The 16:9 monitor revolution (or is that resolution? ha ha…ahem!) has begun. I reported last week that most monitor vendors were moving their lines from a 16:10 aspect ratio to 16:9, since 16:9 is what HDTVs use and monitor vendors would like HD content to …
Compaq Presario’s got a new 4.41- x 10.71- x 9.69-inch box for your consideration, and it goes by CQ2009F. ‘Course, those following the scene in Taiwan probably know it better as the mini-Q, but apparently the model name had to be purged of any personality before being introduced to America. The so-called nettop (or maybe mini tower is more fitting here) houses an Intel Atom 230 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, GMA 950 graphics set, a 160GB 7,200RPM hard drive, Ethernet, integrated audio, a 6-in-1 card reader, a few USB 2.0 ports, VGA output and loads of additional software that you’ll have to quickly uninstall upon arrival. You’ll find Windows XP running the show, and the built-in DVD burner should handle the storage duties. Nah, performance junkies won’t find much (read: anything) to love, but who wouldn’t appreciate the $269.99 price tag?
[Thanks, V & Brian]
Filed under: Desktops
Atom-powered Compaq Presario CQ2009F desktop now on sale originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 14:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
This article was written on March 07, 2008 by CyberNet.
Fun Friday
On occasion, most of us have days where we don’t really feel like getting a whole lot done. Or maybe it’s raining or snowing and your stuck inside? Whatever the reason is for your lazy day, you’ll need something to keep yourself occupied while you sit in your comfy chair and relax. Today’s Fun Friday is a collection of five fun (and free!) games to play for when you’re bored and need something to do. Most of them can only be played for a relatively short time before they start getting old, but they’re still a lot of fun. Enjoy!
Remember the classic game of Simon Says? This online game is somewhat like that except your goal is the follow the pattern of lights and sounds for as long as you possibly can without messing up. If you miss, you’ll have to start all over again which can get really frustrating! Be sure you have your sound on when you’re playing this one because hearing the sounds that come from each colored button does seem to help. My best is 9, what’s yours?
The goal of shuffle is to get all of your colored balls off of the board. In a way it’s like pool because you’re shooting one ball to move the others. All you do is click and drag your mouse to choose your speed and direction and then let go. It’s as simple as that!
If you haven’t played Tetris in your lifetime, I don’t know where you’ve been living. 
Just in case though, it’s a falling-blocks puzzle game. There are all kinds of versions out there for a variety of gaming systems. There are even versions for graphing calculators and phones. This version is Mario Tetris and it’s as fun and addicting as ever.
Budapest Defenders is a shooting and strategy game in which your goal is to prevent enemy units from taking over the Hungarian Revolutionary headquarters. In the instructions, it says, “if you can plan correctly, choose and place your units wisely and manage your resources, you can hold them off and win the game. They offer two levels of difficulty to choose from, either Novice or Expert. Just play a few rounds and you’ll get a hang of it.
Can you park a car without hitting any other vehicles. This game has different levels that continue to get a little more difficult. If you can park your car in the designated spot without hitting another one, you’ll move on to the next round. Controls are basic and involve only the arrow keys and the space bar. Oh, and be sure your car is parked front first unless it says otherwise! There’s no backing in. The game is over when you hit a car.
Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Related Posts:
The Hub is shaping up to being one of the greatest untold gadget dramas of the past decade. Okay, maybe that’s an overstatement — but seriously, what exactly is this thing? Part of the story is that it’s a virtual corkboard and picture frame for families in the same vein as the Verizon One and AT&T’s HomeManager, but we’ve also heard that it’ll play nice with picture messaging and other services from Verizon Wireless phones — in other words, it’s the secret sauce that’ll let Verizon control your entire communications ecosystem. Word on the street is that Hubs have arrived in Verizon stores with strict orders from corporate not to bust open the boxes until told to do so, so in the meantime, enjoy a shot of the surprisingly attractive box design. We’re being told that the official launch will come before mid-February, so we’ll get this all sorted before too long.
Filed under: Household
Verizon’s Hub ultra-deskphone finally coming soon originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 13:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Xbox 360 is the best console you can buy. Except it’s inexplicably missing something the Wii and PS3 have: Wi-Fi. You could buy Microsoft’s $90 dongle. Or you could follow our guide.
The Xbox 360’s lack of Wi-Fi is a totally killer hardware flaw—if you’re not right on top of your router, you’ve either gotta string miles of ethernet cable or buy that pricey ass dongle from Microsoft. Unless you check out one of the cheaper alternatives. Here’s every major way to get your Xbox going on Wi-Fi, sorted by easiest to hardest (but most satisfying).
Donglage
Dongles are, by far, the easiest way to get your Xbox 360 on a wireless network. But they also tend to be the priciest.
• Microsoft’s official wireless adapter is $87, which is absolute horseshit for a Wi-Fi antenna attached to a USB cable. But it looks the nicest and is super easy to use—just plug and play. Update: This weekend you can get one for $69.
• The next stop is a third-party wireless adapter, where you’ve got your pick from Linksys ($65), Belkin ($70) and hey, Linksys ($90, but it’s 802.11n). Same deal, plug and play.
• Finally, your cheapest option is from…Microsoft. Turns out, a regular Xbox wireless adapter (which is a supercheap $50), works just fine, with a tiny bit of finagling: Don’t put in its actual install CD. Just plug it in, and set your encryption. It might take two tries to get it to work, but it will. And, it won’t eat up a USB port like the official Xbox 360 one. Spoiler alert: This is our pick for best option, based on its combo of cheapness and convenience, if you can find one.
Share Your Computer’s Connection
Sharing your computer’s connection is the cheapest option—it’s actually the freest one. It’ll work with a laptop or desktop, though a laptop is more truly wireless—the desktop bit is an option if your router’s just a step too far out of the way. Basically, you’re plugging your Xbox into the computer’s ethernet port, and then having it use your computer’s wireless connection to connect to the internet.
Windows
It’s actually harder to reliably share the internet love on Windows with its cousin, the Xbox 360, than it is on a Mac: No method worked reliably for us across multiple Windows computers. But here’s how it should work:
1. Share your computer’s wireless connection. Microsoft actually details the process here, and it’s pretty easy. From the Network and Sharing center, click on the manage network connections option on the left. From there, right click on the connect you wanna share (probably wireless, unless you’re daisy-chaining ’cause your box just won’t reach) and hit properties. Under the sharing tab, just check the box to allow that connection to be shared. Plug your Xbox into the ethernet port.
2. There are a few other ways to proceed at this point, and you’re probably going to have try at least a couple of them to find one that’ll work. You could bridge the two connections (dicey), or you could manually assign the ethernet port an IP address, detailed here (PDF). This Instructable relies on automagicalness to resolve the settings, and I have had that work in the past, though not when I was sorting through methods for this how to.
All in all, expect to do some Googling and troubleshooting if you go the Windows route.
Mac
You’d think this would be easy, ’cause I heard somewhere that Macs just work, and internet sharing on Macs typically ain’t hard, but there is a tiny bit of jujitsu involved here. This method, from Joystiq, is the most reliable one I used.
1. On your Mac, pop open Terminal, and type “ifconfig en0” (number zero, no quotes). A whole bunch of crap will pop up. Find where it says “inet 192.xxx.x.xxx” (it should be 192, anyway). Write that junk down. It will probably be 192.168.2.1, like mine. Also find out your router’s IP address, which is most likely 192.168.1.1 (Linksys) or 192.168.0.1 (D-Link uses this), depending on your manufacturer. If you have Apple’s Airport gear, the router will be at 10.0.1.1.
2. Then plug your Xbox 360 into your Mac, open up Sharing in Preferences. Turn on internet sharing, and share your Airport’s internet connection with ethernet.
3. On the Xbox, flip to your network settings (under system settings), and enter the IP address you got from the terminal freaky deaky earlier but + 1, like 192.168.2.2 to my original 192.168.2.1. Subnet should be 255.255.255.0, and then set your gateway as the ifconfig number, 192.168.2.1. Under DNS (back one screen, then down), put in your router’s actual address for both. Test your Xbox Live connection. Your NAT might suck, but you can get on Xbox Live.
Hack Your Router
This method is the least straightforward, and requires a little bit of work on your part. Essentially, you’re buying a second router (a cheap one, for about $40) and installing custom software on it that turns it into a giant wireless antenna that’s hooked up to your Xbox 360.
There are tons of Linux custom firmwares for routers nowadays, with DD-WRT and Tomato being the most popular. Tomato is a bit more user friendly, but it works with far fewer routers than DD-WRT. DD-WRT works with dozens of different routers (click for the list).
Whichever firmware you go with, the method for putting on your router will vary from device to device, with Buffalo routers being a notorious pain in the ass. Tomato includes instructions with the firmware download—but here are some of the details, and Lifehacker’s complete guide to installing and using Tomato.
DD-WRT is my preferred firmware. Here are the detailed install instructions, but with most Linksys routers, you can just drill into the router settings from the web address (192.168.1.1) and upload the DD-WRT firmware, directly, making it pretty easy. But some routers require different, exceptionally specific install methods. So check out the list before you run out to Best Buy or Circuit City.
My preferred router for this because of its tininess and cheapness (under $40), was the Buffalo G-125, which required you to flash it over TFTP backdoor the DD-WRT firmware onto it during a brief window of time, like Luke dropping those bombs into the Death Star’s vent shaft. It’s a pain in the ass, but everything else about the Buffalo routers make it worth it. Unfortunately, you can’t buy it in the States until the next month or so, so your cheapest bet is is Linksys’s $40ish WRT54G, which unfortunately, has different install methods depending on the revision. The DD-WRT wiki is very good, so you shouldn’t run into problems following it.
Once you get either firmware installed, you’re going to set your hacked router up as a wireless client.
1. You’re going to need to go into the hacked router’s settings. Set the hacked router to client mode.
2. These numbers are going to vary slightly based on your router, but you need to assign it an IP address—if your main router’s IP address is 192.168.0.1, set your hacked router at 192.168.0.2 or 192.168.0.101 (a number that’s in your main router’s DHCP server range). Then make the gateway and DNS the same IP address as your main router.
3. When it reboots you’re gonna have to re-login to whatever IP address your hacked router is. Do that, go back in, and give the hacked router the same SSID (name) as your main router (Linksys, gizrox, whatever you have it named). You can also configure wireless security at this point, though for me, it’s always been kind of flaky, WEP in particular, so you might have to play around to see what works.
4. To test, try to get online using the hacked router as your internet connection, with all of your computer’s IP settings left on automatic. If it works, plug the hacked router into your Xbox. If not, check out the DD-WRT wiki for more halpz.
4. On your Xbox, you can leave everything set to automatic—the hacked router does all the work.
The hacked router method might take the longest, but at least you won’t have a useless dongle when the Xbox 720 comes out, you’ll have a full-featured router, and it’s cheaper than the official dongle. Plus you’ll have a feeling of accomplishment that will carry over to gaming, so you should kill a lot more people in Call of Duty.
No, seriously — can you not envision that heinous object above suddenly conjuring up enough energy to transform into a real live, breathing, hungry alien? Brando‘s USB Aircraft Mouse is simply too frightening to recommend for children under the age of 25, but those hardened enough to control it can select one in five different hues (including camouflage, so you’ll never even know when it arrives). We also get the idea that this thing is perfect for implementing carpal tunnel syndrome into your own life, which — in our humble opinion — is worth the $17 admission charge alone.
[Via OhGizmo]
Filed under: Peripherals
Brando’s USB Aircraft Mouse was likely used somewhere in AvP originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 12:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Man, it’s been awhile since we’ve seen any miniature machines from the labs of Stealth, but the outfit is returning over a year after introducing its LPC-350PCI with the even tinier LPC-650. Featuring a mildly attractive 6.54- x 6.18- x 1.89-inch aluminum chassis with a Core 2 Duo within, the micro PC is also stocked with gigabit Ethernet, a slot-loading optical drive, optional SSD, WiFi, 1GB of DDR2 RAM and a rather respectable array of ports including twin USB 2.0 jacks, HDMI, audio in / out and a RS-232 socket. Unfortunately, you’ll be paying a serious premium for all the space savings — it gets going at $1,595, and it’s only up from there depending on CTO options.
[Via AkihabaraNews]
Filed under: Desktops
Stealth introduces Core 2 Duo-equipped LPC-650 Mini PC originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Been hankering for a cheapo UMPC? Perhaps the folks at e-Loam can answer your strained prayers. Enter the F7, a VIA C7-based handheld with a 1.2GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, a 8GB (or 80GB) hard drive, WiFi, and… not much else. The teensy device boots XP, has Bluetooth, a 0.3 megapixel webcam, and features a resistive 7-inch touchscreen (cool stylus included). There’s not much more info on this guy right now, but based on the pictures, it appears to have stereo speakers, and Pocketables speculates there may be an optical mouse somewhere in this mix. Regardless, we spent this whole post trying to figure out how loam — a fertile soil of clay and sand containing humus — fits into the picture.
[Via Pocketables]
Filed under: Handhelds
The e-Loam F7: it will drive you completely insane with jealousy originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
Inquirer.net: “Whenever we ask OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) what they need during this global financial crisis, the answer is the same: Any little way we can save, we will welcome it,” said Perry V. Bayani, head of Smart Communications Inc.’s sales and business development and international services group, during a pre-launch briefing for Plug ’N Talk (PNT).
Smart’s newest offering is said to be the first USB communications device in the Philippines that allows those outside the country to call and text from an Internet-connected PC to any Philippine mobile and landline number using their Smart SIM.
PNT is positioned as a niche service for Internet-connected Filipinos abroad who want to call Philippine landline or mobile numbers for as low as P6.50 a minute.
The setup allows a subscriber to access the Smart network via the Internet at home, at work, or in an Internet café, and enjoy call rates for as low as P6.50 per minute. The price of text messages is as low as P1. There are no international roaming or hidden charges.
“Plug ’N Talk is a breakthrough product because we’ve taken the communications experience beyond the phone-to-phone scenario,” said Rufino S. Fermin, Smart’s manager for international services and OFW market. Now OFWs simply have to connect to the Internet, plug in their Plug ’N Text USB device, which has a 1-GB variant that can be used for storage, and then use a soft phone interface on their PC to call anyone in the Philippines.
Its products and services are available in over 200 countries abroad having ties with over 400 international network partners. Through PLDT Global, Smart also serves the mobile communication needs of Filipinos in Singapore, Hong Kong and Italy via 1528 Smart.
Griffin Technology rolled out a gaggle of new accessories at CES 2009, but curiously absent was this fellow. The outfit has announced today that its TuneFlex AUX SmartClick is shipping to those interested, and if you’re still attempting to gauge your own level of excitement, let us detail what it does. Essentially, what we’ve got here is an in-car iPod / iPhone charger (via cigarette adapter) that comes with a wireless remote tailor made for slipping around your steering wheel. Also, there’s no messy FM transmitter to bother with; instead, it relies on the much more solid auxiliary input connection. Yeah, $79.99 sounds a tad high to us too, but momma always said you can’t put a price on keeping your eyes on the road.
Filed under: Cellphones, Peripherals, Portable Audio, Portable Video
Griffin ships iPod / iPhone-friendly TuneFlex AUX with SmartClick remote originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
