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Surprise! There's a Kinect Sports: Season 2. This one features new voice controls and new gestures -- and also some new sports, like skiing and tennis. There's also some team football, which looks incredibly awkward if you're the guys Microsoft got on stage to play it. But you're not those guys, right?

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/06/ki...-for-season-2/ ...

[Michael Chen] found himself in possession of a thoroughly broken laptop. The hinges connecting the screen to the body of the computer were shot, and the battery was non-functional. After a bit of thinking he decided that it wouldn’t take much to resurrect the hardware by turning it into a desktop machine.

At the core of this hack is the hardware that you must keep for the computer to function. That is, the LCD screen, the motherboard, hard drive, and the AC/DC brick that powers it. [Michael] ditched everything else; the case, keyboard, trackpad, webcam, etc. Next he started building his own enclsure out of acrylic. First he sandwiched the LCD screen between a full sheet of acrylic and a bezel that was one inch wide on each side. Next, another full sheet was used to mount the motherboard and hard drive. You can see how the three sheets are connected by nuts and bolts in the image above. It looks like the only other alteration he made was to relocate the power button to a more convenient spot.

Once a USB keyboard and mouse are added he’s back up and running. We’ve got our eye on an old XP laptop that might end up seeing this conversion to become a dedicated shop computer. We just need to build in some more dust protection.

http://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/conve...sktop-machine/ ...

After reading about a Super Mario Brothers themed bathroom, [Jonathan] decided that it would be pretty cool to have his toilet play the “warp pipe” sound whenever anyone flushed.

He grabbed a small sound drop key chain on eBay and disassembled it to see how things worked. Once he figured out which solder pads corresponded to the warp pipe sound he added a few wires that, when shorted, trigger the sound effect.

He debated as to how the sound generator should be wired to the toilet, and was pretty reluctant to place the key chain inside the tank due to concerns about sound volume and water damage. He ultimately decided to trigger the sound effects using triboelectric charge, much like those touch lamps from the ’80s. He rigged up a simple circuit that is connected to both the toilet handle as well as the water intake valve on the wall. When someone touches the handle, the small charge that is present in their hand triggers the sound effect as you can see in the video below.

Instead of using a standard project box, he opted to build a small warp tube replica from cardboard and paper, which really brings everything together nicely.

While he says that the circuit is pretty sensitive, triggering at odd times or not at all, we still think it’s awesome.


http://hackaday.com/2011/06/06/retro...et/#more-44745 ...

Okay, so today's not the most exciting Wii and DSi Shop update ever. But it will be the most exciting 3DS eShop update ever! Or, at least, the first. That's expected late this evening.

Now, as for those WiiWare and DSiWare games. Picdun for DSiWare actually looks pretty cute: it's a first-person dungeon game whose maps are revealed as pixel images as you explore. DSiWare is also host to Dreamwalker, a maze game about tilting a maze to guide a sleeping character through dreams. Also, there's something called "Crazy Cheebo: Puzzle Party."

Ubongo, a board game seen on DSiWare a couple months back, returns this week for a WiiWare engagement.

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/06/ni...picdun-ubongo/ ...

UK consumer rights group Which? wants companies like Sony who lose your personal data slapped with harsher fines.

One of those would be offering "victims" of ID theft "a flat rate of compensation".

"Sony's systems have been hacked into on more than one occasion in just a few weeks," Which? technology editor Matt Bath told Eurogamer, "but they're not alone in having lost their customers' personal data.

"Companies which keep people's details on file need to look very closely at the security measures they have in place. As well as preventing accidental loss of personal information, these measures must be robust enough to deal with threats of hacking.

"Which? wants to see companies faced with more serious consequences if they do lose personal data, with any victims offered a flat rate of compensation."

The Information Commissions Office - an independent UK watchdog group concerned about privacy - is currently investigating whether Sony breached the Data Protection Act. Apparently our sensitive data was stored in plain text rather than in secure encrypted files. Sony will be handed a £500,000 fine if found guilty.

But that's a drop in the ocean compared to the £105 million bill Sony expects for total PSN hack-related costs.

"There is undoubtedly a massive trust issue with Sony now."
Paul Gibson, Gamers' Voice
The Information Commissions Office was asked by UK campaign group Gamers' Voice to investigate Sony's part in the Great PSN Identity Theft. A £100 million bill will sting, but GV chairman Paul Gibson believes there's a bigger issue to consider first.

"There is undoubtedly a massive trust issue with Sony now," he told Eurogamer.

"Most people who were affected by the PSN hack will agree that the handling of the event was very poor indeed, with a full week between the actual hack taking place and the confirmation that consumer details had been stolen. Further to this, the lack of informative communication to PSN users meant many were completely in the dark as to what information had been compromised and what precautions to take.

"Many people are saying that they will not be going back to Sony once they system is fully up and running again, instead preferring to pay for a more secure online games provider. Whilst we are sure that Sony's new security system is now as secure as any other, this is as it should have been months ago and the damage is done in the eyes of consumers."

Eurogamer was told by some high street shops that customers had traded in their PS3 consoles as a result of the fiasco.

However, it isn't just customers who Sony will have to spend time, effort and money convincing - PSN game developers will need courting in order not to jump ship and develop for Xbox Live Arcade or PC.

"I don't think PlayStation Network is ruined as such," said Andrew Eades, co-founder of Buzz! and Blue Toad Murder Files developer Relentless Software.

"The people that stole our data committed a crime and I suspect are less of a protest group than the hacker moniker suggests. You could argue that Sony should have defended themselves better and I think they've said as much.

"There is a danger that these hackers have put gamers off PSN. It'll take a lot of effort both from Sony and developers to get people back."

Eades said Relentless had suffered as a direct result of the PlayStation Store being down for 43 days, because gamers couldn't buy Blue Toad Murder Files. But luckily Relentless has more strings to its bow.

"I'm just pleased that Relentless doesn't live or die by PSN alone and that there are meaningful alternatives out there," said Eades.

"I actually think [Sony] will spend more, not less, on PSN content."
Michael Pachter, analyst
By way of apology, Sony has offered PlayStation Network users a Welcome Back pack. This includes two free PS3/PSP games from a choice of five older titles, as well as a month's free subscription to PlayStation Plus. Sony has also made sweeping improvements to the security of PlayStation Network, and granted a year's free ID theft cover to all.

"There will always be naysayers to whatever Sony has offered," acknowledged Gamers' Voice.

"Sony could never hope to please everyone, but a larger selection of games to choose from would have been better. As for the credit protection facilities, well, it's the least that they could offer in the circumstances.

"Let's not forget that Sony themselves are losing out with the store's downtime as well as the damage they are causing to their relationship with PSN developers.

"In the end," Gibson concluded, "these apologies and free games are not as important to PSN users as being guaranteed that their personal details will remain secure and their enjoyment of the PSN network will remain uninterrupted in the future."

Sony, already playing second fiddle to Xbox Live Marketplace, has an uphill battle restoring general faith in PlayStation Network. But Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter has faith Kaz Hirai's company can turn it around.

"Yes, the brand is tarnished, and yes, trust will be a continuing issue. Sony must reassure everyone that the restored network is secure, and that they will indemnify against any harm. They need to do a lot to restore confidence," Pachter said, "and I think that they will.

"I actually think they will spend more, not less, on PSN content. You will ...

The words "PS Vita" and "PlayStation Vita" have just made their way through the EU Trademarks and Designs Registration Office, courtesy of a set of new applications from none other than Sony Computer Entertainment. The name PS Vita showed up in some source code on an official Sony site late last week, though it's still not certain that it'll be the official branding for the company's Next Generation Portable. "Vita" means "life" in Italian, so a literal translation would be PlayStation Life. For now, all we know is that the NGP will be large and in charge at E3, and the best way to find out how this Vita moniker relates to it will be to tune in to our Sony keynote liveblog later today, which can be found right over here.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/s...ds-to-do-some/ ...

We don't envy AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega's job one bit, nor the amount of time he spends on the hotseat. We do, however, admire his willingness to open his mouth and reveal interesting tidbits. Interviewed after his D9 appearance, de la Vega fielded questions about Windows Phone, confirming what we have suspected for quite some time: the platform hasn't been selling as well as AT&T or Microsoft would've liked. He didn't divulge numbers or get any more specific, but he did sound optimistic looking to the future. When asked if WP7 is a hard sell, de la Vega noted that it's a brand new OS, and the growth both companies are hoping for will come once the Mango update is readily available; consumers are looking for a bigger app store, more functionality, and a larger number of features. So adding more functionality will make phones more appealing to consumers? Crazy thought. If you're interested in seeing what else Ralph had to say in his one-on-one, head to the source link.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/a...ng-as-well-as/ ...

Quick refreshing of Microsoft's E3 landing page has apparently revealed some of the things it will be announcing within a couple of hours at its E3 press conference, including new features for Xbox Live like Voice Search and new look for the service. With the explosive popularity of the Kinect add-on, it looks like the system is being refashioned with support built in from the ground up as opposed to the current menu system that's more of an afterthought. Also mentioned on the page are Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and most importantly, two new Halo games. One is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which appears to be the HD (& possibly 3D) remake leaked by Joystiq previously, while the other is Halo 4 -- no explanation needed. We'll surely find out everything when the press conference kicks off live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and of course we'll be covering all of the news live right here.

Update: Microsoft's just confirmed some of the leaked information onstage at its E3 keynote, with demonstrations of a deeply integrated Voice command setup powered by Kinect. YouTube has been announced as an Xbox Live partner, while Bing is coming to the console to let users search across Netflix, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Hulu all at once.That universal search also extends to new live TV partnerships with Sky, Canal+ and Foxtel.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/x...-a-new-look-f/ ...

Microsoft confirmed the recent rumors and announced a new streaming TV service for Xbox Live users today at its pre-E3 2011 keynote. They're promising a "new way to enjoy television" and now we know what that means. The Kinect and Bing-powered voice search that can pull in content from online source like Hulu, Netflix and Xbox Live Marketplace, will also work with live TV from IPTV partners. So far that list only includes Sky in the UK, Foxtel in Australia and Canal+ in France, but users there will be able to search across all the services and view them directly through the console itself.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/m...rom-sky-tv-fo/ ...