Hasta La Gadget!

A new challenger steps in the niche market… ring of portable consoles built to run emulators of older systems. But like the relatively famous Pandora handheld, the GCW-Zero aims not just to let players enjoy old games but also let those with programming skills tweak and play with its software.

The GCW-Zero runs on OpenDingux, a Linux distribution that was originally made for Dingoo’s gaming handhelds. Hardware-wise the GCW-Zero has a 1GHz Injenic CPU, a Vivante GC860 GPU, 512MB DDR2 RAM and 16GB of internal memory. It also has a microSD slot that supports micro SDHC cards up to 32 GB or micro SDXC cards up to 64 GB, a mini-USB port and a mini-HDMI 1.3 out, which is a nice surprise. The controls are mostly what you’d expect – a d-pad, an analog nub, 4 face buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, select and start buttons – except the GCW-Zero also has an accelerometer, so it supports tilt controls.

Here’s a video of a few games running on the handheld, courtesy of GCW-Zero lead tester Kirk Shepherd:

You can check out more videos of the handheld on Shepherd’s YouTube channel. But if you think this is the portable videogame museum for you, pledge at least $135 (USD) on its Kickstarter fundraiser to reserve a unit. Can you imagine just how much money Nintendo, Sony, Sega and the other old guards would make if they put their heads (and licenses) together and released an all-conquering retro handheld?

[via Gear Diary]

The need to keep your phone safe from water and the weather is nothing new, but when the first version of Liquipel was released, I was pretty amazed. This coating is designed to protect gadgets from water, even without a case. Liquipel 2.0 was launched at CES 2013 this year, and it’s gone a step further than the original.

Liquipel 2.0 is a nanoscale coating, capable of protecting your smartphone’s circuitry in the event of water exposure. It’s supposed to keep your device nice and safe, and the new formula is apparently 100 times more effective than the original coating. The new Liquipel coating permeates the entire device and bonds with it on a ‘molecular’ level, to keep it safe from water for years. While Liquipel doesn’t recommend that you intentionally submerge your coated gadgets in water, they do say that the coating will protect it from accidental spills and water damage.

Liquipel plans to start offering their coating process at retail locations, the first of which is scheduled to launch at the West Edmonton Mall in Canada later this year.

In the mean time, you order a brand new iPhone 5 pre-treated with Liquipel 2.0 for $899.99(USD). That seems like a whole lot of money for what it is. Hopefully, the cost for treating your own device won’t be as prohibitive, as the Liquipel 1.0 coating costs as little as $59 for an iPhone.

[via designboom]

Creating a touch screen wherever you have a flat surface has certain perks. Find out how one company is making that dream a reality for consumers and companies. The folks over at the Light Touch company are making this a reality for homes, offices and businesses a reality with their product that allows any flat place to become a touch screen.

Nope, the picture below isn’t Photoshopped. The Game Boy below actually has four face buttons. It’s also not entirely a Game Boy anymore, because there’s a Dingoo A330 inside, hence the name Gameboo. Aside from playing Game Boy games, it can also play GBA, NES, SNES games and more.

YouTuber lxl15 made Gameboo for a friend. It took him a total of 8 months, and the labor of love really shows. Lxl15 tried his best to make the Gameboo look like a stock Game Boy. For instance, the extra face buttons are also Game Boy buttons. He also turned the dials that controlled the Game Boy’s contrast and volume into left and right shoulder buttons, and re-purposed the extension connector port into a Mini USB port. Lxl15 also hollowed out the battery compartment and a spare cartridge to retain the handheld’s look while opening up space inside for electronics.

Just like the Dingoo A330, the Gameboo has an AV out and support for a wireless controller. In other words, it can be used as a retro home console as well!

Head to my good friend lxl15′s blog for the details on the awesome mod of my buddy. I mean me and lxl15 close like Bethlehem and Nazareth. You might as well call me lxl14.

[Casing The Joint via The Next Web via Complex]

There are tons of gaming keyboards on the market today, and many of them share the same basic feature set. Acessory maker SteelSeries has unveiled a new gaming keyboard called the Apex that has an impressively customizable backlighting system to set it apart from the masses. The keyboard is capable of displaying 16.8 million different backlight colors.

The backlight also has eight levels of dimming control, and you can select which areas of the keyboard you want to be a specific color. That means you could make keys that go with macros for your favorite game one color, while leaving the remainder of the keyboard another color. Though unlike the completely customizeable Luxeed LED keyboard, this one only supports 5 predefined color zones. It would be nice if you could individually address each key.

Other than the fancy LED lighting system, the keyboard also has 22 macro keys. Each of those keys has four functions states – for a total of 88 possible macros. The keyboard also features anti-ghosting technology supporting up to 20 concurrent key presses. One of the more unusual features of the keyboard is two extra arrow keys that point up/left and up/right for quickly moving on the diagonal.

The SteelSeries Apex keyboard is available now for $99(USD).

[via EverythingUSB]