I have to be honest, as most of you know already I am no fan of Microsoft. I also have absolutely no interest in the Zune. However, this evening I have opened up my trustworthy Mac mail account to find this:

Dear Sir,

Glad to tell you we have one new model for the moment.

With
capacity 1GB/ 2GB/ 4GB
2.4 inch TFT 262K color screen
whole metal housing
built-in speaker on the back
built-in FM radio
built-in game
support Mini SD Card
support AVI format video
support MP3,WMA,WAV format audio
suppot JPG,GIF,BMP format image
support TXT format E-book
support 16 languages
super thin shape 83×48×10 mm
weight: 48 g

Attached pls find the picture to your reference.

The minimal quantity order is 100 pieces, and the sample order is avaliable
here, but you need to bear the sample fees–1 USD/PC.

We ensure you the orginal Samsung IC and the best Philip Chipset. The
warranty is 1 year.

Should you have any interests with our goods, pls feel free to contact us.
If possible, pls tell us the capacity and quantity, so that we can give you
the best price.

Any questions, pls tell us,tks!

We are waiting for your kind reply.

Best regards.

Jenny

Now, maybe I’m missing something here…. but I get the impression that they were somewhat “inspired” by Microsoft?The only thing that gets me is why?

I mean, why would you rip off a completely useless product?

I can understand why they would rip off the iPhone and the others on the long list of gadgets. I’ll leave you guys with some more pictures of this sleek, sexy audio gadget… rarhhh!

Don’t get greedy now I’m sure there’s one for everyone!

At the moment I am preparing for my MCSA/MCSE on Windows Server 2003. I’ve started with getting ready for the 70-270 exam, its not a bad idea to start with the basics.

It really does just go to show how experienced XP users can sometimes miss some of the features in there! I think quality is more important than quantity and I would advise that you learn what you need to know and then get to know it well. Become comfortable with the different aspects of one subject before rushing onto the next.

I’m currently reading two books for this exam. Of course, the two books do cross over each other at certain points but it does give you the advantage of seeing things from two different sides believe it or not. The books that I am using are:

MCSA/MCSE Windows XP Professional Study Guide: Exam (70-270) – from the popular “Sybex” series.

and

MCSA/MCSE Self-Paced Training Kit(Exam 70-270) Installing – Configuring & Administering MS Windows XP Pro, SE – self-training course – from Microsoft press.

I’ve found that if you are having trouble understanding something from one book, you can find a more in-dept explanation in the other.

I don’t think this exam should take too long to prepare for, it is fairly straight forward for anyone that happens to be “tech minded” in any way.

Here are a list of resources that I found useful:

http://www.certforums.co.uk
A great starting point if you have any questions on any of the latest IT Certifications. It covers everything form Cisco CCNA to Microsoft MCSE.

http://www.mcmcse.com
Includes some free practice exams when you feel like your ready to take them and some video training resources.

http://www.course.com
A pretty useful site if you have any questions or need any help if you encounter problems with anything.

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I had seen some of videos on the net about World of Warcraft, and I decided that I would go ahead and download it. I want to the WoW site and signed up for the 10 day free trial and continued to get the “Blizzard Downloader” – an application which downloads WoW onto your computer.

After 2 Hours of downloading I was getting nowhere and after a little research I discovered the problem.

The Blizzard Downloader needed to have the ports forwarded in order to work properly.

How do I do that I asked? I hadn’t a clue, lucky for me I came across some very helpful links and information about exactly how to go about the process.

There are two steps in the process:

1) Obtaining a static IP address.

2) Configuring your router to the specific base port and also forward the relevant ports in order to work.

I know what your thinking! “This sounds like a long, complicated, boring process”. Its not really, here is one of the most useful links that I found:

www.portforward.com

The site list instructions on how to obtain the IP address that you need and forward ports. Better still, the site goes into great detail. Everything on the site is “Product Specific”, all instructions are for your specific hardware and there is also “Software Specific” instructions for forwarding the right ports. This can come in very useful when setting up some games & applications for online abilities.

A useful one for your bookmarks!

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After all the talk about the new Xbox 360 features coming in the spring update I decided to have another look into it myself. Heres a video I came across, I know it is a little rushed!

I’m looking forward to seeing the Messenger ability on it!

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How many of you would expect the Xbox 360 Elite launch to go smooth with no problems?

Ha, Not me!

Check this out, heres a video of a 360 Elite Dead On Arrival! A little disappointing I must say!

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Wow, the Apple iPhone is great isn’t it!Ever since the first day that the iPhone was announced and appeared on that huge stage & screen I knew that I’d want one.

One problem – How much is the iPhone going to be by the time it is launched in Ireland?

Apple’s $499/$599 iPhone still on track for late June in the US, however there has been no release date for the gadget here in Ireland/Europe (that I am aware of, please correct me if I am wrong).

So heres the way I see it, I predict the Apple iPhone only being available on the Vodafone Ireland network here in Ireland obviously. I can see the iPhone being way overpriced, all you have to do is look at the price difference in iPods, iMacs and Mac minis between the US and the Ireland Apple store. I think its very unfair!

Another thing that is p***ing me off is the lack of 3G in the Apple iPhone, although I do hope that this will be improved in future updates?

After the success of the iPod Apple could be pushing the boundaries just a little too much. All the functionality and no problems? Im sure that there will be many issues with the iPhone at launch.

I’m also interested in battery power/consumption… how is this going to effect users that regularly use the iPod function to watch a movie? Surely that large, bright screen can be very hard on power… leaving you stranded somewhere with no battery power to make a call?

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I’m sure that there are not too many of you that have missed the media coverage of the Dell battery recall in the last week or so, whether it be in the paper, on the news or the internet.

 Apple are following in there footsteps (the other way around for once), by recalling 1.8 Million Laptop batteries which were manufactured by the Sony corporation. 700,000 of these batteries have been sold outside the U.S….. Thats a hell of a lot of batteries!

These Batteries were sold between October of 2003 and August this year and were used in the 12inch ibook and Powerbook G4 aswel as the 15inch Powerbook G4. Two users have reported burns and/or property damage already.

 You can find more info about the recall on Apples battery recall page here.

After a morning of relaxing and lazing around, I was checkin out a few Apple User sites and I remembered that two finger scrolling feature that was introduced on some of the later powerbooks. I googled it anyway and I found a hack to modify the trackpadon the G4 iBook and some older powerbooks so you can use two finger scrolling, have to say it works well and its handy if your on the net reading long pages of text or working in Appleworks etc. If you have a G4 iBook or a Powerbook without this function then this is definately worth trying out…

Anyway you can find the hack here!

After all of the frustration with my iBook G4 not booting up and producing various obstacles for my work and play, with the help of Apple over the phone and online, we seem to have isolated the problem to the Logic board… yes… a Fried Logic Board. Seemingly this is no suprise to some of my Mac friends on the net, aswel as this I’ve found countless articles

about problems with Logic Boards in iBook G4’s in the past while.Lucky for me Apple are making an exception and are going to repair the laptop free of charge outside the warranty period, because I have bought so much hardware and software from them in the past year.Aswel as this, I’ve found that my battery has been recalled due to overheating problems and fire safety concerns just like many others…

I’m not complaining though, I am after getting a years use from that battery and I’ve just recieved a shiney new on from UPS thismorning with the full 5 hours of battery life (I’d like to see Dell top that).

I’m pretty impressed with the service actually, there were no Apple repair centers anywhere near me so Apple paid UPS to pick up my laptop and bring it to http://www.mactivate.ie for repair last week so I’m hoping to have it back any day now.I really can’t take this whole “Windows” thing anymore, I’m the kind of person who stays clear of MS Office unless I have to use it for a specific project…… what would we do without iLife & iWork?

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