Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft VP Shane Kim has been anything but a stranger to these pages over the years: we first had a sit-down with the man way back in the halcyon days of early 2006, and as recently as this summer he was discussing the probable-possibility of Xbox games making their way onto mobile devices. Now, after nineteen years with the company and a career spanning the original Xbox through the present day (and Project Natal), our man has officially announced his retirement at the end of the year. Apparently his duties will be split between Dennis Durkin, who’s been named chief operating officer of the company’s video game unit, and Phil Spencer, who will oversee Microsoft Game Studios. Kim has yet to proclaim any post-Microsoft plans, saying he intends to relax and spend time with friends and family. Now that that’s out of the way, Microsoft, when can we expect to see Live Anywhere up and running?

Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft Xbox head honcho Shane Kim retires, declines to offer us a piece of cake originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey, Dad! Look what Samuel Seide made for his son. How about it? I’m not even asking for an Imperial Walker bed, just a father-daughter mini-arcade-machine building session to sacrifice some games, a DVD player, and random electronics.

There’s something awesome about this mini-arcade machine and I want …

(Credit: Warner Brothers Interactive)

In an entertainment medium that defines innovation as being able to shoot aliens with two guns at once or replicate real-life instruments as plastic props, it’s refreshing to find a video game that actually does try to break new ground.

Scribblenauts, for the Nintendo DS, generated a massive amount of positive buzz after this year’s E3 video game trade show, thanks to a unique interface that lets players type in the name of real-world objects they want to use in the game.

The end result is game that taxes brain cells instead of trigger fingers, without resorting to the math and logic puzzles of so many of the brain-training games that have flooded the Nintendo DS.

Each Scribblenauts level is a 2D side-scrolling environment, where a small character named Maxwell has to either reach a goal at the far end, or complete an arbitrary task (equip a doctor, chop down a tree, etc.). To clear the level, players use their DS stylus to literally type in the names of things they want to use to accomplish these goals.

Need to get to the top of a cliff? Type in the word “ladder,” and one magically appears. Or try a jetpack, or a helicopter. When faced with an angry bear, we typed in the word “soldier,” and a little army guy magically appeared and took care of the bear for us (although shooting wildlife isn’t exactly the most politically correct move).

(Credit: Warner Brothers Interactive)

At first, the game seems like a talented mind-reader, or genius-level artificial intelligence. In fact, it’s a bit of clever sleight of hand, with the game using the same physical object for many related words (chair and seat, rock and stone, etc.) More importantly, in our informal testing, we found most people instinctively gravitated towards a handful of common objects (“ladder” being a frequent favorite).

Places, proper names, and “suggestive material” are not allowed, but the in-game vocabulary does seem impressively large, and we had a hard time stumping it (publisher Warner Brothers won’t say how big the in-game dictionary is). …

Butter.

(Credit: Light Blue Taxi)

Can 2009 give us any more bad news? I think at this point, the three of us are ready to move straight into 2010, mostly because we’re too afraid of what’s going to happen in the next three months. To put it lightly, this year has been a tough one for celebrities. Although it didn’t exactly make Twitter headlines, we’re all saddened by Patrick Swayze’s death and take a few minutes out of the beginning of the show to talk about all of his great movies, including “Ghost,” “Donnie Darko,” “Dirty Dancing,” and of course “To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.”

Lots more good and bad news to discuss, including Facebook jumping on the @ symbol bandwagon. After Twitter reportedly rejected its purchasing offer, Facebook is now starting to introduce features that mimic the microblogging site. The first change is that Facebook users can now tag friends using an @ symbol in front of their names. The other is Facebook Lite, a less-cluttered version of the classic that discards the left navigation and info page.

Jeff found a pretty hilarious story from China about a bridge getting covered with butter, but before we get to that, we do a quick run-through of the 10 most pirated movies, and you’ll be surprised at which flicks made the cut. Finally, we reminisce about high school LAN parties (look it up, young bloods), how to get 50 PC games for $5, and a new gaming console accessory called the Spawn Labs HD-720 that’s making waves in the industry.

EPISODE 425

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Originally posted at The 404

A teardown of Microsoft’s Zune HD digital media player revealed the secret to the device’s longer battery life when compared to the iPod Touch. The combination of the OLED screen, the Nvidia Tegra processor and a lightweight device has helped put the Zune HD ahead of the iPod.

The Zune HD weighs only 2.6 oz, almost 35 percent less than the similarly-sized iPod Touch. Zune has a Samsung-manufactured 3.3 inch OLED display, which is also probably its single most expensive component. At just 1 mm, the OLED screen is incredibly thin and seems more rugged than a traditional LCD panel, says iFixit, which did the teardown.

Microsoft Zune HD hit stores Wednesday and the device got a favorable review from Wired.com
for its design and software.

As we have reported earlier, the Zune HD has a Nvidia Tegra 2600 processor. Tegra includes an 800-MHz ARM CPU, a high-definition video processor, an imaging processor, an audio processor and an ultralow-power GeForce GPU in a single package. In comparison, the third generation iPod Touch uses a Samsung ARM processor.

Betting on Tegra has paid off for the Zune in an unexpected way. The Zune HD’s battery capacity is 660 mAh, about 16 percent less than the 789 mAh battery in the new iPod touch. Yet the Zune promises a longer run time than the touch for both music and videos.

The battery on the Zune should also be easier to replace than on the new iPod Touch, says iFixit. The Zune’s battery has individual wires for the battery leads. In the Touch, the battery leads run through a single ribbon cable, making hand-soldering a challenge.

Unlike the latest version of the iPod Touch, the Zune HD does not support 802.11n Wi-Fi. Instead, it’s has a Atheros AR6002GZ 802.11g chip.  iFixit’s teardown showed that a Toshiba NAND flash and Hynix SDRAM. But there have been reports that Microsoft is using a few different suppliers for these parts.

The Zune HD unit taken apart by iFixit carried an inscription ‘For our Princess’ on the interior casing–a tribute to a Zune team member who passed away during development.

Interestingly, Zune HD is manufactured by Foxconn, the same company that produces iPods for Apple.

For a detailed step-by-step break down of the Zune HD check out iFixit’s post.

More photos of the Zune HD’s innards

Nvidia’s Tegra Processor inside the Zune

Zune HD’s different components

See Also:

• First Look: The Zune HD
• Confirmed: Zune HD Will Play Games
• Hands-On With the Zune HD
• Microsoft Confirms Zune HD Launch, Pricing

Photos: iFixit