If you’re still rocking an original Xbox, you might want to take note. Starting April 15th, Microsoft will be discontinuing support for all original Xbox games. Yes, that also means that your old copies of Halo 2 won’t work on Live, even if played in your shiny new 360. You’ll need to have a good old-fashioned LAN party if you want to play those titles with a significant amount of players.
So why the lack of love for Microsoft’s original console? It seems that the company is working on some updates that wouldn’t be possible to implement with the current limitations of these titles. They’re fairly mum on what these new features will be, though it likely has something to do with the Project Natal which is supposed to drop later this year.
In reality, the Cool Shades Tape from Azumi and David is meant to be nothing more than just a stylish alternative to boring, clear packing tape. But there’s nothing stopping you from tearing off a few inches and wearing it as a disposable, yet cool, fashion accessory. They’re available in two different flavors, Disc Jockey & Supermodel glasses, or Architect & Intellectual, and each 60mm wide/60m long roll is available from Azumi and David’s online store for about $17.
Lithium ion batteries are way, way better than nickel metal hydride batteries or (shudder) nickle cadmium batteries. But still, batteries are batteries, and they have a way of going from cool to sucks in a matter of only a few hundred charging cycles, whatever their supposed lifetimes are purported to be. The six cell battery on my netbook, which incidentally cost about a third as much as the entire computer, was advertised as being able to last six hours, lasted four brand new, and is now (a year later) down to three on a good day.
By doing something clever involving keeping tin particles bonded together, a Japanese company called Eamex is saying that they’ve been able to develop a battery that can be charged and discharged some 10,000 times, which means that they should last about 20 years if you recharge them about 1.3 times a day. Also, they’re talking about having a battery with a power density of 10,000 W/kg by the end of the year. Most of this stuff is probably headed for electric cars and such, at least initially… Guess it’s time to go buy one of those, then.
Oh, and I spent 20 minutes looking for an interesting picture of a lithium ion battery. I couldn’t find one, so instead here’s a picture of a bunny with a pancake on his head.
The internet can be a lonely place. You have no idea who you’re really talking to, whether they claim to be a 48 year old guy in his mom’s basement or a hot lonely teenage girl (like me), which is why instead of real people, you need Chatman. Chatman is a friendly yellow PC accessory who has no secrets and is “destined to become every kids new best mate” thanks to some fancy artificial intelligence software. Chatman spies on your instant messages, web surfing, gaming, and social networks and somehow “gets involved” by “tell[ing] you exactly what he thinks and how he feels about the discussions exchanged.”
In addition to moving eyes, arms, ear things, and an LED emoticon mouth, Chatman has 3 personality options, 25 moods (whatever that means), and over 500 different actions. You can program Chatman with new actions and stuff, but before he’ll use them, they have to get approved by his parent corporation. Incidentally, while Chatman won’t actually prevent you from visiting no-no websites, he will tattle back to your parents and verbally chastise you. There isn’t a lot of information on these features specifically, and that makes it all seem a little bit sinister, like Chatman is actually designed to be some nanny software in a kid-friendly and “fun” (sort of) disguise. Your friendly, round, and yellow little bit brother should be available around Easter for nobody knows how much.
The Beauty and Cosmetics Industry is going through a serious transformation and Shiseido is amongst the leading companies driving this change to make you look better. Shiseido has just launched a Digital Cosmetic Mirror which allows you to test your make-up without even having to pick up a Mascara brush. The in-built camera in Digital Cosmetic Mirror scans your face and gives you tailored recommendations. Choose your make-up options from the list of recommendations and see the results they’ll have on the screen.
Virtual Make up is easy and more importantly, it’s quick!
Even before the buzz around the release of Apple iPad could settle down, Google has set the alarm bells ringing for Apple by releasing the first images of its much anticipated concept – The Google Tablet. Much like the iPad, the Google Tablet will have a sleek and stylish design.
The device will offer innovative features like contextual actions triggered via dwell (What does that even mean? -Ed.), UI Zooming for multiple tabs and an ability to create multiple browsers on the screen. Google has collaborated with a number of leading hardware manufacturers to implement this concept and once it comes to life, it might well turn out to be the iPad killer. Or perhaps this secret Apple project will.
I don’t think anyone’s ever lamented the lack of physical activity required for playing a game of Pong, that’s what tennis is for, but someone, somewhere, felt that the classic video game could use a bit more physical interaction, and hence Sportpong was born. Setup appears to be a little complicated since the game requires overhead projectors to be mounted and a decent sized area (the minimal dimensions are 4 meters wide by 7 meters long) but playing Sportpong looks to be as easy as it was with the original Pong.
Virtual paddles appear to be connected to each player’s foot thanks to a simple reflector they attach to their shoe, and the goal, as always, is to bounce the ‘dot’ past your opponents’ goal line. While Sportpong isn’t available for sale, the system can be rented out for special events by contacting the creators in Switzerland, and while it’s not posted on their site, the cost is probably mostly dependent on where they need to bring it.
The image above is just a prototype, and is subject to change according to StarWarsShop.com, but those of you who don’t spend your time whining about how George Lucas stole your childhood might find this a cool addition to your Star Wars collection. It’s your run-of-the-mill battery-powered alarm clock with snooze function and a digital display, but when the alarm goes off an ominous silhouette of Darth Vader is projected on the wall, beckoning you to join the dark side of waking up. $26.99 though only available for pre-order now since it won’t ship until May of this year.
If you’re still lamenting the fact that Duke Nukem Forever will never see the light of day, you might want to look away, since this news could be even harder to take. Way back in September of 1993, game publisher TecMagik announced that they had secured the rights to make a Super Nintendo (and Sega Genesis) game based on Steven Seagal. Oddly enough the game wasn’t based on a specific Seagal movie either (this was just before Under Siege came out making him a big name movie star) so TecMagik had signed him based solely on how well his previous films had done in the VHS rental market.
Sadly the game, which had Seagal wandering around with a female sidekick, fighting baddies in an effort to save her son, was never released. A 1994 release date was pushed back to 1995, and eventually the title disappeared after TecMagik announced a similar N64 title, which also never came out. The game’s graphics used the Mortal Kombat technique of filming live actors which were converted into somewhat-lifelike sprites, though a stand-in was used for Seagal since they figured people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference given the low-res digitized images. Deep down we would have all known though, so maybe the game’s demise was for the best.
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By Gaurav Kheterpal
