Gamez and Gadgetz

Archive for the ‘Gadgetz’ Category

While advertisements for free ringtones, newsletters and contests are generally safe endeavors, there are several Internet scams that should be avoided. Knowing how to find these scams can help save a lot of embarrassment and money in the future.

Perhaps the most popular scam involves large banner ads for free laptops, television sets or MP3 players. The fine print, however, usually reveals the words “with participation.” Participation is a 15-step process requiring the user to sign up for magazine subscriptions, online movie store rentals and timeshares. While most of these offers will still deliver the “free” gift, the applicant has easily spent just as much (if not more) on goods and services they don’t want.

Another popular scam involves someone from another country asking for help in obtaining legal fees in order to free up an obscenely large sum of money. In exchange for the help, the party in need offers to gladly share his new found fortune. Whereas the free laptop scams at least yield some magazine subscriptions, these scams yield nothing but lost money and the occasional identity theft.

For those who use online money transfer or credit card services, this last scam is particularly troubling. The victims receive an email from an address strikingly similar to that of a financial institution. The email implores the user to reset their password as an updated security measure. This process usually requires the user to input their current password, which is then stolen and used to gain access to the victim’s funds. No respectable institution ever emails about changing passwords, so these emails should always be avoided as a rule of thumb. Although there are a few safe bets on the Internet, a general rule to follow would be that if it sounds too good to be free, it definitely is.

Looks like 3D gaming is slowly becoming the latest incarnation into the Gaming industry with both Sony Playstation and Nintendo coming out with 3D gaming consoles. Well certainly there are difference that the Playstation is for paying on the big screen stereoscopic 3D whereas the Nintendo 3Ds is a small 3 inch screened handheld console. The fact here is that the game developers and console makers have understood and decided that 3D gaming is the new frontier and preparing for it right now is the best thing they can do to be able to be the best when the 3D gaming boom happens. With the cost of a 3D television still upwards of the $2,000, it looks like 3D gaming in the real sense will be enjoyed by a few rich kids only. But predictions are ripe that the 3D television rated will drop down to $1,000 and will make it a little affordable for many people around the world. But the near future gamers are in for a treat with extremely splendid games being developed by the big publishers which will set new standards for gaming. This will truly be taking gaming into the next dimension.

The E3 conference saw the launch of a slimmer and sexier Xbox 360 by Microsoft. This Xbox 360 is more in line with the X form factor and is lighter and has smaller dimension as compared to its older version. Dimensions wise it is only slightly smaller than the older generation and hence it is not being called the slim Xbox 360.

Although the size does not matter much, the internals are the things that matter the most. The outer ports have seen a drastic change with the omission of the Microsoft proprietary memory unit, which are rejected in favor of two USB ports since the latest firmware upgrade from Microsoft sees the compatibility of Xbox with USB’s. It also has an optical audio jack. Also the hard dist now is placed so that it is easily replaceable. Performance wise it is a complete imitator of its previous generation with no increase in game installation of any improvement in graphics. This console is the most power efficient among the various game consoles from the previous generation to the present one. But upgrading form an older generation to this console is not a very good choice since this console offers very little in terms of improvement, but it is the best Xbox 360 among all the Xbox’s and is worth every penny if you are a first time buyer.

Apple iPad among a host of other features also features gaming on the large screen. It promises to offer the best portable gaming experience that any portable console has to offer. And it has already made sure this is possible with a large screen and a 1 GHz A4 processor which provides all the hardware necessary for a good gamer to enjoy a responsive game.

The best part about his gadget is that it can run all the games developed for Iphone and games for this console are already found on the apple app store, since this console has the same operating system as the mobile phone and the iTouch.. It provides a refined improvement in speed, graphics and better response. It offers the largest screen at 9.7 inches which is bigger than the PSP and the Nintendo DS, giving a better view of the game’s graphics. The availability of a gyroscope and a responsive touch screen means a gaming experience like no other.

But the question remains is if game developers trust the gaming feature of this iPad and start developing games for this platform or if the hard core gamers will like the button less gaming of this console.

The New Xbox 360 has been revealed at the E3 conference. It will be the successor to the original Xbox 360.

This unit is slimmer and more sexier looking than its older version. It comes with many additional features. It has an inbuilt 802.11n Wi-Fi nad requires no additional attachments. There are ports for an HDMI connection, Ethernet connection, a special port for the Xbox Kinetic and 5 USB ports. It is rumored that the central processor and the graphics processor have been joined together and the whole console is quieter then the older one. It has just one fan instead of the two that its older version had and helps in bringing down the system noise considerably. The hard drive is replaceable and it a gigantic 250GB’s. This Xbox will come in only a black version and not white as the older generation of Xbox 360’s and has a glossy black outer case. In comparison to the PS3 slim is just a little shorter and the other dimensions are not much different. The dreaded red light of dead is no more.

The recently concluded E3 conference in Los Angeles saw the release of motion gaming controllers from Sony and Microsoft. Of these the Sony move has an obvious advantage above the Microsoft Natal is the higher degree of control and sensitivity with 6 dimensional control.
The Sony move is a Wii style peripheral with3 separate pieces. The main controller is a hand mic type of controller with a glowing orb. This main controller also requires the PS eye which is required to monitor the movement of the main controller. Then there is the navigation Controller which will not be required for normal gaming, but will be useful for the more hardcore games such as SOCOM 4 and Archers as showed in the demos at the Sony booth. The packages will be shortly released in the form of bundles along with the games that are specifically designed for these games. The charge hub is needed to be purchased separately. A single PS3 console can handle up to 2 sets of Move pair controllers.
There is a huge number of games that are announced to be releasing that are compatible with these controllers from first parties and third parties alike with all the major game developers chipping in with a title of their own.

For all you eager Nintendo fans out there, there is a god news coming from the Nintendo handheld console department that the next generation Nintendo hand held’s design has been finalized and its going to be a trend setter like the older generations of Nintendo consoles. This rumored Nintendo is supposed to have a 3D camera, dual screens one of which will be a 3 dimensional screen, a tilt sensor and will be quite much more powerful than the previous generation handheld. This news came from the sources that are part of the latest Nintendo development kit.
The new Nintendo will have the same older clam shell design of the Nintendo DS. But the newer Nintendo will have a larger screen with pop up 3D capabilities. This handset will be capable of playing the older games of the Nintendo DS. The prototype consoles of the new Nintendo 3DS have been produced and have impressed almost everyone who has seen it like the E3 boss who found the device “Cool”. If this is the effect on a person who does not play games, imagine the kind of spell it will have on die hard Nintendo fans.

Samsung has come up with a high end home theater system i.e. the Samsung HT-C6500 Home Theater. This home theater features a 1000 watts surround sound form 5.2 speakers. It has built in Wi-Fi connectivity that helps in streaming online content and to allow synching with other Wi-Fi enabled devices.
It is an ergonomic and stylish piece of hardware that can fit anywhere with two foot tall speakers and two satellites and a subwoofer. This home theater system has dual HDMI inputs which is double that of what is found in other home theater systems in the market. It features a Xbox kind of DLNA devise which makes using a breeze. Like all the other Samsung home theater systems, this home theater also supports applications like Net-flix, Pandora and Skype. The connectivity is very simple with the built in Wi-Fi and streaming is quite simple with all the additional features. Over all it is a well rounded system that offers good value for money at $600 dollars. But it does not go too far in stretching one quality but does well in all aspects and deserves and accolade for that and a place in your living room.

After months of speculation and leaks of iPhone prototype, the Apple incarnation has been released to the world. It is exactly what everyone expected it to look like, thanks to the leaked handsets but the internals are something everyone is talking about. 0
It looks better than the last generation of iPhone and is much slimmer than the old versions. The iPhone 4 has dual cameras. A front facing VGA camera for face to face calling and a back end 5 mega pixel camera with LED flash with HD video recording capabilities. The phone is actually better looking than the older generation of iPhone. The best part about this phone is the high definition screen that is 4X the resolution in both directions of the previous screen, but stays the same size as the previous generation handsets. It has a 800:1 contrast with an IPS display. The processor is the iPad A4 processor. The phone now supports 802.11n wi-fi support. It is going to support video calling with the FaceTime application. You can edit captured movies with iMovie app that will cost about $5.
It is going to come out is usual 16GB and 32Gb capacities and wil be available through AT&T this month

If you are the proud owner of an Android phone, then the reason to feel proud just went up higher. What if you could combine the two best features of an phone and a popular gaming console together? Yeah you get an android that plays the Playstation games.
Popular modder ZodTTD has created an emulator for android operating system which lets one enjoy the PS games on the convenient screen of the phone. ZodTTD is of the Iphone jailbreaking fame who has also created emulators for SNES, N64, Genesis, Playstation and a VLC player for Iphone. But for the first time he is venturing in to the android scene and couldn’t have made a better entry with this swanky emulator.
ShaDenSu of Digital-Disbeleiver was impressed and praised to code to be very stable and ready for release. The emulator required some high configurations and is already running faster on a Nexus one than iPhone. Hence a Cortex A8 processor or a Snapdragon processor is required for enjoying the game at optimum speed.