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Illinois students revive the Power Glove
Tilt-sensitive controllers? Magic-wand-style pointers? That's just kids stuff. Everyone knows that the Power Glove is the only video game controller so good that it's so bad. Now, two University of Illinois grad students are bringing the concept into the next generation with a prototype glove controller of their own.The glove, developed as part of a technology entrepreneurship class by Jason Skowronski and Shivani Jain, accurately models the bending of finger joints and the hand's position and orientation in space, according to a (Champaign, Ill.) News-Gazette story. While video games are the most obvious and lucrative application for such a device, the glove is also being considered for use as a virtual mobile keyboard or a sign language interpreter.The pair is reportedly trying to get the technology into the sub-$100 range as they patent their ideas and pitch them to game companies. We hope someone bites -- just imagine being able to flip someone the bird and see it accurately recreated in your game of Barbie's Horse Adventure 2: the Revenge. How's that for interactive?
Fortune says Wii is "scary tech"
Is it the motion-sensing Wiimote? Is it the lack of HD visuals its competitors are banking on? Is it the Wii Channels interface and always-on WiiConnect24 online service? Nope, none of the above describe why Fortune has declared the Wii one of its "scary techs of 2006." It's the name. It's the name alone.Sorry guys, you are months late for that ship, which has literally sailed off, come back and sailed off again.[Via Joystiq]
Ricoh shows off their Blu-ray/HD DVD/DVD/CD capable laser at Interopto 2006
As previously mentioned Ricoh is working on a way to read all four formats with a single adjustable laser, and they came to Interopto 2006 to show it off. Of course with their panels written in Japanese it's a little hard to understand the details, but the idea is clear. They claim they will be able to provide samples to OEMs this year, but don't anticipate players on shelves until the end of 2007. Of course some people think the Blu-ray and HD DVD format war could be over by then, and we still have the unknowns of license restrictions and price to deal with before this is a realistic alternative to existing standalone players and recorders.
Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player hands-on, cracked open, pored over
While it may be delayed (only in Europe, Blu-ray fans don't jump off the ledge just yet!), a few guys at Greek home theater site AVSite.gr got a demo of Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-ray player and said it looked beautiful. Actually we're not totally sure what they said because we can't read any of it but the pictures look great. A few guys from the site came over and posted a few details on AVS Forum. During their demo they weren't able to switch into 1080p mode to get a look at that, but in 1080i connected to a high-end projector everything looked great. They didn't note any playback glitches and said the discs did not seem to take a long time to load.That's all well and good but HDTVPolska did them one better and cracked the unit open for a look at its insides. That's what we like, pre-early HDTV adopters who take risks.
PS3 smoke and mirrors?: IBM stats
I don't pretend to be an expert on matters technical, but reader Crimson Angelus sure sounds like he knows what he's talking about:At this year's E3 (or thereabouts) Sony proclaimed that their processor could achieve 200GFLOPS! However, according to IBM's white paper, only 155.5 GFLOPS was actually achieved (Table 4). BUT, IBM's tests used all 8 SPEs. The PS3 will only use 7 SPE's, due to manufacturing yield issues.The efficiency of the Cell is 75.9% (Table 4), with of a theoretical peak of 201GFLOPs (Figure 5)--running 8 SPEs at 25.12GFLOPS apiece (Table 2). Similarly, the theoretical peak for the PS3's processor will be 176GFLOPS, using 7 SPEs at 25.12GFLOPS apiece. Assuming the same 75.9% effieciency, we could easily interpolate the PS3's Cell to be capable of 133.6GFLOPS.The take home message is that with the PS3 being cabable of 133.6 GFLOPS and the Xbox 360 being capable of 115.2 GFLOPS, the PS3 is not nearly as far ahead of the Xbox 360 as we were lead to believe. we should expect relatively similar power coming from both consoles, processor power, and ease of programming all considered.Not to mention that one of the SPE's in the PS3 are reserved for the OS and the bottlenecking of the data transfer between the SPE's and the on board memory. I see the 360 hand in hand with a gaming Revolution taking home this next round at least, if not the whole cake over time.He's working off this data, which has been around for a while.So much for "twice the processing power," though I'm interested to learn just how many GFLOPS it takes to enter the fourth dimension. Any tech-minded PS3 fanboys care to argue, or are you still busy making fun of the Wii fanboys?
Washington Post on Apple and product placement
The Washington Post has an interesting article about all the 'free' product placement Apple has apparently received in TV shows and movies in recent years. The article states that Apple doesn't pay for all that publicity, but the company won't discuss how their products end up helping CSIs track down their suspect or how the iPod helps employees of The Office land a punchline.However, the article goes on to mention that product placement is often "arranged through some kind of barter in which the show provides exposure in exchange for products or services" - doesn't that mean the placement is still being paid for?Semantics aside, let's hope the Hollywood writers and Apple's tech evangelist don't go too overboard; the producers of NBC's The Office "pride themselves on being real" and seem to understand proper placement: "Indeed, actors on the show's drab workplace set do not use snazzy Apple computers, but rather black, generic desktop PCs." Hooray for the real world.[via Slashdot]
Samsung Blu-ray delay official
Unfortunately the bad rumors we hipped you to earlier are all too true. Samsung's BD-P1000 will not launch on May 23, but June 25. The good news, if there really is any, is that they have added a couple features to the checklist: 1080p upconversion of DVDs (apparently only via HDMI out) Support for 11 (up from 9) memory card formats, adding Mini-SD and Memory Stick Pro Duo The official reason is to undergo further compatibility testing with Blu-ray test discs, and the price is still $999. HD-DVDs are still (probably) hitting shelves later this month, but we're not holding our breath (anymore, because the hospital said they are not resuscitating Kevin again). Hopefully this will be the last time we have to tell you when next generation DVDs aren't coming out.
You know your tech lust is bad when...
...all monetary amounts translate into Apple/computer/gadget purchases. Let me explain.A friend of mine told me he lost his wallet containing $300 on the bus the other day (he since recovered the wallet, cash and all). I then told a fellow Mac using friend about this unfortunate event, and the first thing he says is "Yikes! That's almost a mini!" (To be fair, this friend is in the market for a Mac mini.) This dialog got me wondering: how bad can tech lust get?I'm not talking about the Apple fanboys who can't resist the urge to bash Windows and blindly proclaim Apple's infallibility and perfect security track record (even though neither exist) on every blog post and forum thread they invade. I'm asking: what lengths or depths have you or a family member/friend gone to for that *one* gadget, or for the Mac you're reading this on now? Feel free to share your stories of obsession and desperation involving Macs and gadgets - we won't hold them against you (much).
Be the first on your block with an HD-DVD drive
If you're really ready for next generation DVDs, this guy on the CDFreaks message boards is selling NEC HD-DVD HR-1100A readers for your desktop PC. Not sure why you'd want one since we don't know when you'll actually have HD-DVDs to play on it and probably no software to play them with, but you would still be first. We've seen commercial Blu-ray players from Japan pop up on eBay before, but this may be the first opportunity to have HD-DVD technology all to yourself, and for only $120.Since you won't be playing HD-DVDs anytime soon, enjoy your stunning 32x CD/8x DVD playback speeds and wonder what might be ... someday. As soon as HD-DVD drives are available from somewhere other than some-guy-on-a-forum, we'll let you know.[via digg]
Windows Vista will support HD-DVD after all
Our good friend and Microsoft MVP Chris Lanier moved to clear up some controversy over whether or not Vista would include native support for any next generation format, confirming that yes, it will ship all right and ready for your HD-DVD's. Blu-ray support will need to come from a third party, so look for an extra disc of software when you pick up that shiny new Blu-ray drive for your PC.No word however on whether or not Vista will include the vaunted "write your blog posts while you lay on the couch and play Xbox 360" feature. We'll keep you updated.
Playstation 3: Coming to North America (and the world) in 2006
Check out Joystiq's continuing updates of Sony's Playstation Conference for more information, but lets get down the key facts: Worldwide (Asia, Europe, North America) launch in early November 1 million units shipped every month, total of 6 million shipped by the end of 2006 100% backwards compatible with existing PS1 & PS2 titles, will upconvert to HD resolutions Latest HDMI connectors (1.3?) 60GB HDD "required", supports Linux, acts as a media server All PS3 games will ship on Blu-ray discs to prevent piracy PS3 online service will feature matchmaking, downloads; free "basic" service Developers will get final kits in June PS3 is "4D" The conference is over, no games, no price announced Well there we have it, more hardware details, and still so many questions. But at least it is launching in 2006, I don't know if we could survive another Christmas without "true" high definition. One thing is for sure, just when it looked like Sony might be slipping, they have come back with a big plan for continued worldwide dominance. Anyone want to place odds on if they can pull it off?
Playstation 3 delay is official
In the "who didn't see this coming?" news of the day Sony has announced that the Playstation 3 won't be shipping this Spring. A Japanese newspaper is reporting the launch has been pushed back to November in Japan, potentially leaving US high definition gamers PS3-less until 2007. The stated reason for the delay? Copy protection related to the Blu-ray drive. Apparently that preliminary AACS agreement wasn't enough, or maybe Sony is just planning on slipping a combo (or at least 4x drive) in the unit.It's been pretty obvious that the PS3 would slip, with it being March and developers still not having final hardware to work on, but November seems pretty late, it will be interesting to see how they keep the hype machine rolling all year long.Hopefully we will learn more about Sony's next generation plans tomorrow. [Via Evil Avatar]
LG: No Blu-ray player this spring, combo player in the fall?
CE Pro is reporting LG sent a memo to their dealers indicating that among other things, like removing LCoS screens from their lineup, they have cancelled their BD199 player due to "uncertainty in the market". Without even stopping to mourn the BD199 that never was, they go on to say they expect to launch a combination Blu-ray/HD-DVD player by late summer or early fall.A device that plays both formats would seem to be the holy grail of high def DVD's, but we seem to recall Samsung saying that due to licensing restrictions of both camps that it would be impossible to produce one. Now that AACS is somewhat settled, and Sony and NEC working together (although Samsung already similarly partnered with Toshiba), has something changed? The real question seems to be is there any point in HDTV owners buying a first generation player if combination units are right around the corner.
AACS still not finished: is this intentional?
That's the word according to German mag heise; apparently disagreement from within the Blu-ray Disc Association over how AACS and BD work together means no high definition DVD formats yet. Beyond just noting the delay, they also dropped a few dimes on what we can expect from managed copy: the content holder gets to decide how many copies can be made and any device they are copied to requires an Internet connection for verification. Microsoft's COPP (Certified Output Protection Protocol) makes sure you're actually watching a movie and not dumping the video to a file, after which that HDCP-compliant videocard that doesn't exist yet finally lets you play HD-quality content on your monitor.I really have to wonder, is the BDA that far apart on the DRM issue, or is there any possibility that this is intentional to delay the launch of HD-DVD, which was supposed to debut last year but can't until AACS is finished. Being the first mover was part of HD-DVD's advantage in the face of Blu-ray's greater storage capacity but that continues to shrink and may even be nonexistent by the time they launch. I'll tell you what though Toshiba, how about we just forget the whole AACS, DRM thing? We won't tell if you won't.
You saw Lost right? (spoilers)
Did you catch the images in the "monster" as it faced down Eko? I don't have any screen grabs but Kevin might later, the'yre talking about it over on TV Squad also. Thanks to the high definition DVR I was able to make out the images as they flashed by, this wasn't so much of an HDTV easter egg as a Tivo-egg, because there's no way you would be able to see all the images without frame-by-frame. Church Eko as a child a woman the man he shot his brother and the gun an upside down picture of Eko coming out of the water after the plane crash the man who pushed him off of the missionary plane the woman who sold the figurines two flashes of Eko holding his dying brother Jesus on the cross All they need is a subplot about how Eko used to be in a wheelchair and he and Locke will officially be the exact same person. One of the best shows in HD is back and it should be an interesting rest of the season.
Sanyo announces worlds smallest HD camcorder
If you've been just dying to record high definition video on the go, Sanyo has the camcorder for you. The Xacti DMX-HD1 measures at an amazingly small 80x119x36mm, and weighs only 235g, including battery and memory card. It will record 1280x720 resolution video at 30fps in MPEG-4 format.With a 2gb SD card you can expect to get about 28 minutes of recording time in high definition. JCN reports the price as $1040, but DV Guru caught a look at the camera during CES and says we can expect it in March for just $800. They've also got video of the device.
So no Apple plasma HDTV after all :(
Blah blah blah, laptop, blah blah, iPod, blah blah blah, dual core Intel processor. No 50" plasma screens, no UDI. The best news we got was DVI out on the new laptops, no word if that will include HDCP, but unless they'll upgrade your laptop to Blu-ray or HD-DVD, who cares?I'm so disappointed, check out the rest of the coverage of the Jobsy one's keynote on Engadget and TUAW.
HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray continues, no compromise in sight / flip discs will decide the winner?
Ok, so now, we've seen the huge hulking 1980's VHS-style players for both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, but which one are we going to buy? Well, if you were hoping to buy a Samsung player that was compatible with both standards, don't hold your breath reports CNet. Apparently both groups have regulations making it impossible for any member to create a drive capable of playing both formats, so there goes that idea for now.Also today, the "HDTV Professor" noted that of all the things he heard at Insight Media's HDTV Conference, the possibility for flip disc HD-DVD's with regular DVD content on one side is much more promising than similar Blu-ray applications, and could lead to quicker adoption by consumers and retailers.As usual, we'll continue to keep an eye on it.
CES: How the hell am I supposed to make this stuff work together?
Connecting. It seems like companies had no problem doing that at CES. Everybody was in a partnership with everybody else and was in a hurry to tell people about it, I'm not even going to make the lame high school compariso...oops. But seriously, after all the talking is done, I still don't know what is going to work with what, or how. I can't even imagine what it's going to be like for the average consumer this year, because this stuff is gibberish to me. Let me run down a list just of the things I'm left with far more questions than answers about.Intel: Viiv: I still don't know what this is. I know that Intel has partnered with everyone and their mother. (Seriously, at this point I wouldn't be at all surprised if I visited home and found that I needed at the least a software upgrade before I could eat some DRM protected home cooking). The questions I need answered are, will I absolutely need to buy an Intel PC to take advantage of this content? How will I take advantage of it, can I build my own Viiv PC? And what does this mean anyway? Microsoft: Congratulations, the Xbox 360 is getting HD-DVD playback. How much, how will it connect to my 360 and my TV and when can we expect it, until you answer those questions I'm not excited in the least. Is Wintel really dead? Viiv relies on Windows Media Center, but Microsoft is partnering with AMD on their competing AMD Live standard, (btw, everything I said about not knowing what Viiv is, goes double for AMD Live). Now that Google is using DivX, is Microsoft going to add support for streaming to the Xbox 360 or am I going to have to wait for a mod chip? Continue on for questions for Google, Sony, HANA or provide your own answers/questions.
CES: You think you're sick of next generation DVD's? So are retailers
The CEO's of Best Buy and Circuit City took time during panel discussions at CES to tell them exactly how unhappy it makes them that sometime this year, they will try to sell you a $1000 next generation DVD player knowing full well you may have to come back a few years later and buy another one. That I don't believe at all, which is why I wondered if retailers may be the only ones benefiting from this conflict, but one thing I definitely agree with, is that the prospect of conflicting formats will negatively affect sales as customer wait for a winner. Confused and frightened customers who stay out of stores on Black Friday 2006 is what keeps both of these men awake at night, and I'm sure they'd love to do without figuring out how much shelf and advertising space, not to mention employee training they will have to devote to both formats.
