Nintendo Can Remotely Disable New 3DS System

Nintendo can "brick" the 3DS using a system update.

Nintendo reportedly has a kill switch in place to disable the new Nintendo 3DS handheld if users are caught playing illegal games stored on unapproved SD cards. The news arrives by way of Japanese retailer Enterking who warns consumers about the possible 3DS "bricking" by Nintendo itself

iPad 2 Has Samsung Reconsidering 10'' Tab Price

We recoiled when we heard that the 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab was to cost €700 in Portugal. Though tablets do tend to cost more in Europe, we were still a little anxious to hear how much retailers would be charging stateside. However, it seems Samsung is already considering dropping the price of the 10-inch tablet, and it’s all because of Apple.

G.Skill's Phoenix II SSD Using SF-2000 Series

G.Skill is showcasing its new Phoenix II SSD series using the SandForce SF-2200 processor.

Tuesday G.Skill International displayed its new line of SATA 6 Gb/s-based SSDs, the Phoenix II, at CeBIT 2011. Similar to other SSDs recently announced by Patriot Memory and Corsair over the past week, the new Phoenix II uses the SandForce SF-2200 processor to achieve sequential read speeds of 550 MB/s and write speeds of 500 MB/s. Little else is known about the SSDs in regards to capacities and pricing. However, G.Skill said the Phoenix II drives will ship in the middle of Q2 2011.

Havok Tech Coming to PlayStation Phone Games

Xperia PLAY developers will now have access to Havok's middleware.

ZoomIf you thought that the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY would by just another fancy smartphone that can play PlayStation ports and app-sized Android games, then think again. Sony Ericsson and Havok revealed during Game Developers Conference 2011 that the latter company's middleware will now work with the PlayStation-sanctioned Gingerbread-powered smartphone.

"As part of Havok’s overall support for the Android platform, we are very pleased to partner with Sony Ericsson to put the full power of the Havok product line into the hands of Xperia PLAY developers," said Havok managing director David Coghlan. "We were extremely impressed by the performance of the Xperia PLAY and the ease with which we were able to port and optimize our technology to the platform."

For consumers, this means that developers will have access to Havok technology which will create "cinematic, rich 3D immersive games" for Android, especially the Xperia PLAY. According to Havok lead pre-sales engineer Steve Ewart, there's a particular set of hardware instructions on the PlayStation phone that's not on all the Android platforms. Those instructions and the phone's "relative hardware power" convinced the company to bring its middleware to the platform.

Thanks to all that horsepower packed under the hood, Ewart said that players will see more complex games than what's seen on previous mobile devices. "If you're going to have a physics simulation in there, and you're going to have lots of characters dying and piling up on each other – that's the core physics problem – you're going to need extra capabilities [like Havok's middleware] to push that particular scenario,” he told Gamasutra.

Set to launch this month on Verizon Wireless, the Xperia PLAY will arrive with 50 launch titles from Electronic Arts, Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Namco Bandai and numerous other publishers that was designed to make use of the phone's slide-out gamepad. Fifteen of these games will be ports of original PlayStation titles, one of which has already been confirmed to be the original Crash Bandicoot (booga booga).

Current titles which make use of Havok's middleware include Halo: Reach, Fable 3, LEGO Universe, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, Just Cause 2, DJ Hero 2, and numerous other games found on the PC and current gaming consoles. Havok tools include Havoc Physics, Havok Script, Havok AI, Havok Behavior, Havok Destruction and others.

Former Apple Exec Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud

Back in August of 2010, midlevel Apple manager Paul Devine was accused of taking as much as $1,000,000 in kickbacks from Apple partners....

Back in August of 2010, midlevel Apple manager Paul Devine was accused of taking as much as $1,000,000 in kickbacks from Apple partners. Devine was said to have used his position as a midlevel executive at Apple to gain access to confidential information, which he would then sell on to Apple suppliers.