Category: Columns

If we distill 99-percent of games to their core, we're left with one crucial imperative: shoot stuff. Lots and lots of stuff. The shoot-em-up genre (lovingly shortened to 'SHMUP' by aficionados) traces its roots all the way back to 1962, with the creation of 'Spacewar!,' an outer-space combat game for the PDP-1 computer. Following those humble origins, the genre exploded with the advent of ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. We've talked ...

Dear Switched: Help an Apple-hater out. I've searched everywhere for the PC equivalent of a MacBook Air: super slim, light, with a good-sized display, a full-powered processor and good battery life at a similar price. But amazingly, I haven't found any to equal it. I can't stand the thought of giving Steve Jobs my loyalty, much less my cash, so help a hater out and JTMWTG! Dear Hater: We ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. We thought ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. Barring a ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. Like them or ...

A reader asks: My father is a businessman who travels a lot internationally, and asked me to find him a bare bones, simple cell phone that works well but also looks good. For the life of me I can't settle on a device. Instead, the market is flooded with smartphones or regular ones with tons of confusing crap stuffed inside. He doesn't text much but needs the capability, and his vision and ...

What is it: Rapportive is a browser add-on for Chrome and Firefox that adds information from social networks and other sources to your contacts in Gmail. Once installed, it looks up information from around the Web about people who send you e-mails, and displays it in a sidebar. What we like: The right-hand sidebar in Gmail is largely a waste of space. It's primarily empty, occasionally ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. Our elders may ...

digg_url ='http://www.switched.com/2010/06/09/snls-top-10-greatest-fake-tech-commercials/'; Share Despite the dozens of iconic characters 'Saturday Night Live' has spawned over its 35 years, the most consistently funny and memorable moments have come from its hallmark spoof ads. After striking comedic gold in its very first season with a sketch about Mel's Char Palace, SNL's writers soon ...

Part of being a good user and consumer is understanding how technology works, why we use it the way we do, and what that barrage of acronyms and PR jargon means. We're here to help you make sense of it all, and to give you a better appreciation of how those transistors, pixels, and antennae work together to deliver the conveniences of the modern world to your living room or office. What is ...

Share The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. We've ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money or technology, many of those products never progress from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over them, nevertheless. We've never ...

Yes, the purpose of our Friday roundups of free Flash games games is to get you through your final weekday. Till now (and after now, too), that's been our tenet, but we are cheating a bit this week. See, five indie designers got together and packaged a charmingly titled "Humble Indie Bundle," which works on PCs, Macs and Linux-based computers. Since they are independent designers (not a big ...

The Web is teeming with the unrealized ideas of both students and established designers who set out to produce astonishing renderings and prototypes for unusual products. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, money, or technology, many of those products never move from the planning stages to the mass market. But that doesn't mean we can't salivate over their creations, nevertheless. ...