Archive for December, 2006
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Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
You’re fairly aware by now of how Team Xtender’s XFPS was all set to shake up the FPS realm on the Xbox 360 by giving gamers the ability to use the undisputed king of controls (that’d be the keyboard / mouse tandem) — or Sony’s widely adored Dual Shock controller — instead of Microsoft’s own rendition, but according to Xbox360Fanboy’s review, it’s not quite the post-Christmas miracle we were all hoping for. While expectations were admittedly set rather high, it seems the unit simply underperforms where it mattered most, and excelled in a somewhat less important department. Using Gears of War, Halo 2, and Rainbow Six 3: Vegas Demo as tests, reviewers found the keyboard / mouse setup to be a breeze, but actual in-game results were not only poor, but relatively unacceptable. If the “slight button delays” weren’t enough to turn your nose up, the simply inability for a keyboard to emulate the “analog support of the Xbox 360 controller” made critical run / crouch movements next to impossible to pull off, and the mouse aiming was purportedly dreadful as well. It was stated, however, that it worked perfectly with a Dual Shock (PS1 or PS2 flavor) controller, so folks digging the Sony design but unable to locate (or afford) a PS3 should take note. Overall, the XFPS reportedly fails fairly miserably at giving Xbox 360 owners the chance to use their keyboard / mouse combo to shoot it up on a console, and just seems relatively expensive for a simple Dual Shock-to-Xbox 360 liaison, so unless you just have to learn things the hard way, we’d suggest holding off.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Apple’s week gets worse as SEC filing reveals new lawsuits
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Laptops, Portable Audio
Although the worst of Apple’s recent stock option scandal may have passed, the company’s friendly legal department won’t be getting a rest anytime soon. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, the company revealed that it is facing several previously unseen lawsuits. The first case calls for unspecified damages related to Apple’s proprietary DRM system, although it’s not the first time Apple’s use of Fairplay has landed it in lawyer infested waters. Next up, a plaintiff is seeking damages in relation to an alleged abnormally high rate of logic board failure in Apple’s iBook G4 series — despite our intimate knowledge of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, the skills we’ve learnt from this particular title don’t allow us to explain to you why the plaintiff wasn’t satisfied with the currently existing iBook Logic Board Replacement Program. Finally, a company called PhatRat Technology has filed a claim alleging that Apple’s Nike-iPod product infringes their copyright. As daunting as this filing may seem — especially in the context of its release only a couple of days before the most unproductive day of the year — our archives show that this filing is just another page on the company’s long record of battling with individuals and corporations that have exerted their right to sue.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Never mind Vista, here’s Fiji and Vienna
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Desktops, Laptops
Face it, Windows Vista is just so played these days. With that preliminary biz release under its belt, we’re ready for bigger and better things, and luckily a certain “jameskyton” drive-by-blogger has the low-down for us on Vista’s successors, Fiji and Vienna. James calls Fiji a sort of “Vista R2,” which should include most of those fancy features Microsoft had to cut out of Vista to get it released this century. Highlights include the reappearance of WinFS, which will sit on top of the NTFS file system; a more full-featured sidebar app; tight Windows Live integration, especially when it comes to media; built-in playback of HD-DVD; Next-Generation Secure Computing Base; and possibly even a Garage Band clone called Monaco. There will also be the usual interface and other minor enhancements you can expect from such an update, but Fiji has nothing on Vienna, which is purported to feature a complete overhaul of the OS, including a break in compatibility with “all applications,” though hopefully Microsoft will have some Apple-esque transition schemes in place before that time comes. The fresh beginning will give Microsoft more OS-building freedom than it has had in a long time, but right now it sounds like they’re a bit too excited about this: Vienna will supposedly do away with the Start Menu, toolbars and menus in favor of some sort of pie-menu interface, WinFS-t-the-core and search, potentially leaving long time users stranded with a brand new interface to learn from the ground up. The OS will also feature beefy speech support, along with a sandbox mode for running non-managed code without risking your security. Much of this is hearsay so far, and we’re really hoping Microsoft doesn’t go off the deep end with Vienna, but we’re still curious to see what they have up their sleeves after being cooped up so long ironing out Vista bugs.
[Via Slashdot]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Apple takes $84 million charge, defends Steve Jobs in options scandal
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Portable Audio, Portable Video
While Apple’s surely enjoying the perks of having a monumental amount of iPods unwrapped just days ago, everything’s not exactly kosher in Cupertino. Aside from the mysterious mouse the firm just patented, the company is facing another bevy of off-the-wall lawsuits, all while trying to fish its CEO out of potentially hot water. After the Securities and Exchange Commission found that ole Steve was granted 7.5 million stock options without the proper authorization of Apple’s board of directors in 2001, there was widespread speculation that Mr. One More Thing may suffer the same fate as Apple’s former CFO Fred Anderson, who resigned after a similar debacle in 2004. It seems, however, that things just might work out okay after all, as Apple finally filed its required forms with SEC, recognizing a “total additional non-cash, stock-based compensation expense of $84 million after tax, including $4 million and $7 million in fiscal years 2006 and 2005, respectively.” Aside from taking the lofty charge, the company also stated that while Jobs was “aware of the favorable grant date recommendations, he did not financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications.” So all those out there holding your breath to see if Macworld would ever be the same if this went south, it looks like we’ll be seeing jeans and a black shirt all over again in just a few weeks.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
NYC taxis to map out dead zones in mobile networks
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Cellphones, Transportation, Wireless
We’ve already seen an influx of hybrid vehicles take their places in the mammoth fleet of New York City taxis, and now that the Taxi 2.0 will reportedly sport GPS tracking an built-in televisions, what else is really left to implement? Stockholm-based Ericsson has apparently seized the opportunity in using the random, perpetual motion of NYC’s yellow mainstays to better itself (read: make some coin), and has recently received permission from the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission to install small devices “about the size of a computer modem” into cabs in order to “feed information about signal strength and clarity to engineers.” The research, which has already been completed in other areas of the world, is being conducted in the Big Apple on behalf of a yet-to-be-named carrier, and it purportedly hopes to more accurately map out dead zones in mobile phone networks. Currently, “at least one fleet” has signed up to participate, and others could join in considering the royalties that will be paid out for tagging along on those zany routes through the city. Of course, this whole system should be relatively invisible to cab riders, but a continual voice recording of furious (and disconnected) passengers could probably work equally well in pinpointing those dead spots.
[Via Textually]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
My Google Reader Shared Items RSS Feed
Saturday, December 30th, 2006How soon we forget on why the Bell’s were broken up in the first place and why AT&T was regulated to only being a Long Distance carrier. I laughed when I read their concession on Net Neutrality and some price locks on some services. This merger is going to come back and haunt those in the Bell South service area. It’s just to bad that the smoke screen put up by AT&T is caused a lot of people to think that the merger is a good thing. [TechDirt]
My Google Reader Shared Items RSS Feed
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
I hardly have time to post to my link blog but I think I am going to see how sharing my Google Reader Shared Items RSS feed goes. Subscribe to this [RSS Feed]
T.M.X. Elmo gets his comeupance, laughs through the flames
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
To be honest, it didn’t really take a video of T.M.X. Elmo being set on fire while laughing maniacally to give us nightmares about the fuzzy red doll, we find the pyro-free version to adequately creepy as well. Peep the video after the break, never have a restful night again.
[Via Digg]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Stridekick disposable pedometer tells you when to chuck those kicks
Saturday, December 30th, 2006Filed under: Misc. Gadgets
Just because you replace your running shoes every time they go all Scruffy McScruffington on you doesn’t mean you’re necessarily doing your feet a service. Podiatrists, running experts and overprotective moms the world over agree that you should replace your running shoes at around 350-500 miles, which is a good bit before most shoes start showing visible wear. To the rescue is Stridekick, a disposable pedometer designed to be attached to your laces — a la Nike+iPod — which tracks the mileage you’ve put on your shoes on a small display so you know when to throw them out. The device was developed and patented by a pair of Babson College MBA students, who have received an $11,500 grant to develop their idea. Apparently they’re already in discussions with running shoe manufacturers, so it might not be too terribly long until you’ll start getting nagged by yet another teensy sensor that thinks it’s smarter than you.
[Via The Raw Feed]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
Amaryllo launches Purity Bluetooth GPS receiver in Europe
Saturday, December 30th, 2006
Joining the fairly saturated Bluetooth GPS market — but not exactly competing for that “world’s smallest” crown — is Amaryllo’s Purity. Sporting a 3.39- x 1.73- x 0.52-inch enclosure and weighing 2.08 ounces, the sleek, matte-finished device sports internal Bluetooth for connecting with PDAs, smartphones, and other GPS-lovin’ gizmos, and receives its intel via the SiRF Star III LP (low-power) chipset. Reportedly, the unit can muster 15 hours on a single charge, and should also ship with a car charger, AC adapter, rubber anti-slip stickers, and a silicon protections sleeve. While we doubt this €90 ($118) receiver will see US shores anytime soon, it’s slated to land in Europe next month, but we American (and Taiwanese) lads have plenty of alternatives to choose from, anyway.
[Via NaviGadget]
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time
Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!
