Hardware

LOS ANGELES--Nintendo had already unveiled the Wii U well before E3 started, but there were a lot of things going into this show that we didn't know. Nintendo's keynote spent a great deal of time detailing what the Wii U can do, what its online and app services are, and what games we can expect to see. A small amount of time was also spent on the Nintendo 3DS, but today's event was clearly dedicated to the Wii U.

What we didn't get, however, was a date and price. Not surprising, but anticlimactic all the same.… Read more

Microsoft plans to expand its $99 Xbox subscription offer to all U.S Best Buy stores and some GameStop stores later this month, according to an entry posted in a company blog today.

The deal is for a limited number of users for a short period of time, but if there is enough interest, the company may expand the offer again, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Currently, the offer is exclusively available at 17 Microsoft stores. The $99 offer combines an Xbox 360 and Kinect motion sensor with a two-year service contract. … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Nintendo's Wii has always stood apart from the other major consoles of this generation of game machines. It was pitched as, and found great success by, being the game console for nongamers.

The controls were deceptively simple. A magic wand to wave in the air, with a couple of buttons that many games ignored. There was an add-on with extra inputs for games that required it, but many of the best Wii experiences concentrated on that kinetic action of hand-on-wand.

That simplicity was the secret to how Nintendo sold so many Wiis. And while motion and gesture control … Read more

"Predicting is hard, especially about the future," quips Vint Cerf -- and he should know.

That's because about 30 years ago, when the now-famous engineer was helping to design the technology that powers the Internet, Cerf decided just how many devices could connect to the network. His answer -- 2 to the 32nd power, or 4.3 billion -- looked awfully big at the time. A few decades later, we now know it's far short.

Accordingly, Google's chief Internet evangelist and one of the few people at the company who looks natural in a suit … Read more

We expect Nintendo to put its new Wii U console/handheld hybrid device front and center at E3 this year. Super Mario Brothers, Pikmin, and other games are sure to come along. Will Nintendo expand the library of third-party games it showcased last year? What about a 3DS Slim?

For those answers and more, check in with our live blog coverage here, beginning at 8:45 a.m. PT/11:45 a.m. ET today.

Between now and then, our ongoing E3 coverage will keep you up to date on the latest from the show. Check it out here.

Editors' … Read more

LOS ANGELES--If E3 2012 is The Year of the Second Screen, then what does that make Sony, a company that seems to have one too many solutions to a single problem? The PlayStation Vita and the PlayStation 3 form a perfect hardware tandem, theoretically: with as many inputs as a Wii U tablet and a screen just an inch smaller, the Vita could the PS3's best friend. … Read more

Consumer gadgets can be very addictive. Almost as addictive as french fries, onion rings, and anything else you can cook in hot oil. Even the gadgets themselves.

Photographer Henry Hargreaves has captured our insatiable hunger for new technology with a series of startling images of deep-fried electronics. We already knew we were digital junkies, but these images don't go down so easily. … Read more

LOS ANGELES--Aside from Halo 4, the most interesting thing at Microsoft's E3 press conference was SmartGlass, the multidevice sharing app for games, videos, and Web surfing. But SmartGlass was only sketched out in the broadest of terms (and probably very carefully chosen ones at that), so we're left with several burning questions, especially about how it will work with Windows 8.

What devices will it actually work on? Microsoft says "all your devices." Does that mean all your Windows devices, or are Android and iOS included? (Update: We're hearing now that iOS and Android are included.)

Is it a downloaded app or Web-based? Will SmartGlass be a standalone app or an HTML 5-based Web service? Or some combination of the two depending on what platform you're on? Windows 8 tablets seem to be included, but are Windows RT tablets?… Read more

TAIPEI, Taiwan--Windows 8, we've been told, is going to move Microsoft into the post-PC era. And a bevy of new PC designs that Asus debuted here at the Computex trade show is bringing that vision to reality.

The Taiwanese PC manufacturer has take the wraps off three new product lines -- a dual-screen ultrabook, a semiportable all-in-one desktop, and a convertible laptop with a removable keyboard -- that build on the lessons of the company's Transformer line of Android tablets.

Taichi: Tablet, ultrabook, or both? First up from Asus was the Taichi hybrid notebook/tablet, which was … Read more