The launch of the Xbox 360 has come and gone, and not surprisingly it wasn’t without issue. As many have predicted, Microsoft did a poor job of supplying retailers, either by choice or through mere incompetence. Gamers who went through the trouble of preordering the console found that that didn’t guarantee them one. Of the few that obtained a 360, some found that the system had a tendency to crash, mainly due to the system’s hulking power supply running hot.The power supply, which couldn’t be more brick-like, has been a magnet for ridicule since it was first unveiled. Microsoft originally chose to remove the power supply entirely from within the console because it was a major heat source; by doing so, they were less restricted in their design of the 360. Of course, they didn’t take into account the users who would be placing this extremely hot device on their carpets. Microsoft says that only about 3% of the consoles are affected, but take that with a grain of salt. For now, the best solution is to keep the power unit off of carpets and anything that may get in the way of heat dissipation.
Last week also saw the release of Firefox 1.5, the first major update since the Firefox browser hit version 1.0 last November. The new version adds an improved automatic updater, a simple method of clearing private data, drag and drop reordering for tabs, and a slew of other performance improvements. This is an essential update for new and old Firefox users alike. The revamped updater is a much-needed utility for Firefox; previously users would have had to download and reinstall the entire browser every time the developers at Mozilla issued a security or version update.
Personally, I’ve reinstalled Firefox around a dozen times over the past year because of this. With the automatic updater, users can simply choose “Check for Updates” from the Help menu and Firefox 1.5 will download the necessary files. The download process is faster than before since Firefox 1.5 only grabs the files it needs, and users need only restart the browser to complete the update. Firefox 1.5 will also alert users when updates are available. While this is a great feature for all Firefox users, it’s especially important for the less technically inclined. Now anyone can keep Firefox up to date without worrying about reinstallation and all the problems that may arise from it.
On a different note, I’m finding it increasingly annoying that cell-phone providers are throwing more and more useless functionality at us instead of things we need. Perhaps this is just my bias towards the uselessness of digital audio on phones, but I don’t think I’m in the wrong here. Consider this: cell-phone users tend to keep their phones with them no matter where they go, so wouldn’t a service that takes advantage of that seem more practical? Say for example, GPS functionality of some sort that could tie into features like driving directions and information on businesses near your location. Nextel already offers GPS service similar to this, but of course it doesn’t work in areas without Nextel coverage. Nextel also isn’t the most popular of cell-phone providers, although their recent merger with Sprint may spread this service. It astounds me that the more popular providers haven’t made any headway into this market, but perhaps I’ve said too much.
For now, Google offers two services that make up for the lack of true GPS service. Google Local (google.com/mobile/) is available as a download for some phones, and it gives you practically all the functionality of Google Maps over your phone. You can also access a stripped down version of Google Local with your phone’s web browser if you can’t access the downloadable version. Google SMS (google.com/sms) offers the same functionality over text messages, simply send a query to “46645” (GOOGL) and wait for a response. Leave it to Google to offer these much needed services for free, although you still need to worry about data and text charges from your provider. Until our phones can tell us exactly where we are at any given moment, this will do.
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