Part 1: Which emu is right for yu? I love old games. They’re a part of my history and there are a ton that really do hold up years later. I’m playing through X-COM and Chrono Trigger right now, and regularly test my skills at Kung Fu, Mega Man 2, and Ninja Gaiden. Friends, co-workers, and strangers, when they catch me in the act, are always seized by a strange mix of revulsion and admiration. They then usually have some game they’d like to play, and subsequently squeal in childlike joy as the title screen comes up. Little do they know it’s extremely easy to get on almost any computer, but the world of emulation can be daunting at first. Let’s go over what an emulator is, then check out some of the many that are available. → Read More
Being green and working in the tech world often times don’t mix. The manufacturers of everything that gets me giddy takes a huge dump on Mother Earth in the process and that stinks. Green Peace keeps tabs on companies and lets us know who piddles in the pool and who takes a hungover-all night bender-Hot Pocket eating-dump. But we’re a long ways away before each and every company on the planet adheres to the rules and realizes what they’re doing to the environment. Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now and talk about OLED. → Read More
Keeping with our Linux theme for the week, I present this week’s Orientation on, well, Linux. Despite a market share of less than 1 percent for the Linux OS compared to 92 percent for Windows and a smidge over 7 percent for Apple’s Mac OS, the seldom used (by the general public) OS is the epitome of open source dev and free software. I mostly dabbled with Linux in college and haven’t really used it much since. I’m a Mac user now but Darwin is different from the Linux kernel. It’s all based on Unix, but different nonetheless. So for the uninitiated, here’s Linux in a nutshell. → Read More
Welcome, welcome, welcome to another installment of CrunchGear’s “The Orientation” where we do our best to make technology easy to swallow and understand just for you, dear friends. This week we’re going to look at electronic paper. All sorts of crazy things are coming into the mainstream these days like the Kindle or those fancy e-ink watches and it appears we’ll be seeing it in other products in the near future. So, I think it’s about time we dissected the whole thing and figured out what it is and how it works. I’m sure most of you are familiar with its characteristics, but in case you are not then I will enlighten thee. Electronic paper is much like normal paper in that it reflects light in the same manner. Actually, that’s the only similarity the two have, but it’s a heck of a lot more useful. It’s sort of like an etch-a-sketch in that electronic paper can be reused millions of times (this is just a guess) thus eliminating the need to kill more trees and pay horrendous amounts for ink. There are two variations of electronic paper today, one offered by Xerox in the form of Gyricon and another from Lucent/E-ink, but Nick Sheridon first created it in the70s at Xerox. Gyricon consists of a sheet of silicone with dipole polyethylene spheres. Said spheres are composed of positively charged white plastic on one side and negatively charged black plastic on the other side. Each bead is suspended in oil and depending on the electrical current white or black is shown. Simple, right? E-Ink’s electronic ink essentially works the same way. I won’t say that the technology is simple, but it’s easy to understand with the above description. But why is it important? Well, for starters, it consumes very little power and only needs a bit of juice to flip the spheres and can be used in larger applications that are flexible. Its implementation into watches, e-books and even cell phones is just the start. Color electronic paper is already in the works and LG.Philips has a 14.3-inch model with a resolution of 1280×800. Where else would you like to see e-paper implemented? → Read More
Welcome, friends, to another edition of The Orientation. This week we’re going to be looking at digital TV. The switch is coming soon. Ok, not really. It’s still a year away, but let’s take a look at what it’s all about. What’s the difference between analog and digital? Should you care? Does it really matter? The answer to the last two are a resounding, yes. If anything, you can forward this story on to your parents or grandparents. → Read More
This week we’re going to take a closer look at what Devin thinks is just a fad. Touchscreens seem to be invading all sorts of devices from cell phones to TVs more so now than ever before. They’re meant to improve our lives, or, at the very least, make things more convenient. But do they? How do they even work? Will one form or another of the technology last? Surely, Devin is wrong. This and more in this edition of The Orientation. There are close to a dozen different flavors of touchscreens, but we’ll be focusing on two of the bigger variations: resistive and capacitive. It might actually help to define each word itself before delving into the technologies behind each. Resistive is a technical adjective that’s defined as having the ability to withstand the action or effect of something. Capacitive is a noun that’s defined as the ratio of the electric charge transferred from one to the other of a pair of conductors to the resulting potential difference between them. They might not help now, but as we get along the definition could clear things up or I could just be filling my column with unnecessary wordage. Heh. → Read More
This week’s Orientation will be focused on digital light processing aka DLP. The technology has been around for 21 years, but it hasn’t hit the mainstream until the last couple years. It’s a trademark owned by Texas Instruments. Its main purpose, in the beginning, was a way to project images from a monitor onto a large screen, which doesn’t stray too far from what we use it for today. What makes DLP so special are the tiny mirrors that are housed on an optical semiconductor called Digital Micromirror Device, which is also known as a DMD chip. That’s all fine and dandy, but what the heck does that mean? That’s why you’re here, so let’s get a move on. → Read More
It’s been a while since my last Orientation, but we’ve all been traveling around for various events and such over the last month so it’s been a little hectic. To get things back on track, we’re going to talk about High-Definition Multimedia Interface, better known as HDMI. The Super Bowl is coming up as well as March Madness and some of you just got a brand new HDTV for the holidays so let’s try and get the best out of the whole deal. Sound good? → Read More
It’s come to my attention that not everyone understands the subtle yet significant differences between GSM and CDMA. We’ve received random e-mails from folks asking how they can get XY phone from AT&T to work on Sprint’s network and it makes me scratch my head. My first instinct is to curse and hit the Spam button, but I slowly realize this individual just doesn’t know the difference. It’s not their fault. In our line of work we don’t always remember that everyone is as savvy or immersed in tech on a daily basis. For this we apologize. To make up for our indiscretions here is your Orientation for the week. → Read More
Welcome to the first installment of CrunchGear’s The Orientation. This is a new weekly column where we take some of the gadgets, technologies, and concepts of the tech world and make it easily digestible to those who might find some of it to be over their heads. Most of us surf the Web over Wi-Fi on a DSL network or cable modem, and if you’re really unlucky then you’re still on a dial-up network, but I highly doubt you read CG if you’re in the latter group. Your 9-5 probably has a T1 or T3 connection. I’m usually always in an area where I can pick up a signal on my laptop or BlackBerry. But what if I’m not? What if you want to watch YouTube on your iFones? If you’re in a rural area and don’t have access to broadband then I feel very sorry for you. You have the right to rot your brain by surfing the Interwebs for hours on end only to find porn and LOL cats. This is where WiMAX comes in, and while it’s been in the works for a number of years, it’s been available in Korea since 2006. We’re getting very close to its launch in the US next spring via Sprint, and some operators are already offering WiMAX service, such as Clearwire. In a nutshell, it’s point to multipoint broadband wireless transmission. But what the heck does that mean and how does it work? Well, here’s your orientation so you’re prepared for all its glory, so sit back and relax. → Read More
