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- Bovet Pininfarina Cambiano Chronograph Watch
- Nintendo Sees Q3 Profit Diving 46%, But Keeps Forecast
- Sony Shows First PSP2 Titles, Announces “LiveArea” And “Near” Functions
- Playstation Suite: Sony Brings Playstation Games To Android Phones
- Sony Unveils The PSP2
- Google Begins Soft Censorship Of Arbitrary Piracy-Related Queries
- Oops! Leaked Schedule Shows Galaxy S 2 And Galaxy Tab 2 At MWC
- Motorola: Xoom On Track For February, Smaller Tablets On The Way
- PSA: 3D Matrix Sequels Rumor Was A Hoax
- LiquidKeyboard Makes Virtual Keyboards More Fluid
- “Ultrasonic” Klang Speaker Concept Only Produces Sound Where Your Head Is
- AT&T Offering Would-Be Deserters Unlimited iPhone Data Plans?
- Nintendo UK: “Heyday Of Piracy” May Be Over
- Today, A Ban On Headphones While Crossing The Street; Tomorrow, A Ban On Chewing Gum While Walking
- Teardown Of Nikon D7000 Shows Off The Well-Packed Interior Of A Modern DSLR
- Ricoh CX5: The Best Reason To Buy A Ricoh CX4
- Are You Man Enough For This iPad Bjorn?
- Congressman Proposes New Warning Label For Violent Video Games
- TrimSlice, A Tiny Tegra PC With All The Trimmings
- Zero Punctuation Reviews Minecraft
| Bovet Pininfarina Cambiano Chronograph Watch Posted: 27 Jan 2011 04:20 AM PST  Bovet timepieces has a strong relationship with Italian designer Pininfarina. Last year they surprised us with a watch based on that partnership that was an impressive combination of complications and modern design in a watch that still adhered to tradition. Those who don't get to listen to watch maker rhetoric often may not be quite as aware of the strong role that "tradition" plays in Swiss watch making. It is the concept that there are certain rules of watch making and design that really can't be neglected or left out.
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| Nintendo Sees Q3 Profit Diving 46%, But Keeps Forecast Posted: 27 Jan 2011 03:22 AM PST
Sony is owning the web today with its powerful-looking PSP2 and the Playstation Suite cross-device platform for game distribution on Android devices. But what about Nintendo, which caused quite a splash itself with the 3DS announcement recently? Big N announced [PDF] its quarterly financials today, and things are looking OK at best. The company’s profits were down a whopping 46% year-on-year in the third quarter of the last financial year (October to December in the case of Nintendo) to $1.3 billion, from $2.3 billion in the same quarter 2009. Nintendo was partially hit by the negative impact of a rapidly rising yen (the company generates 80% of sales outside Japan), apart from weaker hard- and software sales. For the full financial year (which ends in March), Nintendo kept its initial forecast of $2.6 billion in operating profit though. Hardware-wise, Nintendo slightly lowered sales projections for the Wii from 17.5 to 16 million and for the DS from 23.5 to 22.5 million. In any case, it’s a good thing the 3DS is coming soon. Image credit: Kaynil / deviantArt
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| Sony Shows First PSP2 Titles, Announces “LiveArea” And “Near” Functions Posted: 27 Jan 2011 12:59 AM PST
The PSP2 (code name “Next Generation Portable”) looks like it’s a real beast spec-wise, but how good can it be without decent games? At their PSP2 launch event today, Sony didn’t show just the hardware but also invited some game developers from Capcom, Konami or Activision on stage. Here’s the first batch of titles.
The list includes:
Sony will also offer two special features with the PSP2 that weren’t available before. The first is called LiveArea. From the press release:
The second makes use of the GPS module in the PSP2 and is simply called “Near”. Near essentially adds a location-based element to the device (it’s pre-installed), meaning you’ll be able to see what your friends or strangers in the vicinity are currently playing (or which games they used to play). With Near, it will be possible to contact other players around you to share game information. Here’s a Near screenshot Sony Japan released today:
Update: From Japan: North America: Europe:
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| Playstation Suite: Sony Brings Playstation Games To Android Phones Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:45 PM PST  At their PSP2 launch event today, Sony did not only unveil the new device but also introduced "Playstation Suite", a new cross-device game platform the company will use to bring Playstation 1 titles to Android phones and tablets. In other words, Sony games will not exclusively be distributed to owners of the Playstation Phone that's supposed to be officially announced next month. Read the rest on MobileCrunch.
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| Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:12 PM PST
Update:
The new device will come with the following features:
Here is Sony Japan’s full press release in English. This pic shows the back of the device:
The first colors:
Pic of the new game card:
Pics via AV Watch [JP] Official pics from Sony Japan:
Update:
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| Google Begins Soft Censorship Of Arbitrary Piracy-Related Queries Posted: 26 Jan 2011 07:08 PM PST
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| Oops! Leaked Schedule Shows Galaxy S 2 And Galaxy Tab 2 At MWC Posted: 26 Jan 2011 06:09 PM PST
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| Motorola: Xoom On Track For February, Smaller Tablets On The Way Posted: 26 Jan 2011 04:41 PM PST
Motorola also mentioned that they believe diversity in the tablet form factor space is important, and that 7-inch tablets are perfectly practical and have demand. That’s supportable: even the obvious stopgap Galaxy Tab has sold over a million units, and it doesn’t even have a proper tablet OS. The smaller tablets would come later in the year, presumably once Moto and others have gotten the hang of Android 3.0 and can put out a new product with more than simply a smaller footprint. [via Electronista]
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| PSA: 3D Matrix Sequels Rumor Was A Hoax Posted: 26 Jan 2011 04:28 PM PST
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| LiquidKeyboard Makes Virtual Keyboards More Fluid Posted: 26 Jan 2011 03:30 PM PST
The benefit would be more intuitive typing and no need for an intrusive virtual keyboard. Simply place your fingers on the screen and the keys appear. I like the idea, but like most UI ideas, it really needs to be tried in person before anyone can really say yea or nay. With luck it’ll make a splash, like Swype, and we’ll see it in some form on one of the upcoming tablet platforms. [via Gizmag]
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| “Ultrasonic” Klang Speaker Concept Only Produces Sound Where Your Head Is Posted: 26 Jan 2011 03:00 PM PST
It’s my understanding, however, that if the air molecules are indeed being excited, that actually is producing the pressure waves we know as sound, and those waves will propagate normally, albeit in a less directed fashion. That said, I know that focused sound using reflector dishes like these can certainly be created, but you really have to be in the sweet spot to hear it. Maybe these concept speakers manage to make it practical. But do you really want ultrasonic waves being fired at your head all day long? [via Dvice]
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| AT&T Offering Would-Be Deserters Unlimited iPhone Data Plans? Posted: 26 Jan 2011 02:23 PM PST
Just yesterday, Verizon COO Lowell McAdams disclosed that they’d be offering $30 Unlimited Data plans to iPhone users at launch (though, as he later clarified, that offer won’t last forever.) That may very well be enough to convince a chunk of AT&T’s iPhone-toting crowd to jump ship, given that AT&T’s $30 Unlimited Plan was killed off months ago in favor of the new $15/200MB and $25/2GB plans. It looks like AT&T’s $30 Unlimited Plan might not be totally dead, though.
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| Nintendo UK: “Heyday Of Piracy” May Be Over Posted: 26 Jan 2011 02:19 PM PST
Now, the 3DS has plenty of undocumented (but surely very sophisticated) anti-piracy measures on it, but in the end that’s just catnip for hackers, who will certainly want to run whatever software they want on the hardware they own (a reasonable position), and will at the same time open the system up to piracy (a necessary consequence). I respect Nintendo’s attempts to secure their hardware, though at the same time I have no faith in them. However, they are taking steps in the right direction by having cloud-based content, always-on internet, and features that maximize the value of being a paying customer. The challenge they’ve issued to hackers will be interesting to watch as it plays out, but hopefully would-be pirates will acknowledge the benefit of going legit. I actually would tend to agree, though, that the “heyday” of pirating is over. That would be the free-for-all of the early 90s, when Napster, Audiogalaxy, newsgroups, warez sites, and dozens of P2p programs made piracy nearly unavoidable. The specialized hardware and sophisticated mods of today’s piracy scene make it hostile to noobs. But any ideas of eliminating piracy altogether are, shall we say, also “cloud-based.” [via CNET]
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| Today, A Ban On Headphones While Crossing The Street; Tomorrow, A Ban On Chewing Gum While Walking Posted: 26 Jan 2011 01:57 PM PST
And yet there clearly is some need to address the fact that pedestrians in urban areas are more distracted than ever, and increasingly tend to throw themselves in front of cars, if the most recent accident statistics are any indication. But surely such a unilateral ban is not the answer. Is it even a starting place for a discussion? The idea of personal responsibility has undergone a rather complete redefinition over the last few decades, and although that’s a whole other kettle of fish, it seems reasonable and relevant to me to observe that liability now seems to be on the side of the accused until proven otherwise. This is the reason for the huge amount of warning labels and signs on obviously dangerous items: “Rat poison. Not for human consumption. Keep away from children.”
The trend of preemptively establishing liability through conspicuous warnings would naturally extend itself to legislation. Doubtless there are hundreds or thousands of allowances and precedents modifying existing law to the effect of delineating liability and responsibility in public areas, and the proposed New York law would just be an extension of that. It would make situations where a pedestrian isn’t paying attention into situations where the pedestrian is liable for the consequences, and that sounds all right to me. Yet it still isn’t convincing. That’s because, in the case of cars (and to a lesser extent, bikes), you are not simply putting yourself at risk. You are piloting a two-ton vehicle through crowded streets, and could kill dozens of people at any time with a minor mistake. It is the government’s business to regulate your behavior when you are in such a position of power. But when the only thing you’re piloting is your body, and the only person you’re directly putting at risk is yourself, we’re far less likely to accept legislative intervention. Hence the lack of bans on smoking, back country skiing, rugby, F1 racing, and all the other ways we tend to murder ourselves. The words the ban’s chief proponent, State Senator Carl Kruger, solidify my opposition:
It is likely that what Mr. Kruger isn’t capable of, and what he therefore thinks should be banned, would fill many books of ordinance. But I’ll thank him not to tell me what I am and am not able to do. I’m reminded of Twain’s epigram: “Censorship is telling a man he can’t eat steak because a baby can’t chew it.” Similarly, it seems a good basic ground rule that we should not legislate behavior based on the the lowermost percentile of cognitive ability. And this is before we get around to the part where it’s shown that any such law would be unenforceable and unpopular. The reality of modern life, electronic devices, portable connectivity, and personal devices is that we need to strike a balance between the new and the safe, and that needs to happen on an individual level. I’ll always take the side of New Yorker Marie Wickham, who, when interviewed about the potential ban, expressed concern that people are putting themselves at risk, but in the end noted that “at some point, we need to take responsibility for our own stupidity.”
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| Teardown Of Nikon D7000 Shows Off The Well-Packed Interior Of A Modern DSLR Posted: 26 Jan 2011 01:00 PM PST
The big mainboard seems to have plenty of room, actually… room for a parallel image processor or extra cache, either of which might be nice. I’m surprised there isn’t more internal storage on DSLRs, used for temporary holding of files in queue to be processed or written. The rest of the teardown (along with technical analysis of some of the more prominent parts and chips) can be found here at Chipworks.
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| Ricoh CX5: The Best Reason To Buy A Ricoh CX4 Posted: 26 Jan 2011 12:30 PM PST
The actual improvements are the following:
So, not much. But apart from that it’s still the solid camera from six months ago (and six months before that) with the back-illuminated 10.7 megapixel sensor, a great 3″ 640×480 screen, and a nice 5PS burst rate. But I really see very little reason to go with the CX5 over the CX4, so wait a bit and watch the price of the latter go down by $50 or $100. I’d put the press release here but it’s really, really long so you’re just going to have to trust me.
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| Are You Man Enough For This iPad Bjorn? Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:44 AM PST
Say you’re on the subway or hiding in your favorite bushes. Say you only have one hand free and want to use your iPad. Do you hold the iPad in one hand and tap at the screen with your nose like a chicken? No, you don’t. You buy an Assero Defender, a front-mounted backpack for people who are absolutely fine with looking like a doofus because dammit, they don’t need society to tell them what to do.
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| Congressman Proposes New Warning Label For Violent Video Games Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:30 AM PST
How many of you have played "violent video games" since you were a wee pup? I certainly have, and you don't see me stealing cars or robbing banks, do you? Exactly. The most violent I get is when I boo the TV when stupid Manchester United improbably comes back against the most entertaining team in England, Blackpool. I bring this up because a congressman from California has proposed a new warning label for video games rated Teen or higher that would say: "WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior." Sure it has. It's all part of the "Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2011," the goal of which is to inform American families about "the truth about these potentially dangerous products." Other potentially dangerous things include hammers, thumb tacks, pointy boots, and eating too many cookies in one sitting. The congressmen, Joe Baca, a Democrat from Rialto, California, points us in the direction of several studies from various universities that point to a "neurological link" between violent video games and violent behavior. Again, my silly friends and I played all the violent hits if the 1990s and early 2000s and none of us, to my knowledge, have attempted to re-enact scenes from Grand Theft Auto. Maybe we're just great like that. Then again, you can just as easily point to other studies that say there's no link between violent video games and violent behavior. Knowing nothing about this congressman, my assumption is that his heart is in the right place, but perhaps he recognizes that it's easy to get heat ("brownie points") railing against the destructive effects of violent video games. Don't let this ruin your day.
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| TrimSlice, A Tiny Tegra PC With All The Trimmings Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:25 AM PST
The TrimSlice is a mini-PC with a mission: to be amazingly small and light and feature TV-in and a number of useful and surprising outputs. It is, in short, one of the coolest kiosk or dedicated use PCs I’ve seen in a long while. The Tegra 2 chip is housed in a thin, fanless case with stereo line in/out as well as HDMI out. It can hold a laptop hard drive and runs 1GB of DDR2 memory. It has four USB ports, SD and MicroSD readers, and even a freaking Ethernet port. If I weren’t worried about processing power, I’d say it would make a great HTPC. No pricing, but it won’t cost very much, that much is sure. Click through for full specs.
Specifications: CPU: NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 1GHz with integrated ultra-low power GeForce GPU Memory: 1 GB DDR2-800 Storage: Full size SD (SDHC) Micro SD (SDHC) SATA SSD (up to 64GB) Networking: 1 GbE WiFi 802.11n + BT Display: HDMI 1.3 full-HD + DVI (dual head) Audio: Stereo line-out, line-in, 5.1 digital S/PDIF Video in: PAL/NTSC I/O: 4 USB2 ports (480 MBps) 1 USB device RS232 Serial port Extension: JTAG, 2 UARTs, SPI Housing: Fanless all-metal nickel-plated die-cast Dimensions: 130mm x 95mm x 15mm – 5.1" x 3.7" x 0.6" Power: 8-16V DC, 3W average
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| Zero Punctuation Reviews Minecraft Posted: 26 Jan 2011 11:07 AM PST
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Confirming some speculation and defying some other speculation, Motorola announced today during its earnings call that its 
This concept by the University of Technology, Sydney, for a new kind of onscreen keyboard, called 
Oh, Verizon iPhone; you’re not even on the shelves yet, and you’re already stirring up drama.
In the wake of the sensible legislation banning on texting while driving and requiring of hands-free in cars, it seems that lawmakers are setting their sights a little too high — or low, depending on your perspective. Some nascent proposals in New York 
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