Hasta La Gadget!

It’s been almost a year since Nintendo revealed the 3DS to the world, trotted it out at E3, held proudly by a flotilla of genetically-cloned and identically-dressed ladies. Of course we knew about it long before that, but when it comes to glasses-free 3D screens seeing is believing. After that first glimpse we were left intrigued by the technology, but we wouldn’t say we were exactly believers. Now, after spending about a week living with one of Nintendo’s $250 consoles, working with one, gaming with one, and practicing kana with one, we’ve seen the light. The fancy-pants screen works, but it only does so with a lot of caveats.

Continue reading Nintendo 3DS review (Japanese)

Nintendo 3DS review (Japanese) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 12:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Nintendo president Satoru Iwata seemed pretty positive his company’s future, as he addressed a crowd at the Game Developers Conference last week in San Francisco. Iwata also used the occasion to slam the competition–namely the ever-growing presence of casual smartphone and social network-based games, which have taken a bit of the wind out of console sales.

The parts of the Nintendo 3DS layed out for all to see

Gadget Lab Notes is an eclectic roundup of gadget news briefs and intriguing products that catch our eye.

The Nintendo 3DS Gets Dissected By iFixit
The guys at iFixit announced that the 3DS is “the most camera-laden device we’ve ever taken apart,” with two cameras used for 3D recording and one for displaying 3D images. The motherboard features a Nintendo 1048 0H ARM CPU and a Fujitsu MB82M8080-07L, among other chips, and two LCD layers are used to create the parallax display that results in 3D footage when viewed from the right distance. The 3DS got a repairability score of 5/10, which means it’s not too impossibly difficult to tear apart.

Nintendo 3DS Teardown [iFixit via the Giz]

Thanko’s EARINALM Earphones Have a Built-In Alarm
If you’re taking a nap on the bus or the train, you may prefer falling asleep to your tunes rather than to the random bustle going on around you. But then how do you know when to wake up? Thanko’s EARINALM earphones solve that problem with a built-in alarm clock on the remote control. When the alarm sounds, its ringing will replace your music. It’s available for 2980 Yen, about $36.

EARINALM Earphones [Thanko via Akihabara News]

Japenese Human-Shaped Mobile Phone Is Designed to Relay Voice and “Human Presence”
Japanese researchers have created a mobile phone robot called Elfoid. Shaped like a palm-sized pseudo-human and covered in a “skin-like” outer layer, it’s designed to transmit both voice and “human presence,” which is done by mimicking the speakers head and upper body movements. They hope that by making the phone feel like the person you’re speaking with, you’ll feel closer to them (as opposed to being creeped out that you’re dialing your friends and loved ones on a voodoo doll-like skin phone that’s wiggling in your ear).

Mobile Phone With Human Touch and Elfoid, A Pocket-Sized Android

Zero Xu Is The First Street Motorcycle With a Swappable Battery Pack
Zero’s Xu electric motorcycle is the first model to get juice from a removable, exchangeable power pack. The integrated charger powers up the pack in 2 hours, but an optional standalone charger can quick-charge it in about half that time. The Xu, which starts at $7,995, is definitely designed more for short-distance commuting than cross country treks: it only has a 30-mile range.

Xu [Zero via Designboom]

OLED Display and Camera Are Combined in Bi-Directional OLED Prototype
The Fraunhofer Institute’s prototype bi-directional panel intersperses CMOS photoreceptors between AMOLED pixels so that the display can display and observe objects at the same time. Such technology could be used in wearable displays, or give your smartphone or tablet screen additional functionality as a scanner.

Bi-Directional OLED Microdisplay [OLED Info via Slashgear]

But you knew that already. After all, what’s a Nintendo console without an overweight plumber, right? Nintendo president President Satoru Iwata announced that Mario would indeed be getting his own seemingly inevitable title for the glasses-free 3D portable gaming console, during a keynote at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Details are pretty scare about the game, which unfortunately, won’t be among the launch titles when the console hits store shelves later this month, but Nintendo has promised that it will feature “traditional Mario gameplay,” which is probably a good thing. Sounds like sidescrolling to us, but who knows.

After all Nintendo has also promised that it,

Will fulfil the dream of Nintendo video game designer (and Mario creator) Shigeru Miyamoto to bring true depth and distance into the game’s mechanics.

Designers involved with the two Super Mario Galaxy games will be working on the title, which will likely be unveiled over the summer at E3.

Nintendo Entertainment Systems have proven to be fertile ground for the DIY community — purses, guitars, and belt buckles are just a sampling of the more unusual NES mods out there. We’ve also seen our share of NES PCs, and now an enterprising Finn going by the name Ana-5000 has crammed a fully-fledged home theater PC into everybody’s favorite 8-bit console. An Asus AT3IONT-I Deluxe motherboard with an Intel Atom 330 dual-core processor and an NVIDIA Ion GPU provides the computing power and offers HDMI and VGA ports, six USB 2.0 ports, optical and RCA audio connections, integrated 802.11b/g/n wireless and Gigabit ethernet, and Bluetooth connectivity. Ana-5000 gave the repurposed Nintendo a fresh black and white paint-job to set it apart from your garden variety NES as well. Hit up the Source link for pics and an explanation of the entire mod process if you feel like doing some console recycling yourself.

NES becomes an HTPC, turns your FOF upside down originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Mar 2011 03:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Nintendo HTPC  | Email this | Comments