Accessorize Your Xbox

Just like a car, Microsoft XBox consoles also have accessories. If you search for it online, there is an additional tax for shipping and delivery rate. You can get your Xbox accessories on www.amazon.com or even on www.ebay.com.

However, the XBox enthusiasts get theirs at toy stores. Besides, it is cheaper. Here is a list of the available accessories for the Microsoft XBox.

1. XBox Controllers

These are standard accessories, meaning they are made available when you buy the system. But some gamers tened to overuse their controller that they soon need a new one.

It is interesting to note that there is an array of XBox controllers available on the market. Like there are wireless controllers, XBox Eclipse controller, XBox Afterglow controller and so much more. It is all up to the gamer which one to get.

2. XBox Arcade Sticks

There are some games available for the XBox that can be controlled by arcade sticks for better game play. As opposed to the controller, arcade sticks can allow the gamers to flick their wrists more, therefore, there’s better control.

Best example where the XBox Arcade Sticks are compatible are the fighting games for the console.

3. XBox Steering Wheels

If there are fighting games, there are also driving games. Thanks to XBox Steering Wheels, the gamer can sit right in front of the TV set and drive away.

4. XBox Memory Cards

Memory cards aren't included when you buy an XBox console. This is because it isn't an essential accessory since the XBox has an 8 GB harddisk build-in. This can let the player save all his game information.

An XBox memory card is used when transferring a saved game from one XBox console to another. Some serious gamers also prefer that they back up their games, especially when it is a valued endeavor.

XBox memory cards are perfect for hardcore gamers. It is inserted in the console and plugged into the sockets on its two memory card slots.

5. XBox Headset With Communicator

The most successful game in the entire XBox franchise is “Halo”. Released in 2004, it is still as popular as ever. A headset with a communicator lets the gamer interact with the other players of “Halo” making it more real.

Be careful when shopping for a replacement laptop battery

The batteries in laptop computers are expensive (a quick review of prices at Lenovo.com shows they range from $119 to $179) and like any battery, they have a limited lifespan. When it comes time to replace the battery inside your laptop computer, you may be tempted to save a few bucks and buy a replacement from a company other than the one that made the computer.

Don't.

In a widely reported story, someone in Ohio purchased a battery for their ThinkPad laptop from a company called Shentech rather than directly from Lenovo or IBM (in 2005 IBM sold the Thinkpad line of laptops to Lenovo). No doubt they paid less than IBM or Lenovo would have charged. When I checked today, a battery for a T40 ThinkPad that Lenovo sells for $119 is only $65 at Shentech. Was it a bargain? Not at all, the battery caught on fire.

The story made news not because of the fire but because the battery, bearing an IBM logo was a fake (allegedly). After examining the faulty battery, IBM purchased additional batteries from Shentech and they too were (allegedly) fakes. Needless to say, IBM is suing Shentech (that they list a Post Office box and no phone number on the Contact Us page of their website doesn't inspire confidence).

Unfortunately, the laptop battery igniting in flames was not, in and of itself, newsworthy. After all, last year there were a slew of battery recalls. The big story was Dell recalling 4.2 million batteries made by Sony, but overall approximately 10 million Sony batteries used in machines from Apple, Sony, Lenovo/IBM, Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sharp and Dell were recalled. In May of 2005 Apple recalled iBooks and PowerBooks with batteries made by LG Chem Ltd., of South Korea. Lenovo/IBM has also recalled Sanyo batteries. It must be hard to make a safe Lithium-ion battery.

The lesson here is to only buy replacement batteries from the company that made the computer. Off-brand batteries are more likely to scrimp on safety features.

And, should there be a recall of the battery in your laptop, make it easy for the manufacturer to contact you - register your computer purchase.

Your BatteryIf you are curious about the battery in a laptop computer running Windows XP, go to the Control Panel, open the Power Options, click on the Power Meter tab and, finally, click on the battery icon. In the screen shot above, you can see the battery was made by Sanyo.

ThinkPad owners should have a ThinkPad configuration program installed (available from Start -> Programs -> ThinkVantage, at least in Windows XP, I'm not sure about Vista) that shows additional information about the battery. As you can see above, this includes the manufacture date and the first-used date.
The Status Detail tab (see above) also shows, among other data, the current temperature of the battery which might bear watching every now and then.

If you know of other software that shows important information about the battery in a laptop computer, please leave a comment below.

Hands-on: Two free video-to-iPhone converters

There's no shortage of video-to-iPhone converters on the market, but these two freeware contenders do a more-than-decent job of making individual files iPhone-ready. Don't expect much interface gloss or batch conversion with either. However, both apps quickly produce workable iPhone videos without much fuss.

Free Video to iPhone Converter tells it like it is. The rough 'n' ready app takes up minimal screen space and memory. Browsing for links and converting quickly is easy, since there aren't too many additional tabs or buttons where you can get lost. There is, however, a useful function for trimming videos before converting them.

Videora is a larger and busier, app by Red Kawa. On the plus side, Videora lets you format videos for iPhones and three flavors of iPods, including the iPod Touch. You can also browse for and convert YouTube videos online. Videora's multiple tabs and settings let you control advanced encoding and conversion details; it can also pop the finished product straight into iTunes (download,) which can in turn autosync to your iPhone.

Step-by-step prompting (which you can step down or turn off) is useful for walking you through the process, but the double-pane interface adds confusion and superfluous steps for an essentially simple program. The end product was just as good as Free Video to iPhone Converter, but took far more clicks and doesn't have the added advantage of trimming a clip. Dragging a file to the iTunes library is hardly a hardship, though Videora's autoload feature is still a convenient perk.

I currently prefer Free Video to iPhone Converter myself, though Videora will appeal to those further up the power user scale.

Samsung BlackJack II makes official debut

Well, well, guess who decided to show its pretty little face at Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote address this morning--mmm hmm, the Samsung BlackJack II. Today, Samsung and AT&T officially introduced the successor to the BlackJack, but it won't be available till "later this year"--you guys are such a tease! A majority of the changes are on the hardware side. You now get a slightly larger 2.4-inch QVGA display (previously 2.25 inches), the scroll wheel on the right side has also been removed in favor of a front jog wheel, and the bottom row of the QWERTY keyboard now includes more shortcut buttons to the smartphone's various apps. In addition, the BlackJack II is slightly (and we mean slight; this is still very much a sleek phone) thicker, but for good reason. The extra room was needed to store a higher-capacity 1,700mAh lithium ion battery. We know battery life was an issue with the original BlackJack, so we really hope the issue has been resolved in this iteration. Unfortunately, at this time, Samsung couldn't give us any specific numbers on rated talk time or standby time.

Feature-wise, the BlackJack II is pretty stacked. Starting with the new, there's built-in GPS and it's the first smartphone to support AT&T's Video Share service, which lets you make video calls. The camera's been upgraded to a 2-megapixel lens and you get a built-in RSS Reader client. Samsung also said they made improvements to the speakerphone for louder and clearer performance and increased standard memory. Other oldies but goodies include HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP profile for stereo Bluetooth headsets, Windows Mobile 6 Standard Edition, AT&T Music and CV support, and quad-band world roaming.

As we mentioned earlier, a specific availability date was not given but pricing is set for a very reasonable $149.99 with a two-year contract and after rebates. It will also be available in two colors: black and burgundy. I got a sneak preview yesterday, and I've got to say I'm pretty excited about the device. The form factor is still sexy and slim, and the burgundy model is gorgeous--appropriate for both men and women. The front jog wheel felt a bit loose to me, and for those of you accustomed to the side-mounted control, it's going to feel a bit weird at first. I only got about 10 minutes of hands-on time with the BlackJack II, so it's hard to say if the performance is any better, but I'm about to run over to the show floor to get some video, so check back soon for your own first look.

Hot deal: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph for $170

As a back-pocket backup, the Elph series is well respected and widely enjoyed. Canon left off the manual controls on this snapshooters' favorite, but for what it is, it's a sound product and a great deal. It started out on the market earlier this year at $220 or higher, and sellers are starting to lower the price. On Thursday, Amazon's winning the race to the bottom, especially since in most cases they offer free shipping for this item.

According to CNET Reviews, the SD1000 Elph offers unusually good image quality, "solid build quality, speedy performance, an optical viewfinder, (and) face detection" along with assorted preprogrammed settings, a 2.5-inch LCD screen, and admirable speed.

What: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph pocket digital camera
How much: $169.95

This week in cameras

This week includes a new Sony camera, suspiciously similar advertisements, and Hello Kitty merchandise. It's a win for everybody!

• Apple, Sony photos: Coincidence?
• AVCHD video: The hardware is willing, but the software is weak
• A cat head for a camera
• Depth of field: The small sensor difference
• Flickr to upgrade photo printing
• Flickr to use Picnik for online photo editing
• Hasselblad deep-sixing H2 hybrid camera
• Hot deal: Canon PowerShot SD1000 Elph for $170
• How deep is your field?
• Sony Cyber-shot DSC-T2: Memory cards? Who needs memory cards?
• Tamron's superzoom lens set to launch
• Turn junior into an indie filmmaker

Apple, Sony photos: Coincidence?

An excellent item last month comparing the desktop designs of Apple and Sony by our colleague Matthew Elliott drew some of the most reader comments seen on Crave in months. We won't wade into that territory again but wanted to pass along this item from Engadget Japanese to show that we're hardly the only ones to draw parallels between the two companies.

Engadget says the photos are "official, un-doctored press shots from both Apple and Sony" of an older iPod Nano and the new Sony Cyber-shot released yesterday, respectively. Even the colors and position of the gravity-defying gadgets are the same. Coincidence? It may be time to call in Oliver Stone.

Vertu gets into luxury leather

All of this touch-screen talk sometimes makes us pine for simpler times, when products were made with more tactile aesthetics in mind. We're apparently not alone, as manufacturers such as Lenovo are making such items as notebooks clad in leather.

Now Vertu, the king of luxury phones, is bringing the cowhide concept to its latest handset, identified as the "Ascent T" in FCC filings. The proposed phone has a 3-megapixel camera, a scratch-proof LCD and UMTS mobile Internet access, according to BornRich, but it's the bovine component that's most easily noticeable. It's not the first time that Vertu has incorporated leather into its designs, but this one has a natural, almost retro look that's reminiscent of the old "Brownie" cameras made by Kodak in the 1930s.

Best of all? It has actual buttons. So there.

Nokia fights touch screens with geometry

So here's the deal: If there's going to be any meaningful backlash against touch screens, it may require some innovative thinking on the part of button proponents. But we hope that it won't depend on the likes of Vertu and their $310,000 phones.

Nokia, at least, appears to be doing its part with a new design for the "7500 Prism" handset destined for the Chinese market for about $290, according to Gizmodiva. Its contribution to the cause? Triangular buttons that form a diamond pattern on the keypad.

We were just relieved to find that its "diamond" description wasn't referring to something like this. Or this. Or this...

REPAIR CELL PHONE

UNLOCK CODE FOR GSM

NOKIA
*#06# Display imei
*#0000# Shows software version
*#746025625# Shows if your phone supports sim lock stopping
*#92702689# Displays various info, repair date, purchase date, etc
*3370# Activates enhanced full rate
#3370# Deactivates enhanced full rate
*4370# Actives enhanced half rate
#4370# Deactivates enhanced half rate
*#2820# Bluetooth information
*#7220# Enables GPRS pccch
*#67705646# Clears operator logo on some versions of 3310 and 3330
*#7370# Software reset (beware your data will be lost)

SONY ERICSSON
*#06# Display imei
<**<>*<<*<* Service menu

BOSCH
*#06# Display imei
*#0000# Language automatically (reset to englih)
*#3370# Enchane Full Rate
#3370# Reset the phone
*#9000# Enter Sim Lock
*#9001# Enter the corporate code (bosch 908)
*#9002# Enter the provider Code (bosch 908)
*#9003# Enter network code
*#9004 Enter the subset code
*#9100# Remove the sim lock permanenly
*#9101# Remove the corporate lock permanenly
*#9102#Remove the provider lock permanently
*#9103# Remove the network lock permanently
*#9104# Remove the subject lock permanently
*#3262255*8378 Hidden 10th menu

LG
*#06# IMEI (ALL)
*#07# IMEI and SW (LG 510)
*8375# Software version (LG B1200)
*6861# Recount checksum (LG B1200)
#PWR 668 Factory Test
1945#*5101# Simlock menu (LG B1200)
2945#*5101# Simlock menu (LG 510W, 5200)
2945#*70001# Simlock menu (LG 7020, 7010)
2947#* Simlock menu (LG 500, 600)

MOTOROLA T205/ T19x
*#06# Display imei
*#300# OK List the software and hardware version
*#301# OK Full keypads functional test
*#303# OK Set default language to english
*#304# OK Set OFF engineering mode
*#304*19980722# Set ON engineering mode
*#307# OK Engineering test mode
*#311# OK Phone code changed to default code
*#402# OK Adjust display intensity/ contrast
*#403# OK List the manufacturing informations
19980722 OK Master unlock code for phone and simlock
*#302# OK Accoustict test
*#3370# Enhanced full rate
*#0000# OK Settings saved, restore set phone to default language

PANASONIC
*#06# Display imei
*#9999# (press within first 10 sec after poer on) Displays software version

PHILIPS
*#06# Display imei
*#2254*# Status register: C, BS, RR, MMI, Creat
*#2255*# Activate and deactivate the debug call
*#2558*# The time in days, hours and monutes you are connected to the net
*#3377*# Init, flags, sim lock
*#7378*# Name, length, sim phase
*#7489*# Security code
*#7693*# You can activate and deactivate the sleep mode

SAMSUNG
*#06# Displays imei
*2767*5282# Java reset and (deletes all java midlets)
*2767*63342# Reset media (deletes all sounds and pics)
*2767*927# Wap reset
*#9998*4357# Help menu
*#9998*5282# Java menu
*#9999#0# Monitor mode
*#9999# Software version
*#8888# Hardware version
*#9998*746# Sim info
*#9998*523# Display contrast
*#9998*842# Vibration on (until you push ok)
*#999*289# Buzzer on (until you push ok)
*#9998*288# Battery and field info
*#9998*377# Error log
*#9998*778# Sim service table
*#9998*782# Show date and alaram clock
*#8999*638# Show network information
*#9998*5646# Change operator logo at startup
*#9998*76# Production number
*#9998*968# View melody for alarm
*#9998*585# Non volatile memory
*#3243948# Digital audio interference off
*#32436837# Digital audio interference
*#9999# Show software version
*#0837# Show software version (instruction)
*#0001# Show serial parameters
*#9125# Activates the smiley when charging
*#9998*228# Battery status (capacity, voltage, temperature)
*#9998*246# Program status
*#9998*324# Debug screens
*#9998*364# Watchdog
*#9998*427# Trace watchdog
*#9998*544# Jig detect
*#9998*636# Memory status
*#9998*837# Software version
*#9998*862 Vocoder reg-normal, earphone or carkit can be selected
*#998*872# Diag
*#9998*947# Reset on fatal error
*#9998*999# Last/ check
*#9998*9999# Software version
*2767*2878# Custom EEPROM reset

ALCATEL
*#06# Display imei dan Software Version
000000 Entering in engineering Menu 1 9with sim)
###847# Reset to Factory Defaukts (with sim)
###765*02# Add Barring Groups
###765*05# Locking to Network
###765*07# Unlocking from Network
###765*78# Deactive Barring Group

SIEMENS
*#06# Display imei
*#06# then press left long button Display software info
SP unlock *#0003* (secret code 8 digits)#
*#0000# then the green button Reset language to automatic selection.

Sony Cybershot S800

Sony Cybershot DSC-S800 : Teaming great looks and superb imaging performance with a powerful 6x zoom lens, the Sony Cybershot DSC-S800 opens up the exciting world of digital photography to everyone. Weighing just 185g (without battery and media), the beautifully compact Sony Cybershot S800 stands out from the crowd thanks to its sleek lines and luxurious allmetal body. It’s also incredibly easy to use, even if you’ve never picked up a digital camera before. Pulling you closer to the action, the 6x optical zoom lens offers the highest magnification ever from a compact Cyber-shot model - boosted further still to 12x with digital zoom. In macro mode it’s possible to focus right down to 2cm for fantastic close-up views of any subject.

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