Arguably, this is one of the most elegant iPad stands ever created. The Magnus Stand is a magnetic stand made from pure aluminum – machine cut. It only fits the iPad 2 as the original iPad doesn’t have any magnets built into its sides.

Normally, I’d never consider spending money on an iPad stand, but the Magnus Stand is just too sleek to ignore. If I owned an iPad 2, I’d totally drop my dollars on one. It should be heavy enough to not topple over. From the images, it doesn’t look like it’ll be useful in portrait position, though.

What’s the point of a stand that you can’t even see?
Opinions will differ, but we believe that reducing the visual noise in your environment promotes a certain clarity of thought.

Minimal and functional. It’s $50 and goes on sale tomorrow.

Six or seven years ago, if you wanted to show off your cool cred, you wore the white earbuds that came with your iPod. Everybody wanted to dance to the white earbuds. But then people realized that those earbuds were crap (I actually like them and find them comfortable).

That’s when Dr. Dre’s Beats and Monster decided to slip in and make fashionable headphones and earbuds “trendy” enough to be fashion accessories. And at the same time: expensive. Like so much that I can’t even afford them and people will try to rob you for your shiny muffs.

I’ve never particularly liked the Beats headphones. Stylish as they are, they are a little big on my noggin and in my opinion tuned to offer bass that I just don’t really care for or need.

The part that I’ve always been more intrigued by on Beats/Monster gear is the use of flat fettucini noodle-like wires that don’t tangle. Now, that’s a trend I wish more companies would get behind.

At this year’s CES, celebrities came out swinging with their own branded headphones. What started out as a beautiful relationship between Dr. Dre’s Beats and Monster is now over. HTC and Hewlett-Packard are Beats’ new buddies. That’s fine, as a company, Beats needs to go where the money is at.

Beats is now large and popular enough to strike out on its own.

Monster, too, is big enough to not need Beats anymore (although, guys, why are you still ripping everybody off with those expensive “premium HDMI” cables that don’t improve picture quality?). It’s still got Lady Gaga, Wonder Girls (see my crappy YouTube video of the girls and JYP unveiling the new gold “Diamond Tears-Edge High Definition headphones”) and some designers who pump out stuff like the Diesel Vecktr On-Ear Headphones. The angular design on those just look high-tech. Never mind how they sound. Who cares!? Only $280!

My point is, Dr. Dre and and co-founder of Beats, Jimmy Lovine started Beats because they wanted to make good sounding audio relevant again. As our music collections started to become digitalized, things like bitrates totally made our classics sound like shit. That’s the speech Lovine gave at the unveil for HTC’s Rezound smartphone. That’s the exact same reason why it let HTC buy 51 percent control – Lovine really believes Beats can make mobile devices not sound like garbage – with premium audio parts.

For Dre and Lovine, Beats was the culmination of creating quality audio gear. Beats was expensive only because it sounded good, like a BMW or Mercedes drives tighter than a Toyota.

From what I can tell, the spirit of quality has gone out the window again, as companies rush to slap star brands on any old lousy pair of headphones.

50 Cent and SMS’s wireless have the “SYNC by 50 Headphones” ($400). Bob Marley’s son was showing off some “Exodus” headphones ($150). Ludacris has his own SOUL SL300 ($300). Hell, even Miles Davis has some earbuds by Monster called “Trumpet” ($350) and he’s dead! You know things have gone too far when headphones for a dead musician are being sold.

Enough is enough!

It’s alright if companies want to make good headphones that justify their high prices, but don’t just churn them out like cockroaches laying eggs. Don’t just slap on Justin Bieber’s name to some earbuds, paint it purple, and sell them for $80 and call it day.

It’s a winning solution in the short-term, but ultimately, destroys and ruins the purpose of premium audio accessories.

Give me cables that won’t tangle or rip in a few weeks. Headphones that are waterproof so that I can take them on my sweaty run. And sound drivers that’ll make me feel like I just blew the best $300 of my life because I can finally listen to music that isn’t auto-tuned and hear the natural voices of singers again.

Who’s going to brag about wearing Ludacris’ headphones anyway? I wouldn’t, even if SOUL gave me a free pair.

Hey there! It’s been a while since I’ve had an update. I’ve been totally exhausted from CES 2012 in Las Vegas. I was covering that massive show with the DVICE crew for the second year running (more on that in another post). Today, I want to remind you that Tekunoloji is on YouTube.

This is the first major electronics trade show that I went all in with video and tried to be as pro of a “video editor/producer” as possible. The total video count I had for DVICE and CES 2012 coverage was 13. That’s 13 videos in five days.

All of my videos were shot with an Olympus PEN and edited with iMovie ’11 on a Core i7 1.8GHz MacBook Air (2011 model). Those of you who still think an Air can’t be a video editor – think again, because it can – at least for short videos.

Of course, all videos from CES are viewable also on DVICE or on Xbox Live with the Syfy video app (must have the newest Dashboard and be a Gold subscriber).

Lots of videos from CES 2012 on our YouTube channel, but I’ve still got some stuff leftover from my SD cards and SSD, which I’ll be adding exclusively for Tekunoloji.

Video is a rapidly booming source of eyeballs and I can see every major publication working to improve on their video offerings. The key is to make them with a super low-budget without sacrificing on professional quality. It doesn’t need to be CNN or MTV-quality, but it needs to be good enough it doesn’t look lackluster. And you have to be fast – super fast to shoot, edit and upload.

In terms of what kind of content to provide on YouTube, I’m going to be experimenting a bit and tossing all sorts of stuff up on our channel and seeing what sticks. Our biggest video so far is still when we were the first to break news on the Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary demo video from New York Comic Con.

Here are my favorite videos added recently on Tekunoloji on YouTube:

Razer Blade:

2013 Electric DeLorean:

ePawn Arena:

Sony’s computer/tablet hybrid concepts:

Razer’s Project Fiona:

Liquipel nanotechnology waterproof tech:

Mad Catz’s modular Pro Circuit Controller:

Show us your love by heading over to the Tekunoloji channel and subscribe, favorite, like or whatever to our videos. We’ll love you forever if you do!

I’m such a sucker for teasers. I can’t help it, especially when it’s done in such a tasteful and sophisticated manner. Sony Ericsson’s just released a teaser picture on its Faceboook page (can’t believe these are the norm now) and it looks like the emphasis is on the next-gen Xperia smartphone’s camera.

Going clockwise from the top left, shot one is a photo of a dedicated camera shutter button, some kind of port (HDMI?), photo and video modes, and a camera lens with HD.

Rumors point to the device being either called the Xperia Arc HD/Nozomi or Ion (recently trademarked by Sony Ericsson). GSMArena had the scoop on the device last month.

If the device turns out to be the one you see below, specs look to include a 4.3-inch display with (1280×720) resolution), 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 16/32GB internal storage (no microSD card), 12-megapixel camera with autofocus, 1GB of RAM, an HDMI port and Android 2.3.5 (maybe Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich?).

Not a big fan of the convex back and prefer the concave design of the Xperia Arc, but it’s probably for ergonomic comfort – so it sits better in the palm of your hand.

Video is one of those things I’m slowly getting into the groove of. I’ve been ramping up Tekunoloji’s videos on YouTube. I shoot all my videos in HD 720p or 1080p, depending on camera I have on me. My gear is usually an Olympus PEN camera or my trusty iPhone 4.

The Pico Dolly is really just an arm attached to a plate with four Rollerblade wheels. The wheels are adjustable and can be rotated to create an arc for some neat 360-degree views (see video all the way below). The arms are also strong enough to hold a DSLR, mirrorless cameras and smartphones, which makes it quite the jack of all trades.

In one of The Verge‘s “Vergecasts” managing editor Nilay Patel said that he swears by the Pico Dolly made by Photography & Cinema. Apparently, all of their amazing gadget videos are shot with the Pico Dolly – which is to say the results look fantastic. The panning is smooth and the videos look very professional, despite the low-budget gear.

Photojojo is selling the Pico Dolly for $90, but interestingly, there is no mention that it is an official Pico Dolly, but rather it’s just generically named “Camera Table Dolly.” The photos (below) do seem to show the red Pico Dolly logo, though, I have to mention that Photojojo’s deceived me in the past (see this video rant on the crappy and bootleg Canon lens mug Photojojo sold me).

I pulled the trigger on a Pico Dolly from Photojojo the other day and then canceled my order after a good night thinking over it. My main issue is that the Pico Dolly really only works on a table or smooth surface. Roll it on a rough floor or pavement and there maybe be some hiccups in your video. You can also see in the demo video below that they use a plank board to keep the panning smooth, which as some people pointed out, defeats the purpose of its portability.

I’m still considering the Pico Dolly as a useful asset tool for professional videography, but I’m not sure if I need it yet. I’m also worried that the price will increase. The last thing I need is another piece of camera equipment that seemed like a future-proof tool at first, but ends up in a drawer bin to be forgotten.

Video:

Rarely do I ever lust after HDTVs or 3D TVs, for that matter. From a design perspective, I’m never satisfied. The HDTV has to be about as perfect as it can be for me without compromise. Usually, the tradeoffs come with an ugly backside, a fat bezel, a thick body, or alien-legs (Samsung D8000 series, I’m looking at you), or exorbitant price.

Lately, I’ve been hungering for an HDTV that will engulf me, blow me away with beauty and make my eyes fill up with tears of joy.

In the last year, I nearly dropped my money (lots of money) on a Sony NX-810 or a Samsung D8000. The former because of its monolithic one-piece “edge-to-edge” glass design and one-of-a-kind aluminum stand that doubles as a 2.1 Dolby Digital sound bar (can’t seem to find it anywhere) and the latter for its 0.2-inch brushed metal bezel that’s virtually invisible.

LG’s new 55-inch OLED 3D TV shown here that measures 55-inches diagonally, has a thickness of 0.16-inches and a bezel that’s even slimmer than the Samsung D8000. On top of all that, the 3D TV only weighs a featherweight 16.5 pounds and comes with a slick stand. With an OLED screen, you know that the blacks will be deep. No word on what type of 3D it uses (passive or active shutter), pricing (expected to break the bank) and release date, but this is a 3D TV done right.

Aesthetics. Aesthetics. Aesthetics. If I am to turn on my TV every day, I should want to turn it on. I should want to look at it. I should want to admire it. My three requirements for a TV:

1. Thin
2. 10-year proof / 3D / OLED / etc.
3. Sharp display with excellent viewing angles

Between this and LG’s 84-inch “Ultra-Definition” 3D TV monster it announced last week, CES 2012 is going to be a cornucopia for 3D TVs that’ll wet my pants.

For those who care, I’m currently using a LG 26-inch LED HDTV (720p/60Hz) that I bought around Black Friday in 2010. Yes, it’s puny, and small, but I don’t watch much TV, and when I do, it’s on my MacBook Air or on the iPad. LG, call me.

One of my biggest pet peeves is cable clutter. I hate tangled cords and I hate them crisscrossing all over my desk, my bedside table – anywhere. In a perfect world, everything would be completely wireless. Sumo is an elegant little brick-shaped solution that resolves the cable clutter.

For $12, Bluelounge sells the little Sumo to keep your cables in check. Sumo is essentially a paperweight, but with thousands of tiny Japanese micro-suctions that keep it from sliding off a surface.

The minimal design and two color choices (black and white) make it almost an impulse buy. The only issue I take with the Sumo is that it only handles two cables and also that the tracks don’t appear to be wide enough to support thicker cables such as an HDMI cable. The Sumo is an attractive solution, but I’ll probably wait until there are larger ones with room for more cables.

You’re probably wondering why anybody would need a thing like the Sumo. You’re right, most people could care less about their cable clutter. We’re Tekunoloji – we care about details like that.

Released on Dec. 4, I bought Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS a few days after the game came out at a Best Buy. Call me a fanboy if you want, because I would too.

Before I begin, I must say that I’ve played nearly every version of Mario Kart (except for the Japanese arcade version) spanning the SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, Wii and now Nintendo 3DS.

The six previous games are: Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, Maro Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii.

Since the original release of Super Mario Kart for the SNES in 1992, the game has remained almost without change — save for a few minor tweaks, here and there. I’ve basically been playing the same game for the last 20 years and yet, I still jump for joy at the newest iteration of the game. It’s almost like gamers who play Pokémon, Street Fighter, Pac-Man, Call of Duty, or any video game franchise.

As a gamer myself, I keep up with gaming news like a junkie, and yet, I still hear all this whining from my friends, my colleagues, game journalists, bloggers, and the entire Internet about how the top selling games are always sequels, how there are no original games anymore, blah blah blah.

Reviews of Mario Kart 7 started flooding the Internet weeks before the game’s U.S. release and nearly all of them resonated one thing: Mario Kart 7 is the same old Mario Kart, but with a few new race courses, a few new kart customizations and a few new items.

Still, I ordered Mario Kart 7 and picked it up in-store.

I popped in Mario Kart 7 into my 3DS and after a mandatory software update, dove right into racing. The title screen is virtually the same as every Mario Kart before it, with a choice of racing circuits ranging from 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. Each circuit has the same familiar Flower, Banana, Leaf, Mushroom, etc. cups as every other Mario Kart game. The first four cups are entirely new, each with four tracks in total. Cups four to eight are old tracks from Mario Karts of yore.

Racing is handled exactly the same as I last remember it, with gas handled by the A button, brake with the B button, jumping with the R shoulder trigger, L shoulder trigger for selecting and using power-up/attack items.

I didn’t have to learn anything new. Since I’ve played the old games, I immediately felt at home, and at ease with playing Mario Kart 7.

Graphics looks beautiful. When I first got hands-on with Mario Kart 7 at the New York Comic-Con, I was floored by the 3D. This was a game with 3D done properly. As with all 3D games, when you flip on the 3D, the quality drops, but the frame rate doesn’t seem to suffer here, which is fantastic and why Mario Kart is still the king of kart racing after all these years. Seriously, take a look at Mario Kart 7, squint real hard, and you’ll be hard pressed it’s not pushing Wii-quality graphics.

New for the game is a first-person mode that automatically flips your controls to gyroscope mode. You won’t be tilting your 3DS much in those mode with the 3D depth on high or you’ll get motion sickness. Of course, you can override the tilt controls with the regular controls, and I actually played a few cups in first-person mode, finishing in first, the camera view really is a gimmick.

Coins are now back in the game. Collect 10 and you get a quick boost. Collecting coins is essential to Mario Kart 7 as it helps unlock more customizations.

Speaking of customizations, you can now pick more kart bodies, different kart wheels, and hang-gliders. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses, but again, kind of gimmicky. Yoshi is still the fastest of them all.

There are also a few new items. You’ll find the Super Leaf (Tanooki tail) is here and it’s sometimes effective for wagging off incoming shells, and the Fire Star that shoots fireballs is kind of fun. You’ll almost never get the Lucky Seven, which gives seven items to choose and use. Frankly, I’m a little upset that the “fake item” box is not in the game. I really loved screwing with opponents by dropping a fake item box in the middle of the road in Mario Kart DS. One more thing to note about items: why so many goddamned bananas? The ratio of bananas to other items makes the game unbelievably stale.

Sound is really where a lot of Nintendo – mainly Mario – games fail, save for the incredible Legend of Zelda series. You won’t find many new tunes here or even ones that really push the boundaries of Mario Kart. At times I almost wish Nintendo would go with a track that is more Fast and Furious and less It’s-a-me-Mario!

To wrap up, Mario Kart 7 is easily one of the best Nintendo 3DS games out right now. I haven’t played Super Mario 3D Land yet, but from what I’m hearing, these two games are literally carrying the 3DS up from an early death. The price cut back in August from $250 to $170 for a 3DS did much to help boost the handheld’s sales, but systems are sold because of great games. Mario Kart 7 is just in time to save the 3DS’s butt. Now, Nintendo needs to keep them coming.

Retro Studios, makers of the Metroid Prime series deserve a huge pat on the back. They really did Nintendo proud by not messing with the tried-and-true formula of kart racing, but still giving it that 3D depth. I highly recommend Mario Kart 7.

^ If you’ve played the old Mario Kart games, you’ll feel right at home with Mario Kart 7.

^ All the items in the game. No fake item box? Me sad.

Haven’t had time to test Mario Kart 7′s online features, but if they’re as alright as the Wii’s offerings, things shouldn’t be too terrible.

^ Mario Kart DS on the left and the new Mario Kart 7. Pretty boring cartridge design.

^ Three modes to play.

^ You can play as your own Mii like in the Wii version. Here you can see my crazy customized kart with batwings as a hang glider.

^ A few Wii tracks make it to the 3DS game.

^ More modes. I still love the Grand Prix the best.

^ Another look at the customization features.

^ First four cups are all new tracks. Last four are old tacks.

^ It’s like having a portable Wii!

Oh yes. Underwater modes automatically give your kart a propeller. You can also collect coins again!

The first-person mode. Not a huge fan, but it is usable, like the Wii Remote for the Mario Kart Wii. Hardcore players will brag that they can beat you in this mode and with gyro controls too!

We made it! We lived another year and man, what a year it was. Looking back, I’m impressed at all the great people and companies I spoke to and all the traveling I did.

Let’s do a quick recap.

CES 2011 – Insane. My first CES, and I was prepared, but unprepared (more on this in another post). This was my first real huge tradeshow and it taught me so much about reporting, blogging and photography. Most of all it taught me a thing or two about Las Vegas: it’s evil and taxi cab drivers are always trying to rip you off. Had gadget lust, and saw Lady Gaga at the Polaroid booth creating chaos with the throngs of people rushing in from every hall to see her.

I attended the 2011 International Toy Fair at the Jacob Javits Center and got to play with all these cool toys, including some awesome Star Wars Ultimate FX Lightsabers (see video of them here), Nerf guns (see video of the Dartfire here), Marshmallow Bazooka guns (see video here) and more. It was a blast. Even got to see Jeremy Piven of Entourage fame representing Team Hotwheels with Mattel.

Went to PAX East up in Boston, which was my first video game convention. What can I say about it? The convention center smelled like nerd sweat. Love all the games and all the sweet booths. The best gadget there? N-Control’s Avenger controller peripheral.

Arrived at the BlackBerry PlayBook launch party and met RIM co-CEO Mike Lazaridis and saw NBA superstar Dwight Howard kicking at the party.

In June I went on behalf of the Ubergizmo team to E3 in Los Angeles for the biggest video game show ever. It’s always been my dream to attend E3. I grew up reading coverage of the madness from Electronic Monthly Gaming and GamePro and to be able to experience the show in person was truly phenomenal. It changed my life. It also taught me some more things about blogging – like you gotta be prepared and you gotta be fast. Bring spare batteries! Oh, and I also waited in line forever to be one of the first people to play with the Wii U and PS Vita. It was totally worth the dead legs for 20 minutes of play time.

Chevrolet invited me to Detroit to test-drive the Chevy Cruze and Chevy Sonic in August as well as watch a crash-test and race around on GM testing grounds. I saw a wind tunnel up close, walked through it and stayed at a really nice swanky hotel. I actually got lost getting my Chevy Cruze to the design facility and OnStar wasn’t really helpful. I probably should have used the onboard navigation GPS, but I didn’t know how to turn it on. It just goes to show you that I’ve got to learn more about how cars work and hopefully get my own soon.

Olympus had me out on the rooftop of the Arthur Ash Stadium at the 2011 U.S. Open at the end of summer to test their E-PM1 mirrorless cameras. We had the chance to sneak into the dugout pit where all the pro photographers shoot from behind the players on the court and WOW, it was such a great experience. Thanks Olympus!

Met the Engadget team at their meet-up at Guastavino’s. Not the old Engadget team led by Joshua Topolsky, but hung with Richard Lai and Tim Stevens!

^ Engadget China’s Richard Lai showing me the fake iPhone 5 from Shenzen.

In September, Hasbro invited me to an awesome Nerf launch party for the Vortex line and it was crazy! Adults with Nerf guns!

^ Testing out Hasbro’s new Nerf Vortex disc-based blasters.

Managed to see some more celebrities as well. Saw NBA star Amare Stoudemire at a Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure event and T-Mobile spokesgirl Carly Foulkes at a T-Mobile smartphone launch party.

New York Comic Con was in October and it was my first comic con. Like PAX East, it was mostly nerd sweat, but I saw Seth Green try to escape the throngs after people ID’d him, and had a lot of fun collecting junky swag. Saw so many crazy costumes and was the first person on the Internet with YouTube videos of Grand Theft Auto III: 10 Year Anniversary for iPad and Android.

And recently, Waterford Crystal invited me to get up close and personal with the 2012 New Year’s Eve Ball. How could I say no? Not everybody gets the chance to see the ball in person – only from afar and on TV.

Those were the highlights of the year. A lot of stuff happened in between, but those were the best in tech for me. As DVICE‘s Reviews Editor, I’ve learned so much this year, editing, writing, photographing, automating – just a lot – most of it through self-discovery.

I can’t tell you what 2012 will bring, but based on this year, I’d say it can’t get any worse. If it doesn’t get even more crazy, I’ll be upset. I’ll see you all in the new year!

P.S. If you haven’t checked out two great articles, here they are:

• My 7 Favorite Gadgets of 2011
• 2012 New Year’s Eve Ball

The PS Vita is Sony’s successor to the PlayStation Portable (PSP) and it rights almost all the wrongs that the first handheld had – namely there are now two analog sticks as opposed to one analog “nub,” a 5-inch OLED touchscreen, a rear touchpad, a front/rear camera, faster Flash carts instead of slow Universal Media Discs (UMDs).

At first, the Vita looks rather huge and that’s because it is. You won’t be carrying the Vita around in your pocket, unless you have big pockets or unless you’re Shaq. Contrary to its size, the unit is actually quite light and feels really good in the hand (even my small ones).

As of Dec. 17, the Vita’s been on sale in Japan and in Asia. You can easily import one. Reports suggest Sony shipped 500,000 Vita units, but then added another 200,000 to ensure there were no shortages. There’s also concern that the market’s changed and mobile gaming from smartphones and tablets have destroyed the need for dedicated handhelds. Not surprisingly, PS Vita sales plummeted during the second week of sales. I say those sales aren’t indicative of the long-term future.

The original PSP sold for $250 and the PS Vita 16GB Wi-Fi version will sell for the same price. Some said the PSP was too expensive. Sony said you were buying “value.” The 3DS started at $250 and Nintendo issued the same spiel. Then look what happened, half a year in and Nintendo decides to drop the price of the 3DS in order to put it back on track. The 3DS has now surpassed the original DS in first year sales. It also helped that you could find a $170 3DS for $100-$140 on Black Friday.

I’ve had a few hands-on moments with the Vita – at E3 and at a few PlayStation showcases – and my overall impression is that the device is very solid. The X/O/triangle/square buttons are smaller and clickier than the PSP, but the analogs feel great, the d-pad is much comfier and the augmented reality games like Little Deviants really impressed me. The 5-inch OLED screen (960 x 544 resolution) is also to die for.

Most of all I’m looking forward to cross-platform play with the PS3 – I demoed wipEout 2048  and Ruin with it and I was floored. The Vita can really pump out near-PS3 quality games.

Other games that I’m super psyched for include Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Unit 13 (a tactical shooter by the SOCOM guys), Resistance: Burning Skies, Escape Plan (a black and white puzzler platformer that uses both touch panels), Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Lumines: Electronic Symphony. 

For the Feb. 22 U.S. launch, you can find all 25 games that will be available as well as a ton of “launch window” titles on the PlayStation blog here.

A final note before I let you look at all the comparison photos, you WILL need to buy another proprietary Sony memory stick for the Vita. 4GB cards start at $20 and run up to $100 for a 32GB card. You’ll need one for saving your games and media content as the Vita doesn’t have any onboard storage, which sucks. So really, the minimum anybody will drop on a Vita is $250+20= $270 + tax (where applicable). For me, the figure is somewhere in $297 so about $300 total.

Games also are spendy. They’ll run from $10 to $50 for the more polished games. $10 games will be ones like Plants vs. Zombies and $50 will be advanced games like Uncharted and Resistance. That’s a lot to ask for a game, especially in today’s app store economy filled with Angry Birds and Cut the Rope, but this is real gaming, right?

^ Top: PS Vita, bottom: original PSP-1001, bottom

^ A front view of the new PS Vita.

^ Even the rear touchpad is detailed with the iconic PlayStation face button icons. You can see the VGA camera on the back as well as two rubber “grips.”

^ Volume buttons, a proprietary port for some unannounced use, and the game card slot.

^ A closer view of the new dual-analogs. Sadly, they don’t have R3 button functions.

^ See how the analogs jut out a little?

^ A Nintendo 3DS stacked on top of the PS Vita.

^ The Vita is actually slightly thinner than the 3DS.

^ Top: PS Vita, bottom: LG Nitro HD (4.5-inch 1280×720 display).

^ A better view of the new ports on the top. Early impressions on the Web seem to suggest the power button is needs to be pressed for a few seconds before powering on.

^ PS Vita compared to a BlackBerry PlayBook (7-inch tablet).

^ PSP stacked on top of the new PS Vita. Down there is the charing port. It’s not an HDMI port (there is none on the Vita).