CrunchGear |  |
- Video: Japanese Company Offers E-Money Wristband
- Review: Worms 2 Armageddon For iOS
- The Boxee Box Demo (TCTV)
- First Triton-Based E-Reader To Be Available In February For ~$500
- If Amazon Won’t Cross The Line, Someone Else Will
- Xi3 Announces Modular Computer – Wait, Aren’t Computers Already Modular?
- Nintendo Is Attempting To Trademark “It’s On Like Donkey Kong”
- Hands-On With The Pre-Release Boxee Box
- Video: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Gets A TV Show
- Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab On Sprint
- Sony Vaio Y Series Netbook Drops To 11.6 Inches
- Plastic Logic Gets “Major” Russian Investment To Build Second Screen Manufacturing Facility
- CrunchGear Columbus Meet-Up Reminder: Meet the Galaxy Tab
- Unions Question Safety Of Full-Body Scanners & Wisdom Of Invasive Pat-Down
- HDTVs Are Popular, But HD Programming Is Not
- Elecom Outs Bluetooth 3.0 Mouse
- Kinect Hacked, Open Source Drivers Now Working
- Nintendo: Hollywood Showing Interest In 3DS, May Click With Consumers Before 3DTV Does
- Samsung Shows Off Odd Flexible Displays
- Surprise! Game-Breaking Problems Mar PC Launch Of Call Of Duty: Black Ops
| Video: Japanese Company Offers E-Money Wristband Posted: 10 Nov 2010 11:52 PM PST
Have you ever wanted to do some shopping when you were out jogging or taking the dog for walk – without the hassle of carrying small change? That’s the problem a Japanese company called Hashy Top-In is trying to solve with the “E-Money Band” [JP], a silicon wristband that can be charged with electronic money. According to Hashy Top-In, buyers can load up to $600 into the wristband by using chargers at Japanese convenience stores and other places. To pay, users just need to tap the wristband’s center piece against a compatible reader installed in convenience stores, department stores or vending machines.
Hashy Top-In’s wristband supports an e-money system called Edy (Edy readers are installed in thousands of shops all over Japan). One wristband costs $36. Here’s a quick promo video (in Japanese):
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| Review: Worms 2 Armageddon For iOS Posted: 10 Nov 2010 06:31 PM PST
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| Posted: 10 Nov 2010 05:51 PM PST |
| First Triton-Based E-Reader To Be Available In February For ~$500 Posted: 10 Nov 2010 05:35 PM PST
The device, which at 9.7 inches is larger than most e-readers out today and is of course color, will be selling in February for a mere 3500 yuan, which is equivalent to something between $500 and $550 depending on exchange rates. A 3G version would be offered for a few yuan more. It was not reported whether the device would be available here in the states. I doubt it, but it will almost certainly be at CES, where we will get an eyes-on with the new color displays.
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| If Amazon Won’t Cross The Line, Someone Else Will Posted: 10 Nov 2010 05:24 PM PST
The guidelines state that offensive material (which they define as “about what you would expect”) will be rejected or removed, yet they stated today that “it is censorship not to sell certain books simply because we or others believe their message is objectionable.” They can’t have it both ways, and it’s dangerous for such a sensitive question to remain unanswered when the company shapes digital publishing to so significant an extent. So what’s it going to be?
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| Xi3 Announces Modular Computer – Wait, Aren’t Computers Already Modular? Posted: 10 Nov 2010 03:49 PM PST
I’m sorry, but I’m pretty sure that almost every desktop computer sold is exactly what this person is describing. Every component is replaceable with a new one, everything is modular. The idea of the single motherboard, which ironically enough they have replaced with multiple smaller, proprietary sisterboards, was created with the idea of a modular system. In fact, this Xi3 concept provides far less freedom than a simple budget motherboard, compact case, and OEM parts. You can replace any of them at will. A child can do it. With Xi3, you’re free to upgrade… with their hardware, which they sell. And it ain’t cheap — the basic setup with 8GB of storage and a low-wattage AMD processor costs you $849. I hope it comes with free diamonds! If you want a compact PC, go with VIA or some other micro-ATX PC. They’ve been around for ages, they use standard parts, and they’re as easy to upgrade as any other computer. Unless I’m seriously mistaking what this Xi3 thing is, there’s absolutely no benefit to buying one over a standard PC. [via Computer World]
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| Nintendo Is Attempting To Trademark “It’s On Like Donkey Kong” Posted: 10 Nov 2010 02:00 PM PST
Query: isn’t “Donkey Kong” already using someone else’s trademark? You know, that giant gorilla King Kong? How did Nintendo slip that one under the radar? It’s possible Nintendo is just doing this for publicity, in which case, mission accomplished. And mission reprehensible. Whether they’re serious or not, I doubt they have a case. The phrase has been in public use for probably 20 years at least, and Nintendo hasn’t made a single attempt to own it. It’d be like Capcom trying to trademark “sonic boom.” By the way, that image on the right there is only like 3KB. How cool is that?
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| Hands-On With The Pre-Release Boxee Box Posted: 10 Nov 2010 01:34 PM PST
Folks who have been clamoring for the Boxee Box are finally clamor-free because the box is starting to ship. Today our own Erick visited the Boxee showroom (really a hotel room) where he got to see the Boxee Box firsthand.
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| Video: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Gets A TV Show Posted: 10 Nov 2010 12:30 PM PST Who saw this coming? Certainly not me, but it looks like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (henceforth referred to as Stalker, if only for convenience’s sake) will be getting a television show. The trailer follows. The trailer explains the games’ premises, but you may want to spent a minute or two to look up the games on Wikipedia. Or, even better, play them. They’re pretty cheap on Steam, and they’re regularly on sale. Combine them with one of the many fan-made mods (Stalker Complete has to rank as one of the best mods of its generation), and you’ve got a genuine PC shooter (as opposed to mere console port, ie Medal of Honor or Call of Duty: Black Ops) experience going for yourself. Highly recommended… uh, the games, not the TV show. I’ve no idea to what make of that.
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| Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab On Sprint Posted: 10 Nov 2010 10:53 AM PST
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
Full Review To begin with, let’s talk about the physical characteristics. This thing is pretty hefty. It’s 7.48 x 4.74 x 0.47 inches and weighs 13 ounces. The iPad weighs 1.5 pounds but the size of the screen makes it seem lighter than it is. This thing is dense and thick and using it makes you think you want something small. I held this over my head in bed one night to watch a movie and my arm started to hurt. That’s kind of bad. Samsung’s website says it is pocketable, which is an accurate, if energetic, description. You can stick this in your pocket but you won’t be happy. To wit:
But the Tab is a solid slab of electronics. That’s good. You can’t open it to replace the battery (heaven forefend!) and it has a single microSD slot. That’s it. A single, iPod-esque dock port on the bottom is all the external connectivity on offer. Battery life is pretty good. I got two days of intermittent use on one charge including a four-hour bout of movies one night. This should last a good three days without heavy network polling, and you can definitely get about 10 hours of movie watching out of this. In terms of performance the 1GHz Hummingbird processor offers a nice bit of pep when it comes to basic apps. Samsung includes a task manager of their own devising because, as we all know, end users love RAM management. It includes some of Sprint’s standard goofiness but their NASCAR and Football apps are hidden inside of an app called Sprint Zone so you don’t have to stare at them the whole time.
The touchscreen is very responsive and except for a few jolts during zoom-in and multi-touch, there was no lag in the applications. The Bad News
They see this as an ebook reader and a media player. They don’t want you to edit video, documents, or render 3D images of the Taj Mahal. First, the screen is too small and second Android doesn’t quite allow it. Google doesn’t allow “With Google” branding on devices over 7-inches simply because they believe Android is still a phone OS. Other than that, I have little bad to say about the device. Samsung did an admirable job of creating a device that is pleasant to use and portable. It is, as I said, the first of many such devices that will soon be flooding our lives and it is one of the best so far. Flash fanbois rejoice! You can kind of use Flash under Froyo even though Adobe’s own website didn’t work in the browser. Once you find something that works it is very slow. The less said about Flash the better. Network connectivity is a bit pricey on the Tab as well. A 2GB data plan with unlimited messaging is $29.99 per month and a 5GB data plan with unlimited messaging is $59.99 per month. You can use this as a wireless access point, which is great if you need to share data on the road, though the 5-gig cap will become inconvenient if you do it frequently. Also note that this device will not work on overseas data networks. T-Mobile’s upcoming version of the Galaxy Tab will. Is It For You? Good. We got the Mactards out of the room. So: you’re reading this because you’re an anything but iPad kind of person. If you weren’t you’d be busy playing Cut The Rope HD on iOS right now instead of shopping around. So let’s be frank: this is what you’re going to have to buy if you want any modicum of satisfaction when it comes to tablet computing. The HP Slate is a lump and the Dell Streak is even smaller than this. The Nook Color is just weird. The CherryPad is garbage. You’re stuck. So is this for you? If you’re looking for a media device with Android compatibility, this is the device for you. It is rugged, well-designed, and speedy. My prediction? We will see a whole boatload of devices just like this at smaller price points coming up in the next few months so you could feasibly wait. However, if you want size, performance, and Sprint connectivity, this is the one for you. T-Mobile will have their device in the next few weeks as well, so you could consider that one if you’re looking for more mobility. Bottom Line
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| Sony Vaio Y Series Netbook Drops To 11.6 Inches Posted: 10 Nov 2010 10:30 AM PST
Netbooks… they still make those? I thought tablets killed 'em a little while back. Meh, whatever. Sony has another one due out before the holidays, only it'll be released in Japan before it's released elsewhere. The Vaio Y series, which actually debuted at the beginning of the year at 13.3 inches, will now live life as a happy, productive 11.6 incher. (Though the old 13.3 incher should still be available.) The stats aren't bad. It's got an i3-380 (unlike, say, the MacBook Air's Core 2 Duo) running at 1.33GHz, anywhere from 2GB to 8GB of memory, and storage of 320GB. I suppose you'd want an SSD these days, but that probably depends on how you're going to use the laptop. Oh, and the display is 1366×768. Sony hasn't said how much it costs, nor when it'll be available outside of Japan.
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| Plastic Logic Gets “Major” Russian Investment To Build Second Screen Manufacturing Facility Posted: 10 Nov 2010 10:00 AM PST
Remember Plastic Logic? The company that made the interesting Que E-Reader that was previewed in 2008, debuted in 2009 and shown to the public at CES 2010? Yeah, the one that constantly delayed and ultimately canceled awhile back. Well, the company apparently isn’t dead yet. A Russian firm, Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, just made a “major” investment in the company who is now said to be working on a second facility to manufacturer flexible E Ink screens as well as other plastic products. Whether said screens will be used for a self-branded e-reader or sold as OEM parts for other product lines is still not clear. We’re just glad to see the company still kicking. The Que was one of the few standouts from last year’s CES and Devin was legitimately heartbroken when the Que project was axed. He’s an emotional man when it comes to reading devices. [Plastic Logic via E-Ink-Info]
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| CrunchGear Columbus Meet-Up Reminder: Meet the Galaxy Tab Posted: 10 Nov 2010 09:53 AM PST
Image from here and those things are delicious.
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| Unions Question Safety Of Full-Body Scanners & Wisdom Of Invasive Pat-Down Posted: 10 Nov 2010 09:30 AM PST
There's more fallout as a result of some of the new, more aggressive security measures being taken at airports across the U.S. Yesterday there was word that the TSA had decided to ban ink toner cartridges, which is reasonably silly for a number of reasons. Now there's word that various unions are upset with the now widespread use of full-body scanners. Le sigh. One complaint centers around the technology in the scanners themselves. Just how thoroughly did the TSA test out these things before putting them in airports and asking little old ladies to use 'em? And we all know what happens if you "opt-out" of using the scanners: you're immediately labeled a problem, then you're pulled aside and patted down like a dog. Enjoy your stay in City 17! It's this new, aggressive pat-down that has some unions upset. The Association of Flight Attendants Local 66 has advised its members, if they choose to opt-out of the full-body scan, that they should request the resulting pat-down in a private room with a witness present just in order to make sure nothing too fancy goes on. Of course, the TSA says that there's nothing of the sort going on, so apparently all these people are making things up.
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| HDTVs Are Popular, But HD Programming Is Not Posted: 10 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PST
You can’t buy an SD TV anymore. Well, not a traditional 4:3 SD TV at least. Nope, if you want a TV, high-def is your only choice. But you do have a choice whether to subscribe to the HD service from your TV provider. Apparently more people are sticking with their SD cable TV instead of paying extra for the higher resolution. Nielsen reports that 80% of the programming on America’s HDTVs is standard definition content. That’s sad considering the same report states 56% of American homes have at least one HDTV. Sigh. There probably isn’t a clear cut reason why the vast majority of US consumers do not have HD programming. It could be the price of the service, the hassle of getting it installed, or simply ignorance. At least the signal processors have improved to the point where standard-def programming doesn’t look horrible. A few short years ago that was not the case as non-HD content was nearly unwatchable on even small HD screens. It’s really up to you, the educated consumer, to gently inform your friends and family living with standard definition programming that there’s a whole different world out there that can be had with only an antenna or quick call to their TV provider. The cost of HD programming over digital is often nominal and installation usually happens within days as cable providers are looking to convert people as quick as they can.
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| Elecom Outs Bluetooth 3.0 Mouse Posted: 10 Nov 2010 08:35 AM PST
[Via akihabara]
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| Kinect Hacked, Open Source Drivers Now Working Posted: 10 Nov 2010 08:22 AM PST It is finished. Hector Martin just posted full driver for the Kinect that can support RGB input as well as depth sensing. The audio features still don’t work.
Looks like the $3,000 bounty is close to a claimant.
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| Nintendo: Hollywood Showing Interest In 3DS, May Click With Consumers Before 3DTV Does Posted: 10 Nov 2010 08:15 AM PST
Nintendo‘s Satoru Iwata has hinted that it’s not just the usual video game companies interested in the 3DS. Hollywood, still trying to figure out how to replicate the success of Avatar everywhere else, apparently sees the 3DS as gaining traction with consumers more quickly than 3DTVs will. If Hollywood could attach itself to the 3DS, it could try to ride the coattails of Nintendo’s success. This, of course, depends on where or not the 3DS will be a success. Iwata told investors that the early signs are good, with developers showing far more interest in the device than they showed in the DS when it was first announced. (I seem to remember various message board threads dedicated to whether or not the DS was made of fail or not. Clearly it wasn’t.) So at the very least we can expect the 3DS to launch with a strong lineup, while I think it’s fair to say the DS didn’t really take off until the DS Lite was released. Whether or not people feel the same way watching full-length 3D movies on the 3DS remains to be seen, but it seems like a tough sell to me.
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| Samsung Shows Off Odd Flexible Displays Posted: 10 Nov 2010 08:01 AM PST The boys at NetbookNews took a closer look at some of Samsung’s flexible display demos including one that can fold in on itself and another that is almost completely transparent. These things are obviously just demos and proof of concept but it should be a fun decade or so when we start actually using these things in real life.
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| Surprise! Game-Breaking Problems Mar PC Launch Of Call Of Duty: Black Ops Posted: 10 Nov 2010 07:45 AM PST
Call of Duty: Black Ops launched to great fanfare yesterday, but, at least on the PC side of things, it hasn’t exactly been a flawless launch. Users are filling up message boards from here to somewhere else with complaints of all shapes and sizes, from stuttering frame rates to unplayably laggy multi-player sessions. And keep in mind that the game is based on the 11-year-old id Tech 3 (Quake 3) engine. Any computer released in the past, I don’t know, five years (being generous), should be able to run that thing flawlessly. Clearly something is amiss. The game’s Steam forums are of particular note, with users swapping what amounts to old wives tales on how to fix the game. "I hear if you close your left eye while double-clicking the .exe the game runs OK." It’s the same story on other PC enthusiast forums, like HardOCP and Guru3D. Tweaks abound. The game ships with multi-core CPU support turned off for some reason, as if a modern PC gamer doesn’t have a multi-core CPU at the heart of his or her rig. And yet at the same time, the game ships with multi-GPU support turned on. Everybody has a multi-core CPU, but finding someone with a multi-GPU setup is somewhat rarer. It would seem that, as it’s currently coded, the game all but ignores the GPU, and instead puts the CPU under tremendous stress. This leads to wonky frame rates, as you might expect. Activision suggests that people make sure their PC isn’t running any additional applications when they launch the game. Next thing you know Activision will be asking us to make sure our computers are plugged into a power outlet! Multi-player is another issue altogether. Players have been reporting terribly laggy conditions, to the point that the game is unplayable. Oh, here’s a video! So, if the game doesn’t work well on Day One, what’s the point of pre-ordering it? Again: a $60 PC game, and one that, at its core, is based on an 11-year-old engine. Does not compute! Another thing I noticed: the disparity between professional review scores and and user scores. The game’s Metacritic average (seen here) is currently at 90, while the average user score is 6.7. GameFaqs shows a similar disparity. It’s almost the opposite of a summer popcorn film: professional critics hate it, but the general public thinks it’s awesome or whatever. And yet this game will make a boatload of money, so in the end none of this will matter even one bit. Super!
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At last! Worms is finally on the iPad in a form we can be proud of. The previous version of Worms on iOS was obviously hastily put together, with poorly resized graphic elements, interface problems, and ridiculous 3D backgrounds that served no purpose and likely drained your battery. To say nothing of the lack of features and modes! I was thoroughly disappointed. But Worms 2 Armageddon fixes nearly every problem, and if you’re a Worms fan, it’s definitely worth your $5.
Tomorrow, the first shipments of the $199 
Yesterday saw E Ink revealing their new 
I’m not sure how to interpret 
This is… unexpected. The phrase “it’s on like Donkey Kong,” which I don’t say nearly enough, is never something I actually associated with Nintendo. I don’t recall ever seeing it in any games or on box art, or even in promotional materials. Yet now 
Short Version
Just a reminder that I’m in Columbus, Ohio this week and I have the Samsung 
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