Code Retard

Seeing companies trying to bring 3D imagery from movies into gaming is certainly nothing new.  The last contender in the 3D business was Zalman with their ZM-M220W 3D display.  ZM-M220W depended on Nvidia drivers to reproduce 3D images, and games had to be individually supported for the feature to work.  While it successfully reproduced passive 3D images that may suffice for movies, some kinks that come inherently with passive 3D imagery made the monitor a nightmare for gamers.  The reproduced text, HUD, and crosshairs that gamers depend on were difficult to read and often induced headaches. Read more »

The Nyko Frontman wireless guitar is an excellent affordable alternative piece of hardware to first party Guitar Hero and Rock Band wireless guitars, which cost a lot more. For budget shoppers though, you just can’t get a better feature set and play experience than the Nyko guitar for the money. Available in black or white for $20 a pop, it’s over $30 cheaper than either Guitar Hero or Rock Band guitars. This hardware review is for the PS3 platform, but Xbox 360 and Wii versions are expected to be similar. Below is a shot of the back of the box:

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The Frontman wireless guitar from Nyko is a great alternative hardware (check out our review) that is compatible with both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero 3 games on the PS3 up to firmware 2.52. If you are running on PS3 firmware 2.52 and later, you’ll discover that your Nyko Front Man wireless guitar will no longer work with Rock Band 2 since, according to Nyko, the "latest firmware may be causing the input mechanism of the Frontman guitar to malfunction." Symptoms include no response from key presses. Instead the effects pedal wireless receiver sends its own ghost key presses to the PS3 which causes Rock Band 2 to go crazy, even when the guitar isn’t on.

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new Zune video to support the 3.1 software release

sony ps3 ps logo

According to new weekly data from Media Create, the PlayStation 3 had its worst sales week of 2008 in Japan, being outsold almost 2-to-1 by its rival, the Xbox 360.

The launch of the new updated PSP-3000 model helped boost sales of the handheld and it topped the sales chart by a hefty number.

The Xbox 360 continues to sell well, as does the ever-popular Wii yet the PS3 keeps seeing its sales fall.

The data for the week:

PSP – 60,467
Wii – 24,292
Nintendo DS – 22,965
Xbox 360 – 7,844
PlayStation 2 – 6,962
PlayStation 3 – 3,931

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/archive/15827.cfm

If you live in New York and happen to wander into the Nintendo World Store you’ll be greeted with this–an ordinary looking Nintendo Wii but with some sort of extraordinary hard drive storage solution rigged up to it. As you can tell from the video, it’s got a huge library of full version Wii games that you can summon at the touch of a button. Browsing is simple and elegant. This is just the sort of thing that gamers have been clamoring for, and the fact that this special Wii demo unit can support a hard drive and works so wonderfully well with it tells us that the Wii is fully capable of working with an external hard drive. And you can only reason that it’s not on the market is because Nintendo wants it that way, not because they can’t do it.

Griffin Technology has developed an interesting product for your first or second gen iPhone – the AirCurve. Without any electrical or moving parts, this “acoustic amplifier” does exactly that, amplifies through its curvy design the acoustics from your iPhone speaker at the base. By “snapping” in your iPhone onto the AirCurve, the sound from your iPhone speakers are output directly into the AirCurve and the volume is magnified as the sound waves travel through the translucent polycarbonate amplifier. Read more »

Apple announced the creation of the Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange program to replace potentially dangerous power adapters that have been shipped with each 3G iPhone. The safety risk can occur when the power adapter’s metal prongs break off when being pull from a power outlet, remaining attached to the outlet and posing a threat for electrical shock and fire. Though no serious incidents have been reported yet, Apple has received enough reports of breaking prongs to warrant the exchange program. If you bought the iPhone 3G or standalone adapter in the US, Japan, Canada, Mexico, or South America, then you may be affected. Read more »

Those of you that cant wait to see what Google Android has in store for us will be happy to read about the new specs.

What’s known so far:

In-store, immediate sales only available in stores within 5 miles of a 3G covered area. If a store is beyond that range, representatives will walk customers through a T-mobile.com purchase
One touch access to: Search, Maps, Gmail, Youtube, Calendar, and Google Talk
Gmail account and data plan required
GPS
3.1 mp camera, no video recording
No stereo bluetooth (A2DP)
Dimensions: 4.6 x 2.16 x 0.63 in
Weighs 5.6 ounces
480×320 65K color screen
5 hour talk time, 130 hour talk time
Expandable up to 8GB

More to come as more news comes in…