Kinect hacked to control original Super Mario Bros. game
One gamer, under the alias ‘Yankeyan’ has posted a video this week showing himself playing the original Super Mario Bros. game using Microsoft’s new Kinect motion control system.
Says Yankeyan:
“I programmed it to recognize my motions and passed the virtual button presses to the NES emulator. I could have placed a simulated keypad right in front of me that I can press with my hands, but I thought full body gestures were more in the spirit of Kinect. Of course, Mario isn’t designed to be played like this, so this is really really hard.”
He isn’t kidding when he says the game is tough, with simple gestures like jumping taking a few tries, but it is definitely an incredible feat.
Microsoft’s Kinect was released earlier this month to much fanfare.
How popularity on Facebook and Twitter helped predict the election
It appears that how popular you are on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter actually had a real world effect on the November elections in the United States.
Candidates with more “likes” on Facebook won 71 percent of the time in the Senate elections while candidates with more Twitter followers won 74 percent of the time.
Facebook said that in 77 of the 118 races it followed in the Senate and the House, the winner had more “likes” than the opponent did.
If you had double the amount of “likes,” the average margin of victory was 3.9 percent.
There also seemed to be a correlation to money raised and spent, as one big spender, Jeff Greene of Florida, spent $24 million and did not even win his primary. The primary winner, Kendrick Meek, had 24,000 “likes” on Facebook to Greene’s lowly 644.
Of course, social networking popularity did not help a few high profile candidates like “I am not a witch” Christine O’Donnell, who was very popular on Twitter and Facebook but got crushed in the election by 17 percent. Meg Whitman, the billionaire, spent the most money and had the third highest amount of Facebook likes but still lost the California governor race.
Says ABC News: “[Social media] provides information about comparisons…trends and changes could be informative on the subset of people on it. You get more information out of it if you respect limitations. If you try to get too much, you get nothing.”
Acer unveils Android device with massive screen
Acer has unveiled its latest Android device this week, a smartphone with a massive 4.8-inch display and 1024×480 resolution.
The device runs on Android 2.2 Froyo, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, and 8MP camera with AF and LED flash and a front-facing 2MP camera, as well.
Acer’s unnamed device will also have HSDPA 14.4Mbps support, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, DLNA streaming, 6-axis motion sensing, and an HDMI-out port.
Chrome OS still expected to launch next month
Despite their note that Chrome OS would not be available on any hardware in 2010, the search giant has said today that the operating system may still launch next month, in a limited software beta.
The company would “not go into details” on when or in what condition the operating system will launch, but it does confirm a public release is scheduled for this year.
Bugs in the software have dwindled, and a pre-release build is in the works.
The operating system will work on all PCs and tablets, but is designed to run best on netbooks.
Google Chrome OS should see a full release in the Q1 2011.
For a more in-depth look into Chrome OS, check our earlier article: Google Chrome OS
DVDFab releases Blu-ray 3D-to-3D video ripper
DVDFab has released the first Blu-ray 3D-to-3D video ripper today, making the software available for $50.
Making the software more notable is the fact that it will not require any other utility to tip or convert the video.
The company says the software can do the following:
-Rip any Blu-ray 3D to 3D video. Blu-ray 3D Ripper can remove all known AACS copy protections, all known BD+ copy protections including newest 3D BD+, region code, BD-Live, UOPs, MKB V18 and MKB V19, so any Blu-ray 3D content can be ripped. And the output 3D video can be AVI, MP4, WMV, or MKV, and can be played on 3D display devices.
-Support side-by-side 3D. Blu-ray 3D Ripper supports side-by-side 3D format — a current popular format for 3D content transmission, which has been already used by some cable TV providers.
3D type can be left/right or top/bottom, 50% or 100%. The 3D type can be left/right (side by side) or top/bottom to meet different requirements from different display devices; and the video frame size can be full (100%) or half (50%) according to your specific need.
-Output 1080p video or 720p video. For original 1080p video, the output can be 1080p, or converted to 720p, the choice is yours.
-Free decoder supports H.264 MVC completely. Blu-ray 3D Ripper supports H.264 MVC standard completely, and especially designed a corresponding decoder offered to users for free. No need to pay for any H.264 MVC decoder on the market.
-Freely edit and customize. You can set video and audio format such as bit rate, frame resolution, aspect ratio, volume size, etc.; select your favorite audio and subpicture streams; crop active video region manually or automatically; remove black bars that may be present on your display device; and so on.
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Google in talks to buy digital rights for Miramax catalog
Google is currently in talks with Filmyard Holdings in an effort to purchase the digital rights to Miramax’s extensive movie archive.
The rights would help Google give YouTube a larger collection of feature-length content, which it currently lacks.
Miramax has over 700 films in its catalog.
Although unconfirmed, Netflix has been said to be in talks with Miramax, as well, trying to secure the rights to add the library to its “Watch Instantly” streaming service. Netflix currently offers 20,000 movies and TV shows.
Miramax was just sold earlier this year by Disney for $660 million.
YouTube has said recently that 36 hours of video are posted every minute to the video sharing site.
Android is now most popular smartphone OS in Asia
According to new data from GfK, Android has surpassed Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in Asia.
Smartphone sales in Asia have grown 270 percent year-over-year to 4.7 million units.
In defining “Asia,” GfK uses sales from Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Our Q3 report shows that Android has recently overtaken Symbian as the most popular smartphone OS in the context of Asia as a whole, in both value and unit sales. However, it is interesting to note the difference in OS trends when we look at findings in North and Southeast Asia separately,” says the research firm.
Globally, Android has jumped to second place, with over 26 percent share, behind Symbian at around 38 percent.
Acer notebook has dual touchscreens
Acer has unveiled their latest Iconia notebook today, one that includes dual touchscreens, with no physical buttons necessary.
Each multi-touch display is 14.1-inches.
Additionally, the gadget has an Intel Core i5 processor, a minimum 320GB HDD, 4GB RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium.
Each display is LED-backlit, with an HD resolution of 1366×768. Both displays also have Gorilla Glass protection, protecting from scratches and smudging.
Users can use both screens to display a single app, or display multiple apps on different screens. When you put both palms on the bottom screen, a virtual keypad immediately pops up.
A “Gesture Editor” allows you to create custom gesture controls, while “SocialJogger” tracks all you social networking activities in a single interface.
There is no word on price or release date.
Spotify saw large loss in 2009
Spotify has revealed their 2009 financials today, and it appears that the company saw a hefty loss for the last year.
Revenue grew to £11.32 million but costs rose to £18.82 million, not including distribution costs of £608,711 and administrative expenses of £8.29 million.
Overall, the company saw a £16.4 million loss.
Revenue came mainly from subscriptions, with £6.81 million coming from monthly subscribers. The rest of the revenue came from advertisements, to the tune of £4.51 million.
Spotify had seven million users in Europe by the end of the financial year, but only 250,000 paying subscribers.
“2009 saw us focus on establishing a new and innovative music service and bringing it to millions of people across Europe. The groundwork laid in our launch year has been crucial to the significant achievements made in 2010. Further strengthening and expansion of the service remains our top priority,” says the company.
Verizon adds new 150Mbit/sec tier to FiOS lineup
Verizon has announced this week that it will be adding a new, speedier tier to its FiOS fiber broadband offering, offering as high as 150Mbit/sec downstream and 34Mbit upstream.
The service will cost users $195 per month.
So far, Verizon is rolling out the service to 12 U.S. states, and D.C., with small businesses and residential consumers expected to be able to use it fully by the end of the year.
Verizon currently offers a 50/20Mbit plan for $140 per month, their fastest offering.
New customers or upgrading customers must sign up for a one-year agreement to get the $195 price for the new incredibly fast option.
FiOS is currently available to 12.5 million households in the U.S. with Verizon expecting to expand reach to 18 million.
With a 150Mbit connection, users can download full two-hour 1080p HD movies in under 4 minutes and average music tracks in 300 milliseconds.
