CrunchGear |  |
- Daily Crunch: Science
- Sony’s Playstation Vita To Hit Japan On December 17
- Qraft: The Airbnb For Planes, Trains, And Automobiles (And By Trains, I Mean Boats.)
- Microsoft’s Bold Move: If They Can’t Win The Tablet Race, They Won’t Acknowledge It Exists
- Samsung Fires At Apple In France, Targets The iPad And iPhone
- High School Student Pitches ReactOS Project To Russian President
- Pictured: Apple’s Upcoming Massive 5-Story Shanghai Apple Store
- Pedal Power: Two Empress Guitar Pedal Reviews For Knob Twiddlers
- Sol Computer Release A Netbook & Tablet With Pixel Qi Screens, Crazy High Price
- Microsoft Sold 450 Million Copies Of Windows 7
- Previewing The Future: Hands On With Windows 8
- Video: Sony Shows Android 2.3-Powered Walkman With 4.3-Inch Screen, Wi-Fi
- AMD’s New FX Processor Reaches World Record Clock Speed
- Japan Is Getting A 3DS In Pink (“For The Girls”)
- For The 3DS: Nintendo Shows Mario 3D, Mario Kart 7 (Full List Of All Future Titles)
- Fanhattan App Helps You Choose What To Watch On The iPad (Update)
- Daily Crunch: Tablet And Pipe
| Posted: 14 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some recent stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
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| Sony’s Playstation Vita To Hit Japan On December 17 Posted: 13 Sep 2011 10:22 PM PDT  Sony is currently holding a press conference in Tokyo where the company said that the Playstation Vita, its new handheld console, will hit stores in Japan on December 17, just in time for the holidays (this decision was kind of announced last month actually). For the 3G connection, Sony partnered up with Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo and laid out 3G pricing plans for the first time, too. Japanese Vita owners going for the 3G model will be charged 980 yen (US$13) for 20 hours of pre-paid or 4,980 yen (US$65). In the US, AT&T will be handling the 3G service for the Vita. Unfortunately, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan President Hiroshi Kawano didn’t go into details about the Vita’s launch outside Japan, so we’re still stuck with “sometime in 2012″.
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| Qraft: The Airbnb For Planes, Trains, And Automobiles (And By Trains, I Mean Boats.) Posted: 13 Sep 2011 03:20 PM PDT  When you’re just a wee babe, the idea of a new toy is the most exciting thing ever. Then you grow up, and “toys” become ridiculously expensive. You want a Chevy Corvette C6 Z06? That’ll be $70,000, please. You’re interested in picking up a 2011 Roehr 1250sc motorcycle? $40,000. Though I’m sure plenty of our utterly successful readers have no problem throwing out cash like that, the vast majority of us just can’t cough it up. That’s where Qraft comes in — think of it as the Airbnb for grown-up toys. You can spend a day with that Z06 for $950. And the 2011 Roehr 1250sc? $600/day. Past motorcycles and cars, Qraft also offers up a way for people to rent boats, helicopters, planes, RVs and other random gear (like a super expensive camping backpack) from their peers. So if you have a super cool boat that isn’t getting much use, or your RV will be sitting in the garage all season, you can just post it up on Qraft and make a little cash. Qraft lets you rent by day, week, and month, and each user chooses their own price. Search begins by establishing location, but it looks like Qraft hasn’t quite expanded to all corners of the States. New York isn’t supported, for example, while San Fran is. The service is free to join. The service offers insurance on the items you rent so if someone decides to roll your car into a ditch, it won’t cost you very much. Qraft also offers a feedback system for renters and owners and they also have a system for confirming driver’s license information through scans. They’re trying to avoid the tough lessons learned by Airbnb in its own debacle. Obviously these guys aren’t dealing with real estate so there’s little chance of meth-making in the bathtub but I would be totally pissed if someone flipped my Tesla (assuming I had a Tesla.)
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| Microsoft’s Bold Move: If They Can’t Win The Tablet Race, They Won’t Acknowledge It Exists Posted: 13 Sep 2011 02:51 PM PDT  The single most interesting thing I noted when watching Windows 8 at Build last night was the insistence that the Windows 8 devices were all PCs. Windows 8 on a desktop? PC. Windows 8 on a touchscreen laptop? PC. Windows 8 on an ARM slate? PC. Anything with Windows 8 code on it is a PC while anything that makes calls is a Windows Phone. A decade ago, Microsoft was all about tablets. There was a period of a few years where Microsoft was trying to sell tablets to users and, after failing miserably, they gave up. Why? Because they kept shoe-horning Windows onto a slate and called it a tablet while the nascent smartphone and declining PDA market ran circles around those ridiculous technological chimeras that Microsoft gave up flogging years ago. But, in a very roundabout way, Microsoft has gone out of the tablet business. There are no more Windows tablets, just Windows PCs. Let the rest of the world duke it out over form factors: Microsoft is taking their ball and going home. To be clear, the “tablet” I tested runs Windows and Metro is, at this point, bolted onto the top of it (Gruber says it reminds him of this.) But I think their positioning is both fascinating and bold. For the past two years or so people have been clamoring for a Windows “tablet.” Well now they’re getting a Windows PC. What they’re saying is that hardware doesn’t matter. I hope this will expand into their sales channels and we won’t have Windows 8 Professional, Windows 8 Gamer, Windows 8 Home, and Windows 8 Drunkard versions in stores (but I’m not holding my breath.) However, I doubt there will be something called Windows 8 Tablet Edition. In the end, this is all marketing. But, in a massive departure, they’re not calling this the “Windows Horizontal Slate Experience 2012″ and instead they’re holding on to the concept of the PC for all its worth. Why? Well, Apple paved the way with their “I’m a Mac/I’m a PC” ads and then Microsoft further explored this territory with their “I’m a PC” spots. Now that they actually have a competitor, they need to own their own part of the computing space. This is how they’re pulling it off. It’s far to early to see how this marketing plan will pan out but Microsoft made it abundantly clear that they don’t want the “post-PC era” to mean this is a post-Microsoft era. What better way to to it by co-opting the terminology people use to describe their products?
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| Samsung Fires At Apple In France, Targets The iPad And iPhone Posted: 13 Sep 2011 01:47 PM PDT  Two months before Apple won its import ban against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany, Samsung was launching an attack further West. The South Korea-based company filed a complaint against Apple back in July alleging infringement on three mobile-related patents with regards to the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4, and both models of the iPad. The first hearing is expected to go down in December. Unlike the case in Germany, these Samsung patents are related to technology rather than design, so that EU-wide Community Design shouldn’t come into play here. At least not for now. A source close to the matter said the Samsung patents are focused on UMTS, which is a form of third-gen phone technology related to high-speed data transfer, reports Agence France-Presse. This is one of many patent wars between Apple and Samsung that have been ongoing throughout the world. Japan, Australia, the U.S., Germany, the Netherlands, and now France have all been affected. Most poignantly, Germany has been excluded from any Galaxy Tab 10.1 fun just last week, though Samsung’s Korean unit can still sell the slate throughout the rest of the EU. As far as the design patents have gone, Apple seems to have the advantage. However, Samsung filed a rebuttal with the U.S. court system citing 2001: A Space Odyssey as an example of prior art for the tablet design Apple has on lock. With software and technology patents, the lines get blurred. Oftentimes the patent describes the technology in incredibly broad terms, which seem to encompass just about every one of the right-holder’s and their competitors’ products. If Samsung wins in France and actually lands a blow to Apple’s killer products (iPhones and iPads), then we might finally see a settlement here. And that would be the best thing for everyone. When it comes down to it, this is more about competition than property rights. Of course, companies have every right to protect that which they created. But when it extends as far as it has here, it starts to become obvious that these companies fear each other in the market. Anyone who should be buying a smartphone or tablet, should know the difference between an iPad and a GalTab. I’d expect that every Apple fanboy and Samsung loyalist would rather see a settlement than a win for their company of choice. Why? Because this is getting ridiculous. Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod (offered with...
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| High School Student Pitches ReactOS Project To Russian President Posted: 13 Sep 2011 12:15 PM PDT  During a recent high school visit, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev received an unusual request from a local student. In what was probably the most ambitious pitch of his young life, Marat Karatov asked President Medvedev for 1 million euros (~$1.39 million) to fund the open-source ReactOS project after a brief presentation. Based on the Windows NT architecture, ReactOS aims to be a fully-functioning alternative to Microsoft’s venerable line of PC operating systems. The project is currently in its early alpha stages, so it’s nowhere near usable on a daily basis, but it’s current form was enough to make Medvedev take notice. After a quick demo involving a ReactOS system booting up and running a few Windows-compatible programs, the president reportedly said the project was “interesting.” While this could be read as tacit approval for the project, it’s much more likely that President Medvedev will never think about ReactOS again. It’s a shame, really: if fully funded, ReactOS could prove to be a unique answer to Russia’s rampant piracy issues. Sure, it would take a considerable amount of time and effort, but let’s say that the project is eventually completed and it fully approximates the Windows experience. It’s very possible that the use of pirated copies would dwindle when faced with a free, open-source alternative. One million euros from Medvedev (and the tacit backing of the Russian government) could go a long way in making sure Russian consumers get the functionality they need without potential sticky legal ramifications. In fairness though, that could never happen. While an under-the-radar approach would be unlikely to draw much of Redmond’s ire, an attempt to create a Windows work-alike backed by the Russian government definitely would. While you have to give Mr. Karatov points for chutzpah, he’s better off looking elsewhere for funding.
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| Pictured: Apple’s Upcoming Massive 5-Story Shanghai Apple Store Posted: 13 Sep 2011 11:07 AM PDT  Apple is prepping to open its second Shanghai location after opening the first in Pudong last year. This new location is going to be massive and feature five stories of Apple goodness over a sprawling complex nearly a block long. Any doubts that China is Apple’s next target? This new location will be the fifth Apple store in China when it opens in the coming weeks. The first Shanghai location opened last year and features the now famous round cylinder entranceway much like NYC’s flagship Apple Store. The previously-announced plans calls for a three Apple Stores in Shanghai alone with reportedly more than 2 dozen in smaller cities. The first two floors will feature retail space with the Genius Bar and customer training facilities located on the second floor. The top three floors will then by used for Apple corporate and feature offices and conference rooms. M.I.C Gadgets reports that this new location could open as soon as this week and Apple recently pulled back part of the huge curtain revealing the statement, We Are About To Light Up Nenjing Road. If previous Apple store openings are any indication, the event will likely draw huge crowds of curious onlookers and Apple fanboys alike.
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| Pedal Power: Two Empress Guitar Pedal Reviews For Knob Twiddlers Posted: 13 Sep 2011 10:57 AM PDT  I love analog tech and I love analog sound. That’s why I wrote up these two basic reviews of two Empress analog pedals for guitarists sick of bleeps and bloops and color LCD read-outs. I added a few video demos, as well, but I was able to play with this gear for a while in my own home studio and came away quite pleased. Empress Phaser Pedal Empress’ phaser pedal packs a lot of features in a small package. Between the 2, 3 or 4-stage modes, several submodes, and overall quality in both hardware and sound fidelity, this pedal is one of the better offerings available. The pedal itself is compact, but it’s very durable, and even the knobs have a nice weight to them. You have your standard input/output jacks, as well as an additional input for an expression pedal and another one to connect an external audio signal. There are three basic operating modes: knob, tap, and auto. Knob mode lets you set the speed and speed range. In tap mode, you can use your foot to tap out a tempo, and there is a ratio knob to set the speed of the phasing effect. Auto mode is a bit different; the effects parameters actually changed based on how you’re playing. Within auto mode, there are eight different submodes, such as Phase Shift Follows Envelope, LFO On Envelope, and Rhythm Mode. Each allows for various levels of manipulation to create surprisingly distinct sounds. My personal favorite is Speed Follows Envelope, Sine Waveform, where the phasing effect increases as the instrument signal gets louder. I’ve had the opportunity to record several songs using this pedal, and compared to a variety of other pedals I’ve used, the sound this one produces is the best. There is absolutely no loss in fidelity…..I’ve tested in in several environments, plugging it directly into an 8-track recorder, going through an amp, and comparing the output to tracks where the pedal wasn’t used. The effects come through clearly, and there isn’t any of the volume "phasing" that impacts a lot of phaser pedals, where the volume can spike or become disjointed. There seem to be an infinite number of configurations you can come up with, so it won’t get old quickly. That said, it’s disappointing that you can’t save any custom presets so you can easily go back to a favorite configuration. That’s one small complaint for an otherwise outstanding pedal. Empress SuperDelay Pedal To start with, the hardware is solid; it would take a lot to damage it. The basic sound quality is very good. I experienced little to no noise in my recordings, and the tone is as crisp as when I have my guitar plugged directly into my amp. There is an additional input for an expression pedal as well. There are eight different main modes ranging from tap, reverse, rhythm, and tape mode. There are also three sub-modes for each main mode. The sub-modes don’t do the same thing for each main mode. They are tailored for each mode, which allows for an incredible range of sounds you can get out of this. For example, reverse mode does what it should, reverses the delayed signal. Sub-mode A controls how long each reversed segment of audio lasts. Sub-mode B allows you to set the length of reversed segments by hitting the TAP switch. In Sub-mode C, hitting the TAP switch will play back reversed segments in double-tempo. Of course, separate from the modes and sub-modes are other controls, for the mix, ratio, feedback, and overall volume. The amount of customization you can do will keep you busy for a while, unless you simply find one favorite sounds and use that exclusively. For the adventurous musicians, you can feel free to experiment all you want and save up to eight user defined presets. Not all of Express’ pedals offer this feature, and for this particular model, it’s a must-have. There isn’t much to complain about here. The delay effect might be an acquired taste for those who haven’t tried it before. But the comprehensive amount of available customizations and quality of the Vintage Modified should make anyone a fan. Rick Barr is a programmer and musician from Columbus, Ohio.
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| Sol Computer Release A Netbook & Tablet With Pixel Qi Screens, Crazy High Price Posted: 13 Sep 2011 10:09 AM PDT  Pixel Qi screens have found a new friend in San Diego based Sol Computers. The computer shop just announced a pair of products that do away with standard screens in favor for Pixel Qi’s sunlight-friendly models. But there’s an issue. Yeah, these computers, despite being nothing more than standard-issue computers retrofitted with another screen, are crazy expensive. Go ahead and put away your credit card; you’re not going to buy these. The Sol Netbook packs the standard circa-2010 netbook equipment in a Intel Atom N455 1.6 GHz, 250GB HDD and 2GB of RAM. In fact Sol Computer doesn’t hide the Samsung logo under the screen proving this is just a repackaged netbook. The main difference of course is the Pixel Qi dual-mode screen that allows for use in direct sunlight through a user-togglable LED backlight. But this netbook carries a $750 price tag, a premium of at least $400 over the standard Sammy netbook. The Sol Tablet PC is more of the same overpriced nonsense. At $1099 you’re buying an Alibaba special (read: generic Chinese tablet) that runs Windows 7 Starter on 1GB of RAM along with a Intel Atom N455 1.6 GHz. There isn’t even any mention of whether the 10.1-inch screen supports multitouch. For that price, you may as well buy a Kindle WiFi for $139, a 16GB 3G iPad for $629 and, just for shits and giggles, a $300 second-hand Notion Ink Adam from ebay, which has the same Pixel Qi screen as the Sol Tablet. Pixel Qi isn’t exactly new at the screen game and recently closed a large investment from 3M. The TechCrunch team, myself included, have admittedly little experience with the technology outside of trade shows where they always draw a crowd. The screen sounds great in theory as it promises the best of both words: a screen that works like a normal LCD in side but can also handle direct sunlight. However, at least in our experience particularly with the Notion Ink Adam, it doesn’t achieve a high level of success at either task as the colors are underwhelming with the LED switched on. Plus, if these Sol Computer models are used as examples, the screens are damn expensive, too.
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| Microsoft Sold 450 Million Copies Of Windows 7 Posted: 13 Sep 2011 09:05 AM PDT  Today, Microsoft has announced quite the milestone for Windows 7: since its launch in October 2009, a full 450 million licenses have been sold. The numbers are somehow more impressive when broken down; just a hair over 650,000 licenses are sold each day. Sales of Windows 7 have been on the upswing over the past two months to boot; it seems all that back-to-school prep has given Windows 7 a kick in the pants. The folks in Redmond are fond of calling Windows 7 “the fastest selling version of Windows ever,” and it turns out the claim may not just be a load of marketing fluff. Microsoft tends to keep unit sales figures quiet, save for big announcements and financial statements, but let’s try and put Microsoft’s achievement in a bit of perspective here. They announced in their Q4 2008 revenue report that they sold 180 million Vista licenses since launch. At this point in Vista’s life (just over a year and half after launch), that averages out to about 335,195 licenses per day. Seems respectable without context, but after the same amount of time, Windows 7 nearly doubles that figure with 632,911 licenses/day. Vista, to be fair, was a bit of a flop, but 7 compares to its grandfather XP rather nicely too: Microsoft announced that they had sold 210 million copies of XP in May 2004, a window of just about two and a half years since launch. Meanwhile, Windows 7 managed to move 240 million licenses by the time it was a year old. What does this mean? First, there’s a massive install base of Win7 machines out there and, more important, those same machines should be powerful enough to run Windows 8 when it arrives in the next year or so. In addition it means that more users are connecting to Windows live for SkyDrive sharing and other features – 542,000,000 people to be exact. These are wildly large and impressive numbers and it’s clear that Microsoft has a hit on its hands. Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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| Previewing The Future: Hands On With Windows 8 Posted: 13 Sep 2011 09:05 AM PDT  Over the past two days, I’ve been working with a prototype Windows 8 tablet – really a PC – and finding that instead of a disappointing mish-mash of Windows XP and some strange touch UI that the Windows Metro/desktop system is actually quite cool and quite intuitive. The next Windows 8 is, in one way, nothing like the Windows versions that came before and, in other ways, an iterative improvement over what we know as the Windows Desktop. There is no post-PC world. Everything that runs Windows 8 is a PC. That’s right – this tablet is a PC. In one way, this nomenclature allows Microsoft to avoid the “better than iPad” argument entirely and, on the other hand, it’s an ingenious way for the company to invigorate the faltering desktop market. The cloud is serious. Microsoft has invested quite a bit of time and effort into their cloud systems. For example, chats held in Microsoft Messenger will be persistent from computer to computer. Profile pictures on your login screen will appear on every machine you log into. Security is granular – your data is safe on the machine or can appear in the cloud. It’s your – or your IT department’s – choice. Anyone can be a programmer. You can build a usable app in HTML5 and Javscript that will run on Windows 8 and, presumably, Windows Phone. Like iOS, Windows is the DNA of a new breed of device, one that uses the core code that we’re used to and expands – or contracts – it as usual. Windows isn’t huge anymore. Because of the cloud, Windows can actually boot off of a USB key. Obviously there are some very specific reasons to boot off of a USB drive, but it's cool because it can. Windows now exposes different APIs based on the hardware on which it’s running which makes it work on ARM machines as well as the fastest x86 processor on the market. There are other ways to work. Windows 8 supports pens, handwriting, touch and, presumably, voice, dance, and song as inputs. You can, for example, add a mouse and keyboard and have a great PC or you can carry the device around for Windows on the go. The device we tested, obviously, has a huge, weirdly-sized screen but otherwise it is a perfectly serviceable workhorse. Like it or not, Microsoft owns a massive part of the PC business. Is Windows 8 perfect (at least in this early incarnation?) absolutely not. But this version is very… interesting. I love Metro. It’s a fascinating rethinking of the Windows Phone interface and is very similar to Lion’s LaunchPad and Mission Control views. It’s jarring to see the device dump back into standard Windows mode – all of the windows, icons, and buttons look sad and forlorn next to Metro. This is Windows 8. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s aimed at consumers, it’s touch-enabled from the ground up, and its an exciting departure from the old. The compromises made by Microsoft in this release – the reliance on old windowing methods is the most glaring – but it’s clear that the cloud access, the new touch interface including handwriting and finger-based UI handling, and all of the improvements, including the slow destruction of the legacy Registry – are all the right way to go. Plenty of people will be quite comfortable and excited about this OS. Plenty of IT guys face push-back, exasperation, and clamoring to return to the original way of doing things. In the end, Microsoft will win. It’s hard to maneuver a juggernaut, but when its moving don’t stand in its way. Devin Coldewey here. I spent a little time with Samsung’s prototype hardware, not enough to get used to it but enough to get some first impressions. It feels a bit bulky, but this is part of the compromise when you make something that essentially doubles as a PC. I would feel perfectly comfortable popping this into the dock and doing a day’s work from it. Switching between Windows 8 and… Windows 8 “original flavor” feels a little weird, though it’s very snappy and will likely become second nature. I really hope that Microsoft’s developers can make it worthwhile to use both modes, otherwise people will end up spending 80% of their time in the part they like, and resent the 20% of time they have to spend in the other. Quality control in the visual and UX departments is going to be more key in Windows 8 than ever before in Microsoft’s history since Windows 95. This is a major change and if they half-ass it or have lax standards, they’re going to lose control from the start. The keyboard and dock are pretty anonymous, but worked fine. I had to go into old-school control panel to find the Bluetooth panel, but that’s just an implementation thing that’s not quite there. The control panel panel felt nice: settings you care about, presented cleanly and attractively. Compared to the iPad’s control panel, this one feels more powerful and easier to use. The hardware is workmanlike. As a tablet it felt too big, the aspect ratio off by a bit. 16:9 at that size feels somewhat unbalanced. As a small display it felt just fine, though. Handwriting recognition is great, and the touchscreen was responsive to both pen and touch. If both are going to be primary modes of input, though, it should really be more intuitive switching between writing and the regular keyboard. I’m going to try to work from this thing for a while and see how I feel about it. This is early hardware and early software, so I don’t want to be too harsh or commit to recommending something that may change significantly later. Take a look at the shots below to see some of the UI elements and features I thought were interesting on first inspection. We’ll follow up later with more in-depth impressions and some video. Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
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| Video: Sony Shows Android 2.3-Powered Walkman With 4.3-Inch Screen, Wi-Fi Posted: 13 Sep 2011 08:15 AM PDT  Competition for the iPod? Sony Japan announced [JP] the NW-Z1000 series today, their three newest Walkmans, which come with an array of flashy features. The new series was showcased for the first time during IFA in Berlin a few weeks ago, and now Sony priced and dated the devices for their home market. The main difference between the three models is the internal memory: the NW-Z1050 (price: $364) comes with 16GB on board, while the NW-Z1060 offers 32GB for $429. The NW-Z1070 boasts 64GB and will be available for $563. Here are the main specs of the Z series Walkmans:
The Z series Walkmans will hit stores in Japan on December 10. Watch this video, shot by Diginfonews in Tokyo (in English), for more information:
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| AMD’s New FX Processor Reaches World Record Clock Speed Posted: 13 Sep 2011 07:29 AM PDT  It’s amazing what people can do with one of AMD’s new eight-core FX processors, a specially built chassis, and a few tanks of liquid helium. In a pre-release stunt, AMD rounded up a small group of expert overclockers to take the new processor to world record speeds and beyond. Don’t expect to do the same at home when the FX chips ship in late Q4 2011: overclockers Brian Mchlachlan and Sami Maekinen had the pick of the processor litter, and PCWorld reports that they looked specifically for chips that performed well at higher voltage levels. They took things slowly at first, with the FX eventually bumping up against the 8.0 GHz barrier thanks to a little liquid nitrogen. It took the application of some liquid helium to really kick things into high gear, as the super-low temperatures allowed the FX to hit 8.429 GHz, besting the old record of 8.308 GHz. How well the system would actually perform under those conditions was left unexplored — this was all about hitting the highest clock speed, so the stress testing and benchmarking that comes with actually using an overclocked CPU was left by the wayside. AMD was formally presented the Guinness World Record for Highest Frequency of a Computer Processor at their Fusion Zone event in San Francisco today. The timing and location seems to be yet another jab at their eternal rival though, as Intel also chose today to kick off their SF Developer Forum.
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| Japan Is Getting A 3DS In Pink (“For The Girls”) Posted: 13 Sep 2011 07:21 AM PDT  That horrible 3DS cradle Nintendo showed during the Nintendo 3DS Conference 2011 [JP] today wasn’t the only official hardware-related announcement of the show: big N also took the wraps off a very special new 3DS version, the so-called 3DS in “Misty Pink”. Various Gameboy and DS models have seen pink special editions already, so Nintendo is continuing a tradition here. But the real reason is that Nintendo wants to woo female gamers with the pink 3DS: according to Nintendo president Satoru Iwata, the ratio of female 3DS users is well below 50% currently, while it stands at 50% for the Wii and a bit more than that for the DS (in Japan, at least). Nintendo plans to roll out the 3DS Misty Pink in its home market on October 15 for the same price as the regular models (15,000 Yen/US$195). During the conference, Iwata didn’t talk about international sales plans.
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| For The 3DS: Nintendo Shows Mario 3D, Mario Kart 7 (Full List Of All Future Titles) Posted: 13 Sep 2011 06:38 AM PDT  The Tokyo Game Show 2011 is starting tomorrow, an exhibition that Nintendo isn’t taking part in traditionally. Instead, big N organized a separate event today, the so-called Nintendo 3DS Conference 2011 [JP], where the company showed a total of 32 new titles that will be rolled out for the 3DS in the next months. Here’s the full list [JP]. All Nintendo games and their Japanese release dates:
Screens for Mario Land: For Mario Kart 7: All third-party games and their Japanese release dates:
The website Nintendo created for this event is in Japanese only, but I suggest you visit it for a ton screens for every game listed up above.
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| Fanhattan App Helps You Choose What To Watch On The iPad (Update) Posted: 13 Sep 2011 06:00 AM PDT  There are plenty of apps that let you watch TV and movies on your iPad: Hulu Plus, Netflix, Vudu and even trusty old iTunes. But how do you know what’s available out there? Guess what! There’s an app for that. Fanhattan just launched on the App Store, and it’s all about discovery. When you load up the app, you have two options: Movies or TV. From there, Fanhattan groups content into genres like Hottest, Newest, Top Rated, Critic’s Picks, and Oscar Award Winners or Emmy Nominated Shows. But that’s pretty basic right? Fanhattan takes it a step further with Smart Browse. The feature lets you check off certain attributes to narrow down results, like checking off the Action and Fantasy genres. Then you can decide that you only want to watch Action/Fantasy movies with a 3+ star rating. That narrows down your results even more, but you can continue to specify what you’re looking for. You can filter by release date, choose between services, filter by ratings, and then choose how you want the content to be sorted. The app also connects with Facebook, letting you post your faves to your wall and get recommendations your Facebook friends. The app currently supports the following video streaming services: Vudu, iTunes, Hulu Plus, Netflix and the ABC Player. When you’ve selected the movie/TV Show you want to watch, Fanhattan automatically shows you all the services that offer it, and what it’ll cost you to watch. Maybe it’s free w/membership on Netflix but $2.99 on iTunes. Now you know. The app also offers a summary of the show/movie, cast and crew information, Rotten Tomatoes reviews, clips from the movie, iTunes prices for the soundtrack, and even where to buy “fan gear.” Fanhattan also offers up similar movie titles. As far as the UI is concerned, the gestures and layout are very intuitive but I did experience a few choppy moments scrolling around. Obviously, these are things that can be fixed with an update, but it’s worth mentioning. Another little bug I noticed was that when you click into the Watch Now panel, Netflix-supported content doesn’t have a link the same way Hulu Plus and iTunes do. Not sure why the app is forgetting about Netflix, but again, it shouldn’t be too complicated a fix. As more and more content becomes available on iPad, the more a way to sort through it will be necessary. Fanhattan seems to be ahead of the curve. Fanhattan is available today on the iPad as a free download from the App Store. Update: So it turns out that that Netflix bug was cleared up before launch. It only showed up for me because I was using the pre-release version of the app. Fanhattan is a service that will inspire you to discover all the world’s entertainment. On launch in early 2011, Fanhattan will bring a new approach to entertainment discovery by helping you browse all the world’s movies and TV shows with a simple and elegant user experience – in the living room, on the web, and on the go. The service will encourage exploration by combining movies and TV shows with an expansive world of related content, visual assets, and...
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| Posted: 13 Sep 2011 01:00 AM PDT  Here are some of yesterday’s stories on TechCrunch Gadgets:
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