If people wanted a second analog slide pad on the 3DS, I haven’t heard them, but that solution is apparently coming soon in the form of an add-on for the original handheld, built specially for use in Monster Hunter Tri G.

Here’s the first look at the new hardware from Famitsu:

Basically, you’re never fitting your 3DS in your pocket again. I could totally see this being worth it if there was a larger battery attached, but as it is…wow, that’s an inelegant solution.

According to Farrell, THQ’s experimental packaged goods pricing model will help bring new people into the market, which reiterates his stance on the $59.99 game price point.  Thus, allowing third-parties to control their own micro-transactions on consoles, something Xbox 360 does not allow, it would become much easier to offer games at lower cost with more content available for purchase online.

“What we really need, and we’ve been talking to them about it, is for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo – if they really want to stay at the cutting edge of the games industry – they need to adjust their business models to allow for these new consumer experiences.  Consumers are going to demand it, in our view.  Again, we’re platform agnostic: if someone else comes with some kind of a Cloud system or one of the other platforms takes off competitively [in a way] that allows consumers to consume the way they want.  That’s going to be the winner at the end of the day, and that’s where we’re going to migrate our content. We’ll make great franchises. If new platforms emerge, or the current winners adjust their business models – which we’re pushing for really hard – we have to keep our flexibility.  Our main focus is to deliver these big entertainment franchises, and then leverage them across the screens to do one of two things: obviously the primary objective is making money, but the second one is that we can use Facebook, iPhone, iPad, some of these other devices, as ways to keep our customer engaged with our product and also to market to that consumer.  For example, we have several Facebook games up now leveraging one of our bigger brands; they do two things: they generate some revenue and cash flow although for a company of our size it’s not that meaningful yet, but if someone enjoys the UFC or the Saints Row experience; they can stay engaged with it.  What we’re thinking about those new markets is if we create great entertainment – and we’ve been doing this for 20 years – we need to be platform agnostic and figure out where’s the business opportunity for a particular consumer on a particular platform.”

Farrell has indicated that a Wii 2 announcement from Nintendo this year wouldn’t be a great surprise to the publisher.  However, Farrell made a point of differentiating Nintendo from his forecast. He added: “We don’t expect new hardware any time soon from either Microsoft or Sony. It’s difficult on Nintendo – we’ll let them announce their new hardware.  What we like about now is we’ve put most of our capital behind the 360 and PS3 for the next couple of years and that’s where we think the action’s going to be. So between those two platforms on the core side and the uDraw for us on the causal side, that’s how we think we’re going to make money.”

Nintendo America boss Reggie Fils-Aime has suggested that the next Nintendo home console will be a lot more than “just an HD upgrade” to Wii.

MX vs ATV: Alive will be released in the US for $39.99, and will have both free and paid DLC released for it. It is expected to be released this spring on both PS3 and Xbox 360.

• A 5-inch OLED display
• Two touch surfaces – a touch pad in the back, with the more traditional touchscreen on the front
• 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity (3G is only confirmed in Japan – who knows if this will come to any other territory)
• Games now come on flash memory carts (kiss those UMDs goodbye – sorry, but this is to better humanity)
• PS3-quality graphics (um, yes please)
• Front- and rear-facing cameras
• SIXAXIS controls (accelerometer, that whole deal)
• One great big new thing that is needed like whoa: TWO ANALOG STICKS. Everyone cheer!
• LiveArea appears to be the new user interface, from which you can learn about other titles as well as see what your friends are up to.
• There may be some sort of GPS (since confirmed), since the “Near” feature shows you what everyone around you is playing. (What I wonder is if you’ll be able to see where your PSN friends are while using the device.) “Near” will also give you rankings – what game is popular, maybe trophies and scores? (Trophies are confirmed, by the way.)
• A quad-core processor (like, seriously)
• And, um…you can play Uncharted on it. (And other stuff, too, but that’s an oh-my-gosh-level thing for me.)

A few of the touch mechanics were shown off during an Uncharted demo for a brand-new NGP game – for instance, touch where you want Drake to go and he follows your fingers’ commands. Unless that means directing him to your couch or the seat next to you on the bus. Boo. (You can also sort of draw out the path you want him to take on the back of the device. Pretty neat.)

Developers also showed off game footage, some of which was just plain ported over from PS3 to show off just how easy that is to do. What did we see? Call of Duty, Monster Hunter, Yakuza 4 footage, Metal Gear Solid 4, the Unreal Engine and Lost Planet 2. Keep in mind that none of these are actual NGP games, but wait ’til E3. Some of these series have to be coming back. (Other developers on board include Ubisoft, PopCap, Square Enix, 2K and Rockstar, but there are more.)

Looks…amazing. Unfortunately, it won’t be out until this holiday season. Gotta figure out how to fit all that expensive stuff in there and not have it cost a billionty dollars.

Sony also announced PlayStation Suite, which will work on Android phones (one of which was NOT announced today, by the way). You’ll get to download new games as well as PS1 titles and play them on your phone (and they’ll also work on the NGP, so yay). PlayStation announced that some phones will become “PlayStation Certified,” meaning that Suite titles will play on them. So, not every Android phone (running 2.3 or better) is automatically good to go. Naturally, Sony’s own phone will make the cut. Sony is also rolling out a new development environment for new games.

…what’s a 3DS again? Seriously, though – this will probably be perfect for hardcore handheld players. Cell phones and the iPod Touch get the really casual market…what does the 3DS get? Kids? Kids love gimmicky things, right?

source: smashbros.com

Oh and there’s the wedding to pay for. Ok so I had to choose the pretty dress. And the diamond ring. Curse my materialism.

source: intel.com

My PC is SLOW. The Pentium 4 running 2Gb still does the job. And the old GeForce 7800GS graphics card runs my favourite games; BF2 and CounterStrike. She was a good machine in her day. But trying to play new games? Forget it. I have to borrow the fiance’s computer to play any new releases and trying to get near that thing is like trying to take a cat away from its food – you have to have a damn good distraction (more food is a good option).

So that’s first on the list. We’re looking at getting a Core i5 CPU, maybe the ATI5670 plus 1TB of memory. The original plan was to strip out my existing case which is relatively new (and has a good fan) but now we are considering the pre-assembled units by people such as Scorpion Tech or the like. If the PC fairy is reading, I’d love a new “budget” Alienware Aurora.

Number two on the list is something for the both of us. And it’s more of a package than an item.

We have held off on getting an LCD TV in waiting for the technology to catch up and the prices to drop. However our TV has been making some strange noises for a while now and the picture is starting to fail. Luckily we’re just in time for the entrance of the LED TV – the perfect addition to our tech-loving family. It’s been a long wait.

Oh how I wanted an Xbox 360. And a PS3. But without a HD TV there wasn’t really a lot of point in playing high res graphics on a sad old TV. We made do with the PS2 and the Wii for a few years. But then Sony announced the new add-on for the PS3: Play TV. A digital tuner and recorder, the Play TV device also allows you to remotely access content stored on your PS3 (ie. photos, recorded shows, downloaded movies and music) and play games through the PlayStation Network or browse the internet via your PSP through a wifi connection. Play TV is free with the 250GB console until April, or sold separately for AU$170 – that’s a pretty good deal considering what it does.

source: cnet.com

LED TV – tick. PS3 – tick. Play TV – tick. Better make that a 250GB console so we can get the Play TV bundle.

Hmm, I’m starting to feel guilty about my purchases already. What’s that called? Buyer’s remorse – except I haven’t bought anything yet. Onward!

My phone is showing all the symptoms of dying. Turning off in the middle of calls, buttons not working (and then working again), profile switching back and forth as it likes, the thing is frustrating me to no end. And well, it doesn’t even connect to the internet. Oh the shame of it all. But instead of the iPhone I actually want the HTC Hero which operates on Google’s Android system thus integrating smoothly with all of Google’s services (maps and gmail among others). The integration between the phonebook and Facebook, Twitter and webmail is handy for keeping track of your conversations. It also has external memory storage capabilities and recharges with a micro USB cable (soon to be the standard throughout Europe and hopefully the world), but other than that stacks up to all the fantastic features of the iPhone. It’s not quite as pretty as the iPhone but it’s not that bad – and we know it’s what’s on the inside that counts right?

source: HTC Australia website

None of the Australian carriers are selling the HTC Hero at the moment, with no plans announced to do so as yet. Retailer Harvey Norman is currently the only place to buy the phone at AU$799. Personally I believe if you can’t afford the cost of the phone upfront, then you can’t afford the phone (as you’ll end up paying more for the phone in instalments anyway), but to each his (or her) own.

source: sony.com

And finally, I’ve been swept up in the e-book hype and now believe that my life won’t be complete without instant access to every book ever written (umm..and subsequently the publication rights transferred and the text converted to digital format) if I don’t get one this year! It started with the Kindle. Then the Nook looked better. Now I’m onto the Sony PRS-600 (or ‘Touch’) with its support of Word documents, Adobe ePub files, PDFs, image and music files and external memory capabilities (Memory Card DUO or SD card). It doesn’t have wifi or 3G so file transfer is done via USB from your PC or using the memory cards but it’s not such a hassle for a PC oriented user. Did I mention it comes in red, silver and black?

As for the iPad? All jokes aside, it doesn’t quite fit my needs. It looks good and is based on a format that we’re comfortable with. I think it is definitely a step in the direction we are headed. But I think what does it for me is the size of it. If I want to read something like a book, I want it to be the size of a book.

I wouldn’t mind a new laptop too, but I’m hoping that between my new smartphone and computer of awesomeness I’ll be happy enough. I’m kind of attached to my little red moleskine anyway.

Hmm, that’s about $3000 worth of hardware right there. And it’s still January. I still have to budget for all the games I want to play this year as well. Being a geek is EXPENSIVE!
I suppose I could keep reading books the old-fashioned way for a little bit longer. Sigh.

The JVC- SR3 is available this month and retails for $149.95

It has been one hell of 35th Birthday for that diva Hello Kitty. Apps, clothing, jewelry and gadgets have been erected in her honor. Even the staff members here at Gaming Angels.com have turned a few of our articles to celebration. We even got the chance to offer out a few of these fabulous usb drives as giveway prizes to our lucky members. Of course, like all good things, it had to come to and end. The final Hello Kitty Mimobot has been released, It is Hello Kitty and her teddy bear.
The Mimobot usb drives are 2GB (24.95), 4 GB (34.95), 8GB (49.95) and 16GB (69.95) and come pre-loaded with themed wallpapers, icons and screen savers.

333333;font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size: x-small"> Also everything within the Mimoco shop will be 25% off until 11:59pm PST on Monday, November 30th. So if you found that these Mimobots would be perfect for that geek on your list. (Just like we suggested in our Gadget Holiday guide)  This is your perfect opprotunity to obtain one!333333;font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size: x-small">
Purchese: Mimobot

What a team from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia said “that by harnessing nanoparticles and a “polarization” dimension to existing technology, storage can be massively boosted without changing the size of a current disc.”
In short ladies and gentlemen, we can make DVD’s so that we can put more on them without making DVD’s the size of a medical textbook

The team has signed a deal with Samsung Electronics, said “the technique had allowed them to store 1.6 terabytes of data on a disc with the potential to one day store up to 10 terabytes.”

For anyone that wants to know how much stuff they can put on one of these MASSIVE DVD’s that is “One terabyte would be enough to hold 300 feature length films or 250,000 songs.”

It looks like we are going where no DVD has gone before.

If you interested in how the reserach group is going this follow the link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE54J59M20090520?feedType=nl&feedName=ustechnology