Hasta La Gadget!

Hey there, why so glum? You’ve overfilled your PS3’s internal storage with mission-critical data and don’t have anywhere else to stash your incoming Best of Miley Cyrus compilation? Fear not, Sony’s got you covered with a pair of officially licensed external HDDs built by Buffalo. They look remarkably similar to standard issue USB portable drives — so much so in fact that one of them is a rebadged unit that Buffalo already retails in the US — but let’s not nitpick here. The two drives on offer come with a generous 500GB of storage and their prices aren’t too bad with the rebadge setting you back around $130 while the more stylish HD-AV500U2 above will cost around $168. You could of course ignore Sony, buy any drive you like and jack it into your PS3; it’s just that these aren’t too terrible as far as unnecessarily licensed peripherals go. Both drives will be hitting Japan in March to coincide with the Torne DVR adapter release.

Sony licenses ‘official’ PS3 external HDDs, doesn’t fully comprehend concept of interoperability originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Great balls of console wars fire! A top-level Nintendo insider has revealed that the motion-controlled gaming setup we now know as Project Natal was offered to the Japanese company way back in 2007 and promptly turned down because it was considered too expensive. We’re told this decision came from supremo Satoru Iwata himself, who was worried about latency and the purported inability to sell it at “mass-market prices.” This implies, of course, that 3DV Systems was fully responsible for Natal — which Microsoft staunchly denies — but CVG seems to consider its informant’s words to be beyond suspicion. All we know for sure is that the stuff’s coming, and awkwardness at house parties is about to reach a whole new level.

Nintendo said Ninten-no to Project Natal in 2007? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 28 Jan 2010 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, we heard a raft of complaints of Blu-ray drive failures and other issues when Sony rolled out the 3.0 and 3.1 firmware updates for the PlayStation 3, and it looks like things may have taken another turn for the worse with the recent 3.10 and 3.15 updates. While it’s a bit early to call things widespread, some forums are once again starting to heat up with reports of various problems that mostly seem to have occurred after the 3.15 update rolled out last month — although some folks also seem to have had trouble with the earlier 3.10 update. As with last time, the issues being reported vary a bit, but the 60GB PS3 seems like it may be the most affected, with one completely unscientific poll on the official PlayStation forums finding that 27 users of the 60GB model had no issues after the 3.15 update, while 35 users had either some “bad” issues or a complete system failure (‘course those with no problems aren’t that likely to be seeking out threads about problems). So, anyone notice that their PS3 isn’t behaving like it should? Let us know in comments.

Recent PS3 updates prompt more complaints of console failures originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey humans! So Hastings was telling us the truth after all — the Nintendo Wii will be joining the other two game consoles to stream Netflix starting some time in early Spring. Like the PS3, a special Netflix “instant-streaming” disc will be required for the Wii, and it goes without saying that HD’s out of the question since the Wii itself can’t push above 480p. There’ll be no additional fees beyond Netflix’s usual monthly subscription. Time for a game of Mario Kart to celebrate, no?

Update: the Netflix sign-up page is now live! [Via Joystiq]

Wii gets Netflix this Spring, disc required for streaming originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Jan 2010 00:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft’s CES keynote doesn’t begin for a few hours still, but it looks as it the crux of the consumer electronics news from it is already flowing. Purportedly, a leaked interview (that has since been yanked) showed Robbie Bach, President of the Entertainment & Devices Division, talking up two things of utmost importance. The first of which is Project Natal, which is Redmond’s attempt to add full-body interaction to the game console. The news? It’s looking like 2010 really will be the year said product hits the shelves, and it’s seeming more and more likely that the well-known Natal moniker will stick for retail. The other bit is a so-called Xbox Game Room, which is “supposed to bring back that retro fun to gaming.” That’s fairly ambiguous, but we can’t say that our interest isn’t piqued. Hang tight for what we hope will be the official announcement later this evening — the day has only just begun, you know?

Update: We’ve got the full interview! Catch it after the break!

Continue reading 2010 Project Natal launch and Xbox Game Room leaked in CES interview

2010 Project Natal launch and Xbox Game Room leaked in CES interview originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:18:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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