Gadgets Future

Posted Mar 9th 2008 5:29PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Gaming
Sure, your games are thrilling and all, but they don’t exactly cause actual pain, do they? Well, that’s all going to change thanks to the two twisted dreamers who started the company Mindwire, and their electroshock feedback device, the V5. That’s right, next time you get fragged in Unreal, sacked in Madden, or robbed in GTA — you get shocked in real life. Just the sadistic thrill you’ve been after, right? The device works by splitting your controller input to the “brain” of the V5 and your console, then sends electric jolts via electrode pads on your skin. Right now the company has a model tested and working with the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PCs, though they appear to be making preparations for current gen consoles in the next iteration of the device. If you’re content with the choices at hand, this self-torture can be yours for £99.99 (or around $201). Check the totally awesome video after the break to see the V5 in action.

[Via Coolest gadgets]

Posted Mar 9th 2008 4:59PM by Chris Ziegler
Filed under: cellphonesWhat the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi’s announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson’s partnership with KDDI — a CDMA carrier — will continue. [Warning: subscription required]

Update: It turns out that Sony Ericsson intends to continue working with DoCoMo by initially delivering new models through mid ‘08, at which point it will start buying handsets from other manufacturers and rebranding them. In other countries this would be truly egregious, but as our Japanese bureau points out, DoCoMo lays out very strict requirements for each of its lines that would probably make it difficult to distinguish a true Sony Ericsson model from a rebranded model sourced from, say, Sharp or Toshiba.

Duck Fadar
Any jokes about us going quackers, will not - we repeat - will not be permitted. Now, here are the fundamental features that make these two deserving of a place at you bath side.

See price

Posted Mar 9th 2008 7:28PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Laptops
In a recent interview, Asus CEO Jerry Shen talked up the company’s newest edition to the Eee family, and also dropped a few more details on the forthcoming laptop. Apparently, the new set of miniature PCs will carry SSDs as opposed to the flash memory we saw in previous iterations, with sizes ranging from 8GB in the XP-equipped model, up to 12GB or 20GB in the Linux versions — though it’s hard to say why the smaller-footprint Linux would need more drive space. Shen also revealed that there are tentative plans to release WiMAX and HSDPA-enabled models sometime in Q3 of 2008, and he confirmed that come May the company will trade up from VIA CPUs to Intel’s Diamondville (er, Atom) chips. In addition, more colors are on the way, and the base price in the US will be $499 at launch — though that figure is expected to drop in the following months.

[Via Eee Site]

Posted Mar 9th 2008 3:35PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: cellphones
Finally, iphone owners no longer have to mope around with a feeling of shame and embarrassment in their hearts: AT&T has blessed them with an “unlimited” calling plan. That’s right, if you so desire (and you do so desire, don’t you?), you can latch a $119.99 all-you-can-eat plan onto your super-device. Sure, it looks peachy, until you notice that despite your “unlimited” status, you still only get a measly 200 text messages, which is like a three-course steak dinner with no dessert. At least you’ll never again have to end a conversation with Mom because you’re worried about overages — though you’ll want to keep a close watch on those SMSs, since the prices seem to be constantly heading skyward.

[Thanks, impuLsive]

Posted Mar 9th 2008 1:37PM by Joshua Topolsky
Filed under: Portable AudioWord on the street (and by street, we mean mostly British tabloids) is that Paul McCartney’s deal to sell the Beatles back-catalog is done, and the Greatest Works of Musical Art Ever Recorded will be appearing on the iTunes store “within months.” Of course, we’ve been hearing whispers about this for what seems like a million years, and since both Apple Corps and Apple are delivering “no comment” and “rumor and speculation” responses on the topic, we won’t get too excited. Still, there does seem to be some serious movement on this front, with everyone and their mother saying the lot is to be sold any day now for around $400 million — which is no small sum. We will, of course, keep you abreast of any developments which will lead to you stocking your music players with the Fab Four’s work.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Vigor Gaming has announced the latest addition to its high-end desktop lineup, Colossus.

The Vigor Gaming Colossus is the most powerful system offered by the company and it can currently support up to eight processing cores, up to 8GB of fully-buffered DDR2 memory clocked at 800MHz, 2 Terabytes of Hard Drive space in RAID-0 configuration, a 1000W power supply and four graphics cards. Colossus is capable of running up to two XHD (2560×1600 resolution) monitors

Based on Skulltrail, Intel’s first Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform, the Colossus features full support for two Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 quad-core processors. Clocked at 3.2GHz and capable of reaching much higher speeds through Vigor’s complimentary overclocking service, these enterprise-level chips provide industry-leading performance that can handle even the most graphically intense computer games with ease. The Intel D5400XS mainboard that makes Skulltrail possible also incorporates the latest technologies from NVIDIA and AMD that allow for multi-GPU configurations.

Thanks to these powerful graphic cards, the Colossus is capable of running up to two XHD (2560×1600 resolution) monitors with stunning clarity and minimal effect on performance. The Vigor Gaming Colossus can be configured with Windows Vista 64-bit and up to 8GB of fully-buffered DDR2 memory clocked at 800MHz. All of these high-end components are cooled using Vigor’s exclusive Twin-Peaks cooling system, allowing the Colossus to run at full speed indefinitely. The Colossus is designed primarily for use as an extreme gaming desktop, but doubles as a powerful multimedia content platform, making it the perfect solution to blend work and play on a single computer.

A fully-configured Vigor Gaming Colossus PC, including two Western Digital Raptor 150 Hard Drives, two AMD Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics cards, 8GB of fully-buffered DDR2 800 memory, high-fidelity audio by Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi, and many other high-end components would cost just over $8100.

Posted Mar 9th 2008 10:06AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
No sense in forcing someone to stick with the tried and true MP3 / WMA regimen when formats such as OGG, APE, FLAC and AAC are out there, right? Apparently, the folks at Teclast are nodding their heads in agreement, as the firm’s latest PMP handles all of the aforementioned files alongside WAV, AVI, RM and RMVB. Additionally, the 7.9-millimeter thick PlayFX-compatible unit features a 2.4-inch QVGA (320 x 240) resolution display, 2GB / 4GB / 8GB of capacity, a built-in FM tuner / recorder and a text viewer. No word on price or availability, but considering the dearth of integrated WiFi, we can’t actually see Mariah being interested.

[Via PMPToday]

Posted Mar 9th 2008 7:08AM by Paul Miller
Filed under: Storage
Samsung promised it was coming in March, and here she blows. The Spinpoint M6 is the first standard-height 500GB 2.5-incher available, at a lean 9.5mm, meaning you can cram it into most existing laptops unlike the 2.5-inch 500 giggers from Fujitsu and Hitachi. Samsung’s using some Perpendicular Magnetic Recording tech to cram everything in, stuffing three 167GB platters into the 5400rpm drive. The M6 goes for $299 and is shipping now. If DVD burning is more your pace, Samsung also just announced an “industry fastest” 22X DVD burner, the SH-S223. The SATA drive can stamp a 4.7GB disc in 12 minutes, and does dual-layer discs at a respectable 16X. No word on price yet for that one.

Posted Mar 9th 2008 11:38AM by Darren Murph
Filed under: Misc. gadgets
Keeping with the Tangent tradition, the Quattro Mk 2 looks an awful lot like most every other tabletop radio the outfit cranks out. Nevertheless, this particular iteration pays no mind to DAB and focuses its attention on providing access to a smorgasbord of internet radio stations. Aside from featuring both integrated WiFi and an Ethernet port, you’ll also get WPA2 security support, FM tuning capabilities, a backlit LCD, a headphone jack and a auxiliary port for connecting DAPs / PMPs. Word on the street has the walnut and black models selling now for £179.95 ($362), while the glossy red and white versions demand an extra £20 ($40).

[Via Tech Digest]