With The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim launched yesterday, the game is slated to be the biggest edition yet… so big that it will offer an infinite number of quests. That’s right: when Elder Scrolls XX is fresh and new and current/future hardware is incapable of supporting “retro” Skyrim gameplay, the fifth instalment will still offer something new each and every day.

Monday in a phone interview with Wired, game director Todd Howard said that the game’s Radiant quest system will keep new quests coming long after the main storyline is complete. In fact, the quests will be endless. “The vibe of the game is that it’s something that you can play forever,” Howard said. “The world is probably the one thing that sets [Skyrim] apart from other games. It feels really real for what it is … It’s just fun to explore.”

According to Howard, the Radiant quest system randomly generates new minor tasks based on the player’s progress. It will also toss out extra work for each of the game’s factions like the Dark Brotherhood and the Thieves Guild. Once the scripted quest lines for each group are completed, players can go to their respective hubs and pick up randomly generated missions like stealing gems or assassinating shopkeepers.

Of course, not everyone will want to endlessly steal jewels or collect herbs. However, Howard said that Radiant quests play into the game’s overall environmental storytelling: it opens up avenues to discover the world’s little secrets and bits of narrative. It may not be a massively multiplayer title, but the Radiant quest engine and the massive, virtual open world combined should make it feel like a persistent environment.

Howard said that Bethesda got its first taste of environmental storytelling with Fallout 3. After all, exploring a barren, post-nuclear wasteland isn’t exactly like strolling through a field of green grass and daisies. “With Fallout, it’s not as beautiful a world to everybody,” he said. “We had to find ways to make exploration of [a destroyed wasteland] interesting.”

The team cranked up the environmental tricks for Skyrim even though the landscape is more palatable. According to Howard, completing quests won’t be the most enjoyable aspect to the Radiant system: it will be discovering the little things along the way like a terrifying lighthouse or a bandit-infested fortress.

SOURCE via Wired

According to the manufacturer, the M110 weigh about 0.8 lbs, integrates 1 GB of flash memory as well as a Micro SD card expansion slot and features VGA, HDMI and USB interfaces. There is also a 1W speaker, which would allow users to, if they have to, self-contained presentations, which, however, only support JPG files in such a scenario.

Dell also offers a free utility to convert presentations for storage on an iPhone / Android phone to wirelessly stream a presentation to the M110 (which, however, requires the purchase of an optional wireless dongle for $70, in addition to the base price of $500 for the projector. Alternatively, Dell offers a remote control for $25.

SOURCE via Dell

Recently Barnes & Noble said that part of Microsoft’s tactics to raise rivals’ costs included the participation in a group of companies to purchase Novell patents. Microsoft also reportedly participated in a three-way licensing agreement with Nokia and Mosaid Technologies. According to the book retailer, these two specific actions supposedly intend to “prevent Android- based devices from taking away sales of Microsoft’s Windows operating system.”

Now there are reports that Microsoft is seemingly confronting Google on another front: the advertising market. According to Reuters, Microsoft has formed an alliance with Yahoo and American Online that allows each partner to sell each other’s unsold premium advertising inventory, or rather display ads, by next year. This would essentially leave Google out of the picture, a lucrative service for the search engine company that extends out into the Android platform.

Yet despite the alliance, the three companies will still remain competitive with each other for both advertiser spending and publishing partners. They will also maintain their own set of controls. “We’re not reducing competition in any way, shape or form,” said Rik van der Kooi, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Advertising Business Group, claimed during a news call. “As a result of transparency, the competition is only going to increase. (We) don’t expect any issues on that side.”

Van der Kooi added that other players in the industry are welcome to join the alliance, that it’s not a response to anyone in particular. He described the three-way partnership as a “rising tide that lifts all boats.”

“The partnership will in effect allow the three web giants to sell online adverts across their respective sites, in hope to compete with Google and social network Facebook, which is set to increase its share of advertising dollars for three years in a row,” explains Zack Whittaker over on ZDNet.

Both Google and Facebook are currently leading the market in online advertising, totaling over 1.6 billion users worldwide. However the duo is expected to increase their share of U.S. based online display advertising from 9.3 and 16.3 respectively. Ironically, both companies are rivals in the social networking market.

Yet now Microsoft has teamed up with Yahoo and AOL… and it has nothing to do with the rival Android developer? “The fact that we’re joining together to offer this kind of access to quality — yet each with our own differentiated ad offerings — is something that will benefit the market as a whole,” van der Kooi said.

Activision Blizzard on Tuesday announced better-than-expected Q3 2011 net revenues and earnings, reporting that the company delivered GAAP net revenues of $754 million, as compared with $745 million for the third quarter of 2010. This gain was achieved via digital channels, accounting for more than 57-percent of the company’s total net revenues.

However in a conference call following the Q3 2011 results announcement, Blizzard Entertainment CEO Mike Morhaime admitted that World of Warcraft’s subscription count continues to fall, dropping from 11.1 million subscribers in June to 10.3 million in September — a 7 percent drop. The long-standing fantasy MMORPG saw a 300,000 drop in subscriptions in the six months prior, meaning that Blizzard has lost over a million customers in the first 9 months of 2011.

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We tend to be amazed by the number of patents that are being acquired by young companies, such as Google, in an effort to protect themselves from lawsuits and the bullying of older corporations. As much as those old businesses claim that their patents are used to protect their intellectual property and innovative spirit, it is often overlooked that patents have become a huge business across the planet.

For example, Microsoft recently said that it spent nearly $4.5 billion for license fees over the last decade, but it has also put 1133 license agreements in place to give licenses to its patents – and we know that Microsoft will be raking in more than $1 billion from Android vendors in the near future – annually.

IBM and Samsung are IT industry patent giants. No other company files for nearly as many patents as those two companies – and no other company gets as many patents granted as those two. At least as far as my personal records go, IBM just hit a new record high of patents granted; IBM received confirmation of a staggering 265 patents in the past week alone. Since August 1, IBM was granted the rights to 1975 patents.

However, Samsung was able to top that result. Samsung received 270 patents last week, which is the highest of any tech company over the past 6 years – at least as far as my records go. Since August 1, Samsung got 2324 new patents from the USPTO. Both IBM and Samsung are well on their way to exceed the number of the patents they received in 2010 – when IBM got 5896 and Samsung 4551. For this year, both IBM and Samsung have been granted more than 6000 patents already. 2011 is likely to be the first year in which IBM could have to surrender its patent leadership to a foreign company. So far, IBM has stood on top of the ranking since 1982.

Apple is reportedly setting up express lanes in its stores to help deal with the upcoming busy shopping period. Earlier this week, the company updated its retail store app to allow customers to pay for smaller items with their iPhones and iTunes accounts. Items such as cases, cables, speakers, other accessories can be selected, purchased and taken home without any contact with Apple store employees. However, it seems Apple is eager to make things even more efficient this holiday season.

9to5 Mac reports that Apple will be putting in place express counters that will stock every type of iPad and iPod, as well as popular configurations of laptops. The counter will be staffed by several Apple store employees and will allow those that just want to get in, buy their stuff and leave an easy avenue to do just that. It’s likely Apple wants to get the express lanes in place before Black Friday rolls around. The company doesn’t usually have massive discounts on the busiest shopping day of the year, but it has been known to offer some moderate reductions.

SOURCE via CNET

HP replaced Nokia as the greenest of them all. According to Greenpeace, HP scored especially well because of its sustainable operations and energy criteria. Dell also surpassed Nokia by leading energy criteria and its efforts to reduce its overall emissions. However, both HP and Dell were criticized of not using “green” materials in their products.

Nokia still leads in green product terms, but is now down because of its lack of using energy from sustainable sources and its goals of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Apple, which trailed the pack in the last ranking, climbed five positions to the fourth place and was lauded because of its green products and “relatively strong” green operations. Its massive use of energy is still a problem, Greenpeace said.

At the other end of the scale was usually Nintendo, which is not included in the ranking anymore. Instead, Greenpeace is ranking RIM at last place and noted that “RIM needs to improve reporting and disclosure of its environmental performance compared to other mobile phone makers.” Other companies that did not score well in Greenpeace’s guide are Toshiba, LG and Acer.

SOURCE via Green Peace

Many may not believe this, but electric vehicles have been around for a very, very long time, but why they have taken so long to become popularized has got us beat. Perhaps the oil and gas industry was a bit too lucrative to give up, or production costs were too high to be profitable. Either way, we are definitely glad that electric vehicles are finally finding their place in the world.

The Chevy Volt is just one example of many modern electric vehicles that are packed with brand new technology. Despite all of its high tech features, you may be surprised to learn that this 115-year-old car can actually match its advertised range of 40 miles on purely electricity. There hasn’t been too much information on this antique vehicle, other than the fact that it is one of a kind that was built before any kind of mass production.

Its current owner says that the vehicle still runs great, and even competes in several classic car derbies. Although this antique electric vehicle is an impressive car, that’s not to say that there haven’t been massive strides in the development of electric vehicle technology. The Chevy Volt may only have a range of 40 miles on its electric motor, but there are plenty of electric vehicles out there with a much more impressive range such as the Tesla Roadster.

SOURCE via Geek