gadget news and reviews

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (22) +

MSN Maps | Google Maps | Windows Vista | DVD-PSP | Playstation 05

1) Microsoft launches MSN Virtual Earth to compete with Google Maps. Their new product has satellite images of most areas throughout the U.S. and of course maps. It is hard to tell which service is better because MSN has better images in some areas, while Google has better ones in other places. MSN Virtual Earth is also includes satellite images with an overlay of maps on top. (Google does the same see #2). MSN also offers some tracking tools to find out your current location by using your IP address. (It is probably still in BETA because it tracked my location to Virginia when I was in California!) This service existed before (and still exists) and was called Terraserver, but has been given a new look and interface.
Link: MSN Virtual Earth | MSN Maps | Terraserver
Related: MapQuest | Map24 | Google Maps

2) Google just launched Hybrid maps. When you visit Google Maps, you will have another option next to “Maps” and “Satellite” called “Hybrid”. If you click on this, you will now see a Satellite image in the background, but an overlay of maps on top. This works normally just as the other two would but makes it much easier that switching back and forth between Maps and Satellite.
Link: Google Maps | Google Earth (aka: Keyhole)
Related: GlobeXplorer | MSN Virtual Maps

3) Microsoft announces the official name for their next operating system called “Windows Vista,” (previous codename: Longhorn). The expected launch time is mid-2006. Microsoft didn’t state that there were any amazing unique features, but it is suppose to be faster, more secure, and better organized.
Link: Microsoft Windows Vista Offical Home Page
Related: Anncoucement Video | Google News

4) DVD -> PSP – I have been ripping my DVDs and converting them to a format compatible with the PSP for a while now and I was planning to write up an article on the entire process, but it is no longer needed. Someone has gone through the process of created a flash animated video of the entire process. To complete this you will need DVD Decrypter or DVD Shrink and PSPVideo9. I use a 1GB card, which is recommended. There are many alternatives to this method, but I found this one the easiest! (Also see Memory Stick Deals)
Link: DVD 2 PSP Guide (Direct Link) | via digg
Downloads: DVD Shrink | DVD Decrypter | PSPVideo9

5) PS3 and PSP – If you didn’t get a chance to see the “Sony Playstation 2005 Meeting” post, take a look! There is a lot of information on what levels Sony is taking the current PSP to. They are releasing a new White PSP and on July 27th 2005, everyone can update their PSP to v2.0. This will have a built in Web Browser, downloadable movies, and plenty of other features. (see the previous post for the full scoop) Sony has also announced that the PS3 has a definite launch date of spring 2006; they have already started to distribute the development kits so the expected date is likely.
Link: Sony Playstation Meeting (previous post)

Other:
Microsoft Virtual Desktop Manager
Netflix/TiVo Download Service Soooon

Sony PlayStation Meeting 2005 1

Sony had a lot of major announcements for their PSP product line. The first major announcement was the WHITE PSP. (More images @ bottom) The second announcement was the major firmware upgrade on all units to v2.0.

The White PSP (PSP-1000KCW) will sell for ~$220, which is pretty much the same price that the black unit was priced at. The PSP will only be on the market in Japan by September 15th, but there is no launch date for the American or European market. The unit doesn’t seem to have any hardware upgrades or modifications other than the color change. The value pack will still include a battery pack, a headset, headset controller, a cloth, power charger, arm strap, 32MB card, and a white soft case.

The Firmware v2.0 is a major update, while v1.0 to v1.5 were mainly security and minor bug fixes. 2.0 will include a mini browser, which accessible directly from the homepage. It will support HTML 4.01, which will work with many websites. (the game Wipeout Pure is no longer needed) The PSP will also support downloading Mp4 videos wirelessly by accessing Sony’s web portal. This site will offer TV programs and other videos (& music) for download. Sony also enabled a feature, which will allow transferring/sharing files (photos, music, and videos) from one PSP to another using the built in WiFi using the Ad Hoc mode.

Another major update may be the ability for it to play AAC (Apple’s Codec), which means that it might support the iTunes music store. It also supports Mp3, ATRAC, ATRAC 3, PCM, and WAV. Other features include jump and A-B functions for UMD Videos and Music, animated thumbnails, wallpaper selection, and theme settings. The PSP will also support viewing of TIFF, GIF, PNG, and BMP after the update. Once SonicStage 3.2 (Sonic Stage 3.2 uses Connect Music Store) is released, it will support transferring music to the all Magic Gate enabled Memory Stick Duo Pro cards. And finally, the PSP will support WPA for accessing secured networks. (Already supports WEB 64 & 128 Bit)

The update will be available in 7 days (July 27, 2005). It can be installed either through the auto update feature (via WiFi), downloading through Sony’s website (then via USB), or by placing a new UMD game into it.

Update: Here are some more pix PSP Accessories, PSP on a Website, PSP Downloading Videos, and PSP downloaded Videos!

Update: Download a video of the PSP Web Browser in Action and watch them download a video from the web and play it. Windows Media (15.3 MB) | Apple QuickTime (27.2 MB)

Link: Engadget | MAC World | BETA News | SCEI (EN)
Related: Hack My PSP (More PSP News)

Software Up-Dates (3) 2

1) Firefox & Thunderbird 1.0.6 – Mozilla released another update for both Firefox and Thunderbird making both programs v1.0.6. They released such a quick update because v1.0.5 contained a buggy API, which didn’t allow many extensions to function properly. Only update if your extensions aren’t working, but there aren’t any other updates since 1.0.5.
Link: Mozilla.org | Firefox (changelog) | Thunderbird (changelog)
Related: Firefox and Thunerbird 1.0.5

2) MSN Messenger v7.5 BETA – Microsoft is currently testing a major update to the current v7.0. Some new features include voice clips (15-sec clips), new sign-on screen (sign on invisibly), and re-named buttons. This doesn’t say much, but they most likely also fixing major security flaws and bugs even though they haven’t announced any more yet.
Link: MSN Messenger | BETA News
Related: Gaim | Trillian

3) AOL Explorer 1.1… (BETA) AOL is working on a web browser to compete with IE, Firefox, and Mozilla. It currently includes a pop-up blocker, spyware scanner, tabbed browsing and a desktop search. I highly doubt this will become popular, they are just trying to get into the desktop search field, which Google, MSN, and Yahoo! are already in, and also going for a brand new browser, which IE makes up about 90% (FF is about 10%).
Link: AOL Explorer BETA | BETA News
Related: AOL Media Player | AIM Trition

4) Google Earth FREE Edition 3.0… BETA is out. This is an update to the previous version that had a few bugs. It is an amazing program, which should be installed by everyone. It had 3D images of many major cities and is gathering more and more satellite images from around the world every day! Google Maps also now covers more maps from around the world.
Link: Google Earth | Google Maps
Related: Google Labs | GlobeXplorer

5) QuickTime 7.0 Windows Public Preview 2 is now available. Apple has fixed many bugs since pre-1. It’s most important feature is the ability to play H.264, a video codec, which allows playing HD level content at low data rates. The file size is also suppost to be smaller than other formats of HD.
Link: Apple Quicktime | Windows Preview 2
Related: iTunes 4.9 w/ Podcasting Support

Note: (if you don’t already know) 2day is another FREE SKYPEOUT DAY

Mailinator Beats Dodgeit 4

When you visit a website and they ask you to enter your email address, most are afraid to give away their email address. So thats when DodgeIt became popular. Whenever you are in that situation again just type in any email @dodgeit.com (ex: abcd@dodgeit.com). Now to go check that message just go to DodgeIt.com and and enter the username you had choosen and your messages will appear. There were some major problems with this service:

1. Because of the popularity, too many users started to slow down their servers. And it would take forever to for a message to appear in your inbox, or just to get there. And last loading even plain text messages take a long time.
2. Then also once you get there most messages would be distorted. Images and links do not appear and the messages appears in plain text, so no links work. It also leaves the message in an unformated view, which is very hard to read.

Now a new very similar service is available called Mailinator. This site is fast, looks good, and gets you to your messages right away! They also have a feature which generates random email address for you if you can’t think of what to choose. The only single disadvantage I found with this service was the lack of RSS feeds, which Dodgeit provides. This site works pretty much the same way just choose an address @mailinator.com and go to their website and enter the name you choose and view your messages.

Note: Make sure you do not use this for any personal sites. This is because these inboxes are 100% open to the public and anyone can see what you can see. If you’d like to be more careful just create an extra Yahoo or Hotmail inbox and use that to send your spam to!

Link: Mailinator | DodgeIt
Previous Posts: DodgeIt (11/27/04)
Related: Hotmail | Yahoo

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (21) +

1) Yahoo releases a new version of Yahoo Desktop Search BETA. It now supports searching through Mozilla Thunderbird emails. It also does Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Text, PDF (inside), Music (album/artist), Instant Messages (Y!M), and Images.
Link: Yahoo Desktop Search
Related: MSN Desktop | Google Desktop

2) Panaroma image of the Live 8 concert in Philly! Also use AutoStitch to make your own panaroma images with any standard digital camera. Also can use PhotoShop or other stitch enabled programs.
Link: Make your own | Live 8 Pan | AutoStitch
Related: Adobe Photoshop | www.ONE.org

3) TiVo – Convert shows transfered to your computer using TiVo2Go into RAW MPEG with this program. Direct Show Dump requires TiVo 2 Go to be installed and it uses some “filters” to dump the show into an DRM free video. Note: there has been some recent problems with people not able to access TiVo 2 Go it has nothing to do with what this artice is about, but some update seems to have corrupted many people’s TiVo which is not allowing transfers.
Link: DirectShow Dump | PSPVideo9 (.tivo 2 .mp4 for PSP)

4) ODEO.com – An amazing podcast management website. How it works: register, choose the podcast you want to listen to, if it isn’t on the list submit the RSS feed yourself, listen to the feed on their website using a flash script, or install their little application that automatically downloads all the podcasts you have subscribed to. Very nice web interface, it allows the creaters of the podcast to insert links, logos, and customize the feed to their liking.
Link: ODEO | Top 40 | Sahas Katta on ODEO

5) Verizon and Sprint are teaming up to allow all their customers to send text, picture, and video messages to eachother. In the past only sending messages within a network was supported, but this is all changing now. T-Mobile has made an agreement with Cingular/At&t to allow the same features to be shared. It won’t take long until all the major provides agree and allow compatibility among themselves.
Link: Wireless Week | digg | +digg

Updates:
Skype v1.3.0.57 (free voip)
Thunderbird 1.05 (trash MS Outlook)
Firefox 1.0.5 (trash MS IE)

Recent Media:
From The Shadows BOX 4
Command-N 5.0
DiggNation Video #2
DiggNation Audio #3
Systm 3.0 filming has begun
TWiT #13 is OUT – dl – (Yoshi is on #14)

Others:
Google just updated their popular Adsense control panel. It now has a new theme and has many items re-arranged. They also have a preview of recent earnings as soon as you long in. – link

Sony beats Apple in race for selling the most portable flash audio devices. The Sony NW line beats the iPod shuffle in style, performance, features, and battery life. – link

Note: I have many new posts comming soon! some include OLED Keyboard, DVDs on PSPs, a PSP exploit video, Mp3 Player review, and ONE.org bands.

Firefox & Thunderbird 1.0.5 +

Mozilla released Firefox 1.0.5 on 07/12/05 and Thunderbird 1.0.5 on 07/13/05. Mozilla made many security fixes and stablilty impovements for both programs. These fixes will make both programs safer. The most critical fixes had to do with javascript spoofing. This has lead to people visiting homebanking and other similar sites that actually look exactly allike and even show the correct URL, but is not real. I think everyone should update to the latest version as soon as possible. In the future Mozilla updates will be much easier becuase it won’t be required to download the entire program each time you update. They will start to launch “patches”instead of full installs after v1.1 is released.
Link: Mozilla.org | Firefox (changelog) | Thunderbird (changelog)

Y2k38 Bug Has Started 17

The Y2k38 bug was detected a few months ago, but there was no actual testing done to prove that this will affect our current computers. Now this bug can actually start to cause some damage. To test this we can try using any chatting client either AOL Messenger , MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Trillian, or Gaim will do. As for my testing this bug affected all of these applications (windows). To test these for yourself do the following: First double click on the time in the bottom right-hand corner. Change the date to something after January 19, 2038 (2039 is fine!). Now start up any of the chatting clients mentioned above. Try sending a message to someone else (or to yourself if it supports it). As soon as you do this, the entire program should crash within a few seconds and will display some sort of error message. It will then bring up a message asking to send an error report or debug. (The only application I tested that actually survived this bug was Skype. It just let me send the message to who ever I want and it never complained, but the rest crashed.) From the actual technical problem, apparently as soon as the year 2038 strikes, all certain computers will immediately get confused and switch the date to December 13, 1901 from January 2038. Please post any other programs you have experienced this problem with in the comments. Hope people don’t wait until the last minute to find a solution to this problem.

Update: Here are some more links Project 2038 | 2038 Bug | …

Free SkypeOut Day Is Here! +

Today, 07/11/05, is the first Free SkypeOut Day! To get your free 10 mins of calls just logon to the “My Account” page throught the link below and then click on “Get Your Free Skype Gift.” After a few mins log into Skype and you should have 10 mins of calling credit. This will allow making as many calls as you wish to anywhere in the world. This offer will end at the end of the day so go signup as soon as possible. If you do get this offer you will be allowed to save this credit for as long as you wish.
Link: Skype | Get Skype | My Account | Calling Rates

NeWs Up^2-DaTe (20) +

1) Yahoo! launches SMS services for all mobile phones that support text messaging. This is a complete copy of Google’s TXT 2 46645=Googl, which never gained popularity. And Yahoo’s is 92466=Yahoo. Sending a SMS to either of these numbers with “pizza 95030″ for example, would send you a message back in a few seconds with the 3 closest places. It will include NAME, PHONE #, ADDRESS, and WEBSITE URL as a part of the reply. Also can receive Weather (w Area Code), Dictionary (Define CAR), Horoscope (HOR Aries), Find WiFi (WiFi Area Code), and Zip Codes (Zip Code Boston). (P.S. Services are free, only your service provider may charge you for use of text messages.)
Link: More ShortCuts | Yahoo! Mobile Demo | Google Mobile

2) Google just added a Currency Conversion feature into their search results! Just type in 5 USD in GBP and you will get an instant conversion of how many British Pounds are equal to 5 US Dollars. It will convert most currencies into others. (see link 4 more details) Google also released their official Firefox toolbar. (still in beta)
Link: Google Conversion | Google FF Toolbar

3) Free SkypeOut Days! [via digg] On Free SkypeOut Days anyone can redeem 10 minutes of SkypeOut credit for free. There will be 4 Free SkypeOut days this month (July 05). You will see a “get a free Skype gift buttton” on your account page so keep looking!
Link: digg story | Free Skype Days

4) Gaim 1.4.0 released on (07/08/05). Has many important bug fixes so update to this version as soon as you can. They also have a GTK version out now so you will get the update when you install the new version.
Link: Download Gaim | Full ChangeLog

5) LG gets liscensing to use PALM OS in their new SmartPhones. These phones will be the first phones to be using a Linux-Based PAlm OS. They decided to go with Palm after they were having trouble developing their own programs that acts as PDAs. They do not know any specific details on the phones that will be using this, but they expect the first phones of this kind to be released in 2006.
Link: PC World Article
Related: Sony Erricsson & Napster Team Up

Others:
TWiT 12 is out!
London Bomb Blasts [via Flickr]
Logitech PlayGear Pocket 4 PSP Review [via PSP 411]
DiggNation Podcast & Vidcast are here

FreePSPs.com WORKS 6

I had created a FreeiPods.com account a few months ago, hoping to get a free iPod, which seemed unlikely at the time. After a while, the site was reviewed by TechTV and they proved that the site worked when they recieved a brand new unit. The company (Gratis Network) was soon investigated by eTrust because of the popularity. eTrust found that the company was legit and now they are a trusted company running a legit bussiness. (Gratis is also the creator of Free PSP, iPod (mini), iPod Shuffle, mini MAC, 360 xBox, ect.) After this occured I just signed up to the Free PSPs site and completed an offer. I soon after placed a link on few message boards, fourms, and on this site as well. Now after a few months I have gotten 5 people to signup through the refferal links and complete their own offer. Gratis Network has shipped my PSP and it will be here in 2 days! I will be posting the results of the shippment soon!

Update: I GOT IT (IMAGE) It is brand new and is just as good as the original PSP I had purchased when it was launched. Only difference is that they do not include a SpiderMan-2 DVD because this unit was not one of the first ONE MILLION units to have been shipped.

How It Works: First go to Gratis Network’s site and find a product that you would want. Then sign up through a link that any of your friends are using, or find one online to help some one out. (if you absolutley don’t want to help anyone out then just sign up directly on their site. note: it dosen’t affect you to sign up through someone else’s link, you’re just helping someone on the way.) Now go through the signup process truthfully and complete an offer which seems to have no catches. (look for an offer from a big company, and see the how long you will need to be with them and how much you will need to pay. tip: choose the shortest timed offer that has free trials. you are allowed to cancel once you stay the minimum time.) You may at the same time start spreading that refferal url (free_____.com/?r=______) to all your friends. Just be patient, and you will get what you want soon!

Link: Gratis Networks | iPod(s) | PSP

SignUp Links: (please only signup using the links below if you know you are going to complete the offers. So first signup with the link, then post a comment below stating which link you used and your refferal link. Once the person at the top receives his item I will then remove them from the list. Also if you can see that enough people have signed up to the url from the top then go down the list and find someone that dosen’t have too many. Please include email address you used to signup.)

FreeiPodShuffle: http://www.FreeiPodShuffle.com/?r=15315533
FreexBox360: http://www.Free360XBOX.com/?r=18681070