The legacy it followed of being in the top 10 strategy games of all time along with the tag of Starcraft, latest game from Blizzard Entertainment gave it the publicity and promotion and there were a lot of expectations. While one has to say that game has transformed from 2D to 3D and most of the animations and graphics are more smooth and fine but still  the biggest inconvenience that users seems to have is that they consider the game incomplete.  Also people are reporting that game installation is a tedious process and some people have not been able to install it as it asks users to register online even if you are playing solo.[more]

About the Game

StarCraft II is split into three installments: the base game with the subtitle Wings of Liberty, and two expansion packs, Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void. While Wings of Liberty focusses on Terrans ,Heart of the Swarm and Legacy of the Void will focus on the Zerg and Protoss. The sad part is that the story is incomplete without these two parts which are not yet released.Having said that there is also enough room and a very strong story line up in the solo campaigns. The current release “Wings of Liberty” game is more or less same as previous version , with few upgrades and return of old characters. The game has fine graphics and smoother animations along with  narration of story in between missions. New units are unlocked as you clear missions during game play. Another new thing is that now you can align your army in various forms and hire mercs for a fee by Raynor. But the best part of any Blizzard game is the amazing line of events which exists in this too.

More to Come

There is news that the second part Heart of the Swarm would have some RPG elements.  Well Blizzard seems to have cashed most on its brand Starcraft but a long sequel of one of the best games might not be the best strategy .

more to come.

So let me just ask you who do you think is unethical when the software is cracked? Is is the programmer who has cracked the software? Is it the Student/developer who uses the software to enhance it further? Or Is it actually the user who uses this product?

In my view, it is actually the user or the end consumer who uses this unethical product despite knowing that it is cracked. If you believe that programmers who crack are thieves then you are really misjudging them, because a thief stoles for his own benefit, where as these programmers distribute without any personal benefit.

The benefit which people get out of this is that one can be aware of the fact that whether a product is over priced or not. I suggest that every user must try out stuff from these sites but when you intend to use it commercially then its the user’s responsibility to buy the product and support the developer.

So here we go I am listing down a list of BEST SITES where you can find cracked softwares:

-> Scripmafia.org

->Sharemafia.com

->Boygj.com

-> Lordofdesign.com

-> imafia.net

-> Download123.in

If there are more which you have come across please list them, the only criteria being that the scripts to be downloaded should be free.

The app’s name is iChatr and this is the reason it looks like i chat roulette . Take  a look at the video below:

So this phone would prove out as a test for both of these major players.

Would that give any competition to their rival Apple?

I dont think so, what do you say?

Check out the video below:

Toshiba M300 : My experience from May 2009 – June 2010

I bought this new laptop TOSHIBA M300 about an year ago in May 2k9, it was perhaps one the best configuration available that time in the nearest store. Configuration was 3GB RAM, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 300GB hard disk, 256 MB Nvidia Graphics card .The looks were pretty good,the keyboard was awesome, it had a nice glossy finish and looked like an awesome piece among the rest of the laptops kept alongside.

And i bought this for 49,500 rupees roughly $1100, which is perhaps one of the biggest mistake of my life so far. I am a student at IIT Kanpur ( Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India) so I had to take this laptop to my college where I live in a hostel.

Problems Toshiba M300

The Flickering of the Screen

Just after 1 month of purchasing I started experiencing screen problems, there was some flickering issue . Every time you keep the screen in one particular position it started flickering so I had to move readjust its position so that the flickering stops. This problem increased over time and even after calling a their call center, support center and giving my laptop at the service center for about 1 week this problem was not rectified. I gave may laptop at the service center for one week in august 2009 and the flickering persisted. After that my studies had started and I did not had the time to go to a service station again which was 90 kms away from Kanpur. I had no choice but to keep on readjusting the screen and even on a new laptop barely a month old. This is really really bad service, product, support from toshiba atleast in India.

After 10 months, I had a friend who worked in Toshiba call center and from there I came to know that Toshiba M300 had an internal defect in the screen due to which all the screens had be replaced. But I was kept guessing why my screen never got replaced when i gave it at the service center.

The Face Recognition : Software

Toshiba M300 comes with digital face recognition software which is used for authentication. Guess what! The quality of this software is as bad as one can imagine. It will only recognize your face if you have the same background everytime you appear for face recognition . I think its name should not be face recognition , rather it should be picture recognition. I just used this feature for 4-5 times because it never worked for me and I am sure that being a licensed software it would have cost quite a bit in the actual price.

The Un-synchronized hardware

My laptop was perhaps the slowest laptop in my hostel. It took about 5 mins to start . And most importantly Never make the mistake of Hibernating a Windows Vista on Toshiba M300 it takes more time than to shut down. Time and again my laptop got hanged or got stuck. That was the time I realized that my laptop is just a piece of crap. When you invest in some product, you need it to be , if not the best atleast average. M300 startup and execution of any program was slower than any laptop. I compare the startup times of my laptop with Dell inspiron ( much cheaper tha M300) , Hp and Sony VIAO. No points for guessing mine was the slowest.

The Zombie: Dead all of a sudden

It happened twice in less than one year. My laptop all of a sudden went dead and none of the call center employee’s were able to help me. I tried everything, taking the battery out, flushing the power, then reinserting the battery nothing ever seemed to work.

The Hard disk error

This too happened twice. All of a sudden when my computer hanged I had no other option but to shut it down manually by pressing the power buttons for 5 seconds and guess what, when next time it sharted it refused to show any operating system installed in the hard disk. I had to use the installation DVD which I had fortunately made, but all my precious data was lost in the process. No I do not have the time of 1 week to give my laptop for repair so I had only this option left.

The Speakers : Harman Cardon

Toshiba M300 has some decent quality speakers of Harman Cardon. But to tell you a fact they are just normal speakers on which some brand name is written, I could not find any distinction in their voice quality neither the volume nor the quality was any different from any speakers in any laptop of dell or hp.

The Support

This is perhaps one major point where every technology company should focus. Products can be defective but active support can not only help you rectify the problem but also help the poor consumer . This is a vital part of a company’s brand.

Toshiba’s support is perhaps one of the poorest support center in the country. I am talking of the support centers RT Outsourcing. I do not blame them, they have 10′s of companies to which they give technical support. But from my perspective, it is one of the worst support I have ever seen. The center is located at only major cities and Kanpur doesn’t have one ( recently there might be one which has come up), in whole of Delhi the center is only at 2 places. The center opens for 10-5 where as the timings might be uptill 6 but the support staff isnt available and after 5 no one pics the phone call.

The biggest fear is that they take minimum of 1 week to fix any problem. 1 week is too big a risk for me to give my laptop. I have even found that they have kept a persons laptop for 2 months, can you imagine your life without your laptop for 2 months!

The End: Toshiba M300 a bad deal

Finally, after having so many problems in the first year and with no support or time for support my laptop suddenly went dead. The day 26th June 2010, laptop age 1 year 1month 19 days. I decided that I have had enough of this deal , I forcefully shut the screen of my laptop , and that was it.  There were cracks on the screen. The screen was gone.

I went to the service center and argued that the screen was bound to be replaced in this defective product but my 3 year warranty was now void due to cracks on the screen. The price they quoted to me for screen repaid was 18000 rupees roughly $400. I  submitted my laptop and asked them to repair everything under warrantee.

My warranty was of 3 Years, but it was useless as I did not have time to repair it.:

I hope this experience will help many of you to commit same mistake that I did.

Update: My laptop is currently with service center and here is what they told me.
My laptop has a malfunctioning motherboard ,RAM and the screen flickering problem. This tells that the product itself was defective on the first hand and was not repaired when it had gone to service center first time.

Ripul

Watch this video below, here all four browsers are running simultaneously on a PC with hardware acceleration turned on.  However all browsers except Google Chrome , support Hardware acceleration .

This video by download squad shows a neat comparison among all the above browsers ( however there was a disadvantage for Chrome which is my favorite browser).

The result was a bit surprising where both Firefox and IE8 being the fastest.

Barnes and Nobles now at only $199: Price drop from $299 to $199.

Nintendo 3DS to be released before March 2011: Glassless 3d handheld gaming device is expected to lie between $200- $250 range.

Microsoft Kinect available at Microsoft Site for Preorder at $149

Apple iOS4 now available for Download:

Download links:

Apple iPhone 2G

Apple iPhone 3G

Apple iPhone 3GS