Category: News

Mass Effect 2 is going to come with a nice surprise: “The Cerberus Network,” an in-game content delivery system that will be your place to grab new missions, new equipment, and even characters. You’ll be able to download the Network with a one-use code that comes with the game… as long as it’s new. If you buy the game used, the pipeline will be able to be activated by buying another code from EA.

Players who buy the game new will have a nice surprise on the first day. “Players who access ‘The Cerberus Network’ will receive the first DLC pack on January 26th (launch day in North America) featuring new missions and in-game items,” EA explained. “Included in this pack is a mission that introduces Zaeed, a rugged and deadly gun-for-hire who is recruited to join Commander Shepard’s mission to save mankind.”

There is even more content planned for after launch, including a hovering tank called the Hammerhead, new missions, and new in-game items. EA also notes that these downloads are tied to your EA Online account, which is non-transferable.

After launch, when GameStop is pushing that used copy of the game for a few bucks less, gamers now have a reason to go with a new copy, as they won’t have to buy the Cerberus Network separately. Mass Effect 2 is coming to the Xbox 360 and PC on January 26.

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Multitasking on your iPhone? Yup. Palm WebOS-style cards on your iPhone? Yup. But you gotta jailbreak. Noah checks out Backgrounder and ProSwitcher for multitasking on a jailbroken iPhone.

It seems like a lot of people decorate their staircases for the Christmas holiday and then forget about them for the rest of the year. I love to decorate my banister for all the different holidays and hope some of you do, too. Here are several fun tips for decorating your staircase for Valentine’s Day:

• Choose a color scheme. I have been pretty big on pink and brown for a few years. This year, I might do pink and white instead. I just need to find the supplies I want in the right colors. Other schemes that are popular are red and white, black and red, or red and pink.
• Decide whether you want to let the kids do the decorating. My guys have fun cutting out hearts, birds and flowers to stick on stair risers. It may not be the look I dreamed of, but it is certainly Valentiney!
• Select a base for your banister decoration. I like to use pom pom fringe. You need something that isn’t too bold if you will be adding more decorations, but you don’t want it to be so quiet that it fades into the railing.
• Add your accents. I made a heart garland from brown and pink scrapbooking papers I love to use. This year, I am thinking about using the glass birds from my Christmas decorating stash, but that would involve getting out the ladder to get into storage. Hmm. Those hearts are looking mighty cute! Maybe a new heart garland for the banister like the one I made to hang on the door last year?

Do you have any tips for decorating the banister for Valentine’s Day?

Photo: K Thomas

Post from: Blisstree

Decorating the Banister for Valentine’s Day

Found under: Microsoft, Zune, Phone, Pink, ,

This is definitely not the first time weve been talking about the Zune Phone from Microsoft. Also known as the Pink Phone the smartphone thats supposed to run Windows Mobile and bring lots of Zune-like multimedia features has always been denied by Microsoft officials.We have been talking a lot lately about Windows Mobile 7 and according to very recent rumors the OS will be unveiled at MWC 2010. Weve seen yesterday two great leaked smartphones the LG Apollo and the HTC Obsession

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This is great. Original reviews of classic gadgets and computers are fun because you can marvel at the things that were new and mysterious then, but beyond commonplace now. In this review of Sony’s CDP-101, it is noted that there are many buttons, but no knobs. How things have changed, and now we value knobs as high-end and disparage buttons as peasant interfaces.

This one is lower and wider, has a horizontal drawer that slides out to accept the disc, and has much more flexibility of control. Audiophiles will however be dismayed to note that there is nothing on it to adjust; there isn’t even a knob to diddle. But there are plenty of buttons.

After the unit is turned on, a touch of a button opens the loading drawer. The disc goes in label-side up, playing-side down. To close the drawer, you can push the same button again or simply select a band for playing.

They also remind you of how far we’ve come. The digital encoding of music may have lost something in the early days (some would argue has never been recovered), but the medium made possible a perfect replicability and precision that some would say vinyl lacks.

The most immediately noticeable characteristics of the CD sound are its awesome lack of background noise and its almost unbelievable freedom from strain during the loudest passages. After a while one starts to notice other things. For example, the low end seems to have no bottom limit. In fact I am willing to bet I was hearing stuff at the extreme bottom that the record producers hadn’t heard, because some of it was soft but obviously extraneous infrasonic noise—occasional thuds that were totally unrelated to the music.

I mean, when was the last time you thought, “Ahh, what a refreshing lack of background noise!”

Definitely an interesting read for anyone interested in the history of technology.

[via Retro Thing]

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So we told you about the Phosphor watch back in May, and many people asked themselves, “but can I get it in black?” Admit it, you did. I could hear you. Really. Anyway, the answer to that burning question is “yes, the Phosphor watch is now available in black as well as silver.”

We liked the Phosphor product when we last saw them, so it’s a safe bet that we’ll like them in black too. The new version features the aforementioned black case, and a reversible display that shows either black on white, or white on black text. It’s going to cost a little more for the black version however, $194 to be exact. The old silver cased versions were only $185, but I can totally see where the money is going. The Phosphor DH05 Black Leather is available now from Watchismo.

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More tubular producers set price hikes to offset higher costs American Metal Market … immediate increase on its cold-drawn seamless tubing, 7¾ inches and under, of 5 cents per pound on alloy grades and 4 cents per pound on carbon grades. … and more »

Found under: Apple, iPhone OS, tablet, ,

Good news Apple fans it looks like Cupertino will launch a new iPhone OS version in just a week from now. iPhone OS 4.0 has been in the works for a while now but it hasnt been revealed in order for consumers not to find in it any details that could suggest future tablet functionalities. From the start we will have to tell you that the new OS is only available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users while those of you that own an old iPhone 2G should consider maybe getting a newer Apple

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Two DuPage County men have been charged in a plot to kill a federal prosecutor in Chicago and an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, federal officials said today.

Charged were Jack Mann, 41, of Naperville and Frank Caira, 39, of Downers Grove.

A defense lawyer for an ex-convict reported to the FBI that his client had been solicited by Mann to target a prosecutor in a federal drug case against Caira and a DEA agent, according to a complaint filed in the case.

Mann knew of the ex-convict’s past, including that he had been convicted of murder and was a member of the Latin Kings street gang, according to the court papers.

Around November, Mann allegedly passed the man the names of the intended targets and said he had done some research on their addresses — with the understanding that the price for the killings would be four kilograms of cocaine.

A meeting between Mann and the intended hitman took place on Dec. 27, and the FBI recorded it, authorities said. Mann was recorded complaining that Caira was unwilling to pay anything before the murders occurred.

Mann allegedly said he told Caira, “If you want Jack Mann, you’re gonna (expletive) pay.” He was arrested Jan. 13, according to court papers, and told investigators he had contacted the member of the Latin Kings street gang on Caira’s behalf.

Mann appeared in court Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan and waived a detention hearing for the time being. Caira is set to appear in court Thursday, officials said.

The case is being handled by assistant U.S. attorneys from the Northern District of Indiana because the Chicago office recused itself from the case.

– Jeff Coen

Read the original article from Tribune News Services.

A study of offshore wind farms off Europe’s coasts has revealed that the structures pose no threat to marine life, and in fact, they help sustain it.

Scientists at Stockholm University’s Zoology Department conducted the study and found that the turbine foundations acted as habitats for fish, crabs, mussels, lobsters and plants, creating a more diverse and dense population of marine life at wind farm sites than at control sites away from the farms.

Like in the case of sunken subway cars or ships, the scientists said that the foundations were essentially acting as artificial reefs.  This study could potentially lead to wind and wave farm designs that foster this occurrence.  Because wind farm sites are less suitable for bottom trawling, the farms could be built as safe zones for threatened species.

Yet another positive outcome of offshore wind.

via CleanTechnica

Filed under: Apple Financial, iMac, Macbook Pro, MacBook

When Gene Munster talks, people listen.

The Piper Jaffray analyst delivered one of his missives this morning stating that his analysis of Mac retail sales in the U.S., based on numbers tracked by NPD Group, are up about 26% year-over-year for the December quarter. This is higher than the average Wall Street estimate of 19% year-over-year growth.

What does that mean in terms of units sold? Munster, who is not pictured at right, believes that translates to about 3.1 million Macs sold in the U.S. last quarter. Munster’s last estimate was for Apple to sell around 2.9 million Macs, so even his own estimates are turning out to be somewhat conservative.

Munster believes that Street estimates for 2010 will need to come up. The Street shows about 14% year-over-year growth in Mac sales this year, which is well below the 20% or so growth that Apple is demonstrating. In his note, Munster wrote that “2010 is shaping up to be the year of the Mac.”

Munster concluded his note with a statement that he’s confident in his estimate of 9.3 million iPhone shipments last quarter. We’ll all find out for sure on Monday, when Apple reports the actual December quarter results. We’ll liveblog the financial fun right here on TUAW, so stay tuned next week.

[via Business Insider]

TUAWGene Munster: 2010 is the “Year of the Mac,” sales up significantly originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Before the recording industry effectively shut them down, the Russian website Allofmp3.com was doing a brisk business in showing that people were often more than happy to pay for album downloads if they were a hell of a lot cheaper than what iTunes and others were charging. Albums often were closer to the $2 or $3 range, which seemed a lot more compelling to many users. Of course, there were questions as to the legality of the service. However, it seems that some are finally realizing that it might help to make digital albums much, much, much cheaper. We’ve certainly seen this on limited attempts from individual bands, but apparently a large distributor of metal music has decided to lower the price on almost all of its digital download albums to $5.25. Who knows if that’s the right price (I’d guess it’s still too high), but it’s good to see more experimentation on pricing. Hopefully, we’ll begin to get more concrete data on how such pricing experiments work. We’ve already seen in the video game industry that price discounts can more than pay for themselves in increased sales. It’s hard to believe the same wouldn’t apply to music as well.

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Dayan Viciedo, one of the prized hitters in the White Sox’s organization, worked out last week in Miami at first base.

Viciedo’s move from third base isn’t permanent yet, said coach Joey Cora, who conducted a three-day camp that included shortstop Alexei Ramirez and Gordon Beckham, who will move from third base to second.

But the Sox wanted to get Viciedo, 20, acclimated to first, a position that could give him the best chance of reaching the majors with newly acquired third baseman Mark Teahen signed for three more years and Brent Morel making a strong impression in the Arizona Fall League.

Also, incumbent first baseman Paul Konerko is in the final year of a five-year contract.

The 6-foot-1, 240-pound Viciedo impressed the Sox with his hitting last spring as a non-roster invitee but spent the 2009 season at Double-A Birmingham.

Nevertheless, he showed some promise at first, according to Cora.

“He may be big, but he’s a good athlete,” Cora said. ”His bat will carry him. That kid has some serious, serious talent.”

By Mark Gonzales

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Filed under: Spy Photos, Wagon, Saab

We know automakers like to test prototypes in remote, freezing locations to ensure that they’ll start and run properly when sold to a family of five in Buffalo, New York. Perhaps these Saab engineers are in such a remote corner of Sweden that they haven’t heard the mothership has crashed. While Saab’s future is still undecided, hope seems to dwindle by the day that we’ll ever see the new 9-5 go on sale to the public – at least while wearing a Saab badge. Nevertheless, these engineers are still at their mobile desks in case a miracle happens.

The next-gen 9-5 has already been outed and is a looker for sure. The SportCombi version (Saab-speak for wagon) adds an extra dose of practicality to those unique lines of the sedan and, from the look of the things, appears to operate just fine in crazy cold conditions. Not much else to report unless, you know, Saab survives.

[Source: CarPix]

Spy Shots: Engineers still testing Saab 9-5 SportCombi, should somebody tell them? originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 19 Jan 2010 19:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like a lot of us enjoy torturing island natives during our spare time. Bolt Creative said today that its Pocket God game has sold more than two million copies on the iPhone.

The company contends that it is the first to create a paid app that has crossed the two-million sold sales mark. Other higher-priced apps have generated more revenue, but the 99 cent Pocket God app has had tremendous staying power since its launch in January, 2009.

The game, which has a sick sense of humor, is the brainchild of Dave Castelnuovo and Allan Dye, a two-man team whose efforts have become a textbook case on how to launch a hit game on the iPhone. In the game, players can play with the natives on an island, as if you were a god. You can pick the little people and feed them to the sharks, hoist them on spears, burn them and otherwise inflict cruelties on them. My kid plays it and pretends that she’s doing these various things to mommy and daddy.

The clever thing about Pocket God is that the regular updates keep you coming back. Castelnuovo said the company has launched more than 30 updates since the launch of the game, effectively turning the game into an ongoing service rather than a one-time product.

Castelnuovo said that the game has benefited from a strong community of fans who keep the buzz going. Players have made thousands of YouTube videos inspired by Pocket God, and the company created collectible characters that users can buy.

Pocket God held the No. 1 spot for a whole month in March, 2009, and has declined in rank ever since. But the game saw a resurgence during the holidays. At the peak, the game sold 53,000 copies in a day, and it sold more than 100,000 units per week during the 2009 holiday season. One of the things that has helped is good PR. Castelnuovo recently appeared on Bloomberg TV, has been interviewed by the New York Times and other outlets.

Castelnuovo has no plans to build a big company, though he sees big competitors such as Electronic Arts moving into the market. Rather, he is focused on running an independent studio where he can focus more on creative work than business. He has hired a consultant for business development to license the game to other platforms. The company is in the midst of wrapping up a lot of contracts on those licensing deals, and Bolt Creative is also working on a second game as well.

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