PS3 win battle but not the War!
Last week we brought you the news that the ongoing patent battle between LG and Sony had resulted in Playstation 3 consoles being confiscated as the result of a 10 day ban, this week a court decision in the Netherlands has stopped the confiscation of Playstation 3 units entering Europe, with the 300,000 confiscated being ordered returned. On top of this LG is being ordered to pay the €130,000 court cost, and an additional €200,000 for each additional day it takes for the confiscated consoles to be returned, claims the Dutch newspaper ‘De Telegraaf’.
Despite this small victory for Sony the battle is far from over and the result may end in a heftier loss for the Japanese company than ten days worth of sales. In the meantime Playstation 3 shipments will resume as normal across Europe.
Japanese Eartquake Appeals
Most of, if not all of you, our readers have probably heard of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami that devastated Japan earlier this week. The earthquake that measured 8.9 on the Richter scale is the largest Japan has ever faced and is in the top ten largest earthquakes ever recorded.
Videos are flooding the internet that depicts the destruction across the country, from the damage caused by the tsunami to skyscrapers swaying. In the worst affected areas in the North-East of Japan whole towns seem to have been swept away. The Japanese government have even declared a state of nuclear emergency following a cooling system failure at Tohoku Electric Power Co’s Onagawa nuclear plant.
The death toll has risen to over 1000 people, with many more injured and almost 100,000 unaccounted for. These numbers are expected to increase over the week as rescue efforts are carried out across the country.
Our thoughts are with the country and its citizens in these times and we encourage all who are able to donate funds for relief. Not sure where to give? Here is a list of charities ready and waiting to respond to the crisis currently afflicting the country:
Virtual Nightmares for Soldiers
Last year research came to light that suggested those who played video games regularly had more control over their dreams – and ability to fight nightmares. This has been applied to combat soldiers and the results show that those who play video games tend to have fewer and less intense nightmares about war.
In a survey of roughly 100 soldiers results showed that those who played games such as ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Red Dead Redemption’ on a regular basis had fewer nightmares and those they had were of a milder nature than those who did not. Experts theorise that such video games act as a ‘threat simulator’ that helps to condition the mind to deal with situations that arise in their nightmares. The more immersive or intense the games the soldiers played the better they appeared to be at dealing with whatever horrors awaited them in their sleep, as opposed to more casual gamers too. Are video games bad for us? Not in this situation apparently!
Xbox hunt down Scammers
Earlier this week someone found a way to scam Microsoft points, posting their findings online for others to take advantage of. By the time it was discovered and shut down by Microsoft only hours later over 1.2 million dollars worth of points had been ‘stolen’.
Microsoft are able to track the generated codes and find out what accounts have cashed them in. And of course; they have every intention of doing so. An official statement on the matter has been issued, with the promise of bringing anyone who took advantage of the scam to justice;
“We take safety and security very seriously and require that Xbox LIVE members use the service in compliance with applicable laws and specifically prohibit people from engaging in illegal activity as a part of our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct. Our Policy and Enforcement team is evaluating whether or not certain individuals have violated the Terms of Use for Xbox LIVE and will take the appropriate enforcement on an individual basis.”
Nifty trick – Katamari Style!
Are you viewing this page with Google Chrome right now? If not, then open the browser up because we’ve stumbled across a gem in the form of a hack that rolls up the words and images of a webpage – Katamari style!
The hack is simple to use; you simply copy and paste a piece of JavaScript into the address bar of your Google Chrome browser, which will reload the page with the words and images as individual items. You control the ball by holding down the right click button and mousing around the page, where the ball will pick up each of the words and images and grow as it does so and thus being able to pick up larger items. There’s even a multiplayer feature! For more details on how to turn even the dullest of webpages into hours of entertainment check out (link: kathack.com)
