Google has just announced an Operating System, Chrome OS,  seperate from Android being developed specifically for netbooks and “people that spend their time on the web”.  One of the cool things about it is that apps are developed for Chrome OS as if they were web apps.  The advantage to that is that they are automatically usable on the web, so not only Chrome OS users can use them, but anyone with a standards compiant browser (i.e., almost everyone in the world with an internet connection).

Read up more about it here.

It’s exactly what you think it is.  Ever watch anime?  Read sci-fi?  Well… here it is, a spy bot that looks (it’s a prototype, it will look better when completed) and flies like a humming bird!!  Crazy, crazy stuff!!

via Wired

Your app is on the Commodore 64.  Seriously, Twitter is so HUGE that even the C64 (emulated or not) has a twitter app.  vandenbrande.com has all the details on getting your 20 year old C64 up-to-date for the twitter age.

So if you haven’t already seen it, there’s a new webgame making it’s rounds called My Brute.  It’s a flash based (so you can’t play it on your mobile) fighting game.  What pulls you in is the chibi-style drawings.  Very colorful and over exagerated.  What’s interesting is that you don’t actually control your character.  My Brute’s system is as follows:  make a character, find someone to fight, WATCH the fight play out.  All actions in the fight are random, so you may be fighting with a sword one moment, and then decide to drop it and fight hand to hand.  At times it can be a bit frustrating because you have a special move or weapon that your character is not using, but that’s part of it’s draw… it’s very much a “sim/god” game.  You created a “life”, and now you just watch it go about it’s business.  It taps into the voyueristic nature we all have.  Regardless, it is fun, even thought you are limited to about 3 fights per day, which means you can only play for about 10 minutes.

Besides playing though, the most important thing is promoting the site and your character, for example, my http://blackskyy.mybrute.com is where you can fight my brute.  By promoting your brute, you invite people to make a brute of their own, and in turn they become your “pupil”.  Now, when your pupil gains a level, you also gain experience.  The game is setup to be viral… welcome to Pyramid Gaming!!

Hope you have fun with this little time waster.  Come find and fight me, search for BlackSkyy, or if you haven’t made a Brute yet, http://blackskyy.mybrute.com

Let’s just get into it, shall we?

Fallout 3 is probably the most complete game I’ve ever played.  Music, graphics, gameplay, story… it has everything necessary to give the player a full sense of immersion.  Bethesda was able to keep my interest long enough to do several side quests as well as actually finish the game!

It’s a perfect blend of FPS and RPG.  The gameplay, although not strictly unique, was perfected here.  Being able to pause the action and go to a menu driven combat system was both well executed and necessary.   While the action is spaced out, when you do get into a fight, it can get pretty intense.

Although I finished the game, I plan on going back to it and complete other side quests, as well as revisit it one dowloadable content becomes available.

Mirror’s Edge is as unique as it is difficult!  Another game that I thoroughly enjoyed, Edge reminded me of the 8-bit games of my youth.  Memorization of stage layouts… impossible jumps… enemies that seemed to be unstoppable at first glance.  But these are the games strengths!  It puts you through the paces, and delivers an experience that, while short, satisfies.

While played from the first-person perspective, it can hardly be called an FPS.  Infact, there is a bonus achievement for NOT using a gun to kill any enemies through out the game.  The game is based on parkour, and does an amazingly good job at translating this free-form physical activity to your controller.  The control scheme is elegant easy to get used to, although the combination of jumps, slides, and wall runs will take some practice.  The game is worth playing, if only for the breath of fresh air it lends to the FP genre, but you’ll keep coming back to see if you can shave a few seconds off your stage time.

We’ll see what comes in from Gamefly next week!!

First impression is really good.
It took all of 5 minutes to go from box to functioning phone. Once the SIM card was in, the phone took about a minute to load.
Android seems very quick and has a very shallow learning curve.
My only complaint so far is my too-big thumbs on the little keyboard. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

I’ve been back and forth from EDGE to 3G, and was easily able to set up my wifi at home.

We’ll see how it goes, but so far, gg G1, gg.

So, I just DLed and played the demo to End War on the 360.  Now, I am of the school of thought that teaches RTSes should be played on a computer.  You have much more control over the, possibly, hundreds of units with a keyboard and mouse.  But, Ubisoft promises something very exciting with this game… voice commands.  Not just talking to your opponent, but actually controlling the game using voice commands.

I was skeptical at first, not knowing if the technology was ready for the idea, which is not new, and I’m glad to say that it is ready!  Although not 100% perfect, the game accurately picks up the voice commands without problem.  And when it doesn’t, your in-game assistant tells you so.

Also, there is a persistent, online war map which multiplayer games affect.  Combine that with being able to accumulate experience points and upgrade your units, and you have an RTS MMO type game.

If you haven’t checked it out yet, I recommend it.  This game will definitely be on my list of games to buy.

Oh…. it’s happening!! The short of it is that this next video show a robot swarm that is powered wirelessly.  That means exactly what it sounds like.  No batteries… no power cords… they recieve their power from a transmitter… WIRELESSLY!!!  The talk of this technology is not new, but don’t we have enough sci-fi movies to teach us what’s going to happen next?!?!?!?

Wirelessly Powered Robot Swarm from Travis on Vimeo.

Found via: Engadget

So Google has gone a different, albeit cool, way of unlocking your phone.  Rather than the standard 4-digit pin that most systems have, Google has designed a type of symbol recognition system that will let you draw on screen by playing connect the dots.

Now, if you only use 4 dots, the system is less secure than using a pin, but past 4 dots, it has the potential (depending on a few variables that my friends and I argued about [see below for transcript]) to be much more secure.  Of course, that is due the the increased amount of digits, or in this case gestures, rather than the system itself being more secure.

Found via: TechCrunch

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Planet Fallout

So Fallout 3 is coming out in about 2 weeks.  If you’ve played any of the previous Fallouts, you’ll know that they’ve been RPGs… and good ones, too.

So if you’ve seen the trailer, or any screens, you’ll know that F3 very, very much looks like an FPS.  Actually, it’s not… It’s still an RPG, played in the 1st (or 3rd) person, and allows you to freeze time and queue attacks, which then play back  “cinimatically”.  I am officially excited for this game!