You can get your old classics on Wii’s virtual console, but it just doesn’t compare to being able to pop in that cartridge and play. Like a good book, sometimes you want to feel that cartridge in your hand, or see it in your collection. The Gen-x is a new hybrid console that lets you play the best of the 8-bit and 16-bit video game generations, and has full compatibility with both the Nintendo Entertainment System and the SEGA Genesis games. What’s more, it’s even rumored that it will play every single NES cartridge with no compatibility issues whatsoever.

The system comes with everything you need to get playing, including controllers and A/V cables. Unfortunately, you can’t connect an original NES controller. Not sure what the hell they were thinking there, but the ports are compatible with SEGA’s original controllers at least. The console’s list price is $59.99, but can be found in stock at VideoGameAction for only $36.89.

A company by the name of Ziova has unveiled what it is calling a new high definition network media player which can sport an internal hard drive. The ClearStream CS615 is expected to price at around $330.

The ClearStream CS615 from Ziova is powered by the Sigma Designs 8634 chipset. It is a home networked media player which brings your media files to your home theater system. You can get entertainment via the 10/100 Ethernet wired networking, an internal hard drive and a USB 2.0 hard drive connection. Video output options include HDMI and component video.

Ottomans generally serve the purpose of a place to kick up your feet while playing a game or watching a movie. Some furniture companies however take the ottoman a step further by turning it into storage. One of these is Salamander Designs and it just announced two new products - the Jump Seat Ottoman and the Storage Ottoman.

The Jump Seat Ottoman, pictured at right, is a typical looking ottoman which can be opened to reveal a home theater style, padded seat useful as a secondary spot when you have guests over to watch a movie. The seat is 21.5 inches wide x 14.5 inches deep, with the back rest 22 inches high. A cup holder and a small compartment for remote controls or game controllers rest along the seat’s right-hand side.

This six wheeled r/c Snooper Robot is kinda cute, but I’m scared because the color scheme is that of a stormtrooper. This is exactly the kind of little robot that would listen in on your conversations and report to Darth Vader. It can transmit them to up 150 feet away to the listening receiver. Though, I’m skeptical about how stealthy this thing is, despite the fact that they say it can enter a room undetected.

The controller allows the user to steer the robot left, right, forward and reverse. The vehicle measures 23 cm Long x 25 cm tall to tip of antenna x 10 cm wide. With this little guy, you’ll always be in the know and secrets will be a thing of the past. Get all kinds of dirt on your siblings and rule through fear. All thanks to your little unethical stormtrooper-like buddy. He’s available for about $80 USD.

If you’re a huge fan of Mario,(who’s not?) you’ll want to put away your Mario Kart slot car set and order yourself this giant Mario Kart racer pronto. It’s yet another way to bring the game into real-space and bring back memories of the N64. Mario and his Kart are over 12″ long and feature various sound effects from the game. Which is probably a good thing, since your cat will have some warning as Mario speeds down your hallway. You wouldn’t want Mario to run over Fluffy and spin out like he hit a banana peel.

Comes with a Nintendo GameCube style controller with five functions: Right, Left, Forward, Reverse and Turbo. Runs on 1 9V Battery and 8 AA Batteries. Check out a somewhat dorky video of it in action here. You can buy one online for $49.99.

This sweet looking PMP bears the strange patriotic name of “United States X900″. Probably because they know it will be a big hit here in the U.S. It’s a PMP/gaming combo that looks promising. The large 4.3 inch 480×272-pixel TFT screen plays AVI, MPEG4, MP3, WMA, FLAC. The most obvious and coolest feature is the attachable game pad that looks ultra comfortable and comes complete with 2 thumb operable joysticks.

You can even add GPS, when you aren’t playing games with it. SD cards up to 4GB can be used and it features an e-Book reader and FM tuner as well. Kind of like a PSP but perhaps a bit cooler in design.

It’s not uncommon for a laptop user to tote along an extra battery or two for those long flights, especially with the possibility of in-flight internet access coming soon. Starting January 1, 2008 the U.S. Department of Transportation will start placing restrictions on the number and size of lithium batteries that can be brought along on a U.S. flight giving you one more thing to remember before boarding a plane.

Lithium batteries are a very common type of battery used in many kinds of portable electronic devices such as digital cameras, media players and notebook computers. The new restriction will not affect batteries that are installed in their intended electronic devices, but only spare batteries that are brought along. Loose, spare batteries will no longer be allowed to be placed in checked luggage, and any spare batteries that are carried on must be in the original packaging or placed in a plastic bag to prevent contacting metal parts and the possibility of a resulting fire.

Anytime waterproofing is added to a gadget it just seems to make it that much more cool, but unfortunately not many electronic devices are able to live through being accidentally dropped into your Mai Tai or withstand a simple vodka resistance test because the the difficulty and expense of making small seals for all those cracks and crevices.

Well, thanks to some scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down, Wilts. who originally developed the technology, gadgets may soon be getting something called an Ion-Mask coating to provide waterproofing to all sorts of devices. The Ion-Mask was a military technology originally designed to protect soldiers clothing from chemical attacks but soon could be used to protect mobile phones and media players from moisture, rain and the occasional drop in the drink.

Nintendo has gone to some fairly great and seemingly unnecessary lengths to help people keep their hands on the motion sensitive controls that come with the Wii game console. The company has put out a couple of strap revisions and added a free padded jacket for the controller but people still manage to occasionally cause some damage.

The makers of this Gamers Glove for the Wii Remote are betting that the strap and jacket that come with the controller just aren’t going to be quite enough for you with your wild swings during boxing and tennis matches. The glove is made with some slip-resistant and stretchy material to give it a snug fit and to help keep the controller in the palm of your hand where it belongs. It will also undeniably call you out as the Wii-loving fanboy geek that you are.

Warner Music Group announced on Thursday that it would join the ranks of EMI Group and Universal Music Group as the third of the four large music labels to offer their digital music titles for sale without any type of copy protection software. Warner will offer its catalog through Amazon in the common MP3 formats that are free to copy to any player or computer, any number of times.

This move comes after Warner Chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. defended DRMs at the 3GSM World Conference in Barcelona in February, stressing the importance of interoperability over DRM restrictions likely due to Apple’s DRM through iTunes which restricts music files to be played only on Apple devices.

The team behind the Optimus Maximus OLED Keyboard, has another cool concept for another keyboard. It doesn’t have actual keys, which means no restrictions on their shape and size.

Any part of the keyboard is fully programmable and capable of displaying an image. It would also feature a typing mode and a video mode. Very awesome indeed. It really opens up the interface to all kinds of possibilities, literally putting everything at your fingertips.

Due to a new bill recently signed into law by Acting Gov. Richard Codey some New Jersey sex offenders are finding themselves completely banned from computers and cut off from the internet. Bill S1979 prohibits convicted sex offenders who used a computer to commit their crime from using computers or accessing the internet during at least part of their parole. It also gives the state the ability to restrict internet use to convicted sex offenders even if they did not use the internet to commit a sex offense.

The new law requires convicted individuals on parole to inform authorities of any devices they have access to which can access the internet, and authorities can make unannounced visits to homes of parolees to inspect computers and install monitoring devices.

Shinhan Card, a South Korean company, unveiled a new kind of credit card yesterday. A USB credit card. It functions as a contactless credit card in stores. To use it online, you just insert it into your USB port. It enters your credit card information for you.

It should be noted that the USB device itself cannot be used as a portable storage device. In other words, money out/No data in. The company is hoping that it catches on among the franchise stores. I can easily see this taking off, especially if they make it so that the device can actually be used for storage.

Most of us have replaced a hard drive and have been forced to reinstall the OS and everything else. It’s a time consuming process when you think about all o. Typically only big companies have the software to clone your old drive to the new. Apricorn wants to change that. That’s why theyre bundling their DriveWire universal hard drive adapter with their EZ Gig II cloning software.

The DriveWire HDD adapter allows you to connect any drive, SATA or PATA to your computer through the USB port and access the data on the drive. The big difference here is that their EZ Gig II software is a bootable CD and lets you clone the drive connected via the HDD adapter.

The LongRanger electric bike is basically a mountain bike with a motor assist. Yes, it’s street legal and not as dorky looking as some attempts at an eco friendly bike. You can build it to get up to 62 miles with a single charge and you can customize it to suit your needs by altering the top speed, acceleration, weight or range. Short or long distance travelling is not a problem.

You can even add a solar charger to the system so you don’t have to worry about maintenance. You are basically paying $14.99 USD for instructions on how to build the thing. It’s a great environmental alternative to loud noisy bikes while getting around at decent speeds.