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Two years after the Xbox 360 kick-started the next-gen console race on a Black Friday week, EA chief John Riccitello says this year’s Black Friday completed the transition to the (now) current-gen consoles:

“It’s been the longest, hardest transition in the history of the industry…Last Friday marked one of those points where you can say something’s changed…Around the world, based on the data I’ve got, it was pretty clear that the transition is now over.

Really though, part of the reason the transition yawned into a two-year stretch is because Microsoft decided to jump the gun on everyone by about a year. It gave them an edge, true, but it also made the shift seem longer and more difficult than it really was because its own launch window was problem-ridden.

If you take last year’s launch of the Wii and PS3 as the actual starting point, with all three on the market, the player with the most consistent difficulty since then has been Sony, but things are looking up for them post-$399 PS3 launch. (Nintendo and Microsoft have had their own share of problems, for sure.) Riccitello thinks it’s all good now, anyway:

It looked like it might have been a two-horse race, but it’s clearly a three-horse race…I think from this point, pleasantly for me, it’s sort of fat city in the game industry.

Anyone left out there that hasn’t made the “transition” to what’s now modern, civilized gaming? [Reuters via Games Radar via Kotaku, Flickr]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

Soccer may not be the most popular sport in the US–but don’t tell that to millions of minivan-driving suburban mothers. Chances are, the kids they are constantly hauling back and forth to practice would love this soccer ball remote. Not only will it handle your TV, DVD and satellite controls, it is also a full-size, functional ball. So you can kick it around, do headers and let the TV channels fall where they may. I just hope you are a fan of English soccer. Available for around $41. [Product Page]

Original post by Sean Fallon

This is not the first time we have come across a wristband that alerts you to incoming calls. Some of you may recall the BlueQ from earlier this year. It worked–but not all that well. Could this device, dubbed the LM957, be a better alternative? According to the product site, the LM957 will not only discreetly alert you to an incoming call, it will also let you know when you have wandered more than 15 feet away from your phone.

We are not sure how it compares to the BlueQ in terms of functionality, but it sure as hell looks better. Even if it does work, I wouldn’t be all that interested unless there was a watch involved. Available for £23.50 or $48. [Product Page]

Original post by Sean Fallon

Comcast is pissed. Per the FCC’s latest vote, it can’t provide cable to more than 30 percent of the country. It has a 27 percent market share right now with 26.2 million subscribers. With the FCC’s 30 percent market cap, it can add fewer than 3 million new subscribers before it hits the wall, pretty much ruling out acquisitions of other cable companies or any major growth.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s proposal to limit the growth of cable providers had been floating around for a bit and was sort of expected not to fly, but two of the four other commissioners have thrown in with him on the vote. It’s possible–if not probable–that the courts could get involved and throw out the decision, which Reuters points out they did six years ago.

The final vote’s expected to go down sometime before Dec. 18–so the two commissioners have time to change their mind–but Comcast will probably start rabble-rousing long before then. They’re probably already in the vicinity anyway, going on about the FCC’s decision a few weeks ago killing apartment-exclusive contracts. All in all, quite a beating for cable from the FCC this month. [WSJ, Reuters, Flickr]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

According to the Health Care System Foundation, a lack of diet and exercise combined with a sedentary lifestyle (that includes playing an upside-down Xbox 360) leads to childhood obesity and an untimely death. Yeah, the kid is definitely fat –but if I were his parents I would be more worried about the fact that he is playing games with a controller that isn’t plugged in. Could it be that an abundance of fat and Xbox 360 playing leads to insanity? [Kotaku]

Original post by Sean Fallon

The PS3’s still got a long ways to go to catch up to the Xbox 360 in the online space, and their next step toward it with an HD VOD service seems kind of lackluster. It’s launching next year in Japan only. And the launch content seems pretty anemic unless you’re into cars and racing: “motor-racing vids” and a BBC car documentary. Sony’s hoping it’ll get people’s motors running for Gran Turismo 5. Uh, vroom vroom? [Variety via Game|Life]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

This isn’t the first time someone has offered a bounty to hack the Linux-based Neuros OSD, but if successful, this hack could have some very interesting implications. The goal is to get the Neuros to piggyback on the TiVo’s recording schedule and make MPEG-4 recordings that can be simultaneously transferred onto a portable device like a laptop or an iPhone. There are two segments to the bounty, with a cash reward that totals $3500. It sounds pretty cool, but whether it can be done is up to you. [DVRupgrade]

Original post by Sean Fallon

The CoolIT USB beverage chiller is certainly one of the more common gadgets of this type on the market, but it does have one major flaw. The fact that the bottom of the can is the only area that comes in contact with the cooling element can result in a drink that is less than thoroughly chilled.

Fortunately, there is a DIY solution available that will give your CoolIT device a much needed upgrade. All you need is a foam can cozy and a Genisys xs 3D rapid prototyping printer. Eh…there is probably a workaround for that second part–or you could simply buy an off-the-shelf version that could do the job. But where is the satisfaction in that? Hit the link for instructions. [Flickr via Make]

Original post by Sean Fallon

The Great Pepsi MP3 Giveaway returns, but this time with…Amazon? Yup. Starting Superbowl Sunday (Feb. 3), Pepsi’s stuffing 5 billion bottles of Coke soda with download codes, but you need five of ‘em to get a free song. That’s right, there will be no casual Pepsi drinkers getting free songs on Pepsi/Amazon’s dime–which is about 40 cents a track, down from the 65-70 cents Amazon usually places in labels’ pockets. Consequently, not all of them may participate, which is lame-o on their part.

It’s a promotion people, come on–it helped put iTunes on the map back in 2004 and it might help Amazon’s MP3 store gain some much needed visibility. What’s interesting is that Billboard says this contest might serve as a tipping point to push Sony BMG into selling songs in the MP3 format–right now, Universal and EMI are the only two major labels doing so. If the contest isn’t an adequate carrot, Wal-Mart might be providing the stick, since it’s rumored to be threatening to drop Sony and Warner’s catalog if they don’t supply its online store with the MP3 format.

Given the fear labels have of the iTunes monopoly, you’d think they’d jump at a player-neutral format, and moreover, the chance to promote alternate players in the online music market. I, however, am not jumping at the chance to drink Pepsi. Blech. [Billboard via Paid Content, Flickr]

Original post by Matt Buchanan

The Writers Guild strike languishes on: Heroes ends for the year next week. In a bid to end our suffering, the producers’ trade group has made a “groundbreaking” offer to the Writers Guild, grandiosely titled the “New Economic Partnership.” The deal’s a mind-blowing less-than $250 flat fee for an hour-long show to be re-broadcast on the internet for up to a year. If you recall, internet distribution’s sort of the sticking point and writers asked for 2.5 percent of the “distributors’ gross revenue.” Let us count the ways writers get screwed by the producers’ Scrooge-y offer.

Ars points out that right now writers pull about four to six cents a DVD, so a two-million seller will bring them between $80,000 and $120,000 on a title raking in millions for the studio. Even though it’s a less-than-stellar deal, at least it scales. The $250 flat internet re-distribution payment and fixed $1300 for 15 minutes of internet-only content doesn’t, which is a problem in a couple of ways.

For one, these contracts are in place for a long time–when the initial deal regarding DVD sales were made, DVD wasn’t very big. In today’s climate, they’re studios’ biggest cash cows, and writers get the short end of the stick. This deal would lock them into the same rate for internet distribution and content, no matter how big new media gets, and it’s obviously going to be huge, so they’re standing to get screwed even harder here.

On a smaller scale, it means no matter how many clicks–and therefore ad dollars–a video drew, writers would still get the same tiny compensation. The guild’s going over this “proposal” until Tuesday, when talks resume, but our feeling is that you better have a hard love for reruns, reality TV or YouTube. [Ars Technica]

Original post by Matt Buchanan