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Sony Introduces PS3 Motion Controller – Move

amida168 — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 04:12:50 +0000

On March 10, Sony officially announced the PlayStation Move controller, which is the finished version of its PS3 motion controller. Similar to that of the Nintendo Wii controller, a camera is used to detect its movement from the position of an orb located at the top of the controller. Also, it has a sub-controller with a directional pad that can be used for menus or games that need that, along with motion, at the same time. However, the system is claimed to be much more accurate than Nintendo’s game system; Move can recognize the exact angle, position, and speed of the controller’s movements.

Both multi-player and single-player games compatible with these controllers are currently under development.

For the avid PS3 hardcore gamers out there, Sony is expected to ship the Move out this fall, along with multiple packages for different types of gamers. Among these is a Starter Kit that bundles the camera and a game, which is expected to cost below $100.

This new form of gaming is sure to be one awaited by game-aficionados with bated breath; with this new Wii-like addition, the PS3 experience is likely to be better than ever.

[via Electronista]

iPad Pre-Orders Start Today

amida168 — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 15:24:55 +0000

The much anticipated iPad pre-orders start today. If you want to get your iPad on the day of launch: April 3rd for the Wi-Fi model and late April for the Wi-Fi + 3G model, you have to act now.

Apple Store iPad Pre-Order Link

Panasonic and Best Buy to Launch 3D TVs

amida168 — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:09:35 +0000

Panasonic has recently partnered with Best Buy to promote their 3-D televisions, discounting their models up to 50% in an effort to encourage consumers’ adoption of the technology. A 50-inch TV will be sold for about $2,499.95; in Japan, the same model will be sold for about $4,800.They also hope to call back consumer demand for plasma display with these models. These displays will start on Wednesday. Panasonic hopes to sell at least one million of these in the fiscal year ending March 31, half of them being sold in the United States’ market. This announcement first appeared in Japan’s Nikkei newspaper on Sunday.

Here is a quote from Panasonic’s press release:

Beginning today, Panasonic’s Full HD 3D Home Theater System will be exclusively available at select Best Buy Stores via Magnolia Home Theater. The total combined SRP of the Panasonic Full HD 3D Plasma Home Theater System components is $2899.99. The system consists of a 50-inch class (49.9” measured diagonally) Panasonic VIERA VT20 Plasma 3D HDTV (TC-P50VT20 – SRP $2,499.95) which includes one pair of Panasonic 3D Active Shutter Lens Eyewear (TY-EW3D10U), and the Panasonic BDT300 3D Blu-ray Disc Player (DMP-BDT300 – SRP 399.95). Additional pairs of 3D eyewear will be available with an SRP of $149.95. The individual components of the system will also be sold separately.

Global shipments of TVs that are able to view 3-D video are predicted to grow from 200,000 units last year to 1.2 million. This year, the world’s largest television brands: Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., and Sony Corp. will be targeting the 3-D television market with products of their own.

[via Wall Street Journal] ,Panasonic]

VirtualBox 3.1.4 Guest Additions and Fedora 12 Guest Problem

amida168 — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:57:29 +0000

There is a problem with Fedora 12 kernel version 2.6.32.9-67 and the VirtualBox 3.1.4 Guest Additions. After you install the Guest Additions and reboot the virtual machine, you can only see a black screen. Usually, I would either press CTRL+ALT+F1 to get to the shell terminal to change settings or edit the Grub menu to boot to a different run level. However, the key combination CTRL+ALT+F1 on VirutalBox does not work. The Grub menu on Fedora 12 is also hidden, and the timeout is set to 0, so you cannot modify it (talk about some nice design!).

After playing around with it for a while, I found a way to work around the problem. This is not a detailed guide, but I will outline what I did to fix it.

Mount a Linux LiveCD to the CD/DVD devices. I prefer the KDE version of LiveCD.
Restart the virtual machine. Press F12 immediately when the VM is starting up. Press C to boot to the LiveCD.
Mount the boot partition of your primary disk.
Use a text editor to edit the menu.lst file in grub directory of the boot partition. You might need to become superuser (root) to edit it.
The default is set to 0, which is the latest kernel that doesn’t work with the Guest Additions. Change the value to 1, so the Guest Additions will not be loaded. While you are here, change timeout to 10 and comment out the hiddenmenu. This way, you can get a chance to modify the grub menu without using a LiveCD next time. The result is like the listing.
```
default=1
timeout=10
#hiddenmenu
```
Save the file and reboot.

The system will be booted to the previous kernel without the Guest Additions.

How to Reduce Digital Photos Noise Using Free Tools

amida168 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:10:37 +0000

I recently got a used Kodak Pro SLR/c camera. It shoots excellent pictures at a low ISO. However, the picture quality degrades greatly at a higher ISO because of noise. One time I accidentally set the ISO to 800, and almost all of the photos were not usable.

There are quite a few Photoshop plug-ins available to tackle the problem. However, Photoshop is very expensive, and, in addition, the plug-ins are not free. This combination is quite out of reach for most of us.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to reduce digital photos noise using free tool – GIMP and the wavelet denoise plug-in. Here are the links for these tools:

GIMP

Wavelet denoise plugin (Windows binary of 0.3.1 )

Please refer to the aforementioned links for installation procedures and the location where you should place the plug-in. Once you have GIMP installed with the wavelet denoise plug-in, follow these steps:

Invoke GIMP and open up a photo.
Click on Filters -> Enhance -> Wavelet denoise … to bring up the Wavelet denoise dialog.
There are 3 color modes to choose from. You don’t have to use them all. Just pick one. I like to use CIELAB.
After the color mode is selected, adjust the Threshold and Softness for each channel. Make small adjustments, and keep an eye on the preview window. If you set the Threshold to high, you might lose the sharpness of the photo.
Before

After
Click on OK to exit out the plug-in and apply the results to the photo.
Click on File -> Save As to save the file to a different name so that you still have the original.

Overall, I am very satisfied with the results. The plug-in author mentioned that it is possible to mask the filter effect with selection to further improve the results. That might be something you will want to try if you are well-versed with GIMP.

iPad Coming April 3rd

amida168 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 16:52:59 +0000

Apple has just announced the iPad’s release date: April 3rd. You can pre-order it on the Apple Online Store starting March 12 or reserve it for pickup at your local Apple Retail Store. The starting price is set at $499 (16GB Wi-Fi) or $629 (16GB Wi-Fi + 3G). The Wi-Fi + 3G model is not available until late April. From the tech spec posted on Apple’s website, no camera is included in this generation of iPad, despite the fact that the iPad SDK supports a front facing camera.

[via Apple]

ASUS Goes Green at CeBIT

amida168 — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:58:17 +0000

ASUS has gone green, showing new green technology and innovations at this year’s CeBIT. Manufacturing processes have been changed to be more conservative, and various products have been tweaked with to be more energy-efficient. More packaging of their items have become recyclable. Products they have revolutionized include their notebooks (made of bamboo, which is a remarkably renewable resource), their Eee PC 1005PE (which uses little energy and has a mercury-free LED-backlit panel), their EeeBox PC EB 1501, motherboards (ten million of which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 210,000 tons annually and also reduces radiation exposure), and Designo LED Monitors.

Perhaps in the future, more and more companies will follow suit, to revolutionize the world’s green technology in hopes of maintaining what resources we have.

[via ASUS]

Microsoft Security Advisory: F1 Key and Internet Explorer

amida168 — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:56:17 +0000

Microsoft has issued an advisory about a vulnerability in VBScript through the use of Internet Explorer on Windows 2000, XP and 2003 server. A malicious web site might trick you to press F1 key when you use Internet Explorer to visit the site. If you do, your computer will be infected by a virus or spyware. There is no patch for this vulnerability yet. The obvious workaround for this vulnerability, as suggested by the advisory, is: Do not press the F1 key when prompted by a Web site.

[via Microsoft]

Google Adds User Photos to Street View

amida168 — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 03:41:05 +0000

In Google Maps, Street View has become increasingly complex, with more features than before. It has now included an extensive collection of photos taken everywhere around the world by users, allowing you to see streets and roads in new perspectives. It also lets you navigate through an unfamiliar area with ease and enhance your understanding of the location.

While looking through these photos, there are various orbs (small silver circles) that hover around user photos. By clicking and dragging them, you can move to a new photo of a place nearby. You can use them to zoom in on a desired image or pan around the area.

If this interests you, you can refer to this video for a further explanation about how it works.

[via Google Lat Long]

iPad SDK Support for Front Facing Camera, Camera Flash, Zoom and Video Conferencing

amida168 — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 02:02:05 +0000

In late January, Apple introduced the iPad while making no mention of a camera on either the front or back of the device. Because of this, photos and video chat cannot be used on the iPad, even though there are several indications showing that a camera had been thought of for use. For instance, the outside has an empty space for the camera.

Apple may have built in API support to test if your iPad had a Front Facing Camera and Zoom and Camera Flash features. Since the iPhone’s camera is located on the back of the device, video chat is impossible on it; Zoom and Camera Flash are options that have been requested for the iPhone’s camera. Let’s hope that Apple will add these features to future generations of the iPhone.
[via MacRumors]