Wires are some of the most basic components of the modern world, which practically guarantees that most of us take them for granted. But as English Russia so kindly shows us, the process behind our messy heaps of wiring is anything but ordinary.
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Native Instruments just released version 2.0 of its beat production software Maschine, and alongside it, Maschine Studio, a hot new hardware controller. As its name implies, this is some serious music machinery.
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Manufacturing of the aging Wii game console will end “soon,” Nintendo of Japan says. Kotaku spotted the note on a product page for the Wii on Nintendo’s website, which reads “Manufacturing is scheduled to end soon.” It’s unclear if this affects worldwide production or just Japan, but we’ve asked Nintendo for more info.
The news doesn’t come as a huge surprise, though, as Nintendo’s new game console comes with the ability to play Wii games built-in. A recent update even added the ability to play said Wii games directly on the Wii U gamepad screen — the main selling point of owning a Wii U. It also doesn’t hurt that tens of millions of Wiis are already out there in the world, Nintendo having finally sated the years-long demand for the seven year old console.
Filed under: Gaming, HD, Microsoft
Via: Kotaku
Source: Nintendo of Japan
It’s no secret that Nine Inch Nails’ frontman Trent Reznor likes to do things a bit differently. He and long-time art director Rob Sheridan have assembled a crew to make the group’s festival dates this year as visually stunning as the audio promises to be. Along with a slew of other high-tech gadgetry, there’s a Kinect that handles motion tracking with captured movements projected onto a handful of mobile video screens. Alongside thermal and regular ol’ video cameras, live video content is piped on-stage during specific parts of the set — with a hand from the folks at Moment Factory, a multimedia environment studio. Reznor also notes that much of the system is “a bunch of homemade software and hardware effects that they’ve tied together” with the goal of creating a film-like quality to an hour and a half performance. For a 13-minute, behind the scenes look at the prep work, head on past the break.
Filed under: Misc, Peripherals, Alt
Source: Nine Inch Nails (Tumblr)
Before we arrive, his manager, Hex Murda, warns us that the producer’s setup is “minimal.” It’s hard to say, precisely what that means in these days of bedroom superstars, but we’ve done our best to tamp down expectations in the wake of our visit to the sprawling analog forests of John Vanderslice’s Tiny Telephone studios. Black Milk moved to Dallas from his native Detroit roughly eight months before, to a relatively quiet street 10 minutes from downtown. In spite of having lived in the space for the better part of a year, the apartment has that just-moved-in feel. There aren’t many places to sit, unless you’re willing to set up camp on top of one of the stacked boxes of Synth or Soul 12-inches he and his girlfriend are packing up ahead of the upcoming Record Store Day. Not exactly the sort of studio environment one anticipates when visiting one of alternative hip-hop’s leading producers / MCs with a resume that includes the likes of Slum Village, Guilty Simpson and Jack White.
“I’m thinking of extending the studio out there,” he tells us. At the moment, there’s not a lot in the common area, save for a couch and a TV he says he never really watches. It would be ideal for some additional recording equipment and the drum set he left back in Michigan, assuming the neighbors don’t mind, that is. For the time being, however, it’s ground zero for Black Milk mail order — buy something through blackmilk.biz, and there’s a pretty good chance it’ll be boxed up and shipped out by one of the apartment’s two residents.
Lithium’s kind of a big deal. It powers everything from our gadgets to our cars—really our entire modern world. And that’s not changing any time soon; some analysts estimate that demand could grow up to 25% over the next several years. But how does one harness the power of a metal that bursts into flame every time it gets wet? How do you even get it out of the ground?
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When Apple’s Tim Cook revealed that his company would once more assemble a Mac line in the US, there was a flood of questions almost immediately: which model? Where would it be made? While the CEO isn’t revealing all his cards quite yet, he just gave us a better sense of those domestic production plans through a Politico interview. The American Mac will be a new iteration of an existing family, Cook says. It also won’t just be a collection of parts shipped from overseas, as multiple pieces will come from Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky and Texas. We’re glad to hear that Apple’s partial shift to US manufacturing is sincere, although the timing of the news isn’t coincidental: Cook is about to defend Apple’s growing offshore cash supply in front a Senate committee, and any visible support for the US economy is likely to burnish his firm’s image.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Apple
Via: The Verge
Source: Politico
Remember the Volkswagen’s E-Up! concept from 2009? The company just announced that it plans to launch a production version of the tiny EV at the Frankfurt Motor Show this fall. It’s been tweaked a little since we last saw it, with proper seating for four (vs. 3+1 on the concept), a revised snout and updated wheels. Under the hood you’ll find an 18.7kWh lithium-ion battery pack and a 60kW electric motor which provide a range of 150km (93 miles) with a respectable top speed of 84mph and a leisurely 0-62mph time of 14 seconds. The car supports quick-charging to 80% capacity in just 30 minutes via DC but also handles traditional AC circuits thanks to a Combined Charging System. The E-Up! will join the existing Up! and Eco-Up! (natural gas) models in Volkswagen’s lineup, but it’s unclear if the company plans to bring the EV to the US. Hit the source link below for the full PR and some additional photos.
Filed under: Transportation
Source: Autoblog green
It’s not just Japan that’s ending production of the PlayStation 2, apparently. Sony tells The Guardian that production is over on a worldwide scale. Of course, it shouldn’t be too hard to find one anytime soon, as Sony says over 1.5 billion units are already out in the wild. Of course, the first production run of Sony’s PlayStation 3 also included full PS2 backwards compatibility, so that number’s magnified even more. And then there’s always the possibility that Sony will eventually put many (or most) of its PlayStation 2 games online in some form. Regardless, it’s a sad day for Sony’s most popular console, and we’re pouring out a cold one for the console that helped birth modern gaming. We’ll miss ya, dude. It was a good run.
Via: Joystiq
Source: The Guardian
It seems not all of Apple’s slinky new iMacs are made in China. Apple Insider is reporting that some of the new standard-spec iMacs are labelled as “Assembled in USA”. More »
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