Powerbook To Desktop Mod

Macmod.com are showcasing a cool mod, which takes a Powerbook and turns it into a Desktop Unit ... the Modder, Richard Hunt, was quite ingenious, as he figured out how to get the Powerbook to work without the neccessary hardware around it. Like reconnecting the trackpad and glueing a tiny magnet over the sensor which lets the machine know the lid is closed. Richard states "that a USB keyboard, mouse and monitor must be connected otherwise the machine closes itself down." The Mod has it’s own built-in UPS because it still retains the original laptop battery. The machine also runs cooler, due to the extra space.

RIAA Face Another Blow In Their Legal Campaign

The RIAA's legal campaign has been fought under the assertion that making a file available for download is the same as infringement of copyright under the copyright act. According to Ars Technica; There have only been a couple of decisions addressing the question so far. One that came down today in Atlantic v. Howell is the biggest rejection yet to the RIAA's "making available equals infringement" argument, as a federal judge has denied the labels' motion for summary judgment, setting the stage for a trial later this year. The latest judgement is a big blow to their ongoing battle against the little guys ... going against soft targets like Mr. Mrs. or Ms. Average, isn't winning them any wars or friends ... they need to go after the big infringers and rethink their approach to IP.

Microsoft Announces Xbox 360 Price Cuts For Some Eastern Markets

Microsoft announced that they will be discounting the Xbox 360 in four of its five Asian markets. They are hoping that this will continue expand their market share. There are currently over 19 million Xbox owners.

Apple Fall Foul Of DOD

Apples planned acquisition of chip-design firm P.A. Semi appear to have raised some concern with the Department of Defense. P.A. Semi's chips are used by all branches of the armed services. P.A. Semi informed several current customers that it was due to be acquired and that it could not guarantee future supplies of its chips. EETimes has stated that P.A. Semi's high-performance, low-cost PWRficient CPU is used in at least 10 Defense systems.

Yahoo Social Networking

Yahoo appear to be making noise about moving into social networking in a big way ... with properties like Flickr and del.icio.us they certainly have everything in place to do something interesting. Yahoo's CTO Ari Balogh unveiled the "Yahoo Open Strategy," at the Web 2.0 Expo conference in San Francisco. With over 500 million users of their various services they certainly have a good base for any launch they make ... hopefully they'll be smart about the privacy issues and the ease of use of their system. It begs to ask though ... do we really need another social network?

Wearable Keyboard - Jeans

Designed by Erik De Nijs, these jeans feature a built-in keyboard that's Bluetooth-enabled. The jeans also have sewn in speakers, a pocket made especially for your mouse and a "joystick controller" found, dangerously, behind the front zipper. Talk about playing with fire ... you'll probably get arrested wearing these if you play with the joystick. Back to the drawing board with this one boys... pretty ugly looking if you ask me.

Western Digital Release VelociRaptor VR150 Hard Drive

This new drive from western digital is a 10,000 RPM SATA Drive specifically targeted at enthusiasts. The VelociRaptor VR150 as it is known is a 2.5" drive mounted inside a heatsink that slides into a standard 3.5" drive bay. This baby is a powerhouse but don't look for it to appear in any laptops quite yet.

XP SP3 RTM - April 29th Availability

Microsoft have confirmed that they have released XP Service Pack 3 to manufacturing. It will also be in Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center on April 29th.

Goodmans Release iPod Dock with 7″ Display

Goodmans have released a new iPod Dock featuring a 7" LCD Display. The GIPDV701 will display your video, films and photos from both your iPod, supports JPG, MP3 and MPEG-4 playback and the integrated 3 in 1 card reader adds more flexibility. It also features a remote control and a 12V car adapter. The unit will have an SRP of £89.99.

Xara Release Version 4 of Xara Xtreme and Xara Xtreme Pro

Xara Xtreme and Xtreme Pro have been updated to Version 4. Xara is one of the fastest and easiest creative tools to use. The flexibility of Xara Xtreme with its raster and vector capabilities is something worth trying. It is capable of drawing faster than pretty much any other package out ther. You can create 3D text, edit photos non destructively, create wysiwyg websites and even export flash animations. It also supports Photoshop plug-ins. Pop on over to the Xara Website to find out more and download a demo.

PluggedIn Beta May Be A Waste Of Time For UK Users

Ars Technica have covered a new music video site called PluggedIn which offers HD and High Quality Music Videos. I was intrigued by this so I joined ... I found it a nice looking site, except for the fact that it is a complete waste of time for anyone in the UK as far as I can tell, because every video I click on tells me "oops, The content is not licensed for distribution outside the US and Canada." There might be content which works, but so far I haven't found it. What kind of nonsense is that? Oh yeah, I forgot it probably has something to do territorial distribution rights or licensing agreements, I guess. I clicked on Amy Winehouse, (who is a British artist by the way), and was told the same thing. The problem is that sites like this should be smart enough to filter out content by territory and only show that which is available in the territory from which the visitor comes. Not hard to do when they ask you to enter most of the relevant details in the membership page. Companies like PluggedIn should be a lot smarter in their implementation of their concepts and also start thinking in a truly global fashion rather than territorially. Get with the times folks ... stop wasting my time with ill conceived and poorly implemented websites.

Phone Home Computers Thwart Thieves

Silicon.com are featuring a nice little story about how british police have recovered a number of stolen computers which feature security protection in the form of phone home software. One of the best forms of this software is the kind which resides in the systems bios and thus it can work independent of the OS. This means that the thieves can't easily wipe it from the computer because it doesn't reside on the hard drive.

Transformers USB Hub

Everything USB have posted a news article, featuring a USB Hub based on the All-Spark from Transformers. The four port hub is powered from the host machines USB port. The All-Spark Hub may be cool to look at but it's certainly not for the space conscious. The Hub will sell for about £17.99 when it becomes available in August from Forbidden Planet.

Shuttles New XPC Features Blu-ray/HD-DVD Drive

The XPC G5 6801M is the new HD based from Shuttle. It features an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ processor, 2GB of DDR2 800MHz RAM, a 320GB hard drive, LG's GGC-H20L Blu-ray / HD DVD combo drive, an ATI HD 3450 graphics card with 256MB, a DVB-T tuner, a 25-in-1 multicard reader and 7.1-channel audio output. The XPC is also equipped with 802.11a/b/g, gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, USB / eSATA ports, DVI / VGA out with a DVI-HDMI adapter included and even comes with a nice remote to control all this media goodness. The unit can be had for $1,727 (about £988 ), if you only want Blu-ray without HD-DVD then you can get the unit for $264 less (about £135). For more info visit Shuttle.

The Saitek PK17U Cyborg Gaming Keyboard

Talk about tech for the Terminator, but this keyborad from Saitek looks totally the part. A keyboard designed for hardcore gaming and it is definitely not for the weak of heart. The bezel above the keys is illuminated and provides feedback on audio and mode settings. The keyboard has 3 different backlight colors, which are adjustable and can even be mixed in different color combinations. Key features include: Multi-colour backlighting with Tru Vu illumination through keys (mix shades from Red through Amber to Green) and adjustable brightness. Touch-sensitive, backlit dashboard control panel WASD, cursor, ‘Cyborg’ and NumPad keys can be lit independently from the rest of keyboard to highlight commonly used gaming keys Cyborg Mode – instantly disable the Windows keys and configure the colour and brightness of your gaming keys at the touch of a button Set and forget – persistent key illumination settings ensure colours remain even after a system reboot 12 programmable ‘Cyborg’ keys Hard wearing, metal-plated key caps in key gaming areas Pass-through USB, audio and microphone sockets Enhanced multiple key presses in gaming areas for complex in-game commands Adjustable wrist rest and keyboard rake angle (front and back) Gold-plated connectors for USB and Audio The keyboard is USB 2.0 compliants and is compatible with Windows XP, XP64 and Windows Vista. The PK17U can be preordered from amazon.com today... SRP of Approx $80.

Dell To Release Ultra Portable

Several Sites are reporting that Dell are rumoured to be producing an Ultra Portable in the same class as the new HP Mini-Note. This class of PC is not something for the power user but definitely has a place in lifestyle based computing products. The small form factor and decent computing power make the units ideal for the user who want to keep in touch without the compromise of using a mobile phone and its limited browser...

Nokia's "Tube" - An iPhone Challenger.

Nokia showed a potential challenger to the iPhone late last year. The teaser has since been followed up this week with more images and a little bit more info prompting some speculation on the capabilities of their unit, strangely codenamed "Tube" and no doubt able to compete with the iphone on more than just a touch screen based interface and media support, including Java which is still absent (but promised via Sun) on the iPhone.

MID Prototypes Covered By Slashgear

Thanks to Slashgear for a lead to a blog posting which takes an interesting look at several Mobile Internet Devices in prototype form. The photos at the feature page look pretty cool. Featured in the shots are the Lenovo U8 MID, the Aigo MID both of which are shown alongside a Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC, a Fujitsu Lifebook UMPC and Josh Bancroft's personal iPhone. The blog is well worth a read.

Apple iPhone 3G In 2 Months

According to a report at Gizmodo UK the new 3G iPhone will be in stores sometime in June. Tech pundit, Walt Mossberg, from the Wall St. Journal, stated “We all know that when the iPhone came out, it became crystal-clear that you were going to be able to carry in your pocket something that would give you a very good video experience. But again, broadband on these mobile phone networks is limited and I'm not talking about the fact that iPhone isn't 3G, it will be 3G in 60 days.” As Gizmodo inferred, Walt may not be Jobs, but he's that connected that you can be fairly certain he knows what he's talking about.

N-Gage Gaming Launched For Phones

Nokia have finally launched their N-Gage mobile games service. The service will allow Nokia users to download some cool games for their mobile phones. Currently only the Nokia N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95 and N95 8GB phones will be supported. But this will be extended to the N73, N93 and N93i in short order. Nokia are allowing users to try all of the games before buying and games will cost between £4.75 and £8. Multiplayer Gaming will be supported through the N-Gage Arena community and they will be able to join forums, use live chat and take part in tournaments. The crop of games will include EA Sports’ FIFA 08, Brain Challenge and Asphalt 3: Street Rules, World Series of Poker Pro Challenge, Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep and System Rush: Evolution. Soon to be followed by Tetris and The Sims 2 Pets, Block Breaker Deluxe, Dogz, Snakes Subsonic, Space Impact: Kappa Base and Mile High Pinball. Visit the N-Gage Website for more information.

BPI Recognises DRM As Problematic

In recent comments the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Ltd have recognised that the usage of DRM is counterproductive and a burden on the consumer and industry. Jollyon Benn, internet investigations executive is reported to have said: "We have now got to a stage where people are replacing those first-generation MP3 players and if they are unable to listen to their recordings because they are bound to a particular DRM they are going to get pretty fed-up." This is good news because the consumer has often been burdened with the problem of updating their hardware when the industry decides its time to migrate to a new format. How many of us still own vinyl and tapes that we can play anymore. however the context in which this statement was made was linked very closely to the recent shift in sale of DRM free content by the major labels and the efforts by the industry to come up with better intellectual property protection and anti piracy policies. Thanks to Silicon.com for the quote.

Adobe To Release CS4 64Bit Editions

Adobe have announced that they will be releasing their CS4 line in 64Bit Versions. They will not however be releasing the Mac OS X version in 64Bit until after the Windows Version. Where the 32 bit versions can generally only currently support 3-4 GB depending on the OS and application. After Effects supports up to 2 GB per processor on a multicore machine by assigning different processes to different cores. The 64-bit versions of Windows and Mac OS X 10.5 will potentially be able to access up to a theoretical limit of over 17 billion GB of RAM.

XP Available Till 2010

Microsoft have announced that Windows XP Home will be available to OEMs until at least June 2010. Microsoft is very clearly recognisisng that consumers and manufacturers are not seeing much in the way of benefit in migrating to Windows Vista. I still haven't seen it necessary to use Vista on my boxes and laptop.

Judge kills RIAA subpoena: making available isn't infringement

Judge Nancy Gertner quashed an RIAA subpoena which wanted the identities of students at Boston University, who were accused of copyright infringement. She said that, contrary to the RIAA's belief, "Merely because the defendant has 'completed all the steps necessary for distribution' does not necessarily mean that a distribution has actually occurred," ... "As noted above, merely exposing music files to the Internet is not copyright infringement." This is a blow to the RIAA's campaign of going after the little guy... for more information read the original article over at Ars Technica

Intel Showing 3.2 GHz Nehalems

Intel's Nehalem chips were being shown at the Intel Developer Forum in China this week. Although final performance figures havent been released yet, quad-core samples have been rated at 3.2GHz. Nehalem chips are expected to give a 30 percent performance increase against Core 2 processors at similar clock speeds. Nehalem processors will be core-scalable from two to eight execution cores on a single socket. The architecture's simultaneous multi-threading will support anything from four to 16 computing threads.