In an interview with the Gaming Business Review, an online site ran by M2 Publishing, Tim Sweeney detailed recent developments in Epic Games, as well as his visions of the future.

The interview obviously took place during Game Developer’s Conference 2015, which is traditionally held in San Francisco, CA. We highly recommend that you head there and read the whole interview, but we could not miss out on a question that is shaping the industry right now:

GBR: How big do you see virtual reality becoming over the next five to ten years as a business?

TS: Virtual reality and Augmented Reality will literally change the world. They will be the next computing platform.  There’s a market for billions of these devices because everybody who has a smartphone today will — perhaps in as much as decade from now — much prefer entertainment in a completely immersive experience that takes advantage of your entire field of view and has full body input through miniaturized cameras and other technologies.  But we’re in the early days of it now.  Let’s be clear, everything is in the development kit stage.  It is for early adopters and what we’re seeing now is really just the Palm Pilot to the platform that will evolve into something iPhone-like in its quality.

There’s no point in denying it, after seeing billions of dollars earned by 3D movies which rely on ‘cheap tricks’ to achieve depth (try finding animated feature movies without 3D being the ‘default’ option), next step will bring us technologies such as Microsoft Hololens, production versions of Facebook-owned Oculus VR (John Carmack keynote) and second-generation Google Glass, which is developed in near-secrecy by the search giant and a practical monopoly in glasses, Italian giant Luxottica.

After operating for almost 20 years as an independent studio, Epic Games made waves across the gaming and development community when they accepted an investment from Tencent Holdings (HKG:0700) last June (2014). The Chinese powerhouse paid up $330 million for 48.4% of the company, setting the valuation just a bit below $680 million.

Tim Sweeney continued to be the CEO, while his lifelong business partner Mark Rein still continues as in his role of Vice President.  Not selling themselves outright like idSoftware did with ZeniMax Media, Epic Games continues to be independent studio, consisting out of product (games) and technology development units. Their recent announcement about making Unreal Engine ‘free’ opens a path for even more ‘premium freemium’ titles which base their revenue model on microtransactions.

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Drugs, kids, and robots seem an unlikely mixture. However, robotics are helping kids through the stress of doctor visits, helping hospitals dispense medications more accurately, and standing in for a surgeon’s hands.

MEDi is yet another of those cute robots that interact with people. You’ll find him in medical settings where his specific task is to be a companion to children, educate them, and be a pain coach. He’ll greet a child as they come for a vaccination or other injection. He explains the procedure saying that the alcohol swab the nurse uses to clean their skin at the injection site “feels wet like a puppy licking your arm”. You can see the interaction between MEDi and a child in their YouTube segment.

MEDi is child height, slightly less than two feet tall. His 25 degrees of movement, eight pressure sensors, nine tactile sensors, two cameras, and four directional microphones make his interactions lifelike. To distract and entertain, he tells stories, plays games and dances. Together with built in cognitive behavioral skills, the robot is clinically proven to reduce children’s pain and anxiety by 50 percent. His explanations help kids understand and anticipate what a procedure will entail.

MEDi dances to entertain, but mostly to keep a child’s mind off a medical procedure they may be undergoing.

Rx Robots says their mission is to transform pediatrics through robotics. The Canadian based company first put MEDi to work at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. MEDi’s programs are specific to various medical procedures, such as blood tests or vaccinations. The MEDi Kits which contain an NAO Robot, a battery pack and charger, choreographe software and applications can be ordered individually. The University of Calgary with Setareh Aghel Manesh, Tanya Beran, Ehud Sharlin, and Saul Greenberg are credited with MEDi. Beran was providing information and demonstrating their little guy at CES 2015.

Robots have been used in medical settings for some time. The first in 1985 was PUMA 560 which performed a neurosurgical biopsy. It had only six degrees of movement controlled by six brushed DC servo motors. In 1990, the FDA (Federal Drug Administration) got into the picture, approving the AESOP system  for an endoscopic surgical procedure.

More recent is the da Vinci robot typically used in cardiac valve repair, hysterectomy, and prostatectomy procedures. The surgeon controls the robot remotely from a console. Interactive Surgical, the company behind da Vinci, claims that its 3D high definition vision system with magnification up to 10, special instruments, and computer software help the surgeon operate with enhanced vision, precision, dexterity and control. However, their website warns that “Patients should understand that risks of surgery include potential for human error and potential for equipment failure. To emphasize the potential problems, in 2013 the company recalled the da Vinci units because of defective Hot Shears where cracks allowed electrosurgical energy to leak to patient tissue.

Robotic equipment helps with drug inventory and dispensing as well. Robot-Rx, not to be confused with the child-focused Rx-Robots, is an automated medication dispensing system. Medications are placed in envelopes or cassettes with bar-codes that links to the computer record of the patient. It updates the drug inventory as prescriptions are filled.

Medicines are stored and dispensed via bar code to the related patient by Robot-Rx.

The vault-like appearance of this robotic system which stores as well as dispenses drugs is far removed from MEDi, the cute humanistic robot.

The Robot-Rx complex stores, dispenses, and inventories medications.

McKesson Corp. sold their hospital pharmacy automation unit Robot-Rx over a year ago to the newly named Aesynt Corporation. The system runs under Windows 7 and provides real time inventory control as well as bar code medication administration.

Whether addressing kids, drugs, or surgery, robots are here to stay in the field of medicine and health care.

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Electronics manufacturing is a very labor-intensive process, employing a combination of robotic and chemical processes and treatments, manual labor but above all – it is a very dislocated process.

Over the course of past 15 years, we managed to witness the manufacturing changed in its scale, employing tens of millions of people and massively reducing time to market. Still, the process takes a lot of time, and not all can be done as efficiently as possible.

There are two base components of any piece of electronic equipment on the market: chip and PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and revolution is coming to both: IBM / GlobalFoundries is working on bringing flexible wafers from the domain of concept to a mass produced parts (still, we’re 5-6 years out), while Voxel8 just launched a 3D printer that can print PCBs.

Both innovations come from the East Coast: IBM/GlobalFoundries and the University of Albany, while Voxel8 is a hardware startup founded by Dr. Jennifer Lewis, Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.

During CES 2015, the company introduced its first publicly available multi-material printer that among others, can lay the conductive silver ink. Yes, a 3D printed multi-layer PCB is becoming a reality. Do not expect your next graphics card or mobile phone to be 3D printed, as precision needed is on the very leading edge (some might say over the leading edge) of what industry can make.

However, this $8,999 3D printer should enable numerous 3D printed products from the world of Internet of Things (Machine-2-Machine, embedded electronics or IoT in marketing speak).

You can see more about the product in a video below:

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HP (NYSE:HPQ) is the latest manufacturer to target the 5K segment. Dubbed the Z27q,HP’s offering features a resolution of 5,120 x 2,880 pixels and a 300-nit display. The monitor will be available from March for $1,299, which is far lower than the $2,000 list price of Dell’s 5K monitor.

The 27-inch IPS panel has 10-bit color and 99% Adobe RGB color gamut. Two DisplayPort 1.2 ports are needed to drive the monitor as the medium is not yet able to handle 5K resolutions just yet. That functionality is coming with DisplayPort 1.3. Other connectivity options include three USB 3.0 ports, DVI, HDMI, Mini-DisplayPort and MHL.

For users looking to get a 4K monitor, HP has the Z27s, which offers a resolution of 3840 x 2160 for $749. Main features of the monitor include an IPS panel, 60 Hz refresh rate and wide sRGB color gamut. If you do not need a 27-inch monitor, HP is also selling a 23.4-inch variant dubbed the Z24s, which will set you back $549. Both monitors come with a four-way stand that allows you to swivel the screens and change orientation to portrait.

Curved and VR monitors

HP is also getting into the curved monitor segment with the Z34c and Envy 34c, which come with a resolution of 3440 x 1440 and 21:9 ratio. The wide ratio allows you to fit several windows within a single monitor, thereby negating the need for dual displays. Both monitors are set to retail for $999, and will be available later this year. For more conventional users, HP also has a 27-inch curved monitors called the EliteDisplay S270c and Pavilion 27c with full-HD resolution and 300-nit brightness (versus 350 nits for the 34-inch versions) for $400.

Curved monitors aren’t all HP is dabbling in, as the manufacturer has also rolled out the Zvr Virtual Reality Display, a 3D monitor with a 120 Hz refresh rate and integration passive 3D glasses that allow you to create and interact with “virtual holographic 3D images.” The monitor comes with a stylus through which you can interact with the 3D images, while four cameras mounted on the display constantly track your head and eye movements. HP is aiming for engineering design and automotive use-cases with the Zvr Virtual Reality Display, which will be available later this year.

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If you have wanted to make a lightsaber there is no better time than now.  The group over at Le FabShop in France just released a set of 3D printable modular lightsaber plans.

While it has only been about 18 days since the trailer for the next Star Wars movie came out, bringing the frenzy over the “crossguard” lightsaber.  18 days, and now everyone can print their own about a year ahead of when the inevitable crossguard lightsaber toy will be brought to market.  For those in the cosplay community this means that they can jump the gun and get to cosplaying a movie that as of now only has one trailer.

All parts can be printed using PLA filament on a desktop FDM (fused deposition modeling) 3D printer with a layer resolution of 0.2mm.  They say that it is possible to use ABS, but that it would likely affect the tolerance and assembly between the parts.  The files are available for free on the Makerbot Thingverse website.  The  parts are all modular so all that you need to do is decide how to make the lightsaber that you want and only print those parts, saving you time and materials.  The really cool part is that the telescoping laser is printed all at once on a single print session.  The printer being used for making the items will need to be at least 15cm in Z height.

The STL file package includes:

• A long telescopic laser, printed all at once
• A short telescopic laser, exclusively for the crossguard
• 6 different sabers tip, including the T shaped crossguard
• A belt clip (very handy if you don’t want to hold in in your hands all the time.)
• Grips
• Lightsaber switches
• A lightsaber’s cap
• A connector to assemble many sabers bodies together

Why not make yourself a new lightsaber today and make it a better Monday.

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The worlds smallest, quietest, and least expensive 3D printer is trying to become a full fledged product on Kickstarter.  The resin printer is 3lbs and a diminutive 4″x3″x8″ in size.

The iBox Nano is 10 days away from completing its Kickstater campaign, and is currently at $288,752 of a $300,000 goal.  The 3D printer takes things to a whole new level, offering a very affordable printer that is a very small size.  The early bird price was $189, which is a pretty amazing price for a 3D Printer.  The current lowest price that the printer is offered at is $269, which is still a great deal.  These printers use liquid resin as the printing medium which is cured by a UV led.  The Build area for the iBox Nano is 40mmx20mmx90mm which is pretty small but it will still allow for printing some truly unique items.

The iBox Nano is constructed out of laser cut acrylic and houses the printer and the Raspberry Pi that controls it.  The claimed noise level is an impressive 29db which should be near ambient levels wherever it would be used.  The biggest surprise is that the printer can be used by any device that has a browser, via Wi-Fi or Ethernet.  This means the user can use whatever OS that they have, which is one of the other novel items about this device.  The printer will be very economical to print with since most items that it will print would likely use a low volume of resin.  There are various aftermarket UV-curable resin that could be used to allow the user to change colors to their preference and even use more durable. This could be used with castable resin to make some interesting jewelry or other metal items.

If the Kickstarter can reach its funding goal within the next 10 days these are sure to shake things up with what is possible for 3D printers.  This looks like an ideal purchase for those who want to try out 3D printing but are not comfortable with the initial cost of decent full sized printers.  It also seems to be that it could be a good purchase for those who want to use 3D printing in their teachings, but need to have something that is affordable as well.

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What do you get when you combine a touch interface computer with a scanner, 3D scanner, camera, DLP projector, and a 20-point touch enabled work area?  Well, it is something that Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ) is calling the Sprout and is hoping that it will change the way you work and get projects done.

Sprout is HP’s newest initiative to reinvent the way people work with computers to create art, presentation, and media.  The biggest thing you will see as a change to interfacing with the computer is that it wants you to interact with it using your hands, not a keyboard and mouse.  There are many features that are noteworthy in this machine and the most prominent is the DLP projector that projects on a 20-point touch sensitive anti-slip work mat.  This is how HP wants the user to interact with the PC as it displays the images on the work area and you are able to manipulate it with your hands.  This is where we are with getting as close to the sci-fi movie type computer interfacing.

As it is prominently visible the “HP Illuminator” is the piece that overhangs the LCD screen.  Ths incorporates a DLP projector, a 4 camera system that takes 3D scans of objects with a 14.6MP camera for 2D pictures, and a LED light to illuminate items.  While the unit comes with a wireless keyboard the HP videos prominently show people using a projected keyboard to input characters while creating.  With 3D printing being integrated into the Windows OS, it is nice to see 3D scanners starting to make a presence with todays computers.

As cliche as it sounds this is indeed a game changer that HP has brought out, and it will be interesting to see how creators receive the Sprout.  If it does work well this will certainly start a shift in how people create media and it will be reflected in future designs.  It is possible that the Sprout will do well on the novelty of the design by itself, even if it only performs so-so. I for one can’t wait to get my hands on one and play with it for a few hours, it certainly looks like a lot of fun. Read further below to get the official specs.

Specifications:

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In aircraft business, fuel efficiency is the key metric upon which airlines rise and fall. Good example of successful strategies are gulf carries, all of whom are abandoned older planes in favor of brand new ones, which significantly reduce the fuel consumption. For example, a passenger on Emirates Airlines flies as much as 87 mpg, while older aircraft belong to the sub 60 mpg range (numbers are derived from seat miles per gallon metric).

GE Leap-1 engine promises new era in fuel efficiency, with almost 7000 units on order.

The key to fuel efficiency relies on components that reached its limits in terms of conventional manufacturing. At the 2014 Farnborough International Airshow, GE Aviation, a division of General Electric announced that it plans to build and open a completely new manufacturing facility in Alabama. The new manufacturing plant will build aircraft engine parts using 3D Printers. More precisely, a new fuel nozzle which cannot be manufactured using conventional methods.

This move makes GE Aviation the second large aerospace manufacturer to commit to 3D printing. The announcement comes few weeks after Elon Musk made a splash at the Dragon V2 manned spacecraft launch, stating that several key rocket parts will be manufactured using 3D printing. However, GE is the first manufacturer that is launching a large-scale, volume production of fuel nozzles build using this revolutionary manufacturing method.

This is one of almost 130,000 fuel nozzles that will be created with 3D printing in a new Fab.

The nozzles will be used in CFM International Leap-1 engine, which is the default powerplant for the next-generation of Boeing’s narrowbody planes, 737 MAX, an engine option for the Airbus A320neo series, as well as the Chinese Comac C919 planes (if they ever take off). Overall, GE Aviation needs to manufacture around 130,000 fuel nozzles for the new engines alone (excluding spares), probably making this part the highest volume 3D printed part… for now.

The post General Electric Bids its Fuel Efficient Future on 3D Printing appeared first on VR World.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is constantly planning venues to showcase new technology. They are already setting the stage for 2015 International CES (Consumer Electronics Show), a show typically held in Las Vegas, Nevada in January each year. 3D printing will be a big part of the convention.

CES plans to double the footprint of the 3D printing category. More than 30 companies will be showcasing their latest advancements – many of which probably are still on the drawing board. 3D printing technology has caught fire. With only six months to go before show time, those companies are in hustle mode to announce new products or enhancements to existing ones.

Everyone is hoping to profit from the forecast of 67,000 desktop 3D printers by the end of 2014. That’s up 43 percent over 2013 with an expected revenue of $76 million.

Bring your walking shoes if you expect to see it all. CES is setting aside 14,000 square feet of exhibit space, in three different locations, almost double last year’s show coverage. Industry no longer is the only market for the next generation 3D printer. Consumers are getting into the act, printing just about everything they want from fun applications such as toys to building commercial ventures of their own.

XYZ Printing will attend with their latest DaVinci model. They claim the printer produces items that don’t need sanding, finishing or post-production work. You’ll need an X86 computer, Windows XP, Windows 7+ or MacOSX 10.8. The software accepts .stl, G code, and XYZ Format file types.

Stratasys Mojo Series 3D Printer

Karen Chupka of CEA and senior vice president of International CES predicts that 3D printing will be “a major disruptor in the global economy.” Stratasys already serves the industrial client promising that companies can create low–volume assembly fixtures and jigs directly from CAD data. Watch their video here.

Makerbot, the desktop printer company which was acquired by the industrial printer company Stratatys, will be at the show. Other participants announced so far include Autodesk, Materialise, and 3D Systems. If you want your company to join the ranks and be able to present your 3D products at International CES 2015, contact Aurelie Cornett at ACornett@CE.org.

As an individual, if you want a piece of the 3D marketplace, The Motley Fool recommends an investment in 3D Systems and Stratasys. In fact, there are also rumors that HP is working on their own consumer 3D printer in order to catch the wind of 3D printing in their sales(or sails).

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According to The Wallstreet Journal, the long awaited Amazon phone is likely going to be an AT&T exclusive device. When one looks at this fact, many people may ask why Amazon would even bother to do something like that when nowadays almost all phones launch on all the carriers at the same time. Perhaps AT&T has paid Amazon to do so for a short period of time, however it makes very little sense in terms of Amazon’s global strategy and standard practice of trying to get as many devices in as many hands as possible.

Currently, the Amazon Kindle Fire HDX sells with 4G LTE connectivity from AT&T, which would make this WSJ rumor very plausible considering that AT&T is Amazon’s sole partner on LTE connectivity. Perhaps Amazon has negotiated such pricing with AT&T that nobody was willing to agree to their terms other than AT&T. It would be nice if Amazon broadened their horizons and went with other carriers for their 4G LTE connectivity, but it seems that they really have a well established relationship with AT&T.

The rumors from the WSJ and others are saying that we will likely see the Amazon phone coming out this week which would explain this leak. Many rumors about the Amazon phone claim that it will have 3D functionality and will run on Amazon’s own flavor of Android, which is expected. However, the 3D functionality is highly questionable when you think about the sour taste that many consumers have had with 3D in the past.  Amazon has posted a video teasing a new device tomorrow with a video showing people that are amazed by what they’re seeing.

However, what they will likely do is created a 3D interface and create a 3D-like experience where the phone’s interface moves in a 3D manner or images look 3D using an accelerometer and head tracking. There isn’t much more that we will likely find out between today and tomorrow so until then we recommend you sit and wait to hear more about this device. If its anything like Amazon’s past devices, it will be incredibly great performing, high quality, and incredibly inexpensive. But, it will still be fairly locked down to Amazon’s own ecosystem and may not appeal to everyone because of that fact alone.

The post Will The Amazon Phone Be an AT&T Exclusive? appeared first on VR World.

On the other hand, Novafora is a company headed by Shlomo and Zaki Rakib, successful engineer and enterpreneur who worked together at Terayon Communication Systems. Their vision is to create products to video content processing for the Internet era. With this acquisition, there is little doubt that companies such as Qualcomm, Freescale, TI, Philips, Nvidia and others are getting some competition.

Only time will tell how Novafora will pan out, but there is some serious engineering talent in Israel, and being backed by funds that have over 1.3 billion USD just might result in a new star on system-on-chip market.
Last great architecture to come from Israel was no other than Intel Core architecture, also known as “Chip that saved Intel’s bacon”.

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Personally, I am interested in 3D Vision the most. Then again, you already know I am a bit quirk when it comes to IT, since I also game a lot using OCZ NIA, steering wheels and so on. Ever since I remember, 3D was a big thing for me. I remember buying comic books that came with glasses and becoming hooked on seeing Phantom, Mister No, Transformers, Superman and all “hovering” above the pages. Almost a decade later, I watched Freedie’s Dead using the same red/blue paper glasses. Anaglyph technology was far from perfect, could cause hellish headaches and overall, was not a good technology. But it was Cheap with capital C. Watching movies such as Superman Returns in IMAX 3D (all too short 20 minutes) only begged for decent 3D technology. Dolby 3D provides just that, but the technology is not usable in the world of computers. Big from me.

Nvidia’s 3D Vision promised all that, but using active shutter technology meant only one thing – it will be expensive to make. My ex-colleague from The INQ already made his take on how expensive this technology will be, but he didn’t mention the price, and wrote some inaccuracies (one emitter can play host to 1000 glasses if they’re in range – nV demonstrated 3D tech to press using a single emitter for the 50 of us in Munich). I managed to get the price from some sources, and all that I can say, I really hope it won’t be so high. The price I am hearing is $199 for one box. If this really is the future price in e-tail and retail, there is not much to be said besides – you screwed up. Badly.

I would have understanding if Nvidia teamed up with Oakley and brought top notch quality looks, offered customization (for prescription lenses), or something like that, but a cheap plastic-looking part (they actually use an expensive material to ensure durability, but it does look… cheap) costing more than $99 is just something that will not work. I am waiting to see the final product before I bring the judgment upon it, but unless the part comes at acceptable price point, I am sad to see that 3D will probably stay away from mainstream audience. Even OCZ NIA now is in sub-100 bracket, and yes, I would recommend that you go out and buy the part. Playing around with Nvidia’s 3D glasses was a blast on both Nvision and GeForce Plus event in Munich, but the key part is availability to the market. Pricing it out of the range is not something that will speed up the adoption of technology…

Thus, maybe 3D Vision will be a cool product in 2010, when the company will be forced to cut the price down to $99. Until then, this is an expensive gimmick. A gimmick that really works and offers great experience (in my opinion), but a gimmick nevertheless.

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There were talks about PhysX games, upcoming GeForce cards, the re-birth of old-new SLI mode… general applications such as CyberLink Power Director and Adobe CS4… and of course, 3D Vision. Back at Nvision 08 in August, Jen-Hsun demonstrated 3D Vision during his keynote speech. While the whole audience enjoyed in demonstration of 3D technology, nobody knew how the technology works. 

Nvidia wanted to push the product in time for Christmas, but 3D Vision relies on availability of 120 Hz refresh rate. This means your decade old CRT will do in recreating a 3D world, but you can’t expect that shiny new 30″ Dell or HP will work. Samsung and Viewsonic are going to bring 120Hz LCD displays to market, but not in 2008. Thus, you can expect demos of this technology on CES 2009 in early January, and real world-wide rollout by CeBIT 2009 in March. It all depends how much time Viewsonic, Samsung and others need (to deliver 120Hz LCD monitors).

First of all, the product is divided into two major parts: glasses and IR emitter. 3D Goggles are wireless, with USB port being added for charging purposes. There is no set limit on the number of goggles that can connect onto a single IR emitting cube, but we don’t know will the company make a kit featuring more than one glasses.

IR Emitter can connect to LCD TV, LCD display, and projector or just about anything able to pull out refresh rate of 120 Hz. The technology works that every eye gets 60 Hz refresh and glasses blank the lens for 60 times in a second, so that 120 Hz display yields smooth 3D gameplay in 60 fps or so… I have tried the technology several times, and I have to say, it is really enjoyable. During the past couple of events, Nvidia demonstrated the technology using Call of Duty 5, Far Cry 2, Crysis Warhead, and Race Driver GRID and so on. Enjoyable part is that 3D Vision tech works on almost every game, and this immediately brings up the replay value of games that you already purchased.

Playing WoW, Warhammer Online or GRID is one thing, but you can take old Age of Empires or Anno 1503 and dive in the 3D world of these titles… in case of Age of Empires III, I want to play the game again, as soon as I am able to lay my hands on these glasses. 

The downfall of this standard is the price, and yet unknown way of distribution. Nvidia is advertising 3D Vision as their own product, just like Tesla, with no room for AIBs. We have asked key partners do they plan on to carry this product under their own brand and the answer is still up in the air. It is widely expected that Nvidia will treat this product in the same way as Quadro cards, selecting partners for regions. We’ll see…

But the major show-stopper is the price. I asked about the price, and heard $199 from more than one source (including people from Nvidia). Now, this is where I have to raise the red flag. 3D technology looks awesome, and glasses work like a charm, but $199?

For $199, you can get Oakley Thump 2 sunglasses, with integrated MP3 player. The quality of Nvidia’s goggles is higher than your regular 3D glasses and yes, higher quality than Dolby 3D goggles. But, Nvidia’s 3D Vision goggles cannot hold a candle to the build quality of Oakley shades. For $199, top quality is expected, not shiny plastic. This may sound harsh, but this is a product that should last for next couple of years, and this is where Dolby Laboratories made a better design move… I am just not sure that the glasses are sturdy enough to survive long-hour gaming sessions, LAN parties and so on. Who knows, nV might bring a nice surprise, but I’ll remain cautious for now.

The technology is great, but the price has to come down to $99 range to have a shot at becoming a mainstream standard.

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Two el cheapo parts...

All in all, interesting parts.

The post Zotac releases affordable DisplayPort cards appeared first on VR World.

Amazon

All in all, I’ve been playing around with Amazon’s new web interface, and I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with what this guys did. It reminds me of CoolIris a lot (formerly known as PicLens) and I am just in love with it.
It will be a great add-on to Windows 7 touch-screen interface, or on an iPod. Congrats to the Amazon call on this one. You should go and check the Amazon’s Windows Shop.

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BTW, don’t believe recession talk. Both Intel and AMD scored big results while Wall Street melted, and I would expect that strong sales will continue in Q4. Because when times are tough, people will stay inside house and play games, watch movies etc. No better time than to buy a new graphics chip.

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Features

You can go the easy way of clicking... or just go to advanced options

This is a consumer friendly product, so hardcore users might object to “too fancy” interface. Personally, I have nothing against. Supported input video formats are .m2v, .mpg, .vob, .avi*, .trp, .ts, .m2t, .m2ts, .mpeg, .mts (MPEG-2, H.264, RAW, HDV, AVCHD, AC-3, MP2, PCM) in any resolution lower than full HD one. Output is being done in MP4 (H.264) profile with 2-channel AAC-LC audio, in any resolution below 720p one.

Setting up the custom resolution is "easy peasy"... for some reason, default after installation was resolution of my BBerry Bold

Since primary purpose of this application is to transcode video to your iPod, iPhone, PSP, MCE and other handheld devices. I’ve just got a Blackberry 9000 Bold, and it fits the reccomended PSP resolution perfectly (480×272). Of course, you have a choice of custom resolutions, audio settings, bit rate and so on. Bit rate is especially helpfull in order to get the movie fit on your mobile device – after some hacking, 8GB card on my Blackberry Bold had all three LOTRs for upcoming flight Zagreb-Munich-San Francisco. It may be 13 hours, but it will be more fun with Blackberry on

Audio Settings depend on the audio source featured on your DVD or video file...

Of course, writing this opinion while listening to Sex and The City on right monitor wasn’t helpful, but still my friends and myself were impressed with the speed of selecting the transcode options. Finally a no-brainer user interface which you can work with at 2AM.

Performance is a charm, but comes at a price…
So, what kind of performance can you expect from Badaboom? I’ve tried the software using AMD Athlon 64 5000BE @3GHz, Phenom 9950BE@2.6 GHz, Zotac’s GeForce 8800GTX AMP! Edition (so, higher clocked than 8800Ultra) and Nvidia’s reference GeForce GTX 280. Given the time constraints, I didn’t find the time to put slower cards such as 8600GTS and similar castrated brothers. For a video card minimum, Elemental reccomends GeForce 8800GT or 9600GSO (a brilliant card, don’t be surprised if Nvidia kills it).

Dual-core CPU is tricky area for Badaboom - you should think about quad-core that wil be able to feed the GPU

My experience was the following – Phenom system with 8800GTX beat the living crap out of Athlon system with GTX280. 8800GTX was transcoding my test Lord of The Rings – FoTR at 184-195 fps, and was done in 14 minutes. Dual-core Athlon with GTX280 achieved only 145 fps on average, with the CPU load at 88-94%. Badaboom was eating 60-70% of Athlon system, while quad-core was loaded at 60%. So for Badaboom, you need a triple or a quaddie CPU.

But the performance is awesome. When I compare a 14 minute transcode to whole-nighter on CPU alone, it is just… let’s just say that this product rocks. In order to bypass stupid MPAAfia protection on my DVDs (I have more than 200 DVDs and 300 games for which I paid for, and MPAA and game developers/publishers still treat me like a criminal. Great moves, guys – I’ll crack my original games before you say “torrent”!), I’ve used AnyDVD. This piece of software is something that every owner of DVDs should buy. Removing the protection on the fly is something… well, user friendly.

Getting back to Badaboom, from this first look I can say that it is a must buy if you want to transcode movies, and own a GeForce card, this piece of software is something that you should buy. Nvidia is expanding its GPGPU (or GPU computing, as Jensen likes to call it) offering dramatically. First schorching Folding@home performance, then Photoshop and Premiere Pro, and now Badaboom.

I got a review copy for free. But yes, I am going to spend $30 to support the guys.

UPDATE 15:41 CET 24/10/2008: I’ve just filed new story regarding the CPU utilization. You can read it here.

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Proof of concept - picture courtesy of X-Bit Labs

Now, Celsia Technologies is developing new coolers that will send conventional heat-pipe technology into oblivion.  On paper, vapor chamber provides up to 30% higher performance. If you combine 30% higher performance cooling with thermal advancements by TSMC in upcoming 40nm and 32nm processes, you don’t have to be a genius to conclude that next two or three generations of ATI GPU will feature even more dramatic performance increase than between 3800 and 4800 series of cards.

ATI already used vapor chamber cooling on 4870X2 - pic courtesy of Digit-Life.com

You want to hear the best part? NanoSpreader (market name for Celsia’s vapor chamber cooler) actually costs less than conventional heatpipe design, because it uses less material. Less material also equals less weight. Finally, graphics cards are going on a diet.
One thing is certain – with this technology, ATI can freely push single-slot or light dual-slot designs with their next-generation hardware. This is some food for thought for engineers at Nvidia.

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FTW series is proving to be quite a success...

Under a current plan, every product is slowly being upgraded to an own design, enabling higher overclocking margins and making sure that future of Superclocked, SSC, FTW and Black Pearl parts is safe.
During our visit in EVGA’s European HQ, we learned that custom design GTX series is also coming to market. All in all, things are getting interesting. Sadly for EVGA’s motherboard team, Nvidia will not make chipset for upcoming Core i7 processors using LGA-1366 socket, but who knows, we just might see X58 chipset with two nForce 200 chips on it.
Company has rather aggressive plans for 2009, and it will be interesting to see how will their alternative business lines will develop (dual LCD display, DisplayLink adapters, TV tuners, waterblocks).

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