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It hasn't even been two years since the first widely popular consumer tablet hit the market, but the devices are already making a big impact.

Among people who own an iPad or other tablet computer, many of them are engaging with other, older forms of media less than they used to, according to a new study by GfK MRI. Unsurprisingly, printed books, newspapers and magazines are being read less by tablet owners, who now have a wealth of new digital sources of news, magazine content and eBooks.

Jerry Lawson, who is responsible for the development of the video game cartridge, died Saturday in Mt. View, California, of a heart attack. Lawson was 70 years old. He was a pioneer not just in video games but as a black engineer in an overwhelmingly white industry.

While working as an engineer for Fairchild Semiconductor in the mid-1970s, Lawson created the Fairchild Channel F video game console. That was the type that took a different software cartridge for each game.

The folks behind the Humble Indie Bundle, one of the great pay-what-you-want success stories of this year, are offering their second bundle of games today - 5 more DRM-free games, priced at what you want to pay with the option to donate some of that contribution to charity.

Pay-what-you-want has become an interesting alternative business model online, with bands like Radiohead demonstrating that it can be an even more successful than traditional pricing. Of course, not everyone can generate quite that buzz, and a recent study pointed to another option if you can't command rockstar attention for your pay-as-you-want endeavor: combine it with a voluntary payment to charity.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments today in Schwarzenegger v. EMA, a case in which the video games industry seeks to challenge a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors. California claims that the law, which has never gone into effect, helps parents shield their children from harmful matter, even though ESRB ratings already provide one way for consumers to judge a game's content.

The law seeks to place a large sticker on "objectionable games," banning their sale to those under 18, with large fines for non-compliance. The law has been opposed by the video game industry, not surprisingly. But it's also been positioned as a free speech issue.

According to the PC Games Digital Downloads Analyst Report, during the first six months of 2010, more video games were purchased online and downloaded digitally than were bought at retail stores.

This marks the first time that digital downloads comprised the majority of total PC game sales. And although retails sales still make up a greater share of dollar revenue, it was simply because games that come with a CD or DVD in a box sell for a higher price.

"For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining." That's the opening salvo in a recent Newsweek story that points to the latest results from the Torrance Tests of Critical Thinking that assess Americans' "CQ" - creativity quotient.

Measuring the CQ involves a series of simple tests to track divergent thinking and other problem-solving skills. These are scored based on fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. First developed by E. Paul Torrance, researchers have been administering these tests to children as well as tracking their successes as adults since the 1950s.

Google has privately invested as much as $200 million in social game developer Zynga. Zynga is best known for games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, which predominate on Facebook.

Zynga had expressed dissatisfaction with the terms Facebook enforced on the company, and were reported looking around for alternative platforms. Its collaboration with Yahoo was one step away, MSN's Game Portal another, and its relationship with Google an even bigger one.

Gisha: Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, a multi-ethnic, multi-religious Israeli non-profit, has launched a game called "Safe Passage."

The group works in Israel toward establishing freedom of movement for Palestinians. The blockade by the Israeli government of the Gaza Strip is an object lesson in what they believe is wrong with current Israeli policy. So to express the trials of impinged movement they have leveraged game dynamics to share the experience.

Game developer Valve has released Steam, its social gaming platform, for the Mac. Steam, which launched in 2004, is a social gaming app merged with a game store that allows a user to download a plugin, then choose games, including many in demo, to play. It has been a PC game to date. No longer.

"It's been a ton of work, but the Mac is great for the same reason the PC is great - they are both open systems that let gamers and game developers be as close as possible."

Austin-based Gendai Games has been operating mostly under the radar with their innovative iPhone game-creation software GameSalad. According to AustinStartup, the wait is now over and we all can try our hand at creating the next big iPhone game, even if we don't have elite programming skills. And that's the strength of GameSalad - you don't need to know how to code in order to prototype your game idea.