Monthly Archive for May, 2006

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MacBook’s Hard Drive and RAM are easily replaceable!

Published on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy and Technology. 2 Comments

For those that have already bought their MacBook and have placed it into action you might be interested to know that the MacBook’s Hard Drive and RAM sticks, nicely fit underneath the battery of the MacBook. Well that’s what AppleInsider say. You can remove the battery and the protective shield, and ta-da. You’ll find the RAM sticks and the HDD sitting their waiting for someone to replace them. So it seems pretty easy, but will this void your warranty? We don’t know, and it also seems weird to me that the hard drive will be placed under or even near the battery. It is just waiting to overheat!

UPDATE: MacWorld have posted an image (now displayed above) showing the SO-DIMM slots on the MacBook. However, they didn’t say whether the hard drive was their or not, but from the image above it looks like the HDD could be under the left ‘area’ of the battery. But this is quite doubtfull (in my opinion) [link]

UPDATE 2: I have made a new post showing the image from a video that MacWorld made, to show the placement of the hard drive and the RAM modules. [link]

MacBook Launched!

Published on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

After some serious rumour going around that Apple will anounce the MacBook on Tuesday of last week, some people were pretty annoyed that they haven’t yet released it. But now they finally have! You can see I’m pretty excited about it, and one of the main reasons is because it is available in black (and it looks sexy!)
There are three models. The white one comes in a 1.83GHz and 2GHz priced at $1099 (£749) and $1299 (£899) respectively, both Core Duo. But, here is where it gets annoying, the black one only comes in 2GHz and you have to pay an extra $200 (£130) over the higher end white one. This will certainly piss a lot of people off, as the black one looks very cool (It looks a bit weird in the picture, but in AppleInsider’s close up shots of the real thing it looks awsome) and why would you have to pay a premium for it? Well Apple says that the 80GB HDD (over the whitebook’s 60GB) is justifiable. However most people don’t think so, neither do I. You don’t see the black iPod costing more than the white one (granted it doesn’t have more HDD), but in a laptop, that isn’t worth much (as in cost for Apple). The specs are as follows:

1.83GHz or 2GHz Intel Core Duo – 2MB L2 cache and 667Mhz FSB
512MB of DDR 2 SDRAM (PC5300) on SO-DIMM slots, upto 2GB
60GB/80GB 5400RPM S-ATA HDD
Combo Drive (for 1.83GHz) / Superdrive (for 2GHz)
Built-in Intel GMA 950 Graphics, 64MB shared with system memory (ouch, no WoW then!)
Built-in iSight
13.3″ glossy only (no matte finish available) widescreen display – 1280 by 800 resolution
1 x FireWire 400 port, 2 x USB2 ports, MiniDVI port
Built-in stereo speakers, built-in omnidirectional microphone
Optical digital audio input/audio line in (combined), optical digital audio output/headphone out (combined)
Gigabit Ethernet – 10/100/1000Base-T
Airport Extreme (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)

Pretty good spec, as in line with the MacBook Pro, but a couple of things set it apart. The screen is only available in glossy versions (which some people hate), and the graphics are well, poor. But for a MacBook, it has optical in/out, which is quite promising, Gigabit Ethernet and Superdrive as standard (well for the 2GHz models). It is worthwhile to note that the memory can be expaneded to a heft 2GB’s unlike previous iBooks. This will please a lot, but not some. I think it is a very good update, that people have been waiting for, and I think the wait is justifiable. The keyboard has also be jazzed up, and looks quite different now, which hopefully can make it better (image).

E3: ‘Low-end’ PS3 to ship with wired controller and non-upgradeable HDD? (false)

Published on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 in Gaming, Technology and Wireless. 2 Comments

ps3 stock photo

So more speculation has arisen after it became clear that the ‘cheaper’ PS3 (the $499 one) will not have WiFi, a card reader or HDMI. This time Games Radar say that the $499 PS3 will not have wireless controllers, and instead ship with boring de facto standard controller, much like the core 360 system. They say a Sony rep stated that it will have a 20GB hard drive, but it is non upgradeable (unless you disassemble it). This is bad news for those who would just like to slap on a meatier hard drive. At least that is an option in the core 360 system. But, I think those that are serious gamers and want the bigger HDD would go for the $599 system anyway. It’s like how we thought the 360 was marketed at, but at least that was cheaper!

UPDATE: As one of my readers have noted, this is infact not true. “Both configurations will support bluetooth PS3 controllers. You can upgrade to whatever size of drive you like. The only non-upgradeable feature of the 20GB configuration will be the HDMI output.” [link]

E3: Engadget gets hands on with the Wii Controller

Published on Wednesday, May 17, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Engadget got busy with their hands and tested out the Wii controller quite extensively. They explained that the controller was light, yet very ergonomic and felt comfortable to hold and play with. The controller allows a lot of leverage for the trigger button, and the ‘a’ and ‘b’ buttons, so that it was easy to use and didn’t slip out of their hands. On the golf demo they tried out first, they said that the controller wasn’t the best idea, because they couldn’t quite feel how much power the put into the drive, while on normal controllers you had the analogue sticks.

Our hopes were buoyed by the sight of Ubisoft’s “Red Steel,” but were quickly dashed by the incredibly awkward FPS aiming that this game is banking on. The controls were great and easily learned, and we were soon slashing, parrying, ducking, shooting, reloading, opening and pushing with more convenience than we can ever remember in a shooter, and never had to look down to find a button once.

This makes some people quite nervous as to whether it will actually be as good as it sounds. But developers have said that there will be options in game so that you can adjust the sensitivity of the controller. They finish by saying that the controller is exactly what it is famed to be, but game developers need some time to adjust and test out their products so that it can interact with their games in an easy to use way.
I am just eager to get my hands on one at our local game shop to test it out for myself. But if I believe the rumours of that $200 price tag, I think it’s going to be hard to say no.

E3: The Wii ‘Zapper’ Prototype

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

Lots of people have been wondering if there will be a ‘shell’ for the Wii remote so that you can use it as a gun, like in arcade games or controllers for PS2s and Xboxs. At the Nintendo booth, at E3, there is a prototype for a Zapper gun (it is actually labelled as Zapper) attachment. You can see the standard gun trigger (the hole part) and a little joystick for your thumb. Pretty cool, eh? It looks quite like a final design to me, but who know what things they will iron out?

Confirmed Wii Hardware Specs

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in Gaming and Technology. 3 Comments

512 megabytes of internal flash memory
Two USB 2.0 ports and built-in Wi-Fi capability
SD memory card bay to expand the internal flash memory
“Sleepless” WiiConnect24 mode (always-on connection for downloading content etc.)
PowerPC CPU (code-named “Broadway”) jointly developed with and manufactured by IBM
Graphics Processing Unit: Being developed with ATI (not final we guess)
Four ports for classic Nintendo GameCube controllers
Two slots for Nintendo GameCube Memory Cards
AV Multi-output port for component, composite or S-video

Wii Remote Control Changed: Final Pics

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

The remote control image that was shown off by Nintendo a while ago has now changed a bit. A few things have been modifed, like the addition of the Wii logo on the remote. Gamespot got their hands on the remote and said “During our play session Nintendo reps noted that the controller we were playing was still considered a prototype, as the possibility for some fine-tuning still existed. That said, the controller we got our hands on wasn’t too radically different from what we tried last year at the Tokyo Game Show, though there have been some noticeable tweaks to the design.”
The main changes were:

A speaker is now built-in to the controller to use in conjunction with the vibration of the controller.
Button change: “select” now has the image of an arrow on it that’s curved anticlockwise.
Button change: “home” now has the image of a house on it, like one you’d see in a web browser.
Button change: “start” now has two horizontal bars on it that look like the ‘pause’ icon on a music player.
Button change: “a” and “b” are now “1″ and “2.”
The ‘nunchuck’ has a more streamlined shape and features a tweaked button design.
The controller now has some added weight.

E3: The Xbox Live Vision Camera, Racing Wheel and Wireless Headset

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

During Microsoft’s E3 press event, they showed off the Xbox Live Camera (called the Vision Camera), the Racing Wheel and the wireless headset. Engadget checked them out and took lots of photos, however they couldn’t get their hands on them because of the obvious sign “Do Not Touch’. But did that stop them, no! They tried the headset, and they thought it felt quite comfortable, if not a little fragile. The Racing Wheel is pretty cool and wireless, but to use the vibration feature you have to connect it to a wall socket. For more photos read on. The Xbox Live Vision camera will be available this autumn (fall for you Americans) and will allow users to use their 360 for video-conferencing, video-emails and gamer picture customisation, and is the same thing we’ve been seeing in those leaked images.
read more

E3: Engadget and Joystiq’s Coverage of the Xbox 360 Event

Published on Wednesday, May 10, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Noteworthy, PC, Shorts and Technology. Closed

Wii Controller Shell Surfaces from Nintendo Website

Published on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 in Gaming, Internet, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

This image has been found on Nintendo’s website (link).

Our sources have confirmed to us that this is definitely real, however several questions still remain – why is there a cable, and does the remote simply click onto the bottom of the unit? Or is it now a stand alone unit?

This is certainly very interesting, and proves many people’s theories right – that there will be a ‘shell’ for the controller so that it is more comfortable and easier to use when playing games on the virtual console. No info has been found though on Nintendo’s website, and they have neglected to mention anything at their E3 event, but hopefully something will be revealed tomorrow when the show floor opens.