The Evolution of Technology

Posts Tagged ‘Games’

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The time for downloading NFL apps is pretty much over. The league kicked off the 2011 season on Thursday and had its first full Sunday of action yesterday, so the diehards are already set up with apps. If you have DirecTV, chances are you’ve already signed up for the Sunday Ticket. If you’re a Honeycomb tablet owner, however, there’s one more app you absolutely need. DirecTV has released a Sunday Ticket app for Android tablets, and it’s available for free now at the Market. It provides streams of every Sunday game (excepting blacked out games) and the Red Zone Channel. You can also get stats and highlights from around the league — though you better get the highlight watching in before 8:15 p.m. ET on Sundays, when NBC gets the exclusive rights to those. Again, it’s free for Sunday Ticket subscribers, so head to the Market and download Sunday Ticket for Tablets today.

Via Android Police.

This post originated at AndGeeks.com – home to all things Android! Also a great source of info about Android Phones.

DirecTV brings NFL games to your Honeycomb tablet

AndGeeks – Android News and Reviews

When you hear people say PlayStation, you primarily think of great games on a great game console. You think of Sony as the developer of a one-of-a-kind high quality game console and you also think of a gaming console that changed the way people think about home entertainment systems.
Today, one of the most enthusiastically awaited game consoles in the market is the PlayStation 3. This gaming console promises to yet again, revolutionize the way people play games on game consoles all over the world. With features that are considered as state-of-the-art and integrated technology that are highly advanced, people will really want one for their own home.
Aside from the sleek and attractive looking outer shell, PlayStation 3 packs one of the best technologies in the gaming console world. This particular gaming console is expected to be one of the greatest gaming consoles ever developed and released in the market.
PlayStation 3 has a powerful graphics chip together with a powerful 3.2 GHz CPU and 512 MB of RAM that will make you experience a one-of-a-kind game play. Another contribution for maximum enjoyment is the Blu-ray drive. The Blu-ray disc can handle data 5 times higher than your conventional DVD. This means that game developers will have more leverage in designing PlayStation 3 games and this will result in more realistic characters with detailed and also realistic environment.
Because of this, games will far more be realistic and detailed than ever before. In fact, Playing PlayStation 3 games on blu-ray discs will make you feel as if you are a part of the game itself and not just a person on the outside world playing with some game.
PlayStation 3 can definitely give you that extra spice you want in a game.
Another great contributor in PlayStation 3 is the game controllers. The game controllers for PlayStation 3 games are Bluetooth capable. This means that you can play PlayStation 3 games wirelessly. This will give you more freedom when playing with your PlayStation 3 games. For example, if you like football or soccer, you can literally run around your room like a football or soccer player who just scored a goal while holding your PlayStation 3 controller.
PlayStation 3 controllers are also integrated with the multi-axis motion sensing system technology that will allow you to control the game in real time and with maximum precision. With this system, the game controller will virtually become a natural extension of your body.
PlayStation 3 also has a backward compatibility feature. This feature will enable you to play with your old PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games in this console. This means that your investment in your old games will not be wasted. With PlayStation 3, you can play all your PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation 3 games. In fact, because of the HDMI features of the PlayStation 3, it will even further enhance your old games.
Not only that, PlayStation 3 will enable you to play your DVD movies, and Audio CDs. PlayStation games aren’t the only discs that this game console can play. It is a game console that is also a DVD player and CD player.
So, investing in this game console is definitely not a wasted investment at all. So, watch out for it when it is released on November 2006 in Japan, United States, and Canada and on March 2007 in Europe and Australasia.

With video game technology advancing so fast and so far from where it started, one can’t help but to entertain the idea of where it’s going to go from here. After all, that is part of a larger creative process and we’d like to think that our writings contribute even in some small way. One of the earliest video games that we can remember is Commodore’s “Pong.” But never did we think the industry would have reached the point where it is today.  One thing is for sure however, and that’s the gaming is pushing full force ahead.
Today we did a little fantasizing to see where our imagination and desires would take us. The following offers some suggestions of what could be done short of a little thing called, “impossible.”
We’re a little intrigued with the “Sun Game Glasses” idea. Wearing a pair of dark sunglasses and using the technology implemented by Nintendo’s “Wii” system, we could literally watch a game take place right before our eyes and then interact with it using a device that’s about the size of a pen. Since this isn’t exactly a new idea, we’re curious to watch what develops from University of South Australia’s ‘ARQuake’ project1 – a springboard for this kind of gaming to develop in the near future for sure.
Another cool idea we’d like to see erupt within the gaming industry is the ability to talk to the characters inside a game. Some games allow players to textually speak to game characters already, but we’d like to see this pushed a little further. We’d like to be able to orally interact with characters: ask questions, joke around, warn and speak to them as if we were speaking to another human being. And we’d like to hear these characters talk back! It’s the ultimate artificial intelligence opportunity and although it would probably be years before this technology would be available on a wide scale, we’re sure it would be a hit.
Will we ever get to the point where we can play inside a simulated environment the way the characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation could play? Virtual reality is getting close, but the reality of the simulation is gone the moment we put on the silly-looking goggles and gloves. In order for simulation of this sort to work, there has to be as little a barrier between gamers and the game as possible. We don’t what to just think we’re inside a game, we want to feel that we’re inside a game and to be honest, we don’t want to have to go somewhere outside our home to do so.
The television or computer screen will suffice for now, but in the future, we’re going to want to be surrounded with the elements that make gaming the wonder that it is today. We’re going to want to transform our dens or bedrooms into a virtual alien ship or simulated jungle. In short, we want a new world.
One possible obstacle to bringing this fantasy into our living rooms is public acceptance. Would the public be ready for such a high level of entertainment? And could the public handle it? Immediately following Nintendo’s Wii release, customers were ready to complain that they wanted their old controller back! So as with any new development, there will surely be unintended consequences and although we’re gung-ho for these types of advances, we also share concerns about the impact it would have on an audience that isn’t “virtually ready.”
As a result, we can certainly envision a few laws introduced that restricted the use of our fantasy gaming. We already have some laws that attempt the same now and in our opinion, that’s a good thing. The last thing we want to encounter in gaming is physical harm – especially when we’re trying to enjoy virtual entertainment!

The following article is meant for parents of a teen who might be obsessed with video and/or computer games. While in some of our other articles we may sound as though we encourage obsession, we share a concern over teens who tend to shun other interests in life in favor for gaming activities to the point where they withdraw from society. We would never encourage this kind of behavior, and that’s why we’ve taken time to describe some of the signs of game obsession and offer some advice on how to deal with it.
Recognizing the signs of teen game obsession isn’t as easy as one thinks. It always starts off as first, an interest, and it then starts to grow into an addition. The problem with identifying the beginning stages of game obsession begins with the teen. By the time our children are 15 and up, they’ve learned some rather impressive debating skills. So when we question their motivations for repetitive game play, they may rebut our concerns with logic and even make it a point to question our own flaws as parents.
Since no parent ever really wants to admit a flaw, we can sometimes cave in and convince ourselves that maybe 4 hours in front of a video game isn’t that bad. After all, we spend that much time at the computer, on the phone, or transmitting data back and forth between our Palms, Blackberries, and Cingular cell phones.
Be careful not to fall prey to the logical teen. Video games can be addictive and if the time spent playing them is not carefully monitored, they’ll consume everything that a teen used to care about.
The moment you notice your teen’s grades falling, homework missing, or social life starting to drop off, nip that game time in the bud. If you wait too late to restrict game time, you may experience pre-adult temper tantrums that you aren’t prepared to handle correctly (cursing, breaking things, stealing, running away from home, etc.). At this point, the child is obsessed and will do anything to get his or her hands on a game controller.
Another sign of obsession is a behavioral change. A child obsessed with gaming will lose patience with things and with others, be quick to anger, and react to situations without fully thinking of the consequences. If you’ve paid any attention to video and/or computer games, you’ll notice that they require this kind of behavior to win or to advance to a higher level.
It’s unfortunate, but a teen obsessed with this kind of violent gaming is literally being trained to react in the manner described above. That’s why it’s pertinent that as an adult, you restrict access to this kind of entertainment and replace it with activities that slow thinking (such as art, music, theater, etc.) and expose your child to other non-violent pleasures (swimming, dance, skating, etc.).
There are a lot of debates circulating around about the impact that video games have on today’s youth and some of it might warrant paying closer attention to. As a mother or father of a teen, you will do well with your teen’s desire to “get his game on” by keeping a close eye out for undesirable changes.

Visit any video game outlet and you’re bound to get overwhelmed by the hundreds of choices available – especially if you’re new to gaming. Interestingly, children and teens seem to know their way around these places as if they were their second home. But for the adult, the typical video store looks like some sort of color paint explosion and sooner or later, all the games start to look the same. This guide is for the adult who’s buying a game for a younger person perhaps as a birthday gift or as a bribe. Whatever the reason, you’re going to appreciate the following tips.
1. Research this strange phenomenon before setting foot inside a video store. There’s plenty of information available about video games online, so to reduce frustration offline, fire up your web browser and do a little homework. Visit the website of the gaming outlet nearest you and then look for a link to the games section of the system that your youngster plays. Here’s a helpful chart to explain what all those strange letters mean.
Wii = Nintendo’s Wii SystemEA Sports = Entertainment Arts SystemPS3 = Playstation 3 SystemXBOX 360 = Microsoft’s XBOX 360 SystemPC = Personal ComputerPS2 = Playstation 2 SystemPSP = Playstation Portable SystemDS = Nintendo’s DS System
The key is to locate the system on the store’s website first. The system, it’s accessories, and all of the games that work on that system will follow. If not, you may need to use the website’s internal search engine.
2. After locating the appropriate games section for your youngster’s machine, check out the ratings of each game and create a temporary shopping list of age appropriate material. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) gives each game a rating in an effort to inform parents what their children are playing. Here’s a handy reference to what the ratings mean:
C = Appropriate for Early childhoodE = Appropriate for EveryoneE 10+ = Appropriate for Everyone aged 10 and olderT = Appropriate for TeensM = Appropriate for Mature Adults
3. Within your temporary shopping list, try find a game that’s built from the latest movie release. Little people love the new animated movies put out by Disney and Pixar, and they really enjoy re-living precious moments in the movie in a video game. That’s why when these movies come out on DVD, their producers put a few games in the “Special Features section” of the CDs.
4. If you can’t find a game that’s built from a movie that the child likes, try to find a game that centers around a popular cartoon character or one that attempts to educate.
5. If you still can’t find one that resembles something that you’ve heard this particular person rambling on about, first give yourself a slight slap on the hand. You should pay better attention. Then point your browser to the nearest Blockbuster or Hollywood Video website. Follow the same procedure outlined in steps 1 – 3 only this time, elect to rent 5 or 6 games that look appealing. This will give your tot a chance to play some games and select one to keep forever while you return the others.
6. If on the other hand, you did find a game in step 3 or 4, you can either check out online, or drive up to the store and buy it there.
They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but the illustrations on the both video and pc game cases do a pretty good job of representing the game’s content. So if you see an illustration of fighting warriors, chances are the game will be more violent than you prefer. If on the other hand, you see an illustration that resembles what you’d see on the cover of an interesting children’s book, the game should be age appropriate.