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Oh, GBM, you've been hiding. In a plastic drawer, under some socks and a 60GB iPod, you lay upside down next to your coiled-up charger. I admit I've ignored you in recent years, what with the Nintendo DS Lite and iPhone (and sometimes PSP) vying for my mobile attention. Your little plastic case, and the Game Boy Advance cartridges you played, were overlooked.

Recently, though, I pulled you out again. It all happened because the Nintendo DSi, while an excellent handheld, cannot play GBA cartridges anymore. To play Super Mario Bros. 3, I needed your services. Removing you from the gear drawer, I was impressed that you still seemed small. Smaller, in fact, than any of my other gadgets, except for the iPod Shuffle. You make the iPhone seem bulky. While your screen is miniature, it still looks bright and crisp compared with any other handheld screen. Even more amazingly, the battery still worked when I turned you on. I can't even recall another gadget whose battery has lasted that long in disuse.

The Game Boy Micro was Nintendo's attempt at a Game Boy swan song.… Read more

Though Android can run multiple programs and close background processes as needed, there are times where the OS' overall performance slows down. And during those times in particular it's troubling that Android doesn't let you close applications manually.

Fortunately, the Android Marketplace offers an answer. Advanced Task Manager is a paid application that enables you to view all running applications and end them on demand. For only 99 cents you can see all open applications and background processes on your phone, which can help you identify which are taking up memory. With the tap of your finger, you … Read more

Advanced Password Generator provides users with a randomly compiled list of passwords based on specific parameters. With simple controls, this is a great tool for increasing online security; however, trial limitations make it hard to grasp its full potential.

The program's interface is slightly confusing upon first glace. Users may be overwhelmed with the number of radio buttons and numbers scattered throughout the small screen. However, with a little experimenting or a visit to the Help file, users will learn the program's functions. While we would like to see a cleaner setup, the program does a fine job … Read more

Updated on Monday, June 15 at 2:20 p.m. PDT: adding multi-core discussion to earlier Windows update.

It's been four years this month since Apple announced it would drop the PowerPC architecture and switch to Intel's x86 design. One person involved in the back-and-forth between Apple and IBM at the time provides some insight into why it happened.

When Apple made the watershed announcement in June 2005 ending its longstanding relationship with IBM and Motorola, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attributed the switch to a superior Intel roadmap.

"Looking ahead Intel has the strongest processor roadmap by far," Jobs said in a statement at the time. "It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years."

One oft-cited reason was that Apple didn't believe it could get the requisite performance per watt from processors being supplied by IBM and Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm. Translation: Apple was worried about IBM's and Motorola's ability to deliver competitive processors for laptops. (Update: Another reason often put forward is that Apple simply wanted to be able to run Windows.)

A former IBM executive, who worked at IBM at the time and was involved in discussions with Apple, offered his perspective in a conversation we had during dinner at a recent technology conference. Let me emphasize that this is one person's opinion, not necessarily the gospel truth. I will not publish his name or title.

While he acknowledged the public reasons put forward by Apple, there was more to it--not surprisingly--than that. The upshot: Apple wanted better pricing, according to this person.

Apple was paying a premium for IBM silicon, he said, creating a Catch-22. IBM had to charge more because it didn't have the economies of scale of Intel, but Apple didn't want to pay more, even though it supposedly derived more from an inherently superior RISC design as manifested in the PowerPC architecture.

Here's what Jobs said in 2003: "The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world's fastest desktop computer," Jobs said in a statement. "IBM offers the most advanced processor design and manufacturing expertise on earth, and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship." (Sounds suspiciously similar to what Jobs said about Intel after Apple made the switch.)

Despite the praise heaped on IBM's technology in 2003, Apple believed, by 2005, that it couldn't compete on cost, according to this person. … Read more

Of all the sports leagues, Major League Baseball has the reputation of being the most technologically savvy. On Thursday, MLB proved it by winning its first tech patent.

The league's digital unit, Major League Baseball Advanced Media(MLBAM), announced on Thursday that it was granted patent No. 7,486,943 for a system that helps determine a subscriber's geographical location. MLBAM oversees MLB.tv, the online video distribution service that streams live and on-demand games, and is widely considered to be the most successful subscription business on the Internet.

Pinpointing where a subscriber is located when he or … Read more

The 404 Podcast crew scored tickets for an advanced screening of JJ Abrams' new "Star Trek" movie! We had a lot of fun interviewing all the hard-core "Star Trek" fans, and even battled a few overzealous Enterprise crew members.

Will we successfully stump the Trekkies with our in-depth knowledge of Borg cube transwarp conduit projections, or will they overpower us with a temporal chroniton field? Watch the video below to find out!

Don't forget to check out our live videocast every morning at 11 a.m. ET or head over to CNETTV.com to watch … Read more

This free program lets users compress and decompress executable files. Novice users might find its user interface and features a little overwhelming, but more-experienced users will find it to be a valuable compression tool.

At first glance, Free UPX's user interface appears a little cluttered. But once we spent a little time with it, we found it easy to navigate. Using the command buttons at the top of the window, we browsed for, and added, the executable files to be compressed. The layout of the interface flows really well, so we went easily from one step to the next, … Read more

Like many other Download.com staffers, I use a customized version of Mozilla Firefox. I run the Littlefox theme to maximize real estate, Tab Mix Plus to manage my myriad tabs, and a few other essential add-ons like CustomizeGoogle and Greasemonkey for specific functionality.

The most noticeable tweak in my version of Firefox is the lack of a search-engine box in the upper-right corner of the browser. Back in summer 2007, I explained how and why I killed it. In essence, I replaced the functionality of the Firefox search engines--annoying to manage--with keyword-activated bookmark searches--simple to manage--that I could run … Read more

Some subscribers of Major League Baseball's streaming-video service are complaining that the new player, powered by Adobe Flash, isn't ready for the big leagues.

After receiving plenty of favorable reviews from technology blogs, some MLB.com subscribers have complained about stuttering and stalling video while watching on Monday, opening day for baseball. Some of the same problems continued on Tuesday, according to reports. Subscribers of MLB.com's GameDay Audio service also reported that archived games haven't been accessible since Monday.

The irony is that Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), the unit that oversees the streaming … Read more