Xbox Dashboard Update Brings Last.fm, Facebook, Twitter, and Zune Video to Your TV

Lifehacker:

“The annual fall update for the Xbox 360 dashboard is here, bringing with it support for Last.fm radio, Facebook and Twitter integration, and HD streaming through Zune’s online marketplace.

To grab the update, just fire up your Xbox and sign into Xbox Live. You should be prompted to apply the update, after which you’ll have access to all the new features. The Last.fm addition is probably the most exciting update for most of our readers, but the Facebook and Twitter integration looks pretty solid (and let’s face it, Twitter and Facebook are both determined to find a home on every single electronic device you own). The Zune marketplace integration seems like a decent option for instant-streaming HD video rentals, though the selection doesn’t look that impressive at the moment (we still prefer the Netflix integration). Still, if you’ve got a 360, it’s certainly a worthwhile update.”

Xbox.com 2009 Fall Update [Xbox via Gizmodo]

Now Available: Rock Band for iPhone and iPod touch

Gizmodo:

“I’ve been psyched for this ever since EA confirmed the multi-player mode supports four players over Bluetooth. The $10 app lets you invite Facebook friends, and choose guitar, bass, drums or vocals. 20 tracks are included, too…here’s the full listing:

There’s also a solo mode, of course. And additional tracks available to buy from artists like Foo Fighters, Devo, Smashing Pumpkins, and Leny Kravitz. Sweet!” [iTunes Store]

“Attack” – 30 Seconds To Mars
“Girls Not Grey” – AFI
“Move Along” – All American Rejects
“Sabotage” – Beastie Boys
“All The Small Things” – Blink-182
“Hanging on the Telephone” – Blondie
“Learn To Fly” – Foo Fighters
“Everlong” – Foo Fighters
“Bad to The Bone” – George Thorogood & the Destroyers
“Hymn 43″ – Jethro Tull
“Bad Reputation” – Joan Jett
“Simple Man” – Lynard Skynard
“Ace of Spades ‘08″ – Motorhead
“Debaser” – Pixies
“Ladybug” – Presidents of The United States of America
“Give It All” – Rise Against
“Lazy Eye” – Silversun Pick Ups
“Cherub Rock” – Smashing Pumpkins
“Take The Money and Run” – Steve Miller Band
“We Got The Beat” – The Go Go’s

Windows 7 Recovery Discs Gets Your System Out of Tight Spots

Lifehacker:

“Windows 7: If you run into a boot-up error with Windows 7 and don’t have a recovery disc handy, you’re usually in for some manic fiddling, or you’re just out of luck. NeoSmart’s recovery discs, however, can set things right.

Download NeoSmart’s recovery discs for 32- and 64-bit systems, burn them to CD, and pop them into any system that claims it’s unable to find the files needed to boot or is otherwise corrupted. These discs contain the same system recovery tools as a full Windows 7 disc, which are also given out by nice PC makers—and sold as an expensive accessory by skimpy Windows pre-installers.

Boot your system from NeoSmart’s CD, and you’ll get a stripped-down Windows system with a window offering startup file repair, Restore Point returns, recovery from a whole-cloth image, memory testing, and a command prompt for those dire moments when only frantically Google-d terminal instructions can save you.

These Windows 7 System Recovery Discs are a free download via BitTorrent from NeoSmart; hit the CyberNet link to grab a copy from MediaFire.”

Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs [NeoSmart via CyberNet]

Omnibar Extension Collapses Firefox’s Address and Search Boxes into One

Lifehacker:

“Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The Omnibar extension makes Firefox’s awesomebar act like Google Chrome’s omnibar, collapsing the address bar and search into one single text box.

We’ve mentioned Omnibar in passing in a couple of posts, namely our guide to turning Firefox into a Google Chrome clone and our post detailing how to use the Firefox 4.0 theme, but it’s a useful extension whether or not you’re trying to make Firefox look like another browser. You can still switch your default search engines, you can still use keyword bookmarking (my favorite Firefox feature), and the extension features special shortcuts for searching non-default engines (try your query with @y, for example, to search Yahoo).

Omnibar is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.“

Omnibar [Firefox Add-ons]

Hey Look, It’s Adobe Photoshop on the iPhone

Gizmodo:

“Yep, Photoshop on the iPhone. At first glance, it’s not much different from other light iPhone photo editing apps, except it’s tied to their online service, but the effects and interface look above average. And, uh, freeness.”  [iTunes, Thanks Weston!]

Cyclopedia Augmented Reality iPhone 3GS App Drenches Your World In Wikipedia

Gizmodo:

“App concepts don’t get much simpler than this, or much cooler: Cyclopedia takes Wikipedia’s tens of thousands of geotagged entries, and overlays them onto a live, compass-oriented view of your surroundings.

If this sounds an awful lot like Wikitude, the AR Android app that just can’t seem to eek its way into the App Store, that’s because it is an awful lot like Wikitude—except with a more polished interface, and, well, iPhone support. (Sort of: non-3GSers need not apply). As with Wikitude, firing this thing up around a familiar location won’t really blow your mind, since Wikipedia’s geographic article density is still pretty low.

But if you’re visiting a new place—that is, a place Wikipedia editors care to write about—Cyclopedia ceases to be an AR tech demo, and with adjustable search radii, a top-down map mode and non-geocaches Wikipedia searching, actually starts to be useful. Available now in the App Store for $2; video demo at the source link.” [Chemical Wedding]

How to Build Your Very Own Badass Windows Home Server

Gizmodo:

“Jason lurves Windows Home Server—it does automated backups over your network, streams movies, music and photos and is a general-purpose fileshare. If you don’t wanna hand HP $400, Maximum PC’s got a build-to-stream guide to rolling your own.

And, even if you’d rather buy a pre-made box—built-in Time Machine support for Macs is a good reason to go with HP’s, for instance—they’ve got some essential add-ins and performance tweaks to get the most out of your Home Server.” [Maximum PC]

Google Sync Updates with Push Gmail Support

Lifehacker:

“Google Sync, released earlier this year, keeps your calendar and contacts synced between your mobile phone and Google account. Now they’ve added that great, final bit of ultimate sync support by pushing Gmail to your phone.

If you’re sporting an iPhone/iPod Touch, Windows Mobile phone, or Nokia S60 phone, you can now set up Google Sync to actively push your email to your device, ensuring you’re never stuck waiting around for an update to see what’s new or wondering if various work-around alternatives will follow through. From the Official Google Mobile Blog:

Sync works with your phone’s native email application, so there’s no additional software needed. Only interested in syncing your Gmail, but not your Calendar? Google Sync allows you to sync just your Contacts, Calendar, or Gmail, or any combination of the three.

Check out the full post at the link below to see how to get Google Sync if you’re not already a user and how to enable Gmail syncing if you’ve already got a Google Sync account.”

Google Sync: Now with push Gmail support

App Showcase: Snap ‘n Tap Lets You Drop A Virtual Marble Into Paper-Drawn Environments

I love creative ideas like this….

iPhone Alley:

Snap ‘n Tap [App Store, $2.99] lets you interact with elements drawn on paper using a virtual, physics-enabled marble. Put simply, you can draw a maze on paper, snap a photo of it, and guide a virtual marble through it from start to finish. The size of the marble can be adjusted and the app even works with lined paper.

After several minutes of playing with the app, I must say I’m impressed. It’s not developed enough to be a game, but that’s not the developer’s purpose. The ability to have virtual objects interact with hand-drawn elements is just so cool. During one test I used a piece of paper with a coffee stain on it and the ball bumped into the stain. Awesome!

iTunes 9 Improves Syncing, Network Sharing, More

Lifehacker:

“Windows/Mac OS X: The biggest software announcement at today’s Apple event comes in the form of iTunes 9, the newest release of the popular desktop media player.

It’s a solid update containing a few features that we’d be really excited about if only they were just a little bit better (see Home Sharing, for example).

Worthwhile/notable features in the new release include:

• Home Sharing: You can now copy songs across authorized computers on your home network with the new Home Sharing feature. (You can even select a view to show only items that aren’t already in your library.) It’s nice to see iTunes add this feature, but it’s still a far cry from the full-on library sharing that we’ve been dying to see for years on home networks (and that we’ve done our best to accomplish on our own). You know, one library you can play, add to, and edit from any computer on your home network.

• Improved Syncing: When you’re syncing to your devices, iTunes 9 offers more fine-grained control for syncing music by genre or artist, straight from the Music tab of the sync dialog. It also boasts better syncing of Photos (using iPhoto’s Events and People identification) and Movies.
• 
  Better App Management: If you’re syncing apps to your device through iTunes, iTunes 9 adds the ability to organize your synced apps on your iPhone pages from your desktop. Photo via Gizmodo.
• 
  iTunes LP: Apple has introduced their new music format called iTunes LP. The new format intends to take digital music to a new world of multimedia integration, including videos, liner notes, credits, and more. Think of it sort of like the music version of DVDs with special features.
• 
  iTunes Extras: Well, if iTunes LP is sort of like a DVD with special features, iTunes Extras is exactly like it. Now when you buy a movie from the iTunes store, you also get some special features, including cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, photo galleries, etc.
• Genius Mixes: Using the Genius feature introduced in iTunes 8.1, Genius mixes plays songs from your library that it thinks go well together. This doesn’t seem like much of a tweak on what’s already there, though I will say that Genius recommendations have improved a lot since the feature was first launched.
• Ringtones: iTunes 9 now sells 30,000 ringtones for $1.29—though we’d suggest saving yourself the cash and just making your own (in Windows; in OS X).

iTunes 9 is a free download for Windows and Mac. It’s not available just yet from Apple’s servers… Update: iTunes 9 is now available.”

iTunes 9 [Apple]