A few days ago the only Xbox 360 with a HDMI port was the forthcoming, and more expensive, Elite version.
That’s all changed now as Microsoft has undertaken a sneaky update, and without too much fanfare, where all newer Xbox 360 Premium consoles – not Core versions – will have a HDMI port as standard. This is great news for anyone wanting a simple way to hook up to a HDTV. It’s not great news for anyone – like me – who already owns an Xbox 360. Still, mine died yesterday – freezing at start-up all of time - and thankfully, it’s under a year-old so I’m heading back to my local store to see what can be done.
The new HDMI-equipped consoles are starting to appear in the US now and by next month most new 360s will have the port. Consumers should look out for boxes marked with HDMI logos. Hopefully, we’ll be getting them here in the coming months. Again, though, Microsoft has said little about its plans for us backwater Europeans. US gamers also just got that $50 price cut too.
My only observation then is that if the Premium is getting a HDMI port too, then that means the only reason to buy the Elite console is the new colour and a 120GB hard disk drive. Is that worth £50?-Martin Lynch
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If the iTrip isn’t your in-car choice for playing iPod/MP3 tunes through the car speakers then Belkin wants you to check out Tunecast 3.
TuneCast 3 is described as a universal FM Transmitter with a pretty OLED display. The big difference seems to be that this one is a bit smarter and easier to use than Tunecast II. The status indicator tells you when your memory presets have been saved, when it’s processing a request and when it’s powering off/on. The cable is 20ft – 6 ft longer than the one on Tunecast II.
Belkin points out that you can hook it up to your kid’s portable DVD player in the car so that everyone can hear the movie through the car’s speakers. Why? Isn’t the idea of a portable DVD player in the back seat to shut the rugrats up?
Anyway, it launches in the US first in November and comes to Europe after that. It will cost £40.-Martin Lynch
[Belkin]
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I know some people like to enlarge photos of themselves and their cherished offspring to fill a few feet on a wall but what if the photograph was bigger than your entire house, and maybe the ones on either side too?
This is the world’s largest photograph, measuring 28-ft tall and 108-ft wide. It’s of the 5,000-acre Marine Corps Station El Toro, a decommissioned military base that is being converted into hundreds of acres of parkland, museum district, sports complex and thousands of suburban homes in Orange County, California.
To take the world’s biggest photo required the world’s biggest camera – a disused airplane hangar. The team created a massive camera obscura by hanging the canvas - covered in 80-litres of silver halide solution - in the darkened hangar. They then exposed it through an aperture just 1in wide, 15-ft above the ground for 10-days. When done, they developed it in an Olympic sized swimming pool with 600 gallons of developer.
The result: an ancient-looking blurry shot of the airfield and control tower.-Martin Lynch
[The Legacy Project]
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Editor and Contributor | Martin Lynch
Contributor | Tamlin Magee
