Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sony ships 4.1 million PlayStation Move controllers to retailers (updated)
Update: Our brothers at Joystiq have reached out to Sony and confirmed that these numbers represent shipped units, not consumer sales. Here's Joystiq's exact wording on the (seemingly purposefully) confusing situation:
A Sony representative explained that the 4.1 million actually represents Move units shipped to stores, adding "While we don't disclose our exact sell-through number, the key is that our retailers continue to ask for more Move units and are taking every unit we can supply them with based on their sales." Which, you know, would have been a cool thing to put in that press release, we think.
Update 2: We've also confirmed with Sony that the sales numbers are in reference to retailers, not consumers, and learned that more than 75 percent of the sales in the US are bundles -- meaning new console sales or software groupings.
Continue reading Sony ships 4.1 million PlayStation Move controllers to retailers (updated)
Sony ships 4.1 million PlayStation Move controllers to retailers (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Best Wine Blog Posts for November 16th through December 31st
Best Wine Blog Posts for November 16th through December 31st originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/lh8IpE5Wn6A/
KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY COMPANY L1 IDENTITY SOLUTIONS LAM RESEARCH
Canonica A Cerreto Sandiavolo 2004
Source: http://www.wine4freaks.com/46/canonica-a-cerreto-sandiavolo-2004/
Seven New QPR Wines from South Africa and Australia
Daily Crunch: Nuked Edition
Source: http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/11/25/daily-crunch-nuked/
Speed up Firefox page loading time without using a RAM disk
Yesterday we wrote about moving the cache of Firefox or Chrome onto a RAM disk. Instead of loading cached images and data from the hard drive, it loads from memory, which is a lot faster. It turns out, though, that Firefox can do this without using a RAM disk -- you can simply do it with about:config.Just follow these instructions -- and don't worry, if you mess it up, you won't break anything.
- Type about:config into the address bar
- Type browser.cache into the Filter field
- Set browser.cache.disk.enable to false (double click it)
- Set browser.cache.memory.enable to true (double click it)
- Right click > New > Integer; type browser.cache.memory.capacity; press OK
- Type in 100000 (this is equivalent to 100 megabytes); press OK
- Close all Firefox tabs and windows, and then restart the browser
If you want more than 100 megabytes of cache -- if you have lots of spare memory, or you're prone to mammoth browsing sessions -- type in 500000 instead for 500 megabytes of cache. To confirm everything is working, visit about:cache and you should see some 'Memory cache device' information.
I'm currently unable to benchmark this change (Firebug doesn't work with FF4 Beta 7!) but in theory it should be just as fast or faster than the RAM disk approach.. Lee has been using it for a few hours and he says page loads are much faster. If you use Firefox, try it out and let us know whether it feels faster or not!
Thanks to commenter danielkza for the tip!
Filed under: Browsers
Speed up Firefox page loading time without using a RAM disk originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Best Wine Blog Posts for April 15th through May 29th
Best Wine Blog Posts for April 15th through May 29th originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Winecast/~3/pTa7ZXO7vS8/
Xbox 360 May Get Cable-Like Online Subscription Service [Microsoft]
Her Majesty?s Yacht Britannia
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/vagablond/ysSN/~3/yld8nwo_MjY/
Kinect 3D Video Capture Just Got Even More Insane [Video]
Casey James Mears Charles Robert Hamilton IV Charles Robert Hamilton V
Tasting Group: Champagne
Tasting Group: Champagne was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/WinePeeps/~3/yK5AjoU0Tss/
When All That's Required is Alcohol in Liquid Form
ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING ALLIANCE DATA SYSTEMS
An Example of How Social Media Actually Sells Wine
I'm still looking for Black Friday Wine Deals. I've gotten some good ones already but I'd love to have more. Drop me an E-mail (wellesleywinepress@gmail.com) if you want me to mention a Black Friday wine deal in a roll-up I'll be doing like last year. That'll go out late Thursday/early Friday.
Speaking of Black Friday and consumerism, some bonus content that might interest you:
- Windows vs. Mac: A Long Term Review of the 21.5" iMac
- A Review of the new Margaritas Mexican Restaurant in Framingham, MA
A friend asked yesterday if I could pass along some wine suggestions for a medium-sized group so I thought to share what I suggested here. If you want to keep it simple, swing by The Urban Grape and pick up one of their $50/4-pack Turkey Lurkey samplers. They've put together a really nice assortment I think. If that doesn't work for whatever reason I thought the follwing three wines were reliable all-American crowd pleasers from the past year:
- 2007/08 Educated Guess Cabernet Sauvignon (around $20)
- 2008 Belle Glos Meiomi Pinot Noir (around $20, more info)
- 2009 Red Newt Riesling Circle Label (around $12, more info)
I sense skepticism from some as to whether social media is a worthwhile endeavor for wineries and wine retailers. I think there may be an expectation that some mention of a specific wine is going to make demand go viral and and when that doesn't happen there's a period of disillusionment where those on the sell side of the wine community question whether time spent on Twitter, Facebook and blogging is an utter waste of time. Time spent on social networking sites may indeed be a waste of time, but I wanted to share a couple recent examples of wines I purchased solely because of recommendations I receive via social channels because I think they shine light on interesting nuances in human behavior and purchasing decisions.
I received an E-mail offer from one of my favorite deal-making retailers for the 2005 Scholium Project Babylon Tenbrink Vineyards at a relatively good price. A couple years ago I remember reading something about their wines on RJ's Wine Blog. I reviewed what RJ wrote, dropped him an E-mail, and asked whether he thought it was a good play. He said he thought it was, and I was inclined to buy the wine based on his recommendation, but more importantly than that I bought it because I looked forward to tasting a wine he'd written about. I wanted to be able to relate a wine from a similar point of a view as a friend who also had the wine on the other side of the country.
So often there's an interest in a winery trying to get their story conveyed effectively, and a winery's story is indeed hugely important, but just like when I get a Garagiste E-mail I'm as much inclined to buy the wine because I want to relate to what Jon Rimmerman is describing. The story isn't always the winery's - sometimes it's another person's reflection on the wine that sells the wine.
Take for example this comment from @joshiemac on a blog post I wrote about Barbaresco. Joshua mentioned that he's a Northern California guy born and bred but spent 3 years in Italy in his 20's. He thought that if I liked Barbaresco I might also enjoy some Etna Rossa wines from Sicily. I followed up and asked for some specific recommendations and he provided a CellarTracker link to a specific wine and, ironically, pointed out that the wine is featured in the Spirit Shoppe image ad that has been running on my site for a few months now - the Tenuta di Trinoro Passopisciaro. Think about that: I look at this site a lot as I'm editing and I wasn't familiar with the wine labels I was seeing on a daily basis. It took someone pointing my nose in the wine and telling my why I might like it for me to try it. That's the difference between ads and social. That's how social media sells wine.
My notes on these wines:
572 Cases Produced
15.7% Alcohol
Around $40-$80
More Information from the Winery
I thought this wine was rich and satisfying then thought to myself "I'm getting a little heat on the backend". I checked the bottle which revealed 15.7% alc. Wow. I guess it conceals it well for 15.7% but there's a lot of alcohol in this wine.
Quite opaque and full-bodied. Aromas of red raspberries, black pepper and...bananas(?). Satisfyingly flavorful. Great mouth-feel. Velvety tannins. Interesting stuff.
90/100 WWP: Outstanding
3,916 Cases Produced
14% Alcohol
Around $32-$45
More Information from the Winery
It's like a Barbaresco without the tannic bite,which is to say dangerously delicious. This wine is very light visually but satisfyingly flavorful on the palate.
It's got a unique nose of fresh strawberries with a touch of earth. Very fresh and inviting. On the palate, a touch of acidity with vanilla and more fresh fruit. Freaking delicious.
Hardest thing about this wine is finding a match in CellarTracker. What the heck is this stuff? :)
A heartfelt "thank you" to CT user "joshiemac" for the recommendation on this one. Friend or fan that guy up if you'd like solid recommendations for off the beaten path Italian wines especially.
93/100 WWP: Outstanding
Web Seer lets you visually compare Google Autocomplete results
I find Google's Autocomplete (or "suggest") feature very interesting because it seems to have spawned a quite a few by-products. Web Seer is a nice example. You feed it with a couple of prefixes, and it polls Google for all of the suggestions for them and then spews out a simple visual representation.
The screenshot above shows a snippet of the output for "should they" versus "will my cat." Perhaps that's not the best example because these two searches aren't fully comparable; when I tried "can he be" versus "can she be," I got some more comparable results, such as "be so cold" for the guys and "be so heartless" for the girls (ouch!).
It's a Flash app, so if you happen to be taking part in the crusade against Flash, it won't work. But on the bright side, where it does work, it's very fast. There's no Submit button or anything like that - it's completely live and on-the-fly, with the graphic updating right as you type.
Web Seer lets you visually compare Google Autocomplete results originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Association of Stupid People May Make Irish Coffee Disappear
Microsoft launches new casual games hub that connects MSN, Bing and Live
From what I can see, this games hub takes the form of a 'dashboard' that wraps around each of the games, whether you play them on MSN Games, Bing or Live Messenger. Take a look at the screenshot above -- it's the only real way to explain how it works. You can now challenge your friends to games or see their high scores while you game. You can also see your News Feed -- pretty convenient if you're not the type that keeps Facebook open in a tab 24/7.
To accommodate all of these changes MSN Games has been completely overhauled. It's now rather beautiful! (Does anyone remember how it used to look back when it was called 'Zone'? Those were the days...) Oh, there's also a 30-second unskippable pre-roll video commercial before you can play each game -- is that new?
Live Messenger has also been updated, according to the screenshots at LiveSide. No one at Download Squad is seeing the changes yet, however -- but perhaps the patch will come tonight!
Filed under: Games, Microsoft, Social Software
Microsoft launches new casual games hub that connects MSN, Bing and Live originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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The CrApple Store Blog Takes A Behind The Scenes Look At Apple Retail [Apple]
GooReader updates to version 2.0, now a sexier way to read Google Books
GooReader will pick up where you leave off when you close an e-book, but bookmarking specific pages isn't supported. Exporting to PDF is still limited to the paid version -- Google Book Downloader offers the functionality for free, if you'd rather download now and read later.
Continue reading GooReader updates to version 2.0, now a sexier way to read Google Books
GooReader updates to version 2.0, now a sexier way to read Google Books originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 26 Nov 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Domize offers fast, powerful, find-as-you-type domain name search
Coming up with a good domain name these days is akin to finding a parking spot in New-York. Accordingly, tools for finding free domain names abound, and most of them offer some sort of a "brainstorming interface". The idea is to help you come up with a domain name nobody (including yourself) considered before.
Domize is one of the nicer attempts at this sort of thing. At its simplest form, it's a very fast find-as-you-type service for free domain names. As you type each new letter in the name of your domain, Domize quickly checks whether or not that domain name is free for .com, .net, .org, .co, .us and .biz.
But as I said, that's just scratching the surface of what Domize can do. Click Options and you can change the TLDs (top-level-domains, such as .at, .me and others), toggle the find-as-you-type functionality, and change the domain registrar used.
Once you're done tweaking the options, click Advanced to find out what neat syntax directives Domize supports. It actually has its own expression language: You can type something such as [like:cool] to search for synonyms of the word "cool" (coolheaded.net is up for grabs, by the way).
When you finally find a domain you like, hovering over the TLD shows a pop-up with price quotes from several different registrars, usually with significant differences in price. This is a beautiful tool.
Filed under: web 2.0
Domize offers fast, powerful, find-as-you-type domain name search originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition
So, Diaspora started sending out invites. Jay got one and invited me in! Rather than bore you with a lengthy text description, I've decided to bore you with a video instead, so you can at least see for yourself what it looks like while I rattle on and on.
The aesthetic is different than what we've seen in past screenshots. It doesn't look as good, at least to me. At any rate, you're welcome to watch the video after the break and judge for yourself!
What do you think? Can this venture even get off the ground?
Continue reading Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition
Diaspora Alpha hands-on: a video review of Facebook's competition originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 24 Nov 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2010/11/24/diaspora-alpha-hands-on-video/
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Symbian Foundation axing websites on December 17th, source repositories available 'upon request'
Symbian Foundation axing websites on December 17th, source repositories available 'upon request' originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Nov 2010 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Slashdot | Symbian Developer | Email this | Comments
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/s-h6rFEdxg4/