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Army spy blimp to launch within weeks: 300 feet long, $500 million, 'multi-intelligent'
It can't go faster than 34MPH and it's already a year late for its planned deployment in Afghanistan, but Northrop Grumman's Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) is now set for its maiden flight. The test run is scheduled for sometime between June 6th and 10th over Lakehurst, New Jersey, whose residents ought to be forewarned that it is not a solar eclipse or a Death Star, but simply a helium-filled pilotless reconnaissance and communications airship that happens to be the size of a football field. After floating around for a while, the giant dirigible is expected to journey south to Florida, where it'll be fitted to a custom-built gondola that will carry the bulk of its equipment, and by which time her enemies hopefully won't have come into possession of an air force.
The Daily Grind: Are MMO players tired of beefcake?
A few months ago, The Mary Sue published an intriguing article about why men play female characters in MMOs, and the answer might surprise you. While some men surveyed wanted to play lady toons for immersion reasons or eyecandy reasons, many of them had a much simpler motive: They were sick of beefcake. They were willing to play men, but they just couldn't relate to big hulking dudes with huge muscles and tiny heads, and those are often the types of male characters offered in video games. MMOs like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Guild Wars and City of Heroes offer "huge" male characters as options, while World of Warcraft is a serial offender. We usually focus on gender issues as they pertain to the portrayal of women in MMOs, so today I want to turn the tables and ask you about the portrayal of men. Are you annoyed when male characters MMOs look like they're hitting the steroids a bit too hard, and do you find such characters relatable or offensive? In other words, are you tired of beefcake in MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Film camera measures 35-feet long, makes photojournalists keel over in worship / pain (video)
To all photographers who measure their talent by the size of their equipment, it's time to give up the race. Folks, step right up and meet the Eye of America: a 35-foot long film camera that captures negatives measuring six by four and a half freaking feet. Currently in the possession of Dennis Manarchy, the retro-styled rig is said to barely fit into a truck, and yet can deliver images 1,000 times greater than the average negative. When Manarchy's not capturing stills for exhibitions that stand two stories tall, he uses the gigantic contraption to teach average folk about how cameras work. Then again, most negatives don't need to be inspected through windows rigged with LED lights. Frankly, we didn't think any piece of kit could strike fear into the Maxback -- but, that was yesterday. As for a damage deposit on the Eye of America? Well, if you need to ask, you can safely assume you've just priced yourself out of the market.
Visualized CES Edition: Behringer's iNuke Boom speaker dock, a 10,000-watt altar for your iPod
No word on whether it goes to eleven. Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.
This giant military spy blimp is really hard to miss
What's this spy blimp doing next to an 18-wheeler? We're not entirely sure, but it's certainly not being subtle about it. This jumbo-sized floater, codenamed "Blue Devil Block 2," measures some 370 feet in length and comprises a whopping 1.4 million cubic feet. Originally inflated in September, the definitely-not-blue Blue Devil took flight for the first time last week in North Carolina and, if all goes to plan, should head to Afghanistan by the middle of next year. The Air Force says the blimp will hover above the country for five days at a time, collecting surveillance data from 20,000 feet above the ground and transmitting its findings to US intelligence officers on the ground, via laser. When that's taken care of, it'll be used to make the biggest omelette ever.
AMD Radeon HD 6990 shows up in its metallic flesh, looking larger than life
What does the next great superpower of desktop graphics look like? Well, it shares an unmistakable family resemblance to the current champ, but its dimensions have somehow been made even larger. Yes, we're talking about AMD's Radeon HD 6990 -- a dual-GPU monstrosity that's set to serve as the company's 2011 flagship -- which has just been shown off at an Asia Pacific Fusion Tech Day gathering. Aside from the crazy imagery (one more after the break and a gallery at the source), we've found a promise that this polygon deliverator will be available in late Q1 2011. Which gives us just enough time to rent out a room big enough to house it. Now, when's Crysis 2 coming out? [Thanks, Christopher]
42-inch Nexus S stomps into Best Buy, terrifies shoppers and demos interactive Gingerbread UI (video)
This isn't Google TV, though we can see why you'd ask. No, this monster is merely the world's largest fully-functional Nexus S handset. Presently on display in a Best Buy store in San Carlos, California, the enormous Android is equipped with a 42-inch multitouch screen, rigged to a real Nexus S that does all the processing. There's a working camera, internet access and the whole Android 2.3 user interface to explore, though it does look a mite difficult to navigate in the video below. Did we mention there's a video? Stop reading, hit the break, and get on with the show!
Chinese man plays MMO on titanic screen, pleads for higher pixel density (video)
Never mind your 103-inch plasmas or Guinness Word Record-holding stadium displays, real gamers do their thing on LCDs that span a cool seven thousand and five hundred square meters (translated into imperial measuring units, that's... a lot!). What you see above is a little glimpse of an MMO enthusiast with a big passion and no less sizable wallet. The gent in question was displeased by the fact a competing guildmaster in the Chinese MMO Magic World Online 2 got to play in an IMAX theater, and therefore decided to one-up him in the only way possible: by hiring Beijing's crazily oversized display (titled "All Beijing, look up!") for a little session of supersized gaming. Jump past the break to see it on video.
Elephantine BlackBerry Bold promo kit arrives for Rogers
We understand the need to catch eyes these days, and while Rogers will certainly not be the first nor last to promote a new piece of kit with an obscenely large version of said kit, this one just takes brobdingnagian marketing to a new plateau. The absolutely gigantic Rogers Bold launch kit includes a plethora of Bold flyers, informational pamphlets and all sorts of other goodies that'll be handed out to prospective buyers shortly. The real question is: who gets to take this thing home once the buzz dies down?[Thanks, Michael]
Chinese man builds fully functional 3-foot tall cellphone
Forget that "world's smallest" hokum -- how's about the world's largest? One particular Chinese man took on the challenge by constructing a fully functional cellphone some 620 times bigger than the handset that served as inspiration. The final result weighs in at 48-pounds, towers 3-feet up and has absolutely no qualms sending / receiving calls, text messages or browsing the internet. Unfortunately, the homegrown handset does require an AC outlet to function, and the real kicker is the omission of a vibrate function. Still, we bet the speakerphone is killer.[Via textually]
6-foot neon Apple icon for sale
Macenstein points to the ultimate Mac collector's item, a 6-foot neon version of the rainbow Apple logo (which, you'll remember with the help of Wikipedia, was used up until Jobs turned the logo one solid color in 1999), up for sale on eBay. Now you too can own a gigantic neon piece of Apple's history, sure to turn even the most casual Apple user green with envy. Or at least green with something-- having colored neon lights in your field of view all day can't be that good for your health.But still, someone wants it-- there are 17 bids so far, and even at $4350 as of this writing, the reserve hasn't been met. The sign itself is in Huntsville, Alabama (at an Apple authorized dealer who doesn't need it anymore), and they're offering to ship to anywhere in the contiguous 48, or you can come by and grab it yourself.
Someone buy us one of these gigantic Marios
Nobody's going to believe we're a real Nintendo gaming site unless we have our own obscenely enormous Mario statue, right? This is our credibility we're talking about. This is important. We want people to walk into our office complex and see that we mean serious business. Would you deal with DS no-Mario-statues Fanboy? Importers extraordinaire NCSX are offering this five-foot tall Mario statue, usually available only to stores, to normal people like us for the low, low price of $3000 plus shipping. Five feet tall may not be big for a person, but for a video game character statue? Man, look at that Mario. It's huuuge.
DIY Xbox 360 controller only slightly bigger than the 'Duke'
This controller is just a couple of millimeters larger than the Xbox's original controller, so if you're looking for a throwback to that, or something that can double as the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey, then look no further. Sibling site Xbox 360 Fanboy has posted a link to instructables.com, where you can learn how to make one of your very own to hold and to love, and to use as a bed.When we say massive, we really mean massive. There is no doubt that they could have also housed a couple of 360s inside this thing, hooked it up to two TVs, and made a Gears of War/Halo 2 gaming machine all in one.. A controller at each corner of the box, embedded plasma screens, surround sou ... okay, granted that's taking it a bit too far.In a day and age of miniaturization, it's nice to see someone maximizing things. We'd really like to see a DS Lite this big, aw yeah.
