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Typically, Geek.com does not cover many DVD reviews, but “Turok: Son of Stone” is an exception. The animated movie is based off the videogame character Turok, and we’ve covered him extensively. We spoke to the game’s studio head, Josh Holmes, followed how Turok was developing behind the scenes, and were totally psyched for the game’s release. Unfortunately, we were unhappy with how the videogame Turok turned out. Unfazed, Geek.com took on “Turok: Son of Stone.”

“Turok: Son of Stone” is animated much more like “G.I. Joe” than the CGI work of the movies out of Pixar studios, which sometimes resemble videogames and vice versa. To say this movie is for mature audience is somewhat understated. The blood flows like water in many scenes, and there’s more than one instance when I thought of “300.” This is not the kind of movie you want anywhere near children.

But that’s the weirdest part about “Turok.” The themes and the plot of the movie seem so basic that children could follow. So, the inclusion of ludicrous amounts of violence is an odd contrast.

The plot centers on Turok and another American Indian, who walk through a cave that’s a portal into the past; think “Chronicles of Narnia.” There are crudely drawn cave men who look like the monsters from “Where the Wild Things Are.” And there’s another American Indian bad guy who comes after Turok, guns blazing. Unfortunately, he’s got just arrows and a tomahawk.

Even though there’s virtually no connection with dinosaurs, I still found myself engrossed in the movie. The characters are simple caricatures, and yet you can still identify with them.

All told, “Turok: Son of Stone” was much better than it looked from the box. After the first five minutes I was just about to write this off as another great idea in the “Turok” franchise gone horribly awry, but then luckily I stayed. Although there are no Oscar-worthy performances, “Turok: Son of Stone” has a lot of heart. It’s definitely worth at least a rental, especially if you can NetFlix it. It’s only about 70 minutes, though, and there’s not necessarily much point in re-watching it.

Your iPhone definitely needs protection, no matter how badly you treat your gadgets in the past. After all, this handset from Apple has garnered accolades from virtually every corner of the earth thanks to its amazing design, and Griffin Technology is here to help you do just that with its new Reflect and Courier cases. The Reflect is a mirror-finish case which brings together a polycarbonate front shell and a matte black rubberized case back for extra grip. You will still gain access to all ports and controls, and each $25 purchase comes with a cleaning cloth and a static-peel screen protector.

As for the latter, the updated Courier case sports a slimmer look and abrasion-resistance, so you can be sure that your iphone, iPod touch, and ipod classic will remain safe and sound in there. It can be hooked onto a backpack or shoulder strap bag, although I’d be more careful when doing so due to the spate of theft that goes on these days, what more with such a high profile target. Other features include a hidden zippered pocket for money, keys, or ID. The Courier retails for $35 each.

Source: iLounge

MacBook Pro users will soon be pinching, swiping and rotating away along with their Air counterparts thanks to today’s refresh. But strangely, while Apple added its multitouch goodness to the high-end laptop, it neglected to alter the size of the trackpad.

Recall that the macbook air — Apple’s first notebook to incorporate some of the same multitouch gestures found on the iphone and ipod Touch — features a trackpad of substantial girth, the theory being that a larger pad facilitates these new multitouch gestures.

Some analysts expected that when Apple was ready to incorporate the same technology in its other notebooks (which does require a new trackpad and controller) the fatty variety would be incorporated too. Apparently not.

The reason for the omission, according to Yankee Group analyst Carl Howe, is entirely practical and related mainly to issues of design and consistency.

"The Pro has a lot more components than the Air," Howe says. "All those parts need electronics that connect to them. If you take the trackpad out of the Pro, you’ll notice that to the left and right of it there’s very little real estate."

So there you go. Adding a new, wider trackpad would likely require a complete redesign of the motherboard and some serious re-jiggering of the Pro’s innards — basically a MacBook Pro redesign. In the end, while Apple probably felt that multitouch was an important addition, it was one that warranted a complete design overhaul…yet. 

"This is not the revolutionary MacBok Pro, this is the evultionary one," Howe says.

PC World reviews the Nokia E90 Communicator and writes, “The 3.2-megapixel camera took snapshots that were markedly clearer than those I’ve taken with other phones, but using it was more difficult than necessary. I somehow managed to invoke the video camera when I meant to take a snapshot; if this had happened only once, I wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal, but I did it repeatedly over several days. I had to go in and manually select image mode each time, even though I’d been in image mode to start. Nevertheless, the results were good, and the built-in flash and autofocus worked well.”

Read more about the Nokia E90 Communicator.

Late last week, AMD announced plans to make the AMD Performance Library (APL) Open Source along with renaming it to Framewave v1.0. The library contains over 3,200 high-performance software routines for x86 platform development.

Its original aim was to aid developers in creating high-performance multi-threaded applications for its processors. Now, AMD wants to open up the library to ensure as many developers as possible can benefit from the resource. Speaking of the move, Earl Stahl, president of Software Development at AMD, said:

As a long time supporter of open innovation and collaboration, AMD’s release of its APL code to the Framewave open source project represents another milestone contribution to the open source community. We believe that Framewave will quickly become a significant resource for developers, helping them to build faster, highly optimized and multi-threaded applications more efficiently … Developer collaboration is one of the cornerstones of AMD’s software vision, so we are excited to see what innovations the community will develop leveraging Framewave.

As the library focuses on the x86 architecture, it also encompasses Intel processors, meaning software using Framewave will also see the performance benefits on Intel’s hardware.

Read more at AMD press release.

Matthew’s Opinion

It’s turning out to be a good period for developers wanting access to free development resources. Within the last week, we have seen Havok committing to a free release of its physics and animation toolset and Insomniac pledging code for games development. Now, we have AMD releasing a library that will benefit your code–whatever type of software you are developing.

One of the biggest challenges to software developers at the moment is taking full advantage of the new dual- and quad core processors. Multi-threading adds a whole extra layer of complexity when it comes to creating performance code, and I am sure this is one of the major reasons AMD is making Framewave free to use.

What I would be interested to see is how much of a difference this library makes to the performance of a single application.

High-end Swiss audio visual maker Goldmund has announced a suitably exorbitant Blu-ray player, yours for just $17,000. The spec sheet is almost irrelevant in this price category. We know by now that no amount of bells and whistles can impress the true audiophile: Instead you need an ephemeral and untestable sprinkling of fairy dust. Goldmund doesn’t disappoint, and its claims for the Eidos 20 BD might be as full of holes as the country’s national cheese.

First, the power supply (named AC-Curator) will somehow “dramatically improve picture and sound stability and dynamics”. Next up, physical vibration, which Golmund thinks can somehow affect a digital signal:

[T]he “Mechanical Grounding” construction which removes from the player mechanism spurious vibrations blurring the Video signal and increasing Jitter.

Unfortunately, the circuit does nothing to remove spurious CaPital letters.

Product page [Goldmund via Crave]

For the last few days we have known that we would be getting some Apple news today, and Jobs and team did not disappoint. The announcement ended up being an incremental upgrade to the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, each of which was ready for some changes. The big happenings were the addition of multi-touch to the Pro and the move to Penryn-based processors along both lines. Also 2GB of RAM become the new standard for most, but not all, of Apple’s notebooks.

The refresh that came out today was really just a collection of small upgrades which will make the MB and MBP competitive with the computers that have recently been coming out from other manufacturers. The MacBook received new processors (2.1GHz and 2.4GHz) and more storage (up to 250GB). The MacBook Pros got the multi-touch trackpad that we saw released on the Air, as well as faster processors (2.4GHz, 2.5GHz, and 2.6GHz), and improved graphics, with up to 512MB of video memory. The MBPs also moved to LED-backlighting across the line, though this is a $100 upgrade for the 17-inch models. The good news for prospective 17-inch buyers is that the display can be ramped up to 1920×1200 if you opt for the high resolution upgrade.

Read Apple’s press release for all the details.

Posted Feb 26th 2008 3:01AM by Ryan Block
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless
Yeah, just like that and Sony’s got a new ipod dock / clock radio — the ICF-ClipMK2 — which comes in both black and white with line-in for $100 this May. Also announced, the clippable DRC-BT15 Bluetooth A2DP / AVRCP receiver and SRS-BT100 30 Watt A2DP speakers. The Bluetooth gear is out March for $130 and $160, respectively.

Once only a subject of science fiction, machines which could read our thoughts are now starting to surface.

Emotiv EPOC is one such device. Designed specifically for gaming, this device can read not only our conscious but also our non-conscious thoughts. The aim of Emotiv in creating the EPOC is to be able to control a game with intangible thoughts in your brain. The EPOC works by detecting electric signals signifying not only thoughts but also feelings and expression. The EPOC can connect wirelessly to various consoles and PCs. The device nears its release with a price tag of approximately 152 and is available for pre-order here. I imagine playing a game by thinking it would be quite an experience. Let’s hope the EPOC does not disappoint.

via

When Sony first announced the Mylo Com2 during CES, they also announced the upcoming availability of Mylo Labs. The labs will allow users to join the developers community and create their own personal widgets that they can then share with other Mylo users.

The Mylo Com2 comes with a few widgets pre-installed to include Google Search, Facebook Notifier, My Contacts and YouTube. In addition to the opening of the Mylo Labs, Sony will also be adding other “official” widgets on a regular basis.

Currently there are some additional widgets available for download to include a calculator, world clock and to-do list. The Developers page will be opening in March for you to begin creating your very own.

Read [SonyStyle]

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