Recent Comments:
Sony has a PS3 controller charger, let us show you it {Engadget}
Oct 10th 2008 2:42PM Not sure you're really comprehending the concept of "standby"...
Sony has a PS3 controller charger, let us show you it {Engadget}
Oct 10th 2008 2:39PM It's called a meme, guys...
Onkyo introduces wireless MHP-UW2 headphones, iPod adapter {Engadget}
Oct 10th 2008 2:32PM Never heard of lossless, I guess...
Acer launches WiMAX-enabled Aspire 4930-6862 / 6930-6771 notebooks {Engadget}
Oct 9th 2008 12:25AM They do it because ergonomically, the center of the QWERTY keyboard is the best place for the touchpad.
You may not touch-type (in the sense of actually doing it properly), as I don't either, but if you did, your hands would rest on the keyboard in such a way that the center is the only place that putting the touchpad made sense.
This is one reason I dislike laptops with numeric keypads, though. I'm already typing off to the left on a laptop *without* a numeric keypad - I'm not directly in front of the screen. On a laptop like this, you're sitting way off to the left, by design. It's a major intentional design flaw. I'm not sure what they can do about this; maybe make the numeric keypad some sort of popout thing or something that sits off to the right of the PC and can be stowed when not in use. I honestly don't find myself wanting for a keypad very often; only when gaming or doing spreadsheets, really.
Internal Combustion Guitar - gnarly guitar tone at a polite volume {Engadget}
Sep 26th 2008 5:40PM This strikes me as an idea like those guitars with amps built in. Good idea, I guess, if you're a beginner or you just don't feel like doing things properly.
But $2,450? No way. It has to be a good guitar first before you can even think about charging a premium like that. Just looking at it, I see an ugly finish, a thin body with an uncomfortable looking bulge on the back that you don't see here, and tons of weird hardware and electronics that are going to color the clean sound.
I also love how the web site described the "industrial paint" used for the finish as the "ultimate in retro" - yeah, right! The earliest electric guitars all used nitro-based paint and clearcoats - it was completely glossy. There's nothing wrong with doing something different, but don't call it retro! And I personally think it's just ugly.
Internal Combustion Guitar - gnarly guitar tone at a polite volume {Engadget}
Sep 26th 2008 5:32PM Haruko played bass... and a Rick... I highly doubt she (even as a fictional character) would have much to say about this.
Korg nanoSERIES USB controllers unboxed, previewed {Engadget}
Sep 26th 2008 5:21PM It's kind of funny that not once is the acronym "MIDI" mentioned in a post that's wholly about MIDI controllers. Not even as a tag!
Do you guys really understand what these things do?
Guitar Hero: World Tour's secret "instrument" really a MIDI import feature {Engadget}
Sep 18th 2008 11:51AM I'm not sure some people here really understand what MIDI is or how important this feature *could* be.
MIDI is just an interface for one computer (and I mean that in the generic sense) to say to another "this piece of data means this instrument and this note." That's extremely powerful, and in fact most professional recordings are made using MIDI somewhere. A lot of popular recordings are 100% MIDI (though not usually the guitar parts). No real recording studio exists that doesn't support MIDI.
MIDI is not just those dumb little recordings that sound like circa 1992 ring tones. It is a type of recording interface. And it's as powerful as you want it to be. I don't know exactly how they're using it in GH, but if you can import your own instrument sets and then use the game as a sort of MIDI controller, it could be pretty amazing. Not as amazing as a real recording studio, but pretty cool for a game.
Line 6's BackTrack is here to record all your moments of brilliant greatness {Engadget}
Sep 17th 2008 11:47PM Yeah, because every guitarist is always sitting next to a computer that's constantly running.
HTC Touch HD takes 480 x 800 pixels fullscreen {Engadget}
Sep 10th 2008 11:21AM I won't buy any phone that *doesn't* have buttons. I've been watching all these iPhone knockoffs (in either specs or design or both) with horror - does nobody realize that approximately 99% of the market is still in clamshells with buttons, and that we want good phones too?
My wife recently got an LG Vu920 and jesus christ, that thing made me want to throw it across the room the first time I tried it. I was on a web page, tried to drag a scroll bar, ended up missing the scroll bar and hitting the "home" icon by mistake instead (I think it was "home", it was some icon that took me somewhere else). After waiting about 30 seconds for the page to load, I now had to wait for the thing to acknowledge my "stop" command, then acknowledge my "back" command, then re-load the same page I was on again. All because of the goddamn touch screen!
I've still got my Samsung SGH-A707 and while it is decent, there's been basically no development in clamshells in the 2 years I've had it. Not in this country, anyway - of course, in Japan there are probably 100 phones with buttons *and* a 480x800 screen and there have been for years (seriously, you can see some of them here: http://www.nttdocomo.com/features/foma906igallery/index.html).
Touch screens are the biggest step backwards in cell phone UI and usability in the history of cell phone design. And manufacturers wonder why overall consumer sales are down...
