Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Oh The Consumer Frenziality

Sounds like the world's going wild^H^H^H^Hmild for Vista....

It's what the PS3 doesn't have, stupid

So Peter Moore can't think of anything the PS3 has that the 360 doesn't have... True, there's one thing the PS3 doesn't have though that the 360 shouldn't have. The Noise. The 360 is the noisiest console I have ever owned, it whirrs fans frantically, spins the noisiest DVD drive ever and hums my desktop in a finger trembling stylee. And it's because of that that I'm taking the 360 out from under the big TV, because the noise makes it a complete non starter as a digital entertainment hub. I don't want to watch a movie with it droning away, heck, after a while the hum gets to drill through you while playing games. And thats not good. At least Sony approached the PS3 as a device for the living room and have by all reports made it a quiet beast. Microsoft on the other hand have used a cheap noisy DVD drive. Thanks Microsoft. I SAID THANKS MICROSOFT. WHAT? SORRY I HAVE MY 360 ON... SPEAK UP!

Monday, January 29, 2007

Mitchell (PC) and Webb (Mac) Rock....

So Apple got Mitchell and Webb to do the UK version of the Mac ads....

See them here.

Thought for the day....

"Microsoft is People Ready like a wood chipper is People Ready"

Microsoft are thieving bastards

Say you developed a nice way of making objects visible to people learning how to program. And the software you developed was free....

And then one day, Microsoft copied the idea and incorporated it into their Visual Studio product.

Well, like any reasonable person who writes free software, you could applaud their taking that idea.

But fast forward a few months... How would you feel if Microsoft went and patented your idea claiming it as their own. You would be reasonably fell somewhat unhappy.

Guess what? That's exactly what Microsoft have done with Blue/J. Read the gory details here.

Update: StevePa tells me in the comments that the application has been withdrawn and there's an investigation ongoing into why this happened. Which is good.

Love Will Tear Us Apart

It's one of those songs you don't really think can be covered well...

And then someone goes and does a heart breaking cover like this.

Lovely.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

A kinda new beginning

Well, I thought about it, and I've promoted this blog into my main personal and geeky blog. While I was at it I finally switched to the new Blogger. So.... to quote a movie... "Let's START RUNNING!"

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Logitech - Todays Suckage Winner

So, you've got a Mac and a Logitech peripheral eh? Installed Logitech's Control Center? You'll regret it when I tell you this then.

It installs APE, the "Application Enhancer" in the background and uses it to do it's messing around with your apps.

Now APE has a reputation for being (a) clever (b) making machines quite unstable.

Your machine behaving at all oddly? Have you just gone and uninstalled Logitech's Control Center? If so... sorry, but Logitech don't wipe up their crap after them, and they leave APE installed. With no uninstaller.

Want to remove it? Check this out.

Right now, I'm running Steermouse... it's $20 but it works with all mice.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

My iPhone Take.....

(a) It's very nice. It basically aims to deliver the experience that people have sold in concept videos. Remember the Origami videos?

(b) No, it's not for everyone. It's *one* product in it's first release. This is the iPod 1G. Yes, everyone can point to same or similar features in other devices. They can point to features the iPhone doesn't have (like 3G) that other phones have. That's not the point; like the iPod 1G, this is about establishing a position and an experience.

(c) This is the first of what I suspect are many product releases from Apple this year. My hope, a phoneless iPhone, with wifi and bluetooth, which acts as the Apple Remote for all your kit.

(d) I still want one. But I'm not rushing out for it. Thanks Steve for using America as the final test area.

Friday, January 05, 2007

Some PS3 thoughts....

Blu-ray is the next Betamax? Not really. Betamax and VHS were physically incompatible. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD share the same form factor so we can have Dual Format players (Hurry up LG!) and we can have dual format discs (Total HD). So it's not a Betamax/VHS style war.

PS3 will kill Sony? Unlikely; wheras Sony's competitors yank the oxygen from their previous generation of console as soon as their new unit hits the market, Sony are keeping the PS2 as a live product, to mop up the low end market in the same way the PSone did when the PS2 arrived. Thanks to aggressive back compatibility, you get a much longer product life for Sony (and the current slim PS2 is very nice) and for the low end consumers there's good protection on their investment in games.

So, that's the two big myths nailed. What this is really all about is how well Sony execute their strategy in the market. It's been a rocky start, but they are being ambitious, and that never hurts when you are designing to repeat the same process you did with the PS1/PS2 and PS2/PS3, sliding in new generations instead of traumatically transitioning.