Nintendo just announced the Wii MotionPlus, a small peripheral that plugs on to the bottom of the Wiimote to give greatly improved motion sensing, allowing for games to truly use your motion on screen for, say, a lightsaber game.
Nintendo’s upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space. The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, grants for more comprehensive tracking of a player’s arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Each slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play. The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo’s commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing.
Now let’s watch and see how Nintendo tries to spin a fix to underwhelming motion sensing as a new feature. Adventures in marketing, ahoy! [Nintendo]
Last week Hasselblad was holding down the largest-sensor-available title with its 50MP H3DII-50, but now Phase One’s P65+ digital back matches the size of a standard piece of 645 film at 40.4 X 54.9mm—a first for digital sensors—for a final resolution of 65 megapixels. But if you’re guessing it’ll cost you, you guessed right.
One place where film photography still has an edge over digital is in medium- and large-format cameras—until this day, the largest sensor available still didn’t match the size of the smallest medium-format film available. Medium format is used by a lot of pros for its increased dynamic range, depth of field control, and of course, resolution, and as a result, the P65+ carries a pros-only price of $39,990. And that doesn’t even include the whole camera, just the back. Me? I’m still waiting for the full 66 cm sensor to match my rusty old Mamiya. [via Luminous Landscape]
EBay was found today to not be responsible for allowing the sale of counterfeit items. Tiffany and Company initially filed the lawsuit in 2004 after a study they conducted determined a high rate of fakes being sold under the Tiffany brand. The ruling issued by Judge Richard Sullivan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan […]
EBay was found today to not be responsible for allowing the sale of counterfeit items. Tiffany and Company initially filed the lawsuit in 2004 after a study they conducted determined a high rate of fakes being sold under the Tiffany brand.
The ruling issued by Judge Richard Sullivan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan is a major victory for the on the internet giant, as they don’t have to actively weed out suspect listings from the site. Intellectual property holders instead are tasked with the chore of policing the site and alerting eBay of possible infringements. Accordingly, eBay would then faithfully take down the offending listings.
Not all is well though as Tiffany can still appeal the decision. Additionally, eBay has lost recent court battles with the Louis Vuitton handbag makers in French courts, while Rolex convinced a German appeals court that eBay must take preventive measures to cease the sale of counterfeit watches.
Unbreakable Fighting Umbrellas have been around for a little while now, but today we know of one government that actually uses them to protect its president. That government is the Philippines, and the protected president is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Further testimonials for the $180 multi-purpose weapon/rainstopper from Secret Service agencies beyond the Philippines are just as glowing: “Your product is easy and affective as we saw in your video. I can carry it everywhere. Many other agencies wanted to know where they could buy this umbrella,” stated one proud customer on the Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella product page. If you haven’t seen the video yet, it’s worth a look, for nothing else than the fact that Thomas Kurz (”the world’s foremost expert on flexibility training”) uses one of these rainstoppers to chop a watermelon in two.
The sale figures for Apple’s new iPhone is taking most of the headlines this week, but a worldwide economic slump may impact global cell phone growth. According to research firm Gartner, 1.15 billion handsets were sold in 2007. A 16% increase over 2006’s numbers. But this year, growth is predicted to slow.
In Might of this year, Gartner forecast that global sales would increase by 10-15 percent but has adjusted these numbers down to 10-11 percent because of new economic realities. Much of the predicted growth will take place in emerging markets, which are just beginning to feel the economic squeeze that has hit developed countries.
As long as a global depression is fended off, sales should increase about 10% this year, which sounds good. But much of this growth will be in the low-end market, with increased sales of cheap models. The profit margins for these phones are lower than for the high-end models, so manufactures depend on volume to make up for lower profits for each sale. A loss of predicted future profits can adversely impact the stock price of mobile phone manufactures.
Smart phones are all the rage this day. Not wanting to fall behind in the technology race, Palm announced this day that its new smart phone, the Treo 800w, is now available on the Sprint Nextel network. This is Palm’s first major new model since the Centro was launched last year.
The Treo 800w runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and can access the World wide web with Sprint’s broadband network or through a local Wi-Fi connection. The handset comes installed with a chip that allows for fast uploads off of Sprint’s EVDO Rev A network.
Palm’s new phone comes with GPS capabilities and a screen that is an improvement over past models. The Treo 800w has a 320-by-320 screen, is 2.2 by 4.41 by 0.73 inches and weighs in at 5 ounces.
The Treo 800w can be purchased for as little as $250, but a two-year contract with Sprint that costs at least $70 a month is required. Other contract options will increase the initial price of the handset. Sprint doesn’t have the exclusive rights to sell the Treo 800w, so other carriers like Verizon and Alltel might carry the phone in the future.
The burning question answered by these photos from Crackberry: What does the touchscreen BlackBerry’s keyboard look like? As rumored, landscape gets you full QWERTY, while portrait mode drops you to SureType to squeeze in all the buttons. It’s straightforwardly utilitarian—taking up a large amount of screen real estate, it definitely lacks in the glitz department. Here’s a shot of the SureType keyboard:
Crackberry also reiterates the past bit that it’ll be a glass multi-touch screen with dual tactile feedback—it pushes in just a bit like a giant button and has localized haptics (it vibrates where you push it). However, the BlackBerry button will still be in heavy use to navigate around the OS. No further info on the delayed/not delayed spat, or on the name (which we’ve heard is actually Storm). [Crackberry]
Super sly reader Ken had to get a back-ordered iPhone and when faced with the choice of black or white, 16 or 8, he selected wisely. Just got my direct fulfillment order and seem to be no backups or backorder’s at the time. This is for a 16 gb White. others seem to be shipping […]
Super sly reader Ken had to get a back-ordered iPhone and when faced with the choice of black or white, 16 or 8, he selected wisely.
Just got my direct fulfillment order and seem to be no backups or backorder’s at the time. This is for a 16 gb White. others seem to be shipping out still in the quoted 5-7 days.
Our advice? Ask for a 16GB white when you’re put on back-order and enjoy your iPhone a few days early while the rest of the world stands in line outside the Rancho Fashion Mall getting skin cancer. Too manly for the white? You’re going to put the bugger in a case anyway, right?
Nintendo just announced the Wii MotionPlus, a small peripheral that plugs on to the bottom of the Wiimote to give greatly improved motion sensing, allowing for games to truly use your motion on screen for, say, a lightsaber game.
Last week Hasselblad was holding down the largest-sensor-available title with its 
Unbreakable Fighting Umbrellas have been around for a little while now, but today we know of one government that actually uses them to protect its president. That government is the Philippines, and the protected president is Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She wouldn’t have it any other way. Further testimonials for the $180 multi-purpose weapon/rainstopper from Secret Service agencies beyond the Philippines are just as glowing: “Your product is easy and affective as we saw in your video. I can carry it everywhere. Many other agencies wanted to know where they could buy this umbrella,” stated one proud customer on the Unbreakable Fighting Umbrella product page. If you haven’t seen the video yet, it’s worth a look, for nothing else than the fact that Thomas Kurz (”the world’s foremost expert on flexibility training”) uses one of these rainstoppers to chop a watermelon in two.
The burning question answered by these photos 
Crackberry also reiterates the past bit that it’ll be a glass multi-touch screen with dual tactile feedback—it pushes in just a bit like a giant button and has localized haptics (it vibrates where you push it). However, the BlackBerry button will still be in heavy use to navigate around the OS. No further info on the 
Entries (RSS)