Elliot Handler provided countless hours of joy to young men and women around the world. He is one half of the team that founded the Mattel toy company in 1945. Elliot, along with his wife Ruth and Mattel co-founder Harold Matson, established a business that’s now a multi-billion dollar company employing over 30,000 people.

Elliot and Ruth (pictured together at right) created toys that are cherished by millions. Ruth is credited with bringing the Barbie lineup to life, while Elliot built Hot Wheels so that boys would also have a toy of their own.

Elliot Handler was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 9, 1916. His wife Ruth passed away on April 27, 2002. Elliot passed away on Thursday at the age of 95.

Our condolences go out to his family, and we’d just like to thank Handler for all the happy memories.

Whether you love Top Gear USA or think it an affront to comedic decency, one thing’s certain: the show seems to have helped spawn a new wave of car-themed programming. Adam Carolla’s The Car Show has taken to the air as a result of The History Channel’s move into fuel-soaked entertainment, and now The BBC is striking back. The Beeb has announced that Richard Hammond will be getting his own show on BBC America soon. Called Hard Drive with Richard Hammond, the program uses a similar format as the UK’s World’s Toughest Driving Tests.

Hammond will travel around the United States, driving and competing in some of the toughest vehicles our country has to offer. We’re sure he’ll meet some genuine characters along the way as well.

Hammond isn’t the only Top Gear presenter being awarded an American show. James May will also take to BBC America with James May’s Man Lab U.S. based on the UK version of his program.

Half an hour of new footage has leaked out of the Battlefield 3 alpha. It’s not made by DICE, so it’s a good idea to shove it into your eyes as quickly as possible. It could be taken down at any minute. The video is put together by by YourGamingTeam, who investigate the load-out options, test each weapon’s recoil and investigate every corner of the Operation Metro map. It doesn’t look as though the alpha is running with any of the advanced graphical features that made the single player tank demo at E3 so spectacular, but it’s worth a look to get a feel for the size of the new maps.

CVG reports that not only will the UK receive the previously revealed “Animus Edition” of Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, but a second collectible bundle as well. The “Collector Edition” differs from the Animus Edition in that it contains an artbook and soundtrack instead of an encyclopedia, and leaves out the in-game Armor of Brutus and capacity upgrades.

Oh, and it’s £49.99 for Xbox 360 or PS3, instead of the Animus Edition’s £68.99, as listed by retailer GAME. The Animus Edition is available from the UK’s Ubishop site.

Oh, did you want the artbook, soundtrack, and encyclopedia? Don’t worry — you don’t have to buy the game twice. The Ubiworkshop is selling the encyclopedia.

SOURCE via CVG

Remember Adobe’s InMarket? You know, that marketplace where devs can publish once, distribute anywhere — like on Intel’s AppUp. If you’re still drawing a blank, fret not, as the software giant plans to shutter the service come August 31st, leaving developers with a little over a month to download analytics and revenue reports. Also on the chopping block is the company’s AIR Marketplace, which the firm now views as redundant given that AIR apps can be published on Cupertino’s App Store, the Android Market and BlackBerry’s App World. Got any burning questions? A letter and FAQ await you at the source.

SOURCE via Adobe

With the Toyota Prius plug-in set to launch in early 2012, now’s the perfect time to dive into the interim results from the cars’ trials in London. Here are some details straight from Toyota:

• Average journey distance has been 7.3 miles, with 59 percent of all journeys covering between 3.1 and 12.4 miles
• Average speed has been 17.7 miles per hour, with 69 percent of journeys at speeds less than 18.6 mph
• Initial fuel consumption data indicates performance is 27 percent better than an equivalent diesel
• Average recharging time is 72 minutes
• Where drivers have access to a domestic charge point, more frequent recharging occurs
• Twenty-two percent of drivers have even been able to drive further than the official 12.5-mile range in EV mode.
• Electric-powered driving so far has accounted for one third of all miles driven in the PHEV demonstration.

Working in partnership with EDF Energy, Toyota leased 20 third-generation Prius plug-ins to London-based businesses and organizations to monitor vehicle performance and recharging patterns. Details of journey times, speeds, distances, fuel usage and recharging habits have been logged and analyzed to compile useable data. The three-year trial kicked off last summer, meaning that these interim results are from less than one year of real-world use.

Read more…

Mark Zuckerberg ruffled some feathers when he said the iPad “isn’t mobile” enough to deserve a dedicated Facebook app. But now he’s probably having a second thought after Apple successfully selling millions of iPads all over the world.

TechCrunch just revealed that not only has Facebook created a fully-fledged iPad app, they’ve even released it — albeit in secret. The code lies buried in yesterday’s update to the iPhone app and it’s entirely executable on jailbroken tablets.

What’s the software like? Well, TechCrunch reckons the left-sided navigation system and use of overlay menus is “great,” as is the ability to chat with buddies while simultaneously doing other Facebook tasks in landscape mode. There’s also a ton of screen grabs at the source link which tell much of the story.

SOURCE via Tech Crunch