On Monday, the 747-8 Freighter took off for its first flight. The passenger version of the iconic plane is about a year behind the cargo model.

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The aviation giant on Wednesday released a picture of an actual 787 interior, rather than a mock-up. The picture is of the third test flight 787, known as ZA003.

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The mobile version will reportedly feature all the functionality of the “real” in-game auction house, and will allow iPhone-equipped players to continue their financial wheeling and dealing on the move.

Originally posted at Crave

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According to a report on software sales in the U.S., Japan, and the United Kingdom, 2009 was a poor year. But how could it not be? The year before was the best ever.

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Although no one should be surprised about the three films that were nominated for visual effects, the folks behind ‘2012′ are probably feeling pretty sore today.

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When Oscar nominations are announced Tuesday, Weta Digital will surely get a nod for “Avatar” visual effects. Unfamiliar to many, the studio has been on top for years.

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Company says that it has put its much-anticipated new plane through more than 50 stall tests and expects to do dozens more. So far, so good.

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Almost any major league pitcher who threw a perfect game would be a millionaire. Now 2K Sports is offering a million dollars to the first gamer to toss one in its hit baseball video game.

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When James Cameron invented a camera that integrated footage of actors directly into his digital universe, it may have presaged the worlds millions will spend time in one day.

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Agency recently issued “special conditions” mandating that Boeing ensure data networks on the new plane don’t make it vulnerable to hacking from the outside.

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A video shot by artist David Martin depicts the fallen Airbus A320 submerged in the icy waters of the Hudson River for days before being lifted out and placed on a barge.

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A report from CreditCards.com suggests some lenders may be examining would-be borrowers’ social networks to see if they associate with creditworthy friends.

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A new technology from virtual world platform developer Multiverse may forever change the way promotional games for movies look.

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With the Times’ announcement that frequent readers will have to start paying for access in 2011, the question becomes, “How much would you pay?”

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Set for June in Santa Clara, Calif., the event is supposed to be the world’s first for the broad discussion of the commercial and market opportunities of augmented reality.

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GSA on Tuesday unveiled a tool designed to make it easy for each federal agency to solicit public ideas and for the public to comment on them.

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A tiny Golden Globe goes to all the fine people who put together these incredibly detailed Avatar Lego dioramas.

Originally posted at Crave

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It may carry no weight with the free service, but if we work together to make a list of the shows we really want to see, maybe someone will stand up and take notice.

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Reversing months of year-over-year declines, the industry recorded December sales of $5.53 billion, up 4 percent from a year earlier, according to The NPD Group.

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It’s worth celebrating that two separate entertainment properties have crossed into ten-figure territory, even as the economy struggles to emerge from recession.

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Vintage computer historians have long revered the Altair 8800. But an unknown computer project at Sacramento State beat the Altair by three years. CNET got a look at it.

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Saying it hasn’t been able to gain traction as a consumer user-generated content service, Raph Koster’s leading game design company is shutting down.

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For decades, NORAD has been providing real-time information on Christmas Eve about Santa’s whereabouts. These days, technology plays a bigger role than ever in bringing the program to the world.

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While most of the visual effects work on the film was done by New Zealand’s Weta Digital, George Lucas’ ILM got the call to step in late in the game and help get the job done.

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The North American Aerospace Defense Command has a mystique fueled in part by how little the public knows about its facilities. Now it’s offering a peek.

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Originally expected to be five-plus hours, the flight was shortened by bad weather. Still, Boeing calls the flight a success and says the Dreamliner performed as expected.

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After two years of delays, Boeing’s new plane finally got off the ground Tuesday. Its first flight was witnessed by thousands of company employees and excited fans.

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President Obama’s deputy CTO was a leading legal expert on virtual
worlds and tech patent issues before joining the administration.

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After years of taking a big loss on each console sold, Sony appears to be getting closer to breaking even on the design cost, according to iSuppli.

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Though industry sales for November fell 7.6 percent from the same month last year, total revenue was still good enough to make it the second-best November on record.

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q&a Beth Noveck, the Obama administration’s deputy chief technology officer, has been a principal contributor to the Open Government directive.

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The plan directs federal agencies to make important data available online, and to come up with plans for how to achieve openness, transparency, and participation.

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New application from Entertainment Software Ratings Board provides full summaries of more than 2,500 video games right at parents’ fingertips.

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Based on Thanksgiving week numbers provided by Nintendo, an analyst has concludes that the Wii appears likely to have far outsold the Xbox and PS3 in November.

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The Vertical Motion Simulator trains all comers in capsule landings, helicopter flights, and even bobsled runs. Now it’s helping in the design of next-gen lunar landers.

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Microsoft has released its first figures on how well Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm have done on Xbox Live. They show substantial, though not huge, engagement.

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While big ARGs like I Love Bees and The Beast get most of the ink, there has been a steady stream of games built for very small audiences, without corporate sponsorship.

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A leading scientist, working with colleagues from several top universities, has pioneered computational analysis that rivals that of a cat’s cortex. The human brain could be just a decade away.

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Dell today confirmed plans to enter the smart phone business and announced partnerships with two of the world’s largest mobile operators.

Dell plans to distribute its new Mini 3 smart phones through China Mobile, the largest telecommunications company in the world with more than 500 million customers, and Claro, which serves more than 42 million people in Brazil as part of the America Movil network.

Entry into the smart phone category reflects Dell’s continued expansion into mobile internet products and services through value-added relationships with leading operators. Earlier this year Dell was the first mobile PC manufacturer to embed China Mobile’s 3G technology and services into its netbooks and quickly became the leading seller of netbooks through retail outlets in China. In addition Dell has existing agreements with other leading global telecom providers, including Vodafone in Europe; Australia/New Zealand, AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.; M1 and Starhub in Singapore; and Maxis in Malaysia, creating more opportunities to meet the needs of a connected lifestyle.

“Our entry into the smart phone category is a logical extension of Dell’s consumer product evolution over the past two years,” said Ron Garriques, President, Dell Global Consumer Group. “We are developing smaller and smarter mobile products that enable our customers to take their internet experience out of the home and do the things they want to do whenever and wherever they want.”

“This signals an important milestone in the long term partnership between China Mobile and Dell,” said a China Mobile spokesperson. “We are excited for Dell to be among the first manufacturers to introduce new technology based on the OPhone platform. We look forward to working with Dell as it brings innovative new products and services to add value to our customers’ lives.”

“As a leading innovation company in Brazil, Claro is proud of being the first wireless carrier in the world offering the 3G version of Dell’s smart phone. This confirms the Brazilian market strength and Claro as a leading actor in introducing new technology products and services to the country”, said João Cox, president for Claro.

The initial Mini 3 smart phones are designed around the Android platform to best deliver power, flexibility and customization opportunities for both users and carriers.

Dell’s Mini 3 smart phones reflect the elegant look and style that demonstrates Dell’s commitment to design innovation. Details of phone models will be announced on a partner-by-partner basis when devices are available in stores, anticipated in late November for China Mobile and year’s end for Claro.

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With total industry sales down 19 percent from a year earlier, things are looking bleak as the holiday season gets under way.

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According to Activision, its new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has broken the single-day sales record for an entertainment launch. In the first 24 hours, the new game earned $310 million.

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While it may be a shocker to some, the “resignation” of Lou Dobbs from CNN has pretty much been a foregone conclusion for a while. CNN as a network is floundering badly these days, unsure of it’s direction. But Lou Dobbs has been sure of his direction, going from a reasonably friendly Newsy guy to a nasty attacker who’s strident opinionated messages were just not hitting the mark.

While he is mostly not wrong (such as with the problems of illegal immigration in the US), his last few years have been marked with repeat returns to the same themes, often appearing to fill quiet news days with illegal immigration outrage stories that were often puffed up to make them bigger than they seem. Some people have suggested this has come as CNN has tried harder to compete with Fox news on the “strident shill” level, which is something that more liberal media seems very poor at doing. Instead of coming out as the champion of the average guy, Lou Dobbs started to come across to me more and more as someone with an axe to grind rather than a series of solutions. Certainly, his inferences that President Obama may not be American enough to be President didn’t win him any fans.

Lou Dobbs hasn’t said where is going to next, but he will still be on syndicated radio and is “looking at his options”. Some have suggested that he might end up at Faux News, where a strident axe grinding attitude seems to go over better. Read more of the story here.

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According to a British magazine’s report, the highly anticipated hands-free controller could be available in November 2010 and cost as little as $50.

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In the wake of a decision by Microsoft to ban up to 1 million Xbox Live members for illegally modifying their consoles, Craigslist is now flooded with sales for the devices.

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Players who were caught modifying their consoles to play pirated games have been booted from the popular service.

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During the institution’s inaugural executive program, 20 students are getting an intense education in the exponential technologies that could shape their companies and industries for decades to come.

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As cheap, powerful automatic cameras and camera phones proliferate, the music industry–and its sports counterpart–have had to realize they can’t control fans’ ability to take pictures.

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It’s almost a traditional thing now, the Tom Cruise dead rumors seem to come up about two or three times a year, more often when he is doing something nutty. Recent stories have peopel from inside his camp reporting on his weeks of trying to use his Scientology powers to dominate door knobs and other inanimate objects. It’s sort of up there with his classic jump around on Oprah thing. Whatever the deal, there is no truth to Tom Cruise having a heart attack, Tom Cruise falling off a building, Tom Cruise falling off a cliff, or Tom Cruise dying in some other manner, at least not yet.

Xenu must wait another day, I guess.

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I have been a lifelong racing fan, I can remember watching the highlights of NASCAR races on Wide World of Sports long before it became an every week, 12 hours per day extravaganza that is it today. In the last few years I have been less and less enamored with the product, and thought it was only me. But recently, I have noticed more and more people publically calling out NASCAR’s top series with names like NAPCAR and such.

Well, the capper I guess was this past weekend’s race in Talladega, typically one of the wildest and highest speed races, where a combination of engine restrictor plates and aerodynamic tricks get together to make the cars run pretty much in a pack. The only way to get ahead most of the time is bump drafting, where the back car pushes the car in front, making them both move faster. After a terrible wreck at the end of the last race here, NASCAR outlawed this practice this time out. The results? Well, let’s just say that the drivers showed than about 450 out of the 500 miles of the race was meaningless, and paraded around single file in a freight train so dull that driver Tony Stewart was heard asking his crew to tell him something interesting so he didn’t fall asleep. The ABC commentators for the race could obviously see this race has turned into a snoozer, and rather than deny the truth, they repeated over and over the fact that NASCAR had diddled with the rules to make this happen.

Well, it seems that NASCAR doesn’t like when someone points out the obvious: NASCAR got all huffy and spokesman Ramsey Poston said that “ABC missed a lot of very good racing”.

News flash Mr Poston: There was no good racing. For the first 400-450 miles, it was follow the leader, let’s not use up our equipment, throttle off cruising so painful to watch, it was beyond understanding. The only thing that saved the race for most of the “fans” was that in the last 5 laps, the aero package and rules came together to destroy pretty much half the field in two seperate wrecks that both involved violent rollovers.

Don’t get made an ABC, they told the truth. NASCAR (or is that NAPCAR) needs to wake up and smell the coffee, look at all the empty seats and closed seating sections at the tracks, and remember that “it’s the racing stupid”, before they are shrunk back to being a regional series without national coverage. Ratings are down for a reason, and it isn’t because ABC says you are boring.

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Today is droid day, the day that the Motorola Droid hits the marketplace, available through Verizon Wireless. This phone marks Motorola’s plunge into using Google’s Android operating system on a phone, a trend that seems to be getting stronger all the time. In fact, the hubbub over the Droid phone is putting the hurt on Blackberry, who’s new smartphone offerings are getting lost on the editing room floor. There are a number of reviews of the Motorola Droid Phone, and generally they look very positive indeed!

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