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Edifier @ CES 2013

One of our last stops at CES was at the Edifier booth.  This Chinese company makes some interesting products that offer really unique designs but still manage to pull off some pretty decent performance and quality.  Traditional speaker purists will tell you that the speaker cabinet must be made from wood and have a lot of specifications to enable good sound, but Edifier continues to break the mold and offer products with very unique designs that still sound rather nice.

One of the products of CES 2012 that we picked as our "Best of Show" was the Edifier Spinnaker speakers, and even though these are more than a year old, these speakers still catch your eye and your ear in terms of looks and performance.  The original red ones looked like the horns from some beast and they've expanded their lineup to include a lot more different colors.  These speakers are still some of my favorite products at the show again, and with the large color selection you can even snag a set that is a bit more muted if you don't want to scare away small children.

Spinnaker

 

The other speakers that looked really interesting and sounded very good as well was the Eclipse.  These speakers have a very unique dual radiator design at the rear that helps project the sound to fill the room.  These really aren't that large, but even in a horrible venue like the LVCC, we noted that the sound was very good.  These speakers are quite directional as well and this will work great for PC speakers - and that's what Edifier has in mind.

Edifier Design

 

 

We have lots more pictures from our last day at the show.  Go check them out here, and our full list of coverage here.

Miiverse for PC and Smartphones

One thing that seems to be a somewhat decent feature with the WiiU is Miiverse. It is social network for the WiiU community, that will be expanding to smartphones and web-browsers soon. The release date is supposed to be sometime in April or May. It should be interesting to see if it will be a hit or just another attempt by Nintendo to do something out of the ordinary. Read more about it at the links provided below.

"Miiverse will be key part of the Wii U console and will be available at launch. The social network will connect players who have Mii profiles on the same system, and connect players from around the world via the Nintendo Network. Miiverse will be free to use for all Wii U players and won’t carry a price nor a subscription plan. Miiverse is based on web-browser technologies, which means it will be accessible from any browser enabled device in the world, including phones, tablets, and more.  To be a tad more specific, Miiverse producer Kiyoshi Mizuki stated that the app would be available in April or May, though a firm date has yet to be pinned down."

Source(s): WiiUDaily, IGN

2013 Google I/O Highlights

Google hosted their 2013 I/O keynote yesterday and announced some of their new products for the upcoming year. Google+ has a few new updates, Android has a few new features like a music service to take on Spotify, and there will be a special version of the Samsung Galaxy S4 (without all the Samsung software) released. People who were hoping for a new Nexus 7 tablet or Nexus 4 phone will be disappointed but overall the new products announced yesterday seems decent enough. The Verge has more details over here.

I/O is Google’s biggest event of the year, a three-day soiree for the company and its developers to talk about the present and future of Google’s products. It’s also the week Google tends to make its biggest announcements — from the Nexus 7 to Google TV, Chrome to Glass and everything in between, Google plays its biggest cards every year in the middle of May.

WTU Episode #212 - Xbox One Released and Google I/O Gear

We have just posted up Episode #212 of Weekly Tech Update.  In this episode we are discussing the Xbox One announcement, Google I/O Announcements (and non-launches) as well as Apple Gets Busted for $100 Billion in Tax Evasion.  We have those stories and more. . .  Below are the show notes.
 

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So no used games on Xbox One?

The Xbox One launched this week and it appeared like you would be able to buy and sell used games (like you can on the Xbox 360) and that made gamers very excited. Now it is looking more like that won't be possible due to games being tied to your Gamer Tag which means you can play them at your friends house with your Gamer Tag logged in, but you can't sell the game or give it to anyone as it won't work under their Gamer Tag. Chances are good we will see some backlash over this as the used video game market is huge. ITF Gaming has more on this story.

 

For some time now, one of the biggest fears in the gaming community has been that Microsoft, and for a while even Sony, would implement some sort of Draconian locking system, which would prevent console owners from either trading in or even loaning their games to a friend.

All of our worst fears have just been realised when Microsoft made it official last night post-conference that they would in fact be tying video game licenses directly to your Xbox Live Gamertag. Couple that with the fact that if you do give your game to a friend, he/she will have to fork out an additional fee to Microsoft before they are able to enjoy their new favourite game.

Also on the Xbox One theme, Wired has an interview with Microsoft's Phil Harrison who talks about the Xbox One (including the topic of used games).

 

After Microsoft revealed the brand-new Xbox One console to the world yesterday, a common reaction wasn’t one of amazement or eagerness, but confusion.

Since most of the presentation showcased fantasy football, Skype, and multimedia applications, anyone wanting to hear about games was left hungry for details.

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