U2 and a Wedding

This weekend is shaping up to be a crazy one…tomorrow is the U2 concert here and it’s looking to be EPIC!  I saw some pictures of the building of the stage and they look a lot like this:

It’s pretty crazy stuff…I can’t wait!

If that wasn’t enough, Amy’s brother is going to get married on Saturday so we have lots of crazy wedding stuff to do starting Friday morning bright and early.  Yeah, crazy weekend in store…it should be a lot of fun though so I’m pretty excited.

On the IT front Google has released their Wave product (Google) to Beta testers.  Been waiting all day for my invite from Google but still nothing :(  If you have a spare Wave invite, please Let me know  Google has also been making waves (ha ha) in the OS world with talk of the Google Chrome OS which is a Linux based OS for netbooks.  Basically it looks like Google is trying to take a foothold in a market that is currently dominated by Windows XP.  That’s right boys and girls, you heard me right, with all the grand technology and money Microsoft is putting into Vista and Windows 7 the best solution (and still sold solution) M$ can offer for netbooks is an OS that’s about 9 years old (a lifetime in the computing world.)  How nuts is that?  Anyway, that part of the rant is for a totally different post, the main point here is that Google is finally taking the plunge into the OS market, a place many have gone, but very few have returned…it’ll be very interesting to see how this plays out.

The other hot topic right now is the tablet market.  With Microsoft announcing their Courier (ZDNet) and Apple’s highly rumored iPad (Gizmodo) the tablet market is shaping up to be something of a clash of the titans.  While the Courier does look cooler and the prospect of having a computer that carries and opens like a notebook, vs Apple’s more Kindle (Amazon) style tablet is very appealing, it’s going to be hard to compete with Apple though which already has a mobile OS (OSX for iPhone) that has been tested numerous times and already has a substantial App store behind it.  We shall see though, the rumor is the Courier will be running the new Windows 7 mobile edition which even Microsoft’s own Steve Ballmer admitted they screwed up. (PC Pro) 

Ah yes, Windows 7…as I call it, my personal gift from Microsoft (since it’s being released on my birthday.)  As you all have previously read, I have been running Windows 7 since the Beta onto RC and now happily running RTM (actually I’m blogging on a Windows 7 laptop come to think of it.)  In short, Windows 7 is great.  It feels as though all the wrongs with Vista have been fixed and the world will once again sing the praises of the mighty Microsoft…notice I said it feels like all the wrongs of Vista have been fixed.  Through my testing I have found a few minor things that have made me scratch my head and while doing some reading various blogs and sites I have found some users who are having troubles with software compatibility even though their software runs fine on Vista…I wish I could make this crap up.

Now I know 7 won’t be perfect, no OS is ever perfect, but the one thing Windows 7 does WAY better than Vista ever did or ever will, is to restore faith in Microsoft and their ability to release a cutting edge OS that is user friendly not only in the home environment, but also in a corporate setting.  To get a sense of how Microsoft is trying to restore the good will, as it were, check out this commercial:

 

Yeah, let’s see, cute little girl looking on her daddy’s new Windows 7 system and she makes this great little slide show with the theme to Rocky…pretty good selling skillz if you ask me.

Ok, I think I’ve babbled on long enough and I’m sure after this weekend I’ll have another long entry, so I’ll stop now.  More later on!

~C 

iPhone…the next, next gen gaming system?

I’ve been thinking about this post for a while and I’ve got some today so thought I would take some time and really look at the iPhone/iPod Touch as a gaming system.

On the surface it doesn’t appear to viable as a gaming system, I mean after all…it’s a freakin’ phone.  If you look a bit closer though and take some time to really surf though the app store gaming section, you will find some of the current hot titles in the gaming world ready for download and play on your iPhone…

Example: Tiger Woods 10…this is one of those epic titles for console gaming that has been strong for years.  I got it for my iPhone about 4 months ago or so and I have to say…the game mechanics and the playability are really good!  Sure the graphics may not be a pretty as on the Xbox or the PS3, but the game only cost me 6 bucks (as opposed to the 60 it costs on Xbox) and I don’t really feel like I’m missing anything as far as the game experience goes…in fact, I had the opportunity to mess around with Tiger Woods 10 on Xbox and after playing it, I have to say that the version on the iPhone is possibly more challenging due to the way you swing your clubs.

Another example that brings me to think of the iPhone as a gaming system is Wolfenstein 3D…you all remember this game from back in the day…basically the granddaddy of all 3D FPS games.  While this is an older game and not nearly as system intensive as say Tiger Woods, it’s still a great game on the iPhone.  The controls do take a bit of getting used to, but once you get the customizable controls in the place that works best for you…it’s an amazing game all over again…and at 2 bucks, you really can’t beat the price! 

So that covers the sports genre and the FPS genre, let’s look at the racing genre on the iPhone…more specifically Asphalt 4 and Need for Speed.  Asphalt 4 has come into it’s own as a mobile gaming app…it’s even one of the games they play in the WCG for the Samsung mobile challenge.  As mentioned before, the game mechanics are quite good with the opting of steering either via touch or by using the iPhone’s accelerometer.  I have tried both methods and I’m really very good at using either, but the game is fun and I’m sure once I spend some real time with the game, it will quickly move into one of my favorite racing games (although I’m pretty sure nothing will ever top the Midnight Club series for me.)  I will admit that I have yet to download Need for Speed for my iPhone but from the reviews I have read and what I have heard about it from other sources, it looks like the Need for Speed developers have really nailed it for an iPhone app…I can’t wait to get my hands on!

There we are…those are but a few of the main reasons why I have found the iPhone/iPod touch to be as good of next gen gaming system as there currently is.  The only real short coming I have been able to find is the graphics…but as more developers build games with the iPhone in mind and as Apple constantly improves the iPhone (and then the release of the rumored iPad) I’m sure the graphics problem will quickly dissipate. 

Anyway, so what are you thoughts?  I’d be curious to hear what you think about this…do you think I’m totally nuts or do you see some reason behind the madness?

~C