Xbox 360 Update Preview discs are in the mail

Xbox Live Update Preview Disc

If you signed up the Xbox 360 preview program it’s time to start camping out by your mailbox and pestering your delivery person — the update discs are shipping. A few lucky gamers now have their sneak peak at the next Xbox Live update and free copy of Halo: Reach in hand, and one was kind enough to send us the shot above to prove it. The disc bears a serious warning though: do not try and install it on a non-preview approved system. Doing so will completely disable Xbox Live until the update is officially released, which may be months away. So, if your friend got a disc don’t even think about trying to mooch your way into the beta program. After all, what fun is playing Halo if you’re stuck trying to save Reach by yourself?

[Thanks, Adam]

Xbox 360 Update Preview discs are in the mail originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rock Your Next Block Party with these Eight Great Grilling Gadgets [Home Mod]

Spring is here! And that means one thing: The return of backyard parties. To throw a slammin’ backyard barbecue, all you really need are great grilled foods, and free-flowing cold drinks. Where to begin? With seven cool gadgets (and one robot) that will make your shindig a success. More »

Sony shoots out CineAlta F65 4K camera and PMW-TD300 3D camcorder at NAB

The current trend in the world of home theater may seem like 3D cinematography is all the hype these days, but Sony’s latest imager in its CineAlta family begs to differ. Unveiled at the 2011 NAB Show, this F65 mammoth camera (pictured right) packs one beastly 20.4 megapixel, Super 35mm CMOS sensor — a huge leap from the F35’s 12.4 megapixel 1080p CCD. Aside from the obvious quantitative difference, what’s special about this new chip is that unlike the Bayer BG-GR subpixel matrix on conventional 4K sensors, here we have green pixels forming the 4K grid while an RB-BR matrix fills in the space, thus doubling the number of horizontal pixels to 8K for a finer 4K picture (see illustration after the break), as well as allowing better visual effects editing using the extra data. What’s more, this sensor is fast — not only can it capture up to 72fps on 4K, but it can also crank up to a smooth 120fps on 2K. As for those seeking to squeeze out every bit of detail from their clips, don’t worry: the F65’s got you covered with a 16-bit RAW output (19Gbps) at 4K resolution, or it can be compressed to 5Gbps for the convenience of recording onto the new SR-R4 portable 4K recorder. Looks like Sony’s finally found a candidate that’ll put a lid on film stock, but then again, at the end of the day it’ll depend on the price tag when it comes out in Q3 this year.

Of course, Sony isn’t going to just ignore the 3D scene here. Also announced at NAB is the PMW-TD300, which will be the first professional 3D camcorder sporting a shoulder mount. Featuring a pair of Exmor 3CMOS sensors, hardcore cameramen will finally be able to go mobile with this new toy while filming 3D in 1080p. Not sure how the videos will turn out, though — we’re not keen on the idea of watching shaky and potentially nauseating 3D captured by someone running along the sideline. Anyhow, this camera will be up for grabs in Autumn this year.

[Thanks, Blackjack]

Continue reading Sony shoots out CineAlta F65 4K camera and PMW-TD300 3D camcorder at NAB

Sony shoots out CineAlta F65 4K camera and PMW-TD300 3D camcorder at NAB originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ralph Lauren solar backpack gets a luxury price

Luxury label releases a water-resistant solar backpack that provides a useful 3.45 watts of power to charge mobile gadgets.

BlackBerry Bold Touch 9930 gets the hands-on treatment, complete with elevator music (video)

Have the leaked specs and tutorial video got you yearning for more BlackBerry Bold Touch coverage? Well, today’s your lucky day, RIM-o-philes, because we’ve got new some moving pictures with real, live human fingers doing the touchscreen two-step on the diminutive display of a next-gen Bold 9930 (codename Montana). Though a small sample, the footage does confirm earlier reports that the screen is quite responsive, so it shouldn’t have trouble making capacitive converts out of those in the optical trackpad troop. We know, BlackBerry World and the new Bold’s debut can’t come soon enough, so do some self-soothing, view the new vid, and breathe — you’ll have your hands on one before you know it.

Continue reading BlackBerry Bold Touch 9930 gets the hands-on treatment, complete with elevator music (video)

BlackBerry Bold Touch 9930 gets the hands-on treatment, complete with elevator music (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leaked docs suggest Verizon Droid Incredible 2 will be a world phone

HTC’s Droid Incredible 2 for Verizon hasn’t exactly been the best kept secret over the past few months, and it looks like some of the remaining few details about the phone have now also been cleared up by yet more leaked documents obtained by Android Central. Assuming they are indeed legit, it’s looking like the Incredible 2 will be a world phone with both CDMA and GSM connectivity, and that it will boast a new 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera to go along with the standard 8 megapixel shooter ’round back. You can also apparently count on getting a 16GB microSD card with the phone, and that use of the 3G mobile hotspot will cost you an extra $20 for 20GB, at least according to the document — although Android Central rightly notes that may well be a typo. Here’s hoping Verizon finally clears up some of those details itself sooner rather than later.

Leaked docs suggest Verizon Droid Incredible 2 will be a world phone originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 15:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PlayStation boss: Nintendo 3DS a ‘babysitting tool’

“No self-respecting twentysomething is going to be sitting on an airplane with one of those,” says Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Jack Tretton. “He’s too old for that.”

Acer changes its logo, hopes to start afresh

Over in Acer HQ, it’s out with the old and in with the new. Having bid ciao to former CEO Gianfranco Lanci, the Taiwanese company is now slapping a fresh coat of paint and a softer typeface upon its corporate identity. The new Acer green is lighter and brighter and the more rounded new shape looks a lot safer for kids to play around with, should the occasion ever arise. We doubt this will make a big difference in the company’s push to be “more like Apple,” but hey, at least we now have a visual marker to distinguish the products that came before this shift in strategy from those that come after.

Continue reading Acer changes its logo, hopes to start afresh

Acer changes its logo, hopes to start afresh originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets

Well, it’s a bit past the end of March, but Intel has now finally gotten official with its new Atom Z670 processor for tablets, which you might know better by its Oak Trail codename. Built using a 45nm manufacturing process, the Z670 runs at 1.5GHz and promises to support 1080p video with the aid of Intel’s GMA 600 integrated graphics, while also keeping power consumption to a minimum and allowing for smaller, thinner, and fanless devices. As we’ve seen, there’s also plenty of manufacturers already lined up to release devices based on the processor, and Intel says we can expect to see over 35 “innovative tablet and hybrid designs” from the likes of Fujitsu, Lenovo, Razer and Viliv over the course of 2011. What’s more, Intel also took the opportunity to tease its next generation 32nm Cedar Trail platform that it will be showing off at its Developer Forum in Beijing, saying that it will enable a “new wave of fanless, cool and quiet, sleek and innovative netbooks, entry-level desktops and all-in-one designs.” Full press release is after the break.

Continue reading Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets

Intel rolls out Atom Z670 Oak Trail processor for tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Taskforce Websites Target OS Inconsistencies

This article was written on August 11, 2008 by CyberNet.

There are a lot of things that are often overlooked when designing a new operating system whether it be Windows, the Mac operating system, or any of the various distributions of Linux. For example, have you noticed that the Internet Explorer image placeholder icon has remained the same for a LONG time or that the icon for an Internet Connection in Vista is designed for Windows XP? When using Mac OS X, have you noticed that there is no cut option in the Finder or that moving files in Finder displays a copy dialog? The examples we listed may seem frivolous, but they are the little things that get overlooked.

What is a user supposed to do when they notice some of these things? Thanks to Long Zheng of istartedsomething.com, users can go to either the Aqua Taskforce to “find, publish and rate user experience quirks in Mac OS X” or the Aero Taskforce to do the same for user experience quirks in Windows Vista. Istartesomething.com has been a popular place to go for news about Microsoft and Windows, and the author, Long Zheng found that it might be helpful to have a place where people can go to point out some of the quirks in Vista. Once that became a hit, people requested something similar for Mac OS X.

aero taskforce.png

It’s a great idea he had, and now there are two Taskforce sites available:

Mashable points out how these Taskforce sites could mean accidental success for Long Zheng. He reengineered his code once he added the Aqua Taskforce so that log-ins would work for both sites, and any other Taskforce sites in the future. Mashable says, “With this re-engineering he has created a backend to a system that will allow him to deploy any new taskforce site in literally minutes. So any company that would find something like this useful could be up and running wiht their own task-force site minutes after contacting Long“. It’s a simple idea, yet one that could turn out to be a huge success.

Now speaking of quirks, what are some other quirks that you have found in Windows, Mac OS X, or even Linux?

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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