Zotac ZBOXHD-ID40 Supported Memory:

• DDR2-800
• 200-pin SO-DIMM
• Max capacity of 4GB (2GB in both slots)

Zotac ZBOXHD-ID40 Supported Hard Drive:

• 2.5″ Hard Drive
• SATA II 3 gb/s
• Max Capacity Unknown ?

Video on how to install the memory and hard drive into the Zotac ZBOXHD-ID40:

I was looking forward to seeing that my and probably many other’s once treasured company take a step toward reclaiming it’s former gaming crown. I never got into the Wii, I found the idea of waving a stick around novel at best. and with millions of gamers scrutinising the console’s low level graphics , and a third party library of nothing but games meant for your kid brother or your Mom, it became harder and harder to root for the company I had such fond memories, and practically raised me.

and after a weird pantomime performance from Shigeru Miyamoto (The designer behind Nintendo’s most famous franchises). and announcements for a couple of remakes of N64 games coming to the 3DS, Mr Reggie Fils-Aime (President and COO of Nintendo, North American Division) finally announced what I was waiting for. the next home console in the Nintendo line, surely after all the complaints on the Wii, and the massive motion controller development from Sony and Microsoft in the past year Nintendo would step up their game?

As the ridiculous “Wii U” name was reveal, I watched the entire presentation shown on stage and my reaction was as fallows

” I literally dropped my jaw, face palmed myself, and then walked out of the room ”

Great job Nintendo you are now able to have HD graphics what other system don’t have that already? Nintendo that was a must not a special feature to be shown off. it makes you sound like a kid in the playground telling everyone else you got something they already had years before. it’s nice you got it at last but just makes your previous flaws more obvious.

The main feature focus was the new controller, a neat little iPad clone, with a linking feature to the Wii U and buttons. I’m not even going to waste your time listing the duplicate features of this controller and an iPad.

as the Nintendo presenters continued on about the linking of the controller and Wii U making it able to have your menu screen and over top view map available making this a new innovative way to play that is like nothing before, I can’t help but remember doing that exact thing with a GBA to the GameCube to play Final fantasy crystal chronicles. sure now it’s wireless with the Wii U it’s totally not the same.

watching on as they list the features I noticed that the feature of playing on the smaller handheld screen is available and if your friend or family changes the channel on you to watch a baseball game I can keep playing on the small screen? um I’d tell them to go use another TV cause if I can afford a new console chances are we can afford a simple 200$ for a 22″ in your room

and what is with a board game on the tablet controller, get a 5$ board set, and save energy, the earth and money if that’s what you want to play with your Wii U.

and one last feature I wish to talk about that was shown was the ablity to move videos and internet content from your controller to the TV with just a little flick, that was a really need idea, to bad Microsoft already was doing this with something they called Windows 7, um I guess all the comercials were wrong and Windows 7 was really Nintendo’s idea.

I was actually happy when they listed a bunch of third party developer games. A long list of AAA games are all making appearance in the Wii U show, sadly only later to be revealed that the videos are all images were not for the new Wii U platform but was a montage of footage from Xbox and Sony versions of the same games.

Reggie during an interview after the reveals said the Wii U will not be using BluRay but will be using its own proprietary disc format, later revealed by another source will have a 25Gb capacity, but meaning that BluRay playback on your Wii U might not be possible.

Wii U can have a giant disc size all it wants, but internally it will only have a 8GB flash drive built in for memory. which is startlingly small, though confirmed to have SD card support. There has been conflicting information regarding uses of external hard drives. meaning you better save up money for those SD cards, cause if the hardcore titles really are the same as on the Xbox or PS3 every DLC or title update is pretty much going to take a huge chunk out of your storage. or you could just stick with the Xbox or Ps3.

Over all I’m sure there is going to be many change to look forward to in the 2012, but as of now with what is shown and suggested not that much of an improvement from the base Wii model to merit a new purchase for any owner of a Xbox or PS3 looking towards mostly hardcore titles, especially when Sony’s Vita and Move linked to a PS3 can do most if not all the functions that this system can but if you are really only into the Mario and Zelda game and many other first party nintendo game this is the only choice.

Photography App #1:

Camera+:

You will never use the iPhone 4′s standard camera app again! The Camera+ app does everything the iPhone 4′s standard camera app does plus more. The app adds key photo taking features like a stabilizer, timer, and the ability to take photos in bursts. That’s just the tip of the ice berg, once you have taken the photo Camera+ allows you to modify it in almost any way. Users can enhance the photos look based on the environment you took it in by selecting from a variety of scenes. Then the user has the ability to adjust the photo by rotating, flipping, and even cropping it. Finally the Camera+ app contains several very nice effects for the user to choose from and even boards for the images are available also. To put the icing on the cake Camera+ has the ability to share your photos on Facebook, twitter, Flickr, and even email.

Cost: $1.99

Pictures:

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Photography App #2:

TimeLapse:

This is the best time lapse app on the App Store. It has lots of settings like changing the start time in case you want a delay, setting the number of photos you want it to take, turning flash on or off, saving or deleting the photos after its completed the time lapse, and even adjusting the final videos size and FPS. It’s a very nice little app that probably won’t get used very often but if you’re looking for a time lapse app this is definitely the one to choose. The only downside is it’s a little buggy and it lacks social networking features like uploading the video to Facebook or YouTube.

Cost: $1.99

Pictures:

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Photography App #3:

360 Panorama:

A very popular feature on most digital cameras is the panorama feature. This allows the user to take multiple pictures of a horizontal landscape which are then stitched together to form 1 big picture. This is usually a pain because aligning two pictures together is quite hard. Well the 360 Panorama app for the iPhone 4 takes the pain out of making panoramas. All you have to do is rotate the iPhone slowly from side to side or up and down and the app will automatically stitch all the pictures together for you. If you take your time with 360 Panorama the final results can turn out really nice. The only downside is that the overall quality of the final panorama is not that great and you will need to use a computer to clean up the panorama once you’re done with them. Other than that this app is definitely the best panorama app on the app store.

Cost: $0.99

Pictures:

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Photography App #4:

Slow Shutter Cam:

Always wanted an app to get those awesome blurry lighting effects? Well the SlowShutter app is probably the one for you then. What the app does is it allows users to control the shutter speed on the iPhone 4. This can result in some really unique photos, like ghost effects . The best part is SlowShutter contains several settings that can be changed to meet the user’s needs like capture modes, shutter speed, and even exposure adjustments. The overall photo quality varies based on how still you can hold the iPhone 4 during the time the shutter is open.

Cost: $0.99

Pictures:

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Photography App #5:

ToonPAINT:

Want to make your pictures into cartoons? Well the ToonPAINT app might be what you’re looking for…. might. ToonPAINT has the ability to turn almost any picture into a cartoon in a matter of seconds. You first start off by choosing a picture or taking a new one then adjusting its edges, greys and blacks using a few sliders. After you get it looking the way you want colour can be added by either doing it manually or it can be done automatically. Keep in mind adding colour automatically is free for the first 3 times, after that you have to pay an extra $0.99 for the feature. Overall I have to say the pictures that I have used with this app are not very cartoony but the overall effect is very nice.

Cost: $1.99

Pictures:

Pictures:

AS SSD Benchmark:

Unboxing Video:

Specifications:

• Processor: Intel® Socket 1366 Core™ i7 Processor Extreme Edition/Core™ i7 Processor Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology
• Memory: Triple Channgel 6 x DIMM, Max. 24 GB, DDR3 1866/1800/1600/1333/1066 Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
• Expansion Slots: 2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual at x16/x16 mode), 1 x PCIe x16 (at x4 mode), 2 x PCIe x1, and 1 x PCI
• Storage: 6 xSATA 3.0 Gb/s ports, 2 xSATA 6Gb/s ports, 2 xeSATA
• Audio: Realtek® ALC892 8-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
• USB: 2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports and 12 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports
• Chipset: Intel X58 Chipset

Pictures:

Unboxing Video:

you will continue to be Desmond Miles reliving the genetic memories of his assassin ancestors using a machine called the Animus, However this time Desmond will be reliving both the memories of Ezio and Altair (the protagonist from AC1)

The story will focus on Ezio, now an old man in his 50s. Still continuing his lifelong battle with the Templar Order. Ezio is searching for an artifice left behind by Altair. to accomplish this Ezio has traveled to Constantinople (now known as Istanbul)and uncover 5 seals belonging to Altair and relive his memories. (Yes, Ubisoft made the game being about Desmond reliving memories of Ezio reliving memories of Altair. crazy French Canadians.)

New weapons and tools will be in this game, what has been revealed is an item called the hook blade can be used to travel on zip lines and help in claiming walls speeding up your traveling in game by about 30%, and smoke bombs makes a comeback but this time it’s even better, you can craft up to 300 different types of bombs.

Multiplayer will return with new modes and game types, and this time your character is customizable, you can customize your appearance and armour and even start your own guild.

I’ll keep you all informed as more details are sure to come out during E3 next month. Until then you can have November marked as the current scheduled release on xbox 360 and Ps3.

But not many (if any) can say they got help in their marriage proposal from their favourite game. Ben Ambroso got just that. When Ben and his now fiancé Tora started out it eventually lead to the conversation that he was a big gamer, to his surprise so was she. The couple both being huge Borderlands fans, having multiple playthroughs both having a level 61 character.

Flash-forward a few months and Ben plans on proposing to Tora. Since he and her share such a deep interest in Borderlands Ben thought it would be amazing if Claptrap from Borderlands could do something so he sent a request to Gearbox Software asking for help with his proposal and he got a surprising yes. CEO of Gearbox Randy Pitchford himself got involved, having few meetings with Ben and set him up with few members of the Borderlands team (Thats what I call Fan service), after a week of work this is what they came up with.

And now after all that work Ben invited 50 of their friends over for the proposal, under the guise of it being a exculsive preview of Borderlands 2.

This is Ben’s YouTube upload of his actual proposal. Spoiler she said yes.Their wedding will take place around August and Gearbox Software is invited

well what was once just meant to be a trailer is now a full blown 10 episode web series re-titled as Mortal Kombat : Legacy, it seems the cast will be the same as the trailer.

Sonya Blade’s role will be reprised by Jeri Ryan. The Former Ms. Illinois Pageant winner, best known for her role in Star Trek: Voyager as the Borg “Seven of Nine” and basically the wet dream girl for all Trekies of the late 90s.

 As well as Jax Briggs’ role by Michael Jai white. You might remember him as Al Simmons in the Movie adaptation of comic book Spawn, or more recently the black exploitation film satire “Black Dynamite”.

New cast members never revealed before will also be joining the series. Kurtis Stryker is the first shown in the first episode and is portrayed by Canadian actor Tahmoh Penikett famous for his role as Helo from the “Battlestar Galactica” series and more recently as special agent Paul Ballard in the now cancelled Joss Whedon’s “Dollhouse” (Honestly can’t think of one series that Joss Whedon created that didn’t get cancelled.)

(I actually got to meet and talk to Tahmoh Penikett during FanExpo Toronto 2010 as we were both using the same escalator and he is defiantly a very nice person and grateful for all the fans he has in the Sci-Fi world.)

Mortal Kombat : Legacy is a show about fighting and both Micheal and Tahmoh are experienced fighters in their personal life, Tahmoh has trained in a long time in Mauy Thai, while Michael impressively holds seven black belts for seven different martial arts.

Well enough talking go watch the series now. The first episode is available below

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s6UiEuCYXA

Specifications of the Zotac Zbox HD-ID40-U:

Chipset: Intel® NM10 Express chipset /w Intel® Atom® D525 (dual-core, 1.8 GHz)
Cooler Type: Fan
Dimensions: • Length: 7.40in – 188mm • Width: 7.40in – 188mm • Depth: 1.73in – 44mm
Memory Size: Up to 4GB Memory Slots 2 x 200-pin SODIMM Memory Type DDR2-800
Onboard Audio: Onboard analog stereo high-definition audio/ 7.1-Channel LPCM digital audio (HDMI)/ Optical Digital S/PDIF audio output
Onboard LAN: 10/100/1000Mbps, WiFi 802.11n/g/b
Onboard Video: Next Generation NVIDIA® ION™ (w/512MB DDR3 memory)
Power Connector: DC19V
SATA: 1 SATA (3.0 Gbps)
USB: 6 (4 on back panel, 1 on front panel, 1 on top panel)
Video Ports: HDMI + DVI-I

Package Contents:
• ZOTAC ZBOX HD-ID40
• Power brick & cable
• VESA monitor mount (w/4 screws)
• Stand
• DVI-to-VGA adapter

Pictures of the Zotac Zbox HD-ID40-U:

Unboxing of the Zotac Zbox HD-ID40-U:

the video below will speak more then I every could

At the risk of sounding immature, any update that thinks “Getting Wood” is achievement worthy is awesome by my standards