Why is it that everyone is expecting non-phone devices to come out with phone iterations? I mean, yeah, the iPhone rumor ended up coming true, but does that really mean we want to deal with Zune Phone, PSP Phone, and Google Phone rumors for the next year? Aren't you people ever satisfied?!
Apparently not. I'm skeptical about Sony Ericsson making a PSP Phone just because Sony's been using the XMB interface on a bunch of different products, but Pocket Gamer went ahead and looked at the possibilities of Sony Ericsson creating a PSP phone, including a wish list of features. They've got some good ideas in there, but somehow missed out on the major point that Sony missed with the original PSP: good games. Oh, and make sure it can play UMDs, I'm beginning to think it was a bad idea to replace my DVD collection with them!
What would you want to see on a PSP phone? –Adam Frucci
PocketGamer [via Kotaku]

Filed under: Transportation

With relative paupers taking jaunts into space at a pretty regular clip these days, it certainly would be no financial burden for the world's richest nerd to indulge his astronautical fantasies, and now a Russian cosmonaut aboard the International Space Station claims that Microsoft founder and Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Bill Gates may be planning to do just that. In an interview broadcast from the ISS, Fyodor Yurchikhin repeated the assertions of current space tourist and former Gates co-worker Charles Simonyi that Mr. Microsoft himself "is also preparing to visit space," although Space Adventures -- which organizes these indulgent expeditions -- says that it has had no contact with Sir Bill so far. So in the absence of any official word from the Gates camp, we can only look to the man's personality for hints as to whether or not this fantastic voyage will take place -- and seeing how there's already been an iPod in orbi...

In light of yesterday's rumors about Zune 2.0, I'd remembered an anon tip that came in two weeks ago along with this puzzling photograph of a Zune with an approximate 16:9 wide screen. (Compare that to ye old Zune 1.0's screen) I dismissed it then, but now, it makes a little more sense with all this talk of a screen covering 75% of the surface. We're not ones to say if its real or fake. The angle at which the photo is taken would make it harder to hack for an amateur Pchopper. But you can see some strange pixelation on the right side of the screen that looks like someone took a retouching tool to it, and there appears to be a seam higher up on the LCD. It's hard to tell at this resolution. The rest of the email verifies last night's rumor, except for the fact that this 16:9 Zune is sized like the HDD Zune. The info gathered by Zune Scene from a Microsoft employee claims that only the flash Zune had the wider screen. Keep those tips coming, friends. We can't report this one without good...

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video
The fine folks over at Zune Scene are claiming an unwitting Microsoft employee bared it all to them, not even realizing who, in fact they were. What was supposedly learned from this fortuitous encounter? Well, the second full-sized Zune and its flash counterpart will both be out this year. The full-size Zune will look aesthetically similar and have the doubleshot plastics, but will be a bit thinner. The flash device will be video capable and have a large display that "covers about 75% of the [face]", while staying about 3 x 1.25 x 0.25-inches in size. Even though the flash-based device will have the same (lame) WiFi, Microsoft's expecting to pump out 2.4 million next-gen Zune devices before holidays 2007. Believe it? Sure, we'd like to think some design-envelope-pushing devices are en route, but the Zune's faults aren't about to be resolved by a thin n' sexy flash version, we can tell you that much.

[Image from our Des...

You're doing a great job of posting hilarious, poignant, provocative or just plain dumb pictures to Richard Felix's SlickrFrame, an Internet-connected digital picture frame that displays any picture on the Flickr photo sharing site tagged with the word "slickrframe". Richard's getting lots of spectacular shots in our performance art/Web 3.0 experiment, and he's giving you until 11:59:59, Wednesday, April 11th to tag your best pics for entry in his contest where he's giving away a Microsoft Zune and Slingbox AV. Follow the link below for contest rules and a huge list of prizes.
By the way, there are more than 4000 photos entered, and you can see them all here or go to Flickr and search for the tag "slickrframe". Or to see the photos as Richard does on his SlickrFrame, can download Slickr, the excellent open-source screensaver with effects and smooth zooms that shows all the pics with your chosen Flickr tags.

Upload your pictures you'd like to enter on the Flickr ph...

So we knew the red (and pink and orange) Zunes were coming, but surprise surprise, the red Zune will include some interesting sports content to cater to the sports nuts out there, or so the rumor hounds at Crunchgear say. Supposedly you will be able to select your favorite team and the Zune will be able to download games as podcasts, which could be handy if you miss a game or don't live in the area of your favorite team and miss all of the regional broadcasts on TV.
There are definite perks to something like this, especially for sports fans, but there are all kinds of problems that could be associated. Is it full games or just highlights? I don't see myself wanting to actually download a three hour baseball game and then proceed to watch it on a Zune screen. The jury is still out, but I'll try to give it a shot as soon as I can, given these rumors are correct. –Travis Hudson
Rumor: Red Zune to Include Exclusive Sports Content [CrunchGear]

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Xbox_360_now_with_H_264_MPEG_4_PlaysForSure';Color us tickled, but we totally missed some of the finest points of all in Microsoft's Xbox 360 spring Dashboard update: they're totally tricking out the video (finally!). No longer will we be confined to our very least favorite video codec, WMV -- the new update will enable Windows Media Connect or Media Center streaming MPEG-4 up to 8Mbps, H.264 up to 15Mbps, and PlaysForSure WMV videos (and, as we understand it, PlaysForSure audio as well). Wow, finally we can actually use the 360 to play video that wasn't recorded off our Media Center or converted by our Zune software (cough, hack). See, was that so hard, Microsoft? Now just hold on to your asses until the week of May 7th, Xbox fans, that's all you've gotta do. 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as ...

Filed under: Announcements, Wireless
Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Wireless Device or Technology of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: 802.11n (draft 1.06), HSDPA, Nabaztag/tag WiFi rabbit, Microsoft Zune, and Ultrawideband wireless USB.

View Poll
 
Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Back in September, it appeared as the Zing, a flash-based Wi-Fi-enabled music player with the un-Zune-y ability to download tracks wirelessly from an Internet service. At CES, it was re-named Connect and announced as part of SanDisk's successful flash-player lineup. Now it's shipping—4GB of internal flash memory, 2.2-in. TFT color screen and a microSD slot for expansion up to 8 gigs, for $250. Today's news is that it comes with a bunch of Yahoo-related perks.
When you're in Wi-Fi range, your Yahoo ID will get you over-the-air LAUNCHcast radio, access to Flickr, and the ability to see the music played by Yahoo Messenger friends, if you have any. (You can't send IMs though.) If you subscribe to Yahoo's Music Unlimited To Go service, you can download straight to the device, and even pick up music that your friends are playing.
It's a pretty cozy set-up, but it does beg the question: what happened to Rhapsody? Last fall, SanDisk and Rhapsody were friendly enough to c...

Filed under: Portable Audio
Yes, that light pink rectangle you're looking at is an official shot of the Pink Zune, in all its magnenta-ish glory. We all knew it was coming -- and we've seen the rather more garish 100-unit hot pink Zune before -- so this isn't exactly the biggest news 'round these parts. No, if Microsoft really wanted to impress us, they'd take their minds off planning a targeted, 100,000 unit production run of pink cases and set their mind to really fixing the Zune. One of the fixes is sorta down already, but there's at least four more things that we think need to change in order for the social to get more get members. Last time we checked, a Zune in a lighter shade of pink wasn't one of them, and neither was one in red.Continue reading Official Pink Zune gets 100,000 unit production run
 
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-ti...