Grrr….. Why does Sony make simple things so complicated? I’ll start with the answer to the titular question. After firing up the PS3 with your new Dual Shock 3 (DS3) controller

• start Resistance Fall of Man (RFoM)
• choose “Multiplayerâ€?
• choose “online gameâ€? - the following notice will appear:
  “An update to Resistance: Fall of Man is available. This update is required for online play. Download update?
• choose ‘yes’
• exit the game when the download is complete
• start it up again.

You’ll finally have 10 year old technology in your sparkly new PS3 - yeah!!!

Who came up with this clever idea? How are people that want to play the single player campaign offline supposed to know this? Now for the back-story… Read the rest of this entry at The Daleisphere »

I’m still waiting on the free WiFi, but in the meantime Starbucks is offering complimentary iTunes.

Lest we forget, today’s the Ides of April.

I haven’t gotten a refund since selling my condo about three years ago. But if I had some unexpected cash coming my way, I’d probably be thinking about supplementing my Xbox 360 with a Wii or (more likely) a PS3. I might also be a little more motivated to pull the trigger on my first HTPC in years since decommissioning the projector - when we sold that aforementioned condo.

So, did anyone else wait until the last minute to finish up their taxes? If you’re getting (or already received) some money back from Uncle Sam, where’s it going? Paying bills and saving don’t count. We need stimulus!

As I mentioned a few days ago, I was stationed next to the Fring gang at CTIA. And I found the iPhone hidden in the BizDev guy’s pocket a little suspicious given they didn’t support the platform. Well, as of today they do! Fring is a mobile multi-IM client, and one of the few multi-IM clients to include Skype voice chat. So, the first thing I did after installing this on my jailbroken iPhone was give Kevin Tofel a call via SkypeOut (using WiFi). Kevin reports he heard me OK with a little echo of his own voice and, for the first half of the call, I heard him OK as well. For the second half of the call, his voice was garbled unfortunately. But hey, this is a beta client and it looks very promising. We also tried AIM<->.Mac text IM, which worked fine. The new message audio alert is a little too high pitched and glaring though.

(Thanks, Todd!)

The highly regarded Antec MX-1 SATA hard drive enclosure is available at Buy.com for $19.99 after $25 rebate (PDF). Shipping’s free and if you’re new to Google Checkout, you can save another $10. Once you add your drive, simply attach this to a TiVo Series3 for additional storage… TiVo HD owners are going to have to work a little harder. Check FAQ entry #27 for hard drive suggestions.

If you’re in need of more drive space yet find this somewhat overwhelming, you can choose from a variety of pre-assembled eSATA drives (like the Seagate FreeAgent Pro I need to review) for use with a S3 or pick up the TiVo-blessed Western Digital My DVR Expander (currently limited to 500GB) to use with either the S3 or TiVo HD models.

FYI Some of the other DVR manufacturers allow additional storage too (though not FiOS TV as many have pointed out), so you may want to do a little research. Many, like the Dish DVR, use the more commonly available external USB drives — including travel drives without AC adapters. Though, I’m not sure if I’d trust those small 2.5″ guys without cooling to 24hr usage.

(Thanks, Russell)

In Feburary, Blockbuster offered to acquire Circuit City but in essence has been ignored as CC failed to provide the due diligence necessary to make a definitive proposal. To force the issue, Blockbuster has made the $1B proposal public. Blockbuster seems to have been diversifying beyond “just a movie rental company” to transform themselves into a retail company for media content and electronic devices - both of which have been converging…

I’m not sure how their respective shareholders feel about this sort of business combination, but to me it seems like two companies dying a slow death joining forces to die together faster. Blockbuster is losing out to Netflix and soon to online movie streaming while Circuit City is losing out to Best Buy, Wal-mart and the online retailers. Together how will this be any better? I’ll tell you two companies that are jumping for joy about this news - Netflix and Best Buy!

Does Blockbuster City sound like a logical “store” to you?

Check out more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media at Brent Evans Geek Tonic.

There’s been some discussion lately regarding a lack of originality in the blogosphere and the recurring debate of bloggers are/aren’t journalists. While Mari and I are content to let others hash this out (for now), we’ve been busy removing feeds rather than adding. And we don’t want to get stuck in a rut - not only are we blog readers in search of inspiration, but we also need to stay current for our day jobs. So where are the good technology blogs we might not know about or sites that deserve a second look? Read the rest of this entry »

Wondering if Verizon’s FiOS is available in your area? Look no further than the FiOS wiki. If you click on the states listed you’ll see a detailed accounting of counties or townships where the Verizon service is available. Of course, I live in Upper Merion Pennsylvania and FiOS isn’t actually in my neighborhood, but it is around the corner. Any day now?

(Thanks to Jim and Beth for the photo)