scattered technology news

Intel Mac Mini & iPod Hi-Fi - Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Today (February 28, 2006), Apple announced two new products at a special Apple event. The first product was an Intel based Mac mini (Intel Core processors) and the second was a stereo system called the iPod Hi-Fi (compatible with all iPods). Another minor release was $99 leather cases for the iPod nano & video.

“Fifty percent of our entire product line is now available with Intel processors, in less than sixty days,” - Steve Jobs, Apple CEO

Two versions of the Intel Core Mac Mini were announced. The first one has a 1.5GHz Intel Single Core processor, 60GB hd, DVD/CDRW, and costs $599. The second edition has a 1.67GHz Intel Dual Core processor, 80GB hd, dual-layer DVD±RW/CDRW, and costs $799. Both have 512MB of ram and an Intel 64MB graphics card. They also have WiFi, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 400, and more. The Mac Mini now has an infrared port for the remote which controls the Front Row program that it now includes. Front Row allows easy access to photos, music, and movies; a new feature now allows sharing content across networks.

The second product was the iPod Hi-Fi. The Hi-Fi is a stereo set, which as a dock atop to connect either the iPod nano or video. (iPod shuffle can be plugged in using a port on the back) When the iPod is plugged in, the backlight will be turned on and album art will be displayed. (will also charge your iPod) The Hi-Fi can also run on 6 D-cell batteries, but is unlikely most will carry such large speakers around. (17″x 6.6″x 6.9″) This is pretty much an expensive Apple branded pointless speaker set to compete with 3-party devices. Read More

Royale Theme For XP - Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Tried of the boring old Windows XP theme? Want something new? You can now make any Windows XP Home or Pro machine look like the Windows Media Center Edition’s glossy theme. (called “Royale”) Microsoft has created a small shell file extension. The download and installation files are only about 2mb. The theme may take up slightly more memory than the standard XP theme, but is probably un-noticeable.

To install, download the .exe provided below and when it asks you where to install the files make sure “C:\WINDOWS” is selected. If you choose “C:\WINDOWS” the files will automatically be placed in the “Resources” Folder in you computer. To activate the theme just right-click on you desktop -> Properties -> Appearance -> Windows and Buttons -> select [Media Center Style]. Hit apply and wait a momment it to fully load.

Download: RoyaleThemeForXP.exe
Related: Microsoft PowerToys

Update: Black Royale Theme Now Available

Windows Vista In 6 Editions - Monday, February 27, 2006

Microsoft has just announced that there will be six editions of Windows Vista available to the public. A recent accidental release by Microsoft indicated there would be eight editions, but Microsoft has stated that was a publishing error. Three of the six will be for home users, while the other two will be for business users. Because of European copyright laws, Microsoft will have to release another edition of Vista without Windows Media Player for some countries. (Not U.S.) The launch date nor the pricing for the new operating system has not been set yet, but is expected to be launched by the end of 2006.

The 6 Editions of Vista:

1. Vista Business - includes tools for large and small companies to organize and manage all computers more efficently
2. Vista Enterprise - all features of basic plus additional encryption for security and bitblocker to protect confidental data
3. Vista Home Basic - only for those that want: internet, email, word processing, search tools, and basic security
4. Vista Home Premium - all features of basic edition with new the aero theme and media center which links to xbox 360
5. Vista Ultimate - all the features of business and home in one package
6. Vista Starter - a low-cost edtion, which is cut down of most features and is target towards developing nations

Links: Microsoft Windows Vista
Related: Microsoft Windows XP

“PSP 2″ With 4GB Flash Soon? - Friday, February 24, 2006

Some new rumors indicate that Sony may be planning to release a new and improved edition of the PSP by the end of this year. The unit might be called the “PSP 2″ if it ends up to be a complete redo. (it will still probably be considered a first generation portable gaming device) These rumors indicate that the PSP will get 4GB of internal NAND flash storage, which will be provided by Samsung Electronics. They also claim that SCEA may also include a small camera into the unit to allow taking pictures, recording videos, and streaming content to others using WiFi. (it can stream to PS3) Many posts also indicate that the PSP may be cut down in size of the depth by a quarter inch.

If this rumor were true this would be a great step for Sony and they would have fixed the biggest drawback of the unit, storage space. The PSP would cost more because of the included 4GB of memory, but would be cheaper than purchasing a 4GB Memory Stick Pro Duo costs ~$300. Read More

More PlayStation 3 Info - Friday, February 17, 2006

Skatter Tech reported a few days ago that the Sony PlayStation 3 would have a built in hard drive. This information was partially false. Our source was a Business Week article, which claimed that the PS3 was loaded with some sort of hard drive. According to the PlayStation Global webpage the hard drive is suppose to be sold separately from the unit, which means it is either extenal or somehow goes into the unit. There is no word on this from SCEA yet, but if this is true we should expect that Sony will sell a bundle (aka. value pack) that includes a hard drive.

*Storage Media (HDD, “Memory Stick”, SD Memory Card, and Compact Flash) are sold separately. [From PlayStation.com]

No one still knows the official launch date for the unit, but many speculate that it would be some time between September and October because the unit was still buggy. All of the Sony’s PlayStation sites clearly state that the PS3’s launch date will be “Spring 2006″. Another clue backing the late launch comes from GameStop, a large video game retailer. The store has already posted a list of launch titles. All 32 of the games have a release date of 10/01/06. (Each game is priced at $59.99) Read More

How To Block Fasterfox Requests - Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Over the last few months the amount of visitors using Mozilla Firefox has grown to about 25%. The amount of bandwidth being used has also increased a large amount. Part of the reason behind this is that many Firefox users use an extension called “Fasterfox”. This extension “pre-fetches” links on a page so that if the user were to click on a link it would load much faster because its already been downloaded. This may be more convenient for viewer, but is a major problem for many webmasters who are low on bandwidth. Since Fasterfox constantly requests new files, it can cause many servers to overload much faster than if a person viewing the same content without Fasterfox were to view it.

Fasterfox is in fact one of the most popular extensions for Firefox. It is currently ranked as the 3rd most downloaded extension for Firefox on Mozilla Update page. (aka. Firefox Add-ons) The latest version of Fasterfox, v1.0.3, checks the for the robots.txt file on the site the viewer is visiting to check whether it should pre-fetch or not. This new feature allows webmasters to add the following text (in bold) to their robots.txt file to prevent Fasterfox from pre-fetching links. Text To Add To “robots.txt”:

1. User-agent: Fasterfox
2. Disallow: /

Adding these two lines somewhere in your robots.txt file and placing it in the root folder will prevent Fasterfox from pre-fetching links anywhere on your site. (ex: yourwebsite.com/robots.txt) Webmasters can modify the text so that Fasterfox will only be prevented from pre-fetching on specified directories. Still have questions? Ask us! (reply in the comments)

Links: Fasterfox | Firefox Add-ons
Related: “robots.txt” Tutorial
Recent: Firefox Extend Contest Finalists

A Faster MacBook Pro - Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Apple first announced the MacBook Pro in MacWorld in early January this year. This laptop was the first computer from Apple to be using an Intel Processor (Core Duo). The first two models Apple released offered either a 1.67 or a 1.83 GHz processor. The new faster model, which is now available on the Apple Store, has a 2.0 GHz processor. Apple also allows upgrading the 2.0 GHz processor to a 2.16 GHz processor for an additional $300. The 1.67 GHz model has been replaced with the 1.83 GHz model at no additional cost. Many will soon be upset with Apple for releasing a new MacBook Pro so fast and even before most pre-orders have even been shipped. Apple also stated that they would upgrade all the 1.67 GHz models that have not yet been shipped to a 1.83 GHz processor. More news should be released soon, so check back for updates.

Update: MacBook Pros are actually suppose to start to ship this week!

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Buy at Apple Store
Related: Apple Announces 1GB iPod Nano

Extend Firefox Contest Finalists - Monday, February 13, 2006

Mozilla recently held a contest for programmers to create the best extension they could for Firefox 1.5. They wanted to create incentives for developers to create extensions that would be useful to the majority of Firefox users. When the contest was over about 200 Extensions had been submitted to the contest. Only 18 finalists remain. Mozilla will give the Top 3 Winners prizes such as an AlienWare Aurora 7500 PC. Another 8 will receive an Apple iPod Nano and a $250 gift certificate. The 18 chosen Extensions are on Mozilla’s Add-Ons page. They have full descriptions of each item and screen shots of the program in action. The list below consists of the current 18 finalists. (Items on the list were accurate as of 02/13/06, however items may change. Check Mozilla’s page for updates.)

List of Extend Firefox Contest Finalists:

• Adblock - block most ads from webpages
• All-In-One SideBar - manage themes, extensions, and more…
• Deepest Sender - blog from FF to WordPress, Blogger, and more…
• DownThemAll - filter and download files from webpages
• Firefox Showcase - creates a gallery of open FF windows
• Forecastfox Enhanced - display weather forcasts in the toolbar
• Groowe Seach Toolbar - select from multiple popular toolbars
• IE Tab - view a page in IE in a Firefox Tab
• MyStickes - add sticky notes to any page
• PDF Download - asks to open, download, or view in HTML
• Platypus - modify & edit pages to meet your needs
• Reveal - thumbnail views, magnification, and a tab viewer
• Sage - a RSS and Atom reader, which runs from a sidebar
• ScrapBook - highlight, create notes, and save notes
• Separe - create tab separators to organize tabs better
• Viamatic foXose - view thumbnails of all open tabs
• Web Developer - tons of devlopment tools for web masters
• Wizz RSS Reader - another RSS/Atom feed reader

Links: Extend Firefox Finalists | Contest Info
Related: Firefox AddOns | Firefox 1.5.0.1

What’s your favorite extension? We want to know! Click Here

SoftWare Up-Dates (5) - Sunday, February 12, 2006

1) Firefox 1.5.0.1, the first security update for v1.5, has been released. To update if you already have v1.5 you no longer need to download an entire copy of Firefox. Just go to the toolbar and Help -> Check For Updates. This will automatically download a small patch and your program will be updated in a few seconds. If you still have an older version of Mozilla Firefox, please download a full copy from Mozilla.com. The update consists of security fixes, Mac OS X enhancements, and fixes of many memory leaks. (02/01/06)
Link: Get Mozilla Firefox | ChangeLog
Related: Mozilla ThunderBird

2) Digg just got a few new features: digg spy enhancements, mark stories “inaccurate”, and a profanity filter. Other features digg recently added include: an enhanced search and a “digg all” cloud. Digg has been continuously growing constantly, but is still about 60-70% the size of Slashdot. Skatter Tech was recently featured on digg and we received about 10,000 visitors in a day.
Links: Digg.com | My Digg Profile | DiggBlog

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Will Sony’s PS3 Have A HD? - Saturday, February 11, 2006

According to a new Business Week article, the upcoming Sony PlayStation 3 is supposed to have a built in Hard Drive. The author of the article had a chance to actually test out a BETA unit. He claimed that they were including plenty of internal storage space for storing media content such as music, photos, videos and more!

The PS3 would be way behind today’s standards if they decided to not include any type of internal storage on their unit. Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox360 both offered large amounts of storage space, although most do not make use of it. However, Sony’s PS3 is ahead in all other aspects as they use Bluetooth controllers, 1080p support, Blu-Ray Media, and plenty of other features including DVR support. Read More