Isaiah's Tech

This morning Super Street Fighter IV has just been spotted on Gamestops's online store here. The listing states that it will be available for $40 on March 23rd. Of course, things will likely change, but for now you can pencil that into your calendar.

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If you're really interested in buying a gaming PC and you love Street Fighter IV, you should get this kind of sweet deal. If you buy a CyberPower PC with a Nvidia 200-series video card, you will get Street Fighter IV for free. The bad part about it is that you're probably going to spend at least $1,000 USD on any of their PCs. Head over to this site now! The deal ends soon.

[Crunch Gear]

We heard a couple of days ago that Marvel vs Capcom 2 will be hitting PSN and Xbox Live, well the official date is rumoured to be June 29, 2009. That gives you over a month to prepare for the re-release. You can play Street Fighter 4 while you wait because that should be enough preparation. This is yet another date to mark on your Summer calendar.

[PS3 QJ]

If you haven't seen Daigo in action, I feel really sorry for you. A couple of days ago, I spent a good portion of my day dedicated to watching Daigo rape face. He's famous for his comeback video where he parries a whole Chun-Li special move (forgot the name, embarassingly enough). Anyways, at a recent Street Fighter IV tournament held in San Franscisco, Daigo (playing as Ryu) beat Justin Wong (playing as Rufus) 4-0 in the finals. He is just that good. On a side note, Justin Wong still managed to claim the U.S. title, so he was not empty handed. Pics of the event are at the Kineda link below.

[Kotaku, Kineda]

For all of you Street Fighter IV players, you're lucky - because I'm craving to get that game. Anyways, Championship Mode will be available via a patch on April 24 for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. "Championship Mode brings a number of new features for online players, including the introduction of five levels of tournaments. Participating (and winning) in these tournaments will earn gamers 'Grade Points.' earn more Grade Points and you'll be granted the opportunity to enter even more exclusive tournaments." If you win a tournament you will earn Championship Points, which is basically Street Fighter IV prize money.

Another feature that will be added is a replay function. On PSN you will be available to rate matches and on Xbox Live you can download the replays but you can't rate them. So you can pick your poison or maybe you already have since you may already have the console and the game.

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If you use iGoogle and go to the Themes section, you will notice that there is a new heading called 'Games.' Yes, that's right, themes that involve games. There is only 4 pages right now, but that could expand in the future. So far the line-up isn't too bad, you got your World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, Call of Duty: World at War, and Street Fighter IV (my theme) themes. There are also some classics like Mario, Zelda, and Galaga. If you can't decide on what theme to choose just choose the Game of the Day theme.



[Official Google Blog]

I came across a so-called Diablo 3 review this morning. I didn't bother to read it nor understand it. So, i skimmed to the last paragraph and it said, "A full release is scheduled for both PC and Mac in March." Seriously? Diablo 3 in March? Isn't that a bit early? I tried looking on Google for a possible confirmation, but couldn't find anything. I actually did find that Play.com had Diablo 3 set for release on March 27, 2009, but they changed it. If Diablo 3 was coming out so soon (less than a month away), i think the whole world would be going nuts. I'm going to have to deny this so-called March 27th release of Diablo 3. It's upsetting and disappointing that it won't come out this soon. It'll hopefully come out later this year, but i doubt this March 27th release. Sorry Diablo fans.

Need for Speed looks like they're going to release an MMO. For the PC though and not for consoles. It will be a free MMO, so need to worry about any payments. It'll have the usual customizable UI and all that MMO-stuff. I would try it out, but i don't really know if i want to play Need for Speed on the PC. Kind of lame if i had to use a keyboard. I want to play Need for Speed Underground right now. I'll even play Gran Turismo 4 right now, but i can't find it. I also want to play Capcom vs SNK 2, since Street Fighter 4 recently came out. Argh, so many problems. I also have lots of Physics to do today, so that's great.

Diablo 3 Release Date (and picture): http://www.tiscali.co.uk/games/previews/2009/02/10/diablo-iii.html
Need For Speed MMO (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5162280/first-screen-from-nfs-mmo-shows-customizable-ui

We've already seen NVIDIA's attempts at the MID and now it's time to head over to Samsung. The SWD-M100D looks decent, boasting a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, 3MP camera, Bluetooth, microSD card slot and a TV out. This MID also has a 4.3-inch touchscreen, but was seen running WinMo 6.1, which is torture to use. It does have WiMAX, so i guess we can give it some kudos for that.

IGN released a statement before that the Nintendo DSi was going to be released on April 4 for $179.99 USD on this side of the world. Well, the real release date and price have just been announced. Oh, and did i mention a new colour? So, look out for the DSi on April 5 for $169.99 USD. In Japan, they released a black and white version of the DSi. Well in the US, there will also be 2 versions, it will be the normal black and a new blue model. It will be bundled with a "DS rhythm game" called Rhythm Heaven.

Apparently, a new statement from the Street Fighter IV development team said that they have already done the pre-texturing to a few more characters and that if the voice of the gamer is heard, they could add more characters, via patches. This is exciting news. Imagine getting some SFII characters into the mix, like T. Hawk or Dee Jay. Street Fighter IV looks like it will be a big game, so gamers let your voice be heard. Request more characters and Capcom will try their best to meet your demands.

3 more Final Fantasy characters have leaked: Gabo (Gabou), Lebro (Rebro) and Markie (Marquis). These names may not carry over to the English version. But, at least now you know that there were 3 new characters that were leaked. If you want to see the characters, go to this link, via ps3.qj.net.

TI as in Texas Instruments, not the rapper. And "something" refers to the device that you see on the left side and in the video below. I'm not sure what this device is and i don't really want to call it an MID, but that is what it looks like. Texas Instruments and Wind River have worked together to fuse this device together, the Zoom OMAP34x-II. This device has a solid 4.1-inch touchscreen, HDMI out, 16GB of memory, an 8MP camera, an SD card clot, and has a large QWERTY keypad. This Android-running device will have 2 models; One model will have Wi-Fi only and the other one has 3G, they will go for $1150 USD and $1399 USD, respectively. The high pricing of this device is where i question it. With $1000 USD you can get a laptop that is a much better device than this, but the video is definitely worth a look. The Android UI that it runs is amazing. Reminded me of Pre's innovative UI. Maybe the UI is a bit overdo-ing it though. The video is below, via Gizmodo.



Samsung's MID Has WiMAX (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/wimax-equipped-samsung-swd-m100d-mid-spotted-at-mwc/
Nintendo DSi (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5155614/nintendo-dsi-dated-for-united-states-new-color-announced
Capcom Could Add More SFIV Characters (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5155560/if-theres-demand-capcom-could-add-more-sfiv-characters
New Final Fantasy XIII Characters (and picture): http://ps3.qj.net/Final-Fantasy-XIII-Team-Nora-s-three-new-members-introduced/pg/49/aid/128957
TI and Wind River Create Something (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/texas-instruments-and-wind-river-do-up-android-right/
TI and Wind River's "Something" video: http://i.gizmodo.com/5155597/coolest-cellphone-interface-ever-is-also-absolutely-useless

The long-awaited sequel to Street Fighter III is finally here. Street Fighter IV has hit the shelves today. All the Street Fighter fans need to get this so that they can Hadouken and Shoryuken all of their friends. It makes me sad that i don't have a Playstation 3. I'm missing out on Street Fighter IV and Killzone 2, damn.

Unfortunately, Samsung didn't get to show their Android phones at MWC, but this was anticipated. Fortunately, fans everywhere are now rejoicing because Samsung says that "more than three" Android handsets will be coming by the end of the year. If they're Android handsets are touchscreen, i hope Samsung fixes the touch-y problems, like the ones on the OmniaHD.

You probably already know about LG's watch phone and may be looking to purchase it. Well, it's not going to be the only watch phone out because Samsung is showing off their own. The GT S-1100 looks like it'll have your standard touchscreen, Bluetooth and speakerphone, which is similar to LG's watch phone. There is no word on the price or when it will be released. But it could be a while, maybe you'll see it around next year.

3 UK's INQ1 was named the best handset of 2009. How they gave the award to this phone, i don't know. Wait, you've never heard of this phone? It's okay, me neither. At the GSMA awards, this phone (somehow) came out on top, beating out the likes of: LG KS360, T-Mobile G1, Blackberry Storm and the Nokia E71. Apparently, the phone won because it was tightly integrated with Facebook and last.fm and also supported Skype and Windows Live Messenger. All of that being said, i don't think this handset should've won. Terrible call.

Street Fighter IV (and picture): http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/693300/Street-Fighter-IV-In-Stores-Now.html?utm_source=g4tv&utm_medium=rssfeeds&utm_campaign=TheFeed
Samsung To Release At Least 3 Android Phones This Year: http://i.gizmodo.com/5155599/samsung-promises-more-than-three-android-handsets-by-end-of-year
Samsung's Watch Phone (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/18/samsung-teases-wrists-with-gt-s1100-watch-at-mwc/
3 INQ1 Is The Best Handset (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/3_inq1_is_the_best_handset_for_2009_gsma_awards_announced-news-807.php

Street Fighter IV was just released in Japan and it sold out in the first day. Capcom sold 86,000 copies of their new Street Fighter IV. This is actually one of the most anticipated games, i think, of this year. Although, Joystiq and Capcom were surprised about the overwhelming demand, i actually wasn't. This game looks amazing!! Just look at Ryu go, even though he's losing against Ken in the screenshot.

Remember the Conficker worm? This is the worm that has stirred and infected many Windows PCs around the world. Even, Microsoft is afraid of it. They are now rewarding $250,000 US to whoever turns in the founder of the worm. The worm has infected up 15 million Windows PCs to-date.

This weekend's MWC is going to be a great one and now we have another Nokia phone to add to their line-up. One with an 8MP camera using a Carl Zeiss lens. This picture on the left, has been taken by Nokia's 8MP phone and it may be competing with the Samsung INNOV8, as my friend Yang pointed out. The picture seems to have pretty good quality, so we'll see more of this phone at its official announcement this weekend. Nokia actually decided to release a leak, finally.

Take a good look at the 3 new upcoming Motorola phones. From left to right, you will see the QA4, the VE66LV and the QA1. I think that the best phone out of these 3 could be the QA1, since it has a touchscreen. Hopefully, it works well and isn't running any kind of WinMo OS. The QA4 also looks decent, but the screen just looks way too tiny. The VE66LX is gold and looks like your typical Motorola phone. Ehh, nothing to look at here. Boring.

Samsung is working on their new 50nm GDDR5 memory, but it will probably be a while before we see this in new graphics cards. This memory "promises to support a maximum data transfer speed of 7.0 gigabits per second and boast a maximum bandwidth of 28 gigabytes per second." Samsung also mentions that shifting to their 50nm manufacturing will also increase "production efficiency by a full 100 percent, and allows the memory to operate at 1.35 volts, which is a 20 percent reduction compared to current GDDR4 memory." Samsung seems to be making all of the breakthrough's lately; with their phones, 32GB RAM sticks and now this. I'm also looking forward to their MWC line-up.

Street Fighter IV Sells Out (and picture): http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/13/street-fighter-iv-sells-86k-copies-first-day-in-japan-capcom-sa/
Microsoft Rewarding $250,000 For Conficker Worm Founder: http://i.gizmodo.com/5153202/microsoft-and-cybersecurity-superfriends-offer-250k-for-conficker-worm-maker
Nokia Teases Fans With A Picture (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/13/nokia-shows-off-sample-image-from-mysterious-8-megapixel-phone/
Motorola's 3 New Phones (and picture): http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/13/motorolas-qa4-ve66lx-and-qa1-dash-onto-the-scene-rumor-style/
Samsung Working on 50nm GDDR5 Memory: http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/13/samsung-begins-production-of-50nm-gddr5-memory/

So, Skype 4.0 was released today (download link here). If you've been using the Skype 4.0 beta already, you may not notice any new features off the bat. If you're migrating from Skype 3.8, you will notice the new UI and a slight improvement on the video calling. I'm going to try it out when i get home, to see if the video calling quality has increased. I'm always on Skype with my girlfriend, since she's on residence for University. That's how we stay in contact.

The famous American groundhog saw his shadow this morning, so it looks like there will be 6 more weeks of Winter. I don't doubt this groundhog's psychic ability at all, since up here in Canada, it's snowing today. It's been snowing for about 4 hours now and i don't think it's going to stop for at least another hour. I dislike the Winter and i dislike the snow. That is an example of a parallel sentence, i learned it in English class today.

I talked a bit about the 2TB hard drive last week, from Western Digital (here). Seagate is going to step up to the plate with their own 2TB hard drive, which is expected to hit consumers by this September. Seagate's rendition of the 2TB hard drive will run at 7200RPM. Western Digital's is running at an undisclosed "eco-friendly" speed. Western Digital's 2TB hard drive is going for $300 USD now and Seagate's will be out later this year. Hopefully, Seagate won't have the same problems with this HDD that they had with the Barracuda.

The Toshiba TG01. We haven't really heard much about Toshiba's smartphones, but this one sets itself apart from the rest. The phone itself has a very similar style to the iPhone. I mean very similar. I'd advise to go to this link to see more photos of this impressive looking device. Something tells me that this phone will be generating a ton of buzz. "The Toshiba TG01 is the first device in the world to run on the Qualcomm Snapdragon platform, which is powered by a 1GHz mobile CPU and hosts GSM, HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and GPS connectivity all on one chipset. The CPU has dynamic speed control and Toshiba and Qualcomm claim it'll go for a whole day without recharging." The iPhone better look out for this baby. It packs a 4.1 inch touchscreen (larger than the iPhone, HTC Touch HD and the Nokia N97's screen), which will have a 800 x 480 resolution. GSM Arena mentions that "it's certainly the biggest one we've seen on a GSM mobile phone." The phone itself is also extremely thin, approximately 9.9mm to be exact. The phone has a mere 512MB of internal memory, but it's okay because you can upgrade the storage to 32GB using its microSDHC slot. The TG01 will only have a 3.2MP and it looks like there will be no flash. It will will have flash in another department, since this phone's Internet Explorer mobile 6 will support Flash, unlike the iPhone. The only downside to this phone is that it is going to run the utterly slow Windows Mobile 6.1 OS. It doesn't really make sense why this amazing phone will run on WinMo 6.1 at all because it will be released in the summer in Europe. WinMo 6.5 is already on the way and why they are deciding to use WinMo 6.1 is beyond my best guesses. They could have at least chose Android or something. Maybe, just maybe it won't run as slow as the Samsung Omnia does.

Capcom is supporting Playstation Home in a big way. There will be Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil costumes making their way to Playstation Home. Capcom also mentioned that people will be able to meet on Playstation Home and then jump straight into a Street Fighter match. There will also be a place on Home representing a Resident Evil-like setting.

Skype 4.0 Download Link (and picture): http://www.skype.com/download/skype/windows/
More Winter: http://www.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0244987120090202?rpc=64
2TB Hard Drive Fight Continues: http://i.gizmodo.com/5145221/seagate-fires-back-with-2tb-constellation-drive
Toshiba TG01 (and picture): http://www.gsmarena.com/toshiba_unleashes_the_tg01__the_ubersmartphone_to_rule_them_all-news-768.php
Street Fighter and Resident Evil Making Its Way To Playstation Home (and picture): http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/03/street-fighter-and-resident-evil-invade-playstation-home/

After this blog post, i am finally going to play WoW on my priest, if i can. But, anyways, for the past 3 hours or so, i've been rearranging my room. And i must say that i did a pretty good job. As soon as i get a DVI port i'm going to be running dual monitors with my laptop on the side. Pro-gaming to the max right there. I'm actually going to watch the raps game tonight on my TV. It's not on Rogers tonight because they're showing the game on TSN 2, a channel that Rogers doesn't have atm (at the moment). I'm going to be streaming it from my laptop and running dual monitors with my TV with a VGA port, i'm all ready for it. I can't wait... but anyways, blogging time.

So, Capcom has finally showed the world what the Street Fighter's 4 Collector's Edition set will look like for North America. Due to many complaints from fan's about the previous box art, they also decided to change it. It will be retailing for $79.99 (probably USD). With this Collector's Edition you get: the game, a limited edition figurine [Ryu for PS3 owners, C. Viper for 360 owners], a strategy guide, a CD soundtrack and some secret downloadable content that kotaku.com will be revealing soon. I can't wait for this and is yet another reason i want a next-generation console... =(. Please Christmas, please.

So, i've actually been talking a lot about Motorola lately, but there are actually confirmed news today. Motorola, themselves, have actually revealed a new touchscreen phone called the Motoprizm. Gizmodo.com points out that it looks a bit like the Motorola Krave, with a couple of tweaks. This phone is packed with a 2.8 inch touchscreen, has Bluetooth capability and packs a 3 megapixel camera. I don't really like any Motorola phones, but this one looks good. It is a flip phone, but the flipping part of it is actually glass, or clear plastic that you can actually see through. It looks pretty good, in my opinion. Good job Motorola!


"Blizzard has launched the first of their Starcraft II Battle Reports, featuring a 20 minute Protoss versus Terran match in an early alpha of the game with a full commentary accompanying the action." I actually watched this video and it was pretty amazing. Obviously, in the end, the asian guy won, David Kim, who played as Terran. It was pretty amazing. I actually don't keep up with many Blizzard Starcraft II new gameplay videos, but these are definitely ones i will be watching. It will give me new strategies seeing how the developers play against each other. I noticed that the banshees looked pretty strong in this footage and i actually thought that the Protoss were going to win early on in the fight. Anyways, if you want to watch it, it's a 20 minute match between Protoss and Terran, as stated above. The gameplay looks good though, i'm not gonna lie. Blizzard does have this game attracting many fans already, just incase i needed to point that out. If you want to watch the match, the link is just below.

Starcraft 2 Match: http://www.starcraft2.com/features/battlereports/1.xml
Street Fighter 4 (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5114739/street-fighter-iv-collectors-edition-revealed-with-new-box-art
Motorola Phones (and picture): http://gizmodo.com/5114576/motorola-debuts-touchscreen-motoprizm
Starcraft 2 Battle Reports (and picture): http://kotaku.com/5114108/blizzard-launches-starcraft-ii-battle-reports