iTech Engine

Apple has officially knocked Wal-Wart out of the number three position as the most valuable company in the United States after their Apple Inc. shares are currently up $1.21 or 0.54% per share to $226.71, MacDailyNews reports. To put this in perspective, Apple’s market value, as of this morning’s NASDAQ trading, is up to US$205.58 billion in comparison to Wal-Mart’s US$205.31 billion. Beating out Apple on the list is Exxon Mobil at #1 with US$315.10 billion and Microsoft in second with US$256.36 billion.

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While the Game Developer’s Conference has been unfolding this week, Activision didn’t take time itself to announce a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 port for the iPhone. As IGN reports, professional skateboarding legend Tony Hawk himself made the announcement via twitter. Although there is not much more information about the game at this time, there is a screen shot that accompanied the announcement below.

The announcement on Hawk’s twitter said,

“In the PR world, this is considered “going rogue,” but I’m too excited to contain it. This is real & dropping soon.”

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Budding and professional guitarists out there interested in recording directly into your iPhone will definitely be interested in GuitarBud. This product is essentially an adapter that allows you to plug right from your quarter inch connection on your guitar into your headphone jack while still being able to use headphones for recording. GuitarBud is $29. Here are the specs from the product’s site:

Guitarbud™ – the guitarist’s interface™ Cable Features

• Plug your guitar, bass or keyboard directly into iPhone / iPod Touch along with headphones.
• Works with Voice Memos™, StompVox™, Riff Raters™, GigDaddy™, iStrobosoft™, Rectools Pr™o, Guitar FX Deluxe™, and many others.
• (Trademarks are the property of their respective owners).
• Guitarbud – the guitarist’s interface, basically replaces your iPhone’s built in mic with the direct output of your guitar. Use your guitar with any app that your mic worked with.

Check Out the GutiarBud Support Page for more info

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This week there has been a ton of news breaking in the gaming industry thanks to all of the announcements coming out of the 2010 Game Developer’s Conference. However, there have also been a lot of interesting titles still in development shown at the conference that haven’t received as much attention. One of those titles that might prove to be something worth checking out is the, still in development, latest installment in the Lara Croft Tomb Raider franchise titled Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light. Developers Crystal Dynamics are currently developing the title that, IGN reports, seems to be a much different approach to the series.

While the game seems to take place in a pretty much typical Lara Croft world and consist of gameplay elements somewhat familiar to fans of the franchise such as puzzles and platforming, IGN reports the developers are also taking quite a unique approach in many regards,

“The whole game takes place from a fixed overhead camera angle, a perspective that should be familiar to any fan of Diablo. As Lara and Totec run around onscreen, they’ll gain points for scoring kills and grabbing shiny baubles scattered around the game’s environments. To fight, Lara can take advantage of dual pistols and a rifle. She’ll also have a grappling hook, which factors into a lot of the game’s puzzles.”

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