Toshiba W47T

A knows I've been looking at new cellphone. So this is her vote: Toshiba W47T. The phone has 100mb of ram, with Micro SD slot. It has a 3.2 megapixel camera, with 3x optical zoom and nighttime mode. Yes, you can take pictures at night. It also has a QVGA (320x240) 2.6 inch display. (Compared to my current 2inch QVGA display on Blade). It has Picsel viewer, which allow you to read tons of file format including PDF, MS Office. Those of you that have had a Sony Clie know exactly the software I'm talking about.

Too bad it only works in Japan.

South Korea And China Mandate Standard Cellphone Charger

Both South Korea and China have just passed a law requiring all cellphone vendors to use standard charger cable and data cable. The standard is even specified. You must use USB cable and charge over it as well as use it for data. This means all new Samsung/LG/Sanyo phones will incorporate this into their design in South Korea. Apparently in South Korea, this move is motivated by environmental concern. These days, people are changing phones as fast as Japan. This in turn created a huge amount of cable trash.

Giant step for local mankind.

Slingbox To Cellphone Streaming

Sling has just made a sling client for UIQ/S60. This means if you have a slingbox, and a Symbian cellphone such as the Sony W950 or the Nokia N80/N73, you can watch your slingbox from your cellphone anywhere. Yes, even the remote works. B, I'm looking at you. :) This is your next cellphone and you know it.

Image from Engadget.

Best Selling PS3 Games In Japan With 8000 Copies Sold

Sony just put out a press release on the newest PS3 game released in Japan, MotoStorm. It's the best selling PS3 game. It sold 8000 copies.

Indie Game Development For Xbox 360 Arrives

Microsoft released XNA Game Studio Express and the XNA Framework. The tool will allow you to develop games for Windows and Xbox 360. The tool itself is free. To publish your xbox 360 game on the Xbox Live Marketplace, you'll need a XNA Creators Club subscription. It's $50 for 4 month, or $99 for a year.

Enix Picks Winner Console

Enix has announced the next console choice for DragonQuest 9. Apparently, I'm not the only person who felt that the winner of the Japan console war is non other than DS. Yes, DragonQuest 9 will be going to DS. This is a big deal in Japan. The largest RPG franchise in Japan isn't Final Fantasy. It's so popular that when it was released on a weekday years ago, it had an impact on student attendance. It's so popular that a remake of a old DragonQuest game outsells most of the new games, even new Final Fantasy.

Blue Dragon Has Landed UPDATED

It's here, it's finally here. To think, it's been about two years now.

UPDATE:
Famitsu reported that over 180 people were lined up in front of the Yodobashi Camera store in Akihabara, Japan, waiting to purchase Mistwalker's Xbox 360 RPG Blue Dragon. 40 TV stations and newspaper reporters were present before the game went on sale at 9AM. Microsoft has shipped 200,000 copies of the game.

Wii Japan Launch Result

Nintendo shipped 400,000 Wii this past Friday in Japan. They sold 371,936 of them.

Game sale is the interesting part. Wii Sports isn't bundled in Japan, and a good thing for Nintendo. It sold 176,880 copies. 2nd place finish is Wii Play with sales of 171,888 copies. It's a collection of mini games. Zelda finished at 3rd place with 145,068 copies. That's right, Zelda isn't first or even second place. I believe the reason is because of the type of buyers that were in the line getting Wii.

Y went around Tokyo to see what the lines were like. She said in most of the big places, like Bic Camera. The line was at least 50% women. And no, they aren't being dragged there by their boyfriends. Most of them were getting Wii for themselves. It was a very sharp contrast compared to the PS3 launch line. Most of them have never own a console before. Some of them have DS. Several of them on TV interview express that this is the first time they brought a console. Someone like that would be far more likely to pick up Wii sport. Zelda means nothing to them.

I only hope the Press doesn't trash Nintendo for not selling out Wii. This in my opinion is an example of a good console launch. Plenty to sell, everyone that wants one got one. Like the PSP US launch. But the press was quite harsh on PSP launch in US for "not sold out".

Don't Open Word Files Even From Trusted Sources

That's MS' solution to the current zero day attack on Word. It's a bad one. This impacts Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Word Viewer 2003, Microsoft Word 2004 for Mac and Microsoft Word 2004 v. X for Mac. Yes, EVEN the viewer as well as the two versions of Word for OSX.

There are no pre-patch workarounds available. Microsoft suggests that users "not open or save Word files," even from trusted sources. "As a best practice, users should always exercise extreme caution when opening unsolicited attachments from both known and unknown sources," the company said.

You know, I think it's time I get a Word replacement program for OSX. E suggested Nisus Writer Exress.

Thanksgiving Misadventure

For Thanksgiving, the tradition is we have J and A over for dinner. This year with them over in Chicago, it was uh, not really feasible.

So this year we invited T and W over for dinner. We cook a bunch of food, well, okay, not the most traditional food in the world, but hey. Everything is ready at 5:50 PM, just in time for their arrival at 6PM.

Time passes. It's now 6:15. P says "Do you think they got lost?" I said "Well, I'll wait till 6:30 to call T on the cell".

So at 6:30, I call.
"T, you got lost?"
"What do you mean?"
"I did say 6PM right?"
"Yea, tomorrow, right?"
"uh, no. Today"
"What? Really? I thought you said tomorrow"
"No, I said Thursday Thanksgiving."
"You said the 24th, today is the 23rd."
"Oh really, let me see. Oops, I did say Thursday, Thanksgiving the 24th"
"Is it too late now? We can be there in about 30 minutes."
"No problem."

7:15 they arrive. The rest of the evening went smoothly. J even made a guest appearance via phone later that evening. We just sit around and chatted till about 1AM. Of course, no visit is complete without some game pushing. I mean, the sec T said "Is that a Xbox 360?" was all the encouragement I needed. To my surprise, he really got into Gears of War. I started the game in the tutorial area, and pass him the controller. It was 30 minutes before he look away from the TV.
Next day, we were out and about by about 6AM. Looking for deals and generally just making fun of the huge amount of people in line. Turns out T was at Best Buy around 7:30 looking for us. By then we had already left. Didn't really buy anything.

Gran Turismo HD Canceled

First Gran Turismo HD was suppose to be a launch title for PS3.

Then it was revealed that the game will come with no car, no tracks, everything is electronic download. You pay per track and per car.

Then it was revealed that it will be late, won't make it to the launch of PS3.

Then Sony abandon the download idea, making it a full game for $60. But it's been delayed to Dec 2007.

Then Sony cancels the game. They are going to make what they have, which I bet it's the exact same thing as the E3/TGS demo available as a free download. And the team will now be focusing on GT 5 instead.

All this for a game that was a port of PS2 GT4 running in 1080p mode with the exact same graphics assets.

I'm still waiting for Gran Turismo Portable for my PSP.