Olympus reveals PEN E-PL3 pricing and availability, launches SP-810UZ
Last month we wrote about three new Olympus cameras, the PEN EP-3, E-PL3 and E-PM1. Out of these, only the price for the E-P3 was revealed back then.
Now Olympus has decided they should let us know about the price of one more of the three cameras. So here it is. The Olympus PEN E-PL3 will cost you $699.99 and will come with a 14-42mm zoom lens or 17mm prime lens. It will be sold in three colors; black, white and red and will start shipping in September.
Olympus has also announced a new point and shoot super zoom camera. Named the SP-810UZ, this bad boy packs in a massive 24-864mm, f/2.9-5.7 wide angle zoom capable of 36x optical zoom. It has a 14 megapixel sensor that can also shoot high definition 720p videos. It also has a 3D mode where it takes two pictures from two different angles and combines them into a 3D image that can be viewed on a 3D display. On its back is a 3-inch widescreen display. The SP-810UZ is priced at $329.99.
Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 comes to the office, a hands-on video awaits you inside
It’s been a while since the last Samsung mid-range Android handset. The company looked too busy with its Galaxy S and we almost lost hope that we’ll see a Galaxy Spica successor. Yet here comes the Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 and we are rushing to give you a hands-on video and a few photos.
The Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 front side bears distinct resemblance to the Apple iPhone 4, while its back looks like a mini Galaxy Tab (the one in white). Another difference we noticed is that our pre-production black unit has a shiny back, while the official photos suggest that the back of the Galaxy Ace is opaque, rather than glossy and has some texture on it.
Samsung S5830 Galaxy Ace live shots
We are pretty pleased with the Froyo-running smartphone in terms of performance. It’s obviously an early prototype and some bugs and freezes are to be expected, but the general menu navigation and app performance is quite good.
We’ll be able to tell you more about the Galaxy Ace S5830 when the preview is completed. Now enjoy the hands-on video and feel free to share any impressions you might have of the handset in the comment section below.
It was iFixit that first tore down the Nexus 7 tablet and as a result we can now see how much money Google is making from selling the device itself.
For the 8GB model, the margin is pretty slim (if it exists at all) as its parts were estimated to cost $184 while it sells for $199. That’s a small profit margin whichever way you look at it, and this price doesn’t even factor in manufacturing, marketing, shipping or research and development.
Things look a bit different for the 16GB model. You see, it costs $50 more than the 8GB model and since they are using virtually the same components, except for an extra flash chip worth around $8, it’s actually sold for a small profit. So, Google’s statement that it hardly makes any money by selling the Nexus tablet itself turns out to be true.
Here’s the list of the key components, in case you are interested:
NVIDIA Tegra 3 �C Quad-core mobile applications processor
New iPhone with 1GB RAM undergoes internal testing, iPod Touch 5,1 to follow
According to reports, Apple has seeded a new iPhone to its internal testers. And before you get too excited, the exterior design hasn’t been revealed just yet. The only thing different is the chipset.
Yes, you are right. Predictably, Apple has put the A5X chip in the iPhone 4/4S body and has seeded it to testers in Cupertino. The variation of the A5X chip in question is the S5L8945X, which packs 1GB of RAM.
The smartphone is carrying the N96 model number, but it’s unclear whether this label will be carried over to the actual new iPhone when its development is complete.
The iPod Touch, on the other hand, didn’t get any hardware upgrade last year and it’s only logical for Apple to make up for it this year. And if an internal build of iOS 5.1 is to be trusted, Apple is indeed working on the next iPod Touch. Labeled 5,1, the next iPod Touch should finally introduce a dual-core CPU to the portable player.
Dropbox app for Galaxy S III with 48GB of free space can now be installed on other devices
Get this one while its hot! The Dropbox app for the Samsung Galaxy S III, which offers 48GB of free cloud storage for all S III owners, has been ported for other devices.
This means that you’ll be able to install the dropbox apk from the S III on your device (if it’s rooted), and get some free cloud storage love.
You may recall how HTC had a similar deal for their One series phones, giving you a complimentary 25GB for two years with any new device purchase. Little did they expect that people would simply rip the apk file, and install it on their non-HTC phone to receive the free Dropbox space. While eventually the Dropbox folks managed to track down the false activations and remove their free storage, as of now they still haven’t done so with the Galaxy S III apk.
This time around, however, it’s a bit trickier to beat the system, as you’ll need to have a rooted device, and flash the apk with ClockorkMod recovery. Be sure to remove and previous version of Dropbox from your device beforehand, as well.
Obviously, this is not a legitimate way to gain free space, and Dropbox may construe this as a violation of their ToS. So, if you do decide to take the following steps, you’ve been warned.
While the original XDA thread has since been removed, you can find a cached copy here, and a duplicate thread here. There’s also a download hosted here.
The original Carmageddon was a vehicular combat game that was released in 1997 and later ported to other platforms. Because of the violence in the game, which was too much for a game at that time, it was either heavily censored or banned in several countries around the world.
The game has now been ported over to mobile, with the iOS version out now on the App Store and an Android version supposedly in the works. We decided to take a look and see how it fares fifteen years after it originally came out.
Title
Carmageddon
Developer
Stainless Games
Platform
iOS
Release Date
October 17, 2012
Content Rating
12+
Size
102MB
Price
$1.99 (On sale)
Gameplay
Like the original, Carmageddon for iOS is a vehicular combat game. To win in this game, you have to do one of three things. You can race around the track, going through every checkpoint and complete all the laps just like you would in a normal racing game. If that’s too boring for you, you can take down all of your opponents, crashing you car into theirs until their cars are totaled. Lastly, you can also choose to run over every single person or animal you see on the track. These choices aren’t mutually exclusive, and you can do them all simultaneously.
The last one is the least feasible because there is an insane number of people on the streets and it would take you ages to run over all of them. The best thing to do is to just run over those that are within reach instead of going out of your way for each of them. Running over people and animals has its advantages, as you get points and also extra time. You need the extra time to finish the race before the clock runs out.
You can also smash into your opponents if one wanders along your path, which they often do. Opponents actively try to take each other out and if they are near you they will come after you, which gives you the convenient opportunity to take them down instead. Run over enough people, smash enough cars and complete all the laps and you win the race.
The more races you win, the more credit you get, which lets you upgrade your vehicles. You also unlock more vehicles and tracks as you keep playing. You can also use the in-app purchase option to unlock all the vehicles and tracks for a dollar each.
The world in which you race is pretty wide, wider than even most modern racing games where you are limited to the track. You can just go off the road and wander around, running over people and animals. The wide open environments sometimes makes hunting for opponents to take down a bit difficult, though, as they tend to get lost in the world. This is why car combat games usually feature tightly packed levels that keep the action contained within easy reach.
As far as the vehicles are concerned, there is a good variety of them but they handle more or less the same. The handling is quite terrible and the cars seem to have no grip at all. The lack of precision makes everything from going after pedestrians to hunting down your opponents or simply just racing around the track seem like a chore. The camera is also a mild annoyance as it takes too long to quickly turn around and point in the direction where you should be looking.
The transition to touchscreen has been done quite well. You have large on-screen buttons to turn, accelerate and brake. There is a handbrake button to make a quick drift. You see the damage to your vehicle in the top right corner and you can tap on it to repair it. As before, you can see the chosen driver on the left and their reactions to everything that you do in the game but you can slide the panel to remove it from the screen.
The game features a recording feature where you can record the events on the screen. You can also get instant action replays whenever you want.
Graphics and Sound
Carmageddon for mobile is a port and not a remake, which means the graphics are the same, just that they run at a higher resolution, several times higher, if you count the new iPad. They do look blocky and severely outdated but the focus here is on gameplay, as anyone who plays classic games would know. The advantage of having outdated visuals is that the game runs super smooth, even at the absurd resolution on the iPad.
The game has some cutscene videos that play at the beginning and after you finish a level. These videos are terribly low resolution and look horrible on the new devices, particularly the new iPad.
The sound consists of a fast-paced background music playing on a loop, the sound of your engine and the screams of people and the mooing of cows as you run them over. Back in the day game designers weren’t so liberal with the sounds (probably because they tended to increase the game install footprint by a lot), so you had a single sound sample for everything. Which is why every screaming woman sounds the same and the cows, well, they sound the same anyway.
Verdict
I had heard great things about this game but honestly I wasn’t particularly impressed. Maybe because it’s not 1997 anymore but I just didn’t find the gameplay particularly interesting. Running over people and cows and smashing into cars, as surprising as it might sound, tends to get boring very quickly.
The violence, which was once considered over-the-top and controversial, just seems childish now. It doesn’t help that the visuals are severely outdated and the vehicles are a pain to keep pointing in the right direction.
Unless you were a big fan of this game when it came out all those years ago and want to relive it again on your mobile device, I wouldn’t recommend this game to you.
Rating: 3/5 Pros: Let’s you run over people and cows and smash into cars as much as you want, a nice choice of tracks and vehicles Cons: Poor vehicle control, gameplay gets boring very quickly
HTC EVO 3D drops by for a stereoscopic visit, video inside
The HTC EVO 3D is HTC’s answer to LG’s 3D foray on the world tech scene. It features the solid foundation of the ultra-popular Sensation including a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, Adreno 220 GPU and the latest Android distribution – 2.3 Gingerbread. However the single 8 megapixel snapper has been replaced with a couple of 5 megapixel cameras, allowing for 3D photo and video capture, while the screen has been replaced by one that does glass-free 3D.
We’re already working on a detailed review of the EVO 3D, but until that one is complete you can enjoy the quick unboxing & hands-on video that we prepared for you.
The EVO 3D has been available in the US for a while now and after having spent some time with it we can see why everyone seems to like it so much. It’s impressively snappy, quite sleek to look at and really well built. Plus we love the huge camera key that HTC gave it as it really takes the camera usability up a notch. And since the 3D action is limited to the camera and gallery on this one – this is where potential buyer will be spending quite a lot of time.
So early prospects are good, but in the current market good is not always enough. With the fierce competition little slip-ups are allowed and even with the stereoscopic ace up its sleeve the EVO 3D would have to keep up the great performance for the time of the full review to convince us of its worth.
