The new XCM Cyberchrome case gives your PS3 a nice shiny chrome exterior. From what I can glean from these pics, the Cyberchrome is a complete replacement shell, not just a cover that snaps over your original case. And priced at $69.99 (USD), I’d imagine that was almost definitely the deal.

I don’t know why it doesn’t look as shiny in the photo below. Maybe they’ll be offering both a shiny and a matte chrome version. But I think it’s just the way it photographed. We’ll just have to wait to find out.

You should be able to pre-order the Cyberchrome shell any day now over at Extreme Mods or Renchi. Or, you could just head over to TotalConsole right now, where they already have them listed as “in stock.”

…And then played in the actual game:

Players will have to make several “poses” for their custom characters, such as “Walk 1″, “Walk 2″, “Attack 1″ etc., but Jabbari promised that the editor will be very easy to use, thanks to its copy-pasting mechanic and overall intuitive interface. If you really don’t want to mess with the editor (which I doubt), you can start the game with any of the custom characters, like the gorilla seen below. Jabbari says that the North American version of 3D Dot Game Heroes has more custom characters compared to the Japanese version.

Jabbari also boasted about the game’s real-time lighting engine, which supposedly makes your custom character – whether it’s a detailed armored knight or a random swarm of dots – look nice and purrty:

Can you see that? A dog as the main character! Players will be able to upload and share their creations on Atlus’ forums. Jabbari didn’t explicitly say that players will be able to download and use other players’ created characters, but it would be a damn shame if that’s not the case.

A game where you can be a shark’s fin and hold a big-ass sword?! Only a cold, dead mind would not want such a thing! You can pre-order 3D Dot Game Heroes on Amazon for $37 (USD). The game starts shipping on May 11. Atlus, prepare to be flooded with penis creatures and other monstrosities on May 12.

[via Playstation Blog]

The prototype circuit sends signals using radio waves in the 60GHz millimeter waveband (I think I saw them play at a local nightclub last night), and can transmit data at up to 11Gpbs over a distance of up to 14mm. As the components get further apart, transmission speeds drop to about 4.3Gbps from up to 60mm away.

In addition to cutting down on the complexity and cost of wiring, the breakthrough could someday be used to create gadgets that could be disassembled and maintained much more easily than today’s electronics with all of those wire harnesses that need to be disconnected for service. Never mind the fact that the wireless circuit board concept could allow for much more flexibility in where the various circuit boards are placed within a piece of equipment.

No word on if or when Sony will introduce this technology in any production devices, but it’s a pretty cool idea for sure.

[via Tech-On!]

Modder GivinTats originally did another Alien casemod a while back, and then had someone reach out to him to make a custom mod featuring a gory Chestburster pushing its way out of the side of a poor old 1st gen PlayStation 3.

Since the original movie Chestburster is said to assimilate some traits of its host, GivinTats decided to make him a bit of an alien cyborg instead of a straight-up organic creature. Check out the blood, guts and parts spraying forth from the side of the PS3. Yummy. The broken circuit board coming out of the cracked open case carcass is an especially nice touch – although it would suck if that were the actual circuitry from the PS3 itself.

[via Llama's Forums]

So yeah, The Tester starts showing on February 18, exclusively on the Playstation Home Theatre. The 8 episode-long series boasts Twisted Metal and God of War designer David Jaffe as one of its panelists, with the rest being Sony execs. I guess that’s to be expected.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

What do you think? Are you going to watch it? Should Microsoft come up with their own reality show, and if so, should the contestants compete to become an Xbox 360 service technician?

[via Aeropause]

Starting this week, 7-11 is offering up limited edition collectible God of War III plastic cups for their frozen slushy drinks. And they’re also offering an accompanying blackberry/lime blue frozen beverage called “Kratos Fury”. Why blue? Because blood red was already reserved for my beloved cherry Slurpees.

Each cup comes with Slurpee point codes which you can apply towards cool GOW merch, including a GOW III videos, wallpaper, PS3 themes, and virtual costumes for PlayStation Home and Kratos himself. Here, I’ll start you out with a free code good for 2 points : BSBV MJTB DNQN.

You can find the God of War Slurpee cups at your friendly neighborhood 7-11, and you can redeem the codes over at SlurpeeRewards.

[via NeoGAF]

The Torne connects to your PS3 via a USB cable. It’s got an easy to use interface and the possibility to record shows with a timer function. Shows are recorded to the PS3’s hard drive, or can also be stored on an external hard drive if you don’t have enough space on the internal drive.

It’s too bad that we aren’t getting any of these stateside, since it’s a pretty sweet deal. DVRs are pretty handy, especially if you already have a PS3 and don’t want to add another device to your game room setup.

If you happen to live in Japan, the Torne will cost you ¥9,980 ($109 USD) and will go on sale this March. There will also be a bundle available which includes a 250GB PS3 and the Torne for ¥42,800 ($467 USD).

[via Kotaku]

The Sony Bloggie series offers two new compact digital camcorders, each capable of grabbing gorgeous 1080p video at 30fps, and can also shoot 5-megapixel stills. The MHS-CM5 (MSRP $200 USD) features a 5x optical zoom lens and a pistol grip body with a flip out 2.5″ LCD viewfinder.

The MHS-PM5 (MSRP $170) forgoes the optical zoom, and instead provides 4x digital zoom and a fixed 2.4″ viewfinder. Personall, I’d spend the extra 30 bucks for the real zoom lens. However, the cheaper model sports a funky 270-degree reversable lens that lets you shoot yourself, as well as a $189 version which includes a lens add-on that lets you shoot 360-degree panoramic videos and bundles a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card.

Both Bloggie cams are available now over at the Sony Store, with the MHS-CM5 shipping now, and the MHS-PM5 models shipping early in February.

In addition to being able to adjust image quality based on viewing location, the sets can also be set to prevent kids from sitting too close to the TV, automatically blacking out the screen if they get too close.

TheLX900 sets offer a bright LED edge-lit 1080p LCD display, and include full support for watching 3-D programming, both will ship with a pair of Full HD active-shutter 3-D glasses. The displays also include wireless internet access and 240Hz motionflow capability for keeping images smooth as silk.

All four models will ship sometime this Summer. You can sign up to be notified when the sets are available here. Prices haven’t been announced.

It’s not exactly a portable PS3, but it’s the closest thing we have for now. Basically it’s a controller with an integrated display in it, which means you don’t even have to have a TV to use Sony’s black beast. The WVI uses a 1.2 GHz transmitter to send controller input to and receive video output from a PS3. Aside from the guts of a PS3 controller and the transmitter, the WVI is also equipped with a 5″ widescreen LCD (I think it’s a PSOne LCD), an unspecified number of 4500maH Li-ion batteries and recharge circuit with built-in LED capacity meter, AV in, headphones and USB mini/charger ports.

I’m sure you’re itching to see it in action, so here it is. Watch it and WANT IT:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

You know what’s even more amazing? This isn’t the first WVI that techknott made! He also made one for the Xbox 360:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So Sony, please please please hire techknott before Microsoft or anyone else does. I mean all this thing needs is a sexy housing – and decent audio; techknott says that he’s still working on that – otherwise it’s good to go. In fact techknott will sell the PS3 WVI, as soon as he fixes the audio problem. Seriously someone mass produce this thing so we can all play Dragon’s Age even while pooping. A disgusting yet awesome thought.

[via Ben Heck forums via Engadget]

This golden PS3 is the brainchild of Stuart Hughes, who released this wonder after his Nintendo Wii Supreme, which was worth almost half a million dollars.

The PS3 Supreme is made out of 56 ounces of 22-karat gold. It features a diamond-studded disc loading slot, which includes 58 diamonds, for an impressive 26-carats of gems. There will only be three made in the world, so if you daddy’s trust fund allows you to, you should probably hop to it.

The only thing more astounding than the amount of gold included in this is its price: £199,995 ($319,104 USD). I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s going to be a bidding war between oil barons and trust fund kids, to see who gets to brag to their friends about their PS3 being the world’s most expensive one.

Hughes has got only one thing left to do – create a golden Xbox 360.

[Goldstriker via Ubergizmo]

It’ll be a pirate’s life for you when you install these new add-on packs. The costume kit ($5.99 USD) includes everything you need to dress Sackboy up as everyone from Will Turner to Elizabeth Swann to Davy Jones, complete with tentacle face. Of course, most of you will probably dress up as Jack Sparrow and wander around with a drunken swagger.

The premium level kit ($5.99 USD) adds 5 completely new Pirates’ themed levels, along with a variety of new materials, and some great new gameplay creation objects like a bubble machine, scuba gear and global water – sweet! There are even 4 additional music tracks – hopefully they included the familiar “yo-ho-yo-ho” one.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

So what are you waiting for, saunter on over to your PS3, head over to the Playstation Store, and get to downloadin’!

Sony asked a number of us bloggers to snap photos using the camera’s unique sweep panorama feature – then enter them into a competition. The winner will get to send 10 of these wonderful little digital cameras to the school of their choice. If I end up winning, I’d like to pledge mine to Carl Schurz High School, a diverse public institution which emphasizes math, creative arts, science and technology right here in my neighborhood in Chicago.

So back to the camera… the WX1 can shoot seamless horizontal or vertical panoramas with a simple sweeping motion of the camera. As the camera is moved from side-to-side or up-and-down, it snaps numerous photos in rapid succesion and automatically stitches them together into a panorama. As an added bonus, this pocket-size 10-megapixel camera can also capture 720p HD video.

The  photo contest runs until December 18th, and the winning school will be awarded their prize on December 22nd. All you’ve got to do is head on over to the photo contest page over on we say, and vote for your favorite photos. I can’t tell you which ones are mine, but there are lots of cool panoramas up there already, and every vote you make will help a school get a welcome holiday gift.

Created by textile artist RabbitRampage, this handmade felt case ($30 USD) looks just like a PSP – if it were made out of felt and stitches. The case is just the right size for an iPhone, but can also fit other gadgets up to 5″ tall.

The case has a convenient Velcro closure that keeps your wonderphone safe and sound, and also has a handy detachable keyring, which is just what I always wanted hanging from my PSP.

Want one? Head on over to RabbitRampage’s Etsy shop. The funny part about this whole thing is that the iPhone actually has better games than the PSP.

A representative of Logitech’s UK office told CVG that they’re not aware of any such product, so “… it may be something the US office is working on.” If this UMD drive does come out, let’s hope that Logitech (or Sony) includes software that can rip UMDs so that people can transfer their UMD-based games to the PSP Go’s memory. Either that or sell it dirt cheap. Otherwise this is a slap in the face of everyone who bought a PSP Go.

If and when this device is released and all it does it play UMDs, it will be an implicit admission that the PSP Go is a crippled and expensive joke of a device.  You know Sony, if you really want to go backasswards, you’d be better off bringing back PS2 software emulation on the PS3.

[via Exophase]

Fast forward to 2009, and after 30 years it’s quite unfortunate to see that the brand has not aged well. Its latest flag bearer – the Walkman X – is freakin’ expensive and has poor online capabilities, but at the end of the day it’s an excellent music player, and that’s what the brand is all about. To celebrate it’s 30th anniversary, Sony made a chronological montage of the bajillion iterations of the Walkman.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

I wasn’t born in ‘79 but I’d be lying if I said that I don’t recognize almost all of those models. This is how a techie like me knows he’s getting old, by the number of models that a gadget has had in his lifetime. Dammit. At least I can say that I’m just 3 PlayStations old. Or is it 7 PlayStations?

[via Akihabaranews]

Before we commit ourselves to this future, note how doubly frail this gossamer tip is – it’s a rumor about a possibility. So it may be as real as Duke Nukem Forever (or do kids nowadays refer to GT 5?). But a gamer can dream, can’t he?

logos from Mozilla and kotaku

[via PlayStation Insider via Maxconsole]

By using advanced facial recognition technology, the monitor can tell when your eyes are on the TV screen, and keeps it turned on only when you’re actually watching. Jump to the 45 second mark on the video below to see an early prototype of the technology in action (or watch the whole thing to see some other cool Hitachi display tech from the CEATEC show)…

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Both Hitachi and Sony have been working on versions of the system, so maybe that lends it some added creedence. I’m just not sure how much power this will really save, especially now that more and more TVs are moving to LED backlighting, but I suppose every little bit helps. I also think I’d turn off this setting the minute I got up to the kitchen and tried to watch my TV from the other side of the room during the football game.

[via BBC News and Engadget]

Some of the songs that the sometimes bewildered citizens heard were from Bob Dylan, Death in Vegas and the Guillemots. And some Mastodon in the morning. I’m kidding. I don’t think any of the music was heavy or aggressive, what with the sheep and snow.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

Did you watch it? Which is more awesome – the concept of the ad or Seydisfjordur? I want to live there. Seems like a laidback, sleepy town.

[via swissmiss]

The BLAZE PS3 Motion Freedom 3D controller can detect your movements and send them to the PS3 for use in games. The controller has a D-pad, analog stick, and all of the other buttons you’d find on a DualShock 3 control.

Now there’s no word on what games the Motion Freedom will support, but BLAZE makes mention of Tiger Woods PGA Golf and Sega Tennis in their announcement. No word on a release date or price either – so for now, you’ll just have to be satisfied reading the press release.

[via TFTS]