Marshall's New Media News

Man Transforms car into a robot

2010-06-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

Xbox Travel Case

2010-06-21T11:12:00.000-07:00

Have Xbox 360, will travel? Why yes, and while that particular console isn't one I usually associate with the jet-set crowd, this GAEMS suitcase allows one to do just that. Now, about that power brick...

As in, where the heck does it go? There's no way its massive bulk is fitting in that case alongside the Xbox 360 and the 720p LCD screen and speakers, so does that mean you have to buy a second GAEMS power brick suitcase too? And how does the screen get its juice? It can't be magic, can it? I mean, Steve Jobs patented that power source when he spontaneously created the iPad from the ether.

Then there are the ever-important the controllers. Perhaps there's a GAEMS controller fanny pack forthcoming that we just don't know about yet. Perhaps.

In any event, the suitcase arrives later this year for $250. Yes, that is correct. A suitcase that's only big enough to carry the console and not the controller or power source that drives it is as, or nearly expensive as, the console it contains. Bon voyage!

Toshiba Libretto W100

2010-06-21T11:10:00.000-07:00

The Libretto has the specs of a halfway decent ultraportable: a 1.2 GHz Pentium U5400 processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 62GB SSD, a USB port and a microSD slot. But that body isn't really like anything else, unfolding to reveal two 7-inch multitouch displays. The screens can either be used together or independently meaning one web page can span the whole device, or be sequestered on top while the bottom is filled with email, documents, or an on-screen keyboard.

Speaking of which: the Libretto has fully six different keyboard options to choose from, including a split solution that looks far more comfortable to use than what's we've seen so far in tablets.

Toshiba Portege R700 Laptop

2010-06-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

All those ultraportables using Intel's ULV Core processors just got taken to school: Toshiba's Portégé R700 is as light as a MacBook Air, nearly as powerful as a MacBook Pro, and measures an inch thick with a DVD drive. Standard.

Putting a full voltage processor in such a thin and light frame really is a neat trick, one that Toshiba accomplished in part with something they're calling Airflow Cooling Technology. And while most companies are stripping ultraportable notebooks of their DVD drives—usually citing space and weight issues—Toshiba's managed to keep theirs in a laptop that starts at three pounds.

Wi-Fi Available for 150 Bucks !

2010-06-21T10:58:00.000-07:00

Good news all around for those of you considering a nook. An all-white, Wi-Fi only version, which leaked a bit early, goes on sale today for $150. That sounded pretty exciting...before the 3G version simultaneously dropped by $60.

That's right, the classic nook is now $200. From what we can tell, the only three differences between the $150 Wi-Fi nook and the $200 3G nook are:

• connectivity (Wi-Fi vs 3G, duh!) and
• cosmetic (the Wi-Fi has a white back, the 3G has a grey back)
• imperceptible weight (Wi-Fi runs 11.6 ounces while the nook 3G is 12.1 ounces)

To me, the $50 premium would be worth ensuring that I have perpetual, free access from anywhere, though a $100 nook Wi-Fi would be the eBook reader to really sell me...if such a thing is possible in the rising era of tablets.

Panasonic's Micro Four Thirds AG-AF1000 Camcorder

2010-06-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

When we first got wind of Panasonic's AG-AF100 micro four thirds camcorder back in April, it sounded more like the rough sketch of a good idea. Now that Panasonic's filled in some of the blanks, you can color me excited.

Specifically, the AG-AF100 will shoot AVCHD at 1080p and 720p at frame rates of 59.94, 50, 29.97, 25 or 23.9p and have two SDXC card slots on which you can record up to 12 hours of footage. It'll also come equipped with XLR and HD-SDI sockets standard.

The best news of all may be that you can also use any of Panasonic's G series micro four thirds still lenses with the AG-AF100. That gives you a huge range of lenses to choose from on a relatively—we're talking about $6,000—affordable rig. Even though it's targeted for professional use, it looks like a treat for those semi-professionals with some money to burn

The Force Unleashed II

2010-05-04T13:19:00.001-07:00

May the Fourth be with you, and I couldn't imagine a better time for LucasArts to nail down a late October release date for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

While I'm sure most of you would have preferred celebrating unofficial Star Wars Day by playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, at least now fans of Starkiller's covert operations have a date to focus their Force-powered anticipation upon. October 26 is when Darth Vader's secret apprentice takes his next romp through the Star Wars universe, participating in massive, story-changing encounters in such a ways as to not ruin continuity in the original trilogy.

I mean, any more than it's already been ruined.

The news comes by way of the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Facebook page, though if it helps you can imagine it was delivered via shimmering hologram projected from from an R2 unit.

The game will be available October 26 for the Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, PlayStation 3, and PSP. We expect to see a lot more of The Force Unleashed II come E3 2010 next month.

Air Force's Falcon Hypersonic Glide is LOST

2010-04-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

The Air Force's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2—designed to attack global targets at Mach 20—has disappeared nine minutes into its first test flight, just after separating from its booster. Contact was lost, and it hasn't been found yet.

The Falcon was supposed to splash down in the Pacific Ocean after a 30-minute, 4,100-nautical-mile test flight. Not to be confused with the unmanned X-37B space shuttle—which launched on April 22—the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 blasted off last week from the Vandenberg Air Force Base on a Minotaur IV rocket.

Instead of completing its flight, however, the Air Force lost all contact with the aircraft. According to DARPA's Johanna Spangenberg Jones:

Preliminary review of data indicates the HTV-2 achieved controlled flight within the atmosphere at over Mach 20. Then contact with HTV-2 was lost. This was our first flight (all others were done in wind tunnels and simulations) so although of course we would like to have everything go perfectly, we still gathered data and can use findings for the next flight, scheduled currently for early 2011.

Just that: The telemetry data signal vanished, and the aircraft is nowhere to be found. Being a semi-secret project, nothing else has been disclosed. The only logical explanations are 1) a massive structural failure, 2) Nazi UFOs or 3) somebody lost it in a beer garden. I will pick number two for the time being.

The hypersonic glider is built by Lockheed Martin under a DARPA program. It's designed to launch conventional weapons against any target in the planet in just one hour. This capability makes it a perfect substitute for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Unlike ICBMs loaded with conventional heads, the plane can't be mistaken with a nuclear missile, so it won't make other nuclear powers to hit the red button.

Ok, you can lose a pair of car keys, you can even lose your phone, but how does someone ljavascript:void(0)ose track of a gigantic jet. I hope some random person did not come across it and wants to take it for a joy ride.

China's 21 Foot Tall Baby

2010-04-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

This is just strange and creepy. This was made by the people who made Alien vs Predator.

Ever Wanted to Know What Are Some The Android Aps Are?

2010-04-30T07:08:00.000-07:00

Well here they are. Brought to you by Gizmodo.

http://gizmodo.com/tag/androidappsdirectory

Eh Parental Control, the folder art is amazing

2010-04-30T07:05:00.000-07:00

This ad for Latinworks' Parental Control Bar urges parents to protect their kids from the seedier sides of the internet. But if you're going to organize your folders like that, what the hell do you expect?

I dont know about the Parental Control Bar but that picture took some serious skill. haha

Ice Discovered On An Asteroid, Suggests That Earth's Ocean May of Come From Space

2010-04-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

Water ice and organic molecules have been discovered on an asteroid's surface for the first time. Researchers glimpsed the ice on 24 Themis, a frosty rock that could be the key to understanding how Earth became the blue planet.

"What we've found suggests that an asteroid like this one may have hit Earth and brought our planet its water," said astronomer Humberto Campins of the University of Central Florida, the lead of one of the two separate teams that reported similar findings April 28 in Nature.

While there is plenty of debate around how Earth got its oceans, this new evidence suggests some of the water came from extraterrestrial sources. Here's how it may have happened: More than four billion years ago, after a massive collision between Earth and another large object created the moon, our planet was completely dessicated. Then, during the Late Heavy Bombardment period that followed, during which lots of asteroids hit Earth, the ice that the objects carried became our store of water.

"The more we find in our asteroid belt objects that do have water, the more convinced we are that that was a possible process to rehydrate the earth," said NASA astrobiologist Mary Voytek.

The ice on Themis 24 could be a sort of time capsule from the early solar system and could be similar to the ice that may have arrived on Earth from asteroids during the Heavy Bombardment.

"The ice that we see there, right now, is sort of related to the ice that could have come from the main asteroid belt that hit us about 4 billion years ago," astronomer Henry Hsieh of Queen's University Belfast told NPR. "It gives us a way to kind of probe the cousins of the asteroids that hit us and probably gave us water in the early stages of the Earth's formation." Hsieh wrote a commentary that accompanied the stories in Nature.

The presence of ice and organic molecules on the surface of an asteroid is the latest in a string of discoveries that collectively indicate water ice is a more common substance than we might have thought. In just the past few years, scientists have confirmed the presence of ice at the moon's north pole as well as beneath the surface of Mars.

That is crazy stuff. Imagine if we actually found out how the world started.

Ever Wanted to Know What Would happen If You Brought The Iphone to 9gs?

2010-04-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

What happens when you take an iPhone up in an F16 fighter jet for a few dog fights, bringing it up to speeds of 9Gs? The pixels start to melt off the screen. Badass.

Microsoft Courier is No More

2010-04-30T06:58:00.000-07:00

According to sources familiar with the matter, Microsoft has cancelled Courier, the folding, two-screen prototype tablet that was first uncovered by Gizmodo.

We're told that on Wednesday, Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer Microsoft execs informed the internal team that had been working on the tablet device that the project would no longer be supported. Courier had never been publicly announced or acknowledged as a Microsoft product.

It appeared from the leaked information last year that a Courier prototype was probably near to completion. The combination of both touch- and pen-based computing was compelling. Perhaps the strong launch of Apple's iPad, currently the only available "mobile tablet" from a major vendor, caused Ballmer to reassess the commitment of Microsoft in a soon-to-be-crowded market.

We contacted Microsoft, who confirmed that Courier will not go into production. Microsoft Corporate VP of Communications Frank Shaw told us:

At any given time, we're looking at new ideas, investigating, testing, incubating them. It's in our DNA to develop new form factors and natural user interfaces to foster productivity and creativity. The Courier project is an example of this type of effort. It will be evaluated for use in future offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.

It is a pity. Courier was one of the most innovative concepts out of Redmond in quite some time. But what we loved about Courier was the interface and the thinking behind it—not necessarily its custom operating system.

In fact, it makes sense for Microsoft to continue to trim away splinter versions of its core operating systems and focus on Windows 7 and Windows Phone 7 unity across all its devices. Hopefully some of the smart thinking we have seen in Courier will find its way into Microsoft's tablets, whether they're powered by Windows 7 or Windows Phone 7.

If we hear anything more, we'll let you know. As always, feel free to contact me if you have additional details.

Japanese Scientists invent Elastic Water

2010-04-30T06:56:00.000-07:00

This is "elastic water," a substance researchers have created in Japan that's 95% water yet retains a jelly-like texture that's perfect for sticking tissues together.

The stuff is made by adding two grams of clay and "a small quantity of some organic matter" to regular old water. And if they're able to figure out how to increase its density, it could produce eco-friendly plastic materials. Also, I bet it feels real weird when you squeeze it.

I wonder how it keeps its shape from such a small amount of the clay they are adding. It is still awesome.

Desktop Microwave Concept

2010-04-30T06:54:00.000-07:00

This is an awesome concept. You would be able to eat anywhere, it would make people more hefty from eating so much though.

Next Mars Rover to Include 3D Camera thanks to James Cameron

2010-04-30T06:51:00.000-07:00

The new camera will sit on top of Curiosity's mast filming at ten frames per second in high definition 3D video. It will share space with the Mastcam 100, a fixed 100-millimeter camera (above) and the Mastcam 34, which offers a wider angle at a fixed 34-millimeter (below). The 3D eyes were originally scrapped from the project because of budget cuts. Cameron talked with Bolden and made the perfect case: It will make the public connect better with the mission. Cameron is right. NASA should do a better work at marketing their science to normal people. High definition three-dimensional video could be perfect to transmit the magnificent desolation of Mars' surface. The best thing next to actually going there.

This is awesome, there will be new perspective of looking at Mars.

A Tripod That Levels it Self

2010-04-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

Four years in the making, the Acadalus tripod head uses motors and an inclinometer to relieve you of fiddling and make sure your shots are absolutely, positively straight. Of course, that perspectival perfection comes at a price: $5000.

Not everyone needs instant leveling at the touch of a button. But for those who do, Acadalus CPS-H1 will do the trick. PDN Gear Guide verifies that the Acadalus, which is made in Switzerland and modeled after flight simulators, levels shots perfectly at the touch of a button, as promised.

In addition to the $5000 Acadalus studio kit, the 2800 mAH 18.5 V lithium ion battery will run you $500, a worthy investment if you want to use its self-leveling powers when you're shooting with your tripod on uneven ground. And compared to the rest of your setup, that's probably pocket change anyway. [Acadalus via Wired via Crunchgear]

Pretty cool idea, I like the fact it levels it self out so you can get some fast camera shots.

Just Cause looks like a Fail

2010-03-25T13:21:00.000-07:00

I will give it a 5/10

COOL GUNDAM STATUE!

2010-03-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

When residents of Shizuoka were trying to figure out how to top last summer's Gundam statue, they did the obvious. Look for the new, lightsaber version this summer (OK, technically "beam saber"—but we know the truth)

AWESOME NEW GAME COMING THIS FALL!

2010-03-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

This is pretty cool.

CELL PHONE RADIATION INCREASING!

2010-03-18T13:11:00.001-07:00

Cell phone radiation. Some consider it a heath-hazard of paramount importance. Others couldn't care less. Whichever camp you're in, there's some perverse satisfaction in clicking through CNET's countdown to see which is the most mind-melting gadget on the market.

PILLS FOR MEMORY!

2010-03-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

Researchers have discovered that increasing production of a protein called RGS-14 could significantly boost visual memory. They are currently investigating the exact effects on humans, but all I can think is: Photographic memory in pill form.

Sure, we don't really know how the human brain would be affected, but there are certainly great results with mice already:

Mice with the RGS-14 boost could remember objects they had seen for up to two months. Ordinarily the same mice would only be able to remember these objects for about an hour.

The only trouble if similar effects occur in humans and if the magic memory pill of my dreams could be created is that there would have to be a counterpart for forgetting. Because sometimes there are things you really don't want to remember all too well or all too long.

I wonder if their are side affects to taking too many. But it is a pretty cool pill.

GOOGLE MAY STOP CENSORSHIP

2010-03-12T13:21:00.000-08:00

Google and China's dirty laundry has been airing in public since mid-January when Google refused to continue censoring search results in the country. A resolution could be nearing though, with Google rumored to be pulling censorship this month.

Their clash of values has been well-publicized, with Google halting the release of certain Android phones and even canceling a developer event over there. Eric Schmidt from Google warned that "something will happen soon," with the Wall Street Journal claiming sources have tipped them off that they may stop censoring search results this month.

Li Yizhong, a Minister of Industry and Information Technology in China, responded with "if you don't respect Chinese laws, you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and the consequences will be on you" when asked about how China will retaliate if Google stayed true to its word.

However, the rather boring (for spectators, at least) conclusion might just be for Google to work with individual agencies and sectors within China, censoring and un-censoring as they see fit. [WSJ via Reuters]

NO CENSORSHIP!!! YAY!

TABLE WITH FOLDABLE KEYBOARD!

2010-03-11T13:04:00.000-08:00

This may be a concept, but I want someone to actually make it for any present or future tablet out there: An optional foldable keyboard that acts as phone handset. This is how the it works:
The keyboard is physically independent from the tablet itself, just a peripheral device that you can carry around folded in your pocket. However, it doesn't have any independent functionality. It can only work while connected wirelessly to the tablet. And that's the beauty of it: I can imagine myself carrying the iPad 3G on my backpack, ready to receive calls, and then this cellphone-keyboard in my pocket. In fact, if you add a full screen to its outer shell, it could even act as a secondary display for the tablet.
THIS IS AWESOME!

Click here to find out more! New York, 4:01 PM Wed Mar 10 52 posts in the last 24 hours FR | IT | DE | SP | JP | AU | BR | PL GIZMODO TEAM Tip Your

2010-03-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

I spoke to Imagination Technologies—maker of the PowerVR chip that powers smartphones like the iPhone, Droid and many others—and they said, definitively, that you'll have graphics comparable to the PlayStation 3 in 3 years.

They know this because these are the chips they're designing right now. The way the development process works for phones is that Imagination comes up with a chip, which they license, and that works its way through development cycles and people like Apple or HTC, which then incorporate them into their phones, which they in turn have to productize and bring to market. The whole thing takes three years. But in three years, says Imagination, you're going to have a PS3 in your pocket. And that's not just running at the 480x340 resolution that most phones have now, that's PS3-esque graphics on 720p output via HDMI to a TV. Hell, some phones in three years will have a 720p display native.

But there are going to be some interesting things between now and then. Imagination is still working on support for the products out now—the chips in the iPhones and the Droids and the Nokias that use PowerVR. The two most interesting things are Flash acceleration in hardware and OpenCL support, which enables GPGPU computing.

I love the graphic concepts.

NEW MOTION ARC CONTROLLER FROM PLAYSTATION

2010-03-08T13:03:00.000-08:00

While PlayStation still hasn't confirmed whether its motion controller will be called the Arc, the rumor mill has gone one step further this week with a forum-poster claiming it'll work alongside a Wii-like nunchuk.

GDC is kicking off over in San Francisco this week, so if ever there was a venue to announce a new add-on—or even confirmation of the name—that would be it.

The forum-poster at NeoGAF, by the name of Ichinisan, reckons the pictures he saw of the nunchuk included an analog stick, plus X and O buttons, along with L1 and L2 buttons under the D-Pad. The wand-shaped Arc meanwhile apparently has "one very big button on top" (no word if s/he meant the big glowing globe, or something else), and X, O, triangle and square buttons. The trigger is the 'T' command, according to this mysterious poster—who could very well be full of shit, as he's just a junior member of the forums. He does comment that "it's actually long, not like the Wii Nunchuk"—which measures 22.9 x 17.8 x 5.7cm. [NeoGAF via VG247 via TechRadar]

Send an email to Kat Hannaford, the author of this post, at

CEILING PAINTED BY LIGHTS!

2010-03-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

At the moment, our choice of lighting is fairly committal. We drill holes in our ceilings for permanent placements of bulbs. But LEDs open all sorts of other possibilities. It's not hard to imagine a ceiling covered in RGB LEDs, like Seo Dong-Hun's Draw the Lights concept. Equipped with a few sensors, a laser (or IR) pen could "paint" an array of light, allowing you to customize your entire living space in a manner not unlike a Philips LivingColors lamp...only a lot more immersive. [Red Dot via Yanko Design]

NOT ANOTHER CALL OF DUTY!

2010-03-03T13:30:00.001-08:00

Publisher Activision announced today new "strategic plans" for the Call of Duty franchise, announcing a new developer for the shooter franchise and confirming the departure of key Infinity Ward staffers.

Activision announced it will form a "dedicated [Call of Duty] business unit that will bring together its various new brand initiatives with focused, dedicated resources around the world." It plans to expand the Call of Duty brand "with the same focus seen in its Blizzard Entertainment business unit" placing a focus on "high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models."

As previously announced, Activision will release a new Call of Duty game from series co-developer Treyarch, responsible for Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World At War, this fall. Developer Infinity Ward is still scheduled to release two downloadable map packs for Modern Warfare 2 this year.

In 2011, Activision will release another new game in the Call of Duty series from an unspecified developer. It also announced plans for another Call of Duty-based title from developer Sledgehammer Games, the recently formed studio lead by Dead Space creative leads Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey. The Sledgehammer-helmed title will "extend the franchise into the action-adventure genre."

The previously mentioned Call of Duty business unit will be led by Philip Earl, who currently runs Activision Publishing's Asia Pacific region. Activision Publishing's Steve Pearce, chief technology officer, and Steve Ackrich, head of production, will lead Infinity Ward on an interim basis. Former studios heads Jason West and Vince Zampella are no longer with Infinity Ward, officially.

"Activision doesn't comment on HR matters related to its studios," said reps when asked for comment about the departures and allegations of insubordination. The two former Infinity Ward heads are said to have butted heads with their publisher creatively over the direction of the Call of Duty franchise.

Activision Publishing also announced that the company is "in discussions with a select number of partners to bring the franchise to Asia, one of the fastest growing regions for online multiplayer games in the world."

THE ONLY INDOOR BIKE THAT IS COOL AND DANGEROUS!

2010-03-03T13:22:00.000-08:00

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you want some cycling practice but you're worried about all of the reckless drivers out there. You don't want to resort to one of those lame stationary bikes, either. The solution? Free motion bicycle rollers. Updated: More danger!

I would love to bike more often, but the thought of cycling here in New York City is utterly daunting. This alternative, however, seems even more terrifying.

If you want to brave your unfinished basement on two wheels, a free motion set up only costs about $35 in parts and can be assembled by following this Instructable. Just don't say I didn't warn you. [Make and Instructables]

This is pretty cool and dangerous !

What people think of Sony

2010-03-03T13:17:00.000-08:00

Gizmodo Asks
by wjang

IN MY OPINION SONY IS AMAZING, FAST, RELIABLE (Unlike Microsoft), and GOOD PRICES!

THE SAPPHIRE RADEON HD 5970 IS AMAZING!

2010-03-03T13:06:00.000-08:00

The new Sapphire Radeon HD 5970—based upon the acclaimed ATI HD 5970 chipset—is the new world's fastest graphics card. Its 3DMark Vantage score is an insane 22,000.

The overclocked ATI GPU runs at 850MHz, which is supported by 4GB of DDR3 RAM (itself, clocked at 1,200MHz). And all this hardware necessitates three fans an a massive heatsink, making it thicker than your average video card. Outputs include two dual-link DVIs and one mini DisplayPort. Weird that there's no HDMI on here, like the 5870 has.

AMD expects that we'll see the HD 5970 from a variety of different manufactures, which is good because while we have no idea what the thing costs, it won't be cheap.

THIS THING IS POWERFUL AND AMAZING!!!

FLASH ATTACKS!

2010-03-01T12:59:00.000-08:00

You're probably relatively confident in your various machines' integrity against hackers. Repeat Pwn2Own hacking competition victor Charlie Miller would like you to know that you're wrong.

In an interview with OneITSecurity, Miller picks off questions about hacking and security with just enough ease and nonchalance to make me queasy. Like, you know how Mac OS exploits are supposed to be tougher to root out than Windows exploits? Not quite! And they're both vulnerable:

Windows 7 is slightly more difficult because it has full ASLR (address space layout randomization) and a smaller attack surface (for example, no Java or Flash by default). Windows used to be much harder because it had full ASLR and DEP (data execution prevention). But recently, a talk at Black Hat DC showed how to get around these protections in a browser in Windows.

And obviously, Linux is fortress, right? Again:

No, Linux is no harder, in fact probably easier, although some of this is dependent on the particular flavor of Linux you're talking about. The organizers don't choose to use Linux because not that many people use it on the desktop. The other thing is, the vulnerabilities are in the browsers, and mostly, the same browsers that run on Linux, run on Windows.

And within a given operating system, surely you can ensure immunity from exploits by choosing a secure browser like Firefox. Surely. No? GUUUGHHH.

[The safest browser is] Chrome or IE8 on Windows 7 with no Flash installed. There probably isn't enough difference between the browsers to get worked up about. The main thing is not to install Flash!

So the guy who consistently prevails Pwn2Own, a competition where hackers demonstrate exploits for sport, says that Flash, which is installed on about 98% of computers on the internet, unifies all browsers in insecurity. The slightly better news is, despite inherent insecurities that he doesn't bother to elaborate on, mobile smartphone platforms are relatively secure as compared to their desktop counterparts. So there's that.

The full interview is definitely worth a read, even for the tech disinclined—it's a good reminder that you (and you!) can never completely avoid online security threats. So, stay on your toes, and look out for... something? [OneITSecurity viaCrunchgear]

COMPETE FOR THE GRAND PRIZE!

2010-02-25T13:03:00.000-08:00

During the Winter Olympics, we've seen more than our share of athletic action sequences—complex motions broken into stills. For this week's Shooting Challenge, you'll be recreating the effect in the real world (or anywhere else you like).

The Challenge

Shoot an action sequence of any sort.

The Method

You'll want to set your camera on a tripod and shoot in burst mode with a minimum of 3-5FPS. Then you'll combine these images in photo editing software.

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
2. Photos need to be taken the week of the contest. (No portfolio linking or it spoils the "challenge" part.)
3. Explain, briefly, the equipment, settings and technique used to snag the shot.
4. Email submissions to contests@gizmodo.com.
5. Include 800px wide image AND 2560x1600 sized in email. (The 800px image is the one judged, so feel free to crop/alter the image for wallpaper-sized dimensions.)

Send your best entries by Sunday, February 28th at 11PM Eastern to contests@gizmodo.com with "Action Sequence" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs or GIFs, and use a FirstnameLastnameAction.jpg (800px) and FirstnameLastnameActionWALLPAPER.jpg (2560px) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email.

WARHAMMER SUCKS AGAINST WORLD OF WARCRAFT!

2010-02-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

February 24, 2010 - THQ isn't looking to take down Blizzard's mighty World of Warcraft with its upcoming Warhammer 40K MMO. During yesterday's Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, THQ president and CEO Brian Farrell said he believes there's room for another major title in the crowded, massively multiplayer gaming space.

"World of Warcraft is a great game, but as you know in entertainment, there's always the juggernaut and that means there's opportunities out there for the right MMO, said Farrell. " What we love about the Warhammer 40K MMO is that it's different in that it's a sci-fi, futuristic-based world. We're not competing directly in the orcs and elves fantasy environment that World of Warcraft is in. We can differentiate ourselves."

"We have an experienced team building it. On the PC alone, the Warhammer 40K series has sold over five million units, so there's an audience there that likes that universe," he added. "We think there's always competition in every market, but you got to have an x-factor, a point of differentiation, and we think we've got that."

Farrell also revealed the 40K project will have different pricing structures depending on which part of the globe the game is played.

"The way we're building the 40K MMO, and we think it's the right way, is with a flexible business model in mind. We think the subscription model still works in North American and Europe, It's more challenging in Asia, so we're building it in a way that we can either use time-based sessions or microtransactions as the business model in different markets," Farrell said.

"I think going forward in the MMO market you're going to have to be flexible in business models based on geography, and that's how we're building the 40K project."

THQ revealed during its last fiscal quarter conference call the publisher is set to reveal the Warhammer 40K MMO at this year's E3 in June. "Take a look at E3 and I think people will like what they see," Farrell added.

EUROPEAN VACUUM!

2010-02-23T13:07:00.000-08:00

Roomba has ruled the roost when it comes to domestic chores for a long time -- too long. It's getting some serious competition from Samsung, which is finally going to unleash one of its robovacs onto the rest of the world. Well, to Europe anyway. The Navibot is set to spread its wings across the EU in March, having been apparently warmly received in limited Italian tests last year. The bot captures 30fps video of your abode, documenting your feng shui and charting the most efficient course around your coffee table and the display case that houses your TMNT collection. It's even sophisticated enough to pick up where it left off should it run out of juice mid-stride, after returning home for a recharge, but that kind of smarts will cost you: €399 for the basic model with a single virtual wall, and €499 for a slightly posher version with touch-sensitive buttons and a second virtual wall. There's no word on an American release just yet, meaning Roomba's home turf is safe -- for now.

Ctrl Z Apology Card

2010-02-22T12:58:00.000-08:00

Haha this a great and funny card!

SCHOOL SPIES ON ITS STUDENTS!

2010-02-18T13:13:00.000-08:00

High School students have sued the Lower Merion School District in Philadelphia for spying on them using their laptops' built-in cameras. School administrator activated the webcams remotely and recorded students' activities at home. Way to go, KGB-wannabe assclowns. Updated

The situation was discovered by the Robbins, when their kid was disciplined for "improper behavior in his home." How could that be possible? The Vice Principal showed a photo as the evidence. A photo taken with the school-provided laptop webcam.

That school is so weird. Why violate laws like that? They are just dumb thinking they were never going to get caught or something.

VACUUMM SPIDERMAN!

2010-02-17T12:58:00.000-08:00

We've all got at least one vacuum cleaner lying around the house (gathering dust, in some cases), but hopefully no-one will be inspired by BBC presenter Jem Stansfield who scales buildings using sucking force from the machines.

I don't want to be receiving any photos of your bruises after you fall flat on your face 2ft up the side of your garage, but this is how Stansfield cobbled together his "Spiderman gloves," which he's used to climb up to 120ft previously.

THIS I WANNA BE THE NEXT SPIDERMAN

ROBOTLAND!!!

2010-02-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

COOL CONCEPT THEME PARK ! ROBOTLAND !

Microsoft refuses to sell to the military WOW

2010-02-09T12:57:00.000-08:00

The military currently trains its soldiers using PCs, but they were interested in switching to the Xbox 360 for a number of reasons. Unfortunately, Microsoft was not too interested in helping them out.

According to Danger Room, Microsoft refused to sell consoles to Roger Smith, chief technology officer for PEO STRI, the Army command responsible for purchasing training equipment. Why wouldn't Microsoft sell them consoles? Well, according to Smith, three reasons:

* Microsoft was afraid that the military would buy up lots of Xbox 360s, but would buy only one game for each of them, so MS wouldn't make much money off of the games.
* that a big military purchase would create a shortage of Xbox 360s.
* that if the Xbox became an Army training device, it would taint its reputation. Microsoft was concerned that "do we want the Xbox 360 to be seen as having the flavor of a weapon? Do we want Mom and Dad knowing that their kid is buying the same game console as the military trains the SEALs and Rangers on?" Smith told me during an interview for Training & Simulation Journal.

Microsoft are the greediest people ever in my opinion. They don't want to sell it to them because they will only buy about thousands of the same game. That is so dumb.

NEW DROID!

2010-02-03T13:11:00.001-08:00

Why hello there, slightly smaller Droid! I have so many questions for you. Like, why do you have Motoblur? How much do you cost? When can people buy you? Why aren't you officially part of the "Droid" line?

Apparently nobody's awake in Motorola land right now, so I'll hazard a guess at answer these questions myself, in order: Because Motorola is inexplicably obsessed with Motoblur, which can make any Android phone feel like a feature phone; less than the Droid, and probably about the same as the Droid Eris ($100 or less); the beginning of next month; and I have no idea, because this phone has more in common with the Droid than the Droid Eris does. But anyway, here's what Motorola does tell us the Devour comes with, much of which we were fully expecting:

• A touch-sensitive navigation pad
• A 3.1" capacitive touch screen (to the Droid's 3.7-inch screen)
• Pre-loaded applications such as Gmail, Google Talk, YouTube, Google Search and Google Maps with Google Maps Navigation, which implies that the software is at least Android 1.6, though hopefully 2.0 or 2.1.
• MOTOBLUR, and all the social network-y business that entails.
• An 8 GB microSD card

THIS PHONE IS AWESOME!!! I LOVE IT!

LEGOS!!!!

2010-02-03T13:08:00.000-08:00

This is a cool lego sculpture. IT IS AWESOME!

Tokyoflash Escape C Bluetooth Power Core

2010-02-02T13:01:00.000-08:00

OK, so it's not really a power core. The Escape C is really just a necklace with some LEDs and Bluetooth controls, but this Tokyoflash product is still neat in its own right.

Pairing with pretty much any Bluetooth device—from an iPhone to a Skype-wielding PC—the Escape C can accommodate a pair of headphones (with mic) while streaming A2DP audio. Plus, typical volume, track advance and call controls offer you a means to control your music and communications without reaching into your pocket.

Of course, Tokyoflash couldn't create a product without some sort of cryptic time cipher, which is where those blue LEDs come into play. But we won't understand how that part works until the Escape C is released later this year for $150-$180.

The Tester( A GAMER REALITY SHOW)

2010-02-01T19:27:00.000-08:00

Check out the trailer and information here at
http://www.thetester.com/
This series looks so dumb. As much as I love games this is just not entertaining. Idk maybe it will be better, if I actually watch it but it looks dumb to me from the trailer. I think they would get better ratings if it was just a video game tournament of Modern Warfare 2. LOL

My MAG Review

2010-02-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

256 Players online at once playing at the same time on a console is amazing. The graphics are pretty good. The gameplay modes are great. There is a couple of things they need to workout in the game like connecting to the network a little better. MAG is a great multi-player game .

GOD OF WAR 3 COMING TO YOU IN MARCH!

2010-02-01T19:12:00.001-08:00

Archipod Is Pine Cone On the Outside, Apple Store On the Inside

2010-02-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

Created in the UK, the Archipod was conceived out of "frustration at the commuting lifestyle, with its attendant road congestion, air and noise pollution, road rage, running costs and time loss." Indeed, if you're looking for a home office that will make you feel like you're several light-years away from modern society and its discontents, head over to Archipod's website and prepare to open the pod bay doors. It looks cool but when I look at it , it feels like it's tree house not an office. Not doubting that I would not want to get one though.

Latest Crop of Lumix Point-and-Shoots Arrives Next Month

2010-02-01T07:22:00.000-08:00

Lumix will flood the market with a new series of F-line point and shoot cameras next month. Officially revealed at CES, the line already had its specs spelled out, but not pricing or release window. Its a cool camera for portable photography and don't worry about lugging your big and more hefty cameras.

Mu Space Music Player Transforms Into a Bed

2010-02-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

You just have to open it, unfold the bed, turn the speakers inside, and get to sleep listening to slumbering songs. Simple. Even while the Bondi iMac color scheme is a bit passé for my taste, I wish I had one of these while I was waiting at the—horrible—Goa airport to get back to NYC from my—lovely—hunnymoon. This is the most amazing thing for listening to music. I want one for myself. It would be so cool to have.

Zune Phone to Debut at MWC, Will Use Nvidia Tegra

2010-02-01T07:17:00.000-08:00

Spanish blog MuyComputer claims that Microsoft will present the Zune Phone this February, at the MWC in Barcelona. According to them, it's 100% confirmed. Since the Zune Phone will use Tegra, Nvidia will team with Microsoft for the anti-JesusPhone debut.

Talking to the blog editorial director Javier Pérez Cortijo, he told me that "the Zune Phone presentation at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress 2010 is 100% confirmed." I've been a close friend of Javier for a couple of decades—he was my first editor—and I completely trust his sources and his judgement, so this is a good one. The presentation of the Zune Phone at MWC 2010 seems to be inline with the mention of three phones in the Zune software last week, and previous rumors about its introduction.

MuyComputer says that the Zune Phone will have a 480 x 272 screen, HDMI video out, weigh around 2.45 ounces (70 grams), and use Windows Mobile 7.
This is cool concept phone. But who knows the release date of it?

Hershey Kiss inspired CD stands

2010-02-01T07:15:00.000-08:00

Note: these are Hershey's-Kiss-inspired CD/DVD stands—not actual Hershey's Kisses—that are being used to prop up optical media. The latter might work, but the former will crack that coworker's tooth who keeps stealing your desk candy.

This is pretty cool. I think it is very creative.

2010-01-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

It may be lagging three inches behind Panasonic's big telleh, but Mitsubishi's whopping great screen is OLED. Or should that be ZOLED? It was unveiled at ISE 2010, with Number 6 and Boomer dressy-likeys lending a hand.

The screen is actually made up of ten-centimeter-square panels, with a resolution of 1088 x 640p. Light output is 1500cd/m2 - that's loads brighter than your common-or-garden LCD display, meaning that it will work in brightly-lit areas indoors - CES 2011, I guess that means you. Time someone updated Chandler: "She was cute enough to make a gadget hack kick a hole in an OLED display screen."

THIS IS AWESOME! I WANT ONE! BUY ME ONE RIGHT NOW!

NEW APPLE TABLET!

2010-01-27T14:32:00.000-08:00

Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs holds up the new iPad as he speaks during an Apple Special Event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, California. Apple introduced its latest creation, the iPad, a mobile tablet browsing device that is a cross between the iPhone and a MacBook

Air New Zealand Adds USB Ports, iPod Connectors and Power Sockets To Each Seat

2010-01-26T13:00:00.000-08:00

When you're flying 90 odd-hrs just to get to Auckland, you'd be wanting to charge your iPod or laptop at least once. Air New Zealand's done a major overhaul of its Boeing 777 plane, with sockets and USB ports galore. It's not just for the suit-clad first class and business class passengers either. 11 Skycouches that turn into flat beds for two will make those weeks in the air fly past quickly, with the other seats providing extra leg room and comfort. But that's not the best bit—the power sockets, iPod connectors and USB ports on each seat will blow people's minds. You know, for that full 3-month long flight to Wellington.

OPINIONS
THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!

NEW Wii CONTROLLER!!!!!!

2010-01-25T13:03:00.001-08:00

The Classic Controller Pro for Wii has been available in Japan for some time already, but it's making its way to these here parts this April.

The controller looks like it came from the PS2 factory, and it won't plug directly directly into your Wii. Instead, you have to plug it into your Wii Remote, which isn't that much of a hassle. It'll ship with Monster Hunter Tri, but will also be sold separately for $20.

The Classic Controller Pro will come in black or white, and be compatible more than 450 Wii, WiiWare, and Virtual Console games. The design includes a second row of shoulder buttons, and an "ergonomic" grip, which sounds like marketing pablum to me. Still, though, looks neat!

OPINIONS:

IT LOOKS LIKE THE PS3 CONTROLLER I THINK THEY COPIED THE DESIGN BECAUSE SONY IS DESIGNING A MOTION CONTROLLER SIMILAR TO THE WII!!

VERY SMALL VACUUM!

2010-01-21T13:03:00.000-08:00

Weighing just 3.5kg, it's small enough to fit in your hand like a little kitten. It's about as powerful as other Dysons, so sucking up all those cat hairs shouldn't be too much of a problem for the City DC26.

It's apparently been in the works for five years, according to vacuum god James Dyson:

"It took us five years to painstakingly compress and rebuild every single component before we had a machine that was a third smaller than its predecessor, yet could still tackle dirt like bigger machines."

On sale from this weekend in the UK, it'll cost £249.99 and will be available in "satin blue." No word yet on worldwide availability, apart from Japan where it's already on sale, though when it launches in the US we'll let you know. [Dyson]

OPINIONS

I THINK THIS IS KINDA COOL! I WANT ONE BUT ITS A LITTLE EXPENSIVE!!

OMG CHINA BEING CENSORED!!!!!!!!!

2010-01-20T13:06:00.000-08:00

Censorship's been an ongoing issue in China for decades, but in the last week Google's really opened a can of worms. Now, the massive carrierChina Mobile has been found snooping on people's messages, looking for "illegal or unhealthy content."

The Chinese government has supplied a list of keywords for China Mobile to search for, targeting those engaged in piracy, pornography and anything else they deem as being unsavory. Get this—if they find someone who's using the specific keywords, they'll lock the phones so that they're no longer able to send text messages. Makes you feel a whole lot happier with your current network provider, doesn't it.

OPINIONS:

I THINK HONESTLY WHY DO THEY NEED TO BE CENSORED!

CENSORSHIP IS DUMB!!

VIDEO GAMES ARE POISION! WTF!?!?!??!?!???!?

2010-01-19T12:59:00.000-08:00

CARACAS (AFP) – Sony's PlayStation video game console is "poison" and leads children down the capitalist "road to hell," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said.

Chavez, in his weekly radio-TV show "Alo Presidente," called on Venezuelan manufacturers to make "educational" toys and dolls with indigenous peoples' features to replace capitalistic counterparts like the Barbie doll that "have nothing to do with our culture."

In expanding on his dislike of western toys and games -- he already slammed Nintendo for promoting "selfishness, individualism and violence," Chavez Sunday took on the world's top selling game console, Sony's PlayStation.

"Those games they call 'PlayStation' are poison. Some games teach you to kill. They once put my face on a game, 'you've got to find Chavez to kill him.'"

The firebrand leftist president said any game that "bomb cities or just throw bombs," are sold by capitalist countries to sow violence so they can "later sell weapons."

They "promote the need for cigarettes, drugs and alcohol so they can sell them. That's capitalism, the road to hell," he added.

Venezuela, Chavez said, should be making "educational games," and suggested designing "little indigenous dolls" to sell in place of dolls "like Barbie, that have nothing to do with our culture."

Venezuelan lawmakers in October passed a law outlawing the sale of "bellicose" games and videogames that can be punished with up to five years imprisonment.

OPINIONS:

THIS GUY IS MENTALLY ILL HE THINKS THAT VIDEO GAMES AND BARBIES ARE BAD AND LEAD YOU TO CAPITALISM. HE IS JUST MAD THAT THEY PUT ON HIS FACE ON A GAME AND TOLD THE PEOPLE TO KILL HIM. SO HE LIKES EDUCATIONAL GAME, GO TO SCHOOL IT'S A VERY EDUCATIONAL GAME. I DONT LIKE THIS GUY HE IS WEIRD.

T-fal Actifry Review: Frying Without Oil

2010-01-13T13:04:00.000-08:00

Price

$300 - Out for about a year in the UK, just hitting the US market.

How It Works

I've described the Actifry to friends as an ice cream maker combined with a convection oven. Basically, it's a big nonstick pan equipped with a constantly rotating silicone stirrer. You load all the food into the pan, drizzle it with a relatively small amount of oil and then close the clear lid. The controls include just two buttons—one for on/off, one for a timer. Fired up, hot air blows around making it sound, as you might expect, like a weak hairdryer. The idea is that the air blows the oil around and cooks the food while the spatula keeps everything cooking evenly.

The Cook-Off

I put the Actifry through three crucial tests, constantly questioning whether it was better than a convection oven. The first, chicken wings (buffalo style), because you can't generally duplicate a the crunch of a fried wing in the oven. The second, sweet potato fries. (Battered food like onion rings will just gunk up the system, so I settled for something that's also pretty difficult to oven fry.) And last, I made straight french fries—the devices biggest selling point by far.

OPINIONS

THIS IS AWESOME! I WANT ONE NOW! I WANT TO MAKE MY OWN MOZZARELLA STICKS , CHICKEN STRIPS, AND FRENCH FRIES. YOU NEED TO BUY ME ONE AND BRING IT TO ME LIKE RIGHT NOW. IT SAVES A LOT OF OIL!

Terminator 2

2010-01-12T13:07:00.000-08:00

'Uncharted 2' nabs top prize at VGAs WTF THIS IS STUPID

2009-12-14T13:15:00.000-08:00

Obviously Modern Warfare 2 should of won ! More people play this game. More people like this game. It has record breaking sales in the first 24 hours. They have the same game type
in Modern Warfare 2 its called 3rd person. Modern Warfare 2 has a wide range of variety of game play modes. Uncharted 2 is nothing compared to Modern Warfare 2 in my opinion.

How fake sites trick search engines to hit the top

2009-12-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

SAN FRANCISCO – Even search engines can get suckered by Internet scams.

With a little sleight of hand, con artists can dupe them into giving top billing to fraudulent Web sites that prey on consumers, making unwitting accomplices of companies such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft.

Online charlatans typically try to lure people into giving away their personal or financial information by posing as legitimate companies in "phishing" e-mails or through messages in forums such as Twitter and Facebook. But a new study by security researcher Jim Stickley shows how search engines also can turn into funnels for shady schemes.

Stickley created a Web site purporting to belong to the Credit Union of Southern California, a real business that agreed to be part of the experiment. He then used his knowledge of how search engines rank Web sites to achieve something that shocked him: His phony site got a No. 2 ranking on Yahoo Inc.'s search engine and landed in the top slot on Microsoft Corp.'s Bing, ahead of even the credit union's real site.

Google Inc., which handles two-thirds of U.S. search requests, didn't fall into Stickley's trap. His fake site never got higher than Google's sixth page of results, too far back to be seen by most people. The company also places a warning alongside sites that its system suspects might be malicious.

But even Google acknowledges it isn't foolproof.

Some recession-driven scams have been slipping into Google's search results, although that number is "very, very few," said Jason Morrison, a Google search quality engineer.

On one kind of fraudulent site, phony articles claim that participants can make thousands of dollars a month simply for posting links to certain Web sites. Often, the victims are asked to pay money for startup materials that never arrive, or bank account information is requested for payment purposes.

"As soon as we notice anything like it, we'll adapt, but it's kind of like a game of Whac-A-Mole," he said. "We can't remove every single scam from the Internet. It's just impossible."

In fact, Google said Tuesday it is suing a company for promising "work at home" programs through Web sites that look legitimate and pretend to be affiliated with Google.

Stickley's site wasn't malicious, but easily could have been. In the year and a half it was up, the 10,568 visitors were automatically redirected to the real credit union, and likely never knew they had passed through a fraudulent site.

"When you're using search engines, you've got to be diligent," said Stickley, co-founder of TraceSecurity Inc. "You can't trust that just because it's No. 2 or No. 1 that it really is. A phone book is actually probably a safer bet than a search engine."

A Yahoo spokeswoman didn't respond to requests for comment. Microsoft said in a statement that Stickley's experiment showed that search results can be cluttered with junk, but the company insists Bing "is equipped to address" the problem. Stickley's link no longer appears in Bing.

To fool people into thinking they were following the right link, Stickley established a domain (creditunionofsc.org) that sounded plausible. (The credit union's real site is cusocal.org.) After that, Stickley's site wasn't designed with humans in mind; it was programmed to make the search engines believe they were scanning a legitimate site. Stickley said he pulled it off by having link after link inside the site to create the appearance of "depth," even though those links only led to the same picture of the credit union's front page.

The experiment convinced Credit Union of Southern California that it should protect itself by being more aggressive about buying domain names similar to its own. Domains generally cost a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars each — a pittance compared with a financial institution's potential liability or loss of goodwill if its customers are ripped off by a fake site.

"The test was hugely successful," said Ray Rounds, the credit union's senior vice president of information services.

Stickley's manipulation illuminates the dark side of so-called search engine optimization. It's a legitimate tactic used by sites striving to boost their rankings — by designing them so search engines can capture information on them better.

But criminals can turn the tables to pump up fraudulent sites.

"You can do this on a very, very broad scale and have a ton of success," Stickley said. "This shows there's a major, major risk out there."

Robert Hansen, a Web security expert who wasn't involved in Stickley's research, said ranking high in search engine results gets easier as the topic gets more obscure. An extremely well-trafficked site such as Bank of America's would always outrank a phony one, he notes.

Still, Hansen said, criminals have been able to game Google's system well enough to carve out profitable niches. He says one trick is to hack into trusted sites, such as those run by universities, and stuff them with links to scam sites, which makes search engines interpret the fraudulent sites as legitimate.

"I don't think we're anywhere near winning" the fight against such frauds, said Hansen, chief executive of the SecTheory consulting firm.

Roger Thompson, chief research officer for AVG Technologies, who also wasn't involved in the research, said search results can be trusted, for the most part.

"But the rule is, if you're looking for something topical or newsworthy, you should be very cautious about clicking the link," he said. That's because criminals load their scam sites with hot topics in the news, to trap victims before the search engines have a chance to pull their sites out of the rankings.

"The bad guys don't have to get every search," he said. "They just have to get a percentage."

Consumers can protect themselves from scam sites by looking up the domain at http://www.whois.com, which details when a site was registered and by whom. That can be helpful if the Web address of a phony site is similar to the real one.

Target Tries To Make Gift Cards More Exciting With Remote Control

2009-12-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

It isn't much, but I have to give Target credit for trying yet another unique approach to gift cards. This time, they are attempting to make the card two gifts in one with remote control functionality.

In addition to storing money, each card can wirelessly control a tiny Christmas mouse inside a shopping cart. The mouse comes free with the purchase of each gift card, but it appears that the minimum value that can be placed on it is set at $25. Target isn't my holiday shopping store of choice, but I can see the appeal of getting one of these in that McDonald's Happy Meal toy sort of way. [Target via Chip Chick via OhGizmo]

This is very cool idea. I like the interactiveness of this idea.

Cyber Monday

2009-11-30T13:06:00.000-08:00

Missed the Black Friday dealzmodo rush, or nothing really catch your eye? You might still be in luck. Cyber Monday is when online retailers are supposed to shine. Here's a linktastic list of big-brand deal pages. Updated!

I've noted some of the more interesting deals that caught my eye, but it's by no means a complete list. Click on the retailer name to go through to their Cyber Monday page. And don't forget that most of the specials are either time bombed or limited to a small amount of stock. You can also find more deals over at LogicBuy.

Amazon
• Sennheiser RS 130 Wireless Surround Sound Headphones - $60 (save $140)
• Garmin nüvi 260W 4.3-Inch Widescreen Portable GPS Navigator - $115 (save $115)
• Logitech Harmony 890 Advanced Universal Remote Control - $290 (save $110)
• Flip UltraHD Camcorder, 120 Minutes (Black) - $152 (save $48)
• Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P42G10 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV - $948 (usually up to $1200)
• Panasonic VIERA G10 Series TC-P46G10 46-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV - $1150 (save $350)
• Panasonic VIERA S1 Series TC-P42S1 42-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV - $798 (save $202)

Best Buy
• Free shipping on all orders over $25 (big ass TVs excluded)
• 15.6-inch Acer Aspire (1.2GHz AMD Athlon, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD) - $400 (save $100)
• Panasonic - VIERA / 58" Class / 1080p / 600Hz / Plasma HDTV - $1500 (save $800)
• Panasonic - VIERA / 50" Class / 1080p / 600Hz / Plasma HDTV - $898 (save $502)
• 2 Days Only

Dell
• HTC Droid Eris – Free with new Verizon contract ($450 off-contract)
• Motorola Droid - $120 with new Verizon contract ($560 off-contract)
• Dell Mini 10v netbook - $279 (save $119) [Actually usually around $300, anyway]
• Inspiron 17 notebook (17-inch screen, Core 2 Duo processor, 3GB memory, Windows 7) - $549 (save $269)
• Sharp 47-inch 120Hz 1080p HDTV - $799 (save $400)
• Sony Bravia 55-inch 120Hz LCD 1080p HDTV - $1769 (save $530)

HP
• HP dv4t 14-inch Laptop $549.99 (save $469 in upgrades & discounts)
• HP p6270z Quad Core desktop w/4GB RAM $429.99 (lowest ever)
• HP TouchSmart 600t $999.99 (save $325)
• HP OfficeJet 6000 Wireless Printer $59.99 (50% off)
• HP Photosmart Plus All-in-One $74.99 (50% off)
• HP Photosmart Premium All-in-One $99.99 (50% off)

SonyStyle
• VAIO FW VGNFW550F/B Laptop $829.99 (list $1079) - use $250 Coupon Code: BLACKFRIDAYFW250 (ends 11/30 or after 500 uses)
• Buy a PS3 and get two free games: Infamous and Uncharted Drakes Fortune
• 32" Sony BRAVIA HDTV (KDL32L504) $379.99 (list: $479.99)
• Sony Blu-ray Disc Player (BDP-S360) $129.99 (list $199.99)
• 40" Sony BRAVIA HDTV (KDL40S504) $664.99 (list:$999.99)
• 46" Sony BRAVIA HDTV (KDL46S504) $854.99 (list: $1299)

NewEgg
• ASUS P50IJ-X1 Intel Pentium dual-core 15.6" Intel GMA 4500M NoteBook – Retail - $450 (save $100)
• OCZ Agility Series OCZSSD2-1AGT120G 2.5" MLC Internal Solid state disk (SSD) – Retail - $289 (save $50; $30 of which comes from a mail-in rebate)

Staples
• TomTom® One130 GPS - $80 (save $50 instantly)
• Norton 360 v3.0 (1–3 User) - $10 (save $70 after combined savings)

Walmart
• Sony Bravia 32" Class LCD HDTV, KDL-32L504 - $398 (usually about $450)

AT&T
• Purchase for only one penny the Nokia e71x, Sony Cybershot, Curve 8900, Pantech Reveal, or Samsung Jack. Device offers rotate every three hours. Two-year service agreement required.
Waived activiation fee and free overnight shipping, too.

Mimoco
• Everything in the Mimoco shop will be 25% off until 11:59pm PST.

Godfather Of Spam Sentenced to 4 years in jail

2009-11-24T13:15:00.000-08:00

A Detroit judge sentenced Alan Ralsky, a spam mastermind who headed an elaborate international organization, to 51 months in prison. Ralsky was convicted of wire fraud, mail fraud and violation of the CAN-SPAM act for his schemes. Ralsky and his cohorts netted millions from pump and dump stock scams which were bolstered by their spamming. He plead guilty in June and will be serving time along with his son, who was sentenced to 40 months.

ONE FAST CAR!

2009-11-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

Bloodhound is a car being designed to run at a swooshing one thousand miles-per-hour. That's 1,609 km/h, which is way faster than the speed of sound. As the video shows, it'll have more thrust than the Eurofighter combat jet:

Of course, the car has yet to be built, let alone break that record. But the effort is quite serious, these people are not amateur, and they have serious sponsors. It will use one EJ200 jet like the one used by the Eurofighter—hopefully a real one, unlike the one I got into at Dubai two years ago—alonside a one 18" hybrid rocket, and a V12 piston engines. The 6500-kilogram Bloodhound—which is being built in Bristol—will have a 47,000lbs trust, with a top speed of 1050mph.

The driver will be former RAF Wing Comander Andy Green, who broke the landspeed record in 1997

China tightens supervision of online games

2009-11-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AFP) -

China has vowed to tighten supervision of its fast-growing online games market, saying some games contained content that was "harmful" to players.

Some online games used "bloody, violent and obscene" content to attract players, hurting their "physical and psychological health", the culture ministry said.

The ministry said it would toughen the approval process for new online game companies and step up oversight of content such as role definition and language.

For their part, online game developers should limit the number of virtual marriages and player-versus-player combat and improve technology to restrict the amount of time teenagers can spend on the Internet, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website Wednesday.

The number of Internet gamers in China reached 217 million at the end of June, or 64.2 percent of the nation's total online population, according to the government-linked China Internet Network Information Centre.

Sales revenue rose 52.2 percent to 20.8 billion yuan (three billion dollars) in 2008, making China the world's second largest online games market after the United States, according to a report by research firm iResearch.

By 2012, China's online games market is expected to be worth 68.6 billion yuan, or 46.9 percent of the world's total, the report said.

The Communist Party has a history of blocking online content it deems unhealthy, which includes pornography and sensitive political information.

Earlier this month, another ministry rejected an application by Chinese Internet portal NetEase seeking approval for the game World of Warcraft.

NetEase violated a rule banning new account registration and collection of subscription fees during a trial period that started July 30, when the firm was ordered to "revise harmful content" in the game, the General Administration of Press and Publication said.

Youtube adds 1080p HD

2009-11-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

The world’s most popular video-sharing site is planning to offer content in all of its high-resolution glory. YouTube announced that it will allow users to upload and view video in full HD; a 1080p test video is now available. All of you viewers with fast computers and even faster broadband connections will soon get to indulge in much more.

It’s been about a year since the Google-owned broadcaster made 720p video available. In that time, full-HD camcorders have become relatively common and more of YouTube’s content has been uploaded as 1080p, though it wasn't viewable as such. The company plans to re-encode all of this previously created material so that viewers will be able to take advantage of its original resolution.

It’s hard to believe that YouTube has only been around for a little over four years. It will not be the first video-sharing site to offer full HD, but it will almost certainly be the one to bring it to the masses. Alternately derided and celebrated for blockbusters like “Charlie Bit My Finger,” YouTube has recently become eager to present commercial content and compete with the likes of Hulu, a joint venture of three major broadcast networks. Last spring, YouTube began to offer some premium content from Hollywood; the term “premium” should be used loosely, however, since the pickings have been slim. In September, the Wall Street Journal reported [subscription required] that YouTube was in serious talks with major film studios to stream movies on a rental basis.

The move to 1080p should support those initiatives. It’s conceivable that YouTube could provide Blu-ray quality streams for paid content. For regular folk, full HD will mean the chance to share those bloopers and family videos on a wall-size screen. Would-be auteurs should be aware that, for now, YouTube will still limit user-generated content to 10 minutes in length. It seems plausible, however, that the current 2GB file-size limit will get a lift, considering how monstrously large those 1080p videos will be. Get those cameras rolling!

Modern Warfare 2 destroys in sales

2009-11-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES – Ryan Norwalk cleared his schedule.

Unlike his friends who had class or work, the 26-year-old California State University, Northridge college student was spending Tuesday gunning down foes and building his online notoriety in "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," the highly anticipated, first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision Blizzard Inc.

"I want to get a head start before everyone gets it tomorrow," he said.

Late Monday night, Norwalk was among the fans lined up for the "Modern Warfare 2" launch outside the GameStop in West Hollywood, Calif., one of over 10,000 retail outlets deploying the game at midnight. In the first week, fans worldwide are expected to spend at least half a billion dollars on the follow-up to 2007's "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare."

"I'll start playing as soon as I get home," said Frederick Guese, a 24-year-old fan donning black paramilitary gear in line outside the Best Buy in West Los Angeles. "I think the servers will probably go down tonight because everyone will be trying to play multiplayer tonight, so I'll probably start with the single-player campaign before going online."

With a tank and humvee stationed in the parking lot, the Best Buy location where Guese was positioned was transformed for the launch. Developers from Infinity Ward were on hand to sign autographs of the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC game while attendees chugged "Modern Warfare 2"-themed energy drinks and practiced their shooting skills on game consoles.

Many fans were miffed to learn the title was sold at several GameStop locations ahead of Tuesday's launch. A spokesman for the chain said the decision was made to sell reserved copies early after other retailers unleashed the game early. A spokesman for Activision said the publisher had not given any retailer permission to sell the game before Tuesday.

And there were other flaps in the weeks leading up to the game's launch. Footage leaked last month revealed that a skippable level allows players to open fire on innocent civilians as a terrorist in an airport. Earlier this month, Infinity Ward pulled a viral video promoting the game that featured an acronym that is a derogatory term for gays.

"We've been trying to keep the game under wraps for maximum impact for the players," said Infinity Ward CEO Vince Zampella outside the Best Buy in West Los Angeles. "It's been stressful with little things leaking here and there. With the unveiling finally here, we don't have to worry about that stuff anymore. Now it's about what's going to screw up that we have to fix over the next week."

Engineer $10 DIY Cellphone

2009-11-09T13:05:00.000-08:00

-Cellphones are handy in a pinch. They make emergency calls, serve as a late night texting platform, and now in developing areas where money is tight and malaria runs rampant, they can serve as a microscope.

The DIY design is the brainchild of Aydogan Ozcan, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and member of the California NanoSystems Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. He did it all with some software he wrote and about $10 in off-the-shelf parts, reports the New York Times.

There's actually no lens to speak of, as the magnification is handled entirely by software, holograms and electronics. This, Ozcan says, is what's at the heart of the device's portability and affordability. Better still, this means that a future system based on this design could have the ability to diagnose and research even better than a traditional microscope in the field. Said Bahram Jalali, an applied physicist and professor of electrical engineering at U.C.L.A in an interview with the New York Times, the beauty of the design is in its lack of mechanical scanning.

"Instead you capture holograms of all the cells on the slide digitally at the same time," he said to the Times. This makes it possible to "immediately see pathogens among a vast population of healthy cells."

New `Call of Duty' could set entertainment record

2009-11-06T13:07:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK -

This holiday season's biggest entertainment blockbuster likely will be a sequel to a popular franchise, with jarring depictions of war and an intricate story of good versus evil. It could easily rake in more than last year's record $155 million opening weekend for "The Dark Knight."

But this blockbuster is not a movie.

It is "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2," a video game that Activision Blizzard Inc. is releasing Tuesday. Fans worldwide are expected to spend at least half a billion dollars on the game in the first week.

That would at least match last year's "Grand Theft Auto IV," which was the most successful video game release in history and might have been the top entertainment launch ever.

Justin Criswell, 31, plans to line up at a GameStop store in Brooklyn on Monday night so he can buy the new "Call of Duty" when it goes on sale after midnight, for $60. It's available for PCs, Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3.

"Ever since they announced it, me and most of the friends that I play with have been crazy excited about it," Criswell said. Once he gets a copy, he plans to stay up much of the night to play it online with friends and relatives scattered in Tennessee, California, Ohio and Florida.

"Those who have to work the next day have taken the day off," he said.

Like the previous five "Call of Duty" games, which are all rated "M" for mature (not for kids under 17), this one lets players shoot their way through a complex series of scenes. The game's developer, Infinity Ward, spent two years creating realistic graphics that are amplified in many players' homes by big-screen, high-definition TVs sets and powerful speakers. It's like stepping into a movie.

A big part of the game's appeal is in its multiplayer component — players can fight each other, whether they're at the same game console or in separate locations and connected online.

Or a player can dive in alone and get swept into the game's plot, which picks up where "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare," left off. That game ended with victory over a Russian terrorist, but he was just part of a larger conspiracy. This time, the target is an even more vicious leader of the Russian Ultranationalist movement. Settings include a snowbound Siberian base, a leafy American suburb and the burning streets of Washington, D.C. One trailer for the game shows a glimpse of action in outer space.

While video games are increasingly marketed to men and women of all ages as mainstream entertainment, the core demographic for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" is mainly guys.

For David Dague, 36, who lives in Chicago, the launch of "Modern Warfare 2" is like the beginning of football season for a sports fan. Because he can play the game with other people, joining up in "clans" or fighting against them, "Call of Duty" is like "paintball in a box," he said. Better yet, paintball on a couch.

"Playing against other living, thinking players becomes a competitive pastime," said Dague, who runs a Web community for adults who play multiplayer games on the Xbox 360. Dague said he plans to play "Modern Warfare 2" for about two hours at a time, two to three nights a week.

"I don't watch soap operas, I don't watch football. Multiplayer gaming is where my competitive spirit gets its outlet," he said.

Activision is working with retailers to plan more than 10,000 midnight openings in the United States, including most of the 4,300 GameStop Corp. stores around the country. It won't give numbers, but GameStop says pre-orders for "Modern Warfare 2" hit an all-time high.

In all, about 28 million "Call of Duty" games have been sold in the United States, with each installment doing better at launch than the previous one, said NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier. Optimism about the latest title led Activision on Thursday to reaffirm its outlook for 2009. It expects more than $2 billion in revenue for the current quarter — roughly half of the year's total.

Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter estimates Activision is spending as much as $50 million to market the game, including TV spots, billboards and ads on social-networking sites. Activision won't say how much the game cost to make, but most blockbusters require tens of millions of dollars.

For Criswell and Dague's generation, video games are entertainment on par with movies, except they last many more hours and immerse players in stories in which their actions affect the outcome.

Patrick Kienbauer, an 18-year-old student in Austria, said the game's last installment, which has sad background music and a "comfortless ambiance," let him "feel the cruelty and violence of war." He's already ordered a copy of "Modern Warfare 2" so he can get it as quickly as possible.

If this sequel does its job, it will not only pick up where the last one ended but also advance the story in ways that will shock and surprise him — and keep him coming back for more.

Blockbuster Employee Stabs Himself Because He Didn't Want To Go To Work

2009-11-04T13:00:00.000-08:00

We all know that Blockbuster kind of sucks, but I had no idea that working there was this bad.

Amazingly enough, 29-year old Aaron Siebers stabbed himself then made up some phony story about being attacked by three skinheads in an attempted robbery. However, surveillance footage of the area where it supposedly happened turned up nothing. In the end, Siebers admitted to stabbing himself so he could get out of going to work at a Colorado Blockbuster. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where doctors stitched up his wound.

I have a hard time understanding why someone would pass over calling in sick and go right to self-mutilation in order to get out of work, but perhaps someone who has worked at Blockbuster in the past can confirm that they too have thought about this strategy. [The Denver Channel via Westworld via Digg]

China regulator rejects World of Warcraft game: official

2009-11-03T13:23:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese players of World of Warcraft, one of the world's most popular online games, may be out of luck after a government regulator rejected an application from the game's new licensed operator.

The General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) has terminated Chinese Internet portal NetEase's application seeking approval for the game, the agency said in a statement posted on its website Monday.

World of Warcraft, developed by California-based company Activision Blizzard Entertainment, was previously licensed to another Chinese firm, The9, which ran the game in China for four years from 2005, earlier media reports said.

The online role-playing game had around five million active users in China, and The9's financial report showed it booked net revenue of 380 million yuan (56 million dollars) in the fourth quarter of 2008, the reports said.

NetEase announced in April that it had won a three-year licence for the game from Blizzard after The9's licence had expired.

Analysts said it was uncertain if GAPP's rejection would lead to a permanent ban in China as NetEase in April received approval from the culture ministry, which is also tasked with regulating computer games.

"The chaos is mainly due to the vague demarcation of responsibilities between GAPP and the Ministry of Culture," said Liu Ning, a Beijing-based analyst with research firm BDA China.

"It is not yet certain what will happen -- to be honest, it depends on who will finally win (in the turf war) -- GAPP or the culture ministry," he said.

Marvel Comics come to iPhone

2009-11-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

Excelsior! The makers of three apps Comics by Comixology, iVerse, and Panelfly, have brought one of the “big two” comics publishers to the iPhone for the first time.

On Thursday the companies announced that, effective immediately, several comics from Marvel Comics will be available for purchase via in-app purchase from the free Comics app.

The Marvel comics available initially from Comixology are Joss Whedon’s 24-issue run on Astonishing X-Men, Robert Kirkman’s five-issue Marvel Zombies miniseries, Ed Brubaker’s first 30 issues of Captain America, and two other X-Men-related books, X-23 and X-Men: Age of Apocalypse, each six issues long.

Each individual issue is priced at $2 on Comics and iVerse, and $1 on Panelfly. (Presumably Panelfly is running a special sale or taking a loss on the sales as a way to promote the Marvel additions.)

This isn't Marvel's only foray into the world of the iPhone. The company recently launched two "motion comics" sold directly via iTunes: Spider-Woman and an adaptation of Whedon's Astonishing X-Men.

(Updated Friday morning to add two other comic apps which also added Marvel Comics support late Thursday. Thanks to the members of Macworld Forums for pointing out the other apps which added this feature.)

Internet's 40th Birthday

2009-10-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES (AFP) -

Technology stars, pundits, and entrepreneurs joined the Internet's father on Thursday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his culture-changing child.

"It's the 40th year since the infant Internet first spoke," saidUniversity of California, Los Angeles, professor Leonard Kleinrock, who headed the team that first linked computers online in 1969.

Kleinrock led an anniversary event that blended reminiscence of the Internet's past with debate about its future.

"There is going to be an ongoing controversy about where we have been and where we are going," said Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the popular news and blog website that bears her name.

"It is not just about the Internet; it is about our times. We are going to need desperately to tap into the better angels of our nature and make our lives not just about ourselves but about our communities and our world."

Huffington was on hand to discuss the power the Internet gives to grass roots organizers on a panel with Kleinrock and Social Brain Foundation director Isaac Mao.

"The Internet is a democratizing element; everyone has an equivalent voice," Kleinrock said. "There is no way back at this point. We can't turn it off. The Internet Age is here."

Leonard Kleinrock never imagined Facebook, Twitter, or YouTubethat day 40 years ago when his team gave birth to what is now taken for granted as the Internet.

"The net is penetrating every aspect of our lives," Kleinrock said to a room of about 200 people and an equal number watching online.

"As a teenager the Internet is behaving badly, the dark side has emerged. The question is when it grows into a young adult will it get over this period of misbehaving?"

Kleinrock referred to spam emails, online scams and malicious software spread by crooks as an unexpected dark side of the Internet.

On October 29, 1969 Kleinrock led a team that got a computer atUCLA to "talk" to one at a research institute.

Kleinrock was driven by a certainty that computers were destined to speak to each other and that the resulting network should be as simple to use as telephones.

US telecom colossus AT&T ran lines connecting the computers for ARPANET, a project backed with money from a research arm of the US military.

A key to getting computers to exchange data was breaking digitized information into packets fired between on-demand with no wasting of time, according to Kleinrock.

Engineers began typing "LOG" to log into the distant computer, which crashed after getting the "O."

"So, the first message was 'Lo' as in 'Lo and behold'," Kleinrock recounted. "We couldn't have a better, more succinct first message."

Kleinrock's team logged in on the second try, sending digital data packets between computers on the ARPANET. Computers at two other US universities were added to the network by the end of that year.

Funding came from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) established in 1958 in response to the launch of a Sputnikspace flight by what was then the Soviet Union.

US leaders were in a technology race with Cold War rival Russia.

The National Science Foundation added a series of super computers to the network in the late 1980s, opening the online community to more scientists.

The Internet caught the public's attention in the form of email systems in workplaces and ignited a "dot-com" industry boom that went bust at the turn of the century.

Kleinrock, 75, sees the Internet spreading into everything.

"The next step is to move it into the real world," Kleinrock said. "The Internet will be present everywhere. I will walk into a room and it will know I am there. It will talk back to me."

Assassin's Creed Lineage

2009-10-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Analyst: PlayStation 3 Over Xbox 360 and Wii in September

2009-10-08T12:59:00.000-07:00

How long since Sony's PlayStation 3 was selling pole position? Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter predicts they've finally grabbed the top slot in North American September hardware sales, reaching 410,000 units or a 76% improvement year-over-year. That's against Nintendo with a projected 390,000 Wii units (down 45% from last year) and Microsoft with a projected 350,000 Xbox 360 units (up 1% year-over-year).

A bright spot everyone can celebrate: In his note, Pachter forecasts September video game software sales of $750 million versus last year's $618 million, a 21% year-over-year upswing, and definitive return to double-digit growth after six months of double-digit declines.

Pachter predicts that September hardware unit sales will be 2,105,000 units--still down by 5% compared to September 2008--but notes the huge uptick over the last five months sales, which were down an average of 19%.

In related news, Sony's Patrick Seybold told Kotaku sales of the PlayStation Portable shot up 300% following the release of the company's new smaller, disc-free PSP Go. The launch also generated a "significant increase in revenue for [the] PlayStation Network, driven by a 200 percent lift in PSP game downloads purchased from [the] PlayStation Store" in North America.

NPD's retail sales report releases next Thursday after market close.

Follow me on Twitter @game_on

Venezula to Outlaw Violent Video Games

2009-10-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

CARACAS, Venezuela -

Shouts of "Kill him! Kill him!" ring out as the preteens train their virtual assault rifles on the last remaining terrorist and spray him with bullets. Blood splatters. The enemy collapses. And they cheerfully wrap up another game of "Counter-Strike."

The most popular video games among kids often imitate life outside this Internet cafe in San Augustin — one of the many crime-ridden slums in Venezuela's capital, where residents say too many of the young players easily trade joysticks for guns.

In a bid to curb that trend, Venezuela's National Assembly is on track to prohibit violent video games and toys. The proposed legislation, which received initial approval in September, is expected to get a final vote in the coming weeks.

Parents applaud the proposed ban. But critics argue the bill is little more than a public relations stunt by supporters of President Hugo Chavez to camouflage his government's inability to deal with Venezuela's rampant violent crime — the country's most pressing problem according to public opinion polls.

Chavez's government stopped releasing complete annual murder figures in 2005 amid rising concerns. But last year, the Justice Ministry said homicides averaged 152 a week, or roughly 7,900 for the year. That's more than five times the murder rate in Texas, which has roughly the same population as Venezuela.

As manager of the cafe in San Augustin, Jenny Rangel struggles with a moral dilemma as she stands beneath a "Scarface" movie poster and watches the virtual shoot-'em-up. Like many of her neighbors, Rangel rushes home at nightfall before gunshots begin echoing through the barrio.

"The message for them is that you must shoot and kill," Rangel said.

Across town from San Augustin, shopping mall arcades are packed with children and teenagers from mostly middle-class and wealthy families who wait in line to play "Dark Silhouette" — featuring a life-size assault rifle that players use to gun down opponents.

"Video games aren't the problem, criminals are the problem. Why don't they go after them?" asked Arny Gonzalez, a 17-year-old high school student.

Lawmaker Jose Albornoz concedes that fighting crime requires a multifaceted approach. But he's convinced that authorities can reduce the murder rate by breaking what he says is a direct link between video games and crime — though most studies find no evidence that such games prompt violent behavior in youngsters.

"Some believe they actually can serve as a substitute, kids get rid of their rage through the game instead of acting out," said criminologist Roberto Briceno, who tracks crime at the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, an academic think-tank in Caracas.

When the legislation first went to the floor in the predominantly pro-Chavez legislature, lawmakers watched images from the popular "Grand Theft Auto" game showing a man pulling people out of their cars and severely beating them before stealing the vehicles.

"That's what our children are learning from these games, and it cannot continue," Albornoz said from the podium, waving a plastic toy machine gun for emphasis.

Venezuela would be one of few countries to impose an all-out ban on the "manufacture, importation, distribution, sales and use of violent video games and bellicose toys." The proposed law would give Venezuela's consumer protection agency the discretion to define what products should be prohibited and impose fines as high as $128,000.

Similar concerns have prompted many countries, including Brazil, Germany and China, to prohibit the sale of specific video games. Most, including the United States, have opted for ratings systems to warn parents and users of violent or sexual content.

The Venezuelan bill would mandate crime prevention classes in public schools and force the media to "implement permanent campaigns" to warn against the dangers of violent games. Another provision requires the government "to promote the production, distribution, sales and use" of games that teach kids "respect for an adversary."

Some 2,000 people marched across Venezuela's capital Saturday to protest what they call widespread persecution of Chavez's opponents.

"It's a bit ironic that supporters of Chavez, who persecutes his political opponents, want to teach our children the need for respect," quipped Tomas Sanchez, an opposition lawmaker who broke ranks with Chavez.

The law could shutter some retailers, arcades and Internet cafes. But the country's thriving market for pirated video games will likely be untouched by the law — another irony pinpointed by Chavez critics. Most vendors of pirated goods are from the working class, Chavez's core constituency, and they ply their illegal yet tolerated trade on street corners in cities and towns across the country.

Albornoz said such vendors should start thinking about exchanging the likes of "Grand Theft Auto" for non-aggressive games, saying: "There are alternatives that can be just as fun."

At the same time, the understaffed consumer-protection agency would be hard pressed to effectively enforce the ban. Its 163 inspectors spend most of their time struggling to ensure that grocery stores don't flout food price controls aimed at stemming another huge Venezuelan problem — double-digit inflation.

"It's a facade that allows them to say they are doing something to lower the crime rate," Sanchez said, "while hiding the fact that existing policies have failed."

FIFA launches soccer World Cup for virtual players

2009-10-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

LONDON (Reuters) -

Soccer's global governing body FIFA, gaming software-maker Electronic Arts and Sony Corp's PlayStation announced the start of the FIFA Interactive World Cup 2010 (FIWC10) season on Tuesday.

The sixth edition of the world's largest football gaming tournament allows virtual athletes the unique opportunity of competing in an official FIFA World Cup, FIFA said in a statement.

The champion will be decided at the final in Barcelona, Spain on May 1, 2010, for which players can qualify online or at live qualifier events.

The winner will receive $20,000 and "a money can't buy" experience of attending the FIFA World Player Gala, where he or she will mingle with the best football players in the world.

"More than half a million players vied for a spot in the Grand Final of last year's FIFA Interactive World Cup," said Chuck Blazer, a member of the FIFA Executive Committee.

"This makes it the FIFA tournament with the most competitors."

Over the next seven months, players will compete against each other online or at one of the 10 live qualifier events that will be held in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, Poland, Russia, South Africa and Britain.

For the first time, the online qualification will be split into two separate seasons, the first running from October 2 through to December 18 2009, and the second from January 4 to March 31, 2010.

Players interested in participating in either the online qualifiers or one of the live qualifier events will find all information on how to register as well as reports and stories around the tournament on the official website, www.fifa.com/FIWC.

The 31 players to successfully qualify for the grand final will come up against last year's FIWC champion -- Bruce Grannec from France -- who has automatically qualified for the final and will be aiming to become the first player to retain his title.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, editing by Steve Addison)

T-Mobile Will Offer Android-Powered Samsung Behold II

2009-10-05T13:07:00.000-07:00

T-Mobile USA is prepping Samsung's new Behold II smartphone for an exclusive launch in advance of this year's holiday shopping season. The touchscreen-enabled 3G handset based on Google's Android platform will provide users with direct access to Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, YouTube videos, and Google Talk as well as thousands of applications and games from the Android Market, T-Mobile said.

The Samsung Behold II will sport a 3.2-inch organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display featuring the latest active-matrix technology and a five-megapixel camera that doubles as a camcorder. "The premium screen and quality camera coupled with Samsung's innovative cube menu makes the Behold II a multimedia powerhouse that's made even stronger by T-Mobile's high-speed 3G network," said T-Mobile USA Product Marketing Director Travis Warren.

TouchWiz User Interface

The Behold II is part of Samsung's strategy to maintain its second-quarter position as the number-one phone provider in the U.S. Strategy Analytics said Apple's iPhone was "a wake-up call" for manufacturers "to increase their focus on the user experience."

"All cell-phone makers still face several challenges to implementing this focus on user experience, including implementing cohesive internal processes to design and develop a holistic experience," said Strategy Analytics Vice President Kevin Nolan.

The Behold II's TouchWiz user interface is an offshoot of the Croix software that the handset maker initially developed in response to Apple's iPhone interface. With TouchWiz, the goal is "to provide our consumers with a more rewarding and engaging user interface; one that's more fun, easier to use, and more personal," said Geesung Choi, president of Samsung's telecommunication business.

TouchWiz features expanded options in a cube-menu format, including a widget system that enables users to customize and personalize their phones. The unique widgets menu displays functions such as the clock, radio player, and music player. It also integrates more personal elements such as photos and even birthday reminders, which users can "drag and drop" onto their home screens, the company said.

Low-Power Display

The Samsung Behold II has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS radios, and up to 16GB of external memory. Also on tap is a built-in MP3 player.

The Behold II represents the first smartphone from T-Mobile USA to sport an OLED display with active-matrix technology, which provides crisper colors and wider viewing angles. The main advantage offered by the active-matrix method is that the display consumes significantly less power -- and prolongs battery life.

On the software side, the Behold II offers support for text, picture and video messaging; personal e-mail; and corporate e-mail accounts with Exchange ActiveSync. Moreover, the handset's visual voice mail capabilities enable users to listen to voice mails in the order of preference, the company said.

T-Mobile USA announced last week that it is in the process of delivering an over-the-air software update to Android-powered G1 and myTouch handsets on its network. The new Android 1.6 "Donut" upgrade includes a new integrated camera, camcorder and gallery interface; updated voice search, with faster response and deeper integration with native applications; and an improved search experience that is accessible directly from the home screen, the wireless carrier said.

Uncharted 2: Among Theives BETA OUT ON PSN STORE

2009-10-01T13:03:00.000-07:00

NEW PS3 SLIM $300

2009-09-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Sony PS3 sales jump on price cut

2009-09-24T13:06:00.000-07:00

Corrects to read Sony's "God of War" and Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty" in penultimate paragraph; names of video game publishers were transposed

By Franklin Paul

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sales of the PlayStation 3 video game console jumped in the weeks after a $100 price cut last month, and strong demand could lead to empty shelves at retail, a Sony Corp executive said on Wednesday.

"We are up about 300 percent over where we were pre-price drop," Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment of America, said in an interview. "We are up significantly versus last year."

The increase represents sales in the three weeks after Sony slashed the price of the PS3 to about $300 in the United States last month, compared with sales for the three weeks before. The PS3's sales have lagged behind Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii and Microsoft Corp's Xbox.

A few days after Sony's price cut, Microsoft dropped the price of its Xbox 360 Elite to $299. Several technology blogs this week have reported that Nintendo is poised to cut the price of the Wii.

Tretton noted that higher demand for the PS3 could leave some retailers out of stock of the device, which lets users surf the Web and watch films on Blu-ray discs, in addition to playing games.

"If things continue at this pace, it is conceivable that there will be product shortages," he said.

Tretton noted that Sony is on pace to meeting its goal of selling 13 million units by the end of its fiscal year in March, compared with 10.06 million units sold the previous year by the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate.

Tretton said he expects the price cuts and a lineup of popular games due ahead of the Christmas holiday will lift the entire video game industry, following some six months of sales declines.

So far this year, industry sales are down 14 percent, but could finish 2009 "flat to up," he says, since half of the industry's annual sales occur between September and December. In that period will come highly anticipated updates to franchises including Sony's "God of War" and Activision Blizzard's "Call of Duty."

"In a very difficult economy ... I couldn't be more optimistic about our fortunes for the rest of the year and for the future," he said.

(Reporting by Franklin Paul; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Richard Chang)

Virtuality reality used for blind

2009-09-21T13:04:00.000-07:00

Virtual reality can let video game players escape from the real world but a group of researchers are using virtual reality to help the blind join the real world more, by navigating real places.

Researchers at the University of Chile and Harvard Medical Schoolare using three audio-based PC games that allow players to navigate a labyrinth, a subway system and real-world buildings based on audio cues. "Essentially the games work by interpreting information generated by spectral sounds like footsteps and door knocks," said Lotfi B. Merabet, PhD of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School and co-author of "AER Journal: Research and Practice in Visual Impairment and Blindness."

"The player uses a keyboard to move and interact with the virtual world. By sequentially interacting within the virtual 3-D environment, the user learns to build a spatial cognitive map of their surroundings."

The goal was to develop audio-based gaming to help blind children develop spatial, cognitive and social skills.

"(We've) concentrated on developing the gaming software as a rehabilitation tool to allow blind users to survey unfamiliar buildings before actually navigating through them in real life, as well as conducting brain imaging studies to uncover how the brain of a blind individual accomplishes this task," said Merabet.

According to the World Health Organization, there are about 314 million visually impaired people worldwide and about 45 million of them are blind.

There are over 50 audio-based games for the blind currently available, according to Kelly Sapergia, who reviews games created by and for blind people for the American Council of the Blind's "Main Menu" radio program.

She said these vary from pinball to "Space Invaders"-style games to "GMA Tank Commander," which is a World War II game that lets you drive a tank and shoot various weapons at enemies.

Blind gamers also have access to the classic text-based gamesthat preceded the video game explosion, including titles like "Zork" from Infocom. Sapergia said blind gamers can plug in an audio synthesizer and have the text-based adventure read to them.

There are even games that offer a level playing field regardless of sight. Since 2001, AllinPlay has offered subscription-based online community games like "Texas Hold-em," "Crazy Eights," and "The Anagram Game" that were designed for both blind and sighted people.

Previous research efforts have also become games for the blind. In 2005, the Utrecht School of the Arts in the Netherlands developer a racing game called "Drive" in cooperation with the Bartimus Institute for the Blind. The game lets players drive a shuttle along a fixed track with a co-pilot named Bob. But compared to the millions of copies of PC and console games sold every week, the market for games for the blind is tiny.

"There's a community of blind gamers, but I think the main drawback has been that the big game publishers like Nintendo and Sony haven't created games that are more accessible for blind people," said Sapergia.

Merabet and fellow researcher Jaime Sanchez from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Chile do not view audio-based computer games as a replacement for current rehabilitative techniques but they hope this research will provide a complementary technique.

ZUNE HD!!!

2009-09-16T13:03:00.001-07:00

NEW ZUNE HD!!!!!!

New Vuzix Wrap 310 Video Eyewear

2009-09-15T13:00:00.000-07:00

Do you find your iPod or iPhone’s screen too small to comfortably enjoy watching video? If so, you might want to check out Vuzix’s upcoming Wrap 310 video eyewear.

The $250 Wrap 310, which will be available in the late fall, displays high resolution 16-by-9 widescreen video from your iPod or iPhone (as well as DVD players, computers, TVs, and other portable media players) via eye glasses that project the equivalent of a 55-inch TV screen. For audio, it includes noise-isolating earphones.

iPod-compatible eyewear isn’t new, but the Wrap 310 is designed to look and feel more like traditional sunglasses than other models. There are also optional VGA and component adapters, and an expansion port for future accessories.

The company says the Wrap 310 will operate for up to six hours using two AA batteries.

The Vuzixâ€™s Web site had not been updated with information on the Wrap 310 at the time the story was posted.

2009-09-14T13:03:00.000-07:00

September 11, 2009 - Back in June, a handful of PlayStation 3 owners got tapped to participate in the multiplayer beta for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. Players could take on a co-op mission, blast each other in deathmatch, and go after some golden idols whenever they felt like it. People seemed to be having fun and enjoying the taste of what was to come.

Now, Naughty Dog's going to blow that "taste" out of the water with a massive Uncharted 2 multiplayer demo that is open to anyone with a PS3 and the Internet.

There's so much going on in this demo that's it's really hard to pick where to begin describing it. I talked to the developers the other day, and they said the purpose of this freebie is to give you as much of the multiplayer game as they can in a reasonably sized file. So, you give Naughty Dog 1.5 GB, and they're giving you four maps, four competitive modes, two co-op modes, the much-hyped cinema mode, the ability to create custom games, access to new skins, about 80 percent of the boosters you'll find in the final game, and so much more.

If they weren't planning on shutting the demo down around the time the game ships on October 13th, there's a good chance people would play this forever.

In terms of maps, you're getting the same Plaza and Village settings you played on or at least saw during the beta along with the Ice Cave and Temple. Both of these locales are described as smaller venues that are going to be a blast for close-quarters combat. The Ice Cave, of course, is going to feature that snow you're always seeing in the Uncharted trailers while the Temple will pack water sections and plenty of opportunities to flank opponents.

Similarly, Deathmatch and Plunder are back this time around -- both packing variations such as different difficulties for Plunder and weapon sets such as shotguns/snipers and pistols/grenades for DM -- but joined with Elimination and Chain Reaction. A round-based game, Elimination has two teams squaring off with the objective of killing everyone on the other team. Wipe out the other guys three out of five times, and you're the big winner. Chain Reaction has you capturing flags, but you have to do them in a specific order - one team works out from their base needing to capture 1 through 5 while the other team starts out from their home and needs to snag 5 through 1.

If you don't like any of the default settings, this demo's going to allow you to mess around with the options for sore limits, friendly fire and so on as well as letting you set up matches for just your friends. If you play with strangers, the new skill ranking system will pair you with similarly experienced players.

Of course, all of this multiplayer mayhem plays into the game's cinema mode where you can save matches, replay them, move the camera around, and do nifty green screen stuff. All of the tools that will be in the final cinema portion of the game are going to be here for you to play around with.

A final feather in the demo's cap is that it's going to have the fully fleshed-out money/store system so that you can take the cash you're earning in multiplayer and buy new skins, boosters, co-op weapon upgrades and taunts.

Apple Unveils iPod Nano With a Camera

2009-09-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Steve Jobs unveiled a new iPod Nano that includes a camera.

Nirvana members dismayed by 'Guitar Hero 5'

2009-09-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES – Kurt Cobain's appearance in the latest "Guitar Hero" video game is not hitting the right notes with the surviving members of Nirvana.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl said in a joint statement Thursday that they were "dismayed and very disappointed" that an avatar of the late Nirvana frontman could be used to play songs by other artists.

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character," they said. "This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants. We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future."

Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, had been lashing out on Twitter this week about her late husband's inclusion in the game, calling it vile and claiming she would sue Activision, the game's publisher. Love claimed she never approved Cobain's digital likeness, and that she thought the grunge rocker would despise the rhythm game "let alone this avatar."

Activision said in a statement Thursday that they secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Love to use the singer's likeness as a fully playable character in "Guitar Hero 5," which includes "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium" among its 85 tracks that can be played with instrument-shaped controllers.

Other real-life rockers featured in the latest edition of the popular rhythm game franchise for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii include Carlos Santana and Johnny Cash. Previous "Guitar Hero" editions have featured the likenesses of Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Ted Nugent, Sting, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Barker and members of Aerosmith.

Star Trek Online Taking Beta Apps Now

2009-09-10T12:58:00.000-07:00

Ready to boldy beta where no one's beta'd before? Have a look at Star Trek Online aka STO to see about getting into their closed beta signup: Applications are available now. Developed by Cryptic Studios, the guys responsible for the City of Heroes/Villains massively multiplayer online games, STO picks up 30 years after Star Trek: Nemesis (and also, therefore, after the preliminary events in the recent Star Trek "reboot").

Like CCP's EVE Online, each player will captain his or her own ship, but the specifics of interior vessel exploration or the latitude you'll have to poke around planet-side are scarce. The Federation's a playable shoe-in, as are Klingons, and you'll even apparently be able to gin up your own race, though I'm not sure how allowing potentially millions of players to dilute the mechanics of race-based individuation and turn the precepts of evolution (and Francis Drake's stab at an intergalactic estimate of intelligent life) on its head amounts to a functional design feature.

But then I'm probably over-thinking the premise. It's Star Trek. The ship counselor the Next Generation series had psychic abilities. Explosions make sounds in space. Transporters reassemble molecules sequentially, unaffected by gravity or wind (never mind the question of how this might disrupt consciousness). Sure, you're not expecting flying monkeys with circus jackets and fezzes or flaming reptilian eyes hovering over desolate ebony towers, but protest too much and you might as well demand the ballistic performance of infantry and armor in World in Conflict be the equal of a military-grade simulation.

According to STO's news page, if you've already bought a six-month or lifetime subscription to Champions Online, you've already been accepted into the Star Trek Online beta, so no need to reapply.

Final Fantasy XIII to launch December 17 in Japan

2009-09-08T12:57:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (Reuters) -

Japanese videogame creator Square Enix Holdings Co said it would launch the latest edition of its "Final Fantasy" game series on December 17 in Japan, which may help sales of Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 in the key shopping season.

The "Final Fantasy" role-playing game series has sold more than 85 million units worldwide since it was first launched in 1987.

Square Enix is developing "Final Fantasy XIII" exclusively for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) for the Japanese market, while in North America and Europe the game will be playable on the PS3 as well as Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360.

"Final Fantasy XIII" will sell for 9,240 yen ($100) in Japan, Square Enix said.

The game software maker said it plans to launch the new version overseas in spring 2010.

Sony and Microsoft are hoping that the launches of long-awaited game titles such as "Final Fantasy XIII" will help drive sales of their game consoles, which are running behind Nintendo Co Ltd's Wii.

Both Sony and Microsoft recently cut the prices of their game hardware to spur demand in the run-up to the holiday season.

In July, Square Enix launched the latest installment of its "Dragon Quest" role-playing game series for Nintendo's DS in Japan, reinvigorating demand for the dual-screen handheld player.

Sales of the "Final Fantasy" series have easily outstripped the 55.5 million units sold of Konami Corp's "Pro Evolution Soccer" series and the 41 million units of Capcom Co Ltd's "Resident Evil" horror titles.

Ahead of the announcement, shares in Square Enix closed down 0.8 percent at 2,465 yen and Sony dipped 0.4 percent to 2,480 yen, underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average, which rose 0.7 percent.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Joseph Radford)

Internet addiction center opens in US

2009-09-04T13:01:00.000-07:00

FALL CITY, Wash. -

Ben Alexander spent nearly every waking minute playing the video game "World of Warcraft." As a result, he flunked out of the University of Iowa.

Alexander, 19, needed help to break an addiction he calls as destructive as alcohol or drugs. He found it in this suburb of high-tech Seattle, where what claims to be the first residential treatment center for Internet addiction in the United States just opened its doors.

The center, called ReSTART, is somewhat ironically located near Redmond, headquarters of Microsoft and a world center of the computer industry. It opened in July and for $14,000 offers a 45-day program intended to help people wean themselves from pathological computer use, which can include obsessive use of video games, texting, Facebook, eBay, Twitter and any other time-killers brought courtesy of technology.

"We've been doing this for years on an outpatient basis," said Hilarie Cash, a therapist and executive director of the center. "Up until now, we had no place to send them."

Internet addiction is not recognized as a separate disorder by the American Psychiatric Association, and treatment is not generally covered by insurance. But there are many such treatment centers in China, South Korea and Taiwan — where Internet addiction is taken very seriously — and many psychiatric experts say it is clear that Internet addiction is real and harmful.

The five-acre center in Fall City, about 30 miles east of Seattle, can handle up to six patients at a time. Alexander is so far the only patient of the program, which uses a cold turkey approach. He spends his days in counseling and psychotherapy sessions, doing household chores, working on the grounds, going on outings, exercising and baking a mean batch of ginger cookies.

Whether such programs work in the long run remains to be seen. For one thing, the Internet is so pervasive that it can be nearly impossible to resist, akin to placing an alcoholic in a bar, Cash said.

The effects of addiction are no joke. They range from loss of a job or marriage to car accidents for those who can't stop texting while driving. Some people have died after playing video games for days without a break, generally stemming from a blood clot associated with being sedentary.

Psychotherapist Cosette Dawna Rae has owned the bucolic retreat center since 1994, and was searching for a new use for it when she hooked up with Cash. They decided to avoid treating people addicted to Internet sex, in part because she lives in the center with her family.

According to Dr. Kimberly Young of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery in Bradford, Pa., addiction warning signs are being preoccupied with thoughts of the Internet; using it longer than intended, and for increasing amounts of time; repeatedly making unsuccessful efforts to control use; jeopardizing relationships, school or work to spend time online; lying to cover the extent of Internet use; using the Internet to escape problems or feelings of depression; physical changes to weight, headaches or carpal tunnel syndrome.

Exactly how to respond is being debated.

For instance, Internet addiction can be a symptom of other mental illness, such as depression, or conditions like autism, experts say.

"From what we know, many so-called `Internet addicts' are folks who have severe depression, anxiety disorders, or social phobic symptoms that make it hard for them to live a full, balanced life and deal face-to-face with other people," said Dr. Ronald Pies, professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, N.Y.

"It may be that unless we treat their underlying problems, some new form of `addiction' will pop up down the line," Pies said.

There is debate about whether to include Internet addiction as a separate illness in the next edition of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," due in 2012, which determines which mental illnesses get covered by insurance.

Pies and Dr. Jerald Block, of Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, said there is not enough research yet to justify that.

"Among psychiatrists there is general recognition that many patients have difficulty controlling their impulses to chat online, or play computer games or watch porn," Block said. "The debate is how to classify that."

Cash, co-author of the book "Video Games & Your Kids," first started dealing with Internet addiction in 1994, with a patient who was so consumed by video games that he had lost his marriage and two jobs.

Internet addicts miss out on real conversations and real human development, often see their hygiene, their home and relationships deteriorate, don't eat or sleep properly and don't get enough exercise, Rae said.

Alexander is a tall, quiet young man who always got good grades and hopes to become a biologist.

He started playing "World of Warcraft," a hugely popular online multiplayer role playing game, about a year ago, and got sucked right in.

"At first it was a couple of hours a day," he said. "By midway through the first semester, I was playing 16 or 17 hours a day.

"School wasn't interesting," he said. "It was an easy way to socialize and meet people."

It was also an easy way to flunk out.

Alexander dropped out in the second semester and went to a traditional substance abuse program, which was not a good fit. He graduated from a 10-week outdoors-based program in southern Utah, but felt he still had little control over his gaming.

So he sought out a specialized program and arrived in Fall City in July. He thinks it was a good choice.

"I don't think I'll go back to `World of Warcraft' anytime soon," Alexander said.

Sony to launch 3D TVs next year

2009-09-02T13:08:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (Reuters) -

Sony Corp plans to launch 3D TVs next year in a move to spur sales amid slowing growth in flat TV demand, the Financial Times said.

Sony CEO Howard Stringer will announce the 3D TV launch as well as plans to make its Vaio PCs, PlayStation 3 game machines and Blu-ray players compatible with the technology at the IFA electronics trade show in Berlin on Wednesday, the FT said.

The newspaper said Stringer is expected to tell the audience: "As with high definition a few years back, there are a variety of issues yet to be addressed. But the 3D train is on the track, and we at Sony are ready to drive it home."

Sony said the company plans to hold a news conference at the IFA at 1500 GMT and that it may update progress on its 3D TV development there, but declined to comment on the timing of any 3D TV launch.

Shares in Sony, the world's second-largest LCD TV maker behind Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, were down 3.2 percent at 2,440 yen, underperforming the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index, which lost 2.5 percent.

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

Video game sales drop 23% in May

2009-06-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AFP) -

US videogame sales declined by 23 percent in May from a year ago, falling below one billion dollars for the first time since August 2007, market research firm NPD Group reported on Thursday.

NPD said sales of videogame hardware, software and accessories dropped to 863.3 million dollars in May from 1.12 billion dollars in May of last year.

Hardware sales fell 30 percent to 302.5 million dollars while software sales fell 17 percent to 448.9 million dollars. Sales of accessories were 25 percent lower at 112 million dollars.

"The video games industry continues to struggle with difficult comparisons to last year," NPD Group analyst Anita Frazier said, although she added that "May is typically one of the lowest revenue-generating months."

"Every category declined versus a year ago with the exception of portable hardware sales which was bolstered by the continued strong sales of the Nintendo DS including both the DSi and the Lite," she said.

Nintendo's Wii remained the top-selling game platform in May on sales of 289,500 units followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 on sales of 175,000 units, Sony's PlayStation 3 on sales of 131,000 units and Sony's PlayStation 2 on sales of 117,000 units.

Nintendo's DS was the top-selling handheld on sales of 633,500 units. Sony's PSP sold 100,400 units.

"There is a lot of new DS content coming to market this month for a wide variety of gamers, so we should see strong hardware sales continue," Frazier said.

Among game titles, the top-seller in May was UFC 2009 Undisputed on sales of 679,600 units for the Xbox 360 and 334,400 units for the PS3.

Wii Fit With Balance Board was next on sales of 352,800 units followed by EA Sports Active Bundle for the Wii on sales of 345,800 units.

Sony Joins Universal, YouTube Video Site

2009-06-05T09:42:00.000-07:00

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Videogame industry prays for resilient 2009

2009-06-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Game publishers, in a rare moment of solidarity, joined forces on Wednesday to convey optimism for the future of their $30 billion industry despite spiraling consumer spending and a global economic downturn.

Electronic Arts, Activision and THQ Inc -- with Activision the sole profit-maker in its last reported quarter -- hope to focus on developing mainly blockbuster titles while finding ways to eliminate costs.

A year-long recession has slowed sales growth. Research house NPD estimates spending on U.S. videogames dived 17 percent in April. With top titles often costing as much to produce as a Hollywood film, publishers have had to make tough choices.

After a wave of belt-tightening in the past year, including widespread job cuts, studio closings and title cancellations, many now adopt a strategy of diverting resources to only their most bankable franchises.

"Our actual net development budget has been significantly reduced this year to $120 million ... but its focus is on a few of these quality titles," THQ CEO Brian Farrell told Reuters.

Executives see glimmers of hope in new audiences and more casual users, expanding beyond the industry's traditionally heavily male demographic to women and older people.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello sees 1 billion game players from just a few hundred million now.

Crucial to that vast expansion will be games that appeal not just to the hard-core, but also to families andcasual gamers, as exemplified by the enormous take-up of Nintendo's Wii and its best-selling Wii Fit fitness title.

GameStop same store sales stumble

2009-05-28T10:17:00.001-07:00

NEW YORK (Reuters) – GameStop Corp (GME.N) said on Thursday its same-store sales dropped more than expected in the last quarter and it lowered its full-year same-store sales forecast.

Shares in the video game retailer fell by as much as 17 percent in midday trading after forecasting another weak quarter of same-store sales, a measure of stores open at least a year.

"The real damage here is in the guidance," said Mike Hickey analyst at Janco Partners.

Fiscal first quarter net income was $70.4 million, or 42 cents a share, up from $62.1 million, or 37 cents a share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 9.2 percent to $1.98 billion, the Grapevine, Texas-based company said.

Analysts had been expecting a profit of 42 cents a share, on revenue of $1.99 billion, according to Reuters Estimates

But comparable store sales - sales at stores open at least a year - missed its own forecast, declining 1.5 percent, due to the recession in Europe and a slowdown of new console sales that occurred late in the quarter.

GameStop reiterated last month that first quarter same-store sales would come in flat to up 2 percent.

"The stock is down because of the surprise decline after they reiterated their guidance with two weeks of the quarter left," said Hickey.

The company said it expects to earn between 28 cents to 33 cents a share in the its fiscal second quarter.Wall Street had been expecting profit to come in around 40 cents.

GameStop also expects same store sales to decline by 8 percent to 11 percent in its second quarter. Janco Partners had been expecting a decline of 4 percent.

Though the company reiterated its full year diluted earnings range of $2.83 to $2.93, it lowered its full-year same store sales forecast to range from flat to up 2 percent down from a previous forecast of 4 percent to 6 percent.

"The real kicker here is Q2 being so weak from a guidance perspective and that's due to slowing hardware sales which have a disproportionate negative impact on same store sales numbers," said Hickey.

GameStop has previously been able to maintain growth despite the economic downturn, as sales of video game consoles by Nintendo (7974.OS), Sony Corp (6758.T) and Microsoft (MSFT.O) remained robust, driving consumers into GameStop stores games to buy software for their systems.

Analysts said the recession has meant consumers are buying fewer games consoles such as Sony's PlayStation 3 until there are significant price cuts.

The company's profit margins have benefited from an active trade-in system, where shoppers return used games for a fraction of the purchase price or credit toward future sales. The returned games are sold at a higher profit margin than new games.

Shares in GameStop were down $3.69 to $22.78 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Intel adopts an identity in software

2009-05-26T10:05:00.000-07:00

ntel has worked hard and spent a lot of money over the years to shape its image: it is the company that celebrates its quest to make computer chips ever smaller, faster, and cheaper with a quick five-note jingle at the end of its commercials.

But as Intel tries to expand beyond the personal-computer chip business, it is changing in subtle ways. For the first time, its long unheralded software developers, more than 3,000 of them, have stolen some of the spotlight from its hardware engineers. These programmers find themselves at the center of Intel's forays into areas like mobile phones and video games.

The most attention-grabbing element of Intel's software push is a version of the open-source Linux operating system called Moblin. It represents a direct assault on the Windows franchise of Microsoft, Intel's longtime partner.

"This is a very determined, risky effort on Intel's part," said Mark Shuttleworth, the chief executive of Canonical, which makes another version of Linux called Ubuntu.

The Moblin software resembles Windows or Apple's Mac OS X to a degree, handling the basic functions of running a computer. But it has a few twists that Intel says make it better suited for small mobile devices.

For example, Moblin fires up and reaches the Internet in about seven seconds, then displays a novel type of start-up screen. People will find their appointments listed on one side of the screen, along with their favorite programs. But the bulk of the screen is taken up by cartoonish icons that show things like social-networking updates from friends, photos, and recently used documents.

With animated icons and other quirky bits and pieces, Moblin looks like a fresh take on the operating system. Some companies hope it will give Microsoft a strong challenge in the market for the small, cheap laptops commonly known as Netbooks. A polished second version of the software, which is in trials, should start appearing on a variety of Netbooks this summer.

Google To Reshoot Japan Streets

2009-05-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

TOKYO (AFP) -

US Internet giant Google has decided to reshoot Street View photos in Japan following complaints from people who said public images of their homes violated their privacy.

The company's Japanese unit announced the decision Wednesday, saying it would take new photographs with the cameras set lower so the images accessible via net-based maps would not show photos looking into people's houses.

The company has also blurred vehicle license plates in the service.

Google said on its Japanese website that the company wished to provide the new service in a way that is socially acceptable in Japan.

Launched two years ago in the United States, Street View gives Google users a 360-degree view of streets. The service in Japan is now available to show images from major cities.

The move in Japan came after various municipalities and citizens groups accused the company of violating people's privacy by publishing the photos of private houses and community streets without owners' consent.

Japan is not unique in worrying about the Internet feature.

Earlier this week, Greece's data protection agency barred Google from taking any more images for its Street View feature until the company explains the service and its privacy safeguards.

An American court earlier this year rejecteProxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

a privacy suit by a couple whose house was shown on Street View.