It looks like competition has widdled things out to be a little bit too thin for some companies in the downloadable market, and the latest company to walk past the exit signs and close shop is Ruckus Music. It hung on for quite some time even though it was pretty well forgotten when you remember it was up against online music giants like Microsoft and Apple not to mention the countless number of other small online download websites and networks.
The fact that their closing is not surprising but it’s a little bit surprising how they did it, I mean their website all of a sudden just points to the image you see at the top of the post. This does however make me wonder, how many users did they have? Did they use DRM? Because if so they basically screwed the DRM users that bought their music. Or did they actually have no users left that they managed to just close it off without having to worry about things like disappointing users?
Source: Engadget
You know of you look up the stuff that comes out of china, you’ll find everything from bootleg Xbox consoles to bootleg Nixon watches. Considering how popular the iPod is you can bet yourself their have been fake iPod’s in the past.
But considering theirs a war between Microsoft’s Xbox and Apple’s iPod instead of making a fake of each, one Chinese company decided to combine the 2, the case and screen size of the iPod and general layout but the round circle (Yet not iPod quality clicker wheel). For those looking for the worst resolution out of the 3 but actually some pretty nice features such as lots of codec support, USB2 and microSD slot then it might not be all bad to buy the QQ K805. But then remember it is that crappy Chinese knock off quality, so don’t be expecting anything relevantly as good quality as the real zune or ipod.
Source: DAP Review
Ok now I won’t go so far to say I’m actually going to get a PS3 because no single game is enough to push me to get a console especially the pricey
playstation 3 when all of the games I love are on the 360. But Killzone 2 really does make me itch to spend some money, I truly wish they would have gone multiplatform with it. It’s definitely not a 10/10 as it’s got some definite bits that annoy me, the turning speed feels sluggish. I mean the graphics are amazing but certain things aren’t balanced properly. I mean running for some reason is like your a super human but you turn 180degrees about as fast as if you were 300lbs even with the sensitivity cranked up to 11.
I haven’t been able to play the whole game yet only beta and demo so I know the multiplayer will rock, but I’ve heard from others that the story is quite flat which might not bug many, but the fact that their isn’t any coop kind of pisses me off after all the great games to be released recently that all with that “bring a friend in” feeling.
Here’s where the whole PS3 vs 360 debate comes into play it comes down to the little things that make Killzone stand out from other games and give it that “awesome game” feeling. Very well tuned post processing filters are probably the #1 feature, but its the insane detail they went through to make things realistic and it all works around weight, everything’s mass feels real, shots and impacts have realistic impacts to the bodies movements. When you stop moving your body shifts forward to a stop the gun swings as you turn and as you stop turning. The deaths and impacts just make things rock. Most will say it’s the PS3 power that gives the game this ability, but not really it’s all about choices that the developers made and mostly to due with the VERY long development time that allowed them to really fine tune everything.
Whatever the case this generation I think the only thing thats for sure is that most people will probably end up with both a PS3 and a xbox360 because both sides have some awesome games. And even the AAA titles that make the consoles who they are will have their big pluses and nagging minuses.
If i had to I’d give Killzone a 9/10 based on what I know and have seen from the demo and beta multiplayer. And i’m giving it the benefit of the doubt that the rest of the final game will continue on with how the previous release were.
Source: Inhouse
Here’s something that’s worlds better than any breakthrough in weight loss products, but probably no one realizes just how awesome it truly would be. Just about any tech geek says that they would kill for this extensible OLED display. The concept is basic, the technology isn’t but the outcome is spectacular. As you can see it’s a mock up of a large 16:9 display but what makes this one different is the fact that it’s a transparent flexible OLED stretched between 2 rods.
The rods handle the size of the screen and allow the screen to wrap up internally so that the screen can be shifted into say a 20” 4:3 screen or however big your desk might be. It’s like the videophiles wet dream, a screen that no matter what size or aspect video your watching never has annoying black borders to throw off the sensation. The fact it’s a bendable OLED means you could put a slight bend in it to actually have a enveloping effect of the screen wrapping around your peripheral vision.
As the ultimate screen space saving improvement, is that it also has a built in low cost mini projector that projects widgets and icons on your actual desktop. No more stupid dock icons jumping on your screen to get attention or anything distracting you from your actual work. The idea that they could even incorporate this with a webcam and remove all need for icons on the actual screen and respond to hand taps on the desktop projections seems awesome. But even just as a mini-projector built into the display would allow it to show alerts on the desktop/wall behind the screen.
Source: Petit Invention
In the past we’ve seen the little USB 7” monitors that just basically plug in and add screen real estate to any computer, desktop/laptop it all just works. Personally I see it as a great way for to clean up my apps, I mean a nice USB monitor running at 800×480 is perfect for running instant messaging windows so that you can have a separate screen while your busy working.
I can see a lot of uses, hell if they had made it a little spring loaded so that it could pop up i could see it being used even as a “cheap” Rackmount monitor I say “cheap” because in the world of rackmount monitors it might be considered cheap, but considering we’re talking about a 7” monitor the fact it completely runs off of USB is wicked for as I said, running say MSN in a separate tiny screen while I’m working but it also makes it into something that I really don’t need necessarily especially with 20” monitors selling for around $200 it kind of hurts the chances of me picking one of these up now that their available in the US since their being priced over that one hundred dollar impulse buy line. The basic 710 version with 800 x 480 resolution and 400:1 contrast, 360 nit brightness, definitely solid specs for its size selling for $130 and the higher end 740 even higher priced at $200 with touch screen and webcam make it a little more limited to who exactly would buy it. I think it’s more limited now to perhaps CarPC makers as I want extra desktop space for my chat windows for that price I’ll just get a PCI video card and another 19” monitor for the same price and get more for my money.
Source: Engadget
