Water-cooled, luggable PS3 offers semi-convenient gaming for your on-the-go lifestyle

We've seen plenty of handheld console mods, but only a few laptops -- most impressively, Ben Heck's sleek PlayStation 3 -- and PS3Hax admin Pirate recently finished his water-cooled take on the notebook PS3. The cooling system replaces the stock heatsinks, allowing for a slimmer design, and one much more polished than the last water-cooled version we saw. Weighing in at 15 pounds, it's also got a built-in keyboard and speakers, a 500GB hard drive, and a 720p / 1080i screen. If this sounds like your type of machine, Pirate's put it on eBay, where it's currently heading north of $1,500. He's not looking to make a profit, promising that after costs a portion of the selling price will go to server expenses at PS3Hax, with another portion dedicated to tornado relief efforts in Joplin, Missouri. Check out the video after the break to see this beast in action.



[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Water-cooled, luggable PS3 offers semi-convenient gaming for your on-the-go lifestyle

Filed under: Laptops

Water-cooled, luggable PS3 offers semi-convenient gaming for your on-the-go lifestyle originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 18:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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GTA's Liberty City recreated in Google Street View, reveals your nearest Ammu-Nation

Type 'Liberty City' into Google Maps and it whisks you to some place east of Wichita, Kansas. Yup, Wichita, for Pete's sake. No self-respecting Grand Theft Auto fan can stand for an omission like that, and thankfully now they don't have to. Those hardcore Niko-lovers at gta4.net have not only recreated the real fictional Liberty City using the Google Maps API, they've even cobbled together 80,000 screenshots to provide full-blown Street View too. Man, we haven't seen this much Gay Tony passion since the Trashmaster. Oh, wait a minute -- apparently this so-called Street View leaves out a couple of ramps that gta4.net considered to be 'not very interesting.' Hush, and you call yourselves fans?

GTA's Liberty City recreated in Google Street View, reveals your nearest Ammu-Nation originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision glasses give up some freedom for a lower price

NVIDIA has been pushing its 3D Vision platform for a couple of years and at this year's Computex it is looking to pull in more PC users with new wired LCD active shutter glasses. The original wireless specs rely on the same IR sync tech and battery power seen in glasses for many HDTVs, but these get power and data over a 10-foot USB cable. While that might not work for living room viewing, a single user application like PC gaming or watching a Blu-ray 3D on a laptop doesn't suffer for the cable restriction. Besides foregoing the sometimes finicky IR sync these are also cheaper, with a $99 MSRP when they go on sale in 'late June' compared to $149 for the wireless version. The company hopes the combination of a lower entry price and ability to be secured to the PC make it a viable option for gamers who may already have a compatible LCD and GPU, or gaming cafes that want to run a few Starcraft II tournaments in 3D -- check the rest of the details in the press release after the break.

Continue reading NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision glasses give up some freedom for a lower price

NVIDIA's new wired 3D Vision glasses give up some freedom for a lower price originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 20:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: hydrogen-powered space plane, Japan's solar surge and urban farms of Ze Future

"Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

Green transportation took off for the stars this week as Inhabitat reported that the European Space Agency has approved of a new hydrogen-powered 'Skylon' space plane, and we spotted a hot Star Wars-inspired electric chopper that wouldn't look out of place on the Death Star. We also learned that NASA plans to rejoin the space race with a new MPCV craft fit for deep space flights, while here on Earth we saw GE harness the power of the sun to charge Volt EVs before they hit dealerships.

Speaking of solar power, Japan unveiled plans to construct 10 new solar power plants in the wake of the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis, while Switzerland announced that it will completely phase out the use of nuclear power. We also showcased a stunning chandelier made from 500 fluttering photovoltaic butterflies, and we saw Nevada kick-start construction on the US' first molten salt solar plant, which will generate energy long after the sun has set.

We also brought you several incredible feats of architecture this week, from a restaurant made from a recycled Soviet airplane in Zurich to an innovative cocoon-like building made from sugarcane that recently won an AIA competition. We also showed how Plantlab is making vertical urban farms a reality, and we spotted a sky-high proposal for an energy-generating city on stilts that would hover over Manhattan. Finally, this week we rounded up some of our favorite eco apps and services that can help you green your consumption.

Inhabitat's Week in Green: hydrogen-powered space plane, Japan's solar surge and urban farms of Ze Future originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 22:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TomTom working on its own Street View-like service?

TomTom's already seen Google muscle in on its turf in a big way, and it looks like it might now be trying to return the favor. If camera-toting vans like the one above are any indication, it would appear that the company is currently working to bolster its navigation options with its own Street View-like service. So far, all of the van sightings seem to be confined to Europe (France and Belgium, specifically), and they of course don't necessarily confirm that TomTom is indeed working on a Street View competitor -- although we have to wonder what the vans are for if it's not. It's also worth noting that TomTom did acquire TeleAtlas, which uses vans equipped with cameras, lasers and GPS in the actual creation of its maps, but the higher, 360-degree camera used on these vans seems much closer to those used on Google's Street View cars. Seen one yourself? Feel free to let us know in the comments below.

TomTom working on its own Street View-like service? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 29 May 2011 23:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video)

It's not the first time we're run into CUPP Computing's unique ability to blend the x86 and ARM platforms into one device -- at least in prototype form -- and just before the start of Computex 2011 here in Taipei we got a chance to experience the company's latest iteration called PunkThis. The product is meant to replace your computer's 2.5-inch SATA hard drive with a board featuring a complete ARM-based system along with a mini-PCIe socket -- the latter capable of accommodating a physically smaller SATA SSD to handle the missing storage for the x86 host. PunkThis is built around a Texas Instruments DM3730 1GHz ARM CPU with 512 MB of RAM and includes a WiFi radio, as well as connectors and cables to interface the board with existing video, audio, and USB facilities on the host computer (no soldering required).



The netbook we got to play with was running Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) but was lacking WiFi support. It ran perfectly alongside Windows 7 which was powered by the existing Atom processor. Switching OS-es is just a hotkey away, and battery life is supposedly doubled when the main x86 CPU is shut down and the only the daughter board is operational. PunkThis also provides two microSD card slots -- one for system storage used by the ARM-based OS (Android in this case), the other for mass storage visible to both environments (shared space). Pricing is supposed to remain below $200 and availability is expected in 8 weeks. That's pretty hardcore, but with a name like PunkThis would you expect anything less? Feast your eyes on our gallery and peek after the break for our hands-on video along with the obligatory PR.

Gallery: CUPP PunkThis hands-on

Continue reading CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video)

CUPP PunkThis hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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ViewPad 7x aims to become world's first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet, adds HSPA+ for good measure

Guess who's sneakily beating the pack to the title of having the globe's first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet... why, it's none other than ViewSonic! The ViewPad 7x (1024 x 600 resolution) managed to leak out earlier this month, but now it's fully official with Google's Android 3.0.1 OS, HSPA+ connectivity, and a pair of cameras, one on the front and one on the back. A Tegra 2 dual-core processor plus an HDMI-out have also been included inside a featherweight 380g package. Ironically, ViewSonic's neglected to provide a release date for this 'world first' tablet, but we'll be hitting up its booth here at Computex for some more hands-on time and making sure to collect that and every other salient detail about the ViewPad 7x.

Gallery: ViewPad 7x hands-on

Continue reading ViewPad 7x aims to become world's first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet, adds HSPA+ for good measure

ViewPad 7x aims to become world's first 7-inch Honeycomb tablet, adds HSPA+ for good measure originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 May 2011 02:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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