This isnt really technology related, but I thought some people would like to know how we are doing and this is our 100th post. We’ve been through good times and bad times, but we have managed to pull through. Thanks to all of our constant viewers.
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Archive for December, 2006
So here we go with the second installment in the Wishlist series.
Xbox 360 (Written by Pelit)
For the Adventurous: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
The expansive environment of Oblivion is sure to suck in even the greenest of adventurers with its beautiful graphics, engrossing plot and sandbox nature. There are literally hundreds of hours that can be played in this game without repeating elements. The ability to completely customize your character and follow a path that will lend you fame and glory throughout the land or become a renowned villain and terrorize the populace presents more challenges for the player. I highly recommend this game for anyone who has any interest at all in a role-playing game.
For the Athletic: Madden 07
Each year, EA Sports publishes a new Madden game with new features, updated rosters and better graphics. This year does not buck the trend but instead embraces the newfound power in the Xbox 360. After last years’ disappointment, Madden 07 revitalizes the franchise on the 360, featuring more detailed player models, new graphical features such as the degradation of the turf during play and a new ability to take on the role of different players who do not hold the ball. The new slew of features provides for an enticing product and makes this a must-buy for a sports enthusiast.
For the Kiddies: Viva Piñata
Now this game may not be the most exciting to you, but it is for those that enjoy creating and managing people or in this case, Piñatas. Your goal in Viva Piñata is to establish a garden and lure various piñatas into it, similar to the Sims. Once two or more piñatas are in the garden, they can perform a mating dance and after completing a mini-game, you will be presented with an offspring. There are no strict goals but a general objective of having the best garden possible. This would be perfect for young children who can quickly pick up and play the game without a lot of background information. The cute and vivid colors easily attract the young ones and once they pick it up they will not stop. Viva Piñata would also make an excellent game for a casual gamer who does not enjoy spending large amounts of time playing with the Xbox 360.
For the Hardcore: Gears of War
Epic Games’ new shoot ‘em up, Gears of War has quickly become the hottest game on the 360. It is the most played game on Xbox Live and for good reason. Despite being given an “M” rating for all the bloody violence, it sold over a million copies after its first 2 weeks on the market. The game emphasizes the use of cover and communication with teammates in order to defeat enemies. In addition to a fantastic single-player campaign, the multiplayer rivals that of Halo 2 with various modes to satisfy all of your blood thirsty dreams. Definitely not for the faint of heart, this game would be best for an older gamer who wants to evoke carnage all over virtual reality.
Wii (Written by doughboy)
Onto the Wiiiiiiii
For the Adventurous: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
I would recommend this game as the best Wii game there is right now. This is for anyone who really wants to experience the motion sensitivity of the controller. In this game you follow the reborn hero, Link, through a brand new adventure through the realm of shadows and back again. In this game you will fully experience the capabilities of the Wii as you fight with Link slashing the Wiimote up and down to fight the enemies off. Overall this is a really fun game has a lot of different kinds of gameplay. In one instance you may be turned into the Shadow form of yourself, a wolf, and in the next you may be fighting off enemies from atop your horse. This game is definetley not for the people who do not like long games or for the poeple who dont; like adventure games.
For the Die Hard Sports Fan: Madden NFL 07′
This is a game for the people who really want to be in the game. In this game your really hike the ball with your hand motions and all of the passes are done by you moving your arms around. There are some special mini-games that are made for Wii only to take full advantage of the motion sensitive controller. This is not recommended for anyone who does not like physical activity because you gotta be pretty active for these games.
For the Younger Children: Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz
This is for the youngster that loves to play around. This is just a pure fun game with no adventure or point whatsoever. But that is what young kids want these days. This game follows the adventures of many different monkeys through many different little levels where you go through and roll around. The game is all about rolling around through different levels and jumping to try and get through all of the obstacles. This game takes full advantage of the motion sensitivity of the controller. You are now able to also jump in this new version of the game.
For the Hardcore: Red Steel
This is the game to get for the person that loves to play video games. This game is all about fighting and shooting. To take advantage of the motion sensitivity you wing a sword around but you also point and shoot at the screen. You can also use some sort of magic attacks to freeze time and do even more damage. This game would be the perfect game for anyone that likes to play games with blood and violence or people who just like to release their anger on video games.
PC (Written by ziggy)
For the adventurous:
Play either as a preacher who mesmerizes people then shoots them, or play as Billy the archer who can use stealth to sneak around. And all with great graphics!
For the People With No RL (Real Life): S.T.A.L.K.E.R Shadow of Chernobyl
Yeah, I know, the name sounds kind of weird but the storyline sounds kind of interesting. Apparently you have to survive in the barren wasteland that was Chernobyl. Plus it’s for people with no real life, so they don’t care about storylines.
For the young children: Rayman Raving Rabbits
Oh cmon, who doesn’t love shooting small rabbits with huge mouths in the face with plungers, especially if you’re a little kid with A.D.D.
For the Sports Fans: FIFA 07 Soccer
The latest legacy from EA, the Fifa series has picked up speed since its opening game. With awesome graphics and gameplay that mirrors real soccer-playing, This game is the epitome of soccer video games. Until Fifa 08 of course.
PS3 (Coming Soon)
BenQ just introduced a brand new camera that looks like it would be perfect for us. This is the lower end model of the 7 series of super-slim cameras made by the company. It comes with a better 3x optical zoom to really get close to whatever your taking a picture of. It’s also got a new mode that is the extremely-still mode that tries to minimize the amount of shaking that tends to cause all of the quick, important shots blurry. It also comes with a new bigger 3 inch display to see what you’re taking a picture of and to also view the pictures that you have already taken. This is basically the same as its cousin, the X720, except for the bigger screen. If you’re going to be taking a lot of pictures I would recommend spending the extra cash on the bigger screen so the photos are more clear. Expect the one with the bigger screen to cost more than the existing X720. Should be out soon, hopefully.
Full Article at Engadget.
So I got a chance to sit down and get a demo of the akimbo box and have him answer a few of the questions I had. Akimbo is basically an on demand video box that downloads the TV shows off of the Internet. Their main goal is to bring more choice to the consumer through content, that is not availabe to the TV in other ways. They in the end want to integrate themselves into existing cable DVR’s so that they can store the content that is downloaded onto the hard drive. The box itself is made so that you can hook it up to the TV and to the internet and you’re ready to go. So the interface itself is very clean with some easily navigable menus.
They are constantly adding content to supplement the existing content that they have. A few of their number one genres is The Adult Swim category and the Anime category. They provide some content free with the monthly fee of service and some of the content is A la carte. Hence they charge a fee per show. They also have subscriptions to some channels such as Adult Swim that make all of the episodes free for a mere $5.00 a month extra. The shows seemed to be very high quality and come without any commercials, which is a plus. They also have a deal with Movielink to download major Hollywood videos from 5 major production companies for a fee. They have everything from Infomercials to Music Videos. They have recently greatly expanded the spectrum of content. They also have a website where you can set the Akimbo box to download things that you want to watch later. Such as set the box to download something while you’re at school and then have it all ready for you, all from the web. The Akimbo service itself will be integrated into the new At&t Home Zone box for satellite TV. The pricing ranges greatly depending on what the channel is. The shows have some sort of expiration date on them so there goal is to offer more of a rental service than a buy for keeps.
They are really trying to appeal as a supplement to cable and to the people that want the content that Akimbo offers, such as the Turkish channel, that cannot otherwise get it over regular cable. The main concern of download time is usually less than the length of the actual show on a broadband connection. The 2 ways to get the akimbo service now is through an RCA set top box or through a Media Center Application.
Soon you will be able to get it through the new At&t Homezone box( DVR and satellite receiver), or through the upcoming PC client. The upcoming PC client will be coming in February as a free download and will also feature some free content but most of it will require a subscription to at least the basic service agreement. The PC client is what is really going to get the Akimbo company off the ground and the Box will just be a supplement to that. Well that is all we have related to the latest in Akimbo news. We will have future postings on the PC client when it comes closer to launch time.
This new wireless Ipod speaker system does multi-room ipod audio for a teenage price. The base price of $299 includes a base station and a pair of wireless speakers. Extra pairs of speakers come in at $129. The remote does not come in the base price but if you set up your playlists right you don’t have to have a remote. The speakers can be up to 150 feet away from the base station. Sound Quality should be almost CD Quality. No one knows if you can play different songs on each of the speakers, but hopefully that will be announced before the launch. You can have up to four speakers per base station. Should be available by March 2007.
Full Story at Engadget.
So apparently these guys at slashgear built a glove that incorporates the wiimote into its structure. Sweeet. I think? Yeah so it’s the wiimote but in glove form and with working finger buttons.
Full Article at Engadget
Last Monday, a small technology start-up out of Silicon Valley held a press release detailing their plans for the upcoming year. Kleer is focusing on wireless audio whether it be in your home theater system or your iPod. The new technology will be used over the 2.4 spectrum and will be 10x more power-efficient than Bluetooth. They are also developing wireless ear-buds where the reciever will be built into each earbud and a transmitter will be attached to the audio source, completly eliminating wires. At home, I currently have a working prototype to be used in conjunction with an iPod and cannot tell the difference between a wired and wireless connection. The sound quality is great for up to 45 feet and can work through many walls. Hopefully we’ll see these products on the market soon!
If you want a more in depth article click here.
here is a video that i thought was better because it just shows a slide show of not yet developed apple products.
The Halo 3 Ad is released…need I say more?
Alright so here we go with the more revised wish list. We have got everything in here from tv’s to cameras. Links at the end.
1. LN-S3251D Samsung 32" Flat Panel LCD HDTV
Its got a modest price of $1400 for its very high image quality and the two HDMI inputs.Samsung puts into it a special feature that allows it to choose the best resolution for the source. It also has a Game mode which changes the refresh rate depending on the game that is being played.
2. Bose Quiet Comfort 2 Noise Cancellation Headphones
These are for when you really need to zone out and be in your own little bubble. It comes with many different kinds of adapters for different source. These really actually work also.They really cut the noise of the jet engine on those long pan American flights. They run at $300.
3. Xbox 360
We will include all three gaming systems on the market to give you a un down on each one. For me this game system comes in first because of tis price point and selection of games. The PS3 has no real high selection of games unless you like Japanese games. This also has the best online service. Even though you have to pay for the service it is by far the best. It is backwards compatible with most old Xbox Games but it requires a hard drive for that. The graphics are as good as it gets right now and to me you cant tell the difference between this and the PS3. It runs at $400 for the Pro package with the hard drive and $300 for the core package. Also to go along with this we have the Wireless Racing Wheel ($150) and the Wireless Headset ($60). These both with a few extra controllers and a live subscription, would complete your Xbox 360 Experience.
4. Nintendo Wii
This Game system comes in at second and would be a good combo with the Xbox 360. It does not have high resolution graphics rather it bring to the field its innovative motion sensing controller design. Its Wii Channels are a very nice menu system and the online archive of classic video games is sure to be a hit with the masses and you. It is backwards compatible with old Gamecube games. It has ports for Gamecube controllers to play the old games or you can buy the Wii Classic controller.
5. Playstation 3
In the console wars this comes in last in my opinion. The price point is set way to high for the average gamer. Only the rich hardcore gamers can afford this peice of hardware. Also the online services, although free, have yet to be tested and my guess is that they do not rival Xbox Live. The game selection has no staple games that are worth buying the console for. It is although backwards compatible with PS2 games.The controller has the same function as the Wii controller but I have personally tested both controllers and the Wii is far better. It seems that the motion sensing was added on as an after thought to compete with Nintendo. Also, be aware of the recent resolution problems and the controller problems that have plagues PS3 owners. Anyways, if you really want one you are out of luck becuase they are all gone. They run at $600 outside of Ebay.
6. PSP
By far the best portable gaming device. Encompasses all areas of technology including, internet, gaming, photos, and music. They have a lot of good games and if you have a PS3 that would be a reason to buy one of these if you don’t already have one. It can interface with the PS3 and in the future you can download content onto your PS3 through the PS3. It runs at around $200 at many retail stores.
7. Logitech Bluetooth Headphones
These headphones work with your Ipod to provide true wireless stereo sound. So if your excersizing then you will not have any cables get in the way of your workout. It has a small adapter that plugs into the Ipod or other MP3 player that can stay plugged in. They have a comfortable looking behind the head design.
8. Canon SD700
Last but no least we have the Canon SD700. This is a very nicely priced camera for the set of features it has. It’s a 6.0 megapixel point and shoot pocket camera. It has a very nice design with a black finish on the back and a silver finish on the front. It has 16x Combined zoom with 4x of that being optical zoom. It has a nice Image Stabilization feature for the people who always get blurry pictures because of shaky hands. It does not have very many setting that you can change but that is to be expected in a pocket point and shoot. It runs at $300 via Amazon.com.
9. Nokia N95
This is the ultimate in multimedia cell phone. It is a two way slider with one way being the dedicated media buttons and the other being the keypad. It includes in addition to all of its other features, a 5MP Camera. It has a very large 2.5" screen. It also has a camera on the front to be used for video calling. It has built in wireless Lan and 802.11b wireless. It is a tri band phone with support for 3G networks. It is not out in The United States yet but should be out soon. It should run about 550 Euros($700) and should be out in Europe in the first Quarter of 2007.
Thing we would not recommend buying:
1. The Ipod
Do not buy an Ipod right now because a redesign of the Video Ipod is expected in January of next year at the annual Macworld conference. There also may be an Iphone and an Ipod Enabled Rake.
Well that about wraps it up. If you have any additions of your own feel free to post in the comments and we may add some of your ideas in the future.