Technology - A gaming service that aims to kill off the traditional gaming console will begin streaming games over the net in June this year.
Technology - Sony reveals details about its new motion controller the PlayStation Move, as a contender to market leader Nintendo Wii.
Technology - At San Francisco's Game Developer's Conference, Facebook's program manager for games put out the call for his platform's Halo or Mario, that iconic game that defines the platform. It's not hubris--Facebook, it turns out, is just as vital and vibrant a gaming community as Xbox Live, just different.Nearly 75% of Facebook's 400 million users participate in games ranging from traditional turn-based games like Scrabble to more complex strategy games like Farmville. And these social games aren't labors of love for their creators; social games have grown to a $1 billion industry, attracting users who would never consider themselves gamers. Farmville is at the forefront of this movement, with some at the fival naming the farm simulator as the clos thing Facebook has to an iconic game. Farmville has 80 million users monthly, which in console terms would be a monster hit, and represents many of the hallmarks of Facebook gaming. It's a slow-growing game in which you create your own avatar, interact with friends, family, and random Facebook users, and it can be played in short bursts rather than long periods of protracted gaming. But despite its success, Facebook developers see Farmville as the beginning, rather than the pinnacle. "We are going to see multiple games with
Technology - Sony showed off a brief tech demo of its motion controller back at last year's E3 (and discussed it with us just a few weeks ago), but a lot of the particulars were left unknown. Today, they demonstrated the newly-dubbed PlayStation Move, along with details like accessories, price, and release date. Sony's hoping the Move will attract buyers tempted by the Wii's motion-sensing gaming--but they've got a lot of ground to make up.The basics are much like the Wii's motion controller, except instead of a motion-sensing bar that sits on top of your TV, like the Wii, the PlayStation Move will use Sony's PlayStation Eye camera. Other than that, the Move is also a remote-control-like controller that can be attached to a sub-controller for two-handed play. But whereas Nintendo's Wiimote had to be attached to its Nunchuck sub-controller, the Move connects wirelessly via a little lightbulb-shaped adapter (which, thankfully, looks more like a microphone than, well, something less savory). For some games, like a swordfighting game, you'll actually need two separate controllers--and everything, including the sub-controller, will almost certainly be sold individually.The use of the PS Eye is intering; it's definitely an advantage over the Wii's sensor bar, since it can use
Technology - These were among incidents reported recently by the Alexandria Police Department. For more information, call 703-838-4636 or visit http://www.alexandriava.gov/police .
Technology - The internet is among a record 237 individuals and organisations nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.
Technology - Mobiletechnologythat could allow prying bosses to monitor every movement of their staff is developed in Japan.
Technology - Here's one of those fabulous stats that basically explodes an argument people thought was done and dusted: New data shows that online content piracy has risen in France despite the nation's super-tough three-strikes Net ban law. France, among several controversial legal moves concerning Net technology, has been busy enacting some draconian Web piracy laws that almost rival the Big Brother-ish moves going on in the U.K. (which even the boss of the country's bigg telecoms network disagrees with.) France's new "Hadopi" law is the real monster we're talking about--it actively connects the country's music biz through ISPs to music pirates, and penalizes repeat offending users by severing their Net connection after three warnings. Sounds fierce, right? May deter you from downloading that episode of How I Met Your Mother (rather, "La Manière Dont Je Me Suis Rencontreé Avec Ta Mère") or Mika's lat album? You may think so. Mais...Non. Those French types are actually defying their government, as a frank telephone study of 2,000 Bretons by the University of Rennes shows. Comparing user habits before and after the enactment of Hadopi revealed that piracy rates of all types have risen 3%. The manner pirates are using to acquire the illicit data has shifted
Technology - Facebook calls on game designers to make an iconic title, such as Mario or Halo, specifically for the social network.
Technology - Among cell phone users in developed countries, IBM is betting the market with the bigg growth potential is...people over the age of 65? It makes more sense than you'd think. According to recent findings, most of them already own cell phones, so it's not as if they're adverse to the technology. But unlike younger generations, who are seemingly targeted with a new cell phone gimmick every week, they're largely ignored on the marketing front--excepting a few efforts from Nokia and Samsung, which makes the senior-friendly Jitterbug IBM's two-year research program, which also involves the National Institute of Design of India and Tokyo University, will explicitly focus on making cell phones easier to use, for both the elderly and the illiterate. Moreover, the software it develops will be open-source, so all governments and businesses can take advantage. "As the population in Europe and North America ages, the need for specializedmobiledevices will become acute," Ben Wood, research director at British consultancy CCS Insight, told Reuters. "Phone makers will have to adapt if they want to appeal to a generation that has grown up with mobile devices, but can't use them in the ways they used to." In other words, the conventional "wisdom"--make the
Technology - Macrobiotic food, raw food, local food...the list of food trends that have popped up in raurants in recent years is virtually endless. The Canadian Raurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) recently surveyed 400 chefs to find out what they think about the future of food, with some surprising (and not-so-surprising) results. One big trend that chefs predict we'll see in the coming years: gluten-free food and beer. As awareness about gluten intolerance increases, gluten-free food has increasingly shown up on forward-thinking raurant menus. Gluten-free beer is a little less common, but chefs predict beers made with sorghum, buckwheat, rice, maize, amaranth, flax, millet, and other barley substitutes are poised to hit the bigtime. As you might expect, sustainable food will be at the forefront of chefs' minds over the next decade. That means non-traditional (read: sustainably-farmed) fish like red sea urchin, herring roe, mackerel, octopus, and sardines will become more popular. Vegan entrees will also gain traction, as will artisan meats that skip the factory farm production line. And yes, organic alcohol will probably start showing up on more store shelves. Want to check out the r of the Canadian chefs' predictions? Check out the full list here. [Via