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The DVD rental kiosk war continues to heat up, with NCR acquiring competitor DVDPlay to add around 1,300 kiosks under its Blockbuster Express umbrella, while Coinstar joyfully announced its surpassed expectations with the rollout of Redbox, now numbering 22,210 installations. For the last six months its maintained a pace of more than one kiosk every hour, 24/7. Is there anywhere you'd like to see one of these automated dispensaries that doesn't have one yet? Odds are there will be three new ones by the time you finish reading this post.

Blockbuster, Redbox adding rental kiosks at ridiculous speed originally appeared on Engadget HD on Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Editor's Picks, Top Lists, Slideshows, Holiday Gift Guide, Featured Stories

Parenting is hard enough without having to come up with the best gift ideas. You're bombarded by TV ads, which don't really tell you enough, and your child deserves a present that's cool, that's tech, and that maybe ISN'T EXACTLY THE SAME gift that all his or her little classmates will be getting this year.

Here at Switched, we asked our inner child -- and an actual tech-lovin' Mom -- to help us compile a list of the best tech toys for tots. Here's what we found...

Smart Cycle

The Smart Cycle (Mattel, $99.99) is a physical arcade game that connects easily to your TV. Just pop in a supported game cartridge and your child will happily pedal away, burning up all types of energy and leaving you free to pay some bills or start dinner. Cartridges focus on areas such as learning, discoveries, games and races -- and, of course, there are multiple levels that wee ones can can move up as they get better. Smart Cycle also teaches upper and lowercase letters, numbers and counting, spelling, problem-solving, shapes, matching and spatial reasoning.

Top Tech Toys for Tots originally appeared on Switched on Sun, 23 Dec 2007 16:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You've been deceived. All those computer interfaces you saw in the movies? They were made without CGI! Watch our video "The Binary Snowjob" to discover the terrible truth about computers that never were.

Read More... [Source: Gizmodo: top]

We've lost another great home decor magazine. MediaBistro has the press release from Hachette Filipacchi which says that the December 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home will be its last. The publisher has decided to focus all of its shelter mag energy on Elle Decor, the spin off from Elle magazine. In the press release President and CEO Alain Lemarchand said that at this point "the best strategy in the upscale shelter segment is to boldly focus our resources and investment on Elle Decor, which is the ad-page leader within the U.S. market."

Fans of design magazines are reeling especially after Conde Nast shut down the beloved Domino earlier this year. As with the case with the closure of Gourmet over Bon Appetit last month, there are some who feel that Metropolitan Home was the superior title and the one that should have been saved.

MediaWeek reports that ad pages for Metropolitan Home have fallen 34 percent in 2009. Hachette will also be shutting down Pointclickhome.com, the site that was once the online presence of its three shelter magazines: Home, Metropolitan Home and Elle Décor. Now just ElleDecor.com, which is currently part of Pointclickhome.com, will remain.

Filed under: Decor

Metropolitan Home Shuts Down originally appeared on Luxist on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Let's not confuse luxury with the spending of wealth. Even high end goods, when arrayed on a retail rack become merely another store purchase. The pre-fabricated feel of that experience is decidedly undifferent from purchasing a fast food burger for a dollar. When you're paying for a designers work that's produced in standard sizes by factories, what exactly are you buying that's so different than you'll find at Target? A label? Our father's brands may not exactly going to set our hearts aflutter, should we wish to be snappily-dressed young men.

True luxury is more accurately described as getting exactly what you want. Your things are customized to your tastes. It doesn't have to cost a fortune for goods exactly tailored to you; making luxury unique from price. Speaking of tailoring, that's just the area that Boston's Blank Label wants to address. Being based in the cradle of the American Revolution has apparently rubbed off on the upstart clothing maker. The brand launches today, October 31st, and it's aimed at changing the way young men buy clothes, with prices that young men could actually afford.

Starting with custom men's shirts, Blank Label will eventually branch out to offer more clothing. The shirts are handmade by experienced tailors for Blank Label. The materials and workmanship are pleasing, and the website lets you build your own shirt with the options you want. French placket? Sure! High style always looks better when it fits correctly, something that's difficult to do when you're buying a name off the rack, designed for the most common compromise. Not having to compromise or settle for something someone else designed? Sounds like luxury to us.

Filed under: Apparel

Personal Tailor: Boston's Blank Label Launches Custom Menswear Website Today originally appeared on Luxist on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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More than twenty years and five home consoles later, you'd think Nintendo would get this "third-party support" thing by now. However, EA CEO John Riccitiello says the console manufacturer is still learning how to reach out and offer a hand to games other than their own. "They've always been first-party-centric, and they're learning how to be third-party supportive," Riccitiello told Gamasutra. Looking at November's NPD figures, it's clear that Nintendo has been very good to itself. But is there hope for EA on the Wii? "Third-parties can do a lot better on the platform with the right support from Nintendo."

What kind of "support" are third parties like EA looking for? Most likely, third parties are looking for co-opted marketing opportunities provided by other first-party platforms, like Sony's PlayStation.Blog or Microsoft's MW2-branded hardware. Unfortunately, Nintendo appears content with its hands-off approach to third-party marketing, offsetting all the blame for the failures of GTA: Chinatown Wars and countless other games at the hands of their respective publishers.

EA's Riccitiello: Nintendo 'learning' how to support third parties originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Though this post will go up after the Video Game Awards conclude, it was actually written before the first Vector Monkey was distributed. With that in mind, prepare to be amazed by our clairvoyance: Shia LeBeouf is going to win. We should be more specific: He's not just going to win for the category he's nominated for, he's going to win everything. Trust our precognizance on this one -- Shia LeBeouf is the best voice actor, human performer, role-playing game, and Independent Game Fueled by Dew released in 2009.

As you bask in our waves of psychic magnificence, check out our seven favorite gaming-related webcomics from this past week, listed below. Make sure you vote for your favorite after the jump!

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful (Dipswitch)
Coming Soon to Video (Virtual Shackles)
A Mushroom Kingdom Carol Part Four (Brawl in the Family)
Guest Strip (Dueling Analogs, by Crooked Gremlins)
It's a Comic About Left 4 Dead 2 (Slackerz)
Die Monster (Nerf Now)
Stuff of Nightmares (Digital Unrest)

Continue reading Weekly Webcomic Wrapup predicts the VGAs

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup predicts the VGAs originally appeared on Joystiq on Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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