StarCraft in 5 minutes

Ok, everyone is going gaga over StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty, which will be released today. But other than being a classic RTS, does anyone still remember what is it all about? It has been 12 long years since the original was released after all!

Well, rest your grey matter, 'cos the good folks at IGN have summed it all up for you... well, kinda...

More StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty Videos

Now go get StarCraft 2 and get your Zergling rush on!

Play Snake while watching YouTube

Ok, let's face it, some YouTube videos are just boring. So what do you do? Play Snake of course!

Those geeky geniuses at YouTube have embedded a hidden easter egg in videos that are viewed from their website (ie it doesn't work for embedded videos like the one below).

Here's how you get it to work:

1. Go to YouTube.com (duh...)
2. The Easter Egg doesn't work on all videos, so just try your luck with a video from the Most Popular section at the bottom of the page. Or just click on this link; or double click the embedded video below to launch it in a new window)
3. If the video has annotations, the Easter Egg won't work, so choose another one.
4. Pause the video
5. Press the left arrow button on your keyboard for a couple of seconds.
6. If the Easter Egg works in the video you selected, you should see the Snake and "food" appear!

With this, YouTube is now even a bigger time-waster than it was before! Enjoy!

Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions Trailer

Ok, let's face it. Most of the Spider-Man licensed games so far have sucked.

I don't recall a single Spidey game that's really engaged me since the ancient Questprobe Featuring Spider-Man on the Apple II! (Yes, I am that old...) The last game that featured Spidey-related game that I liked was Marvel Ultimate Alliance, but Webhead was just one of the many characters in there and it didn't really feel like a Spidey game.

Well, looking at the Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions trailer that was released at the San Diego Comic Con (SSDC 10), this all should change on September 7th, 2010!

In a nutshell, the Shattered Dimensions will feature 4 different Wall-crawlers from different universes:

• Amazing - Your standard friendly-neighborhood web-slinging Red & Blue
• Noir - A 1930's version which plays mostly in the shadows, taking a cue from Batman Arkham Asylum perhaps?
• 2099 - Future Spidey who flies through the air with the greatest of ease
• Ultimate - My favourite - Black Symbiote Spidey! I always loved the black suit! Too bad it's like an evil and psycho ex-girlfriend in the comic book...

The playing styles and feel are supposed to be different across the 3 universes and judging from the preview on IGN, that seems to be the case.

I'm really looking forward to this one! Let's hope it lives up to it's promise!

iPhone 4 ad that Apple didn't want you to see

Part of the Antennagate response ad that didn't quite make the cut... =)

Your Mii Wants Gold Pants!

Tired of the worn-out black threads on your Mii? Looked in envy at some of the funky looking disco-ready Miis in gold or blue pants?

Well, now your Mii can have them too!

First of all, you will need to extract your Mii and load it into MyAvatarEditor. If you don't know how to do this yet, please see my previous post on How to Extract, Edit & Upload Mii characters for Nintendo Wii.

To change the colour of the Mii's pants, you will need to edit the Avatar ID value. Change the value to something within the ranges below to change the pants color.

Pants Type	Avatar ID Value Range
Black Pants (Normal Mii)	20-00-00-00 to 3F-FF-FF-FF 60-00-00-00 to BF-FF-FF-FF E0-00-00-00 to FF-FF-FF-FF
Gold Pants (Special Mii)	00-00-00-00 to 1F-FF-FF-FF 40-00-00-00 to 5F-FF-FF-FF
Blue Pants (Foreign Mii)	C0-00-00-00 to DF-FF-FF-FF

Save your Mii, install it back to your Wii and VIOLA!

For full details on Mii Pants, head over to David Hawley's blog.

How to Extract, Edit & Upload Mii characters for Nintendo Wii

So you have just created a super Mii-likeness to yourself on your Nintendo Wii. But how do you flaunt your new Mini-Mii character around as your avatar on all your IMs and blogs if you can't get it out of your Wii?

Here's out... But I'm going to assume that you already have a modded Wii, with the Homebrew Channel on it. If your Wii isn't modded yet, I recommend that you read the WiiBrew FAQ to fully understand the implications before proceeding.

All modded and ready to go? Good!

First thing you'll need is to extract the Mii from your Wii. You can do that by using Waninkoko's Mii Extractor. This app will extract all the Miis (as .mii files) on your Wii to a MII folder on your SD Card.

Next, fire up your web browser and visit this website: http://www.myavatareditor.com/.



It's a really great online editor (offline too if you want to use it via Adobe Air) that allows you to load, modify and save your Mii avatars. It can also do 2 really nifty things that your normal Wii Mii Channel creator can't do:

1. Save your Mii as a JPG or PNG file so you can share it with the world!
2. Change your Mii's pants to a nice shiny Gold.

Now that you have edited your Mii more to your liking, you can now upload it back to your Wii.

You will first need to save it using MyAvatarEditor. Save the file as a .mii file extension to your SD card. Next, download and run Mii Installer on your Wii. This app will install Mii characters in the MII folder on the SD card to your Wii.

Now you can share your Mii with all your friends! Be prepared for smart remarks though... Someone already has told me that my Mii has got too much hair... =p

Steve Jobs & Bill Gates Small Talk

What do Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, two of the richest men in the world, talk about when they meet...

How to hold your Nokia

Taking cue from Steve Jobs after the supposed reception problem with the iPhone 4, Nokia advises on ways you can hold your Nokia to ensure you get full bar reception...

Very cheeky Nokia! Who says Scandinavians lack a sense of humour? =)

Source:
http://conversations.nokia.com/2010/06/28/how-do-you-hold-your-nokia/

Preview of Blackberry OS6

Wow! Apparently the new Blackberry OS6 is so good that it'll make you wanna Boom Boom Pow!



Ok, if you could focus on anything in that mess of moving screen shots and dancing you can make out that the GUI has been improved, especially for you Storm users since it seems more geared to make the touchscreen experience more "ahem" iPhone-like.

It's planned for a Q3 2010 release, so let's see how it turns out.

No Flash on iPhone & iPad

Ok, this is a joke post but I thought it was funny as heck and still techie-related, so I wanted to share it.



No DC comics for any of the iDevices I guess. =)

How to Install Blackberry App World In Any Country

RIM has just announced that Blackberry App World is now supported Malaysia, but it took a VEEEERY long time before that happened. So if you are anything like me (ie impatient) and living in an unsupported country, here are a couple of workarounds would be very useful to install App World:

WORKAROUND 1 - Installs App World 1.1.0.11
PRO: Newer version of App World
CON: A bit more work to install; limited apps available for download

1. Download the following .Zip File : appworld_1.1.zip
2. Open the file with your favourite zip program and navigate to the appworld_1.1 folder
3. Copy the files net_rim_bb_appworld.cod, net_rim_bb_appworld_resource_en.cod and JavaLoader.exe to the following folder depending on your Windows OS:
   
   In Windows Vista “C:\Users\(Your User)
   In Windows XP “C:\Documents and Settings\(Your User)
   
   
4. Start CMD (Windows Key + R and then type CMD)
5. Plug-in your BlackBerry
6. Type: javaloader -u load net_rim_bb_appworld_resource_en.cod
7. Type: javaloader -u load net_rim_bb_appworld.cod
8. Reboot your Blackberry to be on the safe side.
9. This would have installed Blackberry App World 1.1.0.11 on your Blackberry. It's not the latest but should be enough to tide you over until your country is supported by RIM.

I've tested this on my Bold 9000 and it works. Please comment if you have tried it on any other models.

WORKAROUND 2 - Installs 1.0.0.30
PRO: More apps available for download
CON: Some apps a bit unstable; Can't upgrade to latest version of App World

1. This workaround is much easier than option 1, especially if you are wondering what all this CMD this is about.
2. Launch the Browser on your Blackberry
3. Navigate to the following site (type it in full): http://mobileapps.blackberry.com/awclient/download.shtml?code=appworld&CPID=REFERFRIEND
4. This will install Blackberry App World 1.0.0.30. It's outdated but still works. Unfortunately, you won't be able to upgrade to the latest version using this workaround eventhough it prompts you when you launch the app.

Please visit this forum post for the lastest on this topic, including installing App World on the Bold 9700 (Bold2): Appworld on ANY Country!!

Also, thanks to Blogjer for mirroring the appworld_1.1 file above.