High Moon has taken a solid, fast, third person shooter foundation, crafted a well thought out transformation mechanic on top of it, and designed combat situations around that. The end result is a shooter that has an identity all its own, and leverages its license to make something pretty cool for fans and newcomers alike.
One day prior to the E3 Expo 2010, Microsoft announced the updated version of the Xbox 360 console. Simply called the Xbox 260 250GB, the new console features a number of changes, including smaller design, larger internal hard drive and Wi-Fi 802.11n support, amongst others.
For the new design, Microsoft has gone for a more angular look compared to the curvy design of the previous model. The new Xbox 360 250GB features a glossy all black design, which reminds us of the first generation PlayStation 3. It is now significantly smaller than the older version. Other aspects of the design are the presence of touch sensitive buttons instead of the mechanical buttons for the power and disc eject functions.
Microsoft has also gone for a single larger fan design instead of the two smaller fans for lower noise during gameplay. Those who witnessed the console first hand noted that the new model is significantly quieter than the older one. For those who don’t know, the older Xbox 360 was criticized for its higher noise levels during operation.
The new Xbox 360 250GB features a lot more connectivity options than before. You get five USB 2.0 ports, two of which are up front under the sliding panel and three are on the back. There is an AUX port for connecting accessories such as the Xbox 360 Kinect. An HDMI port is standard and so are the optical audio out and the proprietary AV connector found on the older consoles.
The new Xbox 360 250GB comes with a much smaller power brick compared to the older model. It is also much lighter than before and uses a new connector to connect to the console. Still, we would have preferred an internal power supply unit as on the PlayStation 3.
True to its name, the new Xbox 360 250GB comes with a 250GB HDD inside it. It is incompatible with the older hard drive though and it seems you cannot just use any laptop hard drive as you can on the PlayStation 3. You also cannot use older memory cards of the Xbox 260 with the new console. To transfer data from the old console to the new one, you can use a 16GB flash drive or the hard drive transfer cable (sold separately for $20).
The new Xbox 360 250GB has already gone on sale in U.S. and is available for $299 (Rs. 13,949 approx.). The older Xbox 360 is also on sale for $199 (Rs. 9,283 approx.) but may get an update. We hope the new console arrives in India soon.
Four years, 853 qualifying games across five continents…and the moment finally arrived, when South Africa called on the world in the biggest sporting extravaganza after the Olympics. Take a look at all pictures from the opening ceremony.
2010 FIFA World Cup
Calling on the world.
Johannesburg : South African artists perform at the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg.
South African dancers perform during the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg. South Africa and Mexico play in the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
Dancers carry a mock-up beatle during the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg. South Africa and Mexico play in the opening match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
South African artists carry a beatle dummy dragging a football during the opening ceremony of the 2010 FIFA World Cup on June 11, 2010 at Soccer City stadium in Soweto, suburban Johannesburg.
South African airforce acrobatic planes fly by on June 11, 2010 during the opening ceremony ahead of the FIFA WC2010 opening match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer city stadium in Soweto, outside Johannesburg.
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software.
Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated “live tiles” show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend’s latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.
Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:
By Harry McCracken
- FOXNews.com
The Web is an amazing source of TV, from the latest shows to classic reruns. And these sites, services, and software can help you explore it all.
Hulu
Popular Web site Hulu lets you watch television shows over the Internet. But there are a wealth of new alternatives to the site.
TV or PC? That’s the question I find myself asking these days when I’m in the mood to watch the tube. There are still plenty of reasons to opt for the HDTV in my living room: It’s got the biggest and best picture, the most theater-like audio, and — overall — the best selection of stuff to watch. But so many popular programs are now available online that I’m just as likely to catch them on my PC.
TV on a TV may still be the most immersive experience, but TV on a PC feels far more personal. For one thing, most of it is available on demand, on your own schedule. For another, there’s an ever-expanding universe of sites, services, and software designed to make it a cinch to find both shows you know you love and ones you haven’t discovered yet, and then watch them your way. Such as these five winners, all of which work on both Windows PCs and Macs and are absolutely free.
Explore a site that’s half TV Guide, half TiVo. You’ve got favorite TV shows, old and new. And Clicker is an extremely slick way to find everything from Lost to The Dick Van Dyke Show. It covers both free sources (such as Hulu and the sites of the major networks) and paid ones (like Amazon and Netflix), and lets you search by title or performer, or browse by category. You can add entire series to playlists and get notifications by e-mail when new episodes are available, making the service a sort of virtual DVR that helps you keep on top of your faves and play catch-up when necessary.
Make any computer a media center. Boxee is a hot piece of software that lets you browse and enjoy a bevy of digital content, including paid and free video on the Web, files on your computer or home network, music, photos, and more. It’s meant to appeal to folks who have connected their computers to their TV sets: You can breeze through the whole user interface with a remote control, and everything’s got a sheen that looks great in high definition. But it’s fun to use even if just to watch TV on your laptop or desktop monitor.
Try a better Netflix. Netflix may still be synonymous with DVDs by snail mail in little red envelopes, but its Watch Instantly feature — which gives every Netflix subscriber unlimited on-demand access to a profusion of movies and TV shows — is one of the best ways to spend a few bucks a month on internet content. Oddly enough, though, finding stuff to watch is surprisingly frustrating: when you search on the Netflix site, the Watch Instantly titles are often overwhelmed by the ones that are still only available on DVD.
Enter Instantwatcher.com, an ingenious, ingeniously simple site that does one thing: help you locate items you can Watch Instantly. It shows only films and episodes available for instant viewing, and it tells you what’s popular right now. Find something that catches your fancy, and one click loads it up in Netflix’s player.
Capture, convert, and move streaming video. Most free TV on the Web streams to your PC, which works just fine for one-time viewing on a broadband-connected computer. But you’ve got to be online to watch it, and can’t save items for offline viewing or move them to gadgets such as your cell phone, media player, or game console.
RealNetworks’ RealPlayer SP is a clever application that changes that. Install it, and you can download and save video all over the Web, then convert it and transfer it to your other devices. Other services and software offer similar features, but I don’t know of any that make the job as easy as RealPlayer. The downside? It doesn’t work with copy-protected content, such as most of the shows that big-name entertainment companies make available on the Web. That still leaves a wealth of stuff to watch, including most of YouTube.
“Google” your cable or satellite box. Did I say this column was about how to get more out of Internet TV? I fibbed a little. LocateTV is a search engine that lets you track down programming that’s available via your cable and satellite subscription, complete with episode guides, reminders, and other features that are reminiscent of Clicker. Tell it your zip code and provider, and it’ll restrict its results to shows available locally, and will give you the channel numbers you need to tap on your remote.
LocateTV is a vastly more efficient way to navigate through thousands of hours of programming on hundreds of channels than scrolling through a never-ending programming grid on your TV. It’s pretty cool when you think about it: The Internet is so powerful a force that it can make TV better even when you aren’t watching TV on the Internet.
Harry McCracken blogs at Technologizer, his site about personal technology. He’s also the former editor in chief of PC World. Follow him on Twitter as @harrymccracken.
If last year was the year of Netbooks, 2010 seems to be the year of Tablets. Since the day, very first rumours of Apple Tablet iPad started floating in, IT hardware manufacturers of all hues have jumped on to the Tablet bandwagon.
Joining the Tablet market is IT major HP, which unveiled its Tablet, called Slate, at the Consumer Electronics Show at Las Vegas in January. The company recently released a video promoting its upcoming touchscreen Tablet which will run on Windows 7 operating system.
Here’s looking into how HP Tablet stands vis-a-vis Apple iPad in specs like memory, display, connectivity, pricing and more.
Dimensions
HP Slate measures 9.21 (h) X 5.70 (w) X O.57 (d) inches and weighs 0.67 kg, according to reports.
Display
iPad has a 9.7-inch LCD colour screen. The device uses iPhone’s multi-touch technology, Apple’s Magic Mouse, and the company’s trackpad technology also found in some Apple’s laptops.
Camera
However, Apple’s iPad lacks camera. Lack of camera being widely seen as a negative in iPad as the device is said to be placed somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop.
Processor
On the other hand, HP Slate features a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor.
Memory
HP Slate will come with 32GB of flash storage and 1GB of non-upgradeable RAM. There’s also a 64GB version.
OS
Apple iPad comes with iPhone OS 3.2.
Flash
Connectivity
Connectivity options in HP Slate include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional 3G and GPS.
Battery
HP Slate reportedly supports upto 5 hours of battery life
Output
However, there is no facility for HDMI output in iPad. This means users will not be able to view HD videos on a large TV screen even if they have downloaded the same from iTunes. The Apple device can playback at 720p HD video. There’s also a 3.5mm audio jack.
Pricing
Though HP has not revealed pricing for the Slate, according to reports, the company will price it for $549 (Rs 26,400 approx). For now, HP has also not revealed when the device will be made available. However, speculations are rife that with the release of the promotional video, the device is soon expected to hit shelves.
NET GAINS
San Francisco: Fascination with the blockbuster 3-D film Avatar has fans tuning into real-world research indicating that virtual selves can inspire people to lead better lives.
Since the release of the film, interest has surged in a Stanford University Virtual Human Interaction Lab study showing that avatars, animated versions of people, act as powerful role models. “It is getting so hot right now,” study author Jesse Fox said on Thursday. “James Camerons’s ‘Avatar’ movie is out so our website hits have just spiked.”
People immersed in virtual words where animated characters mirroring their true looks were shown running were more likely to play sports, run, or work out at a gym in the following 24 hours, according to the study.
Subjects that got to see their avatars loitering about were prone to imitate that behaviour in the real world, the research showed. The key to the study was using pictures of subjects to make avatars appear as much like them as possible, according to Fox.
“To some extent there is a mental meld that occurs- people seeing themselves in the avatar and taking a part of the avatar away with them,” Fox said. “It creates an instant bond that taps into something unconscious.”
Technology can be used to create virtual behaviour models for people, according to the researcher, who worried about how this will play out as videogames increasingly let people personalize onscreen characters.
“If all it takes is five minutes of exposure in an immersive virtual world to one character, we really have to ask ourselves about exposures and interactions in videogames like ‘Grand Theft Auto’,” Fox said.
The videogame features scantily clad women and players get options to beat, rob or kill prostitutes.
‘call of duty; Modern Warfare2’ blasted past $300 million in sales on its opening day, the videogame’s publisher said, blowing away even Hollywood films to become the highest-grossing entertainment launch ever.
‘MW2’ sold 4.7 million copies and raked up $310 million in sales in US and Britain along when the eagerly anticipated title from infinity ward studio made its worldwide debut Tuesday, according to Activision. The videogame bested Batman superhero film the dark knight, which holds the record for the top opening weekend ever by taking in 158.4 million dollars in july 2008.
‘The call of duty’ franchise has become a cultural phenomenon showing the power of videogames as an entertainment medium,” said Activision chief executive Mike Griffith.
“The shattering of these entertainment records is a testament to the compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging experience that the ‘call of duty’ brand delivers.”
‘MW2’ is the sixth title in a franchise that has won a devoted following since the first version was released in 2003.
Activision believes ‘MW2’ will be such a hit that the California-based company will see record operating margins. Preorders for the $60-videogame were the highest in the firm’s history. “If you only buy a single game this Hanukkah or Christmas, this is the title to beat,” said Scott Steinberg of videogame and gadget website Digital Trends. “It’s designed to be as much of a breathlessly cinematic experience as simple run-n-gun outing.”
Fingers hurt from gaming? It’s probably time for your brain to take over then.
And we have a game that lets you do just that. The adventure of NeuroBoy is a game that monitors your brain activity via a Blutooth headset (called a ‘Mindset’) and uses that data to interact with virtual objects in the game. The technology is still limited to measuring ‘concentration’ and ‘meditation’ so you might still have to use the keyboard and mouse commands to manoeuvre bits of NeuroBoy on screen.
The makers had a short demo at the recently conducted Tokyo Game show. Basically, the MindSet fits over your head like a set of stereo headphones, with a small arm and sensor that presses against your forehead. In order to handle any object, it must first be selected with a mouse click. Player has a choice of four abilities: pushing, pulling, levitating and burning. Everything other than floating requires you to concentrate as best as you can. The game is still on its way, but it’s already generated massive interest about being able to use brain to interest about being able to use brain to control 3-D objects. So, if you can’t wait a few months to get your hands, oops, brain on the game, then check out http://www.neurosky.com/mindset/neuroboy.html
