stations

Yesterday, U.K. music download provider Omnifone announced a forthcoming program, MusicStation Max, that will offer cell phone buyers unlimited free music downloads. Of course, "free" is never free, and in this case, Omnifone is enlisting handset makers to subsidize the estimated cost of the downloads and pass that cost along to you in the form of a higher up-front price for the phone. So far, LG Electronics is the first cell phone maker to sign up for participation in the program. No confirmation yet on carrier partners, but the service builds on Omnifone's existing MusicStation subscription-based … Read more

It won't make the games run any better, but a new version of IBM's Cell chip, which powers the PlayStation 3, will take up 34 percent less space and use 40 percent less power. But the best news is that the energy-efficient 45-nm processor will allow cutbacks on the PS3's cooling system. The cooler chip is also expected to be more reliable and cut down on returns. This should result in lower costs to produce and maintain--eventually leading to cheaper prices for consumers.

Read the full Ars Technica story: "IBM shrinks Cell to 45nm. Cheaper PS3s will follow"… Read more

It's been a long time coming, but we finally have some actual details about the first game to emerge from the partnership between Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts.

Known as Boom Blox, the game, which will be available in May only on the Wii, is from EA's casual games unit.

It will have more than 300 levels, "a cast of over thirty wacky characters" and seems to be built around letting players take on "Blox-laying chickens or...baseball-throwing monkeys" or cartoonlike grim reapers in tiki, medieval, frontier, or haunted themed settings.

EA has never … Read more

Japanese game console makers have this habit of re-releasing products in different colors. Look at the Nintendo DS and PS2--it's hard to keep track how many different variations those products come in. So it comes as little surprise then that the PS3 isn't spared such treatment, too. Presenting the satin silver version of the PS3, which has just been announced in Japan.

Custom shops have been doing this for more than a year, but AV Watch says an official version will be available in Sony's motherland from March 6 at 39,800 yen (about $374). It is … Read more

Sony's PS2 was a defining game console-DVD player combo when it came out some years back. What exactly went into it?

You can see how it was constructed and how it stacks up against its successor, the PS3, on News.com: Cracking open the PlayStation 2.

The newly free NewsGator suite has a remarkably powerful set of tools for managing RSS feeds, and without a doubt one of the program's best features is its FeedStation podcast catcher. Fully synchronizable with the Webware version of NewsGator, the Windows version, FeedDemon, comes bundled with FeedStation and preset integration settings for iTunes and Windows Media Player, but not WinAmp.

Laugh all you want at the llama, but the latest WinAmp has an impressive feature set, and is far more flexible than the industry favorite iTunes. However, its podcast manager is clunky and only marginally better than iTunes' native podcatcher, and that's frustrating. Using WinAmp's smart view function, I'll show you how to set its Podcast folder to automatically check for podcasts managed by third-party software.

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Checking Web sites by typing in the URL feels like firing up a rickety 56k baud modem and logging on to CompuServe. It gets the job done, but really should only be used under extreme duress or nostalgia. Syndicated feeds bring the Web site to you, and when NewsGator made all its RSS clients free on Wednesday, they suddenly made a top-notch suite with tools for Windows, Mac, mobile, the Web, a podcast manager, and a Microsoft Outlook extension incredibly appealing. And by appealing, I mean you might not be able to imagine feeds the same way afterwards. It's that good.

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Buffalo's new drive doesn't make you pick a winner in the high-def disc format war, and it doesn't make you open up your PC's case to install it. The Buffalo MediaStation Blu-ray HD DVD (BRHC-6316U2) drive is an external USB combo drive that reads and writes Blu-ray discs and reads HD DVD discs. Unfortunately, Buffalo made no mention of eSATA or FireWire, so you're stuck with USB 2.0. It'll cost $649 when it starts shipping later this quarter.

Years ago we purchased a rare early version of one of those personal weather stations that are everywhere these days, and it failed miserably. Or, more accurately, we failed miserably; we could never get it to work properly and, even when it did, we couldn't figure out how to read it. So even though their more recent design efforts are much appreciated, we still fear that they'll be too complicated for our woefully limited technical comprehension.

Enter La Crosse Technology and its $15 LCD Window Thermometer. Not only does it claim to be simple to use, according to … Read more