For a long time now, the world has waited patiently for a portable device that was able to take the experiences you encounter on a console and put them in your pocket. A portable device that could deliver stunning graphics, intuitive and on-par gameplay, multimedia entertainment and more. Sony’s first PSP may have paved the way for portable gaming around the world, and while the PS Vita may not be a redefinition regarding how we play portably, it is certainly the closest thing you’re going to get to console gaming outside of your home. However, a few business decisions and the ever growing competition could prove fatal to Sony’s flagship handheld, regardless of the quality it brings to the table.

When I first booted up the PS Vita, I was excited and ready to be introduced to a new form of portable play. I owned a PSP, but never really got into it as it was unable to give me the same experiences that I was able to get playing a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. So, I was excited, but skeptical at the same time, and after a few hours I was a bit worried as well. I couldn’t bring myself to enjoy my PS Vita more than my PC which was just a few meters away. It was console gaming on the move, but I wasn’t “on the move”, so the appeal nearly vanished. But Sony didn’t design the PS Vita to contend with consoles. It designed it to provide an optimal portable gaming experience, and after taking it along over a weekend away, I saw Sony’s hard work in action.

To say that the Playstation Vita is a console in your pocket is probably the most accurate description I can give the device. The device is fairly big, meaning that a snug fit in your back pocket may not be an option, but tossing it in a backpack or jacket pocket is still on the cards. Considering the times, this is not essentially such a big deal, especially since our pockets are usually filled with our big smartphones and IPods anyway. The big size allowed Sony to squeeze in more features and control options at the sacrifice of size, which was a smart move on their part.

Probably the biggest new control option is the inclusion of two comfortable thumbsticks over the bizarre single one on the PSP. Having two thumbsticks opens up more possibilities for games on the PS Vita, and takes a a huge leap forward in feeling more like a console on the move rather than a hardware spin-off. The casing is made entire out of plastic, though it feels thick and hard, so it could probably survive a drop or two. Just don’t go throwing the thing at walls and expecting it to bounce back. Sony sadly stuck with the glossy finish for the product, meaning that your new device will go from a pristine, shiny new console to a fingerprint littered mess in only a few minutes out of the box. The gloss gives the product a premium look out of the box, but it’s baffling that Sony didn’t choose a matte finish instead. It’s a device that is going to be touched and fiddled with a lot, surely that should’ve warranted a bit more thought into a gloss-free design?

Besides the utterly blind gloss decision, the rest of the Vita is actually very well designed. Buttons click down in a manner that feels more like a mouse click rather than a traditional controller press, but the change is welcomed. The buttons are smaller, but you’ll never find yourself hitting more buttons than you wish. Thumbsticks don’t click down and aren’t the same size as their controller counterparts, but their rubber surface makes them easy to use and control, even after extended hours of play. I found myself occasionally having to re-adjust my grip every now and then, especially when prompted to use the rear touch panel, but other than that the PS Vita is comfortable and practical to use and hold, which is a real accomplishment considering its size.

However, the really outstanding feature of the Vita has to be its stunning display. Sporting a 5′ OLED display, the Playstation Vita’s screen is a vast improvement over the PSP, and it’s not hard becoming engrossed in your game with a screen as gorgeous as this. Colours are vivid and deep, and while it my not be HD, it certainly gets close. However, there is still a major issue with glare. Step outside into the sunlight with your Vita, and it practically becomes unplayable. I even struggled sometimes on an overcast day, especially when playing games with a dark setting. This issue can be fought to an extent by notching up the brightness, but then you’ll be faced with an alarming battery life drop. On the standard brightness, the Vita’s battery lasts an impressive 5-6 hours, which is astonishing considering the hardware and graphical capabilities on the device.

Then comes Vita’s more “gimmicky” features. I say “gimmicky” mainly because that is exactly what I thought of them when first shown off at E3. The front and rear touch panels may seem like a cheap gimmick employed by Sony to raise the price for more real reasons, but they actually come into play very well with the device. It may not be explicitly apparent when you first boot up the device and everything you do involves touch, but after a bit of time with Welcome Park and especially Uncharted: Golden Abyss, it is apparent that these two features could form another layer of gameplay. For instance, in Uncharted, when Drake nearly misses a jump, the touch screen comes into play rather than Drake miraculously making the catch by himself. The rear touch pad is used to make charcoal rubbings and clean objects, making you feel as though you actually hold the object in your hands. The built-in accelerometer also aids with aiming and sniping, and even the camera is utilised in some interesting ways. If all developers utilise the Vita’s hardware in a similar way, then the features cease being gimmicks and rather add an interesting layer to your gameplay.

The Vita also does a great job of introducing you to all these and more new features using an application called Welcome Park. Basically, instead of just prompting text bubbles to pop up and tell you about each new feature, Welcome Park designs some mildly entertaining minigames that utilise each new feature that the Vita has to offer. Games that involve touching numbers in order, peeling away numbered tiles, solving tile puzzles that use a picture you took with the camera and more all help you understand the Vita’s already easy to use features, and even rewards you with Trophies for doing so. Sadly, the rest of the UI isn’t as friendly with you.

With the PS Vita, Sony decided to ditch the sleek XMB design that they have used in the past in favour of a more smartphone looking UI. Applications all have their own bubbles that require touch, and each application can be minimised and “peeled away” when not in use. While the multitasking aspect is appreciated, the whole look and feel of the UI feels like a step back. Rather than just redesigning the XMB design to work with touch and controls, the new UI can only be operated with touch. App bubbles don’t look that nice, and while you can rearrange them in order you want, there is no way to sort them into folders or delete icons that aren’t in use. Deleting an icon deletes the program, so what you’re stuck with is an ever growing list of bubble icons, which is even more aggravating when you take into account that each new game you play will come with its own icon. It’s cumbersome, annoying and not practical at all.

But despite all of this, the biggest problem that Sony might face from the Vita is the price needed to actually get one up and running. It was a slightly underhanded move for Sony to come out and say at E3 that their console was going for $249 for the WiFi option, and only $299 for the 3G/WiFi version. It didn’t sound that bad at all at the time, though Sony failed to mention that you’d need to spend more in actuality. I’m mainly speaking of the Vita’s memory cards here. Since there is no internal memory, a memory card is essential and not an optional accessory for the Vita. Now, this wouldn’t be such an issue of Sony didn’t make the things so obscenely expensive. I mean, R500.00 for a 16GB memory card? It’s ridiculous, and it could end up meaning a lot less sales for Sony.

To put it more into perspective, let me break it down. Say you’re looking for just the WiFi version, and you’d like Uncharted: Golden Abyss and an 8GB memory card. That bundle itself already costs around R3300.00, which is already more expensive than a 320GB Playstation 3 bundle with Uncharted 3 by R300.00. If you want to compare it to direct competition, the Nintendo 3DS only comes in at around R1799.00, which is over R1000.00 less. With this type of pricing, Sony is going to struggle to make initial sales when the device first drops around the rest of the world, as most people are probably going to wait for the inevitable price cuts, regardless of the fact that this is an amazing product.

Sadly, I wasn’t able to test out certain features such as the Playstation Store and Remote Play with the Vita yet, as some features will only make their debut when the device makes its global release on February 22nd. However, from the week I have spent so far with the Vita, I am beyond impressed. It will only truly hit you how amazing this device is when you get to try it out for yourself. Although Sony might need to focus on the market and prices in order to garner a more widespread appeal, the fact remains that the Playstation Vita is the most powerful, smart and impressive solution to portable gaming yet. If you love your console, gaming on the move, and won’t settle for anything but the best, then the Playstation Vita is exactly the product you should be purchasing.

It’s probably not the biggest revolution in gaming and very likely not a great idea but someone figured it would be intelligent to combine urinals with gaming to get a game that is controlled by your golden liquid waste.

It’s a wacky concept to say the least but how it works is that there are three targets on the urinal – left, right and centre. There’s a screen above the urinal with a game on it and to play the game you aim your stream on either of the 3 targets to move the little character on-screen.

Why couldn’t Nintendo think of this before they decided to name their console?

Did anyone else notice a game which seems to feature nude women? I really don’t want to know what goes down in that game.

Sony seems to have learned from the overall mistake that is the PSP and promises to do things right with the PlayStation Vita. The Vita will be billed first and foremost as a gaming device as opposed to the PSP which Sony kept trying to sell as a multimedia device.

Speaking to Official PlayStation Magazine UK, SCEE president Jim Ryan was very candid and open about the company’s dead-in-the-water handheld console.

“I think with PSP we tried to position it as a rather broad multimedia device. We talked a lot in the early days of PSP about its video playback functionality its use as a music device and a host of other multimedia functionality that it had,” he explained.

“I think this time we’ve realised that perhaps ended up confusing consumers, and they weren’t quite sure what the device was really all about. So this time the Vita does all of that stuff that we talked about on PSP, and it does it a lot better.”

PS Vita still has plenty of multimedia functionality, the SCEE boss reminded, but this time “what it does best is play games.”

He said: “We’ve been a lot more single minded and much more focused in our positioning of Vita. We’re saying that this is primarily a gaming device. It has been developed from the ground up as a gaming device. What it does best is play games.

“The other thing would be that we learned that what consumers didn’t really appreciate [about PSP] was, in many cases, getting ports of PS2 and then PS3 games for their PSP.

“They said if that’s what you’re going to do, I’ll just play the game on PS2 or PS3. We’re helped here by the nature of the interfaces that are available on the Vita. What we learned is that the gaming experiences need to be unique and differentiated for gamers to be able to get into them.”

The Vita titles that I’ve seen thus far look great and the console should succeed if it keeps getting exclusives like those. Perhaps the biggest hurdle for Vita will be its price but then again, the PS3 wasn’t exactly cheap either in the beginning.

The PS Vita is due in February 2012 and should fetch for around R3200.

It’s been rumoured for quite some time now that Apple is working on a TV that would facilitate everything users could want out of home entertainment, including gaming. It’s also been suggested that this Apple TV would do to conventional consoles what the iPod did to MP3 players.

A new report in the Guardian suggests that Apple is gearing up to launch its own range of TV’s in the second half of 2012. Senior engineer Jeff Robson is said to be heading up the project with the televisions rumoured to feature voice and gesture recognition. Robson created the iTunes system and helped develop the iPod.

Peter Misek, an analyst at American bank Jefferies, claims that Sharp will begin work on LCD screens for Apple televisions in February 2012.

“Other TV manufacturers have begun a scrambling search to identify what iTV will be and do,” he claimed. “They hope to avoid the fate of other industries and manufacturers who were caught flat-footed by Apple.”

Steve Jobs said in a biography published after his death: “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

How real the Apple TV is at the moment is very questionable but it does seem to be the last legacy of Steve Jobs.

As you read this, two lucky bastards people are enjoying ogling and using their very own Elders Scroll V: Skyrim-themed Xbox 360′s given out at a walkthrough of the game shown at PAX 2011 this weekend. So far as gaming swag goes this is worthy of the subscript: “must have, now”.

Jealous? Yeah, me too and I’m not even an Xbox guy but fear not because Betsheda has assured fans that it’s in talks with Microsoft to produce a number of limited edition Skyrim consoles in addition to the two given out at the weekend.

While we’re talking Xbox’s, have you seen the custom Batman: Arkham City-themed consoles given out at PAX? They’re not too bad either.

No controller is perfect, right? The PS3′s one has clunky ergonomics and sticky trigger buttons whereas the Xbox 360 has a soft D-pad. Do you prefer to 360 or PS3 analogue layout, convex or concave analogue sticks? So many variables so many possibilities for the perfect controller in every indivdual’s eyes.

Usually perfecting the ergonomics and layout of your controller is more expensive than coating it in Muir but Mad Catz has an answer. They’ve developed a modular controller where every aspect of it can be swapped, tweaked and adjusted.

Christened by Major League Gaming ( that’s usually an indication that it’s pretty good), the Pro-Circuit controllers from Mad Catz utilise what they call the ProModule system. What it entails is a controller designed for elements such as the D-pad and analogue sticks to cheaply and easily be swapped out and adjusted.

Each controller also comes with four analogue sticks, two concave and two convex as well as a PS3 and Xbox style D-pad. The layout can also be tweaked sicne each analogue and the D-pad can be locked into any one of three open slots.

If you really want to get anal (no homo), Mad Catz has designed a special compartment in the base of the controller which allows suers to add or subtract as much as 70g from it so as to control its weight and feel.

For aesthetics and being arbitrarily different, the controllers are also fitted with a series of magnetic faceplates which can be removed and skinned for a custom look.

Pricing is yet to be announced but this definitely sounds like one to consider if you’re into crafting a precision controller for the ultimate in gaming control.

Feast your eyes upon the latest official Xbox steering wheel peripheral to come from Microsoft. The biggest thing to notice is the lack of any wires. The wheel is wireless and looks not only pretty comfortable but also quite cool. Like the kind of thing you’d steer a futuristic go-kart with.

The wheel features left and right triggers as well as all the face buttons. It will retail for around $60 (R405.00) which really isn’t all that much for a peripheral like this that looks so cool. If course, this peripheral has been made with Forza 4 in mind but Microsoft claims that it will work with all current racers as well, although with the provision that there will be “limited functionality” in certain games.

The wheel will also have haptic feedback and rumble, but no mention was made though of how players will steer with the wheel. It looks as if you can attach it to something of your choosing, or perhaps it will come with its own detachable base.

Either way, the Microsoft Xbox steering wheel is due out in October.

Yes, they said it was impossible but here it finally is; glasses-free 3D on a large resolution screen.

Last year, Toshiba brought glasses-free 3D TV’s to the masses of Japan but sales were not good and Toshiba blamed this mainly on the fact that they could only employ the technology in small size screens (around 22″). In the least cynical way possible, I would have to assume that the hefty price of around R20 000 had a big part to play as well.

The company did however say that it was working tirelessly to overcome “mountains” of technical challenges to bring larger size models to the public by mid-2011 but wouldn’t you know it, someone’s beaten them to it.

According to Engadget, four Phillips employees who go by the label of Dimenco have launched a 52″ LCD panel TV offering full 1080p glasses-free 3D visuals in Japan. It even boats 2,000:1 contrast ratio, 8ms response time, 700 nits of brightness and a 60Hz refresh rate. Not bad for something made by a quartet of men.

It’s yours for ¥1.7 million. Sound too pricey for you? Well it is because it translates to R145 500. That’s enough to buy a brand new frickin’ car!

It hardly bares repetition, because it’s just so obvious but, computer generated images (CGI) in both the movies we watch and the games we play are improving constantly. We’re a far cry from Snake these days. One of the motives driving all these developments by game studios and so on over the years has been the goal of achieving photo-realism in graphics. Yet there seems to be a great divide amongst the art styles in the games of the past five years or so, maybe even more than that. It needs to be said that I am generalizing quite a lot here when I say that games have either an art direction that is going for ‘realism’ or an art direction that is going for a more ‘cartoony’, stylized approach. But I think that just about all games can be clumped more or less into one of the two categories.

As progress occurs in the field of graphics computing we get nearer to being able to produce photo-realistic graphics, but we also get closer and closer to a looming obstacle that is on the path to photo-realism. It’s called the “uncanny valley” and it is a term first coined by Japanese roboticist, Masahiro Mori.

Masahiro's "uncanny valley".

This phenomenon occurs when something like a character in a computer game is approaching a state where it is quite indistinguishable from a human being in real life, but has not quite reached that level of detail. When it looks almost, but not quite like a human Masahiro says that when a person looks at this character there will an instinctive feeling of uneasiness (a feeling of dis-ease if you will). It is like looking at the wax replicas of celebrities in Madame Tussauds. Those things are creepy as hell, man!

Apparently, this feeling of revulsion for something almost human in appearance but not quite is built into all people. It is an instinctive reaction that theoretically came about when our ancestors had someone in the tribe caught a disease and develops that sort of waxen appearance from the fever and sweating. So, our ancestors being the great human beings that they were, stayed as far away from that person as possible until they either got better or died. Pretty brutal I guess, but hey survival is a kill or be killed situation. Anyway, whether or not Mori’s theory holds any water aside, there is an unmistakable creepiness (to me at least) about this robotic replica of him.

Masahiro Mori and Bizarro Mori, not saying which is which.

I’m not saying that computer graphics have reached this stage of sophistication yet. I think that the current state of CGI in computer and console games is still a long way away from reproducing human-like characters, but it will happen make no mistake. That being said there is a bit of a problem emerging with trying to go for ‘realism’ in one’s art direction. Nobody wants to feel creeped out by the protagonist of the game they just bought.

At this point you may be thinking that what I just claimed is rubbish: “I love creepy games! Zombies are freaking cool, bro.” You are quite correct. People do enjoy creepy games. There is an entire genre dedicated to it called “Horror”, but these games are designed to be scary. When you start up the game, you know what you are in for. Now imagine: the year is 2020, you just went to the shops and bought the latest Mass Effect. “Totally sweet, I am going to save the universe again!” But when you run this game Commander Shepherd looks “off” in some way, like he has tick-bite fever. Not so cool.

This is why for the next few years I anticipate more and more games going for a more ‘cartoony’ art direction. When the developers of our dear games don’t necessarily attempt to make the game look as real as possible they avoid the problem of making the characters looking almost human, but not quite. I also think that game titles that have in the past been in camp ‘realism’ are starting to shift over to the other side. Just look at these two images. One is from WWE All Stars, for this year. The other is from its predecessor WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010. Both are titles for the Xbox 360.

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2010.

WWE All Stars (2011).

I know it’s ironic to talk about the proportions of the two characters (above) seeing as they are wrestlers, but that is what I think mostly makes the art style ‘cartoony’ or not. In the older game the characters proportions are rather close to what they are in real life. He’s probably a big guy, but I make no excuses for the Speedo he’s wearing (in fact I’m sorry you had to see that). Then look at the character from the game released this year. His head is all out of whack. He has a colossal chin. His fingers are the size of Frankfurters and his shoulder muscles are bigger than his head. He looks unrealistic, on purpose. The art style for the IP has moved towards a more ‘cartoony’ feel.

If my prediction is true and we start seeing more games that are deliberately unrealistic in appearance that’s not a bad thing. I’ve got nothing against that direction. It’s worked for World of Warcraft since day one and some of my personal favourites have gone for this look. I also have a soft spot for games that look realistic though. Looking at the graph of the uncanny valley it seems hopeful that the ‘cartoony’ art direction won’t be forced on developers forever because they are trying to avoid that creepy appearance in game characters. Eventually the technology will get to a point where photo-realism is a real possibility and then games can really start to look exactly how the game studios imagine them. So here’s to a bright future, whatever it may be.

As is always the case with upcoming releases of anything, except maybe the Driver series, there will be mass hype surrounding it, and a few people trying to troll them all.

Is that the case here? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We can’t be sure, but what we can be sure of is that this picture has ended up on the internet with people calling it a Wii 2 prototype.

This just after Nintendo’s announcement that they are going to reveal the as yet unnamed console code-named “Project Cafe” at this year’s E3 gaming expo.

So if you see something during that reveal that looks like this, just remember where you saw it first… And if not then hey! [Insert troll face here]

Yeah… Unless they’re seriously going retro with this design, I highly doubt this is what they say it is. But hey, who knows.

There are many things that are big in Japan; television manufacturers, motor vehicle manufacturers, Godzilla, the Pacific Ocean, but not many can match up to the multi billion dollar franchise that is Nintendo. Today, they have confirmed the upcoming release of their next console, the successor to the Toy Wii. The still unnamed console, which we’ll call Wii 2 for sanity’s sakes, will be revealed at this year’s E3 gaming expo in Los Angeles in June.

In an official statement, Nintendo said that the new console will go on sale in 2012.

Suggestions are that the new console might only be out after April 2012, since sales of the new system have not been included in the financial forecasts announced today for the fiscal term ending March 2012.

This is the first announcement of a proper release of the next generation of consoles after we broke the news to you this past week that Sony and Microsoft are apparently waiting until 2014 to release their new consoles.

Code-named “Project Cafe”, this console is rumoured to actually be a powerful machine (and not the toy that the Wii is), boasting specifications that better the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Which is to say, current gen stuff.

The Wii 2 will use a novel controller interface which utilizes a traditional d-pad and buttons scheme, together with a large touch-screen input. However support will remain, for Wii Remote-style controllers.

In the written statement, Nintendo said: “We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held from June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles.”

The announcement has confirmed many reports and rumours on various sites. According to Nintendo, there will also be more details shared at that time.

We’ll be covering all related news as it happens. So keep an eye out.

It’s called the Xio and it effectively allows you to turn your arm into a motion controlled rumble pack. Who needs Kinect or Move?

Developed by Novint, an outfit renowned for quirky peripherals and curious pieces of hardware, the Xio is said to add the sense of touch to gaming.

“Unlike current motion control technologies out there, you will be able to feel what is in the game,” explains Novint. “When you shoot a gun, take a full body golf swing, jump a car, or smash a sword into a shield, you’ll be able to feel what happens.”

The Xio is designed for PCs and is claimed to be lag-free apparently. The following video is a demo from Novint showing off the Xio in action along with a custom-built VR outfit that even uses an FPS gaming vest, the TN Games 3rd Space Vest. There’s also some prototype guns and a knife.

Sounds crazy, looks even crazier.

The PSP Go may have been a colossal flop as far as handheld consoles go but it’s still good to see the console put out of its misery. Sales were never really too good and with the NGP on its way, Sony have finally decided to cut the console from its production line.

Sony Japan has just announced that it has ceased production on the PSP Go and all future sales will be limited to current stock.

The Go was originally supposed to be sold alongside the NGP rather than replace it but Sony seem to have made the right call in cutting it which allows them to focus on the NGP.

Farewell PSP Go, we barely knew you and we never really wanted to in the first place.

Barely any time has passed since the release of the iPad 2 and already speculation has surfaced concerning its successor. According to the latest component manufacturer for the device, iPad 3 could feature an HD screen.

Of course the iPad 2 is not very different from its predecessor despite being more expensive but the next iPad could well take the tablet a big step forward. There are also rumours of Apple going for AMOLED touch panels which will certainly be capable of some gorgeous visuals.

Irrespective, it’s almost definite that iPad 3 won’t get out until 2012, even though the iPad 2 is clearly more of an intermediary update than a new model.

Christmas could well be an unhappy time for some people not least of which will be Sony. The fifth incarnation of Apple’s iPhone is due to release not sooner than September 2011 but the smart bet is on a Christmas 2011, if not early 2012, release which cold very well rain on Sony’s NGP parade.

Should the iPhone 5 get a late 2011 release, it will clash with the release of the Sony NGP (PSP 2). This is bound to upset Sony execs just a tad because of what happened very recently when the iPad 2 and Nintendo 3DS releases coincided and the Apple device smothered any chances of the handheld console getting off to a good start.

There are also unconfirmed rumours which suggest that the iPhone 5 will be more affordable than previous versions due to it being spec’d down. A more realistic possibility is two versions of the iPhone 5, one affordable and one high-end.

The iPhone is no doubt the single coolest device you can have today. It is technically great has a great load of features and is possibly the only piece of technology with a bit of sex appeal but it is pretty damn expensive.

So, to keep Android from sneaking up on it with all those cheaper smart phones, Apple has a smaller, cheaper version of its global phenomenon in the pipeline. According to Bloomberg, the iPhone Nano would be roughly 2/3  the size of the iPhone 4. Apple is consdiering retailing the standalone phone for $200 (R1512) whereas the iPhone 4 currently goes for as much as $300 (R2268) with a contract. Realistically though, the Nano would go for something more like R5500 since the iPhone 4 costs in the region of R8000 here.

The cheap and cheerful model would also similar components to those you get in the iPhone 4 rather than the considerably more expensive ones that are set to be used in the iPhone 5.

Apple is due to unveil the iPhone Nano some time towards the middle of the year although the company declined to comment on Bloomberg’s claims so in this case, the absence of evidence is definitely not the evidence of absence but probably more like a subtle confirmation.

It’s official, after much speculation and countless rumours, Sony has made a PSP Phone or a gaming phone, whatever you want to call it. It will be known as the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY and will combine the best that both Sony Ericsson and PlayStation have to offer for such a device.

The Play will land in March in the US preloaded with 50 games, 4” multi-touch display and a very decent 5.0 megapixel camera with LED flash. Of course a big feature on the phone is its dedicated gaming controls which slide out and come complete with right/left shoulder buttons, touch-pad analogue sticks and to put those gaming controls to good use, the Play wil use the 1GHz Snapdragon processor and further optimised with enhanced GPU the Adreno 205.

Besides the dedicated gaming and PlayStation features, the Play will run on the latest Android platform and subsequently be open to all the great customisation, personalisation and apps that it offers. PlayStation features will come via the PlayStation Pocket App although it is believed that PSN functionality and the downloading of games will be dealt with separately.

Here’s a decidedly comprehensive list of just about everything you need to know about the Xperia PLAY. Unfortunately, the two key factors: namely price and release date are crucially unknown. Since it will release in the US in March, we can only assume that it will hit SA around the first quarter of next year (that is usually the trend with phones) and as far as price is concerned, it’s anybody’s guess but my personal estimate wouldn’t put the standalone price anywhere above R7500. If you find the list of features and specs a tad too lnegthy and, err, wordy for your tastes just skip straight past it all to see the Engadget video preview which, despite a difficult to handle accent, will show you exactly what the phone is about, what it’s functionality is like and how all the key features work. Sony has yet to release any of the games that will be available for the phone at launch and so you will notice a stark lack of any gameplay in the preview but fear not because the third-party has come to the rescue.

The Xperia Play will support third-party PSX (PS1) and GBA emulators and there’s a nice little video after the Engadget preview to show you just what it’s like and should give you a fairly good idea of what gaming will be like on the Play. The full graphics capabilities of this machine are still something I’d love to see. Bare in mind that the phones in the videos are preview models and any minor issues that are encountered in the videos will almost certainly be solved by the time the phone releases in March and most definitely by the time it finally crawls onto SA shores.

*Talk time GSM/GPRS: Up to 8 hrs 25 min*
*Standby time GSM/GPRS: Up to 425 hrs*
*Talk time UMTS: Up to 6 hrs 25 min*
*Standby time UMTS: Up to 413 hrs*
*Talk time CDMA2000®: Up to 7 hrs 40 min*
*Standby time CDMA2000®: Up to 405 hrs*
*Game play time: Up to 5 hrs 35 min*
*MP3 playback: Up to 30 hrs 35 min*

Camera
5.1 megapixel camera
Auto focus
Flash / Photo light
Geo tagging
Image stabiliser
Send to web
Touch focus
Video light
Video recording
Video blogging

Music
Album art
Bluetooth™ stereo (A2DP)
Google™ Music Player
Music tones (MP3/AAC)
PlayNow™ service*
Sony Ericsson Music player
Stereo speakers
TrackID™ music recognition application

Internet
Android Market™*
Bookmarks
Google™ search*
Google™ Voice Search*
Pan & zoom
Web browser (Webkit)

Communication
Call list
Conference calls
Facebook™ application (from Android Market™)
Google™ Talk*
Noise Shield
Polyphonic ringtones
Speakerphone
Sony Ericsson Timescape™***
Twitter™ application (from Android Market™)
Vibrating alert

Messaging
Android Cloud to Device messaging (C2DM)
Conversations
Email
Google Mail™*
Instant messaging
Picture messaging (MMS)
Predictive text input
Sound recorder
Text messaging (SMS)

Design
Auto rotate
Keyboard (onscreen, 12 key)
Keyboard (onscreen, QWERTY)
Picture wallpaper
Touchscreen
Wallpaper animation

Entertainment
3D games
Dedicated gaming keys
Flash Lite™
Gesture gaming
Motion gaming
Video streaming
YouTube™

Organiser
Alarm clock
Calculator
Calendar
Document editors
Document readers
E-Manual
Flight mode
Google Calendar™
Google Gallery 3D™
Infinite button
Phone book
Set-up Wizard
Widget manager

Connectivity
3.5 mm audio jack
aGPS
Bluetooth™ technology
DLNA Certified
Google Latitude™
Google Location Service
Google Maps™ with Street View
Media Transfer Protocol support
Micro USB Connector
Modem
Synchronisation via Facebook™**
Synchronisation via Google Sync™
Synchronisation via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync®
Synchronisation via Sony Ericsson Sync
USB 2.0 high speed support
Wi-Fi™
Wi-Fi™ Hotspot functionality
* The service is not available in all markets.
** Requires Facebook™ application installed on the device.

Google™ services*
* These services may not be available in every market Android Market™ Client

Gmail™
Google Calendar™
Google Gallery 3D™
Google Latitude™
Google Maps™ with Street View
Google Media Uploader
Google Music Player™
Google Phone-top Search
Google Search widget
Google Sync™
Google Talk™
Google Voice Search
Set-up Wizard
YouTube™

Facts
Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
Weight: 175 grams
Phone memory: 400 MB
Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32 GB
Memory card included: 8GB microSD™
Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Engadget Preview

Third-Party Emulators On Xperia Play

Is it an iPhone-killer or just maybe the one to really put Android on the map despite its steadily growing support? Only time will tell but it’s a safe bet that the Xperia Play will be something quite special and definitely not a rehash of the woeful Nokia N-Gage.

Toshiba has now come out with glasses-free 3D-TV’s which use similar technology as that found in the Nintendo 3DS. Initially, it was deemed improbable that we would be able to have glasses-free 3D anytime soon on a screen much bigger than that found on the 3DS but here it is.

Although they aren’t exactly pushing the boundaries of how big a TV can be, Toshiba’s 20” and 12” 3D TV’s do offer glasses-free 3D and it may not be long before the tech makes the jump to bigger and bigger TV sets. Despite a relatively conservative estimate of selling 1000 units per model in the first month, Toshiba’s 3D TV’s weighed in with only around 500 20” units sold in the first month and even less of the 12”. At £1825  (R20100) the 20” model certainly is more expensive than even the best monitor of roughly the same size, in fact, a lot more.

Toshiba Visual Products  president, Massaki Osumi, seems to have a good idea as to why his Tv’s aren’t selling: “What the numbers say to me is that if you offer bigger sets, you get a better, more positive reaction.”

That really is it. It’s great tech but the screen sizes available and the prices are still too small and astronomical respectively to make such Tv’s worth buying.

Sony may have just reinvented the wheel with the rear touch pad that will feature on its NGP (PSP2) handheld console.

The NGP has an OLED touch screen which in itself is nothing to boast about despite the awesome visual quality that teh screen can produce but what really sets the NGp apart from its competitors is not the touch-screen up front but the one in the rear. The rear pad is the same size as the screen and therefore allows for intuitive and instinctive touch interface with every movement on the rear pad being able to correspond perfectly with what’s on-screen.

Sure, using the front touch-screen as one would in any other touch interface isn’t exactly impossible but especially where gaming is concerned, it can clutter the screen up so being able to keep the screen completely clear gives you a perfect view of the screen. It is also a very natural place for your fingers to be since your hands tend to wrap around a controller/handheld console anyway.

Interestingly, there is an iPod patent froma few year’s ago which boasts similar tech but Sony is intent on filing their own patent. There are also plans to extend the technology to other Sony devices possibly phones and maybe even some new kind of PS3 control but we can dream for now.

The much rumoured and very intriguing PlayStation Phone seems to be quite real having received a handful of reviews along with some fersh shots of the device.

Officially the XPERIA Play, the device is said to have a solid 1 GHz of processing power and according to reviwes, employs a very similar UI to the Sony Ericsson XPERIA Arc and contains 315MB of memory with the option, like most Android phones, to ramp it up with a bigger memory card.

The Play comes with Timescae, a new media menu and a PlayStation Pocket app which will allow PSN-exclusive games. Unfortunately, the service wasn’t live at the time of the reviews and so could not be tested but it has been claimed that the Play will feature PSN access.

The XPERIA Play is expected to be announced during tyhe Mobile World Congress in Barcelona fro 14-17 February and rumoured to be set for a June 2011 release which means that it could find its way into SA early on in 2012. Provided all the rumours pan out.

Read the review here

Behold, the Tron Limited Edition Controllers from Performance Designed Products.

The same people who brought us the AfterGlow controllers, PDP has done it again with these awesome Tron controllers. The Xbox 360 Controller is pretty much the same wired controller that you normally get ecept for its sweet design scheme complete with orange light-up accents. It apparently represents Clu, the baddy in the new Tron: Legacy movie and the Black Guard, his elite fighting force. It also features performance enhancing counters and soft-touch rubber grips.

Then there’s the Special Edition Wii Controller which features the same soft-touch rubber grps as the Xbox controller and performance enhancing contours but more importantly blue light-up accents in a cool design.

Both controllers have produced in limited numbers, 20 000 of the Wii controllers and 250 of the 360 controllers. Each is so exclsuive that it comes with a numbered certificate of authenticity and every single one of the limited edition controllers has already been sold.

So while you may never lay hands on one, it is still better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Thought the PS2 was dead did you? Thought it was only still on sale in 3rd World countries where everyone is called Jose, Juan or Agmed? Well think again because the PS2 is still alive and kicking albeit on life support.

You see, it’s been symbioted onto this Sonia Bravia LCD TV. Officially it’s recently been released in Europe and features a 22” screen with 4 HDMI ports, 2 optical audio ports and 3 USB ports. What’s more they’ve incorporated a PS2 into the base of the TV to give it not only built in gaming functionality but also make it a combo DVD/CD player.

At around $310 (R 2400) it’s a great buy even if you get a puny screen and outdated console. At least you’ll have a piece of gaming history and be able to play all those original copies of God of War or Shadow of the Colossus or the Sands of Time trilogy.

It looks like Sony has churned out a wireless keypad that fits on to the SIXAXIS and Dualshock3 controller.

The keypad provides the freedom to use texting and mouse input capabilities, all while maintaining full gameplay functionality in one easy-to-hold device.

This Bluetooth^® device attaches to any Dualshock3 or SIXAXIS wireless controller and enables effortless internet browsing, e-mailing and instant messaging on the PlayStation^®Network and PlayStation^®Home.

It features a touch pad allowing convinient scrolling and mouse input on the PS3 system on-screen display as well as dedicated short cut keys providing instant access to ‘Message Box’ and other online communication applications on the PlayStation Network.

• Key Features:
• QWERTY keypad designed for fast, thumbs-only typing.
• Touch pad mode turns the main key area into a touch pad. When touch pad button is pressed, user can not use the keys for character input but can slide her finger on this area to select something on the screen. On the internet browser, user can see a cursor when this mode is set on.
• Dedicated short cut keys provide instant access to text-based communication applications on the PlayStation^®Network.
• Automatic pairing with the PS3™ system via a USB cable.
• Charges by connecting it directly to the PS3™ system using a USB cable.Technical Specifications
• Bluetooth^® 2.0
• Up to 33 feet (10 meters) operating range
• USB 2.0 full speed (for battery charging and Bluetooth^® pairing only)
• Rechargeable Lithium-ion polymer battery (Capacity – 610mAh)

It sells for about R443,60-R466.95 on Kalahari and R438 on Take2

Believe it or not, a lot of time actually went into designing the PS3 controller that we’re all familiar with today. We’ve had largely the same controller for PlayStation consoles since the release of the very first one nearly way back in the late 90′s and that’s fine, we’re pretty used to it by now. But what if the controller that started it all was completely different to the one we’ve come to know?

Teiyu Goto, who has worked on the design of every PlayStation console to date, tells an interesting story of how the PS1 controller may have just looked like a flat SNES-type controller rather than have the now standard protruding grips which have been used on just about every controller made since. This was on the cards because of the SNES’s success and Sony didn’t want to do anything too radical but rather make the transition feel ‘right’ and comfortable for SNES gamers.

“The Super NES was a huge hit at the time, and naturally we wanted SNES gamers to upgrade to our system,” Goto said.
“That’s why the management department didn’t want the controller to be a radical departure, they said it had to be a standard type of design, or gamers wouldn’t accept it.”

However, Goto deified ‘management’ and designed the controller that we’ve come to know today which he then showed to then Sony president Norio Ohga who loved it. ‘Management’ was still unsure about his “crazy” ideas and sent Goto back to the drawing board to design a flat pad controller.

“They told me that the grip design was simply no good, that gamers wouldn’t like it,” Goto said.

“We did wind up switching to a flatter controller design, and that survived all the way to the point where it was time to start making molds.”

Whether this actually happened or not, the following is a true underdog achievement story. It happened as Goto was presenting his new design to ‘management’:
“Ohga was totally livid at me, ‘This is no good! Change it! What was wrong with what you showed me earlier?’” Goto said.

“It was a huge boost for me, him saying that in front of everybody — it made me feel like I had it right all along.”

And that’s why the PS controller were the designed the way they are. It’s interesting to thin k about where we might be if Goto had not gone  with his radical idea because just about every gaming controller these days follows that basic blueprint of 2 protruding grips, it’s become so standard that we don’t even think about it. Where would we be had Sony started out with a flat SNES style controller?

What’s ironic is that what ‘management’ said all those years ago is ringing true today because while the conventional PS controller may have been good for a while, it is actually pretty damn uncomfortable and far less ergonomic than the Xbox 360 controller which also uses the protruding grip blueprint but has improved on it. Sony has stuck to the same outer design since PS1.

What many people also wonder is where the random symbols (X, triangle, square, circle) came from. They’re not all that random actually and each has a great deal of thought put behind it.

“Other game companies at the time assigned alphabet letters or colours to the buttons. We wanted something simple to remember, which is why we went with icons or symbols,” said Goto.

“I came up with the triangle, circle, X, square combination immediately afterwards. I gave each symbol a meaning and a color.”

“The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one’s head or direction and made it green.”

“Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink.”

The circle and X represent ‘yes’ or ‘no’ decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively.”

I’m a PS3 fanboy through and through but great as it is and as much as it has done for console gaming, the PS controller needs an upgrade. It needs to move on and become a little more ergonomic and less symmetrical.

[Source: CVG]

At some point in time, Kinect will be able to understand sign language courtesy of a new patent that Microsoft just filed. The patent details Kinect’s ability to read American Sign Language (ASL) but beyond this, the software will also be able to interpret lip movement (lip reading) and toe movement (not sure why).
As the patent explains: “Where the user is unable to speak, he may be prevented from joining in the voice chat. Even though he would be able to type input, this may be a laborious and slow process to someone fluent in ASL. Under the present system, he could make ASL gestures to convey his thoughts, which would then be transmitted to the other users for auditory display. The user’s input could be converted to voice locally, or by each remote computer.”

The patent goes on to list an example: “In this situation, for example, when the user kills another user’s character, that victorious, though speechless, user would be able to tell the other user that he had been ‘PWNED’. In another embodiment, a user may be able to speak or make the facial motions corresponding to speaking words. The system may then parse those facial motions to determine the user’s intended words and process them according to the context under which they were inputted to the system.”

It also details the Kinect’s ability to track your skeletal structure. “[Within the skeletal mapping system] a variety of joints and bones are identified: each hand, each forearm, each elbow, each bicep, each shoulder, each hip, each thigh, each knee, each foreleg, each foot, the head, the torso, the top and bottom of the spine, and the waist. Where more points are tracked, additional features may be identified, such as the bones and joints of the fingers or toes, or individual features of the face, such as the nose and eyes.”

Sounds pretty cool. At last, Kinect becomes useful for something – mute gamers insulting the hell out of you with a few deft hand gestures.

[Source: CVG]

Engadget says that it’s finally happening in the form of Sony Ericsson-developed, Android-based hardware that’s PSPgo-like in form. On top of that all it could be here in October!

According to the report the PlayStation branded phone will be based on the Android 3.0 platform, have a 3.7 to 4.1 inch WVGA or better resolution screen, as well as (maybe) a 5 megapixel camera and a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU.

Earlier this year Sony trademarked a device named “PlayView“. We should have known.

The report states that instead of a QWERTY keyboard the phone will include a side-slider PlayStation standard d-pad and face buttons, plus a “long touch pad” for analog controls.

The report said:

“The D-pad is here, but instead of the small joystick, the device will have what was described as a ‘long touch pad’ for analog controls, along with standard PSP buttons and shoulder buttons.”

Look-wise, the phone is mostly black (duh) with some silver highlights, and the gamepad area is white / silver in color, claims the source. (It will definatly look better than the mock-up on top)

Hardware-wise the source describes it as “a cross between the Samsung Captivate and the PSP Go.”

The device will run the Gingerbread (Android 3.0) and there will be a new section of the Android Market specifically for games.

If Sony plan to release the mythical phone this year, as the report states, they sill have Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show left to do it.

My money is on the Tokyo Game show, because Sony is Japanese based and we all know how the Japs are about their hand-held gaming.

Android 3.0, PlayStation Controls and a phone all in one. This could be good.

Why the hell did I upgrade Tuesday!?

[Source: CVG; Kotaku via Engadget]

Everybody loves gadgets right, I mean, who doesn’t? They’re cool, shiny, amazing and make life simpler and/or better. But there are some that are just the coolest, or the shiniest and are so amazing that they blast your mind into tiny little pieces.

We’ve compiled a list of some of the coolest gadgets in the gaming world. Some are just really cool peripherals or pieces of tech while others take the concept of over-the-top to a whole new level and there’s one that will steal your heart. Just click on ‘more…’ and you request shall be answered.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Accessories

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They may not be insanely amazing but every one of these custom accessories designed for the upcoming game is awesome and looks great. Personally, that mouse makes me want to be a PC gamer. Put my name down for one of those dog-tag flashdrives.

There’s no word on whether any of these will be making their way to SA but let’s hope so.

[Images: IGN]

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Thrustmaster Ferrari Wireless GT Cockpit 430 Scuderia Edition

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Wii Bowling Ball Peripheral

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Power A PS3 Controller

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Logitech Z-5500 Sound System

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Performance Designed Products’ AfterGlow Controllers

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The Golden Wii

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Razer Inc. Onza Xbox Controller

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The Greatest Show On Earth

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NovelQuest Emperor Workstation

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Hope you enjoyed the list, the gadgets are in no particular order. Feel free to post links to any gadgets that you think are awesome and/or amazing in the comments section.

While 3D itself may be pretty cool, awesome even, to view. It is a very different story when somebody happens to see you while you are viewing something in 3D. The glasses that either your local cinema or Sony provide are not exactly the cutting edge of fashion.

Well, worry no more because the good people Gunnar Optiks have realised this and brought out the Gunnar Phenom 3D glasses which are a damn sight more stylish than conventional ones. The only problem is that,as someone who already wears glasses, how the hell do you wear those over your own glasses? secondly, at around $100 (R760) a pair, is it really worth it? For something that Sony let’s you have for free anyway?

They do look good though, don’t they?

Up until now, most Blu-ray discs have come in 25GB format with some arriving in 50GB format. God of War 3, for instance, was 35GB big and needed that 50GB monster of a disc.

Now Sharp has unveiled its latest innovation, the 100GB Blu-ray disc. This one is triple-layered over the 50GB double-layer and offers 100GB on re-writable discs but up to 128GB on once-off ROM discs. Sadly, this is not big news for the gaming community just yet as the discs cannot be read with the Blu-ray drives currently found in PS3′s since they are not able to read more than 2 layers. But perhaps, the PS3 will receive a hardware upgrade at some point that brings these leviathans of storage into play.

Don’t fear though because few games exceed more than 20-25GB in capacity. To put this disc into perspective, the average notebook comes with a 250GB HDD, that’s just two of these discs!

It appears as if Sony’s 3D technology is not fully compatible with 1080p HD resolution but only the lesser 720p. While it may  not seem like a world-shattering cataclysmic hang-up, it is of some concern. Besides the fact that there will be a slight but still noticeable drop in the picture quality, developers who are planning to make games with 3D compatibility might just forsake 1080p and develop the game to only operate at a maximum of 720p.

Good news though is that of the 3D titles set for release this year, those that will be able to operate at 1080p are few and far between but next year is another story entirely with titles such as Killzone3 coming along where you want to be able to see every single detail as clearly and perfectly as you possibly can.

Sony may have just devised a way to single-handedly revolutionise splitscreen gaming. Consider that the biggest problem with splitscreen is that the more people you have playing, the smaller and smaller you bit of the screen gets and in the case of shooters or games where you have to kill your friends, all you need do is glance over at their portion of the screen to figure out where they’re camping.

Now consider that Sony recently filed two patents which will use the same technology which ouputs stereoscopic 3D images. The twist is that the new tech allows for two people to view different images being output by the same display. By adding a switch to the glasses which stops the shutters from alternating, users can select one of two flickering images which will be overlaid on top of each other. So basically, you stop the shutters in one position and you see picture A, you stop in another position and you see picture B.

If perfectedand super-sized for at least 4 different images, this will truly revolutionise, offline multiplayer. It also means that everybody who’s playing gets the full screen which is like having 4 TV’s for the price of one. It also means that if you wanna game while somebody else in your household wishes to watch TV, no problem. They can watch Oprah in 3D while you decimate the Helghast in 3D.

Interested in Glow in the Dark gaming peripherals? Well, if you just nodded, you’re in luck. PDP, or Performance Designed Products, has created illuminating controllers which can be used for gaming.

The controllers are available for Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 where they all glow a different colour, and look pretty good — in the box.

The AfterGlow controllers boast LED lights which cause a glowing effect. Meaning, you’ll never lose it in the dark.

Following this, PDP decided that while glowing in the dark is one thing, feeling and control is another. This being said, PDP has actually modified the layout of the Wii and PS3 remote to be more comfortable. For example, the PS3 remote looks like the Xbox 360 remote.

Pricing, if this ever hits South Africa, will amount to about R400.

Yes, gamers will now be able to play without even lifting a finger. Jedi Mind, the company that gave us the Jedi Mouse, now has a new application for wireless headsets. Jedi Mouse allowed users to move the cursor by simply projecting their thoughts through a wireless headset that reads brainwaves and transmits them as electrical signals to a USB receiver, not unlike an EEG machine. Now they’ve come out with Master Mind which makes even greater use of wireless headsets by allowing us to play games with little more than the power of the mind.

It can interpret commands such as move forward, move backward, punch, kick, shoot etc.
“Existing PC games such as World of Warcraft and Call of Duty can now be played with the power of your mind, rather than using the traditional computer keyboard and mouse,” the company stated. “Master Mind allows the user to control the characters in these games to move forward, back, punch, kick, shoot and any other movement available in the game, simply by thinking the command associated with the desired action.”

The company has even been so bold as to claim that its software can match the capabilities of any traditional peripheral. It’s all very bold but oh so promising and fantastic. Imagine – gaming at the speed of thought.

Don’t expect mind-control gaming to be cheap though. While no price has yet been given for Master Mind, Jedi Mouse cost around R800 so you can expect the bigger and better Master Mind to cost well over R1000. That’s besides the required wireless headset. The recommended Epoc Headset from Emotiv will set you back around R2500. Certainly not cheap but just think about what you’d be getting for that money…

Just in case you were wondering, this is what the all-important headset looks like.

[Source: GameSpy]

Nintendo and Sony are apparently in talks with major wireless phone carriers about incorporating 3G technology into the 3DS and next PSP.

Japanese wireless carrier giant NTT DoCoMo Inc’s president, Ryuji Yamada, told the Wall Street Journal that “videogame makers know that in order for portable game machines to take the next step forward, they need wireless communication.”

He followed up by saying “we are discussing this with various players.” Although Yamada was unclear as to who these ‘players’ are. It should be mentioned that Nintendo has already expressed interest in wireless improvements for the 3DS and Nintendo CEO, Satoru Iwata, has shown great interest in Amazon’s Kindle e-reader which bundles 3G costs in with downloadable purchases so that users never have to pay a monthly subscription fee. Sony already incorporates 3G technology into its netbooks and e-readers but both companies declined to comment on Yamada’s statements.

It does however seem as if both companies are intent on keeping up with Apple’s ever-more popular iPad and iPhone.

[Source: CVG]

Sony recently filed a trademark for something called the PlayView which was rumoured as being a handheld device that would offer not only gaming capabilities but also professional functions.

The Wall Street Journal has now confirmed speculations saying that “Sony is developing a portable device that shares characteristics of hand-held game machines, e-book readers and netbook computers, according to people familiar with the matter.”

It sounds like Sony has an iPad killer in the pipeline. It could just as well be a competitor for the iPhone as well but either way, Sony seems intent on producing the ultimate handheld device.

This was part of a bigger report focusing on Sony and Nintendo’s plans to incorporate 3G connectivity into their next handheld gaming consoles.

Note: The thumbnail used for this article has nothing to do with the rumoured PlayView but is just one of many potential designs for the PSP 2 that seemed fitting for the occassion.

[Source: CVG]

This is Power A’s latest contribution to the world of 3rd-party peripherals. A 3-in-1 controller/remote for the PS3 and what they call the Media Expansion Bar. getting the boring stuff out of the way first, the Media Expansion Bar can be plugged into the PS3′s front and provides not only 3 more USB ports but also but also SD, Pro Duo and Flash card readers.

The 3-in-1 remote is a DVD remote for those awesome Blu-ray movies, a chat pad with full slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a slightly unconventional PS3 controller. It has all the buttons that you’ll need from a regular controller and is even wireless, It can also be used in conjunction with a standard controller, which is cool.

Power A is fast becoming my favourite 3rd-party peripheral accessories producer.

Since you first heard of Microsoft’s Kinect, formerly known as Project Natal, did you ever dream of having a PC that was motion-controlled instead of touch-screen or a TV that allowed you to change channels at the snap of your fingers?

Well, that could all be closer than you think. You see, the technology that powers Kinect was actually developed by an Israeli company called PrimeSense and it seems that they’re willing to implement the tech elsewhere.

In an recent interview with Engadget, the company’s VP, Adi Berenson, claimed that we could see technology similar to that of Kinect in TV sets and PC’s very soon. How soon exactly?

Berenson claims 2011 is the year but didn’t say exactly whatw e could expect these new devices to do in comparison to Kinect. Hopefully it will actually offer some good functionality rather than just being gimmicky and with yet more luck, those who buy Kinect will have some sort of intergration with motion-control TV’s.

When I heard about the Asus G51 being the younger brother to the very impressive G71 I had thoughts that it might lack power where it would not be able to compete with other gaming laptops. At heart, however, I knew that this was wrong.

After sitting down with the G51 laptop I can only say that it will probably beat most of the desktop PC’s currently being used by to read this review. So with all my doubts at ease, we can move on.

Before we start on the G51, we’d like to remind you that Asus is the creator of this powerful machine. Asus is famous for their Republic of Gamers motherboard brand, and high end graphics cards. With this in mind, they have taken this knowledge and put it into one place. Say hello to a series gaming of laptops.

The Powers within

What does this laptop have to offer in terms of gaming performance? With the target market being gamers, it has to be able to run games of all levels to the best, or highest, levels — at the very least. But we always need to keep in mind that a laptop targeted at gamers has to have something to make it look cool, seeing as it will be used at LAN’s.

Specifications:

• Intel Core i7 Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
• Intel PM45 + ICH9M chipset
• 15.6″ WUXGA FHD LCD display at 1366*768, 120Hz
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3 memory
• Intel 5100AGN Wireless
• 4GB DDR3 (2GB x 2)
• Two 320GB Seagate 7200RPM Hard Drives
• DVD SuperMulti
• 120W (19V x 6.32A) 100-240V AC Adapter
• 6-cell 53Wh 11.1v 4800mAh Lithium Ion battery

The i7 is a beast and it is empowered even by the GTX 260 display card, and a set of 4GB DDR3 RAM. Power like this is a gamers dream, not to mention that they can take it anywhere they want.

The purpose of the Asus G51 is mobile gaming and it achieves its goal with and good performance, despite the short battery life. However, laptops shouldn’t ever run of battery as performance fails. Battery power should be last resort, try to plug it in at all times.

So, so pretty

Moving on to the aesthetics area. Aesthetically it is pretty well done to say the very least. The sample we had was a blue top, but there is a model with a white top. The smooth matte finishes and the Asus ROG’s logo is tacked in at certain areas, where lights on the top as bling to attract attention towards the device.

With your common gaming keys (W, A, S and D) being highlighted, you’ll notice that when gaming in dark, or dimmed, area’s you’ll be able to see your keyboard. Following this, the touch pad is pretty good and it has good tracking with almost no lag while playing games. But then again, you’ll use a mouse to play games — not a touch pad.

Visuals and Audio

The G51 only boasts a 15-inch screen which maxes out at 1600×1000 pixels. Most new laptops feature 17-inch monitors, but Asus’ approach for a 15-incher revolves around weight reduction. The colour and brightness on the monitor is perfect, where it sports high performance, entertainment and power saving modes too.

On the sound end we have 2 x ALTEC Lansing surround sound speakers built in to the laptop. Quality wise, the system is exceptional and it’ll be useful if you want to sit and watch a movie in bed. For LAN’s you’ll want to purchase a headset.

2D, 3D what’s the deal with this?

The main attraction, or gimmick, on the G51 is that it’s one of the only 3D laptops out there. 3D works for almost everything on the laptop. There are 3D videos (you need to download or obtain special videos and to be played on a special Nvidia 3D player), 3D pictures (they look pretty cool, but we know what certain people will do with it), and finally 3D gaming — which is a different experience to say the least.

With only about 7 games properly supported by Nvidia, 3D is not yet that popular.

Accessories

As always Asus gives a nice assortment of accessories with their products. With the laptop you get a laptop carry bag; which is pretty snug, a Razer gaming mouse; which is a must have, and last but not least, an awesome set of Steel Series gaming headsets. For gamers this package will should be popular.

Scoring

We ran Futuremark’s PCMark Vantage and it scored 6121. That’s a nice number to see.

The Verdict

As I end this review, I think about owning one and how much simpler gaming would be. With a retail price of around R18,000, it’s costly but if you can afford it, it’s well worth it. The G51 does the job it was made for and will last you at least 4/5 years of hassle-free gaming.

My only real concern is the 3D gimmick, with the news of standalone 3D screens the question arises: you really want to wear glasses to get 3D when certain screens are released without needing this?

This is the full list of down and dirty specs for the Nintendo 3DS. Everything from dimensions to battery details and whatever’s in btween. The above colours are the colours that the console will be available in at its release.

DIMENSIONS (when closed)

5.3 inches x 2.9 inches x 0.8 inches

WEIGHT

8 ounces

TOP SCREEN

3.52 inch widescreen display / 800×240 resolution (400 pixels for each eye during 3D gameplay)

BOTTOM SCREEN

3.02 inch touch-screen display / 320×240 resolution

CAMERAS

Three cameras, two on outer casing, one above top screen / 640×480 resolution (0.3 megapixel)

STORAGE MEDIUM

Cartridge slot for both 3DS and DS cards (3DS cards have a 2GB capacity “at launch”, suggesting larger sizes to come) / SD memory card slot

WIRELESS

2.4ghz / 802.11 wi-fi / Can communicate with other consoles or internet when in sleep mode / wireless can be switched off to preserve battery life

CONTROLS / INPUT

Touch-screen / D-pad / 360-degree “Slide Pad” (the analog stick) / motion sensor / gyro sensor / 3D “depth slider” can reduce (or even disable) 3D effects in games

STYLUS

4-inch stylus (when full extended)

AUDIO

Stereo speakers (includes stereo headphone out jack)

BATTERY

Lithium ion battery (lifespan details TBA)

PARENTAL CONTROLS

The 3DS will include parental controls

Say what you will but the PS3 controller is not all that ergonomic and there have been many a time when I thought to myself: “damn, this is a little uncomfortable.” it therefore gives me great pleasure to announce that Power  A, the people responsible for the mini Wii controllers, has now brought out its own PS3 controller but with one major twist.

These controllers are like XBox 360 controllers. Everything is exactly as it would be on a real XBox controller, the position of the buttons, shape and everything. There’s also a handy non-slip covering on the grips. Only problem is that the ‘L’ and ‘R’ buttons are almost the same as on any normal PS3 controller and not like the 360′s great triggers.

Furthermore, these new controller are not only wireless (requiring a dongle) but also come with full Sixaxis capabilities. the Jews among you can also downgrade to the wired, non-Sixaxis version. It’s great because I’ve always loved the XBox 360 controller but the problem was that it came with one of those pesky Xbox’s.

Here’s a few images of the new controller as well as several comparative shots, showing the difference between regular PS3 controllers, the Power A version and a 360 controller.

[Source: Gizmodo]

3D technology in Japan won’t be pioneered by the PS3 as many of us would think. It shall pioneered by the country’s top porn stars. Nice.

Mika Kayama and Yuma Asami will be the first to feature in the country’s first ever home release.

This may all seem crazy, but content analyst Yuji Fujimori, thinks not.  He belives that the move could be trigger the success of Sony and Panasonic’s new 3D TV’s.

“Adult videos will likely be an incentive for consumers to buy a 3-D TV,” said Fujimori. “It’s worth paying attention to the move because it’s lack of content that’s hindering expansion.”

We are sure that a lot of people will be paying attention to this, even if it has no effect on the growth of the tech industry.

As an example take Satoshi Miyazaki for instance who pays 2,000 yen (about £15) a month to watch adult cable channels.

“I want to try it out,” he said. “I need something dramatic to justify replacing my TV. This could be the motivation.”

Well if porn made the Internet so successful then it could do the same for 3D.

Now anyone know when this will be available in SA?

[Source:CVG]

These days, we take it for granted that our console should be able to play music or surf the internet or have other such features but there was a time when this was the stuff of dreams and you could only get internet by selling your soul to Uncle Sam.

The Dreamcast is one such remnant from that era and has now been upgraded to the next-gen. It doesn’t play in HD, can’t play movies, doesn’t know what the internet is but it is a boombox. Yes, the good, strange, people of modder site xckdiy have taken a humble Dreamcast and raised it to a new level.

It is unclear as to how or why exactly this was done since the site is in Japanese but hey, don’t question awesomeness. If any of you are curious as to why boomboxes are so special, watch this. Educate yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yvEYKRF5IA

St. Catherine’s High School of Racine, Wisconsin, will not only be introducing a new middle school program from next year but it will also be giving these middle schoolers iPads. Yes, iPads.

The school will soon cater for grade 6′s and 7′s and to help these noobs fit in, they’ve arranged for each one to pay a hefty $400 (R3200) ‘technology’ fee. The school’s thinking is that this will allow the kids access to programs and tools that would normally cost a fortune, such as graphing calculators, maps and games. It’s strange that the school seems to have neglected the fact that there are literally hundreds of games for the iPad and I doubt that they’ll be able to find a way to regulate or block those.

School President Christopher Olley believes that “It’s time to do something to take advantage of technology.”

“This is a small step for this age group.”

A computer lab also takes advantage of technology. nonetheless, This is an awesome idea because kids will be able to have not only digital versions of their textbooks but also do all their work on the iPad too. This cuts a 10-book strong satchel down to a 1/2 kilo board and lunch. Genius.

Except for the implications of it all. Childhood corruption is bound to infiltrate this noble venture. How do you think the bigger (and dumber) kids are gonna feel about the newbies having shiny iPads while they still have to stick it out with books and write stuff out. Madness. Needless to say, these kids are gonna be pissed and who better to take that anger out no than the hapless juniors. of course, theft will probably creep in too. If people can be desperate enough to steal text books can you imagine the urge to steal an iPad and you can sell it afterwards, unlike textbooks.

These kids are not gonna become more productive or even smarter though because they will do little else besides play games. I currently do IT at school and all we have are weak little 1.6GHz terminals but we’ve played everything from Line Rider to N-Game to even DS and GBA roms. It’s a noble idea and might get better with some fine-tuning over the eyars but i really think that eBooks would be better. Give each kid an ebook preloaded with their textbooks and just make them write stuff like they did in the good old days.

Apparently, the higher grades at St. Catherine’s are also set to receive iPads by 2012 – 2013 but until then Billy had better hide from Cletis the Quarterback. Then again who knows, maybe the older kids will feel nothing but happiness towards the younger kids because they’re getting opportunities that the older ones never could. That sounds perfectly plausible in America, the world’s safest and most passive country.

If we’re lucky, this’ll catch on and we might see it reach SA by the time Azhar dies, for those of you who don’t know: that’s about 10 years from now. of course, none of us will give a damn about it since we’ll all be out of school but maybe our kids will let us play with their iPads.

The PlayStation’s most recent ad campaign, modestly claims that ‘it only does everything’. It seems that more and more people are trying to prove this right with the US Military using some 200 PS3′s to power  a mainframe and some guy down in Latin America exporting PS2′s to fund the Taliban. I’m not sure that Sony had the Ps1 in mind though when they came up with that slogan…

A man being detained in the Brook House Immigration Removal Centre -  a centre for foreigners awaiting deportation, usually for breaking British law – of West Sussex, was found to be using the motor from an old PS1 in addition to part of the outer casing as a crude home-made tattoo machine. Apparently, inmates are actually allowed to have PS1′s, even Ps2′s in some places.

Strange as it all seems, this is not uncommon with many prisoners taking to modding their PS1′s to shoot ink. Makes you wonder whether these guys shouldn’t be designing the next big thing because they sure as hell will be able to make it do everything.

Google are certainly an ambitious bunch of people, if nothing else. Google TV is their latest project and is a online TV service entitled, Google TV. What makes this particularly interesting is that the internet giant as teamed up with Sony and Intel.

Sony has been tasked with designing HD TV’s and Blu-ray players that will incorporate the new platform. We will therefore have internet TV’s that instead of being connected to a decoder, will be connected directly to the internet so that we can watch whatever we want, whenever we want. Sony is also set to make little Google TV boxes that will be powered by Intel’s CE4100 Atom processor for non-internet TV’s.

Why this has caught my attention is that it could possibly make its way onto the PS3 since Sony is one of the big cogs in this machine. The console already has access to PlayTV in Europe but Google TV would be huge. Google claims that their service will let users search TV listings, the web and even their own content libraries.

the first internet TV’s are due out in the US this spring so it may be some time before we get to lay our hands on one but with luck, Google TV functionality for PS3 will become available through a system update. If it does indeed materialise.

Whilst speaking a during an interview Microsoft Saudi’s Marketing Manager, Syed Bilal Tariq,  confirmed a world wide release in October for Project Natal.

He said more info would be released at E3, well as expected.

So… it’s not surprising since October is close enough to the Christmas period therefore the announcement now would build hype, which leads to people saving up, then probably buying. Which depending on how it turns out could lead to delight or a riot.

Will they give it its real name at E3? Will it be a success? Will there be mindless violence? I over do these rhetorical questions don’t I?

[Source:Destructoid]

Ever heard of Rapier Gaming Gear? Me neither.

Rapier is a gaming brand from Verbatim, where all of the products are gaming orientated. We’ve received a few products for review. A mouse, a headset and a mousepad — or gamer pad.

My claws are currently holding the Rapier Gaming Mouse V2. My head is being thrashed, and crushed, by a Rapier gaming headset with vibration whilst my wrists are being slashed open by a ‘grip-tape-like’ gamerpad.

Just to let you know — this isn’t the review. This is the introductory piece to what I’ll be doing and how I’ll do it.

To let you know what I’m dealing with, here are my first impressions:

Rapier V2:

It’s very round-like. My MX518 has always been super comfortable to use, and at first the V2 felt odd. I got used to it, reasonably quickly. For some reason the V2 does not feel as solid as the Logitech rival, however it has a few nifty features.

For example, if you cannot bench-press, Verbatim allows you to remove weights from the bottom. You set how heavy, or light, you’d like your mouse to weigh. It’s a cool feature, well used to be in 2004. There are two modes and programmable buttons. I’m yet to play around with this, but from what I can see you can program keyboard buttons onto mouse buttons. Nifty. But why would I use this? To spam: “LOLPWNT”? Maybe.

You can set the DPI from low to 3,200 by pulling and pushing a small button. My 518 has this feature too.

There are meant to be eight buttons, but I count seven. Perhaps the lever counts as two. Not sure.

Rapier Gamer Pad:

This is a must… If you own the V2. The mouse simply does not want to move smoothly on my original pad. On the gamer pad it’s very quick and reasonably smooth. Except for that noise it makes when ever I go left, right, up or down. It’s like I’m literally playing on plastic.

Oh wait it is plastic.

So, the pad is meant for the mouse. I’m too scared to use my 518 on the pad for too long — just now it breaks the mouse feet. Just so you know, mouse feet are very important.

Finally with the sound barrier, literally, breaking every time I move the mouse, why would I need to change the DPI?

Rapier Headset:

It’s a USB Gaming headset with Vibration.

I decided, cool, something worthwhile to try out. My current headset is really flimsy, and well — I break these things like no tomorrow.

I put them on. Tight fit. It’s fine, it’ll loosen up. I click WinAmp. Press Play.

Wow. Wow. Wow!

It’s loud. Very, very loud. So loud that when the windows volume is one click away from off, and WinAmp is on 1% it’s still intruding. Not to mention I turned vibration off in about 3 seconds. It’s just uncomfortable.

Not even Lil’ Wayne sounds good with my ears vibrating to every beat about his Lollipop.

The microphone doesn’t work. For me. I’ve tried two different machines, different versions of Windows and still no game. I can hear my self talk, but Mumble cannot and neither can any other VOIP system. Windows fails to register this phenomenon, despite the fact that I can hear it come through when I loop sounds.

It’s no good to me. And way too loud. But would it help in gaming? Probably so — I’ll keep you up to date on this.

Overview:

Doesn’t look too promising does it? Well, let’s be honest — it’s gaming gear. It’s not for windows and it’s not for WinAmp. It is meant to help you destroy your opponent. And that’s just what we will be doing.

It is not fair to judge the device like this, so let’s play games.

We’ll try this out on:

• QuakeLive
• StarCraft II Beta
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• DotA
• A secret tie-breaker, maybe?

If you’d like to join in and play — let me know in the comments or email me. We’ll play on Mumble.

More Images

The world was pretty much made for right handed people. It’s obvious. Many things were created to make like easier for left-handed people, and this is because of the constant challenge to work-or-live in a right-handed world.

Following this, Razer has decided to enter into a niche market — gaming mice for left handed people.

I didn’t really know that people played games with their left hand, and I can vouch for this. I’m left handed however I use my right hand on the mouse. Editors Note: For the record, I still aim better than Slobber who is a true right-handed person. I’ve proved this in QuakeLive.

So — for those of you that do use your left hand on the mouse, Razer has created an ergonomic mouse just for you. It’s called the DeathAdder Left Hand Edition.

I’ve only come across one person who ever used the mouse with their left hand, by the way.

Any other lefties use funky styles?