Friday, November 2, 2007
Games
Sony’s Rumored $99 PS2 Makes Up for No PS3 Backwards Compatibility, Right? Right?!
11:55PM Adam Frucci | Despite the PS3 being the greatest home entertainment/gaming machine in history, people are reluctant to move on from their trusty, much-loved PS2s. You can’t blame ‘em, as good games are still coming out for it and it has perhaps the best back catalogue of any console ever. That’s why it kind of makes sense that Sony may be planning to drop a new, power-brickless $99 PS2 model on us next year. This could, of course, be related to Sony’s boneheaded decision to drop all backwards compatibility from the new 40GB PS3 model. You wouldn’t do that just to try to move some cheap PS2s, would you Sony? I’d like to think that a move that low is below even you, but I wouldn’t put it past you. [MCV via Kotaku] More »
Robots
DelFly II, Just the First of a Long Line of Tiny Flying Robot Spycams
11:52PM Charlie White | This is not just some radio-controlled insect-like aircraft, no sirree. This is the DelFly II, a robotic dragonfly spy, developed by robot jockeys at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. While government agencies are not admitting to using such things, you can see how this hovering electro-insect with a camera on board might come in handy for some serious snooping. The current model weighs just 16.04 grams, can fly for 15 minutes at 30MPH or can hover for eight minutes, and has vision-based stabilization for its onboard camera. Check out another video of the DelFly II in flight, after the jump. More »
Peripherals
Sanwa Numerical Keyboard Mouse, Taxes’ Worst Nightmare
11:39PM Mark Wilson | This Sanwa numerical keyboard mouse might not rock your world, but we must have at least a handful of accountants in the audience whose jaws just dropped. Featuring a side toggle button “safety.” normal use of the mouse is possible without going all speadsheet on Firefox’s ass. But once you toggle that button…oh boy (this is what it’s all about, right?)…you can unleash a fury of numerical entry without leaving your beloved optical companion. 3 LEDs denote whether the the 800dpi mouse is armed or just dangerous (we’re not sure what LED #3 actually does), and it can be yours for $89. [product and dynamism via scifitech] More »
Games
Nokia Delays N-Gage Game Portal as Warner Pulls from Its Music Store
11:22PM Wilson Rothman | Yes, the title could have been “Nokia’s Crappy Friday”: Reuters says the N-Gage gaming service and the new music store are “among the cornerstones” of Nokia’s big mobile-content push, yet today neither one is where it’s supposed to be. The new N-Gage gaming service, unveiled in August and due to launch this month, will now go live in December. “Software testing is taking a bit more time than what we had expected,” [spokesperson] Kari Tuutti said. “We are talking about a couple of weeks.” Of greater concern is the music store. Nokia stuck its toe in the OTA download water this week in the UK, but Warner Music Group—one Fourth of the Big Four—promptly pulled its content from the service. WMG had no objection to the site itself, but rather to MOSH, Nokia’s legal P2P filesharing service. Already, over 6 million people have used MOSH to exchange files. Nokia assures that copyrights are protected by Audible Magic, a scanning system that checks files as they pass through the service. Clearly, that’s not enough reassurance for WMG. And if I might add: What the hell are 6 million people exchanging if not some variety of copyrighted content? Original demo tapes and manuscripts? Seriously. [Reuters] More »
Entertainment
Gold and Diamond-Encrusted MP3 Player for Dogs Reaches New Depth of Absurdity
11:17PM Charlie White | The business of ripping off people with more money than brains has just reached a new low. Innobitz tugs at the heartstrings of pet owners with JooZoo, an MP3 player for dogs that’s so spangled with genuine diamonds and 18 karat gold that it costs an astronomical $2000. Thank goodness there are no headphones, which would probably drive a dog nuts. Instead, there’s a speaker that plays automatically triggered sounds that correspond to “various behaviors,” supposedly calming down the unfortunate dog encumbered by such a device. We would suggest further torturing the poor thing with recordings of choice sayings such as “Want to go out?” “Let’s go in the car!” “Time to eat” “We’re taking you to the vet” and a loop repeating the dog’s name. [AVing] More »
Gadgets
USB Infrared Heating Pads
10:59PM Mark Wilson | The USB Far Infrared Pad is pitched as a solution for those aches and pains that are the natural byproduct of working sitting at one’s computer. We don’t know the $21.99 pad actually adheres to skin, but once stuck to carefully balanced upon the area of pain, 1.2W of USB juice heats the pad to between 104° and 113° F. We’d be more interested if the pads served a more interesting function, like electrified nicotine transmission to help us start smoking. But go ahead, pick one up for the crazy hypochondriac at the office (and send in a picture when they use it). [usbfever via ubergizmo] More »
Screens
Toshiba Rolls Out 22-Inch 3840×2400 Monitor
10:49PM Wilson Rothman | Can you say WQUXGA? Toshiba can. According to a translated promo page, it built the 22″ “super Kousei small LCD monitor” with a resolution of 3840×2400. That’s 200 dots per inch! Toshiba admits, though, that the contrast ratio is 300:1, pretty bad even if you don’t believe in contrast-ratio reporting. In Japan, MSRP for this sucker is 2,079,000 Yen (about $18,000). The XP-compatible PCI card required to run it will set you back another 312,900 Yen ($2,700). Oddly enough, in our search for an image, we found this reportedly WQUXGA monitor by ADTX, selling for the mysteriously low price of 198,000 Yen ($1,700)—wonder what the contrast ratio is on that. [Toshiba via Akihabara News; Source image from Matrox] More »
Random Stuff
Super Inline 720 Skates Let SK8Rz Go Sideways and Spin
10:37PM Charlie White | Before hell freezes over, let’s try a bit of in-line skating, but these skates offer more than that. Strap on a pair of Kian Khuan’s 720 inline skates, and a whole new dimension is laid out before us, because these super inline skates not only go forward and backward like any others, but can also spin 360 degrees in place and even roll sideways. Try that with a pair of ice skates. Since these 720s aren’t for sale yet, we may have to wait for the spring thaw before we bang up our knees and elbows with them. Forget kneepads, make that Master Chief’s suit of armour. [Yanko Design] More »
Music
First Zune 2 Ad and Zunejourney.net Promo Site Launch
9:57PM Wilson Rothman | The Zune 2 ad campaign has begun. The slogan has changed from “Welcome to the Social” to “You Make It You”—are they saying Zune owners don’t have friends?—and the visual appeal has become distinctly psychedelic, a combination of Alice in Wonderland, Yellow Submarine and Time Bandits. We notice that there’s not a lot of fetishizing of the actual product in either. That could be a mistake. See for yourself in the video above, or at ZuneJourney.net. [Zune-Online.com] More »
Peripherals
