Gearfuse

The ever elusive Pirate Bay seems to have slipped through the legal system again. After only a brief 3 hour lapse in service the torrent hosting site is back up, and branding the same typical attitude we’ve all come to expect from the company.

Pirate Bay made a statement on their blog which makes a lot of sense and might help some of you uninformed peeps decode the inner workings of torrent sites in general:

TPB can be compared to the organisation that builds the roads for cars to drive on. The ISP can be compared to the organisation that creates the asphalt for the roads. The ISPs ISP can be compared to the organisation that creates the tools needed to the asphalt to be created. You would normally not sue that organisation if a car speeds.

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For the past hour, I’ve been playing with Hunch.com, a new online service created by Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake. You essentially ask the site questions, take a little survey and get the answers you want. I found it pretty interesting and answering the questions on the homepage helps others gain knowledge about you. One of the neat parts is that Hunch plans to offer an API in the near future, allowing for some wicked web mashups.

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Coming up with a new, viable idea in gaming is a tough challenge. After all, look what happened to the Phantom console after years of promises. A new service from entrepreneur Steve Perlman called OnLive is looking to challenge the home console as we know it.

The basic concept of OnLive is that it takes the powerful game computations that require serious hardware and computes them on a server far from the user’s home. The game is then fed through the Internet into the user’s home to a console of some sort. This will allow gamers to play games in real-time without the need for an install or game disc. Just think about how that would affect services like PSN and Xbox Live. Scary, right? VentureBeat got a preview of the service in action with Crysis and the results are apparently very impressive. Here’s to hoping that OnLive launches with success and a low cost to the consumer.

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Face it: we were all teenagers once (and some of us still are I’m sure!) Remember how you used to dial *67 to block your number on Caller ID and then call up a pizza place asking if you could get a large pizza with a side of “dis dick,” knowing full well you were protected from Luigi and his dough-kneading crew of thugs. Those were the times but as Dylan says, the times, they are a’changin’.

It’s 2009 and Luigi can get himself a Trapcall account for $9.95 a month. It works for AT&T and T-Mobile (read: GSM) subscribers and uses some proprietary nonsense to reveal who the anonymous caller is. Have a crazy ex-boyfriend or girlfriend? Overprotective parents? The STD Clinic desperately trying to reach you? Yeah, I’d say Trapcall is right for you.

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If you haven’t heard of Peek, it’s a small, thin device with a QWERTY keypad that only does email. Yup. It just emails and uses the T-Mobile network to send and retrieve messages. You pay $20 a month and you get unlimited email service. Not the best deal. However, today only, Peek is offering a $300 one-time deal where you get the device and unlimited service all in one package. Not bad if you’re seriously considering Peek, but still, with such limited functionality, it’s hard to understand if there’s really a market for it.

Again, the $300 unlimited package is today only. Get on it.

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You’ve probably been to or seen gimmicky restaurants such as the Rainforest Cafe. These places charge top dollar for mediocre food and service in a ridiculous environment. A new restaurant in Beijing is no exception. Themed after his favorite MMORPG: World of Warcraft, this Beijing native wanted to create a comfortable gathering place for fellow WoW enthusiasts.

The entrance is a real-life recreation of the opening animation from the game, displaying the dark portal on two large swaying doors. The dining area, called the Hall of Snow Storms, features large plasma screens showing in-game action with a towering World Tree in the middle of the room for aesthetics. After customers are through eating, they can log on at various terminals to play WoW. It’s a geek paradise!

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If you’re a football fan with a broadband Internet connection, your weekend just got a whole lot better. The NFL has launched a service called “Game Rewind” that will retail for $19.99 for the season or $4.99 a week. The service lets you watch all the football games you can handle in HD quality with no commercials. Awesome, right? It doesn’t end there.

You’ll also get the ability to watch four games at once, chat with other fans and complete DVR functionality. Want to rewind to see that interception Drew Brees threw? You got it, champ. Keep in mind, this is a web-based service so you’ll need a way to bring out the picture if you plan on watching the games with your boys.

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Who would’ve thought that all of those AV nerds in high school would one day work on Best Buy’s Geek Squad. If geeks you know haven’t gotten a job on the squad then your next bet is to check your local Radio Shack. This holiday season, it’s not Radio Shack trying to steal your money with cheap RC cars and hearing aid batteries, it’s the Geek Squad with its gaming system set up service.

For the holiday season, Geek Squad will be offering a new service that will set up game consoles including the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360. Part of the set up includes installing parental restrictions, controls and even the Internet. Sometimes AV inputs and a power cord can be too much for some folks. Don’t worry, the Geek Squad is here to help. No mention of the price of the service if you purchased a system from Best Buy, however, the Geek Squad will charge you $30 bucks if you bought it elsewhere. It’s almost as much of a hoax as that Bluetooth set up service it offers.

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That’s right, you read correctly: Activision is considering a subscription service to deliver monthly releases of fresh songs for Guitar Hero players.

Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith explained:

Looking even further out, we’re exploring new models, like an annual pass subscription where players can subscribe and get a certain number of songs downloadable each month.

As of now, no specific details regarding the subscription information or potential tracks for download has been released. However, Activision is sure that this subscription service will be successful because there is no better time to milk the franchise while it’s still fresh in everyones brains. All Guitar Hero fans want is more songs and nothing more.

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The practical uses for unmanned aerial vehicles are proving limitless. Once used for espionage and photography, these airborne spy bots just fell victim to a role reversal: they’ve gone from spy to medic. Well, while they don’t exactly heal wounds out on the battlefield, they do provide air transport for supplies needed in dire situations. Think of them as carrier bots.

The South African National Health Laboratory Service has been testing prototype UAVs designed to transport testing materials and medical supplies to communities that are too much of a burden for ground delivery.  These robotic carrier pigeons are pre-programmed using GPS and microelectronic gyroscopes to guide them to their destination and can even handle themselves in windy conditions. After all, a little turbulence never hurt any blood mid-transit.

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