.| UrbanNerd |.

Here is a tidbit for you sports and technology junkies out there (like me). The Oakland Athletics (see: baseball) are having a new ballpark built in Fremont, California. Cisco Systems will be the primary funder of said ballpark, so you can expect some high tech features in this ballpark.

Some of the crazy high-techness include electronic tickets stored on cellphones, immediate instant replays from the bleachers via laptops, Wi-Fi access and digital advertising displays that change based upon buying habits of people walking by. Better watch out, your wife may not know that you enjoy buying fetish porn, but these ad displays will.

Deadspin

If you’re cool you’ve already picked up the Xbox 360′s HD-DVD drive to watch all those high quality Hollywood movies in stunning high definition. What’s even better is that, with some potentially illegal software, you can plug the Xbox 360′s HD-DVD drive right into your Windows-based PC and enjoy high def movies on your computer! Literally, all one needs to do is install the (illegal?) drivers then plug the drive in the drive and you’re all set for a night of movie watching.

File this under, why would anyone want to do that? Because they can.

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While Ultimate Ears may be known for creating some pretty decent headphones, their high price often scares away many potential buyers. Enter the metro.fi 2, a pair of headphones with the distinctly Ultimate Ears looks, but for—get this!—a fraction of the price. Approximately $80 will nab you the headphones, which incorporate much of the same technology that make Ultimate Ears headphones sound so good. Apparently, Ultimate Ears is trying to go after the cheap-o in-ear headphones that the likes of Sony try to pass off as revolutionary.

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FIC’s taking more than just a page from the Linux community with its FIC-GTA001 smartphone—its taking their entire playbook. Hoping to capitalize on what is essentially free programmers for the project, FIC is releasing a Linux-based smartphone complete with an SDK (Software Development Kit). This allows end-users to develop their own programs and functionality for the phone (picture an army of geeks making sure you can play back DivX on your phone).

The phone itself has a 2.8-inch VGA display, USB mesh file sharing, multi-touch sensor recognition, GSM, GPS, 128MB RAM, a Samsung ARM9-based processor and MP3 playback capabilities. The concept of their multi-touch gestures is that you can use two fingers to control a variety of tasks, such as two finger scrolling like the PowerBooks and MacBooks. Some demo pics of the gesture abilities after the jump. Even though the phone will probably only sell to DIY-ers and Linux enthusiasts, there may be some interesting applications that come out of this.

Check out more here Slashgear

I found this while searching for Dell coupons. Please read this carefully. There are not typos. Yes, they will be “GIVING” away 100 PS3′s @ the Union Square Store in NYC. Try to plan your schedules accordingly, if you work in that area of Manhattan it will be crazy!!! Like Eddy, except without the death part… maybe!

Microsoft Corp. will unlock the digital-distribution capabilities of its next-generation console, Xbox 360, to Hollywood studios beginning Nov. 22.

Xbox 360 gamers in the U.S., totaling at least 3 million, will be able to purchase TV shows and download them to their gaming hard drive as well as rent and watch movies on their consoles.

The first wave of content will include dozens of high-definition and standard-definition offerings from such partners as Warner Bros. (“Batman Forever,” “V for Vendetta,” “The Nine”), Paramount Pictures (“Nacho Libre,” “Jackass: The Movie”), MTV Networks (“South Park,” “SpongeBob SquarePants”), CBS (“CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” “Survivor”) and Turner Broadcasting (“Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” “Robot Chicken”).

Xbox 360 represents the first video game console to secure programming from major content providers as well the opening of a new front in digital-media distribution alongside the likes of Apple’s iTunes and Verizon’s VCast.

Microsoft director of platform strategy Scott Henson said there will be thousands of hours of television and movie content available on the console’s virtual storefront, Xbox Live Marketplace, by year’s end.

“The reason the Hollywood studios are excited to partner with us is because we have this 18- to 34-year-old demographic that’s extremely valuable and attractive to the networks and content providers,” Henson said. “This is a great opportunity to reach them in a different way. I think you’re going to see because of that a lot of other studios jumping on board over time with additional TV shows and movies.”

Microsoft isn’t divulging pricing yet on TV shows or movies, but Henson said it will be competitive with other digital offerings, with HD content slightly more expensive than standard definition.

TV episodes will be updated on a regular basis and available for purchase as early as the day after they air.

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Just when we started believing that the 20GB Xbox 360 drives were big enough to satisfy, along comes the best evidence yet of more spacious disk appendages. Microsoft hasn’t officially let the kitty out of the bag, but Plaid Ninja snapped this screenshot at the Xbox Live event tonight. It shows 70 gigs of free space on a 360. If the timing is to coincide with the new download service, we’re talking about seeing these things before Q4 is up.

Question: How will we transfer games from one HDD to the upgraded drive?

Plaid Ninja’s Flicker

Source: SEGA of America, Inc.

SEGA® of America Inc., SEGA® Europe Ltd. and Marvel Entertainment, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a worldwide licensing agreement whereby SEGA has secured the exclusive rights to develop and distribute video game titles for all platforms based on Marvel’s renowned “Iron Man” property. Under the multi-year agreement, SEGA has been granted the exclusive interactive rights to develop and distribute games based on both Marvel’s Iron Man feature films and the classic comic book iterations of the character. The “Iron Man” agreement represents the first step in a strategic partnership between Marvel and SEGA to bring at least one additional Marvel Super Hero property to next-gen platforms.

The first “Iron Man” project produced under the license agreement will be based on Marvel Studios’ highly-anticipated Iron Man feature film starring Academy Award® Nominees Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard, and directed by Jon Favreau. This project, the first feature film to be produced independently by Marvel Entertainment, will blast into theaters May 2, 2008.

“Marvel is recognized as one of the world’s leaders in the entertainment industry and SEGA is excited to be publishing the next-gen interactive entertainment based on ‘Iron Man,’ the first Marvel Studios project being brought to the widescreen,” said Simon Jeffery, President and COO, SEGA of America, Inc. “The ‘Iron Man’ history is filled with compelling and intriguing characters and stories and with the power of the next-gen systems, SEGA will be bringing these characters to life like never before.”

David Maisel, Executive Vice President, Office of the Chief Executive of Marvel Entertainment, added, “SEGA is an excellent partner to bring our ‘Iron Man’ franchise to the next generation consoles. SEGA is a powerful force in the video game space and has always been on the cutting edge of the industry. We are very excited to be bringing ‘Iron Man’ to theaters in 2008 and to team with a great partner to simultaneously introduce ‘Iron Man’ to the video game world.”

Samsung has announced the Syncmaster 225BW. It is their latest LCD monitor, and it is their biggest yet. At 22 inches wide this LCD has a 1680×1050 native resolution (!!), 700:1 contrast ratio and 5ms response time. It has inputs for DVI and composite. Pardon the Borat reference, but, Niiiiiiiiice.

Anticipation is building for the Nintendo Wii launch next week (November 19 is the official date), first there was the WiiSeeker that uses Google Maps to show the allocations of Wii consoles in Target Stores near you, and now denizens of the IGN.com message boards claimed to have figured out how many of the coveted consoles have been allocated to Target stores across the US.

From the looks of the list, most stores will have somewhere between 24 and 40 units available at launch. Jeez, that’s not many. These are going to be a Wii bit hard to get. First, go to this crude search routine (try searching your area code) that helps you find out the store number of a Target store near you, and come back here, follow the jump and you’ll see a list that tells you how many Nintendo Wii units have allegedly been allocated to that store.