ratings

Straight from the No-Brainer Department comes a list of games that parents should not buy their children this holiday season. The New York Times has republished a collection of 10 titles deemed totally uncool for kids to play by the media watchdog group Common Sense Media.

While we're all for educating parents about the naughty video games their children want to play, we can't help but slap our foreheads at how obvious some of them are. Besides, all a responsible parent needs to do is stray away from the big fat "Rated M for Mature" logo on the box art of such titles.

We wouldn't disagree with any title on the list, but some of the suggested alternatives for these titles are a bit suspect. For example, replacing Modern Warfare 2 with Battlefield: Bad Company only brings the blood level down a bit--the war combat and violence are still present in Bad Company. We absolutely loved Uncharted 2, but there's plenty of gunplay and headshots in the T-rated blockbuster as well.

Ideally, we'd love to see parents become more involved in their child's gaming habits. The only way to make sure a game is right for the younger ones is to have Mom or Dad sit in on a few sessions.

Click over for the full Common Sense Media list of unfriendly titles along with their alternatives.… Read more

I love tools that are all about providing people with information they want, and on Tuesday, the video game industry's official ratings board got my attention with something awfully useful.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) announced on Tuesday its new iPhone app, which is designed to put the board's full written summaries of more than 2,500 video games right at parents' fingertips.

The idea is that with the app--officially called ESRB Rating, and available now, for free, in Apple's App Store--parents can punch in the name of any game rated by the board after July … Read more

The much-anticipated and controversial Modern Warfare 2 finally arrives in retail stores today, which gives us an excuse to invite AOL GameDaily.com's Libe Goad to give us some insight into all the action. Although it's definitely not the first Call of Duty game, Libe and Jeff tell us it's the most controversial of the pack, with disturbing scenes that let you take the side of terrorists.

It's hard to believe anything can be scarier than making the trip down to Chinatown, NYC, to pick up your "advanced" copy, though. Don't call it a bootleg; the copies they're selling down there are actually legit, a first for Canal St. merchants. And although they cost the same as copies from the big box stores, Modern Warfare 2 has been available at these "select retailers" for the past week! Good to know I live in such a respectable part of NYC.

Yesterday's episode sparked such a heated conversation about censorship, video game and movie ratings, and parenting video gamers that we're happy to revisit the topics today, with Libe's valuable industry input, of course! This time, we address the world of online gaming that's brought a new level of offensive material to young people who might not understand the implications of their trash-talking. With no moderators to police Xbox Live or PSN, players are allowed to communicate directly with each other, which often results in racist and misogynistic epithets. Tune in to today's episode to listen to our opinion on what should be done.

Finally, we hate to take the spotlight away from Libe, but we've been resisting the urge to announce our guest for the past week. We finally got the green light, so we're happy to announce that Tony Hawk will be in The 404 studio on Monday, November 16, to chat with us about his latest game, Tony Hawk: Ride and maybe even do a live in-studio demo! Start thinking up questions, as we'll most likely be taking questions from the audience as well.

The first week of the new television season is history, and CBS came out the winner. More viewers watched CBS premiere week than any other network, and CBS was the only network to be up over last year. A mighty accomplishment considering the extraordinary amount of competition in the media space. (Spoken like a true marketing guy?)

Now the race goes into its next phase: solidifying the hits and attracting more people to the other shows. We watch the week-to-week trends and see what direction the ratings are headed. Obviously, up is better! So we keep the marketing machine turning, … Read more

I've talked a lot about 16:9 lately. Some people like it, others don't. For me, it depends on the monitor. For example, I love the idea of a 16:9, 23-inch monitor like the Dell SP2309W running at a super high native resolution of 2048x1152. Or even a 21.5-incher like the Lenovo L215p running at 1,920x1,080.

On the other hand, a 20-inch, 16:9-er like the HP 2009m running at 1,600x900, is a little disconcerting when a 16:10 20-incher would have a slightly larger 1,680x1,050 resolution.

Anyway, choosing which aspect … Read more

Real Time Desktop Currency Converter is a basic currency conversion program that allows users to convert between numerous different currencies. The program is short on features but is great for quick, real-time conversions.

The program's interface is attractive, uncluttered, and couldn't be simpler. Using drop-down menus, users select the two currencies they wish to convert from among 51 choices. Users enter the amount of the original currency, click Convert, and the program shows the conversion. The program also shows the conversion rate and the change from the previous day. And that's it. This converter is pretty bare … Read more

I own a 24-inch Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP LCD computer monitor. Over the last year or so, I've yet to have a performance issue. I do a heavy amount of gaming on it including World of Warcraft and first-person shooters, and I've never once had a problem with input lag. Input lag is a delay measured by the difference between the time a signal is input into a display and the time it is shown by the display.

Input lag is one of the major criticisms of this monitor from its users. Just to be clear, I'm not claiming that input lag on this monitor doesn't exist, I'm only saying that I've not seen evidence of it on either our evaluation unit of my own. Dell has purportedly addressed the issue in the A02 revision of the 2408WFP.

That being said, I still feel the Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP is the best 24-incher money can buy and quite easily earned the top spot on CNET's top-rated 24-inch LCD computer monitors (that we've reviewed).… Read more

Microsoft and Verizon may need to learn a thing or two about customer service from IBM's Informix, according to a report released Wednesday by market researcher VendorRate.

Among IT professionals questioned, Microsoft's customer satisfaction ratings for the second quarter dropped in three key areas.

Out of a score of 100, Microsoft's server and infrastructure software rated 55, a 17 percent decline from the first quarter; its operating systems scored 67, down 9.5 percent; and its applications came in at 64, an 18 percent dip.

"Microsoft was cruising along with satisfactory scores in earlier reports, but … Read more

Update (June 26, 2009): Now that the dust has settled, Jim Dalrymple has a more complete picture of how and why this app was removed.

Update: We initially reported that Apple had blocked the app, but it now appears that the developer's servers were simply overwhelmed (Apple's servers distribute the app, but the images themselves are pulled from the developer's server). We'll have further updates as the story continues to evolve.

Back when Apple first launched its App Store, Steve Jobs showed a slide with six categories of apps that would be verboten: "Porn, privacy, … Read more