.::REALITYRECALL::.

A firmware update will bring two great features to the Zune HD this spring. The first is native XviD support, which is self-explanatory. The second requires just a tad more explanation.

The Smart DJ feature, now on the Zune's PC software, will make its way to the HD, offering on the fly track suggestions. That's OK—pretty similar to the iPod's Genius features—but what will make the feature great is that Smart DJ will also work over the Zune HD's Wi-Fi connection, allowing you to stream these suggested tracks from the cloud (instead of needing to have all that suggested music stored on the device already).

Good stuff. [CNET via SlashGear]

Windows/Linux (Firefox): Late last month, a Mozilla contributor showed us how Firefox 4.0 might look. The Strata40 theme and add-on gives your browser that same look, without having to wait or install pre-pre-alpha Firefox builds.

Strata40 and its required side add-on, StrataBuddy, offer many of the same tweaks to Firefox’s interface that Firefox 4.0 will likely offer, like moving your tabs to the top of the window or just under the address bar, consolidating the address and page loading bar, and updating the various graphical bits around the browser frame.

The top image shows off the developer’s own screenshot of his add-on in action. He’s got a nice-looking olive-type Windows theme going on; here’s how Strata40 looks installed on a stock Windows 7 copy of Firefox 3.5, with the tabs moved up top:

If you head into the StrataBuddy Options panel, you can enable the Aero Glass background style, which combined with the tabs moved to the top, and the menu bar hidden, looks like this:

The developer “requires” about three other add-ons to get Strata40 running “at its best,” like Fission, App Tabs, and Tab Progress Bar, and suggests that Firefox 3.6 is actually a better fit for his theme than 3.5. Still, with Strata40 installed, Firefox 3.5 can move forward in design time a bit without too much incompatibility risk or, seemingly, add-on drag.

Strata40 and StrataBuddy are free downloads, and StrataBuddy is an experimental add-on. Both work on Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 on Windows and Linux systems.

Holy crap. I just got home and found out the news that Sam Raimi had enough of the Sony BS and put his foot down over the whole Vulture thing. Unfortunately for Sam, that foot went down on the sidewalk outside the studio.

Raimi has quit Spider-man 4 and he took his Scategories with him.

So where does that leave Sony and Spider-Man? Do you think they will move forward without him. Nope. Instead of just picking up where Raimi left off they are going to let that stink hang. Sony is rebooting the franchise and starting over fresh with a whole new team.

Deadline Hollywood set us up the bomb

Culver City, CA (January 11, 2010) — Peter Parker is going back to high school when the next Spider-Man hits theaters in the summer of 2012. Columbia Pictures and Marvel Studios announced today they are moving forward with a film based on a script by James Vanderbilt that focuses on a teenager grappling with both contemporary human problems and amazing super-human crises.

The new chapter in the Spider-Man franchise produced by Columbia, Marvel Studios and Avi Arad and Laura Ziskin, will have a new cast and filmmaking team. Spider-Man 4 was to have been released in 2011, but had not yet gone into production.

Wow, I just don’t see the benefit of doing this aside from Sony having a massive pressed ham at Raimi, cleaning the slate and moving forward.

As much as Spidey3 gets torched, I have to say as a whole, the series has been great. Sure, they could have done better than Kristen Dunst as the supermodel to be, and while I didn’t hate her – they could have done better. Still, one blip hardly justifies starting over. Not this soon. It just doesn’t feel right.

But one thing I am noticing in the midst of the nerdrage and cries against Sony for this unexpected move…

They can do Venom the right way now.

American Idol judge Simon Cowell says he plans to leave the hit reality TV show after this season.

Brazil is one of my favorite countries. Cool people, great music, heavenly beaches, and caipirinhas. But if you have to buy a Mac, you are screwed. And like this graphic shows, it’s the same in other places in the world.

Brazil wins, however: The price of one MacBook Pro 17″ there buys you two identical models in the US. It’s the same with other Apple products, so if you can’t live without your Apple fix, you better move to another country.

I’d take the caipirinhas and the beaches, thank you very much. [cmyplay—Thanks]

You pay good money for your DVDs, but they’re hardly the only format you need these days. These five ripping tools ensure you can back them up, keep them on your media server, and load them on your favorite portable player.

Photo by jonasj.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite DVD-ripping tool. We tallied up the votes, and now we’re back to highlight the five most popular tools used by Lifehacker readers to rip, backup, and encode their DVD collections.

DVD Shrink (Windows, Free)

DVD Shrink is a free and capable ripping tool that excels at, as the name would imply, shrinking DVDs. DVDs come in two common formats: DVD-5 (4.7GB) and DVD-9 (8.5GB); the Reauthor mode in DVD Shrink helps you to ditch disc extras and strip most larger DVDs down to fit into a standard (and less expensive) DVD-5 disc. DVD Shrink does a good job handling many protection schemes, but hasn’t been updated to remove some of the newest schemes.

DVD Fab (Windows, $50)

DVD Fab is a commercial DVD ripper that supports the removal of all current DVD copy protections. In addition to being current on protection schemes, it boasts a large array of options for stripping and repacking your DVDs once the copy protection is removed. You can rip the entire disc, rip only the main movie, or split it into pieces—among other options. Like DVD Shrink, DVD Fab also supports compressing DVD-9 discs to fit on DVD-5 discs.

Handbrake (Windows/Mac/Linux, Free)

Handbrake is a DVD-ripping tool with a strong emphasis on not just ripping media but recoding it for playback on computers, portable devices, and other non-disc based systems. Handbrake can help you convert DVDs and other MPEG-based video into MP4 and MKV files. You can tweak settings like video frame rate and audio codec playback to your heart’s content with Handbrake, and even batch encode all your media at one time to make filling up your iPod or other device relatively painless. The one major shortcoming of Handbrake is that it doesn’t have any copy protection removal tools built in, which means you may occasionally need to use a 3rd-party stripping tool to prepare your DVD for conversion.

AnyDVD (Windows, $60 per year)

AnyDVD is another commercial entry in this week's Hive Five. It's not cheap, with a one year license running $60—although the multi-year discounts quickly stack up—but it can boast that it stays on top of current protection and encryption schemes to make sure you're never locked out of your own discs. In addition to stripping protections from the disc, it also has the ability to control DVD playback speed so that DVDs played on media center computers will play slower and quieter, and it allows you to remove things like forced subtitles, warning screens, and disc material you don't want.

DVD Decrypter (Windows, Free)

Although DVD Decrypter hasn’t been updated since 2005, it still works on a significant number of DVDs and has a strong following resulting from both its original user base and new users who find it cuts through the copy protection on their current DVDs protected with CSS, Macrovision content protection, region codes, and other hindrances.

Now that you’ve had a chance to look over the five most popular DVD-ripping tools as nominated by Lifehacker readers, it’s time to cast your vote for the tool you like best:

Which DVD-Ripping Tool Is Best?(trends)

Have a favorite that wasn’t featured or a tip for ripping DVDs? Let’s hear about it in the comments. If you have an idea for a future Hive Five send us an email at tips @ lifehacker.com with “Hive Five” in the subject line.

The YKK stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha. In 1934 Tadao Yoshida founded Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha (translated Yoshida Industries Limited). This company is now the worlds foremost zipper manufacturer, making about 90% of all zippers in over 206 facilities in 52 countries.

Eric Tillman has resigned as general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, team president Jim Hopson says.

He might live a Hollywood lifestyle but Dion Phaneuf says he's happy in Calgary.

– Morning skate report by Kristen Odland, Calgary Herald

Tablet-ed out yet? We didn’t think so. MSI has a 10-inch Android tablet on display at CES here. There aren’t many details (like price, release date and internals), but we do know it’s running one of those new Tegra 2 chips. Up front there’s a pretty nice 10-inch capacitive display, which is plenty responsive. Like other tablets we’ve been seeing, the device is a bit thicker and heavier than we’d like, but hopefully that paves the way for some substantial battery life. We might still not know the “why,” but the “how” is certainly coming together.

MSI shows off 10-inch Android tablet running new Tegra chipset originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A survey conducted by U.S. research firm Nielsen has revealed Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is currently the most played console in terms of total usage minutes, coming in at 23.1 percent. Sony’s PlayStation 2 came in second at 20.4 percent, and the Nintendo Wii at third with 19 percent.

We have been hearing about dualscreen laptops (and readers) for too long now, but it’s MSI to be the first to show off a real working unit. And it’s everything we have ever dreamed of — well kind of. Though MSI is calling this dual 10-inch screen device an e-reader, it’s really a netbook with two screens since it’s got an Atom Z Series processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. But it’s how the two screens work together that we can’t get out of our minds. Hit the break for some more impressions and to see this crazy thing on video.

Continue reading MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!)

MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The forthcoming instalment of the massively successful Spider-Man film franchise has reportedly run into a roadblock that could derail its scheduled May 2011 opening.

John Carlson scored in overtime as the United States beat Team Canada 6-5 to clinch the gold medal at the world junior men’s hockey championship on Tuesday.

Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Eric Tillman will not have a criminal record after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage girl.