Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

Every few days, somebody tries to outdo the last goofy USB memory stick design and this one takes the cake for me today. The Oooms (I just like saying that!) Wooden USB Memory Stick is literally a real stick.

Creative Technology has just announced the release of their new ZEN Vision W. The new mobile media player features a 4.3 inch diagonal 16:9 widescreen TFT display (480 x 272 resolution) for video playback, and either 30GB or 60GB of hard drive storage.

PlayStation Magazine has published an unconfirmed report from unnamed sources that state that Sony is working on a new model of the PlayStation Portable (PSP) for release in 2007. PSM’s Editors believe that the upgrade will be a revision of the existing hardware at the same retail price as the current model.

The Dtech memory card reader supports a whopping 52 memory card formats, including: CF I, CF II, Extreme CF, Extreme III CF, Ultra II CF, HS CF, XS-XS CF, CF Elite PRO, CF PRO, CF PRO II, IMB MD, Hitachi MD, MagicStor, MS, MS PRO, MS Duo, MS PRO Duo, MS MG, MS MG PRO, MS MG Duo, MS MG PRO Duo, Extreme MS PRO, Extreme III MS PRO, Ultra II MS PRO, HS MS MG PRO, HS MS MG PRO Duo, HS MS PRO, HS MS PRO Duo, MS ROM, MS Select, SD, *MiniSD, HS Mini SD, Extreme SD, Extreme III SD, Ultra II SD, SD-Ultra-X, Ultra speed SD, SD PRO, SD Elite PRO, HS SD, MMC, MMC 4.0, HS MMC, HS RS MMC, RS MMC, RS MMC 4.0, DV-RS MMC, SM, SM ROM, XD, and *T-Flash (* requires adapter).

Sharp Electronics isn’t sitting idly by in the “whose is bigger?” battle. Hot on the heels of announcements of Sony and Samsung’s 52-inchers, the folks at Sharp have announced a new series LCD screens in their Aquos line.

The iRocker Interactive Sound Chair from Adonis Furniture features a built-in speaker system and a dock for your iPod. It can also be connected to external audio devices (analog only, though). The 100 model features a 10-watt amp, while the 200 and 250 models feature 15-watt amps and a more robust chair design.

Microsoft today released the Beta of their XNA Game Studio Express software development kit. The SDK will allow independent developers to create games for Windows Vista and the Xbox 360 (soon). Now you still have to know how to program in C# in order to use this software, so it’s not for the uninitiated.

The new Samsung LN-S5296D is a 1080P (1920×1080) resolution 52-inch LCD flat panel HDTV due in stores by September. The set is one of the largest LCD flat panels you can get on the street for less than $5000 USD.

Electronic Arts and Criterion announced today that Burnout 5 is in development and slated for release sometime in 2007 on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. The new game will offer an expansive universe with tons of traffic to destroy.

A couple of months back, I posted about my concerns that my Xbox 360 had overheated and died as a result of the next-gen game Prey. Now Kotaku is reporting about an Xbox 360 developer who reported an esimated 30-50% failure rate on Xbox 360s used in the testing games, with even higher failure rates on the zombie-killer Dead Rising.

HDBeat has received a tip from a Best Buy staffer that the long-awaited TiVo Series 3 HD DVR will be in stores very soon. According to the tipster, the device is listed now in Best Buy’s computer system with a scheduled “in stock” date of September 17th with a Best Buy SKU of 7974418 (UPC is 400079744186 and Model number is TCD648250B).

Xbox insider Major Nelson is reporting that Microsoft has released a new backwards compatibility update which provides support for the following games: Aggressive Inline Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis All Star Baseball 2003 All Star Baseball 2005 Burnout 3: Takedown Catwoman Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart UPDATED Counter Strike Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth Dead to Rights Digimon Rumble Arena 2 UPDATED ESPN Major League Baseball Fatal Frame 2 Ford vs.

The soon to be released Logitech Z-10 Interactive Speaker System features a built-in display capable of showing title and track information for the currently playing digital music track. Data for the backlit LCD is fed via the speakers’ USB connection.

At the 2006 International Meeting on Information Display in South Korea, Samsung demonstrated prototype portable screens using AMOLED display technology. AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) claims to have a much greater contrast ratio, lower power consumption, better viewing angle, wider color gamut and faster refresh rate than similar TFT LCD screens.

LG is working on a 42-inch LCD monitor capable of displaying images in either 2D or 3D without glasses, by simply toggline a switch. At this time, there are no other details on the technology or when a release is expected.

While Microsoft is touting the wonders of the music sharing features of the new Zune media player, I’m quite familiar with a project in which a team from the MIT Media lab developed a similar wireless music sharing capability a couple of years ago.