| February's gaming sales a mixed bag: up for the month, down for the year Mar 9th 2012, 16:46 At this point, every time NPD releases its numbers, the video game industry collectively holds its breath. The last couple of months have not been kind, as hardware sales continued to drop. But, in February there was finally some good news -- console sales were 87 percent over January. More impressively, that jump only falls to 62 percent if you exclude the Vita. Still, after so many disappointing months, even that stratospheric jump left sales 18 percent lower than the same period last year. Even when taking software into account sales were down 20 percent -- with the industry as a whole raking in just $1.06 billion last month, down from the $1.33 billion the previous February. Individually there was good news for companies, though. Nintendo saw Super Mario Galaxy cross the five million mark, while all of its consoles (the DS, 3DS and Wii) all saw more than 50 percent spikes in their sales compared to January. Meanwhile, Microsoft held on to its number one slot by moving 426,000 Xbox 360s. Hit up the various source links for more info. February's gaming sales a mixed bag: up for the month, down for the year originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink |  Joystiq 1, 2, Microsoft | Email this | Comments | | Toshiba Tech's erasable toner lets you photo-uncopy (video) Mar 9th 2012, 16:25  Put away the matches, finally there's an eco-friendly way to get rid of those ill-thought photocopy pranks. Toshiba Tech has developed a toner that can be erased, letting you use a sheet of paper up to five times. Unlike similar solutions, you don't need special paper, but you will need one of the compatible copiers. The idea is similar to Pilot's erasable ball-point pen system, but uses heat instead of friction. As you'll see in the video over the break, a trace of the erased image remains slightly visible, so you'll still want the shredder for those sensitive documents. A built-in scanner means you can archive documents and also lets the machine sort paper into what can and can't be reused automatically. At the minute, you can only print in blue, but Toshiba Tech promises more options are on the way, and a full-color version is in the pipes. While the price is still undecided at this time, the creators hope that with the long-term paper savings, it'll only be the toner, not your budget, doing the disappearing. Continue reading Toshiba Tech's erasable toner lets you photo-uncopy (video) Toshiba Tech's erasable toner lets you photo-uncopy (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | DigInfo | Email this | Comments | | iRobot 110 FirstLook hands-on (video) Mar 9th 2012, 16:03  iRobot's Bedford, Massachusetts headquarters is literally crawling (well, rolling) with robots of all shapes and sizes, from friendlier household fare like Scoobas and Roombas, to the 450-pound Warrior battlefield 'bot, which patrols the perimeter, looking for mock IEDs. The highlight of our trip this week, however, had to be the time we spent with 110 FirstLook. Sure, durability is job number one, when you're building products for the military, but the plucky little robot takes things to a whole new level. At five pounds, you can pick the thing up and toss it -- in fact, the company encourages such action. The FirstLook was built to be thrown into dangerous areas, and it's rugged enough to smash through plate glass windows to get there. The 'bot has a patch of skateboard-like grip tape on its top, opposite the bendable antenna, so you can easily grab it with a single hand. You toss the FirstLook side arm, like a frisbee, and no matter what side it lands on, the rubber treads will cushion the blow a bit. If it happens to hit the ground upside down (with the antenna on the bottom), the triangle wings on either side can be slowly extended in either direction to right the robot. Same goes for when it bounces down a flight of stairs, unharmed. Continue reading iRobot 110 FirstLook hands-on (video) iRobot 110 FirstLook hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 12:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | | Engadget Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy Note, courtesy of Bell Canada Mar 9th 2012, 15:01  To celebrate Bell Canada's improved Mobile TV service -- which is particularly nice on a large display -- we could think of no better way than to gift a Samsung Galaxy Note to some lucky Canadian. So how do you win the Note with its beautiful 5.3-inch Super AMOLED display and crazy fast LTE? All it takes to enter is a comment posted below, the ability to follow the rules outlined in this article and that you're a Canadian. Yeah, that's right, our first Canada-only contest -- and no we're not hating on anybody, them's just the rules this time. So apply northern friends and good luck! - Leave a comment below. Any comment will do. Duplicate entries will be filtered out and discarded, so adding additional comments won't increase your likelihood of winning.
- Contest is open to all residents of Canada (excluding Quebec), 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
- Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner will receive one Bell Canada Samsung Galaxy Note.
- If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of being contacted. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen.
- This unit is purely for promotional giveaway. Bell Canada service will NOT be included. Also, Samsung, Bell and Engadget are not held liable to honor warranties or customer service.
- The full list of rules, in all its legalese glory, can be found here.
- Entries can be submitted until March 10, 2012 at 11:59PM ET. Good luck!
Engadget Giveaway: win a Samsung Galaxy Note, courtesy of Bell Canada originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | | Email this | Comments | |
