360 Back-Compat Update

Microsoft has released a new update to it's Backwards Compatibility list today. The current list feature notable older sports games and racing games. One title that jumped at me was Jedi Starfighter, a great Star Wars flight-sim-esqe title. Anyway, here's the list.

2006 Fifa World Cup Germany
25 to Life
AMF Bowling 2004
Apex
Arena Football
Armed and Dangerous
Baldurs Gate: Dark Alliance
Batman Rise of Sin Tzu
Bionicle
Blade II
Blinx: The Timesweeper
Blitz The League
Blood Omen 2
Blowout
Breakdown
Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Cabelas Dangerous Hunts 2
Championship Manager 2006
Colin Mcrae Rally 2005
Crime Life: Gang Wars
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Dungeons& Dragons Heroes
ESPN College Hoops 2k5
ESPN NFL 2k5
Fantastic 4
FIFA 06 Soccer
Fight Night: Round 3
Final Fight: Streetwise
Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone
Freedom Fighters
Freestyle Street Soccer
Future Tactics: The Uprising
Godzilla Destroy All Monsters Melee
Godzilla Save the Earth
Goldeneye Rogue Agent
Greg Hastings Tournament Paintball Max'd
High Heat MLB 2004
Hunter: The Reckoning
Indiana Jones And The Emperors Tomb
MLB Slugfest Loaded
MVP Baseball 2003
MVP Baseball 2004
MVP Baseball 2005
Nascar Thunder 2002
Nascar Thunder 2003
NBA 2k3
NBA Ballers
NBA Inside Drive 2002
NBA Street V3
NCAA College Basketball 2k3
NCAA March Madness 2005
NCAA March Madness 2006
NFL 2k2
NFL 2k3
NHL 2005
NHL 2K3
NHL Hitz Pro
Nightcaster: Defeat The Darkness
NTRA Breeders Cup: World Thoroughbred Championships
Playboy The Mansion
RLH Hunt or be Hunted
Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown
Rocky
Rugby 2006
Shattered Union
Shrek Super Party
Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
Starsky & Hutch
Syberia II
Techmo Classic Arcade
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Test Drive
The Bard's Tale
The Chronicles of Narnia The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Guy Game
The Lord Of The Rings: The Third Age
Thousand Land
Thrillville
Tom and Jerry in War of the Whiskers
Turok: Evolution
Van Helsing
WarPath
Worms 3D
Zathura

mSeliga@live.com

Live Messenger v9.0(2009)

I late 2008, early 2009, Microsoft is planning to release the next version of Windows Live Messenger. Currently, it is being seeded to select beta testers right now through Microsoft Connect. Ars Technica is speculating that because of the long testing period, there will be a boat load of new features.

So far Microsoft has shown a interest in the following features.

• Multiple Points of Presence Support: Ever been annoyed by the fact that logging onto Messenger from another computer logs you out of the first one? If so, you'll be glad to be able to log on from multiple locations at once. And so will you.
• Signature sounds: Find new and creative ways to annoy your coworkers with personalized sound signatures.
• Per-contact sounds: That one friend who keeps annoying you with constant IMs? Give them a rude sound.
• Animated .GIF display pictures: Now your friends can be forced to look at your baby while he's making silly faces.
• Links in status messages: As if there wasn't enough to click on, now URLs in the status bar are clickable.
• Anti-spam filter: You can now report users who spam you via IM, which should do absolutely nothing to stop them in future.
• Third Party Add-On's: Microsoft hopes to be allowing developers to use a API to build add-on's that can integrate withe the app.

I'll be trying to get my hands on a bets release so that I can tell you a bit more.

mSeliga@live.com

Free Your (German) iPhone

If you live in Germany and have craved for a unlocked iPhone, well now you can get it. For the paltry sum of $1473 USD, you can buy the iPhone. Your IMEI number is registered and sent to Apple. You will then receive a email telling you you are ready. You can then unlock your iPhone via iTunes. I'm sure that hackers are already jumping on this right now attempting to bring a U.S. hack that works the same way.

mSeliga@live.com

IBM Is In Yur DVD...

Selling you ads. IBM has come up with a revolutionary(see: get-rich-quick) technology to implement into DVDs that would pause your movie to pull down a ad from a server and display it to you, with no way to skip it. I could see this turning into a big issue. I have a better idea. Don't do it. WE get enough ads on TV. A wise woman(Morgan Webb) said that if there are ads we should get it for free. If I pay for a DVD, I had better get no ads.

mSeliga@live.com

U.N. Says Tasers=Torture

I don't usually get political, but come on! Sure there have been a lot of incidents with tasers recently. One of them happened in a school in my city. The U.N. is missing the point that tasers were chosen because they cried bloody murder of the overuse of guns, so we got tasers. Now they are saying tasers are bad! Maybe our cops should do what the U.N. does, wag a finger at criminals and not do anything constructive to stop them.

mSeliga@live.com

Zelda Movie?

A new site has popped up at the URL Zelda2008.com. It seems like a teaser page with a rendering/artwork of what appears to be Link and the inside of Hyrule castle. If it is indeed a Zelda movie, pray to GOD it's not based off of Majora's Mask. I could do a LTTP or OOT movie. On the other hand, it may just be a new Zelda game...

mSeliga@live.com

Rockers Beware!

If you are gearing up to get Guitar Hero III for the 360, be weary. There have been reports that Wal-Mart has been selling a bundle of the game with the old X-Plorer guitar instead of the new wireless Les Paul. I almost got jipped as well. So far, only Wal-Mart appears to be selling this bundle. Be weary Shoppers.

mSeliga@live.com

Fools for Rock Band

Remember when I reported that EA said to expect shortages of Rock Band? It seems like they were wrong. I work at Best Buy and we always have a HUGE stack of Rock Band siting out. Even after Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year. As the end-pf-the-line balloon holder that day(not very fun), I got to stand right next to the Rock Band Mountain all day. We did sell about 3/4 of the the stack, but all of it. And when we closed, the stack was back up again. Seems like EA was just trying to build up hype.

mSeliga@live.com

Zune to Be Available

Having a hard time finding a 80 Gb Zune 2? Your not the only one. Microsoft recently said that they thought the 4 and 8 Gb versions would sell a lot more, but they were wrong. Microsoft is saying they expect to have Zunes available in 7-10 days.

mSeliga@live.com

Wii Light Sword

Did you wonder what the attachment for the Wii would look like when the Force Unleashed comes out next year? Well here ya go. IT has 22 LED lights to give the power-up, power-down effect. $30, but only in pounds.

mSeliga@live.com

Wii Lost MP3

A new update for the photo channel on the Wii will swap out MP3 support in favor of AAC. Why? Who knows. Annoying? Yes. The update is out now, so if you want to keep all your MP3's, don't update!

mSeliga@live.com

PS3 & DivX

If it's one thing Sony is doing right, it's offering constant features for the PS3. From Themes, wacky "Home" thing, and so on, they know how to keep the fanboys(and me) happy. Around the New year, the PS3 will offer DivX support. This is a great video format on the rise. I'm not sure what all of the supported video/music types are supported,  but I'm sure it more than MP3, WMA, WMV, MP4(360).

mSelga@live.com

Zune 2 Software/Firmware Available

If you own a Zune or just want to get away from iTunes, the Zune 2.0 software hit yesterday. Let me tell you right now that after only 15mins of use, this latest version blows iTunes out of the water. It's simple to use, a very clean interface, a very cool Now Playing screen....it's great. I plan to have test the new Zune its self soon, but if the software is any indication, the firmware will be great.

mSeliga@live.com

360 Fall Update Feature

We found out today that one of the new features for the fall update on the 360, landing December 4th, is the ability to download original XBOX games for $15. The launch titles for this service are Halo, Burnout 3, Fable, Crimson Skies, Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex, and Fahrenheit. It seems like a solid list of launch titles, however you can fin most of these games for about $10. No word on how much space these will take, but most likely something around 4GB.

mSeliga@live.com

iPhone Hacked Again

Apple released version 1.1.2 firmware for the iPhone and iPod Touch to lock down exploits that allowed people to hack them. However, in less than three days, hackers already found yet another way in. This will no doubt be a constant battle between Apple and hackers.

mSeliga

Lose Your Data With Leopard

It would be a rather lengthy post, but its to early or that right now. Instead, check out this memory lose issue with Finder in the latest Mac build.

LINK

Apple really needs to fix this hole.

mSeliga@live.com

Live!

Microsoft's Windows Live has now gone out of beta. I'm currently trying out all of the apps and online services and things seem to be going very good so far. Many of the hiccups have been fixed. To get the Live apps and online services, you can head HERE. Be sure to get a new @live.com email while they last.

The Windows Live apps are

• Windows Live Mail
• Windows Live Writer
• Windows Live Messenger
• Windows Live Photo Gallery
• Windows Live Toolbar
• Windows Live Family and Safety from OneCare

One of the best things is that they all work together,including Live.com, Microsoft's Internet search engine.

mSeliga@live.com

I Plead the Fifth

Just going to let you know, that I will not be covering the Google Phone OS. Until I actually get my hands on it, I don't want to pass any judgment. I know thats its hot talk, so I'll direct you to Engadget, Gizmodo, and Slashdot. Good hunting.


mSeliga

Phase out Your Mind

Harmonix has released a new game for the iPod called Phase. Phase functions like Amptitude. You use the scroll wheel to hit three notes that will be generated by the game from music from your own library. It looks cool, but not worth the going rate of $4.99 for iPod games. It should be available with the new iTunes 7.5 update.

mSeliga

New PS2 Details

As you know, Sony is selling a rehash of the PS2 next year. We got some more details recently, but nothing to exciting. From what we've heard, the PS2 will ship without a power brick and will be offered in white, black, and gray. It will also be a tad lighter. However, it will sell for the same as the current model. Thats all we know right now. Hopefully the price will come down, or this is a pointless re-iteration.

mSeliga

TTFATF Expert

Wow.

mSeliga

Windows Home Server Boxes Galor

Despite the fact that Windows Server 2008 isn't coming out until....2008, Hp and other companies have shown off their Home Server boxes. Hp's box is even for sale right now.

mSeliga

XBOX+ESPN=$$$

Microsoft has now teamed up with ESPN to offer up a variety of sports games, sports shows, and highlights over XBOX Live Marketplace. All we know know now is that Standard Def NCAA games with go for $3, and Hi-Def will go for $4.50. Microsoft has also said that all other content will cost under $2. Also, these videos will be on "within 48 hours of the event".

mSeliga

Bittorrent Weekly

Just when you though another feature would be impossible, here it is. in this feature, I'll be wrapping up the news over the week that had to do with bittorrent. So here we go!

MPAA Denies Involvement With MediaDefender

The big debacle over MediaDefender just keeps getting bigger. After the Pirate Bay filed charges against movie companies in Sweden, the MPAA quickly denied involvement. However, with the large batch of emails that were released a while back, there is such proof that the MPAA and the movie companies purposely added malware to computers and farmed IP Addresses.

Mininova = 3,000,000,000+

This past week, the popular torrent tracker called Mininova reached a new high of 3 Billion total downloads.

That's all this week as this was quickly thrown together over 15 mins. Seems like "piracy" always on the rise.

argh

mSeliga

MS411

Microsoft, on the heals of Google, has come up with there own free 411 service called Live Search 411. The service has business information, movie times, weather forecasts, and for those with compatible phones, map directions to the location. All of this is free and can be reached by dialing 1-800-225-5411.

mSeliga

New Feature: Weekly MetaCritic Scores

This holiday season, it will be incredibly hard for me to keep track of all of the revie3ws out there for the new games. So, every week, usually on a Monday/Tuesday, I'll get the scores from around the net on the new games and movies that week. so here we go!

Games

• Timeshift (360)
• Critics - 69/100
• Users - 92/100
• GH III (360)
• Critics - 86/100
• Users - 72/100
• Hellgate: London (360)
• Critics - 73/100
• Users - 69/100
• Simpson's Game (360)
• Critics - 72/100
• Users - 72/100
• Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
• Critics - 91/100
• Users - 81/100
• Manhunt 2 (PS2)
• Critics - 72/100
• Users - 100/100

Movies

• American Gangster
• Critics - 76/100
• Users - 76/100
• Bee Movie
• Critics - 55/100
• Users - 63/100
• Martian Child
• Critics - 48/100
• Users - 95/100

mSeliga

gPhone Monday

Google has said that if they have a gPhone, they will be announcing it on Monday. Google is getting to the point where they are getting their hands into everything. For a company that has a virtual monopoly on Internet search, seems like they want to take on Apple.

mSeliga

Windows 7 Fib

Microsoft recently showed off the kernel that will be in Windows 7 called MinWin. They say that it will be able to sit on 45mb of memory. Microsoft has said that this is a revolutionary new kernel. However, Paul Thurrott of WinSuperSite.com, has pointed out that MinWin was actually the name of the kernel in Vista. Apparently, Microsoft had renamed the Vista version a few times and had made a few changes, and decided to resurrect the name for Windows 7. Although its negative, it is news about Windows 7.

mSeliga

Is the Mac Really Safe?

It seems as if Apple's OS has been getting more and more Trojans recently. This all goes with a theory I have about the Linux-Mac-Windows war. Windows is the number one target for viruses and spyware because they are the leader in the market right now. As Mac, maybe Linux, get more popular, the coders of spyware and viruses will begin to look at these platforms as good targets. Currently, Mac and Linux people parade about saying that the security on these systems is so good. Its not that they are the most secure, its that there is no spyware/viruses aimed at the systems at the moment. If the Mac continues to gain market share, you will begin to see more viruses/spyware come out of the woodwork.

mSeliga

Mac for the Rich

So Mac OSX 10.5, Leopard, is here.

 

Ok, on to the real news!

 

No really. Leopard is really a non event. I plan on having a feature story on this in about two weeks to show you why Leopard, and Mac OSX in general, is a joke compared to Windows. Here's a little snippet to get you pumped up. Leopard, as with all versions of Mac OSX over the last 5 years, costs $129. Not to bad for a OS right? Well, Vista Ultimate costs $450. Expensive right? Well when you add up Apple's OS costs in the same time frame, you get $645! Seems like a scam to me.

mSeliga

Frets on Fire

Have you ever played Guitar Hero, the critically acclaimed game by Harmonix/Neversoft? Well there is a PC clone for Guitar Hero called Frets on Fire. Frets on Fire is a freeware game available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It has a great community that has made somewhere over 10000 songs. Not only that, but you can download all the songs from Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero 80's, and Guitar Hero III. The mods for the game are also incredible. They have ones that make it look almost exactly like Guitar Hero. It is a great game.

How do you play? If you don't have a 360 guitar, or the PS2 guitar w/adapter, you can use the keyboard. The F1-F5 keys are for the frets and you strum with the Enter key. I recommend this game to anybody who love Guitar Hero, but doesn't want to fork out $50+ for the REAL game. Now for some comparison shots/

Frets on Fire w/Guitar Hero Mod

 

Guitar Hero

mSeliga

PS2 in '08

Sony doesn't want to let the PS2 die, despite the fact that they also seem to be trying to get the PS3 out the door. The rumor around the water cooler is that Sony will be releasing yet another slimed down version of the PS2 with a built in power supply. St this point, doesn't everybody have a PS2? If they release another version, it would seem that it would fall upon a quiet market.

mSeliga

EA Blocks the Rock

EA said that gamers should expect the Rock Band bundles to be in short supply this holiday season. The reason is that there were so many pre-orders and that the peripherals take a bit to produce. Pulling a Nintendo? Maybe. We'll have to find out.

mSeliga

Elder Scrolls MMO?

There has been a rumor for a while that there will be a Elder Scrolls MMO. ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Games, recently registered the domain elderscrollsonline.com(WHOIS Info). This could be a good sign for people wanting a MMO of the Elder Scrolls game, but will it be PC only? In the past, brining a MMO to the console has never really panned out(see Galaxies). If its true, I hope we see a console release as well.

mSeliga

XP Goes Vista

With the release of SP3, it should bring some Vista features down to XP. You won't get any of the cool graphical stuff, but some features that are smaller and not as major. Here is a short list of the "major" features being down ported.

• Network Access Protection (NAP): This is a policy enforcement platform meant for enterprise use that inspects systems attempting to access a corporate network to ensure they meet whatever security criteria the corporation has in place. If systems fail to meet the necessary criteria, they can be updated or blocked from using the network, depending on the nature of the flaw.
• New Product Activation module: Just as in Vista, users will be able to install XP without entering a product key at installation.
• "Black Hole" Router Detection: A black hole router is a router that drops packets without returning the specified Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) response. This feature aids in detecting and protecting the end user from such a problem. Previously, according to Microsoft documents, reliable detection of a black hole router involved use of an appropriately configured "ping" command, followed by further manual commands for working around the problem.
• Microsoft Kernel Cryptographic Module: This feature incorporates cryptographic algorithms in a single module other kernel mode drivers are capable of hooking into and accessing.

mSeliga

Want Vista SP1 Early?

Do you want to test SP1 for Vista? Well now you can! Ghacks has a posted a registry hack that will make you part of the beta program and allow you to download the beta of SP1. I've used SP1 before, and its nothing to write home about. It's mostly just a wrap up of previous fixes, however it adds some more protection to the kernel. When in testing it broke one program of mine, Frets on Fire, but other then that it was ok.

mSeliga