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First, Alienware’s M17x got a bit of spit and polish with a new Sandy Bridge CPU and a 3D display, then the M11x got Intel’s speedy new silicon too. Now, the middle alien child appears to have gotten a similar makeover. Christened the M14x, rumor has it that Alienware’s newest portable rig packs an Intel Core i7-2820QM 2.3 GHz CPU, up to a 750GB 7200RPM HDD, 256GB SATA2 or SATA3 SDD, a robust NVIDIA GT555M GPU, LTE or WiMAX connectivity, and your choice of 14-inch screens: either a 1366 x 768 display or a Full HD 1920 x 1080 LCD. Following its big brother’s lead, the M14x also rolls with a pair of Klipsch speakers for hi-fi fragging. No word on when this mothership lands, but with those specs, we wouldn’t mind making first contact — would you?
Alienware’s M14x revealed: classic middle-child overachiever, none of the simmering sibling resentment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 04:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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What’s this, you ask? The next generation of Xbox 360 development, that’s what. With a shockingly small amount of fanfare, Microsoft has ushered in a striking new Xbox Development Kit, which is purportedly designed to increase efficiency and reduce cost for Xbox 360 dev teams. Aside from boasting an undisclosed uptick in RAM, built-in flash memory, a more capacious hard drive and a slimmer form factor, this XDK will also be sold at a “significantly reduced price from its predecessor.” ‘Course, the folks in Redmond aren’t saying what exactly that sticker will look like, but those interested in taking the plunge regardless will also have the option to license a Sidecar attachment that enables debugging and disc emulation. We’re told that said accessory can be shared among multiple XDK consoles, and in turn, it should lower the overall price to create, test, debug, and release an Xbox 360 or Xbox Live Arcade game. It’s still a guessing game when it comes to an actual launch date, but it’ll become “the standard kit” when new orders are fulfilled in the future. Feel free to peruse the gallery below if you’re interested, and toss out a wild guess as to what that Sidecar will go for on eBay during the next century. Aim high, bub!
Continue reading Xbox Development Kit arrives with ‘significantly reduced price,’ Sidecar attachment
Xbox Development Kit arrives with ‘significantly reduced price,’ Sidecar attachment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Apr 2011 03:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Those who know how humid and disgustingly sweaty Japan can get in the height of summer won’t be looking forward to the possibility of no air conditioning as the looming threat of blackouts extends into the season of three shirts a day. Various power saving efforts are being introduced and around town you can see convenience stores doing their bit with only half the store lights on, and even the iconic Shibuya TV screens were turned off until recently. Tapping into this, a university professor Inoue Akihito the author of Japanese blog Critique of Games has come up with a power saving game that is catching on on twitter called #Denkimeter”.
The basic rules are simple and involve the player locating and checking the reading on their electric meter at home or in the office. You can take a photo of the meter and the player must tweet the reading along with the time and date using the hashtag #Denkimeter. Players then update the reading periodically throughout the day and determine how much power they have used based on the change in reading from the previous tweet. Each person is encouraged to update after events such as preparing dinner or doing the laundry to get an idea of how we can cut down on our electricity usage. Your final reading on how much energy is saved is given as your “戦闘力” or “combat power”.
When players enter their power savings into the Denkimeter site they receive a motivational or amusing derogatory comment back based on how well or poor they are doing. Displayed publicly on twitter also, there is added incentive for players to up their “combat power” by dropping their electricity usage and gain social kudos while at it.
The popularity of the game has also spawned an iPhone app that allows players to enter the wattage and tweet directly from the app which calculates energy difference since your last entry.
Alternative ways that Japan could save a ton of energy however would also be to just close all the pachinko parlors, now there is an idea.
Dungeon Defenders: First Wave cost $3 when it first came out. This week, the iOS version will cost you ninety-nine cents. But if you want to play the Unreal Engine-powered tower defense game today, you can have it for free — developer Trendy Entertainment is now leaning on Android’s new in-app billing system to pay for the whole thing. We can’t give Trendy all the credit, of course, as Glu Mobile’s Gun Bros and Tapulous’ Tap Tap Revenge 4 are doing the same thing, but to our knowledge both of them were free to play from day one. Free-to-play gaming has been a controversial proposition in the console and PC gaming space — most publishers would just like to sell a game once, and call it a day. On phone, however, where apps are expected to be cheap, it could indeed make more sense to charge users for items and upgrades than to have users “buy” the game. Either way, we penny-pinchers are pleased as punch with the idea. PR after the break.
Continue reading Android’s in-app billing makes a dent: Dungeon Defenders free on Android Market
Android’s in-app billing makes a dent: Dungeon Defenders free on Android Market originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 23:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It’s about time the ViewMaster got an upgrade. What’s that? It’s not a ViewMaster? Well, you could have fooled us, but either way, the thing’s finally going on sale exclusively at Target April 3rd, and everywhere else starting in June. As you might have already heard, Hasbro’s intro into the crowded 3D arena, simply titled My3D, does take a card from the old ViewMaster deck, but instead of enlisting cardboard discs, this thing uses your iPhone or iPod touch to bring you 3D entertainment. If your kid’s not already hooked on 3D, the $35 viewer could be a decent starter — then again, for $35 you could take yourself out to a nice lunch, give the rug rat a cardboard box, and call it a day. Full PR after the break.
Continue reading Hasbro’s My3D to turn iPhones into glorified ViewMasters starting Sunday
Hasbro’s My3D to turn iPhones into glorified ViewMasters starting Sunday originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 02 Apr 2011 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, it looks like GameStop’s plans following its acquisition of Impulse and Spawn Labs may be even grander than we had suspected. At an investor conference today, GameStop said flat out that it is “becoming a technology company,” and that it does indeed plan to introduce a cloud-based gaming service similar to OnLive as a result of the Spawn Labs acquisition, while Impulse will be used to “compete fiercely” with Steam. But that’s just the start of things. According to the Dallas Morning News, GameStop also plans to expand the gaming service to a variety of mobile devices, and it’s apparently even entertaining the idea of a GameStop-branded tablet, saying that “if we feel like we could do a better job of making a tablet, we’ll do that.” Of course, some of that is still quite a ways off, but GameStop will be taking its first steps fairly soon — it’s already showed off a demo of how the service will be integrated into its website (see above, complete with a “try it now” option), and it plans to begin a public beta sometime this year before rolling out the full service early next year.
GameStop details plans for Impulse and Spawn Labs, says it’s ‘becoming a technology company’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Touchscreen gaming’s like cheese pizza — a generally tasty treat, but significantly improved by an addition or two. Good thing Donya’s got some new toppings for your touchy-feely display: a set of physical buttons and D-pads. Available in Japan for ¥999 (about twelve bucks) you get single, dual, and triple button stickers along with two D-pads to bring some much needed physicality to your handheld experience without sacrificing pocketability. We’re not sure what marvel of modern science makes these tactile additions cling to your screen, but we do know they make firing off a few Hadoukens quite a bit easier. That plus a few Hurricane Kicks after the break.
Continue reading Donya wish your touchscreen had buttons like these? (video)
Donya wish your touchscreen had buttons like these? (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 01 Apr 2011 06:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Customers can step right into cyberspace until April 19th at Shibuya’s Parco department store. Promoting the 3D release of “Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Solid State Society” web company Kayac Inc installed a large game booth that lets players immerse into the game and float in space.
The game uses the microsoft Kinect sensor to let players use gesture and movement to travel through space in a bid to capture Tachikoma. Controls use the whole range of movements from twisting to turn and moving forward and back to shift perspective then using an arm movement to zap and capture the characters. With the installed wrap around screen the effect is pretty absorbing and really feels like you are floating around.
The store itself has various anime goods and a display of some original shots from the Ghost In The Shell movie also for fans to see.
Users twist and turn below in the original video from Kayac:
The game is on the 5th floor of Parco, Shibuya in the S.A.C Premium Shop until April 19th.
Thanks to www.asiajin.com
If there was one thing that bothered us most about the Xperia Play, it was the dearth of original PlayStation games we could, you know, play on it. That’s getting a shot in the arm tonight with the introduction of five PS One titles to the Android Market: Syphon Filter, MediEvil, Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, and Jumping Flash. Each is priced at £3.99 in the UK, with the first two games on the list also being available in five languages. That pricing translates to $6.38 when the games are accessed from the US, but we imagine the final pricing may differ once the Xperia Play lands stateside. And yes, the Xperia Play will be your only way to access these for now (R800i is its codename), leaving the rest of us Android PS One lovers with a bunch of games to envy and one less emulator to enjoy. The Android giveth, and the Android taketh away.
Update: Sony Ericsson wants you to know that since the Xperia Play is, in fact, an Android handset, it won’t be restricted to just those five PS One games — it will also feature quite a few titles that you can also find on the Android Market and even a few temporary exclusives like Backstab and Dungeon Defenders Second Wave. Still, it’s a little light on actual PlayStation gaming… See the full list in the press release after the break.
PlayStation One games appear in Android Market, predictably restricted to Xperia Play (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 16:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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