IBM’s Centennial anniversary is fast approaching (as in TODAY), and their 100 years of hard work shouldn’t go unnoticed. Behind every major technological advance, you’re likely to find IBM’s name floating around somewhere. Here are 9 of our favorite IBM-aided innovations. More »
At first glance, the N-Control Avenger looks like the fevered dream of a quirky lunatic, destined for fame and failure as a legendary crapgadget. When one showed up on our doorstep, we were admittedly skeptical. Could a lever- and pulley-laden Xbox 360 controller clamshell really give us a competitive edge? Wouldn’t all the extra bits and pieces only result in a cumbersome mess? Is this doodad really worth the $50 asking price? We went hands-on to find out, and boy howdy, were we surprised.
Gallery: N-Control Avenger hands-on
N-Control Avenger Xbox 360 attachment makes it look complicated, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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While the world breathlessly awaits the Pac-Man reality TV show, the University of Essex held a programming competition starring that other yellow chomper. The Ms. Pac-Man vs. Ghost Team contest pitted 13 competitors from nine different countries against one another, to see who could create the most elusive Ms. Pac-Man or the wiliest ghost gang. The participants coded routines for the titular hero or Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Sue, with organizers then running the programs against one another on the Java-based playing field. The highest single-game score went to Atif, who racked up 69240 points versus DarkRodry’s ghosts, while ghost team Legacy2TheReckoning held RandomMsPacMan to a mere 410 points. Another competition will take place in August, so limber up your coding fingers, Pac-Maniacs. In the meantime, strap on your headgear and cheer on your round yellow hero in the video below.
AI competition pits Ms. Pac-Man against ghosts in the Manichean struggle of our time (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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We gave you a glimpse of Nyko’s 2011 accessories lineup earlier this week, and today we got some quality time with the company’s gear at E3 2011. We tried out Zoom Kinect, a set of lenses for Microsoft’s favorite sensor bar that lets those residing in diminutive domiciles be the controller without rearranging their furniture. The add-on worked flawlessly when we gave it a go on Kinect Adventures — Kinect had no trouble tracking our movements even though we were a few feet closer to the sensor than recommended. Zoom Kinect is slated for an August 16th release and will cost $29.99, a paltry sum compared to the price of buying a bigger living room. But wait, there’s more! See our impressions of Nyko’s other new products after the break.
Gallery: Nyko Zoom Kinect hands-on
Continue reading Hands-on with Nyko’s Zoom Kinect and extended battery packs for the 3DS
Hands-on with Nyko’s Zoom Kinect and extended battery packs for the 3DS originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Microsoft’s E3 keynote may have exploded with deeper Kinect support, but nothing caught our eyes quite as sharply as Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s rifle-exploding Gunsmith demo. A Ubisoft representative showed us how it’s done: separating your arms separates your deadly firearm into a gorgeous display of floating screws, components, and accessories, which can be effortlessly modified, swapped, and replaced with gesture and voice commands. Too picky to decide for yourself? Then don’t: just tell Gunsmith what you’re looking for. For instance, saying “Optimize for range” produces a weapon any sniper should be proud of — even better, we found that commanding Gunsmith to “optimize for awesome” birthed a rifle (pictured above) sporting an underbarrel shotgun attachment. A gun attached to a gun? Yeah, that works. Weapons can be tested in Gunsmith’s gesture-controlled firing range, an engaging shooting mode exclusive to the Gunsmith weapon editor and not usable in regular gameplay. Head past the break for a hands-on (figuratively speaking) video.
Continue reading Kinect integration in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, hands-off (video)
Kinect integration in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, hands-off (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 07:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Gallery: Nyko Accessories at E3 2011
Nyko cures Kinect’s farsightedness, brings bountiful battery life and alarm clock capability to the 3DS originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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These may not have made the cut to appear in Microsoft’s E3 keynote earlier today but gamers will probably appreciate two new features mentioned in a letter from Xbox Live General Manager Marc Whitten. “Cloud Storage for Game Saves and Live Profiles” is first up and provides access to ones profile and saves from any console, at any time with the option to save to XBL servers instead of a memory unit or hard drive. It all sounds very similar to the service offered for PlayStation Plus but as Joystiq notes, so far exact details are scant. The other feature mentioned is support for “Beacons” which go one step further than broadcasting what you’re playing or watching right now by allowing users to flag what they want to play, and lets friends on XBL or Facebook see that so they can meet you for a game. Check out the full letter after the break or over on the ‘stiq, we’ll sit back and dream of a future world where bringing our XBL profile by a friend’s house to keep track of our beatdowns is as easy as just logging in.
Continue reading Xbox Live adds cloud saves, ‘beacons’ that tell friends what you want to play
Xbox Live adds cloud saves, ‘beacons’ that tell friends what you want to play originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The shuttering of New York’s Chinatown Fair back in March marked the end of an era for the city — a last vestige of a time when social gaming meant more than just logging on to Xbox Live. The arcade experience hasn’t completely disappeared form the metropolitan map, however — in recent years, a new crop of venues have remixed the concept of yesterday’s arcades, places like Brooklyn’s Barcade, a shrine to 80s gaming machines that does brisk business serving spirits to Williamsburg’s 21 and up crowd. Launched in Ridgewood, Queens by game developers Kunal Gupta and Syed Salahuddin, Babycastles takes the re-invention a step further, offering up something between an arcade space and an art gallery.
Continue reading Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video)
Babycastles brings its indie arcade action to The Engadget Show (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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If you’re like us, you’ve been spending most of your time in the lead up to E3 scouring the source code of gaming company sites searching for clues about next week’s announcements. We happened to miss Sony’s “Vita” namedrop in the code of a post about the “future of handhelds,” but one reader managed to catch it before the company removed it completely. The inclusion of the name is the latest in a series of slip ups that lend credence to the notion that the decidedly generic Next Generation Portable title isn’t the official name for the company’s less investment heavy handheld. There’s certainly the possibility that Sony was using the name PS Vita while developing the device internally, though mentions seem to be popping up more and more as we push closer to the big event. Either way, we’re certain to get a big dose of vitamin Sony in a matter of days.
Sony NGP may become ‘PS Vita,’ give us 100 percent of our RDI of handheld gaming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The Nintendo DS line has had many redesigns up to the present 3DS, but one thing that hasn’t changed are the tiny, easily lost cartridges. Enter Memorex’s $20 Universal Game Selector Case, announced as part of its gaming accessory lineup for E3. The UGSC stores up to three games and hooks up to the cartridge port on any DS, letting you swap between them using a signal routing switch. We’ve seen cases similar to this in the past, but Memorex’s take is the first to support 3DS titles as well. Based on the renders, the unit looks to make for a weird fit and some noticeable extra thickness (10.5mm to be exact), especially on the DSi XL, but hopefully we’ll get a better idea of how it feels in hand at E3. From a functionality perspective, the case does seem rather useful for those with forgetful tendencies, if a bit underwhelming for anybody else. Memorex will also be displaying its new third-party PS3 and Wii motion controllers at the E3, which are viewable in the gallery below, and there’s a press release with details after the break.
Memorex intros Nintendo DS game-changing case, other not-so-game-changing accessories originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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