I’ve been on a big Worms kick lately on my Xbox 360. It’s the perfect game for four semi-sober dudes to play together, as its full of dicking each other over and explosions while being slow paced enough for even those with the most dulled reaction times to still participate. But when I’ve tried it with friends via Xbox Live, it just hasn’t been as fun.
Lots of news to catch up on this week from the App Store. So come have a look, iPhone folks, at what you may have missed on Giz this week, in addition to a few of our picks for new apps of the last seven days as always. We’re excited first and foremost that Fring, a great multi-service IM and VoIP app, has just made it into the App Store (not even in the search index yet). Good thing, because the rest of this week’s pics skew a bit toward the wacky side. But sometimes your weekend just needs a little wahh wahhhh…crickets…crickets….
I just got off the phone with Rahul Sood, founder of VoodooPC, who confirmed that the rumours of Voodoo’s demise were not just premature but “nonsense,” but said “HP is asking us to integrate into the larger execution engine.” Rahul is comfortable speaking both plainly and in business-ese—what we take this to mean is that Voodoo will merge manufacturing with HP’s core in Asia, unify other non-design aspects of the business, and shut down a good chunk of the operation in Calgary, Alberta. “Typically we don’t comment on layoffs specifically,” says Rahul, who adds that he himself will not be leaving Canada.
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) is “a proposed ground-based 6.7 meter effective diameter (8.4 meter primary mirror), 10 square-degree-field telescope that will provide digital imaging of faint astronomical objects across the entire sky, night after night.” What’s that mean? Well, it means, if it’s built, we’ll have a telescope attempting to catalog the entire night sky into an absolutely massive 150 petabyte database. Awesome!
It’s been a while since an Asus product has rocked our world—we think the last time must have been the Eee—but the Atom-powered SSD-based Asus S101 looks amazing for its price—even better than we thought before. Just 1kg and a tapering 17.8mm thin (a bit thicker than the Air), its 10.2″ LED screen runs at WSVGA (1024×600) resolution. And with 802.11n, ethernet port, Bluetooth, multitouch trackpad, 4-in-1 card reader, 20GB of free online storage and high quality speakers, the S101 packs plenty of useful features—though it only has 1GB of RAM and appears to have the same fatal flaw as the MacBook Air. Yes, the S101 uses a non-replaceable, 5-hour polymer battery.
If you’re looking for a coffee table with a bit more personality than yet another flatpacked piece of furniture from Ikea, take a look at Joel Hester’s awesome handmade coffee tables.
First we thought the Netflix-streaming, Blu-ray-playing LG BD300 would be “under $US500.” Then we were happy to hear when that cryptic price was actually $US400. But now, LG has dropped the BD300 to a competitive $US350. Preorder it now at Circuit City or Amazon. Or don’t. We’re not losing sleep either way. (OK, that’s a lie, we were really, really counting on you buying this player. Our lives will be ruined if you don’t. And chances are, we will flip out, cover ourselves in green paint and tell everyone on the street that we’re a chunk of moldy bread and not to touch us.) [Circuit City and Amazon via BGR]
Attention, sports fans! Are you looking to show your extreme dedication to your favourite team without submitting your body to the discomfort of painting up and going shirtless to a December game in Green Bay? Are you looking for a sign of your fandom that will never, ever make it through airport security and may not make it through stadium security either? Well, say hello to the LED sports fan sign! Although I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in other, non-sporting events. I think I’ll make an “O’Biden” sign for the next presidential debate. Thoughts? [Make]
Everybody has a digital photo frame these days. Even at 32 inches, they impress no one. So keep your eyes out for the next trend, which we humbly suggest could be non-digital photo frames. Making a brief appearance around the turn of the century, these frames accepted one analogue picture but were able to run without a source of power (AC adaptor or solar) indefinitely. Now if only scientists could learn to harness this non-digital technology elsewhere, we just might have a fighting chance of breaking our dependence on foreign oil. Strong thesis, I know. But it’s cool; the environment is sort of my thing. Wink. [I love blocks via DVICE]
During an otherwise uneventful podcast on the S60, Nokia revealed this shot of an unnamed concept device. It features a big touchscreen interface like the HTC Touch or the iPhone, but a QWERTY keypad can fold out while the touchscreen swivels, transforming the candy bar device into a premium clamshell. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not anything comes of the concept, but if Nokia knows what’s good for them, we’ll hopefully see the real product soon enough. [Cell Passion via BGR]
