Daily Wrap-Up 1.09.07
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 6:01 PM
Here's what went down today in the world of popular culture, videogames and technology.
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TAGS: Daily Wrap-Up, Videos
Queen Of England Loves Her Wii
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:38 PM
According to UK Website The People, The Queen of England loves the Nintendo Wii.
A Palace source told The People: "When she saw William playing a game after lunch at Sandringham she thought the Nintendo looked tremendous fun and begged to join in.
"She played a simple ten-pin bowling game and by all accounts was a natural."
Wii Sports, though? Seriously? That's so last year, Queen.
Along with Wii-ing, the Queen Mum enjoys: A mobile phone, an email account, an iPod and a Blackberry. She also reads Mad Magazine and races dragsters!
The People: MAKE WAY FOR THE Q Wii N
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TAGS: Videogames, Wii
iTunes UK Prices Lowered
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:07 PM
 Apple announced today that it will lower the prices on its UK iTunes store to match the pricing across the rest of Europe, pre-empting any regulatory action by the European Commission.
Ya see, the European Commission released a Statement of Objections in April 2007, saying that the UK iTunes store might be in breach of EU competition rules, the first step in formal antitrust proceedings.
The new price structure will kick in over the next six months and align UK iTunes with stores in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain.
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TAGS: Internets Culture, Music
Nugget From The Net
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 3:06 PM
Be prepared, the internet, for the most awesome photo you will see all day:
Details are scarce, but it looks like Mr. T. with a rocket launcher in the back of a pick-up truck. Just like in my dreams.
Jalopnik
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TAGS: Nuggets From The Nets
Yoda, Vader In 'Soul Calibur 4'(!)
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 2:39 PM
In the biggest WTF in gaming since the launch of Second Life, 1up.com reports that Yoda and Darth Vader will be playable characters in SoulCalibur 4.
We will not begin to speculate on how the two characters from a galaxy far, far away might have entered the medieval fantasy milieu of Ivy and company from the Soul Calibur universe. We don't think we want to know.
Also, we'd like to remind you that it is NOT April 1st.
More shots at the link below.
1up.com: Star Wars in Soul Calibur IV
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TAGS: Movies, Videogames
Xbox Live Lawsuit Filed
Posted by Ty Colfax - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 2:26 PM
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Microsoft in a U.S. District Court in Texas on behalf of gamers affected by Xbox Live crashes over the holidays. The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of warranty, and negligent misrepresentation stating the stakes somewhere over $5 million.
So, do you think Microsoft should pay out such a huge amount in exchange for periodic outages? Maybe more than just the crappy Live game they shlocked up as a peace offering would have sated users. Now they’ve got somewhat of a problem on their hands.
seattlepi.com: Lawsuit Filed Over Xbox Live Problems
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TAGS: Internets Culture, Videogames, Xbox 360
Sessler's Soapbox: X-Play: Gametime Evolved
Posted by Jonathan Hunt - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 2:09 PM
In this week's Sessler's Soapbox, Adam does something a little different: He plugs his own show, X-Play. With the relaunch on Monday, Sessler wants everyone to know just what the new X-Play is going to be like. He's excited. We're excited. He thinks you'll be excited once you check out the Soapbox below. Afterward, let us know what you think in our comments section or leave your thoughts on our forums.
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TAGS: Sessler's Soapbox, Videogames, Videos
Wii Fit Reaches 1 Million Sales in Japan
Posted by Ty Colfax - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 1:50 PM
 One million Wii Fit units have been sold in Japan in just over one month on the market. The surfboard-esque pad that interfaces with the Wii seems to have struck a chord with the culture in Japan. Apparently, they’re into cute, slow exercising where you never lift your feet or actually go anywhere.
Industry experts [G4’s TheFeed] are saying that the Fit will not do nearly as well in the US market where active gamers prefer to be more active and nonactive gamers prefer to sit and play. There’s always that contingent of geriatric Wiiers who may just see this as the perfect substitute for Seniorcize with Jane Troubador which went off the PBS airwaves last Fall.
nikkei.com: Nintendo's Wii Fit Reaches Milestone
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TAGS: Videogames, Wii
Sammy Hagar’s Cabo Wabo Radio
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 12:10 PM
 Former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar is starting CaboWaboRadio.com, his own online radio station to play his music, his favorite new and vintage music by others, and promote his Cabo Wabo Cantina and Tequila.
"I have always dreamed of having my own radio station, a place that would be a showcase of the most exciting new artists and new rock in the world,” Hagar posted on his website. “I also wanted it to deliver the same 'feel-good' energy and excitement we try to bring to our live concerts, but do it 24 hours a day. We are so committed to it that we built studios right next to the stage inside the Cabo Wabo Cantina. We launched CaboWaboRadio.com on New Year's Eve and I'm thrilled with the way it's going.”
The Cabo Wabo Cantina was created as a desire to have a vacation rock club in paradise and CaboWaboRadio.com is an attempt to bring the Cabo “dream vacation experience” to the world through great music.
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TAGS: Internets Culture, Music
Big Content Providers are Tired of Pirates
Posted by Ty Colfax - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:58 AM
 AT&T, Microsoft, and NBC are getting serious about filtering content at the ISP level. They're saying P2P is dominated by copyrighted material and they're tired of it eating up their bandwidth. They’re tired of pirates, ya’ll.
But fret ye not. It’ll never work. Firstly, there will be a huge "WTF" from the general populace when they can’t see clips of 60 Minutes or Extreme Makeover on YouTube. Secondly, a move like this would just open up the market for unclosed ISPs, who could cut into their ginormous share.
Try as they might, shutting down the pirates is going to be nearly impossible, and to do it at the risk of ticking off John Q. Nonpirate, is too risky for these big guys.
engadget.com: AT&T, Microsoft, NBC working on solutions...
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TAGS: Internets Culture, TV
CES 2008: GM Making Green Cars?
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:41 AM
 During his keynote CES speech, General Motors chief executive Rick Wagoner said that by 2012, half the company's cars will use Flex-fuel energy alternatives.
"All the factors point to a convergence of the automotive and electronics industries that is literally transforming the automobile," he said.
A few hours earlier, General Motors vice president of the research and development centre Lawrence Burns told earth2tech.com that the industry needs to move to new fuel sources like hydrogen cells and ethanol because "the power grid has surplus power that equals 40% of the miles driven in the US."
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TAGS: Cars, CES, Tech
OLPC To Hit States
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:33 AM
The One Laptop Per Child initiative, originally designed to provide cheap computers to children in developing nations, is expanding into the United States. The PCs should be available in 2008, and OLPC America already has a director and a chairman.
As for how the program will work, it's not fully fleshed out right now, but Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of OLPC, said in an interview. "The whole thing is merging right now. It will be state-centric. We're trying to do it through the 50 state governments."
I'm already working on my disguise/impersonation of a poor Appalachian kid to get one of those sweet computers. I got overalls and a hayseed to chew on and everything!
Yahoo: OLPC America to launch in 2008 (InfoWorld)
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TAGS: PC Gaming, Tech
Meanest Mom Sells Kid's Booze-Car
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:32 AM
 Iowa resident Jane Hambleton calls herself the "meanest mom on the planet."
And she’s right.
How mean, you ask?
Well, after finding booze in her son's car, she decided to sell the car and share her 19-year-old's misdeed with everyone by placing an ad in the local newspaper that read:
"OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."
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TAGS: Cars
Meier To Receive Lifetime Achiement
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:26 AM
Legendary game designer Sid Meier will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developer's Conference in February this year. Meier, creator of Civilization, Railroad Tycoon, Pirates! and many other legendary strategy titles, has been making games since 1982.
"Sid Meier has served as one of our industry's greatest role models for more than 25 years, creating fun and intelligent games for a diverse public long before it was popular," said GDC executive director Jamil Moledina. "Now that the rest of the industry is actively targeting the broader audience, it's fitting to honor him with our highest award and thank him for his continuing example of inspiration for the video game community."
Yeah! What he said!
Gamespot.com: GDC dubs Meier a lifer
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TAGS: Videogames
'Solomon Kane' Able To Hit Screen
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:26 AM
The film adaptation of Conan author Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane graphic pulp novel series is underway, with Davis Films' casting Max Von Sydow, Pete Postlethwaite, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Alice Krige and Mackenzie Crook in various roles.
Solomon Kane is “an epic tale of a 16th century soldier tormented by his past evil deeds, seeking redemption by battling a sinister power threatening the kingdom.”
Deathwatch director Michael J. Bassett wrote the script and will helm the planned trilogy, with shooting starting in Prague this month.
Darkhorizons.com: Five More Join Solomon Kane
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TAGS: Comics, Movies
CES 2008: 'LittleBigPlanet' Unveiled
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:19 AM
Sony and Media Molecule unveiled new features to the "play, create, share" title LittleBigPlanet to CES conventioneers and business types yesterday.
The team demonstrated a new pre-built level that introduces player death and respawn points to the DIY platformer, and showed off a steaming hot magma rock that kills on contact. Yippee!
There’s also an updated emote system further, with angry, sad, nervous, happy faces and postures, each with three degrees of intensity. Plus, “Sackboys who've been killed off can return later, courtesy of respawn portals. This adds a bit more of a competitive element to the game, as those still alive can secure unclaimed Fluff. At the end of the level, the LittleBigPlanet player with the most Fluff wins.”
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TAGS: CES, Videogames
'Crysis' Patch 1.1 Now Available
Posted by Ty Colfax - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:11 AM
 Good news for Crysis fans out there. The Crysis Patch 1.1 is now available. It includes:
- Improved multi-GPU performance for users with multiple video game cards
- Improved full screen anti-aliasing performance
- Improved general rendering performance
- Integrated advanced graphics settings, which gives players more options to tune graphics setting to their individual PC
- General weapons balancing improvements in multiplayer
- And much, much more
Say what you want about PC gaming. It’s pretty sweet that they’re able to make these patches so readily available, just 2 months after the game’s release. Of course, eventually every game will be patchable once all our brains our plugged into the same Microsony supergaming console which we are wirelessly tethered to 25 hours a day. Oh, also, the Earth day will be 25 hours long then, too.
nanosuit.com: What else is in the 1.1 Patch?
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TAGS: PC Gaming, Videogames
CES 2008: Analog To Digi TV Move Risky?
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:07 AM
At CES this week, Best Buy Inc.'s CEO Brad Anderson called the shutdown of most analog TV transmissions in 13 months “one of the biggest risks our industry has."
Anderson says he is "very nervous" about being able to supply customers with the millions of digital TV converter boxes needed when the analog boxes are no longer available.
Full-power television stations will turn off their analog signal on February 17, 2009, after which they will broadcast in digital only. Viewers who get their signals via an antenna instead of cable or satellite and don't have a digital-ready TV will need to buy a converter. That’s about 14.3 million households, by the way!
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TAGS: CES, Tech, TV
Meet The 'Wow' Pacifist
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 11:00 AM
 Noor, a gnome rogue and his Horde counterpart Reinisch, are working their way up to level 70 on the Maiev server in World of Warcraft. But they're doing it without killing anything. No mobs. No other players. No grouping up with others that kill.
Both of them wield fishing rods, and hang around gaining XP in Battlegrounds and through quests that don't require killing. The priest heals all day and the rogue throws bombs, target dummies, saps and stuns enemies, all without killing any other players or even offing that annoying chicken who hangs around Goldhsire.
The eventual goal is a top level character with weapon skills of 1 and only defensive and/or healing spells.
Check out the interview below.
WOWinsider: 15 Minutes of Fame: Noor the pacifist
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TAGS: PC Gaming, Videogames
Hannah Montana Using Body Double?
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:58 AM
OK! magazine is reporting that Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus uses a body double during her concerts.
The fake Miley can be seen in the video above at about the 2:17 mark when the real singer is ushered through a side door during the song “We Got the Party” as the fake dashes out to cover her for a costume change. The fake Miley finishes the rest of the song lip-syncing and dancing on risers.
This clip also indicates that Miley is lip-syncing, as her vocals continue throughout the cast change.
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TAGS: Music, TV, Videos
Hayden Christensen Is The Neuromancer?
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:44 AM
Hayden “Darth Vader” Christensen is being courted to star in the big screen adaptation of William Gibson's 1984 cyberpunk novel Neuromancer.
The flick is said to be as a $70 million independent production that would find Christensen cast as Case, “a talented hacker whose poisoned nervous system reduces him to hustling Japan's dystopian streets before he gets the offer of his lifetime.”
Presumably to romance neuros.
Along with Blade Runner, Neuromancer is often heralded for exploring topics like of artificial intelligence, cyberspace, virtual reality and technology overkill way before these subjects became an part of modern culture.
Sadly, Torque director Joseph Kahn will helm the otherwise cool sounding project.
Darkhorizons.com: Hayden in Neuromancer
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TAGS: Movies
New Hummer: 'Warthog'?
Posted by Stephen Johnson - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:35 AM
The wraps are off the latest Hummer, and if you doubt the influence of Halo 3 on popular culture, this should settle your rhetorical hash:
Tell us that isn't modeled after the Warthog. The Hummer HX features fully removeable doors and roof panels. and All its missing is a rooftop gun mount.
Click the link for many more pics.
Jalopnik: Hummer HX Concept Embargo Totally Fragged
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TAGS: Halo 3, Videogames
Hybrid Cars Full Of Hot Air?
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:35 AM
French Formula One expert Guy Negre has developed a car engine that runs not on the chemical energy of gasoline, but use Compressed Air Technology, which incorporates bi-energy (compressed air + fuel) to increase their driving range to close to 2000 km with zero pollution in cities and considerably reduced pollution outside urban areas.
In plain talk that means “regular old air is compressed in ultra-strong tanks in the car. Then, that air is released through a couple of pistons in the engine, which drives the wheels.”
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TAGS: Cars, Tech
PS3 Owners Demand Adult Movies
Posted by Frank Meyer - Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:11 AM
 Due to overwhelming demand from PlayStation 3 owners, adult film studio Digital Playground is offering a slew of its pron titles in the Blu-ray format starting this month,
The studio big-budget blockbuster Pirates kicks off the effort on January 11, with nine more skin flicks coming in February. Among the titles are Island Fever 3 and 4, Babysitters, Jack's Teen America 3, Jess |
