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DS Lite Stress Test
We've known for quite some time that Nintendo products tend to be very, very durable. Why, I myself once left my Game Boy Advance SP on top of my car, and started to drive away; only at around 40 M.P.H. did the SP finally fly off into heavy traffic, careening onto pavement and quite literally getting run over twice. Sure enough, despite the number on the paint job, the damn thing still functioned perfectly. But I digress.Here we have a short video showing a sick, pathologically insane human being attempting to crush a DS Lite into utter submission. While he succeeds in making the fanboys shield their eyes to avert the pain, he absolutely fails to do any lasting damage to the unit. Rock on, Nintendo.Oh, and for bonus material, follow the link to watch several Xboxes set aflame.[Thanks, Richard!]
Dell looking into flaming laptop incident
You've got to hand it to Dell; even though its laptops may burst into flames at the most inopportune moments, at least the company has the good sense to conduct a prompt and public investigation into the matter (although the worldwide coverage of those "inflammatory" photos probably helped speed things up just a bit). Apparently the charred remains from that fateful conference in Osaka, Japan have been beamed back up to the mother ship, where Dell engineers are furiously working to discover how their product turned into a pyrotechnics show that amused and frightened us all. As usual, everyone's looking to pin this incident on that easiest of scapegoats -- the malfunctioning battery -- but whatever the problem turns out to be, we're sure hoping it gets fixed before another notebook decides to disobey the "no smoking" sign and light up on an airplane.
Dude, your Dell is on fire
Although we enjoy ogling mangled electronics as much as the next person, if you should ever find yourself at a conference with us and someone's laptop happens to burst into flames, we kindly request that you seek out a fire extinguisher before reaching for your cameraphone.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
2 new Sonic Wild Fire gameplay vids
A couple of new videos showing gameplay from Sega's upcoming Wii game Sonic Wild Fire have been uploaded for your viewing pleasure over at IGN. Both videos play just how you'd expect them to with Sonic running really fast and collecting rings. Sadly, this was one of the couple of Wii games I never got my hands on during E3, but according to Ludwig I shouldn't really be too excited for it.
iBook battery catches fire
We hear about the occasional battery recall, and there are always the complaints that computers are getting too hot, but things went to a whole new level for a family in Minnesota. As WCCO in the Twin Cities reports, an 11 year-old boy set a running iBook down on the carpet and left the room. His mother states that they heard a popping noise, saw that the iBook had started melting the carpet and the room was filling with smoke. They quickly carried the iBook outside and remembered to bring their camera along for the show as the iBook, you can see, literally caught fire (WCCO has a video and more images).Of course, the news outlet is making sure to pull out all the sensationalizing tricks with such quotes from the mother like "It doesn't seem real that you would have a fire in a computer. We all could have died, and the house could have burned down".The moral of the story? Apple burns houses down. Buy a typewriter from your local office supply store.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
Sonic Wildfire for Wii announced
Hours before the Nintendo press conference, set to take place at 9:00 AM PST time today, Sega announced their latest Wii title, Sonic Wildfire. The storyline has an odd literary twist: the last pages from the book Arabian Nights have gone missing, and "it's up to Sonic to re-create the story -- an odd setting, for sure, and we are hoping to see some impressive landscapes and lush oases as backdrop. The Wiimote will be used in a horizontal fashion: "Hold the controller horizontally with two hands and tilt left and right to steer Sonic on different paths and maneuver deftly from obstacles and enemies. Continue to tilt and fling forward to dash-attack ground and air enemies and to break down barriers." With Nintendo's press conference minutes away, we should find out more soon. Stay tuned.
Philips' plasmas are HOT
A little too hot as it would turn out, as they've sold about 12,000 plasma displays that are prone to overheating. If you own a 42 or 50 inch Ambilight screen clear some time on your schedule, get out the Maxwell CD and light some candles because you've got a date with the repairman.Here at HD Beat, we really think Philips should instead tout this as a feature, why waste time watching a Yule Log or Screen Dreams DVD when your TV can just go up in flames by itself?
