Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/rhcBVFyUFaA/the-immigrants-cheese.html
Julie Berry Lori Heuring Nicole Scherzinger Jill Arrington Tami Donaldson
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
The Immigrant's Cheese
It's called Limburger, and it supposedly smells horrible: Originally from Liege, Beligum, Limburger accompanied mid-nineteenth century Germans and Belgians immigrating en masse to America for its rapidly modernizing, expanding economy. For them, it was a nostalgic, cheap saloon food. They...
gScreen SpaceBook: Back to the Future with Dual Screens?
gScreen has released two SpaceBook-branded laptops that sport dual 17.3” 1080p monitors. That makes SpaceBook the laptop with the most real screen estate with over four million pixels. gScreen has achieved dual screens by making them sliding - the other screen will slide behind the other one to maintain a regular laptop form factor. The slide effect also allows SpaceBook to be used as a normal one-screen laptop.
| gScreen SpaceBook specifications | ||
| SpaceBook 17 i5 4G | SpaceBook 17 i7 8G | |
| Screen size | 2x 17.3" | 2x 17.3" |
| Resolution | 2x 1920x1080 | 2x 1920x1080 |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-560M (2.66GHz dual core) | Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz quad core) |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 1GB | NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 1GB |
| RAM | 4GB DDR3 1333MHz | 8GB DDR3 1333MHz |
| Hard drive | 500GB 7200rpm | 500GB 7200rpm |
| Optical drive | Super-Multi DVD drive | Super-Multi DVD drive |
| Wireless | 802.11 b/g/n | 802.11 b/g/n |
| Connections | Headphone jack, mic-in, Ethernet, 3x USB 2.0, eSATA+USB, FireWire, HDMI, memory card slot | Headphone jack, mic-in, Ethernet, 3x USB 2.0, eSATA+USB, FireWire, HDMI, memory card slot |
| Dimensions (WxHxD) | 16.5" x 1.9" x 12.6 | 16.5" x 1.9" x 12.6 |
| Weight | 10lb | 10lb |
| Price | $2395 | $2795 |
{gallery 1244}
For a quick history lesson, gScreen was founded in 2003 and has solely concentrated on dual-screen laptops. They first revealed their plans in 2009 and originally SpaceBook was supposed to come out in early 2010, but it was delayed. However, after more than a year, gScreen is now taking pre-orders. They also seem to have some kind of promotion regarding to the pricing so the prices listed above are the original prices, not discounted ones.
Frankly, the specifications are straight from early 2010 as well. There is no Sandy Bridge, only Arrandale and Clarksfield, both of which are 18 months old (or more) by now. As for the graphics, gScreen offers NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M with 1GB of VRAM (no word on the type, though DDR3 is likely) in both models and this GPU is roughly two years old. gScreen doesn’t even offer any BTO options so these are the only options you have; no Blu-Ray, SSDs, or anything like that (although you should be able to install them on your own). There is also no word on the panel type, only that they have LED backlighting. Given the high price and gScreen's aim at professional market, IPS displays would be a nice addition, but with outdated CPU and graphics, a TN panel seems inevitable.
gScreen doesn’t say anything about the battery life, only that it's a 6-cell, but considering that we are talking about Arrandale and especially Clarksfield with no GPU switching, the battery life can’t be too good. The second screen will also draw extra power so battery life is very likely less than 90 minutes. Considering the presumed bad battery life and the fact that SpaceBook is a 10-pound monster, portability really becomes a moot point. You lose a lot of portability if you need to be plugged in all the time and the weight of SpaceBook means that it won't be your "everyday and everwhere" kind of laptop.
Given the above, we have to ask: exactly what is the market for the SpaceBook? gScreen claims that they focus on filmmakers, photographers, designers and CAD engineers. However, who would pay over $2000 for a laptop with very out dated hardware and use it as a work machine? If you work with video or other intensive content, then you are going to want the fastest machine you can find, or at least a computer that offers good performance for the buck. Gamers won’t even take a look at machine like this considering its hefty price tag and relatively poor specs. Engineers likewise wouldn't even think about outdated hardware with no professional GPU features (e.g. Quadro or FireGL).
The only market for SpaceBook that I can see is people who really, really need a lot of screen estate while on the go and are ready to trade performance and portability (and a nice amount of $) for those features. That doesn't seem like a big market and it’s hard to see SpaceBook becoming a blockbuster. $1200 can easily get you a laptop with a quad-core Sandy Bridge CPU, decent GPU, and 1080p screen. That’s much more powerful and portable than SpaceBook while costing half as much. With the leftover money, you can grab two big desktop LCDs (even IPS panels!) and get more screen estate than SpaceBook, and still saving money. The only thing you miss out on there is transportability.
All in all, SpaceBook is an interesting concept but it isn't enough to justify the out dated hardware and high price. With 2011 hardware and some configurable options, it could potentially satisfy a niche market, but in its current state SpaceBook looks quite obsolete. We're curious, though: are any of our readers more forgiving of the design? Let us know.
Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4507/gscreen-spacebook-laptop-with-dual-screens
Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel Emmanuelle Vaugier Sarah Silverman Larissa Meek
Monday, July 18, 2011
Cursive As Calisthenics
by Chris Bodenner As keyboarding becomes more prevalent in school curricula and is even replacing cursive writing in some states, researchers say that the exercise of writing by hand is itself crucial for memory and brain development. Danielle Magnuson magnifies...
Joanna Krupa Ashley Olsen Danneel Harris Veronika Vaeková Eve
Samsung Galaxy Q 5.3-inch hybrid phone/tablet tipped for IFA 2011
Samsung is believed to be readying a new tablet/smartphone hybrid, the Samsung Galaxy Q, for official unveil at IFA 2011 in September. The 5.3-inch device would slot in-between the company’s Android handset and Galaxy Tab slate lines, Yahoo News Korea�reports, citing industry sources close to Samsung. Specifications of the handset are unknown, though the tipsters [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/dH81NP-YJ18/
Tami Donaldson Padma Lakshmi Sarah Mutch Gabrielle Union Alessandra Ambrosio
Tabletpalooza Weeks 1 and 2 Winners Roundup : It Could Be You!
It’s that time again, ladies and gentlemen, time to ring the bell for several of our winners in a contest. The contest we’re dealing with right now has a total of FIVE Android tablets in it, each of them packed with a NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor inside. We’ve got two left, and you know [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/fbSeWjaeZ4Y/
Rebecca Mader Eva Green Lauren Conrad Arielle Kebbel Jessica Paré
HTC Status hits AT&T for $50, hopes you tell your Facebook friends
HTC’s QWERTY Facebook phone has gone on sale in the US, with AT&T offering the HTC Status�for just $50 with a new agreement. The Android handset – which we reviewed as the HTC ChaCha�- has a 2.6-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen above a very usable QWERTY keyboard, and offers a dedicated Facebook button designed to [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/xyiVtgrFzkQ/
Tabletpalooza Week 3 : Acer Iconia Tab A500 Giveaway!
The final week for this Tabletpalooza has begun, and it’s for a sweet little ditty by Acer! This is the Aceri Iconia Tab A500 and it’s stocked with NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor for your endless entertainment! This is only one of FIVE tablets we’ve already given away or are about to give away, the [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/3Wi6CjJxwCI/
Michelle Obama Kerry Suseck FSU Cowgirls Abbie Cornish Krista Allen
Stephenson's Rocket for David Cameron
by Alex Massie Earlier this week I suggested David Cameron was doing his best to cut Rupert Murdoch free. Unfortunately for the Prime Minister it turns out that this kind of amputation is trickier than it looks (and it looked...
Verizon says its 4G phones won?t be compatible with AT&T?s LTE network
If you’re looking forward to the possibility of flip-flopping your smartphone’s SIM card between a Verizon Wireless 4G phone and an AT&T 4G phone, we have some bad news for you. Verizon Wireless spokeswoman Brenda Raney confirmed to�PCMag on Friday that the carrier’s 4G LTE phones will not be compatible with AT&T’s 4G LTE network because the phones “run on different frequencies.” PCMag explained that while the two carriers operate within the 700MHz frequency band, AT&T will operate mostly within the 704-746MHz bands while Verizon’s 4G LTE will utilize the 746-787MHz frequencies. Additionally, Verizon still routes its voice calls over its 2G/3G CDMA network while AT&T uses GSM/HSPA. That means, until both networks are fully utilizing voice-over-LTE, it just won’t
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/15/verizon-says-its-4g-phones-wont-be-compatible-with-atts-lte-network/
Sarah Gellman Eliza Dushku Bonnie Jill Laflin Joanna Krupa Ashley Olsen
Amazon UK Drops Apple Pricing Across The Board
Apple has a lot of rumored revamps coming up, including new MacBook Airs, new Apple TVs, and even new LED Cinema Displays. This could mean a lot of the older models will start to be discounted, which could be partly why Amazon UK has just dropped pricing across the board for almost all of their [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/OC2vrIXtzK0/
Lauren German Cindy Crawford Mariah OBrien Uma Thurman Alice Dodd
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Apple snubs Samsung, begins test production of A6 processor with TSMC?
A storied history filled with lawsuits is hardly the foundation for a strong business partnership. In the case of Apple and Samsung, it appears the bickering has finally resulting in a change of hands for Apple?s processor production. The successor to the A5, currently residing in the iPad 2 and upcoming iPhone 4S/5, will not ...
Related posts:
Related posts:
- iPhone 5 A5 processor: 50% of Samsung manufacturing dedicated to it
- iPhone 4.0 leaked in Vietnam: Apple processor revealed
- Samsung to launch 2GHz Exynos processor by 2012
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/electricpig/~3/SAaxurQXQLc/
Cinthia Moura Monica Potter Brittany Snow Lauren German Cindy Crawford
Acer outs the TravelMate 8481 notebook in the UK
Acer has a gob of notebooks and netbooks that it sells all around the world. Sometimes the new rigs land in the US first and other times they hit Europe to start. Today a new notebook has debuted for the ultra mobile user in the UK called the Acer TravelMate 8481. The machine will use [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/h2grn-WpMdY/
Kelly Hu Michelle Rodriguez Mena Suvari Georgina Grenville Michelle Trachtenberg
Silverlight TV 78: Designing Tiles and Splash Screens for Windows Phone (Design Tips Mini Series)
In this episode, Corrina continues the Design Tips miniseries by sharing her insights on how to create tiles and splash screens for Windows Phone applications. She walks through the process of creating an icon in Expression Design and how to make tiles look good and quickly mesh with Metro. Corrina then shows how to create a splash screen and gives some good tips on how to make the splash screen provide a better user experience. Finally, she walks through some tips to help with working with gradients. This video is packed with tips from Corrina, including some great keyboard shortcuts she uses when working with Expression Design. The main topics Corrina covers are:
- Importing photos and using them as a stencil for icons
- Creating a good splash screen that meshes with your app
- Simple gradient color solutions
Relevant links:
- John's blog and on Twitter (@john_papa)
- Susan's blog and on Twitter (@susantoddux)
- Corrina on Twitter (@corrinab)
- Arturo's blog and on Twitter (@arturot)
- Tsitsi's blog and on Twitter (@tsitsigora)
Follow us on Twitter @SilverlightTV or on the web at http://silverlight.tv
Cat Power January Jones Christina DaRe Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart
Who Would Americans Blame?
by Patrick Appel John Sides predicts that Obama will take a hit if we fail to raise the debt ceiling: [E]ven though this fight over the debt ceiling is unusual, I have a hard time imagining that Obama is going...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/Q9APfy9-61Q/who-would-americans-blame.html
Amanda Marcum Leila Arcieri Kate Mara Izabella Scorupco Carla Campbell
Vodafone mobiles vulnerable to hackers?
A group known as The Hacker's Choice (THC) has come out with a report saying Vodafone's Sure Signal femtocells can be used to intercept voice calls and text messages.
The Sure Signal femtocells are base stations people can install in their houses if the mobile coverage in the area is weak.
"THC is now able to turn this femtocell into a full-blown 3G/[UMTS]/W-CDMA interception device," the group said in a blog post, with the femtocell having to be within 50 metres of a mobile phone for it to be used to listen to traffic.
A detailed account was given on the blog on how THC modified the femtocell, which could also be used for call fraud and accessing voicemail.
Vodafone issued a statement saying it had already released a patch for the vulnerability in Sure Signal in 2010.
"Overnight on July 12, a claim appeared that hackers had found security loopholes in Vodafone Sure Signal which could compromise the security of Vodafone's network. This is untrue: the Vodafone network has not been compromised," said the statement.
Vodafone said the issue was detected at the start of 2010, and a patch was issued a few weeks later automatically to all Sure Signal boxes.
"As a result, Vodafone Sure Signal customers do not need to take any action to secure their device," the statement added.
Have you ever been the victim of a call fraud? Let us know on our Twitter and Facebook feeds, and stay tuned in for more tech news.
Via: ZDNet
Posted by Devina Divecha
Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic Cristina Dumitru Cat Power January Jones
Raver Frog Watch
by Zo� Pollock The Sambas stream toad (aka the Borneo rainbow toad) was recently rediscovered: The spindly-legged species was last seen in 1924 and European explorers in Borneo only made monochrome illustrations of it. A decade or so later, the...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/33owD9P1_6I/face-of-the-day-4.html
Jessica Biel Christina Milian Kelly Brook Robin Tunney Kate Groombridge
Time Cloaking: Physicists create a hole in time
Science is creating all sorts of awesome things today. Not long ago, I mentioned an acoustic cloak that hid the noise made by things like submarines from prying ears. There is also a lot of work on invisibility cloaks too that make things invisible to the naked eye. Physicists have now trumped the awesome of [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/dC3bbYMNnOM/
Brooke Burke Thandie Newton Liz Phair Aaliyah Katherine Heigl
Saturday, July 16, 2011
The Unconservatism Of Grover Norquist
by Zack Beauchamp Garry Wills pits Grover Norquist against Edmund Burke: Burke makes clear what the real meaning of the Norquist pledge is for those who subscribe to it. They are signing over their souls. This first oath they take,...
Patricia Velásquez Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch
Raver Frog Watch
by Zo� Pollock The Sambas stream toad (aka the Borneo rainbow toad) was recently rediscovered: The spindly-legged species was last seen in 1924 and European explorers in Borneo only made monochrome illustrations of it. A decade or so later, the...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/33owD9P1_6I/face-of-the-day-4.html
Rhona Mitra Kelly Rowland Danica Patrick Josie Maran Leighton Meester
NYC Police get Volt patrol cars
Green is a big deal in cities and states all around the country with the need to not only reduce the oil we import but to reduce pollution as well. One of the most interesting green vehicles is the Chevy Volt. The cool thing about the Volt is that it uses batteries to propel the [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/0fYmwHZ6it4/
Tara Conner Drea de Matteo Trista Rehn Moon Bloodgood Kristin Kreuk
iUsers lets jailbroken iPads have multiple user accounts
There are a lot of things that many iPad users wish their iPad could do that Apple doesn’t allow. Some of the things are very basic like user accounts. My kids like to use my iPad more than I do and each time I give it to my son for instance, he ends up asking [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/I0naGiGspOg/
Anne Marie Kortright Paige Butcher Amanda Peet Xenia Seeberg The Avatars of Second Life
Texas-Sized Foreign Policy Satire
by Alex Massie From Katrina Trinko at the Corner: Word in Austin is that Rick Perry is doing everything necessary to prepare for a presidential run, including brushing up on foreign policy. We hear that he recently met with top...
Cinthia Moura Monica Potter Brittany Snow Lauren German Cindy Crawford
AMD Raises the Mobile Performance Bar with Radeon HD 6990M
AMD’s last update to their mobile GPU lineup is now over six months old, which means we’re about due for another new part. Right on cue, and not long after NVIDIA’s GTX 580M speed bump, AMD briefed us on their latest update. Prior to agreeing to the NDA, all we got was that AMD Graphics would be making a “major mobile announcement”. That piqued our interest, as it could mean either new mobile GPUs, some other technology, or perhaps both. The major announcement goes by the name of Radeon HD 6990M, but what does it actually bring to the table? Read on….
Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4494/amd-raises-the-mobile-performance-bar-with-radeon-hd-6990m
Katherine Heigl Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price
Apple outs updated LED Display with Thunderbolt port
Apple news site MacRumors on Friday discovered images of a new LED Display on Apple’s website. While the OS X Lion wallpaper could have meant that these are simply new product shots as opposed to an updated model we’re looking at, the URL of the image features the recently revealed part number “MC914.” This part number corresponds with a number seen in a recent leak that identified multiple forthcoming refreshed Apple products. The new LED Display will be nearly identical to the current model, though it will include a Thunderbolt I/O port for connectivity to Mac computers. Apple’s upcoming mid-2011 MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini refreshes are all expected to include new Thunderbolt ports as well. [Via MacRumors] Read
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/15/apple-outs-updated-led-display-with-thunderbolt-port/
Nikki Cox Carla Gugino Ana Hickmann Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler
Syrian Democracy: Hezbollah's Achilles Heel?
by Zack Beauchamp Thanassis Cambanis, whose excellent book on Hezbollah I'm currently in the midst of, thinks Assad's death throes may be Hezbollah's undoing: In Egypt, for example, new political movements want to contest Israel by cutting off intelligence cooperation...
Google Games discovered in Google+ code
Some judicious digging through the Google+ code has revealed the Google Games logo, further evidence that the search giant is preparing an online social gaming system to rival Facebook’s. Flagged up by�TechCrunch tipster�Yvo Schaap, in addition to the logo – relatively uninspiring, but certainly in-keeping with the minimalist aesthetic at Google+ – there are also [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/lG3ZaRAhM8Q/
Willa Ford Desiree Dymond Teri Polo Summer Altice Rose McGowan
Twitter now delivers 350 billion tweets each day
Twitter now delivers an astonishing 350 billion tweets each day, the company said on Friday.�”Delivering 350 billion Tweets a day is a terribly fun engineering challenge. But, it doesn’t capture how passionate our users are,” the company said from its official Twitter Engineering account. Coincidentally we’re sure, the news comes just one day after Google bragged that it had amassed 10 million Google+ users in just two weeks, and that these users collectively share 1 billion items each day. Google+ has quite a way to go before it is anywhere near as popular as Twitter, of course, but it’s certainly doing well for a 2-week-old product. Read
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/15/twitter-now-delivers-350-billion-tweets-each-day/
Malin Akerman Melissa Joan Hart Bianca Kajlich Giulianna Ramirez Ashley Greene
Friday, July 15, 2011
Hands on: Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray review
At the recent Sony Ericsson Christmas in July showcase we spotted the latest handset from the company's joint venture: the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.
The new phone is another phone that marks the brand's rise from the smartphone doldrums - sure, the Xperia Play and Xperia Neo might not have been the greatest phones to ever leave the factory, but the Ray offers some decent tech in a low-price package.
The Xperia Ray is an altogether smaller affair than the likes of the Xperia Arc and Play, with a 3.3-inch screen on the front, powered by the same Bravia engine we've seen on a number of other SE handsets, coming along for the ride.
The highlight of the phone is undoubtedly the screen - with a FWVGA offering (which translates into 854x480 pixel count) the resolution is absolutely pin-sharp - only 26ppi less than the iPhone 4.
The rubberised chassis feels very nice in the hand - it's angular yet compact, meaning you'll get a decent typing speed up in no time.
In comparison to the Xperia Arc, one of our favourite handsets at the moment, the Ray performs very well indeed - it's got the same 8.1MP camera with Exmor technology, a single LED flash and quick shutter speed, plus it doesn't have the terribly small power button.
Both the power/lock key and volume switches are much improved, with a decent size and better travel to use them with one hand.
The only real difference is the size of the screen and the loss of an HDMI-out port - and we can't say we're too sad to lose that functionality as there's not even a lead in the box to allow you to lose the functionality.
Sony Ericsson told us that the new phone will be running version 4.0 of the TimeScape Android overlay, which brings not only the Facebook Inside functionality to let users easily share content and recommendation over the social network, but the same cool screen shut-off animation from the Google Nexus S.
The overview mode has been tweaked slightly as well, with widgets floating around the screen when pinching in frmo the home screen. The cool bit comes when you shake the phone and all the objects bobble about... useful? No. Fun? Hell yes.
The annoying thing about the demo unit we saw was the lack of internet connection - the screens all looked pin sharp, but we couldn't test to see how text looked on the smaller screen when zoomed out.
But video looks, as you can imagine, superb - the resolution is cracking and the screen size is just big enough to warrant using it as a portable video player instead of a dedicated unit. The Nokia E6 has a slightly better ppi count, but with a tiny screen it's not much use as a video player.
One thing we're really happy about: the keyboard already seems improved over the Xperia Arc too - better accuracy impressed us despite the smaller screen.
But we can imagine that once you buy the Xperia Ray and you pick up a better video player (as the default option is simply far too basic) you'll be treated to a more than acceptable movie player.
On top of that the media player is the same decent offering we've come to expect from the Walkman-powered brand; the infinity button serves to show you YouTube videos of your chosen artist and as we mentioned, the Facebook option means you can see what tunes your friends are into at the moment.
Overall, we're really impressed with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray - given we expect it to come in at around �20-�25 per month on contract, the compact dimensions, decent camera and high-res screen could see this become another winning phone for the Japanese-Swedish alliance.
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/2cKYwszSbpg/story01.htm
Jennifer Morrison Adrianne Palicki Amanda Righetti Michelle Branch Melissa Howard
Red Faction: Armageddon
Sadly, Armageddon's greatest achievement is making a game centred on smashing buildings with a gigantic space mallet less engaging than knocking thumbtacks into a corkboard with a pin hammer. Quite a feat.
Red Faction Armageddon: Closed world
Taking an open-world game set on the expansive, surprisingly colourful surface of Mars and squeezing it into a series of dusky caves was never likely to work well. And - surprise surprise - it hasn't. At its best, RF: Armageddon is a sub-standard third-person shooter. At its worst it's a prime example of suffocating genericism and baffling design decisions.
Over its eight hour or so course, you may find yourself having fun for one or two brief moments, but the far more frequent emotions are disappointment, frustration and déjà vu. Also, is brown an emotion? Because you'll feel brown. Once you've played the first hour, you've seen it all.
Red Faction Armageddon: Caving in
New to the Red Faction series? You've picked a bad place to start. At the end of the previous game, Guerrilla, the titular group of freedom fighters won their battle against the Earth Defence Force, thus liberating Mars.
Now, 50 years later, things aren't going so well. In the opening scene bad guy Adam Hale - so evil he has face tattoos- destroys the planet's Terraformer.
That's the structure which provides Mars with a liveable atmosphere. So now you, Darius Mason (grandson of Guerrilla protagonist Alec) and your ragtag clan live underground, away from the lightning storms, tornadoes and intermittent light drizzle. Sadly, being saved from inclement weather means your in-game environments are dull like a Bargain Hunt marathon. A succession of caves bathed in colours ranging from reddish-brown to brownish-red, it's impossible to tell at a glance whether you're at the beginning or the end - such is the monotony.
And the enemies don't help, as aliens are nothing more than random variations of 'ugly, spindly mess.' Some glow red and can jump around a bit, some glow green and lumber slowly towards you, some glow orange and scuttle along the floor. None really require any specific tactic to defeat, and all take a hugely frustrating amount of bullets to put down.
Red Faction Armageddon: Mars Bore
Missions are dull, too. One tasks you with repairing the Faction's water pumps, which equates to this: trudge in, blast countless aliens, hold L2 next to some glowing objects, trudge out. Even then, you can't repair anything until every last bug - even that bastard cowering in the corner - has been killed, despite you standing in the correct spot to trigger the repairs.
Although 'new' weapons are introduced fairly frequently, they're only slightly tweaked versions of what you've got. As with the aliens, the difference is largely meaningless; what colour blobs fly out of their nozzles, basically.
Red Faction Armageddon:
In an effort to make weapon choice tactical you can carry more ammo for the weaker guns, but even the bigger weapons lack any real punch, unlike the ones seen in the Modern Warfare 3 trailer.
Even the magnet gun, a much talked-up new feature, is a let-down. The premise - attach one magnet to object A, another to object B and watch A smash B into a pile of C - sounds a sure-fire winner. But it's sunk by a severe problem: sound design.
Sound is an often-overlooked aspect, something you only really notice when it's exceptionally good - for example, as it is in Dead Space - or when it's awful. And this is abysmal.
When crashing an entire building to the floor elicits nothing more than a muffled bump - even in the echoing spaces of a cavern - you know you're in trouble. It not only undermines the destruction but the atmosphere (there isn't any left) and the combat, too. If this sounds negative, it's not because Armageddon is gaming's lowest ebb - sadly there's plenty worse out there - but because it should have been so much better.
Red Faction Armageddon: Verdict
A big budget entry in a strong series, this is a seriously misguided change of direction. If you're a destruction-loving agoraphobic with a penchant for identikit aliens, you just might enjoy yourself. But everyone else will only appreciate it for the irony - all Armageddon does for Red Faction is smash it to bits.
Link: CVG
Posted by CVG
Foxy Brown Ivana Bozilovic Cristina Dumitru Cat Power January Jones
Islamism, The Boycott Bill, And Democracy, Ctd
by Zack Beauchamp A reader writes: While I am sympathetic with Beauchamp's larger argument, his discussion of the relationship between rights and democracy is unhelpful. First, it is unhelpful to think that there is 'real democracy', which I suppose is...
Kate Moss Zhang Ziyi Nikki Reed Natasha Bedingfield Audrina Patridge
Google+ Has Over 10 Million Users, 1 Billion Items Shared Per Day, Says CEO Larry Page
During Google’s rosy Q2 2011 earnings call today with shareholders, CEO Larry Page highlighted some interesting statistics on the company’s newly launched Google+ social platform. Page commended his new management team saying that they worked together “fabulously” and then proceeded to extol Google+ with some very impressive numbers that show the platform has indeed been [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/zvwjPP9Js4Y/
Jamie Chung Alicia Witt Radha Mitchell Melissa Rycroft Chloë Sevigny
Episode 50 - Matt Winkler Builds an AppFabric Application
Join Wade and Steve each week as they cover the Windows Azure Platform. You can follow and interact with the show at @CloudCoverShow.
In this episode, Matthew Winkler?Senior Program Manager Lead on the AppFabric Team?talks to Steve and Wade about building AppFabric Applications. AppFabric Applications bring new ways of building, running, and managing applications at scale in Windows Azure. The June CTP of AppFabric includes support for AppFabric Applications, and you can start by downloading the new SDK and Developer Tools and by signing up for a free account at the AppFabric Labs portal.
In the news:
- Client Side Tracing for Windows Azure AppFabric Caching
- Windows Azure Diagnostics API and Service Runtime API References Improved
- Just Released: StockTrader 5.0
- Windows Azure Deployments and the Virtual IP
Be sure to check out http://windowsazure.com/events to see events where Windows Azure will be present!
Source: http://channel9.msdn.com/Shows/Cloud+Cover/Episode-50-Matt-Winkler-Builds-an-AppFabric-Application
Danneel Harris Veronika Vaeková Eve Brittany Lee Daisy Fuentes
O2 unveils location-based vouchers
O2 has announced its new service, Priority Moments, which it hopes will encourage users to start using vouchers on the go more effectively.
The new offering is now available to download as an application for Android and iPhone users, while other handsets can access the service via a mobile site.
Priority Moments will offer discounts and freebies for a variety of high street outlets, including WH Smiths, Zizzi, Harvey Nichols and Odeon.
I'm lost... and hungry
The service works either through GPS to work out a user's position, or if they are using a non-smartphone, cell-tower triangulation to make sure the offers are relevant to them.
Users can then select by category and see the three closest outlets of their chosen brand, and O2 told TechRadar that the listing would also be ordered intelligently so offers that are time of day dependent will be given a higher priority.
The service mimics Facebook Places with its Deals functionality, but will be given a bigger marketing push by O2 to help users understand the range of deals that are in place.
There are currently 30 big brand names signed up to bring deals to users, but O2 tells us that this will increase in the future as the service beds in.
| |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/SLDsDcjQABQ/story01.htm
Tyra Banks Vanessa Hudgens Sarah Michelle Gellar Olivia Munn Melissa Sagemiller
Polygamy Is Bad. So Decriminalize It
by Jonathan Rauch I'm a gay marriage advocate and a polygamy opponent. And, yes, my positions make sense together. Polygamy is bad social policy for exactly the reason gay marriage is good social policy: everyone should have the opportunity to...
Sarah Shahi Anna Paquin Diane Kruger Magdalena Wróbel Connie Nielsen
Thursday, July 14, 2011
How IT pros can evaluate Lync 2010 with free downloadable virtual hard disks
Using the power of virtualization, IT pros can now quickly evaluate Lync 2010 and other Microsoft Unified Communications solutions through a series of pre-configured Virtual Hard Disks (VHDs). You can download the VHDs and evaluate them for free in your own environment without the need for dedicated servers or complex installations. Albert Kooiman, Senior Technical Product Manager for Microsoft Unified Communications, describes how IT pros can quickly configure and run the VHDs in a virtual private network. Visit the Lync Server 2010 VHD Test Drive page to download the VHDs.
Laura Harring Naomi Watts Leonor Varela Joanne Montanez Michelle Obama
Nokia may soon launch $130M Windows Phone ad campaign
Nokia may be preparing to kick off a monstrous advertising blitz alongside the launch of its first round of Windows Phones, UK-based�Marketing Magazine reports. The advertising campaign, which will apparently kick off in October when Nokia finally begins pushing out Microsoft-powered smartphones, is reportedly valued at just under $130 million. The new global campaign will seemingly be a rebranding mission of sorts, and will reportedly run for six months. Nokia has a steep climb ahead as it attempts to slow its bleeding market share while simultaneously attempting to get customers on board with a fledgling Windows Phone operating system that has not been well received thus far. Despite our love of the platform here at BGR,�Microsoft’s�share of the U.S. smartphone
Source: http://www.bgr.com/2011/07/14/nokia-may-soon-launch-130m-windows-phone-ad-campaign/
K. D. Aubert Sara Spraker Alexis Bledel Kim Kardashian China Chow
Amazon now selling ViewSonic VB730 Android tablet for $229
Since Barnes & Noble updated the Nook Color with official support for email and apps, it has been a very appealing Android tablet for entry-level users. Before the official update, geeks were hacking the eReader to turn it into a tablet. With all the tablet capability, the Nook Color was what many turned to for [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/StYf8tRkaUM/
Karen Carreno Bijou Phillips Marika Dominczyk Dita Von Teese Rachel Nichols
Islamism, The Boycott Bill, And Democracy
by Zack Beauchamp Foreign policy observers who like to entertain the fantasy that Islamists are democratic forces in the Middle East have the oddest of bedfellows - Binyamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Prime Minister claimed that the bill "reflects democracy in...
Lorri Bagley Leslie Bega Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana
Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro watch review
Most runners would feel naked going out without a sports watch round their wrist or an app like Nike+ GPS or Adidas MiCoach on their smarrtphone. Seeing your workouts in much greater detail can be a great way to stay motivated and monitor your performance.
Runners seem well catered for in the data analysis department, but what if you prefer to take your workout to the water? The Swimovate Pool-Mate Pro watch uses motion sensor technology to automatically keep track of laps, stroke count, calories burnt and more, all which can be reviewed on your computer.
We wanted to see what the Pool-Mate Pro was made of so we grabbed a pair of goggles and took it for a dip.
Build and design
Like most sports watches, the Pool-Mate Pro is less about looks and more about usability. The black rubber strap is extremely light and fits comfortably around the wrist making it ideal for wearing in the water. Four metal buttons serve as your means of control, while the watch face is the ideal size for reviewing and checking your swimming session. The USB pod which uploads your swim data is similarly light and compact enough to be carried around in your bag.
Performance
Before hitting the water you’ll need to go through a brief setup selecting your weight, pool length and the hand you’ll be wearing the watch on when swimming. Once that's done, simply hit the start button to begin recording your session.
Impressively, the built-in motion sensor technology worked from the first time we used it, providing accurate lap readings throughout. Testing it with front crawl, back stroke and breast stroke techniques, there were no signs of inaccurate lap counting. The watch will however, not record data should you change strokes during a lap so it's something to take note of if you often switch between strokes.
The watch itself, is barely noticeable during a swim and was generally easy to read at the end of laps. There were a few occasions where viewing through goggles proved a little difficult but the backlight ensured that it wasn't really an issue.
Data analysis
Once you've finished your swim, you'll be able to see a simplified run down of your stats on the watch letting you view information such as distance, time and calories burnt. The difference between the Pool Mate and the Pool Mate Pro is the ability to see a more detailed report on your Mac or PC.
Using the PC version we had to install three programs and drivers (Driver for USB pod, Pool-Mate Link to download your data, Pool-Mate Pro application) which all have to be downloaded from the Swimovate website. The next step is to set the watch to upload mode and then position it inside the USB pod. Once you’ve launched the Swimovate desktop application, you can then choose to upload your swim data which is presented in a series of graphs.
It's by no means the slickest looking application you're ever going to see, but crucially once you delve into the different sections you'll find the kind of information that can help you better analyse your swim. There are sections to view distance by week and year, all your swims in detail and data trends. After getting to grips with how the data was presented It was relatively easy to identify for example, that average strokes had fallen over sessions signalling an improvement in efficiency.
There are also some nice personal touches to lighten up the stat overload such as marking your post-swim mood from a series of smiley faces and calculating calories burnt by how many cupcakes you would have worked off.
Verdict
Ultimately there's not too much to complain about the Pool-Mate Pro. It's easy to use, unobtrusive in the water, proved accurate from the first time we used it, and delivers a great stats package. Additional functions mean it can be used as a standard watch while chrono mode means you can time your running or cycling workouts.
If there is any major criticism to be levelled, it would be the lack of motion-sensor support for open water swimming, but that is something that Swimovate say they are working on. The Pool-Mate Pro may well have been made by triathletes, but it should be suitable for anyone who wants to improve their performance in the pool.
Link: Swimovate
Posted by Michael Sawh
Summer Altice Rose McGowan Bar Refaeli Jessica White Anna Friel
Philosophy Shapes Politics
by Zack Beauchamp Julian Sanchez wrote a neat post on the relationship between political philosophy and one's political views. You should read the whole thing, but here's his takeaway: The point is just that the policy view doesn?t fall straightforwardly...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/ZhnykUugIDA/philosophy-shapes-politics.html
Nadine Velazquez Pink Mila Kunis Samaire Armstrong Selita Ebanks
Rx Workshop: Writing Queries
Learn about the rich set of LINQ query operators available in Rx to query event streams.
Source: http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Rx-Workshop/Rx-Workshop-Writing-Queries
Christina Ricci Missi Pyle Jessica Alba Kylie Bax Diora Baird
AT&T grabs Sony S2 4G HSPA+ tablet exclusive
AT&T has announced that it will be the exclusive carrier for the Sony S2 tablet, with the Honeycomb slate using the 4G HSPA+ network. The S2, lest you forget, is the more unusual of Sony’s tablet pair, with dual 5.5-inch touchscreens in a clamshell form-factor. The news comes as little surprise, given we saw the [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/Izg1JWMdzXU/
Maria Sharapova Lindsay Price Zoe Saldana Rachel Perry Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Marriage-Lite
by Patrick Appel Nona Willis Aronowitz, who married her boyfriend to keep him on her health insurance, wishes she could have gotten a heterosexual domestic partnership instead of a marriage license: For the first few days, we kept the news...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/K7pLzwVAxhU/marriage-lite.html
Paris Hilton Victoria Pratt Shakara Ledard Vanessa Marcil Rachel McAdams
BlackBerry apps pass 1 billion download mark
RIM has released some numbers with regards to its app store, revealing that it recently surpassed the 1 billion app download milestone.
It may not be close to the heady numbers that Apple and Google have reported over the last few months ? Apple has hit 15 billion downloads, Google 4.5 billion ? but it does show that BlackBerry App World is slowly creating an app eco-system for its BlackBerry line-up.
World of apps
Speaking about the upcoming Blackberry App World 3.0 beta, Alex K., product manager at RIM, said: "With BlackBerry App World 3.0 beta coming soon, I was thinking about the evolution of BlackBerry App World and how far we've come.
"The BlackBerry App World storefront launched a little over two years ago, and over that time, we've made many feature improvements, enhanced the look and feel, and added a ton of compelling apps.
"BlackBerry App World is now in over 100 countries, seeing an average of 3 million downloads per day, and we recently crossed the 1 billion app download milestone!"
To put this in context: a year into the life of the Apple App Store, Apple had clocked up 1.5 billion app downloads.
And then the iPad came along.
| |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/rglrOmaTxbc/story01.htm
Kate Groombridge Dania Ramirez Lucy Liu LeAnn Rimes Adrianne Curry
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Microsoft licenses GeoVector AR tech to challenge Google Goggles
Microsoft has licensed augmented reality technology from specialist GeoVector, potentially opening the door to “pointing-based local search” being included in future mobile devices like Windows Phone handsets. The deal – financial terms of which have not been revealed – covers “spatially aware mobile computing”; GeoVector holds patents in digital watermarking, as well as overlaying digital [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/K-ZTn1Xahiw/
Malia Jones Jennifer ODell Jenny McCarthy Zooey Deschanel Tara Reid
Microsoft To Open 75 More Retail Stores Over Next 2-3 Years
Plenty of Microsoft news is still underway thanks to their annual Worldwide Partner Conference taking place this week in Los Angeles. Today, the company’s COO Kevin Turner revealed plans for expanding Microsoft retail stores with an additional 75 locations over the next two to three years. That’s a big step up from the 11 stores [...]
Source: http://feeds.slashgear.com/~r/slashgear/~3/PH0blkgOIx0/
Georgina Grenville Michelle Trachtenberg Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel
Episode 49 - Access Control in the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7
Join Wade and Steve each week as they cover the Windows Azure Platform. You can follow and interact with the show at @CloudCoverShow.
In this episode, Vittorio Bertocci joins Steve as they discuss the role of Windows Azure Access Control in the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7.
In the news:
- New Windows Azure Traffic Manager Features Ease Visibility Into Hosted Service Health
- Rock, Paper, Azure! - The Grand Tournament
- Hosting Services with WAS and IIS on Windows Azure
- Porting Node to Windows with Microsoft's Help
Be sure to check out http://windowsazure.com/events to see events where Windows Azure will be present!
The Pussycat Dolls Isla Fisher Sophia Bush Megan Fox Michelle Malkin
AMD Raises the Mobile Performance Bar with Radeon HD 6990M
AMD’s last update to their mobile GPU lineup is now over six months old, which means we’re about due for another new part. Right on cue, and not long after NVIDIA’s GTX 580M speed bump, AMD briefed us on their latest update. Prior to agreeing to the NDA, all we got was that AMD Graphics would be making a “major mobile announcement”. That piqued our interest, as it could mean either new mobile GPUs, some other technology, or perhaps both. The major announcement goes by the name of Radeon HD 6990M, but what does it actually bring to the table? Read on….
Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4494/amd-raises-the-mobile-performance-bar-with-radeon-hd-6990m
Elena Lyons Brooke Burns Lena Headey Ali Larter Angelina Jolie
Pawlenty Sinks
by Zack Beauchamp In the polls, sure, but also morally: Some have suggested Pawlenty is carrying the McCain foreign policy mantle in this race. To the extent this suggests a robust approach to Iran, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, Pawlenty says,...
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andrewsullivan/rApM/~3/BtmZvlqXMNc/pawlenty-sinks.html
Gwen Stefani Sunny Mabrey Karolína Kurková Laura Harring Naomi Watts
OCZ RevoDrive 3 X2 (480GB) Preview: 200K IOPS & 1.5GB/s for $1699?
Although consumer SSDs are far from a mature technology, PCIe SSDs are even further behind on the growth curve. The upside is huge. As SandForce has already demonstrated with the right dataset a single SSD can nearly saturate the 6Gbps SATA bus. Rather than force OEMs into putting yet another very high bandwidth bus on the motherboard, SSD vendors everywhere (Intel included) turn their attention to PCIe as a solution to the problem.
The holy grail is a native PCIe solution. Recently Micron announced such a thing: the P320h. However the estimated price tag on the P320h could be in the $5000 - $10000 range depending on capacity.
Manufacturers in the consumer SSD space are attracted to PCIe solutions simply because margins are higher. For the most part, client storage is a commodity and if you don't make the NAND and controller going into an SSD you're not making a ton of money selling drives to end users. Sell to an enterprise customer and all of the sudden a couple thousand dollars per drive seems like a bargain.
OCZ started making PCIe SSDs the simplest way possible. Take a couple of SSDs, put them on a single PCB behind an on-board RAID controller and you're good to go. The single card performance was decent but of course there were issues. A single controller failure would take out the whole drive and things like TRIM weren't supported either.
Recently OCZ has been trying very hard to be more than just a rebrander of components. The acquisition of Indilinx puts a wedge between OCZ and a lot of its former peers in the memory business, but it's still a far cry from Intel or Samsung. Its latest PCIe SSD is another step in the maturing of the company. This is the RevoDrive 3 X2:
Read on for our preview!
Source: http://www.anandtech.com/show/4470/ocz-revodrive-3-x2-480gb-preview
Georgina Grenville Michelle Trachtenberg Amanda Bynes Ana Ivanovi Jessica Cauffiel
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)