Developages - Development and Technology Blog

 For Sony, Home is where the future of gaming is — or where they would like it to be.

In its battle for the hearts and minds of gamers, Sony is developing a robust social-networking component to its PlayStation 3 console.

The new element, to be called Home, has been in beta testing for weeks and allows users to explore an online world with avatars that can travel from one virtual place to another.

While it’s not exactly a world like World of Warcraft or Linden Labs’Second Life, Home is the most ambitious push by any console maker into creating a virtual world for gamers.

It will live or die on whether it’s simple, fun, and deep enough for gamers who have plenty of other things they want to do — like play games. And the price is right: free for those who have a PS3.

The New York Times/VentureBeat.

Tags: avatars, Home, Linden Labs, PlayStation 3, PS3, Second Life, Sony, World of Warcraft

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Original post by nafiz

According to tree-hugging journalist Lori Bongiorno, the Wii is a great choice for anyone looking to cut down on the electric bill. Here are the key points of her article:

Sony Playstation 3 is the most power-hungry model. For the 2007 version, you’ll spend about $12 a year if you turn the console off when you’re not using it, compared to about $134 if you leave it on all the time.

Microsoft Xbox 360 ranks a close second. If you shut it down when you’re not playing a game or watching a movie, it costs about $11 to operate annually. Leaving it on continuously will cost you $103.

Nintendo Wii uses significantly less energy than the others. It costs about $3 a year if you turn it off after use, compared to about $10 if you don’t.

Then again, as the obnoxious commenters of Lori’s article point out, who the heck leaves their gaming console on the whole day?!

(image from Yahoo! Green)

Tags: gaming consoles, Microsoft XBox 360, nintendo wii, PlayStation 3, power consumption

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Original post by Rico

Hoping to provide viewers with an easy way to move Internet-based video onto TV screens, GridNetworks has announced a new service that would do just that by routing the content through an Xbox 360 gaming console.

The service is designed to work with any device that uses Universal Plug and Play protocols and, in the future, GridNetworks wants to be able to use Sony’s PlayStation 3 as the conduit as well.

More at Multichannel News.

Tags: gridnetworks, internet-based video, PlayStation 3, Sony, Universal Plug and Play, xbox 360

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Original post by nafiz

Despite a worsening economy, all three current-generation video game consoles had better U.S. sales in October than they did a year ago, according to the latest figures from The NPD Group.

And both Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii sold more units in October, a four-week reporting period, than in September, a five-week period. Wowwee!

Also the worst of the economic bad news had yet to hit in September.

Sony, however, saw month-over-month PlayStation 3 sales decline, while sales of its previous generation (and less expensive) PlayStation 2 remained strong. Also, the PS3 saw the strongest year-over-year sales increase in October.

Nintendo was again the market leader, even though Microsoft cut prices on its Xbox 360 line in September, making its low-end model the least-expensive console on the market. 

More at The Seattle Times.

(Can you blame them for that seemingly pro-MS plug …)

Tags: microsoft, nintendo, npd group, playstation 2, playstation 3, sony, video game console, wii, xbox 360

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Original post by nafiz

Filed under: Digital Cameras

You may think you know everything there is to know about Canon’s marvelous EOS 5D Mark II, but have you heard of this tidbit? Hailed as the first DSLR to “manage” multiple batteries, this here camera includes technology to read up to six separate LP-E6 batteries and display data about them right on the rear LCD. The LP-E6 cell includes an embedded microchip with a unique 8-character serial number; after it’s installed once and “registered” in your EOS 5D Mark II body, the camera then displays each cell’s serial number, the last time it was charged, the number of shots taken since the last charge, its remaining capacity in 1% increments and its recharge performance. It’s a small inclusion, sure, but for pros who go 18+ hours on a single set, we can imagine this coming in handy when trying to select which battery to use on the next excursion.

[Thanks, Peter]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Wearables

For shame. We know good and well engineers can concoct energy-generating garb that actually looks good enough to wear, but evidently those fashion-minded gurus weren’t hired for this project. Granted, we have all ideas the image you’re quizzically staring at above is NTT’s first go at a pair of power-packing sandals, but there’s clearly a good ways to go before these things are cute / safe enough to wear on the streets. Might we suggest shoving all that hardware inside of something? The “all hanging out” look just isn’t working here.

[Via TokyoMango, image courtesy of AFP / Getty]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Transportation

With an electric MINI Cooper just around the bend, a Twin Drive hybrid Volkswagen landing in 2010 and Chevrolet’s Volt rolling into showrooms in a matter of months, Audi’s ten-year plan is looking a little awkward. Though we’ve yet to hear that it’s actually speeding things up, Peter Schwarzenbauer, who sits on the management board at Ingolstadt, recently confirmed that the company would be offering “a pure electric car” sometime in the future. Additionally, rumors of it being based on the A1 were dashed, opening the door for speculation that it will instead be built around the VW Up! (Lupo) concept. Here’s hoping we find our prior to 2018.

[Via Autoblog]

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Original post by Darren Murph

David Harry writes “Google is looking deeper into behavioural targeting of social network users with 3 more patents. A while back one patent came to light in the poorly termed ‘friendrank’; Google could be profliling social network users . These three patents now bring the series to 5 in total.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

David Harry writes “Google is looking deeper into behavioral targeting of social network users with three more patents. A while back, one patent came to light in the poorly termed ‘friendrank;’ Google could be profiling social network users. These three patents now bring the series to five in total.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

theodp writes “It sounds like a goof — especially coming from a company that pledged to raise the bar on patent quality — but the USPTO last week disclosed that IBM is seeking a patent for Methodologies and Analytics Tools for Identifying White Space Opportunities in a Given Industry, which Big Blue explains allows one ‘to maximize the value of its IP by investigating and identifying areas of relevant patent ‘white space’ in an industry, where white space is a term generally used to designate one or more technical fields in which little or no IP may exist,’ and filling those voids with the creation of additional IP.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by CmdrTaco

SoulMaster writes “The company I work for (we are a one-year-old start-up) has recently started filing patents to protect some of its intellectual property. At the onset of the patent process, one of the executives drafted a very basic Patent Incentive Program (PIP) which is now under full review to ensure that it is both accurate and fair. The basics of our original PIP are that inventors receive (or co-inventors share): $500 for each provisional filing, $1500 for an actual patent filing (with full claim-sets defined), and $5000 for any patent that is granted by the USPTO. While the current program seems fair to our staff, we have been unable to find anything to compare it to. Moreover, the revamp of the program is likely to grant an equity stake in the company (via an Options grant) rather than cash payouts. I’ve scoured Google for information, but because internally documented PIPs aren’t generally public knowledge, the results are limited. Thus, I have decided to ask Slashdot users: How does the company you work for handle Patent incentives? Do they have them at all? Are they cash or equity based?”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by timothy

Filed under: Cellphones

We could start off by telling you just how much this decision will hurt Qualcomm and just how celebratory the mood must be at Broadcom, but instead, we′ll key you in on this quote: “The appeals court also rejected Qualcomm’s request for a new trial.” At long last, we may have actually heard the end of what has seemed like a never-ending battle between the aforementioned parties. Today, a US Appeals court upheld an earlier ruling that Qualcomm had indeed infringed upon two Broadcom patents while ruling that a third patent in question was invalid. The ruling is obviously a huge win for Broadcom, who will soon be bathing in Benjamins as Qualcomm is forced to pay mandatory royalties for the chips it sells during the “sunset period” ending January 31, 2009.

[Via Reuters]

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Original post by Darren Murph

zoobab writes “Veteran European anti-software patent campaigners have launched the World Day against Software Patents. They say, “The issue of software patents is a global one, and several governments and patent offices around the world continue to grant software & business method patents on a daily basis; they are pushing for legal codification of the practice, such as currently in New Zealand and India. We declare the 24 September as the World Day Against Software Patents, in commemoration of the European Parliament First Reading in 2003 with amendments stopping the harmful patenting of software, guaranteeing that software programmers and businesses can safely benefit from the fruits of their work under copyright law.”"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Original post by samzenpus

Filed under: Laptops

AT&ampT has freely supported Panasonic’s WWAN-enabled Toughbook 19 / 30 on its mobile broadband network for nearly a year now, and for those worried that the two may break things off when Gobi entered the picture can finally breathe a sigh of relief. Qualcomm’s hybrid-3G technology (which goes from EV-DO to HSPA with the flip of a software switch), has just been certified for use on the carrier’s nationwide network, and sure enough, Panny has decided to offer it on “all” new Toughbook machines. Gobified Toughbooks should be on store shelves this October, though we′re not sure just how costly the option will be.

Read - AT&ampT certifies Gobi technology
Read - Panasonic offers Gobi on Toughbooks

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming

Just in case you didn′t have enough fake instruments cluttering up your living room, Mad Catz has now let loose its Fender Precision Bass for Rock Band, which it helpfully reminds us is the first ever bass guitar for the game. Among other things, this one drops the whammy bar normally found on Rock Band / Guitar Hero guitars (the volume knob does the job instead), and it incorporates a new Split Strum Bar, which promises to let you strum and pluck notes faster than a standard strum bar. Unfortunately, it’s only available for the Xbox 360 at the moment, but at least the $70 price tag isn’t quite as excessive as some of the other “premium” guitars out there. Now, if only someone would offer a Neil Peart-style drum kit, we’d really be able to do Rush justice, or at least out-do their now infamous performance on The Colbert Report.

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Original post by Donald Melanson