Syber News

It’s not surprising that something like this would pop up, considering the motion capture abilities of Microsoft’s new Kinect add-on for the Xbox 360. Porn is big business, and thus, this is the first (announced) game to utilize the Kinect as a sex game controller.

The software comes, or at least, will come from adult gaming company ThriXXX. There were two different YouTube “demos” by the company, but both were removed by YouTube.

The videos showed an image of a hand groping a girl in a bikini. The press release says that the game is currently in the alpha stage and will be released in 2011. It adds:

The Kinect interface provides another exciting interface option for users of the sex simulation software to control the experience in extraordinary new ways! [...]

Users will ultimately be able to use full body or hand gestures, voice commands and even real world sex toy objects like vibrators to control interactions in-game and between two active participants.

Although the YouTube demos have been removed, some images from the videos are shown in the ABC News report, embedded below.

Since the Kinect simply wasn’t expensive enough, the folks at DS Styles have taken one and festooned it with 5,500 Swarovski crystals. The price is a mere $625.

Swarovski is a brand name; it refers to a line of precision-cut crystal and related luxury products produced by Swarovski AG of Wattens, Austria.

It’s true that some want their gaming with bling. And $149 is simply too cheap for the Kinect, which folks are turning into just about everything now that open source drivers are available.

Watch a video below.

In the wake of the layoffs that hit the company earlier in the week, Yahoo! is cutting a number or products. Among them are the social bookmarking service del.icio.us, MyBlogLog, AltaVista, and Yahoo! Bookmarks.

In fact, the slide above has been confirmed to have come directly from an employee meeting Webcast. It was first posted to Twitter by MyBlogLog founder Eric Marcoullier (who is no longer with Yahoo!).

In response, Yahoo!’s Chief Product Officer Blake Irving Tweeted that whoever leaked the Webcast would be fired.

The official response from Yahoo!, which they have sent to media organizations, is:

“Part of our organizational streamlining involves cutting our investment in underperforming or off-strategy products to put better focus on our core strengths and fund new innovation in the next year and beyond. We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and services, and do plan to shut down some products in the coming months such as Yahoo! Buzz, our Traffic APIs, and others. We will communicate specific plans when appropriate.”

http://www.tech-ex.net/2010/12/yahoo-to-shutter-delicious-buzz.html

Those who checked their Android device to see if their Android Market apps need an update were pleasantly surprised on Thursday. Google has released Google Maps 5.0 for Android, including 3D support (sans glasses) and greater offline reliability.

Here’s how the 3D portion is explained (although, only some 100+ cities currently have the 3D imagery set up).

Until now, Google Maps has always downloaded the map as a set of small, square images that we stitch together to form the map you see. (You’ve probably seen those gray squares getting filled in, block-by-block, as the images load over the network.) Starting today, we’ll use vector graphics to dynamically draw the map on your device as you use it, allowing you to interact with it in new ways:

• Tilting: Drag down with two fingers to tilt the map. Tilt while zoomed in on one of the 100+ cities around the world with 3D buildings to see a skyline spring to life.
• Rotating: Twist with two fingers to rotate the map. After tilting to see 3D buildings, rotate around them to gain a new perspective from any direction.
• Smooth zooming: Slide two fingers together or apart, and see the map and labels continuously scale to any zoom level, stopping when your fingers stop.
• Compass mode: Center the map on your location, and then tap the compass button in the top right corner. The map will flip into 3D mode and start rotating to match your perspective, while still keeping all the labels upright and readable.

Vector graphics are also much lighter weight than the traditional stitched-together images used previously, which leads into the other change: better caching to allow better offline functionality.

Google will do this by caching the areas you visit the most. They’ll do this at night when your device is connected to wi-fi and charging.

Finally, they are also adding offline re-routing, though this will roll out gradually over the next few weeks. You’ll still need a connection to start a route, but if you lose it after that, you yourself won’t get lost. Google says:

You’ll still need a connection to start a route, but if you miss a turn along the way, we’ll quickly get you back on track, even if you don’t have an Internet connection. We’ll be rolling this feature out gradually over the next few weeks.

While Android 1.6 devices can get Google Maps 5.0, it won’t have the 3D or offline features; those require Android 2.0+. At least those devices still stuck on Android 2.1 can get the features.

Also, some devices will not support all the features. These limitations are detailed here.  You can watch a video on Google Maps 5.0 below.

http://www.tech-ex.net/2010/12/those-who-checked-their-android-device.html