Dec 07
Top 5 video game characters
Posted in: Today's ChiliWe count down the greatest video game characters of all time. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://www.cnettv.com/8301-13415_53-10410413-11.html” class=”origPostedBlog”CNET TV/a/p
Dec 07
iPhone 3GS emulates N64, blows minds in the process
Posted in: Apple, gaming, iPhone, iphone 3g, Iphone3g, ipod touch, IpodTouch, nintendo, Today's Chili
Look what we have here — a preview of 3G4, a N64 emulator developed by NWorksDev. Compatible with the iPhone 3GS and the iPod Touch 3G, this bad boy appears to be rendering down the graphics (as one would expect) but all in all it seems to be running pretty smoothly. Of course, this is a work in progress: the developer (who claims to be 14 years old) says that he has to overcome duplicate button registers, delayed presses, and some crashing — and he has yet to implement the L, R, and Z keys. That said, this thing is pretty sweet! Hit up the YouTube links for info on becoming a beta tester — but not before you see the thing in action after the break.
Continue reading iPhone 3GS emulates N64, blows minds in the process
iPhone 3GS emulates N64, blows minds in the process originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 14:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dec 07
Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceShipTwo, plans commercial space flights in 2011
Posted in: galaxy, space, Today's Chili, Travel
We’ve been waiting an awful long time for this day to come, and now we’re doing our darndest to rush away 2010. Today, Sir Richard Branson officially took the wraps off of a spacecraft that we initially peeked back in June of 2008: the SpaceShipTwo. Designed to hold six passengers and two pilots, this magnificent craft will reportedly be ready to ship wealthy tourists into space as early as 2011. Reportedly, the craft will be taken up to launch altitude by the WhiteKnightTwo, after which the 2.5 hour tour will take patrons high enough to experience around 5 minutes of weightlessness. Of course, the ship still has an awful lot of regulatory passing to do, and the Spaceport America in New Mexico still has to be built, but it’s nothing short of fantastic to see the wheels turning in the right direction. Just think — you can finally tell you kid that an aeronautical engineering degree isn’t required to leave the atmosphere. Future, we heart thee.
P.S. – Peek that MSNBC link for the unveiling shots!
Virgin Galactic reveals SpaceShipTwo, plans commercial space flights in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Dec 07
Startup Disses Arrington, Relaunches CrunchPad Tablet as JooJoo
Posted in: Media Players, tablet, Today's Chili
CrunchPad, the touchscreen tablet that was declared dead a week ago by its impresario inventor Michael Arrington, is back. A Singapore-based company, Fusion Garage, announced plans to introduce the device under a new name: JooJoo.
JooJoo will have a 12.1-inch capacitive touchscreen, 4 GB solid state drive, an accelerometer that will allow it to switch between landscape and portrait modes, Wi-Fi connectivity and a battery life of up to five hours. It will run a custom-designed operating system that will allow the machine to boot in nine seconds and access the internet near-instantaneously.
But instead of the initial price point of $200, JooJoo will now cost $500.
Hands-On with the JooJoo
The JooJoo is an interesting gadget only if you buy into the premise of a completely web-oriented lifestyle. Though it seems to have the hardware design and form factor right, the list of what it can’t do, for now, outweighs what it can.
Check out our impressions of the JooJoo tablet’s user interface, hardware and limitations.
“It’s a product whose death has been greatly exaggerated,” says Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, CEO and founder of Fusion Garage, which until last week was working with Arrington to design the device. Rathakrishnan showed the device, seen above, in a web conference Monday, and will be following that up with hands-up demos to the press later in the day. (The green hue of the screen is caused by the video camera used, Rathakrishnan claimed.)
Fusion Garage will start taking pre-orders for the device December 11th, and will deliver it in 8-10 weeks, says Rathakrishnan.
The launch of JooJoo is yet another twist in the strange tale of a tablet device that first surfaced last year. Arrington floated the idea of a tablet in June 2008 when he talked of a touchscreen device that would run Firefox and Skype on top of a Linux kernel. The tablet would have low-end hardware — a power button, a headphone jack, speakers, a microphone and a built-in camera for video. It would come with Wi-Fi, 512 MB of memory, a 4-GB solid-state hard drive and no keyboard. All this for $200.
The idea seemed promising, especially because other major PC makers including Apple and Dell are reportedly working on tablets due for launch next year. The notion of a tablet capable of showing large, interactive text and graphics has excited magazine publishers, including Wired’s corporate parent Condé Nast, which is among several companies planning tablet-based magazine apps. Time Inc. also recently showed a slick tablet concept video for Sports Illustrated.
But after repeated delays, Arrington declared the CrunchPad project dead last week. Arrington accused Fusion Garage of cutting him out of the deal. Based on pressure from shareholders, Fusion Garage had decided to move forward and sell the device directly without TechCrunch’s involvement, said Arrington, who has said he will pursue legal action against Fusion Garage.
Rathakrishnan says his company cut Arrington out because Fusion Garage “designed, funded and developed the product,” with Arrington failing to deliver on any of his promises.
“There are dreamers and there are doers,” he says. “Fusion Garage is the only actual doer in this story.”
Rathakrishnan says he reached out to Arrington in 2008 after he read the latter’s post about the need for an inexpensive web tablet. Arrington, in turn, offered to introduce Fusion Garage to hardware designers, and investors, he says. Ultimately, TechCrunch wanted to acquire Fusion Garage.
“But nothing tangible came out of it,” claims Rathakrishnan. “Michael was unable to deliver.”
“There’s talk and then there’s action,” he says. “We completed development of our OS, hired the expertise to make key hardware design decisions, develop the platform and a new finished prototype. And we secured our own funding.”
That’s why Fusion Garage owns the IP to the product and can introduce it without having Arrington or CrunchPad associated with it, says Rathakrishnan.
Meanwhile, Arringon has threatened to file a lawsuit against Fusion Garage. But so far, no case has been filed. Rathakrishan claims no contracts were ever signed between Fusion Garage and TechCrunch around the CrunchPad.
When Arrington first talked about the project, critics pointed out that its projects $200 pricetag and aggressive timeline were unrealistic, given the ambitious features Arrington had planned. Production costs and a challenging retail environment would eat into profit margins, they said.
And they were right, says Rathakrishnan.
“There are dreams and there are hallucinations,” he says. “Arrington’s dreams of $200-$300 are as real as his claims of IP ownership. Nothing worthwhile can be delivered at that price.”
So far Fusion Garage has raised $3 million in funding and is set to announce an additional round of investment shortly, says Rathakrishnan.
As for marketing muscle that TechCrunch or Arrington could have provided, Rathakrishnan says its something that Fusion Garage won’t really miss.
“Writing blog posts is not marketing,” he says. “If marketing was only about talk, we would have seen a successful tablet years ago. Microsoft has been talking about tablets for years. TechCrunch’s marketing capability is defined to a blog.”
Arrington did not reply to a request for comment.
See Also:
- CrunchPad Tablet Dies Stillborn
- Calling CrunchPad: Is Anybody Home?
- CrunchPad Nears Production, Looks Awesome
- Web 2.0 Mogul Michael Arrington Creates New Web Tablet
Photo: Screenshot of the JooJoo tablet
Dec 07
Can My iPod Make This Airplane Explode?
Posted in: ipod, kindle, Today's Chili, top, Travel
Listening to an iPod or reading a Kindle during takeoff isn’t dangerous. It’s time the airlines stopped pretending that it is.
For years we’ve been told that gadgets produce EMI—electromagnetic interference—that cause glitches in an aircraft’s avionics. A cellphone could interrupt communication between pilots and the tower for a crucial second, or a child’s Game Boy could cause a light on a flight computer to go on the fritz.
We can’t take excess liquids on a plane on only the slimmest evidence of any real threat. If gadgets were such a threat to safety, they’d be banned entirely.
Instead, an arbitrary set of rules established by the FAA and extended by the airlines prohibits iPods during takeoff, but explicitly allow electric shavers to be used during flight.
Hundreds of travelers at this very moment are using electronic gadgets during takeoff after the flight attendants have taken their jump seats. We’re told it’s dangerous. It isn’t. Let’s drop the pretense.*
The EMI Lie
In 1993, the International Association of Transport Aircraft (IATA) suggested that airlines prohibit the use of personal electronic devices during takeoff and landing, despite a lack of evidence that these gadgets had caused a single accident. The IATA’s Terry Denny then said, “We haven’t been able to trace an accident to the use of one of these devices…but we are convinced that this could happen.”
In the intervening decades, gadgets became something more than a toy for the rich or nerdy, but an intrinsic sidekick for nearly everyone. Especially the iPod.
In 2006, the Federal Aviation Administration commissioned a study to see if “intentionally transmitting” gadgets like cellphones and Wi-Fi caused interference with avionics. The final report “said there is insufficient information to support a wholesale change in policies that restrict use of PEDs.” (“PEDs” is FAA-speak for a gadget, or “Personal Electronic Device(s)”; a PED with a radio transmitter is a “T-PED”.)
Which is to say, they couldn’t find a reason to change their policy—but there hadn’t been a whole lot of evidence to begin with.
Yet the FAA has approved in-flight Wi-Fi service for a variety of airlines. While the routers and systems must undergo an FAA certification, there’s nothing magical about the onboard 2.4GHz signal broadcast that prevents it from interfering with the plane’s avionics. The thousands of flights completed safely each day—a marvelous and commendable record, it should be noted—clearly indicate that having activated gadgets on board aircraft does nothing of negative consequence.
So your laptop’s Wi-Fi won’t mess up the planes avionics, but your Kindle might? How fragile are these planes?
“But it’s about paying attention”
I’ve had conversations with pilots and other employees of airlines about this issue before, and after they realize the electromagnetic interference argument isn’t going to fly, they invariably change tack to “safety”. “Takeoff and landing are the most dangerous parts of the flight,” they say. “And it’s important that passengers be able to hear instructions from the crew in case something goes wrong.”
That’s a nice idea, but look around the cabin of an embarking aircraft. Parents are soothing cranky kids. People are asleep. Many passengers are drunk or medicated to help address anxiety.
If there were an accident, alerting an unaware person with headphones would take no more effort than nudging a sleeping person next to you. It’s not prohibited to sleep during takeoff, just as it isn’t prohibited to read a book or magazine or to be deaf. (This also presumes that a passenger could do anything to protect themselves or others during a takeoff accident, even though we all know that in a majority of incidents, there’s little to do except pray.)
Ah, but what about gadgets flying around the cabin as missiles if there is turbulence? It could happen, sure, but is a Kindle appreciably more dangerous than a hardcover book? If a Nintendo DS could hurt someone during an unexpected loss of altitude, why are they ever allowed to be unstowed? The answer is simply that the likelihood of these things happening is far less than the likelihood that customers will go absolutely apoplectic if they aren’t allowed some sort of inflight entertainment.
If the airlines are already able to make a judgement between ultimate safety and convenience, why not loosen up just a little more?
Little things matter
I have a lot of sympathy for flight attendants. Herding and soothing a few dozen passengers, many of whom are belligerent and rude, is a thankless job. Their jobs should be easier. They’re the ones who have to explain to passengers why the pilots were too busy playing with their laptops to land the plane.
But every time a flight attendant perpetuates the lie that these harmless gadgets are somehow a threat to safety, it erodes the faith that they should be cultivating with their customers. How are we to trust someone telling us that reading a Kindle during takeoff is dangerous as we stare across a field of EMI-spewing LCD seat-back screens?
Here’s a deal: I’ll listen attentively to the flight safety demonstration, make doubly sure to note where the exit doors are and who I’ll have to climb over to get to them—and you guys will let me listen to my iPod after the flight attendants are in their seats and I’m making peace with my god.
Trust me, I’ll be a lot more apt to listen to flight attendants commands if they don’t start the flight with a well-intentioned deception. And more likely to believe the FAA and the TSA when it comes to other security and safety concerns when some of their policies aren’t demonstrable half-truths.
* I’m not talking about using Wi-Fi or cellphones during takeoff. I’m in complete support of “Airplane Mode” during takeoff, if not the entire flight. What anecdotal evidence there is about EMI from gadgets is almost exclusively suspected to be from radios and other transmitters.
@joeljohnson deals primarily with first-world problems, but hopes it does not interfere with your pursuit of fixing third-world ones. This isn’t the last he’s got to say about this issue.
Dec 07
Cori sent us treats! <3
(Credit:
The 404/Sadacori)
Believe it or not, the fourth host on today’s episode of CNET’s The 404 Podcast is the Nook, Barnes & Noble’s e-book reader with a color touch screen and Wi-Fi. The device is currently sold out and on back order throughout B&N, so it wasn’t easy to obtain. We had to walk 500 miles and battle a Nazgul to get it, but the in-studio demo was worth the wait. If you haven’t seen a Nook up close, you’re in for a treat.
Speaking of treats, the holidays come early for The 404 this year! Today’s episode starts off normal enough, with another story about a crazed girlfriend who destroys her boyfriend’s precious PS3 and a couple making their own paranormal activity to fund their wedding, but the real story is the package we receive halfway through the live show from dedicated 404 listener Cori (Sadacori in the chat room). We’ve received care packages before, but this one is definitely the best. Just check out the picture up top! Thanks a million Cori, we really appreciate all the Yuletide pounds! 🙂
Our ill-deserved holiday break is coming up in two weeks, and we get awfully lonely if we don’t hear from you, so won’t you leave us a voice mail at 1-866-404-CNET and let us know how your holiday season is going? We’d love to hear your voices, but you can also e-mail us at the404(at)cnet[dot]com or add us on Twitter and Facebook as well!
EPISODE 481
Listen now:
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Originally posted at The 404 Podcast
Dec 07
Chromium OS gets unofficial 64-bit port
Posted in: Chrome, chrome os, ChromeOs, os, Today's Chili
64-bit support for an OS designed primarily for low-powered netbooks may not be at the top of everyone’s list, but it looks like those hoping to crank Chrome OS up a notch are now finally in luck. While it’s of course still completely unofficial, and pre-alpha, the OS is now available in a 64-bit port called ChromiumOS64, which even includes niceties like Xen virtualization support and a relatively modest 1GB download size. Hit up the link below to get started.
Chromium OS gets unofficial 64-bit port originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 07 Dec 2009 13:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Dec 07
If you’re a fan of the Nintendo 64 or you’re just a Nintendo lover, the N64Mini from modder Zenloc might be perfect for you. It’s like bringing your Nintendo 64 with you wherever you go. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10410284-17.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Digital Home/a/p
Dec 07
Themes are a new category in BlackBerry App World, with about 150 free and premium themes available to download at launch.
Dec 07
iPod Touch Is Apple’s Stealth Weapon for Mobile Growth
Posted in: Apple, iPhone, ipod touch, Media Players, Today's Chili
Steve Jobs once referred to the iPod Touch as “training wheels for the iPhone,” but it’s no novelty to Apple. An analytics firm estimates Apple has shipped about 24 million units of the iPod Touch, which represents about 40 percent of the devices running the iPhone operating system.
Mobile analytics firm Flurry claims it made the estimate based on a sample of 3,000 applications, 45 million consumers and four platforms. Apple provided a figure of 58 million devices running the iPhone OS, and of that total, Flurry believes 24 million are iPod Touch devices.
Flurry speculates that Apple’s iPod Touch is crucial for the company to retain and expand its market share in the mobile OS space.
“While it is clear that the iPhone has significant short-term revenue value for Apple, Flurry believes that the iPod Touch holds more long-term strategic value for Steve Jobs and team,” Flurry wrote in a blog post. “As all industry eyes look to the iPhone, the iPod Touch is quietly building a loyal base among the next generation of iPhone users, positioning Apple to corner the smartphone market not only today, but also tomorrow.”
That’s a believable number, because the iPod Touch caters to a broad market segment including gamers, teenagers (who presumably can’t afford the iPhone’s ~$100 monthly bill), Verizon customers avoiding AT&T and more.
The numbers also signify healthy growth for Apple’s iPhone platform. In September, Apple claimed it had shipped 40 million units of the iPhone and iPod Touch worldwide. In just three months, that number has increased 18 million — about 30 percent.
See Also:
- A Tale of Two iPods: Why the Touch Has No Camera
- iPod Touch Has Wireless ‘N’, FM Radio
- Study: iPhone Owners Are Older, Wealthier Than iPod Touch Users …
Photo: Mike Rohde/Flickr
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