Dell Planning Smartphone Launch

The timing is right for Dell to make a stab at the smartphone market – the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona starts in a couple of weeks – and the Wall Street Journal reports that Dell may be about to just that.

Or not. The leak from which the WSJ gleaned this information says that Dell may just give up and abandon the launch. To me, this is hardly a proper rumor -- you or I could have come up with it: "Rumor -- Dell may or not release smartphones next month."

Still it is the WSJ, and there are some more details. There may be two handsets, an iPhone clone (natch) and a Pre clone. Both will be offered with a choice of Windows Mobile or Google's Android OS.

It certainly makes sense for Dell to get into the smartphone game. With PC sales dropping through the floor in favor of cheap netbooks, the computer giant needs to make some money somewhere. In fact, I know a local bar which needs a waiter. Are you interested, Dell?

Dell Prepares To Dial Into Smartphone Marketplace [WSJ via the Reg]

India’s $10 laptop coming

Get ready, India's $10 laptop is set for its first unveiling on February 3rd. Ok, so it's not quite $10... $20 actually, but that's far better than the $100 some were estimating. It's also much better than the $200 per OLPC XO deal that Negroponte wanted to reportedly charge the Indian government more than 2 years ago -- an offer rejected by officials with a promise to young Indians to do it better and for less. According to some reports (we can't find anything official), the laptop will feature 2GB of memory, WiFi, fixed Ethernet, expandable memory, and consume just 2 watts of power. The Devil's in the details, they say, but with any luck, India will be swimming in cheap silicon within the next 6 months if the project can keep to schedule... that's a big IF.

[Via TechTicker, image courtesy of FMCKids]

Read -- Unofficial specs Read -- February 3rd unveiling

How to Fix Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death

 

Trying to fix Xbox 360 red ring of death can be difficult and frustrating. Especially when you’re not sure what caused the red rings to come on. So, what I’m going to do is share with you some tips on how to fix Xbox 360 red ring of death.

That way, you’ll be able to get back to playing your games without having to worry about the rings showing up again.

The tips on fixing the red ring of death are:

1. The first way to fix the red lights on your game system is to send it back to Microsoft. They will repair it for free if your Xbox is still under warranty. If your console isn’t under warranty anymore, Microsoft will charge you over $100 to fix it.

2. The next tip on how to fix Xbox 360 red ring of death is to deal with the over heating of your game system. This happens because your Xbox doesn’t have an effective cooling system. It’s one of the reasons why the RROD happened. Xbox 360 cooling System

3. The best way to fix the problem is to repair the red lights yourself. It’s easy and simple to do. You will need the Xbox 360 repair guide, some household tools, and less than an hour.

These are some of the tips on how to fix Xbox 360 red ring of death. If you are going to repair the problem yourself.

Tools:
Xbox 360 cooling System

Xbox 360 repair guide

How to Put Music on a PSP

If you would like to put music or images on a PSP, you must first connect your PSP to your computer through a USB connection, Most camera USB’s work well with the PSP, you just have to find one that fits.

Once you connect the PSP to your computer, turn on your PSP, and go to the far left on your PSP, and look for “USB Connection” hit x, your psp should say “USB MODE” now your computer should manually pick up the new hardware and give you a list of program to run with it, just hit “Cancel”

Now, i am assuming you have Windows XP, so, this part may vary a little, now go to the “Start” button at the bottem left, then open up “My Computer” There should be a couple diferent things in here, so look for something that says something like “Removable Disc” and open it up, when you open it up, there should be a folder called “PSP” if you dont see it, its the wrong thing and try another.

Once in the folder called “PSP” inside that, there should be a folder called “SAVEDATA” dont click inside “SAVEDATA” just stay in the PSP folder, now right click, and hit “NEW” then “NEW FOLDER” , once you have made a new folder, name it “PHOTO” or “MUSIC” , depending on what you would like to put on your psp, or you can just make both.

Now, get the photos you want on your psp, and click and drag them on your “PHOTO” folder, Same applies to music,

Now once everything is put in those folders, you can just exit that box, and look at the bottem right, where te time is listed, there should be a little thing with a green arrow, double click that, and then click “stop” and now it should say you can safely remove the new hardware.

Now on your psp, hit circle, and go to the Music/Photo thing, and check if you see what you installed on it is there.

If not, it is most likely because the format of the music or image are not correct.

The most common form of music you should put on your PSP, is MP3 Format, which you can transfer CD’s, to MP3′s using MusicMatch JukeBox using the recorder tool. And I beileve the only form of Pictures you can have are JPEGS, which you can to change, just google it.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix Review

D3’s Dorks, Dealers and Double-Ds event made much of Galactrix, even if they did designate it as the “dork” portion of the evening.

Two PCs and four DS stations were set up for gamers to go head-to-head in multiplayer or take a stab at story mode.

The PC demo had already dropped earlier that day, so I went straight to the DS and loaded up story mode. I’m not sure how I feel about the “two-faced bad guy calling himself a god” plot, but the cut scenes were at least rendered decently on the DS – and I didn’t even have to strain to read the text.

The way Galactrix works is like an adventure game where you go around the galaxy completing quests for different factions. Of course each “quest” is really a game of Bejeweled, just like Challenge of the Warlords. What’s different here is that the board is a funky hexagon shape and pieces fall in the direction you move a gem. It’s not like Hexic – where you can score by connecting a cluster of gems from any side – because you’re still trying to make linear strings of gems.

This adds a whole degree of difficulty to the game because the board is bigger and the gems don’t fall straight down. Among other things, this means four of a kind doesn’t cut it for a free turn anymore – you need five of a kind – and it’s way harder to get crazy XP-earning chains called Novas or Supernovas. It also means things can go way wrong or incredibly well very quickly.

For example, I won one battle with two moves. The first was to connect four mines together to deliver a blow to the opponent (like connecting skulls in Warlords, having four of a kind awards an additional damage bonus to to the base multiplier). As it happened, the mines had all gained multipliers by sitting on the board for a turn – jumping from one damage point to three. So I did a much larger amount of damage than I expected, taking out the enemy’s shield in just that first move.



Shields are a big deal in Galactrix. The shield is a separate health bar that can be replenished by connecting blue games. Having a shield up even when you’re down to single-digit hit points can save you from some of the worst attacks in the game – up to and including cheap shots from the computer where five of a kind mines drop randomly.

Which is exactly what happened on my next turn. The AI tried to shore up its shields by using a Shield Matrix “item” (read: spell) to generate a few points worth of protection and then connected some blue gems for a little more. Then it was my go and I swapped a red gem leftwards for a three of a kind that turned into first a Nova chain – where you generate a x2 multiplier for all the gems you collected – and then into a Supernova chain which actually got me an extra turn and an x3 multiplier.*

*If you look at that screen, the Nova seems to say “extra turn awarded” – but I’m pretty sure that’s just for the five of a kind and not for the Nova. Every time I scored Nova I was not awarded an extra turn.

This long chain spawned like several three of a kind mine connections and dropped a five of a kind, which totally destroyed my opponent’s remaining shields and his hit points. I left the battle with some acquired cargo (used in crafting), a minus 10 faction score for the guys I’d just pwned and the sincere hope that the game is still being tweaked for balance. I can't imagine how high my blood pressure would be if that kind of thing kept happening to me instead of the AI.

I messed around a little more on the DS, noting how hard it is to catch up with some of those ships using the stylus. I’m to understand that plenty of battles come from just clicking on planets and selecting the “Fight the pirates” option, but if you actually want to run down a ship cruising the galaxy, you need to build yourself a fast engine or figure out how to intercept them on their flight pattern.



At last I was ready for the PC multiplayer. I’d been avoiding it because Carolyn Gudmundson over at GamesRadar was dominating the table and she eats Puzzle Quest for breakfast. But, lucky me, she decided she’d be on my side and coach me through two battles against another games journalist. I won the first one in a pretty evenly matched battle. That second one was going well until the other guy figured out how to use the Dark Laser – a.k.a. cheapest item in the game.

I don’t have much else to say for the multiplayer besides I think it’s strange that I can see what gem my opponent has selected before he’s moved it. Doesn’t that take some of the fun away, if I have an idea of what he’s going to do before he does it?

The DS version of Puzzle Quest: Galactrix ships February 24. The PC demo is out now and – like all the other platform releases – is slated for a “Spring 2009” ship date.

Colorware gets ahold of BlackBerry Curve 8900

It was inevitable, really. RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8900 is now being offered up by the paint gun-wielding fools at Colorware, who will gladly ugly up your handset as you see fit. 'Course, you can put together a rather striking piece of work too, but make sure you get a second opinion on your dream color scheme before mashing the buy button. As for costs? A solid coat will run you a buck twenty-nine, but if you change up the top, bottom, frame or sides, you can count on that figure inching higher and higher.

[Via CrackBerry]

Overclocked AMD Processor Is Cool At 6.5 GHz

The extreme sport of overclocking computer processors has set a new record by pushing the limits to which a processor chip can be cooled and then clocked to pump up its performance.

A group of enthusiasts with some help from liquid nitrogen and liquid helium cooled the AMD Phenom II X4 processor to near absolute zero temperature and overclocked it to a mindboggling 6.5 GHz. That's more than twice the 3 GHz clock speed of the best CPU available currently from AMD and a huge step forward from the default frequency of 1.8 GHz for that chip.

The group brought about 132 gallons of liquid nitrogen and helium and cooled the die to below 385 degrees Fahrenheit (-232 degrees Celsius)

With the chip down to this temperature, they pushed the clock to run at 6.5 GHz, an achievement they call a world record for an quad core processor.

Watch the video for the details:



Photo: (AaronAge/Flickr)

Take Cool Lomo-Like iPhone Pics With Quadcam

I can't help but get excited when I find new apps and accessories that make my iPhone camera photos crisp and unique. Because I'm constantly sniffing around in the App Store, I've found ways to take black-and-white iPhone photos for free, and now I can take pics that look like it came from a Lomo Oktomat or CyberSampler camera with a cool new app called Quadcam.



Quadcam allows your camera to take multiple photos within seconds of each other. You can adjust timing to get a rapid-fire effect, or choose to let the shutter snap in longer intervals. Plus, you can choose between four or eight single shots in one or two rows, and between black and white or full color. The best part is, it will only cost you $2 to get some pretty sweet results. Take the photo above for example. It was my first attempt with the app, and I think it looks pretty sick.

New Bill Asks For Cameraphones To Go Clickety Clack

Smile, say cheese and hold that pose till you hear the 'click'. A new bill introduced in the Congress by New York Republican Rep. Peter King requires mobile phones with digital cameras "to make a sound" when a photograph is taken.

The move is part of the 'Camera Phone Predator Alert Act' and the idea is to ensure privacy and safety of the public, especially children, claims the bill.

"Congress finds that children and adolescents have been exploited by photographs taken in dressing rooms and public places with the use of a camera phone," says the draft of the bill, which was introduced earlier this month.

If enacted the bill would require any mobile phone in the US to make a sound "audible within a reasonable radius of the phone whenever a photograph is taken with the camera in such phone." A mobile phone manufactured after the date the bill is enacted will have no way of disabling or silencing the sound.

The idea is not as astounding as it seems.Japan already requires all cameraphones including the iPhone to make an audible noise when taking a photograph.

But chances this bill will pass in the U.S. in its current form? Near zero. It has no co-sponsors and hasn't seen much traction. But if it does, be prepared for clicktones to be the next big thing after ringtones.

Photo: (curiousyellow/Flickr)

Fixing Scratched CD’s and DVD’s

CD’s and DVD’s can be found in every home. Even if you use an iPod or other MP3/MP4 type device you probably still have a bunch of DVD’s laying around. One problem that you will often come across is that they get scratched and sometimes to the point of not working.

SaveOnline have created a case which contains non-scratch Ultrasuede Microfibre material that sits in the bottom of a case. A quick rotation of your CD in the case will remove dust particles and keep the CD or DVD more safe.

By placing a special non-scratch Ultrasuede microfiber material with dual cleaning bars inside the jewel case the CD will now rest on the ultimate soft protected surface. To clean the CD all you need to do is rotate the CD within the case. As the CD rotates over the soft surface and the cleaning bar it will remove dust and particulates. Each time you remove your CD it will be safe from scratches, clean and ready for use. This will significantly increase the life of your CD.

The cost of the Jewel case is $1.29 and can be purchased over at Save364.

Written by Gadget Venue.

Fixing Scratched CD’s and DVD’s

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