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If you do any kind of photo editing and printing you’ll know that what you see on your monitor isn’t necessarily what comes out of your printer. For most people the differences are neglible, but for those individuals doing proofs, printing their own gallery prints, or who are just plain anal-retentive, exact color matches are a necessity. ColorVision (a division of Pantone), sells products aimed at helping you calibrate and profile your monitors, scanners, and printers. Their latest product is the PrintFIX Pro, which is designed to calibrate and profile your printer’s output so that WYSIWYG. The PrintFIX reads color samples printed from your printer, and provides you with a profile based upon the paper used and the settings specified. These profiles can be tweaked at the user’s discretion to account for viewing conditions or personal taste. At a MSRP of $549 it’s a cheap way to get decent accuracy without spending an arm and a leg. Available late January/early February 2006.
Read More 
| ColorVision
The bandwagon - it’s that thing every manufacturer seems to jump on when it comes to product design. Original concepts and thinking take a backseat to minimal R&D costs and the ability to kick the product out the door as quickly as possible. Take the SanDisk Sansa e200 for example. It certainly isn’t an outright clone, but it doesn’t deviate too far in looks from Apple’s iPod nano. It’s got the requisitive blue glowy lights that are so popular today, and feature-wise it does have the nano beat on a number of points. Unlike the nano it comes in 2, 4 and 6GB versions, includes an FM radio (with recording), native support for WMA files, and has video playback capability (although the nano can be hacked for video). For those craving even more storage space, the e200 also includes a microSD slot which could net you an additional 1GB of storage (the largest size microSD at the time of this writing). In an apparent dig at Apple’s problems with the nano, the Sansa has the following - “Strong Liquidmetal® back casing provides excellent durability and scratch resistance”. News flash for SanDisk - it’s the FRONT of the nano scratching easily that has everyone up in arms, not the back. Barring any issues with the user interface, the Sansa e200 sounds like a great little player when it arrives at the end of March. It’s hard to argue with what’s popular, but it’s a shame a little more thought wasn’t given to the exterior to differentiate the e200 from it’s competition.
Read More | SanDisk via ubergizmo
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iMac 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo Impressions
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, PC / Laptop, Product Reviews,
I have had a 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo iMac for a 7 days now. A few observations:
The stock 512 MB RAM was not enough to keep up with my tasks - that being 15 or so Safari tabs open, iTunes, iMovie, and Garageband open and doing their thing, plus Photoshop, Mail, and NetNewsWire open as well. I know, I am not the “average” user. Truly, even with just the browser and Mail open, I felt the lag. Impressively though, on the G5 my processor would run at about 60% (with 2 GB RAM) when I had all that running. With the 512 MB RAM, the processor was running at 16%. Amazing.
Yesterday I upgraded this thing to 2 GB RAM. It FLIES. I am more than impressed. iMovie and ffmpegx encode video swiftly compared to the G5. You would not believe how many applications I have open right now. In addition to the ones listed above, I also have Adium, Transmit, Windows Media Player, Quicktime, and ffmpegx all running. I have tons of windows open (the 20? screen makes this manageable). My processor is currently running at 17%! Unreal. I have about 120 MB RAM available as well.
Really - the new iMacs are a thing of beauty if you need an elegant workhorse of a PC.
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Just two weeks after Nintendo quelled reports of a rumored redesign, they go and announce the updated version of the Nintendo DS - that being the Nintendo DS Lite. Feast your eyes on the smaller, lighter, Apple-er Nintendo DS. Now, like the upgrade from the Game Boy Advance to the GBA:SP, the Nintendo DS Lite is pretty much the same machine, just tweaked out with a few improvements. For starters, it has a smaller footprint than the original DS, and is lighter. The new unit is just 133.0 x 73.9 x 21.55 mm when folded and weighs 218 grams, while the current DS measures 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.99 mm and weighs 275 grams. You will also notice that the Start and Select buttons have moved, as have the microphone and speakers.
While the LCD screens remain the same size, they are now brighter. You can even adjust the brightness between four different settings. Now, this one is currently announced for release in Japan on March 9, 2006 at a price of 16,800 yen ($145), which includes AC adapter. That is about $15 more than the current Nintendo DS sells for in Japan. Nintendo expects to make the product available in three different colors at launch. No word yet on when - or if - this one will see an American release. We will definitely be keeping our eye on this one.
Read More | Nintendo Press Release (Japanese)
Nintendo DS Lite Revealed
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
Just two weeks after Nintendo quelled reports of a rumored redesign, they go and announce the updated version of the Nintendo DS - that being the Nintendo DS Lite. Feast your eyes on the smaller, lighter, Apple-er Nintendo DS. Now, like the upgrade from the Game Boy Advance to the GBA:SP, the Nintendo DS Lite is pretty much the same machine, just tweaked out with a few improvements. For starters, it has a smaller footprint than the original DS, and is lighter. The new unit is just 133.0 x 73.9 x 21.55 mm when folded and weighs 218 grams, while the current DS measures 148.7 x 84.7 x 28.99 mm and weighs 275 grams. You will also notice that the Start and Select buttons have moved, as have the microphone and speakers.
While the LCD screens remain the same size, they are now brighter. You can even adjust the brightness between four different settings. Now, this one is currently announced for release in Japan on March 9, 2006 at a price of 16,800 yen ($145), which includes AC adapter. That is about $15 more than the current Nintendo DS sells for in Japan. No word yet on when - or if - this one will see an American release. We will definitely be keeping our eye on this one.
Read More | Nintendo Press Release (Japanese)
Marble Blast Ultra Available on Xbox Live Arcade
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Strategy, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
If you’ve been waiting for a new Xbox Live Arcade game, you may want to boot up your 360 now. Earlier today, GarageGames’ Marble Blast Ultra was released on the Live Arcade. We downloaded the game earlier, and we are impressed. The goal is to move a shiny marble around, navigating through platforms, collecting goodies, jumping, and reaching goals. This one will cost you 800 Microsoft Points ($10). Overall, there are 60 single player stages as well as a multiplayer mode.
Xbox 360 Shortage to Continue?
Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Corporate News, Rumors, Xbox 360,
Kotaku reports of an article in USA Today that claims the Xbox 360 shortage will continue into the future. As unfortunate as a continued shortage is, we fully believe it. Microsoft originally planned to have more consoles out before the end of 2005 but as we all know, failed to do so. It seems like the company just overestimated its production capability - in pledging to ship so many consoles within a short period of time. Additionally, the worldwide release may not have been the best idea for production.
Read More | USA Today via Kotaku
Game Politics reports that the new Penny Arcade book, Attack of the Bacon Robots, has been selling extremely well on Amazon. The book is the first collection (of more to come) and features “strips, sketches, and creator commentary.” If you’re a fan of Penny Arcade, the book is probably worth checking out - in fact, out of all the web comics out there, Penny Arcade is our favorite.
Read More | Game Politics
Keith Schofield has put up a very entertaining and humorous music video documenting the E.T. video game. E.T. was made for the Atari around the time the movie was made, but the game was rushed to market. It was so bad that no one wanted it, so Atari ended up burying copies of it in the desert. Just go watch the video already.
Read More | ET Music Video
The Entertainment Software Association has suddenly decided to ban companies from having booth babes at E3. Apparently, the organization doesn’t want to run into any “moral issues” with angry parents and aggressive media personnel. Having been to E3 several times, I honestly have a difficult time picturing the Expo without the scantily clad women. No, I’m not a horny teenager, but booth babes have simply become affixed with the experience of the show.
E3 ‘06 won’t have booth babes. I suspect that the ESA would rather be safe than sorry - especially as our industry continues to grow. With so many people looking to, and monitoring, our industry, especially after the Hot Coffee ordeal, this doesn’t announcement might be a little disappointing but isn’t that big of a shocker.
Read More | Gear Live
