New Gadgets for 2009

Major Nelson has elaborated the annual chart of the most played games in 2008 based on Xbox Live connectivity. There, Halo 3 is positioned as the most played videogame on the Microsoft console thanks to the users who are fans of the “Master Chief”.

Other titles that are present in this annual ranking are: Call of Duty 4, Grand Theft Car IV, Gears of War or recently released titles like Call of Duty World at War or Fable 2.

Below, you can see the list of the most played games on Xbox 360 and the annual game charts for Xbox Live Arcade and Original Xbox.

Xbox 360

1 Halo 3
2 Call of Duty 4
3 GTA IV
4 Gears of War 2
5 Gears of War
6 CoD: World at War
7 Guitar Hero III
8 Battlefield: Bad Company Demo
9 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Demo
10 Rock Band
11 Fable II
12 Mirror’s Edge Demo
13 Madden NFL 09
14 BF: Bad Company
15 Rainbow Six Vegas 2
16 UNO
17 Castle Crashers
18 COD: World at War Multiplayer Beta
19 Forza Motorsport 2
20 Too Human - Demo

Arcade

1 Castle Crashers
2 Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2
3 Braid
4 A Kingdom for Keflings
5 UNO
6 Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix
7 Fable II Pub Games
8 Duke Nukem 3D
9 Bionic Commando: Rearmed
10 Worms
11 SOULCALIBUR
12 Portal: Still Alive
13 DOOM
14 1942: Joint Strike
15 Bomberman Live
16 MEGA MAN 9
17 N+
18 Wolf of the Battlefield: Commando 3
19 Marble Blast Ultra
20 Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

Xbox

1 Halo 2
2 Fable
3 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
4 Counter-Strike
5 Fable: Lost Chapters
6 Doom 3
7 Conker: Live Reloaded
8 Splinter Cell Chaos
9 SW: KOTOR
10 SW: Republic Commando
11 Star Wars: Battlefront
12 Burnout 3
13 Guilty Gear XX #Reload
14 Gauntlet Seven Sorrows
15 Call of Duty 3
16 Ninja Gaiden Black
17 Crimson Skies
18 MechAssault 2
19 Call of Duty 2
20 Rainbow Six 3

The Japanese company announced that will offer 512GB solid-state drives (SSDs) soon. The first laptops and other devices using them could be available in the second quarter of 2009 or later.

Storage capacities of SSD are doubling every few months, but 512GB is so far the biggest capacity for laptops, at least for commercial computers. Most PC makers offer their new computers with 128GB SSD and recently, Samsung announced the mass production of  256GB SSD: they will be available in next months.

Solid-state drives store data on flash memory chips and usually, they are considered an alternative to hard drives. SSDs consume less energy and have no moving parts. This way, they are a good storage choice for laptops, instead of using hard drives, which storage information on magnetic platters. However, SSDs have smaller storage capacity and are more expensive than hard drives.

According to Toshiba, the new units will have a 2.5-inch form factor and they are targeted at laptops, desktop computers and home entertainment systems. They will have a  reading speed of 240 Mbps and a writing speed of 200 Mbps. It is projected that the first units will be available in the first quarter of 2009. After that, Toshiba will start a mass production stage in the second quarter.

iPod nano has been an extremely successful Apple product and has contributed considerably to the first position of the iPod in the MP3 players market. But currently there is a debate about if the company will use the exact same strategy for iPhone or not. New rumors allege a simplified version of the iPhone is coming. According to the rumors, the new iPhone will be called Nano iPhone XSKN. You can see the case in the picture.

This case, if true, is clearly smaller than the current iPhone. The device seems to have reduced its screen in order to become smaller. However, the iPod Nano is not set to release officially, since Apple has not commented on this so far.

Actually, there is a lot of incentive for Apple to manufacture a smaller device. The BlackBerry Storm release clearly indicates other makers want to compete directly with iPhone. Besides, the differences between iPhone and other smartphones will begin to disappear in a very short while.

Apple is the leader in the MP3 players market but not in the mobile phones category, so maybe iPhone nano is a natural move. We’ll see if this device is released or not.

Last week, we talked about the Mercedes’ new “green” prototypes, but today the group Daimler has published all the details about this car line. Maybe you remember that BlueZERO E-CELL (you can see it in the picture), F-CELL and E-CELL PLUS are three concepts in pure electric, gas-electric hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell versions that, under their conceptual definition, are an advance in design, as well as in the green models that Mercedes has been developing in its laboratories.

These three prototypes, which are apparently identical except for their colors (yellow, green and orange respectively), measure 4.22 m in length and seating for five, offering a cargo capacity between 450 kg and 500 kg. These are surprising figures in its class, since the usual thing is the batteries are placed in the car trunk or, at least under one of the back seats. Mercedes has solved the problem with a sandwich-floor architecture that houses the batteries under a “false floor” and the mechanical elements between the axles. The BlueZERO models have low-friction tyres, and aerodynamic improvements like the covers over the back wheels (they are 20-in wheels).

As for the numbers, the three concepts can accelerate from zero to 62 mph in eleven seconds, and in order to optimize the efficiency, they can only reach a maximum speed of 93 mph (150 km/h). Also, they have front traction and,  in the case of the E-CELL model, it depends on a set of  lithium-ion batteries connected to an electric generator with a maximum power of 100 kW and a continuous output of 70 kW. Its peak torque is 320 Nm.

As it could not be otherwise, the electric models can be charged by using any household power socket. They need only 30 minutes to accumulate the necessary energy to travel 30 miles (aprox. 50 km). One hour charge time is enough to travel 60 miles (aprox. 100 km), and obviously, two hours charge time are enough to travel 120 miles (aprox. 190 km). The PLUS version is also supported by a turbocharged three-cylinder engine that has an output of 50 kW (68 HP) and 3,500 rpm. This engine is placed in the back of the vehicle. This way, the E-CELL PLUS offers a surprising range of around 370 miles (aprox. 600 km) by using the engine. On the other hand, if you don’t want to use fuel, it has a range of around 93 miles (aprox. 150 km) in emission-free electric mode.

More information: Official Daimler site - Click here

Microsoft introduced its first application for the Apple cell phone, even before having it available for its own platform. Since last Saturday, the iPhone users can download it from the official iTunes store. The application was called “Seadragon Mobile”.

In the official website of Live Labs, the engineers of the Redmond company establish that the objective of the application is to change the way we use screens. Seadragon Mobile allows us to browse and navigate through graphics and photos, regardless of the amount of data or the bandwidth of the network.

This way, the very high-resolution images can be visualized through an iPhone with this application, which has a wide range of available zoom levels.

According to the developers, the promises of Seadragon are:

- Navigation speed is independent of the size or number of objects.
- Performance depends only on the ratio of bandwidth to pixels on the screen.
- Transitions are smooth as butter.
- Scaling is near perfect and rapid for screens of any resolution.

Video:

Visit the official website

South Korean auto maker Hyundai has the objective of selling 100,000 annual units of its new i20 model in the European market. The first cars will go on sale on January 15, according to Rafael Agullo, general manager product at Hyundai Motor Europe. He announced that in a presentation of the new Hyundai’s vehicle.

Agullo explained that with the new i20, the company seeks to surpass the sales achieved by its predecessor (Getz): 500,000 units of the Gets model were sold in the European continent. In addition, he confirmed that Hyundai hopes this new model becomes the most sold car in its class.

On the other hand, Vice president of Hyundai Motor Europe Alan Rushforth pointed out that the launching of the i20 is good in order to complete the series “i” of Hyundai and, at the same time, to increase the global sales of this company. This way, he explained that this car will help to Hyundai to conserve its market share.

Rushforth said the objective of the company is to reach a production rate of six million units worldwide in 2010. Also, he explained that as part of the strategy, Hyundai began  commercial production at the new assembly plant in Nosovice (Czech Republic) in last November. Once this plant is fully operating, Hyundai will manufacture 300,000 annual units of its i30 (five-doors) and Cross Wagon.

More information about the i20 - Please click here

In order to show its commitment to protect the environment, Mercedes-Benz will introduce three electric prototypes at the Detroit Auto Show that will open its doors next month. All of them will be part of the new family BlueZero. Apparently, this is in conformity with the plans of the company in terms of producing “green” compact cars.

The first model is called BlueZero E-Cell. It has an electric motor of 100 kW (136 HP) and some lithium-ion batteries with a range of about 60 miles (100 kilometers). Its charging time is about two hours, so it’s a vehicle designed for the city.

The BlueZero E-Cell Plus is an electric car with an extended range since it adds a turbocharged three-cylinder engine as an onboard generator, similar to the Smart Fortw’s engine. This generator charges the batteries to boost range to nearly 375 miles (600 kilometers).

Lastly, the BlueZero F-Cell has a propulsion system with a combustion cell that converts hydrogen into electricity. It has a range of about 250 miles (400 kilometers) and a specific power of 90 kW or 122 HP. Although the official specifications have not been published yet,  it is speculated that these cars will reach a maximum speed of about 90 - 100 miles per hour (150 km/h).

Mercedes-Benz continues to renovate all its technologies and new models. After the recent publication of the first images of the new E-Class model, the company now announces a new technology named SplitView that is integrated in the myCOMMAND system.

SplitView allows drivers to visualize images from several sources. They are displayed in a 8-inch TFT-LCD display, but a different image can be displayed for each person, depending on the seating position. All images are divided by a filter placed in front of the display. This way, the driver can check driving directions and maps. At the same time, another person in the car could enjoy a movie.

The first model that will have this technology is the new S-Class model, whose launching is now scheduled for summer 2009. There are chances that the new E-Class model, which will be introduced in the first half of 2009, is equipped with this SplitView, although so far the maker has not confirmed it. Last year, Jaguar introduced a system similar to SplitView for the prototype of its “Jaguar C-XF concept”. In that occasion, the British company introduced a device called Dual View System that was developed by Alpine, a leading manufacturer of in-car audio equipment, mobile multimedia components, and in-car navigation systems.

Recently, Mercedes-Benz has introduced a new version of the myCOMMAND system for its “Concept Fascination”. With this new  myCOMMAND system, you can get up-to-date information on the most appropriate routes by Internet, browse different web pages as if you were in front of your computer, check the weather report, know where the cheapest gas stations are, make hotel reservations or listen to any radio station worldwide. The novelty of this renovated system is that you can operate all the functions with a single button placed on the central console or by using a remote control. Other systems similar to myCOMMAND have already been incorporated into some models of Audi and BMW.

They are intended to complete the available high performance drives made by the American maker: the OCZ Vertex series are proudly the high performance SSD drives with the best ratio storage / price.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that the prices has gone down to reasonable levels. Similar to most high performance SSD drives, the OCZ Vertex drives are still expensive for most people, and maybe, it will take a long time  before we can see excellent solid-state drives with affordable prices.

However, if you have more than enough money, you must know the OCZ Vertex series is now available in 30, 60, 120 and 250 GB (storage capacity) at prices of $129, $249, $469, and $869. They can get speeds up to 160MB/s (reading speed) and 200MB/s (sequential writing). Besides that, they are able to execute a great number of reading/writing operations per second, which is the most important feature, although OCZ doesn’t give the exact number.

Well, we are sure that if you can install one of these 2.5-inch drives in your computer (by a SATA interface), then you will be able to live the future in advance: solid-state storage.

More information - Click here

Intel has begun the transition for its processors from 45 nm to 32 nm chips. The objective is to reduce the size of the devices and the energy consumption. The company will give details about this change during a series of technical conferences on electronic devices in San Francisco, which are scheduled for December 15.

The new “Westmere” processors will be based on the Nehalem microarchitecture (Core i7) and the engineers will reveal how they are looking for new ways of reducing circuit power leakages when transistors are not working. Intel also plans to show its new SRAM memories (static RAM) that contain more than 1.9 billion transistors and a 3.8 GHz clock speed.

According to eWEEK, IBM and several of its partners (like AMD or Toshiba), will also reveal some advances in miniaturization of electronic components and a paper about their efforts to produce a 22-nm SRAM (static RAM) memory cell. On the other hand, Taiwan Semiconductor will present its plans to manufacture 32-nm processors

Intel Labs’s researchers have achieved good results in the field of silicon photonics. The company has now a record breaking silicon-based “Avalanche Photodetector” with a gain-bandwidth product of 340GHz. Silicon photonics is a new technology that uses standard silicon to send and receive optical information among computers and other electronic devices.

Intel - Official website