Inside the Xbox Slim, you won’t find the gooey remnants of slimfast. Instead there’s a new DVD/CD-R slim combo drive, 2.5″ 60GB hard drive and integrated Wi-Fi networking, plus a built-in receiver for a Logitech wireless controller. The only downside is that it plays only the original Xbox games, but what are you gonna do? It looks pretty sweet.

[Technabob]

• AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit 1.5GHz processor
• NVIDIA GeForce 6150E integrated graphics
• 1GB DDR2 RAM
• 160GB hard drive
• Dual-layer DVD burner
• 14-in-1 memory card reader
• Seven USB 2.0 ports

All that for $298? Sounds more than reasonable to me. Just make sure you have a spanking new monitor to go along with it, or else it would be one expensive paperweight.

Source: Engadget

Like today, the television dial of the late 50's was full of crime dramas. Cold War era TV private investigators were often gruff detached characters; their hands clutched around cinch waisted molls, hard liquor, and/or an impossible number of cigarettes. Peter Gunn, on the other hand, is the epitome of cool. The show is remembered fondly for all of the above, as well as mild self-mockery of the TV detective genre and every episode's tremendous soundtrack. Though the series premiered 50 years ago, it's novel combination of ideas and trends somehow remains fresh today.

Gunn is a unique series with rewards for both eyes and ears. Up until that point, television shows often employed uninspired stock orchestral music. A chance encounter between series creator Blake Edwards and recently unemployed musician Henry Mancini (they met at Universal Studio's barbershop where Mancini was sneaking in one last haircut before leaving the premises) resulted in a fusion of Edward's visual wit, and the cool jazz that was to become Peter Gunn's sultry signature.

The series is credited with introducing Mancini's popular flavor of jazz to the mainstream (though here's a link to a scathing review of Mancini's body of work that mentions Gunn specifically), but there's a lot more to Gunn than just great tunes. The noir style filmmaking gives the show a moody look that few TV shows dared to emulate. Sophisticated hipster Steven Craig is immaculate in his suits... suits which don't crease or get dirty in the show's many action-packed brawls. Also essential is the cracking good dialog – especially when Pete acts as an interface between the establishment (police, rich clients), and the nameless city's late night counterculture (beatnicks, street urchins).

Every episode drops the viewer right into the action with what's called a “cold open”, a moment or two later comes the classic theme song. During the investigation, Pete will find himself at Mother's nightclub for a few bars of smooth jazzy standards, exchange witty barbs with the police, and solve the case, all within a half hour! Too bad the 30 minute prime-time drama is an extinct form of television. It seems an efficient way to impart style, humor, and adventure in a way that might not work in a longer piece. Also, I shudder to think what Peter Gunn would look like in color if remade today.

The series has been released on DVD (the discs only seem to include 32 of the 114 original episodes). I was anxious to pick them up, but the discs are mastered from the syndicated edits of the show, meaning each episode is missing a few minutes. There are also questionable sources for some of the episodes – some are clearly made from poor 16mm dupe prints.

Peter Gunn is a remarkable enough series that it deserves a better home video release than this, though the current two DVD sets are very affordable. Hopefully in the future A&E will smarten up and bring out a Blu Ray collection that lives up to their normally high standards. A show like Peter Gunn will benefit from the extra resolution & contrast of HD, while also showing contemporary hour-long drama producers how much more fun & style can fit in half the time.

"Peter Gunn" DVD set at Amazon.com

1986 video for Art of Noise version of the theme
Deeper look at the creation of the theme song
Curmudgeonly swipe at Mancini's work on Gunn

Crysis: Warhead

8/10

Take on the fight as the volatile Sergeant “Psycho” Sykes in a new parallel story taking place during the events of Crysis. Psycho’s secret mission will take him to the other side of the island on a ruthless pursuit of a North Korean general hell-bent on obtaining powerful technology.

With the versatile powers of his Nanosuit and an arsenal of fully customisable weapons and vehicles at his disposal, Sykes will do whatever it takes to carry out his top-secret objective.

Action on the other side of the island is more intense, the battles are fierce, and the mission protocol is no longer “Adapt to Survive.” As Sergeant Sykes, now you must adapt to dominate the battle. Twin SMG’s blazing, seizing new vehicles, or going stealth, the action and the victory is on your terms.

Crysis: Warhead is the latest pulse-racing instalment of 2007’s PC Game of the Year. This time round you play as Sergeant Sykes, with a vital mission to recover the technology that an enemy general wishes to own, at any cost.

This time round there are more dynamic gameplay elements, customisable weapons, new vehicles, more locations and a fully interactive war zone to dominate – whether you want to play in a guns-out way or you’re more of a stealth merchant.

Warhead is an extremely clever and very exciting stand-alone expansion pack, meaning that you don’t need the original Crysis in order to play it. What makes it even better though is the reverse-engineered and altered graphical engine – it will now play on more machines than the original Crysis (which, let’s face it, even with a hugely powerful PC, you might not be able to crank it to full settings graphically).

This should mean that a wider audience can access the fun of Crysis – and it really is a lot of fun. The physics aspects remain (picking up soldiers, throwing them into rocks, other soldiers etc, punching vehicles and so on) and the nano-suit remains integral in the battle scenario.

Exactly how do you want to target that Korean base up ahead? Go stealth like the predator, sneak up and take them out? Or would you rather engage your strength suit to neutralise any weapon kick-back and go all out? Ii really does make a difference to the strategic play.

Unfortunately, the game suffers from being extremely short – there are perhaps only around six hours gameplay to be had here. However, there are a bunch of multiplayer options (that now brilliantly includes team deathmatch), with some new online modes and 21 maps – seven of which are new.

Perhaps the only real gripes that I have with the game are that firstly it can be a little too linear (I actually found places in Crysis where you couldn’t access and these became more apparent in Warhead) and the enemy AI – which at times reacted a little too oddly to what I was up to. Nonetheless, Crysis Warhead is an absolutely solid title and the parallel storyline adds to the original game if you’ve played it.

If you liked Crysis, or even if you like first person shooters in general, then you’ll probably want to play this. It’s well worth a look.

One of the smart technologies found in the LG KC780 is Face Detection, and this will automatically find and focus on people’s faces so that the photographer is able to capture clearer portrait shots. In addition, LG’s Smile Detection technology is smart enough to recognize the angle of people’s mouths and adjust focus for faces. Good to see such features appear on a cell phone, where they were once the domain of dedicated digital cameras. While the LG KC780 won’t have the full functionality of a digital camera, it has enough to make this function as a backup just in case your primary shooter dies due to lack of battery or some other unfortunate inconvenience. You will be able to choose from automatic modes, a Beauty Mode that removes spots and imperfections on people’s faces, high ISO 1600, SmartLight setting for optimal brightness settings and an integrated Image Stabilizer.

You can also capture DVD resolution video with this, although I won’t expect many to use this feature due to the amount of memory such files take up. Other features include Bluetooth connectivity, a webcam function and Motion Sensor games. You will be able to pick up the LG KC780 this November in Europe, to be followed by Asian releases in due time.

Press Release

This nettop has dimention of 287×214x33 mm and 4 kg of wieght. Get it home in 69800 JPY.

This nettop has dimention of 287×214x33 mm and 4 kg of wieght. Get it home in 69800 JPY.

Its first small desktop computer, the EL1200 Desktop Series PC, is an interesting offering for the brand, which isn’t known for its pretty PCs. But this must be different. Even the press release calls it ’stylish.”

eMachines has come out with sub $399 PCs before but those usually had lesser hardware and weren’t that interesting. The brand started in Irvine, was later acquired by Gateway, which in turn was acquired by Acer last year. eMachines and Gateway are now brands of Acer.

All I can say is - About time! eMachines should have led the latest trend of budget-priced PCs (see “Netbooks everywhere. Do consumers really want them?“). The small form factor has already been done by everyone else, including Gateway. Dell has really nice-looking ones in the $599 range.

Getting back to the latest machine … The EL1200 is “one-third the size of a traditional PC,” according to the company. It’s 40 to 55 percent lighter than eMachines smallest desktop. Yet, as with traditional eMachines, the series “pack as much computing power as most mainstream full-size towers.”

The goods?

It has a 64-bit AMD Athlon 1.5 GHz chip (OK), 1 to 2 GB of memory (can add more cheaply), NVIDIA GeForce graphics chip (not bad), 160 GB hard drive (the going rate) and a DVD SuperMulti drive with Labelflash technology (fun!)

A nice touch: a low-power 15-watt CPU that uses less energy than a standard desktop (let’s hope so).

Two versions are available now. The $298 is at Wal-Mart. The $349 version, which has a larger hard drive and faster chip, is at Best Buy.

The new eMachines EL1200 models are available now. The EL1200-05w, available at Wal-Mart, has an MSRP of $298. The EL 1210-01e can be purchased from Best Buy, and has an MSRP of $349.

Specs are after the jump:

eMachines EL1200-05w:

AMD Athlon^TM 2650e 64-bit Processor (1.5GHz, 512KB L2 cache and 800MHz system bus)
NVIDIA® GeForce® 6150SE integrated graphics
1MB DDR2 memory
160GB SATA II (7200 RPM, 8MB cache) hard drive
18x DVD±R/RW SuperMulti Drive featuring Labelflash^TM Technology
14-in-1 digital media card reader
Microsoft® Windows XP Home with SP3
7 USB 2.0 ports (3 front / 4 rear)
$298 MSRP

eMachines EL 1210-01e:

AMD Athlon 2650e 64-bit Processor (1.5GHz, 512KB L2 cache and 800MHz system bus)
NVIDIA® GeForce® 8200 integrated graphics
2MB DDR2 memory, dual channel
320GB SATA II (7200 RPM, 8MB cache) hard drive
18x DVD±R/RW SuperMulti Drive featuring Labelflash Technology
14-in-1 digital media card reader
Microsoft® Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1
7 USB 2.0 ports (3 front / 4 rear)
1 HDMI port
1 eSATA port
$349 MSRP

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Post from: Alt+Save with the Gadgetress

eMachines finally comes out with sub-$300 computer

i.TV is one handy app for virtually everyone who enjoy watching TV and/or movies. Whether you’re looking for something interesting on a TV or what’s hot in the theaters, i.TV can help you out. As a matter of fact, the official AppStore page says that users can browse more than 144,000 TV and movie listings and 5,000+ local theaters. In addition, you can watch TV previews and movie trailers (6,000+ of these are available at the moment), view detailed show descriptions, celebrity bios and photos.

There’s also a social networking element included in the mix, allowing everyone to vote, write reviews, and share TV and movie info with friends.

The best part is the price — i.TV is free. Plus, they’ve wowed to keep improving the app and make it the ultimate TV/movies guide. Some of the features that will be available in the coming weeks and months include live TV streaming, ability to use your iPhone/iPod Touch as a remote control for your DVR, DVD rentals management and the ability to buy movie tickets right from i.TV. Nice!

[Via: jkOnTheRun]

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