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Moverio: Epson Announces World’s First See-Through 3D Head-Mounted Display

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:08 AM PST

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Epson Japan announced [JP] the so-called Moverio today, a see-through 3D head-mounted display (HMD), which is the first of its kind, according to the company. Think of it as mix between of NEC’s transparent HMD Tele Scouter and Sony’s cool 3D OLED head mounted display HMZ-T1, powered by Android OS.

The Moverio creates the experience of watching 3D (or 2D) pictures on a virtual 80-inch display that’s 5m away – while still being able to see what’s happening around you in the real world. Apart from the display itself, users get a small controller that offers 1GB of internal memory and a microSD card slot.

The Moverio supports MPEG-4/MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 video files, including – side-by-side 3D images on its 0.52-inch displays with 960×540 resolution (it handles AAC and MP3 audio files, too).

Epson also squeezed Android 2.2, Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11b/g/n (direct access to YouTube and a web browser), and a microUSB into the device.

The Moverio’s headset is sized at 205×178×47mm and weighs 240g, while the controller measures 67×107×19mm and weighs 160g.

Epson expects to initially sell 10,000 units when the device hits Japanese stores on November 25 (price: US$770).

Via AV Watch [JP]

Daily Crunch: Field

Posted: 09 Nov 2011 01:00 AM PST

Stroll Down Memory Lane With These Vintage PC Ads

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 04:52 PM PST

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I don’t usually link to huge collections of images focused on one theme unless I’m sending examples of potential frost maiden outfits to my LARP clan. However, this is too good to pass up: this is a set of 30 vintage PC ads featuring some of the iconic images of my childhood, the equivalent of faded old Playboy page (it was an interview with Norman Mailer) you tore out and hid in a copy of Hoyle’s Rules Of Games and suddenly rediscovered years later while you’re at home cleaning out your old closet (true story). It produces, in short, an admixture of frisson and nostalgia that geeks love.

The images include Think Different ads from Apple along with some highbrow commentary on Bill Clinton and some amazing VGA graphics. I always loved mid 1980s PC design, especially the Frog-esque HP below with its bold horizontal lines and futuristic airbrushing that is supposed to signal “high tech” but really screams “underemployed matte painter fired from the set of Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone.“

You can check out all of the ads here.

Click to view slideshow.


Nintendo May Enable Two Wii U Controllers At Once After All

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 01:15 PM PST

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One of the big disappointments at E3 was the news that Nintendo’s weird new console, the Wii U, would only support one of their tablet controllers at once. But recent losses have made them reconsider their situation and the opportunities presented by allowing a second controller to be used in the home — and sold at stores.

We were initially skeptical of the new system, as rumor after rumor piled up and eventually were mostly proven to be true. A six-inch touchscreen with built-in motion and traditional controls — a big gamble, but not as big as only allowing one to be used at a time. The Wii was all about being in the same room as people and flailing about like crazy. Taking that away removes the keystone from the arch and it all comes tumbling down, revealing the last-last-generation graphics and laggy controls.

The reason for having only one controller available was technical. They didn’t elaborate at E3, but given what we know, it seems that the Wii U central console only had enough bandwidth to send a video signal to one controller at a time. As the CPU and amount of RAM in the console haven’t been specified yet, there’s still room to give it a bump. But as a developer told Develop:

Nintendo now know they absolutely need to support two tablets… Even if that affects framerate, as a developer and player, I don't care. It needs to work. Developers will design appropriate games for this. If you're building a quiz game you're not going to give a shit about the framerate.

True. It’s about the unique experience, the fun factor. The rest will get figured out in time. Has Nintendo forgotten that they released an accessory for the Wiimote after a year that made it act the way it should have at launch?

Not to mention the fact that two tablet controllers equals accessory sales. Satoru Iwata has said having to buy another controller is a “cost barrier.” Earth to Iwata: If you wanted to play four-player Mario Party or any of the other major sellers, you had to shell out for four controllers. And if you want to play whatever the killer app is for two tablet controllers, you’ll need to shell out again. That’s how it works. Nintendo desperately needs that money. And if it expects to sell 100 million Wii Us the way they’re looking right now, they’re going to have a rather ugly awakening.

Nintendo led a tectonic shift in gaming habits. Now they’re scrambling to make ends meet. The right decision now could make the Wii U a truly interesting development in the gaming world, but the wrong one could make it an albatross they have to support half-heartedly for three years.

Griffin’s Beacon Lets You Channel Surf From Your Android Device

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 12:48 PM PST

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A handful of new Android tablets can take control of your television thanks to their built-in IR blasters, but Griffin has just come through with a solution for those of you stuck with less versatile hardware. Enter the Beacon, a standalone IR transmitter that helps turn your Android device into a remote control.

Setting up the Beacon itself is pretty straightforward — just pop in four AA batteries (ugh), pair it with your phone via Bluetooth, and you’re off to the races.

As we’ve seen with the Xoom 2s, having the necessary hardware is only half of the equation. Users also need to download the Dijit remote app from the Android Market in order to actually make the Beacon work, but thankfully the initial setup process is simple. The app contains a pretty extensive list of supported TVs and components, so getting the whole home theater up and running shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.

An iOS-friendly version of the Beacon has been making the rounds for a while now, but the Android model has just begun to trickle out into the wild. Considering its $69.99 price tag, the Beacon isn’t much less expensive than some fancy dedicated universal remotes, but that’s not really the point. I’ve often made mention of how I’d like to be to control everything around me with a single device, and devices like the Beacon and the Harmony Link help make that (admittedly naive) vision more real.

Quick word of warning: the Beacon only works with devices that run Android 2.3.3 or later, so those of you looking to make the leap better have all your updates in order first.

Schmidt: Motorola Mobility Won’t Get Preferential Treatment (Not That It Needs It)

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 12:40 PM PST

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Eric Schmidt is continuing his Asian tour, speaking today in South Korea. Two sensitive topics came up: first, the question of whether Motorola Mobility would be getting special treatment if and when the deal closes. His response, as reported by Reuters: “we will run it sufficiently and independently, that it will not violate the openness of Android…we’re not going to change in any material way the way we operate.”

I believe him. Because really, they don’t have to.

Who is it that needs to be whipped into line when it comes to Android handsets? Not HTC and Samsung. The handset makers are all happy as clams, selling lots of units and competing on easily-inflatable numbers like screen size, resolution, and CPU clock speed. They’re making lots of money and lots of handsets. Google wouldn’t want to spook their cash cow by making Motorola the Android poster boy.

No, it’s the carriers who are the bane of Google’s existence. Android’s biggest problem is arguably fragmentation. Carriers are the largest holdup in producing the updates that unify the Android ecosystem, and they hold too many cards. Apple foresaw and preemptively solved this problem by tying the phones’ updates exclusively to iTunes, and now it may be time for Google to make its displeasure felt.

I sense a development in the Android world, an acknowledgment of the fragmentation problem and a solution along the lines of asking manufacturers to test a safe vanilla install for all handsets, up to date with the latest version of Android the phone will run. Users should be able to update to this at any time. It shakes things up, sure, but I’m afraid Google and the others can only weather this bad publicity for so long before it starts degrading the platform among people who normally don’t care about version numbers.

The other thing Schmidt was asked about in South Korea was the bit from Steve Jobs’ biography calling Android a “stolen product.” Schmidt demurred on the topic, calling Steve a “fantastic human being” but couldn’t resist addressing the topic: “I would also point out that the Android effort started before the iPhone effort.” Sure it did, Eric, but it looked like this:

Just saying.

Review And Giveaway: Battlefield 3

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 10:34 AM PST

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Short version:

Battlefield 3 plays it safe and focuses on maximizing player engagement, but falls prey to a lack of variety, a shabby UI that’s clearly a holdover from consoles, plus of course the inevitable bugs, lag, and rocket spam. There’s a good game in here, but only if you’re willing to overlook some real flaws. But as it has been for years with big multiplayer games like this, the bugs tend to disappear and the players find themselves powering through bad matches for that one incredibly good one. I just wish the good ones came a little more often.

Pros:

  • Graphics, sound, and physics are fantastic
  • Tons of unlocks (though many repeat)
  • Multiplayer has potential for excellence
  • Establishing your own play style is fun and rewarding
  • Battlelog if you like that kind of thing

Cons:

  • Single player is more or less Whac-A-Mole on rails, occasionally frustrating
  • Multiplayer plagued by lag, RPG spam
  • Maps lack real diversity
  • In-game UI is simply awful
  • Battlelog if, like me, you don’t like that kind of thing

Full review:

Battlefield 3, to me, represents a missed opportunity in several ways. Guaranteed to be one of the best-selling games of the year (and it is already breaking records, with five million sold before I even started this review), it had the chance to also be adventurous and push the envelope. In a way, it does that — but I would say the wrong way.

Why is this review so long? Because a gaming event on this scale, destined to be played by millions for years perhaps, deserves more than six paragraphs and a number between 1 and 10. Oh, and I’m aware that other game is launching today. This was supposed to run last week but there was a conflict.

Graphics and Sound

The new engine really is stunning, in the right circumstances — mainly when the screen is crowded with activity. You’ve probably seen enough screenshots and videos (or played enough) that I don’t need to belabor this point. While I would say that the aesthetics and imagination of Rage and Crysis 2 put them ahead of BF3 as far as graphics alone go, BF3 is more convincing that you are part of a real world. This is most evident in moments of chaos where real panic sets in as you see your cover falling to pieces and there are bullets whizzing by, and you feel a real instinct whether to run or stay. Safety is hard to come by and legitimately comforting when you have it.

Player and NPC animations are something to behold as well. It’s easy to forget the wooden animations we endured for years, the simple static meshes and stilted interactions with the environment. While the new system isn’t perfect, it can at times be uncomfortably convincing. I’m glad DICE chose not to include overly graphic injury, because it might be literally traumatic for some considering the fidelity of the game world.

The sound is fantastic as well. I played mostly with a surround-sound headset, and it’s worth getting the setup right and testing a few modes, because it’s a brain-crushing experience. The harsh crack of a passing sniper bullet, the roar of a support gunner unloading next to you, and the crunch of masonry falling come through loud and clear. As usual, I could wish for a few more sound bites for my teammates to say (you start recognizing the ten different “grenaaade!” clips), to mix things up, though you won’t hear the exact same clips playing back to back.

Campaign mode

Let’s address the single player really quick: there have been some harsh words, but I would call it perfectly competent and occasionally exciting, but fundamentally unimaginative. The plot takes a few turns, but for the most part you are simply dropping terrorists (or cops, or soldiers), moving forward to the next piece of cover, and repeating. Sometimes it happens fast enough that it’s a fun ride, like the first Russian mission, where you’re racing through a office complex and city streets with a small team. But at other times, it feels like a slog, as when you first encounter Russian paratroopers and must fight through wave after wave, hiding behind generic walls and stacks of supplies. And the final mission is a major letdown.

You’ll be doing all the work yourself, as your mates in the game mostly fire for effect. I saw one of my guys and an enemy empty entire clips into each other from ten feet away, each perhaps trying to comprehend why the other was immortal. But it’s a fun little ride that shows off the engine and makes you familiar with a few of the weapons. Of course, you’ll have to play for 15 hours in multiplayer before you unlock many of those weapons, but that’s another story.

Multiplayer

The point of the game, as has always been the case, is the multiplayer. And DICE has delivered a deep experience — in the sense that there’s a lot to wade through, and you can’t go very fast.

Of the various modes available, Conquest and Rush are the most Battlefield-like. There are 8 maps to choose from, and here we run into the first problem. There’s just not enough variation.

Battlefield has always been ostensibly a tactical game, and most maps are very limiting in tactical terms. Sight lines are all medium-length (with a few long-range spots for snipers, though they know they’re sitting ducks there if spotting is on), and the action is concentrated at bottlenecks. In the French levels, Seine Crossing and Operation Metro, there are ways of going between the bottlenecks, but no way of circumventing them. Tactical maneuvers are more or less impossible, and it’s just a war of attrition, especially on 64-player servers.

Where is the wide-open field of Battlefield’s past? Where is the no-holds-barred warfare I had so often in Atacama Desert and Heavy Metal? Now to be fair there are larger, more open maps. Caspian Border is by far the best, followed closely by Kharg Island, both with meaningful geography (i.e. hills and roads) and a lot of potential for unpredictability. Operation Firestorm, on the other hand, presents almost no strategic element, and just turns into a churn as the control points roughly in a square get captured and recaptured. Damavand Peak can be good if you manage to get behind the enemy, but it’s largely just an endless firefight in the dark between the tunnel spawn point and whoever’s spawning outside. And don’t get me started on Operation Metro.

The problem is that, with the notable exception of Caspian and Kharg all these maps are sort of, well… medium-sized. The active part, I mean. There’s lots of set dressing but I almost never see it in play. Real elevation differences are few, and firefights always seem to play out on the same medium-sized scale. There’s little of the room-to-room, face-to-face warfare of Bad Company 2, and little of the truly large scale stuff either. So despite their different locations, cover materials, and color schemes, the maps end up feeling same-y. On a scale of one to ten, they all fall between three and seven. This is the source of my disappointment. Why don’t we have a ten, with a huge mountain fortress, or a one, on a single residential street? No, it’s all semi-industrial areas with big warehouses and a few back streets.

To be clear, it’s not that these maps are bad. I’ve had good games on every map. But it just feels like they pulled back when they should have gone all out. You can apply both realism and imagination, and the latter is lacking.

But how does it play?

Other complaints notwithstanding, minute by minute the game is pretty satisfying. Gunplay between pieces of cover gives you the real feeling that you’re actually avoiding bullets rather than the enemy just missing. Tanks and LAVs feel as overpowered as they should, and are equally powerless against a smart engineer or two in cover. The “suppression” mechanic is kind of hard to get, and sometimes it’s not really clear whether you’re being shot or merely being shot at.

There is an troubling equality in combat effectiveness between the classes. I realize these are all modern soldiers equipped for battle, but everyone seems to be suited to medium-range combat (as the maps require) rather than being truly specialized. Assault isn’t rugged enough to be at the front; Recon isn’t weak enough to stay back; Engineer isn’t specialized enough to require care; Support isn’t ineffective enough while not set up. Everyone can run in guns blazing, and generally does. Why are snipers so accurate while standing (I know they hold their breath, but they’re freehanding a .50-caliber rifle, I mean really now)? Why isn’t support naturally resistant to suppression? Why are engineers given such powerful anti-personnel weapons? Why doesn’t assault really outgun the rest, as they have in the past?

It seems that instead of giving each class truly distinct strengths and balancing them (a difficult job, done well in the likes of Starcraft and Team Fortress 2), they chose to tone down those strengths and make them all good at the basic task of running around and shooting guys — at medium range.

If that’s the kind of gameplay you like, combat amongst equals with slight tendencies toward one thing or another, then you’ll find BF3 very compelling. And to be fair, the more you play a class, the more you can specialize. There’s certainly skill involved, and you’ll be shot by people’s default weapons as much as their final ones.

And for the record, the RPG spam is totally out of control. Go play Quake, guys.

Air

To be perfectly honest, I didn’t play air vehicles almost at all. The primary reason being that I didn’t want to screw up matches with my crappy flying, and second, that I don’t trust these things in the laggy, buggy early stages. I’ve seen enough weirdo stationary or floating planes that I didn’t want to take a shot.

I will say that, as a ground combatant, I felt the air battle was more or less separate from the ground one, and a couple guys with SAMs can keep things even if your pilots aren’t the best. I never felt that we were being dominated from the air. Take from that what you like.

The unlocks

There are a lot of unlocks, that much is clear. Dice has said “years” worth but that’s an exaggeration. I saw guys with the final guns for their classes after a week or so of gameplay. Sure, it might take a month or two of hard gaming to get every accessory for every gun, but it’s not that many gamers will go for that. I’ve split my time between support and engineer for the most part and after around 18 hours of play I’m rank ___ and 2/3rds of the way through the unlocks for those classes.

The disappointing bit is that you unlock the same thing multiple times. And I’m talking dozens of times here. Was it really necessary to make me unlock the reflex, then holo, then ballistic, and so on, for practically every single gun I get? Shouldn’t that foregrip I got work on more than that specific M4? There had to be a better way to go about this. The true number of unlocks is reduced substantially when you look at it from this angle, and it feels like busy work to work your way through the sights for a new gun, just to see if it’s even effective at range or what have you. Was it really so hard to make each gun have a couple unique unlocks, and then have the rest be universal?

But it does provide that impulse to keep on playing. The next rank, the next sight, the next weapon, is always just a game or two away, and it dangles this in front of your face after every round. It really is addictive and completists will have their work cut out for them.

The UI

Someone should have told DICE that PC gamers don’t just have more powerful video cards and processors. They also have big, high resolution screens, and mice. Then maybe they would have designed an interface that acknowledges this fact. As it is, every menu is a blatant holdover from console development.

In BC2, the loadout, squad selection, and map screens were a joy to work with. They showed a ton of info, were easily switched between, and you could make lots of changes on the fly. Not so here.

Finding combat is a little closer-quarters than you expected? Get ready to drill down through four layers to change your optics. And don’t think you get to select from a menu or grid. No, you have to click an arrow a bunch of times to cycle through the options. And sometimes I would select a new class and find that my settings had been magically changed. Why is this random pistol selected?

Compare to Bad Company 2′s, which not only uses more of the screen, but uses it more efficiently:

Want to join the squad your friends are in? Too bad, it’s automated for the most part. You can leave the squad, and then ask it to find one for you, but you can’t just join one. They say this is to prevent squad jumping to cherry pick a spawn spot. Why not rate-limit squad changes, then?

Head over to the map screen and switch between spawns. The tiny blip that indicates which point you’ve selected is barely noticeable. Sometimes it doesn’t even happen, and since your squadmates aren’t labeled, you can’t be sure which it is you’ll be sprouting from. Oh, and if your spawn point disappears after you select it (it’s captured or your squad leader dies), it doesn’t tell you to pick a new one. You just spawn at your base, which, on maps like Operation Firestorm, is for some ungodly reason about a two minutes’ run from the action if there are no vehicles (but don’t worry, you’ll be sniped before you can get there).

Round over? Seems like a good time to chat, change loadouts, look at other players’ stats and add them as friends (or enemies, which would be an interesting mechanic), that sort of thing, right? Nope, you can look at your round stats and unlock progress, but you can’t look at anyone else’s. There are no awards other than personal ones, either. Why not show who got the longest headshot, who shot the most rockets, who spent the most time alive? You’re stuck looking at this static set of data for 45 seconds, which is an eternity.

Did I mention that all of this takes place in a small window in the center of your screen? It’s about 1100×600, a size that would be right at home on a living room TV, but is incredibly wasteful on a high-resolution display. Nothing is expanded to show more options, nothing is made more suitable for selection by mouse, nothing has been done that acknowledges that PC gamers have a completely different method of navigating these menus.

The bugs and the lag

I don’t want to spend too much on this, but I would be remiss not to mention that many times, servers with ping under 30 have been totally unplayable, primarily on Tehran Highway. The lag produces near-constant rubber-banding (where you go forward and get pulled backwards because the server never acknowledged the movement), warping, and undo-style kills and deaths, where it’s anybody’s guess who shot first.

There is also a fair amount of clipping and weirdo issues with vibrating cameras and display bugs like flashing screens and artifacts. I’ve had dozens of crashes and failed launches, as well. Sometimes the server browser thinks I’m still in a game. “Playing!” No, my friend. Not playing.

I’m going to go ahead and assume these will be fixed, but it’s pretty ugly right now. And while the difficulty of putting out a AAA title like this does not escape me, these are not small isolated bugs but things happening to practically every single player. I have no problem saying this game was rushed to market.

Battlelog

I want to be impartial in my judgment of Battlelog, but the fact is I just don’t like it. The “Facebook for murderers,” as Tycho from Penny Arcade calls it, just isn’t compelling for anyone but stat counters and the most dedicated of the dedicated. The streams of information are largely the same for every player: so-and-so played on this server, so-and-so unlocked this gun. Who cares? Battlelog highlights the parts of the game least likely to be interesting to others.

If anything, BF3 should have included a robust scene-capture system like OnLive’s, where you can share the last 30 seconds of gameplay. People would watch those all day long! I know I would. Instead, you have a generic-looking soldier showing the same stats as everyone else, and a feed that shows the same activity as everyone else. Why can’t my soldier at least be customizable, maybe have him holding the weapons I’ve used the most?

The server browser and friend invite system work well enough, despite a few quirks. The question is why it was done like this at all. The web interface isn’t really necessary, and on my system the various plugins and such end up using about 250MB of RAM. Shouldn’t that be used for, you know, textures and decals and stuff?

And the fact that the game must be essentially alt-tabbed into, and that it shuts down completely when you leave a server? What is this madness? Why are we loading and unloading common assets again and again? Why are we putting graphics drivers to the unnecessary stress of switching fullscreen resolutions constantly?

Battlelog simply seems extraneous, and the web-based game selection seems arbitrary. Friends and servers could very easily have been handled in-game. I really, really can’t see the benefit of a web interface. I’m not going to go as far as some have and say it’s terrible, but it’s just kind of baffling.

Conclusion

This review came off as rather negative, which is good, because I meant it to. The expectations were high for Battlefield 3, and I think that DICE advanced the wrong aspects of the game. It’s not a bad game by any means, but Battlefield players will know what I mean when I say it doesn’t live up to the promise of BC2 and indeed the original games. Lacking serious tactical options, most matches devolve into protracted firefights at choke points. The maps are too few in number and not creative enough in design. The unlock system is structured as a carrot to keep players playing as long as possible, not to make them try new things or try new classes. The classes themselves are too unfocused, which permits (and encourages) the generic run-and-gun gameplay that the maps do.

I’m hoping that the game will evolve, more interesting maps will be introduced, and the many bugs will be fixed. But while its predecessors felt fresh every round, BF3 feels rote from the start. Is it worth it for that occasional amazing match? I’m still playing, so it must be. But I still can’t help feeling a little let down.

Giveaway!!

Many of you will have skipped directly to this part. I don’t blame you, that’s a long review. So here’s how you win:

Leave a comment below describing what role you like to play in Battlefield and similar games (tank guy, lone wolf, sniper, RPG whore) and why. Specify your platform! You must be in the US and at least 18 years old!

Two winners for each console platform and one PC player will be selected at random in 72 hours.

Scanadu Raises $2M: “Check Your Body As Often As Your Email”

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 10:20 AM PST

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Meet Scanadu, an innovative health tech startup I daresay you’ll be hearing a lot more from in the future. It’s not the easiest of tasks explaining what the company is building at this point, but let’s call it a personal, mobile, auto-diagnostics product – they refer to it as a Medical Tricorder.

Founded in January 2011 by a team of entrepreneurs with diverse backgrounds, the roots of Scanadu actually go way back. One of the company’s founders, and its chief executive officer, is Walter De Brouwer – something of a legend here in Belgian entrepreneurial circles, and beyond.

He says he had the basic idea for a personal health monitoring service back in 1999 when he was working at the renowned Starlab research institute, which he jump-started alongside MIT Media Lab founder Nicholas Negroponte. And from watching Star Trek.

“Sci-fi stories are business plans in disguise,” De Brouwer tells me, referring to the invention of the mobile phone, which was inspired by the Star Trek communicator. “I’ve tried to build the Tricorder once before, in 1999 at Starlab, but the technology was too immature.”

De Brouwer says the idea resurfaced in his mind in 2006, when his son was hospitalized for 3 months following a serious accident. So he conjured up the idea of using one’s smartphone as a personal doctor of sorts, leveraging many of the things modern cellphones can do to help people auto-diagnose and manage many of the easily identifiable health conditions that may arise.

Scanadu’s first product, the ‘Medical Tricorder’, is built specifically with parents with kids in mind, and to help avoid expensive trips to hospitals based on insufficient information and/or anxiety.

"Today, the health tools in your home probably consist of a thermometer and a box of band-aids. We can do a lot better," says co-founder and COO Misha Chellam.

The company has worked with IDEO to create a video that captures its core vision well that includes the quote I used for this posts’s headline, albeit paraphrased. You can watch it below.

Scanadu has raised $2 million from a network of global angel investors, including Playfish co-founder Sebastien De Halleux, and is currently moving the team from Belgium to the San Francisco Bay Area (the lab is being established at NASA’s Research Park).

The company is building a core team of biomedical engineers, software and hardware developers, and AI specialists. They also have a Medical Advisory Board that includes Stanford-affiliated Dr. Daniel Kraft and Dr. Jordan Shlain, founder of Healthloop and Current Health.

Scanadu is currently seeking technology partnerships with telemedicine and diagnostic technology startups, and hiring more people to join its quest to build a personal ‘pocket doctor’.

Waterproof Nano Watch Concept Will Keep Your Nano High And Dry

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 09:59 AM PST

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Hey, broham, hitting the waves today? You better go pledge $49 to get the Proof Nano case, a case that turns your Nano into a waterproof watch. Designed by the folks at Boombotix, the watch will completely protect your Nano and even supports a small Bluetooth adapter that will stream tunes to your wireless headphones automagically.

The Kickstarter project will be funded at $17,000, so get cracking.

You can also pledge $99 to get the watch and all of the connectors, including the Bluetooth dongle, and $149 gets you a Bluetooth speaker as well. The Proof is IP68 water resistant and includes a waterproof headphone adapter.

The Proof is constructed for durable polyurethane coated with a thick silicone wrapping. The touch screen on the iPod Nano retains full functionality with the use of an ultra thin polycarbonate lens. The strap on the Proof is made of ultra thick, yet flexible silicone. With this engineering, we’ve managed to create an IP68 grade seal to protect the nano up to a 3m depth. With The Proof, say goodbye to water damage or impact casualties and say hello to doing everything you love with the convenience and control of your music right on your wrist.

Project Page



New Case Device Adds Dual SIMs To iPhone 4

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 09:10 AM PST

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The makers of the Peel iPod phone adapter have outdone themselves. Their new device – called the Vooma Peel PG92 – is a unique case that, in conjunction with a jailbroken iPhone – adds dual SIM capabilities to the iPhone 4 and 4S.

The device itself consists of a back-up battery that can charge your phone and what amounts to a dumbed-down cellphone. When you jailbreak your iPhone and download the Vooma app, you can control the phone inside the case to make calls using an SIM card. In short, it charges, unlocks, and enables dual SIMs for your iPhone.

The model I tested is still in pre-release stage and you can enter your email address at the Vooma website to request more information on the device. Once it’s set up the Peel PG92 works seamlessly and even uses a similar interface to Apple’s own dialer – although it’s clear that the programmers had to cut a few corners to get the look and feel correct. For example, the dialing screen is actually a bitmapped copy of the original dialer and the letters and numbers are slightly warped. However, all of the major functionality is recreated in the Vooma app.

However, this is clearly a very cool and clever hack and it works without problems on any jailbroken iPhone. Because it also ostensibly unlocks your iPhone the PG92 adds quite a bit of value in a package that is little bigger than a standard iPhone case.

Click to view slideshow.


Olympus Has Been Hiding Investment Losses For The Past 20 Years

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 08:56 AM PST

kikukawa

After months of uncertainty and allegations thrown out left and right, Olympus admitted today that it has been hiding company losses for the past two decades.

Here’s what’s up: Including the 2008 takeover of medical equipment maker Gyrus, the company used four acquisitions to cover up losses on securities investments, as well as advisory fees. Bloomberg reports that the company payed inflated fees to takeover advisors, which effectively covered up Olympus losses from the 90′s.

Three executives are at the heart of the corporate scandal, now-President Shuichi Takayama told reporters in a press conference. EVP Hisashi Mori and auditor Hideo Yamada are both no longer with the company, as they were directly involved with the cover-up along with former Olympus Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa. Takayama claims he was completely unaware of the wrongdoing up until this point.

The revelation came about after an independent investigation took a hard look at Olympus’ past records. In October, then-CEO Michael Woodford was fired after only two weeks at his post. While Woodford maintained his removal was due to allegations he’d made about the company’s financial maneuvering, Olympus simply cited his management style. Lo and behold, just a few short months later Mr. Woodford has now been seemingly vindicated. Around $1.5 billion was, indeed, filtered through offshore funds to cancel out soured securities investments, reports Shukan Asahi Magazine.

Not surprisingly, Olympus shares have plummeted, down 30 percent. 5-percent Olympus shareholder Josh Shores told Reuters that “ignorance is no defense. If you were there and not aware of it, then you were incompetent. If you were there, and aware of it without asking tough questions, then you were negligent. Either way, you need to leave.” Shores wants the entire board replaced.

“This is very serious,” said ITC Investment Partners chief investment officer Ryosuke Okazaki. “Olympus admitted it has made false entries to cover its losses for 20 years. All people involved in this over 20 years would be responsible. There is a serious danger that Olympus shares will be delisted. The future of the company is extremely dark.”

Tinkercad Raises $1 Million, Aims To Popularize 3D Printing

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 07:59 AM PST

tinkercad

Exclusive - Tinkercad, a startup that aims to introduce browser-based 3D printing CAD to the masses, has landed $1M in seed funding from True Ventures, Jaiku founder Jyri Engestrom, Delicious founder Joschua Schachter, Eghosa Omogui and Taher Haveliwala.

The company’s mission is to ‘reach and teach’ a wide audience on the use of CAD software and creating ‘fun and meaningful’ things like jewelry, toys, car parts and whatnot, using 3D printers.

Kai Backman, Tinkercad’s co-founder and CEO, explains that one only needs a browser and a couple of minutes to use its browser-based software and have a 3D project ready for printing.

"We use game-like quests to teach what we call 'design literacy', understanding the design of physical things. By lowering the barrier of entry, our users have been able to create and print a wide variety of awesome items”, he adds.

Tinkercad is free, and encourages sharing designs under a creative commons license. Once users create designs with the software, which seems pretty easy to use based on my rudimentary testing, they can order designs directly from printing services like Shapeways and i.Materialise or download STL files to use other printing services or personal 3D printers like Makerbot’s Thing-O-Matic.

If you’re into this kind of stuff, check Tinkercad out, and I would also urge you to also visit GrabCAD.

X-info Table: NEC Rolls Out 52-Inch “Tablet” In Japan

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 07:44 AM PST

X-info Table

7-, 9-, or 10-inch tablets are out: NEC Japan today announced the so-called X-info Table [JP], a 52-inch “tablet” (NEC does use this term to market the device) with full HD resolution. Much like similar devices, the idea is to make it simple for multiple users to view and alter content shown on the screen at the same time.

NEC says that the X-info Table supports up to ten touch points simultaneously.

Technically, the tablet features

  • Core i7 CPU
  • Windows 7 OS
  • 6GB memory
  • set of peakers
  • three USB ports
  • Wi-Fi connectivity
  • GIS support
  • TransferJet support
  • sub-display support (up to four screens at the same time)
  • scanning function
  • size: 1,600x900x1,000mm, weight: 160kg

NEC plans to start selling the X-info table in Japan from February with an open price model.

Watch New York’s Largest Watch Shop Turn Back 8,000 Watches

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 07:21 AM PST

As a watch fan, setting your pieces back and forth a few times a year is trivial. But what if you’re dealing with a collection of 8,000 watches? This video shows how the folks at Tourneau Time Machine, New York’s largest watch shop, deal with all of the winding, setting, and checking of their entire stock.

The entire process takes three days, from Friday until Sunday.

The last part of the video is pretty cornball – this looks like some canned video commissioned by Tourneau itself so feel free to skip it. However, I had never thought over the work necessary to set every single watch in any watch shop, let alone one holding nearly 10,000 pieces.

via hodinkee



T-Mobile Announces The Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus: $249 On-Contract, November 16

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 06:47 AM PST

Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus

We knew it was coming. First J&R prematurely listed the tab for pre-order, and then Samsung came out with an official announcement, which leads us to today: T-Mobile has finally confirmed availability and pricing for the dual-core Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus.

In need of a refresher? No problem.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus is one of T-Mobile’s many 4G-enabled tablets, meaning it runs on T-Mo’s HSPA+ network. The slate is powered by a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, runs Android 3.2 Honeycomb, and packs 16GB of internal memory (expandable with up to a 32GB memory card). The 7-inch WVGA display sports a 1024×600 resolution — not quite on par with the GalTab 7.7, but respectable nonetheless. You’ll find a 3-megapixel rear camera capable of video capture in 720p and 1080p playback, along with a 2-megapixel front-facing shooter for video chat.

All in all, the .76lb tab is a pretty sweet little 7-incher. But the 7-inch category is lighting up, with offerings from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The question is whether or not T-Mo’s HSPA+ network can pull people away from the lighter experiences being offered by these book sellers. Especially since these devices’ price tags are so similar.

If interested, you can pick up a Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus at T-Mobile for $249.99 with a two-year agreement and a $50 mail-in rebate. Slates hit shelves November 16.



The USB Endoscope: Not What You Think

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 06:40 AM PST

UWCAM005200_02_L

I’m a DIY kind of guy. I feel that doctors are at best overpriced handymen whose skills and experience count for little when it comes to understanding my body. Hey, it’s my body, right? I should be able to figure out what’s wrong!

It follows then, that I may want a USB endoscope in order to examine my innards and assess the damage done by various drugs, objects, and substances I’ve ingested, including 77 zipper teeth that I pulled off of my winter coat one afternoon when I was hiding the the park waiting for girls. When I saw that Brando was selling an endoscope for a mere $44, I was about to jump but I was quickly thwarted. Sadly, I won’t be able to view myself from either end today or any other day, for this endoscope is only for “sewers, water pool or drains.”

While I feel that this endoscope is perfect for the aforementioned sewers, water pool, and drains, don’t you think that a little Vaseline and some luck could make this an excellent medical device? Come on, Brando! Think outside the water pool!

Anyway, it’s available now. I guess I’ll have to keep using my hand to figure out what’s going on in there.

Product Page



Asimo: Honda Upgrades Its Awesome Humanoid (Videos)

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 06:27 AM PST

asimo2011_spec

Honda has been very silent about Asimo, its super-advanced humanoid robot, in recent years. After introducing the first version in 2000, Honda showed several versions through 2005, until the company finally took the wraps off a new version earlier today in Tokyo. This model is the thinnest, fastest, and most “intelligent” Asimo yet.

At 48kg, the Asimo that was shown today is 6kg lighter than the previous model. He now has 57 joints in his body (23 more) and walks at 9km/h (instead of 6km/h).

Honda says that Asimos’s improved “intelligence” makes it possible for the robot to track a conversation between different people, recognizing the faces and voices of everyone involved (even when several people speak simultaneously).

Another plus in the intelligence department: Asimo can now temporarily stop a certain action and resume it after performing a different task in between (for example opening a can of beer and pouring it into a glass – something, which wasn’t possible before either).

If told, Asimo can kick a ball or start hopping now, too – on one or two legs. He can now even hop in a circular pattern.

And that’s not all: according to Honda, the robot “is now capable of predicting the direction a person will walk within the next few seconds based on information from pre-set space sensors and quickly determining to take an alternate path to avoid a collision with the person if the estimated locations of the person and the ASIMO intersect.”

The Robocalypse is near.

Here’s a video (in Japanese, but that doesn’t matter too much in this case):

Asimo serving beer (he opens the can and pours the beer into a glass by himself):

Some new skills shown in slow-motion [ENG/JP]

Daily Crunch: Telepresence

Posted: 08 Nov 2011 01:00 AM PST