the mini Blog

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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Contest Winner: James Gardner!

Published on Tuesday, December 12, 2006 in Apple, General, Noteworthy and Technology. 4 Comments

I know it’s later than the actual end date of the contest, so sorry! But James you have won the contest. Please send me an email to contest [at] theminiblog [dot] co [dott] uk with your choice of prize. Would you like the £15 iTMS voucher or the £10 by paypal. Make sure to include an email that I can reply to with your details and confirmation. Enjoy your prize!

HOW-TO: Cleaning the Apple Keyboard

Published on Thursday, November 16, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Random Stuff and Technology. 155 Comments

There comes a time, when your shiny white Apple keyboard gets so dirty that you can’t bear one second more. For me, that day was today. I love the Apple keyboard, it is nice, ergonomic and looks very sleek. However the only ‘disadvantage’ (if you could call it that) is that it is white. It gets dirty easily and you can see really clearly everything. A simple wipe of the keyboard with a damp cloth was not enough. There was still remains of tons of different things, and I wanted it off. You never really notice how dirty your keyboard is, unless you use a white keyboard, or something of a similar colour. But with the Apple keyboard, the outer shell is clear, so you can see everything there too.
This little how-to guide will show you how I cleaned my keyboard to perfection. Click on for the detailed guide (with lots of photos).

UPDATE: I’ve been dugg, TUAW’d and del.icio.us‘d.
UPDATE 2: I had to change the photos to get them from flickr as I am burning through my bandwidth really quickly. I am at 18GB, and my max is 21GB per month!

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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]

Gaming News in Review: Part 1

Published on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 in Gaming, Microsoft, Movies, Noteworthy, Technology and Wireless. Closed

the wii house

While I was unable to post during the last two weeks, there has been plenty of gaming news floating around, so be prepared for a awfully long post.

New Halo 3 Info: 1up.com have revealed lots of new information about Halo 3. There will be three different editions of Halo 3, a standard, a collectors and a Legendary edition. New brute weapons, Spike Rifle and Spike Grenade. The Mongoose ATV, like the Warthog, however there is no turret. A new assault riffle as the starting weapon, Bungie hope to improve the tactics of the game, so it is more fair. Save multiplayer, and single player gameplay videos and watch them again. The left and right bumpers are being used as the reloading buttons for your weapons, so what happens with the X button now? [link]
PS3′s SIXAXIS controller is completely disassembled to reveal its innards. A layer by layer documentation takes you through the motion sensing parts, the non-replaceable battery, and the rest of the gadgetry. [link]
The Wii house of fun in London. SPOnG managed to take a look around Nintendo’s secret house which is kitted up with Wii gear, for the press. They took lots of photos and described their experience with the various games and such. Photo shown above. [link]
70GB Hard drive for the Xbox 360 spotted. While the photo could be a fake, the most likely explanation is, Microsoft wants you to be able to store those Movie and Video downloads somewhere (currently for the US only, more in the next post) The video marketplace allows you to download various movies, tv shows and short films, some in HD, which obviously needs plenty of space. [link]
Sony fanboys hijack the Nintendo Wikipedia entry and cover it with “nintendo sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1″, for a mere few minutes, until the Wikipedia admins notice. “In the short moments before Wikipedia admins could get the correct page back up, the assailant successfully misled several would-be Nintendo fans to assume the company had gone out of business, then deciding to ‘switch teams.’ [sarcasm]” [link]
Engadget get down to business, and get hands on with their final production unit of the Wii. Plenty of high-res images of the unboxing, the console and all its accessories. What more could you want? [link]

I split down the post into two separate articles. It’s probably more helpful for the eye.

MacHeist Invites: Get it here

Published on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 in Gaming, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. 4 Comments

I have seven MacHeist invites to dish out, and I will hopefully get more soon. To those who are unaware, and have been sitting under a rock for the past few weeks, MacHeist is created by the founders of MyDreamApp. The idea is, you follow cryptic messages and use all your geek knowledge to complete various missions. At the end, you will receive a code to put into the MacHeist safe to unlock the freebies for that mission. Lots of different applications (Mac-only, duh!) will be available to unlock during the six different missions. The first mission has started, and is nearly over, and you unlock three pieces of software in total that amount to a saving of $40.95. I won’t give any spoilers, so if you are seriously interested, then leave your email in the comments below. I will try to send out the email as soon as possible. This is based on a first come first served basis.

Updates

Published on Tuesday, November 14, 2006 in General. Closed

Sorry I haven’t posted, but WordPress went a bit janky on me and decided to show a MySQL Error every time I tried to post. That, coupled with a lot of schoolwork, meant that I wasn’t able to post. Sorry, I know I haven’t been in the best schedule lately, but I’ll try my best. The error is sorted out now, but it was all down to a stupid quote that I accidentally put in the database, leading wordpress to not recognise the table. I do have plenty of goodies and lots of topics to post on, as well as some MacHeist invites.
On a side not, to those who subscribe via RSS, and don’t visit the site often, the contest is still open, and anyone is free to participate. £10 cash (via paypal / equal money in USD) or a £15 iTunes Music Store voucher is up for grabs. Click here for full details. Contest ends December 2nd.

MacExpo: GreenMyApple

Published on Friday, October 27, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy and Technology. 4 Comments

The presence of GreenMyApple was quite mysterious, that is because they weren’t there. Outside the Olympia Hall where the expo was taking place, there was a Greenpeace rep, handing out GreenMyApple leaflets, with a huge banner and even a flag. The leaflet can be seen above, it isn’t the best quality as I scanned it in after it had been crumpled up a bit in my bag! A pdf version is available here, which I created. This uses the same scanned images, but is at a higher resolution.

I was actually keen to go to their stand, as I wanted to talk to one of their reps and collect some information. I honestly had no idea how ‘bad’ Mac’s are in respect of the materials they are made from. I am all for saving the environment, as long as there is truth behind what Greenpeace say. They were nowhere to be found, so when I came home I did some digging around on the internet and found that their stall was taken down by MacExpo organisers who “claimed they received complaints from unnamed sources“. Speculation has it, that it may have been Stevie, who didn’t like the reporting that Greenpeace did a while back. They gave Apple a ranking of 2.7/10 for the enviromentally friendliness of Apple’s hardware. A detailed overview can be found here (PDF). Though this is purely rumour, I can’t see anyone else who would actually protest against such a thing, especially as it is for the environment.

The volunteers for Greenpeace have said that they will go back tomorrow (ie, today) to MacExpo to continue their campaign. Iza Kruszewska, Greenpeace International campaigner at the expo said, “This reaction is totally over-the-top. Apple refuses to address our criticisms on their products, both for the recycling and for the use of harmful chemicals.” He added, “Instead of hiding their head in the sand, Apple should be a world leader in the greening of the electronics industry, not lagging behind.” He finished by saying that Apple should use cleaner components when making their product, to provide a free take-back program for recycling old Macs; and they challenge “the world leader in design to also be a world leader in environmental innovation” for Apple to have a “product range on the market by 2007 which is free of the worst toxic chemicals”

[via MacNN]

UPDATE: The real reason that GreenMyApple were thrown out of MacExpo, is because they were using ‘viral tactics’ to spread Apples, literally. Many companies were annoyed, that there marketing things were being replaced by green apples, and were randomly placing them in their booths. “The problem came to a head when one woman complained that they had placed an apple in her child’s pram and were taking photographs of him without her permission.” [link]

MacExpo: Parallels

Published on Friday, October 27, 2006 in Apple, Noteworthy, Software and Technology. 2 Comments

Parallels had quite a small stand, with only one rep, but they certainly impressed me. I’ve never actually had a chance to see parallels in the flesh, and I’ve only heard about it on the Interweb. Apple don’t install it on their Macs in the Apple store so this was new for me. A few people were around the rep who was explaining Parallel, what it does and how it works. When he started up Windows XP on his MacBook Pro, the speed just blew me away. Maybe it was just a fresh install and nothing else was running in the background, but it booted Windows from the BIOS screen in around 30 seconds. Wow! As it was a small booth (around 5 foot by 6 foot) there was only one Mac, which we were unable to try out. However it still had a huge impression on me, and would consider buying it, in the case that I got a Intel Mac. It is a lot easier and faster than booting up Windows in BootCamp, although not everything may work perfectly. There are bugs and flaws, which will get ironed out in future releases.
They had a special offer for those at MacExpo, where you could get Parallels for £39.99 instead of the RRP of £49.99. If I had a Intel Mac, I would have most certainly taken up that offer.

Parallels

MacExpo: Google

Published on Friday, October 27, 2006 in Internet, Software, Technology and Web 2.0. 2 Comments

Google had a booth at MacExpo, not really announcing anything new, just showcasing their software for the Mac. Google’s booth was very well designed, not the best though (I would have to say Quark’s was the best), and around he front there were 6 Intel iMac’s which you could use to try out Google Maps, Google Sketchup, Google Earth and Google Video. Around the reverse of the booth there was a presentation area where Google reps were delivering various seminars on Google software and how to get the most use from it. Google’s stand was packed most of the time, so I only had a few minutes to have a look around, but it really is nothing new. They were also giving out a portfolio PR pack containing sheets about their software and a CD with the Google software on it.
A lot of companies were giving away marketing, and Google was not an exception. They had transparent packs of Google branded gummy bear and sour sweets, which were probably nothing more than Haribo with Google’s sticker slapped on them.