Posts tagged Breaking news at Switched

Posts with tag breaking news

'Beer Pong' Video Game Rated OK for Kids

by Will Safer, posted Jul 8th 2008 at 7:52PM

Let's say you're designing a video game for kids. You want it to be fun. You want it to be challenging. You want it to include... beer?

Yes, that's right. A Las Vegas-based video game maker has created a new title for the Wii gaming system based on the popular bar and frat house basement game beer pong. Yes, a perfect game for the adult set but the Entertainment Software Rating Board for some reason saw fit to give it a rating stating it is a suitable game for kids as young as 13-years-old. This has the Connecticut attorney general questioning the rating board's judgment and criteria.

The odd response from the rating board president? The rating was appropriate because she says beer actually plays a very small role in the game and there are no scenes of drinking. We'd like to point out that the word "beer" appeared in the game title.

To quell criticism the game maker, JV Games, has renamed the game 'Pong Toss' and all references to alcohol have been removed. The game box artwork reflects this change but oddly enough the image file name for the artwork still reads "BP_largebox." Um, what could BP stand for, we wonder? [Source: USA Today]

Gallery: [Beer] Pong Toss

Click Here for The Best Games for Long Trips

LG Chocolate 3 on Verizon: July 14 for $129

by Chris Ziegler, posted Jul 7th 2008 at 11:02AM

phoneArena is reporting that the latest incarnation of Verizon's Chocolate series, the clamshell Chocolate 3, will be available on July 14. It's said that the phone will run $129 on a two-year contract after the redemption of a $50 rebate -- not exactly cheap, but where else are you going to find a Verizon phone with an FM transmitter in baby blue? That's what we thought. [Source: Phone Arena]

Toyota Prius to Get Solar Panels

by Ryan Block, posted Jul 7th 2008 at 9:47AM

According to Nikkei, Toyota's apparently going to be equipping future high-end Priuses with Kyocera-built roof-mounted solar panels. Somewhat counter-intuitively, the sun's rays won't be used to power the car itself, but will instead run the AC. It also sounds like your next solar-assisted Prius won't be around for a while, as the panels aren't designed in yet, nor will they be until early next year when Toyota starts work on revamping the line. [Source: Reuters]

Tributes.com Sounding Death Knell for Newspaper Obituaries?

by Tim Stevens, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 3:32PM

It's been a terrible decade or so for print newspapers around the world. As more and more people go online to get their news, fewer need a (non-free) printed version cluttering up their mailboxes. Then came sites like Craigslist, killing any profits earned from the printed classifieds section, and Monster.com, doing the same for the help wanted section. That doesn't leave much left to cherry pick, but Monster.com founder Jeff Taylor thinks he's found one last aspect to destroy: the obituaries section.

His new site is Tributes.com, an online obituary service that, he hopes, will some day become your go-to site for those who are no longer going anywhere. Users can post up obituaries for others and search for obituaries based on home town and date of death; they can even set up a recurring notice for any deaths nearby.

It's all a little morbid (duh), and while looking for jobs and used refrigerators online feels like second nature at this point, it's hard to imagine too many people surfing over to check the daily obits. [Source: Newsvine]

US Government May Be Tracking You With Your Cell Phone

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 2nd 2008 at 10:48AM

It was disturbing enough when the government was just listening in. Now privacy advocates are afraid the government may be tracking our every move through our cell phones. In November of 2007, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to find out how widespread such tracking is. The DOJ didn't hand over the data, so now the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are taking the DOJ to court to force it to comply with the request.

The ACLU was spurred into action following a blog post in The New York Times in which some courts expressed discomfort with the government's use of cell phone tracking data without probable cause.

How often, and in what situations, the government has utilized this tool is not yet known, but following revelations that the domestic wiretapping was much more widespread than the Bush administration claimed, we simply can't take any chances. [Source: NY Times]

Citysense Uses GPS to Show Live Crowd Movement

by Will Safer, posted Jul 1st 2008 at 1:25PM

Do you believe in the wisdom of crowds? Then maybe you need a little CitySense.

This activity aggregator from a Columbia University professor tracks users by the GPS capability of their mobile phones (in this case BlackBerrys, but an application for the iPhone is coming soon) and maps out where everyone is in a city.

The initial use, for business and marketing, is obvious. See where the people go and put your business there. The next use is the clever one, though. Let people see where the hot activity is, match it with their own patterns of movement and travel around the metropolis, and make suggestions of where they might want to go next -- all based on complex algorithms that compile data constantly being uploaded to the CitySense system.

The creator, Tony Jebara, an Associate Professor in Computer Science at Columbia, says CitySense can be used tailored to your own activity. Coming soon is the ability for the system to analyze where you've specifically been and then show you where like-minded people also are likely to tread.

All this movement and information is processed by the Sense Networks Macrosense platform. Jebara says that the information gathered is anonymous and you can delete your history at any time.

One other clever feature: If the CitySense system determines that there are more people than usual up and about in the morning, it can actually adjust its alarm clock to wake you a few minutes early, giving you additional time to navigate traffic or an overwhelmed mass transit system. (Just don't hit that snooze button.) [Source: Citysense via Textually.org.]

Inventor of First Business Computer Dies

by Will Safer, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 3:55PM

What if the latest technology news came not out of Microsoft or Apple but instead from McDonald's or Pizza Hut? It would be surprising news, to say the least. Even so, it turns out that one of the biggest advances in computer tech for business was developed by an English food company back in 1951, and its principal designer, David Caminer, died on June 15 at the age of 92.

Caminer is credited by Guinness World Records with creating the world's first business computer on behalf of his employer, J. Lyons & Co, which operated a chain of bakeries and food shops. While other companies, such as IBM, soon overtook the British firm (due to what Caminer said was arrogance and a failure to appreciate the rapid pace of technology by his employer), it is Caminer who gets the credit for devising the business machine. Its first task was to calculate costs, prices and margins of that week's baked output.

Caminer's goal was to speed up the logistics and payroll process for Lyons, which besides running stores also served events at Wimbledon and Windsor Castle. While it took an accountant eight minutes to calculate an employee's pay, the computer, called LEO (short for Lyons Electronic Office), needed only 1.5 seconds. Although the LEO 1 has less than 100,000th the power of a current desktop personal computer it did have all those cool vacuum tubes. They hummed.

What was one thing Caminer did have in common with other great technology inventors? No college degree. (But to all you kids out there, Switched says "Be cool. Stay in school.")

The real innovation of Caminer's machine was that it could be loaded with different programs to work on different tasks. And thus modern business computing was born. [Source: The Seattle Times]

Gallery: A History of Computer Firsts

Windows XP Officially Unavailable After Today

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 11:30AM

Today marks the end of an era... sort of. Microsoft will cease making Windows XP available to most resellers and PC distributors, just 18 months after the release of the much hyped and much derided Vista hit the market.

Companies will be allowed to sell XP until their stocks run out, and computer manufacturers will still be able to get their hands on the stripped down version targeted at low cost PCs like the Eee, but for the consumer, the options are running out. The fear of Vista is intense, even inspiring a Save XP campaign.

A "downgrade" option will still be available to most people buying a new Vista-equipped PC, though manufacturers are looking into ways to shortcut the system and offer computers pre-downgraded to XP. Microsoft may be trying desperately to herd the computing masses towards Vista, but we're sure this isn't last we've heard of the little OS that could. [Source: AOL Money & Finance]

Nike Re-Releases 'Back to the Future' High-Tops

by Joshua Fruhlinger, posted Jun 30th 2008 at 11:01AM

Remember those cool Nike high-tops that Marty McFly wore in 'Back to the Future?'The ones that laced themselves and you wished you had a pair just like them? If so, listen up: Nike is releasing the Marty McFly 2015's as the Nike Hyperdunks.

They won't lace themselves, unfortunately, but will be made of Nike's super light-weight materials. They'll be shilled by Kobe Bryant in black, and we'll be surprised if the 'Back to the Future' roots of these shoes will be shown the light in order to keep the cool young'ns interested, but we all know the truth behind these bitchin' kicks. Hoverboard sold separately. [Source: Wired]

Kate Moss Hair Extension Auctioned Off on eBay

by Christine Whitney, posted Jun 28th 2008 at 3:08PM

Remember when eBay was all about getting tickets to sold-out Radiohead concerts and Superbowls and stuff? Now you can get lots of gross and unnecessary things on there, like this Kate Moss hair extension, which the supermodel "shed" in Germany while fleeing the paparazzi. The victorious hair-finder, (fashion equivalent of the guy who catches a fly ball in his beer at a Yankees game) is auctioning off the lock for an anti-drug charity, ironically.

The organization is called Keine Macht den Drogen (No Power to Drugs) and sounds like the Weimar equivalent of D.A.R.E. We hope the hair money goes toward the purchase of thousands of KMDD t-shirts and will keep the German youth from one day losing their own hair and teeth.

"I hope Kate doesn't mind. I did not have time to ask her..." says hair-auctioneer John Farr. Of course she won't, John. It's for the kids. [Source: The Local]

Text-Addicted Teen Sends 15,000 Messages a Month

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 4:58PM

Trust us when we say we make good use of our text messaging plans at Switched. Many of us simply could not survive without our unlimited (or at least hefty) text messaging packages, but one girl from Ohio sends more texts in a month than the entire Switched staff combined.

According to WEWS TV, Cleveland, Paige Horne, 15, of Stark County, Ohio, sends an average of 15,000 text messages a month -- that's an average of 500 messages a day!. Even so, she somehow finds time to keep her GPA above 3.0 while also playing high school basketball and volleyball. Regarding her technique, Horne responded, "I just don't look. I guess I had the phone a long time and I just know where the buttons are and I just hit them." With texting skills like these, we're pretty sure she could give the 13-year-old texting champion of the world a run for her money.

At that pace, Paige must literally be texting all the time. While walking, in the car, in class, and even while sleeping. We just hope she learns to take a break before she gets her license. [Source: newsnet5 via Geeksugar]

Click Here to Find Tips To Lower Your Cell Phone Bill

This iPod Doctor Makes House Calls

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 12:45PM

Housecall Making iPod Doctors Appearing in NYC

It's easy to think of today's pocketable gadgets as disposable -- use 'em for a few years, then toss 'em when they're obsolete or broken. That's not always necessarily the case, though, as busted iPods and other players can be fixed by repair shops (or even yourself) if you have steady hands. But if you're not the mechanically inclined type, can't bear to be away from your player long enough to mail it to a repair shop, and you happen to live in NYC, you can call the iPod Doctor, or one of his competitors springing up across the boroughs.

The iPod Doctor is Demetrios Leontaris, who makes house calls in the City for $70 a pop -- possibly more, depending on the service. He can do most repairs right there while you wait, without even leaving the drivers' seat of his car, though some, like a hard disk replacement for iPods with ailing storage, might require a return visit a day or two later. Given the $200-plus cost for most new players, the charge is a bargain. If it'll keep you from having to replace your broken but beloved player, it definitely seems like a worthwhile service to us (particularly if the rest of your money is going towards sky-high New York City rents!).

Now if only he could help with the gadget obsolescence problem.... [Source: CNN Money]

Click Here to Find Out If Your iPod Can Be Fixed

Starbucks Eliminating CDs and iTunes Gift Cards From Its Shops

by Tim Stevens, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 11:48AM

With file sharing, the death of independent radio, and out of touch record labels, the music industry hasn't exactly been flourishing lately. CD sales are way down, and while online music sales are way up, they're not exactly filling the gap. Unsurprising, then, that coffee uber-franchise Starbucks is scrapping its foray into the music distribution business, focusing instead on what it does best: coffee.

Starbucks had aspirations of turning into not just a cool place to get hot Venti Lattes in the morning, but also a place to check out new artists and buy a CD or three while you sipped and chatted. Those plans started with a rack of CDs at stores, along with iTunes gift cards, and a new music label. But when it was revealed that each store was selling only two discs per day, it was clear that people were coming for the caffeine kick and little else.

The chain will still continue to sell a few CDs here and there, but its upstart music label has been sold off, leaving fledgling bands with one fewer venue to get their music out there. And thus the cycle continues. [Source: Silicon Alley Insider]

Nintendo Ranked Least 'Green' Tech Company

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jun 26th 2008 at 8:10AM

Proving once again that it's always the smiley-faced, rosey-cheeked cherub that has the human skeletons in its closet, sunshine-and-rainbow-drenched video game purveyor Nintendo has come in dead last in a ranking of the world's most eco-friendly electronics companies.

The quarterly "Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics" ranks 18 electronics firms by how green their production processes and products are ... and the big N pulled up the rear at number 18.

Of course, Nintendo had its own response, claiming that it scored low because it had not provided data for the survey. "Greenpeace chose to conduct a survey and produce a report, which graded companies upon the voluntary submission of information," the firm said in a statement. "Nintendo decided not to take part in the survey and were therefore 'ungraded' in the resulting report." Which of course begs the question: Why didn't the company take part?

Oh, and pipe down over there in the corner, Xbox fanboys -- Microsoft came in at 17, a position that reflected its "low score on climate criteria". [Source: BBC]

Hasselhoff Launches MySpace-Like Site

by Evan Shamoon, posted Jun 25th 2008 at 9:12AM

Oh no he didn't. Oh yes he did!

As of this very moment in human history, David Hasselhoff -- known to his fans as "The Hoff", and to his car as "Michael" -- has his own social-networking site. You know, like MySpace and Facebook ... but with everything somehow relating back to, well, David Hasselhoff. It's called -- get this -- 'Hoffspace.' Clever!

The free site/service lets fans read the Hoffinator's latest blog posts (not much more than upcoming event listings and "I love HoffSpace" exclamations), upload photos and videos of themselves (or the Hoff), and participate in Hoff-centric contests (send in videos of yourself lip-syncing to Hasselfhoff songs!). We're not betting types over here, but if we were, we'd say, "it's an odds-on favorite to be huge in Germany."

And a complete and utter failure everywhere else, if not an absolute blight on humanity. (Sorry, Hoff). [Source: G4TV]

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'Beer Pong' Video Game Rated OK for Kids

Gallery: [Beer] Pong Toss

LG Chocolate 3 on Verizon: July 14 for $129

Toyota Prius to Get Solar Panels

Tributes.com Sounding Death Knell for Newspaper Obituaries?

US Government May Be Tracking You With Your Cell Phone

Citysense Uses GPS to Show Live Crowd Movement

Inventor of First Business Computer Dies

Gallery: A History of Computer Firsts

Windows XP Officially Unavailable After Today

Nike Re-Releases 'Back to the Future' High-Tops

Kate Moss Hair Extension Auctioned Off on eBay

Text-Addicted Teen Sends 15,000 Messages a Month

This iPod Doctor Makes House Calls

Starbucks Eliminating CDs and iTunes Gift Cards From Its Shops

Nintendo Ranked Least 'Green' Tech Company

Hasselhoff Launches MySpace-Like Site

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