Emotiv to make mind-controlled games a reality by Christmas

The idea of wearing a funny hat to mind control software is certainly nothing new 'round these parts. Now Emotiv Systems returns with an update to their Project Epoch USB headset. Crave went hands-on with the system which required a short, six-second calibration before entering the first "game." At that point, Crave was able manipulate a simple cube on the screen with varied success at making it disappear or pull forward. Oooh, what fun! Mind you, it's just a prototype and we've seen this tech applied to old-school arcade games like Pong and Space Invaders to great effect. You'll get your chance soon enough as Emotiv plans to launch the first thought-controlled, consumer gaming device this Christmas for $299 with at least one bundled PC game. One more picture of that Alien face-hugger of a headset after the break.

Sony's Bluetooth-enabled Walkman A820-series unhanded

After the European PR agency seemingly jumped the gun, we finally get some actual press and hands-on shots of Sony's newest video Walkman. The NW-A820 series as it's known in Japan does everything its other NWZ-A820 brother can do in Europe (and presumably the US) only with that icky ATRAC and SonicStage baggage in tow. Sony also announced a new ¥20,000 (about $186) VRC-NW10 cradle with video-out and trick little video-in capability for real-time MPEG-4 recordings straight back to your A820-series player. A SRS-NWT10M external speaker is priced low enough at ¥3,000 ($28) that every teen-age jackass riding the subway will have one. Japan will see the new players in black, white and pink and in 16GB and 8GB models priced at ¥38,000 ($354) and ¥28,000 ($260), respectively. Check the gallery for hot A820 on iPod touch action.

Nintendo's Wii Fit and WiiWare on-line game service coming Stateside in May

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Nintendo plans to begin shipping its Wii Fit with weight and motion sensing Balance Board in May. Nintendo will also make good on a new online gaming game distribution service dubbed WiiWare. Right, that homebrew happy service which should result in vast quantities of cheap and innovative content previously only available in Johnny Chung Lee's imagination.

Sony gets on the stick with new E-series Walkmans

If your primary motivation in choosing an MP3 player is its ability to match your shoes then you're in luck, sissy. Sony's newest NW-E-series of Walkman USB sticks come in ¥16,000 (about $149) NW-E026F (4GB), ¥13,000 ($121) NW-E025F (2GB), and ¥11,000 ($102) the NW-E023F (1GB) flavors with plenty of interchangeable shells to keep up with your wardrobe. They support ATRAC/MP3/WMA/AAC and Linear PCM with an FM tuner thrown in for good measure. But hey, nobody as hip as you listens to FM now do they? Look for these to go global with the addition of DRM'd WMA but without Sony's proprietary ATRAC format sometime after the Japanese launch on March 8th.

Asus Nova P22 hits the States in all its spendy, miniature glory

We love us a tiny computer, and the Nova P22 from Asus certainly delivers the goods. The first time we spotted this computer it was a playful Japan-bound orange and white box, but it looks all growed up in this black version for the States. Unfortunately, the price is pretty well growed up as well, at $899. That money buys you a machine with a mere 1GB of RAM, 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo processor, and 256MB (shared) Intel GMA 3000 integrated graphics, while that cash put toward a full size desktop could easily double your money's worth. The computer should provide a decent PC competitor for the Mac mini and other teensy computers, and 802.11n is a nice touch, but it looks like Asus is going try a bit harder if it really wants to stand out in this space.

So it begins: Toshiba's HD-A3 falls to $99 at Circuit City, comes with 7 free HD DVDs

It's not like there has been any shortage of deals on HD DVD hardware over the past few months or anything, but now that Toshiba (and almost everyone else on the planet) has officially yanked support for the format, prices are beginning to plummet en masse. First on the docket is the HD-A3 at Circuit City, which now sits at just $99.99 and comes with seven free titles, two of which are 300 and Bourne Identity. So yeah, if you've been waiting for this moment to snap up the failed format for cheap, hop on in -- but if we were betting souls, we'd say holding out just a wee bit longer would actually be in your wallet's best interest.

HP's UMPC 2133 to cost $630 when shipping in April?

A report by the Commercial Times says that HP will launch its 8.9-inch UMPC in April for "more than" NT$20,000 or about $630 bucks. Sure sounds like the UMPC 2133 we showed you yesterday, eh? That's about right when you compare it to the $300, entry-level 7-inch Eee PC. The paper claims it'll run a "high-end" Penryn processor as well which is fine by us if true.