James Cameron’s Avatar the Game won’t be as good as the film

Few movies are as eagerly anticipated as James Cameron’s Avatar, a sci-fi epic that has been almost 14 years in the making and is hitting theaters on Dec. 18.

Accompanying the film release is a major video game from Ubisoft dubbed James Cameron’s Avatar the Game. I got a good look at it this week for the first time since I saw it at the E3 trade show in June. Unfortunately, this game suffers from the comparison to the film — which looks outstanding — and it suffers from theSource: VentureBeat RSS Feed

(Pics) Good Ideas In Pure Living, Tokyo

We will be publishing video from the Good Ideas Salon and also one-one-one interviews with the panelists throughout next week. In the meantime, here’s a selection of the images from the first talk by Marc Alt, Mark Dytham and Peter Rojas; the second talk with Rie Azuma, Danny Choo and Hiromi Matsubara; plus the talk between Piers Fawkes and Francois Bancon of Nissan.

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Lenovo goes crazy, lets you switch Fn and Ctrl keys in BIOS

Some people, including certain Engadget editors, just can’t live without a Ctrl key in the bottom left of their keyboard and a Delete key in the top right. Call it Windows shortcut addiction, but the miniscule adjustment of having to step one key inwards to do our thing totally messes with our mojo. Well, after slapping on some massive Delete and Esc buttons on its T400s, Lenovo is now taking care of the Ctrl freaks by offering up a BIOS option to switch that all-important key with the FnSource: Engadget RSS Feed

Pyramid Distribution UBoard helps you to organize your desk

Pyramid Distribution introduced the UBoard, a USB Multi-Board that will help you to arrange your desktop. The frame is made from ABS plastic and on top of it is a tempered glass plate. It features three USB 2.0 ports and has a cupholder. The UBoard will be available in retail stores for $49.95. Pyramid introduce a new product UBoard – USB Multi-Board for Your Keyboard & Office Life. UBoard will give you a brand new experience. Whatever your job maybe, UBoard will simplify your workingSource: DV Hardware RSS Feed

JJ Abrams to Dose Us With 500 Rads

With their now expected levels of secrecy and sneakiness, it seems that JJ Abrams and Bad Robot are already deep into bringing a mysterious movie called 500 Rads to the screen. At least that’s if it will be called 500 Rads and this isn’t just some kind of hazy-fantazy codename.

The leaked information so far pegs the film at a sweet little $25 million budget and alleges that production will take place in Europe. The story was apparently formulated by Abrams who handed it off to JeffSource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

ST-Ericsson’s U8500 platform gives your next smartphone wicked 3D powers

It’s one thing for ARM to develop a potent GPU meant to add impressive 3D capabilities to devices that were previously forced to run the likes of “Snake,” but it’s another thing entirely to see a platform and semiconductor company come forward and take it one step closer to the mainstream. ST-Ericsson has done just that with its U8500 platform, which is the first to integrate ARM’s Mali-400 graphics processing unit into a solution that can be easily fitted into future phones. Think yourSource: Engadget RSS Feed

Like That Little Engine, Nokia Siemens Thinks It Can Make It

Nokia Siemens, a telecommunications equipment joint venture, plans to lay off up to 5,700 employees, or 7-9 percent of its work force, in order to cut about $740 million in costs. The company, which is a joint venture between Siemens and cell phone maker Nokia, will also whittle down to three business units from five. But you wouldn’t really get it after reading the headline on its press release which states, “Nokia Siemens Networks Targets Improved Financial Performance, Return toSource: GigaOM RSS Feed

Cool Stuff: Eric Tan’s Up Posters

To celebrate the November 10th DVD & Blu-ray Combo pack release of Pixar’s Up, Disney has released high resolution copies of Eric Tan’s awesome retro posters which were created during the development of the film for inspiration, and were hung in Pixar Animation Studios during production.

We’ve featured many of artist Eric Tan’s creations in past Cool Stuff columns: we’ve spotlighted his work for past Pixar productions, X-Men, LOST , among other things. Tan has beenSource: SlashFilm RSS Feed

HD2 Now on T-Mobile website – Coming soon

Oh ! Check it out ! The HTC HD2 has now appeared on the T-Mobile site as “coming soon”. We told you a month ago that the Windows Mobile super-phone was coming to the network, and this will no doubt get added to Christmas lists far and wide.
You know the deal by now, this is a fantastic device in every way possible and you can keep updated about availability by clicking the link. There’s a number of problems with the “Coming Soon” link though. First, they’re calling it the “HTC TouchSource: coolsmartphone RSS Feed

Mozilla goes back to the beta with Firefox 3.6

Barely four months after launching Firefox 3.5, Firefox has shipped its first beta version of Firefox 3.6.

Mozilla takes release numbers seriously. As our own Stephen Shankland notes, this is not Firefox 4, nor is it Firefox 3.5.x. It’s being pushed as a minor tweak, one with no visible user interface changes.

There are two ways to look at this.

1. Oh goody. Mozilla is increasing the pace at which it delivers updates and upgrades.
2. Oh bother. Does this meanSource: Open Source RSS Feed