The Gadget: The eMotion Solar PMP, a 2GB machine which claims to play music, videos, Nintendo/Game Boy/Sega ROMs, e-books and more—all while charging itself and other devices via its built-in solar panels. If you're nice, it may even pump your gas and tuck you in at night.

The Price: $169

The Verdict: For a piece of crap, this thing is pretty awesome.

Sure the UI is slow and ugly, the buttons are confusing even after repeated use, and the playable formats are somewhat limiting (yes MP3, WMA, AVI; no AAC or DivX). But hey it works. It does almost everything advertised.

Putting photos, music, videos, and ROMs on it is a breeze. It came with Super Mario Bros. and Contra Force for Nintendo and Raiden Trad and Street Fighter 2 for Sega, and you can get other ROMs through, let's say, back channels. Video game play is solid, though I recommend only playing very basic games on a screen that small—that is, 3 inches, with 320x240 resolution.

Video playback was great for the preloaded clips, but chopped and stunted with my own (this may have been an encoding problem on my part, but seriously, it only supports 320x240 AVIs, that's pretty weak). The e-book reader is just a glorified text viewer, but it can also do text-to-speech reading in a relatively normal voice. Photo browsing is awkward, but it works. The machine came preloaded with some shots of LL Cool J and Lou Gosset Jr., so who am I to complain?

Hardware wise, there are ups and downs. Two headphone jacks and an obnoxiously loud speaker work fine, but adjusting the volume is a pain since there is no dedicated button. There's an SD slot, but it'll only get you an added 2GB, as it doesn't support SDHC. The nice thing is, the boasted solar charging actually worked, especially for the device itself, but even with other random electronics. My iPod took some finagling, but I figured out how to do it, and it works well. The only thing I couldn't get it to charge was an iPhone. What's up with that?

Of course, as I was finishing up my testing, the device just had to crash; it took an hour of draining the battery just to be able to restart it. Calling tech support in the middle of the afternoon didn't yield any results either, as the company was closed. You're absolutely getting what you pay for with this relatively cheap PMP, but since it's got features you won't find on mainstream players (for legal reasons and otherwise), it is a decent buy. Besides, if you have sunlight, you won't have to worry about a charger.

http://gizmodo.com/367644/lightning-...tion-solar-pmp ...

News from Play Asia:

Welcome to this week's games news update. Since the toys section have been removed from the games update and takes up a separate one all for itself, from this week onwards, this news update is to be dedicated to games and games alone.

Many exciting games have been published this week. This includes the largest scale fight which every gamer is eagerly waiting for, the US version of Super Smash Bros. Brawl is in stock. Meet your favorite characters, fight with them and defeat the evil together. Along with the game, Super Smash Bros. Brawl Prima Official Game Guide is also available at Play-Asia.com.

Another popular title released this week is the God of War: Chains of Olympus that delves into Greek mythology and the question of self sacrifice and redemption. God of War: Chains of Olympus Official Strategy Guide is also available at the event of the player losing themselves in this mythological world.

Silent Hill: Origins conjures a world of horrors such that only the fittest may survive. Face the terror in this game and find out about the deepest, darkest secrets that have been plaguing the hero Travis Gradys since childhood.

To those who wishes to step away from the combat and horror, Play-Asia.com brings you the sports game Major League Baseball 2K8 to your PlayStation3™, and a funny retelling of everyone's worst high school nightmare, Bully: Scholarship Edition [Xbox360™ and Nintendo Wii™].

As usually, here's a summary of all new releases from this week, followed by a quick preview of what is expected to be hot next week.

Xbox360™:
Army of Two US US$ 64.90
Bully: Scholarship Edition US US$ 54.90
Cabela's Big Game Hunter ASIA US$ 44.90
History Channel: Battle for the Pacific ASIA US$ 44.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 64.90
SKATE JPN US$ 64.90
Soldier of Fortune: Payback ASIA US$ 44.90
Super Star Karaoke KOR US$ 69.90

PlayStation3™:
Army of Two US US$ 64.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 64.90
SKATE JPN US$ 64.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 68.90

Nintendo Wii™:
Baroque for Wii JPN US$ 64.90
Bully: Scholarship Edition US US$ 54.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 59.90
Ninja Reflex US US$ 44.90
Super Smash Bros. Brawl US US$ 59.90
Transformers: The Game JPN US$ 59.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 64.90

PlayStation2™:
12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral JPN US$ 64.90
12Riven: The Psi-Climinal of Integral [Limited Edition] JPN US$ 89.90
DDRMAX2 Dance Dance Revolution (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Daito Giken Koushiki Pachi-Slot Simulator: Shin Yoshimune JPN US$ 49.90
Dance Dance Revolution Extreme (Greatest Hits) US US$ 24.90
Kenka Banchou 2: Full Throttle (PlayStation2 the Best) JPN US$ 34.90
Major League Baseball 2K8 US US$ 34.90
Neon Genesis Evangelion Battle Orchestra (Broccoli Best Quality) JPN US$ 34.90
Pinball Hall of Fame: The Williams Collection US US$ 24.90
Silent Hill: Origins US US$ 34.90
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw Superstar Series US US$ 34.90
Winning Post 7 Maximum 2008 JPN US$ 64.90

Nintendo DS™:
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare JPN US$ 48.90
Card File 12 (Chocolate) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Lime) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Mint) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Sesame) JPN US$ 6.99
Card File 12 (Strawberry) JPN US$ 6.99
Chicken Hunter US US$ 24.90
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Lime) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Melon) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Mint) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Mocca) JPN US$ 5.99
Cleaner Cloth DS Lite (Strawberry) JPN US$ 5.99
Contra: Dual Spirits JPN US$ 48.90
DS Bimoji Training JPN US$ 39.90
Duel Love: Koisuru Otome wa Shouri no Joshin JPN US$ 52.90
Eco Creatures: Save the Forest US US$ 34.90
Edo Bunka Rekishi Kentei DS JPN US$ 39.90
Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Gakkou-Hen JPN US$ 58.90
Hayate no Gotoku! Ojousama Produce Daisakusen Boku Iro ni Somare! Oyashiki-Hen JPN US$ 58.90
Imagine: Figure Skater US US$ 34.90
Kage Densetsu: The Legend of Kage 2 JPN US$ 39.90
Kantan! Tanoshii! Okashi Navi DS JPN US$ 39.90
Koinu no Heya JPN US$ 48.90
Let's Ride: Friends Forever US US$ 34.90
Mahou ni Kakeraete JPN US$ 48.90
Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer US US$ 34.90
Ninja Reflex US US$ 34.90
Petz Bunnyz US US$ 34.90
Shibou Nenshou Keikaku: YaseTore!! DS JPN US$ 39.90
Shugo Chara! 3-tsu no Tamagoto Koisuru Joker JPN US$ 48.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 33: The Crossword & Kanji Puzzle JPN US$ 28.90
Simple DS Series Vol. 34: The Haisha JPN US$ 28.90
Touch Pen Leash DS Lite (Black) JPN US$ 4.99
Touch Pen Leash DS Lite (White) JPN US$ 4.99
Yu-Gi-Oh GX: Spirit Summoner (Konami the Best) JPN US$ 29.90

Sony PSP™:
Chessmaster: The Art of Learning ASIA US$ 29.90
Dead Head Fred ASIA US$ 32.90
Easy Pouch Portable (Black) JPN US$ 6.99
Easy Pouch Portable (Silver) JPN US$ 6.99
FlatOut: Head On ASIA ...

New from SuccessHK



Yuri and Chelinka are fraternal twins who live happily with their father in a small village, but their happiness comes to an abrupt end when an ancient evil force arrives. Now, with his family shattered, Yuri begins to train so that he can be strong enough to fight when the evil returns. Yuri and Chelinka set out on their quest to find their friends, avenge their family, and heal their world. ...

New from SuccessHK



Yuri and Chelinka are fraternal twins who live happily with their father in a small village, but their happiness comes to an abrupt end when an ancient evil force arrives. Now, with his family shattered, Yuri begins to train so that he can be strong enough to fight when the evil returns. Yuri and Chelinka set out on their quest to find their friends, avenge their family, and heal their world. ...

See that? You're looking at a picture of the printed circuit board for Pandora. Ok, it's hardly a completed product. In fact, it's chipless. Still, it's a measurable step away from product vapor and one step closer to the $320 (damn dollar!) $330 GP2X gaming computer we're expecting to land in March or April.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/13/p...forgets-chips/ ...

Seeing how long it took the Zune to make it over the northern border and into Canada, it shouldn't be any surprise that it's going to take even longer to get to Europe -- not until late next year, according to the director of Microsoft France. The wait should be worth it, though: that's when the third generation of Zunes will be released, as well as a Europe-friendly version of the Zune Marketplace. There are also some sketchy rumors that Windows Mobile 7 devices will be able to take advantage of Zune content and services, but it doesn't look like Microsoft has anything to say about that yet -- but if that goes down you know a Zune phone is right around the corner.


http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/13/t...-it-to-europe/ ...

Mark your calendars, Apple fans -- WWDC officially kicks off June 9th this year (running until the 13th). Expect Mac, iPhone, and IT tracks for your varied Apple platform development needs. No official word yet as to whether El Jobso will be taking the stage at this WWDC, but it certainly wouldn't be an Apple event without him.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/13/w...c-iphone-devs/ ...

This one's definitely not for the casual iPhone unlocker, but if for some reason you're looking to toy around with a couple of different firmware versions at a time, you can now apparently set up a dual-boot system of sorts on the phone. As Jonathan "NerveGas" Zdziarski notes in his how-to, the hack in question has actually been in use by the iPhone Dev Team for "several months" now, but he says that "now that several more advanced techniques have been developed," they've decided to let it loose for all to use. Needless to say, there's some partition-making and a good deal of command line work involved in the feat (all of which could cause you some serious headaches), but once you've got everything set up, you'll apparently be able to switch between different OS versions just by changing your root-device with a simple command. As iPhone Atlas points out, that option will likely become a lot more attractive once the SDK-compliant 2.0 firmware is released, but if you've got some ideas of your own in the meantime, you can find all the details you need at the link below.

http://www.zdziarski.com/papers/dualboot.html

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/13/i...aint-of-heart/ ...

New from Divineo China



This Official Case is designed to offer all-around external surface protection to your NDS Lite without compromising usability. It provides the maximum protection for your console against everyday hazards and scratches while allowing easy access to all buttons and ports. It molds perfectly to the console's shape to highlight its beauty while providing full access to all controls. ...