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Month: June 2009 (Page 5 of 5)

Sony Unveils New Portable Game Player

NY Times – Trying to reclaim its leadership in the quickly shifting video game market, Sony announced on Tuesday that it would introduce a new version of its hand-held PlayStation Portable console this fall.

The new version, called the PSP Go, is scheduled to be introduced in the United States and Europe in October and cost $249. The unit is smaller, lighter and more expensive than the current version, the PSP-3000, which costs $169.

While previous iterations of the PSP have played games stored on small optical discs, the PSP Go is meant to download games and store them in its internal memory. The bottom of the console slides out from the main body to reveal game-control buttons.

Sony said it would continue to manufacture and support the PSP-3000 even as it aimed the new version at Internet-savvy consumers who prefer to shop for their entertainment online.

For Sony, the strategic picture is that sales of its latest home and portable game machines are lagging far behind offerings from the company’s chief Japanese rival, Nintendo. Nintendo has sold more than 100 million of its hand-held DS machines, roughly twice as many units as Sony has sold of the PSP.

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World’s Largest Laser Now Open for Business

Gizmodo – The $3.5 billion National Ignition Facility is finally open for business. Housed in a 10 story building as wide as three football fields, it will aim 192 laser beams at a 2mm ball of frozen hydrogen gas to achieve nuclear fusion—in 2040.

If they’re successful, it’ll be the most monumental discovery of the modern era, basically solving all of our energy problems. If it’s successful. Which it damned well may not be.

Unfortunately, it’s going to be a while before we find out if it works or not. It is open now, but it’s got tests scheduled on it until 2040. Once they have it all set, they think that heating up that hydrogen to 100,000,000C will cause it to fuse to form helium, making it the first machine in history to create more energy than it uses. Exciting stuff, if it works

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Xbox 360 Full-Body, Controllerless Motion Control Is Here: Project Natal

Gizmodo – As rumored, Microsoft unveiled its newest control scheme today: full-body motion control that doesn’t require a controller of any kind called Project Natal. Forgive my excitement, but on first glance this thing looks amazing.

It’ll let you control games just by moving around; kicking, jumping, whatever. You can also move through menus by swiping your hands back and forth. It very accurately picks up what your whole body is doing, letting you control your avatar just by moving around.

In addition, the camera allows for fun features like facial and voice recognition. When you have it running, your Xbox will recognize your face and sign you in automatically, which is pretty damned cool.

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Postino turns your iPhone pictures into real postcards

Macworld – In all likelihood you, like me, have run into the challenges of physical mail in a digital world. You’re on a holiday, and you want to send your mother/significant other/cat a postcard, but chances are it won’t even arrive until after you get back. Sure, you could just send an e-mail, but it loses a little something, doesn’t it? Plus, it could stand to be a little more personalized.

AnguriaLab’s new app, Postino (iTunes link), aims to bridge the digital and physical divide. It allows you to snap a picture and send it as a postcard, either over e-mail or as a real piece of paper. Just take a photo, choose a frame, add a custom message if you like (even “sign” it by drawing with your finger), and send it off. If you want to send it via snail mail, you purchase a virtual stamp right from the application ($2 for a single one, but they get cheaper if you buy a package of several) and your card gets printed out on high-quality paper and sent anywhere, worldwide, without any further action from you.

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