A few months back I upgraded the 500GB 5400RPM stock hard drive for an 160GB Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA II Solid State Drive from Overclockers.  This gave my MBP a considerable performance boost.  Start up from cold boot used to take 47 seconds, with the SSD this has come down to just 17 seconds….amazing.

Now for the memory upgrade.  Always knew I was going to upgrade from the standard 4GB to 8GB, however, finances meant I had to wait, that is until today.  As I said I received my 8GB kit from Crucial, and installed the sticks straight away.  Although I haven’t noticed any obvious performance gains, as I did with the SSD, I know it will be invaluable when it comes to photo editing and video editing using Photoshop and iMovie.

Here are the current specs on my MBP

• 17″ MacBook Pro 2010 2.66GHz Core i7 with Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display
• Intel X25-M Mainstream SATA II 160GB Solid State Drive
• 8GB Kit (2×4GB) DDR3 PC3-8500 SODIMM

GeekBench Results

Before Upgraded RAM

After Upgrade of RAM

Important! First you must have done a Hard SPL :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show…73&postcount=1

If you’ve done that before – follow these steps:

1. Download a cooked ROM of your Choice, RENAME the *.nbh for your ROM to: DIAMIMG.nbh
2. Copy DIAMIMG.nbh to the "Internal Storage" of your Device.
3. Hold the ‘Vol Down’ + ‘Back’ keys  + reset button to Initiate ROM Flash.
   (Back = Small Arrow below ‘End Call’ Button).
4. You should see the rainbow startup screen before it switches to installing ROM.
5. After ROM flash has completed, you’ll need to do a Hard-reset.
   Reset + hold ‘Vol Down’ + ‘Circle’ keys.
6. On restart, it may say "Press Vol Up To Boot", if so press ‘Vol Up’ and allow the ROM to boot, if message is not displayed it will simple boot into the new ROM.

Enjoy you newly flashed HTC Diamond.

1. Using Safari browser on the iPhone, go to "help.benm.at" … scroll down to "Features" and select "Tethering"
    
2. Scroll down the list of countries and select "Create your own Generator"
3. Enter the following text in the "Carrierdata" form:

   Carriername: T-Mobile
   APN: general.t-mobile.co.uk
   User: user
   Password: pass

   

4. Deselect the optional "Webclip" and click on Download.
5. Accept and Install the settings … BUT DON’T reboot yet.
6. Go into Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network > 
7. Populate the fields as below:
   Note: Celluar Data should already be populated, but I’ve listed it here just in case.

   Cellular Data
   APN: general.t-mobile.co.uk
   Username: user
   Password: pass

   MMS
   APN: general.t-mobile.co.uk
   Username: user
   Password: one2one
   MMSC: http://mmsc.t-mobile.co.uk:8002
   MMS Proxy 149.254.201.135:8080

   Internet Tethering
   APN: general.t-mobile.co.uk
   Username: user
   Password: pass

    

8. Exit out of these settings back to your home screen and perform a hard reboot (hold down Home and Power until the iPhone Reboots)
9. Once rebooted you should be set. Send yourself an MMS message to check. Also in Settings > General > Network … you will notice "Internet Tethering" option.

When entering the actual code, the secret is to have consistent timing during key presses and not pressing the buttons as quickly as possible.

1. Press the POWER button on the DVD remote to turn the DVD player On.  Make sure there is no disc in the tray.
2. Wait until the unit is fully started and your TV is showing the Samsung logo screen.
3. Press EJECT on the DVD remote to open the DVD tray.
4. Close the DVD tray, by pressing the EJECT button again, and wait for the “No Disc” message to appear in the top left corner of your TV.
5. Press the REPEAT button on the DVD remote, followed by the five digit Region 2 code.
   In this case press REPEAT followed by 57538 (be constant with your key press timings…do not rush or take too long).
6. If you’re successful you’ll see a number 2 appear in the top left corner of your TV.  If not, power down the DVD player and repeat steps from 1.
7. Press 9.  This will set the DVD player to Region 9 making it region free.
8. Press EJECT on the DVD remote to open the DVD tray.
9. Press EJECT on the DVD remote to close the DVD tray.
10. Press POWER on the DVD remote to power down the player.
11. Now power the unit on again and it should be able to read all DVDs from all regions.  Insert a non-Region 2 disc to test and confirm.

To enable the Sky+ remote control to work for your Samsung UE40B6000 LED screen follow the steps below, Using the Sky+ remote:

Clear the existing memory setting (skip this part if new SKY+ box)

• Press the TV button
• Press Select and the Red button simultaneously until the lights on the remote blink twice
• Type in 999
• Press the TV button again
• Samsung UE40B6000 Remote Code

Hold the Sky+ remote away from your TV and press the TV button

• Press Select and the Red button simultaneously until the lights on the remote blink twice
• Type in 646
• Press the Select button
• Press the TV button
• Press the Sky button

You should now be able to control the volume and standby/on options of your TV using the Sky+ remote control

I’ve already tested this feature out with Virtua Tennis 2009 and it really worked wonders on the game. The frequent pauses as the game loaded went away, and the game plays a lot smoother.

So, if you have a game that you like to play, but it’s frequently slowed down because of disc loading, or the spin noise is driving you crazy it might be worth installing the game onto the Xbox 360’s hard drive. You will still need to have the game disc in the Xbox 360 to play the game – to stop piracy — but you will see improved performance in some games.

How to install Xbox 360 games to the hard drive whilst in the dashboard:

It’s very simple to load the game onto the hard drive when you are in the dashboard. Just follow these quick steps:

1. Load the disk into your Xbox 360 console and go to your Xbox 360 console
2. Scroll down to My Xbox
3. Scroll across to Game Library and hit the A button
4. This should put you on the Recent Games window and your game should be highlighted, so you should just need to hit the A button. Otherwise, scroll to the Recent Games window and choose the game.
5. On the game screen, choose Install to Hard Drive. This process should take a few minutes, but once it is complete, you’ll be able to enjoy improved performance.

You’ll also note that the game screen contains all kinds of great information about the game such as the achievements unlocked and featured downloads available for the game.

How to install Xbox 360 games to the hard drive whilst in the game:

1. While in the game, hit the Xbox button to bring up the mini-dashboard
2. Scroll across to the Games tab
3. Choose Game Library and hit the A button
4. Confirm that you want to bring up the Xbox 360 Dashboard
5. This should put you on the Recent Games window and your game should be highlighted, so you should just need to hit the A button.
6. On the game screen, choose Install to Hard Drive. This process should take a few minutes

Checking hard drive space and clearing up clutter:

Installing games onto your Xbox 360’s hard drive will take up a lot of space. For example, it took 4 GB to install Virtua Tennis 2009 onto the hard drive – not a problem for my 120GB Elite box, but those with the original 40GB may have issues.  So, you might want to make sure you have enough available space and clear up a little room if you are running low. Doing this is pretty simple:

1. In the dashboard, scroll over to My Xbox
2. Scroll across to System Settings (it should be the last choice)
3. Choose Memory
4. This will show your hard drive and your free space. Choose the hard drive to get more information.

The hard drive is broken down by categories to show where you are using the most space.

Choose a category to see the individual items. You can delete items by clicking on their name and choosing delete from the menu. Deleting demos is a good way to free up some available space.

I for one would definetely get an iPad just for this reason, especially if you could play Street Fighter, Mortal Combat or may be even Bubble Bobble.

Jump over to ThinkGeek for more information

Some of us like the simple minimalist setup whilst others require crazy over-the-top hardware configurations.

Even if you have a nice workstation setup, seeing another awesome setup can make you a bit jealous.  Here are a showcase of photos that will make you drool.

SilverPac launches the SilverTouch 5500 universal remote control. 

Looks like a cool way to control your Windows Media Center PC, also uses Windows SideShow technology, so while you watch TV with your family on Windows Media Center, you can find out what programs are showing next or schedule a recording for the next day. You can also browse through your Windows Media Center music collection from the display on the remote control, check emails, update Facebook status, etc, without turning on the TV

Not much information available at the moment, but here’s the blurb from their site…

The SilverTouch 5500 universal remote control boasts a large 4.3” color touch LCD with the ability to control up to 28 devices. With IR learning, our universal remote control has the ability to control any device in your house. The Microsoft Green Button also gives you direct control over your digital entertainment library on your Windows Vista computer through the Windows Media Center.