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1UP.com has this very cool parallel between the [tag]Dreamcast[/tag] and the [tag]Xbox 360[/tag]. Some of the stuff will make you think…

… except at [tag]Google[/tag].

If this is true than it’s not only hillarious but also a great security flaw from Google. Where’s menu.google.com???? It might be usefull for [tag]Yahoo[/tag] employees. 😛

[tag]free lunch[/tag]

As it was expected, after a [tag]Firefox[/tag] release there’s always a [tag]Thunderbird[/tag] release.

[tags]E-mail, Mozilla[/tags]

Almost a year after the [tag]PlayStation Portable[/tag] was released in Japan, [tag]Sony[/tag] has announced plans to launch a new budget range for the handheld under the label [tag]PSP: The Best[/tag].
Hit titles will be repackaged and resold at the lower price point of 2800 Yen (just under 20 Euro) – full price [tag]PSP[/tag] games currently retail for around 5040 Yen (24 Euro).

In Portugal, a PSP games costs between 50 and 60€, in the UK it goes from 40 to 50€. When will this huge price gap end? Even in Europe the games are marketed at diferent prices. I bet that if Europe had prices like Japan, we would see a huge decrease in piracy numbers, more people could afford to buy games, others would buy much more games than already buy. Seeing games being sold at prices like these makes me think that piracy doesn’t affect the game editors like thay claim… Why are we the only ones to pay for this?

[tags]games, piracy[/tags]

Looks like a special collection of [tag]Gradius[/tag] will be released for the [tag]PSP[/tag] in February 9, 2006, in Japan. The collection includes:

• Gradius
• Gradius II
• Gradius III
• Gradius IV
• Gradius Gaiden

All the games will be perfect ports of the originals. Gradius I and II will have a special “wide screen mode” that will use the entire PSP screen. Extras include a movie gallery and a music gallery including the original tracks and remakes.

I love shooters and Gradius is one of my favorites among the classics… can’t wait to play it!

If you have the european version of [tag]Wipeout Pure[/tag] for [tag]PSP[/tag], you can download from the official website the new [tag]Omega[/tag] Pack. Featuring some of the most sureal tracks ever seen in a Wipeout game (and other racing games from what matters), this release counts with the works of european visual artists like [tag]Jon Burgerman[/tag], [tag]Mark James[/tag], [tag]Neil Mcfarland[/tag] and the Parisien colective [tag]Scien[/tag]. Also included in the pack are four new ships and a new skin. The tracks are great, different from everything you’ve seen in Wipeout ’till today and the ships are very nice and very well tuned. A “must have”!

[tag]Microsoft[/tag] announced on-line versions of its [tag]Windows[/tag] operating system and other popular software programs, like Office in order to engage Google growing threat.

[tag]Windows Live[/tag] will integrate an online version of windows, with correspondent [tag]Office[/tag] and [tag]Messenger[/tag] live versions. Microsoft also plans to charge monthly fees for some of the Live Office (follow the link to apply for the beta) features but Windows Live will be offered for free, trying to make money from the on-line advertising market.

[tag]Firefox[/tag] 1.5 RC1 is out! Get it here!

[tags]Mozilla, browser[/tags]

Here’s a quick review of the [tag]PSP Media Manager[/tag].

The interface is cool, clean and effective. All the options are well placed and at sight, lacking just a right click menu, but then again why complicate what is so simple. Starting with the Photo managing, you can transfer photos from your “My Pictures” folder and choose, in the settings menu, if the resolution should be changed when transfering. Simple, effective. Just drag to the lower pan and it transfers the photos to your PSP photo folder. You don’t have to connect the PSP to your PC to use the Media Manager. I have a memory card reader and it works very well and the tranfer rate is even faster than the [tag]PSP[/tag].

Next, the Music. You can choose from the [tag]iTunes[/tag] folder (including Podcasts), “My Music” folder and [tag]SonicStage[/tag] if you have it installed. You can always preview the media you want to transfer, the software launched the default system application for the media you want to preview.

The Video pane. Like the other panes, you can transfer videos stored in the “My Videos” folder. All the videos are encoded to AVC at 4:3 which meaning its not full screen (widescreen) its just normal TV style. There is no option to encode for widescreen either, Sony still doesn’t allow videos played from the MS to have [tag]UMD[/tag] quality. The quality is good and is the same as the videos you download on yourpsp.com. Sony can make some improvements here.

The CD pane is where you can rip and encode Music CDs to your PSP. Strangely Sony has not included other formats than mp3. The PSP supports mp3, [tag]ATRAC[/tag] and WAV so at least ATRAC Sony’s own audio format should’ve been included. The Gracenote engine is usefull, providing all the info on the CD, but a album cover thumbnail was welcome.

Feeds. Here you can subscribe to audio and video casts as well as import and export data from and to an OPLM file. The PSP Media Manager comes with a podcast and vidcast directory with a few sites you can subscribe. After subscribing, you can choose the media you want to download. As usual, the media is downloaded and converted to the right PSP formats. PSP formated magazines can also be subscribed and downloaded from here.

Game. You can use this pane to backup your PSP save games and / or transfer them to another memory stick.

Backup. Backups all the data in your PSP.

Settings. This pane has settings for all the other panes do check this pane before using the software.

My 10 cents:

As I said before, I bought the new PSP Media Manager. With the $20 software, I can transfer videos, music and photos, as well as subscribe to podcasts, vidcasts, manage save games and backup all the data in my PSP. The software is worth $20 but [tag]Sony[/tag] should give this away with the PSP as other companies do with some media players. Anyway, is good to see that Sony is working to support the PSP in all its features, not only as a games machine but as a portable media player. You can check some screenshots here.

Not even 5 minutes had past since my last post and [tag]Sony[/tag] made the [tag]PSP Media Manager[/tag] available to buy. I think I was the first guy to buy the software online 😀 I bought the download version for $23.74, EU VAT included, wich I think it is a nice price. I’m taking some screenshots as I explore the program, so expect a big post later on.

Just one hint – It uses the podcasts from iTunes 😀