Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been tracking the MIT-originated Siftables so far with grudgingly bemused expressions on our cynical, internet-hardened faces. Now we find out they’re called Sifteo Cubits, and they’ve got a slated release for the first quarter of next year. Sure, sure, we can keep it together. But then we saw this adorable press shot, and the callouses just fell right off our hardened blogger hearts. The 1.5-inch LCD-equipped blocks, which can sense motion and proximity while communicating with each other wirelessly, are going to be mostly used for games initially, though the possibilities seem endless — and endlessly quirky. At $149 it might be a hard sell for most, but Sifteo had us at “pixel art.” We should know more in January when Sifteo makes the full unveil.

Sifteo Cubits launching next year; still really cute originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 15 Dec 2010 19:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First they take all of our jobs–now they’re appearing on our gameshows. A computer will finally get a chance to appear on Jeopardy, when IBM’s Watson makes its debut on the popular game show in February. The computer will appear on three episodes, taking on two of the show’s biggest winner–Ken Jennings, who won $2.5 (playing in a record 74 consecutive games) and Brad Rutter, who pulled in 3.2 million.

The winner of the three-way contest will bring home $1 million. Rutter and Jennings will donate half of their winnings to charity, should they be victorious. If Watson wins, meanwhile, it will donate all of its profits.

There are a number of difficulties that Watson must overcome, in order to win, including an understanding of subtle language nuances like puns and riddles. IBM scientist David Ferrucci is confident in the computer’s abilities, however, stating, “After four years, our scientific team believes that Watson is ready for this challenge based on its ability to rapidly comprehend what the Jeopardy clue is asking, analyze the information it has access to, come up with precise answers, and develop an accurate confidence in its response.”

Watson was named for IBM founder Thomas J. Watson. Over the past few month, its programmers have been running it through 50 mock Jeopardy games.

Aww, would you look at that, the iPhone’s trying to play big boy games! Following in the well received footsteps of Rage HD, today marks the debut of Infinity Blade, the second in what’s hopefully a wave of gorgeous-looking iOS games boasting advanced 3D graphics, if not 3D gameplay. Epic Games has put aside the chainsaw-equipped projectile weaponry of its wildly successful Gears of War console series to deliver the first mobile game built around its Unreal Engine 3. You won’t be surprised to hear that it’s utterly delicious to look at, and the visuals certainly helped transport us to this alien realm of swords, axes, shields, and magical rings — where body armor is optional, but helmets apparently are not. Jump past the break to see this visual feast in motion and to soak up some more of our impressions.

Continue reading App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone)

App review: Infinity Blade (iPhone) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already shown you the top holiday gaming picks for the Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, and Sony PS3. Now it’s the PC’s turn. As with consoles before it–particularly the Xbox 360 and PS3–there’s a bit of title overlap, but the PC also has a few titles all to itself, from the intense MMORGP gameplay of the latest World of Warcraft expansion pack to the casual gaming phenomenon that is Bejeweled.