duty

Wilson's taking a day off to devote more time to early-morning photography, so Mark Licea sits in his seat to fill in. We received a handful of listener responses about yesterday's TSA scanner conversation, so we spend part of the first half clarifying our stance on the issue, but also discuss our typical Friday stories--Asians, vacations, video games, Apple, Kool-Aid, and paper airplanes just a few things you can expect to hear on today's show!

A 17-year-old geek bearing a striking resemblance to Wilson in middle school is getting heat from Apple after running a six-figure business out of his home selling white iPhone 4s. Six months ago, high school senior Fei Lam contacted Apple's Chinese supplier Foxconn and somehow convinced them to sell him white iPhone 4 parts.

He used those parts for Whiteiphonefournow.com, a site specializing in converting black iPhone 4s into the missing white version. After selling more than $130,000 worth of parts since, Lam just received a letter from a private investigator hired by Apple to investigate accusations of stolen goods, but there's no word yet from Apple about what they plan to do with the litigation. Another reason explaining Wilson's absence today!

Social networks are all fun and games until someone gets outed for digging Asian girls--that's the lesson of the week for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose old Friendster profile is making the rounds on the Internet for comments made about Asian females under the "What I Enjoy Doing" heading.

We'll grant Zuckerberg some slack since he was just a 19-year-old teenager at the time, and the rest of the content is equally lighthearted--he also lists "coding," "IN n Out," "bad life decisions," and "defeating nemeses" under the same category.

Our final story of the day comes from South America, where Brazilian Christians have banned the use of all USB connections and their associated products after claims that the logo for USB resembles the Satanic trident.

The Web is divided on the origin of the USB logo, but some suggest that the artist based the design on Neptune's Trident, with three shapes adorning the points that symbolize several connections to one destination.

Unfortunately, the ban on USB devices means that flash drives, mice, keyboards, and printers all fall under the same devil-worshiping umbrella, so hold onto your parallel port cords and PS/2 extensions--someday you might need them in Brazil.

Activision released sales figures yesterday that showed Black Ops, the latest release in the Call of Duty franchise, tallied over $650 million in revenue during the game's first five days of availability. That figure easily bested the previous record of $550 million set by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

But with two years of record-breaking launches under its belt, the onus is now on Activision to deliver high-quality and perhaps most importantly, fast-selling, titles each and every year. And no one understands that pressure better than Activision Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg, who heads up the Activision side of … Read more

All the news today was totally shocking: MySpace and Facebook having an announcement? Together? Stuxnet now the "biggest threat to industry" everywhere? National Unfriend day!? What!? Also, the scariest robot we've ever seen: Snakebot. Oh, and I have my own dirt track to nowhere in the UK. Suck on that, haters. --Molly

After enjoying record launch day sales, Call of Duty: Black Ops has now taken the five-day sales record crown.

Activision announced today that the latest release in the venerable franchise tallied over $650 million in worldwide revenue, according to internal figures, easily besting the previous record set by predecessor Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 of $550 million.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said that with the new mark, "Call of Duty has become the first entertainment property in history to set five-day launch records for two consecutive years across all forms of entertainment."

The feat, Activision claimed in … Read more

If you notice your children becoming particularly sociopathic over the next few weeks and months, please consider that the reason might be Call of Duty: Black Ops.

I offer this important psychological advice as I have just been struck by the news that Cuba's finest independent media are so up in arms about the game that it seems they might even want to bear them.

What, you might wonder, could possible move the Cubans to be so upset? Well, it seems they are not entirely keen on the fact that the first mission of this extraordinarily well-reviewed game consists … Read more

And just like that, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's $310 million launch day revenue record has been shattered.

Activision announced today that Call of Duty: Black Ops, which launched on Tuesday, generated about $360 million in revenue during its first 24 hours of availability, according to the game company's internal estimates. The figure includes sales from North America and the U.K., Activision reported. The game company was quick to point out that Black Ops is now the "biggest entertainment launch in history," stealing the title from its predecessor.

It wasn't just Black Ops' … Read more

Somewhere between the Greatest Generation and Generation X lies a vast expanse of American history. Though World War II is safely enough in the past to explore freely, and our current war on terror close enough to inspire (occasionally uncomfortable) ripped-from-the-headlines games (and plenty of movies, books, and television), that great middle section has been largely unexplored by interactive entertainment--until now.

Dan: With a mighty stroke of the virtual pen, the Call of Duty series has single-handedly brought everyone's attention to the Cold War era. But this is not the Cold War of John le Carre or James Bond; instead the brutal small-arms firefights and squad skirmishes feel more like today's unconventional warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, just redesigned for a different decade. It's modern warfare, just in a slightly less modern package.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. Often, the most effective way to tell a story is through time-shifting and indirect symbolism; it's pretty much the foundation of the narrative experience. Interestingly, this particular setting is uniquely underused in video games--compared even with the Civil War or various ancient conflicts. I'm not sure there's an adequate explanation as to why there have been so few Vietnam-era games (and even fewer Korean War games); perhaps the baby boom generation controlling the purse strings of game developers and publishers felt it off-limits, or inaccessible to younger gamers who had not lived through the tumultuous era. … Read more

Call of Duty: Black Ops is well on its way to being another hit in the soldier-simulating series. The Cold War-set special forces shooter is the latest CoD game to let you blow foreigners' heads off in increasing levels of detail, the series managing the rather clever trick of splitting into two separate and massively successful franchises. We don our dress uniform, salute the regimental colors, and think of fallen comrades as we take a photographic tour through the history of Call of Duty.

Read more of "The history of Call of Duty and Modern Warfare in pictures" … Read more

Get ready for some first-person shooter action.

Activision today launched Call of Duty: Black Ops for all three major consoles, the PC, and the Nintendo DS.

Call of Duty: Black Ops puts the player in various roles as soldiers "behind enemy lines." Players can also play co-op with zombies, Mark Lamia, head of Activision's Treyarch Studio, said in a statement. But as with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, many gamers will be picking up the title for its online multiplayer offering. And to that end, Lamia promises an "incredibly deep" experience for gamers.

So … Read more