Happy New Year and new decade from all of us here at Maverick!

While we are all disappointed that technology in reality has not caught up with Hollywood’s vision of the future, we can still get excited about the possibilities 2010 has to offer. Unfortunately, Roy Schneider is no longer with us to help make contact with extra-terrestrial life, as he did in the 1984 film 2010. Although, if 2012 is to be the year of Armageddon we will have to make the most of the next two years and the technical advances possible in that time.

So how is 2010 looking for Maverick? We have some exciting projects in the pipeline that we look forward to sharing with you throughout the year. Keep checking our website and YouTube channel for updates.

In the meantime, why not forget your January blues and the freezing weather, congratulate yourselves for getting through the first week of the new year, and check out some previews of a few amazing things heading your way in 2010 (and Hot Tub Time Machine).

Microsoft’s Project Natal

Sony’s PS3 Motion Controller

Nintendo’s DSi XL

FIFA World Cup in South Africa

Winter Olympics in Vancouver

Hot Tub Time Machine

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On Friday evening the meeting room was emptied to make way for The Beatles Rock Band. Talents soon came to shine with Will AKA Ringo, Seamus AKA George, Jess AKA Paul and Lucie AKA John showing the office, including the original members, how it’s done.

We are currently taking bookings for weddings and birthdays, please contact the front desk for more information.

Tags: Social | Rock Band

Virtual reality (VR) has been an interest spreading from average consumers right up togovernment and military application.

Virtual Reality technology has been somewhat improving over the years, but by no means at a leaps-and-bounds pace. Nonetheless, the technology is improving and some day we can all enjoy the Holodeck on the Starship Enterprise, maybe.

Enter the Immersive VR ‘Cocoon’ , which hopefully will be delivered (at a rather high cost no doubt) by NAU, an international design group by 2014. NAU aims to change how we currently interact with computersfor day-to-day functions and entertainment such as playing games. A prototype of the ‘cocoon’ should be publicized sometime in October of this year.

“After the hatch silently slides open, a small extendible staircase will glide down to invite you inside the dome. Once inside, you will find a 360 degree seamless display and hear full three dimensional surroundsound. The best part of all this is the inclusion of multiple motion-tracking cameras and a motion-sensing floor platform. All this to serve as the means for interaction."

If and when this does become a commercially available product, you most likely will not find it in your friends basement. Something like this will probably show up at electronics expos, gaming lounges, arcades and carnival shows. The price tag will more than likely be quite large.

There are a few games I wouldn’t mind experiencing in this thing, that’s for sure.

Source : Tom's Hardware

Tags: Immersive Virtual Reality

The first-ever video advertisement will be published in a traditional paper magazine in September.

The video-in-print ads will appear in select copies of the US show business title Entertainment Weekly. The slim-line screens - around the size of a mobile phone display - also have rechargeable batteries. The chip technology used to store the video - described as similar to that used in singing greeting cards - is activated when the page is turned. Each chip can hold up to 40 minutes of video. The first clips will preview programmes from US TV network CBS and show adverts by the drinks company Pepsi. They will appear in 18 September editions of the magazine distributed in Los Angeles and New York.

It's believed the new technology will cost much more than normal print ads. However, BBC correspondent Rajesh Mirchandani said that in an increasingly competitive market, advertisers have realised that it is more important than ever to create attention for their product. He likened the technology to the Daily Prophet - a newspaper with moving pictures described in the Harry Potter books.

It is not the first time that publishers have experimented with digital technology in magazines. Last year, for example, men's lifestyle magazine Esquire published the first using e-ink technology, with a cover that flashed in alternating patterns. E-ink is the technology used in the Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle electronic books. Americhip, the developer of video-in-print, has also created magazine technology that appeals to various senses, including smell.

Tags: print | video