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Jack White is no fan of digital audio

I devoured Tape Op magazine's interview with Jack White III (the White Stripes), mostly because the man is as obsessed with sound quality as I am. The interview was conducted by Tape Op's editor, Larry Crane, but it sounds more like a freewheeling conversation than an interview. Crane founded the magazine 15 years ago, and it now has a circulation of 55,000 print copies.

White never takes the easy way with his music and recording, and prefers analog tape machines, "I like the constriction of 8-track. I like knowing in the back of my head that … Read more

How do they game? Intel Sandy Bridge and AMD Fusion graphics, overview

Both Intel and AMD, the two main companies that make the vast majority of computer processors, have new platforms for 2011. AMD's Fusion and Intel's second-generation Core i-series (formerly code-named Sandy Bridge) share a common goal: to package improved integrated graphics on the chipset that work much better than the previous generation, making it possible to play better games and stream more HD content without the need for a dedicated video card.

For most people, computers with integrated graphics are the default, because they cost less. Unless you're a serious tech enthusiast, you don't want to … Read more

Samsung announces the Messager III

Samsung has just announced the Messager III, the third iteration of the oddly named messaging phone for MetroPCS (it's a successor to the Samsung Messager and the Messager II).

It'll have that same slide-out QWERTY keyboard, plus a music player, stereo Bluetooth, and a 1.3-megapixel camera. It looks like a rebranded version of the Samsung Restore. Pricing is not yet available, but we'll let you know about it once we find out.

Fable III hands-on: Starting a revolution

Fable III is the third installment in the series from visionary creator Peter Molyneux. This latest iteration continues the story of the fictional land of Albion, taking place 50 years after the events in Fable II and 550 years after the original Fable on Xbox.

Now deep in its industrial revolution, Albion is faced with a tyrannical king who happens to be your brother. You'll seek to overthrow him by gaining enough followers to stage a revolution. How you accomplish this is the game's good or evil main gameplay component.

Jeff: Having sat down privately with Fable's lead game designer Peter Molyneux a few months before Fable III's release really helped understand where he wanted to take the franchise. Molyneux seemed frustrated with where the RPG genre had evolved and wanted Fable III to distance itself from the norm.

To Molyneux's credit, Fable III is by far the most accessible RPG we've played--so much so that at times the game doesn't even feel like one. Instead of worrying about the typical genre staples of meters and gauges, Fable III seamlessly equates leveling up to crossing through a series of gates. This separate world can be visited at any time and lets players cash in earned points to open treasure chests that represent upgrades and new abilities.

Also new in Fable III is the menu system, or lack thereof. There's actually no pause button in the game. Instead, hitting Start takes the player to a sanctuary where he or she has the option to equip weapons or switch outfits. Kudos to the development team for making this such a smooth experience--the sanctuary loads almost instantaneously.… Read more

U.S. testing defenses with simulated cyberattack

The U.S. government has launched a full-scale simulated cyberattack to gauge how the country might fare in the real thing.

Sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security, Cyber Storm III kicked off yesterday for a three-day series of simulated events designed to exploit holes in the nation's cybersecurity system.

Specifically, the exercise will "inject" more than 1,500 different types of threats to examine the ability of the people involved to prepare for cyberattacks, make the correct decisions to respond to them, and share sensitive information with the right parties.

Noting that the country's adversaries … Read more

Holy crap! Scientists create pooping robot

One good robot deserves another. That's why Japan's robot toilets would love a British bot that poops with clockwork regularity.

Ioannis Ieropoulos and other researchers at Bristol Robotics Laboratory in the U.K. have created a marvel of modern science--a robot that can feed on biomass and excrete waste. The EcoBot III has an artificial gut that allows it to survive on fluid food and water for seven days without human intervention.

The robot is powered by 48 small microbial fuel cells (MFCs) and moves along a steel track between sources of liquid food and water (see time-lapse … Read more

Working to make combat soldiers' lives easier

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--In combat, things can be so chaotic and loud that soldiers sometimes aren't even aware they're being shot at.

But thanks to technology from the company that is often credited with inventing the Internet, thousands of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are now able to rely on an automatic system that not only alerts them--in a very loud, urgent voice--that shots are being fired but also gives them an almost instant notification of where the shots are coming from.

This is Boomerang, a vehicle-mounted mobile acoustic shot detection system first developed by BBN Technologies in … Read more

E3 2010 trailer: Fable III

Fable III is Peter Molyneux's third tale in the epic action-adventure RPG franchise where every decision you make has an impact on your character's ultimate fate. Molyneux was on hand at Microsoft's E3 2010 press conference to briefly discuss the game and described it as "the quest to save Albion."

The title will take place five years after Fable II and will be available on October 26.

Features, not game titles driving console adoption

New research from Nielsen Games shows that the purchase of a specific game title actually ranks lowest in a list of purchase motivators and that consumers are driven by a myriad of factors that relate more toward a longer-term usage pattern than an impulse purchase for a specific title.

In the study of God of War III--a PlayStation 3 (PS3) exclusive--Nielsen found that the new game title had some influence in the sale of the console, but far less than would have been expected. In fact, buying a specific game was at the bottom of the list of purchase motivators.… Read more