Though not scheduled to be officially unveiled before the end of the month, a pair of pics has already been released of the redesigned Rexton II from the Chinese-owned Korean automaker Ssangyong. The Rexton doesn’t appear all that large from the outside, but this ute can swallow seven people just like the new Toyota RAV4 with which it appears to share a D-pillar. The Rexton II also sports a very Mercedes-like grille, an appropriate homage to the company that helped developed the SUV’s new 2.0L common-rail diesel engine.
Sony's president of the Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios division Phil Harrison announced today that the upcoming PlayStation 3 controller will be unable to pull double duty as a precision kangaroo killer. Apparently the boomerang/banana shape that we've come to hate despise detest as the PS3's major drawback is being "tossed" in favor of an unspecified redesign (NOT the one pictured here) that will be unveiled at E3 in May, mentioned Harrison in a speech that was mainly about the Xbox Live-like PlayStation Network Platform. There's a lot of pressure on Sony here to unveil something appealing for several reasons: they need to placate the vocal minority of ravenous fanboys who publicly slammed the initial design, but more importantly, they need to prove they can outdesign a bunch of very talented gaming blog readers.
Like Griffin a manufacturer of iPod devices and the wide open world of PSP add-ons, Bluetake is planning on releasing their iPhono mini Bluetooth adapter for the PSP. The device sits along the bottom of the gaming handheld and features one-button pairing with Bluetooth headphones. No word on price or availability, right now it's merely listed as coming soon.
Tags are somewhat of an acquired taste,a nd the "average" computer user doesn't really get tags. So, maybe TagMan can get those stragglers into the action. It is nothing more and nothing less than a hangman game, using tags. You can choose from Technorati, Squidoo, del.icio.us, or Flickr. My personal favorite is Flickr, plus, there's a Bitty browser version of that. The Flickr version shows a couple of thumbnails at the bottom when you guess, and the others will take you to items with those tags.
MMO Roma Victor has taken punishment in virtual worlds(warning or banning players), to a whole nother level.
A player convicted of ganking in this MMO, which aims for historical accuracy, has undergone the standard Roman punishment of crucifixion, hung from a cross for a week in-game. The penalty also carries with it a ban. Hopefully this will dissuade other players from following suit--the public nature of the punishment serves to highlight the crime. If making an example of miscreants works well, perhaps other online games will try the idea.
Here's a great widget for OS X's Dashboard called World of Warcraft Raid Calendar that will remind you when a periodic instance raid is about to spawn. It will even display a countdown timer for the most sought-after raids. It works with any Warcraft realm server, and is available as a free download. Windows users, well, no OS X, no Dashboard. No Dashboard, no Raid Calendar Widget.
This preview of Crysis, CryTek's conceptual sequel to Far Cry, is slightly different than the video on display at ATI's GDC booth (available at 1UP). Though it lacks the first-person sequence being shown at GDC, this montage features a number of the environmental effects that are, almost literally, being brought to life by the game's technology.
We've seen a Louis Vuitton car, how about a $130,000 Louis Vuitton Von Dutch Kustom Cycle. This cycle was created for Mary J. Blige and will be on display at Terra, a store on Third Street between The Grove and The Beverly Center through April. Terra offers complimentary cappuccino/espresso and private label bottled water, gift wrapping, concierge service, alterations and special order services. Preparing for the celebs, they also have electronically secured entry and paparazzi/privacy blinds.
The geometric pattern that the designers behind Brahmin were able to capture with this Toasted Almond Crandall Satchel using crocodile has to be one of the most aesthetically pleasing of the exotic skins used. The dark chocolate, caramel and beige color tones are beautiful together and bring out the beauty of the skin. It features a top zipper, a detachable shoulder strap, and a center zippered divider. The interior has four organizer pockets. It also features feet at the base of the satchel for added protection. Bag dimensions: 12.25" x 8" x 4.5".Price: $335.
Gregg Fleishman is an artist and architect, who creates spare and playful furniture in cut-out European Birch wood. The New Wave chair, shown here, comes in dark brown, light brown, red, yellow, natural and green. It sells for $2100 with an ottoman. All his designs make great use of negative space and cast beautiful shadows. Check out his full line including the Rock and Roll, a unique rocking chair, on his website.
Cocoa beans were once used as currency by the Maya and Aztecs. Desage Chocolatier wraps their confections in gold foil as an homage to this. Desage has a long French tradition of chocolate making that dates back to the days of Napoleon. The brand existed in Paris for many years and then took their French traditions to Las Vegas in 1977. They take at least four days to make each individual bar. The chocolate is sold through Neiman Marcus and is also available online. A small box sells for $20.
Now you can get the luggage to match your Ducati bike. The motorcycle maker has become the latest brand to license their name to a luggage line. The Ducati Collection by Tumi is a line of eight red and black bags with the Ducati logo. The line ranges from a $35 key ring to the $435 carry-on shown here. Love the red and black and the rounded handle but is the big white logo on the side really necessary?
Lamborghini finally wins one after 11 years of racing
In the highly competitive world of Japanese Super GT racing a pair of Murcielagos has gone 11 seasons without a win. This year the raging bulls have officially dropped from the larger GT500 class to the more appropriate GT300 class and the relocation seems to have done wonders for the pair’s prospects.
The two Murcielago RG-1 racers are fielded by team JLOC (Japanese Lamborghini Owners’ Club) and were driven to victory recently by Marco Apicella/Yasutaka Hinio and Koji Yamanishi/Wada-Q at Suzuka. Actually, only the No. 1 car could be found cruising in victory lane, as the second entry was unfortunately forced to bow out on the final lap due to mechanical gremlins.
In addition to being the first ever win for a Lamborghini in the Japanese Super GT Series, this also marks the first time a Murcielago has won any motorsports event, ever.
Linux-based iSetBox from Media Systems does it all
A Bulgarian company named Media Systems new iSetBox claims to be an all-in-one entertainment center. It includes a CD and DVD writer, can record analog and digital TV, offers a web browser and email client, and has a 6-in-1 card reader to further its media inputs. If that wasn't enough, the Linux-based unit can listen to and record digital and analog radio, sports Ethernet networking, and has a myriad of digital and analog inputs and outputs to further its reach into your home's media devices. If you find the unit still lacking, you can add WiFi, Bluetooth or other niceties via a PCI card. The whole box is controlled via a single remote control, which can create playlists of the numerous media formats supported.
A project from Michael Robertson called ajaxWrite, is another web-based word processor. The nice thing is, you get a window to yourself, and that window (complete with tabs for your docs) is a pretty basic word processor. What's really impressive is the speed and stability of the app. That could be due to it only being compatible with Firefox, as having only one target allows you to focus on streamlining your performance. The essential feature is the ability to save your writing as a Word doc (the default), plain text, RTF, or PDF. Some limitations appear to be no inline saving, so if you lose power or your connection, you'd have to copy/paste your work to another program. With no signup, speed, stability, and good Save As formats, it appears to be a useful tool for when you're needing a web-based word processor without all the bells and whistles.
Patent application filed for remote-controlled impalnts
A group of researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab has filed a patent application for a system of "implantable devices using magnetic guidance." As envisioned by the developers, the system will allow implants such as eye and ear enhancements to be controlled externally. Unfortunately, the application is based on a system that would require a wired connection using an electromagnetic charge.
Samsung just announced their 21-inch SyncMaster CX213TW. This new LCD features a 16:10 aspect ratio, 8-ms response time, 178-degree viewing angle, auto-screen pivot, and both PIP and PBP (Picture-By-Picture) support allowing you to simultaneously view multiple inputs such as your PC and DVD player. And that nice thin bezel makes for some good multi-screen action if you can afford the $1,300 x n suggested retail price. Unfortunately, Samsung chose not to list the available inputs but they do caution (via machine translation) that the CD213TW offers a 1000:1 "famous cancer rain." Yeah, that's probably meant to be "contrast ratio" but consider yourself warned anyway.
Now, you can re-live those carnival mirror glory days with Crazy Mirror, the latest piece of Mac freeware from Tatsuo Unemi. The program boasts a number of distortion effects to make you look, stretched or squashed. You can record Quicktimes of your craziness, as well. If you have kids, they'll eat this up. And it's a universal binary, so it will run great on your new Intel-based Mac.
Linux is not typically considered tops in an art/design class area, so turning a bunch of Mac boxes into Ubuntu machines for the sole purpose of teaching open source Linux apps to a class of art students is a gutsy move. Yet that's exactly what Gurdy Leete did, and supposedly it worked out just fine. In fact, Gurdy converted one Mac-based media lab into an Ubuntu-based media lab with apparently stellar results (not to mention much lower software costs). Granted, Gurdy sometimes had to fall back on OS X (for printing to their AppleTalk-based printers for instance), but for the most part the lab functioned the same as before. Some students really enjoyed being able to tweak their OSS tools, while others relied on the application repository and the teacher's expertise. Leete's experiences are worth a read to anyone considering a switch, and also serves as a good list of alternative apps. I hadn't heard of Scribus, but had been looking for just such a tool. Leete's next move is to replace Maya with Blender, and move away from Avid and Final Cut Pro to some OSS replacements. The only problem with all this is that in the "real" world, you're a lot less likely to find these tools being used. So if you're a student, be a little bit interested in learning Photoshop as well as GIMP.
SlingPlayer Mobile for Pocket PC in now available to download for free as part of a public beta program. The SlingPlayer software has a 30-day trial and lets broadband-enabled WinMo devices stream live and recorded TV from a remote SlingBox works, it can be purchased for $30 (although it's free with any new 'Box prior to April 26th). Before scoffing at what you think is the same service Orb charges $0 for, consider that the Sling service costs nothing as well, so all you're paying for is the client (well, and the box, if you don't already have one), which trumps Orb in features, convenience, and interface. Despite the fact that wireless carriers seem lukewarm about the new service, until people start getting busted for violating their contracts' provisions on data usage, SlingBox owners are about to get their money's worth and then some on those $15 all-you-can-eat PowerVision packages.
Samsung brings SilverCare sterilizing washer to US
The Samsung company will be bringing its SilverCare washer to the US this month, at a price of about $1,399. The washer uses silver ions to sterilize laundry, and Samsung claims that it kills 99.9% of bacteria on clothing.
-Lytir1
