Hangout combines Facebook, MySpace and the Sims to create a virtual world for 16-24 year olds to interact in. By creating “rooms”, users have the ability to create a customized environment in which all their interests are represented. Recent interests are catalogued in a similar way as to real life, with users able to visit your “room” and see what you have been listening to and watching lately.
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Showing off their new website at TC50 is Tweegee, a social network and portal for kids age 8-14. Bright colors and graphics are designed to grab the attention of tweens. Beyond social networking, kids have the ability to share content and interact with other kids. A series of multiplayer games are also incorporated, giving the kids something to actually do. Additionally, kids can create their own pages to share and create a buzz as to what is important to them. In fact a couple of kids were on even on hand to tell the audience that that they liked everything about the website “soooo much”.
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Ashton Kutcher stopped by TC50 to represent and show off blahgirls.com. The Blah Girls are an animated clique of girls that comment on entertainment and celebrity gossip. Landing somewhere between South Park and the Powerpuff Girls, the humor is delivered in the form of a blog and a video that is updated twice weekly.
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Sony took a beating in the market on Friday, touching upon a 3-year low. The sell-off comes after an announcement yesterday about the voluntary recall of 438,000 VAIO notebooks worldwide (73,000 in the US).
The problem stems from irregularly positioned wires near the computer’s hinge that can cause a short circuit and overheating. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Sony “has received 15 reports of overheating, including one consumer who suffered a minor burn.” Worldwide, over 200 cases have been reported.
The affected computers were sold from July 2007 through August 2008. The recalled model series are the VAIO VGN-TZ100, VGN-TZ200, VGN-TZ300 and VGN-TZ2000.
Wouldn’t it be great if things could just build their own damn selves? Just press the button and walk away. I’m not talking about some small injection molder churning out car parts; think bigger than that. No, not cars. Bigger. Houses.
More details and a cool vid after the jump.
The WSJ is reporting that Dell is looking to “sell most — and possibly all” of their factories within the next 18 months. The move, designed to cut costs, isn’t a sign of Dell throwing in the towel, rather the computer giant is looking to overhaul their production model.
According to their source, Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers and then they would enter into agreements with said manufacturers.
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Well, well, well. It’s been quite a back-to-school week here at CrunchGear. We learned a little bit about affordable notebooks and netbooks, what time-draining video games to avoid and even what to do about feeding yourself now that you’re on your own.
To close out the week and in honor of Friday, we got a little dorm room light show for you after the jump. Remember to have a little fun while you’re pretending to study – that’s what college is all about, after all.
Today Epson announced a new sub-$2000 projector. The 3LCD 1080p front projector provides full 1920 x 1080 progressive high definition resolution. Using Epson’s latest-generation D7 high definition resolution LCD technology, the Home Cinema 6100 provides an improved 18,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio delivering brighter and more accurate whites and darker blacks.
The projector will be available starting in November.
Read on for the whole press release…
Epson’s two new top-of the-line projectors, the Pro Cinema 7100 and 7500 UB were announced today at CEDIA 2008. Both feature true 1080p (1,920 x 1,080 pixels) resolution and use 3LCD chips with D7 technology to deliver substantially higher contrast and brightness. The Pro Cinema 7100 has an 18,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, while the Pro Cinema 7500 UB has brighter whites and darker blacks at 75,000:1 ratio.
The Pro Cinema 7100 will cost $3000 and be available in November, while the Pro Cinema 7500 UB (pictured) will cost around $4500 and be available in December.
Click on through for the press release…
Ok, you’re supposed to be a grownup now. What are doing still drinking that Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill? In fact, what were you doing drinking that ever? You should be ashamed of yourself. You probably clicked on this link thinking you would get some good booze advice. Well, you were right and you were wrong. Instead of telling you what to drink, I’m going to tell you what to stay away from.
Well, look at that. Off to college and suddenly it’s time to learn how to (theoretically) fend for yourself. You can’t fill up on nasty food court or cafeteria items all the time, but luckily it’s really not hard to cook up some down-home vittles right from your dorm or (hopefully) your first apartment.
Here are some basics that you’ll need to get you through mealtime.
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Starting today, customers using Amazon’s Video On Demand will be able to watch ad-free content on their Mac’s, PC’s and select TV’s. Previously, users had to use the Unbox application or use TiVo. Users can still use the Unbox app to download content, but options are opened with the ability to view directly in the browser.
If you have a compatible Sony BRAVIA television set, you’ll be able to stream directly to your TV via Sony’s BRAVIA Internet Video Link. The set-up is currently in beta, but consider this another possible nail in the physical disc coffin. Just add some more compatible TV’s (like all of them) and I’ll be on-board.
Read the whole press release after the jump.
Well here’s a new one by me. A movie released on a USB flash drive. The press release says it’s the first time a full-length feature has been released in this manner. Not a bad idea, really. Especially because it is Ghostbusters.
While the video game has been on a shaky road as it finds its way onto consoles, this Ghostbusters-branded flash drive is supposedly available starting, now. But I can’t find it up on their website just yet.
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Sony today announced their new “Elevated Standard” Blu-Ray player. (That would be the ‘ES’ in the model number). The new $2000 player features Sony’s newly developed HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping technologies. The new features sharpen edges and smooth color gradations.
Also incorporated is their new Precision Cinema HD Upscale technology that converts standard-definition signals (480i) to 1080p and outputs a full HD equivalent resolution signal to 1080p TVs via HDMI.
Everything from start-up time to disc detection has been given the “ES” treatment. If that isn’t enough for you Sony is also unveiling their megachanger in 2009, which will store up to 400 discs at the ready.
Read the entire press release after the jump.
Ok, now come on. Web-controlled door locks? Oh, Schlage, tell me it’s not true. It is? Your LiNK system is great you say? Ok, well, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for your Z-Wave home automation technology. Being able to wirelessly control temperature, lighting and even the pool certainly sounds cool.
As much as digital photo frames confuse and astound me, I can’t really say I don’t get it. They are after all, photos you (presumably) want to have displayed so as to look at them anytime. Plus they light up, and that’s always cool.
Sony today unveiled their VAIO CP1 Wi-Fi photo frame, with more than 16 million colors and 800×480 resolution on a 7-inch LCD screen. Utilizing built-in Wi-Fi technology, the CP1 model lets you stream photos from a VAIO PC directly to the device. It also communicates with Google’s Picasa web albums.
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From the ‘I’ll Believe it When I See Feel it Dept’: Ultrasonic gaming.
Researchers from the University of Tokyo have been working on using focused ultrasound to simulate the feel of objects that aren’t there. Haptic doodads have been floating around for a while, like this Maglev joystick, but this is the first time I’ve seen one that relies on air to create the sensation.
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Speaking at the Citi Technology Conference today in NYC, Michael Dell admitted that his company might one day reach out into the small screen arena. When asked about Dell releasing an iPhone-type device, he said:
You’ll see us with smaller and smaller devices that have capabilities of the devices you are referring to.
Of course what else is he gonna say? ‘No, I believe that market is dead? No future in it, I tells ya. Buy big, stay big!’ Yeah, I don’t think so. While he goes on to say, “Not in the near-term”, I imagine they’re working on something behind closed doors. I mean, wouldn’t you be? Michael Dell pretty much said as much.
While we are awaiting the eventual robot takeover of the human species, our generation will at least will get a little down time. Further generations will not be so lucky; they will be slaves to our robot masters. But, for those lucky enough to be alive in this golden era we give you the Japanese cell-phone-controlled robot servant.
Designed by Fukuoka-based robot-making company, TMSUK, the helpful little robot can be told what to do from anywhere in the world. Commands can be delivered via a cell phone, and there is video capability to see exactly what goes on in the house while you are away.
Maybe not today, maybe not even tomorrow, but someday you are going to want to know exactly what your personal robot is up to when you are away from home. With up to 30,000 robots already pressed into service in Japan alone, don’t think it’s not coming.
Video after the jump…
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Today Toshiba announced the TLP-X100U projector. Slim and lightweight, it weighs in at 4 pounds while measuring less than 3 inches high. The affordable portable has a MSRP of $839.
For that price you get a couple of cool features, most notably the ability to view closed captioning. Perfect for throwing movies on the wall at noisy bars or parties. It also incorporates Toshiba’s “Blackboard” function which color corrects for a variety of surfaces. Users tell the machine what color the surface is (like a green “blackboard”) and the projector compensates. Certainly helpful to anybody who has ever tried to watch a movie on an odd-colored surface while everybody was talking.
Click on through for some specs…
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Debuting this week is the Becker GPS unit, the Traffic Assist 100. It has been dubbed ‘Crocodile’, presumably due to its appearance and water resistant nature. Designed for motorcycles, it has maps for 42 countries pre-loaded in 2 GB of embedded flash memory.
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Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, in New Mexico are in the process of creating a pulsed electromagnet that will reach 100 tesla. Greg Boebinger, director of the project, says that these forces are “equivalent to the explosive force of 200 sticks of dynamite packed into a volume of space the size of a marble.”
Boebinger goes on to say that power of this magnitude is essential for testing the properties of newly discovered high-temperature superconductors like iron oxyarsenide. Other potential uses allow for zero-G experiments without the bother of traveling to space. Even further out, there is the possibility of someday developing magnetic propulsion systems that could replace rocket fuel.
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Do you know how big of an area 10,000 square feet is? Big. Like almost two football fields big. Bigger than my apartment, for sure. So if I got this new Pro-WAV 100 from Luxul Wireless I could feed my entire city block WiFi signals. Not that I would want to mind you. But a high performance WiFi system certainly does have its uses. The company has their signal technologies installed in nationwide truck stop chains, hospitals and hotels.
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Today Airfonix announced their AFX-19DD051 wireless transmitter for delivering wireless audio to the home theater. The two-channel transmitter with built-in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound and Dolby Pro-Logic II decoding delivers uncompressed, 24-bit wireless digital audio at 48-MHz transmission rate to active and passive speakers.
It features two S/PDIF coaxial/optical inputs and stereo RCA Line-in connectivity. It has three built-in 100W RMS digital amplifiers for powering front left, center and right channel speakers and a LFE channel line out for connection to an active subwoofer. The transmitter also utilizes the Airfonix Smart Channel technology, which enables the unit to search out and choose an un-congested channel in the 2.4GHz and 4.9-5.8GHz bands.
No pricing info yet, but it looks to be available in production quantities in early 2009.
