We were on the scene down here in LA, and today was the first big day of the show — even though it doesn’t really even start until tomorrow. Today was actually the day of press conferences by some of the big players, where they drop all their big news and tell you where to check out the latest big franchise games. It’s also a showcase for the latest acquisitions and technology, as well as announcing partnerships and that sort of thing.

Today’s events included Microsoft’s Xbox event this morning, then heavyweight EA’s press conference in the early afternoon, then Ubisoft in the later afternoon (they win the guest presenter contest, with both Pele and James Cameron). They dropped some interesting stuff, though I’d be lying if I told you they didn’t introduce a game where you do fantasy make-up.

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CrunchGear does E3: day one roundup

CrunchGear is on the scene down here in LA, and today was the first big day of the show — even though it doesn’t really even start until tomorrow. Today was actually the day of press conferences by some of the big players, where they drop all their big news and tell you where to check out the latest big franchise games. It’s also a showcase for the latest acquisitions and technology, as well as announcing partnerships and that sort of thing.

Today’s events included Microsoft’s Xbox event this morning, then heavyweight EA’s press conference in the early afternoon, then Ubisoft in the later afternoon (they win the guest presenter contest, with both Pele and James Cameron). They dropped some interesting stuff, though I’d be lying if I told you they didn’t introduce a game where you do fantasy make-up. Ubi had the most interesting non-game talks: they’re working with Hollywood in a pretty ridiculous fashion and are going to be using their in-game engines and assets to help in creating actual films.

If three events in a day sounds like a light schedule, well, it is for a team of like 10 guys, but there’s just two of us right now and we’ve got to liveblog, shoot stills and video, transcode, watermark, upload, and post like five things for each event — all while trying to stay alive in downtown Los Angeles — a full-time job in itself.

Here are a few highlights from the day:

Project Natal camera-based gameplay (looks ridiculous)
Project Milo, AKA a real child in your console
Metal Gear Solid: Rising for Xbox 360 (along with Natal, these things were denied earlier)
Twitter on Xbox Live
EA’s semi-exciting press conference resulted in footage of The Saboteur, Brutal Legend, APB and The Old Republic
First gameplay footage of Red Steel 2 (now bundled with Wii MotionPlus), Splinter Cell: Conviction, and first trailer for Assassin’s Creed 2.

We’re going to have lots of hands-ons tomorrow, so watch the tag or check back late tomorrow for another omnibus post.

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CrunchGear Does E3: Day One

Just as it did with the Z-Drive at CeBIT, OCZ Technology has delivered a few surprises across the way at Computex. Kicking things off the 17-inch DIY gaming laptop, which takes a note from the DIY-styled Neutrino, but gets a much bigger form factor. It’s one of the few laptops that actually arrive sans a CPU, hard drive and RAM, but it’ll support Core 2 Duo / Core 2 Extreme chips, as many as two 2.5-inch hard drives and plenty of DDR3 memory.

Other specs include a 17-inch WXGA panel, NVIDIA’s Hybrid GeForce 9600GTS graphics, an optional Blu-ray drive, ExpressCard slot and a full accompaniment of connectors. The 7.9 pound machine ships with an 8-cell battery, though there’s no word yet on pricing or availability.

Moving on, we’ve got the Ion-based HTPC, which is outfitted with a 1.6GHz Atom 230 CPU, Vista Ultimate (64-bit), 4GB of DDR2-667 RAM, an OCZ 120GB SSD, Blu-ray drive, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, HDMI output and a multicard reader. Finally, there’s an all-new Neutrino, which is being introduced just weeks after the original shipped here in the US.

This new character packs a little more color and a lot more oomph, with NVIDIA’s nForce Ion graphics, a 1.6GHz Atom 230 CPU, 10.1-inch display (1,024 x 600), room for 2GB of DDR2 RAM (ships with none), a 2.5-inch HDD / SSD slot (ships with none), WiFi, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, Ethernet, HDMI, two USB 2.0 sockets and audio in / out jacks.

As with the 17-incher, there’s no word yet on pricing or availability, but we’re hoping to hear more on those tidbits soon.

Gallery: OCZ intros 17-inch DIY laptop, Ion-based HTPC / Neutrino netbook

Filed under: Laptops

OCZ intros 17-inch DIY laptop, Ion-based HTPC / Neutrino netbook originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve seen the trailer, now see the gameplay. They actually modeled Sam Fisher on a younger, fitter now-CrunchGear-editor John Biggs. John was never quite that deadly, let’s be honest, but we have to allow a certain level of artistic license in these things. The lithe movements are very Biggs-ish, though.

Seriously, though, it looks pretty cool. I think they’ve sacrificed immersion for a more cinematic approach, and of course stealth has kind of gone out the window in some ways, but it still looks like a really compelling game.

Read more here:
E3 2009: Splinter Cell Conviction first gameplay footage

It doesn’t take an Intel-salaried futurist to see that extended battery life and thin form factors are kind of a big deal going forward, while price and performance aren’t getting swept away either — it’s been basically the ongoing state of the laptop industry since time began (as Intel has so helpfully illustrated for us). What is new is that form factors and bang-for-buck is truly getting wild of late, and Intel’s latest crop of chips should help keep moving things along. In the high end, Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor is breaking 3GHz with the 3.06GHz T9900 in the high end, alongside the new P9700 and P8800 chips. Meanwhile, the Pentium SU2700 is a 1.3GHz ULV chip for stuffing in everybody’s next low-cost thin and light, while Intel is also introducing the GS40 Express Chipset as a scaled-down, lower power alternative to the GS45, likely for similar aims. No word on price points or availability just yet.

Gallery: Intel debuts three new Core 2 Duo procs, new SU2700 ULV chip and GS40 Express Chipset

Filed under: Laptops

Intel debuts three new Core 2 Duo procs, new SU2700 ULV chip and GS40 Express Chipset originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Jun 2009 00:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Intel unleashed a flurry of new processors at Computex, including the T9900 Core 2 Duo, which clocks in at a speedy 3.06 GHz—the first Penryn-based Core 2 Duo chip to do so.

In addition, Intel announced the P9700 and P8800 Core 2 Duo desktop processors, which have speeds of 2.8 GHz and TKTK GHz respectively, as well as the 1.3 GHz SU2700 ULV Pentium processor and accompanying GS40 express chipset.

UberGizmo says the SU2700 is the chip that will power the influx of ultra-thin laptops they’ve been touting as of late. But for the time being, that’s it for details. Pricing and availability will come later. [Intel via UberGizmo]

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Intel T9900 Core 2 Duo Notebook Processor Breaks the 3GHz Barrier [Processors]

One of Twitter’s greatest assets has always been its developer community. But with the countless link, image, and video sharing services available (many of which are very similar to each other), most new services are lost to obscurity. When it comes to determining which services will succeed, the popular Twitter clients hold all the keys. If you’re integrated with one, you’ll be at the fingertips of hundreds of thousands of users who wouldn’t have otherwise known you existed. Getting chosen as an application’s default service can lead to skyrocketing popularity overnight. These Twitter clients are home to some very valuable real estate, and now some of their developers are looking to profit accordingly.

We’ve been hearing from multiple sources that TweetDeck has been toying with charging a fee for services to appear in the popular Twitter client for some time now, so we turned to the company’s founder, Iain Dodsworth, for answers. He says that no services have paid up until this point, but that by the time the next version comes out, that will change. Unsurprisingly, Dodsworth wasn’t willing to go into the details of the arrangements, but we’ve been hearing it will cost services around $50,000 to appear in TweetDeck. We’ve also heard that there might be an extra fee to become a default service, but this information is less concrete.

It also sounds like only some services will be asked to pay to appear in TweetDeck, while others will be included for free, which makes sense. The application would have a hard time omitting a service like TwitPic without raising quite a few eyebrows. But for those link shorteners that are a dime a dozen, particularly the ones that are just getting started, a fee would be much less surprising.

Now, let me be clear: I don’t think there’s anything particularly sinister about this. It’s a natural progression of the Twitter ecosystem. Developers have to draw the line somewhere, otherwise they’re going to be presenting users with an increasingly overwhelming and redundant list of options. So they can either subjectively pick out their favorite services (or perhaps the most popular ones), or they can charge for their spots. In theory they could also allow users to manually specify their own shortener and image sharing services (in the same way you can specify the default search in your web browser), but the number of people who would actually do this would be negligible.

That said, I do have concerns. My biggest issue is that TweetDeck, or any other clients that adopt a similar model, could show favoritism to services that are clearly inferior simply because they have larger pocketbooks. At this point many of these third party services (particularly the URL shorteners) are very similar, so I don’t particularly care if my link goes out through one or the other. But if TweetDeck starts defaulting to a service that isn’t very good, or refuses to integrate an up-and-coming new service that users are clamoring for, then we’re going to have issues.

As for other clients, TweetDeck’s competition has largely avoided the practice of charging for integration. Seesmic Desktop doesn’t do it – in fact, it rotates the default services for each install to maintain neutrality. And Tweetie, the very popular iPhone and native Mac client, doesn’t charge either (though it does generate revenue through premium versions and integrated advertising). But now that the dam is breaking, I suspect we’ll hear about more applications, particularly the free ones, adopting similar pay-to-play models with their integrated third party services.

That TweetDeck is among the first clients to do this isn’t very surprising – it’s the most popular Twitter client, and the company has also raised funding, which means it has to appease investors with some actual revenue. The company has also recently experimented with a branded Blink 182 version of TweetDeck, and Dodsworth says that more revenue streams are on the way.

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Want Your Service Integrated With TweetDeck? It’ll Cost You A Cool $50,000

Looks like Sony Ericsson is admitting defeat in the flash storage war, as TrustedReviews reports SE is going with MicroSD in future phones instead of the parent company’s Memory Stick Micro format.

The announcement came straight from the mouth of Sony Ericsson Global Marketing Director Fortuné Alexander, who conceded that they’re “moving in another direction” (like the X1 pictured above). It’s also a better direction, considering Sony Ericsson phones has relied too much on proprietary technologies for their products (charging, headphones, storage, etc…). [TrustedReviews via CrunchGear]

Go here to read the rest:
Sony Ericsson Ditches Memory Stick Micro in Cellphones, Goes with MicroSD [Cellphones]

We had a hunch that Computex would be a massive show for NVIDIA, and while we already caught a glimpse of what the GPU manufacturer had in store, we had no idea it’d come out with guns this big a-blazin’.

Showing absolutely no mercy for those other integrated graphics sets of the world, NV’s today unveiled 21 new Ion-based products in Taiwan, with all but a handful being completely unheard of. Of course, there’s the AspireRevo, Ion 330 and IdeaPad S12, but outside of that select few, everything else is all new.

Asus is introducing its C2N7A-I motherboard and all-in-one Eee Top ET2002, Colorful is busting out its iHTPC, ECS is pushing out a new desktop and MSI is showcasing its Windtop AE201. And that’s just to name a few. Hop on past the break for the full spill, and don’t stray too far — we’ll be out and about grabbing hands-on time with as many of these as we can track down.

Gallery: NVIDIA strikes gold with Ion: 21 new products at Computex

Continue reading NVIDIA strikes gold with Ion: 21 new products at Computex

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

NVIDIA strikes gold with Ion: 21 new products at Computex originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Jun 2009 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Red Steel was a groundbreaking game in the truest sense: it broke ground. Not necessarily very well, but it was the first Wii game to really try to do what we were all thinking: guns and swords. Red Steel 2 may actually deliver on the promises its predecessor made, but at the very least it looks like a fun game to flail around in.

I mentioned this during the live blog, but it really does look and feel a bit strange for this franchise to have no blood. I don’t want to sound ghoulish, but seriously, if you’re going to have what amount to fatalities (cutting throats, stabbing in the back, etc), why should the blood thing matter? The Soul Calibur-esque sparks are okay, but seriously, let’s get choppin’.

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E3 2009: Red Steel 2 actual gameplay video