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Distro Issue 52: Does the MakerBot Replicator signal the dawn of in-home 3D printing?
Almost every day it seems like folks are finding a way to add to the number of practical uses for 3D printers. What was once a hobbyist's dream gadget is now being used to produce faux arteries for lab-grown tissue and Magic Arms. As the pricey peripherals work their way into the mainstream, are they soon to be found in most homes? That's the quandary we tackle in this edition of our weekly tablet mag as Brian Heater spends some quality time with the MakerBot Replicator at Engadget's NYC Headquarters. Not really into $2,000 output devices? No sweat. The Meizu MX 4-core, Toshiba U845W and Parrot Zik headphones all get the proper review treatment. "Hands-on" visits SIGGRAPH, "Weekly Stat" examines the shortcomings of our handsets, "Reaction Time" discusses THQ, "IRL" packs in three more of our gadget confessions and GameStop CEO Paul Raines admits his affinity for Jelly Bean in this week's Q&A. Go on and usher in the weekend by hitting up your download link of choice down below. Distro Issue 52 PDF Distro in the iTunes App Store Distro in the Google Play Store Distro APK (for sideloading) Like Distro on Facebook Follow Distro on Twitter
Pioneer's Discussion Table gets a thumping $37,000 price tag, taken for a spin (video)
We thought the latest version of Microsoft's Surface was pricey at $7,600, but it's cheapo IKEA compared to Pioneer's WWS-DT101 Discussion Table. We just reported that this beast is due to hit the Japanese market in July, but now we discover you might need as much as ¥3million (around $37,000) plus van hire before you can cart it away. Acknowledged, it has a bigger screen and better all-round specs than Microsoft's SUR40, and it looks pretty damn responsive judging from the video after the break. But it's still an unlikely amount to spend on a piece of furniture that can't even play Dungeons and Dragons.
Geoff Johns revealed as writer for DC Universe Online
How do you make DC Universe Online with Jim Lee in charge of the art direction even more exciting for comic fans? You bring Geoff Johns on as writer for the game's backstory. Geoff is the man responsible for one of the best runs on The Flash, his envisioning of Green Lantern: Rebirth and the highly engaging cooperative effort that was 52. Basically, if you're a fan of DC comics and haven't bothered with them for a while, you should really check his stuff out.According to the Newsarama interview with Geoff, he's only responsible for writing the general state of the world, its characters and the whole story behind why all these new superheroes (that'd be us) are suddenly cropping up everywhere. Beyond that, nothing has been confirmed, although he did say it'd be possible to come back to write more stuff. In that regard, Geoff also says the game will be set more or less within the current DCU at the time of launch. Players can expect to see story arcs both new and old -- or something like them -- to eventually show their faces. If DC comics fans were only a little excited before this is a reason to start smiling, or maybe even do a fist-pump. Go ahead, we won't look.[Thanks, Haggs]
Eyes-on: Samsung's 82-inch QuadHD & 52-inch Ultra Slim LCDs
Samsung can join Hitachi while crying into their sake as its 52-inch "thinnest non-OLED HDTV ever" is around 4x as thick as Pioneer's 9mm heroin-chic Kuro. Take heart Sammy, because your 82-inch -- and btw, what is with the 82-inch obsession (2005 & 2006 CES), we need to talk about that -- Quad HD display is like looking out of a window, if we had bigger and cleaner windows. Check out the gallery to see what we mean.%Gallery-13265%
Sony, Samsung and Sharp push up 8G LCD production schedules
Whether or not you're actually considering buying one of Sharp, Samsung or Sony's 52-inch 1080p LCDs next year, they're pretty sure you will and as a result are pushing manufacturing schedules up. According to Digitimes, Sony & Samsung's joint manufacturing venture S-LCD is expected to have their eighth generation manufacturing plant ready several months ahead of its original October 2007 launch date. Sharp already has an 8G plant but that's just not good enough, they'll be doubling capacity in March. With heavy price competition among the various "Full HD" LCDs and manufacturing increases, hopefully the 52-inch of 2007 will be the 32-, 37- and 42-inch of this year and last in terms of price drops.
Sony @ CEDIA - 52-inch 1080p, 40- & 32-inch 720p BRAVIA LCDs
Remember the 52-inch 1080p and 720p 40- and 32-inch BRAVIA LCDs Sony announced in Japan recently? They have officially announced their US availability prior to CEDIA 2006. First the the big guys, the 1080p 52-incher comes in two flavors, the KDL-52XBR2 and KDL-52XBR3. The XBR3 has the high-gloss piano black bezel we know you love so much while the XBR2 has a silver finish. Both include BRAVIA Engine Pro image processing built around Sony's DRC-MFv2.5 for upconverting lower-res signals, and WCG-CCFL backlighting for better color contrast. They feature a 1,300:1 on-screen contrast ratio (7,000:1 dynamic), 8ms refresh time, with three HDMI and component inputs. Both will ship in November, with MSRPs of $6,800 for the XBR3 and $6,500 for the XBR2. At the lower end Sony has added two S-series LCDs also shown previously in Japan, the 40-inch KDL-40S2400 and 32-inch KDL-32S2400, both featuring a 1366x768 (720p) resolution. They have the same Advanced Contrast Enhancer (ACE) as the 52-inch models, with 1,300:1 contrast ratio (5,000:1 dynamic), plus "invisible" bottom-mounted speakers and will retail for $2,600 (40-inch) and $1,700 (32-inch) when they begin shipping in October. The 52-inch XBRs will have a fight on their hands with the similarly-spec'd Samsung and Sharp models hitting this fall.Update: Added images of KDL-32S2400 & KDL-52XBR2 after the break.
Samsung LN-S5296D 52-inch 1080p LCD coming soon
While Sony's 52-inch KDL-52X2500 LCD is nice, it is still currently announced only for Japan. Meanwhile the Samsung LN-S5296D LCD will be available in the US next month. Featuring similar CCFL backlighting, a 6000:1 "dynamic" contrast ratio, 8ms refresh rate, 10-bit video processor, QAM tuner, CableCard slot, ATSC OTA tuner and hidden TruSurround speakers it makes a decent package at it's $5,999 MSRP. It has plenty of connectors as well, with two HDMI inputs, two component, one RGB and a USB port to round things out. Online retailers are currently listing preorders at $4,999 with an expected ship date of September 8th. At 50 inches for a flat panel under 5 grand, we can see these sets becoming very popular this holiday season and throughout next year, good thing Samsung and Sony will be ramping up production.[Via Technabob]
