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Ikaros: Photos of solar-powered “Space Yacht” in outer space

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 03:00 AM PDT

We first blogged about Ikaros, a solar powered “space yacht” developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), in September last year. The idea was to use solar photons to propel satellites in outer space to boost energy-efficiency. That yacht was eventually launched on May 21, and now we have the first pictures of Ikaros moving through outer space.

The spacecraft had its sail stored inside when it was launched before unfurling the sail when it reached outer space. It sent the pictures you can see above and below to Earth using a tiny camera (6cm in height and diameter) that’s separated from the craft.

The polymer sail, which is the first of its kind, is just 0.0075mm thick and is partly covered with amorphous silicon solar cells (the cells provide more than 50% of the power needed overall). The JAXA expects Ikaros to travel through outer space for about six months.

Thanko sells digital camera/binoculars hybrid

Posted: 18 Jun 2010 02:03 AM PDT

Tokyo’s most famous gadget maker, Thanko, has another hit product in its portfolio, the UDGZDC8M [JP]. For reasons unknown, the infamous company decided it’s time to give the world a combination of binoculars and an 8MP digital camera. And people living outside Japan can get it, too.

The device features 4x digital zoom (8x for the binoculars), an SD/MMC slot (16GB max.), an 1.5-inch TFT LCD, and – of course – a USB 1.1 port (this is a Thanko product after all). Videos (AVI) can be shot in QVGA quality (320×240 at 30fps), which is the best you can expect (resolution of pictures: 4,032×3,024).

The UDGZDC8M weighs 450g and can be ordered over at Geek Stuff 4 U for $284.79 plus shipping.

Behold the arcade museum; a geekgasm waiting to happen

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 10:00 PM PDT

In an office complex in Rochester NY, there is a storeroom that looks like any other, except for one minor difference. This storeroom (to some) should be considered a temple to the power of the gaming. This storeroom lives inside the International Center for the History of Electronic Games, and contains over 20,000 different gaming related items. From an original Pong game, to the the latest Guitar Hero arcade version, the museum has pretty much everything you could want to see. Wired paid the museum a visit, and took a series of pictures well worth your time to take a look at.


Photo set: The Dell Streak vs the HTC EVO 4G

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 08:45 PM PDT


First off let me apologize for the photo quality. I only had a few short minutes to spend the Streak and it happened to be in a dark room that looked like Batman decorated it. So the photos aren’t the best, but this is just a taste. We’ll have a proper set soon.

Anyway, I happened to have an EVO 4G with me and I must say that the Dell Streak makes it look like normal-sized phone. There is a large difference in the overall size even though the screen size is only .7-inches larger. It’s as thin as the Evo, but it still feels a bit too large to be a phone. However, that thought might be premature as it might be something you need to use to appreciate. The whole package feels solid, refined and wonderful. It’s clearly not for everyone given its large size, but a lot of people will probably love it.

Click through for photos.

Shock result means Dr. Wagner, Jr. will be on the cover of AAA: Heroés del Ring

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 08:00 PM PDT

Dr. Wagner, Jr. will be on the cover of AAA: Heroés del Ring. I know this because I saw him win a lucha libre match on the E3 show floor a few hours ago.

It’s actually a surprising result, Dr. Wagner, Jr. being on the cover. You’d think they would have wanted La Parka on the cover being that he’s more well-known here in the U.S.

Fun match, too—you could really tell the luchadores were working hard for the crowd. Konnan was there doing play-by-play commentary.

I mean, outside of busting out the Macarena while playing Dance Central, this was probably the best part of E3.

Review: Toy Story 3

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:48 PM PDT

We don’t do many movie reviews here at CrunchGear, mostly because we’re into gadgets and movies are, in a way, the anti-thesis of the physical. Semantics aside, Toy Story 3 was great.

The story is simple: Andy, the toys’ owner, is leaving for college. His toys, resigning themselves to a life in the attic, prep themselves for the coming change but, instead of the must and heat of the rafters, they end up in a garbage truck. Only Woody is going with Andy to college, and when he sees his friends in danger he runs to save them.

The tale winds through a day care center overrun by misfit toys, the home of a little girl who owns a gruff toy unicorn and a sad clown, and then to the very maw of heck itself – the incinerator at the city dump. All of this is tinged with the sadness of growing up and leaving behind things you loved as well as hope for better things to come.

We saw the movie in 3D on a IMAX screen. It’s a great way to watch a flick, to be sure, and the 3D was so unobtrusive as to be invisible. The 3D made the movie better and instead of cheap shots of stuff “coming ‘atcha,” you saw real toys in real situations. It was, at times, glorious.

Each movie Pixar makes pushes the state of the art further. In this movie, they simulate the motion of millions of pieces of chopped garbage, no mean feat. I can only imagine the render farms for this film. These CG animated movies are, in a sense, a genre into themselves and should be compared to each other in this way. Nothing in this movie is quite as poignant as some of the scenes in Wall-E or Up, but all of this movie was better than any of the other yuck-fests out there, excepting, perhaps, the first Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda.

As for age appropriateness, I’d say kids over four or so – or mature toddlers – can handle most of the themes and situations. The final scene is particularly scary and brings up a number of metaphysical questions about existence and death that parents may not be ready to explore. My own four-year-old son asked “What that big fire thing was in the end” and I explained it to him in terms of Dantean visions of Hellfire through the ages and the banality of existence when compared to the horrors that await us in the holocaust of endless entropy.

Just kidding. I told him it was a place where the burn trash.

Toy Story 3 is a quieter movie with a dark streak running through it. Adults will catch this dark streak and tear up at Andy’s departure and at the anger of some of the abandoned toys. Kids will love it for the adventure that the earlier movies lacked. In all, it’s a summer movie worth taking in at least once.


Take control of your Xbox 360 with the X-Link remote

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:30 PM PDT

If you’re like me, you use your Xbox 360 to watch Netflix and other movies. It’s relatively painless, but the controller doesn’t exactly make the best remote for watching tv. Enter the X-Link, a universal remote control designed to work with the Xbox 360, as well as hundreds of other devices (since it is a universal remote control after all).

The X-Link uses your typical IR style control, for both the Xbox and any other device you happen to program into it. X-Link is designed as a learning remote, with dedicated buttons for Y, X, A, B, as well as Start, Back, and and other controls for the DVD and other features. The X-Link supports over 400 brands of televisions, 200 Satellite receivers, 100 cable receivers, 50 DVR’s, and 200 home theater surround sound systems.

The X-Link is available now from most retail outlets, for an MSRP of $29.95.

Apple’s Gaming Future is Full Steam Ahead

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:19 PM PDT

Remember back when anti-mac fanboys use to say that "the Mac doesn't have gaming, it's not 1337". Then Apple entered the gaming world as a noob, and now look, OS X is running Steam.

It got off to a pretty good start, but recently Valve's Rob Barris said that ATI, NVIDIA and Apple are working hard to increase performance even further. "Performance is going to improve as drivers are updated," said Barris and he expects "modest improvements in short term and larger ones in longer term”. As far as when, he asserted, "No, I can't put dates on them."

It's great to know that Apple’s gaming focus isn't just into the iOS platform. I can’t wait for Counter Strike, Team Fortress and Portal to download.

Hourtime Episode 27: The HM3 and getting stabbed

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 07:05 PM PDT


Download MP3

Subscribe in iTunes

Music by Mombojo

Theme music by Rick Barr


This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

More investigation of Apple’s A4 reveals it to be a plain old highly advanced chip

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 06:30 PM PDT


I wrote a week or so ago that the A4 ain’t that special. I stand by that provocative headline, but the real point was that the magic of effective devices is only partially enabled by the hardware; creative and skilled developers provide the bulk of the experience. That said, an extraordinary component can enable extraordinary devices — it’s clear now, however, that the A4 is not an extraordinary component, so we can safely move on.

The money shot of EETimes’ analysis of the chip is their sum-up at the end:

Despite offering only an optimized version of a standard CPU, the A4 is becoming increasingly important to Apple’s strategy with it appearing now in the iPhone and surely in iPod touches to be released in September—not to mention any future iOS product lines. In all the discussion of CPU identity it would be easy to lose sight of the fact that the A4 is not the offspring of either an integrated semiconductor house or a fabless designer. It is from a mobile devices OEM (sorry Mac).

If you’re interested in the topic, the full article is interesting and quite readable, so give it a read.

So: the A4 is an excellent, optimized, and perfectly capable chip, but the discussion pretty much ends there. It’s stock parts with a custom layout (though part choice is an important factor), but fanboys spouting the idea that Apple is doing something momentous in the semiconductor industry will need to be silenced. As I said in my previous article, give credit where credit’s due: to ARM and the other hardware manufacturers for all the research put into developing these parts, and to Apple for curating a slimmed-down and powerful system-on-a-chip and designing excellent software that makes the best of it.

Now let us never speak of it again. Until the A5.

Video: Pro-wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes loves WWE All Stars

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 06:00 PM PDT

This was truly a life-changing moment. Pro-wrestling legend Dusty Rhodes was at THQ’s E3 booth yesterday promoting the upcoming release of WWE All Stars and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011. And wouldn’t you know it, he told me to beat it! Yes~!

WWE All Stars, for those unfamiliar, is an arcade-y alternative to the more "realistic" (if that’s the word to use) WWE SmackDown vs. Raw series of games. The roster is made up of 15 past legends—presumably Dusty Rhodes will be one—and 15 current Superstars. THQ only confirmed the presence of John Cena and The Rock on the roster.

The biggest WWE legend of all time, Hulk Hogan? My guess is that he won’t be in the game given that he’s currently in rival promotion TNA Wrestling. Oh well.

The game is scheduled for release early next year.

Someone has already disassembled, modded, and reviewed the new 360

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 05:30 PM PDT


This isn’t the most creative or extensive modification one could conceivably do to the new Xbox 360, but it’s cool enough to post. Mainly because these things came out like two days ago — who the hell is this guy, the Flash?

Basically he just put a little lexan window in there with some LEDs, unless those are normal LEDs. It’s kind of cool to be able to see the disc spinning, but I bet we’ll be seeing crazier mods in the next few weeks. The WiFi card, it seems, just plugs into a plain USB port, which I suspect will be a potential backdoor for modders.

The reviewer, Solomods, also notes that the drive is a Philips DG-16D4S running firmware version 9504, if that’s of any consequence to you. The forums are already bubbling over with speculation regarding this and other minor revelations.

[via HardOCP]

Here are your Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword movements

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 05:09 PM PDT


The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword might be the Wii’s crowning achievement, magnum opus and the single best reason to buy the system. It’s going to be huge. Nintendo had a series of posters hung behind its E3 booth that will help you start practicing for the game right now. Click through for what we can only assume are the 11 major control movements for the upcoming Zelda title.

Blimps over Baghdad (ft. Young Northrup Grumman and MC DOD)

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 05:00 PM PDT


These “combat airships,” which by the way are awesome, are being researched and built by defense contractor Northrup Grumman in an effort to keep an “unblinking eye” above Afghanistan. Yes, I know Baghdad isn’t in Afghanistan, but they’ll probably deploy them there too, and the headline made more sense this way. Moving on. The Long-Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle bears a resemblance (or it would if it lost some weight) to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Helicarrier, and performs a similar role.

Yes, the likeness is striking, isn’t it? The LEMV will float above Afghanistan and surely other combat zones at a safe height (20,000 feet is the target) and monitor the landscape with a variety of sensors. Its view will be the “campaign” view, with the Predators and smaller blimps providing the “RTS” view — and soldiers with helmet cams and embedded sensors will provide the “FPS” view.

I don’t want to sound like I’m making light of war, here — the fact simply is that it’s increasingly looking more and more like a game to those in command. That’s not a bad thing, however: more intelligence means better decisions and clear information from every level of the field means more effective engagement and less lives lost. Would that combat airships were unnecessary, but unfortunately that dream has been a long time coming and doesn’t seem to be any close than it did after the Napoleonic wars, when the world seemed to think that was the end of it. Not so much.

iPhone 4 doubles your RAM (doubling of fun not confirmed)

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 04:21 PM PDT

Some time during WWDC, it was mentioned at a meeting that the new iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM, twice what’s in the iPad or 3GS. This magical number isn’t mentioned on the “tech specs” page, or else somebody probably would have noticed it by now. Anyway, it’s just getting out that the 512 megs are there, and it explains a fair amount. iMovie being iPhone 4-exclusive, for instance — though I would have pegged that on the high-resolution UI as much as the RAM thing.

Forcetek’s Xio arm-mounted controller is… promising?

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 04:15 PM PDT


What can one say about a controller that fits onto your arm like a brace and uses the position of your elbow and wrist to control games? Well, it’s kind of awesome: more hardware during a decidedly minimalist gaming trend. But it’s also extremely limited and potentially very expensive. As I noted when they announced it, it’s based on technology used for physical therapy — low-resistance exercise and all that. Somehow I doubt it’s made to be affordable, especially when Forcetek’s dream is a full-body exoskeleton. Man, are you kidding me? You can’t even get people to shell out for a second Nunchuk!

I saw it in use at E3, though I didn’t get to try it out (I was in a hurry), and although the demo guy seemed to be pretty competent with it, I don’t see much of an advantage over something like the Move except in the force-feedback area. It probably will run out of power a lot faster, too — unless they do something clever like use resistance to movement to charge the device.

It was behaving a bit strangely due to the huge amount of WiFi in the area (much like at Nintendo and Apple’s press conferences) but control looked pretty smooth. I’ll wait till I see the final model, though. This one looked like a bunch of sphygmomanometers held together with velcro.

Must see video: Nicholas Deleon playing Kinect’s Dance Central

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 02:15 PM PDT


This might be the best video you’ll see of E3 2010. It doesn’t get much better than Nicholas dancing. Trust me.

Nicholas is playing Dance Central made by Harmonix for the Xbox 360 Kinect. It uses the sensor bar for full body tracking in a sort of Guitar Hero-meets-dancing mash up. Just watch the video; you’ll get the idea.

HP’s CTO makes more noises about Slate not running Windows

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 01:45 PM PDT

At a recent conference about tablets and the future of publishing, there was a Q&A with the CTO of HP’s person systems group. While he used typical CTO doubletalk, there was a few more nuggets of information to be gleaned from his rather cryptic words on the future of products like HP’s Slate PC.

While all this isn’t exactly new information, Phil McKinney (the CTO referenced above), had nothing positive to say about using existing OS’s with new devices. Add to that the fact that he had nothing but positive things to say about WebOS (which of course HP almost owns now), and you start to see a certain picture form. That is to say that all this is conjecture, but the smart money is starting to realize that HP’s Slate will not be running Windows. Many, many internet pundits have been snarking away about how Windows OS would be the death of the Slate, so maybe this will give HP’s tablet the edge that many are hoping for to make it a contender against the iPad.

Phil was directly asked about the Slate running Windows during the Q&A, and he managed to keep tight lipped about the whole thing. He even went so far as to make a joke about how his PR people would be happy that he kept his mouth shut about the future of the Slate. So there you have it. The Slate’s probably not dead, but the Windows version probably is. Of course, this all hinges on if HP manages to complete the purchase of Palm, but I think we’ll be seeing WebOS based Slate systems in the near future.

[via Technologizer]

I mean really, who doesn’t need a LEGO Buffet Table!

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 01:41 PM PDT

Created by Droog Design, this is table keeps your geek cravings and avant-garde hipster leanings from being mutually exclusive. At 25,000 pieces, it begs the question… do you have to put it together yourself?

Rest assured though, that if you begin to lose your geek cred by obtaining this beauty, you could always mount this other LEGO  beauty on top of it to KEEP IT REALZ.

More items in this photo gallery, too.

[Via Trendhunter]

Sure to Crash the Next Stevenote it’s Sony’s New Z and Y Series Notebooks

Posted: 17 Jun 2010 01:13 PM PDT

Sony thinks you need MiFi in your laptop. We agree. It makes sense. Your portable computing device most likely needs internet to function, otherwise you're reduced to minimal tasks.

To make sure your new device keeps up with the portable world, Sony has installed MiFis in their new Z and Y series notebooks. Named Share My Connection or SMC, the laptops connect to the internet with the aid of Verizon mobile broadband. We're still unsure of price, but there is a subscription necessary.

While laptop MiFi’s aren’t necessarily a new thing, Sony has just made it very easy to do, right out of the box, and right in time. No longer are the days of traveling to find a decent signal to do your work or just surf. The really cool part about this is that, not only you can use the broadband.

The Z and Y series Vaios allow up to five other devices to share in its downstream. Perfect for a nerded out van trip.

WHAT: The VAIO Z and Y Series PCs are the world's first out-of-the box laptops that act as a personal hotspot. Select models of these series feature the exclusive new Sony embedded wireless technology called Share My Connection™ (SMC). With SMC you can turn your laptop into a mobile wireless access point that can connect up to five other PCs or networked devices, such as smartphones, mp3 players, and cameras. A subscription is required.

WHEN: Available now for pre-sale at www.sony.com/SMC and at select retailers around the country for about $770 for the VAIO Y Series and $1950 for the VAIO Z Series. To find the closest Sony Style store, please visit www.sonystyle.com.

WHO: A perfect built-in network solution for business travelers, those on-the-go or anyone looking to save some money by sharing a single network connection, Share My Connection is secure and lets you extend your connectivity with coworkers, friends, and family members.

The Z model offers premium portability and serious power. A breeze to carry at about 3.0 lbs, this PC features a durable carbon fiber and aluminum casing and delivers up to seven hours of battery life for true mobile freedom. It incorporates a 13.1-inch high-resolution LED backlit widescreen display, delivering a bright picture with 100 percent color saturation. The extremely thin unit also comes with an optical drive (Blu-ray optical drive optional).

Just in time for back-to-school season, the Y Series laptops comes in five new exciting colors including purple violet, fuchsia pink, pear green, teal blue and black. With a thin 1.2-inch profile and 13.3-inch LED backlit widescreen display, the sleek Y model offers lower power consumption for improved battery life for that active student lifestyle.
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