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Oct
2008
Today should see some light shed on that dark, ominous area that is known only as ‘Windows 7’. The Financial Post is reporting that “Microsoft Corp. is getting ready to lift the secrecy around the next version of its much-anticipated operating system” which will occur during an annual developers conference today. However, answers to the plethora of questions surrounding the new operating system are likely to be scarce, for h the simple reason of ‘Vista’. The floundering OS had its details and specifications presaged prior to launch and when users found that not all of the aforementioned features were present, they were understandably disappointed.
However, as noted by Kevin Restivo, a software analyst with IDC Canada, “[Windows 7] allows Microsoft to wipe the slate clean.”
SourceOct
2008
The home has been hacked! Oh, and you thought it was safe! Notorious (?) PlayStation hacker/haxor StreetskaterFU (?) has managed to decrypt the beta client for Sony’s PlayStation Home thing-a-ma-gigger (?) Right….
Well, what the decryption allows is for would-be developers and exploit artists alike to poke around looking for ways to get their custom apps and (gasp!) backed-up games to run without resorting to the cumbersome, tiresome method of hard drive swapping.
- Xbox helping Microsoft stay afloat
So it’s no secret that the there is an economic crisis looming around the next corner. And one thing you might anticipate in such frugal times is that expenditures on things such as entertainment devices and games where you fight off hordes of intergalactic ne'er–do–wells might go by the wayside, at least until things settle down. But, for whatever reason, games and consoles, at least to a certain degree, seem recession proof.
Microsoft set a new quarter record, buoyed by consoles sales at 2.2 million units. What’s more, Xbox Live membership has passed 14 million members. As noted by GameSpot in their article reporting on the figures, Microsoft had markedly dropped the retail price on their next-gen console over that period.
Beyond the console itself, October and
November will have seen the release of some high profile titles, including
Deadspace, Fable 2, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2,
Resistance 2, Spore…At this rate, gamers are going to be the most cash strapped
Oct
2008
Back in July Apple launched its proprietary App Store, designed as a means of distributing everything from games to business applications. And as the aforereferenced CNET article describes, this marks a notable shift in the world of cellular business. Previously service providers, those keepers of the airwaves, were responsible for the distribution of new software; that is, if anything came available. The success of the App Store is due in no small part to the iTunes connection, engendered the media playback functionality of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Application distribution prior to this was model was cumbersome; users generally had to face stiff data-transfer fees and relatively weak download speeds. However with the increase in wireless network speed and the seamless integration of the App Store into iTunes, users now had several viable ways of obtaining applications. And what’s more, development was opened to everyone.
But if you’ve ever purchased a carrier-branded cell phone you’ve likely been affronted with a slew of ‘custom’ browsers and utilities, often riddled with drawbacks. Now, with Apple’s App Store, the Android Market, and most recently, the BlackBerry app store, your phone is open to a whole world of choice (comparatively speaking).
As Marguerite Reardon noted in her article, this has some serious ramifications for service providers: “The danger for wireless operators is that by ceding application distribution to handset makers or platform developers, they are essentially making themselves into dumb pipe providers. This is a wireless operator's worst fear and one they have already begun to see play out in the broadband market.”
On this point, you’ll have to excuse my apathy. More often than not, cellular service providers seem to stifle, rather than encourage, innovation and expansion. If anyone has had the misfortune of experiencing the Canadian market, which has only two major carriers, and only one of which supports 3G/GSM phones, then you’ve borne witness to the stagnation that follows from monopolistic control. Application stores stand, for now, as a means of claiming ownership over your own phone; whereas the old model stifled development with poor service and, at times, exorbitant data rates, the new model is positively bustling with developer and community created apps alike. As of today, the Apple App Store has delivered its 200 millionth app. One can’t help but wonder how that number compares with all app sales, across all networks, prior to the stores July launch…
Oct
2008
Oct
2008
Rather than your standard (and really, quite dated) paper advertisements the New York transit agency is fitting buses on a Manhattan route with digital screens capable of playing actual commercials (because, drivers don’t have enough distracting them, they need to look over and see a Girlicious promo playing alongside their car…). What’s more, the screens will be connected to a GPS network, allowing the ads to change depending on the location of the vehicle.
All stereotyping aside (I think the comment was made that low-incoming housing units could be visited by army ads on the sides of buses running up and down their streets; shameless, yes. Would I put it past the US Army? No.), this could actually prove quite useful, if properly implemented. Informing pedestrians that they’re right near a 7/11 or Starbucks might not only be useful marketing, it could be down right helpful(!). What’s more, it may make the city as a whole more navigable, with location-specific adverts for nearby tourism destinations.
Titan Worldwide has a sizable 2 year, $800
million contract with the NY transit agency, which hopes to see an expansion of
the digital screens to 200 buses by the first quarter of next year.
Oct
2008
We have a lot laughs here on Gadget Addiction (well, at least I do) but we need to talk about something serious for a moment; it’s about your friend. He sits there, all neglected, alone; shrouded in shadows, enamoured only with the introspective silence that permeates his dark, neglected life. His mantra long ago became his modus operandi as each evening he whispers those words he knew not from where they came: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.’ I’m talking about your house plant, you big jerk! That withering, malnourished friend that embarked on a lifelong journey with you to offset your massive carbon footprint? Yea, well, he’s dieing! Water and light, that’s all he asks, and you deny him these pitifully plain pillars of life! But hey, if ifs and buts were candy and nuts and plants had legs…wait a minute.
Pictured above is the prototype Plantbot. Not much is known about this self-mobilizing little guy, but that .GIF kind of freaks me out. Supposedly such a device ambles about finding the optimum light source as the big yellow disk in the sky goes about its daily business. Its quadruped design adds a somewhat Metal Gear air to it though, doesn’t it? What’s more, it’s kind of guilt-tripping to see a formerly dependant thing get by on its own. It’s like watching a baby get off the couch, walk over to the fridge, and grab its own bottle. Weird…
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like you’ll be seeing ‘Plantbot’ on your Wally-Mart store shelves anytime soon. The design belongs to the folks over at theplaycoalition.net; a group of imaginative designers that appear to invent for their own personal amusement and for no other reason. So, for now, that means doing things the old fashion way. So go water and hug your leafy friend and breathe a hearty breath of freshly squeezed O2.
[If you are feeling particularly bored, theplaycoalition has a few other interesting inventions worth taking in, the Plantbot being merely their latest creation.]
Source and Source
Oct
2008
Quran excerpts lead to LittleBig-Delay
Little Big Planet is a hotly anticipated PS3 exclusive title in which little rag-dolls run about trying to solve the mystery behind some contrived contraptions through teamwork, at least that’s what I gather…Well, any game enthusiast will tell you that the retail date for a blockbuster title is akin to Christmas; its something gamers truly look forward too and baring the odd oversight, games tend to land spot on their launch dates. Well, Christmas has been official delayed, at least for Little Big Planet lovers. The delay is due to a recall. The recall is due to an offensive use of the Quran; namely, passages from the text being used as lyrics in a song. The issue arose on a PlayStation Community forum in which a forum contributor expressed dissatisfaction with the usage of passages from the Quran in a song.In an email sent to Sony and game developer Media Molecule, the following sentiments were conveyed:
Oct
2008
Geeks Rejoice; Trek Flick marketing blitz
begins
Word on the street is that a snazzy new trailer for Abrams silver-screen Star Trek is due sometime in November, which will coincide with a marketing blitz of the flick on the part of the studio. Well, looks like Christmas came early for friends of the Federation as six images from the film were sent out to six different media outlets. The pics include cast shots, starships, snow, and pointy ears. The sites that received the prestigious honours are UGO, AICN, JoBlo.com, IGN, MTV, and TrekMovie. The latter has all the images collected onto one page for easy navigation.
- Dell Deals up a cheaper Xbox [Expired]
Good things come to those who wait, or so the saying goes. Whether it’s a weak economy, or Gates is hopped up on goofballs, the Xbox 360 has seen a steady decline in its retail price. And now Dell is [edit: was] offering up to $70 off a brand spanking new console; with a couple of free games and free shipping too.
The deal covered the Xbox 360 Arcade ($169), Pro ($249), and Elite ($329.99). Why am I telling you about an expired deal? Well, it expired while I wrote this article, which goes to show just how popular it was. Dell is known for recurring deals, so we’ll have to keep our eyes and ears open for next time. Nevertheless, it’s nice to know where the floor is for Xbox deals come Christmas time, and this just might be it.
- Tesla Roadster leaks; power that is
You know what’s great about electric vehicles? They’re just so damned efficient. No wasting away of precious resources, no wanton consumption of fuel; just maximum efficiency and nothing else. And that’s why it’s so puzzling that we have to hear from former Tesla CEO (and co-founder of the company) Martin Eberhard that the new Tesla Roadster positively leaks energy, a conclusion he’s documented about on his blog.
The problem arises from an ESS pump that constantly runs coolant through the battery…even when the car is off! Eberhard did some monitoring and concluded that 22% of his car’s energy was being wasted while parked. He also came up with the figure 14 kilowatt-hours; which was how much power was consumed in just four days of sitting in his garage. That’s 1,278 kWh per year. To put that figure into perspective, that’s the same amount of power consumed by two large refrigerators. So while green-gurus implore casual drinkers to give up on their wasteful beer fridges, your ‘new hotness’ of an electric car might just be working to undo all that carbon offsetting.
Oct
2008
Digital delivery they cry. We hear you,
Apple yells back. And somewhere in the distant background SanDisk can be heard,
in what’s barely a whisper; how about songs on an SD card instead?
I admire the effort, SanDisk, I really do. Here’s what they’re offering up:
Albums preloaded onto reusable SD cards; files at 320kbps and DRM free. Couple that with a $20 SlotMusic player ($35 for a brand bespeckled player) and you have a very accessible format. The player also supports regular old SD cards, which means you can purchase a rather inexpensive card and load it up with your own tunes for quick easy listening. No iTunes syncing, no registering computers for usage. And with albums priced at $15 a pop, it’s just reasonable enough to persuade the frugal crowd.
But there’s also a hefty downside. Years of iPods have basically set the standard for mp3 players, and that means text menus at the least, preferably colour. The SlotMusic player offers no feedback. And although it’s DRM free, people seem to be getting used to the idea of cutting out the middle man and buying online (evidenced by iTunes position as music retailer to the world); rousing folks to not only return to the ‘physical’ music store to purchase a brand new format might be a hard sell.
How about this, though; a niche market in the casual music listener? SD cards don’t take up much shelf space, lending themselves to counter-top displays or perhaps even vending machines. A $20 player could be a decent airport pick-up or a gas-station purchase for a road trip. Its limited feature set nearly forbids it from becoming your go-to player, but as a back-up or for casual listeners, it fits all the criteria. What’s more is that the DRM-free tunes can just as easily be loaded onto your iPod when you get back from your vacation. Thoughts?
Certainly one huge factor that’s going to determine the success of the SlotMusic format are the bands they offer. To date, the line-up is as follows (they've got some work to do...:
+ ABBA
+ Chris Brown
+ Coldplay
+ Connie Talbot
+ Daughtry
+ Don’t Quit Fitness Bundle
+ Elvis Presley
+ Five Finger Death Punch
+ Jimi Hendrix
+ Jimmy Buffet
+ Katy Perry
+ Keane
+ Kelly Clarkson
+ Kiss
+ Leona Lewis
+ Lynyrd Skynyrd
+ Metro Station
+ MIA
+ Nelly
+ New Kids On the Block
+ Ne-Yo
+ Nickelback
+ Pussycat Dolls
+ Rihanna
+ Rise Against
+ Robin Thicke
+ Saving Abel
+ Shwayze
+ Solange
+ Sugarland
+ Tim McGraw
+ Toby Keith
+ Usher
+ Weezer
+ Young Jeezy
For the official word, check out the official page.
Oct
2008
The Skinny:
MacBook Air-like aluminum styling, a glossy screen, multi-touch glass track pad that does away with buttons but brings some new gestures, 0.95-inch thickness, 5.5 pounds.
15.4-inch base model: $1999, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3MB L2 cache, 1066MHz System Bus, 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 250GB 5400 rpm HDD, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M graphics processor, 256MB GDDR3 memory
Upgrade: $2499, 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo,
6MB L2 cache, 1066MHz System Bus, 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 memory, 320GB 5400 rpm HDD,
NVIDIA GeForce 9600M graphics processor, 512MB GDDR3 memory
- On Rumours:
The ‘brick’ talk has revealed itself as an aluminum internal structuring that allows the Pro to be slimmer, stronger, and more spacious (in regards to hardware additions that is).
- Now for something completely different: Apple bashing.
Daniel Lyons over at Newsweek has a spiel
that he embarks upon despite “the risk of sounding like a grumpy old crank” for he
finds that the “Apple shtick is wearing a bit thin.” The ‘shtick’ to which he
is referring is Apple’s tendency to, I dunno, blow things out of proportion.
Whether it’s announcing a notebook upgrade via a special, invite-only event or
claiming they’ll shut down the world’s largest music retailer if you piss ‘em
off, Apple has a penchant for culling a little too much attention for footnote announcements.
Richard Shim, who is an analyst at IDC, summed things up thusly: “They're doing
a lot of things that others in the industry are doing, but they're Apple, so
it's special.”
My thoughts: tune in, or tune out. Apple has been putting
on these ‘special events’ for some time now; for some it’s like Christmas in
July (and August, September, October etc) and for others it’s drama-queen
antics that should be treated as such. Though, to be fair, for those in the
business it’s easier said than done as the Apple rhetoric coupled with the hype
can be overwhelming.
Frustrated journalists aside, the spotlight seems fixed
on Apple, and by extension, Steve Jobs. So long as they have the sway to stir
up the entire industry for a notebook upgrade announcement (which was, by and
large, what folks expected) then they might as well use it.