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- The Claptrap Lives! 2K Games And Gearbox Officially Announce Borderlands 2!
- Daily Crunch: Bee Hundred
- Zune HD Gets A Handful Of New Apps
- Wrist Rehabilitation Robot Helps The Paralyzed (Video)
- New Device Detects Radiation In Food Even Inside Cardboard Boxes In 12 Seconds
- Japanese Caretaker Robot To Assist In Lifting The Elderly
- FCC Analysis Reveals ISP Speed Winners And Losers
- New Sony Alpha Cameras And Accessories Leaked
- Verizon Preps Compaq Mini, The First LTE-Enabled Netbook
- Movie Streaming Service Zediva Shuttered Over Legal Battle With MPAA, Vows To Keep Fighting
- The Tiny WIMM Communications Device Allows For Wearable Communications
- LG’s New Premium 3D TV Set Works With Passive Glasses (That’s A Good Thing!)
- Samsung To Release Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet In Australia Despite Court Ruling
- Apple’s Tech Support Is Not As Good As It Used To Be, Study Claims
| The Claptrap Lives! 2K Games And Gearbox Officially Announce Borderlands 2! Posted: 03 Aug 2011 05:22 AM PDT  Borderlands 2, the appropriately named sequel to Borderlands, is really coming. 2K Games and Gearbox took to the wires this morning to announce that yes, just like the recent rumors stated, Borderlands 2 is in the works. Praise the gaming gods. Borderlands is one of the best PC shooters ever. Let’s just hope it’s not locked down by some nasty DRM scheme. The release doesn’t lay-out the plot line or tease any tantalizing details, but it does say the game will feature “all-new characters, skills, environments, enemies, weapons and equipment, which come together in an ambitiously crafted story.” They could release a new storyline for the original and I’d be happy. The original Borderlands is what’s called a role-playing-shooter as it combines the objective gathering and character building aspects of a role-play-game with the point of view and action of a first person shooter. The whole experience is strikingly different from the modern shooter, which tends to have a very linear and scripted path. Where Modern Warfare games feature only one route and storyline for the player, Borderlands allows players to follow dozens of paths through a general storyline. The Internet has been buzzing about a sequel nearly immediately following the original’s release. The announcement states that the game is slated for a April 1, 2012 release. But as gamers know, that date could be pushed back numerous times. We’re just glad the developer and publisher are toiling away at the sequel.
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| Posted: 03 Aug 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s Gadgets stories:
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| Zune HD Gets A Handful Of New Apps Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:57 PM PDT  Yes, you read the headline correctly. The Zune HD, which was recently rolled up and borged into the Windows Phone 7 brand, has received no less than nine new apps. We heard that the existing Zune games and apps would be ported to WP7, but perhaps during that process they decided to brush off a few that were still sitting in the box. The new apps are mostly games, time wasters if I’m honest, and while I don’t think anyone will be going nuts about this particular app drop, it’s always nice when legacy hardware sees a little love. If you’re a Zune HD owner (bless your heart), the new apps should show up and be loadable if you’ll just open up your Zune player. I know I’ll be downloading these — my Zune HD is still going strong, and I plan to make it last for at least a couple more years.
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| Wrist Rehabilitation Robot Helps The Paralyzed (Video) Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:14 PM PDT  The patient-lifting RIBA II isn’t the only new healthcare robot from Japan we can show you today. Researchers at the Okayama University have developed a model that goes in a different direction: their robot [JP] helps people with spinal cord injuries or those recovering from strokes. The idea is to help patients move their wrists again, a task usually performed by physical therapists. Work on the robot began about six years ago, and the newest version has six joints and a pneumatic cylinder with actuator. Patients can use the robot to “practice” moving their wrist after choosing between various levels of resistance. What’s cool is that a set of sensors can be connected to the muscles in the arm of a patient, simulating force feedback about wrist movements. This video, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo (in English), provides more insight:
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| New Device Detects Radiation In Food Even Inside Cardboard Boxes In 12 Seconds Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:27 PM PDT  Even almost 5 months after the earthquake and tsunami disaster that hit Japan on March 11, there is still fear over radiation in food in the country. Now Tokyo-based Fuji Electric has developed a device [JP] that detects radiation in food like fish, meat, fruit and vegetables in just 12 seconds. The company says that similar systems usually take tens of minutes for the same process and that their system doesn’t even require to cut samples of the food to be cut into pieces. Instead, the device can check about 200 cardboard boxes filled with food in 60 minutes – cutting or even unpacking the food isn’t required. The device is sized at W360mm×D865mm×H1350mm and weighs 150kg. According to Japanese business daily The Nikkei, Fuji Electric aims at selling 500 units this fiscal year. The system will go on sale in September for $56,000.
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| Japanese Caretaker Robot To Assist In Lifting The Elderly Posted: 02 Aug 2011 04:09 PM PDT  There is much anxiety in Japan related to accommodating their aging population. Their elderly and infirm number in the millions and that figure is growing out of proportion to the rest of the country. Caring for them is naturally on everyone’s minds — including those of roboticists. And research organization RIKEN is updating its medical assistance bot in order to help caretakers with the task of lifting a person from a bed to a wheelchair and back. The new version of RIBA (Robot for Interactive Body Assistance) can actually crouch down and pick up a patient off the floor, a strenuous action that caretakers must do frequently. It has sensors in its arms that work on the capacitive principle, but are made entirely from rubber (except for the conductive part, of course), which allow it to determine a patient’s weight and the correct force to impart in order to lift, roll, and so on. It’s not autonomous, as you can see from the video, which is probably a good thing considering that rogue lovebot from a while back. I’d expect to see a lot more of these being developed over the next few years — the US has its share of research going on as well, and work with computer vision and superior biomimetic systems could produce robo-nurses that take a lot of grunt work off of human hands. [via Fast Company]
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| FCC Analysis Reveals ISP Speed Winners And Losers Posted: 02 Aug 2011 03:40 PM PDT  So let's say you walk into a Best Buy looking for a new tablet. You walk up to the guy in the blue polo and tell him what you're looking for. After taking you to the tablet section, he whips out a handkerchief and blindfolds you. "They're all really good!” he promises. “The one on the left is $499, the one in the middle is $549, and the one on the right is an even $600. Which can I wrap up for you today?" It sounds ridiculous, but that's essentially how you've been shopping around for Internet service providers: blind as a bat, unless you want to trust their ads. But now, for the first time ever, the good old FCC has compiled data from 9,000 average Joe Americans over the course of a month. The goal: to gauge the speeds offered by ISPs in the real world, not just in their advertisements. It's entirely unnecessary to get into all the math of this report. Instead, I'm going to hit you with some of the key takeaways so we can all be smarter shoppers. Note that this doesn’t include other statistics, like uptime, customer service, cost, and so on. It really focuses more on the difference between ISP’s actual speeds vs. advertised speeds — obviously valuable data. First, Cablevision seems to have more subscribers than it can handle. The company scored lowest among all ISPs by a rather large margin. Over a 24-hour period, CableVision's average download speeds clocked in at less than 80 percent of the speeds advertised. During peak hours, the ISP barely broke the 50 percent mark of its promised speeds. AT&T, MediaCom, Qwest and Frontier also had trouble living up to promised speeds, though none were quite as taxed as CableVision. On a happier note, Verizon Fios customers should feel totally proud of themselves. You've made a wise choice. Fios’ average real-world speeds were actually higher than advertised speeds, both over a 24-hour period and during peak surfing hours — as it’s a new service, it’s hard to say whether it’ll stay that way, but the numbers are hard to argue with. Other high-ranking ISPs include Comcast and Cox. Here's the best news of the whole report: a report exists. Before this it was difficult to separate the lies from the truth. Now it's all mapped out for you, nice and neat. And don't be afraid to fight for what you pay for. If your ISP consistently delivers speeds slower than what they've promised, do a little testing, mark it down, and complain. Never forget: the customer is always right.
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| New Sony Alpha Cameras And Accessories Leaked Posted: 02 Aug 2011 12:27 PM PDT  Sony Alpha Rumors has received a boatload of information, though none of it complete, about Sony’s newest Alpha cameras and accessories. This comes hot on the heels of another Alpha leak, showing off the upcoming NEX-7. I won’t repeat all the details here, but it’s a nice little info tease to hold you off until the rumored August 24 launch date. The NEX-7 we saw looks to be more or less confirmed, though I’m guessing they’ve switched that OFF-NO switch to an OFF-ON one, and it has molted its shiny silver shell. Supposedly this is a competitor with the X100, though without a fixed lens and optical rangefinder it’s obviously a different beast. No info on the EVF. That Zeiss lens, though, is a 24mm f/1.8, but you wouldn’t guess it from its size. Looks more like a wide-angle zoom than a fast prime. The NEX-5 will be getting a sensor update, and there are also a few accessories and updates for the rest of the Alpha line. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the details on these devices.
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| Verizon Preps Compaq Mini, The First LTE-Enabled Netbook Posted: 02 Aug 2011 09:29 AM PDT  Have you been itching some Verizon 4G love in a package that's just a hair more portable than their also-just-announced HP Pavilion dm1? I know I haven't, but Verizon has just announced their first 4G capable netbook, the Compaq Mini CQ10-688nr all the same. The Mini packs a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom processor, a 250GB hard drive, and 1 GB of DDR3 RAM into its svelte-ish frame. It's set to ship on Thursday, August 4th at $449.99 with a 2-year contract agreement and Verizon's standard complement of 4G mobile broadband plans. You probably know them all by heart, but here they are for the 4G-uninitiated: $30 nets you 2 GB of monthly data usage, while $50 grants 5 GB, and $80 scores you 10GB. All things considered, it's not too shabby for such a tiny package, but it seems a bit underwhelming compared to its HP counterpart. It's only less than half a pound lighter, and the Pavilion manages to squeeze a feistier processor, and a larger screen and hard drive into a package that isn't that much bigger. I'm sure that true road warriors will appreciate the Compaq Mini's extra portability, but my (admittedly poor) internal economist likes the idea of more power at a slightly higher price tag sans contract.
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| Movie Streaming Service Zediva Shuttered Over Legal Battle With MPAA, Vows To Keep Fighting Posted: 02 Aug 2011 07:49 AM PDT  There goes Zediva. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the video streaming start-up by ruling that the company violates copyright infringement. The injunction will effectively shut down Zediva, but due to a legal technicality, it won’t officially be issued for another week. Zediva should have seen this coming. The company billed its streaming service as a DVD rental over the Internet and proudly proclaimed “New Movies before Netflix and Redbox.” They were essentially working (or so they thought) around several IP and copyright laws by streaming DVDs purchased at retail and then allowing customers to rent the physical DVD and DVD player. They said, this practice was essentially the same method of transmission used by video rental stores. The MPAA disagreed. (so did the judge) The judge rejected Zediva’s claim that the service was akin to having a DVD player with a really long cable attached. The MPAA’s hounds argued that Zediva was serving up a public performance and did not have the proper pay-per-performance license. Judge John F. Walter agreed and stated, “Defendants are violating Plaintiffs' exclusive right to publicly perform their Copyrighted Works.” and later, “Plaintiff’s argument that On Command’s system involves not “transmissions” but “electronic rentals” similar to patrons’ physical borrowing of videotapes is without merit.” The MPAA praised the victory in a statement, “Judge Walter’s decision is a great victory for the more than two million American men and women whose livelihoods depend on a thriving film and television industry.” Zediva isn’t going to roll over, though. The company vowed to keep fighting for those “looking for an alternative to Hollywood-controlled online movie services.”
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| The Tiny WIMM Communications Device Allows For Wearable Communications Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:55 AM PDT  Like a miniaturized, wearable Chumby, the WIMM micro communications device looks interesting and, given enough support and interest, could actually be interesting. The device looks like a tiny iPod Nano but features Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is supposed to play nicely with your Android phone and runs its own stripped-down version of Android to display messages, handle exercise monitoring, and, presumably, run tiny apps that others will write. The device isn’t quite for sale. In fact, it’s more of a platform for others to build upon (just like Chumby) and you can write apps for WIMM-compatible devices that should work across the range. The platform is ostensibly open but manufacturers will have to license the technology to build similar tech. You can develop for the platform using these tools and licensees can use the dev hardware to plan their own WIMM-compatible devices.
Fundamental to the WIMM Platform is an elegant, simple touch screen interface that hides the complexity and power of the underlying technology. The WIMM Module can be loaded with a variety of Android-based Micro Apps created by using an open SDK. In addition, it works seamlessly with Android, Blackberry and iOS devices. For the partner, it offers an open platform that's easily customizable; for the consumer, it offers always-on information at a glance. Will it take off? I’ve never in my long history seen a working, popular wearable information device but, again, what do I know. Maybe these are the next Star Trek Communicators. You can reserve a dev device here, available Q3 2011, and boldly go where so many have gone before.
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| LG’s New Premium 3D TV Set Works With Passive Glasses (That’s A Good Thing!) Posted: 02 Aug 2011 06:10 AM PDT  If you're a fan of the third dimension, otherwise known as depth, then this new premium 3D TV set from LG may be of interest. The LW980S is a passive glasses set that taps LG's Cinema 3D technology, equipped with a NANO Full LED backlit screen. For those who aren't well versed in 3D jargon, passive glasses means that they don't have to be charged, and are thus, less expensive. There are two types of passive 3D glasses out in the world. One, you'll recognize from the last decade in movie theaters: a cardboard frame with one red and one blue cellophane lens on each side. Those are called anaglyph glasses, and are most likely not the passive glasses LG has in mind. It's more likely that the glasses will be polarized passive glasses, which are the ones that jumble that 3D image when your head is tilted to the sides. Polarized passive glasses are the most advanced form of passive glasses that can be used on a home TV set. According to Europe's TUV and Intertek testing agencies, the LW980S has a "flicker-free" screen and is meant to cause less discomfort when viewing. And we all know how important that is. LG even found a way to build in wide viewing angles so that everyone in the room can watch pleasantly. Unfortunately, the release lacked a few key details like… oh, I don't know… full specs, pricing, and availability. One tech spec that we did manage to get our hands on was the fact that LG's new premium set sports a TruMotion 400Hz refresh rate to keep things smooth and snappy. We'll be keeping our eyes peeled for when this bad boy should hit shelves, and just how much weight your wallet will lose should you choose to purchase. Stay tuned.
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| Samsung To Release Galaxy Tab 10.1 Tablet In Australia Despite Court Ruling Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:48 AM PDT  Samsung and Apple are at each other’s corporate throats lately. The latest jab was when the two reached an agreement that barred Samsung from advertising and selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Australia. But Sammy, like a boss, is planning on selling a slightly different GalTab 10.1 down under as, per a statement released to Ausdroid.net, the GalTab model headed for Australia is slightly different from the one sold in the States where the lawsuit is based.
This move will likely prompt more work for lawyers on both sides of this case. The Samsung Galaxy Tab en route to the Australian market might be technically different, but probably only in trivial ways. The hardware, look and feel are probably the same, which makes this move by Samsung rather dirty. Got to take care of business, though. Don’t expect this story to end here. Apple will likely counter with renewed vigor.
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| Apple’s Tech Support Is Not As Good As It Used To Be, Study Claims Posted: 02 Aug 2011 05:38 AM PDT  According to a study conducted by Minnesota-based research firm Vocal Laboratories (aka Vocalabs), Apple’s lead in tech support quality is slipping, while consumer satisfaction scores for HP are improving. Vocalabs interviews people by telephone right after a customer service experience, and for this study completed 4,161 surveys between May 2008 and June 2011. The firm found that Apple continues to lead both Dell and HP in customer service quality for phone-based technical support, but customers are reporting more problems with the automated part of calls. In interviews immediately following a support call, 58 percent of Apple customers were "Very Satisfied" with the experience during the first half of this year, compared to 47 percent of Dell customers and 53 percent of HP customers. Apple's satisfaction score is down 15 points from a year ago, while HP has improved 9 points over the past two years. Says Peter Leppik, CEO of Vocalabs:
It’s worth noting customers remain quite satisfied with Apple's support agents, with 77 percent of customers in the first six months of 2011 indicating that they were "Very Satisfied" with the technician, compared to 56 percent of Dell customers and 61 percent of HP customers. However, only 24 percent of Apple customers reported being "Very Satisfied" with the automated part of their support calls, trailing Dell with 36 percent and HP with 40 percent. In surveys held between May 2008 and June 2011, 40 percent of Apple customers reported a problem with the automated part of the call, nearly double the 21 percent rate from a year ago. If you agree that Apple’s tech support isn’t as good as it used to be, please press 1.
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