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NFL tech competition winners reduce concussions and heal with light
The Super Bowl is almost here, and that means the NFL has picked the winners of its partly tech-focused 1st and Future competition. The main $50,000 prize for its Innovations to Advance Health and Safety competition is TopSpin's namesake TopSpin360, a helmet-based training device that helps reduce concussions (a serious problem for the NFL as of late) by increasing neck strength. All you have to do is spin your head -- the rotating weight on top generates centripetal force you counteract with your neck muscles. It's also Bluetooth-connected to help guide your training sessions.
YouTube 'Merch Store' makes your artist channel a one-stop shop for the groupie goodies
Know what beats selling CDs (or USB sticks) and swag out of the trunk of your struggling band's party wagon? Striking a deal with Google to pitch those wares on the interwebs, that's what. Rolling out to official YouTube partners over the next few weeks, the newly created Merch Store will offer fans from all across the globe an opportunity to purchase MP3s, tickets for concerts and gatherings, and, of course, merchandise straight from your dedicated page. Helping ol' Mountain View make these coffer-filling goodies available are a handful of established online retailers like Amazon, iTunes, Songkick and Topspin. So, if you just can't wait for the Rebecca Black arena rock tour to blitz through your small town, keep clicking refresh on that artist channel for the inevitable slew of merchandising, merchandising.
Top Spin and Table Tennis on Wii
Now if Take-Two would just come out with a badminton sim they'd have a Wii racket trifecta. Today 2K announced famous tennis game Top Spin would be making its way to the Wii in spring of '08; this follows the recent announcement that Rockstar's Table Tennis would also make its way to the console. Above you can see the video for Table Tennis on the Wii, which premiered at the Leipzig Games Conference.A tennis game on the Wii is about as natural as peanut butter and jelly. We've been clamoring for a solid tennis experience since Wii Sports served up its first tennis ball. Of course, to compensate for the graphical downgrade that'd inevitable with the Wii, the games will have to make up for it in the ol' controls department. Top Spin says that it will use both the Wiimote and the Nunchuk; the Nunchuk controls the player and aiming, while the Wiimote will control force and style. Both games sound like they're perfectly suited for the Wii but, like all things with the console, the controls make or break the game.
Best Buy: Top Spin Bundle $399, HD DVD player $149
More Xbox 360 price drop, price change, price info leakage made its way onto the net today with Joystiq receiving a Best Buy inventory sheet detailing a Xbox 360 Top Spin bundle. According to the papers, the Top Spin bundle is going to retail for $399, be introduced on August 12th and include ... well, we aren't sure what it'll include, but we're thinking Top Spin would be a good guess. The arrival of a new bundle at the $399 price point further proves the overall Xbox 360 price cut, but if this bundle only includes Top Spin, then we'd stick with the (then) newly discounted $349 Premium.Best Buy also went discount crazy on the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive this morning, slashing the price to $149.99 and even including the five free HD DVDs (pdf). But sadly, the HD DVD player stock has sold out online. Though, we advise checking with your local Best Buy, because we confirmed with our store and they too have dropped the price to $149 and it includes the King Kong movie and the five free HD DVD offer. We've got some shopping to do![Thanks santini]Read - Xbox 360 Top Spin Bundle $399Read - Xbox 360 HD DVD player $149
Best Buy Xbox bundle for $399 and HD DVD for $150
Although really not evidence of the Aug. 12 price drop, there are some interesting things going on with the Xbox 360's pricing and attachments at Best Buy. We've received two separate Best Buy scans of a "360 Top Spin Bun" that will go on sale on Aug. 12 for $399 (the same day as the expected price drop). Though we're not positive, a Top Spin 2 pack-in seems to be the obvious component here (take that Wii Tennis!). Also curious is that Best Buy has brought down the price of the HD DVD attachment for the Xbox 360 to $150. It's currently sold out online, but most major retailers are still pricing the device in the $180 to $200 range. It's not marked as a sale so, unless there is a computer error, the price looks to stay. Retailers plan to get more details on Xbox 360 pricing next Wednesday.[Thanks Anonymous and El Conejo]
