Crave

Humans best computer in poker match

In a poker contest of man vs. machine, the results are in. Humans-2. Polaris-1. (And one draw.)

On Tuesday night, Phil Laak and Ali Esmali, two professional poker players, faced off against a computer program called Polaris, which was developed over 26 years at the University of Alberta. The contest, held at the American Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference in Vancouver, Canada, was one of the first scientific poker contests involving real players.

In the end, Polaris beat Laak and Esmali in the first match of 500 hands; tied the second match; then lost the last … Read more

Tesla sets goal of 800 cars in first year

Tesla Motors, the guys with the all-electric sports car, have set a goal of manufacturing 800 cars in their first production year.

The company has already taken deposits for more than 560 2008 Tesla Roadsters, according to a spokesman. The cars sell for $98,000 after a recent price hike from $92,000. If they sell all 800, that will lead to revenue of around $76 million, by my math (average price of 95K x 800).

The company has raised more than $40 million in venture funding.

The Roadster runs on lithium ion batteries and can go from zero to … Read more

Cell phones make you ill? It's in your head

If you feel ill from being around cell phones, power lines or microwaves, chances are it's all in your head, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Essex.

The study, detailed in an article from New Scientist, shows that those suffering from what's known as electrical sensitivity, or electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS), are not able to detect electromagnetic radiation at all, as some people believe.

Those who suffer from EHS say they experience illnesses, such as headaches and fatigue, or an allergic reaction when they are near electrical equipment such as microwaves or mobile phone … Read more

In L.A., an audience for machinima

It's been a hectic week, but we didn't want that to deter us from recounting this cool event: Last Friday night Crave joined a standing-room-only crowd of geeks, artists, and filmmakers at Los Angeles' Machine Project art space for an overview and screening of machinima films. A compound of machine and cinema, machinima describes the art of making films out of video games. Bypassing both labor-intensive hand-drawn animation and computer-intensive digital animation, machinima artists instead use game engines as cheap animation tools, combining video sequences created within the game with original dialogue and soundtracks. The result is far … Read more

Three new Sony receivers, and we've already reviewed the best one

Presumably in an effort to steal some of the buzz from Denon's line show yesterday, Sony announced three new receivers in its ES line slated to come out over the next few months. The flagship model is the STR-DA5300ES, successor to the excellent and innovative STR-DA5200ES, and we already have a full review. The big news about the STR-DA5300ES is undoubtedly its connectivity. There are six HDMI inputs, which is more than we've seen on any receiver in this price range. Match that up with its three component video inputs and the STR-DA5300ES's plentiful input names, and … Read more

Denon unveils new AV receiver line

Denon is certainly one of the heavy hitters in the AV receiver market, and its full 2007 AV receiver line has now been announced. In general, you can expect Denon's receivers to be pricier than similarly equipped competitors, but in many cases, Denon is trying to justify the price premium with premium features. For example, all the receivers from the AVR-3808CI to the AVR-5308CI feature Denon's new graphical user interface, which replaces the old blocky-text look. Denon is also stressing networking functionality, which is available on the same receivers with the GUI and allows you to you play … Read more

Samsung SGH-P260 potentially in fall lineup

We've heard that Samsung has come up with yet another slider, dubbed the Samsung SGH-P260. It looks a little like the Samsung SGH-D807, but what sets it apart is that it is a UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access) phone with built-in Wi-Fi. This feature lets it make calls via Wi-Fi, and the phone can also switch between wireless hot spots and GSM cellular airwaves automatically. Other features include a 262,000 color display, a 2-megapixel camera, 256MB of internal memory, a microSD card slot, an MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth, and more. No word on carrier, but since it is a … Read more

ABC quietly launched HD streaming late yesterday

Just got this note from a PR rep:

"Hi David-

We had chatted in early April about Move Networks (regarding ABC's switch from Flash to Move), and I thought you might want to hear a bit of other ABC/Move related news.

Late yesterday, ABC quietly launched their HD player powered by Move Networks' publishing platform and Move's player. There is now an 'HD Showcase' with shows including Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Lost and Ugly Betty running at HD resolution (1280x720).

ABC developer blog on the launch: http://blogs.abc.com/fepblog/2007/07/hd-streaming-ha.html … Read more

Denon deals dough-intensive, iPod-ready HTiBs

Despite the steep price tag, we liked the Denon S-301 when it came out a couple of years ago, citing its iPod-friendliness and good sound. The company is now following up with a few more high-end home theaters in boxes (HTiBs), so we'll take you through the entire "S series" from the bottom up. For details on the tabletop radios, models S-32 and S-52, click here; the other three will be available in September 2007.

Models (MSRP)

Denon S-32 ($499) Denon S-52 ($699) Denon S-81 ($599) Denon S-102($999) Denon S-302 ($1,699)

… Read more