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RC2 unveils V_Bot three-in-one toy robot
Sure, you could throw down for a robotic car, Transformer, and speaker station whenever you well please, but how's about snatching all three in one fell swoop? RC2 is sure hoping that the aforementioned trio goes well blended together in a remote-controlled creature, as the V_Bot brings together all of those elements for what it dubs "the ultimate remote control robotic experience." The device can morph from vehicle to robotic beast in a matter of seconds via the handheld remote, and if digital driving controls and a host of built-in dance moves weren't enough to satisfy you, you can throw it in park and enjoy some tunes when you've had your fill of burnin' linoleum and breaking it down. Not too shabby at all for £129.99 ($267).
Download Vista RC2 now
Gamers on the bleeding-edge (read: will sell blood for DirectX 10 video card) can download Windows Vista RC2. Microsoft says that this will be the final public update before Vista ships to retail; freeloaders, this is your last chance.Vista claims to be a significant update for gamers, but we're staying skeptical until its final release. Microsoft wouldn't hype DirectX 10 and other game technologies just to sell copies, would it? No, rhetorical us, that's cynical.Use a product key from the RC1 installation, or get a new one from that site if you're new to the Vista expedition. Vista hasn't destroyed any of our computers, but be sure to back up important data or run Vista on a non-critical PC.See Also: Download Vista RC1 for free, stress your PC and wallet[Via Engadget]
Thunderbird 1.5 RC2 released, gets shinier
Ok so I lied: Thunderbird isn't really any shinier, I just thought that headline might make C.K. download it faster on his quest for a Mail replacement. But seriously, it sounds like they've made some significant updates with RC2, when I thought release clients were simply about squashing bugs. Among the list of updates: better automatic updates, spell checking as you type (how 'bout it Firefox??), redesigned options UI, improvements to podcasting and RSS, built-in phishing detection and more. These sound like nice upgrades to an app that reportedly (and I agree) beats the pants off of Mail in the IMAP department. Still, as Hawk Wings points out, Thunderbird's inability to play well with lots of other OS X apps, lack of applescript support and just plain "butt-ugly" UI can tarnish the Thunderbird experience for some OS X users. Me? In my journey for Mail alternatives, I'm slowly settling into the Gmail way of things. It's certainly a new experience going from a desktop app to a web-app, especially for something as intensive as handling the army of email I collect in a day's time, but Gmail does most of the things that I was using Mail plugins for, such as MailTags. Plus, since Gmail went mobile, I don't necessarily need to keep my PowerBook glued to my head 24/7 to keep on top of things, so it's been working out so far.At the end of the day though, it's nice to see another large choice in email clients besides Mail and *shudder* Entourage, especially since Thunderbird has a few unique tricks like RSS reading up its sleeve.
