Sony introduces wireless keypad
For PlayStation 3 fans who want to do more than mash buttons when playing games on the console, Sony Corp. is introducing a wireless keypad that can be attached to the system's controller for typing and Web browsing.
The Bluetooth-enabled keypad, available in November, is intended to make it easier to chat during multiplayer games. Currently players talk to each other over headsets with microphones. Gamers tired of inane banter from their peers may welcome the ability to communicate through typing instead.
Another feature is a button on the keypad that will let users turn it into a touch pad and use the entire surface as a mouse by sliding their finger over the surface. This, Sony says, will make it easier to browse the Web using the console.
There is already a wireless "ThumbPad" ($30) available for the PS3 from Mad Catz Inc., but this is a first from Sony itself.
Sony also will begin selling an enhanced PSP Oct. 14 for $200 as part of a bundle with "Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters," a game whose two heroes embark on an intergalactic search for a kidnapped girl. Another bundle with the new PSP and a 4-gigabyte memory stick will be available for the same price in November. The standalone system will cost $170 and is due out by the end of the year.
Intel, Yahoo join on Net TV concept
Hoping to plant their flags on the screens of Internet-connected television sets, Intel Corp. and Yahoo Inc. unveiled a new project Wednesday to populate those screens with tiny programs called widgets.
It would let people to do things like check their stock prices or peruse their photos all while watching TV.
In a screen shot provided by the companies, a baseball game airs on the main part of the screen while various programs, like a personalized Flickr photo gallery and a menu of on-demand movie rentals, run in a strip along the bottom of the screen. Intel and Yahoo are working with more than a dozen other companies to build and eventually deliver such widgets, including Blockbuster Inc., Comcast Corp., the Disney-ABC Television Group and MTV.
Credit : http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/26/ld6fctechbits26/
