Gadgets, Gizmos, and Games for Geeks

I believe this old NEC TurboGrafx 16 game qualifies as one of strangest games I’ve ever seen. I’ll simply let the images speak for themselves… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_ASh8zrG90

It’s official. After many months of rumors and false starts, it’s been announced that chip maker AMD has plans to purchase top graphics chip maker ATI for appx. $5.4 billion. Pending shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal should close in Q4 2006.

The charlatans and snake-oil salespeople in corporate product marketing departments often are pressured to announce and hype products that are clearly not ready for prime time. Over the years, there have been numerous examples of long-delays and missed ship dates (see Windows Vista), but there is a special place in hell for these products that never, ever were released, despite years of development and buzz.

Microsoft’s so-called “iPod killer”, currently known as “Zune” could be unveiled as early as late next month, with the company preparing to build momentum towards an October launch, sources close to the situation have told BetaNews.

Set to ship just in time for the 2006 holidays, Panasonic has finally announced it’s pricing on its massive 103″ TH-103PZ600U Plasma TV. The set features 1080p resolution and a 4000:1 contrast ratio. With a display area of 89.3″ wide by over 50.2″ high, it’s as large as four 50″ Plasma screens.

Japanese gadget importer Audiocubes these really nifty kits from Tomy that let you make your own desktop video game art using “bitmap” pegs. Comes with 520 pegs and available in Mario Brothers Red & Green, Pac-Man, Dig-Dug, and Space Invaders versions.

Since buying my Xbox 360 console back on launch day in November 2005, I’ve been one of the fortunate 360 owners to never have a problem with overheating, disc scratches or freezes. My console is in a wide-open, well-ventilated area and had always behaved well.

Panasonic announced a September release date for its new Lumix DMC-LX2 digital camera (MSRP $499.95). Featuring a whopping 10.2 megapixel, 16:9 aspect ratio CCD, I can’t imagine anyone needing more resolution. The camera also features 4x optical zoom, optical image stabilization, a 300 picture battery-life and an updated ISO control unit which is said to improve light sensitivity even at the highest resolution.

This new phone from Samsung, the SGH-P200, supports a new feature called UMA (Unlicensed Mobile Access, not Thurman). This allows the phone to freely switch between cellular networks such as GSM, GPRS, EDGE and WiFi (802.11 b/g) for connectivity.

Rumor has it that Microsoft’s “iPod killer” / portable gaming device, known as “Zune” will integrate the social networking (aka “friends list” from Xbox Live) features of the previously announced Live Anywhere system. The Zune, developed by Xbox 360 guru J.

This nifty gadget is one of the most flexible, compact karaoke devices I’ve seen. It includes docking capabilities for pretty much every iPod model since the 3G, and can also pull its data from files on USB storage devices.

This screen capture grabbed from xbox.com today is either a slip-up or Cliffy B’s much-anticipated Xbox 360 shooter Gears of War has an official date of October 2, 2006. It wouldn’t be the first time that a date was posted for a game that isn’t accurate, but I’m marking my calendar just in case.

Marcus over at EvoSapien has not only hacked the trusty Robosapien V2 robot into a flame-throwing machine… But also shot this awesome music video (Lyrics not safe for work) of the beast in action. Enjoy! I need one of these in my office to keep out nagging employees and salespeople.

The folks over at PlayEngine are offering a 19″ widescreen LCD with a case made from Bamboo. Perfect for your tropical or jungle-themed room (are you listening Elvis?), the set actually has fairly decent specs, with a 1440 x 900 resolution and 8ms refresh rate.

Display-makers Sony Corporation and Samsung Electronics announced today that they have signed a deal to build a massive new LCD production facility capable of manufacturing 46 and 50 inch LCD displays. The new facility can crank out up to six 50″ or eight 46″ LCD panels from a single glass sheet.

This week, Kensington Computer Products announced a very cool new FM transmitter for iPods. What’s unique about this model is that it’s the first to use the Radio Data System (RDS) to transmit and display song titles and artist information to car stereos that support this technology.