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Xbox 360 Coolers Reviewed
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Accessories, Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Reviews, Xbox 360,
It is no secret that the Xbox 360 generates a bunch of heat when it runs. Overheating problems may be overblown, but there are a lot of people for whom heat is a real issue. While it is easy to get distracted by the shiny water cooling solutions, there are a couple of simple-to-use, inexpensive solutions for the average gamer. HardOCP reviews two of these, the Nyko Intercooler 360 and the Pelican Fan Stand.
Both fan solutions ultimately receive high marks from the crew at HardOCP, but there are some differences the end user should be aware of. The Pelican unit is USB powered, must be turned on and off with the power switch, and requires the Xbox 360 to be used in the vertical position. The Nyko unit powers itself through a pass through with the Xbox 360’s power supply, and can be used both horizontally and vertically. While the Nyko unit has a power switch, once it is on, the fan turns on and off with the Xbox 360.
HardOCP also ran some temperature tests against the coolers; the Nyko seemed to have a slight edge in CPU temperature, but others seemed to be a wash. Noise output was also tested in the comparison, and the Nyko seemed to be a great deal louder than the Pelican fan. For full details, check out the review on HardOCP’s site.
Read More 
| HardOCP
Gallery: Xbox 360 Coolers Reviewed
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Game site Infendo looked at a report by Spanish site Revogamers on a recent Wii demo and discovered something interesting. The Wii remote shown in the recent post differs from the controller shown at E3. Instead of the “plus” and “minus” buttons, the remote shown at the recent demo displays the “return” and “pause” buttons from an earlier configuration. If one looks at other pictures from the recent demo, however, the remote shown with the classic controller has the “plus” configuration.
It is possible that Nintendo is still playing with the layout of the controller. Another explanation might be that there is a limited supply of the demo controllers, and the recent showing was utilizing older control hardware. In any case, one hopes that the controller design has been finalized at this point, and will be ready for gamers this holiday season.
Read More | Infendo
Gallery: Wii Controller Still Being Tweaked?
Cheap Halo 2 Xbox Live Headset
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Hardware, Hot Deals, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Major Nelson clued readers into a great deal for the Halo 2 Xbox Live Headset which normally retails for $49.99. Plantronics is currently selling the headset for $14.95! To top off the deal Plantronics is even donating $1 of each sale to the Plantronics GameCom United Way Katrina Recovery Fund. This headset is levels above the quality of the OEM Xbox 360 headset and when combined with Datel’s Headset Adapter makes for an amazing deal. Do yourself and your friends a favor, pick up a new headset today.
Read More | Plantronics via Major Nelson
Gallery: Cheap Halo 2 Xbox Live Headset
ExtremeTech has just published a lengthy interview with two of the key players in Microsoft’s deployment of DirectX 10. They speak to Chris Donahue, Director in the Games for Windows Entertainment and Devices Division, and David Blythe, Software Architect in the Graphics Platforms Unit. The result is a fairly technical drill down into what DirectX 10 promises to bring to the end user.
More details after the jump.
Click to continue reading Microsoft Talks DirectX 10
Read More | ExtremeTech
Gallery: Microsoft Talks DirectX 10
DS Lite Sales in UK Somewhat Lackluster
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
Compared with the sales numbers we’ve been seeing in the States and in Japan, the Nintendo DS Lite’s sales numbers in Britain are somewhat disappointing. Nintendo sold 35,000 DS Lites in its opening weekend - about 40% as many as were sold when the original “Fat” DS debuted. Compare that with the US, where the DS Lite sold 136,000 units in its first two days, which was roughly comparable to the performance of the original DS when it came out. Retailers in the area aren’t too disappointed though, especially considering the fact that much of the nation is currently glued to their televisions for the World Cup.
We thought that Europe knew they had a good thing when Nintendo announced the ultra-sleek black DS Lite for that region only! Surprisingly, only about half of the DS Lites sold in the UK were black. You’d think the Brits would at least snatch them up so that they could fetch a pretty penny (or pound) on eBay.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
Gallery: DS Lite Sales in UK Somewhat Lackluster
Nintendo DS Browser Mini Review
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Hardware, Internet, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile,
On July 23rd Nintendo is releasing the Opera browser for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite in Japan. The package will retail for about $33 USD and includes a DS “cartridge” with the browser on it and a GBA cartridge which holds memory for the browser. An individual who has some connections in the Opera community was able to score some hands on time with the new browser and has posted his initial reactions.
When I started it up I was browsing in dual screen mode. Basically the page was fit to the width of the screen and the height spanned both screens. With an easy touch of the stylus you can switch into a “zoom” mode where you are presented with a picture of the web page on the top screen and on the bottom screen you can drag a box around to see in actual size what you need to view. You can also simply swap the screens so that you can type in text as needed where fields or check boxes etc. are presented.
Jon answers even more usability questions and includes a lot of other answers about the operation of a browser on the Nintendo DS. Anyone else have trouble reading that browser instead of Bowser? With the naming prowess they have recently shown us I am surprised its not called the Bowser browser.
Read More | Org's Tech Times
Gallery: Nintendo DS Browser Mini Review
Sony’s Blu-Ray Player Slips, Again
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Release Dates,
Most of the time, the release date for a new DVD player wouldn’t make it into gaming news. But when that DVD player is Sony’s BDP-S1 and when the revised release date is now late October, scant weeks before the Playstation 3 releases, people in the gaming world start to take notice. The move appears to signal a tactical shift by Sony to position the PS3 as the device that will put Blu-Ray in consumer’s living rooms, with the BDP-S1 at $999.95 possibly filling the video-phile niche market.
If consumers see a compelling reason to go with Blu-Ray, then the PS3 could put Sony in a very nice position in the upcoming format wars. But if consumers aren’t ready to shell out extra cash for hi-def movies, either Blu-Ray or HD DVD, then the PS3 might just be an expensive next-gen console with the equivalent of a built-in BetaMax drive.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
Gallery: Sony’s Blu-Ray Player Slips, Again
Immersion Announces Next Generation Force Feedback
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PC, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,
Immersion corporation today announced the availability of their next-generation vibration feedback systems which they hope will result in better force feedback effects with better power consumption profiles. Some of the main points they address include compatibility with motion and tilt-sensing controllers; Nintendo users are already aware that Wii will support both motion-sensing and feedback, and perhaps this will give Sony the ability to add this functionality to their wireless controller. Overall, the new feedback system appears to be a more streamlined, better defined system for including force feedback in a console or PC. Hopefully, their work on the feedback APIs will make force feedback more prevalent on the PC. The effects in the few PC games that supported the force feedback mice from Logitech and Saitek were interesting, but never really gained acceptance in any significant way. If backward compatibility is really supported as well as Immersion suggests, then adoption of the new technology this late in the next generation console cycle won’t be an issue. With the Xbox 360 already shipping, and Sony pretty much leaving force feedback behind, this would seemingly only be a possibility in either the Wii console, or in third party controllers. And, it remains to be seen (or felt) how much better this new technology really is.
Full Press Release after the jump.
Click to continue reading Immersion Announces Next Generation Force Feedback
Gallery: Immersion Announces Next Generation Force Feedback
How Much Power Does Your Console Use?
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Just in case anyone was wondering how much power a console draws when it is in standby, and when it is running games, DX Gaming has the rundown. They compare several consoles, including the original Playstation, Playstation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube, and the Dreamcast, to determine how much power the consoles utilize when off, when at the “dashboard,” and when in use. It will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen the Xbox 360 power brick that that console was the biggest eater of energy, but there were some other interesting data points.
First was that the Playstation 2 in standby consumes as much power as the Xbox 360 in the same state, 2 watts. When powered on, but running no games, the Xbox 360 is the pig, pulling 145 watts, followed by the Xbox at 61 watts, and the Playstation 2 at 23 watts. While running games, the order of the console’s power hunger doesn’t change. The Xbox 360 boosts up to 165 watts, the Xbox jumps to 70 watts, and the PS2 runs up to 30 watts.
DX Gaming also runs some numbers to try and determine the average cost of a console over a year’s time, as well as the watts drawn per cycle. Gamers might have some issue with the estimate of 14 hours per week, and then the Xbox 360 causes problems in the watts per cycle measurement, since it operates a multi-core CPU, the numbers depend on whether one considers the megahertz rating additive, or in parallel. Still, the numbers are interesting, and give some insight into what might be expected from the Wii and Playstation 3 consoles.
Read More | DX Gaming
Gallery: How Much Power Does Your Console Use?
Potential Fix For Three Red Lights On Xbox 360
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360,
A gamer over in the ArsTechnica forums detailed how he was able to resurrect his Xbox 360 from the “three red lights” problem. Now, in this particular instance, he was able to grab a secondary error code that said the GPU was overheating, so those gamers that are getting the “lights of doom” should try and figure out what the actual issue is before diving into the console. Also, if your console is still under warranty, just get it fixed by Microsoft. There are pretty detailed instructions and pictures on how to disassemble the Xbox 360 and remove the thermal pad, but gamers attempting this fix probably shouldn’t try and use 409 to remove the thermal paste, since the cleaner doesn’t seem to react very well with aluminum; isopropyl alcohol might be a better solution here. At any rate, if you aren’t afraid of digging around the interior of the Xbox 360, and your warranty is already expired, it might be worth a shot to try and re-apply the thermal paste to the GPU. It is somewhat strange how often thermal issues have been affecting hardware recently, with both the Xbox 360 and the Macbook/Macbook Pro issues from Apple.
Read More | ArsTechnica
Gallery: Potential Fix For Three Red Lights On Xbox 360
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