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We'd already gotten word of HP's new $40 million "Let's Do Amazing" ad campaign earlier today, but the company has just now rolled out its first series of ads to give us some indication of how all that money is being spent. Somewhat curiously, for an ad campaign partly intended to reintroduce the HP brand to consumers, the ads stray pretty far beyond HP's consumer products (including a trip to a UPS sorting facility and the Venetian's IT department), but we do at least get to see Dr. Dre extol the benefits of HP Beats audio -- not to mention a little beatboxing from Rhys Darby of "Flight of the Conchords," who serves as the host of the ads. Head on past the break to check out the Dre ad and HP's introduction video, and hit up the link below for the rest of the series.

Continue reading HP rolls out 'Let's Do Amazing' ad campaign

HP rolls out 'Let's Do Amazing' ad campaign originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  HP YouTube Channel, HP  | Email this | CommentsDonald Melanson05406461407365527848045945035708645497971225245726947177342206725150186554169994

Sepp Blatter (left), the FIFA president, has explained why there won’t be goal-line technology at this year’s World Cup, saying he wants the sport to maintain a “human element” and that all levels of soccer, from 6-year-old kids to open-goal-missing Gonzalo Higuaín of Real Madrid, need to be played with the same rules. Whatever you say, Sepp. I hope for your sake a Spain or Italy or Brazil don’t get knocked out of the tournament because of a controversial coal; you won’t hear the end of it.

So mighty Sepp, who’s apparently one of the most powerful men on Earth according to someone who appeared on World Football Daily the other day (again, a fine podcast, well worth the $5/month I pay), had this to say:

No matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being. This being the case, why remove the responsibility from the referee to give it to someone else? It is often the case that, even after a slow-motion replay, ten different experts will have ten different opinions on what the decision should have been.

I love how we’re praising the idea of debating outright wrongheaded decision because it makes the sport exciting. What’s so wrong with wanting to see the right decisions being made, even if it’s at the “expense” of post-match pub debates?

But whatever, I’ve already written quite a bit about the subject.

A Korean man marries a pillow with the image of Fate Testarossa, a magical figure from a Japanese anime series, imprinted on it. Can this love last?

Originally posted at Technically Incorrect

Chris Matyszczyk

Have you heard? The Game Developer’s Conference (GDC) is going on right now, which is why it shouldn’t go as a big surprise that all these companies are announcing things there. Yes, they’ll generally have a video game/gaming twist to it, but that’s okay. Especially when we have Microsoft presenting, and they’re giving details on how push notifications are going to work on the upcoming mobile Operating System.

Right up until the official announcement of Windows Phone 7 Series, there came a time when multitasking came under fire. Was it going to be included? Would Microsoft really ditch such an integral feature (and one that’s been highly scrutinized by the competition)? Well, at least in the form of their online “multiplayer” games, it looks like push notifications are going to be the rule, rather than the exception. As the video explains, this is going to be the best way to run these games. As we’ve mentioned before, asynchronous, turn-based games are definitely going to happen on Windows Phone 7 Series, and this methodology is going to make sure they run smoothly.

However, this is dealing with gaming. And while they do show that the live tiles, the ones that are displayed on the phone’s “home screen”, and explain that they are going to get updated in real-time, we’re wondering just what this means for third-party applications, as well as first-party ones. Will there be no multitasking at all? (Outside, of course, listening to music and the like.) Will Pandora, which was noted during the initial keynote, work while you’re sending a text message? These are the questions that people are still asking, and even though we may have just shed some light on it, we’ve certainly not illuminated the depth of the cave quite yet. MIX10 anyone?

[via Pocket Now]

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Evan Selleck17886641061340887192

Power tool company Stihl requests an unusual way to promote its leaf blowers, and it appears to have gotten what it wanted.Leslie Katz

Sure, you read reviews and take recommendations from friends before you buy a new cellphone, but have you ever stopped to consider what the inventor of the cellphone uses on a daily basis? C-SPAN has, and recently took the opportunity to ask the man himself, Marty Cooper, that very question during a wide-ranging interview. While Cooper said that he has used an iPhone previously, he recently passed it on to his grandson in favor of a Motorola Droid, which he says he chose because he wanted to get more experience with Android. But that's not all, Cooper also revealed that he carries a Jitterbug as well for when he just wants to make phone calls. Surprising for a pioneer of mobile technology? Not exactly, as Cooper actually co-founded Jitterbug with his wife, who he credits with inventing the phone. Head on past the break to watch the complete interview.

Continue reading Cellphone inventor Marty Cooper uses a Droid.... and a Jitterbug

Cellphone inventor Marty Cooper uses a Droid.... and a Jitterbug originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Phandroid, Android Central  |  YouTube  | Email this | CommentsDonald Melanson07436492857306278114003315159287839212471641263360515974264214885494554096291064136854660329775392880588672588850481705006925351185350905271165235267989028318841568040157596507116018258071009055852624033113356624300463090013427824469783762816396709680212329954108131533665875927560128356772607615349409828817642577126010178435670796973731230800122967927807844410219456665617116596165872930768581987951457502941155132321209318702010703989872077941170790115301991604289290542937900206273799994268261983048631700942706523401150094525578601079611690942701061069311

An idea of how much I enjoyed playing The Creative Assembly’s, by way of Sega, Napoleon: Total War pretty much all weekend long: I just ordered all four parts of Max Gallo’s biography of Napoleon from Amazon France. I don’t even speak French! (Well, a very little bit, but certainly not enough to read a four-volume biography written by someone who’s a member of L’Academie française.) That’s a pretty big endorsement: the game re-kindled my interest in Napoleon so much that I bought books that I can’t even read. Wild.

It’s such a computer game. The game is the sequel to last year’s Empire: Total War, which was one of the best PC games released last year, but rather than take an on entire era, from every country’s perspective, Napoleon focuses on the many awesome campaigns of the greatest man to ever walk the planet. There’s a reason why Bender Bending Rodriguez styles himself after Le Petit Corporal.

I’m terrible at the game. Like, my idea of military strategy can best be described as Russian: throw bodies at my enemies until I’ve exhausted their supplies. Thankfully, Napoleonic France had the biggest population of all the European countries (yes, even slightly bigger than Russia’s), so it’s pretty easy to recruit infantry to make up for my strategic failures. Outside of the battle scenes, which look terrific on my recently built PC, I’m over here managing my country’s resources. We’re nearing bankruptcy! The workers in Milan have gone on strike! Our cannons in Turin have been attacked by a bunch of Juventus fans!

If nothing else, I’d make a very good bureaucrat. It’s so fun to steer the ship of state, balancing income with expenditures, as my troops sweep across the Continent. Get out of my way, Austria! It’ll be a cold day in Hell before I bow before some corrupt Viennese prince!

The game is fun, in other words.

Deviant Art

It's one of our favorite pastimes -- betting what movies will soar and flop at the box office. By no means do these numbers indicate film quality, of course, but we still enjoy keeping an eye on them. Now, we have even more incentive. According to The New York Times, Cantor Futures Exchange will launch a Web site in late April that allows everybody from studio executives to film lovers to bet money on how well a film will do at the box office.

A contract will trade at $1 for every $1 million a movie is predicted to make during its first month of release. The Times uses the upcoming 'Robin Hood' flick starring Russel Crowe as an example: If it's expected to make $100 million (probably a reasonable figure), and you put down $100, you'll make a dollar for every million dollars it goes over that $100-million mark. Not only is this a fun way for movie lovers to make some extra cash, but distributors and studios could also pad their pockets if they correctly predict box-office performance. Cantor will make sure there's no conflicts of interest by not allowing industry insiders to bet more money on a flop than on a success.

Continue reading Cantor Exchange Lets Movie Buffs Bet on Box Office Success

Filed under: Web

Cantor Exchange Lets Movie Buffs Bet on Box Office Success originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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switchedtips@gmail.com (Caleb Johnson)

I really wanted to like Google Wave. But after several months of attempting to use it in a variety of ways, I've come to the conclusion that the current incarnation of Google Wave is too fundamentally flawed to be useful. That said, Google has made it very clear that Google Wave is still in preview release, so I hold out hope that Google will radically revamp the service. I think Google is aware of these issues, since a Feedback survey link just appeared in Google Wave itself, and many of the questions seem to acknowledge that users are wildly unhappy.

Here are the things I attempted to do in Google Wave, all with some level of frustration and relatively little overall success.

Basic Communication -- Google Wave is often put forth as a rethinking of Internet communication, a mashup of email, instant messaging, and more. It's difficult to test Google Wave in this way, however, for the simple reason that it's not email, and it's not instant messaging. Everyone with whom you want to communicate must have a Google Wave account, and although those with Google Wave accounts are given invitations to hand out to friends and colleagues, the fact remains that most of the people you're likely to want to communicate with are not using Google Wave now. As a result, you'll never think of using Google Wave as a way of contacting someone.

Worse, my experience is that even tech-savvy people like those I work with seem generally dubious of Google Wave, and that's even before they've gotten into the system. Getting someone signed up with Google Wave is often an exercise in hair-pulling frustration requiring multiple back-and-forth email messages as you send an invitation, request their Google Wave account information (which is a pseudo email address @googlewave.com, not any other Google account or email address), add them to a wave, and explain some of the basics of using Google Wave. And again, these frustrations occurred when working with some extremely savvy tech writers and programmers, not everyday users.

The next problem, also related to the fact that people aren't already using Google Wave in a big way, is that essentially no one checks their Google Wave account regularly for new waves or replies. So you can't guarantee that anyone will even notice communication happening in Google Wave. For a while, I worked around that with an extension that people could use to request email-based notifications of changes; now Google has announced that it's building email notifications into Google Wave itself.

The other workaround is to use a program like Waveboard (see "Catch a Google Wave with Waveboard," 30 October 2009), which adds a variety of local notification methods, including Growl, Dock icon badges, and more. But still, convincing someone to use Waveboard and keep it running all the time for Google Wave is an exercise in futility.

One last concern - although you can mark waves as being public and thus available for anyone with a Google Wave account to see and comment on, that struck me as just weird. I can't see Google Wave as a publishing system like a blog or even Twitter; it just seemed too random for that since there isn't the context of a blog, which generally revolves around a topic or a person or an organization, or the implied personal context of Twitter, where people follow those who have interesting things to say. Neither email nor instant messaging have this concept of public posting to an entirely random audience, and without some major changes, Google Wave's approach is inherently confusing and unsatisfying.

Group Planning -- At Macworld Expo in San Francisco last month, I moderated a panel on email clients. For that, I needed to explain to all my panelists what the panel would be about, how I was planning to organize it, and what I expected of them, besides their usual scintillating conversational skills. Such discussions normally take place in email, but in my experience, they often quickly derail, such that one aspect of the discussion receives disproportionate attention, and the rest are largely ignored. Also, because the conversation happens months in advance, as the date approaches, it can be difficult to recall what was decided.

So I decided to hold the conversation in Google Wave, figuring that it would serve as a semi-permanent record of what was said, presenting all my points at all times, rather than letting my panelists focus on one thing to the exclusion of all others.

This was perhaps the most successful of my Google Wave experiments, since everyone got in there and read what I wrote, at least at first, and there was some discussion that helped me refine my approach to the session. But after the initial chatter died down, no one but me visited it again, which emphasizes Google Wave's notification problems, and perhaps points to my desire for a semi-permanent record not being as important as I thought. And, as the date came very close, I still ended up having face-to-face discussions about the session with each panelist individually to make sure we were all on the same page.

In the end, this task could have been handled in email just as well, if not better.

Document Collaboration -- This is a topic near and dear to my heart, since I do an awful lot of collaborating on TidBITS articles, both as a writer and as an editor. The basic approach was simple - I'd start a new wave, paste in the draft of an article, invite reviewers, and then respond as they made comments. At the end of the process, I'd copy the text out of Google Wave (since there's nothing useful you can do with it otherwise).

The theoretical benefit of Google Wave for document collaboration is that everyone in the wave could either make changes directly in the text or could leave comments that could turn into discussions with other reviewers. The concept was great, but it didn't work well in practice.

Although you can edit any part of any wave by double-clicking it and clicking the Edit button in the Reply/Edit lozenge that appears, it's difficult for other people to see the changes you've made. If they're watching in real time as you edit, it's possible to see changes happening, and the other approach is to use Google Wave's playback feature, which steps through the changes each person makes. But that's horribly clumsy, since you have to take a step in the playback, scroll through the document looking for highlighted changes, and then take another step. Since the playback records replies separately from edits, when one reviewer would make some edits, then insert a reply, and then some more edits, and so on, it resulted in many different steps in the playback to consider.

As a result, Google Wave worked acceptably only when the textual changes were minor. If more significant development editing was necessary, its text-handling and author-marking tools simply weren't up to the task. In one case I found myself pulling text out to EtherPad where it was obvious who was making what change.

The replies were troublesome too. If you double-click in the document and click the Reply button in the Reply/Edit lozenge, Google Wave sometimes inserts the reply in the middle of sentences, or between a bullet and its text. The only way to guarantee that a reply follows a paragraph or come at a certain point is to select some text, double-click the selected text, and then click Reply. I found that I had to explain that technique to everyone I invited to a wave, or risk a significantly more confusing layout.

Another problem with replies is that it's difficult to control whether or not they were hierarchical to one another. In general, if you reply to some text in the initial blip (an excellent name for the units of text in Google Wave, by the way), your reply is indented under that blip, unless your reply comes at the very end of the blip. Replying to a reply generally does not indent your reply, unless you selected some text in the reply first. And it's tremendously easy to create a reply when you don't mean to, or in an incorrect location, forcing you to delete the just-created blip.

The fact that Google Wave shows you when others are typing sounds cool, but was generally irritating, since I could tell what someone was going to say before they finished typing. I ended up responding before they finished, which I'm sure was annoying, but I just couldn't resist. iChat's approach of indicating that someone is typing without actually showing it works better, since then you respond to fully formed thoughts.

Switching back and forth between editing and replying is also cumbersome. There is a keyboard shortcut (Shift-Return) that lets you avoid scrolling to the bottom of a long blip to click the Done button, button, but even still, switching between editing and replying modes requires conscious thought that's not necessary in most programs that allow editing and commenting, even long-standing ones like Microsoft Word.

Finally, there is no good way to mark replies as having been viewed, so you could avoid seeing them in the future, or to hide them entirely so you could look at the document without them. Once again, Microsoft Word's change tracking and commenting features put others to shame, even if it has no collaboration capabilities at all.

One unexpected positive about using Google Wave for document collaboration was that when I selected the text of an original blip and copied it out to BBEdit, I got only the text of my now-edited draft, not all the interspersed replies. That's what you'd want, of course, but you would have no idea that it's possible without trying it. And, although this worked for me, one other person was completely unable to copy text out at all for reasons we never determined.

In the end, Google Wave proved far more frustrating for document collaboration than Google Docs or EtherPad (now owned by Google too, see "EtherPad Open-Sourced after Google Acquisition," 4 December 2009), or even the venerable QuickTopic Document Review. In Google Docs, editing is much easier, but commenting and discussions are extremely clumsy, and change tracking and versioning aren't great. In EtherPad, change tracking and versioning are generally well done, and discussions can take place outside the document in a separate chat pane. And in QuickTopic Document Review, which we rely on for Take Control ebook technical reviews, commenting is easy, but there's no way to edit at all.

Project Management -- My next attempt was to use Google Wave for project management for our forthcoming account management system. Email was working poorly because if someone disappeared on a different project for a few days, they often had trouble remembering what tasks remained for them to do, or forgot discussions that had taken place much earlier in my project. Plus, as with my group planning experiment, I wanted to create a system where discussions could become detailed on one topic without losing track of others.

To this end, I created a wave shared with Glenn Fleishman, our technical guru, and Adam Khan, our freelance ExpressionEngine developer, and I outlined all the tasks. The idea was that I could create a task and spec out its associated feature in a blip. Then, if Adam or Glenn had questions or comments, they could reply inside that task blip, and I could reply back as well, keeping all the discussion together and coherent.

By this time I had the email notification add-on working, so we could all be alerted when there were changes, which helped keep us all on track. But even with that, I found myself resorting to email to ask how things were going, since there was no way to know if the others were seeing my changes.

The real problem, though, was in overload. The wave ended up with nearly 200 messages by the time we abandoned it, and as you can imagine, there could be many replies under each item. That was fine at first, but as tasks were completed, there was no good way to hide them and their associated discussion. You can delete blips in Google Wave, and you can see the deleted ones in the playback, so they're not lost forever, but since you would be deleting other people's words, it felt wrong to do so. Plus, it was unclear if it would be easy to find something again, once deleted. You can also collapse a thread of replies, but Google Wave wouldn't retain that collapsed state the next time you come in.

And more to the point, there is no real way to assign a task to a particular person (we used initials at the start of the task description), no coherent way to see what needed attention, and no real way to mark a task as completed (we used a checkmark in front of the initials). In other words, it worked, but proved only slightly better than a straight text document in Google Docs. (We've done that too; it's also awkward and painful.)

In the end, we moved the project to a project collaboration site called Manymoon, which has features roughly similar to the popular Basecamp project collaboration site, but which can be used for small stuff like this for free. Manymoon makes it easy to create tasks, assign them to particular people, leave comments on the task (the most important feature, in my experience), notify all members of the project of changes and comments via email, view tasks by user and status, and mark them as done once completed. If you're looking for a project collaboration site, Manymoon is definitely worth a look.

During this process, I tried using Google Wave to manage several other projects where I thought there might be a fair amount of discussion, but in each case, it basically became a roach motel where I stored information and everyone else took one look and ignored it afterwards. Those projects will also be moving to Manymoon at some point; I'm not worried about losing what I did in Google Wave, but I simply can't (and don't want to) force all the parties involved to use it.

Anti-Network Effect -- All things considered, the main problem with Google Wave was that it wasn't compelling enough to create a network effect, where the fact that some people were using it was enough to lure others to use it. In nearly all the cases where I invited someone to a wave, I got some level of pushback, whether or not the person already had a Google Wave account. Since TidBITS relies largely on persuasion rather than commands from on high, the consistent (and considerable) lack of enthusiasm was an insurmountable obstacle.

It seems as though Google may be aware of this problem from the way in which they introduced Google Buzz as part of Gmail, which ensured that Buzz would have vast numbers of users from the beginning. Unfortunately, Google went too far in that direction, since lots of people didn't want Buzz turned on, and vastly more had no idea what it was.

Google should listen to the developers of the recently acquired EtherPad, which did a good job of eliminating the need for accounts, making for a very lightweight system (in EtherPad, the creator of a pad simply shares a URL to the pad via email or instant messaging or any other medium). The ideal middle ground for any system like Google Wave or Google Buzz is to make it dead simple to join without doing anything special or signing up for anything else (just because I might want to use Buzz doesn't mean I want a full Google account) while at the same time making the service sufficiently compelling and viral that people want to sign up in droves. That has worked for Twitter and Facebook, and countless other systems that rely on the network effect. I realize Google Wave is a slightly special case, since it's designed as a protocol and server that could be run by any organization, but even still, it has to be lightweight for adoption to occur.

I'm almost hesitant to make concrete recommendations for Google Wave, since it has seen so few significant changes since its introduction that I wonder if Google isn't working on a major revision behind the scenes. But I think my criticisms above should lend some insight into the kind of changes that would help. Other thoughts:

• Invitations to a wave should be by URL, sent via email or instant messaging or any other means, and if Google Wave wants to make it easier, it should tie into your existing contact list.
• Google Wave shouldn't require an account for those invited to join a wave, and if someone wants to create an account, it should for now be associated with existing Google accounts, and not be entirely separate.
• For those who already use Gmail, Google should think about non-intrusive ways of integrating Google Wave into Gmail to eliminate the notification problem and create a bit more of a network effect. For those not using Gmail, email notification is a must.
• Though seeing people typing in real-time can be useful, the feature should be optional, to allow people to finish a thought before others reply or comment on it.
• The interface for switching between editing and replying needs to be both more obvious and faster, and the constant creation of inadvertent replies should be eliminated.
• Google Wave should remember if you have collapsed a blip and not show it again unless it gets new traffic, or even collapse replies after they're read, just like an email conversation in Gmail. There should also be a way of hiding all replies completely, so an edited document can be read without interruption.
• If Google Wave is to be useful for document collaboration, it has to be able to publish a wave to other formats and mediums, such as email, straight text, RTF, HTML, to a blog post, or to a content management system. Copy-and-paste is not an interface.
• Blips should be allowed to have user-defined metadata like completion status, task assignment, and due dates so Google Wave could become useful for task and project management.

These are relatively minor conceptual changes, though I freely acknowledge that they could require significant architectural and interface modifications. As such, I can't say that I'd be happy to use Google Wave even if Google were to implement all of them, but I'd certainly return with fresh enthusiasm replacing the frustration Google Wave has caused me thus far.

 

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Microsoft's MacBU: Supporting Mac users with Office 2008.
Is your Office up-to-date? Make sure you're running the latest
versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Entourage by choosing
Check for Updates from the Help menu of any Office application!   Copyright © 2010 Adam C. Engst. TidBITS is copyright © 2010 TidBITS Publishing Inc. If you're reading this article on a Web site other than TidBITS.com, please let us know, because if it was republished without attribution, by a commercial site, or in modified form, it violates our Creative Commons License.

ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst)

The first Apple-certified solar charging case for the iPhone and iPod Touch is now available for purchase.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

David Carnoy

Welcome to the future, ladies and gentlemen. What we have here, by definition, is exactly where technology should be going. While we love all our gadgets, from the smallest magnets to the largest LED TVs, it’s this kind of tech that makes our spines tingle. After all, even if it may not work as well as it does in all those science-fiction movies, it’s sure going in the right direction. Intendix wants to make it possible for those who may not be able to speak, to finally get what they want to say out to those around them, and we can’t help but love the process.

The Intendix computer was debuted during CeBIT 2010, but there were some key details missing from the presentation. The technology itself was created by the Austrian Guger Technologies, or g.tec, to better improve the lives of those with any kind of locked-in syndrome, or any other kind of situation that may prevent someone from telling people what they want or need. And yes, you are right about what it does: the system is a thought-to-computer network, which works by placing an EEG helmet on the user. From that point on, the user can “text,” or trigger an alarm if needed. The system is also able to speak the text out-loud, copy or print text to or from an email, or to issue commands to an external device. The system works at a rate of about five to 10 characters per minute.

There’s no other way to look at this: it’s mind control, but in a far more healthy, and lucrative fashion. Trying to help others is never a bad thing, and we’re hoping that the Intendix makes it to as many people as it can who need it. However, like any other thing that’s needed, there’s always a price tag. What we’re looking at now is about $12,250 for a single unit. There’s also no word on widespread distribution or manufacturing, but hopefully that gets cleared up soon.

[via Akihabara News]

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Evan Selleck

There’s no doubt that the video game industry is one of the most profitable in the world. There are titles out there that have made more money than blockbuster movies, and this is not a trend that looks like it will be stopping any time soon. And one of the biggest proponents of those games, is the online multiplayer that comes along with it. Being able to yell at someone hundreds, if not sometimes thousands of miles away from you is great. But, what if it could be better?

That’s exactly what Dolby asked themselves, and fortunately for the rest of us, they came up with an answer. At this year’s Game Developer’s Conference (GDC), they announced the release of their latest audio technology, codenamed Axon. It is specifically designed to implement realistic voice communication. But it also adds surround panning and distance attenuation. Basically, the experience that Dolby Axon will provide will make your video game experience so much better, it will seem almost life-like.

The technology is already available on some PC games, but Dolby wants to let video game developers know that the technology is ready for their console-based games. The Axon technology is similar to that of Creative’s new World of Warcraft headset, that’s set to ship in the UK within a couple of weeks. Basically, users are able to experience THX surround sound, and also change their voice as if to sound like a character in the game. The technology is meant to make the experience clearer, more crisp, and accurate. The new technology will decrease lag as well, so no more yelling at a friend just to watch him die because of lag.

[via Pocket-Lint]

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Evan Selleck00673489645062683076

Well, wouldn't you know it? 3D seems to be the topic of conversation here at GDC , and Paris-based Darkworks is making a splash by announcing the availability of its TriOviz for Games SDK. In short, this magical software concoction is a post-process effect that allows standard 2D games to be transformed into 3D masterpieces... and you don't even need to buy a 3D television. We were briefed on the tech here at the show, and we're told that the magic happens in the software and the glasses, and unlike existing 3D technologies, other users around the house will still be able to watch you play in 2D without all those blurred edges. In other words, existing titles (for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC; sorry Wii owners!) can have a 3D experience added in, and we're guessing that a select few AAA games will be seeing a DLC pack in the near future for those who care to re-play their favorites in the third dimension. We'll be doing our best to swing by and catch a demo later today, but for now, just know that your life will never be the same once these 3D-ified games start shipping in the Spring.

Darkworks SDK transforms 2D games into 3D games, no 3D TV required originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Business Wire  | Email this | CommentsDarren Murph16402124202139128003131242862951192156130420725005869019095109889909772835917934032958281955478073141160461493053607503900608649924548339035062737999942682619830672515018655416999404030640442041774515

I’m still in shock that the beings above are apparently going to let Smallville surpass SG-1’s record. Oh well. But here’s the trailer for the second half of Stargate Universe’s first season. Here’s hoping that the second half is a bit more like the Stargate of old. Too bad I’ll end up watching it even it’s more of the same crap.

Verizon’s not going to be too happy about this one. From everyone we’ve spoken to, they really wanted to keep details surrounding the Android-powered HTC Incredible underwraps for a while longer. That’s understandable, given that the Incredible blows their current flagship Android device, the Motorola Droid, to smithereens on just about every count.

Alas, all it takes is one device to slip into the wrong hands — and fortunately for us, it has! A bunch of new shots of the HTC Incredible (with brand new, Verizon-brand-friendly colors) have just leaked out, and a gaggle of spec details came with it.

Read the rest at MobileCrunch >>

Aside from ushering the term "kill screen" into the popular vernacular, 2007's 'The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters' also introduced the non-gaming world to the intensity and drama of highly competitive battles for video game supremacy. In the film, everyman protagonist Steve Wiebe breaks gaming icon Billy Mitchell's stranglehold on the 'Donkey Kong' high score, only to lose it a few months later -- ceding it back to the showman Mitchell.

Mitchell's record subsequently stood for three years, but after setting a new 'Donkey Kong Jr.' record last month, Wiebe announced that he would once again be challenging Mitchell's 'Donkey Kong' dominance. Well, the record was indeed eclipsed this week, but it wasn't accomplished by Wiebe. According to Asylum, Hank Chien, a previous unknown, emerged from nowhere to topple the high score by a relatively massive total of 11,000 points. (Mitchell's lead over Wiebe was a mere 1,000.)

Continue reading Wiebe-Mitchell 'Donky Kong' War Upstaged by Unknown Rookie

Filed under: Video Games

Wiebe-Mitchell 'Donky Kong' War Upstaged by Unknown Rookie originally appeared on Switched on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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switchedtips@gmail.com (Warren Riddle)

Do not put these tech gifts under the tree unless the recipient has been very, very naughty.

Originally posted at CNET TV

Tom Merritt

It’s Tecmo Bowl, but on your Xbox 360 or PS3. And without the NFL-licensed players and teams. But with a 3D-style look and feel! You can go old-school and play in 2D mode, too.

It’s actually the SNES version of Super Tecmo Bowl, redone for the present day and with some extras thrown in here and there.

Apparently you’ll be able to edit teams and rosters, so with a little work you could get everything all squared away with the real-life names. The big addition here, too, will be online multiplayer. That means you can use the time between now and when the game’s released to track down all the kids that used to live in your neighborhood growing up.

I’ll be buying this, price be damned. I’m guessing we might be looking at around $10 but I’d go up to, and including, $15. I don’t know how I’d feel about $20. Probably not great, but that’s not to say I still wouldn’t buy it. No hard and fast launch date yet other than Spring 2010.

[via Uncrate/LA Times]

We love gadgets with cool names. And while Sony’s BLOGGIE may take the crown for strangest, the EVIL camera takes the cake for awesome. The EVIL part stands for (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens), and that basically does a great job of breaking down the core elements of this camera. While the looks may not attract the most hardcore of consumer, it may have enough in the software end of things to make anyone on the fence change their mind, given enough hands-on time with the device.

About a month ago, at the PMA show, images of the EVIL camera came to light. And while they did a great job of showcasing the camera proper, there were some question floating around on how snapping photos would be handled, among a few others. Well, it’s all been answered now, as the latest images of the EVIL’s methods have come out, and show a touchscreen. It also shows us that photographers will also be able to save images in the JPEG and RAW modes. Plus, there’s an APS-C sized sensor in this little guy, which is pretty fantastic on Sony’s part.

Despite the fact that the EVIL is just a camera, Sony has found themselves giving enough to place an onboard tutorial for you, if you do decide that this is the camera for you. While the EVIL camera may not seem like it could be a real DSLR competitor, from what we can see in specifications, we’re wondering if Sony could find a reasonable price tag to go along with this gadget, and therefore definitely woo some potential buyers. Unfortunately, there’s no word on pricing or availability at this point.

[via GeekyGadgets]

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Evan Selleck

Actually, the bigger surprise would be if Apple didn't add this long-awaited feature to the new OS. But now we have an official "unofficial" rumor that it's happening.

Originally posted at iPhone Atlas

Rick Broida