Hasta La Gadget!

Along with its introduction of the HD 5830, ATI announced the HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 card yesterday, which predictably comes with six DisplayPort outputs and enables that hallowed six-screen gaming overload that the Eyefinity branding has been about since the beginning. Some lucky scribes over at PC Pro have been treated to a live demonstration of what gaming at 5,760 x 2,160 feels like, and their understated response was to describe it as “far more immersive.” No kidding. They did raise the spectral figure of those monitor bezels, however, pointing out that bezel correction — where the image “behind the bezel” is rendered but hidden making the overall display look like a window unto the game world — habitually obscured text and game HUD elements. In their view, the sweet spot remains a triple-screen setup, and we’re inclined to agree (particularly if they look like this). For those interested in getting their multi-monitor gaming up and running, we’ve linked an invaluable guide from HardOCP below, which breaks down how much you can expect from ATI’s current HD 5000 series of cards, and also provides a video guide to setting your rig up.

ATI’s six-screen Eyefinity madness reviewed, fatal flaw found originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 26 Feb 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now here’s a spec sheet maven’s dream: MSI has just announced its new Wind Top all-in-ones, and the top model brings every modern spec you can think of. Full HD resolution, 3D capabilities with 120Hz refresh rates, Intel processors up to Core i7, and even multitouch adorn its list of goodies. The new flagships will be known as the Wind Top AE2420 in the 24-incher category and AE2280 in the 22-inch class. They’re joined by a selection of high-efficiency machines, such as the AP1920 and AE1920, which promise to cut down the electricity bills for “environmentally-minded business users.” That’s still hardly scratching the surface, though, as MSI is really preparing a small army of AIOs to display at CeBIT, and you can bet the house we’ll be there to touch and ogle at their latest and greatest.

MSI converges everything with 24-inch 3D HD Wind Top all-in-one originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Feb 2010 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Feel like making your own 3D movie? That 3D camcorder and the bucket of blue paint alone won’t be enough — consider Panasonic‘s new BT-3DL2550 3D production monitor. This 1920 x 1200 IPS display relies on an Xpol filter for the 3D magic through passive polarizing glasses (like the ones in the 3D cinemas; two pairs included), and sports two HD-SDI ports plus a DVI-D socket — both are for jacking your beastly video processing rigs, while the former also take direct feed from HD cameras. Little else is known about this professional Panny screen, but given the jaw-dropping $9,900 price we’d expect a pretty impressive stat sheet when it comes out in September.

Continue reading Panasonic launches BT-3DL2550 25.5-inch 3D IPS monitor, breaks your piggy bank

Panasonic launches BT-3DL2550 25.5-inch 3D IPS monitor, breaks your piggy bank originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just how good is the iPad’s pixel upscaling, the trick that makes it possible to run iPhone apps full-screen on the new magical wonder-pad? Not very, it seems.

IPhone (and now iPad) developer Kevin Ng took his game, WordCrasher, and fired it up in the new iPad software development kit (SDK). Using the iPad simulator, he hit the 2x button (actually more like 4x, as the pixels are doubled in two directions) and, well, pixelarity ensued, with jaggies spoiling the clean lines of his pastel-colored letter-tiles (WordCrasher is a kind of stressful, Tetris-inspired Scrabble game).

Next, Ng reworked the graphics for the full-screen of the iPad, and the results look lovely. Of course, the full effect can’t really be seen on your computer, as the screen resolution of the iPad is higher. What you can see, though, is the result of “bump maps and other shader techniques” which are available thanks to OpenGL ES 2.0. You’ll need to click through to Ng’s site to see the full-sized images.

One comment from Ng caught our eye: “Apple is keen for us developers to create strong real world metaphors by simulating real world materials, objects and their behaviors.” You know what Steve Jobs said about having “the internet in your hand”? It seems that Apple is pretty serious about that, rather than it being just a throw-away line. In fact, Andy Ihnatko* of the Chicago Sun Times said on MacBreak Weekly this week that the screen is so fast and responsive it feels like you are moving physical objects around the screen.

All this bodes well for the “Giant iPhone”. And remember, thanks to the lack of multitasking and the closed App Store, your iPad will still run this quick after a year, something we can’t say about our Macs and PCs.

What does a game running natively on the iPad look like? [Kevin Ng Games]

*Ihnatko’s name is actually built-in to the OS X spell-check. Pretty awesome.

Yeah, you can snag a TV larger than this, but good luck finding a 150-inch set with an OLED panel. In a presumed effort to quietly exert superiority over those “other guys,” Mitsubishi is purportedly planning to unveil a 149-inch OLED TV at ISE 2010, which kicks off in earnest next week — though, we have to say, we sure hope it’s not one of those modular units that we saw at CEATEC. Unfortunately, the native resolution of just 1,088 x 640 is downright boring, but we’re forcing ourselves to focus on the positives here. Essentially, something like this wouldn’t have much use outside the world of digital signage, but man, talk about making an impact on to-be customers. So, Mitsu — when’s the 1080p 4K version coming out?

Update: Ugh — looks as if this will be based around the modular technology we spotted at CEATEC. So much for our hopes and dreams.

Mitsubishi to introduce preposterously large 149-inch OLED TV at ISE 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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