Samsung SPH-W7100, LG's Watchphone Price, Final Fantasy IV Sequel
You can stop terrorists and rapists today by purchasing your very own Samsung (SPH-W7100) phone. The phone will emit a 100dB alarm with the push of a button. Make sure not to press it accidentally though. "The SPH-W7100 features and SOS function that alerts local authorities to your position via GPS. The phone is being marketed at women and children in Korea for its launch next month." Who cares about the specs because it has an alarm as loud as your MP3's earbuds on max volume. Wait, is that even loud? I don't really know, but i guess this is a step towards anti-terrorism. No?
Looking to purchase an LG Watchphone? Well, you'd just have to be rich. According to Engadget, the watchphone will be Orange's exclusively at the grand price of £1,000 ($1500 USD). This may be considered cheap to some people, but for me, it's expensive. But, it's okay because people will still buy this thing, so that they can look stupid talking to their watch. Luckily, we have Bluetooth in today's society, even in Canada!
The Final Fantasy IV sequel may be making its way to the US (I suppose Canada also). Final Fantasy IV: The After Years (name not confirmed) may be hitting us, but there is scarce information right now. There is no word on console, availability or price. It could even be available on Xbox Live Arcade, PSN or even WiiWare. The details are minimal right now, so just be on the look out for it.
Samsung SPH-W7100 (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/24/samsung-sph-w7100-with-100-decibel-siren-proof-the-terrorists-h/
LG Watchphone Price (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/24/lgs-g910-watchphone-to-cost-1-000/
Final Fantasy IV Sequel: http://www.siliconera.com/2009/02/23/did-we-just-discover-final-fantasy-iv-the-after-years/
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 0 Comments
Safari 4 Beta (Part 3), Office 14, Rock Band and LittleBigPlanet To The PSP, Gmail Goes Down
This chart says it all. The Safari 4 Beta is officially the fastest browser available. And, i'm also an idiot. Yes, there is a bookmarks bar, that is similar to Firefox and Chrome's. Although, i still can't find if there's the "restore last open tabs" feature. All-in-all this browser is amazing. Safari did pull a lot of stuff from Chrome, but that's okay. A lot of people are complaining about the lack of the "progress bar" or loading bar thingy that Safari used to have. But, they will probably give it a re-entry in the final build. For the beta there are currently no plug-ins, but that will also probably be implemented in a later build. It seems to me that some people don't even know that Safari can be used on Windows, since it's the standard browser on Macs. So, maybe Apple should emphasize that point more. Anyways, the Safari 4 Beta is a great browser and i'd advise anyone who reads this to at least try it out (especially if you're using Internet Explorer), this coming from a Google fanboy. I still prefer Google Chrome though, so don't think of me differently. Update: I thought i'd mention another thing that Apple should rip from Chrome. The fact that the tabs themselves are not transparent. Since my Windows 7 taskbar is transparent, this also causes Safari's tabs to be transparent (see through). This causes a problem because if the background is white, you can't read the similar white font on Safari. Chrome does a good job with this because the tab itself is not transparent, it uses a light blue background for the tab, plus the font is black and legible. It is a beta though, i'm sure they will further improve on some of their problems.
On a side note, sorry Microsoft Office fans but Office 14 will not be released this year. Ballmer was the one who announced this, so i think it's safe to trust his words.
A bunch of games are going to be released for the PSP this year, but i'll talk about LittleBigPlanet and Rock Band, mainly. Sackboy will hit PSPs this year in Fall. It will have the same gameplay, but will feature new levels for you to master and you will also be able to create your own levels. Basically, it's the same, fun LittleBigPlanet packed onto a UMD for your PSP. Rock Band will also be making its way to the PSP. Rock Band: Unplugged "will include Wi-Fi support and a 'fully-featured in-game store' for downloadable content in the North American and European markets." Primotech mentions that "the peripheral-free game as a beat-matching rhythm title that uses the PSP's directional pad and buttons to play along with guitar, bass, drum and vocal tracks." Does that sound like a good idea? I don't know, you tell me. Some other notable games are Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and Assassin's Creed.
Luckily, i was sleeping when this happened. But, this morning Gmail went down and the whole world just went crazy. Everyone resorted to Twitter when Gmail went down, even though it is usually the other way around mentioned Mashable. Google has fixed the problem, but it reportedly went down for about 2 and a half to 4 hours for some users. Google has apologized for the incident, even though everyone is still mad. Gmail -> Gfail, as some users have been calling it ever since the ruckus this morning.
Safari 4 Beta News: http://i.gizmodo.com/5159327/safari-4-first-impressions
Safari 4 Beta Is Fast (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5159416/safari-4-beta-adds-cover-flow-runs-3x-faster-than-firefox
Office 14 Not Being Released This Year: http://i.gizmodo.com/5159541/office-14-wont-ship-in-2009-says-ballmer
Rock Band and LittleBigPlanet To Hit PSPs: http://kotaku.com/5159408/littlebigplanet-rock-band-assassins-creed-coming-to-psp
Gmail Goes Down (and picture): http://lifehacker.com/5159429/gmail-outage-lasts-two-and-a-half-hours
Rock Band To The PSP (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5159653/rock-band-psp-first-details-its-amplitude
Gmail Goes Down News: http://mashable.com/2009/02/24/gmail-down-panic-mode-on/
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 0 Comments
Safari 4 Beta (Part 2)
Safari 4 Beta (and picture): http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/24/safari-4-finally-a-reason-to-come-back/
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 0 Comments
Safari 4 Beta
Meet the Safari 4 Beta. The Safari 4 Beta is now available and has a new JavaScript engine (Nitro), which is apparently 4.2x faster than Safari 3's engine was. Safari has finally decided to bring something to the table here, pulling stuff from Chrome and Firefox. They've made the move to putting the tabs on the top calling it "a more intelligent method for tabbed browsing." It also has a "Top sites" feature just like Chrome does, so those are both awesome features. "It's also got full history search, and you can use Cover Flow to search through it and bookmarks. Firefox-y features come in the form of a smart address bar and smart search field." You can now even use Ctrl + Tab to move between your different tabs, which should've already been implemented. This is a major overhaul for Safari and i must say that i am impressed. I actually like Safari better than Firefox now. It loads amazingly fast, rivaling Chrome's speed. I actually think it might be faster than Chrome [emphasis on might]. It could be a possibility. I've used it for the past 10 minutes now and am seeing blazing speeds. Apple is actually saying that Safari 4 is the "world's fastest and most innovative web browser for Mac and Windows PCs." It will be interesting to see the new speed tests results. Internet Explorer still lags behind and i think that Firefox is slower than this new Safari beta. Apple is quick to say that they utilize "the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 [not surprising] and more than three times faster than Firefox 3. Safari quickly loads HTML web pages three times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3." They mentioned Firefox and IE, but they left out Chrome so Apple, themselves, may still know that they still have to catch up to Chrome's speeds. Safari is based on WebKit which is also used in Chrome. The Safari 4 Beta is mighty impressive and i'll give you more information on Safari 4 as i continue to test it out. It's a competitor. Look out Chrome and Firefox [and IE] because Safari is looking to spoil the party.
Safari 4 Download Link: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/
Safari 4 Beta: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/24/safari-4-finally-a-reason-to-come-back/
More Safari 4 (and picture): http://i.gizmodo.com/5159260/apple-safari-4-beta-available-now-chrome+y-top-sites-cover-flow-and-nitro
Tuesday, February 24, 2009 | 0 Comments