MICROSOFT THINKS THE XBOX 360 IS FINALLY READY FOR ONE YEAR WARRANTY

Microsoft recently announced that they have decided to extend the XBOX 360 warranty from a pitiful 90 days to one full year.

In the announcement the claim the reasoning behind the change was to bring the warranty equal to the warranty given to other places around the world.

Many analysts believe (including the technobabble staff) that Microsoft is just feeling the pressure and maybe just a little embarrassed that their flagship system only had a 90-day warranty and its competitors all gave their equipment a full year.

Microsoft also announced that the warranty is retroactive to all repairs on 360's that have been done in the past within a year of purchase will be refunded and all repairs to be done within a year will be covered under warranty.

This is a good move for Microsoft regardless what they claim the reason they decided to do it. When they have so many claims against them of consoles bricking and bad power supplies it just makes sense to increase the warranty. Why? Because it give confidence to the consumer when buying a $500 product that it won't stop working after a measly 90 days.

Now all we have to do is see if they can get the warranties to be longer than even that.

ADOBE RELEASES PHOTOSHOP CS3 IN BETA

Adobe has released Photoshop CS3 in beta for everyone to check out and see the new features. The only problem with the beta is that it is not open to everyone and you have to have a CS2 product key to unlock it for more than thirty days. That kind of defeats the purpose of a beta if you cannot test it over time as far as I’m concerned.

Anyway, beyond the madness of the product key there are some new features to Photoshop this time around to get more productivity out of it and make it easier for new users to get started. You can now collapse the right “dock” as it’s been trimmed down to just icons making it easier to understand what the heck is listed over there and what you can do with it.

When the dock is collapsed to icons only the icons you select will show their relevant panel of options so you don’t have a screen full of panels. This is especially helpful if you are working with a smaller screen like mine which is a 17″ LCD with a max resolution of 1280×1024.

Beyond that the system remains pretty much the same. The top menu bar is still there and the left tool selector bar is still there. This isn’t a big change like Microsoft’s Office 2007 ribbon menu and since there is no real competition for Adobe with Photoshop then I guess there is no real need to see a real change with the menu system.

THE LIFE AND DEATH OF CEE'S iPOD

Don't worry...sniff... I'll be fine. Let me tell you a little about my iPod. He, he was a good friend. He always played the music to uplift my spirits when I needed it, and he knew exactly what i wanted to hear on the days that I felt angry or silly. His shiny white exterior is scarred with scratches from all the difficult times he had. I remember when he was in my purse, just a week ago, and.... excuse me, I need a tissue... (blows nose). I'm alright, um... where was I? Oh, I remember when he was in my purse and I couldn't find my keys in the dark, so I turned him on to use the backlight to search for them.
Jeff remembers him as well. My iPod was his first iPod, before he got another one. iPod was without a partner to listen to him, so I took him under my wing and we became close friends.
You see, my iPod, was my best friend. And now.... and now he's gone to be with the other fourth generation iPods, who didn't have colour screens, in the sky. I'll miss him.

Well... anyway, (with a bright smile) I've got to go get a new one. 80 gigs, here I come!!!

-written by Cee-

KAWAII, AMATERASU!

Ok, can this get any better? I think not! Okami is surely one of the best games EVER on the Playstation 2 console. I've never played a game like it in all my years!

Okami is the story of a wolf who has to kick some major butt! You play the wolf named Amaterasu, who actually is the sun god and "...mother of all things...". You travel to different parts of the land to cleanse it of the evil and to eventually destroy the evil Orochi.

This game doesn't just have an intriguing story line, but its also a beautiful work of art. It looks like older oriental paintings. It's hard to describe it to its full extent; you'd have to see it for yourself. But wait, not only do you get to travel through this huge painting, but you get to "Paint" as well. As Amaterasu, you're able to use the ability to paint stars, bridges, and us brush strokes to unleash amazing powers such as reviving dead sacred trees and more.

To continue with the tradition of reviewing games, I should say that the music is awesome. It really makes you feel like you're in the story. The music also does an amazing job of reflecting the personalities of the people you meet, as well as Amaterasu's personality.

The whole gameplay of this game is so mesmerizing and magical. Okami has set itself apart from any other rpg out there and really made a name for CAPCOM and Clover Studio. I'm thoroughly impressed and I encourage everyone to pick up this game and try it out for themselves. You won't be disappointed.

-written by Cee-

TECHNOBABBLE BETA

We are experimenting with a new blogging system called WordPress. We will not be leaving Blogger as of yet but we are toying with the cool widgets that are available with WordPress.

If you are interested in the beta please check out:

technobableonline.wordpress.com

BLACKBERRY DOESN'T LIKE TO PLAY BLACKJACK

RIM (Research in Motion) is suing Samsung Electronics because of their new smart phone the "BlackJack".

RIM claims that the BlackJack is direct competition to the Blackberry and is stealing the Black part of the name to confuse consumers into buying the Samsung product.

Analysts say the two devices are different when you hold them close to each other however to the everyday casual cell phone user they may not be able to see the difference.

One thing to point out here the infringing being made by Samsung is not that its against a single product but against RIM's whole product line.

I have looked at both of these products and, yes, to the untrained eye, the Samsung BlackJack does look a lot like a Blackberry however, when you compare the design of the BlackJack to the Motorola Q there are some rather shocking similarities.

PSP FIRMWARE 3.01

Since the launch of Sony's PSP (Playstation Portable) there have been numerous updates to it's firmware going all the way from 1.0 to 3.01, which is the latest firmware update.

3.01 is the latest update and also really changes how the PSP works. The two major updates to the PSP in the 3.01 update include audio graphic visualizers, and the ability to default the system to booting up to the menu instead of automatically loading a game in the UMD drive (kudos to Sony for finally doing that).

If you are a lucky owner of the new Playstation 3 the PSP has a few benfits for you as well (and only you). The PSP can act as a remote for your PS3 controlling everything except for a game. You can also download Playstation games to play on your PSP from the Playstation Store. I hope all you 400,000 that have a PS3 enjoy it.

This is probably the best update ever made by Sony but there are lots of things that could still be implemented. In the themes department I would like to see customizable background colours instead of the picked colours from Sony (brown, who wants to look at a brown background?). It would also be nice to see them implement access to the Playstation store right on the PSP so PSP users can buy Playstation games for themselves.

It's good to see how far Sony has come and hopefully they'll keep listening to the PSP users out there for new features they could place on the PSP.