CrunchGear |  |
- Daily Crunch: Jailhouse Edition
- Nvidia CEO Says Current Tablets Are Worthless, Tegra 2 Will Clean Up
- Robo-Deer Draws Fire From Poachers
- G2 Vs. iPhone 4 Vs. HTC Surround: Which Grills Best?
- Limili Identifies That Song That’s Playing, Adds It To Your Grooveshark Collection
- iOS 4.2 gets a new Gold Master release at the last minute
- Review: Motorola Defy On T-Mobile
- Killing Time: How Many Of These 25 Bad Tech Habits Apply To You?
- Vogard Releases Gold And Titanium Chronozoner, I Allow Jaw To Drop
- Pogue On The Galaxy Tab
- Changes Coming? Homeland Security To Meet Transportation Industry Executives To Discuss New Security Measures
- Sneak Peak At Next Week’s Stargate Universe Episode
- Where Does BitTorrent Inc. Go From Here?
- Review: Dropcam Echo
- Shocker: Bungie’s Activision Game Will Have A PC Port
- Gran Turismo 5: November 24. For Real This Time.
- Microsoft: Only 60 Percent Of Xbox 360 Owners Use It To Play Games
- Hulu Plus Now Available On The Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer (yay?)
- IWC Aquatimer Watch Review
- Seiko E-Ink Watch Now Available For Pre-Order In Japan
| Daily Crunch: Jailhouse Edition Posted: 13 Nov 2010 12:00 AM PST |
| Nvidia CEO Says Current Tablets Are Worthless, Tegra 2 Will Clean Up Posted: 12 Nov 2010 03:13 PM PST
Harsh. I wonder if this guy reads my articles? Huang feels, like me, that the current crop of non-iPad tablets are pretty much useless one and all. The iPad works for a “beginner” tablet, and the next generation of tablets will bring new capabilities, new hardware, new tools, and so on. Nvidia thinks they’re going to be a part of that, and I don’t see why they shouldn’t be, except that the Tegra 2 hasn’t really made many waves. The new one is on its way, though (and the new new one) so we may see that change. [via CNET]
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| Robo-Deer Draws Fire From Poachers Posted: 12 Nov 2010 02:30 PM PST How about this for a cool use of robots? Deer and other wildlife in rural areas are under constant threat from illegal hunting, but aside from constant patrols, there’s little rangers can do to prevent it. And then came Robo-deer. Robo-deer (featured on tonight’s Operation Wild on Planet Green) is, as you might expect from the name, a robotic, remote control deer (with real deer exterior) that rangers stand by the side of the road to tempt any unscrupulous motorists who might pass by. Sounds almost too simple to be real, and a little like entrapment, but hey, I’m for nabbing anyone who’d shoot a deer by the side of the road by any means necessary.
The ranger in the video notes he’s made seven arrests this season, which actually sounds like a fair amount given that there really can only be so many hunters in their area. Reminds me (like these scary bears) of the terminex-infested wildlife from this comic series. Imagine how scared you’d be if you decided to surreptitiously bag a deer and when you fire, you just hear a metallic “ping!” and the deer turns its head towards you. I’d run — deer are dangerous enough, but deerborgs? [via Treehugger]
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| G2 Vs. iPhone 4 Vs. HTC Surround: Which Grills Best? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 01:56 PM PST
It’s all a shameless promotion for our old friend the EZ Grill. But hey, it’s Friday. Relax and watch for the part where the G2′s battery explodes. Can’t say I had that problem when I reviewed it.
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| Limili Identifies That Song That’s Playing, Adds It To Your Grooveshark Collection Posted: 12 Nov 2010 01:00 PM PST
Between Soundhound and Shazam, I wouldn’t have thought the world was really begging for another service that could identify that song playing on the radio. Sometimes, though, something comes along that solves that problem we didn’t know we had and makes the whole thing worthwhile. You see, Soundhound and Shazam do a great job of identifying tracks.. but then what? You can buy the track on iTunes… which is great, for all the people who buy their music from iTunes. For folks who use services like Grooveshark, Spotify, or Rhapsody, though, that song they heard in the bar is gone from their noggin’ by the time the next beer hits the table. Enter Limili. The concept of Limili is by no means a new one: hit a button, hold it up to a speaker playing a track you want identified, wait. After a few seconds, it’ll spit out the name and artist behind the tune. That’s when Limili gets interesting. As Limili goes about ID’ing the track, it’s also searching for that track on Grooveshark, iTunes, Last.FM, Play.Me, Rhapsody, Spotify, We7, and Youtube. Once a song has been ID’ed, you’re given the option to add that track to your collection on any of these aforementioned services, be it that you’ve supplied the relative login credentials. Logged into Grooveshark? ID the song, hop to the Grooveshark tab, pick the version you want from the search results, and bam — it’s waiting for you in a playlist the next time you log in. So, the obvious worry: how is it at IDing tracks? So far, so good. Powered by the Mufin database, they’re not exactly starting from scratch here. I threw around 20 songs at both Limili and Shazam, and they both nailed (and missed) all the same ones. It was good enough to properly identify the first 10 seconds of both the original version and the Glee version of Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” — pretty impressive, given that they’re pretty much identical. Limili is currently only available for iOS, and will set you back $1.99 [iTunes Link]. That price currently nets you 100 song IDs per month, though the company has announced that all per-month limitations will be removed in the next update.
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| iOS 4.2 gets a new Gold Master release at the last minute Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:36 PM PST
According to whispers around ye ol’ Rumor Mill, today was to be the big day for iOS 4.2 to start hitting iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads everywhere. As the daylight burned, however, a new rumor popped up: due to WiFi issues on the iPad build, the launch was being pushed back a few days. Aaaand sure enough, we’re told an ever-so-slightly modified version of iOS 4.2 for iPad has just hit the Developer Center, rockin’ a build number of “8C134b” instead of just “8C134″.
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| Review: Motorola Defy On T-Mobile Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:30 PM PST
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| Killing Time: How Many Of These 25 Bad Tech Habits Apply To You? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 12:00 PM PST
Entrepreneur has a list of 25 "bad" habits that you, the technology fan, may find yourself running up against. How many of these apply to you? The list…
Let's see here. I don't back up my computer because I have nothing of value on here (games can be re-downloaded with Steam). If it crashes, meh, I'll just lose the hour re-installing Windows or Mac OS X. You'll never find me waiting in line for anything, tech or otherwise. I don't even like waiting two-deep at a Starbucks or whatever. I long ago recognized that nobody cares to see you check into this or that place. You're not Elvis; nobody needs to know you're at Trader Joe's. I have about five passwords that I rotate around various places online, so take that. Oh God, you know who's guilty of number 19, posting hilarious photos online? John. Every day in the chat room there's dozens of new, wacky photos for us to enjoy. No, this isn't the best list in the world, but it's getting close to 5pm and every minute of your day that I can whittle away is one less minute you need to fill.
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| Vogard Releases Gold And Titanium Chronozoner, I Allow Jaw To Drop Posted: 12 Nov 2010 11:49 AM PST
This old girl now has a carbon fiber face, PVD titanium, and a gold face detail and bezel. It’s like a Hublot Big Bang only not boring! Don’t bother asking the price. Even with my elevated AOL salary I’m not even allowed to look at the price tag on this thing without a credit check.
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| Posted: 12 Nov 2010 11:27 AM PST Good old David Pogue, adding his 2 cents to the Galaxy Tab confusion. Sounds like David could use a neti pot.
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| Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:46 AM PST
It looks like the recent popular outrage against some of the TSA's new (and ridiculous) airport security measures has finally gotten the government's attention. Good. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is set to meet various transportation industry executives today to discuss how the government can balance security needs (or perceived security needs) with both common sense and the needs and requirements of the transportation industry. Will there by any policy changes? Hmm. Some of the new policies are pretty silly, such as screening (via full-body scanner or terribly invasive and embarrassing pat-down) pilots and children. Why we need to be screening children who are travelling to Disney with their family, I'll never know. People, most prominently seen in a recent New York Times article, have started to take umbrage with the new security measures, many of which were taken after the recent ink toner terror plot. The TSA is said to be reviewing some of the new measures, including the subjecting of children to pat-downs. Again, the TSA, and the government in general, is in a tough spot here. If, following that ink toner plot, the TSA didn't make any changes you'd have people saying the agency doesn't take security seriously. On the other hand, some of these more heavy handed methods are surely just being done for show. A sort of, you're safe because we have 100 officers at the gate shouting loudly and looking Very Official in the process. It doesn't help that the economy is still pretty weak right now. If people see that going to the airport is a giant pain in the neck, perhaps they won't take that trip to Six Flags, or maybe they won't visit the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree in New York? Airports filled TSA officials with nary a passenger to be seen. Makes sense.
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| Sneak Peak At Next Week’s Stargate Universe Episode Posted: 12 Nov 2010 10:00 AM PST
You have to agree that SGU is so much better this season than last. Overall there’s a whole lot less drama and more sci-fi action. But next week’s preview looks like there will be more drama than action, so I don’t know. Anyway, click through for a sneak peek at S2E8.
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| Where Does BitTorrent Inc. Go From Here? Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:30 AM PST
Hmm, BitTorrent… that’s still around? I could have sworn plenty of folks, outside of niche communities, had moved onto other avenue by now. But, whatever. The company is now focused on becoming helpful in the streaming space. That is, it aims to help companies like Justin.tv and Ustream lower their monthly bandwidth bill by providing a P2P method of transferring data. BitTorrent’s (the protocol) creator, and now the chief scientist over at BitTorrent, Inc., Bram Cohen, spoke to NewTeeVee to discuss the future of BitTorrent, Inc. The company’s software would be useful to people looking to cut their bandwidth bills. It can’t be cheap for Netflix to stream all those movies. So, why not let, in effect, the users themselves pay for that bandwidth? I can definitely see a certain segment of the population saying something like, "Why should I have to pay for Company A’s bandwidth? Isn’t that why I pay for subscription? And now you also want me to pay for the bandwidth? Hmm…"
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| Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:15 AM PST
Now that I’ve tried the new Dropcam Echo, however, I find that it works well enough and the price, $279 with unlimited monitoring via the web or the attendant iPhone app, is acceptable if a little steep. The Echo is a small wireless webcam with built-in microphone. This means you can listen in on a space as well as see it. It includes free email alerts that notify you when something moves across the camera’s field of vision but the online DVR service costs $9 a month. What you are really buying here is the service and the camera, an OEM model, isn’t the real draw. Setup is dead simple: you plug the device into an Ethernet port, configure it via a web interface, and then unplug it. It sits on your wireless network and all you have to do is plug it in and point it at whatever you want to guard. I have mine pointing out the upstairs window. It’s very exciting.
The camera’s viewing angle is very good and low-light performance is acceptable although not perfect (things get murky at night, but that’s to be expected. The device is not really weatherproof so you don’t want to leave it in the bushes near your neighbor’s house. What is this good for? Basically it’s a great home monitor for watching your cat, the babysitter, or your front door. It’s not an ideal outdoor monitor nor is it particularly useful in my case simply because I want to be notified immediately when someone is at the door and see who it is with a quick move of the mouse (which Vitamin D excels at). Dropcam’s notifications are a little to slow for this. However, for example, you are a dwarf who wants to be generally notified if someone is skulking around your gold pile, this might work. My only concern is that there are better and more feature-rich devices out there. However, at $199 for the lower end Dropcam model and $100 extra for audio, the Dropcam is a compelling option for the budding paranoiac.
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| Shocker: Bungie’s Activision Game Will Have A PC Port Posted: 12 Nov 2010 09:00 AM PST
Activision: a company! A company with presentations, presentations that contain slides. One recent slide, seen here, suggests that Bungie’s "New Title"—you’ll recall that Bungie inked a deal with Activision some months ago—will come out not only for the usual consoles, but also for the PC. How about that? The slide also tells us that another Blizzard MMO will be coming out, and I’ve no idea what that could be. World of Warcraft 2? Cue the jokes… "Call of Halo: Future Warfare 3: Ultrablack Ops (Semi-Hardened Edition)" "Call of Halo: Future Warfare 2: The Revengening" I, however, will wait till Bungie actually shows its hand before hopping on a bandwagon of some sort. But, hey, PC version. That’s awful nice of them.
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| Gran Turismo 5: November 24. For Real This Time. Posted: 12 Nov 2010 08:30 AM PST
Well I’ll be… Sony has set a final, honest-to-goodness, release date for Gran Turismo 5: Wednesday, November 24, Kazunori Yamauchi (whom Devin interviewed some time ago) has a message for everyone:
Now I guess I have to get a PS3. Wonderful. (Yeah, that’s November 24, 2010. In two weeks, in other words. Sorry.)
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| Microsoft: Only 60 Percent Of Xbox 360 Owners Use It To Play Games Posted: 12 Nov 2010 08:00 AM PST Microsoft has sold many Xbox 360 consoles, but apparently only 60 percent of them are used for gaming. The remaining 40 percent of consoles are used for other, just-as-fun things, like watching Netflix and tweeting Opie & Anthony‘s Bobo sweet nothings. Mhmm. So said a Microsoft exec at a digital entertainment conference. With that in mind, it certainly leads credence to whoever thinks Microsoft, if it wanted to, could become a "big player" in the TV space, Ã la Google TV. The Xbox 360: Mirosoft’s Trojan Horse. Microsoft also let it be known that there’s 25 million Xbox Live subscribers, but only half of those people have the "real" Xbox Live, Xbox Live Gold.
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| Hulu Plus Now Available On The Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer (yay?) Posted: 12 Nov 2010 07:40 AM PST
Sony wants to build up a rich application suite for the Dash. Throw in a little something for everyone if you will. It’s marketed as a desktop widget device — or something like that. Most owners who keep their Dashes on bedside tables might not want to stream Hulu when they probably have a TV in the bedroom. But think about those Dash units that are sitting on desks. Netflix and Amazon VOD already streams content to the device. Now Hulu Plus is available as well, giving owners more options and choices. But the move to bring Hulu Plus to the Sony Dash is more significant for Hulu than Sony. Hulu, backed by various media companies and networks, is under fire as of late for blocking their full website on certain devices like the Google TV, Android, and probably the Boxee Box. It needs to show CE makers that there’s a viable alternative and the $10 a month Hulu Plus is scalable, workable solution that doesn’t require any special hardware. Putting the service in the little $169 Sony Dash Personal Internet Viewer does just that. If nothing else, it’s a proof of concept and a marketing tool for Hulu in the same way getting Netflix on various platforms was for that service a couple years ago. It’s just a shame that the Internet cannot be the Internet no matter what device dials up the webpage. Right now in 2010, there’s a clear line between computer and Internet streamer, but said line will blur and nearly dissapear over the next year. Media companies won’t change their ways. Why would they ignore new revenue streams. Instead, consumers will end up either giving up and paying for content that was previously free or turn to the shady side of the Internet and start downloading illegally.
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| Posted: 12 Nov 2010 07:34 AM PST  Gorgeous, isn't it? This is the IWC Aquatimer 2000, reference 3568-02. Introduced in 2009, the 3568 (the 02 suffix denotes the rubber strap version) replaces the internal-bezel 3548 model. Bolder in design, the 3568 retains the ETA-based 30110 movement (2892-A2 base), but upgrades to a sapphire-coated conventional bezel with spectacular six-layer underside SuperLumiNova. It's also available with bracelet, a white-dial version, and a limited edition with orange-on-white.
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| Seiko E-Ink Watch Now Available For Pre-Order In Japan Posted: 12 Nov 2010 07:20 AM PST
The watch looks pretty complex but really it’s just your standard world-time quartz. The real value is in the screen simply because, like the Kindle, you can fit a hi-res image on a postage stamp piece of E-Ink which is more than you can say for a lot of LCD devices. The bad news? The watch is ￥84,000 on Amazon.jp (a little over $1,000) which is a little pricey for my blood. I also think it looks like my Uncle’s Casio LCD watch from 1995, so there’s that.
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I’ve never been a big fan of gold on watches but I like how 
When I first wrote about 
You can watch the camera via a web interface- you can even listen to what the camera hears. The real draw, however, is the iPhone app. It lets you view and listen to your live camera over Wi-Fi or 3G networks. If you have notifications set up the device will send you a quick note and then you can view it remotely. It’s great for rarely-trafficked places like alleys, crawlspaces, and pervert-dungeons. 
If you’ve been looking to slap a little E-Ink on your wrist and didn’t want to go the | 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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