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Here’s the latest Tron Legacy trailer and you must watch it

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 08:48 PM PDT

Prediction: Tron Legacy will be the best sci-fi movie of 2010 that doesn’t rhyme with preception.

Halo: Reach edition Xbox 360 looks snazzy, costs four hundy

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 07:31 PM PDT


If you’re a Halo fan and haven’t bought the new 360 yet, you’re in luck. This September 15, Halo: Reach will be launching alongside a sweet new Xbox with Halo detailing. It comes with two Halo-style controllers and costs $400 — a $100 premium over the vanilla 360 S and $200 over the stripped-down Arcade model.

They say it’s a limited edition, but “limited” in this case probably means limited to like a million. The console will actually make a cameo in the game, which seems a little weird to me. But I’m probably never going to play Reach, so I’ll never know how it is.

Wooden USB sticks might give you splinters

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 06:30 PM PDT

Yep, a wooden USB drive — we’ve seen that before, but these are a little nicer. Each one is custom made from a stick specially selected by artisans for it’s beauty and then professionally crafted into a drive. Available in 1GB to 8GB capacity, the OOOMS USB sticks will cost you a premium. The 1GB version is $50, and the 8GB will set you back $70. Of course, make sure you don’t have termites, and watch out for splinters. On the positive side, if you drop the drive in a lake it’ll probably float.

I have to tell you, even if you don’t want to buy one of their USB sticks, you have to check out the manufacturers site. Roadkill carpet.

Driverless vehicles begin trek from Italy to China

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT


You probably remember DARPA’s Grand Challenge, which required autonomous vehicles to navigate from one point to another without human intervention. That’s probably the most well-known example of this kind of research (hundreds of entries and millions of dollars went into it), but just because it’s not going on any more doesn’t mean that research has stopped. One project, based in Italy, is looking into the possibility not of cars that simply drive themselves, but cars that follow one another yet can react to unfamiliar “stimuli.” Think of a caravan of robots with a human at the front.

The project has been in the lab and driving around locally for some time now, but they think it’s time to take it to the next level. The project lead, Alberto Broggi, said:

What we are trying to do is stress our systems and see if they can work in a real environment, with real weather, real traffic and crazy people who cross the road in front of you and a vehicle that cuts you off.

He puts driverless vehicles at about 20 years off, which seems like a long time to me. But 10 years is way too soon. I’m going with 15.

The project will be two pairs of vans, with the robo-vans following the driven vans — which will be carrying technicians in case the robo-vans break down. Since they’ll be driving on populated roads and the chances of error and danger are pretty high, there will be a driver in each robo-van as well, waiting to take over at the push of a button. They intend to drive all the way from Parma, Italy, to China — at between 30 and 37MPH, which is about as fast as the vans can go.

Sounds pretty cool to me (and a bit like a Top Gear episode), but it probably will get pretty boring being the backup guy during the long stretches.

[via Techdirt; image: Antonio Calanni/AP]

Seagate predicts the coming of hybrid hard drives

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 06:00 PM PDT

In a recent interview, a representative from Seagate stated that the future of hard drive technology lies in the so-called “hybrid” technology. In this case, “hybrid” refers to the concept of using a flash memory buffer to increase the read/write speed, without increasing the RPM.

Seagate actually has developed one of these new hybrid drives, the 2.5-inch Momentus, and the rep from Seagate said that they are already experiencing high demand for the new technology. Seagate acknowledges that SSD drives still have some benefits over the hybrid technology, but the cost per gigabyte could help the new technology take over 80% of the market by 2015. Of course, in 5 years, there will probably be some other storage technology we’ll all be talking about.

[via XbitLabs]

Talking about the Barbie Video Girl Doll with Paul Carr (another doll)

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 05:45 PM PDT

Make no mistake, we get some weird stuff sent to TCHQ, especially when it's addressed to our Belgian reporter, Robin Wauters. Which is why I always make a point of opening his mail before it's sent on. Today, though, was a special day. Today, wrapped innocently in tissue paper, came "Barbie Video Girl": a genuine Barbie doll, featuring a hidden webcam in her neck. It's hard to get across in text alone how messed up this thing is, so I hopped on to Skype with CrunchGear's John Biggs in New York for the first episode of a new video segment I'm calling "What's Fucked Up In Toys... With John Biggs." Slightly NSFW video below.


Amazon strikes sweet exclusive deal – good for them, bad for consumers

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 05:30 PM PDT

Amazon announced today that it had reached an agreement with Andrew Wylie, head of the successful New York agency whose clients include such authors as Oliver Sacks, Salman Rushdie, and Philip Roth, as well the estates of William Burroughs, John Updike, W.H. Auden, and the like. Amazon and the Kindle e-book store will have exclusive rights to publish several books by authors Wylie represents, cutting all other players (such as authors’ paper book distributors) out of the deal. It’s a big win for Amazon, but the start of a painful period for consumers.

Picture all the e-books that are out there as being in a big pie. Amazon is cutting a piece of the pie out and putting it in their own pan. Pretty soon, the other players will be furiously cutting their own pieces out of the pie and isolating them in their own pans. The end result is a messy and fractured marketplace that’s difficult and confusing for consumers to navigate.

That said, it’s an inevitable step, and it’s far from unprecedented. This kind of thing has been going on since the first marketplaces, where one merchant said to the farmer bringing his beets to market: “Look, you’ve got the best beets, I’ve got the best shopfront. You know it, I know it — let’s make a deal. We’ll clean up.” Except they spoke in Latin, or Linear B or something. Point is that exclusivity happens, and the end result is that everyone steps up and the whole market gets better. But in the meantime, beets are going to be expensive.

Exclusive deals on this or that store, including the Kindle, are nothing new. It’s just that now, as the e-book market heats up, there’s going to be some real competition for talent, and talent is going to start pushing for deals as well. Sure, they want to sell as many copies as possible, but limiting it to one e-book store isn’t going to rock their boat too much, and I’m sure Amazon will be paying a nice up-front. Over the next two years, we’ll see a huge migration of famous authors to major e-book brands. Like Stephen King? If you want him in e-book form, you need a Kindle. That sort of exclusivity is easy to grasp and will likely stay around for a while.

I’m just concerned that it ends up being a negative for the end user. If the big players expect best-seller readers to switch to e-books, this is a bad way of going about it. Joe Danielle-Steel-Reader is going to be angry when he finds that he is unable to get certain authors on his e-reader, or that he has to sign up at a new store and give his credit card information all over again. Sure, you can get Nook, Kindle, or Kobo for lots of devices, but who wants to deal with a whole new interface and store for this or that author or book? For the titles selling millions, it’s going to be more convenient for him to buy an actual paperback — portable, DRM-free, and region-agnostic. Kindle may end up the iTunes of e-books, but until it’s really settled (as seems to be the case with music), there will be troubles.

Of course, Amazon and the others (as well as authors and agents) are sure to be aware of this problem. The “exclusive” deals going on are likely to be limited in key ways, though this one (for 20 classic books at first) is for a full two-year period of exclusivity. Seems a bit over the top. I think publishers and authors are going to end up doing something a little less drastic in future exclusive deals. First three months? First 50,000 copies? Until the author or agent says so? It’ll probably be a contract-specific parameter, which may actually end up confusing the matter further until it’s standardized. I’d like the “first X copies” one, personally — it encourages everyone involved to push as hard as they can.

Predictably, dead-tree publishers are raising a stink. They’re incensed that agents would make these deals on the side without consulting them or working out their cut. Better get used to it, guys. That club you’re wielding against the new wave of distribution is getting smaller every day.

It’s going to be chaotic in this business for the next couple years, for more reasons than those I’ve mentioned. A turbulent market is a hard one for consumers to navigate, unless of course they read this website, in which all secrets are revealed. The move to digital distribution is still wreaking havoc on the music industry, and the TV and movie industries are only faring marginally better. Hopefully the book and publishing industry will have smoother sailing.

[via Electronista]

Is Sony developing a new laser to replace Blu-ray?

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 05:00 PM PDT

A recent announcement from Sony revealed the development on a new type of blue-violet ultra-fast pulsed laser for optical disks. Sounds like it might be time to change formats again!

To be fair, Sony only announced they were developing the laser — they didn’t actually say anything about bringing it to market, or even if it is intended to replace the current Blu-ray format. What they did reveal is that the new laser is capable of reading a disk that has 20 times the capacity of the current generation of optical storage. This means that a blue-violet based player could have more then 50 movies on one disk, or (even more likely) fit an entire season of a TV show on one disk. That would certainly help clean up my Netflix queue!

[via Slashdot]

THQ promises not to make mediocre games anymore

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 04:30 PM PDT

I think at one time or another, we’ve all bought a game and been disappointed in the quality. Perhaps you bought the game because it was a tie in to something you liked (the Evil Dead games in my case) or because you were fooled by clever product descriptions. For whatever reason, you bought the game, and it was a disappointment. Well, in a recent interview, THQ’s VP of Global Publishing Ian Curran has come out and said that spending development dollars on a mediocre title equals death in the marketplace. I say good, publishers should be punished for releasing crap.

Curran had some really strong statements to make about how competitive the gaming market is days, and admitted that their games haven’t always been the best. In fact, he went so far as to admit that in the past, their games have been rushed to market before they were ready. It’s good to know that Wheel of Fortune Saints Row 3 won’t be released until it’s finished. To be fair, THQ has had some great titles in the past, but they’ve also put out an enormous amount of crap not so great titles.

THQ has several new titles coming out this year, including WWE Smackdown vs RAW, Red Faction: Armageddon, and Saints Row 3. We’ll see once the reviews come out rather they are sticking to their promises.

[via Gamerzines]

MagicJack Femtocell delayed, but still coming this year

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 04:00 PM PDT

You may remember at CES this year we had a chance to meet with MagicJack and see the prototype for their Femtocell technology, which they said would be coming out in the first half of the year. Well they missed their projected launch date, but it's looking like the Femtocell product may still be coming this year.


Guillermo Del Toro heading up new 3D Disney Haunted House

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 03:31 PM PDT


Those of us who went on the original Haunted House ride at Disneyland (or one of the variations at other parks) can testify to the magic and fun produced by the old-school analog effects. Unfortunately, the novelty of the old effects is somewhat lost on “kids these days,” who expect more thrill, and probably found the dated scare tactics a little fusty. Luckily, scaremonger Guillermo Del Toro, director of Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth among other films, will be heading up the rebirth of the Haunted House. I can’t think of a better man for the job.

If you saw Pan’s Labyrinth, I think you know where I’m coming from. If he can funnel even a fraction of the terror and magic that formed that film’s theme and tone, then this project will be a success. Toro said the ride, which will incorporate 3D video, it would be an “E ticket ride,” an informal term for the best and most well-funded Disney projects. Good to hear they’re taking it seriously. It’s not clear (or Toro didn’t say) whether it would be more video or more ride, but if they’re going all out E ticket style, I’m guessing it’s a bit of both.

[via Underwire]

HP Windows 7 slates coming “this fall”

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 02:28 PM PDT


Here come the slates. Send in the slates. Todd Bradley, EVP, Personal Systems Group, for HP just announced that their Windows 7 tablets will arrive “this Fall” — something we suspected after said slates showed up on HP’s website with SKU numbers and all. The rumored (and almost certainly real) webOS slates were touched on tangentially, with the non-answer that we can expect a “family” of slate devices. Jon Rubinstein pretty much confirmed that they’re coming out, but wouldn’t give any dates.

The Windows 7 tablets, supposedly called Slate 500s, will support pen and finger input, and according to Rubinstein are going to be targeted at the enterprise sector — a strategy we expected after reports of the Slate’s death were shown to be exaggerated, and the PalmPad trademark was filed for.

[Note: this post originally read that webOS slates were arriving this Fall. Not the case. In fact, webOS 2.0 will be arriving later this year, not a tablet based on that OS. Sorry for any confusion. The perpetrator of this grievous and far-felt error is being strapped into the pain machine from The Princess Bride as I type this.]

Mary-Jo Foley, Microsoft lover, buys an iPad, blood rains down on the Holy Land

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 02:14 PM PDT


You may or may not have heard of Mary-Jo Foley but she’s covers Microsoft. Like totally covers Microsoft. She’s as much as a Microsoft nerd as we are Apple nerds. That’s how serious she is.

Well, she bought an iPad. I know! WTF!

Anyway, Mary-Jo bought the iPad because she couldn’t find a Windows device that did what the iPad does, mainly exist in a plane that is neither PC nor smartphone yet offer the best of both. She explains it thus:

So why did I succumb to the charms of the iPad? Quite simply, I have not been able to find a PC that offered what an iPad does. Windows laptops are powerful, versatile and relatively inexpensive compared to Apple's counter-offerings. You can get portable netbooks (with so-so performance), great big-screen gaming rigs and thin-and-light models (like the Asus UL30A that is my current workhorse). But none of these has the amazing battery life, fast on/off, ultra-handy form factor, a made-for-touch interface (rather than touch bolted on to a keyboard/mouse-centric interface) or a built-in app store.

She basically admits that Windows, at least right now, is not a good tablet platform. Putting aside the fact that the industry has been saying that since the first tablets rolled out in 2001, she’s very brave. When I read her headline, I was concerned she’d be trolled mercilessly. Thankfully, the commenters were quite kind. The worst was stuff like this dude, who channels Freedom Fighter Che Guevara:

As a consumption device, it is probably very good. I understand MJ’s rationale and thinking – it makes perfect sense.

However, I will never give Apple any of my $$ given their business philosophy. I therefore think MJ jumped the gun. I will wait for Android/Chrome slates. Judging by the Android phones, they will be more or less on par with the iPad, will be much more open and quickly come down in price.

Anyway, it’s a good read.

EA calls Nintendo 3DS ‘magical’ & says it will sell ‘like hotcakes’

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 02:00 PM PDT

And now EA has said what we've all been saying: the Nintendo 3DS is quite the piece of kit. Granted, EA doesn't used the same bit of forced Briticism that I just did, but the feelings are the same: Nintendo has a hit on its hands. It's one that when one of us say it, but EA?

EA's COO, John Schappert, told IndustryGamers that the Nintendo 3DS will "sell like hotcakes." For anyone born after the year 1960, "selling like hotcakes" is an idiom that means an item or product will sell very well.

He continues:

The 3DS is just incredibly cool. The 3DS is magical. You put that in your hand, you look down, and all of a sudden it's in 3D without glasses. That's an amazing experience. I'm a huge fan.

The only problem with this statement is that I'm pretty sure Apple owns the exclusive rights to the word "magical" when used to describe a piece of consumer electronics.

(That's a joke. Calmate.)

Let's put it like this: raise you hand if you think the 3DS will not be a big hit, both critically and commercially? If your hand is in the air then you're one of the few. Congrats.

World strongest beer to be sold wrapped in dead animals

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 01:32 PM PDT


It’s not exactly gadget-related, but this was too weird to pass up. A brewery in the UK has created what it says is the world’s strongest beer, at 110 proof: The End Of History. That’s not the weird part.

Only 12 bottles have been made and each comes with its own certificate and is presented in a stuffed stoat or grey squirrel. The striking packaging was created by a very talented taxidermist and all the animals used were road kill.

Just watch the video. The beer actually sounds pretty delicious. I like Juniper.

Razer’s TRON mouse and keyboard get priced and semi-dated

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 01:00 PM PDT


The TRON gaming hardware we got exposed to at E3 are headed your way later this year, though you may be disappointed at the price. True TRON fanboys won’t buck at paying $150 for a keyboard and $100 for a mouse, but the average gamer might.

To be fair, the new $150 keyboard does look pretty sweet. The illumination is a little over-the-top, but I actually like the way they’ve separated the F-keys. And the detachable numpad, like we saw on the Sidewinder X6, is convenient for a lot of games. Looks like they’re missing a couple symbols above the numbers in that picture, though, what’s up with that? And no extra USB ports? Come on now.

The mouse is less exciting to me, probably because I think they’ve pretty much hit the end of the line with the Mamba. If you want a themed mouse, great, but $100 is a lot of money and while I’m sure this mouse is nice, I’m not sure it’s Benjamin nice. The side buttons look good, but I’m not digging the scroll wheel.

In any case, there’s no way to know for sure whether these things are worth the cash until I review them, which I am sure to do.

There’s also a new mousepad, but eh.

College Humor reimagines the antennagate press conference

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 12:35 PM PDT

The Antennagate press conference won’t soon be forgotten. Good or bad, it’s now part of Apple’s history and will probably be remembered as the time Steve Jobs side-stepped an issue and instead pointed the finger at everyone else. No matter. College Humor put together a short video of what they think the press conference would have been like if Steve Jobs would have spoken his mind instead of trying to spin the situation. The best line? Oh, they’re all good especially the one about Gizmodo. Click through for the slightly-NSFW two-minute video.

Tiny plane lands itself on power lines to recharge

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 12:30 PM PDT


This little glider, called the Micro Air Vehicle, is being developed by MIT as a possible surveillance tool. For such a small craft, though, big batteries are pretty much out of the question. I’m not sure exactly what they’re planning on powering, since it’s a glider, but I’m going to go ahead and defer to MIT on that point. In any case, if it has any power draw, it can’t work for long without big batteries that would make it difficult to fly. MIT engineers decided to have it replenish its power supply in the field by going straight to the source: power lines.

The glider basically swoops in and lets the computer control take over as it approaches the cable. A plane that light would be difficult to control by hand, especially during a stalling maneuver, but the computer does it right, ending by settling itself on the power lines with a little hook.

They seem mighty vulnerable in this position, though — like a bat sleeping. There’s more than one benefit of going back to HQ, after all. At HQ you don’t have people shooting at you.

EA now the ‘Official Technology Partner of the [English] Premier League’

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 12:00 PM PDT

When does the Premiership begin, in a few weeks? (Yes, I realize I could just Wiki that, but that would have deprived me of an opening question.) Word today is that the Barclays Premier League has teamed up with EA to make the games a little more technological. EA will henceforth be known as the Official Technology Partner of the Premier League. Yay, etc.

Details are a little sketchy, but EA says that its games will be featured on live broadcasts, and that it will sponsor something called the Player Performer Index. (I thought the FA was annoyed with Capello's ,I but apparently the PPI is A-OK.) (Yes, I know The FA != the EPL.) My guess, given EA's history, is that in future FIFA editions you'll see a new stat called PPI that's loosely tied to any given player's performance. So, if Rooney has a great couple of weeks, then his PPI will be high in-game. Then you'll see the same PPI on Sky (or Fox Soccer Channel here in the U.S.)

You need to know that I completely made up that PPI scenario based on a new feature in the next Madden game. But it seems reasonable, right?

All I want to know is, will Cesc Fabregas be an Arsenal player come September 1?


When anti-piracy agencies use Mafia tactics to stop you from downloading Justin Bieber songs

Posted: 22 Jul 2010 11:30 AM PDT

Nothing like helping out your fellow man. As you know, copyright infringement, known as "theft" by people looking to spread FUD, is the worst crime a person can commit. I mean, you can be in charge of financial intuitions that rip off people's money, you can be in charge of an energy company that randomly drills into the planet then feigns ignorance when something goes wrong, but hey, whatever—there are people out there downloading "Oh My Gosh." This must be stopped!

What has emerged in recent days is that Sweden's Antipiratbyrån (Anti-Piracy Agency, or APB) has effectively been threatening teens with retribution unless they dole out their friends' details. You know, "Hey! We know your friends are downloading Justin Bieber 24/7. You had better tell us what sites or services they're using, or you're doomed."

Doomed? All that's mentioned is that these people could look forward to "reprisals" should they fail to cooperate.

Sounds like Mafia tactics to me.

Again, I solved this problem some time ago: just ban music altogether. The world will forever be free of "Baby," and the record companies can open up a new business doing what they do best:making a living off the talents of others.

Admission: I actually find that Usher song, "Oh My Gosh," rather catchy. Where do I turn in my cynical jerk membership card?
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