There has been a lot of buzz in the video game industry about the new release of the new version of the Grand Theft Auto IV game launch, even being coined as “potentially record breaking” from a few top industry insiders. While I know many of you have been chomping at the bit to get your mits on the game, it’s finally here and on the final day of release just days ago, has successfully broken the Guiness record for the “Highest Revenue Generated By an Entertainment Product in 24 Hours.”

While I knew Guinness has all kinds of insane records (see former post about giant backgammon board in England..), I still am caught aback at the 3.6 million unit sales earning 310 million dollars in the first day of release! Wow!

Followed closely behind were the favorite games we all know and love:

= Fastest-selling video game in 24 hours: Halo 3 at $170 million
= Fastest-selling theatrical movie in 24 hours: Spider-Man 3 at $60 million
= Fastest-selling book in 24 hours: Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows at $220 million

As we are rapidly seeing the video game and home entertainment business growing and expanding, one can only wonder what lies in store for game lovers in the future. Congratulations to the Grand Theft Auto IV at winning their name in the big book of records, and all of you enjoying the game, I’m sure they thank you for helping them break that barrier.

Thanks to Ben Kuchera at Arstechnica for the original article/breaking news and to find out more you can find that here:

“Grand Theft Auto IV series a Guinness World Record giant”

Recently I noticed during a insomnia driven walk that my neighbors all seemed to be fellow insomniacs. While it’s none of my business why they were all out on the porches and driveways in the early morning hours talking on the phone, it still boggled me as to why so many? Eventually I realized that they were not getting good reception inside their house on their cell phones.

Apparently trying to use their cell phone inside is a hit or miss proposition. My cell phone never gave me problems but I have heard from friends at times how they want to toss their phones out of car windows. However, new technologies do offer possible remedies but unfortunately both require high-speed Internet lines at the home where you are having problems with dropped calls.

One product is called a “Femtocell” and it acts like a miniature cell radio signal tower. It boosts reception inside of a building by a large margin,  but it’s a bit pricey for the individual consumer. Sprint was the first to offer “Femtocells” last year and AT&T and Verizon say they plan to roll out a similar service later this year. The “Femtocell” by Sprint is book-sized and connects to a DSL router. Then the calls are routed over the Internet. This will work in a building or house up to 5,000 square feet and it will work with any cell phone that Sprint carries.This will set you back about $49 for the base station and an extra $15 a month. Most subscribers have had positive feed back for this device.

T-Mobile has a somewhat different approach with it’s efforts on HotSpot@Home, a home Wi-Fi cellular phone service. It’s HotSpot@Home is cheaper than Sprint’s “Femtocell “service and costs only $9.99 a month for unlimited service in addition to a standard subscriber’s voice plan.Neat!

But here in lies the rub; a customer must already have a Hot-Spot WiFi enabled phone. Only seven T-Mobile phones have this capability at the moment but they do include the popular Blackberry. If you are lucky enough to already have one of these prized seven models, I would definitely recommend you sign up for this deal before they raise prices.

Hopefully this will help out some of you “chronic driveway visitors,” and if these two new technologies catch on, I might not see my neighbors as much wandering around their front yards with their cell phones in their ear. 

Google has announced that they will be hiring a huge wave of new employees in China in an attempt to increase its competitive edge. Most of the jobs will go to new university graduates in the areas of technology, sales and marketing. Google China currently has around 600 employees, but in the next 3 to 5 years they hope to increase that amount to 1,200 to 1,600.

While those of us in the states and most of Europe are Google-holics, it’s integration into Chinese Internet technology user updates has been an uphill battle. Google has been trying hard to become the most used search engine in the world (as well all y well know), however the appeal and progress in Chinese business has not been responding well to the system. Just days ago they began beta- testing a new Google China homepage that is more user friendly and trendy. Google is trying to topple a search giant that already exists and is very popular called Baidu.
Click here read more about the integration and history the search engine in China: Google China

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Nun-chucks, Swords, Driving Wheels, Push Pads, Rumble packs, what next?

Oh yeah. Gamebike…Virtual Biking. Should have seen that one one coming, right? I’m putting my next “sport” activity related item on simulated rock climbing, for those afraid of heights. ( If anybody actually develops this idea would you throw me a royalty or two please?)

Back to subject, Gamebike! Plug in this stationary bike (obviously) where you would normally have your controller and hang on for a wild ride! The pedals control your speed and the handle bars control everything else. It’s like playing games and biking… all at once! Hence.. Game.. Bike. Right.

So start pedaling and soon you are taking part in an epic adventure that requires mind and body coordination to avoid traps, dangerous obstacles and to negotiate hairpin turns. There will be lots of cheering and groaning going on in your family room, but for most of us this is a normal background noise we’re used to.

This is a wonderful way to get both family time and physical exercise-and the kids will sleep good that night. is compatible with PlayStation 2, $399.00, but unfortunately for XBOX and Wii you will need an adaptor.

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All right, let’s all be adults. We ALL belong to some sort of social networking club, site, or forum. Oh wait… isn’t blogging a public networking forum too? Guilty as charged. I will even admit that I met my husband and the Director of our current feature in Brazil, Thomas Hale, on Myspace. But…that was before Myspace was cool right? So that doesn’t count as lame? Regardless..

These sites including Myspace and Facebook are so popular that even your five year old now wants his own page. Disney and Nickelodeon have both recently launched their own “kid-friendly” networking services, and there are more to come. Club Penguin and Webkinz World lets kids talk to another and also to their favorite characters or pets.

Most of these sites are free, although a parent can sometimes spend money on computer games, add ons, and upgraded membership fees. The sites are full of advertising, FULL OF IT, as if we don’t get enough of that on television. So Mommy-Daddy beware that begging may begin.

Keeping kids safe on the internet is a big concern for a lot of parents, especially with the rise of “internet-stalkers” and the like. Most of these sites have privacy filters and parental control that block kids from exchanging personal information without explicit permission and allow parents to monitor their childs’ activity. I think this is great, this is laying a solid, safe foundation for internet and networking skills which they will require to be “up to date” on later on in life.

Reading, Writing, Online play, games, interaction and problem solving are a positive and direct by-product of the new generation of Tech-savvy kids. Since we haven’t assigned this group of children a
Gen “XY” label, I think it’s probably safe and practical to predict that this generation will be labeled as “Gen T.”

“But Don’t take my word for it…” -Reading Rainbow

By now I am sure that you have seen either commercials or news about Lifelock, the most up and coming identity theft protection service. With identity theft hitting all time highs over the past several years it has become a huge concern for everyone. With the booming success of the company it is always looking for people to add to their trusted team with lifelock jobs. With many huge companies and corporations backing Lifelock it is now being looked at as more then just a security measure but a must have. With numerous banks, credit unions, and even Ident-A-Kid using their services to not only protect adults and their investments but going after those trying to steal the identities of children. They recently received the highest rating possible from Nextadvisor.com, a leading provider of consumer information, and were called by the company the “best overall value in identity theft protection”. Members of Lifelock can count on “locks” on their credit cards and be alerted the minute someone tries using their information. They have perfected it to a point that they offer a million dollar guarantee to any member whos information is used. As a bonus to this, their members are removed from pre-approved credit card lists…which means less junk mail! Everyone in this day and age is aware of this problem, now there is something you an do to protect yourself.

According to a PDF release on April 18th put out by the Paypal company, the super-power digital money transfer system is seriously considering blocking some browsers from being able to use the service online. Google, Yahoo and Firefox are not in contention for the ban, but some of the smaller search engine browsers may be hit hard by the proposal.

Included in the browsers being considered for blocking are the Nintendo DS operating system that runs Opera, The Browser on the Iphone, Safari and Wii consoles because they do not feature any kinds of anti-phishing filters.

The reasons explained by the company for the move towards these blocks are sensible and I don’t blame them for taking action against fraudulent account transfers and identity theft. Among the reasons listed are:

1.Prevent fraudulent e-mail from getting into users’ in-boxes
2.Prevent phishing sites by shutting them down
3.Authenticate users so that stolen credentials can’t be used on PayPal
4.Prosecute fraudsters to the full extent of the law
5.Focus on brand and consumer recovery

Since this is not in effect or official yet, if you are using these browsers you might want to consider an upcoming change to your search engine ( I of course prefer Firefox) as you may soon have difficulty making online transactions online through these “targeted ban list” browsers.

Original Source Material at: news.com by Robert Vamosi

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