Hardware

Unless you've recently taken up residence under suitably large slab of earth, you're likely already aware of Microsoft's new Xbox One console. If not, buckle up, because there's an endless supply of details coming your way -- now.

The Xbox One will have a $499 starting price when it hits stores this November, and with a price that high, it's clear Microsoft is targeting the well-to-do consumer with the new device -- at least at launch. By comparison, the Sony PlayStation 4 will cost $399 -- although its optional PlayStation Eye camera and motion detector … Read more

You've just created a combination watch and breathalyzer. You're sitting around, trying to decide what to name it. Aha, you think, let's call it the Intoxicated Watch. That will get the point across.

The Kisai Intoxicated Watch has just made its debut on Tokyoflash, where it's selling for a limited time at a $99 launch price.

The watch description says the negative-space time display is easy to read, no matter how intoxicated you are. In case you're not sure what level of drunk you've achieved, the watch has a built-in breathalyzer. You open the sensor cap, push a button, and blow into it for 5 seconds.… Read more

There are some baseball players known for their strong arms, but a lot of people probably stood up and took notice when 13-year-old Nick LeGrande threw a baseball 1,800 miles today.

Before you scoff at the physical impossibility of such a notion, take solace in the fact that technology was very much behind LeGrande's feat, telerobotics to be precise. The Kansas City, Mo., teen, who suffers from severe aplastic anemia, a rare blood disease, threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the Oakland A's-New York Yankees game in Oakland, Calif., tonight. … Read more

LOS ANGELES -- I did not fall! No, really. I didn't (just watch the video). Falling was my biggest fear when I booked a meeting last week to see the Virtuix Omni, an omnidirectional, low-friction surface that allows you to move around in a virtual environment (using the Oculus Rift) without (seriously) endangering yourself, your coffee table, or others.

Hold on! The Omni is about 4 to 5 feet in diameter and is sloped toward its center. It's a low-friction surface with a narrowly grooved exterior. A circular handle surrounds your waist, affording you a degree of much-needed … Read more

Who won E3 so far? Was it the Xbox One? Or, was it the PS4 that kicked its butt? Did Sony dominate, totally smack down Microsoft, and run away with Best in Show?

All I know, from a distance, is this: boy, the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 look a lot alike.

The picture above is from a classic "Star Trek" episode featuring two different alien races that fought bitterly but were more alike than they dared to admit. Sound familiar?

The moment the PS4 was unveiled, in its boxy glory, you couldn't help but be reminded … Read more

We are finally reveling in an influx of details on the fresh rival gaming systems of Sony's PlayStation 4 and Microsoft's Xbox One. While the two consoles share a physical resemblance, they diverge in a lot of ways. One major difference involves the handling of used games.

Sony has said there will be no restriction on the PS4 used-game market, while Microsoft is placing restrictions on selling and sharing games.

Microsoft's new policies have given Sony an opening to promote the PS4 as a friendlier alternative to the Xbox One. That has resulted in a tongue-in-cheek video released on the official PlayStation YouTube channel, titled "Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video."… Read more

E3, the big video game trade show, kicks off on Monday. And 2013 looks to be one of the biggest years ever.

The games industry is at a crossroads, with "hard-core gaming" under onslaught from 99-cent casual iPad and smartphone games. Two new consoles are on deck -- the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 -- and the third, the Nintendo Wii U, is fighting for its life. And the software publishers like Activision, EA, and Ubisoft will be fighting to outsplash each other with the latest and greatest sequels and franchise titles.

So what's going to … Read more

Heading into E3, Sony has more to prove with the PlayStation 4 (PS4) than its console-making competition. Microsoft has already shown that, in its quest to take over your living room, the Xbox One will offer more than just upgraded graphics and a new controller. And for good or ill (ill, for now), Microsoft's used games and always-on plans are on the table and it can now mostly concentrate on wowing the public with games. Assuming it has public-wowable games, of course.

The hottest crowdfunded gaming device of 2013 could end up being Virtuix's Omni virtual-reality treadmill, which, in just 48 hours, has already netted a stunning sum of $600,000 in Kickstarter pledges from around the world.

Virtuix may have actually come up with a sensible physical platform that lets a gamer run or jump seamlessly on an enclosed octagon-shaped treadmill and see those actions mirrored in a video game.

After stepping into the octagon, Omni users slip inside a circular ring (with an attachment belt) that prevents them from toppling over while moving. Other than that, the concept seems simple: if you run forward on the Omni, you run forward in a game; if you crouch, you crouch in the game, and so forth. The recommended -- almost required -- Omni shoes don't seem so bad, either, as they contain a few protrusions similar to a cycling shoe that let you run easily on the Omni without fear of sliding around aimlessly. … Read more