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The World’s Most Portable Gaming System Reveals UI

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The world’s most portable gaming system, GameStick, is now showing off it’s UI in a developer kit video that has recently been released. GameStick has been pushed into a reality thanks to it’s successful Kickstarter campaign and it’s really nice to see how things are coming together. Now, it’s time to get these devices into the hands of developers so they can start cranking out some great content for the new device.

GameStickSide
GameStick Console

The console itself is quite amazing as it’s basically a controller and a USB stick. The console is Android based and really quite unique and actually has quite a bit of power behind it. GameStick plugs straight into your TV’s HDMI slot and connects to the controller via Bluetooth 4.0. It even supports additional memory through the use of a microSD slot.

GameStick-Dock
GameStick Controller and Wireless Charging Dock

GameStick’s simplicity is what makes it stand out in a gaming world that still seems to be stuck on big clunky hardware. It may not be the next-gen PS4 or Xbox but it’s a pretty awesome way to bring the world of Android and gaming to your big screen TV in 1080p.

Here are the System Specs:

  • Processor – Amlogic 8726-MXS
  • Memory – 1GB DDR3 / 8GB FLASH
  • Content Download Manager w/ cloud storage for games.
  • WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n
  • Bluetooth – 4.0
  • O/S – Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
  • Controller – Bluetooth 3.0
  • Full 1080p HD video decoding
  • Upgrade memory via microSD card slot (up to 32GB)
  • Support for iOS and Android mobile devices to be used as controllers
  • Support for XBMC.

Awesome New Way To Experience Google Street View

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An amazing little project by Teehan+Lax changes the way we use Street View by creating incredible “Hyper-Lapse” video from the images in google’s Street View database by stringing them all together. The end result is just plain awesome to look at.

hyperLapseSS

 

Even better, you can make your own version, although it will be a slightly lower quality version. All you need is a browser that supports WebGL, like Goole Chrome, Safari, Opera, or Firefox and then you can simply head here to set a start and finish point and make your “Hyper-Lapse” video.

Hyper-lapse photography – a technique combining time-lapse and sweeping camera movements typically focused on a point-of-interest – has been a growing trend on video sites. It’s not hard to find stunning examples on Vimeo. Creating them requires precision and many hours stitching together photos taken from carefully mapped locations. We aimed at making the process simpler by using Google Street View as an aid, but quickly discovered that it could be used as the source material. It worked so well, we decided to design a very usable UI around our engine and release Google Street View Hyperlapse.”

To Enable WebGL in Safari on the Mac (Safari 5.1 and Up):

  • In Safari, open the Safari menu and select Preferences.
  • Click the Advanced tab in the Preferences window.
  • At the bottom of the window, check the Show Develop menu in menu bar checkbox.
  • Open the Develop menu in the menu bar and select Enable WebGL.

Firefox (4 and Up) WebGL is on by Default

For Internet Explorer you can use this plugin.

New Zelda Preorder Shows Up at Walmart Among Others

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WalmartEarlyPreorderNintendo

Nintendo has many projects in development right now and they are hard at work trying to get them finished and out to Wii U owners. Obviously, none of these titles have official names and many are not even set to be released any time soon.

Walmart, however, has decided that it’s time to get those pre-orders up on their site and they have done so with some names that leave little to the imagination while others are a bit more ambiguous. Either way it definitely helps build excitement and anticipation for new and upcoming Wii U titles, which the console desperately needs. I put together an article recently discussing Nintendo’s interpretation of the rather dismal launch of the Wii U.

Here are some of the titles that Walmart has put up pre-orders for:

  • Zelda 2 RPG Wii U
  • Mario 3D Wii U
  • Mario Kart Wii U

Ruling Says Digital Content Can’t Be Resold

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As digital content begins to play a bigger role in our society we have to begin to try to understand it more and that includes in what ways do we actually own our digital goods. When you make a digital purchase your not actually buying something physical.

It’s kind of strange to think about, but what we’re really doing is buying the rights to use the said digital goods. Some people have started to look at this and wondered that if we own specific rights to use something then we should be able to sell those rights to others and we would then be effectively forfeiting our own rights to use the content.Digital Lock

Sounds pretty straight forward right? I give my rights that I bought to you at a discounted price. Well, as always, there is going to be a huge debate on whether this kind of stuff is actually legal or not and considering this is all brand new, we’re going to have to work that out in court.

This is exactly what has just happened as a federal judge in a case involving Capitol Records v. ReDigi, has just ruled that attempting to resell digital goods is illegal.

The general idea keeping this kind of activity alive was based on the first-sale doctrine, which allows someone who has legally purchased copyrighted material to resell it. This sounds like it should apply to digital content as well but the judge decided that even though Redigi makes users confirm that they have no existing copies and that the uploader will no longer have access to the files after the transaction is made, they still make copies despite ReDigi’s efforts.

This presents a clear challenge for companies like Apple who have plans to offer up a type of “used digital content” system. This also makes it less appealing to move to an all digital platform as used movie, music, and gaming stores will become obsolete and there will be no similar alternative.

Mac Startup Keys / How to Reset your NVRAM

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Often we need to access specific features on our computers when things go wrong or if we start tinkering around with our hardware configurations. Sometimes you just want to see how things are running or maybe your just curious. Either way, here is a list of different key combinations that you can use to access special features built into your Intel Mac.

All of these key combinations should be pressed as soon as you hear the startup sound when turning on your Mac. You will want to keep these keys pressed until your Mac performs the requested function.

 

AppleWirelessKeyboard for Mac Startup Keys

Resetting NVRAM

(Having issues with your startup disk, screen resolution, audio issues? Resetting the NVRAM may help resolve these issues. )

Press Option-Command-P-R until you hear startup sound a second time.

Want to start your Mac with bootable media, USB thumb drive or DVD? 

Press “C” during startup.

Eject Removable Media

Press Eject, F12, or hold the mouse or trackpad button.

Safe Boot (similar to Windows Safe Mode)

Hold “Shift” during startup.

Verbose Mode (Let’s you see what’s happening during boot-up instead of the Apple Logo)

Press Command-V during startup.

Single User Mode ( As the name suggests, it’s boots into a single user and without a GUI)

Press Command-S during startup.

OS X Recovery System

Press Command-R during startup.

Startup Manager (  A GUI that allows you to choose which volume to boot with)

Press “Option” during startup.

Apple Hardware Test ( As the name suggests, it tests your hardware and reports issues)

Press “D” during startup.

Target Disk Mode (Turn a Firewire connected Mac into a external Hard drive)

Press “T” during startup.

NetBoot (Allows you to boot from a Network  “Default Boot Image”)

Press Option-N during startup.

NetBoot (Allows you to boot from a Network “Use Compatible”)

Press “N” during startup.