Hasta La Gadget!

LAS VEGAS — Sometimes, April Fools’ Day dreams do come true.

Less than a year after ThinkGeek created an arcade gaming cabinet for iPad as part of its annual April 1 shenanigans, Ion Audio has partnered with both the geek shopping site and Atari to bring forth the real thing.

The iCade — yup, that’s the same “product” name as the ThinkGeek gag version — looks like a miniaturized version of any typical arcade machine. The top flips open, you slide the iPad in, and wireless Bluetooth connectivity does the rest. Via the joystick and eight arcade buttons on the front console panel, you’ll be able to play games (at least from the outset) through the free iCade app.

Of course, gag gifts that appear on ThinkGeek have a weird way of coming to fruition. (Remember the saga of the Tauntaun sleeping bag?) Well, when Fred Galpern, Ion’s gaming product manager, saw the imaginary iCade pop up on ThinkGeek’s site last year, he called up the site’s brass and proposed they work together to make the dream a reality. Eventually, Atari was brought on board as a partner in supplying games for the unit — at launch, only Asteroids will be available — although Ion says it will release a developers kit, so we’ll hopefully see a slew of iCade-compatible games by year’s end.

Oddly enough, even though the fake iCade retailed for $150 on ThinkGeek, the real iCade will undercut that by $50, despite knowing in advance that thousands of people would gladly pay such a price point. But $100 is all you’ll need to plunk down at ionaudio.com or thinkgeek.com (yes, the site will be selling an exclusive ICade that looks like the April Fools’ version) if you want to relive some ’80s gaming glory days on your iPad.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

It’s true, Dell unleashed two new Alienware systems this morning, and naturally we just had to check out the two epically powerful rigs in person. We spent the most time with the new 17-inch M17x, and while the chassis has been updated, it’s still loaded with lots of LEDs, a trippy color-changing backlit keyboard, and chrome accents. The lid and edges have been given a more chiseled aesthetic, so we’d say it looks more muscular than ever. Obviously, the big story with the M17x is that it is now 3D capable. The full HD display is seriously beautiful, and while we didn’t get to check out a Blu-ray 3D movie on the rig, we can only imagine how breathtaking the experience is going to be. We did, however, get to check out its new integrated 1080p streaming capability, which actually is based on an integrated WHDI solution. You’ll need to pick up an extra box and hook it up to your TV, but in the demo we saw there was absolutely no lag between the clip of Final Fantasy on the laptop and on the TV. The unit we saw hanging around was packing a new Core i7 CPU and NVIDIA graphics, but it will apparently be available with AMD’s latest graphics as well.

We also caught sometime with the new Aurora desktop, but like we said it wasn’t much. The tower is still crazily-lit, but has been updated with the most powerful overclockable Intel Core i5 and i7 Sandy Bridge processors as well as new NVIDIA graphics that support 3D Vision. The Aurora should be available this month for a starting price of $1,799 and the M17x for $1,499 on January 10th. Hit the break for some more images and the source link for Engadget Spanish’s short video.

Dell Alienware M17x and Aurora hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Wondering what your future kitchen looks like? Take a gander at what Fulton Innovation is showing at CES this year. They’re also giving a peek at the future of retail shopping, and even parking lots. It’s all the magic of inductive charging, and now that the Qi standard has been finalized it seems like things are coming together. Really together, in everything from cereal boxes with blinkenlights to Tesla Roadsters that charge almost as quickly as with a wire but, quite obviously, without the wire. Would you like to know more? Click on through.

Continue reading Fulton Innovation blows our minds with eCoupled wireless Tesla, inductive cereal boxes (video)

Fulton Innovation blows our minds with eCoupled wireless Tesla, inductive cereal boxes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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HyperMac is known more for its power-extending solutions than its other peripherals, but this still-unannounced iPad external hard drive enclosure we spotted at the company’s booth is certainly interesting. Capable of accepting a standard 2.5-inch hard drive, the brushed metal box has two miniUSB ports around back — one to connect to your computer, and another to connect to your iPad. Unfortunately, unlike other iPad storage solutions like the AirStash, because it interfaces through Apple’s USB camera adapter, you’re limited to photos and video content only. On top of that, it only works with the iPad because the iPhone and iPod touch don’t support that particular accessory. The target price point is around $100 without any physical drive — yes, it’s a BYOHD affair — which is definitely steeper than we’d like, especially given the limited functionality. Still, if you’ve got more content than space to spare, you might want to look into picking one of these up when it drops in sometime later this month.

HyperMac’s external hard drive enclosure for iPad hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading JVC announces the GS-TD1 full HD 3D consumer camcorder, we go hands on

JVC announces the GS-TD1 full HD 3D consumer camcorder, we go hands on originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 19:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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