One thing about the ole Xboxe360 is that they overheat. A lot. Play them beyond 4 hours and there’s a strong chance they’ll blink red and go kaput. Repairs should cost almost $100 for the steamed-up chip! It’s for this reason that most folks buy cooling fans and play their units in an airconditioned room. Too bad for the afficionados in Africa or Indonesia. Their Xboxes are just begging to kick the bucket!

Microsoft must have heard of all the griping that a few months ago they released the Xbox360 which addressed the overheat problem. Since I lost two Xboxes to overheat I decided to try the new offering… and today I’m enthused to write that the upgrade was well worth it.

The Arcade edition I own is almost 4 months old and I play it about 6 to 12 hours a day. Sometimes 6 hours straight when business is slow. Know what? It’s still kicking! And that’s to think I didn’t install any cooling fans.

Thank God for this! If you haven’t already, buy the Xbox Arcade edition and sell your old stuff at ebay. You’ll never have problems again!

The Asus eeePC was one of the first netbooks to introduce SSDs. For those unfamiliar with the acronym, the SSD is a solid state drive. It’s cutting edge technology. Not only are they faster than standard 7200RPM spindle drives- they’re virtually indestructible. You can hurl an SSD against the wall with the anger of a spurned woman on crack, and your data remains safe. The secret of its power lies in that it has no moving parts. Think of it as a very dense thumb drive.

There’s just one downside: SSDs currently cater to those with a lot of cash.

Prices won’t be going down anytime soon. Super Talent recently announced that it developed the world’s first 512GB SSD ready for consumers; the largest to ever be sold. Most come in 80GB variants.  This one, though, costs $1500. A screamer of a price if you ask me. Standard spindle drives of 1 terabyte costs only $300.

Wait a few more years and Im betting SSDs will breach the terabyte barrier at sub hundred dollar prices.

The average phone enthusiast knows that the Google Android OS is intended for mobile phones such as T-Mobile’s G1. But did you know  that  two fellas at VentureBeat easily reconfigured the system to power an eeePC 1000H. And there’s more! The juiced in the support required for its appendages  such as sound, graphics and  Wi-Fi connectivity. This is definitely exciting news and provides a CHEAP alternative to Windows XP systems running some netbooks today. I can imagine a clear future for cheap sub $200 notebooks that will REALLY allow computing even for the poorest of the poor.

Well done Venturebeat! You made our day!

Travelling again? Don’t fret that you’ll be missing calls from your boss or that hot stranger you just met. PersonalNumber.Com recently announced that they have launched their global number network to a transnational audience, with free call forwarding to 150 countries.

Once only available in the UK and US, the service is available at www.PersonalNumber.com, where members can sign up for a free UK +44 number, easily forwarded to any landline (and cellphone in various nations) at no cost or via a Global SIM card.

Prospects can register online, and instantly be assigned their personal Global number. After accessing, free call forwarding can be installed to five numbers, or activated via voicemail. The call diversion can be modified by logging onto the website any spot the world. There is absolutely no fees to sign up, no paperwork, and no fees payable whatsoever. A free voicemail to email facility is available. Excited already? I am! Continue Reading »
Free Call Forwarding to 150 Countries

Can something good be made better? You bet! Two days ago, the Zune 3.0 upgrade was made available for download. Now you can enjoy enhanced functionality and features for your Zune.

Early this month, Robert J. Bach, President, Entertainment & Devices Division stressed that the focus with the evolution from version 2.0 to 3.0 was not the hardware, the Zune device itself, but the software and service running the device.  According to Seitz, marketing manager, the close similitude between the Zune 2.0 and Zune 3.0 devices is due to the fact that Microsoft is focused on building software for a hardware platform which can be overlooked by innovative growth. Continue Reading »
Download your Zune 3.0 Upgrade!

The Mozilla developer centre just launched Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 today. Codenamed as Shiretoko Alpha 2, betatesters who would like to give it a try can download it. (be warned…it’s got some hiccups!)

This Alpha 2 release draws power from pre-release version of the Gecko 1.9.1 platform and it introduces a few interesting new features such as:

• Support for the HTML 5 element
• Initial support for web worker threads
• You can now drag and drop tabs between browser windows
• New selector to create areas of Aero-style “glass” in XUL
• Support for CSS 2.1 properties: ::before and ::after, and white-space:pre-line
• Support for CSS 3 properties: -moz-border-image, word-wrap: break-word, text-shadow, box-shadow and column-rule
• Performance improvements and new preference values for color management profile support

Testers  can download Firefox 3.1 Shiretoko Alpha 2 via the following links:

Windows: Shiretoko Alpha 2 Setup.exe
Mac OS X: Shiretoko Alpha 2.dmg
Linux: shiretoko-alpha2.tar.bz2

The National Geographic Society has selected PNY Technologies – a market leader of flash memory and USB drives – for a three year worldwide joint venture as a Mission Partner and “Flash Memory of Choice.  PNY intend to work with the select group of corporate partners using National Geographic’s strong brand identity and retail and distribution channels to help inspire people to care about the planet, as part of the Emerging Explorers Program. Continue Reading »
Flash Memory- To Save The Plantet!

With both Windows XP and Windows Vista being available concomitantly on the market, Microsoft is doing nothing more than inviting the consumers to compare the two operating systems.

The Redmond company inherently claimed Vista’s superiority over XP, but the latest Windows client failed to deliver on the Wow promise. Microsoft’s efforts failed to convince consumers beyond the shadow of a doubt that XP is no contest for Windows Vista, but perhaps the company has not been using the right tools. Continue Reading »
The Lost Comparison: Windows Vista vs. Windows XP

In commemoration of Earth Hour where every charitable soul shuts off the power for one hour, I’d like to submit Joseph Plazo’s super tips for making the earth live a tad longer:

Continue Reading »
Earth Hour: Make Ole Mama Earth Smile!

This week, Microsoft has updated the set of offerings which permit end users to access free copies of Windows Vista and Windows XP SP2.

Despite the fact that giving out free versions of its operating system contradicts the Redmond company’s proprietary business model, both its latest Windows client and its predecessor are up for grabs at no charge at all. The downloads are made available via the Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image. Continue Reading »
Windows Vista and XP SP2 Downloads Updated

Now that Windows Vista service pack 1 has been released, all eyes have shifted to Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT)’s plans for Windows XP service pack 3, the final package of updates for the trusty OS.

And, according to at least one source, Microsoft will roll out XP SP3 next Monday.

As of Wednesday afternoon Pacific time, the BitTorrent search engine Mininova listed a 568.73 MB Windows XP Professional SP3 5503 file available for download. The file, which had 112 seeds and 417 leeches, had been downloaded 2083 times since it was posted Tuesday, according to the listing. Continue Reading »
Microsoft To Release XP SP3 Next Week

And you guys think that your credit cards are secure.

I don’t care if it’s Gold or Silver, Platinum or unlimited credit. Magnetic stripe or smart chip. Whether Citibank or Chase issued it- you’re in heavy risk of being defrauded.   You can lose a great deal of money- and I don’t mean about getting robbed  on the street. You will bleed your money to the shady call center agent who has access to your entire credit record. Everything.

Continue Reading »
Credit Card Security? Oxymoronic!

I got over 2000 bookmarks (no joke!) arranged in scores of folders. I no longer know which is which and what leads where. I almost decided to delete the entire mish mash in one blow this weekend had I not stumbled across StartPix.

Startpix is an online service offering a novel method of bookmarking.  The free signup gets you a grid to store bookmarks in a graphical manner, using icons on a grid page to show websites instead of hohum lists. The icons can be dragged and dropped anywhere on the grid and spiced up with functional blocks that allow RSS feed and search boxes. This homepage can be set as your startpage so you can got to your fave sites soon as you start up your browser.

But there’s more! Continue Reading »
Driven Nuts With Your 20000 Bookmarks?

Very often, Id stumble across a website or auction selling magical keyword lists. The list allegedly contains highpaying keywords for the Adsense Program. The vendor claims that using those keywords in a site can make you earn up to $60 per click because companies bid very highly on them.

What a bunch of bull. Continue Reading »
Keyword List Scam

Okay. The 1st Quarter toolbar update’s ended and it looks like we failed to reclaim the PR5 laurel we held mid last year and lost in the bloody 2007 4th Quarter PR update. We’re languishing at PR3- perhaps due to the sudden fall of many high powered blogs that link to us.

Sigh. Iwebtool.com’s pagerank prediction’s gone haywire as well. The service ‘predicts’ we should be back at PR5 by now and yet it’s evident that no change will occur. Until April perhaps.

No matter. PR or no PR boost, we’re still here to give you boys and girls the most cutting reviews for 2008.

We’ll fly even higher!

Any of you folks still suffering from last year’s shakedown?

Voting’s ongoing for the 2007 Weblogawards! If you’re running a blog or your friends are- now’s the time to vote. Everyone who’s a whos who on the web knows that this is the Pulitzer parallel for the web.