If you're gonna be late to a party, you should at least be fashionably late. That's the mindset behind Toshiba's entry into the dedicated e-reader space with its new 7-inch BookPlace DB50. Toshiba hopes adding an e-reader alongside its existing AT200 and Thrive tablets will push more eyeballs towards the 100,000 or so titles in

Nintendo's newly-announced Near Field Communication (NFC) technology allows the Wii U controller to exchange wireless data with outside objects -- similar to last year's Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure game and figurines. Company president, Satoru Iwata, announced the device at an investors meeting, but gave little information as to how the company intends to utilize it. Developers may find creative uses for this tech, but we think it's likely that publishers will try to milk money out of consumers in the four ways below.
1) Micropayments
Iwata only gave one explicit example of how the NFC tech might be used, "micropayments." He didn't elaborate beyond that one word, but this probably means Wii point cards will no longer come with scratch codes. Instead, Nintendo

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Why Final Fantasy IV Remains a Masterpiece After All These Years

While time has dulled its innovations, the first 16-bit Final Fantasy made its mark in big ways.

By: Jeremy Parish January 27, 2012




Final Fantasy IV has become so ubiquitous, so overly repackaged, so

The digital and online spaces are two areas where Nintendo hasn't been the most forward-thinking. But after a year where the company struggled to meet expectations, despite an uptick in 3DS sales in 2011's final months, it now seems more serious than ever about providing a more robust online experience.
President Satoru Iwata conducted a briefing for investors regarding its Q3 performance in Japan on Friday. For the third quarter in a row, the company was forced to lower its guidance to reflect lower-than-expected sales of Nintendo hardware and software. Noting the initial poor sales of 3DS

The Bard once said, a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet – and while I agree with that statement in a general manner, surely a console name like the Nintendo Wii U would affect a small minority out there that would only purchase a console based on the coolness level of its name? Word on the street from a Nintendo insider has it that the Japanese company is considering a rebadging of their upcoming Wii U console, and might just call it something else. Right now, we will just have to make do with the Wii U as a frame of reference, and the Japanese gaming company certainly needs a hit in the next console, so perhaps maximizing its chances by giving it a decent name which appeals to the masses might just do the trick? Should Nintendo rename their upcoming console, what would you

Our friends at Joystiq are members of a privileged club of which we are not. We've both downloaded and installed the mobile version of Steam -- now available as a free beta download for Android and iOS -- but where they found Mac and PC games for sale, along with the ability to chat with friends, browse profiles and read gaming news, we were greeted with red text that states our accounts are not part of the beta. Damn our luck! For those interested to give Valve's handiwork a

Valve has at long last released a Steam app mobile phones which brings with it much of Steam's core functionality.
The app can be downloaded now for iOS and Android devices, but not everyone can make use of it just yet. With the app still in beta, Valve will be allowing gamers in as time goes on. In order to enroll for the beta, you'll want to download the app, sign in with your Steam account, and then hope you're selected.

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Five Ways Skyward Sword Went Wrong

How Nintendo's latest Zelda dropped what once made the series so legendary.

By: Bob Mackey January 26, 2012




Since its humble 8-bit beginnings, Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series acted as the frontrunner for both game design and technology, offering well-crafted worlds much larger and content-heavy than its competitors. Just as Link's debut proved

If you have had a pleasant experience with Valve’s Steam service on your desktop, you will be pleased to know that there is now an official app for both the iOS and Android platforms, enabling owners of such smartphones to be able to access a bunch of Steam features no matter where they are – as long as there is a decent Internet connection, of course. There will be strings attached to this deal though, where the app is all about accessing the Steam community, and will enable users on both mobile platforms to chat with friends over Steam, browse through community groups and user profiles, check up on the most recent gaming news and even find out about Steam sales figures. Currently, it remains a closed beta on both platforms, and the only way to sign up in order to achieve access to

Security software publisher Symantec has confirmed it was the victim of a cyber attack, resulting in the theft and disclosure of product source code. Earlier this month, the online-collective Anonymous stated, via Twitter, that it possessed portions of the code in question and planned to release it in support of a class-action lawsuit filed by consumers -- the suit claims Symantec employed scare tactics to encourage users to purchase its wares. Via its website, the company

I hate to confess it, but I'm a bit of a PC snob. When given the choice, I'll often pick a shoddy console-to-PC port over an arguably superior 360/PS3 native version of a game. There's just something about knowing that I'm not playing the best looking version of a game. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, for example, played amazingly on consoles, but I couldn't resist the call of the incredibly minor graphical updates sported by the PC version -- even if all my friends played the game elsewhere; and make no mistake, the best parts of the game don't reveal themselves until you start challenging your friend's Autolog records.
I walked into a console demo for The Witcher 2 with these biases

Netflix bewildered nearly everyone last year when it announced it would separate its streaming and DVD-by-mail services into distinct brands. There was a piece of good news in all of it, and that was Netflix's intention to add game rentals to the newly revealed Qwikster. But between the negative backlash and confusion generated through this plan, which looked to be an attempt to move away from the DVD-by-mail business it made its name on, plans for Qwikster were dropped and the prospect of game rentals

We live in a world where the increased processing power of dedicated gaming portables can bring some of our wildest handheld video game fantasies to life; and in many ways the scope and scale of Resident Evil Revelations serves as proof of those ambitions. The goal seems simple enough: Take the blockbuster formula of RE and make it portable. But in the end the level of execution on that promise remains key, and the limitations of the format can undo the boldest attempt. While distilling any blockbuster franchise down to a portable experience seems like a daunting task (especially for Resident Evil), Revelations proves the idea's potential in this new age of handhelds; but it also

Are you one of those who leave things to the last minute because you do not have the inspiration to complete a certain task, and with the deadline looming on the horizon, only do you then get up and churn out a winner? For folks who can only work under pressure and reap stunning results, you do wonder from time to time whether you would have come up with an even better job or presentation had you taken the trouble to plan everything out properly instead of working spontaneously. I guess the folks over at Google belong more to the first group described, and my claim to that would be the fact that the Gmail logo was conjured just the night before Gmail launched. (more…)

The DuoFertility ovulation Monitor from Cambridge Temperature Concepts Ltd. has just picked up FDA approval, which means that it is going to be ready to be sold to the masses soon. This particular device is actually a wearable sensor and reader unit that is capable of measuring ovulation patterns, making sure you use technology in your favor to maximize the chances of you conceiving, although I am quite sure that other folks would use it otherwise, to ensure natural birth control methods are put into place. The sensor is worn under the armpit (I wonder how uncomfortable that might end up as), where it is capable of measuring subtle changes in basal body temperature, which is normally a pointer of when ovulation occurs.