It's always a great day when an outdoor activity becomes easier to simulate inside. Thrustmaster, the expert at mastering thrust, has released the T-Freestyle NW. This controller gives a more realistic feel to skateboarding and snowboarding on the Nintendo Wii.

Practice your maneuvers and stunts, and slide from one rail to another. The T-Freestyle NW is made of maple wood and bears a skull emblem for that extreme look. It's made to offer a combination of flexibility and resistance, giving you the same sensations as if you were outside having a real-world experience. It allows for lateral movement, but not so much that you could tip over, and attaches to the Nintendo Balance Board. Look for it to go on sale at the end of November for $29.99.

Netflix on the Wii? Netflix and Nintendo are staying mum.

Rumors surfaced on Wednesday that the DVD rental service is preparing to offer its streaming movie service via Nintendo's Wii. It makes sense--Netflix already has streaming deals with the Microsoft Xbox and, more recently, the Sony PlayStation--but at this point, there is no official news to report.

"Certainly the Wii represents a great opportunity given the size of its installed base, but we're not commenting on rumors or speculation," a Netflix spokesman said in an e-mail. "The Xbox partnership has been terrific for Netflix members and we're equally excited to announce the partnership with PS3."

A Nintendo spokesman said the company does not respond to rumors or speculation.

As the rumor mill expected, Nintendo will launch a larger version of its DS handheld console, which it will call the Nintendo DS LL. The DS LL will cost 20,000 yen when it goes on sale in Japan on Nov. 21.

Nintendo has not indicated when or if the DS LL will be brought to the United States, but history suggests that it will.

The DS LL uses a pair of 4.2-inch screens, as opposed to the 3.25-inch screens used by the new Nintendo DSi. While it will weigh 100 grams more, Nintendo still reportedly rates its battery life as about three hours, the same as the DSi. It too lacks a console slot, however.

Although the Wii was once (and perhaps still is) the darling of the video-game community, soe might feel that the Nintendo DS platform is getting a bit long in the tooth. On Thursday, Nintendo saw its global profits fall by 54 percent, and one analyst cited by Reuters called Nintendo's efforts "old hat".

Nintendo's problems don't appear too closely tied to its hardware, however. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told reporters that a lack of must-have titles hurt the Wii during the quarter. As most gamers know, Nintendo does a nice job of developing innovative titles in house; however, the company has historically struggled with attracting high-profile, third-party exclusives to its game platforms.

The PCMag labs changed from a cold, sterile place of work, to a bumpin' club yesterday as we tested Activision's newest game: DJ Hero: Think Guitar Hero, but with a turntable instead of a guitar. Needless to say, a lot of scratching, mixing, and sampling went down.

The testing has been rigorous. Being a big fan of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, I can easily say that DJ Hero is more difficult at first. It definitely takes some time to get the techniques down. A full review is on its way, but until then, check out the hands-on video after the jump. DJ Hero is available now for $119.99. 

When Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer sat down with Gizmodo yesterday, the blog leapt on something the outspoken exec said about Blu-Ray, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there--you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories." While it's not exactly an outright endorsement of the format, it certainly sounds like the company has softened its position after fighting so hard to push HD-DVD (and, hopefully, irk Sony in the processes).

Xbox Live exec Larry Hryb, however, made a point of addressing the comment in a post on his his Major Nelson blog. "As we have said in the past," Hyrb wrote, "we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360." Instead the console is focused on 1080p movie streaming. So, you know, take that, Sony.

Neither rain nor sleet nor dark of night, as the saying goes. Apparently such pledges don't extend to video game rentals--or at least certain Philadelphia-based postal workers. Reginald Johnson, a clerk based in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia has reportedly stolen a staggering 2,200 discs from video game delivery site GameFly--pretty much every single bright orange envelope that came across his radar.

Johnson, who was reportedly caught with 81 games on his person, has been selling games back to area GameStop locations. The one-time postal employee is expected to get roughly 12-18 months for his crimes.

Sony today introduced a new version of its PlayStation 3 Slim: It boasts a 250GB hard drive, more than twice the memory of its predecessor (120GB). The new console is launching just in time for the holiday rush, on November 3rd. It will run $349.99.

The new new PS3 maintains the slim form factor of its 120GB counterpart. That console, launched on September 1st, moved more than one million units in the three weeks after it was first made available. Sony will continue to sell it alongside the version with more memory.

Logitech likes to announce its products in bunches. Yesterday brought a Unifying Receiver kit; today brings the Gaming Keyboard G110. I love the customizable backlighting on the G110: you can make it red, blue, or any shade of purple. Controls let you vary the intensity of each color to make a custom shade. That's something I'd love in my regular keyboard, although it's meant to help gamers find the right keys in dark rooms. The keyboard also includes headphone and microphone jacks, as well as mute buttons.

For customization, gamers will get 12 programmable G keys with three macros per key. Automatic game detection lets you create separate custom G key profiles for every game you play.

The Gaming Keyboard G110 is available for pre-order now for $79.99 and will ship in November.

Gaming is about to change--forever. One of the highlights of this year's newly rejuvenated E3 conference was a couple of motion-controlled gaming interfaces from Sony and Microsoft. Sony's prototype uses ice-cream-cone-like wands, with a special camera that puts you and your actions in the game. Microsoft's Project Natal also uses a special camera, but has dropped the controllers entirely. All you need is your body.

The videos and on-stage demonstrations from the event looked amazing. Still, I was skeptical,--until I got to try it for myself. The new gaming technology was honored as part last week's Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards, which meant Project Natal made a rare live appearance at the pre-and post awards ceremony festivities. I lined up along with a number of children and other event attendees for a few minutes with the still-in-development gaming control system.

In a word, it's remarkable.

Memory maker SanDisk today announced the release of three new cards, including a Memory Stick Micro (M2) targeted toward users of the upcoming PSP Go. The card will "double the amount of storage in the soon-to-be-released Sony PSP Go," according to a release issued today by the company.

Fair enough, but is the only card that will do so? Hardly. The PSP Go-specific branding is similar to a ploy taken by the company with the Nintendo DSi, when it released the SanDisk SDHC Memory Card for Nintendo DSi, an "official" Nintendo-branded card, which was like any other SDHC card, only with a Nintendo label.

A VP at the company issued a statement about that card, reading, "While Nintendo DSi is compatible with all SDHC formats, the branded SanDisk SDHCcards provide added assurance for consumers that it can be used in the Nintendo DSi."

SanDisk would probably happily tell you the same if you asked about this model.

For some, rainy or snow days mean parking themselves on the couch with a good book and a cup of tea. For me, it means frantically looking for something to keep my active five-year-old from going stir-crazy. Leapfrog offers parents a solution with its newest toy, the LeapFrog Zippity Learning System ($79.99 list, ages 3 to 5). The device, which looks like the marriage of a Segway and a Dance Dance Revolution mat, is billed by LeapFrog as its new "high-energy learning system." But does it have the chops to keep my kindergartner interested and active?

The Zippity consists of an interactive mat connected to a large, er, stick controller (think: giant joystick) that LeapFrog calls the Bopper, and a wireless console that hooks up to the TV via the included AV cables. The mat has four raised, pressure-sensitive spots, with an orange spot (with two footprints in the middle), a green spot on the left, blue spot above the orange spot, and a green spot on the right. The spots also act as arrows keys to go up, down, left, and right. The bopper stands approximately 23.5 inches tall, and to the right of its base is a large button with a Home icon.


 

Sony on Thursday unveiled a motion controller for the PlayStation 3 that will debut in spring 2010.

The yet unnamed device will work with the PlayStation Eye camera, which tracks a user's face, voice, and body motion. The motion controller will be equipped with two motion sensors, three axes gyroscope, and three axes accelerometer that can detect the controller's angle and movement in someone's hand.

A sphere on top of the controller will track its position and give visual feedback by changing colors. It will also include a rumble feature. It includes a lithium-ion rechargeable internal battery.

Pricing has not yet been released.

You can deal with your virtual enemies a little more effectively now, because Razer, the leading gaming peripheral company, has just upgraded its best-selling DeathAdder mouse.

Gamers will enjoy even more precise movements now that the DeathAdder has a 3.5G 3500dpi infrared sensor. Gaming mice are always corded so there's no lag time, and the mouse also features an improved tangle-free braided cable.

What Razer didn't change was the comfortable design. The DeathAdder is still a perfectly molded right-handed mouse with five programmable "Hyperesponse" buttons, on-the-fly sensitivity adjustments, an always-on mode, and super-slick Teflon feet. The improved DeathAdder sells for $59.99.

Nintendo this morning made official its long awaited price cut for the Wii. The popular--if blunted--console will be getting its first ever price drop this Sunday, when the system will go for $200.

After having recently dropped the price of its own flagship console, the PS3, Sony is also lowering the price of its portable PSP by 15-percent in Japan. The handheld will sell for 16,800 yen ($185) in that country. No word whether the US will see a similar price cut.