And they even put up a snazzy graphic to show it: However, in Japan, Nintendo, with the DS (DS+DS Lite model) has sold almost 4 million consoles there this year. Now, I’m under mixed impressions. Even though I own a PSP, I really think that the DS is the clear winner of this portable console war. However, I don’t think the PSP is a complete loss, nor should it be scratched from Sony’s schedule. Where I live it’s made a pretty big impact, and it seems that every kid I know wants one from Christmas. One thing is certain, competition in any market is always good. Every Nintendo fan flamed Read more »

If you’ve been following Windows Vista’s development for the past few months (no, I don’t mean all 5 years of development) you surely know about some “speed up” features it will have, when used together with flash drives. Well, this latest product won’t be using the Windows ReadyBoost feature (that speeds up the PC when a flash memory is plugged in) but will greatly reduce the tasks you operate that use your Hard Drive. Though there aren’t any numbersm this Solid State Drive will greatly improve Windows Vista’s performance (and with the specs they’re asking for, they need all the help they can get). The only problem for me regarding Read more »

Testing some Russians under isolation seems to be the Russian Space Agency’s idea to see how people would deal with the isolation for a journey to Mars. They plan on locking six volunteers away for 500 days to learn more about how they handle it. Monitored on CCTV and microphones, the faux-cosmonauts will breathe recycled air and eat sterilised food packages, much like people would on a space mission. Despite the constant monitoring, contact with the outside world will be limited to email, with long delays before replies are sent, as would be the case on a real journey to Mars. The experiment is scheduled to start in late 2007, Read more »

Honestly, who would’ve thought there was an actual demand for a new Biker Mice from Mars cartoon? Well, you can check out the opening sequence right here. The animation looks “okay”; the cel-shaded CGI bikes are a bit obvious, but they still look good. For a look at some of the animation and voice acting for the villains in the show-itself, you can watch this video. However, it only has footage of the new villains and none of the Biker Mice. You can catch Clancy Brown and Rob Paulson in there, and they’re two of the most talented voice actors in the industry. And solely for the sake of early Read more »

News is buzzing like crazy that E3 (Electronics Entertainment Expo) may very well be cancelled. E3 has been one of the most anticipated and renowned tradeshows in the video game business for decades. Doug Lowenstein, president of the ESA (Entertainment Software Association) is expected to render his verdict in the next day or two. At the moment, E3′s future is still pending, though signs don’t look particularly good in its favor. Supposedly, the reasoning behind E3′s possible termination is the fact that the tradeshow is extremely costly and only open to a select few within the industry (you can’t attend unless you work for a video game magazine or very Read more »

Microsoft can’t handle giving out their software betas for free anymore, so they are going to start charging $1.50 US for beta version of Office 2007. Starting August 2nd, anyone wanting to download the beta software will have to pay this small fee. The company claims this is the result of the success of the trial – 3m people have downloaded the software – so Microsoft needs to charge to cover server costs. A statement sent to the Reg reads: “We are thrilled with the incredible excitement around the upcoming 2007 Microsoft Office system as evident by more than 3m people using the beta 2 since its release two months Read more »

I really hope that the IMDB is joking, but currently on their site they list Star Trek XI as being created to be released in 2008. According to a report filed on a reputable website, Matt Damon is slated to play the role of Cadet James T. Kirk. The newest installment of the Star Trek franchise will be an Original Series Prequel, focusing on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy during their Starfleet Academy days. I really don’t like anything about this movie already. Matt Damon as Kirk, a prequel plot, and J.J. Abrams as the director. They are really going the opposite way that I would have brought the story, as Read more »

Windows Vista will inherit a Windows Server 2003 feature that ensures the integrity of files by making “shadow copies” on a daily basis. This means important files are backed up regularly so Windows always has a good copy on hand in case something goes wrong with the present setup of the system. In Vista, this could also apply to user documents and files other than system files. In the event of an inadvertent change or deletion of a file or folder, Previous Versions allows you to revert the file or folder to any previous version, restore a previous version from a backup (made with Windows Backup), or make a copy Read more »

Microsoft Research and the University of Washington have developed a tool that lets users convert their two-dimensional photos into a 3D tour. Called Photo Tourism, the software basically stitches together a large collection of photos taken using different angles via like points on the image. This is somewhat like the panorama-stitching software that comes with digital cameras, but this time in 3D. Photo tourism is a system for browsing large collections of photographs in 3D. Our approach takes as input large collections of images from either personal photo collections or Internet photo sharing sites, and automatically computes each photo’s viewpoint and a sparse 3D model of the scene. Our photo Read more »

37Signals has finally lauched the long-talked about Calendar for their Backpack application. However, the Calendar is only available to paying subscribers. Just taking a look at some of the features of the Calendar, it may convince many to upgrade to at least the $5/month plan. Read more »