CrunchGear |  |
- Apple Patents Anti-Sexting System
- Why Are Watches So Expensive?
- 72 inches: LG Announces World’s Biggest 3D TV
- Daily Crunch: Squirrel Target Edition
- Sony Outs The First HDTV Powered By Google TV
- VLC For iPhone And iPod Touch Imminent
- Video: Use A Slinky To Save Your Birdseed From Evil Squirrels
- Nikon Expands My PictureTown Sharing Service
- Palm Pre 2 Gets Its Close-Up
- High Court: Ireland Cannot Enforce ‘Kick Pirates Off The Internet’ Laws
- Inside the HP Workstation Lab Part 1: History
- Walmart To Get The iPad This Friday
- Is The Nintendo 3DS Too Expensive?
- Apple Looking To Sell iPad In South Korea In November
- Lockheed & Darpa Develop Real Life ‘Aimbot’ For Snipers
- As The Notion Ink Adam Sneaks Closer To Production, A New Pics and A Short Video Drop
- Handheld X-Ray Device Powered By 2 D Batteries
- Chumby Grows Workable Legs, Next Step Is Clearly Human Enslavement
- Medal Of Honor: The First Reviews Are In (And They’re Sorta Mixed)
- Amazon Introduces The Digital Pamphlet With ‘Kindle Singles’
| Apple Patents Anti-Sexting System Posted: 13 Oct 2010 05:08 AM PDT  Today the US Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent Apple filed in 2008, which, get this, prevents users from sending or receiving "objectionable" text messages. The patent's official title? "Text-based communication control for personal communication device" which actually doesn't use the pretty ridiculous noun "Sexting," but come on, we all know what they mean. The "Sexting" patent background info states that the problem it solves is that there is currently "No way to monitor and control text communications to make them user appropriate. For example, users such as children may send or receive messages (intentionally or not) with parentally objectionable language."
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| Posted: 13 Oct 2010 04:46 AM PDT  There is no denying that most people consider watches to be pretty expensive. Luxury watches often cost as much, or more than cars. For people not intimately aware of how the luxury watch industry works, it can be confusing, frustrating, even maddening why watches are so expensive. Due to this question getting thrown around a lot, click below to "read more" to learn about luxury watch pricing reasons and the luxury industry overall.
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| 72 inches: LG Announces World’s Biggest 3D TV Posted: 13 Oct 2010 03:41 AM PDT
The features include:
The Infinia 72LEX9 will go on sale in markets outside Korea in the second quarter of next year.
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| Daily Crunch: Squirrel Target Edition Posted: 13 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT |
| Sony Outs The First HDTV Powered By Google TV Posted: 12 Oct 2010 03:23 PM PDT
The first Google TV-powered HDTV is here. The Sony Internet TV line drops at four different sizes, 24, 32, 40, and 46, but all come packing the Google TV goodness. The whole package is just about as you would expect it. Inside is the Google TV software that at least sounds exactly like the suite in the Logitech Revue Google TV setup box. There’s a dual view mode for watching TV while fiddling with apps such as Twitter. A host of video streaming apps come pre-loaded including CNBC, NBA, Netflix, YouTube, along with the music services of Napster and Pandora. There’s even a large RF QWERTY remote for navigation around the interface. Hardware-wise, the HDTV is pretty much stock besides the addition of the Wi-Fi. The three larger sets rock 1080p panels backlit by LEDs while the 24-inch utilizes traditional CCFL lighting. The rest of the specs including contrast ratio and video processor haven’t been release just yet so it’s hard to tell where this screen will align with the rest of Sony’s screens. All four should be available this weekend at Sony Style outlets with Best Buy locations getting them on October 24. As for pricing, there’s a bit of a premium, but nothing too unreasonable with the 24-inch starting things off at $599 and climbing to $1,399 for the 46-inch. SONY REDEFINES HOME ENTERTAINMENT WITH THE WORLD'S FIRST HDTV POWERED BY GOOGLE TV Watch HDTV, Enjoy Apps and Browse the Internet Seamlessly on One Device NEW YORK, October 12, 2010 – Furthering the company's leadership in the connected TV space, Sony today introduced Sony Internet TV, powered by Google TV — the world's first television with the ability to watch HDTV, enjoy apps, and browse the Internet seamlessly on one device. The combination of Sony's hardware and engineering expertise and Google's understanding of open software provides a unique user experience, merging multiple content sources in one easy-to-use interface. From broadcast to streaming video from the Internet, Sony Internet TV offers the ability to quickly search and watch content from wherever, whenever. "Sony Internet TV is the world's first HDTV that combines the big-screen impact of television and full Internet search to deliver an unrivaled entertainment experience," said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony's Home Division. "Finally, you can seamlessly search your favorite TV programs and web sites on the same screen, at the same time." "We are very proud to be the pioneers of this new entertainment category by delivering the world's first true Internet TV experience," added Bob Ishida, senior vice president, corporate executive, and president of Home Entertainment Business Group, Sony Corporation. "Sony Internet TV creates value by introducing new and compelling ways to enjoy a variety of content." Featuring both integrated television models and a Blu-ray Disc™ player, Sony Internet TV is powered by Google TV. It is built on the Android platform, runs the Google Chrome browser and includes a powerful Intel® Atom® processor offering the ability to quickly search across Internet and television content for easy access to entertainment and information. Sony Internet TV NSX-40GT1 Sony Internet TV NSX-32GT1 Sony Internet TV NSX-24GT1 Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player NSZ-GT1
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| VLC For iPhone And iPod Touch Imminent Posted: 12 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT
I’ve been using VLC for iPad, and while I’ve come across some interesting bugs (mainly related to audio), it seems to work quite well. The app will only work with a 3GS or better iPhone, though, or an equivalent-generation iPod touch, and they say that 720p videos may not play smoothly due to hardware limitations. Not a big deal, I think. SD files look pretty decent. [via Gadget Lab]
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| Video: Use A Slinky To Save Your Birdseed From Evil Squirrels Posted: 12 Oct 2010 12:49 PM PDT
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| Nikon Expands My PictureTown Sharing Service Posted: 12 Oct 2010 12:32 PM PDT
Along with the PhotoMovie and sharing options, Nikon also redesigned the My PictureTown home page, enhanced the MyPhotos area, and added the ability to incorporate designs in to the MyPhoto page area. Nikon also added the ability to share photos on Facebook using the upload function. The basic service gives a user 2GB of storage and the ability to create one PhotoMovie – a slideshow with transition effects and music. The Gold level service costs $2.99 a month, and ups the storage to 20GB, and the ability to create an unlimited number of PhotoMovies. Additional space is available at $2.99 increments, with a 20GB increase for each step up to 200GB. From the press release: NIKON'S MY PICTURETOWN PHOTO STORAGE AND SHARING EXPERIENCE IS ENHANCED WITH APPEALING NEW FEATURES FOR EFFORTLESS PHOTO SHARING AND MANAGEMENT New PhotoMovie Lets Consumers Create and Share Their Favorite Images Set to Music Just in Time for the Holiday Season Melville, N.Y., October 12, 2010 – Today, Nikon Inc. launched a new version of its image sharing and storage service, my Picturetown (www.mypicturetown.com), with improved sharing and creativity tools. The site features design, navigation and functionality improvements to enhance the user's overall photo and video experience. Among the new features is the PhotoMovie function that allows my Picturetown members to create a dynamic slide show of photos that can be combined with text, music, and special effects. This service allows users to include their favorite memories in a PhotoMovie that can be easily shared with friends and family through email or popular social networks. The tool is a unique alternative to posting single pictures and adds the ability to tell a story and share memorable moments through multiple photos, captions, and royalty-free music available on the site. Other improvements include a redesigned homepage, an enhanced "My Photos" page, and the option to add designs to shared albums. Once logged in, a member's homepage can be decorated with a random assortment of previously uploaded photos for a personal touch that continues to entertain as more photos are uploaded. Members can also access and share their photos stress-free with the improved "My Photos" page, which now lets users view thousands of photos on one page, organize photos with a simple drag-and-drop operation, and share photos through a Facebook uploading function. Members can also personalize their online albums with 18 design options to share with family and friends. "Nikon's new my Picturetown is providing a new way to enjoy digital photography by helping users easily store, organize, and share memorable moments online," said Lisa Baxt, Nikon's senior manager of marketing communications. "Members will especially enjoy the new PhotoMovie function for sharing vacations, special events, parties, and holiday images with friends and loved ones or their social networks." Nikon's my Picturetown is a free service for consumers storing and sharing two gigabytes (2GB) worth of their photos and videos and offers Gold account paid membership for storage capacity of 20GB to 200GB. New and existing free account members have the opportunity to create one free PhotoMovie and Gold account members can create and share an unlimited amount of PhotoMovies. Throughout the holiday season Nikon will offer special incentives and promotions for new account members and create opportunities for consumers to contribute to photo sharing on the my Picturetown site. About my Picturetown Since its launch three years ago, my Picturetown has been helping its members share, store, and enjoy their digital photos. Memberships have grown to nearly 1,000,000 and are currently expanding with the continued development of my Picturetown's functions and services. Users have the option of activating a free account enabling them up to two gigabytes (2GB) of storage or purchasing a Gold membership with a fee charge* that allows up to 200GB storage in units of 20GB each. To sign up for my Picturetown, please visit www.mypicturetown.com.
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| Posted: 12 Oct 2010 12:11 PM PDT
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| High Court: Ireland Cannot Enforce ‘Kick Pirates Off The Internet’ Laws Posted: 12 Oct 2010 11:30 AM PDT
Big news coming out of Ireland today regarding the war on piracy, the most hilarious war of them all. The gist is that the High Court has said that laws that would cut pirates off the Internet are simply unenforceable, effectively putting an end to the practice. The BBC says the court decision will likely have a "knock-on effect" in other countries around Europe. An Irish ISP, UPC, had gone to court to, in effect, get the likes of Sony, EMI, and other copyright owners from demanding it go after copyright infringers. UPC said, look, we're an ISP, we cannot be held responsible for what travels over our wires. Once we start monitoring for X, that means we have to monitor for Y and Z, too. It's not that we're in favor of file-sharing, but we don't have the resources to go after every single bit that crosses our wires. It's the dumb pipe line of thinking: you can't go after AT&T because two guys planned a bank robbery over the phone, now can you? The Irish music industry respnded with something like, the only reason the court decided the way it did is because the laws aren't up to date. Give us a moment to figure out our next move.
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| Inside the HP Workstation Lab Part 1: History Posted: 12 Oct 2010 11:00 AM PDT
This is not your day-to-day office desktop for email and word processing. This is not your tricked out gaming rig for eeking out every last frame from World of Warcraft. Workstations are high-performance systems used for intense computing operations: CAD/CAM, medical imaging, scientific modeling, and computer animation, to name just a few. Workstations are used by organizations that rely heavily on their computing power, and for whom systems failure can result in catastrophic loss of productivity. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the four big vendors for workstations were HP, IBM, Sun, and Silicon Graphics. Prior to that there were also Apollo and DEC. HP is the only one still thriving today. Sun has consistently struggled with whether they wanted to be a hardware company or a software company, and their recent purchase by Oracle likely won’t help that identity crisis. SGI is dead. IBM still sells workstations, but I don’t know anyone who uses them. There are a number of reasons for HP’s successful longevity, some strategic, and some historical.
The lure of using commodity hardware as a cost savings mechanism is balanced by a technical understanding that only comes from a deep history of actually building hardware oneself. It’s a fine line to walk, and I think it’s a testament to HP’s technical provenance that they are able to succeed in the workstation business today. As an example of the kinds of things possible through HP’s history with workstations: Dreamworks, the animation company that brought us Shrek, wanted to move away from the dying SGI platform, but there simply wasn’t a viable choice to handle the complex rendering operations they performed every single day. The HP workstation team ported the HP-UX OpenGL systems to Linux, and opened up a new choice to Dreamworks. The developers responsible for that porting are still employed at HP today, and lend their expertise to all manner of graphics issues even today.
That last bullet point will come up again and again throughout this series: reliability, quality, and stability. As an example, HP spent nine months evaluating the characteristics of solid state hard drives before making them available in their workstations. The reality is that SSDs do wear out over time, and they wear out differently than drives with spinning platters. HP leveraged their engineering history to diagnose SSDs in the context of their workstation platform to ensure that their customers were getting the best value for their dollars. It would have been easy to simply slap an SSD drive in a workstation and say “Here you go, Mr. Fortune 500 customer!”, but HP didn’t do that. HP’s engineering legacy is exemplary, and it’s helped the company get where they are today. In the next installment of this little series, I’ll look at how HP applies their engineering expertise to each new iteration of workstation, not just from an engineering design standpoint, but from a product reliability standpoint. HP thoroughly tests all their workstations, and those tests are the direct result of HP’s engineering history. Finally I’ll wrap things up in the third and final post with a look at how HP handles long-term support on mission critical workstations.
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| Walmart To Get The iPad This Friday Posted: 12 Oct 2010 09:46 AM PDT
Wally World will soon stock [nearly] everyone’s favorite tablet computer. Starting this Friday, the entire iPad line will be on Walmart’s shelves for the Apple suggested retail price. This comes after Target started selling the tablet on October 3rd therefore making Walmart the forth brick & mortar retailer to sell the blockbuster device. While Walmart certain reaches different demographics than the other retailers of Apple, Best Buy, and Target, it might not be the best place to pick one up — or at least try it out. Walmart typically doesn’t have consumer-friendly displays. The vast majority of CE electronics are displayed behind glass, out of the reach of people wanting to try the product. However, the giant retailer does have a very liberal return policy that often doesn’t include restocking fees. That’s something that the other three retailers can’t claim. The iPad took a surprising long time to hit both Walmart and Target. These mass retailers might not be traditionally popular with the high-tech shopper, but both have shown they can hold their own in the amount of sales. Walmart took the number 2 spot for electronic sales after the collapse of Circuit City. Now that the iPad is a cutural hit and widely understood by the general populace, it makes sense to allow a retailer without salesmen to sell it. Besides, the iPad will likely be a massive selling item come Christmas time and extra retailers can’t hurt the cause.
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| Is The Nintendo 3DS Too Expensive? Posted: 12 Oct 2010 09:45 AM PDT
That's the question Japanese gamers have answered with an affirmative "no." In a survey conducted by a Japanese gaming site, 19 percent of respondents believe that the price (around $305) is "too expensive." So, one out of five people think Nintendo messed up. Nearly nobody—less than one percent—would consider the system "inexpensive." All told, some 80 percent of respondents characterized the system as being a degree of expensive, either "slightly" expensive, plain ol' expensive, or the aforementioned "too" expensive. Nintendo has defended the price along the lines of, "Look, it's a 3D system where you don't have to buy an additional pair of glasses. Trust us: it'll be worth it." Nintendo hasn't announced a price for Europe or North America, but I somehow don't think a $300 portable system will fly over here. $250 max, or Nintendo's looking at slow going for a while.
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| Apple Looking To Sell iPad In South Korea In November Posted: 12 Oct 2010 09:15 AM PDT Having fully conquered the United States of America, forever changing the way our democracy works, Apple has now set its sights on South Korea. Apple has submitted its magical and wonderful device, the iPad, to the relevant authorities over there. It's expected that approval will be granted (or denied) within five days. Should everything go according to plan—and why wouldn't it?—Apple expects to sell the iPad there in November. I think that's about it.
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| Lockheed & Darpa Develop Real Life ‘Aimbot’ For Snipers Posted: 12 Oct 2010 08:45 AM PDT
From one military story to another. It looks like Lockheed and DARPA have jointly developed a system that makes it easier for snipers to pick off their targets. Yes, a real life aimbot of sorta. It’s called the integrated spotter scope, and means that snipers would be able to shoot effectively from a distance of up to 3,600 yards. That’s quite far, indeed. The system is scheduled to go into testing next October. What it does is automate many of the calculations that snipers usually have to calculate. Things like the curvature of the Earth, moisture in the air—things you have no idea exist when you’re sniping your friends in Call of Duty or Medal of Honor. Or:
And now we wait for real life +5 trainers.
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| As The Notion Ink Adam Sneaks Closer To Production, A New Pics and A Short Video Drop Posted: 12 Oct 2010 08:28 AM PDT
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| Handheld X-Ray Device Powered By 2 D Batteries Posted: 12 Oct 2010 08:06 AM PDT
Japanese business daily The Nikkei is reporting that at team of researchers at Kyoto University developed a palm-size X-ray generation device with a special power source: two D-type batteries. According to the paper, the current prototype is just 5cm long and 3cm wide. The way it works is that there are two electrodes (made of tantalic-acid-lithium) placed inside a glass case. These electrodes start producing heat when they are subject to a current, releasing electrons from within the device. If the electrons hit the item to be examined, radiation is emitted. The research team claims it could specify the elements of a grain of salt placed in the device within 3 minutes. It sees the device as an alternative to conventional X-ray generating machines and says it can be used in combination with a portable X-ray detector. Apologies for the small picture – it’s the only one available at this point.
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| Chumby Grows Workable Legs, Next Step Is Clearly Human Enslavement Posted: 12 Oct 2010 07:55 AM PDT |
| Medal Of Honor: The First Reviews Are In (And They’re Sorta Mixed) Posted: 12 Oct 2010 07:30 AM PDT
EA’s Medal of Honor is available today, and the very first reviews have already appeared online. The general verdict: not too bad. Not perfect by any means, but bad at all. What’s sorta surprising is that, as of 9:30am, I’ve only spotted four reviews: Rock, Paper, Shotgun; Eurogamer; Joystiq; and Kotaku. I guess I’ll update this post throughout the day as other reviews pop up. So, consider this Chris Jericho-style highlight reel of some of the reviews. Rock, Paper, Shotgun: In many ways you have to argue that Medal Of Honour is competent. If you want to feel what it's like to be a grunt in a conflict, unable to make decisions or use your imagination, it's mostly very solid. There's constant variety in how you're playing, all flying past you at quite some speed. Eurogamer: As a game about the Afghanistan war that does its absolute utmost to avoid being about the Afghanistan war, Medal of Honor is arguably just a shooting gallery spliced with a fairground ride and a solid multiplayer accessory which owes a lot to Bad Company 2. It certainly does little to advance the theory that videogames are responsible enough to tell stories within sensitive contexts – it’s compelling and enjoyable to play on a visceral level, but it’s a shame it lacks the creative bravery to match the courage of the heroes it so reveres. Joystiq: When viewed as a standalone offering, Danger Close’s campaign is one of the finest shooters I’ve experienced in years, successfully finding the middle ground between a realistic military simulation and a great piece of entertainment. The story, which covers two action-packed days in the US military’s ongoing battle against insurgents in Afghanistan, masterfully switches between the perspective of an elite group of soldiers (Tier 1), and the Army Rangers, and offers a genuine, realistic look into the struggles of being a modern warrior. Kotaku: Medal of Honor falls somewhere between [Call of Duty 4 and Modern Warfare 2]. I was surprised to find just how quickly I made my way through the game’s campaign, wrapping it up in a tidy five hours or so. But in retrospect I realized that there wasn’t a scene I would cut, a level that annoyed me, or any backtracking to speak of. This is a fat-free experience. It’s pure engagement packed with spikes of cleverly crafted crescendos. Well, more reviews have trickled out over the past few hours, and it's clear that a pattern is emerging: the game is merely OK. It's not going to blow your socks off, particularly if you've played any number of first-person shooters in the recent past. IGN: It would be easier to look past that if the game did interesting things elsewhere, but Medal of Honor feels several years behind its shooter competition. Enemies typically fire from one place without moving from point to point, and combat becomes an exercise in Taliban Whack-a-Mole as you’ll wait for a head to robotically pop up from cover. The only dangerous points throughout the game came from enemies that I couldn’t see or positions that I literally couldn’t hit before triggering another scripted sequence. Edge (really, the only review that matters): In its campaign mode, MOH is almost a paean to the decency of US military personnel – even if it pointedly saves its admiration for the troops on the ground rather than those commanding the forces from afar. In fact, it is so keen to exonerate the soldiers themselves, who all operate with the utmost virtue, that it comes across with the forceful naivety of propaganda…. Whatever its bias or excisions, MOH rejects the sort of gung-ho globetrotting baloney seen in Modern Warfare, and makes an honest attempt not to trivialise the lives of US soldiers, creating an air of sober authenticity which is unusual among shooters…. MOH is a robust, if seldom surprising, rebuttal to MW2's dominance, and its measured tone and diligent observation of military patter make it a marginally more meaningful representation of modern warfare itself.
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| Amazon Introduces The Digital Pamphlet With ‘Kindle Singles’ Posted: 12 Oct 2010 06:58 AM PDT  It looks like Amazon is extending its e-reading platform to include short works and digital pamphlets. Today, Amazon is launching Kindle Singles, which are Kindle books that are in the company's words, "twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book." Generally, Amazon characterized Kindle Singles as 10,000 to 30,000 words (roughly 30 to 90 pages). Amazon says that Kindle Singles will have their own section in the Kindle Store, which currently has over 700,000 books, and will be priced much less than a typical book (although Amazon didn't reveal a range of pricing for the new format). Like standard e-books on the platform, Kindle Singles can be read on the Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices.
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Nikon’s My PictureTown service has been running for a while now, but it still hasn’t pulled in the users that the other sharing services have. There has been some work to change that though, Nikon just announced several upgrades to the service, which will allow users to create PhotoMovies, as well as an improved user interface and more sharing options.
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