E3 2010 – keynote round up.

Even though you may have seen live blogs of the major keynotes from E3 this year, you may have missed some of the details, or even the nuance of having something told to you second hand. Luckily most of those keynotes can still be seen online. Now you can play the Sony and Microsoft keynotes side by side and decide who looks goofier, someone using Kinect, or someone using Move. In order of appearence: Microsoft – Electronic Arts – Ubisoft Nintendo – Sony – Kinect

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New slim Xbox 360 to hit Canada on Sunday

Announced at E3 earlier this week, the newly upgraded ‘whisper quiet’ version of the Xbox 360, which also more than doubles the hard drive capacity to 250GB, is slated to hit Canada’s two biggest electronics retailers Sunday June 20th, for $299.99.  With the release coming so soon after the E3 announcement, I’m guessing the supply chain for the original design has been very much controlled for some time now, to minimize the number of orphaned original 360s. I have a few unused electronics gift cards sitting on my desk at…

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NXNE daily dispatch

There’s so much to see at NXNE that it’s hard to pick and choose, so here’s a daily look at what’s happening.  Starting with the free stuff, NXPO is a free-to-the-public music-lifestyle exposition which includes a daystage, vendors, and a bar, the latter not free, is open the 17th and 18th from noon to 8pm at the Hyatt Regency Toronto – 370 King St. W. The free Yonge-Dundas Square shows start at 6pm today, and include headliners Mudhoney at 9pm, and So-Cal punk legends X at 10pm.

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Crowd sourced funding and distribution brings Pioneer One TV series to life

It was just yesterday at NXNEi that we were talking with Perry Chen, one of the founders of Kickstarter about how the site has really helped facilitate crowd sourcing funding for creative projects, and how it can really help independent creators off the ground.  Even as we were talking to him, a Kickstarter funded TV project called Pioneer One saw the premiere of it’s pilot episode (includes .torrent link), via crowd sourced distribution network VODO.net. Pioneer One, which is political thriller with a science fiction element as it’s jumping off…

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Sony Ericsson announces Xperia X8, pushes up X10 2.1 update, and win an X10 from Rogers for Father’s Day

Today Sony Ericsson confirmed the existence of the recently leaked ‘Shakira’ mid-sized Android smartphone, when they officially introduced the Xperia X8. While Rogers has not confirmed, or even hinted, that they will carry this phone, it makes sense that they will, since they currently carry the Xperia X10, and will soon have the X10 Mini. The X8 fits in-between these two phones, in both price and size, and sports a 3 inch screen, 600 MHz CPU, 3.2 MP camera, and runs Sony Ericsson’s Timescape UI. This phone takes the best…

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Rock Band 3: Rock Out with your Natural Talent Out

Remember when Rock Band first arrived on the scene? It, along with the venerable classic Guitar Hero, proved that it is possible to get up off the couch and interact with a game in a way that no Wiimote could ever hope to deliver. And the world lost its friggin’ mind. Suddenly people who had no interest in gaming had a way to channel their inner rock star without feeling like some pimply-faced teen or the pressure to be Teh Pwnerer; it was just a fun piece of kit that…

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NXNE – fairly interactive

As the inaugural year for NXNE interactive (NXNEi), the annual festival played it fairly small, with the focus being on a number of panels and conferences leading into the much larger music and film component.  With a number of fascinating panels, from brain-computer-interfaces by Interaxon to established internet artists such as zefrank and a presentation from Kickstarter, which crowd sources funding for art projects across many disciplines, NXNEi was definitely about establishing online connections, not just in the business sense, but on a more personal and human level. Sometimes it…

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Astroturf Bill C-32 groups started by CRIA

There are a number of citizen’s groups that have formed around the new Canadian copyright bill C-32, nicknamed the DMCA for Canada. Most of these groups are real people concerned about changes to Canadian copyright policies in the digital age. Now, via Michael Geist, comes the story of Balanced Copyright for Canada, a group preteneding to be ordinary citizens, but apparently created by the CRIA (Canadian Record Industry Association don’t you know). They’re making use of the same social media tools that grassroots organizations on either side of the argument…

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PS3 E3 2010 keynote highlights

The Sony keynote at E3 2010 stood in stark contrast to Microsoft’s and in some ways it’s like a mirror universe version.  Which console wore the goatee this year is entirely dependent upon your fanboy predilections.  Why is that?  In the past, Microsoft more than Sony caught a lot of heat for paying for exclusive content on cross-platform titles, though that’s their prerogative. This year was Sony’s time to shine with additional content from titles like Medal of Honor, Dead Space 2 (including compatibility with the Move – more on…

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Portal 2 E3 trailer

Portal 2, the oft-teased and well-ARGed sequel to the sleeper hit from Valve, finally got a real teaser trailer.  It’s not much on details, but does feature the ever wry GladOS giving the player a welcome back greeting in her own special way.  It did make it’s premiere at the Sony keynote, suggesting that maybe there’s a bit of a thaw between Gabe Newell and the PS3… we’ll be waiting for some time though, as Portal 2 is looking at a 2011 ship date.

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NXNE 2010 kicks into gear

It was a different world when Toronto’s NXNE (North By Northwest don’t you know) started out in 1994 as a music festival, based on the model by sister event SXSW (South By Southwest, natch).  Even in the early days, NXNE was an ambitious affair with dozens of venues and enough bands, and music lovers, to fill them up.  Since then the festival has grown and evolved, adding the film component in 2001, and most recently introducing NXNE interactive.  Although nothing so big is expected here, it was at SXSW interactive…

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Boxee Box delayed until November

When the Boxee Box (hardware by D-Link), was announced late last year, they originally planned a launch by Q2 of this year.  Although rumours of a delay have been swirling around for a month or more, it wasn’t until this past Friday that it became official.  The Boxee Box will be launching in November, in both the US and Canada. It’s not surprising, as there have been a number of advances in the past few months in capable hardware and it would make sense for Boxee and D-Link to take…

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