3-CD player from iRiver or the multi-talented Sony MiniDisc recorder for me and Bryce respectively.

We’ve collected all these, and plan to add more, under the Days Gone By tag, so keep an eye on it. The fun thing about old gadgets like this is that you’re always finding and remembering new ones. I’d have included the old amber-screened computer I used to play tic-tac-toe on (a Hercules, I think), but I’ll save that for another time (perhaps a slow news day). Hope you enjoyed this little series.

Amazon selling Dreamcasts again

Posted: 07 May 2010 03:00 PM PDT

It’s so much fun that brand new Dreamcasts are still available in limited supply. Both ThinkGeek and Amazon have sold them occasionally in the past and now they are back at Amazon with the original description and user reviews from 1999. Classic.

It could be a great way to spend $89. Games are widely available at second hand stores and here’s a fun fact, the Dreamcast doesn’t need any modding or cracking to play pirated games. All you need to do is download them and burn ‘em on to a CD. So yeah, it’s totes worth $89 in my opinion. Jet Set Radio and NFL 2K2 agree.

Video game maps: even bigger edition

Posted: 07 May 2010 02:30 PM PDT

You probably saw that picture going around yesterday that showed have Just Cause 2 to have a bigger game world than many other popular sandbox games. Well, it seems that some gamers didn’t take kindly to having their favorite franchises neglected in this virtual geographic survey, and after some discussion have put together a map that shows how Just Cause 2 is itself is dwarfed by, for example, Fuel. And it’s a mere speck when compared with Daggerfall, part of the Elder Scrolls series.

And then you have the space simulators like X3 and EVE Online, which, taking place as they do in space, have somewhat of an advantage over the land-based genres. But the real question really isn’t one of raw space so much as the actual size of the game world. While you may traverse hundreds or even millions of miles in MMORPGs and space simulators, the bulk of that terrain is practically empty. Compare this to, say, Grand Theft Auto 4, where every block is packed with detail and personality, although the game area is technically limited to perhaps 10 square miles.

I expect this won’t be the last of these maps to come out, for certainly some joker will place these enormous maps on even more enormous map of all the universe, as represented in Homeworld or Elite. And while we’re on the topic of space and scale, now is a good time to remind you of that awesome spaceship chart from a while back. Put them together and you can really put things in perspective.

[via Reddit, where they are disputing Nightfall's size]

Gadgets of days gone by: Sega Nomad

Posted: 07 May 2010 02:10 PM PDT

This week at CrunchGear, we're looking back at some of our favorite gadgets from the not-so-distant past — old phones, computers, media players, toys… those devices that still stand out in our memories despite their obsolescence. Feel free to contribute some of your own nostalgia.

I was always a Sega kid. Not exclusively, mind you — I never saw fit to swear my loyalty to plumber nor hedgehog. Still, I was always that kid. The one who swore that Lion King was better on the Genesis than it was on the SNES, even if the former did sort of look like over-dithered garbage. The one who told all his friends how awesome the Sega Mega Mouse would be, even when there wasn’t really any reason for it to exist. The one who waited in line for a Sega CD.

When they announced the Sega Nomad — a handheld, battery-powered Sega Genesis — I just about flipped my lid.

The year was 1995, and handheld gaming was in a state of stagnancy. The best on-the-go system the world had seen thus far, the Gameboy, was coming up on its 6th year of life and offered up a color palette ranging from “Grey” to “Sort-of-greenish-grey”. Its successor, the Gameboy Color, was still 3 years off. In a flash that came years ahead of its time, the Nomad was born.

The Nomad did everything that other one didn’t. The screen displayed color (eighty different colors at one time, no less!) in a time when such a feat was tiptoeing the edge of sorcery. It had a backlight, allowing me to play — get this — in the dark. And the bit that I still find awesome to this day: it ran the same cartridges as its not-so-portable home-based brethren, the Genesis.

Alas, it failed pretty miserably, and not without reason.

While this thing could be called “portable” in 1995, it was challenging the definition of the word even then. In less nice terms, this thing was as big as a friggin’ house. Tie a string to it, and it made for a perfectly suitable weapon. Sega could have donated all of the left over Nomads to charity, who could have in turn built orphanages using these things as bricks.

Worse than its size, and by far the issue that killed the entire concept, was the battery life. Now remember: this was 1995. Cheap, rechargeable lithium ion batteries strong enough to power a 7.67Mhz (Yep, Mhz. Seven of them.) processor and a 3″ display? Yeah right, space man. This thing demanded no less than six AA batteries at a time, and it chewed through them like a kid tearing into his first halloween candy. The “Low Battery” LED was more of an indication as to whether or not the thing was turned on.

It was by no means without its faults, but I loved it all the same. And to the kid who “accidentally” knocked my Nomad off the table and shattered the screen back in Elementary school: I still think you’re an asshole.

Iwata: Nintendo 3DS’s 3D functionality can be turned off

Posted: 07 May 2010 02:00 PM PDT

Another hint! Iwata says you can just switch the 3D right off. There was some question when the 3D nature of Nintendo’s next handheld was revealed, but this clears things right up. I think. Wait… if you can just turn off the 3-D capability, what does that say about the display itself? And the games — you can just switch between 3-D and not 3-D, does that mean every game has to be playable in 2-D? This doesn’t answer any questions at all!

Speaking to Forbes magazine, the Nintendo president cited health concerns among other things in the decision to make 3-D optional. Of course, as we know, the console will be back compatible with DS games, so maybe that’s all he’s referring to.

At any rate we’ll find out at E3 in June. We’ll be live at the announcement and hopefully will get hands-on, so stay tuned.

[via Go Nintendo]

Will Algeria use technology to win the World Cup?

Posted: 07 May 2010 01:30 PM PDT

Will technology defeat The Three Lions (that’s England, or course) at the World Cup this year? Maybe, but then again, maybe the injuries to Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, and Wayne Bridge will have a role to play as well. There’s a fun story in the Daily Telegraph that details Algeria’s plan to use technology to defeat England at the World Cup, which begins on June 11. Incidentally, Algeria and England, along with Slovenia, are in Team USA’s group, so put on your Uncle Same t-shirts and get ready to chant USA! USA! till your throat it sore.

The deal is that Algeria will use some sort of super secret software to break down its Group C opponents. The software was created by Algerian expatriates. That’s called trivia.

We have consulted Algerian specialists outside the country who have sophisticated software to produce summaries about the teams' strengths and weaknesses

I have no idea what this software could be, maybe something like ProZone? (ProZone is used by nearly every team to analyse their players’ performance.) Maybe something like, “The English striker [Wayne Rooney] has learned how to head the ball this year. Therefore we need, during England set-pieces and corners, we need our tallest players to mark him.”

Need I remind you that the World Cup is merely five weeks away. The European leagues should wrap up this weekend, then we’re in full-on World Cup mode.

Totally psyched.

We demand Steam rentals, now!

Posted: 07 May 2010 01:00 PM PDT

We were discussing in the chat room a little while ago how fantastically awesome it would be to be able to rent games from Steam. Allow me to explain.

First, the mechanics. Sorta like how Steam already has free weekends for certain multi-player games, Steam (or whatever service) would sell weekend passes. You pay, say, $10, and you have from Friday at 5pm until Monday at 9am (or whatever) to play the game. Given how short single-player campaigns are these days, that’s more than enough time to beat a game. I mean, how long did it take to beat Modern Warfare 2 or Battlefield: Bad Company 2? A few hours at best. (That says something about game design, too, but that’s a discussion for another day.) So, you play a little bit when you get home from work/school on Friday, kill several hours on Saturday, then wrap up any loose ends on Sunday. Or however you want to break up the weekend. The point is, for $10 you get the entire single-player game for a few days. It’s really not too different from the good old days of going to Blockbuster Video on a Friday after school, renting a game, then beating it that weekend.

This mainly speaks to single-player games or single-player campaigns. Maybe if you want multi-player functionality you’d pay an extra $2 or whatever.

Second, the theory. You can rent movies and TV shows from iTunes, right? Then why not games? Is there anything inherent to games that should preclude us from being able to rent them? I mean, and not to sound like a nerd or whatever, but outside of publishers’ greed, what other reason could there be? Perhaps publishers know full well that they’re making games that take no more than 7 or 8 hours to complete, so if you let people rent them they’d never buy them. It’s not like with the movies where people go to the theater one month, then six months later they can rent the movie on Netflix. So many there’s a business reason there, I don’t know. That’s for someone else to figure out.

But here’s something that may interest publishers: would giving people the ability to rent a single-player game or single-player campaign cut down on piracy? Why would you jump through all the hoops to pirate a video game, waste all that time hoping a torrent checks out or whatever, when you can pay a lousy $10, get the game, and have some good, clean fun?

Steam rentals now!

Monstrous Steam deal this weekend: Civilization IV and all its expansions for $10

Posted: 07 May 2010 12:30 PM PDT

Quick note, friends. One of the better Steam weekend deals in recent memory is live right now. It’s Civilization IV and all of its expansion packs for $10. That’s pretty much ridiculous any way you look at it. (Oh, and Modern Warfare 2 multi-player is free this weekend, if you’re into “that.”)

Gadgets of days gone by: Sony MiniDisc recorder

Posted: 07 May 2010 12:00 PM PDT

This week at CrunchGear, we’re looking back at some of our favorite gadgets from the not-so-distant past — old phones, computers, media players, toys… those devices that still stand out in our memories despite their obsolescence. Feel free to contribute some of your own nostalgia.

Back in 2001, I got a surprise Christmas present from my parents: a Sony MiniDisc recorder. It was a device I had barely even heard of, and certainly hadn’t asked for. But within a matter of weeks I was pleasantly surprised with how much use I would get out of the little device.

The MiniDisc format was launched by Sony in 1992 as a digital competitor to recordable analog cassettes. MiniDiscs are basically more compact, versatile recordable CDs.

In a time before iPods, I found my MD player to be a useful way to have portable music mixes without needing to lug around my clunky Discman knock-off. The downside: the MD player could only record in real time, meaning I had to plug the recorded into my PC’s audio output, press record, and play the entire Winamp playlist. In a way, it was the same as carefully crafting mix tapes in the 80s and 90s.

To compete in the burgeoning mp3 players market, including, of course, the iPod, NetMD models introduced after 2001 put more emphasis on quickly syncing music from one’s computer. But these lacked the ability I was most interested in: live recording.

A cheap microphone allowed me to record class lectures, interviews, concerts and silly songs I wrote on guitar. I brought the MD player with me everywhere, and suddenly I felt like anything I heard could be recorded for posterity. (I still dig out those discs sometimes and listen to, say, a Joanna James show from the Fine Line in Minneapolis.)

While MiniDisc was quite popular in Japan, it never really made it in the U.S. Before mp3 players made it big, burning CDs was still easier and cheaper than recording on MiniDiscs. Then the iPod and other solid-state mp3 players overtook MD in storage capacity and price, and the MD format was not widely adopted by record labels as a venue for album releases.

I still have a fondness for the little device, but its functions have mostly been replaced in my life by other gadgets. I use an iPod for portable music and a simple tape recorder for recording interviews. As a new parent (and resident of rural Iowa, at least 2 hours from any major music venues), I don’t attend – let alone record – many rock shows. At home, it’s easier to fire up GarageBand to record a song of my own.

Sony now makes only one MiniDisc model, the MZ-RH1, which features improved sound quality and storage capacity. It combines the features that made previous MD players appealing separately, notably the ability to record as well as transfer data quickly.

New rescue robot pulls victims inside its body

Posted: 07 May 2010 11:40 AM PDT

This looks much like a robot that actually serves a purpose. Japan-based tool maker Kikuchi has developed a robo vehicle that can pull victims at disaster sites into its body. The obvious goal is to support human rescuers for whom it’s too dangerous to reach injured people during certain emergency situations.

Kikuchi says the robot can be used during chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear disasters. It pulls victims inside its body via a conveyor belt and can then be driven to a safe area via remote control. The robot can rotate 360 degrees within a 1.5m radius, which makes it possible to use it in narrow spaces. According to Kikuchi, the robot can ascend slopes with an angle of up to 30 degrees.

The company has already started offering the rescue robot for $110,000, hoping to sell 10 units per year. Buyers can also get night vision cameras and other add-ons on request. There are similar emergency robots out there already, for example the “Robocue” we blogged about last year (that one is made by the same company).

I tried hard to dig up a video for your viewing pleasure, but it appears there’s nothing out yet (Kikuchi doesn’t even mention the robot on its own Japanese website yet).

Via Robonable [JP]

Stargate Universe episode 116 Sabotage trailer and teaser

Posted: 07 May 2010 11:30 AM PDT

Okay, so I’m really starting to get into SGU. It was a long road to this point, but it’s definitaly getting better. Yeah, it’s not episodic like SG-1 or Atlantis, but the story line is certainly improving. I’m so excited about tonight that I didn’t even watch the trailer or teaser embedded here or read the episode descriptions over at Gateworld. I’m only that anal about shows I like so I guess that says something.

iCitizen 2010: Dinosaurs in your phone?

Posted: 07 May 2010 11:19 AM PDT

While I was recently attending the iCitizen 2010 Symposium, Noora Guldemond, Head of Marketing at Metaio—a company focused on developing Augmented Reality experiences—showed me a few recent AR examples her company developed. This Jurasic Park example curiously doesn't have the usual black and white "target" that I normally recall seeing in many AR demos. In fact, Noora indicated that is called Natural Feature Tracking and is one of their differentiators.

While it may seem like somewhat of a novelty, it’s important to remember that a lot of advertising relies on, well, novelty. What I mean is novelty doesn't necessarily diminish the value of this concept and I think we can all see where this kind of technology is headed with regard advertising and beyond.

The technology uses APIs associated with the company's Junaio AR browser, something we first reported on back in November. There have been some updates to the software since that time.

Plus, IT'S A DINOSAUR ON YOUR PHONE! What's not to like!?

No doubt, there are many examples of this technology out there. What are the best examples of this kind of technology you've seen lately? Let us know.

Bumblebee is getting new digs for Transformers 3

Posted: 07 May 2010 11:00 AM PDT

I honestly didn’t know there was even going to be a third Transformers movie until a few minutes ago, but I guess it was to be expected. Anyway, Bumblebee himself has been spotted and is wearing a bunch of new OEM-looking mods. There’s a new front fascia, grill, ground effects, hood, rims, and an actually good-looking rear spoiler. But the design is so pedestrian (what’s with the antenna?) that the next Transformers Camaro might share many of the same features. Click through for a bunch of pics including a couple with Megan Fox. [via Jalopnik]

Civilization V to be distributed by Steamworks

Posted: 07 May 2010 10:30 AM PDT

2K Games announced that Civ V AKA MY FAVORITE GAME OMG OGMG IWILL BUY! will be sold via Steam, including a “deluxe” edition with the Babylon civ, videos, and a sountrack. Folks who pre-order will get the Mesopotamia map pack for free.

Fans of the earlier games will also be able to get Civ IV and III for 75% off via Steam.

via Shacknews

The Nimbus 64 might be huge, but that’s okay

Posted: 07 May 2010 10:00 AM PDT

We’ve seen our share of classic gaming systems modded into a portable form. But the Nimbus 64 might be the biggest. I mean, look at it. It’s huge and is certainly not something travel-ready. There is no way TSA will let that thing on an airplane. But I can’t hate too much. It’s still awesome. [via NoWhereElse]

New NEC technology detects pirated online videos “in seconds”

Posted: 07 May 2010 09:39 AM PDT

Software that helps to detect “illegal” video content on the web automatically isn’t really new, but NEC claims its technology has two selling points that sets it apart from similar solutions: speed and accuracy. The company says its system can identify pirated video material in a “matter of seconds”, with a detection rate of 96% and at a false alarm rate of just five in one million cases.

The way it works is that the software creates a fingerprint (video signature) for original video content and then matches that content with what’s out there on the web. NEC says the signature is just 76 bytes per frame in size, meaning an average home PC can process 1,000 hours of video material in one second.

Another bullet point worth mentioning is that copyright holders can now even detect if video scenes as short as two seconds (60 frames) have been pirated and put online somewhere. According to NEC, the system is able to capture illegal video content that has been altered in one form or the other as well. This includes video with added captions, which was taken inside a movie theater or copied from digital to analog.

The NEC tech is already approved to become one of the components in the upcoming MPEG-7 media content description standard.