Archive for June, 2009
Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says he sees the number of games bought per console slowing if the price on the PlayStation 3 doesn’t go down, and that his company (the largest independent game developer in the world, thanks in part to that sweet, sweet Blizzard cash) might consider dropping the PS3 and PSP in 2010 or 2011 if things don’t improve. He says Activision paid $500 million in royalties to Sony last year, but the Xbox 360 and Wii are cheaper to develop for and offer a better return on investment. Still, with 23 million PS3s out there in the world, we’d think it’d be difficult to ignore the console entirely — especially for cross platform titles like the upcoming Modern Warfare 2, where a majority of the work takes place in content development and gameplay mechanics. Of course, with games like Guitar Hero, DJ Hero and Tony Hawk now demanding the purchase of peripherals along with the game itself, Activision itself could certainly be doing more to make gaming cheaper on consumers… but we suppose that’s another conversation entirely.
[Via Joystiq]
Filed under: Gaming
Activision threatens to drop Sony if Sony doesn’t drop PS3 and PSP prices originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Make no bones about, Maingear‘s new Axess HD Gamer (and by merit of its namesake, HTPC, too) is nothing if not a powerhouse for those wanting to pay an arm and a leg for a souped up gaming experience. You want specs? At its best, we’re looking at an Intel Core i7 on a X58 chipset, dual NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT in SLI, up to 12GB of DDR3 RAM, Blu-ray, Windows Vista / Media Center, and two 3.5-inch storage bays supporting 320GB SSD or 2TB HDD. If you need more nerd cred, ghost of vaporware past Phantom Lapboard serves as one of the bundled input devices, as does the NVIDIA GeForce 3D vision kit and a 22-inch Samsung LCD. Starting price is $1,799, but if you wanna go for broke — and whether not you can, you probably want to — top configurations can run you well over $5,000.
Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Home Entertainment
Maingear’s Axess HD Gamer PC looks to blow your mind, empty your wallet originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 18, 2009
Didja hear the news? There’s a new iPhone coming out tomorrow! Okay, snark aside, we know there’s still a good number of you who want to brave the weather and grab yourself a brand spanking new 3G S, but for whatever reason didn’t pre-order ahead of time. Not to worry, we’re here to help!
United States
If you pre-ordered the phone in-store from AT&T, you can pick it up tomorrow at 7:00AM from that same retail outlet. Everyone else will have to wait until the normal business hours, and from there it’s first come, first serve. If you’re wanting to head to an Apple store, be sure to set your alarms for the right time: each one is opening at 7:00AM local time. Apple’s online site has a field to let you complete pre-authorization ahead of time, but that won’t guarantee you availability so still plan on waiting outside before sunrise. You can also try your luck at Best Buy and Walmart, which should be receiving some stock for each store. As for online pre-orders from either AT&T or Apple, well, just go with whatever the shipping date currently says.
United Kingdom
O2 customers can get their 3G S starting at 8:02AM — yes, that’s the official time, and not a minute sooner, we suspect — from O2, Apple, and Carphone Warehouse stores. Prices vary based on a variety of 18 and 24 month plans, as well as Pay & Go plans.
Canada
Unsurprisingly, Rogers and subsidiary Fido will be handling your iPhone fix. Also, for the first time, you can also drop by an Apple retail store, which should open around 8:00AM local time. From what we can tell, the Rogers / Fido stores aren’t opening early, but just to be safe, you might wanna call tonight or plan on showing up an hour before the usual time.
Obviously, there’s more than a few countries we’re not covering here, so hit up the read link to check out Apple’s official site for details by region, and feel free to share your own tips in the comments below!
Filed under: Cellphones
How to get an iPhone 3G S tomorrow in US, UK, and Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 22:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 18, 2009
It’s pretty gross in NY right now — sure, you’ve seen rain before, but you’ve never really experienced it until you’ve seen the grit and determination of these city folk wandering around in a light downpour with their $500 umbrellas. That’s why it comes as zero surprise to see that despite the ongoing drizzle, a few brave souls have gathered in front of Apple’s flagship store to be among the first in the States to get an iPhone 3G S tomorrow morning. Sure, they could’ve pre-ordered for delivery and stayed dry, but what’s the fun in that? So far it’s four friends from The iLife blog keeping each other company, with plans to upgrade one of the crew’s original iPhones (for that attractive full subsidy price). These guys also braved the mayhem of the iPhone 3G launch, and who knows if they’ll wise up before the next one. By 7AM tomorrow they’ll have spent 24 hours in the elements — quite a lot of commitment for a phone, but hey, that video recording bit is pretty neat, and male bonding is forever. Meet these guys and their cloud-sent adversary on video after the break, and check out the read link for their ongoing liveblog of the launch — naturally courtesy of some iPhone 3.0 tethering.
Continue reading iPhone 3G S line begins in NY, weather be damned
Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds
iPhone 3G S line begins in NY, weather be damned originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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June 18, 2009
We will be attending the Intel Research Day at the Computer History Museum from 10am to 2pm (P.T.) today, and this is one event where Intel normally showcases a whole bunch of upcoming news and products that the company is currently burning the midnight oil as their engineers work in its labs round the clock. It will also be a special opportunity for us to present questions directly to the engineers who will be there. We’ve heard that this year the show would be particularly “visual”, so do follow our live blog for more details during the time stated! If you have any questions that you’d like us to ask, why not drop a comment and we’ll see what we can do.
Permalink: Intel Research Day 2009 from Ubergizmo | Hot: Wii, PS3 and Natal Motion Sensing
June 18, 2009
Johnny Carson may have had his monkeys, but Jimmy Fallon has, well, Josh. Our very own Jack Hannah of late night gadgetry. Watch Josh school Jimmy in the ways of the iPhone 3G S in the video after the break — don’t worry, it’s been edited down for the safety of children. Sure, Mr. Topolsky (as he makes us call him) is a big shot now, but you can still remember him when.
Continue reading Video: Josh, Jimmy, and the iPhone 3 Ga-Speed
Video: Josh, Jimmy, and the iPhone 3 Ga-Speed originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
June 17, 2009
Networks in Motion (NIM) and Yahoo! are partnering to offer Gokivo, the new turn-by-turn navigation app for iPhone 3.0. We know that NIM, Gokivo’s developer, uses the new iPhone 3GS’ powerful GPU to render the maps, so we assume that the scrolling should be fluid (we do not own an iPhone, yet) .
Features include:
- Yahoo! Local business information like gas stations, ATMs, restaurants, and other POI.
- Embedded iPod control, allows users to play music while navigating, the music fades for voice prompts
- Real time traffic and alerts
- Bluetooth integration (music and voice prompts)
- Users can Select a different route to the same destination by shaking the iPhone
The application is available for .99 to purchase and $9.99/month subscription.
Networks In Motion is the company behind the Verizon Navigation app VZ Navigator and the AAA mobile app (super practical!) among many others.
Permalink: Gokivo: Yahoo! and NIM Navigation App for iPhone from Ubergizmo | Hot: Wii, PS3 and Natal Motion Sensing
June 17, 2009
Looks like fashion label Lacoste will be rolling out their own handsets sometime next year thanks to an agreement with ModeLabs who will be manufacturing the phones. There is no further details available concerning this agreement apart from the promise that this ModeLabs Lacoste phone will reflect the quality values, the simplicity and elegance of the Lacoste brand. Well, here’s an interesting question – do you think it will be a luxury model to follow in the footsteps of other fashion handsets, or do you think this will be a vanilla version?
Permalink: Lacoste Phone Coming Next Year from Ubergizmo | Hot: Wii, PS3 and Natal Motion Sensing
Oh hi, HiPhone. Not much of a surprise to see you here, again. The latest masterpiece, the HiPhone F06-Slim, is a Frankenstein amalgamation of KIRF favorite iPhone and RIM’s first foray into the world of touchscreen phones, albeit with a slightly smaller, 3.2-inch display. We’re also looking at a 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio, microSD support, GPRS, Bluetooth, dual SIM card slots, and “TV phone” capabilities, which we’re taking to mean a mobile receiver of some sort. Looks like it forgot the refresh button on the bottom of the device, but with any luck, it left out SurePress as well. If you hang out with the kind of friends who respect a good knockoff, the price of raising your street cred is just a penny under $190 before shipping.
[Via PMP Today]
Filed under: Cellphones
Keepin’ it real fake, part CCXVI: HiPhone F06-Slim is brewing up a Storm originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Ready for a double dose of Tegra newsbits? We’ve been wondering what’s packed in the Zune HD for some time now, but apparently PC Perspective has had the answer since Computex and didn’t realize the newsworthiness until now. According to the article, NVIDIA staffers told the site that its uber-powerful Tegra processor will be the heart and soul of Microsoft’s revised PMP. There’s been no official word from anyone, and for all we know it might’ve been some (possibly misinformed) employee mouthing off for kicks. If true, however, it’d be one helluva ‘screw you’ from Microsoft to Windows Mobile fans, who’ve been waiting over a year at this point to see some retail hardware running on NVIDIA’s mobile platform. We’ve put in calls to both companies for some sort of statement, but we’re not getting our hopes up.
In other news, a group of researchers from Georgia Tech and Savannah College of Art and Design are showing off some of CPU’s impressive potential with an augmented reality game ARhrrrr. Using a Tegra-powered mobile dev kit, the game projects a 3D town based on a two-dimensional diagram where you tap the screen to shoot zombies, or lay Skittles in real life to serve as virtual bombs. We’ve seen similar implementations before, but we’re admittedly quite infatuated with this one, and as a bonus, there’s video of the demo after the break.
Read – Zune HD uses NVIDIA Tegra processor
Read – Augmented Environments Lab: ARhrrrr!
Continue reading Tegra might power Zune HD, definitely does augmented zombie reality
Filed under: Cellphones
Tegra might power Zune HD, definitely does augmented zombie reality originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 22:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
