yup, what was i thinking not taking a look at this app earlier when davak mentioned it in his blog….   handbrake is an all in one video converter program.  its for both apples and pcs and does basically all the major file types/device types from iphone to psp to ps3 to apple tv to x360 to quicktime..

anywho, handbrake is able to convert a dvd to a ps3 mp4 file in about 2 hours on my setup (2gb memory, athlon 64 dual core) the quality is very good and the consistency and stability is topnotch vs ps3 video 9.  i have not had the av sync problems i had w/PS3 video 9 (very annoying when the audio would get behind the video by a minute towards the end of some movies)

now if only i could put an even bigger hdd in my ps3! oh handbrake.. how i love thee..

htpc, ps3, osx86, iphone, x360, hd, geek, windows, mac, gaming, music, console, apple | 2 Comments »

Happy New Year to everyone!  This last year was a pretty crazy year in regards to technology, gaming and being a geek.  Today’s post will be a personal recap 2007, and what i thought was the biggest trend from it.

2007: The year that gaming really went mainstream?

2006 yielded an estimated 12 billion dollars in revenue for the video game industry however 2007 could end up being an even better year.  This year we saw the X360 sales thrive (not counting japan of course) w/the release of much the anticipated Halo3 (which itself set a record for most copies sold on release for any media; movie, music, game).  We also saw gaming go mainstream with the help of the casual gaming system, Nintendo’s Wii (ie money printing machine, hehe).   Sony’s PS3 also started to pick up steam in sales with the price drops and release of two new models; however the PS3 was/is still trailing the pack in sales but has seemingly helped the next-gen format war for blu-ray vs. hd-dvd (x360 did not include the hd dvd, optional drive vs sony making blu-ray a requirement in the ps3).

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fanboy, blogging, Zune, launch, ds lite, life, x360, iphone, osx86, ps3, wii, opinion, gaming, linux, hardware, applications, console, culture, geek, handheld, apple | 2 Comments »

just in the last month, ASUS has released its eagerly awaited Eee pc. the Eee pc is basically a super compact laptop made mainly for websurfing/chatting. it has a 7″ lcd and weighs in at around 2lbs. it has either a 2gb, 4gb or 8gb ssd harddrive and various memory flavors (4 different models total) and the best part being that the pricing on it is very reasonable; starting around $245 for the basic model to the top end model at $425. all models include wifi, usb ports, and the ssd. also, it comes with a preinstalled linux variant os; xp can be installed but you’d really want to do this if you have the 8gb version.

to me, i get to finally say ITS ABOUT TIME the small, mobile computing niche saw a device w/a realistic pricepoint. i really want to love the UMPC format but who really is looking to spend over $1,000 on an ultraportable laptop that only has 7″ screen and will probably only used for web surfing?

however, to me i see this device as being a fun, ongoing project. i’d really like to see if one can get OS X Tiger to run on it; since it does run an Intel processor vs a VIA or non-OSX86 compatible processor. i have not purchased the Eee pc yet but now have decided to wait for the black version and hopefully will be getting the 8GB version in the next month or so.

i’m very curious to see how XP runs on it, 1gb memory and an 8GB ssd should be pretty speedy. the Dell D430 i have runs XP pretty nicely, boot up time is around 19 seconds from start to desktop (it also has a 30gb SSD).

plus, streaming is where its at for music even though a nice ole USB flash drive or HDD would work just fine too. yes, harddrive space is not a limiter here, rather memory limited to 1gb may prove to be a downfall found out topend model does allow upgrade to 2gb but voids warranty in process, worth it imo.  also, top end 8GB model will not be available in USA; so it looks like i’ll have to ebay it or import it, boo!!  whats up with that ASUS?

but then again, it is only a $425 ultra portable.. anyone have one yet? let me know if its what you expected or not.

handheld, geek, osx86, laptop, mobile, opinion, hardware, linux, windows, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

i love it.. as a windows user/pc user, i love how the other side claims that its product/os is nearly unhackable but yet only less than a day after being released; Leopard has been hacked and patched to work on an Intel/AMD based pc hardware. 

Daily Apps has the full guide to making your own patched dvd and installing over here:

http://dailyapps.net/2007/10/hack-attack-install-leopard-on-your-pc-in-3-easy-steps/

i plan to try the patch myself on my Tiger partition.  hopefully my network cards (one of the two hopefully) will be recognized and then i can try using Leopard as a main os for a week or two and give a write up on it.

just thought i’d let the uninformed informed! Go OSX86 Hackers and pc geeks!

fanboy, news, osx86, culture, geek, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 5 Comments »

well, a few weeks back i did a full system rebuild from scratch and originally had planned to do a six os install but decided to cut back to just a quad booting system.  i realized that installing windows98se and windows 2000 was just a waste of partitions and space since i really have no need for them. 

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geek, htpc, osx86, vista, windows, apple, mac, hardware, pc | 3 Comments »

well, today shamanstears inquired on what it takes to get osx up on a pc so i thought i’d get up a quickie on osx on an amd/intel pc.

first thing you will need to have is a p-ata harddrive.  thus far, you can not install on a s-ata drive since the current builds for pcs of osx86 do not have the driver support….

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fanboy, guides, osx86, geek, opinion, mac, hardware, web, pc | 3 Comments »

is july the official RMA month? sure seems so for me, had to RMA three items this last week: my new W810i phone (arrived DOA, argh!!), a 1GB MicroSD card, and of course my Western Digital 80GB laptop hd.  however, i guess i can’t really complain since prior to this month i’ve only had to RMA 4 items in the last 5 years (considering how many geek toys/items i buy, not a bad number).

i’ve officially given up on getting OSX on my HP TC1100.  using a different external cd/dvd drive did not seem to resolve any of the install problems/slowness.  i might try the deedmo image method but at this point don’t see any reason to try since it will prob run slow as heck.  so instead, i’m back to my dual booting XP/Vista setup.

been thinking about a few of the mods i want to do w/my new phone (that is once i get a replacement and verify that it works fine since my mods will nullify the warranty).  so far these are the mods i plan to do (given the phone is CID36 not CID49; the RMAd W810i was a CID49 so i may be limited on what i can do w/the filesystem and UI hacks).  glad i held onto my buddies dead K750 so that i can use those parts w/my W810i. i love how sony ericsson phones are so moddable! now if only they could get rid of that WSOD; however i think the problem i had w/my phone was mainly because it was really not a NIB phone (phone had signs of wear and tear; the camera lense had a nasty coating on it and the memory card slot was broken and the LCD display was not properly centered; i could see light on the side of the lcd). so hopefully get that back soon.   here’s the mods list i want to try:

-housing mod:  going to use K750i camera cover side, replace all black buttons w/silver K750 buttons

-software mods: complete overhaul of UI (black/orange brushed metal style) and Walkman player.  Possible camera and acoustic driver hacks (use drivers from K750, W800). I may see its possible to add the camera lense switch from the K750 (given there this is supported on the W810i, which it may not be).

and i’ll see if i can get tethering working too since i was able to get the non-existant VPN Internet plan from Tmobile (the $19.99 that doesn’t include wifi since who wants hotspot service to start with eh?).

i’ll be posting up some recipes to my hacks/mods later next week.  btw, if your a sony ericsson user, head over to my other fave SE hangout area: http://se-nse.com  some good SE fanboys/hackers over there.

peace

geek, fanboy, guides, osx86, handheld, modding, apple, mac, hardware, gaming, general gadgets | 4 Comments »

well, i figure its time for me to do a follow up post on my recent experience on getting Mac OSX 10.4.6 on my HP TC1100.  previously i was having some major problems getting OSX86 to install and to even boot after install.  sadly, my situation/experience has not changed in regards to getting OSX86 installed and running on my TC1100 tablet pc.

my installation will take over 5 hours to complete (if it does complete) but never boots.  i have tried using all of the known flags for darwin to see if that would speed up the install but none of them seem to have any effect (ie tried platform=x86pc and acpi, tried idehalt=0 and cpu=1, nothing seems to help).  i also have tried using a different install dvd (10.4.6 and 1.04.8, both JaS versions w/the amd/intel patches built in), different harddrive (since my 80gb died, but should be back this week), removed my 1GB memory and used only the builtin memory (512mb), removed the battery; again still over 5 hours to install and no luck on booting.

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geek, culture, tablet pc, osx86, applications, hardware, general gadgets, apple, mac, pc | 1 Comment »

just recently two huge breakthroughs were made in the PSP underground/hacking world.  Noobz and Archaemic found an exploit in the game Lumines that basically allow all PSP firmware versions (1.5 to 3.50) and allow it to run homebrew.  this is a pretty huge find, so much so that for a few days Lumines sales on amazon exploded, at one point its sales were up 5,700%! whoa.

however, this is not the first instance that a game exploit/buffer overflow has been the entry point for hackers into a gaming console.  with the xbox there came to be a way to softmod it via a hacked game save file, i believe the game used was mech assault. 

the gamecube also had a game hack too, that game was phantasy star online. it allowed users to even put linux on the gamecube.

so i’ve always wondered, do developers purposedly leave the rare exploit in their code in hopes to drive their own software sales due to the exploit? even though the console maker and other software makers may not like the idea, it really seems to be plausible thought.  one that i am sure that most devs would ever speak of. 

anywho, i also see that the iphone activation has been hacked, DVD Jon has figured out a way to emulate the apple activation servers, however you will not have any cell phone abilities (but give this some time, once the sim card lock has been broken, a combination of this hack and a future one could allow those non-cingular/att users to have actual working iphones; not saying it will be me but ya never know.. i like a good hack!).

peace

wii, culture, geek, handheld, ps3, fanboy, osx86, xbox, ds lite, console, applications, windows, web, hardware, mac, gaming, psp, modding, mobile, vista, pc | 1 Comment »

well, as previously blogged; i have been attempting to get Mac OS X 10.4.8 up and going on my HP TC1100, however i have not had much success.  the first installs never completed (over 6 hours and sitting at end of install, gave up at that point and tried again), second install did install but never made it past the grey Apple logo on the first boot, the third and fourth times came up with errors. 

 Oh yea, and to top it off; my TC1100’s HDD poops out yesterday.  Hmmm, i almost wonder if the OSX86 installs might have caused the failure or not.  had me worried, however my 80gb is still under warranty and i had my original 60gb that i could swap back in.  btw, i still am a huge fan of making ghost backups in case things like this happen.  did a ghost bkup before doing the OSX stuff so i had my system back up and running in 15minutes.  its nice being a geek. :P  hehe.

anywho, so round 1 of my OSX86 install goes to Apple.   i’m wondering if my problems may have been related to my tc’s hd failing or did the installs/failed installs cause the failure?  i swear the drive was beeping (like when your desktop won’t POST and all you get are the error diagnostic beeps); couldn’t even boot from a LiveCD or floppy w/the drive in.

however, round 2 hopefully will go my way; i’ve decided to install it on my main desktop pc on a spare p-ata harddrive (20gb). realized the OSX86 install does not let you install to S-ata harddrive (i have 3 of them of course and no P-ata), so i had to pull out a 20gb p-ata drive from a gutted system and find a spot in my case.  sure am glad i upgraded away from my htpc cases; no way i could fit my: 3 s-ata drive, 1 p-ata drive, 1 dvd burner, 1 front panel VFD display/remote.

got the install running right now and so far so good (knock on wood), figure it should run pretty decent on my system since i finally upgraded to 2gb of memory; really need to get a new mobo and upgrade to 4gb memory and newer x2 cpu.  however, bills be bills..

if only computer upgrades grew on trees..

–update:  just got osx86 running on my desktop machine, runs pretty smooth! also got my system setup to triple boot via the vista bootloader and chain0 hack; works like butter.  i posted a recipe to triple booting over at http://tech-recipes.com ’s main site, should be live in a day or two.  i’ll post more tips and notes as i come across them.

geek, culture, osx86, modding, windows, apple, mac, hardware, general gadgets | No Comments »