Archive for October, 2009

Oct
26

Don’t Google with Google[.com]

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Posted by chrisw92 in Internet on October 26th, 2009 | Discuss on the forum » | 4 Comments »

Yes I know, its a confusing title. Its not like I don’t like Google, its a great search engine and its name is knowing by more people than Chuck Norris’s. [fact]

But there are better websites for searching out there, no im not talking about Bing or Yahoo. im talking about the Google, you will see what I mean. Here is a list of my top 8: [no particular order]

1: http://www.google.com/intl/xx-hacker/

- Its just Google with a “hacker” language, sort of an an easter egg.

2: http://www.google.com/intl/xx-pirate/

-again its just Google but this time with the great almighty pirate language, another easter egg by google.

3: http://www.mysterygoogle.com/

- its just random searches, nothing what you type into the search at all. little thing I found: type in hello

4: http://web.archive.org/web/19981111183552/google.stanford.edu/

- the first version of google. not much to tell about this one.

5: http://www.searchkindly.org/

- gives money to charity for every search, so why not? you just use it as a search engine, nothing more and it uses the Google search engine

6: http://www.blackle.com/

- it is said it uses less power having a black screen but for LCD monitors its about the same, but if you still have a CRT monitor be green and give it a try.

7: http://www.helpuu.com/

- another charity Google powered website, looks more user friendly. all you have to do is search…

8: http://ripple.org/

- man doesn’t it feel good giving stuff to charity’s for doing nothing other than changing from searching from Google to searching from Google.

see you don’t have to Google with Google :D

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Oct
14

Motorstorm: Arctic Edge Review

Posted by jfig111 in Uncategorized on October 14th, 2009 | Discuss on the forum » | No Comments »

Is this the best PSP Racer ever made? Yes. That’s all you need to know. If you hate racing games, don’t buy it, but if you even just slightly enjoy them, pick this game up if it’s the last thing you put on your PSP.

Motorstorm is a series of offroad racing events in different locations. There have been 2 releases on the PS3 and it has been a launch hit. After much wait and request, BigBig Studios have made a version of Motorstorm for the PSP in a hole new location: The Arctic. Is Motorstorm Arctic Edge a successful port or a complete flop? Read this review and find out.

Gameplay:

Pretty much nothing has changed in the PSP Version. The physics for the crashes are dumbed down a bit, but all the crazy driving mechanics are back in a new portable form. There are few tiny additions, with the new snowmobiles and snowplows to drive. Snowmobiles drive like an upgraded ATV, and snowplows drive like a more controlled Big Rig. You can cause a few avalanches by honking your horn, but pretty much everything has stayed the same. The game retains the incredible draw-distance the series has been known for, and very rarely will you be crashing into a wall you happened to miss. So, things stayed the same, right? That is a good thing. My expectations were for this version to lack ALOT more than the PS3, and boy, was I proven wrong.

Graphics:

Motorstorm has always been known for it’s crazy graphics and explosions. That stays in the PSP Version. Although the character models have dimmered and questionable textures, the vehicles look great and the tracks feel amazing. The designs make the tracks feel completely different played backwards, and the lighting still sames pretty much the same. There are over 400 ground textures for one track alone, it’ll amaze you. The game has pretty much no noticable slowdown, even with 10 cars on the screen at once. Once again, another 2009 game has taken the PSP to the max of it’s capabilities.

Sound:

I’m not a big fan of heavy metal, and even so Motorstorm is meant to be “extreme”, some of the tracks didn’t fit. Luckily for those who have memory sticks and what not can run their own music and create playlists in game. It’s a very nice function and something every PSP game should have by now. All the engine sounds are still there and you’ll feel quite a bit of rush from the explosions and screeching from drifting. Even so the soundtrack won’t amaze you, it definitely captures the essence of Motorstorm; Extreme, rule-breaking, and down right fun.

Online: There are 2 online modes, Time ticker and race. Time ticker basically awards the player in highest position more points, and the first person to reach 1000 wins. A race is… a race. The online is fun, but the lack of viewing rooms and creating clans is a bit of a dissapointment. Hopefully with the new PSP’s patching function there will be some updates to that. Other than that, ad-hoc and infrastructure are basically the same, you can play any track, 8 players, loads of fun. I haven’t encountered any lag either, which is amazing.

Replay Value:

The game has a 100 event Festival mode. Need I say more? It’ll take you hours over hours to complete it, and it ain’t no walk in the park. The game is rewarding though, with very extensive vehicle customization, many skins and fenders to unlock, medals for certain in-game achievments, and lots more. Although you can tell that not too much effort was put into extending the game, it’s pretty much impossible to get bored of with it’s very addicting formula.

Overall:

Motorstorm Arctic Edge is the definetive and best racing title on the PSP System. You will be blown away with it’s massive amount of gameplay, online, features, graphics, and more. This is the PSP game that we’ve been waiting for, and it’s here. Here you have Motorstorm, no more, no less. And that’s a good thing.

Gameplay: 10/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 8/10
Online: 9/10
Replay Value: 10/10

Overall: 9.4/10

A+!

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Oct
14

There’s an FM Radio living in your iPod touch / iPhone.

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Posted by Kyle in Uncategorized on October 14th, 2009 | Discuss on the forum » | No Comments »

Kudos to Jesse for pointing this out, however I thought I’d go into more detail on the subject.

A popular Apple rumor site, 9to5 Mac, is reporting that Apple is on the brisk of releasing an FM radio application for the current models of the iPod touch / iPhone, the networking chip inside the current models of these iDevices is already capable of receiving FM signals (and the newest ones even sending them) however, a software block prevents usage of the hardware and it’s use is limited to communicating with the Nike+ addon, similar to the software block on Bluetooth in the second generation iPod touch.

If you remember correctly, the newest additions in the iPod nano are FM radio and of course the video camera.  Now, if Apple’s already using FM radio on the iPod nano, what’s holding back the iPod touch and iPhone?  According the 9to5Mac, Apple’s simply extending the tagging feature on mobile iTunes, where you’d be able to tag a song you liked on the radio and instantly purchase it, like the iPod nano’s tagging feature, except more advanced with the iPhone OS’s features.  And hopefully we’ll even get to see the Live Pause feature if a iPhone radio app is released.

Even more interestingly, the chip inside the iPhone 3G S and 3rd generation iPod touch allow FM signals to be transmitted also.  If Apple plays it’s cards right, we’d no longer have to deal with those Belkin attachments to listen to our iPods wirelessly.  With the addition of an FM Radio application with the advanced features that are possible with the iPhone OS, this will eliminate the only advantage the Zune HD has over the iPod touch / iPhone, it’s own radio.

Before I end my post, I’d like to leave you guys with another bit of information, Apple also hasn’t enabled the 802.11N +5GHZ wireless networking (which we also hope to see updated shortly) in its latest iPhone and iPods.

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Oct
12

I make it rain, iMake it rain. Blackra1n is here.

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Posted by Kyle in Uncategorized on October 12th, 2009 | Discuss on the forum » | 3 Comments »

Attention all losers who updated to 3.1.2 – you’re not completely lost just yet.  GeoHot (yes, the guy who seems competely obsessed with himself, even to the point where he puts his face as the bootrom image when jailbreaking your iDevice) has released blackra1n a few days ago.

blackra1n

GeoHot's blackra1n jailbreak running on a iPhone.

What is this “blackra1n” you might ask?  It’s a software unlock for the iPod touch and iPhone. iPod touch 3G owners, this is a semi-tethered jailbreak for you guys, so you have to connect it to a PC and run this each time you want to turn your iPod on.) iPhone users, take heed!  This isn’t a baseband unlock, it’s software based.  More questions are shot this way asking “What’s baseband, exactly?” Consider it an extension on your iPhone, it’s the part that handles the networking aspects of the iPhone.  Kinda like a modem, video card, or any other extension that you might need on your computer.  It’s a separate piece of hardware living in the iPhone, who’s firmware differs from the iPhone OS’s firmware.

“Why do I give  a damn?”  Because if you’ve already upgraded via iTunes to 3.1+, your baseband also got upgraded, and as of now, there’s no way to perform a carrier unlock.  So if you were dependent on a carrier unlock to use your phone, and for some reason upgraded, you’re screwed, and you deserve to be.

For those who actually use the carrier your iPhone was intended to be used by (AT&T over here in the states), this doesn’t really matter now does it?  So let’s continue on to how to use this unlock.

If you remember a while back, this same GeoHot guy also released purplera1n, an unlock for the iPhone 3G S, when the iPhone Dev-Team was still working on one to upgrade their redsn0w program with.  It all came as a surprise really, but man were us hackers pumped… My new iPhone 3G S could now have the joy and open-ness of a jailbroken iPhone, and that’s where it’s at right now, 3.0, jailbroken, with a carrier patch to get MMS.  Customized just the way I like it, mobilesubstrate extensions, all my custom apps, and my lovely springboard theme.

Okay, now let’s get down to business… remember, if you’re not on a Apple approved carrier, then blackra1n won’t be able to activate your iPhone.  iPod touch users, go ahead with no worries, you don’t even have a baseband that you need to worry about.  For a summary of the whole “baseband” thing, here’s a quote from iClarified.

“WARNING: Even though the GeoHot jailbreak supports 3.1.2 do not update if you are on iPhone OS 3.0.1 or 3.0. You will lose your unlock. Use PwnageTool to safely update to 3.1 without performing a baseband update. If you really must have 3.1.2 then wait for the next version of PwnageTool. If you have already updated to 3.1 or 3.1.2 without using PwnageTool then you’ve lost the ability to unlock for the time being. You can now use BlackRa1n to at least regain your jailbreak :) ”

So let’s get on to that jailbreak, finally.  Download blackra1n from blackra1n.com.  Click on the Windows logo at the bottom to download the .exe.  Once you’re done with the download, open the program.

It’s now safe to connect your iPhone / iPod touch, gather some dignity and click the giant “make it ra1n” button.  If you can’t seem to find it, go jump off a cliff.

Click it, and BAM, there’s the conceited bastard himself, right on your iDevice.  Okay, once your iDevice boots to the home screen, there’s a nifty new app called “blackra1n” somewhere on there.  Open it, you now have a choice between Cydia, Rock, and Icy.  Icy and Cydia are two of the the apps I’m used to, I’ve never used Rock, so if I were you, I’d go with the original and more popular choice, Cydia.  You can install all if you’d like though.  With your cellular or WiFi network, blackra1n will begin to download and install the application(s) you chose.

Once this is done, you’ll have Cydia (or some other installer) located on your homescreen.  You can now use this program to install further hacks and enhancements.  Congratulations, you’re on a jailbroken iPhone / iPod touch.  Enjoy, and try to resist downloading iSteamy.

If you have any problems, @reply / DM me on Twitter, @AdeptHavok.  I’ll help ya.  Pinkie promise.

UPDATE: A Mac version of this exploit is now avaliable on the blackra1n website.

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Oct
11

My Review of GT PSP!

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Posted by RBSIS in Reviews on October 11th, 2009 | Discuss on the forum » | 6 Comments »

Well it’s been a very long time since GT was first announced and GT fans have been waiting a really long time for it. Was it worth the wait? We we’ll find out.

Presentation:

When you first turn the game on you will see a very nice cut scene video followed by a set of very sleek menus.

Once you start the game the visuals are very impressive for a PSP game. The road textures and the car models are very well detailed. But sometimes this isn’t very consistent in the car textures. While a Nissan GT-R looks has very nice detailed logos, a Nissan 350z has very blurry textures and you can’t even distinguish the Nissan logo from a smudge.  The tracks look good but the backgrounds are very blurry and pixely, but it’s acceptable for a PSP game. Overall I’ll give graphics 8/10

Gameplay:

Well it plays how you’d expect a racer to play. The physics feel good when you turn them to simulation mode and the AI sticks to the racing line and offers very good competition once you get to the S rank. As for the controls, a lot of people dread the PSP’s nub while I found it did the job for GT. The arrow keys just didn’t seem responsive compared to the nub. Overall I think gameplay is 9/10

Other Details:

The game has over 800 cars but some of them just count as the same car but with a different paint job. For example there is a “Ford GT’ then there is a ‘Ford GT (No stripe)’ also there are only four dealers available at a time witch can be annoying if you have a million+ credits and you keep getting Toyota in your dealer. And there isn’t a way to tell if you already own the car unless you open it up and read the details. There isn’t an option to organize your cars by power in your garage, either.

Overall I think the game is worth the 40 bucks but really doesn’t compare to the console experience you get with GT on the PS3 or Forza on the 360. But it is the best racing experience on the PSP, everywhere did get better.

Overall: 8.5/10 (Go get it!)

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