Category Archives: Technology

The new Xbox 360 dashboard goes live today [Update: iOS companion app out now]

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Gamers, are you ready for dat new New Xbox Experience? Today Microsoft is lifting the veil on the latest dashboard user interface for Xbox 360. And this one’s a doozy. Besides an entirely new “Metro” look to match Windows Phone’s and Windows 8’s skins, the refreshed dashboard introduces expanded voice control with Kinect, Bing voice search, YouTube, enhanced Facebook sharing capabilities, cloud storage, beacons, updated parental controls, and customized applications for televisions, movies, internet videos, sports and music. Starting today, EPIX and TODAY (MSNBC) join Netflix, Hulu Plus, ESPN, and Zune for video offerings in the United States. Later this month, Crackle, iHeartRadio, MSNBC.com, TMZ, UFC, Verizon FiOS TV, VEVO, and Vudo join in on the fun. And in early 2012, CinemaNow, HBO GO, MLB.TV, and Xfinity On Demand will become available to use on Xbox 360s. Soon, Microsoft’s four-year-old console is going to transform into a viable destination for nearly all of your entertainment needs. With all of these options to watch TV and movies and listen to music, playing games will suddenly become a just a part of what Xbox 360 is all about. Add in some refined Kinect voice and motion support and you’ll finally get a taste of what living in the future is really like. This dashboard update is certainly something to be excited about. Get your download on today by simply booting up your Internet-connected 360.

In related news, Microsoft has also outed the Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone users. The free app allows you to search the Xbox catalog for movies, TV shows, music, games, and apps right on your phone and view detailed content information. You can even pair your phone to your console and beam purchased content from one device to the other. Content playing from your 360 can be controlled via your phone (play, pause, rewind, fast-forward), and you can navigate the new dash using your phone’s touchscreen instead of a controller if you so desire. Download the free Companion app today.

Update: Microsoft has decided to share the wealth and offer a similar companion app for iOS users. iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch owners running iOS 4.3 or higher can install My Xbox LIVE. The free app allows you to log into your Xbox LIVE account to read and send messages to friends, manage your friends list, read and edit your full profile, customize your avatar, and view and compare your achievement progress with friends. Sadly, you won’t be able to search the Xbox catelog–this biggie is only available for Windows Phones for obvious reasons. Download the iOS edition at the App Store.

[Via MajorNelson 1, 2, 3, 4]

Sony turns on spectacular 3D projection mapping for marketing purposes

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Creative production houses Studio Output and Marshmallow Laser Feast collaborated on a series of videos for Sony Europe to help advertise the PlayStation Store. Three videos were made for the  “Great Films Fill Rooms” campaign and you can watch them right here! Part 1 of the “Most Insane Immersive Movie Experience EVER” is embedded above, and the others are sitting after the break.

What’s so neat about these videos–besides their spectacular visuals–is that they were all shot in one take in real-time with no post-production alterations and edits. The producers explain how they accomplished this. They took advantage of “‘Immersive Imaging’ which takes 3D projection mapping as its starting point, but gives the viewer a supercharged experience with the help of the PlayStation Move controller. In the past, projection mapping worked only from a single, static view point, and thus was very limited. By attaching the PlayStation Move to the camera, we can track projections to screens in real time, enhancing the effect of spatial deformation and false perspective on the projections and allowing viewers to look round (virtual) corners, bend walls, create a hole in the wall, or remove the walls altogether to reveal vast expanses of virtual worlds.”

Using a Steadicam, PlayStation Move controllers, EyeToy cameras, tangible props, and agile actors in spandex they were able to make the magic happen. Too bad this is all a marketing stint; hopefully it won’t be long before we see something like this promoting the next video game console.

[Via Engadget; Technabob] Continue reading Sony turns on spectacular 3D projection mapping for marketing purposes →

Napster joins Rhapsody and the peer-to-peer giant vanishes for good

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Oh, Napster’s journey has been a rough one when you look down at the history of the famed peer-to-peer music sharing service from Justin Timberlake Sean Parker. In 1999 Napster became widely available and widely known as the destination to illegally download and share music among  friends and strangers around the world. It wasn’t long before the Recording Industry Association of America (with resistance led by heavy metal band Metallica) forced Parker to shut down Napster so the company could find a way to make it work through legal channels. While Napster was getting battered with legal woes, other P2P music software cropped up like Morpheus, Kazaa, and BearShare. Eventually all of these P2P players were forced to either close up shop or transition into a subscription service. Napster took the latter route and lived on for a while. Late last week, though, the final hammer was nailed into the coffin. Rhapsody, the world’s #1 digital music subscription service, bought out Napster and integrated its music library into its own. In other words, Napster is no longer its own entity and the Napster name and cute logo that lasted all this time have fallen by the wayside.

Napster’s legacy will forever remain a part of the history of the music industry. What Parker pioneered in the late 90s and early 2000s would help lead to the introduction of the iTunes Store and new, innovative ways of legally purchasing and sharing music. And with that let us say in unison: RIP Napster.

Update: And the Internet cried, “Not so fast!” According to The Register, the Napster brand will live on in the UK and Germany. So there you go.

[Via CNET]

Google news: New Google bar, YouTube gets a new look, and the evolution of search

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The folks at Mountain View are constantly working hard to bring new experiences to the Internet, as well as updating the ones we use most. You know that horizontal (recently painted black) navigation bar that rests at the top of every Google webpage, including the search homepage? Well, it’s going away to save screen real estate and unify all that Google has to offer. The new Google bar isn’t a bar at all, really. It’s comprised of three sections: Google menu, Search, and Google+ tools. All three of these sections will be found in the spot location across all of Google’s products. The Google menu is accessed by hovering your mouse over the Google logo in the left hand corner, saving you a click to reach Google’s other products like Images, Maps, and Gmail. Search sits in the top middle, and easy access to Google+ tools is on the right. Navigating Google, searching, and sharing links with friends is now a more streamlined and cleaner experience. The new Google bar is rolling out soon.

After months of testing a new layout dubbed “Cosmic Panda” Google has finally rolled out an updated look for YouTube. First off, the homepage is totally redesigned and built to be customized to your liking. To the left you’ll find a YouTube Channel line-up. If you’re signed in with a Google account the setup is like this: a list of your Subscriptions, including Google+ and Facebook social integration; From YouTube categories, including trending and popular videos; and Suggested channels for you. To add a channel to your list simply click the Add channels buttons up top to be directed to a listing of all video categories; subscribing to channels from there is a one-click process. Back on the homepage, when you click a channel from your line-up content will appear in the center of the page. Instead of navigating you to an entirely new URL, the new YouTube homepage keeps you in one place while you’re browsing content. Play a video and then you’ll be brought to the uploader’s channel so you can watch the video and comment on it. Speaking of channels, Google has updated those spaces as well with new templates and a sharper layout. And with inspiration from Cosmic Panda, Google has opted to stick with the trial’s consistent gray background, bigger video thumbnails, and a more streamlined watch page. The new YouTube is available to play with today; sign in with a Google account to customize.

Last, Google has produced an interesting video that tells the “short history of the evolution of search, highlighting some of the most important milestones from the past decade—and a taste of what’s coming next.” Watch it after the break. There you’ll also find videos highlighting the new Google bar and YouTube’s cosmetic transformation.

[Via Google 1, 2, 3] Continue reading Google news: New Google bar, YouTube gets a new look, and the evolution of search →

Nintendo outs Zelda-themed 3DS bundle

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Nothing says Happy Thanksgiving like a golden hued Nintendo 3DS. But this isn’t just a special coat of paint. What you see above is a special 25th anniversary limited-edition Cosmo Black 3DS marked with the Hyrule emblem and gold-colored embellishments! So if you’re a Zelda fan and still haven’t jumped to buy Ninty’s latest handheld, this is it. The Zelda-themed 3DS comes bundled with the Ocarina of Time 3D game and costs $199.99. It hits store shelves tomorrow, November 23, Turkey day. Also coming out of the gate tomorrow and at the same price point is a Flame Red 3DS bundled with the recently released Super Mario 3D Land game.

In related news, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is out now for the Wii. At long last.

[Via Nintendo]

Google Music comes out of beta, Music store gets added to Android Market

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On Wednesday Google stripped the “b” word from Music Beta by Google and transitioned Google Music into a one-stop shop for uploading, purchasing, and sharing music. Like Music Beta, Google Music will allow users to upload up to 20,000 songs to the cloud for free. The music.google.com portal still exists and looks nearly identical to its beta version. Users can upload their music to the cloud by clicking the “Upload Music” link in the top right corner; this will prompt you to open the Music Manager software, just like before. What’s new, however, is the link “Shop.” That’s right, Google is ready to go head-to-head with Apple and Amazon by selling songs directly to users. The Android Market has a new section called Music living among Apps, Books, and Movies. At this new Music store users can browse, preview, and purchase individual tracks and albums. Google has worked out deals with three of the four major labels–Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI–and many independent labels to offer over 13 million tracks. Google has yet to partner with Warner Music Group, and the absence of their inclusion stings a bit. To ease the pain, they are offering exclusive content from some of the most popular artists like Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, and Dave Matthews Band. Free tracks and live concert albums are currently in the mix from a handful of artists. When you download music from the Android Market, the tracks automatically fly into the cloud and populate your Google Music library on your computer and mobile devices. If you have an Android device running 2.2 or higher the Music section of the Market is rolling out to you soon and you’ll be able to download tracks on the go. The Google Music app has already received an update and can be downloaded at the Market today. After downloading music from the store, Google lets you share your purchase with your Circles on Google+. When your friends see a track or album shared on their stream, they have the option to listen to your music once in its entirety! Next there’s the Google Music Artist Hub. The kind folks at Google are giving independent artists a means to upload their music to the Android Market. If you have the rights to distribute music, Google has built a simple interface to create your own artist page, upload original tracks, set prices, and sell content directly to customers. Indie artists keep 70 percent of the profits and Google gets the remaining 30. If this tickles your fancy, visit the Artist Hub to get started. Last, the G-Men have released a Google Music app for Google TV. It’ll let you can access your music library right on the TV.

And just like that, Google has set itself up to become a formidable contender in the music space. Video after the break.

[Via Google 1, 2] Continue reading Google Music comes out of beta, Music store gets added to Android Market →

Apple rolls out iTunes Match, makes syncing your music collection to iCloud a reality

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As of yesterday, iTunes Match has been made available for use for iTunes users and iOS device owners. For $24.99 a year, you can sync your entire music collection to Apple’s iCloud. Chances are your music library consists of music purchased from iTunes and music ripped from your personal collection of CDs. Apple will automatically match all your purchased songs from iTunes and they will become immediately available to listen to on a compatible device. As for your ripped music, Apple will also attempt to match them to their music servers and upload them that way. If they can’t, they will still be uploaded and made available for streaming at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality. Apple limits iTunes Match subscribers to 25,000 songs, but keep in mind that music purchased from the iTunes Store does not count towards that ceiling. To get started, make sure you have downloaded the new iTunes 10.5.1 update, the iOS 5 update, and set up iCloud on your iOS device (and Mac and/or PC).

[Via Apple]

‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ generates $400 million in 24 hours, bests its predecessors to become biggest entertainment launch of all time

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Infinity Ward’s latest first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 launched one week ago on November 8 and on that day the game sold over 6.5 million units in North America and the UK generating over $400 million in sales. MW3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Does this all sound familiar to you? Well that’s because this is the third consecutive year that the Call of Duty franchise has set day one launch records across all forms of entertainment. It started in 2009 when Modern Warfare 2 sold 4.7 million copies and generated $310 million in sales; and then it happened again the very next year when Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies and made $310 million.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick shared his enthusiasm about the franchise’s success in a press release. “We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories. Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for “Star Wars” and “Lord of the Rings,” two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.”

Same time, same place next year, people?

[Via PRNewsWire]

Xbox.com undergoes cosmetic changes, promotes a “Social” landscape

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Before the fall dashboard updates arrives to Internet-connected Xbox 360s, Microsoft flipped the switch on updating its Xbox website. The homepage has been revamped to feature content in the “Metro”-style layout that is coming to Xbox and with Windows 8. The “My Xbox” section of the website has been renamed “Social” and this is the new destination where gamers will go to login to their Xbox Live profiles away from the their consoles. The updated Xbox Live portal is organized in four categories. Home gives gamers a quick glimpse at their recent activity, their friends’ recent activity, online friends, messages, Xbox Live events and related news. Friends provides a list of all your Xbox Live friends, online and off. In Messages you can read and send messages to your friends. And in the Activity section you can view your recent activity, out of your friends who recently played the games you did, and you can view all of your played games, achievements, and gamerscore information. Also in this section you can set Beacons, a marker that notifies your friends that you want to play a certain game with them. You can have up to three Beacons active at a time, and you can add custom descriptions. For example, you can set a Beacon for Halo 3 and add a description like “Let’s play from 7-10 PM.” No matter where you navigate in Social, your avatar will follow you, as will links to view your account, redeem codes, add Microsoft Points, view your Download Queue, and visit your profile. In addition to updating the My Xbox section of the site, Xbox Live members can now browse, preview, and download media such as movies and TV shows in a browser and this content will be attached to your Live account; this means that all downloaded media can be viewed on any PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone that your Live account is connected to. Check out the new Social portal at Xbox.com right now!

[Via Xbox Forums]

Droid RAZR by Motorola available now for $299 on Verizon Wireless

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The latest edition to the Droid smartphone family is officially available for purchase. Verizon launched the super slim and sleek Droid RAZR on November 11, 2011 at precisely 11:11 AM. If you’re ready to sign a new two-year contract with Verizon Wireless, the modern RAZR can be yours for $299.99. The 4G LTE handset can be purchased at Verzion stores and online. If you feel like brushing up on the phone’s specs, flash back to the mid-October introduction.

Mars500 crew returns home from simulated mission to space

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Well here’s a story worth following up on. Last summer a six man crew embarked on a simulated journey to Mars, in Moscow, Russia. On Friday November 4, the Mars500 experiment concluded and all six crew members returned “home” healthy, safe and sound. For 520 days the team essentially pretended to fly to the distant Red Planet, explore its features, and return to Earth. Their objective was to simulate the psychological and physiological stresses of a real space mission to Mars, and according to the latest reports the data collected from this experiment will indeed be useful for further space exploration. When he stepped out of hatch of the Mars500 spacecraft, European Space Agency participant Diego Urbina said this: “On the Mars500 mission, we have achieved on Earth the longest space voyage ever so that humankind can one day greet a new dawn on the surface of a distant, but reachable, planet.” And for that we are all thankful and truly impressed, might I add. Though weightlessness was not experienced for obvious reasons, the team was forced to wear space suits and endure many other symptoms of a space mission including communication delays. Even though they were stationed on Earth, messages sent to and from the Mars500 simulator could sometimes take up to 25 minutes to reach its destination. During their trip, stress and hormone levels, sleep patterns and moods were monitered closely and dietary supplements were tested. For science! And the future of real space exploration! Watch the crew return to Earth in a video embedded after the break.

[Via BBC News; Engadget] Continue reading Mars500 crew returns home from simulated mission to space →

Barnes & Noble announces Nook Tablet, updates and drops prices of Nook Color & Nook Simple Touch

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Kindle Fire, meet your head-to-head competition. Today Barnes & Noble announced their latest e-reader, the Nook Tablet. On the outside, the Nook Tablet looks nearly identical to its predecessor the Nook Color. This time around, it’s almost entirely what’s on the inside that really counts. The Tablet is fast, packing a 1GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of RAM. The 7-inch multitouch screen (1024 x 600) displays 16 million colors ultra-bright and features full IPS lamination to reduce reflection and glare and offer extra-wide viewing angles and clarity. The display can play full HD 1080p content. Battery life is quite impressive, too. The Tablet offers up 11.5 hours of reading time or 9 hours of video viewing. There’s 16GB of onboard storage, and this can be expanded with an SD card. Built-in WiFi allows for web surfing and downloading books, magazines, newspapers, comic books, apps and other content. (Note that though the Tablet runs Android Gingerbread, users will not have access to the Android Marketplace.) It’s thinner than the Color weighing in at 14.1 ounces and it features a soft touch back design. A built-in microphone allows users to take advantage of the new Read and Record feature which allows parents to record narration and let their kids play it back when they’re reading their favorite stories. The newest Nook also sees an upgrade in entertainment selection. It comes preloaded with Netflix and Hulu Plus apps for movie and TV show selections (Flixster with UltraViolet is coming soon) and Pandora, Rhapsody, Grooveshark, and MOG are available for streaming music.

During their press event, B&N highlighted their Tablet’s advantages over Kindle’s Fire. In addition to featuring a better display with superior viewing angle, more than 2X the memory, a lighter design, more RAM, and better content rendering, Nook Tablet owners will also have the assurance that if they ever need product support they can visit a local Barnes & Noble store to resolve their issue. That is something Amazon sadly can never offer as it is strictly an e-tailer. The Nook Tablet is now up for preorder at $249 and it releases next week on November 18. That is a fat $50 more than the direct competition coming from Amazon, so be careful when you’re shopping this holiday season.

Besides announcing the Nook Tablet, B&N also took time to refresh and make cheaper their other e-readers. The new and improved Nook Color will ship with B&N’s “largest software update ever” that will bring Netflix, Hulu Plus, and music streaming apps to the device, as well as a refreshed library and enhanced shopping experience. The new Color ships this December at $199. Existing owners of the Color will automatically receive the update at no cost over WiFi next month. And finally there’s the tried and true Nook, now renamed the Nook Simple Touch. It will also come preloaded with a software update that will enable better battery life (users can read for up to 2 months for one hour a day). The update, which is now available for existing Nook owners to download, also makes the screen crisper and the page turn rate faster. The rebranded Nook Simple Touch is available to buy today at a low $99 with “no annoying ads.” Stings a bit, doesn’t it Amazon? Game on.

[Via Barnes & Noble] Continue reading Barnes & Noble announces Nook Tablet, updates and drops prices of Nook Color & Nook Simple Touch →