Cool Gizmos – Gizmora

Every February, leaders in the toy industry come to New York City seeking the next toy phenomenon and asking one question, “What will be the next Rubik’s(R) Cube?” Finally, there is an answer. Techno Source, a leader in electronic toys and games, has truly created the “next Rubik’s Cube” — Rubik’s Revolution(TM). The dynamic,
interactive cube will debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York City (February 11th — 14th, 2007; booth #3057). The new electronic cube, which challenges both your mind and dexterity, offers a revolutionary
spin on the classic Rubik’s Cube that redefined the standard for all puzzle products that followed.
       Rubik’s Revolution contains at least six built-in games that feature light, sound and voice effects with numerous ways to play and multiple levels waiting to be unlocked. Ideal for puzzle lovers from 5 to 105, the new electronic cube offers not only individual play, but also exciting multi- player gaming. Its six core games include: Light Speed(TM), Rapid
Recharge(TM), Pattern Panic(TM), Cube Catcher(TM), Code Cracker(TM), and
Multiplayer Madness(TM).

Ever wanted your Xbox 360 to be a portable gaming system? We hope you said no otherwise you’ll actually think about purchasing one of those 360s showcased in the video above. We present to you a Xbox 360 with one tiny LCD built into the side. Think PSP without the ability to hold it in your hands … yup, just like that. It may be be cool in theory, but we aren’t finding any practical reasons for this mod. Unless you’re in a pinch for a display and need a quick gaming fix to feed your addiction. And excuse the lovely Metallica music in the video, though they may have chose it because this mod may be sad but true.

Hasbro is going after the tween segment again in much the same fashion as Konami did with the Yu-Gi-Oh Duelpass Key. The Tiger Electronics NET JET system is a USB powered controller than requires a PC to operate and plays 40 different games from the supposed most popular tween categories racing, extreme sports, puzzlers and action/strategy. The system will be available in New York on Feb 11th and across the country this fall.
      Aimed at ages 6-11 leading titles include games based on Hasbro toy lines like Super Soaker and cartoons like The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy..

Okoro Media Systems, manufacturer of digital entertainment systems for the high end audio video market, is pleased to announce the availability of the new GX300 for 2007. The new GX300 is based on the Intel® Core™2 Extreme Quad core and Nvidia 8800 GTX technology. This model will deliver unprecedented 3-D gaming performance and will provide better performance for intense multimedia applications, streaming movies, and music.
       “Our customers continue to hunger for a system that can provide the greatest performance when they are playing the latest video games on their HDTV while recording and streaming multimedia content. With Quad Core technology and the NVIDIA 8800GTX video card, the GX300 will continue to be one of the fastest media centers available,” said Christopher Curry, VP of Sales & Operations.

Faith-go Japan has launched a gaming rig based on an AMD quad core platform. The machine takes benefit of Athlon 64 FX-70 for the computational power. If you are still not satisfied with the quad core than go for the 8 core processor, I know it’s hard to believe but that’s true, the computer can be upgraded with 8 core processor. In addition to the high processing power, the PC packs NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX (768MB) for true-to-life gaming experience.
      The INSPIRE X FX70XN/DVR-88GTX features 2GB RAM, NVIDIA nForce 680a SLI chip set, 150GB HDD (10k rpm), and DVD super multiple drive. It runs on Windows XP and costs about $3,253..

The Cooler King is the 3-in-one solution to cooling your XBox 360, connecting up to 4 media players at the same time and playing games with high definition sound and picture quality.
1. The internal fan cooling system reduces the operating temperature of the console – helping to prolong gaming sessions.
2. At the same time the Cooler King gives you the option to connect VGA, Component and S-VHS cables for high definition gaming, and optical output for digital surround sound.
3. You can also connect your MP3 player, digital camera and additional wired controllers through the USB hub multi-tap facility.
       The Cooler King is easy to install – just plug into the XBox 360 and go! (Comes supplied with a scart lead for connection to standard definition TV).

‘Lone Coder’ released the first ‘indie’ emulator for the Xbox360. No, the Xbox360 is not ‘hacked’ to run unsigned code (yet) … ‘XNA SharpNES’ is made with ‘XNA Game Studio Express’, the Microsoft dev tool released last month aimed at helping students and hobbyists build games for Windows and the Xbox 360. While the tool is developed to program indie games, and not really made/optimized to make other stuff/applications, it looks like ‘Lone Coder’ managed to use it to port a NES (8-bit Nintendo) emulator
        Note that to run this on your Xbox360 you will need a ‘Creators Club’ account ($99/12m or $49/4m) on your LIVE subscription and both Visual C# Studio Express (free) + XNA Game Studio Express (free) installed on your Windows PC. The emulator will also run on Windows, if you have the XNA Framework installed.

Instructables stumbled upon a nifty little trick getting their DirecTV universal remote to work with the Xbox 360. After a few simple steps and about 5-10 minutes of cycling through codes, they were able to power up the Xbox and even get some DVD playback functionality out of it. The cool thing about this is that it opens the door to the possibility of other universal remotes being programmed to work with the 360.
        For example, DirecTV isn’t available in Canada, but Shaw Cable has a similar service with its own set top box and universal remote that can manage every component of your home theatre, and if it can be configured to control the Xbox 360, that would be very convenient indeed.

SCEJ announces the PS3 firmware version 1.50 today adding an electronic money payment system, so you don’t always need a credit card to buy games online anymore. First, pick up the electronic money PaSoRi reader/writerfor your PS3, connect it via the USB port on the console, update the firmware to version 1.50, then you are all set to add money to your Network Wallet and buy games on Playstation Network with your Felica phone or Edy money card.
      Felica phones are phones with built-in a contactless electronic money chip, these phones are able to show on the screen the balance on your money chip, record of latest transactions, the stations you passed by, your flight boarding pass, movie tickets, Tokyo Disneyland queue reserve ticket and purchase coupons. The Edy card only does the e-money storing but it’s a separate “touch-and-go” card like the Oyster Card in the UK or the Octopus in Hong Kong, but those started out as stored value tickets for trains. Apart from the new electronic money support, firmware version 1.50 also improves the AOSS W-LAN security with the choice of 128bit WEP, WPA-PSK(TKIP/AES) protocols.
       Minor updates such as the ability to save log-in password for PS Network login and the support for Korean Hangul keyboard are also introduced.

Fans of the Barcode Battler and Megaman/Rockman, rejoice! TakaraTomy and Capcom have teamed up to bring Rockman Star Force players this odd contraption. Launching in Japan next month at ¥4,200 (US$35 in Earth Money), the Wave Scanner connects to the DS and interacts with Rockman Star Force Pegasus, Leo and Dragon by scanning collectible Rockman cards, which can then be used in any of Star Force’s three constellations.
      It knackers the DS’ portability, of course, but we have a nostalgic yearning for tabletop gameplay opportunities. This could be our first big chance since Game & Watch died.