Amazon's new Kindle eBook reader is causing a lot of stir in the tech world right now. Some love it, some hate it but everyone wants to try one. Here's an AP report on the Kindle and check out my full take on it at my other Voxant blog, News2020 Project.
- Evan
It's Elmo...to the max! Like a drunken relative is sure to do at your house next week, this year's Elmo will drop to the floor and embarrass himself at a moment's notice. It's kind of unclear to me exactly how a child is supposed to "play" with this toy - it looks to me like Elmo needs a pot of black coffee and a taxi home.
- Evan
This Dutch adventurer asks, "if I can drive around the world on nothing but solar power, why can't we all at least use solar power for city driving?"
Good question. There's no doubt his solar-powered global runabout is quite an achievement - although it won't win any awards for design. But who knows? With oil approaching $100 a barrel, soon we'll all be clamoring for solar-powered cars (even if they do look ridiculous.)
- Evan
The controversial and ultraviolent video game Manhunt 2 was released today for Wii, PSP and Playstation 2. Originally set to hit shelves in July, the game was delayed due to heavy backlash over its graphic content. US censors gave it an Adults Only rating while the UK rejected it altogether.
Rockstar Games, publishers of this sequel to 2003's Manhunt, went back and apparently edited the bejesus out of the game in order to comply with the 17+ rating here in the US, though it was still rejected overseas.
The thing is, as games evolve and graphics become more realistic, the consoles are evolving right with them. Now, with the Wii's motion sensing controllers it is a totally different ballgame. We're moving away from the Virtual and getting closer to the Reality.
If you have ever played Grand Theft Auto, you've beaten a hooker to death with a tire iron, let's be honest here. But you weren't swinging your arms around and mimicking the action in the process, you were just pressing buttons.
Now, when you stab that guy in the spine with the giant medical syringe, you might actually be standing in front of the TV jabbing at air, which is downright chilling.
-Mike
Last week, Comcast was accused of blocking user traffic from some online file-sharing applications (BitTorrent, Gnutella). Comcast, the second-largest internet service provider in the United States, responded to the reports yesterday by admitting that, in some situations, they do throttle peer-to-peer traffic to conserve bandwidth but do not block any internet application entirely.
Here is the original report from the AP:
Net neutrality in the US is an interesting debate. Conventional wisdom would suggest that if an ISP was blocking traffic, unhappy users would just ditch and sign with a new provider. This is easier said than done in many areas, though, where there are only one or two games in town.
As broadband giants like Comcast and Verizon continue to control more and more of the traffic, it becomes increasingly unnerving to think that they can monitor and/or shut off connections as they see fit.
Maybe I'll just go back to dial-up.
-Mike
A highly scientific survey has been conducted by the good people at the Consumer Electronics Association in attempt to measure what Americans wish for the most during the holiday season. Well, the shocking results are in: Americans like computers and gadgets as holiday gifts - even more than hope and happiness.
Yeah, I mean who wants peace and good tidings for all anyway? You can't download music with that crap.
-Mike
The much anticipated launch of the iTunes WiFi Music Store took place yesterday at over 600 Starbucks located throughout NYC and Seattle. Starbucks in most major cities should be iTunes-ready by 2008.
Now, when you roll into a Starbucks with your laptop, iPhone, iPod or all three, you can connect to the Apple iTunes store and browse/download millions of songs. In addition, you will be able to see a playlist of recent songs/artists featured in that particular Starbucks. Over the next month, Starbucks will be handing out 50 million free song downloads to promote the partnership.
Here's a clip featuring Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz at the launch:
Adding iTunes access is a nice feature for Starbucks, but you are still required to have a T-Mobile account to actually surf the internet, while other competitors (Panera) have completely free Wi-Fi.
-Mike
The most anticipated video game of the year, and probably ever, hit store shelves yesterday. I am talking, of course, about Kirby's Avalanche, now available for the Nintendo Wii. It's an instant classi - what? Oh...yeah I knew that. I meant to say Halo 3.
That's right, Halo 3 is finally here and Microsoft is predicting record breaking numbers from its flagship title for the Xbox 360. Reviews of the game have been almost unanimously positive and 1.5 million copies have already been pre-sold.
Throngs of gamers lined up on release night to get their hands on this baby:
Halo is great, I think we're all in agreement.
You know what isn't great? The 13 year olds that play Halo online and berate their teammates for being "n00bs" just because they happen to be wandering around the map like Helen Keller while trying to kill people using only a pea-shooter. I don't need that.
-Mike
Wired NextFest, a festival showcasing innovative new technology, wrapped up in Los Angeles over the weekend. On display were a number of strange, futuristic gadgets including Duke Nukem style jet packs, brain-controlled computers, and of course robots. Check out some of the coverage:
Many more images from NextFest '07 here.
-Mike
Sony has successfully created one of the more inexplicable products I have seen in a while - a break dancing, MP3 playing, egg shaped robot. It can store 500 songs and will be able to analyze music and come up with its own dance moves. It goes on sale later this month in Japan and will cost the equivalent of $350 US dollars. Take a look:
OK. It looks cool as hell, but I can not for the life of me imagine a scenario where anyone would use this device - unless many illegal substances are involved. It's like a small, boring pet that has 5 hours of battery power. Go buy a ferret or something.
-Mike
The Internet Police Task Force in China is notorious for cracking down on websites and blogs deemed politically or socially unacceptable. It is estimated that the Chinese government has over 30,000 people working to censor and remove any and all "illegal" content from the webs.
Now they've taken it a step further by introducing cartoon police officer pop-ups onto the 13 biggest web sites in the country. The plan is to expand these pop-up warnings to all sites by the end of the year.
It's like the Microsoft Office paperclip thing - except instead of getting helpful tips you get scorned, shamed and guilt-tripped into abiding by the law every 30 minutes. Good times.
-Mike
Emergency warning and response during Hurricane Katrina was pathetic (to say the least). Now, two years on, FEMA is testing a new system that implements broader technological resources in attempt to drastically improve effectiveness of federal, state and local disaster alerts.
In short, warning messages will be able to be communicated via voice, text and video over a number of devices and to more people, including those with disabilities.
FEMA is poised not to repeat their mistakes. When Katrina 2.0 hits New Orleans they'll be on the horn letting everyone know. That's assuming anyone actually lives there.
-Mike