Nintendo 3DS launches in Japan, populace tears through initial 400,000 unit shipment

You won't be able to snap one up at your local GameStop for a full month, but the Nintendo 3DS had a solid launch in Japan today, reportedly liquidating nearly its entire initial shipment of 400,000 spiffy stereoscopic gaming handhelds by the end of the day. Some of those sales were to customers waiting in a few lines up to 2,000 persons long, but those lines were exceptions to the norm -- several publications note that very few stores actually had any lines to speak of, as most Japanese electronics retailers sold out when the 3DS went on pre-order over a month ago. Get a refresher on what to expect from the system here (and here) or read all about the surprisingly orderly Japanese launch at our source links.

Update: Our friends at Engadget Japanese were on hand for the 3DS launch, and picked up a pair of systems themselves -- get a closer look at one of the first retail 3DS units in the gallery below!

Gallery: Nintendo 3DS -- Japanese retail version

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Public Beta Of FullHDMI Released, Lets You Mirror Your EVO’s Screen On Your HDTV

Fellow EVO 4G owners, were you envious when Sony Ericsson demoed the Xperia arc’s full HDMI capabilities? Fear not – once again, the developer community has come to the rescue!
Android Central Forums user Orrebmas has developed a "limited time" public beta of FullHDMI, an app that lets you output any content on your EVO’s display to your HDTV. Yep, that means you can finally get your Angry Birds on in full, 50-inch mode.

Unfortunately, there are a few caveats. First, simply installing an APK file isn’t enough; to get FullHDMI up and running, you’ll also need to flash a custom kernel. Additionally, support is limited to Sense-based ROMs, eliminating compatibility with CyanogenMod and other AOSP firmware.
Performance isn’t fantastic, either. Due to some poor coding on HTC’s behalf, the Gallery app force closes about 40 seconds after being launched, and while 3D games run smoothly, the same cannot be said of their 2D counterparts. And thanks to image-enhancing engines like Insignia, some TVs display the content about half a second after it is shown on the phone, thus making games practically unplayable.
It’s quite obvious why FullHDMI for EVO carries a "beta" tag with it, but I’d say it’s worth checking out nonetheless – if you’re intrigued, be sure to download both the app and the kernel below.
Download Link (RAR file contains both APK and kernel)

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Test Release of CyanogenMod 7 for the Vibrant

CyanogenMod is one of the most popular custom-built ROMs out there, and with version 7 they are bringing Gingerbread to more and more phones.  The T-Mobile Vibrant just got an official Froyo release recently, but the CyanogenMod team has got the beginnings of ROM for the Vibrant that, when finished and stable, will bring it Gingerbread in the near future, without waiting for the official Gingerbread release from Samsung.  It’s only a test build right now, so there’s still some work to be done, but this is an awesome team with a lot of experience at building these ROMs, so it’s safe to assume that it won’t be too long before they’ve got a solid build for you.  As always, we’ll keep you posted.

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HTC Releases Source code for the HTC Inspire 4G

HTC is giving developers the chance to test their handy work by offering the source code for the AT&T HTC Inspire 4G up on their Developer Center. This should make it alot easier to root and get some sweet ROMs available much faster. I Guess it’s easier to start where someone left off rather than compile from scratch.
The HTC Inspire 4G is a 4.3 inch Android smartphone with Dolby and SRS Surround Sound, 8 megapixel camera with LED flash, 720p video recording, DLNA, Android 2.2, 1 GHz Snapdragon processor and 768MB RAM, running on AT&T’s 4G LTE network.

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HTC Thunderbolt coming to Best Buy on March 10th?

We reported to you yesterday that the HTC Thunderbolt may be delayed past March 4th, but it seems we may have good reason to believe that it’ll be out by March 10th over at Best Buy judging by the pic above. The first line shows the HTC Thunderbolt available on March 10th through Best Buy Mobile in all stores.
Whether that came out after we heard about the March 4th delay from Twitter, or before remains to be seen, but we’re keeping our eye on it regardless!

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Nook for Android gets an update – Barnes & Noble promise Honeycomb version in Spring

A couple of things to mention for the Nook app from Barnes & Noble. The first is that the Nook app has been updated to version 2.5 and includes a Wish List feature, a library Grid View, as well as a book download progress bar, cause Barnes & Noble knows hoe we LOVE to watch the progress of downloads and installations (kidding). The app will serve as a nice improvement for Android tablet devices around 7 inches and larger using the Library Grid View.
Speaking of tablets, here’s the second thing B&N has going down for us Android folks. We should see a Honeycomb version of the app coming out around Spring, which by my count, should be any day now, but maybe they mean ‘end-of spring’.

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MLB at Bat 2011 comes to Android

MLB at Bat fans rejoice, because MLB Advanced Media has updated their baseball news app for the new 2011 year. MLB at Bat 2011 is now available in the Android Market for installation and features the following;

• Customize At Bat’s home screen to feature your designated favorite team.
• Favorite team icon home screen widget for one-click access to your favorite team’s At Bat 11 homepage
• MLB icon home screen widget for in-progress scores around the league
• Listen to available radio broadcasts of Spring Training games
• Follow batter-by-batter action for every Spring Training game
• Enhanced video library archive, searchable by player, team or keyword
• Breaking news, schedules and interactive rosters and players stats for every team

The app will cost you $14.99 from the Android Market, or if you’re strapped and would rather test it out before you commit to the full app, there’s a ‘Lite’ version as well for Free available here with the following features;

• Customize At Bat’s home screen to feature your designated favorite team.
• MLB icon home screen widget for in progress scores around the league
• Follow batter-by-batter action for every Spring Training game
• Breaking news, schedules and interactive rosters and players stats for every team

To grab the full paid version, hit this link for the Android Market to install.

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Verizon’s system showing HTC Droid Incredible 2 coming soon?

Well, well, HTC… you’ve been mighty busy. It looks like a tipster over at engadget got some juicy news, and they’re here to share it with you. After seeing the Incredible S, we knew it wouldn’t be long until we saw it in the states.

According to the screenies sent in by the tipster, Verizon is dubbing the device the HTC ADR6350, whereas another shows off the HTC63503, also shown as the “INCRD2″. Fortunately, it doesn’t take rocket science to put these together and come up with the Incerdible 2 coming to Verizon… eventually. We still don’t know about a date, but keep it here, and we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

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HTC Incredible S Ships In The UK With Froyo, Initially

Looks like our fellow UK’ers are getting a bit of an early surprise this week.  HTC has moved the launch date up a bit for the Incredible S device that we saw at MWC.  You can now order the device and get it fairly quick.  However, take note that the device will not ship with Gingerbread, but rather Froyo with a promise to receive Android 2.3 in the “near future”.  So, if you’re ok with that stipulation, then get your order on and let us know what you Brit’s think of the device in the comments below.  It definitely looks like an impressive piece of hardware.  Check out the specs below:
Specs:

• Sense UI
• 4-inch Multi-Touch Screen (480 x 800 Res)
• HD 8MP Camera With Dual LED Flash
• 720p Video Recording
• 1 GHz CPU
• 1Gig of RAM
• 1.3 MP Front-Facing Camera

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