Filed under: Gaming
Nintendo has been tight with Wii accessories, allowing few — if any — third-party impostors while not being very forthcoming about plans for future first-party input devices. That’s all changed today (at least a little) with the Blazepro Wii Classic Controller, an alternative to Nintendo’s own dual-stick pad for your Nintendo 64 gaming goodness. Meanwhile, some snoops at Spong found an honest-to-goodness Nintendo patent for what looks to be an official classic controller attachment that combines motion control with the Wii’s iconic infrared motion control. As far as availability, the Blazepro can be had now for just $14, but the official Nintendo attachment is still in fantasy patent land. Hit the continue link to check out the patent image.
[Thanks, xfiles.fan and nate]
Read - Blazepro Release Wii Classic Controller
Read - Latest Official Nintendo Wii Controller Patent Revealed
Continue reading Blazepro ships Wii Classic Controller, Nintendo hints at first-party classic attachment
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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video
var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Jobs_App_Store_launching_with_500_iPhone_apps_25_free’; Steve Jobs told USA Today that the Apple App Store will launch with “more than 500″ applications Thursday night for the iPhone and iPod touch. Of these, 25% will be free and 90% (of those for sale) will cost $9.99 or less. “This is the biggest launch of my career,” said Jobs, adding, “When IBM introduced the PC, it was good, but it didn’t take off until people started discovering the software.” It’s these apps then, that Steve says will “dramatically differentiates the iPhone” from Treos and BlackBerrys. Indeed, while consumers are focused on the launch of the iPhone 3G device, it’s the App Store which has analysts in such a tizzy.
[Thanks, Matt]
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Filed under: Laptops
Welcome back to reality ASUS. The Taiwanese giant just announced that it shipped 1.7 million Eee PCs in the “first half of 2008,” 300,000 less than had been forecast. Of course, this could be explained in any number of ways including a downturn in the global economy and those consumers who skipped past the Eee PC 900 in favor of the Atom-based Eee PC 901. With Atom processors in short supply and ASUS diluting the Eee brand as much as they have, well, we wouldn’t be surprised to see these failed expectations become the expectation moving forward; especially for companies like Acer who seem to be betting the farm on these new netbook-class mini-laptops.
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Filed under: Cellphones
digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/apple/Meet_the_world_s_first_first_ten_iPhone_3G_owners’; With just seven hours to go out here in New Zealand before the first worldwide iPhone 3G launch (yeah, we flew all the way out for it), the line at the Auckland Vodafone store is growing steadily but surely. Everyone’s in high spirits, despite the fact that it’s winter here in the southern hemisphere, and they can’t as easily get away with that whole hippie line-sitter thing like in New York. We’ll check back in soon as we get our international iPhone 3G launch lineblog started.
#1
Name: Jonny Gladwell, 22 (pictured above, right)
Current phone: Sony Ericsson K800i on Voda
Waiting for: more than 48 hours now
Buying: black 8GB
Motivation: to be the first, duh! His girlfriend is just in it to keep him company, she’s not actually getting one herself. Jonny tells us he’s not going to eBay the world’s first iPhone 3G, though. Whatever, dude!
Continue reading Meet the world’s first ten iPhone 3G owners
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Filed under: Digital Cameras, Displays
Kodak’s new W820 (8-inch) and W1020 (10-inch) are the latest in the company’s charming line of Quick Touch Border digital photo frames. Quite similar to their M820 and M1020 (pictured) counterparts in most respects, the new frames add WiFi, which brings with it services like Flickr, FrameChannel and Kodak Gallery. Unfortunately, the only way to add generic RSS feeds is FrameChannel, and all FrameChannel subscriptions include a monstrous banner ad across the bottom of each frame — at least Kodak’s partnership with Flickr is separate, so those subs are clean. Each frame includes 512MB of storage in addition to memory card slots, and they should be out next month for $250 and $280, respectively.
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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment
Many have tried to be that other box that sits under your TV. You know, the DVD player, the cable box, the TiVo, the consoles are all well and good, but somebody somehow needs to solve they mystery of getting web and PC content onto your TV, and Kodak might be on the cusp of cracking it. Kodak’s new Kodak Theatre HD Player is a simple, slick little box with multiple flash card slots, a USB port, and all the requisite home theater outputs like HDMI, component and all that. The unit can naturally shuffle through photos like there’s no tomorrow, and includes wireless access to pull stuff off of Flickr feeds or your PC’s hard drive, but there’s also 720p video playback, online radio and what have you. The real clincher is that you won’t be interacting with all this via a clunky d-pad remote, but instead there’s an amazingly great gyroscopic mouse that makes the whole thing a joy to use. The $300 price tag might turn some people off when this lands in September, especially with no built-in storage, but we still think Kodak might have a winner on its hands.
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Filed under: Digital Cameras
Kodak’s got a new one for the semi-casual point-and-shoot crowd, the EasyShare Z1015 IS. The 10 megapixel Z-series camera manages a 15x optical zoom, a 3-inch LCD, HD footage at 720p and 30 fps, and Kodak’s Perfect Touch processing. Naturally the IS implies optical image stabilization, but the 6400 ISO should help out in the shaking department as well if grain is not an issue, and full manual controls should help out all the in-betweens. It’ll go for $350 come September.
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Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV, Portable Video
Sure, it might shoot 720p video, but you aren’t gonna catch indie filmmakers capturing the next low-budget masterpiece on Kodak’s new Zi6 HD pocket video camera. The camera is Kodak’s response to Pure Digital’s Flip and Creative’s Vado, complete with upright form factor, YouTube friendliness, simple as could be interface, a flip-out USB plug (with some surprising spring action), and, of course, totally shoddy video quality. The camera is powered by a pair of AA batteries, sports a 2.4-inch LCD, and can switch between VGA video, 30fps HD and 60fps HD. It’ll sell for $180 in September, in black or pink, but there’s only 128MB of memory on board — you’ll have to spring for an SD card if you want to do any substantial shooting.
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Filed under: Displays
Hey, at least it’s not being secretive about it. AOC has just introduced its new $429.99 2218Ph LCD monitor, which — among other things — claims to bring PC users “the element of style Mac users have enjoyed for the last few years.” Judging by the image above, we’re not too sure what exactly it’s getting at, but we are told that it relies on “state-of-the-art metallic workmanship,” a polished aluminum cabinet, a zinc multi-flex stand and a piano black finish to wow onlookers. Other specs include a 1,680 x 1,050 native resolution, HDCP-compliant HDMI input, two-millisecond response time, 12,000:1 dynamic contrast ratio and that all-important Windows Vista Certified sticker. Whatcha got on that, Cupertino? Full release after the jump.
Continue reading AOC says its 22-inch 2218Ph LCD monitor has that Mac flair
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A lot of Internet users now find they have two kinds of address books: Ones they’ve known for years, and ones that are up to date.
