Exploring Stuff That Makes Life Great
If you’re not in the film industry, you may not have heard about the most advanced video camera in the world. Thanks to the Digital Cinema Society, I had the privilege of getting an in-depth look at what makes the Red camera tick.
First off, what makes this camera special is that it records in 4K. This is the same resolution that 35mm records on – a resolution higher than High Definition. Currently there are only 50 Red cameras in the world. At the event we were looking at #30.
Just in time for the Holidays, Microsoft has bundled Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance in both the Xbox 360 ($349.99) and Xbox 360 Elite ($449.99) packages.
Microsoft is really giving consumers a ton of reasons to buy the Xbox 360 this Holiday season. Price drop, free games, and tons of great new AAA titles has made their offerings indubitably the best on the market today.
It’ll be interesting to see whether or not games like Super Smash Bros Brawl and Super Mario Galaxy will be reason enough for most consumers to buy Wii’s this Holiday seasons than Xbox 360s.
Microsoft has announced, this week, that they’re planning a new version of their ‘Zune’ series of mp3 players. Not particularly big news, you’d think – the Zune sold 1.2 million units last year, the iPod over 30 million – but the fact that this announcement is gathering headlines on both mainstream news websites and niche technology blogs is good news: it’s competition.
Apple has, let’s face it, reveled in the fact that their product is now the byword for digital music players. People don’t talk, these days, about buying a new mp3 player. They’ll go to the store and buy a new iPod. When the first models were introduced back in 2001 they were an antidote to what Steve Jobs saw as ‘clunky’ and ‘useless’ players – most of the market then and, ironically, how the first generation iPod appears now.
It’s a well documented story that, since the first of Apple’s new machines caught the public imagination and sold in their millions back in the second half of 2004, they’ve dominated the market. Microsoft has now announced their new model and, with it, a raft of new features that include Zune Social, a networking site based around the player’s owners and their musical tastes.
Previously, the Zune – a competent player itself – had been shadowed, and other companies, like Creative, have produced products to rival the iPod but garnered only modest sales. The hugely innovative, stylish and attractive product introduced by Apple back in 2001 has made the rest of the market wake up and smell the mp3’s being burned to iPod’s all over the country: they had to wake up and catch up.
Thank god they did. The market’s full, now, of products that have had to raise their game to compete with Apple’s behemoth marketing budget. Creative’s entire range includes smaller models, inspired by the Nano, to full-size music masters. They’re aesthetically pleasing, durable and have excellent sound quality, just like the iPod. Archos players also consistently receive rave reviews, as do Samsung’s players. It’s a shame, then, that snappy adverts backed up by a multi-million pound marketing budget and the benefits of having an enviable reputation for success and credibility are the only things missing from making these perfectly worthy pieces of equipment a success.
I’m not saying that the iPod is a bad player – because it’s not. It’s got a great interface and is very good at what it does, even though file playback, and even iTunes itself, can be a little restrictive. It’s just worth exploring your options – now more than ever. There’s far more choice open to consumers than there ever has been, so make the most of it: vive la difference!
Reported as a rumor earlier this week, Sony has now made it official that a new PS3 unit is on its way, at least in European territories. It sports a 40GB harddrive and lacks 2 USB ports, PS2 backwards compatibility, and does not have a multi-memory unit card port. This new unit will be released on October 10, 2007 at the price of €399 ($565).
It appears that Sony is phasing out the 60GB PS3 Starter Pack units as it will only remain in stock as long as it lasts. They lowered those prices to €499.
All of this has been made to please investors that have been hammered by Sony’s lack of PS3 sales. Their belief is that price is what has halted the PS3 from selling out – But as we all know it’s the games that count and the PS3 doesn’t have them (yet).
The new Xbox 360 pink and blue colored controllers are FINALLY here… Fabulous. Now you can play with your controller as if it wasa crappy plastic chew toy.
If Microsoft really wanted to make new colors, make them cool. Everyone remember when clear white came out on the Nintendo 64? If you had one of those you were the shitz of the gamer community. Microsoft please learn from the past.
The original wrist straps weren’t enough. They snapped when people playing tennis swung as hard as they could. Things were broken. Pain of the mind and wallet ensued.
Nintendo gave us all free wrist straps that had a stronger noose attaching it to the Wii so those amazingly powerful human beings attempted to use heavy, shocking motion instead of light gestures. The extra thickness of the noose was good enough.
Not good enough for Nintendo though. In an effort to spend some of their unlimited funds, they are giving away another way to help protect ourselves from those careless individuals who refuse to put those wrist straps on yet are too weak to really do too much damage on their own.
The orders go out today, but their store is down at the moment, so get some post its and cover half your monitor with them so you don’t forget to do it today. They’ll ship out on the 15th.
