AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4550 and 4350 graphics cards are a wet dream for gamers on a budget by delivering DirectX 10.1 graphics and an HDMI port with 7.1 channel audio while keeping the price low. The $55 HD 4550 is equipped with 512MB of DDR3 memory with a 96 GFLOPS of power. The smaller […]
AMD’s ATI Radeon HD 4550 and 4350 graphics cards are a wet dream for gamers on a budget by delivering DirectX 10.1 graphics and an HDMI port with 7.1 channel audio while keeping the price low. The $55 HD 4550 is equipped with 512MB of DDR3 memory with a 96 GFLOPS of power. The smaller but still potent HD 4350 packs 256MB of memory for $39. ATI claims that this type of power has previously not been available at this price point and I think they’re right. These are a heck of a deal when they launch sometime in October ‘08.
I’ve had a good two weeks or so with the iPhone version of the next chapter in the Star Wars saga and not much has changed from the demo version we saw at E3. You remember that don’t you? What we didn’t know about back then was the number of levels and the amount of […]
I’ve had a good two weeks or so with the iPhone version of the next chapter in the Star Wars saga and not much has changed from the demo version we saw at E3. You remember that don’t you? What we didn’t know about back then was the number of levels and the amount of skills that can be acquired throughout the game. You may want to cease reading in case you don’t want any spoilers.
There are six levels, rather, chapters: The First True Test, Closer to Destiny, Senator’s Daughter, Darker Side of Felucia, Against the Empire, and A Hope Reborn. There are two modes: normal and hard. In normal mode you progress rather slowly and earn Force Powers one at a time. In hard mode you acquire powers quicker and the intensity of the game increases and each chapter boss takes a painstakingly longer time to defeat. At the end of each level, you get back onto your ship and go through a training program with droids to learn about your new powers. It gets tedious after a while since you know what to anticipate.
A Survival Mode is also present wherein you battle through six levels to gain a high score. I didn’t dabble too much into this one, though.
You frantically draw various patterns for various Force Powers to defeat storm troopers, exotic plants, Jedi masters, and AT-ST Walkers among others. Each power or combination of powers help you to defeat stated foes and include the following: Force Grip, Force Pull, Force Push, Force Lightning, Force Drain, Force Heal, Jedi Mind Trick and Force Speed. The game actually kind of waits for you to figure out which Force Power to use on your enemies with a glowing blue circle until you figure it out. I have images for everything, but I don’t really want to spoil it for anyone, but you guys let me know and I’ll whip up a gallery.
So, your mission as the Apprentice is to destroy the Emperor, but Darth screws you in the end and you die. That’s the short end of the story. Somewhere in between you’ve some sort of love interest with your pilot Juno Eclipse, but nothing happens since you die. I actually thought this game was way too short and hardcore buffs will enjoy it if you’re into the story line, which I barely followed. I like Star Wars and all, but I had sitting through dialogue. And I thought the Apprentice looked like an elf or a Vulcan. Would I willingly pay $10 for this game? No. Was it fun? Yes. You be the judge.
Not reading MobileCrunch yet? Why the heck not? While a MobileCrunch post or two might make the jump over to CrunchGear each day, there’s a ton of good stuff everyday that you’ll only see on that side of the fence. Here’s some stuff you might have missed on MobileCrunch today: Sony Ericsson’s eco-friendly GreenHeart handset photographed LG […]
Not reading MobileCrunch yet? Why the heck not? While a MobileCrunch post or two might make the jump over to CrunchGear each day, there’s a ton of good stuff everyday that you’ll only see on that side of the fence.
Here’s some stuff you might have missed on MobileCrunch today:
Anybody who completely relies on Microsoft for all of their entertainment needs is going to be bored straight out of their minds when Monday, September 29th rolls around. At 12:01 AM PST, both the Xbox Live and the entire Zune service will be taken down for maintenance. Live will be out for 24 hours, while […]
Anybody who completely relies on Microsoft for all of their entertainment needs is going to be bored straight out of their minds when Monday, September 29th rolls around. At 12:01 AM PST, both the Xbox Live and the entire Zune service will be taken down for maintenance. Live will be out for 24 hours, while Zune will go dark for closer to two days.
According to Major Nelson, the Live outage is in preparation for the Xbox experience dashboard and feature upgrades coming later this fall. They’re just laying the foundation right now, though - when things come back up on Tuesday morning, everything will be just as it was before. No new features, no new dashboard.
And what about Zune? No one really knows. Zune Insider only cites “scheduled maintenance”. 48 hours is a long friggin’ time for maintenance, so hopefully they pass out some goodies to make up for it - or at least give folks paying for the Zune Pass a buck or two in credit.
Have a hankering to make Blu-ray discs? Sony has you covered with its new BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer that can encode a 25GB disc in under 15 minutes - 50GB disc takes 30 minutes. The drive isn’t exactly mainstream yet with a $400 price tag, but I can recall paying the same price for my 4x […]
Have a hankering to make Blu-ray discs? Sony has you covered with its new BWU-300S 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer that can encode a 25GB disc in under 15 minutes - 50GB disc takes 30 minutes. The drive isn’t exactly mainstream yet with a $400 price tag, but I can recall paying the same price for my 4x Pioneer DVD-R burner. Sony is sweet’n the deal a bit and throwing in Blu-ray copies in Men in Black and The Fugitive. Yours next month.
Dan Havlik, our buddy and roving reporter for PDNGearGuide is on Cologne for Photokina where he got to handle the 37.5-megapixel Leica S2. This (potentially) $20,000 monstrosity has “one of the most beautifully designed cameras we’ve ever touched” and weather sealed for safety. The camera has an HDMI port but there is no live-view or […]
Dan Havlik, our buddy and roving reporter for PDNGearGuide is on Cologne for Photokina where he got to handle the 37.5-megapixel Leica S2. This (potentially) $20,000 monstrosity has “one of the most beautifully designed cameras we’ve ever touched” and weather sealed for safety. The camera has an HDMI port but there’s no live-view or video mode like this monster’s current competitors.
Dan also speaks about the ISO and other specs in his piece and essentially makes me want to go sell a kidney. I shot Leica over the summer and, strangely enough, I’m sold. The glass is beautiful and even though focusing the M8 made me feel like Ansel Adam’s paralytic cousin it was still a thrill to be able to play with the camera, warts and all. I sort of see Leica as the Omega Speedmaster of cameras - the purists may scoff but there’s a lot of history behind the glass.
What’s it about today? First hunter-killers, then Terminator spare parts, and now the machines are infiltrating our armed forces. Actually, it’s not such a big deal; the United Says Army is simply continuing to take advantage of its contract with iRobot, which provides the Army with hundreds of Packbots, small robots suited for dirty […]
What is it about today? First hunter-killers, then Terminator spare parts, and now the machines are infiltrating our armed forces. Actually, it’s not such a large deal; the United Says Army is simply continuing to take advantage of its contract with iRobot, which provides the Army with hundreds of Packbots, small robots suited for dirty or hazardous jobs. They’re pumping out about 100 a month with a total of 1800 shipped, which doesn’t seem like a lot unless you see them all together, rushing at you in a body, crushing you under their tiny treads and tearing at you with their tiny arms, as their cold, unblinking eyes look on with a mechanical indifference.
Individually, though, I’m sure they’re very helpful. I’ve heard stories of army engineers who have cried upon seeing their robot destroyed or irreparably damaged by a mine or RPG blast. Noble as it is, it is precisely that kind of emotion that will lead humanity to defeat in the coming Robocalypse.
Update: Yeah, that was autoplaying. Sorry. Video now inside!
This hardcore room separator is one step away from being really, really geeky. As it is, a stainless steel curtain is already a little weird, but it’s still missing that certain je nerd sais quois. I know: what would you state to a curtain of PCBs? With Pac-Man and the ghosts carved out of it! […]
This hardcore room separator is one step away from being really, really geeky. As it is, a stainless steel curtain is already a tiny weird, but it’s still missing that certain je nerd sais quois. I know: what would you state to a curtain of PCBs? With Pac-Man and the ghosts carved out of it! How fun does that sound? And these days they come in many colors as well. Mine is a lovely blue; when I replace it, I may just convert it to an end table or something.
If you’ve got a dog, showing off any tricks they might know is an easy way to break that “Er, so, this is my home.” awkwardness that tends to bubble up the first time new guests come over. Now, imagine that instead of a dog, it’s a fish. Your new friends would smile and clap […]
If you’ve got a dog, showing off any tricks they might know is an easy way to break that “Er, so, this is my home.” awkwardness that tends to bubble up the first time new guests come over. Now, envision that instead of a dog, it’s a fish. Your new friends would smile and clap and, chances are, give you $20 dollars.
Unfortunately, training fish to do crazy tricks is rigorous work. That’s, of course, unless you’ve the R2 Fish Training School Kit from ThinkGeek. You can use it to instruct your fish to play sports, or go through tunnels. At $40 bucks, the kit doesn’t come cheap - but it’s okay, because you should have recouped your investment after boggling the minds of just two people.
For those of you who don’t care for the stock interface or firmware on your digital music player, there’s the Rockbox firmware, which works on many Archos, iRiver, iPod, iAudio, Gigabeat, and Sansa devices. The firmware features extended codec support (OGG, Flac, etc.) plus enhanced audio magic, MPEG video support, tagging, plug-ins, playlist creation, games, […]
For those of you who don’t care for the stock interface or firmware on your digital music player, there’s the Rockbox firmware, which works on many Archos, iRiver, iPod, iAudio, Gigabeat, and Sansa devices. The firmware features extended codec support (OGG, Flac, etc.) plus enhanced audio magic, MPEG video support, tagging, plug-ins, playlist creation, games, and more (see the full feature list here).
Plus, it’s open source so it gets developed on a fairly regular basis. Version 3.0 was recently released, adding new software decoding features, a new installer, more codecs, and various miscellaneous updates and improvements.
What is it about today? First 
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