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Tag: Gaming

Gamer Dies From DVT

Posted by Andrew at 12:30 AM on August 1, 2011

The BBC is highlighting a campaign to warn gamers of the risk of deep vein thrombosis caused by long gaming sessions in a sitting position. Chris Staniford died earlier in May from a blood clot which formed in his leg before moving to his lungs. Chris was a keen gamer and would play his Xbox 360 for up to 12 hours at a time.

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) can happen when people stay still for long periods, typically sitting, and there have been several cases involving long-haul flights. It’s easy to see that certain games and consoles can lead to prolonged sitting and presumably the motion-controlled games are suitable antidote.

Chris was 20 when he died and DVT is easily avoided by short breaks and exercise, so it makes sense to highlight the risks to the millions of gamers out there. Microsoft also has a website, Play Smart, Play Safe that provides guidance to parents and gamers on a range of issues that can affect players.

Build a Custom Gaming PC at Walmart.com!

Posted by Don at 9:58 AM on April 27, 2011

Honestly, this comes as quite a surprise. I would have never thought Wal-Mart and iBuyPower would team up to bring a custom gaming PC builder to Walmart.com but, that’s exactly what they have done and Walmart says there are over 10,000 combinations available.

Custom rigs start out at $599 and we can choose between 5 different cases. We’ll also be able to include up to 8GBs of RAM and a 2TB hard drive so there’s plenty of room for all those games. We won’t have to worry to much about graphics as there are 9 different cards from AMD and NVIDIA to choose from with the 1.5GB GeForce GTX480 at the top of the list. Intel and AMD processors, including the i5 and i7, will also be available depending on your customizing needs. They have even provided 3 different optical drive options including a Blu-ray writer!

Usually when I think of places to throw a custom gaming rig together Walmart is not at the top of the list. However, if you’re looking for something affordable this could be the way to go. If you want to start building right away head over to the Walmart.com Builder right now. It looks like the $599 base model is on sale for $579 so get over there and start customizing — that fresh copy of Portal 2 wants to play!

A Whole New Gaming Concept From Sifteo

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 11:37 PM on February 8, 2011

Andy stops by the Sifteo booth to take a look at a whole new concept in gaming – the Sifteo cubes (or boxes).  This is truly a gaming innovation, taking the best of interactive and PC games and meshing the two together.  In the video you can check out a demo of a Tetris-like game that is played on a table with the Sifteo cubes to see what this is really all about.  It’s very hard to describe, but you can both see the video on the cubes while hearing the sound from a nearby laptop PC.  The devices have a 4+ hour battery life, with a 1-2 hour recharging time.  They also have learning games that will be great for young children in aiding them in learning spelling, math, and more.  You will see them all demonstrated in the following video.

A basic set of three blocks will be available for $149 later this year for both Mac and PC.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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Able Planet and Linx Audio Headphones

Posted by Andrew at 11:26 PM on February 8, 2011

Todd listens to Mary Semcken, VP of Marketing for Able Planet, which has an innovative technology for reducing the decibel level of headphones without reducing the richness of the sound. Amazingly, Able Planet has won a CES Innovation Award every year from 2006 through 2010.

Mary shows off three new headsets, the first in military-style colours so that you can wear the colours of your team while playing Call of Duty. Camo, desert, navy.

Secondly, Able Planet has developed a Signature series of headphones in conjunction with a number of sportstars. Motocross women’s champion Ashley Fiolek has a pink set with 10% of proceeds going to breast cancer charities and Chris Anderson’s (“the bird man”) Signature set has copies of his tattoos on the phones.

All available shortly from major retailers and direct from Able Planet.

Interview by Todd Cochrane of Geek News Central.

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XRocker Furniture For Gamers

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 10:03 PM on January 28, 2011

Mike from XRocker is showing Tom some new furniture that has a definite media and gaming slant towards it.  This is some pretty far out stuff that not every spouse will welcome into a home, but it’s also pretty neat – kind of a living room set meets Scott E Vest.  Of course the retail price may buy some wiggle room with a spouse though – around $200 for a 3 piece set.  It’s interesting and very bright.  VERY bright.  These items should be available this spring.

Interview by Tom Newman of Fogview Podcast.

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Intel Builds the GPU into the CPU on Core

Posted by Andrew at 6:23 PM on January 26, 2011

Jeffrey Power talks to Mike Martin of Intel, which announced the incorporation of the Intel graphics processor (the GPU)  onto the CPU across the whole of the Core range (i3, i5, i7).

The stand at CES had an impressive artistic display showing off the power of the new Core processors, which you can see in the video.

Available now – look for the Intel kink (the yellow branding tag) on the packaging.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of Geekazine.

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InteraXon, Thought Controlled Computing

Posted by Andrew at 12:55 AM on January 26, 2011

Andy McCaskey interviews Ariel Garten, CEO of InteraXon – Thought Controlled Computing.  It’s no longer sci-fi, you can now interact with technology using the power of your mind (rather than your thoughts being controlled by computers.)

The system consists of a lightweight headset with two electrodes that detects brainwaves such as alpha and beta waves.  Different patterns are associated with different mental states, e.g. concentrating with beta waves and relaxed with alpha, so as your mind changes states an action can be taken. Trivially, you can link your concentration to a light, so while you are concentrating on reading, the light is on and bright, but as you relax and drift off to sleep, the light dims before finally turning off.

Obviously, it’s early days for the technology and Ariel likens the current state to that of voice recognition 20 years ago. Ariel believes that in the future this will be the main way that users interact with technology.

On show was a game called ZenBound 2 which is available for the iPhone and iPad. Normally, the player uses their fingers to manipulate a rope around a sculpture but with InteraXon the player can use their mind to control the game. You can see this in Andy’s video or the original is here. At the end of the game, you can get a report about how you were able to focus or relax.

Ariel also mentions some of the possible medical benefits which are potentially available now that you have a portable EEG system. It uses both Bluetooth or Wifi to communicate from the headband to mobile devices.

Interview by Andy McCaskey of SDR News.

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Assault Rifle for the PS3 by CTADigital

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 12:59 PM on January 22, 2011

The Assault Rifle by CTADigital is a realistic looking gun to be used with the Sony Playstation and Playstation Move Games. It is compatible with most 1st person shooters and hunting games, including Call of Duty Modern Warfare It has all the buttons you find on the Playstation 3 Dual-Shock Controller. To use it you insert the  USB dongle that comes with into the PS3. Then click on the home button on the rifle and you are ready to go. By itself you can use it with the Playstation 3. If you want to use it with the Playstation Move you simply attach a cradle and place the motion controller in the cradle. It has an analog button, that allows you to run and strafed while still looking at what is around you. The trigger supplies a realistic shooting reaction whether it is a single shot or a full burst. The rifle has an internal speaker which allows you to hear the shots as they are being fired. This option is available even if it is not sync with the PS3. The Assault Rifle is available through the CTADigital Web site or through Amazon for $59.00. CTADigital also offers other accessories for the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, DS Lite along with iPhone, iPad and other products. CTADigital is the place to go for your gaming and computing accessories.

Interview by Jeffrey Powers of The Geekazine Podcast and Tom Newman of The Fogview Podcast.

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How Popular Is Angry Birds?

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 3:00 PM on January 15, 2011

The other day my wife and kids were in line at the local Verizon store, waiting to purchase a screen protector for my daughter’s phone.  That was when I got a text from said daughter telling me that the guy in front of them was there to get a solution to a major problem that he was having with his phone – his Angry Birds didn’t work!  Seriously?!

I have Angry Birds installed on my Droid X – both the regular and Seasons versions.  I think I have played it twice, but my kids borrow my phone and they are apparently close to beating at least one version.  All of this got me to thinking – exactly how popular is this game?  I tried to do some research.

Since the game was first released for Apple’s iOS in December of 2009 it has been downloaded more than 12 million times from the Apple App Store.  Since then it has been released for Android and Symbian and, according to Wikipedia, it has been downloaded more than 50 million times across all available platforms.  There are no more solid numbers or rankings available, unfortunately.

According to PocketGamer the most popular game ever is Tetris, with over 100 million downloads.  Given that Angry Birds is topping 50 million in only one year it is probably safe to assume it will catch up.  Why?  Well, it’s fun, kind of addictive (REALLY addictive for some people), and cartoonized enough to be unrealistic, thereby making it acceptable to parents of younger children.

You have to wonder what other twists Rovio may currently be working on for the game.

GNC-2011-11-11 #626 Time for some Green Screen.

Posted by geeknews at 10:05 PM on November 11, 2010

Next show I am going to try and do some green screen which should be fun. I played with it tonight before the show and was blown away that I could get a good key here in the hotel room. Lot’s of tech and some new site and sponsor announcements next week.

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