Nicholas likes video games, soccer, UFC, and astronomy–particularly the study of asteroids. He went to NYU.
Oh, here comes controversy. The FCC has preliminarily approved the use of mobile phone signal boosters, but let’s say it’s only put one foot in the water. A 55-page notice of proposed rulemaking [PDF] has been put online that details what the FCC has in mind. The idea is to give consumers a limited ability to boost their mobile signal in times of need. Wireless providers, like AT&T, are none… → Read More
What are the three guarantees in life? Death, taxes, and people saying that “death and taxes” are the only two guarantees in life. It’s fun. But this Amazon situation? Who knows. The company has been fighting off having to collect and pay local taxes across the U.S. for years now, with Connecticut becoming the latest state to push it for the collection of local taxes. One Connecticut lawmaker… → Read More
The Nintendo 3DS isn’t selling quite as quickly as Nintendo may have wanted. Media Create, which is sorta like a Japanese NPD, says that Nintendo has sold 836,000 units since its release in late February. The New Normal would have liked to see at least 1 million units sold, particularly since Nintendo shipped 1.5 million units out of worldwide total of 4 million to Japan. What gives? → Read More
Are the kids alright? Probably not, if you follow this study from the University of Maryland that says students today all but admit to being addicted to the Internet and media consumption. One student in the study likened prolonged separation from the Internet drug addiction, saying she was “itching like a crackhead” after not using the Internet for a bit. Not healthy, no. → Read More
We’re just a few weeks away from the release of LA Noire on May 17, and today Rockstar has released the game’s third trailer. → Read More
The Department of Homeland Security plans to use Twitter and Facebook to warn citizens about threats with its new National Terrorism Advisory System. The new program will in part replace the old color-coded system, put in place following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that’s being phased out. Please RT, etc. → Read More
Research In Motion—RIM to you and me—was forced to delay the release of its PlayBook tablet because Apple pretty much exhausted the supply of touchscreen displays. The tablet has been delayed for about a year now, so a few extra days probably won’t make too big a difference. And, of course, no tablet other than the iPad matters, so it’s all a bit moot. → Read More
You knew something like this was coming as soon as Microsoft announced the Kinect way back when. It’s UFC Personal Trainer, and it’s exactly as you’d expect: flail about in front of your TV while an on-screen avatar carries out the moves. THQ says the National Academy of Sports Medicine helped design the game, and pro fighter gave their input as well. Hearings before the California State Athletic… → Read More
The Department of Homeland Security plans to use Twitter and Facebook to warn citizens about threats with its new National Terrorism Advisory System. The new program will in part replace the old color-coded system, put in place following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, that’s being phased out. Please RT, etc.
The new system, which the AP says is expected to launch on April 27, will post warnings to… → Read More
Presumably not too many of you are sitting here watching Fernando Torres do his best impression of a footballer, but I’ll leave that alone until tomorrow. In the meantime, and having nothing at all to do with Chelsea Football Club, the Champions League, or Mr. Torres, there’s word of a big Mortal Kombat tournament that will take place at Bally’s in Las Vegas on May 15 and May 16. There’s $21,000… → Read More
Clearly Epic Games knows there’s a number of people out there who are angry at the fact that icky consoles are have held back the development of high-end graphics technology. (See: Crysis 2. Looks fine if all you’re dealing with is the five-year-old Xbox 360, but doesn’t really seem to take advantage of the raw power that’s available on the PC side of thing.) Here we have a slick trailer showing… → Read More
This is very, very neat. It’s a portable N64 called the D64 that can actually be used to play multi-player games. Gadget of the year, right here. → Read More
Someone has leaked the details of the next DLC in the Call of Duty: Black Ops saga. It would appear to be called The Escalation Pack, and may be available as early as early May. What can you expect? → Read More
It’s now a little less expensive to play Crysis 2 in 3D. (Haven’t seen the game in 3D yet? You’re missing out…) Samsung will now include two pairs of 3D glasses with the purchase of one of its 3D plasma or LED TVs. Very handy. Does this have anything to do with Ron Bennington saving the day earlier today? I don’t know this for a fact, but I’m just going to say yes, yes it does. → Read More
The Smithsonian Museum of American History will now feature the exciting world of robots! The main event— the John Cena vs. The Rock, if you will—is a tiny robot by the name of Marv, which stands for mini autonomous robot vehicle. It was developed in 1996-97 by the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Lab. → Read More
It’s now quite a bit cheaper to develop Xbox 360 games. Then again, you could probably develop for any new Android phone and be dealing with more powerful hardware, but that’s for another day. Microsoft has developed a new Xbox 360 development kit that’s smaller than the previous kit and has more memory and hard drive space. → Read More
Oh boy. The Sun has the story of a man who bought the Nintendo 3DS for his young son, but had to return the device because it made him ill. Nintendo has already recommended that the console not be played by children under the age of seven, and that everyone else should limit 3D-playing time to 30 minutes per session. Not good enough, claim some folks. What’s the point of getting a 3DS if you’re… → Read More
There’s nothing new about virtualization software, per se, but BlueStacks might be worth checking out. It brings the Android operating system to Windows-based computers via a virtualization layer, much like how you can run Windows “inside” your Mac using Parallels. Why, exactly, you’d want to run Android “inside” your Windows PC, I’m not exactly sure, but there’s nothing inherently wrong… → Read More
Not even a few hours after Anonymous promised action against Sony has the company’s Web infrastructure come under attack. The PlayStation Blog has had difficulty resolving for some time now, and Sony has tweeted that PSN may be going “undergoing sporadic maintenance.” Probably not a fun day to be a Sony technician, no. → Read More
Get ready for a nuclear-powered spacecraft—maybe! The Russian Federal Space Agency says that it will hold talks with Nasa and a number of countries on April 15 to see if they can’t get started on creating a “nuclear engine” by 2012. Such an engine, it’s believed, would only cost around $600m to develop. → Read More
Bandwidth caps. We all love ‘em. Wait, no, we hate ‘em. Sorry. But even as AT&T gears up to impose bandwidth caps on its DSL subscribers, it should be pointed out that it’s hardly the only ISP that does so. You might even say that other countries have it worse. → Read More
This, this is a pretty nifty case mod, and it’s for the Wii—you normally don’t see too many Wii case mods out there. It’s called the Wii UNLimited Edition, and it’s water-cooled. Thumbs up for completely superfluous water-cooling. → Read More
Troubling news here. AVG, the anti-malware company, says that the majority of smartphone users are unaware of the security risks they face when, um, using smartphones. What? You mean I have to be careful when fiddling around with my iPhone or Android device? Yes. Yes you do. → Read More
A congratulations are in order for Sony. Thanks to the company’s dogged pursuit of the likes of GeoHot and Graf_Chokolo (and, apparently, anyone who has seen jailbreak-related information), Anonymous has said that it will “experience [its] wrath.” Probably not a good time to be Sony, no. → Read More
The Internet is a cruel, mysterious mistress. What we have here is the story of a Canadian band called One Soul Thrust, a phony baloney (I refused to believe “bologna” is the proper spelling here; that’s not even how you’d pronounce the town name in Italian…) BitTorrent site, a misguided manager, and a lobbying group that apparently does little to no research. The story goes that this band’s… → Read More
Let’s start our post-WrestleMania Monday with a fun video of what could be. Here we see a gentleman, from Evoluce, controlling Windows 7 using Kinect. Minority Report, etc. → Read More
Well, maybe not “save” WrestleMania, but help ensure it does better than last year’s edition, WrestleMania 26, which, at well under one million pay-per-view buys worldwide, was considered a bit of a disappointment. What’s different this year is WWE’s use of social media—that is to say they’re actually using it this time around. But even if this year’s edition, WrestleMania 27… → Read More
Amazon may have introduced its digital locker music service, the Cloud Player, before similar services from rivals Google and Apple (that are widely believed to be launching this year), but that doesn’t mean it will be an easy existence. Not long after the company published a note on its Web site inviting users to give Cloud Player a try did one of the major record labels offer a warning. “We… → Read More
Robbie Bach, the former president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, has apologized to PC gamers for the “consolization” of their hobby. “Am I happy to have been a part of the destruction of PC gaming? No, of course not. But I am proud of the fact that I’ve helped convince a generation of gamers that it’s cool to pay $10 for a pair of virtual sunglasses and that playing… → Read More
Who will survive the Tomb of Immortal Darkness? It’s a new five-man dungeon coming to World of Warcraft that’s “deep beneath the crumbling tombstones of Duskwood’s Raven Hill Cemetery.” (Incidentally, Duskwood is my favorite old world area. Oh, the memories.) The dungeon uses Deep Dark technology to give players the ultimate challenge: navigating an instance in total darkness. Is your toon… → Read More
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