Technology News And Reviews » player

LG UP3 Touch – USB MP3-player with touch controls

admin — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 03:52:41 +0000

LG has introduced a portable multimedia player with touch controls – UP3 Touch. By Design News looks like a common USB «stick”, and it is carried out through USB syncing with your computer and charge the battery.

DAP (Digital audio Player) will be available in two versions with 2 or 4 gigabytes of memory. List of supported formats include WMA, MP3, and OGG. According to the manufacturer, the full battery charge will last for 15 hours of music playback.

Tags: battery-charge, cheap-mp3, design, design-news, Mp3 Player, News, player, touch-screen, will-last, your-computer

Nextar introduces a new slim portable multimedia player

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 01:18:11 +0000

Company Nextar has launched a new ultra slim portable multimedia player MA809. Novelty has a 2.8-inch display with a resolution of 400 x 240, built-in voice recorder and FM-tuner, as well as the speaker. The player supports MP3 and WMA formats and is available in versions with 2, 4 or 8 GB of internal memory and is equipped with a slot for microSD cards.

The player supports MP3 and WMA formats and is available in versions with 2, 4 or 8 GB of internal memory and is equipped with a slot for microSD cards.

The manufacturer claims that the player can play videos in three hours on one charge of its lithium-ion battery. However, the main drawback is the price of new items – 99.99 dollars for a 2GB model, 119.99 dollars a 4GB version and $ 149.99 dollars for the maximum amount of memory – 8GB.

Tags: 119-99-dollars, 149-99-dollars, a809-novelty, built-in-voice, hours-on-one, internal-memory, its-lithium-ion, maximum, Mp3 Player, player, player-supports, price, speaker, touch-screen

Die Dolmengotter

Hiew Chok Sien — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 01:04:16 +0000

The Game

Die Dolmengotter is an abstract game and an area majority game. The board is made up of squares, hexagons and octagons. There are spaces surrounding these shapes, and during the game the players move their pawns (each player has three) from one space to the next. When a pawn leaves a space, the player can leave a stone on that space. This stone is used to compete for majority in the shapes touched by the space it is on. It also blocks movement from then on.

When there are enough stones surrounding a shape, the player who has majority can place a scoring block (called dolmens) on the shape. As more stones are added to spaces around the shape, other players may match or even exceed the leading player. These players will get to place dolmens on top of or under the existing dolmens on the shape, depending on whether they are achieving sole majority or just matching the leader. If all spaces surrounding a shape are filled up with stones, the shape is scored and the dolmens are permanently removed.

The game ends when either one player uses all dolmens or all players exhaust their stones.

The octagonal pillars are the stones. The big square blocks are the dolmens. They have numbers written underneath (hidden from other players). The Carcassonne-style people (i.e. meeple) are the player pawns, or druids.

Stones block movement of the druids, but other druids don’t. A druid can skip over any number of other druids to the next empty spot. Sometimes a druid can be stuck when surrounded by stones. There is one special movement that can help the druid get out of this. He can spend one turn lying down (see the natural coloured and the green coloured druids), and then on the next turn he can fly to any empty space on the board.

The board looks rather boring, but the game is more interesting that it looks. Those symbols around the edges mean that the board is wraparound. Spaces with the same symbol are connected.

The Play

When Chong Sean, Wan, Shan and I started playing, we were quite clueless. The only advice I could give was to try to stick to more central locations and to be where most people are. In this game you need to rely on others, similar to China.

As we played we started to learn what good and bad moves were. We found that we spent most of the time avoiding bad moves, i.e. those that would set up opportunities for others. I was first to score big at an octagon and had a huge lead. However once the game clicked for everyone, I was unable to make many more big scorings and actually ended up being last.

The Thoughts

My impression of the game may be quite wrong, because I later realised I made two very severe mistakes when I taught the game to Chong Sean, Wan and Shan. (Sorry folks!) First, when matching the leader, you don’t need a third party present. Because of this misunderstanding we were discouraged to make many moves which should have been worthwhile. The second mistake was when a dolmen was scored, it should have been removed permanently from the game, not returned to the player. No wonder we always had so many x1 dolmens available.

Die Dolmengotter is an interesting abstract game which has a nice tension between cooperation and competition. There are many opportunities for clever plays. You can play both offensively and defensively. It feels like a more complex China. I prefer China myself because of the simplicity and speed, and the density of decisions within such a quick game. Die Dolmengotter is a perfect information game where you need to think a few steps ahead and think of the implications of each possible move. It’s a bit dry, but it is quite clever too. It’s probably best played with three or more. There is some bluffing in the game, because dolmens (which have values x1 to x4) are placed face-down, and other players do not know what you have played or have remaining. It is a very interactive multiplayer (i.e. >2P) abstract game.

Tags: carcasean, china, player, players, space

Samsung TicToc: miniature player controlled by shaking

admin — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:19:19 +0000

Samsung has announced a miniature music player TicToc, which is used to manage only the hardware key.

With it the portable multimedia player can enable or disable, and adjust the volume. Hold down for a few seconds in the vertical position of the device, you increase the volume, in an inverted position to the same action causes the opposite effect.

There is another interesting feature: weak shaking gadget chooses from a library track with a slow tempo, strong – on the contrary, dynamic composition. But the scoring of the names of tracks voice, which is so handy would be if the display, alas, is not implemented.

The gadget, which offers versions with 2 or 4 GB of internal memory, can play music nonstop for half a day. With the player can play formats of MP3, WMA, OGG and FLAC.

When the player will be available and at what price, is not specified.

Tags: action-causes, contrary, gadget-chooses, interesting, internal-memory, music-nonstop, player, samsung, scoring, touch-screen, volume

MP3-player DoDoNa S-100 in retro

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:02:02 +0000

DoDoNa S-100 – portable multimedia player with unusual shape, somewhat resembling surround iPod.

Retro-style can be traced in the form of buttons, different in size and shape, the attaching headphones. Player can be obtained in white, black, yellow and green shell.

S-100 portable multimedia player is equipped with a 1.1-inch display with a resolution of 96 × 96 pixels, built-in speaker, 4 GB of memory, FM-tuner, support formats MP3, WMA, OGG and FLAC. Player batteries will last for 15 hours listening to music with headphones. Cost in this strange device – as much as 167 dollars.

Tags: attaching, cheap-mp3, form, hours-listening, Mp3 Player, much-as-167, player, support-formats, the-attaching, touch-screen

MSI has released portable multimedia player MT-V660 – clone Zune HD

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:01:57 +0000

Taiwanese company MSI, better known as the PC manufacturer, has released its new portable multimedia player MT-V660. The device is styled with Zune HD – minipleer Microsoft, and is equipped with Rockchip RK2806 chipset, and 3.2-inch display with a resolution of 480 x 320 pixels. This MT-V660 can display video on the TV screen, but the player Microsoft would require additional dock.

Among the supported video files – MKV, AVI, DivX 3/4/5, XviD, H.264, RMVB / RM, MP4, FLV, H.264/H.263, VOB, MPG, DAT, MOV and 3GP. For audio, which can be played on minipleere include: MP3, WMA, APE, FLAC, OGG, WAV and AAC.

MSI MT-V660 will go in black and white colors, price and release date of devices on the market are still unknown.

Tags: market, microsoft, Mp3 Player, player, release-date, supported, the-supported, touch-screen, video-files, white-colors

BMORN BM-966SHD – portable multimedia player with support for HD 768p

admin — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 02:01:53 +0000

Chinese company Blue Morning (BMORN) produced a new portable multimedia player BM-966SHD.

PMP received display with 7-inch, it is quite large for such a class of devices. 966SHD, as evidenced by its name, works with HD-resolution video up to 768p (1360 × 768).

Among the supported file formats – MP4, AVI, RM, FLV, MKV, H.264, OGG, APE & FLAC. Portable multimedia player features an improved interface, USB, support for subtitles, the regime of digital photo frames, a TV and remote control. Shipping BMORN BM-966SHD will be with 8 GB of internal memory.

Tags: bmorn, cheap-mp3, digital-photo, file-formats, its-name, morning, Mp3 Player, player, quite-large, regime, the-regime, the-supported, touch-screen

The BoardGameGeek Game

Hiew Chok Sien — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Wan and Shan are two new friends whom I got to know via the internet. Well, strictly speaking I got to know them through Chong Sean and Han, because the four of them gamed at Carcasean Cafe together. I’m back in Kota Kinabalu now and finally had the chance to meet Wan and Shan in person at Carcasean Cafe. We met up on Sat 6 Feb 2010, and played The BoardGameGeek Game.

The BGG Game is designed by Richard Breese, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of www.BoardGameGeek.com. When producing the game, Richard invited BGG members to submit their avatars for him to put on the box of the game. I submitted mine too, and was in time to get it included. Chong Sean submitted his but was declined due to copyright concerns. His avatar is a passenger from Ticket to Ride: Marklin.

The Game

The game itself is about selling and buying (or rather, collecting) games. Every player takes two roles – game publisher and game collector. Throughout 6 rounds, you supply games to some shops, and you also buy games using three buyers, who are dice. You can’t buy your own games. You need to try to collect sets of other players’ (i.e. publishers’) games. Each time another player buys your game, you earn money, and money = score. At game end, you also earn money based on how impressive of a game collection you have. Each game in a completed set (i.e. of the same number) is worth $6, else it is worth the number on it (which ranges from 1 to 6). So there is less incentive to make sets of games with higher numbers. Duplicate games are worth $0.

The numbers on the games determine which shops you can sell them to, kind of like different types of games with different target audience being sold at different types of shops. Different shops have different price ranges, so this is one consideration when you decide how much you want to sell your game at. When placing your game at a shop, you can decide how to price it (within that shop’s price range) and how long it will be available. You can price it high (i.e. you’d earn more if another player buys it), and it will be available for longer at the shop. You can price it low and it will be available for a shorter time. Sometimes you may want to do this to prevent your opponents from collecting complete sets.

Throughout the game all your games (both the ones published by your company that you are going to supply to the shops, and the ones that you as a collector have bought) are hidden behind a screen. So it will be difficult to keep track of what everyone has sold and bought. You can try to keep track of some of this information, but it is quite impossible to remember everything.

One nasty thing that you can do to your opponents is false advertising. Two of your 20 published games are blanks. Games are supplied to shops face-down, and buyers are sent to the shops before they are turned face-up. So you can place a blank tile at a shop to lure others there, only to later find that there is no game for them to buy.

Behind my screen. The top row are games from my publishing company (Treefrog line of Warfrog) which I have not yet supplied to the shops. The bottom row are games that I have bought. All happened to be from Ystari.

The game board is basically 6 game shops. The dice are people visiting the shops to buy games.

Close-up of the #4 shop. From the stand-up sign board before the door, you can see that this shop only sells games numbered 3 to 5. The numbers in the red arrows are the prices for the games in those rows. There are 9 spots where publishers can place games. Currently 3 games are sold here. There is only one buyer here, my green die showing 1. Although the positions of your dice are determined by what numbers you roll, you can pay money to reroll or to move your dice.

The Play

We played a 4-player game, Wan, Shan, Chong Sean and I. It was the first time for all of us, so we didn’t have much idea what to do. We just tried to make sure we bought games with every buyer (die) every round. Turn order is the game is very important, because it is important to be able to choose which game to buy, and sometimes being late in turn order means you can’t even buy at all. To be first in turn order, you need to have your buyers at the lower range shops, which sometimes may conflict with your buying (collecting) plans. It can be a tough decision.

From the start of the game, Chong Sean was trailing the rest of us in points. His publisher wasn’t selling many games. I wonder whether it was because he had been intentionally placing his games in such a way that they went out of circulation quickly. Or were his games priced too high and the rest of us were cheapskates? However he was quite successful in buying games. I think he was the least burnt in terms of wasting a buyer because of being unable to buy a game.

I went with an undercutting strategy. I tried to price my games cheaper than others to attract buyers. I’m not sure how successful I was. Wan, Shan and my scores were not far from each other throughout most of the game. In fact towards game end my score fell behind more and more and I wasn’t far ahead of Chong Sean.

When the game ended, Chong Sean had collected 5 complete sets (the max possible being 6 sets). That 90pts! Wan had 4 completed sets, and Shan and I only had 3. Wan won the game with 134pts, only 2pts ahead of Chong Sean. Wan’s lead during the game was too big for Chong Sean to overcome.

The Thoughts

The BGG Game feels rather like an abstract game to me. However when I reflected on the mechanics I was surprised to find quite a number of thematic elements. Duplicate games in your collection are worth nothing. Games which are not bought at shop will be discounted in the next round. Even the whole set-collecting aspect reminds me of the Alea published games, which are numbered and tempt gamers to collect them all. I guess the only glaring unthematic part is how buying a game costs nothing. When Chong Sean explained this rule, I quickly tried to apply it to real life, pointing at a game in his shop and saying, “I want that one.” Unfortunately some things stay in the game…

The game is of medium complexity. On the whole there is nothing that really draws me in, despite there being interesting decisions and strategies. But this game is a much more than just a game. It is a snapshot of the BGG community and the boardgame industry (albeit mostly focusing on Eurogames). I recognise all the games inside, and have played many of them. The game contains tons and images from many many other games, many of which I recognise. If I were less unsentimental, I would buy a copy. But since I try to be very strict about game buying, I won’t be getting this game, because I don’t think I will be playing it a lot.

One thing that I didn’t like is the use of the screens. Not that the screens themselves is an issue. It is the memory part of the game that I didn’t like. If you can remember what games have been sold and bought, you will do well. The screens are there to prevent you from having perfect information. I can understand they are important to prevent analysis paralysis, but I can’t help having the unpleasant feeling that if I were less lazy in remembering I would have done better at the game.

Somehow I don’t have as big a problem with the use of screens in Arkadia. In Arkadia you just need a general feel of what seal colours your opponents have been collecting. That’s sufficient for you to make meaningful decisions. In The BGG Game if you want to be 100% sure of your moves, you’d need to remember the exact numbers and colours of the games that your opponents have bought. That’s too painful so I don’t bother. And having a rough feel doesn’t quite cut it, e.g. remembering that Wan has collected many #1 games isn’t really helpful if I don’t remember whether he has collected the full set, and which colours he has collected.

Tags: carcasean, chong, chong-sean, game, green, internet, memory, opponents, player, publishing, screens, shop, the boardgamegeek game, thoughts

Hearts (176×208-240×320) (ENG)

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:52:49 +0000

“Hearts” is a card game based on tricks where the player aims to end with the least number of cards and the lowest number of points. Tricks are the groups of cards set by players in the individual rounds. To get points when playing tricks with hearts or the queen of spades. The game of Hearts is played by four players and when a player achieves more than 100 points, the player with the lowest score at that time is the winner

Free Download 176×208
Free Download 240×320

Tags: based-on-tricks, download, lowest, lowest-score, player, players, s60v3 game, symbian os9.x games, the-individual

Portable multimedia player MPIO ML300 2Gb Lime

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:11:38 +0000

Compact and original ML300 portable multimedia player not only has the broad functionality of modern digital player, but also has in its class the best ratio price – quality.

Options recorder: you can record important lectures and meetings with the function of high quality voice recording.

Update firmware: Player’s firmware can be easily upgraded to the new version using the firmware update.

Low power consumption: One AAA battery is enough for 14 hours playing time.

Tags: broad, class-the-best, easily-upgraded, function, high-quality, hours-playing, lime-jpg, modern-digital, Mp3 Player, player, ratio-price, the-function, touch-screen