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Yeah, we’ve seen bizarre apparatuses that bring about otherworldly feelings, but new studies have reportedly been able to induce out-of-body experiences with just a set of “virtual reality goggles, a camera, and a stick.” Apparently, the “research reveals that the sense of having a body, of being in a bodily self, is actually constructed from multiple sensory streams,” and when the newfangled system forces individuals to peer at “an illusory image of themselves” while the stick prods them “in a certain way,” the guinea pigs said they felt as if they had been removed from their bodies. Of course, it seems the real purpose here circles more around the science of the brain rather than hashing out a DIY guide to accomplish this on your own, and no, so far as we can tell, it (unfortunately) does not play Doom.

[via Engadget]

Despite the launch of the Wii in the US occurring months and months ago, there is still a perceivable shortage of the little white console. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter made his own analysis of the recent upturn in US Wii console sales by predicting that Nintendo filled the gap by diverting manufacturing in Japan to feed the US stores. It’s almost beyond belief that Nintendo still hasn’t been able to get a grasp on its manufacturing process, over nine months since the Wii was released. Wasn’t half the point of focusing on casual gaming — and therefore lower specs — that the console would be easy to manufacture in vast quantities?

[Via Joystiq]

Here’s one that the carefree kiddos are sure to hate. Hamilton Electronics has unveiled a wired set of headphones dubbed Guardian, which put an interesting twist on limiting the volume that one hears. Rather than including some form of internal volume diminisher, these cans sport red and green LCDs on an earcup which light up depending on how loud you’ve got the music cranked. As you’d expect, the green LED signifies that the volume within is perfectly acceptable, while nudging that knob to 11 will cue the red light to glow, consequently leading your paranoid mother to remove them from your head entirely. Yeah, you’ll have to hand over $39.95 to pick ‘em up, but trust us, it’s for your own good.

[Via I4U News]

We’ve seen a couple interesting gaming mice come out of Leipzig this year, and the SteelSeries Ikari Professional Gaming mouse is right up there with Microsoft’s new Sidewinders and Razer’s Lachesis. The outer shell is built to accommodate the “three major gaming grips” of “Swipe, Claw, and Palm,” and gamers can select their choice of models: a high-res optical version for FPS gamers, or a laser system for RPS and MMO addicts. Both feature switchable DPI settings and five programmable buttons, with a proprietary 500MHz transmitter to reduce any lag or interference. No word on price, but SteelSeries says these’ll be out in Q4, so you gamers had better start saving your pennies.

[Via IGN]

calls wherever there’s an open If you can reach back into the archives of your brain, you may be able to recall an elusive Netgear WiFi Skype phone that was previewed in May. Unless our eyes are seriously deceiving us, that very handset has now been launched, and it’s been titled the SPH200W. Sporting 802.11b/g compatibility, around four hours of talk time (or 48 hours in standby), WEP / WPA / WPA2 support, and most importantly, the ability to take and make SkypeWiFi signal, this device also allows you to manage up to 500 contacts and touts a built-in speakerphone. Unfortunately, there’s no word on how much this unit will cost you just yet, but feel free to indulge in a few extra photos waiting after the jump.

[via Engadget]

So we were noodling around the laptop section at Best Buy the other day, semi-shocked at the relatively frenzied activity at the big box retailer, when we happened to glance over and notice a very lonely device being ignored by the throngs of shoppers. That poor, unloved gadget was none other than the Sony Reader, which saw a fair amount of hype prior to its (perpetually-delayed) release, but now seems to have basically slipped off most people’s radar. Are people buying this thing? Has it developed a following? Is there a community devoted to software and hardware hacks? We’re honestly not sure, which lead us to wonder how Sony could have changed things up to make the Reader — in general, a solid concept — a more desirable purchase for the mass market. Since it’s surprisingly format agnostic for a Sony product, we don’t expect to hear too many suggestions in the compatibility department, although there will understandably be some folks seeking support for WMA, non-BBeB protected content, native DOCs, and the like. That being said, should they have loaded it up with more flash, or at least made it compatible with memory cards bigger than 4GB? Would out-of-the-box support for Mac and Linux users help? How about a non-crippled RSS reader? (Hey, at least they hooked you up with Engadget, though). Help us out here, people, what would it take to send you home with a brand new Sony Reader?

[via Engadget]

The iPhone is getting used and abused today with a second software-only unlocking solution making itself known. Uniquephones has now surprised with word that it will be offering a downloadable software unlock service between 12 and 2 PM EST tomorrow at iphoneunlocking.com. Pricing will be somewhere between $25 and $50 with a 25 to 50 percent discount for people who have already signed up for the service — apparently as many as 450,000 already have.

[via Engadget]

You probably started to think that your good buddies over at GamePark Holdings were going to leave you high and dry on a new iteration of their Linux-based, homebrewer’s dream — the GP2X — seeing as it’s been over a year since we’ve heard any stirrings beyond the recently released Commercial Interface Board. Well, that’s all a-changin’, as we’ve just gotten word that the brand-spanking-new GP2X F-200 is on its way out this October, sporting a handsome white finish. The specs don’t deviate drastically from the GP2X F-100, utilizing the same dual core ARM920T processors for host and video number crunching, 64MB of RAM, and SD card support. Where the new model does differ, however, is with the addition of a 320 x 240 QVGA touchscreen (with stylus), and a complete redesign of the gamepad, moving away from the previous, mushroom-like protrusion to a more flush, PSP-esque controller. So for all you DIY’ers with a penchant for video gaming, a desperate need to playback video, audio, and check out family photos, and a bizarre fascination with obscure Korean electronics — it’s your lucky day.

[via Engadget]