Big news iPhone and iPod Touch owners!  The free VoIP (voice over IP) server, Skype has announced that sometime Tuesday, thier App will be available.  Here’s a quick rundown:

• App will be available for download this Tuesday
• You can chat and use the VoIP if connected on WiFi
• You can only use the chat If connected via Edge or 3G
• Taking a photo with the app is only for setting your avatar
• iPod Touch owners need to have earphones with a built in mic
• You cannot start a conference call, but you can be invited to one

Here are some features not yet implemented:

• SMS
• Start a conference call
• File Transfers
• Skype voicemail

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The closer we get to May 8th, the more I want to become a Trekkie. I’ll admit, the most I’ve ever seen about Star Trek was when they made an appearance on Futurama.  Time to learn some Klingon.

Master X has uploaded 3 photos to the HighDef Digest forums that show Playstation 2 consoles are going down in price to $99 on April 5, 2009.

Even though this isn’t really big news, it just comes to show that Sony is still trying to milk the PS2.  The PS2 was introduced to the world on March 4, 2000 in Japan and October 26, 2000 here in North America.  Sony, I think it’s time to give the PS2 a rest and let it die out. Why not cutting prices on the PS3? Or better yet, introduce a PS3 without Blu-Ray.  I know it’ll never happen because you worked hard on that HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray battle.

But embrace the future of non-physical media.  Like music.  8-Track > Tape > CD > MP3. Oh, wait. I just remembered. You always like to add your own format and milk it for all it’s worth before embracing future media. 8-Track > Tape > CD > MINI-DISC > MP3.

Well, Sony. When you’re ready.  Do what Xbox 360 is doing with Netflix. Stream HD movies and sell things online.  That way you can cut prices on PS3 that have no blu-ray drive. I know there are some hardcore Blu-Ray fans out there right now saying “F*CK YOU! I need my 1080p!” Well, thats fine. But don’t forget to dust off those other Blu-Ray discs you haven’t watched in a while.

i love attack of the show….this is before Kevin Rose owned Digg.

For reference:

Cosplayer:

While there are continuous updates on Ulduar… I’ve gatta say, the proto drakes look pretty gangster and I wanna get one…anywho there are some noteworthy changes that must be pointed out…especially for certain classes…

Druids

Balance

Typhoon now also dazes the target for 3 seconds.

This is a change that I knew was immanent, a daze or slow effect so the druid can combo it with cyclone. Although I’m surprised they still didn’t add in the “interrupt” effect. Currently if the target is rooted and get hit by typhoon, it will not interrupt their cast. It only interrupts cast if they get knocked back. So hopefully in the future this will be changed.

Celestial Focus now   reduces the pushback suffered from damaging attacks while casting Starfire, Hibernate and Cyclone by 23/46/70% and increases your total spell haste by 1/2/3%.

Decent…but the RNG stun was fun to play with…also I wish this had a little twist…like Disc Priest Focus Will…a stacking effect that will pad the damage…or like Natural Perfection…when moonkins get sat on it has a very hard time to do dps and cc. Yes there are different peels like natures grasp, stomp cyclone, typhoon root etc. but good players will constantly try to plow thru and train the moonkin till there are no defensive cooldowns left.

Feral

360° Swipe in 3.1
The correct range for the new, 360 Swipe should be 8 yards. It appears to only be 5 in your version of the data.

Woot! I guess we can try to pull out rogues and stealthers with the new swipe.

Paladins

Crusader Strike In addition, if you strike a player with Overpower while they are casting, their magical damage and healing will be reduced by 25/50 for 6 sec.

(That is not an official change. It is something we were experimenting with, but not a change we are going to make for 3.1. Source)

WOW…if this goes thru…everyone should just reroll ret pallies…the ability to MS and cut magic damage in half? Just do a ret pally, ms warrior, resto shaman combo and just completely MS and anti-magic the other team…since warriors also get a similar ability…I wonder if they will stack?

Priest

Shadow

Psychic Horror cooldown has been increased from 1 minute to 2 minutes.

Yea…that cool down was way too short…disarming etc…got what it deserved lol

Warrior

Arms

Unrelenting Assault now Reduces the cooldown of your Overpower and Revenge abilities by 2 secs and increases the damage done by both abilities by 10/20%. In addition, if you strike a player with Overpower while they are casting, their magical damage and healing will be reduced by 25/50 for 6 sec.

Wow…I don’t know if this will actually even pass patch…lol…50% reduction on their magic damage and heals? What if you MS their teammate and OP their healer? Do their heals only heal for 25%? Lol GG.

Juggernaut has been changed to :     Your Charge ability is now usable while in combat. Following a Charge, your next Slam ability has an additional 100% chance to critically hit if used within 10 sec.

Should be interesting…but slam isn’t instant…unless you hamstring and have Improved Slam maxed out, I don’t see many warriors attempting to slam after a charge. When they swapped Improved Intercept with Juggernaut, it was an attempt to give the fury tree an ability to close in on its target. But this should make the skill curve for warriors a lot higher, hopefully it’ll work in any stance much like the Prot tree Warbringer.

Taste for Blood now give you a chance to allow the use of your Overpower ability for 9 sec. (Up from 5 secs)

The 5 second gap really was a very narrow window…but we’ll see with the new arms stance change and Overpower change if Overpower really will be “Overpowered”

Fury

Titan’s Grip wording has been changed: While you have a two-handed weapon equipped in one hand, your physical damage done is reduced by 10%.

Yea…with no penalty, TG scaling was insane…2H dps was getting out of hand…imagine getting hit with my brothers warrior: http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tichondrius&n=Taurenkai

Ouch.
Prot

Warbringer now also affects Intercept and Intervene

Nice…you can constantly be zooming around the battlefield stripping off snares.
Warlocks

set

Warlock T8 2P Bonus — Increases the damage done by your Unstable Affliction and Immolate spells by 20%

This would be an interesting 2 pieces bonus…assuming you can maintain the 800-900 resilience by sparing 2 pieces. 20% on UA is big damage so I will expect to see some top locks to play around with different sets of arena gears.

Destruction

Chaos Bolt damage has been increased, now deals 1429-1813 fire damage at max rank. (Up from 1243-1577)

I heard the damage on that is already unreal…criting from 8k +? And now they up the base damage by around 20%?? Wow they must be planning on something crazy…

Death Knight

Glyph of Blood Boil -> Glyph of Heart Strike

Your Heart Strike also reduces the movement speed of your target by 50% for 5 sec.

Frost

Chillblains: Now a 15/30/50% movement speed debuff up from 30%. Can no longer be dispelled.

A more reliable snare now that it cant be dispelled, up to 50% because 30% was super lame.

Dancing Rune Weapon: Damage done by this pet is reduced by 50%, but the cooldown is reduced to 90 seconds.

Yea…I predicted that this will be nerfed. I mean double damage for 20 seconds?? Ya right that’s going to stay in the game, basically got nerfed to 5, +1 (up to 5 more seconds so 10 seconds total) and the DRW would do half the damage. It is mediocre, but isn’t as overpowered as it was.

Lichborne: No longer improves your chance to be missed. Now correctly grants immunity, and will break all effects to which Lichborne makes you immune.

Well…the 25% miss was a very good defensive talent…but now? It’ll only prevent fear sleep charm poly etc…but you are still vulnerable towards shackle and exorcist.

Blade Barrier now decrease damage taken by 1/2/3/4/5% for 10 sec.

This is a HUGE nerf…my dk got a lot of defense from this skill and it proc’d Rune Strike very often. -10% parry = QQ

Rune of the Fallen Crusader: This weapon enchant now provides only 15% strength, but its chance to proc is doubled.

GG nerf, 30% was huge, but if proc chance is doubled, the it should yield a more sustained DPS output and parry chance along with a consistent 3% heal.

Mage

Mirror Image: The images no longer cast Polymorph.

Thank God. It was the most annoying thing in arena, chain polymorph with no DR = GG

Huntard

Glyph of the Monkey has been removed.

FINALLY! That was one of the most annoying glyphs in the game…constantly running at 30% more speed made hunters really anti-melee

Shaman

Flurry now Increases your attack speed by 5/10/15/20/25% for your next 3 swings after dealing a critical strike. (Down from 10/15/20/25/30%)

Brought down to the same flurry speed as warriors…both use to be 30% GG

I will probably transfer my Death Knight over to Tichondrius to play with my brother. Going to get up my Death Knight with some of that Ulduar 25 man loot and in the future? I’ll wield Frostmourne.

http://www.wowarmory.com/character-sheet.xml?r=Tichondrius&n=Taurenkai

Although the craziness of GDC has already packed and moved on, Nintendo generously stuck around San Francisco to cater to their most loyal fans.

“This is for the fans,” explained Denise Kaigler, Vice President of Corporate Affairs at Nintendo of America.

The event was held on March 28 – a Saturday night – and was showcased as “World 1-2,” aptly named after the underground level in the original Super Mario Bros. game. Nintendo staff were unable disclose information regarding how guests were contacted or why they were invited. World 1-2 is the first of its kind and while Kaigler was unsure of holding it annually, there may be similar events held across the country.

There were approximately 50 gamers in attendance and the event was extremely secretive until its unveiling. Fans were able to preview two games on the Wii — Punch-Out!! (scheduled for release on May 18) and ExciteBots (scheduled for release on April 20) — and Rhythm Heaven on the Nintendo DSi (scheduled for release on April 5). Upon exiting the event, we were given a free Nintendo bag which contained a mug and stickers. Cool.

“It was pretty cool,” said Israel Hernandez, one of the founders of Super Smash Bears at the University of California, Berkeley. “I won Pokemon Platinum. But where’s my DSi? And where’s Beyonce?”

Congratulations to out big winners from our various contests.  Your prizes are in the mail.

• Joseph – Halo 3 & 12month Xbox Live Gold Card
• Hector – World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King (Standard)
• James – Wrath of the Lich King Life sized Standup Cardboard Cutout

If you’re reading this and wondering, “Hey, I want some free stuff.” Then come to our weekly live webcast on Wednesday, 7:30pm (PST).  Sometimes we have prizes, sometimes we don’t.  You’ll never know.  So, come and watch, laugh and have fun.

First Microsoft tried to go for the viral comedic route with their Seinfield commercials.  All they got was the comedic WTF response.  Then they went with the EVERYONE is a PC and so should you.  Then they branched off of that idea with little kids showing how easy it is to talk in front of a camera and pretend you know how to use the computer.  Now they get even more desperate by saying, Apple is expensive!

My response is “NO DUH!”  Everyone and their moms know about the “Apple tax.”

Sure PC laptops are cheaper.  But in my experience, how long do they REALLY last? Yes, I’m an Apple Fanboy and I like all things shiny. But Microsoft needs to hire an outside marketing agency that has better ideas.  If they are already hiring an outside marketing agency for the past ideas, then I’m thinking that the awesome ideas came from that agency, made its way to the top big heads of Microsoft and at that point, got butchered in the crap you see online and on tv now.

Btw, its easy to buy a laptop under $1,000 when the money you are using isn’t yours.  Heck, I’d even buy one for under a “G” if it was free. So, yes, congrats Lauren and Microsoft for pointing out the obvious.  Apple is expensive.

When music and gaming made love for the first time, Dance Dance Revolution was pushed into the world. This union gave us several other lovable titles, namely Donkey Konga, Elite Beat Agents, Guitar Hero, and Rock Band.

But you have never seen anything like this before. It’s kind of like Guitar Hero. But with a banjo.

“Oh No! Banjo was an RIT student project from an Alternative Controllers seminar at the Rochester Institute of Technology,” explains Sela Davis, audio lead of the project. Other team members of the team included lead programmer Mike Ey, another programmer Dominick D’Aniello, artist and user interface expert Joe Pietruch, and our content developer Alex Lifschitz.

The project was developed in six weeks. Unfortunately, it is unavailable for public play—there’s only one hand-made banjo controller in existence.

“Our main goal in terms of the controller design was to simulate fingerpicking, which is an important aspect of playing a banjo. By having the player use her right hand as well, we are also able to get her thinking in a different way. People expect it to play like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but it turns out it plays very differently due to the use of both hands.”

More videos are available here. Strum on, gamers.