Samba De Amigo Shakes Onto Wii

Boston (dbTechno) - In a bit of news which is sure to please any fan of the Sega Dreamcast some years ago, Samba De Amigo is being brought back to life as it has been confirmed as a new game for the Nintendo Wii.

Samba De Amigo is the classic rhythm game which originated on the Sega Dreamcast. Back on the Dreamcast the game shipped with a pair of maracas whic had gamers shaking away to the beat.

The Wii version will likely not ship with maracas and will use the Wii remote controls to shake to the beats of the soundtrack.

The new soundtrack of Samba De Amigo will have many new songs as well as some classic from the original Dreamcast game.

Samba De Amigo has been rumored as an ideal game for the Wii for quite some time and is now official. It will be hitting the Nintendo Wii in Spring 2008 thanks to Sega. Get ready to shake those maracas all over again!

NASA Shuttle Discovery Arrives At ISS

Boston (dbTechno) - The NASA space shuttle Discovery completed its long journey as the Discovery linked up with the International Space Station on Thursday to begin a challenging mission.

The mission involved the astronauts getting the International Space Station ready for new European and Japanese laboratories to link up to it via the connector called Harmony.

Shuttle commander Pamela Melroy controlled the Discovery as it made its way and latched onto the docking port at 8:40 a.m. EST.

Discovery’s lead space-walker Scott Parazynski stated “Everybody here is just ecstatic. We’re so fired up to be here.”

The ISS will host the 10 men and women from the Discovery and station crew for the next 10 days or so.

Discovery launched on Tuesday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, it took two days to reach the ISS.

Apple Ready To Launch Leopard

Seattle (dbTechno) - Apple is set to rock the personal computing world by releasing the Leopard OS for the Macintosh computers.

The update which will be put into place by Apple on Friday will be called Leopard and comes just one day after Macintosh sales were reported to be up 34%.

The new OS Leopard will be pre-installed on new Macs and an online version will be sold for $110. This is the 5th update to the Apple OS X operating system since launching back in 2001.

“Leopard is an important release for Apple - it demonstrates their ability to ship release after release of their operating system and refine the PC experience,” says Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Jupiter Research.

The chief executive of Apple, Steve Jobs, stated that Leopard has over 300 new features including a new back-up system called Time Machine. This allows users to go through snapshots in order of past content on your computer’s hard drive to find lost or damaged files.

Apple made up 3.2% of the 68.6 million PCs sold around the globe in the last quarter, This is up from 1.9% last quarter. Apple is hopeful that Leopard will be seen as a great alternative to the complicated Windows Vista.

NASA Discovery Heat Shield Inspected

Houston (dbTechno) - NASA astronauts currently on-board the shuttle Discovery are experiencing their first full day in orbit and have one key mission ahead of them, to inspect the heat shield on their way to the International Space Station.

The seven-astronaut crew currently on the Discovery got to work on Wednesday with a laser sensor-tipped extension. This was connected to the robotic arm of the Discovery which allowed them to look over the heat shield panels which are very important to completing the mission and getting home safely.

It appears according to early reports that all is well with the heat shield of Discovery. NASA’s shuttle flight director Rick LaBrode stated “I personally did not see anything of significance.”

The Discovery is part of a 14-day construction mission which is being described by NASA as a very challenging endeavour. The shuttle astronauts are delivering Harmony which will act as a connector to allow the International Space Station to link up with future laboratories from Europe and Asia to the International Space Station.

There will be five planned spacewalks during the journey outside of the ISS.
Astronauts are also going to be moving a huge solar power segment during the mission. Veteran astronaut Pamela Melroy is the Commander of Discovery. The inspection of the heat shield panels is still ongoing.

Wright Says Spore Will Hit PC In Spring 2008

Boston (dbTechno) - Spore is one of the most highly-anticipated games of all time and is currently being developed by Will Wright, the genius behind hit games such as The Sims. Wright has stated the game is in final testing.

Wright stated that the game is now playable from start to finish after being delayed for what literally has become years now on the PC. The game is also expected to hit other platforms as Spore has been hinted at releasing on the Xbox 360, NIntendo Wii, and possibly the Nintendo DS handheld platform.

The game will allow you to play God basically as you will go from a single cell to controlling the entire galaxy.

Maxis, the developers behind the game, began working on Spore back in 2000 but since then has gone through many different projected release dates.

Wright has been reluctant to give any date to the game constantly stating that the game will ship once it is actually complete, it now appears that Spore is almost done.

Wright has stated that Spore should be ready to go within the next six months meaning that it is likely that SPore will release in Spring 2008 on the PC, and possibly on other platforms soon after.

Sony Reveals Digital Camera With 4GB Of Onboard Memory

Boston (dbTechno) - Sony has unveiled the Cyber-shot DSC-T2 which comes with 4GB of internal onboard memory.

The new Cyber-shot DSC-T2 from Sony has a nice eight-megapixel point-and-shoot camera. With 4GB of onboard internal Flash memory users should not have to worry about storing any photos.

The front of the new camera has a 3x optical zoom lens and is made by Carl Zeiss. The lens also has many nice features including optical image stabilization.

The back of the camera sports a 2.7-inch touchscreen LCD for navigating menus and such. It also has smile-detection which is supposed to recognize when people are smiling and automatically take snapshots.

The new camera, the DSC-T2 will ship in December and retail for around $350.
It will come in many different colors as well making for one of the more ideal holiday gifts for those looking for a new digital camera.

The colors will include pink, white, black, blue, and possibly others.

Ratchet Ships For PS3 With A Small Bug

Boston (dbTechno) - The most highly anticipated game this year for the Sony PS3 has shipped in Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction, but it appears to be a glitch in the retail version.

Reports are stating that the glitch which is in the game will prevent users from creating a save file for the game. This means that no matter how much they play they will not be able to save their progress they have made in Ratchet and Clank Future on the PS3.

Users will either receive a message saying there is not enough space to save the file, or have other error messages appear. This is even though there is more than enough space to save the game files.

Insomniac community manager James Stevenson responded stating “We recently discovered a bug on the US version of Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction that some of you may encounter the first time you boot the game. With specific amounts of free space on your drive, you may see a screen that tells you have insufficient space to create game data.”

The problem can be solved if the user deletes the 500MB or more from their PS3 hard drive it seems. Sony has stated that future copies of Ratchet on the PS3 will be fixed.

Google Upgrades Gmail With IMAP

Houston (dbTechno) - Google has added an IMAP feature to Gmail which will allow users to synchronize their mail almost simultaneously to several devices at once.

Gmail is one of the most popular web-based e-mail services in the world. This new IMAP feature will allow you to get your Gmail without ever actually going to Gmail.com.

The new feature can be activated by going into your Gmail account and enabling IMAP, that’s it.

The Associate Product Manager for Google, David Murray, stated that people have been asking for IMAP for Gmail for a long time. “In fact, we are doing it for you for free on all devices and platforms.”

Google has offered the POP Gmail e-mail service for years now and has millions upon millions of users who use it daily. POP though does not allow users to synch e-mails and go from device to device.

The new IMAP service will send e-mail to all desktops, laptops, phones, etc. all simultaneously.

This should expand the range of Gmail users greatly who need e-mail on the go and always can’t be logged onto Gmail.com.

China Launches First Lunar Orbiter

Beijing (dbTechno) - It has been a monumental day for China as they have launched their first lunar orbiter, placing China right in the middle of a new space race.

The Chang’e One satellite was named after a mythical figure who flew to the moon. It lifted off in western China’s SIchuan province aboard a Long March A3 rocket.

The satellite is going to spend a year going around and studying the lunar surface. This is the foundation for what will eventually lead to China being the first Asian nation to put an astronaut on the moon.

The monumental launch was broadcast live on state television as 2,000 space fans paid $100 a piece to see it in person.

“These things serve as a cohesive force for the whole nation. Even if you don’t believe in communism, at least you will try to accept that it is the leadership of the Communist Party that has made China strong and able to compete with the other superpowers,” said Ivan Choy, a political scientist at the City University of Hong Kong.

This is the first of a three-stage quest to land a moon rover which is expected to be in 2012, and then five years later bring back soil samples.

Microsoft and Google battle for Facebook ads

Boston (dBTechno) - According to media reports Wednesday, Facebook could be close to reaching an advertising agreement with either Google Inc. or Microsoft Corp in a deal potentially worth $15 billion.

Big wigs from Microsoft and Google met at the Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto this week to discuss a possible deal.

Both companies are eager to tap into the massive online user-base which holds billions in potential ad revenue.

A deal could be reached within 48 hours, reported the New York Post.

Microsoft and Google are each vying for a stake of 5 percent to 10 percent in the social-networking site that could cost between $750 million and $1.5 billion, the Post reported.

With deeper pockets, Microsoft may not take no for an answer. Either way, it will be interesting to see how much money is going to be coughed up.

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