CrunchGear

CrunchGear

Link to CrunchGear

Weak Sales: Nintendo Reports Net Loss In First Half Of Fiscal 2010

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:52 AM PDT

Nintendo today reported [PDF] it swung to a net loss of 2.01 billion Yen ($24.5 million) in the first half of fiscal 2010 after recording a handsome 69.49 billion ($850 million) profit in the same time frame last year. It was big N’s first net loss in the fiscal first half in seven years.

Revenue fell 34% to 363.16 billion Yen ($4.5 billion) from 548.06 billion Yen ($6.7 billion) last year.

In a nutshell, there are three things to blame: the yen’s recent strength, a delay in new hardware (the 3DS will not go on sale before spring 2011) and weak sales of existing game systems.

Nintendo reported that it sold 6.69 million DS systems in the six months leading up to September 30, 2010 – a drop of nearly 50% when compared to the 11.7 million units the company sold in the same time frame last year (DS software sales fell from 71.2 million to 54.8 million globally).

The Wii suffered, too, albeit not as dramatically. Hardware sales were down from 5.75 million to 4.97 million units, while software sales dropped from 76.2 million to 65.2 million.

Nintendo’s financial report from May this year wasn’t really positive either. Good for big N’s future that the 3DS seems to be a real winner.

Image credit: Kaynil / deviantArt

Rumour: Hon Hai Precision to ship CDMA iPhone to Apple in 2011

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:22 PM PDT

Hot off of the presses from CENS, comes news that Taiwan-based Hon Hai Precision Co., Ltd (now the largest electronic manufacturing service IN THE WORLD) will ship a CDMA version of the iPhone to Apple come 2011. The manufacture of the device has reportedly been split evenly with Hon Hai's buddy Pegatron, who will cease his duties saving the planet from evil robots, just so you can enjoy an iPhone on an operator other than AT&T. He's such a great guy, Pegatron. Speaking of operators, the article also states that "Apple will launch the phone in early 2011 in cooperation with a couple of telecom companies as Verizon and China Telecom". So there you have it, more fire for the rumour that is the Verizon iPhone. Not long now, it seems. Not long now...


Monocle now offering limited edition BlackBerry Bold 9700… for £750

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:19 PM PDT

Ok, now I know that BlackBerries are popular with those "corporate" types with their "business trips" and their "incomes", but this limited edition £750 BlackBerry Bold 9700 just seems a little ...overpriced. What do you get for £750? Gold accents? Nope. Leather trimming? Nope. A concierge service? Not that, either. How about some custom wallpapers, pre-loaded Monocle travel guides, a 16GB MicroSD card, and a "special strap". I'm in the mood for itemisation right now, so let's play a round of "What's Worth What?!"


Caution: Nooks Can Get Their Content Remotely Detonated Too

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:47 PM PDT

Remember when Amazon got in trouble for the ironic crime of remotely un-publishing 1984 from users’ Kindles? Well, they’re not the only ones capable of doing that, although in Barnes & Noble’s case it’s more of a technical snafu than a willful breach of user rights.

A user turned on his Nook after a while of not using it, and found that it insisted on updating itself. Not wishing to interfere, he let it run its course, and in the course of updating, it deleted all non-B&N documents on the device. What the hell, right? Doesn’t that break like 10 basic laws of user experience design?

The worst part, though, was when he called it in. He assumed it was a bug, but he was told it was in fact his fault: he had failed to keep his Nook updated, and this was the consequence. The Nook couldn’t install the collected updates without wiping its memory.

It may fall under the “buyer beware” category, but the fact is that Barnes & Noble essentially hit a switch that caused this guy’s Nook to self-destruct, taking personal data with it. Is that something that should be tolerated?

[via TechDirt]

Amazon And Best Buy Sell Out Of Kinect Pre-Orders

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:06 PM PDT


I got taken to task yesterday by some humorless fanboys for what was clearly satire, so I’m going to play this one straight. It seems that both Best Buy and Amazon have ceased to issue pre-orders for the Kinect, although you can still buy a bundle with a new 360. This augurs well for Microsoft’s big bid to expand the gamer demographic. Maybe that $500 million ad push is working.

3rd-party sellers are ready to chisel you if you feel like overpaying, though. Remember, Kinect costs $150, not $500.

It’s also worth noting that the bundled title, Kinect Adventures, was the least interesting of the games we played at E3 (unlike Sports Champions, the Move bundled game, which outshone several “real” games). While the media center functionality is fun, you’ll probably want to pick up one or two of the other launch titles if you want to impress your buddies.

[Business Insider]

Instead Of Booth Babes, Northrop Grumman Has Gun Bots

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 05:34 PM PDT

It’s a well-established tradition at tech conventions, where nerds like us abound, to stock one’s booth with beautiful women — “come for the girls, stay for the iPod cases” seems to be the idea, and in general it works. But how do you attract the attention of highly-disciplined Lieutenants and cold-hearted strategists? Why, a robot with a .50-cal, of course.

That’s Northrop Grumman’s approach, anyway. At the Association of the U.S. Army con in Washington, they’ve showing off a CaMEL packbot with a .50 caliber machine gun controlled remotely by a touchscreen. Of course, like a booth babe, it’s a trick. Wait, that came out wrong. It’s a ruse.

NG doesn’t actually make these things: “Quite frankly, a weapon on a robot brings people into the booth,” says Jon Anderson, who ran the booth. But will they ever? Apparently, the army just hasn’t bought into it yet. Chances are it’s a bit difficult to fit one of these things into the order of battle. And they look pretty heavy; if they break down, you’ll need a non-weaponized one just to carry the first one out.

It’s only a matter of time, though. That’s it for us humans.

MacBook Air Benchmarks: Fast Enough For Everyday Use, But The Slow Processor Does Hurt Performance

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:05 PM PDT

You know, it’s one thing to use subjective and entirely unscientific terms like "feels" or "seems" when it comes to reviewing computers, but there’s something to be said about actually running benchmarks and comparing the numbers to other comparable computers. Numbers don’t lie. So kudos to MacWorld for actually taking the time to see just how impressive, or not, the new MacBook Air is.

Compared to the previous edition of the MacBook Air, the new version performs better in every way, most of which can be attributed to the elimination of tractional hard disk drives (HDD) and the transition to solid state drives (SSD). SSDs don’t need to spin up to a useable state, and their access and write times run circles around HDDs.

Not surprising, however, is that the MacBook Air doesn’t really compare to MacBook Pros featuring Intel Core i5 processors. You may think your MacBook Air is "faster" than your MacBook Pro if all you’re doing is reading Facebook messages, typing in Microsoft Word, or even doing some basic Photoshop editing. The SSDs will make your browser launch faster, for example, so you could simply say, "Oh, it’s faster."

Well yeah: you’re comparing two different types of storage, one of which is demonstrably faster than the other.

But, try to render a high-resolution video using the MacBook Air, with its Core 2 Duo, then you’ll see how "fast" it is.

We actually had this argument with John. The MacBook Air is great, and probably will be "faster" for your day-to-day use thanks to the SSD, but to have purchased the computer with the express intention of editing video on it may have been a misstep on his part.

Bottom line: the MacBook Air is a state-of-the-art computer in a lot of ways, particularly when it comes to design. And for your average use, the SSDs will be a huge benefit. But don’t think that you’ll be churning out video in Premiere or Final Cut Pro as effectively as you would using a computer with a modern processor.

Then again, how often are you rendering video in the first place?

Lomography Sprocket Rocket Is A Compact Retro-Cam

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:25 PM PDT


Lomography’s latest camera is a bite-sized guy (5″ across) with a panoramic lens and, of course, manual film advance. It’s called the Sprocket Rocket, and it’s about as simple as cameras get these days. The lens is extra-wide-angle to capture extra-full-bleed on the film (i.e. you can print the sprocket holes and numbering), and there are two knobs, for forward and backward film scrolling.

The result is the usual ridiculous Lomo-style pictures with their weird focus and crazy colors. If you’ve used a Lomo before, you know what you’re getting into. It’s too bad there’s no flash attachment, this would be a great little camera to take on a night out. My mistake! There’s a hot shoe, not sure how I missed that. Its exposure options are limited to 1/100th and bulb, and the aperture numbers are too sad to even relate, but they should be suitable for outdoor photography.

http://sites.lomography.com/sprocket-rocket/“>The Sprocket Rocket is on sale now at Lomography for $89.

The 2011 Ford Edge Sport Brings Vehicles Into The Computer Age — Lag And All

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 01:17 PM PDT

It’s very apparent within seconds of sitting in the 2011 Ford Edge Sport that it’s different. It feels like the future. There are two LCD screens flanking a lovely analog speedometer, flush mounted inductive-type controls on the center stack and of course, a large infotainment screen. It’s like a car from the future! (It’s not)

Inside is the latest generation of Ford’s in-vehicle system. Dubbed MyFord Touch, it’s reach and capabilities are unlike nearly anything else in the same price range. But this system isn’t just stuck in the center stack, tasked with the job of controlling the climate and radio. The MyFord Touch is also in the dash cluster in the form of two LCD screens. This is where it gets interesting and validates its place in Ford’s future.

The center-placed 8-inch infotainment screen is just about what you’d expect with controls for media, climate, and connected phone. It’s pretty standard stuff. However, the Interface is laggy — really laggy. There’s a good second or two between pressing the button till the action is preformed. It effects even silly things like changing the radio station.

Ford says that the hardware behind the interface should be powerful enough and instead blames the lag on the software, which is part of the Microsoft Auto 4.0 software platform. Honestly, though, it doesn’t matter. The lag is unbearable at first, but overtime you kind of get used to it — I can only assume in the same sort of way people live with herpes.

The system’s saving grace is that it’s actually a very robust control panel. There’s a lot of stuff in there. It supports everything from streaming audio over Bluetooth, local file playback from a USB drive or SD card, and text messages can even be read aloud. The entire vehicle can even be turned into a hotspot off of your Bluetooth connected phone’s data connection.

However, the interface is a bit overwhelming. There’s quite a bit much happening on each screen. I’d venture to say it’s not for everyone. Smartphone users will be fine. It’s those folks that can’t handle anything more than a RAZR that should probably not opt for the $1000 option.

The best part of the entire vehicle isn’t the 8-inch screen. Nope, it’s the two LCD screens on either side of the large speedo. The one on the right relates to media info, climate control, and connected phone options. The left side however relates to the vehicle itself and is totally configurable. It can display live fuel economy, AWD status, a tach with a thermometer – nearly anything a driver would want.

Both screens are controlled via their own directional pad on the steering wheel. It’s a simple and easy control scheme that’s really not that distracting. Unlike the center 8-inch screen, there’s zero lag with this system as it should be. These two screens are a lot like what we expected the 2010 Range Rover Supercharged to be like. That truck offered a full LCD for the gauge cluster, however, it isn’t utilized. There is so much more info and options with the MyFord Touch system. Strange seeing how there’s a $60k price gap between the two.

I love the system in the 2011 Ford Edge Sport. The capabilities far outweigh the laggy interface. However, I can see people finding the systems too much or never utilize them at all. That’s fine, the systems don’t come standard anyway. But Ford together with Microsoft are clearly taking in-vehicle systems into the computer age. Finally.

More to come later in the week.

Video: Balloon Dad Richard Heenes’ Latest Creation Is The Bear Scratch

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 12:30 PM PDT

Once again, mad props to Ron & Fez for bringing the following story to my attention. It’s called Bear Scratch, and it pretty much makes the new MacBook Air look like a pile of garbage cans. Bonus: the guy in the video is Balloon Dad. Surely you remember that Balloon Boy nonsense?

Bear Scratch, as the video eloquently explains, is a device you attach to your wall that you use to more efficiently scratch your back.

You know, because you never see bears pick up a back-scratcher when they have an itch. Not because they don’t have opposable thumbs, but because it’s not efficient enough!

Clearly we’ve all died and gone to Heaven, home of the Bear Scratch.

Away Put Your Earbuds, I Am Retractable

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:53 AM PDT

How much do you love Star Wars? Enough to stick Yoda or Darth in your ears? I thought so.

For $16.95 you can get a pair of these retractable Star Wars earbuds in three styles, Darth, Yoda, or Storm Trooper. They tried to make Jabba the Hutt ones but no one wanted to stick his tail in their ear.

Product Page

via ChipChick via OhGizmo


Comcast Reports Drop in Cable Subscribers; Blames Economy

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 11:48 AM PDT

In a post this weekend, I wrote about how the cable tv industry was finally stepping towards the cliff. And we'd learn more today when Comcast, the largest U.S. cable operator, reported earnings. Well, the numbers are out, and it's not a surprise. 275,000 Comcast subscribers cut the cord last quarter. Its subscriber count is down 3.5% from the same quarter last year. To be fair, some of that loss was offset by a gain in 219,000 digital cable subs. Revenue was up as customers bought higher priced bundles of tv, internet and phone service. But.... During the earnings call, Comcast blamed the drop on the lousy economy. Always a handy excuse. Sure, many people are struggling right now, and it makes sense that the high cost of cable is an expense they can no longer afford. Comcast said, based on exit interviews, only a 'small number' seemed to cut the cord for over-the-air signals, and they are not planning to switch to internet tv alternatives. But ....


Kobo Adds Newspaper, Magazine Subscriptions

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:45 AM PDT

Want an alternative to the Amazon Kindle/Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader duopoly? Kobo is always a choice, and now there’s word that you can newspapers and magazines on there, "there" being the Kobo Wireless eReader device as well as the iOS Apps.

Many of the big publications have made the cut, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Harvard Business Review, and PC Magazine.

The full list is available on the Kobo Web site.

Kobo says that it will continue to add newspapers and magazines as the days go by.

The newspapers and magazines will be available on a subscription basis. Newspapers will run you $13.99 per month, and magazines will be $2.99 per month. All subscriptions are delivered automatically to the Kobo device as soon as they’re published.

Chinese Apple Store Open And Ready For Your Yuan

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 10:17 AM PDT

In typical hyperbolic Apple style, the company has just announced the launch of Apple.com.cn, the Chinese hardware as well as the Chinese version of the “legendary” App Store (yes, they actually used “legendary.”)

The store includes all the standard goodies like engraving and Mac customization.

Apple Launches Online Store in China

CUPERTINO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple® today introduced the Apple Store® in China (apple.com.cn), the easiest way to shop online for Apple products including the revolutionary iPhone® 4 and the magical iPad™. Apple's online store in China features free shipping, free personalized engraving on any iPod® or iPad, and the ability to custom configure any Mac® with just a few clicks. The online Apple Store also offers a wide selection of third-party products and is the only place online to buy the iPod nano® (PRODUCT) RED.

"With personalized engraving, configure-to-order options and free shipping on everything, the Apple Store is a great destination for our customers in China."
"We are thrilled to open our newest online store in China," said Tim Cook, Apple's COO. "With personalized engraving, configure-to-order options and free shipping on everything, the Apple Store is a great destination for our customers in China."

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, signature gift wrap is available with the purchase of most Apple products including iPod, iPad and iPhone. The online Apple Store also lets eligible students and faculty members take advantage of special education pricing on Apple products.

Also starting today, customers in China can access Apple's legendary App Store℠ in Simplified Chinese, with localized featured apps and charts of the most popular paid and free apps in China. The App Store offers iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users access to the world's largest catalog of apps with over 300,000 apps in 20 categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork, and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple is reinventing the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Quickly Becoming One Of The Most Pre-Ordered Media Items On Amazon

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 09:45 AM PDT

Let’s face it: Call of Duty: Black Ops will sell more than a few copies. ¡Gran día! In fact, Amazon tells me that the incoming data indicates the game is being pre-ordered at such a pace that it has overtaken other big media items, including Halo: Reach and Red Dead Redemption. It’s even outpacing the DVD release of Michael Jackson: This Is It. Michael Jackson was a famous musician, I think.

Of course, this also implies that the game will surpass its immediate predecessor, Cal of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. You know, the game with that dumb No Russian level. That was a high-water mark in civilization, to be sure.

So yeah, the game will be huge. Stop the presses, etc.

Grand Theft Auto Complete Edition Comes With GTA IV & All DLCs

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 09:15 AM PDT

Ooo, I didn’t know this was coming out. It’s the Grand Theft Auto: Complete Edition, and it includes GTA IV along with its two DLCs, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony. It’s only available for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Sorry, PC gamers. Look at that: it’s available on Steam. Maybe I had had checked first…

The package comes out today and it’ll retail for $39.99, which, eh, seems about $10 too expensive when you consider GTA IV came out on April 2008. (And doesn’t GTA IV occasionally go for $5-$10 on those Steam sales?)

There’s no extra features in any of the games, but the package does come with a "collectible map and poster."

I suppose this is handy if you’re one of the half dozen people on Planet Earth who hasn’t already played these games.

Videos: Super-Realistic Female Humanoid Actroid-F

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:44 AM PDT


We have shown you many super-realistic androids from Japan in the past. But Actroid-F, along with what appears to be her twin sister Geminoid-F, certainly take the cake as far as realism is concerned. Actroid-F made a public showing in Tokyo a few days ago, dressed as a nurse who could work in hospitals as an “observer”.

Her maker, Japan-based robot maker Kokoro, says that she is supposed to give patients a heightened sense of security. Actroid-F is very realistic, but actually, she is pretty creepy, too – as you can see in the video embedded below (in which she’s replicating the operators facial expressions and body movements).

Actroid-F, which was billed as the “first true android” by Guinness World Records, weighs just 30kg and is 140cm tall (in a sitting position). Wait a few years for her makers to reduce the mechanical and chopping motions, make her walk, and act more independently.

This is the video:

Here’s another one (in English and Japanese) I grabbed off Kokoro’s website:

Via Plastic Pals via Robotimes [JP]

James Patterson: The Second Member Of The Amazon Kindle 1 Million Club

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 08:00 AM PDT

The second author to reach 1 million Kindle books sold is…? Any guesses? Of course not; I gave it away in the headline. It’s James Patterson, author of such books as the Alex Cross series and Women’s Murder Club. That Morgan Freeman movie, Along Came a Spider, was based on an Alex Cross novel.

You’ll recall that Stieg Larsson was the first author to reach the 1 million milestone, and then people hated on me because I’d never heard of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Jeez, folks, sorry for pretty much exclusively reading non-fiction.

I have subsequently seen that book, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, pretty much all over the City of New York.

Amazon says that it "looks forward to celebrating the 2 million mark in the future."

Are e-books helping literacy? That would be a nice side effect, no?

LimeWire Ordered To Shut Down

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:30 AM PDT

LimeWire, we hardly knew ye. A New York court has ordered the company to turn off the software’s ability to search, upload, and download, which pretty much means that it’s dead. I guess this would have affected me greatly, I don’t know, in the year 2001, but now? Not so much.

LimeWire has been fighting the RIAA in court for years now, and this latest ruling effectively puts an end to LimeWire as you know it, or knew it.

LimeWire is said to be developing a new application that will be in full compliance of all copyright laws.

It should be noted that all LimeWire did was tie into the Gnutella (and BitTorrent) peer-to-peer network. Gnutella is still up and running, and there’s plenty of ways to connect to it. FrostWire is one of the more popular applications, I think.

So yeah: LimeWire as you knew it is dead, but the actual network that powered it, Gnutella, is doing just fine.

I will say this: I was always shocked in school to see people still using LimeWire, and this was only two years ago. I still see people using it when in the company of people who aren’t as tech savvy as we are. In fact, I’d be shocked if this shuttering of LimeWire doesn’t kill a lot of the casual copyright infringement that the RIAA hates so very much.

Luke, I Am Your Tailor: Vader’s Costume To Be Auctioned

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:24 AM PDT

Darth Vader’s armor and helmet, owned by an unnamed American collector, is on the auction block and is expected to sell for an estimated $250,000 in November. While it’s doesn’t come with the lightsaber it does include a small vial of absolute nerd cred that you can dose yourself with next time you roll through Comic Con. Think of how many kisses you’ll get at the next PAX nerd orgy.

No word on if they’ll be selling uniforms from other popular Star Wars characters like R2-D2, the Jawa, and Captain Picard.

via AP


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)