There has been a lot of debate about the privacy of users data on many online sites and more recently users of YouTube have been worried about their personal data.
Google was ordered by a court to turn over log files that show how users browse YouTube; this was because Viacom International wants to use this information as evidence to show how their copyrights are being breached.
Today we have heard that Google will be able to conceal YouTube user identities when it has to hand the database to Viacom that shows viewing habits on YouTube.
Many users were in uproar over the request that they thought would lead to their personal details being revealed, they can now rest in peace knowing that Viacom will know what people viewed but not what IP address.
Viacom will still get to see unique values for each IP address so that they can see peoples viewing habits, but this will be replacing IP Addresses.
This current lawsuit was filed against Google and their YouTube subsidiary back in 2007, they claim that YouTube is illegally distributing Viacom’s copyright content.
The HTC Touch Diamond has been one of the most popular phones in 2008, phone followers have been searching for news on this phone for many months and the iPhone 3G has not slowed down peoples interest.
Today we are hearing about another version of the HTC Touch Diamond and the big different is the “Diamond”, rumor has it that the new version will not include the famous Diamond pattern.
The model is said to be HTC P3702 and this may be an exclusive to Taiwan (for now anyway), it will feature a 3.2 megapixel camera, runs on the same platform as the T-mobile MDA Compact IV Victor and has a rounded design that should appeal to those that felt the original Diamond lacking.
HTC Diamond P3702 will also feature 128MB of RAM instead of 192MB of RAM in the P3700 HTC Touch Diamond (the extra 64MB in the original Diamond was used for video acceleration); this makes us believe that the P3702 will not include video acceleration.
We have also heard that a CDMA version of the HTC Touch Diamond was approved at the North American FCC, this version has the same rounded edges as the P3702.
See more photos of the device on Phones Review
For those of you who have been waiting for a lightsaber game, you will be pleased to hear that we could be getting a step closer to it. Nintendo have now announced a new accessory for the Will called Wii Motionplus.
This new attachment which fits on to the bottom of the Wiimote allows for more accurate responses to the motion that the player makes. Nintndo say that this new attachment will do a better job of “reflecting motions in a 3-D space”.
According to Slippery Brick, the Wii Motionplus fits to the bottom of the controller and works in conjunction with the controller’s accelerometer and the Wii sensor bar, Nintendo say that with all three working together, the motion of the players hand and arm are true 1:1 response.
This is the kind of technology that is needed for many first person shooter games, as well as the long awaited lightsaber game that Wii fans are hoping for.
Although the standard Wii Remote does a great job when tracking your hand and arm movements, it can sometimes be a little shaky. The Wii Motionplus add-on improves the precision of those movements, this will be a great help to so many games.
At this moment there are no details on pricing or a release date.
“IPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, in a statement Monday.
But the launch was plagued by software problems. All the new iPhones had to connect to Apple’s servers for activation, which quickly overloaded them. Lines of customers built in stores as employees were unable to get the phones working.
Additionally, new software was released for the old iPhone, which required reactivation of those phones. Many owners of the older phone were left with unusable units.
The iPhone 3G was launched simultaneously in 21 countries, including the U.S.
Apple had sold about 6 million units of the first-model iPhone since it launched in the U.S. a year ago. The company has set a goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
Shares of Apple rose $5.32, or 3.1 percent, to $177.90 in morning trading.
The plans for July 11th were put in place over a long time and a lot of planning, when the day came not only was the demand for the Apple iPhone 3G more than what the stores could deliver, but also the iPhone 2.0 software update ended up causing major problems for users.
We had over 500 comments on Friday and over 80% of these were directly about iPhone problems, if it was not buyers outside stores being told they could not upgrade, it was iTunes and connection problems,
We heard directly about iPhones turning into bricks thanks to iTunes breaking connection half way through installing and these users could not get reconnected for many hours after.
It seems most users managed to get connected in the end and also get updated to the new firmware, personally we were able to update with no problems but this may be because we were one of the first to get connected. When everyone heard the update was ready, the demand was too much for iTunes to handle and many errors started to happen.
Late on Friday we heard that Apple’s stock dropped 2.2 percent thanks to the chaos on Friday and some blogs are going as far to say “Should Apple be sued for compensation over iPhone 2.0 and iTunes problems?”
The most popular line we heard on Friday was “I am going to be late for work now”, it makes you think about many hours companies lost thanks to users trying to update their iPhones.
The Sony PSP 4.05 firmware update will be coming any day now and we have been informed by Sony’s blog to expect new visualizers for music playback.
Many Playstation Portable gamers got excited when they said “and other features”, while this could mean a million things, some gamers are hoping for one of the features that the PS3 received in the last update.
The PS3’s XrossMediaBar has opened the doors for many more features to be expanded on that technology, PSP owners are hoping for in-game access to the cross media bar just like the PS3 now has.
While you cannot change every setting with XMB while playing a game, but you still get quick one click access to other options without having to leave the game and then select them.
The Sony PSP and PS3 have always been closely linked, so it seems natural that the PSP will get this feature soon and most likely in this next 4.05 update.
What other features would you like to see in PSP firmware 4.05? We would like improved Internet radio and the flash plug-ins for the web browser updated. We will update you when PSP 4.05 Firmware has been released.
TrekStor, a leading manufacturer of MP3 players, external hard drives and USB sticks is adding a trendy new movie player to its existing range of MP3 players, with the launch of the i.Beat Move. The easy-to-use MP4 player is available in 1-8 GB allowing storage of up to 160 music albums or 30-50 hours of video content.
The MP4 player supports conventional MP3, WMA and WAV files and is WMA-DRM9 compatible for music purchased over the Internet. It also plays AVI format videos, displays JPEG photos and comes with integrated FM radio with memory for 25 radio stations and an automatic search function. A microSD memory card is also available for extra space allowing consumers to store additional videos and music tracks.
The MP4 player has a pin sharp 65,000 colour display. The player also comes with a high speed USB 2.0 connection, a set of stereo headphones, folder navigation and an integrated rechargeable lithium polymer battery.
Prices and availability - The i.Beat move is available from selected retailers including amazon.co.uk at prices ranging from £24 (2GB) to £59 (8GB).
The i.Beat Move is available in three sizes; small, medium and large. The small model measures 38.5mm x 74.5mm x 9.5mm (W x H x D) with a screen size of 3.8cm. The medium size has a display measuring 4.6cm and the large model has a display of 5.1cm and measures at 45.5mm x 78mm x 10mm.
Everyone should know by now what a Solid State Disk can do for your laptop or desktop computer, there have been enough comparison videos showing the boot-up time of Windows with an SSD compared to a normal drive.
Tweak Town have taken a look at the industry and where it stands now, things are looking much better than they have ever looked when it comes to SSD’s.
In their final thoughts they said “Solid state drives are not going to hit one day, cause mass hysteria and have people waiting in lines outside of their local Apple Store like some products. Even at the 300 Dollar price point for a 64GB drive, enthusiasts and business users will be the first to take advantage of the new, lower prices.
Over the next few months, big box builders will start to offer solid state drives in more of their middle class notebooks, and if big memory manufacturers like Samsung are not able to meet demand, the prices will rise again. Thankfully, these manufacturers appear to be ready to meet demand or at least know they need to ramp up production quickly.
It is my belief that upgrading your platter based hard drive to an SSD will produce the most significant change to your computing experience for a modern computer. I am neither talking frames per second nor calculation from a benchmark, but your overall, real world ‘I use my computer everyday’ tasks. The difference is similar to running an eight-year-old 20GB, 512KB cache drive with Vista installed and then moving to a new SATA II drive.
Over the next 30 days, I will run my Lenovo T61 notebook with the Super Talent Master Drive MX and give a detailed report of my experiences dealing with the battery life, losing 40GB of storage space and the overall system feel. This isn’t a shelf notebook that is used on the weekend; my T61 goes with me everywhere and twelve hours on my lap a day is not uncommon”
Read the three page market review.
With the latest launch Das Keyboard it promises the best typing experience with an extra long 6.6 foot USB cable, a glossy black surface with blue LEDs, two USB 2.0 ports and gold-plated mechanical key switches. View the press release below for the latest information.
Austin, TX – July 14, 2008 – Das Keyboard (www.daskeyboard.com), a division of Metadot Corporation renowned for its completely blank keyboards, announced today the release of two new and totally redesigned keyboard models – the Professional and the Ultimate. Both models sport German-engineered, gold-plated mechanical key switches, but unlike its sibling the Das Keyboard Ultimate which is completely blank, the Professional has the traditional QWERTY markings on its keys.
Incorporating the industry’s highest keyboard standards with the best key switches money can buy, the Das Keyboard Ultimate and Professional are designed to make typing more comfortable and satisfying by providing a completely unique touch and feel experience.
“If you spend eight hours a day typing on a keyboard, it might as well be on a keyboard that offers the best typing experience possible,” Daniel Guermeur, creator of Das Keyboard and CEO of Metadot Corporation said. “The Das Keyboard was designed for discriminating users who appreciate comfort and quality and are tired of mushy, unresponsive, five-dollar keyboards.”
Setting the Das Keyboards apart from standard keyboards, the mechanical key switches create a distinct “click” with each keystroke and make the typing experience more crisp, decisive and fast.
“Das Keyboard is a ‘clicky’ keyboard that’s surprisingly addictive,” TechRevu editor Ernest Lilley recently stated in a review of the Das Keyboard Professional (http://www.techrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=2405). “Built on über-high quality Cherry micro-switches that you can really bang down on, the positive feel of this minimalist keyboard is sure to delight serious keyboarders….”
Both the Professional and Ultimate are available in the U.S. at daskeyboard.com for $129.00
First up we would to note that a lot of Product Reviews readers have been complaining of massive problems with the iTunes store and getting the iPhone v2.0 update.
As we were one of the first to download the official Apple iPhone 2.0 software, we had no problems updating at all, the only issue was how long it took to install.
This is not saying that there are not problems, because clearly there are listening to what users are reporting; one person has had an iPhone go dead on them. Half way through the updating process he lost connection to iTunes and now has a phone that’s not working, just a black screen.
After downloading iPhone v2.0 software we found that everything looks just the same as the last iPhone firmware apart from a new icon saying App Store.
First impressions of the App store – we are very impressed, just like YouTube, you have one click access to the App store and lots of applications to choose from. Some are free and others are to buy, and you will find some of the paid ones very impressive.
Our favorites are “Super Monkey Ball” and iLoveControl”, classic gaming and a way to make the iPhone control your entire home.
There are many other features, most of these have been reported before by us and other sites, although first impressions show some cool updates we will use often like saving image from web pages. We will update you when we have had more of a play.
