I know updates here at NextLust have come to a dead halt but that doesn’t mean we can’t give back to the community once in a while. Or at least Destructoid’s community. LT and I only had time to make it out to the last day of the convention so there really isn’t much to report. Most of the stuff there consisted of things you have already seen or would have no interest in hearing about. Why do you think the Gizmodo coverage has been so meh?

So take that nay-sayers, we ain’t dead yet. And yeah we know, Rob doesn’t work here anymore.

There’s only a handful of these so get them while they’re hot.

nVIDIA has been at the top of their game for the last few years, delivering value priced mid-range cards and beefy high-end GPUs that dwarf most of ATi’s offerings. With their sense of market control in check, nVIDIA has begun it’s foray into more software applications in order to increase their video card profits. With their excellent 3d graphics rendering software, Gelato, nVIDIA is also getting into film production.

A small sample of their progress on the new short film created with version 2.2 of the Gelato final-frame rendering software, and is available on their web site. While simply a sneak peek at the power and capabilities of the software, this film, titled The Plush Life, seems to be on the right track. Later this month, nVIDIA will release the final film produced on their rendering platform with the power of their GPUs.

Here is a direct link to the video, available for download.

At a press conference held on July 30^th, 2007, Nintendo Company, Limited announced its development of a new title for the Wii home entertainment console: Wii Life.

“We wanted to create a fully interactive, engaging game that the whole family can enjoy,” said game developer Shigeru Miyamoto. “With Wii Life there’s something for everyone – from little Billy’s secret aspirations to become an interpretive dancer to dad’s unquenchable lust for extramarital affairs, there’s no limit to the virtual possibilities!”

Not to long ago ThePirateBay.org hinted at big things to come and who of thought that one of the biggest and most recognizable BitTorrent sites would be brought back from the dead?

“The legendary BitTorrent site Suprnova.org will be back in action soon. Sloncek, the former owner of suprnova.org (still parked) decided to donate the domain to The Pirate Bay lads, who will relaunch the site in a few days, staying true to its original design. The return of a Legend.”

Now that’s going to bring back some memories. Good to have you back old friend, can’t wait to start downloading all that … ugh … legal stuff.

[Via Torrent Freak]

A friendly tipster has sent in word that Apple is not stocking any of their current iMac models. This supposedly comes from Corporate headquarters and gives more fuel to the “OMG!!11!! new iMac is coming out August 7th!!1!!” theory.

Along with the recent supposed new keyboard leak and rumors of new touch screen technology (why else would they delay Leopard?), the new iMacs might actually be worth waiting out for. We’ll see in six days.

[Via Friends with Benefits]

In its ongoing efforts to capitalize off of every aspect of human existence, Apple Inc. finalized its purchase of the popular pancake restaurant chain International House of Pancakes, or IHOP, last Friday.

“The idea is to appeal to the younger, hipper pancake eating generation,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs. “We also wanted to create a place where our loyal customers feel right at home. And let’s face it, there’s no place more comforting for a hardcore computer geek than in the cozy quarters of an all-night diner.”

The new ownership will see many changes for the 49-year-old pancake house. Apple plans to wash away the familiar sleazy ambience staffed with crotchety old women and illegal immigrants with that of a more user-friendly atmosphere. In fact, virtually all of the restaurant’s main functions will be executed by machines. Dining will be as easy as a mouse click, utilizing touch screen interfaces for everything from ordering your meal to paying your tab. And if for some unforeseen reason the system crashes, you can simply send an error email to the general manager and expect a snappy response in no less than a week’s time.

“Our hope is to have no more than three people on staff inside the restaurant at any given time,” said Apple P.R. representative Martin Stavely. “A head cook to delegate our state-of-the-art kitchen, a general manager to oversee the restaurant operations, and a busboy to mop, or whatever the hell they do. I mean, honestly, what more do you need?”

Each booth will feature docking stations for all Apple products, and free wireless internet is available for all customers. The interior design of the diner will receive a complete facelift – the traditional blue vinyl booths and plastic benches will be replaced with black and white leather, and the dull white tabletops substituted with stainless steel.

“Whose design was that in the first place?” Stavely continued. “It’s like the national colors of trashy sinkholes. You’d almost expect a two-dollar whore to take your order.”

In response to the announcement, Apple enthusiasts have begun flocking to their respective iHop locations to build support for the company’s new venture.

Jonathan Gray, 22

:	“The iHop is easily the greatest all-night pancake restaurant chain in the known world,” said 22-year-old Mac addict Jonathan Gray. “I don’t understand how people can choose any other diner when this one’s so obviously superior. Especially those idiots over at Denny’s.”3 tonnes

There are certain moments in history that define what it is to be a geek.

For the fine men and women at NASA, receiving a SGI computer with 1,024 dual core Intel Itanium 2 processors and 4 terabytes of RAM must the penultimate moment of their lives.

According to NASA, the supercomputer will generate 13.1 teraflops of calculating power and will run a single copy of Linux, making it the largest Linux single system image in the world.

NASA also mentions that they have acquired an ultra-dense 240TB SGI InfiniteStorage 10000 system to handle all their data storage needs.

According to NASA’s Dr. Piyush Mehrotra:

“Supercomputers play a critical role in many NASA missions, including new space vehicle design, global climate studies and astrophysics research. We look forward to evaluating SGI’s latest HPC offerings as part of our long-term technology refresh effort.”

Although it’s probably foolish to disagree with a rocket scientist, and space exploration is important, if I were Dr. Mehrotra, I’d get this thing running Crysis posthaste!

[Via CNN]

The My Book line from Western Digital has been, let’s say varied. I can say from personal experience that these external hard drives have been as much of a godsend as they have been a pain in the ass since my current dead MyBook count is up to three. It’s nothing exponential but I would hope they got all the bugs out of their current 1 TB model before kicking out a 2 TB version prematurely.

Ms. “Fatty Hard Drive that no-one-wants-to-take-to-the-prom” includes some new handy network features such as remote and LAN access that should make office porn sharing so much easier. The latest model will go for an unnecessary $800 and promise of your first born to pointy little man.

[Via WD]

We miss out on a lot of things up in the great white north: White Castle, NASCAR, paying for healthcare, and most importantly, streaming versions of the latest and greatest television shows.

Luckily for our friends south of the border, ABC is letting users stream episodes of great shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, or Ugly Betty, in all their 720p HD glory.

Of course, there are some caveats attached. ABC’s website suggests you have a fast connection (2Mbps or more) and a fast computer (dual core processor, 128 MB Video RAM, 1GB RAM) with a big monitor (at least 1300×770) to enjoy their shows at the best possible quality.

Those of you with anything less, will be run through a gauntlet of pixelation and stuttering.

Despite the steep system requirements and the commercial breaks, it’s hard to complain about on-demand streaming HD video.

After all, you get what you pay for.

It doesn’t seem to matter whether you’re a casual consumer, hardcore tech freak or even my personal God Maddox - everyone has an opinion on the iPhone. And after sorting through all 3,431 complaints/praises you’ll find that very few people have any beef with the Visual Voicemail feature. So it’s nice to know you can get the same damn thing using CallWave’s latest widget on your Mac. Sweet. Here’s a nice email that slipped through my spam filter earlier today:

We are the developers of the CallWave Text Messaging widget you use today. Now we’ve got another amazing widget we think you’ll want to try - the Visual Voicemail widget. We call it that because it lets you see and hear your mobile phone voicemail messages on your Mac - like the feature on the new iPhone. Best of all, it works with your existing mobile phone! And it’s free. No wonder we’re featured in the Top 50 on Apple’s Widget Gallery.

I own a Moto RAZR with Verizon and have already deliberately missed about three phone calls just to see how well this thing works. Once you get everything initially set it’s just a matter of punching in a string of confirmation numbers and then you’re all done. My only complaint so far is that CallWave changes your default voice greeting to some weird robotic crap, which prompted my second message to sound something like “What the hell is this? Call me back bye … freak.”

Download the widget here.