2006 November - SlashGear

Archive for November, 2006

DIY Upgrade on PS3 HardDrive

Staff Editor, Nov 28th 2006 Discuss [0]

20GB and 60Gb is not enough for your storage on PS3? Well, You can easily upgrade a PS3 harddrive just by removing 5 screws. The PS3 Harddrive Is placed under a plastic flap on the side and can be easily pull out. T3 have posted up a video on how easy it is to get the harddrive replaced. A little DIY on your new shiny PS3 wont hurt :). [youtube o4GbkVJI9m4] DYI PS3 hard drive upgrade with only a screw driver [via gadgetell, t3]

How to Add External Wifi Antenna to Your Wii

Staff Editor, Nov 28th 2006 Discuss [0]

After lining up for hours, rushing and grabbing a Wii, you came home and plug it in and start it up with anxious expression on your face, and you try to connect your Wii to your wireless network and BAM! Signal is too low because your wireless access point is in your basement or too far away from your Wii. No worries, Seth Fogie from Informit just put up an article on how you can add an external antenna to your Wii to add some more signal juice to your Wii. It’s a very detail and comprehensive tutorial, so a little DIY will set your Wii’s wireless with a stronger reception signal. So hop on to the tutorial. Thanks Seth!

LCD Defects on Sony Digital Cameras

Staff Editor, Nov 28th 2006 Discuss [0]

Sony just can’t catch a break, on Friday Sony announced that some of the Cyber-shot digital cameras suffer from LCD defects. The estimated 4000 unit sold between September 2003 to January 2006 might be defective. The affected models are DSC-F88, DSC-M1, DSC-T1, DSC-T11, DSC-T3, DSC-T33, DSC-U40, and DSC-U50. Sony will be giving free repairs to those camera that has been affected by this defects. Sony: LCD Problem in Digital Cameras [via betanews]

Want Widescreen On Your ThinkPad T60? You Got It!

Staff Editor, Nov 28th 2006 Discuss [0]

After taking over IBM computing division, Lenovo steps into the market carrying the ThinkPad name, and they have done quite well improving ThinkPad lineup so far. Following the industry trend and consumer demand, Lenovo is adding widescreen as an option to its flagship T60 series laptop. The T60 weight only 5.1 pounds and will be available in 15.4 widescreen with WXGA and WSXGA+ resolutions. It uses Intel latest CPU, the Core 2 Duo and ATI Radeon mobility X1500 GPU. You can load up the memory on this laptop up to 4GB of DDR2 RAM. Other options on this laptop are Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR, 802.11N wireless, and 3GWWAN. The widescreen T60 is available today starting from $1399. Lenovo Adds Widescreen Option to ThinkPad T60 [via dailytech]

Next-Gen Consoles Become Museum Exhibit

Benjamin Nied, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

If you're one of the millions of people left out in the cold (literally) trying to obtain a next-generation gaming console last week, and you don't know any friends who had better luck, then the United Kingdom has your back. While the Wii isn't launching over in England for another two weeks (followed by a four-month wait for the PlayStation 3 in March), the Science Museum in London is hosting its Game On exhibition, highlighting games from the PDP-10 era to today's ultra-modern technology. Over 120 games will be available for people to play, so if you're still hankering for that Virtua Fighter fight or to see how weird the original Street Fighter was, head on over, since the exhibit will be running until the end of February. And if you live in the UK, the exhibit ends right before the PS3 comes out. Try before you buy? Game On [via IGN]

Interactive City Game uses GPS/Cellphone Wand

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

Having written already today about Nokia's attempts at augmented reality, here's another implementation of geo-aware interactivity. REXplorer is a permanent, pervasive game played in Regensburg, a German city with highly preserved medieval architecture. Players, usually students or tourists, use GPS-enabled "wands" each containing a modified Nokia N70 cellphone and Bluetooth GPS receiver to interact with historical and fictional characters and areas in the city. The brief to design and manufacture the wand-controllers was given to a group of students at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. It's an interesting concept, and has intriguing similarities to the Wiimote controller that Nintendo has grabbed so many headlines with lately. Project Wiki [via Pasta and Vinegar]

SlashGear Giveaway Update 2 – More Prizes!

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

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With more suggestions rolling in all the time, the generous folks over at SlingMedia are now offering not only a Slingbox AV but a Slingbox Tuner too! Retailing at $180, the Tuner makes it incredibly easy to watch your cable service anywhere you have internet access. You can read more about the Slingbox AV and the Slingbox Tuner over at SlingMedia.com, and you can enter the SlashGear giveaway here. Good luck!

SlashPhone Video: Helio Drift’s Google Maps & Buddy Beacon

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

Over at SlashPhone we've been looking a whole lot closer at Helio's GPS-enabled Frost White Drift, with some videos of the navigation, Buddy Beacon and MySpace functionality as well as a whole lot of opining. If you know what's good for you you'll head on over there and take a goosey-gander, alright chuck? SlashPhone Exclusive Videos of the Helio White Drift Google Map and Buddy Beacon [SlashPhone]

Optimus 103 suffers another set-back – keys to be monochrome

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [2]

First it lost ten keys, now it loses colour. Optimus have announced that their 103 keyboard, due to be opened up for pre-order (and have pricing revealed) on December 12th, will ship at first with monochrome keys rather than the full-colour mini-displays so far shown in all the renderings and promotional pictures. The wholescale "count me out!" wailing has begun in force over on their LiveJournal blog, where they broke the news that a colour version will only be released "later at a greater price". I'm throwing open the judgement on this one - who still wants a 103? While Optimus are probably right in that 95% of keyboard tasks only require black & white, personally the colour was an integral part of the "coolness" of the concept. Optimus 103 Displays [Optimus Project]

Sony Ericsson HCB-700: Car Handsfree

Karn Suriyasasin, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

Do you have trouble finding your phone while you are driving? Holding phone while you are driving is not only illegal in some countries but also hard and dangerous. That is why handsfree become handy. The bluetooth car handsfree from Sony Ericsson makes it even more convenient for you. The HCB-700 is a truly handsfree call handling in the car. You can make a call by saying the phone number or the name of the person that is already registered in your phone’s address book and the HCB-700 dials it for you. This Voice Digit Dialing feature makes call handling much safer and more convenient. The HCB-700 comes with two separated unites. The control unit can be attached to your hand while mounting info display at the eye level - i.e. on the car’s dashboard or close to the rearview mirror. With the Bluetooth technology, you don’t even have to take the phone out. This HCB-700 cost £99.95 ($131) Truly handsfree with Voice Digit Dialling [via Sony Ericsson]

iRiver S10 is tiny marvel

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [2]

The lovely Jenn over at Pocketables has stumped up the import costs for one of iRiver's tiny little S10 mp3 players, and is teasing us all with one of the most comprehensive reviews I've seen on her site so far. It might be small but it's got plenty of features and, according to Jenn's ears, remarkable sound quality. At $130 (plus around $30 international shipping) for the 1gb model it's neither the biggest capacity nor the cheapest DAP, but her conclusion is that the style, straightforward interface and extra features make it worth the outlay. I think I'll go and have a look at who is importing it to the UK... Read The Full Story

Another e-book, another proprietary format

Chris Davies, Nov 27th 2006 Discuss [0]

It seems to me that if e-books are every going to become mainstream-popular then they're going to have to offer something that traditional paper books don't: that could be far lower prices, additional content (perhaps interactive) or a breadth of titles impossible to produce in the real-world due to the low return on ultra-niche subjects. Instead, we get more and more hardware designs, each with their own slightly different take on the concept and, more interestingly maybe, the amount of DRM needed. Today's e-book, children, is the STAReBOOK from capital-loving Chinese manufacturer eREAD. Apparently "the lightest and thinnest electronic reader in the world right now" at 176g and 8mm thick, it stores books on SD card and comes complete with editing software that allows users to put together their own books or magazines. These are, unsurprisingly, saved in a proprietary format "STK". A four-way joypad with centre select handles page-turns and navigation, while mp3 support gives you a break from studying. The e-ink display itself is 800 x 600 pixels with four levels of greyscale; no battery life predictions from the 800mAh Li-Ion power pack are given. Will it ever make it out of China? Who knows. As I said, there has to be a monumental shift in the attitude towards e-books and media licencing before they'll become must-haves. STAReREAD [via Akihabara News]