Archive for the 'PC' Category

The Logitech MX Revolution: Review

Published on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Technology and Wireless. 5 Comments

Score: (4/5)

Sadly this isn’t the Nintendo Revolution. It is however a brand new, and fantastic mouse! It’s fast, responsive and uses a laser. The best feature though, not including the fact that it’s cordless, is its scroll wheel. This is a unique wheel which can do both the normal ‘click to click’ mode and a free scroll mode. The free scroll mode allows the wheel to spin on its own for easy navigation where you have lots of pages. It truly is very ergonomic. You can also change it so that after a certain speed, it will automatically change from click to click, to free scroll mode. I use this all the time, and I love it!

I have been using it for around a week now, and is much better than the Mighty Mouse. I got rid of it after the scroll wheel failing me, and after trying to fix it numerous times (and replaced by Apple once, after which it worked for a while). I have configured the thmub button to turn on expose, and the forward and back buttons move through the tabs in Safari. The supposed ‘search’ button I didn’t have a need for, so I re-routed it to skip to the next new news item in NetNewsWire. When I press down on the scroll wheel, it triggers the desktop in expose. One minor annoyance, is that you can’t actually set Expose functions. You have to set it to a key (ie, I use F8, and F10) which you then change in OS X’s Keyboard System preferences pane to activate Expose, or whatever you want it to do. This does have the added benefit, that in any application, you can customise any of its shorcuts to a button. Another neat feature, is that you can customise these settings on an per application basis. So one click may trigger forward tab in Safari, but that same could activate the Cut tool in Photoshop, or something similar.

Click on to read the rest of the review, or to see the unboxing photos, go to the flickr page.
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Gaming News in Review: Part 2

Published on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Movies, Noteworthy, PC, Software, Technology and TV's. 1 Comment

xbox hd-dvd

Part deux of the gaming news round-up over the last few weeks.

Could the Wii not support game saves to SD memory cards? According to the manual it is, but not according to the console itself. That’s what Joystiq found out. Lets hope Nintendo fix this in time for the release, as we wouldn’t want to replay an entire game when at your friends house, do we? [link]
Engadget’s Wii software walkthrough video and gameplay walkthrough videos allow you to see what it would be like if you owned a Wii. Shortly it will come true for a lot of people, or at least we hope.
Microsoft revealed the HD download service for US Xbox 360 owners. These will allow you to download 720p HD TV shows from CBS, Comedy Central VH1 and more. Deleted TV shows can be re-downloaded for free in either HD or SD. Movies are ‘rent-only’, whereby you have two weeks to watch a movie, but after you start watching, you have 24 hours to finish the film. After that the film will no longer play. During the 24-hours, you can watch the film an unlimited number of times. [link]
Engadget open the retail version of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD player and have a play around with it, naturally with tons of photos (above) [link]
The PS3 gets dismantled before it is even in circulation. The four part videos take you through a detailed disassemblement of the PS3 showing the CPU, heatsink, the blu-ray drive, etc. [part 1] [part 2] [part 3] [part 4]
PS3 kiosk is a fake! The PS3 behind the glass in retail outlets are not even functional, no, it seems that Sony may be scared of the PS3 overheating or exploding, so they placed a separate version enclosed in the kiosk. The actual console is very well ventilated to make sure the heat dissipates as much as possible. My, my… [link]
Size comparison of the Wii, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The PS3 is the largest, and the Wii is the smallest (though it’s not like we didn’t know that) [link]
The Xbox 360 HD-DVD player is fully functional in PC’s. Hook it up using the USB, and some Toshiba drivers you can not only view the files on the HD-DVD, but if your PC can handle it, it can also play back the movie. Nice. What’s more, the Mac recognises the drive instantaneously without any drivers, but there is no software to playback the video. Oh well! [link]
A DVD ‘enhanced’ version of the Wii will be released to the US and Japan in the 2nd half of 2007. The current Wii’s contain the DVD drive, however they do not have the software capable to play movies. The most likely reason for not including the software, is to avoid licencing fees which would increase the price of the console. [link]

Battery recalls continue to wreak havoc…

Published on Sunday, October 1, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, PC and Technology. 1 Comment

Sony are deep in the mud this time After Dell and Toshiba issued a battery recall for some (not all) of their laptop batteries, Lenovo (formely IBM’s PC Division) and Sony themselves have issued battery recalls for their laptops. The affected laptop batteries are made by Sony, and after recent incidents where a Dell exploded in Yahoo’s building, and a Lenovo ThinkPad exploded at LA’s International Airport, Sony have taken some action. Other manufacturers which use Sony’s batteries are Apple and Panasonic.

he Tokyo-based electronics manufacturer says that the recall is to address concerns regarding “recent overheating incidents,” and that they are working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to formulate a plan for the recall. They cite microscopic metal particles that enter the battery during the manufacturing process as the reason for the battery failures. The particles, they say, come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, causing the battery to short-circuit. Sony claims that these batteries would normally just power off, but in “rare cases” may overheat and cause flames. [ArsTechnica]

Lenovo are recalling around 526,000 of their batteries (image above), Dell around 4.1 Million and Apple 1.8 Million. Sony is a very large producer of Lithium-ion cells, and supply various third-party manufacturers so if you think you are affacted, make sure you keep an eye on your laptop manufacturer because they soon could be added to the list.

Get a Windows Vista RC1 Key

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Microsoft, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. 2 Comments

vista logo

When Microsoft announced that they are releasing Windows Vista RC1 I immediately went to download it. I didn’t in the previous BETA because I didn’t want to destroy my dad’s Windows PC. But now he wants to try it out so we downloaded it. However I realised that I needed to become a part of the Customer Preview Program to do this, which I didn’t sign up to back in June. However I found a good trick to get a key (this is legit and actually works!). The original site crashed but I managed to get the form (below). There is also another link you can follow, but I’m not sure whether that works for all countries, or just the US. Either way you can try them both So select your country and press go.
Note: You will need a Windows Live account (Passport.net account) to sign in.

Links for 13/09/2006

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Random Stuff, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for today (and some from the past) are:

Rotating Lego Chaingun that shoots elastic bands at 11 rounds per second – with video [link]
Why Linux doesn’t need defragging (good article) [link]
World’s worst hacker – IRC transcript (absolutely hilarious) [link]
iTunes 7 for Windows includes a Software Update like app to update Quicktime and iTunes [link]
Joystiq’s Wii rumour roundup [link]

The Xbox 360 Laptop!

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, PC, Technology and TV's. Closed

Although this is a couple of days old, I thought I should blog about it because it is really unique. You may have seen somewhere on the internet, devices that are portable versions of old consoles — ie, the N64, NES, etc — well this is like that, except it is unbelievably small. Folded up it seems smaller than the 360 itself, with a full keyboard and 17″ High-Def monitor. Now that is true portable gaming! Ben Heckendorn has created this masterpiece which is 2.8″ thick and weighs14 pounds. It also has a built-in WiFi adapter as well as a water cooling system, for noiseless gaming. And he all did this in 3 months!
On Ben’s site you can go to the final page and view the finished pictures, or browse through the four pages which detail his steps with plenty of pictures. This is one article which is definitely worth reading.

The iTV – Apple’s Media Center

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Internet, Movies, Noteworthy, PC, Podcasting, Technology, TV's and Wireless. 4 Comments

This is the one product which hasn’t been released, as in it is not on Apple’s website. The name iTV is not official yet, so it is subject to change. I think that is good because iTV sounds a bit plain, and similiar to Elgato’s EyeTV line of products. So people could get confused. Down to the details:

It looks like a flatter Mac mini.
No power brick, but there is USB 2, Ethernet, 802.11 Wireless, HDMI, Component and RCA jacks as well as optical audio.
Controlled via the Apple remote.
Hooks up directly to your TV, set-top box or other input device.
An enhanced version of Front Row, with windows media centre style browsing. The right hand side has menu and the left has images.
“You can do movie trailers form Apple.com right from your couch. This is big screen over the internet, live as we watch. [demo]“
Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcasts, and Photos
Coming Q1 of 2007
Works with Macs and PCs
$299

As Apple doesn’t have an official page, I’ll link you to Engadget’s live coverage of the “It’s Showtime!” event.
This certainly seems like a very interesting idea and because of the price point even more so. Now we just have to wait for it to come out, doh!
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Apple named “Harware Company of the Year”

Published on Saturday, June 3, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. Closed

PC World has released it’s top list of 100 products in 2006, and also their 4 awards to various companies. Apple has won the ‘Best Hardware Company of the Year’ for introducing “products that made everyone else look bad. iPods (#36) that play video have created a new market for reruns, Core Duo-based Macs (#35) have expanded the market for Intel chips, and Boot Camp software (#10) has opened the door to running Windows on the Mac hardware.” Apple had five of its products in the list; the iPod nano (#4), Boot Camp (#10), the Mac mini (#35), the iPod (#36), and iTunes (#43).

The number one product was Intel’s Core Duo processor chip which is now being utilised in the new Mac Minis, MacBooks and MacBook Pros as well as the Intel iMac. They are also being introduced into other laptops and desktops by other companies such as Dell, however they aren’t as widely publicised and talked about as Apple’s products. AMD’s Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processor came in second; Craigslist, Segate’s 160GB portable hard drive, Google Earth, Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, Canon’s EOS 30D digital SLR camera, and YouTube.com finished in the top ten.

Yahoo earned the ‘Web Company of the Year’ for their ability to move “far beyond being a mere search engine” and even though “Google may get a lot more attention, but Yahoo has been getting more things accomplished” the editors said.
Adobe was Software Company of the Year, for their ability to ship “stellar US$100 apps that regular folks can use,” such as its Adobe Photoshop Elements and Adobe Premier Elements which bring cheap photo and video editing to consumers for a fraction of the cost of the pro level apps.
Finally, Sony merited Worst Company of the Year. “We get the feeling that Sony doesn’t trust people,” the editors wrote, mentioning the rootkit fiasco on their music CD’s as well as the PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray delays “due to difficulties implementing a second copy protection scheme … All this from the company that virtually pioneered copying with the Betamax.”

I think they produced a very fair list, with the awards being given to the companies that really did stand out. Click on the link to see the whole list, with links to PC World reviews of the products.

Mac OS Drivers on Dell’s Support Site!

Published on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 in Apple, Internet, Noteworthy, PC and Technology. Closed

Click on the image for a bigger picture!

I was so amazed when I saw this. I honestly thought it was photoshopped, so I headed over to Dell’s support site, and sure enough, I selected a random Dell laptop (Latitude D610), it was there! This has been reported to work with other Dell models, but it is probably nothing more than a small glitch. All the downloads listed under ‘Apple Mac OS’ are non Mac versions, they are in a ‘.exe’ – Windows Executable format.
I don’t think Michael Dell understands. He has previously stated that he would like to offer OS X on their machines, but Jobs declined. Here they go again, trying to ‘win’ Apple over – It’s not working Dell! Apple will not be offering OS X on non-Apple boxes. It is just against their ethics. Besides, running OS X on a non-Apple box just takes all the fun of using OS X out of it, believe me I tried it on my Sony VAIO. It was nice, but not as nice as using a real Mac. It will be one of those things, where anyone using OS X on a PC, just can’t afford to buy a Mac so they install it on a grey box – Pretenders .

Apple has NOT closed the Intel-based Darwin Kernel

Published on Monday, May 22, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, PC, Software and Technology. Closed

os x unix based logo

It has been reported that Apple is closing down the Intel version of the Darwin Kernel so that hackers won’t have such an easy job to make OS X work on normal Windows boxes. Ernest Prabhakar, Apple’s Open Source and Open Standards product manager, has stated in the Fed-Talk mailing that they have not closed down the Darwin kernel, they just haven’t released it yet. People were speculating that because the PowerPC version of Darwin was released, and the Intel version hasn’t, that Apple won’t be distributing it anymore. But people got wind of this story and the didn’t mention the fact that it was, and still is, a rumour!
This is a sigh of relief for the hardcore geeks that love to tweak the kernel and re-compile it for their benefits. It is also good for OS X in general, because it raises its status above Linux as the kernel is open-source and people can fiddle with it, but the OS is a lot better in its design and functionality (though this is debated). If the kernel was closed down, then it would only be above Windows, which is not open source in any way.