Who says playing video games is a waste of time?  Personally, i remember many hours upon hours, sitting with my friends racing, shooting, or fighting each other.  All in digital form of course.  From Nintendo, to Sega, to PlayStation, they have consumed many a childhood and, for some, even their adult lives.  Video gaming is becoming more and more recognized and respected, sometimes surpassing the quality and stories of blockbuster movies.  Heck, video games have even been trouncing Hollywood these last few years.

For all the parents out there who have shouted at their kids to “stop playing video games and go outside!”. Or for the parents who took away video games to punish obsessive players, PBS has a short document that may make them think otherwise.  PBS’ web series entitled, PBS Off Book showcases the world of video game competition.

An intriguing documentary, with a variety of input from MIT sociologist T.L. Taylor. And it offers up a good glimpse for those of us who love to play video games, but will still get beaten by some kid you’ve never met, across the world.  What do you think?  If you had a chance, would you practice video game playing like you would a sport?

 4K TV Broadcasts get one step closer to reality

We’ve been talking a lot about Ultra High Definition TV, aka 4K TV, on the Abt Blog lately. The first UHDTV sets made their way into our showroom in the last few months and were met with quite a bit of excitement, with several already having been purchased. All possible superlatives have been used to describe the image quality; it’s been established that 4K video is out of this world.

But, as with any bleeding-edge technology, there’s been lots of talk about the downsides. Chief among the complaints is the glaring lack of readily available content, and how unlikely it is that we’ll see a 4K TV broadcast anytime soon. Well, it’s possible that you won’t have to wait as long as feared to watch the biggest football game in the world in glorious 4K.

(more…)

One of the developments from CES 2013 that didn’t get much fanfare was the noticeable increase in product support for the Thunderbolt standard. Because it’s just an interface, it didn’t attract the attention that flashy TVs or flexible smartphones may have. But the growing adoption of the Thunderbolt technology is something that will greatly benefit everyone who consumes large amounts of data.

Thunderbolt is a new computer peripheral connection standard that was created as a collaborative effort between Intel and Apple. It’s a multi-function interface that can transfer data (like the current USB connection) or video (like DVI/VGA ports on your computer monitor). We’re going to skip over most of the technical specifics of the technology, and jump right into the two areas we think Thunderbolt will benefit you most: speed of data transfer and ease of connecting peripherals.

Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening (speeds)

A Thunderbolt connection increases transfers speeds of data by about 2000% over the standard USB 2.0 connection on your typical home computer. Yes, 20 times the speed. What that means for you is greatly reduced wait times when, say, moving photos from your memory card to your computer. The Thunderbolt connection will be able to transfer a 4GB card filled with photos in a matter of seconds. No more waiting around for 15 or 20 minutes while an entire vacation-worth of photos slowly moves onto your hard drive. (more…)

TVs were bigger, brighter and more detailed than ever before at CES 2013

If it’s electronic, and there’s even a small possibility someone would be interested in buying it, chances are that it was at CES 2013. From intelligent refrigerators to furry cat ears that read your brainwaves, you could find it all under one large roof in Las Vegas. But for all the crazy conceptual gadgets, the real stars of CES 2013 were the TVS. And this year, TVs at CES pushed the limits of technology like never before.

More Resolution

The big story at CES was 4K resolution, aka Ultra High Definition TV. Since the beginnings of High Definition video, the ultimate in picture quality for a home user was 1080P Full HD. Well, several manufacturers are aiming to change that, with the introduction of 4K TVs. Sony and LG have kicked off the race early, with each already offering a commercially-available 84-inch 4K TV. Sony used CES to debut both 55-inch and 65-inch, more “affordable” versions of their flagship 4K TV. LG also unveiled a 65-inch unit, while Toshiba matched both companies’ large offerings with an 84-inch 4K TV of their own, the L9300.

Sony’s 65-Inch 4K TV on display at CES 2013

(more…)

Most of you know by now that Apple has disowned Google Maps in the upcoming release of iOS6 and has replaced it with a native map application.  We’re all excited to see exactly how Apple has Appled-out maps and navigation, but with the loss of Google Maps, we also lost an important feature that was nice for those of us who used more economic solutions to navigation.  I”m talking about directions for regular old public transit – bikes, trains, buses, and our own two feet. (more…)

The internet is an incredibly powerful tool.  Almost all of us use it every day, from checking e-mails, to doing research for school papers to just wasting time.  The internet has a plethora of seemingly endless information, movies, pictures, music and information.  Since it is world wide, people have grown to better understand different cultures as well as see things they never thought possible without ever leaving their home.  One internet gazer discovered something that is now in the record books.

(more…)

If they can talk, can they get angry?

Newark, New Jersey based iSpeech is best known for their DriveSafe.ly app, but now plans to bring its voice-recognition expertise to a brand new arena – the home. Could we soon be discussing last night’s episode of Game of Thrones with our dishwasher? Maybe not, but iSpeech’s recognition of natural talk, rather than basing their software of a preset list of commands, will make setting the DVR or preheating the fridge a bit more personal. (more…)

It wouldn’t surprise anyone if Apple started to leverage their cult following to launch an Apple-specific social networking service.  Appleinsider.com reports of a recent Apple patent application titled “Social Networking in Shopping Environments” that may hint at thefuture (or current) development of a network that connects shopping shoppers. It was only a matter of time.

(more…)

Robots: sci-fi mythic creations in the 50′s have all but stayed science fiction.  As technology progresses, so do the capabilities of robots.  We have those little feeling-less machines take out our garbage, clean and scrub our floors, park our cars, beat us at Jeopardy and now, become unbeatable at “rock, paper, scissors”.  At least that’s what our eyes think.

Japanese designers have created a robotic hand that analyzes your result in a “rock, paper, scissor” game faster than the eye can see, thus always beating you.  Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa says  the robot can process 1,000 frames per second, while the human eye can only process 30, at most.  This has nothing to do with prediction,” Ishikawa said. “The robot is playing the exact same game, but it can move 33 times faster than humans. There’s no way to win.”

“There’s no way to win?”  That sounds like the anthem robots will be digitally shouting as they attempt to lay waste to our cities and take over humanity.  Until that time comes, smile as you will always lose a game of rock paper scissors to a robot, and start being a littler nicer to your Roomba.

A completely “connected” home is becoming easier with the new line of Cisco routers designed to expand the experience of a home network while making set-up, monitoring, and controlling it easier than ever before .  As people’s habits of consuming bandwidth-heavy multimedia increase, Cisco has developed a router to keep up with this data demand and just because they made their products more advanced, doesn’t mean they are more difficult to use – quiet the opposite in fact. (more…)