Digital Trends
A new controversy is swirling around technology giant Microsoft, and it has nothing to do with its Windows operating system, browser software, antitrust investigations, anti-piracy measures, video games, portable media players, or its stance towards patents and open source software. Instead, the company is quickly trying to apologize for intentionally altering a photo used on its business productivity Web sites to change a man’s race.
Paranoid cell users: you can safely return your phones to your pockets now. After speculation this week that a Korean man’s death may have been caused by an exploding cell phone in his pocket, authorities have discovered a much more likely cause for punctured and punctured heart and lungs – a massive piece of quarry equipment.
According to the Associated Press, a doctor who examined the body determined that the damage was too severe to have come from a cell phone. With some further investigation, police questioned the man who first reported the death, who eventually admitted he was actually at fault. Apparently, the death was accidental, and occurred as the man was backing up a drilling vehicle. The melted cell phone was most likely a cover up, though the man did not admit to melting it.
The Beijing News has reported that an unnamed man has dropped dead after a three-day Internet gaming session. It happened on Saturday in the cityof Guangzhou, in the south of China. The man, said to be around 30 years old, collapsed in an Internet café and was rushed to hospital. According to the newspaper, exhaustion was deemed thelikely cause and "police have ruled out the possibility of suicide.” There’s no mention of what game had obsessed him for 72 hours.The report said that about 100 other Websurfers "left the cafe in fear after witnessing the man’s death." Internet addiction has become a major problem in China, which, with 140 million Internet users, is second only tothe US. Several cities have clinics to treat the disease, and the government has banned the opening on new Internet cafes and issued orders limiting the time Internet users can spend gaming online.
If you don’t remember Pac-Man, the chances are you weren’t around in the 1980s. It was the biggest video game of the era, but now there’s a chance to enjoy an entirely new Pac-Manexperience. Microsoft has introduced Pac-Man 21st Century Championship Edition for its Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade platforms. The new gamewas introduced on Tuesday during the finals of the Xbox 360 Pac-Man World Championship in New York. The 10 finalists had the chance to be the first to play the new game. This new version ofPac-Man has great continuity from the original, in no small part because it was created by Toru Iwatani, the man responsible for the first version of Pac-Man. But there are also plenty of newfeatures in the revamped game. Mazes change shape during play, there are timed game modes and an entirely new soundtrack. The graphics are also HD – a long step from the fuzzy screens of 1980sconsoles. The timed modes are designed to offer a series of different challenges. Pac-Man Championship Edition became available on June 6 for 800 Microsoft Points or around $10 via the XboxLive Arcade. “Pac-Man was the game that ignited the world’s passion for video games, with every member of the family hooked on avoiding Clyde and eating up all the Power Pellets,”said Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of global marketing for the interactive entertainment division of Microsoft. The new game also marks Iwatani’s swan song, as he’s retiringfrom the gaming industry to teach at Tokyo Polytechnic University.
Activision has set loose the official video-game tie-in for the latest installment of the Spider-Man movie franchise—and it’s aptly titled Spider-Man 3. Activision is leaving no stone un-turned with this release, rolling out Spider-Man 3 titles for a variety of major game platforms, including all the so-called next-gen systems (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii) plus the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS handheld system.
Game developer Namco today said they were bringing an original kart racing game featuring Pac-Man characters to multiple gaming platforms. The game, to be called Pac-Man World Rally, is being developed by Smart Bomb Interactive and will be released in summer 2006.
Pac-Man World Rally, Namco said, puts players behind the wheel as Pac-Man or one of 14 other characters from the Pac-Man world. Gamers, across the game’s multiple levels, “utilize a unique power sliding mechanic that allows them to skid around tight corners without losing speed, while charging up Boost Bottles they can use at will to leave their opponents in their dust.â€
“A healthy 30-year-old man developed a serious lung disease after being exposed to a type of metal oxide used to coat the screens.
Doctors at Toranomon Hospital in Tokyo found tiny deposits of the compound in the man’s lungs, according to a report in the European Respiratory Journal.
But British consumers have been assured buying the televisions poses no risk. “
Read more at BBC News
Found VIA Engadget
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