Entertainment

Test Drive Playstation Home Beta

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Playstation Home Logo

Well I don’t know if someone out at Sony was listening to my previous rant or not but this weekend I was lucky enough to get an invite to the closed Beta for Playstation Home. Having tooled around in it for about an hour I finally have an opinion on it.

Let me make one thing clear. This software does not break any new territory. It basically is Second Life for the PS3. However, it does have fairly extensive features like Second Life does. The problem is because they are in beta stage, you can’t really use those features. For example, when you start off you create an avatar and are given a home. The home is plainly decorated but the view is incredible. When you go to the mall to buy new furniture, the store is empty. The feature to customize is there but does not exist yet.

You also have the ability to create spaces which they call “clubs”. Create to your heart’s content but it may be gone after Beta stage and the EULA gives Sony the right to take your club, name, and design to make on it’s own after full launch. Hard work and popularity could lead to poaching but the same is true of Little Big Planet.

One place where they have spent time and works well is the Bowling Alley. In here you can play games and demo mini versions of titles in the store like Echochrome. Do well enough and you can win new outfits. The pool games are addicting but I do have one minor issue here. As in real life, if the bowling alleys are full, you can’t play. I would have liked this to be more virtual so lanes expand as the need rises. If the 4 lanes have 2 people on each then a 5th lane should appear for the people waiting.

Socially, it’s a replica of Second Life right down to the huge billboard ads for Sony products. It’s ingenious and I will definitely be spending more time there as it expands. But in the end it is just a big marketing tool to get people to connect and sell banner ads. Until I can create something and own it I will probably be spending more time in Rock Band or on Little Big Planet.

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Playstation® Home closed Pay Beta

Thursday, October 30th, 2008
PLaystation Home Logo

Subscribers to the Playstation newsletters got the following e-mail this morning from our friends at Sony.

As an update to the PLAYSTATION(R)3 News email sent on Friday, October 24th, the special invitation to PlayStation(R)Home’s closed beta is available only to Qore annual subscribers who purchased subscriptions by 10/29. Qore Episode 06 purchasers will not be eligible for the special PlayStation(R)Home beta invitation at this time. We apologize for the miscommunication.

Lets read between the lines here. In order to get the “closed” beta code you have to Purchase a subscription to Qore. That’s not a closed beta, it’s a pay-to-play beta. I am not opposed to it but Sony should label this properly. Also, when was the last time you paid to be part of a Beta program?

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Apple Notebook Event

Tuesday, October 14th, 2008

Today Apple hosted their long awaited event announcing updates to their Mac Book and Mac Book Pro notebooks. A friend of mine asked me if I was going to be pissed if they massively upped the ante on the performance and storage of the machine. I don’t think so but lets break down the updates and see.

  1. One thing I am happy about is that I got a system with the OLD keyboard on it. Having used the chicklet keyboard on the Mac Book and the Air I have to say it would quickly become the bane of my existence if I had it on my Pro.
    I do not like it here or there
    I do not like it anywhere
    I do not like the chicklet keyboard
    I do not like it, Steve I Am
     
  2. An advanced graphics card was expected and is only really put to the test while gaming or doing high end graphics. I don’t do either of these on a consistent basis so no huge loss there.
     
  3. Getting rid of the button on the track pad is something I HATE. The first thing I did on my old notebook was turn off the touch pad clicking feature so this is a huge win for the older model.
     
  4. By putting all connections on the side, they have actually reduced the number of devices you can connect. In the new version you lose 1 usb port, the firewire 400 port, and the DVI connector in lieu of the mini display port (Apple proprietary and will require an additional purchase for non-Apple displays).
     
  5. Being able to quickly swap the drive like you could with the MacBooks is a nice new touch.
     
  6. The new MBP can now have double the hard drive space, double the RAM, and 4X the graphics capacity of my current MBP. However, it is a good $700 more than what I paid for my MBP. Also, my model is a 17 inch display while the new models will only be 15.4 inch or 13 inch.
    UPDATE: In the QA session it was mentioned the 17″ model is being refreshed as well but no details on specs or price were given under the new design. At the Apple store the current 17″ model is still for sale but is unchanged in terms of specs, design, and the $2800 price tag. Roughly a $1000 more than what I paid for a refurbished model.

Bottom Line: I am far happier now than I was before the announcements. The new additions either don’t apply to me or I wouldn’t want them.

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Two Months Back Into Mac

Monday, October 13th, 2008
Photo Provided by http://flickr.com/photos/wicho/

Photo Provided by Wicho via Flickr

Well it has been a couple of months now since I have switched from using a PC Notebook to a 17″ Mac Book Pro and things are still going well. As I mentioned before I used to be a die hard Mac fanatic about 10 years ago but switched to PCs due to the lack of decent software on the Macs at the time. My recent switch back had to do with my desire to pick the right tool for the new media and technology development I currently do. As promised, here are my top of the head observations over the past two months.

  • When I bought the Mac I knew I was going to be running certain PC software and games. I started to go down the path of using Parallels but found that transferring my XP license off my existing notebook would basically make it impossible for me to sell it as a low end PC. After a month I broke down and bought CrossOver instead. CrossOver is the OSX port of WINE which does not require that you have a full version of XP/Vista to run your software. You will need a Mac with an Intel chip to run the software properly. All of my PC games run flawlessly under it and most of my PC software runs as well. Unless you absolutely need XP on your machine for some obscure reason like your network doesn’t play well with Macs, I would opt for CrossOver first for any windows software emulation.
  • I am just amazed by how much free software is out there to help make a transition between PC and Mac easy. I did break down and buy some tools I use all the time like the Adobe Suites. However, things like NeoOffice, FireFox, AppFresh, QuickSilver, and TweetDeck have become invaluable tools. Even the free Apple software like Safari, Mail, and GarageBand have revolutionized how I use the notebook.
  • One thing I forgot about Macs and missed was that things just work. I plug a microphone in, it recognizes it and records from it. I plug a camera in, it finds it and lets me control it from the software. I want to record a video, iSight comes on with the mic and just records without a loss. On the PC side you can make things work but it takes time and is never 100%.
  • My co-workers often complained about how they HAD to be PC based for all of the development they do. After a bit of searching I found that the Mac could do all of the things my PC could do for development and more. It was just a matter of taking the time to seek out a solution for a specific problem. For example, I thought I would be totally at a loss for remote desktop connections to PCs until I found that Microsoft wrote a RDC client for OSX. It’s not widely publicized but if you look for it, you can find it. Major problem solved.
  • Web development is like night and day. On the PC I got into the habit of developing code and pushing it to a testing server. On the Mac, everything was not only included but pre-installed. Apache, PHP, Virtual Hosting. All on my box and ready to roll. The only thing I needed to add was MySQL and that was very easy. Granted I will need to break some old development habits but given the fact I can now test and code anywhere without having to be dependant on a connection is just amazing.
  • Slowly over this time I have noticed something very significant for me. I haven’t turned on my notebook in the past 2 months at all except to transfer a file or two. I am significantly using my desktop PC less and less. The Mac has actually help me do things like rebuild my 9000 song music collection, clean out software I don’t use, and make it easier for me to backup my work and life.

Do I regret the purchase? Absolutely not! Apple has come a long way to address software, hardware, and just confidence concerns. Under Steve Jobs this company has finally moved forward enough to really be the company they always should have been. I understand why so many people are converting now. This is one seriously sexy and powerful piece of kit. Apple also puts so much information online and makes it so easy to just find things like software and solutions that I can’t imagine going back to the “pay for everything” world of PCs. And it looks like things are only going to get better with the Apple announcements tomorrow.

I do need to break some old habits like calling it a Mac when I am talking about OSX. I also know I am grossly underusing the machine’s true power. But that will come with more time. I am just incredibly happy with this rather expensive purchase and can see getting a lot of use out of this machine for a very long time.

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Rock Band 2 on PS3 Complaint

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
Rock BandImage via Wikipedia

Yea, the game isn’t even out on the PS3 yet and I already have a complaint about it. It think it is great that Harmonix and MTV Games is pushing the fact that Rock Band is backwards compatible and can have almost 500 playable songs from the minute you put the disk in. What is deplorable is the fact they forgot to mention you have to buy the Song Exporter from the Playstation store for $5 in order to do that. Massive FAIL!

I mean I have spent not a lot of money but at least an additional $100 over the course of the year for more songs. They could at least throw in the song exporter if I have bought 2 or more songs instead of trying to hit us up for an additional $5 of revenue for something I have already purchased. Not to mention, so where is the RUSH download of the Moving Pictures album we were promised 3 weeks ago?

UPDATE: Seems that Harmonix announced that the delayed RUSH album will be available this week (Sept 22nd) along with a bunch of other content. I will believe it when I see it.

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Zune – The Verdict

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Well, there really is no verdict on the Zune. The issue is that I don’t use portable MP3 players like I did then I had a 45 minute commute each way to work. Unless I am making the 3 hour drive to the office, I don’t really touch them at all. That makes it hard for me to determine if the Zune is a step forward or backwards.

On the plus side, the social is nice. Purchasing tracks is easier. Overall use of the system is good. Videos play faster and in wide screen. Overall it’s a solid platform that does exactly what it says it will do.

On the down side, it is not as machine agnostic as I would like. (i.e. it only works on Windows) The interface is hard to navigate when you have a very large music collection like mine. Navigating while driving is close to impossible but something I could get used to. The software lacks major search functionality and there are not enough people in the Social that I want to share with to make me keep it open. Playlists are clunky and a complete lack of rating system makes smart playlists a joke. I also just don’t like how it won’t play with other software to manage my podcasts and other things.

Now for the best part. A week after I have registered the device, I get my first “Welcome to Zune” e-mail. This is the guide I should have had on day one telling me how to use the software to it’s advantage. Just this week I have gotten part 2 of that e-mail and part 3 comes next week. This is a complete fail on Microsoft’s part by keeping usability information from the customer. It only makes me want to use the software less and less.

I am not going to get rid of the device for some time and give it more of a test run. My lack of time with the device is a big deterant and I have gotten away from using the iPod as well. It may be that my need for a portable player is gone and I just need something to store my music which the Zune does very well. But in time I know the lack of scroll wheel will get me then I will look to upgrade. Maybe after the Apple announcements on Sept 9th.

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Does the Zune Software Work?

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

One thing for sure is the software is different. The lack of any normal menu bar may throw some off but the fact that the environment mirrors the open menu structure of the device is a nice integration. However, that’s pretty much where the nice part wears off.

OK, let me be a little more specific here. The Social aspect of it is still very nice. I like that my friends can see what I am playing. MSoft can suggest similar artists in the marketplace for me to check out. Even the ability to listen to beamed songs is nice.

On the flip side, it seems like the software is trying to constantly force me into listening to song in a traditional manner. By artist or Album. Shuffle exists but is just hard to find. Even scrolling to find an artist is a fine art. One place they could have made up for this is in the search feature.

Search, however, is massively broken. Any term I search for looks equally into my library as it does the marketplace. So I am often given items I already own. Double clicking on the song, in my mind, should play the song. Not so here. A double click will bring you back to the top of your library. Not to the song you clicked on, the top of the library.

Podcasts also lack a distinct sense of usability. If I give control of my podcatching to Zune, it is a joy. If I want to use another podcatcher like Juice or integrate PodNova then just forget it. Zune Software must be the center of the Zune universe or podcasts don’t function properly. Oh and why is my Zune Software trying to download somethign when my Zune isn’t even connected? Software updates should happen in the normal fashion and not something that prevents me from closing the software.

In the end, the software is just very clunky, slow to sync items, and is just not very intuitive to the files on my machine. Lets hope the device menus show some ray of usability.

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Zune Install – Does It Live Up To The Hype

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

Picture by Peter BodenFor weeks up until I got the Zune one of the things I kept reading was that registering the software and device was a pain. I am not sure if I am the exception to the rule or that I understand the process but it didn’t seem any more painful to me than registering an iPod or creating an iTunes account.

The software is not great out of the box but I will go into that more tomorrow. The install was very straight forward but the multiple reboots seemed unnecessary. I also don’t like that you can’t import your Podcasts from something like PodNova or use it with a 3rd party pod-catcher like Juice. But I will admit “The Social” does keep me interested. The down side is that so few people in this area have Zunes that it looks like my social interactions will be limited to online.

It took about 20 minutes to get the system running . However, syncing almost 4000 song from my existing collection took well over 4 hours and actually restarted after 2. Not good tho subsequent syncs are a lot faster because they are just content updates. After finally getting the songs on there I was actually able to “use” the device and see how it works.

Initial impressions, it’s nice but I can already see problems. The fact there is no scroll wheel is a HUGE problem. I can’t select exact points in a song to pump to. Only flick back and forth to predefined points. Also, I can tell the interface will be hard to navigate while I am driving. It kinda wants to lock you into traditional Albums or spend a lot of time creating the playlists you want.

Speaking of which, it looks like any song rating system is missing. Either that or it is not accessible from the Zune interface. Also, albums with similar names don’t seem to be grouping together making it harder to find songs I like.

First day is over and I have to say I am not overtly impressed. I like it and can see some cool things in it but it just hasn’t “wowed” me yet.

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2008 Taste Test – Zune vs. iPod

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Installed Empeg PlayerMP3 players are not new to me at all. Even before the iPod came out, I bought an EMPEG in-dash MP3 player for my car in 1997. I mean, what geeky guy could pass up a Linux box installed in a Civic with 28 Gigs worth of music. At the point, I converted my entire CD collection to MP3, loaded up the Empeg, and took my music everywhere.

But as drive failures continued, Rio discontinued servicing and SONICBlue went bankrupt, I started to seek out an alternative in 2002. In walks the iPod. 15 Gig was less than the 28 I had and letting iTunes control my music after I had complete control over files and menus was not welcome. But at least it didn’t break down every 6 months or so. I then sold the Empeg to pay for a new head unit in the car and the iPod.

Fast forward to 2008 when the iPod finally failed from one too many drops. Normally I would just buy an 80 Gig Classic and go on but fate has intervened. I ended up winning an 80 Gig Zune through some luck which will replace the iPod.

Will it be better? How painful will it be to set up? How will it compare to the iTunes experience? Will it really matter seeing how I rarely use my iPods anymore? Well we will all find out in this week long series. The Zune arrived today and I will post over the course of the week my impressions compared to my other MP3 devices.

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Rejoining the Cult of Mac

Monday, August 18th, 2008
Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase

Many many moons ago when I was in college in high school I got my first exposure to Macintosh. Our school was lucky enough to get a grant from New York State and our school picked Apple as the provider of choice for all our computer labs. The Macintosh Classic confused me at first and the lab teacher thought I may break it for not being “trained” how to use it. A thought that amuses me to no end even to this day seeing how my school let me take a TRS-80 II home when i was in Junior High.

I won’t say that I fell in love with the Mac at that point because it wasn’t until my mom helped me buy a Classic II for college that I grew to just enjoy it. Easy to use, portable for moves, powerful, and connected with ease. My love grew with my understanding of the system so much that when I went to work for Computing Services at the university my areas of expertise for support were the CMS Based Mainframes and Macintosh systems. Many would say they are polar opposites in the computing work but I knew better than to classify any computing system to people.

Syracuse University Quad - Spring 2005As I left college my Macs came with me. Classic giving away to an LC II, LC II giving away to a Power Macintosh. Then something happened. I took a good long look at my Mac and came to a hard decision. While I still loved the system, I couldn’t find software for it. That’s not to say it wasn’t there but I hated the feeling that I couldn’t walk into the local computer store, pick up software, and just install it on my Mac. Remember, this is pre-1998. No Apple Store, no deal to put Mac products in CompUSA, no Steve Jobs. I wanted to game more and work more and the Mac was just not where it was at.

I made the shift, turned in my Apple stickers, got my tatoo removed and bought my first PC. It was fun, crazy, and a bit of a relief. I bought software galore. Fell in love with PC gaming (specifically Grim Fandango) and enjoyed being able to just pick up software and go. A couple of years later I built my first desktop PC and have upgraded it to the current machine I use. But something about Mac has always lingered for me.

That something is the hardware. It has always just worked. Plugin a camera, Mac recognizes it. No drivers, software, or fuss. Need to sample video? Plug and play without needing to do massive configuration. Wanna make a radio show? Plug in a mic and start recording. That is something the PC side of me has never been able to fully achieve. I have produced full radio shows on the PC but to get it to the point of quality production is always a pain. Then if I author a DVD, I have to reconfigure all my audio hardware to shift back to radio production. Not so on the Mac side.

Recently through the shifts that Jobs has implemented, the Mac has one again become the powerhouse of a machine it always should have been. Software is more prevalent and true windows/Mac OS compatibility has been achieved. While still pricey, the Mac is worth every dollar and has a high resale value even after five years. Cross machine folks like myself can choose where they want to be at any time (BSD, Mac, Windows, etc). Acceptance in the mainstream has also resurfaced and developers are adopting the open mentality that is driving Apple.

So last night I bit the $2K bullet and bought a MacBook Pro to rejoin the cult. The PC desktop isn’t going anywhere but the PC notebook and I will be parting ways. It won’t be a sad goodbye because all the PC goodness will be transfered to the Mac and will live on. This kind of full circle is good for me to reassess what places computers hold in my life. Maybe I will go back to serious video production. Maybe programming in open source realms will happen more. Maybe I will just pet the 17″ inch monitor and coo “pretty”.

In any case, it’s nice to feel like I am coming home to Mac and Apple. We both seem to have tread down the path of growing up into what we should have always been. Hopefully my old friend and I will meet and create some more while sharing the things we have learned along the way.

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