Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Intel updated its processor list with new Core 2 chips for Macbook Air-class laptops and a crush of Xeon processors for workstations and servers.The number of new processor models is 20 in all.
Intel has introduced new power-sipping low-voltage (LV) and ultra-low-voltage (ULV) processor models for laptops such as the Apple MacBook Air and Dell Adamo.
The new LV and ULV processor models include the 17-watt SL9600 (2.13GHz, $316) and 10-watt SU9600 (1.6GHz, $289). More power-hungry Intel mainstream mobile processors are typically rated at 25 watts or 35 watts.
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Two start-up companies are using new technology to resurrect old but crude strategies to combat hypertension, believing that they can achieve significant improvement in health without the side effects. The Wall Street Journal reports that the companies offered data at the annual scientific meeting of the American College of Cardiology that indicated they were on to something big.
One of those companies, Ardian, developed an electrode that emits radio-frequency energy into the renal artery wall to kill nerves that play a role in hypertension, according to the Journal. And data from a 50-patient study indicated a significant improvement in average blood pressure rates. Minneapolis-based CVRx, meanwhile, created a device that is implanted and then emits electronic impulses that signal very high blood pressure, tricking the body to protect itself with all its natural abilities.
Both developers are now planning to mount larger studies to test the technologies.
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Looking to scoop up a PlayStation 2? Starting tomorrow, April 1, Sony will cut the price of its gaming console to $100, down 25 percent from its current price of $130. Today's announcement is the third price cut for the PS2 since Sony's first discount in 2002.
Rumors had swirled in recent days that Sony was set to make a major PlayStation 3 announcement today. But that does not seem to be the truth and news updates are stating they have no ideas on lowering the PS3 price in the near future.
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Ribbit, the VOIP platform that was bought by British Telecom last year, announced the winners of its $100,000 KillerApps challenge today. The contest was obviously meant to stimulate interest in Ribbit's APIs among developers, and judging from the line-up of winning applications, a lot of developers came up with highly creative ways of using Ribbit's platform in their apps.
Here are the winners of the five categories in Ribbit's KillerApps challenge:
Media, Advertising, Entertainment: Lucid Viewer
ribbit_lucid_small.pngLucitd Viewer is an authoring tool that allows developers to create interesting, immersive experiences. This demo here, for example, shows a 3D, Google StreetView-like view of a street in Rome, with the ability to call up stores directly from the Flash interface through Ribbit's service. Lucid Viewer also won the Grand Price in Ribbit's KillerApps contest.
Business: Sugared Frog
Similar to Ribbit's own integration with Salesforce, Sugared Frog integrates Ribbit with SugarCRM. With the help of Sugared Frog, users of SugarCRM's open source solution can use Sugared Frog to organize their voicemail, and dictate notes and memos right from their mobile phones.
Social Networking and Communication: Save A Life
Save a Life is an interesting Adobe AIR application that allows you to quickly reach a group of friends or community members by phone. Currently, the application focuses on blood donations (you can download the application here), though the program could be used for other donation campaigns or emergency services as well.
Breakthrough: CYHAA
CYHAA won Ribbit's free-form 'breakthrough' category. CYHAA, which stands for Control Your Home, Anytime, Anywhere allows users to control their smart home devices with their voice right from their phones.
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Dell today introduced five new blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers based on the new Intel Xeon 5500 Series processors. Dell designed its 11th generation of servers with input from IT professionals worldwide to help companies do more with less by simplifying data center operations, improving performance and energy efficiency, and lowering total cost of ownership.
The new Dell PowerEdge servers are available today starting at $1,599.
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Apple is expected to begin production on a low-end 3G iPhone and a high-end version with 32GB of NAND flash memory beginning this spring, according to a research report released Tuesday by an analyst for Lazard Capital Markets.
Production is anticipated to begin in April, ramp up in May and the new phones could be announced in June, Daniel Amir, a Lazard Capital Markets analyst, said in his report.
Labels: Apple, apps, Dell, intel, iPhone, medical technology, ps2, ps3, ribbit, server, sony, video game
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Braeden received a Marvel Heroes pinball machine from Santa for Christmas. It's not full size, but it's pretty nice. And I'd say it stands about four feet tall and is maybe 20 inches wide so for his purposes it is perfect and he loves it. The pinball machine of course got me thinking about how awesome it would be to have a mini arcade in our house. Short of winning the powerball and buying a bigger house I really don't foresee this ever happening.
BUT
The Sega Taikan Game Collection from Organic looks back at Sega's custom sit down coin-ops which rocked and veered from side to side to simulate the onscreen action. Four games are lovingly recreated in miniature PVC form as follows:
- Space Harrier
- Super Hang-On
- Outrun
- Thunderblade
I know, I know, it's not even remotely the same, but maybe with a little imagination I could turn my office desk into a pipe dream.
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On Friday, Mufin launched its music player, which analyzes the songs in your music collection based on their audio content, rather than on human analysis or genre.
Mufin stands for music finder, and it's your personal music discovery engine for helping you find, listen to, and discover music online! Mufin has millions of tracks and counting ready for you to explore!
The mufin player doesn't just sort your music by artists or track names like you are used to, but also by sound similarity. It's not just useful when you're building a playlist, but also to keep track of which music tracks go together in your library musically.
Once Mufin has analyzed your tunes, it can recommend similar-sounding songs from your collection. It also catalogs songs in its online database and can recommend music from its own sources, if it doesn't find anything similar on your hard drive.
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Hearst, one of the largest media conglomerates in the world, announced on Friday that it has developed an electronic reader for newspapers and magazines, the way Amazon.com's new Kindle does for books.
Soon you'll be able to read magazines and newspapers on an e-reader.
The news, first reported by Fortune magazine, is really significant, as Hearst owns about 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers, and has a strong influence on hundreds of magazines. Examples of those include the San Francisco Chronicle, Oprah Winfrey's O, and Cosmopolitan.
Of course what would be better is if one e-reader could do it all. No one is going to want to carry around more than one gadget for reading when we already have a bunch of other gadgets in our pockets and bags.
Labels: arcade, e reader, hearst, mufin, music, sega, video game
Thursday, January 8, 2009
What is this iRiver business? Chances are you have seen a review of iRiver P35 on every techie website in the world lately. But really we don't know when it will be released or how much it will cost so all the features in the world are not quite enough to get me hopeful yet.Features of the iRiver P35 include:
* 4.3" TFT LCD touchscreen display at 480 x 272 resolution
* Wi-Fi connectivity
* Integrated microphone
* TV Out
* Full movie codec support
* microSDHC memory card slot (up to 16GB)
* USB 2.0 connectivity
* Integrated FM radio
* Voice recording capability, audio and video playback, Flash support
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Looking to bring in some extra money while cleaning house? Why not sell your old video games? Forbes.com suggests there are three approaches to take—easy but low-return chains like GameStop, the take-a-shot nature of auctions or Half.com/Amazon selling, and the higher prices one might fetch at sites with less mainstream recognition like Goozex.
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Microsoft has introduced its second iPhone app after dipping its toe with the release of Seadragon Mobile last month. The name of the application is Microsoft Tag (still in BETA form), and it enables users to instantly access mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, etc. simply by pointing the device's camera to a custom tag.
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Divx has announced the newest version of their video player. Divx 7 is based on the H.264 video compression standard and offers video at up to 1080p HD resolution.
The new version of Divx comes in two different formats. The free download Divx 7 for Windows for Divx video playback and Divx 7 Pro which allows for Divx video creation. Both versions contain the Divx 7 video player which offers support for H.264 files.
Labels: divx, goozex, iphone app, iRiver, Microsoft, video, video game
Monday, July 28, 2008
Now that everyone and their brother either owns or desperately wants to own the Nintendo Wii Fit, there are sure to be an influx of games ready to compete against the fitness fun model.Conspiracy Entertainment Corporation announced that "Summer Athletics The Ultimate Challenge
" for the Nintendo Wii is set to "sprint" into stores in early August. The suggested retail price of $29.99 USD will make "Summer Athletics" the perfect game for families and casual gamers.I remember the Track and Field game for the original old school Nintendo and I loved it. My brother and I spent many hours playing to win the gold. I can only imagine what it will be like to play this on the Wii. I mean the screenshots of the game alone have me drooling!
"Summer Athletics" features 25 sports such as sprinting, archery, javelin, hammer throw and swimming. A custom character editor, lifelike graphics and realistic animations will immerse players in the game's diverse and challenging events.
I am also excited and anticipating the release of "Active Life: Outdoor Challenge
" on the Wii. The game it will have available on it include: Mole Stomper, Kayak Attack, Pipe Slider, Mine Cart Adventure, Lake-top Trampoline, Stone Stepper, Head-on Hurdler, Log Leaper, Conveyer Runner, Seesaw Battler, Waterfall Climber and more.It is a little bit more expensive as it requires a bigger mat to play on, but it looks so much fun!
I am thrilled that video games are becoming more interactive and promoting fitness!
Labels: fitness, summer athletics, video game, wii
Thursday, July 3, 2008
TokBox is a web-based video chat tool that is free for users. The service works out by the user signing up and it generates a link that you can forward to any of your friend and enjoy a live video conversation.Here's how it works: you sign up and are then given a link. When you want to talk with anyone, just give them the link - they click and you chat.
Once this plug-in is installed, the user is given a link beneath your friend's name. you are at fill liberty to decide which one of them has the rights to have a video conversation with you.
That's not it, you have the option of having multiple video conversations at one instant; the windows open up separately.
AND
TokBox is embeddable on all websites and social networks.
Recently, TokBox drummed up some rad PR. CNBC-TV aired a segment called "One Cool Thing" which shows off...you guessed it, TokBox and all the ins and outs of the project. They interviewed Jawed and the founder and CTO, Ron Hose.
Keep climbing! Oh and look into hiring more girls! The testosterone in that place must be overwhelming. =o)
Labels: chat, Facebook, toxbox, video game
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Calling all video game nerds. You know you have always wanted to add a full size UK Sega Dreamcast demonstration pod to your game room in the basement. But since it is pick-up only and the item is in the UK I guess I'll have to count myself out.But seriously how cool would this be!
You can see the full ebay listing here.
Labels: video game
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Readers of Geek Sugar have already seen these fabulous pacman pillows, but I thought I'd throw in a good word for them, too. Further proof that classic games maintain awesomeness forever. If I bought a pacman pillow I would need all of them though. I don't think I could have just one of the game characters, it would be too misfit. You definitely need the whole crew.
Pieced and stitched for pixel perfection the backside of these pillows even show the split side of the ghosts from the game. You get the frantic blue, white-eyed ghosts on the back of each pillow.
Will Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde be donning your sofa or bed anytime soon?
Labels: pacman, video game
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
*puts armor on and stands back to brace herself*I know nothing about Halo 3.
Eeeeek! Don't hit me too hard, I'm just a little girl! Okay so I'm little but I'm tough, but still, be gentle.
The hype lately has been on Halo 3. There are television commercials for it, huge lifesize posters and figures found in department stores pointing the way to the pre-order signs and now to the actual game since today is the release date. Halo 3 is all the rage apparently.
What is so special about this video game? I just don't understand! The only game I drool over is WoW, I'm seriously obsessed with it and find myself going through some sort of withdraw when I can't play it.
More than one million pre-orders for Halo 3 have been placed worldwide, and Microsoft anticipates that first day sales of the title in the US will bring in more than $140 million.
What's so special about this game, someone tell me? Are there quests? Do I level and learn new skills and talents?
All I know is from what I have read which has stated that Halo is a series by Microsoft and is supposed to be the best first-person shooter game ever. Is it so good that even Pontiac dropped millions of dollar to cross promote the game? Good grief!
Well I hope everyone enjoys the game. For me, I'll keep perusing the Halo 3 website, it's pretty wicked cool.
Labels: halo 3, video game
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
How would one go about hiring someone to put a video game mosaic in my house?
The mosaics above were created by Arno Coenen of Rock and Royal. How awesome are they!?
There are more photos here, including some of the construction process.
The mosaics above were created by Arno Coenen of Rock and Royal. How awesome are they!?There are more photos here, including some of the construction process.
Labels: art, video game
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