Technology & Science Blog

Nintendo have released a game making tool called WiiWare. This will give budding game makers everything they need to start making the next best game. Wii owners will be able to download other peoples games on the online channels via the console. Games will be available to download in early 2008. Nintendo say that a basic amount of programming knowledge is necessary to start making games. For more information see the BBC website.

BBC iPlayer will be launched to the public on the 27th July. UK users will be able to download TV shows a week after they have been aired. The iPlayer application will only work on Windows computers but is due to be launched for the mac at a later date. Unfortunately there is no news of a linux release. The iPlayer has some promising features, such as the ability to live stream programs as well as have access to BBC radio. There is also a function similar to the Sky+ series link, allowing for "series stacking". See more information on there website.

For those of you who are familiar with Google maps, will be interested to see their new feature, Street View. You can now not only view roads, aeriel photos, and a hybrid of the two but now you can walk around! Thats right you cna now walk around the streets as if you were really there. Well almost. Currently it is only for 5 US cities, although its an exciting insight into things to come. How valuable it is im not sure but its one way to waste some time. Check it out at http://maps.google.com/

The Sony Playstation 3 is now out in the shops, but how will it match up to the XBOX 360. The XBOX 360 certainly has the upper hand as it has been out a while now. Both systems bring HD gaming to the masses but you do really need a HD TV to get the most out of it. Both consoles are expensive, with the XBOX 360 being slightly cheaper but both systems have expensive games but these should come down in price once the competition sets in. The PS3 comes with a Blue-Ray Drive which is probably what is hiking the consoles price up. However at the moment we are in a format war between blue -ray and HD DVD. Which will win only time will tell. Blue ray may well be the rise or fall of the PS3. You can checkout the new PS3 at http://uk.playstation.com/ps3/ and the XBOX 360 at http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/hardware/

Windows Vista was released yesturday with much anticipation. Vista comes in a number of versions the main ones being Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate. I think most home users will be opting for the Home Premium version, as the Home Basic version doesnt even come with the Aero theme we have been waiting for. Home Basic even lacks support for dual processors and doesnt come with any of Vistas new features. At the other end of the spectrum is the Ultimate edition, which comes with every feature you could wish for. Unless you really must have the lot you will be perfectly happy with Home Premium.
Vista comes with the new Aero experience, which includes a fancy glass theme, transparancy, live taskbar previews, flip 3 and of course the windows sidebar. Vista has also made vast improvements to windows explorer too, with instant searching and better overall layout. Security has been a top proiority with the new windows and there are too many improvements to mention, however the main one is the default of having a standard account over a admin account. This should avoid as many viruses taking down systems although it could become very annoying when trying to install software. One of the main benefits of Windows Vista is DirectX 10 which offers "cinematic gaming", games which look as good as films and this is exclusive to DirectX 10. This should clearly entice gamers to Vista.

However should we really upgrade? There are number of reasons not to upgrade, at least not yet. The first is the price, at £220 inc VAT for Home Premium its a costly bit of kit. With Ultimate at £370 inc VAT! The second is compatibility unless you have a NVidia Geforce 8800 you wont be able to take advantage of DirectX 10 when it comes out. Also a lot of hardware is still not yet supported. Most main applications should work although some niche software may not work properly. The third is the upgrade option. If you want to buy the cheaper upgrade of Vista then you will need Windows XP installed first, even if you want to do a clean install.
Once you upgrade thats it no going back to XP. Microsoft have added in to there EULA agreement that upgrading to Vista will invalidate your Windows XP install.

"13. UPGRADES. To use upgrade software, you must first be licensed for the software that is eligiblefor the upgrade. Upon upgrade, this agreement takes the place of the agreement for the software you upgraded from. After you upgrade, you may no longer use the software you upgraded from."

By all means upgrade to Vista, but Im going to wait a while until everything settles down. If you are dying for that vista theme you can get it for windows xp a little search on deviantart finds plenty of results.

XGL is an X server architecture for linux which has lots of effects to make the most of modern graphics cards. You really have to see it for yourself, so take a peak at the YouTube Video I found. Before you start installing linux and XGL it is advised you have a NVIDIA graphics card and some linux experience otherwise you may get difficulties.

This has to be the most powerful graphics card available today. With a 575MHz Clock Speed, 900MHz Memory Clock and 768MB of onboard memory this will make any game now and in the future fly without any problem. This is a PCI-Express card obviously and would need a powerful computer and a large power supply to run it. This is also a DirectX 10 compatible card and will work with Windows Vista when it is released. You can pick one of these up today for just over £400.

Quad Core is here, bringing a new product in the multi-core line up. The performance from these processors are quite amazing, and you can get this power now! Unfortunately its quite pricey with the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6700 coming in at £649.98 inc VAT. There already computers being made with this processor included. One can be seen at Mesh Computers, the Elite Extreme QX G80. Its one of the most future-proof computers out yet and will blast through all your games and applications without a sweat but at just over £2000 its not a cheap purchase. Although the processor supplies unprecidented performance the chances are we will not yet be able to use the full four-cores. With this being the case a Intel Core 2 Duo processor might be a cheaper but still powerful option.

Im currently making a lot of changes to XHYTEX.com but lots of content and information is coming this way.