jet

If there's one lingering sensation after this year's CES, it's that already big and high-resolution TVs are trying very hard to get even more realistic and compelling to consumers. As proven by movies like "Avatar," 3D can be about more than things flying out of the screen at you like that old Joe Flaherty sketch from SCTV. 3D can be about immersion, and one of the true hoped-for killer apps in 3D TV is sports programming. I'll be the first to admit that I'd be excited about a 3D broadcast of a Jets game; in fact, 3D could help gain perspective on camera angles, and help with sports like baseball in helping keep track of field distances and fly balls. Plus, of course, it would look cool.

Would 3D or any other future form of TV ever replace the experience of being at the game itself, though?

I ask because I am a New York Jets season-ticket holder. My father, Michael Stein--otherwise known as "Jetmike"--has had season tickets for 44 years. He's been at Shea and Giants Stadium and even the Polo Grounds since the Jets were the Titans, and has only missed games to go to medical school in Italy (where, sadly, he missed the 1969 Jets Super Bowl). He also is a huge home theater buff; he owns a Pioneer Kuro TV and has 7.1 surround in his living room media center. I asked him whether there was anything that could lure him to give up being at the game and stay home instead.

He had no hesitation in his answer. "I go for the camaraderie," he said. "At the game, 80,000 people become one."

I can attest to that, as we both braved 19-degree weather for the final Jets game at Giants Stadium on January 3 for a remarkable night football experience. But our viewing angle, despite having good mezzanine seats, is far from ideal. A TV broadcast can zoom in and show slow-motion replays. Being at the game can show the whole field, but TV already has an advantage in quality.… Read more

MiniSquadron is a 2D aerial-dogfighting game with a cute, cartoony vibe and lots of frenetic arcade action. The game uses a simple two-sided interface: you shoot with a touch-screen button on your right, and you steer with a virtual joystick on your left. You can bounce off either side of each scrolling level (performing a convenient Immelman turn), and if you fly up too high, your plane stalls--forcing you to turn back into the stall to keep from crashing. Play progresses through eight levels (which you unlock as contiguous "countries" on a map), with multiple, increasingly difficult waves … Read more

Jet Car Stunts is an exceptional arcade driving game in which (as you might guess) you drive a jet-powered car through a series of stunt-inducing tracks.

This app makes terrific use of the iPhone and iPod Touch interface, with four customizable touch-screen buttons (accelerate and brake/reverse, and jet engine and hand-brake/air-brake) and accelerometer control for both steering and (when you're airborne, which is often) your pitch and roll. The game is split between two different but equally well-developed modes: 11 speed-heavy Time Trial levels with more traditional race-type tracks, and 25 architecturally inspired Platforming levels that focus … Read more

AppJet, the company behind the EtherPad collaborative online editor that was acquired by Google on Friday, said the service won't be closed down as originally announced.

Instead, it will be maintain until it is open-sourced.

The original plan was to delete existing documents or "pads" in March, with no new creations or user registrations allowed. Existing users would be given a chance to export their data and given invitations for the Google Wave preview.

However, many EtherPad users were unhappy at these plans. On Saturday, now-former CEO of AppJet Aaron Iba posted an update to the AppJet blog. … Read more

Google, probably the most prominent advocate of moving traditional productivity software such as word processors online, acquired a small company called AppJet whose EtherPad service fits into that agenda.

AppJet announced the Google acquisition Friday. "The EtherPad team will continue its work on real-time collaboration by joining the Google Wave team," the site said.

AppJet offered free and premium versions of its service, which could import Microsoft Word documents, Web pages, PDFs, and plain text files, and let groups of people edit them collectively on what it called pad. A "time-slider" feature let people look back … Read more

With more than 100,000 apps in the iTunes App Store and huge success around the world with the iPhone, it would appear Apple has done just about everything right with the launch of its first mobile handset. But as any iPhone app developers will tell you, the app approval process is less than ideal, with some developers waiting well beyond Apple's 14-day waiting period and sometimes longer to get their apps approved. Though Apple has stated it is working on the app approval process, there has been little in the way of progress if you ask iPhone app … Read more

The start of an NFL season begins with a few things: training camp, weeks of preseason games, and the launch of the yearly Madden. With Madden 10 now out in stores for nearly every system imaginable, we also are presented with the yearly question: is it worth it? After two weeks of playing the final boxed version for the Xbox 360, here's our final verdict on the only game in town. Or, almost the only game in town: Gameloft's NFL 2010 for the iPhone/iPod Touch uses full NFL license and rosters as well.

(Click to read our take on Gameloft's NFL 2010 for iPhone/iPod Touch).

Scott: I've played this game since 2001 pretty much obsessively, and almost always as the New York Jets. Take that with whatever grain of salt or other spice you like, but at least you now know that I've been playing with a handicap. Compared with Madden 09, my first impression a month ago was that the new Madden was slow. Apologies to EA, but it's better now. While Madden 10 still operates at a less arcade-like speed, the flow of gameplay doesn't feel as slow-mo as it did in early builds. Maybe I've gotten used to it, but the change actually makes passing and running more realistic. Here's why:… Read more

One of the myriad URL-shortening services out there, found at Tr.im, suffered an outage for some time Wednesday, rendering many links unable to redirect.

The service--which is owned by a start-up called the Nambu Network--believes hackers are to blame. "From this end it appeared we suffered a denial of service attack, and we took appropriate action to get the website back to full service," a Trim representative said to CNET News in an e-mail.

There's another, less likely possible culprit: Airline JetBlue hit one million Twitter followers on Wednesday, and announced a one day-only commemorative … Read more

Last month we got a sneak preview of the new Samsung Omnia 2 and Samsung Jet. Though only the Omnia 2 is set to come to a U.S. carrier (Verizon Wireless), it was the Jet that arrived on my desk first for a review. As a touch-screen phone with a focus on multimedia, the Jet largely resembles comparable Samsung phones, but it offers a few unique design elements like a hexagonal menu button and an attractive design on its rear face.

Most of the standard features like the music player, 5-megapixel camera, and personal organizer are nothing new, but … Read more