Technacity

Since the iPhone 2.0 update, I have noticed a drastic decrease in the performance of my iPod Touch’s battery life. It will only last a day
of general use (Playing music and light games). Chris Pirillo of lockergnome faced the same issue so he bought an external battery, but I am cheap so here’s what I did to solve the issue:

Push notification: This is probably the main issue as it’s all I see that has changed since before 2.0. I turned this off and asked it to only update when I asked it to (Manually option)

I also switched off Wi-Fi when I
knew I can’t connect to any access points. This is because you iPhone or iPod Touch keeps checking for access points when you are moving around, and this takes quite a lot battery power.

Finally, I keep my brightness down to a third because lighting a 3.5 inch screen is quite a task.

I checked how well my iPod fared, and, I must say, it fared very well, I listened to 1.5 hours of podcast, then I watched 40 minutes of vidcast, I played a few games and I wrote this podcast on the same charge, and I only lost 10% of battery power!

Now, the title is probably an exaggeration, as the EEE PC I have is the 900 and there is a cheaper model called the 701, but, the EEE Range, including the up and coming Desktop PC and battery friendly laptops, are by far and away, the cheapest computer range out there. This review focuses solely on the EEE PC 900, however, there are other models coming out which are reported to have had much better battery life (7.8 Hours, no less), bigger screens and more Harddisk space (one even using a normal Laptop HDD).

It may surprise you that I find it surprising (What a mouthful) that a new EEE PC model uses a 5400RPM Laptop HDD, but, this is purely because one of the main advantages of this laptop is its ruggedness, this laptop has flown off the seat of my car into the dashboard at around 20 mph and the dashboard got scratched, but nothing happened to the EEE PC. I think this feature is a main selling point for the EEE PC so they are less likely to get major sales on their HDD Models.

Specs for the EEE PC 900 are relatively low by today’s standards, but, the EEE PC runs a version of Linux (called Xandros) with a very simple tabbed layout for the ‘desktop’. Also, the EEE PC is perfectly capable of running Windows XP Pro. So here are the Specs:

• 9″ Matte Screen
• 900 MHz Intel Processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS,910GML Graphics Accelerator Express Chipset
• Realtek HD Audio Controller
• 5200mAh Battery (There has been some dispute over this, discussed later)
• 20GB SSD (4GB on the Motherboard, 16GB in the form of an extension added to the empty PCIe Slot)
• A much smaller than average laptop keyboard (although it must be noted that I am typing this complete review on it with comparable speeds to what I would get on my normal keyboard)
• A rather generous Trackpad for the laptop’s size
• Builtin microphone and 1.3 Megapixel webcam
• Wifi capable
• Ports: Ethernet x1, USB x3, Microphone Jack x1, Headphone jack x1, VGA x1, SD Card (Also reads MMC) x1, Kensington Lock x1

As you can see for its relatively cheap price of £329 it packs alot of punch. What surprised me most was the abundance in USB ports and the mere existence of a builtin webcam and microphone. Another sneaky little featurethat the people at Asus has added to their little laptop of dreams is multitouch capability on their trackpad. This allows the user to Zoom in and out of word documents and web pages (browser permitting) and also to scroll up, down, left and right with swipes of the finger; this is a feature I am sure to miss in other laptops.

the keyboard in all EEE PCs released so far has been the same, and there are a few quirks it has that make it just a little bit difficult to use. First of all, the button for ‘1′ is placed directly above the ‘tab’ button, meaning I normally press ‘2′ instead of ‘1′ when I am typign very fast. Another problem is that the delete button is too close to the backspace button, which often results in my deleting things I do not want to delete. Apart from this, the keyboard is well made and has a nice action when you press it, keeping typign on this machine as painless as possible.

The battery has been a centre of controversy ever since the EEE PC 900 was released in the UK. What has happened is that Asus originally gave reviewers of the EEE PC a battery rated as 5800mAh, and the EEE PC was released like this in most countries, but, in the UK and a few other countries, the EEE PC was released with a 4800 (or similar) mAh battery, this is rated lower than the battery used in the EEE PC 701 and only gives around 1.5 Hours of use. Asus’ excuse is that they did this as planned to give UK customers a longer warranty, however, this has been proved to not be the case as many people who own EEE PCs with the 5800 mAh battery also have the same warranty. In response, Asus started a battery exchange system which is currently on haitus, although it is hoped it will be restarted soon.

Surprisingly for a budget laptop, the EEE PC comes with a built in Microphone and Camera in the screen’s frame. The quality for both of these is quite good, and I am especially glad that the camera comes with a very small light sensor to digitally edit the picture taken, it makes a big difference. The microphone is also good, but, because of the fact that it is not placed near your mouth, it must take in all ambient noises too, so, instead, I got Asus’ in-ear headphones which have a microphone with excellent noise cancellation features.

Like the Macbook Air, the EEE PC comes with a multitouch mousepad, which I feel was hastily added. The driver software sometimes reads your gestures wrong and it is definitely not as fluid in its implementation compared to the Air, but, I did find myself using it in many a circumstance, and it does make life a little bit easier. For example, to zoom in on a page (and I must say, this works very well in Opera) all you have to do is hold your two fingers in the corners of the pad, and simultaneously drag them in, although in Opera this does work in increments of 10%, and so it is often hard to reset it to 100% with gestures alone. Another cool gesture I use is the scrolling feature which quite simply involves holding two fingers anywhere on the pad and moving them up or down (or left and right if you have to). This replaces the rather annoying and tiny section of the mousepad in the old EEE PC meant just for scrolling. Other gestures include a magnifying glass and a middle mouse button, but I use these much less. Rather thoughtfully, the mouse driver’s software adds a small icon in your taskbar that tells you how many fingers are touching the pad; a nice feature, but somewhat distracting when you are expecting and MSN message.

I found the original Linux operating system on my EEE PC quite restrictive: unusual for Linux, I know, but this version is highly tailored to introduce people into computers. So, I installed XP Professional on my system. As I am well aware that I am a bit restricted, spacewise, I did a process called Nliting my EEE PC. This involved running the XP installation disc through a programme that allows you to take out certain features that you know you will not need. Through doing this, I got my installation to 147MB from c. 700MB. I will show you how to do this in another article.

What surprised me most about XP on the EEE PC was not how small it was, but how fast it was. When timed, to get to the logon page, from a cold boot, it took only 20 Seconds; that is quicker than my gaming computer running Vista. Similarly, when I ran Microsoft Office 2003, it took less than 3 seconds to start up, ready for me to type something up. Opera and Windows Media Player 11 weren’t too slow either, both running with their full graphic options, they ran just like they would on my Main PC, at the same time. Bearing in mind that this is with the full visual style and graphical effects, this is quite a feat indeed.

I originally intended to use my EEE PC to explore Linux Distros on, but, I ended up installing Windows XP on it, so, as a kind of consolation, I installed Backtrack 3, the primary network and system penetration software on a 1GB SD Card. It runs smoothly, although their are some problems with the battery indicator which states that there are only 2 more minutes of use after a full charge, but all of these can be overlooked when you see how much the Backtrack team have fitted into 1GB. Backtrack 3 contains everything you need to hack WEP and WPA keys to enter a network, after that it has software to check for vulnerabilities on all the systems in that network and still after that you can use Backtrack to enter these systems. Apart from system penetration testing, Backtrack 3 also has software for Personal Data Mining and launching Servers. I will show you how I installed this ina nother article too.

In conclusion, I take my EEE PC where ever I go, it is a pleasure to use, and quite the speed demon for its price. I bought mine from Clove technologies who provided me with excellent service and great customer support. Also, unlike the larger retailers, they provided me with a 5200mAh battery when they knew that the stock they were given was of 4800mAh. Although this isnt the larger battery that came with the US EEE PCs, it was a nice gesture. Apart from the EEE PCs themselves, Clove also stocks all the EEE PC accessories. I highly reccomended them for purchasing your EEE PC. Stay tuned for more articles on how to install XP, Games and Backtrack 3 on your EEE PC 900.

Thats right folks, the new ‘Meet the Sniper’ Video for Team Fortress 2 came out yesterday ( see it here ) and today the new Pyro Website came out. Be warned though, if you want to be surprised when you get the Pyro Update, due on Thursday the 19th of June, don’t go to the pyro site as it has every bit of information on it in there.

Also, for those who haven’t got Team Fortress 2 yet, this weekend, it is going up for free again, thats right folks, steam are so kind, they are giving away Team Fortress 2 (for PC) for one weekend (Weekend starting 21st June). To be able to take part in this, all you have to do is head over to the Pyro update website (Link above) and follow the instructions on the topmost banner.

The insansely popular Peer-to-Peer TV catch up service, BBC iPlayer, is soon to hit the Wii gaming console. It will appear as a new Internet Channel, and all UK Wii consoles connected to the internet at the time of release will be alerted of its presence. Unfortunately, this is a UK only service as the BBC are a UK-based Broadcasting company.

Unfortunately, this service will not be available to either the Playstation 3 or the Xbox 360. And why? You may ask. Well, the reason is that, in the BBC’s opinion, Sony and Microsoft need too much control over how iPlayer operates on their  systems (e.g. The way it is purchased, its UI, how it downloads programmes) and the BBC are just not willing to give away that kind of power to them. So, sorry 360 and PS3 gamers, no iPlayer for you, yet.

[via Gizmodo]

Recently, Valve announced a series of major updates for their game Team Fortress 2 (on the PC). These update include two new maps, one new game mode, and a whole load of changes to the actual gameplay with the addition of a ‘Load-out’ system.

Badlands, one of the two new maps, is a remake of the Team Fortress Classic map of the same name, but don’t let that fool you. the TFC map was in the CTF style, the new TF2 map is in the Control Point style. This small change to the gameplay mode has echoed as massive changes in the way the map looks and plays. Although the main structure is the same, the game has been streamlined to play faster and take you into the centre of the battle within seconds. The desert setting of Badlands was not really exploited in the TFC map, but now, there are rocky spires and rickety wooden bridges over deep canyons to traverse to capture objectives, allowing for interesting choke points over which the fighting can concentrate. This map has already been released and can be played right now (In fact, Badlands only servers are popping up all over the place).

Although the new gameplay mode hasn’t been released yet, the description of the map Goldrush gives you a good idea of how it works: RED team have to prevent the attacking (BLU) team from getting a mine cart from one end of the map to the other. This cart will only move when there is a BLU team member in or around the cart and will move faster when there are more BLU team members in or around it. This will allow fighting to ensue around the cart almost constantly and will make gameplay for the engineer class all the more fast paced as things have to be planned to create ambushes for the carts etc.

Many class-based games today have a system by which members can earn upgrades for their character, specific to each class. This was originally omitted by Valve when they first released Team Fortress 2, but now, they have decided to bring it in, in the Load-out system. Through achievements, players can get new weapons for each class, drastically changing the way they play. Many players have expressed their dislike for this new system as they think it will ruin the balance and overall simplicity of the game, but, I think this might just freshen up the game and give me yet another excuse to play Team Fortress 2 even more!

[via PCGamer]

It took me a while, but here it is! Technacity’s review on Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare, for the PC (Of course). This game is the first in the Call of Duty series to actually not be set during World War 2, and it has really freshened up the whole franchise. Everything feels the same, but plays so different.  The physics far surpass any other game in the Call of Duty series, mainly owing to the scalability of the modern battleground. In this new chapter of the Call of Duty story, you take the war onto freight ships, planes and you also man turrets in helicopters and conduct rescue missions.

Graphics in this game are stunning, not as stunning as Crysis (Review coming soon!) but stunning all the same. You feel yourself being thrown by explosions, feel time being slowed down at crucial points: when you can only use one round to take out the enemy. This time, the infinity ward team have spent a lot of time on custom animation, things like impossible jumps onto the backs of helicopters, holes being blown in airplane hulls and the afore mentioned slowing of time. All these things make for a much more immersing gameplay, but I feel that the time spent on these special effects has left the storyline comparatively short (almost a half of that of Crysis by my reckoning).

As per classic Call of Duty style, you play two different campaigns simultaneously, as both British SAS and US Marines (Personally I think that the SAS were a bit more calm and considering in their attacks) the stories of whom converge at one point with you playing as SAS. There are however, several parts of this latest instalment that mark it out as unique. For example, there is a flashback (Kinda a “Back in the day when I was a private” situation). And the prologue and introduction are truely random (But awesome to play all the same), I won’t spoil the fun by telling you what they are though, (Gotta find out for yourself!). Another slight twist in the tale is that not both campaigns have a happy ending (e.g. everyone’s still alive), unfortunately, the US Marines get caught in the blast of a nuclear bomb and they all die. Rather sadly, your character survives for a few seconds; enough time for him to crawl out of the helicopter, fall onto the floor and have a look round at the devastation he could have prevented before he himself roles over and dies. I am just slightly annoyed that the game ended so soon, as I think a few more months and a few more missions would have made the game much more ‘full’ and worthwhile. Oh, and just a side note, don’t you think Captain Price, IC of the SAS section bares an uncanny resemblance to CO, Captain Price from Call of Duty 2; or is it just me .

The multiplayer section of this game really makes up for the short storyline. This has also been really well thought out and the end product gives hours of enjoyment. A new concept in this game is the ‘Perks’ system through which you give your character three skills which basically give him an upper hand in combat. These range from having a more powerful bullet to laying down a little surprise, by way of a grenade, when you die, this system was used to replace the more common class system whereby you choose a class which has a set of predefined advantages, disadvantages and roles. The idea of customising your character goes even further with unlockable weapon attachments. Adding to this the focus put on team and squad based play, Call of Duty 4 multiplayer ands an extra level to the persistent online gameplay provided by Call of Duty 2.

In summary, Call of duty 4 - Modern Warfare is a great game and definitely worth at least trying. Although it would have been better if the storyline had been extended a bit more.

Sorry, to the regular or just random visiters of this blog for the apparent inactivity. It is just that I am currently doing a lot of stuff (some blog-related). Rest assured that soon I shall have up a Crysis and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Review on the blog. (Just for a summary, they are both truely staggering games)

I’m sorry that I haven’t reviewed this game already, but, I was tied up playing Team Fortress 2! Portal is another game that came in the Orange Box compiled by Valve, it is a relatively small game (it only took me 2 and a half hours to complete) which is loosely attached to the Half Life series (references to Black Mesa have been found within the game). The storyline consists of you, a female prisoner/lab rat who tried to escape (but failed) being used to test the lab’s new Portal gun. You use this gun to make portals and complete tasks that would have been impossible without any such aid. To monitor you, there is a robot called GLaDOS (Genetic Lifeform and Disc Operating System) who has an unnerving, calm, robotic voice.

The game is definitely challenging to play and really requires a lot of thought after about the 12th Chamber. You must use portals to make yourself ‘jump’ much further than before from previously unreachable heights and (or just get from place A to B), even though it seems there is only one way to do things in the game, the portal gun makes it possible to do it in at least two or more ways when it comes to an exceptionally difficult situation. This game is not one that challenges your hand eye co ordination, rather a game that tests your ability to think laterally and come up with solutions to problems using  what is at hand.

I was quite surprised at how little time it took to complete this game, because I thought there was scope for a much much longer story with a more progressive difficulty level, but, you shouldn’t be disheartened by this small problem, because there is already scope for community made maps and even sequels by Valve, for free! This feature goes by the name of ‘Bonus Maps’ and you can import as many as you want into the game, for unlimited re-playability. As I write this review there is already a community made Chamber 21 and 22 as well as several ’sandbox’ maps to play around in (they seemed to have forgotten about Chamber 20, but oh well, eh! ).

Although this game isn’t truely an FPS, the fact that it runs on the source engine means that it still holds many of the same feature as other Valve FPSs (In fact, I would even say that Portal is Half Life 2 without guns). However, this does not mean that you cannot die, that can still happen, but only through three different ways:

• Drowning in Sludge (and that sludge is very realistic)
• Being hit on the head by a weighted cube/companion cube/security camera/any other objects that spawn higher than head level.
• Being shot down by a turret or energy ball

However, for the first few chambers your only worry is being hit by a cube or security camera (and that’s only if you are stupid enough to stand underneath the dispenser for the cubes or underneath the camera when you take it off the wall). You are then familiarised with the energy ball, then the sludge, and finally the turrets (but that is only in Chamber 16, 3 chambers from the very end of the game). The fact that you aren’t put into the thick of the violence at the beginning of the game just reinforces the fact that the object of the game doesn’t lie solely in ‘killing all the bad guys’ although that is something you have to do to complete your goal.

I thoroughly recommend this game for anybody who enjoys having some fun while exercising their brain, or to anybody who wants a new experience out of gaming (e.g. "Wow, my brain is required for this task!")

Google has started up a new feature in their Google RSS Reader which allows people to share your RSS subscriptions with the people in your contact list. That sounds like a great new feature: If you think your friend might like a certain Tech and Software blog (hint, hint, nudge, nudge ) you can send him an email, automatically with the same stuff you get from your Google Reader, awesome! But, theres a catch, its all or nothing with this feature, either you send the email to everyone in your contacts list, or you don’t send any Google reader emails at all. This has got alot of people in a terrible huff, because they really don’t want to email PayPal support with their favourite blog’s latest articles, and I am sure they don’t want to impart that information to that annoying-spammer-who-is-really-annoying-and-I-wish-to-stab, because you know they can use that information to spam you some more. But I really don’t see what the problem is here, because the feature is off by default and its a web 2.0 application, so, I can bet you my bottom dollar it will be fixed by the end of the week (especially with this amount of noise being made about it). There is of course the problem of some unsuspecting person turning the feature on by accident, thus sending a flood of emails to everyone in their contacts list, but lets all pray and hope you don’t have one of those people in your contacts list, because otherwise, you should expect a few RSS emails soon .

But, to those who use this application, all I can leave you with is: Wait it out and everything should be fixed, they will add an email like form that allows you to select contacts. Until then, simply don’t use the feature, you lived this long without it right?

[via TechCrunch]

Do people tell you that you have no life? Well, why not invest in another one, just to prove to them that they’re wrong. With internet not being attached with the worries of a huge phone bill, people have developed the novel idea of playing against other people in games called MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games).

The most popular sub-genre of MMOGs are MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) which allow people to team up to complete ‘quests’ and go monster hunting. 5 years ago these games were so rare that it was the norm to have to pay a monthly subscription (on top of your phone bill) to play them. But, now, there is a plethora of MMORPGs that are completely free to play. For example, Rappelz is a fully functional, completely free to play game published by gpotato. And, if you are convinced that buying the game will ensure a better experience overall, there are plenty of MMORPGs that have only a one off payment attached, like Guildwars and Guildwars Eye of the North.

If you don’t mind paying a monthly fee to get in on the action, then, World of Warcraft is probably for you. If you have never heard of MMORPGs (shame on you) you would still have heard about World of Warcraft: It is one of the most controversial game ever made (behind Manhunt and Grand Theft Auto) and it was made controversial by its addictiveness. Now, I have no way of spinning this to the favour of the game, so I won’t. I am just going to warn you now that this game can get you seriously caught up and obsessed for a long time if you aren’t careful. That said, there are no less than 9 million registered users, so, Blizzard (Producers of World of Warcraft) must be doing something right!

Most MMORPGs have their focuses set on competitive play against other people, but gutting other people characters might not be exactly what you want to get out of your online experience. If this is the case and you would much rather like to make friends, then, it is probably best that you play a game like Second Life. The graphics on this game might look a little dated at first, and there is no denying it, it is actually dated. But, its ok, because the game is totally free if you want it to be and it makes it much easier to do the things that make Second Life so fun to play. For example, it is possible to make objects in this game, and then sell them for ingame currency which you can change into real cash. And, you can use money to buy or rent land and then put your objects up for sale in it: neat eh? And thats not all, you can buy various objects that change your capabilities (anything from clothes and vehicles to guns). You can also fly as a mode of transport by default and, probably the best feature of all: you can interact with anybody in the game (who is a real person) and they will be friendly to you and give you advice if you ask them nicely (A little bit of courtesy goes a long way).

So, whatever you choose, I am sure you will be very happy with your online experience. Have fun and happy stabbing (or socialising, depending on what you plan to do ).