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Dark Legacy hits 100
Congrats to my favorite WoW online comic, Dark Legacy-- they just recently posted their 100th comic! If you haven't been reading (and shame on you), the characters all just quaffed from the Fountain of Youth with some unexpected consequences. And yes, the punchline quirk has actually been fixed in the game, but we'll give them a break on this one-- it's their 100th comic.Congrats again, DL-- here's to 100 more!
Miyamoto nominated for Time 100
In 2004 it was Ken Kutaragi. In 2005 it was the Halo designers. In 2006 it was ... no one.Yes, Time's last list of the 100 most influential people in the world broke from tradition and didn't feel the need to include anyone from the game industry. While nobodies like Nicolas Ghesquiere and Rain got coveted spots on the list, the leaders of a $12.5 billion industry got bupkis.Luckily, you can help rectify this situation. Yes, you, as Time's person of the year, can go independently rate the nearly 200 candidates who are being considered for the 2007 list, including Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. As of this posting, Miyamoto is ranked 60th, between Indra Nooyi and Albert Osterhaus (a.k.a. two people you've never heard of) with 113 votes and an average rating of 75 out of 100.The ranking system is based on total points accrued, not the average, so more votes equals a better rank. Vote early and vote often -- it's not like you have anything better to do at work.[Thanks hvnlysoldr]
Broadcast radio crosses the century mark
We'll admit, there's not a whole of gizmos invented 100 years ago that we still rely on (and bicker about) on a near-daily basis, but broadcast radio has managed to stay in our homes, cars, hearts, and complaint letters for a full century. Exactly one hundred years ago today, Reginald Fessenden fired up his transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts in order to broadcast a "brief speech," followed by an Edison phonograph recording of Handel's Largo." He also sent out a few other holiday jams and well-wishes to those spending Christmas "onboard US Navy and United Fruit Company ships equipped with Fessenden's wireless receivers." Fessenden earned more than 500 patents in his lifetime, including credit for the "radio telephone, a sonic depth finder, and submarine signaling devices." So while the FCC tries to regulate it, and we prefer the cleaner, less ad-filled satellite rendition of radio, we're still raising our glasses to a technology that's changed technology over the past hundred years, and here's to a hundred more.[Via Slashdot]
LG's 100-inch LCD set for mass production
Stop trying to type faster, watch TV for hours, or organize the largest water balloon fight: there's now another way to get a Guinness world record holder in your home, as LG has just announced it is going to begin mass producing its record-setting 100-inch LCD. The 6-million pixel 1,920 x 1,080 display won't come cheap though -- while a final price has not been decided, the manufacturing costs alone are expected to be over $150,000 US. But anyway, how can we be satisfied with a 100-inch LCD HDTV featuring a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 92% color gamut and 5ms refresh time when we know Mark Cuban is just going to come over and start bragging about his $70,000 103-inch 1080p plasma from Panasonic? While sneaking in and watching Oxygen Network until the logo burns in on his precious plasma would be nice, we'll probably just wait for the first price drop and save everyone some pain and suffering.
IFA 2006: Philips shows off 100-inch Ambilight display
Not too surprising since it was LG.Philips who showed off a 100-inch LCD earlier this year, however Philips took time at IFA to pimp not only their upcoming Blu-ray player but also the updated -- hopefully slightly less dangerous -- Ambilight technology. Just as 1080p has turned into "Full HD", Ambilight on all four sides of the screen is now Full surround, while Ambilight on three sides is merely Ambilight Surround. They'll have TVs featuring both on display throughout the exhibition, including the winner of the recent European Imaging & Sound Association (EISA) High-End LCD TV of the Year. They'll wrap things up with a couple new additions to their line of Viiv PCs, including the MCP9480i with HDMI, Blu-ray playback & recording, and DVB-T capability.
LG puts their biggest 100-inch LCD on display this weekend
If you're looking for a place to catch The Sopranos season finale on Sunday, let us make a suggestion. If you live in San Francisco, you may want to stop by SID (Society for Information Display) 2006, where LG will be publicly showing off their record setting 100-inch LCD HDTV.Or maybe you wouldn't want to...oh who are we kidding you know you would. If you were to accidentally make off with the massive 5ms refresh rate and 3000:1 contrast ratio monster, post up a pic or two in the flickr group of how you got it to fit in your living room.
1000 song hack for iTunes phones?
For those out there who find the 100 song cap (amongst other things) on iTunes phone a deal breaker, Engadget Mobile might have found your saving grace. A forum at MotoModders has the details and simple steps you can take to run a simple hack on any iTunes phone (except the v3i) to raise the song cap to 1000. Unfortunately, there's one catch: the little app you have to run is Windows-based, so you'll need a PC or Boot Camp to actually do this (sorry, Parallels doesn't support USB devices - yet).Obviously this is a hack, so don't blame us or MotoModders if something goes wrong. However, if you do try this, please post your thoughts and let us know if it really works.
iTunes phone upgrades only for non-U.S. phones with < 100 song limit
I hope no one ran out and bought a ROKR or slick new SLVR after last night's post about the ability to upgrade iTunes phones. Turns out it was more or less a false alarm - at least for those who already have a phone with a 100 song limit. Eddie Cue, iTunes' product manager, got in touch with Engadget to let them know that yes, the upgrade exists, but it's only for non-U.S. iTunes phones that unfortunately had a song cap set at less than 100. Apparently, some phones were set as low as 25 songs, so this upgrade was meant to bring everyone up to the same, yet highly limited, 100 song cap.I have to agree with Ryan's Engadget post though: if Apple wants to make any headway with this whole musicphone idea, that silly 100 song cap needs to go.
Apple removing the iTunes phone 100 song cap?
I can neither confirm nor deny the legitimacy of this, but TUAW reader Jake sent us a tip with an iTMS screenshot detailing an upcoming possibility of removing the 100 song cap on iTunes phones. From the screenshot it looks like Apple might soon offer the ability to purchase what I would assume to be a software upgrade to remove the software-based 100 song cap on the phone.Jake claims to have followed a number of code snippets he found in the latest iTunes update, version 6.0.3. Check out his post for the full details on the steps he took, and check out the actual page in the iTMS. For now, however, I don't know anyone with a ROKR who could take this one step further. If anyone can confirm this page in the iTMS is real, is brave enough to plug their ROKR in and click OK, feel free to sound off. If this is true, it could be a sign that Apple and Motorola are finally listening to the market and removing a silly limitation that should never have existed in the first place. One can only hope.
