JoyRide
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Nikon D800 short lets you experience miracle of birth, motorcycles
Few experiences in life can match the miracle of birth, but sweet bikes and D-SLRs are probably right up there, right? Now you can experience all three in a six minute film. There are no doubt some good takeaways from "Joy Ride," which was shot using the newly announced Nikon D800, but the most important has to be the fact that some things just shouldn't be captured in HD. Video and an equally lengthy making-of after the break.
Cobra Electronics Joyride hands-on
We checked out CES Unveiled tonight and Cobra Electronics was there to show off the goods it announced a couple days ago. Among the items of interest was the JoyRide, a car charger that, with its companion app (available for free on the Android Market), allows you to maneuver around aspects of your phone without even touching it. Here's how it works: there's a button on the charger that can be quick-tapped or long-pressed, and by going into the app you can assign a specific program to either of those actions -- in other words, you can tell the app that you want to go into your music player just by long-pressing the JoyRide button. Additionally, you can tell the app to perform tasks whenever you connect or disconnect your phone to the charger; for instance, you can tell the phone to automatically hook up to Bluetooth as soon as you plug it into the JoyRide. The app is still in beta status at the moment and should be ready to hit the mainstream for $40 sometime in Q2. Look underneath for screenshots and images.Myriam Joire contributed to this report.
Cobra JoyRide car charger automatically flips your phone into Car Mode when you get on the road
Most Android phones offer a Car Mode app, either built-in or at least through the Market. Going into this Mode, however, can often take additional steps that slows you down if you're trying to get on the road in a hurry. Cobra Electronics has announced a way to get around this hurdle: a car charger. More specifically, it's the Cobra JoyRide, and should be available in Q2 of this year for $40. Here's how it works: as soon as you climb into your car and plug your Android phone into the JoyRide, it automatically triggers a companion app that pulls up your own customized Car Mode with several options you can switch around yourself. We're hoping to have some hands-on time with the JoyRide next week at CES, so stay tuned. In the meantime, feel free to check out the press release below. Update: Check out our hands-on here.
Kinect Sports and Joy Ride previewed, in brief (video)
We've already gone a bit more in-depth with the likes of Kinect Adventures, Dance Galaxy, and Your Shape, but we also had a couple brief thoughts on Microsoft's motion-centric sports pack and cartoon racer. With Joy Ride, you'd think holding your arms out pantomiming steering would be burdensome, but in our time with Joy Ride, it really never became an issue. In fact, the one control aspect we were hesitant about going into the race -- power sliding -- turned out to be quite effortless. It made perfect sense tilting our bodies around sharp corners. It's during the windows where stunts were allowed that we discovered the full-bodied parallel to button mashing. Seriously, people were instinctively ducking jumping, twisting, and flailing hoping for some bonus points. As for Kinect Sports, Microsoft wasn't showing much of its track-and-field centered Kinect Sports title, but what we saw didn't fill us with confidence. The bowling game was particularly troubling, with numerous very random throws (that ended up in the gutter a lane over) and a very finicky depth-perception that wouldn't let us really wind up or step forward very effectively. Meanwhile, the 200 meter hurdles worked just fine, but it was also a pretty simplistic running-in-place experience that was possible a couple decades ago with the NES's Power Pad -- although Kinect makes it a lot harder to cheat. Miller vs. Miller video after the break. %Gallery-95217% %Gallery-95215%
Joyride now a Kinect title, adds motion controls
Update: Oops! It looks like USA Today jumped the gun on the announcement and has since pulled the piece from its site. Stay tuned for Microsoft's official unveiling later. Just when Joy Ride seemed kaput, it's been confirmed as a title for Microsoft's Kinect (the official name of Project Natal). The social racer was recently removed from Xbox.com, though Microsoft assured us that "BigPark's vision" was still slated for 2010. Apparently BigPark's vision involves adding Kinect motion controls, with USA Today revealing that the game will have players "hold an imaginary steering wheel" and use their bodies "to execute jumps and tricks." No further details were given, though it seems likely we'll hear more as E3 builds up steam later this week.
Kinect library for Xbox 360 revealed by USA Today
Update: Oops! It looks like USA Today jumped the gun on the announcement and has since pulled the piece from its site. Stay tuned for Microsoft's official unveiling later. USA Today has spilled the proverbial beans on Microsoft's Natal project -- not only has the paper confirmed the Kinect product name, but they've posted a few of the games in the pipeline for the system. Here we go: Kinectimals features over 20 different virtual pets, including lions, tigers, and cheetahs, to play with or raise. Joyride has returned to life as a controller-free racing game, apparently. Kinect Sports will offer sport games to play: "boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis." For each one, you will make motions to play the games. Kinect Adventures has a river raft and obstacle course to navigate -- this is likely the demo we saw last week. MTV Games will release Dance Central, where you can cut a virtual rug. And there will be more games announced later featuring both Disney characters and Star Wars characters, in conjunction with Disney and LucasArts, respectively. Marc Whitten even namedrops Nintendo in USA Today's piece, but he says that without a controller, Kinect will be "fundamentally different." We'll keep our eyes open for these games all this week, so stay tuned. Thanks, Jake!
Waste your money on more Halo toys
Joyride Studios has released Series 8 (they're up to 8?) of the Halo figurines. Among them are Spartan 117 with Flood infection form, a SpecOps Elite, a Jackal, and the Elite Heretic Leader. Why anyone would buy the Master Chief again just to get a Flood form is anybody's guess. Because I already have Master Chief. I mean, all of you have Master Chief, right? Right? Anybody?[Via Bungie.net]
