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Here Is Your First Look At The Xbox One

Chris Partlow — Tue, 21 May 2013 17:09:19 +0000

Microsoft finally gave the world a look at a simple, instant and complete new XBOX ONE. The xbox one as it is now called, looks amazing and here it is. From the looks of it voice activation plays a very important role in switching between the different applications, and it does so very swiftly. We are beyond impressed at what we saw during Microsoft’s unveiling and there will definitely be a few of these bad boys in our offices when they hit the market.

According to Kotaku the beast is reppin’ “8 gigs of RAM, USB 3.0, Wi-Fi Direct, a Blu-Ray disc drive, 64-bit architecture and “practically silent operation.”

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G’Night: Ten Years Of Mythbusters

John Ferensen — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:00:15 +0000

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman began blowing stuff up on the Discovery Channel in 2003, and, to commemorate a decade on the air, Mythbusters superfan Thomas Crenshaw pieced together an unofficial highlight video tribute.

[ViralViralVideos]

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WSJ Reports That Amazon Is Buiding Smartphone With 3-D Screen

Paul Sacca — Thu, 09 May 2013 19:43:09 +0000

In the international battle to win the war of smartphones, ingenuity and new ideas can give a company a leg up on the competition. Amazon is hoping their creativity can catapult them into the forefront of the fierce smartphone market. The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the electronic commerce giant is “developing a wide-ranging line-up of gadgets,” including two smartphones and an audio-only streaming device, perhaps that would utilize music on Amazon Cloud and/or an online subscription radio. One of the smartphones will be a 3D-capable device which will not require any special glasses and may even allow users to navigate simply by moving their eyes.

WSJ elaborates on how the 3-D images would appear:

Using retina-tracking technology, images on the smartphone would seem to float above the screen like a hologram and appear three-dimensional at all angles, they [the sources] said.

So it seems that we are getting very close to holographic images that Star Wars predicted nearly 40 years ago without having to have a bulky droid at your side. Amazon has been rumored to be developing a smartphone for over a year and the company hopes to build upon their successful Kindle e-readers.

[WSJ]

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Diet Coke’s New Vending Machine: The Slender Vender

Chris Partlow — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:13:02 +0000

Introducing the world’s slimmest vending machine courtesy of the fine folks at Diet Coke. You see what ad agency Oglivy & Mather did there? The skinny vending machine, for the skinny drink! Well played.

[Digital Trends]

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How creepy is the hologram lady at the airport?

Mark Vandeusen — Wed, 01 May 2013 19:12:54 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write about this ever since I went on vacation to Mexico back in March. Obviously this creation is intended to make you feel safe and sound and comfortable because the nice women is helping you figure out where to go and what to do.

But it doesn’t. It made me think I was stuck in some sort of sinister “Big Brother is watching you” type sci-fi movie; and that is not a good emotion to have as you’re about to fly off to a foreign country. I’d like to believe I’m a reasonably up to date guy, so I can only imagine how an older and/or less technologically exposed generation might react to this. The really eerie thing about it is that the hologram only goes from the waste up, while the bottom half of her body is just a still cutout. For whatever reason half a fake lady is even more disturbing than a whole one. Clearly whoever posted the below youtube video agrees with me on this issue:

Check out “37 seconds of sports and other stuff i care about” at lucidsportsfan.com, and follow Mark on twitter @LucidSportsFan

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This iPhone Will Cost You a Cool $15 Million

Chris Partlow — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 18:56:51 +0000

If you are looking to burn some cash, we have the perfect way to spend it. A $15 Million dollar iPhone has been commissioned by businessman from Hong Kong and Stuart Hughes of Liverpool has taken the challenge to create the absolute worst waste of money. The real gem (so to speak) of the iPhone is the 26-carat black diamond which is worth $14.5 million which will now be used as the world’s most expensive ‘Home button.’ According to Hughes’ website, the iPhone includes 600 flawless white diamonds, a full solid gold dressing and 53 diamonds on the rear that make up the iconic Apple logo.

Nothing exceeds like excess.

[Techland Time]

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KnobFeel Has The Best Stereo Reviews In History

Big Skeezy — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 21:29:14 +0000

KnobFeel has taken the art of stereo review and raised it to an entirely new level. The anonymous and non-speaking reviewer makes judgement on one aspect of the system and one aspect alone – how do the knobs feel when you turn them? Using nothing other than happy noises or annoyed grunts, his reviews are easily understood by anyone shopping for new stereo equipment.

Note that each video review is accompanied by a sentence or two describing the turning in more detail. This one, for example, has this to say:

Sony STR-DH820 – Knob Feel Review
Sony can’t make their mind up. Input selectors are notched rotations, a little on the too light side. The volume Knob feels like I’m trying to move Jupiter off it’s axis. Both at least have a consistency in the fact they feel very cheap. Cheap slippy plastic Knobs don’t please me.

Look no further than KnobFeel for all of your stereo review needs!

[New Republic]

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FIFA Selects ‘GoalControl’ As Goal-Line Technology System For 2014 World Cup

Taylor Hendrix — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:19:08 +0000

Back in February, FIFA confirmed that they would be using goal-line technology (GLT) in next summer’s World Cup and were testing several systems to determine which one they would use. Today, FIFA has come to a decision on which system they will use for the World Cup 2014 — ‘GoalControl.’

GoalControl is a German system (one of the other two that had not yet been officially licensed by FIFA back in February) that does not require any changes or modifications to be made to the goals, nets or balls. It uses a series of high-speed cameras (seven per goal) that are placed strategically around the pitch at the particular stadium’s roof/catwalk.

In the video above, you can see how the technology works. When a goal is scored, the referee is notified via a vibration in his watch while the word “GOAL” is also displayed.

Here’s a more in-depth explanation of how it works from GoalControl’s website:

The GoalControl-4D system works with 14 high-speed cameras (7 per goal) around the pitch at the stadium roof/catwalk. The cameras are connected to a powerful image processing computer system which tracks the movement of all objects on the pitch and filters out the players, referees and all disturbing objects. The remaining object is the ball and the system knows its three dimensional x-, y- and z-position with a precision of a few millimeters in the coordinate system of the pitch. When the ball passes the goal line, the system sends a vibration- and optical signal to the officals´watches. Of course, all camera images of such goal event, and also of all near-goal events, are stored and can be replayed anytime.

FIFA said that they chose GoalControl over other goal-line technology systems like Hawk-Eye and GoalRef due to a number of factors. ”The respective bids were also judged on cost and project management factors such as staffing and time schedules for installation,” FIFA said in a statement.

The cost to install the goal-line technology is $260,000 per stadium and will cost another $3,900 per match to operate. Not cheap, but definitely worth it to avoid another Frank Lampard incident.

[DT]

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