K-Project Eden

Review: Riptunes MP3 Player - Don't Stop, Keep Walking

2012-02-22T12:33:00.001-06:00

Call it a first world problem, but finding an MP3 player that actually fits in with a lifestyle has proven to be obtusely difficult. By that, of course, I mean a device that’s usable while also survivable in the generally rough days that tend to occur on a daily basis for me more often than not. Amidst my eye for thriftiness, I attempted to nab something that could fulfill those two simple requirements while slamming against the break wall of my wallet and leaving my bank account relatively unscathed.

Happening on a Groupon for a Riptunes MP3 player weighing in at a paltry $25 dollars, I thought my problem had been solved. Acquire a device that can travel with me in the car, in the gym and at work should I need to be confined to a server room for any stretch of time. Seemed easy enough that these three elementary desires could be met for a fraction of what an iPod or Samsung MP3 player typically cost. Hopefully, the Riptunes device would save me not just money, but the problem of being cut off from my music when my HTC Glacier lacked cell signal or battery power.

Unfortunately, what seemed like an impeccable buy quickly turned into a case of feeling like I wasted $25 that should’ve gone towards a more reliable MP3 player. Ripping open the packaging, I quickly evaluated my purchase. The weight made it feel flimsy and the screen had arrived pre-scratched for my convenience. I was already a bit disheartened, but given the cost of the device pressed on in hopes that its overall usability would sway me. Insult would quickly be added to injury with all the vigor of a bucket of salt on an open wound.

Let’s go through the advertised features and break down each one for ease:

Features

1.8-inch color display
4GB capacity
FM radio with 20 pre-sets
Quality voice recorder
Customizable equalizer with seven pre-sets
Built-in rechargeable battery
Doubles as removable USB storage disk

The 1.8-inch color display, which is slightly larger than a 1.54-inch iPod Nano screen, quickly proves one solid fact – technology or not – it isn’t always size that matters. Yes, the screen is bigger than the smaller, major consumer electronic device offered by none other than Apple, but the Riptunes screen looks horrible. The colors are poor to the point that my eyes would have trouble focusing in certain lighting and it looks closer to an 8-bit display on a Windows 95 PC than what I would expect from an MP3 player in this modern age.

Did I mention the screen shipped to me scratched? I just thought I should casually toss that reminder in there.

Moving on to the 4GB capacity, which proves to be one of the few saving points of the device, does admittedly allow for a bit of storage. It should be more than enough for anyone savvy enough to understand the menu system to create a few cohesive playlists to use when you’re driving to or from the office, hitting the gym for a bit or just trying to wind down for the day with a private session of music. The problem though is the menu is hardly intuitive and will leave anyone, even IT professionals, struggling to get inside the mind of the developer behind this device to understand what the hell they were thinking.

It’s virtually unnavigable and the frustration will become quickly apparent when trying to simply turn on a song. By the time you finally do, you’ll either be overdue for whatever it was you were trying to accomplish or burned out from dealing with the device to the point of going back to the age old idea of whistling while you work. No device, especially an MP3 player should require such abilities to simply do what it is designed to do sans flowchart. But that’s just what happened.

More often than not, I would end up defaulting back to my phone in the car; office or wherever I was that had a dependable power supply for my lovely Android device. Not that my choice was utterly untenable, but because it became a matter of time versus desire to get the damn thing to do what I wanted it to do – play music.

Even when I did, the sound quality was subpar at any given time. Whether I hooked it up to the aux cable in my car, used my Altec ear buds while running or gave my Beats headphones a go, the sound quality is consistently terrible to the point of audiophilic rape. I’m almost certain that prisoners at Abu Ghraib didn’t endure such assaults on their ears. And ultimately, it ends up leaving other features feeling hollow and broken because I really don’t care whether or not I can set 7 different equalizer templates if all of them end up sounding like complete garbage.

So, while I don’t blame Groupon, I do blame myself for picking up this technological travesty that is so far on the opposite end of the Spectrum of Usefulness from the Death Star that it boggles my fucking mind. After all, for $25 more I could’ve nabbed an iPod Shuffle or put the same amount of money towards a Nano, which looking back I should have, then I’d have a device I’d genuinely be happy with as opposed to a damaged, flimsy piece of junk that will most likely end up in the trash before it ever heads out into the great big world with me again. At least the Death Star would’ve allowed me to destroy a planet or two before a single flaw caused it to crumble to pieces as opposed to shipping right out of the gate with more problems that a Windows release pre-service packs.

Final Verdict: Avoid at all costs

TF2 - Midair Samurai Battle

2012-02-10T08:15:00.001-06:00

Via Youtube

EVE: A Vision of the Future

2012-02-10T07:45:00.001-06:00

Hawken is still a thing

2012-02-10T07:15:00.001-06:00

via Adhesive Games LTD

SSSS: The Future of Video Game Graphics

2012-02-10T06:00:00.001-06:00

Separable Subsurface Scattering (Real Time) from Jorge Jimenez on Vimeo.

Synopsis:

This movie represents hours and hours of research, desperation, excitement, happiness, pride, sadness and extreme dedication. Hope you like it.
IMPORTANT: designed to be viewed in HD at fullscreen with scaling off on a 1080p device. Be patient and wait for the movie to load before playing, it's a 1080p movie. Some subtleties are lost in the online version, so I encourage to download the original blu-ray quality version below, to better appreciate the skin and fine scale render details (but be aware that you will need a powerful computer to play it).
It shows our latest and final advances on real-time skin rendering (Separable Subsurface Scattering), which enables to quickly render skin in just two post-processing passes. Everything is written from scratch using DirectX 10 and rendered in real-time, from the skin to the film grain; if you have a powerful GPU you can download the original demo here:
iryoku.com/separable-sss/downloads/Separable-SSS-DX10-v1.0.exe
iryoku.com/separable-sss/downloads/Separable-SSS-DX10-v1.0.exe.torrent
Furthermore, it also shows how important is the full rendering pipeline if you aim for 1080p close-up shots. Efforts towards rendering ultra realistic skin are futile if they are not coupled with HDR, high quality bloom, depth of field, film grain, tone mapping, ultra high quality models, parametrization maps, high quality shadow maps (which are lacking on my demo) and a high quality antialiasing solution. If you fail on any of them, the illusion of looking at a real human will be broken.
★ More info on my original blog post:
iryoku.com/separable-sss-released
★ Source code available on GitHub:
github.com/iryoku/separable-sss
★ Blu-ray quality movie mirror:
iryoku.com/separable-sss/downloads/Separable-SSS.mp4
iryoku.com/separable-sss/downloads/Separable-SSS.torrent
★ The 3D head scan used for this demo was obtained from Infinite Realities (thanks a lot!):
ir-ltd.net/infinite-3d-head-scan-released
★ Music from "Transformers: The Score", composed by Steve Jablonsky: The All Spark.
★ Special thanks to Josh Checa (joshcheca.com), who shared its artistic skills with me, and helped to make this true.

Super Mario Bros. - Gulf of Mexico

2012-02-10T05:00:00.001-06:00

via JFletcho

Free Time Friday: Building a new PC

2012-02-10T04:00:00.001-06:00

via Reddit

Watch this Left 4 Dead movie trailer before heading back to bed.

2012-02-10T03:15:00.001-06:00

via The Real Draven Studios

Warhammer 40,000 Dark Angels vs. Tau

2012-02-10T02:45:00.001-06:00

via robfry2008

Spoiler Alert: Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine Cinematics End-to-End

2012-02-10T02:30:00.001-06:00

The Lord Inquisitor Trailer

2012-02-10T02:15:00.001-06:00

Via Warp Gazer

Warhammer 40,000 Lore in Under 60 seconds

2012-02-10T02:00:00.001-06:00

Via Lore

If Doom Was Done Today

2012-02-10T01:45:00.001-06:00

Via Youtube

Late Night Sci-Fi: Aaron Sims' Archetype

2012-02-10T01:02:00.001-06:00

Via Aaron Sims on Youtube

Synopsis:

RL7 is an eight-foot tall combat robot that goes on the run after malfunctioning with vivid memories of once being human. As its creators and the military close in, RL7 battles its way to uncovering the shocking truth behind its mysterious visions and past.
Directed by Aaron Sims
starring Robert Joy (Land of the Dead, CSI:NY) and David Anders (Heros, 24).

Jake - Sleeping on the Job

2012-02-10T00:15:00.001-06:00

Source: Dueling Analogs

Skylanders & Brainwashing Kids

2012-02-09T23:45:00.001-06:00

Sonic the Hedgehog - Problem Solver

2012-02-09T23:15:00.001-06:00

Stay on Magikarp's Good Side

2012-02-09T22:45:00.001-06:00

Homeworld 2 Complex

2012-02-09T22:15:00.001-06:00

Homeworld 2 Complex (8 Series) from Beghins on Vimeo.

Crash Bandicoot Returns in Crysis Game Engine (Mod)

2012-02-09T21:50:00.001-06:00

via Bozosuper93

SotC - Keeping things in perspective

2012-02-09T21:45:00.001-06:00

Cloudberry - Because some like it hard

2012-02-09T21:15:00.001-06:00

Catherine launches in UK, Gets Trailer

2012-02-09T20:45:00.001-06:00

Syndicate Co-Op Trailer

2012-01-31T14:11:00.001-06:00

Challenge Mode Activated: Call of Duty: Relationship Warfare

2012-01-26T11:44:00.001-06:00

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The hardest of the hardcore gamers are always looking for a way to take their game to the next level. Sometimes, after being a game on Normal, Hard and whatever level may lie even beyond that, a game may no longer hold the same sort of luster for a player – so much so that they begin to feel that creeping feeling that it might be time to move on. But fear not, after meeting with several scientists in a secret underground lab and extensive testing on several volunteers, there have been several solutions designed to maximize your playing ability – pushing players to their limits and getting the most fun possible out of a potential game.

Warning: Any real world attempts should be monitored by a skilled physician and trusted family member or friend. By having read that previous sentence, you absolve Busted Bitmap of any and all responsibility.

Call of Duty: Relationship Warfare

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Ask any gamer what one of the most difficult things to do while playing an online game and a majority of them will drift to the bane of multiplayer: The people who don’t understand that you can’t pause something that’s online. The concept seems almost foreign to these offenders.

Garbage needs to be taken out? Pause the game. Dishes put in the dishwasher wrong? Pause the game. Baby crying? You better believe you’re pausing that game.

Except for the fact that you can’t stop the action, it’ll just continue on the map as your character stands idle – nothing more than cannon fodder. So you’re torn between running as fast as you can to get what you need done, disconnecting or starting a fight to net the time to play.

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So, for those of you who’ve have beaten Modern Warfare 3 on Veteran and trounced all competition online, try this to spice up your online play. First, start your Xbox and prepare to jump into an online match – play a few rounds of survival or Spec Ops so you really get into the game. After all, you’ve settled in for the duration and want to net some playtime showing off your skills. All warmed up and ready to play. Good, get ready to jump into a multiplayer queue and prepare for a true test of ability.

Walk into the other room and pick a fight with your significant other – if one is currently unavailable, a family member or roommate will amply suffice. If they’re sitting idly, seemingly minding their own business, just smash something of theirs to get their attention with wanton disregard. Perhaps they happen to be trying on a newly purchased article of clothing, tell them how hideous it looks, how much it fails to flatter their otherwise grotesque body type or tell them how much you hope they didn’t waste a lot of money on it. Whatever you have to do, do it – you want a challenge after all, don’t you?

After angering the other person to the necessary degree, sit back down at your Xbox, don your headset and prepare to lay waste to some n00bs. While doing so however, you’ll need to balance your attention between that spawn camping punk and the fact that at any second, you might get a pot-full of boiling water dumped in your lap as a result of your douchebaggery, which should still be fresh in the mind of your assailed target. If the fightee you’ve chosen to help take your game to higher levels of skill hasn’t physically assaulted you yet, keeping things in the realm of artless arguing and screaming, your focus should be drawing to Zen-like heights.

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If you’re about to receive a Care Package filled to the brim with ass kicking, then it may be a good idea to disconnect, but you’ve already made the choice for a real challenge, so follow through. At this point however, if your focus hasn’t been interrupted by a fist to the face – or a circuit breaker, for the more creative – then your amalgamated abilities should be nigh upon Buddhist/Bullet-time zeniths. This will be the best you ever play.

The world, along with the gratuitous amounts of shouting, will have bled away leaving you encompassed in a zone superseding that of those who have accomplished the very highest realms of concentration. Artisans, Military Snipers, Olympic Athletes can only dream of the meditative awareness flowing through your veins as you net kills streaks. Accusatory screams of cheating crescendo in your headset. You fear this moment will languish as nothing more than a mere moment of legendary play as you dive over cover into yet another fray as the screen consumes you in a bemusing white light.

It’s then hours later you wake up on your floor in a daze. Unsure of what has transpired amidst what you’ll later describe to your friends as some sort of “religious experience,” you adjust slightly on the debris poking and prodding your achy body. Darkness is settled in the room as you shift over the remains of your console and television. Your mouth feels cottony and possesses the languishing taste of copper.

[[posterous-content:pid___3]]

Lying there on what remains of your electronics, you don’t seem to care about how much time may have passed between initially starting your training session and now or the fact that you may be suffering from a concussion or internal bleeding. For a brief moment, your game was at the top tier. You accepted the challenge and probably won’t look back, even as you figure out how to acquire a television and Xbox that happen to be intact. In the meantime, you may have some apologizing to do and perhaps a couch to prepare to sleep on for a while, but for now you relish in your victory.

Challenge Mode Deactivated.