DRBIG Corner of the net

According to a flooding of posts over at xbox-scene, it appears that the cooler-running Jasper-based Xbox 360 consoles have begun arriving in stores featuring the highly anticipated 65nm GPU which should significantly reduce RROD failures.

A quick way to note if your new console is indeed a Jasper-based model is to check the power supply. A Jasper will use 12.1A power supplies, while all current models draw 14.2A.

Looking at the serial number can also give you an indication as it is assumed that any model made on October 23rd 2008 or later is a Jasper model.

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Nokia, the world’s largest handset maker, had decided to withdraw from the huge Japanese cellular market, following five years of attempted gains at market share.

The company will stop developing handsets for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile, and effectively remove itself from the entire market.

Thomas Jonsson, a company spokesman, said the current global economic downturn led to the withdrawal. Jonsson said lower demand led to the company rethinking its priorities, and noting that Japan was no longer a top priority.

“We’ve not reached our own internal targets over a sustained period,” added Jonsson.

Nokia did say they would keep an R&D center open in Japan and “continue its procurement activities” in the region.

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Random House, the large book publisher, has announced that they will be digitizing an additional 8000 books, in an effort to take advantage of explosive e-book growth.

CEO Markus Dohle added, “more people everyday are enjoying reading in the electronic format and Random House wants to extend our reach to them with more of our books.”

The publisher currently has a library of about 7000 and says the new round of digital books will be completed before February. A few of the books included will be novels by John Updike and Harlan Coben, and many volumes of the “Magic Treehouse” children’s series.

RH vice president for digital operations, Matt Shatz, noted that e-book sales have increased over 100 percent in 2008, thanks to the Amazon Kindle, but declined to offer a specific number.

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Joost has announced the release of an iPhone application which the company hopes will bring more attention to its 46,000 title-strong video library.

Making the application a “game changer” is the fact that users will be able to watch full Hollywood movies or TV shows on their iPhones, in good quality, and for free.

One catch of the service is the fact that you cannot stream the movies over EDGE or 3G and instead it requires Wi-Fi.

Along with the lack of mobility, many review sites have noted “choppy playback” as well as “a lack of content.” Its a good first step, but hopefully Joost will fix what it is so far lacking.

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The extremely popular Amazon Kindle e-book reader won’t be arriving in time for Christmas, says the e-tailer, and those ordering today will receive it in 12 weeks at the earliest.

This marks the second holiday season in a row that there has been a lack of supply of the popular device, but last year Amazon had the excuse that the item was new and production was not yet in full swing.

The Kindle, which is priced at $359 USD and exploded in popularity after Oprah recommended it, “uses an e-paper display to show pages from books and newspapers, which can be purchased and downloaded over its built-in and free data network connection, with the service provided by Sprint.”

In other related news, the Kindle 2, which should improve on many of the features the first generation device lacks, has been delayed until spring 2009.

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