CrunchGear

Augmented Reality Explorer Steve Mann Assaulted At Parisian McDonald’s
With XBMC Ported To Android, There Might Finally Be A Reason To Buy A Google TV
Review: The Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt HD-PATU3
KillSpencer Goes Against The Grain With New Wooden Card-Carrying iPhone Case
“Leaked” iPhone 5 Front Casing Shows Centered FaceTime Camera

Augmented Reality Explorer Steve Mann Assaulted At Parisian McDonald’s

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:11 PM PDT

You deserve a break today, indeed. Augmented reality pioneer Steve Mann visited a Parisian McDonald’s with his family a month ago. Mann has a system called the EyeTap physically installed in his skull that records video and streams augmented reality data directly to his retina. Upon ordering, McDonald’s employees at 140, Avenue Champs Elysees, Paris accosted Mann and tried to tear the glasses out of his head.

That was after he ordered something called a Chicken Ranch Wrap.

He writes:

Subsequently another person within McDonalds physically assaulted me, while I was in McDonand’s, eating my McDonand’s Ranch Wrap that I had just purchased at this McDonald’s. He angrily grabbed my eyeglass, and tried to pull it off my head. The eyeglass is permanently attached and does not come off my skull without special tools.
I tried to calm him down and I showed him the letter from my doctor and the documentation I had brought with me. He (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 1) then brought me to two other persons. He was standing in the middle, right in front of me, and there was another person to my left seated at a table (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 2), and a third person to my right. The third person (who I will refer to as Perpetrator 3) was holding a broom and dustpan, and wearing a shirt with a McDonald’s logo on it. The person in the center (Perpetrator 1) handed the materials I had given him to the person to my left (Perpetrator 2), while the three of them reviewed my doctor’s letter and the documentation.
After all three of them reviewed this material, and deliberated on it for some time, Perpetrator 2 angrily crumpled and ripped up the letter from my doctor. My other documentation was also destroyed by Perpetrator 1.

That a pioneer like Mann would be accosted – in Paris, of all places – is a travesty. That it would happen in that paragon of openness and light, McDonald’s is an absolute shame. Apparently McDonald’s employees in Paris don’t like people taking pictures of their menus and this isn’t the first time Parisian Friends-Of-Ronald attacked someone with a camera in their stores.

Although I may seem flip here, I’m not. I propose a boycott of McDonald’s (not like you were going to go anyway) until Mann reports restitution for damages. This is an outrage and it’s terrible that Mann had to go through this.

With XBMC Ported To Android, There Might Finally Be A Reason To Buy A Google TV

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 09:04 AM PDT

Content is king, and so far Google TV is sorely lacking content. However, with the launch of the famed Xbox Media Center on Android, Google might have a chance in the battle for living rooms. The group behind the classic media player software announced the project and released the source code over the weekend. This could be big.

XBMC was a pioneer in media streaming software. Originally developed for the first Xbox (hence the name) back in 2003, the open source project is still the de facto standard of media streamers. I bought an Xbox just to run XBMC. The wildly popular project spawned many derivative projects and companies like Boxee, Plex and several others. Several key elements are still missing from the just-released Android port, but it reportedly runs on most devices — except Google TV.

Google TV still needs a lot of work. More than two years after its launch, the box is nothing more than a fancy Netflix device. Most of the GTV apps are garbage and a hassle to use. Worse yet, even if there are worthwhile GTV apps, Google has yet found a way to highlight them. Google TV already has several, albeit far inferior, media streamer apps. Essentially, Google hasn’t shown consumers and developers exactly why they need a Google TV in their respective lives. And now, with the odd Nexus Q competing in the same space, consumers are likely even more confused. Google TV needs a killer app like XBMC.

XBMC is nearly 10 years old and it’s by far the most mature media streaming solution. XBMC circa 2005 was better than many of today’s options. But XMBC was never available on its own Boxee Box-like device.

It’s entirely possible that I’m a bit too bullish on XBMC for Android. There is a still a lot of work to be done on the project. The XBMC Android port currently lacks the hardware decoding ability, and instead leans on software to playback video. This makes it difficult to playback 1080p videos wrapped in MKV containers. But if the original Xbox had enough computing horsepower, then modern devices shouldn’t have any trouble once the software is properly compiled.

As it sits right now, XBMC doesn’t run on Google TV. I tried running it on both the Logitech Revue and first generation Sony Internet TV. The app installs but fails when launching. I’m not alone. I have yet to find someone running the current build on a Google TV. That said, it runs on the Nexus Q, foreshadowing what could be for the legions of Google TV boxes and their bored owners.

XBMC doesn’t need an Android set-top box to be successful. The software won that title years ago. Google needs killer software like XMBC or even Boxee to advance its assault in living rooms.

Review: The Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt HD-PATU3

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 08:29 AM PDT

Reviewing a drive isn’t very exciting. What can you say? “It contains a storage medium, is small, and surprisingly light.” Thankfully, the Buffalo MiniStation Thunderbolt can add one important point to that litany of mundanity – a Thunderbolt port and cable that jacks the read and write speed up to amazing levels – thereby turning a ho-hum review into a real barn-burner.

This $229 1TB drive is no slouch on design, either. It has two ports – one USB 3.0/2.0 jack and a Thunderbolt port – and it’s clad in aluminum and white plastic, giving it a definitive Mac feel. The drive gets hot over extended periods of time but it’s entirely bus powered. It weighs a mere 9 ounces.

In my tests, I saw this drive hit RW speeds of about 97 MB/s, considerably faster than a USB 3.0 drive I tested and on par with what you’d expect from a standard Thunderbolt drive. The best thing, obviously, is the fact that Buffalo includes a Thunderbolt cable, a $50 value, right in the box. They also include a USB 3.0 cable for the technologically benighted.

A 500GB version will cost you about $195, but it really doesn’t make sense to buy a smaller drive in this case.

So, in closing, I wish to amend the MiniStation Thunderbolt review with one important point: “It contains a storage medium, is small, and surprisingly light and, most important, you get a $50 Thunderbolt cable for free. It’s also really fast. And pretty.”

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KillSpencer Goes Against The Grain With New Wooden Card-Carrying iPhone Case

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 07:28 AM PDT

I’m still not convinced that mobile payments via NFC are on the road to ubiquity, but these fancy shmancy iPhone cases that double as card holders are all kinds of awesome. KillSpencer just debuted its latest, made almost entirely of exotic rosewood. It’s a beauty, to be sure.

The front and back are both attached using a removable adhesive, though there’s no side coverage for the iPhone. I’d have to review it and throw my iPhone across the room a few times before I could be sure, but it doesn’t look as though this case offers the most protection for your phone. But that’s not always what a case is about.

With the iPhone, you’re essentially walking around with the same exact phone as quite a few people. Most look at cases as a form of personal expression, with a little added protection as a bonus. The KillSpencer Precision Pocket case is a lot like that, though we kind of wish that the company had offered this as a front/back panel replacement kit rather than as a case.

Either way, the case holds up to three cards with a card lock and thumb slot to help you push a credit card or ID out with ease. It costs $89.00 and can be purchased here.

Click to view slideshow.

“Leaked” iPhone 5 Front Casing Shows Centered FaceTime Camera

Posted: 16 Jul 2012 06:57 AM PDT

Another day, another leak.

On Friday we saw what was reported to be an iPhone 5 prototype unit, and today an entirely different version of the “iPhone 5″ casing has found its way on to the interwebs. Oddly enough, this latest leak looks an awful lot like images of iPhone 5 parts published by 9to5mac.

Of course, it’s possible that none of these leaks are the real thing, but it sure does help pass the time until Apple hops on stage in October. The latest leak comes by way of a Chinese site called Apple.pro who seemingly found the images on Photobucket. No one working at Apple would post a picture of the iPhone 5 on Photobucket, though that’s not to say that someone in the supply chain didn’t snap a pic or two.

Either way, I’m approaching this leak as I have all the others — with a massive salt shaker.

There are two “leaked” cases here: one white and one black. They show that the front-facing camera for video chat has been centered above the speaker grill. This matches up splendidly with images shown by 9to5mac, especially since this image also shows a taller screen with the same exact width and bezels as the iPhone 4/4S.

We’ve heard previously that the next-gen iPhone will have an aluminum (or metal) back panel, matching up more uniformly with the iPad and other Apple products. TechCrunch has also exclusively confirmed that the usual 30-pin dock will be replaced with a 19-pin mini connector. And lest we forget, a 4.08-inch display is also expected. Macotokara reports that production on the iPhone 5 has already begun, so we should see this bad boy no later than October, if not earlier.

Here is a larger version of this latest leak:

And here’s that 9to5mac pic that seems to line up: