A new survey from the American Lung Association has revealed the most polluted cities in America. Which cities topped the list? Pittsburgh ranked the highest in short-term pollution, but Los Angeles proved to be the most polluted on a year-round basis, as well as in terms of smog or ozone. Time to whip out the gas mask? If you want to know whether your city made the list, follow the "read more" link below.

You guys might not be able to purchase your very own Microsoft Surface, but you can definitely get to experience it in a few weeks time. AT&T has just announced that they will be utilizing this particular display technology in retails stores in order to enhance mobile shopping experience. Find out the details in the full article.

Who'll be representing the glitz and glamor of NBA Ballers: Chosen One (Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft  Xbox 360) this season? Midway has made its choice and announced Orlando Magic center Dwight Howard as their poster boy for athletic fortune. In this game, Howard will dominate on and off the hardwood by showing us what the NBA life is all about. Read the full article to know more about Dwight's role in NBA Ballers: Chosen One.

2K Sports has just sent out word that they've kicked off their annual Bounce Tour. This month-long event's set to showcase some of 2K Sports' upcoming titles, such as College Hoops 2K8 (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2), and All-Pro Football 2K8 (PS3, Xbox 360). The event will be traveling from one major city to another and will end on December 8. Further event and venue details are up ahead in the full article.

In a recent corporate acquisition, Electronic Arts has roped in Super Computer International (SCi) and allowed the gaming client applications provider to help in the video gaming giant online needs.

SCi is most known for developing applications and software tools on the PC focusing on gaming clients for various online purposes such as IMs and other social networking tools. The company is based in Atlanta, Georgia and has promised to lend its technological expertise to EA.

SCi's CEO Jesper Jensen will continue to lead the team alongside EA Vice President and COO for Online Nanea Reeve.

"SCI's development expertise is uniquely suited to our online technology needs. The team's technical leadership and creative approach is a great fit, and we're thrilled to have them join EA," Reeves commented about their newly acquired affiliate.

For those of you familiar with PlayLinc, an online game browsing and messaging platform developed by SCi, we may be seeing more online features for EA's games in the future.

In a drive to get the word out there, Nintendo Company Ltd's Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes A Day is out to conquer communities to give folks a taste of the game. While some of the locations in the list are expected, there are those that seem rather unorthodox for a brain exercise to be in, like a parlor. A parlor?

Yes, along with a 50-City Mall Experience scheduled between now and January 8 of next year, a hair salon is also on their itinerary list. The chosen one: the new Nelson J Salon in Beverly Hills, California. Hmmm... what do you know? Maybe more of those Hollywood celebrities could get their hands on Brain Age 2 and exercise their heads, huh?

Anyhow, apart from those locations, the popular DS title is also set to visit the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk Events, where Nintendo will be sponsoring booths as their runs -- er -- walks in Chicago, Austin, New York, Washington, and LA. And still that's not all. There's also the Nintendo Street Team Appearances where members of the Ninty Street Team will bring Brain Age 2 to events like home shows and fitness expos in Atlanta and Long Island, to name just a few (running from from Sept. 28 - 30).

Whew. That certainly sounds like a busy calendar for Brain Age 2, don't you think?

The relationship between monkeys and videogames go back a long way. While them hairy critters usually starred or otherwise appeared in games, a recent report from CNN shows that monkeys - or at least, their cousins the great apes - are also benefiting from video games.

Researchers at Zoo Atlanta are currently studying the cognitive skills of two Sumatran orangutans by watching them play computer games.

"The more we understand about orangutan's cognitive processes, the more we'll understand about what they need to survive in the wild," said Tara Stoinski, manager of conservation partnerships for the zoo. "It enables us to show the public how smart they are."

According to CNN, the orangutans use a touch screen built into a tree-like structure that blends in with their zoo habitat. The games that the orangutans play were designed by volunteers from IBM. The games, which took almost 500 hours to develop, test the animals' memory, reasoning and learning, spitting out sheets of data for researchers at the zoo and Atlanta's Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, a partner in the project.

Elliott Albers, from the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, said that researchers hope to use the data to learn more about the orangutans' socializing patterns, such as whether they mimic others or learn behavior from scratch through trial and error. They also hope to use their findings to develop new and more effective conservation strategies to help the 37,000 orangutans living in the wild on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra.

Brought to you by the curious consumer research minds at Scarborough Research, the investigation they conducted found that Salt Lake City, Utah is the number one local U.S. market for game console-equipped homes.

Lexington, Kentucky and Flint, Michigan also follow behind to form the top three U.S. game console markets. The numbers seem to coincide with Nielsen Media's own findings for the most part. The top ten list for the markets around the U.S. that "got game" are:

1. Salt Lake City: 32%
2. Lexington: 30%
3. Flint/Saginaw/Bay City: 30%
4. Toledo: 30%
5. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton: 29%
6. Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport News: 29%
7. Indianapolis: 28%
8. Green Bay/Appleton: 28%
9. Atlanta: 28%
10. Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto: 28%

Also, Wal-Mart gets mentioned as the most popular retail for video game households. No surprise, it's been hogged for months with people looking for the Wii. It's also the number one retail in Salt Lake City, too. This comes with a close-call count with Best Buy who snags second best with Target way behind at third. The top five audio/video stores for game console-equipped households stand at:

1. Wal-Mart: 33%
2. Best Buy: 30%
3. Target: 16%
4. Circuit City: 15%
5. Radio Shack: 7%

Click on Full Article to view the entire local markets chart across the U.S. and see if you and your pals got game.

 

Racing fans who own an Xbox Live may have something new to look forward to in the coming months. NASCAR's offering video downloads of their latest races through Xbox Live, allowing gamers to keep a piece of the action on their consoles for future viewing.

Starting this February 18th, NASCAR lovers can pick up NEXTEL Cup Series races a few hours after the races actually finish through the Race Rewind service. These condensed versions should have all the action, so it's perfect for adrenaline junkies who want to see an exciting race over and over again.

Here's the full list of races for the year. Just so you know, there's only 17 hours left before the first race on the list starts. Check your televisions!

• 2/18/2007 - Daytona 500 - Daytona International Speedway
• 2/25/2007 - Auto Club 500 - California Speedway
• 3/11/2007 - UAW—DaimlerChrysler 400 - Las Vegas Motor Speedway

More races after the jump!

This new info came a bit too late for getting a ton of training with the demo, but there should be enough time for you guys to get ready. GameStop's holding a Def Jam: Icon tournament across four different cities, giving you the chance to see some of rap's iconic stars and a chance to win a trip to the Def Jam: Icon launch event in New York.

Various GameStop and EB Games stores in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York will play host to a series of tourneys of Def Jam: Icon with the final prize for the winner being an Xbox 360 with four games from Electronic Arts OR a trip for two to New York for the game's launch event.

Details of how the tourney will play out are still sketchy, which isn't exactly great, considering that it begins on February 13, which is already today depending on your area. What we do know is that Fat Joe, one of the game's playable characters, will be on hand at the opening tournament in Atlanta's Union City SWM for ceremonies and a chat with the gamers.

One last note for any potential players here. You have to be at least 17 to participate and 21 to accept the trip to NYC if you win. Good luck!