Research In Motion just announced a deal with Visa that would allow card holders to use their BlackBerry 10 devices as a mobile wallet.

Research In Motion is preparing to launch its refreshed BlackBerry 10 platform at the end of the month, adding what could be another major player to the Android and iOS dominated mobile market. We’ve seen some impressive video footage of its touch-centric user interface, and now we’re hearing that Visa cardholders may be able to make purchases via Near-Field Communication with these new BlackBerry devices.

On Wednesday RIM announced that its Secure Element Manager (SEM) solution for NFC mobile payments has been approved by Visa. This makes RIM all the more prominent in the modern mobile industry, and means that cardholders will essentially be able to use their smartphones like bankcards.

“The approval from Visa of RIM’s SEM solution is an important step in that it will enable carriers to support Visa issuing banks and financial institutions,” Frank Maduri, senior director of NFC services and TSM product management at RIM, said in a written statement. “We now offer carriers a robust solution with around-the-clock global support that works on any NFC-capable device, and meets the stringent technology and usability guidelines for Visa.”

This SEM essentially ensures that carriers are securely managing data found on the SIM cards installed in NFC-enabled mobile devices.

“Any place you can tap your credit card you can now tap your mobile phone,” Geoffrey MacGillvray, manager of services security and payments at RIM, said according to the Canadian Press.

This security infastructure that enables the payment service to work is built on a partnership between RIM and Canada’s three main wireless networks. Known as the EnStream agreement, this allows RIM to manage security credentials for SIM cards found in BlackBerry devices.

Although mobile wallet payments may not be the most popular mobile trend at the moment, a partnership with Visa could pave the way for future deals with other companies.

RIM will be holding a launch event at the end of the month to herald in BlackBerry 10, and it’s clear that anticipation from the mobile community is building. A special weekend event hosted by RIM yielded 15,000 new apps for the platform from developers.

We’re interested to see how this operating system is adopted once it finally launches, but you can take a look at our hands-on first impressions here.

A new rumor suggests that after spending $8.5 billion acquiring voice over IP giant Skype in 2011, Microsoft may hope to see a return on its investment by tasking the firm with control of voice chat in the successor to the Xbox 360.

Since we’re still months away from any official word on the next video game consoles from Microsoft and Sony, rumors of what those machines might include are running rampant. Some are more reliable than others, but as always we caution you that this should be considered a rumor. None of what we’re about to tell you can currently be officially confirmed, but based on everything we know this information seems quite legitimate, and it just makes sense.

This morning, CVG published an article which claims that the next iteration of Microsoft’s Xbox (whatever it’s eventually titled) will feature vocal communications technology largely based on that created by Voice over IP giant Skype. Anonymous sources at Microsoft claim that in the near future the company will be “consolidating all [its] communications technology” around Skype. Supposedly, this means that not only will the next version of the Xbox feature much of Skype’s work, but that Microsoft also intends to integrate Skype technology directly into its operating systems and other future software offerings. “You might jump to the conclusion that we’ll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live,” the source said.

As a rumor, this information is far from the most outlandish thing we’ve ever heard. Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for the princely sum of $8.5 billion, so it stands to reason that the former firm would want to leverage its new assets toward some kind of return on its investment. Given Skype’s unrivaled experience in the field of Internet-based voice chat, it just makes sense that Microsoft would tap Skype’s personnel to put together a communications system for its next console.

Of course, if you don’t believe that, there’s also the job listing posted by Microsoft in August of 2012 which seeks a designer to work on the user interface of its next console. The location of this position? Microsoft’s Skype offices. “The team you’ll join is responsible for Skype in the living room (broadly the home), across various devices but with a focus on the large screen and the next generation of Xbox,” the ad reads.

Honestly, our biggest concern here is that Microsoft might fail to give Skype the freedom it needs to create a truly remarkable voice chat protocol for the next Xbox. Say what you will about Skype’s VoIP service, but it’s undeniably more robust and functional than the voice chat system seen on the Xbox 360. As long as Microsoft knows to keep out of the way, the Skype-powered voice chat system in the next Xbox should be a marked improvement over what players are currently accustomed to. Especially if Skype and Microsoft offer users the ability to ring normal landline and cellular phones from the comfort of their gaming headsets. Expect more on the next Xbox and its potential Skype integration just as soon as Microsoft is ready to serve up concrete information.

AT&T has announced that it will be rolling out an update regarding the use of FaceTime over 3G cellular networks.

AT&T’s iPhone users were up in arms this summer when the carrier enforced some limitations on FaceTime usage over its 3G cellular network. However, the company appears to have had a change of heart.

As of Wednesday, AT&T has started implementing less restrictive access to the iOS-enabled video chatting service. The company officially announced via its consumer blog that FaceTime over Cellular will be available for customers with a tiered data plan at no extra charge.

“When FaceTime over Cellular launched in September 2012, we explained that we wanted to roll it out gradually to ensure the service had minimal impact on the mobile experience for all of our customers,” AT&T’s Mark Collins wrote.

This also includes iPhone 4S users with tiered plans, who will now have the option to make FaceTime calls over AT&T’s cellular network. Previously, this function was only available for customers with a Mobile Share Plan and those using LTE-enabled devices on tiered plans.

However, there are still some limiting rules in place despite the carrier’s efforts to level with its user base. For example, FaceTime users with tiered data plans could use the service on an iPhone 5 via its LTE connection, but not with the iPhone 4S over HSPA+. None of these changes affect FaceTime usage over Wi-Fi networks, AT&T said.

“We have already begun updating our systems and processes and expect to start rolling the update out to customers on an ongoing basis beginning in the next couple of weeks,” Collins also wrote.

This update will automatically launch for AT&T subscribers in the coming weeks, but the company has not specified exactly when users will see this change. Back in August, AT&T sparked some conflict among users when it revealed that customers would have to pay a few extra bucks to use FaceTime over 3G by signing up for its Mobile Share Plan. The carrier also made it clear that it has the ability to block FaceTime sine it’s a pre-installed iPhone app.

“The FCC’s net neutrality rules do not regulate the availability to customers of applications that are preloaded on phones,” the company responded when referring to customer complaints concerning FaceTime in August. “Indeed, the rules do not require that providers make available any preloaded apps. Rather, they address whether customers are able to download apps that compete with our voice or video telephony services.”

Hopefully this is the beginning of a more flexible FaceTime policy from AT&T, but we’ll know more when the update rolls out.

Despite Ubisoft’s promises that Splinter Cell: Blacklist would hit retail shelves this Spring, a new trailer for the game reveals its release date to be August 20, 2013.

This morning, a new trailer emerged for Ubisoft’s upcoming stealth-action title Splinter Cell: Blacklist (which you can find embedded below this text). Ostensibly the trailer’s purpose is to demonstrate a number of the game’s novel gameplay elements, particularly protagonist Sam Fisher’s new stealth takedown attacks. The clip succeeds at this task, but it’s more notable for offering the first word on an official release date for Splinter Cell: Blacklist.

According to the final scenes of the video (along with the notice in the press release that attended it), Splinter Cell: Blacklist should hit store shelves on August 20, 2013. As far as anyone knows this is the date on which the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC iterations of the game will appear (though we wouldn’t be surprised to see Ubisoft delay one or more of these platforms’ releases either here in the US or abroad). We’ve contacted Ubisoft to see if the company would offer any further specifics on the release of Splinter Cell: Blacklist, but the “no comment” we received indicates that, at least for the moment, the company is unwilling or unable to divulge anything further.

Normally a release date reveal would serve as minor news on its own, but in this case things are bit more interesting. When Ubisoft first unveiled Splinter Cell: Blacklist at E3 2012 we were told that the game would appear at some point during the Spring of 2013. The Gallic publisher has often reiterated this release window as the official date for Splinter Cell: Blacklist since that time, and while it never officially cemented Spring for the game’s release, it comes as a shock to only learn of the game’s most recent official launch date by reaching the end of an otherwise unremarkable promotional trailer.

The key problem here is that this nonchalant revelation of what would normally be a pretty big announcement may indicate that Ubisoft might not afford Splinter Cell: Blacklist the appropriate level of promotional coverage it deserves. The change also signifies that the game has been delayed. The Spring date has been firm for months now, and the reveal of a late summer date signifies that something has changed.  That could be alarming, or it could be nothing at all. We may never know.

Assassin’s Creed III received a massive marketing push, and while it was a good game, most players would agree that it stands as objectively inferior to Far Cry 3, another Ubisoft title which was released a bit more than a month after ACIII. Unfortunately, the phenomenal Far Cry 3 has been largely overshadowed by the earlier game, at least as far as sales go, which we fear will convince Ubisoft that its choice to focus almost entirely on the more lucrative franchise is the correct one. Unless Ubisoft is willing to put considerable weight behind its ad blitz, Splinter Cell: Blacklist might just fade quietly into the shadows.

Here’s something all you productivity nuts will love: a way to easily and quickly sign documents directly within your Gmail account.

In August 2012, the makers of HelloFax – an application that you can use to fill out forms on your computer – came out with a service called HelloSign that lets you digitally sign documents. Today, the HelloSign team released a new Gmail plugin that gives you the power to sign documents without having to download, print, and scan them. All you need to do is click a link next to the attachment and hope you can control a mouse well enough to write your signature.

Digital signature apps are nothing new. We’ve been using a number of them on our computers, Android, and iOS devices for quite some time. HelloSign’s new plug-in was designed to make the process even faster, which is especially nice if you have a job that requires you to sign a ton of documents on a regular basis.

To install the plug-in, either visit HelloSign’s Gmail page, or search for “HelloSign for Gmail” in the Chrome Web Store. Due to the influx of new users, we kept getting errors while trying to install it through the website. Thankfully, it worked when we tried installing it via the Chrome Web Store. 

After you’ve installed HelloSign for Gmail, can check out any old email with a document attached. There, you should see a new option beside “View” and “Download” that says “Sign.” Clicking this will load your document in a pop-up window. You can choose to use an old signature you’ve saved, draw your signature in using your mouse or graphics tablet, or just simply type your name. When you’re done, click the Save and Attached button, and the signed document automatically becomes an email attachment.

We initially had a lot of trouble getting documents to load, probably due to the same reason why we couldn’t sign up via the website’s Gmail portal, but it finally worked after a number of tries. We reached out to the HelloSign team who confirmed the service was having temporary issues; hopefully, things will work more smoothly in the future. 

 Check out the video below for a walkthrough of HelloSign for Gmail. 

After initially launching in Canada only, Facebook has now rolled out its free-to-call feature to Messenger for iPhone users in the United States as well.

Earlier this month, Facebook introduced new voice calling and messaging features to its Messenger apps – however, the updates were available to our Northern neighbors only. Today, the social network has pushed the new functions our way as well. If you’re a U.S. or Canadian resident with an iPhone, you can now call any other user over Wi-Fi or using your data plan – so long as the person you’re trying to call has an iPhone and the app as well.

Now when you open Messenger (after updating it, of course) and choose a contact, you will see a small “i” icon in the upper right-hand corner. Hitting this opens up a page with a “Free Call” option.

Call quality is decent: You don’t avoid the constant, quiet static of a VoIP call, but it’s surprisingly clear with little cut out. Speaker phone, as you would expect, cuts down on that clarity a little, but it isn’t a huge sacrifice.

When would you ever use this, you ask? There are a handful of scenarios: When you have bad cell service; when you’re low on minutes – and really, truly, the most convenient use is when you need to get in touch with someone whose number you don’t have. As long as you’re Facebook friends and they have updated Messenger for iPhone, you’re good to go. Of course, that means… if you have Messenger for iPhone, anyone you’re Facebook friends with can call you.

And there you have it. Facebook now does phone. 

Yet another rumor has surfaced indicating that Samsung’s next “phablet” will get even bigger in its third generation.

Huawei’s recently unveiled 6.1-inch Ascend Mate may be the largest smartphone in the world, but it might not hold that title for too long. Samsung is reportedly preparing to launch a larger version of its Galaxy Note with a monstrous 6.3-inch display.

Like most other Samsung smartphone rumors, this bit of news comes from the Korea Times. This alleged boost in screen size would mark an increase of about .8-inches compared to the already massive 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2. According to the Korean news source, Samsung will use the next Galaxy Note handset as a flagship to showcase its forthcoming Exynos Octa processor later this year. The current “phablet” device boasts a quad-core Exynos chip, but this new unit could potentially pack double the speed and power.

As Samsung bolsters its plans for what could be its next major smartphone launch, the manufacturer also appears to be loosening its ties with rival Apple. The Korea-based company is allegedly pitching some of its processing products to smartphone makers in China in order to reduce its dependency on the Cupertino, Calif.-based iPhone creator. So far, Samsung has reportedly reached out to manufacturers such as Huawei and ZTE for collaboration.

“We have introduced the Exynos 5 Octa to appeal to Chinese clients and diversify our client base in China with better pricing and output commitment,” a senior Samsung executive said to the Korea Times.

Huawei hasn’t spoken much on the matter, but an executive did reportedly confirm that the company has been in talks with Samsung.

“Yes, we were approached by Samsung,” the unnamed official said to the Korea Times. “If the firm offers favorable conditions, there’s no reason to deny the new business.”

This isn’t the first time that the Korea Times has reported that a new Galaxy Note device is in the works. The news source revealed that the Note 2’s successor would have a lengthy 6.3-inch screen about one month ago. While this may not necessarily be new information, the fact that this news is resurfacing is sure to further fuel the rumor mill.

We’re not sure when Samsung plans to reveal or launch another Galaxy Note, but we’ll be interested to see what the company has in store at next month’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Valve’s Joe Ludwig will give a particularly intriguing talk at this year’s Game Developers Conference, providing insight not just their development process but the future of their growing hardware business.

Valve’s nascent hardware business slowly started to peak out into the public at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. Xi3’s tiny prototype all-in-one PC made for the living room gave the world its first tangible taste of just what kind of gaming machine Valve wants to slap its name onto. Over the past twelve months though, Valve has hinted that it’s working on far more than just a box that runs video games. It’s also working on new interfaces, possibly game controllers, and redesigned keyboard-mouse combinations. “Wearable Computing” is a big part of Valve’s research, and virtual reality-style headsets are a part of its vision. The quiet company will talk in detail about how it sees games working with VR headsets at this year’s GDC.

Valve programmer Joe Ludwig is scheduled to give a talk at the 2013 Game Developers Conference entitled “What We Learned Porting Team Fortress 2 to Virtual Reality.”

“Several people at Valve spent the past year exploring various forms of wearable computing,” reads the talk description, “The wearable effort included porting Team Fortress 2 to run in virtual reality goggles. Topics covered include an overview of what stereo support entails, rendering 2D user interface in a 90 degree field of view display, dealing with view models and other rendering shortcuts, and how mouselook can interact with head tracking in a first person shooter. In addition to the lessons that apply to Team Fortress 2, there are also several lessons that would apply to any new virtual reality game.”

A number of developers have been working hard to convert existing first-person video games for VR headsets over the past couple of year. Id’s John Carmack (Doom, Quake) in particular demoed the HD remastered Doom 3: BFG Edition with a VR headset at a number of public events in 2012. “Sony and Microsoft are going to fight over gigaflops and teraflops and GPUs and all this. In the end, it won’t make that much difference,” said Carmack after E3 2012, “In the end, it won’t make that much difference. When you get to this, it really makes a big difference in the experience. Nintendo went and brought motion into the gaming sphere and while only having a tenth of the processing power was able to outsell all of them in all of these ways. I think someone has an opportunity to do this here [with VR headsets]. It takes a whole ecosystem though, but it is almost perfect.”

Valve may well be the company that seizes that opportunity.

We sit down with Avalanche Studios CEO John Blackburn to chat about the course of Disney Infinity’s development and the studio’s future plans for the platform.

Some of my fondest childhood playtime memories involve epic fantasy wars waged between G.I. Joes, Transformers, Matchbox cars, and Star Wars figures. These improbable franchise crossovers are the stuff of youthful fantasizing everywhere. The playing pieces change from generation to generation, but the appeal bringing together favorite characters from different universes remains the same. In an era that has seen interactive entertainment evolve significantly, and a successful marriage of physical toys and virtual worlds thanks to properties like Activision’s Skylanders franchise, it was only a matter of time before someone got the bright idea of pairing those long-remembered epic battles of yesteryear with the new-fangled joys of video games.

Fortunately for the kid in all of us, it’s Disney that got there first.

Building A Better Toy Box

Disney Infinity is the product of a multi-year collaboration between Avalanche Studios, the developer behind many of Disney’s more recent movie tie-in games, and the entertainment enterprise’s animation division, led by former Pixar chief John Lasseter. If you read Anthony’s report yesterday, then you already know that Infinity is equal parts Skylanders, LittleBigPlanet, and Minecraft. Physical toys serve double-duty as kid-friendly memory cards that store character information, but there’s also a significant content creation component in the game’s Toy Box mode. It’s an astonishingly ambitious set of bullet points that describe Infinity‘s myriad features, but it’s easy enough to grasp for those of us who remember bygone days of dumping out the toy box to stage an epic crossover.

“[With Disney Infinity], we wanted to emulate the way kids play, and so we needed to give you a lot of technological power to do that,” Avalanche CEO John Blackburn told us in an interview yesterday. The initial idea for the new endeavor actually came from the studio’s Toy Story 3 game, a well-received movie tie-in that scored points with critics for its Toybox mode, which allowed players to create full levels of their own, complete with a lineup of player-designated characters and missions. Completing objectives in the game would unlock more toys to play and design with in Toybox, resulting in a very satisfying feedback loop.

“We really felt when we did that one that we had found something that really resonated with people. Just seeing the way our own families played the game after the game was made, [we realized that] there was something kind of new and different here. It was creative gameplay, but it also had a deep moveset along with it, so it really allowed you to play in different ways. If you’re a customizer, you could do that. If you wanted to play more action gameplay, you could do that. That whole concept of buying which toys you want to bring into your world, we just felt like that was a cool paradigm,” Blackburn explained.

Avalanche was working on a follow-up that would elaborate on some of the successful ideas at play in Toy Story 3 when Disney Interactive co-president John Pleasants joined the company. It was Pleasants who pointed at the work that Activision was doing with Skylanders and suggested that Avalanche think more along the line of building a platform. From there, Disney Infinity was born.

“It was a really natural thing for us to go, ‘Look, if we can think about this as a platform for all of our franchises at Disney [it could be huge].’ Disney had been hesitant to do this in the past, but we haven’t had… an idea that the creative leaders of the company could get behind. We realized that the toys are the way to do this. We do it at theme parks, and it works to bring all the characters together there,” Blackburn said. “This was a way to support more properties by making everything into a toy and letting them support each other, and then they can kind of come into this Toy Box mode together. This was fall 2010 that we were doing this, and so we started to design virtual toys back then.”

In the years that followed, Avalanche worked quietly to build this loose set of ideas into the package that was at last revealed yesterday. The idea that started as a Toy Story 3 follow-up is now very much the sort of platform that Pleasants envisioned. Player profiles will be connected across all platforms that Infinity can be played on by the Disney ID infrastructure, while character progression data is stored with the action figures. The toys also double as gateways into the different franchise-specific Playsets, each of which offer roughly 4-6 hours of play, and up to 10 or more for the serious completionists.

Delivering Infinity In A Finite Space

The bigger challenge that Disney and Avalanche face is carrying player content across platforms from different manufacturers. The profile tied to your Disney ID is analogous to similar services maintained by other publishers, such as Electronic Arts’ Origin or Ubisoft’s Uplay. There have been some advances in the direction of true cross-platform play, notably with EA’s CloudCompete allowing for progression in Need for Speed: Most Wanted to carry between different paltforms, but these are details that still need to be worked out for Infinity .

“What we’re trying to do is make this as seamless as possible for the consumer, and [the platform holders] have all gotten on board with sharing the data that we can store to the physical toy. [This includes] the level of that toy, how much experience it has, and the economy that goes along with it. You can [improve your character] on any platform and then take the progress back and forth on the toy. When you get back on your primary device and you hook in your Disney ID, we then resolve what the latest state is of those things. So we can share basic information back and forth on the physical toys,” Blackburn said.

Dealing with created worlds and minigames across multiple platforms in Infinity‘s Toy Box mode is much trickier, but Blackburn explained that Avalanche is set on going bigger than just shared character data. “Right now we are trying to work [more cross-platform support] out with the hardware manufacturers,” he said. “A lot of them are willing to allow us to go back and forth to PC right now. It’s almost as if PC is like Switzerland. The problem with that becomes almost like laundering content through Switzerland. There’s technically no reason why we can’t do that right now, but we need to make sure all the platform manufacturers are comfortable with how we’re handling that content.”

To Infinity… And Beyond!

There are bigger question marks about the mobile execution of Disney Infinity. Blackburn shied away from answering any question relating to a possible PlayStation Vita release and he spoke only in general terms about how the game might look on other mobile platforms. “We’re definitely optimizing the mobile experience for both the timeframe that users usually play on the device as well as the [touch-based control scheme]. It’s not exactly like a character management sort of thing, but it is something that allows you to play with those unlocked toys that you’ve acquired in your collection and then make the transference of economy and experience meaningful,” he said.

Portable play aside, touchscreens create some interesting possibilities on the creation side of things. Blackburn even said outright that Infinity‘s user-generated content controls “works better on a point and click interface.” The Wii U is already confirmed as a supported launch platform, and the GamePad’s touch interace will indeed be used in world creation, but Microsoft’s SmartGlass and Sony’s PS Vita, which has the ability to double as a touch-enabled PlayStation 3 controller on certain games, present similar opportunities. Even Apple’s iPad is in the mix, as Blackburn confirms that the second-gen iOS tablet and its successors can all support the console/PC version of Infinity.

The June launch promises to deliver an elaborate, multi-faceted on-disc experience in Infinity, but it’s also only a starting point. “I totally want Marvel and Star Wars to be in here,” Blackburn said, referring to the two relatively recent Disney acquisitions. “As a developer, yes, I would love that, but those discussion are actually going on at a higher level in the company. There hasn’t been a decision made on that yet. There are so many possibilities with all the different characters from both of those franchises, it would be awesome to be able to have that.”

Beyond that, there’s also the creation aspect of the game. It’s a really cool thing to put your action figure down on a USB-powered pad and have it suddenly appear in your video game, but even cooler is the possibility of creating something – say, your Pirates of the Caribbean sailing ship – and then spending a little money to buy a physical replica of your virtual creation. MakerBot and similar technology is already capable of making that a reality, and it’s an avenue that Avalanche wants to explore.

“There’s been some pretty interesting discussion and some pretty cool technologies that we’ve looked at,” Blackburn said. “Right now, it is not in the plan, but I think that it is a very fertile area that we could go into.”

Simple, the exclusive invitation-only bank that claims to help you spend better, has just released a beautiful new native app for Android.

Banking from your phone is nothing new. For years, you could dial in and make a transaction from a phone number, but these days almost all major banks offer their own mobile application on iOS or Android. A mobile app from a bank allows you to track your activity, make transfers, or even (for a select few) make deposits with your camera. Simple, a new and exclusive internet bank, has just released its own Android app onto the Play store.

The Simple mobile app has a clean and intuitive design much like many other top Android apps. Like any banking app, you can manage your activity, make transfers, and even deposit checks with your camera from anywhere. As an internet bank, having these features on a mobile app is absolutely essential these days. Another unique feature of Simple is the ability manage your “Goals,” Simple’s method of helping you finance your life with goal setting and telling you what amount of your money is spendable

Simple hopes to be the alternative bank you’ve been looking for by working with you, not against you, to help you finance your life. While it has very few bells and whistles you’ve come to expect from any bank, such as financing opportunities, credit cards, or even CDs, Simple claims it isn’t like any other bank by offering tools to help your better manage your money. The app took several months to develop and is a completely native program, and while we haven’t had a chance yet to see what the company offers behind its invite-only service, early reviews of the app are positive. While some banks just rehash iOS ports or even just direct users to a mobile version of their website, it’s nice to see a company investing heavily in their mobile services.

Simple maintains its value behind an air of exclusivity as an invitation-only service. While we’re not exactly sure how it matches up against other internet banks such as Ally or ING, you can still check out their app on Google Play. Then again, you won’t be able to see much without logging on. Even as it remains exclusive, Simple is a welcome member to the Android Army.

We check out MultiTouch’s MultiTaction, a product that seems to offer the impossible: unlimited touch sensitivity across multiple displays. Does it deliver?

Touch was as popular at CES 2013 as ever before. Wandering the floor of the South Hall where most hardware companies set up shop, we ran into a slew of touch tables, touch displays, and touch PCs – though few appeared to be anything strikingly new.

However, one company named MultiTouch stood out from the crowd. Other companies no doubt envy MultiTouch for having the foresight to capture such a recognizable moniker, but the company’s name is more than just hype – it’s also its killer feature. Unlike most touchscreens that can only handle 10-point touch, the company’s displays allow for unlimited touch points.

Yes, that’s right; unlimited, as in infinite. We had the chance to take a look at the technology at MultiTouch’s booth, which featured a large wall made up of six separate 55-inch MultiTaction touchscreen displays. A multitude of enraptured onlookers attacked it with swipes, waggles, and prods; and no matter the number of  people with hands on the screen, each poke was promptly detected.

Rather than using capacitive touch, which is found in smartphones and computers, MultiTaction relies on optical technology. It shoots infrared light through the display panel and looks for reflections. The intensity of reflected light can tell the display if someone – or something – is touching it.

MultiTaction can detect human hands and inanimate objects with equal ease. It can even detect high-contrast details printed on an object. MultiTouch demonstrated this with blocks slapped with black-and-white diagrams that could be used to modify sound. The blocks let users turn sound effects on or off by placing them on or removing them from the display, which detected these objects accurately and instantly. It could even detect when an object was rotated on the display’s surface. 

All of this movement can be tracked with a custom backend that lets the owner of the displays see how they’re being used in real-time. This could be useful for store owners wanting to see what products their shoppers are interested in, as well in the educational sector, to be able to monitor how students are interacting with the display.

Though impressive, MultiTaction isn’t perfect. The technology requires that the displays be about eight inches thick, which is quite fat considering some of the super slim all-in-ones we’ve recently seen. Besides that, it doesn’t work properly in an extremely bright environment. Indoor lighting is fine, however. The other major downfall is that these high-tech displays don’t come cheap. You’ll have to pay $22,450 for the 55-inch model. 

That’s a lot of dough, but the high price is acceptable and even expected since MultiTaction is not a consumer product. It’s built for businesses, schools, museums, and other large organizations that may want to create a unique touch-sensitive display unlike anything possible with off-the-shelf technology. And while it might be a while before we’re able to buy an affordable MultiTouch display, we can still dream. We hope technology like this might one day turn a research project like Microsoft’s Holodeck into a device we can enjoy at home.

Missouri Rep. Diane Franklin proposes that the best way to curb the sale of violent video games is through sales tax. What is a violent video game you ask? Anything rated T for Teen and up by the ESRB, including games like You Don’t Know Jack.

The United States Supreme Court ruled that video games are protected speech, no different than books, paintings, or films, when it ruled on Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in 2011. That case struck down the 2005 California state law that banned the sale of violent video games to people under the age of 18, and required additional warnings on the package beyond the ESRB ratings system. The Court found the law unconstitutional, just as many district courts had found similar laws previously. That doesn’t stop people from trying, though. Missouri is now attempting to curb the sale of violent games by imposing a tax on them.

More specifically, State Representative Diane Franklin (R) has introduced House Bill No. 157, calling for a 1-percent sales tax placed on all violent video games sold in the Show-Me state. The bill employs a liberal definition of just what constitutes a “violent” video game:

“[The] term ‘violent video game’ means a video or computer game that has received a rating from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board of Teen, Mature, or Adult Only.”

The majority of games sporting the ESRB’s M for Mature rating do feature explicit violence and in many cases sex, as do the mere twenty-two games to receive the Adults Only rating over the past nineteen years. That games rated T for Teen is included under the bill’s definition betrays the author’s profound ignorance of the media in question.

Consider some of the games rated Teen currently on Amazon.com’s best-seller list. Titles include: You Don’t Know Jack, Forza Horizon, and Dance Central 3, whose most violent content is bright colors. The most violent T-rated games on the list are Star Wars Kinect and StarCraft II, games whose fantasy violence is roughly comparable to the first fifteen seconds of a thirty-second commercial for NCIS on CBS. Television shows are naturally not included in the proposal, though, nor are movies or books.

Rep. Franklin’s bill is unlikely to be signed into state law, and if it is, it will be struck down as swiftly as similar legislation proposed in Oklahoma, New Mexico, and California.

While LG has never been one of the most “high-end” brands on the market, the Optimus G and LG Nexus 4 certainly helped prove that they were quite capable of providing a product that was both well-designed and quite powerful.

While the LG Nexus 4 and LG Optimus G haven’t been on the market very long, that’s not stopping constant rumors from suggesting that the LG Nexus 4 and LG Optimus G2 are already in the works. In fact, some rumors indicated the G2 would even show up at CES 2013.

As you probably already know, it was a no show, but that doesn’t stop rumors. Now there are two conflicting rumors about the Optimus G2. Some say it will arrive at MWC in February for its first unveiling and will feature a quad-core processor and a full 5.5-inch HD display under the name Optimus GK.

Then there are some folks that say the Optimus G2 isn’t coming until Fall with Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie in tow.

It’s hard to say which rumor is true, or if any of them are. The good news for LG is that people have taken notice of the Optimus G and Nexus 4 enough to actually buzz about its next-generation offerings. Are you excited about the idea of LG releasing a more powerful Optimus G2 in the not-too-far future?

Goichi Suda hasn’t directed a game in his Assassin series since 2008. Now Grasshopper Manufacture’s iconic creator is going back to the well with ‘Killer is Dead,’ a new action game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

It’s been quite awhile since we got a proper Suda 51 game. Grasshopper Manufacture has seen its star rise over the past five years, working with more and more well-funded publishers. The scrappy studio that had to scrape together games like Michigan: Report from Hell ten years ago, now gets its backing from the likes of Warner Bros. Entertainment for games like the James Gunn-penned Lollipop Chainsaw. As its profile has inflated, though, its signature creator has stepped back from actually directing games. This week Goichi Suda offered up the very first details of Killer is Dead, an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game that brings the game maker back to the games that garnered him critical recognition a decade ago.

Speaking with Famitsu Magazine (as translated by Polygon), Suda said that Killer is Dead is an entry in his Assassin series that began with the Capcom-published Killer 7 back in 2005, and continued in No More Heroes on Wii.

“Development has already been ongoing for an extended period of time,” said Suda, “It’s the first game in the ‘assassin’ series that Grasshopper Manufacture has worked on in a while, a title that picks up where Killer 7 and No More Heroes left off.”

“It’s not trying to regress into the past. We’re trying to make a game that we’d only be able to make right now, at this point in time. The result is seen in our unique high-contrast shading seen in the graphics, as well as the high speed wrestling-like action.”

Killer is Dead follows 35-year-old assassin Mondo Zappa after he’s hired by a clandestine organization that sends him around a future world where cyborgs are commonplace and the moon has been colonized. The smooth James Bond-like character wields a sword and has a Mega Man-style gun arm. “It’s the story of a man who doesn’t show himself much in the public world, but still worms his way into society and mercilessly eliminates the evil dispersed in it. It’s a personal story, not one that’s conscious of the chaos going on in the real world at the moment, but you might get more than a taste of that in the end anyway.”

It’s encouraging to hear that Suda 51 is returning to the style of his most inspired work. The Massimo Guarini-directed Shadows of the Damned, Tomo Ikeda-directed Lollipop Chainsaw, and Tohsihiro Fujikawa-directed No More Heroes 2 all bore Suda’s characteristic surreality, but they all lacked the creative spark and confrontational difficulty of Killer 7 and No More Heroes.

Killer is Dead will be out in Japan this summer.

Before Windows Phone, the market was plagued with dull, industrialized blacks, greys and whites, so I’m glad that Nokia have stepped back into the scene to add a bit of color to things.

The Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia’s 2012 flagship device has been released in many different colors, but because demand has been so high, getting hold of anything but the black version has been difficult.

If you’ve been looking to get hold of a colored device, you may be happy to hear that Rogers will soon be offering new colors to their inventory of Lumia 920s. In their blog they have said they will be getting stock for the Nokia Windows Phone in red, yellow and white. The new colors will be available both in-store and online within the next couple of weeks, and to celebrate the long-awaited arrival of stock, and to say thank you to all the patient customers, Rogers are hosting a competition to give customers a chance to win a brand new Lumia 920 for themselves.

The competition requires contestants to write a post on Rogers’ official blog explaining what color they are most excited about and what they are hoping to do with a new Lumia 920 in 150 words or less. The comp is up till January 31^st, and official rules can be seen on the Rogers blog post.

Are you excited about being able to get your hands on a colored handset from Rogers? Or are you happy enough with the typical black color that is more widely available?

If the rumor about Lenovo’s entry into the Chromebooks space is true, you might be getting a Chromebook from your company instead of the usual Windows laptop this year.

You might not have taken a Chromebook out for a spin yet, but the Google-powered laptops are reportedly doing so well in the education sector that corporate America wants a model of its own. According to The Street’s Anton Wahlman, a Chromebook especially made for the corporate sector might well be on its way. However, it won’t be made by the Chromebook’s previous OEMs, Samsung or Acer. Instead, rumor has it that it’ll be designed and manufactured by Lenovo. 

Wahlman says schools and educational institutions that have opted to adopt Chromebooks for teachers and students have saved a lot of money since the devices don’t need extensive maintenance. Windows computers have apparently been costing companies hundreds to thousands of dollars per unit in maintenance, software installations, and upgrades – costs that can potentially be crossed off of companies’ expense lists if their employees use Chromebooks. 

Instead of quickly making the switch by getting any of Samsung’s or Acer’s Chromebooks, companies have requested Lenovo release its own. The ThinkPad has been a staple for years in many offices around the country, and businesses trust the quality of Lenovo’s products. While Lenovo has yet to confirm whether it will actually release a Chromebook for the corporate sector, Wahlman says the company might make the announcement in May. Specs and pricing will be similar to those of previously released models.

Corporations are allegedly only looking to replace 10 percent to 20 percent of their Windows computers with Chromebooks, but Wahlman believes those numbers are enough to strongly affect Microsoft, which is aggressively trying to get more people to use Windows 8. 

If you’ve ever worried about how companies use your private information online, you’re not as powerless as you think. DeleteMe Mobile lets you delete your online information from your phone, keeping your data out of data miners’ hands

It’s become a fact of life that, however you use the Internet, the personal information you enter online is up for grabs. It’s not just Google and Facebook; data brokers like Intelius and Axciom exist to mine information on behalf of companies looking to serve you content. This practice is done opaquely and without giving the user the means to opt out.

Even as organizations like the Federal Trade Commission do battle with such companies to ensure your right to privacy, it’s easy to feel powerless in the face of these massive corporations. Thankfully, users are afforded some recourse — in the form of sites like DeleteMe and MyPrivacy — when it comes to deleting the information they simply don’t want shared. Now, with DeleteMe Mobile, you can do it from your iPhone.

DeleteMe Mobile, like its desktop counterpart, is an effort by online privacy outfit Abine to make keeping track of and deleting sensitive information about you online simple and away from people without your best interests in mind, be they advertisers or stalkers.

“These are sites that a probably selling a lot of personal data,” said Abine privacy analyst Sarah Downey. “Where you’ve lived for the past 20 years. What you do. Overwhelmingly people don’t want to be on these sites. These sites can take people from not knowing where you live to your front door.”

When opening the app, the user is required to enter a minimal amount of information. Then, the app searches for information that matches the user’s data across more than 50 data tracking companies on the Web. The user can then delete what matches their own information. The bulk of the heavy lifting is done by Abine, but Abine also offers data deletion instructions on their website for free.

DeleteMe Mobile is available for free in the App Store, giving users one free record removal. Users can also sign up for three months of service for $24.99.

A list of the best iPad games available now in the iTunes App Store, regularly updated with great new titles and releases.

Apple fanboys may go on and on about how the iPad will change the world of computing forever, but we know why you really bought an iPad: games. Racing games, strategy games, MMORPGs, they’re all lining the virtual shelves of the iTunes App Store, waiting to be downloaded. How do you choose from a virtual marketplace brimming with so many choices — some good and some horrible? With a little help from your friends, of course. And by that, we mean us. Below are our constantly evolving picks for best iPad games.

Also check out our picks for The Best iPad Apps, The Best iPhone Games, and The Best iPhone Apps.

Clash of Clans (Free)

Instantly accessible real-time strategy is what you’ll find in Clash of Clans. Build a camp, raise an army, and defeat your foe. Resources accrue slowly and you always have the option of splashing out some real cash to acquire in-game gems and speed things along. There’s a single-player campaign that will see you well versed in the basics and ready you for the perils of multiplayer. It’s cute, it’s addictive, and it’s popular.

Splice: Tree of Life ($4)

We are suckers for gorgeous looking puzzlers here at DT and Splice: Tree of Life really fits the bill. You have more than 70 levels to beat and each one gives you a limited number of moves to match the existing cell structure. It’s relaxing and immersive as you get drawn into each puzzle and think your way towards a winning strategy to a soundtrack of piano music. It manages to challenge without growing frustrating which makes it a game you’ll return to again and again.

Jetpack Joyride (Free)

A jetpack would probably be too great a temptation for any of us; it certainly was for Barry Steakfries, the player character in this frenetic side-scrolling action game. The basic aim is just to survive in the face of an ever-increasing array of obstacles and weaponry. You’ll enjoy various power-ups in the guise of gadgets and vehicles, along the way, but you’ll need to work hard to collect coins and think carefully about what to buy with them.

Jet Set Radio ($5)

Sega is working on porting its old back catalogue and the good news is that it has reached this Dreamcast classic. You play as a gang member in Tokyo and you have to skate around the city tagging everything in sight with your own brand of graffiti. The original soundtrack, the gorgeous cel-shaded graphics, and the quirky Japanese plot are all present and correct. Control issues take the shine off it a little, but this is still well worth five bucks.

Bad Piggies HD ($1)

It’s about time the villains of Angry Birds got a game of their own (that isn’t a cheap clone of the original). This release from Rovio is every bit as polished as its smash hit mobile sensation and it features exactly the same cute, cartoon art style. The challenge is to construct contraptions, in the shape of vehicles or flying machines, which can convey your pigs to an end point in each level. If you’re clever, you’ll work out how to grab the bonus pick-ups along the way and hit that finish flag within the time limit. It’s creative, addictive, and offers lots of fun for the whole family.

Trigger Fist ($3)

This reminds us of the early Counter Strike days. It’s a multiplayer, third-person shooter with a nice streamlined approach that works well for mobile devices. There’s basically no y-axis, so aiming is a simple matter of side-to-side shooting and that makes it much more accessible. You’ve got four multiplayer modes across six maps and that’s the perfect recipe for some old-fashioned fragfest fun. You can unlock a bunch of weapons, skins, and perks as you go. The AI is actually fairly decent, but multiplayer with friends or strangers is where it’s really at.

The Room ($5)

Explore the mysterious and atmospheric world of The Room on your iPad. This puzzle game challenges you to unlock the secrets of a series of boxes by manipulating your view to find keyholes or sliding panels. It’s beautifully crafted, with an ambient soundtrack and totally absorbing gameplay. The creepy sense of exploration sucks you in and won’t let go, gnawing away, until you have solved the final puzzle. It is short and there’s nothing really innovative about it, but it is polished and feels like more than the sum of its parts.

The World Ends With You: Solo Remix for iPad ($20)

You won’t find many games this expensive on the iPad, but The World Ends with You is a deep, involved mystery that combines various genres of gameplay to create an immersive experience that will keep you amused for hours and hours. This was a cult classic on the Nintendo DS and legendary Japanese developer, Square Enix, is behind it. It is a seriously stylish anime adventure with an amazing 60-song soundtrack. It is set in Shibuya in Japan and you’re tasked with defeating the Reapers through a series of missions and planned, touch and swipe combat that can get seriously chaotic. It’s typically tough to explain, but if you’re a JRPG fan then you’ll love it.

Tiny Wings HD ($3)

Tiny Wings got its start on the small screen of the iPhone, but it is all grown up now. The premise of the game is simple: you are a bird who’s wings are too small to get you off the ground so you have to use the terrain to help you get off the ground. The game play is easy to learn but hard to master, and the whimsical art is hard to not love. With the iPad version, you get three different play styles, including a head to head mode where you and a friend compete in some rocking split screen action.

Asphalt 7: Heat ($1) 

As you can tell from the name, this isn’t the first game in this series, but Gameloft seems to have gotten it right. This racing game is one part arcade racer, one part racing sim, and 100% beautiful. The graphics on this game are impressive, even more so on a retina display, but it’s the game play that will keep you coming back for more. There are several different types of challenges for you to concur, and a seemingly endless list of dream cars for you to buy. If you don’t feel like using the iPad as one giant steering wheel there is an option to have onscreen controls, but where’s the fun in that?

Castle Master 3D (Free)

Don’t let the cartoonish graphics fool you this game is in depth. The goal of the game is to expand your empire, and take over nearby castles. To do this you have to build up your kingdom by taking care of your population, building infrastructure, recruit an army, all while worrying about your popularity. Leading your army into battle is always thrilling, and defeating the larger defending force never gets old. Being a free game there is of course places for you to purchase upgrades or ways to speed up your game, but they are tastefully done, and don’t get in the way of the gameplay.

Draw Something Free (Free)

Playing Draw Something on the iPad is almost identical to playing it on your phone. It’s just a bit… easier to get the details right. The resolution has been bumped up to work on the third iPad’s Retina display as well, though you’ll still find the menus ridiculously large. For those who haven’t played, this is a game best connected to Facebook. You draw a picture and your friend tries to guess what it is, and then vice versa. It sounds silly, but the simple ideas are sometimes the best.

Angry Birds Space HD ($3)

Like its predecessor, Angry Birds Space will probably make its way to every casual games list we have, but one of the best places to play it will always be the iPad. Space takes the Angry Birds formula and changes gravity, allowing you to whip birds around planets and knock pig satellites out of orbit. It’s a bit geekier than the original, but we like it. Be warned, the difficulty of Space seems a bit uneven and the game is shorter than its predecessors. Check out our full Angry Birds Space review.

Temple Run (Free)

Temple Run has finally come to Android, but it’s been on iOS since 2011. The gist of the game is pretty simple. You have clearly trespassed on ancient ruins where you don’t belong and are now fleeing from a bunch of evil monkey creatures. To survive, you must swipe up, down, left, or right, and tilt the iPad to dodge obstacles and collect coins. The key to this game is its simplicity and tight controls. When you swipe down to slide, you instinctively know just how far you’ll go. The precision controls have made it a hit and definitely worth checking out.

Gears (Free)

Gears is a pretty, 3D adaptation of a very old type of game. You must guide a ball through a maze of gears and obstacles, collect coins, and make it to the end of each level. Games like these typically don’t have a story, but Gears is surprisingly epic. The sphere you are guiding by moving your finger around is a high tech healing device that has to make its way through the engine of an ancient city to keep its residents alive. If you fail, all of mankind will perish. Pretty heavy stuff, right? Presentation is where Gears shines. 

Fruit Ninja HD ($4)

This game is one of the simplest, most addictive, and most popular games in the iPad game market. Users use finger swipes to slice and dice a variety of fruits as they fly across the screen in a veritable fruit salad. Slice multiple fruits with just one swipe and you’ll get extra bonus points. The game runs on a three-strikes-you’re-out rule, only allowing users to miss three different fruits before they’re out of the game. The more fruits you slice, the better your score, unless you accidentally slice a flying bomb, in which case your game ends then and there. Several different playing modes keep things interesting, and users can play alone of in a multiplayer version.

Plants vs. Zombies HD ($7)

The iPad proves to be yet another winning platform for this casual gaming legend from the maestros at Popcap. As the name would suggest, you’ll need to plant a yard full of anthropomorphic mushrooms, peas, sunflowers and other vegetation to battle it out with wave after wave of invading zombies. A classic tower defense game, sure, but Popcap’s wit, achievements and colorful animation elevate it to a title you won’t be able to put down.

Angry Birds HD ($5)

If you haven’t heard of Angry Birds by now, you’ve probably been living under a technological rock for some time. The simple action game is one of the most popular games across virtually all mobile platforms, but it first gained traction with the iPhone and iPad. The story goes that some angry green pigs stole eggs from their bird neighbors, making the birds, you guessed it, very angry. Users slingshot squawking birds towards the pigs’ fortresses in an attempt to destroy them and move on to the next level.

Harbor Master (Free)

A retake on the classic Flight Control substitutes boats for planes but loses none of the fun factor in the process – and this one’s free. Players must use their fingers to direct a never-ending barrage of boats to docks for unloading and then safely out of the harbor. Lines will help you visualize where your freighters are headed, but be prepared for frantic redirection, near misses and eventually a game-ending collision when the boats start to flood in.

Real Racing HD ($5)

Need to justify your $800 iPad purchase to a group of skeptical friends who claim it’s just an oversized iPod Touch? Download Real Racing HD. Awkward turn-to-steer controls aside, it’s one of the best-looking games available on the system, and discards the flashy arcade-style action of Need for Speed: Shift in favor of realistic, simulator-style driving.

Labyrinth 2 HD ($8)

No, it’s not a sequel to the 1986 David Bowie movie shot in HD. Instead, Labyrinth 2 HD emulates the ball-in-a-maze toys you probably had as a kid, with the same object: Get the ball from point A to point B. But those wooden toys never had the same barriers you’ll find here, which include not just holes but cannons, magnets, carousels and lasers. The game responds realistically to the iPad’s internal accelerometers, and even subtly shifts the viewpoint to create the illusion you’re really looking into a 3D box. Try the “Lite” version for a taste of the game before springing for the real thing.

Scrabble ($10)

The most classic of word games has made its way to the iPad with fun features for Apple lovers. First of all, the board game looks even better than before on the comfortably-large iPad screen, making gameplay more realistic. Users can play up to 25 different matches, connect with friends on Facebook, pay the Pass N’ Play mode, or find a game via Local Networks. Second, the most innovative feature comes into play for Apple fans who want to play together in person. Now users can use iPhones or iPod Touches as personal tile racks and virtually flick tiles from a device onto the iPad game board.

Mondo Solitaire ($6)

The same game that helped you survive mind-numbing shifts at your first cubicle job and hours stuck in school computer labs can now keep you sane on the train to work, plane to New York, or just occupied during commercials on the couch. Mondo Solitaire turns your iPad into a portable card table with the familiar Solitaire layout you know and love from Windows 3.0 and up, but with updated graphics and slick animated card flipping. The app offers “100 games and over 200 different combinations of gameplay” and is sure to contain the classics like FreeCell and Klondike along with many new games that you’ve likely never seen before.

GodFinger All-Stars (Free)

Take Black & White, cuten it up for the iPad, add simplified multitouch controls and you have GodFinger: a classic god game for people who have never heard of god games. You’ll play the role of a higher power overseeing your own planet and villagers. The barren chunk of rock and sole worshipper you start with can slow grow to a lush utopian village with the right measure of rain, sun, and other divine intervention on your behalf. Although its free to play, GodFinger offers the option of purchasing “Awe Points” for your planet to help jumpstart your civilization with farms, fountains, and other frivolities.

Osmos ($5)

This simple and fun kinetic action game starts out with balls made of cells, hence the science-y name. Using momentum, users must move around the screen to incorporate smaller cell balls to become the biggest and most powerful object in the game’s micro-universe. You can only incorporate objects smaller than yourself, and the more your object moves, the more mass it will lose. The game is surprisingly addicting for its simplicity, and there are plenty of levels to keep you going for hours.

Checkers HD ($2)

It’s checkers, plain and simple. We wouldn’t venture that this reincarnation of a 12th-century board game brings anything terribly original to the iPad, but it’s a clean, well animated, and free. The computer opponents can be challenging, and if you would prefer to match wits with a human, the two player mode lets you easily play at opposite ends of the screen.

Fieldrunners for iPad ($8)

Another tower defense game along the lines of Plants vs. Zombies challenges you to build a virtual gauntlet for wave after wave of enemies to run through. Let them reach the other side, and you’re done for. The first waves will prove to be a breeze, but by the time you’re trying to stop a monsoon of planes, trucks and speedy goons on motorcycles, even the sturdiest creations start to crack apart at the seams.

Command & Conquer Red Alert ($5)

You just can’t play a real-time-strategy game on a tiny display. Despite the developer’s best attempt to make Command & Conquer playable on the iPhone, we much prefer the high-resolution iPad version, which lets you build, command and conquer with ease on all 9.7 inches of screen. Just beware that widespread user reports of crashing may make this one to wait on until it gets just a little more polish from EA.