We're really finding ourselves short on bling-esque terms to ascribe to this golden Game Boy; suffice it to say that the bling has arrived, and it has made its dwelling among this old skool, b&w screened, beast of a unit. The whole shebang weighs in at 27 ounces, and is made of 18K solid gold, along with diamonds surrounding the screen and set in the on/off buttons. Better start saving up those gangsta'pennies of yours though, (you know, the ones with Lincoln in a du-rag) this piece is going for a nice 25 grand.

[Thanks, Max]

Nothing like slapping a bit of bleeding edge technology into your forthcoming portable gaming handheld to grab a bit of attention, and iRiver is doing just that with their announced plans for sticking WiBro (that longer range, but slower tower hander off-er) into their 2006 device. WiBro is looking to be Korea's Wi of choice, and iRiver is planning this device for rollout along with the planned WiBro networks for South Korea. That's about all we know so far, other than their aim to compete with the PSP with this guy. We'll keep you posted, alright?

Not so sure about you, but this thing looks pretty much like an officially official Sony-made PSP headset to us. The first of what we hope will be many Sony-made PSP accessories to be released this holiday season — the PSP Giga Pack just isn't quite sitting right with us right now as their sole offering. Apparently this bad boy'll ship the 5th of November, and will run you up $19.99.

[Thanks, Rohan]

So the Gizmondo finally saw its official North American release yesterday. It hasn't exactly been a success in the UK, where it was introduced back in March, and if Associated Press writer Matt Slagle's review is any indication it's not going to tear it up over here, either. Slagle doesn't mince words, declaring that even though it specs out nicely (400MHz processor, 2.8-inch LCD, GPRS, and GPS), most of the Gizmondo's 14 launch titles are "uniformly terrible" and its much-touted multimedia features aren't so hot either ("playback stuttered throughout").

We're a bit surprised we didn't get a liveblog-like stream of emailed press releases from Tiger Telematics this morning because today's their big day in North America. That's right, the Gizmondo is officially on sale for $229 with fourteen launch titles. They did roll deep by buying a full-page ad in USA Today with Verne Troyer (aka Mini Me) shilling the Gizmondo, but we're not so sure a launch with some weak hype, obvious insecurity with their press presence, abysmal sales abroad, and a third of a billion in mounting debt is reason enough for Tiger's EU managing director Carl Freer to be "extremely proud of what [they've] achieved."

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

You know, we're not gonna tell you how to live your life, so if you want to spend $15 of your hard earned dollars on the "PSP Smart Charging Dock"—a PSP dock sure to drive away all but your most loyal compatriots with its intense gaudiness—be our guest. Just don't say we didn't warn you about sudden losses in guests at your place of residence. Unless that's what you're actually going for, anyway.

If you were ever curious as to exactly what was entailed in a PSP-bricking (for the uninitiated, that's when running some code that kills your PSP entirely), famed antivirus company F-Secure (who we hope you should well know by now) plunked down the $250 to do an on-camera bricking, for, um, educational purposes. It's not pretty. In fact, you may want to shield their eyes if you've got children (or gamers) in the room. The lesson to learn here? Always use protection, kids—never run unverified arbitrary code.

Watch [14MB WMV]

For everyone who thought the Datel 4GB PSP drive seemed too good (or suspect) to be true, import gaming giant Lik Sang gave it the once over after receiving a unit before their first shipment of the devices comes in. We really like the idea of Datel selling these things as a straight enclosure so we can roll our own drive (specifically a large capacity CF drive, for example), but make sure you're not counting on more than 4GB of space if you're going to buy and mod it—the PSP can't address more than 4GB of Memory Stick memory, so you can't exactly go nuts on the thing. Coming soon via LS for $200 cash money.

[Via PSPnews]

Links to PSP formatted subway maps for other cities around the world have been dribbling in since Thursday's story about that PSP NYC subway map, so we figured we'd post a few of them up. Let us know if there any others out there and we'll add them to the list.

Read - Barcelona
Read - Berlin
Read - Boston
Read - Chicago
Read - Frankfurt
Read - Hamburg
Read - London
Read - Mexico City
Read - Milan
Read - Moscow
Read - Munich
Read - New York City
Read - Nuremberg
Read - Oslo
Read - Osaka
Read - Paris (Metro + RER)
Read - Rome
Read - Santiago
Read - Stockholm
Read - Stuttgart
Read - Sydney
Read - Tokyo
Read - Washington DC Metro

We didn't think that portable video game screens could get any smaller than the squint-inducing display on the Game Boy Micro, but the makers of the Casino Pen have proven us wrong once again with their recent attempt to snaz up that most-utilitarian of tools. This latest foray into the world of pen-top gaming comes in the form of the Arcade Pen lineup, which includes games that we haven't actually seen in the arcade for many, many years (if ever) such as Blockade, Car Racing (how original), and Pac Man. Clearly not big proponents of truth in advertising, the manufacturers/retailer are hyping, "Each classic game has awesome graphics, impressive sounds, and entertaining challenges." Uh, yeah. And what's up with posing the pens next to a homework assignment; we can't imagine that this product is endorsed by professional educators.

[Via bookofjoe]

PC Watch has gotten their hands on a Game Boy Micro, which is scheduled to be released in the US on September 19th for $99 (but came out today in Japan). The first thing they did? Blow it up, of course. They've posted their dissection of the device, and while it doesn't offer too many surprises (not that we know what to look for), it features a number of improvements versus the Gameboy Advance SP. They mention that while at first glance the Gameboy Micro appears to just be a new form factor of the SP, it is in fact quite different under the hood. They say how Nintendo has paid attention to detail in many of the aspects of the device's construction, such as its overall solid structure, detailed electrical work, and small touches such as stoppers that prevent  screws from becoming loose. Unfortunately it's too late to add these stoppers to Miyamoto's screws.

We know it's been a rough eleven days, but it looks like your wait is almost over — Sony just put up a placeholder site detailing all of the new features of the North American version of the PSP's new 2.0 firmware upgrade. Nothing all that different from the Japanese version (surprise, surprise), but at least now you won't technically be voiding your warranty. The download itself isn't available yet (we just tested and it's still v1.52), at least not as of this writing, but we're guessing that it won't be long now.

[Thanks, SGOlsen]

Update: Ok, so apparently a bunch of people found a login (scea/scea—how original) to the PSP update site, which in return said something to the effect of the update being made available August 24th (i.e. tomorrow). Um, and now the PSP update site appears to have been taken down, removed, or is otherwise missing. Aiight, square one. And thanks to everyone who sent this in.

Do we really need to expend much energy hating on the Gizmondo? You know as well as we do that this thing's not going anywhere, but the latest bit of bad news out of Tiger Telematics is that they're delaying the console's North American launch, which was originally set for next week, until sometime in October. Tiger Telematics claims that it's because of a "hardware shortage" and delays in a couple of key titles, but there are plenty of people whispering about how the company is quietly going broke.

Wanna know just how micro the screen on Nintendo's new Game Boy Micro really is? Reader "gameduck" just sent in this graphic he created comparing the size of the Micro's screen with that of the Game Boy Advance SP (he based it on the size of the GBM's cartridge slot—turns out paying attention in math class has its advantages). Let's just say that if you've got beef with the screen on the Game Boy Advance SP then you're probably not going to be happy with what you're getting with the Micro. Otherwise, you're cool.

They didn't have a Nintendo Revolution lying around, but we did have a chance to get up close and personal with the brand new Game Boy Micro. Very slick little package, but that squint-inducing LCD screen is definitely pushing the limits of how small a screen on a portable game console can get and still be useable.