Author: Terren

There’s nothing worse than watching a 30-second ad to watch some 30-second clip of something the world inevitably finds funnier than you do. Google/YouTube are acknowledging this phenomenon of the consumer psyche and will introduce an ad-skip button this year. More »









Google – YouTube – Search Engines – Searching – Advertising

Sure, you know Kinect, but do you know Kinect? While retailers have backed off publishing $150 pricetags for Kinect in bizarre displays of solidarity, UK shop Play.com has up some new specifics on the technology in its listing for the device. Here are a few of the standouts that were news to us:

• Field of view is relatively limited, something we could sense when spending time with Kinect at E3. The unit sees 57 degrees of horizontal and 43 degrees of vertical, with a 27 degree physical tilt to keep you in the action.
• Depth of view is similarly strict, ranging from 4 feet to 11.5 feet.
• Skeletal tracking is limited to two active players at a time, as we knew, but the system can at least keep its eye on up to six people at once — like that totally optional pair of backup dancers in Dance Central.
• Resolution, because we know you were wondering, is detailed as well: 320 x 240, 16-bit at 30 fps (we’re guessing this is the depth camera), 640 x 480, 32-bit color at 30 fps (yeah, this is the color one), and 16-bit audio at 16 kHz.

No huge surprises, and we’re sure a few more details will leak out before launch — can’t you just wait to get “off the couch, on your feet and in the fun”?

Kinect detailed in newly precise tech specs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dell deliberately shipped millions of PCs that it knew to be faulty, according to recently unsealed court papers.

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The windows team blog posted a message to all of the eager customers waiting for the new rollout of Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4. The update hasn’t been going as quickly as most users would have expected, when it began rolling out two weeks ago.

The Hotmail team made a…

A YouTube video of a deer attacking a dog in a Cranbrook, B.C., residential neighbourhood has gone viral, getting more than 1.4 million hits since it was posted on June 6.

We are happy to announce that Hulu will be coming to Xbox LIVE as part of their Hulu Plus experience. In the announcement today, Hulu announced a preview of their Plus service, along with a series of partners of which Xbox LIVE is one of them. We’re working hard on creating customized experience for Xbox LIVE members, which means that Hulu Plus will be coming to Xbox 360 in early 2011. We are taking the time to ensure that the Hulu Plus experience for Xbox 360 is the best on TV and like our other entertainment experiences it will not be a port, but rather a custom experience that leverages the Xbox LIVE community features.

 

Hulu Plus will be available for US Xbox LIVE Gold Members only.

 

Finally! Hulu Plus has been made official, and it looks awesome. More »









IPad – iPhone – Hulu – Smartphones – Handhelds

Canadian rapper Drake is being sued for copyright infringement by Playboy Enterprises over allegations that his breakout smash Best I Ever Had samples a ’70s hit owned by the company.

Quebec’s Olympic Installations Board is moving ahead with a project to replace the decrepit retractable roof covering Montreal’s east-end stadium.

When Digg founder Kevin Rose tweeted about the existence of “Google Me,” Google’s supposed “Facebook killer” social-networking site, I’d love to know whether he expected Facebook’s former-CTO to jump into the fray and confirm it, saying it’s a “real project.” More »









Google – Facebook – kevinrose – Searching – Search Engines

The Queen receives a rainy but warm welcome as she arrives in Halifax on the first stop on her nine-day Canadian tour.

As of April 1, the population of Saskatchewan was estimated by Statistics Canada to be 1,041,700.

Ever since the age of four, Ben Michaels has suffered from amblyopia, or severe lazy eye syndrome, in his right eye. The condition gradually weakened the eye’s vision, and when Ben was at the tender age of six, was at risk of permanent blindness. Desperate, Ben’s mother Maxine sought the advice of Ken Nischal, a consultant at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Nischal’s professional recommendation? A steady diet of Nintendo DS.

Following the consultant’s strange advice, Ben’s mom “forced” her son to spend two hours a day playing ‘Mario Kart,’ and made sure that he did so while wearing an eyepatch over his left (and healthy) eye, in order to better train his right. Traditional medicine it’s not, but, according to Maxine, her son’s vision “improved 250-percent” in just the first week of heavy gaming. “When he started, he could not identify our faces with his weak eye,” she told the Daily Mail. “Now he can read with it although he is still a way off where he ought to be.”

Continue reading Six-Year-Old Boy Uses Nintendo DS to Regain Eyesight

Filed under: Video Games, Summer Fun

Six-Year-Old Boy Uses Nintendo DS to Regain Eyesight originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 15:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BP has increased the amount it says it’s spent on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to $2.65 billion US since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20.

Ah, menstruation. That wonderfully cyclical occurrence that women always discuss with knowing nods, and that men do their best to not think about. But thanks to designer Hiromi Ozaki, formerly clueless guys can now experience the menstrual experience first hand, in all its splendor. Cheers all around.

Ozaki, you see, has designed something called the ‘Menstruation Machine,’ which consists of a device that dispenses blood and simulates lower abdomen cramping — all in an attempt, as Ozaki explains, to mimic “the pain and bleeding of an average five-day menstruation process of a human.” Ozaki even created a demo/music video (after the jump) about a guy named Takashi, who uses the machine in an effort “to fulfill his desire to understand what it might feel like to be a truely kawaii (cute) girl [sic].” Takashi manages to stick with it for a while, and then things get pretty ugly. So, what did Takashi learn about being a woman? We’re not really sure. But it definitely looks like he won’t need to buy a Childbirth Machine for at least nine months. [From: DesignInteractions, via: Wired]

Continue reading Men Can Try the ‘Menstruation Machine’ to Feel ‘Bleeding Down There’

Filed under: Computers

Men Can Try the ‘Menstruation Machine’ to Feel ‘Bleeding Down There’ originally appeared on Switched on Mon, 28 Jun 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Canada’s population now exceeds 34 million, with British Columbia showing the strongest growth rate of all provinces, according to Statistics Canada.

According to StatCounter, Chrome just edged out Safari to become the third most widely used browser in the United States, claiming 8.97% of the market share to Safari’s 8.88%. I guess people really responded to that potato gun speed test. More »









Safari – Google Chrome – Browser – Web browser – Apple

Judging by a patent filed in March, Google looks set to be changing the UI of Maps and Street View, making the images larger and bringing the navigational controls on top of the image (and to the right.) More »









Google – Google Maps – Searching – Search Engines – StreetView

A trio in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, N.L., has come forward to claim half of the Friday Lotto Max main prize, with the other half of the jackpot going to an as yet unknown winner who bought a ticket in Saskatchewan.