There's a great read over at Cheap Talk about how digital pinball machines changed the industry, back when there still was an industry. They were big tables where you flick a ball around, but they were smarter than you think.

In the olden days of pinball, there wasn't much to adjust. Free game scores were hard wired into the machine and couldn't be changed. But with the introduction of Williams High Speed in 1986, things got more complicated.

The new machines would dynamically adjust the free play score based on an algorithm. It also introduced a method where if you had already scored a free game, it was impossible to win a random free game.

The post goes into much more detail over at Cheap Talk, but ultimately, these algorithms, exploits, and the layouts of the tables themselves got so complicated that new players couldn't figure out how to master them. And, as we all know, pinball faded into the night. If you're at all a fan of pinball, it's an interesting read. Head over to check it out. [Cheap Talk via Retro Thing]

Image via ktpupp

Filed under: New Products, Fast Food

Yes, we covered up Bella with a burger. Photo: Rachel Been, AOL.

The folks at Burger King think so. They're marketing a special BK Burger Shots six-pack for all you werewolves and, ahem, blood-sucking vampires out there. The mini burgers come with a special "Gift of Holiday Value" -- coupons for "Twilight" merch masquerading as collector's cards. Think of them as a vampire Valpak of savings.

Is any of this worth it? Find out after the jump.

Continue reading 'Twilight' Fans May Be Disappointed in Burger King 'New Moon' Promotion

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Online music site lala allows you to listen to song after song and album after album for free. The catch? You can only listen to them once, unless you pick up a web album or MP3 version for cheap.

We've been playing around with lala for several days now and haven't had too many qualms with the service. Yes, we have our own extensive music collection, access to sites like Pandora or MixTape.me (developed by Adam) but lala has a few notable services of its own to recommend it.

You can choose to listen to songs by typing in an artist (LadyGaGa), theme (Christmas), or genre (Jazz), and lala will pull up a listing of tunes matching your search results. Without registering, you can listen to any song by clicking on the play button, but if you've taken the 30 seconds to register, you can hit play on a whole album to listen to while you go about your internet musings.

At first we were annoyed with the idea of not being able to listen to things more than once, but the more we started to play, the more we really got into the swing of things. There's been so many albums we've passed on downloading, not having heard the whole album, and it's been kind of refreshing to listen to new things outside of our own record collection.

It's an easy interface to look at and operate, and might allow you to check out a new release album before deciding to download or buy it for real. Lala isn't a brand new service by any means (it was originally a CD-trading service, incidentally), so if you've been using it recently, let's hear how you like it in the comments.

Despite the number of handsets running Android out there (hell, they've even got photo frames doing it now), Google doesn't seem too worried about locking horns with its own kin as it takes a shot at Apple's throne.

According to the gumshoes over at TechCrunch, we'll be seeing a no-holds-barred, dedicated Android phone from Google — not a handset such as the Droid, which flies under the HTC Motorola banner — and it could hit as soon as early next year.

Other details are spotty, such as if it have a physical keypad (doubtful), how big it will be or even what it will look like. There's also the question of cost, as it's thought that Google will be selling its phone directly through retailers.

What interests us most, however, is the question of if Google can make this phone really go toe-to-toe with the iPhone. Besides the company's well-earned innovative reputation, Google's phone will come after Android has established itself as a platform and the company has had other handsets — including the iPhone — to learn from. Apple, on the other hand, managed to surge right to the top with a product the world has never really seen before, and is now an entrenched opponent.

Memories of mornings spent singing into a hairbrush flooded back as I listened to this Apple-themed rendition of Britney Spears' Oops...I did it again being performed by David Pogue. He could have a heck of a pop star career.

For comparison, or if you just happen to be unfamiliar with the original pop culture horror, you can have a listen to it here. [Brainstorm Tech]