The mouse that Douglas Engelbart and SRI's chief engineer, Bill English, demonstrated to 1,000 people in San Francisco 40 years ago. Click on the image above for more photos.

If you use a computer, it's almost certain you owe some thanks for ...

The zeppelin, Eureka, sits on the tarmac at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. The airship was dedicated Friday at an event celebrating the 75h anniversary of Moffett Field.

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.--NASA celebrated the 75th anniversary of this iconic airfield and research center on ...

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

The inside of the 'Wrath of the Lich King' retail box teases players with a challenge. The expansion to the hugely popular 'World of Warcraft' goes on sale tonight at midnight.

For World of Warcraft players who over the years have grown accustomed to seeing busy in-world auction houses, the last few weeks may have seemed odd.

Normally bustling with players eager to buy or sell weapons, clothing, armor, or other goods, business at the auction houses has recently slowed to a crawl. But it's not because of the global economic crisis.

Rather, say WoW aficionados, players have been hoarding their gold in anticipation of the release Thursday of the game's latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, and holding off on buying items that would soon be obsolete.

This is just one example of players of the hugely popular massively multiplayer online game behaving differently as Lich King's release approaches.

The game will go on sale nationwide after midnight (12 a.m.) Thursday, and retail stores expect lines across the country.

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of monster hits like 'Donkey Kong,' 'Super Mario Bros.,' and 'The Legend of Zelda,' talked Friday in San Francisco about his newest game, 'Wii Music.'

Last Monday, Nintendo released its latest would-be blockbuster game, Wii Music.

The new game, for ...

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of monster hits like 'Donkey Kong,' 'Super Mario Bros.,' and 'The Legend of Zelda,' talked Friday in San Francisco about his newest game, 'Wii Music.'

Last Monday, Nintendo released its latest would-be blockbuster game, Wii Music.

The new game, for ...

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

A screen from the new Xbox Live Experience, which is set to launch on Nov. 19. Microsoft is now delaying one critical element of the service, the Primetime series of interactive games, according to a published report.

Updated 1:42 p.m. PDT: Adds Microsoft comment.

At E3 ...

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

In an interview with the creators of the film MacHeads, which itself examines the Apple branding and ...

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture

The film MacHeads, which is scheduled to be released this fall, takes a close look at the culture surrounding Apple and its products.

If Tuesday's news of new, more-powerful, Mac laptops wasn't enough to stoke the fires of the Apple faithful, I've got even more ...

Originally posted at News - Apple

In the new Xbox Live experience, much of the interface is designed to cascade horizontally across the screen, allowing users to see a wide selection of choices. On HD TVs, users will be able to see even more information, given the wider screen.

Whether you're one of the legions of hard-core Xbox players or someone who's only played with the game console casually, get ready for an all-new Xbox Live.

Since the first announcement of the new approach to the massively popular service at E3 in July, some longtime fans have fretted that Microsoft is morphing it into a place for purely casual players at the expense of those for whom Xbox Live is nearly as much a home as where they actually live.

Well, based on a demo I got recently of the (not quite finished) new version of Xbox Live, I'd have to say, fret no more.

Dubbed the new "Xbox Live Experience," this re-launched service--which is rumored to be launching in November, but which Microsoft will only say is due "before Christmas"--really does seem to have something for everyone: an easy-to-use graphical interface complete with deeply customizable avatars that casual players will enjoy, and all kinds of new functionality that will actually reward the dedication of the hard-core Xbox player.

With the new Xbox Live interface, users will be able to see all information relevant to their account in a simpler, easier-to-understand format.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft readily admits that there may be a bit of a transition period for those core players--a time during which a lot of griping might be heard--but the company fully expects a gradual realization on the part of those players that the new service takes the existing Xbox Live and adds all kinds of new community and interactive functions to it.

And, again, I would have to agree.

To date, the Xbox Live interface has been based on what are called blades, essentially pages of information stacked on top of each other in such as way as to maximize the number of choices Xbox Live players have and the directions in which they can go. They can see lists of games to play, choose to watch a movie, go into a section to buy add-ons for games, and so on. The new interface largely does away with the blades era and moves into a more advanced motif of full windows that spread out on the screen and stretch off into the distance, allowing users to shuttle through them, left to right or right to left.

But that's getting a little too far ahead.

Originally posted at News - Gaming and Culture