Tech Culture

BioWare cuts 'Star Wars' staff

Several weeks after the surprising announcement of losing 400,000 players in mere months, BioWare CEO Ray Muzyka and co-founder Greg Zeschuk noted in a forum post that the company is bidding "farewell to some talented, passionate, and exceptionally hard-working people who helped make Star Wars: The Old Republic a reality."

The layoffs affect the Austin, Texas, division of BioWare an Electronic Arts-owned studio largely responsible for the creation of the game. The announcement lacked any specific information regarding the number of employees let go in the restructuring, and EA did not immediately respond to CNET's request for comment.

Magnetic football perfect for butterfingers

I'm not one to watch an NFL game on TV or toss around the pigskin in the park, but if I did I would probably benefit from this magnetic football.

Ultimate Reception is a campaign on crowd-funding site IndieGoGo aimed at developing a magnetic football and gloves that improve catching ability.

Actually, the gloves are embedded with powerful magnets that attract a special layer in the football's skin. They're strong enough so that the ball will stick to the glove when the arm is outstretched and palm down.

Another day, another Apple victory.

At $183 billion, Apple is the world's most valuable brand, according to Millward Brown Optimor's annual BrandZ study. Apple was last year's most valuable brand, as well, though the company's value jumped 19 percent over last year's $153.3 billion tally.

Millward Brown Optimor's findings, which were released today, are based on a company's financial data, market intelligence, and consumer opinions related to brand equity.

Aside from Apple, technology firms fared quite well in the BrandZ study, with IBM taking the second spot with $116 billion in value. more

After 35 years, SETI celebrates its most-famous alien hunter

For anyone who's seen the film "Contact," the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a very noble cause. And over the last 35 years, Jill Tarter, who was the inspiration for Jodie Foster's character, has become known as the world's most famous alien hunter.

For years, Tarter has been the director of the Center for SETI Research, and in that position, she has worked harder than almost anyone on the planet to try to find new friends in the skies. So far, her work, and that of her many colleagues around the world, has been unrewarded. Yet, in spite of constant battles for funding and the skepticism of those who believe we're alone in the universe, Tarter has persevered, and SETI has continued.

At first glance, a digital guitar with the brains of a super-powered smartphone and illuminated fretboard seems like a product that could change everything about guitar instrumentation. The digital dynamo by Incident Technologies aims to work as "the first guitar that anybody can play," as noted in description of the gTar on Kickstarter.

To start, one merely needs to plug an iPhone 4/4S in to the digital guitar. After selecting a song in the gTar app, illuminated frets await your fingertips to help you start playing along.

God seems fine with Babel-like Lego tower

It's the tallest Lego tower ever, soaring to the heavens at more than 104 feet and setting a geek world record last week.

The Lego World Tower brought joy to the hearts of Koreans last week when it went up in Seoul's Olympic Stadium.

At 104 feet and 7 inches, it edged out a similar tower erected in France last year at 103 feet. It took some 4,000 Korean kids five days and half a million bricks to put it together.

Stein of Science: Liquid nitrogen-grade booze container

Meet Funranium Labs founder Phil Broughton.

He's a radiation safety specialist at the University of California at Berkeley. He was once a cryogenics technician for the Amundsen-Scott South Pole scientific research station. He's really into coffee and beer and finding the best way to deliver those products into his system, and he has boldly offered himself up as a guinea pig for science by personally testing and developing products for discerning geek customers.

Let's start with the Stein of Science. Each stein is crafted from a bench top liquid nitrogen dewar flask. That means it will keep your beer frosty cold for quite a long time. That also means it's not cheap. A 655-milliliter Stein of Science costs $230. Your fellow lab rats will be insanely jealous when you show up to the next party with one of these bad boys.

Hasselblad lops $9,000 off pro camera price

Hasselblad has lowered the price of its high-end medium-format cameras from the upper stratosphere to the lower stratosphere.

The 60-megapixel HD4-60's list price is now $30,995, down $9,000, the company said Friday. And the HDR-200MS, a "multishot" model can combine four 50-megapixel shots into one higher-quality image to compensate for image sensor shortcomings, was cut $8,000 to $35,995.

Lower down the line, but geared and priced for professional photographers, the HD4-31 with a 35-90mm lens is down $3,595 to $15,995.

Hasselblad specializes in medium-format cameras, which in an earlier era meant larger frames more

For Silicon Valley VC, a Leap from great advice to big rewards

SAN FRANCISCO--Sitting in the windowless basement level of a nondescript building in the shadow of the Bay Bridge, Andy Miller is doing one of his most essential -- and rewarding -- jobs: helping smart and talented, but young and inexperienced, entrepreneurs navigate the crucial steps needed to move their new company forward. After all, great technology can only get you so far. It takes great business strategy and decisions to build a truly successful company.

Miller, a general partner at Highland Capital Partners who once reported directly to Steve Jobs as Apple's vice president of mobile advertising, is seated more

Leap Motion: 3D hands-free motion control, unbound

Hands-free motion control, a technology pioneered by Nintendo's Wii and later improved upon by Microsoft's Kinect, just took a very big leap forward. Industries from gaming to surgery to architecture, engineering, and design may never be the same.

With the unveiling today of its Leap 3D motion control system, a San Francisco startup called Leap Motion has, well, leapfrogged the state of the art in this young field, giving users the ability to control what's on their computers with hundredth of a millimeter accuracy and introducing touch-free gestures like pinch-to-zoom.

Leap, which comprises both a small USB more