It’s happened to everyone at some point…you’re putting the finishing touches on a 20 page paper about the migration patterns of seagulls, or you’re about to beat the last boss in Ninja Gaiden on the NES. Then, without warning, the unthinkable happens: Power outage! Maybe it’s windy out, maybe you “forgot” to pay your electric bill, or maybe there was just a freak power surge that made the lights flicker. Oh, and you didn’t save. The hours of blood, sweat and tears are reduced to a blinking begin screen in a nanosecond.

That’s why it’s always good to rely on an uninterrupted power supply, like the Eaton Evolution. Eaton is offering to give away one UPS to the reader with the absolute worst technology failure story. It could be anything: Computers, video games, alarm clocks, or phone chargers to name a few…but the more details the superior! Get your entries in by November 7th to be eligible.

By clicking submit, you concur to share your responses with Gawker Media LLC and Eaton Corporation. All other standard contest rules apply (see rules).

Via [Gizmodo]

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The New Xbox Experience is ready to go live soon as part of the Xbox fall update, and after getting some quality face time with the UI and it’s new features, I’m pretty impressed. The update addresses the core Xbox software on two levels: most notable is that the design of the UI received a complete overhaul, (mostly) eschewing the blades for a more immersive, intuitive, Media Center-like experience. Secondly, it adds new functionality, allowing for Netflix streaming, group-based gaming, heavily customized avatars, ripping games straight to HDD and an all new quick menu that comes up when you hit the home button.

The first thing you notice while using the new UI is how fluid and dynamic it is. Microsoft wasn’t content to just create some static screens and call it a day. Many of the menus have multiple animations and 3D elements at work, which give the software life. Your avatar sits on the menu, fully rendered, loafing around on your screen. Moving from section to section is so fluid that you stop thinking about what your doing with the controller. There’s also the Spotlight menu subset, which highlights the games and features of the Xbox you use the most, so that you don’t have to waste time surfing menus. And this efficient mindset extends thoughout the entire Xbox UI.

A new change is that when you hit the home button, a medium-sized box pops up in the middle of your screen with multiple blades that can be shuffled by moving the analog stick left and right. This is a quick menu of sorts that streamlines the entire menu into a no nonsense, text based interface that lets you browse and navigate whatever information you need with a swiftness. You can look up friends, change games, adjust settings, go to your gamer profile, or launch the full dashboard. This was designed around the original Xbox UI, with the seasoned gamer in mind who just wants to carry out a specific task with no fuss. What’s nice it is that it doesn’t overwhelm the screen like the original UI did in terms of size and layout.

We’ve touched on it before, but the level of customization you can put into your avatar is nuts. Clothes, Face, Body and Hair are all heavily modifiable within the avatar creator. And they not only feature prominently in menu system and Xbox Live’s social features, but they will also be integrated into more games down the road.

The ability to rip games to your HDD is a neat feature that can not only cut down on load times, but the sound that comes with using the DVD drive. It’s not intended to archive your entire games library, but rather the few games you play ALOT. In this context, I see it being very handy. It still requires you insert the game disc when you start a game each time, just so it can verify it’s not a pirated copy, but after that, the disc drive lies dormant.

I didn’t get a look at the Netflix software in this version of the UI, but based on the performance of the Roku and the screens of the Xbox Netflix interface, you can pretty much guess what that experience will be like.

Theme junkies will be glad to know that Themes 2.0 for NXE are far more integrated into the UI than before. Instead of a background and matching color scheme, Themes 2.0 now has features like 3D renderings instead of tiles behind each menu object, that relate to the theme in some way.

Party-style gaming is another new feature Xbox put a lot of effort into and are touting as a main feature in this new UI. I didn’t get to see a ton of this mode in action, but I got the sense it will be popular amongst groups of friends who don’t always want to play the same game the entire time they’re on Live, but want to stay in touch just in case. The menus for creating celebrations are pretty simple, as you only need to choose create celebration or invite friends and add friends from a list.

Lastly, the Video and Game Marketplaces has been revamped and are pretty well thought out. There are multiple ways to search for content, whether it be XBLA games, XNA games, additional game content, or video, you can search by name, genre or category, and the list continuously repopulates itself as you refine your search string letter by letter. Featured titles appear in the front menu.

Overall, the New Xbox Experience seems to be focused around an polished and efficient experience. We’ll be getting our hands on the final version soon, so keep your eyes peeled for a full review. [New Xbox Experience on Giz]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Microsoft has just unveiled three new Xbox 360 bundles, each featuring Netflix advertising on the front and a free game or two inside. The Pro and Elite bundles are basically the same, each coming with Lego Indiana Jones and Kung Fu Panda. The Arcade version comes with, uh, Sega Superstar Tennis. And no hard drive, if you’d somehow forgotten that, which is especially crappy since the New Xbox Experience requires at least a 256MB memory card to work. So yeah, just avoid that Arcade system at all costs. The other two bundles aren’t too bad if you’re into, you know, Kung Fu Panda.

[Kotaku]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Sprint’s Xohm WiMax network got extra super official this day with a celebration and all, so laptop makers are tossing out confetti in the form of WiMax-enabled notebooks. Here’s what you’ve got to pick from. Acer dropped a pair of Aspire cheapies in 14- and 16-inch sizes, while Asus’s 14 and 15-inchers are a bit mo’ superior for a bit mo’ money. Oh, there’s more.

Toshiba’s offering is a nicely spec’d 13-inch Satellite, which seems to be the sweet spot of the bunch. And finally, Lenovo is hitting us with a brigade right off the bat—Thinkpad X301, T400, SL300 and SL500, though eventually all of its laptops will have WiMax options. Dell, Sony and Panasonic will be bringing theirs out sometime next year, so unless you’re looking for the fruit, basically any maker you’re a fan of will have something for you (and don’t forget Nokia’s N810). [CW, Electronista]

Via [Gizmodo]

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It’s been a massive week for Panasonic: The company founded by Konosuke Matsushita turned 90, celebrating by both finally swapping the founder’s surname in favor of the more well-known Panasonic Corp, and by building its 300 millionth Television set. Apparently this is a record even Sony can’t touch, unless the company announces tomorrow that it will focus entirely on plasma sets that are 150 inches and above. I dunno, 90-year-olds can be quite unpredictable sometimes. Anyway, happy birthday, Panasonic—or are you going by just Panny now? [Panasonic on Giz]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Japanese engineers who were exhausted of sweaty nutsacks quickly draining batteries revealed a prototype of a thermoelectric device that could create electricity using heat produced from laptops, which means more renewable energy and less time being plugged into a wall.

When two ceramic semiconductors with different temperatures are connected, an electrical current is produced, creating power, which means that cell phones, laptops, mp3 players and other portable devices can partially recharge themselves.

However, it might take more than 10 years before self-recharging gadgets will be available to consumers, so don’t worry — you can still use your laptop as a personal heater for the upcoming winter. [pcadvisor via wired]

Via [Gizmodo]

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This Halloween, instead of candy, why not hand out a couple of these cute zombie plushies? The Dismember-Me Plus can be torn limb from limb and reassembled to your heart’s delight. It even comes with a cuddly mini-zombie brain! The cute undead doll is now available now on Think Geek for $15. After all, being a kid ought not to mean that you shouldn’t be reminded that we’re all heading towards an apocalyptic future. [Think Geek]

Via [Gizmodo]

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While this iPhone security hole isn’t almost as gaping as the last one we covered (which was fixed by Apple), it too exploits the emergency call feature in password-protected mode. In password-protected mode, there’s an option to disable SMS preview, so if someone picks up your locked phone, they can’t see incoming text messages. However, if you activate a locked phone’s emergency call mode, and it receives a text message, it’ll show you the full text in preview. And yes, this is with 2.1. Again, a sorta minor security oversight, but if you’re super-secret about your texts (for whatever reasons), this is definitely a problem and needs to be fixed in the next update. [Karl Kraft via Daring Fireball]

Via [Gizmodo]

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The MLB’s must-buy At Bat iPhone app for baseball fanatics, which delivers live game info, video, more stats than you can swing a stick and other goodness, is currently on sale for $2.99, two bucks off of its usual $5 pricetag. But it’s more of a bait-and-switch than a steal, because the app will expire at the end of the season, so you’ll have to re-buy it at the start of the 2009 season. Not too surprising coming from the MLB, who’s notoriously ticky about their content. At Bat is still a great app, but buyer definitley beware. [TUAW]

Via [Gizmodo]

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Oops, someone at Best Purchase leaked a presentation that’s revealed the ship dates for several upcoming handsets. For instance, the titanium version of the Verizon Blitz, now has a ship date of October 26th (it’s only marked as Coming Soon on the Best Buy site. Other cellphones dropping on the 26th include Sprint’s HTC Touch Pro and black Samsung M540 Rant, AT&T’s BlackBerry Bold 9000 and T-Mobile’ BlackBerry Pearl Flip. Oh yes, the BlackBerry Storm’s on there as well, with a ship date of November 16th. [BGR via Electronista]

Via [Gizmodo]

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