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https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-18-sony-hub-playstation-network-platform-offers-some-free-gaming.html | 2006-03-18 13:00:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony HUB = PlayStation Network Platform, offers some free gaming | Ken Kutaragi finally cleared up most of theuncertaintyaround Sony'sLive-like online servicefor the PS3 this week, outlining a rich environment in which players can interact, download content, play games for free, and engage in micro-payments for in-game commerce. The service-formerly-known-as-Sony-HUBis actually being called the PlayStation Network Platform, and unlike Xbox Live, will offer owners some free gaming at the basic subscription level as well as connect to the regular Intenet and allow members to host their own game servers. Kutaragi also confirmed that games will be bootable from the PS3's hard drive, making it likely that Sony will be selling titles from the original PlayStation and PS2 catalogs for retro gaming fun. Among the usual slew of video chat, avatar creation, ranking, and other community functions we've come to expect from online play is the interesting addition of a "matchmaking" feature, which we're presuming is of the romantic variety, and which you can probably expectPhiladelphia's ABC Action News to issue an "important warning" to parentsabout in the near future.[ViaJoystiq, thanks Luke] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-20-vista-to-directly-support-hd-dvd-blu-ray-to-come-from-3rd-parti.html | 2006-03-20 15:42:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Vista to directly support HD DVD; Blu-ray to come from 3rd parties | We were prettysurprised last weekwhen an unnamed Microsoft spokesperson declared that Windows Vista would include "a great HD DVD and Blu-ray DVD experience." The statement, after all, seemed inconsistent with Microsoft's previous position that the company would directly support only HD DVD. Now it turns out that this is still the case. Microsoft Corporate VP Amir Majidimehr spoke to Chris Lanier, and confirmed that "Microsoft is hard at work in developing native HD DVD playback in Windows Vista ... as we have mentioned time and time again, Microsoft has no plans to provide native Blu-ray playback functionality in Windows Vista. Such functionality will be provided by third parties." We assume the spokesperson who said otherwise is relieved that we don't know his/her name. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-21-hd-syndication-seinfeld-and-jeopardy.html | 2006-03-22 01:00:00+00:00 | [] | Ben Drawbaugh | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | HD syndication: Seinfeld and Jeopardy | Starting on March 27th Sony will start to syndicate HD versions of some of the most popular syndicated shows on Television, including Seinfeld, Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. Syndicated shows are one of the last to go HD mostly because of the challenges involved in distributing the content.Unlike most network content syndicated shows are downloaded to the affiliates via satellite and saved for later when they will be shown and commercials spliced in. This poses all new challenges for networks and content providers. The other problem is that many shows that are syndicated today were originally aired before HD was widespread. Lucky for us most of these shows were originally produced with film, which makes it possible to go back to the source and remaster it in HD, since film has more resolution than HD does. But unfortunately as we have seen with DVD, not all transfers are created equally.No word yet on which networks will take advantage of the new HD programming, stayed tuned for more and please let us know of sightings.Before you ask; Seinfeld was 4x3 and HD isn't going to change that.As a TWIHD reader once pointed out, not all HD is 16x9 and not all 16x9 is HD.via [AVSForum.com] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-22-your-mighty-mice.html | 2006-03-22 13:00:00+00:00 | [] | Dave Caolo·Managing Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Your mighty mice! | Yesterday,we linked toanimagethat showed up on Flickr that seemed to be the red, glowing visage of a mouse as generated by the light on the underside of an Apple Mighty Mouse. Whether or not Apple intended for their mice to put on this little display is really irrelevant, as it's just fun to show people ("Hey, want to see my mouse's mouse?"). A number of you sent in pictures of your own mice generating the little guy (apparently it works with the older Apple Pro Mice, too). Thanks toZach,Jason,JonathanandGary.We're happy to receive more, so feel free to link to an image of your own mouse's...um...inner mouse.**Kids, do not say "mouse" this many times at home. I am a professional. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-22-sony-confirms-ps3-controller-redesign.html | 2006-03-23 00:00:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony confirms PS3 controller redesign | In an unfortunate turn of events for the legions of Australian video game fans, Sony's president of the Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios division Phil Harrison announced today that the upcomingPlayStation 3 controllerwill be unable to pull double duty as a precision kangaroo killer. Apparently the boomerang/banana shape that we've come tohatedespisedetestacceptas thePS3'smajor drawback is being "tossed" in favor of an unspecified redesign (NOT the one pictured here) that will be unveiled at E3 in May, mentioned Harrison in a speech that was mainly about the Xbox Live-likePlayStation Network Platform. There's a lot of pressure on Sony here to unveil something appealing for several reasons: they need to placate the vocal minority of ravenous fanboys who publicly slammed the initial design, but more importantly, they need to prove they can outdesigna bunch of very talented gaming blog readers.[Thanks, Mike] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-23-execs-go-to-jail-do-not-pass-go-in-samsung-dram-price-fixing-ca.html | 2006-03-23 13:00:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Execs go to jail, do not pass go in Samsung DRAM price fixing case | In what might signal the end of the US federal investigation into DRAM price fixing between April 1999 to June 2002, three Samsung execs -- Sun Woo Lee, Yeongho Kang, and Young Woo Lee -- have pled guilty to charges this morning and agreed to pay fines of $250,000 apiece in addition to serving seven-to-eight months in a USluxuryprison. Execs from co-conspirators Hynix Semi, Elpida Memory, Micron Technology, and Infineon Technology had previously plead quilty and agreed to serve time as well. Micron is believed to have been the company that tipped off the feds to the scheme and thus has not beencharged as a company. With this now behind them, Samsung can focus on defending, or coming-clean, to chargesbrought against them by the South Korean FTCof "unfair trading practices" with regard to their NAND flash memory modules. For as they say,relativity applies to physics, not ethics. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-23-playstation-3-to-ship-region-free.html | 2006-03-23 18:38:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | PlayStation 3 to ship region free! | Well we'll be damned. Looks like after all the biz with thePlayStation 3 being delayed,Blu-ray possibly experiencing issues with managed copy, and a load of uncertainty about whether it'll even perform as well as Sony expects (and everyone hopes), Sony's announced PS3 consoles will launch region-free for games. Yeah, you heard us, any game anywhere in the world will play on any PlayStation 3 console purchased in any nation -- in theory. Granted, that doesn't necessarily mean developers will include translations for every language with their game, but could this usher in a new era of nation and language agnostic gaming? Perhaps, perhaps, but if nothing else, keeping it region-free is a very pro-consumer move that will make it easier for game fans to be game fans. Of course that's to say nothing for the homebrew community who will undoubtedly continue to suffer until the end of time, but hey, it's a step.[Thanks, Bruce] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-23-toshiba-delays-hd-dvd-rollout.html | 2006-03-23 19:12:00+00:00 | [] | Richard Lawler·Senior News Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Toshiba delays HD-DVD rollout | The biggest surprise here, is that the "no sh** Sherlock" reaction to thedelay of Sony's Playstation 3has already been trumped twice in two days. We can't decide if this is more obvious than Microsoft'sso-predictable Windows Vista delay(yep, they're still Microsoft), but Toshiba has decided to wait to ship their HD-DVD player until there are actually HD-DVD movies to play on them. Now this is where you show how surprised you are, don't worry, we'll wait.Ready? Ok, although Toshiba has not announced a new date, Warner expects to have titles on store shelves April 18th, so through the power of the cosmos, telekinesis and Google, we predict we'll see players.....April 18th. Sometimes we surprise ourselves with our abilities. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-24-sony-pulls-plug-on-psone-production.html | 2006-03-24 19:07:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony pulls plug on PSone production | After 11 years of existence as one of the most popular consoles of all time, the PSone is finally getting the kibosh from Sony. The original PlayStation, through its original and PSone iterations, has sold over 100 million units, and we're sure brought joy to millions of users worldwide, ourselves included. (Oh come on, Syphon Filter? Final Fantasy Tactics? Parappa? These are true happiness.) Of course, you'll always be able to grab a PSone on eBay if a Spyro urge hits, or just dive into your storage shed to dredge up your original PlayStation, but can we ever truly go back to those days of our youth? The good news is that Sony is working on a PSX emulator for thePSP, and you can always pop an old game into your PS2 or PS3, so hopefully we'll never be far from a little bit of (relatively) old school action.[ViaJoystiq] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-26-lego-mindstorms-nxt-kit-available-for-pre-order-april-1st.html | 2006-03-26 18:00:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit available for pre-order April 1st | Rabid LEGO Mindstorms fans finally have a date to circle on their calendars for hitting the company's website and breaking out their credit cards -- April 1st has been announced as the start of pre-orders for the highly-anticipated newNXT robotics set. We first spotted the revamped kit, which had extensive design-phase input from select members of the Mindstorms community, back at CES, where we managed tocapture a videoof one of the many possible creations doing its thing. As you'll recall from our past coverage, NXT bots use non-traditional stud-less LEGOs, Bluetooth-enabled 32-bit controllers, and three precision servo motors for a much more powerful and flexible tool set than previous offerings. Despite their steep price compared to regular packages, LEGO obviously expects NXT kits to develop a devoted following similar to their predecessors -- buyers are limited to five of the $250 sets during the initial pre-order.[Thanks, Tom W.] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-28-rca-offers-up-four-new-lyra-players-with-a-yawn.html | 2006-03-28 17:05:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | RCA offers up four new Lyra players with a yawn | If the RCA'sLyraline was harboring some sort of hidden cache of street cred, we're not sure how much longer it'll last, thanks to this lackluster offering of low-end DAPs. The RD2112/2115/2117 players to the left are "splash proof" units with 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB of memory respectively. They all feature two-line LCDs, but at least they're fairly cheap at around $110 for the 512MB version. The real excitement begins with the RD2415 carabiner-styled unit. It's a 512MB offering for the same $110, and seems to mirror the rest of the functionality offered by its peers, other than that sweet carabiner action, of course. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-28-rca-lyra-x3000-gets-thumbs-up.html | 2006-03-28 23:15:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | RCA Lyra X3000 gets thumbs-up | Lest you think that RCA (or Thomson, or whoever off in Taipei or Guangzhou designs these) only makes uninspiredcarabiner-sporting DAPs, we're now able to report that the company'sLyra X3000 PMPthat we first caught at CES is now available to buy, and is getting some decent reviews. PC Mag took a look at the $399 unit, and found the X3000 -- which sports a 3.6-inch 320x240 LCD and supports WMA, PlaysForSure, and the ability to record from any analog video source -- offers "solid multimedia performance" and "excellent video file format support." That support, as pointed out by the reviewer, also includes easy recording of even copy-protected DVDs, which can then be played back via a TV or PC, as well as on the X3000. The downside (and there's always a downside)? Lower video quality than some competing products, such as theArchos AV 500, and a relatively skimpy 20GB drive. But those sound like minor quibbles. And we're sure you can rip it open and stuff in a bigger drive if all those ripped DVDs start to take up too much space.[Thanks,Dave] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-29-buslinks-64gb-usb-2-0-flash-drive-pro-2-series.html | 2006-03-29 14:02:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | BUSlink's 64GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PRO 2 Series | We're not exactly sure when BUSlink launched a 64GB -- that's gigabyte, yes -- flash drive, but it's right there on their site, plain as day, handily and smugly smacking down even thelargest of flash drives, available for purchase for $5,000. Apparently they've also got a 32GB (not shown) and 16GB drive for $1,500, but seriously, if this isn't some kind of sick joke catering to our obsession with solid state memory, you know exactly which one it is we'll be promptly devouring as soon as we can sell off enough excess gear and internal organs to afford it. You can run an OS off a flash drive, right? Ok, good.[Thanks, Andrew] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-29-new-optical-disc-standard-joins-the-fray.html | 2006-03-29 20:05:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | New optical disc standard joins the fray | Sure, this new VCDHD (Versatile Compact Disc High Density) from Ukraine and Russia might not be exactly a contender in the Blu-ray VS. HD DVD battle, but at 4.7GB it does hope to give DVD a run for its money over there. The new disc is compatible with current DVD players, but doesn't require the expensive DVD license to be produced. The first title for the new format, "Prorwemos," is a Ukrainian action movie and goes for a mere $4.50. The discs are also cheaper to manufacture than their DVD counterparts, and are half as thick. The next step is bringing blue laser technology to the discs to enable 15GB capacities, which doesn't even bring it into striking range of China'sEVD and VMDhi-def formats, but at least it's a start.[Thanks,Gregg] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-03-31-farewell-konica-minolta-hello-sony.html | 2006-03-31 19:38:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Farewell, Konica Minolta -- hello, Sony! | Well, we knewthis day was coming, but it still makes us a little melancholy when a gadget-maker closes its doors (unless it'sTiger Telematics, that is). Today's the day that, somewhere in Japan, Malaysia, China or wherever else the company does its manufacturing, Konica Minolta produced its last camera. And while the company was never more than an also-ran in the digicam market, it did manage to come up with some good products, including the first DSLRs with an integrated anti-shake system, the Maxxum/Dynax5Dand7D. The company was also handicapped by being late to digital in the first place, not to mention having to hand over $172 million to Honeywell after a jury found that Minolta had stolen autofocus tech from that company (economic woes following the verdict were among the reasons for Minolta's merger with Konica). The good news for fans of the 5D and 7D (as well as film shooters with a lot of Minolta glass) is thatSony plans to introduceits own line of DSLRs that will be compatible with Minolta's lenses, and may also include the anti-shake system. And given Sony's long-standing partnership with Carl Zeiss, there could be an upside to this after all. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-03-the-joy-of-painting-coming-to-revolution-and-ds.html | 2006-04-03 19:25:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Joy of Painting coming to Revolution & DS -- no really, seriously | Bob Ross Inc. announced on Friday that the painting-made-simple guru would soon be immortalized in his very own video game. Sounds like perfect April Fool's fodder, right? Wrong. The untitled Bob Ross video gameisbeing planned for the Nintendo Revolution, DS, and PC. The game has been licensed to developerAGFRAGwho is currently searching for a publisher.AGFRAG's Joseph Hatcher promised, "The Bob Ross game will utilize the unique inputs that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Revolution have that can truly immerse the players while they learn to paint like Bob Ross." He added, "I want the community to share with us ... what they’d like to see in the NDS and Revolution games. We want to keep the brush going." Next-gen killer app, anyone?Check outRevolution Fanboyfor more details. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-03-download-oblivions-horse-armor-for-a-price.html | 2006-04-03 20:55:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Download Oblivion's horse armor, for a price | Oblivion's
infamous horse armor can now be downloaded and imported into your game. Why infamous, you ask? Because it's not free. To be clear, you won't be splurging from yourTamriel gold stockpile, no, you'll be using Microsoft (XBLM) Points (a.k.a.realmoney). Sure, no one's gonna be taking out a loan to cover the $2.50 expense (200 points), but you have to wonder why we're being charged for a measly game item, when in the past, a similar charge would have granted us access to an entire game map.C'mon, if this download came with a side quest, then sure, we'd throw down some points. But, despite our ever-growing addiction toOblivion, we're not itching to hand over additional cash for an item that was supposed to be included in the game's initial release. We realize that extra content takes work, and we're more than happy to compensate the developers and programmers that provide this post-release service, but only when we feel that it warrants compensation. So unfortunately, our (stolen) horses are gonna have to remain armor-less for the time being. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-04-its-time-to-per-order-your-next-gen-hd-movies.html | 2006-04-04 15:30:00+00:00 | [] | Ben Drawbaugh | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | It's time to pre-order your next gen HD movies! | So we can't buy HD-DVD or Blu-Ray just yet, but we can pre-order some movies as well as the players. A reader Erik sent in a tip about one of his favorite online Movie retailers after being impressed with their selection of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray titles. If you go by the number of movies Blu-Ray is way ahead of HD-DVD by about 15 to 4. Unfortunately available titles aren't that interesting, but the prices are. If you go by these prices there isn't much difference between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, well other than the players that is.Thanks Eric! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-05-netflix-taking-blockbuster-to-court.html | 2006-04-05 16:17:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Netflix taking Blockbuster to court | Well, you know how we do in America: if ya can't beat 'em, sue 'em.Netflixis takingBlockbusterto court in California over the latter's online movie rental service, which, while suspiciously similar to Netflix, is certainly not the second DVD rental service available to consumers. We're a little perplexed as to why Netflix would only now be taking Blockbuster to court over their business methodology (i.e. their forming a company that does subscription-based online DVD rental by mail) seeking payment for damages and not, say, Wal-Mart (oh yeah, because they alreadytook over Wal-Mart), but something tells us they're not looking for recompense so much as they're looking for Blockbuster to get the hell off their turf. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-06-san-francisco-selects-google-earthlink-for-citywide-wifi.html | 2006-04-06 11:00:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | San Francisco selects Google/Earthlink for citywide WiFi | As we expected, theGooLink WiFi partnershipbetween Google and Earthlink was judged by a San Francisco city panel as the best candidate to blanket SF in a free-ish, citywide WiFi service. The service, which is expected to cost at least $15-mil to build, will consist of an ad-subsidized 300kbps free service or a $20/mth ad-free 1Mbps service. Of course, the two must now enter contract negotiations with the City which Earthlink is taking the lead on before any, er, wiring can begin. MetroFi came in as first runner-up meaning they'll take the crown should any lewd photos from Larry and Sergei's Stanford days be drudged-up. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-06-isync-2-2.html | 2006-04-06 16:30:00+00:00 | [] | Victor Agreda Jr | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iSync 2.2 | Reader Johnny W. sent this in yesterday, but it took me a while to verify:iSync2.2 is rolled into the 10.4.6 update, and it's quite nice.A while back I had my Motorola V60 working with iSync. See, last year when I got my "new" phone, I bought a $60 cable on ebay for $20 (along with a car and wall charger). This bundle included Moto's phone tools, so I could sync with my PC. About 8 reboots later, it worked! I somehow managed to get it to work with iSync, even if iSync really didn't know what phone it was... but only a few months later, an update killed the connection. The V60 was never listed on the compatible phones chart, and I figured, given the life of phones, it was all over. YetApple's official list of iSync-compatible deviceshas really expanded with 2.2. And there's my lowly V60, along with the PEBL. One big downside appears to be Palm support. Anything with the PalmOne brand is still fine. Anything older now needs theMark/Spaceapp for Palm to sync. That's so lame I can't even talk about it. What am I supposed to do withmy WristPDAnow? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-09-danish-server-admin-exposes-d-links-ntp-vandalism.html | 2006-04-09 17:00:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Danish server admin exposes D-Link's "NTP vandalism" | It seems that incompetence on the part of the coders who write network hardware manufacturing giant D-Link's router firmware, and possibly even more insidious willful ignorance at higher levels of the company, may force Denmark's only networked time server to permanently shut down its vital public service. Apparently thousands of Danish servers use Poul-Henning Kamp'spro bono publicoNTP server to sync their own clocks -- which is hosted for free by the Danish Internet Exchange (DIX) with the understanding that it is restricted to server-level access, but whose address D-Link hard coded into their device firmware without ever having asked Kamp's permission. The traffic from D-Link devices consists of well over 75% of the packets that the server handles, and has caused DIX to hit Kamp with an $8,800 per year connection fee that may mean the end of the free service and extra work for those thousands of Danish admins, not to mention the embarrassment Danes will have to face when mocked for living in an NTP-free technological backwater (despite their army'ssnazzy MP3 pillows). Kamp claims that although D-Link is well aware of the issue (they've since updated some, but not all, of the firmware on their site), but instead of fixing their mistake and encouraging customers to upgrade their firmware, the company simply offered Kamp an unspecified amount of "hush" money that doesn't even cover his most direct expenses. Hey D-Link, please drop us a press release if and when you decide to address this issue, because we think your "NTP vandalism" isn't very cool.[ViaThe Inquirer] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-10-meet-jupiter-koreas-smiley-robot-overlord-er-domestic-servan.html | 2006-04-10 15:14:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Meet Jupiter, Korea's smiley robot overlord, er, domestic servant | Last time we checked out the prototype for Korea's plannedrobot-in-every-homeinitiative, the little fella didn't look like much; just acomputer-rendered mockupwith a big ol' smiley face to disarm suspicious robophobes. But the tiny terminator has come a long way in just a few short weeks. It now has a name -- Jupiter -- and there are photos of what looks to be an actual working prototype interacting with a human who foolishly thinks she's controlling it. Jupiter can reportedly emulate emotions, body language and do lots of other creepy stuff, including recite stories to the kids. It also comes equipped with a handy flip out LCD display, so it can double as an entertainment unit -- and boasts pointy appendages that we can only assume are used both as sensory devices and for defensive (and offensive) purposes. Jupe is able to plug itself in to recharge without help, and can respond to voice commands -- or pleas for mercy. As previously noted, the bot will get its marching orders wirelessly over the net.The invasionbegins in October. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-10-pink-chocolate-lg-says-yes.html | 2006-04-10 16:59:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Pink Chocolate? LG says yes | LG has thoroughly trashed their black andwhite "chocolate"metaphor with their new pink LG Chocolate, the LG-SV590. With 350,000 of the slim-slider Chocolate phones sold so far, it's hard to fault LG for releasing the phone in a new color, but we were kind of digging the whole edible motif. No matter, the phone still has its 2-inch QVGA screen, 512MB of memory, and LG even has aUS versionin the works. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-12-tdk-hard-at-work-on-8-layer-200gb-blu-ray-disc.html | 2006-04-12 22:04:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | TDK hard at work on 8-layer 200GB Blu-ray Disc | Since Sony, et al. hammered out theBlu-ray Discspec, there's been speculation, theorization, anddiscussionof an 8-layer 200GB disc. Sony even supposedly had someworking 200GB BRD demosway back in 2004. Well, now those mammoth coasters are in the works over atTDK, who apparently hope to commercialize the firstpresumablyquad-layered dual-sided discs (or possibly octo-layered single-sided discs -- yeah, right). They're not giving it up as to when these discs could come out or how much they'll cost, but right now we're more worried about just getting our hands on some players, you know?[ViaTechDigest] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-13-early-hd-dvd-flicks-to-be-1080p.html | 2006-04-13 18:44:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Early HD DVD flicks to be 1080p | Early scans of the boxes from some of the first flicks to be released on HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc are starting to show up, and it looks like at least some of the first releases will ship in 1080p. DVDActive has shots of the boxes from several HD DVD movies, including "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Last Samurai," and they're listed as being in 1080p. No word yet if this is an across-the-board thing, or whether the early BD titles are also 1080p (DVDActive only has the fronts of the BD boxes). But this is sure to be good news for anyone planning to build a collection of discs; at least you won't have to toss them when you can finally buy a 1080p-capable player. Of course, that doesn't mean you won't still be chucking your discs before you have a chance to watch them in true 1080p glory. After all, there is that pesky format war going on ...[ViaHD Beat] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-14-mac-quake-4-now-shipping.html | 2006-04-14 18:55:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Mac Quake 4 now shipping | Inside Mac Games reports that Aspyr Media is now shipping the Mac universal binary version ofQuake 4. You will be able to run the game natively on either PowerPC or Intel Macs, but you'll need at least OS X 10.3.9. However, if you've already installed theBoot Camp betaand would rather save $10, you could buy the Windows version ofQuake 4instead.Half-Life 2apparently runsjust fineusing this method.Mac gaming is at a crossroads right now with the OS decision weighing heavy on the minds of many Mac gamers. On the one hand, you have the higher price and smaller catalogs of OS X games, but without the hassle of Windows partitioned on your system. Then you have that gauntlet of budget-priced gold and platinum PC collections and other Windows exclusives at your local Wal-Mart just waiting for you to take them home.The OS X release ofQuake 4might be the first true test of which route the Mac faithful will take, and other cross-platform titles likeCivilization IVcould present future dilemmas. What are your preferences regarding the binary vs. Boot Camp solutions? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-15-garry-to-sell-his-mod-through-steam.html | 2006-04-15 08:55:00+00:00 | [] | Conrad Quilty-Harper | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Garry to sell his mod through Steam | Garry's Mod, one ofHalf-Life 2'smost popular mods (which is like a big sandbox formiddle aged menthe Source engine), is to be sold for $10 on Steam with half of the profits going to Valve and half going Garry. The latest version will become the first release of the mod requiring payment, with a slightly earlier version becoming a free demo.People usually get angry when something that was previously free suddenly requires money. However this deal is a good thing for the GMod community and gaming in general. Like Garry says,"I planned to release a few bug/security fixes and leave it at that. This deal bought GMod back."It's about time that hard working modders were provided with the ultimate form of motivation: cash. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-17-stefan-eriksson-charged-with-multiple-counts.html | 2006-04-17 21:21:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Stefan Eriksson charged with multiple counts | Guess whose favorite scandal-ridden carousing ex-gangster party animal Los Angelean Swede just got charged with felony counts of embezzlement, grand theft auto, driving under the influence, and illegal possession of a firearm by felon? You got it,Stefan Eriksson. who supposedly faces 14 years in prison, if found guilty. What, you didn't think someonethis shadywas going to go about his business forever more without further question after thatfateful evening last February, did you? Oh, and FYI, the handsome, mysterious Dietrich -- the man accused by Eriksson of driving the $1m Enzo into the pole at 160mph -- continues to evade capture, despite prosecuters' claims he does not exist. We have just received word, however, that he was spotted late last week attempting to cross the Canadian border in a Groucho Marx disguise and Ferrari PowerWheels.[Thanks, Alex B]Update:Apparentl Erikssonpleaded not guiltyand was held on $5.5m bail. Yo, dudes atXero Mobile, you wanna help a brother out? Thanks, Freddy. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-18-e3-floor-plans-posted.html | 2006-04-18 17:57:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | E3 floor plans posted | The organizers of E3 have posted the event's floor plans. Microsoft (South Hall) and Sony (West Hall) are as far apart as possible. But the heat will still be on in the West Hall where Nintendo and Sony are stacked shoulder-to-shoulder. It's gonna be a good one!Now's the time to plan your attack. Doors open at 11:00 am on Wednesday, May 10. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-18-rca-lyra-x3030-media-player-gets-bump-to-30gb.html | 2006-04-18 21:55:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | RCA Lyra X3030 media player gets bump to 30GB | It may be only a couple of weeks since we firststarted seeing reviewsof Thomson/RCA'sLyra X3000portable media player, but that hasn't stopped the company from announcing a successor, the X3030. Like the X3000, the X3030, due out in May, can handle WMA, PlaysforSure, Audible and DivX files, and has a 3.6-inch LCD display. In fact, the main difference between the two models appears to be a bump in hard disk size, from 20 to 30GB (gee, that must be why this is the X3030). RCA has kept the suggested retail price at the same $399 level as the X3000, so if you like the Lyra's specs and 20GB will do it for you, now might be a good time for you to grab an X3000 from a clearance bin. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-19-the-robotic-chair-no-really.html | 2006-04-20 01:05:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Robotic Chair -- no, really | We can't quite tell if the goal of this self-assembling robotic chair is art, or just to freak us out, but it seems to succeed on both accounts. Conceived by Max Dean and built by Raffaello D'Andrea, the creators of "The Table: Childhood," another robotic art installation, the robot chair can fall apart spontaneously, and then drag itself across the floor and reassemble. It's all very exciting stuff, but we guess you could watch the video and decide for yourself. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-20-ridge-racer-7-for-ps3-announced.html | 2006-04-20 22:35:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Ridge Racer 7 for PS3 announced | Namco Bandai has announced thatRidge Racer 7is in development for the PlayStation 3, and the game will be making an appearance in some form at E3 next month. That means more Reiko Nagase booth babes! It could also mean a potential spot forRR7in the PS3's November launch lineup, although no firm release date has been set. Series vets Hideo Teramoto and Masaya Koyabashi are in charge of the project, and the newestRaceris expected to support 14-player online racing.While last year'sRidge RacerPSP received strong scores, the most recent console offerings for PS2 (RR5) and Xbox 360 (RR6) haven't fared so well. Ditto for the DS version. The PS3 will be the franchise's seventh different platform in as many years. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-22-samsungs-yp-u2-reviewed.html | 2006-04-22 15:56:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Samsung's YP-U2 reviewed | Well, there's not exactly a whole lot there to review (especially in the wake of the YP-U1), but CNETgot their handson aSamsung YP-U2and put it to the test. It came through with a "very good" rating for its FM tuner, voice recorder, PlaysForSure support, but got dinged on the jack placement and shuffle-like 13 hour battery life. But you just can't beat that $70 price point, even if the flip-out USB plug was unfortunately replaced with a gimmicky LED-lit clear plastic cap.[ViaSamsung HQ] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-24-mariah-carey-to-write-and-record-ringtones.html | 2006-04-24 11:00:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Mariah Carey to write and record ringtones | We're not sure if this signals the end or further resurrection of her career but the Glitter girl herself, Ms. Mariah Carey has inked a deal to write and record original ringtones in a Pepsi/Motorola exclusive offering. No doubt, it’s nice to see artists and corporations alike embracing new technologies as a means of getting their ware out. Still, we just hope she can avoid the temptation of warbling about in her trademark whistle register pitch -- a ringtone sure to makeCrazy Frogsound like a soft baby coo dipped in whispers. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-24-apple-unveils-17-inch-macbook-pro.html | 2006-04-24 12:45:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple unveils 17-inch MacBook Pro | Asexpected, Apple has unveiled the new flagship of the MacBook Pro line, a 17-inch, 1680x1050, 2.16GHz Core Duo model. The new model comes standard with 1GB of RAM, an 8X dual-layer burner and a 120GB 5400 RPM hard drive, along with a FireWire 800 port, for $2,799. Maximum RAM is 2GB, and Apple also offers a 100GB 7200 RPM drive as an option. At the same time, Apple has removed the 17-inch PowerBook G4 from its lineup, leaving the 12-incher as the sole remaining option for customers willing to settle for last year's model (or who want a smaller-footprint portable). The pricing on the 17-incher actually matches that of the 2.16GHz 15-inch model, which makes this one a relative bargain -- especially given its larger hard drive, FireWire 800 and dual-layer burner. Aspreviously noted, the launch was timed to coincide with the opening of the National Association of Broadcasters conference, which begins today. More pictures on the flip side. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-24-lexons-new-on-off-alarm-clock-literally-rocks.html | 2006-04-25 01:54:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Lexon's new On-Off alarm clock literally rocks | If all of those new fangled "buttons" that they put on them tharalarm clocksthese day are getting you down, you might be interested in the new On-Off clock from Lexon. Designed by Nina Tolstrup, the On-Off LCD alarm clock can have its alarm activated by tilting it into the on position, and the alarm can be turned off by (you guessed it) tilting the clock to the off position. While we're sure this will result in some exciting and violent early morning clock tilting action, we're not so sure how snooze functionality factors in. In any case, the clock should be available May 15th in numerous colors, and for the quite reasonable price of $36.50.[ViaGear Live] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-26-dockable-dvd-player-with-gba-drops-in-may.html | 2006-04-27 00:30:00+00:00 | [] | Christopher Grant | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Dockable DVD player with GBA drops in May | We firstgot our hands onVisteon's portable DVD player cum Game Boy Advance at CES back in January and, frankly, weren't impressed. Our final assessment: "Needless to say, the engineers have their work cut out for them."Well, those engineers have had a couple months, let's see if they've eliminated the major shortcomings of the prototype. First off, the controller more closely resembles the interface of a GBA. Gone are the "Help" and "Backup" buttons, with the perennial Start and Select buttons in their place. A superficial, but welcome change. The five face buttons have been reduced to a more reasonable three...which is still one more than they needed. Why two A buttons guys?The screen resolution issues appear to have been solved, at least if we're taking the press image at face value. In the prototype, there was some problem with the GBA feed not filling the entire screen, and suffering from the conversion to 16x9. In the marketing mockup above, there is no sign of this problem. We're hopeful this accurately reflects the final product. No word on price, but it will be "available May 2006." Now I wish I had a minivan to put this in the back of...and someone to drive me around in it...and somewhere to go...See also:Coby DVD player with 8-bit Sega game[Thanks,SenseandSean] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-28-tdk-ok-were-done-with-the-200gb-recordable-blu-ray.html | 2006-04-28 13:33:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | TDK: Ok, we're done with the 200GB recordable Blu-Ray | That was fast. It took 'em years to develop recordable DVDs, then another couple more for the dual layer variety, but now but a few weeks afterTDKannounced their hard workin'intentions to develop 8-layer 200GB recordable Blu-ray discs, they've got it bagged. Balls to the fact that we still don't have the players; the interesting thing about these discs, however, is that the data isn't stored on thin layers of dye, no no. Apparently when each layer of bismuth peroxide and germanium oxide is heated to 690K by laser, microscopic air bubbles form and create the bits we've come to know and obsess over. Oh sure, these discs are probably going to be horrendously expensive in the beginning, but isn't it nice to know we're already good to go on capacities large enough to archive years of home movies? [Warning: link is Japanese and requires subscription.][ViaNewlaunches] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-04-29-apple-virtual-keyboard-patent-quite-resembles-a-umpc.html | 2006-04-29 18:32:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple virtual keyboard patent quite resembles a UMPC | After that "the display is the camera" stunt they pulled the other day, we really wouldn't put much past Apple's patent department, but this new new virtual keyboard patent of theirs does look vaguely familiar, wouldn't you say? It does seem that Apple didn't get that "two thumbs are better than one" memo, but they seem to have stuck with their usual conceptual artist for the mockup, and are bent on teasing us withtouchscreen ideas. The patent also mentions some ideas for learned pressure sensitivity for the keyboard based on what you usually type, which sounds interesting, if a bit too smart for our tastes. Apple also has a recent patent for the iPod that have the device's screen mirrored onto a larger screen, and also allows for remote control and wireless file transfer between the devices. It's all well and good, but Apple has had a patent for wireless file transfer fora whilenow, so it's nothing to get too excited about.[ViaMac Rumors] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-02-windows-vista-to-be-delayed-yet-again.html | 2006-05-02 20:15:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Windows Vista to be delayed yet again? | Given Microsoft's recent woes -- the company seems to be under attack by everyone from Wall Street analysts to Google -- the last thing the company needs is a rumor that Windows Vista won't be available by its recentlyrevised January launchdate. But that's what Redmond is getting hit with today, in the form of a research note from Gartner, which predicts a delay until at least June for the consumer version of the program. According to Gartner, the new OS is "too complex" to be ready by January. Microsoft has responded by saying that Vista is on target to make the launch. Gartner also says that a delay until the spring is "nowhere as bad" as the slip from fall to January, which will result in a Vista-free holiday season. Somehow, we suspect that beleaguered PC makers hoping for a sales bump from Vista upgrades might have a little trouble taking solace from that argument. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-03-take-two-shutters-indie-built-dev-studio.html | 2006-05-03 17:00:00+00:00 | [] | Christopher Grant | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Take-Two shutters Indie Built dev studio | Bad news for fans of the Xbox 360 launch title,Amped 3,and the recently releasedTop Spin 2: game publisher Take-Two has closed down their Salt Lake City-based development studio,Indie Built.Indie Built, previously known as Access Software, was responsible for the popularLinksseries of golf games, as well as the CD-ROM Tex Murphy adventures (likeUnder a Killing Moon), before being acquired by Microsoft in 1999. Microsoft sold the studio to Take-Two in 2004 becoming part of their 2K Sports brand. TheGamasutranews piece hints that the closure might be due to the lackluster sales ofAmped 3; sounds to us like another victim of the historically tumultuous generational transition.[Thanks,wheelseeandMumbleyJoe] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-04-ds-lite-us-launch-june-11-for-129-99.html | 2006-05-04 13:19:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Nintendo DS Lite US launch - June 11 for $129.99 | Asexpected, Nintendo has announced the US launch date and pricing for theDS Lite. The handheld gaming system will arrive on US shores on June 11 for about $129.99, and will come in an "inaugural color" of white. Since we've already seen the Lite inother colors, we assume those and more will make their way to the US soon enough, and the Wii factory is just teasing us by making us wait. Everything else you already know about the Lite remains unchanged, including the fact that, if you really can't wait a whole month to get it, your favorite gray market dealers can still get it for you sooner for about $200 plus shipping. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-04-ever-1-is-the-new-face-of-korean-robotics.html | 2006-05-04 13:37:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | EveR-1 is the new face of Korean robotics | If you thoughtAlbert Hubowas the ultimate humanoid robot, wait until you get a look at EveR-1, a new bot making the rounds in Korea. According to reports, the 5-foot, 2-inch EveR-1 was designed to resemble a woman in her early 20s,and is capable of upper-body movement, can distinguish faces via its eye-mounted cameras, and can look into your eyes while conversing through perfectly synced lips. The bot's face can register simulated emotions, including happiness, anger and sadness, and its skin is made from a silicon gel designed to feel like human skin. She can't walk yet, but we imagine that's only a matter of time. If this is the new face of Korea'sarmy ofnetworkeddomestic bots, they may just achieve their goal of abot in every homesooner than we thought.Thanks, HCM |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-04-halo-ish-hasbro-oozinator-comes-up-big.html | 2006-05-05 02:30:00+00:00 | [] | Ken Weeks | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Halo-ish Hasbro Oozinator comes up big | I'll admit that I had to think for a minute before figuring out how to relate Hasbro's hilarious Oozinator Super-Soaker gun to the Xbox 360. Finally, I decided the bizarrely suggestive goo-shooting weapon, which is available at Toys R Us until some exec somewhere gets a clue, looks enough like the plasma rifle in Halo to interest Bungie fanatics, especially if you painted it purple. Alright, so it's a stretch. But it would surely make for an explosive addition to theHalo 3armoury on the Chief's next mission (or emission). Clickhere,hereandhere(in that order) for the full jiz...er...gist. Major pumping required. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-05-f-e-a-r-expansion-announced-timegate-to-develop.html | 2006-05-05 20:35:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | F.E.A.R. expansion announced, TimeGate to develop | Sierra Entertainment has announced thatExtraction Point, the firstF.E.A.R.expansion, is in the works and will be released for the PC this fall. TimeGate (Axis & Allies,Kohan) is handling the development, including the story concept. However, according to Vivendi (Sierra's parent company), Monolith is working closely with the studio to ensure that the expansion maintains the integrity of the original game.Monolith, now owned by Warner Bros., is working on its own sequel toF.E.A.R.and would do well to steer TimeGate in the right direction, as the expansion will likely tie the first and second games together. Monolith is also working with Vivendi to release the v1.5 patch, which will enhanceF.E.A.R.'smultiplayer.Note: whether or not the expansion content will make it into theXbox 360 portofF.E.A.R.has not been revealed. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-08-yuji-naka-confirmed-to-be-leaving-sega-to-form-prope.html | 2006-05-08 16:20:00+00:00 | [] | Dan Choi | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Yuji Naka confirmed to be leaving Sega to form Prope | Back in March, we heard rumblings that Sega stalwart Yuji Naka was planning to leave Sega to start his own studio. Today, that rumor's been confirmed.According to Next Generation, Naka's new company is called Prope, which means "'beside' and 'near' future." Prope's web site (not linked on Next Gen) apparently explains that the name was chosen "in the hopes of bringing game entertainment much closer to users, establishing closer ties between users and us, and creating near future entertainment."We're just happy that Naka is retaining some ties to his old corporate home thanks to a 10% contribution on Sega's part to prop up the emerging new independent studio (a concept which Sega seems to support with its developers). Unfortunately, as the firm "will commit to new IP," you shouldn't expect updates of Sega classic franchises from the old hand anytime soon. It will also be interesting to see who's guiding the newSonicgames as well. Prope will open for business on June 1st.[Thanks,Sense; via8-bit Ninja]See also:
• Rumor: Yuji Naka set to leave Sega
• NiGHTS Into Dreams, onto Revolution?
• Next-gen Sonic to be "re-invented" for PS3 and Xbox 360 |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-08-engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-sonys-playstation-3-e3-ev.html | 2006-05-08 22:54:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Sony's PlayStation 3 E3 event | Still waiting in line. We are still making our way over, stay tuned ...4:36- The line is moving. According toEuroGamer, Hideo Kojima is "stuck in the queue." Should have something for ya soon ...4:42- We are sitting down, getting ready to go.4:49- Everyone's still filing into Stage 15 on the Sony backlot. Everyone's expectant and the mood is generally upbeat. The house lights are on full, so it'll still be a few minutes before anything official starts. In the background, Sony's been playing some hardcore gangsta rap: we note this because Nintendo would never, ever play that music. The rap song (which we failed to identify) was followed by Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean." The music is eclectic, we're hoping the games line up is similarly so.
4:52- Sony's only playing the music out of a few front speakers. It fills the cavernous stage, but we know that once the actual presentation starts they'll switch on the hidden speakers and crank the bass to 11 for chest-thumping, hair-raising 5.1 sound that'll move this audience whether they want to be moved or not. Lights have been dimmed! As predicted, the music's been taken from 5 to 7.
4:54- First up on stage, Kaz Hirai, President & CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America. "Please accept my apologies for the delay in getting started this afternoon. Just one year ago we unveiled plans for PS3. PS3 is not an incremental upgrade. PS3 is a very powerful machine ... In essence the real power rests in the hands of the content consumer. We want freedom. We want choice. We wanted to be entertained in new and unique ways."4:55- Kaz looks so darn tiny down there on the stage. We're up here in nosebleed territory. "Seamlessly interacts with the PlayStation family. PS3 is the best of breed of computer entertainment platform ... It requires huge financial investments. But we must take risks to reap rewards. The essence of PS3 is real change and comsumers are ready. The next generation doesn't start until we say it's time."
4:57- Did Kaz just say that PlayStation 3 is the "best of breed" computer entertainment platform? Will gamers really react to businessy terms? Well, no matter, they're just tossing out buzzwords to see which ones will stick to the wall. "We would not be able to achieve greatness without a strong foundation. PS2 install base continues to grow worldwide ... Global total of 103.69 million units." Kaz's presentation is typical: we're covering all of the PlayStation 2 performance records: 23.3 million hardware shipped in Japan/Asia. North amercia 42m. europe 38.6m units. Total 103.7 units. additional 10m units to be shipped.4:59- "We have amassed more than 3 million registered [online] users ... We want to remind everyone that PS2 will continue to make significant contributions. We have an amazing linuep of titles." Lists ATV Offroad Fury 4, Destroy All Human 2, Dirge of Cerberus, Dragon Ball Z, Final Fantasy XII, etc.
5:00- "Outside of E3 consumers can look forward to 216 new PS2 titles by the year's end ... Why did you wait so long to enter [portable market]? And why now? ... It's about the ability to offer the right product structure and the right time. We delivered on the process." Looking out over the audience, there's a sea of video camera LCDs flickering back at us -- videos of this event should be plentiful on the net afterwards. PSP Hardware shipments: Japan/Asia 4.7m, North America 6.4 m. europe/pal 5.94m. total 17.03m. FY06 forecast 12 million units to ship.
5:01- "PSP is fastest selling platform in the company's history. That's almost 1 million units for each month of its life. We are closing in on 50 million units of software shipped worldwide. We estimate an additional 155 titles will be added"5:02- Trailer: World Soccer 2, Planet PSP: Interactive City Guide (working title), Gangs of London, Ape Academy 2. "Let Planet PSP be your guide." Killzone Liberation, B-Boy (breakdancing game), Loco Roco (of course ...).
5:04- TalkMan trailer shows multinational folks talking into a PSP -- ti's almost as if it's translating for them. Greatest hits announced for PSP - Ape Escape: On the Loose, ATV, Hot Shots Open Tee, Wipeout. The PSP trailer is impressive, generating some polite applause from the audience, but we get the feeling that we're being set up for some 1080p videos that make the PSP trailer look, like, so last-gen. It's a classic sales setup. Wait for it... wait for it...
5:05- "More than 670 non-game UMD titles have been produced." So Kaz is still covering the PSP: talking about UMD titles produced, firmware upgrades, the web browser, video, audio, and "improved content protection." "The most recent update 2.7 added 2 great new features. The RSS channel and Macromedia Flash support. Later we plan to add RSS video, GPS, and VoIP." PSP will include "Memory Stick Boot," voice over IP, network support this winter via firmware updates.
5:07- We're being shown a video now with a bunch of young, cool folks filmed on the streets of New York City, London, Sidney, Cape Town, Tokyo, Mexico City, etc. A british dude in New York City waxes excited about the "hard plastic" and "knobby bits" on the PS2 controller. The Tokyo video includes subtitled shots of Japanese people, one who says, "When I play games, I become a monkey!"
5:10- Light applause after the man-on-the-street trailer. It wasn't all that hot, but it was a nice touch mean to get across the fact that this is a youth-oriented company. PS3 features and benefits: Powered by Cell. CD, DVD, Blu-Ray disc. Bluetooth, WiFi, ethernet. Dolby Digital Surround Sound. Legacy SD to full HD support (1080p). wireless controller, up to seven player, pre-installed HDD. USB, Memory Stick, SD, Compact Flash. gigabit ethernet cord, removable hard drive
5:12- PS3 will support HD output at 1080i definition ... a level of sophisticaiton and reality that has never been experienced." PSP interopability with PS3 via network, memory stick, USB. "BluRay is a next generation format supported by major studios. Five of the six major Holywood studios are supporting BluRay."
5:13- Blu-Ray slide -- obligatory comparison showing how the Blu-Ray disc just destroys other discs in the category of storage. Kaz makes the comparison to the launch of DVD to suggest that Blu-Ray will allow the content creation community the ability to transcent hardware limits and bring their imaginations to life. So, all that other stuff you've done before Blu-Ray? That was totally unimaginative. Creativity starts now! Every PS3 system will ship with a HD drive. THAT'S KEY.
5:15- As previously announced in March, we're set to launch the PS3 simultaneously around the world in major territories this November. PS3 develpoment systems slide: largest number of systems ever shipped, more than 10,000 to 208 companies in 11 countries, final kits shipping now, 6 months before launch. Some games at e3 are running on those final tools (dev kits). "Today, we will be showcasing playable game tit les, which all will be available for you to play at our booth."Kaz said the magic words: "playable game titles." We're going to get our hands on some PS3 games on the E3 floor.
5:17- Phil Harrison, President Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios. Phil: "A little under a year ago we shared of vision of hte PS3 format. Our development studioes have been hard at worlk. Today I am proud to share with you the fruits of those labors."
5:18- Phil's on the stage in a smart suit, shaved head, no tie. he brings onto the stage his "friend and colleague" Kazunori Yamauchi, President, Polyphony Digital Inc. Kaz (trans): "Good afternoon ... it's an honor to be here as a lead off batter. Today we'd like to show a Grand Turismo prototype: Gran Turismo HD" 1920 x 1080p.
5:19- Gran Turismo is going at 60 frames per second. So this may be an exaggerated statement, we feel that this is the first time for a household television to display a noncropressed baseband signal. The menu has been designed for HD resolution. Ok, these cars and bikes look hot. Simply hot.
5:22- As we zoom down the Tokyo track demo, it doesn't appear all that much sharper or higher quality than PGR3. A quick side discussion verifies that it's not just me. The foliage doesn't look so hot. Then again, this is just a demo. It doesn't appear that motion blur has been added in yet, or if it'll even be added to the game.
5:23- The draw distance isn't that hot either. We can see buildings in the distance pop into view here and there. It's a very attractive racing game, but not heads and shoulders above PGR3, which is our basis for comparison. What you are seeing now is 1920x1080i HD. The is 12 times the resoultion of GT4.
5:25- In GT4 the average loading time was 10-14 seconds. For GT HD its been optimized for the HDD. So players will be able to maneuver from menu screen to starting a race in 2-3 seconds. Now we're being shown another track: Sarthe. The sound quality is suspect here. The engines sound fantastic: it's like we're sitting in a jet fighter skimming just a foot above the racetrack.
5:26- There are hints of greatness in the demo: glimpses of polish and speed that indicate that this will be a very, very hot game by the time it's on store shelves. For PS3's sake, we're hoping that the extra development time translates into clear visual distinction versus the Xbox 360's premiere race title.
5:27- One thing we like here are the clouds in the sky. They look fantastic. Another nice touch: foliage reflected on the car bodies as we race by narrow bits of track. "Lastly, we would like to show another track from the Grand Canyon."
5:30- We're being shown the Grand Canyon demo track now: the motor on the car that we're driving on sounds very, very different from the previous car that we were driving. One thing that immediately sticks out: dust hasn't been added to this dirt-track course yet. We're treated to a high arial shot of the Grand Canyon. It's breathtaking in scale, and beautifully painted ... but up close crowd animations are stiff. Bodies don't move uniquely.
5:32- "We will be conducting some beta testing for online play in GT4 ... this is only the beginning: we think the Next GT will easily surpass Gran Turismo HD (which was only upscaled assets from current-gen GT). "The world of GT will explode with networking capabilities ... we hope to deliver the next GT not too far from the launch of the PS3."
5:33- Phil Harrison: "The next demonstartion is actually an interesting combination of three different things. The first is a traditional card based game. Added to that is the power of the PS3." The Eye of Judgment. A card game using the EyeToy. He's sticking his hand under a camera and moving a card from spot to spot -- as he moves the card, the monster hovering over it also moves.
5:34- This demo is very cool, folks -- this is kind of like the "augmented reality" demo that was circulating around the net over the last year. Phil Harrison has a "boss card" that he places on the screen. The boss is a rubber ducky. Hah hah hah! The game will be on demo on the E3 floor: "Come to booth and try out game."
5:35- Basic ommunity services slide: "Our goal is to create an environment that is more than just a place to play games. These basic services will be offered to PlayStation users free of charge ... our goal it to create a virtual society -- or a community. These basic services will be offered to PS users free of charge." Bite-size, or big portions, anytime or anywhere for all types of entertainment content
5:39- What can the users expect? The e-distribution of PLayStation connect playable on the PSP. PSP users will be able to enjot the PS titles through emulation technology." E-distribution slide: content server (PSP), archive server (PS older games). You'll be able to download these older titles to a memory stick and run them on the PSP. We have a PSP running one of the first PlayStation titles that was released... [navigiating to the game] ... [loading] ... let's see if you can guess the title ..."
5:40- "The game is powered by Namco ... it's Ridge Racer! Ahh! This brings back memories ... Just to show you, since its running on a PSP, you can change the screen size."
5:41- "Another exciting ability is for consumers to make mircotransactions. We will be selling a pre-paid card in various denomination." This is exciting, but there's a little bit of manufactured excitement in this: Ridge Racer will never hold the emotional attachment for gamers that Mario will, and it appears at this moment that Kaz is trying just a bit too hard to talk about how exciting it is to play a really old version of Ridge Racer. "We will be selling a pre-paid card called 'The PlayStation Card' sold in varying demonimations."
5:43- Back to Phil Harrison: "Gonna show you a quick look at the PS3 interface. Thsi shop interface allows users to purchase various content. This one is dedicated to WarHawk. You are are able to see what's cool, what's hot." It's the whole e-commerce experience. We see a shopping cart, a "what's new" list, and a "top 10 list."
5:44- Singstar demo: He fires up an HD video that's been overlaid with Karaoke controls and lyrics. It looks like a ton of fun. "What really powers Sing Star is the network. This is where the game really comes to life. We're gonna show you the ability to browse a catalogue of songs ... I'm gonna take you through the networking purchasing system."
5:45- Now he's showing us an online catalog of songs. He's browsing through an online store -- but they're not telling us the pricing of these songs just yet. Songs show as $0.00. We can see a few features peaking out here: there's a UI element of a "monthly spending limit."
5:46- "My Singstar online" -- this is allowing you to develop your own profile, to find out who is online, download new content (skins, graphical effects) to personalize your experience, and to add your performances to the network. YouTube bootycams on the PS3. That's the headline right there, folks. It'll be hot if Sony can actually deliver anything nearly as addictive as a late-night romp through YouTube's most popular videos.
5:48- We're being shown Genji. This game looks impressive. It's got a lot of nice graphical touches. It makes us immediately think of 99 Nights. The weapons, the armor, the moves. Just fewer onscreen enemies, and more outlandish moves.
5:51- What's interesting about this demo is that it's showing Bill's hands on a controller via picture-in-picture. This is important: PlayStation 3 needed to combat the negativity that followed last year's E3: "But nothing was playable!" The picture-in-picture serves as a constant reminder that the games are playable. Phil: "Now movinf from legendary Japan to realirt 21st century style. We'd like to show you are Formula 1 game with an interesting twist. I'm gonna give you a very special demonstation of a wing mirror. What I have on the PSP is a real time feed of the wing mirror"
5:54- Onscreen now: Heavenly Sword sequence. Flashy, red-haired babe with sharp weapons, chains, and so on. It's pretty. The sounds are hot. The kills visceral. Bones crunch, kicks liquify internal organs. This game will also be playable on the show floor, and we'll definitely be playing it. What you can see is that this game delivers the most phenominall animation system.
5:58 -Trailer showing games that are "perhaps a little bit further out." First up: Factor 5's Lair. If the game looks anything like the pre-rendered stuff we just saw, the game will be an incredible experience. The best way to describe what this one felt like: the dragon test in the Harry Potter Goblet of Fire movie. Not a lot of flames, but a whole lot of scary dragons. London Studio's Getaway (Team SoHo).
5:59- AFRIKA: a grazing rhino, birds chattering noisily in a tree, a giraffe, zebra, wildebeasts, all sorts of other animals we should know, but don't. Concludes with a shot of a cheetah and a lion. We're not sure exactly how the game's meant to be played, but the trailer gives a sense that the designers are striving for realism in the National Geographic style.
6:01- Phil Harrison: "Round of applause, please." Exclusive appearances coming up. A glimpse of some of the future of PS3. It is my great pleasure to share with you two brand new titles for the first time. The first is from our Studio in London." [running video, title is "Eight Days]
6:04 -Eight Days: Lots of guns, lots of gansters, great cinematical lighting effects, massive destruction via a gas tanker. Nothing in this game to challenge the genre of gansters and guns, but certainly a graphical update to a game type that we're all comfortable with. "Next up is a brand new game from a developer who since their first game in 1996 has shipped over 40 million units of software. I'm gonna let the video speak for itself" Shows untitled Naughty Dog game.
6:05- "I'd like to welcome Mr. Ted Price the Pres. of Insomniac" Ted: "The Resistance: Fall of Man ... let's check it out." Price says "this game is intense." ORLY? Who wouldn't say that about their next-gen game. Let's see the goods, Price.
6:10- First Resistance is a WWII style shooter in set in the 1950s, but get this -- World War II never happened! Instead, it's clear that aliens arrived to save us from killing ourselves and and to unite humanity behind against a common enemy. That's kind of neat. The mixture of WWII-era guns going up against otherworldly munitions makes the genre fresh. One nice scene in the demo shows a tiny little alien jmping on the back of a human soldier and popping a spike through the back of the soldier's skull. The skull crunches, blood sprays, and the man crumples. The action is intense, so Price delivered. Nice work. Ted: "Just a small taste of what's to come. Keep in mind the game features multiplayer modes featuring 32 players.
6:11- Phil: "That sums up our playable selection. You can see we are really starting to push the technology. But that's it for me. Thank you very much for your attention." ... but wait a minute. That wasn't all playable. Some of it was, some of it wasn't. Let's just get that straight right now. Phil has left the stage, Kaz Hirai has taken it.
6:14- Kaz: "Our first party lineup is looking strong. But what about 3rd parties? Let me share with you a collection of 3rd party titles in development: From Ubisoft: Assassin's Creed. Looked HOT. From Bandai Namco -- two words: bot battle. Ridge Racer 7 ... a seventh Ridge Racer? Gee, we never saw that coming. We never thought that we'd see a seventh in the series.
6:17- Sonic the Hedgehog. It's fast (as always). Speed isn't new, but what is new is the art style here. It looks more grown up, grittier. It's evolved in a good way. Assassin's Creed; Gundam: Mobile Suit; Coded Arms: Assault; Ridge Racer 7; Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway; Tekken 6; Sonic The Hedgehog; Virtua Tennis 3; Virtua Fighter 5; Stranglehold; Fatal Inertia; Bladestorm; Amored Core 4. Fatal Inertia: available at launch. Cars, without wheels, zooming through canyons and stuff. Feels very Star Wars, but it'll sell, being a launch title and all. Looked shiney and next-gen enough to drop some jaws, but there didn't appear to be anything new in the concept.
6:19- EA Chairman and CEO Larry Probst takes the stage. Larry: "The special partnership between EA and Sony has never be stronger. This afternoon we want to show you too brief demos. These are works in progress. Let's start with the exec producer of NBA Live ... let me start with a side-by-side comparison of the last and next generation. P@s vs. PS3."
6:22- "With procedural awareness we give players personality, attitude, confidence and style. WE are making players that move right. That's why foot planting is so important. No matter what the sport footwork plays a huge role. Now we need to give them full freedom of movement. On the PS3 players have full 360-degree movement. They feel alive. But that's a video, let's see how it's running live." Shows Tracy McGrady vs. Dwayne Wade demo. Procedural awareness demo by EA is hot. As crosshairs move zoom around the air around the player, he follows them with his eyes and with his body. That's why next-gen is important: technology makes these pixelated players believable. It brings us closer to what we're seeing on ESPN. "This is not a video. This is running live on PS3. There it is, NBA Live bringing players to life on the PS3."
6:25- George Borshikof: "What I'm about to show is technology that will change the way you experience interactive entertainment. For the last two years we have beeb creating UCAP. Joining us today is Tiger Woods. As you can tell UCAP improves gameplay because personality has never been so real." A's Borshikoff is talking about emotional involvement with games. The UCAP demo of Tiger Woods looks great -- but it's not about the polygons, it's about the combination of those polygons combined with pre-captured animations and voice. When it all comes together just right, Tiger comes to life. Larry: "Thanks guy. Those are just two of the games in development for PS3. EA intends to support PS3 with more than 10 titles, including Fight Night, Need for Speed, Army of Two, Medal of Honor Airborne, and Madden."
6:29- It'll be interesting to compare the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of these EA titles. Will there be a common-denominator version of the tech that's either upscaled or downscaled for the PS3/Xbox 360 (depending on capability) or will the company actually invest in two significantly different versions of these games? We're betting that the 360 gets exactly the same game, and we're looking forward to the side-by-side comparisons. Kaz: Now we are excited to give you a sneak peak from Square Enix. Take a look at Final Fantasy XIII for the PS3, which will be available in several versions, including Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy versus XIII.
6:31- "Now we are proud and honored to be able to share this next title from Hideo Kojima. The video you are about to see is already running on the PS3. The concept of this video is: sense. Metal Gear Solid 4 is coming now.
6:33- Lots of shaky-cam in the GS4 video. Lots of display of military might. This is about setting mood. To show actual gameplay would cheapen the mood that Kojima and crew are trying to build here. Snake shoves the barrel of a gun into his mouth, and there's a loud bang, but we doubt that the old dude actually pulled the trigger. It's all about building excitement, and that it did. Kaz: And now, it wouldn't be a proper E3 without Ken Kutaragi.
6:34- Kutaragi asks, "Have you enjoyed our latest progress on the PlayStation 3?" The crowd's response is actually kind of weak -- but this is a long press conference and energy's ebbing. WE're hoping that the big secret (the controller) wakes this room back up. Controller up next!6:35- ... It's the PS2 controller. "INSIDE THIS BODY we have added powerful and elegant systems.... "
6:36- Phil Harrison comes out: "It's not what it looks like, it's what it does. Let's switch to the demo, and, clearly a little secret is waiting to be unveiled..." Phil brings out a PSP. It looks like the PS3 controller does some special stuff: demo shows a crate on screen. A little secret is inside the box, banging and asking to be let out.6:37- "Now, I want you to watch this very, very carefully ... I life up the controller and it flies. This controller has 6-degrees of freedin using my hands as the entire input device. This standard controller will be packed in with every PS3"
6:38- The controller's got X-Y-Z, pitch, roll, yaw, lateral motion detection. The controller uses bluetooth and wireless controls. It's lighter than the PS2 controller. This is interesting, because it suddenly makes Microsoft look like the odd man out on the motion-sensing controller front. How will Microsoft respond to the fact that they're the only one of the three that doesn't have a controller that support user input via natural movement of the controller?
6:42- The Warhawk 3 demo that we're seeing now shows how the controller is used to control the motion of the on-screen fighter jet. The link between on-screen movement and controller movement is tight. Dylan Jobe says, "It marks an interesting moment for us. It allows us to change from static control mechanics to very kinetic control mechanics. As a developer and a gamer I'm incredibly excited about this..."
6:43- "Today we're pleased to announce the global PS3 launch details. We will make PS3 available via a two-configuration plan. One with a 60GB HD. And the other with a 20GB hard drive. Japan's date: Nov. 11. In Japan 59,800 Yen. The 60GB PS3 will have an open price which retailers will set. In North America: 20GB for $499, 60GB for $599. Europe has 20GB for 499 Euro, 60GB for 599 Euro. 2 million to ship worldwide during the launch window. 4 million by end of calendar year 2006. By March 31, 2007 they'll have shipped 6 million worldwide.
6:45- Kaz: "Thank you very much and have a great show"
6:49- Long list of developers scrolls by. There's no question that this console will be well-supported by first- and third-party developers. What are the big questions leaving here?1. Will consumers buy it with such a big price tag?2. How will Microsoft respond to Sony's announcement that the PS3 contorller supports motion-sensing technology?3. Will Sony be able to deliver on those shipment projections?4. Will those beautiful demos look nearly that good once they've been made playable? How much of that graphical sex appeal will be lost in translation from trailer to Blu-Ray disc?And we're done. We'll be cleaning up this post and adding more pictures, but in the meantime thank you for joining us, and be sure to check out our coverage of Nintendo and Microsoft's press conferences tomorrow! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-08-sony-shows-off-the-real-ps3-controller.html | 2006-05-09 02:19:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony shows off the real PS3 controller | We really had gotten used to the boomerang, so we have to admit we felt something of a void when Sony confirmed last month that they wereyanking the prototype designand would unveil the real PS3 controller at E3. And unveil it they did, as part of the PS3 dog-and-pony show this evening. Yeah, we're kind of underwhelmed, too. Still, despite its resemblance to past Sony controllers, it does have some solid features, including X-Y-Z, pitch, roll, yaw and lateral motion detection, and Bluetooth for wireless play. And chances are the learning curve of switching from the PS2 controller to this one will be all of about five minutes.Update:Sony has confirmed that the new controller will not have vibration functionality, unlike the Dual Shock, Dual Shock 2 and the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii controllers. They claim this has to do with interference of the motion sensing, but we have a sneaky feeling that this could have something to with thoselawsuitsthat started all that "boomerang" musing in the first place. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-08-500-ps3-to-lack-hdmi-wifi-card-reader.html | 2006-05-09 03:46:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | $500 PS3 to lack HDMI, WiFi, card reader | WhenSony gave outthe specs on the PS3 earlier tonight, the company mentioned that there would be two configurations: a $500 version with a 20GB hard drive and a $600 edition with a 60GB drive. Turns out that was only half the story. Yes, that pricing and storage info is accurate. But it turns out that there are a lot of other things missing from the lower-end (we can't bring ourselves to call a $500 console "cheap") version, besides an extra 40GB of storage. According to the specs released by Sony, the 20GB version will lack WiFi, a memory card reader and, most significantly, HDMI output. While you could probably get along without WiFi in a home-based console that already has Ethernet, and you can always presumably hook up a memory card reader via one of the unit's four USB ports, the lack of HDMI output makes this pretty much a non-starter for anyone hoping to actually use the PS3's Blu-ray drive for anything more than playing games. Sure, we can understand Sony not wanting to undercut sales of its owndedicated Blu-ray playersby offering the $500 PS3 as a cheaper alternative. But if the company was hoping to use the gaming platform as a way to build a base of fans for HD discs, chances are the strategy is going to backfire the first time someone tries playing a Blu-ray flick in their 20GB version and discovers that the unit's lack of HDMI limits them to analog 1080i output (or worse, depending on a disc's use of HDCP).[ViaHD Beat] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-09-engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-nintendos-wii-e3-event.html | 2006-05-09 16:34:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Nintendo's Wii E3 event | 12:15 am- We're all seated and situated. The theater is huge with three mezzanines and 3,400 seat capacity.12:17 am- We're sitting in the Kodak theater waiting for the press corps, VIPs, and assorted industry folk to file in, ever so slowly. Pictochat sessions are starting to fill up as people take their seats and whip out their portables. The announcer just told us to turn off all wireless and bluetooth devices before the presentation begins -- could that be so that our bluetooth doesn't interfere with the Wii's wireless capabilities? Sounds like a hint to us.
12:21 pm -So the crew is split into two levels of the theater -- we've got our writers up top and the photographers down below, right friggin' next to the stage. The folks in the nosebleed section seem ok with their lot. Many are sitting silently, pensively almost. Or it could just be that the coffee hasn't kicked in. On the speakers, hip clubby trance music. If Sony's pre-conference music was high school dance, this is college rave.
12:23 pm- We've been informed that the program will start promptly at 9.30 am PST, right on time.
12:28 pm- Here's the layout -- yellow and blue ticket holders were sent to the third and fourth floors of the theater. Green tickets are on the second level. On the ground floor, those with red tickets (Mushroom Kingdom) are holding court.
12:37 pm- And it has started: symphonic music : Miyamoto takes the stage and directs a puppet symphony with the Wii controller. He's looking dapper in a tux. As he waves his hands, the symphony adjusts its pace to keep up with him. The music swells when his arms wave wildly, the tempo adjusts with his tempo.
12:38 pm- The crowd goes wild -- that many symphony geeks? Who knew. First Guitar Hero, now Symphony Hero (not the actual title). We're being shown a driving game, a sword fighting game, and more conducting from Miyamoto. It's worth taking a pause right now to remark that these gamers are, in fact, waving their arms rather wildly. This system is going to be a workout, but we're cool with that.
12:41 pm- Reggie takes the stage: "You came to LA this week to peek into the future, but if all you want is next generation you're in the wrong place. What we're unveiling is the next leap in gaming. It's no longer confined to just a few, it's about everyone. It's not about what you see because what you see isn't always what you get. The next leap is about playing because playing is believing"
12:42 pm- Reggie's wearing the game executive's corporate uniform: suit and no tie. After a short intro, the Regginator steps off the stage and we're treated to a brand-spanking new trailer. Hipsters drumming, clean youth playing tennis, a middle-aged couple golfing, an entire Japanese family conducting a symphony, an earringed, pony-tailed fellow steering an off-road vehicle. CONFIRMED: Speaker in the Wiimote.
12:44 pm- Now we're being shown a flight sim, then Metroid Prime 3. The Prime demo looks hot in terms of playstyle -- with the gamer ducking and rolling in order to dodge enironment obstacles. We're shown an updated Wario Ware with a variety of mini games that involve the controller. Depending on the game, the controller is held in a different fashion.
12:46 pm- A note on graphics: these graphics aren't all that impressive, but the gameplay looks super fun. Zelda demo demonstrates the Wii controller's use to shoot a grappling hook, shoot arrows, fish, sword fight. Reggie: "Two years ago we pulled the curtain back on DS and many said, 'huh?' Then nine months ago we revealed how Wii for Nintendo will change gaming forever, and a lot of people said, 'we'll see'"
12:47 pm- "Our purpose this week is not to feel your left brain with informationm but to jolt your left brain with inspiration." The Wii logo appears again, and the two little "i" characters take a deep bow. Very Japanese, but universally understood. After the trailer is over, there's genuine applause. The audience is certainly more into this conference than Sony's audience was into their conference yesterday. "Let me ask you ... 'do you know someone who's never played a videogame? I bet you do. How can this be? If we want to grow as an industry this has to change. And today, change begins today."
12:50 pm- "As many of you know, Nintendo's way is to challenge conventional thinking." Reggie spins a metaphor: "The graveyard of the industry is filled with the headstones of companies who tried to keep doing things the same way. Over the years our industry has come to gauge progress simply by what's displayed on screen ... In the same way that Super Mario 64 changed everything, we asked how do we make games that will entirely new. We will give you more fun for less money, and you will be playing we in Q4 in 2006."
12:51 pm- "Okay, the name ... we want to thank everyone that had good things to say about it ... both of you." Reggie's pronunciation of Wii is different. He says "Wii" in a clipped way, flattening the "i" a little bit, and driving it from the diaphram. "Every distincitive name sounds strange at first. Cahnge is good. [Wii is] a giant leap of gaming, for everyone around the world. It's the sound for the future."
12:54 pm- List of games: Metroid Prime 3, Dragon Quest Swords, Disaster: Day of Crisis, Fire Emblem, Sponge Bob Square Pants, Cars, Super Mario Galaxy, SD Gundamn G Breaker, Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, Sengoku Action, Excite Truck, Elebits, Red Steel, Rayman 4, Super Swing Gold Pangya, Sonic, Project H.A.M.M.E.R., Finalfurlong Revolution, Madden, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles, Twilight Princess
12:56 pm- "This is by far the best Zelda we have every made, and also the most beautiful game Nintendo has every made. But this is breaking precedent because this is the first time a Zelda game will be along side a Nintendo console on launch day." Nate & Bill of Nintendo to host world premiere of Zelda on Wii.
12:57 pm- Bill: Very basic control ... your movement is handles with the analogue stick. Zelda's targeting system with be handled using the Z button. The Wii control adds the presence of a fairy, which indicates where you will be pointing using the Wii controller. Forward swing is handled using the B button. Link's bow is aimed using the pointer on the Wii remote. The series of trailers went by quickly, but here's the impression we got from it: there's real variety in gameplay, and lots of variety in graphics. Some of the graphics look decidedly Xbox/GameCube/PS2, and some look incredible. It was unclear which were pre-rendered and which were footage of actual gameplay. The best-looking trailers were graphically impressive. Overall, sound was disappointing. We're hoping that's just an issue with the theater.
12:58 pm- "With the bow, the Wii remote adds depth of sound. Built-in to the Wii remote is a speaker. You'll hear the bowstring draw taught and you'll hear the bow sound draw to the screen as the arrow is shot. A quick jab with the Wii remote and shield shove. You'll feel the impact with the built-in rumble." Using pointer to launch boomerang. Classic Zelda chime heard on Wii remote speaker. You can pick up crates with the A button and then chuck them with a quick motion
1:01 pm- You have two different controllers and two different motion sensors. Link's iron boots also make a return. This time they lift you up [Link is hanging upside-down from the ceiling]. A quick rotation for spin attack, stab down with controller to do down thrust.
1:02 pm- The Zelda demo focuses almost exclusively on gameplay. Though the narrator tells that it's intuitive, the control scheme is actually fairly complex. It's certainly not dumbed down, but we wouldn't say that it's as intuitive that they're making it out to be either. Then again, few games these days are, and Zelda's one of those games that appeals to the core gamer audience. It won't be one of the titles that Nintendo uses to break into the mainstream market.
1:04 pm- Reggie: "This Zelda is the first ever to feature unique freehand control. Here in the America's Nintendo will launch two different versions: one for GameCube and one for Wii -- on the same day Wii launches ... Mario is back too!" Game list again. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is "most intuitive first-person shooter ever," says Reggie. Super Mario Galaxy: With freehand control Mario has new moves. Swing hand to grab objects ... swim threw space (and more).
1:06 pm- Excite Truck: "Now you're holding the steering wheel of a big damn truck! This feels like driving ... What happens if the bad guy is mother nature? Come feel the panic and bring the catastrophe uner your control"1:08 pm- "Square Enix is offering exclusive iteration of Final Fantasy Chronicles." Excite Truck is one of 3 new franchises, the others being Project H.A.M.M.E.R. and Disaster: Day of Crisis. More third party titles:1. Hyper Sonic. "Finally the speedster is totally under your control."2. Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles.3. Madden 074. Activision's Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam5. Ubisoft's Rayman6. THQ's Spongebob SquarepantsReggie: "We are not gonna specify a launch number this morning, you'll be playing 27 titles on the show title tomorrow. That 27 does not include Virtual Console [games]."
1:10 pm- Now showing Red Steel demo: "Red Steel is a first-person action game set in US and Japan. Player must master both firearms and katana." Taking the stage, Xavier Poix (studio director) and Roman Campos (lead game designer), both from Ubisoft Paris, where Ubisoft is developing the Wii-exclusive title Red Steel. Destuctible environments, soft bodies, realtime physics. Technical difficulties: The screen is blanked out with just a "Wii" logo, the Red Steel demo isn't being shown for the first minute of the presentation. When it comes back, there's a bit of applause.
1:12 pm- More still on Red Steel: enemies will care for themselves. They will hide, go for cover, and flank. Unique wepaons like the shotgun -- the shotgun is unique? AI uses 'clan system' where one enemy is the leader; if he is killed, the others become confused. Free shots mode: by holding button, player can freestyle, and target points on an enemy. You choose between killing or making them submit.
1:15 pm- Sword fight: the moves you make are intricate. You can block with left, and slash with right in any direction. That means there are dozens of combinations. This is easy to learn, but hard to master (sounds like the Tetris catchphrase). Playable tomorrow at E3 booth. Hate to inject a little bit of reality into the conversation, but Red Steel's visual quality lacks the sex and sparkle of the Sony demos yesterday -- take away the controller, and the game could run on an original Xbox or PlayStation 2. Nintendo would of course remind us that judging a game by what's displayed on screen is a mistake, but the game industry has tended to judge games visually for many years. Nintendo can't change the critical criteria overnight. They're going to have their work cut out for them on this front if gamers prove intractable in their lust for next-gen graphics.
1:16 pm- Reggie: "We want to switch gears now to what's hot right now: Nintendo DS." George Harrison enters: "What we've given you today is a promise: 'Wii' will make things better." The conference has moved on to talk about the Nintendo DS. 16 million Nintendo DSs have sold worldwide (that's sold, not shipped). "Wi-Fi service is easy and free. 1.3 million discreet wi-fi connection users totalling over 40 million gameplay sessions."
1:18 pm- Brain Age launched three weeks ago in North America. In Japan, 5 million purchasers. The first few weeks here have sold better than during the Japanese launch of Brain Age -- but does it have the same staying power?
1:19 pm- "Nintendo DS Lite is smaller, lighter, and brighter than the original. In only a week you'll be playing a new Mario game, which is the very picture of 'old school.' But this is a brand new Mario game, which will appeal to brand new players. Pokemon is coming too. You don't play with the Pokemon, you are the Pokemon."
1:22 pm- "Final Fantasy III ... be prepared to be fulfilled. The legendary title will have improved graphics." We're being taken on a tour through DS titles and sales. Tony Hawk Downhill Jam announced. Exlcusive Zelda ... The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. Features sailing, sworday play, and the boomerang. All in all, 100 new games for DS from now until end of calendar year 2006, including Mario Hoops 3 on 3, Starfox DS, Diddy Kong Racing, Final Fantasy III, Yoshi 2, Elite Beat Agents (multiplayer multi-rhythm, Pokemon Myster Dungeon, Diddy Kong Racing, Big Brain Academy, Mario vs. DK: March of the Minis.
1:25 pm- Iwata takes the stage: "In order to [expand the total number of players who play games] we needed to target ... those who once played and who lost interest and those who never played before. How do we do this? The logical solution is to reinvent the relationship between player and game. The game controller interface. We believe this approach can appeal to a much broader audience. Our first implementation [of this imprvement] was Nintendo DS. At first it confused some people, but these people started to understand when they started to pet their puppies with their stylus."
1:27 pm -Iwata nonchalantly tucks the remote into his pocket. Why, hello sir, is that Wii in your pants, or are you just happy to be here? The Virtual Console will bring gamers together and act as the leading laboratory for simple games.
1:28 pm- "The startup time before gameplay begins is growing longer and longer. These days I am busier and busier and ever. Even if I have to wait 30 seconds or 40 seconds or more for a game to load, often I get frustrated. Sometimes I just cannot wait. And now that I know I can instantly stop or start playing my DS by just opening or closing the top, I think I am spoiled. Maybe this has happened to you too? If seriees gamers find the delays frustrating, how can we ever expect the mass market to show more patience than we do. Unless we change we can never increase the game population."
1:30 pm- Audience chuckles as disgruntled gamers are flashed on the screen. "The Wii console will also help solve this problem ... [it will be] almost as fast as the television or telephone. One more hardware feature -- we've designed our machine to provide owners with a variety of services when it is turned off. Wii Connect 24: the Wii console can be constantly connected to the internet. This means that developers can push a new weapon or vehicle to you even while you sleep. Anytime the console is in standby, players may return to find that their friends have left a message or a gift."
1:32 pm -Networking software is included in the hardware. In other words, developers don't have to write code to utilize this. "What we are aiming for is a system that is new everyday." WiiSports ... this is a combination which will include tennis, golf, and baseball in one package. It will be available on launch day.
1:33 pm- "Today, there are people who play and people who do not. Wii will help destroy that wall between them. Anyone can instantly understand Wii. Everyday there is something new for everyone, eveywhere. This is our answer." The "playing = believing" slide has been shown for the -- what -- sixth time now? In repeating this phrase, Nintendo's driving home the point that the typical version of this aphorism ("seeing is believing") no longer applies to their console. This is a key message for the audience here to believe, because without that belief, gamers will compare Nintendo's console to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on a purely graphical level. This console simply cannot hold its own on a purely graphical level. Nintendo knows that, so the company *must* insist that playing is believing.
1:34 pm- Back to Reggie: "We'd like nothing better than to invite you all up on stage to play. While we can do that for everyone, we can do that for one person ... We have three grand prize finalists. Mr. Miyamoto has randomly selected the winner ...
1:37 pm- Miyamoto: "The winner is ... Scott Dyer. [To Scott] May I ask you to be my partner in the next game?" He agrees, of course. It's Iwata and Reggie vs. Miyamoto and Scott in tennis. Miyamoto demonstrates how the remote is used for a variety of shots in tennis, from serve to lob to to smash. It looks fun and responsive.
1:38 pm- Team Miyamoto wins! Huzzah! Scott aces Iwata on the serve! Team Miyamoto wins again!
1:41 pm -The game will clearly take some practice to master, which is as it should be. Most impressive is that a clumsy return will send the ball wide of the court. In many tennis-type games, it's far too easy to keep the ball in bounds. Reggie: "Bottom line of every E3 is what's hot and what's not. What's hot is the next step ... What's hot is if it's disruptive ... We know that the future is right here. Wii and the DS represent that same thing: risk. Change is good. We were the disrupter 20 years ago ... Wii will come next. Playing is believing. Thank you all, we look forward to seeing you on our show floor tomorrow."
1:45 pm- Reggie's talking a big game about how the company doesn't run from risk, but runs to it. An obvious counterpoint jumps quickly to mind: Nintendo is a very conservative company. Though the company has taken some risks with DS and Wii hardware, its also meticulous about controlling hardware costs, managing contracts and quality control, and in general ensuring that the margins are there to make a console profitable. Nintendo supporters routinely brag about the comapny's ability to make money, even on the GameCube. Their ability to do this is directly reliant upon keeping investment (in hardware, in marketing) low relative to sales projections. That is the very definition of risk averse. To put it another way, these aren't bet-the-farm risks. Touchscreen aside, the DS is still a solid gaming handheld supported by a very standard ecosystem of software developers and a solid portfolio of original IP. The Wii strategy takes a small risk on the HCI (human-computer interface), but everything else is rather similar to any other console's strategy, sans insane spending.Sony's taking more risks this generation. Blu-Ray's success is critical to multiple lines of business that keep Sony afloat. It's huge investment in complex technology that will make or break the company in the decade to come. That's risk. Even if the Wii were to end up in third place again (as several analysts we talked to yesterday predicted it would), Nintendo will still survive. If Sony were to fail to capture dominant marketshare this generation, the results would be catastrophic. That's risk, and we just wanted to set the record straight on it.That's it for the Nintendo press conferece! Thank you all for joining us, and be sure to check out the Microsoft press conference, which we will be covering shortly. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-09-engadget-and-joystiqs-live-coverage-of-microsofts-xbox-360-e3-ev.html | 2006-05-09 18:00:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event | 2:42 pm- Koolaid blood spills from corpses, buildings demolished, apocalypse. The Gears of War trailer is the very first thing shown, and the applause is decent, but not deafening. CliffyB onstage now, giving us a playable demo of Gears of War. The game looks even better than our preview back in September at the Tokyo Game Show. It's come along nicely, with added HUD elements and a targeting system.
2:47 pm- Wiped out courtyard of enemiesenormous crab boss emerges from underground ... fades to black. Peter Moore takes the stage.
2:49 pm- Moore: "A taste of the second generation of next generation of games. We are delivering the next generation of gaming right here and right now. For the first time ever all of our gaming and entertainment resources are under a single division. Games are driving Microsoft entertainment." Moore dispels rumor that secret stach of consoles where hidden in Area 51.
2:51 pm- "By next month, we will have sold over 5 million Xbox 360 consoles. More than the original Xbox, the PS1, the PS2, or any other console at that stage in the lifecycle." The sales slide ain't half bad -- Tufte would be proud. The Xbox 360's sales curve is steeper than the competition and steeper than the iPod, a device many consider to be the gold standard of consumer electronics devices.
2:53 pm- "Xbox 360 isn't a hub, it's a gateway to new forms of HD content. Only Microsoft can deliver HD content, shared game space, and access to the digital entertainment of your choice ... connecting you console to Xbox Live, is as vital as connecting your compter to the Internet. By next year, Xbox Live will surpass 6 million members ... evolving into a true entertianment network. As of last week we hit 57% attach rate."
2:55 pm- A brief montage of Xbox Live Arcade games: Pac-Man, Contra, Galaga, Contra, Sonic, Defender, SF II Hyper Fighting, Time Pilot, Ultra Mortal Kombat 3, Scramble. Track and Field, Time Pilot, Contra, Super Contra, Paperboy, Rally-X, Frogger, too.
2:57 -Through Arcade we are doing what the Sundance Film Festival does for movies. As of today, we have partnerships with over 100 indie developers. Moore's sporting a lime-green pocket square, driving home one interesting aspect of the 360's differentiation: this is a console with an official color. Even if the box is white this time around (versus the original Xbox's black), the green remains. Whether that green signifies the money that's been poured into the box or the money consumers are spending on their electricity bills to keep the thing running, this color does speak to a branding sophistication that sets the console apart. Xbox Live Arcade is about taking game play in new directions.
2:59 -Surprise addition to Xbox Live Arcade: Lumines Live. "Today I'm proud to announce a partnership with Warner Music Group to integrate [music] content into Lumines Live. " In other words, you'll be able to play music videos in the background as you play Lumines Live. The demo showed a Madonna vid playing in the background.
3:01 pm- Second-wave 360 titles: Lost Planet, Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis, Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway, Mass Effect, NHL 2k7 (2K Sports), Too Human, Viva Pinata, Moto GP, F.E.A.R., LoTR Battle for Middle Earth, Sonic the Hedgehog, Madden NFL 07, World Series Poker, Saint's Row, John Woo presents Stranglehold, Enchanted Arms, Test Drive Unlimited, NCAA Football 2007, Dead Rising, WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2007, DDR Universe, Prey, NBA 2007, Crackdown, 99 Nights, Gears of War, Superman Returns.
3:02 pm- Moore: "By this holiday we'll have over 160 games to choose from. "Pro Evolution will make its next-gen debut on Xbox 360." Madden will debut on Xbox 360."
3:05 pm- Announcement: Fable 2, shows trailer. Ok -- as far as pre-rendered trailers go, the Fable 2 trailer looked hot. We'll see what it looks like once it's pressed on a disc. Moore: "The next chapter of one of our bigest franchise. With Fable 2, Peter Molyneux will deliver a gaming experience more intimate than anything before it. " Moore welcomes Peter and Lionhead to Microsoft, audience applauds.
3:07 pm -Another MSFT Game Studios exclusive: Forza Motorsport 2. Moore: "Now you can choose from over 300 cars to tune and paint. You can play with up to 11 other people. Here's the best part, Forza will bae available by the end of this holiday season." The Forza tralier is so loud that the bass is vibrating the loose folds on my pants leg. This is by far the loudest demo that we've seen yet. Graphically, it looks good, but we've yet to see a racing game (from Microsoft or Sony or otherwise) that is leagues ahead of PGR3. In addition, Microsoft will make a wireless wheel controller available.
3:09 pm -Announces new wireless headset and Xbox Live Vision Camera. These three new accessories will be available this fall.
3:11 pm- "We're committed to bring inspured content to the Japanese market. And we have the help of Sakaguchi's exclusive title 1: Blue Dragon." Moore confirms the title will be available in Japan this fall.
3:13 pm- Announces Dead or Alive Xtreme 2. Later this week, you can download Itagaki's latest game trailer from the Marketplace. Moore: "Let's talk about the Tom Clancy series from Ubsoft. These games have consitently pushed the boundaires of Xbox Live. Let's take a look at the next installment." Previewing Splinter Cell Double Agent.
3:14 pm- So Moore's jumping from third-party developer to third-party developer, interspersing his patter with trailers of games. Ubisoft's trailer is a mix of cinematics and in-game play for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent.Splinter Cell Double Agent will be released this September on the Xbox 360.
3:15 pm- Moore: "Part of our commitment to broaden our entertainment. We're creating a whole new world that kids can jump into and enter anytime." Light chuckles ripple through the crowd when Moore says "Viva Pinata." After the gore of the Tom Clancy game, the transition is a tad jarring. All pinatas have candy-related names.
3:19 pm -Experienced players will have to deal with pesky pinatas. "The Romance Dance" ... how the pinatas reproduce. The Viva Pinata demo is a tad laggy and unfinished. We're seeing lots of polygon glitches and strange artifacting. We understand that it's unfinished, so we'll leave it at that. As many have noted, Viva Pinata appears to be very similar to Nintendo's Animal Crossing in concept. Moore doesn't miss a beat in reacting to the weak applause, "C'mon, it is an E-rated game, let's not forget here."
3:20 pm- Xbox Live Marketplace ihas opened the floodgates to truedigitally distributed content. There have been over 18 million content downloads. As of tonight, we will have over a 1000 conent items. Pre-orders for Fight Night increased by over 5 times after the Fight Night demo was released.3:22 pm- "Tonight you can download HDTV content starting with Gears of War documentary, which will begin on Xbox Live and conclude net week on MTV." Peter Moore is talking about how Xbox Live changes the way that games are sold, distributed, and augmented through digital downloads and episodic content. We've heard it all before, but with each iteration fleshes out the vision just a little bit more.
3:25 pm- Moore: "The Xbox 360 HD DVD player. The intial run of Toshiba players sold out within a few days. I'd like to announce that today, the Xbox 360 player will be available this holiday. I've got to take my jacket off ... Some of you may remember this ... It's no big secret that I saved the big guns for the bog guns! Some guys do rubber ducks, so guys do tattoos. Moore takes off his jacket -- to show off his Halo 2 tattoo. The other arm has a Grand Theft Auto IV tattoo! October 16, 2007 in North America, October 19 in Europe.
3:26 pm -Microsoft and Rockstar games have entered into an exclusive partnership to provide exclusive episodic content through Xbox Live. Moore is interrupted by applause after this announcement. The crowd was not expecting this, and is pumped to hear it.
3:27 pm -Switching to Windows: "The most game friendly operating system in history: Windows Vista ... our new brand identity is Games for Windows." Flight Simulator X, Halo 2, Zoo Tycoon. Game demo featuring Crysis, exclusively for Windows. Chris Donahue, Group Manager, Games for Windows takes the stage. Chris is playing the game in god mode on some sort of super Windows computer that we can't see, but which we assume is the Dell XPS box right beneath his podium.
3:33 pm -Moore: "Let's take a peek into the future and see what gaming will look like on Windows Vista." Age of Conan : Hyborian Adventures; Crysis, MS Flight Simulator X. Moore: "Windows Vista is built to run games. It will be the single bigest launch int eh history og Microsoft. It will deliver more horsepower ... and for the first time ever your games will be immediately accessable form the Start menu."
3:35 pm- Oblivion sold 1.7 million copies in three weeks for Xbox 360 and PC. Shows joint release titles Shadowrun (Fasa Studio) for PC and Xbox 360. Microsoft's got an unenviable task of promoting both Xbox and PC games via the same conference. This isn't something that the other guys have to do. How do you show off the latest PC technology without making the Xbox 360 look stale? (Answer: thankfully, the PC and Xbox 360 aren't wildly different right now.) This allows the company to put together "joint releases" timed to hit the Xbox 360 and Windows at the same time. Whether "joint releases" are still happening four years from now is another question.
3:36 pm- Second joint release is Alan Wake (developer: Remedy) exclusively for Xbox 360 and Windows. Moore: "This game is a true genre buster. It's a pyschological action thriller."
3:39 pm- The Alan Wake trailer looks good, and the audience applauds readily after it concludes. "When we come to E3 will always try to show something that's new ... " Introduces Bill Gates, who admits "I'm a heavy Xbox 360 user. A PGR3 addict ... The futre of gaming involves software, better tools, better environments, being user-centric." MSN Messenger will be connected to Live, so it's seamless. "Driving the industry to a whole new size."
3:40 pm -Share your gamertag, Bill. We want to add you to our friends list, yo. What is that in Bill's hands? He's holding a tiny white object and can't stop fiddling with it. Is a stack of index cards with Bill's speech notes? Bill's just stalling for time ... building suspense while we wonder when he's going to drop a news bomb on us.
3:42 pm- "Now with Xbox 360 we're ... driving a global phenomenon. Our biggest challenge was keeping [the Xbox 360] in stock. Today we're talking publicly about ... a 10 million unit head start with the Xbox 360. We got the pieces in place. A year from now, we will be at over 6 million on Xbox Live at the next E3."
3:45 pm -"So what's the most dramatic thing we could do to take Live to the next level? " Connect users. Consider that there are 230 miilion Windows gamers and 1 billion game ready cellphones." Announces Live Anywhere, will be built into the Windows Vista.
3:46 pm- Live Anywhere will provide cross-platform possibilities. Just scratiching the surface of mobile gaming. "Start a game on Xbox, continue it on your phone. There are games that will work that way."
3:48 pm- [Just quick note: Xbox 360 will launch in eight new countries: South Africa, Chile, India, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. This is a big deal -- Microsoft's global operations allow it to reach into countries that are typically avoided. We regularly hear from Joystiq readers in South America who lament that getting current-gen consoles at realistic prices is difficult. Games in those countries are often twice the price they should be. When we spoke yesterday with Michael Pachter, Managing Director of Research for Wedbush Morgan Securities noted that the domestic-market growth will see "single-digit" percent growth, while overseas markets could see much higher growth. ]3:49 pm- This Live Anywhere thing sounds nice, but we want to see these features in action. Gates is right that Microsoft is the only company that can pull this off (because of the ubiquity of the company's operating system), but it's also the only company that can fail to execute. Ooh, it's almost like Billy G's reading this blog post, because now they're going to show us some demos. Scott Henson Director of Platfrom Startegy takes the stage.3:51 pm- Henson is starting game of Shadowrun on Xbox. He is automatically signed into Xbox Live; looks at friends list: can see friends on Xbox 360, mobile, and PC. "One gamertag no matter what the platform is ... of course I will be able to real time voice chat while we are playing cross-platform."
3:53 pm- Shadowrun demo: "Avenger" starts up Shadowrun and pulls up his friends list. He can see his friends connected to their mobile phones, computers, and so on. Avenger sends an invite to his friend "Major Nelson." Switch video feeds to Major Nelson. We see the invite pop up on Windows Vista, almost like an email notification popup. Major Nelson then compares profiles (insert slick, transparent UI here!) and decides to jump into Shadowrun with his buddy Avenger. Now get this: one of them's using the Xbox 360, one's using a Windows Vista PC. Finally, we will settle the ages-old debate about which control mechanism (mouse & keyboard or console controller) is superior for FPS control.
3:54 pm- Buy content once, available on all platofrms. Buy Zuma on Xbox 360 and have access to it on mobile phone -- one Marketplace. Gamercard integrated into mobile phone.3:55 pm- New demo: From a Motorola cell phone, Avenger pulls up his friends list and notices that Major Nelson has sent him a message. In thise case, it's a car that's been sent from Major Nelson for use in Forza Motorsport. Avenger modifies the car with a Windows Vista application (applying an Xbox 360 logo to it). User-generated content for real -- but how will the company keep less clean content from showing up on the hoods of Forza Motorsport cars? "Racing on Xbox 360, editing on Windows Vista, and tweaking on the mobile phone." Peter Moore re-enters.
3:57 pm -Summary from Moore: 10 million unit headstart, more than 160 games by this holiday, 6 million Xbox Live members by E3 2007, Live Anywhere unites all gamers. "I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into the future ." Gates and Moore exit, preview rolls ... Halo 3.
4:02 pm- The trailer is the same as the one currently on Xbox Live. Ends with "Finish the Flight -- 2007." The lights come on.Over the speakers, some Halo 3 audio trailer continues. It's full of muddled voices, full of static, full of confusing references to Halo 3 plot elements that have not happened yet. There's Japanese, English, and Spanish mixed in. The background noise appears to have been recorded on a train platform. Hardcore Halo fanboys might be picking some clues up from this stuff, but we can't tell whether it's just a cute way to wrap things up or whether there's actually someone's embedded clues to kickstart the Halo 3 launch ARG (assuming there will be one).Final thoughts:1. Cross-platform integration is unprecedented but we'll see whether the bite matches Microsoft's bark.2. Microsoft's playing a different game at this point: they've got the launch over with and now they're all about execution.3. Microsoft has stepped up the competitive arms race and has taken a bit of a turn toward the extreme. The blood in the Gears of War demo flowed freely. The Crysis demo included the word "shit." Moore dissed rubber duckies when he showed off his tattoo.4. Microsoft's projections are ambitious. Industry watchers suggest that the first console to 10 million installed wins the war -- so Microsoft's promise that they'll be there first is code for "we're going to win the long haul."That was a lot of information for one press conference. Thank you for joining us, be sure to check out all of our E3 on-floor this week, including hands-on impressions of every game we can get our hands on!Here's some Halo 3 screens for you: |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-09-enter-vmd-100-high-def-titles-launching-this-year-from-nme.html | 2006-05-09 23:05:00+00:00 | [] | Richard Lawler·Senior News Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Enter VMD: 100 high-def titles launching this year from NME | If HD DVD and Blu-ray aren't your style, don't forget that there is plenty of red-laser high definition DVD loving to be had.VMD, which claims to be able to use up to 20 layers and hold as much as 100GB of data is still on it's way.NMEhas announced that more than 100 titles will be released this year for the format, however no information on what those titles are is currently available other than that they will include several Broadway shows.They also say the price of the players and the media will be comparable to current DVDs. That all sounds well and great, but with all the studios supporting copy protected blue-laser formats we'll see if VMD is the little disc that could. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-09-hands-on-with-the-xbox-360-hd-dvd-drive.html | 2006-05-10 02:22:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Hands on with the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive | Microsoft threw a little pool-side party today in downtown Hollywood after theirpress event let out. We were naturally in attendance, and took a chance to fool around a bit with theXbox 360'snew peripherals -- well, the ones they let us touch, anyway. We were a little surprised they held out on us with the 360 HDMI cable we've all been waiting for, but in the same vein of high definition the first thing we wanted to see was their big add-on of choice for 2006: the360 HD DVD drive. (You'll have to forgive the pictures, we had to sneak these ones since they wanted us to use only their press shots.) Click on for more.
Steel yourself for a shock, but the HD DVD drive was actually looking like it was just going to be a regular 5.25-inch HD DVD drive slapped in a 360-styled external enclosure. Now that you've collected yourself after that bit of hysteria, we can tell you the (non-functional) drive itself had only a power plug (which looked to be of the variety that runs to the wall, no adapter required), a mini USB host port for connecting to the 360, two full USB ports for the device to otherwise act as a USB hub, and a spot for your 360 WiFi adapter to latch on the back since it could possibly be displaced by the use of the rear USB port to get this thing running on the console.
Will you be able to buy their drive at a huge loss? If MS releases with a $200 or less MSRP to make the core pack compete with Sony's lowest-end PlayStation 3, you could. But will you be able to plug it into a computer and have a functioning HD DVD drive (either via USB or by tearing it down)? Will Microsoft introduce an integrated HD DVD drive into future "premium" 360 consoles? There are just way too many questions to be answered with this one people, but what we do know is that in one form or another this thing exists, and we can't wait to get our hands on the real deal. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-10-wii-twilight-princess-in-widescreen-gamecube-in-4-3.html | 2006-05-10 08:30:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Wii Twilight Princess in widescreen, GameCube in 4:3 | According to a Nintendo press release titled, "Nintendo Introduces the Next Leap in Video Games," the Wii version ofThe Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princesswill feature a widescreen mode, but the GameCube version will not. This can be inferred from the following statement:"[Twilight Princess] will also be playable on Nintendo GameCube, but without the widescreen format or special controller functions."Is this Nintendo's subtle way of urging us into its next generation? Why does a stripped-down GameCube version ofTwilight Princesseven exist? Is Nintendo simply satisfying fans that are hesitant to upgrade to Wii? Wouldn't a Wii-exclusiveTwilight Princessdrive more sales of the next-gen console? What's Nintendo's strategy here? Questions ... questions ... questions ...[Via Nintendo press release; thanks, Oro] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-10-e3-the-wii-zapper-prototype-revealed.html | 2006-05-10 19:15:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | E3: The Wii Zapper prototype revealed | Over at the Nintendo booth, contained within a glass case adjacent to the classic shell (revealed earlier by IGN) is a prototype for the "Zapper Style" attachment for the Wii remote. Note that you get a joystick for your thumb and a standard gun-style trigger. Not much to say, but the prototype looks promising. We wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being really close to the final product. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-10-hands-on-with-wow-the-burning-crusade.html | 2006-05-10 19:46:00+00:00 | [] | Jennie Lees | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Hands on with WoW: The Burning Crusade | We've played the upcomingWorld of Warcraftexpansion --World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade-- exploring both Draenei and Blood Elf starting areas. Anticipation is running high at the show, with many gamers flocking to the Vivendi stand as soon as the show opened.The expansion was running smoothly on a Mac, with no visual UI changes, though there is the new Outland area to explore.
Hellfire Peninsula:
Draenei dancing:
Azuremyst Isle (Draenei starting area):
Draenei racials:
The racials for the new Draenei race are:
• Blessing of the Naaru - heals the target of 50 damage over 15 sec
• Gemcutting - Jewelcrafting skill increased by 15
• Inspiring Presence - Increases chance to hit with spells by 1% for all party members within 30 yards
• Shadow Resistance - increased by 10
Blood Elf dancing:
Ghostlands:
Blood Elf racials:
The Blood Elf racials (as announced at Blizzcon) are:
• Arcane Affinity - Enchanting increased by 15
• Arcane Torrent - Silence all enemies within 8 yards for 2 sec. In addition, you gain 20 Energy, Mana or Rage for each Mana Tap charge currently affecting you.
• Magic Resistance - All resistances increased by 5
• Mana Tap - Drains 50 mana from your target and charges you with Arcane energy until cancelled. This effect stacks up to 3 times.
Tranquillien and Silvermoon City reputations:
Newly created Blood Elf on Sunstrider Isle:
Finally, a still from the teaser video, which describes "hundreds of epic quests", "uncharted dungeons", flying mounts, jewelcrafting, socketed items, a level cap of 70 and new spells and abilities: |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-10-nintendos-e3-booth-tour.html | 2006-05-10 21:05:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Nintendo's E3 booth tour | After swearing to the Nintendo booth staff thatyeswe bow at the feet of Miyamoto,nowe've never touched a Sony device before in our lives, andyeswe'd like to skip the mile long line to see the Wii, we managed to find ourselves in Nintendo's special little (or not so little) Wii paradise. There were playables galore, though that "27 playable titles" theymentioned at the keynotewas a bit misleading. Sure, you could grab a Wiimote and start making a fool of yourself in any one of 27 different ways, but most of the playable stuff was actually just a tech demo or a mini game. Luckily, the big names like Zelda, Mario and Red Steel were there in force, and the good times were aplenty even with the tech demos. We'll have our impressions of the Wiimote pretty soon, but for now we've got a whole slew of pics from the booth, so take a look.
The Wiimote
It looks good, it feels good, but how does it play? In truth, we can't say we were blown away. Sorry to tease, we'll have our full impressions up soon, but for now feel free to ogle.
The Hardware
Virtual Console
The Vritual Console screens were supposedly just mockups, and may not necessarly represent the Wii interface, or the Virtual Console interface -- so don't be surprised if these change shape.The Games
Tennis!
RedDawnSteel!
Fishing in Twilight Princess.
The Booth
The Mari-freaking-oh
More to come! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-11-sony-continues-to-play-defense-over-ps3-pricing-hdmi.html | 2006-05-11 15:02:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony continues to play defense over PS3 pricing, HDMI | Somehow, we suspect Sony's brass are not very happy right now. Instead of spending their time at E3 fielding softball questions about the Playstation 3's graphics, they're playing defense, as they continue to face queries about the new console'spricing and the missing featureson the lower-priced version. In an interview with CNN, Sony's Kaz Hirai said the pricing -- $499 for the 20GB PS3 and $599 for the 60GB version -- was justified by the inclusion of technologies like the Cell processor and Blu-ray, and added that the "totality" of the product is a "good value for consumers." Hirai also defended the lack of HDMI on the 20GB PS3, commenting that "there's not a discernible difference between what you get between HDMI and other forms of high definition." While that might be the case with current Blu-ray flicks, all movie studios (including Sony Pictures) have reserved the right to implement theImage Constraint Tokenin future discs, which could force anyone using analog outputs -- including owners of the 20GB PS3 -- to watch downgraded video. We assume Hirai's familiar with the issue, so we have to wonder whether his claim that the PS3 is "future-proofed" is just a little bit disingenuous. All it would take is one Blu-ray disc with ICT for owners of 20GB PS3s to realize they've been locked out of the future. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-11-d-link-relents-agrees-to-halt-its-ntp-vandalism.html | 2006-05-11 20:30:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | D-Link relents, agrees to halt its "NTP vandalism" | Although we never got that press release we wanted from D-Link addressing accusations thatit was engaging in so-called "NTP vandalism,"the company has apparently seen the error of its ways andbeen shamed intocome to a settlement with the Danish admin whose time server its routers were programmed -- without permission -- to regularly query. In the absence of any government-sponsored options, Poul Henning-Kamp had set up his own NTP server (with donated bandwidth) so that 2,000-odd Danish server administrators could reliably sync their clocks, but because D-Link began coding the server's address into all of their hardware, Henning-Kamp's traffic skyrocketed and his ISP threatened to hit him with a multi-thousand-dollar bill. After writing an open letter exposing D-Link's misdeeds, Henning-Kamp finally heard back from the company that had previously been ignoring him, and the two parties apparently agreed that products already on the market can continue to query the server (which means some sort of payment was probably made), but that D-Link will remove its address from hardware manufactured in the future. Lesson learned: if you've got a problem with a big, faceless corporation, instead of wasting your time in fruitless attempts to contact their lawyers and executives, just make a big public stink until someone pays you to shut up. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-12-problems-with-toshibas-hd-dvd-player.html | 2006-05-12 17:21:00+00:00 | [] | Matt Burns | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Problems with Toshiba's HD DVD player | So, has anyone been having issues with their HD DVD players. There are only two of them out there, the Toshiba HD-A1 and HD-XA1 and they both seem to be having "issues." Most of the problems have involved freezing up during the movie. To solve this, a user would have to hit pause in order for the audio and video to sync back up. It seems that this happens on every movie and sometimes more then once. The bad units seem to have a common thread however; all seem to have been made in March.Are any of our readers experiencing this? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-14-e3-coverage-roundup.html | 2006-05-14 18:58:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | E3 coverage roundup | Microsoft
• Microsoft Xbox 360 event pre-game coverage!
• Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Microsoft's Xbox 360 E3 event
• Xbox 360 HD DVD player still coming this year
• Xbox Live Vision camera, Racing Wheel, Wireless Headset coming this fall
• Hands on with the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive
• Microsoft blends platform lines with Live Anywhere
• Hands on with the Xbox 360 Live Vision, Wireless Headset, and Racing Wheel
• The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Peter Moore
• Microsoft's E3 booth tour
Nintendo
• Nintendo's Wii event pre-game coverage!
• Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Nintendo's Wii E3 event
• Nintendo Wii Connect 24 to use downtime for downloads
• Nintendo Wii launch: 4th quarter, for less then $500
• Nintendo shows off Wii Remote and Classic Controller
• Nintendo's "final" Wii controller -- what we know
• Nintendo "Zapper Style" shell for Wii Remote
• Nintendo's E3 booth tour
• Hands on with Nintendo's Wii controller
• The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto (again!)
• Joystiq Video: Shigeru Miyamoto Interview
Sony
• Sony's PlayStation 3 event pre-game coverage!
• Engadget & Joystiq's live coverage of Sony's PlayStation 3 E3 event
• Sony Playstation 3 launch details
• Sony shows off the real PS3 controller
• $500 PS3 to lack HDMI, WiFi, card reader
• Playstation 3: here it is
• Sony's E3 booth tour
• Controller showdown: PlayStation 3 vs Wii
Everybody else
• Alienware's SLI-enabled 19-inch mALX and 17-inch m9700 laptops
• Joystiq checks out prototype XPS desktop
• Pioneer's new 5.1 audio setup for your Xboxin' pleasure
• Logitech launches steering wheels and G-series inputs
• Dell shows pics of next-gen gaming boxes
• Nokia's E3 booth tour
E3
• Engadget at E3
• E3: South hall walkthrough
• E3: Kentia hall walkthrough |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-15-dells-xps-goes-10k-again-and-x-men.html | 2006-05-15 06:37:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Dell's XPS goes $10k (again) and X-Men | Looks like Dell wasn't too displeased withthe result of that limited run$10,000 XPS 600 Renegadeseries of theirs, since they're busting that move again with their new XPS: X-Men box based on thenew system they were showing off at E3. It's just too bad you can't buy it though, since they're giving away the apparently one-of-a-kind quad NVIDIA carded and Intel Pentium 965 Extreme Edition equipped machine as a tie-in with this month's launch of that new X-Men movie. Ah well, you'll get yours built to order soon enough, but you're going to have to pay for it your damn self. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-15-iriver-clix-u10-hits-the-us.html | 2006-05-15 09:37:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iRiver Clix (U10) hits the US | FarewelliRiver U10, hello iRiver Clix. It's the same device (well,this one's 2GB), but it looks like iRiver finally caught on to the fact that named products brand better and seem to sell faster than arcane alpha-numeric character combinations. Other than that this thing doesn't appear to be too different than its predecessors; CNET's got a review of it up (as well as one ofUrge and Windows Media Player 11,hereandhere, respectively if you're interested).[Thanks, Jenn] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-15-creative-sues-apple-for-violation-of-zen-patent.html | 2006-05-15 22:25:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Creative sues Apple for violation of "Zen Patent" | Thelove festbetween Creative and Apple continues, but this time it's pretty serious. Creative is pulling out those media player interface patents they filed in August of last year, and suing Apple for patent infringement with their iPod, iPod nano and iPod mini players. It doesn't seem to matter much to Creative that two of those players were released long before the patent in question, and the iPod nano came out a mere month later. There's also no mention of a seemingly more legitimate argument: Apple'spossible trademark infringementin the use of the "nano" name. Creative claims that their NOMAD Jukebox was on display at CES in January 2000, and there displayed the user interface that has since been copied by Apple and others. This user interface is covered inAugust's "Zen Patent,"and sounds vaguely defined enough to have some weight in court, as silly as it seems. Creative of course wants a cease and desist order to be issued, and basically a complete death of the iPod unit in general, but that's no surprise. All we can do now is sit back and watch the sparks fly. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-16-the-engadget-and-joystiq-interview-microsofts-shane-kim.html | 2006-05-16 23:30:00+00:00 | [] | Christopher Grant | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | The Engadget & Joystiq Interview: Microsoft's Shane Kim | If you haven't already watched thevideo, now you can read the transcription of our interview with Shane Kim, General Manager of Microsoft Game Studios. During E3, Vlad Cole and I got some time to sit down and ask him about some of the biggest questions facing Microsoft's early entrant into the next-gen console wars, like whether there are any more developer acquisitions lined up, which Xbox Live Arcade titles will show up on Vista withLive Anywhere, what are the plans for ad-supported gaming, and just how many paid subscribers does Xbox Live has.We're corroborating with several sources: is Peter Moore's [Grand Theft Auto 4] tattoo real?You know, I wasn't there when it was put on there, it's a very personal thing so I can neither confirm nor deny.Okay... so it's real. Prior to E3, people were really looking forward to actual demonstrations of the Wii controller. That was the big buzz coming into the show and, after they unveiled it, I think people were more or less satisfied with it. So how do you think you fared versus that intense excitement towards that controller?I think we fared extremely well. One of the big things we talked about yesterday was all the momentum we're going to have this next generation. We're going to have 10 million units in consumers' hands before the competitor even ships unit one. We're well on our way to 6 million connected members on Xbox Live and we're going to have 160 games in the market by the end of the year. We've got great momentum. We had Bill Gates attend E3 for the first time ever to announce the vision of Live anywhere. Again, demonstrating leadership in the online space isn't just about what we've achieved to date, but also about how we're going to take that forward across multiple platforms and devices. And finally, first and foremost, it's about the games and the content. Yesterday we started withGears of Warand ended withHalo 3, and we sprinkled in a little bit ofFable 2,Forza 2,Alan Wake, and, oh by the way, theGrand Theft Auto 4announcement as well. So I think from the content standpoint we're definitely doing great there. So, better online, better content, and better pricing than some of the competition; we feel good about where we're at.Do you think it's important to win E3? I think most people say you have, at least in terms of the keynotes.I think it's always great to be recognized for what you're doing, whether it's at E3 or any other point. Sometimes I worry there's too much importance placed on that but since people are saying we won this year, I'll say it's a great thing we won E3.
On
Grand Theft Auto 4, how did you keep Sony quiet on that? Obviously it's not exclusive to the Xbox 360, why weren't they announcing it as well?I think you've got to ask Rockstar and the Sony guys there. Obviously that was going to be a major announcement because in many respects,Grand Theft Auto 3was the thing that propelled PlayStation 2 to so much success, and now it's going to be available on Xbox 360 from day one. What you're seeing now is the third-party playing field is really becoming more level, more even. And all the exclusive content -- the content that is really going to differentiate the platforms -- has to come from the first parties. That's where Microsoft Game Studios is really trying to step up and those titles that we showed yesterday hopefully demonstrate to everybody that we're in a greater position.It's clear that part of this "stepping up" is acquisition. You just acquired Lionhead. Is that acquisition streak going to continue?I actually don't think it's part of stepping up to be honest. At least not the way we think about it. We don't have an acquisition strategy that says, "Hey, you must acquire companies and that's how you get bigger and stronger as a first party." Acquisition isn't always the right thing. Owning the independent developer isn't always what they want. Every relationship with every development partner -- whether its an internal studio or an independent developer -- is very different. In this particular case Peter [Molyneaux], I think, wanted to not have to worry about the financial security and challenges of being an independent developer and welcomed becoming part of Microsoft Game Studios, and that was fantastic.At the same time, just given the nature of the console transition, there's a lot of uncertainty: stocks are taking a hit and, as a result, analysts are worried about what's going on. They didn't expect the prior-gen sales to take a dip as quickly as they did and things are relatively cheap from an acquisition standpoint. Are you finding there are other attractive developers out there?The most important thing for us is to establish relationships -- publishing and developing relationships -- with the very best talent possible. And if an acquisition grows out of that and it makes sense for both parties, that's fantastic. But it really isn't, "Oh gosh the market's right." It's not real estate. "Now's the time to flip the studio because the prices have risen." That's really not the way we look at it.Do you believe that the first of "The Big Three" to 10 million units will win the race?I think it's a very key milestone. We've said that historically if you look at the performance of prior-console generations that's been a very important milestone. I think it proves to a lot of people -- customers, third parties, the press, the retailers -- that we are in a leadership position, we have tremendous momentum. What I'm not going to say is that we've got it sewn up because of that. We're going to continue to execute once we get to 10 million, once we get to 15, 20, et cetera. We've got a great strategy, we know what we've got to do, we've just got to be in full execution mode.About the integration between the PC and Xbox 360: is the entire Xbox 360 Live Marketplace going to be available on the Vista platform?I think what you saw yesterday with Live Anywhere is that is our vision is to bring all of the great experiences you have today -- and, of course, things we haven't even thought of yet -- and Xbox Live and Xbox Live Marketplace, Xbox Live Arcade, et cetera, to all of that cross-platform experience. It's the difference between just providing connected gameplay and really delivering a complete unified connected service that has community, identity, economy, all that built in seamlessly, and it just works. So yeah, the vision is to eventually bring all of those innovations and those features cross platform.Will you apply the same portfolio-management strategy that's made XBLA successful to the Vista platform?That's right.So to put a really fine point on it:Geometry Wars: Retro Evolvedon Windows Vista isgoing to happen, it's just a question of schedule?Picking that particular title, we're not announcing specific titles. Each title is gonna be up to the publisher, just as it is today when you're deciding which platforms to publish on. What we want to do is provide the platform, make it very easy to deliver their content on multiple platforms and devices connected into this service, It ultimately comes down to each publisher but, as a publisher, I don't know why I wouldn't want to take advantage of that.So you're hinting at a cost that's associated with porting those titles from the Xbox 360 to the Windows Vista platform ...But because of the work that we're going to do from a development standpoint we're gonna make that cost much lower than our competitors can, and much lower than the cost of doing it on your own in a disconnected way.So we'll see titles likeGeometry Wars: Retro Evolved, which has like a 40% conversion rate. Most likely it will make sense to pay that cost to bring it over to Windows Vista, but some of your lower converting titles, we don't know what they are specifically, but you've got some that are under 10%. Those may not make it?Sure, those may not make it. And I think again, you're going to cull the crop and figure out which titles really do make sense on the other platforms. And it's not going to make sense on every platform. Some content does make more sense on a specific platform.Interoperability between Windows Vista and 360 games: will that be handled on a per title basis for handicapping, are you going to use your TrueSkill system [to handle that]?TheShadowrunguys are working very hard to make sure that it's an even fight. So controller players -- whether they're on Windows or Xbox 360 -- have very fair competition with the mouse and keyboard players. They'll tell you -- and I don't know if they're exaggerating -- they'll tell you that many people prefer playingShadowrunwith the controller versus the mouse and keyboard. They understand that, historically, that's been a real problem and that people haven't wanted to play versus the mouse and keyboard players because they think [those players] have an advantage. So those guys are working very hard to make sure that, from a control standpoint, there is no advantage on a platform basis.WillHalo 2have any interoperability when it's released for Vista... ?No, we're just bringing over theHalo 2experience over to Vista. It will support the online services though, that we're bringing over to Windows Vista.In terms of digital distribution initiatives, Xbox Live has proven that there is a hunger for a certain amount of digitally distributed content. By the end of this generation of the console cycle, what percent of revenue do you think will be earned from digital distribution? Fifty percent, twenty five percent?I haven't even thought about it that way. I mean it's a great question, don't get me wrong, it's a great question, and it's going to actually be a very significant number. In terms of percentage though, you're talking about $50-$60 titles at retail being sold. I don't think that digital distribution as a percent of revenue will become 10, 20, 30 percent. It's hard to know what to think of that in terms ofpercentage. Inabsoluteterms I do believe it's going to become a very significant number. Just like I think advertising and sponsorship is going to grow to be a significant part, which is a good thing from a publisher's standpoint and a developer's standpoint. We have to figure out ways to grow the business model of console gaming.Alright, you opened up it up to questions on advertising, but before we do, do you believe by the end of this console cycle, we'll see full retail titles distributed digitally to consoles?I think you may see that in some markets. It's certainly a function of storage; it's a function of bandwidth and the ability to get it down; there's regulatory aspects to it; there's consumer aspects to it; wehaveto take into account our retailer ecosystem -- it's very important, we have great partners in the retail space. So there's a lot of very tricky issues. Do I think that digital distribution is coming? I absolutely do. It's not just Xbox Live Arcade by the way, but digital distribution is coming. In markets where there is significant piracy issues, and counterfeiting, digital distribution is really important for us in order to prove that there is a viable business model there.The problem with those markets is they tend to lack the bandwidth that makes digital distribution viable. I think Brazil is one of the new countries you're going to go into, the penetration isn't there in terms of broadband.But some of the markets in Asia where we do also have piracy problems, there is great broadband penetration, and veryhigh-speedbroadband penetration. It's going to vary market by market. It's going to depend on what the specific market situation is. By the end of this generation do I think it's going to be possible? Yeah, I think it's going to be possible.
Onto the advertising: will there be a version of Xbox Live Gold that's ad-supported so that people who are reticent about spending money on an online subscription for their console might be able to experience that same gameplay that someone who's paying for Gold currently experiences?As opposed to paying for a Gold membership? Boy, nothing that we're announcing today, that's for sure. Just being able to integrate more of the in-game advertising, sponsorships, enabling more subscription types of business models, that's really what we're focusing on. As opposed to whether we could possibly remove the Gold membership level.But the Gold membership level is a barrier right now to adoption. You've got 60% of the consoles connected, and that includes Gold and Silver. Who knows what the Gold membership level is. Are you able to say?It's great! What I'll refer back to is last year, at this time, we talked about having well over 2 million subscribers. A big chunk of the greater than 3 million we've got currently connected are Gold subscribers. People are still seeing a great deal of value in the Gold level membership.What's a "big chunk?" Over half?We were already over 2 million subscribers last year and we've had great conversion.I'm sorry, if you have 60% connected out of all of the Xbox 360 ...Just to make the numbers easy, so there's no confusion: we have over 3 million connected members today, Gold and Silver.Approximately what proportion of those are Gold?I'm not going to tell you exactly, but I'll just refer back. Last year at this time we talked about having 2 million paid subscribers to Xbox Live and we've had a great conversion from Xbox to Xbox 360, so draw from that what you will.So it would indicate over half.Itwouldindicate over half.When do you plan on implementing your recent Massive purchase to deliver ads to the Xbox 360?We're gonna start working on that right away. That's a major purchase for the company and obviously we're going to add that technology to our adCenter platform. Our general online advertising platform, but it's certainly a big part of what we think the future's going to be in the interactive entertainment space. It's all about figuring out what kinds of new business models, revenue streams can be used to supplement just the straight retail sale of games. A key thing about this -- before anyone gets too freaked out about it -- is that it has to be done in such a way that it's not offensive, intrusive, doesn't take away from the gaming experience.That being said, are there any plans to reduce the price of $60 third-party titles if they have ad-content inside?I think that's always up to the publisher.What about Microsoft Game Studios?I think, again, we're going to look at all these different business models as they emerge. Whether it's using promotional partners to sponsor downloadable content -- which is also starting to happen as an example so we don't have to charge customers -- that's something that we're starting to look at more and more. Looking at how advertising might be able to supplement from a pricing standpoint, that's got to be part of the equation but I don't know if that's going to happen. Even though you said I invited the advertising question, you were going to ask it anyways (laughs).Of course you are sensitive to gamers freaking out about this; we've written about it a lot on Joystiq and there's a lot of sensitivity to it. "I don't want to have to wait extra time for my game to load." "I don't want to have to download ads all the time." "I don't want it clogging my connection." Sowhat are some examples, outside of what Massive has already put on their website, of allowable or okay or friendly advertising inserted into Xbox Live?I really don't have specific examples for you today, to be honest. I just know the underlying philosophy, the principle going in, is that we can't piss off the gamer. We are very sensitive to that. By the same token, I believe it can be done in a fashion -- and we'll provide more concrete examples as we start to develop them -- that won't be offensive to gamers. People do have to realize that the content we're delivering is very high quality, world-class, ambitious, and all of that stuff, and it's expensive to produce. So from a publishing standpoint, and a development standpoint, we do have to figure out ways to improve that overall business model. But first and foremost we can't undermine the underlying entertainment experience.That's in keeping with what you've said about your portfolio strategy, you're not just letting anything onto the console. It's a very controlled environment. At the same time the Windows platform is not quite so controlled; it's more of a Wild West environment. How are you going to mediate between those extremes?Truthfully, on the Xbox 360 side, you guys really need to talk to George Beckham about how he thinks about which third-party titles to allow on and off. I have nothing to do with that -- I want to make that very clear -- the first-party guys don't get to say anything about third-party titles. With respect to Windows though, the market is going to regulate that, right? In terms of what succeeds and what doesn't. Today, with the cost of development, publishers and developers really can't afford to take chances on mediocre titles. So I think there's a little bit of self-regulation that's going to happen.Whether or not we start to introduce more of a model on the Windows side where we say, "Look, there's these approved Windows titles" -- which is essentially what we do on the 360 -- I can' t say for sure today. But that would be amajorchange in the way Windows gaming has historically worked. As you know we don't charge a royalty to publishers to publish their games on the Windows platform. So there's a bunch of fundamental economic changes that would have to go along with that. Certainly nothing that we're talking about right now.
Thanks for your time. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-17-linksys-releases-wip300-and-wip330-802-11g-voip-handsets.html | 2006-05-17 19:45:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Linksys releases WIP300 and WIP330 802.11g VoIP handsets | Linksys has finally released those 802.11g-capable VoIP phones that we've had our eye on for awhile, although they are going for significantly more than we expected, with the Nokia-esqueWIP300priced at $220 and the high-endWIP330(pictured) sporting a rather steep $370 tag. As you may remember, both models let you do the Internet calling thing from 802.11b/g-enabled routers and support SIP v2 standards, while the pricier unit adds hotspot support and the ability to browse the web on its 2.2-inch color display. If you're on the fence about throwing down several hundred bucks for a handset whenother solutionslet you use existing cordless phones on the cheap, the fact that domestic SkypeOut calls are completely free for the rest of the year may help you justify the cost to yourself. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-18-second-life-publisher-sued-bragg-v-linden-research.html | 2006-05-18 19:55:00+00:00 | [] | James Ransom-Wiley | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Second Life publisher sued: Bragg v. Linden Research | Attorney Marc Bragg has filed a lawsuit against Linden Lab, publisher ofSecond Life, alleging that the company unfairly shutdown his game account, cutting off access to his virtual real estate, which includes several nightclubs. In addition, Bragg can no longer withdraw any of the linden (Second Lifecurrency) he has earned, which if exchanged (in total), would be worth roughly $3,200. The West Chester attorney is now demanding $8,000 in restitution.Linden Lab froze Bragg's account after the attorney took part in a suspicious online auction in which he acquired significant plots of virtual land for far below market price. Bragg indeed exploited the auction interface to snag the land at a discount, but maintains that the onus is on Linden Lab to run their auctions properly and securely.[Thanks, chris] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-19-robot-surgeon-performs-worlds-first-unassisted-operation.html | 2006-05-19 14:20:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Robot surgeon performs world's first unassisted operation | We're sure that more than a few of our readers are keen on robots and interested in the latest developments in robotics, but how many of you would volunteer to be the guinea pig for the world's first unassisted heart surgery? Even though there were about a million doctors on hand to monitor Dr. Carlo Pappone'srobosurgeondoing its detailed work on a 34-year-old Italian patient suffering from atrial fibrillation (heart flutters), we can't help but wonder if a juxtaposed "0" and "1" in the bot's code is all it would take to drive a scalpel somewhere that it isn't supposed to go. Luckily for the pioneering patient, the 50-minute surgery went off without a hitch, most likely due to the fact that the prototype bot has software containing data about some 10,000 real-world operations, and has already performed assisted procedures on at least 40 people. Pappone, who initiated and monitored the latest surgery from a computer in Boston while it was occurring in Milan, plans to release a commercial version of the unnamed robosurgeon later this month.[ViaPhysOrg] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-19-immersion-offers-to-teach-sonys-dualshake-to-dance.html | 2006-05-19 19:55:00+00:00 | [] | Ross Miller·Associate Editor | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Immersion offers to teach Sony's DualShake to dance | Immersion Corporation is a thorn on Sony's side -- in September of 2004 they won a lawsuit against Sony, arguing that the videogame giant had used their "haptic" (read: rumble) technology without consent. Sony is appealing the verdict, which requires that they pay $90 million to Immersion and prohibits Sony from selling games and controllers that specifically used Immerison's technology, including the PS2 DualShock controller.Coincidentally (or perhaps not), Sony unveiled at this year's E3 that the PS3 controller, which we are dubbing the DualShake for its motion-sensor properties,would lack a rumble feature. Immersion President Victor Viegas has offered to work with Sony to add rumble to the PlayStation 3 controller, adding that they have "numerous solutions" that they have offered Sony. The catch? Sony has to drop the appeal and accept the court decision from 2004.Sony's line of reasoning has been, publicly, that they had to drop the rumble feature to make way for itslast-minute inclusionof motion-sensor technology. However, as many have noted, the controller now feels flimsy, and the inclusion of rumble technology seems very viable. Its absence is a step backwards for the console, and we hope that somehow (by hook or by crook), Sony backs down and includes haptic technology with their final product. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-22-sony-ericssons-w42s-3g-walkman-phone-for-japan.html | 2006-05-22 12:20:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony Ericsson's W42S 3G Walkman phone for Japan | We've been feeling theWalkmanlove from Sony Ericsson for what constitutes forever on a tech timeline. Oddly, Japan is only now getting their first taste of these little musicphones with the newly announced W42S. However, don't feel sorry for ourformertech overlords just yet, the W42S packs in a cool 1GB of internal memory which can be supplemented with up to 4GB of Memory Stick Pro DUO expansion and sports a power saving mode allowing up to 30 hours of music playback. This 3G (CDMA2000) slider also features a 1.3 megapixel cam, a 2.2-inch 262k color QVGA LCD, FM radio, an EPG to keep you hip to the TV schedule, and a feast of dedicated player controls including a new mechanical wheel unique to Walkman phone navigation. And by partnering with KDDI, owners can snag music over-the-air via the 5 million downloads per month strong LISMO music service. No price announced but "local media" is reporting that this musicphone will fetch $181 (with contract and telco rights to your vital organs we presume) when these drop in late June. Click on for a few hands-on pics.[ViaImpress Watch] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-23-sony-bmg-rootkit-class-action-settled-time-to-submit-your-cla.html | 2006-05-23 13:20:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony BMG "rootkit" class action settled: time to submit your claim | Listen up anyone who "purchased, received, came into possession of or otherwise used" music CDs containing Sony's flawed DRM software anytime after August 1, 2003. Under the terms ofthe class actionsettlement approved Monday, you are entitled to file a claim for a replacement CD, free downloads of music from that CD (with Apple's iTunes named as one of the three download services, ironically), and even "additional cash payments" which we presume are likely to amount to a stack of Abes, not Benjamins, folks. Pretty much whatSony BMG was already offering to their customerswhen this whole fiasco hit back in November. Additionally, Sony BMG definitively agreed to halt manufacture or distribution of thatXCP and MediaMax nastinessmasked by the rootkit. Now be sure to get your claim in now consumers, so that Sony BMG hears loud and clear thatyou do know what a rootkit is, and yes, you care. Afterall, the settlement only lasts until the end of 2007 at which point Sony BMG is free to introduce copy protection software once again. Click the read link for a PDF copy of the settlement.[Viac|net News] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-23-irivers-future-wibro-gaming-or-bust.html | 2006-05-23 14:28:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iRiver's future: WiBro gaming or bust | We have a soft spot forsome ofiRiver's digitalmedia players, even if they've largely gotten lost in a crowded marketplace. But we may not be seeing too many new models from the company. Faced with the evaporation of its market share, both at home in Korea and in the crucial US marketplace, iRiver is attempting to remake itself as a vendor of portable WiBro gaming consoles. The transition is likely to be a bumpy one. Although iRiver showed off its first gaming console,the G10(now renamed the Wing), several months ago, that model continues to face delays, and is now expected to show up no sooner than the end of the year, and then, in all likelihood, only in Korea. Sure, the Wing has some tasty features, including a 4-inch LCD, compatibility with most common audio and video formats, WiFi, WiBro and 6GB NAND flash memory. But at an initial price of about $315, it'll be competing directly against dozens of cheaper Korean DMB PMPs, hard drive-equipped players from vendors like Apple and Creative, and gaming consoles like the DS Lite, which will be on the market in Korea well before the end of the year, at a price well below $315. Still, iRiver probably has little choice but to try something drastic: the company's sales have plummeted from close to $1 billion two years ago to just $39 million in the first quarter of this year. We'll be sure to check out the Wing -- and, in the meantime, we'll be on the lookout for fire sale pricing onthe Clix.Read -iRiver's strategyRead -G10 specsRead -Wing delays(sub reqd) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-23-acer-to-offer-both-blu-ray-and-hd-dvd-equipped-laptops.html | 2006-05-23 21:08:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Report: Acer to offer both Blu-ray and HD DVD-equipped laptops | We knew Acer was going to be one of the first vendorsafterToshibato roll outan HD DVD-equipped laptop, and now it looks like the company is ready to be one of the first out of the gate (after Sony, of course) with Blu-ray as well. Although Acer is refusing to comment, reports out of Taiwan are that the company will introduce both Blu-ray and HD DVD-equipped portables at the upcoming Computex 2006 trade show. We're ready to see it happen -- though what wereallywant is one box with both drives in it. Maybe they can follow up with that. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-apples-17-inch-macbook-pro-reviewed.html | 2006-05-24 12:40:00+00:00 | [] | Thomas Ricker | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro reviewed | You know, for all the talk about thosegreasy-hot,overclockin'MacBook Prosand theirmysterious firmwareupdates, only now has PCMag completed a full review of the 17-inch flavor MBP. Alas, you won't find any real surprises in the review of this "astounding" 6.8-pound, easy toting 17-incher. Yeah, it does indeed get "too hot" by the reviewers standards, though apparently not as hot as the 15-inch model due to larger surface area to dissipate heat. And since this isPCMag, they installedBoot Camp, as you'd expect, "without a hitch" giving them the same "impressive" (for a Mac) gaming results in XP seen on the 15-inch sib. The reviewer calls the move to the 17-inch MacBook Pro a "no brainer" if you're a creative professional working heavily in graphic design or movie editing. However, if you're just looking for a "cool multimedia laptop" with plenty of screen then there are plenty of Windows-only systems available giving more bang, for that $3,099 as-tested, buck. Yeah, Macfanboyenthusiasts, they're calling you out with that one. Still, PCMag slaps on a 4/5 editors rating which ain't too shabby, right? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-comcast-rolls-out-motorola-sbv5220-cable-modem-with-battery-back.html | 2006-05-24 14:57:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Comcast rolls out Motorola SBV5220 cable modem with battery backup | If you've made the break and use a VoIP service as your only landline, you may have noticed one of the main downsides of the option (especially if you live in a rural or isolated area): if the power goes out, so does your phone line. Hooking up a UPS can help, but can also be expensive and may not provide power for more than an hour or so. However, help is on the way, at least if you get your VoIP access as part of a bundled plan from Comcast. The company plans to offer Motorola's SBV5220 cable modem to at least some of its customers as part of its $39.95 Digital Voice service. The SBV5220 includes its own lithium-ion backup battery, which provides up to 8 hours of power. Of course, if you use a cordless phone and it isn't fully charged before the lights go off, this may not do you a whole lot of good, so be sure to keep those phones charged. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-msi-releases-12-1-inch-dual-core-s271-laptop.html | 2006-05-24 16:45:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | MSI releases 12.1-inch, dual-core S271 laptop | MSI has just released another 12.1-inch dual-core laptop, and the specs seem very similar to theirS262ultraportable that we spotted earlier this year, except that the Core Duo processor has been replaced with an AMD Turion 64 X2. Like the S262, the S271 ships with integrated graphics, 256MB or 512MB of RAM (expandable to 2GB), 4-in-1 memory card reader (really just 2-in-1, as it accepts only SD/MMC and MemoryStick/MS Pro formats -- where's the xD love?), and a "Super Multi DVD" drive, but manages to shed a few ounces and add a 200GB HDD option. Available immediately, this model will set you back around $1,500. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-tivo-to-echostar-stop-making-dvrs.html | 2006-05-24 18:16:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | TiVo to EchoStar: stop making DVRs! | Emboldened by itsrecent court victoryin a long-running patent battle with EchoStar, TiVo has now taken the volume up a notch, and filed for an injunction to stop EchoStar from making or selling DVRs. However, EchoStar has fought back, insisting thatrecent USPTO rulingsoverturning some TiVo patents could render TiVo's victory short-lived. And, of course, EchoStar is requesting that the original ruling, which awarded TiVo about $74 million, be stayed until the USPTO finishes digging through TiVo's records. One thing's certain: this isn't ending any time soon, so if you want to keep up, be sure to program your TiVo box to catch the latest news (or program your EchoStar box, if that's what you've got, and hope that its time-shifting functions don't suddenly disappear via a court-mandated firmware flash). |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-windows-vista-delayed-again-maybe.html | 2006-05-24 19:19:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Windows Vista delayed again ... maybe | We have to admit to occasionally sharing in some of theschadenfreudethat surfaces on the internets every time Microsoftannounces yetanother WindowsVista delay. However, this time we're willing to cut them a little slack. While headlines have been screaming about a new delay all day today, most of them seem to be based on some fairly ambiguous comments by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Speaking with NEC execs in Japan, Ballmer commented that "We think we are on track for shipping early in [2007]. We've talked about the month, but we get a chance to critically assess all of the feedback we'll get from this beta release then confirm or move [the launch date] a few weeks." Ballmer also commented that he was looking forward to feedback from "hardware partners" about "when would they really like it." Now, a cynical take on Ballmer's comments would be that he's using the recently announced second beta of Vista, along with possible requests from hardware vendors, as an excuse to set the stage for a forthcoming announcement that Vista will indeed be delayed beyondJanuary 2007. However, we'll look at the glass as half-full this time: Ballmer istrulyinterested in hearing from the beta testers and computer manufacturers, andreallywants to factor their findings and needs into Vista's launch date. Besides, the thing is so late already; what's a few more weeks between friends, right? |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-mac-pro-the-replacement-for-the-power-mac-g5.html | 2006-05-24 20:43:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Mac Pro: the replacement for the Power Mac G5? | Now that Apple has rolled outthe MacBook, speculation has turned to the sole remaining PowerPC-based computer in the company's lineup: the Power Mac G5. And, as of today, there seems to be at least one thing that can be confirmed about the new computer: it will be called the Mac Pro. At least that's the assumption that can be made based on a recent Apple trademark filing, in which the company claimed the Mac Pro name for, among other things, "computers, computer hardware, computer software, computer peripherals, notebook computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, computer servers, handheld computers and mobile computers." Which means, of course, that this really doesn't confirm anything, except that Apple likes products with the words "Mac" and "Pro" in them -- which we kind of already knew. And this also raises at least one new question: if the Power Mac becomes the Mac Pro, will the iMac become -- a la MacBook/ MacBook Pro -- just the Mac?Update:Thanks to Jeff for pointing out that there is still one other PowerPC-based computer in Apple's lineup: the Xserve. We'll have to wait a bit to see whether they decide to rename that one. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-24-iriver-clix-review-roundup.html | 2006-05-24 23:31:00+00:00 | [] | Evan Blass | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iRiver Clix review roundup | If you like to buy products described by seasoned reviewers as "very good," "great," and "excellent," then you'll certainly want to check out iRiver's 2GBClixDAP if you're in the market for a player that screams "iDon't." Everyone who's gotten his/her hands on iRiver'srebrand offollowup to theU10seems to be in love with the little thing, citing audio that's both accurate and loud, easy-to-use, intuitive controls and interface, its crisp, clear screen, a plethora of options for photo viewing, and even good video playback despite a maximum of 15fps. Other nice touches include relatively high bit-rate options for in-line, voice, or FM recording, a good selection of digital equalizer presets, and better-than-average earbud headphones included in the box. Out of all the reviews that we've seen, the only major knocks on this $200 player are for its use of MTP (as opposed to UMS) file transfers and its supposedly short battery life (at least compared to the U10), although PCMag managed to squeeze a respectable 27 hours out of their Clix in testing.Read- PCMagRead- Anything But iPodRead- Cnet |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-wii-pricing-250-or-less.html | 2006-05-25 12:55:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Wii pricing: $250 or less | There's been alot of speculationabout how Nintendo will pricethe Wii, with most of it centered around some very low figures (do we hear $200; $150 -- sold, for $99!). Now, Nintendo has finally revealed the official pricing of its next-gen gaming console: under $250 in the US, and ¥25,000 in Japan. We assume that means the US price will be $249.99, and that there could be some interesting arbitrage opportunities based on exchange rates and release dates (at current rates, ¥25,000 is about $220). Nintendo also said it plans to ship over 6 million consoles by March of next year. And at a price that's now officially about half that of thecheapest PS3, they may just be able to pull it off. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-sony-nw-e005-flash-walkman-with-aac-support.html | 2006-05-25 14:24:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Sony NW-E005 flash Walkman with AAC support | Sony has updated itsE-series flash Walkman, but if you've already picked up a first-gen unit and are happy with it, you probably don't need to rush out and pick up a new one. Like its predecessor, the NW-E005 comes in versions from 512MB to 2GB, and comes in a range of colors. But Sony has added one key feature: the new model now supports the AAC file format, which Sony is in the process of adding to all new players. Aspreviously mentioned, although AAC is the default format used by iTunes, these players won't be able to play any DRM-protected iTunes downloads. However, if you've ripped CDs into AAC using iTunes, you will be able to play them back in the NW-E005 without having to convert them into another format first. Sony's also rolled out a waterproof case for this player, though we'd still be a little wary of taking it into the shower or pool. (Note: Sony is currentlyoffering a firmware upgradeto allow owners ofthe A-series Walkmanto play AAC files, but we have yet to hear of an upgrade for this model.) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-canon-may-quit-film-camera-business.html | 2006-05-25 14:45:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Canon may quit film camera business | Canon, a company long associated with all kinds of photography, may become the next player to abandon the shrinking film photo business. While Canon says it has yet to make a firm decision, a spokesman said the company is considering whether it makes sense to continue producing cameras for the film market. Canon's potential withdrawal from the film business would follow a similar decision by arch-rival Nikon, which dropped production ofall but oneof its film cameras earlier this year. For now Canon says it will continue to support existing models, but you may just want to stock up on glass for that EOS before they change their mind. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-samsung-division-ceo-bans-sgh-b570-8gb-musicphones.html | 2006-05-25 15:57:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Samsung division CEO bans SGH-B570 8GB musicphones | We've heard stories about companies banning the use of certain kinds of products, such ascameraphonesordigital audio players, since they could potentially be used to snap pics of or download classified info. But in what must be a first-of-its-kind case, Samsung has actually banned employees from using one of the company's own products out of industrial espionage fears. Ki-Tae Lee, CEO of Samsung Electronics Telecommunications Network, has apparently warned employees not to pick up the company'sSGH-B570 cellphones, because the music-playing phone's 8GB capacity "is more than enough to steal all confidential data about our company." No word yet as to whether Lee is also banning Samsung's various thumbdrives, USB hard drives and audio players, which can also be used to slurp company data. Also, we have to admit to being just a little disappointed that all of the company's confidential data can fit on a single 8GB cellphone. What does that say about Samsung's R&D capabilities?Read(sub. req'd.) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-samsung-ceo-bans-company-use-of-8gb-sgh-b570.html | 2006-05-25 15:59:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Samsung division CEO bans company use of 8GB SGH-B570 | We've heard stories about companies banning the use of certain kinds of products, such ascameraphonesordigital audio players, since they could potentially be used to snap pics of or download classified info. But in what must be a first-of-its-kind case, Samsung has actually banned employees from using one of the company's own products out of industrial espionage fears. Ki-Tae Lee, CEO of Samsung Electronics Telecommunications Network, has apparently warned employees not to pick up the company'sSGH-B570 cellphones, because the music-playing phone's 8GB capacity "is more than enough to steal all confidential data about our company." No word yet as to whether Lee is also banning Samsung's various thumbdrives, USB hard drives and audio players, which can also be used to slurp company data. Also, we have to admit to being just a little disappointed that all of the company's confidential data can fit on a single 8GB cellphone. What does that say about Samsung's R&D capabilities?Read(sub. req'd.) |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-dell-xps-700-gaming-pc-shows-up-in-uk.html | 2006-05-25 18:47:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Dell XPS 700 gaming PC shows up in UK | If you've been hankering to get your hands on one of Dell's next-gen gaming boxes, but can't bring yourself to fork over$10,000for one of the company'slimited edition deals, you can now order a production model XPS 700 (which looks an awful lot like the "XPS Next Generation Gaming Desktop" that the company showed off at E3) from Dell's web site -- at least in the UK. The production XPS doesn't have quite the same specs as the limited edition models (sorry, no standard quad SLI on this one), but it does have dual-core Pentium processors at speeds of up to 3.8GHz, up to 2GB RAM, dual SLI, optional Aegia PhysX acceleration and up to 2TB storage. A base configuration with a Pentium D 930 at 3GHz, 1GB RAM, dual 256MB SLI graphics and a 250GB drive runs about £1,375, including VAT ($2,581). We assume that it will go for a bit less in the US, though we still expect Dell to charge a premium for thoseshiny blue LEDs.[Thanks, Gaurav] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-engadget-reader-meetup-in-merced-ca-on-for-june-10th.html | 2006-05-25 19:13:00+00:00 | [] | Peter Rojas | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Engadget reader meetup in Merced, CA on for June 10th | Alright, Merced, we're on. We're going to have an informal (read: chill) Engadget reader meetup in my hometown of Merced, California on Saturday, June 10th. I'm still on the hunt for a location, so if anyone has access to a suitable space or any suggestions for where we could hold this, please let me know in the comments. Also, please post in the comments below if you're thinking about coming, I want to make sure we do this someplace big enough (and that I bring enough Engadget t-shirts for everyone). Thanks! |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-uk-scientists-working-on-cloaking-device.html | 2006-05-25 20:14:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | UK scientists working on cloaking device | We've heard ofthese kindsof guysbefore. They've spent too much time engrossed in Harry Potter books or old Star Trek episodes, and dream of some sort of device that will make them invisible. Every couple of years, one of them surfaces with a new idea about a "cloaking device" that can bend light around solid objects, making them appear to be invisible. This time, two separate teams in the UK are racing to show that the concept is feasible. One group, at Imperial College in London, believes that light-bending metamaterials can be produced within the next decade. Meanwhile, two mathematicians have published a study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society, which claims that a "superlens" placed close to an object could produce an "anomalous localized resonance," essentially rendering the underlying object invisible by creating a phantom light wave using the same frequency. The scientists envision building a device soon -- one that could conceivably cloak particles of dust. We'll check back with both parties in a few years. In the meantime, we'd like to present our detailed artist's rendering, prepared at great cost and with much research, which we believe truly shows what a cloaked object will look like to the naked eye.Read -MetamaterialsRead -Superlens |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-judiciary-committee-approves-net-neutrality.html | 2006-05-25 20:43:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Judiciary Committee approves net neutrality | In a move that may pave the way for legislation forbidding phone and cable companies from charging content providers a premium for access to customers, the House Judiciary Committee today approved the net neutrality bill introduced by Committee Chair James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI). The bill, known formally as the "Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act," must still go to the full House, where it faces a competing bill promulgated by the Commerce Committee. The bill cleared the Committee 20-13, with bipartisan support. If you have no idea what we're talking about, that's cool -- we haven't covered it much here on Engadget, but it's a very important issue about how the internet is or isn't governed by big communications companies in the years to come. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-25-reggie-for-president.html | 2006-05-25 21:48:00+00:00 | [] | Ryan Block | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Reggie for President | Looks like the higher ups atNintendoof Japan must've been pretty satisfied with how they fared at this year's E3, because you can now call the Regginator the Reggident. S'right,Reggie Fils-Aime's been bumped to President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America, with current prez Tatsumi Kimishima now serving as chairman of the board and CEO. It was a long way up forthe Reg since he came on at Nintendoa couple of years ago as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nintendo of America, from his humbler beginnings shilling stout for Guinness, cheesy bread for Pizza Hut, and pharms for Procter & Gamble. His real ultimate power over the American consumer market, however, is now manifest, and we suspect we'll all be able to expect more of the same continued ass kicking, name taking, and game making from NOA, et. al.[Thanks, Alex] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-26-iriver-n12-to-go-up-to-2gb.html | 2006-05-26 14:05:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | iRiver N12 to go up to 2GB | Sure, we weren't exactly brimming with excitement about theiRiver N12, when we first caught sight of it a couple of weeks ago. But we've heard at least one good thing about the new player that sets it apart from its lookalike predecessor,the N11: the N12 will be available in capacities of up to 2GB, for a price in Japan of about ¥21,980 ($195). Other specs remain the same: OLED display, and support for MP3, WMA and PlaysForSure. Yeah, we know what you're thinking: iRiver's about to give up on the digital audio player business altogether in order tofocus on WiBro gaming, so why should I even consider buying one of their players? Well, don't worry. We still don't expect this one to make it to the US, so unless you're in Asia, chances are they're not about to try selling it to you to begin with. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-26-pioneer-vsx-516-6-1ch-receiver-with-mp3-aac-and-wma-playback.html | 2006-05-26 15:50:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Pioneer VSX-516 6.1ch receiver with USB, MP3, AAC and WMA playback | Pioneer continues to pump out surround-sound receivers with the ability to play digital audio files via a USB port, and the latest in the line, the VSX-516, adds a few new tricks, including support for the latest Dolby standards. The VSX-516 also continues Pioneer's support for WMA9 Pro, for lossless playback. And the VSX-516 also represents a decent price drop: Pioneer's first amp with similar features, 2003's VSA-AX10Ai-N, went for a whopping ¥500,000 (about $4,400), while the new model is just ¥49,500 ($440), or about a tenth of the price of the older model. What a difference three years makes. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-26-microsoft-plans-update-to-misleading-vista-upgrade-advisor.html | 2006-05-26 17:05:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Microsoft plans update to "misleading" Vista Upgrade Advisor | If you've been frustrated because Microsoft'sVista Upgrade Advisorgave your blazing-fast, three-month-old, $10,000, gaming monster PC a bad rating, you're not alone. In addition to consumers, chipmakers such as VIA and AMD have commented to Microsoft about the program's deficiencies. Now, Microsoft, admitting that the results can be "misleading," plans to revise the tool, including changes to the user interface to make information more accessible, and possibly fine-tuning the results so that they're more in line with standard industry benchmarks. So, if your PC flunked the test, your best bet is to wait a while before splurging on upgrades -- besides, it's not like you don't haveplenty of timebefore you'll need to be Vista-compatible. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-26-jobs-you-have-to-buy-a-new-ipod-at-least-once-a-year.html | 2006-05-26 19:31:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Jobs: "you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year" | Now we know the truth. In an interview with NBC's Brian Williams, Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained why Apple comes up with new iPod models so frequently: "You keep on innovating, you keep on making better stuff," Jobs said, in response to a question from Williams about why a new iPod might seem outdated as soon as you take it out of the box. Then Jobs offered a bit of advice to consumers: "If you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year." Gee, thanks, Steve. We always thought it was thedead batteriesorbattered shellthat kept sending us back to the Apple store. Glad you could set us straight.[ViaiLounge] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-05-26-mobiblu-b153-audio-player-reviewed.html | 2006-05-26 23:18:00+00:00 | [] | Marc Perton | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | MobiBlu B153 audio player reviewed | By now, you probably already know the MobiBluB153's claim to fame: it's got a battery life that is so impressive that it's in the model number. That's right; this flash player will last about 153 hours, or over six days of continuous use. That might be great if you're off on a camping trip or too lazy to charge your player more than once a week, but how about the player's other features (you know, like its UI and how it sounds)? CNET checked out the B153, and found that, other than the battery life and its ability to automatically download podcast subscriptions, the player is just so-so. Its interface is strictly folder-driven -- forget about sorting by artist or genre. The screen is also small, and support for DRM is limited to purchased WMA files (no subscription support). Oh, and CNET's testers found the battery life to be a mere 146.5 hours. Hey, we're not complaining. That'll still give us six full days of music. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-01-10-new-dreamcast-games-on-the-way.html | 2006-06-01 18:15:00+00:00 | [] | Alan Rose | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | 10 new Dreamcast games on the way | With all of this Dreamcast news, we might have to followIGN's leadand dedicate a category to the console that introduced us to 128-bit video gaming (and signaled the end of Sega's hardware biz).GOAT Store Publishinghas announced they are currently working on ten new games for the Dreamcast, covering various genres. Company co-founder Dan Loosen will reveal more details of each project this weekend at theMidwest Gaming Classic, where attendees will be able to play demos of some of the titles in development.To learn more about GOAT Store and their classic gaming aspirations, check out Dan'sinterviewwith Die-Hard Gamer from a few years back.[via GamersReports] |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-01-nintendo-losing-their-touch-generations.html | 2006-06-02 02:55:00+00:00 | [] | Ludwig Kietzmann | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Nintendo losing their Touch (Generations)? | If Nintendo's desires are realized, it won't be too long before the image of Grandpa hunching furiously over his DS Lite and murderously screaming "Blue" joins that of the bespectacled nerd in the ranks of uninformed gamer stereotypes. In an effort to reach out to those who would normally shy away from electronic devices and their confusingbeepsandboops,several forthcoming and readily available DS gameshave recently been shoved under theTouch Generationsbanner. The range highlights Nintendo's popular "non-games", titles that are meant to be approachable by any person, regardless of their previous gaming experience.In North America, games likeNintendogs,Brain AgeandSudoku Gridmasterseem to gravitate towards the label quite naturally, but it seems that the selection differs significantly from that ofother regions. Anthropomorphic neighbour sim,Animal Crossing:Wild World,slots right in withElectroplanktonin Europe, but the choices ofPhoenix Wright: Ace AttorneyandTrauma Center: Under the Knifeseem to fit in less comfortably. The latter two titles are far more traditional, with linear stories, clear conditions for success and failure and, in the case ofTrauma Centerespecially, a more pronounced difficulty level that requires intricate stylus strokes--lest your patient's internal organs become reduced to a bloody mush (technical term). In other words, all the stuff that the mythical casual gamer doesn't want.The Japanese selection is almost the exact opposite, filled with English trainers, dictionaries and travel guidebooks. If you looked up "game" in one of those dictionaries, you'd likely find a description far removed from most of these titles. It raises an interesting question, then: What constitutes a game that, according to Nintendo's mantra, anyone can pick up and play? Is it a game that almost exclusively relies on intuitive touch screen controls? Or is it something with simplistic gameplay mechanics? Perhaps it's not even a game at all. Nintendo's pretty clear about the kind of people they're chasing with the DS and the Wii, but things seem less vivid when it comes to matching specific games with specific audiences. With games being such unique and often personal experiences, it's doubtful that the line between hardcore and casual will ever become especially obvious. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-02-sandisk-hits-up-rockbox-for-some-firmware.html | 2006-06-02 16:50:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | SanDisk hits up Rockbox for some firmware | You already know howwe feelabout SanDisk's new 4GB Sansa e260, but apparently SanDisk isn't averse to a little help on the firmware side of things. They've just pinged theRockboxcommunity for a port of the open source Rockbox firmware to the e200 series, which at least should give them some serious nerd cred in a time when mosteveryoneelseis locking down their hardware. Rockbox has been ported to plenty of music players over the years -- including quite similar iPod hardware to that of the Sansa -- and its codec support, gapless playback, equalizer and numerous plugins make it an often preferable option to standard firmware. So there a lots of opportunities, but so far there's no word on if or how SanDisk is going to aid Rockbox in this endeavor, or if they have any plans for the Rockbox firmware other than as a nerdy alternative to theirs. |
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/2006-06-04-brian-walker-to-fly-rocket-propelled-craft-launched-with-worlds.html | 2006-06-04 13:46:00+00:00 | [] | Paul Miller | Engadget | https://www.engadget.com/ | Brian Walker to fly rocket-propelled craft launched with world's largest crossbow | Most people have some sort of fantasy about flying, but not everyone is as dumb about it as Brian Walker. Calling it Project RUSH (Rapid Up Super High), the man has built for himself the world's largest crossbow to launch a tiny rocket-propelled craft carrying his fragile body 20 miles into the air. He plans to pull 10 gs as the carbon-fiber bowstring releases and sends his little spaceship-like vehicle soaring into the air while firing a jet turbine with 1350 pounds of thrust. He will be wearing a Russian space suit to help keep his innards in, and has hydrogen peroxide rockets to help slow his descent, but we can't think his mother is very happy about this all the same. Right now Brian is waiting on FAA approval, and is planning to test the launcher with a giant fiberglass arrow before he launches himself this fall.[ViaMAKE] |
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