3D TV: Pro's, Con's, and More

Astor Theater, NYC

The whole idea of 3D TV isn't a new phenomena. Actually, believe it or not, 3D film was patented in 1890 by a British fellow named William Freise-Greene. His method, when viewed stereoscopically, tricked the brain into giving you a 3-D image visually. It wasn't tested on an audience until June 10, 1915 in the Astor Theatre in New York City where people we're shown a compilation of scenes including but not limited to Marie Doro, John Mason playing passages from Tim the Penman, and oriental dancers.

3D TV- Panasonic

Fast forwarding to today, 3D TV's are catching on with an estimated 6.2 million sold in the US and an estimated 33 by 2012, according to Today 3D. 3D movies are also more popular than ever before with the instillation of Imax premium 3D movie theaters across the country making it possible for everyone to enjoy. The top 5 movies of late would be Avatar (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Despicable Me (2010).

3D TV set's of today are pretty cool for the average person with a little extra change in their purse. They provide the same awesome 3D projections as a movie theater but in the convenience of your own home. However, they do come with a couple cons:

1. Primarily, the cost. The average 3D TV will run you anywhere from $900 to upwards of $2500 and even more for those who seek true a more true cinema experience.
2. Secondly, the lack of content. Though 3D technology has been on the market for about 2 years consistently, the rest of the tech world hasn't quite caught on 100% and many companies are not ready to invest money into 3D products because its not clear how well this phase will stick. The limited amount of 3D channels, topped with the only 3D movie format being the pricey Blu-ray and PS3's high cost, scares away many potential buyers.
3. And lastly, the tacky glasses. Look, you can sugar coat it any way you want, but these glasses are UGLY. You could be wearing the old school multi-colored glasses or the new more modern looking glasses, it's still a hassle to anyone who wants to just sit down and watch, especially if you already wear glasses. Also, if you're anything like me, you're CONSTANTLY losing the remote whether its tangled up in your sheets, fallen under the bed, behind the couch, or whatever. Imagine losing those glasses once a day and not being able to watch anything. Bit of a drag, huh?

Panasonic's 3D Glasses

Some of the top name brands in the market for 3D TV would be Samsung, Panasonic, Sony, Sharp, and LG. I did a little research into the customer reviews and this is what I came across with so far:

• Samsung- lower quality sound, suffers from some bad glare, incredible HD and 3D TV image quality, easy to set up and use, internet connection with Netflix, and overall best quality for price.

• Panasonic- high picture quality, internet connection with Netflix capability, but a known glitch in the brightness that engineers claim to "know about" and "are currently working on it", as well as reduced sound quality.

• Sony- high picture quality, lower sound quality(seems to be a trending issue with 3D TV's), and top internet capabilities with both Netflix and Pandora.

• Sharp- no reported cons, just a high picture quality, internet with netflix capabilities, high price, but the sound quality was ranked a tad bit lower than the picture quality, keeping it even with the rest.

• LG- suffers from low sound quality, slacking picture quality when watching HDTV, and colors are not vibrant and do not pop when watching any form of TV.

If you're looking for anything more, like 3D gaming, you'd have to look into the PS3 and Nintendo 3DS' which are being mentioned in a follow up post coming soon.

Any other questions? Perhaps something I didn't answer here, contact us and we'll be sure to help.

Credit to:
Box Office Mojo
Wikipedia

Weekly Flash: Chaos Faction 2

Check out Chaos Faction 2! Kind of Super Smash Bros.-esque gameplay, customizable characters, story line gameplay, and you can even edit the levels! Worth your time, no doubt.

Y3.com - 9500+ Free Games

Y3.com - 9500+ Free Games

Robot of the Week: OptoFidelity

Angry Birds Loading Screen

Angry Birds is an app on the Android and iPhone market right now where your objective is to launch birds, using a slingshot, into structures to knock them down and subsequently destroy the evil green pigs. The app has hit the market like wildfire and its incredibly addictive (but in a healthy way).

According to an article I read at TechCrunch, a company by the name of OptoFidelity has created a robot which can not only manage to play Angry Birds, but outplay some of the best human players. Now, I'm not sure that this is 100% legitimate and after researching a little bit onto the only actual trustworthy source, their website, I've come to two conclusions:
1. I can not speak Finnish
2. Yes this is 100% legit (which was determined after a little help from Google Chrome's translater)

After reading through an article on OptoFidelity's website here, it seems that they pulled this off with equipment they already had laying around. OptoFidelity does a lot of automated touch screen testing with their robots. They simply wired the robot to be able to use the touch screen precisely enough to play Angry Birds. They had this to say about the task,

"The hardest game of the robot's development Tuulkarin was to play the game man power levels through the full three-star result. Programming the robot's task then was then already relatively easy."

The video below shows an advertisement for OptoFidelity where their automated touch screen robot was able to outplay one of Finland's fastest Angry Birds players. Check it out!



Credit to:
TechCrunch's article: Click Here if You've Never Seen a Robot Play Angry Birds Before (Videos)
OptoFidelity's article: Can match the angry birds-SM-race winner OptoFideltyn robot? (copied word for word from translated page)

E3 coming in less than one month!

E3, or the Electronic Entertainment Expo, is one of the biggest electronics conventions in the world. Each year, it travels to Los Angeles to display the latest and the greatest of the electronic entertainment world. Sick Tech on Deck would love to cover the expo for you as hands on by being there ourselves. However, a car trip around the country and 3 nights in a crappy motel aren't that cheap. So, we're here asking you to help us. Help us to help you, essentially. Don't feel any pressure, we don't demand anything, we only ask generosity of those who are able to be so generous. Also, we don't want you to feel anything you invest in us would be put to personal use, as such, a full copy of all business expenses made during this trip would be shown to you upon request after the trip is made.
More information on our potential trip will be announced as the month progresses. But remember, this trip can't be made without your help. We only ask this of you to make ourselves the best we can to help you.

Who Needs an Electric Car?

Here's my problem with eco-friendly cars: I love the sound of a hard cranking engine. Nothing gets me going like pushing the petal to the medal in our Chrysler 300 with out 5.7 Hemi and I know that with virtually any eco-friendly car, you lose that luxury. But beyond the superficials, these eco-friendly's are the way of the future and at one point or another I'm afraid I'll have to convert my mindset to adapt.

After seeing this, I'm feeling a little happier knowing I won't have to change all that much. This video we've found on the web shows a car that runs on water instead of gas. It does this by separating the hydrogen from the oxygen in each water molecule and using the hydrogen to power the combustion in the engine. Now, I don't know all too much about how this works so I'll let you pick up what you can from the video as I have vowed to not tell you anything unless I was sure I knew what I was talking about.

Check out the future of Green-Tech driving and how this H20 powered Dodge Ram 1500 pick up roars on its Hydrogen pumping engine below!

Big Time Hackings: What you ought to know

According to a report made on April 3rd of this year, over 100 major companies have experienced a data breach. This breach occurred through an attack on a marketing group which subsequently had access to all the other major companies which experienced this breach. An updated list of these companies has been released on Databreaches.net. The list is too long for me to post but you can find it here.

However, this recent hacking spree doesn't stop there.

I'm sure anyone with an internet connection has read about what's happened with Sony's PSN (Playstation Network) and what was potentially at risk. In case you haven't heard, the overall 'jist' of it is that Sony's online netword was invaded by an outside intruder. In the midst of his intrusion, Sony shut off PSN and Qriocity Service to investigate.

During the investigation, it was concluded that the personal information of those who use PSN was compromised though there is no evidence that anything major has happened following this such as subsequent identify thefts etc. Sony has since made major steps to boost its security ten fold in order to protect all the information thats still there.

According to this statement made by Playstation about their Network Breach, you are urged to check your credit to be sure nothing no action has been taken with your personal information. They have also been kind enough to list three major credit bureaus which you can use.

HOWEVER, this hacker, or group of hackers, which is now being publicly called Anon or Anonymous, has an alleged press release on youtube explaining the attack made and why they made it. Included in this video is also a list of demands which once read, seem to be quite reasonable granted everything they say about Sony's actions are legitimate.

Anonymous's statement. (click to enlarge)

For anyone who is not familiar, Anon is an incredibly intelligent, international group of geniuses by any standard. They typically seek justice through their actions. One may be able to remember the attacks they made on Aaron Barr. Barr was the CEO of HBGary Federal, a technology security company. His company was known for assistance in stopping alleged security risks such as WikiLeaks.
Well, Aaron Barr released a statement saying he had personal information on a few suspected members of Anonymous by monitoring their facebooks, emails, IRC chats, etc. This caused ,what one could call, a preemptive strike, where Anon hacked HBGary's website along with Barr's twitter account releasing the links to Barr's personal emails and hacked website. So, easy to say, their track record is stellar.


I urge you to check this out. This details Anonymous' reasons for their attack and what they demand of Sony and Playstation.


Credit to:
Databreach.net's article: And the hits just keep on coming for Epsilon
Playstation's article: Playstation Network Service Outage
Forbes' Blog's article: Anonymous Takes Revenge on Security Firm For Trying to Sell Supporters' Details to FBI