Blu-ray Drive for New MacBooks Announced

Standalone USB solution.

Unboxing a Beast

IGN unwraps its custom built Uberclok gaming PC.

Microsoft Gets Sued For Red Rings

Failure rate spurs lawsuit.

Get a Blu-ray Player for $149

Rumored sale in November.

Blu-ray Drive for New MacBooks Announced

October 17, 2008 - During the Q&A; portion of Apple's notebook event on Tuesday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs thoroughly debunked any rumors that Apple would be adapting Blu-ray drives in the near future. Jobs called Blu-ray "a bag of hurt," that he felt was too expensive to burden consumers with at this point. Nevertheless, AMEX Digital is seeking to fill the gap for Blu-ray hungry MacBook owners with their standalone Blu-ray Super Multi Drive. More »

Unboxing a Beast

October 16, 2008 - At IGN Gear, we get a lot of appetizing hardware goodies for review and other assorted coverage. Generally our weekly take consists of gaming accessories and other assorted peripherals, but every so often we get something monumental, something mind-numbingly awesome, or in this case a custom-built gaming PC from Uberclok. More »

Microsoft Gets Sued For Red Rings

October 16, 2008 - During the early months of the console's lifespan, Microsoft announced that the issue had been contained within the industry average for hardware failure of three to five percent. In the time since, many reports have suggested that the hardware failure has been in excess of 30% or 40%. Taking these claims to heart, a class action lawsuit has been filed in the State of California against Microsoft for the red rings hardware failures. More »

Get a Blu-ray Player for $149

October 16, 2008 - Black Friday is that special time of year where thousands of consumers flood malls and retailers nationwide to violently trample one another in order to save some dough on everything from spatulas to toilet seat covers. But this year might be host to more hyper-aggressive customers than usual, according to a report from Gizmodo, Samsung's BD-P1500 Blu-ray player will drop in price from $400 to a staggeringly low $149. More »

Genius Announces a Line of New MetalStrike PC Joysticks for Flight Simulator Games

October 16, 2008 - Genius (www.geniusnetusa.com), a division of KYE Systems Corp., announced today a new gaming joystick series that helps simulate a real-life flight experience. Each joystick in the MetalStrike series has a turbo function, while the MetalStrike FF and Pro joysticks feature a force feedback function that lets the user feel the affects of simulation games by causing a vibration when the user bumps, crashes or shoots when playing air combat games that simulates real flight action. More »

This Week In Apps - October 13, 2008

October 16, 2008 - Welcome to "This Week In Apps," a new weekly feature column that spotlights the latest and greatest from Apple's iTunes App Store. In order to effectively delineate the useful from the rubbish, IGN Gear will pick several of our favorites from the week's releases. Our criterion for how we select the apps will vary from week to week; some apps may be interesting and helpful, others might be completely nonsensical yet hilarious. This week's highlights include 3D Pumpkin Carving, Panorama Photographs with your iPhone and more! More »

Mad Catz Introduces GameShark Online Store in Europe

October 16, 2008 - Mad Catz Interactive, Inc. (AMEX/TSX: MCZ), a leading third-party interactive entertainment accessory provider today announced the launch of the European GameShark online store, a comprehensive Internet shopping boutique, offering customers the opportunity to purchase a wide variety of videogame and other interactive entertainment accessories. More »

Tech Fetish Podcast, Episode 32

October 16, 2008 - The Tech Fetish legacy continues this week with episode 32 of the IGN Gear podcast. As always Scott Lowe, editor of IGN Gear, hosts with a series of guests. This week Bozon of the IGN Nintendo team returns to the podcast, along with Richard George of IGN Comics. With introductory (un)pleasantries aside, the discourse begins with the hot topic of the week: Apple's new Notebooks. More »

Energy Efficient Consoles Coming Soon?

October 15, 2008 - With the recent economic strife, continual woes about the environment and going "green," energy consumption will surely be a large concern this year and the years to follow. Beyond unplugging all of your electronics before leaving your house in the morning, newer devices certified by the government-backed Energy Star program will significantly lower your energy bill. The program was originally created back in 1992 by the Environmental Protection Agency to lower greenhouse gas emissions, which has since turned its focus to consumer electronics and appliances. These days, everything from televisions to refrigerators are emblazoned with the Energy Star logo. Everything, of course, except what matters most to us—game consoles. More »

Apple's New Notebooks: First Impressions

October 15, 2008 - Yesterday morning in Cupertino, California, the tech media had its eye focused squarely on Apple's latest and presumably greatest notebooks. With the announcement came two fundamentally changed models: the new 13" MacBook and the new 15" MacBook Pro. Both models received notable revisions in aesthetics and component hardware. But this event was not business as usual for Apple in many ways. More »

The New MacBook Family

October 15, 2008 - CUPERTINO, California—October 14, 2008—Apple? today unveiled an all new MacBook? family that redefines notebook design, and at the same time dramatically lowers the entry price for advanced notebook features including all-metal enclosures and pro-performance notebook graphics by $700 to make them far more affordable. The new MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro both have a precision unibody enclosure crafted from a single block of aluminum, resulting in thinner, more durable and incredibly beautiful designs. In addition, every member of the new MacBook family includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics, brilliant instant-on LED-backlit displays and new large glass Multi-Touch™ trackpads that offer almost 40 percent more tracking area and support more Multi-Touch gestures. More »

EndWar Deploys Official Headset

October 14, 2008 - Bargain hunters have already found one solution for the steep price of the new Official Bluetooth Headset for PlayStation 3 in the SOCOM Confrontation Bundle (approx $60, meaning you get the game for just $10 more than the mic itself,) and now there's a second option for those looking to pick up the brand new headset. At select stores, gamers can find the Official Bluetooth Headset inside a limited edition bundle of Tom Clancy's EndWar. More »