Tag Archives: 20th anniversary

Xbox just pulled a Nintendo with its 20th Anniversary translucent wireless controller!

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“Ah, this gives me such fond GameBoy Advance memories!”

2021 marks a pretty important milestone in the timeline of gaming. It was 2 decades back that Microsoft unveiled its ambitious plans to move from computing to full-blown gaming with the Xbox, a console designed to take on Sony’s PlayStation which released in 1995… a rivalry that even 20 years later, is still going strong. To mark the 20th Anniversary of the Xbox, Microsoft announced a special edition of its wireless controller, with a uniquely nerd-pleasing translucent black design with green accents – colors that have a strong link to the Xbox brand and even their logo.

While Xbox has a history of releasing translucent variants of their controllers (notably the translucent green Xbox Duke controller), it’s a tactic that one could argue was popularized at least in the gaming circuit by Nintendo, with the translucent GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance. The controller isn’t fundamentally different in function, although it’s a hat-tip to 20 years of Xbox revolutionizing the console gaming industry. It comes along with a translucent Universal Quick Charging Stand that’s designed by Razer, which claims to charge your controller in under 3 hours, with overcharge and overheating protection.

The Xbox 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller, which was announced earlier today, goes on sale beginning November 15th. Alongside the controller, Microsoft also announced a wired 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Stereo Headset, complete with bright green highlights and a translucent black shell.

“November 15th, 2021 will mark 20 years of gaming together! Fans helped shape what Xbox is today and we can’t wait to see what the next 20 years will bring”, said Microsoft in a press release on the Xbox Wire blog. “Today, we celebrate our history together with the 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Wireless Controller and 20th Anniversary Special Edition Xbox Stereo Headset – launching November 15 and available for pre-order now. We were inspired by our favorite memories together from the last 20 years and created not one, but two unique accessories to commemorate this milestone.”

Designer: Microsoft (Universal Quick Charging Stand designed by Razer)

Is Apple relaunching the iPod on its 20th Anniversary this year? Here’s why it could be a smart idea…

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Four words – Lossless Audio, and Apple Arcade. These four words could just as easily the new iPod’s design brief. The Twitter rumor-mill’s working on overdrive after a few sources claimed that Apple could announce a new iPod this fall. A few designers even went so far as to create renders based on hearsay and leaks, and I’m absolutely here for it. A new iPod could be a pretty nifty product for a variety of reasons. Here are my thoughts.

Only last week Apple announced that lossless audio was coming to Apple Music. With a new iPod, it’ll be like Apple going into the music-streaming war guns-a-blazing. Spotify’s slowly but surely dominated this space, and the new iPod could almost be Apple signaling that it’s taking the music domain pretty seriously. The iPod could drum up major interest the same way the Moto RAZR did – nostalgia is a powerful force. Moreover, the hardware would be no different from the iPhone 5 or the iPhone SE, given that the renders look pretty much exactly like those devices.

Secondly, the new iPod has the ability to become Apple’s gateway device for a variety of iOS features (and probably even MagSafe, who knows). Kids could use it for listening to music, but could also potentially use the iMessage service on it. The iPod could leverage the power of Apple Arcade too, becoming a very affordable device that parents would buy for their kids in a heartbeat, tying them into the Apple ecosystem at an early age. The iPod has always been an impulse purchase (as opposed to the iPhone)… reissuing the gadget on its 20th anniversary absolutely makes a world of sense!!

Image Credits: Steve Moser, AppleLe257, and Apple_Tomorrow

Blue Origin has been trying to get the hell off this planet for 20 years now

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As a teenager, young Jeff Bezos was fascinated with space exploration. Speaking as the 18-year-old valedictorian of his high school, Bezos told the Miami Herald in 1982 that he planned “to build space hotels, amusement parks and colonies for 2 millio...

Twenty years after the birth of SMS, its creator consents to a text-only interview

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Twenty years after the birth of SMS, its creator consents to a textonly interview

Finnish engineer Matti Makkonen famously dreamed up the idea for the SMS (Short Message Service) in a Copenhagen pizza shop in 1984, and the first message ("Happy Christmas") was sent to a Vodafone UK cellphone from a PC on December 3, 1992. Since then, an estimated 8 trillion texts have been sent, and now the normally recalcitrant pioneer has given the BBC a rare interview (appropriately via text message), where he discussed "txtspk,' keypads vs. touchscreens, and the next big tech development.

While described as the father of SMS, Makkonen is still reluctant to take sole credit, saying it was "the result of a joint effort to collect ideas and write a specification." On top of that, he never felt the idea was patentable and therefore never saw a penny from the invention, despite its present day pervasiveness. As for textspeak, the engineer refrains from creating abbreviated messages himself, saying "my passion is to write correct language (Finnish), using all 160 characters." He's happy to do this using a modern touchscreen phone, although he couldn't resist using the interview to pay a charmingly backhanded compliment, saying they're "slow enough (that I can) think and sometimes even edit what I write."

[Image credit: Nokia]

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Source: BBC

Wolfenstein 3D celebrates 20 years of machine guns and flag-obscured passages with free web version

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Wolfenstein 3D: Play it for free

To commemorate the big two-oh years since its release, Bethesda has offered up the full Wolfenstein 3D experience to play for free in your web browser. Not only that, you'll also be able to play the id original on iOS devices gratis (at least for today) and creator John Carmack has decided to offer us a director's commentary on the game's development while shooting his way through a few levels. Watch, nod and reminisce right after the break, then hit up the source to play for yourself.

Continue reading Wolfenstein 3D celebrates 20 years of machine guns and flag-obscured passages with free web version

Wolfenstein 3D celebrates 20 years of machine guns and flag-obscured passages with free web version originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 May 2012 13:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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