Whenever I use sticky tape, I find myself struggling to figure where it begins—mostly because I don’t use tape dispensers or fold back the end—but my struggle might be over thanks to this new tape concept. More »

Besides that Android tablet, Toshiba’s brought a whole slew LED-lit LCD televisions to IFA 2010. The REGZA WL Series is the company’s first range of 3DTVs, available in 40-, 46- and 55-inch sizes (pictured above) with LED backlighting, 7,000,000:1 contrast ratios, it 3D Resolution+ upscaling tech and one pair of active shutter glasses bundled with each one. They’re also DLNA enabled and ready for Windows 7, with the Toshiba Media Controller software making streaming content as easy as dragging and dropping a file. The rest of the lineup includes the high end VL series with LED backlighting, midrange REGZA 42SL738 42-inch HDTV and edge-lit SL738 series LCDs in smaller sizes from 9- to 32-inches. Check the press site or YouTube trailers embedded after the break for more details, and don’t be surprised to see the 200Hz motion technology, millimeter measurements, DVB-T tuners and BBC streaming while these are due in October across the pond, we’ll be keeping an eye out at CEDIA for US-bound variants.

Continue reading Toshiba goes all LED with new HDTVs at IFA 2010

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I am working on brainstorming some different game ideas. I think I have decided to use cocos2d which is a sweet free engine that had a lot of the work already done for me so that I can focus on making the game pretty, challenging, fun etc. The game logic will be easier to focus on with the engine already built and running.

So far I have decided to stay away from 3D and Action games just because of the amount of time I actually have to work on development (plenty of RL stuff going on). The genre I want to try out first, at least to get my feet wet is the puzzle genre. Why? Development will be shorter, testing will be easier and I love problems and solutions. The game should be able to be picked up for a few minutes here and there and set back down. Most puzzle games integrate a social aspect so I expect Facebook Connect to play a role also it will help promote the game.

So I have decided on a puzzle game but what type to make? Match 3 is very popular and overly done. Blocked in type games are also popular and overly done. The only way to make a successful game like these would be to completely invent some new aspect to the game. So what else is there? Well I love math and I love science and have been reading a lot of Discover magazine articles. So I’m brainstorming some kind of puzzle game that will incorporate math whether it be in an obvious way or hidden way. Incorporating science could be hard but I am always open to suggestions. If anyone has any interesting ideas that they would like to see in a puzzle game feel free to comment on the post. I always live hearing from readers and the more input I get the more I can narrow my games focus. With the games development I may do a dev diary to track the status and build some hype. One issue I will have is that I usually do my own graphics but am not very good at it so I plan on building the game with some crappy graphics and then improve the graphics once the game is in a working state.

So like I said any suggestions, guides, tutorials, information or anything else feel free to comment and Enjoy!

Long before ever daydreaming about dashing Jedi knights, I hugged my teddy and imagined he’d lead me on adventures through forests. Artist James Hance has captured both of those innocent stages of adolescence and combined them into wonderfully whimsical illustrations. More »

SKITTERBOT claims to be the fastest legged micro-robotic toy in the world. And from the video, which shows a swarm of these colorful $20 robo-cockroaches zipping around in a frenzy, I can imagine that might be correct. More »

This is how I imagine a trip into the brain of Hunter S. Thompson after eating a slice of Benoît Mandelbrot’s brain, sautéed with a bit of pepper, olive oil, and mescal shaves. Except there are no strippers running around. More »

I recently ordered and received the Apress – Beginning iPhone Games Development book. You can check it out here from Amazon. So far the book has blown my mind with tons of different concepts and approaches to different games. A lot of the book so far focuses on a game called Space Rocks! which is just like the old Asteroids game. The first few chapters have us make the game using Quartz/UIKit the later chapters have recreated the same project using OpenGL ES 1.1 but entirely in 2D (so far). The book does an awesome job of explaining the various aspects of game design including the all important game loop. Another great concept that is followed throughout the book is the MVC (Model View Controller) architecture. The book teaches you key concepts about what each part of your game should be doing and what it should not be doing. For example during a rendering phase you should not be updating the game, during the update phase you should not be rendering etc. I am not even half way through the book yet and already have a few ideas for different games. The only issue I am having is what engine I want to use should I stick with Quartz/UIKit or make the leap to OpenGL and a much more upgradable game? Well I am going to keep reading and keep working so like always Enjoy!

Google, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon — when you hear these names, you usually think about how these tech giants all compete with one another. But what if they all teamed up for one cause? They’d be unstoppable, right? We’re about to find out.

All of these companies are currently sitting in the same boat about to storm the beaches. Which beaches? Those belonging to the the cable television providers in the U.S. It has only just begun, but the assault is underway.

Let me start by saying that of course the cable companies aren’t about to go away. Even if the mega assault by the tech juggernauts is successful, it will be many years before everyone’s addiction to cable gives way to something else. But it will. And that something else will be content served over the Internet.

And in that regard, the cable companies have positioned themselves fairly well because many of them are among the largest ISPs in the country now. But it’s their core business, cable television, that is facing this assault.

Just take a look at the big picture. Everyday there is a new story about how one of the aforementioned tech giants is on the verge of something new meant to control our time spent watching content — and much of it from the living room. Today’s story is about Google’s big pay-per-view movie plan for YouTube, a new service they’re hoping to debut later this year with full Hollywood studio support. If they land it, it could be huge. But that’s just today’s example.

On Wednesday, at an event in San Francisco, Apple is widely expected to debut their next iteration of the Apple TV — which will likely now be called the “iTV”. Alongside it, they’re expected to unveil a new layer of iTunes that will allow people to rent television shows for $0.99 a pop. Again, that too could be huge.

But it doesn’t really matter if one of these individual things doesn’t hit it big (and certainly the current Apple TV hasn’t). It’s the fact that all of these giant companies are clearly focused on this one thing: invading the living room and changing the way we consume video entertainment.

And they absolutely should be focused on that space. It’s a multi-billion dollar goldmine of potential that is sitting around begging to be disrupted. Consumers wants this — even if many don’t realize it yet.

You see, there are plenty of us more tech-savvy consumers who have long thought about severing our ties with cable television — and some of us already have to varying degrees. Most average consumers simply don’t realize there are better alternatives out there yet, because the truth is that there is no singular better alternative right now. But these services from the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Netflix, etc. keep moving forward. And as more enter the game, they keep pushing each other to improve at a more rapid pace.

Cable is vulnerable because for far too long they’ve screwed us all with ridiculous prices for a crapload of content that we simply don’t want. Despite the ever-present promise of a-la-carte pricing, it has never come to fruition. And so our cable bills remain close to (or over) $100 a month. We’re paying for so much stuff we simply don’t want. But we have no choice.

Further, the vast majority of consumers would agree that the cable companies have just about the worst customer service imaginable. They’re continually promising to get better, but they never do. They’re always over-billing, service is always going out, and their phone lines are always jam-packed with complaints that fall upon deaf ears. Compare this to a company like Netflix which actually reaches out to you when they think they might have screwed up — even in the smallest way.

And on top of the garbage customer support, there’s the actual user experience of cable. It’s awful. Each company seems to be competing with the others for who can pick the worst cable box with the shittiest software. For a little while it looked like TiVo may solve that problem with their own DVR box that provided a layer on top of the cable box. But the cable companies put a quick end to that when they started including DVRs in their own boxes — complete with true-to-form god-awful UIs — for far cheaper.

It’s almost unbelievable to me that in this day and age that the user interface many of us have in our cable boxes looks as if it was designed with a crayon by a 6-year-old. This is how we interact with the device that is for many, the most-used in their home: the TV. A lot of kitchen appliances now have better UIs.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon — all of these guys offer experiences that are a million times better than cable. The only thing that’s holding them back is the content. Netflix is the one arguably making the most headway here, but that’s mainly for movies and older television shows. But Netflix is smart in that they’re not trying to do their own thing. They’re great as a supplement to something like the Xbox 360 and soon, undoubtedly, the iTV. If Xbox Live really can get live sports programming too, it will be another step.

The same is true if YouTube gets major Hollywood rentals. Undoubtedly, this will be a part of the Google TV package that will launch later this year. It’s an interesting model because Google TV is a platform that’s meant to lay on top of existing cable. But in that regard, it may end up being a great bridge to move people away from their cable addiction, and towards content over the Internet.

And if Apple’s iTV comes with the television show rentals, it will also be an important step. For most people, buying each television show you want to watch doesn’t make a lot of sense. But renting them for a cheaper price does. As a person who only is interested in a handful of shows, I expect such a solution to be a fraction of a fraction of the cost of my cable bill. I can’t wait.

Amazon has a pipeline into the living room through a few set top boxes already, but they’re also likely working on their own solution — in the same way they have their Kindle solution for digital books. People probably never thought the Kindle and other similar devices would lead to a changing of the book industry as quickly as it has — but it’s happening, just ask the Borders down the street from me which is going out of businesses.

And with cable, it’s going to happen too.

The music industry has already been disrupted. The book industry has been disrupted. The mobile industry has been disrupted. Now it’s time for the cable industry to be disrupted. There are too many major players with too many billions of dollars worth of resources for something not to hit and change the industry. It’s amazing that all of these guys are focusing on the same thing at the same time.

I, for one, cannot wait for the day when cable has to surrender and fall back into its role as a dumb pipe for the Internet. Innovation always tops greed and complacency. Always. The assault is underway.

[images: Dreamworks]

On August 24th I posted about the $0.01 cases I had found from Default Case. I ordered one to try out and see how good it was for the cheap price. So far I LOVE the case. It feels like rubber, is durable like plastic, and just looks cool. The case fits perfectly over the phone giving you access to you volume buttons and silent switch. The top and bottom are uncovered to allow full access to the bottom and top of the phone which means any accessories you already have should work flawlessly. The cases have a nice feeling to them that allow you to grip them securely and still add very little to the size of the phone. I think one of the best things is that this case works perfectly with an Invisible Shield. The case just grips the metal lip on the band around the phone which leaves the screen perfectly open for a screen protector. One issue I had with the bands that wrap around the iPhone is that it would push my Invisible Shield off around the edges on the back of the phone. Since this case has the back covered and doesn’t interfere with the screen protector on the front this combination is providing perfect coverage and protection. You can check out my initial post about the cases here to see the pictures of the different cases currently available.

After using this case for the last 2 days (it arrived on Friday the 27th -wicked fast) I have decided that this is best case I have ever had for a phone. I wish all the people at Default Case the best of luck with their cases and hope to see more new cases in the future!

Remember the $0.01 is for a limited time only (like a prize for early adopters) so I would say hurry up and get yourself this awesome case! Enjoy!

The first sonar images of the Titanic have been mapped and the ship’s debris field is much larger than scientists anticipated. Here’s what the dots in the sonar image is actually showing. More »