Archive for the 'Software' Category

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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.

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]

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 to launch on December 8 for £179 in Europe

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

nintendo wii logo

We have a European launch date and price! Though it is much later than the US and a few days later than the launch in Japan, at least it will be here before Christmas. The 360 launch was similar last year. The Wii will be on sale on December 8th throughout Europe for £179 / €249 EUR. The Wii will also include the Wii sports package, like in the US. Games will cost between £34-£39 / €49-€59 EUR. Launch games include the Legend of Zelda and WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
You can read the full UK press event details at Eurogamer.net

Another Apple event: September 25th

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

It seems that in the Apple announcement rush, we forgot that the original rumours about the event, stated that it was to be held one day before photokina, which is a photography event held in Germany on September 26th. It looks like that Apple may still hold this event, as UK press has received invitations, and recently MacWorld did as well. So maybe we have yet another Apple event to speculate about. The invitation is very vague, as always, and has a closeup of a camera lens, much like on the box of Apple’s Aperture, pro photography editing software, with the words “Start photokina a little early this year.” I guess that it will be a new version of Aperture, and/or maybe some bumped up MacBook Pro’s with Core 2 Duo’s maybe? We can all hope for something.

Note: The date has been errornously reported by many sites as September 24th, it is actually September 25th. photokina starts on September 26th.

Lots of Wii News!

Published on Thursday, September 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software, Technology, TV's and Wireless. Closed

Before I get to my other posts, there has been a lot of Wii information released today, and I don’t have the time to post about them all, so I’ll give you the lowdown:

USA TODAY have posted an article detailed the release information of the Wii, as well as the box that will be used (above). [link]
Games downloaded to the virtual console, will be tied to a user’s Wii account, so that in the event of something happening and all the games are lost, then they can all be re-downloaded for free. [link]
USB storage is initially limited to flash drives, and USB hard-drive support is not yet included, however they have not yet planned any USB hard drive compatibility yet. [link]
First-party Wii titles (ie, produced by Nintendo) will be region-free, however whether 3rd party games will be locked, is upto the manufacturer. It is not yet known though whether GameCube titles, which are region locked, will play in all Wiis, though they are supposedly fully compatible. [link]
The Wii will not be supporting DVD playback of films. Kerrin Kaplan, Nintendo of America’s vice president of marketing and corporate affairs confirmed with IGN today. The decision was made because it made the Wii cheaper, and that most people already have DVD players, so there is no need for the function. [link]
Wii Sports, which is bundled with the Wii, will include Tennis, Baseball, Golf, Bowling and Boxing. [link]

That about covers it! I told you there was a lot, I’ll bring you more news as it comes as European pricing has not yet been disclosed.

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.

Apple bought Coverflow

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. 1 Comment

You know that cool browsing view Apple included into iTunes 7? Well it looks like they bought the technology from an individual developer. Well done to him! The coverflow website says:

We are pleased to announce that all CoverFlow technology and intellectual property was recently sold to Apple. It has been incorporated into the latest version of iTunes. Please visit www.apple.com/itunes

Now that is one guy who did very well for himself. I’m sure Apple paid him a good amount of money, and he deserved it, it is very cool! If you work hard, maybe Apple will buy your apps too!

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]