Telecom's new network can lay claim to an exclusive with SonyEricsson's new W995 Walkman phone.

Specced with 3G and wi-fi and an 8-megapixel camera that boasts face detection, the W995 is a premium product that will retail for $999.

It has a slide-out keypad and a 2.6-inch QVGA screen. Memory is expandable to 8GB with the included memory card.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 1:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Recently, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney, the computer game programmer behind ZZT and the Unreal Engine, was asked in an interview by Gamasutra how long away we are before "real-time computer graphics are 100% realistic like in a movie?" Sweeney responded by stating that we will see those kind of graphics in our lifetime, yet achieving realistic human behavior will probably take many more decades to figure out.

"We're only about a factor of a thousand off from achieving all that in real-time without sacrifices. So we'll certainly see that happen in our lifetimes; it's just a result of Moore's Law. Probably 10-15 years for that stuff, which isn't far at all. Which is scary -- we'll be able to saturate our visual systems with realistic graphics at that point.

But there's another problem in graphics that's not as easily solvable. It's anything that requires simulating human intelligence or behavior: animation, character movement, interaction with characters, and conversations with characters. They're really cheesy in games now." - Tim Sweeney

Even with state-of-the-art games such as Half-Life 2 or Gears of War, Sweeney states that character's in games are still "extraordinarily unrealistic compared to a human actor in a human movie." As Sweeney explains, the human condition is just too complex to simulate perfectly. Even with the fastest running computers today, we still wouldn't have the power and understanding to bring a truly realistic character to the video game screen, as we're light-years away from understanding how the brain works, let alone trying to simulate it.

All the same, Sweeney provides hope in the quest of achieving perfectly realistic gaming. Even if we are somehow able to achieve "perfect" graphics, Sweeney believes their work will never be done, as technology and the artists who use it are constantly changing and evolving, bringing bigger and better games for us to play and experience.

Check out the full original interview here at Gamasutra.

By Sean Mirkovich

Posted by Scott Bartley at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you're good at early mornings, or sleeping rough for the next night or two, you could get your hands on a free mobile and $1,000 credit when Telecom launches the XT network to customers on Friday.

At five stores in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin, the first customer in line when the stores open at 7:30am will receive an XT Mobile Network phone of their choice - along with $1,000 credit.

The remaining people in the line at each of the five stores will go into a draw to win mobile gadgets and technology, including a touchscreen Samsung F480 mobile with $500 credit, Samsung stereo Bluetooth handsets and Telecom Prepaid Credit. One lucky customer in line before the store opens will also walk away with a Samsung LCD TV.

The participating stores are:

Telecom Retail Store, Broadway: 263 Broadway, Newmarket, Auckland

Leading Edge Communications, Hamilton: 116 London Street, Hamilton

Telecom Retail Store, Lambton Quay: 203 Lambton Quay, Wellington

Leading Edge Communications, Moorhouse Ave: 70 Moorhouse Ave, Christchurch

Telecom Retail Store, Dunedin: Corner George Pl & Moray Pl, Dunedin

It's blatant marketing hype, but, hey, people stood in line for the iPhone and still had to shell out the full price.

Let us know if you score any goodies, or have to have frost-bitten extremities amputated.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dubbed the Alpha 230 and the Alpha 330, Sony's pair of new entry-level DSLRs both offer Live View to compose your pictures on the built-in LCD, and weighing just 450g, the 230 is also the world’s lightest DSLR camera with a built-in image stabilisation system in its body.

Both the 230 and the 330 have a 10.2-megapixel CCD sensor and use a 9-point auto-focus system.

Sony's Quick AF Live View allows the cameras to take advantage of auto-focus even when compsing shots on the built-in LCD, and the 330's LCD can also be titled between 55 and 135 degrees to make it easier to compose shots from a high or low camera position.

The 230 starts at $1,299 with a single lens kit (18-55mm) and the 330 starts at $1,599 with the same single lens kit. 55-200mm lenses are also available as part of a two-lens kit.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Seagate is jumping into the home theatre market with the announcement of the FreeAgent Theatre HD media player.
The FreeAgent Theatre media player is designed to work with Seagate’s FreeAgent Go portable hard drive, to enable users to easily enjoy stored digital media on their TVs.

The FreeAgent Theatre also comes with a front-mounted USB port for use with any USB storage device, such as digital cameras, flash drives or external hard drives. The FreeAgent Theatre will be sold as a standalone version only so users have the option of using it with a FreeAgent Go portable hard drive as a complete solution or only with USB devices they already own.

The FreeAgent sports a docking solution that eliminates cables or network setups, and it has its own remote control.

The FreeAgent Theatre supports MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 formats, and DIVX files with video resolutions for NTSC, PAL and HD up to 1080i and also provides support for subtitles. The audio formats supported include 5.1 channel surround sound, where available, and also digital audio formats including: MP3, WMA, WAV and OGG.

To download and transfer content to an attached Seagate FreeAgent Go hard drive, a Windows XP or Vista operated PC is required, with 256MB RAM and an available USB port. FreeAgent Theatre connects to any TV with either composite, S-video or component video a inputs.

The FreeAgent Theatre Media Player will be available in June at a suggested retail price (MSRP) of $249.

Posted by Ted Gibbons at 11:18 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)