http://www.thetechlounge.com Recent News: Electronics en-us Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:12:41 -0600 Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:12:41 -0600 Electronics news Copyright 2008, TheTechLounge, Inc. 60 http://www.thetechlounge.com/templates/thetechlounge/images/88x31_ttl.png http://www.thetechlounge.com 88 31 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13378/PC-Gaming-Still-Bigger-Than-Console-Gaming/ "...More gaming PC's have been sold over the past three years than Xbox 360s, PlayStation 3s, and Wiis combined. The study, which tracks the sales of three different classes of gaming PCs over since Q3 2005, found that 196 million units have been sold between then and Q3 2008, compared to a worldwide total of 74.7 million consoles. As Edge points out, this of course doesn't take into effect handheld gaming systems like the DS and PSP, which sold a combined 125 million units during the same period. The study goes on to conclude that the $20 billion dollar PC gaming marke...]]> Recent News: Electronics Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:48:17 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13378/PC-Gaming-Still-Bigger-Than-Console-Gaming/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13376/Paper-Cup-Cans/ "These "CupSpeakers" from designer Dmitry Zagga are MacGyverific. With nothing more than a large disposable drinking cup, a couple of toothpicks, and the included iPod earbuds, Zagga has constructed a sleek, cheap, and easy speaker system for his iPod. He claims the volume increase is "significant," and his photography makes this self-aware DIY project look like something straight out of a Steve Jobs PowerPoint." I think I'm going to do this tomorrow after I snag some paper cups from the coffee shop. I'm totally serious; I've been looking for a little hands-o...]]> Recent News: Electronics Mon, 17 Nov 2008 23:55:17 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13376/Paper-Cup-Cans/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13363/The-Indescribably-Out-of-Touch-Mr-Jobs/ "Ask and ye shall not receive, in the iPhone world. It’s hard to argue the brilliant potential of Apple's iPhone. The device stands head and shoulders over most smartphones in terms of looks, form factor, graphics, internet capabilities, and touch interface. So when the new 3G iPhone debuted, customers flocked to it, hoping that the oversights of the first generation model might have been addressed by Apple. The wish list wasn't very long, and some items on it seem like they would be almost trivial to implement. Among the desired features as chronicled by Wired -- photo tex...]]> Recent News: Electronics Tue, 4 Nov 2008 01:24:21 -0600 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13363/The-Indescribably-Out-of-Touch-Mr-Jobs/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13359/Sony-Opens-a-Platform-Hell-Cuts-Back-on-Heating/ "With Sony Europe's developer relations manager George Bain announcing that it's no longer necessary for developers to submit upcoming titles to Sony for content approval, don't expect the PS2 to die off anytime soon. The platform is now open, and this action will certain spur on a spate of low-cost titles. Bain cited territories like Russia and India that are now able to "create low-development cost titles and release them in their market”. Dev kits are still an necessity, but there are no longer PS2 licensing fees. "This has never been done before," notes Bain. "T...]]> Recent News: Electronics Wed, 29 Oct 2008 17:04:00 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13359/Sony-Opens-a-Platform-Hell-Cuts-Back-on-Heating/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13349/PSP-Brites-Scan-Poorly/ "Though SCEA is still "looking into the problem," Sony's Japanese headquarters (SCEI) has released a statement describing the PSP-3000 (a.k.a. PSP Brite) scanline issues as being part and parcel of the new hardware. "PSP-3000 has a new LCD device with vastly improved picture quality, achieving a more natural and vivid picture than older models," said the statement (via Engadget Japan). "By improving LCD response time to reduce ghosting, the horizontal-line phenomenon becomes more visible." Turns out, phenomenon means "no fix in sight." According to Sony, "Since this phenomen...]]> Recent News: Electronics Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:19:26 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13349/PSP-Brites-Scan-Poorly/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13337/Girls-and-Tetris-Better-Than-Chocolate-and-Peanut-Butter/ "As part of the London Games Fringe (an indie adjunct to the full-blown London Games Festival), female gamers will be able to compete head-to-head in the first Grl Gmr Tournament. Taking place on October 25th at the Rocket on Holloway Road, the tournament will consist of Wii Tennis, Tekken, Unreal Tournament, Kuri Kuri Mix and Mario Kart competitions. Five individual winners will be named, with one overall winner being crowned Champion." Yeah, I had no idea that's where Tetris parts came from. If only to drive the point further, the image name is (I kid y...]]> Recent News: Electronics Wed, 15 Oct 2008 22:09:31 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13337/Girls-and-Tetris-Better-Than-Chocolate-and-Peanut-Butter/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13307/New-Nintendo-DS/ "Nintendo plans to launch a new version of its popular DS portable gaming device with a camera and music player function, according to a report in the Sunday edition of The Nikkei Business Daily. The new version will have better wireless capability for connecting to the Internet and will cost under ÂĄ20,000 (US$189), the report said. It will be offered first in Japan, it said. Nintendo was not immediately available for comment." Gizmodo got some supposed shots of the new screen: "This allegedly leaked photo of new Nintendo DS screens has played a game o...]]> Recent News: Electronics Mon, 29 Sep 2008 16:38:16 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13307/New-Nintendo-DS/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13276/Canon-EOS-5D-Mk-II-Finally-Official/ "After a week or so of teaser ads Canon has finally unveiled the successor to the venerable EOS 5D, the world's first 'compact' full frame digital SLR. The EOS 5D Mark II boasts a new 21MP CMOS sensor, an expanded ISO range of 50-25,600 and a wealth of improvements and new features including full 1080p HD movie recording, live view, 3.0" 920k dot LCD, DIGIC IV processor, increased battery capacity and sensor dust reduction." When this thing's available, I'm planning to buy it. With great haste. I'd love to compare it to my 5D, and the H...]]> Recent News: Electronics Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:01:36 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13276/Canon-EOS-5D-Mk-II-Finally-Official/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13255/Even-The-Missing-Want-iStuff/ "A New York City school teacher that went missing almost two weeks ago was recently spotted at the 5th Ave Apple Store. Looks like 23-year-old Hannah Upp was just as obsessed over the Let's Rock event as we were—only instead of pulling a disappearing act three days before the start of the school year, we channeled our anxiety into non-stop Apple blogging and reviewing. Upp's friends and family have informed all major New York publications (and Facebook) of her disappearance. According to her roommates, she had left her apartment on Sunday and then never came back. Whe...]]> Recent News: Electronics Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:11:10 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13255/Even-The-Missing-Want-iStuff/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13246/Xbox-360-Growing-Pains/ "Dean Takahashi, one of the most respected tech journos around, spent years putting together this mind-blowing expose that reveals the truly epic scale of the problems that lead to millions of dead Xbox 360s. It really is one of the most stunning flustercucks in gaming history. According to his account, Microsoft willfully ignored deep, systemic problems in the console's production that reached from chipmakers—initially, only 16 out of every 100 of its IBM-made processors worked—to production lines, where just before launch, an unbelievable 68 percent of consoles made were ...]]> Recent News: Electronics Sun, 7 Sep 2008 17:32:06 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13246/Xbox-360-Growing-Pains/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13229/Using-a-Wiimote-with-Windows-Media-Center/ "Nintendo doesn't exactly advertise it, but the remotes for the Wii gaming console—including the balance board that comes with Wii Fit—have Bluetooth capabilities. That means you can connect your Wii peripherals to your computer to operate the media center hooked up to your TV, play emulated games with a Nunchuk, Classic Controller, or even a Balance Board, and pretty much have them do anything you can do with a keyboard. Let's walk through linking up your Wii peripherals and putting them in control of your Mac, PC, or Linux box. To give you an idea of what you can ...]]> Recent News: Electronics Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:34:21 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13229/Using-a-Wiimote-with-Windows-Media-Center/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13227/Mythbusters-Explains-ParallelProcessing/ "Even though Nvidia’s Nvision tradeshow did not achieve its goal of 10,000 visitors, more than a thousand gathered at the Center for Performing Arts to witness the ending of the event. The duo behind the popular Mythbusters showed the results of six months of work, demonstrating the difference between a CPU and a GPU, following the conventional wisdom of parallel computing. Dubbed Smiley and Mona Lisa, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman presented two robots that represented the difference between a CPU and a GPU. Smiley was given a task to draw a smiley using conventional CPU techni...]]> Recent News: Electronics Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:19:23 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13227/Mythbusters-Explains-ParallelProcessing/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13220/The-Wiz-the-NextGen-OpenSource-Handheld-for-Preorder/ "Though sales of the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable are strong, there are many who use the devices exclusively for homebrew applications. While some of these homebrew devices or homebrew-enabling schemes are looked upon less than favorably by the big manufacturers, such as the infamous R4 flash cart for the DS, there are some companies who see the value in releasing devices capable of homebrew software. Enter the Wiz, a new open-source handheld gaming unit from GamePark Holdings. Homebrew and open-source applications often offer utility unrivaled by the more ma...]]> Recent News: Electronics Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:28:13 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13220/The-Wiz-the-NextGen-OpenSource-Handheld-for-Preorder/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13214/Nikon-D90-720P-Movie-Mode-on-a-DSLR/ Recent News: Electronics Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:56:43 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13214/Nikon-D90-720P-Movie-Mode-on-a-DSLR/ http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13199/iPhone-Gamepad/ "TouchArcade has found evidence of two upcoming iPhone control pads that add, at the very least, an SNES amount of buttons to the iPhone. iControl pad is the first, and has four face buttons, a D pad, Start/Select and an LED to show when it's in use. It may be ugly now, but it's just a prototype. Another game pad design (below) was received anonymously and looks like a patent application. It has an analog stick instead of a D pad, and places the Start/Select buttons over on the left. Both seem incredibly useful for games that require precise control—something the tilt...]]> Recent News: Electronics Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:42:22 -0500 http://www.thetechlounge.com/news/13199/iPhone-Gamepad/