2400mAh USB Power Backup
Manufacturer: Unknown
Site: Buy from Brando
Price: $20.00


Overview : Have you ever had experiences that devices are running out of battery while in use? It is disturbing when you are enjoying your MP3 or chatting happily with friends on the phone, etc. Now! USB Power Backup (2400mAh) won't let these situation happen anymore! You can charge your devices in a flash before battery exhausts! It is designed for Handheld PC, Digital Camera, Cellphone, DV, MP3, CD Player, PMP and any other applicable devices.

Features

• Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery
• Standard 5V-USB DC Output
• On/Off Switch
• Green LED Indicator Switch
• Built-in Short Circle, Over Discharge
• Over Load and Over Charge Protection
• Charge it by direct plug or USB Cable
• Charging Time: Approx. 3 Hours
• Size: 70x50x12mm
• Weight: 71g

Specification

• Capacity: 2400mAh
• Input: DC-5V
• Output: Standard 5V-USB
• Working Temperature: 0~45 degree

Colors

• Black
• White

Package Contents

• USB Power Backup (2400mAh)
• USB Charging Cable

Quality/Usability : The 2400mAh USB Power Backup is a Lithium Ion battery can be charged via USB port or USB hub. Included is a USB cable if you are unable to reach a port.

On the front of the power backup is a green LED indicator that lights up when charging or supplying power and turns off when its fully charged or battery has been depleted. To the left of it is a USB port where you can plug any USB plug into it as well as an ON/OFF switch. To the right is a sliding switch exposes a USB connector when fully extended. You can use this to plug into your USB port or hub. The bottom has a DC 5v port where you can plug the supplied USB cable into. This is for those who are unable to access a USB port with the slide out USB connector.

To fully charge the power backup, it took about 2-3 hours. With a fully dead PSP battery, I was able to recharge it 2 times on one full charge of the power backup. I was able to charge my completely dead iPod about 5 times before the battery pack ran out of juice. I was also able to charge my Sony Ericsson w810i about 6 times.

Conclusion : Overall, the 2400mAh USB Power Backup delivers and at a great price. The USB Power Backup is great for those who want to carry a small battery backup incase you are unable to charge your cellphone, iPod, or portable game system. The compact size is great for traveling as it does not take up much space.

Images via comments ...

Zoozen Action PRO Toolkit v2
Manufacturer: Zoozen
Site:
Price: $19.95


Overview : If you have ever attempted any repair or improvement of any kind, you know that the right tools can make the difference between a good experience and a bad one. The Access Pro Toolkit by Zoozen has everything you need to get into your console and accessories. It is the only toolkit that includes tools for every console and handheld on the market today. And it includes unique and custom tools that are only available from Zoozen.

This tool kit includes the tools you need for the:

· Microsoft products, including: Original Xbox, Xbox 360 and accessories like the Xbox 360 wired controller, and the Xbox 360 wireless controller. Special tools: the OneSnap, the only one-piece Xbox 360 case separator, and a special long neck tamper resistant Torx bit.

· Nintendo products, including: the Nintendo Wii, GameCube, GBA, DS, DS Lite, and most accessories like Nintendo Cartridges, Gamecube controllers, and power supplies. Special Tools: Triwing bits in two sizes and two sizes of rare Linehead Nut Setters in hardened steel. Also has the correct tools for most of the retired Nintendo game machines (those not currently for sale in the marketplace).

· Sony Products, including: PS3, PS2, PStwo, and PSP and many accessories (for example: Sony controllers).

· The Access Pro Tool Kit also has the correct tools to open most third party products.

The tools are all housed in a convenient plastic case that keeps all the parts just where they belong. And, duplicates of most bits are provided, just in case you drop a bit behind your desk during a critical procedure.

Includes:

• 1pc Easy grip screwdriver handle
• 1pc Magnetic Tweezers
• 1pc "OneSnap" tool for opening Xbox 360
• 1pc Linehead nut setter (small size)
• 1pc Linehead nut setter (large size)
• 1pc Flathead bit, Long
• 2pcs Torx Size 6, Tamper Resistant
• 2pcs Torx Size 8, Tamper Resistant
• 2pcs Torx Size 10, Tamper Resistant
• 2pcs Torx Size 15, Tamper Resistant
• 2pcs Torx Size 20, Tamper Resistant
• 2pcs Hex Size .05
• 2pcs Triwing Bit
• 2pcs Phillips #000
• 2pcs Phillips #0
• 2pcs Phillips #1
• 2pcs Slotted 7/64

Quality/Usability : Those who mod consoles or want to start modding, the Zoozen Action PRO Toolkit v2 will help you out tremendously. The Zoozen Action PRO Toolkit v2 has tools for Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo products ranging from console to games and accessories. This toolkit will open even the new nex-gen consoles.

Xbox 360 – Torx T8, T6, T8, T10, Hex 0.05, Slotted 7/64, OneSnap and a Long Slotted Screw Bit
Xbox – Torx T10, T15, T20
PS3 – Torx T10, Phillips 0, Phillips 1, Phillips #000
PS2/Two – Phillips 0, Phillips 1
PSP – Phillips #000
Wii – Triwing, Phillips 0, Phillips #000
Gamecube – Linehead Nut Setter #8
DS/DS Lite – Triwing #00, Tripoint #0, Phillips #000
Gameboy – Triwing #00, Tripoint #01
Nintendo Cartridges – Linehead nut setter #6

The screwdriver handle is made of a rubberized grip instead of plastic like some screwdrivers are made of. This allows for easy gripping. Each bit that was placed was held in place very tight.

Each bit unscrewed each screw nicely without stripping the screws. Screwing each screw back into place worked wonderfully as well.

Dropped a screw and cant reach it or need to hold a wire or LED in place? Zoozen also included a magnetic tweezer to help hold those thin wires or screws that may be too small to hold in your fingers.

Conclusion : Overall, the Zoozen Action PRO Toolkit v2 is a modders dream come true. Everything you need to help open your mod frenzy finger is all in this Zoozen Action PRO Toolkit v2. Add a dremel and a soldering iron and this would be the Ultimate modding tool! It would also have been useful if the bits were magnetic to pick up the small screws. The price of $19.95 is definitely well priced and worth it.

Images via comments ...

Jimi Game Shell Case
Manufacturer: Mr Smith
Site: Buy from Jimi
Price: $9.95


Overview : Jimi™ Game Shell is compact, water resistant and shockproof, and you can attach it to your backpack, lanyard or keyring. Within its recyclable sanoprene liners, each case securely holds two Nintendo DS games, two Wii (SD) cards, or two PSP (ProDuo game or music) cards.

Jimi™ Game Shell's translucent outer skin is made from 100% recycled and recyclable polypropylene. Combined with the cushioning sanoprene lining in planet purple, gunmetal grey, or fire red this splash proof shell makes it ideal for storing your DS and PSP game cards, music or camera memory cards, and it looks really sweet to boot.

Quality/Usability : There have been a couple of vacations where I carried my PSP and DS around with me. Each portable system in its own dedicated case but no place to carry my extra games or memory sticks.

Jimi may be your solution and even mine as well. Jimi is made of durable plastic with sanoprene lining (rubber). You can attach the Jimi to your keyring, bag or string for easy portability. The Jimi is small enough to fit in your pants pocket and light weight that you wont notice it. Jimi comes in three colors of sanoprene lining: Red, Grey or Purple. The plastic shell is all the same clear color.

The sanoprene is removeable. The mold of the sanoprene allows you to hold up to two Pro Duo memory sticks or two SD cards (one on each side) or one of each. Above the memory cards, you can hold two DS games. The memory sticks and DS games are held in place securely. Even if you only had one DS game and the other slot was open and was holding either a Pro Duo or SD, they wont come out unless it was banged on hard.

Conclusion : Overall, the Jimi Game Shell Case is a nice solution to holding your memory sticks and DS games at once and together. I'm not sure if it was my shipment only but it did not come with a keyring like the Jimi Multi-Media Memory Case as that came with a keyring. The price of the Game Shell Case is fairly reasonable as well.

Images via comments ...

Jimi Multi-Media Memory Case
Manufacturer: Mr Smith
Site: Buy from Jimi
Price: $8.95


Overview : Jimi™ multi media case is compact, water resistant and shockproof, and you can attach it to a lanyard or keyring. Within it’s recyclable sanoprene liners it can hold two of any of the 13 most popular formats of digital media or memory cards.

Jimi™ multi media case’s outer shell is made from 100% recycled and recyclable polypropylene. Combined with the cushioning sanoprene lining this splash proof shell makes it ideal for storing your digital camera media during snow sports, cycling and other outdoor activities.

Or if you just want somewhere to stash your flash memory cards when you’re traveling or living a busy mobile life this’ll do the trick. If you’re a digital photographer, or media or memory card user and have made a New Years resolution to get more organized, the Jimi™ multi media case is a great first step.

Quality/Usability : With my new interest in professional photography, I went and bought digital SLR camera from a family relative. I still have a regular digital camera that I carry around as well. For both these cameras, I have about 1-2 memory sticks.

Jimi is made of durable plastic with sanoprene lining (rubber). You can attach the Jimi to your keyring, bag or string for easy portability. The Jimi is small enough to fit in your pants pocket and light weight that you wont notice it. Jimi seems to come in one color, outer black case with light blue sanoprene liner.

The sanoprene is removeable. The mold of the sanoprene allows you to hold one of each on one side but you can hold a combination of the following formats:

• xD Card
• SM Card
• SD Card
• MMC Card
• MMC Micro
• MMC Mobile
• Mini SD w/Adapter
• 1" Harddrive
• MS Pro Duo
• Memory Stick
• Compact Flash
• Compact Flash II
• Micro SD w/Adapter

The media cards are held in place securely. If there were some slots that were not filled in, the media cards will not come out unless it was banged on hard.

Conclusion : Overall, the Jimi Multi-Media Memory Case is probably the best solution for carrying all your multi-media cards all in one place. Of course, that is if you have that many different media cards to carry around. What I did notice was that microSD w/adapter was mentioned as being able to be held in the Jimi Multi-Media Memory Case, although true, the adapter is actually a SD card. If you wanted to hold microSD card only, there is no designated spot for it. It will be moving around freely. Those who own a DS and PSP, may want to take a look at the Jimi Game Shell Case.

Images via comments ...

Mobile processor-maker ARM Holdings has revealed its fourth quarter results for the last fiscal year, seeing profits jump to £47.6 million – £15 million up on last year.

ARM's Q4 revenues hit £113.9 million, up 34 per cent on the same period in 2009.

For the entirety of fiscal 2010, ARM's pre-tax profit reached £167 million, leaping 73 per cent from 2009's £96.8 million. Annual revenues grew 33 per cent to £406 million.

Said Warren East, ARM CEO, "As the industry chooses ARM technology in a broadening range of electronic products, it further drives our long-term royalty opportunity. The growth in licensing and royalty revenues, throughout 2010, has combined to deliver our highest ever annual revenues, profits and cash generation.

"2011 will bring exciting opportunities and challenges as ARM enters competitive new markets and we are well positioned to succeed with leading technology, an innovative business model and a thriving ecosystem of partners."

ARM chips are currently used in the likes of iPhones, iPads, Android and Windows 7 phones and the Nintendo DS, plus is due to be used in the 3DS and Sony's NGP.

Such ubiquity meant the firm shipped 1.1 billion chips during the fourth quarter of 2010 alone, as well as 0.7 billion in "everything from smart-meters to solid-state drives."

Microsoft recently announced that its next version of Windows will support 'system on a chip' processors such as those offered by ARM, which saw ARM's stock leap dramatically.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-chips-shipped ...

Electronic Arts believes one day the game industry will get its Avatar – a game that proves once and for all just how successful stereoscopic 3D can be – but for now there are more important things.

For EA, they are Internet Protocol television (IPTV), and connectivity between devices.

"My personal view is the larger idea, at least for the present, would be the connected game," COO John Schappert said during an investor conference last night.

"I'm more in the camp that IPTV is a bigger idea for gaming, at least in the near term, than 3D is. It just provides a better social experience and you know that consumers playing with one another is a very positive and powerful motivator."

Streaming services are growing in the games business, with the likes of OnLive and Gaikai making early moves in the market.

David Perry's cloud-based gaming service Gaikai.com launched quietly in November last year with EA's sci-fi role-player Mass Effect 2. "BioWare simply rocks," Perry said at the time. "They've been very supportive as has Electronic Arts. The good news for them is we are getting a surprising amount of people clicking 'BUY' without even making them a special offer."

Another emergent technology that sits above 3D on the videogame priority list, for Schappert, is device connectivity.

"While there's no doubt that our industry will have its Avatar, where 3D is a defining aspect of the game ... I'm mostly interested, with all the mobile devices that are coming out, in how they're being connected to one another and how the same IP is shared over the top," he continued.

"I think that's actually a bigger driver for EA and the industry in the near term."

Two companies that are sure to disagree with Schappert are Sony, which has invested millions in 3D gaming with the PlayStation 3 and its 3D-enabled TVs, and Nintendo, which is preparing the glasses-free 3DS for launch next month.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...t-their-avatar ...

Pate has posted more news concerning his Dos Emulator for the DS

This is a bit of an unscheduled blog post, but as my friend just lent me his Nintendo DSi, I decided to immediately test how DSx86 runs in the CycloDS iEvolution flash cart in DSi mode. The current (old) DSx86 version 0.23 does start fine, but the touchscreen does not work so it is pretty much useless. I believe CycloDS is working on a compatibility layer that might make it work, but my understanding is that making DSx86 run in DSi mode might simply need a recompilation with the latest libnds. Thus, I downloaded the latest libnds version and recompiled DSx86 with it. No errors when building the software, and indeed the brand new DSx86 version 0.24 does run fine in DSi mode!


The speed is about twice that of the "DSL mode" (as the CycloDS firmware calls the normal working mode). I'm not sure if this speed is yet enough to warrant adding 386-opcodes, but at least the smoother screen scaling features should work fine in DSi mode in the original (meaning non-DSTwo-specific) DSx86. I'll probably release the newly built DSx86 version 0.24 next weekend, so you can test that the latest libnds version did not break anything that used to work in 0.23 version. If/when you get the CycloDS iEvolution flash cart (or in case the DSi mode gets enabled in some other flash carts) you can then run DSx86 at double speed. The added performance will certainly help in some games that have been running too slowly in the current 0.23 version.

I doubt I will have time to add any enhancements (like the smooth scaling methods) by the next weekend yet, but I'll see if I can work on both DSx86 and DS2x86 side by side from now on, enhancing both of them simultaneously with new features.

:: Homepage ...

Pate has posted some news concerning his Dos Emulator for the DS

Doom in DS2x86
Okay, I'm back from my trip but somewhat tired so I don't think I will get much programming done today. However, just before I went on my trip I got Doom to actually run in DS2x86! One milestone reached! It does not play any sounds yet, which makes it not all that immersive or even playable yet, but it does run and it is possible to evaluate the performance of my protected mode 32-bit emulation with it. Doom runs only at a marginally playable framerate using the default settings, which is not all that unexpected considering that the emulation speed is only about 25MHz 486. I remember when I had a 486/33 machine and played Doom against a friend who had a 486/66 machine, and I usually lost simply because I had a slower machine. Things improved when I also got a 486/66 machine. However, some settings in both DS2x86 and Doom can be adjusted to make it run better, and the best settings I have found so far seem to be the following:

DS2x86 CPU speed at 396MHz
Screen mode Zoom (so the smooth interpolation does not take CPU cycles)
Screen refresh at 15FPS (so the emulation gets more CPU cycles)
Doom Options: Graphic Detail: Low
Doom Options: Screen Size: Less than maximum


There are still problems with the texture mapping of the sprites, at times the texture is not mapped correctly but has a weird vertical wrapping problem. Also, I want to look into adding some audio support (if not very difficult) for Doom, so I won't release the DS2x86 version 0.03 until the next weekend. Sorry for the wait, but at least you now have something specific to look forward to in the new version. :-)

I also hope to implement some fixes to the problems in the DS2x86 debug logs you have been sending, thanks again for those! I have been skipping them when trying to make Doom run, so I think it is time I look into those as well.

CycloDS iEvolution
I also received my pre-release developer copy of the CycloDS iEvolution flash cart last week. I haven't yet had time to do anything with it, and since I don't even have a DSi (only a DS Lite) myself, I need to wait for a friend of mine to borrow his DSi to me while I look into taking advantage of the DSi mode with the original DSx86. If I understand correctly what the people in the thread at http://www.teamcyclops.com/forum/sho...t=10826&page=3 talk about, there are still some problems with the ARM9/ARM7 FIFO handling when trying to take advantage of the DSi mode in homebrew software. I trust these issue will be fixed in the near future, but I think I will still work on the DSTwo version until libnds and iEvolution work fine together in DSi mode. It looks like I don't necessarily need to do all that much work in DSx86 to have it running at twice the current speed on a DSi, but I will know more after I have studied and understood this issue better.

:: Homepage ...

News via http://irwansyah.drunkencoders.com/2...s-development/

Well, I finally got the time to get my hands dirty on looking for ways to using one of my favorite programming language, that is Objective-C in NDS Development. Recently, I changed my path from the previously doing enterprise applications using C# into the world of iPhone development using Objective-C. I was freaked out the first time I try the Objective-C language and the tools involved. Everything looked different! The tools behave unfriendly, especially the debugger…Oh my god! No, graphical and intuitive ways to look into variables, especially arrays and collections. I was thinking I was entering a primitive civilization!

After, several weeks using it! Hmm…I am beginning to like it! I feel very easy to do modification or changes in classes that I’ve written. Every methods is virtual by nature in Objective-C, the Protocols, Categories, Notifications, its feels like I am programming using a scripting language. Also, the Cocoa! Its amazing! It’s very easy to do user interface especially animations. And interface builder, I LOVE IT! It just provided what I really needs.

When, I was trying to compile my first NDS program. I was thinking, it must be good to have Objective-C in NDS Development. I don’t know wether it was possible. I tried to wrote a simple Objective-C class then I compiled it using devkitARM. It was successful to produce the object file but the linker was complaint! The linker said it cannot found the Objective-C runtime. I tried to modify the linker rules file and no luck. I’ve tried Googling but I found no references. I’ve tried asking in devkitPro.org forum but no one answer! It was seemed no hope!

I just leave it be until the next week I tried it again. This time I tried to find command arguments of the linker. Because, devkitARM is using the arm-eabi compiler from Sourcery that is based on GCC then the Objective-C compiler is already there. I already proved that it can compiled Objective-C file. I just need to find a way to link it using the linker. It turns out that I just need to add one additional command line arguments to include the Objective-C runtime. And then, it successfully compiled and linking my Objective-C program. I’ve tried to instruct it to draw a pixel and a diagonal line to the screen and I was very happy to finally see the pixel and the line drawn on the screen. I’ve done it using Objective-C!

Ooh! What a relief!

The journey, just begun ...