Being a company that mostly dedicates itself to gimmicky devices, it’s no surprise to see Green House coming out with all sorts of differently themed mouse+pad combos.

Taking some inspiration perhaps from Apple’s old round mouse, this Greenhouse one is pretty much the same, except it’s texture is similar to a golf ball’s (which might make it uncomfortable after a while), and has the obligatory scroll wheel.

I think the device would have had more appeal if a bit more care had been put into the end details of the mouse pad. That plastic flag makes it look…. well, in a word, cheap. Though I guess that for a golf fan, it would be a nice thing to have, or a nice thing to receive as an offer.

[Via Akihabaranews]

When the first laptops started being sold, it was common to see several add-on products that would improve or increase their functionality. Nowadays there are all sorts of things you can plug in via USB, but back then it was all done through the PCMCIA slot.

This new addon takes advantage of PCIexpress to bring great 3D performance to laptops without gaming-oriented graphics card and 5.1 audio surround. The graphics card is an Nvidia 8600GT, which should be enough for more gamers.

As detailed as the original article is they failed to mention the price, nor can I find it on Asus’ announcement. So I guess we’ll have to wait a few more days to find out how much they will be selling it for.

There aren’t many office-related tasks you can do nowadays with a Google online program. The latest iteration of their unnamed online software package is Google Sites. A service that has been available for a while for companies, but never for the general product.

Google Sites is an online software that allows you to create websites in a matter of seconds by choosing from  a pre-made template, and deciding who may visit the website and what content, or what type of content you can publish on each page.

I’ll be blunt, I think that the default templates could be much nicer than they currently are. If a less-famous company was releasing a similar service with templates such as this one they would certainly be criticized for it, still, the integration with Google Calendar, and consequently other Google services, like Picasa, make this online software worthwhile.

In one of the examples shown in the homepage, you can see an example Project homepage, and I do think that is certainly one of the better uses for it.

Steve Ballmer recently joined his “former” Microsoft partner, Bill Gates, in the “food being thrown at you” list. While Bill Gates’ pie-in-the-face is largely considered to be something fun, the egg bombardment were not. Despite the missing all of the throws, he made the media, and consequently the world, realize about Microsoft’s and Hungary’s wrongdoings:

Microsoft has midterm contracts with the state in Hungary for “way cheaper than from the store” Campus-licences. This costs billions (in HUF, 160HUF=1USD) for the state and makes students stuck in the Microsoft-world, not knowing Linux etc.

Just goes to show how Microsoft remains top-gun in the Operating System market. I’m certain that Hungary aren’t the first, nor the last, country with similar contracts with Microsoft. You can watch the original video on Gizmodo.

All of our younger readers, and me, will be happy to hear that Ninty has just announced the newest Pokemon game to accompany the first DS version. And we all know what that means… a new legendary Pokemon!

The latest Pokemon to be added to the ever growing Pokedex is called Giratina and it’s… weird. It’s like an armored slug with tentacles and spikes, oh wait, I think I just perfectly described it. The game will be released this fall in Japan, and hopefully near or before Christmas for the rest of the world.

If you’re a Pokemon fan, own a DS, and still haven’t gotten your hands on the newest ones, then this should be the perfect opportunity to do so. Sure, the game is more of the same, but it’s the best iteration so far. Plus, being American/European has great advantages like being able to trade Pokemons named Pikachu for rare or legendary Japanese ones (they get them simply for the sake of different letters).

Now you know readers, if you own Ruby or Diamond, farm those Pikachus and do thorough searches in the trade channel.

Ok readers, I made it through the tsunami of Liberty City-related articles, and the “discrete” advertising that was shoved in my face no matter where I turned, even in completely unrelated websites. So it was only a matter of time before you saw me popping up a GTA 4-related article.

So without further a do, and after the Tsunami of news (and most people who were interested in the game have played it for more than a couple of days) I bring you the world’s most beloved troll game reviewer his opinion on one of the year’s biggest games.

Back when Microsoft was releasing the very first versions of Vista, I was one of the few who managed to land a spot in their team, and as such, I helped test and suggested, or sponsored, a few changes I happened to agree with. Thankfully, most of them were implemented, and all, or most beta testers were happy to see that despite the few bumps and contradictions made on some of the builds, the end product ended up pleasing most of us.

But it looks like not all Beta testers have the same luck. Last September Microsoft launched the first beta for the next Windows Live client which brought a few useful features to the client, but nothing revolutionary. Features wise, Live Messenger is a few generations behind other clients like Yahoo Messenger and Trillian. And some features we take for granted in most IMs like Tabbed chatting.

“The first Windows Live Messenger 9.0 Beta build was released in November 2007. The release brought the ability to sign into Messenger from up to four computers at once, the ability to choose customized sounds for your sign-in and for your contacts, URLs in Personal Status Messages, and Animated Display Pictures. However, features requested across the many Messenger programs such as Tabbed Conversations and the ability to decline a group conversation invite were nowhere to be seen.”

Microsoft aims to become the most popular IM client, but it saddens me to see them giving the testers the silent treatment. If they want to have limited Beta testing periods, for a select few users, to gain better PR and help improve the product doesn’t this treatment contradict what Beta testing should be about?

Through the last couple of days Rare has pulled the curtains and unveiled some details about the latest iteration of the very popular Banjoo-Kazooie platformer franchise.

The game seems to be closed inside tower levels, where players will be constricted by walls, but will have access to an immensely large level to explorer and complete each challenge. The new “thing” of this Banjo Kazooie is vehicle construction. You’ll be able to build wacky vehicles that can drive, jump and even fly over obstacles. And that should add some depth to the rather plain vehicle sections that most modern platformers include.

[Source: Kotaku]

If there’s one movie that Anime fans have always wanted to see brought to Hollywood, that movie would be the Dragonball one. After countless years of rumors, attempts, beginnings, teaser images. We finally have something a bit more “physical” than a CGI-render of Piccolo. This time we have a picture of the actor playing out the role of the main hero, Goku, in an actual teaser poster taken from Shonen Jump.

It actually looks decent. The costume isn’t too modern, nor too traditional, and I think that the hair stylists did a great job in recreating Goku’s gravity defying hairstyle.

Maybe it’s just my inner fanboy speaking for actually seeing something being produced and shown to the fans. Even if this ends up being the biggest flop ever, I’ll certainly be on the front lines of the theaters.

[Source: Dragonball the movie Blog]

Yesterday we showed you the new HTC Diamond through a very bad picture that didn’t show the device in it’s full fledged glory.

Engadget recently had the opportunity to play a bit with the new Touch and they were quite happy with it, particularly with the VGA screen which is twice as many pixels as most PDAs in the market today. And although I didn’t mention this enough yesterday, this is definitely the best looking Windows Mobile PDA I’ve ever seen. It’s slick, shinny and the interface since much nicer, which is great because it goes perfectly with the device.

And now a video of the device in action:

Another feature that wasn’t mentioned yesterday was that the device has, like the iPhone, has an accelerometer that allows it to act differently depending on the movements you make with the device. You can see a video of the accelerometer in action at the original article.

Yesterday Nine Inch Nails joined the group of popular bands that are releasing their latest albums online for free, or close to that. The band dedicated the album to the fans, who have supported them throughout the years, and have also announced that a physical version of the album will be available on CD and Vinyl in July.

Even though I’ve never listened to any albums of theirs before, only assorted singles, I found the album surprisingly good with a nice variety of songs and themes. Some are lyrical, others are more instrumental, others are more computerized, but overall, it’s an above average album and I recommend it to anyone who likes alternative/industrial rock.

You can download it from Nine Inch Nail’s official website, simply by entering your e-mail to get the link.

Even though what I enjoy most about WoW is the Player VS Player part of the game, I have found myself doing a lot more PVE (Player versus Environment).

The problem I found with switching from one to the other is that while on PVP you have resilience and crit, on PVE you have stats, haste, expertise, etc. And all of those affect your damage differently, and depending on the stat, it might make a world of difference.

Thankfully, I found a website that gives the exact answers to what should be your next upgrades, and you’ll be surprised to find out how many great items you can get without the need of endgame raiding. For example, for a Plate-wearing damage dealer, such as myself, I discovered that the second best DPS belt in the game can be crafted by blacksmiths, and the mats aren’t impossible to acquire. In fact, they’re quite easy.

If you are interested in boosting your DPS in World of Warcraft you’ll find that maxdps.com is an excellent resource and obligatory bookmark.

In the world of Windows Mobile Cellphones, HTC is seen as possible the largest or most influential company. Here, in Portugal, it’s rare to see someone with a Windows cellphone that isn’t HTC. Today they unveiled the latest model in their new Touch brand, the Diamond.

The first HTC Touch was largely consider by many the Microsoft answer to the iPhone. Although it didn’t live up to the hype of Apple’s device, it was an above average device, and since Apple isn’t in any hurry to unveil the highly anticipated 3G model, now is a great time to announce a new device.

Here are the Diamond’s specifications:

* Windows Mobile 6.1
* VGA Screen
* Quad-band HSDPA 7.2
* One-touch navigation, including single-finger dialing
* An accelerometer that rotates pictures as you rotate the phone
* One-touch music playback with an animated music browser
* A heavily-animated weather forecast app
* Full-featured desktop-like web browser (Opera) with zoom-in tech that actually reformats to fit the screen upon zoom, although Microsoft promises IE 6 coming soon for it
* Youtube app and content playback
* Available in June in Europe via Orange and the “rest of the world” sometime later
* Orange music store, games, wallpapers, and ringtone downloads
* Orange mobile TV with up to 61 channels
* No normal headphone jack – gotta use HTC’s proprietary USB dongle
* “Better battery life” than their other devices (although it uses a smaller battery than the Touch – we’ll keep our eye on this) — will offer a bigger battery at a later time for those who are experiencing battery life issues
* No pricing info just yet

This mobile device won’t having me running to the shelves to purchase it, but it’s certainly better to see a sophisticated device getting a sophisticated look, rather than the “plastic look” most Windows Mobile devices have.

…against a horde of doctors who will stop you from killing anyone.

Team Fortress 2 was one of the online gaming franchises that received the most uplifting facelift yet. The game was thoroughly balanced, the comedy factor was increased, and a few new game modes were enabled, so you weren’t always running after flags all the time.

With this weekend, Valve decided to promote it’s flagship multiplayer game by allowing players to experience it fully for 2 days, which not only debut a new map/mod called Goldrush, but also debut the new unlockable items for the Medic class which become available when 30/60 or 90% of the game’s achievements are unlocked.

I logged in to play the game just a shortwhile ago and I have to say they weren’t the funnest games I’ve played so far. On the server I was on, a lot of players end up switching to the Heavy class in order to counter the exaggerated number of doctors on the opposing team. In any case, if you ever wanted to give this game a try, tomorrow is the right day to do so.

Oh Microsoft, oh Microsoft… how long will you continue to kid with us? First you tell us that we wouldn’t be getting any support after a certain date (because we already “got more than what we payed for” in your own words), then you delay that date by a few months, then you expand support and availability beyond that date for a certain class of devices.

Now you’re telling us XP support will not end, and we’ll continue to receive security and bug fixes and they’ll continue to provide support for companies who acquired extended support contracts with M$.

This means that Microsoft might continue to provide updates and support for XP until 2009

AVG is one of those programs that slowly grew into people’s hard drives. It was the first free anti-virus software I heard of, but it wasn’t adopted very much because people consider their competitor’s products much better.

As time went by, Grisoft greatly improved their product that went from a very basic anti-virus that provided protection only the simplest, or most obvious, of viruses to a much more solid security program that does most of the things Norton or any other’s AV programs do without consuming 20% (or more) of your computer resources.

Version 8 now includes built-in protection against Trojan horses. Although I still prefer to use a dedicated program like Spybot for that type of malware, this should help protect my friend’s/family’s computers against these annoying programs that seriously gimp their PC’s performance and compromise their security.

If you are looking for a lightweight Anti-Virus I recommend you try out AVG 8 free, and then purchase one of their software packages with added security if you like it.

You can download it from here.