While its merits as a keychain are questionable (not to mention potentially painful), these officially-licensed Atari game-on-a-controller units from Basic Fun should prove to be geek catnip for anyone who remembers the good old days when game consoles were wood-paneled and had switches for black-and-white or color. The familiar 2600 joystick model is available in two variations, one with Asteroids and Millipede and one with Centipede and Yar’s Revenge, while the paddle gives you Pong along with Breakout and Warlords — although if the reviews are any indication you shouldn’t expect completely faithful versions of the games. Each unit will set you back about $15, which includes the six foot RCA cable for connecting it to a TV (yeah, you gotta remember to tote that along with your keychain), but not the three AA batteries required to power it.

Read – Design Kitten Review
Read – Basic Fun

[Via Uber-Review]
From engadget

We do love us some LED backlighting, and Samsung has the goods at IFA this year. Their new LE40M91 LCD measures a reasonable 40-inches, runs at a 720p resolution, and manages an easy to love 10,000:1 contrast ratio. The display also features 450 nits of brightness, and a 146% color gamut. Best of all are the rumors that this display could be going for a mere $3,000 when it’s released, and the dual HDMI ports don’t hurt none either. The display is accompanied by a pair of non-LED LCDs, but they aren’t too shabby all the same. Measuring 40 and 46-inches respectively, the LE40F7 and LE46F7 manage 1080p resolutions, 6000:1 contrast ratios, 127% color gamut and 450 nits of brightness, along with all the same connectivity of their LED cousin. Since this is all going down at IFA, Samsung is just announcing these displays for European markets right now, but our hopes are definitely for eminent and wallet-friendly Stateside releases.

[Via HD Beat]
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from engadget

Microsoft has just announced the official, real-deal prices for Windows Vista. So, without the benefit of a timpani drumroll, here’s the deets, straight from the horse’s mouth (this time): Windows Vista Business ($300 full, $200 upgrade); Windows Vista Home Premium ($240 full, $160 upgrade); Windows Vista Home Basic ($200 full, $100 upgrade); Windows Vista Ultimate ($400 full, $260 upgrade). Although Vista is to be released to the “volume license customers” in November 2006 and the general public in January 2007, what if you wanted a preview sooner than that? Our peeps up in Redmond have also said that the company will be make the Release Candidate 1 available through the soon to be re-opened Vista Customer Preview Program. The only question we have left is which VAR is going to release the first Mac with Vista pre-installed?

[Thanks, srw985]
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from engadget

This is a plain ‘ole sofa that can go all Transformers on your ass and morph into a bunk bed, easy as pie. It even includes a ladder! No more running jumps to get into the top bunk.

No word on availability, pricing or if it can kick the Decepticons’ asses, but this piece of furniture could be perfect for that dorm, or tiny studio apartment. It could even leave enough room for that dance floor you always wanted. – Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via The Gadgets Weblog]
from gizmodo

While Mac users often get shut out of cool, albeit somewhat useless, accessories, the portable Microboards GX-1 will potentially fill a void felt by pirates and home movie makers alike. (Yes, it works with the PC as well, by not nearly as well.) The GX-1 is a mass CD/DVD duplicator that can accept up to 50 discs at a time. Putting our Adam Smith hats on, it’s pretty easy to figure out that the cost per produced disc would be lower and the 20-cent per print price tag indeed corroborates that. Of course, after burning a CD, you’re able to print out a full color label that youv’e designed with the system’s software.

Its manufacturer claims that it’s 40 percent faster than other, similar devices on the market, which the 16X DVD and 48X CD burning seem to support. How fast is that? I’m sure you’re just dying to know. Users can expect full color prints to take less than one minute. The GX-1 isn’t even that big, with a footprint of 11.5 inches.

The Microboards GX-1 is on sale now for around $3,000. Not exactly aimed for Joe Consumer, methinks. – Nicholas Deleon

Product Page [Microboards via Ubergizmo]
from gizmodo

After mysteriously pulling all mentions of the UX180P from their online store a week or so ago — they claimed they were merely out of stock — Sony is back with the UX280P, which doubles both the RAM and the HDD size from that of the UX180P. Along with the new 40GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM, we hope they found some time to refresh that debilitating software we encountered in our hands-on preview of the 180. The processor remains the same ol’ Core Solo U1200, and there’s still EDGE, WiFi and Bluetooth radios. Unfortunately, the price has now reached the $2000 mark, so you best have cash to burn or a real good excuse for some UMPC+QWERTY action, or you’re just going to look silly.

[Via jkOnTheRun]
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from engadget