Hasta La Gadget!

I spent the “Summer” in Berlin, Germany, where a cargo-carrying bike like this is a common site, stuffed with a pair of brats as its smug, over-breeding parents pedal it along the city’s many excellent bike-lanes. Berlin is pretty flat but even so, an electric boost would be nice. That’s just what the Urban Arrow will give you.

The bike comes from Amsterdam, the world capital of bike-crime, and along with its electric pedal-assist, it has a modular aluminum frame that can accept different front-ends. There’s the two-wheeled version seen here, as well as a short two-wheeler for regular biking and a three-wheel cargo-carrier for more stability. Along with the helpful power-train to get you going, there’s also a pair disk-brakes so you can stop again without dropping your up-to-180-kilo (400-pound) load.

As for carrying the kids, there is an optional rain-cover, and the EPP plastic box has a rail running around the outside to protect little fingers if you run into something while the monsters are climbing up the sides. The bike is billed on the information-free website as being the “first serious car challenger”, and that might not be too far off the mark.

The Urban Arrow won an award at the recently-ended Eurobike 2010, and should be on sale soon for an as-yet unknown price.

Urban Arrow product page [Urban Arrow. Thanks, Jorrit!]

See Also:

• Home-Made Kid-Carrying Cargo-Bike
• Home-Made Cargo Bike Is Cheap, Easy Rider
• Bullitt Bike is Cool, Cargo-Carrying Cruiser
• Zaftig Cargo Fork: Lowriding Load-Lifter
• Folding Trailer for Folding Bikes: Compact Cargo Carrier
• Surly Trailer Hauls 300-Pounds, Replaces Your Car

Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.

We really thought we’d seen it all when it comes to handheld video game controllers, but this upcoming “Ctrl+S” model from UNIQ brings a surprising quantity of new ideas. The most basic innovation is the weird “UNIQ wing” that sticks out from the rear edges of the controller, allowing you to passively support the controller with the insides of your index fingers instead of having to “grip” the controller to hold it up. Yeah, that sounds lazy, but the idea is to reduce muscle stress and cramps, which makes sense for people who game a few hours a day. The relaxed posture is also supposed to help improve thumb mobility, though we’ll have to test it out with a game to see if that’s actually the case. Around back are some nicely oversized and easily worked analog triggers, along with a grid of repositioned “face buttons.”

The feel of the prototype we were playing with felt just a little too light and a little too “cheap,” but that’s typical for prototypes, and the promises of improved ergonomics and optimized control placements are certainly compelling. The best news is that the controller will be highly customizable, with tweaks available for the analog sticks, “wings,” and even the force feedback motors. We’ll see how well this impacts gameplay when the controller hits the market in December for $69.99. Check it out on video after the break.

Continue reading Ctrl+S PS3 controller for professionals and burgeoning arthritics

Ctrl+S PS3 controller for professionals and burgeoning arthritics originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We knew it was coming, and now here it is: Sony‘s special edition PS3. To commemorate the impending release of GT5 the console is turning blue, and while the rather vibrant version we saw in the official press photos from August didn’t do much for us, seeing the thing in the flesh (admittedly behind glass) gave us quite a different impression. It has the same matte finish as the current PS3 slim, but the rich blue gives it almost a metallic effect. It’s really quite a looker, and while we wouldn’t normally splurge for such “special” editions, how often does a new Gran Turismo come around? Once a decade at most. This Gran Turismo 5 Racing Pack hits Japan on November 3 for 35,980 yen. That’s about $420 of those dollars you’ve been saving for oh so long.

PS3 holds breath waiting for Gran Turismo 5 release, turns blue at TGS originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Sep 2010 10:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

More now of the ever-changing face of Best Buy shelf space. Earlier in the week we told you that the big box retailer is scaling back on its CD/DVD inventory to make space for hot holiday products like the Sony Move, Microsoft Kinect, Amazon Kindle, and Apple iPad.

So, how much of an impact on sales are these new products having? The Wall Street Journal has a piece on exactly that. The big takeaway on the matter is the following quote from the Journal reporter,

Mr. Dunn also said internal estimates showed that the iPad had cannibalized sales from laptop PCs by as much as 50 percent.

Now, it’s important to be careful here and point out the fact that quote is “by as much much as.” Still, the quote is certainly a bit staggering. Best Buy is responding to the demand by expanding the iPad section in all of its stores–all 1,093 of them.

There’s certainly a lot to take into account when looking at the number. For one thing, Best Buy is far and away more of a consumer electronics destination than one for PCs. Also, the iPad is the current cool new thing in the world of tech–it’s probably a bit too early to take these numbers as a signal of the beginning of the end for the PC.

If there’s any truth behind them, however (and surely they come from a pretty respectable source), they certainly point to a larger trend–perhaps consumers are examining the role that tablets can play in their day-to-day computing lives.

It seems doubtful that many users are trading in their PCs entirely for such devices, but they have, perhaps, begun further delaying purchasing new laptops and desktops, instead picking up an iPad as a secondary computing device.

In light of last night’s Samsung Tab tablet launch, I think the question of the day what further impact a more crowded consumer tablet market place will have on PC sales. Will an influx of Android, Windows 7, and webOS tablets further alter consumers’ laptop purchases, or will they simply eat away at Apple’s largely untouched market share in the space?

Sony’s motion-sensing gaming peripheral is officially heading to store shelves on Sunday, but Amazon is already making the device available. pOriginally posted at a href=”http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20016780-17.html” class=”origPostedBlog”The Digital Home/a/p