From Engadget: OUYA, XBMC sitting in a tree, media s-h-a-r-i-n-g (update: TuneIn, new pics)

OUYA and XBMC sitting in a tree, media sharing

OUYA’s slew of collaborations isn’t letting up, even with less than two days to go before its fundraising round is over. The XBMC team has just pledged that its upcoming Android app will be tailored to work with the upcoming console. While the exact customizations aren’t part of the initial details, the media center app developers will have early access to prototypes of the OUYA hardware. There’s suggestions that there won’t be much of a wait for the Android port of XBMC, whether or not you’re buying the cuboid system — XBMC’s developers note that Android work should be merged into the master path once “final sign-offs” are underway. All told, though, the OUYA is quickly shaping up into as much of a go-to media hub as it is a game system.

Update: OUYA itself has also posted word that TuneIn’s radio streaming is also on its way. And just to top off its efforts, the company has posted rendered images that better show the scale of the console: our Joystiq compatriots note that it’s really a “baby GameCube” in size, and its gamepad looks gigantic by comparison.

 

 

from Engadget

From Ars Technica: Oculus Rift head-mounted display finds funding from developers

Oculus Rift

The idea of a mass-market virtual reality headset that totally immerses players in a game world died out pretty quickly in the ’90s, a time when the technology wasn’t quite up to the heady concept. Now, a hardware designer named Palmer Luckey thinks that technology has finally caught up with the dream, and seems to have done a good job convincing a lot of game designers that he’s right.

Luckey’s head-mounted display, the Oculus Rift, launched on Kickstarter today after first being previewed at E3. The device quickly surpassed it’s $300,000 funding goal (approaching $600,000 at the time of this writing), primarily by selling $300 development kits to thousands of backers. Those developers include id Software’s John Carmack, (who’ll be bringing Doom 3 BFG as the first game to support the headset), Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski, Unity CEO Dave Helgason and Valve president and owner Gabe Newell, who offered up supportive quotes on Rift’s potential for truly immersive virtual reality.

What makes Oculus Rift different from the failed consumer head-mounted displays of the past (and present)? The creators tout a 110-degree diagonal field of vision that eliminates the “tunnel vision” effect of some displays with smaller screens, and an “ultra low latency” head tracking system that prevents the nausea that can come when the image lags slightly behind your craning neck. The Oculus Rift SDK will support games created in both the Unreal and Unity engines, which should make it relatively easy to convert a wide variety of games to the stereoscopic headset when it’s finally ready for release.

 

 

from Ars Technica

From Legit Reviews Hardware Articles: Google Nexus 7 Tablet Review – The $200 Jelly Bean Tablet

Google Nexus 7 Tablet Review - The $200 Jelly Bean Tablet

The Nexus 7 is a no compromise Android tablet that just happens to be the first tablet designed by Google. With a stunning 7″ IPS display, a powerful NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.3GHz quad-core processor and up to 8 hours of battery life during active use, Nexus 7 was built to bring you the best everything. Read on to see the features of this tablet and to take a look at how it performs in some benchmarks!

from Legit Reviews Hardware Articles

From Coolest Gadgets: LG Mouse Scanner – Copy Power in the Palm of your Hand

 

Computers have come a ridiculously long way. We actually had an old Radio Shack computer back in the day that used cassette tapes for programs. I remember sitting for hours watching the thing draw random lines. The one thing that hasn’t changed all that much is the mouse. Sure, they have specialty ones for gamers and the like, but nothing really amazing… a mouse was pretty much a mouse, important, but shouldn’t it be able to do more?

Check out LG’s brand new Scanner Mouse. What could be easier than clicking the scan button right on your mouse and swiping it in any direction in order to scan almost any document and then have it digitized and sent to a file on your computer? Now you can scan, edit , save and share all your documents quickly and easily with a simple drag of the mouse. Think of it… e-mails, mobile messages and SNS’s Facebook and Twitter all at your fingertips.

The Mouse Scanner also has text recognition, so rather than having to retype everything you might want to edit, you can simply convert your scanned text to an editable Word document and, you can also just drag and drop your scans into a wide variety of different applications. You can scan almost any size up to A3 or you can just select certain areas on larger documents or papers.

The LG Mouse Scanner is the first of it’s kind, I wonder why it took so long? It seems a successful marriage between scanner and mouse that makes perfect sense. The Scanner Mouse has a 1,200 dpi laser sensor, requires only a USB port and Mac OS or Windows XP/Vista or 7 and you can get yours for only 99 bucks at amazon.com.

from Coolest Gadgets

From Engadget: OUYA to get OnLive gameplay at launch, console’s full controller gets pictured

Ouya to get get OnLive at launch, console's full controller gets pictured

Some happy news for the many who’ve already plunked down their hard earned cash on OUYA — the Android-based gaming console will be getting streaming gaming courtesy of the folks at OnLive. The prospective console maker broke the news on its Kickstarter page, noting that the experience will also include 30 minute free demos of “nearly every game” in its library, including Ravaged and Darksiders II. Also, some news for those wondering if the other side of the console’s controller was a radical departure [see above]. Check out a press release detailing the OnLive partnership after the break. Oh, and for those of you keeping track: the Kickstarter page is currently at a whopping $5.5 million pledged, with a dozen days left.

 

from Engadget