Hasta La Gadget!

At yesterday’s Tokyo Toy Show Takara Tomy demonstrated their great new cars, a sort-of combination of the previous Mario Kart Wii Q-Steer with their popular ChoroQ series.

The ChoroQ Mario Kart uses infrared controllers which have all the advantages of the original Nintendo game. Players can get power-ups and have an arsenal including banana skins. There are even sound effects! Check out the special funky track too.

Plus there was a Mario Kart Wii Grand Prix Race pinball game, set for release in Japan from August. Each character is represented by a ball in his or her trademark color.

It took a little while after the BDXL specification was finalized, but here’s Sharp busting down the door to expanded storage with the first official products adhering to said spec. The new VR-100BR1 discs will use triple-layer fairy dust to squish 100GB of data inside, and Akihabara News reports that they’ll be swiftly followed by quad-layer 128GB variants as well. Of course, every shiny new toy comes at a price, which in this case will be ¥5,000 per disc — that equates to $57 and makes us wonder why we wouldn’t just buy an external HDD with that cash. Perhaps because the slinky new Blu-ray media will be playable in that shiny new Sharp Blu-ray DVR you just bought? You did buy a Sharp DVR, right? Because the BD-HDW700/70 are the only models that will support these, at least for the moment.

Continue reading Sharp intros first 100GB BDXL discs, Japan gets first dibs on July 30

Sharp intros first 100GB BDXL discs, Japan gets first dibs on July 30 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Proving once again that in this world it’s more important what you look like than what you do, the Xbox 360 has cruised to the title of best-selling console in June on the back of a sexy physical redesign. The latest numbers from NPD show that Microsoft shifted 451,700 units in the US, which ousts the Wii’s tally of 422,500 and comfortably dwarfs the PS3’s 304,800. Still, if Sony wants any consolation it need only look back to the results of its own console Slimmification last year — US sales were said to have tripled in the immediate aftermath of the new SKU’s release. So Microsoft might have a little bit of catching up to do yet, and let’s not forget that the king of all hardware sales remains the DS, which somehow managed to sell more than half a million devices in June, in spite of the whole world and its dog already owning one.

Xbox 360 sales increase 88 percent in June, give it US console crown for the month originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 01:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright, we know that playing with the Firefox 4 beta has been a full-time job for you Mozilla fanboys and girls out there, but let’s try something fresh on for size, shall we? Firefox Home has finally been whisked into the App Store on news that Apple gave it the green light, meaning you can now sync your bookmarks and open tabs between your desktop and your phone. Some of us can go a few minutes without browsing the web in the off chance we’re away from our PCs… aw, who are we kidding? No we can’t — and neither can you, so you may as well grab it if you’re using Firefox and an iPhone.

Firefox Home for iPhone bows in the App Store originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget question is coming to us from Max, who seems to be putting his old scattered life behind him in an attempt to get organized. If you’re looking to send in an inquiry of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I am a student looking for a second portable computer for taking notes in lectures, as I am ridiculously unorganized at the moment. The thing is, I only have a very small budget, and I need a tablet / touchscreen computer. I have at most £150 ($228) to spend.”

Max isn’t even opposed to buying second-hand, but we just know someone out there has a delightful option on the new market as well. Don’t bother putting off your answer in comments below — that Fall semester is just about the bend, you know?

Ask Engadget: best note-taking tablet / laptop for under $200? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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