Get Ready For Tech Tuesday.

Some of you know and some do not, beginning today (10-31-06) I will be a host on a gaming/tech podcast every Tuesday. For those who don't know what a podcast is, it's basically a recorded radio show that you get from the Internet to listen to on your computer or portable media player (read: iPod... Get it "pod"cast). iTunes makes listening very easy as you can subscribe (for free) to any podcast you want to listen to, and every week, or day, or however often the show comes out, iTunes just downloads it for you. The show I'm on is called, All Games Interactive, and they have a great show that they do every weekday (live I might add) and they've asked me to be a part of it. The segment I will be doing is called, "Tech Tuesday" and every Tuesday I will have a segment in there show where I talk about the latest tech news, gadgets, and rumors. This weeks show is all about the Zune, Microsoft's attempt at de-throwning the iPod.

Just keep an eye on the blog for any updates, and please comment here if there is any tech that you would like me to cover in upcoming shows. If you want to listen to the show live (5:30 central time) go here: Link! If you would rather wait and get it on iTunes as a podcast go here: Link! But through iTunes, you'll get the show a day later... Also, I will be making a post every Tuesday when I do the show, I might even be able to post the show on my blog. Thanks for your support!

PS. If you would like to be part of the show, you can always join in through the chat client on the website. Link.


For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

X360 Fall Update.

From out of nowhere, comes the fall update for the Xbox 360's dashboard (read: interface). There is 85 "new" "upgrades" in the update so I am only going to cover major/cool ones. (Stuff in black font is ripped from Xbox.com...)

Software Info

Streaming Video - Previously, the Video area on the Media blade of the Xbox Dashboard only played back videos from your hard drive. No more! Stream video from a PC, portable device, or Memory Unit. So what does this mean to you? From day one of the box the 360 could always stream music and pictures from any computer (on your network) or any USB device connected to the 360. Previously, you could only watch videos if you had a Windows Media Center PC. Now videos work the same way as music and pictures; any computer or USB device will do the trick! The catch, only video encoded in WMV (Windows Media Video) or MPEG2 will play back. This is significant because these are the worst and least popular video formats. AVI and DivX are far more superior formats, but Microsoft says them won't support them (for now) because they are used mainly for "piracy" (true, but still...).


1080p - The highest in Hi Def, TV's that support 1080p are just starting to make it to the market. If you can afford one, the 360 will display your games and HD-DVD's (see below) in all 1080p Hi Def glory.


Xbox Live Arcade - Big improvements have been made here:

• The arcade games now load much, much faster (thank god).
  
• There is now an auto download feature so you Xbox will automatically download the trial versions of any new XBLA title.
  
• Now you can sort by "Recently Played" and by "Category".
  
• An achievement area just for XBLA titles, so you can look through just XBLA games.
• Check out the top ten leaderboards from your friends on any game.
• "Tell a Friend" send a message to a friend recommending a game... (Wins my vote for worst "feature")

XNA Express - Finally we come to XNA Game Studio Express, a way for all you budding game developers to create games for Xbox 360. You'll be able to access these games through the old Demos button, which has been relabeled, surprisingly enough, to Demos and More.

Random -

• Improved multiplayer host migration.
• Improved Xbox Live Vision support.
• Improved voice chat quality.
• Expanded Family Settings for unrated movies.
• New credit card validation (CCV) field in signup and purchase areas.

Accessories

Wireless Headset - Completely wire free, connects directly to the 360 via the same wireless protocol as the controllers. Headset has volume controls, mute, and four light to indicate what controller port you're sync'd to. Release date: October 31st. $60

HD-DVD Drive - Here's the HD DVD (roll your mouse over the pics) Drive for the X360, no it's not for games just for movies but hey that's ok. And for all the ppl whining that they're going to lose their USB port for the wireless adaptor, you won't; see the bottom screenshot with TWO USB ports and the section up top to hold the wireless adapter. So you actually gain a USB as a "bonus" with your HD DVD Drive. Release Date: November 7th. $200

Wireless Racing Wheel - The only racing wheel made by Microsoft. Completely wireless (not counting the wire from the wheel to the pedals) and will control any 360 racing game. It does also support force feedback but, for that it does have to be plugged in... Rumble, though, is supported wirelessly. Bonus: it uses the same batteries as the wireless controllers! Package includes PGR3 with an update for use with the wheel. Release Date: November 7th $150

Zune - Microsoft's dip into the iPod space. This is their music/photo/video player, you can wirelessly (Zune to Zune) transfer music and photo's, although music bought through the Zune Marketplace can only be listened to 3 times or for 3 days on the receivers Zune. Bonus: All your Zune content can be played on/through your 360! (but not wireless) and you can use Microsoft Points to buy songs (Same points you use to buy thing on the 360). Look for this to make a big splash until that fabled "True Video iPod" hits... Release Date: November 14th $250

(Via: Xbox.com)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Dane Cook Done, Halo Style.

If you've never heard of Dane Cook you're missing out. His is the funniest comedian right now and one of my favorites of all time. Check out this other clip of his too, it's about 24 minutes long and some of the best stand up I've ever seen.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Two Words - Halo. Three.

You damn right! Yeah I said it! A number of gaming sites today have shown to the world, against copyright laws i might add, a series of high resolution scans (read photos) of a Swedish magazine giving us an inside scoop on what's really been going down in Bungie Studios. Below is what has so far been extracted from the articles (they are in swedish after all!), courtesy of xbox360fanboy:

Weapons
Spiker - a new Brute weapon
Spartan laser - a laser that tears vehicles apart
Nail Grenade - sticks into walls and sends nails everywhere

Vehicles
The Mongoose is in! This is the ATV that was cut from Halo 2. It seats two and has no weapons. Designed from recon and quick travel.

Multiplayer goodies
The "Man Cannon" - Spartans do their best Human Bullet impersonations for some extremely rapid transport. Players can still shoot in the air, and can be shot down.

Controls
The X button has a new, still secret feature. Reloading has now been allocated to the bumper buttons. Right bumper reloads the right weapon, and the left bumper reloads the left. Genius.

Miscellaneous
You can now see your secondary weapon when it's not in use. In other words, it's actually slung over your shoulder instead of magically appearing out of thin air. Also, a 4 DVD "Legendary" edition is planned that will have material from Red Vs. Blue, documentaries, and a collection of all cut scenes from the game (possibly the whole series?).

Additionally, 1up, one of the other organizations to have the honour to be invited for a massive press day at Bungie's Studios, has officially come out to confirm this information to be correct, and has also hinted at the ability to save video's of yourself playing, machinima style, but this was in the form of a rhetorical question so it's anyone's guess at this point.

Another awesome product of this Halo 3 news bombardment was this, it has become my new homepage, you want to know what it is i hear you say, well, it is a mini site exclusive to 1up, dubbed '3 weeks of Halo 3', the site will be updated with a series of articles, ranging from 'multiplayer map analysis' to 'halo 3 single player'. If you check out the link it will show when these articles will be hitting. God damn, roll on this months EGM already...

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

PS. Sorry if i beat you to this Jay!

Sony: Dear Customer, IOU One PS3...

Well, ok so Sony it stating that they will give out IOU's to customers waiting for the PS3. it is unclear so far if Sony is going to make you pay for the whole thing up front or just a down payment... But as Dracula Jones pointed out, " Is the voucher in True HD?" Genius.

(Via: Joystiq)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

F.E.A.R. Review, and its good news!

IGN have finally reviewed the once higly anticipated (hype for the game seems to have died down of late) first person shooter, F.E.A.R.
It's got a very respectable score, one of the highest 360 scores from IGN to be more specific, coming in with a 9.1.
Things which really impressed the guys over there were the AI, which they say 'provides powerful combat sequences'. I agree, after playing through the demo, one of the biggest things which stuck out for me was how clever the AI was, not 'splinter cell clever' (knowing where you are even though you're the other side a concrete block), but humanly clever - if they're getting pummeled, they retreat, then come back at you from another angle, fantastic for firefights because it keeps you guessing, much alike a multiplayer session.
Also particularly impressive was the sound. The sound effects are all excellent, notably the guns you wield, they all sound wonderfully meaty. But moreso, according to IGN, was the ambience, the creepy sound effects, they 'add volumes to the atmosphere'.
And last but certainly not least, this game keeps you on your toes, why? because it's one scary mother of a game, IGN don't hesitate to tell you that more than a few times during the review.
Hype, they say, will certainly pick up for this game once it hits retail. I for one agree, and am looking forward to picking this game up come it's November release date (can anyone say PS3 launch?) and dipping into the 'Instant Action' mode, which drops you into different situations throughout the single player game and records how well you do, and sticks your statistics onto an Xbox Live leaderboard. Good stuff. See you on the leaderboards.

I hope you've enjoyed my first *proper* post. More to follow when there's actually some blogworthy news flying about.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Australia Loves The 360.

Well the Xbox 360 is really taking off in Australia. Here's what 360 fanboy had to say:

...the 360 was released down under in March -- the 360 has gone to sell 100,000 units. This handily beats the PS2 total of 78,000 units in its first seven months. Also, Australians have purchased 400,000 games for their 360s since launch, trouncing the PS2 total of 198,000 during the same period after its launch.

Now if they (Microsoft) just had more games like Blue Dragon, for the RPG, anime lovin' Japanese...

(Via: 360fanboy)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Visitors From Around The World.

Wow. That's all I can say. I was doing some checking up on the site and I have had visitors from 61 different country in just the last year. I never imagined I would every get this many visitors let alone from this many different parts of the world. I appreciate everyone for stopping by from time to time to see what I have to rant about. I try my best to post all least every other day, but sometimes there is just nothing that I feel is news worthy, and I'm not just going to post crap...

Oh and Dan, welcome to the site.

(Via: Blogflux)

DannyOB? Who the...?

As seen above my gamertag is LivePyromaniac, and i'm the new contributor in these here parts. I've been a fan of this site for quite some time now and am delighted to a contributor to this awesome site. I currently reside in Oxford, a famous (over here at least) city in the UK. I wasn't gaming as far back as Jay (that's the NES days for anyone that doesn't know), but I have been gaming since the SNES days. I was with Nintendo up until Microsoft stepped up to the plate and haven't look back since. I currently run my own xbox360 site at 360insight. I will be mainly posting 360 related news, as well as on my site. Soon i'm sure i'll expand onto tech related posts also. Well, that's DannyOB in a nutshell, it's great to be here and i hope you enjoy my posts, i'll sure enjoy writing with them.

Extensions: Making Firefox You Own.

To people that are new to Firefox, extension are one of the things that makes it so great. Extensions let you basically do whatever you want with your browser, Firefox being open-source means that everyone has access to the source code and anyone could make an extension. With this being the case there are very few if any extension that come directly from Mozilla. The extensions all come from the community, and they are all made to make you web browsing experience better. I have compiled a list of all the extensions that I use so maybe you guys will find some useful ones.

• Adblock Plus - This virtually block every ad on every page. This is the main extension I couldn't live without, it amazes me how many ads are on most pages. When I am at work (and forced to use Internet Explorer) I surf the same pages and I see them littered with ads and pop-ups.
• Adblock Filterset G - This goes with adblock plus and all it does it keep an up to date block list, so when new ads come out they are all ready blocked!
• Foxmarks - This one is great for me, with as many different computers that I use, and with how many time I install and re-install Firefox, this keeps my bookmarks synchronized between all my computers.
• IE Tab - There are still pages out there that only work in Internet Explorer, this puts a button in the bottom right corner of Firefox and lets you switch between IE and Firefox.
• Mouse Gestures - This is another great extension, when you right-click and hold it turns your mouse into a paint brush. If you draw a stroke from right to left it goes back a page, left to right, forward. It's a huge time saver for lazy people like me so you don't have to go "all the way" up to your back and forward buttons at the top of the browser.
• Tab Mix Plus - Firefox 2.0 has nearly made this useless (by including them into the browser) with the exception of one must have feature: Undo closed tab. So if you accidentally close a tab, you can now just right click anywhere inside Firefox and select "Undo Closed Tab" and bam its back! And not just one tab if you close 5 you can restore them all.
• Colorful Tabs - This extension is just a ascetic change, but a nice one. It make all your tabs a new color instead of them all just being gray, useful for differentiating them.
• CustomizeGoogle - This is a great extension for anyone that using the Google suit of products: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Search, Google Calendar, etc... There is specific setting for each service but one that transends all of them is switching to a secure service, meaning that you will always be logged in over a secure server (https:// instead of http://).
• Outlook Blue - This is a theme for Firefox, one of the cool things you can do is change the "look" of Firefox. From just the color to the buttons, and even the size and shape of the browser. This one is my favorite as it tends to blend-in with Windows XP very well, although there are some great Mac ones out there as well.
  

Mozilla Releases Firefox 2.0!

After a few Release Candidates Mozilla has now released Firefox 2.0 to the world. I strongly recommend that anyone everyone using Firefox upgrade to as soon as possible. A few notable upgrades are:

• Spell Checker - Now Firefox checks your spelling for you! As you type and it notices a spelling error Firefox underlines the error in red and if you right click on it gives you a choice of correct spellings or to add it to the dictionary if it's a custom word like, leet, n00b, or even gasp jayman.
• Phishing - Firefox now checks the website you're on to make sure it's not a phishing site.
• (Next bullets strait from Mozilla:)
  
• Enhanced search capabilities: Search term suggestions will now appear as users type in the integrated search box when using the Google, Yahoo! or Answers.com search engines. A new search engine manager makes it easier to add, remove and re-order search engines, and users will be alerted when Firefox encounters a website that offers new search engines that the user may wish to install.
• Improved tabbed browsing: By default, Firefox will open links in new tabs instead of new windows, and each tab will now have a close tab button. Power users who open more tabs than can fit in a single window will see arrows on the left and right side of the tab strip that let them scroll back and forth between their tabs. The History menu will keep a list of recently closed tabs, and a shortcut lets users quickly re-open an accidentally closed tab.

I love it you'll love, just make sure you're not using Internet Explorer ok (Tim)?

Get The Update Here.

Rainbow 6: Vegas Demo Impressions.

I downloaded the RB6: Vegas demo through the Xbox Live Region work-around listed here. Now keep in mind this is a violation of Xbox Live's TOS (Terms of Service), but I gotta tell you this demo is almost worth it. First off let me say how beautiful this game looks, truly next-gen. Bright vivid colors (it's Vegas baby!), explosions, fire, neon, water, this game has it all. I've been a little disappointed with RB6 games in the past, they were just shy of being great. They always had something I couldn't quiet put my finger on that made then a 5 or 6 instead of a 8 or 9. Well from the demo of Vegas things certainly look much, much better. The character animation looks good, your team move well and does not put themselves into danger like most AI teammates. Enemies take and shoot from cover, they don't over expose themselves to you. There is a new much improved cover method used in Vegas, you simply come close to cover (walls, cars, columns, boxes, etc...) and hold the LT button down. You can then look, shoot, and move around said cover until you release LT. This make taking and leaving cover much more intuitive and easy to pull off, as apposed to trying to hit A on the right spot of the correct piece of cover and A again to release you. Aside from being short (it is a demo) this is a great download and I can't wait for the game.

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Achievements? Gamerscore? Not For The PS3.

My favorite part of the 360 is my gamerscore/achievements (Go ahead call me a Gamerscore whore!) and Sony confirms that they (1st party) will have nothing of the sort:

Speaking with Game|Life, SCEA's executive vp Jack Tretton confirmed that PlayStation 3 user accounts will not feature an aggregate score based on gaming accomplishments, squashing rumors that Sony would counter Microsoft's gamerscore/achievement system with "entitlements."

...third-party publishers will have the option to include their own achievement-like rewards, "on a game-by-game basis."

Wow. So 3rd party individual games can have their own score? Sounds great... Well you get what you pay for and Sony keeps saying, "free".

(Via: Joystiq)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

Xbox 360 To Out Sell The PS3?

These are the number as reported by IDG (International Development Group) of their prediction of Next-Gen console sales up to 2010. I agree with everything but the Wii. My belief that at Nintendo will sell WAY more Wii's than that.


(Via: Next-Gen)

For All Your 360 News Check Out: 360insight

TWiT On Life Support?

This Week in Tech is, in my opinion, the best pod/blog/net-cast there is. All of the boys from the beloved TechTV, reunited in grand Web 2.0 fashion. Never heard of TWiT? Here's the 411 strait from the site:

In 2004, ZDTV, then called TechTV, was sold and dismantled. Former TechTV hosts, Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and John C. Dvorak, and producers Robert Heron, David Prager, and Roger Chang went on to other jobs, but we stayed in touch, with each other, and with fans of the late TechTV. Those fans told us again and again how important TechTV had been in their lives, and how much they missed the channel. We missed working with each other, too.

On a rainy evening in January, 2005 a few of of us got together for dinner after spending the day covering MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. Leo, who was working as a radio host, happened to have a microphone and recorder. He turned it on and recorded 20 minutes of idle chatter about the Expo and the tech world in general. He posted that recording on his web site. Within a few days tens of thousands of people had downloaded the recording. TechTV fans began clamoring for more. A few months later, TWiT was born.

And recently here's what Leo had to say about the future of TWiT:

It's about 80 degrees out - in all likelyhood the last nice day of summer in Northern California - so all the TWiTs decided to play hookey. At the same time. Unfortunately that means there will be no show tonight.

It's my turn to play hookey next week. I'm off on a Geek Cruise next Friday, and will be gone through November 4, so there will be no TWiT next week either.

I'll decide what happens to TWiT, the show, when I come back, but at this point it looks like it's on life support and the heart monitor is flatlining.

Yeah we all miss TechTV, don't make us miss TWiT too Leo.

(Via: Digg)

Gear Of War Is A Series Of Tubes...

This is few of the achievements from Gears Of War, you got to give credit to Epic for their hilarious titles. They pay homage to other games and movies with achievements such as:

• "I can't quit you Dom." The obvious Broke Back Mountain quote.
• "My love for you is like a truck." From Clerks.
• "Is it a spider?" Referring to sticking a 'nade on a opponent, The 'is it a spider' quote comes from the wildly popular Halo series, Red vs Blue.
• "The Money Shot" Well... I think we've all seen a few "movies" this could be from.

There is a couple other notable achievements:

• "A Series Of Tubes" This is my favorite of the bunch. If you don't know the reference it's from Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and a speech he gave on Net Neutrality. He says that the internet is quote, "...A series of tubes..." And that these tubes can get clogged. He claims that he was sent an email and didn't receive it till the next day because too many people were downloading movies/porn/music and other items that clogged the "tubes" and didn't let his email go through. Anyone with half a brain know this isn't true, and Mr. Stevens have been flamed all over the internet for his idiotic comments. Make sure to check out my earlier post on Net Neutrality that has got a great Halo 2 short "explaining" this whole mess.
• "Dom-Curious" Now this one is just funny.

(Via: 360 Achievements)

The Cards Off To The World Series!

Here's pic I took at the second to last game at the old Busch Stadium. I love the archway shadows on the field and the Arch in the background. Anyway, being from St. Louis I wanna see the Cards win the World Series this time.

Halo Movie In Trouble.

Some sad new today boys, unless a big studio picks up Halo, there will be no movie (Maybe a good thing?). Here's the run down:

Both Universal and Fox Studios have pulled out of the Halo movie adaptation, citing rising movie costs and concern over the inexperience of first time director Neil Blomkamp. As the budget was rumored to be edging closer to $200 million, and Microsoft getting a lion's share of the profits, the studio execs decided it was time to pull the plug.

According to Jackson's agent at International Creative Management, Ken Kamins, "What happened was this: Universal, on behalf of both studios, asked for a meeting with the filmmakers just prior to the due date of a significant payment. Basically, they said that in order to move forward with the film, the filmmakers had to significantly reduce their deals. They waited until the last minute to have this conversation. Peter and Fran, after speaking with their producing partners and with Microsoft and Bungee (the studio that designed the original game), respectfully declined."

(Taken from Variety)

"Everybody is supremely confident in Neal," Kamins said. "Part of what excited Peter and Fran was Neal's vision. We're very confident this film will move forward with the creative partners intact, who will take the film to production."

As much as I hate to see this news, movies based on games have always been the pits (Mario Brothers anyone?) Bungie with the help of Peter Jackson (LoTR and King Kong) promised to make this not your normal game to movie adaptation though. Well maybe Jackson's clout will get another studio to swoop up this potential cash cow.


(Via: Joystiq)

Best.Diggnation.Clip.Ever.

If you've never seen Diggnation and/or don't know what it is here's the run down: Diggnation covers some of the hottest user submitted stories of the week on Digg.com. Basically two guys, Kevin Rose (Digg founder) and Alex Albrecht (Tech TV host) drink beer and talk about some of the most Dugg/most interesting stories of the week. Anyway, the clip shows Kevin after he is fairly intoxicated and he proceeds to knock over a beer and then immediately open it! Funny stuff, I love diggnation and I would recommend to everyone that you at least check out an episode.

(Via: Diggnation)

No XBL For A Full Day. About Time For A... Shower?

This BSOD (Blue screen of death) is not likely to pop up on your 360, nor on Xbox.com forums for that matter but never the less, Xbox.com and Xbox Live with both be down on October 17th. If you don't believe me you can read about it at: Xbox.com, Major Nelson, Joystiq, Xbox-Scene, Digg, etc... But if you're still looking for the official response here it is from Xbox.com:

Q: Why? Why? Why?

A: Because we're adding some cool stuff. And we have to take the service and website offline in order to do it. We're not doing it to make you mad … really.

"Lucky" for me I'm off work that whole day and Splinter Cell: Double Agent comes out, a game with one of the best online components around... Couldn't they have picked a day where I was working for 12 hours?

(Via: Well, Everywhere)

The Difference Between HD DVD and DVD.

The difference is well, black and white...

Xbox Live Marketplace Pipeline.

This is the "new" Xbox Live Marketplace Pipeline. All it is, is a flash based version of the Xbox Live Marketplace that you find in your good ol' Xbox 360. It's nice but maybe something they could of had out at launch, it seems just a little late in the game to be "cool" now. Anyway if you want to check it out follow the link...

(Via: Xbox-Scene)

Best.Calendar.Ever.

Now this is a calendar, makes my last post not so interesting anymore... You can get your very own calendar here.

(Via: Joystiq)

All The Gaming Dates You Need In Google Calendar.

Now on the left side of the page (see above if confused...) I now have a link to a Google Calendar that I've made that has a list of all the upcoming games that I'm looking forward to. It's a public calendar so anyone can add it to their gCal and I've even got it set up so anyone can add to it. So guys help me out and let's put all the big releases on this calendar and make the go to source for release dates. Here's what the calendar looks like:

Now if you're not using Google Calendar you need to be (unless you gotta a Mac and have iCal :-)
Google does a great job in syncing all of their services together, so once you have a Google account you can get started with Gmail, Picasa (for photo's), Blogger, Calendar, Writely (online word processor), Maps, and tons of other cool websites and apps. Once you have your Google Calendar setup just click that gCal button I've got on the left side there (again see above) and Google will ask if you want to add it to your calendar.

Google Buys YouTube: Gootube???

I found this funny pic on Gizmodo and had to put it up, here's what they had to say about the acquisition:

Apparently the rumor that Google was buying YouTube was less of a rumor than someone on the inside letting it slip out to the entire world. But now that Google's paid $1.65 billion in an all-stock acquisition—which is their most expensive purchase so far—all 67 of YouTube's employees are giving each other naked high fives and bathing in expensive champagne.

I wonder if Google Videos is going to stay around now...

(Via: Gizmodo)

Sony, Just Stop Talking....

Jamie MacDonald a VP at Sony had this to say about the European launch: "European consumers have shown that historically they don't mind [the delays], because they end up buying as many PlayStations, if not more, than the US and Japan..."

Wow. So when it finally come out they buy it, what else would he expect, boycotts and riots? I'm sure they don't mind at all... Doh!

(Via: Joystiq)

Remote Faceoff X360 vs PS3!

Ah, the first pic of the button intense PS3 remote (more pics here), aside from being super confusing and really dark, it is sportin' Bluetooth and is about 4 inches to long from the looks of the pic. Pictured below is the two 360 remotes, the small "Media" remote came at launch with the Premium 360, and I gotta say I couldn't live without it now. I stream all my music, and TV shows through my 360 and that lil' guy helps me skip through songs or scenes with ease. The full 360 remote can be had for a mere $30 and can probably controller your TV too.




(Via: Engadget)

Sprint Gets Love From Motorola

Yes, Sprint has finally gotta the RAZR, originally launched for Cingular in November of 2004. So a mere two years later after everyone and their 5 year old has a RAZR, every major cell phone carrier in the US now carries the RAZR and its horrible infamous menu interface. Thanks but I'll stick with my feature (and UI) friendly Samsung A900 (Below).


(Via: Engadget)

True Fans...

A - Banjo-Kazooie
B - Assassin's Creed
C - Motion-sensitive controllers
D - Making fun of the other two groups.

(Via: Joystiq)

Goldeneye: Source

Some cleaver modders are hard at work on a little project called Goldeneye: Source. This will be multiplayer game based off the Half-Life 2 engine, Steam. There was a video preview up on Youtube that has since been taken down by MGM, due to I guess movie matterial, lame. Right now I'm trying to put a new one up, I'll post it when I get it up.

(Via: GoldeneyeSource)

Mark Your Calendar: Day Against DRM (Oct. 3rd) Yeah, Today.

Defective By Design is/has organized a "Day Against DRM". DRM of course is the plaque of modern (digital) media death, and is the product of big business. While DRM in theory is good, in that you want to protect your hark work and created materials, when it steps over the boundaries (as it always does) and will not let end users manage their own content is when it becomes problematic. By manage I mean move your content (ie. music, and movies) to another device or computer. Let's say you buy all this music and movies on your desktop computer but now you want to move said content over to you notebook for a trip, you can't because of the DRM. Or how about your computer crashes, and you buy a new one, even if you backed everything up you be hard pressed to be able to re-license your content for you new computer. Now some companies do make it easier that others, Apple for instance, let's you "authorize" up to 5 computer at a time to share your purchased content throughout.

Now on the flipside, DRM to some degree is necessary. Without it there would be mass pirating of (digital) media, like there is now with CD's and DVD's. One thing the copyright holders do have to realize is that most of the time the people that pirate their content these (pirates, argh!) would/will not buy said content anyway. I'm not suggesting that this has any impact on the DRM debate but with all these companies claiming how much billions of dollars they lose due to piracy, they in fact are not losing half that amount. For instance if someone rents/borrows/downloads a movie with the soul intent of copying it they were never planning on purchasing it. So by that person copying their (copyright holder) movie, and not receiving any money for is a moot point because it is money they were not going to see anyway. Again, not to say that this justifies the copying in anyway, it does suggest that the record companies and movie studios aren't losing as much as they claim they are "losing".

(Via: DefectiveByDesign)

New Testing For Entrance Into The Winchester House.

You guys all better be "clean"...