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Friday, 14 February 2014

Star Wars' AT-AT walkers invade Sochi Olympics

(Credit: Video screenshot by Leslie Katz/CNET)

Finding the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics rather dull? Add some AT-AT walkers from "Star Wars" shooting lasers at downhill skiers and you have a sport worth watching.

This "Star Wars" - Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics mashup video aired on TV2 Denmark's show "Natholdet med Anders Breinholt" (Night Shift with Anders Breinholt), with humorous results. You don't need to speak the language to appreciate AT-AT's attacking unsuspecting Olympic athletes.

This isn't the first time "Star Wars" and winter sports have merged for our entertainment. Fans shot a video of a snowboarding Rebel Pilot being chased down a snowy hillside by Imperial Snowtroopers. Then of course, there was this year's epic AT-AT sled that raced in Michigan's Cardboard Classic.

But this is the first time, at least as far as know, that AT-ATs successfully shot down pesky skiers during the Winter Olympics. Now if they would only add angry Wampas to the curling event, they'd really have something

PlayStation 4 beats out Xbox One as the best-selling console

New data shows that Sony's console sales were nearly double those of Microsoft in January. Meanwhile, video games sales fell compared with the same time last year

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

In the battle for the best-selling console, Sony's PlayStation 4 has come out on top -- beating Microsoft's Xbox One -- for the month of January.

Research firm The NPD Group released new data on Thursday showing that hardware sales were up 17 percent to $241 million in January compared to the same time last year. However, since January 2013 was five weeks and January 2014 was four weeks -- normalized sales of gaming hardware shows a 47 percent increase. And, PlayStation led these sales.

"PS4 led overall hardware sales this month, followed by the Xbox One," The NPD Group's Liam Callahan said in an e-mail.

While The NPD Group didn't go into specific numbers, Bloomberg reports that PlayStation 4sales were nearly double those of Xbox One. This is a reverse from December when Xbox One sales reportedly were higher than PlayStation 4.

The top five best selling games for January were Call of Duty: Ghosts, NBA 2K14, Battlefield 4, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, and Grand Theft Auto V, respectively.As far as sales of video games, the numbers are a bit bleaker. Total sales of physical games fell 21 percent from last year to $664 million, according to The NPD Group. However, if digital downloads, used games, social networking games, and rentals are included consumers spent roughly $1.05 billion in January. Additionally, normalizing the sales for 2013's five-week period, game sales appear to be down just 1 percent.

Data released by The NPD Group earlier this week showed that the US video game market appeared to be stuck in a holding pattern in 2013. While there weren't any significant declines in consumer spending throughout the year, growth tallied up just 1 percent. However, that's better than years past, since it was the first time the market had experienced growth in the last two years.

Facebook crowdsourcing gives lonely boy 1.4 million friends

For a surprise birthday gift, a Michigan mom creates a Facebook page to show her son -- who has Asperger syndrome -- that he can have friends all over the world.

The "Happy Birthday Colin" Facebook page.

(Credit: Screenshot by Dara Kerr/CNET)

Being 10-years-old is hard enough -- and add in an isolating syndrome like Asperger's and making friends can be even more difficult.

Such is the case of Colin. He is a 10-year-old boy who lives in Michigan and is on the lower end of the autism spectrum. Despite his efforts to make friends, he is usually made fun of and eats his lunch in the school office because other kids won't let him sit at their tables, according to his mother.

When Colin's mother, Jennifer Cunningham, asked him if he wanted a birthday party, he responded that there wasn't any point because he didn't have friends. That's when she decided to surprise him by creating a "Happy Birthday Colin" Facebook page.

"I created this page for my amazing, wonderful, challenging son who is about to turn 11 on March 9th. Because of Colin's disabilities, social skills are not easy for him, and he often acts out in school, and the other kids don't like him," Cunningham wrote on February 2, when she created the page. "So I thought, if I could create a page where people could send him positive thoughts and encouraging words, that would be better than any birthday party."

Microsoft repairs Skype chat syncing glitch

(Credit: Microsoft)

Skype users frustrated by messages that won't sync from one device to another should welcome a new fix from Microsoft.

Touting the service's "enhanced chat experience" in a blog posted Thursday, Skype product marketing manager Elaine Ansell said that chats are now synced across all of your Skype-enabled devices. Push notifications will also alert you when you have a new message waiting for you.

Ansell acknowledged that the Skype syncing issue caused people to miss messages and to run into messages marked as "read" on one device and "unread" on another. In response, Microsoft had been working on a fix for the problem.

"We also understand the importance of knowing that messages you send have been delivered and that you receive all of the messages sent to you," Ansell said. "Now you can have peace of mind that your friends will receive messages even if they're not on Skype at the time you hit 'send,' and, if you've read a Skype message on your phone, it'll show as 'read' when you check your messages on your laptop later in the evening."

Skype users should now see less of a battery drain and better startup and resume times on their mobile devices. Load times for the app itself and for your recent conversations should also be quicker, according to Ansell.

Other enhancements are in store for the coming months, Ansell promised. As one example, you'll see new notifications only on your current device, so they won't keep popping up on all your devices. Your Favorites contact list will also sync across all of your devices.

No update is required to grab the latest fixes and features. Skype users just need to be sure they're running the latest version of the software.

Microsoft now selling Power Keyboard for Lumia 2520 tablet

Serving as case and keyboard, the gadget is available for AT&T's edition of the 2520 at a price tag of $149.

Nokia's Lumia 2520 with the Power Keyboard.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Owners of Nokia's Lumia 2520 tablet who missed out on the free Power Keyboard can now buy one through Microsoft.

The Power Keyboard sold by Microsoft supports only the Lumia 2520 through AT&T, which means Verizon customers are out of luck. The keyboard currently shows up as out of stock through AT&T, both online and at many of its retail outlets, so Microsoft seems the only source for nowPacking in a case, keyboard, two USB ports, and a 50 percent boost to battery life, the Power Keyboard was dangled by Nokia as a free accessory to those who preordered the 2520 late last year. AT&T has been selling the keyboard, and now Microsoft has added the $149 device to its lineup.

Halo 5 won't launch in 2014, Master Chief voice actor says

The man behind Master Chief's voice, Steve Downes, says that he doesn't believe Microsoft-owned 343 Industries will get Halo 5 to store shelves in 2014.

(Credit: 343 Industries)

Halo 5, the much-anticipated follow-up to the successful Halo 4 from Microsoft-owned 343 Industries, might not launch this year, after all.

Speaking to GameZone in an interview published on Thursday, Steve Downes, the voice of the game's protagonist, Master Chief, said that while a Halo game will launch this year, he "wouldn't expect anything until 2015" on the Halo 5 front.

Downes said that he believes a 10-year anniversary edition of Halo 2 will launch in 2014, according to GameZone.

Although the Halo franchise started with Bungie, that company handed the franchise over to Microsoft in order to again become an independent development house. There had been some hope that Halo 5 would launch this year, but if the voice behind Master Chief is to be believed, that might not be happening.

CNET has contacted Microsoft for comment. We will update this story when we have more information

Nokia makes a skirt from 80 Lumia smartphones

The company has developed a skirt made from 80 of its Lumia 1520 and 1020 smartphones. It's a fashion thing, apparently.

(Credit: Andrew Hoyle/CNET)

If wearing Google Glass on your face isn't a big enough salute to technology, you might want to take a look at Nokia's bizarre, new skirt. It's made from 80 of its Lumia 1520 and 1020 smartphones. I popped along to London Fashion Week, where the skirt was given its catwalk debut.

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roughly the size and shape of a tutu that you would normally find on a ballet dancer. It's best to check out the photo gallery above to see exactly what it looks like. The phones are all turned on of course, and show a pattern that swirls in time with the motion of the wearer. At least, that's what Nokia said is happening -- with only a small walk up and down a catwalk, it was difficult to get a real impression of what the screens were doing.

Unsurprisingly, the skirt won't be making its way to shops. Instead, it's more of an art piece, designed to "explore the possibilities of smart technology and fashion coming together," explained Nokia.

The skirt was displayed during Fyodor Golan's show as part of London Fashion Week. I asked the fashion duo if they see smartphones and technology becoming more important in the fashion industry. Technology is "only now starting to talk to fashion. It has nothing to do with fashion at the moment. That's why we are trying to start doing it. There needs to be this dialogue -- it's just product design at the moment," they explained.The skirt was made in collaboration with Nokia, fashion designers Fyodor Golan, and interactive design agency Kin. I caught up with Matt Wade from Kin who explained that the biggest challenge in making the dress was getting all of the phones on the skirt -- custom 3D-printed clips were created -- and developing the software that would allow all the phones to work together.

"There is this hurdle at the moment that the fashion industry and the technology industry need to get over -- they need to start working together