Posted by Andru EdwardsCategories:Accessories,Features,Galleries,Microsoft,Video Games
We got our hands on the Kinect sensor for Xbox 360 a day before launch, and we've been putting the motion gaming peripheral through its paces for the past five days now in preparation for our Kinect review. It'll be up later today, but in the meantime, we figured we'd share some unboxing shots of the Kinect unit. It's deceptively larger than it appears to be in product shots--it's a substantial piece of technology. It matches up perfectly with the redesigned Xbox 360 S model that was introduced back at E3 as well. Get a look at all the shots in our Kinect unboxing gallery.
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Gallery: Kinect sensor unboxing gallery
Related Tags:accessories, kinect, kinect adventures, kinect sensor, microsoft, motion gaming, video games, videogames, xbox 360View the original article here
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For the Chinese, there is nothing quite like setting off a trail of firecrackers during Chinese New Year to usher in what is hoped to be another annual cycle of prosperity, health and wealth. As for those celebrating Christmas, why not add a twist to the traditional firecrackers with the 
There is just something about little ones who want to hear the sound of their parents at night just before they head off into dreamland. For those who are parents, how many times have you shared a bedtime story over and over again with your kids during their formative years? We are sure that you might find it repetitive at times (especially when you’re tired), so why not let technology offer a little assistance when you’re feeling rather under the weather? Enter the 
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posted Nov 12th 2010 6:12AM
The chiclet keyboard on the 
However, it's that task of actually turning on the GPU that has us all worked up. Yes, that's that major pain point that you've been waiting for. While the next generation of Ion includes NVIDIA's Optimus, which should automatically switch between the integrated and discrete graphics depending on what program is being used, the 1015PN doesn't support Optimus because it runs Windows 7 Starter. (Apparently Starter doesn't allow for that sort of dynamic switching, and ASUS decided to use the OS to keep the cost down.) The result is a very dated experience, which requires you to select the graphics setting you want through that software panel above, and then reboot every time you want to make the switch. It's that two minute (one minute 30 seconds to be precise) rebooting process that really gets us since we don't remember the last time we had a laptop that required us to shut it down to just switch the graphics processor -- log out maybe, but actually shut down? It's been awhile. It works, and gets the job done, but we just wish we didn't have to go through the trouble, and our guess is that many will feel the same way and probably never end up switching graphics modes.
Sure, the 1015PN differs from the other 1015 models out there, but we just wish it were more like its larger 1215N brother. While the 1015PN has a smaller footprint and slightly longer battery life, its processor just isn't as powerful and having to reboot every time you want to switch between graphics cards is a serious inconvenience. If you must have a 10.1-inch netbook with solid graphics, the 1015PN is still one of your best bets since there isn't much else out there -- there's that $330 Acer 521 with AMD's Neo II and ATI graphics, but we're just not big fans of its build quality or design. (It makes us wonder why ASUS didn't just throw an AMD Neo processor in a 1015. Of course, there is the 1015T, but that has a slower AMD V105 CPU. You know you want to throw another one on the production line, ASUS!) Honestly, what we'd really suggest is either settling for an underpowered 10.1-inch netbook in the $350 range with a Broadcom Crystal HD accelerator (i.e. the Eee PC 1005PR or HP Mini 210) or spending $70 more and going up to the larger 12.1-inch 1215N.
Well, thar she blows -- the Jolicloud Jolibook. You've seen the teaser images and the official specs, but the 10.1-inch netbook is finally showing its keyboard deck and rear in a set of official press shots. Most of the information you need is in that gallery below, but just like we saw in the other images, its lid is skinned with a crowded cartoon scene while its back is home to a bulging battery (though, one shot shows it with a smaller cell). Under the cover it looks to have a fairly standard plastic panel complete with a chiclet keyboard that happens to look strikingly similar in styling to that on the recent Acer Aspire One systems. We're hoping that all plastic build translates to a seriously low starting price, but naturally, we're still waiting on that last nugget of information. We dare you to check out the shots in the gallery below and try saying "Jolicloud Jolibook" three times fast! 
We're still waiting on official Froyo builds for the American Galaxy S variants, but they seem to be getting close. How close? Well, close enough so that you can taste a leak for the Epic 4G if you like to live dangerously. The binary comes conveniently pre-rooted by the source and has a handful of known issues -- most notably some sluggish / buggy web browsing -- but we guess that's the price you pay for stepping out on the bleeding edge. Let's hope an official release isn't too far behind. 
Verbatim, whose business is memory (and whose name means "to reproduce word for word," by the way) has done a Rick Moranis job on its MediaShare NAS, resulting in the MediaShare Mini. One third the size of its predecessor, this guy retains its slight stature by going the Iomega iConnect route of eschewing on-board storage altogether for four USB ports (so it looks like you'll have to factor the four thumb drives into the purchase price). And like the full-size MediaShare NAS server, this bad boy supports remote access via HTTP, support for a number of handhelds (including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, BlackBerry, Android, and Palm Pre), Facebook integration, DLNA-compliant media streaming, and more. Look for it now for an MSRP of $90.
If you're thinking about getting your holiday shopping underway, well you're not alone. Sony's just launched its 
Taiwanese peripheral manufacturer Tt eSports has launched a new three button gaming mouse aimed to please those with a penchant for fragging. Unlike other options out there such as the Razer Lachesis, which tout ever-increasing sensitivity specs, the Azurues' optical sensor engine is content to top out at 1600 dpi, and can easily be adjusted down to 400 / 800 dpi via a hardware switch on the bottom. That makes it ideal for those who prefer a little more wrist leeway while shooting. Other niceties include a black rubber coating for grip, an adjustable weight design, low friction Teflon feet, integrated lighting, and a braided cable to take repeated abuse from the thrill of desk-side battle. Unfortunately, pricing and availability are still unknown, so there's no need to remove your cursor from the back of your next victim's head until more details surface. 
posted Nov 12th 2010 1:04AM 
Way back at Computex, a little orange tablet brazenly called the Tycoon seared our retinas and won our hearts. Now it's going on to charm early adopting tableteers everywhere. Well, everywhere in Taiwan, anyway, with maker FIC indicating it will sell its first tablet on Saturday, priced at NT$19,800. That equates to roughly $660 American, for which you'll get a 10.1-inch model with Windows 7 installed on a 120GB HDD, powered by an Atom N455 processor with 2GB of memory. The OS is said to have been adjusted to make it more finger friendly, though we don't have any details on exactly how, nor do we know when this little guy might be making an appearance outside of Taiwan. We just hope they kept the tangerine sheen. 
Considering Seiko Epson was touting its inkjet OLED technology over a year ago and researchers have supposedly been developing OLEDs as cheap as newspapers for some time now, at this point we're really more interested in seeing electronics manufacturers do more walking and less talking. Thankfully Samsung has acknowledged our tech impatience by sharing a prototype 19-inch OLED that's capable of displaying 58ppi -- or about a quarter of full HD's resolution -- and 16.77 million colors with a limited 8-bit color scale at a brightness of 200 nits. No, it may not look or sound as sexy as the 0.5mm thick flapping panel or 40-inch 1080p OLED sets Samsung shared back in 2008, but unlike those dinosaurs, this latest prototype was made via the old OLED "inkjet method." Sadly the Korean tech giant dashed our hopes of heading over to Kinkos anytime we needed a fresh OLED big screen by stating "the technology is still under development." Now if we had a nickel for every time we've heard that before, we'd probably be staring at an OLED printer on our desk right now. 
We know it's a little tough to get excited about a chip, even if that chip is the hotly anticipated Samsung Orion. Still, bear with us, because this isn't your average slab of cellphone silicon -- the Orion's got a dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and a quad-core Mali 400 GPU on board. We spotted it at the ARM Technology Conference this week where it was pimping "Linaro" Linux middleware, as well as some stock Android 2.2. Unfortunately, the development boards still have a few kinks, so representatives couldn't show it pumping all those pixels to nearby HDTVs -- though we did get a butter-smooth demo of Futuremark's old Cyber Samurai benchmark running on the smaller screen. There are still rumors of this chip hitting some products late this year, but next year is much more likely. Either way, we're expecting some pretty impressive benchmarks from this thing when it inevitably winds up in the next Galaxy Tab or a flagship phone of some sort. 
At the grand re-opening of a Verizon Plus store in Tampa today, Big Red was demoing its latest FiOS TV feature, Flex View. As announced, this feature lets you take your video on demand content with you on your PC as well as various other Verizon Wireless devices -- no iOS support though as Apple doesn't license its FairPlay and the Microsoft PlayReady DRM used doesn't work on Apple's products either. There are about 2,000 movies available for rent now, with a subset of them available for purchase. Currently they are all SD with stereo sound, but HD and discrete surround sound are planed for later versions. Unlike the FiOS VOD, you can download these shows from any internet connection and play them back on the go or at home -- resume between devices is also in the coming-soon category. Overall the user interface looked good, but we did see lots of blocking artifacts that we just hope were a result of the in-store demo and not an indication of what customers can actually expect. The content is linked to your Verizon FiOS user ID, which means that purchased content can still be viewed even if you cancel your FiOS TV service. No word on if Verizon's free VOD selection will ever become available, but we have to say we really like the idea of watching content on the go no matter how good our network connection isn't.