Fans of BMW's new Z4 Coupe are in luck -- the first Z4 and M Coupes rolled off the line at BMW's plant in Spartanburg, S.C., just in time for summer sales drives. Both vehicles get their power from BMW's sonorous 3.2L inline six, though the M model provides a bonus 115 horsepower over the base model's 255 hp (for a total of 370) and a 0-60 time of under 5 seconds.
destructoid.com are not impressed with Dell's $10,000 pricetag for the XPS 600 Renegade system, so they decided to make their own custom built Quad SLI gaming rig. Breaking their imaginary system down, they found that the main areas essential for building a machine comparable in performance to the Renegade were:
Duh, the Quad SLI graphics cards. A budget of around $2800 should set you up with a 4 card bundle.
A Gigabyte Quad SLI motherboard to stick those four cards in, $240.
Pentium 3.73GHz Extreme, $1300.
10,000 RPM Hard Drive and 2GB of branded RAM, $450.
Battlefield 2 at 1600x1200 with graphics on full, priceless.
Chuck in a case, cooling, sound card, DVD drive and peripherals (keyboard, mouse and 2.1 speaker system) and you're looking at a budget of $6,000 for a well equipped Quad SLI system. That's around $2,000 less than the Renegade PC (sans the $2,199 30" widescreen monitor that Dell includes with their system) so you're not quite saving the $4,000 that the destructoid guys claim you will.
The obvious downsides to building your own Quad SLI rig include: the hassle of constructing the system and installing Windows yourself (although we're sure most people could do a better job than Dell) and the lack of a warranty, but before you think about these problems ask yourself the question: isn't that Mike Lavallee fire flame scheme worth two grand?
Apple has released Boot Camp, a tool for installing Windows XP on Macs. Sure, someone else beat them to the punch, but this is highly unusual for two reasons. One, Apple almost never releases a public beta (at least, not for free, as in OS X). Two, this is pretty much saying, "we know you still need Windows for stuff." Either way, it's most excellent for everyone. This move has some thinking OS X might be heading to PC's everywhere, or Macintels moving to windows only based boxes, DVORAK!!
Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs, unsatisfied with pretty light shows or boring diagrams, are out to research that ancient query, "But what about the games?" Using Warcraft III, the fellas at MERL are able to use voice and touch to control the game in what appears to be an impressively seamless fashion. Does this prove point for a DS port?
A Star Wars mod for Iris has officially surfaced on the venerable Internets, which means that not only will SW fans be able to get their fix on the PSP, but we just might have yet another opportunity to blow the crap out of Jar-Jar Binks.
It's a cross between a crossword and a word search: Word Coil. Starting with the first letter of a word in a grid of letters, you find the rest of the word coiling inside the grid, connected, but not moving in one direction. Really ingenious, and if you like word games, and seek-and-find style action, you'll be here for a while.
SplitFish's new glideFX controller PS3 compatible?
SplitFish's website describes the glideFX as "the world's first B-type Controller. glideFX uses a 'Trackball' to manage movement that is normally controlled by the right analog stick. Separate left right controls and adjustable Sensitivity settings." The site reports the glideFX controller is "for the PlayStation 2" while some emails have stated it's the "new PS2/3 SplitFish controller" that "is to be shown at E3 this year." Probably means this same controller will be updated to be PS3 compatible, with wireless functionality and whatever else that entails.
Zakang just dropped a little love on the MP3 market with their candy heart inspired Kiss MP3 Player. Available in 128MB and 1GB models, and encrusted with 23 crystals cut by SWAROVSKI. Available in silver, white and of course, red with headphones integrated into a messy necklace strap.
Kork-Ease is a new shoe from Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf, flogging it the latest retro shoe that is available exclusively online through two stores. It has a suede-covered wedge heel, crisscross upper, buckled strap and golden hardware. The shoe sells for $175.
PlayStation VP sez PS3 will cost between 499 and 599 euro
In a radio interview with Générations Europe, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe VP George Fornay mentioned that the PS3 will cost between €499 and €599, around $613 and $736 USD. He excused the price with the fact that it's a real steal for a Blu-ray playback system. Of course, Europe always gets a little screwed when it comes to console pricing, with the premium Xbox 360 going for €399 there while it rings up at a mere $399 here. Fortunately for U.S. gamers (and unluckily for Europeans), no console manufacturer ever bases the price of its consoles on the currency exchange rates. If that logic holds, we might see the PS3 for $499 in the states, which happens to match up with the current buzz going around the developer community. It's always possible that Sony is just throwing out wild and crazy numbers to make us all surprised when the console hits for the regular $300 Sony price point, but it's looking less and less likely.
Tactile 3D is another attempt at providing a three-dimensional interface to navigate your Windows computer. The most common 3D paradigm is that of a house or building with many rooms containing objects we would expect to see in the real world: file cabinets, picture frames for photo files and TVs for video files. Tactile 3D takes a different approach, turning everything into a very high-tech computery looking wire-frame interface, where files have their own specific 3D models. Tactile 3D has a free trial available, after which it can be purchased for $29.95 USD.
FreshDiagnose is a very nicely done system information and benchmarking utility. Simply run the application, and it will do a complete system analysis, listing all hardware devices, software, relevant registry settings and LAN information. It can also do system performance benchmarking to compare performance against other similar machines, for the purpose of detecting any problems.
Noah Vawter and Nathan Wray have come up with the freebie PSPKick, a music mixing homebrew app now in its third iteration. This new release features a host of improvements, a few of which include the ability to create melodies out of music samples and to tweak the pitch and volume of individual notes. Giving the PSP the ability to function like a regular instrument.
Nokia has announced a new multipurpose gadget, the Nokia 3250 WESC Limited Edition. The device is a partnership between Nokia and a Swedish fashion company, We are the Supreme Superlative Conspiracy. The Nokia 3250 WESC Limited Edition will be manufactured in 500 copies and comes in a special Nokia WESC Limited Edition Travel Kit that comes with a memory card, a digital version of the WESC Travel Guide, passport-case, eye-mask, headphones from Sennheiser and a spare skateboard wheel from Stereo Skateboards. It comes with 40 preloaded song and can have a storage capacity of 750 songs. It also has a 2 megapixel camera. The device costs 400 euros and will be available in select Nokia stores starting March 31.
Webzen product leader In-Kyun Hong has given IGN an update on Soul of the Ultimate Nation (SUN), the Korean developer's upcoming action-MMORPG. After undergoing closed beta testing in Korea, Webzen decided to do some tweaking and localization work for the North American and European markets. Soon, western gamers will be able to participate in the beta testing process and experience SUN's unique visual style and battle map system. We'll also get an English web site with extensive community features and more background on the game's lore.
A "unique" product from Thrustmaster has surfaced. Dubbed the WiFi USB Key for PSP FunAccess (whew!), this dongle device provides Internet connectiviy to your PSP via your connected laptop or desktop computer when no wireless router is readily available.
"Sony®'s portable console is a fantastic gaming machine which can be connected to the Web via its WiFi system. Thrustmaster has created this new accessory to enable all gamers who don't have a WiFi system at home to get the most from their console's online capabilities, from anywhere at home and wire-free." You can read the full product announcement here.
Joshua Drake has been using Linux professionally for over 10 years, and he shares his opinions and comparisons in an admittedly subjective but thorough comparison of the five major Linux distros for "non geeks." The comparisons are between Red Hat ES, Novell SLES, Fedora FC4, OpenSuSE 10, and Ubuntu Breezy Badger. Again, this isn't exhaustive, but it's a quick read, especially if you know someone considering Linux, but they don't know which "Linux" to pick.
European publisher Ojom GmbH announced yesterday the release of a Shaun of the Dead for mobile phones. The mechanics of the game are simple: it is a first-person shooter where you play Shaun as you try to protect your friends inside the Winchester. In trying to retain the humor of the "rom zom com" (romantic zombie comedy) film, the player's arsenal consists of Shaun staples such as a shotgun, cricket bat, and vinyl LPs (pictured). The game is designed as a casual game one can play one-handed.
While we may be stuck waiting until 2008 to see GM's self-driving car, US drivers may soon be able to sit back and let Toyota's Prius do the parking for them, as drivers in the UK and Japan can already do, using a $700 "parking assist" option. With the option, drivers need only sit back and control the speed of the car with the brake pedal while the car takes control of the wheel and maneuvers itself into place. According to Toyota, 70% of the vehicle's owners in Britain have chosen the option. Availability in the US hasn't been announced yet, only that it should arrive "soon."
Leftlane News reports that Honda will soon add Google Earth to cars using its ‘internavi Premium Club’ navigation service in Japan. Google Earth will interface with the existing navigation service, adding high-resolution satellite images of cities to current traffic information downloaded via the car's wireless internet connection. As you may recall, Volkswagen also recently showed off its own Google Earth-enhanced navigation service, although it looks like Honda may actually beat them to the market. No word if/when it'll make it to North America market though.
-Lytir1
