i Top Tech

Dell stumbles, almost drops to #3 in the top PC manufacturers

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:34:29 +0000

Bad news for Dell. Despite the fact that it’s looking like IT spending is increasing, Dell is still suffering from lackluster sales. iSuppli, the company that tracks worldwide PC shipping, reports that in the ongoing battle for dominance in the PC marketshare, Dell has staggered, and almost slipped down to number three. The news isn’t all bad though, because as one company falls, another will rise. Surprisingly, the company that’s rising to the top happens to be Acer. In 4Q2009, Acer almost managed to top Dell in units shipped for the first time ever, with a impressive 11.86 million PCs sold. HP of course is still king of the hill, but for Acer to come that close could spell bad news for Dell in 1Q2010.

Hands-on: SOCOM 4 (with PlayStation Move!)

admin — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 03:35:14 +0000

There are two questions I’ll try to answer with this quick hands-on preview. Firstly, is SOCOM 4 the true sequel to the SOCOM franchise we’ve been waiting for? Secondly, does the PlayStation Move controller work as intended?

It’s hard to answer the first question, especially within the constraints of a ten-minute demo. What I can say is that even in this early state, SOCOM 4 looks very good, sporting incredibly detailed environments. While the early code has a noticeably choppy framerate, there was already a large number of objects in the environment. Whether its a car, a trash can, a thrown out mattress, there are tons of objects to take cover behind in the world.

Controlling your squad should be familiar to anyone that’s played a recent SOCOM game. Holding L1 on the Move allows you to slightly slow down time and direct your team to move to position and await orders. You can even call in an airstrike by holding down the Move button and holding Down on a target. After sneaking down an alley, we were able to catch a large squad of soldiers lounging in an open field. They had no idea what hit them as the bombs dropped.

Considering tactics are an important part of the SOCOM franchise, it’s hard to judge the depth of Zipper’s return to the series. Still, it’s refreshing to finally see a single-player SOCOM adventure on a current generation console. We quizzed a Sony rep if any tech from Slant Six’s Confrontation made its way into the game, and he firmly said “no.” We’re not sure if that will reassure fans burned by the last PS3 SOCOM game, but it seems this effort is a clear departure from before.

PlayStation Move worked exactly as we thought it would, resembling the experience of playing a Wii FPS. Aiming is very fast and responsive on the Move, although I’m still much more skilled with analog sticks than I am with motion controllers. The early demo didn’t include any promised enhancements, such as motion-controlled grenade throws, or the ability to tweak the aim “box” that’s customizable in most recent Wii games. What SOCOM 4 did effectively prove, though, is that a game as hardcore as SOCOM can feel natural with the Move, as it only took minutes to finally get accustomed to taking cover and shooting baddies.

Interestingly, Zipper Interactive seems to believe that the Move and the SIXAXIS/DualShock controllers can co-exist online. While there’s still a lot of work to be done on the game, the end goal is for players using either controller to play against each other online. Obviously, some players will be better with standard controls, while others will be better with motion. It’ll be interesting to see if either side manages to gain the “edge” over time. Certainly, an online game of this scale can be an experiment in which controller truly reigns supreme.

Count The Beats: Inspiration… two apps for the musician on the move

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:13:27 +0000

Recently I’ve been preparing to move home and finally did last weekend. Naturally I had to pack up all my musical gear, equipment and of course, my Mac. In the week leading up to the move, I’ve had my iPhone and nothing else. With no creative outlet and the pressure of looming project deadlines, I found myself scouting the app store for a fix to help me start fleshing out a few creative ideas.

This is what I found that worked well for me.

1. TonePad and TonePad Pro

The iTunes Store describes TonePad Pro as “…the easiest way to make music. Discover the inner musician in you. Create songs by simply touching.” And this is exactly what I found. With a 16 x 16 matrix, and an easy-to-use user interface (literally start tapping your fingers and music is made), I found myself coming up with little melodies and tunes immediately. Although you only have the 16 x 16 matrix, to me, what initially seemed quite limiting soon became a boundary for creative focus.

You can save an unlimited number of tunes to listen back to, and upload them to a shared server where your buddies can check out what you’ve been musing. With the paid version, you can save your melodies into a ringtone that will sync back to your iPhone, too.

2. Flourish

Flourish is something a bit more immersive. While having a steeper learning curve, there’s loads more to explore here. The user interface is really fresh and unique (especially for the iPhone), and presents a creative challenge in focusing your composition whilst giving you the space to try different approaches to what you are creating.

Basically Flourish represents musical phrases as physical loops:

-Record loops with expressive multi-touch keyboards.
-Generate percussive and melodic sequences.
-Build arrangements by ear or by eye.
-Select from a consonant collection of instruments.
-Sequence loops by connecting them in chain.

Check out the Flourish website for a few demo clips.

Let us know in the comments below what other apps for the iPhone / iPod Touch, or the Mac, that are inspiring you to make music.

Casio’s ultra-tough G’zOne Brigade going on sale tomorrow?

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:48 +0000

WAAAAY back in November, Casio and Verizon showed off the G’zOne Brigade, an ultra-durable clamshell phone with a surprise QWERTY keyboard packed inside. “Push to talk!” they said. “It’s weatherproof!” they said. And then the radio went silent; nearly four months later, not so much as a release date had been mentioned. Well, it looks like the release might sneak up on us, with a shelf date as early as tomorrow. We just got a flurry of tips indicating as much, all of which came in within a few minutes of each other. When the tips avalanche like that, it usually indicates that the store employees themselves just found out and felt like spreading the news. We’ll work on digging up a bit more confirmation as to whether or not this thing is shipping tomorrow (drop us a line at tips@mobilecrunch.com if you know),

Bravo to Epic Games for porting Unreal Engine 3 to the iPhone

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:47 +0000

Don’t get mad at me— I wanted to go to GDC, but The Man said no. So now we’re relying on CNET to bring us word of Epic Games’ efforts to bring the Unreal Engine to the iPhone . You may not have even played Unreal for several years, but plenty of big games are based on the engine. Mass Effect and BioShock are based on versions of the engine, as is EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor . Just think: playing Unreal on your iPhone. It’s almost… unreal . The engine is written entirely for the PC, and it goes from PC to Mac to iPhone. It’s quite a bit of work to port over, yes. Just think: on the PC, the engine can count on multi-core processors to drive the whole show. One core for this, one core for that. The iPhone 3GS, fast as it is (by smartphone standards), cannot compare with the likes of the Intel Core i7. Breaking news, I know. It does seem that the hardest part is getting all those high-resolution textures down to iPhone size. Epic uses something called DXT to compress the textures, a technology…

Google Apps Marketplace opens for business, for business

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:45 +0000

Google’s certainly made some enterprise inroads with Google Apps, and now it’s open the road for other cloud-based service providers to build on that success: it’s launching Google Apps Marketplace to sell third-party web apps that integrate with the Apps suite. The apps are sold as a subscription, with both monthly and annual pricing, and the billing is all handled by Google. Since it’s all targeted at the enterprise, the apps themselves are pretty dry — we’re talking notables like Intuit Online Payroll, eFax, and TripIt — but it’s pretty easy to see how Google could build a similar consumer-level marketplace into Gmail and Google Calendar sometime in the future. And then? Skynet. Video after the break.

source

Cisco starts laying ‘foundation for next-generation Internet’

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:36:08 +0000

As Google works to speed up our access to the Internet, Cisco is fighting a different war: improving the foundation of the Internet itself. In a statement on Tuesday, the networking-centric company announced its new CRS-3 Carrier Routing System (which is where the CRS comes from), which Cisco claims can handle “12 times the traffic capacity of the nearest competing system,” and triples the power of the 92 Tbps CRS-1, its predecessor.

So just how fast is the CRS-3? According to Cisco, it can handle 322 Terabits per second, “which enables the entire printed collection of the Library of Congress to be downloaded in just over one second; every man, woman and child in China to make a video call, simultaneously; and every motion picture ever created to be streamed in less than four minutes.”

That’s a lot of horsepower, and it’s the kind of muscle we need, according to Cisco, to lay the foundation for next-generation Internet, with an eye mostly on the increasing demands of streaming media and the like.

Read the full release from Cisco here.

Via Maximum PC

Netsee UNC-890 netbook

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:55:52 +0000

The South Korean market is going to have a slim netbook known as the Netsee UNC-890.

The UNC-890 has an 8.9 inch widescreen LCD display with 1,024 x 600 resolution, 1GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel webcam, Wi-Fi connectivity, Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz processor, and a 32GB SSD. It ways in at 920 grams, under an inch thin, and is available in white or red colors.

We don’t have a price just yet, and, as I mentioned earlier, it will be available in the South Korean market.

Source

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T3-B Multi-touch Table From Digital Touch

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:55:36 +0000

It looks like companies are busy trying to turn the humble coffee table into something way more interesting. Despite there already being other options and designs being worked on, Digital Touch seems confident in its T3-B table, which is a coffee table sized unit that has a built-in 26-inch LCD, as well as Wi-Fi, allowing users to browse, select and interact with various options on screen. The inclusion of an orientation switch should be fairly useful, as it allows you to view your content from any side of the table. The table can also be hooked up with an optional receipt printer, credit card reader and TV tuner, making it perfect for settings such as a hotel environment or restaurant. The T3-B is currently featured in a handful of the top 100 venues in the US, so if you’re ever in one of those posh areas, keep an eye out for such a table.

How to Look Like a Gadget Lover Without Buying Any Real Electronics [Wtf]

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:55:21 +0000

12 Full Color Printed VHS Video Boxes: $9. Full Scale Plastic Washer and Dryer Set: $139. 2 Piece 20″ Wide Screen LCD Style Computer Package: $49. Outfitting your entire home with prop gadgets: Probably a bad idea.

If you’re like me and ever looked at one of those prop TVs in a store and wondered how much they go for, then the mystery is finally over. You can seek out Props By IDM, a company who sells such fake gadgets, and price check. [Props by IDM via Boing Boing]