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Something that should have been with the elite

Xbox 360 to get built-in HD DVD drive in late 2008? – Engadget

This is just so late. This should have been with the Elite that came out nine months ago. It’s like an unwanted child that was aborted at the last minute before they made the delivery. It might have made a difference where HD-DVD is at the moment. Yes, I know that the HD wars is far from over but the amount of money that I’ve spent on my Xbox 360 to get it into HD is probably the same amount that I would have spent to get a PS3.

And what does this do to all of us early adopters? Well we just got screwed over by Microsoft. At least I haven’t bought anything non-game related at the Xbox Marketplace only to discover that I can’t transfer any of it to a Zune (if I ever owned one). Let’s see how this pans out this Holiday. Maybe at the same time they would finally fix all those overheating 3RL errors.

2007: 10/22
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: Elite
HD-DVD
xbox360
Zune
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Weekend Web 03

I missed last week’s Weekend Web segment here on my blog so I’m posting two sites which may prove useful to anyone reading this.

I’ll start off with the email verifier. This site will help you verify email addresses if they exist or not.

Next off is the for the Lego fan in you, here’s instructions on how to make an automatic toilet flusher using a Lego Mindstorms kit. The link leads to Engadget’s article on the machine.

Hope you all find the links worth your while.

2007: 10/21
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: Engadget
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You’re Under Arrest – Full Throttle

One of my favorite anime TV shows is finally on air. It’s the story of two traffic police women as they arrest traffic offenders on the streets of Tokyo. If the pilot is of any indication on how the rest of the season is going to play out and I will be very excited. If only we had those here, I’d be very happy.

2007: 10/20
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: anime
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RIAA 1 / Listeners 0

RIAA trial verdict is in: jury finds Thomas liable for infringement

That’s the score as of last week based on cases where users who shared music on the net were prosecuted by music labels. Jammie Thomas, a single mother, with an annual income less than $50,000 was told by a jury to pay $222,000 in damages caused by her music sharing activities.

She will appeal the case and I will not be surprised if this case goes to the Supreme Court.

What have we learned here? Does the music industry that Jammie Thomas and others like her will buy more music legally now? They couldn’t even prove that it was her in front of the computer downloading all those songs.

If the music industry thinks that the only way they can recoup their losses due to people “stealing” music is by suing them. Then it is a sad sad world we live in. Face it music bosses, you are in denial. Adding DRM doesn’t make people happy. Using a format that plays only on one operating system (such as WMA) still won’t make me buy music that WONT PLAY ON MY MACINTOSH! Charging internet radio stations and podcasts outrageous amounts of money just to play your music on air isn’t going to help you sell more. All that money trying to sue individuals for sharing music should be spent on making digital music better. Buying more spots on radio and television so we’ll actually know that there is new music. Use the money to save the planet and all sorts of things rather than get back at the very people they expect to buy their music.

We’ll be watching this story very closely. And I’m sure this won’t be the last.

2007: 10/09
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: DRM
music
RIAA
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Weekend Web 02

Sketchcast.com

Ever wanted to show that drawing or sketch to someone on the other side of the world your idea? The fancy diagram that you drew on the whiteboard now has to be sent to your co-worker in another timezone? Well here’s the site for you.

Sketchcast.com allows you to record a sketch with audio annotation. Share it with the world and embed the sketch on your blog or website.

Though most of the sketches posted there are not really that interesting. It is a unique way of showing your thoughts to the internet community.

2007: 10/07
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: sketch
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What kind of Apple are we expecting?

Truce: iPhone 1.1.1ers | 9 to 5 Mac

When Apple released their 1.1.1 iPhone update, it basically removed all third party applications and reverted any iPhone to it’s original state. Thus any sim unlocking method use will require a valid AT&T sim card to re-activate the device or in some cases completely make the phone inoperable.

Now this has enraged a lot of people who bought the phone and loaded with another sim card. I myself am surprised by the actions that Apple has made in their decision not only to lockout those who are not on the AT&T service but remove the 3rd party applications as well.

It is understandable for Apple to lock the phones that are not running AT&T service since it is well known that they are getting a share of the airtime as well. They are bound by contract. But the 3rd party apps?

It is impossible to totally shut out 3rd party apps especially if you announced application development for the iPhone and SDK kit. There was already enough brouhaha regarding the ringtones which was supposed to be free but then the RIAA got wind of it and demanded that users pay for it. It doesn’t make sense that you just paid 99¢ for a song and now you have to pay another 99¢ for a third of the song in order for it to be a ringtone. That’s already the price of a TV show on the same store.

Apple needs to fix these issues with their iPhone. It may only be now that they realize that the telecom industry is a lot more complicated that selling songs and iPods. There is no lost love for the iPhone, it’s just we don’t like it and users will take their money elsewhere.

2007: 10/03
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: apple
iphone
iTunes
RIAA
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Weekend Web

Locate and Share Bad Neighbors Before and After You Move

Maybe I should do this every weekend. Every weekend I’ll blog about a website that I found interesting on the internet. Not necessarily tech related. So let’s begin.

RottenNeighbor.com is an interesting site for people thinking of wanting to move to certain neighborhood or area. With the help of Google Maps, it helps users tag places and tell them if it’s a good area or not. Most of the locations are for North America but it is slowly growing. Almost every major city is commented on. Apparently it’s not nice to live in SoCal.

2007: 09/30
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: Uncategorized
TAGS: Google
weekend web
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Amazon dives into the online music industry

Ten Sentences on AmazonMP3, the Music Download Store | iLounge

After slipping to be the number 4 reseller of music, digital or otherwise the expected Amazon Music store is now online. It is currently restricted to U.S. customers but it boasts 2 million songs. With the recent closure of Virgin Music and Sony’s Connect store, the legal online music downloads is about to begin.

iTunes has dominated online music retail business while it’s competitors have closed shop. DRM or digital rights management drives the digital music industry and long struggled with P2P networks and the move to a digital format. Apple did it’s AAC format and Microsoft with WMA and here comes Amazon with their ZERO DRM MP3 at 256k.

Yes you heard it right. ZERO DRM MP3. Well MP3 doesn’t actually have DRM so there. EMI and Vivendi-Universal Music had announced earlier that they would be selling DRM-free music and it seems that they’ve kept their word.

There are gaping holes in the 2 million catalogue of songs they have but it Amazon redirects you to purchase the actual CD if you really want it. Songs are priced competitively at $0.89 and $0.99 as well as the albums which should really give iTunes for a run for it’s money for the next few months.

Amazon has done it right but for how long? The same could be said of the iTunes store when it started and now after all the money that has been spent on the store we can now see the greedy arm of the music industry coming into play. How long can Amazon keep their DRM-free music as well as the rest of the industry to jump in.

It’s very hard to discuss the future of online music when it’s only been less than week. But we cannot deny that it is welcomed.

What I would want Amazon to would be to tear down the walls of restriction between countries. I’d gladly purchase music from Japan or France but due to the music industry’s restrictions we’ll have to wait on how they will tackle this.

The music industry is sadly lagging so far behind on the digital curve and if they don’t adapt the music industry will be doomed. They attribute their losses to music piracy, but what would lead honest people to pirate their music. Unavailability. By denying or even delaying music releases in other countries and people want to hear it now, would lead people to get their music elsewhere if they cannot get it legally. Those advocating subscriptions for music are out of their minds.

So until I’ve actually bought music off the store, I’ll post again on this topic.

2007: 09/27
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: gadgets
TAGS: amazon
apple
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Halo Day

Bungie.net

By now, Halo 3 is in the hands of many Xbox owners in North America. It is currently set to be the largest gaming event since the console launches of Nintendo and SONY last year.

I know I stopped blogging about games here. But I got tired of moving from one blog to another and it seems that my gaming views are not that far off from my tech views. So to kick off my return to blogging about games, I shall begin with Halo 3.

I never owned the original Xbox, although I’ve played through the original game on my mac (ironically was originally created for the mac before Bungie was acquired by Microsoft) I skipped the second installment (it came out the same time as Metal Gear Solid 3) and now we have Halo 3.

It cannot be denied that this is the one game that somehow kept the original Xbox in the gaming map but now it enters into very different territory. It’s life begins as the console is the number 1 selling next generation console (although debatable with Wii sales still surging a year after launch). Most people buying the game originally had the first two games on the original Xbox and now it has a much bigger audience with the success of Gears of War and Bioshock. No doubt they will buy the game (I would too). But it’s on the heels of their recent admission of hardware failures.

This is the one thing that brings this game (and so many others) to a level even below of the PS3. Consumer confidence is quite low on the hardware itself. Everyone I’ve known who owns a 360 has had it repaired or replaced within 12 months of owning the thing. I also brought mine for replacement. This is sad. I am afraid of playing Forza even if they say that it wasn’t the game’s fault for breaking a console, but over 50 pages of user reports of hardware failure related to the game can’t all be wrong.

I’m sure the guys at Bungie did their job. And once I get my hands on the game I’ll post something here, but if the console that it plays on wont last long enough for me to finish the game (or any other for that matter) it’s a sad waste of gaming greatness.

2007: 09/25
POSTED BY: mdelamerced
CATEGORY: videogames
TAGS: bungie
halo
xbox360
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Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles

I know it’s been out for quite a while now and it was only recently that I had the opportunity to watch it. And I must say that it was worth the wait. Based on one of the most beloved anime of all time, Macross , Mospeada and Southern Cross was merged together by Harmony Gold in the United States to bring about Robotech.

I remember Robotech in the 80s. It was shown every afternoon and I must admit I didn’t start watching it until 1988. Now with digitally remastered versions on DVD they finally make a worthy sequel in the form of The Shadow Chronicles.

The animation is impressive for an American production. The 3D animations of the mecha blends well with the 2D animation of the characters. Even if the cast is not as big as we would’ve expected (after all this waiting you’d think they’d cram everyone in there), it stands on it’s own. It borrows some plot lines from Jack Mckinney’s Robotech book “The End of the Circle”. The sad thing about the series is that this is no direct to DVD movie. This is a TV series pilot at best.

I don’t want to spoil the movie for people reading this. But if you have the entire Robotech collection DVD and is a big fan of the series, go ahead and buy it. But if not and you’re just looking for something to pass the time just rent it and hopefully the next movie will come out soon.