EA COO John Schappert said during the company's Q3 financial earnings call Monday that "every one of EA's releases will have an online component—both downloadable content and online play." That goes for Dead Space 2, the two Need For Speed titles, and Crysis 2, as well as Fighting Title and Action Title. Everything.

Looking at the publisher's FY 2011 line-up and its ability to sell all manner of post release content, that's not going to be a difficult fit for EA.

Don't be shocked if much of that digital distribution happens on EA's terms, on par with the Cerberus Network integrated into the recently released Mass Effect 2. Gotta keep those used copies off the shelf!

The LEGO Universe is entering its final phase of development, and NetDevil needs builders to help put the pieces all together. The beta sign-ups were announced in the latest edition of the LEGO Universe News Network email newsletter, urging everyone on the mailing list to head over to the official sign-up page in order to fill out an amazingly simple questionnaire. After that, if the developers think you'll be a good fit, they'll be in touch.

I've signed up for the beta, but then I'm pretty sure I am obligated to sign up for every MMO that comes out at this point. Who's with me?

LEGO Universe Beta Sign-Up Page [LEGO Universe - Thanks Jason!]

The stats break down this away: 42.78 percent on XP, 28.53 percent on Windows 7, and 27.91 percent on Vista. Consider that Vista's been out 3 years, and Windows 7's been out for 3 months. Also worth pointing out is that Windows 7 installs are 64-bit by a 2-to-1 margin, which as Ars notes, is now the most popular flavor of Windows on Steam short of XP 32-bit.

The gaming population on Steam isn't necessarily representative of Moms and Dads buying computers, but the fact that the deeply suspicious PC gaming community has picked up Windows 7 in droves does say something. [Ars]

It doesn't sound very "Apple," when they normally favor start minimalism over cheesy big-headed virtual characters, but as you can see from the diagram above, they are obviously considering the idea of a store you can walk through and browse the products in, with the outside elements portrayed by falling rain/sunshine etc.

The patent was first filed in 2006 by Apple, so I'm hoping they just got swept up in the Second Life craze and have forgotten all about some naff virtual world where you can exchange 17 green and red apples for the latest Miley Cyrus song. [Patently Apple]

I write this article from the disadvantaged position of being married and not being a father. It's possible that what you're about to read is tainted by my gullibility in believing in something I've not experienced. My admiration for the the way modern video games portray the love a father for his child — as opposed to the ways they often falter at believable marriages and dating situations — may be due to nothing more than my inexperience, the fact that I've been a father only as many times as I've experienced intergalactic war. Being married is something I've done one time more than that, happily and continuously.

I will nevertheless dare suggest, in this week leading to Valentine's Day, that video games are still not the great portrayers of believable romance, less accomplished at that feat than chick flicks and breath mint commercials. There may be some successes with romantic love in games, but not as many as there are attempts at depicting it.

Being a dad, however, is becoming nearly as popular in video games as health bars and shotguns and, to my playing sensibilities, nearly as successful. I believe we are now experiencing a period of video game history that high school text books will look back upon as The Daddening Of Video Games.

For years, video game dads have not been us. They've primarily been non-playable characters. More specifically, they've been your dad. Your dad who is dying and hopes you can pick up his sword and fight. Your dad who is evil and is hoping you won't pick up a sword and fight. There have been glimpses of what it would be like to be a dad in video games — you were Pac-Man, after all, and therefore possibly the father of Pac-Man Jr., with all the concerns that entails? — but usually dad was some other guy. And seldom, at least in the hundreds of games I played, was I a video game dad. I was the son. I was Marcus Fenix, bold son. I was anonymous Fallout 3 hero, heroic son searching for dad. I was Solid Snake, son of someone or other, though I was often confused as to who dad actually was.

Recently, as in 2010 again and again, I've been playing as dad. Roles have been reversed. The Wii's Silent Hill Shattered Memories, one of the last of my 2009 backlog games that I finished early this year, had me as dad Harry Mason, looking for his daughter, Cheryl. The point of the game is that you are a dad, motivated to do just one thing: find your daughter. Shattered Memories is a remake of an older game, yes, and a sign that being a dad isn't brand-new to games, but let's explore further without majorly spoiling games, don't worry.

This week we get Bioshock 2, where you are, as the box art shows and as our review explained, a Big Daddy, trying to reacquaint yourself with the Little Sister who was put in the series' paternal Big Daddying care. You know, Big Daddys protect the Little Sisters, let them cling to their backs, etc.

This week we'll also be running a review of Heavy Rain, a game I previously noted in a preview, offers an early gameplay moment of — get this — having to choose which of your two sons you're going to play with first in the backyard. These are the kinds of choices hero father Ethan Mars must face.

In all three of the above cases, trust me, there are a lot of dad issues in the game. In fact, being a good dad proves to be a major theme in all three, as far as I've played in each game (which is a lot).

Where is all this dad stuff coming from? Is it the aging of gamers and the game developers who make games? Consider that even the Next Big Thing in video game technology, Microsoft's Project Natal had as its technical showpiece last E3, Milo & Kate, an advanced simulation of, if not being a dad, seemingly of being a parent, of interacting with and caring for a little boy.

Maybe being a dad is the rage. Maybe it's in vogue, like being a bald space Marine in games used to be.

From my gamer perspective, I believe some of the new popularity of being an in-game dad may be gaming's increased comfort with depicting virtual children among virtual adults. I recall interviewing Milo and Fable creator Peter Molyneux several years ago in advance of the first Fable and having him explain to me how, in that do-anything game, the developers removed children from the main town. The game's testers had given in to too many temptations to kill the kids. By Fable II, however, there weren't just kids all over the place, but you could have kids. You could be a mom or a dad and raise a child. I guess gamers can be expected to be more grown-up now.

In my roles as a video game dad, I've learned that fatherhood is mostly about caring for someone who is fairly helpless. In that way, dadness in video games appears to be a good motivator for searching for something that can't just save itself. You'll be more motivated to find your lost daughter than a bunch of dead crows or even a heart container, perhaps? It's also a good shorthand for making the player be a capable protector. As a Big Daddy, I was more motivated to protect my daughterly Little Sisters in Bioshock 2 than I was to protect the annoyingly incapable President's daughter in Resident Evil 4.

Most effectively, I've found in these recent games, being a video game dad is an effective method for getting the player to feel something. Needless to say that not everything that happens to your sons and daughters in the new Silent Hill, Heavy Rain and Bioshock 2 is positive. Treading lightly here and identifying only the plot of Silent Hill, we've got a game that begins, post-car-crash, with your daughter lost. You are in a dark and snowy city, with a flashlight to illuminate a small percentage of the blackness depicted on your TV screen. You walk slowly and run only slightly faster. And with a tap of your A button, you can call for your daughter. She won't hear you. She wouldn't show up, not so early in the game, hours before the story of what's really happening unfolds. But I would like to meet the player who didn't press the A button and then press it again, who didn't get into the role-play of being a dad, hoping against hope to hear his daughter call back to him. Being a dad in a game may not be the next big breakthrough in fun, but it sure makes the point of what the stakes are.

The ideal of video game romance is that a game can make another character so alluring that you would believe you could fall in love with him or her. That's still a tricky love to get right in virtual worlds where your potential lovers are run by computer programs.

The ideal of video game fatherhood, I've experienced recently, is that that the unconditional love a father will hopefully feel for their child can, in a video game, intensify the feelings of panic or tragedy or desperation that the disastrous settings for so many games already call for.

The ideal of video game fatherhood is that it can motivate the player to greater and more heroic action.

And the ideal, quite simply, is that it can make you care, by giving you the visual shorthand for someone you can care about, a virtual son or daughter, as helpless and dependent on you as so many non-controllable characters you've experienced in games before. But for this one, it makes sense, because, hey, you're their dad and you love them.

The Playlist is reporting that Matt Damon, Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard have all been cast in the new Soderbergh film Contagion.

Soderbergh dreamed up the idea on the set of The Informant with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who also penned The Bourne Ultimatum. The idea was based around the theory of how one little sneeze can change the world, and sounds familiar to the director's past work on Traffic. But this time, instead of cocaine, it's a disease.

Sources tell the Playlist that the script is truly terrifying and takes place over four separate continents. Fingers crossed for some good old fashioned Ebola black puke and bloody tears, we missed our plague pictures.

After signing up and signing in, you'll see 1DayLater's basic interface: Value, Project, Date, and the optional "Note." If you drove 18 miles earlier to pick up poster something for a project, simply enter "18m" in Value, "Smith Account" in Project, and "Today" in date, and type in "Poster supplies" in note if you need to. That's it—your data's entered in. If you're about to start working on something right now, there's an on-site timer that automatically plugs your time upon pressing Stop into the Value field.

When you want to get it out, you can export to Office Open XML spreadsheets, which can be opened by most office apps (including Microsoft, OpenOffice, and the Apple iWork suite). You can also put together a rather neat-looking graph of your time, money, and miles. More options and tools, including automatic invoices and mileage claims, are coming soon, according to the developers, as 1DayLater is currently an open beta test.

1DayLater is a free service that requires a registration, and would've made a worthy addition to our top 10 tips and tools for freelancers, had we seen it earlier.

Texas Instruments claims that mobile gadgets using this chip would be able to do all those four functions for less money—30 percent less—in less space—50 percent—and consuming less energy than the current alternatives. [PR Newswire]

Take, Mobile Suit Gundam: Federation vs. Zeon, Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam or Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Gundam Next. Notice a pattern?

These games are great if you know your Zeta from your Zeon, but for newcomers to the series and its iterations, these games can seem like inside baseball. So when Namco Bandai announced that it would be announcing (ungh, we know) the next entry in the Gundam Vs. series at the upcoming AOU arcade game expo, it's logical to think that it will be more of the same Gundam stuff fighting Gundam stuff.

And that's fine!

But, what if Namco Bandai were to open up the franchise a bit, let it breathe and have Gundam fight another franchise. Say, Gundam vs. Armored Core. Gundam vs. Macross. Gundam vs. Evangelion. Just imagine! Gundam vs...

Hit us up in the comment section.

バンダイナムコ、「AOU 2010 アミューズメント・エキスポ」出展情報公開 「ガンダムVS.」シリーズ最新作も発表 [Game Watch]

The setup was built by Jason Swell, who thought that this was the best way to place his 50-inch Samsung HLR5078W DLP projection television, along with a Dual-Core Mac Mini, Series 2 Tivo, and Comcast HD STB. And rightly so, because it not only saves space, but places the screen at a good distance to watch from the sofas.

The stair hides even more high tech stuff behind that screen: A 1-terabyte hard drive array, an audio amplifier, the 30Mb/s FIOS connection, an EyeTV 500 HD tuner, and a UPS unit. In fact, he uses five tuners and he is able to record three shows concurrently while watching a fourth. [Flickr via Unplggd]

Nexus One owners can call (888) 48NEXUS between 4am and 7pm PST to speak with a real live person. Unfortunately, though, they'll only be able to get information on the status/shipping information on your existing order. For technical support or repairs and returns, you'll still need to contact HTC customer care (1-888-216-4736). For billing/service support, you'll still need to contact T-Mobile (1-877-453-1304).

Google doesn't have to be its partners' keeper, and if I were a Nexus One owner I'd rather have Google support than not. But it's still got to be terribly frustrating to have three distinct places to turn when you've got a Nexus One issue. [Google via CNET]

The first "I Am A Secret Avenger" teaser follows the pattern set by last week's "I Am An Avenger" teases - White background, figure in foreground next to a declarative statement and "I Am A(n)" above the logo of the series in question - with one major difference: The figure in question is in silhouette only. Why? Because he's a secret Avenger, of course - and because this kind of guessing game only works to get fans more curious, vocal and excited about the series before its debut.
The gimmickry is unnecessary; Secret Avengers will be written by Ed Brubaker - who'll always have "AKA The Man Who Killed Captain America" after his name in our hearts, even if it was revealed that Cap wasn't really dead - and drawn by Dark Avengers' Mike Deodato, which ensures a certain level of quality based on both men's track records. Sure, we don't know what the concept behind the series is yet, but given the title and both creators' histories, we're expecting something along the lines of a darker side to Marvel's new Heroic Age status quo, and we're fine with that.

For those keeping track, this will be the third Marvel team to turn "Secret": The Defenders was relaunched as The Secret Defenders in the late 1990s, and New Warriors made a comeback as Secret Warriors - itself also a play on Secret Wars/Secret War - last year. "Secret" is the new "Dark." Which was, in turn, the new "New".

Secret Avengers launches in May, and as far as we're concerned, the silhouette in the teaser is definitely the Black Panther.

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Though Panasonic announced that they'd be selling 3D plasmas in the US starting this year, they'd never spoken of price until a recent press conference in Japan where they stated that their 54-inch, 3D-capable Viera TH-P54VT will run the equivalent of $5,900.

That's a lot of money. However, the TH-P54VT won't be the cheapest model available from Panasonic this year, as Panasonic promised 3D models as small as 50-inches.

CrunchGear notes that Panasonic seems to be pricing 3D as an $800 upsell over their premium 2D plasmas, though from piecing together prices, even that estimate may have been a bit conservative.

In truth, there's no way 99% of the population will drop $5k on any TV when you can finally score a decent quality, 46-inch LCD or plasma for well under a grand. If Panasonic wants glasses-based 3D to take off, they need to price the tech to sell. [Panasonic via CrunchGear]

Maybe your spouse's reaction to your 18 TB video collection of bendy redheads wasn't all that positive. Maybe you drunk dialed your ex on Skype. Maybe you learned that power cords aren't the best idea when it comes to kinky restraints. Maybe your date rudely checked her email in the middle of dessert and proceeded to pull out a second phone to continue reading after you teasingly confiscated her first. (I'm sorry! Won't do it again. Call me?)

Whatever the details, I want to hear about how gadgets or technology interfered with your love life. So send your stories to me with the subject of "Bad Valentine Tales" and we can share the horror.

Picture by sunshinecity

Bolt Creative, producers of the game, tells Kotaku that they've cut a deal with indie comic book company Ape Entertainment to create a new series based on their game.

"A comic book series is a natural extension of the Pocket God brand," noted Dave Castelnuovo, CEO of Bolt Creative. "Ape Entertainment is the perfect partner to help bring our island to book form."

The comic will be released as a digital four issue mini-series through iVerse Media, and later sold in print. Spokespeople for the two companies say they also plan to release a trade paperback version.

"We are extremely excited to be working with Bolt Creative to bring Pocket God into the comic book space," says Ape Co-Publisher Brent E. Erwin. "Our goal is to expose some of the 2.1 million Pocket God fans to the world of comics, and conversely introduce comic book fans to the world of Pocket God with this fun and exciting endeavor."

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that when the auction ended last night a furious Sony and unhappy Lionsgate gave up after the final Pacificor bid for the Terminator movie and TV rights.

In exchange for the keys to Skynet, Halycon will receive $5 million for every Terminator movie made from now on, as well as some holdings in future revenues streams from Terminator 3 and Terminator 4. Interestingly enough another agreement was made that terminated the debt that Halycon owed Pacificor and the rest of their creditors. But all of this could change in bankruptcy court.

This all seems very strange when you go back and read the original lawsuit filed against Pacificor, wherein Halycon accused the fund of multiple things including trying to force the film Terminator Salvation over budget so that Halycon would default and Pacificor could purchase the rights. Which looks like what just happened. Also Halycon was asking for $30 mil in damages, while Terminator sold for around $29.5 million.

Still, this all will have to be sorted out in court. But since the studios lost rights to the franchise in the auction, does this just mean even more time until another stab is taken at a Terminator film? We can only assume that everything will be put on hold until all the legal details are ironed out. Plus, you have to imagine that other studios might be exceedingly nervous about getting involved in this sticky situation anytime soon, so it may be many years until we see another Terminator.

Beyond explaining which colors work as "warm" and "cool," how primaries play off secondary colors, and offering lots of keen examples of every kind of color design, Smashing's post offers some clues on how colors are perceived when images are translated to mental impressions. Here's a little primer on orange that caught me unawares:

Orange is a very vibrant and energetic color. In its muted forms, it can be associated with the earth and with autumn. Because of its association with the changing seasons, orange can represent change and movement in general.

Because orange is associated with the fruit of the same name, it can be associated with health and vitality. In designs, orange commands attention without being as overpowering as red. It's often considered more friendly and inviting, and less in-your-face.

Hit the link for a deeper read. While you've got your monocle and draft paper out, tell us what color schemes you like, and which have never appealed to you, in the comments.

Running off mere USB power, the Atlona AT-HDVieW takes VGA and 3.5mm audio, combines the signal and outputs it all at 1080P through HDMI. Plus, the scaler/converter communicates with your TV, ensuring the proper output resolution in case 1080P isn't just right.

The Atlona AT-HDVieW will be available later this month for $120. In the meantime, those Klingons will need pay for what they've done on a 13-inch screen. [Atlona via SlashGear]

I had come to witness the birth of plush toy Mitch, a one-eyed creature who has lived for a very long time and has become a little neurotic over the years. Things are hard for Mitch because he has no mouth, and yet his constant companion is a creature called Mouth who speaks for him - and frequently lies about what Mitch really wants to say. No wonder Mitch is in therapy with Dr. Darwin Dayglow, a kindly psychotherapist who runs the The Facility where Mitch lives with other creatures in the bestiary.

Mitch is the second toy from this bestiary created by the team at Neon Monster, who have done some serious worldbuilding to explain the oddball group of monsters who are under Dr. Dayglow's care. At Neon Monster, I talked to store proprietors Kristy Klinck and Jeremy Brautman about their new plush creature as well as his backstory, which was generated by a group that included artists Lauren Venell and Reuben Rude, as well as story-spinners (and Neon Monster co-founders) Isaac and Jacob Pritzker.

First I met the main players. There's Mitch, whose plushy little face you could have sitting next to you on your desk right now if you order one. And there's Circuitous Psnail, the glowing guy you see below, who likes to draw giant psychedelic shapes out of snail goo on the walls of The Facility. (He's available as a resin toy.) Then there's Robotephant, who is a semi-cyborg who also serves as a recording device and memory bank. And Panoptes is a security system - a collection of eyeballs linked via ecotoplasm. I'm already pleased at how this universe is cute and gentle, while also containing all the trappings of the surveillance state. The cute panopticon is a concept whose time has come.

"All of these creatures are analog," Brautman explained to me, gesturing at Mitch's back knobs. "They are all on a closed, biotech network so they can communicate with each other wirelessly."

"They're also in danger - people might want to poach them," Klinck added. "They stay at The Facility for safety."

We discussed how the creatures are basically DiY biotech, and that an important part of the aesthetic is that they don't always work right. They're missing some parts, or they break. Dayglow finds them and brings them to the Facility to give them psychiatric care, and prevent the outside world from taking advantage of them.

"It's possible that they evolved this way, or that they were created," Klinck said, adding that it was important to them to be sure the creatures wouldn't be cutsey, but instead "dark, real world."

Brainstorming with Isaac and Reuben, they came up with elaborate backstories for all the creatures, which are documented on the Neon Monster Bestiary website. Like many modern toy makers, it was important to the Neon Monster team that people relate to the creatures within a story, and to view them as a group. Isaac is going to continue the creatures' stories via Dayglow's therapy sessions with them, and will be filling out "case histories" on the Bestiary website (some are already completed). Toys with psychiatric problems is also, it seems to me, an idea whose time has come.

Want to snuggle up with Mitch and help him deal with his communication issues? You can order a soft, cuddly Mitch toy here ($39.95), and the limited-edition albino version is here ($49.95).

Mitch is the cute-but-glum star of the show.
It's Mitch, and the limited-edition albino version of Mitch!
The Mouth, who speaks (usually incorrectly) for Mitch.
The Facility where everybody lives.
Circuitous Psnail!
It's Dr. Darwin Dayglow, who is here to help all the strange monsters.
Panoptes is watching you.
Robotephant remembers everything.

This morning a family friend said that she bought something from an eBay shop, but then decided that she wanted to cancel or something like that. I looked online and it said that you cannot cancel an order per se (she has not finalized her purchase yet), but have to pretty much ignore that pending purchase for it to go away.

Is that true?

What you missed last night
Diablo III's Female Monk Has The Cutest Haircut
Ubisoft Unveils New Ghost Recon Title
Finding The State Of The HD Generation
White Knight Chronicles Review: Workin' On Our Knight Moves
Pirate Ordered To Pay Nintendo $1.5 Million

Once installed, the Dropbox extension places a small Dropbox icon in your Google Chrome toolbar. After your initial sign-in, clicking on the icon presents the menu seen here. You can select between your recently updated files and your folder structure to quickly navigate to the file you're looking for. Clicking on any given file will either display or play the file in your browser or download it to your computer for local viewing.

Dropbox extension is a free and unofficial extension for accessing your Dropbox files and works wherever Google Chrome does. Have a favorite extension or tool for getting the most out of cloud-based services? Let's hear about it in the comments.

It was captured by Wally Pacholka last January 20, at the Haleakala Crater on the Island of Maui, Hawaii. The moonbow—or lunar rainbow—is caused when the near-full moon at less than 42 degrees in a dark sky. The colors are so faint that the human eye color receptors can't be excited enough for the brain to identify them. Therefore, they appear as white arcs to the naked eye. Only by using long-exposure photography you can reveal the diffraction of the moonlight through the microscopic water droplets suspended in the air.

By the way, that red thing shining on the sky? It's Mars rising. Check out the rest of Wally's amazing images at [Astropics]

Run by a team that dubs themselves Colorjack, this "Sketchpad" demo shows off the capabilities of modern JavaScript and HTML5 support. You can paint any color in any shade or opacity, take on patterns and "Spirographs," and use all the tools you're likely familiar with from Microsoft's older versions of that old Paint standby.

Sketchpad also offers a handful of control windows you can move around and keep open. If the app supported drag-and-drop file imports, as Firefox 3.6 does, this would be a truly robust, and almost desktop-replacing, webapp.

When you're done with your efforts, hit the save icon and your image pops up in a new tab, ready to be saved. Sketchpad is free to use, and works on any browser that supports HTML5—including, it's been suggested, in some mobile devices, though we had very little luck actually painting with an iPod touch and Android device.

NetEase, the company which operates the game in China, has blocked new users from registering while it applies for a license to run WoW's expansion pack, Burning Crusade. Which, for some reason, it didn't go ahead and secure when it got the rights to World of Warcraft itself.

That means no new World of Warcraft registrations at all for a week starting next Monday. Just a week. Least, it's supposed to be for a week. Knowing the way this situation has played out over the past year, a week could be just the beginning.

NetEase suspends new user registration for hit game [Reuters]

Ghostbusters 3:

So now it's been confirmed (sort of) that Venkman will be a ghost in the film. And there are rumors swirling about the movie's villain. As recently as last summer, says Cinematical, the central mythology of the film was based around the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism, which features a war between good and evil. And evil is personified by Ahriman, the god of darkness and destroyer of good. Even if it's true that the film still revolves around Zoroastrianism, it's still not clear if Ahriman is actually the villain, but it's possible that Ahriman plays a similar role to Gozer in the first film, unleashing evil spirits. [Cinematical]

Transformers 3:

Tony Todd, who voiced the Fallen in the last movie, says he's already been told he'll be back in this one — but will he be playing the Fallen? Or a new character? [Den Of Geek via TFW2005]

The Wolfman:

Hugo Weaving says he's not sure if he'll be in the sequel — if any — but it sounds, at least, like his character doesn't die in this one. He says his character, Aberline, "is based, pretty loosely, on Detective Inspector Aberline, who headed up the White Chapel murders of 1889, which became known as the Jack the Ripper murders." And Emily Blunt says her character has a "forbidden" love with Del Toro's character, because she used to be with his brother. And because she couldn't save her fiance, she made it her mission to save the brother. [IESB]

Lost:

Nestor Carbonell says we'll find out who the Hostiles are, and explains what's coming next:

There are some amazing twists this season. You're going to see elements of characters that I never thought I'd play for my character and I think others didn't expect to play them in their own characters. There are going to be emotional highs and lows for people that you've never seen. With respect to alliances, there's going to be a lot of movement and fluctuations. There will be loyalty, but there's going to be a lot of shifting and power struggle, which is always at play. Everyone's mettle is tested in this final season. It's the payoff season where all of those loose ends, or most of them, will be tied. A lot of those big conflicts will be resolved.

And he says Richard Alpert's been insecure this whole time, always being an adviser rather than a leader and often being in conflict with the leaders he's served. He wants redemption for the atrocities he's been a part of, and he wants answers. [TV Guide]

In tonight's episode, Kate and Sawyer will share a heartbreaking scene on the end of a dock (probably right after Sawyer drops Juliet's engagement ring into the water) and another one inside a house, which might turn some Skaters into Jewelers. Kate will see how deep Sawyer's feelings for Juliet really go. Also, Jack tries to kill himself — sort of — but it may not be intentional. Also, Rousseau and "the Infection" become factors once again. Also, in the alt-universe, Kate and Claire spend some quality time together, and we see that Kate may be destined to be part of Aaron's life even without crashing on the island — but the same may be true of someone else. Also, an old "frenemy" will reappear. [E! Online]

Evangeline Lilly feels like Kate has exhausted her romantic possibilities with both Jack and Sawyer on the Island, but in the alt-universe, they've got a blank slate and can start all over again. And the "man of Kate's life now is Aaron. And I think he takes precedence over both of those men." (Really?) And Matthew Fox hints that we'll keep seeing alt-Jack having "glimpses or flashes of something forgotten." [Doc Arzt]

Hiroyuki Sanada explains that his character, Dogen, is a doctor, who's been on the Island for a long time, and now he's kind of a temple master. (And don't forget, Dogen was the name of a great Zen master, so he joins Locke, Faraday and various other symbolically named characters.) [IGN]

Two-thirds of the way through filming the season, there are already a lot of casualties, says Michael Emerson, who seriously doubts Ben will survive to the end of the series. [NBC Chicago via SpoilersLost]

Here's another promo for tonight's episode:

So you noticed the smoke monster didn't kill Ben when it killed everyone else inside the statue last week. Michael Emerson says there's a good reason that the smoke monster can't kill Ben. And Jacob's agenda is definitely more complicated than we know. [Fancast]

Chuck:

Christopher Lloyd will guest star as Dr. Leo Dreyfus, a CIA psychiatrist who provides therapy for spies and ex-spies, in episode 3x16. [ChuckTV]

Also, this show will have a two-hour season finale, as the last two episodes of the season air back to back from 8 to 10 PM on Monday, May 24. [ChuckTV]

Fringe:

Now that Olivia's seen the "glimmer" on Peter, that moment is going to weigh heavily on Walter, say the producers. He's going to owe Olivia an explanation, and sort of brings her up to speed in a "really great episode." The way Walter and Olivia agree to deal with the situation is really interesting and will intrigue the fans. Also, they hint strongly that Olivia won't tell Peter what she knows about him, and Peter may never find out — but this could be "another brick" between the two of them. [OliviaAndPeter]

Additional reporting by Mary Ratliff.

Optimus is a new technology that allows Intel's integrated GPU to coexist with a discrete Nvidia GPU in a new way, seamlessly alternating between the two depending on the task at hand. It works with GeForce 200M series, GeForce 300M series, next-gen GeForce M, and next-gen Ion GPUs, as well as Intel's Core 2 Duo, Core i3/i5/i7, and Atom N450 processors.

At the most basic level, Optimus is similar to the switchable graphics that Nvidia pioneered a few years ago. But switchable graphics as currently conceived are a pain in the neck: You have to switch manually, there's generally a 5-10 second delay, your screen flickers, you have to shut down certain applications. Optimus still includes a manual option, but otherwise automatically decides what can run on integrated graphics (regular web browsing) and what needs an extra boost (games, Flash video, etc), making the switch for you behind the scenes. It makes the change so quickly by letting the Nvidia GPU handle the processing duties while still employing Intel's IGP as a display controller, as in the diagram above.

One drawback is that Optimus relies on the software to tell it which graphics to employ. That'll be done through an Nvidia verification process and accessed through automatic online updates, but there may be instances where your PC doesn't recognize a software and won't know whether to use the IGP or the Nvidia GPU. You can still switch manually in those cases, but it's an unfortunate extra step.

Performance hasn't been confirmed yet by a third party, but Nvidia posits that Optimus is up to an 8x improvement across apps and games than Intel's integrated solution. And because it only kicks in when needed, there's purportedly not much of a battery drain, depending on how often you use intensive graphics.

Nvidia says there will be more than 50 notebooks packing Optimus by this summer, although today it's launching only on a few Asus notebooks like the UL50Vf, an ultraportable which houses both a Core2Duo SU7300 and a GeForce G210M.

What we don't know—but what we strongly suspect—is if Optimus is the solution Apple has been waiting for before refreshing its Macbook line. The hiccup: currently, Nvidia says that Optimus is only compatible with Windows 7. But with the Macworld just around the corner, we may be seeing Optimus Macbook Pros sooner than later. [Nvidia]

New "Underwater Plane" Plane From Virgin Offers Deep Sea Rides for the Super Rich
Virgin Limited Edition has come up with a new exclusive submarine built to "fly" in an airplane-like manner down to depths as far as 40 meters. It's the the Necker Nymph, a three-person "aero-submarine" and it's the latest toy for the super rich. And of course, it makes an eco-claim.

Using Mobile Phone Towers to Reduce Sewer Overflow... What?
Cell phone towers may be used to measure rainfall in real-time; the rain interferes with the radio signals, and this interference can be measured with "greater spatial resolution than traditional point measurements provided by rain gauges." How is this green? Well, in general it could provide better data about our planet and changing rain patterns, but on the more practical level, it could help reduce the dumping of polluted water in lakes and rivers.

Feeding the Grid By Bike: Electricity Generating Gyms (Video)
There's something very charming about Dan and Denise Rojas of Green Power Science. Not every energy project they pursue is the most practical in the world, but from huge DIY solar collectors to solar flash cooking an egg in ten seconds, you certainly couldn't blame these guys for a lack of experimentation. And now they are tackling one of those perennial questions that keeps popping up in our comments box-couldn't gyms be tied up to the grid to create power?

New Pictures of Earth Tweeted From Space
In what is perhaps the final frontier for Internet access, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi shared photos he had taken of Earth from the International Space Station viahis Twitter page. In addition to scenic locations and sprawling urban centers, Noguchi's photos provide some of the first looks of Haiti's capital, Port-Au-Prince, justweeks after it was devastated by the recent earthquake.

Move Over OLEDs: Scientists Create Cheap, Fully Recyclable Lighting Material
Swedish and American researchers have just developed a fully recyclable lighting component with what Science Daily is terms a "new super material": graphene.

Greener Gadgets 2010: What's the Greenest Gadget of The Year?
The Greener Gadgets competition has begun. Gearing up for the Greener Gadgets conference in New York City on February 25, the Consumer Electronics Association has kicked off a competition to see what is the greenest gadget idea of the year. Will it be the Orange Solar Tent, which charges up your camp site? Or AUG, a barcode system that helps you find locally produced goods? Or will it be Corky, a computer mouse made of cork that is charged by the movement of your hand? You get to decide! Check out the 18 entrants and find out how to vote.

Highgear Solarpod, A Snappy Little Solar Charger
Ski magazine included this in their January list of "Stuff We Like", and it does seem kinda nifty. The SolarPod is a small, lightweight solar charger, than can fill its 3.7V 650 mAh Lithium-Ion battery in eight hours of direct sunlight... But the aspect most appealing to me is the karabiner style clip, that allows it to be readily latched on to stuff.

LED Flashlight Combines Solar and Pull Power So You're Never In The Dark
Solar powered flashlights are great, but you have to wait for a charge. Pull-cord flashlights are great but you have to work for a charge. But what about one that combines both so if you're short on light or short on energy, you still get a charge? The ECOPower Solar Pull Light combines two sources of reliable alternative energy to make sure you've always got a light in a pinch.

Waste-Less Desktop Printer Uses Plastic Paper and Heat for Erasable Document Printing
Going paperless is always on the top of mind when it comes to greening an office. But it's tough to ditch paper in all cases. There could be a solution to this bind. A new printer called the "PrePeat" uses sheets made of heat-sensitive PET and can print, then erase and reprint on the same page over and over, eliminating the need for ink cartridges and plastic. Sound like a dream come true for a green office? Maybe - but it has quite a price attached to it. Check out how it works in a video.

Is Liquid Terminator Robot One Step Closer to Reality?
Hydrogels are not new. Contact lenses and replacement skin are just two examples of uses of these high-water content gels. But hydrogels currently suffer from problems like being too brittle or quite soft. This week in Nature, scientists announce the invention of a new type of hydrogel, one that could replace plastics and... it is self-healing. Imaginative souls will immediately speculate on the amazing applications materials engineers might dream up. Visionaries have gone so far as to compare this new hydrogel to the liquid robot from Terminator 2. What is the trick?

TreeHugger's EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Faces and Places work just like iPhoto, using face detection and tagging, so you can organize photos by people or by where you took them, though now it uses thumbnails of photos that you can actually drag-and-drop photos onto a map. It's the same Faces engine, but you can restrict face recognition to particular projects, instead of having it scour your whole library. With Places, it works with GPS trackers in a pretty neat way: When you import your tracklog, all you have to do is tell it where the first photo was taken, and then using timestamps, it'll automatically plot the rest.

Also like iPhoto, you can now upload directly to Facebook and Flickr. Since they're heavily targeting the hardcore iPhoto user who now wields a DSLR, not only have they streamlined the interface to make it a more natural transition, when you import your iPhoto library, it preserves all of your image adjustments, events, places and faces.

Brushes brings non-destructive painting effects to Aperture, with 15 Quick Brushes for effects like dodge and burn. You can actually apply or remove any adjustment—like contrast or saturation or curves—using brushes. With its new edge detection tech, you can, for example, boost contrast over the whole image, and then use the brush + edge detection to cleanly wipe the effect off of the sky. Adjustment presets are radically improved too—you can save combos of adjustments, like boosted sharpness and saturation with a cooler white balance, and they can be imported and exported.

One of the new things for pros is that they've rewritten the way the database works, so you can now sync and merge libraries. Which means you can take a self-contained library out on the road, do a bunch of imaging work, and then merge it back to your master library, and it'll sync just the changes you made while you were out.

Perhaps the most interesting bit from the creator standpoint are slideshows that integrate photos, audio, text and HD video that can be exported to iTunes and work with the iPhone and iPod touch, though we'll have to see how powerful it really is.

Apple doesn't mention it, but the thing I'm really hoping they added a lot of? Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed. Especially after using Adobe's Lightroom 3 Beta. Since Aperture 3's fully 64-bit on Snow Leopard, I'm pretty hopeful, actually. The bad news is that's restricted to Intel Macs only, it looks like. It's available today for $200 for the full version, or $100 to upgrade, with a 30-day free trial here.

Apple Releases Aperture 3

New Features Include Faces, Places & Brushes

CUPERTINO, Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today introduced Aperture™ 3, the next major release of its powerful photo editing and management software, with over 200 new features including Faces, Places and Brushes. Building on the innovative Faces and Places features introduced in iPhoto® '09, Aperture 3 makes it even easier and faster to organize large photo libraries. Aperture 3 introduces new tools to refine your photos including Brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of your photo, and Adjustment Presets for applying professional photo effects with just one click. Stunning new slideshows let you share your work by weaving together photos, audio, text and HD video.

"Millions of people love using iPhoto to organize, edit and share their digital photos," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "Aperture 3 is designed for both professionals who edit and manage massive libraries of photos and iPhoto users who want to take their photos further with easy-to-use tools such as Brushes and Adjustment Presets."

"Aperture 3 gets it right," said National Geographic photographer, Jim Richardson. "The image editing tools are exactly what I have been asking for, they're so easy to use and give me a level of control that I never even thought possible."

"I chose Aperture because it was the most powerful archiving application around, but it's now an unbelievable imaging tool as well," said Bill Frakes, Sports Illustrated staff photographer. "I am beyond impressed with the massive changes made in Aperture 3."

Aperture 3 allows you to organize large photo libraries with even more flexibility using Projects and the new Faces and Places. Faces uses face detection and recognition to find and organize your photos by the people in them. You can view faces across your entire photo library or view just the faces that appear in selected projects. In a new view that speeds up the organization process, Aperture 3 displays faces that have been detected but haven't yet been named. Places lets you explore your photos based on where they were taken, and like in iPhoto, Places automatically reverse geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, you can assign locations by dragging-and-dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS enabled cameras, tracking devices or your iPhone® photos.

The new Brushes feature allows you to add professional touches to your photos by simply painting effects onto the image. Aperture 3 includes 15 Quick Brushes that perform the most popular tasks like Dodge, Burn, Polarize and Blur, without the complexity of layers or masks. Brushes can automatically detect edges in your images to let you apply or remove effects exactly where you want them. Aperture 3 includes dozens of Adjustment Presets that apply a specific style or look to the entire image with just a click. You can create your own custom presets or explore the techniques of other photographers by importing theirs.

Aperture 3 makes it easy to share your work with stunning slideshows that weave together photos, audio, text and HD video. You can select one of six Apple designed themes or choose your own transitions, background, borders and titles, and even add your own soundtrack. You can export your slideshows directly to iTunes® to take with you on your iPhone or iPod touch®. You can also share photographs as beautiful prints, create custom-designed hardcover books and publish to online photo sharing sites like Facebook and Flickr, right from Aperture 3.

Pricing & Availability

Aperture 3 is available through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) and existing Aperture users can upgrade for a suggested retail price of $99 (US). A downloadable 30-day trial version is available at www.apple.com/aperture/trial. Aperture 3 runs as a 64-bit application on Mac OS® X Snow Leopard® on Macs with Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Full system requirements, online tutorials and more information on Aperture 3 can be found at www.apple.com/aperture.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

© 2010 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, Aperture, iPhoto, iPhone, iTunes, iPod touch, Apple Store and Snow Leopard are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

[Aperture]