c3

ANAHEIM, Calif.--After being closed for more than a year for a major redesign, the 24-year-old Star Tours ride at Disneyland reopened this past weekend as Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. Disney and Lucasfilm have equipped the re-imagined ride with new 3D technology, HD screens, and improved audio animatronics, so CNET strapped into the simulator to test the the new attraction.

Since the original Star Tours based on the first three "Star Wars" films ("A New Hope," "The Empire Strikes Back," and "Return of the Jedi") opened in 1987, George Lucas and company released a second trilogy of films introducing new characters and locations into the Star Wars universe. Meanwhile, improved audio technology and animatronics, HD screens, and 3D imagery have made their way into popular consciousness. The new Star Tours joins of all those elements together into a more modern entertainment experience.

While I managed to get a look at the new attraction with a press pass, park visitors waited in two-hour lines. As they wove through the traditional theme park wraparound lines, new high-def screens presented themed messages about possible destinations and the ride's security procedures. A new and improved animatronic C3PO and R2D2 bicker while they prepare your shuttle for travel through a galaxy now ruled by the Galactic Empire. While the ride remains similar in feel to its predecessor prior to boarding that shuttle, its art direction and technology got a serious upgrade. … Read more

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif.--An "energy resource management" software company co-founded by Tom Siebel called C3 is growing rapidly in a market that's larger than the one his namesake CRM software company entered 16 years ago.

Siebel, who co-founded customer relationship management software company Siebel Systems and was one of the first employees at Oracle, today provided some details on C3, which boasts some high-profile board members, including former Secretary of State Condeleeza Rice. He was interviewed here at the Fortune Brainstorm Green green business conference.

C3, which was founded a few years ago, is working with a … Read more

Hot on the heels of the introduction of the Nokia E7, C7, and C6-01, Nokia announced a fourth device on Wednesday called the Nokia C3 Touch and Type.

Sporting a design similar to the Nokia 6300, the Series 40 device features both a 2.4-inch touch screen and traditional keypad, all in a stainless steel case. The candy-bar-style handset also comes with Nokia Messaging 3.0 for your e-mail and instant messaging needs, and a Communities feature for social networking.

Other goodies on the C3 include a 5-megapixel camera with flash, microSD expansion slot (accepts up to 32GB cards), and … Read more

The recent popularity of GPS functionality built into smartphones and stock vehicles might eventually phase out third party portable navigation devices entirely, but folks who currently own Tom Tom systems can now hear their driving directions read by classic Star Wars characters like Yoda and Darth Vader. Tom Tom will release one Star Wars character a month, available as a $13 download- check out this hilarious promo for the Yoda version.

July 13 is the official Embrace Your Inner Geek Day so we're celebrating this annual holiday by doing...the same thing...we normally...do. And just for kicks, … Read more

The Star Wars droid fluent in 6 million forms of communication add another to his repertoire--assisting humans through TomToms.

C-3PO is the latest Star Wars character to join the growing list of downloadable celebrity voices for TomTom GPS devices.

Announcing turn-by-turn directions in his unmistakable fashion--"Take the third left; it may be our only hope"--C-3PO will guide drivers to places in a galaxy not so far, far away. VoiceSkins.com released a Darth Vader TomTom voice skin earlier this year, and Yoda is set to be released in July with Han Solo to follow in … Read more

The best moment of the "Star Wars" trilogy was when C-3PO was nearly destroyed. Now you can commemorate that moment with the pleather C-3PO Bespin Backpack.

Just like in the film, the robot isn't all that useful--he comes with a mesh bag that's basically only good for carrying himself along with any of his loose appendages.

However, you can stuff his cavity with small objects--the iPad appears to be about the max payload--in a manner I like to imagine to be quite painful. When you're done with the backpack, C-3PO can be reassembled in full … Read more

Messaging and social networking are the focus of Nokia's latest smartphones, and the company's hoping the affordable price tag attached to them will draw in the masses. Ranging from $120 to $300 unlocked, the Nokia C3, C6, and E5 are certainly some of the cheaper devices we've seen from the company, and they don't skimp too much on the features. Let's get acquainted with each model, shall we?

Nokia C3: The C3 represents a couple of firsts for Nokia's Series 40 devices. It's the first to feature a full QWERTY keyboard, and it'… Read more

Last week's announcement of enhancements to Citrix Cloud Center (C3) at Citrix Synergy 2009 was one that made me sit up and take notice. Awhile ago, I proclaimed that the era of the "cloud OS" had begun, and I called out VMware vCloud, Citrix, C3 and 3TERA AppLogic as examples of what would eventually become cloud operating systems.

Strangely, however, Citrix (and the former XenSource team) has been strangely silent since that post. Yeah, there have been one or two "announcements" that basically positioned existing Citrix technologies as being cloud infrastructure, but all in all … Read more

Voting is now closed for this round. See the results of these battles here and vote on the Elite Eight matchups here.

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And then there were 16.

These robots don't want to fight. That's why you have to pick the winners. After two weeks of "battling" it out, our field of nonviolent robots is down to 16 competitors.

Voting is open from now until Sept. 17. Check back then for the results of this round and vote on the Elite Eight matchups.