Archive for the 'AfterDawn' Category

Following Apple’s Q1 fiscal earnings report last week, it was made clear that the iPhone continues to be a huge seller, selling 4,363,000 units for the period, an 88 percent growth year-on-year.

Total iPhone sales for 2008 now stand at 13.7 million.

Apple began selling its first generation iPhone in fiscal 2007 and then the iPhone 3G in July 2008. The company now offers the media device in over 70 countries and explained that that in its first quarter of availability, 6.9 million units were sold.

Read More ……. Via [AfterDawn]

Sony has released the latest firmware update for the PlayStation 3 gaming console, updating some media capabilities.

The update, version 2.60’s, “key feature is a new Photo Gallery application, which delivers a suite of tools for sorting through and displaying your digital photo collection. Digital pictures can be organized in groups according to various criteria, including the camera used to take the photos, the event date and time, colors in the photos, as well as the number, ages, or facial expressions of the people pictured. You can also create slideshows set to music and build photo playlists with an easy-to-use interface. The Photo Gallery application will need to be installed separately from the XMB after you update your PS3’s firmware. To install the Photo Gallery application, go to the Photo section on the XMB, select Photo Gallery and press the X button.

* Guest access to PlayStation Store - This enables non-PlayStation Network members to browse through the storefront to check out the latest games, demos, videos, etc.
* DivX 3.11 support - Videos in this format can now be played on PS3.”

Read more .. Via [AfterDwan]

A joint raid carried out by Trading Standards and the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) has led to the apprehension of a man accused of video game piracy offenses. A sting operation had been carried out, in which participants visited the unnamed Staffordshire man to have an Xbox console chipped, and to purchase several illegally copied games.

After the games were taken for examination, there was enough evidence to get a search warrant. The raid turned up over 1,000 pirated video games, including over 700 Xbox 360 games and 300 Wii games. Around 100 PlayStation 2 games were also found. Three Xbox 360 consoles and two Nintendo Wii consoles were seized.

The man admitted to running his operation through Gumtree.com for the past two years. “Our team in the Intellectual Property Crime Unit (IPCU) will step up its fight against counterfeiters and illegal chipping services in 2009. Such illegal activity can pose real health dangers for the public and certainly deprives gamers of any proper quality control. Furthermore, it can cause the industry to lose vital income and with it jobs across the UK,” said Michael Rawlinson, managing director of ELSPA.

An investigation under the Proceeds Of Crime Act has begun to determine the criminal gain from the illegal activity.

SanDisk Corp. has shown off speedy solid-state hard drives at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company’s new G3 series of SSDs will go on sale later this year with capacities of 60GB, 120GB and 240GB, with the 240GB model costing $499. The SSDs are designed specifically for notebooks, as replacements for traditional HDDs. SSDs are popular for notebook use because they consume less power.

SSD technology is coming along, and is expected to be the next major step for the industry. SSDs contain no motors or moving parts, consume less power and have the potential to offer significant performance advantages. Granted, the prices are still higher, and performance in the current SSD models falls short of traditional hard drives in many areas, but as the technology advances the prices will fall.

SanDisk claims that the G3 models are more than 5 times faster than the fastest HDDs now on the market, and twice as fast as SSDs that shipped in 2008.