Well if your a regular visitor then you might have noticed that the site isn't running (cough!) exactly smoothly. We have been having problems with certain posts (not posting until later dates) and especially with putting up the podcast files and information.

We are working to resolve the problems, but aren't very confident about the progress so far ... honesty hurts. We are hoping that the problems can be fixed by the beginning of next week. So stick around and please bare with us.

Thank You,

Scott

Posted by Scott Stephen at 08:13 PM September 22, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well even if your a PS3 diehard fan like us, this news might barely interest you. Sony has taken the wraps off it's Life with Playstation service and made it available for download yesterday (Sept. 18th). The service can be used by clicking on the all too familiar Folding@Home and either downloading two files or the update. The new service expands on the old Globe concept by adding 60 cities' (to start with) and Satellite views for weather and news information. You can skip around and zoom in all while benefiting the Folding@Home project, a Stanford project built to help understand protein folding which may be the cause of a multitude of diseases including Ahlzeimers, Parkinsons, ALS etc.

If your a rampant Folding freak then this little add-on should float your boat, but for me I will probably never use this since it takes like 1-2 minutes for Folding to load on my machine and that isn't really worth it to learn the temperature in Beijing.

|Source: via PS3Fanboy|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 12:44 PM September 19, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your one of the people who has noticed your hard drive getting a little full or your one of the many users stuck with Laptop sized storage then you might be in the market for a NAS (Networked Attached Storage) device. These devices plug directly into your router (switch/hub) and connect to the network just as another computer would, giving you the extra storage with little hassle. But in this category, how does the new LinkStation Mini stack up?

Overall Rating:

Posted by Scott Stephen at 10:01 AM September 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

If your one of the few Zune users out there you might be excited to know that Microsoft has released version 3.0 of their Zune Software. The package includes updates such as: Buy from FM (where songs listened to over the air can be flagged for purchase later), the ability to browse the Zune Marketplace from Wi-Fi locations, and their new MixView feature which recommends music based on your catalog (apparently much better than Apple's Genius ... at least to some).

If you haven't been paying attention lately you might also like to know that a new 16GB and 120GB Zune are available and in vibrant Blue no less. But if your only interested in software you can learn more and download the update here.

|Source: via Gizmodo|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 07:53 AM September 16, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

This really only matters to the over half a million Napster subscribers, but yes it is true. Best Buy is shelling out $67 mil in cash plus $54 mil in benefits to acquire the subscription (& direct download) service Napster. Although it's not exactly a surprise that Best Buy has been looking to venture out into new areas, this wasn't exactly what most people were expecting. The deal will close at the end of this year so if a profits are at risk and a customer fee change is in the works, expect to here about it then.

Personally, I think they could have bought a Mythical Widget factory and had just as much of a chance of turning a profit. But only time will tell.

|Source: via Engadget|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 11:30 AM September 15, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, as announced on Sept. 9th, the iPhone 2.1 firmware update is out and ready to rock. The list of features/fixes is encouraging, but since 2.0.1 & 2.0.2 were a little less than trustworthy, I am staying skeptical. There is no mention of copy & paste, so it looks like everyone's most requested feature remains in the dark. But if your brave enough to be one of the first testers the improvements should be as follows:

If those sound interesting to you, then I would go check out that update button in your brand spanking new iTunes 8.0 software. Otherwise I'd just wait for the iPhoneDevTeam to rock the PWNage in about a week.

|Source: Apple|

UPDATE: I've taken the bullet and upgraded to 2.1. My 3G bars went from 2 to 5 but I'm still getting the same speed/reception so I'd say they just tweaked the graphic bars. The Backup is about twice as fast which is still an improvement from 6 minutes down to 3 minutes. I haven't had any updates yet to check out if the annoying icon fix is working but I wouldn't imagine they would have too many problems with that feat of engineering.

Posted by Scott Stephen at 10:53 AM September 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

You can't get much better than free these days. If your like me and are unlikely to purchase anything from the iTunes store, your in luck. Apple is trying to bring you in by offering a free HD episode of some popular shows.

If you like these shows follow the links to watch for free, but hey, even if you don't like them, watch them ... it's free. Otherwise, most of these episodes are in standard def on Hulu.com if you want to just check them out.

|Source: Posterous via Digg|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 08:33 AM September 11, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apple as had their little press conference this morning and has broken out their updates. Firstly, they have released a brand new ipod nano with a new sleek design and sleek colors to boot (pretty much the same design that has been hinted about online for the past few weeks). After that they released a new iTouch with external volume control and a new compatibility with Nike+ devices. Next they have brought out iTunes 8.0 which adds the Genius system and a few stylization options. The Genius system apparently recommends iTunes music based on your current category of files (similar to online radio, such as last.fm and Pandora). And coming in fourth is the brand spanking new 2.1 firmware for the iTouch (iPhone version coming on Friday).

There should be a plethora of information coming out in the next few days, with reviews and demos a plenty (none from here) so keep your eyes open if you would like to get your appetite wet.

|Source: via Engadget|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 06:08 PM September 09, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

If you've been catching up on your hybrid car knowledge in the past few months you may have heard that a plethora of changes are expected to pop up in the next year or so. The turn from Honda was quietly announced to be a sub $19,000 hybrid which would be rolled into production next spring. It looks as though that info has been backed up by Car Magazine's publishing of these photos. It appears as though the car is in its road testing stages, pitted against the Toyota Prius for performance.

If you remember the early days of hybrids, the original Insight hit the scene in 1999 with an astounding ~60mpg EPA rating (later realistically dropped to ~50mpg) although some drivers maintain their car can get up to ~80mpg with proper driving techniques/weight. But unlike the original Insight, this version 2 model will come as a 4 door sedan which looks very similar to the Prius. It's especially nice to see that they've completely forgotten the over the back wheel, cover concept they were toting with the first generation.

The new model will probably be just a little more efficient than the Civic Hybrid, but will be around $2,000 cheaper with the help of a new IMA (Integrated Motor Assist) system that is 50% cheaper to make. They're only planning on producing about 100,000 models in the first year, so if your interested, I'd start hoping that no one else will be.

|Source: via DailyTech| 

Posted by Scott Stephen at 09:39 AM September 04, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

There were a couple of small rumblings about Google and a new web browser this morning, and now it looks like it is official. Google has released Chrome, a beta web browser for anyone with a Windows XP/Vista OS. The browser is open source and based off of elements from Mozilla's Firefox and Apples WebKit. This seems to be a pet project of some Google engineers that wanted to have their own layout for the multitude of programs they have online.

One the most interesting (and only) tidbits of information about the browser is that it's tabs will be run independently of each other so as to prevent crashing across the browser itself. If anyone of you has tried to load video in multiple tabs of Firefox 3.0, you well know this can be a problem. Other than that, it seems they built a new version of JavaScript to help with future developments.

It is likely that this could someday be a central solution to house all of your Google software, but for now it is simply a base browser. And since Google Mail has been in beta for about 5 years now, don't expect them to release a complete version very soon.

If your a brave sole (intentional misspelling) and choose to download the Beta, let us know what you think of it in the comments and we'll do the same.

|Source: via Gizmodo|

Posted by Scott Stephen at 01:01 PM September 02, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)