Filed under: GAMING | Tags: EA, Electronic Arts, Nintendo DS, Personal computer game, Playstation 3, Rock Band, Wii, Xbox 360
CBSSports.com launched a new version of their free College Fantasy Football game, allowing users to recruit a team of college football players from any of the 120 Division I programs or customize their player pool to include any conference they choose. CBS gained permission to use actual player names in the game for the first time this year. (Cynopsis 7/30)
Games appealing to broad audiences are proving to be little engines that could pull media companies through uncertain times. While ad revenue at Viacom was mostly flat during Q2, revenues from Rock Band and other ancillary streams were up 62% to $307 million, helping the company beat Wall Street estimates. Meanwhile game publishing giant Electronic Arts reported narrowed losses as revenue doubled to $809 million during the quarter. EA executives expect the turnaround to continue with a variety of releases planned for later this year on multiple platforms, from Spore on the PC to Dead Space on the PS3 and Xbox 360 to MySims on the Wii and Nintendo DS. (Cynopsis 7/30)
Filed under: TECHNOLOGY | Tags: Evil Dead, International Olympic Committee, IOC, Iraq, National Olympic Committee, Sam Raimi, Summer Olympic Games, Summer Olympics
TECHNOLOGY
Saying it delivers “the most realistic home theater performance in the world,” Meridian has unveiled its new 810 Reference Video System, a video-projector and scaler combo that produces a resolution of 10 megapixels. The 810 Reference Video System costs $185,000. ElectronicHouse.com (7/30)
A company is now selling what it calls the “world’s cheapest laptop,” which at $130, is not a bad deal if you can bear some hardware limitations. (http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/07/28/Worlds_cheapest_laptop_now_available_1.html?source=NLC-MOBILEHARDWARE&cgd=2008-07-30 7/28)
Not since Sam Raimi strapped a camera to a flying eyeball in Evil Dead have we seen such technical innovation with cameras. NBC camera guru Garrett Brown and colleagues have come up with a few whiz-bang inventions to enhance coverage of the Summer Olympics, reports The AP. (Cynopsis 7/30)
- Tiny HD “lipstick cams” will be placed on the athletes themselves to provide POV shots
- The submerged “Dive Cam” will shoot down a plastic tube to capture the point of impact from the high dive
- The “Sky Cam” will capture rowers and kayakers from far above the water course
- GPS and digital course maps will be deployed to help viewers keep track of athletes progress on longer events
Shanghai United Optical Disc has completed the initial production run of a disc that the company hopes can compete against the now-entrenched Blu-ray technology. The so-called China Blue High-definition Disc is based on Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and is expected to be cheaper to manufacture than Blu-ray discs. The Hollywood Reporter (7/29)
