The $20,050 Video Game

by Darren Gladstone, PC World
I don't know about you, but I've always wanted to play the part of a James Bond villian. Or, at least have the cool swag that comes with being megalomaniacal. All I'd need right now is $20,000 to buy this IntuiFace table by IntuiLab. But you'll need to cough up another $50 or so next year to take advantage of it with Ubisoft's R.U.S.E.--an intriguing upcoming real-time strategy game.
The fast-paced title takes you through World War II. To me, it looks like you're playing a high-speed, high-intensity version of Risk or Axis and Allies. (I like its twist of letting you earn special abilities like Radio Silence or Decoys for catching your opponent off-guard.) The big draw to this demo, though, is how you navigate and command units in the world. You're able to change the camera view to pull back to a large war-room overview or zoom down to a bale of hay on the battlefield. This is all done with multitouch sweeps and on-screen gestures drawing rings around units and sending them into battle. What was amazing is that there wasn't a single slowdown, not one break in the action while the test went on. Already, the game is looking gorgeous. Then again, if you're projecting it onto this super-expensive table, it had better look good.
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Did Bing Just Leapfrog Yahoo Search?

by Robin Wauters
Data from monitoring service StatCounter suggests that Bing, Microsoft’s new search decision engine, has overtaken Yahoo Search as the number two search service in the U.S. and worldwide in large part thanks to stealing market share from leader Google.
The company’s analysis for Thursday finds that in the U.S. Bing overtook Yahoo to take second place on 16.28%, with Yahoo Search currently at 10.22%. For the sake of comparison: Google’s U.S. market share is pegged at 71.47%, and its worldwide share at a whopping 87.62% (vs. 5.62% for Bing and 5.13% for Yahoo).
Are people just test-driving Bing en masse, or does this have anything to do with the fact Bing was forced upon IE6 users (now fixed)? Or is it just because it’s that good and the advertising is already working? Either way, the jump Bing appears to have made since launching merely a couple of days ago is significant, and the drop you see in Google’s share even more so.
Are we witnessing the birth of the first true Google challenger or is this nothing but launch momentum bound to fade away?
(StatCounter claims to measure the search and browsing behavior of over two million users and says it tracks in excess of ten billion pageloads per month over its network of three million websites.)

E3 Silent Hill Shattered Memories - Wii

by Marcus Lai, punchjump
Konami Corp. this week demonstrated Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for Nintendo Co.'s Wii at the E3 convention in Los Angeles.
The title, a remake of the original Silent Hill title, allows users to move the Wii Remote as a flashlight to lurk through the mysterious town of Silent Hill.
The Wii Remote provided accurate light controls to illuminate and investigate objects in dim-lit areas. The Nunchuk is used to control character movement.
Additionally, users can shake enemies away from them by gesturing a toss motion. Each toss can vary from a forward motion to a left motion.
At one area, the character could use a light flare to stun enemies.
A representative said that the game would lend itself to avoid enemy confrontation.
The E3 build included many interior locations to investigate. Toward the end, users were required to enter an abandoned facility full of skinless enemies. The location included a maze of doors that led to other similar rooms. When users move from one room to the other, the character simply busts open the door to reveal the next area without any load times.
The graphics engine was impressive at 60 to 30 frames per second. Many interior locations held at 60 frames, while some outdoor areas moved down to 30 frames. The light sourcing from the flashlight was well done to bask an accurate glow on nearby objets.
The sound effects were trademark to the Silent Hill franchise, with radio static and a hefty pounding of percussion when enemies lurked in the same vicinity.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories will be released to Wii in the second half of 2009.

Battle of the 3G Networks

by Sascha Segan, pcmag
If you're eyeing a Palm Pre or a new iPhone, you're not buying just a phone—you're buying a network. We can help you figure out if the switch is worthwhile.
June is a blockbuster month for smartphones. Incessant buzz has made the Palm Pre and Apple's next-gen iPhone red-hot, but there's one thing that may cool down these super smartphones: their networks.
In the U.S., the Pre is only on Sprint for now, and the iPhone is exclusive to AT&T for the foreseeable future. Trouble is, although both carriers have large nationwide 3G data networks, neither has placed well in two independent nationwide surveys ranking call quality, network quality, and customer service. In all three categories, both Sprint and AT&T are bested by the third national 3G data network: Verizon Wireless. (T-Mobile is still building out its 3G network, and Cricket and MetroPCS, though solid choices, aren't fully national carriers.)
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