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Eidos 'life president' Ian Livingstone to be named 'development legend'
Can you imagine? Your name is attached to legendary franchises like Tomb Raider and Hitman; the people sing your praises in the streets. Every day, a small peasant child brings a jug of fresh goat's milk to your door. You're Ian Livingstone, Eidos "life president." And now you're getting an official accolade from the 2011 Develop Industry Excellence Awards: the Development Legend Award. The award "acknowledges a raft of work done to support games developers and the video games industry across a career lasting over 35 years so far." The Develop Industry Excellence Awards take place on July 20 at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in Brighton, UK.
SurfCube browser wins Microsoft Innovation Award, latest version packs YouTube punch (video)
If you're feeling too boxed in with Internet Explorer on your Windows Phone, consider checking out SurfCube, which brings your browsing experience outside the box -- literally. Since we last visited the app, an ad-supported version was introduced alongside the $1.99 paid version, allowing users to spin the browser without any commitment. This useful (and entertaining) functionality was enough to help the developer score a Microsoft Innovation Award for smartphone applications -- a feat it has accomplished twice before. Fresh off its win, SurfCube 3.0 debuted with numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, and -- perhaps most importantly -- YouTube support. It also claims to have the best tab support of any WP7 browser, a point you can judge for yourself in the video just past the break.
Flexbook concept serves up candy-coated convertible
It seems Fujitsu's got a thing for morphing PCs. Way back in 2006, we saw this mysterious tri-fold concept, which was rumored to be making the rounds inside Fujitsu R&D, and now the outfit's short-listed this déjà-vu-inducing transformer for its 2011 "Life with Future Computing Award." The Flexbook, designed by Hao-Chun Huang, features a foldable 21:9 touchscreen and similarly flexible keyboard that allow its users to switch from laptop to tablet to book-like e-reader. It's also been designed to sport a number of interchangeable sleeves in a Benetton-esque array of colors and patterns. It might have seemed impractical five years ago, but with convertibles coming of age, we'd say the Flexbook isn't really all that far out. %Gallery-123544%
We won some Webby Awards, and now you can win a BlackBerry PlayBook!
It's happened again, we've won a Webby. More than one, even! Last year you voted your hearts out and awarded us the People's Voice award for Consumer Electronics. This year you did it again, but you also made us proud by awarding us a People's Voice award in Online Film & Video for, what else, the Engadget Show. We also scored the official Webby in Consumer Electronics (voted on by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences), which we're of course thrilled about, but we're most honored that you voted for us. So, we're going to throw a little love right back at ya. With BlackBerry World going on RIM has graciously given us another PlayBook to give away to you. To win it all you need to do is comment. The full instructions and typical rules can be found after the break, which you should definitely read before you file that comment. Good luck!
Four Grammy Awards renamed to include 'video games music,' underline its growing importance
Video games have never had a problem sitting alongside movie DVDs and music CDs (back when such things were distributed physically) in stores, so it's frankly overdue to see them pop up in a mainstream awards show like the Grammys. The US Recording Academy has finally deigned to address video games and their aural landscapes as a separate class of entertainment, and has now amended four of its awards to spell that out. What was formerly known as "Motion, Television, or Other Visual Media" is now reclassified as "Motion, Television, Video Games Music, or Other Visual Media," leading to there now being four awards that explicitly recognize excellence in video game music scores. Guess that was inevitable after Christopher Tin's Baba Yetu won a Grammy this February, ostensibly because of its inclusion as one of the marquee songs on Civilization 4, but in a category entirely unrelated to gaming. Skip past the break to hear it for yourself, along with a couple of other favorites of ours.
Computer learning and computational neuroscience icon Dr. Leslie Valiant wins Turing Award
We've seen recently that computers are more than capable of kicking humanoids to the curb when it comes to winning fame and fortune, but it's still we humans who dole out the prizes, and one very brainy humanoid just won the best prize in computer science. That person is Leslie Valiant, and the prize is the fabled A.M. Turing Award. Dr. Valiant currently teaches at Harvard and over the years developed numerous algorithms and models for parsing and computer learning, including work to understand computational neuroscience. His achievements have helped make those machines smarter and better at thinking like we humans, but he's as of yet been unsuccessful in teaching them the most important thing: how to love.
Fortune says Apple tops them all!
This tidbit of news is not a surprise, but it's sure nice to see. For the 4th straight year Fortune says that Apple is the world's most admired company, as it "continues to set the bar high for high tech companies across the board." Citing nearly doubled profits from a year ago, launching the iPad and iPad 2, and working with Verizon to sell the iPhone 4 on their CDMA network, Fortune also praises Apple for doing so well while Steve Jobs has been on medical leave. Apple's success is a welcome relief from the years in the 1990s when the company was seemingly wandering in the wilderness and survival was not a sure thing. The Apple of today is not only advancing profits in a weak economy, but beginning to define the future of computing to the degree that competitors are mostly copying Apple products rather than bringing new and unique innovations to buyers. Congratulations, Apple!
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow wins best original game score from Film Music Critics
The Oscars still haven't deigned to give awards out to video game creators, but the International Film Music Critics' Association is much more open-minded. In among their awards given out this past week was a "Best Original Score for a Video Game or Interactive Media." And the winner goes to... Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. Congratulations to composer Óscar Araujo, who got to take home the "Iffy." No, we just made that name up -- we don't really know what it's called. Probably just the IFMCA Award. His score beat out the music in Dark Void (by Bear McCreary!), James Bond 007: Blood Stone, Lego Universe, and the Legend of the Guardians games to win it all. And apologies to composers Bill Elm and Woody Jackson. Why? Because their Red Dead Redemption score got robbed! Robbed, we say!
Peter Molyneux receiving BAFTA Fellowship
A couple weeks after he picks up his lifetime achievement award at GDC 2011, Peter Molyneux will continue his award tour by picking up a similar accolade with the British Academy of Film and Televisions Arts' (BAFTA) Fellowship. He'll just have to swing by this year's GAME British Academy Video Games Awards on March 16 -- or, they can surely just mail it to him if he's tired of being praised by that point. The Fellowship is awarded for outstanding achievement and contribution to the industry through an individual's body of work. With series like Fable, Populous and Dungeon Keeper attached to his CV, it's not hard to see why the organization wants to give Molyneux another trinket for his collection. According to a BAFTA rep, previous winners include Will Wright, Nolan Bushnell, Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and, last year's recipient, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Antistatic E-3POD concept wins Citroen design award, job for its student creator
Who says dreaming doesn't pay? A young designer by the name of Heikki Juvonen recently won himself a six-month job placement at Citroen's PSA Design Centre in Paris after producing the most compelling response to the company's Double Challenge set to students at London's Royal College of Art. The premise was simple -- put together an aesthetic for an ultra-compact urban vehicle that Citroen could call its own, and judging by the imagery above, we can all probably agree that Heikki achieved a very distinctive look with his E-3POD. We're not yet certain how we feel about being inside the largest of the three wheels for the duration of our electrically powered journeys, but the young gent has half a year on his hands to tweak and refine his eye-catching design. We'll be ready to test-drive the prototype as soon as Citroen becomes mad enough to build one.
Apple skips Mobile World Congress, wins Mobile Device of the Year anyway
Apple doesn't do trade shows anymore, even popular ones that contain names of its products, so it's not surprising that the company skipped out on the 2011 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. But here's the funny part: even though the company itself didn't show up, one of its products won a major award anyway; Mobile World Congress judged the iPhone 4 as 2011 Mobile Device of the Year. The judges cited the iPhone 4's "great screen, sharp design, fantastic materials, and phenomenal ecosystem for app developers" as the reason for the award, and further said, "In a tight race, the iPhone 4 built on the success of its predecessors to set the pace for smart phones." Now hold on, I'm confused. The internet keeps telling me how bad the iPhone 4 is. What about Antennagate? Cracking glass? Camera issues? I mean, the antenna attenuation problem alone was "bad" enough that Consumer Reports couldn't bring itself to recommend the iPhone 4. As for that app ecosystem the judges hailed, I thought it was a "walled garden" that was bad for developers, bad for content owners, and bad for consumers? If the iPhone 4 is as terrible as the internet keeps saying, why does it keep winning awards (and customers)? What are you hiding from me, internet?! All FUD aside, congratulations to Apple for a well-deserved award. I can't speak for anyone else, but the iPhone 4 is the best piece of Apple gear I've ever owned, so kudos to all the engineers who made it possible. Yes, even you. [via Mashable]
Lord of the Rings Online invaded by mysterious relics, takes home "MMO of the year"
Hobbit Bungo Grubb is upset, and he has a good right to be -- after all, a stout black rock appeared in his pipe-weed fields and spoiled his crops something fierce. In a strongly worded letter reposted on Lord of the Rings Online's website, Grubb complains about the source of this menace: "Right in the middle of my field, someone had placed a tall stone block bearing unpleasant symbols... Furthermore, this stone artifact, or relic, or what-have-you, is a public nuisance! Anyone who gets too near it begins to feel most unhealthy, and cannot bear to look at the thing for too long." While the reason and consequence of this relic is unclear, the fact is that many like it are popping up all over Middle-earth. Players can track down five of these mysterious relics to earn the ominous-sounding "Calm Before the Storm" title. Is this the prologue to the Rise of Isengard later this year or something different entirely? In other LotRO news, PC Gamer awarded the game "MMO of the Year" for 2010, saying that "when it came to keeping us entertained all year long with small updates, plus throwing us the occasional party with huge loads of free content, LotRO treated its fans the best." Congrats to Turbine for this award!
Twitter's 2010 Most Retweeted list includes Colbert, Gaga, and Bieber, reminds us how boring we all are
Twitter has released a list of the top ten re-tweeted Twitterers for 2010. Yes, it was a landmark year in which Colbert -- who takes home the top prize -- made a funny about the oil spill, Drake said something vaguely wise, Lil Wayne announced his return from prison, Bieber said something we couldn't be bothered to translate, fake Al Qaeda knew what was up with geo-location, Joe Jonas made fun of someone with less cred than himself, Lady Gaga reavowed her freakdom, Kanye said he was sorry to Taylor Lautner for calling him a wimp, Rihanna made fun of someone with less cred than herself, and some random person's dad said some mildly amusing stuff. Yup, that about sums it up.
Eco urinal concept saves time and the environment
You do wash your hands when you're done, don't you?
World of WarCrafts: Behind the incredible Incredicon
World of WarCrafts spotlights art and creativity by WoW players, including fan art, cooking, comics, cosplay, music and fan fiction. Show us how you express yourself; email lisa@wow.com with your not-for-profit, WoW-inspired creations. Required reading for this week's post: Setting an Incredibles standard for guild meetups Synopsis <The Incredibles> of Boulderfist (US-A) sets the standard for designing WoW-themed guild meetups, with custom-designed collateral including an Oscars-style golden statuette volunteer award, picnic decorations, over-the-top publicity posters, game-themed menus -- even custom-designed, WoW-themed beer labels. Evidence See the gallery below. %Gallery-97242% Want to learn more about that golden bird? Click past the break for more details about the incredible Increddy award.
CCP Games win Icelandic export award
Icelandic development studio CCP Games is certainly no stranger to awards. Their massively successful sci-fi MMO EVE Online has drawn in countless awards over the years, from PC Gamer's "2009 MMO of the year" to MMORPG.com's "Most improved game" award back in 2007 and more. The company themselves have received their share of awards for business success, being named in the Technology Association of Georgia's "Top 10 innovative companies" award in 2009 and listed as one of the "Most successful game studios" of 2009 by Develop100. Last week, CCP added another notch in their belt when the Icelandic government awarded them the 2010 "President of Iceland's Export Award". The award usually goes to the company that generates the greatest revenue through export, with consideration given to how well the company are appealing to new markets. Past recipients of the award have included airlines, pharmaceutical suppliers, fisheries and even independent artists. As almost all of CCP's income comes from overseas, they have remained almost entirely isolated from the Icelandic financial crisis. In recognition of the company's growth and success with EVE Online in the face of economic turmoil, the award was presented to CCP on April 20th.
Ralph Baer inducted into Inventors Hall of Fame
[SteveO526] At 88 years young, Ralph Baer is one of our favorite adults (or super adults, as we like to call those over the age of 70 among us). After inventing Pong (and resultantly, the Magnavox Odyssey), Baer went on to create the rage-inducing electronic board game Simon, and just this past week was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame for his work. He was the first game developer to have earned the award. According to the event's fact sheet (warning: download link), inductees need to meet two specific criteria before being considered: "[One] The inventor must hold a US patent, and [Two] the invention must have contributed to the welfare of mankind and have promoted the progress of science and the useful arts." The National Selection Committee (representing "various scientific, industry, and professional groups along with a Blue Ribbon Panel of experts") then chooses said inductees. In his bio, the committee specifically notes Baer's accolades in the game industry, calling him "a pioneer in the field of interactive video games" -- an assessment we tend to agree with. We've already got a suggestion for next year, though, guys: Shinji Mikami. Obviously for bringing the world the "What're ya buyin' / sellin'?" guy in Resident Evil 4, forever changing the way we conduct business. Come on, NSC! Aren't we buddies? [Via GameCulture]
UK Folding Plug takes home design award, emerges in USB-infused flavor
It's far and away one of the most genius concepts we've seen in the past year, and we couldn't possibly be happier for one Min-Kyu Choi. Said designer, who recently graduated from the Royal College of Art, was recently showered with laud after the above-pictured Folding Plug nabbed the gold in the Brit Insurance Design contest. Unfortunately, we're still no closer to understanding when some moneyed manufacturer will pick this up and start producing it, but hopefully this prize will reinforce its awesomeness and catch someone's eye. In related news, we're also seeing for the first time a Folding Plug version with USB ports on the exterior, which would be just about perfect for UK-based gadget junkies. Here's hoping this dream doesn't die just before reaching the conveyor belt, yeah?
Computing pioneer Chuck Thacker wins Turing Award
Chuck Thacker may not be quite the same household name as some other computing pioneers, but it's pretty hard to overstate the influence he's had on the industry, a feat for which he's now be honored with the A.M. Turing Award -- widely considered to be the "Nobel prize of computing." While Thacker is now a "Technical Fellow" at Microsoft, he first made a name for himself at Xerox PARC, where he not only helped design and realize the very first modern computer, the Alto, but co-invented Ethernet, and contributed to a range of other projects that have had a lasting impact on computing to this day. Later, while at Microsoft Reseach, Thacker oversaw the design of the very first Tablet PC prototypes, and he continues to lead up a computer-architecture group at the company and be involved with various research efforts. Of course, that's only scratching the surface -- hit up the links below for a more complete background of the man's work, and head on past the break for a short video put together for the occasion by Microsoft.
Miyamoto recognized with prestigious BAFTA Fellowship
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced that it'll be awarding Shigeru Miyamoto with the storied BAFTA Fellowship award, which is "the highest accolade the Academy can bestow on an individual for their creative work." Miyamoto will receive the award in a ceremony next month. It's a pretty high honor for his work in film and television, which includes this Mega64 video and this old kids' television series. Oh wait, no -- it's actually part of the British Academy's Video Games Awards, and it is honoring him as the creator of Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda. That makes much more sense. Nobody should be giving anyone awards for the Super Mario Bros. movie.
