This week: a relationship ruined by text messages. An out of shape gamer looking for an easy way out. A broke-ass gent with an eye on Craigslist. Three sad souls, three desperations—three readers in need. More »
This article was written on August 16, 2010 by CyberNet.
Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.
Reeder is Coming to Mac OS X
The popular iPhone/iPad RSS feed reader that syncs with Google Reader is currently being developed for Mac OS X. Unfortunately the developer has only posted a small teaser image that doesn’t reveal much.
A Millionaire by the Age of 16
A kid that started two successful websites by the age of 16 has become a millionaire.
Oracle Sues Google Over Android and Java
Oracle’s lawsuit against Google claims that the Android mobile OS is using Java technologies without licensing.
CDMA iPhone 4 in “Engineering Verification Test” Stage
John Gruber said that his sources told him that an iPhone 4 compatible with the CDMA network is currently undergoing some initial verification tests.
More Than 30 Million Wii Consoles Sold in the US
Nintendo has announced that in less than four years they’ve sold over 30 million consoles in the US, and 74 million globally.
New Apple TV to be Renamed iTV, and Not Include 1080p Playback
According to Engadget they’ve heard that the next generation Apple TV will get a name change to iTV, and won’t support playing 1080p videos.
New Flash Player Supports GPU Decoding on Mac OS X
Adobe has released what would normally be a minor update to Flash Player, but has thrown in a big feature for Mac users. Much like Windows users those of you running Mac OS X will be able to pawn some of the Flash-based processing off on the video card.
iPod Touch Getting Retina Display and Dual Cameras?
The next iPod Touch may be released in a few weeks according to the latest rumors, and they’ll include dual cameras as well as a high-res Retina display.
A Rubik’s Cube Can Always Be Solved in Under 20 Moves
Thanks to 35-years worth of Google-donated CPU time researchers have now been able to pinpoint that, regardless of starting position, the Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less.
Radio Tray Makes Playing Internet Radio Easy on Linux
With this app you can easily stream your favorite online radio stations to your Linux machine.
Resetting the Administrator Password on Windows with Sticky Keys
Thanks to sticky keys you can actually reset the Windows administrator password without even needing to login with another account first.
How to Install Windows Home Server “Vail” Beta on VirtualBox
This detailed guide explains how you can test out the Beta version of Windows Home Server “Vail” without spending a dime.
Grooveshark for iPhone Available in App Store
It took awhile, but Apple has now approved the Grooveshark music streaming app for the iPhone.
Maximizing Your Android Phone’s Battery Life
If you have an Android-powered phone you’ll definitely want to glance through this article to see if you can make use of any of the battery-saving tips.
Desktop Sticky Notes that Sync with Outlook
This free app can be used to manage the notes in Outlook right from your desktop.
Convert ZIP Archives to 7Z Archives
This batch file can convert entire directories of ZIP archives to the 7Z format, which will minimize the amount of space that they consume.
Copyright © 2010 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox
Related Posts:
PlayStation 3 just leapfrogged Xbox 360 and snagged the best Netflix experience on a videogame console yet.
The new Netflix application for PS3, rolling out for download Monday, will enable Netflix subscribers with PS3s to watch movies and TV without a disc. Some titles will even stream in 1080i HD and 5.1 digital surround sound.
Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” streaming-video feature has been available for PS3 since late last year, but it required a Blu-ray disc in order to access the service. Now, by running Watch Instantly as a native PS3 app on the console, users can ditch the disc altogether. Netflix also has a new user interface, optimized for the PS3 controller’s analog joysticks.
In the new UI, search especially seems smartly designed for the PS3 controller, using an alphabetical grid and intelligent auto-complete to minimize the pain of text entry, as seen in this still:
Still from Sony PS3 promotional video.
I even like the way the controller buttons control common text-entry commands in context — like Space, Delete and Enter. There are keyboards available for PS3, but being able to use the controller well is a real asset.
Netflix has not only continued to bring its streaming service to seemingly every device with a screen, but to make that service better. Still, among consoles, the announced PS3 app stands out: Xbox users don’t have 1080i or surround sound, and Wii users have only now added search to their service, which still requires an “Instant Streaming” disc.
Adding media services has become part of the continued rivalry between Xbox and PS3, along with new motion-capture interaction devices like PlayStation’s Move controller and Xbox’s Kinect.
Besides videogame consoles, Netflix can now stream to personal computers on Windows and Mac; TiVo, HD, Roku, Logitech and Apple TV boxes; Windows Phone 7 and all iOS devices; and a wide array of net-connected TVs and Blu-Ray players, including those using Google TV.
Roku’s players, which began as Netflix-only boxes, will soon be available in retail stores through a partnership with Netgear.
Netflix on PS3: Disc-free Next Week [Playstation Blog]
See Also:
You love Lego don’t you? Those tiny bricks of colorful acrylonitrile butadiene styrene plastic are what keeps you going in-between George Lucas’ fits of cinematography. Then check this out, the official Lego Play and Build Remote for Nintendo Wii. Of course, only bits of the remote are suitable for Lego brick you silly silly man, otherwise it wouldn’t be compatible with standard chargers and attachments like the battery cover and Wii MotionPlus. Still, if you can imagine playing Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga using nothing but The Force and this controller then you’re already half way home to living the dream — a journey you can complete on October 16th for $39.99.
Lego Wiimote bricks your Wii faster than tainted homebrew originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 13 Oct 2010 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
The Super Mario Bros. series of games is 25 years old this month, and to celebrate, Nintendo unveiled this fire-engine red version of the Nintendo Wii console. The Red Wii will come with a red Wii Motion Plus controller, and a pre-loaded copy of the original Super Mario Bros. game, with updated effects so question blocks and coins in game have “25” on the side instead of their usual question marks or usual mark.
So far, the bundle has only been announced for Japan and Europe, with the Japanese version coming out in November for 20,000 Yen (approx $245 USD) and a European version coming out later this month that will have the original Donkey Kong game pre-loaded instead of Mario Bros. No word yet on whether or not Nintendo plans to release a version of the bundle in North America.
[via Kotaku]
How does Nintendo’s oft-delayed Wii Vitality Sensor work? According to a new patent filing, it’s actually quite simple — the unit fires infrared light right at your fingertip and reports how much passes through, just like the pulse oximeters the pros use. Games then translate the result to the unfortunately-named “relax fluid” number, which is the Vitality Sensor’s equivalent of your Brain Age — the more fluid you’ve got, the calmer you are. It’s also allegedly sensitive enough to detect when you’re breathing just by measuring the changes in your fingertip, as evidenced by a concept game where you have to closely adjust your inhaling and exhaling to get an avatar safely through a tunnel without hitting the presumably deadly walls. And now you know.
Wii Vitality Sensor detailed in patent application, fires righteous beams of light originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 11 Oct 2010 07:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink 
Siliconera, Joystiq | | Email this | Comments
First of all, put away those credit cards, American readers, this is so far a Japan-only affair. Nintendo’s celebrations of Mario’s 25th birthday are extending beyond custom DSi and DSi LL consoles to a repainted Wii machine and a pretty sweet bundle to go with it. The sporty red number above includes one of the newfangled Wii Remote Plus controllers — which can do MotionPlus tracking without the additional appendage — along with a similarly rouged-up nunchuck, and, perhaps best of all, a preinstalled copy of Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary Edition. That’s still the game you know and love, but it now comes with bricks embellished with the number 25 on the front. You’ll catch a screenshot after the break, while the Japanese audience can expect the tasty bundle to drop on November 11 for ¥20,000 ($241). Hey, if you really want it that bad, you’ve got a whole month to figure out an import strategy.
Continue reading Nintendo Wii turns red with glee for Super Mario’s 25th anniversarii
Nintendo Wii turns red with glee for Super Mario’s 25th anniversarii originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 07 Oct 2010 03:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We hate our remotes. Every electronic media device comes with its own remote. We lose them and can’t control our stuff without them. They break. We confuse them with each other. It’s too hard to do simple things. It’s way too hard to do hard things.
We ask too much of them. The batteries die, and they all take different batteries. They’re uncomfortable. They’re unresponsive. What we do with our hands doesn’t match what’s happening on the screen. And the software that’s on the devices that are controlled by the remote is frequently terrible.
And occasionally, as with Sony’s controller for its upcoming Google TV, the remotes just boggle the mind with their ugliness and complexity.
We’re not alone in disliking remotes. The preceding litany of problems comes from what readers told Consumer Reports in an article titled “Readers Dislike TV Remotes.”
Now we have an emerging class of internet-connected media devices with powerful software designed to make navigating TVs and movies easier. Google TV, Apple TV, TiVo and Roku join game consoles like Sony’s Playstation 3, XBox 360 and Nintendo’s Wii in providing multimedia content on the biggest screens in our house.
But however sophisticated the software, all of these devices still need hardware devices for us to control them. It’s quite likely that some of these devices won’t be dedicated remotes at all, but phones, tablets or other handheld media devices running apps. We might use these apps to control not just our TVs, but our entire house.
That’s one vision of the future of remote control.
Here, we want to examine the other side of the equation: dedicated hardware controllers. From traditional remotes to mini-keyboards, video controllers and devices that combine all three, here are 15 devices that offer you a glimpse of everything that’s good and bad about the current generation of remote controls.
Above:
WIRED: Offers all the control you could want. Full QWERTY keyboard for text entry, which is essential for search — sure to be a key part of the Google experience. Raised buttons with different feel make it easier to use in the dark. It’s even got tab, control, number and function keys — not dependent on software to get it done.
TIRED: Sheer size of the thing will be a deal-breaker for some. In different shades of gray, it doesn’t look like a device from 2010. Too many buttons could be confusing or intimidating to non-expert users.
Image: ABC News
As a follow-up to this morning’s announcement, we now have some shots of Nintendo’s colorful new Wiimote. Still no extra details, but what we do have is confirmation from Nintendo that they are indeed building the Wii Remote Plus, which combines a Wii Remote with its Wii MotionPlus gyro add-on into one Wii Remote-sized package. We spotted the controller in a FlingSmash bundle last week, the telltale “smile” text below the Wii logo, and now all we really need is a price and a launch date. Hopefully we’ll be getting all of these colors when this lands in the US as well, but since this is a Japanese presentation that Nintendo is making this announcement, we can’t be too sure.
Nintendo announces Wii Remote Plus with built-in MotionPlus tracking originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink IGN | 
Nintendo | Email this | Comments
Sony might be playing catchup to the Wii with its “Move” motion-controller for the PlayStation, but the tech packed inside makes the Wiimote look like a kids’ toy. More surprisingly, according to iFixit head-honcho Kyle Wiens, it is very easy to open up and repair.
The Move is shaped like one of those personal massagers in the Sky Mall catalog, and has a ping-pong ball perched on the end. This ball lights up in a rainbow of colors thanks to three LEDs inside, and the included detector sees the glow from atop the television. This places you in two dimensions, and different colors for different players let the box know who is who. The detector also checks the size of the globe, uses that to calculate your distance and accurately places you in 3D-space. The Wii can’t do that.
Digging deep into the bowels after removing a few Phillips screws and you find a user-replaceable battery and then a slew of high-tech components that Kyle says are more common in today’s smartphones: “a processor, accelerometer, gyroscope, Bluetooth transmitter, vibrating motor, and even a MEMS compass” sit inside and provide information to the mothership. As Kyle points out, while “it’s steep to pay $50 for a controller, it’s quite the bang for the buck.”
The best part, though? Clearly the fact that any Star Wars games from now on will be able to make the ball glow the same color as your on-screen Light Saber. Awesome.
PlayStation Move Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]
See Also:
Follow us for real-time tech news: Charlie Sorrel and Gadget Lab on Twitter.
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.
