Hello and welcome to another Yankeefan review. This one took me a very long time since it is 2 reviews in one so please comment for advice so this isn’t a total waste. By the way if your reading this Confused you can use this for your website!

This story will be very long so sorry!

If you have never read one of my reviews before this is what I usually include:

-Game modes
-Extras
-What other reviewers thought.
-Online Play
-Controls
-Graphics
-Learning Curve

But since there really is no extras other then creating a player, I will get rid of that part of my review and add New Features since there are plenty of them in this game.
Review for MLB 07 The Show

What other reviewers thought

Run away!! It’s coming!!

Most of you may not know, but I, your beloved Cynthia – writer of weird and interesting technology – is going to college in the fall. And, of course, I’ll be bringing technobabbleonline with me to annoy all my roommates and teachers! I’ll be starting a new segment, “From the Dorm Room”, in which I’ll write about my findings with students and technology. It’ll definitely be something to watch out for, so crack your knuckles and be ready to remember those college days!

Windows Vista has been out for a few months now and I think it’s time to tackle whether it is worth it or not to upgrade. While Microsoft would love everyone to upgrade to Vista that will hardly happen. Unfortunately, all the OEM computers (HP-Compaq, Toshiba, Sony, etc.) are shipping their computers with Vista pre-installed, therefore giving the consumer no choice. The only OEM that does give you a choice (though however small) is Dell. If you purchase certain laptops or PC’s (usually the cheap and less powerful) from Dell you can choose Windows XP or Vista.

I have been thinking about switching to Vista for months myself but decided to wait until I could see how it performs on a PC/laptop built for Vista. Well the time has come.

A friend of mine, that just returned to Canada, needed to buy a laptop to communicate with his parents in South America. I offered my services to help him choose his laptop. He was under a budget which pretty much left no option for a MacBook so we had to look at some budget laptops.

So we had HP-Compaq, Toshiba, Acer and Gateway to choose from at the retailer we were at. Immediately we ruled out HP-Compaq as they like to install a lot of un-needed software. We also ruled out Toshiba because they can’t seem to build a computer with a good cooling system. We eventually ruled out Gateway because they just looked cheaply built. Acer was all we had left.

You’ll remember that I bought an Acer a while back and reviewed it on this website. It had been a very good laptop. One thing that really stands out is the screen quality. It has great contrast and colour. The downside was that at the time a $699 laptop came with a Celeron-M instead of a Core Duo or AMD Turion processor. All I can say is that sometimes that laptop is not a pleasure to play World of Warcraft on, but that’s not what I bought it for.

Anyways, we hooked ourselves up with a Turion X2 at 1.8GHz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB hard drive, ATI graphics and the normal bells and whistles that come with those computers (integrated microphone – a major plus for a laptop, bluetooth, and wireless-G card). Oh, and of course, it had Vista on it.

I was actually excited to see what Microsoft had done with the Operating System and was keeping my mind clear of negative thoughts.

As soon as we got it home we opened it up. OK, one of the things you sacrifice when buying an Acer is that you don’t get backup CDs. They actually make you burn your own. Unfortunately, the program that was supposed to do that kept locking up when we started the laptop up. In fact we had to disable it from startup. Whether that was due to Vista or not was not a question. That was just a sign of poorly written software.

So that finished and we had to install Windows updates. Man that was annoying and it wasn’t the updates that were annoying, it was the Wi-Fi software Vista comes with. Vista will not automatically connect to a Wi-Fi source. That is extremely annoying. Every time I wanted to connect to my wireless connection I had to go down to the task bar (or whatever it’s called now) and click connect.

Once past that we were able to download the updates. About ten restarts later we were back in business. We then immediately proceeded to uninstall Norton and install AVG Free. AVG works great under Vista and takes far less resources than Norton.

I was then curious to see what kind of resources we were using. I was surprised to see that both processor cores were working about 5 to 7% all the time. Oh and the RAM usage. That was crazy. We were looking at 750MB of RAM used (or memory as Windows memory manager isn’t that specific). That is nuts considering I can keep my laptop below 180MB at all times.

One thing I can say is that that laptop has great battery life with those Turion processors. We installed World of Warcraft and were playing it and forgot to plug it in. The thing played flawlessly (and I mean with out any frame-skipping – which is unusual for World of Warcraft) until it just shut-off three hours later.

We did have a problem a couple days ago when we tried to update World of Warcraft on his computer. It would not patch. In fact it would not even load World of Warcraft. This error is Vista related.

Another thing I noticed with Vista is that Microsoft made everything needlessly hard to find. When you right-click on the desktop to change you desktop options you can only change your background. Add/Remove Programs is now Programs and Features. Why the heck did you need to change that Microsoft?

The new start menu is cool but without the search function it just isn’t usable if you have a lot of programs.

All these changes are something that I would get used to, but why should I? I like Windows XP. It works great. It’s mostly secure. Efficient on resources. Easy to use. That coming to mind I searched for a way to change Vista to look like XP. You can’t. You can change it to look like Windows 95 but not XP. Why would you do that Microsoft? Some of us liked XP, you know.

Anyways, in my adventures to upgrade to Vista, I’ve been scared off. In fact, I’d much rather change to Ubuntu. And it’s free.

If I buy another computer, it will be a Mac. Sorry Microsoft. Vista. Sucks.

Recently we put out a request for writers. I have known this guy since I was invited to be a part of Sony’s Playstation Underground group called the Gamer Advisory Panel (GAP for short).

He’s a great writer and really knows his way around a Playstation 3. George joins us as a Playstation 3 reviews editor.

Welcome to technobabble, George.

To those of you who would like to write for us check out this post for the info.

According to a Google press release, Google will be participating in the upcoming 700MHz wireless spectrum auction under a few conditions. Google wants the FCC to approve that the spectrum can be used for the following:

* Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire;
* Open devices: Consumers should be able to utilize a handheld communications device with whatever wireless network they prefer;
* Open services: Third parties (resellers) should be able to acquire wireless services from a 700 MHz licensee on a wholesale basis, based on reasonably nondiscriminatory commercial terms; and
* Open networks: Third parties (like internet service providers) should be able to interconnect at any technically feasible point in a 700 MHz licensee’s wireless network.

Google hopes that the FCC will take them seriously as they are willing to part with 4.6 billion (yeah that’s right, billion) dollars for the spectrum.

This is great and it also seems that Google may use this for an upcoming wireless system. Perhaps including cellphones and wi-fi for internet.

Do you have that feeling where the walls are closing in on you, like you need more space to move around? Well I hope not but your data might.

An external hard drive is a great way to add storage to you computer and the best part is that you don’t even have to open your PC up.

Most external drives like this are USB compatible. This is great because most computers have four of six USB connectors.

Check out this deal from Futureshop for a 250GB External Hard Drive.

Disclaimer: We are in no way affiliated with Futureshop and are not being endorsed in any shape or form for this post.

I just couldn’t let this sit. While I was trying to troubleshoot a problem with my Playstation 3, I was told that more information was needed to help diagnose the problem.

So what did I do? I booted up MS Paint and got to work ending up with this file.

I was so proud of it, and due to the fact it took me two and a half hours to complete, I wanted to post it here for you guys to see.

Cheers!

Do you love technology? We do too and we want you.

We are expanding our writer force to deliver more tech news to everyone. Technobabble is a place for every tech user that is experienced or not, young and old. We try to help people understand technology in an effort to promote the use of technology.

What’s in it for you? Well you get recognition as writer on the website. If you have your own website we will also link to that. We don’t have any paid positions yet but down the road it could be quite possible. We may also want you to moderate comments on the website.

What kind of experience do you need to have? The only experience we require is, well, none. Of course if you have written for a website before that would be considered an asset.

If you think this matches you then here’s what you gotta do:

– Write 3 posts about some technology in recent news in the fashion if what you would read on technobabble
– Give us a link to three technology news websites that you enjoy and explain why
– Pick a post on technobabble that you think was really interesting and explain why
– Tell us why you would like to be a writer for technobabble

When you have done that just send it all in an email to Jeff at technobabble001@gmail.com.

We will review every entry but will only reply to those who are accepted.

Nintendo has announced a new Zapper to go along with first-person shooters. Reggie (Cheif Operations Officer – Nintendo America) says it will come packaged with games later on in the year. The new zapper is an attachment for you Wii-mote and nun-chuck forming a gun.

The new stearing wheel will be coming with Nintendo’s new Mario Kart game. Reggie says this will level the playing field for all Kart racers.

Joystiq has some great coverage on the Zapper and the new steering wheel.

During Sony’s E3 Press Conference yesterday, the first announcement was the new PSP. We here are technobabble weren’t able to attend E3 but the folks at Engadget could. They have some great shots of the thinner and lighter PSP.

Sony says the PSP is 17% thinner and 33% lighter than the previous PSP and will come in silver, black, and a special edition Star Wars white.

While the unit is still the same it can now output video to your television. That is a great feature. You will be able to play games, watch UMD video and video, display pictures and play music through your television. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

The only noticeable hardware change is the position of the speakers. They are now up near the top of the screen. This will help with sound volume as the old version had the speakers located underneath your fingers.

If you would like to see some shots of the new PSP at engadget’s website click here.

During Sony’s E3 Press Conference yesterday, the first announcement was the new PSP. We here are technobabble weren’t able to attend E3 but the folks at Engadget could. They have some great shots of the thinner and lighter PSP.

Sony says the PSP is 17% thinner and 33% lighter than the previous PSP and will come in silver, black, and a special edition Star Wars white.

While the unit is still the same it can now output video to your television. That is a great feature. You will be able to play games, watch UMD video and video, display pictures and play music through your television. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

The only noticeable hardware change is the position of the speakers. They are now up near the top of the screen. This will help with sound volume as the old version had the speakers located underneath your fingers.

If you would like to see some shots of the new PSP at engadget’s website click here.

In an open letter to XBOX 360 owners around the world, Peter Moore details the updates to the XBOX 360 Warranty. Instead of the industry-standard one-year warranty, Microsoft will extend the warranty another two years for those XBOX 360 owners that experience the three red lights (otherwise know as “ring of death”) on their console.

This comes in a move to help ensure consumers that Microsoft is still committed to Customer Service even though that was never really the problem.

Kudos to Microsoft for finally stepping up and admitting that their console has a high failure rate.

My question to Microsoft is: Why don’t you fix your console?

Here is the letter from Peter Moore off of xbox.com:

Open Letter From Peter Moore

To our Xbox Community:

You’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you. Good service and a good customer experience are areas of the business that we care deeply about. And frankly, we’ve not been doing a good enough job.

Some of you have expressed frustration with the customer experiences you have had with Xbox 360; frustration with having to return your console for service after receiving the general hardware error message on the console.

The majority of customers who own Xbox 360 consoles have had a terrific experience from their first day, and continue to, day in and day out. But when anyone questions the reliability of our product, or our commitment to our customers, it’s something I take very seriously.

We have been following this issue closely, and with on-going testing have identified several factors that can cause a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights on the console. To address this issue, and as part of our ongoing work, we have already made certain improvements to the console.

We are also implementing some important policy changes intended to keep you in the game, worry-free.

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge — including shipping — for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

If we have let any of you down in the experience you have had with your Xbox 360, we sincerely apologize. We are taking responsibility and are making these changes to ensure that every Xbox 360 owner continues to have a great experience.

This will take a few days to roll out globally, and I appreciate your continued patience as we launch this program. I’ve posted an FAQ that should address some additional questions, and we’ll update it over the next few days.

I want to thank you, on behalf of all us at Microsoft, for your loyalty.

Here is the second Lightsaber duel I promised you all and none too soon. I’ll bet you can’t wait to see the end of this one.

For those of you who haven’t had an encounter with the “Ring of Death” have yourselves a great holiday weekend.

This weekend I’ll be awaiting my coffin to put my 360 in and send it off.

Cheers,

Jeff and the technobabble gang.

So Cynthia was playing Virtua Tennis 3 today on the XBOX 360 as she does quite frequently and low and behold the 360 freezes. OK I say to myself. This is just a fluke. It’s happened once before. I’ll just restart the 360.

And there it was, and it didn’t even try to hide it. Three. Flashing. Red. Lights.

It was the freakin’ Ring of Death. I couldn’t believe it. I thought being one of the few in my area would somehow protect myself from this horrible vision. Well. It didn’t.

I proceeded then to do what the XBOX website says to do at this point. Everything was fine except the 360 with the whole “ring of death” thing.

O how I dreaded the call to Microsoft’s support line but I knew it had to be done. After talking to a rather friendly robot voice named Max I finally got to talk to a real person. This lady was great and you could tell this isn’t the first time she’s done a call for the “ring of death”.

Now I have a repair ticket and have to wait until Thursday or Friday to receive the “coffin”. Then another ten days to get it repaired. Good thing it was under warranty or it would have cost me $130 (CAN) just to get it repaired.

I’m waiting…