CrunchGear

I’m not sure whether to jump for joy or cower in abject terror. Pyramid Head, the enigmatic and utterly terrifying boss-monster from Silent Hill, is making another appearance, this time in the new Silent Hill: Homecoming.

The game will be coming out on 360, PS3, and PC (simultaneity unconfirmed) and will doubtless be another pants-moistening romp through the titular town, encountering various beasties representative of unresolved psychological conflicts. I’m looking forward to it.

It appears that Creative has released a new MP3 player in the ZEN Krystal. Unfortunately, it seems that it’s only available in Hong Kong at the moment but perhaps it’ll eventually make its way stateside.

The Krystal runs for about $90 and features 4GB of storage, OLED display, simple drag and drop file management (no drivers required), FM radio, voice recorder, three games, and – get this – a built-in pedometer, calorie counter, and stopwatch. Not bad for under $100, huh?

Still, if you’re a workout nut who happens to use Windows (it’s Windows-only), you could do much worse. We’ll keep an eye on whether or not this thing’s coming to our neck of the woods any time soon.

Creative ZEN Krystal [hk.creative.com via anythingbutipod]

You can chat with us during the show via AIM by pinging username “crunchtips” or call into the show at (646) 200-4163 should the mood strike you.

Here’s the link for today’s show…

Friends of the Crunch Limor Fried and Phil Torrone are putting together open source DIY videos at CitizenEngineer.com. They’ll be talking about esoteric subjects like GSM, electronics, and circuit bending. Their first video, about SIM cards, includes plans for making your own SIM card reader. It’s an amazingly detailed video and we can’t wait for the next installment.

Previously declared the leading next-generation console worldwide, the Nintendo Wii has now surpassed the Xbox 360 to become the leading next-generation console in the U.S. Last month, Nintendo sold over 666,000 Wii consoles versus 405,500 PS3s and 219,800 Xbox 360s, according to NPD Group, Inc. Wii games are also selling well, as NPD says that six of the ten top selling games last month were Wii titles.

[via Bloomberg]

This Best of Craigslist [NSFW] post involves a young man requesting a young woman to arrive at a hotel room and then accept rear penetration while she plays Super Mario Brothers on the NES. The entire post is fairly detailed, ensuring that no one with a modicum of good sense or intelligence will take this young man up on his offer. I have taken the liberty of cleaning up the post after the jump, ensuring you won’t be caught by your boss reading erotic Mario fan fiction. Instead, it now basically reads like a GameFAQs walk-through.
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Hype, hype, hype. Now that the iPhone 3G launch has blown over and I’ve been able to integrate the phone into my daily routine, I think we’re ready for an official CrunchGear review. Our advice? Wait. With 60% certainty I predict a minor hardware or, more likely, software update in the next month or to improve the 3G’s thus far abysmal battery life.

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Here are some actual product shots of the TSA-friendly MobileEdge cases that we covered about a week ago. I’m still not 100% convinced that TSA bags, in general, can live up to the promise of substantially increasing airport security lines. It’ll only take one screening agent to throw a fit when someone hasn’t removed their laptop, only to find out that it was in a TSA-approved bag all along. Plus, how long does it take you to remove your laptop for the security line? It takes me under ten seconds. I basically unzip my bag, pull out my notebook, and place it in a tray.

Still, perhaps all those ten seconds increments will add up over time. These MobileEdge bags will be available later this summer and I’m guessing they’ll be pretty high-quality, yet not too expensive. Full press release after the jump…

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I don’t have any children but from what I’ve heard, they’re quite a nuisance. If you have kids that are just starting to drive a car, why not purchase this dash-mounted camera with built-in GPS logger and Google Earth compatibility? You’ll be able to playback video of recent trips complete with a nice little GPS overlay on the right-hand side of the screen. Aside from keeping the driver of your car honest, you can also capture the A-hole that just cut you off, the other A-hole that just slammed into you, or the third A-hole that’s doing 45 on the highway while talking on his BlackBerry.

You can either manually record certain aspects of your trip or the camera will automatically start recording when it detects “sudden acceleration, braking, and sharp turns, as well as back and forth, right and left and up and down vibrations.” Video is recorded onto SD cards for easy playback. The whole getup costs $450 – looks pretty cool if you need a system like this. Full specs after the jump…

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Guitar Hero addicts now have another title to tame the shakes in “Guitar Hero III: Backstage Pass” for mobile phones. The game is similar to past mobile GH offerings except that this time, “there is an added element of working to get gigs and seeing what it’s really like for an artist to work their way to the top," said Niccolo de Masi, President of Hands-On Mobile. So aside from just rocking out, you’ll also handle some behind-the-scenes stuff like generating buzz, making demo tapes, doing press interviews, signing recording contracts, and so forth.

All in all, there’s about 25 hours of gameplay and you can download new guitars and music by joining the Backstage Pass community online. The game is available today and can apparently be downloaded on most phones and carriers by either texting STAGE or BSP to 46966, although I kept getting an error. Prices vary by carrier.

Guitar Hero: Backstage Pass [bsp.guitarheromobile.com]