Stop your MacBook / MacBook Pro from waking when you plug in the power adapter under Windows

Posted on September 15, 2008 by Josh Anderson

OK, so…. When you’re in Windows on your MacBook / MacBook Pro and your computer is asleep, if you plug in the power adapter, it wakes up; in lots of cases, this is annoying and it certainly doesn’t do that when you’re in Mac OS X.

Follow these steps and you’ll be able to stop it from doing so:

  1. Click start
  2. Right click on My Computer / Computer
  3. Click properties
  4. Click Device manager (in XP, you have to go to to the Hardware tab to see this option)
  5. Click the + next to Batteries
  6. Double click on “Microsoft AC Adapter”
  7. Click Power Management
  8. Untick the “Allow this device to wake the computer” box.

Note: I’ve only tried this on Vista; it should work the same on XP but the position of the AC adapter in device manager might be different. Comment if it is and I’ll try to help.

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Is the iPod Classic dead?

Posted on September 10, 2008 by Josh Anderson

Yes, I know it’s just been ‘updated’ along with the iPod nano & touch. But you can’t surely say that that was an upgrade?

It’s exactly the same! WITH LESS SPACE.

Prior to today you could buy an 80GB or a 160GB iPod Classic in black or white. Now, it’s 120GB (in black or white) or nothing.

And it’s no different; the nano got all the newness: the new software, the accellerometer, the new design….

The software on the iPod Classic seems to be exactly the same as the previous one; it doesn’t even appear to have been given Genius like the touch, nano & iPhone. Admittedly, it could be added later with a software upgrade but it seems weird that they didn’t want it as a launch feature.

Jobs admitted that the iPod Classic is the one that started off the iPod range and that in itself probably means it is here to stay, but perhaps it is not the highest priority because the other models sell more?

Only time will tell whether the iPod classic will stick around; the only selling point that I think it has at the moment is the larger storage space (I’m sure many have more than 32GB of music or want to use it as portable storage) and the fact that it is by far the cheapest per GB.

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EDIT: According to this, the iPod classic will “eventually get an update to enable Genius playlists”

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Halo 3 – new achievements confirmed

Posted on September 6, 2008 by Josh Anderson
Damn it, hes back. ;)

Damn it, he's back. 😉 "A small, private Bungie Invitational looms on the horizon."

Bungie came out and admitted that Auto Update 2 (AU2) for Halo 3 will bring some new achievements to the game; they only gave details of the one’s that will make sense now –

“As folks have seen, these aren’t the only achievements we’re adding. But without proper context, there’s not a whole lot else we’re going to say. Stay tuned.”

Most likely, there will be some more achievements with another map pack / update to Halo 3

Here’s a list of the one’s that they did tell us about:

  • Vidmaster Challenge: Lightswitch (0 points) – Get to the rank of Lieutenant in any playlist in the new EXP progression system.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: 7 on 7 (0 points) – Enter into any ranked or social playlist with 7 EXP on the 7th of the month.
  • Vidmaster Challenge: Annual (0 points) – After 9/25/08, complete Halo on 4-player Legendary LIVE co-op, with Iron, and everyone in Ghosts.
  • Double Double (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get two Double Kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Poor Yorick (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 Oddball melee kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Came…From…Behind (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get 3 assassinations during any ranked or social match.
  • Defend This (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a flag melee kill during any ranked or social match.
  • Flag Dropped (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 2 flag carrier kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Road Rage (25 points) – On a Legendary map, get 5 Warthog chaingun kills during any ranked or social match.
  • Look Both Ways (50 points) – On a Legendary map, get a Splatter Spree during any ranked or social match.

EDIT: You can see a list of all the other achievements here – They all require the un-announced Mythic Map Pack.

    They also said that Auto Update 2 / Title Update 2 will most likely be delayed – “the previously announced date may slip a bit closer to the Halo 3 one-year anniversary.” That’s September 27th so presumably it’ll be between the 16th and the 27th.

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    iPhone 3G – The drop test

    Posted on September 5, 2008 by Josh Anderson

    Wasn’t something I was intending to do but I have now dropped my 3G iPhone and it still works! Yay.

    Dropped it from the height of around 1 metre whilst *slightly ;)* drunk.

    To be honest I was surprised that the screen didn’t smash; all it has done is made a couple of marks on the bottom where it landed on the pavement. Not a big deal, by any means.

    My best attempt at photographing the damage is shown to the right ->

    Just out of interest though, I looked to see how much a new back would be; without spending too much time on it, the cheapest I found was £40 (about $80) which I think is a bloody rip off!

    Also, some of the components are housed inside the back part so ultimately, it really isn’t worth the bother.

    My iPhone lives to fight another day!

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    Posted in Apple, Computers | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

    iPhone to iPhone 3G – Was it worth it?

    Posted on August 25, 2008 by Josh Anderson

    iPhone vs iPhone 3G

    So, I, like many others have had my iPhone 3G for about a month and a half now….. I think that’s long enough to decide whether the upgrade was worthwhile – was it worth the money? oh no, that isn’t a valid point for me; I’m £100 up from the upgrade to 3G 🙂

    Let’s see now; there’s only really 2 major differences between the original and the 3G: the latter has a 3G modem (go figure) and a GPS receiver. Of course, firmware 2.0 brings 3rd party application support through the excellent App Store; I’m not going to count that though, since that upgrade is offered for the iPod Touch and original iPhone.

    The design has changed a little – the back is now made of plastic rather than that MacBook Pro style aluminium; it’s offered in two colours: black and white (16GB only) and the back is curved (so it tapers out from the sides) rather than being flat. Overall, these design changes make it feel and look better than the original, as usual with Apple.

    3G - two colours available

    3G - two colours available

    So principally, the new model should offer faster internet access and the ability to locate you more accurately. The question is, does it?

    First, I feel I have to explain that my experience with the original iPhone was ummm average – I loved it… but almost everywhere I spent time there was no Edge coverage, only GPRS; I very rarely saw Edge. So, to be frank it was very very slow. Something upon which I blame O2 for.

    Almost everywhere I spend time with my iPhone 3G has very good 3G coverage and it’s pleasantly fast. I can’t be sure that it is as fast as it should be (and I don’t really care for the most part) because it is so very much faster than GPRS.

    I see people complaining about how they thought the speed increase would be much bigger; those people went from Edge to 3G rather than GPRS to 3G like I experienced – I’m happy with the speed increase it yielded.

    Though, with the amount of complaints I’ve seen on the internet about it not being as fast as it should be; it probably could, and should be faster than it is.

    Overall though, I’ve been very fortunate; I’m yet to experience a dropped call, I’m satisfied with the speed and in other ways, it’s the same as the original – brillant!

    Pro’s:

    • Faster data access
    • GPS
    • 3rd party applications (not really a pro for 3G, but 2.0)
    • Looks & feels better

    Con’s

    • Compatible with less accessories; chargers, speaker docks….
    • Laggy response in some applications (mainly down to 2.0 as it is the same on the iPod & original iPhone & should be fixed by future software updates)
    • Same old camera – still a 2 mega pixel model from 2005; without the autofocus! It’s adequate, but disappointing for 2008.

    To conclude, I think the upgrade to 3G was definately worth the -£100 I spent on it. Ahh, scratch that….. I made £100 out of the upgrade and I got a much better phone for it –  It was definately worth it!

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      Posted in Apple | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

      Halo 3 – September Matchmaking Update detailed, Auto Update 2 to be released on Sep. 16th

      Posted on August 23, 2008 by Josh Anderson

      This week’s Bungie update details what is going to happen with the monthly playlist update and the date that Auto Update 2 will be released – both the playlist update and AU2 should be released on the 16th of September. EDIT: a later bungie weekly update suggests that it will be delayed and will be nearer to the 1-year anniversary of Halo 3 on the 27th of September — now confirmed for the 23rd.
      You can read about Auto Update 2 and what it does to Halo 3 here.

      Screenshot from vid where Bungie thanks G4

        September’s matchmaking playlist update does make a few more changes than normal; as promised by Bungie a couple of weeks ago. A summary of the changes appears below:

      • Rocket Race is being removed 😦 😦 😦
      • Both Ranked and Social Big Team Battle are being removed
      • Head to Head is being removed
      • Team Doubles now requires all DLC – Heroic & Legendary packs and Cold Storage
      • Default Team Slayer games will now have the Magnum as secondary weapon
      • Squad Battle – a new ranked playlist will be introduced; it’s 6v6 and will be Slayer / Capture the Flag
      • DLC Free For All (new) – 8v8 – Slayer, Objective and Infection!
      • DLC Big Team; another new playlist – 8v8 Social Slayer and Objective (just like Social BTB)

      Some of the playlists will see Bungie-forged map variants of Sandtrap (they’ll be no elephant), Epitaph (without shield doors), Snowbound (with some shield doors removed) and The Pit (with “with inaccessible spawn hives.” — That sounds annoying). The normal versions of these maps will also appear.

      You can read the Bungie update containing all this information and much more here. It offers some consolation in the fact that the Rocket Race gametype will be added to the Multi Team playlist as well as the fact that there will be less objective, SWATGuns and Magnums in SWAT – and the fact that there will be Carbines on the map!

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      Also, they confirmed that they’ll be no bots / campaign characters in H3 multiplayer – just to hush those rumours after the thanks video’s.

      Posted in Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

      iPhone 2.1 Jailbreak – now worthwhile

      Posted on August 22, 2008 by Josh Anderson

      …. At least, I think it’s worthwhile – there are a lot more applications available now compared with when the first jailbreak was available & Installer is available (though it’s a beta version and the majority of good applications are currently in Cydia)

      )

      I haz Installer, App Store & Cydia 🙂

      What sold it for me is that there are now ways to theme your iPhone / iPod Touch like SMBPrefs offered in the past.

      There are two theming apps that work, one which many jailbreaker’s will be familiar with: customize and the other; Winterboard.

      Customize is definately the more fully featured of the two offering the ability to theme the home screen as well as change sounds, message text throughout the software and much much more.

      Also, MobileTerminal works pretty well; just as well as it did in 1.1.4 as far as I can tell and it comes in really handy if you know what to do with it. 😉 Command-line FTW!

      Just get Touchpad Pro & VNSea working and I’ll be content.

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      Sound glitch in Boot Camp, x64

      Posted on August 19, 2008 by Josh Anderson

      I have known about this issue for a while and as of yet I haven’t found a good solution (though, admittedly, I am yet to look for one!) and the reason as to why I’m posting this now is that I know I’m not alone in having this problem — I got two hits from someone searching “no sound macbook pro vista ultimate 2008”

      The problem occurs randomly, but I’m pretty sure that I see it more after my MacBook Pro has resumed from sleep in Vista (Ultimate 64 bit).

      The problem is that no sound will play out of the speakers even though the system is unmuted and should be playing sounds!

      The only way I have found to get around this is to insert some headphones/speakers into the headphone jack and then remove them. This always restores the sound for me….. But, I will get on to finding out if there is a better solution than this and I’ll update this post if I find anything.

      Does this work for you? Or have you found some other way to restore sound? If you have found another way, please comment.

      Posted in Apple, Computers, Microsoft | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

      Halo 3 – Auto Update 2 detailed

      Posted on August 2, 2008 by Josh Anderson

      This week(end)’s Bungie Weekly update brings details of some of the changes that will be made when Auto Update 2 lands for Halo 3 at some point in the future….

      As you can see in the picture over there —–>
      auto update 2 will make it so that you will have a rank for each playlist and it will introduce the bar of progress that others, and I have missed from Halo 2’s matchmaking system.

      The bar shows how close you are to ranking up in that particular playlist. It is not currently clear as to whether the bar will show how close you are to ranking up (Recruit, General….) or how close you are to the next skill level (28,29,30…..).

      Principally, it seems as though they are just showing how much EXP you have in each playlist (earned by winning, or tying a game).

      Quite why this is being introduced, I don’t know. But, they’ve always said that they can’t make UI (User Interface) changes to the game — perhaps this will be a change that will only appear on Bungie.net? That would be very silly in my opinion. But if it does show up in the game, Bungie should be prepared for a fresh influx of people wanting changes to the interface of the game (like pressing X just after a game finishes to save that film – a la H3 Beta(woo!)).

      Also detailed in this weeks Bungie Update is the changes to matchmaking that will occur in August (they may already be live – I don’t know!). It’s a fairly boring list for this month (but includes some changes to Team Doubles that I don’t like — the inclusion of Oddball, for instance).

      But the last paragraph in the update suggests that there will be some bigger changes to matchmaking in Septembre!

      “You may be thinking to yourself “Hey, that’s a pretty short change list.” While a lot of the changes done this month were backend things that players will never notice, you would be right to think that August’s changes feel very minimal. The reason for this is that we’ve been focused on preparing a larger series of changes to Matchmaking for September. Much larger.

      Much, much larger.

      No, really. It’s huge. You should see how giddy Luke gets when I talk about the tentative plan.”

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      Edit:  Auto Update 2 will be released on September 23rd

      Posted in Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

      Lost Season 5 to be more confusing?

      Posted on July 31, 2008 by Josh Anderson

      Probably not, but according to Damon Lindelof, "When season five starts, you won’t know when or where you are. And the way we tell stories will be different too."

      The video below was filmed (clearly without permission Wink)at Comic-Con 2008 and can serve as a kind of season-5 teaser.

      There are some other points about Season 5 here including the fact that Lost has apparently finished with Flash-Forwards & Flash-Backs Surprised

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