Gadget Problems

I am facing a couple of strange problems with my gadgets - first of all my newly bought iPod Touch is refusing to update play counts of songs. A fix has been suggested, but I don't have the heart to reset all my settings just so that "Recently Played" can start working. Funny thing is, songs on the iPod show up with the correctl play time in iTunes (when I sync) but when I look at the same thing in the iPod, its off. Here's to hoping Apple fixes this in a firmware upgrade soon...

My second problem is with the PS3 - having finally found something worth buying on PSN, I promptly find that my money is not good enough for Sony - they refuse to take your credit card if you live outside the US. Earlier they used to take Entropay cards, but since they launched the movie store they have started blocking it... No way the MPAA is going to let a bunch of filthy non-Americans get their hands on their IP!

In all fairness, M$ also does this on their XBox store, but they actually have an Indian XBox online store so you can still buy games - currently as far Indians are concerned, Sony's PSN is as good as saying "Live in India? Bought a PS3? Ha Ha! Sucker!!" (Ya - me!) India has always sucked if you are a gamer, but this is the first time I have ever been made to feel a resident of a 3rd world country by a company - "No Sir! Your kind can't buy my goods - No way, no how!" Its OK Sony - lesson learnt; if you don't want my money, I am just going to spend it elsewhere...

There are still some options - buy a $20 PSN card for $25 on EBay for example and hope nothing goes wrong... Of course they may still start looking at the console region before letting you log in to PSN or use a PSN card... Sony has to think of their shareholders you see...

Youtube to get full length movies and TV episodes

A couple of nice announcements: Youtube is set to get free full length episodes of Star Trek (the original series) and full length movies from MGM (bulletproof monk anyone? anyone?)

Not sure if these will be region locked like just about every other online multimedia site that hosts licensed content - but hopefully, Google will be able to resist the MPAA/RIAA clowns... at least, Youtube still shows music videos to everyone...

There are some workarounds for that too of course :) (BTW, there's a rant coming on this related to my favorite consumer electronic goods company soon... I was just so angry last weekend that I am waiting to cool down a bit before I end up sounding like a raving lunatic)

HTTPS Indicator in Firefox 3

A lot of people have complained about Firefox 3's address bar no longer being yellow when HTTPS is being used.

Some have even posted workarounds using GreaseMonkey or by modifying userChrome.css

I am sure you have noticed the brilliant green color which comes on when viewing certain HTTPS sites for one example see here. This is used to identify sites that have gone in for Extended Validation - i.e. someone has verified that the company which owns the site actually exists. Only companies/organizations can get this certification.

If you look carefully at the HTTPS version compared with a non-https site, you can see that the Favicon (the small icon next to the URL with the site's logo) has a blue border when compared with a non-https site. (Non-HTTPS below, see the first image for a HTTPS favicon)

This of course is not much of an indicator and indeed, can be easily spoofed. However, in typical Firefox fashion, there is a setting that can be enabled - browser.identity.ssl_domain_display, which will make Firefox show HTTPS based sites very differently.
With a value of 1, it will show the site's top level domain name (mozilla.org out of addons.mozilla.org) highlighted.

With a value of 2, it will show the full domain name (addons.mozilla.org) highlighted.

I feel the value of 2 takes up too much screen space. But with the value set to 1, this is absolutely awesome. Supposedly, it was not turned on in Firefox 3 by default as it looks to similar to EV (particularly to color blind people) but I still feel a visual indicator such as this is a must have...

Adding to my tweak guide too!

Sony on PS3 - We have to think of shareholders not customers

Wow... Just wow... I am left speechless with this one...

Why No PS3 Holiday Price Cut? Sony Running A Business, Thinking of Shareholders

"Well the pressure comes from the consumers obviously and so therefore there's always pressure on price, but you know we have a business to run, and we have to make sure we're doing the right thing for the shareholders as well... At the moment there's a marketplace for PS3 and I think for this particular Christmas, with the kind of quality of games we're seeing coming out this Christmas, I don't think the price of the console is going to be an issue at all."

Well... I always thought normal business sense says you should think of customers, but of course, Sony is special. (This started my ranting, BTW) With the economy in the state it is, I doubt Sony will be beating even the Xbox this christmas... They seem to have totally given up now...

In other news, I just updated my PS3 to firmware 2.50. I also got my first trophy and if you see my portable ID, you can ... oh wait you cant... forget it.

Trip to Karnataka

Pix from my trip to Karnataka - Bangalore, Mysore and nearby places are now up. Here's a slideshow...

Xbox India Buying Guide

The Rs. 14990/- Xbox offer is finally on. For this, you get a Xbox 360 Core and 2 free games - Viva Pinata and Forza Motorsport. Since the import duty on consoles in India is 33% - 50%, it seems M$ is getting rid of the old backlog stock and setting the stage for introducing the Arcade version in India ($200 + 50% ~ Rs. 14,500/- at current rates) to replace Core which has been discontinued all over the rest of the world.

I went out this weekend to buy an Xbox and came back empty handed. The deal breaker was the hard disk. The cheaper version (Core - Rs. 15k) doesn't have it and I was not mentally prepared to buy the more expensive version (Premium - Rs. 24k) considering its price. So why exactly do we need a Xbox hard disk?

Firstly, the upcoming New Xbox Experience will require at least 128 MB of storage space, meaning the 64 MB memory cards currently being sold will not be enough to even support the update. On the other hand, the price of a 256 MB memory card (which is not even sold in India) is I am sure going to be quite high enough that it would better if you bought the hard disk model, considering the other free stuff that comes with it. (64 MB sells for Rs. 2k+ and 20 GB HDD for 6k+)

Secondly, Microsoft themselves have a list put up which (indirectly) shows the advantages of a hard disk. In a nutshell, you need storage for:

1. Saving games :)
   
2. Play original Xbox games (needs HDD - not Memory Card)
3. Saving media, music, downloaded games etc to the console
4. Play online with Xbox Live - Gold or Silver
   
5. Voice chat etc
   

With all these features using storage space, add NXE and suddenly the hard disk seems much more valuable.

Additionally, right now there is a hilarious situation with several retailers where they have Core consoles but no memory cards - meaning if you take the console home, you cant save games on it! I asked one dealer (EZone at Hometown in Great India Place, Noida) about this and he says, "yes sir, you cannot turn off the power"...

In fact, even the Pro versions currently being sold in India do not have an HDMI port, so they are still selling the older motherboards here - not surprising considering the pathetic sales here :) If you see try to call the official Xbox dealer list (for India), half of them have stopped selling Xbox anymore...

Yet if you go to Palika Bazaar, you can see Xboxes (and games) being sold left and right. I dont know what %age of them are modchipped, but considering that the modchipped version is cheaper and does have the HDMI port, I imagine its quite high. Its an interesting quandary where the console grey market is concerned for Xbox and PS3. PS3 has no modchip, so there is little other than immediate gain in buying a grey market piece. Xbox does have a modchip but the thingie fails so frequently that you would be insance to get one without a warranty. Although, grey market dealers do claim they can repair both PS3 and Xbox :)

Overall, my advice, if you are willing to take a bit of risk, the grey market one is a good option. Buy it soon before the Rupee falls against the Dollar any more. If you want an original one, wait a while till the Arcade version and the Pro ones with the new motherboards (with HDMI ports) are launched. The value for money is much more with that...

On the PS3 front, here's something interesting - Sony which was earlier claiming that PS3 will have a 10 year life span, is now seemingly getting prepared to throw in the towel for this generation and launch the PS4 in 2011. Also, another website has published an analysis of the RPG situation for PS3 vis-a-vis Xbox so I am definitely not the only one facing this issue :)