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Nintendo 3DS To Drop To $170 On August 12, Current Owners Get 20 Free Games

Posted: 28 Jul 2011 03:18 AM PDT

The Nintendo 3DS is dropping $80 – from $249 to $169 – on August 12 in preparation for the launch of the console’s E3 A-List titles including Kid Icarus. This cut is also, presumably, in reaction to slow initial sales of the 3D console.

Current owners of the console will receive ten free NES games along with ten free Game Boy Advance titles on September 1st (provided they’ve logged into the Nintendo eShop before August 12.

As Engadget points out, Nintendo downgraded its expected net profit from ¥110 billion to ¥20 billion – a massive cut – and this move will potentially allow them to sell the estimated 16 million 3DS consoles they’re expecting to push out the door in 2011.

Will they pull it off and will early adopters be pissed that they gave up $80 for the opportunity to snag the original Punch-Out!! for free? I’d wager, at this rate, no and yes.

Nintendo Cuts Price Of 3DS In Japan By 40% To $190, Other Markets To Follow

Posted: 28 Jul 2011 01:03 AM PDT

We’ve seen many price drops in the video gaming industry in the last 30 years, but I personally can’t remember such a radical move: Nintendo just announced [in English, PDF] that they will cut the price of their (relatively) new 3D portable gaming system 3DS by a whopping 10,000 Yen ($127) to 15000 Yen ($190).

That’s a 40% price drop from the original price of 25,000 Yen – an almost unbelievable number for a device that was launched in Japan on February 26 (and one month later in the US and other places). The Japanese street price will be effective as early as August 11. Nintendo says that other regions will see a price cut sometime between “July and September” but that “the ranges and the timings of the markdown will be different from that of Japan”.

The good news is that Mario is ready to hit the 3DS: Nintendo says that Super Mario 3D Land is coming in November, with Mario Kart 7 to follow one month later, according to big N’s press release.

The company was never really happy with the sales numbers for the 3DS – for example, it took the device 13 weeks to hit million sold units while the original DS just needed 4 weeks for that milestone.

In April, Nintendo reported a 66% drop in profits for the past fiscal year – it looks like the Wii U can’t come soon enough.

Daily Crunch: Type

Posted: 28 Jul 2011 01:00 AM PDT

Lexus Gets eDestination Fucntionality For Easy Location Management

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 05:35 PM PDT

The merging of our smartphone and car interfaces is progressing, but at a rather slow pace. Various crossover apps and accessories have come out but few are really capturing the imaginations of drivers, and slow updates mean the systems are outdated a year after they launch. Well, I expect that will also be the case with Lexus’s latest system, but at least it’s an improvement.

By using the eDestination app (warning: autoplaying video), Lexus owners with Enform-equipped infotainment systems (the LX 570 we just reviewed has it, of course) can store up to 200 locations on their phone or in the web app, and send them to the car’s system for easy access.

Of course, you could just as easily keep the info on your phone and get turn-by-turn from Google Navigation or what have you, but I guess there’s something to be said for making use of that big dash LCD.

I’m pretty sure the days of these patchwork solutions are coming to a close — a little touch of basic web standards and some smart platform work by the automakers and you’ve got tools that can be accessed from car, phone, or desktop.

Of course, that won’t stop foolish tourists from driving off cliffs.

[via Autoblog]

Possible Atrix 4G Successor Caught On Camera With 8MP 1080p Shooter In Tow

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 04:20 PM PDT

Here's a mystery for you: Images of a Motorola Android handset have surfaced on Chinese blogs, and it looks incredibly similar to the Atrix 4G. In fact, it looks identical save for a few miniscule changes. The pictures come courtesy of IT168 and were published by ePrice.tw, which seems to think that the display will have a contoured design.

For one, the Atrix's 5-megapixel 720p camera was swapped out for an 8-megapixel 1080p rear shooter, which will apparently have its own dedicated camera button along the side of the phone. The MotoBlur logo is no where to be found, although it's clear in the photos that this unnamed handset isn't running stock Android. We assume that this particular handset has some sort of custom skin on it, but it's totally possible that we're looking at a new version of Blur and we just don't know it yet.

The AT&T logo also relocated to the top of the phone, above the display, and the Motorola logo took up residence on the back where AT&T's stamp used to be. The earpiece has also undergone a makeover, and seems to be a bit bigger and slightly further up the phone than it is on the Atrix.

Despite all the extras we're seeing on this anonymous phone, one key Atrix feature is missing in action: a fingerprint scanner. The Atrix is one of the only phones to sport a fingerprint reader and it really set the phone apart in terms of design. Even though it probably doesn't see a whole lot of action (what with all the different software-related security options offered by Android), I'll still be sad to see such a cool feature get the ax.

There's really no telling what's going on under the hood of this bad boy, but I'd assume that the hardware changes we're seeing in these photos only scratch the surface of what's new underneath. Check out more photos after the jump.

atrixcomparison atrixlookalike1 atrixlookalike2

[via Unwired View]

New Battery Tech Is Partially Transparent, Flexible

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 02:16 PM PDT

Researchers at Stanford University have put together an interesting new battery technology that combines two theoretically coveted attributes: transparency and flexibility. The method of making the battery transparent is rather clever, and while the resulting product is far less energy-dense than its opaque relatives, it’s still an interesting development.

The secret is organizing the components in a certain way on a microscopic scale. The electrode material isn’t see-through, but there’s no reason it has to be a solid block instead of something less substantial. Materials Science professor Yi Cui made the electrode layer of this battery a grid of threads which, at only 35nm thick, are invisible to the naked eye. By arranging them in a sparse grid, he produces an array with tolerable energy density but which light can easily pass through.

The grid is embedded in a non-conductive, flexible substrate, and then a gel electrolyte layer interposed between it and another grid, placed precisely above the first. By stacking the electrode grids in this way and using only clear materials for the other components, they’ve been able to achieve around 60% transparency. The wattage is nothing to crow about, but that’s next on the list to improve.

Applications? I’m no engineer, but I’m sure there are plenty of places where a flexible and/or transparent battery could be useful. Wrapping it around other components, embedding it in already-transparent items (screens, windows, etc), and other ideas are quick to come to mind, but who knows what the research will enable? Cui and his team of students are working hard on scaling the technology and working out the bugs.

The full paper can be read here at PNAS.

DOS Turns 30

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 12:37 PM PDT

C:\>_

Look familiar? Then you must be old enough to have used DOS, perhaps the best-known command-line-based OS in popular computing history. I’m proud to have done so myself, though a few years later and I would likely have missed out altogether.

The history of the OS is well-documented around the web, and perusing it is a nice reminder of the way things used to be. It came into its own in the early mid eighties (after being bought by Microsoft in 1981), mirroring the rise of the personal PC. Though the many developers that read this blog likely have a more varied personal OS history, DOS is something we can probably all look back on semi-fondly. I have fond memories of booting our 486 into 3.1 and immediately navigating to the \games directory to launch Commander Keen for some 16-color alien-blasting.

The legacy of DOS is still present today. DOS-compatible computing is the reason system drives start at C (A and B were floppies), and why many of our file extensions are the way they are. And I still feel the effects of DOS’s 8-character limita~1 today.

You can see the step-by-step improvement of the OS (by several companies, more like Linux-compatibles today than anything else) at this Wikipedia page, and a more succinct history can be found here.

If you feel like taking the old OS for a spin, try booting up FreeDOS and see if you still have your old directory navigation skills. Or if you just want to escape into the games of yesteryear, pick up DOSBox (and a frontend) and head over to Classic DOS Games or Abandonia.

Got a favorite DOS memory? Feel free to share it below. And join me in enthusiastically wishing DOS a happy 30th birthday.

Asus Transformer Receiving Android 3.2 Update Tomorrow

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 11:21 AM PDT

The sporadic roll-out of Android 3.2 continues with the Asus Transformer. The company just took to Twitter to announce that tomorrow, July 28th, they will release the 3.2 update for the Android tab.

Droid-Life points out that 3.2 brings several welcomed features such as more customization options, zooming within apps, and media syncing with an SD card. This marks the second update for the Transformer in the last 30 days. It just got 3.1 two weeks back. So again, 3.2 is not a huge update, but is the last chance Android engineers have to push updates and features onto Honeycomb devices before Ice Cream Sandwich.

Watch Out! International Space Station To Crash Into The Pacific After 2020 Retirement

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 09:33 AM PDT

Better lay your millions on the table now and reserve your spot on the ISS now. Russia, NASA, and the rest of the ISS’ partners announced today that they are going to allow the ISS to crash into the atmosphere after it’s decommissioned in 2020. The reason? Space doesn’t need more junk.

The first ISS component launched in 1998 and has slowly grown into a large space station with 15 units. The original plan was to bring the ISS down in 2015 but the European Space Agency extended its life to 2020. But it can’t stay up there forever.

The ISS will eventually follow the path blazed by Skylab and MIR and fall to Earth. The intent is to have it crash harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean. However, as Australia will confess that, plans don’t always work out. See Skylab history.

Not all is lost in space, though. Discovery notes that Russia, like the US, are currently developing a new launch vehicle. The US retired the Space Shuttle earlier this month and Russia plans on doing the same to its Soyuz craft in 2015. Manned space exploration is seemingly still in the cards. Let’s just hope it doesn’t fall victim to politics.

An “Anomaly” Gives Star Wars Prop Maker The Opportunity To Sell His Original Design

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 06:42 AM PDT

Andrew Ainsworth, the creator of the original Storm Trooper gear in Star Wars, won an infringement case against Lucasfilm allowing him to make and sell his $3,000 helmets without suffering the sting of litigation. Ainsworth made the original armor in 1976 and now sells it on his site, SDSProps.com.

The case has been brewing since 2009 when Lucasfilm sued in the US and then in the UK. An anomaly in the law, writes the BBC, allowed Ainsworth to classify these as functional rather than artistic items, “under which the creative and highly artistic works made for use in films… may not be entitled to copyright protection in the UK”

This means the company will add new and improved items to its already impressive line of storm-trooper gear, allowing Star Wars fans to, in the immortal words of Han Solo, “take us up to warp speed, Mr. Sulu” when it comes to A New Hope memorabilia.

Review: The Lexus LX 570 is An All-Terrain Electronic Fun House

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 06:21 AM PDT

It floored me to think that here I was, cruising down this familiar two-track at nearly 60 mph. This is the route to one of my tree stands and generally a trip done in my father-in-law’s Ford F150. But my teeth were still intact and I didn’t feel like the trail was crushing my spine. I was floating along in this $89k Lexus flagship, cooled by air-conditioned seats, jamming to Sublime on Rdio over a Bluetooth link to my Droid X. The windows were down, the sunroof open and I have two bottles of water in the air-conditioned cooler box directly under my right elbow. Life was good.

The 2011 Lexus LX 570 served me well over the last week. It performed admirably as a camping utility vehicle in the backwoods of Michigan and equally as well around town. I don’t think I’ve ever been more satisfied with a vehicle that has a potential deal breaker.


Think of the LX series as Les Stroud in a suit. He still packs all the knowledge and aptitude that made him Survivorman; he just wouldn’t go out in the rainforest dressed this way. Sure, he could traverse a rock field if he wanted, but it just wouldn’t be right. He would ruin his slacks.

That’s how I felt during my time with the Lexus LX 570. It’s just too nice of a vehicle to get really dirty. The fact that it wasn’t mine helped counter that feeling as I didn’t have to worry about the suspension 20,000 miles down the road. I wanted to take the LX 570, with its 9 inches of ground clearance and automated crawl control into something extreme, but it just didn’t feel right (that and I couldn’t find any suitable location). Besides, that sort of tomfoolery is best reserved for its less fancy, but similarly capable cousin, the Toyota Land Cruiser.

See, the LX 570 is about as well endowed as an SUV can get; my tester had a sticker of $89k. Forget about the vehicle’s off-roading chops for a second — there isn’t a creature comfort missing from the LX 570. It’s as well equipped as the Infiniti QX56 or even the Mercedes G or GL class. The LX 570 packs more tech and amenities than a fully-loaded Cadillac Escalade. Only the Range Rover with its digital dash cluster packs something notably different even though we found that feature to be rather silly.

It has everything: a 19 speaker Mark Levinson audio system, rear seat entertainment with remote, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. There are four heated and cooled seats to match the four zone climate control. An around the vehicle camera system is optional, which with a vehicle of this size, is equally important in a parking lot as it is off-roading. A powered split rear lift gate opens revealing power controls to fold up the back row of seats. The LX 570 has adaptive cruise control dubbed by Lexus as Dynamic Radar Cruise Control. There’s a powerful 383-horsepower engine paired to a silky six-speed sequential-shift automatic transmission. With a curb weight of 5,995 lbs, it’s three tons of fun.

Sitting in the driver’s seat is like commanding a luxury yacht. You have at your disposal many functions, yet when set in motion, the vehicle does most of the work for you. Even the vehicle’s speed in crawl control mode is automated. There’s a substantial center-mounted rocker switch that sends the vehicle forward or back at predetermined speeds. Your only task — besides steering — is to decide the vehicle’s height and then use a neighboring rocker switch to raise or lower the truck.

This isn’t a bad thing per se. It allows the driver to enjoy the opulence within. The seats are amazing and I’m saying that after driving 400 miles with my four-year old constantly kicking the headrest. They’re just that good. The four zone climate control has what might be the coldest air conditioning on the planet and even an air filter system that helps to remove allergens, air particles and the general stank of camping.

Unfortunately, while the vehicle’s drive system is a wonder of technology, that cannot be said for the infotainment system. It’s a relic of the past. Even the radio functions are a pain to use thanks to the dated UI. The system uses tabs, folders and redundant physical buttons to control everything, which actually over complicates simple tasks of just flipping through the stations. This system is used in most current Lexus models and needs to be revamped in a serious way. It’s not all bad news: the system at least supports streaming audio over Bluetooth and USB.

When you finally find a station and cue up a good song, the Mark Levinson audio system will make you forget about all past transgressions. It didn’t matter what type of music I played, it shined on this system. The highs are crisp and tight. The lows are strong enough to embarrass many aftermarket solutions. This shouldn’t be surprising, though. Mark Levinson is known for its powerful audio systems and the system used in the LX 570 spreads 450 watts over 19 speakers at less than .1% THD. It’s impressive but still doesn’t make up for the sorry infotainment system.

Features are not enough these days to make up for a sorry user experience. Automakers seemingly have had a hard time transitioning from buttons to touch and Lexus is not alone in having a poor UI. GM’s current system feels like it was made in the mid-nineties and the next-gen version is not much better. Ford’s MyFord Touch is impressive but also imposing to a novice. I’m not a fan of Honda’s or Chrysler’s. Audi and BMW got it right but did so without using a touchscreen. They instead employ a multi-function puck of sorts, which sort of implies that touch isn’t yet right for cars.


The rest of the LX 570 makes up for the poor infotainment system. The vehicles main interface would be a deal breaker in other vehicles, but the ride, handling and feel completely counter the relatively important system. The 383 HP and 403 lb-ft of torque more than handle the 5,995 lb truck. Lexus brags that it even manages a 7.4 second dash to 60 mph. The EPA rated it at 12 mpg in the city and 18 on the highway. Much to the surprise of the my lead foot, I managed an average of 18.7 over 535 miles. It officially seats seven, but the rear bench seat is only suitable for those not yet tall enough to ride roller coasters.

I’ve always enjoyed looking at an OEM’s top-tier SUV like the LX 570. It’s a solid barometer for the automaker as its designers, engineers, and the bean counters are freed from the traditional boundaries. There’s no reason to save weight or worry too much about fuel economy. There’s physically room to throw in every toy available and who cares about the end sticker price. In that sense the LX 570 serves the Lexus brand well. It has more raw capabilities than most other vehicles in its class and looks great doing it. It could be argued that it has more capabilities than necessary and a similarly equipped SUV can be had for tens of thousands less. That’s not the point. The LX 570 is at the top of the luxury SUV mountain.

IMG_3291-2 IMG_3296-2 IMG_3292-2 IMG_3300-2 IMG_3330 IMG_3335 IMG_3301 IMG_3305 IMG_3310 IMG_3313 IMG_3318 IMG_3321 IMG_3322 IMG_3324 IMG_3327


The Selectric: Typewriter Of Kings

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 06:18 AM PDT

Technologizer has a great retrospective on one of the most powerful information creation machines ever built – the IBM Selectric. The result of “seven years of research,” the Selectric typewriter entered the national consciousness in 1961 and died only when its creator, IBM, began to create its electronic replacement.

In the end, this typewriter changed the way we thought of publishing and information sharing and redefined penmanship as a lost art. It cost about $3,000 in today’s dollars and feature a replaceable type ball that improved typing speeds immensely.

Unlike other typewriters, which struck the paper with hammers, it used golf ball-like type heads embossed with a full set of alphanumeric characters. The ball zipped along in close proximity to the paper, tilting and rotating as necessary to lay down characters on the page almost instantly–and allowing accomplished typists to reach 90 words per minute, vs. fifty with a conventional electric typewriter.

The coolest thing? IBM also built the Selectric Composer that used a wild, manual justification system to create camera-ready type on a machine that, at the time, cost the equivalent of $30,000 in US dollars. A real, electronic Selectric word processer cost $150,000.

Check out the whole article here.



MacBook Air Killers? First Batch Of PC Ultrabooks To Carry An Ultra-Pricetag

Posted: 27 Jul 2011 05:53 AM PDT

Ultrabooks are supposed to be the PC’s answer to the MacBook Air. These notebooks are said to rock hardware platforms very similar to the Air’s but, you know, run Windows instead of OS X. The first crop from HP and Asus will likely hit during the fourth quarter of 2011 but won’t be Air-killers right away. They’re going to be too expensive.

Ultra-thin Window notebooks aren’t new. Dell produced the Adamo XPS and MSI, among others, have been selling notebooks just slightly thicker than the Air for years. These upcoming so-called ultrabooks are different, though. They’re built around an Intel platform specifically designed for Air-thin notebooks.

PC notebooks are supposed to be cheap. They’re supposed to cost less than comparable Mac notebooks even though their pricing often has nothing to do with Apple. PC notebook makers have been racing each other to the bottom. HP fights Dell. Toshiba battles Acer and Asus. Samsung goes at it with Sony. It’s intermarket warfare at its finest.

Then there’s Apple, lazily cruising along the high road, seemingly unwilling to join the plunge downmarket. It’s least expensive computer, now the base model MacBook Air, costs hundreds more than HP’s cheapest notebook and only features a fraction of the raw computing power. But the Air is thin. And light. And has amazing battery life, quick wake-up speeds and all the traits that make for a great portable, which is something that the bargain HP cannot say.

Intel threw PC makers a bone back in May when the chip maker unveiled the Ultrabook platform. Ultrabooks are supposed to be a PC MacBook Air with thin designs, tablet-like battery life, and enough power thanks to a 22nm Ivy Bridge processor. They are also supposed to cost less than the Air with a starting price under a $1000. Digitimes is reporting that last part isn’t going to hold true for the first batch. Unexpected low yields on key components are expected to cause Asus to price its first batch from $1,000 to $1,600. These models aren’t even built around the next-gen Ivy Bridge platform. Asus is using the current Sandy Bridge Core i5.

The higher prices might just slow the overall adaption of the Ultrabooks as the higher price will likely cause consumers and retailers to shy away. They are going to be a hard sale with a price tag well north of $1,000 to buyers who often shop by silly specs like processing speed and hard drive space.

Hopefully prices will come down and they will as long there’s a continued demand for the ultra-thin PC notebooks. During this early stage their best advertising will come from Apple. The average Best Buy shopper will no doubt gaze in wonderment at the Air. But then the shopper will eventually turn and wander back to the familiar world of Windows and cheap notebooks.