Category: Gadgets

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Gadgets Game Reviews

Hardware Review: NEW Nintendo 3DS

Console releases are few and far between, so we don’t often get a chance to review a whole machine. The New 3DS a mid-cycle re-releases of the original 3DS, much in the same way that the DS Lite and DSi were mid-cycle re-releases of the original Nintendo DS (or the Gameboy Micro a re-release of the Gameboy Advance. Or the Gameboy Pocket a re-release of the original Gameboy). I got the chance to play around with the new features of the New 3DS. Let’s find out what I discover.

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Awesomeness Gadgets Inspirational Designs Mission Samsung Mobile

Hello, Phabulous Phablet!

Ship concept drawing

It’s Mission Samsung time again, folks, and this time around, the wonderful folk at Samsung sent me a Galaxy Note 4 to integrate into my life for a week. For those of you who don’t know, the Galaxy Note 4 is somewhere in between “phone” and “tablet”, and thus it was dubbed the “phablet”. Which sounds a little like what would come from a union of Pharrel Williams and Kate Winslet. One of the best features of the Galaxy Note 4 is that is includes a stylus called the S-Pen, which, among other things, allows for a greater degree of precision and control when writing on the screen.

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Gadgets Video Clips

Make Your Own DIY Hoverboard

Ever since the film Back to the Future Part II, just about everyone has dreamed of the day we could all ride our own hoverboard. A few months ago, a company called Hendo said they could create a pretty funky one for $10,000. Leave it to someone with some time to figure out how to do it with four leaf blowers, a skateboard deck, and lots of duct tape.

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Featured Gadgets Game Reviews

We Review: PlayStation Vita

It’s always big fanfares and a parade complete with seventy-six trombones whenever a new major console hits the market, and the new PS Vita, the successor to the PSP, was no different. The PS Vita, announced way back in July 2009, finally released to western shores on February 22, and we took it through its paces to see what it’s all about.

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Featured Gadgets

We Review: Parrot AR.Drone

The French company Parrot SA is perhaps more known in South Africa for its hands-free car kit. With car telephony not very high on my list of fun things to invest in, I have not paid much interest to Parrot SA, even when it ventured to new grounds with its remote-controlled quadricopter. Dubbed the AR.Drone, the toy debuted in 2010 with a novel control scheme. Instead of the finicky, often complex transmitters used with normal remote controlled helicopters, the AR.Drone can be controlled using a device that was already in the hands of tens of millions of people: smartphones.

While owners of iOS devices have been able to fly AR.Drones for some time now, there hasn’t been much love for Android. Until now. Parrot SA has finally paid cognisance to the fastest-growing smartphone operating system in the world. Not all Android devices are supported, but since September 1st this year, users of Samsung Galaxy S (and S II), HTC Desire, LG Optimus, and smartphones running at least Android v2.2 having been experiencing the flying fun previously unavailable to them. As a Samsung Galaxy S user, I had a chance to take the AR.Drone for a spin. Has the experience been worth the wait or it is just a fleeting one? Find out after the jump.

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Gadgets

We Review: Nintendo 3DS

So it’s finally here. The Nintendo 3DS is at last available for purchase locally, and with Nintendo already boasting about initial launch sales figures exceeding all their previous efforts, it seems the 3DS is off to a rollicking good start. Further to my very limited hands-on impressions at a recent pre-launch event, I decided to give in to my slightly frivolous and impatient nature to bite the bullet and shell out the recommended retail price for a shiny new Nintendo handheld. I have no idea why I always give in to purchasing new gaming consoles on launch day, but part of it is certainly the wonder and excitement of where gaming may be headed next, what are the innovations being brought to the table, and what place in gaming-history said console will take once the eventual successors are released. So having had the console for about a week now, my impressions of the hardware after the jump.

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Featured Gadgets Gaming News

Opinion: Nintendo 3DS vs Sony NGP—FIGHT!

There is nothing quite like a good, comfy war. It is what makes the world an interesting place, and there’s nothing better than a war between two competing formats. Think of all the great format wars past: VHS vs Betamax; CD vs vinyl; 8-track vs cassette; Genesis vs Super Nintendo; Playstation 2 vs Xbox vs Gamecube; HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray. We’re all naturally fascinated by battles between giants. We’ve seen this battle play out over and over, placing our bets to try and figure out in advance who the winner is going to be. Sometimes there is no clear winner. Either way, the fun is in the speculating, so we’ll dive right into the fun of the next great war of portable gaming: Nintendo 3DS vs the Sony Next Generation Portable (which currently has no official name). I swear I’ll try to keep this as civil—and unbiased—as possible. The fisticuffs follow after the jump.

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Awesomeness Gadgets Video Clips

How to Turn a Lighter Into a Tiny Motorcycle

We’re embracing the lighter side of life here at Onelargeprawn. Our mate Abe from The Given Collective posted this on a local gaming forum I peruse every day. It is so singularly awesome and I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t post it here. If you are like me and have recently stopped smoking (I’m four months clean), you no doubt have countless cheap lighters lying around the house. You’ll need two of them and some nimble fingers if you want to create a tiny motorcycle that can shoots sparks out as it moves!

The instructions are in Chinese and if you speak the language, have a gander here. However, if you can’t tell your pictographs from your ideographs then YouTuber Tysteriskians has posted a step-by-step video of the creation process in English. Check it out below.

[via PS3ZA]

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Awesomeness Gadgets Science & Technology Video Clips

Use An Entire Wall As a Trackpad

I love following new technologies. I’m especially excited about the future of our personal computers, and how we interact with them. Microsoft’s video about the future of personal computing was amazing, and Asus’ incarnation of that technology was a great attempt.

Scratch input is the ability to transform any surface that is remotely textured into a sort of trackpad. Your desk, a wall, your door, the shower, whatever. You can even use your clothes. Using this, you could scratch your finger in a clockwise circle to increase volume, for example, or double-tap to pause your music. You’d be able to apply the gestures to your browser if you wanted, and opening and closing tabs could be a matter or one or two taps. What’s even more fantastic is that since it works on vibration, you can scratch the wall far away from the sensor and it’ll still work perfectly.

I don’t want to spoil this for you, so just watch the video, and once you’ve picked your jaw up off the floor, post a comment and tell us what you think.

[via Gizmodo]

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Gadgets Gaming News

Digital Camo: Custom Vinyls For Your Gadgets

Abe over at The Given Collective has started up a new venture, Digital Camo, that brings some sweet custom skins for all your precious gadgets, be it a PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, iPhone, iPod, or laptop. All the artwork is done by Abe himself on high quality, low tac vinyls that are easily applied and just as easily removed.

If you’d like a more customized skin, you can send your image to them and they’ll turn it into a one-of-a-kind creation for you.

There’s a small selection of skins available at the moment, but Abe informs me that new ones will be added on a daily basis. Prices start at R50 for an iPhone skin, R120 for a PS3 skin, and R215 for a full Xbox 360 skin.

This is one skin I’d definitely like to have on my PS3 <hint hint>. Bears are so hot right now.

Check out Digital Camo for more locally-produced skins.