Large venues like outdoor theaters, churches, and the CrunchGear home office might wanna look at Toshiba’s TDP-WX5400U DLP projector. This bad boy sports dual lamps and even an interchangeable color wheel that shoots out a 1280 x 800 16:10 image. When the two lamps are powered-on, the projector is capable of 5,400 ANSI Lumens. If ambient light isn’t a problem, it can run off just one 2,700 ANSI lumens lamp. Since this projector isn’t meant for the home theater/cinema, it lacks an HDMI input and opts for DVI instead. Even still if you have a bright room you need a projector in, all this can be yours for $6,299 right now from authorized Toshiba dealers.

We managed to grab the Canadian announcements for most of these new/updated Toshiba notebooks last Thursday (see this post for more info), but here’s the complete list for the official stateside releases that were announced today.

Toshiba Satellite Laptop Line Updated for Q4 Launch (Full press release)

• Satellite U405
• Satellite M305
• Satellite M305D
• Satellite A355 (no info yet)
• Satellite A305
• Satellite L305
• Satellite L355

Toshiba Launches Newest Ultraportable Innovation with Portégé R600 Laptop (Full press release)

• Portégé R600 photos

Toshiba Unveils 10th Generation Tablet PC with Launch of Portege M750 (Full press release)

• Portégé M750

Toshiba Expands High Performance Tecra M10 and Tecra A10 Laptop Series (Full press release)

• Tecra M10
• Tecra A10

We hope that you will join us here for today’s Apple event. Why CrunchGear? Well, our system does not force you to refresh the page for the latest news like some other gadget blogs which results in the quickest Apple live blog on the Internet - I guarantee it. 

Just sit back and let us feed you the latest news Apple announcements. Check back closer to the 1 est / 10 pst for the actual live blog. See you there!

You know that alleged cheap MacBook that is supposed to launch today? Yeah, there are reports that it isn’t a MacBook, but rather an updated Cinema Display with a DisplayPort input. The same rumors are stating that the entire Apple notebook lineup will not get any sort of price cuts today, rather receiving spec bumps and upgrades. Oh, and you have our word that this is the last Apple rumor/announcement/fanboy bait we will post before today’s 1 est / 10 pst Apple event. Pinky swear.

If you wanna ruin your Apple Notebook event with a couple of pre-show pic, hit the jump for two supposed pics of a coming MacBook Pro.

Honda’s humanoid Asimo has been around for more than four years now but it’s still highly popular in its homeland Japan. At Robo Japan 2008, an exhibition held in Yokohama last week, Honda presented the newest version of the 130cm tall, walking robot to the general public and it looks just awesome.

NEC today announced in Japan [JP] it has teamed up with Sanrio (the company behind the Hello Kitty brand) and French fashion designer Courrèges to develop a girls-only notebook for the Japanese market. The so-called “NEC LaVie G Hello Kitty Courrèges” will be available online and in selected Sanrio shops only [JP].

The Vista notebook will feature an AMD Athlon QL-60 processor (1.90GHz), a 13.3-inch WXGA screen (1280×800 resolution), a DVD drive, 2GB of main memory and a 160GB hard disk.

If you are interested in the Hello Kitty-notebook and have someone who can order it for you in Japan, you should hurry: Order by October 28th, and NEC will throw in a mouse and mouse pad in Hello Kitty style as an extra present.

The Nippon-only notebook will be available from October 25 (price: $1,100 without MS Office).

Sony presented the PSP-3000 to the general public for the first time during the Tokyo Game Show last week. I had the possibility to play “Clank & Ratchet: Maru Hi Mission Ignition!” and “Resistance: Retribution” on the new PSP and the display seemed to be a major improvement.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the possibility to test it outside the exhibition halls (under daylight) and there was no game running on a PSP-2000 for comparison (I was able to test the new model for about 30 minutes). The display is better but I couldn’t find any other critical differences to the PSP-2000 (aprt from the mic, obviously).

Regarding usability, the buttons and D-pad, for example, felt almost unchanged to me, even though Sony said they changed these parts of the hardware as well.

The PSP-3000 will be available in Japan starting this Thursday ($200).

Web-enabled deodorant dock uploads usage patterns
LaCie big boxin’ it with the 5Big RAID NAS
The giant glowing envelope means you’ve got mail
NetTansorWeb: Meet Bandai’s awesome blogging robot
Sega Toys Japan introduces mini jukebox for home use
Pumpkin carving contest pre-announcement

My first hands-on with this action/horror shooter from EA Redwood Shores was at E3 where Devin and I were both dumbfounded by what we saw. I couldn’t stop talking about it for hours and Devin eventually told me to STFU. It was dark, gruesome and I had to have it, which is why I attempted to ‘accidentally’ walk away with a build during E3. The graphics and gameplay alone had me sold but it was the soundtrack that put me over the edge. And EA was the last place I expected to find a shooter worth playing in an already saturated market.

The game is set hundreds of years in the future where we’ve ravaged the Earth of all its natural resources and now we’re scouring the far reaches of space to pillage other planets for their resources. For whatever reason the USG Ishimura has cut off all communications with the governing body that manages the pillaging of planets and a small maintenance crew is sent out to figure out what happened. This is where you takeover as Isaac Clarke and begin your lonely mission to find out what happened to the crew and try to find a way off the ship since yours is unfortunately blown to smithereens while trying to keep the rest of your crew alive. As you progress through each section of the Ishimura you’re tasked with little missions to fix what you can and along the way you find clues (usually audio clips) left by crewmembers that give insight as to what happened. Most are cryptic and I eventually stopped listening to them. You’ll find out why in just a bit. The storyline is entertaining, but it’s not something I focused on too much.

Your enemies throughout this space odyssey consist of various Necromorphs that get progressively harder to kill and just scare the shit out of you. The main feature of this game that piqued my interest at E3 was the dismemberment aspect and it lived up to all the hype. You have to dismember these creatures or they will come after you with their scythe-like limbs (hits to the body and head don’t do much, so go after the limbs) and your ammo situation can be limited at times, so you have to get creative. More on this later. I especially liked the curb stomping ala Gears of War that was thrown in and I spent a few minutes stomping dead enemies just to see the rest of their limbs dissipate.
About halfway through the game the Necromorphs are able to regenerate so you’re SOL if you get stuck in a room with a few too many beasties. However, with the click of the left joystick you’re presented with an illuminated path that shows you where you need to go. Kind of like the illuminated path that might show up on a plane if the power goes out. This was extremely helpful, but it’s a crutch that I fell back on many times simply because I could. To be honest without it I would have spent hours and hours just wandering around for no reason. It’s a blessing and a curse, but you do end up backtracking to unlock certain areas of the ship and it can get confusing at times. (This is also why I stopped listening to the audio logs)

Let’s talk about the weapons in Dead Space now. There isn’t any one weapon that’s worth zeroing in on, but my usual rotation consisted of a rifle, line gun, plasma cutter and flamethrower. Each having its own secondary function that I unleashed one too many times in elevator shafts inflicting damage that ultimately lead to my demise prematurely. But my favorite weapons were the line gun and plasma cutters. Each of these weapons can be upgraded via workbenches scattered throughout the ship and I typically focused on upgrading the capacity of each weapon whereas as a smarter player would have focused on improving the overall damage inflicted, but said player must also be savvy with the stasis utility. Remember the low ammo situations where you have to get creative that I mentioned earlier? Well, this is where a more veteran shooter would slow down their enemies via stasis and dismember the Necromorphs with a few pistol whips rather than unloading clips upon clips of bullets. Certain Necromorphs are unaffected by certain weapons so it’s a crapshoot when you encounter new enemies.

I’ve grown quite accustomed to the third-person shooter genre, but DS manages to revitalize the genre, which I feel is getting stagnant, whether we like it or not. The HUD system is like nothing else and I hope to see other developers clone or improve upon this system. You no longer need to pause mid-game or dart your eyes to the corners of your screen to see your vitals. Isaac’s life meter is exactly where you’re looking 90 percent of the time and stopping to look at how much ammo each weapon has or where you are on the map is a risk because the game keeps going even if you’ve decided to take a tiny break.

The zero gravity sections of the game were challenging and frustrating at the same time. It kept things fresh and trying to maneuver yourself while being chased by aliens had me sweating bullets at times. I can sort of imagine what it would be liked based on the zero gravity flight I took the other month and I’m pretty sure I’d be dead within seconds if I ever find myself in a real life space odyssey.

So, should you buy this game? You’re going to need something to keep yourself occupied before Gears of War 2 comes out. Heh. Honestly, I enjoyed Dead Space and it lived up to my expectations. If Bioshock creeped you out then you better wear a diaper when you load this game into your console. Pick it up today for the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

Pure Digital, the company behind the insanely popular series of easy to use “Flip” digital camcorders, is about to get even more insanely popular – especially with the customization crowd. Starting today, you’ll now be able to choose from hundreds of professional designs for the $179.99 Flip Mino camcorder.

If none of the available designs are to your liking, you can upload your own or use Flip Video’s “exclusive design engine – the Pattern Generator” to whip something up. What’s more, if you’re the creative type you’ll be able to add your own designs to the online marketplace and earn commissions each time one of your designs is chosen. You can opt for normal payment or have your proceeds go to non-profit causes.

The customization program was developed in cooperation with CafePress.com, so you’ll now be able to design and purchase custom Flip Mino camcorders from CafePress stores as well. Full release after the jump…

FLIP VIDEO FIRST TO BRING PERSONALIZATION TO CAMCORDER MARKET

Exclusive online marketplace lets anyone create, share, and sell designs for the super-sleek Flip Mino

SAN FRANCISCO, CA –October 14, 2008 — Pure Digital Technologies, makers of the best-selling Flip Video™ family of camcorders, today announced their latest innovation:  a new online service that gives consumers the power to design their own Flip Mino camcorder. Taking the popular personalization trend to a new level, the Flip Mino is the first electronics product to allow consumers to create their own eye-catching designs and then earn money from them. Users can either earn a commission each time their design sells on the exclusive Flip Video design marketplace or elect to have those design sales earn money for non-profit causes.

This latest Pure Digital innovation, which offers customers unlimited opportunities for self expression, builds on the success of the wildly popular Flip Video camcorder line and the stylish, super-sleek Flip Mino. After just one year in the marketplace, Flip Video has sold over 1 million camcorders and currently has the #1 and #3 best selling camcorders in the U.S., according to leading market research firm NPD.

Noting that personalization is now one of the biggest trends in technology, Pure Digital chairperson and CEO Jonathan Kaplan said, “We created the Flip Mino to be a simple, powerful way for the social networking generation to express themselves with video. And now they can express their creativity not only with the videos they make, but the camcorders they make them with.”

The Flip Video personalization platform, available at www.theflip.com, gives consumers unlimited options to customize the Flip Mino’s outer shell to fit their own individual personality — at no additional cost. They can choose from hundreds of designs created by leading design firms, including many from celebrated designers and iconic brands. They can also easily upload their own design, including images and graphics, to create a truly one-of-a-kind camcorder.  Adding to the fun, Flip Video provides an exclusive design engine — the Pattern Generator — that makes it easy for anyone to create a cool, stand-out design.  The custom camcorders are shipped within a few days of when a design is submitted. And, in a major twist on the personalization concept, consumers for the first time have the ability to add their creations to the marketplace with the option to profit from them. They can receive payment for each camcorder sold using their design or elect to have their designs raise money for non-profit causes.

The Flip Video personalization platform was developed in partnership with Café Press, a leading online marketplace.  Through this exclusive partnership, the millions of individual  Café Press can design Flip Mino camcorders to sell on www.cafepress.com or www.theflip.com.

Weighing in at just over three ounces, the remarkably slim yet powerful Flip Mino is the perfect combination of simplicity, quality and sleek design. It features an internal rechargeable battery and 2GB of on-board flash memory for 60 minutes of high-quality video.  The Flip Mino retails for $179.99.  All Flip camcorders are fully compatible with Windows software as well as Apple’s Mac video applications, including QuickTime, iMovie, and iDVD.

Who seriously thought that the Knight Rider remake was going to be good? I mean, come on; NBC is doing it? Maybe, just maybe, if FX, HBO, or Showtime was producing the remake, it would of had a chance. But if you are currently watching the show and don’t like what you see, you might enjoy this guys good ‘ol fashion blogging rant.

Note to all would be producers of TV and movies remakes. DO NOT DEVIATE FROM THE ORIGINAL STORY. If you think you’re gonna put your own spin on it and it will be wildly popular, you better take a look around before you spend the studios money.

4. KITT is too vulnerable. In the TV movie and the first 2 episodes, KITT was incapacitated. This is unacceptable. The car is the show… The car is the show… THE CAR IS THE SHOW! Don’t forget that.

My little tid-bit…K.I.T.T. isn’t a ’stang, even if it is a KR500 edition. He’s a Pontiac man.

But no, they’ve waited until the month before the man is out of office to create yet another executive position to mandate policy, probably with the advisement of a battalion of industry lawyers. Not only that, but they’ve stiffened penalties for piracy — home-grown piracy by ones and twos, not the organized piracy of Asia where factories pump out knockoffs by the million. “Counterfeiting and piracy costs the United States nearly $250 billion annually,” says the Chamber of Commerce. As if the album-rippers of the United Mom’s Basements of America have that kind of pull!
[image from an old Fark Photoshop contest]

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up on an upcoming contest that might require a little pre-planning on your part. In the spirit of Halloween we are going to host a pumpkin carving contest for a couple of awesome prizes. With the holiday quickly approaching, we didn’t want you carve your pumpkin before hearing about the contest. The prizes will be announced in the coming days, but trust us, it will be worth your time and the cost of a pumpkin.

Details:

• The pumpkin must have a geeky/nerdy/gadgety feel to it. Think iPhone, XBox, Pacman, BSG… along those lines.
• You must submit two pictures: one during the carving and one when it’s all done.
• There must be a Crunchgear sign printed or hand-written somewhere in the post-carving pic so we know you didn’t grab the image off the internet. No photoshop’n our logo in after you take the picture either.
• There will be three winners: The best one will win the big prize, but two random submissions will still win something good. 

More details to come…

Yes, yes, it’s a Tool-Assisted Speedrun. It’s a whole different thing from regular speed runs, although those can be pretty spectacular too (Portal single-segment in 13m06s, Super Metroid in 32m). The Super Mario 64 time attacks are getting to the ridiculously optimized state that until this point few games attain in the scene — Mega Man and the Sonic games are getting close. Just watch and enjoy.

I hope you really like the sound of Mario going “ya-hooo!”

Well said.

Come on, Casio, wouldn’t you rather be the company that gives consumers the benefit of the doubt? That might not get plastered all over the internet like this is going to be, but at least you won’t lose thousands of sales because of bad PR you could have avoided. Or maybe it would go on the internet — we just posted an exceptionally pleasant interaction with a Comcast person, although as I understand it, the guys at the Comcast store Matt is going to are hard at work reversing that goodwill.

Billy doesn’t have a pleasant outlook on the United States financial future saying at a Harvard Business School speaking event that we will experience a ’significant recession’ and 9% unemployment sometime in the future.

Higher personal and governmental debt are contributing to the U.S. economic slowdown, Gates said today in comments at Harvard Business School in Boston. The U.S. unemployment rate climbed to 6.1 percent in August and stayed at that level in September.

I hope there isn’t any need to point out the irony of his speaking venue, but when one of the richest men in the world speaks, you listen.

Ah, Black Friday. After working at Circuit City from 2000 to 2006, I don’t care how good the deals are, I’m sleeping in that day. This year is shaping up nicely though if the $99 GPS and $149 Blu-ray player rumors are true. Reportable, the GPS units are going to be top tier units from Garmin, TomTom, or Magellan and the Blu-ray player should be the Samsung BDP-1500. Still, I don’t care how cheap I can get a gizmo or widget, there is no way in hell its worth getting up at 3:00 A.M, only to wait outside in Michigan’s freezing November temperatures; my mother-in-law disagrees though.

Oh, it’s darling!

How can you not want one of these? It turns hard candy (mm, sour apple Jolly Ranchers) into cotton candy — a direct violation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics! I’m not sure Mambas qualify, they’re technically fruit chews, but if you leave them out, they get super hard (that’s what she said). Although I’m afraid might get kind of sticky (also what she said). Come on, candy-lovers! Get your carnival on!

Get it here for $160 plus shipping. (once again, something she said, but not in any way related to sexual relations)
[via Technabob]

The Averatec netbook that we caught “wind” of (pun majorly intended) back in August is now shipping. It’s called the Averatec Buddy and you’ll remember that it’s actually pretty much a rebranded MSI Wind, except that the Buddy has dropped the Bluetooth connection and popped in a 160GB hard drive.

Oh, and the 10.2-inch screen features AveraBrite! Also, Averatec lists the Buddy’s weight at 1.65 pounds with its three-cell battery, even though the 3-cell Wind weighs 2.3 pounds. I’m going to assume that Averatec’s weight is incorrect, because the site also says that it’s got a 12.1-inch WXGA screen even though the product’s title lists it as the “Averatec Buddy Notebook 10.2 in” – if they’ve got a 12.1-inch MSI Wind that only weighs 1.65 pounds, I’ll buy three of them.

Averatec Buddy [ShopAveratec.com]