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Travel Philippine Mount Pulag Benguet

2013-04-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Travel Philippines Mount Pulag Benguet

Best Philippine Destinations

2013-04-12T16:56:00.003-07:00

Travel Philippines

http://www.facebook.com/Kalakat.Kita.Travel.Philippines

iPhone 5 shell photographed

2012-05-31T04:11:00.001-07:00

The iPhone 5 is not coming out for months, but one site thinks it has already found its shell.

What afternoon would be complete without a new Apple rumor? Earlier today, supposed leaked shots of the new maps application for iOS 6 hit the web, and now we may have our first glimpse of the next iPhone. You don’t have to guess where this image comes from since the logos are plastered on it, but 9to5 Mac and the folks at iFixyouri believe they have discovered the iPhone 5. Or it’s shell, at least.

This part supposedly entered iFixyouri’s catalog. They believe it might be a back plate (shell) for the upcoming iPhone, though we are somewhat doubtful. To us, the design doesn’t look sleak enough to be an Apple phone and it lacks the normal pin connector that connects all iOS devices. Of course, there have been rumors that Apple is going to shrink the connector, so this may fall in line with that. The extra space on the bottom appears to be used by speakers. The black sections also come in white, but whoever sent this also said that black and white wouldn’t be the only colors. Again, according to iFixyouri.

The design of this phone appears somewhat Apple-like, but also a bit, well, ugly. What do you think? Is this the next iPhone?

Sony’s new Xperia Go and Xperia Acro S add water resistance to strong spec lists

2012-05-31T04:08:00.002-07:00

Sony Mobile has announced two new Xperia phones, the Xperia Go and the Xperia Acro S. Both are water and dust resistant, and will be released later this year.

Sony has announced two new smartphones, the Xperia Acro S and the Xperia Go, both of which fall into the same tough-phone category as devices like the Motorola Defy and Sony’s own Xperia Active.

The Xperia Go (pictured on the right above) is the more basic of the two, as it comes with Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread installed, but is listed as being a candidate for an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. However, this being Sony Mobile, when such an update will arrive is anyone’s guess.

The scratch-resistant 3.5-inch Reality Display screen uses the same wet-finger tracking system as the Xperia Active, and the whole device has an IP67 rating for water and dust resistance.

Inside is a 1Ghz dual-core processor, which although isn’t stated, we’d expect to be the ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500, and on the rear is a 5-megapixel camera. The chassis is 9.8mm thick, and it’ll be available in black, white or yellow.

The Acro S is a very high-spec phone for one with water and dust resistance, in this case an improved IP55 and IP57 rating, as it has a 1.5Ghz dual-core processor (possibly a Snapdragon S4 like its close cousin, the Japan-only Xperia Acro HD) and a 4.3-inch, 720p Reality Display screen. The 12-megapixel camera will also shoot 1080p video, while the forward-facing video-call lens shoots in 720p.

Unlike the Xperia Go, the Acro S will have Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich installed at the start, and instead of a yellow color scheme, it’ll add pink to the standard black or white models.

In case you’re not familiar with the intricacies of the IP rating system, the Xperia Go’s IP67 rating will see it survive a dunking for up to 30 minutes, provided the depth is no more than 1 meter, while IP55 and IP57 adds protection against streams of water and resistance to dust particles too.

Both phones are set to be released between July and September, with the Xperia Go being renamed the Xperia Advance for the US market.

Microsoft Wireless Desktop 5000 Review

2012-05-31T04:03:00.003-07:00

Microsoft’s Wireless Desktop 5000 is a firmly middle-of-the-road keyboard and mouse combo with some ergonomic perks.

Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, Microsoft’s hardware division has a wealth of experience to draw from when it comes to designing keyboards, mice, and other peripherals. There’s ample evidence of that design experience in the Wireless Comfort Desktop 5000.

This isn’t the fanciest mouse-and-keyboard combo on the market, but it has well-placed buttons for most of the common tasks you’ll use your PC for, the primary keys provide very good tactile feedback, it’s easily programmed, and most importantly, it felt good under our hands. A large wrist rest, covered in diamond-patterned rubber, accounts for about 25 percent of the lower horizontal surface area, but our typing style kept our wrists elevated above it. Had we wanted to, we could have inserted a pair of rubber plugs into the bottom of the keyboard beneath the wrist rest to elevate it, but we elected to use these under the top of the keyboard because we prefer to type with the keyboard angled up, not down. Although the plugs provide only one height choice, they’re vastly superior to the flimsy plastic legs that flip out from the bottom of most keyboards.

Ergonomic keyboards — with their wavy designs — seem to have fallen out of favor these days, perhaps because gamers demand straight planks. The letter keys on this model follow a gentle curve, with the home row from A through F curving down toward the wrist rest, and the home row from J to the Enter key curving up and away from it. The layout felt very natural to us, and we were able to type rapidly with accuracy, although we had to stretch just a bit to reach the T and Y keys. The other home row keys that your fingers don’t sit on at rest — the G, H, B, and N keys — are slightly oversized, rendering them easier to find with your index finger.

The primary letter keys have just the right amount of travel: not too deep, not too shallow, and with just enough resistance that you can rest your fingertips on them without pushing them down unintentionally. This isn’t a gaming keyboard, so there are no buttons dedicated to game functions, but we had no problem playing games on it, including The Walking Dead. Some of us tend to pound the keys when we’re writing, and even though this keyboard is outfitted with membrane switches, such aggressive typing produced a surprisingly loud click, followed by a dull thud when the key bottomed out; some people found it a bit annoying.

The Escape and Function keys are exceptionally small — perhaps a quarter of typical height — and each Function key plays second fiddle to commands such as undo, redo, open new document, open file, and save file. Touch typists would most likely ignore most of them in favor of key combinations such as Ctrl-Z, Ctrl-V, Ctrl-O, and Ctrl-S, because these shortcuts can perform many of the same actions without taking your hands off home row. If you use software that makes frequent use of the Function keys, meanwhile, you won’t like this keyboard at all.

Programmable keys and buttons

You can program any of these keys, as well as a larger set of buttons above the Function keys, to perform almost any function you like using Microsoft’s IntelliType Pro software. As you might expect, many of these buttons are programmed at the factory to work with Microsoft programs, such as Word, Excel, and Outlook, but it’s easy to reassign them to work with alternative programs.

The keyboard doesn’t have any LEDs to indicate that Caps Lock and Num Lock are engaged, probably to preserve battery power (the mouse and keyboard operate on two AA batteries each). The USB dongle for controlling the two peripherals is absolutely huge compared to the tiny dongle that Logitech supplies with its wireless keyboards and mice these days. Use it with a laptop and you’ll need to unplug for travel, lest it break off and damage your laptop’s USB port as you shove it in your bag. Fortunately, the dongle can be attached to the bottom of the mouse for transport, so it doesn’t get lost. Snap it in place and it will conveniently depress a button to turn the mouse off. The keyboard, however, doesn’t have a power button.

The mouse

The Wireless Mouse 5000 is a straightforward, ambidextrous design with the usual left and right buttons on top, a scroll wheel with a third button and left-right tilt, and two additional buttons on the left and right sides. The rubber-coated wheel rolls freely, without providing the option of precision indexing. The sides where you grip the mouse with your thumb and ringer are indented and covered with a dimpled rubber surface. The top of the mouse, including the buttons, are a glossy black plastic.

The mouse is outfitted with Microsoft’s BlueTrack LED, which Microsoft claims is capable of tracking on nearly any surface. True to Microsoft’s claim, the mouse had no problem tracking a wooden desktop, a granite countertop, a glass tabletop, and a variety of mouse pads. The only surface on which the mouse failed to track was a mirror. The mouse tracked quickly and accurately, without exhibiting significant amounts of lag. The only feature we really missed was an indexed scroll wheel – the kind with detents as you roll it.

Conclusion

The Wireless Comfort 5000 Desktop largely lives up to its promise. The keyboard and mouse are very comfortable to use, and the keyboard provides plenty of one-touch functions for managing your applications. It’s not equipped with informative LEDs, nor does it have convenient features such as audio jacks or a USB hub; but you’re just not going to find such things on a wireless setup. There’s no excusing the too-small F keys, however, and the too-large USB dongle is a genuine pain. The mouse is unremarkable aside from its ability to track on almost any surface, which is great when you’re traveling and don’t always have the ideal workspace.

Highs

Very good tactile feedback
Comfortable
Lots of programmable buttons

Lows

Oversized USB dongle
Too-small Function keys
No index option for mouse scroll wheel

Meet the Orange San Diego, the UK’s first Intel Medfield-powered Android phone

2012-05-31T04:01:00.002-07:00

UK network Orange has launched the San Diego, an Android phone powered by Intel's Medfield Atom processor.
Hot on the heels of the Lava Xolo X900 going on sale in India, another smartphone powered by Intel’s Medfield processor is about to hit the shelves, this time in the UK.
Initially revealed as an exclusive device for the UK network Orange, with the codename Santa Clara, it has now been officially announced with the name San Diego. Orange loves naming its own branded devices after cities, with the ZTE Blade/Orange San Francisco being one of the best known.
Like Lava’s Xolo, the San Diego is based on Intel’s reference design hardware, with which it demonstrated the capabilities of the Medfield chip last year.
The San Diego uses Intel’s Atom Z2460 processor, with a clock speed of 1.6Ghz, making it unique amongst a sea of phones all using ARM processor architecture. The Medfield Atom chip represents Intel’s most effective attempt to break ARM’s hold on the mobile industry yet.
A 4.03-inch touchscreen sits on the front of the 9.9mm thick, 117 gram chassis, and has a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. On the rear is an 8-megapixel camera with the ability to record 1080p video, and other features include 16GB of internal memory, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS and an HDMI-out port.
Perhaps the only disappointing aspect of the San Diego is that it runs Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread, but as Lava has stated an Android 4.0 update will be coming for the X900, there’s a chance Orange may offer one too.
So how much will the San Diego cost? If you select a Pay As You Go tariff, it’s a reasonable £199 (about $300), or alternatively an offer of a 24-month contract at £15.50 per-month, with the phone for free, will be provided for the first month of release. The Orange San Diego will go on sale on June 6.

Copy Music from Your iPhone or iPod to Your Computer for Free

2012-03-05T00:18:00.000-08:00

There as many applications and methods for copying music from an iPod to your computer as there are iPod models themselves, which makes finding a sure-fire, free solution a matter of tedious trial and error. To save you the work, today we're rounding up the best tools and techniques for getting music off any model iPod onto nearly any computer—for free. Whether you're a Windows user looking to yank tunes from an iPhone, a Mac fan backing up an iPod classic, or a Linux enthusiast trying to get into your new nano, we've got you covered. Follow along for a detailed look at the best ways to transfer songs from your iPod to your computer, no matter what hardware or operating system you're rocking.

Update: This post has gotten a little out of date. For an updated version, read this.

iPhone and iPod touch

While it used to be as simple as enabling disk use on old school iPods to get to the music files stored there, it's not that easy with the iPhone and iPod touch models. Luckily, intrepid hackers have found a way on each platform. Here are our picks for the best ways to get at your music from your touchscreen iPod and iPhone.

Mac OS X—Senuti (beta)

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Free Mac utility Senuti could always copy music from regular iPods to your Mac, and a new beta version now supports the iPhone and iPod touch. Be sure to download the beta release (as of this writing, the latest beta is0.50.2b7) and install it on your Mac. Fire up Senuti to get a complete list of songs on the iPhone or iPod touch connected to your Mac. Senuti will put a blue dot next to songs that already exist in that Mac's iTunes library. Select the songs you want and hit the Transfer button to copy them to your computer.

Windows—Jailbreak + SSH (Update: and Winamp!)

Unfortunately, there are no free graphical applications for Windows like Senuti for Mac that can reach into your touch-based iPod's guts and move music around.

Update: We stand corrected. Several readers point out that Winamp's newest iPod plug-in can indeed copy files from your iPhone in Windows without jailbreaking. Thanks, zod000, Scoops, and apprehensive!

Update 2: iPhoneBrowser is also an option for those with jailbroken phones, providing an FTP-like interface to iPhone/touch files with a USB connection. Thanks to emailer Miguel and commenter halfshafter for the tip!.

It's not that hard to get your files, if you're willing to jailbreak your device and do a little file-swapping. Here's how to do it.

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Jailbreak your iPhone/touch: Your editors have found the 45-second ZiPhone method pretty reliable, but your mileage may vary. However you jailbreak your device, make sure it has "BSD Subsystem" and "OpenSSH" packages installed through the Installer.app utility.
Get an SFTP application: Unless you want to hack around command-line-style with PuttY or Cygwin, you'll find it easier to get around using an FTP program.Filezilla is a free, easy-to-use option, but any client that supports SSH transfer will do.
Get into your iPhone/touch: Make sure your iPhone/touch has a Wi-Fi connection to the same network as your computer, and that its Autolock setting (Settings->General->Autolock) is temporarily set to "Never" to prevent dropped connections. Find its IP address (Settings->Wi-Fi, then select the checked network), and in your FTP program, put that address in as the Host, and set a username of "root" and a password of "alpine," assuming you've upgraded your firmware at least once (it's "dottie" if not). Choose to connect through port 22 for an SSH connection, and you should get in. You may get a warning related to a "host key," but choose "Yes" or "OK," and check "Always trust this host" or a similar catch-all, if offered.
Transfer the files: I found my iPod touch's music nested deep inside the file structure, at/private/var/mobile/Media/iTunes_Control/Music/. You'll probably find your music there too. Copy all the folders named F01, F02, and so on to your computer. The files have nonsensical names, but they're really your tunes, and iTunes (and even Windows itself) knows it:

Once you've got your files, you can give them back sensible names in iTunes by importing them, then heading to Edit->Preferences->Advanced->"Keep iTunes Music folder organized." Now you've got your iPod's whole music library, organized, and ready to use wherever.

Linux—Wireless sync

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As with Windows, there's no single app that gets you to your music, but you can jailbreak your iPhone/touch in Linux and open it up for wireless access to apps like Amarok or gtkpod for transfers and organization. Head to our guide to Syncing your iPhone wirelessly in Linux for a detailed tutorial on doing just that.

All other iPods

Whether you've got a shuffle, nano, classic, photo, video, or something more old-school, your route to music recovery is decidedly easier than with those fancy-dancy touch models. Here's the best ways to get at your files:

Windows—YamiPod

YamiPod works on all three major platforms, but it really comes in handy in Windows. It recently added support for the new-model nano and iPod classic, and boasts a host of great features, including search, preview-play of files, duplicate remover, and more. Better still, it's a small stand-alone program that can run from a USB stick, so helping friends and co-workers recover their music is a snap.

Mac OS X—Senuti (stable release)

For non-touch Apple music players, Senuti is still your best bet. The uber-useful blue dots that indicate a song is already in your collection, a slick interface, full Leopard support—it's great, free software.

Linux

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If you simply need to grab the music files off an iPod,gtkpod is the tool of choice. It grabs play counts and playlists, ratings and cover art, and can replicate the iPod's entire database on your hard drive. The creators are working on support for the very latest models, but photo, video, nano, and older makes should all function just fine. It's also worth mentioning that the three most well-known Linux music organizers—Amarok, Rhythmbox, and Banshee—can move unprotected music on and off most iPods with relative ease.

Cross-platform

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If you're a dual-booter, virtualizer, or use your iPod at different home and work systems, you might want to check out two apps that run on Windows, Mac, or Linux, for better integration and matching features:

Songbird: This open-source library organizer from Mozilla, creators of the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client, is looking pretty slick these days. Its latest version supports every iPod (except the iPhone/touch, of course), can replicate your iTunes database, and copying files from iPod to disk is a drag-and-drop affair.
Floola: As Adam detailed in his self-sustaining iPod feature, Floola not only works as a nifty iTunes replacement, but can actually run right off your device's storage drive, making it great for spreading your music to friends, co-workers and the person putting you up on vacation.
YamiPod: As noted above, this slick iPod-copying app works on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and easily runs from a USB stick.

How do you copy music from your iPod to your computer? Got a simpler method of liberating songs from an iPod touch or iPhone? Let's hear about it in the comments.

JVC HD Everio GZ-HM860 Review

2012-03-03T22:21:00.001-08:00

The JVC HD Everio GZ-HM860 puts handheld HD video cams to shame, but still can’t match the photo quality of far cheaper still cams.

Looking for a high-quality HD camcorder? If you’re serious about home videos, JVC’s GZ-HM860 delivers smooth, high-res video right about on par with its lofty price tag, but falls short when doubling as a still cam.

Features and Design

Cameras by the ton take HD videos, even Full HD 1080p at 30fps. And yet, and yet…those that do it really well are few and far between. For simply taking high-def movies, nothing tops a camcorder. Why? In this Swiss Army Knife world of CE, that’s what they’re meant to do — not make calls, send email, browse the Web or play Angry Birds. Enter the new $749 JVC GZ-HM860 HD Memory camcorder designed to capture movies.

The HM860 is one sophisticated-looking device. Peer at it from the side and it looks like the back of smartphone (see photos). This piano-black casing is actually part of the 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD. Check out the other side, and rather than a virtual keyboard, you’ll find the rest of the camcorder, which is extremely compact considering it has a 10x optical zoom. It measures 2.2 x 2.5 x 4.7 (W x H x D, in inches) and weighs 12.5 ounces including the battery. Overall, the GZ-HM860 has style, is small and easy to carry.

Given smartphones are as important to many as breathing, JVC has paid a bit of homage to the trend by adding Bluetooth to the HM860. This lets you send movies and stills from the camcorder to your smartphone at reduced resolution so you can post them quickly to friends. Your phone can even act as a remote. Naturally all this good stuff depends on compatibility with your specific phone. Our Droid paired fairly easily.

The front is dominated by the 10x optical zoom with its auto lens cover. The JVC GT lens is part of one of our favorite camcorder trends—it starts off at fairly wide angle for great group shots and landscapes. Typical camcorders are around 42mm. In this case the f/1.2 glass has a range of 29.5mm to 295mm in video mode, 29.7mm to 297mm for 4:3 stills. This extra width really expands your creative options. Beyond artistic considerations, you’ll also find a small LED light, a flash and stereo speakers as you look head-on.

On the right side are the adjustable Velcro strap and two compartments. One is for DC-in while the other has A/V and component outs. As an aside: Why is any company putting A/V outs — even component — on camcorders with mini HDMI connections? Worse yet, manufacturers still include A/V cables in their kits. Who in 2011, especially someone buying a $749 Full HD camcorder, would use this? It’s a total waste of resources.

The top of this very clean-lined camcorder has a zoom toggle switch, a shutter button for snapping stills and an AF key. This one gives access to touch priority Auto Exposure/Auto Focus options such as face tracking or choosing a specific focus spot. The same key is used for 2D-3D conversion on the more expensive $949 HM960 (its LCD is also auto stereoscopic for viewing 3D without glasses).

Flip open the LCD on the left side of the HM860 and you’ll see a beautiful 3.5-inch touchscreen with no buttons at all on the bezel; you’ll make almost all of your adjustments tapping the screen. It’s rated a very fine 920K pixels and works well under almost all light conditions, including direct sunshine. Yet like any touchscreen, keep a lens cloth nearby to remove smudgy fingerprints.

On the body itself are just a few buttons: i.Auto/manual shooting, power/info which shows remaining battery life, movie/still and user. This last one lets you pick parameters to adjust and these options change depending on the mode you’re in. You also find a speaker, as well as USB and mini HDMI outs.

The back of the made-in-Malaysia HM860 has a slot for the supplied lithium-ion battery, which fits neatly in position rather than sticking out. The record button is here as well. On the bottom, you’ll find a metal tripod mount and a slot for SDHC/SDXC cards; it accepts up to 64GB SDXC media. You really don’t need any when starting out, since the camcorder has 16GB of internal memory. This is good for 80 minutes of UXP 1080/60p video or 2,200 top-resolution stills. Definitely use at least Class 6 cards if you need extra storage.

What’s in the box

The GZ-HM860 comes with an AC adaptor, remote as well as USB, A/V and mini HDMI cables. You also get a an Easy Start Guide and a Basic User Guide (40 pages in English). The supplied battery only lasts for 40 minutes per CIPA, which means less time in the real world as you zoom and take flash photos. A spare definitely makes sense, as this camcorder charges the battery in-camera, effectively putting you out of action. The kit also comes with a CD-ROM with Everio MediaBrowser 3BE for handling files and burning discs.

Performance and use

It seems like Backside Illuminated CMOS chips are everywhere these days, including Cracker Jack boxes. Not really, of course, but this sensor has made huge inroads in 2011 in digicams and camcorders. We recently reviewed the Nikon P500 featuring a 12-megapixel version. Here it’s 10.2-megapixels, so not only do you get high-resolution video but stills as well. But just as we said about the P500, imaging devices are a lot more than chips, so let’s have at it.

After charging the battery and popping in an 8GB Class 10 SDXC card, it was time to start shooting. One of the cool things about camcorders with built-in flash memory is the fact you can choose where you want your content saved. We had video go to flash, stills to the card. As usual, we started in i.Auto and then switched to manual in movie and still modes. Once done, we watched our efforts on a 50-inch plasma via HDMI, made prints and did some pixel peeping on the monitor.

Before getting into the results we’ll state the GZ-HM860 is simple to operate as a point-and-shoot — or as complex as most users of this level of camcorder would dare go. The camcorder starts up relatively quickly (about four seconds) and you’re good to go. Importantly, the zoom travels very smoothly throughout the entire focal range; we never engage the digital zoom as quality drops once you go beyond physical limitations (10x here). The 29.5mm opening is lots of fun, especially when shooting indoors, since you don’t have back through a wall in order to capture a family gathering. Your landscapes also take on a completely different feel with the enhanced wide angle.

Let’s deal with the touchscreen, since this is how you’ll interact with your camcorder most of the time — beyond zooming and pressing record. Although it’s not as elegant as an iPad, JVC should be commended for a job well done. Icons were quite understandable for the most part, and a quick tap or check of the Basic User Guide deciphered unusual ones such as the “S” in the top left of the screen. This stood for your Smile shutter options. Unlike an iPad, the HM860 primarily uses taps to move through menu pages rather than swipes. This worked well, but the next gen should definitely be more tablet-like — especially for playback. Even Microsoft is embracing swipes and touch controls with Windows 8, so JVC should also make the transition. This is more of a suggestion rather than a serious knock.

The videos deliver the quality you’d expect from a $749 camcorder with a 10-megapixel CMOS chip: They were excellent. We took the HM860 to the mountains to escape the heat wave, recording lots of trees, foliage, flowers, friends and so on. You’ll be quite happy with the results. The UXP clips on a 50-inch screen were very good with spot-on colors and little digital noise. We also shot footage indoors in low light and the results were more than acceptable. The lens has a wide f/1.2 aperture, one of the reasons for the solid results. We recorded a lit candle in a dark room, a tough test. Here, the built-in light kicked in and the results were poor; the LED made the candle and nearby flower arrangement look absolutely ghoulish. The moment we saw this, we disabled the light and the results were far better. In other words, turn off the light. Period. We have another problem this camcorder. For the price it does not have optical image stabilization (OIS). Although it took care of most of the shakes, OIS delivers smoother results.

As for the stills, sad to say we’ve yet to review a recent camcorder that takes top-tier photographs. Most of the fault lies with the fact the HM860 does not have an AF Assist lamp. Shooting in dim light without a strong contrasty edge with i.Auto is a disappointment. Yet with enough light, your results will be much better. For those who are comfortable with manual controls, opt for manual focus.You can perform loads of other adjustments in manual mode as well. Overall color was accurate, but there was a lot of digital noise even at lower ISOs. Were they all worthy of the delete pile? No, but don’t expect the performance of a quality point-and-shoot that has an AF Assist lamp.

Conclusion

As we mentioned way back in the beginning, if you’re serious about taking high-quality videos, check out the JVC HD Everio GZ-HM860. No question it’s expensive, but the results under the right conditions on a big, flat panel screen are quite good. Unfortunately the stills are not in the same league. Outside with plenty of sunshine you’ll be OK, but a $250 Canon ELPH takes far better photos. Given the hefty price and other issues detailed, it’s hard to give the HM860 an unreserved recommendation.

Highs:

Full HD video (1080/60p)
10.6-megapixel BSI CMOS chip
3.5-inch touch screen LCD
Takes 11-megapixel photos

Lows:

Expensive
No optical image stabilization
No AF Assist lamp
LED light is useless

JVC GC-PX10

2012-03-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

Review: The innovative JVC GC-PX10 aims to serve as a true hybrid between a still camera and camcorder, but poor low-light quality and a number of other factors make it hard to justify the $799 price tag.

JVC claims this isn’t a camcorder that takes stills,nor is it a video-shooting camera—it’s a hybrid that does both. Although it doesn’t have the sexiest name in the world, this odd-looking duck has the potential to be the ultimate two-in-one device we’ve been searching for. Let’s dig in and find out.

Features and design

This is a wild-looking one. It’s unlike any camcorder on the market, but looks very similar to a Sony NEX interchangeable lens camera with a zoom lens attached. In fact, some old-timers might flash back to the Sony F505, a digicam from all the way back in 2000 that had asimilar barrel-type zoom. To show far how things have come, that camera was a whole 3 megapixels and took MPEG videos; the new GC-PX10 shoots 12-megapixel stills and captures 1080/60p movies. These specs were only the stuff of dreams back in the day. The new NEX-5N ($699 with a 3x 18-55mm lens) has a 16-megapixel, DSLR-sized sensor and takes 1080/60p movies, so they’re kind of similar. JVC has a leg up with its built-in 10x zoom but on the down side has a much smaller imaging device, similar to those found in point-and-shoots. How this impacts quality, we’ll discover shortly.

The GC-PX10 has a really thin body, but it’s hardly diminutive, thanks to the barrel lens. Overall it measures 5.2 x 2.7 x 4.8 (W x H x L, in inches) and weighs 1.2 pounds with battery, so forget about slipping this one casually in your pocket. The all-black hybrid has a substantial grip with a textured surface, making it easy to hold. Other than markings on the lens— which are hard to avoid—there’s little on the front other than a few logos which are tastefully done.

The PX10 has an f/3.2-f/8.0 10x Konica Minolta zoom lens with focal ranges of 43.3-433mm in still mode and 37.4-374mm for shooting videos. Unlike many new camcorders with wider opening focal lengths (around 28-29mm), this is bit more traditional. We prefer wider specs for camcorders and digicams,but these will suffice for most shooters. Even though the barrel offers a great handhold, the hybrid has optical image stabilization to help eliminate blur. On the top of the lens are the hot shoe and two large mics for stereo sound. You’ll find the flash and an AF Assist lamp on the front.

On the left side of the barrel are many of your key controls including power, flash adjustment, a mode dial, direct access to exposure and focus, a “set” button and a control wheel to make adjustments. The mode dial has options very similar to higher-end cameras. There’s i.Auto (a.k.a. Smart Auto, Intelligent Auto) where the PX10 recognizes the subject in front of it and adjusts accordingly. JVC uses 14 options and it works well, although newer Canons pick from 32. There’s also Program, Aperture-/Shutter-Priority and Manual (PASM), a custom User option, Scene (13 choices) as well as Touch Priority AE/AF. With this one, you can select a touchscreen option such as Face Tracking, Color Tracking and Area Select. A box appears around the subject you tap and follows it through the frame.

Below this row of controls is a compartment for various inputs and outputs including a mic, headphones/AV, mini HDMI and a DC connector for the supplied charger. On the bottom of the left side of the lens is an SD card clot; it accepts everything up to SDXC and Eye-Fi media. The GC-PX10 comes with 32GB of built-in flash memory so you really don’t need a card other than for convenience; say if you use an outboard reader. The built-in memory holds up to two hours of 1080/60p UHR video or 5,700 still images at maximum resolution, so that should tide you over for a bit.

The top of the main body has just three buttons: shutter, burst mode and high-speed recording. Burst is pretty robust, grabbing full resolution images at 30 frames per second for up to 100 shots in still mode. High-speed recording is actually slow motion, 640 x 360 shots at 300 frames per second.

The rear is dominated by an adjustable 3-inch touchscreen LCD rated 230K pixels. This is an OK spec but for $799, it should’ve been higher (461K or more). The screen doesn’t twist, just moves up and down, making it good for overhead or waist-high shooting. Next to the screen are the zoom toggle, playback, still-video toggle and menu buttons. A camcorder-like record button is on the far right edge, rather than the red-dot key found on many digicams. The bottom of the made-in-Malaysia GC-PX10 has a metal tripod mount and battery-release button. The supplied battery is decent, rated 270 images, or one hour of continuous video recording, per CIPA.

You get the GC-PX10, strap, battery, AC adaptor, USB and A/V cables, core filter for the USB cable, 16-page basic user guide as well as a CD-ROM with the full 76-page owner’s manual. The disk also has Loiloscope FX software for handling files.

Performance and use

The JVC GC-PX10 features a 12-megapixel backside illuminated CMOS sensor, the size and type found in many point-and-shoot cameras. It measures 1/2.3 inches, so it’s much smaller than the chips used in DSLRs or Micro Four Thirds editions. As anyone who has read a digital camera review in the past few years knows, smaller chips are invitations to speckles, color shifts and digital noise in low light and higher ISOs (6,400 is the maximum here). We kept an open mind as we put the new hybrid through its paces over the course of several weeks. The proof—as always—is in the prints, pixel peeping on a monitor and checking out videos on a 50-inch plasma via HDMI, as well as an HP laptop.

After charging the unit, we set image and video resolution to the max: 4000×3000 pixels stills, and 1920×1080/60p for videos. The PX10 shoots only JPEGs, not RAW files like the best cameras. Its AVCHD 1.0 movies, however, feature a compression rate of 36 Mbps, the best currently available for consumer camcorders. Even newer 1080/60p AVCHD 2.0 format clips captured by the latest NEX models are “only” 28 Mbps. It would’ve been nice if JVC used version 2.0, since that’s the standard compatible with the newest video-editing software for burning high-quality progressive video onto Blu-ray discs. Unfortunately, the unit cannot be upgraded to 2.0.

Since practically everything we tested from JVC prior to this hybrid was a camcorder, we started off shooting video, and then proceeded to test its still capabilities. The PX10 works just fine as a camcorder; we primarily shot in i.Auto. The zoom moves smoothly, and 10x was more than sufficient (we always turn off the digital zoom boost). The stereo sound is quite good, adding a nice dimension to the clips. We engaged wind noise reduction and it did an excellent job keeping the roar of the Jersey shore breezes under control. Video quality was probably the best we’ve seen, with very accurate colors and very few compression artifacts. The scenes of the pounding surf were top notch, and the PX10 focused and reacted quickly.

Now, many of clips were shot on the beach with the sun blazing away,as well as in the shade. A tougher test was recording indoors, and it was here the hybrid’s limitations showed up. Although the GC-PX10 has nine-point auto focus and an AF Assist lamp, it had difficulty getting sharp focus, particularly in low-contrast scenes. We know this is tough for most cameras and camcorders, but we have to report what we see. The footage was also noisy, which is expected from a small sensor in dim light. Although this is real negative, we must reiterate the video quality of the PX10 with enough light is among the best we’ve ever taken.

Camcorders have taken still photos for quite awhile, yet it was the rare instance quality was any good. Probably the best we ever tested was the Canon Vixia HF S20 from a couple of years ago; it cost $1,099 and captured 8-megapixel stills. We’re quite happy to report the GC-PX10 does an even better job—with a caveat. When there’s plenty of sunshine, the hybrid really shines. Image quality is spot on with vibrant, yet realistic colors. You’ll be quite pleased with them. Alas, when you go indoors, things take a turn for the worse. The PX10 had issues dealing with white balance, and in many instances color was just off. This was a big disappointment. Another bummer was our standard test for ISO. As we feared, the small 12-megapixel CMOS sensor had issues with digital noise. Our test subject was solid up until ISO 400, then colors began to shift and speckles were a real issue. Clearly this hybrid needs a lot of light, whether it’s the sun or the flash.

We did a lot of still shooting in i.Auto, but quickly spun the dial to access manual modes. Even though we’re experienced camera reviewers, we had some difficulty with the menu system, as well as adjusting manual focus using the control dial. This is completely different than a DSLR, where you simply turn the lens ring. Also the readout for aperture and exposure compensation was really small, making it hard to see. JVC also uses the word Gain in the menu system for ISO; which should just be changed. Over the course of time, we got more comfortable with the system, but it’s definitely not as straightforward as a high-end camera.

On a much more positive note, the GC-PX10 has an amazing burst mode. You can take full resolution images at 30 fps for up to 100 shots. We took several bursts of waves crashing on the rocks and the resulting files were outstanding. The only drawback is the fact the hybrid stops for at least several seconds as it saves images to the flash memory (the more you shoot, the longer it takes). We found the results well worth the wait.

During the review period, we had few issues with the quality of the LCD screen; even direct sunlight wasn’t a problem. The touchscreen also reacted well, letting you tap and swipe your way files in playback. It’s hardly the Apple iOS but it works reasonably well. All that said, the screen’s 230K resolution really doesn’t do your work justice.

Art filters are part of a new wave hitting cameras, but JVC’s hybrid doesn’t have any—even though many other models with 12-megapixel CMOS sensors do. The company should definitely jump onboard this trend. We know we originally thought they were hokey, but they’ve grown on us.

Conclusion

JVC has really broken some new ground with the GC-PX10 hybrid. The combination camcorder-camera takes beautiful videos and stills, but it’s hampered in low light by a small sensor. We’d love to see JVC put an APS-C sized imaging device in the next generation, even if body has to get a little thicker. The JVC GC-PX10 has some wonderful things going for it… and some serious drawbacks. As such, we can’t give it our wholehearted endorsement. Yet for the adventurous shutterbug or videomaker, this might just do the trick.

Highs:

Excellent Video
Very good photos (both need lots of light)
Versatile 10x zoom lens

Lows:

Difficulty focusing in low light
Noisy in low light as well
Bulky, somewhat awkward
Not AVCHD 2.0

Diablo III: No more delays, despite Blizzard layoffs

2012-03-03T22:18:00.000-08:00

The wait is nearly over. Diablo III game director Jay Wilson, and Blizzard President Michael Morhaime, have both confirmed that the long-awaited title is coming soon.

The highly anticipated Diablo III has been gut-wrenchingly delayed many times before. And after the massive 600-employee layoff at Blizzard, we’ve been wondering if we would ever see Diablo III’s release in our lifetime. Luckily, the waiting game is nearly over.

Thankfully we'll be playing D3 during our lifetime.

Following the troubling layoff announcement, Blizzard President and co-founder Michael Morhaime took to the Battle.net forums to make it clear that the cuts would have no effect on the release of projects including World of Warcraft, Blizzard DOTA, Diablo III, Starcraft II, and other unannounced projects. As Morhaime was quick to point out, 90 percent of the layoffs were non-developer roles.

“We determined that while some areas of our business had been operating at the right levels and could bnefit from further growth, other areas had become overstaffed,” wrote Morhaim “I also want to emphasize that we remain committed to shipping multiple games this year, and that our development teams in particular remain largely unaffected by [Feb. 29’s] announcement.”

To back this up, Jay Wilson, Diablo III’s game director, encouragingly responded to a tweet from a fan just yesterday.

The Diablo III fan, Chris Wright, asked, “On a scale of 1 to 10, (1=not even close, 10=immenent,) how close are we to that all important #D3 announcement? :)”

Wilson merely responded, “9”, but that was all that was needed to be said.

Leaked Assassin’s Creed 3 images hint at war, American Revolution style

2012-03-03T22:15:00.000-08:00

A handful of new images for Assassin’s Creed 3 have hit the internet.

When it rains it pours. Such is apparently the case for information on Assassin’s Creed 3, which has gone from no info to a flood of info faster than a Ferrari can go 0 to 60. Yesterday the glimpse at the game came to us by way of the officially unveiled cover art. Shortly after Game Informer unleashed several images that will accompany its upcoming feature article on the game.

All of that gave us a few hints on the story. Based on that we made a few educated guesses on what to expect, which you can read.

Then earlier today, a few more images hit the internet courtesy of the website All Games Beta.

Now, we cannot confirm the total validity of these images. Someone at home may have been insanely bored and decided to fake the graphics, but they not only look genuine, they fit with what we already know, and what we suspect. So check out the gallery, then head back to our post from yesterday and let us know your theory on what it all means.

JBL OnBeat Xtreme Review

2012-03-03T20:31:00.000-08:00

Despite it's odd design, JBL's OnBeat Xtreme manages to be one of the best all-around iPod speaker docks -- offering up quality sound and an easy to use interface.

We’ve always had a healthy respect for JBL’s professional audio products. It has consistently built rugged, high-performance PA speakers and monitors for over 60 years and remains a favored brand of many a musician and sound engineer to this day. Its consumer audio division, on the other hand, has had its share of ups and downs. We recall a period in the late 80’s/early 90’s when JBL, like Infinity and KLH, fell out of favor with the North American audio enthusiast community, perhaps in reaction to a sudden influx of, shall we say, rather mediocre (Northridge) speaker products. Since then, it seems as if JBL’s home audio products haven’t been able to recoup the prestige they once had. But when we ran into JBL and its $60,000/pair Project Everest DD6600 speaker at CES 2007, it was glaringly obvious that JBL was on the rebound.

Over the past five years JBL has released several high-end speaker models, which have wowed us every time we’ve had the opportunity to hear them, but the company isn’t pouring its entire engineering prowess strictly toward esoteric floor-standing speakers with stratospheric price tags. It is working to make relevant, accessible products it hopes will resonate with the public, and backing them with some heavy-hitting marketing, which features the legendary Paul McCartney as front-man, no less. Case in point: The OnBeat Extreme speaker dock.

We’ve been wondering if JBL’s latest home audio products could deliver the goods, so we accepted the opportunity to evaluate the OnBeat Xtreme with no reservation. Read on to find out how this new speaker dock compares to the likes of B&W’s Zeppelin Air and Klipsch’s G-17 Air.

Out of the Box

The OnBeat Xtreme’s “weave” shape makes it an attention grabber, for sure. In fact, without an iPod or iPad mounted, you might not immediately recognize it as a speaker. We think someone with some eccentric design chops really got creative while developing this thing’s shape. Its geometry is strange, yet oddly appealing to your author (the rest of our crew thought it was…challenging to look at). To be sure, it’s one of those love-it-or-hate-it designs. At one point we actually heard someone comment that “it looks like it’s hugging itself”. Sure…that works!

Aside from its unique shape, the OnBeat Xtreme has other appealing aesthetic features including a wrap-around grill, chrome accents (yeah, they’re plastic) and an arching dock support which doubles well as a handle. Even the metal buttons on the right hand side of the dock have a solid feel to them.

As we started pulling accessories from the box, we noticed there was no bulky power brick to deal with (yay…those things are a pain in neck!). With this much beefier model, the power supply is built in, so only the provided detachable AC cord is needed. Also provided in the box was a remote control, USB cable, docking clips for iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad and a product manual. Though this unit offers composite video output and a ⅛-inch auxiliary input, cables for these connections are not included.

The unit weighs 9 respectable pounds and measures approximately 9 x 17.5 x 9.5 (H x W x D, in inches).

Features and Design

One of the OnBeat Xtreme’s key benefits over competing speaker docks is its floating docking connector and the clips that come with it. The iPhone and iPad clips snap into place on the reclined, rubber-padded device backing in order to hold either device securely in place. That’s not all, though. The docking connector can be rotated 90 degrees to hold devices in landscape mode, which we found especially useful when watching videos or movies.

The OnBeat Xtreme uses Bluetooth for wireless audio streaming. We find it interesting that JBL opted for Bluetooth wireless technology rather than Apple’s AirPlay for its top-of-the-line speaker dock. From our experience, Airplay usually sounds better than Bluetooth and, from a setup and use standpoint, AirPlay is almost always easier to deal with. As we’ll soon discuss, however, JBL’s choice to use Bluetooth turned out to be a really smart move.

Initially, we thought the USB input would allow playback of audio from a laptop or desktop computer. It turns out that is not the case. The USB input simply allows users to synch their iPod or iPhone with iTunes on the connected computer (which is convenient). Unfortunately, the cable is only 4 feet long (not as convenient). At any rate, the provided ⅛-inch auxiliary input makes it compliant with just about any device with an analog audio output, so the lack of USB audio input isn’t such a big deal.

The nifty features keep on coming. A composite video connection comes in handy for feeding video from an iDevice up on a larger screen. The included rubberized remote control works on RF, so you don’t have to see the dock to control it, and the button layout is intuitive, to boot.

The dock features a built in microphone allowing users to take a phone call while playing music. The catch is the iPhone must be paired with the dock in Bluetooth mode. The speakerphone feature doesn’t work if the iPhone is simply docked, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us.

There are five EQ settings built into this speaker dock. We only liked the “music” setting. All of the others were pretty terrible. Also, unless you download and use JBL’s OnBeat app, you don’t have a visual confirmation as to which EQ you’re listening to, leaving it to guesswork. Honestly, we could have done without the EQ thing altogether.

Finally, for the energy-conscious, there’s an auto-off feature which kills the power when not in use. Power consumption in standby mode is listed as 0.5 watts.

Want some tech specs? Here ya go: The OnBeat Xtreme is armed with two woofers and two tweeters. The size of the drivers isn’t disclosed at JBL’s website but we’d guess the woofers come in at around 3.5 inches and the tweeters at 1 inch. For enhanced bass, a rather large port is cleverly hidden on the back side of the dock behind its wrap-around grill. The output power rating for this unit is listed as 30 watts x 4, leading us to believe that the total system power would be around 120 watts.

Mega jump cheat - cant die

2012-03-01T01:18:00.000-08:00

This game is one of the games i have played the most. The thing is that the app closes in the middle of the game, I wish apple would fix that. Last time i was on level 29 and when it was about to goo to the next level it closed. We as clients that pay a lot of money to get a nice device and still got mayor bugs in some apps. Thats not fair. Anyway the app is great, just they really need to think about their customers.

'Zombie Highway' Review - Like Zombieland, Gives The Zombie Thing a Little Extra Mileage

2012-03-01T00:28:00.000-08:00

The human intellect is a remarkable beast. Just when we think that all possible Zombie concepts have been duly wrung out from our collective minds, developersrenderPaz go and throw us a curve-ball. Picture this: you're driving down the post-apocalyptic interstate, weaving through abandoned vehicles strewn everywhere-- when you see a hitch-hiker. Naturally, this being post-apocalyptic America, the rule of thumb (think Zombieland) is to just keep on driving. In Zombie Highway [99¢] you aren't afforded that luxury.

The object in Zombie Highway is to just keep on driving-- pedal to the metal, you have only one speed-- faster. That's not to say you're get very far, as zombies don't generally take kindly to your brains being cocooned inside an SUV's hard exterior. And unlike the variety in Zombieland, these zombies are willing to work to get them.

Zombies in Zombie Highway will pounce on your car's side rails as you speed past them, doing all they can to bring the car to a stop-- generally by using their superhuman undead strength to wrestle it till it topples over. There are 7 types of zombies all up, from the skinny fledgling variety, to the stronger, health-regenerating, weightier monsters that do a world of hurt to your center of balance. As zombies stack up on one side, this is only compounded, with your only recourse being to get the buggers off as quickly as possible.

Fortunately, your own driving prowess and an arms dealer friend in the back provide all the tools you need to get through the zombie horde...at least for a couple of miles. Zombies can be exited from the vehicle by tilting your device to sideswipe them onto one of the many ruined cars littered across the highway. Each zombie has a health bar, and whittling that to zero will ensure they won't be sticking around. To help, your aforementioned friend riding shotgun (ho ho!) has a formidable arsenal that is gradually unlocked as you accumulate collective mileage across all your games. Weapons are fired by touching the corners of the screen-- if a zombie is on the right near the front of your car, tapping the top right area will fire at it.

It's a straightforward formula that creates a fun and remarkably gratifying zombie slaying experience. It's also quite challenging, as zombies are super aggressive, and your car's physics are fantastic. For instance, don't expect to steer out of a lean by driving the other way-- it'll only tip it further. Instead, a bit of load balancing and fast firing fingertips are required to keep the rubber on the road.

Our only gripes with the game are that for all the great 3D models and presentation there is a notable lack of any real sound effects. Your car is effectively muted until it's being weighed down, and then the creaks it makes are whisper quiet. Not hearing the engine at all detracts from the experience dramatically. In fact, the only sound you'll really hear from the car are the squeaks of your tires as you slide around the road. There is absolutely no music to be found either, which would have done a world of good to further build atmosphere and character.

We're also not quite sure why the developers didn't stick with Openfeint or a similar platform for its social functions, as their current Twitter implementation is rudimentary at best. And though the Facebook option results in a neat competition feature where you can track your friends, those who keep their gaming separate from Facebook are left on the curb. Thankfully neither of these platforms are required to access high scores.

25 billion App Store downloads comes closer, Apple offers $10,000 prize

2012-02-29T20:59:00.000-08:00

Apple's App Store is fast approaching its 25 billionth download, no mean feat for something which only started out in 2008. To celebrate, the company is offering a $10,000 gift card for its various online stores.

Since launching on iOS devices in 2008, the App Store has become a huge success, enabling users to spend countless hours browsing its virtual shelves for games, books, news apps, health and fitness ideas, navigational aids, lifestyle suggestions….the list goes on. Countless software companies have sprung up along the way, creating a whole new industry and enabling anyone with an original idea to grab a piece of the app pie.

Less than four years down the road, Apple’s App Store is about to see its 25 billionth download. To celebrate the milestone, the Cupertino-based company is offering a $10,000 gift card redeemable in the iTunes Store, App Store and iBook Store.

On a countdown page, Apple says, “Download the 25 billionth app and you could win a US$10,000 App Store Gift Card.” All well and good, but look a little closer and you discover that actually anyone can enter, downloader or not.

That’s right, to have a chance of picking up the gift card, you don’t actually have to buy or download an app, but you will have to hand over some personal information to Apple, including your name, address, birth date, phone number and email address. A maximum of 25 entries per person per day is allowed.

“The prize will be awarded for the entry (either through an app download or through the non-purchase online entry) sent immediately following the download of the 24,999,999,999th app,” the rules explain.

“The potential winner will be determined by the order of the entries received.“ In other words, if you do enter using the online form, you’ll need to do it around the time the app counter hits 25 billion, which is expected to happen in the next couple of days. Oh, and the counter is “for illustrative purposes only” so you needn’t sit staring at it for the next three days waiting for it to reach the magic number.

A UK woman bagged a $10,000 App Store gift card in January last year after downloading the 10 billionth app, which was, for the curious among you, the free Paper Glider game.

In the period between January 2010 and January 2011, Apple said seven billion apps had been downloaded. Since then, another 15 billion apps have found their way onto iOS devices. At this rate, we can expect the 50 billionth download well before year end.

Blizzard announces 600 layoffs, game development staff spared

2012-02-29T20:53:00.000-08:00

Blizzard, developer of WoW, Starcraft and Diablo has announced that it has cut 600 global jobs, though its game development staff remains largely untouched

Video game developer Blizzard Entertainment, Inc announced a sizable cut in its global workforce on Wednesday. 600 employees were stripped of their positions; nearly a tenth of Activision’s 2011 reported 7,300 employees.

Blizzard is the development studio best known for its World of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diabloseries. In a statement, the company said that 90 percent of the lay offs would come from departments not related to game development. Blizzard stressed that World of Warcraft’s development team would not be touched.

“Over the last several years, we’ve grown our organization tremendously and made large investments in our infrastructure in order to better serve our global community. However as Blizzard and the industry have evolved we’ve also had to make some difficult decisions in order to address the changing needs of our company,”said Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime. The CEO also said that laid off employees would be entitled to a severance package and benefits

Though there weren’t any specifics on which jobs were affected, The Verge reports that its sources say customer service took the biggest hit thanks to increased automation. The Blizzard statement points out that the company “remains committed to mainlining its high standards of quality for customer service delivery.” In a December 2007 piece on an Activision deal with Vivendi games,The Telegraph quotes Blizzard as having more than 2,000 people doing customer relations globally. Interestingly, while 600 employees have been let go, the development studio is actively recruiting qualified developers.

Morhaime took the Battle.net forums to elaborate on the layoffs saying: “In order to keep making epic game content while serving players effectively, we have to be smart about how we manage our resources. This means we sometimes have to make difficult decisions about how to best maintain the health of the company. We’re in the process of making some of those hard decisions now.”

Morhaime stressed that, while overstaffed departments needed to be scaled down in order to further the company’s growth, development teams were largely unscathed and Blizzard remained committed to shipping multiple games in 2012. The company will soon be beta testing for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Blizzard DOTA and Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, and has other “unannounced projects” up its sleeves. Morhaime also commented on the long-awaited Diablo III, saying that there would release date news revealed in the coming weeks for the game.

With phrases such as “changing needs” and “health of the company,” the decline of World of Warcraft could possibly be the reason for the cuts. The seven years old MMORPG’s subscriber-base dropped 12 million players in 2010 to 10.3 million subscribers in November 2011. Free-to-play games such as League of Legends, as well as EA’s popular Star Wars: The Old Republic have been to blame by analysts for Blizzard’s ailing franchise. While Blizzard is cutting back, the company is stressing that it isn’t dying and has much planned for the future. As far as the “unannounced projects” Morhaime mentions, Develop’s sources have said that Blizzard will expanding in to the free-to-play realm.

Scream 4 gameplay for iphone 4

2012-02-29T20:18:00.002-08:00

The Weinstein Company owns a lot of lucrative properties. Like many other companies who've come before them, they realized that these franchises could be developed into other forms of entertainment. Previously, though, the investment to get into doing so was considerable, often resulting in awful, expensive games that suckers ended up buying and taking home to their consoles and then raging about as they realized they'd been had.

Weinstein hopes to avoid this trend by focusing on the wireless market. The goal? Make small, downloadable games that can back up their properties, and can be made by established developers who know how to develop quality titles. Next week, coinciding with the April 14th release of the Scream 4 film, iPhone and iPad owners will be able to get in some kills themselves with Scream 4 for iOS.

It's a great idea, and a potentially lucrative promotional tool for the film, but I'm not sure their first attempt is all that fun. The crux of Scream 4 iOS is this: you play as the infamous killer, guiding them from above through a small environment where you try and kill all the people in the map without being stopped. To kill people, you simply drag or tap on them, watching as the killer runs up to them. Once he's in proximity, a knife appears on screen and you have to drag it in the indicated direction across the screen.

It works, and it's easy to pick up and play, but the levels I played were kind of repetitive (despite being only a few minutes long). Additional points are awarded based on how you kill the victims -- killing the "jock" and the "cheerleader" one after the other is a bonus, for instance -- but the kills were all the same. You never hang someone up for someone else to find, catch someone in a garage door, or do any of the other more gruesome and recognizable kills from the films. You simply walk up, slash, then they fall down dead and you hide from a cop. It feels like a rush job to coincide with the film's release, rather than a thoughtful game that takes advantage of the themes and imagery that made the films so famous. It might not be as expensive as the licensed games we've all been suckered into buying before, but Scream 4 isn't that much of a departure from what you'd expect so far.

Scream has always been about spoofing other horror movies, or taking advantage of the themes they've developed, but the only place where Scream 4 iOS really does this is in the achievements. Almost every achievement is named after a video game, with such zingers as "Dead Spaces." I appreciate the effort, but it's another weird choice. I mean, how many iOS owners are going to get the video game puns? Are the iOS users all gamers, or are they more interested in picking this up because they love the films? I just can't figure out exactly who the intended audience of the game is supposed to be at this point.

Scream 4 iOS releases next week with four levels and more "on the way." If it starts at the 99 cent price that they think it will it might be worth checking out, but for now I'm just not sold. If nothing else, though, I'm excited to see how The Weinstein Company uses the mobile marketplace to its advantage. Who says the games have to be limited to the movies that are coming out in the future? This is the company that owns properties like Rambo, The Fighter, and Inglorious Basterds, after all. .

Video Gameplay:

GunnerCase for iPhone 4/4S uses collapsing air cells to protect your device

2012-02-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

This new GunnerCase from baseonelabs uses air cell pockets to give superior protection in a slim form. It also repels the lint from your pockets.

We weren’t quite sure what to think when we heard that there was a new iPhone case that was inspired by guns. The two don’t seem all that related to us unless it’s a hunting-themed printed case that you’re looking for. We’ve seen those before, but they aren’t really our cup of tea. Luckily, once we did a little investigating we realized that the case simply integrated a smart piece of technology that is already present in shotguns. Just like the recoil pad on most shotguns, theGunnerCase ($40) from baseonelabs uses internal air cell pockets, which collapse on impact to provide as much protection as a much bulkier protective case.

We like the simple design of the case and at 13.9 mm thick it’s definitely one of the slimmer serious protective cases out there. The case features precision-cut buttons for volume and power, while the camera and silencer switch are left untouched. The GunnerCase is made from a special TPU material, which supposedly feels like a rigid case but will absorb impacts and protect like a softer case. Even better, the material is also designed to repel all of that lint that is in your pockets and manages to get stuck to other cases. Now that’s something we can get behind. On top of that, the case comes with a screen protector kit, a micro cleaning cloth, and a lifetime warranty against anything, no questions asked. The case is currently available for pre-order and will ship in late march.

The Shirt Shuttle keeps dress shirts neat while traveling

2012-02-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

With the Shirt Shuttle you'll never open up your suitcase to a pile of wrinkled mess again. The rest of your suitcase may look that way, but whatever you put in the clever Shirt Shuttle will stay pressed and neat for wherever your next business meeting is located.

One of the worst things about traveling for some people, probably more for business-types than post-college backpackers, is that it’s nearly impossible to keep clothes from wrinkling up into a messy ball in your suitcase. What do you wear when you arrive? Or if your hotel doesn’t have an iron for you to use? As you might expect, someone has come up with a solution to this problem that we think is pretty great. If you’re a business traveler, having a clean button-down ready at all times means that you’ll always look professional, put together, and unphased by any situation. The Shirt Shuttle (about $50) solves that problem by creating a small little capsule for your clean and pressed shirt to travel in.

Think of it as a semi-rigid laptop case, except it’s for your shirt. The case zips open and inside there is just enough room for a perfectly folded button-down that you’ve folded around the including folding board. That folding board has curved edges to make sure that no area of your shirt will end up with creases. Small pads keep the shirt in place while you travel and there is even a special collar pad to keep your shirt’s collar from being crushed in transit. The integrated folding board has a built-in hanger and the semi-rigid case has a recessed carrying handle and will protect your garment from the elements, like rain, and prevent it from getting crushed in a suitcase.

Originally we thought that this would really only be handy for the business traveler, but the Shirt Shuttle site reminded us that it might be helpful if you bike into work on a regular basis or have meetings after you’ve already hit the gym. Keep one of these in your bike or gym bag, or in a drawer at your office, and you’ll always look sharp even if you’re not traveling.

What is this crazy, waterless washing machine concept?

2012-02-27T08:13:00.000-08:00

The Orbit is a concept washing machine that uses no water and cleans clothes with dry ice in a matter of minutes. Is it too good to be true?

How many times have you thrown your clothes in the washing machine, only to find that one red shirt accidentally got in the mix of your pristine, white underwear and turned everything pink? How many of you don’t even own washing machines and have to trek outside to spend several hours at the laundromat every week only to have the dryers steal your socks? Do you despise the chore of washing clothes in the first place? If you nodded your head in agreement to any of the aforementioned situations, you must be as thrilled as we are about this concept portable washing machine that uses dry ice to clean clothes in only a few minutes.

Meet the Orbit, created by industrial designer Elie Ahovi to help revolutionize the tedious task and make washing machines greener for the environment. The Orbit cuts down on water usage by allowing dry ice to evaporate into gas and perform a pressurized blast to lift the dirt off your clothes. The chemical reaction between carbon dioxide in dry ice and grease in your clothes breaks down the particles of dirt, spinning them into oblivion. After the dry ice has scrubbed your laundry clean in a matter of minutes, the gas is sucked back up and returns to a solid state for future washes. The grime removed from your clothes is filtered through a tube which you will have to manually clean and maintain.

The Orbit is also powered by a battery-filled ring containing a metal laundry basket at the center of the the spherical machine. The batteries inside the ring create a magnetic field which also levitates the basket as the machine’s electrical resistivity drops. Now, instead of watching laundry spin inside traditional washing machines, the Orbit would also make our clothes float.

While the idea is amazing, is it too wild to become reality? With dry ice blasting an established method of cleaning, albeit for industrial machines, applying the process to clothes may very well be possible if the carbon dioxide gas does not ruin the variety of sensitive fabrics. The Orbit also addresses the water crisis issue, but does not seem to clarify how much energy it will take to keep this battery-powered machine running especially if it’s going to get cold enough to turn gas back into dry ice numerous amounts of time. And even though the levitation thing is cool, will the magnetic field be strong enough to keep the metal basket floating inside the ring? What if kids or pets knock the machine over — will that throw the Orbit completely out of whack?

We know this is just a concept, meaning it will either be out in the next decades after further development, or never at all. But seeing a practical future sketched before our eyes gives a little hope that one day, life will get to that level of convenience and innovation.

Logitech announces the Cube presentation mouse

2012-02-27T08:07:00.000-08:00

While Logitech offers plenty of mice and trackballs for everyone from the typical computer user to the hardcore gamer, the company is launching a new type of mouse with the business user in mind.

With an eye-catching rectangular, boxy design, Logitech has released details prior to CES regarding a new type of mouse that’s designed for anyone giving a presentation. Completely cordless, the device functions as a typical mouse when resting on a hard surface like a desk or conference room table using a 1000dpi laser sensor on the bottom of the Cube. When the mouse is lifted off the surface, the Cube automatically detects the change and launches into ”Presenter mode.” Each click of the mouse will advance slides being presented in a program like Microsoft’s PowerPoint. The top of the Logitech Cube also serves as a surface to scroll up and down a Web page by using Logitech’s Flow Scroll software. The user simply slides a finger up and down the mouse to accomplish the function.

Owners of the Logtiech Cube don’t have to worry about finding batteries for the device as it comes with a lithium-polymer battery. The battery is charged via a USB connection and the device will let the user when the battery power is low with an illuminated display. The Logitech Cube connects to a computer via a wireless USB receiver operating at 2.4-GHz and offers a sliding power switch to turn off the mouse after completing a presentation. The Cube comes with the Logitech Unifying receiver, a USB charging cable and a pouch to store the device when traveling. The mouse is currently priced at $69.99 and will be available later this month.

While this is the first new device that Logitech has announced for CES 2012, the company will also be showing off other recently released products including the Logitech Wireless Boombox for iPad, Logitech HD Webcam C615 and the Logitech Wireless Solar Keyboard K750. The battery-powered boombox allows iPad owners to stream music from the tablet to the boombox without requiring a cable connection.

Fitbit announces the Aria Wi-Fi scale

2012-02-27T08:02:00.001-08:00

While the Jawbone Up continues to remain unavailable to consumers due to production issues, the company behind the Fitbit Ultra is showing off a new gadget to help keep track of your weight loss goals.

Announced at CES this week and shown to the press at Digital Experience, Fitbit plans on releasing a Wi-Fi enabled scale called the Aria. The Fitbit Aria is capable of automatically recognizing eight different users in a household, but there’s also an interface for manually choosing a user. The scale measures weight and body fat percentage as well as calculating the user’s body mass index (BMI). It keeps track of users by recalling the last weigh-in, so daily use is recommended for accurate tracking. In order to track body fat percentage, the user is required to stand on the scale without wearing shoes as the scale measures body impedance by sending mild electric pulses through the feet. There are no controls on the front of the scale, just a sleek digital readout that displays the user’s information.

Similar to Wi-Fi scales built by Withings, the Fitbit Aria automatically searches for Wi-Fi networks in the area and the user chooses the correct network through computer software. The scale uses 4 AA batteries which Fitbit representatives believe will last up to six months. Data collected by the Fitbit Aria is sent into the mobile application that’s shared by the Fitbit Ultra and all user information is kept private by default. Users can also choose to share their weight and body fat percentage with others for further encouragement. According to research mentioned by Fitbit representatives, people who weigh themselves once a day are more likely to stick to weight loss goals.

This data can also tie into an online profile on Fitbit.com and users can earn badges from the gaming elements of the Fitbit user profile. While the device is safe for pregnant women and children over 20 pounds, anyone with a pacemaker should not use the scale. The Fitbit Aria scale will be available during April 2012 for $129.99 and can be purchased in either black or white.

Nike reaches amputee athletes with commercial soles for prosthetic limbs

2012-02-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

Nike has teamed up with World Record Holder and amputee triathlete Sarah Reinertsen and orthopedics firm Össur to create a modern running sole for athletes with prosthetic limbs.

Nike Innovation has developed a new prosthetic sole, designed to help amputee athletes truly hit the ground running. The project, known as the Nike Sole, is a partnership between Össur, an advanced orthopedics design company, and amputee triathlete Sarah Reinertsen. The product is a running sole that interlocks and accommodates the unique Össur blade, allowing runners to experience a true running foot without the hassle of cutting their own soles.

The Nike Sole has all the elements of a normal running shoe, stripped down to the key component amputees need most. Utilizing recycled materials, carbon fiber and a “flex-run” blade, the lightweight sole features a three-part layered system that includes an outsole, midsole and a thermal plastic urethane called Aeroply. These layers provide traction, comfort and support, adding the feeling of a real shoe onto the prosthetic leg to improve track performances. The sole attachment also contains nine nylon tabs and a rubber leash that hooks and grips on to the running blade, giving users the ability to run firmly on the ground but also easily slide the sole on and off their blades. Reinertsen has tested its first prototype made from a Nike Free 5.0 Trail outsole, and more advanced models are expected to come out based on her professional feedback.

This minimalistic design aims to be both stylish and more functional for amputee athletes. Previously, runners resorted to buying a regular pair of sneakers and mangled them entirely by slicing the bottom soles off then manually attaching it to the blade with glue, velcro or duct tape. Nike hopes that by focusing on the user than the product, the design will serve the small but new market whose needs were never addressed to date.

“The Sarah Sole project is a special one for Nike,” said Tobie Hatfield, Nike Innovation Director. “The Nike Sole is a shining example of our passion and commitment to serve athletes and provide them the solutions they need to achieve their goals – we’re always listening to the voice of every athlete.”

Reinertsen, who has worked with Nike and Össur on the project since 2006, was born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, battling a bone-growth disorder which resulted in her becoming an above-the-knee amputee by the age of seven. Since the amputation, Reinertsen has set world records in her division, ran multiple marathons and was the youngest member of the 1992 U.S. Paralympic Team to compete in Barcelona.

The Nike Sole is currently available through prosthetists’ offices globally, presumably at those where the Össur prosthetic blades are also offered.

Sigma slashes new SD1 DSLR price by $6,700

2012-02-27T07:54:00.001-08:00

The SD1 is getting a new name and price after Sigma Corporation announced a rebranding of its SD and DP series camera, with the SD1 retail price cut down by at least $6,700.

Sigma Corporation announced today a rebranding of its flagship DSLR camera, renaming the SD1 as the Sigma SD1 Merrill. The minimum suggested retail price will also drop more than 66 percent, knocking the premium sticker price of $9,700 down to $3,300 with a street price of $2,299.

This is huge news for casual and professional photographers alike since the SD1 was still found on major online retailers for $6,899 as of this morning. The Sigma SD1 started out as a 15-megapixel DSLR, but with three layers of its tiny Foveon X3 Direct Image sensor, the camera is capable of a whopping 46-megapixel resolution. The sensor is also unique in its ability to capture pixels in full color. Each snap records primary colors red, blue and green light values within each pixel location at the same time. The result is an overall richer, more vivid and color-accurate photos, which enhances the three-dimensional impression specific to Foveon sensors.

The new official name of Sigma SD1 Merrill is a nod to the late co-creator of the Foveon X3 sensor, Richard “Dick” Merrill, who passed away in 2008. Sigma continued to say the price slash is thanks to new manufacturing methods which greatly reduced production costs.

“We could not solve issues related to some of the manufacturing methods before the start of mass production, and the production cost ended up substantially exceeding our originally expected price. As a result, we had no choice but to set the price of the Sigma SD1 high,” said Kazuto Yamaki, CEO of Sigma Corporation. “Since then, overcoming this situation has become the first priority for us and Foveon, and we have together made improvements to reduce production cost substantially … Although some of the manufacturing methods have been enhanced, the performance and characteristics of the sensor itself have not changed. “

With the new price drop, you’d be hard pressed to find other medium-format cameras as powerful for that amount of money. The anticipated Nikon D800, a full-frame DSLR, has an MSRP of $2,999 and still only manages to come up to 36.3 megapixels. What if you’re one of the SD1 owners who forked nearly $7k before the price cut? Sigma said it will provide a “support program” for current users who will be awarded credits to use toward future Sigma product purchases until the end of the year.

The announcements also do not end there. In a separate press release today, Sigma promised upgrades to the DP1 and DP2 compact rangefinders, adding the almighty 45-megapixel Foveon chip to the guts and renaming the models to add Merrill in their names. The main difference between the DP models is the lens focal length, with the DP1 Merrill featuring a wide-angle lens and the DP2 offering a more standard lens that is equivalent to 45mm lens on a 35mm camera. The inclusion of the Foveon chip will undoubtedly make the cameras more powerful than ever, though prices and availability information on these DP models are currently unspecified.

Asus sails past 1080p with Transformer Pad Infinity tablet

2012-02-27T07:48:00.000-08:00

The Asus Transformer Pad Infinity tablet will offer incredible 1920 x 1200 resolution in a portable form factor, bringing new meaning to the term “sharp.”

Rumors of high-resolution tablets have been swirling for months now, and a high-res iPad is almost certainly on the way, but Asus seized the honor of being first to make it official on Monday with the Transformer Pad Infinity. The upcoming Android 4.0 tablet will offer an impressive resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 – higher than many laptops and even most HDTVs.

By making the vertical resolution 1,200 pixels rather than the usual 1080, Asus will actually shift the aspect ratio from 16:9 to 16:10, a less “skinny” form factor that squeezes a bit more into the sides of the screens when held in portrait mode. It also emits a squint-worthy 600 nits at peak brightness. In typically hyperbolic marketing fashion, the panel will wear the title “HD Super IPS+.” Interestingly, the company’s pre-conference briefings omitted the physical size of the screen. While that might suggest it’s something other than the same 10.1 inches as the company’s other Transformer offerings, pictures suggest it remains the same.

Whatever the size, it takes plenty of hardware to drive that many pixels, and the Transformer will come packing. It runs Nvidia’s 1.6GHz quad-core Tegra 3 processor… but only in its Wi-Fi configuration. The 3G and 4G versions will both step down (a bit) to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 platform. Both versions include 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of built-in storage, 1GB of RAM, and 8GB of Asus’ free lifetime WebStorage. The company also has high expectations for the 8-megapixel camera with 5-element lens.

True to the Transformer name, the Infinity will have any accompanying dock that adds both a keyboard and extra battery life. With the internal 25-Watt-hour battery plus the 22-Watt-hour battery in the dock, Asus claims the Infinity will deliver 16 hours of battery life, or 10 without.

Although it will clearly take a back seat to the Infinity, Asus also announced the Transformer Pad 300, which gets the same hot Tegra 3 chip and camera, but without the high-res display – just a 1,280 x 800 IPS model. What it lacks in pixels, it will make up for in, well, color: Asus plans to break away from the standard slate and black to offer the 300 in red, white and blue.

Asus hasn’t yet announced pricing or availability for any of its MWC 2012 announcements, including the long-awaited PadFone.