TimeShift
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Zeebox update adds 'replay tweets' feature, brings time-delayed social commentary
Twitter already put forward the idea of a social media "DVR," that might let you "playback" tweets, and see what was being talked about at a certain time. It seems Zeebox wasn't about to wait around for that to happen and took the initiative, bundling a similar feature into its latest update. The second-screen app will now recognise when you're watching something after the fact, and resurrect the tweets that went along with it, as if it were live. Great for seeing what your tweeple were thinking at the time. Still won't protect you from any Downton-eque spoiler debacles, sadly.
DirecTV Genie DVR and interface launch with advice for the indecisive
We got a peek at DirecTV's Genie system just a few weeks ago with promises of a system that would both suggest related shows and optionally record them unbidden. It's here, and it's being joined by some rebranding. The company's flagship HR34 DVR has been relabeled as the Genie and makes the new software its centerpiece, with those five tuners letting even the chronically uncommitted take new recommendations as seriously as they like. As before, simultaneous viewing is otherwise the biggest angle: there's support for up to eight RVU-capable TVs hooked up at once, two shows playing on one TV and up to four TVs watching the same show. You'll have to be a new subscriber to get the video recorder under the Genie moniker, although we don't see too many existing customers dropping everything to get that symbolic distinction.
TiVo Premiere 4 confirmed early, promises a 4-tuner DVR for the masses
TiVo owners who've wanted to record any more than two shows at a time or use more recent technology like MoCA have had to look towards the wallet-busting Premiere XL4, at least if they didn't happen to rely on a cable provider bundling the Premiere Q. Thankfully, TiVo has told Zatz Not Funny that a more affordable Premiere 4 option is on the way. The new DVR will still require QAM digital cable or FiOS TV for its tuners to sing, but its 500GB of space will likely lead to a significant price cut versus the 2TB-touting XL4 -- if also a whole lot of deleted old shows. MoCA, an eSATA port and a single CableCARD slot will carry over, so there's few other penalties in store for those who pass on the XL4 flagship. We don't have any official word on the launch strategy so far, although one loose-lipped rep has floated the rumor of a release within the next one to two months at $250 price tag. If true, the Premiere 4 will go a long way towards satisfying TV junkies who are more concerned about catching every show in a crowded prime time slot (and a lower cost) than digging through months-old archives.
Belkin announces @TV, Slingbox-esque media streamer and companion app
Belkin has unveiled @TVPlus, a media streamer that jacks into your home theater and pumps episodes of Community (or, other things, we guess) to your smartphone, tablet or laptop through the internet. Packing a built-in WiFi radio, you'll connect to it on your travels with the @TV app, which is capable of recording live TV straight to your mobile device for offline viewing. The app is free for tablets ($12.99 for smartphones) while the box itself will set you back $150 when it arrives in mid-July.
Sirius XM releases Lynx radio, ensures that you never miss the beginning of another Jimmy Buffett song
Need a shiny new way to enjoy SiriusXM's revamped channel lineup? For $250, you can pick up the Lynx Portable Radio, which lets you start shows and songs (Jimmy Buffett or otherwise) from the beginning and pause, fast forward and rewind programming. The wildcat radio also stores up to 200 hours of programming and features "dynamic" presets and a show finder, which offers up a programming schedule for the next seven days. It's currently available online for $250 and will be hitting retail shops in the near future. More info on the radio can be read from the beginning in the press release and video trailer after the break. Still no word on that whereabouts of that shaker of salt.
Toshiba details CELL REGZA LCD TV, coming December to Japan (update: video!)
It's a day before CEATEC officially kicks off, but Toshiba's getting a head start on the news, dishing out all the deets on its Cell-powered CELL REGZ LCD TV, now officially due out in Japan in early December. The 55-inch, 240Hz display boasts a mighty impressive 5,000,000:1 contrast ratio, self-congruency technology for improved picture detail on the edges, a peak luminance of 1250cd/m², and LED backlits dividing the screen into 512 distinct areas. A 7-speaker sound bar lies just below the display. Want more? How about eight-window simultaneous multi-display, an Opera-based web browser, DLNA, and a 3TB hard disk drive, 2TB for "time-shift" recording recording up to 26 hours of programs, up to eight channels simultaneously. There's a sizable box on display, too, which seems to be where the Cell hardware is being housed. Curious about price? So are we, but there's nothing being said. If that's not forward-thinking enough, Toshi's also outlining its future concepts, dubbed CELL REGZA NEXT. Those four include a 3D set, a 4K2K version that upcoverts 1080p to 3840 x 2160 resolution, a 46-inch model integrating its CELL BOX dedicated TV tuner and HDD, and a 37-inch that works as a home network server. It looks like we'll be getting some hands-on time with the 55X1 shortly, but in the meantime, one more pic after the break. %Gallery-74635%
TimeShift dev taps Havok for 'several' upcoming games
Developer Saber Interactive has been keeping to itself since its time-bending shooter, TimeShift, first bored critics in 2007. Employees have been spending their hours competing in weekly dance-offs doing the Time Warp, a heated competition that'll likely be put on hold now that the company has a new game to work on. Make that games -- plural -- as middleware firm Havok announced that its Havok Destruction tech is now in the hands of the company for use in "several" upcoming games.While no games have been announced, Saber Interactive teases that Havok Destruction will help bring "a new scale and complexity to the fully destructible city" in its next title, including the ability to punch holes through walls. In addition, the developer notes that the software allowed it to realize "large-scale destruction sequences" and reduce costs, with the outfit's budget for interactive assets dropping by 40 percent or more as a result of the Havok license. Exploding barrels, is there anything you can't do?
WoW Insider Show live today (and next Wednesday)
Should be a fun episode of the WoW Insider Show this weekend -- and hopefully, Turpster's new song will be ready to play on the air for you all. Though it's not for certain, unfortunately -- I know he was planning a Wham! reunion just for the song, but you know how tough it is to get all the contracts involved on something like that. Anyway, even if the song isn't ready yet, we'll still have a show, and we'll chat about all the most popular posts of the past week, including our new Time is Money column (and how to make the most money ingame), everything we've heard and seen from Ulduar in the past week, and what else is new on the 3.1 PTR. Be sure to tune in live if you can -- it starts up at 3:30pm Eastern over on our Ustream page, or in the embedded feed on the end of this post.And we've got a special treat for those of you who can't make it to our usual Saturday broadcasts -- next Wednesday, March 11th, we're going to record the podcast at a special time of the week. We'll be starting up on Ustream around 9pm Eastern, which is probably a little late for all of you Europeans, but will hopefully let some people who've never heard the show before tune in (and hopefully we'll catch some WI bloggers who haven't been on the show before as well). This is only a one-time thing for now, so in the future, we'll be on Saturday as usual, but next week we're trying a new time just to see if we can mix things up a little bit.If you can't make it on Wednesday, don't worry: the recorded show will still be here on the site and on the feeds as usual, and in two weeks we'll be back to the normal time. This is just a chance to let people who haven't been able to tune in on Saturday afternoons come and check us out. Hopefully we'll see you there, either later today or next Wednesday evening.
'American Idol' is most timeshifted show of 2008
Well, would you let your brain simmer on this a bit. American Idol, the famed singing competition that airs live numerous times per week when it's in full swing, was found to be the most timeshifted program in the USA in 2008. Granted, it's also the most watched show in the nation, but we digress. The significance here is that this tidbit, which was dug up by The Nielsen Company, goes to show that live competitions and so-called "topical" programming aren't as immune to DVRs as networks would love to believe. The data found that "an extra four million viewers watched Fox's American Idol in the seven days following the initial episodes." To us, the only true DVR-resistant programming is live sports -- the genuineness of the event just seems to fade when you're not watching in real time, but we can't say we've ever felt the same when watching Simon & Co. a few days after the fact.
Austria's aonTV launches HD programming, Timeshift TV
As the admittedly light adoption of HD continues on continents not named North America, we see Austria's own aonTV hopping on the HD bandwagon. The Vienna-based IPTV carrier has just launched HD-Videothek -- which will carry a mix of hit movies, documentaries and music videos -- and ORF HD, which will be used to carry the upcoming Euro 2008 in high-definition. The cost for picking up the tier is €4.90 on top of the basic €34.90 subscription, though a new service dubbed Timeshift TV is being made available gratis. As the title implies, the feature enables viewers to "replay content from the previous 90 minutes" on 11 different channels. Not exactly a DVR, but we suppose it's better than nothing.
Free TimeShift DLC shifts to not free
Remember that free TimeShift DLC that dropped earlier this week? We hope you snapped it up quick, because it looks like it wasn't supposed to be free. It seems some Xbox Live Marketplace ninjas have infiltrated Microsoft HQ and changed the price of "Urban Redual" to 800 MS Points. The other piece of DLC "Futures-Past," however, remains free. We're not quite sure what happened, but it's clear that there was a mix-up somewhere. Whether or not time powers were involved has yet to be confirmed. Whether or not "takesies-backsies" was declared is also unconfirmed at this time.
TimeShift DLC adds more achievement love
Today, a second piece of downloadable content goodness has graced TimeShift, bringing with it an extra dose of achievement love as well.Available for download for the gotta have it price of FREE are two TimeShift DLC packs called "Futures-Past" and the newly released "Urban ReDuel". And with the DLC release, TimShift received a Gamerscore bump up to 1250, adding an additional ten DLC based achievements each worth 25 Gamerscore. To recap. Free DLC, more achievements and a possible 250 Gamerscore increase. We can't complain too much.
Archos TV+ TVportation plug-in shifts your TV to 605 / 705 PMP
Got yourself an Archos TV+? How's about a WiFi-enabled 605 / 705 PMP? Even if you're sadly answering "no" to the latter question, folks with a Windows or Windows Mobile-based machine can still get in on the placeshifting action, as Archos has just announced a swank new TV+ plug-in that brings Slingbox capabilities to those devices. The May-bound TVportation application, which will be available gratis for those who register their Archos TV+ on the firm's website (it's $49.99 otherwise), simply enables users to control their set-top-box from anywhere where WiFi is accessible, giving users the ability to watch live TV on their handheld. Sure, it's more of the same, but for the Archos faithful who refuse to trade in their 605 / 705, it's a dream come true. Check out a lengthy demonstration vid after the break. [Warning: PDF read link][Thanks, Charbax]
GDC08: Surviving the war of words in 'The Future of Story' session
First off, kudos to the GDC organizers for putting such different-minded people together for "The Future of Story" panel, which ended up being an insightful and vitriolic debate. The panel, hosted by indie writer Deborah Todd, included Saber 3D's Matthew Karch and Michael Hall (Time Shift), Silicon Knights' Denis Dyack (Too Human), Eidos Montreal's Mary DeMarie (previously: Myst III, IV and Dungeon Siege), Matt Costello (7th Guest) and Director of id Software Tim Willits.A focus of the panel was the the dichotomy of story and gameplay, with both Dyack and Karch taking opposing viewponts and everyone else scattered somewhat in the middle. Early on, Karch asserted his view that some genres don't need to value story as much, citing Call of Duty 4 as a game where no one cared about the story. Later, he summed his viewpoint up best saying, "My whole argument is, it doesn't need to be a story written by Steinbeck, it needs to be someone who just keeps the game moving on."Said Dyack, "In five to ten years, there will not be a shoter genre. It's gonna be more literative -- horror, science fiction, etc." When Karch asked if Bruckheimer would go away (referencing the "high-octane" film producer), Dyack retorted that "He's McDonald's, thats what he is. and people love McD's." The back and forth continued, culminating in the following exchange:Dyack: "We should still aspire to this. you could have bubble gum like, Transformers [the film] for example, but in the end its what entertains."Karch: "I'll take bubble gum."
December's Sunday deals are plentiful
It's the holidays and that means you must treat yourself to a new video game. That's just the way it works guys. And to help with your game purchasing endeavor, we've wrangled up some of this week's best deals. So, go ahead and take a gander, because there's a lot of clicking to do.The only notable offer Circuit City has running this week is Two Worlds for $40. Not all that exciting, so let's move on over to Best Buy. They have Saints Row for $20, The Orange Box, TimeShift and Madden 08 for $50 and they're also offering a $5 gift card with the purchase of any family friendly or social title including Viva Pinata, Viva Pinata: Party Animals, Looney Tunes: Acme Arsenal, PopCap Arcade: Volume 1, Rock Band, Guitar Hero III and Scene It? Hopefully you got all that, because our linking abilities are taxed. Target is giving out free $10 gift cards with the purchase of either Madden NFL, NBA Live or FIFA 08. Finally, Kmart is offering a $25 gift card (mail in offer) with the purchase of an Xbox 360, $10 off all EA Sports games and an offer where if you can buy one game you get another for 50% off. Select games only, CoD4 and Proving Grounds included.Our head hurts now, deal searching is mind numbingly difficult. So, if you spotted a great deal online or in-store this week feel free to share with your fellow fanboys. Just don't hurt your head, today's hunting has put us out of commission for the rest of the day.
XMB who? Custom soundtracks, friend lists spotted in PS3 games
With the long-overdue in-game XMB still a no-show as of last month's 2.00 PS3 firmware update, we were about to resign ourselves to a future that entailed exiting out of games to read messages and getting up to change the channels. Yeah, barbaric. But perhaps we're being a little too fatalistic. Included in yesterday's PSN Thursday update were some special treats: notably a custom soundtrack option in High Velocity Bowling that looks very XMB-ish, along with an in-game friends list for the Timeshift demo, available from the multiplayer screen, which also has that XMB look 'n feel. So if we've got some of the most requested features being added straight to games, emulating the look and feel of the XMB interface, what do we need an in-game XMB for then? Maybe nothing, but we worry that if developers become responsible for implementing this functionality instead of it being a system constant, that we'll see an inconsistent experience across whichever games decide to add it. While we're not quite bowled over, it's a step in the right direction. [Thanks, Justin]
TimeShift gets multiplayer demo on Xbox Live
We heard complaints from reviewers that TimeShift's single-player campaign wasn't as revolutionary as it probably could have been considering its time-bending premise. But you have to hand it to the multiplayer component of the game: It really doesn't feel like anything else out there. Now, you can get a taste for yourself with a new multiplayer demo on Xbox Live.Basically, instead of giving everyone the ability to stop and slow time (which would have been a little too insane, we'd bet) the chrono-powers have been contained to grenades that you lob at enemies that force them to slow, stop, etc. As hectic as it sounds digitally printed here, is twice as crazy on the battlefield. Just be forewarned: You're probably going to get owned by your stoner friend Rusty: He's been playing Halo in slow-motion for years.
TimeShift multiplayer demo now on XBLM
If you weren't sold by the previous demo of TimeShift, you may want to check out the new demo available on Xbox Live Marketplace. The new demo includes the same single player section from the previous demo, but the real meat is the addition of multiplayer. Several game modes are available, though we were unable to find a game when we tried earlier today. If you've got the hardware, system link is available, too. If you haven't tried TimeShift, you may want to give it a go, as the time control elements are also a part of its multiplayer. Then again, maybe you're too busy playing Assassin's Creed.
Metareview: TimeShift (Xbox 360, PS3, PC)
The flood of games isn't stopping any time soon, so it's best to pick your purchases wisely this holiday season. Sadly, unlike the main character in TimeShift, you won't be able to purchase, play, reverse time, and get something else in an endless loop for the last two months of '07. TimeShift's demo was not impressive, forcing us to call the game TimeScript because we had severe issues not being able to save characters in scripted events that could easily be saved. If the main hook in the game is about messing with time (a convention we're well versed in at this point), it better work right and bring something new to the table. Game Informer (78/100): "The arsenal used to dispatch these smart soldiers has some definite standouts. While the standard rifle is handicapped due to its much-too-large reticle, most players will gravitate towards two particular guns. ... While exploring your time-altering gifts will keep your attention for several levels, halfway through the game you'll start to feel déjà vu as you move through the clichéd warehouses and engineering plants. To make matters worse, the simplistic environmental puzzles feel recycled from past titles. TimeShift also isn't above the occasional laggy sequence or game freeze." GamePro (75/100): "Maybe if the game had actually met its original development schedule, its gameplay mechanics could have come across as innovative, but at this point in time, TimeShift comes across as derivative and a little tired. That doesn't mean the game isn't good. It definitely has its moments, especially once the time bending powers become unlocked. There's something definitely satisfying about freezing time, chucking a grenade into a pack of soldiers and watching as the hilarity ensues. But as I was playing the game, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I had done it all before." GameTap (60/100): "Several times you have to use time manipulation just to make platforms move around because whoever built these magical blocks of metal apparently forgot to make them logically functional. Seriously, who would build an elevator that moves so quickly that the only way you can make it from the switch that turns it on to the elevator itself is to break the flow of the space-time continuum? ... Oh yeah, and fire? Forget about it. If you don't pause time while traveling down a conveyer belt with fire spewing from both sides, you're toast. I don't necessarily hate the fact that you have to use time control to get by these obstacles, but I do dislike the fact that a good number of these obstacles are old first-person shooter standbys that have been given a thin coat of paint by the time-shifting mechanics. "
Twenty new TimeShift screenshots
Here are twenty new screenshots from the PS3 build of TimeShift. The demo, which is currently available on Xbox 360 and PC, showcases the various time shifting abilities you have: you can rewind time, slow time and pause time -- each has their own strategic benefits. This looks like a solid shooter, but will it be able to stand out in a very crowded holiday, which includes Call of Duty 4 and Haze?[Correction: TimeShift is not currently on the PS Store.]%Gallery-3219%
