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Breakfast Topic: Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2008 from WoW Insider! Most of you were probably at home or out with friends watching the new year come in, but some of you surely celebrated the new year with fireworks in Stormwind, Orgrimmar or Booty Bay, enjoying the festivities online friends as well as offline. Did you have any special new year festivities in Azeroth?
Ringing in the New Year on your sofa? Join the crowd.
It's probably a foregone conclusion at this point, but the days just before and after New Year's Day make owning an HDTV oh-so-sweet. Just in case you haven't already worn a nice imprint into your sofa catching all those NCAA bowl games in HD, you can give your set a bit more play tonight with a variety of marathons and the all-important ball drop at midnight. For sports fans in particular, however, it's going to be hard to leave the den in the near future. Some of college's best bowl games kick off on New Year's Day, and to commemorate the occasion, ESPN is even holding an Ultimate Couch Potato Competition at the ESPN Zone in New York City. So, dear readers, are any of you spending tomorrow huddled around the television?
SNK wishes you a Witch-Touching 2008
SNK Playmore's Japanese website has updated with a series of artworks celebrating the upcoming new year. In addition to the various King of Fighters and Samurai Spirits character portraits, two of SNK's 2008 DS games are featured: Metal Slug 7 and Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo. Surprisingly, it's Metal Slug 7's artwork that brings cheesecake to the New Year's party. Although the young girl in the pictured Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo card seems to have left about 70% of her skirt at home, Metal Slug 7's Eri manages to both wear less clothing and have adult proportions. Compulsive collectors like us should note that these images will only be available until the 17th. For our part, we've got the two DS-related images downloadable in their full resolution after the break. As for the rest, if you don't get them now, you'll no doubt be looking for them on Google Image Search at some point.
WoW, Casually: December 28 to January 3, New Year's, WSG, etc.
Each week, Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player who has 2 hours or less to play at a time.I hope everyone's holidays have been relatively drama-free and that you are enjoying some downtime before the new year.Speaking of New Year's, along with the continuation of the Feast of Winter Veil, Blizzard is hosting New Year's festivities on December 31st and January 1st. There will be fireworks, booze and revelers to blow kisses at right along side the remains of the Winter Veil activities.Have you picked up your presents yet? The trees in Ironforge and Orgrimmar have gifts with exclamation points over them for you to take and open. They range from meh to awesome and some are even BOU for your reselling profits if you aren't into keeping the fun stuff. I was hoping to find a Dragon Kite, but that was before I discovered that it is from the TCG and not something from Greatfather Winter. Dragons are cool.
MOJO HD presenting Three Sheets: NYC Pub Crawl on New Year's Eve
It's a tough call. Do you tune into a sure-to-be-fantastic Hitchcock marathon on New Year's Eve? Or do you flip over and see how Zane Lamprey handles hitting up the NYC pub circuit? Personally, we'd let the dual-tuner HD DVR solve the aforementioned quandary, but if you're a Three Sheets fanatic, you can tune in at 9:00PM EST on December 31st to catch a three-hour special of the program. As expected, the well-traveled Lamprey will be shuffled around in the heart of New York as he searches for the best pubs the city can offer. Though, it's really a shame this doesn't run on the 30th in order to give you time to put his findings to work the next night, now isn't it?
Hitchcock marathon to ring in the New Year on HDNet Movies
Got any big plans for New Year's Eve? If not, HDNet Movies is hoping you'll spend the evening glued to the Alfred Hitchcock marathon that will be broadcast as 2008 rolls in. Starting at 3:30AM on December 31st, viewers can catch nine of Hitchcock's classics before the feature presentation takes over at 10:30PM. 'Course, we needn't tell you that Psycho will indeed be the main act, but horror aficionados will also appreciate the likes of Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Birds and Rear Window (just to name a few). Reportedly, each of the movies were "meticulously converted from original film sources" in order to be shown in 1080i, and hey, if you've already made plans to get out of town, just pick up a capacious new DVR and catch up when you return.[Image courtesy of BuyCostumes]
KDDI and Japan Post Service offer SMS to snail mail for holidays
Japan Post Service Co. and KDDI are dumping tech into the snail mail world with an SMS to paper mail service. KDDI customers will have the option to create a New Year's cards on their mobile, then send them to the Holiday partnership for printing and mailing. Japan Post Service is said to be planning on using all of its 24,000 offices in the country to print and get the cards out for the expected 10 million customers. The opportunity for gag cards here boggles, we're wishing we see something like this over here someday.[Via The Raw Feed]
Around Azeroth: Happy Tuesday!
Reader Flyv of the guild We Know on Eitrigg sends in this great shot of the new year's celebration in Darnassus. Yes -- I know it's not exactly new year's any more, but we're a ways away from any holidays with such flashy celebration. But maybe today's just a really festive Tuesday!Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part. See more of your pics from Around Azeroth. %Gallery-1816%
PQI's U510 flash card gets ritzy for Chinese New Year
Although PQI's not cramming 16GB onto this rendition of its U510 USB flash card, it is giving the device quite a fancy makeover for the Chinese New Year, as the Limited Fortune Pig Edition Card Drive (seriously) dons red and gold colors in preparation for the celebration. Moreover, the "hairline treated surface," along with the peony at the bottom right corner surrounded by fortune pigs, are reportedly meant to symbolize "prosperity, joy, happiness, sincerity," and all sorts of other good things to kick off the New Year. Interestingly, this isn't the first time a USB flash device has gotten ritzy for the forthcoming occasion, but considering that these aren't actually made of precious metals, we have a good feeling they'll be a bit more manageable on the wallet. Per usual, the cards come with a flat, retractable USB 2.0 cable, carrying bag, and personal file management software, and though we aren't sure just how much these nifty cards will run you, only 1,000 1GB flavors (pictured after the jump) are being produced while just 500 2GB units will see the light of day, so we'd suggest you place your dibs right about now if you're interested.[Via FarEastGizmos]
Happy New Year from PS3Fanboy!
So, are you going to watch a live news-feed of the big ball dropping on your PS3's web browser? ...That's possible, right? Whatever. Are you going to crack open that bottle o' bubbly and celebrate with an inebriated deathmatch of Resistance? How about a "legal" drunk-driving course on your Gran Turismo HD demo? We don't condone drinking and driving at all, but in all seriousness, that demo is about the only way to "experience" that unlawful act. Real driving physics in action. What were we talking about? Ah, New Years... looking back on the last month, the PS3 didn't fare too badly. It gave us a lot of neat things -- the aforementioned demo being one of them. The year to come serves only to better the Sony library especially with the impending launch in Europe. Speaking of next year... don't eat chicken tomorrow, guys! If you do, you'll be "scratching for money" or something. I ate chicken and got slammed with college tuition fees like whoa. This year, I'll stay away from chicken for one day so I can get some scholarships going. How about you guys? Any sort of resolutions other than "exercise" or "diet"? Like "kick more ass on PS3 than anyone else"?Happy New Year from your friendly neighborhood PS3Fanboy!
Rumor: Best Buy is sitting on your New Year PS3
According to unofficial Best Buy sources, stores are sitting on their PS3 shipments since 12/21 for a flyer advertisement being released New Year's Eve (12/31) stating they have a minimum of 25 60GB units per store. Our sources have the number at around 40 per store currently -- but it can be more in some locations. One source, using Best Buy's Retek Store System (RSS), says some stores have 60 units. We will continue to follow this story as more information comes in.The Best Buy source who sent us the internal memo -- originally sent 12/18 and a portion of which you see above -- does apologize for the grammar in the email received from his Retail Supply Chain Manager regarding this New Year's Eve PS3 sale. We'd remove the "rumor" tag from this post if the grammar of our email evidence didn't send up red flags. If the information does pan out we are happy for those getting a PS3 on New Year's Eve and we shake our heads at the atrocious use of the English language by this Best Buy manager. We say again that this is still a rumor, but might help explain why those eight PS3s are just sitting in a Best Buy cage instead of being sold.[Thanks Anonymous and all others]
Don't drink and WoW
As people recover from the New Year festivities, a variety of reports are coming in: from the hilarious (drunk naked raids on the Crossroads and Astranaar) to the harrowing (intoxicated players disenchanting all their clothing). What did you get up to on New Year's Eve? Did the in-game events entice you into WoW? I took part in the European festivities--as the first New Year event, we had plenty to celebrate, and it was great seeing tauren and night elves dancing in harmony in Booty Bay on a PvE server. Hopping over to a PvP server, it was a different picture, with snoozing bruisers turning a blind eye to combat. A word of warning--if drunk friends want a demonstration of WoW, steer clear of the in-game alcohol, as the blurring effect is all too realistic and can make them feel rather nauseous!
