gadget news and reviews

Comic-Con 2010: Burn Notice Interviews +

Last week I attended Comic-Con 2010 in San Diego for the first time. Although the event is predominantly for fans, due to my work with Skatter Tech, I had a little extra access to just about everything. The folks from USA Network were kind enough to let a few of us into a private room for interviews with the folks behind Burn Notice, While Collar, and Psych. Since Skatter Tech generally covers tech-related news, I thought I’d throw in a few geeky questions during our interviews. Read More

Comic-Con 2010: The Big Bang Theory Interviews +

This past week Skatter Tech dove right into the chaos that is Comic-Con, and this year’s was by far the craziest yet. The San Diego Convention Center was home to some of the biggest, brightest names in Hollywood, ranging from daytime cable to the silver screen. It’s been three years since one of my all time favorite TV shows, “The Big Bang Theory,” premiered on CBS. The witty, geeky humor was created by the minds of Chuck Lorre (creator of “Two and a Half Men”) and Bill Prady, and continues on to its fourth season with the help of creative writers Steve Molaro and Lee Aronsohn.
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Apple Refreshes iMac Lineup +

Apple is usually never short of new products to release and market. Even when there is an occasional lull in activity, the Cupertino based company is always upgrading or hyping something new. The iPhone 4 of course has been the latest of the company’s ventures, though the negative press it has been receiving the last several weeks have revealed weaknesses in the company’s PR strategy. Perhaps some of the latest news from the company will draw attention away from iPhone 4’s issues. Today, Apple officially announced a refresh of its iMac line of desktop computers boasting power, simplicity, and of course aesthetic brilliance.

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Street Fighter X Tekken 2

In case you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days, San Diego Comic-Con was this past week, which means that huge announcements for the next few years finally made it to the public ear. Although some of the biggest announcements concerned movie properties, the most shocking and exciting bit of news in my opinion was the announcement of Street Fighter X Tekken—pronounced Street Fighter Cross Tekken. Although we only saw a short video clip and some limited gameplay action with Yoshinori Ono from Capcom and Katsuhiro Harada from Namco at the controls, Capcom’s newest crossover fighting game is loaded with potential. Read More

ADATA Announces the N909 Thumb Drive +

Ever get frustrated when trying to quickly transfer files because USB 2.0 crawls rather than runs? I’m sure many have been victims of the bus’ relatively slow transfer rate, especially when trying to read and write data containing videos or music. Until USB 3.0 becomes the standard, there are ways to get around USB 2.0’s inefficiencies. One alternative is to use eSATA, an external SATA interface which is much faster than USB 2.0. On that note, Taiwanese memory manufacturer A-DATA has just come out with the N909 thumb drive, the first in the industry to combine eSATA and USB 2.0. Read More

FIFA 2011 (Preview) +

Ever since the FIFA World Cup ended, many fans, including myself, have found themselves exhibiting signs of soccer withdrawal. As a substitute to watching soccer on its grandest stage, there’s of course the option of playing FIFA ’10 from EA. The title was one of the most complete sports games to come out for 2010. The introduction of in-depth game modes along with attention to many of the sport’s subtle aspects gave the FIFA series a sense of realism that seemed to be lacking in previous titles. Now, EA is stepping up the ante with the upcoming release of FIFA ’11. Not only does the game appear to build well on previous ones, but it also promises to change the way soccer games are played altogether.

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Comic-Con 2010: Interview with Motohide Eshiro +

Skatter Tech was able to obtain an exclusive interview with Capcom Producer, Motohide Eshiro. For those of you that aren’t familiar with the name, Eshiro is the one of the brilliant minds behind designing the new Okamiden title along with other Capcom favorites such as Onimusha 2: Samurai’s Destiny. There had been a lot of exciting progress with the Okamiden demo at this year’s E3, and I was able to ask a few unanswered questions regarding the Nintendo DS title and all the high expectations behind it. Read More

ARM and TSMC To Work On 20nm Process +

When Intel co-founder Gordon Moore stated in 1965 that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit (IC) will approximately double every two years, nobody anticipated that such a prediction would hold. Now known famously as Moore’s Law, it has come to define the semiconductor industry. Most of what facilitates the rapid increase we’ve been seeing of transistor count is the decrease in transistor size. Periodically, major semiconductor manufacturers have scaled down process sizes so that smaller and faster ICs can be fabricated. The world’s largest semiconductor maker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), has now signed a long-term deal with chipmaker ARM to scale down ARM’s Cortex series of embedded and application processors to a 20nm process.

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Microsoft Launches Xbox 360 4GB With Kinect +

During our E3 coverage, all eyes focused on what Kinect would bring to the Xbox 360. Would it rejuvenate the system by grabbing the Nintendo Wii’s primary market? Or would it alienate existing users because of the growing development for Kinect-based games over traditional controller-based ones that everyone has come to love? Despite what happens, earlier today, Microsoft chose to announce pricing models for an all-new 4GB Xbox 360 console packaged with a Kinect sensor and “Kinect Adventures.” Read More

Kindle Books Surpass Amazon Hardcover Sales 2

Amazon has appreciated the many milestones in company sales that the Kindle and Kindle books alike have achieved, and it hopes to continue profiting from its latest successful franchise. As some may know, Amazon has recently reaffirmed its stance in this market with an immense price drop for the Kindle down to the current $189 tag. This move seems to have paid off, because Amazon announced today that the wide selection of Kindle books have now surpassed the company’s hardcover books sales in the United States. Read More