Ever since Nintendo cut the price of the 3DS last August, the company has been selling the handheld at a loss. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata tells The Independent that won’t be the case for the 3DS XL, as it will be making a profit on each and every one sold. It won’t be that big of a profit, he says, but it’s a profit nonetheless. Unfortunately, Iwata remained resistant to The Independent’s questioning on the price of the Wii U, saying that since the company hasn’t announced a price for the Wii U yet, it’s too early for him to speak on whether or not it will be sold at a profit.
You might also be surprised to hear Iwata say that for future Nintendo consoles and handhelds, 3D will likely only be a minor selling point. He reckons that the excitement of having glasses-free 3D (and indeed, the idea of 3D in general) is waning a bit in consumers, and that video games aren’t only about what you see on the screen:
I think it’s an important element, it makes graphics more impactful, it proves a sense of immersion that 2D doesn’t have, so I would say generally that 3D is better than 2D. It’s nice to have good graphics but not necessarily on their own, so I don’t think we’ll present [3D graphics] as one of the key features of our consoles but will probably stick with 3D as one of the minor elements of our consoles in the future.
Even if 3D isn’t going to be the major selling point in Nintendo consoles moving forward, Nintendo has proven in the past that it’s capable of coming up with new ideas that excite gamers. One only needs to look at the Wii’s motion controls to see that. Nintendo is hoping for a repeat of the Wii’s success with the Wii U and its tablet-like controller, but whether or not consumers will bite remains to be seen.
Oh, and for the record, even though Iwata admits that the smartphone gaming scene has changed the way we play and make portable games, he thinks there’s still room for smartphones and dedicated handhelds to exist alongside one another so long as the handheld manufacturers can deliver worthwhile exclusives. If the company can do that, then he thinks Nintendo will have a “chance to survive” in 2012′s portable gaming arena.
MIT researchers have cooked up a new glasses-free 3D system that supports multiple viewers watching from different perspectives, and relies on existing cheap technologies rather than expensive holograms. The Media Lab Camera Culture Group stacked multiple LCD panels on top of each other, each running at a high refresh rate, and which show slightly different perspectives of the same image or video frame, which the human eye adds up to a 3D picture.
Existing glasses-free 3D displays have butted up against significant issues which have limited their usefulness in the home environment. Some use cameras to track the user’s eyes and adjust the angle of two slightly offset images being shown through a fresnel lens, such as Toshiba’s F750 3D laptop, but the system only works with a single set of eyes.
Alternative approaches use multiple lenses to increase the number of simultaneously supported viewers, but generally require those people be in specific positions in relation to the screen in order for the effect to work. Holograms, meanwhile, are considerably more expensive than most current high-end displays.
What MIT has done is use straightforward, inexpensive LCD panels paired with clever processing. The system is similar to that used by the Nintendo 3DS, but uses three panels which collectively filter the light so that it changes depending on the angle of viewing. One technical requirement for smooth video is the refresh rate, which needs to be 360Hz – most high-end panels run at 240Hz at present, though going 50-percent faster shouldn’t present manufacturers with too great a challenge.
The prototype can create a glasses-free 3D viewing angle of 20-degrees, but a special two-panel version with a special lens sheet in-between that has been boosted to 50-degrees. Heavy-duty graphics processing is required to manage the data feed, but the latest high-end video cards are capable of that. More details in the video below.
Right on schedule, the AirPlay sporting, built-in WiFi and Bluetooth AV receiver we told you all about last month is officially available. The 7.2 channel, 145-watt per channel STR-DN1030 retails for $499 and is the first AV receiver to not require some sort of dongle or other accessory, to connect wirelessly to your other gadgets. That means it is all that much easier to stream music to it from your Apple AirPlay, DLNA, or Sony Entertainment Network source. All seven of the inputs on the back support HD and of course the usual assortment of audio codecs and video up conversion features you’d expect are included. Still not sure it’s right for your home theater? Maybe the additional details in the press release after the break will push you over the edge.
If you like your portable gaming three-dimensional, clam-shelled and big, then Nintendo’s 3DS XL fulfills those broad, unconventional requirements. It’s a design refresh that more closely references both previous generations of DS hardware (and the incoming Wii U) — all while touting a substantially bigger, 3D-capable, parallax-barrier screen. Aside from a larger battery, the XL’s internals rehash what we first saw over a year ago: the controls remain the same, with no addition of a (mildly) hardcore gamer-courting second analog stick. For what it’s worth, the device does arrive with a 4GB SD card in-box (up from 2GB in the original), matching the approximate doubling in physical dimensions. 18 months is a long time in gaming, especially these days, and although 3DS sales have recently rallied against Sony’s latest, we reckon the 3DS XL has double the appeal of its forebear. We’ll explain why right after the break.
Samsung’s D8000 was our TV of choice back in 2011, and the company is hoping to repeat its success with the new 2012 flagship, the Samsung UN55ES8000. A 55-inch behemoth, though with strikingly delicate design, the ES8000 ticks just about every box you’d expect for a modern Smart TV, and then some more after that. It also has a hefty $3,749.99 RRP, so can the quality live up to the cost? Read on for the SlashGear review.
Hardware
Handsome and imposing: Samsung’s 2012 design language involves plenty of silver metal and narrow bezels, allowing the LED LCD panel to speak for itself. The stand does away with the splayed legs of the last-gen model and replaces them with more discrete curving bars, though the ES8000 is no less stable for it.
The screen itself measures – on our review model – 55-inches and runs, unsurprisingly, at 1920 x 1080 Full HD resolution. Overall, the set is 1.2-inches thick, excluding the detachable stand (that’s 8.3-inches deep) and stands 30-inches tall and 48.4-inches wide.
Even those with multiple external sources to hook up should have no issues connecting the ES8000. The ports are arrayed in an L-shape along the lower left side of the rear of the set, emerging parallel to the back so as to keep things flat and slim. There are three HDMI, a VGA, component, two sets of composite, three USB 2.0, optical digital, DVI and PC audio, and RF inputs, along with ethernet and integrated WiFi. If we were being picky then we’d liked to have seen a fourth HDMI, preferably side-mounted for impromptu use. Samsung bundles four pairs of active shutter 3D glasses.
There’s also what Samsung refers to as its “Evolution Kit”, a new addition for 2012 models. In effect a – currently empty – expansion bay, the idea is that as Samsung releases new features it can retroactively upgrade its existing models with the use of plug-in boards. Of course, as a new idea it’s untested, and so we’ll have to wait to see if it addresses upgrade anxiety along the line.
For the best results, it’s still sensible to ignore the integrated speakers in any TV and rely on a proper surround sound system – or at the very least a solid 2.1 setup – if you want your ears to be as well-treated as your eyes. Still, the two 10W down-firing speakers on the ES8000 aren’t the worst we’ve heard. There’s also a webcam on the top edge, built into a discrete bump, and flanked by two microphones.
Remote Controls
Samsung includes not one but two remotes with the ES8000, along with a discrete joystick-nub on the right edge for controlling the set up-close. The regular remote is long and thin, encrusted with buttons for navigating menus and channels, controlling volume, attached DVD/Blu-ray/DVR boxes (via HDMI link) and is backlit for nighttime use.
The second “Smart Touch Remote Control” is far more interesting. Shorter than the regular model, it pares back the controls to the bare minimum: there are volume and channel scrolls; power, home, timer and source keys; back, voice control and number shortcuts; all around a trackpad surface. With it, you can swipe your way around menus, but thanks to its integrated microphone you can also give the TV voice commands. We’ve covered that comprehensively in our Samsung Smart TV hands-on.
There are also some non-standard options for those who want even more control. The free Android Smart View App runs on phones and tablets, and as long as your ES8000 is on the same network – either wired or wireless, since the TV has both options – you can control it from your touchscreen. There’s also a Samsung wireless keyboard, which gives you full-sized text input as well as media control buttons with a Bluetooth connection, though we did not have that as part of our review package.
Samsung Smart TV Voice Gesture and Face Recognition hands-on
Performance
Samsung’s 2011 D8000 impressed us with its panel quality, and we can see ourselves recycling the hyperbole for the 2012 ES8000. Brightness is generally even, though there’s a little bloom around the edges, but it’s the accuracy of the colors and the detail that particularly wow. The default settings tend toward the over-saturated, as usual, but after spending some time adjusting them we were very pleased with how accurate flesh tones and other hues appeared.
Samsung quotes a meaningless dynamic contrast ratio – 30,000,000:1, no less – but the D8000 handles itself with aplomb. Whites are clean and pure, while blacks are almost as inky and saturated as we’re used to from Samsung’s AMOLED phones. There was no blurring in fast-moving scenes or sports.
Obviously there’s 3D support as well, using Samsung’s preferred active-shutter technology. That rapidly obscures and opens each lens alternately, matching the TV’s own flicking between frames intended for each eye. It works well, and we were able to watch 3D movies back-to-back without the sort of eye-strain headaches that can often result from poorly-synchronized content. A nice touch is that Samsung charges just $19.99 for each subsequent pair of active-shutter glasses, a far cry from the early days of $50 or more.
Of course, few people rely solely on live TV and DVD/Blu-ray for their entertainment these days, and so Samsung has built in multiple options for the internet age. Scroll through the (somewhat busy and intimidating) menu and there are options for VUDU, Hulu Plus, Netflix, MLB.TV, Pandora, Ustream, CinemaNow, MTV Music Meter, YouTube and more, some of which require a subscription to access. You also get a web browser, Facebook and a “Fitness” app that replicates a little of the Wii Fit experience.
It’s a mixed bag of usefulness – we can see Netflix and Hulu Plus being of most use to most owners – though the navigation experience itself can be sluggish and frustrating at times. We particularly liked the Skype support, which turns the ES8000 into a huge video conferencing system. Audio quality from the microphones by the webcam proved surprisingly clear, even when we were sat across the room. Samsung offers numerous downloadable apps through its own app-store to augment the Smart TV experience, though as it’s the company’s own system rather than, say, Google TV, it’s questionable how many third-party companies will come onboard.
Wrap-Up
Samsung’s ES8000 is a worthy update to its predecessor, and the company demonstrates its edge over much of the competition with the Smart TV functionality. Is it worth the humongous RRP? That’s a null point, given retailers are already discounting it by more than $1,250. You’re still paying a lot for a TV, but it’s less than the D8000 was at roughly the same point in its lifecycle, and that strikes us as a comparative bargain. The more unusual control options are mixed in their usefulness, but the core range of streaming and on-demand content choices are hugely impressive and broaden the ES8000′s appeal beyond the usual TV, movies and gaming.
A South Korean company called CJ Group is bringing 4D movie theaters to the U.S. That means for $8 more, audiences in New York and L.A. will get a full sensory experience that includes back ticklers, strobe lights, and smell-o-vision. If that doesn’t sound vomit-inducing, I don’t know what is. More »
LG unveiled today in Korea two new notebooks with eh N550 and N450. Both model come with a wide selection of Core i5 and Core i7 Ivy Bridge CPUs, as well as an AMD Radeon HD7650 Graphics and a slim bezel design. The N550 comes with a nice 15” screen with a HD Plus resolution (1600×900) and 3D, while the N450 comes with a 14” screen with a 1366×768 resolution. While LG did not communicate on the N550 price, the N450 will be however sold at around 1.69 Million Won.
Universal Classic Monsters: The Essential Collection will arrive on shelves October 2nd, and pack eight classic horror movies, all restored so they can be seen in the highest quality possible. Among the releases is Creature from the Black Lagoon restored for Blu-ray 3D (yes, like Dial M for Murder it was originally shot and released in 3D back in 1954), as well as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and Phantom of the Opera. This is all a part of the ongoing Universal centennial celebration that’s seeing its vaults unleash many of our favorites for the first time in high definition. After the break you can check out a featurette detailing the process undertaken to prep Dracula for Blu-ray release, as well as a press release with details on all of the flicks and which extras are included for each movie. Of course, the downside of a pack like this is that it’s pricey — the MSRP is $160, but it’s available for preorder on Amazon currently priced at $112.
While Ridley Scott’s Prometheus is still in theaters, it’s been available for preorder on Blu-ray 3D since before the flick debuted, and now Amazon France has exposed the full list of extras on the way. The bad news, pointed out by Movies.com and Prometheus Forum, is that those anticipating a classic Ridley Scott Director’s Cut to fill in plot holes appear to be in for a disappointment — while there are 15 minutes of extended / cut scenes, there’s no indication that you’ll be able to watch the movie with them reinserted. There are a lot of other extras, including a director’s commentary, extensive making-of featurettes, many of the short viral videos that were posted previously and production materials, along with a Second Screen iPad app. The specific set listed includes the other Alien flicks, but since we’re sure you’ve already snagged the Anthology with its MU-TH-UR interactive mode you’ll probably be looking for a more limited release. The release date for the set remains October 9th, hit the source link for the listing or check out the full list of features and a trailer after the break.
We have seen some pretty cool pairs of 3D printed shoes just earlier this morning, and here we are with more news on what a 3D printer is capable of – researchers who hail from the University of Pennsylvania and MIT have managed to achieve the triumph of printing 3D filament networks which might serve the role of blood vessels sometime down the road. This is made possible thanks to the implementation of open source RepRap 3D printer alongside a bunch of their own changes, where among them include a customized extruder and control software.
Basically, the research team focused on the vasculature first and designed free-standing 3D filament networks in the shape of a vascular system which remained within a mold. Similar in nature to lost-wax casting, this technique allowed the research team to create the mold and vascular template, removing those as cells were added, resulting in a solid tissue enveloping the filaments as the end result. The entire process is said to be quick and inexpensive, paving the way for researchers to alternate with ease between computer simulations and physical models of multiple vascular configurations.
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