Ideal for pet owners with extremely busy lifestyles, the Pintofeed feeder will automatically dispense food at home with a quick tap on your smartphone.

With approximately twenty percent of the funding goal already raised, this pet-friendly Indiegogo project allows iPhone owners to feed their pets without having to return home. Called the Pintofeed, this pet feeder connects to a home’s wireless network and the homeowner can connect to the Pintofeed food dispenser through a mobile application. If a pet owner has to work late at the office or is out of town on vacation, they can open up the application and tap a single button to feed their pet. At this point, the Pintofeed dispenses a half-cup portion of the pet’s food and sends a notification message back to the pet owner stating that their pet has been fed.

In addition, feedings can be automated with the Pintofeed. Similar to the Nest learning thermostat, the Pintofeed can learn about your pet’s typical feeding times and automatically create a schedule to dispense food. Through the application, the pet owner can monitor their pet’s food intake and check out nutritional habits. Notifications offer data such as the start time of the feeding, the portion of food dispensed and the portion of food that was eaten by the pet. 

The Pintofeed application also allows a user to control more than one Pintofeed from the app. This would be ideal for families with multiple pets that have their own feeders. In addition, multiple members of a household can use the application to control a single Pintofeed. With all members of the family checking to make sure their pet has been fed, the likelihood of missing a feeding would be significantly reduced.

Built for both large and small animals, the Pintofeed comes with both a five-pound and ten-pound food repository. The clear repository is also sealed in order to keep the food as fresh as possible. In addition, the repository is dishwasher safe when it comes time to clean the Pintofeed.

The team behind Pintofeed also takes any type of hardware malfunction or food jamming issue very seriously. If the unit happens to fail or gets jammed with food during a scheduled feeding, the Pintofeed immediately sends notifications to the pet owner in the form of a text message, email message, Facebook message or Twitter message.

By alerting the pet owner immediately, they can return home to feed their pet in a timely fashion. In addition, the Pintofeed will attempt to dislodge any jammed food by putting the “motor into a low frequency vibrating mode,” ideally fixing the problem without user intervention. 

Regarding the design when it comes to overactive pets, the Pintofeed was built with a low center of gravity in an attempt to dissuade pets from tipping it over. Even if the Pintofeed was tipped over, the repository is being held in place by magnets and requires a pulling action to be removed. The Pintofeed was also designed with as many flat surfaces as possible to reduce the likelihood of a pet chewing on the feeder.

With 29 days left in the Indiegogo project, the creators of Pintofeed are seeking $50,000 to begin mass production of the smart pet feeder. There’s currently a limited number of $99 Pintofeeds available at this time and there are options for purchasing the feeders in bulk as well. In addition, the creators are donating money for the care and feeding of ten shelter animals for each Pintofeed that’s purchased through the Indiegogo project. According to the project details, the first batch of Pintofeeds should head out to customers by June 2013.

Potentially a huge time saver when attempting to complete your holiday shopping, the eBay Now same-day delivery service could be a game changer for retail.

Covered on eBay’s Holiday Media Center earlier today, eBay chief marketing officer Richelle Parham announced that the company has rolled out same-day delivery in New York City. During October, San Francisco become the test market for same-day delivery within the eBay Now shopping service. Conceptually, the service acts as a middle man by connecting participating stores with customers seeking a specific product. Well-known retailers such as Best Buy, Macy’s, Office Depot, RadioShack, Target, Toys R Us and Walgreens are participating in the pilot program in order to help shoppers get a product almost immediately without having to visit a physical location.

Regarding the New York City launch, the service will be available to the majority of Manhattan. The boundaries outlined by Parham go up to 125th street on the north end of Manhattan and extends to the western edge of Brooklyn.

In addition, eBay is attempting to attract New Yorkers into using the service by offering a $15 credit on the first purchase through eBay Now. In addition, the delivery charge is being waived on the first three eBay Now orders and the same-day delivery charge will only be $5 while eBay Now remains in beta.

Interestingly, eBay doesn’t require that a shopper has to order by a specific time in order to qualify for same-day delivery. While companies like Amazon have to rely on fulfillment warehouses to ship an order on time, eBay is employing couriers that the company calls “personal shopping valets” in order to speed up the process. These valets are specifically positioned around each city to fulfill orders. Placement within the city is based off order volume and store locations.

After a shopper downloads the eBay Now application to their Apple iPhone and places an order for a specific product, eBay automatically routes the purchase information to a nearby valet. eBay also directs the valet to the retail location to pick up the order.

Once the valet has visited the store and picked up the order from the customer service counter, they travel to the customer’s home or office. According to eBay, most orders take approximately one hour to be delivered from the moment that the order is placed.

According to eBay’s rules around qualifying for same-day delivery, the shopper can only order from one store per delivery and the minimum amount of the order has to be at least $25. Similar to other regular purchases on eBay, customers can choose to pay with a Paypal account or credit card. 

While the impact of same-day delivery on the shopping season will be minimal during 2012, it’s highly possible that physical retailers will start to see more customers transition to shopping online in the coming years as same-day delivery becomes more prevalent.  One of the most important aspects of shopping at a retail store is that the customer can take a product home with them at the time of the purchase. If retailers like Walmart and Amazon can accomplish same-day delivery across the majority of the United States, it’s likely that more consumers will avoid standing in line at retail stores when the product can arrive the same day that it’s ordered.

There's good news for any iOS users still missing their beloved Google Maps app. The company is reportedly testing its new version out right now, which means you could have it on your device pretty darn soon – although there is the small matter of getting it accepted into the iOS store, of course.

If you’re an iOS user with no hair on your head (because you’ve pulled it all out grappling fruitlessly with Apple’s sub-par Maps app), then listen up. According to a Wall Street Journal report on Thursday, Google is close to submitting its new Maps app to the iOS store.

The Mountain View company has reportedly been putting the “finishing touches” to the app and has distributed it to several individuals outside the company for testing

The new app is thought to include turn-by-turn navigation, a feature absent from Google’s previous version of Maps for iOS, which was sent packing by Apple in September with the launch of iOS 6. The Cupertino company replaced it with its own much-ridiculed mapping software (which incidentally does include turn-by-turn navigation), also called Maps, which Apple boffins – led by senior vice president for Internet software and services Eddy Cue – are now working hard on improving.

Some believe Google’s greatest challenge will be getting Apple to accept its new Maps app into the iOS store, though with so many other mapping alternatives already available in the store – and the fact that Google already has many other apps available to iOS users – it wouldn’t be too clever of Apple to reject this one. A bit of direct competition on the same platform would be good for everyone, and would certainly push those working on improving Apple’s version to focus on the job in hand.

Google’s confidence in the mapping arena must be sky high after Apple’s mis-step, with a company spokesperson telling the WSJ, “We believe Google Maps are the most comprehensive, accurate and easy-to-use maps in the world. Our goal is to make Google Maps available to everyone who wants to use it, regardless of device, browser, or operating system.”

When Apple’s mapping software launched in September, many people soon started complaining of mis-placed locations, a lack of detailed data and an overall poor user experience. Company boss Tim Cook even issued a letter of apology to users for launching a product before it was ready, and promised to “keep working non-stop until Maps lives up to the same incredibly high standard” as other Apple products.

Sing Party attempts to cash in on the launch of Nintendo's latest console by catering to music fans, but fails to use the unique Wii U hardware to its fullest potential.

With new hardware comes new ways to innovate, and design games that use it in fresh and intriguing ways. Sometimes you get genius, sometimes you get Sing Party.

Karaoke games are nothing new. They’ve been popping up in various forms ever since consoles gained microphone accessories, so seeing one on the Wii U during its launch window is no real surprise. 

But with a karaoke game you expect a certain level of quality from the outset. The mechanic doesn’t require a heavy development cycle, so once that is locked down, developers can go to work on fleshing out everything else. Create a solid vocal offering and then you can pour content on it, add new game modes, bulk up the song selection, design new ways for people to get involved. Sing Party does none of that. 

The game comes complete with a USB-powered microphone (or it can be purchased separately) that pushes your voice onto the TV. It isn’t an especially high-quality mic, but it does the job. The game features 50 songs, ranging in artistic style from Fleetwood Mac to Lady Gaga. It’s a fairly small selection for a game built around audio tracks, but it does give a decent variety of artists and styles. Plus you can be sure that there is plenty of DLC on the way. 

Sing Mode is the primary single-player option (although duets are possible), and it offers to judge you based on pitch, power, and flair. As you sing there is a bar that gives you a rough idea of where you should be when that lyric kicks in. The closer you are to the original artist, the better your score will be. Of course, you can always ignore this and just howl the lyrics out, you just won’t earn points. This somewhat limits the karaoke aspect of this mode and turns it into how well you can imitate the original artist. That isn’t a problem that’s unique to Sing Party, but it limits what you can do. The power is just how loud you sing, while flair judges how many tone changes you try and how much your voice changes. Once you are done, you receive your score, which is the only measure of completion. There is no progression, just you trying to beat scores. If others want to join in and play, they can use Wii Remotes to acts as maracas, although this amounts to about the same thing as clapping at a concert and therefore assuming that you’re in the band.

During this mode you (or more likely another person) can make a few changes on the GamePad, including changing the audio levels and creating a playlist. This is really the only concession to the GamePad, which is a shame. With just a bit more work, the Wii U’s new signature controller could have turned this game into an original and impressive music editor, even with just 50 generic songs. As it is, it barely qualifies as a karaoke game.

Throughout the game, the GamePad integration is a constant issue. If this were a deeper title with several modes and more tracks than you can count, that could be forgiven, but it is shallow and light on content, and the one thing that really should give it an edge among its rivals is hardly used.

If there is one saving grace to Sing Party, it is the Team Mode, which is a multiplayer option designed for a party setting, pairing two groups against each other in three scored, competitive karaoke events: solo, choir, and a relay event. You can choose your own song, but you can also have the other team select for you, which is far more entertaining. You can choose how many rounds you want to compete, and at the end the scores are tallied and a winner is chosen. It’s a fun mode if you want it to be, but you’ll have to work for it.

And then there’s the Party Mode. This is basically just a music video you watch while reading the lyrics on the GamePad. It suggests that others dance along using the Wii Remote to track their movement, but it doesn’t really register how you are doing, offer a score, or really seem to care if you are even in the room. There aren’t even options to turn off the track’s lyrics, which make this a difficult sell as a pure karaoke mode.

Conclusion

Sing Party is marred by squandered potential. The Wii U GamePad is ripe for a karaoke game in several ways, yet none of them are utilized here. Even putting aside the things that could be but aren’t, and judging the game solely based on the content, it still comes up very light.

There are a few glimpses of decency though. The Team Mode could be fun for parties, and the Solo Mode is what you would expect (if no more). The song selection isn’t all that intriguing or deep, but it is varied. If you are beside yourself in desperation for a karaoke game, and are OK with what feels like the skeleton of what could have been a great karaoke title, then Sing Party is your game.

Score: 5 out of 10

(This game was reviewed on the Wii U using a copy provided by the publisher)

Today was the day the many of the individuals that ordered the LG Nexus 4 finally got confirmation emails and UPS shipping information. Unfortunately, it wasn’t smooth sailing for everyone. It seems that while some users managed to get confirmations, others got a much less exciting email indicating that their Nexus 4 was now on back order.

So what’s the deal? Apparently Google sold more devices that it actually had. Considering how quickly the Nexus 4 sold out in most markets (20-60 minutes) it isn’t that surprising of a revelation, but that doesn’t make things any less disappointing.

The email gives users a few options, which basically boiling down to waiting around three weeks (though no specific date is give) or even canceling the order. Here’s the email in full:

Thank you for your recent purchase on Google Play. Due to overwhelming demand, your Nexus 4 is on backorder and is expected to ship within three weeks. We’ll send you a notification when your order has shipped and will credit the shipping charges.

To check the status of your order at any time, visit the link below: https://wallet.google.com/manage/#transactions
If you would prefer to cancel your order, please reply to this email and our team will assist you. Or you can cancel your order using our online tool. Please follow the instructions found here: http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2423477

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you again for your order.
Thanks,
The Google Play Team

Were you one of the lucky folks that managed to actually get a confirmation email for your LG Nexus 4 or are you stuck waiting?

"There has never been a better time to start playing with us," says Bioware rep in official announcement of free-to-play launch.

If you sensed a disturbance in The Force, that’s probably due to Bioware’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG launching its free-to-play option today.

Long rumored and finally announced back in July, the decision to let players join the game sans subscription was enacted with today’s big update of the game that saw a host of new features added alongside the free-to-play option. Players who join the game without a subscription can train their characters up to Level 50 before being capped, and are able to play as any of the eight character classes.

“We want to give our players the freedom to enjoy Star Wars: The Old Republic when and how they want,” said Matthew Bromberg, General Manager of BioWare Austin, in a press release announcing the free-to-play launch. “There has never been a better time to start playing with us.”

The restrictions imposed on free-to-play characters were originally outlined last month, and include a limit on the number of PvP encounters a player can initiate, as well as many of the opportunities for speedy advancement through the character ranks.

Beyond the free-to-play option’s launch, the game also received a major update today that added some new missions and areas to explore. Bioware’s official announcement of the upgrade and free-to-play launch described the new content as follows:

Get ready for an action-packed adventure to earn control of one of the galaxy’s most deadly Assassins, HK-51. Submerged beneath the icy surface of Belsavis lies a derelict ship and if you are brave enough to venture through the wreckage, you will embark on a mission that ultimately rewards you with a powerful new, yet familiar, ally: the ruthless Assassin Droid, HK-51.

Explore Section X, a previously untouched area of the prison world of Belsavis. The Dread Masters’ servants are searching for a powerful and ancient weapon. Fly to Section X and secure the target of their search to be richly rewarded.

Travel to Denova to take on Operation: Explosive Conflict — now with a Nightmare Mode! Teams who complete in this new mode can earn the final pieces of the Dread Guard gear set and a brand new mount that will be sure to cause tank envy!

You can get more info about the free-to-play option via the game’s official FAQ.

A group of thieves have stolen about 3,600 iPad Mini units from John F. Kennedy Airport in New York earlier this week.

While Apple fans around the world may be waiting in dreadful lines for their iPad Mini tablets, a few New York thieves have managed to snag $1.5 million worth of the 7.9-inch slates.

About 3,600 iPad Minis were taken from a cargo building at John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday night, reports The New York Post. A group of thieves entered the building at 11 p.m. and loaded pallets filled with the recently released mini slate into a tractor- trailer. The crooks narrowly escaped a security guard, according to the report, who approached them as they drove away. Authorities told the Post that the thieves stole two pallets of iPad Minis in total, using a forklift to load them into the tractor-trailer. They left three remaining pallets in the airport, and investigators suspect that it could have been an inside job. Authorities have proceeded to question airport workers, administering polygraph tests to three employees.

The crooks entered Building 261 to retrieve the iPads from the side of the structure that faces a street and has less security than the other side. Sources believe that someone let them into the area and then let them out after stealing the tablets. The batch of iPad Minis had just landed from China, and a company called Cargo Airport Services had planned to ship them to various locations throughout the United States. The report did not specify which edition of Apple’s iPad Mini had been stolen, as the tablet comes in three storage capacities and two color options. The storage variants include 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, and users can purchase the device in either White & Silver or Black & Slate.

To no surprise, Apple’s iPad Mini has seen a widely successful launch thus far. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company’s decision to announce the device in October rather than September alongside its iPhone 5 only enhanced fan anticipation. Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty said in a note to investors that the iPad Mini and the fourth-generation iPad could push Apple to ship 23 million total iPads this quarter. Apple sold more than three million iPad Mini and iPad 4 devices within their first three days on the market. 

When millions of people around the world sign on to play a brand new game, technical problems are an inevitability. Call of Duty: Black Ops II is experiencing a handful of technical problems on the PlayStation 3 in its first week.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 opened big this week, none too surprising considering the series’ role as national video game pastime in the US. Activision’s latest game of shoot-and-run sold 1 million copies at retailer GameStop before its first day on shelves was done. Consider then how many copies it must have sold around the world, through other retailers and digital distribution channels. Also unsurprising then: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2’s online multiplayer has had a few troubles running under the strain of a massive new audience.

In particular, the PlayStation 3 version of Black Ops 2 has been suffering from connectivity issues. Users on the official PlayStation 3 forums have been reporting problems getting onto multiplayer servers as well as redeeming codes for additional downloadable content like the Nuketown 2025 maps.

Treyarch’s David Vonderhaar, game design director on Black Ops 2, assured fans via Twiter that the studio was working on the problems. “We are indeed up and running, but we are also aware not everyone can connect. We are investigating something with our partners at Sony. We are currently testing backend matchmaking changes that we think can help with this. I don’t have a timetable, or I would tell you. The ‘Waiting to balance teams’ thing is something else entirely. More on that shortly.”

If you've ever been frustrated when the wireless gets hosed at a crowded cafe, then take heart! WiFox could stop heavy use from slowing your connection.

A team of researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a software program called WiFox that could improve the throughput of a busy Wi-Fi network by as much as 700 percent. 

The reason you usually experience slower Internet on a busy wireless network is that all the devices connected to it are using the same single channel. There is only so much data that one channel can send back and forth at any given moment, which means when everybody in the coffee shop is trying to load a page or send an email at the same time, each person gets a smaller slice of the bandwidth pie and service slows to a crawl.

That’s where the NCSU team comes in. WiFox monitors the network’s congestion and assigns an access point high priority when it accumulates a backlog of data. The bigger the backlog, the higher priority the point becomes. That means the software sets the order of bandwidth use, which yields better performance for the people using the Wi-Fi. In tests funded by the National Science Foundation, NCSU researchers found that WiFox led to performance improvements of 400 percent for a network with 25 users and 700 percent for a network of 45 users. The tests also showed that the Wi-Fi network was able to respond to user requests four times faster on average than a network not using WiFox.

The details about WiFox are still somewhat vague, but researchers will present the software next month at a conference sponsored by the Association of Computing Machinery. More information will probably become available after that event. Most likely, the program has an algorithm that will allow it to quickly direct the flow of traffic. It also has no official release date yet, but once WiFox is available, the program should be easy enough to install on a network. 

Of course, the effect crowds have on a wireless network depends on how good your router is. Besides, if the Terahertz band investigated earlier this year by Japanese researchers ever becomes commonplace, Wi-Fi could be speedy enough that we won’t need wireless traffic cops.

Amazon announced that its 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD tablet has started shipping as of Thursday, five days before its scheduled launch date.

Holiday shoppers now have a new tablet to toggle with before Thanksgiving arrives. Amazon announced today that its 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD device has officially begun shipping.

The tablet was originally set to ship on November 20, but Amazon has released a version of its newest device five days earlier. The 4G LTE edition of the Kindle Fire successor will also be available next week, Amazon has said. “With the holiday season upon us, we’re excited to make our $300 Kindle Fire HD 8.9’’ available early,” Amazon Kindle Vice President Dave Limp said in a statement. 

Customers have the option of purchasing the Kindle Fire HD through Amazon’s website or at Best Buy starting on Friday. It will also be available at retailers such as Staples and Radio Shack in the coming weeks.  Back in September, the online retailer unveiled three versions of its device with the hopes of competing against tablet heavyweights Google and Apple. The Amazon Kindle Fire HD, likes its predecessor, will run on an custom Amazon software modeled after Google’s Android mobile operating system. The tablet will ship with equivalent of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), one of the most recent iterations of Google’s software.

 As for its features, the newly available 8.9-inch tablet features a 1,920 x 1,200 HD display with 254 pixels per inch (ppi) and a front-facing HD camera that can be used for taking photos and making video phone calls. The Kindle Fire HD also comes equipped with dual stereo speakers and a whopping 10 hours of battery life, according to Amazon. It appears that Amazon has branded its Kindle Fire HD as family friendly, shared device, as it comes with a feature called Kindle FreeTime preinstalled.  This is what Amazon has called a “personalized tablet experience” specifically made for kids that is exclusive to the Kindle Fire. Parents can set daily screen limits and moderate the content their children are consuming on the device.

The company also detailed its data package plans via AT&T that will launch alongside the 4G LTE edition of the 8.9-inch tablet. A one-time payment of $50 gets users 250MB of session data, a $10 Amazon Appstore for Android credit and 20GB of Amazon Cloud Drive. This deal is only available for the first year of service. Amazon’s announcement is yet another reminder of the saturated state of the tablet industry. While Amazon and Barnes & Noble, the two original e-reader big shots, duke it out over their respective Kindle Fire HD and Nook HD tabs, Microsoft, Apple and Google have also introduced their own new devices. Last month saw the launch of Apple brand new 7.9-inch iPad Mini, iPad 4, and Microsoft’s first self-branded Surface tablet. Google just released its Nexus 10 tab earlier this week, which sold out within minutes.

"We have several game modes we play in development," says game's design director.

Just in case you thought there was an end in sight to your Call of Duty: Black Ops II obsession, more game modes are on the way.

During a Q&A session on Reddit, Black Ops II Design Director David Vonderhaar revealed that there are “several” game modes they’re considering for release, but nothing is certain at this point.

“Although we haven’t released any details, or even decided which ones, nor could I give you a count or time, we have several game modes we play in development,” wrote Vonderhaar.

Reports of servers issues for Black Ops II players on the PlayStation 3 are also being monitored closely, according to Vonderhaar.

“Many folks are hard at work to get our online infrastructure in a good place,” he wrote. “I am personally reading hundreds, if not thousands, of posts, and monitoring the situation closely.”

He also shared his favorite feature from Call Of Duty development that never found its way into a game.

“Black Ops 2 has a lot of the features we wanted to do,” he wrote. “But, to be honest, I will always regret not being able to ship the Kamikaze killstreak in World at War. (It was like a Predator missile, before a Predator missile existed.)”

If you are looking for a game that gives you the best idea of the potential inherent with Nintendo’s new Wii U, then look no further than the Wii U tutorial cleverly disguised as the mini-game compilation, Nintendo Land.

For every new piece of hardware that enters the gaming market, there is inevitably a title that is designed to use each and every possible feature of that new hardware. These games are tutorials of sorts, masquerading as a game – usually a collection of mini-games. For the Vita it was Little Deviants, for the Kinect it was Kinect Adventures, for the Wii it was Wii Sports. The list goes on and on, and you can now add one more to it: the Wii U’s Nintendo Land.

Sold separately or included with the Deluxe Wii U bundle, Nintendo Land is a compilation of 12 mini-games that highlight everything the Wii U can do, especially the new GamePad controller. Each of the games is based on an existing Nintendo property, from Zelda and Metroid to the slightly lesser known Takamaru’s Ninja Castle and F-Zero inspired races. The games range from co-op to competitive, as well as a decent selection of single player offerings. On the multiplayer though, be warned: you’ll need the Wii MotionPlus. Standard Wii Remotes need not apply.

These games all exist within the Nintendo Land eco system, which is presented like a theme park. You have a central hub that offers easy access to any of the games, or you can select a quick menu option and choose that way. The hub itself will be populated by AI controlled Miis, as well as the real life Miis of players that are online (or they will be there once the online functionality is released prior to the Wii U’s launch).

Each of the mini-games offers something unique, and they all use the GamePad in a slightly different way. In the competitive “Luigi’s Mansion,” the player with the GamePad is the “ghost” and is hunting the other (up to) four players. The ghost can see everything in the square board, while the other players are equipped with flashlights that can hurt the ghost when they hit it, but the players don’t have any way of knowing where it is until it strikes and takes out a player.

Another game, the single player “Donkey Kong’s Crash Course” has you steer your avatar through a course using the Wii U’s gyroscope. You tilt it left or right to send your character in that direction, and hit the occasional shoulder button to operate gates. You’ll also have to use the mic, as blowing in it is the only way to operate certain lifts. One game has you use the touch pad to mimic gusts of wind as you try to keep a balloon rider aloft, while another still has you race using the GamePad as a steering wheel.

Of the 12 games, there is certainly a hierarchy involved, and not all games are created equally. Some, like “The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest” (which features co-op Zelda action that needs to become a full thing) are far more engaging and deeper than the mimic-based dance game, “Octopus Dance”. Nintendo Land is a full offering though, especially in a party setting.

For what is essentially a tutorial, the games are generally entertaining and amusing. Some of the competitive modes are slightly unbalanced in favor of the GamePad though. It’s far easier to destroy enemies in the “Metroid Blast’s” Assault Missions with the ship controlled by the GamePad than it is to destroy that ship as a standard player, and the ghost should win most rounds in “Luigi’s Mansion.” The single player games fare far better, and some like “Pikmin Adventure” are respectable-sized games in their own right, relatively speaking.

The GamePad gets a thorough workout, and the different modes offer a good party game mentality. More than anything though, Nintendo Land is a guide for you to learn how to properly take advantage of the Wii U’s GamePad, and more importantly, to show you its potential.

While games like “Metroid Blast” and the tag-like game “Mario Chase” show how the GamePad can be used to set one player apart, others like Zelda – which has four players with Wii Remotes supported by the GamePad user that is shooting arrows – show more possibilities. Things we’ve never even conceived of in gaming before are now being dreamed up by Nintendo, and this game is just a hint of what may be coming.

Conclusion

It is tough to review Nintendo Land as a game, since it is tutorial wrapped around multiple games of differing quality. Some of those games are exceptional, while others are not. It does what it sets out to do though, and it helps that the game features the traditionally fine polish that Nintendo games are known for. The graphics look great, and it is nice to see an HD rendition of titles like Metroid, even if it is only a brief and heavily cartoon-ized version. If nothing else, you have to credit it for its originality as it attempts things that no one else can even begin to mimic.

For the people picking up a Wii U for their family, or those that specifically want a game that can be played with others, Nintendo Land is a solid choice. The games are somewhat shallow, of course, and the explanations on how to play each game that keep popping up get old to the point of being obnoxious, but if you are looking for something to get the most out of your Wii U, Nintendo Land is a must have.

Score: 8 out of 10

(This game was reviewed on the Wii U using a copy provided by the publisher)

Xbox Live gamers logged more than 442 million hours on the service last week.

The release of Halo 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops II just days apart created a “perfect storm” of online gaming that resulted in the busiest week ever for Microsoft’s Xbox Live service — and it’s only fitting, given that the service launched 10 years ago today.

Now numbering over 40 million members, Xbox Live hosted a record-breaking 442 hours of online gaming in the period between November 6 and November 13, according to an open letter from Xbox Live Corporate Vice President Marc Whitten celebrating the service’s 10-year anniversary.

“I’m proud to announce that during the week of Nov. 6-13, our members spent more time on Xbox LIVE (gaming and watching entertainment) than any other week in the history of our service: a total of 442 million hours,” writes Whitten. “And Halo 4, which broke entertainment industry numbers, resulted in the LIVE community unlocking 43 million achievements in just the first five days of gameplay.”

Whitten goes on to report that 9.4 million people participate in multiplayer gaming on Xbox LIVE each week, and nearly 14.5 billion Achievements have been unlocked worldwide since the service launched. For those keeping score, that’s a Gamerscore of around 270 billion.

Yesterday, we reported on Microsoft’s decision to send custom-designed Xbox 360s to Xbox Live subscribers who have been with the service for all of its ten years. Whitten spoke to those long-term subscribers in his open letter with a look back at how much the service has changed in the last decade, and a mention of where things are headed.

“For those of you who’ve been with us since the beginning, you might remember the introduction of online multiplayer, the blade design of the dashboard, Halo 2 on Xbox LIVE, the Xbox LIVE Arcade retail disc, or downloading your gamer pic and instant messaging with your friends for the first time.” he wrote. “Since those early days, Xbox LIVE has evolved at an amazing pace. We have scores of entertainment apps worldwide, we just added Internet Explorer to service and an all-new Sports destination . We’ve also gone far beyond the console with Xbox on Windows 8 and Xbox SmartGlass* on all your favorite devices.”

You can read the full text of Whitten’s open letter to Xbox Live subscribers at the official Xbox homepage.

Crytek has said in the past that it isn't developing a sequel to TimeSplitters, but CEO Cevat Yerli said this week that the series may not be gone forever. An HD collection of the original trilogy could happen provided the right number of fans demand it.

Ryse isn’t rising any time soon and Warface is still a PC-only affair. Developer Crytek may have a lot going on, but Crysis 3 appears to be the only console game it’s baking in the oven. Following the release of that bow-and-arrow equipped sequel in the spring, what’s next for the swiftly expanding developer? Perhaps it will revisit the best-loved series of its subsidiary Crytek UK, TimeSplitters.

Prior to its acquisition by Crytek in early 2009, Crytek UK was called Free Radical, the studio behind Second Sight, Haze, and most notably the TimeSplitters trilogy of first-person shooters created for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube. Despite a significant fan following and strong sales, the TimeSplitters series has been dormant since 2005.

Crytek CEO Cevat Yerli said, however, in an interview with Game Informer that an HD collection of the original trilogy isn’t an impossibility, and that could lead to renewed interest in the series.

“There is actually a petition running online trying to bring the fan base together, but unfortunately the petition doesn’t look that convincing,” said Yerli, “If the petition picks up it will be an even better argument for us. There’s a very hardcore market that is very verbal about it. I would love to see this, and if the fan base approves a further petition. They’re trying to call 300,000 voices… If they could get the petition together I would be very happy to put it in front of decision makers in the company, the key stakeholders, and say, ‘Look here. This is how it it, let’s make it now.’”

There were rumors back in April that Crytek was developing a TimeSplitters 4, and that some had even seen it running at Crytek UK, but the company later denied the game was in the works.

Crytek makes a mean piece of technology. The CryEngine and its descendants have been standard bearers for PC gaming technology for the better part of a decade now, with games like Far Cry and Crysis known first for their then groundbreaking visuals. Even today, the original Crysis compares favorably and better than most major console games. Beyond their graphics, though, those games still aren’t considered among the elite. Crysis is not yet an A-list shooter developer amongst the likes of Epic or Bungie. Maybe it’s time to let Crytek UK return to its roots and see if the past can help it find new inspiration.

Lenovo updates its entry-level C-series line of all-in-ones with seven new machines, and also adds the strikingly slim Q190.

Today Lenovo unveiled several new computers that offer small, space-saving designs at reasonable prices. The company focused on the potential for family use of the new models, noting that all the desktops combine power with entertainment.

The first new release is the IdeaCentre Q190 desktop. It’s less than an inch thick – 0.86 inches to be exact – and 7.55 inches tall. Lenovo is billing the Q190 as “the world’s smallest full-function desktop PC.” Despite the tiny size, the Q190 packs a punch in terms of power and multimedia features. It improves on the Q180 model’s processing performance by up to 80 percent. If you want the greatest specs, you can equip the computer with a second-generation Intel Core i3 processor and the Windows 8 Pro OS. For home theater enthusiasts, the desktop also has full HD graphics, can handle up to 7.1 surround sound via HDMI, and play Blu-ray discs via an optional add-on drive. 

Along with the Q190, Lenovo also announced new releases to its IdeaCentre C-series all-in-one suite of desktops. This line offers reasonably priced options for home computing and home entertainment without a bulky machine. The new models joining the market are the 18.5-inch C240 and C245, the 20-inch C340 and C345, the 21.5-inch C440 and C445, and the 23-inch C540. The C240 and C245 are the most basic versions, but the others have helpful features including adjustable screen displays and automatic brightness adjustment. For processors, the C340, C440, and C540 can be upgraded to Intel Core i3, while the C345 and C445 can be upgraded to an AMD E2 dual-core processor. 

The C240 and C245 are due to hit stores this month, and the rest of the models are scheduled to become available in January. Lenovo also released the expected price tags for the new products. The Q190 will run you about $349, as will the C240 and C245. The other C-series models start at $479 and range up to $549 for the C540. It’s an interesting move only putting the two simple AIOs on the market before the big holiday shopping season, but perhaps Lenovo is expecting to see more demand for mobile devices, like the IdeaPad Yoga 13 or the IdeaPad Tab A2109  as gifts.   

New game puts Android smartphone owners on the hunt for "portals" in their real-world surroundings.

There’s been no shortage of smartphone-based “augmented reality” apps to hit the market in recent years, but few have had the resources of a company like Google behind them — which makes the new invite-only cyber experience Ingress so intriguing.

Initially teased with a mysterious “Niantic Project” website and videos that circulated around the Internet a few weeks ago, Google has now confirmed their involvement with the project and given their viral game an official name: Ingress.

A mix of augmented-reality app, puzzle game, and geocaching with a team-based format that has players hunting for weird “portals” in the world around them, Ingress lets anyone with an Android smartphone participate in the game. At the moment, the game is invite-only, with invitations going out today for the first bunch of players. You can request an invitation at the Ingress website.

Various reports describe the game as having some capture-the-flag elements to it, with players “hacking” the portals they find in their environment and capturing them for their team. Even when players aren’t out capturing portals, they can follow the action from their desktop using a global map that tracks all of the Ingress action around the world.

Google has set up a support page for the game that outlines the basic strategy for Ingress, as well as troubleshooting tips, rules on harassment, and various cryptic explanations for exactly what is going in the mind-controlling conspiracy suggested by the game.

You can watch a video about the project below:

Nintendo is revealing some of the more nitty gritty details about its new console days before its release. Wii U Basic Set owners got unpleasant news on Wednesday when Nintendo explained that the 8GB console actually only has 3GB of storage space.

When Nintendo announced the specifics about its new Wii U console back in September—the surprisingly high $300/$350 price tag, the November 18^th release date, and multimedia services like Nintendo TVii—it left myriad questions unanswered. There were big conundrums waiting in the wings, like how its Miiverse social and online gaming network would function, but even more small technical details. For example, would purchasers of the $300 basic Wii U package need a USB hard drive out of the gate for downloading games or would the 8GB internal flash memory be enough? With days to go before the Wii U’s release, these questions are being answered, and not all the news is happy news, particularly for those that come away with the Basic set.

The 8GB of internal storage memory is actually not 8GB at all. As explained in an eccentric informational video from Nintendo itself (via Kotaku), when you turn on the Wii U for the first time you will need to set up an online account, format the system’s memory, and other basic adjustments to make the device usable. Following formatting, the Basic console only has 7.2GB of memory available, while 29GB of the Deluxe Set’s advertised 32GB are available.

After that, though, the account data on the console takes up 4.2GB of the internal storage. For Basic Wii U owners, that leaves just 3GB of memory, which doesn’t even leave enough room on the console to download a digital copy of the signature launch title for the machine, NintendoLand. Even New Super Mario Bros. U at 2GB will take up the majority of what remains of the console’s storage, meaning that any other games you might want to purchase through the new eShop will require an external hard drive.

This isn’t an uncommon strategy in the modern console market. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has always come in a variety of models. When it first released in 2005, an Arcade model was available with no hard drive or internal storage at all. When Microsoft redesigned the Xbox 360 in 2010, the Arcade model was replaced by a version with 4GB of internal storage.

Even in 2010, though, digital distribution wasn’t as prominent a business on consoles as it is today. Nintendo is only now starting to grow a competitive digital business, and with signs indicating that the Basic Wii U will be more readily available than the Deluxe set for some time, it’s troubling to see the company limiting what its audience can and can’t download.

Forget about ridiculously long lines outside Apple stores on a new iProduct’s release day, because the new Nexus range had sold out practically worldwide within an hour after the devices were available for purchase on the Play store website.

For those that didn’t get their hands on a new Nexus device and are not sure when they’ll next be in stock, Google hasn’t been too helpful about telling us when new stock will be available, and it seems they’re not quite too certain themselves. A post on the new Nexus products page says:

There’s been so much interest for the Nexus lineup that we’ve sold out of some of our initial stock in a few countries! We are working hard to add more Nexus devices to Google Play in the coming weeks to keep up with the high demand. You can learn more about Nexus devices and stay updated at play.google.com/nexus. 

While this is pretty vague, it’s clear that the LG Nexus 4 is generating more demand that Google had previously anticipated. The good news is that they will be stocking up soon, and if we’re lucky, we will still be able to get a handset before the holidays arrive. For those in the U.S., T-Mobile does have the Nexus 4 available on contract for $199. They also sell it off-contract, but at price that is nearly double what it costs from the Google Play store.

For other countries, all you can really do is wait. If you are really disparate and have extra cash to burn, you could always hit Ebay , where some Ebay users have posted the popular Google Nexus 4 up for ridiculously high prices. Shockingly, many people are buying them even at prices that are double or triple their actual worth.

We go hands on with the newest version fo Pulse News for Android and iOS with new features like a sidebar, enhanced search, new design, and better scrolling, making it one of our favorite news aggregators.

Every news organization wants to have its pulse on the topic it focuses on. In the ever broadening scope of news that the Web allows for, there is more specific niche coverage than ever before; it can take extra clicks to get all the news you need. This is where a good news aggregator comes in, and there are few more notable than Pulse News. But even the big names need a new look every once in a while. If you use Pulse on an Android or iOS device, you may notice a new look to your favorite news aggregator. As it turns out, there’s plenty of substance to go with the style, as well.

The redesign to the Pulse News app comes to provide a uniformed look across platforms. Namely, it makes the mobile app fall more in line with the look that the recently launched Web app established. It’s similar to the earlier version, but is a little slicker and somewhat reminiscent to Windows 8 in its boxiness. This works to its favor, as the layout is very intuitive and manages to make information for a wide range of sources look like it belongs in the same app. Gone is the horizontal, tab-style browsing. A new sidebar is your guide to the news. It’s simple and there’s a lot less jumping back and forth. It’s definitely an improvement in navigation.

This navigation enhancement lets you scroll through a lot more content than before. You are no longer limited in the number of pages you can create or news feeds listed on a page. In past versions, users had their feed subscriptions and pages capped, forcing choices like “Do I want to get updates from the Ellen Degeneres Show or Field and Stream Magazine?” Now you can get it all, so your eclectic choices needn’t be stifled. Having the ability to create an unlimited number of pages is probably the biggest improvement in the update, as you can now dedicate just a couple sources from a particular category and not feel like you’re throwing away potential space for other content. If you’re really into motorcycles and want to create a separate page for it, you can do so and just keep the two or three feeds relevant to that without fear of wasted space.

New to the Pulse News app is the ability to search for specific news not within your pages. It scans across everything from Google and Tumblr to Reddit and YouTube for content that fits your keyword and allows you to subscribe to updates on the given topic.

All of this adds up to a solid update. If you haven’t used Pulse News before, this is a good time to do so. With the addition of unlimited content feeds and personalized organization, Pulse has to be considered a top contender for news aggregation. It gives you access to some great, well-respected sources and lets you add your own if you don’t see what you’re after. Pulse News has all the news that’s fit to pixelate.

Pulse News is available for free in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store.