Nintendo 3DS in the flesh and hands-on!

That Nintendo announced the 3DS was not a surprise -- that they had a couple-dozen of these things to try out, that was. We elbowed our way to the front of the line to try one out, and the effect is actually not bad. It's not great, but the 3.5-inch screen on top certainly gives a firm illusion of depth without resorting to glasses -- or eye crossing. The feel is definitely reminiscent of those 3D cereal box prints, and as soon as you turn the device from left to right to try to look around anything the effect is immediately lost. You need to stare at the screen for a moment for your eyes to adjust and then not move around too much. If you do you'll need to adjust again. But, stay reasonably still and it's a compelling effect.

The new analog slider on the left feels a lot like the PSP's analog nub, but larger and without the texture. It's a bit easier on the fingers, and comfortable. Overall the device feels just like a current DS or DSi, though we couldn't get a good feel for the weight thanks to a bulky tether attached on one end to the device, and on the other end to the row of ladies who were surely told to not let the gadgets out of their hands or face certain doom. The only thing we could do here is rotate along a still frame -- Pikmin in a field, for example -- and play with the 3D slider. It is a pretty convincing effect, but it's hard to tell at this point if it's at all compelling -- it wasn't anything more than novelty in this demo, and we still don't know how it stands up to fast-moving footage. Actual games were promised to us for the show floor, so we'll hit that up later today. We snagged a few pics before getting elbowed out of the way, so check 'em out!

Microsoft Kinect gets official, Video Chat announced

You knew it was coming, right? Hot on the heels of getting leaked a wee bit early Microsoft has made official the rebadging of a device desperately seeking a new name: "Project Natal" is no more, replaced by Microsoft Kinect. At a circus- and celebrity-filled affair, MS wrapped everyone in high-tech panchos (pictured after the break courtesy of Joystiq) and then took the wraps off of the new title. Quite a few game demos were shown, ranging from Star Wars to tiger petting, the Kinect interface to the Dashboard was shown (said by some to be Minority Report-like), and a video chat app called, wait for it, Video Chat. Through here you can naturally talk to friends (up to four total people at once was "shown"), and also share photos.

Sadly, no hands-on time was given nor did MS reveal the two crucial bits of information we're waiting for: price and date. Naturally a holiday release is expected, to give the Xbox 360 a nice sales boost, but we're hearing price rumors as high as $150. These choice bits of intel will surely be unveiled at Microsoft's event tomorrow -- if someone doesn't beat 'em to it. The hardware is still looking exactly like the early picture above, shattering hopes of a slimmer design to match new Slim Xbox 360.

Update: We've got official photos now, though solid textual info is still scarce. Stand by!

Update 2: So we're out of the wild, cult-like experience that was Microsoft's Kinect unveiling. Microsoft still has a lot of details to reveal, but there are a few things we gleaned from watching the demos:

• Almost everything was one person at a time, particularly in the Kinect Sports games. Even a game like beach volleyball or soccer was boiled down to individual "moments" of interaction that get strung together into some sort of competition. Even the running in place games were one at a time, though the river rafting and mining cart games (both with a similar mechanic of jumping and ducking through an obstacle course while picking up tokens) could be played with two people at a time. You can at least play games like volleyball simultaneously with someone else over Xbox Live.
• An interesting mechanic we saw was a second player "jumping in" to a game. In the mining cart scenario, when the second player jumped in it immediately went split screen, while in soccer different players took turns by just jumping into position. Sure, some of this stuff was edited for our benefit, but it seems Microsoft is working to make the introduction of a second player or the switching between players something less button-heavy.
• The Star Wars game was pretty badass-looking -- you play a Jedi, rushing down stormtroopers and deflecting laser bolts left and right, wielding a few Force powers, and confronting a certain deep-voiced Sith Lord for a one-on-one duel. Based on the gestures and action we saw, though, it was a pretty heavily scripted experience. Still, there's no scripting a two-handed light saber grip, and that particular action looked like everything we've ever wanted in a Star Wars game.
• The yoga game is actually a pretty smart use of the infrared and joint detection software we espied previously. Positions were "checked" by points on the joint -- making it certainly harder to fake the moves on Wii Fit -- and it seemed to have a tai chi element to it. Your avatar glowed a more intense red based on your three-dimensional approximation -- bright red for hands stretched forward, for example.
• Next up: Kinectimals, a baby tiger pet simulator. You can scratch its ears, snuggle, and teach the little guy to jump and play dead. Adorable? Dangerously so. No one can tell us the developer, but based on the lighting effects, art style, and similarities to the previously-shown Milo, we'd wager a guess that it was Lionhead Studios.
• The Kinect menu interface is about as simple as could be. You wave your hand to control a glowing cursor of sorts, and you push forward to "click" on the element you want. Of course, there's also a very simplified version of the Dashboard to go along with this control mechanism, so it's unclear if you'll be able to do everything via subtle hand waves, but the Twitter, Facebook, Zune and Netflix icons were clearly present.
• The MTV Games-developed Dance Central has some on staff divided -- only Ross will actually admit to being interested in playing it. A series of dance moves are presented, including elbow jabs, swinging leg, guitar, "rocking out" (with your hand in the air). The art style is akin to Rock Band / Guitar Hero, and to be fair, this is probably one of those games that can't be done as well on any other console.

US firm bribed Indian PSUs

Washington: Officials of Indian PSUs like BHEL and NTPC appear to be beneficiaries of bribes that were doled out by a California-based valve company to bag lucrative contracts, mostly for tools used in the construction of power plants.

Prominent among these Indian companies are Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Haryana State Electricity Board, National Thermal Power Corporation and Bhilai Electric, according to documents submitted by the US Department of Justice before a US court.

It is possible that the details of the beneficiaries are listed in the sealed court documents, but no names were immediately known.
California-based Control Component Inc (CCI) on June 31, 2009, pleaded guilty before the US court to having committing bribery in 36 countries from 2003 to 2007.
India, besides China, the UAE and Qatar, are some of the major countries where Control Component Inc indulged in unfair practices to bag contracts.
According to court documents, the payments related to India were made between 2004 and 2007.

Topping the list is the Sipat coal-fired power plant of NTPC, for which CCI paid a bribe of $163,449 in two instalments to an official of a Moscow-based company, who has been identified as Vladimir Batenko in the documents submitted by the Department of Justice before the court.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that it has extradited Flavio Ricotti, a former executive of CCI on charges of bribing foreign companies. An Italian national, Ricotti, was arrested on February 14 in Frankfurt, and arrived in the United States on July 2.
The alleged bribe for the Sipat thermal power plant was paid in two instalments. The first payment of $26,865 was made on November 29, 2005 from the company's Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at Dresdner Bank in New York for the purpose of securing the contract for the Sipat thermal power plant.

The second payment of $136,584.98 was made in October, 2006 from the same Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at the Baltic International bank in Latvia, the FBI alleges, for the purpose of making a corrupt payment to a Company 3 employee with regard to the Sipat thermal power plant in India, the DOJ said.

According to court documents, the CCI -- in two instalments on November 6, 2006 and January 9, 2009 -- made a total payment of $69,012 to BHEL and MSEB. BHEL officials are reported to be the beneficiaries in several other instances, but most of the amounts are less than $5,000.



In 2007, officials of the Bhilai Electricals are believed to have received $8,600, while those of HSEB received $15,802 through a transaction on July 7, 2007. In addition, Spin Industries, J Mehta & Co and MSEB were the beneficiaries of another bribery transaction of $15,000 made by CCI on March 3, 2004.
However, the court papers are not clear how many of these contracts were bagged by CCI and what was the value of the contracts it won.
The Department of Justice said CCI has admitted that from 2003 through 2007 it made approximately 236 corrupt payments in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million from sales related to these corrupt payments.



Source: PTI

Sucessful night-flight of Solar plane makes

This is one 'fly-by-night' operator we are sure happy about. A giant glider-like aircraft has completed the first night flight propelled only by solar energy. Solar Impulse, whose wingspan is the same as an Airbus A340, flew 26 hours and 9 minutes, powered only by solar energy stored during the day. It was also the longest and highest flight in the history of solar aviation, organizers said.


The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane, is prepared for its first night flight attempt at Payerne airport, Switzerland on July 7, 2010.

The aircraft took off July 7 at 06:51 am and reached an altitude of 28,543 feet by the end of the day. It then slowly descent to 4,921 feet and flew through the night on the batteries, charged during the day by 12,000 solar cells, which powered the four electric motors. The aircraft landed on July 8 at 09.00 am.