Plugged into the net – Technology, gaming and Apple news
It sure didn’t take these guys long. I don’t think I mentioned that when iTunes 7 was released, it made the DRM-remover myFairTunes6 useless. However with some hard work and elbow grease, they managed to bump out a new version, which supports the latest version of iTunes, 7.0.1.8 (Honestly, why all the need for the numbers?) It is Windows only, so us Mac folk are out in the cold, but at least windows users aren’t stuck in command-line mode waiting for the music to play at 1:1 speed!
IGN reported that PS3 games were supposed to cost in the region of $70/$85USD, and in all the anger from consumers, I guess Sony learnt that they need to tell people the better news, fast. Sony have announced that 1st party games like ‘Resistance’ will cost ¥5980 ($50USD), as well as future 1st part relesese; While 3rd party games like Sonic will cost around ¥7140 ($60). This will bring game prices on par with current Xbox 360 prices in the US. We’ll have to see in spring what the prices will be like here in the UK, but I’ll tell you know, it’s not going to be pretty.
Awww, for the first time since I got my mini (around August of last year) it has received its first kernel panic. I was doing some work, and had my flash drive plugged in and boom; The grey kernel panic screen just showed up. Sorry for the rubbish picture, but as I have sent my camera in for repair, I used my phone. For those who haven’t seen it before, or can’t see what is written on the screen I will transcribe what is on the screen.
You need to restart your computer. Hold down the Power button for several seconds or press the Restart button.
There are three other iterations written in French, German and presumably Japanese. Maybe it is just showing its age, but it was rather unexpected.
Microsoft may be making an ingenious move by offering Vista for free or at a discounted price to those who buy a new PC with Windows XP after October 28th. Those who buy a new computer with either Windows XP Pro, XP Tablet Edition or the 64-bit version of Windows XP will be eigible for a free upgrade to Windows Vista (presumed to be the premium edition).
For those with Windows XP Home, will be able to upgrade for $49 to the Basic Edition and $79 to the premium edition. This seems like a very good move, which will allow customers to effectively dodge paying for Windows Vista, and most people will have to upgrade their computers anyway if they wish to be able to run Vista on it. So far Microsoft are keeping a tight lid on things and are only saying that they are “working with partners”.
David Chartier from TUAW has found that on his iMac, he has had no success of installing Release Candidate 2 of Windows Vista. Even with the new Boot Camp 1.1.1 update, which was supposed to offer compatibility with the new iMacs, the installation fails. Windows Vista reports that it doesn’t like the drive Boot Camp creates, thus it doesn’t even format it. Other users have also reported this, but some say it works fine for them.
“Judging by what’s being said I would say that despite the updates, Vista will not work on Core 2 Duos, perhaps cause they’re 64bit?” – TUAW Commenter AeronPrometheus
David said that he downloaded the 64-bit version, which doesn’t work. However others suggest that using the 32-bit version may work. We’ll have to see if Apple says anything about it.
Nintendo’s PR department have been busy making lots of accessories to sell along with the Wii. These will have their own dedicated stands, and will include things like rubberised controller ‘gloves’ (for sweaty hands?), game cases, as well as dog tags and lapel pins. The glove idea may not be too bad, but I don’t think I can see anyone walking around with Wii dog tags. These pictures were taken by an anonymous Engadget tipster who took the photos in a Target warehouse, and along with it have the prices that Target will sell the various Wii games and accessories for.
As a counter measure by Microsoft to stop people from using the Xbox 360′s DVD drive to copy Xbox 360 games, they have updated the firmware of the Hitachi/LG drive. As seen in the picture above, they have also put a lot of plack glue over the chip, as if to stop hackers from physically gaining access to the chip, and flashing it that way. This does now mean, however, that the Team-X kit which was used to allow gamers to ‘back-up’ their 360 games using their computer is now rendered useless.
It was a long and arduous process of taking apart the 360, removing the drive, connecting it to your PC and flashing its ROM, but it got the job done. For those who are interested a new episode of IPTV show the broken shows you how to back up your 360 games. For the meanwhile, sit tight, as I don’t think it will take long for the Xbox-scene crew to work out how to hack it again. Read on for the full technical details.
I thought I’d mention this because it is really cool! An LED flashlight was built using an old tic-tac box and a few other components. You basically shake the tic-tac for 60 seconds which is enough to power the LED. As you shake the tic-tac, the rare earth magnet inside the coil (the red thing) moves up and down and cuts the coils of the wire. This creates an AC current. However the LED needs a DC current, so a simple rectifier is built using 4 Diodes. This will ‘convert’ the AC current to a DC current which will then charge the rechargeable battery. The switch can then be used to turn on the LED. You can try it yourself, the instructables article gives you all the details, and a simple schematic for the rectifier can be found here. There isn’t anything that you couldn’t find in your local electronics shop (or RadioShack for you Americans)
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The shorts for Tuesday 3rd October 2006 are:
The latest version of OS X has been deployed by Apple. Mac OS X 10.4.8 is available for download via software update as well as disk img (.dmg). It fixes the following things:
