Hasta La Gadget!

Are you prepared to be blown away? Have your mind flipped inside-out? Experience a revelation to end all revelations? Tough luck, bubs. During an earnings call yesterday, GameStop president Tony Bartel was cited as saying that both Microsoft’s Kinect and Sony’s PlayStation Move would both be difficult to find this holiday season, noting that the Kinect would be “a hot item through the holiday season and the key opportunity will be just to continue to keep them in stock.” He also stated that the Move would be “in short supply,” and even went so far as to predict that consumers would be “following the UPS truck to our stores to pick up that product as soon as they can find it.” Naturally, GameStop’s in-stock guarantee won’t apply to the two things it actually should (read: Kinect and Move), and Tony stopped short of providing hard evidence that this so-called shortage would in fact occur. But hey, no one ever said that drumming up demand for a product your store hawks was a bad business move, you know? And on the real, we’re guessing that Santa will actually have the hots for these things, and if you’re considering one, it’s always wise to be proactive. Or spend countless nights attempting to snipe Johnny Doe on eBay — your call.

[Image courtesy of Geek In Heels]

Shocker! GameStop expects Kinect and Move to be in short supply this holiday season originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 20 Nov 2010 01:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We happen to like our existing Xbox 360 controller, squeaky triggers and all, and though we’re eagerly awaiting an improved D-pad it hadn’t really occurred to us that some might prefer an overhaul. N-Control, however, has done just that with this insane lever-filled shell, which wraps around the gamepad to provide simultaneous control over a host of inputs at once. The idea is that you’ll never need to take your thumbs off the analog sticks to swap weapons or reload, because you’ll just flick one of those weighted levers instead. You’ll also apparently gain a split-second advantage over opponents on the draw since the contraption constantly applies tension to each of the controller’s triggers, making them easier to press. For $60, the Avenger even comes with a tripod, which could be a good move on the company’s part — it looks like you might need one to hold the beast up. Video after the break.

Continue reading N-Control Avenger gives your Xbox 360 controller hair triggers (video)

N-Control Avenger gives your Xbox 360 controller hair triggers (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who’d have thought that a little thing like the inclusion of USB Host capabilities could open the door to such wonders as an SNES controller dock? That’s exactly what we have here. The Dell Streak‘s ability to work with standard USB keyboards has enabled it to also work with a suitably modified SNES controller, having had a cablectomy and the addition of a PDMI connector on top. That, with the addition of a USB board, turns the controller into a keyboard and, hey presto, it’s Super Mario World time. Modder 0TheRain0 did the handiwork here, which you can watch him demonstrate after the break.

Continue reading Dell Streak gets SNES controller dock, navigates owner through Yoshi’s Island (video)

Dell Streak gets SNES controller dock, navigates owner through Yoshi’s Island (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Nov 2010 16:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What exactly is a fancy, anyway? As we ponder that, and other far-fetched meanings of life, we’re forced to take a look a yet another mystery of our planet: EFO. Who are these guys? Where do they spend quality time? Did they ever consider that the iPazzPort would become a worldwide phenomenon? Merely months after rolling out a minuscule Bluetooth keyboard for controlling HTPCs and other doodads, the company is now outing a slightly larger version — one with a multitouch trackpad on top of the keys. Oddly enough, it also saw fit to throw a laser pointer into the mix, though this version will rely on those tried-and-true RF frequencies for wireless communication. Check out a downright exhilarating video of it in action past the break, and tap that source link if you’re eager to drop $55 (including shipping) on one.

Continue reading EFO’s iPazzPort grows a touchpad and laser pointer, tickles our fancy

EFO’s iPazzPort grows a touchpad and laser pointer, tickles our fancy originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 24 Oct 2010 10:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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PCIe SSD solutions tend to be two things: stupidly fast and stupidly expensive. With read performance of up to 1GB/s and writes happening at up to 900MB/s the Angelbird Wings solution certainly has the speed. And, at a starting price of $239 for a 16GB model, the pricing isn’t too bad — for this sort of setup, anyway. What you’re getting for that money is an expandable PCIe controller board with slots for up to four SSDs of 120GB in size, each offering SandForce 1200 controllers. With one board you’ll get pedestrian read and write speeds of just under 300MB/s. But, with each new drive you basically multiply that, with the maximum figures quoted above coming with four. Interestingly, the controller comes with its own onboard Linux flavor called Virtue, a full UI that you can boot directly into and get all your RAID ducks in a row. Full cost for a fully kitted out system with four boards? $1399, which is hardly cheap for a mere 500GB or so of storage, but is a solid price for 1GB/s performance.

AngelBird’s PCIe SSD solution brings breakneck speeds, achievable prices, ‘incremental awesomeness’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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