Hasta La Gadget!

Most DJs today, whether they’re spinning in their basements, house parties, or massive club venues with thousands of people, use more than just turntables or CD decks and a mixer to get the job done. Don’t be surprised to see laptops, effects generators, and other gear all over the booth before your favorite DJ’s set begins. Hercules, makers of gear for DJs who make heavy use of MP3 players and laptops for their sets, announced this week that the DJ Console MK4, a portable deck with good looks and features to match, is available now for $199 list at Amazon, Guitar Center, and other music stores.

The DJ Console MK4 is a lightweight, mobile deck that features two RCA stereo outputs to connect to speakers and a monitor or to another mixer, and one stereo 3.5mm jack for headphones and cue tracks. It also features a pair of RCA stereo inputs so you can connect another mixer, a laptop, or another audio source to the console to include in your digital mix. The MK4 functions like a standard mixer, with effects controls and jog dials for scanning tracks, changing pitch, and more. The MK4 also comes with the VirtualDJ software which will analyze BPM, help you beatmatch, and even line up tracks for you for smooth transitions. By that time though, it’s almost too easy.

To hear Microsoft and Sony tell it, you’d think that there’s no question that Kinect and Playstation Move will each become as integral to their respective consoles as a regular controller is. But not every game publisher is hopping on board just yet, and Activision is now publicly voicing some skepticism about the motion controllers. Speaking to Gamasutra last week, Activision COO Thomas Tippl said that he is “absolutely” concerned about what he considers high price points for the devices, and as a result he says that Activision will “have to see how much of an install base they’re going to develop.” Tippl further goes on to say that Activision has “few franchises where we think this could be an interesting value to improve the experience for the player,” and that he doesn’t see it as “something that will be in every game, because I don’t think it’s one size fits all. It’s not going to enhance the experience for every game.” He does ultimately leave it in the hands of consumers, however, so if Kinect sells, we could well finally get a proper Air Guitar Hero game.

Activision taking a wait-and-see approach to Kinect / Move, ‘concerned’ about high prices originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve just been sent a mother lode of shots of RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry 9800 — a phone whose market name is still unknown — but whether it’s called the Bold, the Torch, or something else altogether, we think we’re looking at near-final hardware here. The software is identified as version 0.9, but you can clearly tell from the UI that it’s running BlackBerry 6 with an ever-so-slightly refined look and subtle 3D elements missing from prior releases. This particular phone is AT&T-branded, and it starts up with a carrier logo screen that proudly proclaims the 9800 a world phone — sure enough, the About screen shows support for WCDMA bands I, II, V, and VI, which means you’ll be able to use the phone for 3G service in Japan and most of Europe. Generally speaking, BlackBerrys haven’t been known to be the prettiest things around (with the possible exception of the Curve 8900), but we’ll admit — we’re digging this. Check out the full gallery below!

[Thanks, Om]

Exclusive: BlackBerry 9800 for AT&T fully exposed! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Jun 2010 14:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the first time, Apple support technicians have pointed at a manufacturing issue as the origin of the yellow bands and spots that people are finding in their iPhone 4’s displays. There’s no official word from Apple yet, however. More »

Customers are being told they may have to wait up to four hours in some places, even if they already reserved an iPhone 4. Some retail stores report being out of stock by Thursday morning. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20008729-260.html” class=”origPostedBlog”Circuit Breaker/a/p