Games and gear

New owner of an Xbox 360 Elite? Well, if you were planning on transferring your Xbox Live Arcade games along with the rest of the data from your old 360, think again. There seems to be a major problem with how the transfer kit imports the games, involving DRM--yes, even games now suffer from this poorly thought-out technology. After a successful hard drive transfer, all of your purchased Arcade games will magically downgrade to demos. In order to have full access to these games, you must sign into Xbox Live (thanks to Joe at The Pensive Gamer for pointing this … Read more

If there's any musical instrument that might challenge the unhealthy affection for guitars among Cravers, it would be virtual drums. Whether they be of the roll-up or the fingertip variety, percussion seems to be a favorite instrumental variety. So what could be better than a set that plays with an iPod?

The "Mini miJam Drums" don't come with a traditional set of heads but are nevertheless "equipped with a selection of sound effects and background rhythms, including bass, snare, cymbals and the hi-hat" that can be played along with an MP3 player or computer. … Read more

No, those new Xbox 360 Elites that were released last weekend do not contain the new 65nm chips that Microsoft promised us. Production on those new silicon wafers is only starting this month, so they won't be finding their way into consoles you can actually buy until the fall.

For those keeping score, that means the new 65nm technology will be incorporated into both the game machine's CPU (central processing unit) and GPU (the dedicated graphics chip). The new smaller chips reportedly run a lot more efficiently than those found in current Xbox 360s. That should mean less … Read more

The average video game can give you anywhere from eight to 80 hours of solid, fun playtime. You pick it up, pop it in, play it until you're done, and put it away (or trade it in for far too little in-store credit). Some games can pull in gamers for far more time. They're called MMOs, massively multiplayer online games, and they offer a persistent online world for gamers to explore and conquer with each other. They're the digital equivalent of crack, and can easily turn the eight-to-80 hour playtime of a normal game into an easy … Read more

First Dell grabbed Alienware. Then HP picked up Voodoo PC. Today, we learn that Velocity Micro has acquired superfast PC maker Overdrive PC.

While neither Velocity Micro nor Overdrive PC may have the same name recognition as the companies involved in other recent acquisitions, this deal definitely makes the competitive landscape more interesting. The founder of Voodoo PC said earlier this spring that it's working on a game performance-oriented retail brand. That's a direct shot at Velocity Micro and its already considerable retail shelf presence.

By scooping up Overdrive PC, Velocity Micro has made a move to protect … Read more

Need that next on-the-go gaming session to go all night? The new Extended PSP Battery from Blue Raven Technology may be your dream product. The snap-on, lithium-polymer, 4,500mAh battery pack aims to deliver as much as 15 hours of PSP playtime--a big step up from the 3 to 5 hours offered by the PSP's default battery. But the increased playtime comes at a cost: The Extended PSP Battery is about the same size and weight as the PSP itself (5 ounces for the battery vs. 6.2 for the PSP), and it costs a whopping $90. On the … Read more

Last week, the Guitar Hero truck was on the streets of San Francisco. This Saturday, it was spotted across the country in Manhattan's crowded Union Square, outside the Virgin Megastore.

(For the sake of environmental awareness and fuel efficiency, I hope it wasn't actually the same truck.)

The truck is equipped with giant video screens and speakers so that random passersby can participate in the wildly successful video game that, as I'm sure you know already, lets you rip it up to the tune of classic, and not-as-classic, rock songs from artists ranging from Cheap Trick to … Read more

Calling the "G-Tech Neber" ergonomic is like saying Al Gore is an environmentalist. But to truly appreciate the understatement, you need to see a photo of this unique piece of computer furniture, if not actually sit in it.

Shiny Shiny describes it as "part dentist chair," but the "Personal Computing Environment Station" has a lock on that hybrid. We think it actually bears a closer resemblance to the "Alternative Computer Control System" featured awhile back, mostly because of their curved frames.

Regardless of how well the Korean-made Neber compares, at least it … Read more

Designers of Second Life objects have some good news to cheer about this week, namely the implementation of what are called "sculpted prims."

A prim is the basic building block of Second Life, a virtual world that lets anyone create just about any kind of content they want. Until now, all prims began as cubes. You could stretch them to be bigger or smaller or more rectangular, but it was always a cube.

Kind of a Lego of sorts.

"A sculpted prim is a prim whose shape is determined by texture--its 'sculpt texture,'" Second Life publisher … Read more