Here’s an excellent (and surprisingly long) clip of The Daily Show’s coverage of the Verizon iPhone 4 press conference. In addition to poking fun at AT&T, the sketch is funny because…well, it’s always funny when the mainstream media pokes fun at AT&T’s coverage.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Verizon iPhone Announcement | ||||
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Here’s an excellent (and surprisingly long) clip of The Daily Show’s coverage of the Verizon iPhone 4 press conference. In addition to poking fun at AT&T, the sketch is funny because…well, it’s always funny when the mainstream media pokes fun at AT&T’s coverage. Enjoy the clip and share your feelings like a Care Bear!
Think Services has announced the nominees for the 11th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards. The ceremony takes place during Game Developers Conference 2011. Along with the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences’ Interactive Achievement Awards, the GDCAs are one of the two most important awards shows in the videogame business. They’re also a nice reminder of all the fantastic games in 2010.
Aside from the criminal omissions of SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 for best writing and Final Fantasy XIII for best visual arts, the list is pretty solid. I’m hoping BioWare and Quantic Dream clean up. Check out the nominees and let me know who you’re rooting for. And the nominees are….
Best Game Design
Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Nintendo)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Limbo (Playdead)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Innovation
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Good-Feel & HAL Laboratory)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Limbo (Playdead)
Dance Central (Harmonix)
Best Technology
Starcraft II (Blizzard)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Best Handheld Game
God of War: Ghost of Sparta (Ready At Dawn/SCE Santa Monica)
Cut the Rope (ZeptoLab)
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Kojima Productions)
Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)
Dragon Quest IX (Level 5)
Best Audio
Limbo (Playdead)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Halo: Reach (Bungie)
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (DICE)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Best Downloadable Game
Costume Quest (Double Fine)
Limbo (Playdead)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
Best Writing
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Heavy Rain (Quantic Dream)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Costume Quest (Double Fine)
Fallout: New Vegas (Obsidian)
Best Debut Game
Limbo (Playdead)
Darksiders (Vigil Games)
Minecraft (Mojang)
Monday Night Combat (Uber Entertainment)
Super Meat Boy (Team Meat)
Best Visual Arts
God of War III (SCE Santa Monica)
Limbo (Playdead)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Game of the Year
Red Dead Redemption (Rockstar San Diego)
Mass Effect 2 (BioWare)
Call of Duty: Black Ops (Treyarch)
Limbo (Playdead)
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft Montreal)
In what appears to be a preemptive legal salvo, Sony Computer Entertainment America has filed a complaint for injunctive relief and damages against various PlayStation 3 jailbreak coders. According to Engadget managing editor Nilay Patel, the complaint is likely a prelude to a formal lawsuit. Dude went to law school, so he’s as good a person to quote as anyone:
This isn’t a “lawsuit” in the traditional sense, since Sony hasn’t filed a complaint for copyright infringement or whatever against Geohot and friends. Instead, the company appears to be trying to shove the genie back in the bottle and have the jailbreak and any information about the jailbreak removed from the web by filing a temporary restraining order. That might work in the short term — Geohot’s already pulled his pages down — but history suggests that the forces of paperwork rarely triumph over the righteous anger of nerds, and that this code is out there for good. That said, we’ll see what the court says tomorrow; although we very much doubt Sony’s melodramatic proposed motion and order will be granted as written, we wouldn’t be surprised if some sort of order is eventually granted — and then from there a formal lawsuit is likely just a few days away.
In the past, Sony has responded to various hacks with software updates. The most recent round of jailbreak solutions by coders like Geohot and the fail0verflow group appear to have found a method that can’t be countered by software. Since a hardware change to combat piracy would be costly and take time, legal action seems like the only card Sony has left.
The CDMA iPhone 4 on Verizon is just around the corner! The phone is mostly the same as the one AT&T has offered for the last six months, but for a lot of people, Verizon’s network will make it much more usable. Any of you interested in taking the plunge? Or are you content with your current phone and/or current carrier? Vote and discuss (please)!
[poll id=”95″]
What do you name yourself in videogames? How about characters you collect in your party? Since I’ve restarted Pokemon SoulSilver, Pokemon names have been on my mind. As I mentioned in my old Pokemusings column…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Trevor Hoffman retiring, the Pokemon Black/White mall tour, or your favorite Kool-Aid flavor, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
What do you name yourself in videogames? How about characters you collect in your party? Since I’ve restarted Pokemon SoulSilver, Pokemon names have been on my mind. As I mentioned in my old Pokemusings column, I hate sticking with standard names. I love going with puns. Just ask my Wobuffet named Jimmy, my Kabutops named Citizen, and my freshly caught Lugia named Hakka. *snicker*
As for single-player games where I’m the lead, I usually stick to some form of RPad. While the name is passable in sci-fi settings, it seems funny and out of place in fantasy games like Dragon Age: Origins. An elf rogue named R.Pad?!? Yeah…. More recently I’ve been using RPad.tv for branding purposes. You never know when someone will play a game with you online and randomly check out your web site.
And you? What do you usually name yourself in single-player games? What names do you use when you have an entire party?
Here’s some space for us to discuss today’s 1/11/11 11AM Verizon press conference on the CDMA Apple iPhone 4. I will update the body of this story with tidbits from the Interwebz. I’m counting on you to bring your A-game to the comments section so we can discuss this pivotal moment in American mobile phone history. Let’s get to it!
7:55AM — A bunch of bloggers have noted that the backdrop is white. Think it means that Verizon will get the white iPhone?
7:58AM — My analyst friend says there are no signs of uber Apple execs. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re not there. They could be hiding. He’s convinced that one of them will make an appearance via FaceTime.
8:05AM A surprising amount of LTE talk so far. Do you think???
8:06AM Verizon CEO Lowell MacAdam mentions Apple as a partner (Engadget). Somewhere in America, a kitten dies. More importantly, the iPhone 4 will hit Verizon in early February.
8:09AM Apple COO Tim Cook appears. He’s not Steve Jobs, but he’s a pretty big deal.
8:11AM The iPhone 4 is on the Verizon site already.
8:14AM Verizon Dan Dee is touting Verizon’s network reliability. While I agree that Verizon is a better and more stable network that AT&T, it’s also slower. I wonder how customers that switch over will react to the lower speeds.
8:17AM The company is reassuring everyone that it’s prepared for the iPhone 4 and the network won’t crash with the influx of heavy data users. (Ars Technica)
8:18 Current customers can pre-order on February 3, 2011. Others can order on February 10, 2011. $199 for the 16Gb and $299 for the 32GB, both with a two-year contract.
8:19AM WiFi hotspot for up to five users is feature, similar to what Verizon offers for Android phones. Pricing information on this option wasn’t revealed.
Sony Computer Entertainment America recently posted a listed of 20 games that are PlayStation 3 exclusives. For my tastes, it’s a pretty excellent list. I want 14 out of 20 games. Check out the list and let me know which ones you’re interested in.
Sony Computer Entertainment America recently posted a listed of 20 games that are PlayStation 3 exclusives. For my tastes, it’s a pretty excellent list. I want 14 out of 20 games. Check out the list and let me know which ones you’re interested in.
On last night’s episode of of Monday Night Raw, WWE announced that “The Hearbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (excellent video above!). The ceremony will take place in Atlanta, GA on the Friday before WrestleMania XXVII.
On last night’s episode of of Monday Night Raw, WWE announced that “The Hearbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame (excellent video above!). The ceremony will take place in Atlanta, GA on the Friday before WrestleMania XXVII.
Michaels has been my favorite wrestler of the last 15 years and I love that he’s headlining this year’s hall of fame class…but it seems off. Most of it has to do with the fact that he only stopped wrestling last year. Part of it has to do with Atlanta being a huge NWA/WCW city; I was hoping that this year’s class would focus on old NWA talent, centering around Arn Anderson and Michael “P.S.” Hayes. That said, I’m not going to complain — I’m too big of an HBK mark for that.
Man, I miss watching Michaels on TV. Just seeing him play around with the crowd, dance around like a tool, and deliver an awesome superkick to Alberto Del Rio (video below) reaffirmed that WWE hasn’t been the same for me since he retired. *sigh* Anyway, let me know what you think of Shawn Michaels headlining the WWE hall of fame class of 2011 when you have a moment.
It was fun learning about the 2011 games you’re psyched for. Just for kicks, I went back to Coffee Talk #59, #60, and #61 to check on your most wanted games of 2010. How did your picks work out for you?
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Owen Wilson becoming a father, the Carmelo Anthony deal-a-thon, or finishing the last remnants of a mediocre bag of beans from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
It was fun learning about the 2011 games you’re psyched for. Just for kicks, I went back to Coffee Talk #59, #60, and #61 to check on your most wanted games of 2010. How did your picks work out for you? Were your expectations met or exceeded? Or did your choices disappoint you? Here are the three games I picked:
Now it’s your turn! I noticed a bunch of you picked BioShock 2. While it was a good game, I recall a bunch of you being let down. I also noticed that one of you was certain that Diablo III would be released in 2010. Oops…and I’m sorry. Now kindly peer into your retroscope and leave a comment. How did your 2010 most wanted list turn out?
Now that we’ve all had a weekend to digest all the announcements and happenings from the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what we’ve all learned. Here are my three takeaways from CES 2011:
Now that we’ve all had a weekend to digest all the announcements and happenings from the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), I thought it would be a good time to reflect on what we’ve all learned. Here are my three takeaways from CES 2011. Check ’em out and let me know what you learned (please)!
1) I Need a Dual-Core Mobile Processor Now! Never mind that the 800MHz Scorpion in my T-Mobile G2 is performing well and I’ve been perfectly happy with the phone for months. I lust for the superior power and efficiency of dual-core processors. Of course I want to see benchmarks and real-world battery tests, but that won’t stop me from glaring at my G2 for not having a dual-core processor.
2) The Motorola Atrix 4G’s Laptop Dock is Clever. Prior to CES 2011, I found the thought of a dockable mobile phone unappealing — probably because the Palm Foleo made it sound so ridiculous. That said, I have to admit that the netbook-like functionality of the Motorola Atrix has me interested. It appears to be a smart and sharp implementation that would extend the capabilities of the phone and eliminate the need for a secondary laptop. Color me intrigued (which, in my head, is a bright shade of blue).
3) Vizio’s Boldness is Awesome! Vizio isn’t the most well-known brand in America. Some people view it as the “cheapie” brand they see at CostCo and Sam’s Club. That’s a shame because the company offers some really excellent televisions, some of which are tough to beat from a price/performance ratio. I was surprised by the company’s aggressive and diverse moves at CES 2011. It’s entering the mobile computing market with Android and the gaming space with OnLive.
How about you? What were your favorite lessons learned from CES 2011?
