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ESA raises $800K for charity at 'Nite to Unite' event
The Entertainment Software Association held its 15th annual "A Nite to Unite - For Kids" event in San Francisco last week, and we'd like to congratulate the ESA on raising over $800,000 at the event through the dinner, silent auction, and casino festivities. That money will go to the ESAF, a charity arm of the organization that has raised more than $12 million so far to provide resources and opportunities (many of them related to digital entertainment) to children around the country.At the gala, the ESA also honored Valve co-founder Gabe Newell with the 2012 ESA Champion Honoree award for "using his technological creativity in interactive entertainment to help teachers utilize new learning software and to develop critical problem-solving skills in students." Sounds like a real honor, and it's all in the name of a great cause. If that's what he got for helping teachers, though, what would they have given him for Half-Life 3?
AGA's iTotal Control range cooker packs GSM connectivity, lets you pre-heat via SMS or web
There are many options available if you want to control your appliances over WiFi, but how about an oven with its own SIM card and phone number? That's exactly what AGA has done with its latest kitchen-oriented offering, the iTotal Control range cooker. Regardless of whether you're cooking in one, or all three of its ovens, sending an SMS message to this smart appliance lets you control each one. It even texts you back to confirm whether your commands like "baking oven on" successfully initiate. The cooker naturally works over WiFi as well, giving you an on-screen emulation of its control panel on either your computer's web browser or AGA's iOS and Android apps. An external GSM remote access device -- basically a router / modem -- connects to the appliance to make it all happen, with cellular service provided by Orange. Ready to get cooking? The iTotal Control is set to sell for a hefty base-price of £10,090 (~$15,826), and you'll also be tied to a one-year contract with Orange for £5.95 (~$9) a month to enable the texting functionality. Simmer over the details at the source link below.
Captain's Log: Incoming messages from the devs... again
Captain's Log, Stardate 65131.6... Hello, computer (and players)! I seem to mention this all the time, but I believe it to be true: The developers working on Star Trek Online are more transparent with their work than the devs of most other games. Whether or not this transparency has been always been a good thing is debatable, though. Still, no matter what one's thoughts on this are, I think we can all agree we like to be "in the know" when it comes to new things in development. This past weekend, a select group of STO players was able to attend another Dine with the Devs event, hosted by yours truly, where transparency was taken to the next level. As I let you all know last week, the second-ever Dine with the STO Devs event coincided with some STO devs' visit to the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Over 50 players gathered at a local Vegas restaurant to eat, drink and bombard Cryptic's developers with their most burning questions. Because 99.99% of the game's players were unable to attend, I captured the entire event on audio and would like to present you with a basic transcript of the evening's events. So make some food, grab a drink, and get ready to fire up the Holodeck for another edition of Captain's Log. Ensign, warp 10! Auxiliary power to the Holodeck matrices and brace for impact...
Star Trek Online's Dine with the Devs event details -- Vegas edition
With the Star Trek Las Vegas convention coming up this weekend, trekkers and trekkies are sewing the final buttons and putting the finishing touches on their costumes. With estimates of over 15,000 Humans, Klingons, and Romulans -- among others -- attending the event at the Rio Convention Center, there is bound to be a massive turn-out of Star Trek Online players, including a handful of Cryptic developers. Just like last month, there is a special event being planned that will bring players and devs together for an evening of fun. Priority One, the STO podcast for which I am Executive Producer, is proud to be hosting another Dine with the Devs event this Saturday evening, August 13th. While not affiliated with Massively, the casual meet-up will be within walking distance of the convention. As we dine, the devs will be answering players' questions and talking more in depth about some of the projects they have been involved with. It is important to note that each attendee's expenses are their own responsibility. For more information, including location and time, visit the event's information page.
TUAW's Daily App: Chow Thanksgiving Dinner Coach
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and you've agreed to have the family over for dinner tomorrow, complete with a turkey and fixings and everything. But you just realized that you don't actually have any idea how to cook a turkey (and it probably won't fit in the microwave). Not to worry. CBS Interactive's Chow Thanksgiving Dinner Coach has you covered. This free iPhone app will run you through groceries and recipes for a few of Thanksgiving's most famous dishes, including that turkey, the stuffing, potatoes, and cranberries, all the way down to pumpkin pie. Not only does it have recipes and shopping lists, there's even a multi-day timeline to walk you through exactly how everything should be done. If you're old hand at serving Thanksgiving, you'll probably find this a little too simple; it really walks you through step by step. But if this is your first year hosting the party, and you're a little unsure of what to do without some constant guidance from your iPhone, the Chow app is a great (and free) place to start.
TUAW's Daily App: Movie Night Out
Movie Night Out is a fun and free little app that can help with that seemingly ever-present question: "So what do you want to do tonight?" It's a piece of cake to use. Just punch in what you want to do for your movie night (maybe hit up some shopping, see the movie, and then grab dessert, or do dinner, check out an action hit, and then get coffee). The app will automatically find some options for each of your choices and put together a schedule that will let you do all three. You can check out information and reviews for all of the options, and even map out, share on Facebook or Twitter, or save your "night" for another time. There's not really anything here that you can't find in other apps, but the smooth interface and fun randomization of your choices make the free app worth a download. If there's an issue, the app probably depends on where you're looking. I happened to try the app in the middle of Hollywood, and I'm pretty certain that if I tried it in a less populated place, there wouldn't have been as many places to go. The schedules were also a little fast; sometimes the app only offered 10 minutes to move from one place to another, even when they were a few miles apart (maybe that's easy to do elsewhere, but not so quick in the middle of Los Angeles). But nobody's really going to follow a schedule created by an app on movie night, right? If you find yourself needing some new suggestions the next time you want to head out on the town, give this one a download.
Dinner with the multiboxers
I wish I'd been invited to this at BlizzCon -- TGDaily sat down with a group of multiboxers last weekend, and lived to tell the tale. I don't think multiboxers are the most hated people in the game (Paladins and Warlocks probably get to trade off that title), but it's true that just like twinks, they can draw some ire. Blizzard has given them a free pass in the game (most likely because they're spending ungodly amounts of money keeping up their fleets of characters), but apparently multiboxers are just people. People willing to shell out lots of money and time on overpowering themselves inside a game.And that's really where the issue lies -- most of these people aren't no-lifers, they're just folks with money to burn that want to trounce a battleground all by themselves or run Karazhan solo. But at the same time, there is a sense of superiority that comes across -- they brag (under their breath in a crowded restaurant) that they can beat anyone else's player, and they claim that "other people can only see a quarter of the game," which just patently isn't true. This is a generalization I'm making, of course, but playing 10 characters by yourself seems to give an inflated sense of self-worth in the game (after all, aren't you 10 times better than someone playing with just one character?) and that could be the reason that multiboxers have the reputation they do.
The DS Life: Going out to eat
Have you ever gone out to a restaurant for dinner with a group of friends, only to find yourself completely uninterested with your company's conversation, their tired stories and trivial grievances?Your eyes drift to nearby tables, hoping to find something else that better deserves your attention. You chew on the ice cubes in your drink, crunching out the chatter around you. You nod your head absentmindedly to agree with your companions whilst reflecting on the reality television shows you plan to watch when you get home -- "I wonder if Greg is gonna knock out that sucka Will for kissing his girl?"When you're stuck in situations like this, don't you wish you could just pull out your Nintendo DS until someone brings out the food?
Iwata on lack of Wii Sports sequel
Considering the lengthy conversation between Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Mother creator Shigesato Itoi over dinner six months ago, we're beginning to wonder if they consumed any actual food at their meal. Where did they find the time? So long as they didn't starve, however, we're glad to be privy to their chat, since so many interesting tidbit have come to light. The latest is on something close to our hearts: Wii Sports.Is Nintendo considering a sequel to the popular pack-in? Maybe, says Iwata, but it's not something that's even in the planning stages at this time. The last thing Nintendo wants to do is take the "easy" way, he says, by slapping together something that's exactly the same, just with different sports featured. Our love for Iwata was renewed in spades as he spoke about the need to do something new rather than to rehash old ground just to make money. If we were feeling snarky, we might bring up a few franchises (like, say Mario Kart ... even though we love it, it tends to be pretty much Mario Kart), but Nintendo has been forging so much new ground lately that we'll let it slide. Some might argue that Nintendo did exactly what Iwata is talking about not doing with the recent Brain Age sequel, but the big man is quick to point out that the director of the titles has been breaking new ground himself: he's responsible for several of the Wii's channels. Iwata did make the point, however, that it 's easier for Nintendo to take this stance right now because they're doing so well. If they weren't, he said, they might scramble to those "easy" sequels and decisions just to keep the boat afloat. We just wish other companies who are also in the black might take a similar line. Sure, the same game with slight tweaks may sell every year, but does it improve or expand the industry? Does it produce better games for everyone? [Via Infendo]
Iwata and Itoi talk shop over dinner
Perhaps inspired by our recent interview with Starmen.net's Reid Young, Shigesato Itoi, best known in video game communities for his work on EarthBound and the Mother series, posted a few English-translated notes from a conversation he had with Nintendo president Satoru Iwata six months ago over supper.Itoi and Iwata spent a great deal talking about Shigeru Miyamoto, as Japanese developers/designers are wont to do, discussing his belief of ideas being "something which solves multiple issues at once." Though the two chums didn't chat much about past projects or games, there are still ten more portions of the roundtable that Itoi promises to release over the next two weeks. We'll make sure to notify you if we hear of any megatons.
Apple's iPod Shuffle: the next great appetizer?
Although this won't go down as the first restaurant to mix in a little iPod action with the meal, it's fairly safe to say that Fat Duck chef Heston Blumenthal has melded portable audio with dining like no other. Apparently, the culinary guru "wanted to experiment with using sound to enhance a dining experience," which landed a person with a plate full of silver electronics and tangled white cord to compliment the rest of the Sound of the Sea dish. Aside from the food itself, the iPod was pre-loaded with "soothing sounds of the sea breeze and waves gently caressing the seashore," presumably to further enhance the eating experience. Still, we can't really envision how listening to sounds related to our meal would make things more appetizing -- you know, unless deafening moos just jazz up your taste buds when rolling by a burger joint.[Via Kottke]
Where did "Blu-ray" come from? Adam Sandler knows
The name HD DVD, while not particularly original is at least pretty clear to anyone familiar with standard DVDs. Fans of Sony's Blu-ray technology certainly get the connection to its blue laser technology, but the average consumer might be a little thrown off. If you need more explanation of where the term "Blu-ray" originated, Adam Sandler -- star of Sony Pictures' first dual-layer 50GB Blu-ray release -- provided his own retelling of the events during a dinner honoring Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently. No matter how seriously you take his tale of a devastating cross-eyed blonde named Blu-ray who rocked Howard's world many years ago in Singapore, we're sure the company's shareholders hope making the name famous won't "destroy" the executive.
Dutch art company releases "dinner conversation" DVD for solo diners
On the occasions that we have to cook and eat a meal solo, we usually accompany it with a side of the internet, a DVD, or possibly, if we're feeling really old-school, a book. But apparently, those current offerings aren't good enough for some folks. That's why a Dutch art company, Tilburgs CowBoys and Theater NWE Vorst, has put together a film that you can watch while having dinner this holiday season, so it won't feel like you're eating alone. According to The Uber-Review, there are six different options to choose from, ranging from "romantic evening" or "a good discussion." We're not really sure how lifelike a one-way dinner discussion can be, which is why we'd just as soon cuddle up with an old James Bond flick over a dinner-for-one, but perhaps those haven't reached The Netherlands yet.[Via The Uber-Review]
