Hasta La Gadget!

Well, that was brief. Just a few short months after InstantAction went public with its embedded browser-based gaming platform at GDC 2010, the Oregon-based startup has gone belly-up. If you missed out on what this here outfit was offering, you clearly aren’t alone — but for the historians in attendance, we’d invite you to revisit our hands-on for an overview of what was planned. Unfortunately, the company has yanked all of its Vimeo clips detailing the system’s features, and its website now affirms that the service as a whole is “no longer available.” We’re hearing that it’ll be selling the underlying Torque Game Engine (and presumably that fancy “chunking” tech that enabled games to be played in a browser with just a broadband connection), but based on the tepid response so far, we’re guessing it won’t fetch much. We definitely saw a bit of promise in the concept — after all, browser-based games like Solipskier are all the rage in some circles — but bona fide console / PC games simply don’t fit that mold, or so it seems.

InstantAction dies in an instant, future of embedded gaming looks questionable originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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No smartphone platform is complete without a phone big enough to double as an ice scraper. The hulking HD7 is that phone for Windows Phone 7. More »

Okay, we’re no Snake Plissken, but let’s just say that DC has become something of an interesting town lately, with mock-left and faux-right wing pundits holding giant rallies, political candidates being accused of witchcraft, and various other signs of the apocalypse happening every day. We were glad to make it out with both eyes and we were glad to be doing so in the car of the future that’s finally a part of the present: Chevrolet’s $41,000 Volt. It’s actually (honestly) in proper production now, being delivered to select dealers soon, one of those production models given to us to drive from our great nation’s capital to the cultural capital of the world: New York City. We easily managed it on a single tank of gas, but what kind of mileage did we get? You’ll just have to read on to find out.

Continue reading Chevy Volt preview: escape from DC in today’s car of tomorrow

Chevy Volt preview: escape from DC in today’s car of tomorrow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Shifts at a Foxconn factory are typically eight to ten hours a day. Since about half of the company’s Shenzhen employees live on campus, an entire city has sprung up around them. They train. They eat. They play. More »

Foxconn’s factory in Shenzhen, China, is home to about half of its 420,000 workers. They make many of our gadgets and computers, then walk to dormitories on the 2.1-kilometer-square campus. I got to look inside. More »