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Sony Ericsson Windows Phone prototype hits eBay, reminds us sliders existed
eBay is as close as it comes to a genuine Aladdin's cave, and we've seen plenty of ancient rarities, prototypes, sci-fi weaponry, and the odd killer robot go under its gavel. One of the latest artifacts of interest comes from eBay's Netherlands site, which is hosting an auction for a Windows Phone prototype slider known to her friends as Julie (or Jolie, depending on where you look in the listing) from the now defunct Sony Ericsson partnership. The phone that never was from the company that is no longer is allegedly one of only seven units made, and is touted as having an 8-megapixel shooter and 16 gigs of storage. Some digging through the XDA Developers' forum suggests the handset's old Windows Phone 7 ROM is basically non-functional, so don't expect to plug in your SIM and stroll out the door with a useable device. If that doesn't put you off, however, there's no exorbitant entry price, and bids remain sensible, for now. Head to the listing below for more pictures and to get in on the action, but bear in mind the only shipping options are for Europe. Nothing a PM with an outrageous offer won't rectify, surely. Update: The seller has been in contact to let us know that international shipping is now available, and while the WP7 ROM running on the handset is by no means a final build, there are no issues with voice calling, the camera or Bluetooth.
Dreamfall Chapters shows off prototype footage, early UI
Martin Bruusgaard, lead designer on Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey, introduces us to some prototype gameplay footage in today's Kickstarter campaign update. The presentation is admittedly a bit rough around the edges, but indicative of what players should expect of the final product should Dreamfall Chapters reach its funding goal on Kickstarter (it's nearly there with 23 days to go).Bruusgaard says the game will have fully explorable and varied environments, though all the prototype shows is a wooded glen and some gerbil guy ... thing. Programmer Quintin Pan also jumps in to demonstrate the control system, which allows for free movement yet incorporates a traditional point-and-click control model for interacting with the world.On top of the prototype video, developer Red Thread Games has announced that Sarah Hamilton has signed on for Dreamfall Chapters: The Longest Journey. Hamilton voiced protagonist April Ryan in the previous two games, The Longest Journey and Dreamfall: The Longest Journey.
Double Fine's Amnesia Fortnight prototypes collected in boxset
The Double Fine Amnesia Fortnight game jam resulted in a series of prototypes for games to be made later. And yet, you can buy those prototypes in a fancy boxed set even before the games exist!The new $30 collection includes the five games from the most recent Fortnight: Autonomous, Black Lake, Hack 'n' Slash, Spacebase DF-9, and The White Birch, along with the documentary about the event by 2 Player Productions. Also included are the prototype versions of Brazen, Costume Quest, and Happy Song, and an original soundtrack. All of this was originally released in the Amnesia Fortnight voting Humble Bundle dealie.For an extra $15, you can get a slipcase for one of the prototype games, signed by that game's project lead. For $70, you can get the boxed set and signed covers for all five games. Or, if you want zero boxes instead of many, you can download the set for $9.99.
Project Shield's origins and rapid prototyping detailed by NVIDIA
We got our first look at Project Shield -- the NVIDIA-built gaming handheld -- during CES 2013, where the company surprised everyone with the previously unheard of device. It's essentially the marriage of an Xbox 360-style GamePad to a 5-inch screen, all powered by NVIDIA's brand new Tegra 4 mobile CPU. But the device's origins aren't quite as glamorous as its form, even in prototype stage. "The first prototype, assembled in early 2012, was little more than a game controller fastened to a smartphone with wood," reads NVIDIA's boldly worded blog post detailing the history of Project Shield. That initial prototype saw heavy iteration across 2012, eventually culminating in the device unveiled last month. However, just 10 days prior, the device was still locked away in NVIDIA's Silicon Valley development offices, shrouded in secrecy. Even the models we eventually tried out were what NVIDIA reps repeatedly referred to as, "a project, not a product." To take the device from prototype to production, NVIDIA's modeling assembly on work its lead engineers did by hand just before CES. "Over the holiday break, NVIDIA's engineers took over a small piece of floor space at a Silicon Valley contract manufacturer to assemble the units that would be shown off at CES," the piece says. Of course, NVIDIA's engineers won't be hand-building the "tens of thousands more units" that arrive later this year -- a team of "quick-turn manufacturing specialists" at NVIDIA is handling that. We assume the former group will be catching up on much needed sleep. [Photo credit: NVIDIA]
Renegade Kid's lost Crash Bandicoot DS prototype revealed
Prolific DS/3DS developer Renegade Kid made a demo for a Crash Bandicoot DS game years ago. The test for Crash Landed was done in 2008 or 2009 for publisher Activision, according to Nintendo World Report's source, but the game was not picked up. Several Crash games were made for DS, but this was not one of them.Now, for the first time, video of the unfinished (barely started!) demo has surfaced on YouTube. Renegade Kid co-founder Jools Watsham verified the existence of the demo, calling the video "a blast from the past" and revealing that the demo took two weeks to make.
CES: BodyMedia introduces a new Core 2 fitness tracker, with some other interesting ideas
BodyMedia has become a regular stop on our annual CES tour -- the company introduced its first Bluetooth-enabled, smartphone-connected fitness tracker a few years ago -- and since then, they told us this year here in Las Vegas, the smartphone versions of the tracker are outselling more traditional versions "by far." As a result, the company's latest tracker, called the Core 2, is of course designed to sync up almost completely through your iPhone. The device is smaller than ever -- over 40 percent smaller than the current model, and so small, says the company rep, that "the main element is really the strap." The Core 2 isn't only thin, but it also ditches the micro USB port, which means the unit is now essentially waterproof. It comes with a separate Bluetooth dongle (to be used in a computer, in case the user doesn't have a Bluetooth-enabled phone), and can be synced up and charged by being placed in that dongle. Just like all of the other BodyMedia trackers, the Core 2 keeps track of a number of different fitness statistics, including steps taken, calories burned and the duration and potency of whatever activity you undertake. The company has always used a web app called the Activity Monitor to track users' input, but as smartphones became more and more prevalent, the free iOS app has been updated to track more features and even sync live with the device directly. The Core 2 isn't yet priced, but it should be "comparable" to the company's current US$149 offering, according to the rep, when it's finally released in August of this year. By the end of the year, BodyMedia also wants to add in one of the most requested features of its devices, and set it up to also record a user's heart rate. There will need to be an extra accessory for that, as it's not possible to pick up a heart rate with just an upper armband. But the Core 2 has that functionality ready to go, and when the other accessory is ready, the Core 2 should already be compatible with it. The company's also planning to update the app for Android. And before I left the booth here at CES, BodyMedia showed me one other idea they're working on: A disposable version of the fitness tracker, basically a stick-on bandage with a chip stitched inside of it. The stick-on strip is designed to be worn 24 hours a day (including through showers and in the pool) for seven days, at which point users can cut open the bandage, plug the chip into a PC via USB, and then transfer all of the stats off of it. There's no price or release date yet planned for the disposable version, and it's basically not much more than a prototype at this point. But it is a very interesting take on the growing fitness tracker market, and it could convince a lot of people who don't want to deal with pulling a tracker on and off all the time to take the plunge. BodyMedia's plenty busy these days, and these products should move the company forward even more when they hit later on this year. We'll keep an eye out for the Core 2 when it finally reaches store shelves in August.
Eyes-on with Valve's Steambox prototypes
The Steamboxes are here! Well ... sort of. The prototypes for various Steambox designs are certainly here at CES 2013, and we just spent a grip of time acquainting our lenses very closely with them. The devices range in size and form factor, as well as origin -- several of the devices we saw originate from Valve internal, but inclusions like Alienware's X51 and Digital Storm's Bolt were also being held up as examples of the ongoing "Steam in your living room" initiative (note: all the controllers are off-the-shelf Logitech wireless devices, not prototypes). The idea here, as Valve hardware engineer Jeff Keyzer told us, was to show off a variety of form factors for living room-friendly designs. We'll have more from our meeting later today, but for now you can feast your eyes on the elegant prototypes -- as well as Xi3's Piston, and the aforementioned other two third-party PCs -- that we'll be sure to see more of as 2013 goes on. Terrence O'Brien contributed to this report.
Panasonic 4K OLED TV eyes-on (video)
Panasonic wasn't about to let Sony one-up it in the 4K OLED arena, and announced its own 56-inch UltraHD prototype the day after its competitor outed a very similar panel here at CES 2013. We'd never tire of the luscious combination of 4k and OLED, so we couldn't wait to high-tail it to the Panasonic booth to gaze at new screen in its full glory. As with the Sony model, it sucks you into the screen with the level of detail, brightness, ultra-dark blacks and vivid colors -- which looked accurate to our eyes, an area in which OLED can fall down. Other than that impression, there were no other technical details or specs for the prototype display, and none of the Panasonic types we spoke to had any idea either. We're not likely to see such a model on sale anytime before 2014, and when it does arrive, you'll probably need all the digits on one hand for the number of figures in the price. Check the gallery below for images, or head after the break for a short video -- which doesn't remotely do the panel justice, natch. %Gallery-175366%
Panasonic 4K tablet prototype hands on (update: video)
The Panasonic liveblog was barely finished when we saw this beauty calling out to us from the show floor. This is Panasonic's 20" 4K tablet, running Windows 8. It's a prototype design right now, but seemed to be pretty well put together, and not something quickly knocked up for the show. Given that it's not a full release model, details on specifications are sparse, but we can tell you that as well as that truly jaw dropping display, there is a front facing camera (no details on resolution, but possibly 2-megapixel), and an Intel Core i5 running the show. Input / output wise there wasn't a lot going on, but there was micro-USB, microSD and at least WiFi. If you're thinking that that display is going to pretty much keep you tethered to a wall to keep it powered, then we were told that it will at least give you two hours of use on the go. Panasonic also told us that Anoto digital writing technology features in the tablet, which makes sense given that -- judging by the display section for this device -- that the tablet is aimed at marketing professionals, architects, photographers and other such business users. Given the tablet's size, it's not the sort of thing you are likely to be slinging in a rucksack and taking out on the road. That said, in our time with it, picking it up and moving it about wasn't terrible, and you can imagine swanky design houses and media companies lining the walls of their offices with these things. No word on price or availability, but Panasonic were confident that this would make it to production.
3M Touch Systems 84-inch Projected Capacitive Display hands-on
We knew we'd be seeing 3M Touch Systems' monster capacitive display once again, but we had no idea just how massive this year's iteration would be. Taking up residence in a corner of CES Unveiled 2013, the company's latest multi-touch prototype now measures in at 84 inches, far surpassing its 46-inch predecessor, with 100-inch versions waiting in the wings. This particular touch table now supports Ultra HD resolution (4K) and was shown running a software demo currently in use at Chicago's Museum of Science. As you may be able to tell from the accompanying gallery, those floating images aren't of the crispest quality, but that's because the files aren't fully high-res. Of course, tech of this kind isn't necessarily intended for households -- not yet, anyway -- it makes for a more natural fit in commercial environments (think: airports, car dealerships or wireless retailers). At present, the table here on the showfloor is calibrated to support 40 individual touch points, but a company rep assured us it could be configured for up to 60, allowing for large groups of people to interact simultaneously. While touch tabletops of this kind are still quite rare in the wild, expect to see them crop up more commonly in the near future. Check out a video demo past the break. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Sarah Silbert contributed to this report.
PowerVR Series6 mobile GPUs are almost here, we go eyes-on with a test chip (video)
Imagination Technologies is on a high right now. Throughout 2012, the company's PowerVR graphics processors continued to monopolize the iPhone and iPad as well as appearing in (late 2011) Android flagships, the PlayStation Vita and even the first Clover Trail-powered Windows 8 tablets. But you know what? That's old news, because all those devices run current-gen PowerVR Series5 silicon. Most new top-end devices in 2013 and 2014 will either contain the latest Mali GPUs from rival ARM, or they'll pack PowerVR Series6, aka Rogue. This latter chip is currently being developed by at least eight different smartphone and tablet manufacturers and is expected to make a good bit of noise at CES next week. But who's going to wait that long if they don't absolutely have to? To get a fuller understanding of what awaits us in the coming weeks and months, we scoped out a Rogue test chip at Imagination's sparkly new HQ just outside of London, UK. The test silicon doesn't represent the true power of Series6 because it's running on an FPGA board that severely limits its bandwidth, but it's still able to show off one crucial advantage: namely the ability to run OpenGL ES 3.0 games and apps. This API is all about improving mobile graphics through making smarter use of GPU compute, without annoying the battery, and the three demos after the break show just how it pulls that off. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Primal Rage 2 footage surfaces, breaks our heart
Primal Rage 2 is one of the more mythical cancelled games of yore. Plenty of rumors and legends surround its life and death, but there's very little in the way of concrete, verifiable information when it comes to what the game was actually like. Now though, thanks to some new off-screen footage captured from a working prototype version, we have a slightly better idea of what could have been.As shown in the video above, Primal Rage 2 maintained the claymation aesthetic found in the original game, though the character models and their various animations look much more fluid than Primal Rage's Harryhausen-esque staccato jitters. Furthermore, the combo system appears to have been improved and expanded, though to what extent is difficult to ascertain.Essentially, it looks like everything we ever could have wanted. Finding absolute proof that we're not living in the best of all possible universes wasn't really on our "To Do:" list today, but here we are. Someday we'll open a worm hole to the bubble universe where Primal Rage 2 was released, and it'll be so great. Provided everyone in that universe breathes oxygen, of course; alternate universes can get complicated.
Steam Holiday Sale, day 9: Assassin's Creed, Prototype, Left 4 Dead franchises and more
The majority of mainstream shopping holidays have now reached a complete stop, but the sales live on – especially in the case of Valve's annual Steam Holiday Sale, which today enters its ninth day of dealing out discounted digital sundries.PC gamers can save 25 to 75 percent on every game in the Assassin's Creed series, 75/50 percent off Prototype and Prototype 2 respectively, get Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 for a cold dead $7.49, Limbo for a spooky $2.49, Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion for an astronomically low $13.59 and Just Cause 2 for a justified $3.74.Yesterday's deals also remain active for another 20 hours or so, including LA Noire for $4.99, FTL for $4.99 and 33 percent off XCOM: Enemy Unknown. As always, flash sales and community choice sales change throughout the day.
Unreleased Apple products revealed in Hartmut Esslinger's upcoming book
Hartmut Esslinger founded Frog Design, the firm responsible for some of Apple's most iconic products of the 1980s, including the Apple IIGS and the Macintosh II. Now the legendary designer behind the "Snow White" design language is providing a rare glimpse at some of his work that never saw the light of day in a new book called Design Forward, due out on January 16, 2013. Esslinger provided designboom with photos of several product prototypes, including an all-in-one, dual-screen Mac workstation and a touchscreen-based Macphone -- a stylus-based Mac fused with a corded telephone. There are also several different takes on the classic Macintosh design and a better look at the Tablet Mac prototype circa 1982. There are some really exceptional sights to behold in the images released by Esslinger, and if this is only a taste of what will be included in his book, we can't wait to give it a read. We're partial to the grey and purple Mac designs above ourselves; what did you like? [Via The Verge]
Molyneux hopes to have Godus prototype available on Friday
Peter Molyneux and his experimental game studio 22 Cans hope to have a prototype of project Godus available tomorrow, December 14, the famed creator tells Ars Technica."I've seen the prototype, I've actually played it... I've got a few changes I'd like to be made, but the progress has been pretty constant, so Friday is going to be the time when we show the rest of the world what the prototype is," Molyneux says.Godus is a reimagining of Molyneux's breakout 1989 god game Populous, and the new prototype should be available for PC and mobile download. Earlier this month, Molyneux told us he hoped to have a prototype out by Christmas."[The prototype] is not the most beautiful piece of computer interaction ever, but you knead it and you touch it and you get the idea that sculpting the landscape is amazing, seeing things react in the landscape is incredible, and it's definitely going to work," Molyneux says.The Godus Kickstarter has seven days to raise £180,000, to reach its goal of £450,000.
YotaPhone Android prototype with dual LCD and E Ink displays hands-on (video)
Yesterday we brought you the announcement, and today we bring you the hands-on reality -- although bear in mind that this dual-screen YotaPhone is still very much a prototype. It certainly works -- pretty well, in fact -- but it's understandably rough around the edges and Yota Devices have plenty of work to do before the handset launches towards the end of next year. By way of a quick refresher: from the front this is a regular Android Jelly Bean phone with decent specs, including a 720 x 1,280 LCD display, dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 12-megapixel main camera. Turn it around, however, and you reveal its double identity: a 200 dpi E Ink display which can hold a range of information -- calendar appointments, ebooks, tweets and whatever else you'd like -- without draining the battery. The good new is that the YotaPhone actually makes an even better first impression than we'd hoped, while the bad news is merely what's to be expected given the early stage of development. Click past the break for our hands-on video and impressions and all will become clear.
Nintendo's Wii U GamePad prototype revealed: Two Wii remotes, a display and some tape
You have to start somewhere. In a group interview between its CEO and several software developers, Nintendo recently touched on how the Wii U's primary controller, the GamePad came into being. Initially, development focused on a "Wii Zapper" with a small screen and a gyroscope connected to a Wii remote and nunchuk, feeding movement data to the display. This was soon subsumed into the 3DS, which was nearing the end of its design process. In fact, Nintendo titan Shigeru Miyamoto recalled the original 3DS handheld plans to add the gyroscope, even though hardware features had been "set" internally. This early model, however, catalyzed the idea of a second screen for the players' hands and lead to the barebones hardware you can see above. Crafted from double-sided tape and two Wii remotes, the prototype brought forth ideas for Nintendo Land -- and if we're honest, is a fairly decent outline of what the final product resembled, with buttons and controls (including triggers) distributed across both sides of the screen. Interested in the full development story of both the GamePad and Nintendo Land? Then you'd best visit the source link.
Prototype series going for $9.99 on PC at Amazon
If you like your carnage big and your savings bigger, you'll have designs on the Prototype Pack on PC, now on sale at Amazon for no more than $9.99. The bundle contains both Prototype and Prototype 2, the latter released earlier this year. Frankly, ten bucks would be a surprisingly low price for the sequel on its own, let alone bundled with the first game.Prototype hasn't been a popular series at retail, with lackluster sales contributing to "significant" layoffs at developer Radical Entertainment. While Richard felt Prototype 2 has far too much inanity in its plot, his review shows he still enjoyed its destructive qualities.
Japan Display shows low-power reflective LCD that does color, video
Seen any color video in your e-reader lately? Us neither, and Japan Display wants to change all that with a new reflective, paper type LCD capable of the feat that burns very little juice, to boot. To pull it off, the prototype uses a so-called light control layer, allowing it to collect rays and bounce them toward your eyes, exactly like plain old analog paper. The consortium developed a low color fidelity version with five percent NTSC coverage and a bright 40 percent reflection, along with a dimmer version carrying a third less reflectivity but a more faithful 36 percent hue gamut. The latter still needs some tweaking, according to Japan Display, but the more reflective version is now good to go for production, meaning it might start popping up in new readers imminently. For more info, check the video after the break. [Image credit: Diginfo]
Moog's LEV-96 sensoriactuator prototype wields touch control of 96 simultaneous harmonics, we go eyes-on (video)
Late last week, Moog outed its LEV-96 sensoriactuator prototype and offered a glimpse at its latest R&D unit. Even though it's still in the early phases of beta-testing, we were able to stop by the Moog Music factory for a closer look and a brief glimpse of the gear in action ahead of its appearance at Moogfest. While the unit is installed on acoustic guitars for the time being, the company says that similar tech can be used on other acoustic instruments and eventually to other surfaces -- this is just the current manifestation. Since the tech modifies the guitar's natural harmonics and string vibrations, the LEV-96 is getting cozy on both traditional acoustic guitars and those outfitted with pickups in its present state. As far as controls go, the entire unit is capacitive touch-enabled from the moment a finger swipe powers it on. Sliders allow for adjusting the intensity, harmonics and note duration while the other buttons enable arpeggio presets and modulation that includes tremolo and random harmonic tweaks. Those sliders remain in play when a preset is activated, serving to enable further adjustments on selected There is a lock button, too, so that you don't accidentally make a switch mid-strum. All of these finger-friendly surfaces work alongside two pairs of electromagnetic pickup channels per string to wrangle the 96 simultaneous harmonics. Magnets work to either increase of decrease the string's motion, bringing out vibrational modes that have always been in-play on acoustic instruments, but have never been offered the power needed to make 'em sing. The folks at Moog are quick to remind us that the LEV-96 is still in its infancy, but you can rest assured we'll be keeping an eye our for what develops. For a peek at the tech in action, head on past the break for a really quick demo that we kept brief due to that fact that this is an early prototype.%Gallery-169322%
