We know, Microsoft's resurrection of the SideWinder brought back fond memories for most us of, but with all the alternatives already out there in the gaming mouse niche, it's going to take a bit more than fuzzy feelings to get our $80. Thankfully, the folks over at I4U News spent some quality time with the new SideWinder mouse, and after realizing that it looks a bit gentler in person, they proceeded to crank through hours of gaming to see how it fared. Notably, the LCD screen was dubbed "actually useful," the 2,000dpi was said to be "plenty of sensitivity," and the thumb buttons were deemed "perfect from a tactile feedback perspective." Still, reviewers found more hype than substance in the Quick Turn button, and while the scroll wheel seemed "great for gaming," it wasn't as friendly during everyday tasks. Nevertheless, the crew awarded the revived critter a very generous nine out of ten stars, but if you've still got your doubts, hit the read link and check out the full skinny.29 September, 2007
Microsoft's SideWinder gaming mouse gets reviewed - Engadget
We know, Microsoft's resurrection of the SideWinder brought back fond memories for most us of, but with all the alternatives already out there in the gaming mouse niche, it's going to take a bit more than fuzzy feelings to get our $80. Thankfully, the folks over at I4U News spent some quality time with the new SideWinder mouse, and after realizing that it looks a bit gentler in person, they proceeded to crank through hours of gaming to see how it fared. Notably, the LCD screen was dubbed "actually useful," the 2,000dpi was said to be "plenty of sensitivity," and the thumb buttons were deemed "perfect from a tactile feedback perspective." Still, reviewers found more hype than substance in the Quick Turn button, and while the scroll wheel seemed "great for gaming," it wasn't as friendly during everyday tasks. Nevertheless, the crew awarded the revived critter a very generous nine out of ten stars, but if you've still got your doubts, hit the read link and check out the full skinny.AppleInsider | Apple, Jobs, AT&T sued over iPhone price cut, rebates
Apple Inc., along with its chief executive and exclusive U.S. iPhone wireless partner AT&T, have been hit with a new lawsuit from a disgruntled customer who charges the trio with a variety of offenses stemming from the recent iPhone price cut.
In the suit, filed Sept. 24 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Queens resident Dongmei Li accuses the parties of price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings for their role in the Sept. 5th price drop on iPhone, which saw the handset's price tag slashed an unprecedented $200 less than two months after its debut.
Li was among the thousands who waited hours in line on June 29, 2007 for her chance to purchase one of the touch-screen devices, according to the suit. When she reached the front of the line, her local Apple store only had 4GB models remaining, which she purchased anyway despite having intended to buy the larger-capacitied 8GB model.
She, like thousands of others, the suit claims, is now the victim of price discrimination in that she cannot resell her iPhone for the same profit as customers who purchased the device after price drop. Similarly, she cannot trade up to 8GB model she had initially hoped to obtain and is now left with a product that has been discontinued.
Li also feels cheated by Apple's rebate policy because she was only offered a $100 store credit towards a future Apple store purchase when those customers who bought the same iPhone within a two week window period immediately preceding the cut received the full $200 refund under the company's price protection policy.
Read more>>>
In the suit, filed Sept. 24 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Queens resident Dongmei Li accuses the parties of price discrimination, underselling, discrimination in rebates, deceptive actions, and other wrongdoings for their role in the Sept. 5th price drop on iPhone, which saw the handset's price tag slashed an unprecedented $200 less than two months after its debut.
Li was among the thousands who waited hours in line on June 29, 2007 for her chance to purchase one of the touch-screen devices, according to the suit. When she reached the front of the line, her local Apple store only had 4GB models remaining, which she purchased anyway despite having intended to buy the larger-capacitied 8GB model.
She, like thousands of others, the suit claims, is now the victim of price discrimination in that she cannot resell her iPhone for the same profit as customers who purchased the device after price drop. Similarly, she cannot trade up to 8GB model she had initially hoped to obtain and is now left with a product that has been discontinued.
Li also feels cheated by Apple's rebate policy because she was only offered a $100 store credit towards a future Apple store purchase when those customers who bought the same iPhone within a two week window period immediately preceding the cut received the full $200 refund under the company's price protection policy.
Read more>>>
Top 25 Video Game Sites by eBizMBA
Ebizmba.com Listed the Top 25 Video Game Sites for September 2007
When it comes to video game sites, we've found that many casual gamers regard the sites they happen to frequent as gospel, and therefore feel they have little to no use for other sites. However, as the truly elite gamers know many sites publish unique information that you just cannot find duplicated elsewhere. Therefore, to be truly informed you need to be armed with as many informative sites as you can. To that end, we at eBizMBA here provide you with the Top 25 Video Game sites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast. [Individual game sites, publisher sites, retailers, and online 'pop' games sites have been excluded from our list.]
When it comes to video game sites, we've found that many casual gamers regard the sites they happen to frequent as gospel, and therefore feel they have little to no use for other sites. However, as the truly elite gamers know many sites publish unique information that you just cannot find duplicated elsewhere. Therefore, to be truly informed you need to be armed with as many informative sites as you can. To that end, we at eBizMBA here provide you with the Top 25 Video Game sites ranked by a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank, and U.S. traffic data from Compete and Quantcast. [Individual game sites, publisher sites, retailers, and online 'pop' games sites have been excluded from our list.]
25 | ComputerandVideoGames.com
For site's statistics visit eBizMBA
BBC NEWS | Technology | Apple iPhone warning proves true
An Apple software update is disabling iPhones that have been unlocked by owners who wanted to choose which mobile network to use.
Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device "permanently inoperable".
Thousands of iPhone owners hacked their expensive gadget in order to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run a host of unsupported programs.
There are also reports of the update causing issues with unaltered iPhones.
On Monday Apple issued a statement in which it said many of the unauthorised iPhone unlocking programs caused "irreparable damage" to the device's software.
The company said this would "likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed".
That warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update.
Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.
Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple's own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.
Earlier this week Apple said a planned update would leave the device "permanently inoperable".
Thousands of iPhone owners hacked their expensive gadget in order to unlock it for use with other mobile carriers and to run a host of unsupported programs.
There are also reports of the update causing issues with unaltered iPhones.
On Monday Apple issued a statement in which it said many of the unauthorised iPhone unlocking programs caused "irreparable damage" to the device's software.
The company said this would "likely result in the modified iPhone becoming permanently inoperable when a future Apple-supplied iPhone software update is installed".
That warning has now proved correct as many owners are reporting their phones no longer work following installation of the update.
Apple requires iPhone owners to take out a lengthy contract with AT&T in the United States but there are a number of programs on the net that unlock the device for use with other networks.
Some owners are reporting on technology blogs and Apple's own forums that the update is deleting contacts information, as well as photos and music, on iPhones that have not been modified in any way.
27 September, 2007
PC World - 20 Things You Didn't Know Your PC Could Do
Teach that old machine new tricks--from the amazingly practical to the practically amazing.
Eric Dahl
Each morning when I get into the office, I hang up my coat, drop my bag in a corner, and start the process of turning on my PC. Five minutes later, I'm ready to work after waiting for the machine to boot, typing in my network password, waiting for plug-ins to load, and finally opening all the applications I use each day. Who needs all that waiting? Try this little experiment if you'd like to save some time: Go to the Start menu and click Shut Down. Choose the Stand By or Suspend option (depending on your version of Windows, it may be in a drop-down list), and click OK if necessary. If the room just got quieter, congratulations--you have a new way to turn off your computer. If you didn't find that option, or if your PC's fans kept whirring, read on. You aren't out of luck yet.
If the option did work, your PC should quickly return to the state you left it in--with applications open, MP3s playing and everything--when you press the power button again. This feature, called Suspend to RAM, saves almost as much power as turning off your computer, by shutting down nearly every PC component and storing the machine's state in system memory.
Not all systems support Suspend to RAM, and some that do support it don't come with the option enabled. To begin with, you need to be running Windows 98 SE, Me, 2000, or XP. If you are and things still don't work as expected, check your machine's hardware support by rebooting and then entering your PC's setup utility. (Watch the screen as the PC boots; it should tell you which key to press.) The labels mentioned below will vary, but they should be typical.
Look for a power-savings or power-management category. Search there for settings related to suspend modes. Enable any setting labeled 'Suspend Mode' or 'ACPI Function'. If you can choose different types of suspend mode (my home PC has a setting called 'ACPI Suspend Type'), select Suspend to RAM by choosing S3 or STR. Save your changes, exit the setup utility, and boot into Windows.
If you're running a pre-XP OS, double-click Power Options in the Control Panel and click the Advanced tab. If possible, select the Stand By option. That should enable Suspend to RAM. For more on speeding up PC start times, see Home Office.
25 September, 2007
Toshiba: Gigashot A100 Series is Small, Full HD Camcorder from Toshiba - Gizmodo
"10 x zoom lens Real-V engine reduces picture noise. Records in 1920×1080i and 1440×1080i resolution at 60fps in MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 format. Recording modes of XQ, HQ, or SP A100 has 12 hours' capacity of full HD video, 23 hours of standard 35 mm Fujinon lens with 45 mm diameter 3-inch LCD screen (320 x 240 res) SDHC-compatible SD card slot Audio recording at16bit/48kHz at 384 kbps bit rate Measures 78.1 × 135.4 × 79.0 mm A100F weighs 495 grams A40F weights 485 grams Battery life approx 75 mins Lithium ion battery Comes with AC adapter, remote control, USB cable, AV cable and D terminal cable."Wow!!! I feel so lame now... this is something I want and I can hardly have it... please somebody give me something like this... ;)
Mimoco reveals Halo Mimobot flash drives - Engadget
Since we tend to concentrate on hardware on this little blog, you may not have realized that there's a rather seminal event occurring on the software side of things that has gamers pretty giddy, namely the release of Halo 3 for the Xbox 360. And what better way to display your fandom than with a Master Chief Mimobot USB 2.0 flash drive from Mimoco, a 1GB ($50), 2GB ($70), or 4GB ($110) piece limited to 5,000 units (3,000 each for the Red and Blue Spartan editions, pictured after the break) and pre-loaded with all sorts of swag sure to fill the emptiness in your life once you've completed the trilogy? Pre-orders have already started, so if you missed out on the last batch of space odyssey-themed paraphernalia, you'll probably wanna reserve one well before the official October 18th release at E for All.
MPAA Takes Down IsoHunt’s BitTorrent Trackers in the US | TorrentFreak
The IsoHunt crew released this statement today:
As of earlier today, we have disabled access from users in the US to our trackers. This goes for ALL trackers (torrentbox, podtropolis) we run. This is due to the US’s hostility towards P2P technologies, and we feel with our current lawsuit brought by the MPAA, we can no longer ensure your security and privacy in the US. So, if you’re outside the US, you may notice less peers. We encourage you to add other public, unhampered trackers to torrents you post, in addition to Torrentbox and Podtropolis’s trackers.
IsoHunt is not alone in their battle with the MPAA. Last month TorrentSpy, another site named in the MPAA lawsuit blocked access to US users on their site. However, the takedown of IsoHunt’s trackers will have an even bigger effect on the BitTorrent community worldwide, especially because TorrentBox runs one of the biggest public BitTorrent trackers. As mentioned by the Isohunt team, this means that users outside the US will see less peers connected to their torrents which may result in slower download speeds.
The MPAA announced the lawsuit (PDF) against Torrentspy, Torrentbox and Isohunt in February 2006. Isohunt owner Gary later told TorrentFreak that they will not bow down to the MPAA. Isohunt hired a top-notch lawyer, specialized in Internet copyrights. It now seems that this wasn’t enough to keep the trackers in the air. For now, the websites are still available to US visitors.
The MPAA argues that the sole purpose of these BitTorrent trackers and sites is to share copyrighted content. But they are wrong according to Gary, who said, “We process copyright takedown requests daily, and have done so for hundreds of requests in the past, if not thousands. We work with all copyright owners, and even the RIAA email us routinely. The MPAA is the only organization unwilling to cooperate with us.”
Luckily, quite a lot of torrents are tracked by more that one tracker these days. And if that doesn’t work there’s always DHT. You can read more about how to protect yourself from failing BitTorrent trackers in this article. Long live the hydra!
Deals: Facebook now worth $15 billion? - Valleywag
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook is negotiating with Microsoft to sell a stake in the hot social network at a valuation between $10 billion and $15 billion. That would net Mark Zuckerberg's company between $300 million and $500 million in cash, without Zuckerberg having to surrender any meaningful control over the company; the stake would represent 5 percent or less of Facebook. What's not clear is why a deal's happening now, save to lock in a stratospheric valuation. Some time ago, a Facebook insider called Zuckerberg "a crazy kid" for not selling. And we've said Facebook's valuation claims seemed a bit puffed-up. But given that suitors' offering prices have rocketed tenfold since then, Zuckerberg doesn't seem that crazy anymore. Instead, it's Microsoft executives, driven mad by Google and MySpace envy and determined not to miss out on the social-networking trend, who seem, well, a bit off.
21 September, 2007
Nokia 5610 Live Photo Gallery (MobileBurn)
Late last month Nokia introduced the new 5610 XpressMusic slider handset. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to play around with one for a few minutes. In particular, I was interested in what that new left/right slider control was for. While my guess was somewhat more grandiose, it turns out that the slider has a very simple function: it switches phone modes. That is to say, the slider switch can be used to move easily from the main phone user interface and menus to the 5610's music player or music library.
For example, from the standby screen a nudge left on the control will bring up the categorized list of all the tracks that are loaded onto the phone. Another nudge left brings the user to the actual player, where the play/pause and previous/next track controls are. One more nudge left brings the user back to the standby screen. Conversely, from the standby screen you can nudge the slider right to go directly to the music player. I suppose the best way to think of it is as a 3 sided tube that you are rotating to the left or right: both other screens are always a single nudge left or right away. It's nice.
On top of that, the handset itself, especially in the red and black color scheme, is really good looking. Both the 5610 and its little brother the 5310 have a very modern look to them that manages to be stylish without looking outlandish. I have to say that I'm quite pleased with Nokia's new stylistic direction. Nokia expects that the 5610 XpressMusic will reach retail shelves in the last quarter of this year for an unsubsidized price of about 300EUR (US$422).
Sony's Playstation Eye gets a release date - Engadget
For those of you whose salivary glands have been working overtime when thinking about Sony's new Playstation Eye PS3 camera accessory (and we're sure there's at least one or two of you), you better go get a napkin. According to reports, the interactive, VGA cam will be heading out to stores bundled with Hasrbo's RPG / card game The Eye of Judgment on October 23rd, for the shockingly low price of $69.99. No word on whether that bundle will include the EyeCreate editing software, or when / if the Eye will be available on its own. Hey -- you'll probably want the game anyhow.
Customers Ask: Is Apple Going Rotten? | iLounge
Karma. Doing the "right thing." Thinking different. Apple's enlightened approach to building customer loyalty is now famous, generating big headlines every time CEO Steve Jobs takes on Hollywood or the music industry. Attempts to raise iTunes prices? "Greedy." A fight with NBC over revenues? "Give peace a chance." That's Apple, your socially-conscious corporate friend, who does right by you while standing up to big bullies -- sort of like a character from a Pixar movie.
But over the past two weeks, Apple's fans have been grumbling that the company they knew and loved is transforming into another Microsoft, making short-sighted, anti-consumer decisions and carelessly releasing products with user experience-diminishing problems. In response, an increasingly angry erosion of Apple's brand loyalty is beginning, with complaints mounting all over the Internet, including on the company's own discussion forums. This time, it's not just a cadre of Microsoft fans trying to anonymously stir up trouble for the Cupertino-based company, but rather legitimately upset Apple customers who are threatening boycotts of current and future iPod, iTunes, and Mac offerings.
Put aside Apple's $200 iPhone price drop, which generated a lot of anger but was quickly resolved by the company, and bugs in both new iPod and iTunes software, which the company is certainly working to repair. Instead, consider just four of the issues that are still largely unresolved by Apple, and the extreme anger and disappointment that its customers have been expressing as a result.
Firefox memory usage and memory leak news
Oh no I am not an advance user, but I love browsing using firefox than Internet Explorer or any other Internet Browser...Many Mozilla community members, including both volunteers and Mozilla Corporation employees, have been helping to reduce Firefox's memory usage and fix memory leak bugs lately. Hopefully, the result of this effort will be that Firefox 3 uses less memory than Firefox 2 did, especially after it has been used for several hours.
Memory usage
Federico Mena-Quintero submitted a patch to make Firefox discard decompressed image data after five seconds (bug 296818). ImageLib module owner Stuart Parmenter experimented with a competing idea in bug 386377, but now he plans to help with Federico's patch. The patch will make image data join text runs in using time-based caching rather than traditional space-bounded caching.
Aaron suggested having an "about:memory" page showing a breakdown of Firefox's memory use (bug 392351). When I pointed out the bug to Brendan Eich, he excitedly assigned the bug to himself.
Eli Friedman discovered that nsFloatCache was no longer necessary and eliminated most of it (bug 381385).
Memory leaks
David Baron checked in a patch for the last bug that contributed to RLk on Linux, bringing the number of XPCOM objects leaked during this test to zero. Since this test runs on Tinderbox, it's likely that regressions will be noticed quickly, even if they don't turn Tinderbox orange.
Robert Sayre created a script to load random pages and see whether they cause leaks. The random URLs come from the Yahoo directory (biased toward older, top-level pages), del.icio.us (biased toward newer, geeky pages), and AltaVista (biased toward pornography). The script detects leaks using trace-refcnt, the same test used by RL; future versions might use trace-malloc in order to catch additional leaks. Robert has caught at least 6 distinct leak bugs using this script, 3 of which have already been fixed. See LeakingPages and bug 394517 for details.
David Baron created a series of patches to the cycle collector to aid in debugging leaks. With this code, DEBUG_CC builds of Firefox can notice when an object "expected to be garbage" is not collected and then explain in detail why it was not collected.
Steve England tested the top 500 web sites, finding two leaks. Later, he tested the top 20 Firefox extensions and found leaks in several of them.
David Baron recorded seven leak debugging screencasts, which you can watch to see how David Baron debugs real leaks.
Kris Zyp found a leak in the JavaScript Engine when using the watch method (bug 394709). Igor Bukanov responded quickly with not only a patch for the bug but also a leak detection patch to enable regression testing of JavaScript Engine leaks. I asked him to modify his patch so I could use jsfunfuzz to test for JavaScript Engine leaks, and he did. (This led me to find several bugs in evalcx, but no additional leaks.)
David Baron got the stack walking code and the stack fixer working on Mac, making it possible to use trace-malloc and the refcount balancer on Mac (bug 336517, bug 392118).
How to help
You don't have to be a C++ programmer to help find leaks in Firefox.
If you're a Firefox user, an easy way to help is to browse with a trunk nightly build wrapped in a script that calls leak-gauge.pl when Firefox exits. If it reports that documents or windows leaked, try to figure out how to reproduce the leak and then file a bug report.
If you're an advanced user, you can do something similar with with trace-refcnt, which detects leaks of all reference-counted objects, not just windows and documents. Build Firefox with the .mozconfig option "--enable-logrefcnt" (or build debug) and run your build with XPCOM_MEM_LEAK_LOG=2. When Firefox exits, it will print a detailed but understandable summary of what types of objects leaked.
If you're are a C++ programmer and want to help diagnose or fix bugs, check out Performance:Leak_Tools along with David Baron's screencasts, and hang out in #developers on irc.mozilla.org.
Rumor: Apple Doubling iPhone Production, Sources Say - Gizmodo
Apple could almost double its iPhone production for the fourth quarter, taking it from 1.54 million to 2.7 million. At least according to TheStreet.com, which claims that this year's production target will be 4.8 million. With one million already sold, this may be related to the recent price drop and the new European launches. It's either that or the JesusPhone's abilities to multiply fish, bread and assorted electronic components.
Thanks again, Microsoft!
The first big favour Microsoft did to the Linux community was to delay Windows Vista over and over (and over) again. That put into highlight some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. Not that it was the only reason, of course but it did help a lot. Ubuntu got many deals, in special with Dell, selling per-installed Ubuntu systems to the general public.
Now it’s even better! They’re (thinking of) using a black screen of death security system that if your copy is not legal it’ll lock your computer and die. Pretty much what used to happen with the previous blue screen of death, only intentional.
It’s a mighty gift, much better than the One Ring to Boromir, it’ll force all people that use pirate copies of Windows (the vast majority) to buy legal copies or crack the system.
More>>>FOXNews.com - Getting Started With Linux - Technology News | News On Technology
Linux is hot again. In fact, there's never been a better time for Microsoft Windows users to give Linux a whirl.
The OS is more usable than ever, easier to install, and more compatible with PC hardware. It still helps to be somewhat tech-savvy to get the most out of Linux, but that's no longer a major requirement.
• Click here for FOXNews.com's Personal Technology Center.
Not long ago, Linux seemed ready to make a serious dent in the supremacy of Windows on the PC desktop. Corporations had begun to adopt it, and consumer versions appeared that removed much of the Unix-based operating system's oft-discussed user-unfriendliness.
Suddenly, installing Linux and getting a PC's hardware to work was no longer solely the province of techies: Pretty well anyone could install it, work with it, and even use it regularly.
That was a few years ago. Since then, Linux's fortunes have waxed and waned — mostly waned — but development of this open-source OS and its open-source applications have continued apace.
Mac Rumors: Apple Updates Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) to 9A528d
After nearly a month without an update, Apple has delivered a Leopard update to developers. First, a new version of the Leopard Software Update Client has been seeded through Leopard's Mac OS X Software Update. Once this new Software Update tool is installed, Apple also provides Mac OS X Leopard Client Seed Update.
The new Seed Update is "recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard 9A527 or 9A528" and brings the Leopard build up to 9A528d. The update includes general fixes and is also meant to test the new version of Software Update.
Leopard seeds have been notably absent in the past 3-4 weeks. Apple's October deadline for Leopard is quickly approaching. Leopard will need to be finalized soon to ramp up duplication and distribution for the October release timeline.
Apple's last major Mac OS X release (Tiger, 10.4) was declared Gold Master on March 31, 2005. Tiger was later launched in retail stores on Friday, April 29th, 2005, almost one month later.
The new Seed Update is "recommended for all users running Mac OS X Leopard 9A527 or 9A528" and brings the Leopard build up to 9A528d. The update includes general fixes and is also meant to test the new version of Software Update.
Leopard seeds have been notably absent in the past 3-4 weeks. Apple's October deadline for Leopard is quickly approaching. Leopard will need to be finalized soon to ramp up duplication and distribution for the October release timeline.
Apple's last major Mac OS X release (Tiger, 10.4) was declared Gold Master on March 31, 2005. Tiger was later launched in retail stores on Friday, April 29th, 2005, almost one month later.
Study: Wii will continue to outsell Xbox 360 and PS3 - GAMER.BLORGE.com
A new study has shot to pieces the theory that the Wii's limited grunt will stall its popularity. The study also reinforces how important it is for Sony to rectify the perception that there is a lack of good games for the PlayStation 3 (PS3).
Market research company BrandIntel analyzed information from more than 400,000 blog, forum, and social networking comments, and concluded that more mainstream gamers intend on buying the Wii than either the Xbox 360 or PS3.
"As the console war heats up again for the holiday season, Nintendo has been able to successfully target a new audience of casual gamers which has opened up new revenue opportunities for the company," BrandIntel vice president Alan Dean told PC World.
The study reveled that the Wii was still generating a lot more positive consumer buzz than the PS3 and Xbox 360, although the Xbox 360 was well regarded because of its impressive games line up.
While the PS3 was widely viewed as a technically superior machine, it was "perceived more more negatively than the Wii and Xbox 360 due in part to its high cost and lack of attractive games", according to Dean.
Last week it was revealed that cumulative global Wii sales had overtaken those of the Xbox 360 (which had the next-generation console market to itself for itself for a year).
GAMER.BLORGE.com's own very scientific online study of 2320 gamers found that 36% of gamers think the Wii will win this round of the console war, while 28% think the PS3 will prevail. Only 22% believe the Xbox 360 will make a comeback.
Mind you, 2% of gamers think think their mum will win the console war, and another 1% think that Chuck Norris will (who the hell is Chuck Norris, anyway - just joking).
We've even had significant numbers of gamers vote for the Nintendo 64 (33), themselves (33), the PlayStation 2 (33), the PC (28), and the Vectrex (11) - now that was a cool console, but I don't think it will the next-generation console war.
Yes, we did let gamers add options to the poll, which is why I guess we had two people voting for "Hulkamania and Nintendo and Apple" and 10 people voting for poop. Whatever.
Anyway, it's clear that the Wii's popularity won't fade anytime soon. Not good news for gamers who like games with grunt.
Slim Aluminum MacBooks Coming Soon from Apple | 9 to 5 Mac
We have received some information about some upcoming Apple laptops - we think they are MacBooks but aren't 100 percent sure they aren't the fabled Pro slim line.
What we know:
- Black aluminum and silver aluminum (like MacBook Pros) have been seen
- They are considerably slimmer than current MacBook and even a bit more than MacBook Pros
- The screen reaches much closer to the edges than current MacBooks but is the same size as current MacBooks - indicating a somewhat smaller footprint
- The keyboards resemble Apple's new Bluetooth Keyboard
- There is something strange about the touchpad (more on this to come)
- They are set to be priced extremely aggressively
- While they are dense, overall they are lighter than the current MacBooks
MooWee Plays Internet TV with Your Wii
MooWee is an application that lets you watch Internet TV content on your television screen using your Nintento Wii game console. You’ll need an Internet broadband connection with a minimum bandwidth of 384kbps as well as an Internet browser on your Wii console in order to hook this up to your television. From there, you can watch shows on your television screen, and use your Wiimote to change channels, etc. The MooWee service is easy enough to use–search for videos, watch the most popular, or view the editors’ picks. If you’re logged in, MooWee will keep track of your history for viewed and searched videos as well. You can also save videos to your favorites, and share them with others. A description of the video will display beneath the clip, showing which video-sharing network it’s been pulled from, and related channels you may enjoy, based on tag words.
The MooWee service can be enjoyed online as well. MooWee is of course an alternative to other set top devices like Apple TV, and other game consoles like the Xbox, which has recently indicated that it would like to work with th BBC on providing content for users. Sony is another company that’s looking to be more competitive in this market, and will be using a collection of devices and services to do so. Other services include Building B and Jaman. StumbleVideo offers a similar service for Nintendo Wii.
Nintendo Wii: A Retro Gaming Guide
According to our venerable but flawed gnomish calendar it's been almost a year since one of Nintendo's latest consoles found refuge under my TV and, despite the sadly obvious lack of an abundance of great games, I'm as happy with me Wii as a punter can be. Why? Well, besides enjoying the occasional Wii mini/party game and being blown away by the Twilight Princess, there's a strong and rather unique retro gaming appeal to the console, that I've learned to love and cherish. Hopefully so will you. After all, that's what this very guide/article thingy is all about.
First of all, we have the Wii Virtual Console, which despite its many shortcomings and definitely overpriced games, is the only online service currently providing access to Nintendo's impressive back catalog (NES, SNES, N64 anyone?) and some quirky hard to find TurboGrafx 16/PC-Engine games. Classic SEGA Genesis/MegaDrive games and the already announced Neo Geo offerings are a nice touch too, as is the addition of video previews to the games, though downloadable demos -a standard feature of Xbox Live for example- seem to have somehow been forgotten.
Read More>>>
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