Tag: tv

4 amazing gadgets specially targeted to gamers in 2016

With each year that ticks by, new gadgets for gamers are announced. Some of these never make it past the demo stage but the few that do are always worth the noise. This year, most of the buzz have been around virtual reality gadgets (VR), but there is a whole range of new, exciting gadgetry that can improve the traditional gaming experience. This piece takes a look at some of them.

Samsung Modular TV

The TV sector has remained largely uneventful for a fairly long time now with the emphasis being placed, predominantly, on better visuals. However, Samsung recently shook things up this year with something radically different. Their Modular TV is a 170 inch TV made up of different smaller squares. The squares can be split up to show different views or combined to show one view. If you have ever wanted a TV setup like what TV directors enjoy daily, this is a good option.

With this setup, you can be playing your favourite games on one or more parts of the screen, whilst your wife is logged into new bingo sites like www.bingosweets.com for some gaming. Interestingly, you don’t have to buy the complete blocks for the 170-inch frame. You can start with as many blocks as you need and scale up in future!

Sony Short Throw Projectors

The Sony Short Throw portable projector is another cool gadget for gamers. This bit of kit is around the size of a box of tissues and comes with a featured speaker. The size of its projections is 23 inches, but Sony states that it can be adjusted to a larger size – exact specs are still under wraps.

The device also features an HDMI port which will be a welcome addition for gamers who would prefer to take their gaming with them when they can. When combined with some of the most powerful smartphones on the market today, a gamer’s paradise can be created anywhere.

Portal’s Optimum New Router

As a gamer, internet lag is one of the most annoying things you can ever deal with. This router from portal promises to change things for the better. The router will utilise up to 250% more of the 5ghz spectrum than any other router, whilst also have the capacity to constantly search for optimal settings and looking for possible interferences or issues. When the router finds an issue, it will quickly adjust itself to ensure you never have to deal with lag again.

Virtual Reality

Of course, it has to be on this list but we saved it for last because we know how tiresome it’s been waiting for the products to finally hit the shelf. The good news is that many of the products from the big names (Oculus, Samsung, HTC etc.) should arrive as early as June.

That said, although many gamers may embrace VR there is a growing sentiment in gaming circles that Augmented Reality, like Microsoft’s HoloLens, will have a more profound impact on the gaming experience.

February 8, 2016
Apple TV will support 3rd party controllers, but is it enough? [Discussion]

Apple unveiled feature rich, successor of its existing products and announced some new services during the annual Apple event — some with new exciting features and others that are just a iteration of predecessor with minor tweaks; while some of them are simply an innovative rip off. For better or worse, that’s what we are going to get this year from the big Apple.

First of all, let me confess that I am not a big fan of Apple products, and none of my work system includes anything that has unfinished ‘Apple’ logo on it — and, I am referring to natural fruit here. My laptop runs Linux Ubuntu 15.04, a notebook has Windows 10, and my PC is powered by Kali 2.0 (which is another Linux distro); Hell even this website is powered by one of the Linux distro. So, before you start calling me a Windows fanboy, I wanted to put myself in the safe zone.

Of all the new gadgets and smartphones unveiled during the event, Apple TV was something that drew attention. The iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, and iPad Pro was expected to debut at the event and I was like – Meh!, but when it comes to the Apple TV, we weren’t sure what it is going to serve on the table and when they finally did, I was stumped. If Apple TV powered by the whole new ‘tvOS’ can deliver 50 percent of what they demonstrated during the event, I am sold. For more insight information, I will let Apple brag about it.

Now you must be thinking why I am leaning towards Apple when I hate it so much? — First, I don’t hate it, and second, it is just a troll, shelling the old hardware into a new shiny box. The Apple TV is a bad product at so many levels, and I will let you know about it in my upcoming article. Regardless, of these bold references, I know thousands of people will have this Set-top-box in their living room because one thing that we could figure out so far is that Apple is really good at selling products to people who don’t actually need it.

It isn’t entirely a new concept, but it certainly is a better way to intrude in your living room than any other existing competitors. The streamlined features and ability to integrated benefit of integrated system is welcome addition to other features it offers, but the unique remote that allows you to talk directly to your TV and play native iOS games, is just amazing — this is where the fun part ends.

The tvOS was emphasized for its ability to play native iOS games and being able to interact with Siri; I can vouch for it because they did demonstrated Crossy Road (by Hipster Whale) and Beat Sports (by Harmonix) during the event, which certainly looked fun to play on large screen with your friends and family. This makes it even better when you don’t really have to stick out a controller everytime you want to play these interactive games. Apple says you can use your iPhone to make them work just like the Apple TV remote for multiplayer gameplay.

There’s little doubt that navigation will be much smoother and more intuitive compared to existing Smart TV devices. From a gaming perspect, clearly cues have been taken from the Wiimote in terms of the waggle factor, courtesy of its accelerometer and gyroscope. And what it lacks in terms of useable buttons, it attempts to address with a smooth, glass trackpad. Now, the gamers who are personally attached to the console controller will find it hard to adapt with this new instrument to interact to the game, but again, most of the hardcore gamers will probably refrain themselves from playing the iOS games anyways. So, it basically targets the casual mobile gamers, who can dwell into the time killer device, which makes sense as they would feel much comfortable with the touch navigation offered b the remote.

Fortuantely, Apple is also accepting third-party controller who can qualify their MFi program. The bad news is that it’ll limit your choices. Steelseries controllers are shown twice on Apple’s gaming page for Apple TV, but it’s not clear just how many others are MFi certified. The good news is that you have options — and likely more as time goes on. Apple TV gaming is pretty impressive and has us all interested… but playing a first-person shooter with a TV remote is a bit too weird for me.

What do you think?

Can Apple TV remote replace your standard controller, and become a first successful set-top-box and a micro-console – a jack-of-all-trades product, which other competitors has failed miserably so far? Let’s bring it on in comments.

September 13, 2015
Top 10 stunning Digital Tech gadgets, July 2012 [images]

We brought you another set of top 10 digital gadgets which can bring your knowledge base about the future one step forward.

There are so many possibilities and researches going on already and we cannot include every one of those awesome gadgets in the list.

Take a look at a group of 10 top tech innovations from the past weeks and prepare to be surprised, delighted and maybe even intrigued.

1. Google Fiber

You heard the rumors right here last week, and now Google has officially announced Google Fiber, a combination broadband and television service that’s set to light up the Kansas City, Kan. and Kansas City, Mo. area in a couple of months.

Here you see the Google Fiber network box, handling broadband duties, and costing those lucky Kansas city dwellers $70 a month to take part in superfast service that offers unheard-of gigabit speeds for downloads and uploads.

If you don’t need that much speed, a flat fee of $300 gets you 5Mbps download and 1Mbps upload speeds — about average for Internet service in the U.S. — and after paying that fee, it will be free. Or, you can pay that off in $25 monthly increments for a year, and after that it’s all free. Such a deal.

2. Racing simulator with 160-inch curved Screen

Look at this 160-inch curved screen from Swedish company Norman Design, using rear-projection and serious graphics power to create a spectacular Formula One racing simulator.

there’s even a mockup of a nose of an Formula One vehicle there, just to keep things super-realistic. Spectacular stuff.

Sure, you can buy this lovely screen aside from all its ersatz racing goodness, but really, are you going to be working Excel spreadsheets on this enormous display? You could.

3. LG 84-Inch Ultra-Hi-Def TV

You can’t be too rich, too thin or have too large of a TV screen, and now LG takes that beyond the mundane, now taking pre-orders for this 84-inch behemoth, going first to lucky recipients in Korea.

Not only is it gigantic, but it has ultrahigh definition, cranking out 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160), giving you TV that’s a whole lot sharper than the best HDTV is today.

So far, LG is offering just 84 of these super-sets, selling for $21,975 out of the gate. Although the company promises there will be content available, I’m thinking the biggest drawback (other than its exorbitant price ) will be the lack of sufficient movies and TV shows available in that stratospheric format. But keep in mind, ultrahigh definition TV (UHDTV) is on the way, and might be in your living room sooner than you think.

4. Next Gen Microsoft Office – Word

Version 15 of Microsoft Office is on its way. Otherwise known as Office 2013, it’s now a cloud-based subscription service, where you’re not stuck with the software on any particular machine, but it follows you around on whichever device you’re using.

Word 15 is looking familiar, with that same ribbon interface of its predecessors.

Office 15 is now available as a consumer preview, if you’d like to try it out free for a few months. Want to give it a go? You can download the consumer preview here.

5. Soul by Ludacris: Usain Bolt Edition

In honor of the Olympics, Soul by Ludacris has released a Usain Bolt Edition of its superb SL300 headphones with active noise cancellation. I took a close listen to the SL300s — my review unit was in shiny black with white accents — and I was astonished at the accuracy and punchy power of these comfortable cans.

How do you like the wild colors of these $349.95 headphones? They’re supposed to suggest Jamaica, home country of the Olympic sprinter who’s been called “the fastest man alive.”

6. Shapeshifting Razer Ouroboros Mouse

Serious gamers, you want your mouse to fit your hand exactly. That’s the idea behind the Razer Ouroboros Mouse, a elaborately adjustable ambidextrous pointing device for lefties or righties.

You can adjust the length of the mouse, as well as the width of its side panels. Even its back arch is adjustable. Powered by single AA battery, this bad boy sports an 8200dpi fourth-generation dual sensor system, using laser and optical sensors at the same time.

Save up your $129.99, because if you’re having trouble finding a mouse that fits your hand just right, this one might actually be worth it.

7. McLaren JetSet Concept

Take a look at this carbon fiber beauty from the future, a design concept by Marianna Merenmies that looks more like an aircraft than an automobile.

It looks like it’s set to pounce with those two wing-like wheel wells, while the front takes some design cues from McLaren cars.

It certainly would be fun to drive a car that’s just about as high off the ground as a go-kart, but I’d be concerned about whether other vehicles could see me in this minuscule projectile of a vehicle.

8. Memory Breakthrough

Why should we care about a geeky thing like a memory breakthrough? Here’s why: You could fit 50 petabytes of data onto a solid-state drive that’s the size of one of today’s 1TB spinning drives.

That means someday soon, you might have more available storage than you could ever possibly fill up.

The geniuses at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have accomplished this magic by extreme miniaturization, making it so that one bit of data can be stored on a single molecule. It’s mind-boggling.

9. Touch Skin Watch

OLED displays are getting more cost-effective, and here’s a design concept that takes advantage of a time in the near future when we will see OLEDs everywhere.

The Touch Skin Watch has a snazzy charger to keep it powered up every night, and a chameleon-like face that can mimic any watch face or graphic you can possibly imagine.

Its multitouch interface can show you either the time when you touch it with one finger, the date when you touch it with two fingers, or if you touch the screen with three fingers, it cycles through the various skins you have installed.

10. Project Glass prototype Glassess

Lots of us want to get our hands on Google’s Project Glass glasses but the future-tech is still a far-cry from being ready for consumers. Or is it?

At Google I/O, the company allowed attendees who are willing to pony up $1500 access to prototype-versions of the next-generation of wearable computing.

After watching the spectacular Project Glass skydiving video, we can’t wait to get our hands on this tech — even if it’s still in the prototype stage.

July 29, 2012