Just because it's a product from Google, it doesn't mean it's a killer.
Before I wrote this entry, I browse through the internet and I see quite a few interesting perspective people have on Google's new product, Chrome. A lot of people think this will be the IE (Internet explorer) killer...But, will it?
Consider the amount of people in this world using Window, and IE is one of the core program coming with the default package. I just don't see how IE will be taken over anytime soon.
Like other browser, Netscape, Firefox, they have special features that targeted the market thus drawing those customer's attention. Does Chrome have any special features? (Afterall it's a beta, a lot of the features may be added/removed at the end :S)
I am no expert in internet technology, but seeing that so many ppl post about Chrome, I just want to share my thoughts.
Still waiting...404 error from http://www.google.com/chrome so far :S
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Facebook tracks users even when they're logged out, and without telling them
Facebook has confirmed findings of a CA security researcher that the social-networking site's Beacon ad service is more intrusive and stealthy than previously acknowledged, an admission that contradicts statements made previously by Facebook executives and representatives.Free IT resource
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Facebook, Beacon
Facebook's controversial Beacon ad system tracks users' off-Facebook activities even if those users are logged off from the social-networking site and have previously declined having their activities on specific external sites broadcast to their Facebook friends, a company spokesman said via e-mail over the weekend.
Although according to the spokesman Facebook does nothing with the data transmitted back to its servers in these cases and deletes it, the admission will probably fan the flames of the controversy engulfing Beacon, which has been criticized by privacy advocates.
The Facebook spokesman did not initially reply to a request for further explanation on how the Beacon action gets triggered if a user is logged off from Facebook, when the social-networking site's ability to track its users' activities should be inactive.
It's also unclear whether Facebook plans to modify Beacon so it doesn't track and report on the off-Facebook activities of logged-off users.
Beacon is a major part of the Facebook Ads platform that Facebook introduced with much fanfare several weeks ago. Beacon tracks certain activities of Facebook users on more than 40 participating Web sites, including those of Blockbuster and Fandango, and reports those activities to the users' set of Facebook friends, unless told not to do so.
Off-Facebook activities that can be broadcast to one's Facebook friends include purchasing computer parts online, signing up for a service and including an item on a wish list.
The program has been blasted by groups such as MoveOn.org and by individual users who have unwittingly broadcast information about recent purchases and other Web activities to their Facebook friends. This has led to some embarrassing situations, such as blowing the surprise of holiday presents.
On Thursday night, Facebook tweaked Beacon to make its workings more explicit to Facebook users and to make it easier to nix broadcast messages and opt out of having activities tracked on specific Web sites. Facebook didn't go all the way to providing a general opt-out option for the entire Beacon program, as some had hoped.
Then on Friday, just hours after Facebook had scored some points with its modifications to Beacon, Stefan Berteau, senior research engineer at CA's Threat Research Group, wrote in a note about Beacon's until-then unknown ability to monitor logged-off users' activities and send the data back to Facebook.
Users aren't informed that data on their activities at these sites is flowing back to Facebook, nor given the option to block that information from being transmitted, according to Berteau.
If users have ever checked the option for Facebook to "remember me" -- which saves users from having to log on to the site upon every return to it -- Facebook can tie their activities on third-party Beacon sites directly to them, even if they're logged off and have opted out of the broadcast. If they have never chosen this option, the information still flows back to Facebook, although without it being tied to their Facebook ID, according to Berteau.
Facebook's admission over the weekend contradicts previous statements from the company regarding this issue. For example, in e-mail correspondence with Facebook's privacy department, Berteau was told, among other things, that "as long as you are logged out of Facebook, no actions you have taken on other websites can be sent to Facebook."
A similar statement was made by a high-ranking Facebook official in an interview with The New York Times published Thursday.
"If I buy tickets on Fandango, and decline to publish the purchase to my friends on Facebook, does Facebook still receive the information about my purchase?," a Times reporter asked Chamath Palihapitiya, Facebook's vice president of product marketing and operations at Facebook
"Absolutely not. One of the things we are still trying to do is dispel a lot of misinformation that is being propagated unnecessarily," Palihapitiya replied.
Computers and Technology
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The Legend of Heroes VI - Sora no Kiseki
The Legend of Heroes VI - Sora no Kiseki is a game of a series that's been developed by Nihon Falcom Corporation with a history dating back with the Ys series. To many Japanese gamers, Legend of Heroes VI is a highly rated RPG game for PC which involves strategical setups of characters and movements. Its uniqueness in combat and sidequest system was extremely popular that some rated it as good as the Final Fantasy series.This series of game is published in two titles, namely the first chapter, second chapter. The third title (the 3rd - third chapter) was released on June 28, 2007, and features additional main characters apart from the returning ones.
(Up Grade you computer components at Canada Computer Parts to play better graphic PC games)
This game's constructed by a series of maps that make up the world. Generally maps are made up mainly of two types: field maps and town maps. Most maps are 3D rotatable. Field maps consists of mainly monster roaming around, which on touch will engage into combat screen. The background field for the battles will be determined by where the battle was engaged. These field maps often contain treasure chests that may just lie around or hidden, requiring the player to rotate their screen or see a "!" mark which indicates an object. Town maps are more loaded with NPCs and shops. Shops generally have their own buildings and logo on the minimap which can be toggled within the town.
Players start off in the district of Rolent and travel around the world as the game progresses. The game has a main storyline and heaps of sidequests that can be started at the Bracer's guild or just by talking to NPCs. Sidequests are well-rewarded and will assist in the main story severely.
Combat is held in a separate screen with square tiles (default camera position at 45degrees to the squares). Each character and enemy takes their turn when their AT bar is full (on the left of combat screen). Options for characters are: Move, Attack, Arts, Craft, Item and Retreat. You are allowed to move before you do any other action except retreat, but all other actions will terminate the turn immediately after.
* Move: allows the character to go onto a different tile then the one he/she is current on.
* Attack: uses equipped weapon to deal damage to the enemy. Different weapons have different ranges and area of effect.
* Arts: different spells that become available basing on the combination of quartz you have equipped on that character's orbment. Casting requires EP and takes time to cast; its also possible to have the cast cancelled by special attacks.
* Craft: these are the character's individual special skills. They are unique to each character and require CP to use. However they are instant and take place immediately.
* S-Craft: A special type of craft that's categorised within it. When the character's CP reaches at least 100, the character's set "special" can be triggered on the press of a button that depends on the character's slot. After the current turn has finished, the character that was triggered will perform their special straight away, thus burning up his AT bar again. However it should be noted that the character can take their turn, then activate their S-craft straight after. Thus proving a useful tool for urgent needs.
Combat terminates when all enemies are destroyed and having your whole party wiped out will normally result in gameover, with a few exceptions in events.
The game takes place in Liberl Kingdom, 10 years after the great invasion of Erebonian Empire from the north. Currently it is being governed by the old queen Alicia II and restored back to its peaceful state before the war. Currently the kingdom thrives of materials and high technology which is eyed closely by the Erebonian Empire.
The main character is Estelle Bright, daughter of Cassius Bright who is a legend within the kingdom. During the great war, Erebonian managed to break their way through to the capital city. Here, under the direction and counter-attack planned by Cassius, Liberl launched a retaliation that forced the opponent to retreat back to the borders within a few weeks. After the war, Cassius gave up his sword and left the army, joining the Bracer's guild and enhancing it to its glory state and was given the S ranking.
Estelle is completely ignorant of her father's past and history but settles comfortably in the house at Rolant. When she was at a young age, her father was assaulted by a young child of amazing combat abilities but loses his memory in the fight and becomes adopted by Cassius. This child was named Joshua Bright and is the main male character of the story. From there Estelle was taught the usage of staff and starts off the story on the day when she is going to join the Bracer's guild with Joshua.
The story progresses as normal Bracer's guild quests unveiling the dark side of the government, a faction of the army that decides to overthrow the old queen. This eventually lead to the exploration of the ancient facilities in the Liberl Kingdom... and it turns out that the manager of the army was just being used by a mastermind who's an adept at controlling people's minds. This also leads on to the second story, with Joshua's past unveiling in the ending.
Computers and Technology
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is the thirteenth game in Nintendo's critically acclaimed The Legend of Zelda video game series. It is an action-adventure game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Wii and GameCube video game consoles.Originally planned for release in November 2005, Twilight Princess was delayed by Nintendo so the developers could add more content and refine the game. The Wii version was released on the dates of the Wii launch, November 19, 2006, (North America) and across December 2006 (Japan, Europe, and Australia), making Twilight Princess the first Zelda game to debut at the launch of a Nintendo console. The GameCube version was released in December 2006, and was the last Nintendo-published game for the console. Twilight Princess was called The Wind Waker 2 during its early internal development, but was changed as development progressed, with the title officially announced in E3 2005.
Twilight Princess is the first game in The Legend of Zelda series to be rated T by the ESRB for fantasy violence and animated blood. The story focuses on the hero Link trying to prevent Hyrule from being engulfed by a corrupted parallel dimension, the Twilight Realm. To do this, he takes the forms of both a human and a wolf and has the help of a mysterious creature named Midna. The game takes place many decades after Majora's Mask, on the timeline created after the events of Ocarina of Time.
The game met with both commercial and critical success. It has sold 4.52 million copies on the Wii as of March 31, 2008, and 1.32 million on the GameCube as of March 31, 2007, and received much praise from reviewers, with some considering Twilight Princess the greatest Zelda game ever released.
Twilight Princess is an action-adventure game that focuses on exploring regions and collecting items to advance the storyline. The basic gameplay from the 3D Zelda games is retained, including actions such as walking, running, attacking, defending, and automatic jumping at ledges. The game features several dungeons, which are large enclosed areas where the protagonist Link battles enemies, collects items, and solves puzzles to progress to the boss.
Link primarily uses a sword and shield in combat. Other weapons commonly used by Link include a bow and arrow, a boomerang, bombs, and a grappling hook. As with the other 3D Zelda games, a "lock-on" mechanism allows Link to stay aimed on an enemy while strafing around them. To traverse the map, Link can teleport to pre-specified points on the map or ride a horse, whose name is Epona by default.
Link's wolf form can pick up unique smells; a horizontal scent trail is shown here, leading Link to his objective.
Link's wolf form can pick up unique smells; a horizontal scent trail is shown here, leading Link to his objective.
Link can transform into an alternate form, a wolf, when entering the Twilight Realm, a void which corrupted parts of Hyrule.[15] As a wolf, Link moves quickly, attacks with his fangs, and finds and digs holes to create new passages and uncover buried items. He also carries Midna, a small imp-like creature who gives hints, uses an energy field to attack enemies, and helps Link jump longer distances. Link can also communicate with animals as a wolf, aiding him in gathering useful information, and has an improved sense of smell, allowing him to follow trails left by certain characters in the game or to obtain the scent of objects such as medicine or fish. His sense of smell is also the only way players are able to see wandering spirits and hunt for ghosts named Poes, which can neither be seen (except for the lanterns they carry) or attacked without the wolf form's ability of smell.
The Wii version of the game has a control system based on the Wii Remote and the Wii Nunchuk's motion sensors. The built-in speaker on the remote emits sounds such as the bowstring of the Hero's Bow being drawn and released, Midna's laugh when using Wolf Link to jump from platforms with Midna's help, and the "Zelda chime" when discovering secrets. If the Wii Remote's volume is decreased to zero, these sounds are emitted from the television's speakers instead. The GameCube versions have two major control scheme differences, free camera control and being able to equip only two items because one button is used to call Midna if the player is in need of help.
The enemy's artificial intelligence (AI) in Twilight Princess is more advanced than in The Wind Waker. Enemies react to defeated companions and to arrows or slingshot pellets that pass by. The AI can also detect Link from further distance than in Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and The Wind Waker.
There is no extensive voice acting in the game. The only character with spoken dialogue is Midna, who employs an unintelligible fictional language. Other characters laugh, scream, and make other noises. In conversations, Link remains silent — except for grunts when attacking and being hit and gasping slightly at a surprising sight — and his responses are implied by nods and facial expressions similar to previous installments in the series.
Computers and Technology
Monday, July 28, 2008
Seagate laptop Notebook Hard drive
Momentus 7200.2 delivers up to 160GB of capacity using perpendicular recording technology and combines a fast Serial ATA 3.0 Gbit/second interface with 7200-RPM spin speed to enable the highest- performance laptops ever. The hard drive is also offered with an optional free-fall sensor to help prevent drive damage and data loss upon impact if a laptop PC is dropped. The sensor works by detecting any changes in acceleration equal to the force of gravity, then parking the head off the disc to prevent contact with the platter in a free fall of as little as 8 inches.
Momentus 7200.2, Seagate's second-generation 7200-RPM notebook drive, is designed for a wide range of systems including mainstream notebook PCs, workstations, RAID enclosures, and small form factor desktop PCs. Offered in 80GB, 100GB, 120GB and 160GB capacities, the 2.5-inch drive also is perfect for users looking to upgrade their notebooks to deliver true desktop PC performance.
The entire Momentus series is built tough to withstand up to 900 Gs of non-operating shock and 350 Gs of operating shock to protect drive data, making them ideal for systems that are subject to rough handling or high levels of vibration. The hard drives are also lean on power consumption, allowing notebook users to work longer between battery charges, and are virtually inaudible thanks to Seagate's innovative SoftSonic™ fluid-dynamic bearing motors and QuietStep™ ramp load technology.
Computers and Technology
Cheap Wireless for your Xbox360
This project will help you change a cheap wireless router into a wireless receiver for your Xbox 360. The total cost of this project can be as low as twenty or thirty dollars, compared to the one hundred dollars Microsoft wants for their little wireless dongle.
* This tutorial assumes you already have a wireless router to send out wireless access to the Xbox 360.
Parts Needed:
* Xbox 360, any version
* Three Feet or more of Cat 5e Cable (Ethernet Cable)
* Wireless Router
* DD-WRT firmware
With the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 having built in wireless access, it has always been shameful to tell others I know that the Xbox 360 doesn’t have the same feature. If the inexpensive Nintendo Wii can have it built in, why can’t the Xbox 360?
Well with a change of the firmware on a vast variety of wireless routers, we can enable a feature that much more expensive wireless routers have by default: becoming a wireless receiver.
Before we begin, an explanation of the DD-WRT firmware is needed.
From the DD-WRT Wiki:
DD-WRT is a third party developed firmware released under the terms of the GPL for many 802.11g wireless routers based on a Broadcom chip reference design.
In the most basic of terms, DD-WRT replaces the router’s administration software, and allows access to a variety of different advanced features.
Purchasing the Proper Wireless Router
So first we will need to acquire a wireless router that allows use of this software. You can pick one up from eBay for around twenty or thirty dollars. Even better, you can purchase routers that already have the DD-WRT firmware installed, so if you are not into going the more advanced route, it is all set for you. These routers sometimes cost a little more as they sometimes come with a 1GB SD memory card inside, allowing you to use the router almost like a mini-server. That is overkill for what we need, but if you check out the router compatibility list for DD-WRT, you can surely find a router that will suit your needs.
Please note that one of the cheapest and most famous linksys router around works perfectly for this and can be found for less than $35 at tiger direct.
I suggest purchasing a router of the same brand you are already using to send out your Internet signal, but if that isn’t possible, you might come across issues in getting the two wireless routers to talk to each other later on. I have used a variety of different brands and have yet to have any issues.
Installing DD-WRT
Once you have the router, we can begin the next step. Download DD-WRT from their website. Make sure you are using the right version for your wireless router, as stated in the DD-WRT version required list on the supported devices page.
The next step can look incredibly complicated and confusing, but if you spend a little bit of time reading the DD-WRT wiki, they have organized the information rather well.
A word of warning though. If you have never updated the firmware on a device before, you may not want to proceed with this project. Incorrect flashing procedure can cause your newly purchased router to no longer function.
I won’t go over all the installation instructions here, as it can be quite different depending on which router you have purchased. Check out the installation instructions on the DD-WRT wiki. They also give you tips on what you can do if the installation goes wrong.
Thankfully, the installation is usually quite easy, as most wireless routers have a system built in for upgrading the firmware, and this system can be used to install DD-WRT.
Setting the Router as a Receiver
Using your Ethernet cable, connect your computer to the router that is using the DD-WRT software. Browse to 192.168.1.1 using a web browser. It will ask for a user name and password. The user name will be root and the password will be admin. If you are using an older version of the DD-WRT software, you may not need to enter a user name.
Once you are in the DD-WRT administration panel, you will be able to change settings. What we need to do is change the router into what is known as client mode wireless. This will allow the router to receive Internet signal from whatever other wireless router you are using and share it out through the Ethernet ports on the back.
Again, this can be quite a lengthy list of instructions, and is totally dependent on your current network configuration, but the DD-WRT wiki to the rescue again, with a great list of tips, tricks, and numbered instructions on how to get it all to work.
The basic idea though is to get the DD-WRT router to get an IP address from your other wireless router connected to the Internet and then bridge that connection over to the devices we want to connect to the Internet.
Once you have gone through all the steps, your computer should be able to get Internet from the DD-WRT router. If you have not been able to get Internet access, DD-WRT has a great forum filled with knowledgeable people that are willing to help you out.
Connecting to the Xbox 360
If you have access to the Internet on your computer, then it is time to plug the connection into your Xbox 360. Move the DD-WRT router next to your Xbox 360, connect the Ethernet cable from the router to your Xbox 360’s Ethernet port.
Turn on your Xbox 360, and it should receive a connection. If you have made it to this stage then pat yourself on the back. You now have hopefully saved yourself enough to buy a few games from the Xbox 360 Marketplace, and have the ability to connect to the service and download them.
This same trick can be used to enable other devices to have a wireless connection, including a second computer somewhere in the house that you can’t easily put a wire to. I know this post will require a fair bit of reading on your part, but once it is complete, it is a great feeling. I spent less than forty dollars on the project, a savings of around sixty dollars plus tax, which I was then able to put into getting Zuma and a few other games for myself and the wife.
And if you’re not the DIY kind of person, you can always buy the Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Game Adapter, which is a lot cheaper than Microsoft’s original xbox 360 wireless dongle.
Computers and Technology
* This tutorial assumes you already have a wireless router to send out wireless access to the Xbox 360.
Parts Needed:
* Xbox 360, any version
* Three Feet or more of Cat 5e Cable (Ethernet Cable)
* Wireless Router
* DD-WRT firmware
With the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation 3 having built in wireless access, it has always been shameful to tell others I know that the Xbox 360 doesn’t have the same feature. If the inexpensive Nintendo Wii can have it built in, why can’t the Xbox 360?
Well with a change of the firmware on a vast variety of wireless routers, we can enable a feature that much more expensive wireless routers have by default: becoming a wireless receiver.
Before we begin, an explanation of the DD-WRT firmware is needed.
From the DD-WRT Wiki:
DD-WRT is a third party developed firmware released under the terms of the GPL for many 802.11g wireless routers based on a Broadcom chip reference design.
In the most basic of terms, DD-WRT replaces the router’s administration software, and allows access to a variety of different advanced features.
Purchasing the Proper Wireless Router
So first we will need to acquire a wireless router that allows use of this software. You can pick one up from eBay for around twenty or thirty dollars. Even better, you can purchase routers that already have the DD-WRT firmware installed, so if you are not into going the more advanced route, it is all set for you. These routers sometimes cost a little more as they sometimes come with a 1GB SD memory card inside, allowing you to use the router almost like a mini-server. That is overkill for what we need, but if you check out the router compatibility list for DD-WRT, you can surely find a router that will suit your needs.
Please note that one of the cheapest and most famous linksys router around works perfectly for this and can be found for less than $35 at tiger direct.
I suggest purchasing a router of the same brand you are already using to send out your Internet signal, but if that isn’t possible, you might come across issues in getting the two wireless routers to talk to each other later on. I have used a variety of different brands and have yet to have any issues.
Installing DD-WRT
Once you have the router, we can begin the next step. Download DD-WRT from their website. Make sure you are using the right version for your wireless router, as stated in the DD-WRT version required list on the supported devices page.
The next step can look incredibly complicated and confusing, but if you spend a little bit of time reading the DD-WRT wiki, they have organized the information rather well.
A word of warning though. If you have never updated the firmware on a device before, you may not want to proceed with this project. Incorrect flashing procedure can cause your newly purchased router to no longer function.
I won’t go over all the installation instructions here, as it can be quite different depending on which router you have purchased. Check out the installation instructions on the DD-WRT wiki. They also give you tips on what you can do if the installation goes wrong.
Thankfully, the installation is usually quite easy, as most wireless routers have a system built in for upgrading the firmware, and this system can be used to install DD-WRT.
Setting the Router as a Receiver
Using your Ethernet cable, connect your computer to the router that is using the DD-WRT software. Browse to 192.168.1.1 using a web browser. It will ask for a user name and password. The user name will be root and the password will be admin. If you are using an older version of the DD-WRT software, you may not need to enter a user name.
Once you are in the DD-WRT administration panel, you will be able to change settings. What we need to do is change the router into what is known as client mode wireless. This will allow the router to receive Internet signal from whatever other wireless router you are using and share it out through the Ethernet ports on the back.
Again, this can be quite a lengthy list of instructions, and is totally dependent on your current network configuration, but the DD-WRT wiki to the rescue again, with a great list of tips, tricks, and numbered instructions on how to get it all to work.
The basic idea though is to get the DD-WRT router to get an IP address from your other wireless router connected to the Internet and then bridge that connection over to the devices we want to connect to the Internet.
Once you have gone through all the steps, your computer should be able to get Internet from the DD-WRT router. If you have not been able to get Internet access, DD-WRT has a great forum filled with knowledgeable people that are willing to help you out.
Connecting to the Xbox 360
If you have access to the Internet on your computer, then it is time to plug the connection into your Xbox 360. Move the DD-WRT router next to your Xbox 360, connect the Ethernet cable from the router to your Xbox 360’s Ethernet port.
Turn on your Xbox 360, and it should receive a connection. If you have made it to this stage then pat yourself on the back. You now have hopefully saved yourself enough to buy a few games from the Xbox 360 Marketplace, and have the ability to connect to the service and download them.
This same trick can be used to enable other devices to have a wireless connection, including a second computer somewhere in the house that you can’t easily put a wire to. I know this post will require a fair bit of reading on your part, but once it is complete, it is a great feeling. I spent less than forty dollars on the project, a savings of around sixty dollars plus tax, which I was then able to put into getting Zuma and a few other games for myself and the wife.
And if you’re not the DIY kind of person, you can always buy the Linksys WGA54G Wireless-G Game Adapter, which is a lot cheaper than Microsoft’s original xbox 360 wireless dongle.
Computers and Technology
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Get a iPhone or iTouch?
The world was at the hands of Steve Jobs when iPhone was released to the public in June. Apple devotees literally camped out of Apple stores all over the country to get a first hand glimpse and experience of what an iPhone really is. With all those rave predictions on how good the iPhone is, we forgot that it could actually make some calls. We wished there would be something like that without the phone function so that we don’t have to be tied up with phone contracts and all. Our wish was granted and man, it was fast! Less than three months after the release of iPhone, iTouch was introduced to the public. The initial price of these products was at $299 for 8GB and $399 for 16GB.
So now we have two cool gadgets almost identical with each other. But there are differences that you should know about. If you don’t have either of the gadgets, read on. If you have either one of these gadgets, read what you missed. If you have both gadgets, then definitely, you’re an Apple Geek.
Physical Appearance – The height and width of iPhone and iTouch are the same. You’ll still have that bar soap type appearance that iPhone has. iPhone has three physical controls: the power button, the home button, and lastly the volume control for you music and ear piece for accepting calls. The new iTouch will only have two of these functions. There will be no volume control, so you have to do it within the gadget. There’s also the dock for the earphone and dock to sync your files or to charge your device. In terms of thickness, iTouch is thinner.
Functionality – Obviously, iTouch doesn’t have any functionality to call. But the interface has really changed in terms of the buttons. The only ones left are the browser, music, YouTube, video, library, contacts, to do list. You will also have the ability to purchase songs and albums you really love using the Wifi access for iTunes. That’s something iPhone can’t offer. You still need to sync the music you have in your computer. For whatever reason you don’t have a computer, iPhone will not work for you if you want to download some music.
Browser - Safari works the same in both gadgets. It still can’t support Flash or Java. But we’re hoping that Ajax or those cool web based programs will eventually flourish in Safari.
Music – Can’t really tell the difference. But if you compare them with the iPods, the sound of the iPods is better than these two gadgets.
Video – iTouch tends to be darker compared to iPhone. I think it’s an upgrade compared to iPhone. When you’re using the iPhone for movies, it’s brighter compared to iTouch. iTouch’s darker image makes it even clearer compared to the images projected by iPhone.
Picture – iTouch is clearer. No doubt about it.
Computers and Technology
What? Could 80G PS3 drop to $399?
Despite Sony officials were denying recent price drop rumors stating that the company had no immediate plans for one, the console maker today officially confirmed it has cut the price of its 60GB model of the PlayStation 3 by $100, b
ringing it down to a $499 price point – only $20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft's Xbox 360 but twice the price of Nintendo's Wii console.
In addition to the much needed price drop, Sony announced that a new PlayStation 3 model with an 80GB hard drive, packed in with a full version of racing game MotorStorm, is expected to hit retail shelves in August for $599.
"Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum," Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview. "We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better."
The PlayStation 3 has lagged in sales behind rival consoles since its launch. Nonetheless, Sony’s move comes as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is inundated with reports of widespread product failures, allowing Sony a good chance to gain customers. Microsoft announced last week that it would extend the 360's warranty to 3 years, spending up to $1.15 billion to repair the machines.
Computers and Technology
ringing it down to a $499 price point – only $20 more than the most expensive version of Microsoft's Xbox 360 but twice the price of Nintendo's Wii console.In addition to the much needed price drop, Sony announced that a new PlayStation 3 model with an 80GB hard drive, packed in with a full version of racing game MotorStorm, is expected to hit retail shelves in August for $599.
"Our initial expectation is that sales should double at a minimum," Jack Tretton, chief executive of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said in an interview. "We've gotten our production issues behind us on the PlayStation 3, reaching a position to pass on the savings to consumers, and our attitude is the sooner the better."
The PlayStation 3 has lagged in sales behind rival consoles since its launch. Nonetheless, Sony’s move comes as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is inundated with reports of widespread product failures, allowing Sony a good chance to gain customers. Microsoft announced last week that it would extend the 360's warranty to 3 years, spending up to $1.15 billion to repair the machines.
Computers and Technology
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
10 reasons to hate the 3G iPhone
#1 No upgrade to the camera
The camera in the first-gen iPhone was only two megapixels with no flash. "Fair enough," I thought… "it's a first-gen product. They have to leave themselves room to move for the upgrade they'll surely put into the next-generation iPhone." No such luck. The camera in the iPhone 3G is exactly the same as the first-gen one. Still stuck at two megapixels. Still unable to cope in low-light and still no flash. Oh, and there's no video recording capability either, even though this has been found on phones for the last five years or so.
#2 No Adobe Flash support
Undeniably, the iPhone has the best web browser of any phone on the market. But when you hit a web page with Adobe Flash in it, you'll just get an empty space with a 'missing plugin' icon. Apple says Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone, but in reality, it's probably more to do with Apple wanting to promote its competing web app development technology, Sproutcore.
Apple realises the 'mobile web' is at a tipping point… if it can get enough momentum behind developers coding sites specifically for the iPhone, it will help sales of the iPhone along in the long term. (That said, unlike Flash, Sproutcore is an open standard that theoretically works in any web browser that supports Javascript, so it could be widely supported by all handset makers if their phone web browsers got better.)
#3 No instant messaging
Despite the fact that the iPhone comes with unlimited data plans (in the US at least; Australian plans haven't yet been revealed) Apple has hobbled the iPhone's ability to do instant messaging.
Rather than sending instant messages over the internet to friends, the iPhone sends them by SMS. Since Apple has great instant messaging software for Mac called iChat, this is undoubtedly a concession to phone companies. SMS is widely considered to be the most expensive data service in the world, with each message only 165 characters lo
ng but charged by phone companies at around 20c per message. Multiplied out, that equates to 1.3 million dollars per gigabyte of SMSes. (By comparison, Aussie mobile network Three offers 1GB of high speed internet usage for $15.)
Oh yeah, and forget about chatting to someone who's sitting at a computer using the iPhone. Heaven forbid you might want to chat to someone using MSN/Windows Live Chat, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, Facebook or any of the other popular chat protocols.
Hopefully, this ludicrous situation will be plugged by third-party application developers who will develop internet-based chat clients for iPhone. However, Apple has said that it will not allow applications to run in the background on the iPhone; instead, the developers must run an internet-based service, send a message to Apple servers, which will then send a message to the iPhone to alert the user to open the app. Yes, it may save battery life on the iPhone, but no, it's not exactly convenient.
On a Blackberry, the Blackberry Messenger just sits quietly in the background. If your phone is on, so is Blackberry Messenger. It's 100% reliable. It doesn't send messages using a stupid method like SMS. It uses the Blackberry's unlimited internet access. And yes, Blackberries do have good battery life.
#4 Totally impractical for international travel
The iPhone downloads full emails, attachments and all, when you view them on the iPhone. If someone sends you an email with several megabytes of photos attached, that's how much data has to be downloaded by the iPhone. That's fine if you're in your home country and have an unlimited data plan. But go to another country and see how much it costs you — you can expect to pay up to $20 per megabyte. Your roaming charges will soon be running into hundreds of dollars.
Not to harp on about the Blackberry, but when you roam with one of them, it's quite cheap, because the Blackberry servers downscale images to perfectly fit the size of the Blackberry screen before sending them — a huge saving in data transfer charges, and messages are heavily compressed before transmission, etc. In fact, even heavy Blackberry users may be surprised to learn that they use less than 5MB of data per month.
#5 Not compatible with Bluetooth car kits or headphones
Apple has Bluetooth wireless in the iPhone, but it only works with a handful of wireless headsets. Forget talking handsfree on Bluetooth car kits or using the iPhone with stereo Bluetooth headphones. You could expect those sorts of features from the world's leading music player, but not the iP… oh, wait.
Considering Apple wants the world to take the iPhone seriously for its phone capabilities, it's truly incredible that it has hobbled the Bluetooth audio capability so much. Could it be because it wants to make money from car equipment manufacturers who build an iPod dock connector into their car stereos?
Caveat: this comment is based on what we know about pre-release versions of the iPhone 2.0 software. It's possible Apple will have fixed this in the release version of the iPhone 3G.
#6 No cut and paste
This one is truly hard to understand. Apple brings out one of the world's most advanced smartphones in terms of user interface, and somehow forgets to put in cut and paste... probably the only smartphone on the market that doesn't have it. The mind boggles. (Also something that Apple could conceivably fix by the time the iPhone 3G is released… here's hoping.)
#7 Non user-replaceable battery
It's a sad fact about rechargeable batteries: the first time you recharge them, their maximum capacity degrades. After a few hundred recharges, their capacity is down to something like half their original capacity. Normally, this is annoying, but manageable — you just swap the battery out for a new one, or get a second battery and swap between the two of them until the first battery is toast.
Not so with the iPhone. Its battery is sealed up tightly inside the nearly-impossible-to-pry-open casing (believe me, I've taken the back off an iPhone and that sucker is not meant to come apart… Apple must be replacing the casing of iPhones it services). Apple will then install the battery for you (in the US it costs $US85.95) and post it back to you. Oh, and you can pay them extra $US30 for the privilege of renting another phone from them to use in the meantime.
Not only is this massively inconvenient, it's a cunning attempt by Apple to get people to simply buy a new iPhone when the battery finally dies. People will be asking themselves… "do I pay $105.95 to get my old iPhone battery fixed, or do I pay $199.00 to buy the latest and greatest model of iPhone?" I know which one I'd pick, and I bet that's central to Apple's business plan.
#8 No MMS
So you've snapped a nice photo on your iPhone and you want to send it to a friend? You'd better hope they have email on their phone, because that's the only way you're going to be able to send it to them with the iPhone. For some reason, despite its ridiculous decision to force all instant messaging through SMS, Apple has totally left out MMS (picture/video SMSes) from the iPhone.
#9 No turn-by-turn navigation
Despite building a GPS satellite navigation receiver into the iPhone, Apple has stopped short of offering voiced, turn-by-turn navigation into the device. Yes, you can plot directions from your current position to somewhere else, and you can watch yourself as a little dot on the map, but have you ever tried doing that in a car? I have … on my Blackberry. I nearly crashed.
If you're thinking I'm being a bit overly critical (isn't it a "nice to have" feature than a necessity?) compare Apple to Nokia, which has been offering voiced, 3D, turn-by-turn navigation on its phones for a couple of years now. Having a Nokia N78 saved my bacon recently when I realised I was totally lost and didn't have a street directory with me. I also had a Blackberry with me that has 2D map routing similar to what's on the Blackberry, and it sucked, because it was like reading a map constantly while driving.
#10 Stunning hypocrisy
At Apple's last presentation on the iPhone (March 6th 2008), Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller ridiculed market leader Blackberry for the complexity of its push email service, pointing out that your messages have to pass through a RIM messaging server and a network operations centre before they're sent out to your phone. Plus you have to pay extra for the service.
With the iPhone 3G, Apple introduces MobileMe, a service that … passes your email through an Apple messaging server before it is sent through to your phone. And it costs $AUD119 per year extra. Spot any similarity with the Blackberry business model?
It seems stunningly hypocritical for Apple's to criticise the technology of the market leader in the US smartphone space, then adopt the same technologies in its own product. On the other hand, I'm glad it has… but I'm flabbergasted at Apple's audacity in working on a service while at the very same moment criticising others for doing it.
Computers and Technology
The camera in the first-gen iPhone was only two megapixels with no flash. "Fair enough," I thought… "it's a first-gen product. They have to leave themselves room to move for the upgrade they'll surely put into the next-generation iPhone." No such luck. The camera in the iPhone 3G is exactly the same as the first-gen one. Still stuck at two megapixels. Still unable to cope in low-light and still no flash. Oh, and there's no video recording capability either, even though this has been found on phones for the last five years or so.
#2 No Adobe Flash support
Undeniably, the iPhone has the best web browser of any phone on the market. But when you hit a web page with Adobe Flash in it, you'll just get an empty space with a 'missing plugin' icon. Apple says Flash would run too slowly on the iPhone, but in reality, it's probably more to do with Apple wanting to promote its competing web app development technology, Sproutcore.
Apple realises the 'mobile web' is at a tipping point… if it can get enough momentum behind developers coding sites specifically for the iPhone, it will help sales of the iPhone along in the long term. (That said, unlike Flash, Sproutcore is an open standard that theoretically works in any web browser that supports Javascript, so it could be widely supported by all handset makers if their phone web browsers got better.)
#3 No instant messaging
Despite the fact that the iPhone comes with unlimited data plans (in the US at least; Australian plans haven't yet been revealed) Apple has hobbled the iPhone's ability to do instant messaging.
Rather than sending instant messages over the internet to friends, the iPhone sends them by SMS. Since Apple has great instant messaging software for Mac called iChat, this is undoubtedly a concession to phone companies. SMS is widely considered to be the most expensive data service in the world, with each message only 165 characters lo
ng but charged by phone companies at around 20c per message. Multiplied out, that equates to 1.3 million dollars per gigabyte of SMSes. (By comparison, Aussie mobile network Three offers 1GB of high speed internet usage for $15.)Oh yeah, and forget about chatting to someone who's sitting at a computer using the iPhone. Heaven forbid you might want to chat to someone using MSN/Windows Live Chat, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, Facebook or any of the other popular chat protocols.
Hopefully, this ludicrous situation will be plugged by third-party application developers who will develop internet-based chat clients for iPhone. However, Apple has said that it will not allow applications to run in the background on the iPhone; instead, the developers must run an internet-based service, send a message to Apple servers, which will then send a message to the iPhone to alert the user to open the app. Yes, it may save battery life on the iPhone, but no, it's not exactly convenient.
On a Blackberry, the Blackberry Messenger just sits quietly in the background. If your phone is on, so is Blackberry Messenger. It's 100% reliable. It doesn't send messages using a stupid method like SMS. It uses the Blackberry's unlimited internet access. And yes, Blackberries do have good battery life.
#4 Totally impractical for international travel
The iPhone downloads full emails, attachments and all, when you view them on the iPhone. If someone sends you an email with several megabytes of photos attached, that's how much data has to be downloaded by the iPhone. That's fine if you're in your home country and have an unlimited data plan. But go to another country and see how much it costs you — you can expect to pay up to $20 per megabyte. Your roaming charges will soon be running into hundreds of dollars.
Not to harp on about the Blackberry, but when you roam with one of them, it's quite cheap, because the Blackberry servers downscale images to perfectly fit the size of the Blackberry screen before sending them — a huge saving in data transfer charges, and messages are heavily compressed before transmission, etc. In fact, even heavy Blackberry users may be surprised to learn that they use less than 5MB of data per month.
#5 Not compatible with Bluetooth car kits or headphones
Apple has Bluetooth wireless in the iPhone, but it only works with a handful of wireless headsets. Forget talking handsfree on Bluetooth car kits or using the iPhone with stereo Bluetooth headphones. You could expect those sorts of features from the world's leading music player, but not the iP… oh, wait.
Considering Apple wants the world to take the iPhone seriously for its phone capabilities, it's truly incredible that it has hobbled the Bluetooth audio capability so much. Could it be because it wants to make money from car equipment manufacturers who build an iPod dock connector into their car stereos?
Caveat: this comment is based on what we know about pre-release versions of the iPhone 2.0 software. It's possible Apple will have fixed this in the release version of the iPhone 3G.
#6 No cut and paste
This one is truly hard to understand. Apple brings out one of the world's most advanced smartphones in terms of user interface, and somehow forgets to put in cut and paste... probably the only smartphone on the market that doesn't have it. The mind boggles. (Also something that Apple could conceivably fix by the time the iPhone 3G is released… here's hoping.)
#7 Non user-replaceable battery
It's a sad fact about rechargeable batteries: the first time you recharge them, their maximum capacity degrades. After a few hundred recharges, their capacity is down to something like half their original capacity. Normally, this is annoying, but manageable — you just swap the battery out for a new one, or get a second battery and swap between the two of them until the first battery is toast.
Not so with the iPhone. Its battery is sealed up tightly inside the nearly-impossible-to-pry-open casing (believe me, I've taken the back off an iPhone and that sucker is not meant to come apart… Apple must be replacing the casing of iPhones it services). Apple will then install the battery for you (in the US it costs $US85.95) and post it back to you. Oh, and you can pay them extra $US30 for the privilege of renting another phone from them to use in the meantime.
Not only is this massively inconvenient, it's a cunning attempt by Apple to get people to simply buy a new iPhone when the battery finally dies. People will be asking themselves… "do I pay $105.95 to get my old iPhone battery fixed, or do I pay $199.00 to buy the latest and greatest model of iPhone?" I know which one I'd pick, and I bet that's central to Apple's business plan.
#8 No MMS
So you've snapped a nice photo on your iPhone and you want to send it to a friend? You'd better hope they have email on their phone, because that's the only way you're going to be able to send it to them with the iPhone. For some reason, despite its ridiculous decision to force all instant messaging through SMS, Apple has totally left out MMS (picture/video SMSes) from the iPhone.
#9 No turn-by-turn navigation
Despite building a GPS satellite navigation receiver into the iPhone, Apple has stopped short of offering voiced, turn-by-turn navigation into the device. Yes, you can plot directions from your current position to somewhere else, and you can watch yourself as a little dot on the map, but have you ever tried doing that in a car? I have … on my Blackberry. I nearly crashed.
If you're thinking I'm being a bit overly critical (isn't it a "nice to have" feature than a necessity?) compare Apple to Nokia, which has been offering voiced, 3D, turn-by-turn navigation on its phones for a couple of years now. Having a Nokia N78 saved my bacon recently when I realised I was totally lost and didn't have a street directory with me. I also had a Blackberry with me that has 2D map routing similar to what's on the Blackberry, and it sucked, because it was like reading a map constantly while driving.
#10 Stunning hypocrisy
At Apple's last presentation on the iPhone (March 6th 2008), Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller ridiculed market leader Blackberry for the complexity of its push email service, pointing out that your messages have to pass through a RIM messaging server and a network operations centre before they're sent out to your phone. Plus you have to pay extra for the service.
With the iPhone 3G, Apple introduces MobileMe, a service that … passes your email through an Apple messaging server before it is sent through to your phone. And it costs $AUD119 per year extra. Spot any similarity with the Blackberry business model?
It seems stunningly hypocritical for Apple's to criticise the technology of the market leader in the US smartphone space, then adopt the same technologies in its own product. On the other hand, I'm glad it has… but I'm flabbergasted at Apple's audacity in working on a service while at the very same moment criticising others for doing it.
Computers and Technology
10 reasons you shouldn't get a iPhone
10. Too Expensive
Is Apple kidding us? $599 for a freaking phone? Wow...just wow. No phone is worth that much money even if it has a few "gee whiz" and "it's neat" type features. Apple has gone way, way off the deep end this time with the price of this behemoth phone. Why would anybody be foolish enough to pay that much for a cell phone? Are people that addicted to blabbing on the phone that they must pay $600 to do so? Sheesh, get a life people. Do you really want to waste your money lining the pockets of Steve Jobs and his minions at Apple? Take the $599 and do something productive with it instead of wasting it on yet another over-hyped, over-priced Apple product.
9. Tiny Storage
Well just as with the iPod, we can always count on Apple screwing us over with tiny amounts of storage space. The $499 iPhone has 4GB and the $599 has 8GB. What on earth does Apple expect people to do with that tiny bit of storage space? Think about it. The vaunted iPhone is supposed to be able to play movies as well as play songs. Well how many movies are you going to be able to store with just 4GB of storage space? And how many songs can you carry? To say nothing of your other data that you might need to tote around with you.
Apple appears to have rushed headlong into the release of the iPhone with no thought whatsoever about how starved for storage space iPhone users will soon be. And what does Jobs think is going to happen? That people will carry around a terabyte external hard disk with them to desperately try to carry their needed data? Come off it, Steve. The minimum data storage for the $499 iPhone should have been 500GB at the very least with the top of the line model having at least 800GB or preferably 1 terabyte.
8. Stylish and Stupid
There's no doubt about it that the iPhone look "stylish" when you first see it. But isn't that really the problem with all of Apple's products? They look pretty but provide very low value for the price? Do you really want to be a loser that overpays for the iPhone just to look cool for a little while? Don't forget that no matter how "stylish" you look, sooner or later other people will have an iPhone and then you'll just look stupid.
Is that what you're really after? To look stupid trying to be cooler than everybody else? Hey, you can do that without spending $600. In fact, you may have already achieved that goal just by reading this column but I'll leave that to each reader to decide for themselves.
7. Stuck With AT&T
One of the worst things that Apple ever did was to sign a five year exclusive agreement with AT&T to be the wireless provider for the iPhone. Five years! So if you use Verizon, Tmobile, or some other provider, you can't get an iPhone unless you switch to AT&T.
To date AT&T doesn't seem to have all that great of a reputation as a mobile service provider. I can't speak from experience because I've never used them but isn't it odd how a fossil from telephone service days gone by (AT&T) ended up in bed with Apple, a company that likes to pride itself on being "cutting edge." It's the telecom marriage made in hell!
What exactly w
as Apple thinking here? Did it deliberately decide to screw over customers on other services? We'll never know what on earth was going through Steve Jobs' head when he made this wacky decision (was his turtleneck too tight and it cut off the blood supply to his head?) but anybody on a different wireless carrier will have to live with it unless they want to switch to AT&T.
6. Edge and Not 3G
Apple's decision to go with AT&T is also costly for another reason. The iPhone apparently will be using AT&T's super-slow and crappy Edge data service instead of 3G. Wow. Another major screw-up by Apple. Are you willing to pay for a slow data connection on your "cool" iPhone? Stop and think about that for a minute. You're going to be paying for a data service that might take a few minutes to load this web page, depending on how it performs that day you use it.
Given that the iPhone is supposed to be "cutting edge", I can't imagine what Apple was thinking to release it on a service that doesn't offer 3G data transfer speeds. It's like Apple released a corvette that can only go up to 35mph. What the heck is the point?
5. No Flash or Java Support
Flash and Java are both pretty basic parts of the web experience. And yet Steve Jobs and his lackeys have arbitrarily decided to exclude them from the iPhone web experience. So much for "the internet in your pocket" blather that Jobs was spewing earlier on. It's more like the "crippled, crappy, lame version of the Internet in your pocket" instead.
No doubt though that Apple's marketing department will probably put their usual spin on this and start touting the iPhone as being "Flash-free" or "Java-free" as though both things were positives instead of negatives. And you know what? The Apple Faithful will eat it up! They'll storm out onto the Web and begin filling discussion forums and newsgroups with inane comments about how the iPhone "protects" users from evil things like Flash and Java.
I guess when you're the head of a cult, you can make people believe anything.
4. Two Year Contract and $175 Termination Fee
When you buy an iPhone you better get ready to pay out even more! You'll have to agree to a 2 year contract, whether you like it or not. And what happens if you decide to switch to another wireless provider? Get ready because you'll have to cough up another $175 to regain your freedom from the tyranny of AT&T and Apple. Talk about a ripoff!
3. No Keyboard
I'm sorry but I'm not buying the "multitouch is great" line of thinking. I don't want to be dependent on a stupid touch screen, I want a keyboard! Who knows how accurate the iPhone's touch screen keyboard will be? Early rumors suggest that it might be a disaster in the making. Do you really want to pay $599 or even $499 to find out that it's a total pain in the rear end just to text somebody and that you have no option whatsoever for a built-in keyboard? What was Apple thinking here? No hardware keyboard and a dubious, iffy software based keyboard that could be completely unusable for most people? No thanks! Put a hardware-based keyboard in the next version, Apple, and maybe it will be worth considering.
2. Crapfari Instead of Firefox
One of the most disappointing and shocking things about the iPhone is that it ships with the second (or is it third or fourth rate?) browser known as Safari. I prefer to call it Crapfari as there are just far too many sites that don't work properly with it for me to consider it a real browser. Instead of shipping with a real browser like Firefox, Apple chooses its bastard step-child of a browser. And then it has the temerity, the impudence to release the same bug-ridden piece of junk on Windows right before the launch! Could Apple be more arrogant? How many people are aware of just how bad the Crapfari browser really is and that they will have no alternative on the iPhone? I bet there will be a lot of shocked and angry iPhone users once they start trying to use the web and find that the Crapfari browser won't display their favorite sites properly. Well what did they expect from a fourth rate browser anyway?
And here's the number one reason why you shouldn't even consider buying an iPhone:
1. I'll Get to the Apple Store Ahead of You
If you've read this far then you've finally discovered the *real* reason I wrote this column.
You see, I'm out to dissuade as many people as possible from buying an iPhone so that I have less competition on Friday when I go to get mine. Yep, this entire column is nothing more than a self-serving ruse at giving myself the best chance possible to snag an iPhone on opening day.
The fewer people that are interested in the iPhone, the better my chances at getting one! So in this column I've just regurgitated all the usual FUD about the iPhone, Apple, and AT&T in a blatant attempt to discourage you from being remotely interested in buying one.
And I want one...make no mistake about it...I want an iPhone...bad! It's all I've been able to think about for the last few days...I've been dreaming of ditching my crappy Verizon phone and holding the sleek, sexy iPhone in the palm of my hand.
Yes...I must have one...and I will have one! No matter who or what gets in my way! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss....the precioooooooous will be ouuuuuuursssssssssss!
So don't even bother to leave your house on launch day to get an iPhone. If you do, you'll find that I got there ahead of you and bought the last one. Muhuhahahahha! Suckers!
Computers and Technology
Is Apple kidding us? $599 for a freaking phone? Wow...just wow. No phone is worth that much money even if it has a few "gee whiz" and "it's neat" type features. Apple has gone way, way off the deep end this time with the price of this behemoth phone. Why would anybody be foolish enough to pay that much for a cell phone? Are people that addicted to blabbing on the phone that they must pay $600 to do so? Sheesh, get a life people. Do you really want to waste your money lining the pockets of Steve Jobs and his minions at Apple? Take the $599 and do something productive with it instead of wasting it on yet another over-hyped, over-priced Apple product.
9. Tiny Storage
Well just as with the iPod, we can always count on Apple screwing us over with tiny amounts of storage space. The $499 iPhone has 4GB and the $599 has 8GB. What on earth does Apple expect people to do with that tiny bit of storage space? Think about it. The vaunted iPhone is supposed to be able to play movies as well as play songs. Well how many movies are you going to be able to store with just 4GB of storage space? And how many songs can you carry? To say nothing of your other data that you might need to tote around with you.
Apple appears to have rushed headlong into the release of the iPhone with no thought whatsoever about how starved for storage space iPhone users will soon be. And what does Jobs think is going to happen? That people will carry around a terabyte external hard disk with them to desperately try to carry their needed data? Come off it, Steve. The minimum data storage for the $499 iPhone should have been 500GB at the very least with the top of the line model having at least 800GB or preferably 1 terabyte.
8. Stylish and Stupid
There's no doubt about it that the iPhone look "stylish" when you first see it. But isn't that really the problem with all of Apple's products? They look pretty but provide very low value for the price? Do you really want to be a loser that overpays for the iPhone just to look cool for a little while? Don't forget that no matter how "stylish" you look, sooner or later other people will have an iPhone and then you'll just look stupid.
Is that what you're really after? To look stupid trying to be cooler than everybody else? Hey, you can do that without spending $600. In fact, you may have already achieved that goal just by reading this column but I'll leave that to each reader to decide for themselves.
7. Stuck With AT&T
One of the worst things that Apple ever did was to sign a five year exclusive agreement with AT&T to be the wireless provider for the iPhone. Five years! So if you use Verizon, Tmobile, or some other provider, you can't get an iPhone unless you switch to AT&T.
To date AT&T doesn't seem to have all that great of a reputation as a mobile service provider. I can't speak from experience because I've never used them but isn't it odd how a fossil from telephone service days gone by (AT&T) ended up in bed with Apple, a company that likes to pride itself on being "cutting edge." It's the telecom marriage made in hell!
What exactly w
as Apple thinking here? Did it deliberately decide to screw over customers on other services? We'll never know what on earth was going through Steve Jobs' head when he made this wacky decision (was his turtleneck too tight and it cut off the blood supply to his head?) but anybody on a different wireless carrier will have to live with it unless they want to switch to AT&T.6. Edge and Not 3G
Apple's decision to go with AT&T is also costly for another reason. The iPhone apparently will be using AT&T's super-slow and crappy Edge data service instead of 3G. Wow. Another major screw-up by Apple. Are you willing to pay for a slow data connection on your "cool" iPhone? Stop and think about that for a minute. You're going to be paying for a data service that might take a few minutes to load this web page, depending on how it performs that day you use it.
Given that the iPhone is supposed to be "cutting edge", I can't imagine what Apple was thinking to release it on a service that doesn't offer 3G data transfer speeds. It's like Apple released a corvette that can only go up to 35mph. What the heck is the point?
5. No Flash or Java Support
Flash and Java are both pretty basic parts of the web experience. And yet Steve Jobs and his lackeys have arbitrarily decided to exclude them from the iPhone web experience. So much for "the internet in your pocket" blather that Jobs was spewing earlier on. It's more like the "crippled, crappy, lame version of the Internet in your pocket" instead.
No doubt though that Apple's marketing department will probably put their usual spin on this and start touting the iPhone as being "Flash-free" or "Java-free" as though both things were positives instead of negatives. And you know what? The Apple Faithful will eat it up! They'll storm out onto the Web and begin filling discussion forums and newsgroups with inane comments about how the iPhone "protects" users from evil things like Flash and Java.
I guess when you're the head of a cult, you can make people believe anything.
4. Two Year Contract and $175 Termination Fee
When you buy an iPhone you better get ready to pay out even more! You'll have to agree to a 2 year contract, whether you like it or not. And what happens if you decide to switch to another wireless provider? Get ready because you'll have to cough up another $175 to regain your freedom from the tyranny of AT&T and Apple. Talk about a ripoff!
3. No Keyboard
I'm sorry but I'm not buying the "multitouch is great" line of thinking. I don't want to be dependent on a stupid touch screen, I want a keyboard! Who knows how accurate the iPhone's touch screen keyboard will be? Early rumors suggest that it might be a disaster in the making. Do you really want to pay $599 or even $499 to find out that it's a total pain in the rear end just to text somebody and that you have no option whatsoever for a built-in keyboard? What was Apple thinking here? No hardware keyboard and a dubious, iffy software based keyboard that could be completely unusable for most people? No thanks! Put a hardware-based keyboard in the next version, Apple, and maybe it will be worth considering.
2. Crapfari Instead of Firefox
One of the most disappointing and shocking things about the iPhone is that it ships with the second (or is it third or fourth rate?) browser known as Safari. I prefer to call it Crapfari as there are just far too many sites that don't work properly with it for me to consider it a real browser. Instead of shipping with a real browser like Firefox, Apple chooses its bastard step-child of a browser. And then it has the temerity, the impudence to release the same bug-ridden piece of junk on Windows right before the launch! Could Apple be more arrogant? How many people are aware of just how bad the Crapfari browser really is and that they will have no alternative on the iPhone? I bet there will be a lot of shocked and angry iPhone users once they start trying to use the web and find that the Crapfari browser won't display their favorite sites properly. Well what did they expect from a fourth rate browser anyway?
And here's the number one reason why you shouldn't even consider buying an iPhone:
1. I'll Get to the Apple Store Ahead of You
If you've read this far then you've finally discovered the *real* reason I wrote this column.
You see, I'm out to dissuade as many people as possible from buying an iPhone so that I have less competition on Friday when I go to get mine. Yep, this entire column is nothing more than a self-serving ruse at giving myself the best chance possible to snag an iPhone on opening day.
The fewer people that are interested in the iPhone, the better my chances at getting one! So in this column I've just regurgitated all the usual FUD about the iPhone, Apple, and AT&T in a blatant attempt to discourage you from being remotely interested in buying one.
And I want one...make no mistake about it...I want an iPhone...bad! It's all I've been able to think about for the last few days...I've been dreaming of ditching my crappy Verizon phone and holding the sleek, sexy iPhone in the palm of my hand.
Yes...I must have one...and I will have one! No matter who or what gets in my way! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssss....the precioooooooous will be ouuuuuuursssssssssss!
So don't even bother to leave your house on launch day to get an iPhone. If you do, you'll find that I got there ahead of you and bought the last one. Muhuhahahahha! Suckers!
Computers and Technology
Thursday, July 17, 2008
BMW's Cloth-Skinned Car Makes a Splash
BMW's cloth car known by its concept name GINA is an amazing piece of design. The GINA philosophy is Geometry and Functions In “N” Adaptions; the “N” stands for infinite possibilities. I admit, I got so bedazzled by the video of the cloth car (after the jump), it took me a second to step back and think about why GINA is worth mentioning on ecogeek. The GINA model features a virtually seamless outer skin made of a textile fabric that stretches across a movable substructure. Functions are only offered if and when they are actually required. While BMW touts that reducing the car to its “essentials and adapting it to the driver's requirements enhances the car's emotional impact,” the reality is that the cloth car at its most basic is reducing the hard structure of the car to only what is necessary.This brings into question all the current realities of what is set in stone in today's car market. For example, does a car roof really need to rest on pillars and be bordered by pillars and are there any possible alternatives to the rigid body shell of steel or plastic?
By re-evaluating the hard body of the car, BMW figures that the lightweight design will require far less energy to produce than traditional BMW models. The overall car weight is significantly reduced, which in turns makes the vehicle far more fuel efficient.
A car of cloth is far off into the future, but BMW hopes that the philosophy behind its concept: of exploring new possibilities and focusing on actual function rather than relying on the tried-and-true model, that eventually cars can be made to suit individuals.
In an interview with Wallpaper magazine, Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW says GINA forces BMW designers to look at things differently.
“If we free our minds, then we can perhaps start to look at methods that use less energy, require less chemicals, cause less waste and are more flexible in getting products that customers want,” he says.
Computers and Technology
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Aussie science to make net 100 times faster
COMPUTER users frustrated by slow internet connections could soon be surfing the web 100 times faster, all thanks to new Australian technology.University of Sydney scientists say they have developed a new technology that could speed up the internet - and not cost users an extra cent.
Described as "a small scratch on a piece of glass'', the university's photonic integrated circuit boosts the performance of traditional optic fibres, Professor Ben Eggleton said.
"This circuit uses the 'scratch' as a guide or a switching a path for information - kind of like when trains are switched from one track to another - except this switch takes one picosecond to change tracks,'' Prof Eggleton said of the technology developed over the past four years.
"This means that in one second the switch is turning on and off about one million times.''
"Currently we use electronics for our switching and that has been OK, but as we move toward a more tech-savvy future there is a demand for instant web gratification.''
Prof Eggleton said initial testing of the technology showed it was possible to achieve internet speeds 60 times faster than the current Telstra network.
But if developed further, the circuit could reach speeds 100 times faster, he said.
"This is a critical building block and a fundamental advance on what is already out there,'' Prof Eggleton said.
"We are talking about networks that are potentially up to 100 times faster without costing the consumer any more.''
Computers and Technology
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Breaking the law: one-third of US residents rip DVDs
By Jacqui Cheng
One-third of consumers in the US and UK have made a copy of a DVD within the last six months, according to a report from Futuresource Consulting. The firm surveyed 3,613 people in the US and 1,718 in the UK to discover their "home piracy" habits, and attempts to paint a somewhat ugly picture of casual copyright infringement even though a majority of users who make copies are doing so "legitimately" (for personal use).
36 percent of UK respondents and 32 percent of US respondents have made
a copy of a DVD within the last six months, which Futuresource says is an increase from only a quarter of survey respondents in 2007. Respondents in the UK who copied DVDs primarily made copies of movies and TV shows, although movie copying dropped between 2007 and 2008 while TV copying went up.
Unsurprisingly, the preferred method of copying DVDs were some of the simplest. Roughly a quarter of both UK and US consumers who made copies of DVDs connected a DVD player to a DVD recorder using a composite/S-Video cable, while roughly another quarter of the two groups preferred using a single PC application for burning DVD copies.
Futuresource notes, however, that some 62 percent of US users and 49 percent of those in the UK are making "legitimate" copies of their own new release DVDs that they purchased. 58 percent and 54 percent of those who made copies of older movies made copies of their own DVDs too. Although the numbers for burned DVDs from those that were rented or borrowed are nothing to sneeze at, the large majority of those surveyed appear to be doing what they believe they have a legal right to do.
Of the remaining group (those who borrowed or rented the DVDs), Futuresource asked whether these consumers would have purchased a DVD if they were unable to make a copy. 63 percent of UK respondents and 77 percent of US respondents saying that they would have purchased at least "a few" of the titles, which Futuresource says is evidence of the "scale of the lost revenues to the home video industry from home copying."
Hollywood has been trying to find ways to stop DVD copying since the dawn of the format, even though the barn door is wide open and the horses have long-since vanished. The DVD Copy Control Association lost a lawsuit last year against Kaleidescape for producing a $10,000 home media server that ripped customers' DVDs for storage and playback. The judge ruled in Kaleidescape's favor because she said the company was in full compliance with the DVD CCA's CSS license, which the organization later attempted to modify (twice) in order to close the loophole. Then, of course, there's the entire drama over the AACS copy protection used on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, which has been hacked to bits so many times.
However, Big Content is certainly known for its tenacity in attempting to keep content locked down. Despite the fact that the majority of DVD copying is for purely personal use, Futuresource's report will surely be used by the industry as further justification for strict DRM schemes and lawsuits against users.
Computers and Technology
One-third of consumers in the US and UK have made a copy of a DVD within the last six months, according to a report from Futuresource Consulting. The firm surveyed 3,613 people in the US and 1,718 in the UK to discover their "home piracy" habits, and attempts to paint a somewhat ugly picture of casual copyright infringement even though a majority of users who make copies are doing so "legitimately" (for personal use).
36 percent of UK respondents and 32 percent of US respondents have made
a copy of a DVD within the last six months, which Futuresource says is an increase from only a quarter of survey respondents in 2007. Respondents in the UK who copied DVDs primarily made copies of movies and TV shows, although movie copying dropped between 2007 and 2008 while TV copying went up.Unsurprisingly, the preferred method of copying DVDs were some of the simplest. Roughly a quarter of both UK and US consumers who made copies of DVDs connected a DVD player to a DVD recorder using a composite/S-Video cable, while roughly another quarter of the two groups preferred using a single PC application for burning DVD copies.
Futuresource notes, however, that some 62 percent of US users and 49 percent of those in the UK are making "legitimate" copies of their own new release DVDs that they purchased. 58 percent and 54 percent of those who made copies of older movies made copies of their own DVDs too. Although the numbers for burned DVDs from those that were rented or borrowed are nothing to sneeze at, the large majority of those surveyed appear to be doing what they believe they have a legal right to do.
Of the remaining group (those who borrowed or rented the DVDs), Futuresource asked whether these consumers would have purchased a DVD if they were unable to make a copy. 63 percent of UK respondents and 77 percent of US respondents saying that they would have purchased at least "a few" of the titles, which Futuresource says is evidence of the "scale of the lost revenues to the home video industry from home copying."
Hollywood has been trying to find ways to stop DVD copying since the dawn of the format, even though the barn door is wide open and the horses have long-since vanished. The DVD Copy Control Association lost a lawsuit last year against Kaleidescape for producing a $10,000 home media server that ripped customers' DVDs for storage and playback. The judge ruled in Kaleidescape's favor because she said the company was in full compliance with the DVD CCA's CSS license, which the organization later attempted to modify (twice) in order to close the loophole. Then, of course, there's the entire drama over the AACS copy protection used on HD DVD and Blu-ray discs, which has been hacked to bits so many times.
However, Big Content is certainly known for its tenacity in attempting to keep content locked down. Despite the fact that the majority of DVD copying is for purely personal use, Futuresource's report will surely be used by the industry as further justification for strict DRM schemes and lawsuits against users.
Computers and Technology
Technological Tattoos
There has always been the Microsoft vs Apple rivalry. Some people show their devotion by tattooing their support right onto themselves.
Computers and Technology
Online Computer Store
Computer hardware of the day:
Logitech G7 Cordless Laser Mouse
The new G7 Laser features a Full Speed USB bi-directional interface which enables a full 500 USB reports per second and 2000 dpi resolution. It utilizes the 2.4GHz frequency band for smooth and reliable communication during heave gaming firefights. Dead batteries won't stop you mid-mission, thanks to a five-level battery charge indicator and twin "hot-swappable" Li-ion battery packs.
What is this?
The new G7 Laser features a Full Speed USB bi-directional interface which enables a full 500 USB reports per second and 2000 dpi resolution. It utilizes the 2.4GHz frequency band for smooth and reliable communication during heave gaming firefights. Dead batteries won't stop you mid-mission, thanks to a five-level battery charge indicator and twin "hot-swappable" Li-ion battery packs.
Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse
Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse Review October 27th, 2005
Pros: Awesome wireless performance; hot swappable batteries with battery indicator; quick charge mode; DPI switching, profiles.
Cons: Only one thumb button; stiff Mouse3.
Verdict: One mouse to rule them all, one mouse to taunt them. One mouse to cut the cords and in the freedom frag them.
A wireless mouse and gaming? The two terms never went well together, a paradox constantly laughed at by the gaming community at large. Between problems with latency, accuracy, interference, and that pesky sleep mode, the two could never get along. Things have changed significantly over time however, and now Logitech is the first company to release a wireless mouse actually intended for gaming. Could this really be the one mouse to change it all? Read on to see.
Package Content
- Logitech G7 Wireless Laser Mouse
- 2 600 mAh Li-Ion battery packs
- Desktop USB stand / charging Station
- 2.4GHz receiver
- SetPoint 2.4 install CD
- Quickstart guide
Solid Foundation
Logitech's G7 Laser Cordless Mouse builds upon the classic bean-shaped form factor introduced with the MX500 for a comfortable right-handed grip. The color scheme of the G7 is visually pleasing silver with green grips, and a smooth finish that feels exactly like the Gaming-Grade MX518 I reviewed previously. The only downside to this is the grips are no longer rubberized, so gamers with sweaty palms might accidentally have the mouse slip in the middle of extended gaming sessions. As a gamer with dry hands, this isn't really an issue.
Almost everything about the G7 is identical to its also-reviewed wired counterpart, the G5. The underside of the G7 bears three oversized PTFE (Teflon) pads to reduce friction across surfaces - two on the poles of the mouse and one under the thumb. This makes for excellent gliding across surfaces, and works marvelously on hard mouse pads, literally skating across the pad when nudged.
Exercising the Digits
The button placement is also identical to that of the Logitech G5, with two DPI switching buttons placed directly below the tilt wheel, and only one button placed above the thumb rest suitable for grenades and melee attacks. The lack of a forward thumb button is explained away by gamers' requests for a single, sure-hit button so they don't hit the wrong one in the middle of a firefight.
Again, I'm not so happy with this decision since both buttons could be bound to the same function if someone seriously can't find the right button (is it really that hard??), but thankfully Logitech says that it will most likely make a return in a future product. They went on to say that for every complaint to remove the forward button, Logitech has received about 5 complaints to bring it back. If the G5's drivers were any indicator, Logitech really does listen to feedback.
On the review unit I received, the G7's mouse wheel is somewhat defective in the sense that clicking down on the wheel (Mouse3/Zoom) doesn't' actually produce a tactile "click", although it does activate. On the plus side, it takes less force to activate and I haven't accidentally side-scrolled like I encountered with the G5. When I called Logitech asking if this was intentional, I was told that the mouse wheel should actually click.
In any event, because the two directions of tilting can be programmed to any key, you could always set the tilt wheel to middle click when pushed to one direction, and act as the missing forward key when pushed in the other direction. The tilt wheel, along with every other button on the G7 can also be set to perform different functions like keystrokes, remembering individual settings per game and application via profiles.
Like the numerous other gaming mouse on the market today, the G7 has DPI switching on-the-fly to change the sensitivity in game, perfect for making quick turns in fast-paced environments and then scaling back for more accurate kills, without the need for an oversized mouse pad. Without drivers, the G7 comes with three steps of 400, 800, and 2000 DPI, but once SetPoint is installed the sensitivity can be scaled to any resolution from 400-2000 in 50 dpi increments with up to resolutions defined. Sensitivity on the X and Y axis can be independent of each other too, if that's your thing. A visual indicator on the left side of the G7 will display which of the five DPI steps is currently active.
Wireless that Works
The first time I picked up a wireless mouse for gaming, I was traumatized. Not only were the movements of the mouse extremely laggy, but when I was sniping, I had to constantly move the mouse slightly to prevent it from going to sleep for several seconds. Needless to say I returned the mouse promptly and bought a wired one. That was four years ago, and today I still can't use a Wireless IntelliMouse, and while I can scrape by with the MX610 when it's working, it would still go to sleep when I was sniping.
Remembering how useless a wireless mouse was, I was shocked to find that the wireless aspect of the G7 is absolutely flawless. There's zero noticeable lag in any of the fast moving games like Quake IV, and I was amazed at the precision of the mouse after racking up 6 "Impressive!" awards in a single deathmatch for using the rail-gun. Defending a zone in Raven Shield is much less stressful since I don't have to move the mouse for a full minute before it enters sleep mode. If the G7 were snag on something every now and then, it could pass as a wired mouse. There's practically no difference anymore.
A small 2.4GHz receiver can either be plugged into the side of a computer, or preferably into the included desktop USB stand to place it away from other electronic devices that could cause interference. And unlike the other 2.4GHz mouse from Logitech I reviewed, I did not encounter any interference throughout my month of testing. The desktop stand also doubles as a battery charger, simultaneously charging one battery while the second battery is actively engaging the enemies on-screen.
The batteries are quite ingenious. Only 18 grams, the 600 mAh packs are more than twice as light as two AA batteries, and they share the same form factor as the G5's weight cartridge to quickly slide in and out of the G7's base at the press of a button. I get about 7 or 8 hours of continuous gameplay when I'm at a LAN party, and about 2-3 days worth of power when I'm just working.
To tell how much juice is left, just stop moving the mouse and the orange DPI indicator will fade to a green battery indicator. Additionally, in the SetPoint drivers it's possible to specify an on-screen warning when the battery is anywhere from 5-30% full capacity.
What is this?
The new G7 Laser features a Full Speed USB bi-directional interface which enables a full 500 USB reports per second and 2000 dpi resolution. It utilizes the 2.4GHz frequency band for smooth and reliable communication during heave gaming firefights. Dead batteries won't stop you mid-mission, thanks to a five-level battery charge indicator and twin "hot-swappable" Li-ion battery packs.
Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse
Logitech G7 Laser Cordless Mouse Review October 27th, 2005
Pros: Awesome wireless performance; hot swappable batteries with battery indicator; quick charge mode; DPI switching, profiles.
Cons: Only one thumb button; stiff Mouse3.
Verdict: One mouse to rule them all, one mouse to taunt them. One mouse to cut the cords and in the freedom frag them.
A wireless mouse and gaming? The two terms never went well together, a paradox constantly laughed at by the gaming community at large. Between problems with latency, accuracy, interference, and that pesky sleep mode, the two could never get along. Things have changed significantly over time however, and now Logitech is the first company to release a wireless mouse actually intended for gaming. Could this really be the one mouse to change it all? Read on to see.
Package Content
- Logitech G7 Wireless Laser Mouse
- 2 600 mAh Li-Ion battery packs
- Desktop USB stand / charging Station
- 2.4GHz receiver
- SetPoint 2.4 install CD
- Quickstart guide
Solid Foundation
Logitech's G7 Laser Cordless Mouse builds upon the classic bean-shaped form factor introduced with the MX500 for a comfortable right-handed grip. The color scheme of the G7 is visually pleasing silver with green grips, and a smooth finish that feels exactly like the Gaming-Grade MX518 I reviewed previously. The only downside to this is the grips are no longer rubberized, so gamers with sweaty palms might accidentally have the mouse slip in the middle of extended gaming sessions. As a gamer with dry hands, this isn't really an issue.
Almost everything about the G7 is identical to its also-reviewed wired counterpart, the G5. The underside of the G7 bears three oversized PTFE (Teflon) pads to reduce friction across surfaces - two on the poles of the mouse and one under the thumb. This makes for excellent gliding across surfaces, and works marvelously on hard mouse pads, literally skating across the pad when nudged.
Exercising the Digits
The button placement is also identical to that of the Logitech G5, with two DPI switching buttons placed directly below the tilt wheel, and only one button placed above the thumb rest suitable for grenades and melee attacks. The lack of a forward thumb button is explained away by gamers' requests for a single, sure-hit button so they don't hit the wrong one in the middle of a firefight.
Again, I'm not so happy with this decision since both buttons could be bound to the same function if someone seriously can't find the right button (is it really that hard??), but thankfully Logitech says that it will most likely make a return in a future product. They went on to say that for every complaint to remove the forward button, Logitech has received about 5 complaints to bring it back. If the G5's drivers were any indicator, Logitech really does listen to feedback.
On the review unit I received, the G7's mouse wheel is somewhat defective in the sense that clicking down on the wheel (Mouse3/Zoom) doesn't' actually produce a tactile "click", although it does activate. On the plus side, it takes less force to activate and I haven't accidentally side-scrolled like I encountered with the G5. When I called Logitech asking if this was intentional, I was told that the mouse wheel should actually click.
In any event, because the two directions of tilting can be programmed to any key, you could always set the tilt wheel to middle click when pushed to one direction, and act as the missing forward key when pushed in the other direction. The tilt wheel, along with every other button on the G7 can also be set to perform different functions like keystrokes, remembering individual settings per game and application via profiles.
Like the numerous other gaming mouse on the market today, the G7 has DPI switching on-the-fly to change the sensitivity in game, perfect for making quick turns in fast-paced environments and then scaling back for more accurate kills, without the need for an oversized mouse pad. Without drivers, the G7 comes with three steps of 400, 800, and 2000 DPI, but once SetPoint is installed the sensitivity can be scaled to any resolution from 400-2000 in 50 dpi increments with up to resolutions defined. Sensitivity on the X and Y axis can be independent of each other too, if that's your thing. A visual indicator on the left side of the G7 will display which of the five DPI steps is currently active.
Wireless that Works
The first time I picked up a wireless mouse for gaming, I was traumatized. Not only were the movements of the mouse extremely laggy, but when I was sniping, I had to constantly move the mouse slightly to prevent it from going to sleep for several seconds. Needless to say I returned the mouse promptly and bought a wired one. That was four years ago, and today I still can't use a Wireless IntelliMouse, and while I can scrape by with the MX610 when it's working, it would still go to sleep when I was sniping.
Remembering how useless a wireless mouse was, I was shocked to find that the wireless aspect of the G7 is absolutely flawless. There's zero noticeable lag in any of the fast moving games like Quake IV, and I was amazed at the precision of the mouse after racking up 6 "Impressive!" awards in a single deathmatch for using the rail-gun. Defending a zone in Raven Shield is much less stressful since I don't have to move the mouse for a full minute before it enters sleep mode. If the G7 were snag on something every now and then, it could pass as a wired mouse. There's practically no difference anymore.
A small 2.4GHz receiver can either be plugged into the side of a computer, or preferably into the included desktop USB stand to place it away from other electronic devices that could cause interference. And unlike the other 2.4GHz mouse from Logitech I reviewed, I did not encounter any interference throughout my month of testing. The desktop stand also doubles as a battery charger, simultaneously charging one battery while the second battery is actively engaging the enemies on-screen.
The batteries are quite ingenious. Only 18 grams, the 600 mAh packs are more than twice as light as two AA batteries, and they share the same form factor as the G5's weight cartridge to quickly slide in and out of the G7's base at the press of a button. I get about 7 or 8 hours of continuous gameplay when I'm at a LAN party, and about 2-3 days worth of power when I'm just working.
To tell how much juice is left, just stop moving the mouse and the orange DPI indicator will fade to a green battery indicator. Additionally, in the SetPoint drivers it's possible to specify an on-screen warning when the battery is anywhere from 5-30% full capacity.
When a pack runs dry, it takes just under 10 seconds for me to swap the two packs and get a fresh one in. The desktop stand can recharge a pack in approximately 10 hours, but if you're in a tournament it'd be wise to switch the charger to boost mode to draw additional power and charge a pack in two hours. Just know that this consumes more power than allocated in the USB spec, so it better be plugged into a powered hub or directly into the computer.
Recap
In short, this is the _best_ wireless mouse for gaming, hands down. No lag or interference, an extended sleep timer, and a 2000-DPI laser that can scale down to 400-DPI make the G7 as deadly as its wired counterpart. The hot-swap batteries last a fair amount of time and seeing as how there'll always be a charged pack, you'll never have to worry about battery life again. A flawed middle click and the lack of a second thumb button are disheartening, but the tilt-wheel fills their places nicely. The G7 is definitely the Mercedes of wireless mice, both in price and performance, and is heartily recommended for those who can afford it.
Computers and Technology
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