matt buchanan

Supaboy Hands On: The Littlest Super Nintendo

For an engorged SNES controller stuffed with SNES guts, a 3.5-inch screen, a rechargeable battery and loaded up with an original F-Zero SNES cartridge, the Supaboy is surprisingly un-weighty. It’s bulky—and I’m not even talking about the fact is plays giant, old school SNES cartridges—just shy of effortlessly comfortable. It definitely leans on the “retro”…

Hey City People! You Can Finally Play Kinect Without Serious Risk of Bodily Injury

There’s not much to say about Nyko’s wide-angle lens attachment for the Kinect—which widens and shortens the Kinect sensor’s point of view, allowing you (and a friend) to play way closer to the sensor—except that it works. I played the Kinect Adventures dodgeball game just a few feet away from Kinect, and it worked perfectly:…

These Batman: Arkham City Controllers Won’t Decapitate Anybody

Here’s a first look at Power A’s Batarang controllers in the flesh. They’re more mediocre “Xbox peripheral” than deadly weapon, but if you like lights, they’ve got those!

Here’s Mad Catz’s Official Xbox 360 Wireless Headphones

Mad Catz’s official Xbox 360 headsets has one thing nobody else has: They’re totally wireless. There are three models, but the two you care about are the Warhead and Devastator. The former’s Dolby 7.1, the latter’s stereo. I didn’t get to wear them, much less listen to them, so I can’t tell you the two…

Power A’s Tiny Controllers for Tiny Hands

Mike got to use Power A’s slightly shrinkified controllers back in January—the PS3 and Xbox models are fine, but it’s the 20 percent smaller, totally rubberized Wii remote that’s a surprise dynamo. And it lasts longer than before, with AA batteries replacing last year’s AAA.

The PlayStation TV: A 3DTV That Shows Different Images to Two Players

Whoa! A PlayStation TV. It’s a $500 24-inch 3D TV that Sony’s promising delivers “best in class” entertainment for way more people than are able to currently afford 3D. It looks like a giant PSP, sorta. Update: Hands on. It’s, well, nice. Set up in the fake, entirely-too-clean dorm room Sony had on hand, the…

Nintendo Wii U Hands On: An Entirely Different Way to See Things

It looks like the product of a fevered fanboy wetdream. A 6.2-inch touchscreen, surrounded by dual analog sticks and oodles of buttons. Like the portable hardcore gamers wish Nintendo made. But it’s the most incredible controller ever. I’m completely immersed in my own tiny world with the Wii U controller, staring into the screen, moving…

Nintendo Wii U Gallery

PlayStation TV Gallery

Windows 8 and Its Incredibly Cool New Touch Interface

So, this is the new Start screen for Windows 8. It’s a brand new interface for tablets. It looks a lot like Windows Phone Live Tiles. And hey, that looks like an app store. The whole point of Windows 8, which is just a codename, is to be one OS that’ll run on regular computers…

Last Xbox Creator Leaves Microsoft (and Why That’s Depressing)

Entertainment & Devices is the division of Microsoft that makes the cool shit. Xbox, Zune, Windows Phone. Courier. J. Allard was its figurehead for years. He left. And now Otto Berkes, the last original Xbox founder, is gone too As the Seattle Times reports, Berkes didn’t just help create the Xbox, along with Ted Hase…

BlackBerry PlayBook Review

No, it’s not bad, like you expected it to be. The BlackBerry PlayBook isn’t just the third major tablet platform to launch, or the first one to deeply poke at figuring out why 7-inch tablets should exist—it’s literally the future of BlackBerry, since the QNX-based OS is going to be the gooey software heart of…

PlayBook Gallery

Shot from rear cam Shot from front-facing cam

How to Buy an HDTV

If there’s one thing that actually sorta makes sense to buy on Black Friday, it’s an HDTV—many are crazy discounted. But picking out an HDTV can be a big ball of suck. That’s where this guide comes in. The 3DTV cheat Want to buy a set knowing that it’ll have excellent performance without having to…

Deep Inside Xbox 360 Kinect and Why It’s the Future of Microsoft

Kinect is more than an Xbox 360 peripheral, it’s the future of Microsoft, or at least a very possible one. It’s the beginning of Microsoft’s plans for natural user interfaces, the step beyond the thing you’re staring at right now. *** Kinect is as much a product of serendipity as anything else. When Microsoft hired…

Inside Kinect Gallery

Image courtesy Microsoft Image courtesy Microsoft Image courtesy Microsoft

Kinect Design Gallery