Eurogamer TV had an opportunity to talk with Microsoft Europe boss Chris Lewis at the Leipzig Game Conference last week, and apparently, Lewis had some great news to tell all of our moms. After the disaster that was the 360 launch (I found myself at 3 different Target stores before 9 AM), this year’s holidays seem to be under control. When asked if Microsoft would be ready for this year’s onslaught, Lewis replied: I’m very confident that we have the production capacity to suit our ambitions. And there will be no stock shortages anywhere in the region over this Christmas period, I can assure you of that. So make sure that your mom reads this article, and diggs it, and saves it to Del.icio.us — and you might as well print it out for her, too. ‘No 360 shortages this Xmas’ – Lewis [gamesindustry.biz via Kotaku] → Read More

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been excited about playing Madden 2007 (and all the other sports games) on the Wii since I first saw the controller. So, when I saw this video on YouTube, I kinda came close to wetting myself (alright that’s not funny, I have an incontinence problem. Yes I’m on medication. Just drop it OK?). I’ve heard a lot of rumblings about what gameplay would actually be like with the Wii games, and I wasn’t sure if we would actually be throwing a ball or tackling a player via the Wiimote. Turns out, we will. I think the best feature shown off in this video is the Tutorial, where you actually perform the movement and the game tells you if you did it right or not. I really hope this is standard for most of the Wii game. A New Wii Video: Walkthrough of Madden Wii [I4U News via Joystiq] → Read More

Just when you thought that iPod accessories couldn’t get any more ridiculous, furniture-maker Adonis announces a line of iRocker chairs. These “interactive sound chairs” carry an onboard iPod dock, along with speakers sets that vary depending on which chair you buy. The iRocker chairs range from $99-$600, depending on what suits your price range. The higher-end models come with a set of five Alltek Vision speakers (that’s sort of an oxymoron) with a remote control, so you can rock out and relax (that too) without having to move. And the lower-end models come with a standard pair of speakers. Either way, both chairs include an auxiliary input in case you don’t own an iPod (there are people who don’t own iPods?!), but you will have to keep an eye on the device’s battery. The chairs also come in a wide range of colors ranging from micro fiber, neutral black, bone and saddle colors for the faux-leather models. So, if enjoy sitting and iPod, the iRocker might be for you. → Read More

Get those entries in, kids. We’ll hold the floodgates open until 6pm PST. → Read More

USB flash drives are a dime a dozen, meaning companies need to spice up their offerings to get any kind of recognition from consumers. One way is to make it huge, like Toshiba’s 16GB drives. Another is to mold yours in the shape of a syringe. Yeah, I think we all know which one we’d want. The syringe drive is USB 2.0 compliant and has up to 1GB of space, plus it makes airport security really happy. Product Site [Wideshine via i4u] → Read More

The next generation Lego Mindstorms improve on the original 1998 model of do-it-yourself robotics with a “32-bit NXT control brick, ultrasonic sensors, a revamped set of pieces, a new piece of visual programming software, and Bluetooth support.” Not at all like the legos we played with as a child, these Mindstorms sensors register touch, sound, light and distance to keep your Lego robot doing what you want. One can detect contact, one detects sounds or music, one detects ambient light and the other distance from objects. The included visual programming language is extremely easy, letting you program your bot by just dragging squares onto a grid, which represents actions your Lego buddy will take. To give you a sense of how powerful such a simple system can be, consider the humble “movement” square. The context menu lets you choose which motors you want to control, the direction you want them to go, the direction, the power, and the duration of the movement, and whether to let the motor coast or brake at the end. The set is targeted towards kids 10-14, but adults and children of all ages (with adult supervision) can enjoy this. That $249 list price is a small price to pay for quality time building fun robots with your kids. Lego Mindstorms NXT [Ars Technica] → Read More

Both models of HTC’s smartphone—the HTC TyTN or the re-badged XDA Trion—are available for purchase now on Dynamism’s website. Both are available for $899, which means it’s no throwaway phone. The XDA Trion has a QWERTZ keyboard, common in Europe, where the HTC TyTN has a QWERTY keyboard, which is more suited for the States. To refresh, the phones are Quad-Band GSM, have 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, a MicroSD slot, Bluetooth, GPRS, HSDPA, EDGE, 802.11b/g, a 2 megapixel camera, a VGA camera for video calling, and 5 hours of talk time. You should be able to use the imported phone on both Cingular and T-Mobile, thanks to GSM compatibility. Product Page [Dynamism] → Read More

All 436 pages of Sprint’s user manual for the Treo 700wx is online, leaked for your consumption. Seriously, 436 pages? Isn’t that a little complicated for the average user? Well, you Treo fans know what you’re getting into. And if you want to pore over the notes and see what Sprint’s got in store for you in September, be our guest. Treo Manual (PDF) [Mobility Today] Palm Treo 700wx user manual appears [Mobility Today] → Read More

Ok. It’s Crunch time. We’re closing our contest at 12 noon, PST and we’ve got one entry so far. If I were in this contest, I’d definitely like those odds – that means one person, as of right now, will get both a Moto Q and a Kodak v603… unless I start seeing some entries! Read on for full rules. → Read More

Remember our video post last week about Leopard and how its Expose + Spaces was supposed to work? Yeah, Apple doesn’t quite like it, and told us as much in the form of a NastyGram. Apparently, because the only version out of Leopard is a developer’s version, it’s not quite “public”, and a video of the OS is a big no-no in Apple’s book. Hope you saw that video while it was up, because it was really cool, and pretty much just served to hype up interest in Leopard. Seems to us they’re just shooting themselves in the foot here. The more people hear how Leopard is supposedly ahead of Vista, the more people want to pick up a Mac instead of a new Windows machine next year. Apple Sends a NastyGram [CrunchNotes] → Read More

The Miuro is a ball-shaped iPod dock that rolls around on its “wheels”, while simultaneously protecting your iPod dock in its soft robot center. To what effect this “rolling” has on your music, we don’t know. At least it has a remote for you to use to change the songs, saving you the trouble of chasing after a rogue iPod robot when it decides to roll away and find Sarah Connor. Empresa japonesa lança robô para iPod [Terra via Gizmodo] → Read More

We’re just starting to get 3G up and working on most of our providers here in the US, but elsewhere in the world the epic battle between 4G and WiMAX is already heating up. The potential winner? 4G. Samsung’s taken a demo bus out into the wild, trucking along at all of 60 kph (37 mph) to demonstrate 4G’s speeds and ability to hand off calls between cells. Thankfully the data speeds they got were much faster than the land speeds. The 4G got up to 1Gbps, which is 50 times faster than WiMAX’s current specifications in 802.16e. On a somewhat related note, Sprint Nextel contracted Samsung to deploy its nationwide WiMAX over the next few years, meaning we’re going to be getting WiMAX before 4G here in the States. Samsung’s 4G outpaces WiMAX [The Register] → Read More