CrunchGear |  |
- Tamagotchi ID: New and customizable Tamagotchi to be rolled out soon
- Time Revisits Techland
- Gift Guide 2009: Portable Media Players
- Clockman: Japanese alarm clock has its own personality (video)
- Happy Holidays from CrunchGear
- djay 3 gets a dedicated controller
- Modern Warfare 2 hacked to reveal dev console, tweaks, etc
- Braving the weather to see New Super Mario Bros. Wii at the Nintendo World Store
- Toys (backwards R) Us Black Friday ad
- Court sides with Apple, those dudes at Psystar are hosed
- Shutter Buddy: Look up here. Atsa baby. Up here!
| Tamagotchi ID: New and customizable Tamagotchi to be rolled out soon Posted: 16 Nov 2009 05:00 AM PST
In September last year, Bandai has updated the Tamagotchi with a color version, causing dozens of teenage girls to leave comments on CrunchGear for the first time. And now the company is ready to roll out yet another model: The so-called Tamagotchi ID [JP] is named “ID” because it’s the first model you can customize to some extent. It’s also possible to install content off the mobile web on the device (but probably only in Japan).
The downloadable content can be anything from virtual items, backgrounds to mini games you first get on your (Japanese) cell phone from a special cell phone-only site and then transmit to your Tamagotchi ID via infrared. You can dress up your character, take him out to various places etc. etc. The device itself features a 1.44-inch TFT display with 128×128 resolution.
Sorry, Tamagotchi fans, Bandai hasn’t said yet whether it will ever sell the ID outside Japan as well.
|
| Posted: 16 Nov 2009 04:51 AM PST  Time Inc just launched a new technology blog called Techland, headed up by one of our former CrunchGear editors Peter Ha. Time magazine's senior tech writer Lev Grossman is also a contributor. Techland covers the intersection of gadgets and geek culture, and is aimed at a mainstream audience. Some of the debut posts cover the movie 2012, Samsung's new Android phone, and a recap of Apple's legal victory over clone-maker Psystar. It's a crowded field, but the appetite for gadget culture is seemingly endless.
|
| Gift Guide 2009: Portable Media Players Posted: 16 Nov 2009 04:29 AM PST Intro GRAND Flash Album GallerySkins for GRAND FlAGallerydeveloped by CodEasily.com - Flash Templates, WordPress Themes and WordPress pluginsThe Flash Player and a browser with Javascript support are needed.. The common portable media player has a tough existence. It’s expected to handle many tasks well, while being rugged enough to withstand daily (ab)use. It’s expected to look nice, it’s expected to provide more-than-decent battery life, and it’s expected to provide a simple enough interface that it can be operated almost exclusively while on the go. If the world’s greatest mom were a consumer electronics device, she’d be a portable media player. And while there’s no shortage of portable media players in existence, here’s a quick list of some worthy gift options (in no particular order). Archos  Archos 5 Internet Tablet: Starting at $379.99 (Archos.com) A device with a nearly unlimited potential thanks to the inclusion of the Android operating system, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet is part media player, part web browser, part digital video recorder, part GPS system, part game player… you get the idea. Features:
Available in 32GB, 160GB, and 500GB for $380, $400, and $500, respectively. Apple  Apple iPod touch: Starting at $199 (Apple.com) The iPod touch may very well be the reigning king of portable media players with its slick interface, great web browser, and a direct pipeline into the most popular mobile applications store around. Features:
Available in 8GB, 32GB, and 64GB for $199, $299, and $399, respectively. The 32GB and 64GB models feature voice control and faster processors than the 8GB version. Product Page | CrunchGear Review (8GB version) Microsoft  Microsoft Zune HD: Starting at $219 (Zune.net) Not content to let Apple have all the fun, Microsoft's recent makeover of its Zune line of digital media players has produced an attractive contender in the Zune HD. Features:
Available in 16GB and 32GB for $219 and $289, respectively. Sony  Sony X Series Walkman: Starting at $299.95 (SonyStyle.com) The inventor of the portable audio player is at it again with the new X Series Walkman, featuring a vibrant 3-inch OLED touchscreen, premium noise-canceling headphones, and 30+ hour battery life for music playback. Features:
Available in 16GB and 32GB for $299.95 and $399.95, respectively. Creative  Creative Zen X-Fi2: Starting at $129.99 (Creative.com) Creative's latest entry to the PMP market is the Zen X-Fi2, which features a 3-inch touchscreen, low starting price, and thoughtful extras like built-in support for synching RSS feeds from your computer to be read on the device. Features:
Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB for $129.99, $179.99, and $229.99, respectively. Cowon  Cowon S9: Starting at $169.99 (CowonAmerica.com) South Korea's Cowon may not be as widely well known here in the U.S. as some of its competitors but the company’s line of portable media players are traditionally pretty stylish. The S9, for example, sports a 3.3-inch capacitive AMOLED touchscreen, handsome interface, thin form factor, and built-in Bluetooth. Features:
Available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB for $169.99, $204.99, and $259.99, respectively. There's also a 16GB version for $199.99, which features a chrome/black finish instead of the titanium/black finish found on the other S9 players. iRiver  iRiver P7: Starting at $179.99 (iRiver) The iRiver P7 strays from traditional PMP design somewhat to offer a "Magazine Look UI" contained inside a lightweight aluminum enclosure. The device features a 4.3-inch touchscreen and built-in text reader to complement the other media playback functions. Features:
Available in 8GB and 16GB for $179.99 and $209.99, respectively.
|
| Clockman: Japanese alarm clock has its own personality (video) Posted: 16 Nov 2009 01:24 AM PST
Japan sure has a penchant for weird alarm clocks, as we blogged many times in the past. And Clockman, a new model from major Japanese toy maker Takara Tomy, isn’t really normal either. Reasons: It looks creepy, it can speak, its eyes and mouth can move and Takara Tomy says it even has a personality and “blood type” (seriously). There are four different versions of the clock, and each of them works differently. The Clockman with blood type A, for example, is the polite type. He wakes you up by saying “It’s time to wake up. Please wake up.”, while the one with blood type 0 will try to get you going in snooze mode by shouting “Fight! Make an effort! Stand up! Fight!” (in Japanese).
The Clockman is sized at 80×83×80mm and weighs 297g. Takara Tomy says each one can speak 300 pre-installed sentences. The Clockman will hit Japanese stores November 19. It’s available for pre-order at the Japan Trend Shop for everyone living outside Japan (price: $57). Watch the video (in English) below to see the Clockman in action. It’s creepy. Via IT Media [JP] and The Japan Trend Shop
|
| Happy Holidays from CrunchGear Posted: 15 Nov 2009 03:09 PM PST
Good luck and thanks for reading!
|
| djay 3 gets a dedicated controller Posted: 15 Nov 2009 12:30 PM PST
Christened Spin, this “turntable” connects to your Mac with USB, allowing you to control djay 3, and by extension, iTunes, seamlessly. It weighs just a little over 3 pounds, making it a very mobile system. The two jog wheels and various faders allow you to control speed, looping, cue points, effects, and EQ, just as with a traditional DJ rig. There are dedicated mic in and headphone out ports, as well as a pair of stereo RCA jacks for house speakers. You can pick one of these controllers up exclusively at any Apple Store for $249.95, which includes the djay 3 software. The software standalone price is $49.95.
|
| Modern Warfare 2 hacked to reveal dev console, tweaks, etc Posted: 15 Nov 2009 11:59 AM PST
Well, you can’t keep a good PC gamer down. Certain cracks already allow some online play, and now the console has been enabled, allowing players to kick, change POV and FOV, and presumably do most of the stuff Infinity Ward decided had to stay in the cookie jar. Tut tut, developers. You didn’t see this coming? You could have made it easier on yourselves, but instead you turned a whole segment of your market against you. Here’s the download link for the tool (use at your own risk) and the discussion thread at Guru3D.
|
| Braving the weather to see New Super Mario Bros. Wii at the Nintendo World Store Posted: 15 Nov 2009 11:00 AM PST
New Super Mario Bros. Wii hits stores today, and it will probably be on of the biggest games of the year. (Little Tommy and Little Susie shouldn’t be playing Modern Warfare 2!) To celebrate the launch of this latest Mario game, Nintendo invited its fans to the Nintendo World Store in New York yesterday. In addition to being able to buy the game a whole day early, fans could participate in a Mario tournament, get their picture taken in Mario garb, play the older games in the series, and meet Gary and Alison from Nintendo Week. It was basically madness. I strolled in, along with my younger brother (who desperately wanted to meet the Nintendo Week hosts… it’d be like me wanting to meet Brock Lesnar or Lionel Messi), and found the Nintendo World Store swarming with children. You immediately realized that yeah, for all of the money games like Modern Warfare 2 or Assassin’s Creed II make, Nintendo’s audience is completely different. That’s not exactly breaking news, no. Unfortunately for the Nintendo faithful, New York was being battered by the remnants of Hurricane Ida, so it was windy, rainy, and gray all day long. That made standing in line to buy the game much more of a hassle, and meant that I was juggling my camera, an extra lens, and an umbrella while trying to avoid running into anybody while taking photos. The line to buy the game was quite long, stretching about halfway down the block. I waited, like an everyman, and was out there for around 20 minutes. Keep in mind that I find the idea of waiting in line for a video game to be ludicrous, but you sometimes have to make exceptions. That’s about it. It was a fun little afternoon, only hindered by the fact that it was something like 98-degrees Fahrenheit upstairs (where the tournament took place). I also ran into E-Rock from the Opie and Anthony Show, which was pretty great in its own right. I’ll have my thoughts on the game itself in the coming days.
|
| Toys (backwards R) Us Black Friday ad Posted: 15 Nov 2009 10:00 AM PST
I have no backwards R key on my keyboard and I don't have the wherewithal to figure out the tricky Wingdingy ALT+numpad+four digit code voodoo it'd take to produce it (if it's even possible), so let's just say "Toys R Us" and enjoy the store's Black Friday ad.
Stores open at midnight – yes midnight – on Thursday night/Friday morning. Doorbuster deals are marked with an asterisk and are good until 1PM on Friday. Computers VTech Learning Laptop – $14.99 * Digital Cameras Fujifilm FinePix Red 12MP Digital Camera – $69.99 * iCarly Mini Digital Camera – $12.49 * Pink Or Blue Digital Video Camcorder – $29.99 * Vivitar 8.1MP Digital Camera – $39.99 * Digital Media Cards SanDisk 8 GB SDHC Memory Card – $19.99 * DVD Players Coby 7″ Portable DVD Player – $49.99 * Digital Labs DVD Player – $19.99 Electronics Grand Prix AM/FM Clock Radio – $4.99 iHome iPod Docking Station – $39.99 * iHome iPod/iPhone Alarm Clock Docking Station – $49.99 Nickelodeon Portable CD Player – $14.99 Sakar Digital Photo Frame Keychain – $9.99 Singing Machine Karaoke System – $49.99 * Home Theater Coby Home Theater System – $49.99 Miscellaneous Toys R Us Battery 20 Packs – $4.99 * MP3 Players $50 Gift Card With Any Apple iPod 8GB Touch – $0.00 * Nextar 1GB Digital Mp3 Player – $11.48 Nextar 2GB MP3 Player With Video – $17.49 * SanDisk 8GB Sansa Fuze MP3 Player – $49.99 * Photos Nextar 7″ Digital Photo Frame – $29.99 * Televisions Haier 22″ LCD TV – $199.99 * Video Games All iCarly Video Game Accessories – 50% Off Avatar For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Avatar Into The Inferno For Nintendo Wii – $9.99 Carrying Case For Wii – $15.00 Cheetah Girls For Nintendo DS – $21.99 Chrysler Classic Racing For Nintendo Wii – $9.99 Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Wii Game) – $29.99 * Club Penguin For Nintendo DS – $17.99 Crash Bandicot For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Dead Space (Wii Game) – $24.99 * Forza Motorsport 3 (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 * Gear Monkey Video Game Accessories – B1G1 Free * Guitar Hero On Tour And Decades Two Pack Bundle (DS Game) – $29.99 * Halo 3 ODST (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 * Hannah Montana Guitar Video Game – $24.99 * Hot Shots Golf – $21.99 iCarly (Wii Game) – $23.99 * Ice Age For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Imagine Family Doctor For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Imagine Party Babyz For Nintendo Wii – $9.99 Kingdom For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Messenger Bag For Xbox 360 – $15.00 Monsters Vs Aliens For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Mushroom Men For Nintendo DS – $21.99 MySims Party For Nintendo Wii – $9.99 Narnia For Nintendo DS – $21.99 Need For Speed: Shift (PS3 Game) – $34.99 * Need For Speed: Shift (Xbox 360 Game) – $34.99 * Nintendo DS Lite Starter Kit – $11.99 Petz Horse Ranch For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Pirates Of The Caribbean – $21.99 PSP Accessories – 50% Off * Scooby Doo First Frights (Wii Game) – $23.99 * Select Nintendo DS Accessories – $5.00 Select Nintendo DS Games – B1G1 Select Wii Accessories – $10.00 Sonic Rivals 2 – $21.99 Spore Hero (Wii Game) – $24.99 * Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Wii Game) – $29.99 * The Price Is Right For Nintendo Wii – $9.99 Tony Hawks Motion For Nintendo DS – $9.99 Transformers For Nintendo DS – $17.99 Ultimate Alliance 2 For Nintendo DS – $17.99 Video Game Charge Docking Stations – $15.00 * Wii Fit Accessories – 50% Off * Wii Nerf N-Strike Bundle (Wii Game) – $14.99 * Xbox 360 Arcade System With Carry Case And Three Games – $229.95 * Xbox 360 Wired Guitar Hero Game Controller – $9.99 * Toys R Us Black Friday Ad [BlackFriday.info]
|
| Court sides with Apple, those dudes at Psystar are hosed Posted: 15 Nov 2009 09:02 AM PST
Groklaw puts it best when it writes:
Shine on, you crazy Psystar diamonds. I guess I’ll never get support for the janky Hackintosh we bought. Thanks, Alex
|
| Shutter Buddy: Look up here. Atsa baby. Up here! Posted: 15 Nov 2009 06:50 AM PST
Babies, as we know, are dumb. They’ll look at any old thing. That’s why the Shutter Buddy is ingenious. You put this checkered hood over your camera, make a bunch of funny noises, and wham – instant smiley baby. Or instant crying baby. Or instant baby crawling off to the stairs to try to climb up the first two only to slip onto the floor and cry. Wow, right? If I weren’t so sleep deprived I’d kick myself for not thinking of this.
|
The Tamagotchi ID goes on sale in Japan on November 23 in six different colors and costs $57. Targeting mainly 7-9 year-old girls, Bandai plans to sell 500,000 units in Japan alone by March 2010.
It is officially on: we're running our super duper, extra sassy Holiday Gift Guide from now until the end of time, giving you the latest in hot gift ideas for you and yours. Why are we doing this so early? Because we have so much to give away this year it's scary. That said, let's hit the slopes and shush our way into Gift Guide Nirvana.
What do you need to do? Well, first you have to 
Apple’s charges of copyright infringement and DMCA violation against Psystar have stuck and, friends, things ain’t pretty for 
| You are subscribed to email updates from CrunchGear To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment