Our pals at CVG drop the dime on an audacious move to become overlord of the hottest property in gaming.

Filed under: Gaming

Not but a few days after some decided anti-Sony Japan commentary by a very frustrated Phil Harrison, the Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios President is out, with his role to be assumed by the monolithic Kaz Hirai. Phil recently expressed his frustration for SCE Japan’s resistance to online and social gaming, which, as it turns out, is exactly where Sony needed to be like five years ago. From the sound of things, Phil’s departure is a little unceremonious (and, dare we say, sanctimonious?), but who’s to say what really went down behind closed doors?

Read – Phil pulled his hair out over Sony Japan’s conservative nature
Read – … and now, mysteriously, Harrison is out

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Filed under: Robots

We’ve seen some pretty fantastic replicas grace the always fascinating pages of eBay before, but this particular creation is apparently hitting home with quite a few wealthy nerds prospective buyers. The fiberglass reproduction of Gort from the famed 1951 classic The Day The Earth Stood Still is currently sitting just above $4,000, and there’s still quite a few hours left for bids to fly in from other galaxies. Unfortunately, the winning bidder will be forced to trek to San Francisco to pick it up, but at least you can look forward to checking out its tilting visor and array of sound effects before it melts your wallet and calls you master.

[Via Technabob]

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Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Rob Meek and Frank Miller’s not-so-humbly-named Meek FM “typographic synthesizer” has been making the rounds for a little while now, but in case you weren’t able to check out one of the few live “performances” of it, the pair have now thankfully let loose a video that shows just what the device is capable of. As you can see for yourself after the break, the one of a kind rig lets you take a distinctively Moog-like approach to designing fonts, with a slew of good old fashioned knobs provided to let you tweak things to your heart’s content. Needless to say, the pair apparently have no plans to produce any more to sell, and this is one project where we’re guessing a DIY guide would be of little help to anyone other than a very select few font-loving synthesizer aficionados.

[Via technabob]

Continue reading Meek FM “typographic synthesizer” gets demoed on video

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Clad in standard issue silver and black and weighing in a little on the chunky side, we’d be lying if we said Toshiba’s entry-level LCD was a real looker. It’s not that it’s particularly ugly, mind you: there are just way better looking 32-inch screens out there, including some that cost less money.

Reservations concerning the chubby waistline are speedily banished when you flip the on switch, because the picture quality is as good as anything else in this price range — or at least it is when you feed it a high quality HD source. Use the built-in Freeview tuner and the results are a bit noisy and dirty, but Hi-Def movies and games benefit from the adjustable backlight and blazing colour reproduction. The former means you can tone down the light behind the screen when viewing in a dark room, which helps keep blacks looking black, rather than grey. 24p from Blu-ray and HD DVD is also supported, so hi-def movie discs deliver their eye candy with nary a judder in sight.

Likewise, the inclusion of SRS WOW and a bass boosting mode means that sound quality resides a healthy notch above average. It’s nothing on a decent external audio setup, mind you, but it does a better job than most smallish screens, meaning that if you hook up a DVD player, games console or piece of HD kit you won’t be left disappointed.