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Wii Vitality Sensor announcement on Monday?

Posted: 15 May 2010 07:53 PM PDT


So Nintendo has announced a “special joint announcement” with the American Heart Association for Monday. What could it be? Well, let’s see here — which of Nintendo’s products directly measures your vital signs and seem to have been invented strictly for Iwata’s twisted health purposes? Ah yes, the Vitality Sensor we saw at last year’s E3.

The announcement that there will be an announcement is really the only information out there right now, so I’ll leave you to your thoughts and your Wiis.

[via 1up]

8-bit Starcraft: I would have played this

Posted: 15 May 2010 07:33 PM PDT


This prototype for Starcraft was found by the son of an old-school Blizzard programmer — it dates from the early ’80s. Really quite shocking how advanced it is for the time! Check out this footage of a PvT game!

Heh. Yeah, of course it’s not real. But with Starcraft II’s release date only about two months out, I figure we may as well grease up the ol’ hype machine. Of course, the game has been out in beta for so long over in Korea that there is already a pretty well-established elite player hierarchy and many entrenched strategies (M&M&M, anyone?).

Whatever, it’s the weekend, you can spare two minutes for some Ataricraft 2600.

[via Reddit]

Not everyone wants their hand held when PC gaming

Posted: 15 May 2010 11:30 AM PDT

One of the bigger stories this past week was OnLive heading to the UK. The service promises to make PC gaming more accessible by hosting all of the hardware—you simply supply a broadband connection and a Web browser, and you’ll be playing the likes of Mass Effect 2 in no time. If it works as described, great. There’s nothing wrong with exposing PC gaming to more people.

What concerns me, and maybe “concerns” isn’t even the right word, is that the art of PC gaming will go away. It’s an art based on choice, a choice that will go away if all we’re required to do is click the OnLive favicon on our bookmark bar. Today’s PC gamer can, if he so desires, spend $700 on a video card in order to eek out a few more frames per second in the latest first-person shooter. Or he can spend half as much and still blast zombies away to his heart’s content.

Today’s PC gamer can spend weeks at a time researching processors—Intel or AMD, Core i5 or i7 or Phenom?—for the two-second thrill of setting it on the motherboard. Then there’s overclocking—how far can you push your fancy new processor? Change the voltage here, alter the frequency there, then hope to God that Prime95 doesn’t melt a hole in the floor.

Will a hard disk drive suffice, or will I be better off moving up to a solid state drive?

All of this sense of adventure disappears when using something like OnLive, and that’s something that matters to plenty of PC gamers. Maybe even more important that any abstract sense of “fun,” there’s something to be said about being totally in control of the hardware being used to grind from level 1 to level 80.

So by all means, make PC gaming more accessible, just please recognize that there’s plenty of people who like it because it can be such a commitment.


Zelle 1337 jewelry, for the lady who pwn3d ur lyf

Posted: 15 May 2010 10:26 AM PDT

I’m not so sure the average non-geek girl would love necklaces and earrings made of resistors, fuses, and floppy disk parts but there’s no harm in trying. Besides, I suspect real geek girls would definitely squeeeeeee at these.

All of these handmade pieces are created out of used electronics and are actually quite striking. The best part? Each comes with an offical “Certificate of Autheticity” that looks like the EULA that came with Windows 95.

Zelle, the elegantly minimal tech jewelry brand that has elevated electronic components into wearable works of art has expanded its vision to celebrate the inherent beauty of technology in its haute couture take on the art form with their 1337 collection.

The smaller pieces cost about $30 while the larger pieces are priced and available by request. While I’m not totally down with some of these pieces, a low-cut dress and maybe that massive diode necklace could get anyone’s Elementals boiling. Obviously you could also make these yourself, but who has that kind of time what with Super Mario Galaxy 2 coming out and Steam on Mac.


Yeah, that’s IDE ribbon cable.

Product Page

New MacBook specs leak out of Vietnam

Posted: 15 May 2010 10:22 AM PDT

Looks like we get a peek at an unannounced update to the MacBook a little bit early. The update (showing up on the label as MacBook7,1) has the same CPU and GPU as the entry level MacBook Pro, but assuming Apple keeps the pricing the same, it should be available for $999. Check out the unboxing video after the jump.

So what’s going on in this update? Well, the MacBook will still be called model A1342, but it’ll have a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and the NVIDIA GeForce 320M with 256mb of DDR3. Great news for someone who wants a cheaper MacBook with some horsepower. Of course since it’s a leak, we have no idea for sure when it’ll be announced, how much it will cost, or even if this is a hoax or not.

[Tinhte via Engadget]

Hands-on with MobileHelp, for when Dad has fallen and he can’t get up

Posted: 15 May 2010 10:16 AM PDT

MobileHelp is a small device that works “beyond the home” allowing your loved one to call for help at a press of a button. The device also also tracks your loved one via GPS and, when they sound an alarm, MobileHelp’s staff will contact them directly and call the proper authorities.

My mother tried this at home and found the installation to be fairly easy – all she had to do was plug it into the wall and into a phone outlet – and when she pressed the button MobileHelp immediately contacted her.

The service costs about $34.95 a month ($39.95 without a yearly plan) and includes one home pendant, one “out of the house” pendant with GPS and cellular connectivity, and a base station.

As my parents grow older, stuff like this is going be more and more important. While I’d prefer them just to have cellphones, it may work if you’re dealing with folks who are bordering on senility yet still have the wherewithal to call for help. Obviously a small device around your neck that is always with you may be more useful than a cellphone in an emergency, but you’ll have to make that decision based on price and value.

Again, I’d love to hear from some folks who have had to deal with this sort of thing to better understand the value of the device. My Mom got a kick out of it – but she likes new things – so I had a sample size of about one.

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