return

WiiWare and Virtual Console releases for this week

This week brings us a bizarre sci-fi pinball game, a home-remodeling simulator, and an original space-themed shoot-em-up.

WiiWare Alien Crush Returns (Hudson Entertainment, 800 Wii points): Alien Crush Returns is an updated version of the classic Turbografx 16 game. It's a pinball simulator unlike anything you've played because it looks like you're playing inside someones digestive system. Your Nintendo Wi-Fi connection extends the fun, bringing your gameplay online with up to four friends. Home Sweet Home (Big Blue Bubble Inc., 1,000 Wii points): Calling all aspiring interior decorators: Home Sweet Home lets you design your dream … Read more

Return Path buys rival junk-mail fighter Habeas

Return Path, maker of verification systems for e-mail, said Tuesday that it bought its rival Habeas for an undisclosed sum.

New York-based Return Path, which had a tense relationship with its left-coast competitor, said the deal will give it more scale in the "trusted e-mail delivery" market.

"While fiercely competing in the marketplace does create some degree of tension or even mistrust between two companies, that activity also creates a lot of common ground for discussion about the market and the future," Return Path CEO Matt Blumberg said in a statement on the company's Web … Read more

Zebra Technologies introduces G-series thermal printers

Zebra Technologies just announced their new "G-series" line of thermal printers. These little guys fall under the four-inch desktop printer category and, while not specifically for the consumer market, will still appeal to industries that deal with printing labels, receipts, price marking tags, shipping and return labels, boarding passes, ID wristbands and tags, and admission tickets.

The new offerings from Zebra include the GX420t,GX420d, GX430t, GK420t, and the GK420d. Across the board, these printers feature a wide range of convenient, easy to operate printing solutions in the work or home office. Notable specifications include:

Wireless: 802.11g … Read more

Jazz performers should embrace on-the-spot recording

I had the opportunity to see Wynton Marsalis perform with the 15-piece Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra last night in Seattle, and it was an absolutely stellar performance, with great song selection (Marsalis's own "The Holy Ghost" was a standout) and some of the most incredible technical playing I've ever heard--they did Duke Ellington's "Braggin' in Brass," which contains a trombone part in which each player plays a note or two in sequence, together creating this fast complicated line. (Listen here--that part starts around the -2:06 mark.) I've heard from … Read more

CFO survey: 57 percent see adequate returns on IT

Maybe IT doesn't matter, after all. At least, not as much as it should.

A recently released survey of chief financial officers and their views on technology spending found that roughly 57 percent say they are getting an acceptable return on investment (ROI) from their tech spending. Lest you think that the CFOs are too distant from the chief information officer to have a true grasp on ROI, keep in mind that the survey found that 41 percent of organizations have CIOs reporting to CFOs. The Computer Sciences Corporation conducted the annual survey of 629 CFOs in association with the Financial Executives Research Foundation.

Other data from the "Technology Issues for Financial Executives" study was equally interesting:

Among those surveyed, IT spending has increased over the last three years, and is expected to grow in 2008, as well. Greater than 50 percent suggest medium to high ROI on technology investments but only 11 percent reported a "high" ROI.… Read more

Update: events on Imeem

Note: I corrected this entry to make clear that Imeem licenses its event listing information from Jambase.

A quick follow-up to my earlier post on Imeem. A representative of the company contacted me to let me know about some of the other services offered on the site, including one that lets you find local events. Testing this feature in "search by venue" mode, I discovered that Return to Forever, whose 1973 album Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy is one of my favorite jazz records (fusion for you purists), is coming to my favorite Seattle venue in a couple … Read more

D-Day: iPhone commitment issues...return now or forever hold your peace

Today was the last day for us earliest of early adopters of the iPhone to return our $500 or $600 iPhone purchases. This is the point of no return. My friend Patrick wryly noted that it happens to fall on Friday the 13th. Steve Jobs does have a sense of humor I'm sure.

So, would you return yours?

I, for one, really do like my phone, if not for the functionality, for want of the question. People ask me almost daily: "Do you like it?" whether it be Post Office, Bar, lunch, standing in line at Target. … Read more

Price Protectr: Watch for Price Drops without Watching

Price Protectr is a service that monitors online stores and alerts you to any changes in price within 30 days of buying a product. If it sounds simple it is, and frankly that's the way it should be.

Nobody likes finding out they could have saved money if they had paid attention to price drops, but it's easier said than done. Price Protectr does the work for you. All you have to do is give them the URL of the product you bought and your e-mail, and it will keep an eye on it for 30 days. If … Read more