CrunchGear |  |
- Daily Crunch: Martial Arts Action Edition
- Nikon Looking Into Carbon Fiber DSLR Bodies?
- The BoilBuoy Lets You Know When Your Pot Boils
- Review: Dyson DC25 Animal
- Apple May Be Planning A Holiday Release For Next iPad
- Galaxy Tab To Be Announced September 16th For AT&T, Verizon, Sprint?
- Wood Stock, For Telling What Kind Of Wood You’re Looking At
- Pentax K-5 DSLR Pictures And Specs Leak
- Did GE Develop A Powered Exoskeleton For Weyland-Yutani?
- Apple Says iPhone 4 Antenna Issue “Even Smaller Than We Originally Thought”
- Review: Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse
- Lenovo’s Power Hub Is A Combination Power Brick And USB Hub
- Patton P42 Hyperbare Dive Watch
- id Mobile Job Posting Hints At Future Android Development
- GTA Trilogy Coming To Macs – Hooray?
- Kinect Competitor Gets Cash Infusion
- Make Your Own iWatch
- Large Corporations Fall For ‘This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies’ E-Mail Worm. In 2010.
- $35 Android Tablet Not Really From India
- 9/14/10: Parallels 6 ‘Drops’
| Daily Crunch: Martial Arts Action Edition Posted: 11 Sep 2010 12:40 AM PDT |
| Nikon Looking Into Carbon Fiber DSLR Bodies? Posted: 10 Sep 2010 08:17 PM PDT
It seems someone working in a workshop specializing in carbon-fiber construction has been working on something for Nikon: a “resin-infused 3D woven CFRP body” of the Pro DSLR persuasion. Current high-end camera bodies often use magnesium alloy for structure, though usually it has a rubberized finish for grip and shock resistance. I’m not sure how carbon fiber stands up to current materials, but apparently Nikon thinks it’s worth investigating. Plus: looks sweet.
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| The BoilBuoy Lets You Know When Your Pot Boils Posted: 10 Sep 2010 06:30 PM PDT
[via NotCot]
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| Posted: 10 Sep 2010 06:00 PM PDT
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Full Review: The model I’m reviewing today is the DC25 Animal. This particular model is specifically designed for people with pets, and we have 3 cats in my household. As a result, we get cat hair everywhere, and it’s a pain to keep the furniture clean. One thing that has always annoyed me about other vacuum cleaners is the attachments. Why on earth do they bother to include that miniature “upholstery brush” that is supposed to spin using the force of the suction, but it never works? Well, I’m here to tell you that the Dyson version works. This means that I don’t have to set the couch cushions on the floor and vacuum them, I can just plug the extension hose into the mini-turbine, and it spins. Not only that, but when I actually touch the mini-turbine to the couch fabric, it keeps spinning. This was literally the feature that made me go, “yeah, this vacuum is worth the money”. All is not perfect with the DC25 though, there were a couple of things that annoyed me. Specifically, the mini-turbine doesn’t attach to the vacuum anywhere. You have to put it somewhere safe, and hope you don’t forget where you put it. On cheaper vacuum cleaners it snaps onto the body of the cleaner, I’m not really sure why that’s not the case with the Dyson. The other issue is with the main beater. If you (or your significant other) has long hair, sooner or later you’re going to have to clean that beater. And the disassembly process to get at the beater is a pain. Of course, that’s not a problem particular to the Dyson, but I expected it to have some kind of magic blade that would make the hair not wrap around the beater brush. Maybe in the next version. Conclusion: I really, really like the Dyson. I was prepared to dismiss it as an overpriced gimmick, but I’m actually happy to say that I was wrong. Despite the price, the Dyson DC25 Animal is easy to recommend to people. It’s a truly great product that does exactly what they show it doing on the commercials. My hat is off to you, James Dyson.
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| Apple May Be Planning A Holiday Release For Next iPad Posted: 10 Sep 2010 05:30 PM PDT
So these rumors come as no surprise; if I had “a person with proven knowledge,” I would have cited them with such a rumor months ago, whether they said so or not. It makes sense for a number of reasons. 1. The iPad is limited. Oh, put down your pitchforks. You know what I mean. I don’t think the iPad was ever meant to be a single device, but like their other computers, it was always going to be a range, with different sizes and slightly different specs. But the first thing was to put out one, in the hypothetical Goldilocks zone for tablets, and see if consumers bit. They did. Time to expand. Variety would be necessarily more restricted than the laptops, since the iOS platform is far more controlled, but there’s no reason you shouldn’t have a large, medium, and small. Those are things that will never confuse customers, and which provide easy prices to rally around. I suspect the iPad is the medium, with a 7″ and 11″ (or thereabouts) in the cards for the next year. iPad, iPad Pro, and iPad Mini. Or something. 2. The wolves are (kind of) at the door. They’re really small wolves, and the door is 3 million iPads thick, but they are scratching at it nonetheless. Being first to the market has definite benefits, but HP, Google, Motorola, Microsoft, Blackberry, and pretty much every other tech giant on the planet wants a piece of Apple, and although the iPad could likely stand alone on its strengths, there’s no reason to let it. A more compact iPad with a camera for FaceTime (and likely a few other minor improvements) would take the wind out of the competition’s sails — and sales, if only because it’s new and new sells. 3. They need FaceTime devices. Another rumor that showed up today is that Apple is expanding FaceTime to OS X and possibly Windows machines (developers are still waiting on that “open standard,” though). While the new iPod touch took some of the pressure off Apple to provide non-iPhone-4 FaceTime devices, it would be mighty strange if they left the iPad as the only non-compatible device for a whole year. Apple wants to make FaceTime a marquee feature of their products — simple, no-nonsense video chat on all their devices — and if the holiday season isn’t the time to push that, I don’t know what is. I can see it now: “A Very Special Apple Holiday Event,” with snow on the logo and everything. FaceTime for all, and to all a good night. The original iPad, it seems reasonable to assume, will remain unchanged for the time being. What we’re looking at is a great opportunity for Apple to introduce a new product, not to unexpectedly update the original, an action which consumers might look on as kind of a bait and switch. I’d also guess that availability wouldn’t be until well after the holidays, which isn’t optimal for a gift-oriented release, but it’s better than nothing. Knowing there’s a new iPad in the near future might dampen your desire for a compact Android tablet or Palmpad. Of course, this is all rumor and speculation, and of course it had to show up literally the day after I start considering buying one of these damn things, so to be honest I don’t know whether I even want to believe it.
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| Galaxy Tab To Be Announced September 16th For AT&T, Verizon, Sprint? Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:53 PM PDT
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| Wood Stock, For Telling What Kind Of Wood You’re Looking At Posted: 10 Sep 2010 04:30 PM PDT
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| Pentax K-5 DSLR Pictures And Specs Leak Posted: 10 Sep 2010 03:30 PM PDT
The K-5 costs $1699, and while you can scope the full details over at the Pentax forums, I’ll limit myself to the high points. 16.2 megapixels (1.52x cropped sensor) I’m guessing it’s also got the new high-res LCD that’s in the K-r, if not a superior one. We’re missing burst speed and a couple little specs, but that seems to be the full picture. They mention a translucent LCD displaying focus points and framing grid in the viewfinder. I wonder how they can do this without darkening the image? Anyway, the K-5 looks like a real solid camera. I’m not sold on the K-r, but this seems like a pretty good match for the other options at the $1500-$2000 price point. [via Photography Bay]
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| Did GE Develop A Powered Exoskeleton For Weyland-Yutani? Posted: 10 Sep 2010 03:00 PM PDT
[via Makezine]
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| Apple Says iPhone 4 Antenna Issue “Even Smaller Than We Originally Thought” Posted: 10 Sep 2010 02:00 PM PDT  Remember Antennagate? You probably do, but no one seems to talk about it anymore. Since Apple held a press conference to address the iPhone 4′s attenuation issues in July, undoubtedly millions more units have been sold. More units, more problems, right? Maybe not.
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| Review: Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Posted: 10 Sep 2010 01:34 PM PDT
Pros:
Cons:
Full review:
Everyone on the internet was whipped into a frenzy by Microsoft’s surprisingly effective viral marketing for this thing. Of course, there was almost no way for us to put the pieces together, so to speak, since a weird flat mouse like this is pretty much unprecedented. Is it worth the money? Well, the Arc Touch Mouse is a series of serious strengths and weaknesses, all proceeding from key design decisions. They knew what they were getting into here, so there aren’t design flaws exactly, but rather design consequences. Design First of all, the mouse really is very compact. Even the best “travel” mice out there are merely small, not flat, and if space is a premium for you, this mouse outdoes all comers in economical design. The only thing that comes to mind is the previous Arc Mouse, but even then it took up far more volume than this one. This will easily fit in any pocket that can accommodate its length, which when flattened is about five inches. Compare to other portable mice, which won’t fit into flat pockets but are significantly shorter.
It’s also a unique and interesting looking mouse, so kudos to Microsoft for that. People will ask you what it is and how it works if you display it prominently, so if you like that kind of attention, this is a good addition to your stable of eye-grabbing devices. Although it’s petite-looking, it feels quite sturdy. The rear part of the mouse seems to be a sort of satin-finish rubber, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to crack any time soon. The front is normal glossy plastic and seems tightly put together, enough so that you won’t worry too much about crumbs getting in there. I get the feeling the rest of it will get pretty grubby, though. Why don’t you wash your hands more often, you slob? God! Performance Let’s remind ourselves of something here: expectations of mobile mice should be less than those for normal mice — especially for an extra-mobile designer mouse like this one. Still, comparisons have to happen. So let’s take a look.
The incredibly petite structure of the mouse does not, honestly, lend itself to serious mousing. Put your hand on your mouse. Now take all your fingers off except for the two on the top buttons. That’s pretty much what you’ve got to work with with the Arc Touch. There’s very little to grab onto, and where there would normally be a middle to wrap your fingers around, there is naught but air. Sure, this was the case with the old Arc Mouse, but its “body” was a little chubbier and usually your fingers could find purchase. This slimmer version gives you even less to grip, and it is not suitable for those of us with larger hands. This is a shortcoming that is pretty much apparent from the outcome, though. The Bluetrack sensor is dead center on the front segment, and although it feels a bit far forward, that’s something you get used to quickly. Like other Bluetrack mice, this will track on almost anything; I never had any trouble on any of the surfaces I tried, from steel desk to a couple mousepads, to the wood tables at a cafe.
It tracks well, I should say, when it moves smoothly, but it doesn’t always move smoothly. If you turn over your mouse, you’ll find a number of little patches of smooth teflon, which are the actual contact points between the mouse and the mousing surface. There needs to be enough of it to spread out the weight of your hand and the resultant friction. The Arc Touch mouse has very little teflon down below, which is no surprise since the total mouse pad facing area of the mouse can’t amount to more than a square inch. The fact is there’s just too much weight being accommodated by these tiny spots of contact, and I found the mouse tended to move less than smoothly unless I essentially suspended my hand above it rather than let it rest. That’s made difficult by the fact that all the action goes on at the very tip of the mouse; the buttons are only pressable at their tips, for about three quarters of an inch, aft of which they can’t be clicked. So your hand is pretty far up on the mouse, meaning your palm is likely resting on the top of the “arc.”
The touch-sensitive scroll pad is an interesting little creature. It works — that much can be said. Is it worth it? It contributes a bit to the flatness and uninterrupted lines of the mouse, and actually, the few gestures you can do with it are handy and reprogrammable. So yes, it’s a nice addition, and I hope to see more of it. The built-in haptic response feels kind of weird to me, but if you want to be sure you’re going up or down a certain number of “ticks,” it’s indispensable. You can slide your finger up and down to scroll, obviously, and it works with inertia so you can “toss” the thing down to the bottom of a page. Tapping the center of it results in a middle click, and tapping the top or bottom means other button presses, by default page up and page down. It’s actually very handy, except for the fact that the top of the scroll pad is waaay up at the tip of the mouse, so you have to reach forward a bit to hit it. I never had any trouble with the wireless, and the mouse worked instantaneously on both my MacBook Pro and my desktop PC. The USB bit is tiny and sticks to the bottom of the mouse when not in use, which is nice. I was afraid the normal bouncing around in my bag would dislodge it, but that didn’t happen. I’d still put it in a small pocket, so you don’t have to go fishing for the thing if it were to detach. Conclusion If you’re not too concerned with ergonomics and just want a compact and unique mouse to always have with you, the Arc Mouse Touch is a solid choice. If, however, you really rely on your mobile mouse as a serious input device, you should find something more suited to your purpose. Microsoft’s own Bluetrack Mini and the Razer Orochi both are excellent mice for everyday use as well as being relatively compact. Product page: Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse       
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| Lenovo’s Power Hub Is A Combination Power Brick And USB Hub Posted: 10 Sep 2010 01:01 PM PDT
I’m actually surprised no companies have simply put a USB port on their power brick. If you’ve only got so many ports on your laptop, or don’t want to turn it on, or what have you, you just plug it in at the source. Lenovo’s solution either goes too far or not far enough; nobody wants that brick in view, so maybe leave it on the floor and embed the USB ports in a separate piece closer to the computer? The point is moot, of course, if you don’t have a compatible laptop. This thing works with “90W and 65W ThinkPad laptops,” and while I’m not familiar with the power requirements and plugs used by other common laptops, it’s possible it would work with yours. Uh, I wouldn’t buy it based on that, though. It’s still potentially useful, though at $75 you’re paying for a dubious convenience. Pick it up at the Lenovo web store.
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| Patton P42 Hyperbare Dive Watch Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:52 PM PDT  Sometime last year this new watch brand was born in France, with a decidedly American sounding name. Patton currently makes three watch models - each a variation of the P42 design. Each are diver style watches, and one is a chronograph model. I would like to focus on the more hardcore model of the trio, which the Patton P42 Hyperbare - based on "hyperbaric chamber" (pressure chamber). The watch is filled with a formula of mineral oil that cannot really be condensed very much, creating space that is more or less immune to high pressure. The alternative is a case filled with air, or some type of gas. Oil filled watches are not common, but not unheard of. The Patton P42 Hyperbare isn't the only one around by any means, but might be one of the nicest ones. These are pretty watches, given their French design.
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| id Mobile Job Posting Hints At Future Android Development Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:47 PM PDT
However, id Mobile is now looking for a full-time Android programmer for an in-office gig, which seems to state Android games are on their way. This makes my Droid X quiver in excitement. [Gamasutra via 1up]
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| GTA Trilogy Coming To Macs – Hooray? Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:30 PM PDT
Between this and Steam, Mac gaming is blowing up! Can’t wait for the rest of the PS2 canon to hit!
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| Kinect Competitor Gets Cash Infusion Posted: 10 Sep 2010 12:00 PM PDT
To be perfectly honest, I don’t see their actual games competing on the same level as the in-house titles shipping with the other guys, but we’ve seen them at E3 at they at least work. The optimizations and support provided for the first-party motion tools are perhaps just too much of an obstacle for third-party stuff to really make a dent. But Softkinetic also makes iisu, a motion and gesture control development environment that I think is likely to sell quite a bit over the next couple years. After all, even games with traditional controls are going to have to implement some basic motion controls if they want to make headlines or build up their back-of-box bullet points. I guess the take-away here is that the whole motion control infrastructure is growing, not just sales of this or that console. I think we can reasonably expect seriously improved mo-con (I’m making up that term so I don’t have to keep saying the other) games to appear as the infrastructure matures.
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| Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:28 AM PDT
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| Large Corporations Fall For ‘This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies’ E-Mail Worm. In 2010. Posted: 10 Sep 2010 11:00 AM PDT
Sigh. Stories like this make me wonder whether or not it’d be a good idea to license people to use the Internet. A fairly big worm spread around top companies—Disney, Comcast, and AIG were among the companies affected—yesterday. Thankfully, according to McAfee, it wasn’t a terribly destructive worm, but still. "Here You Have," ideed. The worm, which spread itself via e-mail, ran with the subject line "Here you have." Other variants were out there, including one with a subject line "Just for You" and a body that read "This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies,you can find it Here.” Hence, my thinking that licensing people to use the Internet, or at least making basic computer safety a part of the public education system here. If you fall for something that says "This is The Free Dowload Sex Movies,you can find it Here,” you really ought to think twice. Not only are you putting yourself at risk, which is bad enough, but you’re putting the entire Internet at risk. Apparently the Department of Homeland Security is investing the worm, which must mean that some staffer way down on the totem pole got a whole office infected. I should be running some Internet safety thing next week—it’s been delayed about four times at this point, for one reason or another—but hopefully it will address some of these issues. I wish I could give the advice "Just stop using the Internet, it’s not worth the aggravation," but that doesn’t really address the problem, now does it?
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| $35 Android Tablet Not Really From India Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:42 AM PDT
The truth was uncovered by the Indian website Android OS, where the author was able to find evidence showing the design to actually made in China. This completely disproves the press releases from the Indian government claiming that the tablet was developed by some of India’s top engineering colleges. In the above picture, that’s the Indian Android Tablet on the left, and the Hivision Speedpad on the right.
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| Posted: 10 Sep 2010 10:30 AM PDT
You know what comes out on Tuesday, September 14? Halo: Reach, right, but besides that? Parallels 6, the virtualization software that makes certain Mac users’ lives a little bit easier. It runs on 64-bit processors this time around—woo! Apparently there’s 80 "new and improved" features, all of which contribute to a 40 percent faster application. Let’s see, what else do we have here? It looks like there’s support for 5.1 surround sound. Spotlight integration with Windows has been improved as well, as have 3D graphics performance. Probably best of all: built-in Kaspersky anti-virus software. Lord knows you’d be a fool to sure the Internet on a Windows box without any sort of anti-virus software. It looks to be $80 full-price, or $50 if you’re upgrading from a previous version.
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This is an interesting rumor, if not particularly well-sourced. But hey, it’s Friday night. Anything goes!
Short Version: I really struggled with this one. As someone who is notoriously cheap, I had serious reservations about reviewing a vacuum cleaner that has an MSRP of $549. I mean, seriously? What could make this particular vacuum so much better then the old standby bagless that I picked up for $100 at the local retail store. Well, I’m here to tell you: I was wrong. The Dyson DC25 Animal is a great vacuum cleaner, and if you can afford one – buy it.
Some rumors are swirling, quite unsubstantiated, that Apple may be breaking its own yearly release cycle by pushing for 
Back in the 1960′s, GE was developing something called the “Hardiman” – a mechanical exoskeleton designed to move heavy things around. Fast forward to the future. A certain Weyland-Yutani corporation uses pretty much the same technology to haul cargo around a ship’s hold. Coincidence? Or does GE eventually become the evil corporation responsible for the Alien infestation? To see the complete concept drawing, photos, and the full (real) backstory behind the Hardiman, check out the 
Rockstar has revealed that Mac users will be tearing around Liberty City, going off sweet jumps and punching hookers, some time this year. The original GTA III, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas are 
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