Eclectic Electronics

Piano gloss black Nintendo Wii and blood red Nintendo DSi, arriving in Japan
NEC CRV43 43-inch curved 2880×900 monitor
The CrunchPad is looking mighty sleek! Launch prototype revealed.
ColorWare makes purchasing butt-ugly colored gaming consoles easy
Apple to start charging when apps are redownloaded via iPhone?
Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 leaked?

Piano gloss black Nintendo Wii and blood red Nintendo DSi, arriving in Japan

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 05:00 PM PDT

As always, Japan gets these nice colored and unique Nintendo gaming consoles first. Remember those Pink, Lime Green and Metallic Blue DSi’s? Introducing new colors seems to be a good marketing tactic for both Nokia and Nintendo.

Prices of these new colored Nintendo’s will be the same as the standard released colors. ¥18,700 (approximately $195 USD) for the Nintendo DSi and ¥25,000 (approximately $260 USD) for the Nintendo Wii. No word on a US release.

The blood red Nintendo DSi will be available starting July 11, 2009 and the piano gloss black Nintendo Wii will be available starting August 1, 2009.

[via Nintendo Japan Press Release and Tiny Cartridge]

NEC CRV43 43-inch curved 2880×900 monitor

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 04:00 PM PDT

The NEC CRV43 was first spotted at CES 2009. It is composed to four DLP displays (color transition doesn’t look so good though, you can see what I mean… here) which add up to 43-inches curved screen real estate.

I’m actually quite surprised that the curving of the display doesn’t insanely distort things but color transition is really bad! Just wait ’til you find out how much they’re gonna charge you for this thing.

Specifications include 2880 x 900 resolution (double WXGA, 32:10 aspect ratio), 200 cd/m2 brightness, 10,000:1 contrast ratio, "wide color gamut with 100% coverage of sRGB and 99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB," DVI/HDMI inputs, and built-in USB hub.

The only downside? It costs a jaw-dropping $7,999, that includes 3-years warranty on both parts and service. You’re better off getting a quad 24-inch LCD monitor setup rather than this. The NEC CRV43 will be available starting July 2009.

And by the way, the device doesn’t seem to be an LCD as CrunchGear indicates. It’s too thick at 15.2-inches to be an LCD.

The NEC CRV43 curved display includes the following features:

Seamless curved screen, which eliminates bezel and screen gap issues for increased productivity and decreased frustration (according to Center for Human-Computer Interaction - Shupp et al, presented at Graphics Interface 2006)

2880 x 900 double WXGA native resolution

200 cd/m² brightness

0.02ms Rapid Response

10,000:1 contrast ratio

Wide color gamut with 100% coverage of sRGB and 99.3% coverage of Adobe RGB

Single link DVI-D and HDMI 1.3 input connectors

USB 2.0 connectivity for easy use of peripherals

Front panel controls

On Screen Display (OSD®) and software-based GUI, which enables advanced display control options

[via GadgetReview and SlipperyBrick]

The CrunchPad is looking mighty sleek! Launch prototype revealed.

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 03:00 PM PDT

I would have to say that I never thought the CrunchPad would look this thin and sleek. It looks quite different than when it was first leaked (or maybe it’s just the piano gloss black finish).

Notable changes that have been made for this almost-final launch prototype:

thickness decreased to 18mm
aluminum casing instead of plastic (I wonder if that’ll have an effect on the rumored $300 or less pricing?)
screen is now flush with the case

The operating system is reportedly Linux based and it boots directly into the internet browsing.

[via TechCrunch]

ColorWare makes purchasing butt-ugly colored gaming consoles easy

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 01:00 PM PDT

Now it’s possible to have your very own unique, fun-colored, psychedelic Nintendo DS Lite! ColorWare “colorizes” gaming consoles, from the PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi, and even controllers!

Seriously though, unless you like skittles candies that much, you’re better off sticking to the colors that Nintendo periodically releases from time to time.

They also customize other gadgets such as the Kindle 2. You can either send your device or console in and they’ll customize it for you or you can directly purchase the device from them (not sure how that affects the warranty though).

Apple to start charging when apps are redownloaded via iPhone?

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 12:00 PM PDT

When new software updates arrive for smartphones or mobile phones, people always tend to think that everything is turning out for the better.

Well, apparently not for the iPhone OS 3.0, because it appears that Apple will possibly be charging you again if you want to redownload an app on your iPhone/iPod Touch that you already purchased. Redownloading via iTunes on your computer is still free though.

I don’t exactly get Apple’s mindset on this move. If they’re allowing people to redownload the purchased software via iTunes on a computer for free, why restrict it from being downloaded directly into the device? Redownloading directly to the device saves you the hassle from syncing your iPhone with iTunes.

[via The Apple Blog]

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X2 leaked?

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 11:00 AM PDT

The photo on the left is what appears to be Sony Ericsson’s XPERIA X2, according to an anonymous tip over at Engadget. The WIndows key on the top left part of the keyboard is pretty much a giveaway that it will be running on Windows Mobile. 6.5 perhaps?

The keyboard also appears to have a better layout and the screen is not as stretchy or wide as it used to be on the SE XPERIA X1. No exact word on whether the photo shows a prototype or whatever, but it sure does look quite convincing.

[via Mobile Mentalism]