Monthly Archive for June, 2006
The shorts for Friday June 30th 2006.
You know you can get those IR devices that turn of your TV sets? Well this is an awsome mod made to the most readily available one: the TV-B-Gone. This instructibles how-to details on how to mod that puny one IR-LED into 20 LED’s working in series and parallel (4 parallel blocks of 5 LED’s working in series). Now this will truly have greater range, capable of turning of every TV set within a 90-foot area, albeit it has to be line-of-sight. But be warned, if you go around toting this thing in pubs/bars, make sure you can run fast!
A FAQ section on Nintendo’s Japanese website, states that the new Opera browser for the DS will not have support for flash, video, sound and PDF content. Users will be able to bookmark pages, but not save them (eg. for offline use). This may not compare to the PSP which does support flash – though I don’t think that supports PDF video or sound either – but users will be able to pan through the pages using the stylus, and easily enter website addresses using handwriting recognition. DS Lite owners will be happy to hear that Nintendo will release a browser cartridge that fits nicely into the DS Lite’s GBA slot so that you don’t need to worry about anything protruding out. Opera will also be able to store data entered into forms, such as login information and what not.
I think this will make the browsing on the DS quite nice, but I still don’t know whether it may be a pain to read stuff and do actualy browsing on it. On my PSP I still find it annoying to scroll across pages when reading articles. But I like the way you enter the address on the DS, as it is very tedious with the PSP, using a phone like keypad way of entering (takes too long — very annoying).
Ah, another IE 7 beta version for the public to test and scrutinise.
Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Beta 3 has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.
The specs are limiting users to the following spec: Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and XP Professional x64. And of course you will have to have that hated, Windows Genuine Advantage running. I tested out the beta before it reached the public and I just didn’t like it, and being a Mac user, there is no need for it. But it is better than IE 6, I think.
PS3 Land is reporting that they’ve been contacted by Track7Games, who have told them that they stopped developing Thesis for Play Station 3. When questioned as to why, the developers said that they blame it on the high costs for developing games on the PS3. Thesis, will only be released for Xbox 360 and PS3 for now. Vicky Valanos, Managing Director for Track7 Games said; “If Sony were to offer us assistance in producing a PS3 version we would be more than happy to oblige!”
If this is indeed true, then perhaps Sony won’t be as successful with the PS3 as they think they will be. If an actual company can’t keep up the costs, then that tells us that something is wrong. Combine this with a UK price of £425, I think that the PS3 won’t do well at all.
UPDATE: Track7Games has made an official post to clarify their position. They posted a message stating “track7games would like to clarify that we never cancelled something that did not exist in the first place. We plan to develop “Theseis” for PC and Xbox360 in the near future. As for the PS3, we simply made a strategic decision to not move ahead because we deemed it not probable at this time.” [link]
The shorts for Thursday June 29, 2006.
- LAPD to trial GPS darts, like in the moves (above) [link]
- Apple replacing some MacBook’s with the colour defect [link]
- MacWorld’s 23 things we want in Leopard [link]
The first time this happened I wasn’t majorly concerned as this was a ‘one-off’ thing. But hearing it happen a second time makes me slightly worried, but only slightly. I was a bit skeptical at the last incident as to whetehr the furry kittens had any part of the problem. However, this time it is a bit different: the power cord was burning as you can see from the image above. Luckily the owner (who goes by the name of Atomsk on the Bit-tech forums) was there when this happened and witnessed the event.
I was using my macbook pro in bed earlier and I started smelling a burning smell and look down at my laptop and see that the magsafe power cable is melting. I am on the phone with apple right now to see what they are going to do. I am just thankfull that I was using it when this happened otherwise It could have burnt down my apartment or something.
The first time it happened, Apple was quick to sort it out, and replaced Mr. Mulder’s MacBook Pro quickly, but they also requested for the images to be taken down. I’m sure something similar is going to happen again. However I don’t think this problem is solely the MagSafe’s problem. The cable seems to be bent as if it had been constantly used and worn out. I think that this seems a more likely cause, as I have had such electronics cables have the wire exposed as the time went by. But the burning is still irregular. For those touting a MacBook or MacBook Pro: Maybe you should keep that extra eye on it for the time being.
Now this is what a really devoted Nintendo fanboy does. He creates a real mockup of the Nintendo Wii, in both colours, as well as the controller and creating a working slot for the disc drive. The stand on the Wii can also be taken off (as above) to place in horizontal mode. DocCRP has created this meticulous mockup, which he thinks is accurate to within a quarter of a centimeter in each direction. He has also taken a lot (I think that’s an understatement) of other comparison shots with some of the newer consoles, as well as a NES, Atari 2600, a ketchup bottle and many more. These are some quite realistic mockups, I must say!
The Shorts for June 28th 2006:
Two pictures have cropped up on a blogspot blog, apparently showing screenshots of Apple’s next Mac OS X version, named ‘Leopard’. The first picture (above) shows Finder with tabs, as well as IE 7 running. The ‘About this Mac’ screen also shows a listing for Windows, and spec is “XP with Service Pack 2″. The second screenshot is of a Desktop Switcher which uses a door peep hole sort of idea to show the next desktop, very igenious.
This obviously could be a fake, and with many talented Mac lovers out there, it would be no surprise if it was. However, saying that, the ideas shown are very ‘Apple style’ and very unique. A lot of people are speculating that Apple will build into Leopard a virtual Windows, where you click on an .exe and it opens up, much like Classic on OS X. But this is still in the field, so take it with a grain of salt. Let’s hope that Apple shows of these at WWDC in August.
UPDATE: So this is fake. I actually thought that it maybe real, but the owner has made a post on his blogger account detailing into the main reasons as to why, and how he did it. [link]