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(Credit: Getty Images)You're heading out for a doctor's appointment, long flight, dull social engagement, or other event packed with potential for serious boredom. You have to take the kids -- and you know they're going to get antsy. What do you do?

Once upon a time, the only solution would be to bog yourself down with books, crayons, card games, and other activities. But it's not 1980 anymore, and if you're carrying an iOS device, you're already halfway to the perfect solution. All you need to do is stock your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with this collection of hit kid-friendly apps, and you'll have enough to keep them busy for hours.

(Credit: Nintendo)Nintendo has a lot riding on the Wii U. More than anything, it's hoping the new console will help turn around the company's troubled finances.

But it may not do so for a while.

Nintendo company president Satoru Iwata, in a call discussing the company's financial results, announced Thursday that the company would sell the Wii U at a loss. This marks the first time in Nintendo's history that it has put a new system on sale at a loss. Nintendo has been a rarity in the gaming world, traditionally making money on both hardware and software.

Sometimes, just having a copy of your most-anticipated game isn't enough. Sometimes, you need extras.

I'm assuming this is aimed at a Burger King. (Credit: Ads of the World )Pork lo mein is no longer the greatest threat to pigs in China. Angry Birds is teaming up with McDonald's and launching a giant Red Bird from the Golden Arches.

By Amanda Kooser, CNET

China already embraced Angry Birds with an unauthorized theme park attraction. Now Angry Birds is embracing China back with some enthusiastic cross-marketing with McDonald's.

Angry Birds maker Rovio is already pumping a lot of time, energy, and money into the Chinese market, but it's getting even more serious by invading 1,500 McDonald's locations there.

You can't go anywhere online without a password these days. You certainly can't play many games without one.

Want to access Xbox Live through your PC? You'll need a password. Logging onto the PlayStation Store? Cough it up. Playing any online games? You know what to do.

The problem, though, is that most of us just aren't very password-creative. Hackers delight in posting usernames and passwords online when they raid a database. To prove the point -- and to help us all make better password decisions -- SplashData compiles an annual list of the most common (and therefore, the worst) passwords from those listings.

By Gerry Shih, Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Zynga Inc has laid off 5 percent of its full-time workforce and shut its Boston office, launching a sweeping overhaul that may also see the struggling "FarmVille" creator close its Japanese and British offices.

(Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith)The company, which is trying to arrest a steep decline in earnings as users gradually migrate onto mobile devices or rival games, plans to "sunset" 13 unspecified older titles, Chief Executive Mark Pincus said in a staff memo on Tuesday.

The company provided Reuters with a copy of the message to employees, which came a day before the struggling game-maker was due to report third-quarter earnings.

By Erika Niedowski, The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The remnants of former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling's defunct video game company — from graphic animation equipment to model airplanes he is said to have made and kept in his office — are being sold off at the company's former Providence headquarters.

Curt Schilling (Credit: Getty Images)The second of two auctions of 38 Studios' assets began Tuesday morning at the company's old office building downtown, where Schilling and nearly 300 employees used to work. About 2,100 lots are slated to be sold off during an auction expected to run at least a full day.

Hundreds of potential bidders showed up for the start of the auction and some snatched up items including lamps, a wheelchair and swords used to create sound effects for video games.

EVE Online (Credit: CCP Games)EVE Online is a unique (and sometimes scary) corner of the video game world. Having debuted in 2003, the massively-multiplayer space game is older than World of Warcraft and a lot messier, with a cutthroat emphasis on alliances, diplomacy, and war. But what makes it truly unique is the game's economic system.

The in-game currency of ISK (Interstellar Kredits) carries a real-world value. So imagine the scream of panic that must have come from the player who calls himself "stewie Zanjoahir" when his ship carrying valuable blueprints was destroyed by other players recently.

How valuable? The real-world value is being estimated at over $6,000.