Oracle Giving Students Free Passes to JavaOne Conference

JavaOne and Oracle Develop are offering free Discover Passes to all qualifying students offering those students complimentary admission to the upcoming JavaOne and Oracle Develop conferences.

What Students Get: Admission to any session in the Java Frontier track for students, JavaOne, Oracle Develop and OpenWorld keynotes, three Exhibition Halls and the Mason street tent. Space permitting, you can also attend any JavaOne and Oracle Develop technical sessions, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions (BOFs), and Hands-on-Lab (HOL) sessions.

On top of the benefits that the free Discover Pass to qualifying students offers we have organized a special Java Frontier track for students. These sessions are designed for those with some or no programming experience. Students with no programming experience will discover tools and projects related to programming. Students with programming experience will learn tricks and tips for programming complex logic and deepen their knowledge of projects like Open Source.

To qualify for the free passes you must be enrolled in an accredited nonprofit institutions of learning during the Fall semester/quarter of 2010, taking a minimum of six (6) units, and you must be at least 18 years old.

JavaOne and Oracle Develop are being held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco September 19 - 23, 2010

To Register: Call the JavaOne and Oracle Develop help desk Monday through Friday, 6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) at 1.866.382.7151 (U.S. and Canada) or +1.650.226.0820 (international).

or

Create a PDF copy of your current Student ID and your 2010 Fall schedule of classes and either e-mail to javaoneinfo@eventreg.com or Fax to +1.650.226.0840. Your credentials will be reviewed, and if you qualify, you will be sent a confirmation e-mail with event registration details.

More details:

• Calling All Student Developers: Get into JavaOne and Oracle Develop for FREE!
• JavaOne and Oracle Develop Registration
• JavaOne Track Descriptions
• Oracle OpenWorld 2010

eBay Tightens PayPal's Monopoly Officially Bans Third Party Online Checkout Options

Most eBay sellers that are familiar with the eBay seller agreement know that eBay holds a tight reign on the services sellers can use to collect payments and while Google Checkout and several other third party services have never explicitly been disallowed the company has never listed most of them as accepted payment services.

According to a recent post by Todd Lutwak, eBay’s vice president of the seller experience, the company is instituting a new policy that will disallow collections of payments from not only Google Checkout but any and all third party online payment services.

Once the new policy takes affect PayPal will stand as the only online payment method available to users. The company claims the move is intended “to give eBay buyers a consistent, speedy checkout experience and to ensure support for fast-growing sales via mobile platforms...,”

Clearly this has more to do with eBay owning PayPal than the user experience. Users have for years complained about the monopolistic approach eBay has taken towards PayPal. This seems to me nothing more than eBay looking to further double dip on their sellers!

Read more via eBay:

• Special Seller Update: eBay Checkout
• Third party phase-out

Apple's Press Event In A Nutshell

Personally I hate sitting through press events, even if I could do it from the comfort of my own home as with today's streaming event from Apple. There is something about hearing company clonies dragging on and on about their latest greatest product and how much I need it in my life that kind of bores me. So I wait for the condensed version, dissect it, and draw from it the information I want or need.

Well for those of you that share my disdain for the ramblings of cooperate heads here is the condensed version of Apple big event:

Apple Introduces New iPod touch

Apple announced the new iPod touch, packed with new features including Apple’s Retina display featuring 960 x 640 pixels—four times as many pixels than before, FaceTime video calling, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 chip, 3-axis gyro, iOS 4.1 and Game Center—all combined in a new thinner and lighter iPod. The new iPod touch features up to 40 hours of music playback and seven hours of video playback on a single battery charge.

The new iPod touch will be available next week for a suggested price of $229 for the 8GB model, $299 for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model through the Apple Store (www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.

Apple Announces New iPod nano With Multi-Touch Interface and iPod Shuffle

Apple today unveiled a completely redesigned iPod nano featuring Apple’s Multi-Touch interface that lets users navigate their music collection by simply tapping or swiping a finger on the display. Nearly half the size and weight of the previous generation, the new iPod nano features a polished aluminum and glass enclosure with a built-in clip.

The new wearable iPod shuffle has an all-aluminum enclosure with a built-in clip and comes in five brilliant colors—silver, blue, green, orange and pink. The new new iPod shuffle will sale for just $49 while the new iPod nano with Multi-Touch will have a starting price of $149 and should be on-sale in time for the holiday season.

Apple Introduces iTunes 10 With Ping Social Music Discovery

One of the more exciting announcement was the announcement of the newest version of iTunes, iTunes 10 with Ping, a new music-oriented social network for following your favorite artists and friends to discover what music they’re talking about, listening to and downloading. iTunes Ping lets you post your thoughts and opinions, your favorite albums and songs, the music you’ve downloaded from iTunes, plus view concert listings and tell your friends which concerts you plan to attend.

iTunes 10 will also allow users to rent their favorite HD TV shows commercial free from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America and watch them at home or on the go for just 99 cents an episode. Apple promises that thousands of episodes are going to be available, many the day after broadcast, to watch on your Mac or PC, iPhone, iPod touch and the all-new Apple TV, and you have 30 days from the moment you rent an episode to start watching it, and 48 hours after that to finish it.

iTunes 10 is available immediately as a free download at www.itunes.com.

Apple Premieres a New Smaller Apple TV

Apple's new entry into the set-top market is the new $99 Apple TV box. The new Apple TV box features streaming content from ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America for just 99 cents and first run movies for $4.99. Users will also have the option to stream content from Netflix, YouTube, Flickr and MobileMe, as well as music, photos and videos from PCs and Macs to directly to their HD TVs.

Apple TV will be available late this month for a suggested retail price of $99 (US) and can be pre-ordered beginning today on Apple’s online store (www.apple.com).

Virgin Mobile Now Offering $40 Unlimited Mobile Broadband2Go Plan

Starting last week Virgin Mobile updated the companies mobile Broadband2Go service with two new price tiers a new $40 unlimited mobile broadband plan and an inexpensive $10 option for 100 MB, good for 10 days from purchase.

“Many unlimited broadband offerings require a contract or are on networks with limited range, so they don’t meet the need for flexibility or true mobility,” said Neil Lindsay, chief marketing officer, Virgin Mobile USA.  “The introduction of Virgin Mobile’s prepaid unlimited broadband for $40 a month will provide the access you need on a nationwide network without a contract.”

New Broadband2Go Plans
Signing up for the new unlimited plan also means customers no longer need to monitor data usage – and try to figure out how much they need --

Price        Expires    MBs/GBs    Web Browsing        Video        Emails
$40        1 month        Unlimited    Unlimited        Unlimited    Unlimited

$10        10 Days        100 MB        5 HRS            25 MIN        10,000

To use Virgin Mobile's new mobile broadband plans, you must also purchase the carrier's MiFi 2200 mobile hotspot for $150 or the Ovation MC760 USB device for $80. Devices are available at Best Buy, RadioShack , Sprint Stores, Virgin Mobile and Boost Mobile stores, Walmart and online at BestBuy.com, Target.com, Walmart.com and VirginMobileUSA.com.

Source: Virgin Mobile Press Release

Microsoft Makes Arc Touch Mouse Official

After weeks of the Microsoft Hardware team teasing about a new device on Twitter the company has made the device official with the announcement of the new Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse.

The new mouse features Microsoft’s first capacitive sensing touch scroll strip for easy navigation — just move a finger slowly for controlled scrolling or flick for hyperfast scrolling. The strip also has three tap “buttons” for added functionality: page up, page down and the middle click area, which is reprogrammable for whatever mouse function the user needs most. Switching from a scroll wheel to a touch strip is made easier with haptics, a vibration technology that simulates the bumps users would feel while using a traditional scroll wheel.

The Arc Touch Mouse is equipped with BlueTrack Technology, letting consumers track on virtually any surface, and a tiny magnetic snap-in Nano transceiver stores conveniently on the bottom of the mouse. Two AAA batteries give the Arc Touch Mouse more than six months of battery life, and the two-color battery life indicators let people know when the power is running low.

The Arc Touch Mouse will be available for the estimated retail price of $69.95 (U.S.). It is available now for presale on Amazon.com, BestBuy.com and Buy.com, and it will ship in early December.

Apple Will be Streaming Tomorrow’s Big Apple Event Live

For all you Apple Fanboy and girls out there that are interested in what Apple has hidden up it's sleeve you will get your chance to watch live with the rest of us.

Apple has just announced that anyone owning either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad will be able to watch the big press event live at Apple.com, starting at 10AM Pacific.

Sorry none Apple owners you are going to have to wait for the follow-up video, or you'll have to catch a your favorite bloggers live blogging the event. For those running Firefox there may be a few workarounds, namely the User Agent Switcher add-on. Using the add-on you can make Firefox appear to sites as an iPhone, iPad or other Mac OS device.

Here's a list of Firefox User Agent Strings that can be used to replace the current MS string and of course you'll need to know which settings to change. For that I suggest checking out one of these tutorials

• a) LifeHacker.com - How to Use Gmail's Attractive New Tablet-Friendly Interface on Your Regular Old Computer
• b) GroovyPost.com - Surf The Web iPad Style From Your PC and Firefox [How-To]

iFixit Now Offers Gaming Console Repair Guides, Tools and Parts

Those geeks over at iFixit may be best known for their teardowns and guides for smartphones and other mobile devices but that is about to change. iFixit has decided to push into a relatively untapped market: gamers who want fully detailed guides on how to open their systems, work on the innards, replace parts and keep them alive. The site will be offering a combination of information and products, mixing how-to manuals with specialized tools and replacement parts.

Right now there are repair guides for 24 gaming consoles, including 206 repairs and upgrades. Some of these fixes deal with major issues, such as the infamous Red Ring of Death from the Xbox 360, but others are simpler. For instance, right now there is no easy way to clean out the fans inside your console, something that any geek knows should be fairly routine maintenance. With an iFixit teardown guide you can now d-i-y it.

Some of the other guides go through more complicated procedures, some of which will take a little know how, like learning how to replace broken LCD screens on your portables or replace the motherboard on your PlayStation 3.

iFixit's repair guides are great. They are very well written and easy to follow, chocked full of pics so you know exactly what you are doing and they offer user interaction by way of editing similar to a iki. There is also forum style question section so you can ask those hard to answer questions.

Say So Long To ATI, AMD Kills Off The ATI Brand

AMD has decided to dissolved the ATI brand completely, and consolidated ATI brands, such as Radeon and FirePro under the AMD main brand. AMD which purchsed ATI back in 2006 for $5.4 billion point to recent research which the company says indicates that people prefer the AMD name to the ATI name. Under the new branding scheme, all of AMD's new graphics products (such as the upcoming Radeon HD 6000 series), will do away with "ATI" completely from the logo, marketing material, and so on, and the market will, as it already has been doing since the AMD-ATI merger, albeit informally, refer to Radeon/FirePro products as "AMD Radeon" and "AMD FirePro".

THis move really comes as no big surprise. Most of us know the ATI name doesn’t mean a whole bunch these days, in fact most of us interchange the AMD/ATI names when referring to GPU's anyways. For me it’s more of a nostalgia thing. “Oh man, they’re phasing out the ATI name that has been here for ages!" I recently took part of in an AMD insight study where they showed off several new logo designs, some of which were for the new AMD Radeon logos some were new ATI designs. Looking back at the study it doesn’t surprise me that their research pointed to more people liking the new AMD Radeon logos over the new ATI logos they had. Those things were funky and IMO ugly.

ATARI Announces ATARI Greatest Hits Volume 1 For Nintendo DS

50 of the most addicting games from Atari’s legendary vault will be compiled into the must-have Nintendo DS title of the holiday season as Atari, one of the world’s most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment, launches Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1. The ultimate DS title for casual gamers, Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1 brings together dozens of the most popular Atari arcade and Atari 2600 titles of all-time, including such blockbusters as Asteroids, Pong, Centipede, Missile Command, Tempest, Lunar Lander, Space Duel, Battlezone and Adventure.  This true treasure trove of timeless gaming classics will hit retail stores in North America this Fall.

In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, Atari introduced a new era in interactive entertainment with its addictive arcade games and home gaming system.  Now with Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1, a retro gaming revolution will be ignited on the Nintendo DS.  Each spotlighted game will feature the same pick-up and play control scheme as their original arcade and 2600 form, with modern updates to align with the Nintendo DS platform.  Single card multi-player will be available for 20 titles including Space Duel and Pong with multi-card play available for head-to-head games. 

Additionally, Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1 will feature the original game manuals for each title, an Atari memorabilia showcase, and special bonus extras -- including an Atari Trivia game where gamers can race against the clock to answer questions about Atari history and then post their scores to Atari.com.

“The 50 games featured in Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1 have defined a generation of casual gamers” said Jim Wilson, President of Atari, Inc. “By adding a new single cartridge multiplayer mode to such games as Pong, Space Duel and Outlaw, we continue to find new ways to expand our brands to a new generation of gamers.”

The complete Atari’s Greatest Hits: Volume 1 line-up is as follows:

Atari Arcade Hits  

Asteroids, Battlezone, Centipede, Gravitar, Lunar Lander, Missile Command, Pong, Space Duel, Tempest.

Atari 2600 Favorites

3D Tic-Tac-Toe, Adventure, Air-Sea Battle, Asteroids, Atari Video Cube, Basketball, Battlezone, Bowling, Centipede, Championship Soccer, Dodge ’Em, Flag Capture, Football, Fun with Numbers, Gravitar, Hangman, Haunted House, Home Run, Human Cannonball, Math Gran Prix, Miniature Golf, Missile Command, Outlaw, Realsports Baseball, Realsports Boxing, Realsports Football, Realsports Tennis, Realsports Volleyball, Sky Diver, Slot Maching, Slot Racers, Sprintmasters, Starship, Stella Track, Submarine Commander, Surround, Swordquest Earthworld, Swordquest Fireworld, Swordquest Waterworld,Tempest and Video Checkers.

Developed by Atari in partnership with Code Mystics, Atari’s Greatest Hits: Vol. 1 is Rated “E” for Everyone and will be available exclusively on Nintendo DS for a suggested retail price of $29.99.  For more information, please log onto www.atari.com.

WD Announces New Livewire High-Speed Powerline AV Network Kit

Plug-and-play Device Uses Existing Electrical Outlets to Stream HD Video to the Connected Home Theater 

Western Digital, the world's leader in external storage solutions, today introduced its new WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit (photo), a HomePlug AV compatible solution that enables consumers to use their existing electrical outlets to extend secure and reliable high-speed Internet connections throughout the home. Complementing the WD TV line of media players, the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit enables consumers to easily and affordably deliver HD video streams to the home theater, transfer large files or play multi-player online games, all without running network cables around the home. With four ports on each of two adapters included in the kit, the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit offers users the ability to connect their router and up to seven additional devices to their high-speed network.

According to research from Parks Associates, an increasing number of consumers own connected devices such as HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players, game consoles and digital media players such as the WD TV Live Plus HD media player (Home Networks for Consumer Electronics 2009). By the end of 2010, Parks Associates forecasts consumers will own 111 million of these devices, with 37 million Internet-capable devices in the U.S. alone, but "connecting" them can be challenging and costly. In a recent Parks Associates survey, 42 percent of respondents unwilling to connect their TVs to the Internet indicated that either their router was too far from the device or it would be too complicated to set up or both (Digital Media Evolution II 2010).

Featuring HomePlug AV technology, the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit provides users with data transfer speeds up to 200 megabits per second (Mbps), enabling glitch-free playback of Full-HD 1080p video streams on up to seven connected devices. Setup is as easy as plugging in a lamp. Consumers do not need to undertake home improvement projects to route new wiring between rooms. They simply plug one of the two adapters in the kit into their router and an electrical outlet then plug the other adapter into another outlet where they need access to wired network connections. Users can stream video to four connected devices in the home theater and also gain an additional three network ports by their router.

For an integrated entertainment solution, users can store digital media on WD's My Book World Edition home network drive and stream photos, music and HD video via the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit to one of the WD TV line of media players or other DLNA-compliant devices located throughout the home.

"Consumers are accumulating an increasing number of Internet-capable connected TVs, video game consoles and media players providing access to exciting online content through services such as Netflix, YouTube and Pandora," said Dale Pistilli, vice president of marketing for WD's branded products group. "Wireless networks, while popular, don't always deliver the reliable high-speed connections needed to sustain HD video streaming. Meanwhile, drilling holes for new Ethernet cables is complicated, expensive and messy. With the WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit, it's truly easy to enjoy all the HD streaming and broadband Internet capabilities of these great new devices anywhere there is an electrical outlet."

WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit
WDLivewirePowerline AV Network Kit features:

• Easy set-up and instant network expansion anywhere in the home;
• Two 4-port HomePlug AV adapters;
• Two Ethernet cables;
• Two power cables;
• Quick install guide;
• CD with WD Livewireutility software;
• Warranty and support guide; and,
• A 1-year limited warranty.

Compatibility
The WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kit is HomePlug AV certified and is IEEE 802.3 and IEEE 802.3u compliant. The kit requires an Ethernet router and AC power outlets.

Price and Availability
The new WD Livewire Powerline AV Network Kithas a 1-year limited warranty and is available now at select retailers and online at wdstore.com. MSRP is $139.99 USD. 

Practical Tips For Sat Nav Drivers

This guest post was written by Zara Turner from Satellite Navigation UK

Unfortunately it is not always as simple as typing in post code into your satellite navigation system and relying on that system to reach your desired destination as quickly and safely as possible. In reality, users face quiet a few problems along their way using satellite navigation. Here are some useful and informative tips from the fine folks at Satellite Navigation UK for drivers armed with sat nav devices.

Hook into speakers

The smartphone speakers are thin when compared to those on dedicated sat navs, making it very difficult for the drivers to hear instructions on motorways. If your car stereo can utilize the 3.5mm input, link this to your smartphone and use your car stereo speakers to pipe the instructions. Alternatively, the phone can be connected to advanced Bluetooth speaker to achieve better clarity.

This practice will make hearing your directions much easier and provide a much clearer sound for more distinction between odd street names and or muffled directions.

Do not rely on postcodes alone

Your sat nav may support the postcode option, but relying on it completely may not be the most effective use of your system at all times. The postcode search could work fine in cities and towns where a single code covers a handful of houses, however this may not be the case while in rural areas. In various rural areas a postcode search may be completely useless as one post code could cover the entire village. In these cases it would be best to always utilize the complete address.

Beware of Heated Windscreens

Heated windscreens or heat-reflective screens can cause interference with GPS reception making it difficult for your sat nav to receive GPS signals. The problem can be addressed by fixing an external antenna and running the wire up behind the rear view mirror where the heated windscreen usually meshes with the roof of the car. The addition of the external antenna should reduce the interference cause by the heatd windshield thus boosting reception.

Stay up to date

Roads, speed limits and speed camera positions change frequently, hence it is better to take advantage of any updates your sat nav manufacturer may offer. Some sat nav manufacturers only offer free road map updates where as other may other update options such as traffic, road construction and more. This service is not only important for adding in some of the newer roads, speeds limits or other possible issues but it having the latest updates can be very useful for faster, safer and tension free driving to your destinations.

Readers wanting more tips or information on safer use of their sat nav systems or those wanting reviews on popular systems like the LG sat Nav systems, Kenwood systems and Magellan systems can compare sat nav prices and reviews at the Satellite Navigation System Reviews website.

Valve Just Says No To Linux

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Valve's VP of Marketing Doug Lombardi dished out some bad news for Linux gamers stating: "There's no Linux version that we're working on right now."

Following the interview and the denial of Steam for Linux many gaming sites have begun to question the vague wording of the "right now" statement. Does this mean they had been working on a Linux Steam client that is already complete? Does it mean they are holding off for now and we might see one down the road? No one really knows. Valve, earlier this year released its Mac port of Steam to bring cross-platform gaming compatibility between PC and Mac users so it would seem likely the company would want to port the application over to the Linux community.

Since. for now at least there is no official Linux Steam client Linux users will need to run a work around. One that has been posted via the Value Developer Wiki can be found here "Install and use Steam under a Linux environment."

You can read the whole interview @ GamesIndustry.biz (you'll need an account to read the entire interview but you can register for free).