A quick update from the road.

Yes my tech minions, my day job has once again called me away. Unfortunately work has called me away on a Sunday for yet another week.

So there'll be a delay in posting and another podshow. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I cooked an awesome turkey, ate way too much, and when I recovered my the L-Tryptophan induced coma I played way too much Lego Star Wars and Gears of War. Now that was a good holiday.

More to come as soon as I can get back to the Digital Den.

Episode #21 of The Digital Blast Podcast is in the can.

It's not that I'm not trying, just that my schedule seems out of control. Click on the show/shownotes tab above and check it the latest showout. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

Thanks, Dutch

Surveillancebot can keep an eye on your house, without the barking or soiling the carpet.

Robots are slowly creeping their way into our everyday life. With the success of the Roomba (I mean really, who doesn't want a robot to do the vacuuming?) its only a matter of time until we see robots doing more and more.
I give you the SRV-1 Mobile Robot. Part Mars rover and part watchdog. The palm sized SRV-1 drives around a designated area (either a pre-planned route or you can remotely drive the robot around). The SRV-1 has a mini video camera and with its wireless transmitter can share data or receive commands with any PC up to 300 feet away. Through the built in web server, you can monitor and control the SRV-1 Robot with a web browser anywhere in the world. How freakin' cool is that?

This isn't something for beginners, you'll need to know a thing or two about Java (but if I can figure it out, anyone can!). Just because you can't be at home doesn't mean you can't see what's going on. Yes, it is a little pricey at $380 but Christmas is right around the corner and this is the perfect gift for the tech head in your life.

A quick note

I know I'm lacking in new content and there wasn't a show this past weekend. In my defense (and unless you're living under a rock and you didn't hear) Gears of War come out. I have spent A LOT of time getting into the mechanics of the game.
Hey, don't get me wrong, its beautiful to look at but Gears makes you fight in the "cover and shoot" style rather than the HALO/standard first person shooter "run and gun". It really makes you think about how to approach every corner and each engagement.

Between that and having to travel this week for my day job, I'm getting behind. I'll have tons of new stuff and a new show when I get back to the Digital Den this weekend.

Did I forget to mention I get to meet Billy Dee WIlliams this Saturday? Yeah, full Star Wars geek in effect!

Now Microsoft is making my Xbox 360 a DVR and a set top rental box? Mr. Gates, I salute you!!

I turn on my Xbox 360 and see that there's a new update for me to check out. It seems that a preview of CBS shows for my Xbox 360 is up for viewing.

Last week Microsoft announced agreements with:
- CBS ("CSI," "Jericho," "Numb3rs")
- MTV Networks
- Paramount Pictures
- Turner Broadcasting System Inc. (TBS Inc.)
- Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
- Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

This agreement will allow Xbox 360 Live members to view over 1,000 hours of hit TV shows and movies (that's right, I said movies) for download.

So we're getting a "Tivo-like" capability right to our 360's. Oh yeah, and worried about making the wrong decision about which format to pick for the next gen high def DVD wars? No need to sweat it. You will no be able to download movies in HD right to your 360 (Netflix, Blockbuster and the like better get their head out of the sand because they're about to be replaced).

It's a very good day to be in the Xbox 360 club.

Episode #20 of The Digital Blast Podcast is in the can.

It's taken a little work but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of updating the blog/site and getting out a show on a regular basis (at least for now). The show got pushed from Sunday to Monday because of some new furniture for the "Digital Den", way too much time spent playing Lego Star Wars II on Xbox 360 and the Patriots Sunday night football game.

Click on the show/shownotes tab above and check it out. Give it a listen and tell me what you think.

And don't forget, if I talked about it on the show you can buy it at the Digital Blast Store (it should be updated by the end of the day).

Thanks, Dutch

Star Wars and Legos in a videogame, its like crack cocaine!

I mentioned this in the podcast but it bears talking about. Lego Stars II might possibly be the most fun game I've ever played.

First off you have the story that is the original 3 episodes of Star Wars (the only story in my opinion) but told a little differently because there's no dialogue in the game and the designers take some very comical swipes at events in the movie.

As you play you can unlock more than 50 playable characters (from Luke, Leia and Darth Vader to Greedo, Jawas and Gamorrean guards), you can build and ride vehicles and mount Star Wars creatures through on-foot levels, and these are Legos afterall so you can create unique playable characters like Yoda Vader, Stormtrooper Kenobi, R23PO by mixing and matching the Lego body parts of all playable characters. each character has its own weapon, powers and melee attack. My favorite? Chewbacca ripping the arms off Lego Stormtroopers...classic. You also get a little fying action when you take to you X-Wing fighter against the Deathstar and pilot your Snowspeeder to cable-tie those AT-ATs on Hoth.

The level design is gorgeous, the environments (in Lego-like form) are true to the films and the game designers have the correct FX sounds AND John Williams award winning soundtrack playing through the game. This isn't a game you need to check out, this is a MUST BUY!

Forget virtual reality, "augmented reality" is where its at!

We have been led to believe that the future would bring Virtual Reality is the dawn of the new era. Well my friends, the new era of technology is "Augmented Reality" (AR). AR gives you an interactive venue over an existing environment. No longer do you need to "build" a virtual environment but the "augmented" reality dissolves into the surrounding space and objects.

What happens is the existing reality or environment is "augmented" (a combination of real world and computer generated data). Currently live video imagery is digitally processed and "augmented" by the addition of computer generated graphics. Ad in motion tracking data, marker recognition using machine vision, and the construction of controlled environments "layered" over an existing reality and voila... a whole new reality! I look and talk about ground breaking technology but this is where its at.

Check out this YouTube video to get and idea of how this works.

I turned on my Xbox 360 and was treated to a download of fresh goodness.

One of the great things about the '360 (yes it owns me and I enjoy every minute of it) is that it periodically updates itself with Xbox goodness (Xbox Live Silver and Xbox Live Gold accounts and connection to Xbox live required).
Fear not my cheap brethren, you will not miss out on the goodness either. The Xbox 360 gods will let you download the update as long as you connect to a broadband internet connection. Starting on Halloween we get a new update that will provide more than 85 new features and enhancements!!

Some of those include; support for native 1080p games and movies (the bestHD resolution currently available) and faster display times and a number of options when it comes to video playback options.

A short list of some key features include:
- A number of ways to enjoy video on your machine. It is now possible to stream WMV video from a Windows PC running Windows Media Player 11 or Windows Media Connect.
- You can play video files from data CDs and DVDs, storage devices (i.e. USB 2.0 flash drives) and Xbox 360 Memory Units.
- Xbox 360 will support 50hz HDTV display modes, providing viewers greater choice in how they watch DVD and HD DVD content.
- Redesigned user interface with easier to read buttons and status windows.

Xbox Live Arcade Enhancements
- Now rather than going to look for new game trials to download you can set your account up to automatically download newly released Xbox Live Arcade trial games.
- The games you already have in your Xbox Live Arcade collection appear much faster letting you "get your game on" faster.
- Because of the sheer number of games Xbox Live Arcade has added new sorting options such as “Recently Played” and “By Category' for easier navigation.
- A new expanded Friends Leaderboard allows you to see how your gaming skills compare with you friends and see leaderboard details of their your top-10 friends.
- A new expanded Achievements View within Xbox Live Arcade lets you see full Achievement details for you Arcade games at a glance to include; descriptions, icons, allotted Gamerscore right on the Xbox Live Arcade dashboard interface.
- Rather than having to go find a downloaded Arcade game on your system, there's a “Play Now” button after the game is dowloaded. Thus allowing you to bypasses Arcade and go directly to the game.

And for you budding game developers, XNA Support
- Amateur game designers will be able to test and play the games they create using XNA Game Studio Express on their Xbox 360 systems when it launches later this year (separate download and subscription required).

Phew, let me catch my breath! From the sheer excitement over all the new features and trying to recap them here, its made me a little light headed.

I'm off to wear the buttons of my '360 controller, Dutch.