Atari: Arcade Invader

Engadget (7 unread)

Playcast Media nabs support from big name publishers, aims to bring STB gaming to US

Posted: March 12th, 2010, 3:15pm PST by Darren Murph

Tags: cable

GDC is winding down here in San Francisco, but Playcast Media is hoping to snag its 15 minutes by announcing new partnerships with Atari, Capcom, Codemasters and THQ (to name a few) for use in its "console-free games-on-demand" service. 'Course, streaming games in through a set-top-box is nothing new, but few operators in the States offer such a thing with any real substance behind it. Playcast's solution enables titles to be pushed through existing cable and telco STBs, and we're told that the US market is next in line to get gifted. We're not given any significant details beyond that, but we're pretty jazzed about big name publishers signing on to finally give this distribution method a bit of credence. Now, if only this Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD shipped with a SIXAXIS controller, we'd be golden.
Continue reading Playcast Media nabs support from big name publishers, aims to bring STB gaming to US
Playcast Media nabs support from big name publishers, aims to bring STB gaming to US originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony patent application reveals universal, LCD-based game controller

Posted: February 19th, 2010, 10:02am PST by Donald Melanson

Tags: game controller

Well, here's a bit of an odd one. A recent patent application from Sony has not only revealed an LCD-based game controller (which would be notable enough in itself), but an LCD-based, universal game controller that's designed to work with more than one game console. As you can see above, the touchscreen would be able to accommodate various buttons and layouts for different consoles -- Sony even curiously mentions consoles like the Amiga CD-32 and Atari Jaguar (for emulation, perhaps?), in addition to Microsoft and Nintendo -- and the screen itself would be housed in what Sony describes as a "game controller skin." Of course, this is still just an application for a patent, and we're pretty sure Sony is focused on another controller at the moment.

[Thanks, Anand]
Sony patent application reveals universal, LCD-based game controller originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:02:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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LaCie refreshes connectivity options on Rugged eSATA portable HDD

Posted: February 12th, 2010, 4:49am PST by Darren Murph

Tags: esata

LaCie's startlingly orange Rugged drive has been waltzing around and taking beatings for years now, but the company finally decided to give it an interface overhaul to deal with this phenomenon known only as "technological progress." The latest and greatest in the family is the Rugged eSATA, which maintains the iconic shape and color of the original, yet adds support for eSATA; reportedly, users can see transfer rates as high as 90MB/sec, and if you can only find a USB port, it'll also work with that when speed isn't a concern. It's up for order right now in a 500GB model, but you'll have to amicably part with $159.99 before calling it yours.

Gallery: LaCie Rugged eSATA portable hard drive
LaCie refreshes connectivity options on Rugged eSATA portable HDD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Study shows that better gamers have bigger brains, are better learners too

Posted: January 21st, 2010, 4:19am PST by Tim Stevens

Tags: brain

While we can't say for sure that videogames, as your grandmother insists, do indeed rot your brain, thanks to research conducted at a variety of Universities around the States we know that better gamers tend to have more gray matter than others -- at least in certain areas. Kirk Erickson, Ann Graybiel, Arthur Kramer, and Walter Boot worked together to form a study in which 39 participants' brains were scanned before those subjects were asked to play a game called Space Fortress (which looks a little like an Atari-era Geometry Wars). Players with larger nucleus accumbens did better learning the game early on, while those with larger caudate nucleus and putamen did better at playing with distractions. There was no sign that playing games actually increased the size of those areas of the brains, meaning some people are just born with a Power Glove on -- and that it's only a matter of time before MRIs replace aptitude tests.
Study shows that better gamers have bigger brains, are better learners too originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 07:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sony VAIO UX handheld gets 3G wireless, quad OS, inflated sense of self

Posted: November 23rd, 2009, 8:08am PST by Joseph L. Flatley

Tags: hack

As we're all undoubtedly aware, old gadgets don't really die -- they just get modded eternally (as the continued appearance of Atari on these pages will attest). Another case-in-point: the Sony VAIO UX490N. It's been a while since we laid eyes on one of these bad boys, but apparently there's been plenty of hacking goin' on ever since, including: upgrading the SSD to the RunCore Pro IV 128GB and swapping out the 1.2GHz CPU for a 1.33GHz Core 2 Duo (overclocked to 1.438GHz). And that's just the beginning -- the cats over at the Micro PC Talk forums have also installed a voice-capable HSPA modem, swapped out the old wireless card for one that supports a/b/g/n WiFi, and installed partitions for Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Business, Windows 7 Ultimate and Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7. Impressive stuff, all that: but what if we told you that one fearless individual has applied every one of those changes to a single device? And that battery life was pretty much unaffected? Well, you're probably going to want the details, right? Hit the source link to get started.
Sony VAIO UX handheld gets 3G wireless, quad OS, inflated sense of self originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Nov 2009 11:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Navin miniHomer keychain GPS will lead you to your car, won't help find your keys

Posted: October 2nd, 2009, 12:44pm PDT by Donald Melanson

Tags: gadgets gps compass

Still have a bit more room on that keychain ring next to your DAP, photo frame, Atari controller and, um, keys? Then you might want to keep an eye out for Navin's new miniHomer GPS compass, which won't give you actual turn-by-turn directions, but will at least point you towards up to five different locations of your choosing (including your car's spot in the parking lot). To ensure the device keeps on ticking during particularly arduous trips away from your car, the miniHomer is also waterproof to IPX7 standards, and it promises a "low power consumption," although Navin doesn't seem to be making any firm promises about battery life just yet (it's recharged via USB). It also isn't saying anything about a price, but it looks like this one should be out sometime in November.

[Via SlashGear]
Filed under: Misc. Gadgets, GPS
Navin miniHomer keychain GPS will lead you to your car, won't help find your keys originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Entelligence: Six is much too much

Posted: July 30th, 2009, 12:15pm PDT by Michael Gartenberg

Tags: android

Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.

Last week, fellow columnist Ross Rubin talked about the state of mobile platforms and how the era for launching new platforms has come to an end. I tend to take a different view of the mobile market. There are currently six major platforms vying for the hearts and minds of users and third party applications developers -- RIM's Blackberry, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, Apple's iPhone, Nokia's s60, Palm's WebOS and Google's Android -- and there's simply no way the market will support that many device ecosystems. But there may yet be opportunity for other players to enter the market.

This is not a new phenomenon. In the early 80s there were a multitude of personal computing platforms. Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack, Texas Instruments, Apple and even Timex (yes, Timex) all were in the personal computing business, long before IBM entered the game. All survived for a period of time selling to an enthusiast market with a focus on out of the box featuresets. Once the target became the mass market, however, user expectations changed from the out of box experience (which essentially meant programming in Basic) to additional capabilities provided by third party software. The success or failure of each PC platform was decided in no small part by the availability of third party software. Exclusive titles, best of breed titles, and titles that appeared on a given platform first determined winners and losers. The same thing is happening today in the mobile space.
Continue reading Entelligence: Six is much too much
Entelligence: Six is much too much originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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