Hasta La Gadget!

We all knew that eventually Sony would have to kill the PS2 despite the fact that it still had a decent sales numbers. The original Sony PlayStation 2 launched in March of 2000 and quickly became one of the most popular game consoles ever built. It looks like the PS2 is ready to head into the sunset.

Sony’s PlayStation 2 sold 150 million units globally making it incredibly successful since it launched. The PS2 is reportedly no longer shipping in Japan, marking the end of an era for many gamers who grew up with the console. It’s unlikely that the Sony PS3 will be a viable and popular console for over a decade as its predecessor was.

Sony is promising to support the PS3 only through 2015. The PS3 launched in Japan in November of 2006. If Sony phases out the PS3 in 2015, that console would have only been supported for nine years. A few years back Sony replaced the original “fat” PS2 with the new slim design.

Despite how old the PS2 is, many developers were still creating games for the console due to the wide user base. Sony may not be shipping any more new PS2s, but it will be a long time yet before gamers toss that console into the closet.

[via Kotaku]

Sony stops shipping the PS2 in Japan is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Nissan hasn’t been having the best of luck with its all-electric Leaf. The vehicle hasn’t sold in numbers like the automaker had hoped. Out of the consumers who purchased the Leaf, nearly 18,000 complained of battery capacity loss and poor performance of the vehicle battery packs.

To address the complaints of Leaf owners Nissan has decided to expand warranty coverage for the vehicle battery packs. Nissan has announced that it will be replacing batteries that have lost capacity for Leaf owners. Nissan says that it is the first and only auto manufacturer to provide limited warranty coverage for battery capacity loss on the EVs it produces.

The extended warranty coverage will go into effect this spring and apply to all 2011 and 2012 Leaf vehicles. The coverage will protect against capacity loss and batteries that fall under nine bars of the maximum 12 bars displayed on the Leaf’s battery capacity gauge. The extended warranty covers the batteries if they fall under nine bars before 60,000 miles.

If the capacity loss occurs before the 60,000-mile mark, Nissan will replace or repair the batteries free of cost. Nissan is also said that it is working to improve the accuracy of the battery capacity gauge in the vehicle. Some Leaf owners have found themselves stranded on the side of the road when that gauge showed that the batteries had enough capacity to make a trip.

[via Inautonews]

Nissan expands battery warranty coverage for Leaf EVs is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Earlier this month we reported that Audiogalaxy had been acquired by Dropbox, and on Audiogalaxy’s blog, they stated that they would no longer be accepting new users. It would have been a fair speculation to think that they would no longer accept new users until the new management took over, but as it turns out the reason they aren’t accepting new users is because the service will be shutting down on the 31^st of January 2013. This was announced by Audiogalaxy on their Facebook page where they simply said that their service would be shutting down. It is still no clear what Dropbox has planned for Audiogalaxy, but hopefully they will not be taking Audiogalaxy too far from its core competency.

For those unfamiliar with Audiogalaxy, it is basically a service where one of its features allows users to stream songs from their computer (as long as it is turned on) onto their mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, through Audiogalaxy’s dedicated app. For those on unlimited data plans or who don’t stream that much, using Audiogalaxy is a good way to save memory on your mobile device especially if your music library is pretty huge. Until then it looks like Audiogalaxy users will have about a month to start looking for alternatives – Google Play Music, perhaps?

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Audiofly To Unveil New Earphones At CES 2013, Astronaut Records Song In Orbit,

SD cards won’t be generating the same feverish hype as other gear breaking cover at CES, but nevertheless, Toshiba’s let the world know it’ll be bringing a new one to the show. The company won’t have a finished product to flog, but instead will be exhibiting a reference design for an SDHC card with TransferJet technology. For those unfamiliar with TransferJet, it’s a high-speed wireless transfer technology for sending and receiving files over short distances. While it isn’t used nearly as much as its transfer protocol peers, hopefully it’ll find some work to do if and when Toshiba takes its card from design to product.

Continue reading Toshiba to show reference design for SDHC card with TransferJet at CES

Filed under: Wireless, Storage

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Earlier this year we reported that Fujitsu had a smartphone designed for the elderly called the Raku Raku. The device was initially limited to the Japanese market, but the good news is that if you were hoping for a similar device to give to your parents or grandparents, you might be interested to learn that Fujitsu has plans to launch the Raku Raku phone in the US and Europe come 2013. Fujitsu is hoping that by expanding overseas, they will be able to ship more phones and are estimating about 10 million devices shipped in 2014. Given that Panasonic had such lofty goals themselves which did not work out, we certainly hope that Fujitsu will fare better.

For those curious, the Raku Raku is an Android-based smartphone that runs a modified version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. What makes this more senior citizen-friendly is that it has been modified to feature larger icons and text, while displaying less apps on the home screen in order to lessen any confusion. It will feature basic apps such as the dialer, phone book, email and weather forecast. It is also expected to come with added features like noise cancellation and can even slow down the voice of the caller so that they can be understood better. No word on whether all these features will be available for the international version, or how much it will cost or when it will be available, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled nonetheless.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Parents Tracks Daughter’s Phone, Receives Stalking Order, Samsung Galaxy S2 Plus To Get NFC Chip (Rumor),