CrunchGear |  |
- Hautlence HL2.0 Watch
- Technicolor Wants To Oversee And OK 3D Productions
- NEO-GEO Games Coming To PS3 On December 21st
- Our Favorite Things: The Ultrapod II Travel Tripod
- LaCie Tank Is An Enclosure For Your Drives And Doodads
- Festivus Contest Day 4: Feats of Strength
- Survey: People Stop P2P Music Sharing When Exposed To Legal Cloud-Based Alternative
- Review: Kobo Wireless E-Reader
- Google Announces Chrome OS Pilot Program, 12.1 Inch Notebook Cr-48
- With Wikileaks’ Assange Arrested, What Happens To Insurance.aes256?
- Ward’s Deems The Chevy Volt Propulsion System One Of The “10 Best”
- The OnLive Viewer iPad/Android App Shows What The Future Might Be For Mobile Computing
- iPad 2 Coming In The “Next 100 Days”
- Ding: World Of Warcraft Player Reaches Level 85 (Before Cataclysm Even Went Live In The US!)
- World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Goes Live Around The World, People QQ To No End
- Videos: The Best Kinect Hacks And Mods One Month In
- Japan’s Top Gadget Of The Moment: Rice-To-Bread Maker Gopan (Video)
- Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Arrested
- Review: Trident Cyclops iPhone Case
- Origin PC Genesis Computer Review: Leaves Your Best Buy Rig In Tears
| Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:17 PM PST  What is this thing? Only the latest and greatest machine that tells the time. Pardon the watch's unfinished stated. Though all the promise is there. This is a new step for Hautlence - who finally get their own movement. Interestingly enough if you compare the watch to their earlier models -the way of telling the time is 'thematically' the same. Meaning a retrograde minute hand (that is unique) as well as quasi-digital hour indicator. The HL2 is also the brand's first automatic movement, it also contains a power reserve indicator (not yet complete in the prototype), and a behaves a bit like a locomotive!
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| Technicolor Wants To Oversee And OK 3D Productions Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:06 PM PST
The idea is that they’d provide a service in which they’d look over your product, your production methods, and so on, and determine where you can improve the workflow. There are lots of little things in a 3D movie that can add to eye strain or just plain look bad, and I’ve seen plenty of examples that tell me there are plenty of producers and directors out there who can’t tell or don’t care. A quality assurance program like this one could be handy for big production houses that don’t want to hire individual consultants, and perhaps already have an account open with Technicolor. They could hire me, but I have a tendency to make my criticisms available at no charge, albeit after the movie has come out. The service, which would include personal and software analysis, training, and a “15-point quality checklist,” will be available in LA and London, hopefully soon, because I’ve seen some ugly 3D work out there. Come on, guys.
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| NEO-GEO Games Coming To PS3 On December 21st Posted: 07 Dec 2010 06:00 PM PST
While most of us know NEO-GEO from arcades (I still know where to play a little Aero Fighters 2 up in Anacortes) and emulators (it’s a form of tribute), now’s your chance to get a couple of your favorite spite-fests for a far more reasonable price than the original $200 each. $8.99 is still kind of expensive as downloadable games go, but come on, it’s for a good cause. I think. The first volley of games doesn’t have any of my personal favorites, but it still has some classics:
I’ll be saving my money for Metal Slug X, Samurai Shodown II and IV, and Twinkle Star Sprites. Hey. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. They’ve also got a pretty weird-looking top-down shooter featuring famous NEO-GEO characters coming out for the PSP, NEO-GEO Heroes, as a way of celebrating the console’s 20th anniversary. It’s $20 through the Playstation Store, available now. I’d save my money, though, and invest in one of the classic shooters. So I’m a shoot-em-up snob, what about it?
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| Our Favorite Things: The Ultrapod II Travel Tripod Posted: 07 Dec 2010 04:00 PM PST
I traveled around the world with one of these things, and it did me proud. It was even a hand-me-down from I know not who, but the velcro had gotten all fuzzy and it had scratch marks all over it. I’ve since lost my original one and only recently discovered that they’re still for sale at Pedco’s shockingly primitive website, and for the totally reasonable price of $19 (at B&H). It folds up nicely and secures with a velcro strap, has a rotating, lockable head, and grippy feet. It’s durable and will last forever, although I lost the feet and eventually the tripod itself over time. You can never have too many tripods around the house, so think of picking one of these up for the photographer in the family.
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| LaCie Tank Is An Enclosure For Your Drives And Doodads Posted: 07 Dec 2010 03:35 PM PST
I mean, look at it. They’ve obviously designed it after tank treads, and it looks like it could take a beating and keep your 2.5″ external drive (like the Rikiki Go), Nintendo DS, camera, or Pokeball intact. I don’t think it can be submerged, but it could certainly take a splash. £20 (probably $30 US) is a lot to pay for a box, but if you travel a lot, it might be a good idea. Think of it like the hard cases photographers and other professionals use to keep their gear safe.
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| Festivus Contest Day 4: Feats of Strength Posted: 07 Dec 2010 02:03 PM PST
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| Survey: People Stop P2P Music Sharing When Exposed To Legal Cloud-Based Alternative Posted: 07 Dec 2010 02:00 PM PST A new study released today seems to have confirmed what most folks had already assumed re: digital music consumption. Thumbplay Music, a cloud-based music service that has both a desktop and mobile (iPhone/Android/BlackBerry) client, reveals that 70 percent of respondents have curtailed their peer-to-peer music sharing as a result of using Thumbplay Music. In other words, when exposed to a easy-to-use, working alternative people are more than happy to move away from less legal alternatives. As I say in pretty much every music-related post these days: finally! Back in the day, when the iTunes Music Store first debuted (only on the Mac, remember), you’d see comments on tech sites along the lines of, "Why has it taken so long for something like this to come out?" No more having to troll early BitTorrent search engines for the latest album by Whomever. And then we progressed beyond the à la carte download services to the new streaming models, where you could listen to anything (provided it’s in the catalogue) so long as you had an Internet connection. The proliferation of high-speed mobile networks only hastened this transition. (And yes, I fully recognize that asking for a solid mobile connection may sometimes be asking too much, but this will only improve. Hopefully!) Probably even better news for the music industry is that 18 percent of respondents said that Tumbplay Music had re-ignited their interest in music as a whole. A sort of, "I’m-done-with-music-oh-wait-this-is-a-pretty-neat-service" kind of thing. Which must be music to the industry’s ears. Bad puns and more, right here on CG! Well met, traveller. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon has dinally decided to roll a Worgen Priest. Maybe he’ll tweet every time he dings a level?
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| Review: Kobo Wireless E-Reader Posted: 07 Dec 2010 01:30 PM PST
Pros:
Cons:
Full Review: I won’t waste your time with the stuff I already covered in the initial review, since much of the device is the same — which is to say, a perfectly nice little e-reader with a clean interface, and a good alternative to the Kindle and others. Truth be told, a full review wasn’t really warranted, but hey, why not? The new functionality is the wi-fi and the on-device store you can use with it, as well as some newspapers and magazines, which I was unable to test because they are “unavailable in my area.” My area of the internet? Not sure what the deal there is.
The wi-fi is accessed via the settings panel, where it automatically scans your area and presents the items with the best signal first. It detected mine (and my neighbors’) quickly, and I selected it to put in my password. Putting in text via the D-pad is frustratingly slow (think entering a long name in Legend Of Zelda), but the cursor is responsive and the little keyboard perfectly easy to navigate. Once that’s done, the device verifies the connection and then checks for updates. It found one and installed it, then needed a restart, a process that took a minute or two, nothing out of the ordinary. Here’s what it looks like (click for larger versions):   Once you’re connected, you can use their little store. It’s divided into books, magazines, newspapers, and such, and has the usual e-books categories: popular, NY Times bestsellers, free. Navigating the store, while not clumsy or anything, was slow, so I don’t recommend it to anyone in a hurry. Still, it’s straightforward and search results came up quickly with nice little greyscale previews. It’s go the new Pearl e-ink display, so contrast and sharpness are on par with the competition. I wish I could have told you more about the mags and newspapers, but I get the feeling they might be kind of a pain. They’re much more active layout-wise and such than most books, and a small screen like the 6-inch e-ink ones on most devices don’t show them to much advantage. It could be nice, though, if you’re unable to find your usual newspaper in a foreign land. Conclusion It’s a better version of the Kobo, but is it really a legitimate alternative to the Kindle? I think so. It’s unlikely that you’ll find many books on one but not the other, and personally, I like the Kobo’s look more, though for a heavy e-reader user, the Kindle is still the more practical choice, with its extra features. Still, at $139, the two wi-fi readers don’t seem terribly out of balance. Product page: Kobo Wireless e-reader     
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| Google Announces Chrome OS Pilot Program, 12.1 Inch Notebook Cr-48 Posted: 07 Dec 2010 12:12 PM PST
Consumers will be able to apply for this, but Google isn’t giving it away to just anyone. On its Facebook Fan Page, they ran a promotion a couple days, announcing a sticker for a Chrome laptop, if you did that quiz, you get a notebook. If you go to youtube.com/googlechrome and make a video showing why you’re an ideal candidate for this, you’ll have a chance to snag a notebook. And everyone in the audience at today’s event getting one (everyone claps). And if you don’t fall into any of those buckets, you can go to this page to apply.
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| With Wikileaks’ Assange Arrested, What Happens To Insurance.aes256? Posted: 07 Dec 2010 11:00 AM PST
Now that Wikileaks’ Julian Assange is currently in police custody, curiosity turns towards the file insurance.aes256. The file, which first appeared online last July, is so named because it’s said to represent "insurance" against any possible disruption in Wikileaks’ work. Considering the site has been fighting tool and nail to stay online for the past few days, and considering that the site’s editor-in-chief has just been snagged, it’s time to wonder: what’s in there, and when can we expect to have access to it? Insurance.aes256 (here’s a BitTorrent magnet link) is encrypted with 256-bit level AES encryption. Well, so the name would have us believe, as even that’s not fully clear just yet. Fox News says that not even the Defense Department has been able to crack the encryption despite having been available for several months now. You have to assume the DoD’s best and brightest, not to mention its beefiest computers, have been trying non-stop to crack the file. Good luck with that. There’s no indication of what could be contained within insurance.aes256, but that hasn’t stopped people from guessing. The Sunday Times in the UK surmises that it could contain the entire Wikileaks document archive, which includes files not yet published about topics such as Guantanamo Bay and Bank of America. (Remember: Wikileaks existed long before its sudden burst into the spotlight this year.) The Guardian, also in the UK, believes the file could contain unredacted cables related to the recent "cablegate" release. Then there’s the possibility that insurance.aes256 could be nothing but garbage data. In any event, the encryption key has still not been released, and at this point hazarding a guess as to what could be contained within the file is just that: a guess. Wikileaks’ Twitter account is still going strong (how long until that is shut down?), however, so that should probably put to bed the notion that Assange was in charge of the account, or that, more bizarrely, Assange is Wikileaks, and therefore Wikileaks is now dead. It’s far too late for that.
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| Ward’s Deems The Chevy Volt Propulsion System One Of The “10 Best” Posted: 07 Dec 2010 10:30 AM PST
Ward’s AutoWorld routinely grades vehicle powertrains and this year awarded one of the spots to the Chevy Volt’s 1.4L/111-kW electric drive unit mashup dubbed Voltec. Here’s what Ward’s AutoWorld Editor-In-Chief, Drew Winter, said about the propulsion system.
There you have it. It’s a good engine. At least that’s what Ward’s, Motor Trend, and Car and Driver think. But clearly, Rush Limbaugh, the self-proclaimed All-Knowing, All-Sensing, All-Everything Maha Rushie knows something they don’t.
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| The OnLive Viewer iPad/Android App Shows What The Future Might Be For Mobile Computing Posted: 07 Dec 2010 10:18 AM PST
OnLive’s CEO just showed off the app on stage at the D: Dive into Mobile conference. It’s specifically tooled to view both live and pre-recorded game clips from the company’s gaming service. That’s fine and almost predictable, but Steve Perlman then showed Maya and Flash running on his iPad through this app. Think VNC but with a much better frame rate. The company says even Windows 7 is possible.
You can get the app right now, or watch the video above. Update (Greg Kumparak): We’re not supposed to shoot video of the conference panels, and the app that’s currently in the store doesn’t seem to offer up the Maya/Flash goodness we mentioned. We’ll get the conference’s official footage up as soon as we can, but in the mean time, a quick run down of what they showed:
OnLive Available Now for iPad Android Version in Beta First system to enable live video game spectating across TV, computer and mobile Palo Alto, Calif., December 7, 2010—OnLive, Inc., the pioneer of on-demand, instant-play video games, today announced immediate availability of the free OnLive® Viewer mobile app for iPad®, a demonstration of OnLive Viewer beta for the just-released Android™ Samsung Galaxy Tab™ as well as a series of mobility breakthroughs in entertainment and computing. Gaming as a Spectator Sport Check out gameplay of new-release top console games, view and rate Brag Clip™ videos of incredible moves and engage in live chat and friending with OnLive players—all with just a few taps on your iPad or Android tablet screen. "Spectating of other players is by far the most popular OnLive activity after gameplay itself, and the convenience and mobility of iPad and Android tablets adds an incredible dimension to it," said John Spinale, OnLive VP of Games and Media. "Watching live games and interacting with the people playing them takes social gaming to an entirely new level. It's unlike any other experience. And people love it." Tip of a Vast Iceberg "We're delighted to welcome OnLive to the Android ecosystem," said Andy Rubin, VP of Mobile Platforms at Google. "OnLive has been able to take advantage of Android’s open platform to deliver an advanced user experience in record time. The pairing of OnLive and Android is extremely powerful." Today, at the first D: Dive into Mobile conference, OnLive Founder and CEO Steve Perlman took the OnLive mobile app beyond gaming and demonstrated previously impossible high-performance applications, running on an iPad and an Android Samsung Galaxy Tab™ using the OnLive Viewer, including ultra-high-end enterprise applications such as Autodesk® Maya® and high-speed browsing with full-feature Adobe® Flash® and Microsoft® Silverlight® website compatibility. Perlman then showed full-featured Microsoft Windows® 7 Touch running seamlessly on both iPad and Android platforms. This demonstration marks the first time high-end enterprise applications or full-featured Flash, Silverlight and Windows 7 have run on iPad and Android platforms.
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| iPad 2 Coming In The “Next 100 Days” Posted: 07 Dec 2010 09:38 AM PST
Foxconn is said to be preparing 400,000-600,000 units for sale. If this is true, we can expect a press conference in mid-January and a release date of February or March, which is line with Apple’s traditional start-of-year releases. It looks like CES (January 4-9th) is about to be spoiled. As far as we can tell, the iPad 2 will have a front-facing camera made by Largan Precision and potentially a more iPhone-esque styling as suggested by this fake mock-up, below.
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| Ding: World Of Warcraft Player Reaches Level 85 (Before Cataclysm Even Went Live In The US!) Posted: 07 Dec 2010 09:30 AM PST
This is a quick one. We already have a level 85 player, a Human Paladin, in World of Warcraft. The best part is that she dinged 85 a good three hours before the game was even live in the US of A.
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| World Of Warcraft: Cataclysm Goes Live Around The World, People QQ To No End Posted: 07 Dec 2010 09:00 AM PST
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is now live all around the world! And of course, it wouldn’t be a Blizzard launch without an equal amount of bugs and QQ. So join me as we scour the Internet looking for reaction to Blizzard’s latest! The game only went live in North America a few hours ago, at midnight PT, but people in Europe had been able to play the game for several hours before the North American servers went live. Apparently somewhere along the line American schools forgot to teach students about time zones! Blizzard said the game would launch (servers permitting—see Oceania, which plays on North American-based servers) at midnight. Folks, when it’s midnight in Paris it’s 6pm in New York and 3pm in California. It’s really not that hard to understand. But no, message boards were filled with plenty of QQ along the lines of, "THIS IS SO UNFAIR, WHY DO EU PLAYERS GET IT FIRST ARRRGH."
This is what Blizzard is dealing with on a daily basis. It’s crazy-talk, pure and simple. But hold on there, partner, EU gamers didn’t exactly have a smooth launch. Within minutes of the servers going live, message boards filled with EU players complaining about server queues and full servers, random disconnects, lag, and other game-breaking aggravation. This is partially why I didn’t bother staying up all night waiting for the servers to go live: these launches are always cataclysmic. I just logged into my server (Aggramar, though I will be started a new life on a new server later today… still deciding what to roll) and everything seemed okay to me. No queues or anything. Then again, it’s 11am, 10am server-time. Some of the game’s textures took a second to appear but that’s to be expected with so many people bum-rushing the servers. Said one upset Orc Hunter:
I do love the idea that people think Blizzard has purposely gone out of its way to ruin people’s game-play experience. Chill, folks. You could always use these first few glitchy hours to read the novel The Shattering: Prelude to Cataclysm so you know how and why Azeroth exploded. Well met, traveller. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon is now very heavily learning toward rolling Worgen Priest. He’s counting down the hours till he can play. Cncouraging words can be sent via "the Twitter."
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| Videos: The Best Kinect Hacks And Mods One Month In Posted: 07 Dec 2010 08:00 AM PST
The Kinect is an impressive gaming accessory; no one is going to dispute that. But it’s the fact that the hardware is a $150 USB device that is so impressive that it warrants its own Wikipedia article:
Clearly, Microsoft hit a home run on this one. The development community instantly latched onto the device and nearly immediately started working on mods, hacks, and shenanigans. The Kinect put up a bit of a fight at first with its locked down codebase, but a $3,000 bounty drew attention to the cause and someone ultimately cracked the code. Seeing how the Kinect is just over a month old, it’s ’bout we round up the best hacks so far and seriously, judging by the list of accomplishments done in just over 30 days, the Kinect will probably be playing us this time next year. 3D Video Capture — 10 Days After Launch
Make Any Surface Multi-Touch — 11 Days After Launch It's pretty straightforward, really. The Kinect looks at the scene in 3D, you establish a plane and boundaries for the interaction area, and boom, multi-touch. Kinect Shadow Puppets — 14 Days After Launch This hack, which creates a living, breathing digital bird on your wall controlled by your hand motions shows some of the amazing feats of Microsoft-unsanctioned hackery. Real Time Lightsabers — 15 Days After Launch Using all of the homebrew tools at his disposal, Yankeyan created this Kinect trick that adds a light saber to your flailing, uncoordinated image on the screen. Kinect-Controlled Robot — 18 Days After Launch This Kinect-based R.O.B., developed by Willow Garage, is still in the early stages, but already it's a huge step ahead of similar systems, which use far more expensive and complicated motion tracking systems, just in the fact that it works, and it's off the shelf. Real Time People Tracking Using 2 Kinects — 28 Days After Launch Some students at the École Polytechnique Fédérale De Lausanne in Switzerland have hacked two Kinect sensors to create a human tracking system that perfectly controls for occlussions in dark and light. Autonomous Quadrotor With Obstacle Avoidance — 32 Days After Launch Autonomously moving around a predetermined track and using the Kinect as a 3D radar to track and avoid objects is already complete. Weaponizing is likely in the works for the next implementation, followed by self-replication and swarm intelligence.
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| Japan’s Top Gadget Of The Moment: Rice-To-Bread Maker Gopan (Video) Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:21 AM PST
It’s no 3D product, electric bike or smartphone: the one gadget the Japanese really want at the moment is a rice bread maker, namely Sanyo’s Gopan. The device can make bread after milling the rice that most Japanese households already have on hand anyway. The machine is the first that bakes bread with rice grains (and not rice flour). And it’s supposedly super-easy to use: just put water, salt, sugar, shortening, wheat gluten, dry yeast and about 220g of rice in the bread pan, press the start button and wait four hours to get a fresh-baked loaf. And Japan is totally nuts for this thing. Driven by coverage on national TV, the web and in magazines, demand has gone through the roof (in summer, Sanyo even opened an official Gopan Cafe in Tokyo).
The company had to postpone the roll out from early October to mid-November and recently, Sanyo even announced [JP] it will stop accepting orders in the next few days. The Gopan comes in red and white, weighs about 11kg and is priced at about $615. Sanyo will probably resume accepting orders in April 2011. This video shows how the device works:
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| Wikileaks’ Julian Assange Arrested Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:13 AM PST
Well, there you have it: Julian Assange has been arrested in the UK. You knew this was coming, but it still speaks to the nature of our wonderful little system we have here that a man who had become the public face of an organization that passed along information that probably should never have been kept away from the citizens that information purports to serve was branded as some sort of chaotic evil malcontent hell-bent on, what, exactly? Causing destruction by exposing the truth? A nice lesson for the children out there: if you tell the truth, you will get nailed. Assange was arrested in the UK overnight, and he now faces extradition to Sweden stemming from a alleged sex crimes incident. But if I were Assange, I’d be far more concerned with what the US has in store for him, with Attorney General Eric Holder having authorized a "number of things to be done" to combat Wikileaks. How vague and scary! Not that that matters, given that Wikileaks has already shown the world that it’s really not all the difficult to hold public officials accountable for their actions. Oh, wait, I forgot: transparency in representative government is a bad thing. My mistake, I was under the impression that "representative" wasn’t just a nice-sounding label used whenever convenient. Well met, traveller. From Parts Unknown, Nicholas Deleon is simultaneously shocked and not-at-all-surprised at this recent turn of events. Perhaps the warm embrace of Twitter will make him feel better. Meh, it probably won’t this time.
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| Review: Trident Cyclops iPhone Case Posted: 07 Dec 2010 07:05 AM PST
This thing is basically a $25 hard case but it’s surprisingly usable with one caveat. It clicks shut like a clamshell over both sides of the case and the screen, cameras, and rear Apple logo are visible through a sheet of thin, capitative plastic. Once this thing is on it’s almost impossible to get off, which is good and bad. There is also a rubber ring that surrounds the edges of the case. I used the Cyclops for a few weeks before I decided to pop it off. Why? Well, the aforementioned rubber ring had a tendency to fall off and the headphone jack is deeply recessed. Granted Trident includes a little adapter, but I kept forgetting to bring it with me so I had to remove the iPhone from its case to listen to anything, thereby reducing the protective properties of the case. Basically, if you can live with those two problems and drop your phone a lot, this is case for you. I would honestly recommend this to parents who want to ensure that their investments are safe even with butter-fingered kids. Otherwise, the headphone jack may be a dealbreaker for folks who use their iPhones a bit more carefully.  
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| Origin PC Genesis Computer Review: Leaves Your Best Buy Rig In Tears Posted: 07 Dec 2010 06:42 AM PST
Features:
Pros:
Cons:
A wooden crate is sitting in my not so large apartment. What, is this 1950 and I ordered a marble statue from Italy that came packed in hay? No, this is the first impression that Origin PC wants you to have after they ship a hand-built system to your home. The box looks like it was sent from that warehouse everyone dreams about exploring from the end of Raiders Of The Lost Ark. Stencil painted on the side of the crate is "Origin PC." A friend of mine asked what I was going to do with the box when I removed its innards. Apparently my idea wasn't good enough so it will be shellacked and become their coffee table. What nerds I run with. Origin PC is about a year old and was founded by the guys who brought you Alienware PCs. Only after big momma Dell acquired the company, a few non-corporate types decided to resist the badge of corporate America, and start up something fresh. Origin PC is now a maker of very fine, high-end performance computers that are often better known as "high-end gaming computers." The fallacy of course is the rigs are suitable for much more than just gaming, and the people who can afford them don't likely have time for week long journeys through the World of Warcraft. So why has the "gaming computer" name stuck? A lot of reasons actually, but often these machines are built by hardcore gamers turned business people, and sound a lot more sexy that "super duper work station computers." Yes, these machines, if properly configured, will allow you to play with Photoshop filters to your heart's content, while converting 12 hours of footage you recorded with your helmet-cam (wig-cam?) while strolling through Comic Con in your Elvira costume, in to video so that you can replay it on your iPod to your therapist.
I can't review a specific Origin PC computer per se, because as you know the performance of any specific system completely depends on the parts inside of it. Systems like this are not only infinitely configurable, but are also upgradeable, and subject to the best parts then available in the market and offered by Origin PC. It of course goes without saying that Origin PC will always offer the best available parts, and given their reputation for fanatical testing, will ensure all components and drivers play nice. What I will do is share a bit of my experience in getting an Origin PC Genesis PC system. After removing a dozen or so steel screws from the wooden box in my living room, the unpackaging ceremony was about to start (cue orchestra and dim the lights). The innards of the cardboard box were as neatly arranged as the components in the computer case itself.
Origin PC includes a baseball cap, t-Shirt, and wall poster for you. While these are a bit cheesy, I found myself actually thinking I would be quite proud to wear the clothes for the right audience. Maybe I found my wardrobe for after parties at CES. Because you know ladies love niche high-end computer maker garb. Genesis out of the box was wearing nicer clothes than I. A black velvet-like cover was draped over the case and underneath was the new star player of my office. The design of the computer tower case is fantastic (one of the best offerings by Corsair). Matte black and quite minimalist – a super functional subdued box. Ports for front mounted USB ports (and alike) are hidden behind a panel), and there is a door in the front of the case to allow for easy removal of hard drives. The tool-less case is nifty. Literally the press of a button is all that is needed to remove the side panels. Replacing them is no chore either.
Origin PC prefers the more modern manner of arrangement in cases with ATX layout motherboards. These arrangements take more space, but offer better heat isolation, air flow, and are aesthetically more pleasing. The power supply is placed at the bottom of the case in a separate chamber than the motherboard. This is also the last stop air has before it is blow out of the case after being sucked in through the top of the case. While not on all systems, mine had a water cooling system over the CPU and GPUs (double graphic card system). Water cool is really cool looking, and highly effective in terms of keeping a system quite and allowing one to over-clock a machine. I was concerned about stability over-clocking the Intel Extreme CPU in this machine, but Origin PC insisted that with their components, the CPU wouldn't even know it was running faster given the effectiveness of the heat dispersal. Water cooling has the downside of making it much more difficult to upgrade your computer. But Origin PC likely has that covered, and a guy can be sent out (probably no matter where you are in the US) to help with upgrading a set of graphics cards, etc… People are most likely to upgrade RAM, which isn't an issue as it isn't affected by the water cooling system.
The detail work in terms of the arrangement and cable management inside of the case is awe inspiring. I had a nerdgasm when I saw just how dutifully wires and cables where arranged inside of the case not only to be out of the way, but also to promote positive airflow. Oh, and get this, spare power cables for the power supply come in a handy cloth pouch. Anything provided in plastic bags I just assume toss, but cloth says "keep me and pass me down to the next generation." To be fair, the cloth bag was from Corsair, the maker of the power supply unit. Origin PC can pimp your system in a number of ways. I opted for a more subdued look. I am running a business out of the office (in my home) after all. Still, I was convinced to go with the "light show" on the inside. I am no stranger to fans with LEDs in them, but the Origin PC takes it up a notch. It starts with a few lights in natively in the high-end Asus mother board. By the way, that mobo actually has a "START" button on it like a fancy sports car. Cheesy to the max, but you'll love that it is there. Origin PC steps it up a few notches with a series of custom-made lights that change colors. Check out a few images here and see how all colors of the rainbow bask over your speedy system.
How quiet is the machine? Will there are a few fans in addition to the water cooling, but over all I would say that it is not very loud. The sound at least is a continuous hum, and not very distracting. I wouldn't call this an "ultra silent" computer, but compared to a lot of the high-end performance gaming machines out there, the Genesis whispers. In terms of spend mine is very fast. Intel Extreme Core i7 processor, 12 gigs of 1600MHZ RAM, and the OS installed on a solid state hard drive. That is by no means the highest end that Origin PC offers. Assuming you can afford one, I don't really see downsides to Origin PC, their products, or the Genesis machine. You'll have to be a fan of a more subdued aesthetic to enjoy their system (which I am now that I am no longer 13 years old). My impression from dealing with the brand as well as their product is that they focus on performance, are very interested in wowing the customers, and are striving to offer a highly exclusive product and experience.
It is a grand thing that computers such as this are high-built for your pleasure. You can't just go to a store and buy a ready-built one, so you'll have to configure one online or via the phone. I actually wrote another article on the same machine, but under a different premise. Discussing how products like this define and occupy the nameless luxury computer market. By calling themselves "gaming computers" machines like this are preventing themselves from being noticed by not only those who have very high-end computing requirements (that would otherwise buy less sexy workstation computers), but also the luxury buyer looking for hand-built quality and exclusivity. An interesting concept if you think about it. So in a sense, these machines are for gamers, people looking for very high performing machines, and the luxury lover who wants a hand-made box to go with his hand-made Swiss mechanical watch, high-quality Italian shoes, and German tuner car.
Origin PC Genesis computer probably average about $5,000, but can go up much higher if you opt for the then best parts, fancy case paint jobs, and include lots of peripherals such as monitors, etc… Does everyone need a machine like this? Not at all, but anyone who is a computer lover should admire them. Machines like this also offer a good reason to stick with Windows and avoid the cookie-cutter Apple computer approach. As a newer brand Origin PC is right up there with the high-end computer maker greats that have been around for the last 5-10 years – and in some ways they do an even better job.
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Today at this morning’s major Chrome event, Google has just announced that Chrome OS… isn’t done. It still has work to do with camera drivers (for notebook USB ports), finishing Google Cloud Print, and more. But it wants to get the notebook into early adopters’ hands, so it’s announcing a new Pilot Program. Google will be distributing a notebook called Cr-48. 
According to Digitimes, Foxconn factories are currently assembling iPads 2 for shipment within the next “100 days” which, by my calculations, puts the ship date at around February/March or, if 
If you’re anything like me, you love off-road ATV riding in the nude. Most of the time I’ve been safe and sound on my high perch above those four grinding wheels but sometimes I slide off into a rough patch and my dermis – which by now is a patchwork of scars and partially healed lacerations – faces some rough treatment. But not so my iPhone for it is kept inside a Trident Cyclops iPhone case, a rugged case that will keep your phone pristine for years, if not decades.
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