Now here’s a new portable media player from China-based Shenzen Powtele, sporting a 4″ touchscreen display with a maximum resolution of 480 x 272 pixels. There is no sight of a button since everything is controlled via the touchscreen, so make sure you have a piece of lint-free cloth handy. It would be prudent to pick up a screen protector of some sort as well. This PMP comes in 1GB, 2GB, and 4GB varieties, although there is an SD/MMC memory card slot for you to further expand your entertainment options. There is no word on pricing or availability - would you pick this up over the iPod Video?

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Filed under: Dinner, Vegetables, Dairy, Recipes, Baking, America, Real Kitchens

Sunday night I pulled together an improvised baked veggie dish that took inspiration from ratatouille and the lasagna that my mom used to make when I was little. I thinly sliced half of a sizable zucchini, along with an eggplant that had been withering away in my fridge for the last week. I threw together a quick tomato sauce with several bruised tomatoes (I inadvertently squished half of my farmers market haul on the way home), a can of San Marzano tomatoes, a bunch of crushed garlic and a few minced shallots. Oh, and at the last minute I tossed a handful of chopped basil in to give it another hit of flavor and aroma.

I put down one layer of the sliced zucchini and eggplant on the bottom of a glass baking dish. Then spooned a layer of ricotta cheese down and poured half the tomato sauce down on top of that. A second layer of zucchini and eggplant when down, along with the other half of the sauce. This was the moment at which I dearly wished I had used a slightly deeper baking dish, as I was right at the edge. I covered it with tin foil and baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Continue reading Kinda lasagna, nearly ratatouille

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Filed under: Previews, Interviews

Condemned was a launch title for the 360 — it was mostly overshadowed by other 360 launch titles, but those who played it derived more enjoyment from it than they honestly expected to. It was creepy, violent, and overall a good experience to introduce them to the new off-white console. Condemned 2 is coming and it’s not just on the 360 — it’s coming to the PS3 as well. Here’s what PSU learned about the upcoming game in an interview with senior producer Dave Hasle:

• There’s more open-endedness when it comes to forensic parts of the game — your power of observation and tools to use are entirely up to you. If you feel like it, you can skip right past those bits and continue fighting baddies. Whatever you prefer.
• While that sounds open-ended, the overall experience will be quite linear. We expect one, maybe two endings depending on how involved you get in the story.
• Weapon count right now is at 60, might hit 90 by the time the game finishes up. Throwing weapons are making a pretty big impact on the dev team: bowling pins, booze bottles, etc.
• No cross-platform play, but online modes to be announced later. Monolith has already murmured of an online co-op feature, but until super-duper official announcements are made, we’ll take that with a grain of salt.
• No Sixaxis features implemented. Take that as good or bad, whatever your taste.

We didn’t go into the storyline or other, more particular, features of the game to save the surprises for our readers who like to stay in the dark on some things. If you are curious, though, check out the full interview and become a knowledgeable person … about Condemned 2. It’s slated for a Spring ‘08 release, so until then, we’ll keep looking for more info.

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Filed under: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 20th Century Fox, Family Films, Home Entertainment, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels

See, I didn’t really expect this to become a quadri-weekly feature, but seeing as I wrote up some goofy little pieces on the Pirates 3 DVD, the Shrek 3 DVD, the Spidey 3 DVD, the Knocked Up DVD and, um, the Mr. Brooks DVD — it seemed kind of unfair to not do it for the other big-time summer movies that we were soooooooooooooooooooo excited to see but have pretty much forgotten about by now. Which brings us to a sequel -slash- spin-off generator that … I actually kinda liked!

No, I was not a big fan of the first Fantastic Four (although I would contend that the Extended Version is actually an improvement) but I had 89 minutes of light, youthful fun with Rise of the Silver Surfer. (And yes, I read the comic books as a kid, so save your venom.) I’m just saying that in a world filled with angsty bats, neurotic spiders and sensitive mutants, it’s nice to have a “mindless” supehero flick that the 10-year-olds can get behind.

Anyway, FF2: ROTSS (talk about an unfortunate acronym) hits DVD by way of Fox on October 2. According to DavisDVD.com, the swollen set should include the following goodies: solo commentary with director Tim Story; filmmaker commentary with producer Avi Arad, screenwriter Don Payne, and editors William Hoy & Peter Elliot; deleted / extended scenes with optional commentary; a making-of documentary called Family Bonds; five production featurettes; numerous galleries, trailers and a comic book.

Call me easy to please, but that Silver Surfer guy is going to look realllllly slick on my TV. (Well, on my “good” TV, anyway.)

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

We’re speechless. In fact, we think we might cry — but rest assured, they’re tears of joy. Rumors of a Nokia N95 packing American HSDPA have been spreading like wildfire as of late, and we’re ecstatic to see that they were totally true. Though this sucker gets down with the 850 and 1900MHz bands, it doesn’t get in on the 1700MHz action, suggesting that if the T-Mobile rumor is still true, this ain’t it. Though arguably not quite as attractive as the decidedly non-US 8GB N95 in black that we saw this morning, this phone’s innards are pretty much the most beautiful thing we’ve seen all day. Nokia, we turn the floor over to you to answer questions about pricing and availability.

[Via Wirelessinfo.com]

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Filed under: Cell Phones

British soldiers deployed in Afghanistan have been ordered to no longer use their cell phones to call home. According to reports Taliban insurgents managed to track their calls and nab soldiers’ home numbers to make bogus calls to their homes. One such caller, made to the wife of an Air Force officer, frighteningly said “You’ll never see your husband alive — we have just killed him.”

The call turned out to be a prank — the man was alive and well (or at least as well as you can be as a soldier in Afghanistan), but that and other similar cases were enough to prompt the ban on personal cell phones. Soldiers will now have to resort to phones provided by the military, which are limited to 30 minutes per week.

From textually.org

Related Links:

• U.S. Spy Agencies Build Their Own MySpace
• Military Robots That Do Surgeons’ Work
• Army Deploys Armed Robots in Iraq

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Filed under: Gaming

Yeah, we too are a bit miffed at why you’d want your Xbox 360 to look more like, well, itself, but a modder over at Xbox-Scene apparently felt that Microsoft simply stopped short of the goal. The customized machine sports an Xbox 360-themed grill insert, a host of internal green LEDs, an Xbox 360 controller emblem, and an internalized WiFi adapter. Click on for a few more snapshots, and don’t be surprised if this guy hears from Redmond about a future in console design.

[Thanks, Christian]

Continue reading Xbox 360 modded to look more like… an Xbox 360?

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Remember the TMNT craze that swept the globe early last decade? Well, the Flo backpack certainly brings back memories of our pizza-loving shelled friends, coming in a modular, ergonomic, and performance strength bag that is equally at home in the city or for the great outdoors. Made out of rigid thermofoam, you can choose from three designs - urban day pack, the weekender, or the 5-day trekker which snaps in quickly and securely into the Flo frame. The frame itself is made out of lightweight molded plastic and comes with large air channels that are capable of maintaining breathability and a flexible core for unrestricted mobility. Designed by Ivan Huber, this is but a concept at the moment. Hopefully there’ll be specific compartments inside that can hold an iPod or a handheld console securely.

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Filed under: Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT), Apple Inc (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN)

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) is supposed to be doing very well now. But, last week, its shares were off much more than the Nasdaq, and at week’s end, they had recovered less.

On Thursday, Apple stock was down over 12% for the week. The Nasdaq had dropped a little more than 6%. By the end of the week, the consumer electronics giant was still off 5%.

The reason that this appears odd is that Wall Street has been unusually happy about the prospect for Apple’s new line of Macs. The Apple computer’s sales have been growing faster than the overall PC market. The Mac has 5% of the overall market, and some optimists think this could move toward 10%.

The iPod is still selling well, and RBC Capital says that its check of channels shows that the iPhone is selling very well.

Apple’s stock price could be the victim of its own success. At least that’s the convenient explanation. Despite the recent sell-off, the stock is up 80% over the last year. Even a slight problem with sales in one of its three businesses would be a disappointment.

But, that answer is too easy. Apple is, more likely, the victim of a phenomenon that has hit share of other companies like Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG), and, a few years ago, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT). Apple is now the clear winner in everything it has done recently. Its success it so great that its upside going forward is limited. Its performance as a business is absolutely efficient and almost too perfect.

Just as Microsoft picked up over 90% of the operating system market and Google has more than 50% of search, the chances for failing may have become small, but, so have the chances for expansion.

The market can still make money on the imperfect. It holds out the possibility from improvement.

Douglas A. McIntyre is partner at 24/7 Wall St.

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