Shhhhh… did you hear that? That is the sound of a shaking giant. No.. Apple isn’t going to tumble any time soon. But it is nice to see them take a knee every now and then. “Read More” for the 5 phones that may just have the capacity to land a staggering blow.

In case you have forgotten or did not know, here are the quick specs on the latest iPhone 3Gs.

• Carrier: AT&T
• Operating System: Apple Mobile OS Rev. 3.0
• Processing: 600MHz CPU, 256mb RAM
• Display: 3.5″ TFTLCD @ 480×320 w/ 163 ppi
• Camera: 3MP with auto-focus and VGA camcorder
• Battery: About 5 hours of talk time
• Storage: Either 16 or 32GB
• Media: Everything, It just plays everything… except flash.
• Dimensions: H: 4.5″ W: 2.4″ D: 0.48″, Weighs 4.8 oz.

Advantages: With everything from multi-touch recognition to arguably the best mobile browser in existence, now coupled with a faster 3G network, extra storage (though non expandable) and a slightly better battery life (though still irreplaceable), the iPhone 3Gs is an extremely capable device with more than enough power and versatility to handle being your all in one communication and entertainment system. Though as with anything there is always room for improvement, and don’t think that the competition hasn’t been paying attention.

The Challengers

#5 The Palm Pre Plus

• Carrier: Verizon
• Operating System: Palm Web OS
• Processing: 600MHz CPU, 256MB RAM
• Display: 3.1″ 320×480 HVGA
• Camera: 3MP w/LED flash, camcorder
• Battery: About 5.5 hours talk time
• Storage: 16gb
• Media: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV, MP4, H.263, H.264
• Dimensions: H: 3.9″ W: 2.3″ D: 0.67″ Weighs 4.89 oz.

Advantages: Palm has been lurking in the shadows for some time now and has been putting a lot of effort into revising this flagship model for their WebOS platform. With multi-touch, video capture, and a blackberry styled – though sliding – QWERTY, this phone is coming out swinging. The two main advantages over the iPhone are better battery life and a bigger potential for networking (this puppy can hotspot you up to 5 other devices to the iPhone’s 3). So if you like the Iphone but would like a sliding QWERTY in a very small package, this one is worth looking into.

#4: The Motorola Droid

• Carrier: Verizon
• Operating System: Android 2.0
• Processing: 550MHz CPU, 256MB RAM
• Display: 3.7″ 854×480 WVGA
• Camera: 5.0MP w/flash, auto-focus, camcorder
• Battery: About 6 hours talk time
• Storage: 16GB expandable
• Media: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, WAV, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA, AMR-NB/WB, MP4, H.263, H.264
• Dimensions: H: 4.6″ W: 2.4″ D: 0.5″ Weighs 5.9 OZ.

Advantages: Motorola has been in the game as long as anyone, and they have brought a nice new addition to the touchscreen smartphone arena. With a very nice screen size and near laptop feel when slid open, the DROID steps into its roles easily and near flawlessly. The biggest advantages as I see them are the combination of personalization and expandability possible with this phone. With a clever reimagining of the slide-out form, and a competitive package powered by Google’s Android OS, this phone will be stealing a few possible iPhoners… and Motorola fan-boys will definitely not be disappointed.

#3: The HTC Hero

• Carrier: Sprint
• Operating System: Android 2.0
• Processing: 600MHz CPU, 288MB RAM
• Display: 3.2″ 480×320 HVGA
• Camera: 5.0MP, auto-focus, camcorder
• Battery: About 5 hours talk time
• Storage: 2GB expandable to 32GB
• Media: MP3, AAC, AAC+, WMA, WAV, MP4, H.263, H.264
• Dimensions: H: 4.5″ W: 2.2″ D: 0.54″ Weighs 4.5 OZ.

Advantages: HTC has brought in, hands down, one amazing piece of smartphone. Infinitely customizable, linkable, and attachable, there really isn’t much you can find that the Hero can’t do. With a very iPhone-ish – but better in my opinion – design; the HTC is sleek, light, and responsive. The main advantages here are geared toward the social networking junkies. With FaceBook updates direct to your contacts (you can even set your friends’ Facebook profile pics to be their contact photo on your phone), An on-screen QWERTY and predictive text that rivals the much heralded iPhone on-screen QWERTY, and a full page to dedicate to your favorite websites. There is just no better way to say it, this is one sexy phone.

#2: The Samsung Moment

• Carrier: Sprint
• Operating System: Android 2.0
• Processing: 800MHz CPU, 256MB RAM
• Display: 3.2″ AMOLED 480×320
• Camera: 3.2MP w/flash, auto-focus, camcorder
• Battery: about 5.5 hours of talk time
• Storage: 2GB expandable to 32GB
• Media: MP3, MP4
• Dimensions: H: 4.6″ W: 2.34″ D: 0.63″ Weighs 5.67 oz.

Advantages: Samsung has a very far reach in the electronics manufacturing realm. With some companies that has resulted in some areas falling behind. If Samsung has a weakness.. it is not their line of cellphones, and the Moment is proof positive. Although not quite as intuitive as the Hero, or as small as the Pre Plus, the Moment seems to have picked it’s battles, and come out on top for the most part. Fast, solid, and open to anything you can throw at it from work, to play and beyond. The biggest advantages with this phone are its keyboard and overall processing capability. I’m sure we have all seen plenty of bad keyboard designs, and Samsung must have too. With a full dedicated number row, 4 directional buttons, and an alternate function list that is better than some laptops, Samsung has struck a very appropriate balance between work and play.

#1: The Google Nexus One

• Carrier: T-Mobile or Unlocked
• Operating System: Android 2.1
• Processing: 1GHz CPU, 512MB RAM
• Display: 3.7″ WVGA AMOLED
• Camera: 5.0MP w/flash, auto-focus, camcorder
• Battery: around 7 hours of talk time.
• Storage: 4GB expandable to 32GB
• Media: AAC, AMR, MP3, WAV, AAC +, Ogg Vorbis,H.264, MPEG-4, H.263 video and AMR audio
• Dimensions: H: 4.7″ W: 2.4″ D: 0.5″ Weighs 4.6 oz.

Advantages: HTC scores big with its second phone on this list. Since the deployment of the Android platform, phone junkies have been foaming at the mouth for an unrestricted vessel for the OS to really stretch out in. The Nexus One seems to have that capability. Harnessing many popular features already in use on the HERO and a few other phones, the Nexus One is a step up and out with a faster processor, more space, and some subtle improvements on physical design. The biggest advantages to this phone are that it seems barely even out of the box developmentally. Only a month out into the market and most of the major bugs have been resolved. Along with the ever widening Android Market, the overall capability of this phone may not be seen for some time.

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None of these entries are going to knock the iPhone off of the shelves anytime soon.. but at least now when that Macboy flashes his iPhone around you can ignore him.. or change your battery and SD card in front of him.

I found this on the net and I think everyone should see it, the things technology is doing for us these days.  Makes it hard to imagine what we wont accomplish electronically/virtually.

www.utah3d.net

Sorry I didnt have time to elaborate, check out the link though…its self explaining.

YouTube robbery has become very popular over the last couple of years. In fact, youtube haven’t bothered doing anything about it. As long as you don’t sell the video, it’s actually legal. That in mind, here is my top youtube downloaders, and why I chose my no.1. But first, a little info on the art of youtube downloading.

Youtube downloading can be tricky, if you don’t know how to do it write. Several are online. I wouldn’t recommend using them as they are crawling with viruses. You are much safer downloading software than using an online service. At least with a download you know what your installing. Giving a site permission to do whatever it wants is like using Internet Explorer… it’s suicide.

That being said (drumroll please) the top five youtube downloaders:

5. RealTime Media Centre (comes with a downloader that can be accessed from your browser)

4. Youtube downloader 2.5.3

3. Youtube downloader Chrome Extension

2. Youtube downlaoder Firefox Add on

1. DVDVideoSoft Suite.

The DVDVideoSoft downloader suite comes with other useful functions like audio and video conversion, and burning and ripping software. Unlike others, it has quality control (the lower the quality, the less time it takes to download), the option to download only the audio (handy for MP3 players) and even the option to change the audio’s volume. The site is here. The Downloader it self is found here and the whole suite can be found here.

A friend mentioned seeing this to me and I took a look at it (bigbadtoystore).  If youre a fan of Transformers you will probably get a kick out of these transforming electronics.  They come in a variety of devices which include USB Hubs, Flash Drives, and Mice.  Although they are a bit pricey going from 42 to 60 dollars I think it is safe to say if you are an avid Transformers fan you wouldnt mind.  Especially if it means you can take time to transform the toy on your laptops desk into your mouse before getting on the computer in front of your friends.

Ever wanted to play your favorite PC games in 3D?  Well NVIDIA has got the closest thing with there GeForce 3D Vision.

Overview

• $199
• 3D PC gaming, and movies
• Wireless glasses
• You can find the official link here

Continue reading to find out more.

All you need is to buy the kit, which includes the software needed and the “Stylish glasses”. The only downfall is that there are number of very specific requirments. That can set you back more than the $199.

The Minimum software requirements are.

• Microsoft® Windows® Vista 32/64-bit or Windows 7 32/64-bit
• Intel® Core™2 Duo or AMD Athlon™ X2 CPU or higher
• 1GB of system memory. (2GB is recommended)
• 100 MB free disk space

And the software is only compatible with the following Desktop Displays, TV’s and Projecters

• Desktop Displays
  • Samsung® SyncMaster 2233RZ 120 Hz LCD display
  • ViewSonic® FuHzion™ VX2265wm 120 Hz LCD display
  • 100 Hz and higher analog CRTs
• HDTVs
  • Mitsubishi® 1080p DLP® Home Theater TV: WD-57833, WD-60735, WD-60737, WD-60C8, WD-60C9, WD-65735, WD-65736, WD-65737, WD-65C8, WD-65C9, WD-65833, WD-65835, WD-65837, WD-73735, WD-73736, WD-73737, WD-73833, WD-73835, WD-73837, WD-73C8, WD-73C9, WD-82737, WD-82837, L65-A90
  • Generic DLP HDTV mode
• Projectors
  • DepthQ® HD 3D Projector by LightSpeed Design, Inc.
  • DQ-3120 by LightSpeed Design, Inc.

The full required specifications can be found here.

So how does it work?

Normally 3D has been done one of either two ways, the good old red and blue glasses that you used to wear at the movies. What the red and blue glasses do is filter out some of the color  so as to make both of your eyes focus on different layers of the film, and this creates the illusion of 3D. The more modern glasses that are used now are polarized, and instead of filtering out the colors the glasses filter for example, the left glass will filter out everything but vertical light waves, and the right everything but the horizontal light waves making you focus on the two layers of the film.

However, what the 3D vision glasses use is not a brand new technology, but it is definitely better than the previous two ways. The glasses utilize rapid shutter lenses that shut off each eye rapidly there is a thin LCD coating of the lenses that either turn black or clear, and rapidly change every millisecond and syncs to the monitor being used. What this does is makes both of your eyes  focus at different times which creates a depth of field.

The technology can only be used on specific games some better than others a full list of the games can be found here

I personally can not wait to get my hands on a pair of these glasses, just imagine play Nazi Zombies in Call of Duty: World at War in 3D.

Comments and questions are welcome.

Ever wanted to play a tune, but not have an instrument?  This is the program for you.  It turns each of your keys (qwerty) and numbers into a musical note.  Each row is an octave, the Z row being the lowest and the Numbers row being the highest.  Holding shift makes your notes more sharp.  The instruments that it can play are in the hundreds from pianos, guitars, and violins to gunshots (ha), telephone rings, and bird tweets.  It’s actually pretty soothing, in my opinion, to leave running while typing (or playing) a paper that I have to get done.  You can get the download here, http://agdoa.net/.  All you have to do is unzip it and run the KeyBoredRunner.exe.  After that you’ll have to click ‘Start’ before you will hear anything.  Type away!  If you’d like to find some songs to play, or new keymaps click here, google has tons of material for you.

Although this online service through Zsnes has been offered for awhile now I just recently got into playing SNES games online with friends that dont live close to me anymore.  They took compatibility for what they called netplay out in the latest versions of the emulator due to instability mainly, but if you get the 1.42 version and set it up successfully you can still play one of many games over the internet with friends.  All you both need is the same emulator, rom (with the same file name), and a host (one of the two players, router configuration will probably be needed.)

Read on for more information, a step by step guide, and a list of all working games.

If you go to this website it gives a very detailed account of how to get everything working along with a list of working games.  I am going to try and simplify it a little bit, but if you need router configuration or have trouble I suggest going straight to the source above.  To find a certain game I suggest just googling the name of it with “rom” at the end.  I suggest you and the person you intend to play with use the same resource in getting the game so it will already have the same file name, and it will assure you got the same dump(copy) of the game.

The first thing you need to do is make sure both players have the same copy of Zsnes, you will need 1.42, you can get it here.  Afterwards, you need to decide who is going to host, and who is going to be connecting.  In order to connect you will need to contact your IP addresses to each other in some sort of chat, it will be displayed in the connection window.  Which is in the Zsnes program after you click on Internet and then Netplay.  Hopefully it should work meaning you wont need any router configuration.  At this point it will be all about opening the game and having fun.  If you had any trouble or think you do need to configure your router (host) I suggest just visiting the link above it would be silly for me to repeat a perfectly fine guide again.  If you missed the link here it is again (http://www.emualliance.com/zsnes/.)  I use a vent to talk to a friend while I play, but you could just as easily use AIM or MSN.

Compatible Games (copied from the above mentioned link):

• All SNES SPORTS game roms
• Aero Fighters
• Art of Fighting 1 & 2
• Battletoads in Battlemaniacs
• Battletoads vs DoubleDragon
• Brawl Brothers
• Brutal: Paws of Fury
• Captain Commando
• Clayfighters 1, 2 and Special Edition
• Contra 3
• Darius Twin
• Double Dragon 5
• Dragonball Z Super Butoden 1-3
• Dragonball Z Hyper Dimension
• Faceball
• Fatal Fury 1, 2, & Special
• Fighter’s History
• Final Fight 2 & 3
• Ghoul Patrol
• Goemon 2, 3, & 4
• Goof Troop
• Gundam Wing: Endless Duel
• Joe&Mac 1 & 2
• Jurassic Park 2 – The Chaos Continues
• Killer Instinct
• King of the Monsters 1 & 2
• Kirby’s Avalanche
• Kirby’s Dreamland 3
• Kirby Super Star
• Legend of the Mystical Ninja
• Lemmings 1
• Megaman 7 (Secret Code – password 1415/5585/7823/6251 and press L+R+Start)
• Metal Warriors
• Mortal Kombat 1 & 2
• Mortal Kombat 3 (some rom version don’t work on ZSNES)
• NP Mario Picross Series
• Peace Keapers
• Pirates of the Dark Water
• Pocky & Rocky 1 & 2
• Pop’n Twinbee
• Power Instinct
• Primal Rage
• Puzzle Bobble (Bust a Move)
• Raiden
• Rampart
• Ranma 1/2 II
• Rise of the Robots
• Rival Turf
• Run Saber
• Sailor Moon
• Sailor Moon R
• Sailor Moon S
• Sailor Moon Puzzle (R,S,Super S)
• Sailor Moon Fighting (S,Super S)
• Samurai Shodown
• Secret of Mana
• Seiken Densetsu 3
• Shaq fu
• Star Fox 2 Beta
• Star Trek Starfleet Academy
• Street Fighter 2 (and derivatives)
• Street Fighter 2 Turbo
• Street Fighter Alpha 2 (doesn’t work properly in ZSNES)
• Street Racer
• Stunt Race FX
• Sunset Riders
• Super Bomberman 1-5
• Super Mario All-Stars (SMB3 minigame)
• Super Mario Kart
• Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (Secret Code – at map, hold select, then press X,X,Y,B,A)
• Super Offroad
• Super Smash TV
• Super Street Fighter 2
• Suzuka 8 Hours
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4 – Turtles in Time
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 5 – Tournament Fighters
• Tetris & Dr.Mario
• Tetris 2
• Tetris 3
• Tetris Attack
• The Great Circus Mystery
• Top Gear 2
• Tuff e Nuff
• Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3
• Uniracers (2P not working well in ZSNES)
• Wild Guns
• World Heroes 1 & 2
• Wrecking Crew 98
• Zombies Ate My Neighbors

If you have trouble getting it working or dont understand something on this site or the guide linked above leave a comment with your issue and I can try and assist you.

Since the beginning as I first made my discover of what emulators and roms were, I have been plagued with using a keyboard to play them.  I did know there were USB controllers you could get at various electronics stores I just never brought myself to be able to put out the money for them.  The other day I was wondering if you could simply hook a PS3 controller up to a computer and get it working.  After a little research I found that people had already figured it out by replacing the original USB HID drivers with an open source version called libusb.  There were some issues with this (peoples mouses and keyboards stopped working, and Vista users could not use this method) but after awhile I came by an article with all the information I needed.  Apparently, a Chinese programmer created a PS3 controller driver that works with peoples standard USB HID.  He called it Six Axis Driver (click here to get the download).  Unfortunatley this only works in the 32bit version of Windows.

Read on for a step by step to make sure you get things right.

Once you have the file all you have to do is:

• Plug in your controller via USB port.
• Run the installation.
• Load the driver through the program.
• Reboot your computer.
• Open your favorite emulator and set your input keys using the controller.

Also, for XP (32 bit) users, this will work for you too.  It is also a better method than replacing your Windows drivers.  Although, the old way works fine so this isn’t big news.

After that its smooth sailing as I play some of my favorite Super Nintendo games on my laptop with my trusty PS3 controller.  Never will playing emulators with the keyboard be a pain to me again.  By the way, if you didnt know, there are emulators for almost any system, and roms to go with them.  So check out Google and have fun with it.

Microsoft made this release and opened the downloads to anyone on slow and fast servers on the 5th of May, you can find the file here, which is around 2 gigabytes and can be burned onto a standard sized DVD.  It’s special new feature is an XP Mode, so you can run a virtual copy of Windows XP SP3 pretty seamlessly.  It isn’t without its glitches though, it is after all just RC1.

Read on to make sure you know what you are doing, what you need to be able to do, and good reasons that will probably sway you to (or not to) go through with the change.

So why go through the trouble?  If you hated Vista or ever had any feelings of hate, anger, irritation, or pain towards it, Windows 7 probably solves these problems.  The UI has evolved more than in previous years, you dont need to download loads of stupid codecs, and its much more secure.  If you have Windows 7 your life is generally better in relation to your computer issues.

If you don’t want to reinstall and lose all of your files (Windows 7 RC1 has no upgrade option) there are some upgrade options people have worked up on the torrent sites, if you search around you can find one that does the update for you while saving your files.  I suggest just backing up anything you need and doing a fresh install.

IMPORTANT:  The installation will start going bad on March 1st, 2010.  Shutting down every two hours or so to remind you to go get an activated copy of another OS, in June your copy will stop working all together.  Just remember to read the “what you need to know” information on the download page before jumping in blind.  Some things you will need to know how to do to run the OS successfully are:

• Troubleshoot problems. You’re pretty much flying solo, so you’ll need to handle your own tech support, and rely on other RC testers for their know-how

• Burn an ISO file to make an installation DVD

• Install Windows

• Backup and restore your PC

• Set up a network

• Create and use a system recovery disk

Square Enix has recently developed a cross platform engine which can be played on their Nintendo DS and also their Nintendo Wii.  If that makes absolutely no sense to you I can make it simple.  You can play games on your Wii with your friends that don’t have a Wii, as long as they have a DS (of course internet connection or LAN would be needed to accomplish that.)  Currently the only game available to do this, running on the Pollux Engine, is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Echoes of Time.

Continue reading for more information and future games that are planned to be on the Pollux Engine.

Interesting for Final Fantasy fans playing and enjoying FFCC:EoT, soon to come is FFCC: Crystal Bearers, which I can only assume will be on the same Pollux Engine as the previous game.  Another interested bit of information I came across was that the rumor that the upcoming Dragon Quest IX will also be cross platformed thanks to the Pollux Engine, but this may possibly just be a rumor and nothing more.

Doing some research to see the difference between playing on a DS and a Wii I found that there was none really.  The DS version uses the stylus and the Wii version uses the controller, and due to the second screen on the DS there is an extra screen on the Wii version at times.  This screenshot accurately depicts the main difference on the Wii.  And as you can imagine playing on a Wii will be much bigger depending on the size of your TV, but you also lose the portability of the DS.

Another interesting feature that the Pollux Engine has is transferring the characters you have on your Mii profile to your DS, so if you want both size and portability and you have both consoles, you could always get both.