Everyone’s seen the sleek black Playstation 3 since it originally debuted more than a year ago.  Since then, Sony’s been changing it up – from the hardware to the pricing to the features (seen those latest Home screenshots?  makes me almost want to buy a PS3 myself).  I figured that it was only a matter of time before this happened – but I was hoping that it’d come to the Wii before the PS3.  Oh well, guess I have a few more choices to choose from in the odd case that I do buy a PS3.

Source: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/6257_large_PS3_3.jpg

Satin Silver and Ceramic White join Clear Black as the official new colours of the PS3 – which inspires me to put out an idea – why doesn’t Sony join the Red initiative (don’t know if that’s exactly what it’s called) and make a Red PS3?  I think it’d be pretty interesting, both as a new colour and as another form of assistance to the society.  However, I’m happy with the two additional colours…for now.

Source: http://images.dailytech.com/nimage/7157_large_silver-satin-ps3-sce2_1-1.jpg

When can we expect this stuff?  I have no idea, but I guess we can safely assume the Ceramic White will be in North America pretty darn soon.  And as for Satin Silver, you’d have to go to Japan to get that one – dang it, they’ve always got the coolest gizmos.  Apparently, there’s also a rumour of a slimline PS3, similar to what Sony did with the PS2.  What can I say, looks like they’re finally getting things back on track with all these changes.  Well-played, Sony, well-played.

Last week, Microsoft shook the fragile framework of the world by announcing its proposed hostile takeover of Yahoo! corporation for a whopping $44.6 billion dollars. In my opinion, Yahoo!’s continued losses mean that they couldn’t afford to not look at this offer seriously. Alas, as most stories proceed, there emerge a few ironic twists and turns that even I would never have predicted.

Source: http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/YHOO/0x0x10712/25D58133-E6FD-4AD5-A5D0-11AA773135C3/jerry_yang.jpg

Microsoft’s still in it to win it, and could very possibly do so. With Yahoo! chairman Terry Semel resigning, it seems that the opposition to Microsoft’s takeover left with him. However, apparently, Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang doesn’t seem too fond of Microsoft – but who will Yang turn to in such a time of disaster and Microsoft seemingly coming in to sweep Yahoo! from the outskirts of the web into the mainstream again?

Source: http://images.jeb.be//Apple/apple_logo_(640×480).jpg

Why, Apple, of course! It’s rumoured that Yang has expressed openly admiration for Steve Jobs and the whole Apple crew – and its well-earned, of course. Apple already revolutionized the way we listen to music and now the way we handle mobile devices – perhaps the internet is the next step? However, Apple isn’t the only giant to intervene between the transaction of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

Enter Google – king of the search industry. I was surprised to see such a strong reaction from them, actually – they claimed that Microsoft and Yahoo! combining would lead to a monopoly, which I can sympathize with, but Google has been so successful already that I doubt even such a strong move would be capable of downing Google – now very reluctant to relinquish their view of the top. Understandable.

Source: http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/06/05/yahoo_logo.jpg

I think the best move would be for Yahoo! to end up in the hands of Apple Corp. as they seem to have a knack for doing things right, and don’t have their own web portal yet – Google’s Google, and Microsoft’s got MSN and Live. I think that Apple + Yahoo! would = an interesting move, but we’ve yet to see the chess game play out.

Back in 2002, if I was asked what life meant, I would describe it one word: Starcraft. Asides from school, most of my time was dedicated to it – comp stomps, then Fastest Map Possible with some friends, and Zero Clutter. I still boot it up sometimes in the summer, just to relive some memories. But with this week being exam week and my finishing exams on Monday, I was left with a little free time. A friend of mine got Rock Band, which is an amazing game – and then it hit me, I hadn’t checked on my secret addiction – Project Revolution in a long time.

Okay, from that picture, we can put two and two together – Project Revolution has something to do with Starcraft in three dimensions. Actually, that’s exactly what it’s dedicated to: updating Starcraft with a third dimension to provide us (ex) gamers with an engrossing game – complete with original sounds. Project Revolution actually runs in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and is actually just another mod pack – well, not exactly. It’s much more complicated, as it’s even got its own menu screen (a depressed-looking marine, sitting with gunfire and shells exploding above him – a perfect sight to describe the overlooked sadness in Starcraft). At the moment, it’s also in beta, and so far only the Terran race has been claimed to be up to par.

How do you get it? You’re going to need to obtain four items legitimately: Starcraft, Starcraft: Brood War, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. They’ll all need to be installed on your computer, which I readily did so on the same day I found out about the news. Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne will also need to be updated to version 1.21 – which will automatically be done once you try connecting to Battle.Net. One thing I overlooked myself – it needs to be rebooted. Also, there’s really no Vista support, as the whole Project was aimed at Windows XP – however, I was able to run the bulk of it on my Vista machine, with just a lack of Campaign mode, as it took me to the Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Night Elf campaign.

Beautiful, ain’t it? It worked perfectly, with me pwning those n00b computers as usual. Project Revolution also offers some aspects that normal Starcraft didn’t, besides the third dimension functionality – which didn’t work that well as I can’t really shift the perspective nor the direction I’m looking from too well. However, it does add an allied mode, where you can play with another computer – something I thought the original Starcraft lacked.

It claims that Terran is the only campaign ready, but I was unable to access it. So, I just ended up playing some Custom Games – some 2v2, some 1v1, and some Zerg. Yep – the Zerg race is playable too. Unfortunately, the Protoss one isn’t – the probes can’t collect any minerals, and thus the economy can’t start properly. However, that’s really just a little step back, as it offers so much with two races perfected that I can’t blame it. And it’s free.

It was hard to grade how it works in just five paragraphs, but I think I did an adequate job. As it’s only in beta, I’m not going to be too nitpicky about how it works, and just play the game. There are some missing avatars, some missing sounds, but the whole game works – and that’s what matters. Thank you Snowflake Entertainment for your hard work, and please know that I appreciate what you’ve done for the community. Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to play some more Starcraft in 3D.

Project Revolution forum thread:

http://www.wc3campaigns.net/revolution/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11222

SD Cards, USB thumb drives, even a few digital audio players – Sandisk really has done its job well when it comes to transporting data. Combining evolutionary technology with revolutionary designs, it’s churned out commercially-successful products such as the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium. Now, it steps up the whole game with its new SD card with a capacity of a whopping 32GB! That’s more storage than my old Beige IBM box.

Source: http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/dmt/2006/sandisk-cruzer-titanium-00.jpg

First, let’s talk about Sandisk’s past successes. I have to say that I’m most familiar with Sandisk’s USB drives, not its SD cards – to be specific, the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium. It has 2GB of storage, and if I remember correctly was one of the first to embrace the U3 software technology. It does all this – and still stays a beaut; with a brushed finish, the Titanium makes it practically indestructible, making it a valuable addition to any geek’s arsenal. To this day, it does remain a popular product, and still a very reliable USB drive.

Source: http://www.digitalhome.ca/images/stories/2008Q1/ultra-ii-8gb-sdhc-card.jpg

Announced a couple of days ago, Sandisk’s new 32GB SD card features its patented Hinge Lock technology, giving the card both SD and USB functionality – abilities reminiscient of the OCZ Trifecta, albeit with sixteen times the storage. Of course, with such monstrous amounts of storage, they had to improve read/write speeds – which they did, to around 15mb/s. I have seen faster USB drives, but I guess Sandisk will have plenty of time to improve on this aspect.

As for the bigger picture, the 32GB SD card could not have come at a better time.  I recently purchased a Canon SD750, and its picture sizes were at a consist whopping 3MB – almost the size of a 128kbps .mp3 file.  The increase in storage came as a surprise, but is explained by higher quality and resolution pictures.  Also, there has lately been a push to use RAW files on cameras as they turn out better – but they also take up more storage.  The 32GB of storage offers a feasible solution, at nothing short of an acceptable rate (US$350) to professional photographers, but a bit steeper for us casual users.

What’s next?  Hopefully a decrease in price, as well as higher transfer speeds.  But I foresee the 32GB SD card not being too popular until the price has droppd and its features are improved – somewhat a similar situation with the PS3 when its hardware became much more affordable and features such as Home were close to completion, although that might not be that great an analogy.  Either way, this will be a welcome addition to the industry and public in a world where pictures really do matter nowadays.