Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Finishing up it’s two-day convention in San Fransisco yesterday, YPulse National Mashup is a yearly event that brings together youth media and marketing professionals from brands, agencies, and the non-profit sector to share practices for reaching today’s totally wired youth. And this year’s findings were a rather obvious one for anyone walking around any school, mall, or other teen gathering place. Teens are becoming more and more mobile and cell companies, advertisers, and other media companies plan to be sure to capitalize on this.

And capitalize on it they will indeed be able to.  It’s estimated that teens wield a whopping $200 billion annually in discretionary spending. Yep, you read that correctly, and it wasn’t a typo. Two-hundred BILLION. Today’s kids must be charging much more for lawn-mowing services than back in the day, or else get one heck of an allowance.

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uWink sounds like the name of an online dating service, but it’s a restaurant concept from Nolan Bushnell, founder of both Atari and Chuck E. Cheese.  So you’d expect arcade games at such an establishment, but uWink takes it a step further and has the games built into your tabletop!  You and your dining companions can have fun playing games while waiting for your food and after finishing your food, and most of the games are free!  Also, large wall projections let patrons from different tables play against each other.  What a great idea for if you want to book the restaurant for a private function, and yes uWink can customize the games too!  I guess that’s where the “wink” comes in, since you can meet people from other tables.

The technology also extends to the food ordering process.  Terminals at each table display the menu along with photos of each item and a list of ingredients, so you know what you’re getting and can order the food to your exact specifications.  This is great for folks with food allergies and other dietary needs.  Everything is done using the terminals, from ordering the food to asking for refills to paying your check.  As for the food itself, you’d think it’s an afterthought, but apparently it isn’t as it’s prepared by accomplished chefs.  So uWink’s got the technology and it’s got the food, I can imagine it’s hard to score a table!  uWink is opening their second L.A. location next month, but it’s a concept other parts of the country could embrace as well.

Read [LAist]

Nokia has officially launched its N-Gage mobile games service. The N-Gage allows gamers to try and buy mobile games directly from their Nokia handsets. As we reported last Friday, the N-Gage service supports Nokia handsets that belong to Nokia’s new generation of mobile phones. These handsets include N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB.

For its initial offerings, N-Gage is making available various mobile games such as EA Sports’ FIFA08, Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules by Gameloft; World Series of Poker Pro Challenge by Glu Mobile and Hooked on: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush: Evolution by Nokia’s own mobile game publishing arm. Nokia also promised to release more games in the coming days.

Aside from trying and buying games from N-Gage, users can also create Friend List, send and receive private messages and participate in N-Gage’s IM style chat. Prices of games to be featured in N-Gage will range from $9 to $15, but remember you can always try the games first before paying for them.

Read [Nokia]

Nokia has finally launched its N-Gage gaming service with high hopes of revitalizing the ailing mobile gaming market. (And possibly earn a few more bucks?) Although an official announcement will be made on Monday, the N-Gage blog took one step in advance and informed the loyal N-Gage followers who were testing the product during its beta stage, that the N-Gage platform is already opened.

The N-Gage is fully compatible with Nokia’s top mobile phone series – the N95, N81 and N82. With Nokia striking a deal with major cellphone game developers such as Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Glo Mobile they should prove to be successful. Nokia hopes to have around 25-30 games available by mid-2008 and add another 25-30 during the second half of the year.

Can the N-Gage re-ignite the dying flames of mobile phone gaming? That remains to be seen.

Read [N-Gage] Via [I4U]

N-Gage First Access, the testing ground for the pre-release version of the N-Gage application where users can try and buy N-Gage games and provide feedback about them is ending its beta on March 27, 2008. Although there was no word yet on the exact date of the official launch of the final version of N-Gage application, the N-Gage site mentions it will be happening in the next few weeks.

Related to this announcement, the official N-Gage blog has issued some reminders for those who participated in the N-Gage First Access run.

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Microsoft finally ended the industry speculations on whether the Xbox 360 will be supporting Blu-ray technology or not. Aaron Greenberg, group product manager for the Xbox 360 told Reuters that Microsoft is negotiating with neither Sony nor the Blu-ray Association for a possible Blu-ray Xbox 360 integration.

Greenberg also said that the Microsoft Xbox 360 will continue its current Live online service which allow Xbox 360 fans to rent hundreds of movies online, which even include HD movies.

“We’re the only console offering digital distribution of entertainment content,” Greenberg said.

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The worldwide head of gaming for Dell, Abizar Vahkaria, was recently asked by the popular UK publication PC Plus whether Dell was planning to release some sort of gaming-oriented handheld.

Vahkaria’s reply was: “You know, that’s definitely one that’s on the radar screen, but we have no plans to talk about anything today.”

I don’t know about you, but to me it sounds like Dell have something up their sleeve which they are planning to announce in the future. I don’t know how well this would work out considering Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS Lite are leading the portable gaming field - the market doesn’t looks like a touch feat to break at this point in time.

Keep your eyes open, Dell might just surprise us..

via [Engadget]

Just in time for last-minute holiday gift giving, EA has added two new games for your iPod – EA Sudoku and Royal Solitaire.

EA Sudoku and Royal Solitaire join EA’s three games which are already available -– Tetris, EA Mini Golf, and EA Mahjong. While you might not expect gaming to work on the iPod, each of EA’s games are custom designed for the platform to integrate with its Click Wheel, and work in a surprisingly good fashion. And don’t ask who killed the music, because you can simultaneously listen to your tunes during a challenging round of EA Mini Golf, while spinning and moving Tetriminos in Tetris, or during games of Royal Solitaire and EA Mahjong.

EA’s games are available for $4.99.

Read [iTunes]

A few weeks back, we brought you the amazing list of launch titles for the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console.  Now it’s time for the same list form the PS3 camp.  Now you would expect old, big name games to launch first, right?  Wrong.  The list below is the COMPLETE library of downloadable PS1 games on the PS3 at launch.

• Arc the Lad
• Biohazard: Director’s Cut Edition


• Bishi Bashi Special
• Jumping Flash!


• Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 1


• Konami Antiques MSX Collection Vol. 2


• Hot Shots Golf 2


• Mr. Driller
• Silent Bomber
• Tekken 2

Very disappointing.  What about the original Metal Gear Solid that took up most of my days back when I was a child?  What about NBA Live?  Come one guys, help me re-live those moments on a machine that could power a city.

Read [GameBrink] Via [Gizmodo]

The Nintendo Wii is finally here!  Well… almost.  In preparation for a hyped holiday launch, Nintendo has just announced the games that made the cut for launching alongside the console.  The list hits over 60 titles that will be in stores by the end of the year...but Brian over at Kotaku says “most of them will be out day and date of the console.” Highlights from the list include The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Splinter Cell Double Agent, and Call of Duty 3.

So if you’re getting ready for some good ole’ nun-chuck action, check out the titles after the break to get psyched.

Wii Launch Titles
• Wii Sports [Launch title]
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess [Launch title]
  
  
• EXCITE TRUCK [Launch title]
  
  
• Call of Duty(R) 3
  
  
• Marvel(TM) Ultimate Alliance
  
  
• Rapala(R)
  
  
• Tournament Fishing
  
  
• Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam(TM)
  
  
• World Series of Poker(R): Tournament of Champions
  
  
• Dragon Ball Z(R): Budokai Tenkaichi(TM) 2
  
  
• Trauma Center(TM): Second Opinion
  
  
• Madden NFL ‘07
  
  
• Need for Speed(TM): Carbon
  
  
• Elebits(TM)
  
  
• Happy Feet(TM)
  
  
• Rampage(R): Total Destruction(TM)
  
  
• The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy(TM)
  
  
• The Ant Bully
  
  
• Super Monkey Ball(TM): Banana Blitz
  
  
• Metal Slug(TM) Anthology
  
  
• Super Swing Golf
  
  
• Avatar: The Last Airbender
  
  
• Barnyard(R)
  
  
• Cars
  
  
• SpongeBob SquarePants(TM): The Creature from the Krusty Krab
  
  
• Far Cry(R): Vengeance
  
  
• GT Pro Series
  
  
• Monster 4X4 World Circuit
  
  
• Open Season(TM)
  
  
• Rayman Raving Rabbids(TM)
  
  
• Red Steel(TM)
  
  
• Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent(TM)
  
  
• Ice Age 2(TM): The Meltdown


Virtual Console Games

• Mario Bros.(R)
  
  
• The Legend of Zelda(R)
  
  
• Donkey Kong(R)
  
  
• Donkey Kong Jr. (R)
  
  
• Ice Hockey
  
  
• Pinball
  
  
• Soccer
  
  
• Tennis
  
  
• Urban Champion(R)
  
  
• Wario’s Woods(TM)
  
  
• Baseball
  
  
• Solomon’s Key
  
  
• F-Zero(R)
  
  
• SimCity(TM)
  
  
• Super Mario(R) 64
  
  
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  
  
• Altered Beast
  
  
• Golden Axe
  
  
• Columns
  
  
• Ecco the Dolphin
  
  
• Gunstar Heroes
  
  
• Space Harrier II
  
  
• Toe Jam & Earl
  
  
• Ristar
  
  
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
  
  
• Bonk’s Adventure
  
  
• Super Star Soldier
  
  
• Victory Run
  
  
• Bomberman ‘93
  
  
• Dungeon Explorer

Read [Kotaku]