Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

Hot on the heels of the launch of Vizio’s sub-$2k 47-inch LCD, they’ve announced a huge new 60-inch plasma set that will retail for just $2999. Scheduled to hit store shelves in February, the Vizio VM60P will feature a 60-inch diagonal panel running at WXGA resolution (1366×768).

For a while, there’s been talk about an updated Xbox 360 in the works that is to feature a smaller, cooler running 65nm CPU. Now it looks like the new version of the game console may include additional features.

The folks over at Destructoid got their hands on some new screens from a recent issue of PSM magazine. From what I understand, these are from the PS3 version of the game. I especially dig the shot with the car jumping between the train cars.

GPS maker Dash has announced that they’ve signed a deal with Yahoo! Local to provide their search capabilities on in-car GPS navigation systems. While the idea of points-of-interest data on GPS devices isn’t novel, using a quality real-time data source such as Yahoo!

We all thought Nokia had finally given up on their abysmal N-Gage portable gaming console / mobile phone combo, but apparently they’re not quite ready to throw in the towel just yet. Nokia has recently launched an updated N-Gage website touting that “In mid-2007, the N-Gage experience will evolve.”

A while back we reported that Ricoh was working on a optical mechanism that could handle both Blu-ray and HD DVD discs. At next week’s CES show, it’s expected that two companies will be showing off their proposed solutions to dealing with the incompatible formats.

I’ve always been a fan of the cool effects available from Lomo’s unique analog camera line, and now they’ve come up with another nifty camera, the Oktomat. The Oktomat takes 8 photos over the course of 2.5 seconds, and exposes them onto separate sections of a single 35mm frame.

A recently filed patent application from Sony shows that they are working on a technology that is similar to that in the ubiquitous (and superfluous) Segway Human Transporter. The patent abstract, titled “Vehicle steerable by movement of center of gravity” describes the invention as follows: …a vehicle which can travel in the front and back direction and which can turn by right and left wheels rotated when a rider riding on a step-board moves the position of rider’s balance from the center of a vehicle base.

Known primarily for their scanners and other peripherals, Microtek has announced the release of their new line of reasonably priced plasma televisions. Microtek’s new Cineon line of plasma displays includes 42-inch (CP42HA) and a 50-inch (CP50HA) models, ranging from $1600 to $2200 retail.

A few months back, there were rumors on the street that Dell was going to release a 27-inch widescreen LCD monitor. Now it appears that these rumors may be true. An image was leaked on the Dell website showing the inputs for the heretofore unseen flat panel.

MP3 players keep getting smaller and smaller, and soon you’ll be able to pick up a new credit card sized MP3 player that’s so thin, it can fit in your wallet. The Wallet MP3 Player from Walletex is just a little bit thicker than a credit card.

Inching out the newly released Nintendo Wii, and thoroughly trouncing Sony’s troubled Playstation 3, it looks like Microsoft took the lead in holiday sales with their Xbox 360 console in the U.S. market over the 2006 holiday season.

According to a report over at PC World, Toshiba may be announcing new HD DVD players as early as next week’s CES show in Las Vegas. In addition, price drops may be coming soon. When asked about the possibility of upcoming price reductions, Toshiba CEO Yoshihide Fujii was quoted as saying: “At first I thought the price threshold is $499.

Check out this video clip of some of the horrifically painful load times for the new Sonic the Hedgehog game, running on the Xbox 360. Not only are the load times terrible, the shear quantity of load screens that occur to complete even a simple task are ridiculous.

The guys at Bungie gave U.S. troops over in Iraq a special New Year’s treat, and let them try out Halo 3 in a special sneak preview. Someone managed to grab a couple of quick video clips (from their cellphone?)

Think your new-fangled 10 megapixel camera is hot stuff? Professional photographers can now pick up a camera that captures up to 160 million pixels in a single shot. The Seitz 6×17 is a panoramic high definition digital camera with an unbelievable resolution of 7,500 by 21,250 pixels.