game gear
Latest
Pocket Pad DAP / Game Gear handheld device
While we've seen our fair share of off-the-wall handhelds that do a dab of everything, including aplenty of overseas knockoffs that usually aren't what they claim to be, this little gadget seems to have a bit more credibility than the usual mishmashed portable. The Pocket Pad, reportedly sold through Alpha Plus, is a handheld gaming device with a button layout reminiscent of the original Game Boy, and rocks a 2.4-inch LCD that could potentially induce uncomfortable amounts of squinting while gaming. The 'Pad doubles up on the fun by providing a built-in MP3 player with 1GB of flash storage to accompany the nine internally-housed retro Sega titles, reportedly including Ecco the Dolphin and the obligatory Sonic the Hedgehog. While there's no word on whether this thing plays any other games, it does sport an SD slot in case your music library exceeds the 1GB barrier (or you just want to give your homebrew apps a try). A rather unexpected addition to the feature set is the inclusion of a TV-out jack that should enable you to pipe that button-mashing mayhem onto the big screen while at home. Deets concerning the battery life and included accessories (not to mention a warranty) are unsurprisingly missing, but if you've got money to gamble and a hankering for pocketable Sega action, the Pocket Pad will supposedly drop in October for £80 ($151).
BenQ launches a slew of Joybees
We're glad BenQ's not trimming the fat on their portable audio division the way their optical drives business got the boot this week (it was bought by LITE-ON), but a couple of their new Bluetooth-enabled Joybees are definitely hat-tipping BenQ-Siemens as possible accessories. So let's get to the players, already (clockwise from top left): the E520 (no, not that BenQ E520) with Bluetooth / call features not dissimilar from Samsung's SBH-300; their ET50 with the same Bluetooth call features, but also a data transmission profile, presumably for file swapping (so it'd probably be OBEX / FTP); the Game Boy Micro-esque EG10, which comes bundled with ten Sega Game Gear and Master System titles (like Sonic Blast and Columns) and an SD slot; and finally the E105 (no, not that E105) clip-on MP3 player. No word on when or if these'll be States-bound, so keep those fingers locked and loaded on your favorite importer.[Via The MP3 Players]
