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After watching Amazon make huge headway in the e-book self-publishing game with its Digital Text Platform, Sony is finally making a real push into this area with a new Publisher Portal and partnerships with self-publishing companies Smashwords and Author Solutions.

While Sony stressed that the portal was for large and small publishers alike, it is clear that the company is targeting the announcement at independent publishers.

"New authors can select a self-publishing path and get their work published and for sale on Sony's eBook Store in as little as 10 days," Sony representatives said. "As Sony completes the conversion of its eBook store to the industry-standard EPUB format, Smashwords and Authors Solution will expand the offer to all existing Author Solutions and Smashwords authors to get their titles up on the Sony site."

Author Solutions, one of the larger self-publishing companies, with several brands under its umbrella offers a full suite of self-publishing "services," most of which are fee-based. Meanwhile, start-up Smashwords is focused exclusively on e-book creation and sales, and it is free to use (you simply upload a Word file, make some tweaks to your formatting based on a style guide, and presto, you have an e-book).

According to Sony, Author Solutions and Smashwords will offer authors the option to publish content in the EPUB format, "the International Digital Publishing Forum's XML-based standard format for reflowable digital books and publications." Amazon, on the other hand, uses its proprietary e-book format.

This is obviously good news for self-publishers. When it comes to e-book stores, Sony may not have the traffic that Amazon does, but it certainly offers a large customer base of avid readers interested in e-books.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.

Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3 and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII.

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Complete E3 coverage

Expo is no longer a huge free-for-all,
but that doesn't mean Microsoft
and others aren't making noise.

As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.

Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.

Microsoft also announced ... Read more

(Credit: Valve Corp.)

Already got the weighted companion cube fuzzy dice in your Astrovan and the cardboard helmet to match? There's hope for you dear portal fan. Here's yet another Aperture Laboratories-themed creation to show off your geek fetish to the world. This time it's numbered parking permits for both Aperture Laboratories and Black Mesa, the fictional experimental science organizations found in Valve's Portal and Half-Life games. The Black Mesa one's been around a little longer, but the Aperture Labs reared its wonderful head last month. Both run for $10 and come with bonus Half-Life themed bumper stickers.

You know you want to.

Portal has caused something of a stir among gamers. The unassuming little physics-warping first-person puzzler has gotten a lot of attention for two of its unique characters, the SHODAN-on-valium computer system GLaDOS and the Weighted Companion Cube. GLaDOS hasn't seen much love among DIY gamers, mostly because she's a disembodied voice for most of the game. The Weighted Companion Cube, on the other hand, has seen replicas, cakes, and even (like in my case) Halloween costumes.

Valve has recognized the WCC nerd-obession and plans to duly cash in on it. The company will sell plush Weighted Companion Cubes. The large Plush Weighted Companion Cube is just a cuddly cube for you to put on your desk, couch, bed, or anywhere you want people to realize how much of a geek you are. If that's not enough, Steam will also sell plush Weighted Companion Cube rear-view mirror danglers, knocking ThinkGeek's fuzzy D20 dice off its throne as Nerdiest Car Accessory Ever.

I'm personally waiting for the Weighted Companion Cube Fridge. My portal gun needs ice-cold bottles of Newcastle for fuel.

The William Companion Cube (larger photo after the break)

Okay, it's not a costume so much as it is a cheap helmet made from a cardboard box. But it's mine, it's nerdy, and it's something I'm strangely proud of.

Out of the five games that came with The Orange Box, Portal turned out to be the surprise hit. Sure, lots of people looked forward to Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 2, but Valve's crazy little space-warping puzzle-adventure managed to receive the most praise from even the most jaded reviewers (not-work-safe language in link). It was short, but chock-full of clever, challenging gameplay and remarkably dark humor.

One of the most memorable bits of the game is the appearance of the Weighted Companion Cube. Half-furniture, half-NPC, the Weighted Companion Cube was your best friend in the game. I won't spoil what happened, except to say that... sniff... it was just such a brave little geometric shape.

The Weighted Companion Cube, like Portal itself, turned out to be a surprisingly popular little doo-dad spawning nerdy efforts ranging from pillows to cakes. While I lack the artistic and craftsmanship skills necessary to make a genuine, accurate Weighted Companion Cube, I pushed my meager Illustrator and glue stick abilities to the limit to create a Weighted Companion Cube costume. Yes, it's justa cardboard box with paper bits glued to it, but I like to think it keeps the spirit of the Weighted Companion Cube.

Happy Halloween, everybody. This is my costume, the William Companion Cube. Check just below for a larger pic.

It's one of the most worn-out cliches of all action movies: the laser beam alarm system. But if they've been around for so long, why they haven't become household staples in today's security-obsessed society?

The latest example comes from Arizona-based company Ionatron and its "Portal Denial System" (sounds so RoboCop). Created for the U.S. government, it fires a stream of "laser-induced plasma" across any entryway, though SCI FI Tech says the operator has the option of making it lethal or "less lethal." Come to think of it, maybe it's not such a good idea to have these on the consumer market after all.

(Credit: Sarnoff Labs)

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to that club you were thrown out of, they come up with another way to keep you behind the rope.

Touted as a "non-invasive" approach to checking ID, iris scanners rely on pattern recognition of the image reflected from the iris's convex cornea--which, when converted into a digital template, will give you away every time.

The problem with conventional iris scanners is that they require the subject to hold still and submit. Now, a new-fangled unit produced by Sarnoff Labs in New Jersey can reportedly identify up to 20 subjects per minute as they casually stroll through a recognition portal.

The new biometric system, dubbed Iris On the Move (IOM), shoots photos at slightly different distances and in different directions using an array of high-resolution cameras synchronized with an infrared strobe light that blasts the subject's face 30 times per second.

The manufacturer claims that at least one of these photos will result in a clear, high-definition image of the target's iris, which can then be checked against a bad guy database.

You can forget the shades too. Apparently neither glasses, contact lenses, or even goggles will fool the system.