Archive for April, 2006
Today Ubisoft, one of the world’s largest video game publishers, announced the development of Red Steel, an exclusive first-person action title for the Nintendo Revolution (working name of the new Nintendo platform). Red Steel is set in modern-day Japan. Players will master both the ancient art of the katana and the sophisticated technology of modern firearms taking advantage of the emotion and immersive gameplay possible only with the Revolution’s remarkable controller.
“We’re honored to announce this exciting new franchise and we’re confident that Red Steel will be the must-have title for the Revolution when it launches,” said Serge Hascoet, chief creative officer at Ubisoft. “We have been working closely with Nintendo to take full advantage of the innovative controller to create a thrilling experience that can only exist on the Revolution.”
Red Steel will make its worldwide debut in May 2006 at E3 in Los Angeles. With the style and flair of a contemporary action movie, Red Steel will appeal to gamers who thirst for a new video game experience, as well as those who may have not previously considered picking up a controller.
“Nintendo is excited to have Ubisoft bring Red Steel to the Revolution launch lineup,” said Reggie Fils-Aime, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America. “Ubisoft makes some of the most innovative and critically acclaimed games in the industry and from what we have seen from Red Steel it is going to be a standout exclusive title on the Revolution.”
Ubisoft has a strong history of creating some of the industry’s top-selling video game franchises. To date, the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell and Rayman franchises have each sold more than 15 million units worldwide and the Prince of Persia franchise alone has sold more than eight million units worldwide. The Red Steel brand will reflect this expertise and build upon Ubisoft’s past to invigorate the future experience allowed within the Revolution platform.
Ubisoft will disclose more specific information on Red Steel in the coming months and Nintendo will reveal more information about the Revolution and its unique controller at E3.
April 13th, 2006
Google has rolled out its online calendar tool which is available free to all users with a Google account.
The calendar can be accessed at www.google.com/calendar, although at the time of writing the service was suffering a lot of interruptions, presumably because of the interest generated by the launch.
It has a feature list roughly in line with what you would expect from a desktop-based calendar, including drag and drop and the ability to view your diary as a day, week, a month or, bizarrely, the next four days. It’s a thoroughly impressive piece of coding and it’s easy to forget that you aren’t using a software calendar.
Being Google, the calendar is tightly integrated with their other services including Gmail. In fact you can create entries directly from dates mentioned in Gmail emails.
The calendar can be exported to Microsoft Outlook if you decide to return to the dark side and you can import your messages in from other major calendar tools if you just want to give it a try. If you like you can create separate diaries, allowing you to keep work and home apart, but this seems like a slightly redundant feature to TechSmec.com. If you need to be reminded of things going on in your life you can elect to be notified of events via email, or if you are in the USA, via SMS.
This is not an obvious progression for Google, but it is certainly one which should shake up the market. Microsoft and Yahoo will be watching with interest.
April 13th, 2006
Sonos, the developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the digital home, today announced the Sonos ZonePlayer 80 Bundle, an innovative way to turn your favorite audio equipment into a wireless, multi-room digital music system, will be available throughout the UK by the end of April.
The new bundle offering extends the Sonos Digital Music System family of products and includes two incredibly compact Sonos ZonePlayer 80s (ZP80s) and a Sonos Controller. The suggested retail price of the Sonos ZP80 Bundle will be 779 Pounds and will be available for purchase at authorised Sonos dealers or at www.uk.sonos.com by the end of the month.
The brand new ZP80 Bundle lets you play all your digital music, all over your house, on all your current audio equipment — including your home theatre, stereo, powered speakers, premium table top radio such as a Bose Wave radio and more. By simply connecting a ZP80 to any amplified audio device in any room, that device is instantly and seamlessly part of a wireless, multi-room digital music system. Plus, you can wirelessly control all your music from the palm of your hand with the industry’s only full-colour wireless Controller.
Because all products in the Sonos Digital Music System are designed to work together, you can combine the ZP80 Bundle or individual ZP80s with the Sonos ZonePlayer 100 (ZP100) with built-in amplifier for true multi-room music in up to 32 rooms.
“Music lovers have often asked Sonos to help them connect the stereo they love to our award-winning digital music system,” said John MacFarlane, founder and chief executive officer, Sonos. “With the ZP80 Bundle that’s now possible — and all for just 779 Pounds.”
The amazingly compact ZP80 has digital (optical and coaxial) and analog outputs to deliver superior sound to every room. It also includes auto-sensing line-in connectors that can digitally encode any line-in source. This allows Sonos users to connect an external audio source, such as an Apple iPod, a CD player or satellite radio, to any ZonePlayer and to listen to that music on all the other ZonePlayers in the house.
The Sonos ZP80 Bundle retails for £779.00 (including VAT). The ZP80 retails for £269.00 (including VAT) each. The Sonos ZP80 Bundle will be available at retail outlets throughout the UK by the end of April.
The Sonos Digital Music System lets you play all your digital music, all over your house - from the bedroom to the backyard - and control it all from the palm of your hand. It’s the first wireless, multi-room digital music system of its kind and it’s going to change the way you listen to music at home. With the full-color Sonos Controller in hand, your entire digital music collection, Internet radio and Audible.com content, are at your fingertips. And with Sonos ZonePlayers in all the rooms where you want music, you can simply pick a room, pick a song and hit play.
April 11th, 2006
Databarracks today announced the release of BuddyBackup a completely
free online backup service. BuddyBackup is free software, which allows
computer users to backup data to friends’, family or colleagues’
computers securely across the internet. BuddyBackup allows computer
users to backup files, photos, music or virtually any computer data to
be securely and remotely backed up with no charge at all.
As with normal paid services, BuddyBackup can keep multiple copies of
important data securely and remotely on any Windows XP based machine.
Data is encrypted and compressed before being sent over the internet and
can only be viewed by the user whose data it is. BuddyBackup even keeps
multiple versions of data allowing users to retrieve an older version of
a file.
“We see this as a revolution in the online backup industry; by using the
power of grid storage or basically utilising the amount of free space on
computer hard drives, we can offer a service which is completely free”
Peter Groucutt, Databarracks Managing Director commented earlier today.
The software is available to anyone to download and should be
particularly popular with home users and students who have important
data to backup, but to whom a commercial online backup solution is
unaffordable.
“We are bracing ourselves for uptake in pretty large numbers; the
service should be incredibly popular. We have added a forum to the
BuddyBackup site so that even people who do not know anyone to whom they
could backup can meet other Buddies from around the world and share
space.”
BuddyBackup is a free online backup utility from Databarracks, one of
the worlds’ leading online backup companies. Databarracks is based in
Waterloo in London, and serves customers small and large from New
Zealand to New York and throughout the UK.
Databarracks has online backup solutions to suit all budgets and
requirements from home users, using our Boomerang Backup Service, home
and small office users through DBVault and large corporate customers
through our Arxcis and bespoke backup solutions.
Databarracks also runs the SmartBackup service for PC World, the U.K.’s
largest PC retailer.
To find out more information about BuddyBackup go to:
www.buddybackup.com
April 10th, 2006
Anyone who has tried using a SatNav system in their car will vouch for the fact that it is life changing. No more trying to look at a map while driving around the Orpington one way system, or setting off only to discover that you aren’t quite as sure where you are going as you thought. However, you are putting yourself in the hands of a faceless programmer, so you require a little bit of faith at the best of times.
Drivers looking to travel to between Swaledale and Wensleydale in the UK are being offered a shortcut by the Trafficmaster system that takes them via the village of Crackpot [ get your chuckles out of the way - the comedy name is just a happy coincidence where this story is concerned ]. The only problem is that Crackpot is at one end of a no-through-road cart track that has a 100ft sheer drop on one side.
Locals would fear to travel the track in a 4×4, let alone a plush rep-mobile Mondeo estate, so understandably a lot of drivers are coming a cropper and having to be rescued by friendly tractor-driving farmers.
The road is public right of way so not a lot can be done to prevent trusting drivers following their beloved SatNav system’s instructions to the bitter end, which luckily so far hasn’t included driving off the edge of the cliff.
The AA, who own Trafficmaster say they will amend the directions in the next software update. The local council aren’t going to wait for that and will be posting prominent signage warning drivers not to go via Crackpot unless they really have to. The trouble is what will drivers trust more - the evidence of their own eyes, or the silky tones of the SatNav telling them that Crackpot is the way to go?
April 6th, 2006
The price of the forthcoming Playstation 3 in Europe has been set at a price point that it going to scare off a lot of customers - at least according to Vice President of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe George Fornay.
The PS3 is on its way to costing between 499 and 599 Euros which places it firmly in the realms of ‘luxury item’.
It seems Mr Fornay shouldn’t have been quite so keen to spill the beans as he instantly attempted to justify the cost by saying that the price was good value for a Blu-Ray player. Of course, this fails to spot the fact that the majority of people buying a PS3 will be doing so because it’s a games console, not because it can play a paltry selection of discs on an HDTV that they don’t have yet.
Sony moved to deny the comments had any basis in fact which is a bit of a slap in the chops for one of their Vice Presidents, but then they have a track record of denying comments by their executives. Even President Howard Stringer has been ‘thrice’ denied in the past.
April 6th, 2006
Continuing its commitment to providing the most technologically superior HD plasma televisions for every room size and viewing environment, Panasonic, world leader in plasma manufacturing and sales, has once again raised the bar on HDTV performance with the release of two 58-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel resolution models capable of displaying nearly 29 billion colors with a 10,000:1 contrast ratio.
Scheduled to ship in early summer, both models feature Panasonic’s HDAVI (EZ-Sync) technology for single remote/one-button control of TV, DVD recorders and home theater systems, and incorporate an integrated SD Memory Card slot for instant, cableless viewing of digital images and slide shows.
“The new 58-inch plasma is the perfect complement to and rounds out Panasonic’s existing line by providing a screen size that fits nicely between our 50-inch and our soon to be delivered 65-inch 1080p plasma,” said Andrew Nelkin, Vice President of Panasonic’s Display Group.
“We exceeded all our expectations in 2005,” Nelkin continued. “It was an extraordinary year in which Panasonic made enormous gains in technology, sales, and industry recognition. This past year saw Panasonic’s plasmas rated at the top of a number of media best of the year awards, and we fully expect to repeat those results this year.
“Now that we’ve increased the number of our panel’s displayable colors from eight billion to nearly 29 billion with 3072 shades of gradation and upped our maximum contrast range from 3,000:1 to 10,000:1 to achieve the blackest blacks and whitest whites in the industry, we feel very confident of retaining our top ranking with both HDTV plasma buyers and the consumer electronics media.”
With such user-friendly features as SD Memory Card slots, EZ-Sync control of multiple components, HDMI inputs for single-cable routing of uncompressed high-resolution audio and video signals, TV Guide(TM) Electronic Program Guides(3), PC input(3), and CableCARD(3) compatibility, the new 58-inch TH- 58PX600U and TH-58PX60U models continue Panasonic’s drive to make access to all digital entertainment features as seamless and intuitive as possible.
“We believe that products facilitating the emerging Digital Lifestyle must be designed from a human engineering as well as an electronic engineering point of view,” Nelkin added.
“Take our new EZ-Sync. At first glance, it might look like just another so-called universal remote. But universal remotes are really not ‘universal’ at all. What they do is combine a bunch of incompatible controllers into one case. Playing a DVD with a DTS soundtrack with a universal remote requires pushing just as many buttons as using three separate remotes.
“With EZ-Sync, you press one button and the TV turns on, the DVD player turns on, and the home theater surround sound system turns on and automatically selects the right inputs and settings to use for the DVD.”
Nelkin added that such features as built-in memory card slots, single- cable connection to such components as DVD recorders and Media Center PCs and integrated CableCARD ports were all part of Panasonic’s goal of making “thedigital experience easier and more enjoyable.”
“Our customers are in the process of learning how to create a host of new experiences using Panasonic plasma TVs with the increasing number of services and applications newly available for their enjoyment,” Nelkin said. “This is not just the domain of the technically literate early adopters anymore. Increasingly, it has become the general public’s market — a user group of families, young singles, and retired couples who have come to appreciate the benefits and enjoyment inherent in the plasma-centric Digital Lifestyle.
“With this in mind, Panasonic’s 2006 Plasma TV models were designed with great attention to reducing and, in many cases eliminating, the whole concept of a learning curve.”
To meet the expanding worldwide demand for plasma TV, which is expected to top 25 million units in 2010, Panasonic is continually increasing its investment in every area of plasma technology from R&D to manufacturing.
Recent initiatives include the announcement of a new plasma panel factory, the company’s fourth, scheduled to go online in 2007 at Amagasaki, Japan. The new facility will increase Panasonic’s production capability by 170,000 panels a month, bringing the company’s total capacity to 592,000 42-inch-equivalent panels per month.
April 3rd, 2006
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