WINDOWS 7 launched on a MacBook Pro!

And I quote:

"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on The Today Show (international viewers: The Today Show is a morning news and entertainment program that airs on NBC, a big TV network here) to unveil Windows 7. Call me crazy, but isn’t that a first-gen MacBook Pro in the background?"

MICROSOFT GOT PWNED!
JAJAJAJAJAJAJ They must be really pissed off right about now! Nice move NBC!

Here some pics...

 

 

Thanks for reading!




source : crunchgear

SunCat Solar Batteries: Well That Was Obvious

Rechargeable batteries can be a bit of a pain—you have to carry around an adapter, find an outlet, and even bend over to plug in the adapter. It's hell, really.

The SunCat batteries solve all of these issues while giving the environment a firm pat on the butt by wrapping standard NiMH rechargeable batteries (1.8V) in photo voltaic cells (1.5V). Seen in prototype form here, each battery becomes its own solar trickle charger, constantly topping off its power reserves without ever over charging.

Now if only Duracell, Energizer or some other major manufacturer could swoop in and mass product this idea...

10 Things you need to know about the new Apple products.

1. iMacs get next-gen processors
The most important upgrade to iMacs is that they'll now support Intel Core i5 and i7 processors for prices starting at $1500. You can buy a Core 2 Duo for less, but...I mean...really?

2. The iMac is a cheap monitor, by Apple's standards
A 30-inch Cinema Display will still run you $1,800 while a new 27-inch iMac starts at $1700. Oh, and now the iMac can work simply as a monitor through its mini DisplayPort, too.

3. Apple sees the Mac Mini as a server, not an HTPC, Home Theather PC
Apple may have given the Mac Mini a slight spec boost and the option to load Leopard Server, but it still missing the critical feature it needs to be a competitive home theater PC—the HDMI port.

4. New metal remote looks like an iPod design reject
For those who couldn't stand the humiliation of using a white, plastic remote with their black-and-silver iMac, there's a remote for that.

5. Replaceable batteries are dead in Apple's entire laptop line
The trusty old white MacBook was holding out, battling designers' attempts to replace its swappable battery with a longer-life non-swappable version you see in every other modern Apple laptop. Today, it lost that battle.

6. Apple still hates buttons
The multitouch Magic Mouse has risen over the Mighty Mouse's corpse

7. Jobs' polycarbonate MacBook must have slipped off his lap
Not only is Apple keeping the white MacBook around, they've added a non-slip rubber bottom in what may be the most aggressive design change since May 16, 2006, when the model original launched.

8. Time Capsules should be 60% less frustrating
Anyone who's grown tired of the ridiculously slow experience of interfacing with the Time Capsule, know that Time Capsules have seen a tacit spec boost promising to make systems "60 percent faster than before."

9. Jonathan Ive Could Still Sell a Ketchup Popsicle to a Fanboy in White Gloves
Also of note, sales on Hanes midnight blue tees are going through the roof, and big muscles don't make you look dumb so long as you speak with an Essex-region English accent.

10. No, the Nook is NOT an Apple Product
But it's about a bajillion times closer than the Kindle.

WinX DVD Free for a limited time!!

Windows only: WinX DVD Author is a shareware application that converts and burns most popular video formats directly to DVD, and it's available for free during this month.

Specifically, WinX DVD Author supports loads of video formats from the common to the more obscure, including AVI, ASF, WMV, MPEG, MP4, MOV, RM, RMVB, XviD, DivX, H.264, OGG, QT, FLV, and more. The app supports customizing your own DVD title and chapter menus with background images, music, title text, and more, supports trimming videos, and can burn to both 16:9 HD widescreen or 4:3 standard def.

Meanwhile, the same company's DVD Ripping application, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum is also free this month (normally $25). Like DVD Author, Ripper supports tons of supported source DVDs and outputs to quite a few formats.

WinX DVD Author would normally set you back $30, Ripper $25, but both are free downloads during October, Windows only. (They even support Windows 7 32- and 64-bit).


WinX DVD Author
WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Apple to announce new products Today

(YESTERDAYS post & UPDATE)

Dan Lyons vague tease of new Apple gear coming out tomorrow with a pretty specific list of things he's apparently heard, including new iMacs and plastic MacBooks, Mac Minis including one that runs OS X Server, a new multitouch "Magic Mouse" (ha!) and some sort of multitouch desktop trackpad accessory.

Lets see what happens tomorrow morning -- at this point we're half expecting a tablet, a pony, and some sort of multitouch waffle maker as well.


UPDATE! today 10/20/2009

Today could be a big Apple day. John Gruber and Dan Lyons (look them up) both think that we might just see a ton of new Apple products today. Exciting, I know. These new models would include new iMacs, plastic Macbooks, Mac Minis, 2nd generation Mighty Mouse that may be called the "Magic Mouse" like that one in the movie with a blue hat and red robes and a bunch of brooms... and some sort of multitouch desktop gadget thingy. All that is suppose to come out today even though Apple doesn’t have a press conference scheduled and Steve Jobs knows I don’t really want to work that hard today. Yeah, we talk.

Maybe Apple is going to start simply announcing its products the good ol’ fashion way with a press release and a couple of images. I would vote for that.

As for the new products, anything is possible with Apple and we have hear a lot of rumors of new Macbooks, iMacs, and even for a new mouse. There’s a good chance we’ll see an updated product line soon enough, but I don’t think that day is today, they DO this kinds of things, remember? But I could be wrong. I’m only on my first can of coffee so far today.


IT'S HERE!!
New iMac and New MacBook!! (quick reviews)

THE IMAC
Built with the new unibody technique from it's little brothers, comes in two sizes, a 21.5 inch and a 27 inch screen. It has the same edge-to-edge screen as the MacBook Pro , a Core 2 Duo and (optional) new Core i5/i7 quad-core.

The screen is LED backlit like the Cinema Displays. The iMac has a new trick, its DisplayPort can turn it into a second screen, receiving video (but not audio) input from DVD players or a MacBook. It should be fine for watching Blu-rays on, via the port, via a separate player.

The larger chassis allowed Apple to do two main things over the previous generation's: Fit in 4 RAM modules, for a total of 16GB max memory, and increase the quality of sound using the both acoustics of the case and better components. There's a new SD card slot under the optical.



THE MACBOOK
The multitouch trackpad and LED backlighting feel like necessary catch-up—they're less like "Pro" add-ons than they are standard technologies, so it's good to see them included. Likewise, the spec upgrades basically are a little jolt: the processor jumps from 2.13GHz to 2.26 GHz, the HDD from 160GB to 250GB, while the 2GB of DDR2 RAM has been swapped for the same amount of slightly faster DDR3 memory. And in the same divisive trade the 13" MacBook Pro made a few months back, the old removable battery has been switched out for the non-replaceable 7-hour unit.

This is what people with first hand experience noticed:

• The glass trackpad is the same size as the Pro's, and noticeably bigger than last gen's.
• It feels bigger—like, fatter—than the last gen white Macbook
• Small visual cues in the cover have been tweaked to look more like the Pro line
• The uniformly white bezel makes the body look chunky
• Now that the base is just a flat piece of rubber, airflow seems like it could be an issue. [Ed. note: I mean, is rubber a good heatsink? It's more of an insulator, right?]
• The eight screws in the base complement the finish on the aluminum MacBook well; here, they stand out, and look kinda ugly
• The edges are curvier, but again, the whole think feels chubbier.





Thanks for reading.

Windows 7 vs Snow Leopard, which is faster?

Before you begin reading I want to say this review was not done by me. I could have but I am really lazy so I borrowed the results from Nick Saint over at Silicon Alley.

Although I didn't do the tests I have Windows 7 64-bit installed on my Mac, and I have used it. And I have only to say one thing to Microsoft... Thank you... yes, that is correct, Thank You. For realizing how much Vista sucked and deciding to fix it...

But that's not here nor there, back to the speed review. The guys over at SAI installed both systems on a a MacBook Pro using Boot Camp 3.0, and ran the tests. Here are Nick's results:

• Snow Leopard took much less time to start up and shut down.
• Snow Leopard was slightly better at converting songs into MP3s in iTunes.
• In a multi-tasking test, Windows was almost twice as slow completing two tasks at once. However, both involved Apple programs (iTunes and QuickTime), skewing the test somewhat.
• Windows 7 performed better in all graphics and gaming tests.

So? If you plan on using your computer for videogames, buy a great laptop with Windows 7. If you plan on doing everything else a Mac user does better than a PC... sorry, I got carried away... stick to Snow Leopard.




Thanks for reading.

Nook It and some competition.

An electronic reader called the Nook is set to be introduced by Barnes & Noble today, aiming to hurt Amazon's Kindle.

The Nook will costs $260, but includes an ability to lend digital books to friends and also to use wi-fi to download books. That puts it in a different league from the Kindle. I has a 6 inch monochrome E-Ink panel as a main display and a multitouch color LCD below it.

Barnes & Noble already sells digital books that can be read by notebooks, iPhones and Blackberry's, but the Nook will also be able to read a large number of Google books too.

Besides the tech improvements that Nook will supposedly bring over the Kindle, Barnes & Noble has another trick up its sleeve : its physical stores, where customers will probably be able to try out the Nook before purchasing.
The device will be sold in Barnes & Nobles stores and will also be available from nook.com.

The official Nook event starts today at 4 PM ET.



YESTERDAY. Spring Design announced Google Android E-Reader. Known as Alex it features a dual screen, removable SD card and Wi-Fi\3G network capabilities.
Why a dual screen? Spring Design CEO Dr. Priscilla Lu says that it allows users to read text easily on the 6 inch monochome screen, while allowing the user to browse multimedia information on the lower 3.5 inch LCD screen.
Spring Design, which is currently in discussion with various content providers, is expected to begin shipping the Alex device to selected strategic partners by the end of 2009.

And another company is doing a similar thing. Plastic Logic is launching an e-reader in January, promising a feather light device with the largest screen in the industry, a 8.5 x 11 inch screen. Aimed for the business user, it's to display newspapers, books ans supporting documents like PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel.


Thanks for reading.



source : tgdaily

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days Review

This is my first videogame review, please comment if you like it or not.

Kingdom Hearts (KH) series has a phenomenal success on the PS2, but when it comes to otter platforms, well.. it hasn't that good… Square Enix and Disney are giving it another try with 358/2, pronounced three, five, eight days over two… why not call it Roxas or KH 1.5…
Here's why, but its a SPOILER!!! So if you want to read it, rollover the box below and select between the lines to see the text. If you don't want to read it, just go to the paragraph below without passing over the white box with the mouse.


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The title means 358 days through the eyes of two. Now this game takes place during the time that Sora was asleep. In the beginning of KH2 you play through 1 week as Roxas. Since a normal year is 365 days when you subtract the week in the beginning of KH2 you get 358. Now the /2 part is what baffled many. It means that these 358 days are being experienced by Roxas and Xion. Though on the 357th day Xion dies. On the 359th day Roxas has quit the Org. XIII and is beginning the week before KH2. Because both Roxas and Xion were unconscious at some point during the game, the 358 days were not fully experienced by either of them, making the days almost split between the two of them.

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On with the REVIEW...

This is a interquel to the series. It's based on the story that happens between KH and KH2, and is parallel in story with Chain of Memories. This game is meant for KH fans, so if you haven't played the previous game, you'll be in WTF!? mode.

For a DS game the the graphics are impressive. It's a complete 3D game and the characters look pretty good. But lets remember that the DS is still limited when it comes to full 3D, so putting a PS2 experience in this hardware leaves it a bit rough around the edges. It looks great but I think the sprites of The World Ends With You (another Square Enix DS game) would have been great. It has some CG cutscenes but they look as if not compressed correctly.

The environments are the same as of the previous games, just made for the DS version, but still the same. Even the music is the same. I'm a big fan of the series but even I'm getting tired of them. A little of improvement would have been appreciated. If your looking for a brand new experience, this is not it.

The combat system is exactly as the other KH games, but a but closer to the original game, a little paced down. Limit Brakes have been added and the game is very challenging which is a plus. But its still has a "been there, done that" feeling.

The greatest addition to the series is the multiplayer game mode, where up to 4 player con join and play as any character of Organization XIII. It adds a lot to the game. Although the multiplayer is local, not online, it still gives it a lot boost. Yes I found some people who have the game and played a bit of multiplayer… shut up...

FINAL NOTE.
As a big Kingdom Hearts fan I highly recommend it to other fans who loved the other games in the series. But the repetition does get annoying, I hope they change this for future games, mainly the upcoming Birth by Sleep.



Thanks for reading!