If Microsoft’s Surface PC has you dreaming about the future of computing, but the $12,000 price tag has brought you back to reality, then check out Maximum PC’s build of a multitouch surface computer that uses just $350 in parts and a bit of creative hacking.
The whole thing achieves the Surface like interface through the use of some infrared LEDs, a PS3 Eye camera, a projector, and some acrylic, and the wood cabinet gives it some class, though that would be purely optional if you wanted to keep it geek-tastic.
The computer itself is just a common Core 2 Duo, 2 gig RAM machine, and the software is all open source, so you could technically build one of your own if you were so inclined.
Just don’t let on to the price when your friends wonder where the spare Clevelands came from.
Microsoft has been testing their Photosynth software for some time now, but with so many people snapping away with their cameras during the Inauguration, now’s probably the perfect time to see what getting ‘synthy’ is all about.
The goal of Photosynth is to take a bunch of photos and create an experience that has the cinematic quality of a movie, the control of a video game, and the mind-blowing detail of the real world. Photosynth was the result of two independent breakthroughs: The ability to reconstruct a scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs, and the technology to bring that experience to virtually anyone over the Internet:
It works by examining images for similarities to each other and using that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point each photo was taken from. With this information, Photosynth then recreates the space and uses it as a canvas to display and navigate through the photos. Here’s a little video on the history and inspiration behind Photosynth:
It’s probably one of those ‘see it to believe it’ technologies, so head on over to Photosynth’s special Inauguration page and check out the different Synths that were created during the event.
Since Microsoft went straight from the Xbox to the Xbox 360, they didn’t stop to do any revisions to the original like Sony did to the PlayStation 2.
However, this didn’t stop one crafty modder from making his own “Xbox Slim” project, and using it as a media center that can play games.
The Xbox Slim cuts more than half the weight from the original, weighing in at just four pounds, and adds in advanced features like a DVD/CD-R combo drive, 60GB of onboard storage, a built-in Wi-Fi receiver, and a built in receiver for the Logitech wireless controller.
Along with the hardware revisions, XBMC has been added for media center capability, and SNES, Sega, NeoGeo, and other emulators have been added for classic gaming goodness.
It might not be certified by Microsoft, but chances are, that isn’t exactly a bad thing.
Microsoft Research’s WorldWide Telescope, the “Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope-bringing together imagery from the best ground and space-based telescopes in the world for a seamless exploration of the universe”.
Basically a Google Earth for the Sky, it’s supposed to be fantastic, and it’s just been released by Microsoft, so if you’ve got an eye for the sky, check it out and see what you think.
When Microsoft released the Zune, they had plenty of time to learn from Apple’s mistakes and eat the iPod’s lunch by designing a superior product that fixed any of the iPod’s faults; right?
Apparently not, as Crave’s Molly Wood shows (in great detail) with the five reasons her Zune is dead to her.
From poor software and [...]
Though Server Quest is a bit on the tech heavy side, it’s still a great game that brings back fond memories of the early ‘90s gaming era.
Created to promote Microsoft’s TechNet, Server Quest puts you in charge of Matt Berg, an IT Guy in search of the IT Girl of his dreams.
When he finds her [...]
