lite

GameSpot on Monday published a report from the Japan-based Nikkei news service saying that a new Nintendo DSi with two larger screens is slated to hit the market as early as this year.

Supposedly, the bump would increase the dual screens' size from 3.25 inches to 4.3 inches. While that sounds like a huge upgrade, there are a few reasons we're just not ready to believe this yet.

First of all, this new redesign would force the production of a brand new casing, something we're not sure Nintendo is ready to spend money on with the … Read more

Firemint's Real Racing is one of the top-rated and most popular racing games in the App Store, but at $6.99 it's also among the priciest.

Alas, there's no lite version you can test-drive before you buy, but Volkswagen just unveiled the next best thing: Real Racing GTI, a free, VW-oriented version of the game.

Specifically, you get all the same visually stunning championship-racing goodness, but with just three tracks and half a dozen 2010 GTI hatchbacks.

This slimmed-down Real Racing offers three game modes: Quick Race, Time Trial (which lets you post race replays on YouTube!), … Read more

Duplicate File Finder Lite is an easy-to-use program that allows users to locate and delete duplicate files on their computers. It's a pretty intuitive program, but don't expect guidance on whether or not it's safe to delete duplicate files.

The program's interface is very straightforward, with each step of the process arranged in its own tab. Users first select whether they want to search by file name or bytes, then select a location to search and the types of files they want to search for. The program scans the selected location and provides a list of … Read more

If you're thinking about buying a portable gaming system this holiday season, you should definitely listen to this show before making a decision. After a few weeks of teasing you guys about the new PSP Go, we've got all the details from the man who wrote the CNET review himself and now must defend himself from Sony snipers perched across the office. That's right, Jeff Bakalar breaks down all the reasons why the PSP 3000 is still the best Sony portable gaming device. The Go, on the other hand, didn't fare so well in Jeff's eyes. It costs more than the 3000, has a smaller screen, and an awkwardly placed analog stick, and worst of all: you can't play UMD games or use old PSP accessories! On top of all of that, the games take so long to download that you can probably watch a full length movie while you wait. Save your money and buy the best mobile video game console on the market today...the Apple iPhone.

Speaking of products that sound good on paper but don't actually work in real life, a guy in New York discovered something particularly disturbing about his iPhone: the average iPhone drops 30 percent of all calls. After taking his iPhone into an Apple Genius Bar for multiple dropped calls, the Genius informed him that it was indeed dropping 22 percent of outbound calls, which is actually excellent compared with the 30 percent average in New York. Listen in to hear us groan and moan about AT&T service and why Sprint or Verizon might be in my immediate future.

Finally, we want to give a huge thank you to Debbie from Toronto for sending us the image you see at the top of this blog entry. Deb, a long time listener and special guest of The 404 made a custom hockey jersey and goalie mask for her husband to wear during his Sunday game! Now, Wilson and I are the first to admit our zero interest in hockey, but even we can appreciate the time and effort that must have gone into the cutting and application of the logo onto the uniform. Debbie, you rock, and if there's anything we can do (short of flying up to Canada to thank you personally) to repay your kindness, please don't hesitate to let us know. Everyone else should be carefully taking notes from Deb and sprinting to the nearest phone to leave us a voice-mail. You know the number right? 1-866-404-CNET: GET ON IT!

Although technical writers and other users who need a lot of advanced options will find this program lacking, for the average user, PolyEdit Lite provides everything one would want in a basic word-processing program. Its familiar layout allows users to get started right away.

The program's interface will look familiar to anyone who's used a pre-2007 version of Microsoft Word. The contents of some of the menus are a little different, but for the most part, everything is where experienced Word users would expect it to be. Users can also customize the color scheme of the interface, which … Read more

Many handset makers are planning Google Android phones, but thus far, only HTC has released devices in the United States. Samsung was the second company to offer an Android phone when it released the Galaxy I7500 overseas, but it remains uncertain if an American carrier will pick it up. New details, however, suggest that Samsung's second Android phone, the Galaxy Lite I5700, could make a run at a United States release.

The Galaxy Lite is the assumed cheaper version of the original Samsung Galaxy. Both the internal storage (1GB vs. 8GB) and the camera (3.2 megapixels vs. 5 … Read more

PDF-XChange Lite is a very basic program that allows users to save documents as PDF files. There's not much to it, but it does work as promised.

The program has no interface, which confused us at first. We tried to read the built-in Help file, but it seems that it didn't actually install with the program. It turns out that users access the program simply by going to the Print dialog of whatever document they want to turn into a PDF. Select PDF-XChange Lite from the list of printers, enter the name you want to save the file … Read more

Spryka Desktop Budget Lite provides users with a one-stop look at all their investments and accounts. With simple commands and great results, this is an excellent tool for those willing to put in the effort.

The program's interface feels instantly intuitive, thanks to large icons that clearly spell out their roles and helpful menus that walk users through the setup. There is a Help file available, but most will not need it until they are performing complex tasks down the road. Users will have an easy time getting started with this program. By selecting one of the large icons … Read more

Facebook, it appears, was not about to let Google get this week's award for shadowy new projects. On Tuesday night, a number of users--including Mashable blogger Ben Parr--received notifications that they were beta testers for something called "Facebook Lite."

The notifications, as well as the site hosted on the subdomain lite.facebook.com, disappeared within minutes. It seems to have been rolled out prematurely by mistake.

"Last night, the test was temporarily exposed to a larger set of users by mistake," an e-mailed statement from Facebook representative Brandee Barker read. "We have … Read more