PSP Go price cut confirmed by Sony Japan
When it comes to mobile gaming I stick to my iPhone or iPad. I have a couple PSPs here in the house along with a couple Nintendo DSi systems that my kids play. We haven't used the PSPs in over a year now so the PSP format altogether isn't very appealing around my house. When I first heard of the PSP Go I thought it sounded cool enough until I realized that the games you have for your old PSPs were useless on the new Go. Many people felt that way and many retailers were mad that they could not sell software for the Go making it a bag of fail.
Sony Japan has confirmed a price cut that has been rumored for the Go. In Japan the Go will see it's price chopped to 16,800 yen with taxes included. That works out to about $208 here in the US. The rumors that have been swirling claiming a new price of $199 are incoming for the Go for the States. With the Japanese price so close to the rumored price here at home, I would say the rumors are probably accurate.
The Go is unchanged from the version that launched last year with its new price. The device will be offered in Japan at the discounted price starting tomorrow. That is about a $50 reduction in the cost of the Go here in the US. I still don't think that $50 off will be enough to coax most gamers into buying the Go since the core issue was software for most of us.
Continue reading: PSP Go price cut confirmed by Sony Japan (full post)
Asus Eee 1015PW gets bright colors and nice hardware
I'm not really the sort of geek to buy flashy colored computers or hardware. I prefer more of a stealth look for my gear. Some people like to have nice specs and some flash on the outside when it comes to buying a machine. Women often want a netbook that has lots of style and works well and Asus has a new netbook that comes in some colors that will appeal to the style conscious women out there shopping for a new netbook. I know my wife would like the colors of this new Eee netbook.
The new machine is called the Asus Eee 1015PW and the machine is a hardware clone of the existing Asus 1015PEM. That's not a bad thing at all considering as far as netbook hardware goes, the rigs are great on the inside. They have dual core Atom N550 processor, the LED backlit screen has 1024 x 600 resolution, and the battery is good for up to ten hours of use per charge. The netbook comes in some crazy colors with names like Purple Rain, Gold Dust, and Angel Skin.
Other hardware features include up to 320GB of storage, 1GB of RAM, WiFi, and Bluetooth 3.0. Asus also offers the 500GB of online storage for those wanting to take advantage and the netbook has the ExpressGate fast booting tech inside. Pricing is unannounced at this point, but it should be in line with other netbooks. The lid of the 1015PW also gets a new design called wave.
Continue reading: Asus Eee 1015PW gets bright colors and nice hardware (full post)
Kingston offers gamers and enthusiasts all black HyperX fan
When it comes time to build up a new gaming PC most of us want something that performs really well. We also tend to want the machine to look good and with many of the cool computer cases on the market today have clear side windows the way the hardware inside the machine looks is as important as how the case looks on the outside.
Kingston has been selling a fan specifically made for its HyperX RAM for a long time now with the same blue color that the HyperX RAM sports. That blue fan might not go well if you are into the stealth look and are using one of the many cases that are black on the inside and out. If the blue color puts you off the fan, Kingston has announced a new black colored fan that cools just as well as the blue one.
The black fan is a standalone product that sells for $23 and is part number KHX-FAN-B. The fan has a pair of 60mm fans that help to cool memory allowing you to overclock to higher speeds before the RAM gets unstable. The fans also have eight blue LEDs that glow when the fans are on. Noise output is minimal with 25dBA when operating.
Continue reading: Kingston offers gamers and enthusiasts all black HyperX fan (full post)
Games for Windows Marketplace launches in November with 100+ games
Microsoft is set to launch a new online PC game store called Games for Windows Marketplace in the middle of November.
Microsoft will have over 100 titles from various game developers and studios at launch, including many of the big hits from Microsoft Game Studios such as "Fable: The Lost Chapters," "Flight Simulator," "Gears of War," "Halo" and "Age of Empires Online." Other big titles in stock include "Grand Theft Auto III," and "Max Payne" from Rockstar Games and "Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition" from Square Enix.
Games for Windows Marketplace will also host indie games too.
Continue reading: Games for Windows Marketplace launches in November with 100+ games (full post)
COD: Black Ops nearly leaked from Xbox 360 - investigators hunt person down
I thought piracy was only big on the PC? Oh how people are wrong...
Well, the highly anticipated upcoming Treyarch title, Call of Duty: Black Ops was nearly leaked onto the internet last week which caused a ruckus in the community. It has been donned "Blackgate" by one man who found himself in the middle of this mess - there is a handy YouTube video showing what has happened:
A man who calls himself "Computer Healer" had gotten news that a legit copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops was somewhere near his house in New Orleans - after reviewing the information on the disc at an Xbox 360 piracy related website, "Computer Healer" found out what he'd need to do in order to get his hands on a copy.
Windows 8 in less than two years?
It felt like only yesterday that Windows Vista was released, it only felt like a few hours ago that Windows 7 was let out of the bag - but now we're hearing the early rumbles of Windows 8 and rumor has it, it's less than 2 years away.
We all know they're working on it - it is no surprise, but there something great about knowing it's on it's way. Microsoft said in a blog post on it's Dutch web site that Windows 8 is about two years from being on the market.
The comments were made on Sunday and were made at the end of a post celebrating Windows 7 first birthday. Microsoft is hesitant to comment on this sudden news of Windows 8 but their Server team did say last year that a major release of Windows Server was due in 2012 - and server versions usually lag a desktop release.
Continue reading: Windows 8 in less than two years? (full post)
NVIDIA slashes 50% off Quadro products
NVIDIA, following their just recently (as in 24 hours ago) big price drop on GTX460 and 470 GPU's because of the AMD Radeon 6k series launch have shocked everyone again by dropping Quadro card prices by 50%.
CEO of NVIDIA, Jen Hsun Huang had a few things to say, "We have delivered excellent results in Quadro professional graphics". "We expect to drive revenue and grow market share with new products that are gaining momentum in each of our businesses".
But, any company will say that - can't remember the last time I heard "we expect revenue to drop heavily and our share price to plummet, because we are losing market share". Enter tongue face, :P
Continue reading: NVIDIA slashes 50% off Quadro products (full post)
AMD releases Catalyst 10.10 drivers
It may be a day later than the official release of the 6800 graphics card lineup, but AMD has today made Catalyst 10.10, their latest driver release, official. Along with optimization for the new graphics cards, the new driver release includes support for Linux versions openSUSE 11.3 support (production) and Ubuntu 10.10 support (early look). AMD's HD3D Technology is also introduced with this driver release, giving Blu-Ray and Stereo 3D support. Check out the full list of updates after the break, and get your new drivers at the Source Link..
Highlights of the AMD Catalyst⢠10.10 Windows release include: (Courtesy of AMD)
New Features
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Angelbird SSD storage device can be expanded for more speed as needed
The pros and cons of an SSD versus a HDD are well documented. No one will argue that the SSD offers more speed than your average HDD, but most will agree that the amount you pay for an SSD versus the storage space leaves a lot to be desired. However, users that want outright speed in their computers know that the SSD is the way to go.
SSDs that connect directly to the SATA port have bottlenecks inherent in the SATA design and to avoid those bottlenecks there are a few SSDs on the market today that plug into the PCI Express slot. A new SSD storage device has surfaced from a company called Angelbird that is a combination of a traditional SSD and one of the PCI Express SSDs.
The Angelbird device has no storage integrated into the PCI E card itself, but it is purchased with a wired SSD in 16GB or 32GB that is used for booting the computer. With a single SSD hooked to the PCI E card the device is capable of up to 285MB/s performance. The real coolness comes when you add more of the expansion modules the company offers. You can go up to four of those expansion modules and with a quartet of 120GB modules the device is capable of up to 1081MB/s data speeds. The system starts at $239.
Continue reading: Angelbird SSD storage device can be expanded for more speed as needed (full post)
Power Gig music game gets limited edition handmade 6-string wireless guitar controller
There are many music games on the market today with offerings like Rock Band and Guitar Hero at the top of the market. There are other smaller and lesser-known music games though and some of them have some awesome controllers. Power Gig is a music game that works sort of like Guitar Hero in that you have a wireless guitar controller to play with, but Power Gig uses a real six-string guitar.
Seven45 Studios is the company behind Power Gig and it has announced an awesome new guitar controller is available for the game in versions for the Xbox 360 and for the PS3. The controller works just like the basic six string controllers for the game, only these limited edition controllers are handmade for gamers wanting the best controllers out there. The controllers are made by First Act and look more like real electric guitars than game controllers.
Each of the controllers is made by hand by First Act craftsmen and include a single cutaway basswood body, humbucking pickup, and a maple neck with rosewood fretboard. The sweet controllers each cost $250, which isn't cheap, but man are they awesome. If you have wanted to learn the real guitar, this game and the handmade controller with real guitar playing action might be the perfect way to learn. The game is available right now but the controllers can only be pre-ordered at this time.