National - Friday, April 24, 2009 14:35 - 0 Comments
Apple Stops Shaking Babies
Baby shaking. Sure, we’ve all thought about giving that crying thing in the subway a nice jiggle-jiggle, but have you ever bothered to think about what’s best for the baby? My guess would be, not shaking the baby.
Apple, always making sure that “there’s an app for that”, decided to try and curb the baby-shaking urge by approving the publication of a much needed baby-shaking simulator on its iPhone App store. All the fun of shaking the living hell out of an infant, without the messy cleanup of figuring out what to do afterwards! But it’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The Sarah Jane Brain foundation (did they really need to make it rhyme?), a foundation which seeks to combat baby-shaking, went to Apple and complained that the app was offensive, and Apple agreed and removed the app immediately. Continue…
National - Thursday, April 23, 2009 12:10 - 3 Comments
Tech Review: Nintendo DSi
I’ve been doing research for this article. Lots and lots of research. So much research, in fact, that it’s been hard to actually sit down and start to write. The research I’ve been working on is on the new Nintendo DSi, the latest update on the popular DS console that the big N has been churning out in various incarnations since 2004. And so by research, I mean playing the thing voraciously. I’ve owned a DS before, but it met its end in a tragic Tetris accident (wish I was joking). When Nintendo announced its update to the DS by adding a lower case “i” to the end, I decided it was time to rejoin the world of handhelds.
The big hardware update to the DSi is the dual cameras that both face you and out towards the world. These prove to be almost completely useless unless you have ever thought, “I wish I could clutter up my Facebook with even more Photobooth style pictures.” Other than that, the hardware is mostly the same. Same dual screens, same touch screen, same pain of “where the hell did I leave the stylus,” but a different “this looks like a very tiny MacBook” look (which doesn’t change the fact it still looks like a very tiny MacBook).
Entertainment - Tuesday, April 21, 2009 12:24 - 5 Comments
New “Six Days in Fallujah” Game Allows Fighting In Iraq From Home
Who’s ready to ship out to Iraq? Not for real, but from the safety of your own home. Soon enough, you’ll be able to with the new Konami release, Six Days in Fallujah. The game will be a third person shooter that strives to have a documentary feel, including after-mission reports with detailed photos, videos, and satellite images to remind you that all the guys you killed on screen were actually killed in real life!
Sure, that’s true of every Vietnam and World War II game that’s been a multi-million dollar blockbuster, but this somehow feels different. This is a war we are still very much involved in, with our soldiers still over there putting their lives on the line. I can’t help but feel that every death in this game would be accompanied by a sinking feeling in my chest. How am I supposed to come home from a long day to sit down and play a game that represents so much? Does it mean I support the war because I’m shooting ski-masked enemies in a video game?
But then, Konami is a good publisher. The graphics resemble the excellent Middle East settings of last summer’s Metal Gear Solid 4, which may be the greatest game ever made. Military advisers were consulted during development to make sure nothing went too far over the top.
If Konami can create a truly accurate game, it could end up being fantastic. The question is: could real life ruin a potentially great experience in a virtual life? We’ll just have to wait until next year, when Six Days in Fallujah is finally released.
Image from Konami/Atomic Games
National - Wednesday, April 15, 2009 15:29 - 3 Comments
New Twitter Application Attempts To Rip Off Perfectionists
There’s a breaking development in the field of new ways to Twitt your favorite tweets! Are you a perfectionist? Are you one of those kids who actually bothers revising your papers over and over until they’re just perfect? Then you’ll love the newest useless Twitter application for the iPhone: Birdhouse!
Birdhouse is a notepad for jotting down tweets for later revision. It doesn’t show any of your friends tweets, incoming messages, or any other of Twitter’s features that involve other people. Nope, Birdhouse is all about the most interesting person on Twitter… you! How much would you say this self-obsession is worth? $10? $20? Nope! You can jot down your 140 character messages (which your minuscule brain clearly does not have room for) for a mere $4! Now who’s ready for some revising?
At least the intro video is pretty funny.
National - Wednesday, April 8, 2009 6:00 - 2 Comments
Kindle’s Read-Aloud Feature Stirs Controversy
Question: How do you get a nerd to go outside?
Answer: Screw with their gadgets until they protest.
Yesterday at noon there was a rally outside of the Authors Guild headquarters on 32nd street demanding that Text-to-Speech functionality was restored to the new Amazon Kindle. The Authors Guild had previously threatened to sue Amazon over the Kindle’s ability to read text aloud to you. Executive Director Paul Aiken wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “they don’t have the right to read a book out loud. That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” The Guild claimed that by reading the book aloud, Amazon was creating a derivative work. If that isn’t absurd enough, Amazon buckled, allowing the Guild to dictate which books were allowed to utilize the miniature Stephen Hawking housed within every Kindle. Continue…
National - Friday, April 3, 2009 16:18 - 1 Comment
DWT: Driving While Twittering
As New Yorkers, very few of us have to deal with driving. The unbearable pain of only being able to focus on one thing, the road ahead of us. The loneliness of the wide open highway. The fact that for a few moments, you might have to be by yourself, without constant communication with the outside world. But no more!
Gearlive.com has received a tip that, while driving, we’ll all be able to Twitter. Continue…
National - Monday, March 30, 2009 12:08 - 1 Comment
New Gaming Console Promises HD, Streaming Games
Could this minuscule set-up be the game console of the future? I’d say definitely. The real question is if it’s the game console of the near-future.
What you see above is the OnLive set-top box, announced last Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Once the OnLive box is plugged into your TV and a broadband Internet connection, you’ll be able to buy any game available on the service and stream it straight to your TV. This will also be available on almost any PC or Mac that can stream video, from a $3,000 desktop rigs to your standard hand-me-down craptop.
National - Friday, March 27, 2009 11:49 - 7 Comments
New iPod Shuffle Needs A Remix
[Ed. note: This post was submitted by Zane Brzezinski, our new tech writer in the National section.]
On the morning of March 11, Apple unleashed its newest iPod into the wild, a fresh update on the Shuffle. The first thing you’ll notice is that it’s small as hell. Smaller than a double-A battery in fact. But size doesn’t matter (at least that’s what my last girlfriend said), it’s how the thing works. So does the $79 mp3 player deserve to enter the hallowed hall of iPods, or will it fall flat on its face?
The first thing you’ll notice about the new Shuffle is that there is only one way to interact with the device itself. On top is a small off/on/shuffle switch. Everything else is controlled by a small remote that sits on the new headphones, much like the earbuds that ship with the iPhone. Although this allows for the sleek-as-hell buttonless design, there are a few obvious problems that come along in tow. Continue…
