Fixing the Start menu is just the beginning. Windows 10 brings many other good changes, and we show you the best ones here.



READ MORE @ PCWorld

Amazon has announced its first deal with a major TV network to stream content through its subscription service, a move that ratchets up competition with Netflix and Hulu.

The world's biggest online retailer has announced an agreement with CBS to allow its Amazon Prime members to stream 2,000 episodes of 18 shows owned by CBS, including "Medium," "Star Trek" and "Cheers." Further details of the agreement weren't revealed, except that it is nonexclusive; CBS has already struck a similar deal with Netflix.

The announcement comes at a seemingly opportune time for the Seattle-based company. Hulu, partly owned by Comcast, Disney and News Corp., is being shopped around for new owners, a move that raises questions about the long-term future of its many licensing deals with those same companies.

Meanwhile, Netflix recently announced a 60-percent spike in its subscription price, sparking customers' ire and leading some analysts to question whether there will be an exodus of subscribers, currently some 24-million strong, to an alternative service such as Amazon Prime, or to movie rental sites such as Apple TV or Google's YouTube.

At $80 a year, Amazon Prime subscribers, who also get discounted, expedited shipping from the merchant, pay less than subscribers to Netflix, which costs a minimum of $96 a year. (Hulu Plus also costs $96 a year.) Netflix does boast a far larger library, however, with an estimated 20,000 titles. But with the additional CBS heft, Amazon Prime is slowly catching up and will now offer more than 8,000 movies and TV shows.

Amazon's deal with CBS also makes the idea of buying Hulu less attractive to the company. Hulu's pre-existing deals with TV networks was considered the key reason Amazon was initially cited among the dozen prospective suitors, which include Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and AT&T.

Additionally, the move is a further sign that networks value the Internet as another medium for showing content. ABC recently announced plans to license "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" for new episodes online, after it stops broadcasting the soap operas in the coming months. The network hasn't announced whether the soaps will be distributed to viewers directly or through a subscription service such as Netflix -- or Amazon Prime.

Story and Picture via iTvedia

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Drop your gmail address in the comments and we'll send you out an invite right away.

Get on this quick because google may not leave the invite window open past the weekend!

Sifting through the pile of rumors concerning Apple’s next move when it comes to its iMac lineup, one can only be certain that nothing is certain. But, although it’s all totally unofficial, most of the blogs devoted to Apple report the same thing: new iMacs are going to be cheaper, and they’ll feature a thinner industrial design.

The same sources claim that the new iMac line will feature a Blu-ray drive; a logical move, although a bit surprising considering that Steve Jobs had once said its licensing is too complex. But, there’s a time for everything, right?

The new iMacs could appear on the market as early as this month, AppleInsider claims, although it’s quite possible that Apple will wait a bit to spoil the party for the Windows 7 October launch.

via Mashable

Oh, those smart rascals at Microsoft are on a roll. I love their Courier tablet concept, and now they may have found the way to make on-screen multitouch keyboards actually work great—even for touch typists like me.

The problem with screen keyboards is that you actually have to look at the screen to hit the keys correctly. With real keyboards, touch typists have a physical reference to position their hands. That's why they type blind. With a flat screen keyboard, however, you lose the physical reference frame.

It's time for a new feature here at SykoNews, the SykoDeal. The first one is a 1TB hard drive from Seagate which is very snazzy and screams WIN on any desktop. Right now you can pick it up on Buy.com for $89.99 with free shipping. While the product is normally $190.00, that's a 67% discount. Let us know if you have experience with this product in the comments.

From the product page:

"When its time to back up and protect your digital content--photos, music, documents, and more--it doesn't get much easier than the Seagate Free Agent Desktop USB Portable Hard Drive. Simply plug it in to any power source, connect the USB cable to any computer, and you're ready to go. This hip-looking hard drive takes up less room on your desk than an ordinary stapler, giving you more space for your other desktop items."

Get yours here - Seagate FreeAgent Desktop Hard Drive - ST310005FDA1E1-RK

Hugh Pickens writes 'Scientific American reports that a new device called 'BrainPort' aims to restore the experience of vision for the blind and visually impaired by relying on the nerves on the tongue's surface to send light signals to the brain. BrainPort collects visual data through a small digital video camera and converts the signal into electrical pulses sent to the tongue via a 'lollipop' that sits directly on the tongue, where densely packed nerves receive the incoming electrical signals. White pixels yield a strong electrical pulse and the electrodes spatially correlate with the pixels, so that if the camera detects light fixtures in the middle of a dark hallway, electrical stimulations will occur along the center of the tongue. Within 15 minutes of using the device, blind people can begin interpreting spatial information. 'At first, I was amazed at what the device could do,' says research director William Seiple. 'One guy started to cry when he saw his first letter.'' There is some indication that the signals from the tongue are processed by the visual cortex. The company developing the BrainPort will submit it to the FDA for approval later this month, and it could be on sale (for around $10,000) by the end of the year.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Also, more here at spectrum. Image via spectrum.

Hitachi has a few new refrigerators that will actually spritz your food with antioxidants and vitamins to keep things exceptionally fresh and clean (clean). The R-Y6000 and R-Y5400 will evidently sense what types of foods are stored in what compartments, after which a specified amount of nutrients will be emitted in order to keep things from spoiling too soon. We aren't too keen on a robotic fridge having the power to douse our grub with whatever chemical it pleases, but so long as it uses FDA-approved vitamins, minerals, HGH and anabolic steroids, we suppose we'll live.

(Via Engadget.)

You probably know by now that broadcast TV is going digital in February 2009—but you may not know why. The main goal of the transition is to free up some of the frequency spectrum currently used by TV signals for other purposes—like cell phone signals.

Frequencies for sale
The frequencies being opened up in the 700MHz range were put up for auction on January 24th. (The auction is still ongoing at the time of this writing.) It’s unlikely that this kind of frequency space will be made available again for another 50 years, and as expected, all of the major wireless carriers and other telephone/cable companies are eager to get their hands on new frequency space. What happens after the auction ends will depend on the winner.

But before you start worrying about your least favorite wireless carrier winning everything, take heart—the frequency space has been divided up into five “blocks,” and the different blocks come with different stipulations regarding their use. (For example, part of the D block must be made available for public safety usage should the need arise.) So it’s highly unlikely that one carrier will control all the blocks.

New freedoms for the cellular customer
Now for the good news—Google managed to persuade the FCC to add the stipulation that whoever wins the C block (the largest one) must make it open to any device designed to work in that frequency range. If that doesn’t make you giddy, here’s why it should. If your carrier wins the C block, you’ll be able to use any mobile device you want, assuming the manufacturer has programmed it to work with your carrier. It also means that the carriers will have to allow all third-party applications and services, like video-on-demand.

Better reception—not just for TVs
Another advantage of opening up the 700MHz spectrum involves reception. Voice signals travel farther in this range, so you can expect a phone operating on these frequencies to have a stronger signal than you might currently have. It also means that fewer cell towers can serve more people, which could be a boon for rural areas or cramped cities with lots of tall buildings.

Can you hear me now?

Via CityLife

Nintendo's popular Wii game console will displace Microsoft's Xbox 360 as the new-generation game machine, iSuppli said Thursday.

The market researcher forecasted that the global installed base of Wii game consoles will rise to 30.2 million units in 2008, up from 18 million in 2007, putting it ahead of the Xbox 360's projected 25.7 million units.

The Wii is already riding a wave of popularity that saw it win the greatest growth among new game consoles last year, according to iSuppli figures. There were only 3.2 million units in people's homes at the end of 2006, jumping to 18 million at the end of last year. The Xbox 360 retained its lead as the console in most homes last year by edging out the Wii with 18.2 million units, while the PlayStation 3 lagged rivals with 10.3 million, up from 1.8 million per year earlier.

iSuppli did not include older game consoles or handhelds in their report.

The market researcher chalks up Nintendo's success to a strategy of offering a lower-cost game console targeted at everyday people, rather than an expensive console with the latest graphics aimed at video game lovers. The main difference between the Wii and its rivals is the wireless controller and sensors that detect hand motion and speed. The innovation puts motion into gaming, because users swing the Wii controller to hit virtual baseballs and golf balls on their TV screens, go bowling and fight in boxing.

The Wii currently sells for $249.99 in the U.S., according to electronic retailer Best Buy's Web site, while the Xbox 360 costs $349.99 and the PlayStation 3 $399.99.

Via Washington Post

Energizer is definitely on the right track with it's new Light-on-Demand modular LED lighting system, which features battery-backed LED light units that plug into a variety of fixtures and keep going even when the power goes out, but we'll wait until the designers can shake a little more ugly off this kit before we bring it home. The line is launching with several standard fixtures like the wired desk lamp and wireless wall sconce shown here, as well as a wireless motion detector and several emergency lighting solutions. Energizer says the gear was developed in response to research that showed people were "frustrated" by power outages and wanted lamps that stayed lit even during blackouts -- which seems fairly obvious to us, but we're not lighting researchers. Light-on-Demand units should be popping up in Targets later this month, but if Energizer really wanted to make a go of this, they'd hit us with a battery-backed LED light bulb, no?

Via Engadget

Cubed3 gives Hori's Fighting Stick Wii a Final Score of 9 out of 10. Since I have not tried the Fighting Stick yet myself, this article gives much needed insight into this controller's usability. At about $59 US, How many of these will you pick up?

An excellent Hori product that is understandably licensed by Nintendo. £29.99 is a great price to pay for such high quality, this joystick was built to last and is practically flawless. Be sure to give it a try

Via Cubed3

How about a spy satellite of about 20,000 pounds landing in your backyard or providing you with a new skylight? If NASA has anything to do with it, that won't happen, according to reports.

A disabled U.S. spy satellite is likely to break into small pieces when it falls to Earth within weeks, posing little danger to humans, U.S. government officials said Monday.

Most, if any, debris that survives the intense heat of re-entry would likely fall into the oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of the planet, White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. But he said the U.S. government was monitoring the satellite’s descent from orbit and examining different options to “mitigate any damage.”

The U.S. military could potentially use a missile to destroy the minivan-sized satellite in space, but one senior U.S. defense official told Reuters that was unlikely for several reasons, including concern about creating space debris, as China did when it shot down one of its satellites last year.

via MSNBC

Apple boss Steve Jobs is well known for using his keynote address at the annual Macworld geekfest to wow the world with the company’s latest must-have gadgets. Last year, he pulled an iPhone out of his pocket. What would he do to top that this year? Tech bloggers and writers around the world feverishly speculated what might be announced and some of them even got it right.

Jobs walked on stage with a manila envelope and whipped out what looks set to the business traveller laptop to be seen with this year. Except that it might not get seen at all given how thin it is. At its thickest point, the Macbook Air stands just 0.76 inches high; at its thinnest, it is 0.16 inches.

While the previous incarnations of the Macbook have been extremely desirable for their looks, business travellers have sometimes shied away from them because of their bulk. The lightest in the range weighs in at more than 2.27 kilos, whereas Windows-powered laptops with similar specs are considerably slimmer, typically a kilo lighter. For a business traveller constrained by the weight limit of hand luggage, especially in the current climate. The Macbook Air, by contrast, comes in at 1.36 kilos – lodging it firmly in the realm of the lightweights.

Much of the weight loss is achieved through an Atkins-style avoidance of certain things – no optical drive, a handful of ports and a non-swappable battery. Intel even redesigned its processor to cut down on size and weight.

The lack of an optical drive could worry some. It is possible to hook up to an optical drive on the network or plug one in to the single USB port but Apple is banking on the future being wireless. It sports the latest version of wi-fi - 802.11n – but on the downside there’s no WiMax and, unforgiveably in my opinion, no in-built high-speed 3G SIM card like most of the latest Windows business traveller laptops.

The battery could give cause for concern too. Apple says it will last for five hours, even if you are using wireless. However, some reviewers, such as USA Today’s Edward Baig and the Wall Street Journal’s Walter Mossberg got less than this.

The keyboard will be familiar to anyone who has used a Macbook and it has the added benefit of backlighting, making them easy to see read when you’re in a low-light situation.

It’s a pretty green beast too – recyclable aluminium casing, mercury and arsenic-free display and eco-friendly circuit boards. Even better, it comes in a box with the minimum of packaging.

Despite the potential problems, this is a beauty. As a lifelong Windows laptop user, it has even made me start to think the unthinkable of defecting to Apple.

Macbook Air

Nintendo's financial results for the previous quarter, released earlier today, were nothing less than impressive. What's even potentially more impressive was how quickly it appears the Wii will overtake lifetime-to-date sales of its predecessor, the Nintendo GameCube. According to Nintendo's own numbers, the GameCube had sold 21.72 million units over the course of its six year-plus lifespan, as of December 31, 2007. The Wii, just 14 months on the market, has sold 20.13 million, putting the waggle-box a mere 1.59 million units behind the 'Cube.

In Wii terms, that ain't nothin'.

With Nintendo now manufacturing 1.8 million Wiis a month and seemingly selling every one of those consoles, it won't be long until the Wii overtakes the GameCube... if it hasn't already.

written by brakken via iso-420

Introduction Welcome to my review of the DS Top Toy (DSTT) another Slot 1 based Nintendo DS entertainment, development and backup unit. This low priced flash cart includes most of the core features and functionality you would come to expect from a newer solution, but lacks advanced features. Although, it lacks advanced features such as integrated media players, advanced GBA rom manipulation it does offer the basics one would need to boot homebrew and legal backups without hassle. Features Slot 1 Based Solution Original DS Cartridge Size Plug n' Play Installation Built in PassMe Functionality Supports Clean ROM Images Micro SD/SDHC Support High Speed Micro SDHC Support Save Directly onto the SD Card Autodetect Save Type Supports Homebrew w/Auotmatic DLDI Patching Supports FAT16 and FAT32 Built in Action Replay™ Comatible Cheat Engine Optimized for Low Power Consumption Touchscreen/Button Compatible Interface Supports User Created Inteface Skins Supports Soft Reset Wifi Enabled Game Support DS Rumble Pack Support DS Web Browser Support Download Play Support Brightness Adjustment (DS Lite Only) Contents DSTT Cartridge GBA Expansion Pack Rumble Expansion Pack MicroSD USB v2.0 Card Reader USB Nintendo DS Charger The DSTT case is made from a thin plastic, but fits firmly into the Slot 1 of your Nintendo DS. In fact, it fits just like an original game where some flashcarts are a little to large and make for a tight fit. This isn't the case for the DSTT. The DSTT uses a spring loading mechanism for the MicroSD card, but it has to be the best one I've seen to date. I've heard horror stories about the spring breaking, but I've used many flashcarts and never had any problems with these types of interfaces. The spring loading mechanism on the DSTT is really good as it's not a tight fit and the MicroSD can be inserted and removed with ease (again, unlike other carts). Unlike the DSTT both expansion packs are made from high quality plastic and come with a groove to easily remove them from Slot 2. This groove is also missing from some competitors products. One should know that both expansion packs aren't made by the company behind the DSTT, but are made from eWin and relabeled. The MicroSD USB v2.0 Card Reader is very small. So small in fact it's only a little bit larger then the MicroSD card itself. It's a little cumbersome, but after toying with it for a while you'll most likely get used to it. The chain that comes with it is very cheap and can be broken just by pulling too hard on it. I wouldn't recommend chaining it to anything or just remove it so you won't lose the reader. One unique accessory that comes with the DSTT is the USB based Nintendo DS charger. It works well and can be easily carried around as the original charger is sort of big. So if you're heading out to a place where you can access a computer with a USB port it's an optional way to recharge your portable video gaming console. Installation When it comes to installation there are basically two types of flashcarts. One which comes with it's Operating System, Firmware, Menu System or whatever they call it stored on an internal chip. The other kind depends on the software for the flash cart to operate being stored on your MicroSD. This is the case for the DSTT so you must copy over it's Menu Software (they call it the TTMenu OS) to the root of your MicroSD card before you can use the device. If you don't copy it over you'll be presented with an error screen. You'll also get an error screen if no MicroSD card is inserted into the DSTT. After extracting the contents of /eng/ directory (total of 6.9MB) from the TTMenu OS v1.07 into the root of the MicroSD card it booted into it's main menu. The main menu is basically a list of all of the .nds files you have in any location on your MicroSD card. There is no directory browser, just a simple list of what it finds on your MicroSD card. Of course, it won't display anything until you copy over some homebrew or your legal backups. Additionally, the USRCHEAT.DAT file that comes with the DSTT is out of date and very limited to the games it has cheats for. So if you're a cheater you can download the latest USRCHEAT.DAT file from here. Note that this is the same file format as the R4DS USRCHEAT.DAT file. Each homebrew title or game has an option menu which can be accessed by using the "+" icon (select the title first then select the "+" icon. Once in the setup screen you can toggle it's options including the DMA Mode, Soft Reset and Cheat Toggle. If you're planning on cheating because you either suck at the game or suck at playing games in general you will first need to select the "Cheat" tab then select your cheats. Once selected make sure to toggle the Cheat option under the Option Tab to "On". Located in the upper left hand side of the menu list is the "SysOption" box. Once you tap on this you'll be presented with the Default Reset, PassMe Mode, GBA Mode, Power Off and Brightness options. PassMe mode will boot a legacy Slot 2 solution, GBA Mode will just boot whatever you have in Slot 2 in GBA mode, I'm sure you can figure out what Power Off does. Lastly, you can adjust the brightness of the LCD display (Nintendo DS Lite only). If you look a little closer to the file list you'll notice some icons present under the name of the homebrew/game you've got stored on your MicroSD card. Here is a chart which outlines which each icon stands for. Main Toggle Button - Enables Cheats and Soft Reset This means cheat codes have been selected Wifi / Download Play Game Soft Reset has been enabled Brings you to the Options Menu Usage The DSTT wasn't joking when it comes to 100% compatibility. All of the legal backups I tried ran perfectly, with no slowdown, no glitches or graphical artifacts on the screen. Download Play works as it should. The cheats work. Soft Reset works (while in a game/homebrew title press "L+R+A+B+X+Y" to go back to the menu list). Additionally, games that support the Rumble Expansion Pack worked fine. Saving and Loading your progress works flawlessly too, but sadly each save file is 512KB instead of it's real size. The rumble expansion pack isn't as loud as the official Nintendo edition. Additionally, as Nintendo didn't release the Rumble Pack in the USA it's not a bad addition. It doesn't require any type of batteries to run, but only works with a handful of games. The motor is still a little loud, but you can barely notice it's sound when playing a game with the volume turned up. When it come to homebrew the DSTT does it's job right. It has what they call "automatic" DLDI patching. DLDI is an interface driver that allows homebrew to be run on flashcarts that support it. If it wasn't for DLDI each homebrew author would have to release 30+ versions for all of the flashcarts on the market. What's cool about the DLDI being automatic is the fact you don't have to use a DLDI patcher to patch your homebrew before you run it. This saves a lot of time and frustration. The DSTT also supports GBA homebrew and legal backups via the included eWin GBA Expansion Pack. Sadly, there is no built in support for this in the TTMenu OS, nor is there any documentation on how to use it. Pretty crappy support if you ask me. Anyway, what you'll need to do to get the GBA Expansion Pack working is to download the "eWin Expansion Pack Loader 1.6.0 for R4 + DSTT". In this archive contains the English executable (.nds) file needed to use the GBA Expansion Pack. Copy it over to your card along with some GBA stuff and you're ready to go. For reference the size of the loader is 1.3MB. Once you boot the loader you'll be presented with a file list menu. In case you forgot to insert the GBA Expansion Pack it will remind you to do so with the following message - "please insert EWIN SD-RAM expansion card, press A button to retry". Once it's loaded it will initialize the file system and then bring you to a file browser. From this browser you can select your .gba files and load them. The first time you load a GBA file it will load it and then patch it which takes around 20-30 seconds depending on the size of the file you're loading. Once it's patched you won't need to patch it again. This loader is very basic and doesn't support the features of some competing products, but it does load and let you save your .gba files with perfection. To launch a .gba file press "A" on it, press "B" to go back a directory, "X" for a help screen, "Y" to setup Nintendo DS to GBA Linkage (this is used by some games to import data from your GBA game to your Nintendo DS game) and you can press "L+R" to prep the GBA Expansion Pack for use with the Nintendo DS Opera Web Browser. Once it's prepped you can run it and you know, browse the Internet. The last option is pressing "select" which will bring you back to the DSTT menu. After running a .gba file a directory in the root of your MicroSD card named "EWIN_GBA" will be created which holds information and your save data in the "SAVE" sub-directory. Each save is 128KB in size no matter what the original save game data size was. Conclusion If you're just looking for a cheap and reliable solution for your entertainment, homebrew and legal backup needs the DSTT does the job well. While it's menu system is simplistic and it lacks features of more advanced flash carts this could be overlooked due to it's cheap ($30 USD) price. That's including the GBA and Rumble Expansion packs. If you're hard up on cash or don't need more advanced features you should consider purchasing this product, but if you want a top of the line flash cart you should pass this one up. Negatives Menu System Simplicity No File Browser No Directory Structure Lack of Intergrated Media Player(s) Positives Ease of Operation Great Compatibility Automatic DLDI Patching Extra Status Icons Included GBA and Rumble Packs Included Nintendo DS USB Charger Links DSTT (English) Website