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Hyperkin SupaBoy portable SNES console hands-on (video)
Sure, all the morning's news may have been surrounding a vowel-augmented console from Nintendo, the Wii U, but a certain other Nintendo console that has fewer vowels is also seeing some well-deserved love here at E3 2011. It's the classic SNES, and its been reborn as the SupaBoy, courtesy of Hyperkin. It's a handheld version of the console that's basically intended to fulfill a gamers' desire for portable classic gaming but without having to ask for advice in the Ben Heck Forums. Click on through for some impressions of this handheld wunderconsole. %Gallery-125688%
SSI's rugged Spark S9T brings triple-screen computing to power-hungry road warriors (hands-on)
A portable desktop tower with three LCDs mounted on its side, you say? Why yes, there is such a thing. At Computex, we spotted SSI's camouflaged booth demoing this eccentric Spark S9T rig: a rugged ATX case sporting a handle, a keyboard with a touchpad, plus three 17.3-inch 1920 x 1080 LCD panels. As you've probably already guessed, the keyboard and the screens can be folded up for storage convenience. Let's be clear, though: you'll still need to find a wall socket to power this beastly machine, but such all-in-one solution should still appeal to video editors, military personnel, or even gamers that are regularly on the road. Alas, we couldn't get a price for single purchases, but feel free to check out the full detail over at SSI's website -- maybe a nice postcard will get you a deal. %Gallery-125379%
Sony files for 'PS Vita' trademark in Europe, intends to do something Next Generation with it
The words "PS Vita" and "PlayStation Vita" have just made their way through the EU Trademarks and Designs Registration Office, courtesy of a set of new applications from none other than Sony Computer Entertainment. The name PS Vita showed up in some source code on an official Sony site late last week, though it's still not certain that it'll be the official branding for the company's Next Generation Portable. "Vita" means "life" in Italian, so a literal translation would be PlayStation Life. For now, all we know is that the NGP will be large and in charge at E3, and the best way to find out how this Vita moniker relates to it will be to tune in to our Sony keynote liveblog later today, which can be found right over here.
Handheld Dreamcast systems go on sale in Japan
Under most circumstances, our answer to the question "Should I buy a Dreamcast" is yes. If you don't have a Dreamcast, you should buy a Dreamcast. If you already have a Dreamcast, what if your Dreamcast breaks? What would you do then? Not play Plasma Sword, that's what. But when that Dreamcast costs ¥38,000 ($469), we must be more reserved with our recommendations. That's the price PachimonTV gives to this handmade portable Dreamcast unit, shipping next month in Japan. We'll leave it to you to decide whether or not that's a fair price for the ability to play Shenmue on the go. At the very least, it's a more elegant portable Dreamcast solution than the infamous Treamcast.
Altec Lansing Mix iMT810 is big, loud, desperately seeking Ione Skye's affection
Altec Lansing popped by our offices earlier today to show off the successor to its oversized Mix iMT800 iPhone / iPod dock. There's not a heck of a lot to talk about in terms of changes with the iM810 -- the dock is now iPhone 4 certified, the gold trim has been changed to silver, and the amber LED has been swapped for blue. The company does get some bonus points for reenacting the one scene from Say Anything that anyone remembers with the winner of its in-office John Cusack look-alike contest, however. The new dock packs in a 5.25-inch subwoofer, a seven band graphic equalizer, and a slot for storing its little carabiner-equipped remote -- the hulking accessory can also achieve relative portability with the help of eight D size batteries. It's available now for $300, Peter Gabriel album not included. Press release after the break. %Gallery-124446%
Sony to remaster select PSP titles for PlayStation 3, allow cross-device continuous gameplay
As much as you love your PSP, we suspect that its low graphics definition is starting to bug even the most devoted fans. Sure, you can wait for the almighty NGP, but for the time being, Sony's offering the next best thing for you game connoisseurs: the PSP Remaster series for PlayStation 3. As the name says for itself, Sony will be porting select portable game titles to the PS3 in high-def Blu-ray flavor, and some may even come with new add-on content plus stereoscopic 3D support. But that's not all: gamers will also be able to share game save data between the two platforms, meaning you can pick up where you left off on your preferred device. Pretty neat, though it'll be interesting to see how much Sony and the studios wants to charge for what are essentially the same games you already own. The first PSP Remaster title announced is Monster Hunter Portable 3rd, but this is only heading to Japan at an unknown date -- gamers in other countries will just have to keep squinting at the PSP for now.
GoFlex Satellite is your iPad's portable, wireless hard drive
Seagate introduced the GoFlex Satellite, a portable, battery-powered hard drive targeted for iOS devices. The external hard drive includes an iOS app for the iPad, iPhone or iPod touch that lets you browse and view multimedia files stored on the drive. Different than most external drives, the GoFlex uses Wi-Fi to share its data with up to three Wi-Fi enabled devices at the same time. If you need faster transfers, an included cable lets you connect the drive to any USB 3.0 port. The battery-powered drive delivers 5 hours of continuous usage and 25 hours in standby mode. The drive ships in a single 500 GB capacity option (US$199) and is available for pre-order now from Seagate, Amazon and Best Buy. The drive should hit US retail shelves in July and international retailers later this summer. [Via ZDNet]
Dell teases lithe new laptop to stimulate our gadget senses (update: CEO says XPS 15z)
Mmmm, there's nothing like some shots of a slim new PC to get our gadget senses all tingly, and Dell's done just that via a new video. Posted on its Facebook page today, Round Rock's latest laptop -- which likely claims XPS lineage -- is looking lean and clean, with a couple of USB 3.0 ports and lattice-work speaker grilles. There's not much more to say, so we'll let the vid speak for itself. Enjoy. Update: Michael Dell did it again! We just caught the CEO tweeting "Dell XPS 15z Coming soon!" and linking to the same video after the break. Looks like someone doesn't get the idea behind teasers. To be fair, though, you can actually see the moniker at about 8 seconds into the clip.
TUAW's Daily Mac App: unDock
When you're using a MacBook in the vicinity of a desk, you're likely to have a lot of things plugged into it. Be it hard drives, flash drives, memory cards or any other type of storage, we all know how bitterly OS X complains when you just pull them out. When you're in a hurry to get out the door, the last thing you want to do is eject 15 different drives. Luckily, as with many Mac-related issues, there's a simple solution to the problem, and that's unDock. UnDock does one-click ejection, or undocking, of every mass storage drive you've got connected to your Mac. Any networked drives or optical media can be ejected as well, and for anything else, you've got the option to fire off an AppleScript at the same time. It can be triggered from a customizable shortcut key or a menu bar utility, while Growl takes care of the notifications. Once the operation is complete, which is nearly instantaneous for anything that doesn't need to spin-up before being ejected, the menu bar icon stops flashing and you're good to go. While you can achieve the same task for free with an AppleScript, if you have a portable Mac with more than one USB drive plugged in at any one time and aren't comfortable messing with AppleScripts, then this US$0.99 app could be a real time saver.
GameCube Fusion portable brings Wii aesthetics, GBA design to Nintendo's boxiest console (video)
It seems like there was a time, not that long ago, where we saw another new hand-crafted portable console every week, each one smaller and more impressive than those before. Those days are, sadly, gone and, whether you want to blame the short attention span of today's youth or simply conclude that everyone's too busy playing Angry Birds, it's a sad fact. Modder Ashen is bucking the trend, creating what he calls the GameCube Fusion. It's a hand-built portable GameCube that plays (hopefully legally acquired) titles from SD card via both WiiKey and Gecko, offering full controls on-board plus an external controller port, all kept cool by a laptop-sourced fan that sounds powerful enough to make the thing hover, F-Zero-style. It's far smaller than 2009's NCube, but the omission of a battery pack means it won't be traveling far. For those who want to know more, every detail will be revealed in the 12 minute video embedded just below -- if you can keep focused that long.
Sony teases 'Freestyle Hybrid PC' tablet slider and next-gen ultra-portable laptop
We're not sure how this slipped past us at the Sony Android tablet event, but turns out the electronics giant also teased a couple of interesting VAIO laptops. First up is a "Freestyle Hybrid PC" that slides between tablet mode and laptop mode -- very much like the Samsung Sliding PC, but with a seemingly slimmer bottom-half sans trackpad (though we can just about spot a pointing stick on the keyboard). No word on specs, prices, or availability here, but you may recall our proven tipster mentioning a 9.4-inch screen and a $799 launch in the fall. Could this be it? We shall see. Also shown alongside is a swanky "Ultimate Mobile PC" -- pictured after the break -- with a hint of USB 3.0 and HDMI on a slim body, but again, there's not much else to go with this slide. Hey, at least we now know it's time to start saving up for these bad boys.
B-Squares bring portable solar energy and Arduino compatibility to toy blocks (video)
We've seen plenty of portable solar chargers in our time, but few have looked quite as versatile as B-Squares -- a new collection of 3D modular energy storage devices that can be arranged in various configurations, according to the kind of gadget you're looking to juice. Developed by MIT grads Jordan McRae and Shawn Frayne, each solar-powered B-Square features a sticky microsuction surface, along with magnetic and electric contacts at each corner, making it easy to connect and arrange them in different formations. Rotating a single square will change its electrical circuit, depending on its adjacent connection. Some B-Squares, for example, feature LED surfaces, allowing you to create solar-powered lanterns, while others have solar panels, or simply serve as rechargeable battery sources. There's even a square devoted to Arduino boards, along with another surface designed to dock and charge iPhones. McRae and Frayne have already put together a full "recipe book" of different configurations, though the DIY route seems a lot more enticing to us. Their B-Squares are set to leave the prototype phase on May 1st, at an as yet unspecified price. Check them out in video action after the break. [Thanks, Ryan]
DS Lite discontinued at GameStop
We caught wind of an internal GameStop memo this morning announcing the discontinuation of Nintendo's DS Lite. The memo (pictured above) asks employees to remove displays of Crimson, Black, and Metallic Rose models, once they've burned through their stock -- we've since confirmed the fact with an employee of the gaming chain. Not a huge shocker, of course, given the fact that the five-year-old system has since been eclipsed by 2009's DSi and, more recently, the company's glasses-free 3D portable, the 3DS. We have reached out to Nintendo for comment on the matter and will update this post with official word once received. Update: We heard back from Nintendo, receiving the usual "Nintendo doesn't comment on rumor and speculation."
Windows 8 to feature USB-runnable Portable Workspaces, sales of 16GB thumb drives set to soar
There are endless flavors of "Linux on a stick," tasty downloadable versions of that OS which run from removable storage and let you take Linus' progeny for a spin without dedicating any of your partitions to the cause. There have been ways of making this work with Windows, too, but now Microsoft is getting into the game properly. That leaked version of Windows 8 we looked at recently contains a feature called Portable Workspaces, which enables you to take a 16GB (or greater) external storage device and dump a bootable, runnable copy of Win 8 on there. It remains to be seen just how many copies one could create, and whether they ever expire or, indeed, whether they can themselves be copied onto an HDD like a ghost image, but it's easy to see this as a boon for support personnel. Well, support personnel of the future, anyway. [Thanks, Peter]
'SupaBoy' handheld lets you take SNES games on the go
Hyperkin, who sells third-party gaming accessories and various retro game devices (like the RetroN3, a combination NES/SNES/Genesis) announced its next product at the Midwest Gaming Classic last month: the SupaBoy, a portable SNES console that works with real SNES cartridges. It's shaped like a controller, but it also has two controller ports, so you can play while you play. According to CVG's report on the device, it has a 3.5" screen, a rechargeable battery that runs for about five-and-a-half hours, and AV out for use on real TVs. It's due for launch in America this summer. It might look a bit silly with the huge cartridge sticking out, but Sega got away with pretty much the same thing. Officially.
Portable N64 features controller port, tiny split-screens
We've seen plenty of homemade portable versions of the Nintendo 64, but nothing quite so bold as this. The D64 not only lets its wielder play any of the console's titles on-the-go -- it lets a second wielder get in on the split-screen action using another standalone controller!
Bacteria's disciple improves upon technique, crafts N64 handheld capable of GoldenEye split-screen
This isn't the smallest portable Nintendo 64 we've seen, nor the most elegant, creative or complete -- in fact, it's pretty much a straight clone of Bacteria's iNto64, but with a spiffier paint job and one critical improvement. Yes, that is an extra controller port you see in the foreground of the image above, and if you click your way below, you will indeed be able to watch its creator engage in some wonderfully retro split-screen Mario Kart 64 and F-Zero X races, not to mention the obligatory GoldenEye death match and a wee bit of Quake 2. Ahhh, memories. [Thanks, Alon T.]
Refactr turns whiteboard into giant 3DS AR card, proves bigger is better (video)
If you haven't already seen our demo of the 3DS' rather impressive bag of augmented reality tricks, then let us take this opportunity to show you -- once again -- why we're excited about the thing's AR capabilities. The folks over at software development firm Refactr have done some tinkering and found that all you need to make your very own 3DS AR card is a white board, some dry erase markers, and a projector. By tracing the outlines of that mysterious question mark card on to a shiny white surface, they found that conjuring the device's AR interface is actually quite simple, and mostly a matter of contrast. Going big, in this case anyway, not only makes for a good time -- as evidenced by the video below -- but it should also put to rest any questions about whether or not these things are sprinkled with pixie dust, Juju powder, or some other magical substance.
Osborne 1 celebrates its 30th birthday, and that of the portable computing revolution
On April 3rd, 1981 -- thirty years ago today -- Adam Osborne unveiled the Osborne 1 at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco. It had a 4 MHz Zilog Z80 CPU, two single-sided floppy drives, 64K of RAM, and a five-inch monochrome CRT display. Nothing particularly special there, even back in the day. No, what made the Osborne 1 extraordinary was the fact that the 24-pound plastic machine had a carrying handle on the back -- and at the bargain price of $1,795 with software included, it became one of the first mass-produced portable computers to succeed. Which, of course, spurred competitors to create an army of even more luggable, loveable machines. Shortly after helping to change the course of history, Osborne and his computer fell into a spiral of pain, but the next time you admire the way your ultralight slides into a manila envelope, you'll know who to thank. Find a short but sweet chronicle of the Osborne 1 at our Technologizer link.
Atomos Ninja and Samurai HD video recorder / monitors bring compression jutsu to pro filmmaking
We all drool over the hi-res video shot by cameras like the RED EPIC, but for indie-film types, processing the massive files produced takes a lot of time (and therefore money) and not everyone has an ARRI ALEXA to do native recording compression. Enter the Atomos Ninja and Samurai HD recorder / monitor / playback devices that take your 10-bit video and compress it in Apple's 1080p ProRes QuickTime format to make your post-production life a little easier. The Ninja pulls video through HDMI and deposits it on your choice of 2.5-inch HDD or SDD storage, does playback via a 4.3-inch 480 x 270 touchscreen, and has continuous power thanks to dual hot-swappable batteries (available in 2600, 5200, and 7800 mAh varieties). Meanwhile, the Samurai matches the Ninja's specs, but swaps out the HDMI connection for HD-SDI ports and adds SDI Loop-Through to connect an external monitor, a larger 5-inch 800 x 400 display, and 3D support (if you get two Samurais genlocked together). Both units have FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 and 3.0 connections for offloading your vids. Those with Spielbergian aspirations can pony up $995 for the Ninja right now, or pay $1,495 for the Samurai upon its release this summer.
