Developages - Development and Technology Blog

The biggest overhaul of Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE service, dubbed the New Xbox Experience (NXE), has finally gone live. Is it, like Microsoft marketing twerps tried to say recently, the biggest thing in home entertainment since the arrival of colour TV in 1954? Ah, no. First and foremost is the addition of avatars, giving gamers the chance to create little, cartoonish virtual identities, something like the Mii avatars on the Nintendo Wii but more animated, better looking and with more customisation options. No doubt, millions of LIVE gamers are currently dealing with the tough decisions ahead: goatee or not goatee? Some avid LIVE fans have had to wait a few hours for the prompt to update but then this is a popular upgrade so Microsoft’s Major Nelson is asking for some patience. “As you can imagine, it’s been an incredible day so far for the New Xbox Experience. With an update of this magnitude, reaching more than 14 million people around the globe, we are aware some of you may be experiencing a few hiccups along the way. The LIVE team is closely monitoring the LIVE service and Xbox.com and are aware of a few issues including what’s happening with Marketplace. The team is actively working on the issues, so thanks for bearing with us.” Jump now for Major Nelson’s Top 10 things to do with NXE.Top 10 NXE Tasks 1) Create (or Customize) your Avatar - You can spend as much (or as little) time as you want in the Avatar Editor to personalize your little guy/girl Bonus: When you are done with #1, be sure to take a Gamer Picture of your Avatar. In the Avatar editor, choose Gamer Picture. You can use the controls to move your avatar around, zoom in and out or even change the background color (press Y) 2) Explore the all new dashboard. (hint: use the trigger and bumpers to quickly scroll up and down or left and right) 3) PAR-TAY! Check out Xbox LIVE Parties and chat with up to seven of your friends. Go to the Friends channel…choose a friend who is online and press Y to get the party started. You can also hit the Xbox 360 Guide button > Party >Start a Party. Once you do that, send off invites to your party (since one does not make a very good party…does it?) 4) Themes. While any themes you work will NXE, check out some of the new themes via My Xbox and select your profile (second slot) and then change theme. Xbox 360, Spectrum, Day and Night are new themes that available as part of your NXE upgrade…check them out. 5) Marketplace on Xbox.com. This new feature lets you search, browse, and purchase games and videos while you are away from your console. You can also perform account management functions like changing your billing information, viewing your purchase history, and downloading items you already own. 6) Netflix - Xbox LIVE Gold Member and you have Netflix? If you are in the US you can stream thousands of videos (some in HD) directly from Netflix to your Xbox 360. Not a member? Sign up for a free trial at Xbox.com/netflix 7) Install to / Play from Hard Drive. With the game in the tray, return to your dashboard. (pressing the guide button then Y works as always) then go to My Xbox. From here press Y, which will bring up a new menu which will allow, among other things the ability to install a game to your hard drive. Hint: You can still use the Xbox 360 guide while installing a game to keep in touch with your friends or start a Party. Bonus: Before you do #7, be sure to set up what happens when you turn on your Xbox 360. My Xbox->System Settings>Console settings. Then choose Start up to to choose Disc, Xbox Dashboard or Windows Media Center. Once you are done there…check the option right below it: Autostart. This tell your Xbox 360 what to do when you insert a game. The choices are enable or disable. I have mine set to disable so I can easily use install to hard drive. Delete Zero Gamerscore games. You can remove any games from your games played list that you have earned no achievements or gamerscore. Press the Xbox 360- guide button, navigate left to the games section and choose Achievements. From here choose the game with zero gamerscore you want to remove and press X (Delete Game History.) 9) Press the Xbox 360 button on your controller to see the all new Guide. The team has added more functionality than the old guide, while making it more responsive. It’s a quick way to check your messages, see who is online or start a party. 10) Take a look at Community Games in the Games Marketplace. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public. The update to NXE does some nice things like avatars, better communications with friends and Netflix downloads. That said, UK [and European] users still have no access to Netflix standard and HD movie and TV downloads - something that is proving to be one of the most popular NXE features for US gamers. C’mon guys, sort it out.-Martin Lynch

Original post by nafiz

Today, Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience for Xbox Live. The list of new features includes the streaming of TV shows and movies through Netflix, the ability to install games to the HDD, an avatar system, and the Community Games platform. The launch itself was shaky at first, but most issues have been smoothed out. Sony-owned Columbia Pictures immediately pulled their movie selection, though it may return when a licensing deal gets worked out. Halo 3 developer Bungie pointed out that not all games will run faster when installed to a HDD because of the way the games already interact with the drive.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by Soulskill

You can tell people are getting ready to pig out in style this Christmas when the most searched-for product on the Internet by UK surfers is Nintendo’s Wii Fit. Hitwise said that during October, the Wii Fit led the Wii, the iPhone, Nokia N96, iPod and the PS3 as the priority Christmas items for UK online shoppers. Robin Goad, research director at Hitwise commented: “Wii Fit, Nintendo’s popular video game, is currently the most searched-for product by UK Internet shoppers in the run-up to Christmas. During October there were more UK Internet searches for Wii Fit than the Nintendo Wii, the most popular product last Christmas. After Wii Fit and the Wii console, the third most searched-for gadget is the Apple iPhone.” However, buying a console has dropped in importance this year compared to last as the focus now seems to have shifted to games. After our recent coverage of the Gears Of War 2 sales success and the frenzy yesterday to get World Of Warcraft: Wrath Of The Lich King, games look set kick the recession into touch. “The popularity of Nintendo’s Wii Fit, which accounted for one in six searches for a video game during October, has helped online searches for video games overtake those for consoles in the run-up to Christmas. Judging by the search data, it looks as if the current generation of consoles - the Wii, Playstation 3 and X-Box 360 - have started to mature.” Looking in more detail at the most searched for games during October, it is multi-platform video games that are most popular almost one in two video game searches are for titles published across more than one console. Three of the top five most searched for video games in the UK during October were multi-platform: Far Cry 2, Call of Duty: World at War (released this week) and Saints Row 2.” Sadly, it looks like hundreds of thousands of you may be out of luck as Woolworths, John Lewis, Argos and Play.com are all reporting that they’ve now sold out of Wii Fit. Don’t despair too much though because Electronic Arts (EA) is cooking up its own ’shed-the-festive-flab’ Wii Fit rival called Sports Active - more on that later this morning.-Martin Lynch [Hitwise] games wii fit console

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

We knew the SlingCatcher was sneaking out into the wild, and hey — we just snagged one at retail in Chicago. We’re busy tearing into all the projector, Sling streaming, and media streaming features, but we figured we throw up the unboxing photos right away so you can get a feel for Sling’s latest, long-awaited box.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

It’s been over a year and half since Sling first announced the SlingCatcher, but the mythical streamer is finally, finally here — it’s now officially for sale on Sling’s site and at other major retailers. You already know most of the details about the $299 box — Slingbox playback, SlingProjector computer streaming, extensive codec support including XviD, eventual Sling.com content delivery — so we’ll just let you hit the order page, but rest assured we’ll be tearing this thing apart when our test unit arrives.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Nilay Patel

British Indie Group Revolver Entertainment is set to undergo a rather interesting experiment when its new film ‘Mum & Dad’ is released on December 26th. It’s the first UK distributor to release a movie on all platforms at the same time, so this means it′ll appear in the cinema, on DVD, video-on-demand services, rental and on TV on the same day. It’s looking into doing something similar for the US release next year. The film is about a ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ style family that lives at the end of Heathrow Airport and abducts ground staff and the like for dastardly deeds. It has gathered rather mixed reviews from those who have seen early screeners and being a low-budget indie release the results won’t exactly be that meaningful as a judge of its success. Can anyone really see this catching on? Sure it′ll cut down on piracy, but the revenue lost from stinging people to watch it at the cinema/buy it on DVD should outweigh these benefits considerably. We can’t see Hollywood buying it, not for a second. - Paul Lester [Tech Digest] movie british indie

Original post by nafiz

We read an interesting titbit today about an upcoming new Blu-ray player from Memorex. Interesting because only yesterday it seemed as if the Blue Ray Association (BDA) was digging its heels in and promising no price reductions for either the players or the media in the foreseeable future. The Memorex MVBD-2510 will ship in the US for a rather palatable $270 and while we’re still trying to find out if it’ll make it over here, these sorts of moves tend to have a ripple effect that suggests budget priced devices could well be on the way. £150-ish is far more acceptable as far as we’re concerned, and as well as support for the HD format this player comes packed with audio processing technology for the latest Dolby standards and up to 7.1 surround sound. It also upscales DVDs to 1080p and supports rewriteable CDs and DVDs. The 2510 should be available from November, and if we hear about a UK release in the meantime we’ll be sure to let you know. - Paul Lester [TechRadar] Blu-ray HD budget

Original post by nafiz

We read an interesting titbit today about an upcoming new Blu-ray player from Memorex. Interesting because only yesterday it seemed as if the Blue Ray Association (BDA) was digging its heels in and promising no price reductions for either the players or the media in the foreseeable future. The Memorex MVBD-2510 will ship in the US for a rather palatable $270 and while we′re still trying to find out if it’ll make it over here, these sorts of moves tend to have a ripple effect that suggests budget priced devices could well be on the way. £150-ish is far more acceptable as far as we′re concerned, and as well as support for the HD format this player comes packed with audio processing technology for the latest Dolby standards and up to 7.1 surround sound. It also upscales DVDs to 1080p and supports rewriteable CDs and DVDs. The 2510 should be available from November, and if we hear about a UK release in the meantime we′ll be sure to let you know. - Paul Lester [TechRadar] Blu-ray HD budget

Original post by nafiz

If you want a big screen in your home but for whatever reason aren’t keen on shelling out for a massive plasma TV, a projector is your next best bet. Models designed for home use have been around for yonks and high definition projectors have been doing the rounds over the last year or so, but many are prohibitively expensive. Not so with Infocus’ new X9, which offers 720p output, 16:9 aspect and is capable of projecting a screen a full 30 feet in size. The 1800 lumens video-optimised bulb should mean that even if you can’t get almost total darkness from an environment the content will still be very watchable. There’s HDMI 1.3 inputs for getting high-def content on-board and best of all you’ll find short-throw technology here, which means you can place it as close as one meter away from a wall, though this only generates a 27″ screen. If you have the layout, a suitable wall and ideally a place to permanently mount it then the X9 seems like a pretty versatile solution, and best of all it’ll be available for just £499 when it’s released in October. - Paul Lester [Infocus] Infocus projector HD

Original post by nafiz

It ain′t pretty and it’s as big as a 1980’s VCR but, if the specs on the new Sanyo LP-Z3000 HD projector are anything to go on, then you won′t really care because everyone watching the movie will be too busy drooling with amazement and envy to notice. It’s a Full HD beamer with 1980 x 1080 resolution, features 120Hz processing and the industry’s first ‘5:5 pull-down′ which will make 24fps [frames per second] content run smoother and more accurately than most other projectors out there in its class. The contrast ratio is a claimed 65,000:1 which is very high indeed and well above the LP-Z2000’s 15,000:1 [in itself quite impressive]. It can project movies from as small as 40in up to a whopping 300in, has a bright 1,200 Lumens lamp and boasts a super quiet 19dB fan noise which means it’s just above breathing and well below popcorn munching. There are 2 x HDMI v1.3 inputs and, just to be more impressive, it has some great lens shifting capabilities: up to 3 screens vertically and 2 screens horizontally. This means you can pretty much put the projector anywhere in your room and it will shoot onto the middle of your chosen wall/screen. Shipping at the end of November in Japan first, it will cost around £2,300.-Martin Lynch [Sanyo] movies projector HD

Original post by nafiz

The holy grail of projector technology is not HD but making projectors small enough to fit inside your pocket or, even better, inside a mobile phone. DLP inventors Texas Instruments have been pushing a tiny one around the various trade shows but now, from left field, 3M is about to launch the first actual pico projector in a few weeks. On September 30, the MPro110 mini projector, looking like a mobile phone, goes on sale in the US first for around £190. Even Optoma should be caught hopping on that one.It weighs in at 140g and measures 5.08cm x 2.29cm x 11.43cm. It has VGA for hooking up to laptops and composite for connecting it to any number of mobile devices like a PSP, iPod, camera, iPhone etc. and will project them onto any surface. If it’s white it’s best and the darker the room the better. Resolution is 640 x 480 and despite its size, the MPro110 can throw up a 50in image - like having big TV in your pocket. It weighs in at 140g and measures 5.08cm x 2.29cm x 11.43cm. OK, this baby isn’t going to light up things on the performance front but it is a pocket-sized projector and that’s good enough for us, for now. At least until we see the first wave of tiny devices based on the higher spec miniature DLP Pico chipset arrive in early 2009. -Martin Lynch [Popsci] projector mobile phone movies

Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Peripherals

While not the most mesmerizing news to flow from 2008’s Intel Developer Forum, this is a welcome piece for anyone who appreciates hasty transfers. The Serial ATA International Organization (SATA-IO) has announced that the partially complete SATA Revision 3.0 specification will eventually double data transfer rates to 6Gbps. This week’s release gives the green light to developers to begin designing products based on said tech, though the finalized paperwork won’t be ready until later this year. On a related note, the same consortium has announced the formal launch of its certified logo program, which will enable consumers to easily recognize when a product has passed SATA-IO interoperability testing and is a bona fide SATA 6Gb/sec-enabled device. Enough chatter — wares, please?

[Via SmallNetBuilder]

Read - SATA 3.0 specification
Read - SATA-IO certification logo

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Original post by Darren Murph

Following TomTom’s announcement of its 930T with new IQRoutes and Advanced Lane Guidance features, it has now confirmed availability of the entire x30 range.

If you’ve been put off by the rather expensive £399 price tag of the line-leading 930T (and don’t need maps of the USA, Canada and Russia, for example) you’ll be pleased to know there are cheaper models available.

The GO 730 focuses on Europe only, and is available in both non-traffic and traffic-enabled versions for £299.99 and £329.99 respectively.

At the bottom of the range the Xenophobe’s choice is the 530, offering maps of the UK and Ireland for £249.99 or £279.99 if you want traffic data.

Luckily all of the navigators offer the headline new features, along with traditional extras like TomTom MapShare, hands-free calling via Bluetooth, a 4.3” widescreen display and voice address input.

You’ll also find an FM transmitter, safety camera database and all the typical customisation options that allow you to personalise the device with different voices and the like.

The range is available now in stores across the UK. – Paul Lester

4.3 inch widescreen 16:9 format LCD (WQVGA, 480 x 272 pixels)
CPU 400 MHz
TomTom GO 930 Traffic: 4 GB internal flash memory
TomTom GO 530/730 and GO 530/730 Traffic: 1-2 GB internal flash memory
SD card slot
High sensitivity GPS receiver
Bluetooth® connectivity
Battery lithium-polymer (up to 5 hours operation)
Dimensions: 118 mm x 83 mm x 24 mm
Weight: 220 grams

[TomTom]

TomTom GPS satnav

Original post by nafiz

Sorting out the increasingly shoddy state of the battery in modern technology is becoming an increasing priority and would have far wider-reaching effects on our lives than just allowing a phone to go without charge for a few weeks.

Provided a more effective solution can be found, Audi seems optimistic that it’ll break the electric car market within five to ten years.

Doing so without compromising style and performance is the key, though we hope it succeeds as the ʋ project Quattro concept looks like quite a snazzy motor.

As well as resolving the issue of local power we’d also need an infrastructure that’d allow you to power the thing up easily and in addition use a sustainable source from which to do so.

It should come as no surprise that electric cars are a great opportunity for companies, with hybrid models pretty limited both in terms of choice and popularity, plus don’t even get us started on the price of oil. – Paul Lester

[TechRadar]

electric car Audi battery power

Original post by nafiz

The Batmobile from the original 1989 Batman movie with Jack Nicholson and Michael Keaton is going under the hammer at eBay, with bidding starting at a cool £250,000.

The car is one of 5 created for the movie, measuring 20-feet long and 8-foot wide which should make storing it a joy. According to the owner:

“The chassis is custom built and the motor is a Chevrolet 350. There an no doors on the car. To get in you have to be able to enter through the top where the canopy opens, just like in the movie. There is no title to this car and will only be sold with a bill of sale. Batman 5 has been sitting in the “Batcave” for almost five years now, and it is time for another Batman enthusiast to enjoy her as much as I have.”

It’s a big beast but who wouldn’t want to cruise down Kensington in a Batmobile? That said, I have to alert you to the fact that you may not actually be able to.

We covered another Batmobile sale at the end of last year and in order to buy it you had to sign a Warner Bros. (WB) contract with lots of stipulations, including one that forbids you to drive it public. Mad, but true.

The owner of this one points out, somewhat lightly, that you will have to sign a WB contract too, but doesn’t say what it will entail.

A quick look at the mileage on the Batmobile – 54 miles – should answer that question.-Martin Lynch

[eBay via Complex]

cars batman batmobile movies

Original post by nafiz