Content and news by Rob Williams

If you think $599 for a phone is too much, you are certainly not alone. With that blatant fact, comes obvious rumors that cheaper iPhones are on the way, such as the tentative iPhone Shuffle that you see to the right.

According to one technology researcher, Apple would be smart to roll out iPhones at more reasonable prices in order to make a huge impact, a la iPod. I disagree. This is Apple we are talking about. Did the iPod sell over 100 million units because it was priced right? Far from it. Compared to other audio players on the market, the iPods have always cost more. The iPhone will sell. It might not sell 100 million units like the iPod, but Apple clearly prefers to release top quality products in liu of more customers. That said, more iPhones are definitely on the way. It seems like a given.

Shaw Wu has been right on a couple Apple predictions in the past, but it doesn’t take much to guess that Apple is currently at work on, or at least thinking about, a second generation of iPhone. Price drops also seem inevitable, and Shaw’s predictions hold few surprises.

Source: Ars Technica

Anyone who owns a printer knows well that ink cartridges are a huge rip-off. They are expensive and don’t last long. Or do they? Ars Technica relays study results done with different ink cartridges to see if they are really near-empty when the on-screen nag says so. What they discovered is actually shocking. In a few of their results, when the software told them the cartridge was near empty, it was actually still half-full with at least another 100 pages worth of ink left.

Single ink cartridges aren’t exactly perfect, however. Such cartridges still were reported as empty with an average of 20 percent of their ink left, which means that an entire cartridge worth of ink is wasted for every five which are used. Given the sky-high prices of ink, this is an alarming find.

Source: Ars Technica

Is it possible that MySpace is worth a staggering $12 billion? Michael Arrington thinks it’s a definite possibility given current information and rumors floating about. Yahoo! is apparently in talks to purchase the popular web property from Fox, who paid just $580 million for it just two years ago. According to Michael, it would be a foolish move on Yahoo!’s part.

Yahoo could certainly use the massive page views and user numbers, and they could kick Google out of that search deal from last year. But they need to focus on strategic acquisitions and a real game plan going forward. To try and hit one out of the park with a monster acquisition, perhaps just as the MySpace star is fading, would be monumentally stupid.

Source: TechCrunch

According to notebook blog Laptoping, Intel has a few mobile CPU’s up their sleeves slated for release in early July. If true, a lot of mobile gamers will be very happy. The Core 2 Extreme X7800 and X7900 processors will be clocked at 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz, respectively. Compare that to the 2.4GHz that most high-end notebooks include now. Of course, 4MB L2 cache is included as well as an 800FSB, so it’s a true beast, especially where laptops are concerned.

In the mainstream class, the company will release the Core 2 Duo T7250 with 2GHz clock speed, 800MHz FSB, 2MB L2 cache, and a $209 price tag, as well as T7800 at 2.6GHz, featuring 800MHz FSB and 4MB L2 cache. The T7800 will be the fastest CPU in its class and will have $361 release price. In addition to this roadmap, the specifications of upcoming Dell Inspiron “Santa Rosa” notebooks revealed the details of another two new chips: the lower-end Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2M L2 cache) and Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.66GHz, 667MHz FSB, 2M L2 cache).

Source: Laptoping

Ahh Rockstar, always in the center of controversy. The original Manhunt was an incredibly violent game, and has been one of the few games to actually make me cringe. Is Manhunt 2 going to be that much worse? It’s certainly looking like it, as the UK has already banned it from being released there. It’s hard to believe that ultra-violent movies are allowed to be sold, but when it comes to a video game with an M rating… It’s almost a given also that Australia will also put a ban on the game, since they are also strict with their games lately.

Manhunt 2 might very well become the first console game ever (excluding GTA: SA’s quickie) to receive an AO rating, as well. I find great humor that such a controversial game is being released on a Nintendo console. Who says that cater to kiddies now? Kudos to Rockstar for never giving up on their dreams of being the controversy kings.

“Manhunt 2 is distinguishable from recent high-end video games by its unremitting bleakness and callousness of tone in an overall game context which constantly encourages visceral killing with exceptionally little alleviation or distancing. There is sustained and cumulative casual sadism in the way in which these killings are committed, and encouraged, in the game.”

Source: IGN Wii & Gamespot

Today, it’s not rare to pick up a music CD and be treated to special content, some better than others of course. It gives people more incentive to spend their ~$15 on the disc and makes it feel like a complete package. However, according to this article, this is nothing new. It actually began in the vinyl days.

The process was actually quite simple. Record a portion of the record to a cassette tape, load that tape into your Spectrum computer and see if the game would work. This wasn’t a rare feature either, the article mentions many LPs that had this functionality.

Most of these programs were written for the Sinclair Spectrum home computer series. The Sinclair Spectrum was a relatively cheap home computer system that used a television set as a monitor and loaded programs from tapes. It thrived in England in the early 80’s.

Source: Kempa – Via: Boing Boing

The gents at DailyTech let us know that both Samsung and Seagate have begun shipping their 1 terabyte drives. Of course, Hitachi was the first out the door when they shipped their drives earlier this year, but what’s impressive are the specs of these new ones.

While the Hitatchi sticks to five platters at 200GB each, Seagates uses four platters at 250GB while Samsung uses three at 334GB. Seagate has been the king of disk storage for a while, but Samsung seems to have taken the lead. As far as pricing goes, they should all cost roughly the same when they finally hit your favorite e-tailer.

Six months ago Seagate confirmed it would launch a 1TB Barracuda hard disk drive in 2007. Seagate was the first to officially unveil a 1TB desktop drive after taking first place with the 750GB 7200.10 Barracuda. However, Hitachi announced its 1TB offering only minutes after Seagate’s announcement in January and took advantage of a head start by bringing its product to the market earlier.

Source: Daily Tech

We have been following Novint’s Falcon for quite a while now, and the day has finally come. If you have pre-ordered one, it should be en route to you right now. If you want one, it will have to be a new pre-order. Novint will begin shipping the second batch in late July.

Novint Technologies, Inc. (NVNT), the pioneer of 3D touch for consumer computing, has begun shipping the highly anticipated, award-winning Novint Falcon game controller in a special Limited Edition bundle. Described by Popular Mechanics as “Wii 2.0,” the Falcon is an entirely new type of 3D game interface that makes virtual objects and environments feel real.

Source: Novint Press Release

You are sick and tired of hearing about the ‘Jesus’ phone, and I well understand your pain. However, like Wal-Mart door greeters, the iPhone is not going to go anywhere anytime soon. For those who are mindlessly excited for the new toy but want to experience all you can before the big day, Download Squad gives us the news that most iPhone apps can be accessed right now, since they are mostly web-based.

Since the iPhone’s third party programs are essentially web pages that can be accessed through Safari, you can already check out some of the first applications designed for the iPhone. For example, there’s already a Digg interface, a cheap gas finder, and a nifty front end for several online newspapers.

Source: Download Squad

Amarok is one of the best audio players for Linux, but there is a lot more it can do than just play your tunes. We are taking a look at our top five tips of things you can do with this amazing player.

As part of AT&T’s agreement to the FCC, they are required to offer basic DSL service for $10 a month. Sounds reasonable, however it’s crippled with 768Kbits down and 128Kbits up. This is a service that they don’t want you to know about, which is evidenced by the fact that it is deliberately hidden deep within their website. As far as Boing Boing is concerned though, people shouldn’t be looking at this with a hint of consideration anyway.

But even at $10/month, AT&T DSL should be avoided like the plague. These are the scumbags who illegally wiretapped the entire Internet for the NSA, who broke net-neutrality to find “copyright infringements, and who inspired NBC to call for a law requiring all ISPs to do the same (imagine — a law forbidding network neutrality!).

Source: Consumerist – Via: Boing Boing

Gold farming in MMO games is nothing new. It’s been around for as long as the games themselves have been. However, there is no doubt that it’s a bigger business than ever, with the CEOs of these companies earning a massive paycheck by hiring countless people to do the grunt work for them. This article goes into great depth in the life of one of the gold farmers for WoW, which is enough to make any straight-thinking person cringe.

Twelve hours a night, seven nights a week, with only two or three nights off per month, this is what Li does — for a living. On this summer night in 2006, the game on his screen was, as always, World of Warcraft, an online fantasy title in which players, in the guise of self-created avatars — night-elf wizards, warrior orcs and other Tolkienesque characters — battle their way through the mythical realm of Azeroth, earning points for every monster slain and rising, over many months, from the game’s lowest level of death-dealing power (1) to the highest (70).

Source: NY Times

Almost two full years after Xbox 360 owners succumbed to the addiction that was Geometry Wars, Steam owners can now enjoy the same state of euphoria. It’s a great game to begin with, but to sweeten the deal, Valve is offering the game for only $2.50. Hard to go wrong there.

Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved is a old school style shooter, but remixed for the 21st century with next generation graphics and deep, modern gameplay. Playing is simple: you are a geometric “ship” trapped in a grid world, facing off against waves of deadly wanderers, snakes, and repulsars. Your aim is to survive long enough to set a high score!

Source: Steam Games

Sunnyvale, CA—June 18, 2007 – OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative ultra-high performance and high reliability memory, today announced the PC2-6400 Platinum Vista Performance Edition 4GB (2x2048MB) dual channel kit. These new modules feature enhanced timings and are the ultimate upgrade for gamers transitioning their high-performance systems to Windows(R) Vista(TM).

Source: OCZ Press Release

IGN is reporting that Tomb Raider Anniversary will be available in September for the Xbox 360, but in four separate downloadable episodes. Each will cost around $5£ for current owners of Tomb Raider: Legend, which doesn’t seem like much of a bargain at all, given the retail version of the PC costs $30. For those who are not interested in episodic content, you can pick up a full retail version for the 360 later this year.

Initially, Anniversary is only available if you’ve got Legend. But even with your copy excitedly glasped in a tight grip, you’re still going to have to fork out 2,400 Microsoft Points (roughly £20 or 27 EUR) for all four episodes. Meanwhile, if you’re too tight to pay for the privilege of playing with retro Lara, the Croft Manor training level will be available for free.

Source: IGN Xbox 360

Here’s one for the books. Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 are going to have Grand Theft Auto IV, however, thanks to a $50 million payment, further exclusive content will be available for the Xbox 360 only. It’s hard to say whether or not the extra content will cost money, but it’s difficult to imagine otherwise. This is $50 million we are dealing with. Microsoft will have fun earning that back from what I can see.

The first batch of downloadable content is scheduled for March 2008, followed by a later “fiscal ’08” launch for the second batch. I guess when you’ve got that much money in the bank, you can throw around $50 million like it’s nothing.

Source: CrunchGear

Are you one of the few still not sold on the iPhone? Will eight hours of talk time change your mind? I admit, eight hours of talk time is a nice promise, and certainly beats my current Motorola phone which is lucky to last two hours before dying off.

Apple has issued a press release noting improved battery life, and in addition to the promised eight hours of talk time, the phone will hold up through six hours of internet use, seven hours of video and twenty-four hours of audio playback. These reports will not change my stance on being forced to a certain provider, but they are certainly nice numbers for those who plan to pick one up at launch.

“With 8 hours of talk time, and 24 hours of audio playback, iPhone’s battery life is longer than any other ‘Smartphone’ and even longer than most MP3 players,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also upgraded iPhone’s entire top surface from plastic to optical-quality glass for superior scratch resistance and clarity.

Source: Apple Press Release

If you are not looking for the highest-end GPU on the market but still want one with great performance at an even better price, the 7900 GS might be right up your alley. It fell slightly behind a 7900 GT, but has the overclocking headroom to make up for it.

DFI is well-known for producing some of the best enthusiast motherboards, partly in thanks to Oskar Wu being one of the people behind the engineering. Apparently, the upcoming P35 board has been hitting some insane numbers. How about a 632MHz FSB? That amounts to a staggering 2.5GHz in QDR mode. Compare that to the 1.980GHz I managed to push on ASUS’ P5N-E late last year. I cannot wait to see this motherboard released.

As soon as the heatpipe cooling system is finished, this bad baby will hit production. We cannot stay silent, but state – with HD2900XT hitting GPU overclock in 200-250 MHz range, and with DFI’s P35 motherboard hitting over 100 MHz higher FSB overclock than anyone else… what proof is needed to show that digital PWM or DVRM, as Iwill called it on its debut in 2003, is a massive improvement over analogue power distribution systems?

Source: The Inquirer

If you consider yourself a camera noob, then this article can give you some solid guidance. Whether or not you are after a point-and-shoot or DSLR, the choices are endless. It’s easy to be pushed in the wrong direction, especially if you are in a hunt for the highest megapixel number.

Being a Nikon fanboi, I have to disagree slightly with their #5 where they state Canon makes great cameras. While true for the most part, while both offer comparable image quality, Nikon’s DSLRs have proven to have better build quality, at least most recently. Canon is the first choice for point-and-shoots though, Nikon doesn’t deliver any comparable to Canon, not by a mile. Of course, this is just my opinion. Many will disagree.

Whether it’s due to accidental damage or simple wear and tear, digital cameras are not as durable as their film counterparts. Many photographers have film cameras that are ten or twenty years old—don’t expect this kind of longevity from your new digital toy. Some cameras suffer from design flaws (like black lines on the LCD screen of the Canon A70), while others fall victim to the kind of mechanical breakdowns that effect every kind of electronic gear.

Source: Digital Camera HQ