gadget news and reviews

Apple Press Event: Liveblog +

9:57am: Apologies for the lack of pictures, but since I do not own a Mac to watch the liveblog, it’s going to be tough.

10:01am: Steve Jobs is on stage and talking about the new Apple Stores. Read More

Plants vs Zombies Announced for Nintendo DS 2

Plants vs Zombies was one of the most addictive games released last year. Since its initial release on the PC and Mac, the game has been adapted to the iPhone, iPad, and is even coming to Xbox Live Arcade on September 8. But that wasn’t enough for Popcap, makers of Plants vs Zombies. The company announced it plans to release a Nintendo DS version early 2011. Read More

In Photos: Samsung Captivate (AT&T) +

Although we’ve been talking about the Samsung Epic 4G for the past few days, which is probably the most notable iteration of the Galaxy S family, we also managed to get our hands on AT&T’s iteration, the Samsung Captivate. While it lacks some extras that the Epic 4G offers such as a front-facing camera, 4G connectivity, and a slide-out physical keyboard, it sports a slimmer lightweight design. Let’s not forget that it still sports the rest of the goods including Samsung’s flagship Super AMOLED display technology, Android v2.1, Swype text input, TouchWiz, Media Hub, a 5 megapixel camera, and HD video recording. Read More

Thoughts On The Starcraft II Battle.Net +

Recently, Blizzard released a sequel to the highly popular Real Time Strategy (RTS) video game, Starcraft. Over the past few days I’ve had a change to play Starcraft II with the new Battle.Net service and here’s my experience so far: Read More

FM Radios To Become Standard In Mobile Devices? 1

When one thinks of smart phones, FM Radios aren’t generally the first thing that comes to mind. FM Radio’s are rarely used on smartphones since users can stream most content through the Internet. Recently, however, there has been a push by certain groups to revive the medium by utilizing the popularity of smart phones. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in coalition with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has put forth a proposal that would make it mandatory for all mobile devices in the U.S. to come equipped with FM receivers. While it might initially seem like a simple issue, the involved parties have conflicting interests making the proposal subject to a fair amount of debate.

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AKG Perception 120 USB Microphone (Review) +

While just about every new laptop and netbook come with a webcam and microphone built-in, these generally fail to offer acceptable quality. For webcams, some of you folks may choose to upgrade to a Logitech or Microsoft solution, a few of which we reviewed recently. But when it comes to audio, selecting a decent option is a bit more difficult. Using a professional condenser microphone with a laptop or desktop requires a powered stereo mixer plus with equipment to digitize audio or a XLR to USB converter. Fortunately, those looking to take their first step into professional audio no longer have to deal with multiple pieces of expensive equipment. AKG, a Harmon company, now offers an all-in-one solution that’s easy as plug-and-play. Read More

SanDisk Announces Smallest 64GB Embedded SSD 1

Size is one of the most common themes in the tech industry. Usually, the smaller a device can be made without sacrificing too much performance, the better. This is especially true with regards to memory, as the physical size of memory can make or break the user experience. The memory business is also subject to rapid change, as physical size, speed, and capacity are never at a stand still. Following that trend, flash memory manufacturer SanDisk has released the fastest embedded Solid-State Drive (SSD) in its size.

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Is Jailbreaking A PS3 Reality? +

Remember when modchips first came out? You had to violate your Playstation in order to play games on burned disks? Well, I do, and what I remember most wasn’t the fact that my friends got to play the newest games for free. It was the complicated—and very dangerous—procedures they had to go through in order to get these free games. Hackers and modders charged ridiculous prices to solder a chip into your Playstation and even worse was the risk you knowingly took when trying to get your chip. Modders made no guarantees, and if your Playstation ended up a brick, it wasn’t their fault. They wouldn’t offer you a refund, and since you opened up your system, you voided the warranty so Sony had no obligations to help out a pirate customer. Thankfully, in the modern age of USB drives and open source coding, things don’t have to be as invasive as those old barbaric days, but Sony and other developers are also a lot smarter than they used to be and do their best to prevent hacking of any kind. However, if the Ozmodchips USB drive is actually real, a jailbroken or mod-USB Playstation 3 just became available. Read More

Thoughts on the Nintendo Wii +

The Nintendo Wii has been a topic of discussion by hardcore and casual gamers alike. Around its 2006 release date, many people were concerned that Nintendo had chosen a different path than Microsoft and Sony. While those systems created massive gaming machines capable of running games with environments and characters that possessed more pixels than ever before, Nintendo chose create something different. This polarized the buyers quickly because the uncertainty of never being able to play a third party game released on PS3 and Xbox 360 because of the Wii’s inability to output at such high resolution compounded by a controller system that threw conventional controller logic out the window seemed like cause for worry. However, nearly four years after launch, the Nintendo Wii has sold 30 million units. Wii reached this milestone 15 months faster than the next bestselling console, the Xbox 360. It seems that any doubts people might have had before have been put to rest. Let’s see how they did it: Read More

Skype Mobile Reaches Verizon Feature Phones +

As the overall market absorption of smartphones continues to rise, people—and developers—often forget that there are still millions of cell phone users that aren’t running on Android, iOS, or another smart phone operating system. In fact, those smartphones only make up a fraction of the market. While the growth rate for WiFi enabled, mega-pixel pumping, touch screen sporting smartphones are tremendous, many companies forget to develop for a well-established market. Fortunately, Skype, in partnership with Verizon Wireless, didn’t forget about those people with affordable feature phones. Earlier today, they launched a mobile app for phones running on BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless). Read More