Games and gear

At this rate, our well-documented paranoia over eggs will soon be eclipsed by fears of Swarovski crystals taking over the world.

The latest victim: The Nintendo DS Lite. Gadget Candy reports that a version of the gaming device encrusted with 1,200 stones--all pink, no less--has been spotted at the Multipazz boutique in London for 200 pounds (that's nearly $400, for those of us who don't get out much). The kicker? It was apparently designed by none other than Paris Hilton herself, which would explain the dog.

When we started seeing remote-controlled mini-helicopters and mosquito choppers buzz into the market, we kiddingly warned that a locust-like invasion must have been imminent. We're now sorry to say that the joke may be on us.

RoboCommunity is reporting that WowWee--maker of the hugely popular Robosapien--has submitted applications with the FCC for a remote-controlled "FlyTech Dragonfly." Quoting a user manual submitted to the agency, RoboCommunity says the device "has wings (like a dragonfly) and a tail rotor like on many helicopters, and is supposed to be 'crash-proof' due to what they term the 'high-flex' design. … Read more

Perhaps the best thing about this mouse is its name: DeathAdder. Now that's marketing.

The serpentine theme is continued with the blue logo of gaming gear maker Razer on the black mouse, which Electronista says delivers high performance with its "third generation infrared sensor." Other features include five programmable buttons and a Teflon base for quicker action that's obviously invaluable when you're blasting through enemy lines.

And even if you're only mildly into gaming, we think it would be the perfect accoutrement for those of us who multitask while watching our favorite episodes of … Read more

It's too bad that Halloween is over, or you could have gone as Star Trek's Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge with these new high-resolution video glasses from RelaxView.

Similar products have long been on the market, of course, but these weigh less than 3 ounces without the bulk of other devices. The glasses have two LCDs with 640-by-480-pixel resolution and can project a 57-inch screen at distances of about 6.5 feet. As is the case with most things tiny, however, you'll need to pay for the privilege of wearing them--to the tune of about $600.

When Crave launched its Wii Disaster Watch mini-feature a little over a week ago, many of you scoffed (light-heartedly) that you had to be a total idiot to bash up your TV or yourself with a video game controller. Well, that just doesn't seem like the case, unless you want to argue that humans are innately stupid. (Over here, the jury's still out on that one.) The latest news outlet to pick up on Wii disasters is Yahoo. Even the normally celebrity-gossip-focused Best Week Ever is on it. And in case you haven't seen it yet, there'… Read more

Like the Onion's Jackie Harvey, we incorrectly referred to AMD's quad-core desktop platform as " Socket 4x4" when we first learned about it, mostly because we couldn't get confirmation of the name of the thing during the investor phone conference in which it was announced. Our bad on that. But with AMD's unveiling today of Quad FX, aka simply "4x4," we can finally address the whole package with a little more clarity.

Aimed strictly at PC enthusiasts, AMD's answer to the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 is a bit more convoluted than … Read more

Technology demonstrations at hotels are always sort of weird. You go to the hotel, the staff knows you're not a guest but they still let you walk on by, and then you go to a suite. The door opens and there are a bunch of guys with desktops and half-eaten lunch plates. Now I know how gigolos feel.

This week Intel is showing off how machines outfitted with its new quad-core chips perform on games at the Palomar Hotel in San Francisco. The topper of them all is pictured here, a custom desktop with two four-core Xeon chips. The … Read more

If you love your favorite gamer so much that you're willing to plunk down four grand for him (or her) this holiday season, then here's something you might be interested in. Kotaku recently wrote about this 100-inch video arcade center from Dream Arcades that comes with just about everything from a DLP projector to a bunch of games from brands like Atari and Namco. Only problem is, I don't see a rifle. If I'm going to pay $4,000 for an all-inclusive arcade center, it had better be compatible with Big Buck Hunter Pro.

One of the Wii features that people have been buzzing about has been the "Mii channel," the ability to create avatars that can look (to an extent) like whatever you want. Stephen Colbert used this to his advantage in a recent episode of "The Colbert Report" when he created a boxing match between Mii versions of himself and Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi. But I think the creative-Mii-use award goes to the guy at GameTrailers who created a Mii version of the entire first scene of the cult film "The Big Lebowski." The creation of … Read more