Archive for the 'Software' Category

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iTunes 7 – With Movie Store!

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Internet, Movies, Noteworthy, Podcasting, Software, Technology and TV's. Closed

The new version of iTunes has a lot of new features, you can find a good walkthrough of the main features at TUAW. These are the main enhancements:

TV Shows are available in h.264, in 640 x 480 which is up from 320 x 240.
You can update your iPod from right inside iTunes now, you don’t need to go to Preferences. You can say, “I want to sync the 10 most recent unwatched episides of all my TV shows.”
You can sync content between multiple computers as long as you have the same iTMS account and both the computers are authorised.
Coverflow mode allows you to scroll through the artwork of your music as if it was on a shelf.
Music Artwork can be downloaded free from Apple, and it will fill up all the missing artwork in your library!
“Today we’re starting out with films from Disney, Pixar, Touchstone, and Miramax – four studios owned by Disney. Today we’re making over 70 films agvailable online today including Pirates of the Caribbean. They’ll be available the same day they’re out on DVD.“
New movies will be $12.99 if you pre-order them or buy them during the first week. Other movies are $9.99. The movie store is integrated into iTunes and you can preview new releases in album cover flow mode. They will also be at 640 x 480 with Dolby Surround Sound. Initially it will be for the US only, but it will go international in 2007.
Games for iPod are $4.99 and only work with the 5G iPod (old and updated).
A refined look with sections for music, other content, playlists etc. It is not really too big, but it allows iTunes to flow more seamlessley. You have to see for yourself, it is hard to describe.

It is available for download now. I think that’s virtually it, I’ll update it if I find anything else.

The updated iPod

Published on Tuesday, September 12, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

So no 6G iPod with real video capabilities, but an updated ‘version 2′ iPod, if you may call it that. So what’s new? Well for starters, there is a new 80GB model, which has the same size as the 60GB. The battery life has been bumped upto 20 hours of music, and 6 and a half hours of video, that is of course on the 80GB model. There is a search capability, so you can search through the music you have and find what you want easily. You can watch movies and TV shows from the iTunes ~~Music~~ store (more on that in a separate post) on the 60% brighter screen. There are also dedicated games for iPod, including Texas Holdem, Zuma, Pac Man, Tetris, Minigolf and many more. These are available for download from the iTunes store for $4.99 each. The 30GB is selling for £249/£189 and the 80GB for $349/£259.
Nothing else has changed from the iPod, so I would consider it a minor revision. I like the fact that Apple has included game support, and the search is also really good. The battery life is the thing I’m most pleased about as I have always thought it would be quite short for video (though I own a 4G iPod). I can’t wait to try it out, whenever I can. Though it is a shame there is no true video iPod yet, but I think Apple are working on a few things they need to work out.

Video of Leopard?

Published on Saturday, July 1, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

This is more ‘realistic’ than the simple screenshots we last heard about eariler. Not only does this show actual cursor movement and the use of the interface, but it shows us that legendary about box; though even that may not add up to much as that can easily be modified using a .plist file. I honestly think that I think this video is fake, why? For one, this solely centres on tabbed browsing in Finder, which if added wouldn’t be that big of a deal, and certainly not what Apple would classify as the main feature of Leopard. Secondly, the video is quite short and doesn’t seem to show anything else. If someone got their hands on a copy, wouldn’t they show us the most new and exciting features of the OS, not the tabbed browsing which can actually be done with a GUI modifier like UNO. Sorry to tell you guys, but I think the screenshots have more merit than this (which are fake).
I have a mirror of the video here, as the original link went down. It was hosted on a free Box.net account which ran out of Bandwidth. You can check out the original post, which was again, posted on a blogger account using the link below.

Links for June 30

Published on Friday, June 30, 2006 in Apple, Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for Friday June 30^th 2006.

DocCRP’s Wii and PS3 comparison images. Looking small! (above) [link]
Beneath the Wii’s mysterious flap — SD Slot and Sync button [link]
Mac OS X 10.4.7 now available for download via Software Update [link] and re-release for Intel Macs [link]
Get iClip free only today from MacZot [link]

DS Opera browser lacks flash, video, sound and PDF support!

Published on Thursday, June 29, 2006 in Gaming, Internet, Noteworthy, Software, Technology and Wireless. 1 Comment

ds opera browser

A FAQ section on Nintendo’s Japanese website, states that the new Opera browser for the DS will not have support for flash, video, sound and PDF content. Users will be able to bookmark pages, but not save them (eg. for offline use). This may not compare to the PSP which does support flash – though I don’t think that supports PDF video or sound either – but users will be able to pan through the pages using the stylus, and easily enter website addresses using handwriting recognition. DS Lite owners will be happy to hear that Nintendo will release a browser cartridge that fits nicely into the DS Lite’s GBA slot so that you don’t need to worry about anything protruding out. Opera will also be able to store data entered into forms, such as login information and what not.
I think this will make the browsing on the DS quite nice, but I still don’t know whether it may be a pain to read stuff and do actualy browsing on it. On my PSP I still find it annoying to scroll across pages when reading articles. But I like the way you enter the address on the DS, as it is very tedious with the PSP, using a phone like keypad way of entering (takes too long — very annoying).

Microsoft releases IE 7 Beta 3 to the public

Published on Thursday, June 29, 2006 in Internet, Microsoft, Software and Technology. Closed

Ah, another IE 7 beta version for the public to test and scrutinise.

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) Beta 3 has been designed to make everyday tasks easier, provide dynamic security protection and improve the development platform and manageability. End user improvements include a streamlined interface, tabbed browsing, printing advances, improved search functionality, instant feeds (RSS), dynamic security protection, and more.

The specs are limiting users to the following spec: Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and XP Professional x64. And of course you will have to have that hated, Windows Genuine Advantage running. I tested out the beta before it reached the public and I just didn’t like it, and being a Mac user, there is no need for it. But it is better than IE 6, I think.

Links for June 29

Published on Thursday, June 29, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Random Stuff, Shorts, Software and Technology. Closed

The shorts for Thursday June 29, 2006.

LAPD to trial GPS darts, like in the moves (above) [link]
Apple replacing some MacBook’s with the colour defect [link]
MacWorld’s 23 things we want in Leopard [link]

Links for June 28

Published on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 in Internet, Noteworthy, Shorts, Software and Technology. Closed

The Shorts for June 28th 2006:

Rubik’s Cube Solving Robot with video (above) [link]
8 Invaluable WordPress Plugins analysed [link]
DIY: Build your own pong game [link]

Mac OS X Leopard Screenshots?

Published on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 in Apple, Software and Technology. Closed

Two pictures have cropped up on a blogspot blog, apparently showing screenshots of Apple’s next Mac OS X version, named ‘Leopard’. The first picture (above) shows Finder with tabs, as well as IE 7 running. The ‘About this Mac’ screen also shows a listing for Windows, and spec is “XP with Service Pack 2″. The second screenshot is of a Desktop Switcher which uses a door peep hole sort of idea to show the next desktop, very igenious.
This obviously could be a fake, and with many talented Mac lovers out there, it would be no surprise if it was. However, saying that, the ideas shown are very ‘Apple style’ and very unique. A lot of people are speculating that Apple will build into Leopard a virtual Windows, where you click on an .exe and it opens up, much like Classic on OS X. But this is still in the field, so take it with a grain of salt. Let’s hope that Apple shows of these at WWDC in August.

UPDATE: So this is fake. I actually thought that it maybe real, but the owner has made a post on his blogger account detailing into the main reasons as to why, and how he did it. [link]

Links for June 14

Published on Wednesday, June 14, 2006 in Apple, Shorts, Software and Technology. Closed

Today’s short links are:

Green fliud found oozing from the backside of a number of G5′s (above) [link]
600 PowerMac G5′s used to digitally re-encode and master the Ultimate DVD Collection of James Bond [link]
Hilarious recording of an AOL user trying to cancel the account which he doesn’t use, but the rep tries to say that he used yesterday [link] [mirror] [mp3 mirror]