Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
I don’t know about you, but I have a stack of vinyl records in my attic that I haven’t touched for more than 25 years. Yep, they have been sitting there collecting dust as I moved on to digital media such as CD’s and now MP3’s.
It’s kind of funny how much space you require to store a few albums of music on records. For instance, I have a huge trunk holding about 50 albums. Today, with MP3 digital compression, every single one of those albums can fit in the palm of my hand.
While I love my iPod and the MP3 format, I do wish I could sometimes play my records and more important, transfer them from vinyl into digital. Well, now it is possible with the new ION USB turntable.Why didn’t they think of this sooner? This has to be the coolest turntable I have ever seen!
The ION USB turntable allows you to convert your old vinyl records into MP3 by simply connecting the turntable to your computer with a USB cable and playing your vinyl records. The turntable comes with recording software that makes it a breeze to record all your vinyl records simply and easily. I should mention that the ION USB turntable took some design and styling tips from Apple, and that this turntable looks magnificent.
The ION USB turntable can play 33-1/3 and 45 RPM records. In addition, there is a model that can play old 78 RPM records. The ION USB turntable even offers a top-of- the-line model that features a built-in iPod dock for easy listening and transfer.
The ION USB turntable is available at most large electronics stores. Prices range from about $120 to $300.
Alienware released their media server platform as a response to Sony’s Home Entertainment Server. But unlike Sony who offers a meager 500GB of storage, Alienware gives you 4TB to store your favorite movies, songs, etc.
And not only that but the HD Media Server offers a HDMI output, Dolby Digital 7.1 preamplified output, wireless connection with other devices like computers or mobile devices. Besides it can provide automation for many functions around the house like lighting, air conditioning, or room music.
What Alienware is trying to do with this new Media Server, is not only beat Sony, but conquer a new market of centralized home entertainment. A Media Server that not only takes care of your movies and music, records TV-shows or downloads media content from the web, but also centralize other house functions into one media core. It sounds good but I don’t know for sure if this trend for centralization is leading us in the right direction.
I’ve stumbled upon the following e-mail that was sent by a disgruntled webmaster. Enjoy it 
I must say, I’m quite upset. I have been using images from your website on my website for a long time now and suddenly they are gone, and I am concerned. I am using my website to build up my business which is not easy and you changed the location or deleted them or something.
My concern is that if you do not upload the images again, I might have to contact my lawyer as I am using these images for the purpose of advertising and this sudden change without warning means I have to find where you moved them and to get them working again.
Why would you do such a thing? I am an honest business man and small businesses like mine never get respect. I hope you realize it took me a long time to find images I liked. Now I have to find your images again. Please put them back right away. I don’t think you want me to call my lawyer about this.
If you’re a comfortable person, or if you just love to have the latest entertainment gadgets, the researchers from the Osaka university have just the thing for you. The gadget is designed to make you control your iPod with a maximum of ease and absolutely no use of your hands.
The headgear uses “infrared sensors and a microcomputer” to detect when you clench your teeth for a second or more and uses that to send commands to your iPod. The system is said to avoid accidental mouth gestures and allows you to talk or chew gum in the same time as you use the iPod headgear.
And the developers don’t plan on stopping here, they say they want to make this available for larger arrays of devices, and of course better the system itself. It might be comfortable and some might like it, but I really don’t think it’ll be such a great (or useful) gadget, but then again, I’m not the person who likes to make weird faces when changing the song I listen to.
You all know that Nintendo made some improvements the other day regarding the Firmware of our Wii consoles. That created a few new ways for browsing the most popular game titles available. To spare you the trouble, I’m attaching the photo below.
Another QuakeCon just ended two days ago. For those interested in follow-up of the event, see the official website. There were many announcements made and releases revealed, such as Rage, a new FPS developed by the guys at id Software, or the online version of Quake 3 - QuakeZero. There was also a movie released for Return to Castle Wolfenstein.
It seems that many people missed id’s announcements related to the next game in the Quake series. There was an interesting interview that took place between Marty Stratton (the executive producer from id Software) and Rod Breslau (news editor from Gameriot.com). They talked about the online version of Quake and how will this affect the next game in the series and… Oh well, it’s best that you read the article by yourself
A last thing I’m mentioning before I leave you to it. The next game in the Quake series will be an Arena game, a true follow-up to Quake 3 Arena.
Thanks to Gameriot, here’s the full interview.
Take Two released today a financial update for the remaining of 2007 and the major events in 2008. So we hereby find out that the most expected GTA IV is now planned for the second quarter of 2008 (most probably April).
Take-Two is reducing its fiscal 2007 guidance primarily to reflect the movement of the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from the fourth quarter of fiscal 2007 to fiscal 2008, due to additional development time required to complete the title. The title is now planned for release in the Company’s second quarter of fiscal 2008. Additionally, Take-Two is updating third quarter and fiscal year 2007 guidance to reflect the movement of Manhunt 2 for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system, PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) system and the Wii™ out of the third quarter and the fiscal year.
Originally, GTA IV was scheduled for release this October. Take Two Interactive refused to say the exact issue that caused this delay, but they said it was an “almost strictly technological challenge”. Furthermore, they assure the impatient gamers that this delay will be just the spare time they needed to fix any issues that would arise further and provide the market with a high quality game.
I strongly hope this is how things will be.
Even though buying YouTube was a good move for Google, the copyright issue was from the start an issue. Google had numerous lawsuits regarding copyrighted material posted on YouTube. And even though they tried to manage it by making deals with big media corporations, piracy is still a big problem.
It seems that the new lawsuit with Viacom has put some pressure on Google, as they declared the work is very intense on finishing their video recognition technology “hopefully in September”.
“We hope to have the testing completed and technology available by some time in the fall, but this is one of the most technologically complicated tasks that we have ever undertaken, and as always with cutting-edge technologies, it’s difficult to forecast specific launch dates,”
The idea behind the technology in development by Google, is that copyright owners will provide a digital fingerprint that will be checked on YouTube after a movie is uploaded. It all sounds simple but the technology used is quite complex, Google representatives declaring it’s one of the most challenging technical problems they were confronted with.
For now the developers say they are happy with the progress and that tests are underway with big copyright owners in the media industry. If the system is ready this fall it could save Google a lot of money and trouble in the near future.
Second Life is a virtual world that’s based on social interaction, and in the same time for some people it makes a very profitable business. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the Second Life universe you must know that one of the main businesses in the virtual world was gambling. Hundreds of virtual casinos were handling thousands of linden dollars and that could be transformed afterwards in thousands of US Dollars.
Well all this is going to end as Linden Labs, the proprietary and developers of Second Life have taken the decision of banning all forms of gambling. The decision was taken after FBI started investigation regarding gambling activities in April this year. In the US most forms of online gambling are prohibited, so for better or for worse, Linden Labs made the right decision when banning gambling from Second life.
Here’s a official list of banned games and activities:
- Baccarat
- Blackjack
- Craps
- Faro
- Keno
- Pachinko
- Pai Gow
- Poker
- Roulette
- Sic Bo
- Slot machines
Also they seem to be quite determined about those who would decide not to comply with their ban:
7. What will the consequences be for those who continue to play or operate games that fall under this policy?
Any user who consistently violates the policy or our Terms of Service will be suspended, and may be terminated. Linden Lab may also comply with validly issued subpoenas in connection with law enforcement investigations and legal actions.
Banning gambling might be the right decision for Linden Labs from the legal perspective, but the loss of all the profit and users that were attracted by gambling could mean a serious blow for the biggest virtual world today.
With all the devices we have now to make our lives as comfortable as possible I wonder why wasn’t this invented earlier. We have universal remote controls for entertainment systems around the house, we have remotes to open our lights, garage doors and so on. Of course we have remotes to play our games with, but along with the Wii something changed in the way we see gaming input devices.
And it seems it’s not only gaming devices we’re talking about, some researchers in Australia came up with this device that will allow you to control your TV set using only hand gestures. The device will have a receiver that must have a clear site to both owner and TV, and it is said it will be able to distinguish unintentional gestures from commands. All you’ll have to do is learn the seven simple hand gestures in order to power on, change channels and even power off your TV.
Frankly I really don’t think we need this, I mean we already spend enough time in front of the PC or TV, the last thing we need is less things to be done. Anyway don’t hold your breath as producers say it’ll be ready somewhere around 2010.
