Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Monday, January 21, 2008
TECH: Macbook Air vs. The World
You know you hate Apple. I know that, my girlfriend knows it, and all my friends bar one (lets name him...Sam) know it too. The only thing is, they make computers so damned sexy it brings out the inner-narcissist in all of us. Well, my big huge, hairy 6ft one anyway.
Anyway, for those of you who are salivating at the thought of selling your six month old Macbook in order to buy the new Air, you may appreciate the following comparison of the Macbook Air with some of its immediate competitors: (click on the images to view the full sized ones)
Yep, the specs suck, but you know you'll be all over it when someone brings one round...
Gizmodo
And here is the rest of it
Friday, January 18, 2008
TECH: Scientists Fit Electronic Circuits On To Contact Lens - Terminator Dreams Get Resurrected
Engineers at the University of Washington have successfully created a flexible, biologically safe and wearable contact lens imprinted with an electronic circuit. Up until now, the only test subjects have been a pair of rabbits who wore them for 20 minutes without dying or entering into a post-apocalyptic burst of insanity, leaving us all to ponder a future life where we can see perfectly at night, through walls and of course, have the ability to terminate future John Conners.
Futurismic
There are many possible uses for virtual displays. Drivers or pilots could see a vehicle’s speed projected onto the windshield. Video-game companies could use the contact lenses to completely immerse players in a virtual world without restricting their range of motion. And for communications, people on the go could surf the Internet on a midair virtual display screen that only they would be able to see.
And, the engineers note, people may find many other applications they haven’t even thought of yet. (Via EurekAlert.)
So far only rabbits have worn the prototype, with no ill effects after up to twenty minutes. The engineers plan to add wireless communication to and from the lens, along with built-on solar cells and the capability to use radio-frequency power. The prototype doesn’t light up, but a version with a basic display showing a few pixels could be operational soon.
Monday, January 7, 2008
TECH: 50 Free Websites To Watch Online Movies / TV
So you don't have cable, you don't live in the US or UK (where there actually is TV worth watching) and you haven't worked out where all the good stuff is on the Internet. No promises all of the links will work or the quality will be good, but here's what you've been looking for, misers:
And don't you dare accuse me of perpetuating piracy. No really, don't.
Click to read more
Sunday, January 6, 2008
TECH: Time Warner Sides With Blu-ray - Toshiba & HD-DVD Weep For The Future
Blahblahblah we've heard all this before I know. What makes this announcement so different is that now there is only one major studio backing HD-DVD in the High-Definition DVD war. This is the crudest analysis ever, but at least it allows you to see what Toshiba, Microsoft and Universal / Dreamworks are up against:
So if you've just recently purchased one of those super-cheap $199 Toshiba HD-DVD players, in about 12 months time you may find yourself with a machine that can't play any new movies. Until then, Warner Bros will keep selling HD-DVDs until May, 2008. With four out of the six major Hollywood studios backing Blu-ray, the writing is on the wall for HD-DVDs, mark my words...
Ripten has an in-depth look at the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD situation
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
TECH: RIAA Says Copying CDs Onto Your PC Is "Illegal"
A man who kept a collection of about 2,000 music recordings on his PC - all ripped from his collection of CDs, has been confronted with the news (along with the rest of us) that this is apparently illegal. So, you've bought that $25 CD and you have absolutely no legal way of copying it to your PC and then onto your MP3 player. Nope. None at all.
The RIAA's lawyer in the case, Ira Schwartz, argued in a brief filed earlier this month that the MP3 files the man had made on his computer from legally bought CDs were "unauthorized copies" of copyrighted recordings.
The Washington Post has more after the jump
Sunday, December 16, 2007
TECH: Turn Your LCD / TV Into A Touch Screen With a Wii-mote
This is pretty cool. That is, if you like dissecting electronic things and potentially destroying every new toy you buy.
More on this project here
And here is the rest of it
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Death of Gaming Part 3: Gamespot Editor Gets Fired Over Bad Review
(Click on the image above for PennyArcade's comic)
By now you may or may not have heard of how Jeff Gerstmann, Editorial Director of huge-flashy-corporate-gaming-for-teens website Gamespot, was fired last week. What you may not know is why: apparently publisher Eidos Interactive threatened to pull the plug on a massive advertising campaign after Gerstmann dished out a low 6/10 review score to the rather mediocre Kane & Lynch: Dead Men -published by, yep, Eidos Interactive.
More after the jump below.
CNET (parent company of Gamespot), immediately issued an official statement declaring:
"For over a decade, Gamespot and the many members of its editorial team have produced thousands of unbiased reviews that have been a valuable resource for the gaming community. At CNET Networks, we stand behind the editorial content that our teams produce on a daily basis"
Eidos threatens to pull the plug
Eidos reportedly threatened to pull a massive advertising campaign for Kane & Lynch if the "tone" of Gerstmann's 6/10 review wasn't changed. Apparently Gerstmann did in fact alter his review but it obviously wasn't enough to appease the demi-gods over at Eidos or CNET.
When asked about the situation, Eidos declined comment, "Eidos is not able to comment on another company's policies and procedures," said a company representative.
Sarah Cain, a spokesperson for CNET, did say,“We do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers,”
Aw, isn't that nice to hear?
Gamespot digs an even deeper hole?
Now there is news of how Eidos is deleting hundreds of user complaints from its forums, citing: “There will be no further discussion”, an Eidos forum administrator bluntly warned visitors, describing the complaints as “ugly spam”.
Alex Navarro, an Editor for Gamespot had this to say on the state of CNET:
"Remember SimCity? Remember what a joy it was to build up a fully functioning, living, breathing city, full of life and wonderment? Then, at some point down the road, after you've built up your city to the peak of its productiveness, you'd start mashing the disaster button and a wide variety of tornadoes, earthquakes, and fake Godzillas would come tromping through, laying fiery waste to every bit of what you'd worked so painstakingly to create? Yeah. It's a little bit like that. Except someone hit the disaster button for me."
What does this all mean?
Not much really. Unless you're seriously misguided or just an eternally annoying optimist, you were probably able to put two and two together just after you'd left university and realized that;
a) The world wasn't quite as rosy as you thought for the first 21 years of your life
and
b) Its all about advertising, marketing and PR, baby....its all about that.
What can you do?
If you happen to be a reader or subscriber to anything related to CNET at all, you can stop reading and cancel any subscriptions as a way to voice your displeasure at this whole debacle. Just know that there aren't that many other sites out there who don't practise something similar already. CNET / Gamespot just got sloppy on this one, but don't expect IGN, 1UP or any of the other big sites to play any fairer.
Highlights from Gerstmann's review of Kane & Lynch:
Story and characterization
“It's impossible to care about anything that's going on in the story, because every single character in the game is almost completely unlikeable. There's no one to root for here, not even in a cool anti-hero sort of way. You're just left with a bunch of really ugly characters that just become impossible to care about over time”
“The dialog's not particularly great, though the voice acting's not bad, but really the problem is that every third word out of every character's mouth is the F-word... it's great when properly used, but here it's just so done to death... it just becomes a real crutch and stands out as just kind of lazy.”
“But it's not the story and the premise that are going to drive you away from Kane & Lynch Dead Men, the gameplay itself also has more than its share of flaws”
Gameplay flaws
A system for taking cover from enemy fire behind objects is “a real pain that you just never use because it's kind of a hassle”
“The squad tactics... don't work very well because the AI on both sides of the game is really pretty flawed”
“The enemies get stuck on cars and run in circles and do all kinds of dumb stuff. So that's not much fun either”
The game's multiplayer mode is “a really neat idea, but unfortunately that idea plays out in the context of Kane & Lynch, so it has most of the same problems that the story mode has”
Conclusion
“Probably not worth purchasing”
Saturday, November 24, 2007
PS3: Sony Lying About PS3 Sales?
"It's the breakthrough we've been anticipating," he said. "We've been holding our breath."
The company reported that the PS3 has been selling about 35,000 consoles per week. Following the 80GB price cut, the company reported its sales rose to 75,000 in a week while the new 40GB model pushed it up to 100,000.
Now we have Bloomberg saying that the figure of 100,000 sales is actually the total number of Sony consoles sold for the week including the PS2. DOh. Way to go Sony. (Ed. Way to go 1UP!)
Friday, November 16, 2007
Think That Game Is Running In Full High-Def?
Think again.
Remember all those Microsoft and Sony adverts decreeing the death of standard-definition gaming? How the buzz words 720p and 1080p got hurled around like confetti at a fat, overpaid groom's wedding? How Samsung, LG, and Sharp, amongst others, made us think we needed Full HD LCD TV sets? Here's the truth for all you gaming-graphics-whores: Most games don't even render at 720p, let alone 1080p.
That LCD you splurged $3,000 for? Hardly being used. That $599 PS3 you shelled out for? Forget the whole HDMI-1080p hype. Click below to find out just how many games actually use the full HD spec...and then weep.
Here are two of the very latest games to be advertised as Full HD:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) 1024×600p 2xAA
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) 1024×600p 2xAA
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (PS3) 960×1080 in 1080p
Neither Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare or Uncharted run in the actual resolutions that are stated on the back of the box.
The reason most developers do this is to allow for more visual effects to be rendered on-screen without slowing the game down. Trying to code and develop a game with "next-gen" visuals, full-screen anti-aliasing, post-processing, and anisotropic filtering in full 1080p resolution is an incredibly difficult and time-consuming process. Even Sony's much-fabled Killzone 2 slated for release in 2008 won't be running at 1080p, but rather 720p.
Most gamers won't really notice the difference (did you before I posted this? No, didn't think so) but its still an interesting, if not contentious point to note, and one to definitely take on board next time you see gimmicky buzz words being bandied about. More from the pixel counter at Beyond3D.
Def Jam: Icon (PS3) 1152×648
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (PS3) 1920×1080 FullHD
Transformers (PS3) 960×1080
Pirates of the Caribbean (PS3 720p): 960×720
Pirates of the Caribbean (PS3 1080p): 780×1080
Oblivion (360): 1024×600 (PS3 version is full 720p)
ICO (PS2): 512×224p (less than Tekken on PS1 at 512×240)
VF5 (PS3 720p): 1024×1024 (same as 360)
VF5 (PS3 1080p): 1024×768
Some older games from the same thread:
Full Auto 2: 1920×1080 AA 4x, bad framerate - PS3
NBA Street: 1920×1080 AA 4x (30-60fps) - 360
LocoRoco Cocoreccho 1920×1080 MSAA 2x -PS3
Tony Hawk Project 8: 1040×584 AA - 360
Tony Hawk Project 8: 1280×720 - PS3
Virtua Tennis 3: 1920×1080 AA 2x - PS3, 360
XMB: 1920×1080p - PS3
Dashboard: 1280×720p - 360
Perfect Dark Zero: 1138×640p - 360
Halo 3: 1152×640p - 360
Call of Duty 3: 1120×630p 360
Ninja Gaiden Sigma: 1280×720p PS3
Project Gotham Racing 3: 1024×600 360
Tomb Raider: 1024×600 360
Ridge Racer 7:
NBA 07: 1920×1080 - PS3
NBA 08: 1920×1080 - PS3
Tony Hawk Proving Ground: 600p - PS3
Tony Hawk Proving Ground: 720p - 360
GRAW2: 720p - PS3
GRAW2: 720p AA 2x - 360
Super Rub a Dub: 1600×1080 - PS3
GTHD: 1440×1080 - PS3
Super Stardust HD: 1280×1080 - PS3
Skate: 1536×864 - PS3
Skate: 1280×720 AA - 360
Bioshock: 1280×720 - 360
Harry Potter: 1280×720 MSAA 2x PS3 ?
Pixel Junk Racers: 1920×1080 PS3
Heavenly Sword: 1280×720 AA 4x PS3
Blast Factor Demo: 1920×1080 PS3
The Darkness Demo: 1024×576 PS3
There you have it. Sucks doesn't it?
Source
Thursday, November 1, 2007
TECH: OS X 10.5 Leopard Coverage
Engadget has an in-depth review and mounds of coverage of Apple's latest OS X operating system. For anyone who has a Mac and is looking to upgrade, be sure to check it out. The beta version had some nice touches, and the final version no doubt sets OS X further beyond the reach of Windows Vista.
Read via Engadget
And here is the rest of it
TECH: Eye-Fi Wireless SD Memory Card
Its been a while since Eye-Fi first mentioned word of their wireless memory card, but here it is at last. Able to transfer pictures, images and just about anything else directly from the memory card to a PC or Mac. At the moment the card is available with just 2Gb, but expect that to increase as the product stays in the market. Interesting...
Read via Adorama
Eye-Fi, a California-based company, announced this morning what they say is the world's first wireless SD memory card for digital cameras. The 2GB card, which will retail for around $99, is said to make it possible to send photos wirelessly from a digital camera to a Wi-Fi-enabled Mac or PC using wireless networks (also known as "hot spots"). The card works with any current SD-compatible camera, and will automatically upload photos onto pre-selected social networking sites or on-line photo labs when the camera is turned on. The feature, if it works as promised, could very well save photographers time spent uploading images to computers and then to web sites. The card is expected to be available immediately.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
TECH: Asus Debuts its $299 Eee PC Notebook
This is a bit late, but better than never. Last week Asus launched their newest endeavor in the sub-notebook (read: tiny laptop) market dubbed the "Eee PC". Laptop Mag have already called this "pound for pound the best value notebook on the planet". And running at the same price as most mobile phones, there could well be a lot of people interested in this. Mind you, it doesn't run Windows or OSX, its missing a DVD drive, stacks up with only 4Gb of hard drive space and only has a teeny 7" LCD - but it does come with Wi-Fi, and its minus Windows - what more could you want from a laptop thats smaller than the size and weight of a hardback?
Read via LaptopMag
TECH: Asus Debuts its $299 Eee PC Notebook
This is a bit late, but better than never. Last week Asus launched their newest endeavor in the sub-notebook (read: tiny laptop) market dubbed the "Eee PC". Laptop Mag have already called this "pound for pound the best value notebook on the planet". And running at the same price as most mobile phones, there could well be a lot of people interested in this. Mind you, it doesn't run Windows or OSX, its missing a DVD drive, stacks up with only 4Gb of hard drive space and only has a teeny 7" LCD - but it does come with Wi-Fi, and its minus Windows - what more could you want from a laptop thats smaller than the size and weight of a hardback?
Read via LaptopMag
And here is the rest of it
TECH: How Vinyl May Be The Final Nail In The Coffin For The CD
One of the Wired blogs has an interesting article on how vinyl is going through a renaissence, and what that might mean for the recording industry (i.e. not much, its just a 6-month hipster trend, right?). Unfortunately, the article doesn't really tell us anything we didn't already know - i.e. vinyls are strictly for the very nerdy, very rich, or those looking for another trend to call their own. Regardless, time to dust off those 1200s!
Read via Wired
Saturday, October 27, 2007
TECH: Dreamworks / Paramount Caught Out in Transformers Boast?
Read via DeadlineHollywoodDaily
TECH: Apple To Restrict Would-be iPhone Buyers
By refusing cash sales and limiting customers to just two handsets each, in a bid to control the rampant black-market exports that have made it possible for users in iPhone-less countries to pick up their own iPhones. Boo. Hiss.
Read: LA Times article
And here is the rest of it
Thursday, October 25, 2007
TECH: Video Card Being Used to Crack Passwords
Vladimir thought he would finally put his mother's grumblings about staying up and playing computer games to rest by finding a real use for his $800 Geforce 8800 Ultra video card. Sadly, he's just hacked into your email account, mine and everyone else in your block in the time its taken to read this post. Doh!
Elcomsoft, a software company based in Moscow, Russia, has filed a US patent for the technique. It takes advantage of the "massively parallel processing" capabilities of a graphics processing unit (GPU) - the processor normally used to produce realistic graphics for video games.
Using an $800 graphics card from nVidia called the GeForce 8800 Ultra, Elcomsoft increased the speed of its password cracking by a factor of 25, according to the company's CEO, Vladimir Katalov.
More after the jump below
* 12:27 24 October 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Andrew Brandt
A technique for cracking computer passwords using inexpensive off-the-shelf computer graphics hardware is causing a stir in the computer security community.
Elcomsoft, a software company based in Moscow, Russia, has filed a US patent for the technique. It takes advantage of the "massively parallel processing" capabilities of a graphics processing unit (GPU) - the processor normally used to produce realistic graphics for video games.
Using an $800 graphics card from nVidia called the GeForce 8800 Ultra, Elcomsoft increased the speed of its password cracking by a factor of 25, according to the company's CEO, Vladimir Katalov.
The toughest passwords, including those used to log in to a Windows Vista computer, would normally take months of continuous computer processing time to crack using a computer's central processing unit (CPU). By harnessing a $150 GPU - less powerful than the nVidia 8800 card - Elcomsoft says they can cracked in just three to five days. Less complex passwords can be retrieved in minutes, rather than hours or days.
It is the way a GPU processes data that provides the speed increase. NVidia spokesman Andrew Humber describes the process using the analogy of searching for words in a book. "A [normal computer processor] would read the book, starting at page 1 and finishing at page 500," he says. "A GPU would take the book, tear it into a 100,000 pieces, and read all of those pieces at the same time."
Benjamin Jun, of Cryptography Research based in San Francisco, US, says massively parallel processing is ideally suited to the task of breaking passwords. And, while concerned about the development, Jun also pays tribute to the achievement: "A number of us have been following advances in those platforms, and there's a lot of elegant, intelligent design."
Password cracking can be used to unlock data on a computer, but will not usually work on a banking or commercial website. This is because is takes too long to run through multiple passwords, and because a site will normally block a user after several failed attempts.
Jun adds that the trend towards encrypting whole hard drives with increasingly long cryptographic keys still means it is becoming more difficult to access sensitive data. "Should I throw away my web server and run for the hills?" he says. "I don't think so."
NVidia released a software development kit for its graphics hardware in February 2007. Known as CUDA, the kit lets programmers access the computing power of the GPU directly. It has gained a following among those with a need for high-performance computing, particularly in fields such as science and engineering.
"[CUDA] is a huge thing for the oil and gas industry, for the financial sector, and for scientists," Humber says. He adds that CUDA is also be being used by a company called Evolved Machines to simulate the way the human brain wires itself.
Elcomsoft says it took three months to develop code to take advantage of a GPU, and the company plans to introduce the feature into some of its password cracking products over time.
New Scientist Technology
Monday, October 22, 2007
TECH: Samsung Shows Off World's Slimmest 40" LCD At 10mm
In keeping with the propensity for big Korean / Japanese manufacturers to try and out-do each other in the realm of slimmest / largest / longest / widest, Samsung has unveiled the world's slimmest 40" 1080p LCD at just 10mm. No doubt Panasonic, Sony, Sharp or someone else will come out with a 8.88mm panel in a few months. Or weeks. Scratch that, make it days.
And here is the rest of it
TECH: Blu-Ray / HD-DVD War Heats Up
With the release of the $399 40Gb PS3 last week, and rumors of an upcoming Xbox 360 with integrated HD-DVD drive, is it really time for us all to abandon the ol' faithful DVD for the new HD-wunderkids that are appearing now?
In short, no. $400 for an HD drive is still simply too expensive for the masses to take up - give us a $99 HD-DVD / Blu-Ray player and then we'll start to see the death of the DVD by way of that other ol' faithful, the VHS. Till then, there's a distinct lack of 1080p LCDs in people's homes and upscaling DVD players to get past.
Sci-Fi.com has more on this, with an in-depth analysis of the state of the HD "war".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
