CrunchGear |  |
- Weekend Giveaway: Nixon 51-30 PU Watch from Watchismo
- Review: Palmer Pocket Amp
- PlayOn Comes To Roku
- Windows: The Cadillac Of Operating Systems
- Zune Annual Pass Gives You 120 Keepers and A Year Of Zune For $150
- Review: 3M Shoot ‘N Share Camcorder-Projector
- The HP Slate’s Future Lies Within The PDA’s History
- All Right, Apple, Let’s Talk About The iPod Touch’s Camera
- Kindle To Allow E-Book Loans, Periodicals On Apps With Coming Update
- Call Of Duty: Black Ops Can Be Pre-Ordered On Steam Right Now (And It Uses Steamworks)
- Seagate Angry At Jobs’ Heartless Cracks Against Hard Drives
- Apply For Your Geek Card Here
- Analyst Expects Apple To Sell 700k MacBook Air Notebooks In 4Q10
- You’ll Want To Download The Football Manager 2011 Demo Today
- Netflix Goes Down, Reminds Us To Beware The Cloud
- 32% Of iPads Owners Haven’t Download An App (Yet)
- $$$: Team Fortress 2 Modders Make Nearly $50,000 Apiece
- Hands-On Video With the HP Slate 500
- Google TV Rooted, Homebrew Software On the Way?
- News Corp Cancels Tablet-based Newstand
| Weekend Giveaway: Nixon 51-30 PU Watch from Watchismo Posted: 23 Oct 2010 05:00 AM PDT
How do you win?
Pop over to Watchismo.com and then comment below naming your favorite watch on that page (who knows, maybe I’ll convince Watchismo owner Mitch to send you one of those, as well!) Be sure to use florid, yellow prose in your comment, pleading and begging for Mitch’s compassion. I’ll close the contest at noon on Monday. Good luck! More about the Nixon:
Incidentally, he’s also offering 10% to CG readers through November 15. Just use the coupon code “CRUNCHGEARISMO.” Isn’t Mitch nice?
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| Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:00 PM PDT
The box comes with the Pocket Amp in it and a couple of picks that smell funny. You also get an in-depth manual in English on how to use the unit. I understand that the Pocket Amp was made in Germany but there are some funny words in there. You get all the details on how to use the knobs and switches and what they do. There are knobs for Drive, Level, Treble and Bass which are pretty self explanatory. They do what they should on any amp. You can also select amp mode to simulate US, Britt (?) and Tweed amplifier sounds. The mode switch will let you choose from Heavy, Crunch and Clean sounds. You can even set the position of the microphone simulation to off axis, center or classic settings. This is all on the top of the Pocket Amp with a power LED, a ground switch and the foot switch. The head of the switch is too small and it doesn’t click so you don’t feel that you turned on the heavy stuff or not. You have to look at the LED for that.
During live use I had a little problem with some silly feedback coming back from a monitor speaker. This can be avoided by placing monitor speakers carefully. Clean levels are also a bit low compared to distorted. Sometimes it takes a while to set up a good sound, but it’s not rocket science. The device retails at $95 (65€) and for that price it’s a steal. If you want to play the guitar literally everywhere, buy the Pocket Amp. Of course if you already have a huge rig you can still get the Pocket Amp for traveling or practicing. You will save yourself from some heavy cabinet-lifting time. Pros:
Cons:
I’m no guitarist. I only play support chords when they are needed. And for this purpose the Pocket Amp is perfect.
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| Posted: 22 Oct 2010 04:38 PM PDT
The details are all here. It still costs money, but hey. The Roku was missing those big networks, and this makes it much more of a complete package. It looks like it adds some local network playback functionality to older models as well. The only requirement seems to be a networked Roku box, so presumably this will allow you to stream your own library through PlayOn if your Roku model didn’t before. Oh, and as long as we’re talking about Roku — they added some channels just yesterday: TBS, BET, Nickelodeon and PBS Kids. Nickelodeon isn’t really as awesome as it used to be (no Ren & Stimpy) but hey.
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| Windows: The Cadillac Of Operating Systems Posted: 22 Oct 2010 04:20 PM PDT
Bear with me here. The pace of advancement in technology is such that ideas are often outpaced in just a few years. Formats, applications, and services pass by the wayside, having grown, bloomed, and withered at a speed which some years ago would be considered ludicrous. It’s a bit like the fins, wings, grilles, and other flourishes that increasingly decorated cars in the 50s. They sold, they were outdone, they were forgotten as the next version came along. And critically, at the time, the competition was between flourishes, not between cars. Yet at some point, that whole type of car would no longer be relevant. Are you picking up what I’m putting down?
It wasn’t long ago that when you said operating system, you meant that thing on your computer. Microsoft did a huge amount of work putting computers in every home, making them everyday devices, and to most people, they were the first visible evidence of such a thing as an OS. The “personal computer” as center of the home was an idea pioneered by Microsoft and pursued to a point which now is beginning to look impractical. Improvements in miniaturization are essentially to be credited with all the consumer technology advances of the last quarter of a century (and more, though only the last 20 concern us for now). Part of Microsoft’s coup was making a compact machine that could do all the things you needed it to. But when you think about it, the boxes we were using then — 486s, LC-IIIs, and all the others — are the same size as the ones we have now. Sure, we have smaller PCs, but really, what’s become smaller is the die size of the processor, the cell size of the RAM, the width of a sector on the hard drive. We’ve been stuffing more into the same package for 30 years. But recently (about ten years ago was, I would say, the tipping point) things started going the other direction. Instead of putting more power into the same size box, we took the same power and put it into a smaller box. And then a smaller box. And a smaller one. And today we have system-on-a-chips the size of your thumbnail, that perform at the same level as a high-end PC from 2001. This is more than a competing model for Microsoft. It’s the end of the world as they know it.
Microsoft’s centralized PC was the future of computing in 1990, and it was the present of computing for a good stretch of time — from what we might call the golden age of the PC to the present. The news that Microsoft has sold 240 million copies of Windows 7 should come as no surprise. It’s a great operating system: powerful, secure, with a wealth of programs available and the remnants of a thousand learned lessons from the last 20 years of operating systems. Some of you, I understand, will have already skipped the rest of this article and are busy scribbling a reply to my little Windows eulogium here, but I hope the rest of you will have some patience as I approach my point. I say, then, Windows 7 is a good operating system, and great as well, in the Alexander sense. And in twenty years, we’re going to look back on it as the last great one of its kind, the pinnacle of the desktop OS. Because Windows 7, like its predecessors, has everything, does everything, plays everything. Like those fabulous Cadillacs, it’s trimmed out with every possible widget and amenity. The only trouble is, while Microsoft has been building 6000-pound boats and indulging in fin wars, someone else has been working on this:
Small, light, fast, and to the point, the new breed of operating system is purposeful, specific, and if I may coin a term, infodynamic. Not only this, but the empowerment of the mobile phone, the tablet, the car, the toaster, to reach the internet, understand its location and purpose, and so on, comes at the expense of the centralized personal computer. The generalist PC isn’t going to disappear, exactly, but the desktop OS will have to become as streamlined as a mobile OS, a tablet OS — hell, a Roomba OS. The era in which people had only one computer, one operating system in their life is ending. The Cadillac era of computing is ending. How much longer will the current hulks of computing convenience hold out? At least a few more years, but I suspect we’ll see some major changes in Windows 8, just as we saw some major concessions to iOS in this week’s Apple OS X update. The long term plans of these and other major companies are difficult to piece out, since as we all know, the necessities of the user, and the capability of his devices, are changing faster every year. But whatever the future holds, it holds a lot less of the kind of operating system on which I type these words. Note: Please forgive my fast and loose car metaphors. Obviously there were more ostentatious vehicles (Chevy) but I thought Cadillac best represented my point. Also, at the bottom, there could probably also be like a Mini or something as well, and a big pickup truck. I thought I’d just err on the side of keeping it simple. Car people, calm thyselves.
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| Zune Annual Pass Gives You 120 Keepers and A Year Of Zune For $150 Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:30 PM PDT
I know, it’s a bit daunting to pay for a year of anything these days, which I suspect will limit the effectiveness of this $150 annual pass offer. People don’t like to be locked into things, even if they locked themselves in and it’s a good deal. Could be good for bundling with Windows Phone 7 Phone Mobile Handset handsets, though. It’s live now in the US, the UK, the Italy, and the Spain. Will it roll out to the other countries Zune recently expanded to? Probably, but who can say? So for $150 you get 12 months of the service, which normally costs $15/mo., plus 10 “keepers” per month, which would have cost a buck each. So if you were planning on buying some music anyway, and you use the service properly (no guarantee there on either of those for most people), you’re really only spending about $30, for access to quite a large library of music. It really is a pretty good deal — if you’re willing to go the whole hog. That’s right. The whole hog. [via Ars Electronica]
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| Review: 3M Shoot ‘N Share Camcorder-Projector Posted: 22 Oct 2010 03:00 PM PDT
Pros:
cons:
Full review:
3M makes a nice pico projector — which isn’t saying too much since the field is pretty limited at the moment, but the fact is that their MPro line is a pretty decent buy if you know what you’re getting into. However, on the announcement of their new projectors and the pocket cam I am reviewing, I felt they might be slipping a bit. The lumen increase on the MP180 is nice, but it got pretty chunky. And this camcorder — well, it’s here before its time, let’s put it that way.
It’s not an ugly piece of hardware, exactly, but it isn’t particularly attractive, either, and compact it ain’t when compared to a regular Flip or Kodak pocket cam. It’s surprisingly light, though, and yet feels very solid. That is, except for the little flaps covering the ports and micro SD slot. Those things feel like they’ll break off with the slightest touch. The controls are little touch-sensitive glowing buttons, which do look cool, and are very responsive, but seem a bit inelegant. Why is there a back button on the right when you already have a left arrow? Simplicity is the word here, 3M, and you have fully ten buttons on the back of your device. At least the interface is clear, although the LCD is rather low-rez. Video quality is pretty much what you’d expect from a pocket cam. Mediocre, lots of jelly-motion, but certainly no worse than your average $150 Flip. Ahh, don’t listen to me. It does its job, and the video is just fine. The projector is about the quality of the original MPro 120: 12 lumens on battery, 14 plugged in, a nice short throw, and good color, though this picture doesn’t really show it off:
In fact, that picture is terrible. Don’t look at it. Look at this one and imagine that instead of the MPro 120, there’s the Shoot ‘n Share:
About like that. And the Shoot ‘n Share does have a tripod mount, so it’s handy in a pinch for a regular projector as well. You can run RCA through its little AV port and it does a decent job of showing SD video. So it does its two jobs decently, though not as well as its single-purpose contemporaries. And the issue really is that there’s not a lot of reason to have both in one device. After all, if it’s bright enough to shoot video, it’s too bright to share. And if it’s dim enough to share, it’s too dim to shoot. And with a battery life of about two hours, it’s not really an ideal travel companion either. Conclusion I don’t want to be too hard on this little guy, because it really feels like more of an experiment than a bold entry to a new field. I have no doubt there will be more and better of these, just as pico projectors and pocket cams themselves have improved quite a bit in just the last two years. I can’t really advise buying this thing, though its $300 price isn’t really asking that much. It’s just that I know they’ll get a lot better soon, and unless you absolutely must combine your pocket cam with your pico projector, this is too expensive of a lark to recommend. Product page: 3M Shoot ‘n Share    
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| The HP Slate’s Future Lies Within The PDA’s History Posted: 22 Oct 2010 01:35 PM PDT
Remember the Sony Clie PDA line? Yeah, the big flip-style ones. These were the HP Slates of the first half of the decade. Let me explain. PDAs were the hot gadget item before smartphones. They instantly earned the owner geek credibility points and models were coming from nearly every manufacturer between 2000 and 2004. HP had the Jornada, and later the iPAQ after buying Compaq. There was the Dell Axim, the Linux-powered Sharp Zaurus, and of course the top-dog Palm Pilots. Sony picked up on the trend and outed the Clie line that went toe-to-toe with Palm. These PDAs started out pretty much as premium Palm alternatives. They were more solid, came with a rich multimedia suite built into the Palm OS, but of course commanded a higher price. Over time Sony evolved the form factor while sticking with the Palm OS, although they hid the core OS with their own skin developed to better match the natural hardware controls. Then out of the bowels of Nippon, the Palm OS 5-powered Sony Clie NX line dropped and nearly instantly, every 40-year old engineer feel in love. This massive beast took the PDA to its limits. It was like a Motorola RAZR, only five times larger, but — and this is big — it did a lot of things right. It featured a nearly usable chiclet keyboard that could be hidden by swiveling the large screen. There was a VGA still and motion camera along with a host of other features that are commonplace today, but were top-tier in 2002. Awesome, right? Well, yeah, it was. But they didn’t sell in the states and Sony quickly made them exclusive to the Japanese market. But people didn’t buy them for the same reason the HP Slate isn’t headed for the consumer market: It was irrelevant. I’ve said that Windows simply isn’t meant for tablets about a thousand and half times here. No matter how you slice it, it’s not. The interface was designed for mouse and keyboard input and no amount of touch enhancements can change that. However, the HP Slate, like the Sony NX line, is a necessary step forward. Sony kept moving forward with their oversized clamshell PDA form factor for several generations. It was one of the first devices to show that the Palm OS was dated and not able to handle advanced tasks. Sony only made it worse by laying a complex skin overtop of it, which often caused the earlier models to lock up. Sony had the right idea, but the processing power and software platform wasn’t up to the task yet. Look at Windows 7. It’s a less of a hog than Vista, but it’s still an OS designed to be run on a desktop OS. But there’s a very limited application library outside of Windows and so makers like HP will keep Windows around — application support was one of the chief reasons Sony stayed with Palm OS. Other tablets such as the ExoPC will skin Windows, but that’s only a temporary solution. Eventually Windows, like the Palm OS, will hit a point where it will no longer offer that many advantages over a proper mobile OS. HP knows this. That’s why the company’s consumer tablet will run webOS. The average consumer doesn’t need a tablet to run Photoshop, some random inventory software, or Remote Desktop Connection. Nope, most people’s computer experience is almost entirely based around the web browser. A recent survey of iPad users show that 32% of owners have never even downloaded an app. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a market for a Windows 7 tablet though. Nope, but where Sony kept their clamshell CLIEs around just for nerdy dads, HP is selling the HP Slate 500 exclusively to the enterprise market. That’s where the money is anyway. These folks don’t buy units individually, they buy them by the pallet. The same nerdy dads will still probably be able to buy a Slate 500 from various online sites, but they won’t be available from the usual retailers like Best Buy and Amazon. The Sony CLIE clamshell line wasn’t the first of a generation. No, it was the last true evolution of the Palm OS platform even more so than the Treo smartphone that stuck around for a bit longer. This is where the HP Slate 500 sits. It’s the beginning of the end for Windows tablets.
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| All Right, Apple, Let’s Talk About The iPod Touch’s Camera Posted: 22 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT
Here’s the thing. It does 720p video — that’s 1280×720 pixels. But then, for stills, it can only do 960×720. I’m sorry, but that just doesn’t make any sense. Apple is fudging the numbers one way or the other, and you’re being cheated out of a good number of pixels. Yes, I realize this is nitpicking. But the fact that Apple would take this liberty without explaining it bothers me. Look, either the sensor is capable of 960×720, or it’s capable of 720p. If it’s only capable of the lower resolution, then Apple is upscaling the image to get 720p, which is basically lying about their image quality. That’s why I’d rather believe that it’s otherwise, and the sensor is capable of 720p. If that’s the case, though, the sensor is likely capable of several times that resolution for stills; it’s just the way these things are set up, their data throughputs, image processors, and so on — if it can do 1280×720 pixels 30 times per second, it usually has enough sensor data to put together a couple megapixels. So why the 960×720? Unfortunately, there’s no answer. But really, this sensor should be capable of far more. At the very least, 1280×720. I’ve contacted Apple about this several times, but have gotten no response, a response in itself which I think justifies this little rant. It also seems as though such a limitation, if indeed on is placed on the camera, would have been detected by hackers and code spelunkers by now. All I know is the resolution discrepancy has been bothering the imaging technology pedant in me for a good couple months now.
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| Kindle To Allow E-Book Loans, Periodicals On Apps With Coming Update Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:30 PM PDT
Some quick Kindle news for your Friday afternoon. One, periodicals (magazines, newspapers, etc.) will soon be viewable on the various Kindle applications in addition to the Kindle device itself. Two, you’ll soon be able to lend books to other Kindle users. This is something the Nook has been able to do since Day One, so it’s good to see each side (Kindle and Nook) try to catch up with the other side with each successive update. Book "loans" can last up to 14 days, and the loaner won’t be able to read the book while it’s "out," so to speak. A few more details here if you like.
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| Call Of Duty: Black Ops Can Be Pre-Ordered On Steam Right Now (And It Uses Steamworks) Posted: 22 Oct 2010 12:00 PM PDT
A fancy e-mail just arrived in my inbox, which is 94 percent full right now, saying that the PC version of Call of Duty: Black Ops is now available for pre-order on Steam. Hilariously, they’re charging $59.99 for the game, which may be acceptable if you’re gaming on a PS3 or 360, but is patently ridiculous on the PC. Have to pay for that non-existent PC license fee, I see? No, this isn’t merely a complaint post; it has a far nobler point. Fallout: New Vegas came out on Tuesday and it shipped with Steamworks, Valve’s platform to handle achievements, updates, and the like. Fallout 3 didn’t use Steamworks, but instead used Games For Windows Live, which is pretty much universally loathed. Call of Duty: Black Ops, too, will use Steamworks. Its immediate predecessor, Modern Warfare 2, also used Steamworks, which, to be honest, the realization of which nearly killed this post. But I soldier on. So as Microsoft is trying to better its position in the digital delivery world, is it simultaneously losing ground to Steam? (Never mind the abysmal name of the Microsoft service, Games for Windows — LIVE. Doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, no.) Microsoft clearly faces an uphill battle when it comes to establishing itself on the PC digital delivery front. This is probably for two reasons: one, Steam is already the firmly established, and aside from one or two legitimate complaints—let’s say you bought a retail copy of Fallout: New Vegas one day before the official release date. I don’t know, maybe you know the guy at GameStop. Well, you wouldn’t be able to install the game because Almighty Steamworks throws up the error message, "Sorry, chico, the game isn’t out yet." Despite the fact, of course, that you’re holding the install disc in your hands—it’s going to take an awful lot to knock it off its perch. Reason number two: Microsoft has all but abandoned PC gaming. What was the last big PC game it published, Gears of War three years ago? Halo 2 came out only a few months prior. Fable III is scheduled to see a PC release at some point. But for PC gamers who like to hold grudges, might they say, "Oh, now that you’re done diverting resources to that Xbox of yours you start paying attention to us again. How convenient."
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| Seagate Angry At Jobs’ Heartless Cracks Against Hard Drives Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:44 AM PDT
SSD isn’t so great, guys, OK? When Steve was all like “SSD is the future! Blah de blah blah!” he definitely wasn’t thinking of those poor hard drive manufacturers who dumped a fortune into mechanical disk factories! Quoth Seagate’s Steve Luczo:
Hear that? Nobody uses SSD. Even though Luczo admits to having an Air with an SSD built in. What is Luczo worried about? Generally, what the Seagate CEO is saying (and I’m sure he’s not worried that much) is that there is a massive install base of standard size drive users. OEMs can’t just go sizing their storage devices willy nilly – except, clearly, Apple. If more OEMs get on board, however, Seagate had better be ready to turn around with a quickness and start making oddly shaped storage components, be they mechanical or flash-based.
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| Posted: 22 Oct 2010 10:00 AM PDT
Lists may be utterly pointless, but on a Friday where the biggest tech news is Wayne Rooney’s new contract with Manchester United, hey, they fill a void. TechRepublic has a list of 10 things that will result in the REVOCATION~! of your Geek Card. I think I lost my card at E3. Number 10: Admitting you like iTunes. This is true: any geek worth his salt should be using foobar2000. Well, if you’re using Windows; if you’re on a Mac you’ve already handed over your geek card. (That’s a joke.) (Plus 10 Geek Points.) The list… 9. Not knowing the difference between binary and hexadecimal Know, but only because I use to fiddle with hexadecimal when trying to make GameShark codes for N64 games back in the late 90s, which is fairly geeky in and of itself. Plus 10 Geek Points. 8. Not knowing what MMORPG stands for Obv. Plus five Geek Points. 7. Loving your cable or telecom company I actually have no problem with my ISP. Never been capped, and downloads from Usenet (+10 Geek Points right there) run at a steady 12MB/s. 6. Not knowing the name of the book that Blade Runner was based on Not only did I know this, but I’ve read the first two or so chapters of the book. So there. Plus five Geek Points. 5. Confusing Star Wars and Star Trek I’ve zero interest in either of these. Minus 50 Geek Points. 4. Believing the "free" in open source refers to price Free as in Freedom. Plus 10 Geek Points. 3. Defending Facebook for its privacy transgressions I largely don’t care what Facebook does, being that I so rarely use it, but it’s clear that the whole organization cares as much about privacy as I care about Star Wars. Plus 20 Geek Points. 2. Taking something into Geek Squad to get fixed Hard to visit the Geek Squad while my protest continues. N/A. 1. Buying a paper computer book at Barnes & Noble Fairly certain I’ve never bought a paper computer book. Computer knowledge is best acquired in esoteric mailing lists and message boards. N/A FINAL GEEK SCORE: 20 POINTS My points scale was completely arbitrary, so your results may vary. Where do you fall?
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| Analyst Expects Apple To Sell 700k MacBook Air Notebooks In 4Q10 Posted: 22 Oct 2010 09:11 AM PDT
Liking the new MacBook Air? Yeah, apparently you’re not alone. Chinese-language Commercial Times cites vice president of Concord Securities research department, Mingchi Kuo, in saying Apple will move 700k of the updated MacBook Air Notebooks in $Q10, accounting for 17% of Mac shipments. The 11-inch model is predicted to be the most popular model and will make up 60% of its marketshare. Sounds ’bout right to us. These things are going to sell like Devin’s pancakes. [DigiTimes]
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| You’ll Want To Download The Football Manager 2011 Demo Today Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:45 AM PDT
Good news! The demo for Sega’s Football Manager 2011 is now available. So put on your José Mourinho or Sir Alex Ferguson or Arrigo Sacchi or Helenio Herrera (drop enough names yet?) hats and get to it. "Football Manager?" I pity the sports fan who’s not a fan of the game. I especially pity the American football (NFL, etc.) fan who thinks, automatically, "Bah, soccer, it’s probably stupid!" Not so! Soccer is just as much about Xs and Os as your kind of football, with sites like Zonal Marking having brought the idea of tactics actually being genuinely fascinating to a larger audience. The game isn’t so much a Fifa or Pes clone as it is as an RPG: you’re a football manager, and it’s your job to take your team of nobodies and bring them the league title. The demo is available for the PC and Mac, but the game itself will also be available for the PSP. The game comes out on November 5.
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| Netflix Goes Down, Reminds Us To Beware The Cloud Posted: 22 Oct 2010 08:15 AM PDT Netflix was down for several hours yesterday. This, on the day that its stock price was never higher. And not to pat myself on the back too much, but this is pretty much exactly what I had predicted two days when I warned y’all about some of the dangers of the cloud: these services can go down without a moment’s notice, and you’re left staring at the TV saying "what gives?" To Netflix’s credit, the streaming service was only down for a few hours, maybe three hours in total. There may have been hiccups after that, but service was largely restored. And Netflix, for all its goodness—no one’s saying it’s "bad," mind you—but isn’t exactly a vital service. Not being able to see, I don’t know, Fred The Movie, isn’t really a matter of national security. But as more and more things move to The Cloud—how many of your important documents are spread across various Google accounts?—it’s just something to keep in mind. There’s something to be said about keeping a local copy of all your stuff, is all.
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| 32% Of iPads Owners Haven’t Download An App (Yet) Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:49 AM PDT  It seems like not every iPad owner is infatuated with apps. Nope, according to a recent Nielsen survey, 32 percent surveyed have never downloaded an app to their iPad. Crazy? Yep. But it’s also a testament to the tablet’s built-in features.  The survey goes on to state that 63 percent downloaded a paid app with only five percent opting for those not costing anything. Games were the top paid app category, followed by books, music and shopping apps. However, when compared to iPhone app usage, the iPad blows away its smaller counterpart in nearly every app type besides News and Music, with the iPhone earning a slight advantage in those two categories.  But the real shocker is that not every iPad is purchased just for apps. Apparently some owners are satisfied with the web browsing and mail functions built right into the iPad. That’s the way it should be, too. Devices shouldn’t be dependent on 3rd part applications to justify their existence — especially expensive ones like the iPad. However, while that percentage might not shrink over time as more people buy an iPad for the first time, chances are owners will turn to apps to keep the iPad’s appeal fresh and exciting.
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| $$$: Team Fortress 2 Modders Make Nearly $50,000 Apiece Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:30 AM PDT
Time to brush up on your modding skills? Modders who created content for Team Fortress 2 have earned nearly $50,000 apiece. So, let’s say you create a hat. A few months later you’re driving around in a fancy car, not unlike the id Software guys from way back when. Right now, the money split is 75/25 in favor of Valve. That is, Valve keeps 75 percent of the money earned with the sale of the created items, while the creator keeps 25 percent. From the outside looking in that seems a little too lopsided in Valve’s favor—Apple only takes 30 percent of your App Store revenue—but if the modders are fine with it who am I to poke my nose in? The Team Fortress 2 store launched a few weeks ago, and it only works with the PC version of the game (as if anyone plays the Xbox 360 version). The highest earner made $47,000, which means Valve made some $140,000. Mad money, as they say.
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| Hands-On Video With the HP Slate 500 Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:17 AM PDT Here is our hands-on video of the HP Slate 500, HP’s new business slate. For those of you still on the fence, HP has posted all of the final specs for the device as well, including the fact that it has an active digitizer as well as an Intel Z540 Atom Processor Z540 (1.86 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) and 2GB of memory. You can take a gander at the product page and see if this is the slate for you, Win7 lovers. Processor Intel® Atom™ Processor Z540 (1.86 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB) Chipset Intel® System Controller Hub (SCH) US15W Dimensions and weight Weight Starting at 1.5 lb (Starting at 0.68 kg) Dimensions (w x d x h) 9.21 x 0.58 x 5.91 in (23.40 x 1.47 x 15.00 cm) Memory Memory, maximum 2 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (Memory is on the board and not customer accessible or upgradeable; memory operates at the maximum system supported speed of 533 MHz.) Storage Optical drive
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| Google TV Rooted, Homebrew Software On the Way? Posted: 22 Oct 2010 07:00 AM PDT Got Google TV? Well now you can get root. This isn’t a full root access, mind you, but it’s a start. AndroidForums user Apeman shows us how to access the GoogleTV’s recovery menu and there is a tempting entry in the menu allowing for USB uploads. This means, in short, that eventually someone will be able to figure out how to add homebrew apps to Google TV. The folks at the forums are digging further so I’d expect this thing to be wide open by November.
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| News Corp Cancels Tablet-based Newstand Posted: 22 Oct 2010 06:44 AM PDT
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Our buddy Mitch at Watchismo want to make your weekend a happy one. How? They want to give you a 
I’ve had the 
The Pocket Amp has XLR and line outs, aux, headphone and DC 9V in. That’s quite a diverse set of connections for something so small. So far I’ve been using the XLR output plugged in the PA directly. I love the sound of my Telecaster and it just sounds great with the Pocket Amp. The whole little box feels sturdy and the enclosure feels like it will last for ever. The rugged bottom makes sure that there is no sliding on any stage. The 9V battery can be inserted here as well.
We already thought the 
The 
News Corp, publishers of the New York Post, the Wall Street Journal, and a slew of other international papers including The Sun, has cancelled plans to offer a tablet-based newsstand, code-named Project Alesia. The project would have brought all of News Corp’s media holdings together in one app as well as aggregate news from other sources, a la Google News. The project has apparently been folded back up into News Corp.| You are subscribed to email updates from CrunchGear To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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