Regular readers will not be surprised at my excited delight when I saw this Super Mario Kart board-game. Laid out in the shape of a race-track from the old classic SNES game, what could be more fun than shooting green turtle-shells at the stupid cheating Princess, only this time in the real world? Everything, it turns out. While the premise is a great one, it fails in execution. The idea is that two players each have a separate, parallel track around the board, and around this track you must shimmy and coax your “kart” (a plastic ball). First to the finish-line wins. The video of the game in action (non-embeddable, linked below) shows it to be way duller than that description makes it sound. First, there are far too many non-kart like tracks. It comes down, pretty much, to bashing buttons to make the ball hop to the next section. Second, it would have been way more fun, nostalgia-wise, to recreate an actual track from the game. Instead, we get a mish-mash of sections from the Rainbow Road, Ghost Valley and Donut Plains. The only really authentic element is the soundtrack, which has FX from the original, right down to the squealing tire sound when you get hit with no stars. The game is on show at the Tokyo Toy Show 2010, so it’s unlikely that it will ever see the shores of the West. Good thing too. I’ll stick to my happy little emulated world. Mario Kart and Super Mario Bross [sic] board game [Akihabara News via Oh Gizmo ] See Also: Video: Super Mario Kart on Non-Jailbroken iPad Video: New Blur Commercial Takes Direct Aim at Mario Kart … Mario Kart Power-Ups Come to Indycar Racing Review: Mario Kart Wii Skids Way Off the Road Nike+ Mashup: Mario Kart Ghost Racers on Real Streets Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter. Read the rest of this entry »

What, your plasma display is flat? How very quaint! Fujitsu would like to make you feel a little less adequate by showing you the wonder that is a curved PDP, seen here stretched around a column for the sake of providing digital signage. Yes, it's perhaps a somewhat boring duty, and not quite as awe-inspiring as the company's massively curvaceous installation at Kansai airport . But, if you're looking for a way to show off orange silhouettes on a field of light blue, baby it doesn't get much better than this. Fujitsu's curved plasma displays make Roman columns look a little dated originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 15:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink Read the rest of this entry »

New laptop processors mean new laptops , and Toshiba has now joined the party with four new Satellite Pro models packing Intel's latest Core i3 and i5 processors and AMD's new dual-core Athlon II. Those include the 15.6-inch C650 / C650D, the 13.3-inch L630, the 15.6-inch L650 / L650D, and the 17.3-inch L670 / 670D, all of which are available with Intel Core i3 or Core i5 processors, while those with a "D" suffix pack an Athlon II. Otherwise, each boast either a 1,600 x 900 or 1,366 x 768 LED-backlit display, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145 or integrated Intel GMA HD graphics, up to 8GB of RAM, an optional Blu-ray burner, and Toshiba's own Media Controller software to let you stream content to other networked devices, among other standard fare. Still no indication of pricing or availability over here, but the whole lot should at least be available in Europe, the Middle East and Africa sometime in the second quarter of this year. Hit up the gallery below for a closer look at the complete, nearly identical-looking lineup. Gallery: Toshiba updates Satellite Pro line with Core i3 / i5, Athlon II-based models Continue reading Toshiba updates Satellite Pro line with Core i3 / i5, Athlon II-based models Toshiba updates Satellite Pro line with Core i3 / i5, Athlon II-based models originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 May 2010 19:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink Read the rest of this entry »

If 2007's Bracelet Battery from Thanko didn't match your lifestyle, there's a good chance 2010's model won't either. That's because it looks identical to the prior model, sporting the kind of style that would go perfectly with a Caped Crusader costume and virtually nothing else. New with this year's model is an adapter cable that enables it to work with an even greater variety of devices, a 1,500mAh lithium-ion battery, and (wonder of wonders) an on/off switch. Yours for just Read the rest of this entry »

At CES this past January we were smitten by Sanyo's little VPC-CS1 camcorder and now, many moons later, it's coming to retail. Akihabara News has taken it for a test drive and, as you might expect from something only 29mm thin, it has some compromises. The most glaring issues appear to be related to image quality, with the review stating: "Shooting in low light will give you really crappy images." Also, it turns out the cam's touted 1920 x 1080 at 60fps mode is actually interlaced , meaning it's time for a return to scanline mountain. While 720p mode is said to be rather better looking, still shooting is said to be "simply useless." Despite all this the review has a positive conclusion, and we could see the same for users more interested in form than function. Those looking for image quality, however, will want to look at the sample videos and images on the other end of that source link below. Sanyo's slinky Xacti VPC-CS1 camcorder reviewed: form trumps function originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 May 2010 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink Read the rest of this entry »