Latest Posts from Switched

Perhaps you've heard of a little game that came out recently called 'Gran Turismo 5.' The long-awaited racing simulator has finally dropped on PS3, and we've had racing games on our brains. We can't escape the urge to experience high-speed thrills, and we know we're not alone. This week, we're addicted to zooming along, rocketing though our latest picks for Flash and indie racing titles.

'Symphorophilia,' created by game designer Tembac (a.k.a. Agustín Pérez Fernández), is less a racing game and more a dismantling of the genre. While that may sound high-brow, 'Symphorophilia' (which is, tellingly, the act of getting aroused by watching traffic accidents) mixes up its artistic leanings with a dash of absurdity and a touch of simplistic racing fun. You control a crudely pixelated race car in a simulacrum of an Atari-era racing game. Rather than winning a race, though, your goal is to accrue points by avoiding pedestrians and other vehicles. Once you acquire a star power-up, you may crash into the otherwise deadly obstacles in your path, while the game's graphics warp in a surrealistic frenzy. Crashing your car yields the game's most powerful moments, supplied by real footage of race cars crashing violently, set to the poignant melodies of Erik Satie's 'Gymnopedie No. 1.' These game-over scenes are at once touching and hilarious, making us question the passive disassociation that is inherent in video game death. Our hats go off to Mr. Fernández. He's created one of the most successfully artistic games we've ever played.

As if we hadn't already had enough Google news this week -- with Android Gingerbread, eBooks and the Nexus S hitting yesterday -- the Mountain View crew just served up a heaping helping of Chrome news. While updates to the Chrome browser look great, the new Chrome Web Store and Chrome OS led the event. Part of Google's push for an increasingly Web-centric computing experience, these products offer a viable alternative to the desktop-based computing ideas we've grown used to during the past few decades. Read on to get the scoop on today's big news out of San Francisco.

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Symantec says that 2010 will wind up being a record-setting year for malware -- that some 95 billion phishing e-mails will have been sent before the New Year. Combined with other spam messages, those e-mails will account for 89-percent of all e-mail traffic during 2010. Of those spam messages, 95-percent are now being sent by botnets, vast groups of hijacked computers. The number of new malicious sites blocked daily by Symantec rose by over 24-percent from last year to over 3,000 per day, and the security firm is now tracking just shy of 340,000 different strains of malware circulating around the Web.

Every year it seems we set a new record for malware infections and spam, so it shouldn't come as much of a surprise. As the technology that makes our lives better and more connected advances, it also makes checking your e-mail a dangerous and irritating experience. More computers, more smartphones and more Internet connections just mean there are more avenues for attack, and more things to infect.

We have an irrational love for the Magic Pro Wireless Keyboard. Slightly larger than a big remote control, the Magic Pro is a fully-functioning backlit keyboard with a touch mousepad that works with any PC (Windows, Linux or Mac). If there were any justice in this world, the Magic Pro would become the new standard of remote controls. If you're rocking a home theater PC or an Internet video box like Google TV or WD TV Live, you'll know how welcome this thing is, letting you finally leave behind the days of hunting and pecking for letters one at a time. (It may work with PS3 and/or Xbox 360 as well, but it's not guaranteed.) It also has a built-in laser pointer for use during presentations; that's not our forte, but we're confident our cat will be loving this thing soon enough, too.

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Despite the fact that most Americans have been doing it for at least a decade, buying a laptop is getting increasingly difficult. A laptop makes a great gift if you don't mind splurging a bit for somebody, but the range of models available and the minuscule differences between them make navigating the crowded notebook scene a daunting task. Before we go any further, let us explain why you won't find this list overrun with Macs. Chances are, if you want a Mac, you know it already; all you have to do is decide how much money you want to spend. Problem solved! This guide is for those that are negotiating the murky but well-stocked PC market. Now that we've got that cleared up, let's move on to our suggestions, broken up by price.

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Despite its uncertain future, VoIP company Skype has guaranteed itself at least a small core of customers by partnering with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to provide a custom, low-bandwidth video chat service to aid workers around the world. Aid workers supporting refugees are often shipped out with little notice, and can spend months at a time separated from friends and family. Skype is doing what it can to support these aid workers by creating a customized version of its VoIP software that can keep workers in touch with friends and family in areas where Internet connections are often slow and unreliable.

Skype has successfully tested the low-bandwidth communication software in Iraq, Sudan and Afghanistan, and is now opening it up to aid workers in Algeria, the Congo, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia, Sri Lanka and Uganda. By the end of 2011, Skype hopes to have connected 80-percent of the UNHCR's staffers. Skype will also be hosting a button that will allow regular Skype users to donate to charities supporting refugees. The company has been struggling in recent years to keep up with the competition, and some are wondering if its future lies with bespoke software. We're not sure that creating custom VoIP solutions is enough to keep Skype relevant, but working with the UNHCR certainly can't hurt its reputation.

A single license for security software has been illegally shared more than 750,000 times. And Avast, the company that developed the software, isn't worried about it at all.

The license, which was originally sold to a 14-person company in Arizona, popped up on file-sharing websites a year and a half ago. Since then, it has been shared 774,651 times, and is currently being used on PCs in over 200 countries -- including, strangely enough, two computers in Vatican City. "We found our license code at a number of warez sites around the globe," said Vince Steckler, chief executive of Avast Software. Steckler went on to point out the "paradox in computer users looking for 'free' antivirus programs at locations with a known reputation for spreading malware.

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In studying cell phones' effects on human health, University of California Los Angeles researchers have concluded that pregnant mothers who use cell phones are more likely to have children with behavioral problems. Although lead researcher and epidemiologist Dr. Leeka Kheifets is reticent to say that cell phone exposure causes such problems, she did tell Reuters: "It is hard to understand how such low exposures could be influential... It is just something that needs to be pursued."

The study took its data from an ongoing Danish survey, which is following 100,000 women who were pregnant between the years of 1996 and 2002. From that pool, the UCLA researchers reviewed 28,000 mothers who had seven-year-old children. According to Kheifets and her colleagues, children whose mothers used cell phones while pregnant were 40-percent more likely to exhibit borderline behavior, disobedience or emotional problems. Of those children, the ones who had used cell phones themselves were 50-percent more likely to display such traits.

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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was arrested this morning in London, on a Swedish warrant first issued in November. The 39-year-old Australian will now head to a British court, where authorities will have 21 days to decide whether or not to extradite him to Sweden. According to the extradition arrest warrant, Assange is suspected of one count of rape, two counts of molestation and one count of unlawful coercion. Swedish police, however, have yet to officially charge Assange, and issued the warrant simply to get him back to Sweden and discuss the allegations. Assange, meanwhile, had previously dismissed the sex crime-related suspicions as nothing more than an elaborate smear campaign.

But today's arrest doesn't necessarily mean that Assange will be heading back to Sweden anytime soon. His London-based legal team has already said they will argue against extradition, and, even if the court rules against their client, Assange could always appeal the decision, thereby delaying the process even further. As for Wikileaks, the site says it's going full-steam ahead, even as its founder faces legal troubles. "WikiLeaks is operating as normal, and we plan to release documents on schedule," declared spokesman Kristinn Hrafnson.