If you’re getting bored and are desperate for something new to play, and find your wallet sort of empty, you can get a totally free game off Xbox Live Arcade, called Yaris. Yaris is the name of one of Toyota’s cars, and the game is a promotional vehicle for the, er, vehicle, which is why it’s free. It’s not the greatest game in the world, but for the price, it’s pretty worth it.
Yaris is a racing action game. You drive down a mostly tubed corridor, with a tentacle arm attached to your car that shoots at obstacles and enemies. You need to collect coins, kill enemies and thus earn the money to buy better weapons, shielding and vehicle types. If you get into it, and get to be good at it, you could really enjoy the game. Either way, it’s free, it has Achievements and online play, so there’s no good reason not to give it a shot.
Microsoft has just made available a free trial of Windows Home Server. The 120-day evaluation disk will only cost six dollars to ship, and give you four months to see if Home Server brings you enough benefits. If it does, the full version will be completely worth whatever it costs, though I’m not sure if you can buy the license from Microsoft or if you just need to head to Newegg. Either way, if you wanted to see whether the hype is a good fit for your house, pick it up now.
What will you receive?
Windows Home Server Installation DVD
Windows Home Server Connector CD
Home Computer Restore CD
Are you ready?
This software is intended for evaluation purposes only. In order to preserve your existing data, you must backup prior to installation. The setup process for server installation will erase any existing data.
Microsoft is holding some webcasts helping users learn more about HP’s MediaSmart Windows Home Server, the flagship Home Server hardware product that will be arriving one of these days. HP will demo the server, plus Rob Enderle, Rick Doherty, Paul Thurrott, and Ed Bott will be talking and answering questions from the audience about the marketplace and why home servers are needed.
Here are the times and scheduled industry experts for the live webcasts:
Thursday, November 8th
4:00-5:00PM (PT), 7:00-8:00PM (ET)
Rick Doherty - Envisioneering
Friday, November 9th
1:00PM-2:00PM (PT), 4:00-5:00PM (ET)
Rob Enderle - The Enderle Group
Tuesday November 27th
10:00AM-11:00AM (PT), 1:00PM-2:00PM (ET)
Paul Thurrott - Supersite for Windows
Thursday, November 29th
8:00AM-9:00AM (PT), 11:00AM-12:00PM (ET)
Ed Bott - ZDNet
European readers, take note: You’ll be getting four free days of Xbox Live later this month, with free Live Gold and free multiplayer gaming from November 23 to November 26. If you’ve got some nice Thanksgiving vacation, this would be a great way to celebrate it.
You know, if Thanksgiving wasn’t an American holiday.
Now, why are you getting these four special days? Microsoft is holding an Xbox bash all weekend, and they’re calling it Xtival 07.
Wait, Xtival? What? Didn’t I say yesterday that Microsoft registered some Xtival domains? Amazing, huh?
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile Team Blog has all the information you might want to know about the T-Mobile Shadow, T-Mobile’s hot new $150 Windows Mobile smart phone. The Shadow runs a custom home screen interface, designed by Microsoft and codenamed Neo. It’s got access to almost all your vital info in a large, bold style (instead of cramming it all in with tiny text and cryptic icons), with nice transition animations.
Here’s hoping some hackers pull this homescreen to work on other Windows Mobile phones. Whether they do or not, I’ve already promised my wife this phone to replace her T-Mobile SDA when our contract is up.
