I’ve pre-ordered the 16GB Wi-Fi version using the pickup method from The Grove Apple Store in Los Angeles on April 3rd. If I don’t make it there by 3pm, the pre-order will be cancelled and the device will go on sale to the public. Given there was really no liability if I decide not to get one, I pre-ordered in the event that I fall in love with the device when i get hands on.

If all goes well, I’ll be one of the first Australians to use the device. Depending on network connectivity, I’ll be posting photos and video of a first hands-on, then a more detailed review later on.

More @ Apple

Earlier today HP released an awesome new add-in for their MediaSmart Home Servers. The MediaSmart Expander for TiVo allows you to copy your favourite recordings to the MediaSmart so running out of storage should never be an issue again. Another feature is the ability to stream those shows from your PC back through your TiVo to your TV.

This means you’ll never need to fork out for that Western Digital 1TB Expander drive, your own storage that you’ve already invested in. The only downside is the transfer is a manual one. So you’ll need to open the Home Server Console Periodically and transfer the show you wish to keep, then delete them from the TiVo. While that may seem annoying, the upside is the storage amount is only limited to the size of your Home Server array, which as you know is easily upgradable.

This Add-in is supported on HP MediaSmart EX490/EX495 and HP DataVault X510 models, earlier models are not compatible. On the TiVo side you’ll need a Series II, Series III, TiVo Premier. Both Australian TiVo models will work. One more caveat is that both the TiVo and MediaSmart must be on the same network. In the standard home setup, this isn’t an issue.

If you in the US, you’ll see a new Add-in available in the Settings screen of the Home Server Console. If your outside of the US, then head over to http://www.hp.com/united-states/consumer/everyday-computing/mediasmartserver/us/en/tivo.html and download the Add-in manually.

Step 1 – Setup
Copy the HPTivoExpanderAddin.msi file into the Software/Add-ins folder on your Home Server. 

Step 2 – Install the add-in
Open the Windows Home Server Console, click Settings in the top-right corner.

Step 3 – Activate
Select the MediaSmart Add-in and click install. Once finished installing the Home Server Console will need to restart.

The next time you launch it, you’ll notice the addition of the HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVO© item to the left-hand side menu.

Step 4 – Configure
There’s very minor configuration required before the devices can talk to one another. Simply click on the Configuration button at the top-right and enter your TiVo Media Access Key, available from your account page on http://tivo.com.au

Step 5 – Select
Once configured you’ll see the files stored on your TiVo. To transfer files to your MediaSmart, select each file (holding CTRL+click for multiple), when your ready to go, click the Transfer Selected Files button.

Once the Transfer is in progress, go make yourself a coffee, or 10.. this process is not fast. When complete the files (shows) will display in the third tab Files on Server where they can be deleted if you wish, or simply browse to the folder and delete them like normal files.

Step 6 – Location and Playback
After some investigation I discovered the files are actually transferred to \\MEDIASMART\Recorded TV\tivo. If you’d like to playback the files, you’ll need the TiVo Desktop software installed on your machine.

Step 7 – Watch on TV
Another option, and probably the more common, is for playback through the TiVo to your TV. To play the files (now located on your MediaSmart, scroll right to the bottom of your Now Playing list and you’ll find a new item called HP MediaSmart Server (MEDIASMART) where MEDIASMART is the name of your server.

That’s it, that’s all there is.. well except for an nice little easter egg.. those guys at HP seem to love them. Discovered by the guys over at mediasmartserver.net, if you double-right click on the TiVo DVRs Found section, you get a 4th tab Team Info.

In other news.. while hunting around HP site today I noticed, the HP EX490 MediaSmart Servers have dropped in price. I paid A$899 for mine only a few months back, they are now A$749.

More info @ HP.com

Let’s start with Foursquare, version 1.7 contains a refreshed UI, speed improvements, and places now support categories like the website.

Available from the iTunes Store

Gowalla gets a full point release, reaching version 2.0. This update also contains a update to the design, which increases usability and is easier to read. You can now add photos to a venue after checking in and browse photos others have taken at that location. That’s huge !

Available from the iTunes Store

The latest round of Forza 3 DLC is out. Jalopnik is a Gawker Media blog that focuses on everything car-related. Naturally they’ve partnered with Forza to bring a hot new lineup of cars to the game in the for of DLC. The Jalopnik Car Pack which contains 10 cars will set you back 400 Microsoft points (A$6.60).

Jalopnik Car Pack includes:

2008 MAZDA FURAI
2010 HONDA CIVIC TYPE R MUGEN
2009 #40 ROBERTSON RACING FORD GT
2010 ASTON MARTIN RAPIDE
2011 BMW Z4
2010 AUDI TT RS
2010 #33 RSR JAGUAR XKR
2010 PORSCHE 911 SPORT CLASSIC
2010 ASTON MARTIN V12 VANTAGE
1992 BUGATTI EB110SS

More @ ForzaMotorsport.net

Forza Update
Forza fans shouldn’t forget there’s a major patch due for release in the next 24hrs. Codenamed Title Update 4 (TU4), the patch will be rolling out between 2AM and 4AM PST. There’s lots of changes coming, best to read all the info over at ForzaMotorsport.

The last time we seen the HP slate was during Steve Ballmer’s keynote speech at CES. Information has been so scarce that many were starting to call it vapourware. With no confirmed ship date, specs or price, it’s easy to understand why, especially with it’s greatest competitor – the Apple iPad only a month away from shipping.

Adobe shows off the HP slate running Flash in the browser, based on 10.1, it makes use of GPU acceleration to reduce CPU cycles. Also showcased in the video is the ability to run Adobe AIR apps in Windows 7 on the slate. These are out of browser apps that make use of the Windows 7 on-screen keyboard for input. Those familiar with the on-screen keyboard would know this is resizable so as to adjust to your hand size.

Update
There’s now an embeddable version on YouTube.

Watch the video @ Adobe

Announced on the 5th of March, YouTube had added audio transcription to videos in an effort to increase accessibility. Just hover over the CC button in the player, then select the ‘Transcribe Audio’ option. Available in 50 different languages, it’s an ambitious venture from Google. One that could potentially open up videos to truly world-wide viewing.

The Transcribe audio feature is currently in beta and they’ve certainly got some work to do. I tested it on one of my videos (obviously have an Australian accent), it got this sentence completely wrong.

In the example below, I actually say the words:
“Hi this is Jason from Wodonga Australia and I think the story of the decade has..”

YouTube Translate interprets what I said as:
”but is this just in from would over a stray a and I think the story of the day Kennedy has”.

Clearly it’s not even close, naturally I wasn’t expecting 100% accuracy here, but this translation is so far off, it’s completely unusable. Have you experienced the same results ? 

More @ YouTube and the YouTube Blog

Microsoft have officially announced May 12th, 2010 will be the launch date for Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. This date represents the retail launch of the products, with the RTM date scheduled for sometime in April. This means MSDN and TechNet subscribers should have the bits before the end of April.

Office 2010 provides some important updates like the ribbon UI across all apps, new backstage view, threaded email conversations, social connector add-in support and some much needed updated same templates. Ultimately its a very polished Office 2007, using the same .docx, .xlsx file types. New in 2010 is the web apps, although we’re still yet to see editing of word docs online, this should be available at launch.

Here’s a good comparison video showing what’s new in Office 2010 and Office 2007.

SharePoint 2010 on the other hand is a massive upgrade on SharePoint 2007. A completely new UI features the ribbon that users are familiar with from the using Office products. There’s also an extended range of in-built site types. Integration between SharePoint and Office has been improved with a new SharePoint Workspace application added to Office. This allows important SharePoint content to be available whilst offline. If you create any new documents while out on the road, you can easily sync these back when you return to the office.

More @ Microsoft SharePoint Team Blog

In a demo a Tech.Ed Middle East, Eric Rudder showed how a single project (in this case a game) could be published and run on 3 entirely different platforms. Running on Windows, Xbox and Windows Phone 7 which all have different input mechanisms – keyboard and mouse, controller, touch-screen and accelerometer, this begins to get very interesting.

This gets a whole lot more awesome when you find out that your game/app can sync across platforms. So hit the save point on the Xbox, run out the door and continue playing on your phone. Someone should sort through the old beyond 2000 footage, this technology is probably in there somewhere. It sounds like futuristic and probably will be some ways off before you get a triple-platform app in your hand.

My biggest question out of this is the pricing model. Are we expected to buy the game 3 times to get ultra-portability ? It’s important to also recognise that this isn’t functionality everyone wants. So building it into the price of the first purchase will hurt those who only want it on one platform. For the right price, those that want ultra-portability should pay for that feature, but at a subsidised price. Maybe after the primary purchase, you could then pickup the same app/game on the other platforms for 5-10% of the original cost. I think that’s a model that would work.

For a $100 Xbox 360 game, you should be able to get the PC version for an additional $10 and maybe an additional $5 for the mobile version. Currently pricing models don’t recognise that people game in different places, when in reality that’s very true. Imagine if you didn’t have to make the console vs PC choice, but could have the game on both for an affordable price. Crazy thought right ?

More @ Engadget

By now most of you would have heard that Apple have delayed the release of the iPad. Whilst there’s specifics for dates and prices in the US, the same can’t be said for Australia. The iPad pre-orders will begin on March 12th, and be available on April 3 for the US. Many other countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain Switzerland and the UK will have to wait till late April.

Late April was the original timeframe for the Wifi+3G version, so it’s probably safe to say that date will slip into May.

What’s annoying is we still don’t have official pricing here in Australia. On the Apple website it says ‘A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.’ however it fails to list what that price is. Naturally this will be revealed in the coming weeks, but given it’s been a couple months since the iPad announcement in January, that should have been enough time to nail down production costs, shipping, taxes, and partnership deals with Australian carriers.

Make no mistake, price is critical here. The delay is annoying, but consumers will bear a slippage of a couple of weeks, but if the iPad is too expensive, consumer adoption will be severely limited.

More information when Apple deems us worthy.

Keyboard
The Microsoft Arc Keyboard is unique in its styling and configuration. The name arc comes from the keyboards arc shape, curing up in the center which has 2 benefits, the first is that it’s supposed to match the natural configuration of the human hands, as well as being able to rest comfortably on your knees if used in a home entertainment scenario.

Typing on the keyboard does take some time to adjust to, especially after having the muscle memory established on flat, laptop-style keyboards. Over the course of a few days your hands adjust and typing is fine. Note: I am a touch typist, if your a hunt and peck style typist, this really won’t be an issue. Part of the adjustment comes from the increased distance between keys. The Arc keyboard has chicklet style keys, similar to that of recent apple products, the difference being that the keys are higher. This means the gap between keys is deep, this can prevent you from free flowing from one key to another.

After first opening the box, you’ll notice this keyboard is small and light. Microsoft have had to make some serious sacrifices to reach this form factor. There’s no num pad which isn’t uncommon in laptops, but is rare for a desktop keyboard. There’s also a condensed navigation section, with the up, down, left right keys being condensed into a single 4-way key. This takes a bit of getting used to.

Looking to the top of the keyboard, there left hand side contains the standard F1-F6 keys, but to access F7-F12, you’ll need to hold the function key. Move across you’ll find Home(/Printscreen), End, Page up, Page down, then media controls, which are incredibly responsive, then top right is a decent sized Delete key. Great for correcting mistakes without looking. 

Mouse
Designed for portability the Microsoft Arc Mouse folds in half for easier travel. In it’s folded mode, it’d easily fit in your pocket, but before taking your mouse on the road, just snap the USB Bluetooth module in the underside of the mouse. After using the mouse for the best part of a week, I’d have to say the arc is simply too high to be comfortable and the back button is way to far forward to be accessible. Overall the mouse works great, it’s super sensitive which is great when gaming, but even in general desktop use. I run 2 monitors running 1920×1200 resolution, so moving from one side to the other can require quite a lot of physical movement with some mice. With a sensitive mouse like this, I actually had to turn the mouse speed down and can now move across the 3840 pixels with a slight move of the wrist.

Connectivity
What was surprising to me is that the keyboard and mouse need their own separate USB Bluetooth module, taking up 2 of your USB ports. Sure a wired solution would have the same requirement, however there are other Microsoft keyboard and mouse solutions that have a single USB dongle. Admittedly the Arc system is easier, just plug in and go, rather than have to sync each device.

Gallery

Device Stage
If your not familiar with it, Windows 7 comes with a new feature called Device Stage. Designed to be an attractive, functional interface into new devices connected to your system. Unfortunately there’s very few devices that currently support Device Stage. The Microsoft Arc Keyboard and Mouse does support Device Stage, a welcome addition, and naturally you’d expect the company to support it’s own hardware. Lets hope more hardware manufacturers adopt Device Stage in the near future.

Update
After testing the Arc keyboard with the Xbox 360 I found a weird glitch. Whilst the keyboard works great in the standard Xbox 360 interface, it fails in Media Center. Strangely only the left and right functions work, up and down does nothing. This is possibly due to the keyboard combining the 4 arrow keys into a single key.

Disclaimer
After posting on twitter that my Microsoft Explorer 3.0 mouse had died, I received an email from Microsoft. They offered to replace the mouse and after further discussions sent me through a Microsoft Arc and Keyboard.

More info @ Microsoft Hardware

If your anywhere near 420 Brunswick st, Fortitude Valley, QLD, then get your ass to the event and experience what’s sure to be one hell of an awesome night. As a Victorian, I’m very jealous right now.

More @ http://manabar.com.au

Old photo size (left) compared to the new size. (Note that actual photos are larger; this shows scale only.)

There is a caveat for external applications that upload photos to Facebook (i.e. Windows Live Photo Grallery, iPhoto etc).

All uploads on Facebook.com will support the new photo size, but uploads made from some external applications may continue to use the previous size.

This will likely be remedied with an update to the application or plugin.

Ultimately this is a good thing, the limited photo size has been a contentious issue for many, particularly photographers eager to show off their work. Sites like Flickr allow photos to be uploaded and viewed in a variety of sizes including full resolution.

Cnet have just spilled the beans about the latest TiVo update. Expectations were high TiVo promoted the event with the tag line ‘A DVR was just the beginning’. So what did TiVo deliver and does it live up to the hype ?

The new Series 4 TiVo will come in 2 varieties, TiVo Premiere with a 320GB HDD (US$300) and a TiVo XL containing a 1TB HDD (US$500). Sadly Americans will still be forced to pay monthly, annual or lifetime subscription fees, something we gladly escape in the Aus version.

The new TiVo remote is essentially the same, with the addition of a slide out qwerty keyboard. Personally I think Boxee’s keyboard on the back would have been a better solution. It does look like they’ve been able to pull it off without adding much extra bulk to the remote, but not doubt it’ll weight a little more. The up, down, left, right control scheme for TiVo is fine for basic functions, but when searching for content it becomes a pain.

There’s a new UI, this time in HD, something current model seriously needs. Whilst the existing TiVo models do support widescreen, the interface is only SD and after being around for 10 years, it was well overdue for a reboot. The new TiVo UI features integrated online video sources including Netflix and YouTube.

The ‘Premiere’ model of TiVo comes with cable support, which is equivalent to our Austar or Foxtel PayTV.

Another new feature is the ability to manage user profiles. Naturally the way a home works is that different people like different shows, until now they’ve all been bundled into one main list of recorded shows. Now they can be browsed by user.

Sadly existing TiVo owners (Series 3 and HD) will not receive the update, so if you want the new hotness, you’ll need the new box. To pull of the new faster UI, there’s upgraded internal hardware which will ship in the US next month.

The skinny
Basically it’s an interesting announcement, fairly predictable, no massive shocks here and certainly doesn’t live up to the hype of the event. Where’s the 8 tuners, or boxee integration, or xbox media extender support, or even just DLNA streaming from PCs, sadly none of the features that would have been truly impressive have arrived.

Update
I may have been a little hasty to condemn the announcement as not that interesting. After reading through the official press release there is indeed a number of interesting changes.

Premiere is built on multi-core architecture that greatly facilitates future development of third party provided applications.

We Listened: By popular demand Premiere includes an on-screen disk space meter that shows how much room is left to record, a built in 30 second scan, and a new video window that lets you watch your favorite show while navigating the TiVo menus.

A new relationship with FrameChannel brings the best of the web directly to the TV offering users access to nearly 1,000 content widgets of personal and commercial content, ranging from Tweets, photos and status updates to news, weather, sports scores and stock quotes.

Even More Content: A brand new relationship with Pandora means in the coming months, Premiere as well as TiVo Series3™ and HD DVR customers will be able to listen to their personalized Pandora radio stations..

Australia
TiVo in Australia is only licensed, by Hybrid Television Services, so a US announcement like this does not automatically correlate to an Australian release. As a TiVo owner, I was really looking fwd to getting an updated UI, new features all via a firmware update, sadly this won’t be the case.

More @ cnet and zatz not funny

First off, I love this idea as a concept. Combining two of my favourite activities, gaming and partying, The Mana Bar claims to be (and I believe them) Australia’s first video game bar. Combining alcohol with gaming is potentially a recipe for a great night out. Attempting to take the modern day house party into a licenced venue is bold move.

Located in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, renovations are nearing completion for a launch any day now. It’s new venues like this, run by people who really understand what people want, that will likely take advantages of new technologies like location aware mobile apps like Foursquare. Hopefully we see the mayor get a free drink, or game priority.

What they need to be careful of, is attracting a disproportionate quantity of guys, therefore becoming uninviting to females. With the right vibe, this idea has massive potential. If this works out, expect to see a Mana Bar in your city soon. Guaranteed there’ll be copy-cats as well, so TheManaBar needs to stay ahead of the curve and continue to innovate.

Get the latest info about TheManaBar from:

Website: http://manabar.com.au/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheManaBar
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TheManaBar

Yesterday I launched a new blog called travelAU. The new site is aimed at providing a real-life run down of all things travel. From the initial planning including selecting your destination, to getting passports, shots at the doctor, currency exchange and more.

The main motivation for the blog in my upcoming trip to US in April. With most of the content not exactly relevant to the tech-focus of techAU, I thought it best to dedicate an entirely new blog to the effort.

If your into travelling or considering travelling, please check it out @ http://travelAU.wordpress.com there’ll be plenty of useful tips. tricks and of course photos there. Enjoy!