It happens to everyone. You go to turn on your aging PS3, and nothing happens. So you can't get your game on. There's no need to be ashamed. Like the Xbox 360 and your neighbour's kids, the original PS3s start to misbehave after two years. Sony introduced the PS3 Slim to solve the problem. The system has certainly lost weight, but does it still have it where it where it counts?

The Slim is about half the size of the "fat" PS3s. Sony overhauled the interior to use smaller and more energy efficient parts. It runs a lot cooler and uses half the electricity of the launch models. It sips just 85W while gaming, which is the same as most high end laptops. This is thanks to Sony's use of smaller transistors for the Cell processor and RSX graphics chip.

It's significantly quieter too. The older consoles ran like a hair dryer. The Slim's new fan can barely be heard. The system runs cool to the touch. The silent operation will make film buffs happy. The rest of us will appreciate a longer lasting console. Heat is the number one enemy of electronics. The less the better. Overheating is what causes most PS3s to die an early death.

Feature wise, the Slim is identical to the old 40GB. Sony has moved away form the holistic media approach of the original PS3. Yes, PS2 support is still gone, along with SACD playback and the card reader. They have thrown us a bone. The Slim can bitstream high definition audio over HDMI. Perfect if you have a good AV receiver. Like all PS3s, the Slim also now supports Netflix streaming and 3DTV.


The Slim comes in several bundles. The base model sells for $299.99 and comes with a 160GB hard drive. It comes with just the system and a single controller. For $100 more, you get a 320GB hard drive and the Playstation Move.

The Move bundle comes with the motion controller, the Playstation Eye camera, and Sports Champions game, and a demo disc.

The Move uses both the controller wand and camera to track not only motion but depth. It's more accurate than the Wii and should appeal more t hardcore gamers than the Kinect does.

Right now, not too many games support it. Sports Champions is a Wii Sports knockoff but its a shallow experience. The eight events get boring quickly. Future games such as LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 will broaden its appeal. The controller can be a bit too sensitive at times, and it takes some getting used to. Look for a full review on the Move soon.

Overall, the Slim and the Move bundle are a nice addition to the Playstation family. Hopefully gamers can finally say goodbye to the hardware failures that have plagued this generation.

Score: 9 out of 10

What Works:
-Smaller size
-Less energy consumption
-Cooler running = less likely to YLOD
-Bitstreaming for HD audio over HDMI
-Attractive price
-Available Move kit bundle

What doesn't work:
-Still a significant downgrade from the old 60gb

Installing new software on your PC is about to get a whole lot easier. Apple says they're bringing an "App Store" to desktop Macintoshes. It's a move that will change computing as we know it. But sales monopolies could threaten to turn back software innovation and limit consumer choice.

In the last couple of years, the United States Air Force has been buying up several hundred Playstation 3s. They can run Linux, an open operating system. They are easy to network, allowing its powerful Cell processors to work together to run simulations. Then Sony decided Linux was a security risk. All PS3s were have been of this feature. The military can keep running the cheap super computers they already have, but had no way to replace broken units.

This is the problem with closed systems. You're completely at the whim of the companies that own them. If they decide they don't want you doing something, you have no choice but to comply.

Apple has done this with the App Store. They are the gatekeepers who decide what is and isn't allowed on your iPhone. The rules for the store are arbitrary. If your program does something similar to one Apple themselves is selling, it's not allowed. Same goes for developers they simply don't like, such as Adobe.

On the up side, closing devices does enhance security. It's difficult to infect them with viruses and other malware. They also limit what users can do this makes the devices easier to use for people who aren't tech savvy.

The downsides are the risks of censorship, monopolies, and limited innovation created by putting blocks on developers.

Desktop PCs have remained open for so long because they allowed flexibility and innovation. They can be customized for any task under the sun. There are no gatekeepers to determine what is acceptable. Something like Napster would never be allowed on the iPhone. But it did launch the download revolution. Something that provides Apple its bread and butter.

Beyond that, the customizability of legal software like Linux has changed computing for the better. This is because it is open. Open software allows you to create the user environment you want. Not what Apple, Google, or Microsoft want.

Desktop based app stores, if done wrong, threaten to take that away. They could make your home computer into another iDevice. It may work for some but businesses and power users will not benefit. It will strangle them.

The PC gaming world is doing app stores right. Software like Steam is multi-platform and innovative. It allows convenience with limited restrictions. Plus its not the only game in town. Users choose where to shop, instead of a single store hardwired into the device. Companies like Amazon could do well pushing for a system like this.

When Apple launches the Mac App Store in next couple of months, they promise it will work alongside other sources. You can still use discs or download software elsewhere. This could soon change. Don't let the likes of Apple monopolize your software buying. In end, it stifles all of us.

Apple is being sued over performance issues iOS 4.0 caused on the iPhone 3G.

The suit alleges Apple intentionally crippled performance of older iPhones to boost sales of newer models.

The complaint states, "the true fact of the matter, as verifiable by information technology experts, is that the iOS 4 is a substantial 'downgrade' for earlier iPhone devices and renders many of them virtually useless 'iBricks'. Nonetheless, in reasonable and detrimental reliance upon Apple's false representations, false statements and false claims of full compatibility, thousands upon thousands of iPhone 3 users were intentionally misled into installing iOS 4 on their devices."

Lawyers for Bianca Wofford filed the suit in San Diego's superior court. She hoped it would obtain class action status. She was seeking the replacement costs for the phone and $5000 in additional damages. In a statement, Ms. Wofford said, "While not completely disabled, the operability of the device was significantly degraded and the device was no longer reliable."

MMNTech warned iPhone 3G users against upgrading to iOS 4.0 back in June.

Apple released iOS 4.1 in September to correct performance issues, though some remained.

Apple has refused to comment on the lawsuit.

Source: DailyTech

Want to know what's going on behind the scenes at MMNTech? I've created a brand spanking new Twitter feed for the site. Check to see when new articles are out, what we're working on, and what friends are talking about. Head on over and click Follow.

http://www.twitter.com/mmntech

Life is a craps shoot. Sometimes you hit it big. Other times, you wind up half dead and buried in a shallow grave. Bonus points if you can do it all in the same evening. Fallout: New Vegas certainly isn't a craps shoot for Bethesda. It exploits Fallout 3's reputation for better and for worse. More classic Fallout is never a bad thing. How Obsidian and Bethesda executed it, that's another story.

The gameplay in Fallout: New Vegas is essentially unchanged from Fallout 3. You play as a courier who has been shot and left for dead. Your package, a platinum poker chip, has been stolen. The main quest has you tracking the thief to get the chip back. Maybe you'll extract a little revenge in the process. You wander the Mojave looking for clues to his whereabouts, eventually leading you to fabulous New Vegas. One of the few cities spared by the atomic bombs, Vegas is attempting to regain its former glory. However, rival and militant factions are all vying for a slice of this desert oasis.

The game differs from Fallout 3 in five key areas. The karma system has been replaced by a reputation system. Doing good or bad will either enhance or reduce your reputation among the Mojave's different factions.

The companion system is greatly enhanced as well. You can now issue orders to party members using the companion wheel. There, you can tell them to wait, attack, talk to them, give them items, or medicine. It's far more fluid than the clumsy companion system in Fallout 3. Your team mates are far more effective this time around as a result. No having to pickpocket them just to transfer new weapons and armour.


The third edition is a hardcore mode. Obsidian was trying to go with ultra-realism, and recapture some of the unforgiving difficulty of the original two Fallout games. In this mode, you have to eat and sleep. Medicine works slowly over time and stimpacks won't heal crippled limbs. I suspect most players will steer away from this setting. It's an interesting touch but most people game to escape reality.


New Vegas offers a much enhanced workbench system. You can now collect raw materials; plants, bullet casings, etc, to create and modify items. You can also upgrade existing weapons with scopes and suppressors. It's very similar to what they did with KOTOR 2 and works well. A new skill category, survival, determines what you can and can't build.

Lastly, this being a Las Vegas themed game, you can gamble. There aren't too many casino games. Black jack, slots, and roulette are the only ones available. You can also play a card game called Caravan among wastelanders. Its similar to Black Jack but its not played with a full deck. It's a great way to earn, or loose, those hard earned caps. More often the latter, which makes gambling...er... a gamble.

The overall difficulty of the game is less than Fallout 3. Raiding parties, mutated animals, and traps are far less common in the Mojave than they were in the Capital Wasteland. New Vegas lacks that feeling of desperation players felt when first leaving the vault in Fallout 3. It makes gameplay faster, but less of a challenge. On the plus side, it makes exploring, and finding beds, less tedious.

Obsidian's story for the game is fairly solid. It's certainly not any better or worse than the original. Voice acting has been greatly improved though wooden facial animations steal from that a bit. They've done a really good job recreating the Vegas desert and its landmarks. New Vegas is far more colourful than Fallout 3. The grey of the Capital Wasteland is gone, replaced by vibrant earth tones and the bright neon lights of The Strip. Otherwise, graphics are the same as Fallout 3.

Audio wise, a lot of the music and sound effects have been recycled from Fallout 3. On the plus side, New Vegas has a much improved soundtrack of licensed music. These range from Dean Martin classics to Old West folk songs.

This is where the hedonistic bliss of New Vegas ends. What we have here is a solid game brought down by a complete lack of quality control.

Fallout: New Vegas is the buggiest game I've played in some time. You'll see dogs with missing eyeballs, only to see them floating next to their head. You can fall through the ground. Some even report seeing NPC heads rotate a la the Exorcist. Groups of NPCs will occasionally turn hostile and attack you for no apparent reason. Frame rates on the PC version are also spotty at best.


I can live with all this, except for the crashing. Bethesda has been using the Gamebryo engine since Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out four years ago. The engine itself has been essentially unchanged since then. It's capable of some stunning graphics, but it's also unstable. Version 2.6 of the engine contains a multi-core bug. This causes the game to crash on any system with more than two physical CPUs. The PC version requires an easy hack to fix it. Console gamers will have to wait for a patch. The same bug is present in Fallout 3 and Oblivion. Bethesda and the Gambryo coders have failed to fix it after all these years. It's unfortunate that such a good game is plagued by so many bugs. Issues that should have been fixed long before now.

While more Fallout is always a good thing, Bethesda needs to get their act together when it comes to bugs. It's unacceptable to release a game so broken to retail. Gamers should not have to wait for patches ad infinitum to fix problems. They should have been caught while the game was still in development. This is the only reason why it's not getting a higher score. But if you can live with the bugs, Fallout: New Vegas will offer hours of fun post-apocalyptic RPG gaming.

Score: 7.5 out of 10

What Works:
-Better party controls
-Gambling
-More colourful landscapes
-Long game, 30hr+, lots of replayability
-Weapons modifications
-Better voice acting
-Reputation system

What Doesn't Work:
-Game too buggy, needs major repairs
-Hardcore mode more tedious than innovative
-Frame rate issues on the PC
-Can feel too easy at times

The iPad was supposed to revolutionize the way we consume media. It was the death of the newspaper. Of course papers have been dying for decades. Tablets are in fact breathing new life into the ancient medium.

Enter PressReader for iPad. The app provides access to thousands of papers around the globe. Each organized by country and language. It's not just links to online sites either. It gives you full print editions, laid out exactly as they are on paper.

The free app sorts your news in a virtual book shelf. You can download papers directly from the in-app store and read them at any time. If you subscribe to a paper, the app will download news issues automatically, as soon as they hit newsstands.

Reading a newspaper on the iPad is the same as reading an e-book. Tap the cover to load, then flip through pages to see the articles you want. A quick find bar at the bottom of the screen makes it easy to jump to specific sections.

The papers themselves are high resolution digital scans of the print copies. Same font and all. Want a bigger font? Tap the headline and a text box pops up. From there you can copy and adjust font sizes. That's just for starters. Click the headphone symbol in the text box and PressReader will read the article aloud for you.

The scans are very clean looking, complete with high resolution photos not found on paper. They look exactly as they would on the editor's computer before going to the presses. Reading is easy whether you choose the text box feature or view it directly.

Of course these papers are not free. PressReader offers a free trial that gives you seven free issues. After that, each issue of any paper costs $0.99 US. For a monthly fee of $29.99, you get access to unlimited issues. With this plan, you can read as many different papers as you want. It also allows you to download back issues up to 14 days old.



This price is a bit steep. It's definitely a good deal for news junkies. But if you just read one paper, it's expensive. Digital subscriptions for single papers usually run around $15. The service used to offer a plan to subscribe to a single paper for that price. Unfortunately, they seem to have discontinued it.

The app also has some technical flaws. It can experience slowdowns and will crash occasionally. Not enough to ruin the experience but just enough to be annoying.

Despite the minor flaws, news junkies should definitely check out this app. It's available for free on the iTunes App Store.

Score: 8 out of 10

What works:
-Access to over 1000 newspapers
-High resolution scans of full print issues
-Text box for articles allows you to change fonts
-Direct downloads right in the app
-Monthly fee great deal for news junkies
-Audio feature reads articles aloud

What doesn't
-Occasional crashes and slowdowns
-Monthly free may be steep for light readers

I love to rant about the poor quality of modern consumer electronics. They have horrendous failure rates. Especially today's modern game consoles. Up to a third of original Xbox 360s fail in their first year, while 10% of fat PS3s will bite the dust. I just had my second "Yellow Light of Death" on my 60gb PS3 in less than a year. Since it's out of warranty, I decided to repair it myself this time.

Here's an easy way you can correct the Yellow Light of Death, using the Gilksy method.

Skill level: Intermediate to Advanced
Time to Complete: 1hr - 1.5hrs

Tools You'll Need:
-T10 Torx screwdriver
-Phillips #0 and #1 screwdrivers
-Heat gun capable of at least 350 degrees Celsius
-Flat-head screwdriver or plastic spudger
-Several plastic containers for keeping track of screws, large pill boxes work best.
-70% or higher isopropyl "rubbing" alcohol
-Cotton balls and a lint-free cloth
-Sheet of scrap drywall or other heat resistant surface
-Good quality silver-based thermal paste such as Arctic Silver

Before you begin, keep in mind that this repair will void any warranties. Sony will also refuse to repair and out-of-warranty consoles with seals broken. MMNTech is not responsible for any damage. If you have no experience in electronics repair, let Sony fix it for you. Be extra cautious with your heat gun as it can get hot enough to ignite paper.

Step 1: Disassembly

Follow Gilksy's guide to taking your console apart. Take your time, making sure to keep track of all parts and screws so they don't get lost later. This is a complete tear down. Need to get the motherboard out of its metal case for this task. Make sure to also remove the rubber heat pads from all chips as they will melt when heated. Take special care not to loose these.

Once you've got the motherboard exposed, you'll need to clean the old thermal paste off the cooler, Cell, and RSX (graphics) chips. Put a little rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and gently wipe all the white paste off each component. Let everything dry completely before moving on. If the cotton balls left any lint behind, use your cloth to gently remove it.


Step 2: Heating

Locate the RSX, Cell, and the four memory chips located above them. You'll need to heat each of these components individually.

Place the motherboard upside-down on your sheet of drywall. Make sure it's level. Since drywall is heat resistant, it will prevent damage to your work surface.

Now locate the backs of the Cell, RSX, and RAM. Turn your heat gun on and set it between 350C and 450C. Let it warm up. Now you're ready to start repairing the console. Heat the backs of each component individually for 30 seconds, keeping the gun a few inches away from the board. This is enough to melt the solder without damaging anything else.

Start with the RAM, them move to the chip below it, RAM again, chip below it. If you hear a cracking sound, this is just the silicon expanding due to the heat. It's no cause for alarm.

Once that's done, leave the board alone for at least 15 minutes. This gives the solder time to cool and solidify. Make sure it's not disturbed or else the components will shift and your PS3 will be unrepairable.

Once that's done, flip the board over, once again making sure it's level. Heat the same components from the top side in the same order. Then leave the board again for another 15 minutes.

Step 3: Reassembly

Once everything is cooled, you can start putting your PS3 back together.

Take your silver-based thermal paste. Put a little zig-zag over the Cell and RSX chips. Use an old credit card to spread a thin, even layer across the top of both components. Make sure the entire top is covered. Don't leave any bare spots. Also make sure not to get any on the board itself as silver conducts electricity, and could shot things out.

Reinstall the metal shields over the board first, then take the cooler and fasten it back on.
Reassemble your PS3 by working backwards from what you did before.

Now you can fire it up. If the repair worked, the PS3 should start right back up with the yellow light gone. Let it run idling for a few hours to allow the thermal paste to set. The silver paste will conduct heat better than the cheap ceramic stuff Sony uses. This "burn-in" will fill every nook and cranny, preventing hot spots.

That's it. All components for this repair should set you back less than $100. That's half of what Sony wants to fix them. Plus, if it yellow lights again, you know what to do. Your PS3 should now be back to only doing everything.

Apple charges a lot for official iPad accessories.

If you plan to do any serious typing on the device, you'll probably want to invest in one of Apple's official iPad keyboards. The dock version isn't exactly portable. It's $69 price tag is also steep.

Here's an easy way to save $40. Buy Apple's official camera kit for the iPad. It contains two dongles. One for SD slots and one for connecting USB cameras. The USB dongle has a hidden function. It supports both USB keyboards and USB headsets.

Simply plug a keyboard you already have into your iPad. It will complain about the device not being supported. Ignore the warning, and type away. I've tried it myself and it works very well. It even supports basic "command - " functions like a normal Mac.

Unfortunately, this trick only works with the iPad and not the iPhone and iPod Touch. Also, it only supports more basic bus powered wired and wireless keyboards. Forget using your LED backlit gaming keyboard.

Radio was the first major electronic device to win the hearts of consumers. But like every other gadget, people weren't satisfied. Sure, you could listen to a concert at Carnegie Hall. That was revolutionary. Still, you couldn't watch the performance as if you were actually there. What if you could?

Developing a system that could transmit both sound and pictures was the holy grail for radio engineers, even before radio was invented.

The roots of such a system can be traced back to 1840, to the 1840s when Scottish inventor Alexander Bain proved it was possible to send images electrically. His complex device used a clockwork system to scan a message and transfer it to a series of electrical pins on a drum. The electrical signals sent by the machine could be reproduced on the other end. In 1861, Italian physicist Giovanni Caselli made a practical version of this device. We know it today as the fax machine.

The next evolution came in 1873, from an English inventor named Willoughby Smith. He was trying to develop a system to test underwater cables as they were being laid. Smith tried using selenium electrodes. Quite by accident, he found the electrical conductivity of the selenium rods dropped when exposed to a bright light. This property of selenium could be used to turn light into electrical signals. The discovery would eventually give birth to electrical cameras.

In 1883, German technician Paul Gottlieb Nipkow developed a perforated disk after reportedly being inspired from beams of light coming from a lamp. The holes were positioned in a spiral pattern and could, in theory, reproduce an image via mosaic of points and lines.

The basis for reproducing images had been laid by the early 1900s. Georges Rignoux and A. Fournier had managed to reproduce images using selenium cells in Paris in 1909. In 1911, Russian scientist Boris Rosing and his student Vladimir Zworykin invented a system to display crude images over wires using a cathode ray tube.

It wasn't until 1925 when the first practical device for showing video first appeared. Scottish engineer John Logie Baird took a Nipkow's disk and worked it into a mechanical device for showing moving pictures. A modulated light source was used in conjunction with the perforated aluminum disc, which was spun with a motor. As each hole passed by, it created a single line in the image. It used AM radio waves to receive the image transmitted from a similar device that acted as the camera. He called his invention the Televisor. The first image it received was "Stooky Bill", a ventriloquist dummy. The Televisor could reproduce images in 30 vertical lines, at five frames per second. The picture was extremely small by today's standards. Maybe about an inch across.

The Televisor revolutionized radio. However, it came about at the worst possible time. When the Great depression hit In 1929, people weren't concerned about moving pictures in the home. Baird only began regular broadcasts through the BBC in that year. The technology was also rapidly improving. By the time the Televisor was being mass marketed, it was already obsolete.




In 1927, American inventor Philo Farnsworth demonstrated the first all-electronic television. The 21-year-old's device used a cathode ray tube instead of a Nipkow disk. It has no moving parts, had a larger screen, and produced better quality pictures.





By the 1930s, the us Federal Communications Commission settled on the Farnsworth design as the future of television. By 1941, the familiar 525 line NTSC format was adopted in the US. The format is still widely used 70 years later. After the end of WWII, televisions became a staple of North American households. It hailed the end of radio's golden era as programming moved to TV.

Images courtesy of Wikipedia & The Early Television Museum

When Ted Rogers Sr. invented the batteryless radio, it sparked a revolution in electronics. It was a simple idea. Create an electronic device that could simply plug into any wall socket. Back when it took three different batteries to power a radio, this was a major blessing.

Today, we have an authentic Rogers batteryless radio on the workbench. This particular model was made in 1936 for by Rogers for DeForest-Crosley. Despite being 74 years old, it still works. This model features all original parts, except for the antenna. It stands as a testament to the durability of tubes when they're taken care off.




Image courtesy of the Canadian Vintage Radio Society.