Future | Tag Archive

Latest Gear Live Videos

Subscribe:

YouTube

iTunes High Definition

iTunes Standard Version

RSS

SXSW 2010: From Hulu to Yahoo Widgets: Will the Internet Transform the TV?

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Internet,

Rovi Chief Evangelist, Richard Bullwinkle had an afternoon session at SXSW 2010, dealing with convergence in the living room, “From Hulu To Yahoo Widgets: Will The Internet Transform The TV?”

He started the session with the statement “It is difficult to upgrade your television because it is affixed to a wall.” With computers, you can go to a new website, such as moving your social network from myspace.com to facebook.com. With a mobile phone you can delete the location centric Loopt app and load Foursquare or Whrrl. But your
television cannot be updated and it is typically maintained by someone who put it on the wall.

With the American market being spread out over thousands of miles, broadband penetration and the speed of those connections becomes the next issue. Music and streaming television is not a problem with existing bandwidth; be it via cable, to the house or Wi-Fi within. As we get to HD quality, few have the capacity to our homes to achieve this rate. I know of this pain point personally and have solved it by running three networks at the house, one for devices like the iPhone and Chumby at 2.4 GHz and the others for high definition video distribution over Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11N at 5GHz.

Click to continue reading SXSW 2010: From Hulu to Yahoo Widgets: Will the Internet Transform the TV?

iPad: What it means for Apple and gaming

Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Casual, Editorial, Electronic Arts, Portable/Mobile,

iPad Asphalt Yesterday, many rumors were put to rest with the release of the Apple iPad. People were excited, joyful, angry, disappointed, or just plain indifferent. Whatever you stance, you had some kind of reaction to Apple’s announcement of the iPad. Is it a giant iPhone? A female hygiene product? A cool netbook replacement? That’s for you to decide.

Whatever iPad really is, and regardless of what it’s competing against, one thing is clear–Apple wants to make a dent in the gaming industry. Developers and publishers were present at yesterday’s conference, including Gameloft and Electronic Arts (EA,) to show off their games running on the iPad, including a full-screen version of Need for Speed. EA made its presence clear, by announcing during the presentation they are to support the iPad platform with future titles built specifically for the device. This should come as no surprise to most, as EA has been a huge supporter of the iPhone and iPod touch as a gaming platform.

Click to continue reading iPad: What it means for Apple and gaming

Britney Spears: Back on the Singles Market

Posted by K.C. Morgan Categories: Music, Photos, Editorials,

Britney Spears has a new MTV special, a new album and even a five-year plan for her future. Brit’s last plan (marry K-Fed, have a couple of kids, live happily ever after) didn’t quite work out. Maybe this one will.

“In five years, I would like to be married and have a father figure for my kids, someone who is a provider and can be really stable,” Spears offered up her opinions in the latest issue of Glamour magazine. Is this meant to be a direct dig at her kids’ actual father, K-Fed, or just a random future wish from Brit?

“It’s hard doing it on your own,” Spears added in her interview, in what would certainly seem to be a pointed remark in Kevin Federline’s direction.

But before you boys start lining up to become step daddy number one, you’d better learn about Britney’s new habits.

Click to continue reading Britney Spears: Back on the Singles Market

Dining in 2015 Design Competition

Posted by Jenny Lewis Categories: Features, Trends, Utensils, Kitchen Gadgets,

You may not think much of your silverware or your plates, but someone does. The results of designboom’s Dining in 2015 design competition were announced a few months back, and there were a number of fantastic entries. Out of a total of 4843 entries from 98 countries, the five person jury narrowed it down to 3 first prize entries and an honorable mention from a shortlist of 160 amazing entries. My favorite entry from the shortlist, pictured above, is the “cutlery in a wallet,” designed by Alberto Ghirardello of Italy. It was “designed to facilitate outdoor eating,” and I can’t think of an easier and more compact way to do exactly that.

Bleeding Edge TV 274: A Look Into the Future with HP’s Phil McKinney

Posted by Nate True Categories: Full Episodes, Features, Handhelds, Household, Internet, Misc. Tech, PC / Laptop, Peripherals, Science, Software, Videocasts, Videos,

At HP’s Connecting Your World 2008 event in Berlin, Germany, we caught up with the CTO of HP’s Public Systems Group, Phil McKinney, who had some very interesting things to say about where HP believes the future will take us.

Phil talked with us about what’s coming in the future of technology - everything from wearable computing to a very advanced “avatar” that is programmed to make decisions just like you would, only you can send it to a meeting while you get to go play video games. We look forward to seeing what the future holds. Thanks Phil!

CES 2008 Video: Tour the AMD Smart House

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Full Episodes, Gizmatic, CES, CES 2008, Features, Handhelds, Home Entertainment, Household, PC / Laptop, Podcasts, Portable Audio / Video, Video Games, Videocasts,

While at CES, we got the opportunity to check out the AMD Smart House. The Smart House is a demonstration by AMD of all the different ways that their processors can help enhance day-to-day life of every day consumers. The Mother/Father/Daughter/Sun schtick is a bit thick at times, but the potential of the smart home of the future shines through nonetheless.

Jim Kahle Talks Next Generation Cell

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,

Cell Jim Kahle, chief architect of Sony’s Cell processor recently talked with Dean Takahashi of Mercury News about the Cell, and the next generation of the cell processors. Kahle described the current Cell as handling roughly 200 gigaflops, but the next generation efforts are targeting a teraflop on a chip. Sony is currently targeting 2010 for the release of the new processor, anticipated to have about 32 special processing units. Kahle also discusses the potential of integrating the GPU with the CPU, but doesn’t commit either way on the process, other than to state that Sony is investigating the pros and cons of this approach.

Peter Molyneux Talks Evolution Of Combat, Wii At Leipzig

Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Fighting, Wii,

Speaking at the Leipzig Games Convention Developer Conference, Peter Molyneux spoke on the need to evolve next generation combat. Both 1up and GamesIndustry.biz have covered separately different aspects of the talk, with 1up focusing on Molyneux’s ideas for advancing combat in the next generation. GamesIndustry.biz focused on the challenges that the Wii controller will present.

Molyneux’s general commentary on combat in video games is that, by and large, the fighting is not realistic. He proposed that developers do away with hit points, life bars, and unrealistic fighting in games. Molyneux held up Tarantino’s Kill Bill as an example of an approach to combat that video games might emulate. This might have been an unfortunate choice, given that this movie isn’t the most realistic portrayal of combat in the film world, but the points he expressed were still somewhat salient. His proposal includes going towards “one button” combat, combining charge attacks with timing and context awareness to alter how the fight progresses. The approach sounds similar to the timer attacks utilized in Yu Suzuki’s Shenmue series. Molyneux didn’t necessarily advocate this as the end-all of combat implementations, but seemed to use this to urge developers to think more creatively when developing new games. This somewhat tied into his remarks about the Wii controller.

When talking about the Wii controller, Molyneux confessed that he is “…an incredibly lazy person when I play games… when I have to get up, it’s painful.” He urged developers to consider the physicality of the control schemes that they were implementing, using the example of a movement-sensing glove that they tested. According to Molyneux, using the glove was “like some sort of Japanese torture that we’d put him through…” It seems Molyneux finds the freedom that the new controller offers exciting, but that excitement has to be tempered and worked with creatively to get the best that the controller brings to the table. Overall, the tone of the talk seemed to advocate developers to seek innovation rather than fall back into older, easier development patterns.

Welcome, Guest