Fly or Die: The Nintendo 3DS, Rockmelt, And Mobile Wallets

Is the new Nintendo 3DS all that? Does Rockmelt have a chance? Will mobile wallets ever be adopted by real people in real stores? CrunchGear editor John Biggs and I tackle these questions in this week’s edition of Fly or Die. Watch the video to find out who our surprise guest is this time after we give our verdicts on his company’s product.

The Nintendo 3DS uses simple stereoscopic 3D graphics that really pop out and combined with a gyroscope effect creates an incredibly immersive experience. You might look like an idiot playing it because you move your whole body around unnecessarily, but it is very addictive. Biggs wrote up his initial impressions here.

Remember Rockmelt, the Chromium-based browser startup backed by Marc Andreessen? When it launched in private invite-only beta last November, the press it received was deafening. But by the time it opened up publicly about a week ago with only a few hundred thousand active users, fewer people noticed. Meanwhile, the team has been working away and the social browser is pretty solid. Biggs and I argue whether it can make a comeback.

And finally, there’s all the recent hubbub about mobile wallets and how NFC chips in phones will make them a reality. Some Android phones already have NFC chips. Some people think the iPhone 5 will come with an NFC chip and some people don’t. But they should find their way into an iPhone at some point in the future. Does that make NFC-powered mobile wallets the next great feature? I don’t think so and have laid out my thinking on this topic elsewhere. Biggs is ready to toss his fat wallet for wave-and-pay freedom.

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