HIDDEN FEATURES IN IPHONE 4 OS

Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation--with iPhone OS 3.1 Software Installed) [NEWEST MODEL]

Apple iPod touch 64 GB (3rd Generation) NEWEST MODEL

15-Item Accessory Bundle for Apple iPod Touch 2G and 3G

Home Screen

As usual, Apple snuck a number of new features into almost every facet of iOS, so let's start with the first thing that most people see when they use an iPhone: the Home screen. Now, you probably already know about the major new features like folders for organizing apps and support for wallpaper backgrounds (just like the iPad feature), but we've found a couple more perks as well. First, the Spotlight screen now offers "Wikipedia" and "Web" options at the bottom of your search results. If you don't find what you're looking for locally, these are two easy launchpads for taking your query out to the Web.

The second Home screen bonus is that if you use one of the readily available apps to enable emoji icons on your device, you can use them to name your Home screen folders. In fact, you don't need a text label at all--iOS will let you use even just a single emoji icon to label a folder.

Multitasking

You can indeed remove an app from the multitasking bar at the bottom of the display. To do so, tap and hold on an icon, just as if you wanted to move icons around on the Home screen. The icons will start jiggling, and a red minus sign will appear at the top left of the icon. Tapping the minus will immediately close the app with no confirmation, warning, or ability to reverse your choice, so be sure that the app either automatically saves your work or that you were truly done using it.

Phone

Moving along the key apps and features of iOS, the Phone app got a little attention in this update. On iPhone 4, the FaceTime button appears to have knocked off the Hold button on the in-call screen (our guess is that hold seemed a little redundant in light of Mute and the ability to move the phone away from your face). Thanks to Nik Fletcher's observations, the "End Call" button has been re-labeled to simply "End," and the in-call background image now stretches all the way to the bottom of the screen (previously, it stopped just above the End Call button).

Mail

Mail is at the head of the pack when it comes to major changes in iOS 4, and we covered them in our main review and our hands-on Mail piece. The app also got quite a bit of spit and polish that warrants a mention.

If a message is from a contact in your device's Address Book and a picture is assigned, that picture will appear to the right of the subject when viewing that message. If you start drafting a message in Mail or any other app and then hit Cancel, the menu that appears now features a loud, red "Delete Draft" button to help make sure that you know what you're doing.

Mail also gains some custom e-mail service features: it now supports MobileMe aliases andarchiving in Gmail--both unique features to their respective services.

Mail also gained some new preferences in the Settings app. Under the Mail, Contacts, and Calendars pane, you can pick a default account with which to sync new notes from Apple's built-in Notes app, and you can disable the new threaded conversation view.

Safari

In addition to gaining Bing as a search option and other perks we've already mentioned, Apple endowed its mobile browser with search suggestions that appear as you type, just like in a desktop browser. (This works with all three search engine options and is, of course, dependent on having a stable Internet connection.) When typing in the address field, URL suggestions from your bookmarks and history now include both the URL and page title. Apple also tightened up the interface when you tap on either Safari's search or location fields--the Cancel button is now next to the the field, instead of above it, cutting down on the amount of space that it occupies.

iPod

The iPod app may take the cake when it comes to the sheer number of nips and tucks that Apple made to its iOS 4 apps, which is why we spent an entire article on it. The album view got a serious face lift, as it now displays album art in a larger area at the top, along with metadata like release date, total playing time, individual track length, and more. In addition to now being able to edit playlists (including the ones you sync from iTunes), a "Clear" button makes it easy to start fresh. The iPod app also respects iOS 4's new system-wide orientation lock; when it's enabled, Cover Flow will not appear when rotating your device.

When viewing a TV show's list of episodes, there is a new "Get More Episodes..." button at the bottom (note that it does not appear in playlists). Lastly, a new option in Settings -> iPod lets you toggle the display of lyrics or podcast info during playback (previously, if you entered lyrics data, it always showed up in conjunction with the playback scrubber).

Finally, with a hat tip to Iljitsch van Beijnum, links embedded in enhanced podcasts can now be opened in Mobile Safari.

iTunes Store

There is no more iTunes Plus designation on music tracks--the higher 256Kbps quality, DRM-less format has been the norm for some time, so Apple has apparently seen fit to do away with pointing it out.

YouTube

Videos will rotate to portrait mode, but only after they start playing in landscape. Then you can turn the phone upright and the video will follow (iPod videos gained portrait rotation sometime in iOS 3.x). If you turn the phone to portrait before the video starts playing, it will remain in landscape orientation--we're not sure if this is a feature or a bug, but it seems like a bug.

Notes

Since Notes can now sync with multiple sources (iTunes, MobileMe, and so on), a new button in the top left lets you view all the accounts that support notes. This also means you get a choice when creating notes--you can keep them "On My iPhone" or sync them with MobileMe or any other supported e-mail account. There is also a new option under Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars to pick a default account with which to sync notes.

Calculator

For the third time in the iOS's history, Calculator has gained a new icon.

Settings

What's a major iOS update without a healthy dose of new preferences and rejiggering? Under the General pane, Accessibility has gained a "Large Text" option to increase text size in Mail, Contacts, Messages, and Notes. Spotlight Search (which lets you toggle and reorder search results) was moved and renamed from General -> Home -> Search Results, and it now includes an entry for Messages.

The General -> Home option, meanwhile, has been removed altogether. In previous iOS versions, the Home pane let you assign different actions for double-pressing the Home button (such as opening Camera, iPod controls, Search, and so forth). But on devices that support multitasking, double-pressing the Home button is now hardwired to opening the app switcher. (If there was ever a strong argument for the iPhone gaining a dedicated camera button, the loss of these options may be it.)

Under General -> International, a new Calendar option lets you pick between using Gregorian, Japanese, Buddhist, and Republic of China calendars. The International Assist option under General -> Phone has also been moved from the top of the pane to below the "Calls" option area.

Safari gained a couple new options, too. Under Search Engine, you now have the choice of Bing in addition to Google (the default) and Yahoo. (The Search panel to the left of the Home Screen respects this search engine choice if you opt to take your query to the Web.) Interestingly, the Plug-ins slider has been removed entirely.

Messages also has a couple of new preferences: the Group Messaging option (enabled by default) lets replies come back to the original, single thread you created when sending the first message, instead of to the individual SMS entries for each contact in a group. A Character Count option can now display--you guessed it--a character count when composing SMS. The iPhone will display SMS of any length as one coherent message, but the carriers and most other phones still break them up into 160-character messages. Some SMS-enabled services, like Twitter, also enforce a low character count. Interestingly: the character count only appears above the Send button if your message stretches to a second line.

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Netflix Releases Minor Update to iPad App

Netflix has released a minor update to their Netflix application.

The update, Version 1.0.3, is not the upcoming version of the application which will have support for the iPhone, which is expected to coincide with the release of iPhone OS 4. Instead, the update only provides minor bug fixes to the recent addition of the ability to show Netflix video on an external display via means of the VGA connector kit which is available for the iPad.

On the official application page in iTunes for Netflix, the company said that the new version includes “bug fixes in player when viewing on device or using video out connection.”

Netflix first hinted at the iPhone and iPod touch version of Netflix during the iPad’s initial release, telling users to “stay tuned” for a version of their app for other iOS devices. On June 7^th, Netflix said that its iPhone and iPod Touch client would be coming “this summer.” The iPhone app will feature adaptive video playback which will increase and decrease video quality automatically based on the quality of the user’s connection. The feature will also include the ability to manage their queue from the app and resume playback on media which users began watching on other devices.

SOME AMAZON STUFF

DREAMCAST. BEST CONSOLE EVER!

The Dreamcast was the first 128-bit console on the market and came from Sega. Stories of this console started appearing on several Internet sites on March 12th 1997. It was originally rumoured to be a 64-bit upgrade for the Sega Saturn, code-named Eclipse, but by March 31st, this story had changed and it was now believed that Sega was planning a completely new, separate console.

By June 1997 it was known that Sega had two different design specs for consideration to become the new console, one code-named Black Belt, and the other code-named Dural. They were almost identical apart from processors (Black Belt having an IBM/Motorola PowerPC 603e CPU with 3Dfx Voodoo2 graphics chipset and Dural having a Hitachi SH-4 CPU with NEC/Videologic PowerVR2 graphics chipset) and matched well with the specs of Sega's newest arcade board code-named NAOMI.

It soon came time to decide on which one was to be used as the final console. Sega chairman, Isao Okawa, ordered for both designs to be made so they could better evaluate the two. Sega of America went with the Black Belt design, but Sega of Japan went with the Dural design. They finally decided on the Dural design (renamed Katana and given 16MB of Video RAM rather than 8MB, allowing better graphics rendering capabilities). The console boasted that it was easy to produce games for and so it quickly gained a lot of third party support.

Sega worked with many other companies to produce this machine including Microsoft, Hitachi, NEC, Video Logic and Yamaha. The console is Windows CE compatible and can run the Internet with its built-in 56K modem allowing you to play games over the Internet or browse the net using the optional keyboard/mouse. In Australia, this Internet access was provided exclusively through Telstra Big Pond. The Dreamcast can also run emulators.

The controller is excellent with its two trigger buttons and compatibility with Sega VMU. No DVD drive was included as this would have been far too expensive to produce. Sega would later be criticised for this. Instead, they used a CD-ROM drive which runs at 12x. The machine can handle 3 million polygons per second.

The console was announced to the public as the Sega Katana on September 7th 1997 but this name had changed to Dreamcast by the time they were ready to release it a year later. When it came time to release the Dreamcast, many delays prevented it from running on schedule. Final touches had to be made on the console and first-release games. There were many pre-orders taken leading up to its release in Japan, which would seem like a good thing for Sega, but they could not fill these orders (both because they could not make that many consoles in such a short time and also because of a lack of parts) and so they asked for orders to be halted.

The release date was re-scheduled a number of times because of these problems, but the Dreamcast was finally released on November 25th 1998 in Japan. All 150 000 consoles that Sega had managed to produce by this time were sold out on the first day. They remained sold out until the next shipment arrived in mid December.

By 16th July 1999, the Dreamcast was outselling the Nintendo 64 by a 3 to 1 ratio. Meanwhile in America, advertising for the Dreamcast was taking place and by August 1999 it had broken the advanced sales record of the PlayStation with 200 000 pre-orders placed. The official North American release was September 9th 1999 at a cost of US$199.99.

Unfortunately, a number of problems occurred, which may have made a small contribution to the consoles failure later down the track because of angry consumers. Some Japanese games were shipped to USA and, of course, didn't work on the US consoles. Ready 2 Rumble was released with the wrong drivers, also making the game not work. The lack of a Sega-made light gun, some people criticising the controllers and lack of VMUs available also didn't help. But other than these problems, the US release was a big success for Sega.

The European release (14th October 1999) was also quite successful, but the Australian/New Zealand release (30th November 1999) was a failure with shortage of consoles and games. Because of this, no further interest was taken in the console and stores quickly stopped supporting the Dreamcast in Australia as it was just not worth it. Only a few shops that specialised in selling games continued to sell Dreamcasts and games.

By October 1999, Sega of America announced that it had sold 518 000 consoles in 1 month in the US. By the beginning of November, this had increased to 750 000 and by the end of the year, 1 million had been sold. At that rate, Sega expected to break 2 million by March 2000.

Sega had promised that the Dreamcast would be both expandable and upgradeable. By the end of the year, they had announcements of a DC Zip Drive and cable modem compatibility. Of course, the Internet access planned for the Dreamcast had not even begun yet because of various delays, and this is perhaps another contributing factor to the console's failure in the end.

The largest factor that contributed to the failure of the Dreamcast, however, was the announcement of the Sony PlayStation 2 (and later the Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube). Sony's console was superior to the Dreamcast in many ways (but the Dreamcast still had some things better than the Playstation 2) and Sony even dropped the price of the PlayStation 2 to compete with Sega. But there was no way Sega could drop the price of their console. To the public, it seemed that Sega was greedy, but if they dropped the price of the console, they would never meet the break-even point after losses from previous failures.

After delays, SegaNet finally began, allowing Dreamcast users to play games over the Internet. In January 2000, 30% of Japanese Dreamcast owners were using Dricas and by 17th February this had risen to almost 50%. In the US over 300 000 people were using DC's Internet and in Europe over 200 000. Then came the announcement of a free Dreamcast given to anyone who signed up for Dreamcast Internet for a minimum of 2 years. This was a deal Sony could not match and so this kept the Dreamcast going for a while.

But there was still the issue of price that made the Playstation 2 a moreattractive offer. Even though the Dreamcast was still cheaper, people would prefer to pay a little more for the more promising-looking Playstation 2. Softwaresales for the Dreamcast were never good, which didn't help either. Sales of the Dreamcast dropped in late 2000 and things kept going downhill from there. Sega stopped production of the Dreamcast in February 2001 and then lowered the price, selling their consoles at a loss. After this, Sega decided to become a third-party producer of games for other consoles and not make any more consoles.

Shane Carwin vs. Brock Lesnar

Shane Carwin is bright enough to handle the demands of a full-time job as a civil and mechanical engineer in northern Colorado. Maybe then, he'd be so kind as to explain the science behind the mind-scrambling statistics he's compiled. Twelve fights, 12 first-round stoppage victories.

The challenges though, continue to get bigger, and the next problem the engineer must solve is the biggest in MMA right now: UFC heavyweight championBrock Lesnar. When he and Lesnar meet this summer, likely on July 3 in Las Vegas, it will be -- quite literally -- huge. In fact, the biggest title matchup ever, at least in terms of bulk. And the interest level for the fight might just match the oversized participants

Shockingly, Carwin-Mir marked the first time in major MMA history that a heavyweight championship match included two men who weighed in at the 265-pound limit. It had never happened in PRIDE; it had never happened in the UFC. The second time is on the way. But Lesnar is naturally much larger than Mir, who has weighed in the 245-255 neighborhood for most of his career and had bulked up in hopes of a rubber match with Lesnar.

Instead he was beaten by the monstrous Carwin, and now, he and Lesnar will usher in the new age of superheavyweights

"It's going to be a heavyweight championship fight with two real heavyweights," UFC PresidentDana White said. "It's going to be fun, and it's going to be big."

NEW Xbox 360 Slim vs PS3 Slim: Dimensions

Microsoft’s new Xbox 360 measures in at 270 x 75 x 264mm and weighs 2.9 kg, this makes it smaller than the PS3 slim, however there is still an external power brick, this is smaller and lighter than the previous power brick.



When Sony released their PS3 Slim last year it prompted many PS3 gamers to sell their original and buy a slim, this new console measured in at just 290 × 65 × 290 mm and weighed 3.5kg.