August 3, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 11:41 am
The headliners at the Sunset Tavern last Saturday, a quartet of 50-somethings, sounded like lifelong rock stars. And, as it turns out, they were. read more →
April 17, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 1:05 pm
Last night, I watched some of Seattle’s most successful geeks face off in a 14-man ping-pong showdown. read more →
April 15, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 4:43 pm
I’m silly about Microsoft’s new motion-sensing gizmo coming to the Xbox 360 this Christmas season, but it’s been a pain getting friends to understand my excitement. So far, Project Natal (not the final name) and its wild mix of cameras and infrared sensors haven’t been demonstrated publicly very much. But I’m starting to find concrete [...] read more →
April 13, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 12:14 pm
Until someone releases a toaster that streams movies, I can’t really say Netflix works on every gizmo on the planet. But it sure feels that way. Yesterday, the long list of TiVos, Blu-ray players, and other Netflix-compatible stuff got one longer with the addition of the Nintendo Wii. And even though it’s far from the first Netflix-streaming [...] read more →
April 12, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 1:52 pm
Microsoft announced a new phone this morning: the Kin, which will be available from Verizon this May. Apparently, the phone’s most prominent technical feature is to make you feel old as dirt. At Kin.com, Microsoft promotes its new semi-smartphone with videos that show a bunch of hipsters doing what hipsters do: riding each other on [...] read more →
April 9, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 3:56 pm
I’m standing in a small crowd at Sole Repair Shop in Capitol Hill, and a Sony game designer hands me two wireless remotes with glowing, colored bulbs at each tip. He points me toward a boxing game, currently listing real-life gestures that I can do with these remotes to make my character fight dirty. Two [...] read more →
April 8, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 12:15 pm
Minutes ago, the iPhone’s next operating system (OS) took center stage at a press event near Apple’s HQ in Cupertino, CA. You know, the iPhone? That junior-sized iPad you might’ve forgotten about? Set for release this summer, the OS 4.0 software upgrade includes an iPhone first: multitasking. Well, sort of. Once the update rolls out, [...] read more →
April 6, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 10:24 am
While making dinner and watching deleted scenes from the film Bottle Rocket last night, I left a live video stream running on my bedroom computer. Somewhere around 10:00 p.m., cheers and applause exploded from the PC. “What was that?” the girlfriend asked. I calmly answered—in a tone I might use one day to describe the [...] read more →
April 5, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 5:28 pm
Geeky as I am, I draw the line at anime. So I’ve never attended SakuraCon, Seattle’s annual expo dedicated to the world of Japanese cartoons. But this weekend, a friend had an extra pass, so I figured, why not? The expo, held over three days at the downtown Convention Center, was as steeped in otaku-friendly [...] read more →
March 30, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 4:07 pm
Nintendo has taken too long to show off its upcoming Wii sci-fi epic, Metroid: Other M. Even when its Japanese producer came to San Francisco’s Game Developers Conference earlier this month to talk about its creation, he hid tangible proof. No longer. Today’s stunning video—and why I’m stunned by it—are after the jump. read more →
March 26, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 3:29 pm
Microsoft’s Game Room service debuted this week on Xbox Live and Windows PCs. Similar to other Internet-enabled game shops, it sells dozens of classic video games. But Game Room does something that no other game shop has done until now: One pay, one play. If you’d rather not pay full price ($3) to own an [...] read more →
March 24, 2010
By Sam Machkovech at 4:34 pm
Yesterday, at the rollout of its sexy new HTC Evo 4G phone, Sprint effectively announced that after investing billions of dollars, they’re finally thrusting their Seattle business partner Clearwire into the mainstream—and quite possibly changing how we’ll get online for the next decade. Isn’t Clearwire just another Internet service provider? Well, yes, but it’s one [...] read more →
