Archive for November 2006

Check out this footage recorded from the video game nostalgia level from the upcoming Wii title, WarioWare: Smooth Moves… The level features motion-controlled tributes to classic games ranging from Super Mario Brothers to Starfox to Pong.

The guys over at nexgen wars are compiling up-to-date statistics on console sales to date for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii… At this time I wrote this article, the Xbox 360 was clearly in the lead with 7.7 Million+ consoles sold, compared to 687k+ Nintendo Wii consoles, and just 340k+ Sony Playstation 3 consoles sold to date.

Mobile phones proved that people were sick and tired of the old standard phone ringer, so why don’t people feel the same about their doorbells? The NetStreams DoorLinX lets you upload your favorite (non-DRM’ed) MP3 track to your doorbell via WiFi, and replace the classic “ding dong” sound with any sound you want.

If you think that smaller is better, you might want to check out this wee (not wii) PC for your desktop. The Linutop is a compact, disk-less workstation which runs an embedded Linux OS on its AMD Geode CPU.

Satellite provider DirecTV has revealed a design for a portable satellite receiver/tv combo, known as the SAT-GO. Little is yet known about the product and whether it is simply a prototype or a product that will hit the market soon.

Some crafty Xbox 360 owner in Brazil has come up with the Occam’s Razor approach to fixing the console’s “red rings of doom” failure. When in doubt, the simplest solution is usually the right one… simply smack the crap out of your hardware.

If you love classic arcade games and you have to have a big screen, you’ll love the new Dream Arcades 100-inch Home Video Arcade Center. The system features a 100-inch diagonal screen and a 2000 lumen DLP front projector, running at 1024×768 (XGA) resolution.

If you’re feeling nostalgic for the game systems of the 80’s, but still want all that the latest consoles have to offer, look no further than the Retro Revolution skin for the Nintendo Wii. DecalGirl’s 8-bit NES skin for the Wii is made out of vinyl and features a protective gloss coating.

A day doesn’t seem to go by without another silly USB device. Today’s useless invention: The USB Bowling Ball. Just try and lug one of these around the next time you need to store something on a flash drive.

Here’s another in a long line of wacky USB devices: the gold bar USB hub from Thanko Japan. The USB 1.1/2.0 gold bar hub features 8 powered USB ports in a mock-gold style befitting storage in Fort Knox.

There are all kinds of stories starting to surface on the web about how the Wii-mote is flying out of people’s hands and breaking various things. Apparently the wrist strap isn’t really designed for significant stress.

On the surface, the upcoming Luna from XtremeMac just looks like another pretty iPod dock. Under the hood, it’s going to offer a bit more. Sure, the Luna IS an iPod dock with built-in amplified stereo speakers, but it’s also a highly configurable alarm clock too.

Japanese watch gurus Tokyoflash have introduced the latest in their series of contemporary wrist watch designs. The 1000100101 Watch features a grid of 31 green, yellow and red LEDs to show the time, day and date.

The next in the series of Lucasfilm-approved Star Wars USB memory sticks (known as “mimobots”) has been revealed and it’s everyone’s favorite droid, R2-D2. Stormtrooper, Chewbacca and Darth Vader models were previously announced. These limited-edition mimobots come in 1GB ($79.95), 2GB ($119.95) and 4GB ($169.95) versions and will start shipping in early January 2007.

Some enterprising dudes out there have figured out that the Nintendo Wii’s “Sensor Bar” doesn’t actually “sense” anything. In fact, the sensor bar appears to simply be a set of IR transmitters that provide the Wii-mote with a sense of direction.

VidaBox, makers of some very nice home theater / media center PCs has announced that they will be releasing their STEALTH media center PC tomorrow. The VidaBox STEALTH is a well-appointed HTPC that’s just 3.6″ tall in a slick black anodized case that feels more like a piece of high-end audio gear than a computer.