All posts by Saro

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1 White Paper Details

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he XPERIA X1 phone is not out yet, but a white paper was released touting all the cool new features of the device last month. Just by skimming over the document briefly, this phone looks jam-packed with all sorts of goodies. I have a feeling that the iPhone will soon be getting its ass kicked when the X1 is out. Apple should definitely rework the new 3G version of its phone if they want to stay head of the game!

The X1 has these buttons referred to as “panels” on the main home screen (they’re clickable shortcuts pretty much). Some of the pre-loaded panels are news updates, finance, weather info and shortcuts to applications found on the phone. There’s also the Media Experience Panel which is probably a multimedia (audio/video) playing application. A Slideshow Panel is included for viewing your pictures and videos in an organized manner. The Today Panel is like any Window Mobile-based PDA’s today screen. There’s also a 3D Fish Panel that is a screensaver for eye-candy purposes, something which I’ve seen on the iPhone (since, you know, having fish swim around in your phone is really cool).

The long list of features found on the XPERIA X1 include:
• 3-inch Wide-VGA (WVGA) (800×480) TFT 65K colour LCD
• XPERIA™ panel concept
• Unified Media Experience
• 3.2-megapixel AF camera with touch focus
• Video capture and playback upto 30 fps
• Integrated WiFi
• Integrated A-GPS
• Handsfree headset with a 3.5 mm audio jack, USB charger, USB cable provided in the kit.
• Internet Explorer Mobile browser
• HSDPA 7.2Mbps, HSUPA 2Mbps
• YouTube support (3GPP playback)
• FM radio, streaming audio/video
• Video telephony
• Bluetooth™ 2.0
• HW 3D Graphics
• Supports microSD™ High Capacity memory card
• Exchange /IMAP/POP3 email
• Special effects (Illumination, animation, transitions)
• Quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)
• Upto Tri-band HSPA (850/1900/2100 MHz) (900/1900/2100 MHz)

I seriously can’t wait for this phone!

Popcorn Hour A-100 Shipped

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I just got an email this morning that my Popcorn Hour A-100 (ordered last month) has finally been shipped by Syabas. It’s coming all the way from California! Most likely it’ll take four or five days for it to get here, max 1 week. For those who don’t know what this is, it’s a device that can play multimedia files of all kind, such as H.264, XviD, MPEG2 & 4, VC-1, MP3s and more. It even does Matroska (.MKV) files and 1080p playback. It’s featured with a Windows Media Center look-alike user interface for easy navigation, and it’s all packed into a small portable unit. HDMI, RCA, Coaxial, Component and S-Video connections are included. I have been on a waiting list for almost a month and it’s good to see them delivering ahead of schedule. You need to sign up on a first-come, first-serve basis list to actually get one of these babies. I will review this unit as soon as mine gets here!

StoreStacker Officially Released

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It looks like StoreStacker has been officially released by the HalfAgain team as promised (there were delays before, so this is good news for them to release on time). If you don’t know what StoreStacker is, take a look at this post I made a few days ago. In a nutshell, this baby will be able to pull multiple feeds (Amazon, Linkshare, Clickbank, eBay, etc) and display product information and prices straight on your website. Why would you want to do this? Simply, you get to give the consumer an option when it comes to purchasing, as some stores offer products for much cheaper. Rather than manually enter every item on your site, StoreStacker simplifies things by automating these tasks. This makes your site a one-stop shopping resource for everything about the niche you’re targeting.

Here are a few things about StoreStacker that you should know about before purchasing. First, the license is for unlimited domains: that means you get to install the software on as many websites as you like with no restrictions. Second, you can also list your own products side-by-side to the ones from the affiliate feeds. Third, if you are one of the first 500 purchasers of this script, you are entitled to a free Clickbank feed plugin. Fourth, you can add your own products to the shop next to the affiliate ones. Last thing you should know is that supposedly, the software will be limited to only 1000 customers, but I don’t think that’s true. HalfAgain has a reputation for these types of claims (see ContentClub). In any case, if this restriction is true, it’s something to consider.

For anyone who wants 20% off the purchase of StoreStacker, use this promo code: LUCKYYOU1068400. Pass it to your friends too if you want them to have a discounted price! This promo code is good for any Halfagain product, such as BlogSolution, ContentClub, ContentSolution, RSS Magician, RSS Evolution and of course, StoreStacker.

I just purchased my own copy of SS, so I will soon do a full review of the software and let everyone know how it is very soon. Stay tuned.

StoreStacker Software by HalfAgain LLC

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A week or two ago, I got an email from HalfAgain, announcing their latest software dubbed StoreStacker. Before I divulge into describing what it is, I just need to mention that HalfAgain has released some real nice software in the past. They’re the guys who made BlogSolution, RSS Magician, RSS Evolution, Content Solution, Content Club and the WordPress to BlogSolution converter.

Basically, StoreStacker is their latest software that is definitely going to be a hit. What does it do, you may ask? Quite a few nifty things I have to say. The name itself actually describes what the software does: it stacks stores next to each other… or on top (you can look at it either way). It takes your Amazon, Clickbank, eBay and other affiliate-based store websites and pulls their products & prices to display on your site. Like I said, it merges each and every store to display a nice tabulated form with links to the products you’d like to sell on your website, with your affiliate IDs nicely tucked in the URLs. StoreStacker makes it easy for you to run a website of this sort (this is where the countless hours of PHP and CURL programming come in to play). I have a few websites I could definitely implement this script on, so I’m looking forward to its release (scheduled April 1st).

Some really cool features of running a StoreStacker website are the benefits you get with the search engines. Since your site would automatically become a large shopping directory (since it polls multiple stores for product reviews and prices) you could very well capitalize on the content it delivers to your visitors. Your website would become a large source of information (a niche) on the products you are trying to sell. The kicker? The whole thing runs by itself with a few clicks.

Anyway, at this time of writing, StoreStacker hasn’t been released yet. We’re only two days away from seeing this baby come out. More information to follow!

StoreStacker

Syabas Popcorn Hour A-100 Pre-Ordered

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Yesterday, I pre-ordered the Syabas Popcorn Hour A-100 media center device, and I can’t wait until it gets here. This device is so popular right now, you have to register and be put on a waiting list to actually be able to order it. Basically, it’s a very popular embedded media player that plays H.264, XviD, DivX, VC-1 and MPEG2/4 codecs, not to mention MKV (Matroska) and M*V containers, up to 1080p playback. This unit is extremely powerful from the looks of it. Features include the ability to install an internal hard drive (IDE only, unfortunately), a 10/100 mbps Ethernet port (no WiFi, but not suitable for 1080p HD playback anyway) and two USB ports for external device hookups. Audio/Video inputs are the standard deal: components, digital Coaxial audio, HDMI 1.1, S-Video and basic three-color RCA. One thing I would’ve loved to see is DVI/VGA, but beggars can’t be choosers as the total cost for this unit is an astonishing 179.00 USD. Total cost for me with the shipping came up to 222.00$ CDN.

Some other cool features are the built-in Bittorrent client, NFS, SMB, Windows Media Connect support, YouTube videos playback, RSS feeds, direct ISO playback and FTP connectivity. I could go on and on about the features, but you’re better off reading the site for more information. When I get the unit in (approximately mid-April) I will post a detailed review up for you guys.

Popcorn Hour A-100