Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 3 Hands-On

During a visit to Microsoft's E3 booth earlier today, we had an opportunity to meet with representatives from developer Turn 10 and talk to them about the recently announced Xbox 360-exclusive Forza Motorsport 3. Turn 10 didn't share any crazy new information about the game with us but instead gave us a few facts, figures, and philosophies, and then more or less let the game speak for itself.

In Forza Motorsport 3, the cars are most definitely the stars. There will be around 400 of them in the finished game (including classics, SUVs, and micros), each with 10 times as many polygons as their Forza 2 counterparts and higher-resolution textures. Needless to say, the results are impressive, and if seeing the game's signature bright-red Audi R8 V10 against the stark white background of the new user interface doesn't get you excited to drive it, then nothing will.

Cars look every bit as good on the circuit as they do on the selection screen, and you're in for a real treat if you're someone who likes to drive using the in-car view. Beautiful environments, like the mountain range and lakes that surround the Camino Viejo track, whiz by at a smooth 60 frames per second, and a plethora of driving options ensure that practically anyone can have a good time behind the wheel. Turn all of the auto-assists on, and you can drive doing little more than hitting the accelerator and turning left and right. Turn them off, and you'll find that Forza 3 offers a challenging and realistic driving experience that, if you're not as skilled behind the wheel as you think you are, might give you a great opportunity to roll your car and check out the impressive damage modeling.

Forza 3 will also be forgiving in ways that its predecessors weren't, though. If you make a mistake, you have the option to rewind time for what seems to be about 10 to 15 seconds, and try again. Cleverly, when you upload times to the game's leaderboards, they'll be listed only as "certified" if you didn't use the rewind feature. Purportedly, the game will also know if you gained an advantage by riding walls, taking shortcuts, or drafting someone for the entire lap or if you had someone in a faster car push you around, and your times will be listed as uncertified accordingly.

Toward the end of our meeting, Turn 10 made a point of telling us how important the Forza community is to them and how, while they're not ready to talk about specific features just yet, players who specialize in painting or tuning cars aren't going to be disappointed or forgotten. We were also told that Forza 3 will feature "a lot" of real-life and fantasy tracks, though only three of the latter are being shown here at E3. After leaving the meeting, we were invited to get some hands-on time with the game, and that's when things got really exciting.

The E3 demo includes eight highly desirable cars from Lamborghini, Ferrari, Ford, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Porsche, Corvette, and Audi, and after choosing one (the Aston Martin on this occasion), we got to race two laps against the other seven. Playing with the regular Xbox 360 controller, we immediately felt comfortable with the controls, and as we maintained position in the middle of the pack for much of the first lap, we were afforded several opportunities to witness the game's AI at work. Opposing drivers were competitive but knew when to back down, and crucially, they were fallible. We witnessed one driver make a completely unforced error going into a corner, which, while not entirely realistic, is certainly more entertaining than seeing opponents move around a track on rails.

However, where Forza 3 reallyimpressed us at E3 2009, was inside one of the three simulators that Microsoft has set up behind its booth. These simulators incorporate force feedback steering wheels, three pedals, three widescreens, and hydraulics that make you feel every bump in the road and, apparently, necessitate the wearing of a seatbelt. Most of us will never get to experience Forza 3 in this way outside of an event like E3, but the fact that it's even possible to do so underlines just how much attention to detail has gone into its making.

October can't come quickly enough, and in the meantime we hope to bring you plenty of updates on features that aren't being talked about at E3. Stay tuned.

Sony Ericsson Handset Features 8.1-Megapixel Camera

The Sony Ericsson W995a 3G handset, announced today, is among the select few in the U.S. to offer an 8.1-megapixel digital camera. This $600 unlocked quad-band GSM/tri-band UMTS multimedia handset will come in black, silver, and red, and is now available for pre-orders; it will ship July 6.

This 4-ounce slider phone's camera includes a flash, as is becoming increasingly common. The digital camera offers standalone-camera features such as a 16X digital zoom, face detection technology, geo-tagging, autofocus, image stabilization, and video recording. You can even hold the handset horizontally like a standard digital camera. The screen has an
sony ericsson w995a
accelerometer, and autorotates as needed.

The unit also has a 2.6-inch display, Bluetooth 2.0 stereo support, a Wi-Fi adapter, and a GPS receiver. As part of the Walkman line of phones, this model also has a healthy set of music-friendly features: Walkman 3.0 digital music/video player software with dedicated playback buttons; stereo FM radio with presets; Sony's Clear Bass technology for bolstering bass response; and Clear Stereo technology, for minimizing audio leakage between the right and left channels.

The W995a also comes with an 8GB Sony Memory Stick Micro for extra storage (the phone's

onboard memory is negligible). The phone, previously available overseas,continues to use Memory Stick Micro, although Sony Ericsson has already announced plans to bail on the memory format.

An interesting design point: If you actually want to make calls, a standard dialpad with rectangular buttons slides down from the casing. Sony Ericsson says the unit offers up to nine hours of talk time, more than two weeks of standby time, and 20 hours of music playback per charge.

T-Mobile G2 to Come In July

T-Mobile is spreading word that the launch of the Android G2 is "early this summer." The carrier isn't mentioning which device will actually carry the T-Mobile G2 name-tag. Speculation has the HTC Magic as the best competitor for this position.

After giving T-Mobile G1 users a major software upgrade in the form of Android OS 1.5 (also known as Cupcake), T-Mobile announced it is ready to launch the successor of the G1 model early next month. More than 1 million G1s have been sold so far, so the G2 is set to build on the popularity of its older sibling.

Google gave away at the I/O conference last week an HTC Magic to all audience members, which makes me think this will be the T-Mobile G2. The HTC Magic is already available in some European countries (where it is also called HTC Dream), but is yet to make it in the U.S..

My colleague Melissa J. Perenson was at the I/O conference and had a hands-on with the phone. She found a lot to like about the HTC Magic, especially its slimmer profile and smaller overall size (mainly due to the lack of a physical keyboard). You can check out herhands-on with the HTC Magic.

T-Mobile's G2, however, could face a difficult time next month when it is launched. The phone jumps in at a time when Palm, Nokia, and Apple are fighting for customers in the touch screen realm. We already know the Palm Prewill launch on June 6, the Nokia N97 on June 19, and the new iPhone reportedly on July 17.

With so many red-hot phones coming out this summer, it would be safe to wait until all of them are released and then decide which one is best for you. My colleague James A. Martin has a few very interesting thoughts about that, talking about how to avoid instant buyer's remorse.

Meanwhile, for more Android goodness, make sure you check out the 11 cool Android prototypes I'd like to see, and for a head-to-head summer smartphones comparison, have a look at the latest Smartphone Smackdown.

Samsung Edges Out Sony Ericsson in Megapixel Race

Samsung launched on Monday the Pixon12, the company's first touchscreen phone with a 12-megapixel camera.

The long-rumored phone follows in the footsteps of the Sony Ericsson Satio, which also comes equipped with a 12-megapixel camera. But the Samsung phone will be the first to hit the market when it ships in some parts of Europe by the end of June.

Sony Ericsson, on the other hand, will start shipping the Satio in the beginning of the fourth quarter.

Losing that first-to-market advantage will be frustrating for Sony Ericsson, according to a research note from CCS Insight, which said that the megapixel race appears to be slowing down.

The Pixon12 also has a Xenon flash and Touch Auto-Focus tracking, which lets the user select the focus point with the touch of a finger, after which the phone automatically follows the object. It features fast-image saving, so users should be able to take next photo within about two seconds, according to a statement from Samsung.

Both images and videos -- which the Pixon12 records with 720x480 resolution at 30 frames per second -- can be uploaded to social-networking sites such as Facebook, Picasa, Flickr, MySpace, Photobucket, Friendster, Samsung said. Images are stored on a 16G byte MicroSD card.

Besides a camera it has some other fairly standard features, including a 3.1-inch display, GPS and an FM radio. Users can surf the net using HSPA (High-Speed Packet Access) or Wi-Fi.

Simmtronics

Simmtronics Launches 2GB DDR3 1333MHz Memory

Simmtronics Semiconductors Ltd. has announced the launch of 2GB DDR3-1333 MHz 240-pin DIMMs for both Desktops & Notebooks, targeted towards power users like gamers, animators and graphic designers. Simmtronics’ DDR3-Modules are currently available in 2GB capacity with life time warranty. DDR3, the successor to DDR2 Memory, is expected to soon become the industry standard for PC Memory Modules. The operating voltage of DDR3 Memory Modules also offers reduction in power consumption of 30% compared 1.8V to 1.5V, thus reducing actual Memory power consumption by 20-30% compared to systems with DDR2 Memory.

DDR3 Modules can transfer data at a rate of 800–1600 MHz using both rising and falling edges of a 400–800 MHz I/O clock. In comparison, DDR2's current range of data transfer rates is 400–800 MHz using a 200–400 MHz I/O clock, and DDR's range is 200–400 MHz based on a 100–200 MHz I/O clock. DDR3 Modules have 240 pins, the same number as DDR2, and are the same size, but are electrically incompatible and have a different key notch location to avoid usage of wrong type of RAM with incompatible slots.

Price- Rs.3400/-(MRP)

Warranty - Life time limited to 5 years