Last Tech News of The Year! Kinect & WoW, Bad Frogger, OGA, and Duke Nukem!!

This will be the last tech news for 2010.  It seems like we just rang in 2010.  Now it's time to bid it farewell.  And with it, we have a great list of topics for this weeks news.
-Kinect Meet World of Warcraft...
-Playing Real World Frogger can be hazardous to one's life expectancy.
-Linux News on the Front Page of Google's Tech News today!
-Bye-Bye Office Genuine Advantage...Says Microsoft.
-Duke Nukem Fan-Film...And yes, it's awesome!

-First up is what will sure to be a warm meeting indeed amongst WoW players who own/want a Kinect.  If you have been living under a rock for the last couple of months, the Kinect is the new motion control camera available for the Xbox 360.  Yes, it looks sweet.  Even more interesting are the advancements being made in the PC communities about integrating Kinect with personal computers.  This particular implementation actually sets up a form of emulation that allows you to map movement to keyboard shortcuts.  See for yourself:


Personally, it looks awesome.  Would I want to run around an open world MMO like WoW while moving around my room.  Probably not, on the other hand it would cut down on the time a person would spend in the game before becoming to tired to play.  As always, it's fun watching the different ways Kinect is being utilized in the PC communities.


Secondly, on Monday December 27, 2010, a South Carolina man and some of his buddies decided to try and play 'Frogger'.  However, instead of breaking out the game console or iPhone.  The decided to play using real world traffic and a road.  I'm sure this sounded much more fun than it actually turned out to be.  He was struck by a Lexus SUV and is in stable condition.  Word of advice, for the younger generation of gamers...This guy is 23 years old and should no better.  Under NO circumstances whatsoever should a person ever attempt anything in the real world, that they can do in the video game world.  Whether it is play 'Frogger', attempt Mortal Kombat fatalities on a younger brother, emulate anything in a GTA style game, etc. This will always end up in a 'poor-life-decision'.  Play smart, and use your brains.


Third in the news is a surprise...I was doing my typical news checking routine this afternoon when I surfed past the Tech News frontpage on Google.  And to my surprise there was a Linux headling about halfway down the list of recent articles.  It read: "How You Know When It's Time to Switch to Linux".  This is a great basic Linux article that lists 10 reasons you know it's time to switch to Linux.  If you have ever been curious as to what advantages you have by switching, do yourself a favor and read this article.  Check it out at:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/214929/how_you_know_when_its_time_to_switch_to_linux.html


In other recent news is the revelation that Microsoft has discontinues the Office Genuine Advantage antipiracy tool.  Good riddance.  I have bumped into more than one issue with the OGA tool saying that a user was using a copyright version of Office.  When in fact they weren't.  Looks like Microsoft has decided to halt that practice.  Windows still has the WGA check to make sure you're using a legit version of Windows, but as far as Office goes, you'll just need to activation key now.  Should you decide to skip the activation process the software will still function but somewhat of a limited capacity.  As always, there's nothing better than the real deal so use legit software.  If you feel you need free software checkout open-source.  There are great, free alternatives which takes us back to the "How You Know When It's Time to Switch to Linux" article above.  For more info checkout:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20026196-75.html


Lastly, in the news is somewhat of a light hearted topic.  On Christmas Day a gift was given to the world from from Finnish Film producers New Dawn.  They released their fan-film teaser for 'Duke Nukem: Fate of Humanity'.  Okay, so what's in the film?  Aliens, action, violence, etc.?  Nope.  Not an alien to be found.  Just the lone Duke, sitting in a strip club.  When a loud crash and earth shaking rumble occurs.  We see Duke grab his pistol and slow-mo run out of the club.  Despite the fact that no pig cops are shown.  we get to see a pretty convincing take on Duke.

Check it out, but keep in mind this is probably borderline NSFW and shouldn't be viewed by children.



Okay folks, that's it.  I hope everyone has a fantastic New Year and let's make 2011 the best, geekiest year ever!  Happy surfing!

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This Week In The News: E-Ink gets Color, 3G Ipod Touch Adapter, Ask.com Troubles and more!

We have several newsworthy topics this week.

Finally, E-book Reader enthusiasts finally get color screens!

E-Ink and LG Display showed off their color electronic paper screens today in Japan.  Until now, user's who preferred colored screens over traditional e-book readers with monochrome screens have had to go the route of the iPad .  Some retailers (namely Best Buy and Kmart) have been carrying color Android-based ebook readers as well.  However, after some hands on time with the Pandigital ebook readers in Best Buy.  I'd have to say that the touch screen capabilities aren't quite what they could be.  Of course, this could also cause cost to go up as well.  One of the biggest deterrents in displaying color with e-paper displays is the lack of a light source behind the display panel.  The screens rely on 'ambient' light for display.

With the color screens this hasn't changed. Of course, this feature is also a huge contributor to the battery life of the device.  So, common sense tells me that if you like your e-book reader, and would like to see shades of colors.  Go ahead and look forward to this.  However, if you are looking for something more on par with a display experience of say a laptop or netbook.  You may be better suited for the time being with an iPad or one of the Android e-reader options.
Source: http://bit.ly/bfu4ew

3G iPod Touches coming soon to the Sprint 3G Network...

I am a proud owner of an iPod Touch.  I have had mine for a couple of years now, and truly don't remember how I ever got along without one.  I use it for everything from listening to music, to checking my email, and in some cases my Netflix viewing; depending on where I'm at.  Earlier this year, you may have heard about the guy who developed a case for the iPod Touch that would basically turn it into an iPhone.  Now, Sprint in cahoots with Chinese based company ZTE are bringing a case-like accessory that will allow 2nd and 3rd generation iPod Touchs to have access to Sprint's 3G data services.

This eliminates the need to have to seek out a wi-fi hotspot whenever you need to go online with your device. This connectivity however, does come with a price.  As they say 'you have to pay to play'; it still holds true.  This device will sale for $79.99and will run $29.99 a month for service.  On the bright side, there is no annual contract for using the device.  On top of adding the 3G connectivity, the device will also allow up to 2 other devices access online.  So consider it a cross offering comparable to the iPad 3G plan AT&T offers (monthly pay-as-you-go usage) with a device like a 3G Mi-Fi for internet connection.  Look for the ZTE Peel in your Sprint Store on November 14th.
Source: http://bit.ly/b3iOhO

Ask.com Got Spanked....By Google?

Remember back in the day there was this cool little Search Engine called AskJeeves.com.  To do a web search a user could surf over to their site, and punch in their query phrased as a question.  Like "Do monkey's really eat bananas?" and it would kick back you search results.  The Jeeves apparently got kidnapped or feel of the face of the planet because they eventually turned into Ask.com.

Here's the scoop, Barry Diller bought Ask.com for $1.85 billion dollars.  Not a bad turnover for the seller.  Mr. Diller's main goal was to give Google a run for their money.  That was in 2005. As we all know Google has basically exploded to 'super-search-engine-service-offerer status' since then.  With the inclusion of services like:

• Gmail
• Google Voice
• Wave/Buzz/Orkut
• Google Maps/Google Earth
• The now dead Goog411 project
• Blogger
• and to mention just about everybody on the planet now uses Google

It was sure to be a hard race.  According to the article at Bloomberg.com, Google holds around 65% of all search traffic.  While Ask.com holds around 2%.  Granted, not many have attempted to go up against the search giant that Google has become.  Now that Ask.com has had to unfortunately downsize their staff.  They are going to concentrate on their Q&A services that they were known for back in the day.  Does this mean that they cartoony Jeeves character will make a come back?  Don't know.  But one thing is for sure, they need to get the ball rolling.  Because by admitting defeat in predominately Google territory and going back to doing what they were good at before the whole 'let's challenge the big dog' mentality came about, they have to essentially make up for lost time and efforts.

Source: http://bit.ly/9WCiuC

Kinect on Linux!

Lastly today, I will hit on a topic that caught some attention from the opensource community last week. With the launch of Microsoft's Kinect for the Xbox 360, the company Adafruit offered a $2,000 'bounty' for anyone in the opensource communities who could crack the Kinect and make an opensource driver.  Hector Martin has done so.  Checkout his video linked on OMGUbuntu for more info.

For those not in the know, the Kinect is a motion detecting camera that grants gameplay similar to what you experience with Nintendo's Wii.  Yet, you hold no controllers.  It works by sensing depth perception and motion tracking.  Once this device gets some real world implementation with Linux I may definitely check into one.

Source: http://bit.ly/bpBIZq

Until next time, Happy Surfing!

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E3 2010 Coverage: Microsoft

Several things have come out of the Microsoft tents at E3.  The most notable being 'Project Natal' now has a real name.  It will be called 'Kinect'.  And a new version of the Xbox 360 will be in stores later this week (in the US).  The new Xbox 360 is smaller than the original, referred to as 'whisper quiet', sports built-in Wifi, and a 250GB Hard drive.  It will be priced the same as the former Xbox 360 Elite models.

Checkout Pics of the new 360: http://www.joystiq.com/photos/xbox-360-slim-live-shots/#/0

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