Filed under: Gaming

Your parents ever do anything mean to you for their own amusement when you were a kid? Whatever it was, something tells us it wasn’t as evil as what Jonathan’s (above) family did, having him unwrap an empty Xbox box with some shirts inside — while on video, mind you — and then laughing at him when he got upset and cried that he’d been hoodwinked. For the love of all that is holy in the gadget-loving world, that is so wrong. The person who uploaded the video, supposedly the kid’s shining example of an older brother, claims that despite the fact they told Jonathan multiple times in the video, “C’mon, you know we can’t afford an Xbox!” the family actually did get him the console and that he’d eventually upload the video of the real unwrapping — he never did. (Original video after the break.)

Jonathan, you out there? Screw those people, they clearly don’t understand what it is to be a kid and to want an awesome gadget so badly you can taste it. We’ve been there our whole lives. Since, as a publication, we can’t just adopt you and raise you as our own, I will personally send you an Xbox 360 — only on the condition that you swear to us your douchebag family doesn’t ever get to play it. Hit me up at engadget at gmail dotcom, make sure you can identify yourself so I know I’ve got the right person.

[Thanks, Greg]

Continue reading Worst parents in the world punk kid into thinking he got an Xbox 360

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Original post by Ryan Block

Filed under: Gaming

It looks like Wii users wanting to expand their Guitar Hero arsenal (or replace an axe after they got a little too into things) won’t have to wait much longer, as Red Octane is now set to let loose a separate wireless Les Paul controller for the system. It doesn’t exactly come cheap, however, with the company listing the controller at $70 on its own website, although Toys R Us is now taking pre-orders for $60 (Best Buy and others don’t seem to be offering it just yet). What’s more, while Red Octane only goes so far as say “ETA: March 2008,” Toys R Us is giving a ship date of March 4th, so it looks like this one should be landing in your capable hands in no time.

Read – Red Octane
Read – Toys R Us

[Thanks, Nic]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Cellphones

We’ll be honest with you — it’s a bit disheartening to watch the (seemingly) inevitable happen to Helio. After all, it’s managed to soldier on despite hordes of other MVNOs hanging it up here in the US of A. Nevertheless, data gleaned from EarthLink’s most recent annual report shed some light on its deteriorating situation. Reportedly, Helio’s net loss “widened by 41.3-percent to $326.6 million in 2007 compared to $191.8 million in 2006,” yet revenues managed to grow 267-percent to $171 million from $46.6 million the year prior and subscriber growth rose 28-percent over last quarter to 180,000. Add those figures to the $42 or so million it lost in 2005, and we’re up to a grand total just south of 560 million American dollars. Tough times, indeed.

[Via Silicon Alley Insider]

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Original post by Darren Murph

Filed under: Gaming

We already knew it was coming, but if for some reason you’ve been holding out on buying a PSP until you could get a minty green model, you can now finally get your fix — in Japan, at least. As DCEmu points out, however, you can also go the importing route courtesy of SuccessHK, where the brightly-colored handheld demands the slight premium of $228 (plus shipping, of course). Or you could just wait a bit, save a few bucks, and get the God of War model with a bunch of bundled goodies, your choice.

[Via DCEmu, thanks Craig]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming

There’s certainly been no shortage of sad stories involving Xboxes, but when it comes to attempts to get the console repaired, this latest tale from a gamer known only as Nathaniel might have to take the cake. As you can see above, his console (one of the first to hit the market) boasted a good deal of personalization, including signatures from folks at Bungie and the Xbox 360 team, and a spiffy illustration by Rooster Teeth Comics artist Luke McKay. As with many other Xbox users, however, Nathaniel’s console eventually packed it in, and he was forced to send it to Microsoft for repairs. Needless to say, that’s when things took a turn for the worse. Despite calling ahead of time and getting assurances that his prized console would be sent back intact, and including a letter reiterating how much the console meant to him, Microsoft apparently took it upon themselves to clean it as best they could before returning it, leaving only a few faint smudges of permanent marker to ensure that it was, in fact, the same Xbox. There’s no word as to what Nathaniel plans to do next (other than weep), but given that Microsoft gave the royal treatment to someone that did nothing more than get a Zune tattoo, you’d think they could at least give the guy a few free points or something.

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

As if seeing the Commodore logo slapped on a whole slew of thoroughly unremarkable devices wasn’t enough to make folks of a certain age feel a little wistful for their early computing days, legendary game developer Microprose is now getting in on the action as well, and seemingly outdoing Commodore to boot. As the Classic Gaming website reports, Microprose, once known as the name behind Civilization, Railroad Tycoon and other classic games, is now set to release a bundle of new products that likely wouldn’t garner a second glance if not for the brand. Those include the MPI-500 digitial TV receiver and MPI-100 HDMI switch pictured above, as well as a series of REDLINE cabling products aimed at gamers, a battery pack/stand for the PSP, and the Microprose Arcade Professional PC joystick (pictured after the break), which at least brings a little old school flavor with it (including a trackball). No word on a price for any of ‘em just, but at least the joystick will apparently be available in May.

[Via Classic Gaming, thanks Curt]

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Original post by Donald Melanson

Filed under: Handsets, LG, ATT, GSM, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS

We knew there had to be a good explanation for the Vu’s name starting to show up on AT&T’s wares, and this just might be it. We’re hearing rumblings that the device, one of AT&T’s likely inaugural MediaFLO handsets, is apparently now set for a March 18 release into distribution channels with March 20 availability in stores. Of course, AT&T originally wanted this thing out at the beginning of this month, so we’ll believe it when we’re standing at the cash register with a box in our hands.

[Thanks, anonymous tipster]

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Original post by Chris Ziegler

Filed under: Handsets, RIM

Nice going RIM, you’ve successfully filed for a patent on a device that companies like HTC have been making since 2005. That’s right folks, your friends at Research In Motion have just thrown an application in the direction of the US Patent Office which should look painfully familiar. The company is calling it a “Hybrid Portrait-Landscape Handheld Device With Trackball Navigation and QWERTY Hide-Away Keyboard,” but we’re calling it the Wizard. We suppose it’s possible that the BlackBerry-maker has something up its sleeve that goes beyond the typical functionality of a phone like this, but nothing in the application seemed to indicate such a scenario. Did RIM even check out the competition before issuing this paperwork? It seems unlikely given the obvious and commonly used shape and design of this particular handset… oh, wait, this one has a trackball. Okay, our bad.

[Via BlackBerry Cool]

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Original post by Joshua Topolsky