Do you have a few games on your list that you just can’t wait to play? Maybe you’ve also been waiting for them to go down in price a little?

Today Amazon announced a possible solution to your dilemma. Amazon’s Spring Sale begins today and runs through April 15. The sale gives customers exclusive deals on nearly 500 downloadable games including Mass Effect 3, The Darkness II, and Major League Baseball 2K12.

Here’s a short list of what’s available until April 15.

o   All Serious Sam Titles:                     70% off

o   Mass Effect 3:                                          $49.99   (regularly priced at approximately $60.00)

o   Call of Duty:                                             $29.99   (regularly priced at approximately $40.00)

o   Darkness II:                                             $12.49   (regularly priced at approximately $50.00)

o   Kingdoms of Amalur:                        $39.99   (regularly priced at approximately $60.00)

o   Dragon Age Origins: Ultimate Edition + Dragon Age 2 (two games): $9.99 (regularly priced at approximately $35.00 for both games)

o   Major League Baseball 2K12:        $19.99   (regularly priced at approximately $30.00)

o   L.A. Noire:                                                  $4.99     (regularly priced at approximately $25.00)

o   Grand Theft Auto IV                          $4.99     (regularly priced at approximately $19.00)

The sale also includes price cuts to console versions of recent hits, so even if you’re not a PC gamer, you should still check it out.

Owning a tablet is becoming less and less inaccessible to people who aren’t willing to dole out major dough, no thanks to Apple. This week, Barnes & Noble’s Nook Tablet enters the market at $249, and Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire arrives at $199. Apple’s iPad absolutely has certain qualities that might make it more appealing than its adversaries, but are they really worth dishing out another $300?

3G is absent in the Nook and Kindle Fire, but still, the price remains. Hopefully the competition will inspire Apple to rethink its costs.

In response to an exclusive digital rights deal between DC Entertainment and Amazon’s Kindle, Barnes & Noble is removing all DC Entertainment graphic novels from store shelves.

Barnes & Noble does not want to sell physical copies of the novels if it cannot sell digital copies as well. The store’s customers will still be able to order the novels in store and online. But due to the closure of Borders, this decision means that DC Entertainment graphic novels will not be sold at any mass market bookstore.

Digital versions will become available on the Kindle Fire beginning November 15 when the e-reader releases.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

In a statement late last week, Amazon heralds the coming death of paper books. Can’t you hear it? Ever since e-book readers came on the market few years ago, e-books have slowly risen to over take paper books as the number one go to for books now a days.

Here are some bullet points from Amazon.com in regards to their news:

• Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
• So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, [has] resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
• In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
• Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010
• Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

What does this news eventually mean?  Paper books are becoming relics of a by-gone era and soon to be museum show-pieces to show our descendents how we read books. E-books are cheaper to create as well as buy, and you can receive them instantly once paid for which only makes sense as to its growing popularity. And that is why the future is upon us. Go forth and read.

This week, many social media platforms were dead. No life. Just a screen that screamed server is down will be up later. Or the connectivity was so slow maybe having a message that the server was down would have been better.

In this day and age, social media is not a byword but the end all be all for so many businesses and people that having a well known server host like “Amazon’s AWS services, which together comprise the company’s cloud computing platform” go down for a good portion of day is not a good thing.

If you use foursquare, you could not check in to get your points. No mayorship or badges unlocked.

If you use paper.li the new kid on the social media block, then you were not able to see your own newspaper full of tweets or Facebook feed with the most popular stories of the previous day.

The list goes on and on with people not being able to get their social media fix.

As of today though, per mashable.com, the servers, while not full capacity, some of the big sites are viewable and working fine.

Could this happen again? And should some of these sites look for other alternatives?

It can hardly be called a new development or a scientific breakthrough; in fact, it’s been around for millennia. Nearly 2000 years ago, farmers in the Amazon basin used it to create terra preta, once regaled by explorers as the most fertile and beautiful of foamy, luscious soil.

Yes, it’s what we now call biochar and it’s been gaining popularity in the scientific community for years. Recently, it was brought back into international spotlight as Britain’s government commissioned a study on biochar’s potential, and the US released a study saying that widespread use of the additive could result in a 12 per cent drop in global greenhouse emissions.

The product is quite simple. It’s a charcoal-like soil additive that consists of cooked biowastes, like wood chips and animal manure. When it’s added to soil, the carbon dioxide released from plants is locked up for thousands of years, instead of being released into our environment. The soil is pitch black as a result of the high concentration of carbon, and is much more fertile.

According to an article in a 2006 issue of Nature, "terra preta contrasts strongly with normal soil and in colour and produces much more vigorous crops."

If further studies come back with positive results, the only thing left to determine would be whether creating terra preta would release more emissions than would be saved by its use. Many scientists argue that exact point, outlined in a letter sent last year by environmental groups to various policy makers. Of course, that would make biochar more of a problem than a solution.

However, according to the same 2006 Nature article, "a hectare of metre-deep terra preta can contain 250 tonnes of carbon, as opposed to 100 tonnes in unimproved soils…The extra carbon is not just in the char — it’s also in the organic carbon and enhanced bacterial biomass that the char sustains." The scientist who conducted these trials, Bruno Glaser, as well as his colleagues in the industry, feel that carbon-friendly ways of production can and should be discovered, so the world can reap biochar’s potential.

Many scientists remain skeptical, but if the products ends up being all it’s expected to be, it will decrease the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere and help produce crops in soils that were previously polluted and lacking proper nutrients.

If biochar’s use can somehow be implemented in farms in our world’s more under-developed areas, it could prove to be a literal live saver. In the same Nature article, the author cites the remarkable results of a biochar vs. regular soil trial.

"Bruno Glaser…estimates that productivity of crops in terra preta is twice that of crops grown in nearby soils."

Further studies will determine whether biochar can be produced in low-emission methods. If it can, the result would be a simple, natural product that can potentially reduce emissions and increase food production in the forgotten and ignored corners of our world.

Two of today’s biggest social, moral and political issues — global warming and hunger — could be partially reversed because of innovations by Amazon tribes thousands of years ago.

For more information, go to http://biocharfund.org/

This article was also published at http://hunger-undernutrition.org.

Rock Band 3 won’t be shipping until October 26 for all of the major systems, but MTV Games and Harmonix have just announced that they’re going to do their best to entice gamers into pre-ordering the game asap from one of three major retail outlets, Wal-Mart, GameStop or Amazon.

Here’s what you can expect as far as free goodies, if you decide to buy the game right now.

Gamers who reserve Rock Band 3 for the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360 from GameStop, will receive three downloadable songs at launch for free. “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads, “My Own Summer” by Deftones, and “Blue Monday” by New Order.

Amazon shoppers who reserve Rock Band 3 for the Ps3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii will get themselves an exclusive in-game guitar. In addition, for a limited time only, Ps3 and 360 owners who pre-order Rock Band 3 via Amazon will receive $10 off a future videogame purchase. Pretty sweet, right?

Last, those who get their games via Walmart.com can pre-order Rock Band 3 for the Wii, Ps3 or Xbox 360, and get themselves a $10 eGift card for a limited time.

Xbox 360 gamers, man, this is really your week. Yesterday Amazon hacked and slash prices on tons of Xbox 360 accessories and today it gets even better.

To begin with, today’s Deal of the Day is on 2k’s Bioshock 2. It’ll run you only $39.99 (and it’s available for PS3 as well) until the clock strikes midnight, or stock evaporates.

But here’s where it gets interesting.

As part of Amazon’s Gold Box promotion, prices on various and mysterious games and or software is happening all day, throughout the day today.

Amazon teases the deals with the following messages. Can you decipher them?

11AM Pacific: BioWare’s deepest universe to date just got bigger…
2PM: Rock out with your Stratocaster.
4PM: A legendary war between two of science-fiction’s most popular characters.
6PM: Charge up your Xbox 360 controllers.
8PM: This hit franchise comes to life on Xbox 360.

Amazon Gold Box 4/27

Maybe you haven’t played BioWare’s epic role-playing-game “Dragon Age: Origins” yet, or maybe you have a ton of free time penciled in on your schedule. If either are the case, I highly recommend picking up the game today, as it is Amazon’s Deal Of The Day.

The going rate for today, or until stock evaporates, is $39.99 on Xbox 360 and PS3 or a slightly cheaper $34.99 for PC.

We played and loved it. So, by the transitive property, you should too. That’s how math works, right?

Dragon Age: Origins Cheap On Amazon

Amazon’s Deal of the Day for today, February 26, 2010, is a significant drop in the software price of The Beatles: Rock Band. The game only today sells for $28.49 on Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3.

On the cheap, today only

So if you’ve been looking for some band-specific music-gaming goodness and you love The Beatles, today is undoubtedly your day.

What’s more, the online retailer is selling the Premium Bundle, the one with all the instruments and the software, which normally retails for $200, at a very attractive $139.

Software only @ Amazon

Premium Bundle @ Amazon

Bioshock 2, a game with waves and waves of hype behind it, releases next month, and if you’ve yet to secure yourself a copy of the underwater shooter, Amazon.com has a deal for PlayStation 3 enthusiasts.

Daddy's a big guy.

Amazon is offering a Big Daddy outfit for use in Sony’s Home on the PlayStation Network. It’s made by Heavy Water, aka the team behind a heck of a lot of digital content in Home.

Amazon will email you the code 10 days after the title releases and is currently only available to those who throw down money for the $99 Special Edition.

Bioshock 2 on Amazon

Soure: Kotaku

Amazon.com’s Deal of The Day on video game-related items today is a $25 discount on the official Microsoft Racing Wheel, and for those unfamiliar, it’s a damn fine product.

$25 off, today only.

With its dynamic force-feedback wheel, weighted gas and break pedals, and Formula 1 style paddle shifters, it feels as close to the real thing as you probably want to get. You know, without risking life and limb at 200 mph on a real course.

And the pedals are nice too

Normally, the wheel sells for $99, but today, via Amazon with free shipping, it can be yours for $74.99.

Of note: works with both select Xbox 360 and Games For Windows racing titles. Forza 2 and 3 are the only ones I’ve tried personally and was wowed significantly by.

Microsoft Racing Wheel on Amazon

Those who enjoy meat shields, bloody stinky Locusts, and guns with machine guns attached to them, have lots to love today, as Amazon.com is offering a $30 Gears of War 2: Game of the Year Edition.

For $30, or until stock evaporates, you can get your hands on a truly-excellent third person shooter complete with a gripping campaign and addicting multiplayer component as well as all  multiplayer  map DLC (19 in all) and an entirely new campaign segment called “Road to Ruin.”

Seriously, this is a good deal. I’m in for one.

Gears of War 2: Game of the Year $30 on Amazon

If you aren’t one the millions already enjoying the spoils of Modern Warfare 2, today is the day you’ll surely enlist.

Both mega-retailer Wal-Mart and online shopping hot-spot Amazon are offering the PS3 “Hardened” version of the Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2 for the staggeringly low price of $49 with free shipping.

Cheap thrills.

The Hardened Edition includes the  game,  a steel book with metallic finish, art book, game manual and a token to download the original Call of Duty on the PlayStation Network and usually sells for $79.

That’s a savings of $30 for a stellar first-person-shooter to help get you through the cold winter days.

Note: The deal is for the PS3 version only.

Amazon

Wal-Mart

Wondering what items made Amazon.com’s best-selling video game list for 2009? Here’s a hint: you probably already know the answer.

The quick and appropriate answer is Nintendo, which dominated the list, and claimed 9 of the top 10 spots. Holy jeebus, that’s impressive.

The only non-Nintendo item in the ten? Yupp, it’s Modern Warfare 2 ducking in at number 9.

01. Wii
02. Wii Remote controller
03. Wii MotionPlus
04. Wii Nunchuk controller
05. New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)
06. Wii Fit Plus (Wii)
07. Wii Sports Resort (Wii)
08. Wii Fit (Wii)
09. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (Xbox 360)
10. Mario Kart Wii (Wii)

11. PlayStation 3 Dualshock 3 controller
12. Wii Play (Wii)
13. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (PS3)
14. Wii Wheel
15. Assassin’s Creed II (Xbox 360)
16. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)
17. PlayStation 3 120 GB
18. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
19. EA Sports Active (Wii)
20. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360)

Source: Kotaku

Amazon, every day, without fail, hacks and slashes the price of some video game related content as its “Deal of the Day” promotion.

Often the deals are hardly deals, but today smells a little different.

Amazon is offering, today only, or until supply evaporates, DJ Hero: Renegade Edition for Xbox 360 only, at $50 off, or, the still hefty, yet somewhat more bearable, $149.99.

Is that you?

Exclusive to the Renegade Edition are two items; a sturdy DJ stand, so you won’t have to set up shop on your coffee table, an upper-tier turntable decorated in flashy gold, and a 2-disc CD set of Eminem/Jay-Z tunes, some of which have never released elsewhere.

For that aspiring DJ on your Christmahanukwanza list, you might consider this deal, but otherwise, maybe not.

DJ Hero $50 off @ Amazon Deal of the Day

Amazon, each and every day, cracks open a deal on something video game related.‚  The deals aren’t always appealing, but today’s different.

The Deal of the Day on Amazon today is a brand new copy of Fallout 3 for $20.

Now, a Game of The Year Edition, is also available today. That edition comes with all available DLC, but it’s also bears a full-on $60 price tag.

Ooh choices, gotta love ‘em.

Amazon Deal of The Day

Google is throwing its hat in the e-book ring, and per usual Google policy, they’re injecting their own “don’t be evil” spin on things. Whereas the book offerings of Amazon are well known for their Orwellian DRM restrictions that are available only on the Kindle, Google will offer its books free of any restrictions in an open format for all devices, from readers to mobile phones to computers.

Coming in early 2010, Google will open its e-book store with 50,000 titles. The books would be indexed and searchable via the Google Books site. This also means that purchasers will have access to the purchased books via a web interface as well as on their reading devices. Users’ browsers will also allow the books to be cached for offline reading using Google Gears.

While nothing official relating to Google’s new OS announced, a web-app for reading e-books fits in perfectly with Google’s plans to moving everything into a Chrome browser-OS-web application system. Also, there are many companies currently offering e-books that have been a round for a while, so Google is hardly new to the game. At the same time, e-books have yet to truly catch on yet.

We, of course, would like to think that this is only because Google wasn’t playing the game.

Amazon initiated its own B2G1 deal today and while it may not be as sweet as the Toys ‘R Us “Buy 2 Get 1″ extravaganza‚  going on right now, it’s certainly attractive.

You know the drill. Buy any two Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PSP or PlayStation 2″"and get a third for free. Simple and straight forward. And like the Toys ‘R Us deal, the list of qualifying titles is deep, but, however doesn’t contain new releases Brutal Legend and Uncharted 2.

How ever you look at it, there are savings to be had!

Buy 2 Get 1 @ Amazon

Source: Slickdeals

Amazon’s Deal Of The Day for today, October 7, 2009 is on all things Blizzard strategy games.

The deal, which runs until midnight tonight, or when stock evaporates, discounts the price of popular Blizzard franchises Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo.

Starcraft Battle Chest is now $10 and the Warcraft III and Diablo Battlechests are $20. Those price drops equate to a savings of %50 on each collection.

In other Blizzard news, the World of Warcraft Battlechest is still $40, but the Lich King expansion is now $10 cheaper, available at $29.99

If you’ve never played any of these games and have a twinge to, now seems like the time. The price is right afterall.

Source: Slickdeals

[update] the deal appears to be dead as of 1:30 pm

One of this fall’s finest music-games, Guitar Hero 5 for Xbox 360 is available today on Amazon for $30 off, or a very appealing $29.97.

Couple that with FREE 2-day shipping, and well, you’re on your way to gaming bliss!

No idea how long this deal will last, so I’d get in while the going’s good. The Holiday season is right around the corner and really, who wouldn’t want Guitar Hero 5 in their stocking?

Sorry PS3 and Wii rockers, this deal isn’t for your system of choice, and just so we’re all clear, it’s the software only, no instruments.

Guitar Hero 5 $29.97 on Amazon

As a PSP racing enthusiast, I love all things racing. However, growing up, my favorite game was always the PS1 original Gran Turismo. So nothing got me more excited than to hear that a new Gran Turismo game would be coming out for the PSP. The game will have 35 tracks and over 800 cars, so it’ going to try and assuage racing enthusiasts by including more cars than anyone can ask for. However, there are four special cars which you can receive by‚  pre-ordering the game from either Gamestop, Amazon, Best Buy or Game Crazy. Depending on where you order the game, you can get one of the four special car as an in-game reward. The offerings are as follows:

- Amazon: 2002 Enzo Ferrari in “Giallo Modena” yellow

- Gamestop: 2009 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 in “Black M” color

- GameCrazy: 1974 Lamborghini Countach LP400 in “Arancio” Orange

- Best Buy: 2008 Citroen GTbyCITROEN in yellow

Here are some photos so you can get a look at what’s what.

Personally, I’m going with the 1974 Lamborghini. What do you want to go with? Comment below so I can get a feel for which way everyone else is leaning.

Every single day Amazon.com hacks and slashes the price on something video game related, often offering up terrible games at low prices to purge their warehouse, but today is different.

The “Deal of the Day” for today, September 2, is “Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood” on Xbox 360 (no go for PS3) for $30, which is savings of 50% off the suggested tag.

Ubisoft’s wild west shooter earned a respectable and generally favorable metacritic score of 77, and with a compelling co-op oriented single player experience, and what looks to be an addictive multiplayer component, at $30, is extremely attractive.

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Amazon’s Deal of the Day.

MadWorld, the f*cking brutally mature game from SEGA is today’s Deal of the Day on Amazon bearing an altogether alluring price tag of $19.98.

If you’ve yet to play the savage beat ‘em up, at a 20 spot, you pretty much can’t go wrong. But if you require at least a little documentation before spending cash, why don’t you read Marc’s review of the game?

Deal’s of the Day often run out before said day’s ending, so, make like a tree, and get the hell over to Amazon before they run out!

MadWorld $19.98 on Amazon.

Attention readers: Amazon would like you to know that we were always at war with Eastasia. That is all. Thank you.

Let’s say you have a Kindle, and that you vaguely recognize the 1984 reference, but you weren’t completely sure. Luckily, since you bought 1984 the other day, you fire up you Kindle, open your ebooks that you’ve purchased, but it doesn’t seem to be there. You think how odd that is to yourself, until you open your email, and Amazon tells you that actually, you never owned 1984.

The truth of this story is that Amazon actually did reach out overnight last week and delete purchased copies of 1984, Animal Farm, and other authors’ books from users’ Kindles because they were mistakenly uploaded by a bootlegging group using Amazon’s “self-publishing” feature.

While Amazon actually did have a legitimate cause of action, the irony of this whole situation was not lost on the Kindle’s well-read consumer base, and the whole think blew up in Amazon’s face”"you might have noticed the resurgence of the #amazonfail hashtag on Twitter”"as things seem to be doing lately. While users were credited back the money they paid for the book, they were still upset, and Amazon has since promised to stop erasing its customer’s books.

The fact that Amazon has this ability, while kind of disturbing, really shouldn’t be that surprising. Apple, one of the most consumer beloved companies, also has a kill switch on every iPhone sold that can disable any application, should Apple decide to throw the switch. Apple maintains that is this route would be used solely if a malicious program were to slip by the approval process.

True to its word, and differently from Amazon, Apple has yet to use the kill switch, despite the fact that many applications have been pulled from the App Store for breaking the terms of use. For example, the lucky users who downloaded Netshare in the beginning have been able to tether their phones since the launch of the 3G, while the rest of us are still waiting for AT&T to grow a pair and let us do it legitimately.

Unfortunately, these sort of DRM restrictions are the future of digital distribution. Media providers demand them, lest their content get pirated. Of course, what they fail to realize is that DRM has never once stopped pirates, and only people who legitimately purchase digital content are ever affected by it. If you had pirated 1984 and not paid for it, it would have still been there on your device in the morning.. Music labels have finally come around, and pronounced that as far as music is concerned, the RIAA states that “DRM is dead“ but clearly other new media providers are still far behind.

One can only hope that Big Brother is watching and will catch up on the times.

Amazon.com frequently unleashes flabbergasting deals via their “Deal of the Day” daily promotion on video games, but today, for those in the market for some high-def to the max gaming, can save quite a clip on a brand new 80GB PlayStation 3.

Available right now, but likely to sell out before the sun sets is the aforesaid PS3 discounted $50 down to $349.99.‚  Maybe not the jaw-dropping deal you might have been hoping for, but a significant savings, on a brand new machine, nonetheless.

Amazon Deal of the Day 80GB PS3 $349

Amazon.com sells just about everything. ‚ From fine jewelry to Wasabi peas, the online mega-store has it all.‚ ‚  The digital marketplace also contains a myriad of video game wares including the “deal of the day” bin (Star Ocean today), which continues to save gamers everywhere their hard earned dough.

Today Amazon launched the “Xbox Live” store, allowing gamers to buy and gift XBLA games, movies, and Xbox Live subscriptions with straight up cash instead of those pesky Microsoft Points ( 10$ equals 800MS Points? I’m so confused).

The system works quite simply; purchase the selected item, Amazon emails you the code and voila, gaming awesomness for all, except if you reside outside of the United States, as the service is only compatible in the‚  U.S. at this moment.

Xbox Live Amazon Store

While the rest of the economy may be in the tank, Adobe’s earnings beat expectations.

Tuesday, Adobe said it earned 50 cents per share in its fiscal third quarter, which ended August 29. That beat Wall Street’s expectations of 46 cents per share and its own estimates of 39 to 41 cents per share.

Revenue climbed 4 percent to $887 million, beating Wall Street’s forecast of $877 million, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.

Adobe stock climbed 2 percent before losing ground with everyone else late in the day.

In other news, Google was down over 5 percent Wednesday. Amazon lost almost 8 percent.