Nintendo has seeded the DS2 development kit to a few selected companies, including the hardware itself. According to one developer, Nintendo said the DS2 was the first version and not final, but he is very impressed with the new controls:

It's genuinely the best thing I think I've ever worked with. I can tell you that it's got a 'tilt' function that's not dissimilar to iPhone, but does a lot more. We know that The Pokemon Company are getting special attention with it.

I wonder if this move was always on the cards or if it's just a reaction to Apple's huge success in the gaming arena, a success that has turned upside down both the idea of games distribution and some of the conceptions for mobile gaming previously set by Nintendo and Sony, especially when it comes to the importance of physical controls. Would the new DS2 include capacitive screens too? How could Nintendo one-up the sudden and serious threat that Apple now represents? We will have to wait a long time to discover the answers. Probably too much, probably way after the iPad and the next iPod/iPhone generation appear. [CVG]

They’re back at it again. The iPhone dev-team has released an update to their popular jailbreaking software, PwnageTool, for Mac OS X. The new PwnageTool — version 3.1.5 — boasts the ability to properly jailbreak Apple’s recently released 3.1.3 iPhone/iPod Touch firmware. Before you get too excited, the dev-team does offer up this proclamation, “Unless you’ve personally observed a problem with the reporting of your battery percentage, there’s no reason to update to 3.1.3.” For those that feel the need for a jailbroken iPhone or iPod Touch with the 3.1.3 firmware follow the read link; let us know how it goes in the comments.

Read

Sorry if we're the sort of folks to look a gift SD card reader in the mouth, but while we're oh-so-happy that Apple finally opened up application-enabled hardware development in iPhone OS 3.0, we really wish an accessory like this had been available for the iPhone right from the start. The new zoomIt SD card reader from zoomMediaPlus adds a bit of external, swappable memory to the iPhone and iPod touch at long last, giving you the ability to store your iPhone's pictures on the card, or pull stuff off it onto your handset using the free zoomIt app. Interestingly, this is coming to light just a couple weeks after we saw Apple's own similar solution for getting cameras into the iPad mix -- the SD and USB-adapting iPad Camera Connection Kit, which will be a mere $30. There's no word if Apple's adapter will work with the iPhone (we doubt it) or if the zoomIt will work with the iPad (perhaps), but the $60 pricetag on the zoomIt is a bit of a turn off. Also, it won't be shipping until April (though you can pre-order now for a $10 discount), so Apple may very well make up our minds for us by the time March rolls around.

zoomMediaPlus' zoomIt is the iPhone's long overdue SD card reader originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Not much to say here other than Apple has release an update to its ever popular iTunes application/store front/service/resource hog. Now standing at version 9.0.3, the update offers offers the following changes:

• iTunes no longer ignores your “Remember password for purchases” setting.
• Addresses problems with syncing some Smart Playlists and Podcasts with iPod.
• Resolves a problem recognizing when iPod is connected.
• Addresses issues that affect stability and performance.

Anyone else ecstatic that iTunes will actually remember your password when trying to get the latest Taylor Swift single?

Read

We let you in on one of Klipsch's little secrets when we revealed the Image X10i to the world back in December, and now that the company's highest-end iPhone-friendly earbuds will be shipping en masse within a month, we figured we'd grab a set and let you know if they were indeed worth their weight in gold (or just $349.99, really). The X10 has sat atop the company's most recent lineup of earbuds for awhile now, and with the raging success of the S4i came a stellar idea: add the same iPod / iPhone remote to the flagship set of 'buds. The X10i is just that -- a set of X10 earbuds with the iPhone remote that we highlighted in our S4i review. Needless to say, the X10i isn't aimed at the budget-minded listener, but we were most curious to see if these really were worth the $250 leap from the aforementioned S4i. Read on to peek our conclusion.

Continue reading Klipsch Image X10i iPhone-friendly earbud impressions

Klipsch Image X10i iPhone-friendly earbud impressions originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At this particular point, 50-something days away from the earliest iPad deliveries, we doubt too many people are up in arms about the iPad's ability to act as a jumbo iPhone. On the other hand, if we told you you can take pretty much the entire iPad experience and distill it down to your iPhone OS device, well you'd probably care a lot more, wouldn't you? To get that extra 3D flavor to your UI, including the fetching iBooks shelf and other iPad-specific touches, you'll need a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch, access to the Cydia app store, and the manpower to click past the break for the full instructional video. Come on, you know you want to.

[Thanks, Taimur]

Continue reading iPad UI gets ported to the iPhone and iPod touch

iPad UI gets ported to the iPhone and iPod touch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 30 Jan 2010 04:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bear with me on this one, alright? It’s a long shot, but part of me thinks this is a set up. Apple hasn’t gone over things like how notifications work, they didn’t address multitasking, and in some places, it felt like Steve & Co. purposely rushed over certain areas in the announcement.

What if there is going to be an iPhone SDK event/announcement before the Apple iPad actually hits stores? Apple said “late March” for the non-3G unit to be available and that’s curiously right when Apple usually holds its iPhone/iPod OS SDK events and where we’d most likely see iPhone OS 4.0 appear. Is it possible this is just to get the ball moving and Apple has some bigger stuff up its sleeve already? Multitasking, redone notifications, and a whole lot more, coming to both the iPhone platform as well as the iPad? Now, why release an SDK based on iPhone OS 3.2 and have devs code for that and then have to redo it, you might be asking, but iPhone 4.0, if it was announced in March would probably be a beta and not released to the public until June/July. That would give developers time to redo any applications for full 4.0 compatibility. Plus, the general public would get iPhone OS 3.2 while developers concurrently used iPhone OS 4.0 and developed for both that and the iPad. Maybe just wishful thinking, but heck, it would make sense.

There's no shortage of portable, wafer-thin speakers for iPods, iPhones and other pocketable media devices. But the Card Speaker, designed by IDEA International, has the trappings to make it stand out from the pack.

The Card Speaker is about the same size as an iPod and shares its design principles, too: simple and clean. The company claims it "puts most every mp3 accessory to shame with its good looks and crisp fidelity." The former may be true, though the latter remains to be seen.

Still, if its packaging is any reflection on the Card Speaker's sound quality, it could live up to its description. The portable speaker comes in a handsome case with space for a short 3.5mm cord and a USB cable for charging. The Card Speaker's battery lasts up to five hours on a charge, certainly enough time for a stranger to notice your portable audio set up and compliment you on its elegance.

The $75 Card Speaker comes in silver or black and can be had at The Ghostly Store. [Unplggd]

Nuvo has just released its $130 Ritmo "Advanced Pregnancy Sound System," which is a pregnant belly belt composed of four belly-firing speakers, with a built-in iPod pocket, 3.5mm jack and volume-regulating abilities. You could jack in your phone for a bit of long distance baby conversation, but for the most part you know this belt is going to be inundating your child-to-be with Josh Groban and The Ting Tings. And do you really want that on your conscience? There's video after the break.

Continue reading Nuvo's Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System jacks your baby in to your terrible music taste

Nuvo's Ritmo Advanced Pregnancy Sound System jacks your baby in to your terrible music taste originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A firmware update will bring two great features to the Zune HD this spring. The first is native XviD support, which is self-explanatory. The second requires just a tad more explanation.

The Smart DJ feature, now on the Zune's PC software, will make its way to the HD, offering on the fly track suggestions. That's OK—pretty similar to the iPod's Genius features—but what will make the feature great is that Smart DJ will also work over the Zune HD's Wi-Fi connection, allowing you to stream these suggested tracks from the cloud (instead of needing to have all that suggested music stored on the device already).

Good stuff. [CNET via SlashGear]

We know you were put off by the whole Twitter censorship debacle last month, but Microsoft and the Zune HD have moved past that (honest) and they want you to come along as well. They're enticing everyone to forget about that bone-headed move by, well, throwing everyone a bone and adding in Xvid support, part of full compatablity with MPEG-4 part 2 Advanced Simple Profile. DivX will not be coming out to play, but Smart DJ will be, a feature that isn't so much new but is newly portable, providing a counterpoint to the iPod's Genius and, since you can use it to stream content from the Zune Marketplace (when connected via WiFi) it begins to approach the functionality of apps like Pandora or Slacker Radio. Tasty, indeed, though at this point we're not sure when Microsoft will be throwing us this juicy firmware update.

Zune HD getting Xvid, Smart DJ, ever more appealing originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pure's WiFi-enabled radios are making their US debut here at CES, and we've gotten to grips with the top trio on offer. The Oasis (pictured above) is a weatherproofed, rubber-rich unit, which can resist splashes of water and go on for between 10 and 15 hours on a single charge. We agree it looks like a durable machine, but -- while it can reach some pretty high volumes -- the sound itself was predictably lacking at the furthest ends of bass and treble. Moving up in the world to the Sensia delivers a snazzier touchscreen interface with built-in Facebook and Twitter integration, but we clashed with some deal-breaking lag while using it. Finally, the top tier Sirocco 550 offers a more conventional styling to go along with a CD player (those still exist?) and an iPod / iPhone dock. Priced at $249, $349 and $449, respectively, these should all find American shelves to sing from by the middle of this year.

Pure Oasis, Sensia and Sirocco 550 internet radios hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Jan 2010 03:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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At least one TV provider is taking advantage of Sling's veritable bounty of new hardware, and rather predictably it is Dish Network. The rebranding (instead of being SlingLoaded, the ViP 922 DVR is now "with TV Everywhere", the Sling Monitor 150 is dubbed the Dish Network WiFi Monitor and the Slingbox 700U has become the TV Everywhere Adapter) is enough to make your head spin, but at least we don't have to miss our stories, thanks to the recently released Dish Remote Access Mobile App for iPhone and iPod Touch with remote scheduling and remote control capabilities for most Dish receivers. All of the hardware is scheduled to arrive in the second quarter, we'll need at least that long to get our Everywhere and Anywhere TV straightened out.

Dish takes Sling's new boxes for its own TV Everywhere in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iLuv, iPhone and iPod accessory maker extraordinaire, has a clever alarm clock dock which uses your Apple gadget and a customizable app as its interface. I doubt it'll get me out of bed any faster, but it certainly looks great.

The App Station's corresponding (and free) iLuv app drives the clock, allowing you to adjust settings and appearances. The entire thing also rotates so that you can have your screen set to your preferred orientation. We'll see this $130 dock at CES, but you'll be able to purchase it in February 2010. [iLuv]

L5 Remote turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a universal remote originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Nokia is going all-out in it patent fight with Apple: in addition to the lawsuit it's filed over GSM standards and last week's International Trade Commission complaint, Espoo just filed a second complaint with the federal court, alleging that Apple's infringing several "implementation patents" that cover everything from camera sensors to touchscreens. That's three fronts in the same war, if you're counting -- the original regarding GSM patents, and these two latest over specific device technologies. The biggest bombshell so far is the ITC complaint, in which Nokia's asking the commission to ban imports of basically every Apple mobile product from the MacBook to the iPhone for infringing its device patents -- a strategy we've seen in other high-profile cases. Since the ITC has the ability to move quite quickly, we'd expect that case to be the primary battleground for the moment -- but remember that Apple has plenty of its own incredibly broad patents of its own to fight back with here, so don't expect a quick resolution. Looks like 2010 is going to be awfully good for these attorneys, don't you think?

Nokia asks ITC to ban iPhone, iPod, and MacBook imports, files another lawsuit against Apple originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 04 Jan 2010 10:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Good news, everyone! Our very own iPhone / iPod touch app is finally really available in Apple's much talked about and critically acclaimed App Store! That's right, all the excitement and info you've come to know and love from Engadget is now bottled in an easy to digest and delicious iPhone form. The application -- easily downloadable from your device or iTunes -- features a whole bunch of useful features such as offline viewing, built in streaming for The Engadget Show, in-app tipping (you know, for when you see the next iPhone), and all kinds of customization options. You can download the app right here, or click on the image above.

Even better than this? We've got more apps on the way! Before CES (fingers crossed), you should see both a BlackBerry and webOS version of the Engadget application, and plans for the Android version are already in motion.

Lastly, a big, big, big thanks to the team at AOL that actually made this thing a reality: Sun Sachs, Andy Averbuch, Hareesh P, Anibal Rosado, Rajesh Kumar, Rich Foster, Claudeland Louis, Mike Wolstat, Eric Wedge, Vikas B R, Asha Indira and Bob Gurwin. You guys rule.

Engadget for iPhone / iPod touch: available now! originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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