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Tokyo Game Show 2012 wrap-up: Sony's new PS3, 'Prototype-SR' and assorted gaming peripherals
After a few humid and sweaty days in Tokyo, TGS 2012 is drawing to a close. While the public days continue through the weekend, us media types are headed back to our respective homelands until next September. The lasting impression from the week -- aside from eating massive amounts of gyoza -- will undoubtedly be the news Sony dropped the day before the show started at its own press event. A new, even slimmer PS3 is on the way and two new colors for the PS Vita were outed -- at least for Japan. On the show floor, though, we encountered some peripherals well-suited for other gaming tech like Nintendo's 3DS XL, Xbox 360 and PC rigs. You can peek at those for yourself in the Sony Tokyo Game Show gallery that follows and relive all the action in the wrap-up that lies just beyond the break. Also, don't forget to check out our pals over at Joystiq for more coverage from this week's happenings. %Gallery-166241%
Photokina 2012 wrap-up: Canon, Nikon, lust-worthy Leicas, a full-frame Sony compact and more
The sun is setting on Germany's monster of a photo show, but Photokina didn't come and go without shaking up the industry. The biennial trade show drew all the big names -- Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and many more manufacturers all had their latest wares on display for tens of thousands of photographers, journalists and local attendees -- with each company releasing a suite of impressive products. Canon and Nikon made an impression with their $2,100 6D and D600 full-frame DSLRs, while Olympus, Panasonic, Sony and Fujifilm each upped the ante with new mirrorless lineups, and Leica demoed its new M, which for the first time brings live-view and video capture to the high-end rangefinder series. The fun doesn't stop there, though -- there was plenty more to explore, and you'll find it all in our wrap-up just after the break.
We're live from Tokyo Game Show 2012 in Tokyo, Japan!
This week Japan's capital city welcomes gamers from around the globe for some show and tell with the country's finest at TGS. As for us, we're particularly anxious to see what Sony may have in store. Will we see another PS3 redesign? Perhaps some buzz about it's next-gen console? Will we see some energized color options for the PS Vita? We're eager to find out. Worried you're too far away to be in the loop with the happenings here? Fret not! We've got you covered on all of the proceedings at Makuhari Messe, so keep your peepers locked here for all of the latest news over the next few days. Sean Buckley contributed to this report.
We're live from Photokina 2012 in Cologne, Germany!
Germany just can't get enough of Engadget, it seems. Just two weeks after the close of IFA in Berlin, we're back in the land of Bier and Honig, for a camera-fueled journey to Cologne. This giant photography trade show is held only once every two years -- the last Photokina was way back in 2010 -- and it's arguably the industry's biggest event, drawing manufacturers the world abound to launch their latest prosumer and professional devices. We won't likely see a blockbuster product like Samsung's Galaxy Camera, but there could be another Android shooter or two in store, along with plenty of updates to last year's advanced compacts and mirrorless cams, and a modest spattering of full-frame DSLRs. We'll be bringing you all the news as it happens, so keep your eyes peeled to this very site to catch the action as it goes down.
IFA 2012 wrap-up: Galaxy Note II, 84-inch 4K TVs, Windows 8 convertibles and much more
Europe's premier consumer electronics trade show has further cemented its status on the industry's radar, thanks in no small part to Samsung, Sony and a shocking number of 84-inch 4K TVs. Since Wednesday, we've welcomed a brand new Galaxy Note, a healthy heaping of smaller mobile phones, a few cameras (including that Android stunner) and enough laptops and tablets to keep us computing well into the fall. From your perspective, the show ran silky smooth, though Berlin's mobile data plague continued to take its toll on our productivity, while the Messe's absolutely insane sprawl left us with a few well-worn shoes. As always, we still had a blast bringing you all the latest gear as it hit the floor, and German hospitality (and beer) made the setbacks a bit more bearable. Since there's oh so much to get through, we're sorting out our grouping of news and hands-ons from major manufacturers, followed by some smaller device makers and a few one-hit wonders -- all tidied up just past the break.%Gallery-164013%
We're live from IFA 2012 in Berlin!
Have you ever visited a state fair in the US? Picture the fairgrounds -- perhaps enlarged several fold -- filled to the brim with ultra-slim televisions, giant smartphones, tablets, laptops and enough washers and dryers to keep the entire population of Germany's wardrobe squeaky clean. That's IFA. There may not be any deep-fried Oreos at this Messe (though you will find plenty of Brezels and Bier), but there's more than enough to keep us entertained for a full week, and then some. The fun kicks off tomorrow afternoon with Sony's annual press conference, followed by Samsung Unpacked where we expect to see a Galaxy S III-like successor to last year's blockbuster Note. Then chaos ensues, when the two dozen exhibition halls open to the public, and tens of thousands of curious consumers mix with industry reps and journalists, pushing and shoving their way to the hottest gadgets from every category, be it high-end home theater or personal grooming (read: electric toothbrush/water flosser duos). Rest assured that we'll focus our efforts on the former, and you can stay on top of all the news as it happens using our "ifa2012" tag.
Gamescom 2012 wrap-up
Cologne, city of cathedrals, chocolate museums and -- at least for the last week -- a little bit of cosplay. While Gamescom largely concentrated on the latest titles coming in the next year, there was still plenty to see for gadget obsessives -- especially when it came to PC mice and keyboards. Sony also had a few tricks up its sleeve at its press event before Gamescom had even begun in earnest. After the break, gorge on all the gaming hardware of note, in case you missed it on the first round. Tschüss! %Gallery-162685%
SIGGRAPH 2012 wrap-up
Considering that SIGGRAPH focuses on visual content creation and display, there was no shortage of interesting elements to gawk at on the show floor. From motion capture demos to 3D objects printed for Hollywood productions, there was plenty of entertainment at the Los Angeles Convention Center this year. Major product introductions included ARM's Mali-T604 GPU and a handful of high-end graphics cards from AMD, but the highlight of the show was the Emerging Technologies wing, which played host to a variety of concept demonstrations, gathering top researchers from institutions like the University of Electro-Communications in Tokyo and MIT. The exhibition has come to a close for the year, but you can catch up with the show floor action in the gallery below, then click on past the break for links to all of our hands-on coverage, direct from LA.%Gallery-162185%
We're live from SIGGRAPH 2012 in Los Angeles!
Most of us experience the Los Angeles Convention Center during one of its most chaotic weeks of the year, when tens of thousands of gaming industry manufacturers, video game designers and consumers descend upon downtown LA for the annual E3 expo, booth-babe radar tweaked to 11. There's a hint of graphics prowess amid the halls this week, too, albeit on a vastly smaller scale, and with a heavy heap of civility. SIGGRAPH is a trade event through and through, with attendees demonstrating their latest tech, taking in a handful of seminars or hunting for networking opportunities, in search of employment and partnerships. It's often also a venue for product launches, which is what's brought us out, along with the usual bounty of kooky creations that serve to entertain and lighten the mood. As always, we'll be bringing you a little bit of everything over the next few days, letting you sample the best of SIGGRAPH from the comfort of your own device -- head over to our SIGGRAPH 2012 tag to follow along.
Capcom and iam8bit remember 25 Years of Street Fighter with art gallery
Last night in iam8bit's Los Angeles headquarters, Capcom opened up its 25 Years of Street Fighter show, revealing a full gallery of artists' work featuring the now classic fighting game characters and settings. In a launch event open to the public, visitors got to see (and buy) the art on display, take pictures in front of a Street Fighter background, and even smash up a car pinata in a tribute to the games' Bonus Round mechanic. Gabe Swarr was one of the artists in attendance last night - his piece in the show, a comic from his Life in the Analog Age series, was a little more personal than all of the various representations of Chun Li, Ryu, and Blanka. In it, he portrays the change that Street Fighter brought to the arcades when it debuted, from sillier games featuring monkeys and spaceships to fire punches and spinning kicks. "Right when Street Fighter started there were two different crowds at that point," says Swarr, "and I wanted to remember that shift in the arcades." Swarr says that Street Fighter as a brand has lasted so long because its characters were so identifiable. Not only are these archetypal characters easy to connect to, but "it's also an international thing," he says. "It's one of the first games where they say this guy's from Brazil, this guy's from Japan and this guy's from the US. They did a really great job of incorporating that into the game." "You could tell that that was like the basis for all the fighting games afterwards," Swarr says. "This was the template that everyone followed." Capcom's 25 Years of Street Fighter show is running at iam8bit through August 19. You can see what's on display there in the gallery below.%Gallery-161786%
Twitter rumored to be pitching in-feed video shows to studios
Twitter has been making a giant push for expanded tweets from content providers. It's only a short logical leap from that to Twitter providing the content itself, and that's exactly what AdWeek claims may well happen. Its unconfirmed tipsters have the microblog taking a page from YouTube by pitching Hollywood movie and TV studios on "several" original shows that would live in followers' feeds, including the seemingly inescapable reality show. While Twitter wouldn't have someone in the director's chair, it might still play a role by letting viewers affect the show as it's happening -- and of course, running ads. Silence is the only official response to the rumor from Twitter so far; don't plan your viewing schedule just yet, but do brace yourself in case Twitter breaks out a Horse ebooks cameo to boost ratings in mid-season.
Tony Fadell: First iPhone almost had a clickwheel
Tony Fadell recently appeared on The Verge's On The Verge talk show/web series, and he shared a tidbit about early versions of the iPhone, which he worked on as Senior VP of the iPod division at Apple back in 2006. The Verge says that Apple "seriously considered" a hardware keyboard for the original iPhone, according to Fadell, but if you watch the clip itself, you can see that Fadell confirms Apple never made a keyboard for it. The issue was "definitely discussed," he says, but nothing was ever made into a prototype. Fadell also says there were three different "gestations" of the iPhone during development -- first an iPod plus phone, then an actual "i-Phone," and then "there was the next generation iPhone, and that's the one that shipped," he says. Fadell says they did work with the iPod's original clickwheel on iPhone hardware, which reminds me of those old fake mockups that designers put together before the iPhone was announced. At any rate, says Fadell, Apple was open to anything. "Sometimes you have to try things in order to throw it away," he says. Given Apple's history since the introduction of the iPhone, we'd say it was all worth it.
Reminder: Webby Award voting ends tomorrow, give the Engadget Show some love
Do you really want to hurt us? Do you really want to make us cry? If not, you should head on over to the Webby Awards site and vote for the Engadget Show. Seriously, though, it's an honor just to have our humble production nominated for the third year in a row alongside several other impressive products. Ballots do close tomorrow and, if you're a fan of segments like our epic tour of Asia's gadget markets, then click here (no, seriously, right there) to give us and the dozens of people who put in countless hours of hard work to make them happen a virtual pat on the back. Thanks for reading, watching and being a fan, and we promise to continue working our butts off to keep you informed and entertained.
The Engadget Show is live, here at 6:00PM ET!
Are you strapped in? Got your helmets on? Good, because you're gonna need 'em this time out. We've got one action-packed, high-flying episode of The Engadget Show coming your way this month. We'll be testing the latest GoPro and Contour cameras in the deserts of Nevada and the skies above them, paying a visit to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and checking out the latest new 'bots from iRobot. We'll also be talking to Sony Electronics president Phil Molyneux and media theorist Douglas Ruskoff. We'll be live tonight at 6PM ET, and you can join us at this very URL -- so keep your browser locked to this spot.
Engadget takes over Times Square, courtesy of TS2 (video)
Remember when we took over Times Square last month? Contrary to comments-based speculation, we didn't drop several years' salary to see our names and faces (and pets) up in lights. We were actually shooting a segment for the Engadget Show about a new service from Times Square2 (TS2). The NASDAQ / Thomson Reuters alliance is working to increase engagement on the giant electronic billboards it controls in one of the most heavily trafficked spots in the US. The organization has designed a free API for developers, making it possible to create applications for its giant ad spaces on the side of the Thomson Reuters and NASDAQ buildings, and it showed us some of the fruits of its labor in the video clip that you'll find after the break.%Gallery-130286%
Westone lab tour: how in-ear monitors are made, from impressions to impressing (video)
You probably don't think "top-tier audio" when you ponder the wonders of Colorado Springs, but sure enough, one of music's best kept secrets is headquartered there, camped out slyly in quite the nondescript building. A few months back, we were granted unprecedented access to Westone's lair (just a year and change after visiting Klipsch's HQ), and they even let a film crew in for good measure. The goal? To show you, the budding audiophile, exactly how a set of custom in-ear monitors are crafted, and what kind of work goes into creating one of the planet's most diminutive speaker arrangements. We've whipped up the entire experience there in the video above, but if you're looking for a more textual perspective, head on past the break. %Gallery-126952%
CES 2011 sees big boost in attendance, CES 2012 scheduled way more sensibly
Good news for people who love bad good news. According to IDG News, this year's Consumer Electronics Show saw around 140,000 people descend upon it, which pretty much destroys the estimate of 126,000 attendees. We're told that around 126,000 humans showed up last year to see Palm introduce webOS 1.4 (and for everyone else to introduce an e-reader), while just 113,000 booked a ticket to Las Vegas for CES 2009. The last time this quantity of Earthlings arrived in the desert to get their geek on was CES 2008, or in other terms, the last year that life as we knew it was halfway normal. There's no question that we felt as if the floor was teeming with people, and the show in general just felt more alive than usual. Furthermore, we're being hit with even more amazing news from the show floor: the official show dates for 2012. Rather than pushing CES up against a pair of holidays in Christmas and New Year's Day, the Consumer Electronics Association has finally seen fit to bump things forward a week. CES 2012 will officially be held January 10th through 13th, and we're guessing that most of the press events will start on the 8th or 9th. Sadly, we weren't able to go three for three with outstanding news today -- the show is still slated to be held in Las Vegas, so we're apologizing in advance to the internationals who will once again wonder how a place overran with neon, grotesque paper cards at every street corner and a public transportation system that only stops once every five minutes could be so highly touted.
The Engadget Show returns tomorrow, December 17th with televisions, robots, giveaways, and more!
Ladies and gentlemen, it is that time again: Yes, the Engadget Show is back in a big way tomorrow, December 17th at 6:30pm at The Times Center in New York City! First up, Josh sits down with Mitsubishi product chief Frank DeMartin for a deep-dive into the future of televisions and a look ahead at what to expect at next month's CES 2011. Nilay and Paul will be on hand for a raucous roundtable and the folks from Aldebaran Robotics are coming all the way from France to show off their NAO robot. Plus, we'll have a never-before-seen tour of iRobot's labs, an exclusive demo from Ubisoft, mind-bending music from Bit Shifter, and one lucky audience member will be walking away with a brand new 46-inch Mitsubishi LT-46164! What's more, Google is hooking us up with five Cr-48 Chrome notebooks to give away in addition to some other special giveaway surprises. Trust us when we say that you really don't want to miss this one! Remember, giveaways happen at the live show only, so make the trek and join us at The Times Center in person. We have a new ticketing policy, so if you're coming to the live show, be sure to read about it below. If you're geographically incapable of joining us in New York City, just tune into the stream right here on Engadget. The Engadget Show is sponsored by Sprint, and will take place at the Times Center, part of The New York Times Building in the heart of New York City at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues (see map after the break). Tickets are -- as always -- free to anyone who would like to attend, but seating is limited, and tickets will be first come, first served... so get there early! Here's the updated info on our new ticketing policy that you need to know: There is no admission fee -- tickets are completely free The event is all ages Ticketing will begin at the Times Center at 2:00PM on Friday, December 17th, doors will open for seating at 5:45PM, and the show begins at 6:30PM We now have assigned seating, so the first people to get their tickets -- and the Sprint text-to-win winners (see below) -- will get priority seating. This also means that once you get a ticket, your seat is guaranteed -- you won't have to get back in line to get a good seat. Ticketing will continue until all tickets are given away You cannot collect tickets for friends or family -- anyone who would like to come must be present to get a ticket Seating capacity in the Times Center is about 340, and once we're full, we're full The venue is located at 41st St. between 7th and 8th Avenues in New York City (map after the break) The show length is around an hour If you're a member of the media who wishes to attend, please contact us at: engadgetshowmedia [at] engadget [dot] com, and we'll try to accommodate you. All other non-media questions can be sent to: engadgetshow [at] engadget [dot] com. Subscribe to the Show: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Show directly in iTunes (M4V). [Zune] Subscribe to the Show directly in the Zune Marketplace (M4V). [RSS M4V] Add the Engadget Show feed (M4V) to your RSS aggregator and have it delivered automatically.
Nintendo won't be exhibiting at CES 2011 after all, will conduct meetings behind closed doors
Wait, put the cork back in the champagne, Nintendo isn't making its triumphant return to CES after all. The Consumer Electronics Association has just blasted out a new press release, presumably with a face red with embarrassment, to correct its erroneous note that Nintendo will be an exhibitor at the 2011 tech showcase. As it turns out, Satoru Iwata's crew have booked some meeting rooms during the show -- to discuss what, we don't know -- which somewhere along the line was misinterpreted to mean that the company will be exhibiting its wares. It won't. We'll be there anyway, this just means we'll have to be a little craftier about extracting our information. [Thanks, Curtis]
Nintendo returning to CES after a 16-year absence
If there's one event that's immune to being overhyped, it's the annual January expo of everything consumer electronics, known to you and us as CES. The only downer to this geek endurance test is that we've felt it's been lacking a little on the gaming front lately, which is why we're so giddy to hear the news that Nintendo will be rejoining the ranks of exhibitors over in Las Vegas in a few weeks' time. CES 2011 will be the first time in 16 years that the console sales leader has deigned to pitch up a stand at America's biggest tech show, with our suspicion being that the event will be used as an opportunity to remind the world about the upcoming 3DS handheld. Or to drop that Wii HD bombshell we've all been waiting for. Yeah, right!