Sony just announced the rumored new motion controller for the PS3 — the prototype looks like a wand with a color-changing ball on top. It’s designed to work in conjunction with the PlayStation Eye, with the wand overlaid on-screen with a weapon or tool. Unlike Microsoft’s Project Natal, Sony says they’ve learned “some experiences need buttons,” which is why there’s still a controller involved. The system is said to be “sub-millimeter” precise, and it was demoed drawing and playing a shooter — it’s sort of the middle ground between Natal and Wii Motion Plus. Sony says it’ll launch in the spring of 2010, but we don’t know what pricing will be like yet.

Second Life ‘machinima’ movie shows a simulation of a Cisco Connected Health hospital campus, Palomar West due to open in San Diego, California, in 2011.