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.

What I was annoyed about, is that on the CD that it came with, it had no Mac software. I was actually outraged, after it had the Universal and the Mac ‘Finder’ Icon on it I thought that they would have the decency to actually have the installation software on the disc. But no, even though the disc is only a mere 80 or so MB, they had the b***s (excuse my language) to actually direct people to their website. I am quite appauled, it doesn’t make much of a difference, and I know plenty of companies who can get two pieces of software (mac and windows) on one disc (eg, Canon). Imagine if you didn’t have the internet. Not that anyone without the internet would buy this mouse, but that’s not the point. The software was however easy to install, but it would have been better if it could just intergrate with OS X’s system preferences, but that would never happen. I can only dream.

All in all it is a great mice, however I have a quite major nitpick. If I put the mac to sleep, and wake it up, the scroll wheel will be stuck in click to click mode. This means that the Desktop expose function stops working, and instead switches between click to click and free spin mode. This is really annoying, fortuantely it can be fixed by removing and replacing the USB adapter (which is really tiny!) Though this is easy to do, it is quite frustrating, and shouldn’t be happening in the first place. It is quite interesting that Logitech used their own proprietary USB adapter that uses the RF, 2.4GHz spectrum, instead of using something like bluetooth. Oh well.

The battery life is quite good, around 4/5 days on a single charge, with around 5 hours usage per day (average). But I haven’t tested this that extensively, so I’ll report back on that later. Other than that, it is a great mice, and I recommend it to any true geek who can use all those buttons and wants good comfort. Head on over to the flickr page for all the photos and the unboxing.

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]

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.

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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.

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]

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.

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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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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.

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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 .

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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.

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Apple has invoked a new campaign for switching to the Mac. The website details all the good stuff about the Mac, and its cross compatibility with many products and OS’s. There are also 6 ads, each available in small, medium, large and HD format. The ads have two characters, comedian John Hodgeman playing the PC and another actor playing the role of the Mac. They are entitled:

• Viruses
• Restarting
• Better
• iLife
• Network
• WSJ (Wall Street Journal)

I have watched all of them and I have to say they are pretty funny (and true!) You can read more about the campaign, and watch the ads on Apple’s ‘Get a Mac‘ website.

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This is a really great idea. I wonder why no-one ever thought of it before. The idea is it occupies a standard SD/MMC slot and is the same size. As well as having a 1GB capacity, it also has a 802.11g WiFi chip embedded into it. This means no extra attachements for that Treo or other PDA. I really like the Treo 700w because I prefer Windows Mobile over Palm OS (I find it nicer, and it has more apps), however the no WiFi was a problem. This is a very good, and cheap solution at $100. I would definitely buy something like this if it ever came out (saves the WiFi CF card in my Axim X5). But we probably  wouldn’t see it in the UK.
Another use of this is to wirelessly transfer our photos from your digicam to your PC or upload it to a server or service (such as Flickr or TextAmerica). However, I think that would be harder to implement as camera manufacturers would need to already have menus/support for it, which could be a problem.

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Henner Malchert decided that the measly hard drive inside his new Core Duo Mac Mini wasn’t enough, so he fitted an external SATA drive. He took it apart and removed the 2.5″ HDD and fitted a SATA cable which he ran through one of the small venting holes on the bottom of the mini. He then ran that SATA cable into his NewerTech MiniStack v2 which has a 300GB Samsung drive. However he doesn’t recommend the  MiniStack because the hard drive gets quite hot and the fan makes a lot of noise. Overall though, it is a very cool mod, and a good option if you want to keep your computer small, yet benefit a large hard drive.

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Then came Michael Dell with the other side of the story. Why not put OS 10 on a far cheaper Dell Windows PC instead of a costly Mac? You’d get the best of both worlds and shell out far less.

In an e-mail to Forbes magazine, Dell said: “If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers.“

Apple’s response was quick and negative. Apple will not sell OS 10 for installation in non-Apple hardware. It will sell software to run Windows on Macs but not the other way around.

What else would you expect from Apple? But this may not reflect what happens, as we all know that Steve Jobs personally said that Apple won’t make a video iPod because “people don’t want to watch video on such a small screen“. As with other Apple rumors / ‘news’ we have to wait for Apple to make their move.

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This is a detailed tutorial with many photos showing you how to modify your Xbox 360 to water cool it. XboxExpert, posted a topic on XboxScene forums showing what he used, and how he modded his 360. Be warned, this is for the pros only! And what price does it come at?

$209.99 – ThermalTake CL-W0042 Cooling System (The cooling system)
$35.49 – KOOLANCE GPU-180-H06 VGA Card GPU Waterblock (For the 360’s GPU)
$41.99 – KOOLANCE GPU-180-L06 GPU Chipset Heatsink (For the 360’s CPU)
———
$287.47 – And that’s without shipping!

So it isn’t the cheapest solution, but if you really feel the need to cool down that 360 to make it quiet then you might as well try. My 360 is very quiet, only during games is it loud and that is because of the DVD drive inside it. So this would be useless for me, unless my 360 was particlarly hot, which it isn’t.

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This is a pretty cool device. It fits in between the 360’s HDD and the 360 itself. Then it links up to your PC via USB and you can move/transfer data that is not in use. It also has a blue LED’s on the side to give it that extra touch. It works with Xplorer360 (remember that software that initially allowed you to move data from the 360’s HDD) so anyone can ‘hack’ their HDD. And all this for £30, seems like a good option to me. You can then do whatever you want with the data, as long as it isn’t linked to your Xbox Live account (because then you won’t be able to share the file).

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It’s not that I’m mulling over a platform switch—rather, this XP overload is part of Macworld Lab’s efforts to see how Microsoft’s operating system performs on Apple hardware now that software exists that enables you to boot into XP on an Intel-based Mac. With the help from our sister publication, PC World, we’ve been running the WorldBench 5 real-word benchmark suite on all of our Intel systems to gauge cross-platform performance. Even with Boot Camp, it still takes a couple of hours to set these systems up. But once running, they’ve been very stable. Here are some WorldBench 5 results, compared to three computers recently tested by PC World.
[Results:] As you can see, the Macs running Windows gave these PCs a run for their money, with the 2.16GHz MacBook Pro turning in the fastest scores on three of the five individual tests. The build-to-order MacBook configuration also tied the 2.16GHz HP Compaq in the sixth test, involving Roxio VideoWave.

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Ever since Apple came out with their Boot Camp yesterday, more and more news of it has been posted. All sorts of things so I thought I’d make a collection of links to the various bits and pieces!

• Installation of Boot Camp Flickr Set
• Installation of Boot Camp Video
• Short Review of Boot Camp on a 20-inch iMac with Windows XP
• Boot Camp requirements, installation FAQ (Apple site)
• Gaming with Boot Camp
• Windows Vista works — Well the installer can be started up. Installation hasn’t been tried yet because the person testing it out borrowed the MacBook Pro from a friend, who insists on a full backup before doing the actual installation. – UPDATE: Installation went successful, but it won’t start up. [link] – UPDATE 2:It has been restested, and with a bit of modification, it works. [link]
• Windows Media Centre Edition 2005 has been installed on a MacBook Pro
• Boot Camp supports Linux installation!

That seems to be as much news as I could find. If there are any additions please add it to the comments and I will make sure it is inserted into this post. Have fun!

Apple has released their own solution to installing Windows on an Intel Mac – Boot Camp. Apple’s complete solution, though still in beta, provides owners of Intel Macs to easily partition their hard drive and install Windows XP SP2 (Home and Pro) with a cool GUI for changing bootup drive. When booting hold down the option (alt) key to select between OS X and Windows.

For your convenience, Boot Camp burns a CD with all the Mac-specific drivers for Windows:
- Graphics
- Networking
- Audio
- AirPort wireless
- Bluetooth
- The Eject key (on Apple keyboards)
- Brightness control for built-in displays
This CD also installs a Startup Disk control panel for Windows.

However, iSight isn’t supported, nor is the MacBook Pro’s backlight keyboard or the Apple Remote. Granted, these things are the ones we wouldn’t have expected to work off the bat. I, for one, am glad to see Apple do this, and I think it is a very positive thing, because now you don’t need to spend ages in getting Windows running using the hack (by Narf2006 and blanka) but you have an Apple distrubuted installer. This takes away all the pain, so now anyone can do it, relatively easily. Be warned though, you need to have 10.4.6 and Apple’s newest firmware update or you might end up like this guy, who already had is Blue Screen of Death (in Windows, that is).
So if you’re feeling adventerous the give it a whirr, it is a 83MB download (not counting the firmware update and 10.4.6 update) and tell me how it went!

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