My friends Seamus Blackley (co-creator of the Xbox) and Vanessa Burnham (author of Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971-1984) have revealed their next project: Innovative Leisure. The company reunites the incredible talent behind numerous Atari arcade classics and brings them under one roof to create iOS games. Here’s an excerpt from an excellent story by VentureBeat’s ”Dancing” Dean Takahashi:

“We are looking at the new arcade, and 99 cents on the iPhone is the new quarter,” Blackley (pictured above), president of the startup Innovative Leisure, said in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “People are playing on all these new devices and are finding the joy of the arcade games.”

The “Jedi Council” team includes Ed Rotberg, creator of the classic Atari game Battlezone; Owen Rubin, creator of Major Havoc and Space Duel; Rich Adam, creator of Gravitar and co-developer of Missile Command; Ed Logg, co-creator of Asteroids and Centipede; Dennis Koble, creator of Touch Me and Shooting Gallery; Tim Skelly, the only non-Atari veteran arcade game designer who worked for Cinematronics and created games such as Rip-Off; and Bruce Merrit, creator of Black Widow.

Innovative Leisure is so full of awesome that my head is on the verge of exploding. You can (but shouldn’t) ignore my personal biases for Seamus and Van; I adore both of them, so I’m obviously excited about their startup. You can’t ignore the talent and influence of the game creators working with them. This is the videogame equivalent of The Rat Pack getting back together to show the world their classic talents on a new medium. (Geeking out again.)

I’d love to hear what you think of Innovative Leisure. Are you excited by old-school Atari creators taking their talents to South Beach the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch?

Source

Humble Bundle is a great way to enjoy some sweet games, support some lovely indie developers, and contribute to great charities. On the game side, you get Anomaly, Edge, Osmos, and World of Goo. The games are DRM-free and available on multiple platforms (Android, Linux, Mac OS, and Windows). You pay what you want for the games, which is very cool. What’s even cooler is that you can split up your payment; you can decide how much goes to the developer, the charities, and Humble Bundle.

I’d love to hear what you think of Humble Bundle. On paper, it seems like a win-win for gamers, developers, and charities. If you happen to pick up the games, please share your Humble Bundle experience.

Here’s another CES 2012 video for you. This time Line 6 mobile products manager Chris Grigg talks about the company’s two MIDI keyboard controllers specifically designed for iPad: the Mobile Keys 25 and Mobile Keys 49. Companies like Line 6 and M-Audio have been brilliant at helping musicians and song writers exploit technology to bolster creativity. Fair play to those guys and gals.

HP nabbed a ton of attention at CES 2012 with its HP Envy 14 Spectre “Ultrabook”. One of several laptops competing with Apple’s MacBook Air, the Envy 14 Spectre stands out with its premium build. However, it also has a slightly higher-than-average price and weight for this product category. This $1,399 laptop packs a 14-inch screen in a package that’s 0.79-inches thick and weighs 3.9 pounds. As with most HP premium laptops, the Envy 14 Spectre boasts Beats audio. Here are the full specs:

• Processor: Intel Core i5-2467m 1.6GHz
• Screen: 14-inch Radiance display, 1,600 x 900 resolution
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Storage: 128GB mSATA SSD
• Thickness: 0.78-inches
• Weight: 3.9 pounds
• Dimensions: 12.87 inches x 8.7 inches x 0.79 inches
• Ports: USB 2.0, USB 3.0, SD card reader, Mini DisplayPort, Ethernet
• Keyboard: Chiclet, backlit with sensor to brighten when you approach
• Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth, WiDi
• Battery Life: 9 hours estimated

After opening the laptop and messing around with keyboard, I was impressed by its luxurious feel. The lid, screen, touchpad, and palm rest feature Corning Gorilla Glass for a premium feel and great durability. The keyboard felt very comfortable; while I’d need more time with the machine to say for sure, my initial impression is that it’s as good as the one on the MacBook Air 13 but with a stiffer feel (really a matter of preference). Clicking, dragging, and two-finger scrolling on the touchpad felt very smooth.

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The lid of the Envy 14 Spectre is gorgeous…until you touch it. It is, by far, the biggest fingerprint magnet I’ve seen in years. Considering that it’s black glass, I shouldn’t have been surprised, yet I was still taken aback by the amount of smudges the lid picked up. If you’re the least bit affectionate with your electronics then you’ll be cleaning the Spectre every three minutes or so. The running joke among tech writers is that this is a security feature being tested by HP since the laptop picks up fingerprints easily. (Tech writers are generally not that funny.)

The Spectre’s screen is bright and beautiful, with broad viewing angles for sharing. The 1,600 x 900 resolution is unusually high for a 14-inch screen. Some people love the extra pixels and detail. Others, particularly those with bad eyes, might end up enlarging the text size to make things usable. Personally, I loved the display, despite my eyes sucking. The high res “Radiance” display adds to the premium look and feel of this notebook.

The HP Envy 14 Spectre stands out from the crowd with its liberal use of Gorilla Glass and beautiful screen. However, with other vendors aggressively pricing their Ultrabooks, will people be willing to pay a bit more for a laptop that’s a bit slicker and heavier? I’d love your take on this product. Please let me know if you’re interested in the HP Envy 14 Spectre and if you think it will be a top-selling Ultrabook.

CES 2012 has come and gone! What did you think of this year’s show? Any products or technology jump out at you? Taking an informal poll of my friends in attendance (mostly videogame journalists, a few tech writers), television technology was the most exciting thing at CES 2012. Between OLED TVs and 4K TVs, there were several televisions on display that had my peers drooling. These are models that most people won’t be able to afford this year or next, but are glimpses of television’s exciting future.

Personally, I was impressed by LG’s Blast Chiller. Found in select LG refrigerators, Blast Chiller can bring take a can of beer from room temperature to icy cold in about four minutes. I’m trying to get LG to send me a review unit…and several cases of Guiness so that I can thoroughly test Blast Chiller.

I was disappointed that Sony didn’t get more attention with the Vita. I suppose that most videogame writers have had Japanese units for several weeks already, but my tech writer friends didn’t really seem too interested in Sony’s next handheld. If anything, tech writers and mainstream journalists seemed fascinated by Razer’s Project Fiona. Being new and unusual definitely helped Project Fiona grab some headlines.

Here are the three products that came up the most in conversations with my peers:

1. Razer Project Fiona — Razer’s gaming tablet is extremely powerful, but is it something people want?
2. Samsung Galaxy Note — Is it a phone?!? Is it a tablet?!? What is it?!?
3. HP Envy 14 Spectre — HP’s answer to the MacBook Air is beautiful and covered by Gorilla Glass.

Now it’s your turn! Please share any CES news, products, and technology that caught your interest.

I’m in Las Vegas for CES 2012! Most of my time will be spent writing stories and filming video for Padvance, but I’m going to make some time to roam around and look for cool stuff. Are there any products you’re looking forward to? There’s going to be so much awesome tech at the show and I’d love to know what products interest you the most. Here are some of the things I expect to see.

• Somewhat affordable OLED televisions
• Quad-core Android tablets
• Killer SSD drives at lower prices
• Windows 8 products
• Wearable tech
• Tons of Ultrabooks (MacBook Air competitors)
• Free Drinks

Give it some thought and please let me know if you want me to try and catch anything for you.