Before I jump on this, anyone got any advice for just how badly the lack of hard drive affects gameplay? I've been eying a 360 for a while and I doubt I'll get in the game (pun totally intended) cheaper than this....but that lack of hard drive.... #xbox
@OCEntertainment: It doesn't affect gameplay since there are no (mandatory) installs for games. You'll just have little room for saves and profiles and no room for demos/downloads. You could always just use the $100 credit to buy a HD. #xbox
@OCEntertainment: Original Xbox support is about the only thing vital to having a hard drive for. Anything else you can makeup for with a memory card, but that thing will run out of space pretty soon if you download much. #xbox
@OCEntertainment:
The hard drive is more useful for DLC packages like The Ballad of Gay Tony and such, and video you can download from Live. You can pick up hard drives cheap on ebay right now. 20 gig will run you 30 bucks, 60 gig's go for 50-60 bucks. #xbox
I got the X Box deal at Wal-Mart about 25 minutes ago. Just walked in and got one. No waiting. My friend showed up 5 minutes later and picked one up as well. No one even knew about it in my home town.
Apparently they were letting people buy multiple items as one person had 5 laptops in their cart.
@EBone: Well, considering it's a real world problem, I don't even know how to reply to your ignorance, except to tell you to go to San Francisco in the summer time, when they used to have a cooling wind coming down from the mountains.
You know we can't get energy for free, right? Hydroelectric power reduces water flow and causes the destruction of wildlife both upstream and downstream. Solar power has local heating problems that CANNOT be fixed, and massive wind farms destroy the natural heat transfer created by wind patterns. #gizmodoremainders
@exoren22: You really believe that the turbine blades take the wind "away"? That the wind doesn't turn the blades and keep on blowing past, over, and around the blades?
@EBone: I think he's actually right, but he's blowing it way out of proportion. It's more on the same scale of dumping a bottle of filtered water into a lake to change the pH. #gizmodoremainders
@EBone: exoren22 is right though I don't know to what degree. Conservation of energy means there is no free ride and no perpetual motion machines. Just like a hydroelectric dam can slow a river to a trickle, wind farms use the wind to do work, thus depleting some of the kinetic energy in that wind. But once again, I have no idea of the total energy of the wind or how much energy is extracted so I could not testify to the effect.
@runamok1001: Do yourself a favor and look at an isobar map of the United States. They measure pressure gradients. Wind is generated when air moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas.
Isobar front lines are hundreds to thousands of miles long. Wind projects don't even show up on the scale we're talking about here. It would be the equivalent of trying to stop the Mississippi River with a 2x4. #gizmodoremainders
Grandpa bikes excluded (upright riding), a bike seat needs only provide support to the bony part of your bottom while minimizing interference and chaffing with your thighs. This is why racing seats look so terrible, but are actually quite comfortable. This seat seems to give you a choice of supporting your weight on your anus or testicles. #gizmodoremainders
@92BuickLeSabre: Mmm... Gotta love those post-windfarm mornings, with the surreal pink mist of pigeon guts over Manhattan, and little feet and feathers falling to the streets below... #gizmodoremainders
@92BuickLeSabre: a wind turbine of the vertical axis variety, about the size of a water tower, would probably do very well at both generating electricity and getting rid of pesky pigeons. And properly designed it could also have a receptacle for the remains so that they could be put to good use. Then we'd have cheap electricity and we wouldn't have to make soylent green out of people anymore.
@The Lab: yeah, the first pic looks like it makes some sense, but then you realize there's almost no leg extension (which means no power). Cool look though. #gizmodoremainders
You know ASUS built this phone so I don't understand why it's such a clunker? I guess making excellent computer hardware does not translate into making a good phone. #garminnuvifoneg60
Garmin picked a really bad time to launch a smartphone with a proprietary OS, and on top of that they did a bad job of it. I hope they have already locked all their OS devs in a room with 10 copies of Android for Dummies and that they'll be able to do a Blackberry-Stormesque turnaround. #garminnuvifoneg60
@weatherman: It's almost too late (see Google Navigation, TeleNav et al). I foresee Garmin returning to their avionics and maritime roots to survive. #garminnuvifoneg60
I'm glad to see that the Roku hardware is still being developed, but these two offerings seem disappointing to me.
First of all, I see no market for the Roku SD model. Composite video is OK for folks still using old CRT monitors -- but then again, how many of those folks would have any idea what a Roku was anyway. And by saving $20 now, anyone would be locking themselves out of being able to upgrade the to HD if they upgrade their TV in the future.
As for the HD-XR, $30 is way too much extra to charge for just the wireless-N card. In fact, this should have been the minimal replacement for the original Roku HD at the same price point. I don't know if Roku intends to keep the HD and the HD-XR on the market simultaneously for long, but it seems like the HD should be dis-continued now. I'll have to wait until the firmware upgrade to see what the HD-XR is really bringing to the table, but right now I feel silly for anxiously awaiting this upgrade.
What would really seal the deal for me would be access to streaming media from a NAS or home server. Maybe then I could finally replace my aging XBOX (original) running XBMC (but probably not!)
@salviati: Only slightly over a third of U.S. households have an HDTV currently, according to Nielsen figures and other industry estimates. As for "how many of those folks would have any idea what a Roku was anyway"... Netflix was aggressively marketing the device in the mailer envelopes with every DVD they mailed. My mother, who is by no means a techie or gadget geek, bought her Roku, set it up herself and was watching content within minutes.
There's something to be said for simplicity and hardware that doesn't aim over the heads of the populace. The $20 saved on buying an SD model (for an SD TV owner) is a little over two months of Netflix membership.
The Roku fills a sweet spot for people who want more content but may not have the knowledge, or need, for HTPCs, NASs, extensive codec support, etc. Even a lot of SD content via the Roku is better than a pile of confusing equipment and acronyms for someone who, like my mom, just wants to enjoy episodes of British comedies, Law & Order and a few movies now and then. She is among those that might eventually have to buy an HDTV, but actually couldn't care less about 720 or 1080, and just wants to enjoy the content. I strongly suspect that there are a lot of folks out there in that demographic who are capable of setting up a Roku, and who would not scoff at a selection of SD content. #rokuhdxr
@met2art: Sorry if my comment seemed snarky towards people who are perfectly happy with SD content. I am no HD snob. My sole TV is actually an older 480p plasma and I am perfectly happy with it - albeit with component video rather than RCA.
However, it seems silly to me for Roku to devote resources to create a crippled version of their standard device for such a small cost savings. One of the great things I though Roku did was to release a single device with known abilities rather than sectioning up the market, causing confusion. Now, instead of just talking to someone about the 'Roku box', they will have to specify which box. I would have prefered a direct replacement upgrade of the Roku HD with the HD-XR rather than expanding it to a series.
As far as cost goes, $20 is a minimal savings. But what you loose is the ability to integrate the box into an HD or fully-digital system in the future. Instead, you would have to spend a fresh $100 (or $130). Right now, I can easily integrate the $100 Roku box into my home theatre with analog inputs, with the knowledge that when I upgrade my TV next year to HDMI, I won't have to buy a new box to go with it. Perhaps the Roku SD makes sense at ~$50, but not at $80. #rokuhdxr
@salviati: Those are good points. I would prefer to see an SD Roku box as a subsidized option with an upgraded Netflix account, and the new HD-XR box as a premium option. I think they'd dramatically increase ownership, and then people would have the incentive to buy the premium box for HD and extended features. But, the existing box at $50 would probably sway a lot of people as well. Netflix streaming is pretty popular now with so many devices supporting it, I don't think they are hurting for sales. #rokuhdxr
11/07/09
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The hard drive is more useful for DLC packages like The Ballad of Gay Tony and such, and video you can download from Live. You can pick up hard drives cheap on ebay right now. 20 gig will run you 30 bucks, 60 gig's go for 50-60 bucks. #xbox
11/07/09
11/07/09
Apparently they were letting people buy multiple items as one person had 5 laptops in their cart.
11/03/09
11/03/09
11/03/09
You know we can't get energy for free, right? Hydroelectric power reduces water flow and causes the destruction of wildlife both upstream and downstream. Solar power has local heating problems that CANNOT be fixed, and massive wind farms destroy the natural heat transfer created by wind patterns. #gizmodoremainders
11/03/09
I have no words. #gizmodoremainders
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11/03/09
Isobar front lines are hundreds to thousands of miles long. Wind projects don't even show up on the scale we're talking about here. It would be the equivalent of trying to stop the Mississippi River with a 2x4. #gizmodoremainders
11/03/09
11/03/09
Here's the google results for that.
[www.google.com]
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PS I'm trademarking the term "squabchoppers" #gizmodoremainders
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@Toastie: Oh no, it's on a mission to grind that man's genitals into a fine powder. #gizmodoremainders
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10/28/09
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10/27/09
Revision3 has already been announced. Pandora and Flickr were leaked in the process.
TWiT via MediaFly has also been announced.
Until the usability of the USB port is defined, it's hard to justify $30 for WiFi-N. #rokuhdxr
10/27/09
First of all, I see no market for the Roku SD model. Composite video is OK for folks still using old CRT monitors -- but then again, how many of those folks would have any idea what a Roku was anyway. And by saving $20 now, anyone would be locking themselves out of being able to upgrade the to HD if they upgrade their TV in the future.
As for the HD-XR, $30 is way too much extra to charge for just the wireless-N card. In fact, this should have been the minimal replacement for the original Roku HD at the same price point. I don't know if Roku intends to keep the HD and the HD-XR on the market simultaneously for long, but it seems like the HD should be dis-continued now. I'll have to wait until the firmware upgrade to see what the HD-XR is really bringing to the table, but right now I feel silly for anxiously awaiting this upgrade.
What would really seal the deal for me would be access to streaming media from a NAS or home server. Maybe then I could finally replace my aging XBOX (original) running XBMC (but probably not!)
10/27/09
There's something to be said for simplicity and hardware that doesn't aim over the heads of the populace. The $20 saved on buying an SD model (for an SD TV owner) is a little over two months of Netflix membership.
The Roku fills a sweet spot for people who want more content but may not have the knowledge, or need, for HTPCs, NASs, extensive codec support, etc. Even a lot of SD content via the Roku is better than a pile of confusing equipment and acronyms for someone who, like my mom, just wants to enjoy episodes of British comedies, Law & Order and a few movies now and then. She is among those that might eventually have to buy an HDTV, but actually couldn't care less about 720 or 1080, and just wants to enjoy the content. I strongly suspect that there are a lot of folks out there in that demographic who are capable of setting up a Roku, and who would not scoff at a selection of SD content. #rokuhdxr
10/27/09
However, it seems silly to me for Roku to devote resources to create a crippled version of their standard device for such a small cost savings. One of the great things I though Roku did was to release a single device with known abilities rather than sectioning up the market, causing confusion. Now, instead of just talking to someone about the 'Roku box', they will have to specify which box. I would have prefered a direct replacement upgrade of the Roku HD with the HD-XR rather than expanding it to a series.
As far as cost goes, $20 is a minimal savings. But what you loose is the ability to integrate the box into an HD or fully-digital system in the future. Instead, you would have to spend a fresh $100 (or $130). Right now, I can easily integrate the $100 Roku box into my home theatre with analog inputs, with the knowledge that when I upgrade my TV next year to HDMI, I won't have to buy a new box to go with it. Perhaps the Roku SD makes sense at ~$50, but not at $80. #rokuhdxr
10/27/09
10/23/09