The basic premises of going to a restaurant haven’t changed tremendously throughout history. You sit down. You order. It shows up. Maybe it’s good. But new, high tech establishments around the world are putting a innovative spin on eating out. More »
This article was written on March 13, 2008 by CyberNet.
One topic that surprisingly hasn’t been mentioned on CyberNet yet is Guitar Hero. There has been such a craze over the multi-platform game that it’s hard to believe it’s never come up! Not even once! So today’s the day that Guitar Hero is mentioned but unfortunately, it’s because the publishers of the popular game have found themselves involved in a patent dispute with Gibson Guitar Corp., a company that makes real guitars.
According to the Associated Press, Gibson Guitar is claiming that the publisher of Guitar Hero, Activision Inc. should stop selling the game until they get a license under their patent. Gibson’s patent back from 1999 “covers a virtual-reality device that included a headset with speakers and that simulated participating in a concert.” Most of you already know what Guitar Hero is all about, but for those of you who don’t, players of the game use a guitar shaped peripheral to simulate playing music. It’s been a big hit for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo Wii, PC, and Mac, especially since Guitar Hero III launched. The game has been extremely successful for Activision who managed to report a 90 percent increase in profit for their third quarter which ended on December 31st.
So what’s going to happen from here? Well, Activision says “we disagree with the applicability of their patent and would like a legal determination on this.” At this point they’re not going to stop selling the game, but they will have to prove that they aren’t violating Gibson Guitar’s patent. I’d hate to see this game removed from the shelves because it would probably be right around the time I finally caved-in and wanted to buy it. 
Any Guitar Hero fans? There’s gotta be at least a few of you who are experts out there! Ryan and I were just at a Fry’s Electronics store on Saturday and we stood there watching a guy playing a song, on expert, without making a single mistake. Talk about being disgusted! What made it worse was that he was in a full business suit and was probably in his late 40’s which means he probably does have a job and can’t sit there playing all day. Absolutely crazy!
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We’d definitely been hearing that Google TV would be hitting sometime in the next month or so, and here we go: Sony’s sending out invites for an October 12 event in New York. We already know we’ll be getting both Bravia Internet TVs and Blu-ray players with Google TV integration, so we’re not banking on any earth-shattering surprises, but you know we’ll be there with bells on, IR blasters set to stun.
Sony holding Google TV event on October 12 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Still trying to get up to speed on the whole net neutrality situation? Check out the intro above for a recap of the basics — it ran during the last Engadget Show as part of our interview with Columbia law professor and noted net neutrality advocate Tim Wu. Then, head after the break for both cuts of the interview — the edited piece that aired with the show and the uncut half-hour version. If you’ve got the time we highly recommend the full-flavor edition — it’s seriously interesting stuff, and Tim’s not afraid to speak his mind on one of the most important tech issues of our time.
Update: And here’s a downloadable copy, for those who were asking.
Continue reading Engadget explains net neutrality — and our full interview with Professor Tim Wu!
Engadget explains net neutrality — and our full interview with Professor Tim Wu! originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The patent shows an array of flash lights that point at different directions, so we presume the camera will detect where the subject is and turn on the nearest flash.
What you have pictured here is the latest Sonos music device. In person the Sonos Wireless Dock is exactly what you were thinking when you read the press release yesterday. The demo unit had a special Sonos branded half case that left the bottom unaltered, because like many other docks, the cases get in the way of proper docking. The dock does accept the standard iPod dock inserts, so maybe there’s still hope that a case manufacturer will ship it with a special insert made with the intent to simplify the life of one who like to use both an iPod case, and a dock together.
Sonos Wireless Dock hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you think there’s something in the air, you could know for sure by just pointing your Android phone at it.
An Android app called Visibility, developed by researchers at University of Southern California, lets users take a photo of the sky and get data on the air quality.
The free app is currently available for phones running Android 2.1 version of the operating system.
“Airborne particulate matter is a serious threat to both our health and the environment,” say the researchers on their blog. “We are working towards an optical technique to measure air visibility, and hence an estimate of some kinds of air pollution, using cameras and other sensors available on smartphones.”
It’s a neat idea and it’s interesting to see how smartphones are giving rise to the trend of citizen science and crowdsourced data.
As smartphones become ubiquitous and increasingly powerful, researchers are increasingly using the devices to do complex computations and use it for crowdsourced data gathering. For instance, as part of a project called ‘Common Sense’ Intel’s research labs developed sensors that could be attached to GPS-enabled phones and measure air quality. The data gathered from these sensors would be brought back and processed to help researchers understand pollution levels.
The Visibility Android app hopes to offer something similar but make the process more user friendly.
With the Visibility app, each user photo of the sky is tagged with location, orientation and time. The data is transferred to a server where the calculations take place. The level of air quality is estimated by calibrating the images sent and comparing their intensity against an existing model of luminance in the sky, say the researchers.
The result is sent back to the user and the data is also used to create pollution maps for the region. An iPhone version of the app is in the works.
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Photo: Mobile Sensing/USC Robotics
[via TreeHugger and Gizmag]
It turns out you don’t need to spend big money for a home theater projector. Well, not huge money, anyway. JVC has just introduced a low-cost home theater projector that for the first time provides advanced D-ILA technology at an entry-level price. Called the DLA-HD250 by JVC Consumer and the DLA-HD250Pro by JVC Professional, it’s priced below $3,000 and delivers a 25,000:1 native contrast ratio and 1,000 ANSI lumens brightness.
Features of the dual-named projector include a 2x motorized zoom lens with auto dust cover, as well as on-screen customizable gamma control and ultra-quiet operation. While meant for a home theater set-up, JVC stresses that it can be used in brighter areas, such as a bar or restaurant.
Still washing your own hair? Lie back, think of Japan, and let Panasonic’s hair-washing bot do the job.
With the Sonos Wireless Dock you can play all of the music from an iPod or iPhone in every room where you’ve installed a Sonos ZonePlayer. It will be available for $119 beginning by the end of October.
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