Ask Engadget: Which mouse is the best mouse?

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Features, Peripherals

Excuse us as we again present one of our own questions for you, dear Ask Engadget reader, to solve: what mouse should we buy? While most of us here at the Engadget HQ have some considerable mousing experience, from roller balls to laser mice and everything in between (even the oft-dreaded Mighty Mouse), it'd take a lifetime to give every mouse a fair shot at revolutionizing our point and click experience, and we're afraid we might be missing out on some true gems. Any favorites? Any carpal tunnel horror stories? Anybody still rocking a trackball? Let us know how you do in the comments, and we'll be sure to return to reader-submitted queries, which you can send in to ask at engadget dawt com, next week.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Packard Bell intros Fresh, Eclipse media players

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

We're not exactly sure what's up with the chewing gum-inspired names here, but apparently, Packard Bell thinks they're pretty "original." All laughs aside, the 1GB / 2GB Fresh DAP (shown after the jump) could easily be a distant cousin to the FunKey Town, and it weighs in at just 23.5-grams, plays back MP3s, sports a blue backlit screen and should last around half a day on a single AAA cell. As for the Eclipse (available in 2GB, 4GB and 8GB), it's reportedly the very first media player from the firm that handles video, and more specifically, it's designed to understand MP4, WMV, XviD, MP3, WMA and WAV file formats; additionally, it sports a 2.2-inch color display, a rechargeable Li-ion, USB 2.0 connectivity and six equalizer presets. If you're wondering how much loot it'd take to snag one of these European-bound units, word on the street has the Fresh landing for €30 ($43) / €40 ($59), or you could opt for the much more versatile Eclipse if you're cool with unknown pricetags. [Warning: PDF read link]

[Via Electronista, image courtesy of Notebook Italia]

 

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Microsoft sort of owns up to the Xbox 360 Arcade

Filed under: Gaming

Well, it looks like Microsoft has acknowledged what we've known for almost a week -- the Xbox 360 Arcade is real and shipping. When asked by the Financial Times, Microsoft's Robbie Bach said the $279 console was designed to draw in gamers who are "more casually focused, they're looking for a new family experience or they're more price focused." Robbie might want to tell the rest of Microsoft that the cat's out of the bag though -- their PR reps are still telling our buds at Joystiq that they don't have anything to announce.

[Via Joystiq]

 

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Ask Engadget: What's the best home theater display out there?

Filed under: Ask Engadget, Displays, Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment

We're a bit short on reader-submitted questions on Ask Engadget this week -- speaking of, send your questions to ask at engadget dawt com and you've got a good shot at getting it some air time -- but it's alright 'cause we've got a question of our own:

A buddy of ours is setting up a home theater, and has decided to really go all out. Unfortunately for him, there's no clear choice between display technology. DLP claims this, plasma claims that, LCD claims another, and there's always some dang projector floating around promising the bliss of unlimited screen size. So, assuming price is no object -- in the sense that he's willing to really invest here, not that he just likes flinging his money around -- and our buddy is looking for the best possible quality in his 42-inch+ display that will be situated in a moderately sized, fairly glare-free living room, what would you pick for him?

Hopefully that's enough to go on, but if not you can always resort to calling the DLP kids cheapskates and making fun of the LCD fans' refresh rates.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

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Nokia Q3 profits jump 85% to $2.2B

Filed under: Cellphones

While everyone else was distracted by some touchscreen thing, Nokia spent the past quarter absolutely dominating the worldwide market for low-end phones, and the results, announced today, seem like the company might have the right idea: Nokia's profits rose 85 percent to 1.56B euros ($2.2B) on a sales increase of 28 percent to 12.9B euros ($18.2B). Although the increase this quarter was chalked up to increased sales of phones that cost less that $40 in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, sales did fall in North America -- something Nokia will have to turn around if the company is to achieve its goal of a worldwide 40 percent market share. That's for another day, though -- for now, onnentoivotus!

 

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SCEA CEO Jack Tretton wants you to buy both a PS3 and a PS2...to save money

Filed under: Gaming

While we're not going to complain about the launch of the cheaper 40GB PS3, we are still kind of miffed that it isn't backwards-compatible with our huge library of PS2 games -- especially since newer PS3s retain compatibility through software emulation and not specialized hardware like earlier models. Not to worry though, because Sony Computer Entertainment America CEO Jack "Daniels" Tretton is here to dazzle you with mathematics: according to Jackie, the consumer actually benefits from Sony's move to cut emulation, because now you have the opportunity to buy both a $399 PS3 and a $129 PS2, for a grand total of $528, which is -- wait for it -- less than the original 60GB PS3's price of $600! Of course, what Mr. T here is forgetting is that most people would prefer a single, $399 PS3 with backwards compatibility (and rumble, for good measure), but really, once you get spinning that fast it's awfully hard to stop.

[Via Joystiq]

 

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BYU's Spilling creation takes handheld displays to tabletops

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays, Handhelds

If you've ever tried to manipulate an Excel file (or similar) on a 320 x 240 resolution display in the palm of your hand, we totally understand your pain. Thankfully, a few dutiful individuals at BYU have concocted a snazzy way to get handheld imagery onto tabletop displays, and there's even a video to prove it. To demonstrate, the team utilized a Sony VAIO UX, which was mounted on a conductive frame that "established an electrical connection between the user's grasp and the unit's feet." Once the UX was placed on a larger display, it then beamed its images out and even allowed users to scroll around or reposition the output by simply touching the display and / or moving the UX. Granted, the actual technology behind all this "Spilling" is more complicated than we've room to mention, so just do yourself a favor and peek the (slightly monotonous) video in the read link. [Warning: Video link has been known to crash browsers, view at your own risk]

[Thanks, Brian W.]

 

[via] Engadget