Entries from October 2007 ↓

Now I know many of you readers use GMail, as do I. Originally, I enjoyed it’s storage and it’s overall GUI, as it was probably the first free e-mail service to offer 1gb of storage (this was when Hotmail still only offered a measly 25mb). Thus, when I discovered GMail 2.0, the new revamped GMail service from Google, was to be released later this year or early the next, you can imagine I got quite excited.

So far, I’ve learned that GMail 2.0 has two goals: faster service and better contact management (courtesy of Dailytech). Both will be greatly appreciated - as the storage grows and more mail is being collected, there will certainly be more to sort through, so faster service would be much appreciated. As for contact management - GMail had a contact management aspect? I never knew about, nor used, such a service, but perhaps I will in the future. I do prefer to keep such information on my phone which is less accessible or my hard drive, but maybe I’ll give the internet a shot.

Again, patience is the key here. If you’ve already got the newer version running, great! Why not write a comment as to how it’s functioning? If not, then we’re in the same boat, and all we can do is wait. Sadly.

To learn more about GMail 2.0, visit:

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2007/09/gmail-20.html

Update: It is now November 2, 2007. I logged in to my GMail accounts and discovered two of the three made the transition to GMail beta.  I am guessing they are doing this through alphabetical order, so it’ll only be a matter of time until my third one gets transformed.  This is strictly a guess.

Hulu launched two days ago - so why am I already posting about it? Well, this isn’t so much a review (or me-view) of Hulu as it is just a news update. Haven’t you been upset that your favourite shows, like Journeyman or Family Guy, have been stuck on the tube (officially speaking)? Be upset no more.

Hulu is a video-on-demand site that airs many of Fox’s and NBC’s shows as it is supplied by NBC Universal. Thus, many shows from NBC, like Journeyman as mentioned earlier as well as the possibility of Heroes, will be aired online. Popular shows from Fox network will also be aired - shows such as The Simpsons or the more recent hit Family Guy.

So why not sign up for the private beta? I have, and I’m hoping to receive a response soon, however unlikely it seems. To learn more about Hulu, why not visit it’s home page? Hopefully we both get in and can start watching those shows!

Dualshock has long been a feature regarded as a favourite of Playstation users. Alas, when Sony initially announced that the PS3 would not have Dualshock support, most fans (including myself) were somewhat disappointed (hence those abysmally-looking sales figures, eh?). Looks like Sony’s on a hot streak of correction though - from a price cut to a long loved feature re-implemented, they’re making the Playstation 3 the console to get (as opposed to the Xbox 360, not including the Wii).

The latest update of PS3 firmware, version 1.94, finally features Dualshock 3, arguably the franchise feature of the PS3 controller (there’s also the Sixaxis, but there’s not much to be said there). However, it doesn’t seem as though you’ll be able to download version 1.94 off the Playstation Network just yet. Actually, PS3’s firmware 1.94 comes with a new Ratchet and Clank game titled Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction.

And it seems as though Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction won’t be the only game featuring the new Dualshock.

This does mean that us Western users won’t be able to get our hands on Dualshock 3 for the PS3 till around Spring of 2008. Ah well, at least we’ve got something to look forward to, right?

Looks like a strong Canadian dollar is finally making it’s mark.  Talks of outrageous prices have finally been heard by the retailers, and although it took a few weeks to stabilize, there is certainly a price drop.  This doesn’t happen to affect all goods and services yet, but it’s affected a very important good that’s near and dear to our hearts.  I’m talking about video games.  I received a phone call from a friend of mine yesterday alerting me of this piece of news.  Great news for the Wii and the pocket.

Seems obvious to start off with a chart-topper, so as this report from National Post mentions, Wal-Mart started it’s new system with the highly anticipated Halo 3.  Apparently, Wal-Mart’s also been able to use the strong dollar to “Rollback” a lot of its prices - alas, I’m not running a business blog (yet), so we’ll have to move on.  Actually, there’s not much to be said.

With price parity, games will only become more demanded.  However, I hope the dollar really stabilizes enough to make this pricing more of a permanent feature as opposed to a seemingly temporary one.  And why aren’t those prices on iPods dropping yet? 

Recently, I took a look at Tafiti, a search engine powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight. I was pretty impressed (you were too, I’m sure) with it’s graphical power and its ability to possibly make tedious searching less monotonous, if not more enjoyable. I guess I was a bit hard on Google though, seeing as how I bagged on it pretty often. Looks like they got pretty upset and started working harder on iGoogle - and came up with a few themes? Could it be true?

Yep. I’m sorry if this is old news to you, as I discovered this very early this morning, but I was actually pretty surprised by Google’s new theme implementation. However, the excitement was short-lived as the themes were just static images and not exactly a constant part of Google (they only appeared on the homepage of iGoogle, and not in the results as well). Nonetheless, I’m still glad for the improvement.

Just when I thought Microsoft had Google by the neck in a chokehold with Tafiti, Google came and did something like this. Pretty amazing reaction time, unless it was just plain ol’ coincidence acting up.