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Japanese mobiles could make satellite calls to massive dish
When you're already tracking every kid out there to make sure no one gets into too much mischief, you definitely need a way to make a call whilst in "mountainous areas or at sea," right? Apparently the Japanese government thinks so, as it's planning on bringing satellite calling to the masses by launching a bird that's 50-meters in diameter in order to enable "ordinary handsets" (you know, the ones without the mile-long antennas) to make satellite calls in times of emergency with just slight modifications. The aforementioned sat would be over twice the size of the 19-meter Kiku No. 8, which currently holds the crown for the largest launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, meaning that the newfangled equipment would fit nicely within the confines of today's increasingly shrinking cellphone and still find signal. Interestingly, the ministry isn't looking to get the service going before 2015, so we just might be looking at mainstream antenna-less iterations by that time anyway.[Via DigitalWorldTokyo, photo courtesy of SatellitePhones]
'The big three' ARE coming in 2007 (to Japan)
In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Nintendo confirmed that they do in fact plan to release Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl by the end of this year, as well as pretty much every Nintendo game announced for the Wii. This corroborates an IGN report to the same effect, and is also totally, totally rad. Here's the full list of Nintendo's planned 2007 releases. Donkey Kong Taru Jet Race is slated for June 28, and the rest are all "2007": Donkey Kong Taru Jet Race Wii Health Pack Disaster: Day of Crisis Mario Party 8 Project H.A.M.M.E.R. Wii Music Super Mario Galaxy Super Smash Bros. Brawl Battalion Wars II Forever Blue Mario Strikers Charged Metroid Prime 3: Corruption Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Keep checking with us for news of the inevitable delays of about half of these. Seriously, that's a lot of first-party Nintendo games for just half a year or so. Aw, we just made ourselves sad with our own skepticism. Still, if half of this stuff does get released in Japan this year, it'll be great news and do a pretty good job of ending any drought that may or may not be happening.Update: fixed some italics and formatting.
Monolith Soft now part of Nintendo's monolith
All those Wii and DS profits must have been burning a hole in Nintendo's pocket, because they went developer shopping and picked up Monolith Soft. We guess they really liked that one screenshot of Disaster: Day of Crisis.Monolith Soft is responsible for the reviled Xenosaga series (the Japanese limited edition release of Xenosaga II included the unfortunate figurine seen here, nicknamed MOK-KOS), the crossover strategy game Namco X Capcom, and, in conjunction with Tri-Crescendo, the two Baten Kaitos games. Maybe now we'll get that pseudo-religious science-fiction Kirby RPG we've all been waiting for!
Modded flashlight doubles as cellphone charger
Although most modern phones can go quite a few hours sans an AC outlet, we understand the need for juice in unexpected emergencies, and while the solar-powered charger does a fair job at high noon, you'll probably need a different approach come nightfall. Tackling two issues in one fell swoop is the cellphone-charging flashlight mod, which not only provides a beacon of light for those dim excursions, but also offers up hand crank recharging abilities for your fading mobile. Of course, hacking your flashlight to pull double duty as a manually powered charger is a bit more complex than just picking up a hamster or bicycle-powered option, but you've got to admit, crafting a makeshift charger with spliced cables and a soldering iron is totally MacGyver-approved. So if you're interested in giving yourself (and your handset) a bit longer life when robotic overlords eventually invade our domiciles, be sure to hit the read link for a video demonstration, and do mind the managerial cat on duty.[Thanks, Kipkay]
Wii Warm Up: Continuing the desert island theme ...
Yesterday, we posed a question regarding which of this year's so-called "Big Three" you would pick, if you had to pick (and we know it's tough!). Today, we're gonna do something similar ... but instead of using the biggest games of the year, we're going to look at the more creative side of things. We looked over the list of upcoming titles and want to know this: of Disaster: Day of Crisis, Forever Blue, or Project H.A.M.M.E.R., which one interests you the most? Again, this is an all-or-nothing, no halfsies sorta thing -- you have to choose just one. So which one do you pick?
First Disaster: Day of Crisis screenshot
Nintendo released a single screenshot of Monolith Soft's Disaster: Day of Crisis, the natural-disaster survival game announced at E3 2006. We now have our first indication of how the game will play-- that arrow suggests a Quick Timer Event. Whether that means an action/adventure game with occasional quick-button-press segments, or a Dragon's Lair-style game, we don't know. What is surprising even to us is that we're kind of hoping for the latter. We miss those laserdisc games! Are we the only ones?
No duh your PSP won't survive a disaster
The folks at Modojo have come up with an interesting piece, "Portable Disaster: Surviving Worst-Case Scenarios." In it, they imagine what would happen to their handheld systems if they had to go through an earthquake, blizzard, attack by wolves, and more.They praise the DS's clamshell design, and agree that Nintendo's portable would be better able of surviving such a disaster. Should this come as a surprise? No. The PSP is an advanced piece of consumer electronics and deserves some delicate treatment: you wouldn't drop your plasma TV on the ground, would you?The Nintendo DS may be able to withstand a ridiculous amount of abuse, but honestly ... if you're going to be treating your gaming equipment like trash, you don't deserve it in the first place.[Via DS Fanboy]
Japan rescuers to get water jet cutters for debris slicing
While Japan is fairly well equipped to notify citizens of impending doom, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency is taking another step to preparing its rescue forces for anything in times of emergency, and the forthcoming water jet cutter should help slice through debris without the risk of starting a fire in the process. Due to a railway disaster in April of 2005 which forced rescuers to find an alternate way of cutting metal with gasoline sloshed about, the water jet cutters were moved up in priority, and now the powerful streams can output a high-pressure blast of water / sand in order to make a "1.5-centimeter cut through a 2-centimeter-thick steel plate in just a single minute." Of course, the biggest boon here is the device's inability to spark a fire, but the pressure cutter can also be used in instances where flammability isn't an issue, and it has already been demonstrated to local reporters last week. Although we're not sure just how soon these slicers, along with high-powered "blowers" to whisk away harmful fumes, will be put into action, they'll be hitting the fire departments of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Fukuoka, and Sapporo first.[Via Fark]
TiVo fundraising with self-branded toasters / snowglobes
While just about everyone has experienced their fair share of ups and downs with TiVo, it's great to see the smiley TV box raising funds for two meaningful causes. The firm is offering up self-branded toasters and snowglobes (for $45 and $28, respectively) to its employees in order to raise money for the James Kim Memorial Fund and The Katrina Fund. Of course, it could be slightly difficult to get your hands on either of these adornments if you can't badge into TiVo HQ everyday, but perhaps a saintly reader could be a liaison for a group buy? Regardless, even if you're still using one of the eight toasters you got as a graduation gift or you've severed all ties with TiVo (and jumped ship), here's to lending a helping hand to those in need. Keep reading for a taste of TiVo toast...[Via PVRWire]
Punchscan incorporates cryptography into e-voting
Considering the disaster that has been e-voting, we're not surprised to see another firm stepping forward with a slightly less complex alternative to confidently casting your ballot. Reverting back to the less problematic methods of paper-and-pencil voting, yet offering up a way to electronically store and track each vote, David Chaum and his research team have unveiled the Punchscan system to hopefully solve the world's e-voting woes. The cryptographic solution involves a double-sided ballot which is split into two halves using a hole punch, giving you one side to take home. The "receipt" reportedly doesn't disclose which candidate you voted for, and allows you to logon once home to verify that your vote was indeed cast, and cast for the intended party. So if you're worried that your hard-earned vote may be heading to File 13 rather than being counted, maybe you should start politicking to get Punchscan going in your neck of the woods, and if you're still confused about how this two-faced encryption dealio works, just peep the video, yeah?[Via Slashdot]
Disaster: Day of Crisis Interview
IGN recently interviewed Monolith Soft's president, Hirohide Sugiura about their Wii game Disaster: Day of Crisis. Sugiura had little to nothing to tell about the game and kept requesting IGN to wait for more information, be patient or ask Nintendo themselves. Hmm... Honestly the game sounds a bit like that movie that came out in 2004. The US is in danger of a lot of natural disasters and instead of watching people die or survive them, we play as someone trying to survive. Sounds interesting but we still don't know a lot about the game and all we are getting is:
