gadgetise

Although biometric payment systems are still pretty rare -- good news for friends and relatives of folks who can't seem to stop buying those "As Seen on TV" items in the checkout aisle -- recent trials at stores like Albertsons and Cub Foods and even the school lunch line would seem to indicate that more pervasive rollouts are just around the corner. The latest -- and arguably biggest -- player to enter the biopayment game is none other than Citibank Singapore, which has been quietly distributing fingerprint readers to area businesses for the past month. Right now only Clear Platinum card holders have the option of going biometric, and since this group includes heavy representation from the tech-savvy 25 to 34-year-old demographic, it seems that Citibank is taking the right approach to ensure widespread adoption. For now it sounds like the systems are still few and far between -- with coffee houses and and a popular nightclub being the most visible participants -- but Citibank VP Anand Cavale predicts that deployment will quickly expand as more customers put their prints on file at local branches. Oh, and for those of you worried about finger-snatching becoming the hot 21st Century crime, you'll be pleased to learn that a seven-digit PIN is also necessary to complete transactions of this variety -- so even if someone saws off one of your digits to purchase a mocha latte, the time-consuming torture required to force that secret code out of you will probably prove to be too much of a hassle for today's mugger on-the-go.

Hot on the heels of the big 3.0 firmware update for the PlayStation Portable, Sony's finally let loose its pricing plans for the forthcoming PS1 game downloads, although the downloads themselves are still apparently a few weeks away (unless you're in Japan, in which case you can get your Tekken 2 fix today). When they do show up, however, you can plan on dropping between $5.99 and $10.99 for the games, with each taking up between 140MB and 550MB on your Memory Stick Duo. The biggest sticking point for many PSP users, however, is that, as previously reported, you can't just download the games directly to your PSP -- instead, you have to download them onto your PS3's hard drive first and transfer 'em to your Memory Stick Duo from there. No problem for some but, last we checked, there's a heckuva lot more people with PSPs than PS3s, and at the rate things are going, that looks like it'll be the case for a while yet.

As we count our blessings today, we can't help but give thanks for something gadget heads couldn't do without: old fashioned competition. Calling out Dell's XPS M1710 (and similar) as overpriced and packaged with subpar technical support (aw snap), WidowPC is giving hardcore mobile gamers a choice in their purchasing decisions by offering up the Sting 517D. Touting a nearly limitless list of component selections, this 17-inch beast houses your choice of Intel's 1.66GHz to 2.33GHz Core 2 Duo processor, NVIDIA's GeForce Go 7950 512MB graphics card, up to 200GB of SATA goodness, a WUXGA display, dual-layer DVD burner, up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM, built-in WiFi / Bluetooth, TV tuner, 4-in-1 flash card reader, "$400 in free software," and a lifetime's worth of free, American-based phone support. The fleshed-out machine also boasts an army of ports, including 4-pin FireWire, IrDA, serial, ExpressCard slot, DVI / S-Video outputs, S-Video input, audio in / out, 56k modem, gigabit Ethernet, and four USB 2.0 connectors. Thankfully, WidowPC found a way to shave three full pounds from its 917X2, bringing the LAN-ready machine in at a fairly respectable 8.3 pounds. While pricing for the Sting 517D starts at just under $2,200, upping the innards to 1337 status could put your credit limit in serious turmoil, but the wicked spider logo across the lid definitely makes it worthwhile.