On May 10th I got the chance to take a look at the soon to be available TEK807D Android Gaming Handheld. I take a look at the JXD S7300 and the Archos Gamepad for comparison and show what's better in this new TEK807D device. This video is a hardware overview and a look at the specs as well as seeing the device in action in a sneak preview of it. It is going to be sold in various places in the world under a different brand name. Yet inside the device is the same. Sellers can brand the unit and customize how the specs are. Like a rear viewing camera, battery size etc. It's expected to launch in Europe this summer for €150 or under $200 US.
Read more about the hardware specs below.

My Nintendo Wii U (2013)I've been quiet on the blog front of late as I've been focused on writing three new books for 2013 (and hopefully do what I can to help get the documentary out as well). However, with the latest NPD figures for videogame consoles being dissected across the Web-o-sphere, and Sony likely firing the next salvo for next generation platforms with their upcoming PlayStation-centric announcement (and Microsoft to follow soon thereafter), I thought this would a good time to break my silence and chime in with my perspective on the current videogame-centric happenings.

First off, it's clearly not looking good for pure videogame stuff with three lackluster hardware launches in a row: 3DS, Vita, and Wii U. The 3DS recovered sufficiently with a dramatic price cut that was very much against Nintendo's previous corporate policies that discouraged losing money on hardware, which allowed it enough time to hold out for the software situation to pick up. While it will never reach the sales heights of the blockbuster DS, considering how much competition both direct and indirect there is now versus then, it should still end up selling quite well when it has run through its complete lifecycle.

In this video I unbox (0:16) and check out (09:48) an Android based Dual Core PC on a stick and check out how well it does playing some games and emulators. I basically compare it to the Joy-IT Android PC, Archos Gamepad, Nexus 7. You can find a video on the Joy-IT Android PC over here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjLR1o835pw

Read more below...

My 1st review of Dec 24th revisited. With the new firmware update I'd give this device a much higher end-score. 7.5 out of 10 or 75% of 100. Much if not all software issues with buttons cancelling each other out have been removed with the firmware update. Also the lag and flickering screen with the Archos mapping tool have been removed. Very nice. It brings the device up to a standard it really should have been when it was released. Read more below.

I was blown away by the performance of this 75 Euro Mini Android 4.0.4 stick sporting a 1Ghz CPU and 1Gb of RAM. It also has 4Gb of internal storage and the capacity to run a MicroSD stick with a maximum capacity of 32Gb. Read more below.

Showing the iCade 8-bitty blue-tooth game pad controller that works with the Nexus 7 - straight out of the box without having to root it or anything. It is primarily designed for use with iOS but works great with Android as well as you can see. Read more below.

This hand-held is a 99-100% GBA, GBC hardware compatible game system. It is 99-100% software compatible with GBA, GBC, GB, NES through loading game files off a SD-card. The form factor and looks of the system can seem familiar as it uses the same case as the Gemei A330 aka Dingoo - but mind you this is not the same system. Compared with the original GBA case the system is about the same size, also the screen is about the same size but of a much higher resolution. The angle of the B and A buttons on the original is less steep than the diamond orientation of the Y X B A button layout on the Revo. The screen is not protected by a layer of glass, just a layer of plastic so you need to be a little careful. Don't put it in trousers but put it in the provided sack or pouch.

The camera I use barfed in this video - footage is very blueish so doesn't do the screen of the system justice - the camera makes it very blue with very little red. That's a camera thing. Just check out how it picked up my Nexus 7 - also quite blue so the camera :(

The system touts PC Engine and SMS, GG compatibility but the PCEngine emulation is far too slow. The GG and SMS games don't run full speed. GBA, GBC, GB and NES does.

Last year a SoC was designed based around the hardware of the original Game Boy Advance. It uses a dual core ARM architecture and instead of relying on software emulation to run GBA games, it is capable of running them natively.

Basically it is a hardware-reimplementation of the original GBA. And as a result it supposedly functions in almost exactly the same way as the original Nintendo hardware.This should provide a higher compatiblity- and accuracy-rate. It is possible to use GBA accesories and link the system up to another GBA, K1GBA or RevoK101. It also features video-out that works on a separate jackplug so the link cable can be used while the system is used on the television. The cable (composite) provides monoaural sound.

The real time clock allows for the Pokemon games to function 100% which is a big plus for a lot of Pokemon gamers out there.

What I wonder is if this system has any more advanced features compared to the original GBA (is there overhead) that allows for the installation or implementation of another operating system that opens up the hardware to more advanced emulation software of other systems. But that may not be the case as this seems to pretty much hardware duplicate the original GBA hardware.

The battery used in the K1GBA (the GBA-SP clone is the same one as the battery used in the original GBA-SP). The battery used in the RevoK101 is a clone of the Nokia BL-5B. Order one of these and you got an excellent replacement for the built-in battery.

Where can you get this system? The price is about $60 (~£40) €50 and for that price you practially can't refuse this.

Well you can get one here:
http://www.k1gbasp.com

The GBA-SP one you can get here:
http://www.k1gba.com

The RevoK101 website:
http://revok101.com

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I bit the bullet and got myself a Nexus7, seems good value for money and it is an excellent way to experience the Android ecosystem.

The magically floating camera aka camera girl observed and registered! Enjoy.

Of course more will follow.

I'm a big fan of Kickstarter and have personally backed over a dozen projects to date. I'm also a big fan of technology, particularly videogame and computer stuff, and practically gobble up anything new that I can. So why I am not caught up in OUYA videogame console frenzy? It has over $3 million in pledges in a little over 24 hours from over 25,000 backers, so it's already a success, and this will all surely continue to tick up dramatically and impressively over its remaining 28 days of open pledges, perhaps even breaking the Kickstarter record along the way. Clearly then, I'm in the minority when it comes to figuring out the appeal, so let's break it down.