Monthly Archive for September, 2006

Aperture 1.5 released

Published on Monday, September 25, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the only thing that came out from Apple at Photokina today was Aperture 1.5. Though this is a let down to those who would have wished for new MacBook Pros, Apple have made significant improvements over the previous version of Aperture. The main new features of Aperture 1.5 are:

It will run on all Macs – From mini’s to Mac Pros.
It is a free update for everyone who already has Aperture, and $299 for those who don’t.
A new library system allows storage of photos on different media, even iPods!
It also allows for photos to be stored on different drives, ie, some on your Mac, others on a external hard drive.
There is also support for 3rd party plugins to do various different tasks.
Advanced colour control, add your own adjustment presets and exporting meta data are just a number of other features.

You can read more about the new features of Aperture here, or click the link below for Apple’s Aperture homepage.

Core 2 Duo iMacs have 802.11n?

Published on Monday, September 25, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

According to a poster in the MacRumors forum, who goes by the name Peace, the new Core 2 Duo iMac apparently has a 802.11n chip built in. Well at least, Vista ‘recognises’ the ‘chip’ that is supposedly there that it is a Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter. The poster does stress that he did not fake it, and though people have been doubting the authenticity of the photo, another photo was posted. This depicts a an actual iMac in the photo, with Windows Vista clearly seen in the image.
I think this is real, as there would be no point of faking a photo like this (unless someone has too much free time on their hands). However, it doesn’t show up in OS X, because I think that Apple wants to wait until the standards for .11n have completely been settled. With all the pre-n stuff around, who knows what will be compatible with each other. It also eludes as to whether Apple will introduce a new Airport Extreme Base Station, which has 802.11n, even if it is pre/draft-n. It’s a shame Apple didn’t release any new MacBook Pro’s which could support this, and maybe have Core 2 Duo’s as well. An interesting thing to note though, is during Stevie’s keynote at the showtime event, when iTV was announced as having 802.11 wireless, without specifying the protocol. This could mean that the iTV could have 11n connectivity.

1080p on the Xbox 360, complicated!

Published on Sunday, September 24, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Technology and TV's. 1 Comment

In an effort to try and whip Sony in the HD war, Microsoft forgot to mention the fact that 1080p on the 360, won’t be so simple. Depending on the method you’re using to connect your 360 to your set, you will get different outcomes of games and movies. A Microsoft insider, on the AVS Forum, cleared it up for us all; for 1080p in all categories, you’ll have to buy a VGA cable, and not a HDMI cable.

Using your 360 with component cables:

Xbox 360 games will be upscaled to 1080p, and games which are 1080p native (none yet) will run without a hitch.
HD-DVDs will run at a maximum of 1080i, which is due to the AACS DRM implemented into HD-DVDs.
DVDs will only play at 480p (ouch!), due to the CSS inside DVDs, which prevents upscaling any higher.

Using your 360 with a VGA cable:

You’re all set, as DVDs, games, as well as HD-DVDs will display in full 1080p.

That is really underhanded for Microsoft to not tell us about this, as many people use the component HD cable that comes with the 360 to play games in high-def. I too use the component cable, and it all looks so good. Our Sony TV, actually doesn’t have a VGA input, but has 1 HDMI, which we use for Sky HD.
This really irittates me, as not only would it be good to finally have a good up-scaling DVD player, but we would have to buy a cable, for which not many TV’s support. Granted, there are TV’s which will have VGA inputs, but most don’t. Most have DVI, which is pure digital (while VGA converts analogue to digital), though you can get an adapter for that. Our TV doesn’t have DVI (hey it’s a good TV!), but we do have a DVI – HDMI converter. You may say that I could use the HDMI slot, as I wouldn’t be watching Sky the same time as playing on my 360, but then I would have 3 cables, the 360 VGA cable, a VGA to DVI cable, and our DVI to HDMI cable. I don’t know about you but all that converting doesn’t seem like a good idea, and I don’t know whether it would work anyway, because of the HDMI at the end.
Leave it to Microsoft to make such a stupid move.

Links for 24/09/2006

Published on Sunday, September 24, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Internet, Microsoft, Random Stuff, Technology and TV's. Closed

Shorts for 24 September 2006.

Amazon UK attribute the Zune to “Apple Computer”, recently fixed it (above) [link]
Xbox 360 add-on HD-DVD drive adds 1080p, for $170, to be released on November 22nd in Japan [link]
Digital fingerprint lock broken by MythBusters’ photocopied fingerprint! (video) [link]

Sony takes a page from the MacBook

Published on Sunday, September 24, 2006 in Apple and Technology. Closed

It seems that in an attempt to create a new line of VAIO’s — which I have always liked the design of — Sony took some, or rather, a lot of inspirational design ideas from the MacBook.

The VAIO N10 series is for everyone who wants a practical, general purpose notebook for use at home or as a student. It represents excellent usability without frills, but – and this is key – it remains very much a VAIO at heart. One look at the clean, classic design makes that clear.

I don’t know how closer they can get to the design of the MacBook, even the keys look similar. Or maybe they should add a built-in webcam! I personally thought that Sony have always been close to Apple in the design market, as the VAIO’s are one of the most cleanest and nicest looking laptops around. In our family we have had three VAIO’s. One which is around 6 years old, we still have today (runs Win 98), the other is about 2/3 years old. As for the last one, well it kept overheating, and after sending it to Sony to fix 5 times, and then still getting the same problem, we sold it! The two still work fine, albiet a bit worn, but they are in working fashion. As for this, it is as if Sony is running out of ideas. ZDNet points out, that Sony designed the original PowerBook 100 for Apple — you remember, the black one? — but that doesn’t mean they have a right to copy Apple in such an obvious way. What are you thinking Sony?

All Vista versions to come on one DVD!

Published on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in Microsoft, Software and Technology. Closed

vista dvd

Microsoft has apparently confirmed to IDG News Service, that all six versions on Vista will ship on one DVD. This means Microsoft only have to make one DVD and then apply stickers for relevant versions. This gives consumers an easy way to upgrade, if they like Vista and want more benefits from the more expensive versions, it saves them from having the buy another disk. They could get a serial key by email, and then pop in the old disc to upgrade.
This does, however, also mean that hackers will probably be able to rip the disc to shreds and find a way to get Vista Ultimate while only paying for Home Basic. After all, there are people who have less morals and just want the software, not me *cough*. It’s not like Microsoft is a multi-billion dollar company, with the world’s richest man as the head?

Links for 21/09/2006

Published on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in Apple, Microsoft, Movies, Noteworthy, Shorts, Software, Technology and TV's. Closed

Today’s shorts for 21 September 2006.

USBCell provides a rechargeable NiMH battery in the shape of an AA battery to use in normal devices (above) [link]
Office 2007 details revealed for Mac, including new UI, with the ‘ribbon’ from Office 2007 for Window [link]
Microsoft steals Zune P2P idea from WeedShare? [link]
Apple sells 125,000 movies on the iTunes store within the first week of its launch [link]
iTV has Hard-Drive, well according to Disney’s Iger, the answer is yes! [link]

Server was down…

Published on Thursday, September 21, 2006 in General. Closed

As many of you may have noticed, the site was unaccessible for a few days. This is due to my hosting provider, which had a driver failure on one of their main servers. Fortunately all was rescued, and a few things were sorted out, but we are back up now. You may have also seen a wordpress MySQL error, which was generated because the MySQL databeses hadn’t been restored. I’ll get round to posting things later on in the day (UK time).

Wii will be region-locked!

Published on Saturday, September 16, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. 1 Comment

wii console It turns out that the both the Wii itself, and first party games will be region locked. This comes as a blow to many who felt that Nintendo made a good decision in keeping the Wii region-free. Nintendo of America’s Vice-President of Marketing & Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan stated that “Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction.” However, a US spokesperson told Joystiq that the Wii will be region locked;

“We’ve heard conflicting reports from lots of folks out there, but can tell you that Wii will be region encoded, as will first-party software.“

Similarly, a UK spokesperson told Gameindustry.biz that “We are region-locked”, and that the US part of Nintendo had made a mistake saying otherwise. So it seems that editors at Wired’s Game|Life miss-interpreted Kaplan’s comments, and thought that by saying that software may be region-free, she meant that the console was region-free as well. But this still contradicts what the US spokesperson told Joystiq, that first-party games will be region locked. Either way, the console itself will be region locked, and most likely the games will be too. So no importing of games from Japan!

[via IGN]

Wii developer kit photos in the wild

Published on Saturday, September 16, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy and Technology. Closed

And it’s green! Leave it upto Nintendo to do such a radical and cool thing to the dev kits. I think it looks very retro. An anonymous tip was sent to Engadget with this, and another 4 photos of the Wii, including multiple angle shots. There is a photo of it next to a keyboard, which just puts into perspective how small the thing actually is. Click on for all the photos at Engadget.