Posts about Gadgets on I want

X'10 Canada: Xbox 360 Holiday Preview Event

Gadgets, Toronto, Video 1 Response » Tagged with: Olympus E-PL1

Aug 312010

X'10 Canada: Xbox 360 Holiday Preview Event - Kinect for Xbox 360
I don’t do much on I want – I got that deals with video games. People send me links to their iPod/iPhone apps but nothing from any of the game companies. That was until the invite to the Xbox 360 holiday preview came through email. Jackpot! There were all types of games at this preview event like the new incarnations of Halo, Fable and Mortal Combat. The Kinect for Xbox 360 system impressed the hell out of me. I want a Kinect Xbox 360 system. I NEED a Kinect Xbox 360 system.

Kinect for Xbox 360 brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways — no controller required. Simple to use and fun to play, Kinect for Xbox 360 allows owners to jump into Kinect-enabled games for any type of play, and the Kinect Hub puts your favourite movies and TV programs, music, live sports, and social networks all in one place. The Kinect sensor recognizes you, responds to your gestures, listens to your voice and works with every Xbox 360 console.

That’s right, NO FREAKING CONTROLLER. Your body is the controller and it’s incredible. The controls are hard to get used to and interacting with Kinect is clumsy but you can see from the product specialists that it just takes getting used to. The game that most responsible for me wanting a Kinect for Xbox 360 is MTV Games’ Dance Central. That’s right, you dance! It’s awesome.

X'10 Canada: Xbox 360 Holiday Preview Event - Dance Central

This game is like crack. I danced to Poker Face by Lady Gaga and Funkytown by Lipps Inc. It was delightful. I wanted Singstar before, now I want this. My movements are recorded synchronized with great precision for the game, just amazing.

“Dance Central”™ is the most immersive full-body, controller-free dance video game with fun choreography for beginners and experts. With more than 650 moves and more than 90 dance routines from professional choreographers, you’ll be able to rehearse and perform from your living room.

Microsoft, revealed 10 new artists and songs from the highly anticipated Dance Central™ on-disc track list exclusively for Kinect for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft. Hot hits and classic dance beats from artists like Cascada, Rihanna, Kylie Minogue, Nelly Furtado, Kool & The Gang, Technotronic and more will soon let players get their groove on while performing routines from professional choreographers in the first full-motion body tracking dance video game.

Check out this demo from E3. Crack I tell you, crack.

See what I’m saying! How can you not love this game.

Winner of the E3 Game Critics Best Original Game and Best Motion Simulation Game, as well as more than 30 additional awards and nominations, Dance Central is a full-body, controller-free dance video game with fun choreography for beginners and experts. Whether rehearsing in Break It Down! or owning the dance floor in Perform It!, players will be introduced to more than 650 moves in the game and more than 90 dance routines created by professional choreographers. In addition, players can earn achievements, unlock new character outfits and venues and progress through the dance ranks. Dance Central even gives players a calorie-burning tracking option so they can turn all that fun into an actual workout. In Dance Battle, players can challenge friends to an epic living room showdown.

Unfortunately, this won’t be coming out until the holiday season. The Kinect will launch with 15 titles. Hello Microsoft, you’ve swayed me back to the darkside of videogame addiction. I’m ready to be consumed by game again. It took a controller-less product to break this long silence between us.

Sanrio 50th Anniversary – Sanrio x Girl Skateboards

Gadgets, Menswear, Tshirts No Responses » Tagged with: Sanrio 50th Anniversary

Jun 152010

Here is some Sanrio 50th anniversary goodness from Girl Skateboards. It’s a Hello Kitty skateboard along with matching t-shirt and wheels. Hello Kitty for the guys seems is the focus of this collaboration.

Sanrio 50th Anniversary – Sanrio x Girl Skateboards

You can see more details about this collaboration on the JapanLA blog. They are also selling everything from the Sanrio x Girl Skateboards collection.

Sanrio 50th Anniversary – Sanrio x Girl Skateboards

As a “thank you” to their ever-loyal fans, SANRIO plans to unveil special co-branded collections, starting this summer with SANRIO x Dr. Martens. Signature Dr. Martens 8-eye boots & mary jane strap shoes will be bestowed a trademark Hello Kitty bow for this limited edition collection. Collaborations with a diverse group of brands including Brunswick, Girl Skateboard Co., Aerial7, Lomography, Demeter Fragrance, Mimobots, and Build-A-Bear Workshop will launch a plethora of amazing products at retail partners worldwide, featuring an assortment of SANRIO characters. A benchmark of SANRIO’s 50th Anniversary will include iconic characters appearing together for the first time ever (outside of SANRIO’s Harmonyland and Puroland theme parks in Japan), on products including the 8-eye Dr. Martens boot, a Brunswick bowling ball, iPhone cases, apparel, accessories and many other unique products. There will be plenty of signature “small gift” items at market as well, including pens and notebooks, coin purses, key caps & lunch cases, all carried in the 95+ SANRIO stores located across the country and at www.sanrio.com. “Our retail partners and licensees are equally as excited to be part of our 50th Anniversary celebration,” says Ms. Hsu. “We are working with each on targeted programs to mark this special occasion.”(source)

image: freshngood.com and japanla.com

The Plasma Staircase at Louis Vuitton Rome

Designers, Gadgets No Responses » Tagged with: Louis Vuitton

Dec 182009

I saw this video from the Coolhunting twitter stream months ago. I thought it was really cool.

It’s a plasma staircase at the Louis Vuitton store in Rome. I’ve been scouring for other videos to see the other tricks these stairs have to offer

geekiviews: Nikon S230

Gadgets, Geekiviews No Responses »

May 072009

Nikon S230

Strategic Ampersand provided me with a Nikon S230 to evaluate for two weeks. I’m never really pleased with the performance of point and shoot cameras but it’s the cruel bargain I have made with myself. A digital SLR is just too big to carry around to events and that trumps any idea I have about owning one. I like something small and compact. I use a Pentax right now and I have a bit of a love hate relationship with it. I hate it more than my old Pentax. I broke my old Pentax but we had a great relationship. I was able to take consistently good pictures with the camera and I haven’t been able to replicate that feeling with the new Pentax. I was hoping the Nikon S230 might return me to those carefree days of great photos.

The big claim to fame for the S230 is the 3 inch touch screen. I’m usually not a touch screen fan but I was curious to see what the technology was like. Some of the other features include:

Choice of colours
10.0 megapixel resolution
3x zoom
Electronic VR image stabilization
3-in. touch screen high-resolution LCD
ISO 2000 capability
VR Image
Stabilization
Scene Auto Selector
Motion Detection
Smart Portrait System

A great photo with the S230

There are a lot of features on this camera that I wouldn’t use and didn’t. There are some limited photo editing capabilities like the In-Camera Red-Eye Fix or the Paint functions. I do my photo editing in Photoshop and I don’t think I’d ever use those features on a camera. I tend to stay away from the preset features on cameras and stick to a customized setup.

The touch screen interface wasn’t bad. It was a bit slow at times moving scrolling through photos. It has an iPhone like experience for viewing photos. The shutter speed was much faster than my Pentax and I enjoyed the increased response time. The camera itself is light and compact. Playing with the autofocus features was interesting. This is where Nikon did a good job of integrating the touch screen with features. Using your fingers you can move the focus to where you need or increase the size of the autofocus area. That was the neatest feature of the camera.

A bad photo with the S230

Overall, I’m not a fan of the camera. It really boils down to the fact that I can’t stand the screen. The material used to make the screen durable and scratch resistant is also what makes taking pictures with this camera unbearable. It’s never clear enough to see if the picture turned out. When I take a photo with my Pentax I know exactly if the picture turned out or not. The display is crystal clear and there is no issues determining image quality.

The Nikon doesn’t allow that understandably. The images are always slightly grainy and I was never sure if it was the photo or the screen. It was only until I uploaded the photos to my computer did I find out their quality, which is way too late. When the pictures turned out they were amazing and when they didn’t they were bad. I’m sure this has more to do with me than the camera, but I just couldn’t take the pictures I wanted with the S230 that well. Day 3 of |FAT| I used the S230 to take my runway shots and I wasn’t happy with them at all. The camera doesn’t work for taking runway shots at all. No good for my line of work.

If I had the opportunity to evaluate a Nikon camera again I would definitely try another model as I wasn’t happy with the touch screen. The Nikon S230 retails for $239.95. Not a bad price.

geekiviews: LG TE365 Neon Mobile Phone

Gadgets, Geekiviews 2 Responses » Tagged with: Mobile Devices

Apr 072009

LG TE365 Neon Mobile Phone

During LG Fashion Week I had the opportunity to test out one of LG’s new mobile phones the LG TE365 Neon. I love playing with gadgets so I accepted.

A full QWERTY keypad for fast texting, quick access to your favourite social network sites, and threaded SMS keeps you in touch wherever and whenever you want. It also comes with a 2.0MP camera, a music player that supports 4GB of music, and a trim design that easily slips into any pocket or purse.

Dimensions :101.6 x 50.8 x 16.8mm

Weight :08 grams (3.65oz)

Battery Life Talk Time :Up to 4 hours, Standby Time :Up to 250 hours

Camera :2.0 megapixel Digital Camera

Messaging Type :QWERTY keypad for text entry

Ringer Type :64-chord polyphonic ringer

Voice Recording and Memo :Yes

Scheduler/Calendar :Yes

I’m a Blackberry user so going to a plain messaging phone is always a step down for me. However, the phone itself is compact and small. The slide out keyboard felt pretty sturdy and not flimsy. The screen was a good size and the display rotated when sliding out the keypad. It also has a touch screen interface for dialing the phone. I found the mixture of interfaces a little strange. I took a picture with the camera and managed to email it to myself using Rogers picture messaging service. The image, as you can see, is very small. My Blackberry has a 2.0MP camera and allows for larger image sizes and resolutions.

Photo taken with LG TE365 Neon Mobile Phone

I don’t have much to say about Rogers service as I wasn’t able to do anything. I couldn’t surf the web or use any social networking sites. There was no memory in the phone so I couldn’t tell you about the mp3 player capability. I did notice that things I would take for granted on my Blackberry (which has an unlimited data plan through Telus Mobility). Rogers system seems directed to getting you to pay for more things, ringtones, videos, etc.

geekiviews: The Arc Mouse by Microsoft

Gadgets, Geekiviews No Responses »

Mar 182009

The nerd in me is all excited about the Arc™ Mouse I received Microsoft and Highroad Communications. It’s product that combines fashion/style and technology that would be fitting of a debut at LG Fashion Week.

It’s an interesting departure for Microsoft; I don’t know them as a style conscious company on the level of LG or Apple. However, this mouse is making me change my mind. It’s lovely and I don’t usually say that about technology.

Features of the mouse include 2.4 GHz – 30 ft. Wireless Range, Folds For Portability, Micro-Transceiver snaps into the bottom of the mouse and the ambidextrous design makes it comfortable either way. It also has a little pouch for carrying.

I immediately plugged it into my work machine. It worked without having to install any software. I had my Eee PC out at lunch and it was plug and play with that. My Eee PC runs Linux and I didn’t have to install anything. I was so pleased. It opens up to become a fullsized mouse that is very comfortable to use.

The mouse has an estimated retail value of $69.95 but I’ve seen it at a local shop for $59.99.

LG Prada phone @ CES 2009

Accessories, Designers, Fashion, Gadgets, Prada No Responses »

Jan 202009

So, my LG Canada friends have been keeping me posted about the new Prada phone that debuted at CES this year. I’m always interested in the intersecting world of fashion design and electronics.