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Well, last weekend after all of the iPhone stuff died down I began working on a Windows Vista Media Center PC for my living room.  I had all of the parts laying around already other than a media center case which was delivered on iPhone launch day.  After getting the machine put together I began doing some testing.  I hooked the machine up in the living room and began playing around.  I placed a BD / HD-DVD drive in the player and loaded the software that came with it to play these discs with moderate success.  The cyberlink software that came with the player would play both types of discs but with limitations and the full version of the cyberlink software wouldn’t do HD-DVD’s.  The HD-DVD’s would play fine but I couldn’t get 5.1 Dolby Digital out of the software due to its limits.  The software I used for the Blu-ray discs would output in 5.1 however.  The other issue was that neither one of the software packages had support for Media Center.  You couldn’t start or stop the software or the discs while in the Media Center software package with or without the remote.  Finally, after doing some research I finally found a piece of software that would do it all DD 5.1, BD, HD-DVD, and Media Center integration all in one.  The software package is Arcsoft’s TotalMedia Extreme.  After doing all the updates to the software and playing around with it I have decided that it is probably one of the better pieces of software out there for use with a Media Center PC.   Two thumbs up for anyone else who is considering building a MCPC I would definelty consider it.

Well, I have to confess that I didn’t actually go to CES this year but there was so much inet coverage of it you almost didn’t have to be there.  Here are some of the things I liked covered by various sites. 

• Wireless HDTV
• Booth Babes
• Booth Babes Again
• OLED TVs
• Asus Eee PC
• ATI R680
• Mitsubishi Laser TV
• Lian Li Case
• Hand Held Projector
• Optimus Maximus Keyboard
• Alienware Curved Monitor

Ok so I got my copy of Apples new OS Leopard today and everything went fine with the install.   The OS as a whole is very nice with some very neat features in it.  Everything seems like it was really thought out and the OS seemed liked it was properly cooked before release.  There were no install bugs and all my previous apps seemed to work fine still.  Now for the disappointing part. I get into Ichat to play with the feature I really really bought the thing for and its gone. They striped the R2D2 Hologram effect out of Ichat.  I know this is trivial but it was one of the things that got me interested in purchasing the thing.  As state above I am very disappointed and feel let down by Apple with this whole experience.  Why show something in the WWDC2007 Keynote as a new feature and then take it out.

Well it looks like Apple has decided it was time to BRICK some Iphones out there.  It appears that after applying the new 1.1.1 Iphone update that many of the cracked and app added Iphones have stopped working all together.  I am sure this makes many of the customers just thrilled .  When updating mine (which has not been hacked) I noticed that Apple forced a reactivation with AT&T.  I am assuming from that little update feature that anyone who has hacked an Iphone to work with T-Mobile or other networks no longer have a phone after doing the update.  In fact looking around the web it seems that is the case.  Almost all of the hacked Iphones are now BRICKED.  Apple released an announcement prior to this update that no Iphones that have been hacked will be serviced at the Apple stores Genius Bar.  It also stated that it voids the warranty and terms of use having basically told all the early adopters who have enjoyed playing with the hacks and third party apps FUCK YOU.  I may be wrong but I believe that the DMCA allowed for the “hacking” of mobile phones due to the right of the customer to use devices that they have purchased on different carrier networks.  I have heard many others argue this point but it seems that Apple still felt the need to kill this ability along with ripping their customers off.

For those who didn’t hack the phone it looks like you do get a few new features from this update.  You now have the ability to purchase Itunes songs over the WIFI connection on the phone.  This is a plus since many complained about not having this feature at the phone launch.  Next it seems that they have tried to increase the volume of the speaker phone (which was much needed).  Last but not least they have made it easy to turn off all of the data (EDGE) services on the phone in case you are traveling outside of the US.  Many that have these phones and have been outside the US come back to cell bills that are thousands of dollars due to the  DATA roaming that occurs.

I guess we will all have to wait and see what APPLE and AT&T decide do next after all of the flak from this move starts to rear it ugly head. 

Stay Tuned!!

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes