CEA says EMEA will generate $8.8 billion in Gaming Sales

Topic: Gaming

According to the CEA the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region is forecasted to generate video game hardware sales of about $8.8 billion in 2008. That number is up 18.4% from last year according to the CEA.

"Gaming is a very serious business and this news will be a positive boost to exhibitors participating in the International CES/hometech exhibition being held from May 25 to 27 at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre," said Eckhard Pruy, CEO of Epoc Messe Frankfurt GMBH, organizers of International CES/hometech. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 09:18:29 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

MGS4 Limited Edition PS3 Hardware Bundle Details

Topic: Gaming

More details about the Metal Gear Solid 4 special edition Sony PS3 console bundle have been released by Sony. As reported in April Konami and Sony announced they would also bring the gun metal colored MGS4 PS3 to the United States.

The MGS4 Limited Edition PS3 Hardware Bundle will be available exclusively from Konami.com. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 09:10:00 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sprint and Samsung Say WiMAX is Ready for Service

Topic: Other Stuff

Sprint and Samsung have declared that mobile WiMAX technology is now ready for commercial service. Sprint says that Samsung’s Mobile WiMAX infrastructure has passed the rigorous commercial acceptance criteria Sprint uses.

The performance criteria qualifies equipment on the overall performance, handoff procedure and handoff delay. Sprint says that the testing was conducted in its Xohm lab environment and with the commercial service network in the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 07:49:20 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Siemens Announces SE680 WiMAX Modem

Topic: Hardware & Peripherals

Not too long ago Sprint and Clearwire announced that Sprint had acquired half of the Clearwire company and the pair would be rolling out a nationwide WiMAX network over the coming years. Siemens announced today that it has expanded its outdoor WiMAX portfolio with a new outdoor modem.

The Gigaset SE680 WiMAX and is designed to be used by enterprises for bridging long distances. The device enables high-speed Internet access at rates up to 20Mbps and will be available this summer running on 2.5 and 3.5 GHz frequencies. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 06:52:40 CDT | by Shane McGlaun

Spray-On Solar-powered OLED Displays

Topic: Future Products

This is one of the coolest future products I have heard about in a while: A spray-on OLED display that is self-powered through solar energy.

Japanese Mitsubishi Chemicals and Sumitomo Chemical work on spreadable electronics. The molecular soup would have OLED and Solar cell building blocks that could be spread or even sprayed ultra-thin onto walls or gadgets. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 01:51:48 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

ATI Radeon HD 4800 versus NVIDIA GeForce GTX 200

Topic: Hardware & Peripherals

June will apparently see another showdown of new graphics cards from NVIDIA and ATI.

AMD's ATI will push out the ATI Radeon 4800 series apparently featuring some hardware physics engine.
The ATI Radeon will come as 4850, 4870, and 4870 X2. The 4870 slated for end of June actually sports DDR5 memory. The 4870 is supposed to have the same performance as a dual-GPU 3870 X2. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 01:20:51 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Sony appoints Shuhei Yoshida as President of SCE WWS

Topic: News Ticker

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. today announced the appointment of Shuhei Yoshida, Senior Vice President, US Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE WWS), as President of SCE WWS, effective today.

Shuhei Yoshida replaces Phil Harrison, who resigned in February.

Yoshida joined SCEI in 1993, and was one of the initial members in establishing the PlayStation® business. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 01:08:57 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

GTA4 and Wii responsible for 47% U.S. Game Sales Jump in April

Topic: Gaming

Market research firm NPD reported that U.S. sales of video game hardware and software rose 47% from a year earlier, mostly attributed to Take-Two Interactive Software Inc's Grand Theft Auto 4 and Nintendo Wii console.

The popularity of GTA IV did not boost sales of Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 consoles. Actually sales numbers fell sharply from the previous month. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 00:53:28 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

WSJ rides BlackBerry Thunder Touchscreen Phone Rumor

Topic: Mobile Phones

The Wall Street Journal reports today about the rumored BlackBerry Thunder touchscreen phone that aims directly at the Apple iPhone. As reported on Tuesday the Boy Genius Report already spread the BlackBerry Thunder rumor.

The WSJ refers to people familiar with the matter as source, but also mentions The Boy Genius Report for the available information about the BlackBerry Thunder. Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 00:42:20 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Windows to run on One Laptop Per Child Computer

Topic: News Ticker

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp reached an agreement to make available its Windows operating system software for the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's XO Laptop, the company said on Thursday.
Read more

Posted on Fri, 16 May 2008 00:29:14 CDT | by Luigi Lugmayr

Epson Announces EX90 projector

Topic: Home Entertainment

Epson announced its latest projector this week called the EX90. The projector carries a budget price of only $899 and packs in some nice features. The projector has 2600 lumens of brightness and a native resolution of 1024 x 768 supporting 720p HD and 1080i.

The projector can be mounted in front, rear or on the ceiling and supports both 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. The lamp is good for up to 4000 hours in low brightness mode or 3000 hours with high brightness mode. Read more

Posted on Thu, 15 May 2008 11:59:56 CDT | by Shane McGlaun