CrunchGear

CrunchGear

Link to CrunchGear

CrunchDeals: Native Instruments Traktor For Half Price

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 03:16 AM PDT

To celebrate cashing in multiple DJ MAG Tech Awards Native Instruments has a deal until the 31st of December. The deal is that you get Traktor Scratch, Duo and Pro for 50% off the original price. That’s a pretty fair price for the Traktor systems. Apparently they are of the best. Here’s the deal.

Sony Logs Profit In Q2 2010, But Sees PSP Sales Dropping 50% Year-On-Year

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 02:09 AM PDT

Sony has presented [PDF] its newest financial report today. Let’s begin with the bad news: for video games, big S’ numbers aren’t pretty, meaning Nintendo isn’t the only Japanese console maker that has been hurting lately. The PS3 is doing OK: during the July-September quarter, the console was sold a solid 3.5 million times, up from 3.2 million units shipped in the same time frame last year.

The problem are the PSP sales, which dropped a whopping 50% to 1.5 million units year-on-year (what’s interesting is that the PS2 was sold as many times, even though the system is significantly older). The good news is that PSP software sales weren’t that bad, dropping from 13 million units in Q2 2009 to 11 million units this year. Still, the PSP2 or that PS Phone can’t come soon enough for Sony Computer Entertainment.

Sony as a whole has logged a handsome $385 million group net profit for the July-September quarter, after reporting a $326 million loss last year. The company now expects to see $867 million in profit for fiscal 2010 while having lost $503 million last fiscal.

Daily Crunch: Happy Bear Edition

Posted: 29 Oct 2010 12:00 AM PDT

Report: iPhone Commands 60% Of Japan’s Smartphone Market, 7% Overall

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 11:59 PM PDT

The iPhone continues to be big in Japan, the world's most advanced and competitive mobile nation. We reported in April this year, that the Apple handset commanded a 72.2% market share in the smartphone segment, capturing 4.9% of the entire Japanese cell phone market in 2009. Read the rest on MobileCrunch.


Driverless Vehicles Complete Trek From Italy To China

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 06:00 PM PDT


Back in July, I wrote about an Italian project in which an engineering team was going to allow two driverless electric vans to make their way from Parma to Shanghai. After months of travel, they’ve just arrived at their destination, unharmed and triumphant.

It’s probably setting some kind of records, but in the end it was really just a big in vivo experiment for the researchers, whose artificial vision software and drive mechanisms probably underwent major revision during the drive. Accidents were few but far from nonexistent, though I suspect the greater stress was from the fact that these vans had to charge 8 hours for every 3 hours of driving. I’d die of boredom, personally, although it’d be a nice way to force you to relax.

These aren’t quite the driverless cars Google was thinking of, but they’re part of the solution. They’re not totally independent, and require intervention every once in a while, when things like tollbooths or herds of goats provide unexpected obstacles.

Still, it’s an amazing achievement! Congratulations to Alberto Broggi and his team.

[via Reddit]

PSU Roundup Reminds Us That Price Does Matter

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 05:31 PM PDT

Putting together a system can be an expensive process, and one is tempted to cut corners in areas where performance doesn’t seem to be a an issue. A cut rate GPU? Not likely… but, say, the PSU? They’re all pretty much the same, right? If they’re rated at such and such, that’s all that matters? Ehh, not so much.

This little roundup over at Anandtech serves as a reminder that you really do get what you pay for with pretty much every component. The cheap TechSolo PSU, though advertised at 550W, barely managed to consistently put out half of that, and flux in the power levels mean mischief for a precision instrument like a modern GPU.

Obviously it’s no use going hog wild, either; once you get past the mid-range, like other components, you’ll get diminishing returns and pay bundles for minor luxuries like high-quality braiding or a small drop in noise levels. I’m glad this little comparison came out when it did, as I’m working on putting together a system myself, and the Antec TruePower New looks like a solid contender.

Video: Musician/Comic Reggie Watts Improvises Song About Pancakes Using Only His iPhone During Sirius XM Interview

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 05:00 PM PDT

Your iPhone, now a musical instrument. Musician slash comic Reggie Watts was recently interviewed by Ron Bennington (of Ron & Fez fame) on Sirius XM's Unmasked. (Unmasked is a series of long-form interviews, hosted by Bennington, with comics, musicians, writers, etc. It's quite good, and is a pretty much proof positive that, for all its faults, Sirius XM can actually be worth a damn every once in a while.) This bit, I thought, would be particularly interesting to you iPhone fans out there. It may also interest those of you who like pancakes.

What we have here is Watts, who forgot to bring his equipment to the interview, completely improvising a song using only his iPhone. (And as we all know, improv is quite difficult.) I don't know if the song is officially tittled "Pancakes," but if I can suggest a subtitle, how about, "Yeah, that's pretty great"?

Incidentally, I may be working on a music+iOS thing in the coming weeks. Hopefully it turns out all right, knock on whatever.

Your Daily Dose Of Quantum Photonics

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:30 PM PDT


Last month, there was an interesting story at IBM about the development of their “optochips,” which use photons instead of electrical signals to communicate information. Optical computing is a huge area of development right now, and there are interesting discoveries happening constantly — at least, interesting to those interested in stuff like wavelengths, photon cascades, and all that.

This recent discovery addresses the fact (if I understand correctly) that wavelength, phase, and polarization may differ between two systems, or even two components within a system. This may result from imperfect or variant materials used in creating the beam to simple standards differences — think USB and Firewire, both passing the same bits but with different interfaces.

Scientists have found a way to vary the wavelength of an optical data signal by putting it through what’s called Bragg scattering, in which the beam is directed through a sort of screen of atoms. The resulting interference pattern is predictable, and can be configured to scatter the beam with a new wavelength.

It’s a bit like a universal translator that takes any language coming in, converts it to Latin, and transmits that Latin to another point, where Latin is understood but perhaps not the language it started as. I don’t know, maybe not. In any case, it’s moving us one step closer to photon-based computing.

[via io9]

Archos Gen8 Series Getting Android 2.2 Soon

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 04:05 PM PDT


Good news for the Archos fans out there who’ve been waiting on the Froyo update since the new line’s introduction in August. It seems that the time is drawing near when you will have it running officially on your tablet &mdsah; though you certainly might have hacked it on there before now. This is the official build, much less risk of bricking.

Our excited narrator doesn’t have too much to say regarding the the upgrade other than that it’s really cool and fast, which I believe. An Archos 70 is looking like a good deal in today’s tablet market, though to be honest I’m waiting to see what Google’s got up its sleeve for Gingerbread. Hopefully Archos users will be able to take advantage of that, though rumored resolution restrictions might spoil their fun. Actually, I can’t imagine that 1024×600 and 800×480 (on the Archos 101 and 70 respectively) wouldn’t be supported; they’re extremely common.

Just What You Needed: The Blackberry Interface In Your Dashboard

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 02:00 PM PDT


After watching our recent in-car tour of the Ford Edge Sport, I noticed the same problem Matt and our commenters did: the in-dash interface is a pain. Slow and unfamiliar, just like most other car dash touchscreens. Don’t you wish you could just have something you already knew, or maybe use whatever’s on your phone or iPod already? Well, that’s actually starting to happen, and this demo from QNX of Blackberry OS 6 running on the car touchscreen actually looks pretty solid.

I’m not sure whether Blackberry would be my first choice for a car OS, but to be fair, it’s been designed around both touch and non-touch input, so navigation via steering wheel buttons wouldn’t feel as weird as navigating, say, Android. The “terminal mode” seems to switch on quickly, and although there are probably some resolution disparities that need to get reconciled, it’s probably best to just let the user use the interface they’re most familiar with.

A lot of phones now have a “car mode” anyway, which emphasizes voice control and provides no access to stuff like texting. Being able to just clone that onto my car display would be fantastic — really, I don’t ask more much more than that.

[via Crackberry]

Angry Birds Plush Toys go up for pre-order, will ship in December

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:56 PM PDT

We’ve known for a while now that Rovio Mobile was working on a line of plush toys based on their ever-frustrated Birds. Hell, we’ve seen the things a bunch of times. Unfortunately, the company has stayed pretty much mum on the matter of pricing and availability, leaving would-be buyers in the dark with Christmas fast approaching.

A tipster has just come forward with some details on the launch. According to them, Rovio has plans to make their official unveiling tomorrow.. but that hasn’t stopped at least one toy store from putting it up early.

Steam’s Halloween Sale Is More Treat Than Trick

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:32 PM PDT

Happy Halloween! Why not celebrate with a brand new game or two (or three) courtesy of Steam. If the game is scary, features zombies, or ghosts, it’s probably on sale. I mean, what are you going to do this weekend? Go to lame party party filled with a bunch of neckbeards and trashy girls? Forget that, turn off you lights, put your candy on a chair with a sign politely asking people to only take one piece and load up L4D2.

Nook Color Runs On TI’s Cortex A8-Based E-Book Platform

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:30 PM PDT


In case you were wondering what’s powering Barnes & Noble’s new Nook Color (or NOOKcolor, as they’d have us write it) e-reader, wonder no longer. It’s an e-book platform introduced by Texas Instruments at CES, with an ARM Cortex A8 processor at its center. There are some superficial similarities to the A4 system used by Apple, but really, the processor line is the only for-sure overlap. We also don’t know the megahertz count of the chip just yet.

The OMAP3621 platform is well-documented on TI’s site, though, and the capabilities seem in line with other tablets (yes, friends, it’s a tablet; things don’t become e-readers just because we’re told they are so). 3G support is there, but obviously absent in the Nook Color, and it isn’t clear which of the other features B&N will eventually be making use of.

Our brief hands-on didn’t really bump into the limitations of the tablet too much. The main limitations, one might say, have been deliberately put in place by Barnes & Noble in order to focus the product. Personally, I don’t find the device compelling, but it is competitive with other products out right now, though I find none of them compelling, either. I just think we’re looking at a whole class of early Android tablets that are going to be forgotten as soon as the actually tablet-oriented stuff comes along.

Public Enemy Just Raised $75k On Sellaband

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:21 PM PDT

Almost a year ago Sellaband, the number one crowd-funding website for musicians went bankrupt. The website was then acquired by a German company and now Public Enemy managed to raise $75,000 despite all the problems of the past. Is this the future of music business? It very well may be.

Okay, so you have a band. You will not get signed unless you know someone who will push you in. Even if you make super music traditional publishers just don’t sign bands any more. No one buys CDs any more. Why would anyone? Publishers are without money. Artists realized long ago that money is rather in playing gigs than selling CDs. Your band is in trouble unless you find a way to raise sufficient funds to finance a record. Sellaband provides a platform for that. Bands sing up and start raising money, “believers” invest in them and hope that the band will succeed in selling a lot of CDs and generate revenues. When the budget is reached the band will spend the money on studio time, promotion, gigs, etc. and of course every investor will receive a CD. Revenues are shared depended on how much you invest.

The business model is clear, the only thing that’s missing is sales. This of course would not be a problem for Public Enemy or other artists with a name. Unfortunately it doesn’t matter where the money comes from, people are just not buying CDs any more. Of course you can sell your album online as well. Apparently Sellaband does that for you when you release your record.

Digital Download Edition Of World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Now Available To Pre-Order

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 01:00 PM PDT

You can now pre-order the digital download edition of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm from Blizzard. Buying this particular edition ensures that you’ll be able to play the game the minute Blizzard turns on the Cataclysm servers, which, incidentally, happens at 12:01am PST on December 7.

What’ll happen is, you buy the game today (or whenever), then your credit card gets charged. The next time you load the game and there’s Cataclysm available to download you’ll start downloading the game automatically, just like any other patch.

Of course, by buying the digital download edition you miss out on some of the goodies that Blizzard has lined up in the boxed editions, but then you’ll only get to play the game when the UPS person knocks on your door.

This digital download edition is $39.99.

Review: Kirby’s Epic Yarn

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:28 PM PDT


It’s very rare to find a game that is 100% acceptable for my 5-year-old. Many games are just a bit too violent – Super Smash Brothers was pretty rough and Super Paper Mario encouraged self-mutilation – and others, like Mario Kart Wii, are so boring at this point as to induce coma in a healthy 35-year-old.

That’s why I was excited to play Kirby’s Epic Yarn. This game isn’t as hard as the SMB franchise (in fact it’s dead simple and does not actually require you to play it at all) and it’s great for kids because of the “yarn shaded” animation and the primitive storyline. Best of all it allows beleaguered dads to finally have a little fun while playing a kid’s game.

scaled.object-3 scaled.object-1 scaled.object-2 scaled.object

Now before you go all metaphysical and equate the Kirby franchise with the early work of Scorcese, let me stop you. You don’t need to even understand what Kirby is to play this game and, in fact, I would encourage you not to read this review if you are a self-described Kirby fan. This is for Dads who want to play a platformer with their younger kids and have thus far been stymied by difficulty levels.

The story, if understand it, involves Kirby (a pink creature with a long back-story I couldn’t be bothered with reading) being sucked into someone’s sewing basket or something and having to live there with some dude who is also the yarn king. You’re supposed to sew up the yarn king’s world and save his kingdom. Then you get attached to the seat of some hippie’s jeans in the Haight and, in the end, become a urine soaked mess hanging out of a park trash basket (that last part is pure conjecture.) You also have to collect beads.

The real value in this game is the interface. If you’ve been flummoxed as to how to play platformers with younger members of your family, this game will solve most of your problems. Junior’s hand-eye coordination is off? No problem. You never die! If you fall off of the screen an angel brings you back up to land with the other, surviving player. The worst that can happen is you’re pinched by one of the enemies who makes you drop all the jewels and beads you’re supposed to collect. You can then yell at your son (or daughter) to pick up all the beads again as you sip your beer.

If the other player is stumped, you can pick them up and put them on your head, carrying them around like a plump ham until you throw them into enemies and structural elements. Gameplay is amazingly simple. You lasso enemies to “pop” them into their original yarn/button elements and you jump around a lot. Bosses are fun because the kids can just hang back while you do the dirty business of getting the whole family to the next level.

The levels are as creative as anything in the SMB world and there’s even a furniture collecting sub-game for the OCD kids in your life. Levels are easy to finish and there are excellent interstitial segments where you and your buddy turn into another object – a tank, a flying saucer, a penguin on a surfboard – so you don’t get bored jumping from platform to platform. The graphics are excellent for the Wii and the colors bright and whimsical. Although Kirby looks like an hydrocephalic, hairless rat, you have to admit he’s pretty cute when slashing his enemies to ribbons.

Generally this game offers a little something for everybody. Kids get to feel the accomplishment of finishing a platformer while Dads and Moms get to have a little fun. I wouldn’t recommend this game to kids older than eight, however, simply because it’s a bit too juvenile. If you want a good game you can play with the kids, however, Kirby is your blob.

Product Page

Next Nolan Batman Movie To Be Called ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ Fans Upset At Riddler Snub

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 12:15 PM PDT

Batman fans reacted with anger on Thursday upon learning that director Christopher Nolan has ruled out using The Riddler in the upcoming movie The Dark Knight Rises. The movie, the third Batman under Nolan and currently scheduled to be released on July 20, 2012, will instead "introduce some new [characters]" as well as use some of the existing ones.

The Dark Knight Rises will begin shooting in April and will be filmed in IMAX but not 3D. Given how carelessly Hollywood has used 3D in the past, that’s probably good news for Bat-fans.

Nolan’s exclusion of The Riddler has angered many in the Batman fan community.

Fez Whatley, a well-known Batman fan and co-host of The Ron & Fez Show on Sirius XM, was particularly annoyed with Nolan’s decision. Whatley said on Thursday that he’d boycott all movies unless Nolan reconsidered his decision.

"You need to have The Riddler," said Whatley. Introducing other villains is fine, he said, but to ignore the "classic characters" is a mistake.

"The movie-going experience has been ruined for me," he said.

Whatley is thought to be considering rallying the Whatley Posse, an informal fan group, in order to protest Nolan’s decision.

Earlier rumors had suggested that the new Batman film would feature Killer Croc, but this would appear to go against Nolan’s vision of a realistic Gotham City.

JVC Busts Out Two 3D Full HD Projectors [Update: Available In The US Next Month]

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 11:01 AM PDT

Last month, we’ve blogged about the DLA-HD250/250Pro high-end projectors JVC introduced on the American market. In Japan, home theater freaks will soon [JP] be able to lay their hands on two D-ILA branded projectors that both can produce 3D images and feature full HD resolution, the DLA-X7 (in black) and the DLA-X3 (in black or white).

The main difference between both models is that the X7 boasts 70,000:1 native contrast ratio while that of the X3 stands at 50,000:1. The X7 (pictured again below) also has LAN and a number of analogue PC ports the other model doesn’t have.

Both projectors feature 1,300 lumens brightness, come with two HDMI (CEC) interfaces and a 220W lamp that lasts 3,000 hours, according to JVC. 3D glasses have to be bought separately.

The company plans to start selling the projectors in Japan in December. And quality has its price, namely $10,400 for the X-7 and $6,050 for the X-3.

Update:
As reader ohotos points out in the comments, both projectors have been announced by JVC in the US already (sorry about that). Available in late November, the X7 will have a list price of $7,995, while the X3 will be sold for $4,995.

JVC's PK-AG1 3D glasses ($179) and the PK-EM1 3D signal emitter ($79) that are compatible with the projectors will go on sale at the same time.

Don’t Think About Seeing Jackass 3D Without These Crazy-Expensive Gucci 3D Glasses

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 09:44 AM PDT

Ready for this? Unisex Gucci glasses optimized for RealD 3D productions. They’re stylish (so they say), coated with a high-tech multi-layered mirrored coating and are optically correct with a 6-base curved lense complete with circular polarization. $225 and available this holiday season. Because, you know, going to the movies isn’t expensive enough.

Parents Television Council: 16 Percent Of Kids Are Able To Buy M-Rated Games

Posted: 28 Oct 2010 09:30 AM PDT

The Parents Television Council, parodied by WWE with its Right to Censor stable back in the day, says that 19 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 16 are able to buy M-rated video games at stores. Shock!

The study—well, more like exercise—found that 21 out of 109 stores, including K-Mart, Wal-Mart, GameStop, and Toys R Us, sold M-rated games to these kids.

Only Toys R Us and GameStop stopped every single minor from buying M-rated games.

This, of course, means that the video game industry’s stance that, oh, we can regulate ourselves, doesn’t exactly ring true.

Because buying an M-rated video game is the worst thing that a 14-year-old has to do with.

I will say: there didn’t seem to be such a stigma attached to buying M-rated gamers when I was a youngster. There was never the sense, "Ooh, I’m playing an M-rated game, how scandalous."

I also don’t recall having any problems buying those games.

It’s safe to say I’m not robbing banks or hijacking cars as a result of playing Mortal Kombat or Turok or anything.


Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)