Minggu, 13 Maret 2011

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What's new on SlashGear.com

Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet First Drive

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 01:15 PM PDT

The was a time when having a convertible meant sacrificing rear seats and trunk space, but more and more vehicles are losing their heads and offering sunlit driving. Nissan, though, claims it has still managed a world’s-first with the Murano CrossCabriolet, so far the only crossover AWD drop-top. On offer is a lofty driving position with room for four, along with a fast-shifting roof and all the safety kit you’d expect; Nissan invited SlashGear down to its Dallas showcase to take the Murano CrossCabriolet for a spin.

Aesthetically, it’s a difficult one. In order to accommodate the relatively roomy back seating, the Murano CrossCab has a stretched appearance with the rear three-quarters looking somewhat unwieldy. It also leaves the soft top with a long reach to cover, though it still manages to drop or raise in 25 seconds. Nissan has added not only a glass rear window but a rear skylight to try to brighten up the interior, though the profile of the roof overall seems slightly too low to our eyes.

It’s a balance issue that affects most non-traditional convertibles, however, and inside we have fewer complaints. Available in black, cashmere beige or a camel tan, there’s plenty of soft-touch plastic while double-stitched quilted seatbacks and door-panel inserts are options. The wood-effect trim isn’t going to convince you it’s seen a forest, but neither does it look as plasticky as in many rivals.

Nissan has decided to offer a single model that’s close to fully-loaded, with leather seating front and back. The front seats are heated, along with the steering wheel, and use a slope-shouldered design so that rear passengers can see out of the relatively narrow windows. ICE consists of Nissan’s HDD navigation system, with a 9.3GB Music Box drive pumping your digital music collection through a Bose AM/FM/CD audio system. Eight speakers – including a sub – which automatically tweak their balance whether the roof is up or down, and a rear-view camera are all standard, together with XM NavTraffic. Generally it sounds strong, though despite the sub we felt the audio could do with some extra kick in the bass.

Safety consists of air-bags, side-impact air-bags up front and curtain air-bags linked to the roll-over sensor. The rear head-rests get pop-up roll bars, and there’s active head restraints for the front. Electronically, Nissan throws in the usual acronym-fest of VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) and TCS (Traction Control System) to go with the CVT (Continuous Variable Transmission) gearbox and AWD (All-Wheel Drive).

Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet Showcase:

As you might expect, the combination of that electronic nannying and the extra structural support intrinsic in turning a regular Murano into a CrossCabriolet means the Nissan isn’t exactly sports-minded. In fact, the company envisages the new model as “bridging the divide” between the lust-appeal of a convertible and the realities of everyday driving, the opportunity to get the top-down sun while also having plenty of room for passengers and in the surprisingly spacious trunk. The 3.5-liter, 24-valve V6 puts out 265 horsepower and 248 lb-ft of torque (Nissan claims 17 MPG in the city and 22 MPG on the highway), with complex independent strut front suspension and multi-link rear suspension and dual flow path shock absorbers.

The 20-inch wheels get speed-sensitive power steering which is easy for in-town driving but otherwise lacks feel; that’s matched by the reasonably soft suspension which clearly prefers cruising to cornering. Not to say the Murano CrossCabriolet can’t go round corners quickly – the various electronic systems kicking in as appropriate – but this is a cabrio bought for the elevated driving position rather than sports ambitions. Inside, road noise is louder than the regular car but quieter than many convertibles can manage, and the V6 is similarly hushed.

Nissan’s target customer is early-middle-aged and probably female, kids grown up and looking for something more interesting and ambitious than a regular minivan. As treats go, it’s definitely at the premium end of the Murano range: $46,390, though admittedly that gets you a practically fully-loaded model. The camel or cashmere versions will add another $500 onto the sticker price when the Murano CrossCabriolet arrives this spring. All the spec and safety boxes are ticked, but Nissan will need to persuade would-be buyers that the CrossCabriolet’s somewhat awkward looks from certain angles don’t detract from the pure aesthetic appeal expected from a modern convertible.

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SlashGear Weekly Roundup Video – March 13, 2011

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 10:40 AM PDT

This week packs some more Apple news with the iPad 2 going on sale this past Friday, March 11th. We have an early hands-on review of the iPad 2 along with timely analysis on its position and future direction in the market. Other news include rumors on the upcoming iPhone 5, HP’s WebOS plans, an Iomega product review, and some product launches and update releases from Adobe, Lenovo, NVIDIA, Sony, and Samsung. Also, find out how you can help in the aftermath of the Japan earthquake.

10. Flash Player 10.2 for Android Devices such as the Motorola XOOM will be released on March 18.

9. Lenovo ThinkPad X220 to ship in April. Our review will be coming soon!

8. NVIDIA confirms PlayStation Suite for Tegra Android devices.

7. Sony NGP could launch on November 11 in Europe ahead of US and Japan.

6. Iomega SuperHero Review.

5. iPhone 5 leaks – Bigger screen but same iPhone 4 design? Metal backing instead of glass? Apple A5 dual-core processor replacing Samsung processor?

4. Apple iOS 4.3 released early.

3. WebOS to be on every HP PC starting in 2012.

2. Samsung teases ultra-slim 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab.

1. iPad 2 went on sale this week on March 11th.
Vincent Nguyen’s iPad 2 review.
Ben Bajarin asks whether tablets can replace notebooks yet for consumers.
Avi Gartner on why it’s so hard to compete with the iPad.
Ongoing poll: Will you buy an iPad 2?

Japanese Tsunami – How you can help.

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 11 2011

Posted: 13 Mar 2011 07:41 AM PDT

It’s that time again, welcome to this week’s edition of the SlashGear Week in Review. Biggest news in the tech world this week has to be the iPad 2, hitting shelves on Friday and promptly selling through Apple’s initial stocks for online orders. We posted up our review of the iPad 2 mid week. The new iPad 2 is clearly far ahead of competitors on most levels.

Samsung says that its Galaxy Tab 10.1 is on schedule and no changes will be made to the device. This is after reports surfaced last week that Samsung was rethinking the Tab 10.1 and changes might be made. Western Digital announced that it plans to purchase Hitachi GST in a deal that will cost WD $4.3 billion. The deal still has to get regulatory approval before it can complete.

National Geographic has taken the cartoon house from Up and reproduced it in the real world. They attached a bunch of large balloons to the outside of a house shell and then floated it with the balloons. A judge decided to allow Sony to unveil the IP addresses of all the folks that visited the GeoHot website. The intention is to try to figure out if any of those people downloaded the PS3 hack GeoHot made.

Reports surfaced that Facebook and Skype are in talks to create a video calling system to fight Apple FaceTime. I could see them adding this capability to your Facebook page. Microsoft reportedly paid Nokia $1 billion to use Windows Phone on its handsets. The price was reportedly to keep Nokia from going Android.

The Lenovo ThinkPad X220 and X220T got official last week. The T version is a convertible tablet and the rigs promise up to 24 hours of runtime with the optional battery. Tesla offered up some new details on the Model S EV. The car will hit mid-2012 and will have a 300-mile range.

An interesting S.N.A.K.social networking keyboard landed this week. The keyboard has all sorts of shortcut keys for Facebook to allow access to functions with one button press. A cool watch concept called the Konect turned up. The watch had a USB section and looked like something from Star Trek.

Philips debuted an interesting TV called the Cinema 21:9 Gold that is 3D capable and allows two people to play games on side-by-side screens. This is a seriously wide TV. Samsung has outted new platter tech that allows 1TB of storage per platter. That means that 4TB HDDs will be possible soon.

Kaspar the creepy robot surfaced early in the week. The bot is designed to help autistic kids and interact socially with others. Why do helpful robots have to be so creepy? Logitech unveiled a new set of speakers for computer users called the Z906 that are THX certified. The speakers have 500W of power and will sell for right at $350.

NVIDIA showed off the GeForce GTX 590 video card with Dual GPUs. The video card is expected to ship on March 22. A geek created an awesome laser gun that will melt foam and pop balloons. It may be the best geek DIY ever.

Microsoft brags that about 10 million Kinect sensors and games have now been sold. I wonder how many of them are still in use or are actually being used for games and not some sort of geekery. A new rumor has pegged the white iPhone 4 to be coming in April. The rumor also claims that the white iPhone may be for AT&T only.

The Kinect was hacked to perform home automation duties. The sensor was used to turn the lights in a room on or off when you entered or left.

Gemini unveiled the FirstMix DJ controller this week. The controller is USB and is designed to be a cheap entry for new DJs to the market at about $80. A cool earphone design surfaced that uses a zipper to combine the cords of your earbuds to keep them from getting tangled. It’s a simple solution to an issue that really bugs many folks.

Canon announced this week that it would be supporting the Thunderbolt standard from Apple. That should allow photographers to shoot video and photos over to a Mac much faster than using USB. Apple sold a lot of iPad 2 tablets this week. After moving 600,000 of the tablets the ship date slipped to 5-7 days.

Flash Player 10.2 is due to land in days. The update will bring Flash support to the Motorola Xoom tablet. Some leaked renderings of what is supposed to be the iPhone 5 surfaced Friday. The renderings show a larger screen than current offerings.

Geeks at iFixit took a new iPad 2 and ripped it apart. They always show us what the innards of gadgets look like right when they launch. A student in NYC was first in line at the Apple Store to get an iPad 2. Another geek offered $900 for that first spot and the student sold it. Thanks for reading and we will see you next week!

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iPad 2 Benchmarks Blast Competition, Show Less-than-1GHz Processor Speed

Posted: 12 Mar 2011 10:03 PM PST

A couple of things have come to light over the past few days, most of these lovely little tidbits coming out over the past 24 hours where the iPad 2 has been release out into the wild. The first of which we didn’t touch on for more than a few moments in our [early iPad 2 review a few days ago] – as you’ll see in our Geekbench result below, one point stands out pretty hard: the Processor. Instead of the 1GHz CPU in its head that it’s supposed to be, the iPad 2 is running at 894 MHz.

In another couple tests by IOSnoops and AnandTech, as reported by Engadget, clocked the ARM Cortex a( in at right around 900HMz as well. Apple you scoundrels! We’re not too worried about it though, as this beast has continued to be put through the tricks and traps of benchmarking by not only us, but by others, and the fact that the tablet is running a dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 GPU is quite encouraging.

While our pals have found the iPad 2 to render 57.6 frames per second in a GLBenchmark test, while the Motorola XOOM Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet worked at 26.7 frames per second and the iPad 1 moved a super speedy 17.6fps. Would you like to see a game that displays the complete excellence of the tablet’s graphics? Have a look at Infinity Blade! It’s fantabulous.

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Infinity Blade for iPad 2 [REVIEW]

Posted: 12 Mar 2011 09:10 PM PST

Let us go forth and review an app made specifically for the Apple mobile platform iOS – this particular update coming hard and downloading fully optimized for iPad 2. This is a game that, in a way, takes everything we learned from games like Final Fantasy, Virtua Fighter, and even the non-video game Dungeons and Dragons, and breaks it down to a touchscreen-based, mobile operating system … masterpiece. It’s not the greatest game ever made, and I’ll give you a little preview in saying I don’t even think I’ll play it more than a few times, but is it worth the cash you could potentially lay down on it?

First Impressions

This game fires up to show several brand names that spell out “this is going to be amazing almost no matter what.” EPIC Games, UDK, ChAIR, and the mother of them all, UNREAL Technology. We’ve just reviewed a couple of games for the Motorola XOOM that had UNREAL involved, and oh my goodness let me tell you that we’ve essentially now GOT to crack our claws out for any new game that comes along associated with them. They’re good.

As this game fires up, it rolls past the start screen, hitting almost immediately the playing of the game via just a tiny bit of training. A mistake many games have been making in this transitional period with mobile gaming is to move a game that was on a console or otherwise larger system here to mobile without changing it a bit. You’ve got to make it work FASTER, because that’s what a mobile gamer not only expects, it’s what he or she needs. This game knows that, and it knows it hardcore.

The game launches instantly into a storyline and cinematic that are complicated enough to be engaging but simple enough that you don’t have to CARE what’s going on to play the game.

Perfect balance achieved!

Gameplay

This game consists of walking a distance, seeing if there are any items about your feet for picking up, making sure your health and person are up to snuff, and fighting. Fighting in this game consists of tapping and swiping across the screen, not unlike what you’d be doing in Fruit Ninja, but here with a level of complexity that again achieves a perfect balance. The balance is between response time, intricacy, and entertainment value. This fighting system has enough moves and advancements in moves as you move through the game that you will not become bored. This fighting system has a response time that, while not 100% perfect, is the best you’re going to find on the iOS platform. This fighting system allows you to hit, cut, dodge, parry, block, use magic, use special moves, and more and more as you move along and gain experience. It’s entertaining every single time you fight.

Storyline

The story here is that you’re a warrior whose father has been killed by this evil warlord. You need to go into the castle where your father war murdered (20 years earlier,) and beat your way through a series of monsters until you reach the head villain whom you must also kill. The first time we went through the game, it took about 20 minutes to find the throne room, and we scored a single hit on the head bad guy. He murdered the crap out of us instantly afterward. Once you die, at least by his hand, your quest begins again, but not as you, as your son. We’ve only done this a couple times so we assume it’s always a son, and the story always goes that it’s 20 years later once again. Your son, since he’s in your bloodline, inherits not only the power and experience you had when you died at the head of the top boss, but your gear as well. This isn’t the first place in the story where you’ll be questioning logic, and it’s not the last, but if you accept this oddness, you’re going to have one whole heck of a lot of fun playing this oddity of a game. Plus, it’d totally be horrible if you lost your awesome sword after a single death!

Wrap-Up

While I write this review, this game costs a total of $5.99 in the app store, and I personally have only tried it out on the iPad 2. It looks and acts like it’s the best game ever made for the mobile platform, and feels like a game whose format I and we have never before experienced. It’s a winner. It’s worth the $6 if only to experience this new format of game and learn what’s possible for the future. Plus there’s some unbelievably freaky monsters in here you’ve just GOT to witness.

Go buy the crap out of it [here]

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