It certainly looks like we're going to see some smaller, more compact Blu-ray disc players in the market. NEC Electronics has come up with the EMMA 3PF, a single chip that has all Blu-ray functionality goodies built in. More on this in the full article.

For those of you who are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Konami's latest installment in the Metal Gear Solid series, here's a quick fix for gamers looking for some excellent storytelling from Hideo Kojima. Sony's PlayStation Store Japan has recently delivered the Kojima classic interactive adventure, Policenauts, to help tide people over before the arrival of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. More details in our full article.

People prone to putting their laptops in precarious situations (such as dropping it into water, or onto concrete) may want to consider getting one of NEC's ShieldPRO tablet PC. It's rugged build promises to offer some resistance against water, dust, and other harm that may befall the poor laptop. More details in the full article.

Nexon has just announced that your favorite MMORPG MapleStory will not be in operation later today. This is due to a scheduled servers check up that will ensure that the game is working without a glitch. Know more after the jump!

PC-8801 is a vintage computer developed by NEC Corporation back in 1981. Sony PlayStation Portable homebrew coder bkclog, now, has created an emulator for that system known as QUASI88.

This day marks the release of version 0.6.3. Know more about the emulator after the jump!

Download: QUASI88 v0.6.3
Download: QUASI88 v0.6.3 (source code)

 

Japan's National Institute of Information and Communications Technology has been given the green light to start research efforts on high-speed next-generation networks this November. The new network will run at about 10 Gigabits per second among other nice features.

Heavyweight Japanese firms Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., Fujitsu Ltd., KDDI Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corp., and NEC Corp. are all behind the collective push to revolutionize the Internet as we know it. If all goes well, the service may become commercially available by 2015.

The service isn't only fast, but it's going to be very stable as well. It can support 100 billion users through its optical make-up and can give everyone high-speed access with hardly any interruptions.

The United States and Europe have already started researching on the same goal. The future looks very bright for those who crave minimal download speeds and are irked by downtimes.

Over twenty-five Gigabytes in the palm of your hand. This is the vision that Intel and other high-brow giants in the industry will be developing when they formed the USB 3.0 Promoter Group to upgrade the existing architecture and technology of current USB standards.

This project will be co-developed by HP, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, NXP Semiconductors and Texas Instruments Incorporated, and will aim to improve USB connection speed to up to 10 times the speed we have at present. The new USB 3.0 will be designed to be backward-compatible, preserving the existing USB device class driver infrastructure and investment while improving it's speed and connectivity.

Jeff Ravencraft, technology strategist with Intel and president of the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), explains the step up with the new USB technology being developed:

USB 3.0 is the next logical step for the PC's most popular wired connectivity. The digital era requires high-speed performance and reliable connectivity to move the enormous amounts of digital content now present in everyday life. USB 3.0 will meet this challenge while maintaining the ease-of-use experience that users have come to love and expect from any USB technology.

The project will be initially implemented using discrete silicon and is expected to be completed by the first half of 2008. The USB-IF will be expected to act as the trading liaison between Intel and the other companies for the new technology. When the USB 3.0 finally comes out, downloading over 10gb of pictures from your digital camera won't seem that big a deal anymore.

 

Sony and NEC Corporation released, simultaneously but separately, the other day a new line of computers that carry Hybrid HDD. For the uninitiated, these are new kinds of hard disk drives employing large buffer of non-volatile flash memory.

Sony's VAIO Type F was released yesterday while NEC's LaVie C came out the day before that in Japan. Like we said, both carry hybrid HDD that give users the following advantages: speed increase, decrease of power consumption, improved reliability and lifespan, faster boot process, and less noises.

The following features are available for the high-end units of both lines:

• Sony VAIO Type F (FZ71)
• 15.4 inches monitor
• GeForce 8400M GT
• Wi-Fi A/B/G/N
• 200GB of Hybrid HDD (256MB of Flash)
• 1 to 4GB RAM
• Core 2 Duo T7250 at 2GHz (BTO up to 2.8GHz)
• Webcam
• HDMI, Blu-ray drive
  

• NEC LaVie C (LC950/KC)
• Face Pass: face recognition system that lets users log on into the computer once they show up  their face to the computer web camera
• Blu-ray disc drive (read only)
• HDMI output for HD Video
• Hybrid HDD of 160GB with Flash Memory (256MB)

If you thought that Ms. Hilton's pink Nintendo DS covered in glittering crystals was a bit excessive, then this might entertain you. An Associated Press report reveals that NEC has recently released a pink laptop, and the said laptop is covered in crystals in the shape of Hello Kitty.

It's called the La Vie G Hello Kitty laptop, and it uses around 299 Swarovski crystals shaped into four hearts and Sanrio's Hello Kitty, and comes complete with a pink bow and crown. Given the bling and the price tag, this is obviously inline with NEC's attempt to capture that demographic comprised of high-paid working women.

The laptop itself comes with the fashionable Windows Vista, a 100GB HDD, and 1GB of memory.

The product is reportedly set to target the summertime season in Japan where professionals get twice-a-year bonuses and have some extra spending money to go around.

The La Vie G Hello Kitty laptop retails for around US$ 1,650, and can only be grabbed by ordering on the Internet.

International market research and market data company Research and Markets just announced that it has added "The Market for Portable Video Games" in its huge roster of studies. If you are not familiar with this company, you can actually think of it as a one-stop shop for market research reports and industry newsletters.

Anyway, like we said, a new report has been published that tackles the market for portable game systems. The study itself contains a detailed five-year forecast for each platform. Aside from that, the study also discusses the potential impact of yet-to-be released gadgets.

Aside from the above mentioned, a sub-report has been attached to the study that concerns the mobile game market and you can get a lot of insights from it given the round table discussion with leading players and visionaries in the mobile game space. The companies included in the study are:

• Atari (Atari Lynx)
• Bandai (Bandai Wonderswan)
• NEC (NEC Turboexpress)
• Nintendo (Game Boy, Virtual Boy, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo Ds)
• Nokia (Nokia N-Gage)
• Sega (Sega Game Gear and Sega Nomad)
• SNK (SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color)
• Sony (Sony PSP)
• Tiger (Tiger Gamecom and Tiger Telematics Gizmondo)

Quite interestingly, the study also gives a detailed history of the portable game market as well as an overview of failed systems. Video game genres were also discussed aside from complete business models for third-party software sales broken down by platform.

Refer to the Read link below for more details and how you can get the study.