FourEyesSquad

XBox gamers will soon face even more parental control as XBox 360 will not only have restrict on games played but will also soon be able to limit the total number of hours played by the gamers.

Not unlike a similar feature found in Microsoft’s Windows Vista operation system, the new timer will grant care-takers the ability to restrict total hours played on either a daily or weekly basis. Once the time limit is reached, the console will automatically turn off.

According to Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, a restriction timer was the number-one most desired feature by parents in a recent study conducted by Microsoft.

News of an Xbox 360 timer was first rumored in early September.

The humanitarian project, One Laptop Per Child, will be getting the 1989 city-building classic SimCity from Electronic Arts (EA). EA says that they donated the game so that third-world country children would be able to learn while having fun.

OLPC attempts to get durable, affordable computers into the hands of underprivileged children. Stating that there are 2 billion children in the developing world, the OLPC mission statement says it is “providing a means to an end–an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.”

EA mentioned that SimCity would be a great way to entertain children in the third-world and is also a good way to develop their decision-making skills while honing their creativity.

OLPC’s first laptops will be sent to countries including Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia, and India by the end of the year.

Talk about affordability!

The Everex TC2502 Green gPC is one of the first Linux-based desktop machines to be offered for sale by a major retailer. As such, it could become a barometer of open source software’s potential for success in the consumer market.

The gPC comes preloaded with the gOS operating system — a Linux variant — and a 1.5-GHz processor manufactured by Intel (NSDQ: INTC) clone maker Via Technologies. The rest of the specs include an 80-Gbyte hard drive and 512 Mbytes of DDR 2 memory.

There’s no monitor included, but buyers get stereo speakers and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive.

As for software, the gPC comes with the free OpenOffice.org 2.2 productivity suite. The suite, which includes word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications, recently won backing from IBM.

Everex is a Taiwanese-based PC maker that’s looking to carve a niche for itself in the computer industry’s economy section. A version of Everex’s gPC that runs the basic edition ofMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT)’s Windows Vista is on sale at Wal-Mart for $298.

The retailer is making the gPC available at selected stores and through its Web site.

The price difference between the Linux and Windows version of the computer reflects what some in the tech industry derisively call “the Microsoft tax“ — a Windows licensing fee that PC makers must pay to the Redmond, Wash., software maker for each computer sold.

Read more about this story at Information Week.