Gadgets
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Darkworks SDK transforms 2D games into 3D games, no 3D TV required11 March 2010, 1:33 pm
Well, wouldn't you know it? 3D seems to be the topic of conversation here at GDC , and Paris-based Darkworks is making a splash by announcing the availability of its TriOviz for Games SDK. In short, this magical software concoction is a post-process effect that allows standard 2D games to be transformed into 3D masterpieces... and you don't even need to buy a 3D television. We were briefed on the tech here at the show, and we're told that the magic happens in the software and the glasses, and un...
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JooJoo hits the FCC, reveals NVIDIA Ion, 3G card11 March 2010, 1:07 pm
Well well. We'd always suspected that the JooJoo tablet was hiding something extra to run HD video and Flash, and it's just hit the FCC with full documentation and a teardown confirming that there's an NVIDIA Ion GPU paired with an Atom N270 packed inside. We're also seeing a 3G card in there, although it's unclear whether it'll be active or installed at launch -- we've been told the 3G version won't be ready until sometime later this year, but things have been changing fast, so that may be in ...
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PlayStation Move: everything you ever wanted to know11 March 2010, 12:31 pm
Sony dropped a lot of knowledge on us yesterday, at long last replacing rampant speculation with some cold hard facts -- and even a name! -- for its new PlayStation motion controller. The PlayStation Move is being described as a "platform" and a "virtual console launch" by folks at Sony, and we think they mean it, so prepare for a motion-controlled ad war later this year, as Microsoft and Sony set themselves up for a real three-way fight with Nintendo for your physical living room activity of t...
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DARPA looking to develop iPhone and Android apps, App Store11 March 2010, 12:09 pm
Sure, in the past we've got a hearty chuckle out of initiatives that involved Redfly terminals and Clippy variants, but the question remains: how can we get cutting-edge tech into the hands of soldiers faster? We've recently come across some RFIs for DARPA projects aimed at developing apps and an App Store for Android and the iPhone OS, with two in particular -- Mobile Apps for the Military (DARPA-SN-10-27), and Transformative Apps (DARPA-BAA-10-41) -- catching our eye. The agency is calling fo...
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HTC Incredible out in the wild once more, Verizon color scheme alive and well11 March 2010, 11:41 am
Android Forums is alight today with fresh HTC Incredible chatter -- a phone every Android fan on Verizon is desperately waiting for -- and we've managed to glean a few more pictures and possible specs out of the mess. It looks like we can expect a half gig of RAM with about 320MB available (roughly the same as what you find on the Nexus One) and an 8 megapixel cam, but interestingly, the phone's Snapdragon core is apparently underclocked to 768MHz, almost certainly a battery-saving measure on H...
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Novothink rolls out Solar Surge iPhone / iPod touch charging case11 March 2010, 11:15 am
It's not November '09 as originally promised, but Novothink has now announced that its Solar Surge charging cases for the iPhone and iPod touch are finally available. Those will run $79.95 for the iPhone 3G/3GS version and $69.95 for the iPod touch version (second gen only, it seems), which are each available only in black or white at the moment (additional colors are "coming soon), and should add between four and eight hours of talk time, or up to 20 hours of additional audio playback. That's,...
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Barnes & Noble promises B&N eReader app for iPad near launch11 March 2010, 10:29 am
Need a bit more evidence that the e-book download business is a whole lot different than the music download business? Then look no further than Barnes & Noble, which has just announced that it plans to make its B&N eReader app available for the Apple iPad "around the time" of the device's launch. Details are otherwise a bit light, but the app will be free, and is apparently "designed specifically" for the iPad, giving you access to all of the books, magazines and newspapers available in...
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Dolby issues Axon SDK to bring surround sound to online console / Mac gamers11 March 2010, 10:00 am
Dolby's Axon surround sound technology isn't exactly new (it's already used on a number of PC titles), but to date, it has yet to make a stand in the online console and Mac gaming sectors. All that changes today at GDC, with the aural company introducing an Axon software development kit that will make it possible for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and OS X titles to integrate the technology. According to the company, this here solution provides improved audio chain processing (noise suppression and ec...
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Sony's ultra-compact concept camera gets slightly less mysterious11 March 2010, 9:42 am
We didn't exactly get the best look at Sony's new ultra-compact concept camera at PMA last month, but the company is now thankfully starting to reveal a few more details about the "DSLR quality" camera. Still nothing in the way of specs or an actual working camera, of course, but Sony has provided a few screenshots of the camera's menu system that at least provide a few tidbits of information. Most notably, it seems that the camera will employ a touchscreen interface, with most of the main cont...
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OpenGL 4.0 arrives, brings more opportunities for general purpose GPU action11 March 2010, 9:06 am
What's a Game Developers Conference without some sweet new tools for developers to sink their teeth into? Khronos Group, the association behind OpenGL, has today announced the fourth generation of its cross-platform API spec, which takes up the mantle of offering a viable competitor to Microsoft's DirectX 11. The latest release includes two new shader stages for offloading geometry tessellation from the CPU to the GPU, as well as tighter integration with OpenCL to allow the graphics card to tak...
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Inflatable Bike Case Protects Your Wheels When Traveling [Travel]11 March 2010, 1:40 pm
A niche market, yes, but when you reach a certain age and the idea of going on a cycling-and-camping holiday in a foreign country appeals, you've got to consider how to transport your bike over. More »
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Cities Go Gaga for Google Fiber [Google]11 March 2010, 1:20 pm
No one knows exactly how much Google plans to invest in its ISP business, but its reputation as cash giant alone has cities from Anchorage, Alaska, to Sarasota, Florida battling to become the search giant's new test market. More »
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Gadget Deals of the Day [Dealzmodo]11 March 2010, 1:00 pm
We're bringing some super cost cutting deals today. Pick up a Samsung bluetooth headset for only a buck, net a portable Sackboy for your PSP with Little Big Planet, and windows users who missed Macheist can pickup the free Winutilities More »
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The Future Of Camera-Based Input [IPhone Apps]11 March 2010, 12:40 pm
Not entirely dissimilar to the 2008 patent which showed an iPhone being controlled by camera-based input, is this German student's app, which controls the Maps app being controlled by the camera tracking hand movements through the app. More »
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Unreal Engine 3 Got Ported to Palm's webOS Too [WebOS]11 March 2010, 12:15 pm
Unreal Engine 3? The graphics engine that powers many, many games (Gears of War, Mass Effect, Arkham Asylum) on consoles today? Ported on to Palm's webOS? Neat, but not as neat as you'd think. More »
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Record Labels: Change or Die [Music]11 March 2010, 12:00 pm
It's a lousy time to be a record label. Profits are tanking, bands are angry—OK Go just ditched EMI—and YouTube and BitTorrent changed the game. Still, some labels are transforming themselves to help musicians in the digital age. More »
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Google Mobile Search Reveals What's In Stock Nearby [Google]11 March 2010, 11:59 am
Google Product Search was already a handy shopping aid, but today's addition of local inventory info makes it essential. And like most great ideas, it's only going to get better with time. More »
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JooJoo Tablet Gets New Home Screen and Controls [Jooojoo]11 March 2010, 11:33 am
Though the shipping date for JooJoo, the underdog tablet, was recently pushed back to March 25, Fusion Garage isn't letting that time go to waste. They've overhauled the JooJoo's interface, expanded local video playback, and given its backplate a makeover. More »
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Intel's 6-Core Gulftown Gets Tested, Blows Us Away [CPUs]11 March 2010, 11:20 am
Six cores. That's how many are in Intel's ridiculous new Core i7-980x. MaximumPC takes us deep inside the world's fastest CPU, with full, mind-searing benchmarks. More »
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Apple iBooks' Many Ebook Categories Include "Erotica" [Unconfirmed]11 March 2010, 10:53 am
Uncovered by research firm Busted Loop, via Forbes, among other data—like 16,700 iPhone apps have been iPad-certified—is a list of possible ebook categories for the iBooks store: More »
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iPhone OS 4.0 may finally bring multitasking nirvana11 March 2010, 1:40 pm
One complaint commonly leveled against the iPhone is that it can't run multiple apps at the same time. However, sources for AppleInsider say that Apple is finally planning to incorporate a task manager that will integrate with the established iPhone user interface in the next major revision of iPhone OS, expected to be available this summer.
Like Mac OS X on which it is based, iPhone OS is fully capable of running multiple processes at once. In fact, it does run multiple processes—iP...
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Transformers: War for Cybertron shows how it all began11 March 2010, 12:38 pm
Cybertron isn't just the homeworld of the Transformers... it is a Transformer itself. It was the first Transformer. In War for Cybertron you get to explore the Civil War between the Autobots and the Decepticons as they blast their way across the planet. At GDC we were treated to a long demo of the game, and yes, it looks good.
The characters were given all-new designs, and some of them will in fact be made into toys. The game takes place before Optimus gains his "Prime" desi...
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Canonical's design team responds to theme criticisms11 March 2010, 11:47 am
Canonical is burying Ubuntu's traditional brown theme and is adopting a new visual style for version 10.04, which is scheduled for release in April. The new theme was revealed last week as part of Canonical's broader effort to overhaul Ubuntu's branding and visual identity.
The new theme includes a richer color palette and a number of stylistic enhancements. The change that has generated the most controversy is the placement of the window management buttons in the left-hand side of the tit...
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Green Day: Rock Band coming June 8, supports full exports11 March 2010, 10:57 am
Green Day: Rock Band has a release date, so you can finally exhale. The game is coming to the PlayStation, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii on June 8, for $59.99 on the two high-definition systems and $49.99 on the Nintendo Wii.
The game features 47 Green Day songs, vocal harmonizing for multiple singers, and you'll have the ability to export every song to Rock Band or Rock Band 2 for an additional $10. Joystiq is reporting that if you preorder the game from GameStop, you'll be able to export th...
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Court nixes individual track downloads of Pink Floyd albums11 March 2010, 10:10 am
Individual Pink Floyd songs will soon disappear from online music stores. The British High Court has ruled against EMI, the band's record label, saying that the band's contract requires EMI to "preserve the artistic integrity of the albums." In this case, that means keeping all the tracks together and in the order they were meant to be in, leading some to worry whether Pink Floyd's music will disappear from popular online music stores altogether.
When Pink Floyd signed with EMI back in th...
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feature: Safely whitelist your favorite sites and opt out of tracking11 March 2010, 9:28 am
So there was this article on the Internet recently about how ad blocking is devastating to sites that you love. You may have read it and there's a good chance that you participated in the frank and lively discussion that took place afterwards.
One of the things we learned from all of this is that not all people who use ad blockers are actually out to block our ads, and that many of you didn't realize that blocking ads hurt us and the other sites you love. Many care deeply ab...
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0-day exploits for IE flaw another reason to switch to IE811 March 2010, 8:45 am
Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday a new flaw affecting version 6 and 7 of its Internet Explorer web browser that could allow remote code execution. The security advisory noted that targeted attacks using the flaw were already in the wild.
This information was confirmed by McAfee, reporting that exploitation of the flaw was originating from the domain topix21century dot com over both HTTP and HTTPS. The drive-by attacks install a backdoor which connects to a command-and-control server.
Analysi...
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FCC Commissioner rips ISPs on broadband prices, competition11 March 2010, 8:05 am
Federal Communications Commissioner Mignon Clyburn solidified her role as the agency's tail gunner on Wednesday with a warning to the big ISPs that the FCC's patience with rising broadband subscription rates is wearing thin.
"When prices rise across the industry, and where there are only a limited number of players in the game, we have to ask ourselves whether there is any meaningful competition in the marketplace," Clyburn declared in a public statement. "Moreover, when exec...
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Limbo is quiet, subtle genius... coming to XBLA11 March 2010, 6:44 am
The problem with dreams is that things never work the way you think they should. Try turning on a light... nothing happens. The branches of that tree may turn out to be the legs of a spider. You never feel safe, not exactly, because anything can happen. That feeling of uncertainty and unease is what Playdead had in mind when developing Limbo, a game that's coming to the Xbox Live Arcade, hopefully this summer.
Read the comments on this ...
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Congress wants big NatSec exemptions for spectrum inventory11 March 2010, 5:28 am
A newly revised version of a House bill requiring the government to inventory the nation's radio spectrum would give Federal agencies and private license owners a national security pass on publicly disclosing information about their spectrum holdings or related data. The proposed bill, as now amended by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, would let government agencies duck out on releasing such intel if they can prove that doing otherwise "would reveal classified nat...
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