Recent Comments:
Nintendo finally confirms new $199 Wii price {Engadget}
Sep 24th 2009 3:56PM This really makes me mad. When will companies learn that $1 ≠ €1 ≠ £1?
€199.99 is $293 at the current exchange rates!
Windows 7's virtual XP has intangible system requirements {Engadget}
Apr 29th 2009 1:43PM Does this remind anyone else of the Virtualisation of Mac OS 9 in older Mac OS X versions. Ah fond days of "Classic".
Wind-powered vehicle hits 126MPH, nabs world record {Engadget}
Mar 28th 2009 12:33AM Ah it took so long to write that that loads of people got there before me!
I should have said that this results in a direction of 76.2 degrees. Thanks to Tim above for seeing this ( I am glad our numbers agree!).
It's also worth noting, as others have done, that I am assuming no friction in these calculations. In reality, it is very difficult to achieve this kind of speed from wind because of friction.
Wind-powered vehicle hits 126MPH, nabs world record {Engadget}
Mar 28th 2009 12:28AM This will take a bit of explaining since I don't have a diagram so please, bear with me.
It might be easier to visualise components if you imagine a pixel grid on a screen. To make a vertical line, you move up five pixels. To make a horizontal line you move across five pixels. But to make a diagonal line you must move across five pixels then up fixe pixels and join up the result. This isn't directly analogous but it gives you an idea.
First we assume North/South is up/down and East/West is across. We will be using the equation:
(Vertical component) = (car's velocity) * sin(angle between the car's direction and the horizontal)
Imagine the wind is travelling 30MPH North. If the car travels North too then it can expect to reach about 30MPH (excluding frictional forces). At this point the vertical component of its velocity is 30MPH and the horizontal component is 0MPH. However when the car is at 15MPH, the vert. is 15MPH and the horiz. 0MPH, but the wind speed (north) is still 30MPH vertically so the car will accelerate until the vertical component of its velocity matches that of the wind.
Now we move the car so that it is, for example pointing North-East (angle 45 deg.). When it is moving 30MPH North-East, its vertical component is 30*sin(45) = 21.2MPH, so it will accelerate until its vertical component matches that of the wind. In this case that's 30MPH so we can work out by rearrangement of that formula the car will be travelling 30/sin(45) = 42.4MPH.
So, for the car to be travelling 126MPH, with a vertical component of 30MPH, its angle from the horizontal will be roughly:
sin^(-1)(30/126) = 13.8 degrees.
To summarise: if the wind direction is North, the the car will have been travelling 14ish degrees above East to achieve this kind of speed.
I hope this helps you to understand even a little! Reply if you need any more info.
--nimro
Secret iPhone video-out features hacked, used for video games {Engadget}
Dec 5th 2008 5:17PM If you read the article through the "read" link, you would have seen this:
"In the normal game, the gas button is touch controlled to allow you to accelerate. In this demo, the same button is hardwired down so all you need to control is driving. These shortcuts allowed Freeverse to create a working tech demo within their time constraints and really show what the iPhone video out features were capable of."
Please do try and read before you post.
Apple admits to lost MobileMe messages, bad karma {Engadget}
Jul 26th 2008 1:45PM I think this engadget post: http://www.engadget.com/2008/07/16/apple-apologizes-for-its-mobileme-mess-admits-bungle-on-push/ says it all.
Basically they gave everyone an extra month free of charge.
Here's the Call of Duty: World at War trailer {Joystiq}
Jun 22nd 2008 1:28PM Lord Bowser,
surely you admit that evolution is a slow process. So you must see that the depth of thought and narrative behind FPS will increase, but not immediately.
As for the current generation, many of the popular FPS games at the moment have a more than adequate storyline behind them, for example Bioshock and the Halo Universe. Take Halo as an example: if you just batter through the game, you won't catch much more than the basic "here are some badguys to shoot" motivation behind most FPS. However if you take the _time_ to explore each of the games, finding all the hidden dialogue and meaning, and read the (unfortunately poorly written) books and all the articles around the web you will see the huge depth that went into making it.
If you watch the ViDocs and the bonus materials you can see how Bungie had to balance the storyline and the gameplay; how they had to give and take between depth and keeping the attention of those with limited concentration.
I'm personally looking forward to the next installments of Bioshock in the hope they will shed more light on its story.
Here's the Call of Duty: World at War trailer {Joystiq}
Jun 22nd 2008 1:06PM @ Korova
No-ones forcing anyone to buy CoD, or any game for that matter. If you have a problem with a game, a film, or even a book you can just leave is on the shelf and buy a different one.
Intempo Rebel records songs from FM radio, freaks out RIAA {Engadget}
Jun 21st 2008 5:21PM @ fanman
Remember though that that clause is only for the purpose of _time shifting_ a broadcast, so this device is probably in a bit of a grey area (you would have to be able to prove that you were recording for the purpose of listening at a more convenient time).
Nikon readying D90 for launch? {Engadget}
Jun 15th 2008 4:16PM I concur, this image has been 'shopped!
Still looking forward to the D90 though.
