Archivi giornalieri: 28/04/2011
Plextor PL-LB950UE Blu-ray burner lands in the US with heady mix of USB 3.0 speed and double-layer storage
Europeans have been able to bag this speedy external writer for a few months now, but it’s only just received its Green Card — turning up in the US with a suitcase full of dreams and a price tag of $239.99. A quick check of its CV resume reveals a choice of either USB 3.0 or eSATA connectivity, 12x write speed, and the ability to burn up to 50GB of data on a dual-layer disc. The drive is being pitched as an “all-in-one Blu-ray device” because it also handles 3D playback and has a low vibration system for quieter operation. Admittedly, it only offers half as much storage as BDXL writers, but those burn slower and onto judderingly expensive media. Closer competition comes from Buffalo, which arrived early to the USB 3.0 table, but whose current MediaStation model omits the eSATA option.
Yamaha doubles down on PAS CITY electric bicycle battery longevity
The biggest problem with electric bicycles? All of that pesky pedaling. Thankfully, some of the world’s top engineering minds are innovating all sorts of ways to lighten that load. Like Yamaha Motors, whose new PAS CITY-X, PAS CITY-C, and PAS Compact feature amped up batteries that can be charged twice as many times as their predecessors. You’ll get somewhere from 10 to 15 miles on a charge, depending on the setting — unfortunately not quite far enough for us to ride one back home to the States. The models will hit their native country on May 20th, at ¥106,800 ($1,299) for the CITY-X and ¥103,800 ($1,262) for the City-C and City-Compact models. Between the improved battery life and all of that artificial intelligence though, these things clearly won’t have much use for us in the near future.
Acer Aspire Z5763 all-in-one comes with 3D screen, promises Kinect-like gesture control over movies
Sure, it may look just like any of Acer’s other all-in-one desktops, but this one’s got a few tricks up its sleeves — the Acer Aspire Z5763 spits out stereoscopic 3D images to a set of NVIDIA 3D Vision specs, and uses its 2 megapixel webcam for a Kinect-like gesture recognition system that Acer’s calling “AirControl.” As you’ll probably know if you’ve recently spent any time considering a 3D-ready computer, that means it’s got a 23-inch, 120Hz LCD screen that displays content at 1080p, and here you’ll find it accompanied by Intel’s latest Sandy Bridge processors, NVIDIA GeForce GT 440 or 435M graphics, a Blu-ray drive, up to 2TB of storage and 16GB of DDR3 memory, as well as built-in stereo speakers with several flavors of virtual surround sound, an optional TV tuner and loads of connectivity. What you won’t find is any pricing or availability for the USA, but if you’re living in merry old England you can pick up the rig next month for £999 (about $1,650).
Jeremy Cowart A Portrait Of Jesus With Photography and Pastels (Video)
This video is a little different than anything we’ve posted before but I figured it would be enjoyed by those of you who are celebrating Easter. Jeremy Cowart is one of the hottest American photographers right now and his portfolio is absolutely sick! But in this video he is creating a rather unique portrait of Jesus using pastels, photoshop, stock images, and random elements from snap shots. The amount of effort that went into this portrait is quite remarkable, and almost every texture is so subtle you would never know half of what went into making this image just by looking at it. It’s pretty exciting to see such a well respected photographer pushing his own craft in a way that is so different than what he does on a daily basis. The second video below shows Jeremy making a portrait of Tom Yorke in this same style.
Jesus Portrait:
The (Portrait) Eraser
Sony ammette il furto di importanti informazioni personali dal PSN!
Il PlayStation Network è inaccessibile da ormai più di una settimana e i giocatori iniziano a non sopportare questa situazione. All’impossibilità di giocare in rete si aggiunge anche quella relativa ai tutti quei giochi che, per un motivo o per un altro, hanno bisogno di connettersi al network per avviarsi, fattore questo che rende impossibile da giocare alcuni titoli, anche offline.
A diversi giorni di distanza dalla disattivazione dei servizi PSN e Qriocity, Sony si è finalmente decisa a dare una spiegazione abbastanza chiara e completa a tutti gli utenti. E ciò che ne risulta è assolutamente spiacevole.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops su Xbox Live Games On Demand
É ufficiale: l’ormai famosissimo e annuale Call Of Duty sta per arrivare nella sua ultima incarnazione anche sullo store On Demand di Xbox Live.
Call Of Duty: Black Ops arriverà in digitale il 3 maggio, ovvero lo stesso giorno di rilascio del nuovo DLC Escalation Map Pack in esclusiva temporale su Xbox Live al prezzo di 1200 Microsoft Points.
Non si hanno notizie relative al prezzo, ma vi avvertiremo non appena ne avremo.
Stay tuned!
MusicFX cambia l’esperienza musicale su Android
MusicFX è un’applicazione dedicata al mondo della musica e degli effetti che grazie al suo equalizzatore e ai vari tweaks offerti dal programma permette di sbloccare e di ottenere un’esperienza musicale diversa e interessante.
Grazie al pannello di controllo LifeVibes MusicFX sblocca gli effetti audio nell’ultima versione di Android, offrendo una ricca esperienza 3D in cuffia (effetto stereo e riverbero), bass boost e equalizzatore tutto in modo automatico subito dopo l’installazione.
L’equalizzatore offre diversi preset quali (Classica, Dance, Rock, Pop, ecc) assieme a 5 bande disponibili e alla barra di regolazione dell’effetto 3D personalizzabile dall’utente.
MusicFX sfrutta quindi la naturale estensione del lettore musicale di Android ed è anche compatibile con altri lettori multimediali che supportano il nuovo pannello, per offrire un pò più di qualità agli amanti dell’audio in cuffia.
SocialCamera, l’app Android per condividere e taggare velocemente le foto su Facebook
La società Viewdle ha lanciato un applicazione per Android chiamata SocialCamera che consente agli utenti di codificare istantaneamente le foto, aggiungere didascali e condividerle su Facebook, Flick, e-mail etc..
SocialCam è gratuito ed è ancora in fase beta, il suo funzionamento è molto semplice. La prima volta che lo si utilizza dovremo individuare i nostri amici su Facebook dopo di che l’applicazione sarà in grado di rilevarli automaticamente. Da sottolineare che l’applicazione richiede un terminale con almeno android 2.x ed un processore da 1 Ghz.
Viewdle è stata fondata nel 2007 e lo scorso ottobre ha sollevato 10 milioni dollari nel finanziamento di serie B da un gruppo di investitori tra cui Best Buy , BlackBerry Partners Fund e Qualcomm e questa è l’affermazione di Jason Mitura,Viewdle‘s chief product officer:
Samsung Galaxy S II begins quest for 120 country domination
How do you best 10 million in sales of your flagship Galaxy S smartphone? Easy, do what the movie studios do and launch a bigger-budget sequel to an even wider audience. Samsung is holding a media day event in South Korea to celebrate the domestic launch of its smokin’ fast Galaxy S II handset. The dual-core 1.2GHz Gingerbread handset with 4.27-inch 800 x 480 pixel Super AMOLED Plus display, TouchWiz 4.0 UI, MHL port, and 8 megapixel camera capable of 1080p video is already on limited sale in the UK on its way to a 120 country / 140 carrier invasion — that’s plus 10 countries over the initial Galaxy S target. Naturally, we expect variants of the S II, with and without NFC, hit all the US majors just like the Galaxy S did in its day. Stay tuned to see if our very positive first impressions of this gorgeous 8.49-mm thick superphone carry over to the review — should be up later today.
Pioneer HDJ-500T-K cans uncoil, answer your phone calls
That stretchy, coiled headphone cord might be cool for the club, but sometimes you need to straighten up, fly right, and answer a few phone calls. Enter Pioneer’s HDJ-500T-K DJ headphones. These cans are effectively a standard re-issue of the regular HDJ-500 series, but adding a new swappable straight cord with a microphone and answer button. DJ with the (also included) extendable coiled leash, or enjoy leisure listening and hands-free calling with the straight cord. Pretty simple. Look for these in May for $145, and hit the break for the full press release.
Sharp walk-in display over-stimulates 32 guests at a time in Japanese theme park
We’ve seen plenty of building-sized televisions — like the 80,000-square-foot ceiling screen in Beijing, or that record-breaking monstrosity that the Cowboys installed in Dallas — but those single-dimension LCD’s have nothing on this “5D” cube opening on Friday. Constructed from 156 Sharp 60-inch HD displays, the 5D Miracle Tour can only be found at Huis Ten Bosch, a “residential-style resort built after a medieval 17th-century Dutch town” located in Sasebo City, Japan. The unique attraction accommodates 32 guests at a time, and consists of one main front screen, surrounded by additional panels on the top, bottom, left and right. Lasting eight minutes, the tour presents the story of a mermaid named Sirena, though content will occasionally change — given the transient nature of mermaids, of course. We’ve only been able to dream of the modern-day curiosities we’d encounter while visiting 17th-century Holland, but we certainly hope this magical place won’t elude us the next time we’re near Nagasaki.
Google Docs gets an Android app, we go hands-on with tiny spreadsheets (video)
Staring at spreadsheets crushed down to unreadable sizes on a 4-inch phone screen is far from pleasurable but, clearly there is a demand. In fact, we’ve been clamoring for a proper Google Docs app for ages, even though sometimes we’re not entirely sure why. It was only a matter of time before Google finally got around to appeasing us mobile workaholics and put an official app in the Android Market. Well, our masochistic prayers were answered — the Mighty Goog unleashed the new, native Google Docs for Android app and we rushed on over to the Market, clicked the install button, and gave it a whirl.
RIM to launch 6.1 update as BlackBerry 7 OS at BlackBerry World next week?
CrackBerry has just dropped word via “numerous sources” that RIM will be revealing the next iteration of its mobile OS at the fast approaching BlackBerry World conference — and no, it’s still not QNX. Despite consistent rumblings that upcoming devices like the Bold Touch, and Monaco would be launching with OS 6.1, it seems that RIM has decided to re-brand the update completely as BlackBerry 7, perhaps to increase the value proposition and differentiate new devices being announced along with it. However, the site also speculates that current phones running BB6 may not get any BB7 action right off the bat — which could make sense, given that new features like NFC are only present in upcoming devices. All this is naturally unconfirmed, but if this is indeed yet another version of the BlackBerry OS, well, that certainly won’t help the platform get any more developer love.
LG Optimus Big brings a 4.3-inch NOVA display and 1GHz dual-core to the superphone party
What’s big, mostly white, and set for a Korean launch tomorrow? That’s right, the LG Optimus Big! This 4.3-inch whopper, LG’s largest handset to date, touts a 1GHz dual-core processor, a slightly skinned Android 2.2 as its OS, HDMI output, a 5 megapixel camera, and 16GB of built-in storage. That spec sheet sounds mighty close to the elder Optimus 2X that launched earlier in the year, though a couple of items have also been borrowed from the still unreleased Optimus Black. They are the NOVA display, which can crank all the way up to 700 nits of brightness, and WiFi Direct, which allows for wireless inter-device communication without the need for an intermediary WiFi access point. This big, delicious spec sandwich is hitting its home market on April 28th, but there’s sadly no word on when and where else it might show up. Just keep an eye out for it, shouldn’t be that hard to spot.
Rogers announces 150Mbps LTE launch in four Canadian cities this year
Rogers has announced it’s lighting up 150Mbps LTE in four Canadian cities this year. Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver are setting the stage for an additional 21 market rollout in 2012. Sure, that theoretical 150Mbps — with an announced upstream of 70Mbps — may shift a whole lot when this all gets real, but seriously, compared to HSPA+ those speeds are astounding. Canadians eager to get a bit more info can take a peek at Roger’s new LTE site (link below) and cast a vote for your hometown to be part of the 2012 expansion. Rogers hasn’t mentioned a date just yet — or if they plan on all four areas going live at once — but you can be sure that we’ll be keeping close tabs on all the details and grabbing some hands-on experiences with launch devices as soon as we can.
Epix brings its thousands of movies to Google TV; apps for Android, Roku and Playbook on the way
While some video providers are moving away from Google TV, Roku and the Playbook, and Netflix still has yet to officially release its movie streaming app on any Android devices, the Epix channel is going all in. Following its “Big on Any Screen” slogan, it will roll out apps on a slew of devices over the second quarter beyond its current Flash player. The Google TV portal is already up and running as seen above and apps are on the way for “Android tablets and phones from HTC, LG and Motorola” — we’ve pinged to see if this will be device exclusive but haven’t received a response yet — the BlackBerry Playbook, Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players and Roku streaming players. Not listed in the press release is anything iOS, but Epix confirmed it is working on an app that is waiting for Apple’s approval. Not familiar with the channel? It has over 3,000 movies from Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM plus original programs and live events that is available via your cable or satellite TV provider and launched with an HBO Go-style online component. Verizon FiOSis apparently on deck to help push the new apps, check out the rest of the details in the press release after the break.
Google Docs gets an Android app, lets you capture text with your phone's camera
Google launches Chrome 11, flat icon is here to stay
Firefox 4? Too furry. Internet Explorer 9? Too blue. Google’s Chrome? Just the right amount of shine — or is it? The company introduced a flat new logo for the browser and now that logo is gracing the software’s latest stable release. Chrome 11 is now available, the biggest changes being a number of security and bug fixes, some of which “may be kept private until a majority of our users are up to date with the fix.” The new version also delivers speech-to-text and, perhaps more importantly, text-to-speech. There are other enhancements too, but really you’ve probably already left us to update. Are you still there? Hello?
Cool Leaf keyboard's shiny, buttonless future gets release date
Keyboards get really gross, really fast, especially when you eat around them. It’s a problem the backlit, buttonless Cool Leaf doesn’t have to contend with, since it doesn’t have any pores for crud to fall into and is easily wiped off with a wet cloth. The lovely mirrored peripheral will be hitting Japanese retailers on May 13th at an unknown price that we expect to be around 20,000 yen ($245) — steep, not to mention the cost of repairing sprained fingers after an all night term paper writeathon. The Cool Leaf will only be available in a Japanese language, Windows-compatible version at launch, though other languages — including US English — and a Mac-friendly variety have also been announced, so the rest of us may have a wait a little longer for the future to arrive.
Fring Group Video goes live, enables four-way mobile video calls for free (Video)
If you missed the opportunity to get your hands on Fring’s limited Group Video beta, fret not, because the free service has just gone live for everyone on this planet. What this means is that all Fringsters on compatible iOS 4.x and Android 1.5+ devices (1GHz and above recommended) can now have up to three friends on one video call, and as before, you can do so over either WiFi, 3G, or 4G. Hit your nearest app market for the software update to join the fun, and head past the break to see how Group Video works.
