We’ve counted up your Engadget Awards nominations, and now it’s down to the finalists. Fifteen categories are up for grabs, and it’s up to you to determine the top tech of 2012. The polls are open until 11:59 ET on Monday, February 18th, and we’ll be posting the top readers’ picks, along with our Editors’ Choice awards, soon after.
Head to the voting page to give your favorite gadgets some love!
Filed under: Announcements
Drones have become ubiquitous in the last 10 years because they are cheap to produce, operate and they can avoid exposing a pilot to potential enemy fire and capture during reconnaissance missions. That’s why everybody want some, but in reality it’s not so easy and only a handful of countries have operational drones, and even less actually build working ones. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Death Star Kickstarter Campaign Seeks $850 Quintillion To Fully Fund, Robot Hornets Are Weapons Of The British Army,
It’s no secret that most politicians are against violent video games. Lawmakers in several states are fighting to levy a tax on such games, while even some advocate groups are banding together to try and stop violent video games from getting into the wrong hands. However, one politician in particular, Rep. Nancy Pelosi — the highest-ranking female politician in American history — has come out to defend violent video games, and says that they are not the cause of violence in America.
Pelosi essentially says that there’s not enough evidence to support the claim that violent video games cause real-life violence, and she is calling for more scientific research on the connection between popular culture and violence. Pelosi says that in Japan, “they have the most violent games and the lowest death mortality from guns,” suggesting that violent video games are not the cause.
Pelosi represents California’s 12th congressional district, which consists of most of San Francisco, a haven for video game development, so it’s certainly possible that Pelosi has a lot of knowledge on the subject, or she may have just gotten some statistics from biased supporters. Either way, it’s nice to see a politician looking the other way on a subject that a majority of other politicians believe in.
In the end, Pelosi says that Japan’s low death rate from guns may come from good gun laws, and hints that better gun control is simply what the US needs in order to cut down on the number of deaths from guns. In any case, President Obama’s State of the Union address is tomorrow night, and we’ll no doubt here more about his plans for gun control during that time.
[via Huffington Post]
Image via Flickr
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi defends violent video games is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
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Back in November of last year, Mojang the company behind Minecraft, announced that the game was coming to the Raspberry Pi platform. In case, you don’t know about Raspberry Pi, it’s a very small computer design (credit-card sized) that can be used as a core system, and extended for many purposes. It’s incredibly cheap ($25 – $35 with more connectors) and is powered by a Broadcom BCM2835 system on chip (SoC) which features hardware graphics etc.
Minecraft for Raspberry Pi is completely free, and is now available for download. According to Mojang, Minecraft Pi will have a limited set of features. We’re not sure what this will evolve into, but the cost of building a Minecraft Lan-party just drop by a factor of 10X.
For those not familiar with Minecraft, it is an open world game in which users can shape their world by taking action (adding/deleting) basic building blocks of materials. The game has many aspects such as a purely creative mode where players can fly, or a survival mode where they need to manage resources and hunger. In the most difficult mode, the world resets upon death. Ouch.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Next Batman: Arkham Game Expected For 2013 Release, The Last of Us Release Date Delayed Until June 18,
It seems Google wasn’t the only tech giant to debut a new commercial during last night’s Grammys as Microsoft took the opportunity to debut a new commercial for their recently released Surface Pro.
Even though the Surface Pro reportedly doesn’t have the greatest storage or battery, Microsoft’s newest commercial offers a lot of energy as I could only hope any meeting I attend from now on be as lively as the one featured in their new commercial. (more…)
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Samsung Teases ‘Next Big Thing’ While BlackBerry 10 Shows What It Can’t Do In Super Bowl Ads, Samsung Targets iPhone, BlackBerry In Business-Focused Commercial,
Having found some of the most recent Free to Play games out on the market today to be undeniably awesome, NVIDIA has decided to stoke the fire with a set of F2P Bundles with their GeForce GPUs. When you purchase a GeForce GTX graphics card (as long as it’s 650 or above) you also get a set of in-game credits for three of the most excellent FPS games in play today. These games are Planetside 2, World of Tanks, and everyone’s favorite mech warrior free-for-all: Hawken!
Each of the games included in this release are and continue to be free for you to download and play with or without a purchase from NVIDIA – what you’re getting here is cash inside each game. Each of the games here is free to download and play, making a profit from in-game purchases that include feature upgrades, personalization of in-game elements, and oddities galore.
But it’s not just the free-to-play fad’s popularity in and of itself that NVIDIA is aiming for, it’s the situation this inflicts. Millions of users play these games with below-recommended hardware, meaning they’re nowhere near the optimal experience these games are able to present. With a GeForce GPU, they’ll get heavy bumps.
With World of Tanks you’ll be getting a big boost in graphics power – not that you’d need to be working with a top-power GeForce card to make this game work, but with an upgrade to a GeForce GTX GPU, you’ll have much more realistic gameplay and, when you get down and dirty with the stats, straight up higher FPS. Planetside 2 is a game you’ll be jumping into with massive boosts in usability as you jump into the GTX range of processors – there’s really no comparing 10FPS and 60+FPS when you’re hunting on alien worlds.
Then there’s Hawken, which benefits directly from NVIDIA’s own PhysX technology. Have a peek at the difference in gameplay with PhysX on and off in the demonstration video below. Also be sure to check our Hawken review to find out more about this beastly game.
The two deals up for grabs here are as follows: purchase a GeForce GTX 650 / 650 Ti and you’ll get $25 for each of the three games, equaling $75 in-game credit total. With a purchase of a GeForce GTX 660 or higher, you’ll get $50 in in-game credit for each of the three games above, that equalling out to be $150 USD. In both cases that credit is at least 75% of the original cost of the card – so if you’d have otherwise been spending that cash in-game, you’re golden!
NVIDIA grasps “Free to Play” explosion with GeForge F2P Bundles is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
Some big news for lovers of indie music with commitment issues. eMusic’s CEO Adam Klein announced this morning that his service will be dumping its subscription requirement, letting customers download music from the site without being forced to buy into a monthly fee. The new model, which puts the site in line with most of its musical competition, kicks off today. There’s a press release detailing the move after the break, if you’re into executive quotes.
Filed under: Internet, Software
Source: eMusic
President Obama is no stranger to using the Internet to converse with not only the American people, but also millions around the world to discuss a number of important topics. Last year, he hosted a Google+ Hangout session, and it looks as though he’ll be hosting another one this week.
The event will be called a “Fireside Hangout” and will allow the President to chat with several people selected by Google in order to spark conversation with him with their own questions. The Fireside Hangout will take place on February 14 at 4:50 EST, which is two days after his State of the Union speech to the U.S. Google is giving you until 11:59 p.m. ET to submit your questions as a video or text via the White House’s YouTube channel.
Those interested in viewing President Obama’s Fireside Hangout are encouraged to visit the White House’s Google+ page or their YouTube channel, although if you’re not one of the lucky few who have been chosen to chat with the President, then you should plan for the event to be a one-sided chat.
By Ubergizmo. Related articles: YouTube Considering Paid Subscriptions To Launch This Spring, Pirate Bay Documentary Becomes First Film To Premier Online At Berlinale Festival,
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