strangest consoles ever made

10. Colecovision Portable

Yes, this will play all your old school Colecovision games like “Donkey Kong”, “Galaxian”, and “Zaxxon” in all their 16 color glory. Ben Heckendorn, creator of the NES Micro, made a custom case, tore apart an old Colecovision system, designed his own controller, and put it all together into the sleek package you see above. It features A/V outputs, an auxiliary power input, and a reflective black vinyl case with brushed aluminum accents. Unfortunately, this one-of-a-kind system was built by request and has already been sold.

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9. NEStation

The NEStation is one of the most unique custom systems we’ve ever come across. A French modder painted his NES completely black with blue accents, created a custom vertical stand, installed four blue LEDs, and than carved in a PS2-style logo on its side.

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8. The nPod

The nPod is Ben Heck’s latest gaming console, featuring a 3.5-inch LCD display, custom machined case (only 41mm thick), and a rear-loading cartridge slot. It’s powered by 4 AA batteries and can play any NES game.

[Source]

7. Portable Sega CDX

Most of you may not remember the CDX, it combined the Sega Genesis and Sega CD into one console. SegaSonicFan’s portable CDX sports a 5″ display, JP/US import switch, second headphone jack, S-Video output, external controller switch, and a built-in automatic scan FM radio. It even plays 32X games.

6. Gamecube-to-Go

Gamelver spent a great deal of time constructing this portable Gamecube — especially the case. It looks to feature external controller ports for multiplayer action, along with a pair speakers. Other specifications have not yet been released.

5. NESPlusSega

This all-in-one machine can play both Sega Genesis and NES games. The case was made from custom molded ABS plastic and features controller ports for both systems.

[Source]

4. Handheld Atari Jaguar

The Jaguar was the world’s first gaming system with two 32-bit processors. Unfortunately, the system met its demise in early 1996 due to poor sales. Well Dave decided to pay tribute with this portable Jaguar.

3. Sega Genesis/Mega Drive Mini

Kotomi took one of those 6-in-1 Sega TV game devices and turned it into a Genesis/Mega Drive mini, complete with cartridge slot. One potential drawback, he doesn’t mention if the cartridge slot is functional — it’s an interesting project none the less. One more picture after the jump.

2. Dreamcast Portable

Dave took on an ambitous project when he created this portable Dreamcast from scratch. It features a custom designed case, 5″ LCD display, and a built-in 16MB memory card. Powered by two rechargeable batteries, its good for up to 1 1/2 hours of playtime.

1) PS2 portable

XBOX 360 BLACK

XBOX 360 BLACK

XBOX 360 BLACK





Spanish-language gaming website Consolas has a bunch of pics of the black, or negra, Xbox 360 Elite. And if these pics are real—which they definitely look like—we have to hand it to Microsoft for being consistent. Not only did they make the console black, they made the controller, battery packs, play and charge kit, and even the wired headphones black. The memory unit's still white, though, as is the version of the 120GB for white Xbox 360s. Even though we already have an original Xbox 360, we're kind of tempted by this blackness

XBOX 360 BLACK

XBOX 360 BLACK





Spanish-language gaming website Consolas has a bunch of pics of the black, or negra, Xbox 360 Elite. And if these pics are real—which they definitely look like—we have to hand it to Microsoft for being consistent. Not only did they make the console black, they made the controller, battery packs, play and charge kit, and even the wired headphones black. The memory unit's still white, though, as is the version of the 120GB for white Xbox 360s. Even though we already have an original Xbox 360, we're kind of tempted by this blackness

ps3 graphix with 480i games

ps3 graphix with 480i games

After reading more than 500 posts on the PlayStation 3 forum and talking to a It is likely that this can be fixed through a firmware update, but only Sony would know this for surefew of the people affected by the issue, I now feel I have a better grip on the problem. Much of this is due to the amazing effort that people affected by this issue have gone through to document the problems they’ve been experiencing. These people really are hardcore enthusiasts – camping out while waiting in line for days and paying nearly a grand for their systems means they've earned that title – and the level of testing they’ve carried on the forum is of a high standard and they should be praised for their efforts.

Here's the deal with this problem:

• The problem seems to be isolated to games that make use of 480i.
• If a game which makes use of 480p experiences the problem, switching on the progressive scan option seems to solve the issue.
• This issue is NOT related to TV sets or cables.
• The 1.31 firmware upgrade did not fix this issue.
• There are a number of theories as to what the problem is, but nothing concrete (I think those who claim this is a problem with the PS3's emulation layer being unable to handle horizontally scaled video are pretty close to the mark myself).
• It is likely that this can be fixed through a firmware update, but only Sony would know this for sure (let's face it, this could be another recall for Sony).

Now, the first thing to get clear about is that this problem exists. Period. There are a number of people who still seem to doubt the validity of the claims made by those affected and simply see it as campaign to smear the PS3 and Sony. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you doubt the existence of the issue, take a look at the images


PS2 output - Lookin' good!





PS3 output - Gaaahhhhh! Imagine if you paid $800 to see that

Here we have a split-screen video output created by a forum member who goes by the name ‘Slurry’. You can really see the PS3 quality on the left is a lot lower than the PS2 (on the right)

See the entire video here.

The problem seems to involve groups of 4×4 pixels being flipped at regular intervals. I've put together a gallery of images here showing this and how it can be "fixed" (in the image at least).

The problem doesn't seem limited to a small number of PS3s either. A forum member known by the name ‘The-Sarge’ discovered that his PS3 was having difficulties playing PS2 games three days after the PS3 launch date. He carried out further tests and checked the PS3's output of six different TVs. When he saw the same problem displayed on all TV sets he contacted Sony tech support and after being taken through a number of troubleshooting steps Sony suggested sending him a replacement PS3. However, when that arrived he saw that it too was having the same problems with the PS2 games he tried to play.

He contacted Sony again, and this time tech support told him the issue must be with his TV set and not the PS3. He explained to them that he'd tested the unit on six different sets. Getting nowhere, he asked for a refund but was told that Sony did not handle refunds and he should be take the PS3 back to the place of purchase - the only problem was that the serial number on the replacement unit didn't match that on the box and they wouldn’t give him a refund.

‘The-Sarge’ is not alone in not getting any help from Sony

Passenger Charter News

Passenger Charter News

Air Charter Services Senior Charter Analyst Carmen Vanegas flew a series of 5 return flights to Munster from various destinations around the UK

With up to 50 pax on each flight Carmen really had a huge job on her hands.

The flights were for an international agricultural event, chartered from a British based customer and took over two months of planning.

The specialist aircraft used for these flights was a Saab 2000-Regional Turboprop, and with every flight going exactly to plan, both customer and passengers were delighted with the service they received.

Air Charter Service provided flexible flight schedules allowing the trip to run smoothly and swiftly without the executives having to worry about missing flights. The company thanked the New York office for the fantastic service and informed them the flights were a great success.

As specialists in charter travel, and with offices in London, New York, Moscow and Dubai, Air Charter Service works round the clock to provide an unrivalled, fast response whether for the individual executive or large group

Charter for VIP golf break

Air Charter Service’s London office arranged a private aircraft charter for a party of ex-professional football players, TV football pundits and press reporters to fly down to Sardinia for a two day golfing break last month.

The aircraft charter was requested by a big sports sponsor client who was treating the VIP group, which included Sky and BBC presenters, to an all expenses paid trip to play one of Europe’s best courses.

Andy Christie, who specialises in sports event flights, laid on a Saab 2000 commuter turboprop aircraft for the charter from London to Sardinia. The Saab 2000 aircraft allowed the celebrity party to fly as a single group, and the use of VIP airport terminals kept the group away from the chaos of busy airports

Football star choppers in for promotional event

Air Charter Service’s sports charter specialist Andy Christie was this month delighted to be asked to arrange a helicopter charter for a prominent member of the England football team the day after the Euro 2008 qualifier against Macedonia.

The star was needed for a promotional event in central London so his agents requested a helicopter to pick him up from his clubs training ground on the outskirts of the city and fly him directly to the Battersea, South London.

Andy arranged for an AS-355 Twin Squirrel to fly the player high above the traffic gridlock down below. In a helicopter with a capable cruise speed of 224 km/h the flight was completed within minutes and the star was transferred to the event by limousine.

Air Charter Service have seen a sharp rise in demand for private charters since August's terror alert as VIP and executive travellers try to avoid crowded airports and scheduled flight security scares. The dramatic rise in business came during what is usually the slowest time of year for private aircraft charters.

The new security measures and flight delays caused serious difficulties for the business community, with routes to key European cities and transatlantic destinations heavily affected at the height of the problems.

In addition to business traffic, executives who normally hired private jets only for business trips were using them for family vacations as well.

Gavin Copus, passenger sales manager at Air Charter Service, revealed that his team had been working around the clock with business almost double the normal levels for August due to the scare.

He added: “Executives and their families feel reassured by the reliability and security that companies such as ours can offer, which is why we have seen such demand in recent weeks.”

how to choose a private jet charter Company

how to choose a private jet charter Company

how to choose a private jet charter Company

As the pace of your life accelerates, it’s clear that your time is becoming too valuable to spend waiting in airports for delayed flights to activities or meetings that had to be postponed until you arrived! You begin thinking about private jet charter -- a faster, easier, more customized way to travel to your destination.

Flying in a private jet is one of the safest and most luxurious ways to travel. Unlike commercial airlines, private jets fly in and out of smaller suburban airports that are closer to departure and destination points. Also, typically smaller airports do not have the long lines or delays passengers have come to expect at any of today’s large urban airports.

Getting Started In order to find a jet charter operator with high safety standards and great professional credentials, there are some important factors that should be considered. These factors include: (1) research on one or more charter operators that seem acceptable, (2) validation of the operator’s safety records and professional standards and (3) selection of the aircraft that would best suit your needs. The first step is finding a charter operator.

Sentient Members

Sentient Members have the flexibility to reserve a Light, Mid-Size, or Heavy jet for each and every trip. Our Client Management Team will consult with you to determine the most appropriate jet for each trip, based on the number of passengers, luggage requirements and the distance to be traveled.


Example Specifications Light Mid-Size Heavy

Recommended Passenger Count up to 5 up to 6 up to 10

Approximate Speed 380-490 mph 420-490 mph 420-500 mph

Approximate Range 1,000-1,300 sm 1,550-2,000 sm 2,650-3,700 sm

Please note that these are approximations and that all speed/ranges are affected by weather, passenger count, runway length, and prevailing winds.

Windows vista installation problem

Windows vista installation problem

Windows vista installation prob..
I tried installing vista home premium on my PC..configurations are..p4 2.8 ghz, 1 gb ram.
It gives me some device driver error for hdd..shown below in the image..can ne1 tell me from where i can get these drivers?

n73 or w810?

n73 or w810?

Features and Performance

The N73 Music Edition is equipped with plenty of connectivity options, but doesn't include Wi-Fi. It still sports Bluetooth, infrared, and USB 2.0 however, and Nokia includes a USB cable in the sales package. There is also an excellent Web browser that has the ability to scroll through each page with a feature called 'page overview'. This view shows a full Web page shrunk to fit the screen and a selection box is used to navigate to the part of the page you want to view in more detail.

Email is also included with SMTP, IMAP4 and POP3 clients supported. Email attachments can be downloaded and saved to the N73 Music Edition's mini-SD card or to the 42MB of internal memory. The mini-SD card slot is cleverly located at the bottom of the handset. There is also regular MMS and SMS messaging with T9 predictive text input, but the poorly designed keyboard will affect messaging speeds.

The N73 Music Edition conveniently includes an adapter to plug in a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, which is handy, because the included pair only does a mediocre job. There is a digital music player with stereo audio supporting MP3, AAC, M4A, eAAC+ and WMA files. The device also includes RealPlayer, so playing full screen videos in MPEG-4 format is possible. Best of all, the N73 Music Edition is a USB mass storage device so files can simply be dragged and dropped onto the phone without using Nokia software. A stereo FM radio with 20 preset stations is also included, with all multimedia functions controlled through a stylish media menu.

Running on the Symbian 9.1 operating system, the N73 Music Edition has a full array of smart phone applications, including Quickoffice Word, PowerPoint and Excel document viewers, a host of PIM features (calendar, contacts, to-do list, notes, recorder, calculator, clock and converter) and both voice recording and dialing. We were slightly disappointed with the speed of the interface as it does struggle switching between applications. Start-up time is also a little slow, taking just over a minute.

Imaging

The N73 Music Edition's 3.2 megapixel camera features a Carl Zeiss lens, 20x digital zoom, a flash with red-eye reduction and autofocus, so it's one of the best camera phones on the market in terms of features. While the photos it captures still don't compare to a good compact digital camera, they are very good for a camera phone.

Capturing images at up to 2048 x 1536 pixels, the N73 Music Edition's colour reproduction is excellent, but image sharpness is a slight problem. Shots are fairly crisp though with defined edges and excellent levels of detail for a 3.2 megapixel sensor. The also has a solid list of settings including close-up and portrait scene modes, the ability to adjust white balance, colour tone settings, and light sensitivity (ISO). For editing photos and other images, Nokia includes a copy of Adobe Photoshop Starter Edition 3.0 in the N73 Music Edition sales package.

A dedicated camera shutter button and zoom keys are easily accessible when the phone is flipped horizontally, so the camera experience is much like that of a stand alone digital camera. Video recording is also available; up to 1.5 hours of video in MP4 and 3GP formats can be stored. Videos are captured in 352 x 288 resolution at up to 15fps and feature automatic white balance control and up to 8x digital zoom. There is a second, integrated VGA camera on the front with 2x digital zoom. This second camera can be used for both video calling over a 3G network or for taking portrait photos.

Design

One of the most compelling features of the N73 Music Edition is the high quality, 2.4-inch colour display. The screen is capable of 240 x 320 pixels (QVGA) and can display up to 262,144 colours. It has a great viewing angle and is clearly visible in a variety of lighting conditions. The display is ideal for use as a viewfinder with the phone's camera and also stands out for Web browsing. It is capable of displaying all 12 menu items on one screen, so scrolling in the main menu is eliminated. The N73 Music Edition display also features an ambient light detector which is used to optimise display brightness and power consumption. This feature automatically adjusts the screen and keypad backlight depending on the conditions.

Measuring 110mm x 49mm x 19mm, the N73 Music Edition isn't the smallest phone on the market, but it weighs just 116g. The metallic plastic surrounding the keypad and controls gives the unit a touch of class, but the major setback of the N73 Music Edition is its keypad; it is very small and is squashed into the bottom half of the phone. The keys themselves are flat, so typing messages is quite difficult. Above the keypad is a more pleasing five-way joystick, two selection buttons and answer and end call keys. There are also buttons for menu, clear, edit and multimedia that surround the keypad.

According to Nokia the N73 Music Edition is rated at up to 226 minutes of talk time and up to 370 hours of standby time using a 3G network. These figures are very good, and we found they were quite close to the mark - on average we had to charge the unit every three days. Using a 2.5G network with handset, the figures will change to 20 minutes extra talk time, but 20 minutes less of standby time.

Sony Ericsson W810i Features

• SM quad-band technology for communication around the globe
• Integrated Walkman player converts the W810i into a portable MP3, MPEG-4, and H.263 player with full functionality or with all transmitters turned off, preventing disturbance of sensitive equipment
• FM radio offers convenient listening via portable handsfree accessory (Stereo Headset) or internal speaker
• Transfer playlists and albums from a PC
  

• Built-in 2.0-megapixel camera with 4x zoom and video recording capabilities including easy photo sharing through Sony Ericsson's QuickShare solution
• 40-chord polyphonic sound engine
• Conference calling and integrated hands-free speaker
• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) and Enhanced Messaging Service (EMS) for sending pictures, animations, wallpaper, icons and ring tones
• J2ME MIDP 2.0 support for application, ringer, wallpaper, graphic and game downloads including 3D gaming through Mascot Capsule 3D engine
• Convenient PC synchronization for through Bluetooth, infrared, and SyncML

Quantum computer to debut next Tuesday?

Quantum computer to debut next Tuesday?

Remember where you were when you heard about Steorn? Us neither. (Yet.) Kind of the same with D-Wave, which, as you may recall, claims to be the first and only "commercial" quantum computing venture; despite a low hanging cloud of skeptical academics, D-Wave is claiming next Tuesday it'll finally debut the first quantum computer: a 16 qubit processor capable of 64,000 simultaneous calculations in quantum space(s). What's a qubit? Why, it's the quantum computer measurement equivalent of a conventional computer's bit (i.e. more (qu)bits = more data and processes), but we're not even going to insult your intelligence by pretending to understand how a many-hundreds qubit quantum computer could supposedly solve more operations than the universe has atoms. We just know that a quantum computer has yet to be built, has the potential to revolutionize the way we understand and use computation -- and with any luck D-Wave's supposed machine will be promptly put to work analyzing weather patterns so we'll know the exact climate this time next year and not buy the wrong things when this year's fall lines come out. That is, if it doesn't open up a black hole, or something.