ugachaka :: Jacob was here

Photo by paulgalipeau on Flickr

If you are still on the hunt for Christmas gifts and not currently pinned underneath a mother of three in a dogpile in the mall, you probably won’t have much luck getting anything to your gift recipient before the holidays. Your only hope is probably giving them something like an Amazon.com gift card–perfect if you are not sure what to get or if you just can’t afford the overnight shipping. Check them out by following the link below:

Amazon.com Gift Cards

And no, this post was not done only because I am an Amazon.com Associate and get commission–but if it was, would you blame me? I truly do recommend the gift cards. Check them out.

Service Pack 1 is on the way.

While I wait for the big fixes, Microsoft did release an update today that offered a number of fixes for Vista, and along with this update, several third-party software and drivers have been updated to improve at least my own Vista experience. ATI issued a new update for my video card as well, and Logitech put out a new version of SetPoint for my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse that kept it from interfering with Vista–and causing me a huge pain by making me have to constantly approve Logitech to check for updates.

Only time will tell, but according to testing, this might be the beginning of my system running a bit faster and being less Vista-y.

Photo courtesy of the Poppyseed Bandits

If you are running Vista as well, make sure you click Windows Update and download it all. If you asked me, this update couldn’t come soon enough, and I hope the various elements of my computer that have not appreciated my installation of Vista to get over their stuck up attitude.

Fingers crossed that Service Pack 1 continues the fixes.

I am not quite sure what Jeff Gerstmann’s future holds, but for the time being, he recently appeared over at Revision3’s Tekzilla as a game consultant/correspondent. Might he be moving over to the home of former G4/TechTV alums like Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht? A new show could be in the works. He formerly hosted GameSpot’s video podcast, On the Spot.

With the amount of time it takes to get the attention of a bartender in a crowded bar, wouldn’t you love a little technological advancement like this coaster.

Apparently, the coasters can be programmed to activate based on how much is left in your drink and call the bartender over. It’s the LED equivalent of the flag at Pancho’s that calls your waiter over, and it takes away the need to request a girl to order your drink for you because the bartender isn’t paying any attention to you. Clever.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPlyFSLCdrY[/youtube]

Hearing that XP with the third service pack performs faster than Vista with it’s first service pack isn’t encouraging.

Apparently, XP still opens Word 10% faster according to the latest benchmarks. Microsoft must still be optimizing the Vista system…

I like Vista thus far overall. It runs smoothly and fairly fast on my desktop, an AMD 64-bit, dual core built with Vista 64-bit in mind, but I have two mine gripes recently that have made me regret the upgrade. Unfortunately, they might be more the fault of third-party drivers.

First, Vista doesn’t recognize my processor correctly. It thinks I have a single core for some reason, and AMD has release no additional driver to correct this issue. Apparently “Vista includes their latest driver.” Apparently not.

Second, my Logitech MX 5000 Bluetooth desktop still works just as specified, but my desktop doesn’t recognize that there is a Bluetooth hub on my computer for me to connect to other devices. A slight annoyance with syncing. Logitech has not had an updated driver since I installed Vista either.

I searched around looking for solutions, but it seems like I will be stuck with these problems until Vista SP1 is released–sometime in January? Pretty please?

Google produced a little video showing off their new Android platform and what it can do.

I have to say it looks more impressive than my former Windows Mobile 5 device and smoother than the iPhone program transitions that I have seen on units that my friends own. Of course, this demo unit is probably a very high end piece of electronics, but still, it makes it look promising to hold out for this open source OS to hit mobile and make it all a little cleaner and “not evil” as is the Google way.

Considering the device is open source, the flexibility is bound to be endless, and I can’t wait to see what it will offer in order to take down the iPhone dominance since the iPhone hasn’t really opened up to third-party apps just yet.  Plus, the unit they demo plays Quake–nothing revolutionary to the smartphone market but a promising touch that maybe Google will pay some attention to making handheld gaming a more stable industry with Android.

Is it just me, or does that visual history in the Web browser remind you a lot of the iPhone/iTunes album view?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FJHYqE0RDg&eurl=http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/11/13/i-for-one-welcome-our-android-overlords/[/youtube]

Amazon is putting together a mountain of deals for their Black Friday sale. You can see all of them here.

Amazon runs a vote to see which deal it’s customers would prefer for Black Friday, and an incredible deal on Wiis is among the possible options right now. If the deal is voted as the best, you will be able to snag a Wii for just $79 on Black Friday!

• 1,000 Nintendo Wii Game Systems (see prices on Customers Vote page)
• 500 Panasonic 7.5MP Digital SLR Cameras, $499 (*normally $1,149.95)
• 1,000 Razor E100 Electric Scooters for $29 (*normally $89.99)
• 500 TiVo HD Digital Video Recorders, $89 (*normally $253.48)
• 500 Magellan Maestro 3140 Portable Auto GPS Systems, $99 (*normally $247.00)
• 200 Samsung 46” 1080p LCD HDTVs, $719 (*normally $1,899.98)

Supposedly, they will have 1000 Wiis on Black Friday to sell along with a nice chunk of stock in TiVo boxes ($89) and Samsung HDTVs ($719).

Check out the voting here and cast your vote to catch a Wii at a bargain price–or the electronic item of your choice on the list.

The Wall Street Journal jumped in on the gPhone rumors and has stated that Google might take on becoming a mobile carrier by making a bid on the wireless spectrum–on their own.

The company is gearing up to make a serious run at buying wireless spectrum, a chunk of the airwaves that can be used to provide mobile phone and Internet services, in a Federal Communications Commission auction in January. Google is prepared to bid on its own without any partners, say people familiar with the matter. It is working out a plan to finance its bid, which could run $4.6 billion or higher, that would rely on its own cash and possibly some borrowed money.

Google has already been experimenting with creating their own mobile carrier service at their headquarters and could jump out big with a nice network if they are successful in this move.

With the Android initiative on the way, Google could be making a move to easily steal customers from other carriers by making it cost-effective and simply to swap service plans over to Google without even having to change your phone or software.

I would welcome a Google phone simply because they could open up a more competitive environment for the smartphone market by integrating many of their apps and services cleanly into a mobile interface.