Earlier today, Tapbots said on their twitter that if this tweet was retweeted 1000+ times, they would release something new… So after around 30 minutes, with people waiting excitedly, they announced TweetBot for iPad. TweetBot for iPhone is known for its looks and functionality, so for many, news that their favourite Twitter iOS app is now available on iPad, is great news.

The iPad version of TweetBot has pretty much all the functionality found in the iPhone and iPod touch version, just on a bigger screen (duh). This includes swiping left and right for conversations and replies, smart gestures (double and triple tapping on tweets and links), multiple timelines and much more.

For those of you who want to try and buy it, it is available for $2.99 here. Personally, if I had an iPad, Tweetbot for iPad would be on it the minute it was available download.

Train Trapper

This app is nothing short of the best Melbourne public transport app. It is fast to load and picks the closest station to your current location and presents you with a list of which train will depart when, and to where. This is extremely handy when you are roaming around the city, wander into a train station and want to catch the next train without any hassle which we had plenty of experience doing during CES.

This app also displays whether the train is cancelled or delayed and a short explanation as to what happened. Unlike the Metlink, featured later, it is really easy to read and interpret allowing for easy commuting around the Melbourne Rail network.

You can download it for free here: http://tgau.co/traintrapper 

Metlink

This app, put nicely has a horrible UX (user experience). It is just horrible. It just feels overcomplicated, is ‘thick’ menu wise and looks like something made by an amateur. In terms of functionality, it is pretty good at telling you when a bus is leaving, when a train will arrive and so on. Though that is about it. I have tried using its Journey planner many a time, only for it to produce the most incomprehensible, unreadable, irrelevant garbage.  So please, for the love of God, don’t use this app for anything other than an interactive timetable!

Though, do note that this app is still in beta so fingers crossed this Metlink work on this app and improve it to something a little more usable.

You can download the app for free here: http://tgau.co/metlinkapp

Metro Trains Mobile Site

Breaking the unwritten rules of an app wrap-up, this is actually a mobile website. There is nothing new here but this is where you go for an overview of the status of the Metro train network. Basically, the website only contains one useful webpage, which is the summary page so I can’t blab on here too much. This website also links to the Metlink app; an online timetable; a news page; and a 404 page. How nice of them.

Unlike Metlink, Metro have done quite a nice job with this website, making it also very readable and interpretable on the move. This is something I can see coming in handy in a time of chaos and confusion.

You can access the website here: http://m.metrotrains.com.au/

Tram Hunter

This is an app, which I have played with, but haven’t used on the go. Like Train Trapper, it is able to detect nearby stops (well as far as I know), browse by tram route, search for stops, and view stops on a map.

I am not a regular tram commuter so I don’t think I will ever clock up much experience with this app. though from playing with it, it is able to tell you when the next tram will leave, where and at which stop. This app is on par with the Train Trapper app in terms of design and functionality. I decided to include this because a friend recommended it to me, and I can see it being useful for some commuters.

You can download the app for free here: http://tgau.co/tramhunter

So that is it for my public transport apps. It is a little disappointing that both Metlink and Metro Trains haven’t been able to produce something that I am happy to use and able to commit to. Then again, when has the government done anything properly that they haven’t been forced to do… NBN… Sigh. Anyway, hope this helps!

After I finished writing and taking screenshots, Foursquare is now up and accessible. I checked my phone and was able to checkin at a local supermarket, so for now, everything is back online.  We will update you when we find out more.

Now we all know that our phones are more powerful than a 10 year old desktop, though we aren’t really using this processing power for anything other than answering calls, texts, tweeting and checking Facebook. We have seen initiatives like the Raspberry Pi use this phone hardware for a cheap, low power desktop though nothing that really combines both the phone and desktop experience into one. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could walk into work, and not have to look at all the emails you have just read on your commute.

This is where Webtops come in. Except now Motorola have now decided to incorporate Webtop software into their latest phones. This enables users of those phones to not only use their phones for normal day to day mobile activities but also to plug in their phone to an dock/external screen and use it as a Webtop.

While using these phones as Webtops, you are able to use what Motorola call is the “complete Firefox” for “lightning fast” web browsing as well as a collection of web based Webtop apps. These apps include the likes of Google Docs, Citrix and Gmail. Motorola also sell docks for their Webtop enabled phones, but they don’t come cheap. With the Motorola Atrix dock coming in at $499 US, one would ask why not just buy a netbook or one of the cheap notebooks (of which there are a plethora to chose from).

Personally, I think this idea might take off if more phones start to support it. This could be the future of portable personal computing as most people have their phones on them everywhere they go. Hopefully the prices come down soon making this a more viable solution.

The year 2011 was one year that we will all never forget. Even though they were all in the beginning of the year, the floods in Queensland and Brazil, the earthquakes in Christchurch and the tsunami in the north of Japan are still present in all of our minds. We also saw the death of a tech luminary, Steve Jobs; and the powerful News Corporation losing its influence over politicians in the UK after the phone hacking scandal took a drastic turn from celebrities to victims of crime.

This year, we’ve decided to recap the top 11 tech stories of the year – from security problems to business failures, and even the growing popularity of Windows Phone 7.

You can explore the choices below.

• The Revolutions Heard Around The Globe
• The Catastrophic Disaster of the PSN
• Steve Jobs: 1955 – 2011
• The Phone Hacking that killed the News
• A Global War – Apple v Samsung
• A 50 Day Hacking Campaign, for the lulz
• The Rise of Windows Phone 7
• An annus horribilis for RIM and Netflix
• Palm is dead, WebOS lives on
• Social: Google enters, LinkedIn goes IPO and Timeline
• Gone Viral: Friday – an instant success amongst the haters
• Credits

Image Credits: Al Jazeera English (Left) and David Shankbone (Right). All are licensed under Creative Commons.

So, if you did miss our Holiday Gift Guide Live podcast this year, Stewart actually found a way of recording it. So this is the entire two-hour live show, unedited and uncensored for your own listening pleasure.

Featuring Stewart Wilson, Terence Huynh and Tom Solari to answer the 120-ish questions, we gave away many prizes. We couldn’t get through of all of the questions, but we will be using it to write some stuff for TECHGEEK.com.au in the upcoming year.

So listen, like, tweet and subscribe! See you next year.

If you’re looking for the news portion of the podcast – it’s episode 72. Also, it is a 71MB-ish file, so it will take a while to download. So you’re much better off streaming it from the handy player below.

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As Stewart decided during the podcast, the next Gadgetlyst Byte will be coming to you in video format from our CES studio sometime in Jan! Also Chris joins us this month and that about all I can think of at 5.30 am on a Monday morning!

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

Netgear announces N900 – promises 900Mbps Wi-Fi speeds and greater range

RUMOUR MILL: Kinect 2 can lip read, to be built in future Xbox consoles

JB Hi-Fi announces pricing for “NOW” digital streaming service

Chrome OVERTAKES Firefox for second place, IE still falling

iPhone 4 self-combusts during Rex flight

Motorola DEFY+ out now, heads to Telstra

Samsung: No plan to release the SERIES 5 Chromebook in Australia at this stage

RUMOUR MILL: Acer, Lenovo to launch Android 4.0 quad-core tablets in Q1 2012

Darknet Mesh Network Not Feasible…

GIVEWAY: Netgear N600 Dual Band Gigabit Router – Premium Edition

Personally I find the idea of a mesh network quite intriguing, this ‘mesh’ of nodes that are wirelessly interconnected allowing data to flow in any direction via any route possible. This topology has quite a bit of redundancy built into it, counting on the fact that two or more nodes are within range of each other so as if a node were to go down, there would still be an alternate path for the data to flow in.

I have always pictured this kind of network being used to bring a city like Christchurch back online in times of diaster, with a dozen routers with battery packs scattered around the CBD, forming this massive mesh network for anyone and everyone to connect to and contact friends and family. (Something I want to work on in the future…)

Anyway, getting back to what I was actually trying to say, I stumbled across this article written by Shaddi Hasan on his personal blog investigating and reporting on the feasibility on using a mesh network to form a dark-net, for circumventing censorship.

Hasan’s article outlined many reasons why this type of network would not operate properly including the management of the network, the nature of omni directional antennas and how they are a waste of power for long distance communication, and the fact that cheap consumer equipment can only send or receive at one time.

Focusing on the latter, the majority of wireless equipment sold to consumers is only single radio, meaning it can only transmit or receive at one time and due to the nature of TCP data transmission, whereby all data sent waits for acknowledgement, this would effectively bring the entire network to a standstill if the packet had to travel over a certain amount of nodes to reach its destination. Sure, as the article also outlines, you could use multi-radio nodes but this had its own inherent problems, not to mention cost.

That is the article in a bit of a nutshell so head over to Hasan’s blog and read the rest of it!

Stewart and Tom just talk. Of course they have some stories that help the conversions (listed below) so listen in and see what you think. Also this was recorded a week early due to Stewarts inability to read a calendar!

See you next month!

This month we cover the all new developer preview of Windows 8, while playing Minecraft, and also talk about Windows Phone Mango 7.5 and the Kindle Fire!

Stewart and Tom are on a winning record for attending and don’t forget to subscribe and download and RSS and whatever else you can do.

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

BUILD 2011: Windows 8 keynote highlights

VIDEO: First Look on Windows 8

HP axes 500 jobs with webOS division shutdown

HTC to buy WebOS?

HTC announces the Rhyme – smartphone that combines features with design

Amazon press conference is happening September 28th AEST, probably for rumoured Kindle tablet

Amazon brings out the Kindle Touch – touch interface and only US$99

Amazon updates the Kindle, ditches the keyboard and drops price to US$79/$109

Amazon announces Kindle Fire tablet – 7 inch display, dual core processor, US$199

WP7.5 Mango update rolled out to Telstra, Optus, Vodafone customers

Both Koreas are developing EMP bombs that can kill everything tech

Reader’s Survey: We want your opinion on us! Yes, really.

Gadgets

Tom: Kindle Fire

http://techgeek.com.au/2011/09/29/amazon-announces-us199-kindle-fire-tablet/

Stewart: Galaxy Tab 7.0

http://www.engadget.com/2011/09/30/samsung-unveils-galaxy-tab-7-0-plus-packing-1-2ghz-dual-core-cp/

This podcast we have Tom, Chris and Harley McEvoy on again as everyone else decided to ditch us for either study or social time. Hmm… listen and see what you think!

Don’t forget to listen and subscribe.

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Show Notes

The Top Stories

VIDEO: First Look on Windows 8

BUILD 2011: Windows 8 keynote highlights

Case-Mate Preps for Release of iPhone 5 Cases with Revamped Design

iPhone 5 Announcement ‘Just Weeks Away’

CNET reader’s iPhone 5

Report: Foxconn’s Brazil factory ready for business, will begin shipping iPads in December

New PSN user agreement makes it harder to sue Sony: class actions 

PS3 getting fresh coat of white paint in November

Tom’s Stockings (1)

Optus, yes Optus are set to roll out a 4G network, starting in April 2012. This means Optus would be set to put in around 500 new towers and upgrade around 2500 sites.

The last of the trials for the NBN have been rolled out, this time in SA.  The trials phase it set to finish in October and all connected residents will have to sign up to plans. If only they would get on with the rollout.

Have you ever tried to control you iPod while wearing gloves, it doesn’t work, we know. And so do the creators of the Mix Master Gloves which enable you to control your music with various hand gestures.

In Other News

Nintendo 3DS to go pink to attract the ladies

All is not lost, Nintendo announces more 3DS games (in Japan)

OPINION: Saving the future of 3D

AMD Eyefinity eyes-on, prepare to fall for landscape goodness (video)

HTC to buy WebOS?

Kogan adds Canon, Apple, Nikon and Samsung to product range

Tom’s Stockings (2)

Samsung are counter-suing Apple claiming that they have infringed on seven of Samsungs patents. These patents all relate to wireless communication.

iPads are used everywhere these days, in store, in education, and so on. Now the US Marine Pilots are using iPads to make sure they are bombing the right building. All they use the mapping features of the iPad over the conventional map. Best of luck to them.

Yes, this is not tech exactly tech related, but Toyota are released an update for the Prius in which available in 2012 which you will be able to plug in to charge. The Prius should be able to “re-up” the juice in less than 2 hours or a 240v connection.

So a couple of days before the official release of Minecraft 1.8, it has been leaked. Not only has it been leaked, but notch, the creator of Minecraft, has said he doesn’t mind people playing with it. Minecraft 1.8 was set to be the big “Adventure Update” with many new features like many new crafting recipes, mobs,  Food System, combat mechanics and more (full list here).

If you want early access to the Adventure update, you can download it here or the server here. These downloads are directly from the Minecraft servers meaning they are official versions not some virus infested 1.3 release! Also notch has said that if you play with the leaked 1.8, he would like any bugs you find to be reported to them.

There has also been a post in the Minecraft Forums by Opeth, a Minecraft bug tester, outlining the situation surrounding the leaked 1.8. The post contains download link for both 1.8 and server, how to install 1.8 and how to report bugs. Time to go and find bugs!

Stewart and Tom again are both here and this episode is actually on time!! Don’t forget to subscribe and download and RSS and whatever else you can do.

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

DIVIDED BY PHONES: Map shows Android/iPhone popularity in USA

The TECHGEEK.com.au Computer

Google buys Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion; will continue being open

EU-wide Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban suspended (except in Germany)

Symbian Anna finally out, hopefully fixes problems that makes us dislike it so much

HP just killed the TouchPad and other webOS phones

Report: WebOS team hated TouchPad, WebOS ran twice as fast on iPad

Microsoft app recruitment drive gets 500 responses

Nokia releases three new Symbian phones, proves it won’t die (yet)

HP to make one more batch of TouchPad, possibly revive chances for webOS

Nokia confirms N9 release date, coming to all carriers in October

Samsung announces the Galaxy Note – 5.3-inch display, includes pen

Gadgets

Tom: Samsung Galaxy Note

http://techgeek.com.au/2011/09/01/samsung-announces-the-galaxy-note-5-3-inch-display-includes-pen/

Stewart: Optus 3G Home Zone

The TECHGEEK.com.au computer. That is it. No introduction needed as I have given you many ‘glimpses’ at this dating back to last Christmas. Yes I know you have all been sitting on the edge of your chair for the last 8 months waiting for this very post, and now, you have good reason to fall off. *Cue Drum Roll* This is the TECHGEEK.com.au computer.

Read more after the jump!

Here is a bit of background to the computer. This will be the computer we (being the Melbourne team) will use for reviewing and testing out new hardware and software. As well as doing that, it will also be used as a ‘recommended build’ for people who are looking at building a new computer or upgrading certain components (not at the moment as some things aren’t quite up to date).

We hope to update this computer every couple of months so to keep on top of all the new products out on the market at the moment. So without further a-do, I shall get into the guts of the computer itself.

CPU

Intel i7 950 Socket 1366

Yes this isn’t a Sandy Bridge. At this point in time I don’t really see any point in going Sandy Bridge with Ivy Bridge coming out in only a matter of months. The i7-950 boasts 4 cores which can multi-thread at 8 threads enabling all those multi-core compatible games and applications to run with ease. It is also compatible with triple channel RAM though these days that is not such a big thing. With a TDP (total design power) of 130w it is basically the most power hungry processor out, beating the new Sandy Bridge models (which isn’t something to be too excited about) though it certainly does deliver.

Motherboard

ASRock x58 Extreme

This motherboard is one of the cheapest Socket 1366 motherboards out (well it was when we were assembling the computer). It doesn’t have all those high end features i.e. USB 3.0 that all of the high end motherboards do, but saying that it just gets the job done with minimal cost. This board supports triple channel DDR3 RAM, Quad SLI/CrossFire with double spacing between each slot ensuring all cards can be plugged in no matter what size. The x58 Extreme has a LED display, known as Dr. Debug, as well as boot and reboot buttons soldered to the board. Overall this board is a brilliant performer for its price.

RAM

Corsair Dominator 12GB DDR3

When we came to the memory, we decided to go with a well-known, quality brand which is why we went with Corsair. We got Corsair’s Dominator 12GB RAM kit. It is DDR3 ram and is clocked at 1600 MHz, which is just under double what DDR2 RAM could be clocked at. This kit is Triple Channel which means you have 6x 2GB sticks, filling up all 6 RAM slots of the ASRock Extreme x58. Corsair has included their own AIRFLOW RAM cooler, which isn’t really needed unless you are going to overclock it. While running Windows 7 with Chrome, Outlook, TweetDeck, Skype and Word open, we still had around 9GB of free RAM which leaves us wondering how to use the other 9GB of it. This RAM kit is great, definitely giving you room to move when using those resource intensive applications.

SSD

Corsair F120GB SSD

SSD’s are known for their speed and the F120 is no exception getting around 230 MB/s data transfer rate opposed to the average 140 MB/s of a normal HDD. Comparing Windows 7 64bit boot times there was quite a large difference. The F120 managed to get from the start of the BIOS POST to the Windows desktop in 38 seconds, while a WD 2TB Caviar Black did it in 1 minute and 10 seconds. That’s quite a large and very noticeable difference. Running some speed tests show us that writing a 10GB file to the F120 takes 43893 ms (just under a minute), with a transfer rate of 227.827 MB/s while comparing that to the WD 2TB Caviar Black, it takes 71448 ms (nearly double), with a transfer rate of 139.962 MB/s. This SSD also comes with a 2.5″ tray for mounting in a 3.5″ slot, and as expected, silent.

Hard Drive

Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB

The Western Digital Caviar series are known for their reliability and performance and the Caviar Black 2TB we have is no exception. The Caviar Black series are designed with performance in mind with a speed of 7200 RPM, this drive will cater to our secondary storage needs (basically what we can’t fit on the SSD). In a speed test we managed to get a maximum write speed of 139.962 MB/s which is quite decent compared to a lot of other hard drives around and certainly make transferring data between the SSD and hard drive a breeze. If you didn’t want to shell out for an SSD, this hard drive fills that gap perfectly booting into Windows 7 64bit in just over a minute.

Graphics Card

Gigabyte 9800GT

This graphics card is merely a spare of mine as we haven’t been able to secure a graphics card as of yet. That said, it is still quite the performer. It is able to push Crysis (the original game) at Medium detail with a resolution of 1440×900 and Team Fortress 2 at 1920×1080 at very playable, quite reasonable FPS rates. The model we have is a manufacturer overclocked model sporting custom Zalman Cooling which will let your whole neighbourhood know when you are using the computer (not really, though it is annoyingly loud). This GPU was quite a good card in it’s day though today it is seen as noisy and slow.  

Power Supply

Corsair HX850W

This power supply is perfect for pretty much any situation, within reason. The HX850W is an 850watt modular power supply, meaning you can detach/attach the cables you don’t need/need. This power supply has 80 Plus Silver Certification which means that under any load, the power supply is 85% or more efficient in terms of how much electricity is converted to heat. The HX850W has a massive 140mm fan with is thermally controlled so that your computer is quiet when it needs to be and loud when it has to be. There is a plethora of connectors included with the HX850W including your standard 24pin ATX cable, the ATX13v 8 pin connector, a total of 6x PCI express connectors (2 wired directly to the power supply, 4 modular), 12x (yes 12) SATA connectors and 12x 4 pin connectors. This power supply definitely will connect to all your gadgets as well as provide plenty of power for them to chew up.

Case

BitFenix Shinobi

This case is a great all round case which has very devious looks. For a sum total of $70 from PCCG, you can get this case in all its looks and glory. You thought it cost more didn’t you! This case has some nice features such as Bitfenix’s SofTouch technology which reduces fingerprints and stains on the case itself, and we do think it is very nice to touch. The interior is painted black, something which little to no cases in this price range have, with plenty of cable management routes. The only thing is the case does have a cheap, not quite perfect plastic feel, though this is shared with many cases up and above the Shinobi’s price range. There are also 2x 120/140mm fan exhaust vents at the top, 2x 120mm on the front, 1x120mm at the back, and if the size of the power supply permits, 1x 120mm vent at the bottom. For its price, this is a great buy.

Optical Drive

Lite-On DVD Burner

This is another one of my things. We haven’t yet got hold of a Blu-Ray drive though we will soon. This drive does everything that you would expect it to do. Fast at burning DVDs and CDs and plays them back fine. This is nothing special and we endeavour to upgrade this very soon.

Keyboard and Mouse

Logitech MK710

The MK710 is a well built, comfortable and feature packed keyboard and mouse combo, boasting a 3 year battery life, Incurve Keys and comes packaged with a Unifying receiver. It is a great mid range keyboard and mouse combo. You can read the full review here.

In Summary

This computer boasts speed, reliability and looks were it counts. Featuring an Intel i7, 12GB of RAM, 120GB SSD, 2TB HDD, 850Watt PSU all housed in a Bitfenix Shinobi, makes for a great computer. Next up: upgrading graphics card and quieting the computer down to a more suitable level.

There will be a video with a tour of the computer (and my appalling cable management skills) soon.

We would also like to thanks Logitech, Corsair, Western Digital, BitFenix and others for supplying us these parts to us for use in this very computer.

And here we are for another week. And Stewart is back after a few weeks of being away. In this episode we talk about the Nokia N9 not being released in the United States, Apple’s September media event and the death of Symbian.

This episode is only 40 minutes long as we all had other things to do and James discovered new Team Fortress sounds, so enjoy! Don’t forget to subscribe though.

Music: Caffeine by VCMG

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SHOW NOTES (PDF)

This month on the show we talk about the hands-on Tom had with the Nokia N9, the Raspberry Pi $25 computer and that ‘atom by atom’ game engine.

Stewart and Tom have made a record, this being the second time in a row both them have been on the show at the same time. So don’t forget to subscribe and download and RSS and whatever else you can do.

See you next month!

Oh yeah, we also got a new logo! Thanks Terence!

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Show Notes

The Stories

GALLERY: Hands on the Nokia N9

VIDEO: First Look on Nokia N9

Ballmer: Windows 7 has sold 400 million licenses

ChevronWP7 coming back but not free?

Windows Phone 7 apps now cheaper in Australia

Redesigning computer game design… or not

Its a scam!!!

Raspberry Pi nearly in production

Microsoft launches their 3rd multitouch mouse

Gadgets

Tom: Raspberry Pi

http://raspberrypi.org

Stewart: Canon X Mark I Mouse

http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/04/canon-x-mark-i-mouse-lite-hands-on-impressions/

Just when you thought computer gaming couldn’t get any better, this arrives. Euclideon have apparently redesigned the way computer games are designed. This ‘new technology’ uses atoms to represent objects on a video game map instead of polygons (current method). This results in a clearer picture and way more detail. Though if you do your research, you will find that this sort of technology isn’t new.

nVIDIA has already released technology like this, called Tessellation. What their technology does is it takes the polygons games are currently designed with and breaks them down into smaller shapes, resulting in greater detail. This technology isn’t new, it was released with DirectX 11 and works on the GeForce 400 series graphics cards. One game that already features this technology is Metro 2033, which I haven’t played so I can’t comment on the quality of the graphics.

Going back to the new atom by atom based technology, according to the YouTube video, a SDK for this technology will be released to game developers “months from now” so we shall see if it exists, and if so, the full potential of it.

ALDI today withdrew one of their products from sale because it was found to have contained the three year old Conficker virus, which was known for cracking the Administrator passwords on Windows machines and forming a bot-net.

The Fission External 4-in-1 hard drive, DVD, USB and card reader device is the culprit which was removed off the shelves this morning. This lead to AusCERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) issuing a security alert users on behalf of the government. AusCERT noted that this virus is ‘old’ and should be picked up by anti-virus.

ALDI also released a statement telling users that “a full reformat” would remove Conficker off the drives. They also noted that customers could return the Fission 4-in-1 device to the store they bought it from for a full refund.

Remember that $25 USB sized computer we reported on a while ago? Well, I got in touch with the charity responsible for it and got an update as to how things are going. Thankfully, (for me at least), they haven’t died or disappeared, following the fate of countless other ventures of this kind. They are actually waiting for their first batch of alpha boards (pre-production devices) to return from manufacture in Singapore, and are also working on reducing the size of this device.

The Raspberry Pi foundation are currently still tinkering away with their Raspberry Pi computer, working on reducing the cost and size of these devices as well as reducing the amount of layers on the PCB board. The alpha boards that are currently being manufactured are electrically identical to that of the boards they are currently tinkering with. This means that the Raspberry Pi foundation will effectively be able to go into production when the alpha boards come back and are approved.

The first of the units should hopefully be able to be passed on to the ‘public beta’ customers in the fourth quarter of 2011. These units will ship with a standard ARM Linux distribution which will most likely be Fedora or Ubuntu. We look forward to the release of this device and will keep you updated as to the progress of it.

Mojang, the game developer behind the hit game Minecraft, has been working on a Portable Edition of Minecraft for Android and iOS for a while now. About an hour ago, @kappische posted an update on the Minecraft Facebook page saying that he would be live streaming a demonstration of Minecraft – Portable Edition at 3.00pm CET, which is 11pm EST.

Stay tuned on their Facebook wall as well as here for a live stream link.

EDIT: “I tried to use @bambuser but it failed big time =D Will try to make it happen an other time, with an other service.” – @kappische on Twitter

Image: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

TECHGEEK.com.au Editors Terence Huynh and Tom Solari were recently invited to a special meeting with Nokia where they got a hands-on demo of the new Nokia N9 smartphone. Featuring an 8-megapixel camera, a 1GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, the phone is scheduled for a release late Q3.

In addition, Australia and the Asia-Pacific will be the first region to launch this device, and all major carriers have shown interest on the phone. As well, the three colours – Black, Cyan and Magenta (pink) – will all come in 16GB capacity, but the Black will also come in 64GB capacity.

You can see the images after the jump.

Images: Tom Solari/TECHGEEK.com.au

Don’t you hate it when you are just about to make that important call, or need to add something to your calendar and your phone’s battery dies? The Choiix Power Fort is a new range of a power backup battery packs from Choiix, made by Cooler Master which can save your device when it is about to run out of battery. They are also up to 3 time faster at recharging your USB powered device. Check out the review after the break!

Design

The Choiix Power Fort is around the size and weight of your average mobile phone. The Power Fort has four LED lights that indicate the internal battery capacity. Next to the LED’s there is a power button which pressed once charges the connected device or twice turns on the flashlight at the rear of the top of the Power Fort.

This device is more aimed at the travelers among us who know that they won’t be near power for a day or two and need to keep their phone alive. This is because when you are charging your phone, PDA, etc. you have to use the cable provided with your phone to charge it from the host USB port on the Power Fort meaning that if you were to use it while on a day out in the city, it would be very bulky and annoying. It is meant to be slipped into a laptop bag while on a plane or train to charge your flat phone.

Since the Power Fort charges other devices through its USB port, you can only charge devices that are compatible with USB charging, counting out many 1-2 year old Nokia phones. The Power Fort charges though the mini-USB port on the back of the device.

The Power Fort comes in 4 models, two black and two white. In both colors there is a ‘Standard’ package which is comprised of a Power Fort, a fabric carry case, a mini-USB cable and a micro-USB cable. The ‘Advanced’ package is made of a Power Fort, two fabric carry bags, a mini-USB and a micro-USB cable, a car charger and a wall charger with four adapters for certain countries.

Hardware and Usage

The Power Fort has a 2700mAh battery inside which is able to provide a 1A / 5V output. This means that devices can be charged using the Power Fort up to 3 times as fast as conventional USB. The Power Fort also has many protection features built into it including over charging protection, over discharging protection, over current protection, over temperature protection and of course, short circuit protection, to make sure that your child doesn’t decide to connect a cable between the two ports of the Power Fort.

The Power Fort also has a safety pass through which means when you are charging a device using the Power Fort and you plug the Power Fort into a computer to charge, the Power Fort directs all the power it receives to the phone connected to the USB port, totally by-passing the internal battery preventing it from any damage.

When charging the Power Fort, the LED’s describe the capacity of the battery as follows:

• 1 LED means less than 15%.
• 2 LED’s mean between 15% and 45%.
• 3 LED’s mean between 45% and 70%.
• 4 LED’s mean between 70% and 95%.

When the Power Fort is charging connected devices, the LED’s describe the capacity as follows:

When charging the Power Fort, it will take around 3-4 hours to reach 100%. We tested the Power Fort by charging letting it charge a Motorola DEXT overnight. The Power Fort was able to charge the DEXT from 10% to 100% but as a result of leaving it overnight, the DEXT has drained all the power out of the Power Fort enabling it to be at 100% the next morning.

A speed test of charging the Motorola DEXT is as follows:

Conclusion

The Power Fort is a fast, powerful USB charger that is aimed at your traveler more than your city hang-around boy. If used carefully you will be able to charge your phone twice from around 30% to full. The Power Fort has many safety features ensuring that it will not ruin your favorite device but still being up to 3 times faster than conventional USB at charging that device.

This device is great for those who need power and portability while roaming through different countries and airports but not as much when on a day trip.

With a title like that, you would be right in thinking that we are talking about the Motorola XOOM. We also talk about Nokia WP7, a cheap $99 tablet and a whole lot more Gadgetlyst goodness.

Order has finally been restored to Gadgetlyst Bytes as Stewart has decided to join us. So download/subscribe/tune in as this is one of the few ‘normal’ episodes this year.

See you next month!

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Show Notes

The Stories

Motorola XOOM adds Wi-Fi only – features Android 3.1

Nokia WP7 phone leaked out – codename “Sea Ray”

$99 USD Android Tablet – Arnova 7

Nokia announces the N9 smartphone – finally gets into the game

Telstra launches the world’s fastest 3G Wi-Fi hotspot

Sony releases teaser for new tablets

Dolby sues RIM over use of audio technology

IT’S OVER! Nokia and Apple settle patent dispute, Nokia the victor.

Rumour Mill: Microsoft launching own Windows 8 tablet?

Gadgets

Tom: Quantum dot solar panels

http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/01/quantum-dots-could-coat-the-world-in-nano-sized-solar-panels/

Stewart: NBN

http://www.raajmenon.com/2011/06/the-nbn-is-here-an-in-depth-review/

And although it’s a very celebratory episode – it’s no time to celebrate when LulzSec is on the prowl. But if you’re looking for a party, this episode was recorded earlier – so we hopefully sound a bit more sober than before.

This episode sees the return of Gabriel Huynh and sees the debut of both Adrian Cajili and Ashton Bernard on the podcast – and hopefully will be joining on the roundtable sometime later in the year.

Don’t forget to subscribe and download!

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Download the 50th Episode Montage

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Show Notes

The Weekly Overview

Suspected LulzSec member arrested in UK as census data stolen

Supposed LulzSec IRC chat logs released

Nokia announces the N9 smartphone – finally gets into the game

Nokia WP7 phone leaked out – codename “Sea Ray”

Mozilla Firefox 5 released

Microsoft celebrates the new version of….Firefox?

Telstra launches the world’s fastest 3G Wi-Fi hotspot

ICANN approves new changes to domain names

In The Loop

Final Cut Pro X: Apple’s biggest mistake in years?

Apple unveils new Time Capsules

Apple iPhone 5 to be major update after all; announcement and availability in August?

Source: Apple to Enter TV Display Business Late This Year

iOS 5: What’s new in Beta 2

Tom’s Stockings (1)

$99 USD Android Tablet – Arnova 7

Twitter plans bolder advertisements

Telstra introduces the World’s largest footprint of HD Voice

Pwnage Playtime

Lawsuit: Sony laid off security staff before data breach

PopCap Games snares a mystery buyer?

More Duke Nukem coming

Dead or Alive: Dimensions re-rated M Down Under

Team Fortress 2 Going Free-To-Play

The Other Stories

IT’S DONE: Telstra inks $11bn NBN dealt

NBN: Optus migrates HFC users for $800m

Voluntary ISP filter attracts global attention

FTC launching antitrust probe over Google search, ad businesses

Bitcoin: Virtual money gets hacked and heisted

Secret money: ABC virtual currency racket probe

Skype Fires Executives, Avoiding Payouts After Microsoft Buyout

Microsoft gets antitrust approval to buy Skype

Revenge of the Ugly: ‘Beautiful People’ Dating Site Hacked

Yahoo approaches Hulu about possible acquisition [Updated]

Winklevoss twins press Facebook case in Boston federal court after dropping Supreme Court appeal

Tom’s Stockings (2)

JK Rowling launches Pottermore website

Netregistry buys Distribute.IT

Skype confirms native iPad app coming with video chat