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'Crackdown 3' multiplayer test begins February 7th on Xbox and PC
You won't have to wait until February 15th to see if Crackdown 3 is worth its protracted development process, although you might want to temper your expectations. Microsoft is launching a stress test for the game's Wrecking Zone mode at 3PM Eastern on February 7th (installations are available at 12PM) to see how well its cloud-based destruction fares in real-world conditions. It's "not a beta," Microsoft emphasized -- this is about collecting data and feedback based on a slice of the finished game. You'll be limited to the Agent Hunter mode on one map, but there will be multiple play sessions, including two on the 7th and others on the weekend.
Here's how Samsung prevents its own #Bendgate
Samsung wants you to know that the Galaxy Note 4 doesn't bend and break like, ahem, certain competitors even if you sit on it over and over again. So, the company has uploaded a video showing the types of stress tests the handset goes through, like the one it released years ago for the S 3 and Note 2. This time, though, the video aggressively hints (repeatedly, even) that the Note 4's a lot tougher than the new iPhones. Similar to the tests its previous handsets had to endure, the Note 4's subjected to a three-point bend test that pushes a metal with 25 kilograms of force to the middle of the device -- you can even see the phone bend just a little during the process in the video after the break. Also, the phones apparently have to survive getting sat on by robotic buttocks that simulate the force a 220-pound person's capable of.
Samsung bakes, drowns and shocks Galaxy S 4 in stress tests (video)
Samsung torture-tests pre-release smartphones like many of its rivals, but it's rare in letting us have glimpses of the process. Case in point: its thorough punishment of Galaxy S 4 samples in a new video. Along with drop-testing the phone in multiple ways, the company's lab techs cover the GS4 in dust, dunk it in water, punch it, shock its controls and even bake it. The promo piece unsurprisingly shows the flagship device making the cut every time -- you didn't think Samsung would show any exceptions to the rule, did you? Still, the Korean-language clip (after the break) may be reassuring to those who were worried that a thinner, lighter Galaxy S couldn't hold up to some abuse.
Beaten, twisted, sprayed and sat on: how Samsung stress tests its phones (video)
Just treated yourself to a new Samsung Galaxy S III or a Note II but wondering how the plastic body will stand up to the rigors of daily life? The manufacturer's showing off a smorgasbord of tests its smartphones go through in the labs while being prepped for prime time. These experiments are engineered to see how sample and prototype devices fare when subjected to use and abuse -- including having their buttons mashed thousands of times, being twisted, splashed with water, and tossed in a churning pot of killer corn to gauge scratch resistance. One test even plonks a fake, denim-clad posterior onto unsuspecting phones, attempting to bend them out of shape. Sammy's hardly going to smash things in its own marketing, but you may still glean some sadistic pleasure from the video after the break -- and understanding Korean is optional.
LG unveils flexible plastic e-paper display, aims for European launch next month
LG has made no secret of its fondness for flexible e-paper, but those dreams became a reality today, with the announcement of a six-inch display that promises to "revolutionize the e-book market." The malleable plastic display sports a resolution of 1024 x 768 and can bend at an angle of up to 40 degrees. At just 0.7 millimeters thick, it's about one-third thinner than similarly-specced glass displays, and weighs in at 14 grams -- about half the weight of its glassy competition. LG also claims that the display is super durable, as evidenced by a series of successful drop tests from a height of 1.5 meters. The plan going forward is to supply the display to ODMs in China, in the hopes of bringing final products to Europe by "the beginning of next month." For more details, check out the full press release after the break.
RIM wrecks its own devices, so you don't have to (video)
Bend, drown, drop and zap? No, that's not your mnemonic device for surviving a fire, it's actually RIM's protocol for destroying their own products. In a trio of behind-the-scenes videos released today, the company's pulled back the curtain on its Hardware Support Lab's process, giving users a peek at the rigorous testing involved with any of its pre-market releases. Designed to keep that pricey kit functioning in top form, these various tests replicate everyday foibles, so when you actually do drop your phone in the toilet, it'll (hopefully) still work. Wondering what sort of travails and pitfalls have been perpetrated upon Waterloo's own portfolio of gadgets? For starters, there's something called a "Moisture Ingress Test" which gauges the quality of a device's seal by dropping it into dyed water -- repeatedly. Or a series of durability tests, that simulate the crushing weight of your posterior upon a defenseless BlackBerry, amongst other potentially embarrassing scenarios. It's the stuff of standard gadget abuse, as well as a panacea for the worries of the accident prone. Click on past the break below to engage in a brief bit of rubbernecking.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer resists Canadian coins, does not survive slings and arrows (video)
ASUS hasn't really had to twist consumers' wallet-carrying wrists to get its Eee Pad Transformer off retailers' shelves and into homes -- the tablet practically walks itself. Which makes the company's latest attempt at viral marketing come off as more of an exercise in unnecessary bragging, than a straight, feature-touting webmercial. The video, made for the hardware maker's college-focused Campus Life website, walks viewers through a brief description of the Gorilla Glass coating that gives the Honeycomb-based tab its damage-resistant properties, before putting the slate through a series of stress tests. While we've always been told sticks and stones would break our bones, apparently keys, Canadian change and screws won't harm the Transformer. The sole chink in this popular pad's ion exchanging armor? Archery, of course.
Lego bot built to test Kno's tablet textbook, human overlords watch gleefully (video)
Just because the first few tablet textbooks have shipped doesn't mean that members of Kno's development team are resting on their laurels. Product testing on the Kno tablet continues -- and it looks like Lego is doing the heavy lifting. They've put our favorite plastic building blocks to work by constructing a Kno stress tester out of Lego Technic parts. The robot checks both the Kno's ambient light sensor and the ability of its touchscreen to accurately track the system's pen swipes and flicks. Though not as intricate as a Lego replica of a 2000+ year old mechanical computer, the robot -- with its hypnotic pendulum-like motion -- is still a sight to behold. Check the video after the break.
HTML5 speed test finds IE9, Firefox 3.7 lead the pack in Windows, Chrome a distant last
Curious to see how the latest preview release of Internet Explorer 9 stacks up against the competition when it comes to HTML5 performance in Windows? So was Download Squad, and it's now revealed its findings in some vivid, if not entirely scientific tests. The end result is that Internet Explorer 9 and Firefox 3.7 were well ahead of the pack in the 1,000-fish stress test (with Firefox about 5 or 10 percent ahead of IE), while Opera was stuck somewhere in the middle, and Chrome placed a distant last (and maxed out the CPU) -- all with hardware acceleration enabled, of course, although that had to be done via command line switches in the case of Chrome. Head on past the break to check out the four-way showdown for yourself, as well as an earlier test with just IE9 and Chrome.
ThinkPad Edge beats Vostro V13 in LCD stress test (video)
They might officially be targeting the lower end of business budgets, but a quick peek at the attractive stylings of Lenovo's ThinkPad Edge and Dell's Vostro V13 would suggest that both have no shortage of consumer market appeal. So, for the sake of differentiating between these two thin-and-light machines, Lenovo has provided us with one of its torture test videos. Subjecting the V13 and Edge to (hopefully identical) pressure at varying points across the LCD lid, this procedure assesses the robustness of each machine's screen design. In spite of lacking all the fancy metals present in its elder ThinkPad siblings, the Edge comes through the test unscathed and begging for more, whereas the V13 ... well, it doesn't. Skip past the break to see the hideously disfigured LCD that resulted from its visit to the Lenovo labs.
Please hammer, don't hurt Samsung's flexible OLED prototype (video)
Surely by now you've seen pictures or videos of flexible OLEDs -- many from Samsung. Did you ever wonder just how durable the things are? The video after the break should answer that question. In it, one of the Hammer Bros. from the Super Mario games, apparently frustrated about Polyphony Digital's endless delays, is attempting to destroy a screen looping a Gran Turismo 5 clip. A traditional LCD shatters like so much porcelain, while the 2.8-inch, 20 micrometer thick OLED display is completely unaffected, even when folded. Impressive, and apparently just the thing to wear when exploring the Mushroom Kingdom.
Video: Nokia N97 gets a torture testing, goes great with milk
If the opinions of two star-crossed bloggers weren't enough to sway you firmly into either the "yea" or "nay" column regarding a Nokia N97 purchase, perhaps seeing how it fares after being dunked into a bowl of corn flakes will help you make up your mind. N97Geeks.com has gone the 'ol torture test route, including of a series of scratch attempts for the screen and the body as well, plus the aforementioned test where it became a part of This Complete Breakfast. The result was an almost fully functional if slightly scuffed up handset that now has a non-working menu key and a wee bit of internal condensation, meaning you can probably get by without a screen protector or case if you hate buying accessories. But, for best results, keep this one clear of your Kellogg's.
Extreme PS3 "stress test" garners praise from Sony
Clearly due to the current heat on Microsoft concerning the Xbox 360 RROD, disk scratching, and overheating scandals, Sony's Dave Karraker is mooning on the company's official blog over a recent PS3 Vault "stress test" called "How to kill a PS3 console" which showed the company's game system to be surprisingly resilient in the face of extreme conditions. "A lot of noise has been made recently about the reliability issues of one of our competitor's systems," Karraker said, then went on to kick some sand in Redmond's eye by adding "Did it fail? Nope. Like the Energizer Bunny, it kept going and going and going." Admittedly, the tests -- which included running games and Blu-ray movies for 108 hours in a typical "living room" environment, placing the console in a freezer van then lowering the temperature from 50 degrees to zero, and powering the PS3 in a sauna where heat increased from 100 degrees to 120 degrees over a nearly three-day session -- were quite extreme. In the end, however, the testers say besides being "extremely hot" after coming out of the sauna, the system is running fine and back in regular use. Microsoft, the ball's in your court.[Via DailyTech]
knife.hand.chop.bot automatically threatens your digits
We can't stress our "don't try this at home" attitude strongly enough towards readers over this piece of robot hackery from the 5Voltcore collective, called the knife.hand.chop.bot. The basic premise is this: the robot plays a game of "Mumblety-Peg," a test of courage wherein a blade is brought down between your fingers at an ever increasing pace. Of course, we've all played a round or two of this game with friends, but it's unlikely that many of us have allowed a bot to play, much less do all the shot-calling. The system manages to avoid slicing fingers due to signals it receives from an onboard sensor which guides the knife, however, it also utilizes contact sensors underneath the user's hand, which can detect moisture (aka "nervous sweat"). The sweat triggers "stressful" sounds via closure of the contacts, and can have an adverse effect on the accuracy of the aiming mechanism, thus increasing your stress, thus causing you to sweat, thus throwing off the aim, thus... well, we're just going to keep our mitts off of the thing. Check the video after the break to see what all the sweating is about.[Via Make]
iPhone stress test: how did it do?
The Internets are a cruel place when it comes to first generation uber-hyped gear. So goes the iPhone stress test conducted by PC World. Now, how do you think that 3.5-inch sheet of glass stacked onto a slim 11.6-mm chassis held up? Well, in tests which found the iPhone in a 30 to 40 rep shake 'n bake with a bag full of key chains; on the business end of a deliberate cold-steel scratch attempt on the display; and dropped to concrete at heights (note plural) of up to about 6-feet, it came away with just a few scuffs along the metal edge. Right, no damage to the display. Be sure to check all the behind-split-finger gore in their video. Read -- Stress Test Read -- Video
We destroy a Blu-ray Disc
When we saw via Game|Life that some IGN forums goers had taken steel wool to a Blu-ray disc with no apparent damage, we thought, "we can do better than that." So we gathered up some convenient implements of destruction and saw how our free copy of Talladega Nights would stand up to a ballpoint pen, a pizza cutter and a butcher's knife (unfortunately, the disc broke down before we could rub crunchy cereal all over it.) Check out the video below, and keep watching to the end for some pyrotechnic bonus footage.
DS Lite Stress Test
We've known for quite some time that Nintendo products tend to be very, very durable. Why, I myself once left my Game Boy Advance SP on top of my car, and started to drive away; only at around 40 M.P.H. did the SP finally fly off into heavy traffic, careening onto pavement and quite literally getting run over twice. Sure enough, despite the number on the paint job, the damn thing still functioned perfectly. But I digress.Here we have a short video showing a sick, pathologically insane human being attempting to crush a DS Lite into utter submission. While he succeeds in making the fanboys shield their eyes to avert the pain, he absolutely fails to do any lasting damage to the unit. Rock on, Nintendo.Oh, and for bonus material, follow the link to watch several Xboxes set aflame.[Thanks, Richard!]
