Mobile Devices

There they are again, Bill, Steve and the rest of the Microsoft group have just wowed the audience at the opening of the All Things Digital D6 Conference with a demonstration of what could possibly be the coolest version of Microsoft’s proprietary OS - the multi-touch enabled Microsoft 7. Could we just say that if this new technology goes mainstream it could also possibly be the coolest thing to happen to our Windows powered PCs?

Borrowing the multi-touch capability of the Surface which incidentally was previewed during last year’s All Things Digital event, Microsoft’s Corporate VP Julie Larson-Green showed Mr. Gates and Mr. Balmer how the multi-touch functionality works on a machine running on Windows 7. The technology is somewhat similar to the functionality of the iphone wherein you can zoom in and out when viewing photos, drag objects, run an application and other cool things which you can do with the power of your fingers.

Now here’s the clincher, when asked if the multi-touch was built throughout Windows 7, Larson-Green answered in the affirmative. So, is it safe to say that someday we might soon find ourselves using a multi-touch PC without having to spend too much on hardware? That we will know should Microsoft pushed through with Windows 7 as planned.

In the meantime enjoy this short video demonstration of what a machine running Windows 7 could possibly do with its multi-touch functionality.

Via [Windows Vista Blog] Watch [Multi-Touch in Windows 7]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

We have seen numerous reports, those even coming directly from Mozilla about how we can expect the final release of Firefox 3 to land this June and up until now it looked like it was right on track. While we have not heard any news of a major delay with that expected date, the latest news may push it up just a little bit. Recently we had seen the reports that ten critical flaws had been found in Firefox 3 RC1.

Since then Mozilla had been working to decide whether to ship the final “consumer-ready” release and then fix the flaws with version 3.0.1 or just move onto a Release Candidate 2. Well it seems the decision has been made, because they have officially announced that we will indeed be getting an RC2 before the final.

RC2 will include a fix for about 40 bugs, which will include those previously mentioned ten critical flaws. This release, according to the Mozilla team, will delay the final release by just a few days, and they are still looking towards a mid-June launch.

“As discussed at today’s Firefox 3.0 meeting, we’ve decided that there is sufficient need to produce a new Release Candidate before shipping,” said Mike Beltzner, Mozilla’s lead developer, in an email. “Due to the time required to complete some other external dependencies, we don’t expect that this will significantly impact our shipping date, and still estimate a mid-June release date.”

RC2 is expected to be “code-complete” as of May 28, with a release to early adopters to come around June 5.

Read [Macworld]

Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - Subscribe to our feed →

The PENTAX Optio W60 compact digital camera is lightweight and fully waterproof, the Optio W60 features 10 megapixels and a 5X zoom lens with 28mm wide-angle capability.

This waterproof camera can operate up to 13 feet underwater for two hours and at extreme temperatures well below freezing.

The 5X optical zoom refraction lens never protrudes from the Optio W60, yet it covers focal lengths from 5mm to 25mm. This range allows the camera to capture a wide variety of scenes including expansive landscapes, architecture, and group photos in confined spaces as well as close-up telephoto shots of subjects.

In addition to the JIS Class 8 waterproofing standard, the camera is JIS Class 5 dustproof against dirt, sand and dust and operates in extreme temperatures as cold as 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius).

The PENTAX Optio W60 digital camera include a High-Quality Movie mode with HD resolution up to 1280 x 720 pixels as well as Auto Picture mode, fast Face Recognition, Smile Capture, Blink Detection, an Underwater Movie mode, High Sensitivity Digital SR mode that automatically adjusts the sensitivity up to ISO 6400, and an lcd monitor with a 170 degree wide-angle view and Anti-Reflection coating to reduce glare.

The PENTAX Optio W60 will be available in July 2008 in a choice of two colors: Ocean Blue and Silver.

I’ve never been the type to use emoticons in my IM messages or emails, but I know some people who cannot stop using them.

So why not use them while you are driving? This is the reason the Drivemocion was invented.

The Drivemocion affixes to the inside of the rear car window via power suction cup. It is operated by a remote control for the front of the car that attaches to the front windscreen. All you need to do is press a button to send simple emoticon messages to motorists.

The Drivemocion comes in several models, which have several options for message displays. For example, the original model has a smiley face, winking face, an “Ooooo” face, plus two words of “sorry” and “thanks”.

That is one of the nicer models. Some of you might be relieved or agitated to know that there is a Drivemocion that allows the middle finger to be displayed. For the sake of the more easily offended readers, such as myself, I have chosen not to show the electronic bird.

The Drivemocion uses 4 AA batteries for power, and last for about 4 months. You should be able to get it for about £24.99 on the Au-my website.

Source

• Email to a friend
• Leave a comment

Back in April, we reported that Research In Motion, the company that markets BlackBerry handhelds and services, began discussions with India, because of a requirement by the Indian government to have the ability to intercept and read all emails sent and received with a BlackBerry within the country. One idea set forward by an Indian official is to place BlackBerry servers within India which could be monitored by the government.

PCWorld is reporting that it sounds like RIM and India are not going to be able to come to terms soon, if at all. That’s because in a memo to its Indian customers the company stated that the current BlackBerry architecture is setup to exclude the ability for RIM, let alone a third party like the Indian government, to be able to read emails. RIM states that you need an encryption key to be able to read the emails and the only person with a copy of the encryption key is the customer.

The hubbub over offering the BlackBerry in India came after a wireless provider in India had applied with the Indian government to offer the service. Interestingly enough, the service was already being offered by other wireless companies in India. It seems those customers are concerned that their emails may soon be open for reading by the government which is why RIM sent an email directly to them.

Though it seems that RIM and the Indian government are still in talks I don’t see how there will be any resolution without a complete re-design of the blackberry service just for Indian customers. That seems like a lot of work just to let “big brother” read your emails. Also, I can’t believe people will be lining up for a BlackBerry if they know all of their emails are going to be monitored. If RIM does offer a re-designed solution they may find there won’t be any customers to support it.

Read more from the PC World article.

The landing of the Phoenix spacecraft on the polar region of Mars using rockets to slow down its descent was a great success. In fact, the folks at NASA were able to take a picture of the spacecraft as it fell through the Mars atmosphere with parachute in tow. In the past, such a picture would have been absolutely impossible but that was before NASA had the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped the first picture of its kind. It was the first time one spacecraft had taken a photo of another spacecraft as it descended onto a planet. The photo shows a bright spacecraft with parachute deployed. There is enough detail so that you can actually make out the chords which attach the Phoenix Lander to the shoot. The photo was shot at 7:36pm Eastern on Sunday and the spacecraft landed a few minutes later at 7:53pm.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photo while orbiting 193 miles above the Martian surface. The photo was taken using its High Resolution Imaging Science Experience (HiRISE) camera. Now to be fair, the Phoenix Lander wasn’t the first man made object captured by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Back in October 6th, the spacecraft took a picture of the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, near the rim of “Victoria Crater”.

Read more from the NASA press release.

Brian’s Opinion

What an additional surprise for the NASA team in charge of the Phoenix Lander. I’m sure the photograph taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter of the Phoenix Lander will be hung in the offices and cubicles of team members or plastered on computer desktops for all to see. It must have been a real treat for those responsible for the parachute system on the Phoenix Lander. It’s not very often you get an opportunity to see your parachute deployed on an alien world. Usually the best they can hope for is seeing the parachute on the ground after the spacecraft has landed.

It probably wouldn’t be too surprising to see the number of satellites around Mars increase as the date for a manned mission to Mars gets closer. We are already starting to see the benefits of having a single satellite in orbit around Mars now. Just imagine the possibilities as those numbers increase. If missions to Mars become more regular it may be only a matter of time before XM Radio or Direct TV sends their own satellite over there. After all, in the media market it’s all about market share and you can’t beat 100% market share on Mars.

With the recent successes under NASA’s belt there is no doubt in my mind that the exploration of space is back on track. I think a key part of the future of space travel is the elimination of the space shuttle, which really is not designed to travel to the Moon and beyond. It has also proven that it has some engineering gaps in regards to safety that can be more easily addressed in a new spacecraft.

At the Wedbush Morgan Securities Management Access Conforence this week, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell stated that TPM (Trusted Platform Module) chips would put an end to PC game piracy.

“There is a stealth encryption chip called a TPM that is going on the motherboards of most of the computers that are coming out now,” said Bushnell. “We will be able to encrypt with an absolutely verifiable private key in the encryption world - which is uncrackable by people on the internet and by giving away passwords.”

Game developers are hoping this chip encryption will ensure higher revenues in Asia and India, historically a hotbed of pirated software proliferation.

Read more at Gamesindustry.biz

Kenneth’s Opinion:

As if that statement wasn’t overconfident enough, Bushnell added that “The TPM will, in fact, absolutely stop piracy of gameplay.” Never mind the fact that the chip has been placed on motherboards since 2006, has been met with a barrage of criticism concerning privacy rights and has never been adopted by AMD.

I’m no hacker, but it seems to me that saying that anything is uncrackable in this day and age is a farce. Even if the chip presents a situation where it cannot be hacked software side, it certainly seems possible to me that mod chips could be developed that would bypass the system entirely.

Another wrinkle for legitimately bought copies of games tied to a specific motherboard is what happens when a PC gamer upgrades their motherboard? As with many piracy prevention measures, this seems to be another case of legitimate customers being punished with restrictions while hackers laugh and bypass it in short order.

Funcom has released the sales figures for the long-awaited and well-received Age of Conan MMO, showing 400,000 copies sold since its release on May 20. Of those 400,000 copies sold, the North American market accounts for half of those figures.

The developer is claiming this release to be the highest amount of pre-orders ever for an original PC game. This combined with 2.2 million hits on the game’s website over the last week confirms what we already knew: people are excited for some Conan-themed MMO action.

Read more at next-gen.biz

Kenneth’s Opinion

With the kind of stranglehold that Blizzard had (and continues to have) on the MMO genre with so many subscribers and becoming such an embedded cultural presence that extends beyond gaming, it is somewhat surprising to see these numbers. Considering that playing two MMO’s at once is not something that most sane people would do, Funcom still has quite a fight on its hands to ensure that these numbers stay strong and grow versus the gigantic beast of WoW. The installed fanbase of Blizzard’s money machine will be hard to topple.

The garden gnomes at London’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, have built a walkway through the trees nearly 60 feet off the ground. Dang. The exchange rate is probably going to prevent me from treetop walking this summer at least, but it’s got to be an extraordinary experience.

The walkway is also structurally extraordinary. The walkway design, carried out in steel, is said to be based on the Fibonacci number sequence. (Starting with 1, each new number in the sequence is the sum of the two before it: 2, 3, 5,8,13….. No prize if you can figure out the next one.)

Here’s what the Kew says about it:

The ratio provides a perfectly proportioned growth pattern. This sequence is used for the spacing of the connection points for the diagonals of the walkway trusses. The 12m long trusses are connected to circular nodes which are in turn supported by pylons. It provides a seemingly random, natural appearance that in fact comes from a clear underlying geometry.

A slightly spooky aspect of the Fibonacci number sequence is that it’s not uncommon in nature, for example in plant branching patterns and number of petals on some flowers.

Have you ever wondered just how successful Capcom has been with its many popular game franchises? Well now you have to wonder no more as the Japanese game developer and publisher has revealed the lifetime sales figures for its top 10 games series along with the number of titles released per franchise.

The top 10 franchises by games sold are:

1. Resident Evil Series (50 titles, 34,500,000 units)
2. Mega Man Series (120 titles, 28,000,000 units)
3. Street Fighter Series (59 titles, 25,000,000 units)
4. Disney Series (33 titles, 13,200,000 units)
5. Devil May Cry Series (10 titles, 9,500,000 units)
6. Onimusha Series (12 titles, 7,800,000 units)
7. Monster Hunter Series (10 titles, 6,300,000 units)
8. Dino Crisis Series (13 titles, 4,400,000 units)
9. Ghosts ‘n Goblins Series (15 titles, 4,300,000 units)
10. Final Fight Series (10 titles, 3,200,000 units)

Capcom also released details of its top 10 selling games of all time, which are:

1. Street Fighter II (6,300,000 units)
2. Resident Evil 2 (4,960,000 units)
3. Street Fighter II Turbo (4,100,000 units)
4. Resident Evil 3 Nemesis (3,500,000 units)
5. Resident Evil (2,750,000 units)
6. Dino Crisis (2,400,000 units)
7. Devil May Cry 4 (2,300,000 units)
8. Devil May Cry (2,160,000 units)
9. Monster Hunter Freedom 2 (2,150,000 units)
10. Onimusha: Warlords, (2,020,000 units)

I am surprised to see the Mega Man franchise above Street Fighter in the franchise chart, and also that Resident Evil 4 has not surpassed the other games in the series for sales. Remember, RE4 got released on 3 different platforms (Gamecube, PS2 and Wii) at different times and was met with critical success across the board.

Capcom are a company with a lot going for them right now. They have a good grasp on next-gen hardware, a huge range of popular IP and aren’t afraid to experiment with new ideas. I can’t wait to see what how Resident Evil 5 plays and what new games they come up with next.

Read more at GamesIndustry.biz