Entertainment

Video games that involve high levels of action, such as first-person-shooter games, increase a player’s real-world vision, according to research in today’s Nature Neuroscience.
The ability to discern slight differences in shades of gray has long been thought to be an attribute of the human visual system that cannot be improved. But Daphne Bavelier, professor of [...]

Looking to buy used music, games, or movies at bargain basement prices (but without the bargain basement risk of defective merchandise)? Or maybe you’re trying to get rid of your used music, games, or movies and will only accept top dollar. In either case, SecondSpin.com is your best option!
SecondSpin.com has been online since August, 1996.
In [...]

Democratic politicians receive a 40% increase in contributions in the 30 days after appearing on the comedy cable show The Colbert Report. In contrast, their Republican counterparts essentially gain nothing. These findings appear to validate anecdotal evidence regarding the political impact of the program, such as the assertions by host Stephen Colbert that appearing on [...]

Sports professionals and fans get pretty emotional about their picks for the NCAA basketball tournament each year, and that emotion often clouds their judgment.
But three engineering professors at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created a computer ranking system, called LRMC, that consistently predicts NCAA basketball rankings more accurately than the AP poll of sportswriters [...]

Sonos, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the digital home, today announced a new release of Sonos System Software v2.2 that will bring Pandora* to the award-winning Sonos Digital Music System. Pandora, the developer of the ground-breaking personalized radio service, and Sonos have collaborated to provide music lovers with an exciting [...]

Devin Brewer of SongSlide writes:
Dear Chris,
I thought you might be interested in blogging about a new site that I’ve co-founded called SongSlide that lets consumers pick the prices they pay for independent music. You can check out the site at songslide.com. We’re a small startup founded by two musicians, but we’ve recently been blogged about [...]

Cruxy is launching its 1.0 release today! After a six + month beta and lots of feedback from the user community, Cruxy is ready for the world!
So what is Cruxy?
Cruxy is a media marketplace providing independent content creators with a rich set of tools to promote, monetize, and distribute their digital work. Cruxy publishers [...]

The winners of The 11th Annual Webby Awards will be saluted alongside a remarkable slate of special achievement honorees, including rock legend David Bowie, eBay President and CEO Meg Whitman on behalf of the eBay community, and the co-founders of YouTube, at the June 5th gala in New York City, Webby organizers announced today.
The Webby [...]

I’ve been a huge fan of the Logitech Harmony line of programmable universal remote controls for quite some time. And my new Harmony 880 just reinforces my opinion that these are truly fantastic devices.
I was humming along just fine with my Harmony 659, the most basic Harmony model. It was setup to run my main [...]

SRS Labs Inc., a leading provider of surround sound, audio and voice technologies, and Sharper Image Corporation (NASDAQ: SHRP), a specialty retailer known as a leading source of new, innovative, high-quality products, today announced a strategic relationship to develop and market a new line of SRS-enabled Sharper Image audio products featuring SRS Labs’ award-winning audio [...]

Combining the powerful capabilities of the PC with the familiar face of TV, AOL and Intel Corporation today launched the AOL Video service for Intel Viiv technology-based PCs with a goal to create the ultimate on-demand entertainment experience. The joint effort delivers AOL Video’s leading online library of premium movies, full-length TV shows, music videos, [...]

RealNetworks, Inc. today announced the launch of Rhapsody DNA, a new technology platform that enables device makers to deliver a seamless, Rhapsody experience to consumers via a broad range of portable, mobile, and in-home devices. In conjunction, Real announced that it is teaming with SanDisk Corporation to integrate Rhapsody DNA into Sansa MP3 players this [...]

USC engineers are perfecting a games user testing tool that captures and analyzes play experience to automatically detect weakness and flaws - and it may soon gauge player emotional involvement.
User testing is a critical and key element crucial element of creating a new game - books have been written about it. But it remains [...]

This year for the first time, music fans across the globe will gain unprecedented access to the world’s largest music event - Rock In Rio - through Network LIVE. With Network LIVE’s powerful global digital network, worldwide music fans will get a virtual front row ticket to see headline acts, performing at the five day [...]

SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK) has announced that flash memory CompactFlash cards, which it originally invented, will be used in the new Grass Valley Infinity Series Digital Media Camcorder. The camcorder, which debuted in the United States on Saturday, has slots for two CompactFlash cards. It is the first camcorder introduced in the broadcast industry that [...]

I’m not a gamer, but I have a fascination with massively multiplayer online role playing games nonetheless, muchly because it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around how many zillions of hours are spent annually by people who ARE really into these games. One of the most successful of these is RuneScape, which has [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
I kid you not. Les Freres Corbusier takes the Henrik Ibsen play Hedda Gabler and replaces half of the actors with actual functioning robots. Of course, this is an adaptation, or as they say on Les Freres Corbusier’s official site, an irreverent massacre (click the About tab). The [...]

I’m not a huge fan of puzzles like sudoku, but there’s no question it’s a hit in Japan and the United States both. The basic premise is that you have a partially populated grid of numbers and that you need to fill in the blank spots so that the final grid meets certain characteristics. Sound [...]

Michael Santo of RealTechNews writes:
Please, call me Stewie. I’m pretty open about my love for Family Guy, and the baby out to take over the world gets to start his conquest with his own Internet radio show, starting later this year.
Read More about Stewie’s Talk Show Here
[tags]internet,realtechnews,michael santo,family guy,stewie griffin,talk show[/tags]

We were disappointed when US-based DVD rental service Netflix nixed video downloads, but it’s nice to see the company making some moves toward advanced technology - in this case a plan to offer high definition (HD) DVDs as soon as March, with Blu-ray to follow.
Read More on Netflix and HD DVD rentals HereA
[tags]blu-ray,dvd,realtechnews,alice hill,netflix,hd dvd[/tags]