.::REALITYRECALL::.

Even those who work at Google are often surprised at what they find when they visit their Google Dashboard. It’s a good idea to check in on what Google has on you regularly, for reasons both tinfoil-esque and practical. More »

By Ed Oswald, Betanews

Any doubts over Microsoft’s foray into motion-sensing gaming may have been erased as it announced Monday it was on track to sell five million units of its new Kinect controller. In just the first ten days, one million Kinects were sold, which included sales from both the US and Europe.

Kinect launched on November 4 in the US and last Wednesday across Europe. It is slated to launch Thursday in Asia, and in Japan on Saturday. By the holidays the company expects some 60,000 retailers worldwide to carry it, with 17 titles available.

Pioneered by Nintendo’s Wii, motion-sensing gaming is expected to be the “next big thing” when it comes to video games. It is widely though that Nintendo’s suprising dominance this generation had a lot to do with its innovative gameplay versus its graphical capabilities, which are far inferior to either the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

The success of Kinect is likely a result of Microsoft’s general success overall during this generation of video game consoles. While the Wii has sold the most units overall, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming system has kept sales consistent, and has led overall sales for four months running.

It is also the direct opposite of what happened in the previous generation, when the Xbox struggled for relevancy against a powerful Sony lineup in both the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. While the PlayStation 3 has begun to build some momentum as of late — mainly thanks to Blu-ray — it’s increasingly likely Sony will not be able to catch up to its better selling rivals in this generation.

Sony also has its own motion sensing controller, called the Move, however it took a full month before the controller shipped one million units in the US, and an additional 1.5 million units in Europe during the same period.

Copyright Betanews, Inc. 2010

ACTRA members meet with MPs over concerns about Bill C-32

So small, and yet potentially so disruptive. AMD’s 1.6GHz Zacate chip, bearing a pair of Bobcat modules, has been taken off the leash today, resulting in a torrent of benchmarks pouring down onto the internet. While perusing the sources below, you might think to yourself that it’s not exactly a world beater, sitting somewhere in the middle of the pack on most tests, but compare it to Intel’s dual-core Atom D510 — its most immediate competition in the target sub-$500 laptop price range — and you’ll find a thoroughgoing whooping in progress. The highlight of these new Fusion APUs is that they integrate graphics processing within the CPU chip, and Zacate didn’t disappoint on that front either, with marked improvements over anything else available in its class. The resulting chips might still not have quite enough grunt to earn a place in your daily workhorse mobile computer, but their power efficiency and netbook-level pricing goals sure do look delightful. Or dangerous, if you’re Intel.

Read – AnandTech
Read – Tech Report
Read – PC Perspective
Read – Hot Hardware
Read – Legit Reviews

AMD’s Bobcat APU benchmarked: the age of the Atom is at an end originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 03:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Now that Microsoft’s real motivations for building the Kinect are crystal clear, it’s impossible not to find a sinister tone in Microsoft’s latest press release: a proud proclamation of one million Kinects sold worldwide in 10 days. Microsoft says it’s on pace to sell a previously projected five million sensors by year’s end, but reading in between the lines we’re positive they’re implying some sort of nefarious partnership with the TSA to ruin your holiday travel plans. You heard it here first, folks. On the Kinect vs. Move front, comparisons are a little difficult because Sony’s numbers (around 3 million worldwide as of last month) were of “shipped” units, not “sold.” We’ll see who the real winner is after the holidays are over and the dust settles, but for now we wish all three motion-sensing consoles the best of luck. You know, except for the two we don’t own because they suck.

Continue reading Microsoft sold one million Kinect sensors in 10 days, will be watching you sleep for a lifetime

Microsoft sold one million Kinect sensors in 10 days, will be watching you sleep for a lifetime originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eric Schmidt: Chrome OS aimed at keyboard based solutions, Android optimized for touch originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 18:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GENEVA (Reuters) – Scientists at the CERN research center say their “Big Bang” project is going beyond all expectations and the first proof of the existence of dimensions beyond the known four could emerge next year.

Chrome: Manually checking your bookmarks file is an extremely low priority for most people but it’s irritating to find out the link you need is dead. Bookmark Sentry scans your bookmarks and displays the dead links and dupes for easy deletion. More »

When President Obama commented that the Republicans were standing around drinking Slurpees while the Democrats were busy creating real change in Washington, it caused quite a storm. Now that he’s sitting down with the new Republican leadership, the so-called “Slurpee Summit” is the talk of the nation. While most of us have had one of 7-Eleven’s frozen concoctions, there’s plenty more you probably don’t know about this too cool drink.

A Happy Accident

Like so many great inventions, the Slurpee was created by accident. In the late-1950s, Omar Knedlik of Kansas City owned an old Dairy Queen whose machinery was always breaking down. When his soda fountain went out, he improvised by putting some bottles in the freezer to stay cool. However, when he popped the top, they were a little frozen and slushy. Folks loved them and started requesting “those pops that were in a little bit longer.”

Realizing he had a surprise hit on his hands, Knedlik built a machine in the back room using the air conditioning unit from a car that would create slushy soda by combining and freezing a flavor mix, water, and carbon dioxide to make it fizz. He held a “Name the Product” contest and the winning entry was “ICEE.” With help from an engineering and manufacturing company in Dallas, the ICEE machine was redesigned and sold to a few convenience stores throughout the early 1960s.

But things really took off when, in 1965, 7-Eleven licensed the machine, but called the drink by a different name to make it unique for their stores. The name Slurpee was coined by Bob Stanford, a 7-Eleven ad agency director, when he described the sound made while sipping it through a straw.

Kids Love ‘Em

Thanks to inventive advertising aimed at the growing youth market, Slurpees were an instant hit with the Woodstock generation. The cups featured colorful, almost psychedelic designs, and the flavors — “Fulla Bulla,” “For Adults Only,” and “Kiss Me, You Fool” — were edgy for the time. 7-Eleven ads were so popular that radio DJs were getting call-in requests for Slurpee commercials. One 1970 campaign featured a full-length song, “Dance the Slurp,” written by one of the founding fathers of radio jingles, Tom Merriman. It was released on free, promotional 45 rpm records available in 7-Eleven stores. The catchy little tune was a huge hit at the time and its influence even extended into the late-1990s, when turntablists Cut Chemist and DJ Shadow used the song as the inspiration for their 1999 album, Brainfreeze. Because so few copies of the giveaway album still exist, copies of “Dance the Slurp” regularly go for as much as $50 on eBay.

In the 1970s, 7-Eleven started selling special cups with images of sports stars, comic book characters, early video games, and even rock bands. The cups kept kids coming back to complete the entire collection. Later, limited edition Slurpee flavors started accompanying the cups to create a complete marketing package. This is a tradition has continued today through promotional tie-ins with video games, professional wrestling, and extreme sports.

In recent years, Slurpees have come in annual summer movie cups and flavors. Dating back to 2002, when the tie-in for Men In Black II was a blackberry drink, the promo cups and flavors have grown more and more elaborate (and popular). The biggest hit so far has been the Iron Man franchise, with special collector’s cups that feature 3-D character designs and a special helmet dome lid. They’ve been sold on eBay for three times what they originally sold for in the store. However, for The Simpson’s Movie in 2007, they went beyond just redesigned cups and wacky flavors. Select 7-Elevens were converted to look inside and out like Kwik-E-Marts, the 7-Eleven parody on the show, complete with “Squishees,” the cartoon world’s version of the Slurpee. The tie-in flavor that summer was Woo-Hoo Vanilla Blue, probably one of Homer’s favorites.

The Slurpee Factory

You’d think the last thing Canadians would want is a frozen drink. But since 1999, Winnipeg has been crowned the Slurpee Capital of the World with more than 188,833 Slurpees sold there every month. With a population of just over 675,000 people, that means over a quarter of the population enjoys a Slurpee on a regular basis. The rest of Canada pales in comparison, selling only 179,900 Slurpees every month.

Detroit sells the most cups of any U.S. metro area, but the largest single Slurpee-selling store in the U.S. is the one in Kennewick, Washington, which locals have dubbed “The Slurpee Factory.” Overall, North Americans sip almost 13 million Slurpee drinks every month. And since 1966, close to 6.5 billion Slurpee drinks have been sold, enough to almost fulfill your dreams of buying the world a (frozen) Coke.

Happy Birthday to Us

Every year since 2002, on July 11 (that’s 7/11, of course), the company celebrates its birthday with “7-Eleven Day.” Only in this case, the customers get the present — free 7.11-ounce Slurpees for the first 1,000 people through the door of participating stores. It’s estimated that the company gives away over 5,000,000 Slurpees to happy customers on this one day.

But Is it Kosher?

In case you were wondering, almost all Slurpee flavors are considered kosher pareve (food that is neither meat nor dairy). There are a few, such as Diet Pepsi and the Jolly Rancher mixes, that are considered kosher dairy (due to the chemical tagatose in the artificial sweetener), while others, like the popular Piña Colada drink, are not certified at all. Some 7-Eleven stores get the machines themselves certified kosher, which the store owners use as a selling point for their Jewish customers.

Mixology

As any regular Slurpee fan knows, one of the best parts about the self-serve drink is being able to mix flavors from different dispensers. According to Slurpee market research, 41% of slurpers never mix their flavors, 37% always do, and 21% will mix every once in a while. The most popular combinations use the Coke flavor as a base, with a fruity mix on top — often Wild Cherry or Piña Colada. But of course for the really daring, there’s always the “Suicide Slurpee” — mixing a little bit of every flavor from the row of dispensers.

No Wonka Required

Some of the wilder Slurpee flavors on tap have been Grapermelon, Darth Dew (a tie-in with Star Wars), Bubble Yum, Banana Cream Pie, Mango Bango, Red Licorice, Purple S-Cream, Slurpurita Pomegranate, and Shrekalicious (a tie-in with Shrek). Most of these and other wild and wacky flavors sound like they could come from a factory run by a guy named Wonka. But in fact, most are the invention of the mad scientists at the Dr Pepper Snapple Labs in Plano, Texas. (Yes, they make Snapple and Dr Pepper flavors, too).

To create a new Slurpee flavor requires a savvy combination of science, senses, and marketing. One of their biggest challenges is keeping up on flavor trends, such as knowing that exotic fruits like acai, yumberry, litchi, and dragon fruit are becoming popular with consumers; whereas previously hot flavors, like mango and pomegranate, are now commonplace. Of course just because it’s popular doesn’t necessarily mean it will taste good. They go through numerous rounds of product testing until they get the flavor just right. But once they’ve locked down the taste, they have to consider the name, the color, and the consistency of the mix when it’s cooled to the standard 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The process can take weeks or even months to go from concept to your corner store.

Purple for the People

For the upcoming Slurpee Summit, 7-Eleven has offered to provide symbolic Slurpees — red for Republican, blue for Democrat, and a new flavor, “Purple for the People,” which combines the two colors. So far, their offer has not been accepted, but some in the White House say the drinks could still make an appearance. Regardless, the pending sit-down has been reason enough for 7-Eleven to launch a massive promotional campaign in the form of the Slurpee Unity Tour, a cross-country trek from 7-Eleven’s Dallas headquarters to the nation’s capital, giving away free samples of their new purple drink to Slurpee fans along the way.

This isn’t the first time 7-Eleven has gone political. Since the 2000 Presidential election, the company has run a promotion called “7-Election,” where customers vote by purchasing special red or blue coffee cups printed with each candidate’s name. The cups are scanned at check-out and automatically entered in this unscientific, but surprisingly accurate poll – in 2000 and 2004, the number of coffee cup votes and the number of actual popular votes for both candidates was only off by 1 or 2 percentage points. While 2008′s 7-Elections results were still correct, they gave the election to Obama by a landslide — 60% to 40% — when the margin was really only about 7%.

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BHP Billiton withdraws its takeover bid to acquire Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan.

In order to meet tough new federal regulations that raise fuel economy requirements to 30 mpg for light trucks and SUVs by 2016, Ford is considering radical ways to reduce weight in the next-generation F-150, sources have told PickupTrucks.com.

In 2007, Ford CEO Alan Mullaly pledged to reduce the weight of all of the company’s vehicles by 250 to 750 pounds through the use of aluminum and high-strength steel. We’re told that Ford is considering replacing the F-150’s conventional steel-ladder-frame with an all-new platform featuring extensive use of an innovative magnesium-aluminum alloy to shed pounds.

Why magnesium? It’s 36 percent lighter than aluminum and 78 percent lighter than iron. It's also plentiful. Magnesium is the eighth-most-common element on Earth and highly recyclable.

Auto manufacturers have increasingly turned to magnesium over the last decade. BMW has used the material to lighten its engine blocks and the Chevrolet Corvette uses magnesium in its front suspension. Ford shaved 22 pounds of weight from the 2010 Lincoln MKT by combining separate aluminum and magnesium panels in the crossover's liftgate instead of using steel.

Frame stiffness is important in a pickup truck for towing and hauling; to ensure the alloyed frame can perform its job, the F-150 is expected to use limited elements of unibody construction, though the cargo box and cab will be separate, instead of joined as in the Honda Ridgeline. A similar approach, we're told, was considered for the shelved Ford F-100 program.

Beyond the frame, the future F-150 is also expected to use aluminum body panels to save weight over a steel skin. The interior of the cargo box is expected to still be constructed of steel, to retain the durability required of a pickup truck.

Ford has introduced three all-new engines for the 2011 F-150 that the automaker says give its half-ton pickup class-leading fuel economy. Reducing the truck’s weight is expected to further improve mileage, which could open the window to new engine opportunities that keep the power-to-weight ratio the same as the current F-150. Those engine choices might include an inline five-cylinder engine, a source said.

See a video of the demolition below.

Four people were injured when an out of control bull leaped into a crowd at Rexall Place in Edmonton.

Lenovo led us to believe that our LePad chances weren’t terribly good, but CEO Yang Yuanqing recently told the Wall Street Journal that the Android tablet is indeed slated for a 2011 US launch. Though Lenovo’s COO Rory Read was pretty clear that the LePad wouldn’t ship stateside until a tablet-ready version of Android was ready to go, it seems the company’s now confident that Google will deliver the goods. However, our gain is apparently China’s loss, as the publication reports that the slate’s been pushed into 2011 (as opposed to this December) in its country of origin as well. What’s a multinational computer corporation to do?

Confirmed: Lenovo LePad headed to US in 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 13 Nov 2010 16:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Look out, here come more tablets: Archos is debuting the Archos 101 and the Archos 70. The Archos 101 has a 10.1-inch screen and is less than half an inch thick. If that’s too big, the Archos 70 has a 7.0-inch screen. Both tablets allow Web surfing similar to that on a desktop or notebook computer. Also, both tablets play all the music, video, and photo formats as you’d get on your regular computer.

The Archos 70 comes with 8GB or 250GB of storage, while the Archos 101 comes with 8GB or 16GB. Archos isn’t saying why the larger screen model doesn’t have a large hard drive option. Both tablets can be used for mobile phone tethering by using a Bluetooth connection or a USB cable. You can get the Archos 101 starting at $299.99, or the Archos 70 starting at $275.99. The Archos 70 (8GB) is available now through the Archos online store; the Archos 101 will be available the week of November 18.