Hands on: Dyson DC44 Animal Digital Slim is a mean cleaning machine

Dyson's latest device, the DC44 Animal Digital Slim vacuum, is one of the best handheld cleaners on the market, but is its $400 price tag justified? Our hands-on review investigates the wonders and flaws of this pricey gear to help you decide if this investment is right for your household.

Dyson vacuums have long been one of the pioneers in its own industry, offering an array of high-end equipments that are stylish, functional, and incredibly expensive. As gadget enthusiasts, we could not help but be excited by the latest Dyson Animal Digital Slim model, the DC44, which is portable, wireless, and gets the job done in no time. But at a retail value of $400, it’s admittedly not the most ideal price point for the average family. Here’s a look at what the shiny new gadget offers that most vacuums on the market do not.

Look and feel

At first glance, you have to commend the Dyson DC44, as with all other Dyson products, for being beautifully engineered. Compared to the many handheld vacuums I’ve ever had the opportunity to use, the DC44 is in its own league of craftsmanship. The plastic handle makes it feel like you’re holding an exaggerated, 5-pound staple gun, and the clear vacuum space in the middle lets you see the Dyson-coined “Root Cyclone” motor. According to Dyson, this patented tech spins the dirt into the sides of the dust bin, so in the long run, the device does not damage its filter or lose suction. Never have I felt so cool holding a vacuum, ready to clean my room.

Straight out of the box, the DC44 requires minimal assembly. All you need to do is pick your intended attachment, which ranges from an extended leg for floor work, short cleaner head, crevice tool, and a combination tool that has a large opening and brush. The device comes charged, but if not, each charge takes 1-2 hours and will last you about 15 to 20 minutes. That seems short, but you can clean a decent amount in that time thanks to the power of this so-called Root Cyclone technology.

Utility

Starting with my carpet, I attached the regular cleaner head to the DC44 body and off it goes. The vacuum is loud, but not any louder than your average machine. One sweep of my carpet and you can see the dust beginning to pile inside the bin, and the DC44 is powerful enough that only one swipe is necessarily for a section. I’m so used to going over the same area several times and it became clear why 20 minutes worth of charge is reasonable for one cleaning session. If you need extreme suctioning for a certain trouble spot, you can switch to turbo mode, but it will drop the battery life down to approximately seven minutes. The vacuum will also work on wood floors, sofa covers, and car seats with the right attachment hooked up.

When you’ve killed the battery, prop the device back on the charging station that you can either leave on a surface, or mount to a wall. Plug the cord into the designated slot in the back of the vacuum, and a white light will glow until your battery is all juiced up again. Since the parts are relatively small, storage is not an issue, but you may want to have a nice box to keep all the attachment heads in before you misplace the little pieces. That, or you can keep the combination tool in the car if you know that’s where you’ll use it most often.

Some faults

One of my biggest gripes with the Dyson DC44 Animal Digital Slim is probably my own fault. Guys, this is TMI, but my hair just sheds too damn much. A five-minute vacuum of my carpet and the underside of the cleaner head revealed a tangled mess of hair stuck between the teeth of the brush and the motor roll. In the short run, this won’t mean much if I continually clean it off and yank the pieces out. However, if you forget to do this, or if you are cleaning a large chunk of pet hair, you might run into some trouble with tangled hair clogging up the opening of the vacuum. This could be fixed by using the larger crevice tool, but it just made more sense for me to use a regular cleaner head on my bedroom carpet so this tangle is a bit annoying.

Another issue is the size of the DC44. Yes, the device is made to be compact, but perhaps it’s … too small? After vacuuming for 10 minutes, I found that I have to empty the dust bin before vacuuming again to finish up cleaning my apartment. Or again, maybe my room is just super dirty and I do not vacuum often enough. This item is ideal for those living in small spaces, but homeowners who want a cordless, handheld vacuum cleaner to get the job done in the entire house may have to go for the larger, full-sized Dysons.

Bottom line

So we come back down to the big question: Is spending $400 on this vacuum justifiable? Aside from small issues here and there, the Dyson DC44 Animal Digital Slim is an absolutely superior choice than most handheld vacuums on the market, and would be perfect for small apartment owners. It gets the job done well and fast, and is worth an investment if you aim to use it repeatedly over the course of the next few years. The price tag is impractical for most families, but when you consider the cost of bag replacement, cordless flexibility, and the ability to multitask the vacuum to clean both your car and your home, you’ve got yourself an all-in-one tool that’s pretty much the Apple of the vacuum world, and it’ll be hard to find any other machine that’s nearly as capable as a Dyson.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Rumor: Armie Hammer may play Batman in Justice League movie

Once again, Armie Hammer is Warner Bros.' top choice to play Batman in a still-hypothetical Justice League movie.

According to a recently published report on Digital Spy, actor Armie Hammer (pictured above at right) is being strongly considered for the role of Batman in Warner Bros. inevitable film based on DC Comics’ Justice League superhero team. 

If that sounds familiar to you, it’s not because we’re reprinting old stories in some kind of ill-conceived “Digital Trends Greatest Hits” initiative. Hammer was originally the top candidate for the Batman role back when Mad Max director George Miller was attached to the Justice League project. That attempt to get this movie made fell apart a few years ago, yet Warner Bros. is determined to pick up a slice of that sweet superhero team movie cash generated by The Avengers earlier this year, and will not rest until someone, somewhere is filming a big-budget Justice League feature film.

As for why Hammer once again leads the list of names vying for the Bruce Wayne/Batman role in this film, Digital Spy’s unnamed insider source claims that Hammer’s recent ascent to the fringes of the Hollywood A-list has put him “back on WB’s radar.” Hammer will next appear as the titular lawman in Disney’s Lone Ranger feature film alongside Johnny Depp, which is undeniably a pretty major role (even if Depp’s silly, borderline-racist crow hat will inevitably overshadow Hammer’s performance).

In case you’re wondering if Hammer’s hypothetical Batman might officially replace the fan-favorite Batman portrayed by Christian Bale in Christopher Nolan’s recently-concluded Batman trilogy, don’t worry: According to the anonymous source, Hammer’s version of the character will only be used in this initial Justice League film and any sequels it might spawn. Unless plans change, Hammer won’t be appearing in any solo Batman adventures.

Finally, Digital Spy claims that the Justice League film will include a relatively standard roster for the superteam. Though the Justice League (and its innumerable spin-off groups) has seen hundreds of members over its half-century-plus in existence, this initial Justice League movie will focus on the core group of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Green Lantern, Martian Manhunter and The Flash. No, we have no idea which iterations of The Flash or Green Lantern Warner Bros. plans to use, but we’ll let you know as soon as we hear anything more concrete than just “our shadowy informant said…”.

Working under the assumption that these rumors are all true, this news doesn’t so much fill us with joyful anticipation as it raises questions in our comic book-addled brains. As much as we like Hammer — other than the Trent Reznor score, his work as the Winklevoss Twins in David Fincher’s The Social Network was easily our favorite part of that film — he simply seems too young and soft to properly portray Batman. Yes, Bruce Wayne grew up in a mega-wealthy family and has never wanted for money, but there’s a certain edge to the character that seems minor but is, in fact, one of his defining traits. Christian Bale was able to pull this off flawlessly, but so far Hammer has yet to do anything that suggests he might have that certain killer instinct that makes Bruce Wayne more than just your average playboy.

More crucially, if Hammer is cast, and his Batman is used solely in Justice League movies, what happens when The WB wants to start churning out new Batman films? Will they go back on their plan? Will they find another actor? Assuming the latter, won’t the public be confused by two entirely separate Batmen coming from the same production studio? Objectively speaking, one of them has to be better than the other, so in that case the studio would be running the risk of overshadowing its own projects and cannibalizing any potential audience either franchise might attract.

Whatever happens, this film isn’t scheduled to hit theaters until at least 2015, so Warner Bros. certainly has lots of time to figure things out. In the mean time, as usual, we invite you to visit the comments section below to either vilify this rumored news, or figuratively clap like one of those wind-up cymbal monkeys. Whichever more accurately conveys your current emotional state.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

FIFA 13 scores big on PlayStation Network, finally bringing consoles to the digital age

FIFA 13 proves that Sony's high-priced Day 1 Digital service can succeed.

FIFA 13 is popular. Against all odds, an expertly made video game based on the world’s most popular sport, featuring painstaking recreations of global teams, and updated with stats and standings that reflect actually weekly play is a roaring financial success. Electronic Arts announced on Wednesday that it had sold 4.5 million copies of the game across its myriad copies. 1.23 million copies sold in the UK within 48 hours of release alone, and 800,000 simultaneous players online in the first week. 353,000 copies were sold in the US on just the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Big numbers indeed. It’s those PlayStation 3 sales that are arguably the most significant in the grand scheme of the video game industry though.

In addition to its multiplatform success, the football game enjoyed a particular achievement on Sony’s console: FIFA 13 was the most downloaded retail game on the UK PlayStation Store for the month of September. While Sony didn’t announce how the game performed compared to PlayStation Network only games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD and Tokyo Jungle it did outsell the much cheaper retail games available in the store. It bested regular bestsellers like Batman: Arkham City as well as new full-priced titles like Borderlands 2. What’s more, the digital edition of FIFA 13 costs £50 ($80), full retail price.

Full retail games have been successful as downloads on consoles before, but FIFA’s success is notable as part of Sony’s new press to make digital editions available on the same day as boxed copies. Announced the week FIFA 13 released, the Day 1 Digital initiative sees publishers Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Capcom, Tecmo Koei, and others offering their games through PSN, many of which are discounted slightly for PlayStation Plus members.

Many industry watchers balked at Sony’s pricing these digital copies at the exact same price as the discs available in a store. The digital releases give the same sort of easy access as popular PC digital services like Valve’s Steam but with none of the significant price discounts. Most games from this publishers are available as PC downloads for $10 or $20 below retail price. FIFA 13, meanwhile, has proven that console players are all too happy to pay full price for a downloadable version of the game.

For publishers tired of retailers like GameStop making huge profits on the resale of used games, FIFA’s full-priced digital success is a boon. For gamers though, this is the beginning of what is effectively a new raised standard price for games, the same $60 fee for a game you never properly get to own. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Jetsetter: Chronicles of Riddick studio Starbreeze debuts its first original game

In Jetsetter this week, Starbreeze unveils its first original, Dragon Quest X disappoints, and Jump Games moves beyond India's borders.

Welcome back again to Jetsetter, Digital Trends’ weekly look at the international world of video games. 

It was a busy week in the video game world abroad. Reports out of Korea suggested that that country’s big publishers Nexon and NCSoft were looking to purchase Valve; in Japan, it looked like Konami was going to stop farming Silent Hill out to European developers and give it to its premiere Japanese creator Hideo Kojima instead; and in Britain, Revolution Games greenlighted development on Beneath a Steal Sky 2. That’s not all that’s been going on beyond our borders though, as Jetsetter can attest.

* Starbreeze announces Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. 

At the beginning of September, Jetsetter reported that Swedish developer Starbreeze had signed a two-game deal with publisher 505 Games. The first title would be Payday 2, a sequel to Overkill Software’s multiplayer shooter. The other game though was more mysterious. All Starbreeze announced was a codename for the game, “P13,” and it said the game would be a collaboration with filmmaker Josef Fares. P13 debuted on Thursday as Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a lush looking downloadable for PC, Xbox Live Arcade, and PlayStation Network. The story follows the titular boys as the try to find a cure for their dying father. As you can see from the image above, Starbreeze’s very first original game is quite a looker.

* Dragon Quest X nets 300,000 subscribers.

Japanese MMO culture is peculiar. While online role-playing games like Final Fantasy XI are played in the country, they’re far less popular than multiplayer RPGs like Monster Hunter played on portable devices but over local wireless connections rather than online. How popular are local multiplayer RPGs? Square-Enix sold 4.3 million copies of the multiplayer Dragon Quest IX for Nintendo DS within six months of its release. The company released the first fully online entry in the series, Dragon Quest X, this summer on Nintendo Wii. Not great, comparatively. According to Nihon Securities Journal (via Siliconera), there are only 300,000 Dragon Quest X subscribers paying the $13 per month fee to play. If Dragon Quest can’t get Japanese citizens playing MMORPGs in the millions, nothing can.

* Jump Games expanding to either Canada and Singapore.

Indian mobile game developer Jump Games—a purveyor of numerous movie tie-in games for iOS like Total Recall and Real Steel—is opening new studios in Singapore and Canada. “We’re clear that we need to have a studio outside India,” Manish Agarwal told MCV. Agarwal is the CEO of Reliance Entertainment, the parent company of Jump Games. “We’re looking at exploring the talent pool in either Singapore or Canada by opening a studio there because it’s going to take time for the local talent to develop.”

This is Jetsetter’s second week at its new Saturday slot. Any suggestions for the column? Drop us a note in the comments. You can also follow me on Twitter at @ajohnagnello.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Blu suede shoes: OPPO’s new players have some formidable footwear to fill

Can OPPO's new blu-ray players measure up to their popular predecessors?"

 OPPO Digital – known for their high end universal disc players – will be debuting two new blu-ray players, the BDP-103 and BDP-105. The company has yet to nail down release dates for the models, but expects the BDP-103 to ship in October, while the BDP-105 will wait until the tail end of 2012.

The new blu-bloods are successors to the  oft laureled BDP-93 and BDP-95 models and will hope to continue in the same vein, by providing superior video quality, audio quality and a movie theater feel. These iterations use a Marvell’s Qdeo video processor, which provides for 4K up-scaling, 2D-to-3D conversion, and 1080p24Hz output. They also come equipped with three USB ports, wired and wireless networking capability, and support for Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD-Video, DVD-Audio, Super Audio CD (SACD), HDCD, and CD formats.

Outfitted with dual HDMI inputs, the players can connect to different audio and video systems, or even fuel two separate displays simultaneously. Each also supports virtually every high-end audio format known to man. Though both models are considered state-of-the-art, the The BDP-105 is a steep step up from the BDP-103, offering a beefed up audio system and an asynchronous USB, allowing users to stream without worrying about the quality of their computer’s master clock.

The suggested retail prices are $500, for Oppo  BDP-103, and $1200, for the BDP-105.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Portland Digital eXperience: Startups take on the finance industry and all its red tape

The digital and money markets collide as new startups like Simple and Chirpify take on the ancient finance industry.

A hot topic at Portland Digital eXperience has been traditional industry disruption — and what old market doesn’t fit the bill better than payments? The finance industry is chock-full of regulation, governmental bodies, and ancient attitudes. Suffice it to say there are hurdles.

The CEO’s of Simple, a banking solution, and Chirpify, a Twitter payment client (you read that right) were on hand to talk about the evolution of digital finance, and how they’re helping to change it.

“On Wall Street there’s so much innovation, but so little of it helps real people,” Simple founder and CEO Josh Reich, a Wall Street vet, said. “Our real motivation was to make a financial application that would help people’s lives.”

The idea behind Simple: It’s a fully digital banking card and account, that includes a physical debit card accepted everywhere Visa is accepted. Simple believes its customer service and attention to detail, along with its mobile-friendly tracking and payments system, are its biggest assets.

Chirpify’s stab at uncomplicating how we pay for things is less calculated, although it’s had a huge early impact. The concept: Connect your Twitter and Paypal accounts using Chirpify, and then use the integrated service to @ pay connections. Shocked people would do that? You’re not the only one. “The first surprise with Chirpify was that people wanted to use it at all… to pay for something with a tweet online,” said founder Chris Teso.

But clearly, the masses approve. During this past SXSW, Chirpify got its API wrapped and ready for a tweet-a-beer promotion, where Chirpify users could buy a beer for their Twitter contacts at certain locations in Austin. And the viral nature of online — very, very public — payments has only helped Chirpify’s usage spread.

“There’s a pretty high conversion rate when you get a tweet saying ‘someone sent you money, come here and sign up to claim,” said Teso.

All the viral usage and word-of-mouth in world isn’t enough to topple what is arguably the oldest, most institutionalized industry though. For every brilliant idea, there is a mountain of red tape to deal with and work-around. “It’s hard because engineers want to work fast,” says Reich. “And banks work slow. You have to manage your product process carefully.”

For its part, Chirpify hasn’t had to go its own road — yet. For now, the service piggybacks off of Twitter and Paypal, the latter of which being a service which Teso mentions gets and deserves plenty of user ire. Not for long, though; he says that Chirpify plans to go it alone, launching its own payment service within the application and cutting out the middle man.

“We are platform agnostic, but the one friction point for us is Paypal,” he says. “People don’t like it. There’s no mobile flow. So we’re working on owning the entire payment platform. So in the next year, we’re going to do that and handle it ourselves.”

For its part, Simple would like to add business banking support (it’s focused on individual usage at the moment)  – something that will require a great many hoops to jump through, regulation-wise.

Combining tech and money is a tough sell, and the road ahead is paved with plenty of potholes. But the outlook is bright: Both Simple and Chirpify have launched alternative payment platforms that five years ago would have sounded impossible — and people are buying into it quickly. Blame it on distrust or frustration or trust in tech… whatever is happening, it’s clear users are increasingly comfortable with new and innovative solutions when it comes to handling their money.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Digital Blend: Kickstarter’s ‘Year of the Game,’ PS Vita homebrew, and Rovio’s Bad Piggies

Welcome to Digital Blend, your one-stop-shop for coverage and recommendations of all things relating to mobile gaming, digital marketplaces, and indie titles (for the week ending September 9).

Welcome back to Digital Blend, our weekly look at the world of downloadable video gaming that exists at the fringes of the mainstream. That means we look at the hottest new mobile game releases, downloadable content drops on consoles and PCs, indie darlings that deserve your love and attention, and the best gaming values under $20.

Keep your comments and feedback coming. We want to hear from you! Did you try something you read about here and enjoy it? Is there a particular game you think we’ve overlooked or news you want to share? Any questions you are dying to ask? Let us know! Your thoughts, feedback, suggestions and (constructive!) criticism are welcome, either in the comments section below or directed at yours truly on Twitter, @geminibros.

Making headlines…

* Kickstarter knows where its audience is. The crowd-funding website has officially declared 2012 the “Year of the Game,” with seven of the website’s 11 million-plus earners relating in some way to video games. The figure also means that games account for the most money pledged out of any other category on the site, amounting to a total of roughly $50 million in crowd-sourced dollars. Kickstarter launched in 2009; in the time between then and the start of 2012, video game projects ranked as the eighth most funded category on the site. The numbers  this year catapult games up to the second most funded position.  For more on how the numbers break down, including the percentage of successfully funded game projects, check out Francis’ full report.

* Techland is prepping what appears to be a bit of a series reboot for Call of Juarez, with Ubisoft announcing a return to the original Wild West setting for the next game in the series, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger. Rather than picking up on earlier stories, Gunslinger blends fact and fiction, putting players in the shoes of an Old West bounty hunter in search of real-life outlaws like Billy the Kid and Butch Cassidy. Gunslinger will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC platforms as a downloadable game sometime in early 2013. Check out Anthony’s post to learn more about the game.

* Early adopters of Sony’s PlayStation Vita are getting restless, what with the relatively small launch and post-launch library that’s been coming together since the handheld hit U.S. stores in February 2012. The slow burn has left enterprising programs with plenty of free time to work on circumventing the closed system for the purposes of running homebrew software. Hacker Yifan Lu discovered a Vita exploit that’s allowed him to develop the very first homebrew loader for the handheld, which is itself based on an early loader for Sony’s widely hacked PlayStation Portable. The core mindset behind homebrew development is noble in its aim to open up closed software platforms for homegrown development projects. Unfortunately, homebrew is often synonymous with piracy, which is why Sony is constantly working to shut down the exploits that hackers take advantage of. Lu insists that his goals with the Vita loader are for homebrew development only, but it’s definitely a sticky situation. For more, check out Anthony’s report.

* Rovio struck gold in a huge way with Angry Birds, so it shouldn’t be a surprise to hear that the company’s just-announced new franchise is really more of an outgrowth of its already established universe. Bad Piggies aims to turn to tables on those angry, angry birds, tasking players with building an assortment of vehicles that will carry the future pork products (mmmm… bacon) to the bird eggs that they’d so like to feast upon. Rovio hopes that this dramatic shift away from the “fling birds at structures to knock them down” gameplay of its previous hit will help establish Bad Piggies as a new franchise unto itself, rather than as a sequel.

* Valve definitely has the right idea with Steam Greenlight, a crowd-sourcing initiative that offers Steam users the opportunity to throw their support behind any of the various indie projects that are vying for a highly coveted spot in Valve’s online store. Greenlight is going through some growing pains, however. In the early days of the new service, a number of supposed indie developers posted “projects” that largely amounted to community trolling, offensive stuff like a 9/11 simulator. While a separate dialogue is starting to develop about what is and isn’t okay for Steam in the wake of a planned erotic game’s removal, Valve implemented a $100 posting fee to cut down on the fraudulent projects going up on Greenlight. The company is also looking to streamline how Steam users engage with Greenlight by offering personalized lists based on each person’s interests.

Top buys for the week…

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 — Collection 4: Final Assault :: Xbox 360 :: 1,200 MS Points

Activision’s inaugural year for “Call of Duty Elite” is officially over with the end of Modern Warfare 3‘s DLC content season this week. The new pack, a timed exclusive for Xbox 360, is all about the multiplayer, offering five new locations for players to frag and be fragged in. You’ll run through an abandoned mining town in Gulch, blow up the Jersey Shore in Boardwalk, rampage through New Orleans’ French Quarter in Parish, negotiate an oil rig’s catwalks in Offshore, and creep your way through a rotting ship’s graveyard in Decommission. As usual, this content will eventually come to PlayStation 3 and PC platforms, likely sometime in October.

Mark of the Ninja :: Xbox 360 :: 1,200 MS Points

Klei Entertainment’s Mark of the Ninja is, hands-down, the very best that this week has to offer in downloadable gaming. The 2D side-scrolling stealth game is very nearly perfect, sending players on a series of multi-path missions in full ninja garb. Don’t let the 2D presentation — which is beautiful and hand-drawn, by the way — put you off. You’ll be presented with a wide array of options as you progress through the game, not just in the routes you can follow but also in how your ninja’s skills and gear improve. Wrapping around the whole thing is a well-told story that will have you exploring some thought-provoking themes by the time its final moments play out.

Avengers Initiative :: iOS :: $6.99

There’s always a temptation to rag on movie-licensed video game given the rocky history that exists between the two mediums, but the currently iOS-excluisve Avengers Initiative (it’s headed to Android as well) is one of the rare exceptions. Marvel Entertainment is planning this one as an episodic series, with the now-released first episode focusing entirely on Bruce Banner’s green-skinned alter-ego, the Hulk. The gameplay is essentially a cruder take on Infinity Blade, but the experience is enhanced by sweet visuals, character customization, and the promise of more Marvel action to come.

The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – Hearthfire DLC :: Xbox 360 :: 400 MS Points

I’m not gonna lie: Skyrim‘s second piece of downloadable content — the final timed-exclusive for Xbox 360 — pretty much amounts to House Armor. You can build a house. Or more than one house. You can upgrade your house(s). You can send your spouse to live in that house, and you can then take your domestic life a step further by adopting a child. There’s 50GS worth of Achievements to be had here, but don’t expect any kind of questline. And bring gold. Houses ain’t cheap, you know? Hearthfire isn’t for everyone, but it’s a neat addition to Bethesda’s vibrant world for those who really want to leave more of a personal mark in it.

Super Hexagon :: iOS :: $0.99

Every week there’s some new time-chomping mobile game that threatens to consume your life with its “just one more go”-friendly setup and destroy your phone with its “blink and you fail” gameplay. This week, that game is Super Hexagon, from VVVVVV creator Terry Cavanagh. The new game is much simpler than the gravity-powered platformer that precedes it. Players simply guide their little, triangle-shaped avatar around the perimeter of an inner hexagon as larger shapes shrink inward. The idea is always to have your triangle positioned so it can pass through the lone open area on the shrinking hex. It’s frankly much easier to grok by watching the thing in motion than reading a text description, so why don’t you go ahead and check out the trailer.

Zen Pinball 2 :: PSN :: FREE

Let’s be clear first: Zen Pinball 2 is technically free to download, but you’ll have to actually buy individual tables or table packs in order to fully enjoy it. Non-pack tables can be played for free, but there’s a time limit dictating how long you can play before you’re kicked back to the main menu. Pricing on tables starts at $2.50, and packs go up as high as $9.99. Any tables you might have owned previously in the original Zen Pinball can be imported, and everything is cross-platform-friendly, meaning you can play on both your PlayStation 3 and your PS Vita.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Portland Digital eXperience: Spotify, Shazam, and the toppling of traditional music consumption

At Portland Digital eXperience, new-wave music products Spotify and Shazam defend their services against an aging industry.

Given its scheduling along side MusicfestNW, one of Portland Digital eXperience’s most anticipated keynotes was the Dave Allen-moderated discussion on the science of music discovery with Shazam and Spotify. And given that nature of the very indie-friendly music festival and Portland’s inarguably hipster, screw-the-man spirit, you can assume the discussion erred toward the tense side.

As a bit of background, Allen is a musician, formerly worked as director of Consumer Digital Audio Services for Intel, and now runs independent record label Pampelmoose. So suffice it to say he takes some issue with how the current state of mainstream music discovery and consumption is working.

Right after panel introductions – which consisted of Allen, Peter Szabo from Shazam and Jason LaCarruba from Spotify, the tough questions started — mostly targeted at Spotify.

First up, Allen had to ask Spotify where those 50 million users it told the Wall Street Journal it planned to get way back during its stateside launch. “I think we’re doing really well getting those users. We’re always trying to launch new features to do that,” LaCarruba said, mentioning the relatively new Radio feature, which he works on (and says will be getting better).  

That said, he admitted that Spotify definitely has not hit the 50M mark; it has 15 million globally, four million of which are paying customers.
Which prompted this comment from Allen: “Your valued at $4 billion. How can that be?”

Shazam, which wasn’t hit quite as hard with the “how dare you!”s, had some impressive numbers to report. The app currently has 35 million users and is adding two million a week. “It’s one of those apps when people first get a smartphone, they download,” Szabo reasoned.

Of course, Shazam has been around longer than Spotify and is a more diverse service.

Piracy and artists’ rights couldn’t go untouched, either. For all their inherent problems, one thing the streaming services — and arguably products like Shazam — bring to the table is that they fight illegal downloading. Both Szabo and LaCarruba generalized a bit here, but reasoned that by cutting down on piracy so largely, it’s paving the way for a better future for artists’ pockets.

As you can assume, Allen had a lot to say about this. Of course, he’s not the only one: Since Spotify’s launch, indie labels and artists — and even The Black Keys — have called out Spotify for hurting musician’s bottom lines. “My last check was $17. Thats not funny,” Allen told the crowd. “I make no money from streaming.”

The defense? Basically, that at least it’s progress against piracy, and that the more people who decide to pay for streaming services like Spotify, the more money will come in. That there’s fun and experimentation in this new music technology and that it’s going to find a sweet spot at some point. And to Shazam’s credit, nine percent of mobile listens lead to a purchase — so there is a proven correlation between discovery and buying there.

Allen’s response? Not good enough.

For starters, he reiterated that streaming platforms can’t honestly think of themselves as a viable way for musicians to make money — and the conversation quickly took a turn into the current generation of music discovery and curation disrupting the old. There were plenty of references about how people used to buy albums and not just singles, about vinyl, about the lost human influence of the DJ — it became fairly clear that instead of a discussion about the science of finding and listening to music, we were watching a tug-of-war between the old and the new.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of problems with our current state of content consumption, but I feel more comfortable placing that blame on the labels and rights holders versus outlets connecting users to music. And it’s because they don’t want to change, they want things to continue as they have been — and that’s something consumers simply won’t settle for anymore.

“My friend doesn’t have to make a mixtape and bring it to me to introduce me to new music — it’s so much more immediate,” says Szabo; to which Allen replied: “I liked the old way.”

Complaining about this “inhuman” experience is warranted, sure, but then you’re tackling a much bigger beast, and that’s the digitalization of nearly all our interactions. It’s not just music — it’s talking to people, buying food, the work office; all of these things have been transitioned thanks to technology.

Jury’s still out on how well the new music models will find compromise for users, artists, and labels; it’s a lot to attempt. And there are no shortage of imperfections along the way — but there’s simply no going backward from here.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Yamaha’s new Digital Sound Projectors target your ears

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September 7, 2012

Yamaha's latest Digital Sound Projectors may be expensive, but they deliver some pretty nifty features and impressive sound.

Yamaha has incorporated some genuinely useful, slick features into its recently announced Digital Sound Projectors — AKA sound bars — that successfully distinguish them from the ballooning sound bar market.

We especially liked the elevated design, which allows the sound bar to slide over most flat-panel TV stands, and we think Yamaha’s decision to revisit its targeted sound technology is a smart one. In this video from CEDIA 2012 show floor, Erika from Yamaha explains some of the finer points of the YSP-3300 (due in December for a suggested $1,600) and YSP-4300 (due in December for a suggested $1,900).

As usual, the show floor was too noisy to make a decent assessment of sound quality, but we can vouch for the subwoofer’s capability to get plenty loud and the almost unnerving ability for the sound bars to target sound in one particular direction with almost a 30db drop in volume outside its intended listening area. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Western Digital announces its thinnest external drive with USB 3.0

Excellent for anyone that hates to travel with a laptop bag, Western Digital has announced a new hard drive that can slip into a pocket.

Explained in detail within a Western Digital press release today, the popular hard drive manufacturer has announced a new 500GB My Passport Edge drive for both PC and Mac computers. The PC drive is just 0.5 inches thick and the Mac drive, encased in an all-metal housing, is even smaller at 0.4 inches thick. Comparing that thickness to a popular smartphone, the Mac drive is barely thicker than Apple’s iPhone 4S. In addition to the slim body style, the drives are fairly light and don’t weigh significantly more than a standard smartphone. Either drive could easily be slipped into a pants pocket for transport and include shock tolerance features for rougher handling. In addition, both drives come equipped with a USB 3.0 interface for speedy file transfers compared to the older USB 2.0 standard.

The PC version of the My Passport Edge drive has a slightly different design with a light gray color on top along with a familiar pattern of dark gray circles around the logo. The PC version of the drive also ships with Western Digital’s SmartWare software that allows the user to setup automated backups in order to recover data in case of a hard drive crash in the user’s main desktop or laptop PC.

The drive has been formatted in NTFS for use with the Windows operating system. The 500GB version of the drive includes a three-year warranty from Western Digital and is currently priced at a MSRP of $109.99. 

The Mac version of the My Passport Edge drive was designed to blend into Apple’s lineup of Macbooks and offers a solid black top with a brushed aluminum finish around the edges. According to Western Digital, the drive is compatible with Apple’s Time Machine for data backup and have been formatted in HFS+. While My Passport Edge for Mac also comes with a three-year warranty, the drive is priced at a higher MSRP of $119.99. However, both drives can be purchased at a discounted rate when using the “Where to Buy” feature on the Western Digital site.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Yamaha’s new Digital Sound Projectors target your ears

Tweet

September 6, 2012

Yamaha's latest Digital Sound Projectors may be expensive, but they deliver some pretty nifty features and impressive sound.

Yamaha has incorporated some genuinely useful, slick features into its recently announced Digital Sound Projectors — AKA sound bars — that successfully distinguish them from the ballooning sound bar market.

We especially liked the elevated design, which allows the sound bar to slide over most flat-panel TV stands, and we think Yamaha’s decision to revisit its targeted sound technology is a smart one. In this video from CEDIA 2012 show floor, Erika from Yamaha explains some of the finer points of the YSP-3300 (due in December for a suggested $1,600) and YSP-4300 (due in December for a suggested $1,900).

As usual, the show floor was too noisy to make a decent assessment of sound quality, but we can vouch for the subwoofer’s capability to get plenty loud and the almost unnerving ability for the sound bars to target sound in one particular direction with almost a 30db drop in volume outside its intended listening area. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

West coast, best coast: The startup scene hits the Northwest this week for Portland Digital eXperience

This week, Portland debuts its startup festival, Portland Digital eXperience, to showcase local innovation and offer a platform for industry discussion.

SXSW has come to epitomized startup culture. For all its faults – which generally run along the lines of launch overhype and an overwhelming amount of events and parties (to be filed under “First World Problems”) – the Austin-based festival has firmly made its name as the place where the worlds of digital, social, and startups collide.

Now, Portland, Oregon, is ready to give the similarly-spirited Austin a run for its money. This week marks the opening of Portland Digital eXperience, a startup and social festival that will run alongside MusicfestNW.

Though smaller and admittedly wetter than Austin (with the exception of this past SXSW, which I can vouch for being engulfed in a nearly permanent torrential downpour), Portland has become synonymous with innovation, creative talent, and ingenuity – and yes, hipsters and PBR. But don’t forget that this is where legacy names like Intel, Nike, and Wieden + Kennedy are headquartered. And a slew of new and notable startups have begun to follow in those prestigious footsteps: Urban Airship, Geoloqi, Lensbaby, Trapit, Vizify, and Grove all call Portland home.

And thus, Portland Digital eXperience is rising out of the short-lived North by Northwest festival’s ashes to focus in on the growing energy in the city. There will be speakers from Flipboard, Tumblr, Spotify, as well as more local names from outlets including Chirpify, Grove, and Cloudability, all on hand to cover both the intensely unique Portland spirit as well as larger industry trends. Events include a Startup Crawl through Portland’s Pearl District and Old Town neighborhoods, as well as a music hackathon to round out the festival.

The mix of big names with promising startups harkens back to some of SXSW’s earlier days, before mass chaos made attending more than a handful of events a near impossibility – a pain point many of us are more than willing to tolerate for what the show has to offer. That said, spreading this wealth can only mean more exposure for startups and more access for the rest of us.

Portland Digital eXperience starts tomorrow, September 5, and runs through September 8. You can still pick up passes here, which are also good for access to MusicfestNW shows. We’ll be attending Portland Digital eXperience and bringing you startup, social, music news, and everything that’s sure to fall in between this week. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Digital Blend: 3DS XL arrives, no Vita price cut in 2012, EA has more free-to-play incoming

Welcome to Digital Blend, your one-stop-shop for coverage and recommendations of all things relating to mobile gaming, digital marketplaces, and indie titles (for the week ending August 19).

Welcome back to Digital Blend, our weekly look at the world of downloadable video gaming that exists at the fringes of the mainstream. That means we look at the hottest new mobile game releases, downloadable content drops on consoles and PCs, indie darlings that deserve your love and attention, and the best gaming values under $20.

Keep your comments and feedback coming. We want to hear from you! Did you try something you read about here and enjoy it? Is there a particular game you think we’ve overlooked or news you want to share? Any questions you are dying to ask? Let us know! Your thoughts, feedback, suggestions and (constructive!) criticism are welcome, either in the comments section below or directed at yours truly on Twitter, @geminibros.

Making headlines…

* Sega is stepping further into the mobile business. This week, the publisher announced the launch of Sega Alliance, a new partner program designed to help indie developers find the marketing and production support that they need to get their games noticed on mobile platforms. Sega already has a presence in the smartphone and tablet space with its wholly owned IP, but Sega Alliance aims in different direction with its focus on bringing in new talents. The first release under the new initiative is Jack Lumber from Owlchemy Labs, the same studio behind Snuggle Truck.

* Capcom is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the NES classic Mega Man (or Rockman, as it is known in Japan) this year with an iOS-exclusive release called Rockman Xover. It’s only confirmed for a fall 2012 launch in Japan right now, but don’t be surprised if that grows into a broader release. The game ditches the platforming action that the series is known for, instead delivering a social-driven RPG in which players build their own Mega Man robot as they work to rescue all of the other various Mega Men from a plot hatched by a gang of the series’ most notable villains.

* EA is hoping to build a bright future for the Command & Conquer series by embracing the free-to-play philosophy that has made Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances such a hit. The BioWare-developed Command & Conquer: Generals 2 is now officially confirmed to be following a F2P model when it comes to PC in 2013. This is indicative of a larger trend that the publisher is moving toward, with the C&C news coming only days after EA confirmed plans to make the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG a F2P offering this fall. 

* Those who have been patiently waiting for Sony to knock a few dollars off the price of its new PlayStation Vita handhelds are going to have to keep waiting. The portable was released in the U.S. in February 2012, less than a year after Nintendo dropped the price of its 3DS down from $250 — the Vita’s launch price — to a more competitive $180. That, coupled with the relatively light — though largely solid — library of launch and post-launch titles has left the Vita in a tough spot. It’s a great piece of hardware that too few people are adopting. A price cut might change that, but Sony boss Shuhei Yoshida put the kibosh on any hopes for such a thing happening in 2012. “No,” he said. “It’s too early.”

* Nintendo releases its super-sized 3DS XL in North America this Sunday, August 19, 2012. By all accounts it’s a solid piece of hardware that offers a notable improvement over the 3DS, particularly in the realm of its 3D display features. Our own Ryan Fleming has been tooling around with the new hardware for the past couple weeks, and he definitely liked what he saw. He questions the wisdom of not including a second analog control, something that can be added to the 3DS via a Circle Pad Pro, but the overall reaction is a positive one. For more, check out Ryan’s full Nintendo 3DS XL review.

* The PlayStation Vita might have been largely absent from the E3 2012 festivities this year, but that could be because Sony was saving the big stuff for Gamescom 2012. The publisher revealed many details of its future plans for the handheld during the Germany-based consumer show this week. For starters, LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule is currently toiling away on a Vita-exclusive platformer called Tearaway that trades in the Sack People for papercraft. Also confirmed is a new Killzone FPS game from Guerilla for the Vita, called Killzone: Mercenary. Perhaps the most exciting news, however, is confirmation that PlayStation Plus subscriber benefits will soon be extended to the Vita as well. That means discounted software, free software, and more.

Top buys for the week…

Papo & Yo :: PSN :: $14.99

It’s a light week for 100-percent new digital releases, but it’s definitely a quality over quantity sort of vibe to what’s out there. The best of the totally new bunch is Minority Media’s Papo & Yo, a beautiful puzzle-platformer with some very powerful thematic elements. I’m not going to try to synopsize it for you here. Either get the game and find out for yourself, or dig a little deeper with my Papo & Yo review.

The Expendables 2 :: XBLA / PC :: 1,200 MS Points / $14.99

The Expendables 2 was already released for PlayStation 3 via PSN, but this week the Xbox Live Arcade and PC versions arrive alongside the release of the movie. I’m not gonna lie: this isn’t any kind of amazing game. It’s just dumb, straightforward fun, with players taking control of one of the movie’s four major characters in a twin-stick shooter built around body counts. It’s not for everyone, but it’s mindless fun for the right kind of action fan. Check out my Expendables 2 game review for more. While you’re in the reading mood, you should also take a peek at Anthony’s Expendables 2 movie review.

Dust: An Elysian Tail :: XBLA :: 1,200 MS Points

PS3 gamers might get beautiful puzzle-platforming in Papo & Yo, but Xbox 360 users get beautiful action-RPG adventuring in Dust: An Elysian Tail. In this final salvo for Microsoft’s 2012 edition of Summer of Arcade, Dust marries absolutely gorgeous hand-drawn 2D graphics with exceedingly sharp writing, simple-yet-fun gameplay, and a surprisingly deep set of RPG systems. There’s a lot of game here for your $15, and it’s mostly pretty damn good. Check out my Dust: An Elysian Tail review for more.

Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack :: PC :: $7.99

The best PlayStation Vita launch title is now a thing you can enjoy on your PC as well. Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack follows a formless alien blob as it breaks out of confinement in a research facility and proceeds to absorb everything in the vicinity in order to grow larger, Katamari Damacy style. The game is a 2D platformer with an adorably evil alien protagonist and one of my all-time favorite last levels in all of video games. Check it out if you haven’t before, or take a peek at my Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack review for more.

Jack Lumber :: iOS :: $0.99

Jack Lumber is the first of Sega’s new releases under the Sega Alliance label, a new partner program designed to lend support to indie devs on mobile platforms. The game is the work of Snuggle Truck dev Owlchemy Labs, putting players in the enormous work boots of the titular “supernatural lumberjack.” It’s a bit like Fruit Ninja, only you’ve got time dilation powers that allow you to perform some seriously impressive feats of mid-air chopping.

Random Heroes :: iOS :: $0.99

Ravenous Games, the same team behind the killer iOS platformer League of Evil, is back with Random Heroes. The new game is built around a more involved set of mechanics, with the story complemented by video game trappings like character progression and exploration. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Dyson Digital Slim DC44: Hey girl, you’ve lost weight

Thinner and more powerful, the sequel to Dyson's spot cleaning vacuum continues with the Digital Slim DC44 Animal slated to launch this fall.

Vacuum cleaners are not particularly the sexiest of gadgets, but the new model of Dyson’s Digital Slim machine is looking pretty good, if we do say so ourselves. An update from the previous DC35 model, the Digital Slim DC44 Animal is sleeker, longer, while maintaining the lightweight and cordless feature customers have come to love.

Created for spot cleaning purposes, the powerful Digital Slim can extend up to the average ceiling height or get under couches and beds to help get rid of those pesky dust bunnies. The kit comes with all sorts of attachments to fit your cleaning needs. Weighing a mere five pound, the new design also boasts the Dyson patented Root Cyclone technology which allows for 20 minutes of cleaning in one charge, or a burst of 8-minute intense suction.

“It’s an incredibly powerful machine considering it’s all done on batteries,” Alex Knox, Dyson’s industrial design director, told The New York Times. No word on how long it takes to fully charge the batteries, but we can’t imagine it’d be too long for a short burst of power.

While 20 minutes worth of cleaning might be helpful for a quick clean up, be prepared to balk at the price. This is a Dyson, after all. Launching some time this September, expect the Dyson Digital Slim DC44 Animal to run at $400 on Dyson.com and in stores. And yes, that price tag comes with a two year warranty and free shipping.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com