Xbox is on fire!

The ever benevolent Microsoft is recalling some 14 million Xbox power cords because of reports that they can cause fires or burn you. Damn, talk about bad press at the worst time. With the next Xbox set to be announced in May at E3 this is the last thing Microsoft needs. I guess it says something about the company that they’re not just sweeping it under the rug in an effort to avoid bad press though. I have to give them credit for doing the right thing at least. My Xbox doesn’t seem to be effected as it was manufactured after the October 23, 2003 cut off date. The first one I owned would have been affected though. Good thing I got rid of that one!

Sony's iPod Killer?

Sony is set to release their self-proclaimed “iPod Killer”, the PSP, March 24th in the US. The announced price of $249 seems incredibly high to me despite the “Value Pack” name associated with it. It comes with the following;

A 32 MB Memory Stick Duo
headphones with remote control
battery pack
AC adaptor
soft case and cleaning cloth
movie/music/game video sampler UMD disc including multiple non-interactive game demos
and for the first one million PSP Value Packs shipped, a special UMD video release of the feature film Spider-Man 2

I’m guessing the Memory Stick will be useful for game saves, but if you want to rip your own movies to view on the PSP you'’ll definitely need to buy a very expensive 1gig stick as well.

Ok, so the iPod plays music and can now even display pictures. What does the PSP do? It plays PS2-quality games, proprietary-based discs with movies on them, MP3s from a Memory Stick, connects wirelessly to a network via 802.11b for multi-player games and looks damned good doing it. Rumors have surfaced about Sony intending what amounts to an office suite of applications for use on the PSP even. It looks like Sony is basically making the PSP their new Clie PDA line. I doubt you’ll see business people on trains using PSPs for their powerpoint presentations anytime soon, but having the capability sure can’t hurt. If the PSP wasn’t so large I could see it being a threat to the iPod, but it’s just not very portable. Thanks in part to the PSP’s 4.3 inch widescreen display the unit measures nearly 7 inches long and 3 inches wide. Not something you want to have in your pocket. And regardless of whether or not it has a lanyard strap loop on the side, this isn’t something you want dangling from your neck, geek or not.

Regardless of any shortcomings the PSP might have it's one nice looking gadget that any self respecting geek will be drooling over in the coming weeks.

Kensington Lock Useless?

This kind of thing just scares me. Apparently a Kensington laptop lock cable can be picked with a simple roll of paper wrapped around a pen. Is nothing safe?!

Napster's DRM Circumvented

Not really surprising, but funny none the less; It seems Napster's music renting service has been taken advantage of. Now instead of all your music being gone once you stop paying their $15 monthly fee you can burn the songs to CD. It just proves once again, DRM and all other forms of piracy protection only burden honest users. The pirates will always find a way around it...

Holding Back Progress

The Kaleidescape system is something I've read about with interest because it's just a cool idea executed well. It's basically a DVD jukebox that enables you to rip your movies to its massive array of hard drives to be streamed across a network of Kaleidescape systems in your home. Oh, and it happens to cost somewhere close to $30,000 for a system! But anyway, Hollywood being how they are these days Kaleidescape got sued because the DVD Copy Control Association is afraid that the billions of millionaires out there that own these systems will spend their days and nights ripping their NetFlix DVDs instead of discs they actually paid for. The end result is the DVD-CCA wants Kaleidescape to require that the actual disc be in the player to authenticate before allowing it to be played. Yes, they would like you to do exactly what you paid $30k NOT to do! How asinine is that?! Hollywood really needs to regroup and actually work with companies like this and figure out a way to move into the 21st century. It's bad enough they put out 3 or 4 versions of the same movie to bilk more money out of people, but when they can't even let somebody who buys what is essentially a $30,000 DVD player use it as it was intended they obviously have distorted priorities.

Is TiVo the next Ultimate TV?

With all their other problems, the last thing TiVo needs is trouble with their latest update. I just wish they would release TiVoToGo for OS X before they go under at least...

Xbox 2 in the Fall!

Bow down before the pure power that will be Xbox 2! Ok, so the PS3 will probably hand the Xbox 2 it's lunch when that finally comes out, but who cares, this thing is months away, not years! wo0t!

Gotta love a quote from Steve "The Monkey Man" Balmer too;

"When you see the new Xbox, you're going to think it's un -- well, let me say it politely -- unbelievable. Just unbelievable...I think we’re going to blow by Sony with our next box. I absolutely think we’re going to kick their backsides, so to speak. I think Xbox 1 has been a fantastic product. We’re not market leaders yet. There’s Sony, there’s us, there’s Nintendo. When we get Xbox 2 in the market, there’s going to be Xbox and the other guys." His voice escalated to a crescendo as the audience laughed and applauded. "I'm feeling a little frisky on this topic right now!"

The man is pure insanity.

Happy Valentine's Day

So it seems the iPod Shuffle is regarded as one of the more popular Valentine's Day gifts this year. It makes more sense with the Shuffle starting at $99 but good luck finding one in a store.
(the above article is from Canada and as a result gives higher prices for the Shuffle)