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2,206 high-power LEDs at your service

Tired of hearing about unaffordable displays that are light years beyond what you have in front of you right now? Yeah, well so am I. Doesn't mean I'll stop reporting on them though, 'cause misery loves company.

At the 2009 Integrated Systems Europe in Amsterdam, SIM2 Multimedia and Dolby Laboratories unveiled what they refer to as "the latest in high-dynamic-range (HDR)-enabled LCD flat-screen display technology featuring Dolby Vision." Called the SIM2 Solar Series, the new displays will be available in the second quarter of this year.

SIM2's Solar Series is a 47-inch LCD display … Read more

EA to launch 'Sims 3' on June 2

Electronic Arts said on Tuesday that The Sims 3, the third full iteration of one of the most successful video game franchises of all time, will hit store shelves on June 2.

The game will be released for PCs first, and versions for the Mac, iPhone, and iPod Touch should come later in the summer, EA said.

The original version of The Sims, which launched in 2000, quickly became the best-selling PC game of all time. In the years since, the franchise has surpassed 100 million total units sold, counting The Sims 2 and all of the expansions for both … Read more

iPhone 3G Unlock Video Demo Posted

The iPhone dev team has released a video demonstration of the iPhone 3G unlock, which is due to be released on December 31, 2008.

The video is embedded below, but can also be seen on the iPhone dev team blog. It shows an AT&T SIM-locked iPhone 3G being unlocked, then successfully accepting a T-Mobile SIM card and receiving a call.

The unlock process looks pretty simple, requiring only a script to be run from a connected computer (a system running Mac OS X in the video). "MuscleNerd," who posted the video, claims that a daemon will … Read more

'SimCity' arrives on the iPhone

To the stable of games for the iPhone, you can now add the legendary SimCity.

Electronic Arts' city-building game, priced at $9.99, is now available for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Users can take advantage of the touch-screen technology to design and construct their vision of an urban landscape.

MG Siegler at VentureBeat, who's had a chance to play with the game for a while, waxed enthusiastic about the touch-screen qualities and more--"SimCity is a very impressive game on the iPhone"--but warned of some lingering bugs from the game's demo period:… Read more

On Call: Finding 3G

Q: I currently have an iPhone 3G but I'm considering purchasing the Sony Ericsson C905. This would be my first time using an unlocked phone and I'm a bit skeptical that it will work. What steps do I need to take in order to make the switch go as smoothly as possible? And will I be able to use AT&T's 3G network? - Nacor

A: Buying an unlocked phone needn't be complicated as long as you consider a couple of points. Most importantly, the phone will need to support the GSM bands used in the United States. Since the C905 is a quad-band GSM phone, you'll be able to make calls here without any problem. Just pop in your AT&T SIM card and you can start dialing. Yet, the 3G compatibility is another story. Sony Ericsson makes two versions of the C905, each with support for different 3G bands. The C905i will support only European 3G bands, while the C905a will work with AT&T's 3G network. So when buying your phone, you'll need to make sure you have the correct model.

Once you get the phone, you'll also need to program it with the correct multimedia settings to send picture messages and browse the Internet. The settings are unique to every phone and carrier but you should be able to download them from the support section on Sony Ericsson's Web site.

Q: I'm new here in the United States, and I would like to know if I can use a prepaid SIM from Verizon Wireless. Is that possible? - Chaya

A: Verizon Wireless is a CDMA carrier, which means that its phones don't use SIM cards. Verizon does offer prepaid phones, but you'll need to purchase a phone from the carrier if you want to use the service. And in any case, Verizon does its best to downplay its prepaid service. … Read more

Gaming the next pandemic

As anybody who's watched the movie Outbreak knows, when it comes to raging epidemics, the military will get involved at some point, the question is: in what way (PDF)?

To answer that, the Department of Defense (DOD) has commissioned the development of a simulation-based planning and training software application--a game, in other words, albeit a "serious" one--to help it to prepare for the next influenza pandemic.

The game will allow health care professionals and the military to recognize early signs of an outbreak, practice response tactics, and plot "local mitigation strategies" to limit the spread … Read more

Fly into the danger zone with your iPhone

Flight simulators used to be a staple of gaming when I was younger. I remember spending hours playing the hell out of an F-15-based game on the Sega Master System. It was pretty pathetic. The missiles were basically white dots, but it was all I had at the time and I loved it for a while.

I guess we were all still buzzing from our post Top Gun and maybe Iron Eagle obsession in the late '80s and early '90s. Nowadays, flight sims just aren't as popular. However, if you've been aching for a true dogfight flight sim … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 823: Sad trombone

Whence comes the sad trombone, and other questions of great worldly importance dominate today's discussions, but there is, in fact, other technology news today. For example, Steve Jobs is OK, but citizen journalism may not be; iTunes isn't going to have to shut down after all (but copyright pricing remains outrageously stupid); and Microsoft extends the life of the Windows XP loophole...presumably all the way to Windows 7's doorstep. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 823

Steve Jobs heart attack… not http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10057521-37.html

Music publishers keep same download rate, Apple keeping … Read more

What's so special about 'Spore'?

Just released in the U.S. on Sunday, September 7, Spore is Electronic Arts' big holiday push for the still-alive PC gaming market. The game is from Will Wright, creator of the best-selling Sims and Sim City franchises, and developed by the same company, Maxis, so expectations are naturally high.

But despite the buzz, which includes full-page stories in the New York Times and numerous TV news segments, does Spore have a chance at mainstream video game success at the level of GTA4 or Guitar Hero (or The Sims)?

After spending the last week playing an early copy of the full game (where we created the Danosaurus, which lives on the planet Danlandia), we're ready to say that Spore is a monumental achievement in game design, and a genuinely engaging experience, but at the same time, it may lack that mainstream accessibility needed to resonate with non-core gamers. … Read more