It feels like just yesterday that we were caught up in all the excitement of the Winter Olympics, but almost two years has passed since the 2010 winter games, which means it’s nearly time for the Summer Olympics to take the stage. Set to take place in next year, the venue for 2012 is London. However, for those of us that can’t make it to London to watch the games live, there’s going to be plenty of options for taking in the action. One of which is super hi-vision public screenings for select cities in the U.S., Japan and the United Kingdom.

For those unaware, Super Hi-Vision is an ultra high definition format that, according to Engadget, won’t hit homes for another few years. That said, the Olympics is a rather special occasion. Engadget reports that the NHK and BBC have confirmed that there will be some SHV public screenings select UK, Japanese and US cities. At the moment, it looks like there will be four locations in the UK and three in Japan but just one in the U.S., in Washington D.C.

It’s a pity we’re not going to be getting more than one screening. Then again, we’re willing to bet people will travel from out-of-state to see their favorite sports in 33-megapixel video and 22.2 channel surround sound. Roll on, 2012.

SOURCE via Engadget

Some people would have no problem trusting their spouse with the passwords for their various different online accounts, perhaps even their banking pin codes. After all, they’re the person you trust most in the world, and it’s nice to know that if you forget your password, someone else can remind you. However, it’s doubtful many people would trust their ex-husband or ex-wife with the same information. Even if it is just for a social network.

A Connecticut judge recently ordered a divorcing couple to swap the log in details for their Facebook and dating website accounts. According to Forbes, Judge Kenneth Shluger handed down the ruling in late September after a dispute arose between a husband and wife’s divorce lawyers. Stephen Gallion told his lawyer that he had seen incriminating things on his wife’s Facebook account (via their shared computer at home) that could help him in a custody battle. Mr. Gallion’s lawyer asked Mrs. Courtney Gallion the password to her Facebook, as well as EHarmony and Match.com accounts she had created, during a deposition. Courtney initially declined but relented after receiving advice from her own lawyer.

Courtney is said to have then texted a friend, instructing them to change her password and delete some of her messages. It was at this point that her husband’s lawyer, Gary Traystman, stepped in and asked the judge to issue an injunction that would prevent her from deleting any of her messages. Judge Shluger ordered both parties to exchange passwords so that their lawyers could conduct discovery. Traystman says that he has looked over Stephen’s Facebook account and feels his side has nothing to worry about. In anticipation that either party might abuse this new-found power, the judge’s ruling included a stipulation that no party log in and post messages purporting to be from the account’s owner.

Though we can see the reasoning behind the injunction, it’s disturbing to know that we may one day be asked to hand over passwords for entire accounts so the opposition can search for evidence. As Forbes’ Kashmir Hill points out, as part of a normal ‘discovery,’ a litigant is asked to turn over “responsive material” but not the keys to access that material and likely much more. It’s a perfect example of how the change in the way we communicate and our online behavior is impacting legal proceedings.

SOURCE via Forbes

Analyst group Flurry estimates that games released on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android will make around $1.9 billion in combined revenues across the United States this year. This suggests that games based on these two platforms now bring in more revenue than Nintendo DS and Sony PSP games combined.

According to the group’s study, the Nintendo DS dominated the portable gaming market in 2009 with a 70-percent share followed by Sony’s PSP with an 11-percent share. Interestingly, the iOS/Android group already conquered Sony with a 19-percent share in the same year. By 2010, they commanded 34-percent of the market, reducing Nintendo’s share to 57-percent and Sony’s share to 9-percent.

By the end of 2011, the iOS/Android duo will consume 58-percent of the mobile gaming market while the Nintendo DS takes another hit, reduced to 36-percent. Sony’s PSP seemingly doesn’t have a chance with a meager 6-percent share. However when using actual dollar amounts, these percentages mean the entire mobile gaming sector took in an estimated $2.7 billion in 2009, $2.5 billion in 2010 and $3.3 billion in 2011.

“The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20-percent in 2009 to nearly 60-percent in just two years,” Flurry states. “Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.”

“Within the portable category, an abundance of digitally distributed free and $0.99 games, available on hardware, that is both comparably priced and more powerful than traditional portable game devices, better appeals to many consumers,” the group continues. “As a result, the days of paying $25, or more, for a cartridge at a retail store may soon end. Further, the installed base of iOS and Android devices has not only reached critical mass, but also continues to grow at unprecedented rates. In their latest public statements regarding installed base, Apple and Google reported a total of 250 million iOS devices and 190 million Android devices activated, respectively.”

The report goes on to point out that Nintendo is facing its first fiscal year loss since the company began reporting profits in 1981 thanks to the slumping sales of the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii console. The new 3DS also didn’t quite catch on, forcing the company to take another hit by dropping its price to $169.99 USD. Meanwhile Google and Apple are entering the console space by invading the consumer living room thanks to the tablet form factor (with HDMI output no less) and upcoming Apple and Google TV initiatives.

“Beyond 2011, if Nintendo continues to face financial hardship, it may be forced to consider difficult choices such as divesting its hardware business and distributing its content, for the first time, across non-proprietary platforms,” Flurry states even though Nintendo recently stated that it has no plans to enter the smartphone sector whatsoever.

Is it really game over for Nintendo and Sony in the mobile sector? For Nintendo, the end may be near if the 3DS doesn’t gain enough traction.  Sony on the other hand has chosen to cast out a safety net (should the PS Vita fail) by supporting the Android platform. Maybe Nintendo will eventually figure that out too.

To read the full report, head here.

Top 5 supercomputers are more power hungry than ever. As expected, Japans K Computer has extended its lead in the prestigious Top500 Supercomputer list. The updated K system now has 705,024 processing cores, delivers 10.5 PFlops and consumes about 12.7 MW. For the first time, the list also includes a supercomputer that integrates a Chinese processor architecture. However, that pride comes with a huge price to pay, which is the bill.

The current Top500 list now ranks four Asian systems among the five fastest supercomputers in the world. NUDT YH MPP follows the K Computer with a performance of 2.6 PFlops. A 1.8 PFlops computer at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is in third place, followed by a Dawning TC3600 system in China (1.3 PFlops) and a HP ProLiant SL390s supercomputer (1.2 PFlops) at Tokyo’s GSIC Center. Despite greater power efficiencies in microprocessors, the overall power consumption is expanding at a rapid pace: K Computer consumes 12.7MW. The five fastest supercomputers are estimated at a consumption of 27.3 MW, up from 14.8 MW just three years ago.

The November 2011 list also includes, for the first time, a computer that uses China’s Shenwei SW1600 CPU. Clocked at 975 MHz, the processor has 16 cores and debuts in a system installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan. The system is ranked at position 14.

SOURCE via TOP500

Last weekend, it seemed like all anyone could talk about was Skyrim and how amazing the game is. Still, Skyrim is not the only title that has gamers whipped into a frenzy as of late. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is also doing pretty well for itself, pulling in an astonishing $400 million in the first day of British and American sales.

Activision on Friday announced that Modern Warfare 3, which launched last Wednesday, had broken records to become the biggest entertainment launch ever with an estimated sell-through of more than 6.5 million units in North America and the United Kingdom.

This marks the third consecutive year that the COD franchise has set day-one launch records across all forms of entertainment. Last year, Call of Duty: Black Ops had estimated day-one sell-through of $360 million (again, U.S. and UK), and in 2009, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 raked in $310 million on the first day.

“We believe the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is the biggest entertainment launch of all time in any medium, and we achieved this record with sales from only two territories,” said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard. “Other than Call of Duty, there has never been another entertainment franchise that has set opening day records three years in a row. Life-to-date sales for the Call of Duty franchise exceed worldwide theatrical box office for ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Lord of the Rings,’ two of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time.” Still, seeing Eiffel Tower crumbling down is one epic scene!

Let the smack talks begin!

Google has revealed first details about a new Chrome user interface that has been in development for some time, but has remained a mystery until this past weekend. The company currently develops the Aura window manager, which will take advantage of hardware acceleration capabilities to display an advanced interface in Chrome and Chrome OS.

A recently posted wiki page and a Chromium project page describe Aura as “a new accelerated user interface framework for Chrome UI” which “must offer rich visuals, large-scale animated transitions and effects that can be produced only with the assistance of hardware acceleration.”

There isn’t much detail and not even mockups beyond basic window buttons such as restore, maximize and minimize at this time, but the Chromium revision blog is, with more than 400 changes to Aura over the past two months, an indication that Google is working on a major new feature.

The new interface will mark a departure from the Gtk toolkit, which has been used for Chrome’s interface so far and may take Chrome much closer to a platform that can compete with (and possibly go beyond) Windows in a cloud environment. Google said that its main goals for the initial release of Aura is cross-platform code for a “flexible windowing system” on multiple form factors. The company said that it will initially not support multiple monitors and there will not be software rendering support for remote desktop capability.

AT&T has proudly introduced the Motorola P793 Back-Up Battery Charger for your power-hungry smartphones. The device is compatible with all USB-powered gadgets from major manufacturers. What makes the Motorola P793 special is that it is composed of 25% of recycled water bottles. This battery charger provides two USB ports, so you can charge two electronic devices simultaneously. No word on pricing or availability at this time, but you can be sure that WWF members will be lining ‘em up to buy and support.

SOURCE via AT&T