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Video: Cybernetic Human Robot HRP-4C Can Now “Sing” Better

Posted: 14 Oct 2010 04:13 AM PDT

Do you remember the HRP-4c, one of the most realistic humanoids out there? Made by Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, the fembot was so far mostly known as a pretty creepy cyber-model and bridezilla. In December last year, we’ve shown you a video of her trying to sing – and now she’s gotten better at that.

That’s my impression, at least. It’s not that she’s any threat to Alicia Keys or anything at this point, and her body is still stiff while singing, but AIST’s self-developed synthesizer software VocalListener and facial expression technology VocaWatcher helped her boost her musical skills. Give this another 5-10 years.

Here’s the newest video of HRP-4C singing (shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo):

For comparison, here’s the video from last year again:

Sterling Silver NES Controller Belt Buckle. That is All.

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 06:54 PM PDT


Do you have the chops to rock this NES controller belt buckle? I don’t know that I have the power in me to do so. I think maybe only the Power Glove-rocking kid from The Wizard has the right to wear one of these.

Regrettably, it’s not full size. 3.5″ long and 3oz in weight makes it something less than a minimal accessory, but it’s not quite the 4.7″ of the original. Yet at $225, it costs rather more than an NES ever did.

Wear it to a bar with a sweet Zelda shirt and see how many ladies want to take a shot at your d-pad.

[via Technabob]

Style Factory Is A Crowdsourced Designer Furniture Shop

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 05:30 PM PDT


I try to feature design stuff on CrunchGear when I get the chance, but more often than not the products in question are only available directly from the designer, in very small quantities, owing to their limited means of manufacturing the item. This also tends to drive the price up. I don’t like it when the price gets driven up.

StyleFactory is a relatively new online store that hopes to alleviate at least part of this problem. They feature items by “the hottest talent in the world,” and you, sir or madam, get to vote on whether a particular item should be manufactured at all. Saves cost, leverages social input, and it has big shiny Facebook and Twitter share buttons. What’s not to like?

Well, their selection is a bit limited at the moment. While I like the Clover lamp and Stacked Ply table, there are really less than a dozen items available (though many are available to be voted up or down), and it’s not really clear what will and will not be included in the future. Should I be coming here for my art needs? Will I ever see apparel? I suppose this will be cleared up as the selection and community grow and mature.

There is already a surfeit of design nooks on the internet offering unique selections of designer items, but I haven’t seen one quite like this. And the voting is incentivized: if something you voted up makes it to manufacture, you get 10% off. That’s a lot when you’re buying thousand-dollar tables.

We’ll keep an eye on this one; after all, it may furnish a few posts in the future just due to the mix of designers and interesting products they’ve got going on.

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Samsung Getting 64GB SD Cards And Thumbdrives Ready

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 05:18 PM PDT

Samsung has debuted their newest process for creating NAND flash memory, going from a 30nm process to a 20nm one. Each chip is double the capacity of the previous generation (8GB versus 4), which means existing designs like USB keys and SD cards will soon also double in capacity. Just thought I’d let you know.

SteelSeries Adds Medal Of Honor Editions Of Xai Mouse, Shift Keyboard (And More)

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 04:00 PM PDT

Taking advantage of the hype (if not the acclaim) of EA's Medal of Honor, SteelSeries has updated some of its accessories to join in on the fun. The company's Xai mouse, the 6Gv2 and Shift keyboards, the QcK mousepad ("surface" in PC gaming lingo), and 5Hv2 and Spectrum 5xb headsets can all be had with official Medal of Honor branding.

Let's review this.

You've got the Xai mouse ($89.99), which I actually just bought (the non-MoH edition, that is—FedEx says it will arrive on Friday) to replace a Logitech mouse that decided it would be cool to die after less than a year of use. Cool! It's pretty highly rated online (otherwise I wouldn't have bought it, you see), and now it's decked out in MoH colors.

You've got two keyboards to choose from. Well, one keyboard, the mechanical 6Gv2 ($99.99) (trust me, you want a mechanical keyboard if for no other reason than the satisfying clanking sound they produce) and a MoH surfaced ($99.99, above) version of the just released Shift. Or you can just grab the surface separately ($24.99).

Then there's the QcK mousepad ($14.99), which is also highly regarded online.

Lastly are the two headsets:the 5Hv2 for you PC gamers and the Spectrum 5xb, which I reviewed in conjunction with Halo a few weeks back, for the Xbox 360 crowd. (These headsets won't be available till the first quarter of 2011.)

Granted, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy, say, a keyboard simply because it has a logo slapped on it, but the fact is these are quality components with a bit of dash added for fans. No harm there, I don't think.

Hands-on With Leica’s 2010 Line-Up

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 03:02 PM PDT

We didn’t get a chance to go out to Photokina this year so Photokina – or at least Leica’s portion of it – came to us. I got a closer look at four of Leica’s new cameras, the all-black X1, the DLUX 5, and the V-LUX 2 along with the new Titanium M9, one of the most outlandish cameras I’ve seen in a while.

The V-LUX 2 is Leica’s ultrazoom priced at $849 and available this month. It has a 4.4-108mm lens and takes full 1080i-AVCHD video. It is quite light and feels on par with similar point and shoots except for the fast lens and focus features.

The X1 is the same except for the color but it has a handsome, compact design with a 2.7-inch display and a huge 12.9 megapixel sensor. It costs $1,999.

Finally there’s the D-LUX 5, a version of the Panasonic LX5 with some improved features. It costs $799 and has a 10.1MP sensor.

The real belle of the ball, however, was the Titanium M9. Walter de’Silva of the Volkswagen Group designed this monster with the clean lines of Audi in mind. It’s made of a solid block of titanium and is limited to 500 pieces this year. De’Silva didn’t quite know what to do with the hot-shoe port on the top so Leica had to hide it under another piece of metal to satisfy his design aesthetic.

It comes with a 35mm lens and light shield along with a huge instruction book and design document. It is, in short, one of the most striking pieces of photographic equipment I’ve seen in a while. It has no strap loops but instead has a little removable nubbin that reveals a port for connecting a strap or a thumb loop. It also has a “holster” for those times when you want it out of the way.

People are usually on the fence about Leica especially considering the price and perceived value. These things are works of art and works of technological prowess, however, and I came away impressed if not very enthused by the price tags. We’ll have reviews of the new point and shoots this month.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This week is Photography Week at CrunchGear!

You can find the rest of our posts here.

So You Want To Buy A Lens

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 03:00 PM PDT

Even the best camera out there won’t take decent pictures without a decent lens. But how to choose? Whether you’ve got a Nikon, Canon, Pentax, or other, there are likely at least a couple dozen lenses worth taking a look at. So how do you know which to pick? Well, we’ve got our own recommendations for a few brands, but let’s take a look at what goes into picking a good lens for your purposes and budget.

First, ask yourself this: what is this lens for? Are you thinking of doing any kind of particular photography? Do you like to take pictures of birds, or bugs? Do you photograph landscapes, or people? Does it need to be compact? Do you plan to have a tripod handy? These and many other questions end up pointing at just as many lenses. So just be prepared to accept that you’re not going to fine the one true lens, and you’ll make some sacrifices. Even multi-thousand dollar lenses don’t do everything.

That said, lenses tend to fall into four general categories, each with their strengths and weaknesses.

The Walk-Around

Your traditional walk-around is generally going to be a wide-angle zoom — it’s the lens you grab when you’re not sure what you’ll need or what kind of shot you’re going for. Entry-level DSLRs often come bundled with a lens (this is usually called a kit) of the walk-around type. Walk-arounds are plentiful in the $150-$300 range. (I got the 24-85 shown above for around $200)

These are great for traveling (no need to change lenses), but because of the large amount of glass elements that allow the lens to go all the way from ~20mm to ~100mm (a typical range), they generally aren’t very fast lenses, so low light pictures are out unless you want to push the ISO up. This same surfeit of glass also tends to make for poor sharpness and lots of chromatic aberration in high-contrast details. In addition to these problems, walk-around lenses may have distortion at the wide and far ends of their zoom ranges, leading to bowed columns and such. This generally is a problem that can be corrected for, however.

The Fast Prime

By minimizing the amount of glass between the subject and the sensor, and maximizing the surface of the frontal element, good prime lenses (i.e. non-zoom) are excellent for low-light photography. There are fantastic 35mm and 50mm lenses out there for great prices, which make portrait photography a breeze. Seeing a great shot and not having to add light or change the ISO before capturing it is especially easy with a fast prime, and generally the slight telephoto focal length gives these shots intimacy. Of course, the really wide ones are obscenely expensive, and often you find yourself at the wrong distance from the subject and wish you could zoom in or out a bit, which is of course not possible.

The Tele Zoom

If you’re into birdwatching or wildlife photography at all, you’ll be looking into these. They’re not cheap, but a 200mm lens on a cropped-sensor body makes for more than a 300mm focal length equivalent, and you can get some surprisingly close shots of the deer, birds, or what have you, without leaving the comfort of your car or blind.

It’s important to have the ability to zoom a little in and out without moving, since at that focal length moving won’t have much of an effect. If you need to change your scene, include or exclude some elements, a 70-200mm or higher zoom is your friend. Of course, they’re quite impractical for any other kind of photography, and they’re large and heavy as a rule. A tripod is a must-have, adding to the expense.

The “Other”

This heading actually comprises a lot of lenses that are less than general-purpose. Fisheyes, macros, tilt-shift, pinhole… they offer new and interesting avenues for exploration, but rarely perform as well as their cousins in general application. These are for later use, once you’ve mastered the basics and have discovered a need to try something not possible with traditional lenses.

Once you’ve figured out what sort of lens you’re looking for, the best thing to do (as with so many things) is to pick an amount and look at everything under that amount. A cheap wide-angle zoom or a used telephoto lens can teach you a lot about what you need and what you don’t, so don’t think you need to buy big from the beginning. The best lens for you right now might cost you under a hundred bucks, or it might be way out of your price range and you’ll have to wait a few years before you can build up the courage to take the plunge. It might have even come with your camera, or belong to a friend.

You might also try going to your local camera shop to test drive a few. You can usually try them out right there in the store. Don’t worry, the shop guys are used to having their picture taken. Try a few things, see how they feel in your hand, test out the focus rings. And once you’re done, leave the lens there! Brick and mortar shops rarely give you the best price. There are always better prices online, and seasonal rebates as well if you know where to look (hint: we post them).

Once you’ve got things narrowed down to a few candidates, just check a few reviews — I use The Digital Picture for Canon lenses, but DP Review does them regularly as well, and the Fred Miranda forums have a lot of good user experience data.

Just don’t be afraid to spend a little money. You’ve got a camera body that set you back a fair bit of money, and it shouldn’t go to waste. The lens is equal in importance to the body, and an investment as well — it’ll likely work just as well on your next body. Do the research, get your hands on ‘em, and buy. You won’t regret dropping the gold on a good piece of glass (or two).

This week is Photography Week at CrunchGear!

You can find the rest of our posts here.

@Rest Steel iPad Stand Is Large And Solid

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 02:43 PM PDT


While a case or portable stand is nice for when you take your iPad out for coffee, it might be good to have something a little more substantial and official at home. The @Rest iPad stand looks solid enough to withstand a direct headbutt from Zinedine Zidane, and it’s rather good-looking, too.

The idea here is, as you can see, less portability and more solidity. It’s one piece of metal; you use little plugs to clamp the ipad into position in the reclined or standing position.

Personally, I like the design. It’d be nice as a desk stand for when you use the iPad as a second monitor with something like Air Display. At $60, it’s a little expensive, but not that bad. A nice gift for the iPad lover in your life, maybe. More pictures and buyables at Heckler Design.

Review: Joby GorillaPod Focus With Ballhead X

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 01:33 PM PDT

Short Version: Joby finally makes a GorillaPod capable of holding the weight of DSLR with a lens. And the Ballhead X isn’t too shabby either. The legs are a bit stiff, but that’s a good thing when you’re holding a high end video or still camera.

Features:

  • Holds up to 11 pounds
  • Machined aluminum leg sockets
  • 3/8″ adapter screw lets you put a regular ballhead on

Pros:

  • Wraps around pretty much everything
  • Can actually take the weight of a heavy camera
  • Legs hold the Focus tight on mounting point

Cons:

  • Legs can become loose after long term use
  • The MSRP of $99 brings you into “real” tripod range
  • Ballhead X is an extra $69.95

Full Review:

The GorillaPod has gone though many permutations, and the latest is the Focus. Designed for a photographer who’s requirements run in the heavier end of the range, the Focus takes the basic GorillaPod design, and takes it to 11. Made from machined aluminum, the legs are more than capable of holding up my full size DSLR and telephoto lens. This really makes the GorillaPod Focus a good choice for someone who’s going off the beaten path to take some pictures.

It’s lighter then most tripods (unless you go really high-end carbon fiber) and it’s certainly more compact. I recently went on a photo hike with some friends, and while the rest of them were hauling around full size heavy tripods, I just strapped the GorillaPod Focus to my backpack and went on my way.

Is the GorillaPod a complete replacement for a full size tripod? Regrettably, no. While it’s ideal when you don’t need something full size, it’s not tall enough to replace your regular tripod. It is good for when you’re shooting outside and you know you’ll have something to put the Focus on or wrap it around. If you don’t have something to wrap the GorillaPod around, you can still use it – but it’s not nearly as functional. As a regular tripod, it’s too short to really be functional. As a place to put a camera that wraps around things, it’s great. Want to put it on a rock? Not an issue. Wrap it around a tree branch? Perfect. Need something to use at a sporting event? Wrap it around the guard rail on the bleachers and it will hold pretty much any camera securely.

Another potential issue: the larger GorillaPod models (the Zoom and the Focus, for example) don’t come with a ballhead; you have to buy one separately. That’s not to say that the Focus isn’t great by itself, you can use it without a ballhead, I just wouldn’t recommend it. The Ballhead X is a great partner for the Focus. It locks down tight, you can easily take the plate off the head, and being made from aluminum, it’s quite light. Like most ballhead mounts it’s not tightly accurate like a pan head, but it is great for quick adjustments.

Conclusion: If you need a small, lightweight tripod that’s easy to carry, the Focus (with the Ballhead X) is the way to go, although it is certainly a bit expensive. If you need something taller, you’ll need to buy full size tripod with all the full size tripod problems. MSRP on the Focus is $99, and the Ballhead X sells for $69.95.

Product Page: Joby GorillaPod Focus

This week is Photography Week at CrunchGear!

You can find the rest of our posts here.

Shapeways Now Lets You Make Stuff Out Of Silver – Werewolves Beware

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT


Are you getting a bum quote from your local silversmith for the creation of a silver knuckle duster? Me too. They just don’t understand the importance of protecting ourselves from the lycanthropic scourge. Now, however, you can get together with a 3D modeler friend and make some sweet silver accessories for those terrifying full-moon melees.

Yes, Silver is the latest material to be supported by fabrication site Shapeways. Steel is, of course, more practical for blades and brass gets a really nice patina, but when it comes to wolfmen, there’s really only one material you want to work with, and that’s silver. Unfortunately they don’t use consecrated metal, so this is useless against ghosts, ghouls, rogue elvish, and bugbears, but let’s be honest, if you don’t have holy water around the house to dip your tools in, you probably shouldn’t be engaging in war with the sorcerous and undead to begin with.

More details about pricing and design rules can be found at the Shapeways blog.

The Technology Behind The Hyundai Equus Is Impressive

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 12:41 PM PDT

As we move into the next decade, there will be a push for more electronics in our cars. We humans can't get enough of this thing called constant contact. It doesn't even have to be with another human; just playing on smartphone apps is enough to lull that endless depression that comes from living in the overstimulation zoo that is modern society. Consumers want technology that can reach out and touch the user — even in the case of the automobile.

We look to our new cars of the 2011 model year and ask, "When will you drive yourself? Aren't you supposed to be hovering by 2015?" We certainly haven't reached that point, yet, but in the meanwhile the automakers will satisfy our needs for contact.

Take the Hyundai Equus, it's the latest entry to the full-size luxury segment and Hyundai knows it simply cannot be just another big cow that gets put to pasture. Hyundai has taken this knowledge and applied it as an all-out barrage in the segment—an almost anything goes. Our experience with the Equus so far has been nothing short of fantastic. And while it does have a Hyundai badge at the rear, every other design cue speaks otherwise.

With the smartkey in your pocket, lightly touch the inside of the door handle; Equus unlocks and prepares for your arrival. With nothing more than the push of a button, your Equus boots with a wonderful chime and a muted engine note — you would swear it didn't start. The usual steering and seating circus act commences and you're brought into command position. Look to the high-res display and you can control your music (XM, Aux-in with iPod/iPhone dock, 6-disc CD/DVD), navigation and communication device; all from a single rotating knob situated underneath the shifter. The interface is fast and intuitive—although a bit more speed wouldn't hurt—but the menu navigation is quick and straight to the point. Lighting, notifications, seatbelt pretensioners, and other options can also be accessed via the click wheel.

The rest of the interior is about convenience and comfort; heated/cooled seats, heated steering wheel, driver's massage, adaptive cruise control, a very good voice-control, auto-dimming mirrors, and an interesting ionizing auto-recirculating HVAC system. When driving behind a smelly vehicle, the HVAC system detects the outdoor air, switches to recirculate and ionizes the air—all without you knowing. And that's just the front of the cabin.

In the rear of the 'Ultimate' Equus, you'll find another cockpit, this time designed as a sort of recliner for a lucky VIP taking a ride in this car. The rear is the most unique in its class and certainly among others of similar price. Press one button and the front passenger seat moves and folds forward — after all, you only need space for yourself, the driver and your assistant. After the front seat is recessed, the rear passenger seat begins to recline and a footrest appears — yes, like a La-Z-Boy. To the left you'll find a cool box that works quite well. Above that there is a flap covering a storage area that holds the remote for the rear seat massage.

The massage is great; there are many options to soothe whoever is lucky enough to sit in what we call the VIP seat. You can adjust pressure, location and even an older-school vibration function. The massage is similar to what you'd get from spending time in a Sharper Image.

Slightly forward of the center console is the controls for anything you could need. You can mess with the privacy screens, front passenger seat position, XM channels, and Aux-in music. In addition, you can turn up the entire cabin's temperature and volume — which can get annoying if there are smartasses in the back. To be sure that you see what you're controlling and improve rear entertainment quality, there is a neat high-res flip-up screen that rotates out from the front center console.

There isn't anything quite like being in the back. The gadgetry you command is impressive and almost humorous, but it's nothing you wouldn't want. The best seat in the car is definitely the VIP seat. There is more than enough to keep you occupied for long trips to wherever your driver will take you. Not only can the technology keep your mind stimulated and in constant contact, thanks to the VIP your body can get the same treatment, all without any human touch.

HTML5 slideshows + Short URLs = Min.us

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 12:30 PM PDT


min.us is a new and super simple way to make online slideshows. Simply drag photos from your computer to your browser window and you’ve got a slideshow. Each show gets a nice short URL you can post to Twitter or Facebook, and each show also gets a second short URL for you to bookmark if you want to edit the show. No need to log in, no OAuth or OpenID tomfoolery. Brilliant.

The whole thing is powered by Javascript and HTML5 for modern browsers, with a fallback to Flash for legacy browsers. The server resides in Amazon’s EC2 compute cloud with S3 storage of photos. Powered by Python and Django and MySQL, min.us was prototyped in about a month by two guys.

EA On Defensive After So-So Medal Of Honor Reviews

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 12:00 PM PDT

Yikes. A quick trip to Metacritic (a site I usually loathe, but it’s helpful right now) reveals that EA’s Medal of Honor is… just OK. It’s currently sitting at 76 out of 100. Not exactly what EA’s bigwigs were hoping, you have to assume. Wall Street isn’t happy, either, but what do those guys know, how to loose other people’s money? Exactly. One analyst said that the reviews are "a black eye for EA management given the amount of focus and hype they have placed on the game," before adding, wryly, welcome to "Tier 2." I see what you did there.

EA defended itself against the barrage of so-so reviews, telling the Los Angeles Times that the game "had the highest pre-orders in the 11-year history of the Medal of Honor franchise; this is an essentially big achievement considering Medal of Honor has been dormant for several years."

Then EA broke out the clichés:

This is the first year in rebooting the franchise. Medal of Honor is part of a larger EA strategy to take share in the shooter category. This is a marathon not a sprint -– today’s Medal of Honor launch represents a step forward in that race.

EA’s share price dropped some 6 percent as the reviews trickled out (but the price had climbed some 15 percent in recent weeks, so whatever).

That quoted piece also seems to contradict what Medal of Honor executive producer Greg Goodrich told the New York Times last month, that the game needs to sell 3 million copies in order to get a sequel green-lit. It seems like EA has already committed to another game, right?

But I thought review scores didn’t matter? Didn’t Modern Warfare 2 sell a number of copies despite the utterly nonsensical campaign?

Or are gamers merely buying all of these military shooters in order to play multi-player? Clearly more people need to be exposed to proper multi-player shooters, like Team Fortress 2, Quake III Arena (or even its lite counterpart, Quake Live), or, gasp, Counter-Strike?

Maybe EA would have been better served, instead of merely re-booting the Medal of Honor series, by re-booting the entire shooter genre? The whole genre seems so stale to me.

Give them a rest for a few years, then come back with something different.

Apple’s “Back To The Mac” Event Heralds OS X Improvements

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 11:36 AM PDT


Invitations are going out for Apple’s next event, and it’s looking to be all about the Mac, as opposed to the last few, which have been primarily iOS-related. The only clue we’re given is that we’ll “see what’s new for the Mac on October 20, including a sneak peek of the next major version of Mac OS X.” That doesn’t sound like a 7″ iPad to me.

Let’s take a look at the rumors and speculation of recent months and see whether we can’t predict what cards Apple is planning to lay down come the 20th.

iMac/MacBook Touch: this rumor has its origins in a patent filing by Apple for a “convertible” device that would switch between OS X and iOS. It was supercharged with rumors of 20+” capacitive touchscreens being shipped to Apple — rumors which were later denied by the company implicated. I don’t think they’d push such a major change to their lineup just before the holidays — if we do ever see this, I see it happening in the first half of next year.

New MacBook Air: it’s certainly due for an upgrade, and while few other laptops out there have comparable form factors, this is an area in which Apple would like to stay ahead of the game. I personally would like to see an 11″ version, as rumored, but the truth is that Apple might consider that a netbook form factor, one that would not adequately show off OS X. They’re in a tough spot here; they can’t push the form factor much smaller without compromising their stance on netbooks, and they can’t just keep making incremental improvements or tablets and other, cheaper ultraportables will overtake the Air. This one is anyone’s guess.

Processor bumps: It’s time to bring the plastic MacBooks up to date, perhaps with Core i3 processors. The rest of the lineup might get other improvements, like GPU upgrades, SD, maybe even USB 3.0.

NVIDIA Optimus: this hybrid graphics technology has seen some major improvements in the last year, and it offers real improvement to battery life. Apple has their own ideas about power management (they use NVIDIA graphics but not Optimus), but being able to dial the GPU up and down seamlessly is likely on their developer wish list.

New OS X: That looks like a lion to me. Whether it’s a specific kind of lion, I can’t say for sure. It’s definitely not a cave lion, and the Barbary lion is extinct, so I don’t think they’d use that. I’m going with “regular lion” for OS X 10.7. What will we see? I’m thinking deeper media integration (better internal renderers and such), improved iOS cross-compatibility (iOS dashboard replacing the actual dashboard), and perhaps even the long-awaited ZFS file system? We’ll find out soon, but I do expect a strong iOS component (more on that later). It’s a “sneak peek,” so it won’t be available until… I’m going to say January.

iPad news: there’s been a lot of chatter about a possible 7″ iPad, and I believe it, but Apple knows how to put on a presentation — and you don’t lessen the impact of practical things like processor bumps and OS X upgrades by throwing in a flashy product announcement. If they do have a 7″ iPad coming, they will want to announce it closer to the holidays with immediate availability, the better to take advantage of spendy tablet-lovers under the influence of the reality distortion field.

I’m going on the record saying that the future of OS X is convergence with iOS, and vice versa. Their mobile operating system is too valuable an asset to not leverage as part of their desktop and laptop properties, and the convertible iOS/OS X devices suggest they’ve been thinking about it for a while. Adding touch to Macs is inevitable, if only because the benefits of making iOS that much more ubiquitous are clear.

The trouble is that they can’t show one without implying the other. If Lion has an iOS Dashboard or something like it, the conclusion (touch-based Macs) is inescapable and sales of current non-touch Macs will drop or stagnate since people know what’s coming. It’s just a week away, so we won’t be in agony of expectation for long.

MechaniCards: For $45 You Can Amaze Your Friends

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 11:34 AM PDT

Brad Litwin makes these striking mechanical cards and sells them for $45 assembled and $35 for a kit. You open them up and turn a cool little crank to get them started. There are various styles including the Radial Engine and the Ambigulator.

Product Page via Make


Inside the HP Workstation Lab part 2: Implementation

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 11:00 AM PDT


When you think about it, building a computer isn’t that difficult today. Intel publishes reference designs for their motherboards, so a lot of the work has been done for you already. But to build a computer that you can guarantee will work in a number of potentially hostile environments requires a deep understanding of computers and electronics, but also requires the resources to test and monitor that computer’s reactions to various inputs. At the HP Workstation Lab in Ft. Collins, CO, every new workstation goes through a battery of rigorous tests to ensure it lives up to the HP name.

Before any system is ever built, HP works with Intel and AMD to provide comments on and guidance for new chips and chipsets, to ensure that the forthcoming products satisfy the needs of HP customers. This is Principle Number One from Terry Pilsner’s list of five principles: customer engagement. “We have direct knowledge of the customer requirements,” says Pilsner. “We know what their needs are and we know how to translate those needs into technologies which our partners, Intel, AMD, NVidia, Microsoft, etc. deliver to the market. And we work to influence those partners to deliver the technologies which ultimately translate into benefits for workstation customers.”


Once a reference platform is established by Intel or AMD, HP begins working on a custom mainboard tailored for their workstation clients. This includes I/O layout, memory configurations, cooling, and more. Each mainboard — and component thereof — is extensively tested for thermal and acoustical tolerances to ensure that power consumption is appropriately managed and that the overall system doesn’t generate excess ambient noise.

At my day job, we have a number of large rooms filled with HP workstations, in which engineering students do a lot of heavy computing using Matlab, Fluent, Ansys, and more. The acoustical properties of HP workstations are a big deal to us. In our largest 60-seat lab, the HP Z-600 workstations contribute almost nothing to the ambient noise in the room. With the room empty and all machines powered on, you really can’t hear them. The heat output from these machines is also a big deal: 60 high end workstations working hard plus 60 people’s body heat can quickly equal a hot room.

Each major component of an HP workstation goes through a series of tests in the Turn On Lab. Functional experts stress test storage, graphics cards, displays, power supplies, BIOS, and more. A dedicated Linux testing area ensures that each workstation will properly execute the various ISV packages certified to work on Linux. A similar area tests Windows compatibility. Most, if not all, of HP’s tests are designed to exceed the minimum requirements of industry partners and relevant regulations. Specific tolerances weren’t shared with us on the tour since these are competitive business secrets.


You see, unlike consumer desktops, workstations are not sold pre-assembled. Instead, a customer orders a specific configuration based on the certified components they need, and HP assembles, tests, and ships the final product to the customer. Each combination of components needs to be fully tested, to ensure that HP is able to say to the customer “This will work for you.”

HP also does a lot of industrial design to ensue that the physical case of their new workstations meets their customer needs. Two compelling examples of the latter include handles on some models of their new Z series workstations, and an easily removable power supply. The handles came about from direct customer input: a lot of customers use HP workstations in a variety of lab environments which have fluid configurations, requiring a lot of moving of computers around. Customers asked for handles, to make it easier to move and manage the workstations. HP complied. By adding an easy-to-remove power supply, HP reduced the time to resolve many support calls. In the event of a failed PSU, HP can now ship a new unit out and have the customer do the service. It doesn’t require unplugging leads from peripheral devices, nor does it require unscrewing anything from the chassis.


Once a design is completed, the whole thing is then subjected to even more tests. Government regulations around the world stipulate how much electromagnetic output any consumer electronic device can emit, in order to prevent interference with licensed communications devices. There are different levels of rating, for use in offices, homes, and various government facilities. HP uses a “10 meter chamber” to test the output of their workstations. The 10 meter chamber is a 65-by-52-foot steel box with a 30-foot ceiling lined with acoustical paneling and special doors with electromagnetic seals. An array of detectors monitors the output of the workstation as it works through a programmed sequence of exercises. A smaller 3 meter chamber performs the reverse test: monitoring the workstation’s ability to perform while being bombarded with various signals.

Workstations are baked and frozen in temperature controlled chambers, across various levels of humidity, to ensure they’ll work in almost any climate. They are zapped with electric discharges — basically, they’re tasered — at different components and connection points to ensure static electricity won’t interrupt their operation. And they’re jiggled and shaken and dropped to ensure they can withstand the rigors of shipping.


Each new workstation design is packaged up in it’s final box and dropped from several feet six times: once on each face of the shipping box, with an extra drop on the bottom. After this, the system in unboxed and connected to ensure it still works. It’s boxed up again and placed on a large vibrating assembly, where it shakes for quite some time to ensure that nothing gets knocked loose. Again the system is unboxed and tested. Then it’s tested again with more shaking and vibrating, this time while the system is on and running.

All of these tests play to Terry Pilsner’s fifth principle: reliability, quality, stability. Purchasing a workstation is a substantial investment, and customers are concerned about a lot more than just the length of the warranty. If something breaks and the warranty is executed to get it repaired, that’s fine. But it’s better — a lot better — if the warranty never needs to be used because the system is so well designed, integrated, and tested.

NPD: 3DTV Sales So Far A Bust (But That May Change As Decent 3D Content Is Produced)

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:45 AM PDT


Flickr’d

Well, well, well. For months now TV manufacturers have been trying so, so hard to convince us—and by "us" I mean Real America—that 3DTV is all kinds of great. Not so! Every 3DTV I’ve seen ranges from "meh" to merely "OK." It’s a technology that’s still finding its legs. Maybe in the future 3DTV won’t be so, well, trash, but for now? I’m sorry, but no dice. And now I have numbers to back up my healthy skepticism. DisplaySearch, part of the NPD Group, says that 3DTV is not growing as fast as TV manufacturers had hoped. The beauty is, you probably already know why that’s the case.

But first, let’s look at the numbers.

It’s estimated that TV manufacturers will have shipped 3.2 million 3DTVs in 2010 in North America. That works out to 2 percent of all TVs sold this year being of the 3D variety. That’s not exactly devastating, but manufacturers were hoping for a bit more.

It’s expected that 3DTV will make up approximately 40 percent of all TVs sold once 2014 rolls around.

So it’s not like 3DTV is going to die or anything, just that it’s going to take a little bit longer for people to jump on the bandwagon.

And why’s that?

Oh, you know, because there’s next to no compelling 3D content out there. Sports broadcasters are still trying to figure out how to shoot in 3D, which is a tremendously important deal because live sports are really the only reason to even have a TV in 2010.

The quality of 3D movies have even taken a dive. The first big 3D movie was Avatar, a film that was directed by James Cameron, had a gigantic budget, and was designed for 3D from the word "go." If you think Jackass 3D is worth the extra $5 or whatever the theaters charge, well, you’re crazy—maybe you’re in the movie?

It seems to me that people saw that Avatar was a huge hit, and figured that 3D was the savior of humanity. Again, to think that you can slap some rubbish 3D effect to your otherwise rubbish movie and start buying gold boats with the increase in revenue, ja!

3D technology is still too, too new, and pretty much nobody knows how to use it effectively yet.

Well, nobody except James Cameron.

Razer To Sell Wireless Naga Mouse In November

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:17 AM PDT

The Razer Naga mouse is a monster. With three interchangeable panels for different grip positions and a multi-colored backlight, this gamer’s mouse is pure sex (Note: This is an idiom. Sex not included.) The $129 mouse will drop in November 2010 and has wired or wireless capability.

We reviewed the wired Naga back in November and found it more than capable for most MMO players even if it had a tough learning curve. Click through for the PR.

RAZER™ LAUNCHES A WIRELESS VERSION OF THE BEST-SELLING RAZER NAGA™

Razer Naga Epic MMO Gaming Mouse to feature 3 interchangeable side panels for different hand grips – Available worldwide starting November 2010

Carlsbad, Calif. – October 13, 2010 – Razer, the world's leading high-end precision gaming and lifestyle peripherals brand, today announced the launch of an elite wireless MMO gaming mouse that's an upgrade from the original award-winning and best-selling Get Imba mouse – the Razer Naga™ Epic. Designed by the highly-acclaimed Razer R&D labs, the Razer Naga Epic epitomizes that fine balance between keyboard and mouse with 17 MMO-optimized buttons, and takes it to a whole new level with three ergonomic interchangeable side panels for optimal fit, the choice to customize the backglow from over 16 million colors, and a dual mode wired/wireless functionality. Gamers can now enjoy a MMO gaming mouse with no strings attached – literally.

"With the Naga Epic, Razer gives MMO gamers around the world more freedom than ever before," said Robert "RazerGuy" Krakoff, President, Razer. "We combined the MMO gaming capabilities of the original best-selling Razer Naga and took it to the next level by giving it a true gaming-grade wireless option utilizing the same technology that we developed for the ultra high-end Razer Mamba™."

The final design of the Razer Naga Epic, from optimal button configuration to its form factor, was achieved through the scientific testing and screening of more than 80 different model iterations by Razer's ergonomics team.

"Every aspect of the Razer Naga Epic's design, from its ergonomic form factor to button sizes, placement and angles was rigorously tested both internally in our R&D labs in San Francisco and Singapore, and with seasoned pro-gamers," said Min-Liang Tan, CEO and Creative Director, Razer. "The Naga Epic is also one of the most comfortable mice we've ever designed, with 3 interchangeable side panels that ensure an ideal fit for various hand sizes and grip styles."

The end result is a mouse that not only provides a personalized level of comfort, but with its dual wired/wireless functionality and unique MMO-optimized multi-button thumb grid also lets gamers fully immerse in their favourite MMO games knowing they have the full range of character abilities at their fingertips.

About The Razer Naga Epic
This high-end MMO gaming mouse is an advanced version of the original and award-winning Razer Naga, combining wireless functionality, ergonomic form factor, a customizable backlight glow, and 17 MMO-optimized buttons, making it truly epic.

The Razer Naga Epic MMO gaming mouse allows gamers to easily organize their character abilities for any game by enabling them to fully remap and assign programmed macros to all 17 buttons. With three interchangeable side panels for optimal fit designed for various hand sizes and grip styles, the Razer Naga Epic allows gamers to quest, raid, or PVP in comfort for hours on end. The true gaming-grade wireless connection on the epic mouse also allows gamers a greater variety of movement without any sacrifice of mouse control or accuracy, with zero downtime as the mouse charges while in wired mode.

Razer Naga Epic
Price: US $129.99 / €129.99

Video: Here’s Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare DLC Trailer

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 10:00 AM PDT

The other fun part of Comic-Con? Playing the upcoming Red Dead Redemption DLC, Undead Nightmare. We now have the official launch trailer.

The DLC, which should hit Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network later this month, has you, John Marston, trying to cleanse the area of a virus that has resurrected the dead. Well, the undead. Whatever: they’re zombies.

Rockstar has handled the whole situation (zombies in the old west, what?) about as well as you could have hoped.

Sega: Yeah, We May Have Made Too Many Sonic Games In The Past Few Years

Posted: 13 Oct 2010 09:30 AM PDT

As you know, Sonic 4 comes out today on the Xbox 360 and PS3. (It came out two days ago on the Wii, and last week for iOS.) I haven’t bought it yet, but my time with it last week left with me with the impression, well, the game is certainly a fun romp. Can’t ask for more than that. But what we can ask less of is less trashy Sonic games. You know, that game where Sonic transformed into a werewolf. I mean, come on.

Sega knows this, too.

In an interview with Joystiq, Sega’s US vice-president of sales and marketing, Alan Pritchard, says that Sega, in the past, had "probably been guilty of bringing too many Sonic games to market too quickly."

It’s not only that, but too many rubbish Sonic games.

You had the werewolf one, the other one, and the other one that I can think of off the top of my head that I looked at and thought, "Yikes, pass."

As such, Sega is trying to put less of a focus on a its back catalog and put more of a focus on its current crop of not-bad games.

Basically, Sega is trying to get people to forget some of the past mistakes and instead think of Sonic only for the good times: Sonic 2, Sonic Adventure, and Sonic 4.

It’s sort of the same strategy that EA has adopted in recent years: less games in general (certainly less so-so games), but makes sure the games you make are of a high quality.

Far-out strategy: making good games. Imagine that.
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