E3 2008: Dead Space

In space, no one can hear you frag--or at least that's what we imagine EA is saying about its new sci-fi horror game, Dead Space. Mixing bits of Doom and Resident Evil, we've been eager to get our hands on this genre-bending action title, if only because the "survival horror" genre (essentially creepy haunted house games named after an awkward Japanese translation) has been pretty quiet lately.

The plot is fairly standard scary sci-fi fare--an unlucky guy arrives on a space station to find it deserted (well, except for the monsters, naturally). Even though EA says the game is heavy on creepy psychological terror, every trailer or game footage video we've seen up to now has been heavy on the combat, with our hapless protagonist shooting various big ugly space monsters in generic-looking sci-fi environments.
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Free Olympics coverage coming to StarHub cable soon!

Catch the Beijing 2008 Olympics fever on StarHub's upcoming dedicated Olympics channels for free! There are six dedicated channels in total covering games from soccer matches and athletics, to swimming events, etc. The coverage will be televised from 8am earliest till midnight daily, available on HubStation, digital and HD settop boxes. Analog cable TV subscribers have not been forgotten, too, except that it will be a leaner complementary offering through its preview channel.

For road warriors on StarHub mobile, the Singapore telco is bringing the Olympics actions out of your living room with its 3/3.5G live streaming service. All that is required is to logon to its Gee! portal's MobileTV Xtra page using your handset's inbuilt Web browser. It will also be introducing a new mobile TV client application for download on selected mobiles. This adds a handy electronic program guide on the plate and an enhanced user interface for switching between channels.

On a separate note, its HD cable TV customers will get to enjoy extra coverage from MediaCorp's HD5 broadcasts on its network. These weeks-long programs will commence from August 6 to 24. Check in here for more information.

Pioneer to debut flagship Susano A/V amp

We're just weeks away from getting our hands on the no-holds-barred Pioneer A/V amplifier. This epic 35.5kg beauty comes in alluring black piano finish, outfitted with a slew of tantalizing features and cutting-edge technologies. Examples are a beautiful 5.1-inch color LCD screen for easy configuration, multimedia playlist selection and preview for external analog sources. For the power monger, there's a colossal 1,400W power derived from its ICEpower digital amplifier. Not only does this cater for a 10.2-channel home theater, it also adds front, center and surround speaker bi-amplification.

The Susano is also one of the rare gems to meet Lucasfilm's stringent THX Ultra 2 Plus standard. This is a certification created to guarantee full impact of modern movie soundtracks even when played back at lower volume. To tame all that power underneath its tank-like dual chassis, it has advanced MCACC 3D automatic calibration and precision speaker distance settings to optimize the overall setup in any home environment. These give the kit an added bite to accurately reproduce onboard decoded Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound to full cinematic effect.


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HDMI cable with swivel head

Before your start cursing away on that hard-to-reach HDMI port, try taking a closer look at Panasonic's new free-angle HDMI cable. This swivels up to 90 degrees two-way to allow a much tighter fit for squeezing out extra centimeters to earn you a theatrical 100-inch projection. Then there's the dreaded scenario of installing a new HDMI box to a cramped wall-mounted flat panel, too.

Two flavors are available: A 1.5m and a 3m-long model, both HDMI 1.3a certified for carrying bandwidth-intensive 1080p video and high-definition Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD surround sound. These are currently sold in Europe and we seriously doubt it will come to Asia in the coming months. That's unless there's strong demand in our region along the scale of truckloads per country--it's usual policy for A/V consumer electronics here. Singapore at least.

Via Ubergizmo | Photo credit: Ubergizmo

Digital photo frame gets a little smarter

Some of us at Crave may never understand the point of digital picture frames, but at least manufacturers are trying to build in a few features that make them more interesting, if only slightly.

The latest such attempt comes from Transcend, the T.photo 720. In addition to its frustrating punctuation, this 7-inch picture frame has sensors that can detect whether a photo has been shot veritically or horizontally, then automatically adjust the image for proper viewing.

Other features include video and MP3 playback, 2GB of memory, an FM radio, and a slot for microSD cards to make it easier to display pictures taken with phone cameras, according to Fareastgizmos. As we said, nothing earth-shaking, but interesting.

Via CNET Crave

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