Filed under: CES, Gaming

We’ve seen a few useful improvements to air guitar over the years, but Air Guitar Rocker actually managed to snag a license from Activision. Granted, it does take your nerd level to unbelievable heights, but then again, it is slated to cost just $29.95 when it lands in March. Be sure to click on through and catch a totally unprofessional air guitarist chatting it up with Mahalo Daily’s Veronica Belmont after the jump.

Continue reading Video: Air Guitar Rocker thrashes at CES

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Filed under: CES, Gaming

We had a hunch NVIDIA was prepping Hybrid SLI technology, and although it’s taken over half a year for it to go official, we suppose now’s better than never. As we already knew, the tech’s primary purpose in life is to increase graphics performance and decrease power consumption simultaneously, and apparently, it will soon be incorporated into a “wide variety of graphics and motherboard desktop and notebook products.” In case you’ve forgotten, Hybrid SLI enables NVIDIA motherboard GPUs to work cooperatively with discrete NVIDIA GPUs when paired in the same PC platform, and only the GPU(s) needed will be called upon in order to save energy (and battery life in laptops). For more on what upcoming products will sport the technology, head on down to the read link.

[Via HotHardware]

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Filed under: CES, Features, Gaming, Laptops

We caught the regular Ideapad Y710 last night, but Lenovo was nice enough to stealth this hot gaming version out of its VIP press debut and let us play with it for a while. The custom arrow key and system-monitor LCD unit replaces the numeric keypad, and it’s rocking a Blu-ray drive and Dolby Home Theater certification — which involves four built-in speakers plus a bottom-mounted sub that you can shut off when you don’t feel like bumping it too hard. On top of that, it’s got a second hot-swappable hard drive that sits in a carrier with a mini-USB port, so you can yank the drive and transfer files on the go. All in all, a sweet rig — but check out how much bigger it is than the tiny U110 in the gallery.

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Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, Laptops

Details are fairly light on this one, but it looks like Mac users wanting to bring some Connect360-style media sharing to their PlayStation 3 and computer of choice will soon be able to get their fix, and from the same folks behind that well-worn app, no less. According to Nullriver, it’ll be releasing its MediaLink application later this week, which it says has been “designed from the ground up for the PS3″ and provides “true integration with the Mac.” No word on a price, though we wouldn’t expect it to be too out of line with the $20 the company currently charges for Connect360 (a free trial of which is also available).

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Filed under: CES, Desktops, Features, Gaming, Laptops

Once we heard that Dell was showing off the XPS 630i “compact” desktop and 16-inch, 16:9 XPS laptop concept at its booth / lounge, we headed right over the moment that the show floor opened. Unfortunately the notebook was locked behind a glass case, precluding any real face time with the prototype widescreen system, but luckily we were able to get right up in the grille of the 630i to check out all the angles. Of course, you’d rather peep some pictures then hear us drone on about our impressions, so check out the gallery below for the full package.

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Filed under: CES, Gaming, Peripherals

If you’re the type of gamer who digs alternative input devices, you might have a gander at the Wolfking Warrior gamepad (sister site Massively has a review) and the Trooper gaming mouse (besides, any gadget named after an Iron Maiden song is worth a head turn). Both units have gotten an update in the new MVP series, with the Warrior USB 2.0 55-key circular gamepad receiving a style update in the form of deep black audio keys to match its matte black finish. The Trooper delivers a frame rate in excess of 7080 frames per second, up to 45ips and 20g high speed motion detection, 2400 dpi resolution, onboard LED displays and a Rapid Fire Switch function button that lets you select your rate of fire from 1 to 4 shots per click. The MVP Series versions will be coming in at $34.99 for the Warrior and $59.99 for the Trooper.

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Filed under: CES, Gaming, Peripherals

Given that we just learned that Skype for PSP would actually be coming to fruition, it follows logic that a dedicated microphone would surface. This one, however, is quite curious — we’re seeing a device that appears to be the microphone created for the PSP’s use with Skype on a respectable Japanese website, but weirdly enough, there’s a “Copyright 2005″ splash in the bottom left corner. Additionally, Famitsu has a couple of shots of the purported interface, and while all of this is perfectly murky right now, head on over to the read link and see what you can make of it.

[Via JGadgets, thanks J]

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES, Features, Handhelds

Though it bears a vague resemblance to the utterly nonexistent device pictured in Android’s emulator, rest assured: the GW4 QWERTY phone from Wistron NeWeb doesn’t run Google kit. It does however run some other homegrown flavor of Linux, giving promise that it could end up as a nice little clean slate on which to drop an Android image when the time comes. Like the physical phone itself, the existing UI seems really functional, if not a little rough around the edges; you get VoIP, weather and stock widgets, WiFi, and Bluetooth, though you won’t find any HSDPA, UMTS, or even EDGE here. Not a bad effort, guys — keep crackin’ and we might see you fighting for market share with the OpenMoko types of the world.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

After months, months, and yet more months of speculation, rumor, and leaked press shots, Verizon has gotten official with its own version of the HTC Libra, the SMT5800. The Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone-based handset is essentially a Vox gutted for CDMA / EV-DO airwaves, featuring a slide-out QWERTY keypad along with a standard numeric keypad up front to fool all your inquisitive peers into thinking it’s nothing more than a candybar. The spec sheet reveals Bluetooth 2.0, a 2 megapixel camera, a microSD slot for packing up to 8GB, and a 2.4 inch QVGA display. Find it starting January 21 for $299.99 after rebate on a two year contract — $199 if you’re bold enough to sign up for a qualifying data plan at the same time.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Filed under: Cellphones, CES, Features

Also on the table at Sony Ericsson’s booth is the new ultra-light flip, the W350i. We’ve covered the important tech bits on this thing already and we were pretty stoked about its slim svelte look, but sadly, this fella still needs some tweaks to make it just right. We wanted to get at least a couple pics of the user interface, but it wasn’t cooperating with us at all, any attempt to get the handset’s demo rolling ended up in complete video madness. We can overlook software glitches as the handset isn’t close to hitting retail, but this phone’s flip is cheap, and I mean real floppy cheap. When in the closed position the flip doesn’t actually seat — we saw this on two different handsets — nor does it have an I-will-last-a-long-time feel. Those points aside — and it may be those issues go away before it hits retail in the second half of this year — we’re really digging the look of this set.

Gallery: We get hands-on with Sony Ericsson’s W350i

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