Monthly Archives: May 2011

You might think yourself too grown-up to be wowed by shiny, glittery things, but we doubt many will be able to watch NVIDIA’s new Glow Ball tech demo without a smidgen of childlike glee. Built to run on the company’s quad-core Kal-El processor, it shows us the first example of true dynamic lighting on mobile devices and also throws in some impressive physics calculations like fully modeled cloth motion. Instead of the pre-canned, static lights that we see on mobile games today, NVIDIA’s new hardware will make it possible to create lighting that moves, fluctuates in intensity, and responds realistically to its environment — all rendered in real time. The titular glow ball can be skinned with different textures, each one allowing a different amount and hue of illumination to escape to surrounding objects, and is directed around the screen using the accelerometer in your tablet or smartphone.

So, you’re a ball. A Tarzan Ball, to be precise. You’ve earned the nickname thanks to your astonishing ability to shoot out a lengthy ‘vine’ (I hope it’s a vine) at objects, and then pull yourself towards those objects.

That’s a handy ability to have, especially since you’ve got no legs, no arms, and no other means of transportation. In Tarzan Ball, the rope is everything. But you don’t just swing around the screen aimlessly – that wouldn’t be much of a game now, would it?

BBC News: Catching up with the iOS app, the Beeb has just released an Android app for breaking news across any of the categories that could possibly attempt you. You can personalise the homescreen to your interests, too. As is par for the course with these apps, the ability to share a story via email, SMS or social networks has been included also, and if your phone is running Android 2.2 or higher, BBC News can also be live-streamed using Flash. Free

More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/WCWr5o0i-k0/the-weeks-best-android-apps

HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS GOOGLE GOOGLE FORMFACTOR FISERV FIRST SOLAR

I have a thing for full-screen text editing. I use WriteMonkey for my creative writing needs, and VIM in a full-screen PuTTY session for my Web development work. That being the case, I’m all over the monospace, dark-background, focused editing scene.

OmmWriter attempts to take that aesthetic and make it somehow more spiritual, with three picturesque backgrounds and ambient background audio tracks (there are seven of each in the paid version).

I’m of two minds about this app. On the one hand, yes, it’s beautiful. But if you want music as a background to your writing, why not pick your own soundtrack with Winamp or Foobar2000 running in the background?

With Windows 8 milestone 3 now up for grabs for select Microsoft Connect partners, it’s inevitable that leaked bits and pieces will start popping up around the Web. In fact, the first “official” wallpaper image from the still-brewing OS is already making the rounds.

As you can see, it’s got a similar feel to the good ol’ Windows 7 default background, but features a more subdued smattering of cerulean hues. Those of you who want to use the Windows 8 wallpaper on your current desktop can download it from our file dump.

Today?s LogicBUY deal is the customizable Dell Vostro 3450 14? laptop with the Intel 2011 Core i5 (Sandy Bridge) for $599.  Features: weighs 5.02 pounds, 1.2-1.31 inches thick, up to 6GB DDR3 memory, 1GB Radeon HD 6630 discrete graphics, 2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI, eSATA, 8-in-1 card reader, DVD+/-RW drive or optional Blu-ray, LED-backlit anti-glare [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/05/27/deal-of-the-day-%e2%80%93-dell-vostro-3450-14%e2%80%9d-core-i5-sandy-bridge-laptop-for-599/

DIEBOLD DELL CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR ACCENTURE ACER ADOBE SYSTEMS

The legal slugfest between partners-turned-competitors Apple and Samsung continues: Samsung has demanded that Apple release the iPhone 4S/5 and iPad 3 to their lawyers as part of a discovery process to determine if there was any infringement on Apple’s part. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/TpZzGz2zUSs/samsung-demands-to-see-the-iphone-5-and-ipad-3-in-court

ANIXTER INTERNATIONAL APPLE COMPUTER APPLIED MATERIALS ARIAN SEMICONDUCTOR EQUIPMENT ARROW ELECTRONICS ASML HOLDING

When Amazon Appstore for Android launched last week, one of its primary features — Test Drive — was disabled just a few minutes after it opened. With no try-before-you-buy, no refund process, and 1-Click purchasing ready to strike at any moment, this caused some problems. Anyway, don’t despair: Test Drive is now enabled.

Before you get your hopes up, Test Drive doesn’t work with every app. The IMDb app works fine — you can even watch movie trailers on it! — but the Angry Birds games are sadly not enabled. Some games work surprisingly well, though, like Bubble Buster. There’s very little latency, and the framerate is really rather good. The Test Drive experience is so true to life that you even get ads; how cool is that?

Unlike the watches that display the time in a pattern of colored lights, the 4-Bit Chrono UTC Watch from the Cadence Watch Co. looks like a typical analog watch with date and chronograph functions.  The geekery is subtle in this one:  the hour markers are displayed in 4-bit code with the least significant bit to [...]

Source: http://the-gadgeteer.com/2011/05/28/subtly-display-your-geek-cred-with-the-cadence-4-bit-chrono-watch/

IOMEGA INTUIT INTERSECTIONS INTERNATIONAL RECTIFIER INTERNATIONAL GAME TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES (IBM)

Yes, that’s right, I said adorable. Because Cueboy Quest really is!

You play an 8-bit cowboy whose goal on each level is to get to the door (and thus to the next level), but the door is often locked. To get it to open, you must shoot at one or more targets, and those targets aren’t always in your line of sight. For example, on one level the the target is a balloon which is stuck all the way at the other end of the screen. You must first nudge it free, and then watch it float up and try to shoot it before it floats clear off the screen. Your bullets are chunky pixels that have some weight – the have arcing trajectories, so you don’t always hit exactly where you aim.