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Toys for 2009 Even though we're in the middle of a recession, new and interesting technologies are still being introduced. Many of these items have been in development for some time, and I'm sure various corporate marketing people are pulling their hair out over the current economy. Many new products are designed to make a big splash in the marketplace -- that's how companies recoup the time and capital they've invested. With the current trend toward tight belts and low spending, many new products may be greeted with barely a ripple. That said, the big CES show is still on and will feature lots of cool new toys. New 3D glasses (from Nvidia!) will make their debut. Will they catch on this time? As the article notes, "gaming in 3-D, with and without glasses, has been possible for years, yet has never caught on. The support of a big name like Nvidia might make a difference." That would be cool. Years ago I longed for first-person shooter games, and finally Doom appeared. It changed the face of gaming. Maybe Nvidia's new device will do the same. In a more business-oriented turn, an Australian company that claims to have developed "a technology called Memjet that would allow a home printer to spit out a color page every second" will be showcasing products it says will be on the market this year. This would be a pretty cool de... Zune Freeze-Up The end of the year brought an unpleasant surprise to users of Microsoft's Zune MP3 player. Many of a particular model (the Zune 30 (30GB) units manufactured in 2006, apparently) simply froze up at midnight on Wednesday and refused to function. The incident, which is still under investigation, is being dubbed "Zunicide" and "The December 31st 2008 Zune 30 Meltdown" by various annoyed users. Right now no one seems to know whether this is a virus, a software defect, or something completely different. If it's a virus, it wouldn't be the first time one had shipped on an MP3 player or other user device. Even iPods have been used as accidental virus propagation devices when some were shipped with Windows viruses aboard. The happy thing is that Microsoft has already published a workaround that involves letting the device discharge, then waiting until after 12 Noon (GMT) on January 1 2009 before re-connecting the failed beast to its USB adapter. It's annoying, but at least no recall or other drastic action is required. What's interesting is that the freeze apparently only affects Zunes that were connected to an external device (i.e. a PC) when the date changed over. Those that were disconnected at the time apparently were unaffected. According to the Microsoft advisory, "if you connect y... Video Games Educational? Probably since the early days of "Pong," parents and others have lamented the number of hours kids have "wasted" on video games. Most adults have condemned the genre as mindless entertainment, good only for developing twitch reflexes and promising a life-long inability to deal with real-life situations. Indeed, I've known gamers whose social skills didn't extend past asking what high score I'd achieved in various coin-fed or console games. This said, games can also be very useful. The military use war and strategy games as vehicles for developing combat and tactical skills. Games have been developed that teach math, reading, and science to pre-school and grade school kids. Often the "game" context is one that can hold the attention of even the most hyperactive child. So it shouldn't be surprising that Harvard and other educational institutions are working on ways to use games to teach kids how to deal with real-life situations. The suggestion is being made that schools should "use video games to simulate the real-world situations in the classroom to help students develop critical-thinking skills and enhance their understanding of science and math." For instance, a game called River City is used to teach kids about the basics of epidemiology -- a hot topic in today's terror-par... |
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