E3′s over, but that doesn’t mean you’ve seen every bit of information that came out of the event. Oh no. Here’s every single thing that came out of E3, starting with the liveblogs of Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. What did Penny Arcade think of the event? Well, they weren’t all too impressed with the big three’s offerings. That might be a little harsh, but yeah, we could see that. Make the jump to decide for yourself.
Aurora Feint is the first strategy/MMO game that I’ve played on any system for more than five minutes, and I’m addicted. The main focus is a Bejeweled-like game of matching tiles, and you earn points and power to increase your abilities. You rotate the phone to get all the tiles to line up, which makes it super challenging.
Acer’s now shipping the 8920G Gemstone laptops, and they’re even more impressive than we’d thought. While not the biggest screen we’ve seen on a portable, they sport an impressive 18.2-inch LCD at 1920×1080 with a 16:9 aspect ratio, perfect for watching movies on the integrated Blu-ray R/W drives. They’re not light, tipping the scales at just over four kilos, but their 4cm thickness makes up for some of that. What’s really interesting is Acer put dual hard drives in these machines, meaning you get 640GB total, probably the highest we’ve ever seen in a shipping portable. If you’re looking for the ultimate in desktop replacements, these are a great place to start, if you can afford the US$3,000 price tag. [Trusted Reviews]
Guitar Hero fans usually hate the Rock Band guitar controller and vice versa. Instructables has a pretty good how-to that can solve the problem for Guitar Hero fans at the cost of a Rock Band controller. It’s a way to mash up an old PS2 Guitar Hero controller with the Rock Band Fender guitar and make a perfect hybrid with raised keys a clicky strum. You could just use an Xbox 360 Guitar Hero controller for Rock Band if you’re on an, but where’s the fun in that? [Instructables]
Microsoft’s getting some competition for its Surface device. Panasonic is showing off a very Surface-like product it’s calling Digital Wall, and it’s exactly what it sounds like. While at this point it doesn’t appear to offer all the the features of Surface it could also come in much cheaper that the Microsoft version, and for many people that’s the key. Hit the jump for a short video of the Digital Wall in action. [Digital World Tokyo]
Annoying alarm clocks are everywhere these days. My question is – who the hell keeps buying them? Surely there’s nobody who actually buys them for themselves? It’s more the kind of thing that Dr Horrible would give to Captain Hammer.
The latest in this ongoing series of crimes against humanity is the Rocket alarm clock from Latestbuy. When its time to wake up, it will begin a countdown. If you wake up before the countdown has completed, you’re safe. But if the countdown reaches zero, the rocket will take off across the room, and the only way you can turn off the alarm is to get out of bed, grab the rocket and place it back on the alarm (or smash the entire alarm against a wall – that might work too).
If you’re a masochist with a penchant for stupid alarm clocks, you can pick up this one for $29.95 from Latestbuy.
Laptop and Maximum PC have gotten their hands on Voodoo/HP’s Envy 133 thinnest-of-the-thin power notebooks and had some light hands on time. Nothing too shocking has been uncovered–it looks as good in person as it does in pictures, is almost as light as the Macbook Air, and all the rest, but Laptop was able to test one of the Envy’s more interesting features, the Splashtop instant-on Linux kernel.
Yesterday I wandered past the Sydney Apple Store, and was shocked to see a queue of people lined up outside the store, still hoping to get their hands on an iPhone 3G. For a moment I thought about joining them, but then I remembered our competition with iWorld Australia.
You see, the guys from iWorld have generously offered Giz AU readers the chance to win their very own iPhone 3G. It will be a 16GB black model, and it will be completely unlocked, so you can stick it on any carrier you want, including 3.
The competition will end on July 31, and all you need to do to enter is hit the link, fill in your details and pick the accessory you’d most be interested in. It’s got to be the easiest iPhone comp out there.
So, forget about lining up and start entering competitions – it’s the easiest and cheapest way to get your new iPhone 3G.
If you are simply not satisfied with the battery life of your new iPhone 3G, you do have a few options. You could try and maximise it, or you could pick up some battery packs like the iPhoneck. Sure it extends your iPhone 3G by a whopping 2-inches, but it can also fully charge your phone in 90 minutes. There is also the older FastMac iV and the Kensington Mini which should both work fine with the 3G. The iPhoneck will be available in August for US$43. [iPhoneck via DVICE and Kensington via Geek.com]
It’s essentially just a marketing tool for the Dark Knight movie, but hot damn if we don’t like this. Just run the app, take a picture of yourself, then add Joker elements to your face. Works on iPhone (use the camera) or iPod touch (use a saved picture). The only downside is that there’s no way to delete picture elements once you’ve let go of your fingers, so be careful or you’ll have to start over. [iTunes - Thanks Marco!]
