CrunchGear |  |
- A Visit To The Indie Games Pavilion At E3
- Microsoft Planning Own-Brand Windows 8 Tablet?
- Sony And Toshiba To Merge OLED And LCD Businesses
- Daily Crunch: Suit Up Edition
- CrunchGear Is Streaming Live From Showstoppers @ E3
- Nox Audio Walks Us Through Their Updated Admiral Headset, And It Looks Great
- Actually, Sony Won E3 With The Vita
- Nyko Zoom Makes Your Kinect Work In Small Rooms
- E3: Super Mario 3DS Trailer
- Razer’s Old Republic Mouse, Headset, And Keyboard Are Sithy (With Hands-On)
- Boxee Adds BBC iPlayer And Previews The Upcoming Blink Box App
- The Gresso iPhone Case Has Six Stupid Little Watches Embedded Into It
- The Nintendo Wii U Won E3 2011
- Makerbot’s Bre Pettis Will Be On Colbert Report
- How To Try iOS 5 Right Now
- Toshiba Tablet Gets Formal Introduction, And A Name
- We’re Going Live From E3′s Show Floor at 12:00 PDT!
- Nintendo Announces The Wii U, A Unique Controller/Console Combo
- Live From Nintendo’s E3 2011 Keynote! It’s New Wii Time!
- Tag Heuer Updates Its Link Watches For 2011
| A Visit To The Indie Games Pavilion At E3 Posted: 08 Jun 2011 07:49 AM PDT IndieGames supports indie game developers by showcasing them at various events and putting them in front of the big boys. The results? Cooler gameplay, exciting new titles, and lots of fun. Yesterday we played some of the coolest indie games we’ve ever seen including the Rogue-like Desktop Dungeons and Q.U.B.E., a game that is reminiscent of Portal but completely different. Take a look at both and you’ll understand. We spoke with organizer Jeriaska who gave us tours of some past winners and up and coming titles at the organization. Most interestingly, he noted that indie gaming is easier than ever and that development packages are cheap enough now that almost anyone can develop for iOS or Steam and, with a little lucky, PS3 and Xbox.
|
| Microsoft Planning Own-Brand Windows 8 Tablet? Posted: 08 Jun 2011 06:21 AM PDT
The rumor mill is working double time this morning, as DigiTimes is reporting that Microsoft is prepping its own brand of Windows 8 tablets, with a little help from Texas Instruments and a number of different Taiwanese OEMs/ODMs. Of course, just a few weeks ago unnamed WSJ sources claimed that Microsoft had plans to pair five chip makers with five OEMs and then slap Windows 8 on five different tablets, so there's no way to be sure about either rumor at this point. However, there are a few reasons why this may be a little closer to reality than speculation. For one, Microsoft has fully licensed the ARM chipset design. Of course, that could have something to do with security, as Microsoft needs access to ARM's architecture in order to bring Windows to ARM-based devices. On the other hand, it might also mean that the tech giant has some new hardware in store for us. After all, Microsoft is no rookie when it comes to craftsmanship, as proven by the Xbox 360 with Kinect and the Zune player. In addition to that, TI already announced that its brand new 1.8GHz multicore OMAP4470 chipset will fully support Windows 8. While Microsoft is sticking with Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors for its Windows Phone devices, the silicon in TI's chipsets may be a better match for Windows 8 tablets. Microsoft has called Windows 8 its "riskiest product bet," so it would only make sense that the software maker would take things into its own hands. Especially since its competitor, Apple, has had such great success by controlling its hardware/software circle about as leniently as a drill sergeant. But there's no way to know for sure until one of these companies comes forward with an official announcement. Until then, the rumor mill will keep on turning.
|
| Sony And Toshiba To Merge OLED And LCD Businesses Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:13 AM PDT
What’s interesting is that neither one of the companies but a government-backed investment fund will take a major stake in the new entity, which is expected to be established by the end of this year. That fund, Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, will likely control 70-80% of the entity, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei (the rest will be shared between Sony and Toshiba). Toshiba Mobile Display and Sony Mobile Display will cease to exist, and the yet to be named entity will compete with Sharp, the Hitachi-Foxconn alliance, and others in the global small LCD panel market. Another interesting point is that the Sony-Toshiba move is aimed at getting both companies ready for a post-LCD future: the new entity is supposed to streamline all future R&D in OLED technology by the Sony and Toshiba. So far, big S and big T have been developing OLEDs separately, but they are far behind Samsung, the current global leader in that market.
|
| Posted: 08 Jun 2011 12:00 AM PDT |
| CrunchGear Is Streaming Live From Showstoppers @ E3 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 06:32 PM PDT
|
| Nox Audio Walks Us Through Their Updated Admiral Headset, And It Looks Great Posted: 07 Jun 2011 05:24 PM PDT
Watch the video to get the business straight from Julie, Nox’s President, but the gist is this: You’ve got yourself a wireless headset that goes on regular, Bluetooth, or Nox proprietary protocols. The left headphone is a tiny touchscreen that will at launch be sporting Android 2.3. Yes, 2.3! My high-end phone doesn’t have 2.3 but they’re going to put it in this headset. On the headset there’s room for apps, a Micro SD slot so you can load up your music, and of course the configuration stuff. You can even load up Skype and call people, all on the headset. Yeah, it sounds pretty nuts. They’re aiming for the end of the year – but no pricing yet, and the product may change up a little as they finish the industrial design. We’ll check back in with them then.
|
| Actually, Sony Won E3 With The Vita Posted: 07 Jun 2011 05:09 PM PDT
The Playstation Vita, on the other hand, isn’t even trying to be a breakthrough device. It’s simply an extremely powerful and versatile portable gaming system. While I have my reservations about the system, Sony convinced me today that it’s going to at least fulfill its own mission. And the price? Mwah, I kiss my fingers. Perfection.
Sony has been under fire these last two months, and they’ve learned from both the PS3′s launch and the PSP Go. People are tired of paying Sony prices, even for good devices. I bet the $250 price was only finalized in the last month, when someone with sense in their head said that if this handheld is priced over $300, it’s going to be strike three for Sony. So even though this thing probably costs around $300 just to put together and package (big OLED touchscreen, mega-compact construction, custom processor and GPU), they’re doing the right thing by sucking it up and taking a hit with every sale. That’s the price of expanding your market when you have aggressive and powerful opponents. Sony has finally shown that they can actually learn from their misfortunes and their customers’ criticisms. Sometimes. The screen is gorgeous, the games look insane, and now Sony fanboys have a legitimate reason to stay Sony fanboys. It isn’t my style of gaming, but I have no problem saying they did this one right. Assuming the battery lasts more than an hour.
|
| Nyko Zoom Makes Your Kinect Work In Small Rooms Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:54 PM PDT The Nyko Zoom is a great idea. It’s basically a lens set that sits over your Kinect that reduces the space the Kinect needs to sense you in three dimensions. That way you can feasibly stand just a few feet from the Kinect and do all your running and jumping without fear of falling into furniture. Specifically, the device reduces the necessary space needed to play Kinect by 40%. We tested it, above, and it worked quite well, sensing us in positions that would normally be impossible in a regular room. It costs $29 – a bit pricey for a piece of plastic – but if you live in a small, cramped apartment it may be a great solution for increased Kinect play.
|
| Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:40 PM PDT It’s Mario! In 3D!
|
| Razer’s Old Republic Mouse, Headset, And Keyboard Are Sithy (With Hands-On) Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:19 PM PDT
First you’ve got the keyboard, which has a built-in touchscreen with 10 LCD buttons over it – they can be mapped or macro’d however you want and the graphics for each button will change depending on how you assign them. Will this be useful for other games? Only if they work with Razer. It does look pretty sweet, though.
Next, the mouse, which is a Jedi-themed mutation of their Naga MMO mouse. 12 buttons on the side for your macro pleasure.
All three come with alternative decorative plates, so you can be Sith or Jedi. In this world, though, there are also two factions: people who know the symbols for Sith and Jedi, and people who don’t. It’s a war. More info is being slowly trickled out over at Razer. OR watch our hands-on video here!
|
| Boxee Adds BBC iPlayer And Previews The Upcoming Blink Box App Posted: 07 Jun 2011 04:14 PM PDT
|
| The Gresso iPhone Case Has Six Stupid Little Watches Embedded Into It Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:25 PM PDT
Oh, Gresso, you and your ridonkulous iPhone accessories and attempts to bejewel our phones. This $6,000 case features six goofy little watches embedded into its face, allowing you to tell the time at a glance. Or you could just start up your iPhone clock and go at it that way. It adds 1mm to the phone, which is why I suspect the watches are actually quartz and not mechanical. Pretty dumb stuff.
|
| The Nintendo Wii U Won E3 2011 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 03:10 PM PDT
Of course E3 is still fun. Hell, it’s probably one of the most fun trade shows of the year. It’s wall-to-wall video games. Stick around if you must, but once you see the Wii U, you may as well head home because that’s the best as it gets here this year. The Wii U really is a big step down video game’s evolutionary path. There’s still a traditional console that sits under your TV. That isn’t gone yet. It’s the Wii U controller, with its 6-inch touchscreen and accelerometers, that pushes the system into the future. The Wii U is a next gen WIi in every way. The graphics are HD, the motion controls seem improved and the color touchscreen acts as a secondary screen with seamless endless uses. Nintendo demoed a dozen and a half use cases today during its presser. It can be scope for a shooting gallery, a tee for golfing, a video chat screen, inventory screen in Zelda (or other games). Clearly it’s going to open up a whole new world for developers and gamers alike.
Nintendo plans on releasing the Wii U in 2012, which leaves plenty of time for further refinement. A full demo wasn’t available here at E3, but rather tech demos like they had last year for the 3DS. These demos still use the novel controller, but they are nothing more than proof of concepts. In fact a few feel like they’re probably used to sell developers on the system, too. No matter, they’re visual proof that Nintendo Wii U is real and as awesome as it sounds. The Wii opened up gaming to non-gamers. I don’t feel like the Wii U has the same sort of magical ability. The Wii U seems like for Wii gamers, not non-gamers in general. However, thanks to the backwards compatibility with current Wii controllers the system shouldn’t have the same sort of learning curve and there easy for those familiar with the Wii to pick up and enjoy right away. Nintendo will likely slowly releases more tidbits of Wii U info until its 2012 release; they’re not going to let you forget about the console. No one here at E3 has forgot about it. It’s easily the best thing at E3 this year. Best of show? Yep. Quick note: The name is dumb. Wii U? Dumb.
|
| Makerbot’s Bre Pettis Will Be On Colbert Report Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:58 PM PDT
One of our own, Bre Pettis, will appear on the Colbert Report tomorrow night to talk about 3D printing, his handsome glasses, and new Makerbots. This is some seriously exciting news in that it proves that the geeks will inherit the earth.
|
| Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:40 PM PDT
We’ll leave it up to you to download and install iOS 5 (search for torrents, basically, and Option+Restore your iPhone in iTunes) but here’s how to crack the activation:
|
| Toshiba Tablet Gets Formal Introduction, And A Name Posted: 07 Jun 2011 02:04 PM PDT
Today the highly anticipated Toshiba Tablet got a formal introduction into the market, and finally, a name: the Thrive. Rather than trying to put out the "thinnest" or "lightest" tablet on the market, Toshiba's Thrive is all about usability, according to the manufacturer. Sporting a 10.1-inch display, the Thrive will ship with standard Android 3.1 Honeycomb. In terms of specs, that 10-inch LED backlit display boasts a resolution of 1280×800 pixels, and comes with Toshiba's Adaptive Display and Resolution+ video enhancement technologies, which make standard definition video playback a much more enjoyable and crisp experience. Under the hood, the Toshiba Thrive touts an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, with 1 GB of RAM. As far as hardware is concerned, this tablet definitely differentiates itself from an ever-growing pack of other fledgling Android slates. This is the first tablet I've seen that has a removable back cover, so you can carry around a secondary battery for long stays away from an outlet. The back cover is also customizable, in that it comes in a number of different colors such as pink, lavender, green, navy, and standard silver and black. Another differentiator for the Thrive is its host of various ports, including a full-size USB 2.0, HDMI and a full-sized SD card slot, so users with the 8GB model can boost storage with a 32 GB SD card. The USB, HDMI, and mini-USB ports are all hidden beneath a rubber cover. The Thrive sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. Along with Toshiba's video enhancement technology, the Toshiba Thrive also ships with audio enhancement technology. I played around with the settings a bit during my hands-on and definitely noticed a BIG difference between the standard sound coming from the device's dual stereo speakers and the audio playback with Toshiba's audio enhancement technology.
Along with the standard Android pre-loaded apps, the Toshiba Thrive will ship with Toshiba File Manager (great for moving files around between devices), PrinterShare, and Need For Speed: Shift. Plus, Toshiba decided to throw its own Media Player into the mix, but don't worry, the Gallery app is still present and accounted for. Unfortunately, the Toshiba Thrive is a Wi-Fi only tablet, at the moment, but Toshiba certainly didn't cringe at the thought of getting carriers involved in the future. As far as availability goes, the Toshiba Thrive, and a number of different Thrive accessories, will be available for pre-order on June 13, with full retail availability beginning in "mid-June." Participating retailers include Amazon.com, Best Buy, Office Depot, OfficeMax, RadioShack and hhgregg. Pricing:
     
|
| We’re Going Live From E3′s Show Floor at 12:00 PDT! Posted: 07 Jun 2011 11:05 AM PDT
E3 is held in the moderately large Los Angeles Convention Center. We’re only here for two days and it just so happens there are two halls. We’re hitting the smaller West Hall today. Nintendo and Sony take up the bulk of the show floor in this hall, which means we’ll drop by Microsoft’s massive booth tomorrow. Use this interactive floorplan map for more info. Ustreaming tentative schedule: Today Tomorrow: Any early requests?
|
| Nintendo Announces The Wii U, A Unique Controller/Console Combo Posted: 07 Jun 2011 09:59 AM PDT
The graphics are truly next-gen and this firmly places Nintendo in with the big boys in terms of graphics and gameplay. If anything can be said about this new console its that it has moved the Wii out of the kids’ room and into the living room. The games are actually quite mature including Aliens: Colonial Marines, Ghost Recon, and many titles, including Ninja Gaiden are arriving on the Wii U in a new, considerably better and bloodier form.
The controller has a standard touchscreen with rumble and axis sensors. You can, for example, send a game to the controller and change the channel on the television to watch something else entirely. This allows kids to play while parents are watching the ball game and it also allows adults to play privately on the couch while the significant other watches something else. It is truly a third-screen gaming experience.
You can also handle play calls in sports games and inventory control right on the controller, saving space on the main screen for full-screen graphics. There are accelerometers and a gyro so you can use it as an aiming device, and it can detect its orientation. The screen even appears to be writeable using a pen seen in the video. I, for one, am impressed. I’ve historically been down on Nintendo as greasy kid’s stuff but this is something different. The Wii U will arrive in 2012.           Some more specs:
We’ll have a hands-on with the “experiences” at E3 as soon as possible.
|
| Live From Nintendo’s E3 2011 Keynote! It’s New Wii Time! Posted: 07 Jun 2011 08:54 AM PDT
We’re here at Nokia Theater right by the LA Convention Center for Nintendo’s E3 Day One keynote. We expect a number of reveals, including updates on Zelda: Skyward Sword, a brand new Mario for the 3DS, and most importantly, the successor to the Wii, code-named “Project Cafe.” While we don’t expect a playable console (it may arrive by the holidays, but even that may be optimistic), we’ll get to see the mythical mega-controller with the 6-inch screen, dual cameras, and who knows, maybe a vitality sensor. We’re entering now and should be getting the news flowing in just a few minutes here.
|
| Tag Heuer Updates Its Link Watches For 2011 Posted: 07 Jun 2011 08:43 AM PDT
|
Boxee owners in the UK are feeling the live right about now. The company 
Among Tag Heuer’s mainstay watch collections is the Link. I believe it was originally introduced in the late 1980s, and has been a major part of the brand’s image since then. The Link’s DNA has always been linked to its bracelet – offering a special look that many have tried to replicate (but not very well). For 2011 Tag Heuer updates and refines the entire link watch collection. I sat down with Tag Heuer’s CEO Mr. Babin to talk all about it.| You are subscribed to email updates from CrunchGear To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment