Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

In another blow to Sony’s floundering Blu-Ray format, Universal Pictures has announced that it will be dropping support for the disc format. For the forseaable future, the will solely release high definition discs in HD-DVD format.

Kotaku has revealed information from a reliable source that Microsoft will announce a November 22nd launch for the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive accessory in Japan. Pricing is expected to be a Blu-Ray killing 19800 yen (appx.

Hot on the heels of Apple’s recent announcement to drop the price of it’s latest (5.5 generation) iPod 30gb model to $249, Creative Labs has just dropped the price on their Zen Vision:M 30gb model to $249 as well.

Need to slim down, but don’t have the time or patience for diet and exercise? Hewlett-Packard’s latest digital camera technology can help! HP’s new digital slimming technique cuts unwanted pounds in seconds using the old funhouse skinny mirror technique on your digital camera.

For those out there who’d prefer their home theater sound system heard and not seen, Audiovox’s AR Home Decor speaker enclosures might be just the ticket. The Home Decor collection provides a number of disguises for the Acoustic Research HD510 series of speakers.

After earlier rumors that Sony’s Playstation 3 might not have any 1080p gaming titles, it’s been confirmed that at least two upcoming titles will support the holy grail of high definition resolutions, with a full non-interlaced 1920×1080 picture.

TRITTON Technologies has just introduced their new AX360 headphones with Dolby 5.1 surround capability. The headphones have 4 speakers in each earmuff to create true surround sound, with certified Dolby Digital and Pro Logic playback. An external audio controller box contains the electronics for sound processing, and has ports for coax and fiber optic digital inputs.

The teensy classic Minox Leica M3 was first converted into a digital camera back in 2002 at a measly 1.3 megapixel resolution. Minox has just upgraded the camera to a much more admirable 5 megapixel resolution.

Samsung has unveiled this super-slick Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) portable television featuring a 4-inch widescreen LCD TFT display. The DMB-T450 will also feature built in MP3 playback, virtual surround sound, and USB connectivity (oddly it’s USB 1.1, though).

Throw out that old duct tape wallet! It’s time for the latest wallet for the

Ever wanted to be a gunslinger, but were afraid you’d wind up doing some bodily harm? Well don’t despair, because now you can play everyone’s favorite trailer trash game, shooting crap off of a log with a gun, with no risk of injury.

The folks over at OrbitCast came across a product page on the JJI Electronics website for Delphi’s new XM SkyFi3 satellite radio. Apparently the folks at JJI jumped the gun on this as yet unannounced radio.

Sony has finally rolled out details of their latest SXRD front projector, the VPL-VW50 (originally codenamed “pearl.“) The new model features an array of three 0.61-inch SXRD chips at a full 1080p (1920×1080) resolution, capable of outputting all currently available high definition signals at full resolution.

At this week’s CEDIA show, Optoma unveiled a new projector capable of displaying widescreen 16:9 high definition 720p images for just $999 USD. The Optoma HD70 projector features a single 0.62-inch DarkChip2 DLP chipset from Texas Instruments.

Mobility Today posted some up close footage of the new Microsoft Zune media player in action today. Note the huge album art, and video playback is done in landscape mode to provide excellent widescreen movie viewing.

Hot off Nintendo’s presses, we bring you the FINAL system specifications for the Wii video game console… Launch Date and MSRP: Nov. 19, 2006, in the Americas at an MSRP of $249.99. Color: White. Size: About 8.5 inches long, 6 inches wide and less than two inches thick (157mm x 215.4mm x 44mm).