Vanquish screens show the game’s acrobatic side
April 30, 2010
We’re still waiting to see the first gameplay footage of Shinji Mikami’s latest, Vanquish, but at least these new screens give us hope that the protagonist super-soldier isn’t just some lumbering tank guy. It appears you’ll be able to have acrobatic battles with giant mechs. If these pair of screens are any indication, there will be ballet-like air dodging maneuvers you can pull off, which can culminate in driving a giant spike (or is that a big bullet) into the thing.
The other new screens Sega sent over depict more of what we’ve already seen in the first batch of screens: shooting stuff, trying not to get shot by stuff and a bit of both at the same time. Check ‘em all out in the gallery below.
Gallery: Vanquish (4.30.2010)
Vanquish screens show the game’s acrobatic side originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
HP to Purchase Palm to Revitalize its Smartphone Future
April 30, 2010
It’s no secret that, despite garnering tons of hype, Palm’s Web OS was simply too tiny and too late in the game to compete with smart phone powerhouses. Maybe it was the super creepy ads. Maybe it was the questionable exclusivity deal it struck with Sprint. Whatever the straw was that broke the proverbial camel’s back, Palm has found itself trailing far behind in the mobile OS wars. Rumors had been circulating that everyone from Lenovo to HTC was getting ready to buy the company and bail it out of its mess. Today, the speculation came to an end with the surprise announcement (via Twitter, of course) that HP had acquired the handset maker for a cool $1.2 billion.
HP has dabbled in the past with Windows Mobile-based smart phones but has never been considered a serious competitor in the field. The company is clearly looking to change that by leveraging some of the more advanced features of the Web OS environment to give it a leg up on other new players like Dell. It’s clear that smart phones are becoming better and better at replacing full-fledged personal for many tasks, and Dell and HP clearly don’t want to be forgotten when everyone is debating Andoid or iPhone with the same vigor once saved for OS X vs. Windows. We say: Bring it on. [From: Business Wire, Via: Engadget]
Filed under: Cell Phones
HP to Buy Palm to Revitalize its Smartphone Future originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Steve Jobs Goes on the Attack Against Adobe’s Flash Player
April 30, 2010
Today, Steve Jobs mounted one of his more blatant assaults on Adobe’s Flash in a letter posted on the Apple Web site. The letter seeks to explain Apple’s position against allowing Flash on the iPhone and iPad, painting the conflict as one of ideology and battery performance rather than a business dispute.
Unfortunately, it’s hard to take Jobs’ argument in favor of open standards seriously since Apple is the poster child for shut and proprietary environments. We’re torn. We agree with nearly all of Jobs’ criticisms. Flash is proprietary and inefficient, and other open standards such as HTML5 are closing the feature gap pretty swiftly.
Continue reading Steve Jobs Goes on the Attack Against Adobe’s Flash Player
Filed under: Cell Phones, Personal, Celebrities, iPod
Steve Jobs Goes on the Attack Against Adobe’s Flash Player originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 17:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Man’s ‘Green’ Automobile Built from Scraps of 21 Different Automobiles
April 30, 2010
A British man has patched together a Frankenstein car that’s just as green as the monster itself. According to The Daily Mail, Buzz Knapp-Fisher’s ‘Womble Truck,’ named after a kid’s TV show about recycling, is made from the parts of 21 different cars, and runs entirely on french fry fat and vegetable oil. Knapp-Fisher, a sculptor and environmentalist, bought the original wrecked frame for about $386. Then, he began adding parts from a 1960s Morris 1000, a 1970s Mini, a Ford, a Reliant Robin, an MG Midget, a Vauxhall Viva and a Volvo 740. The result was a ‘green’ vehicle that resembles a post-apocalyptic Rolls Royce.
Knapp-Fisher states the biodiesel engine will easily power the car up to about 80 mph, and, if conditions are right, it can reach speeds of 110 mph. He saved so much money on fuel last year that he was able to purchase a battery for his next project — an electric automobile. “The aim of the exercise is to apply the different methods of moving around, but proving to people that you don’t need oil,” he told the Mail. We’re fine with Knapp-Fisher campaigning against crude oil. But if he starts trying to take away our frying fat and vegetable oil, there’s going to be trouble. [From: The Daily Mail]
Filed under: Vehicle Tech, Green Tech
Man’s ‘Green’ Automobile Built from Scraps of 21 Different Vehicles originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Flourite N68 sports a transparent keypad
April 29, 2010
Yes, clones can do it too - a phone maker in Shanzai has revealed the Flourite N68 which features a transparent keypad. If you remember, this not so new idea is taken from the LG GD900, launched earlier. However, this imitation lacks the sliding capability available on its original counterpart, but it does sport a 2.2 inch display, dual sim card support, Bluetooth, FM radio, speak up to 13 languages and costs about $70 (480 Yuan). Clone or not, there surely is something fresh about glass and we definitely have not seen the last of these.
Permalink: Flourite N68 sports a transparent keypad from Uberphones | Good deals | Hot: BlackBerry Storm
Pachter: First Activision-Bungie game ‘well along’ in development, will sell at least 10 million units
April 29, 2010
Though firm details about the terms of the Activision-Bungie partnership are still awfully slim, industry analyst extraordinaire Michael Pachter has given his two cents to Gamasutra about the financial potential of the merger, which should result in Activision earning a great deal more than two cents.
First, Pachter advocates this is a publishing partnership instead of a mere distribution agreement, which will increase Activision’s profit margins from around 10 percent to anywhere between 15 and 20 percent on all of Bungie’s titles. He estimates that, should the developer’s future titles be as popular as its Halo franchise (which typically sold 10 million units a piece), they could sell as many as 15 million units by virtue of Bungie’s new multiplatform ambitions. According to his calculations, Activision stands to make $65 million off the first successful Bungie title should it match the success of the Halo series.
The time to test Pachter’s calculations might be closer than you’d think — he reports that the first Bungivision product, which is set in an “action game universe,” is “well along in its development.” We’re not sure how “well along” said title actually is, but we’ll keep our ears perked up for an announcement at E3. An announcement for Guitar Halo. There, we said it, alright We were all thinking it, and now it’s out there.
Pachter: First Activision-Bungie game ‘well along’ in development, will sell at least 10 million units originally appeared on Joystiq on Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
N66 Superman Phone For Superman Fans
April 29, 2010
Even wanted a phone that’ll let all your friends know that you’re Superman’s biggest fan Well, one look at the N66 that’s pictured here, and there will certainly be no doubt who your favorite superhero is. The giant “S” in the middle of the phone states it all.
Permalink: N66 Superman Phone For Superman Fans from Uberphones | Good deals | Hot: BlackBerry Storm
Man’s ‘Green’ Vehicle Built from Scraps of 21 Different Automobiles
April 29, 2010
A British man has patched together a Frankenstein vehicle that’s just as green as the monster itself. According to The Daily Mail, Buzz Knapp-Fisher’s ‘Womble Truck,’ named after a kid’s TV show about recycling, is made from the parts of 21 different automobiles, and runs entirely on french fry fat and vegetable oil. Knapp-Fisher, a sculptor and environmentalist, purchased the original wrecked frame for about $386. Then, he began adding parts from a 1960s Morris 1000, a 1970s Mini, a Ford, a Reliant Robin, an MG Midget, a Vauxhall Viva and a Volvo 740. The result was a ‘green’ car that resembles a post-apocalyptic Rolls Royce.
Knapp-Fisher states the biodiesel engine will easily power the automobile up to about 80 mph, and, if conditions are right, it can reach speeds of 110 mph. He saved so much money on fuel last year that he was able to purchase a battery for his next project — an electric automobile. “The aim of the exercise is to apply the different methods of moving around, but proving to people that you don’t need oil,” he told the Mail. We’re fine with Knapp-Fisher campaigning against crude oil. But if he starts trying to take away our frying fat and vegetable oil, there’s going to be trouble. [From: The Daily Mail]
Filed under: Vehicle Tech, Green Tech
Man’s ‘Green’ Automobile Built from Scraps of 21 Different Cars originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 28 Apr 2010 08:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Police Raid Editor’s Home in iPhone Case, ‘Avatar’ Crushes Batman’s Blu-ray Record
April 29, 2010
Highlights from this morning’s other large tech headlines….
- Journalistic shield laws apparently don’t apply to writers and publishers in San Mateo, California. In the intensely escalating missing-iPhone brouhaha, police reportedly raided Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s home in an attempt to glean information about the iPhone prototype incident. [From: Engadget]
- ‘Avatar’ is continuing its impressive run of monetarily dominating each motion picture ever made. DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film arrived on the 22nd, and sales of both versions were astronomical. Specifically, ‘Avatar’ handily grabbed the Blu-ray sales record, previously held by ‘The Dark Knight,’ by selling 1.2 million copies on its first day, compared to the relatively paltry 600,000 units for Batman. [From: Mashable]
- Oprah Winfrey has graced the iPad with her tech Midas touch, while apparently, and simultaneously, shunning her formerly “new favorite thing.” During a current broadcast, Oprah touted the revolutionary educational benefits of the Apple gadget, and heartbreakingly used the past tense to proclaim: “I had a Kindle.” [From: The Wall Street Journal]
- Mike Lazaridis, the co-CEO of RIM, revealed to Engadget that the BlackBerry 6 should arrive during “the next calendar quarter.” Engadget also snagged a preview video of the device, which will come in both standard and touch models. But be prepared to get an annoying song from an incredibly ridiculous band stuck in your head for the remainder of the day. (Unfortunately, we weren’t given the same warning. Thanks, Ed.) [From: Engadget]
- Perhaps the death knell of newspapers was sounded a bit prematurely. While the subscription base of daily print editions dipped 8.75-percent over the past six months (ending March 31st), daily online scrips experienced a dramatic increase of 40-percent. According to Paid Content, the stalwart Wall Street Journal enjoyed the most e-success with an online reader base of 414,025. [From: Paid Content]
- ‘Men in Black 3-D’ rumors recently emerged, but its goofy, comedic aliens probably won’t compare to the awesome, upcoming, in-your-face antics of another famed extraterrestrial franchise. Sir Ridley Scott has provided details of his highly anticipated ‘Alien’ prequel, and he promised that the film’s advanced effects will be “really nasty.” Bring it. [From: The Register]
Police Raid Editor’s Home in iPhone Case, ‘Avatar’ Crushes Batman’s Blu-ray Record originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Rhapsody iPhone App Introduces Reliable (But Confusing) Offline Playback
April 29, 2010
The newly independent Rhapsody is moving at lightning speed to steal back some market share by slashing prices and marketing the iPhone’s offline playback support of the service. The former Real subsidiary has beaten other would-be killer iPhone music apps to the punch, as it’s the first on the block (in the U.S., anyway) allowing users to tag songs they want to play — even when no Internet connection is available. MOG plans to offer the feature starting in May, while Spotify has been offering it in Europe for sometime now.
We put the new ‘Rhapsody 2.0′ app through a trial, and witnessed the offline caching abilities handle sporadic drops in connection without breaking a sweat. Even when we went and turned off both the Wi-Fi and cellular radios while streaming a song (thanks to the magic of jailbreaking), Rhapsody just kept going. The app was quick to recognize when there was a Web connection available, and changes the interface (blue for on the web, orange for off) to reflect the app’s status.
Gallery: Rhapsody 2.0 for the iPhone
Continue reading Rhapsody iPhone App Introduces Reliable (But Confusing) Offline Playback
Filed under: Audio/Video, Cell Phones, iPod, iPhone, Mobile Software
Rhapsody iPhone App Introduces Reliable (But Confusing) Offline Playback originally appeared on Switched on Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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