The Nintendo 3DS launches in a few short days, and with it comes the wonderful augmented reality experiences, already demoed at GDC 2011 and the Nintendo Pods available in a major city near you. One of the downsides to the AR games and experiences in the Nintendo 3DS is relying on those AR cards that the player has to carry around with them if he or she wishes to shoot a dragon with arrows or hold an adorably "uncanny valley" cat or dog in hand.

An enterprising individual named Andrew Wilson has developed an Android App (am I allowed to call it an "app" anymore?) that has screenshots of all six AR Cards that come with the 3DS. Players will be able to launch their 3DS AR experiences using only their Android phone, making the augmented reality fun far more portable and accessible. Even better, you can download the app for your Android Tablet as well, making the AR models even bigger!

Here's hoping Nintendo lets this one go- it's not as though people will be able to access the games without a 3DS anyway.

CITA had its mobile focus event yesterday and like CES unveiled it is a small part of a much larger event. The event was held at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando, FL and was a Luau Themed affair.

After you got around all of the finery (if you could call it that) there were several vendors there that had some impressive products for the mobile world. One of these was NVIDIA. After the launch of the first Tegra 2 device at CES they have been hard at work getting a couple of additional devices ready. One of these is an Android based tablet that will be pushed out by T-mobile.

This will have 32GB of storage with room for an additional SD card (the cheap way to go as we were told). We also heard that NVIDIA plans to have the first quad core (ARM based) tablets and phones coming out very soon.

AMD have announced they've hired Mike Wolfe as AMD's chief information officer. Wolfe brings more than 30 years of engineering and information technology experience as well as being vice president of IT for product development and engineering at HP for the past five years.

Wolfe will be responsible for managing AMD's global technology infrastructure and will report to Thomas Seifert whom is senior vice president and chief financial officer and interim CEO.

Seifert said:

Apple have finally confirmed some suspicions people had on the Australian pricing of the soon-to-be released iPad 2, it seems to be slightly cheaper than the original launch last year which is a good thing.

The iPad 2 is set to go on sale this Friday (but strangely at 5pm...) regardless of timezone or city. A breakdown of pricing is below.

It occurs to me that with all of the tablets and post-pc devices landing on shelves in the next few months, tech accessory manufacturers are going to make a killing helping us protect all of our wonderful new gadgets. No wonder Apple made such a big deal out of its iPad 2 case.

ENKI, a delightfully creative tech accessorizer out of Detroit has released a solution to the colorful rantings of yesterday's iPad 2 Smart Cover Fail.

Everyone wants to take down the iPad 2, or at least make it remember them. Samsung's new Galaxy Tabs might at least make a dent with its pricing and size variety. Apple offers two options: extra small or extra large (iPod/iPhone or iPad), but in a year that has been all about the portables, Apple hasn't expanded much beyond the original iPad.

As of this summer, Samsung will offer a 7", 8.9", and 10.1" model of the Galaxy Tab, giving the consumer lighter, thinner, and more diverse selection when it comes to choosing a "post-pc" device (are we allowed to use that term to describe things that don't start with "i"?). With a resolution of 1280x800 (iPad 2 only has 1024x768), and a model that's $50 cheaper than most of the competition ($469 for the 8.9" 16g), this summer could see the iPad 2 take some hits.

Ohai, rest of the world- did you want an iPad 2? You're in luck! It ships this Friday to the following countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

And if you live east of the Urals, sometime in April you can expect the post-PC device to be available in Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore and "additional countries" in the coming months. Unsurprisingly, iPad 2 shipments will see delays in Japan, undoubtedly due to the recent disasters.

Research In Motion (RIM), Canadian company responsible for all things BlackBerry, announced its "plans" to make the new BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet available at a slew of retailers in the US and Canada. The PlayBook will be available in three unsurprising models: 16gb, 32gb, 64gb starting at $499 (for all of you keeping track, that's the same price as the iPad 2).

Though a rep at GDC '11 told me he'd lose his job if he told anyone when it was coming out, we now know thanks to Best Buy that it will be shipping April 19th.

Here's a video of some hands-on PlayBook action from GDC '11:

The much hailed, aesthetically pleasing Smart Cover for the iPad 2 doesn't seem to be working as Apple would have you believe. Sascha Pallenberg of Netbook News was very displeased to find that the cover kept his iPad 2 neither clean nor protected after having purchased one at the recent SXSW Interactive event. He had been originally very enamored with the idea and with Apples' pervasive marketing campaign advertising the beauty and simplicity of the cover:

Apple announced the case with almost as much fanfare as it's vessel as the iPad 2 launch, and many have noted that it seemed like the event was tailored more to the various apps and accessories that the iPad 2 was bringing with it, including the HDMI-out cable, the new versions of iMovie and Garageband, and of course the array of Smart Covers specifically designed for the iPad 2.

Apple's website is suspiciously vague on the subject of protection, touting the case's magnetic features as well as its folding capabilities. Netbook News's Sascha Pallenberg was very, very blunt in his analysis of the case, saying

After years of discussion and appeal, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has finally approved the ".xxx" domain suffix for adult entertainment sites. Though it won't be for some time until the 281st domain suffix becomes applicable, the approval has generated quite the controversy nevertheless.

After browsing close to 100 articles on the subject and standing on the sidelines of the numerous anonymous comment wars of tech blogs, the only thing I could glean, for certain, is that the real beneficiary of the dot-XXX suffix would be the company that originally proposed it: ICM Registry. The Florida-based company initiated the process back in 2005, only to be inundated by protests and threats from religious groups and the Bush Administration, who even threatened to enact legislation to override ICANN if it ever approved the TLD suffix. The Obama administration doesn't seem to care, and I'm not entirely surprised.

Red Light Districts exist, whether by name or by principle, in almost ever major city. If you live in a metropolitan area, you're generally aware of those neighborhoods that contain Sex Shops, Adult Bookstores, Exotic Dancing (and in some cases, more lascivious services). Imagine if someone came to your city and built a warehouse that spanned twenty or so square blocks and named it, I don't know, something like The "ALL PORN IN THE HISTORY OF EXISTENCE IS LOCATED HERE, IN THIS WAREHOUSE. SERIOUSLY, ANY PORN YOU WOULD WANT OR COULD FIND OR HAVE EVEN DREAMED OF ONCE WHILE YOU WERE AT WORK OR IN TRAFFIC IS PROBABLY HERE WAITING FOR YOU TO DISCOVER IT" Building. And they wrote that on the top of the building, which you can conveniently see from space.

This is something I've complained about for years but it seems the big players are only just realising this. It won't stop though as I'm sure AMD are bending over backwards trying to get contracts for next-generation console GPU/APU - yet, wonder why PC gaming is suffering... on with the story! AMD's worldwide developer relations manager, Richard Huddy blames Microsoft and more precisely, DirectX for the lack of great looking games on PC.

Huddy sounds like he's pissed off and rightly so. There is so much more horsepower in a single mid-range GPU when compared to current-gen consoles yet the graphics we receive on PC is barely any better. Should this mean we should pay less for our games? PC's get higher resolutions, AA/AF options, but at the end of the day we're simply not seeing the leaps and bounds we used to in the 90s when the PC was the lead innovation for gaming.

Gateway are rolling out some new AMD Vision equipped notebooks shortly which deliver 'enhanced performance capabilities for mobile computing'. The cream of the crop is the Gateway NV51B05u which sports an AMD E-series processor E-350 with Vision Technology and AMD Radeon HD 6310 graphics, both of which allow a user to have a perfect 1080p HD experience and to play casual games - all for just $469.99.

The Gateway NV Series feature a decent ingredients list, full-sized keyboard, 15.6-inch HD widescreen with UltrabrightT LED-backlit display, three USB ports and a HDMI port.

Senior product manager for Gateway notebooks, Eric Ackerson said:

The news is grim for fellow Heavy Rain fans with developer Quantic Dream not interested in making a sequel to its multi-BAFTA winning PlayStation 3 crime saga. Quantic Dream studio boss David Cage confirmed the news at the BAFTA ceremony in London last night where the game picked up multiple awards.

Heavy Rain won awards for technical innovation, story and music - Cage also revealed that Quantic Dreams next game while "still very dark" will explore new territory. He goes on to say:

"We created the genre," he insisted, referring to Heavy Rain's brand of interactive storytelling.

The swipe of AT&T's ultra-platinum-super-crazy credit card can be heard the world over with news appearing today that AT&T has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom in a cash-and-stock transaction currently valued at approx. $39 billion.

The agreement has been approved by the Board of Directors of both companies, Deutsche Telekom will receive an equity stake in AT&T that gives it an ownership interest in of approximately 8-percent. The deal also allows a Deutsche Telekom representative to join the AT&T Board of Directors. The deal is meant to be sealed, awaiting regulatory approval within the next 12 months.

AT&T will of course enjoy the T-Mobile customers, but they're also now owners of T-Mobile's (Long Term Evolution) network assests which will improve network quality for both customers' customers and gaining more of the limited wireless spectrum. With the transaction, AT&T is committing to a significant expansion of robust 4G LTE deployment to 95-percent of the US population to reach an additional 46.5 million Americans beyond current plans - this includes rural communities and small towns.

Volition have come out and said that they still love themselves a bit of PC gaming lovin' even with the onslaught of other developers blaming piracy on PC for lack of sales. The THQ-owned studio has taken a different approach to it with Volition studio manager Eric Barker saying:

He continues with:

Microsoft have shown off its goal for its next-generation gaming platform, the video below is dated from May 2010 so it's quite a bit old now but it shows the direction Microsoft have in mind for their ever-growing gaming platforms. The video shows off some concepts and principals of what the WGX (Windows Gaming Experience) team hopes to achieve. We see a blend of Windows, Xbox and mobile platforms being merged into one.

The video shows off some Kinect action and gives a bit of hugging action toward PC too, remember Microsoft being quoted as "doubling down" on PC gaming. The companies WGX team which is comprised of all gaming-related attempts between Microsoft platforms has been quite hard at work, obviously. Let's hope that this work goes toward something new and exciting.

A LinkedIn ad that has since been removed gives you more of an idea of the team's work:

An hour ago, Sony announced they were joining the relief effort in Japan through a direct contribution interface within their PlayStation Network.

PSN users can find the donation page under "Aid Japan", listed under New Releases on the PlayStation Store. For your donation in the amount of $2, $5, $10, $25, or $50, Sony is offering a free PlayStation 3 Theme (around $3 value). All of the donations go directly to the Japan Earthquake and Pacific Tsunami fund via the American Red Cross.

With a multitude of ways to get involved, there is no reason you shouldn't take advantage of at least one of them.

The drink that allows most of us to study for exams or keep going despite knocking back four sake bombs in a row has launched a widespread augmented reality marketing campaign for their 12-Packs. Utilizing racing celebrities like Cole Whitt and Kasey Kahne as spokespeople, Red Bull has launched Red Bull Augmented Racing, an iOS app allows you to design a racetrack with all 12 of the cans.

All the player has to do is find a fairly open space and arrange the 12 Red Bull cans in the shape of what, ideally, is a bird's eye view of a racetrack. With their iPhone, the user loads the Red Bull app and proceeds to "track" the top of each can. The application then creates a racetrack using the relative positions of the cans, which the user can then race and subsequently upload to the Red Bull site and/or Facebook. Players compete by racing for best times in various user-created tracks, including those created by Kahne and Whitt themselves.

For Cole Whitt's promotional video, and more information about the experience including how to download, go here.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 is off and running with 2.35 million downloads in its first 24 hours. The non-beta version was released this past Monday at 9PM PST, so for that first day people were acquiring IE9 at a rate of about 27 downloads per second. That's around twice the downloads of the IE9 Beta, and a whopping four times the amount of downloads for the release candidate.

Though Microsoft is totes psyched (and they should be) about this turn of events, the record holder for most downloads in 24 hours has been rock solid for almost three years, and that blue ribbon will remain with Mozilla's Firefox 3, released June 17 of 2008.

Mozilla is poised to release Firefox 4 next tuesday, and already enjoys a very large percentage of worldwide browser market share, according to this graph from StatCounter:

Disclaimer: it is painfully evident from this video that it has nothing to do with Apple Corporation or any of the products they make. This is clearly a concept video made by an arbitrary user on YouTube illustrating a "What-If" Type scenario.

First off, see above. Then, if you're not entirely sure that this "product" is not connected to Apple, see above again. This is not "coming out" anytime soon, and the hardware is years out. Also, I sincerely doubt that Apple would make "hologram rings". Then again, if anyone could, it'd probaby be them.

Who knows who this person is (YouTube user "AppleiLens")- this video popped up on my #AR Twitter feed from user Peter Meijer (@seeingwithsound), and despite numerous links to tech head gear (including an already existing iGlasses, a sonic mobility aid for near or fully blind people) it is dubious as to whether Peter created this video.