WEB SITE URL TECHNOBABBLEONLINE.COM IS TEMPORARILY DOWN

As you can see from the title the url for technobabbleonline.com is temporarily down. We have been making some changes and are now preparing to create our own hosted site.

I personally have registered a new domain, which will remain nameless at the moment, for reasons of a portfolio and to show clients web-sites that I have designed and built for them.

The technobabbleonline.com domain will be back as soon as the servers will allow it. For now please proceed to use tbabble.blogspot.com.

TECHNOBABBLE EPISODE 6 - COMPLETE BUT...

We have completed episode 6 but we are having some problems uploading the podcast to our server at switchcast.com. If you guys have any suggestions that would be helful.

FINAL FANTASY VII : ADVENT CHILDREN

Final Fantasy VII : Advent Children (herein referred to as FFVIIAC) was realeased to day on Special Edition DVD and Sony UMD formats in North America.

Honestly, I'm surprised that it actually came out on time. I was half-expecting it to be held for another six months. Thankfully Sony and Square-Enix got their act together and got the video out.

It took me an hour of searching around to find a copy of the DVD and UMD in Chatham (ON, CAN) and finally found it in, whadya know, Wal-Mart. Hey, I am the Wal-Mart Junkie.

Man-o-man I wish this was in theatres. This is a great cinema experience. I had actually seen the Japanese version with english subtitles but it was still hard to get the jist of the whole movie.

I don't want to spoil the fun so I won't go into any detail about the movie other than it is a fitting conclusion to the FFVII story.

If you're interested in the movie and can't get it in stores (because I got the last DVD in Wal-Mart and the third-last UMD as well) you can order it from EBGames online, with a $15 CAN shipping charge, or get it off Ebay.

BLACKBERRY 7130E

I have recently been made aware that I am receiving a lot of email for technobabbleonline.com and needed a more mobile solution to at least reading my email. There are many solutions out there including dedicated email cellular devices to Windows Mobile-based palm devices to Research in Motion's Blackberry phones/services.

I was on a mission. To find the easiest to use mobile device that included the ablilites to receive and make phone calls, receive, read, and send email, and a task schedualer.

I went to Future Shop, since they have every phone from every provider (Bell Mobility, Telus Mobility, Rogers, Virgin Mobile, and Fido) in Ontario for sale, and started browsing the shelves for interesting email/cell-phones. Preferably I wanted to stay with Telus Mobility because their coverage seems to be a little better than Bell Mobility.

Here are the three I was considering (not listed in any particular order):

• BlackBerry 7130e
• BlackBerry 7250
• UTStarcom 6700
• Palm Treo 650

I got a chance to handle all of these phones/email clients and see what they were like.

The first one I started with was actually only available at a Telus kiosk in our downtown mall. It was the UTStarcom 6700. This device is Windows Mobile-based phone. It has expandable memory and is compatible with all Windows Mobile software. It has Microsoft Outlook compatibility which is good for most users but unfortunately I don't like Outlook (even though I own a copy of it). I found the Windows Mobile interface to confusing. Get this though, there is no dial pad. If you want to call someone you have to bring up the dial-pad on the screen and push it with your stylus. Kinda defeast the purpose of the phone does it not. On the bright side, it is the easiest to type on becuase of its full QWERTY keyboard and big buttons. List price is $149.99 CAN.

The Second one I looked at was the Palm Treo 650 (by the way, when the heck are they gonna sell the 700m here in Canada?). It runs on the Palm OS and also has expandable memory and thus is also compatible with all Palm software. As far as I'm concerned it's definately the coolest looking of the bunch (kudos to PalmOne for the design). The problem here is that I have owned Palm OS-based devices in the past and have not had any luck getting half the things to work on it. The Palm OS is, however, the easiest OS to use as far as it goes in the PDA world. As a phone it was just too big and bulky. The QWERTY keyboard was also just too small and the buttons were way too close together. List price is $99.99 CAN.

Theres more! The third was the BlackBerry 7250. I've researched the BlackBerry service for some time and have found it to be the most reliable and the quickest way to get email. It runs on the BlackBerry firmware (pretty close to Palm I'd say).I was only turned off by the ugly design of the 7250. It's features are good but not as good at the Palm and the UTStarcom but it's also a lot lighter than them both. It has a full QWERTY keyboard and the buttons are better spaced than the Treo 650. It is 1x ready but not compatible with the EVDO high-speed wireless network. If you're looking for a feature-full phone this is not your choice. It has no camera, like 5 ringtones and cannot play voicetones. List price is $99.99 CAN.

The last one I looked as was the one I decided to buy. The BlackBerry 7130e. Yeah, another BlackBerry. They just keep coming back. Anyway, I liked this one even though it doesn't have a complete QWERTY keyboard or camera. It looked a lot cooler than the 7250 and had better features. It is compatible with the EVDO network and thus compatible with 1x as well. It has double the memory of the 7250 (64MB non-expandable). It also is Bluetooth 2.0 complient where the 7250 is Bluetooth 1.1 complient. I also got a free Bluetooth headset with the phone ($40 CAN value). I was happy with that. It also only cost me $149.99 CAN (it's now listed at $249 CAN). Again If you're looking for features get a UTStarcom or Palm device NOT a BlackBerry. And hey, they're Canadian, eh?

As you can see my choice was the most expensive and the plan to go with it was not cheap as the Windows and Palm devices (UTStarcom and Treo) but the BlackBerry service is much faster.

Check them out for yourself. If you have a review for any of the devices that I have talked about in this article please email them to:

technobabble001@gmail.com


The links in this story all go to the Telus Mobilty Website. I am in no way affiliated with Telus Mobility. For the interests of sanity I preferred to use one website instead of getting links from all over the place. The image in this story is sole property of RIM (Research in Motion of Kitchener, Ontario).

BLU-RAY NOW AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER FROM SONY

Sony finally has a blu-ray product out on the market. Well, acutally out in pre-order.

Sony has been touting their blu-ray format that is backed by many different tech companies as well as movie companies alike.

Toshiba has now beat Sony to the front with their own HD-DVD player at the moment but the Sony BDP-S1 is expected to ship around August 15, 2006.

There are other blu-ray disc drives coming out sooner than that including many for the computer.

Sony's new blu-ray format is expected to hold 50GB of data by the time they release the dual-layer format. Another company working on the blu-ray drive is also supposedly working on an eight layer (yeah, that's a lot of layers) version that can hold about 200GB.

The new blu-ray system can push a 1080p picture as well as upscale existing DVD's to 1080p. It will also play mp3's from DVD's (no CD's) and also view pictures stored on DVD. As far as I can tell it does not play CD's.

Obviously to get the 1080p picture you have to have a 1080p TV otherwise your looking at a downscaled picture.

The new Sony blu-ray player will be sold at a price-tag of $999 (US). There are now indications about Canada yet but I assume it will be released here about the same time.

TOSHIBA RELEASES FIRST HD-DVD PLAYER

Toshiba has finally released the first HD-DVD player available in North America and they're literally flying off the shelves.

The Toshiba HD-A1 was just released along with a few good titles to go along with it, namely Serenity and the Last Samurai.

It seems that the early adopters are loving the quality however the everyday DVD viewer will probably not know the difference.

I my self do not have the money or resources to get one in for review but will definately check the stores for one in use ans watch a movie there.

For now if you are used to the DVD quality you have or have an upconverting DVD player to 780p then stick with it until the prices of the players come down.

This story came via Engadget. If you want to view the original story please click here.

QUEST FOR COOL CONTEST

We need just what the title says. We have a few admins that do most of the posting but we need a few more. We also need more readers. In an effort to attain this goal we are opening a contest.

We need you to review a product for WindowsXP that makes it look cool or adds functionality (no office or email applications).

So what's the prize you ask. You'll remember that I did a series last week on the "Quest for Cool" for WindowsXP. We reviewed a product from TGTSoft called StyleXP. Our friends at TGTSoft have graciously given us some registrations, for StyleXP, for our readers. The five top winners will get a free registration (19.95 US value) and also get their reviews posted on "The Gamers Review Blog" as well as "technobabbleonline.com" (priceless).

In the subject line of the email please indicate that you are emailing about the "Quest for Cool" contest. The first line of your email should include your name (first and last), country (for curiosity's sake), and the name of the WindowsXP product reviewed. There is not limit to how many words just keep in mind we have limited room on the homepage of "technobabbleonline.com" and "The Game Review Blog". THERE WILL BE NO SWEARING OR PROFANITY TOLERATED AND WILL BE DISQUALIFIED IMMEDIATELY.

You may send us the rebates through our email link to the right or by clicking here.

Contest closes June 30, 2005 11:59PM (EST).

HAVE A GOOD EASTER

No links for this message. We just hope you have a good long weekend and remember the real reason we have a long weekend.

We will have news again on Monday.

We will also be announcing a contest soon.

QUEST FOR COOL - 3D SCREENSAVERS BY RIXANE INTERACTIVE

Along my quest for cool applications that make WindowsXP look better than it's plain old self I have found a company that makes some really cool screensavers.

Rixane Interactive has a collection of screensavers that are completely 3D. Some of them require some good hardware to run them too, but, oh, do they look cool!

I downloaded the Flight Over Sea 3D screensaver and It's really cool. It's pretty basic to describe. You fly over the ocean that is crystal clear an blue of course. There are clouds in the air and there's even a soundtrack to the screen saver (which is very soothing after a long day at work).

Although this screen saver is not amazing there are many more from Rixane Interactive to choose from. Check out the website by clicking the title or clicking here.

QUEST FOR COOL - CHAMELEON CLOCK BY SOFTSHAPE.COM

Continuing the Quest for Cool I have found a new tool that really spruces up the ol' WindowsXP interface from a company called SoftShape.com.

The program is called Chameleon Clock. A very cool name.

The installation is almost the biggest part of the program. It has a very well thought out install making it very painless to actually install the program on the computer.

I was very impressed with the vast library available of templates for download for Chameleon Clock. You can also update the clock to the atomic clock.

It also has a built in calendar. All you are required to do is hover your mouse over the clock and the calendar pops up. That is very cool.

If you would like to check it out click on the title or click here.

*The image used in this story is sole property of SoftShape.com.

QUEST FOR COOL - YAHOO! WIDGET ENGINE

There is another cool application to bring excitement into WindowsXP but surprisingly it comes from Yahoo!.

It's called the Yahoo! Widget Engine 3.0. This is a collection of small programs that run in the background on your desktop giving you tidbits of information. Right at this very moment I am running:

• digg.com search box
• wi-fi signal detector
• large digital time display
• memory usage detector
• system CPU usage detector

Yahoo! Widget Engine is an easy way to keep tabs on news, sports and computer statistics.

The program comes with some default widgets but you can download many others from the vast library here.

*The image used in this story is sole property of Yahoo! and has only been resized for reasons of bandwidth and desktop space.

QUEST FOR COOL - STYLE XP BY TGTSOFT

In my searches to make WindowsXP better than the plain and boring I have found various products that I would like to share with you over the course of a few entries.

One of the coolest products is made by a company called TGTSoft. They make a program that focuses on changing WindowsXP into something visually stunning. Style XP is a great program for many reasons.

I'll list it's abilities below:

• You can change the style of the buttons in Windows Explorer
• You can change the complete theme of WindowsXP and download more themes for free from different locations on the internet
• You can change the visual style of WindowsXP instead of changing everything
• You can change the background independently from the theme
• You can change the look of you're logon screen and download more logon screens for free from different locations on the internet
  
• You can change the Boot screen
• You can make the "Start Menu" transparent as well as the taskbar
• You can change the cursors which you can find more of on the internet
  
• you can even change the screen saver which we all know we can find more of them on the internet

Whoa. Few.... that's quite a list. You would expect just from the amount of things this program can do it would be somewhat hard to figure out. Well, think again. It is very easy to get in to.

I can say one bad thing about it. It is a little difficult to find new styles for the program. TGTSoft has included a few links to places where you can find some free styles to download.

All in all Style XP is a very handy program and at a price of $19.95 (USD) it is a good product to use.

TGTSoft is programming company from New Orleans, Louisiana.

*The image used in this story is sole property of TGTSoft.

APPLE SUPPORTING WINDOWS AFTER ALL?

I appears Apple is fully ready to at least help users install Windows onto their Macs.

The new version of Mac OSX (10.4.6) or otherwise known as Tiger is in testing mode for dual booting WindowsXP on any Intel Mac. The new version of the Mac OS is named Leopard and it seems that Apple is ready to give the system over.

The windows groups have been looking for solutions for dual booting a Mac ever since the Intel switch was announced some time ago. I has just become possible by some programmers that won a handsome sum of money for doing so.

This software update for OSX Tiger will allow you to partition your hard drive and dual boot with WindowsXP and Apple OSX. Of course you will have to have your own full copy of WindowsXP Pro SP2 to do this, not an upgrade version.

Goo-gle p-a-g-e-s, ..., zzzzz

Alright, I told you I'd get back to you about Google Pages and I have recently been granted an account on Google's Web Page Service.

To be frank, if you are at all experienced with web page design or anything of the sort you will be disappointed. I design web pages for a side job and use Adobe Dreamweaver for design. It is much more powerful and you can build a site a lot better using this program. Heck, you could make a better web site with Microsoft FrontPage.

I all seriousness, you may get free hosting and a web page designer for free as well, but you are not receiving anything more powerful than Blogger. And Blogger does all the work for you.

If you want to sign up for Google Pages please click here or click on the title.

PSone Dead?

According to Gamespot, Sony has turned the power switch off on the little system and has put all its focus on the newer systems.

The PlayStation has been built since 1994 to the delight of many gamers and has now been discontinued. The system has sold over 100 million units around the world.

Good news for gamers though. Sony has announced that they are developing a PSone emulator for the PSP. This means that every system to date will have the capability to play PlayStation games. The PS3 will also be able to play PSone games along with it's PS2 compatibilty as well.

FIREFOX 2.0 ALPHA

I have downloaded the 2.0 alpha version of Firefox. I have been toying around with it for the day and all I can say is that it is awesome.


The image above is a screenshot of techno_babble online using Firefox 2.0a (code name "Bon Echo"). As you can see from the screen-shot it is very close to 1.5 but there are some key differences.

The browser itself seems to be much faster even though this version is in alpha. I even turned the browser memory cache off and it ran the same. The menus are basically the same and the browser still supports skins and extensions.

The options menus is same containing the same security and connection options.

For an alpha version Firefox is very stable.

As the alpha progresses I will update information about FireFox 2.0a.

NOTE: This product is only available for Windows and Linux. You see my screenshot looks like Apple however it is just a skin by windoblinds.

IPOD FM TRANSMITTER TESTING - DLO TRANSPOD

I am testing a new FM transmitter for your car. There is a picture to the left of it and it appears they have upgraded as per the link. The transmitter is made by DLO and it is called the Transpod.

At first glance the system has a full FM range and a small backlit LCD screen. The system works with all iPods that have a dock connector.

I am using my old 4G iPod in testing and so far is sounds pretty good. Better than my iTrip transmitter.

This system also charges your iPod while it's plugged into the Transpod dock.

I will have more information in the future when I have completed the testing.

UPDATE: I have completed my testing of this product.

It has definately surpassed my expectations. The unit performs almost flawlessly in all conditions. I don't seem to get much interference from other local radio stations. Even if you did you can change the transmitter to any other frequency in the FM band that you want.

I tested my 5G iPod video in the transmitter and it also performs just as well however the iPod doesn't fit the dock as well. It is way too thin.

In conclusion, for $99.00 (CAN) you're getting a very powerful FM transmitter that docks your iPod.

PLAYSTATION 3 UPDATE

As per the Sony website there has been a change of release date for the Playstation 3. The PS3 is now going to be released in November 2006.

This is the most logical move for SONY and I'll explain below.

It has been said that the delay is due to the DRM integrated in the PS3's BluRay drive.

We know at the moment that Samsung is due to have a BluRay player in the next couple of months and by that we know that the PS3 must be complete by then.

This is pure speculation but this could mean that between June and November Sony could just be stocking the PS3 for release making sure they can keep the shelves full unlike Microsoft's XBOX 360.

MOZILLA'S SEAMONKEY - WHAT IS IT?

Many people have heard of the internet browser and email client that Mozilla offers to the masses. If you haven't Mozilla's internet browser has become a very popular internet browser for those that wish to keep their computer systems free of spyware of which Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Mozilla also has an Outlook email client killer called Thunderbird.

So what is this "SeaMonkey"? Well, contrary to popular belief, SeaMonkey is not a monkey at all. It is an all-in-one browser, email, instant-messenger, and address book. It is basically a re-hash of Mozilla Suite, which has been discontinued but still downloadable, continuing thetradition of the big and mighty internet experience.

I have been playing around with SeaMonkey lately and will give you some information about the suite.

First of all, it is just about as fast as Firefox and has basically the same button setup. If you are switching from Netscape, it will be the same setup. The suite loads very quickly (of course this will depend on the speed of your computer; I am running a Sempron 3000+ with 512MB RAM) and has your home page open right away. The browser is just as easy to use as Firefox. It even includes a download manager. That's still better than Internet Explorer (IE).

Second of all, there is a composer. The composer is very close to the Thunderbird program. It is fairly quick as well as updates fairly quick as well. I haven't found any glitches as of yet and it supports all the IMAP and POP systems out there.

Thirdly, there is an address book. It also has the same basic setup as Thunderbird. It is fairly simple to import your previous addresses from Outlook and create new entries in the program. You can browse all the entries via search bar at the top of the screen.

Lastly, SeaMonkey includes an IRC client. I don't use IRC but I would like hear from someone who does. Please comment by clicking on the comment button below. I will post it below if the information is good.

All in all SeaMonkey looks like a good all-in-one browser. I prefer to use Firefox and Thunderbird just because the interfaces seem to be a little slicker.

I think if you like to use the all-in-one suites than use them. If you like to choose individual programs that use what you want.

If you want to keep your computer free of spyware please use Firefox. You can get it here.

If you want to use Thunderbird you can get it here.

ORIGAMI PROJECT, NOW UMPC, TO BE AVAILABLE SOON

Microsoft has announced at CeBIT 2006 the release of "Origami" or officially the "Ultra-Mobile PC".

Basically the system is a 7.5 inch screen with a Windows table-PC OS and a Celeron-M in the background. It will be able to play music and video as well as surf the internet.

You will also be able to type on it with thumbs. I dunno how but that is what I've read.

This is basically another try to get the tablet-pc to move again but at the $1000 (US) price I won't be buying one soon when I can buy a more powerful laptop for $200 (US) less.

*The image used in this story is sole property of Microsoft and has only been resized for reasons of bandwidth and desktop space.