Tony Hawk's "Ride" Introduces Skateboard Peripheral

It's not all too often I bring a rant about a console game into our main news section, but when Tony Hawk's Proving Ground came out in late 2007, I felt like I couldn't keep my mouth shut. As a huge fan of the series since the original game was released in 1999, I felt like something had to be done in order to keep the franchise alive.

A while after that was posted, Activision came out and said that no new Tony Hawk game would be published in 2008, which marked the first time since the original title that the one-per-year cycle was broken. The reason was simply because they wanted to spend more time on the next one, and what that probably meant was a full overhaul, and it looks like that's exactly what we're getting.

Being a fan of every game in the series so far, I was a bit worried about this new one, because after all, it's the current game play I've come to enjoy, so an overhaul didn't exactly excite me. But Ars Technica gave the new game a go at E3, and it actually looks to be quite a bit of fun. While .skate revolutionized the skateboard genre, Tony Hawk's Ride actually puts you IN the action. Well, it at least puts you on a skateboard peripheral.

I'm doubtful I'll enjoy the new game as much as the classics, but I still can't wait to see this come out. If anything, I'll finally get my much-needed workout.

In the first demo I have to manual-or balance on the rear wheels-for fifty feet. This requires the player to lean back on the board, causing the front to rise up from the ground. Balance is tricky, and I instinctively bring my arms up to held stay in this position. To ollie-or jump with all the wheels off the ground-you have to lean back quickly to bring the front up and back down. I try this and land on a rail, balancing my grind by leaning back and forth.

Windows 7 Launch Date & Box Art Revealed

Alright, so this isn't new news, but for the few people who don't know, Microsoft announced the Windows 7 launch date last week, and that happens to be October 22, a Thursday. This is semi-odd placement, as it misses the "back-to-school" rush and also lands a bit short of the holiday season, but hey, at least they aren't rushing things.

Although the release date has been unveiled, pricing has not. We can expect that to fall in line with what we saw with Vista, if not a little bit lower. Also similar to Vista, 7 will become available in a variety of editions, the most popular on these shores of which will be Home Premium, Professional (Business) and Ultimate. For netbooks, Home Basic is sure to be a popular option.

Along with the new launch date, Microsoft has also revealed the box art on their store, and I have to say, it looks quite good. It's modern, clean, and doesn't say Vista on the cover (haw haw). In all seriousness though, I don't even use Windows as my primary OS, but I'm still excited to see this thing launch.

Windows 7 was built around your feedback, so you'll see a lot of things you've asked for. You asked us to make everyday tasks faster and easier, to make your PC work the way you want it to, and to make it possible to do new things. And that's exactly what we've done. See how it's come to life.

Google Releases Mac OS X and Linux Chrome Developer Builds

When Google's Chrome browser hit the market last September, very few seemed to be not impressed. For the company's first shot at a commercial browser, it worked well, was incredibly fast and was the furthest thing from being bloated. The biggest caveat though, was the lack of support for both Mac OS X and Linux.

That has changed, just a little. The company has finally released "developer builds" of the browser for each platform, although it's not really recommended that end-users touch it, much less use it as their primary browser. As it stands right now, YouTube videos don't function, and neither does the ability to print.

In addition, you can't change your privacy settings, or even your default search provider. So overall... quite incomplete. It's great to see proof of active development though, and hopefully it means users of alternative OS' are soon going to have another choice of web browser. For those interested, Chrome owned 5.49% of Techgage site viewage last month.

In order to get more feedback from developers, we have early developer channel versions of Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux, but whatever you do, please DON'T DOWNLOAD THEM! Unless of course you are a developer or take great pleasure in incomplete, unpredictable, and potentially crashing software.

Jobs Set to Return to Apple Later this Month

This past January, it became known that Steve Jobs was going to take a ~six month hiatus from Apple in order to focus on getting better. Probably a good thing, too, given that his health was noticeably taking a toll. Well, we're just about at the end of that six-month stretch, and it appears that all is going according to plan.

It even appears that Jobs has recently made a few trips to the Apple Campus, which somewhat reaffirms the rumor that he is indeed ready to return to work. Since he's left, not much seems to have been affected, but I'm sure many will be glad to see him return back to his position as CEO.

With these recent reports, some are speculating that we might see Jobs appear at the upcoming WWDC conference, taking place this week. That seems a little doubtful, but it would be possible. No one except Apple knows just how good of health Jobs is in, and chances are he'd prefer to wait until he's 100% again before making another appearance.

A better theory would be that Jobs will make a surprise appearance near the launch of the as-yet-unannounced next-gen iPhone (admittedly, we jacked this theory from former Apple PR guru Anuj Nayar, but it truly is the best one). Either way, it's clear at this point that Jobs will definitely be making a comeback to the company, and he undoubtedly has "one more thing" up his sleeve.

Computex 2009 Coverage Wrapping-Up

Computex 2009 is long done, but our coverage isn't quite complete. Sometime this week we'll be posting a "Best of" article, taking a look at a handful of products that left a great impression on us. This year, it was a little difficult to spot such stellar products, but they were definitely out there.

Of course, if you haven't yet taken a look at any of our coverage, I have to ask... what the heck? Be sure to look through our overall coverage article, which lists every-single thing we reported on during the show. That includes our booth babe article, and also our look at the GO OC 09 final, which took place in the Taipei 101.

Also sometime this week, or early next, I'll be posting a "behind-the-scenes" article that I mentioned in our Computex thread. It will serve no other purpose than to show you what we see when going to the show. Taipei and Asia in general is unlike North America in almost any regard, so you can expect to see a lot of unique pictures and information. If that article is well-received, we'll consider doing a similar article for each major trade show we attend. Stay tuned!

I don't recall too many product models at last year's Computex, and I specifically remember considering to publish an article like this, but decided not to since I didn't have enough pictures to work with. This year was far different, and in a way, the sheer number of gorgeous women all over the place was a little overwhelming (but how on earth is that a bad thing?).

Tech Roundup - June 8, 2009

Motherboards & Processors
• AMD Athlon II X2 250 AM3 - Benchmark Reviews
• ASUS Maximus II Gene - Bjorn3D
• Intel Core i7-950 - iXBTlabs

Displays & Video Cards
• ATI Radeon HD 4890 Roundup - Hardware Canucks
• XFX Radeon HD 4770 512MB - Elite Bastards

Memory & Storage
• OCZ Blade PC3-16000 6GB - Hardware Logic

Peripherals & Gadgets
• iFrogz Metal Drumz Earbud - OverclockersHQ
• Gigabyte GM-M8000 Laser Gaming Mouse - GamePyre
• Logitech G19 Gaming Keyboard - EverythingUSB
• Teufel Concept E 100 5.1 Speakers - Tech-Reviews

Cooling
• AMA Aragon 900 CPU Cooler - XS Reviews
• Cooler Master Hyper N520 CPU Cooler - Overclock3D
• GlacialTech 5610 Plus Silent CPU Cooler - Verdis Reviews
• Zerotherm FZ120 Special Edition Tower CPU Cooler - ocaholic

Chassis & Power Supplies
• Cooler Master Silent Pro M 500W Power Supply - TweakPC
• Cooler Master Storm Sniper Chassis - Tweaknews
• HornetTek Travel Lite External Enclosure - Modders-Inc
• SilverStone Element 850W Power Supply - Bjorn3D

Competitions, Complete Systems & Et cetera
• 10 Most Influential Tech Products - Digital Trends
• ASUS Eee PC 1008HA "Seashell" - HotHardware
• BringIt Lets You Play Games Online For Cash - OCModShop
• Olympus E-620 Digital Camera - Digital Trends
• PC Sound Card Buyer's Guide - Digital Trends
• Samsung ST50 Ultra Slim Digital Camera - Think Computers