FINAL FANTASY® CRYSTAL CHRONICLES®: My Life as a King™ (Square Enix, 1 player, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, Mild Suggestive Themes, 1,500 Wii Points): FINAL FANTASY CRYSTAL CHRONICLES: My Life as a King takes a legendary franchise and launches it into the realm of simulation gaming. Players are challenged to rebuild a kingdom, leading its young king on a path of discovery through an adventure bristling with mystery and intrigue.

LostWinds™ (Frontier Development, 1-2 players, Rated E for Everyone - Mild Fantasy Violence, 1,000 Wii Points): A fresh, enchanting platform adventure that puts the power of the wind in the palm of your hand - from raging tornados to the gentlest breeze. You'll wield your Wii Remote™ controller to power Toku's jumps and glides, suspend and smash enemies, meet friends and solve puzzles using LostWinds' novel, intuitive and playful control system.

Defend your Castle™ (XGen Studios, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone - Cartoon Violence, 500 Wii Points): Defend your Castle takes place on a grassy plain surrounded by invaders. You are the commander of your castle, and it is your duty to fling the invading enemies sky-high, watching them plummet to their demise. As you progress, add powerful spells and upgrades to your arsenal for repelling the attacks. How long can you hold them off?

Pop™ (Nnooo, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 700 Wii Points): Pop bubbles to score points and stop the timer from running out. Pop can be enjoyed by anyone - casual gamers can simply play to pop bubbles and keep the game moving, whereas advanced players will need to pick their shots rapidly and accurately and generate combos to maximize their score.

V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack™ (High Voltage Software®, Inc., 1-4 players, Rated T for Teen - Simulated Gambling, 700 Wii Points): V.I.P. Casino: Blackjack re-creates the casino experience, with fully animated players and a realistic Las Vegas dealer. Single players can increase their bankrolls, while multiple players can engage in a head-to-head mini-blackjack tournament.

TV Show King (Gameloft, 1-4 players, Rated E for Everyone, 1,000 Wii Points): TV Show King transforms your living room into a real TV quiz show studio where you'll face the challenge of answering more than 3,000 questions across six different categories. Compete against family and friends and use your Wii Remote controller in original ways to make it to the finals to see who can win the greatest amount of cash in one final, deciding duel.

It should be noted that even though the cards are set at different pricepoints, the Explore, Share and Home all feature identical hardware (that's actually the same as the original Eye-Fi). So instead of making hardware differentiations, the company is pricing the cards according to the backend service.

The Explore
Through a partnership with Wayport, users will be able to automatically upload their photos in about 10,000 hotspots throughout the US. Through the partnership, the user will not need to accept terms and conditions at every coffee shop, and the user can receive email notifications for successful uploads. But the catch is that the Wayport service is only good for one year (Eye-Fi is looking into longer term partnerships with more hotspot companies, which they may or may not charge an additional fee for).

Geotagging comes with the Explore as well through Skyhook's Wi-Fi triangulation (the same thing we see the current iPhone using instead of GPS).

The Share
This model is pretty much identical in features to the current Eye-Fi. You get automatic syncing with your PC as well as services like Flickr.

The Home
The Eye-Fi home is made for people who just want to sync their photos with their PC, not upload them automatically to the web or hit up hotspots. It's essentially offering a price drop to consumers who aren't interested in the additional services.

The cards will be available starting June 6th. And unfortunately, current Eye-Fi owners will not be able to simply upgrade their cards to have Explore capabilities.

I guess this means no more security guards numbing their arses as they sit, bored, behind banks of monitors. [Lextech via Nowhere Else 2.0]

The trailers aren't HD trailers like you get on the Xbox 360 Marketplace. It's more like grainy YouTube videos before YouTube raised the quality of their videos. You can pause, and you can skip around in the video by hitting B. The videos go fullscreen if you click on them. There are DS titles, which is nice. Edit</>: Corrected errors.

Downloading DS demos is probably a big part of why you'd use this channel. It's easy, just flip on the DS, pick a demo, and start transferring.

The titles section lets you see what's upcoming and get relevant game stats. There's little worse than buying a game you think is multiplayer and getting home and finding out that it's for you only. Or just plain lousy, in the case of Iron Man, but the Nintendo Channel doesn't give game ratings. It does give you a big image of the box art though.

The lyrics will also auto-sync to the song (most of the time), and if they don't, you can manually sync them by hitting the screen, which will then get sent back to their servers for the next user. There's also other neat features like using a Google map to see where you are, and even search for song lyrics for songs you may not have. If Android's capable of getting at the very least, iPhone-level applications on a regular basis, there may be hope of expanding its userbase to non-technologists and tech geeks. Check out the live flash tech demo below too. [Tune Wiki]

This fifth beta release of the iPhone SDK includes a complete set of tools, compilers, frameworks, and documentation for creating iPhone OS applications. These tools include the Xcode IDE, and the Instruments analysis tool, among many others. With this software you can develop applications that run on iPhone and iPod touch using the included iPhone Simulator.

[Apple]

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If you are looking to see how the experts ranked tech support, Consumer Reports has just released their list of the top performers based on reader's experience with 10,000 computer fixes. [Consumer Reports]

Dell will take advantage of a licensing option in Vista Business and Vista Ultimate that lets PC makers provide XP under the Vista license, which Microsoft calls a "downgrade" license. (Enterprises with site licenses have these same rights with any version of Vista.) In essence, the user is buying a Vista license that it can apply to XP, and Microsoft can still claim a Vista sale.

But hey, it'll keep XP available for people who want it, so I guess it's a good thing no matter what kind of maneuvering it entails. But it just goes to show that you can never trust sales figures tossed out by marketing departments. [PC World]

Let's repeat. In practice, you can:
• Micromanage the sharing of folders and files to other machines and to an online storage center.
• Share those files with others.
• Do some through the window remote desktop wrangling via client or even a web browser.
• Stay updated when people add or alter files or accept share invites.
• Do it securely.

It's hard to describe it beyond that level of granularity at this point because it isn't exactly a clean solution for "All Data, Everywhere". For example, it is missing a huge chunk of what people need sync for, sharing of contacts and calendars and bookmarks across diff OSes and Apps. And sharing files is not the same as sharing info. What I mean is, it's less important for me to share files across machines, which I can do with a USB drive or FTP server or .Mac as a Mac user, and more important for my address book to be in step across my machines. (Without resorting to Exchange.) I hope this comes along in a future version, but it seems really strange to launch Mesh without even attempting this, even as a tech preview. Currently, it seems like tech for tech's sake. Or at least a useful system that is a little overhyped.

Part of the hype comes from the messaging, which looks to be classic Microsoft clusterfuck:
"Live Desktop and Live Remote Desktop. While the two have similar names, each does something different, but both add amazing conveniences. Live Desktop enables you to easily access your mesh anytime, anywhere, using only a Web browser." Seriously, why name them so similarly?!

Messaging is one thing, but usage, man. For such a simple feature set, it shouldn't take 25 minutes to explain.

Try watching this vid (sorry, Silverlight required), which uses phrases like "To Live the Mesh Lifestyle." They even have a simpler video for dumb students. Yay, only 16 minutes long, on Channel 8 (their student dev site, where the host waves his arms a lot and has to stop himself from saying "yo").

However, I will say there is something pretty badass about Mesh. They're going to open the API and expect devs to take advantage of the infrastructure, and they plan to throw the device support blanket as wide as possible, including even Macs. That could make it a lot better than the pay .Mac system, in the end, assuming .Mac doesn't grow beyond its current implementation as a solid syncing but weak web utility. (The ball is Apple's to drop.)

So, jargon and buzz aside, the major roadblock here is complexity. Again, this build is super simple. So how long are the tutorial videos going to be for expanded versions? An hour? Sharing your files shouldn't be so laborious to explain or do in theory or practice. I mean there is huge room for improvement here in terms of simplicity. Sync is one of those things the machine can completely handle and figure out when mapped right, and user intervention can be limited to micro management and conflict resolution.

I guess why I am so wrapped up in this is because the need is there for a system like Mesh, but seeing it so convoluted, well, I know Microsoft can do a cleaner job. Culturally, Microsoft has great role models in making the difficult very easy. Just look at the E&D device groups like Zune and Xbox (ignore Win Mo.) If Mesh wants to be a solid product that lives up to the potential, I think they're going to have to come at things from a similar perspective. [Channel 8 and Channel 10 and Mesh.com]

With Windows XP already available for the XO on an SD card, the news that future OLPC machines may have Windows XP, with Sugar running on top, may dismay the non-profit brigade. But with no support for the latest versions of Flash—a staple on many educational websites—the XO may not be catering to its supposed target audience.

If Windows XP does become the XO's operating system, then a substantial reworking of the laptop will be in order. Currently just 1GB of internal memory is available, and XP needs around 1.1GB. Sticking a larger SSD inside the machine will just pump up the price, making the XO even further out of reach of those who need it. [ComputerWorld]

Today we are happy to announce that Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) has released to manufacturing (RTM). Windows XP SP3 bits are now working their way through our manufacturing channels to be available to OEM and Enterprise customers. We are also in the final stages of preparing for release to the web (i.e. you!) on April 29th, via Windows Update and the Microsoft Download Center. Online documentation for Windows XP SP3, such as Microsoft Knowledge Base articles and the Microsoft TechNet Windows XP TechCenter, will be updated then. For customers who use Windows XP at home, Windows XP SP3 Automatic Update distribution for users at home will begin in early summer. Thanks to everyone here who installed the public betas - you not only gave us detailed feedback but also helped each other out with timely troubleshooting. Through the beta program we found several important issues and were able to confirm some essential fixes. We couldn't have done this without you. We will still be monitoring this forum during the next few weeks in case you have more feedback about the release of Windows XP SP3. On behalf of myself, Shashank Bansal and Windows Serviceability, many thanks.

Chris Keroack
Release Manager, Windows XP Service Pack 3
Windows Serviceability

Lifted from Vwag:

•Office-productivity software that can be had for $119 at Amazon.com, but is likely already installed on a user's computer.

•A "collaboration" service most home users will have no need for

•Windows Live OneCare, a PC-security and maintenance service which Microsoft already sells as a subscription

•Three Web services Microsoft already offers for free

The biggest lesson he learned from Vista's problems? How long it took for it to come out. "Certainly, you never want to let five years go between releases. Can we just sort of kiss that stone and move on? Because it turns out many things become problematic when you have those long release cycles."

And he also acknowledged that a lot of people just want to stick with XP, so while as of now it'll come off the shelves on June 30th, it might end up sticking around a bit longer.

In the meantime, we have some customers — a lot of customers — using Vista. A lot of customers. And we have a lot of customers that are choosing to stay with Windows XP. And as long as those are both important options, we will be sensitive and we will listen and we will hear that. I got a piece of mail from a customer the other day that talked about not being able to get XP anymore. We responded, XP is still available. And I know we're going to continue to get feedback from people on how long XP should be available. We've got some opinions on that, we've expressed our views.

After installing iTunes and updating Apple Software Update to 2.1, it gave us the image above. The checkbox is still checked by default, BUT the difference now is that it's under "New Software" instead of "Updates". A distinction that should make it more clear that you're installing a new piece of software instead of updating something you've already installed previously. [Apple]

[NeoWin via CrunchGear]

Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) today announced that the next system software update for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) system, slated for release next week, will add DTS-HD Master Audio™ and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio, enabling consumers to enjoy Blu-ray movies with studio-quality, high-definition audio. The technologies, from DTS, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTSI), provide PS3 users with the complete high-definition Blu-ray movie experience, matching the format's crisp visuals with rich, lifelike sound. In addition to the new audio capabilities, the free system software update (v. 2.30) will allow PS3 owners to access the revamped PLAYSTATION®Store, as previously announced.

DTS-HD Master Audio brings Blu-ray movies on PS3 to life, delivering everything from explosive sound effects to intricate orchestral scores with pure, high-quality audio that is bit-for-bit identical to the original studio master. DTS-HD Master Audio has the capacity to deliver audio at the incredibly high variable rate of 24.5 mega-bits per second (Mbps) on Blu-ray disc, a rate significantly higher than standard DVDs. DTS-HD Master Audio also offers 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depths. More than 100 Blu-ray movies and concert videos featuring premium DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks are available.

Additionally, the DTS-HD High Resolution Audio codec allows content creators to deliver uncompromised, high-definition audio on Blu-ray, while requiring less disc space than DTS-HD Master Audio. DTS-HD High Resolution Audio streams audio at a high constant bit rate of 6.0 Mbps on Blu-ray discs, and is also capable of up to 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depth resolution, thereby producing outstanding sound quality.

Beyond enhancing PS3's audio capabilities, installing the latest system software update will also enable users to seamlessly access the new, more dynamic interface and enhanced navigation of the PLAYSTATION Store. As part of a revamp, the PLAYSTATION Store will transition from an integrated online storefront to an application living natively on PS3, enabling customers to more easily and quickly locate and purchase games, and download demos, game videos, Blu-ray movie trailers and other game-related content for PS3.

While the bulk manufacture of micro niche topic publications is Parker's current approach, the clip above shows that Parker is very much interested in expanding his system to create things like turn-key game shows in alternate languages—still exploiting niche markets—but this time from the perspective of the entertainment sector, not business/industry.

We wish Parker the best of luck, and appreciate his computer's continued support as it continues to churn out the posts here at Giz. [NYTimes via BoingBoing]

Like Apple's Genius Bar, Microsoft will staff its stores with experts to help customers with questions and problems. Obviously, any Microsoft store would be much more software based than an Apple store, which gets so much foot traffic due to it being a showroom as well as a mini internet café. I'm not sure what Microsoft has got to draw that many people in, but who knows, maybe they have an ace up their sleeve. We'll see. [Fudzilla]