Find Our Latest Video Reviews on YouTube!
If you want to stay on top of all of our video reviews of the latest tech, be sure to check out and subscribe to the Gear Live YouTube channel, hosted by Andru Edwards! It’s free!
In what has got to be the most shocking bit of news we’ve heard today, Gran Turismo 4 has been announced for release on February 22 in the United States. Reports had previously confirmed the European release as being next month, so we were wondering what was the hold up stateside. The latest installment of this driving simulation series had been previously scheduled for a release here late last year. Since then, it’s been released in Japan and we’ve waited for what feels like an eternity for additional cars and features to be added. Now we can all go and complain about something else for a change.
Read More 
| MySan
Advertisement
Last month we told you about Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s multiplayer mode, but what about the single player experience? Team Xbox brings you the latest screen shots and five movies of actual game play of the actual Xbox version and not some developer’s version on a PC. The newest installment in the Splinter Cell series looks gorgeous and promises to bring many new features, such as throwing enemies off cliffs and using the real-time weather to your advantage. This game is expected to be released on March 29th, however there is a way you can play it before then. Pick up the March edition of Official Xbox Magazine with the extra CD and you will be able to play the demo version exclusively available to OXM.
Read More 
| Team Xbox
Skype is one of my top 5 favorite programs, and I think everyone should have it. They have now released version 1.0 for the Macintosh and Linux operating systems, with full cross platform interoperability. Go ahead and upgrade your beta version here - it’s free as always. Full press release after the jump.
Click to continue reading Skype 1.0 Now Available for Mac and Linux
Latest Gear Live Videos
For all you do-it-yourself home movie publishers, Apple has releases an update to iMovie HD. Of course, you need a Mac in order to benefit from the news - but with the very affordable Mac mini on the market, maybe it is time to consider “the switch”.
The iMovie HD Update addresses issues related to video and audio synchronization for DV projects and other minor issues, including:
- audio in PAL widescreen
- Sharing/exporting HDV to videocamera tape
- compatibility with some analog-to-digital converter boxes
- importing video from a DV videocamera, such as when using analog passthrough or recording live video.
Grab it here.
Russound’s New Multi-Room Audio A-Bus System
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Home Entertainment,
Imagine if you will be able to send audio signal from one location in your house to six other locations in your house. Now keep imagining, imagine you could control each room individually. Now, imagine if each room could choose what it wanted to listen to. With a tuner, CD, Sonos unit that streams your PC audio or Television Audio you have an endless selection. I know it sounds like a nice dream, but it’s a dream Russound has made come true. They have this wonderful 6 inputs, 6-room audio distribution system using A-Bus technology. As one of the best selling multi-room audio systems, how could it get any better? Well the old CAV system has been replaced with the new CAM series. It features LCD keypads in every room, a built in tuner and your choice of AM/FM or AM/FM/XM. How easy is it to setup? Simple, cat5 runs from the distribution point to the keypads and speaker wire from the keypads to the speakers. What about noise from amplified signal being dragged across every light and electrical line in the house? Not to worry, there is none. Russound uses cat5 to get signal to the amplified keypads at 50watts per channel. I hope you are adding these things to my birthday gift list.
Read More | Russound
This week’s DVD release list is highlighted by the absolutely brilliant Ray, which comes in the normal flavor as well as a Limited 2-Disc Special Edition. If you haven’t seen this one yet, do yourself a favor and give this one a rent at the very least. I am gonna wait for it to be available on HD PPV. Of course, if you are more in the mood for something that will make you feel like tearing your eyes out, go for The Grudge for its spookiness - or Mulan II for its, um, ungoodness. Here are the rest of the week’s releases:
Ray (Widescreen Edition) ~ Taylor Hackford
Charmed - The Complete First Season ~ Les Sheldon
Wonderfalls - The Complete Series ~ Katie Finneran
Shall We Dance (Widescreen Edition) ~ Richard Gere
Ray (Limited 2-Disc Special Edition) ~ Taylor Hackford
Mulan II ~ Lynne Southerland
Frasier - The Complete Fourth Season ~ Kelsey Grammer
I Love Lucy - The Complete Third Season ~ Lucille Ball
The Grudge ~ Sarah Michelle Gellar
Oz - The Complete Fourth Season ~ Lee Tergesen
We’re pretty fond of WowWee’s Robosapien which was introduced this past year. We figured it was only a matter of time before we saw an updated model shown here, “cleverly” named Robosapien V2. This taller model, due out in December for $200, will feature the ability to pick up, drop and throw objects, bend over and twist from side to side, sit, lie down and stand up. It also comes equipped with an infra-red radar vision, and blue LED lights to detect obstacles, track movements and take objects that are handed to him. It will even be able to control two additional products due out next year, the Roboraptor ($100) and the Robopet ($70), due in August and October 2005 respectively.
Read More | Gadget Madness
Many expected a PowerBook G5 announcement at MacWorld - but that didn’t happen. Then people expected it would come any day, but that didn’t happen either. Finally, today, Apple announced an update to their PowerBook line - but the G5 processor remains out of the equation. Instead, what differentiates the new PowerBooks from the older models are increased processor speeds on (up to 1.67GHz on the 15 and 17-inch models, and up tp 1.5GHz on the 12-inch), and the availability of 100GB drives on the 15 and 17-inch models. You also have the option of adding an 8x SuperDrives to any of the new PowerBooks. Lastly, the ATI Radeon card has been bumped up from 64MB to 128MB, and the notebooks now support Bluetooth 2.0. While that is a mouthful, we would still have preferred a G5 processor to be thrown in.
Read More | Apple PowerBook
TiVo Releases Software Development Kit
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Corporate News, Home Entertainment,
It took them long enough, but TiVo has finally released an SDK which will allow developers to program web services and other applications for TiVo DVR’s over a network. The basic JavaHMO is an example of a program that is written to give the TiVo more functionality, but was a labor intensive project since there was no SDK at the time of its development. The first kit available to developers includes three applications - a weather module, an RSS reader, and some sort of game. Time will tell if this will be another one of those “too little, too late” deals, as Microsoft’s Windows Media Center 2005, Comcast, and others have been gaining on TiVo with much success.
Read More | The Motley Fool
This one’s for those folks who can’t afford a new NVidia card every 3 months. For a fraction of the price, you and up to three friends can take part in a board game recreation of last year’s scare-fest from id Software. Included in the game are 6 custom dice, 66 plastic miniatures (HellKnights, Zombies, Marines, etc), a rule book, and a scenario guide. I bet most scenarios involve you being in a claustrophobic boiler room, unable to hold a gun and a flashlight at the same time.
Read More | Fantasy Flight Games
Advertisement
© Gear Live Inc. {year} – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.