Daily Friction #306
Take control over your iTunes, find new BitTorrent sites, read about Toshiba’s HD DVD demise, learn whats silicon valley’s best brains are starting to do now, look at a smaller version of our solar system and much more in today’s edition of the Daily Friction.
Software and Services
- Seize control of iTunes - For many Windows users, Apple’s iTunes is a mixed bag. It offers many of the music and video jukebox services we all want, but it’s often sluggish and the polar opposite of customizable. A new freeware plug-in called iTunes Control gives us all a chance to remedy at least part of that situation.
- New and Promising BitTorrent Sites - BitTorrent’s popularity is still growing, and new sites are launched every day.
Hardware
- Toshiba to drop HD DVD - Toshiba is widely expected to pull the plug on its HD DVD format sometime in the coming weeks, reliable industry sources say, after a rash of retail defections that followed Warner Home Video’s announcement in early January that it would support only the rival Blu-ray Disc format after May.
- PS3 said to outsell Xbox in 2008 - Sony’s PlayStation 3 console will outperform the Xbox 360 and roughly double its user base in 2008, says a new estimate by research firm iSuppli.
Information
- Silicon Valley Starts to Turn Its Face to the Sun - Given the valley’s tremendous success in recent years with such down-to-earth products as search engines and music players, tackling solar power might seem improbable. Yet some of the valley’s best brains are captivated by the challenge, and they hope to put the development of solar technologies onto a faster track.
- How To Make A Million Before You Turn 20 - While their peers were out making trouble, these young achievers were making bank.
Science
- Most powerful laser beam ever created - If you could hold a giant magnifying glass in space and focus all the sunlight shining toward Earth onto one grain of sand, that concentrated ray would approach the intensity of a new laser beam made in a University of Michigan laboratory.
- Smaller Version of the Solar System Is Discovered - Astronomers found a miniature version of our own solar system 5,000 light-years across the galaxy — the first planetary system that really looks like our own, with outer giant planets and room for smaller inner planets.
Bargains
- Remember: Many of these bargains may be discontinued hours or less after they are announced, check the specified price to see if you arrived on time.
- PCSecurityShield’s Shield Deluxe with a FREE MyRegistryCleaner
($39.99).
- Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.0MP EOS Digital SLR
($809.99), expires: 2.29.08.
- NAVIGON 5100 GPS Navigator
($359.99), expires: 3.15.08.
- Canon PowerShot SD870 IS 8.0MP Digital Camera
($359.99), expires: 2.29.08.
Fun
- Vancouver studio brings Turok back to life - When Vancouver-based Propaganda Games acquired the rights to develop the new Turok game with Touchstone and Disney Interactive in 2005, they faced the two-fold challenge of not only bringing dinosaurs back from extinction but resurrecting a franchise that many gamers had begun to lose faith in.
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