Digital Savant

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Video from the Austin Game Developers Conference

By Lilly Rockwell | Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 01:17 PM

Check out my video from the Austin Game Developers Conference:

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Austin Game Developers Conference in photos

By Omar Gallaga | Wednesday, September 17, 2008, 10:57 AM

It’s hard to take decent photos of panels and keynote speeches, so instead, I took my camera to the expo floor to give you a little snapshot of the Austin Game Developers Conference (which ends today):

When game posters look a lot like movie posters.

Today’s rumor is that Valve might be acquired by Google for its delicious Steam digital delivery platform. That’s a juicy/steamy rumor.

BioWare offers jobs, life-giving sustenance.

Also, chapped-lip-battling balm.

You can’t have a games conference without some fake guitars.

I can never decide if heavily modded gaming PCs are cool are ridiculous. Perhaps they are both.

Booth cave dwellers.

Now THAT’S old-school.

Perhaps my favorite UT archive.

Multimedia Games, a longtime Austin company.

You would think this would be more fun.

I would like to have that lunchbox.

Gamers love… soccer?

The many stickers of Electronic Arts.

Like your living room, but in public.

How game developers loosen up.

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‘Not Bruce Sterling’ travels from the future for GDC

By Omar Gallaga | Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 02:29 PM

What does the future of video game design look like 35 years from now?

Even a time traveler sent specifically to speak on the subject may not give you the answers you’re looking for.

Austin science fiction author Bruce Sterling delivered a keynote speech to developers from around the world Tuesday as part of the Austin Game Developers Conference.

The keynote, held in a ballroom at the Austin Convention Center, was billed as a peek into the future of games by a renowned thinker on all things futuristic. Listeners packed the room, many of them even putting their laptops and smartphones aside to absorb the specifics of Sterling’s prognostications.

Instead, they got a little bit of performance art. Sterling, wearing a white shirt and necktie, began the keynote by saying, “I’m not Bruce Sterling.” In fact, he said he was a grad student sent from the future to discuss the future of computer entertainment. His professor, “Dr. Sterling,” was an 89-year-old professor in the year 2043, but still had the dewy skin of a 10-year-old. (Much thanks to future biotechnology.)

Not-Bruce-Sterling then showed off the future of computers: a dish rag built by General Electric that connects to future cloud networks, has the power more than 8 million of our best current laptops and can play “Tetris” on its fabric touch screen.

If the author was being especially playful, it was not without a point. The time traveler posited that, like towels, computers of the future will be so commonplace as to be ignored. “It’s like the dullest thing in the world,” he said, “boring objects of everyday life. They’re like bricks and forks and toothbrushes.”

The keynote speaker also produced some imaginary crystal shards, each capable of producing a network far greater than the collective whole of the Internet we knew around, say, 2004. In the Sterling future, computer and game console platforms won’t matter: everyday objects like doorknobs will have more embedded processors in them than computer clusters of today.

He advised the audience to look past the idea of processors as computers. Think of the possibilities in computers as woven fabrics, as the space inside atoms, as smoke, he advised.

As for games themselves: they’ll also be ubiquitous enough to be incredibly boring. Financial analysts of the future will be far more powerful controlling the real estate and finances of virtual world than the designers of those spaces, Not-Sterling suggested. Most game designers, he said, will be little more than “Towel designers,” most often toiling to make “perfectly predictable” creative work.

By the time the games industry reaches 70 years of age, they’ll have solved at least one problem: instead of using the unwieldy term Massively Multiplayer Online Games, “We just call them ‘Crowd games,’ ” the time traveler said, “you know, ‘Crowd-on-the-cloud.’ ”

If the audience was enthralled with Sterling’s theatrical first half hour (only a few cell phones and MP3 players went off during the speech; it wasn’t too bad for a tech conference), a few people weren’t completely sold by the end of the 45-minute performance.

“I thought we got elegantly mocked,” said Aaron Krasnov, a New York-area-based associate producer at Vogster Entertainment. His company is currently developing a game called “CrimeCraft.”

The producer said Sterling made some good points, but couched them in “1980s sci-fi colloquialisms” that were degrading to the audience.

“I should have stayed in bed,” Krasnov said.

Matt Puccio, of Louisville, Colo. game publisher NetDevil, was more forgiving. He said, “(The towel) was a clever prop to explain the point that we have no idea what computers are going to look like and what they’re going to do.”

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Free games for sale

By Lilly Rockwell | Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 02:12 PM

For massively multiplayer online games, the free-to-play business model is getting a much more serious look.

I’m here at the Austin Game Developers Conference at a well-attended panel on how to build a successful free-to-play game. Min Kim with Nexon America Inc. is giving the talk. This conference is heavily geared toward the MMO industry, which is typified by its most popular game: “World of Warcraft.”

“Free-to-play” means what it sounds like. The game is downloadable and entirely free to play. The game company makes money by offering either a premium serivce for a monthly fee, or selling items, also known as micro-transactions. Some use advertising as well to supplement the cost of the game.

I wrote an article earlier this year on South Korean company NCsoft’s efforts to develop more free-to-play games. NCsoft has offices in Austin. One of its games, called “Dungeon Runners,” followed this model and it was a departure for NCsoft.

Typically MMOs have charged a monthly subscription fee to all users. The advantage of free-to-play is a developer can get a much larger player base.

Kim offered suggestions for developers who are considering free-to-play. For instance, don’t go crazy trying to include the best graphics possibl, he said. Make sure most of your customers will have the technology capable of playing your game. Also, don’t sell items that players can also earn in the world. They won’t pay for it, he said.

He said South Korea has a big advantage in this market over the United States because of its PC cafes. North American consumers haven’t embraced this.

And, more importantly, gamers in the United States haven’t embraced the concept of free-to-play yet. Kim described a situation where he was demonstrating the game, and then the players wanted to know where they could go buy it.

If there’s any gamers reading this, let me know what you think. Do you like free-to-play. Why or why not?

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Austin GDC, Day 1

By Omar Gallaga | Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 01:18 PM

On Monday, the first day of the Austin Game Developers Conference, I kept wondering, “How many of these people registered before the recent Austin game company layoffs?”

Bad news at NCSoft and Midway Austin notwithstanding, GDC so far feels like a gathering for an industry that’s still expanding despite the current national economic panic. Merrill Lynch sold? Sorry, we’re busy creating a playable demo for our Xbox 360 game.

It’s not defiance, exactly, but maybe an optimism rooted in knowing that video games are still a young, vibrant medium with a future. (Contrast this with any journalism conference with a large contingent of print journalists. It’s like they’re on two different planets.)

I haven’t covered GDC very extensively in the past because it always felt to me like an insiders’ conference for talking shop. This year, however, the schedule reflects gaming’s increasing shift to the mainstream. Panels are focusing much more on the user experience, on social networks, on casual games and games that appear on cell phones and sites like Facebook and MySpace. There are still very serious discussions about narrative and storytelling (a session I attended featuring Paul Marino and Mac Walters of BioWare talked about the challenges of creating decent stories in huge games like their “Mass Effect.).

One session I attended addressed the inherent difficulties in creating tutorials for games given that there are multiple kinds of learning and we all are wired differently in how we learn best (be it visually, through experimentation or textually).

A keynote about Club Penguin highlighted the challenges small, indie developers face when they are suddenly acquired by a huge, monolithic company (in this case, Disney).

This is the first GDC where I’ve felt there’s far more going on than I’m able to cover, even for a mainstream newspaper and blog. It’s a good sign for the games industry, I think, and a clear sign that video games will continue to grow and perhaps dominate the entertainment industry before too long.

On the other hand, there is that pesky diversity problem. I think the games industry will become increasingly diverse as it absorb or incorporate other kinds of businesses (PR, broadcasting, screenwriting, education), but judging from the attendees at GDC, we’re certainly not there yet. As one female freelance writer told me, “This is a lot like South by Southwest — but with a lot fewer women.”

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Virtual property, real money

By Lilly Rockwell | Monday, September 15, 2008, 05:46 PM

Making money off virtual objects is serious business.

Just ask Gregory Boyd, a lawyer with Davis & Gilbert, who gave a talk at the Austin Game Developers Conference on Monday on the the upside and downside of selling virtual objects in a game. This can be an avatar, a virtual property or currency, for instance.

Linden Labs, which runs Second Life, has cleared 80 million real world dollars through its virtual currency exchange. Second Life users accumulate Linden dollars by selling virtual objects. They can be converted into real world dollars.

The upside for developers is that this can be a vast, untapped revenue stream. For instance, a developer can provide the platform for the virtual currency sales and take a cut of each sale, or a cut of each currency conversion.

Imagine, Boyd said, if “World of Warcraft” set up its own currency system. This would blow what Second Life has out of the water because it’s a more popular game.

The downside are some of the legal issues. It’s such a new field that many issues are still being worked out. For instance, do you claim money made off virtual objects on your taxes? Who owns the property the gamer has created? The company or the gamer? And what about liability for a virtual object that is lost or loses its value?

The truth is, Boyd said, many of these issues are still being worked out. No surprise that a lawyer recommends…a lawyer! Or a team of lawyers! to help developers sort this out.

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Saaaaay, nice stage!

By Omar Gallaga | Monday, September 15, 2008, 01:09 PM

The first session I got to see at the Austin Game Developers Conference was a keynote with Club Penguin co-founder and general manager Lane Merrifield.

He spoke about the online social network for kids’ relationship with parent company Disney Interactive, the challenges of keeping it safe (no beds ever appear in the game and penguins sleep standing up; just two examples of smart ways to keep uncomfortable situations from cropping up) as well as some of the technical challenges of scaling a project that began as a simple Flash game optimized to be played over dial-up connections.

That was all great and all, but what impressed me the most about the keynote was the lovely stagecraft going on at Austin GDC. What a beautiful stage! You can’t see it so well in the photo below, but the purple logo and curvy wings are unbelievably pretty, so much so that I found myself staring at them instead of Merrifield. (No offense, Lane.)

Nice work there, GDC. It’s the prettiest keynote stage I’ve ever seen at a tech conference.

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Monday in tech news: ‘World of Warcraft,’ Best Buy + Napster and more

By Omar Gallaga | Monday, September 15, 2008, 11:51 AM

I’m at the Austin Game Developers Conference where I’ll be posting a few blogs and possibly photos and videos, but it’s not too busy to ignore some of the tech news from over the weekend:

• Everyone’s been wondering if the much-anticipated new expansion for “World of Warcraft” will be out before the holidays. It looks like it will: the release date is November 13.
• Electronic Arts has bailed on its attempted acquisition of “Grand Theft Auto” and “BioShock” publisher Take Two. It was apparently taking too long to have an impact on this holiday’s bottom line, which seems like a short-sighted way of doing business, but, hey, that’s why I’m a journalist.
• Best Buy is buying Napster. I found myself asking, “There’s still a Napster?”
• Statesman’s Tracking Ike Twitter feed brought the news in a big way over the weekend and is still posting updates. We talk all the time at work about how the way we cover news is going to change and this is one way we think things are going.
• Sarah Lacy posted a video of me on her site, turning the tables on the video I posted on Friday. Turnabout is fair play, but I can’t help but observe that I look like a cackling night goblin when filmed on the corner of 5th and Congress.

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Sarah Lacy returns to Austin

By Omar Gallaga | Friday, September 12, 2008, 05:32 PM

Last night, journalist Sarah Lacy made a return to Austin, six months after her infamous South by Southwest interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Lacy, who is tall, chatty and overwhelmingly positive, signed copies of her book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0.”

The signing was part of an Austin Tech Happy Hour at The Marq on 5th and Congress Ave. It was well attended with startup geeks, PR professionals, coworking enthusiasts and all manner of networkers.

I wondered if Lacy would remember me from the YouTube video that helped fuel her notoriety and instead of clobbering me on the head, Lacy greeted me warmly and we reminisced about the fallout from the festival. It didn’t hurt that I purchased a copy of her book, which she graciously signed, “to Omar — I’m getting incriminating video of YOU tonight! Best, Sarah.”

After the signing, we talked about the changing journalism scene, Lacy’s upcoming projects. Already exhausted from her multi-city book tour and her frequent tech conference travels, she plans to take some time off next year and start work on her second book, which she’s already got an idea for. True to her word, Lacy shot a video of me with her Flip videocamera (who knows where it’ll end up?) and allowed me to shoot a follow-up video you can see below, past the photo.

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How I use Twitter

By Omar Gallaga | Thursday, September 11, 2008, 02:44 PM

Last month, I had a story in the paper about what do with Twitter once you’ve joined and aren’t sure if it’s useful or a giant waste of time.

I offered advice and some links to some Twitter users who would be good to follow for anyone in Central Texas.

What I didn’t talk about was how I actually use Twitter on a day-to-day basis and the rules I’ve developed for myself that have helped make it a vital part of the way I work and socialize.

Everyone uses Twitter differently, so I don’t think the way I use it is necessarily applicable to everyone else, but after a year and a half, I think these habits have served me well and kept me from being overwhelmed by the low signal-to-noise ratio I experienced the first few months I started using the site:

I listen more than I talk: I’ve posted more than 4,000 Twitter updates since I joined, which seems like far too many less-than-140-character messages, but I’ve probably read tens if not hundreds of thousands of tweets from others. I probably post about 10 times a day on average, but I try to read every single tweet that everyone I follow posts (besides @replies that don’t show up in my timeline). If you’re not listening to what other people are posting on Twitter and just using it to broadcast, you’re really missing out.

I keep the number of people I follow low: Some people follow back every person who follows them. I am very selective about who I follow and won’t add anyone unless I visit their Twitter page, read their short bio and get an idea of what kinds of things they post. It’s time consuming, but worth the trouble. I follow more than 270 people now and that’s a lot to keep track of, but they’re all people I’ve opted in to follow. I know there are people who follow thousands of other people, but I don’t see how they manage it. I would always feel like I was only seeing a tiny fraction of the picture my Twitter friends are painting.

I will unfollow people, even temporarily: It’s nothing personal, but if a person begins to over-post or rant about something that I have no interest in hearing about for a prolonged period of time, I’ll remove them. Recently, tempers about the election flared during the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and I unfollowed about a dozen people who were fraying my nerves. I may add them back in November.

I will only post a link once: Some people repost the same link to the same content over and over (say one blog post), at different times of day. That really bothers me. If I post a link to a Web site more than once, it will only happen if there’s a major correction or if new content has been posted.

If someone posts an interesting or fun link I haven’t seen elsewhere and I “retweet” it, I always give the original poster credit. It bothers me when others don’t.

I may reply with an @reply, or I may direct message the person instead to keep from flooding everyone else with a one-on-one conversation. I don’t like other people to feel like they’re being intruded upon with a conversation that holds no interest for them.

I try not to take it personally when people unfollow me. It happens. A lot. And I never know if it’s because I posted something bothersome, or if someone just got tired of me or if an account was simply deleted. Twitter offers no easy mechanism for figuring out when somebody drops you and that’s probably a good thing. It’s such an easy thing to obsess about, but I try my best to just press ahead and post what I want.

I don’t always post what I want. Part of it is my affiliation with the American-Statesman, which prevents me from opining about politics (thank goodness). As for personal stuff, I try to use common sense. I don’t post things to embarrass people, to expose people I know online or to shock. I also have stopped cursing as much on Twitter now that my posts appear on this page automatically. Twitter’s a public place and I try to have some decorum.

Anytime I am added by an account that looks like a spam account (follows thousands of users only has a handful of followers), I block that account. I don’t want those accounts among the number of followers I have.

I don’t believe in RSS-fed Twitter accounts. I know some business benefit from having Twitter automatically post entries for them from RSS feeds, but I don’t follow those accounts.

I won’t let Web sites auto-post to my Twitter account. I’ve let sites like Qik.com and Brightkite.com automatically post to my account when I start a video stream or check in to a location on Brightkite and it never works the way I want and just leads to extraneous Tweets I end up deleting. I try not to use auto-updates.

I fix errors and typos. If I spot an error or typo in a message I’ve posted, I’ll repost a corrected version and delete the original post. It’s not always easy to do, especially by mobile phone, but I do it anyway. Some people believe in keeping errors on the Web as a way of preserving spontaneity or capturing the moment or whatever. For me, I like things to be correct.

I don’t like being pressured to add back a person I’ve unfollowed. If I unfollowed someone, it was probably for a very good reason and it’s awkward to have to explain why. But This rule bends sometimes: I’ve added people back when adding the person was less trouble than having that awkward conversation.

I don’t mind being direct-messaged. Some people on Twitter who have lots of followers don’t like receiving direct messages. I don’t mind mind at all. They go to an e-mail address separate from my work address where I can better keep track of these messages and respond quickly on the go.

I like following a diverse group of Twitter peeps. Sometimes I’ll knowingly add a person I know I’ll disagree with or who has nothing to do with technology, Austin or my own interests. I learn much more from these different viewpoints than I do from people I agree with all the time or who post the same kinds of things I do.

I automatically follow people I know in “real-life.” At least if they add me first. I understand some people I work with or know socially may not want me to see the stuff they post on Twitter, so I wait for them to add me first, most of the time.

I don’t follow brand-new accounts unless I know the person. If a person has a few posts and lives in Austin or works in an industry I follow, I may add them, but generally if a person has one or no posts when they add me, I don’t add them back.

Every few weeks I whittle down my “Following” list. I take out dead accounts where people aren’t posting anymore, generally, or accounts related to an event that has already passed.

I usually post straight from the Twitter Web site or from ping.fm if I want to post to Twitter and Plurk.com simultaneously. If I’m not at a computer, I usually use the iPhone-friendly Web site hahlo.com.

What about content? If I find myself posting too many links in a row (especially to things I’ve written) or too much about one topic, I force myself to switch it up. I’m always trying to post a variety of things, things that are interesting or funny, along with stuff related to work or what’s going on. If I don’t feel I have something interesting to say, I try not to post anything.

How do you use Twitter?

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Short takes

By Omar Gallaga | Thursday, September 11, 2008, 02:00 PM

Working on a big entry for later today, but in the meantime, a few things I couldn’t avoid mentioning:

• Our old pal Sarah Lacy is at the Austin Tech Happy Hour tonight, signing her book, “Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0.” This is assuming, of course, that the oncoming hurricane doesn’t change her travel plans. I plan to be there.
• NCSoft will no longer be headquartered in Austin. Not sure how this affects the Garriott brothers, but we’re hearing a few long-time staffers might be leaving the company or choosing not to relocate to Seattle.
• How you can find out if the Large Hadron Collider has destroyed the world yet.
• I am currently using “Wii Fit” (and so is my wife) and it is making my sides hurt. My feelings for Nintendo are extreme right now.

That’s all for now. More later today. Stay safe and avoid any hurricanes! You can see our storm coverage on Twitter.

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Apple, briefly

By Omar Gallaga | Tuesday, September 9, 2008, 03:31 PM

Today is so completely crazy and I’m very behind on things (I spent a good chunk of yesterday chasing down MySpace profiles and Internet forums for a news story), but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least mention Apple’s music announcements today.

The gist of today’s announcements:

• New features on the iPod Touch, including new built-in speakers, new software (via an updated iTunes 8), volume buttons, longer battery life and built-in Nike+ support. It’s got a metal back to differentiate it from the iPhone. Still no camera, though, which would have been a nice addition.
• iPod Touch’s new pricing: 8 GB = $229, 16 GB = $299, 32 GB = $399.
• Redesigned iPod Nano. Much taller (you turn it on its side to watch videos in widescreen) and a welcome change from the squat, so-called “iPod Fatty.” Prices are $149 for an 8 GB version and $199 for a 16 GB version.
• As mentioned previously, iTunes 8, which has more intelligent playlist features to automatically group similar music.
• Steve Jobs joked about news reports that had been speculating about his health.
• New iPod Shuffle colors. Wheeee!

That’s it. No major surprises (the redesigned Nano had been rumored for weeks). Just a minor music refresh. I’m betting we’ll see bigger announcements involving Macbooks and Macbook Pros before the end of the year, or in January at the latest.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Gadgets, Phones, Shopping

Google’s big announcement and other new news

By Omar Gallaga | Monday, September 8, 2008, 03:13 PM

Good weekend?

Mine was great: finished the first season of “The Wire” on DVD (excellent), got a new HD-DVR installed and played lots of “Spore” (a full review is forthcoming). I also finally found a copy of “Wii Fit” at GameStop after months of searching.

“You know, you’re part of the problem,” the clerk told me.

“Excuse me?” I said.

“You’re ruining gaming!” he told me. I assured him that I was also playing “Spore,” “Soul Calibur IV,” “No More Heroes” and all manner of downloadable games, thus trying to restore my geek cred. He accepted that and we soon became Twitter friends.

Funny, he sure didn’t mind upselling me a giant pink yoga mat and matching silicone “Wii Fit” cover. I’ll write more about “Wii Fit” and its baseless, horrifying allegations that I am “Overweight,” bordering on “Obese” in a future post.

In the meantime, here’s some headlines you might have missed over the last few days:

• Google announced today that it has started a project to put all newspaper archives, large and small, online. While I am mortified that articles I wrote in college might be publicly available for consumption, it’s good for the industry. I hope.
• This New York Times Magazine article about what our newfound intimacy with strangers and acquaintances online means got a lot of traction over the weekend. Almost 10 years ago, a fellow reporter asked whether being able to instant message or e-mail someone instantly was making our circle of friends too large and destroying the natural order or relationships. It’s an even bigger issue now.
• A new $30 piece of software introduced today by Real Networks allows people to copy DVDs with ery little effort, but the restrictions are many: it won’t play on a regular DVD player (only on the computer on which it was copied or other computers for an additional fee). There are plenty of free tools online that allow you to do it without these restrictions, but very few people know how to use them.
• Interesting social media + non-profit happenings in Austin this week.
• You know my feelings on shooting DNA into space. Now Stephen Colbert is getting in on the immortality action. I imagine he’ll be talking about it on tonight’s “Colbert Report.”

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First impressions of ‘Spore’

By Omar Gallaga | Friday, September 5, 2008, 12:44 PM

It would be impossible to pass judgment on Will Wright’s “Spore” in only the two nights I’ve been playing the game (the game hits U.S. stores on Sunday; we just received an early review copy on Wednesday).

Influenced at its core by “Powers of 10,” a 1977 short film about the relative scale of the universe, “Spore” seeks to be both infinitely expansive and as intimate of the living spaces of the bestselling PC game of all time, “The Sims.”

The game’s interface is slick, intuitive and polished to a high degree, no surprise given the many years it’s been in development and Wright’s reputation for great game design. But based on the first three stages of the game I played through, the game is slighter than I expected, though it’s brilliant on a technical level.

After choosing a planet to create life, players are thrown into the primordial ooze in what is in essence a high-def, gorgeously rendered version of “Pac-Man.” As your cellular creation grows, you can add parts when you mate with like creatures until you evolve enough to go on land.

Sounds great, but it took me less than an hour to get to the second stage.

The second phase, in which you’ve built a nest and walk the land seeking to hunt or befriend other species, is gorgeously rendered, but also short: a few hours was all it took to get to the tribal level, a take on classic real-time strategy games like “Warcraft” and “Civilization.”

Blazing through the stages is not the point, though: these stages are really sandboxes for players to exercise their creativity by building strange, unique creatures and sharing them with others. In this, “Spore” really shines. The first mass-market video game to embrace social networking on such a grand scale, “Spore” allows players to share anything they create with other players or to download other people’s species. The mechanism for this, available at every stage of the game, is beautifully realized. Accessing the “Sporepedia,” thousands of creations are instantly rendered on screen, laid out like individual playing cards. Players can also create screenshots, animated avatars and “Sporecasts” to further the contents of their universe.

The real star of the show, however, is the game’s fascinating “Creature Creator” which was previously released as a $10 stand-alone tool. With it, you can add mouths, limbs, spitting pods and all manner of biological errata to your creature. The tool renders changes and skin patters in real-time. Players can test drive their creatures, seeing them show an incredible range of expressions and actions. It’s a brilliant achievement and lots of fun to play with, but I wonder if hardcore gamers will find it has much staying power once the initial thrill is gone.

Does “Spore” get deeper in its gameplay as it goes? It’s too early in the gameplay to tell. But it does a lovely job recreating some of its antecedents from the history of video games while putting its own imaginative spin on sandbox gaming.

We’ll be following up with a full review of the game as we play through the remaining stages, “Civilization” and “Space.” Stay tuned.

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Jerry Seinfeld + Bill Gates = ‘Churro?’

By Omar Gallaga | Friday, September 5, 2008, 09:48 AM

Techies (and perhaps a few Microsoft employees) are scratching their heads this morning over a new Microsoft commercial featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld.

Set in a shoe store, the ad features Gates trying on “Conquistadors” while a joke-bomb-lobbing Seinfeld offers friendly advice.

It sure feels like one of Seinfeld’s American Express ads until the very end when Seinfeld asks about computers that can be eaten like cake (huh?) and we learn that it’s actually an ad for Microsoft.

There are a few reasons why this ad may be fuel for the fire of Microsoft hate that many have. For one thing, it’s not exactly clear what the message is of the ad and it cost, ($10 million as part of a reportedly $300 million campaign) (according to Michael Arrington’s TechCrunch site). TechCrunch also posted an e-mail to Microsoft employees about the ad.

I think the ad is cute, but I have no idea what it’s trying to say about Microsoft. I thought Bill Gates had left his post at the company, staying on in a much-reduced role. Sure, he’s still the most recognized face at the company, but why feature him in the commercial if you’re trying to reassure people about the future of the company?

I expect the ad will be posted all over the Web this weekend, ripped apart by techie know-it-alls and Microsoft bashers. I’m a little torn because as much of a misfire as I think the commercial might be, I couldn’t help but smile at Seinfeld’s familiar-yet-new greeting, “Churro?”

What do you think? Judge for yourself:

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Oh, those titans of tech

By Omar Gallaga | Thursday, September 4, 2008, 03:44 PM

What are the big boys of technology doing this month?

We already know that Google is putting its claws into another portion of the Internet with its new Chrome browser. (Further impression: I managed to get a tab to crash last night, by watching a YouTube video of all things.)

Dell today revealed a very low-cost mini laptop, the Inspiron Mini 9. It’s great news for consumers in general, but how will they make money off this thing? I guess by selling a ton of them. It reminds me of the underpants gnomes from “South Park.” Dell mini notebook ==> ??? ==>> PROFIT!

Microsoft and Apple both have big unveilings planned for September 9th. Everyone expects Apple will release new versions of its iPod Touch and possibly a new version, 8.0, of iTunes. What other surprises does Steve Jobs have up his black sleeve? Interestingly, Microsoft has also chosen that day to unveil what some expect will be a new kind of mouse technology using a blue laser (but not a Blu-ray), some Web cams and maybe some new Zunes. Why would Microsoft unveil electronics on the same day as Apple? Hey, they’re Microsoft. It’s not like they make huge marketing blunders. We’ll have to just trust them on this one.

Gaming giant Electronics Arts is releasing Will Wright’s long-awaited “Spore” on Sunday in North America. Behind-the-scenes reporting story: I received the game yesterday and stayed up late last night playing it. We were asked not to post any reviews of the game until 9 a.m. Friday, but several gaming sites posted their reviews this morning. When I asked EA what was up with that, they told me that since the game is being released early in other countries, they were letting the whole embargo thing go. But then they asked me to hold my review until tomorrow. Huh? I’ve been hearing surprisingly little buzz about “Spore” given how much attention it’s been given over the years and as I began playing the game last night, I began to see see why.

The game, at least on first glance, feels much slighter than expectations have suggested. Yes, it’s about the creation of an entire species, but the game plays as episodes that, at least in what I played, don’t feel as deep as what I was expecting. In fact the entire first section of the game feels like an extrapolated, very pretty version of the cheap downloadable game “Fl0w.”

I’ll have more to say on the game tomorrow after another night of play, but so far I have very mixed feelings about “Spore.” It’s technically wonderful, runs without a hitch, feels very polished — but so far, it feels a lot lighter than the game I felt we were promised. If you can’t wait until tomorrow, plenty of other people have already posted reviews of the game.

And lastly, on the subject of TiVo and DirecTV, I agree with this guy on a new TiVo HD recorder that’s been announced for DirecTV. In fact, I’m furious about it, but I’ll have to tell you why later.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Computers, Gadgets, Internet, TV, Videogames

Google’s Chrome shines in its first test drive

By Omar Gallaga | Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 12:32 PM

Late last night, I finally got a chance to download Google’s new Web browser, Chrome, and try it out for a while.

I would have loved to have tried it on my work computer (assuming I’d be allowed to install it) or on my Macbook, but those weren’t options: for the moment, Chrome is only available for Windows. Mac and Linux versions are said to be in the works.

The installation was quick and painless; Chrome, on installation, will import your bookmarks, search history and other data from your default Web browser (in my case, Firefox 3).

Once installed, the first thing I noticed was Chrome’s lovely, soothing look. Despite its name, it doesn’t share the brushed metal look of Apple’s Safari. Instead, its got a soft blue look that extends up to its tabs, which appear up at the top of the browser instead of below the address bar.

The interface in general removes a lot of the clutter of buttons and status bars, especially if you have a lot of add-ons installed in Firefox.

The start-up screen when you open a new tab is a nine-window snapshot of your most frequently visited sites (along with a right rail that shows your other bookmarks and other information). It’s a nice place to start, with a very visual approach to all the places you go on the Web. Unfortunately, if you share your computer or are starting up your browser with someone else sitting next to you, you’re going to give an instant snapshot of where you spend your time online. Browser, beware.

There’s an option to replace this screen with a traditional home page, but the start-up screen (similar to a Firefox Add-On I use called Showcase.) is handy if you don’t mind the potential privacy issue.

The first thing anyone who uses Firefox or Internet Explorer will notice from using the browser is that clicking on your regular Web sites seems to bring them up much faster. Chrome renders pages with the same main engine as Apple’s Safari browser, but seems to handle multiple windows, multimedia and downloads much faster and elegantly. I didn’t have a single crash or Web page loading problem using Chrome for several hours and found that some pages that take a while to load in other browsers (Web e-mail, a healthcare Web site that is content-heavy), came up almost instantly in Chrome.

Chrome’s “Incognito” mode opens up a new window — anything surfed in the tabs of the Incognito window is not saved or stored in the browser history. Google says this is for instances where you don’t want your Web browsing history viewable by others, such as buying a surprise gift for a family member, but the more practical use for this is obviously naughty business and surfing on Web sites where security is paramount (banking Web sites, mission critical work, etc.).

Firefox has a similar mode, but it’s all or nothing — either you’re surfing in Privacy mode or you’re not. With Chrome, you know exactly what browsed sites are Incognito and which aren’t.

One other large change is that there’s no separate search bar in the browser. Everything is in the same address bar and Chrome tries to intelligently determine whether you’re doing a search or entering a URL. It works surprisingly well. When you start typing in the address box, Chrome guesses what you’re looking for and I found it eerily accurate. It also was able to differentiate between my URL searches (say, Amazon.com, Gmail or Twitter) and my Google text searches. Like typing on the iPhone, you have to just trust the address bar. I was pleasantly surprised by how well it worked.

After a few hours, I didn’t miss my Firefox add-ons, but I put Chrome away and switched back anyway. Chrome is fast and I had no problems, but for me at least, it’ll take a few more sessions to get used to the browser’s layout. I haven’t thrown lots of video at it to see how it holds up to a heavy load of multimedia, but I’ll try that next.

One thing I don’t dig: Chrome’s icon. The color swirl with the disturbing electronic eye in the middle is just ugly and doesn’t say “Web browser” to me.

For anyone who craves speed and doesn’t care about add-ons, Chrome might grow into a favorite browser. Google has done a very nice job with Chrome’s first incarnation, differentiating enough from the competition to make it worth a look.

Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Internet

Browser wars anew; holiday tech news

By Omar Gallaga | Tuesday, September 2, 2008, 03:08 PM

It was a very long Labor Day weekend; at least it feels that way when you have a 1-year-old who likes to listen to the same CD over and over. Thank goodness she hasn’t figured out how the DVD player works yet.

But, enough about me. How are you? Did you see all this tech news that happened over the break? If not, let me fill you in:

• The big talk this morning has been about Google’s sudden unveiling of a brand new Web browser called “Chrome.” As the company explains in a nicely done (but very long) comic by “Understanding Comics” author Scott McCloud, Chrome has been built from the ground up and is an open-source project. How will it do against Microsoft’s forthcoming final version of Internet Explorer 8, Safari, Opera and Firefox browsers? Early word is that Chrome is very, very fast. But will it have the plug-in community support of Firefox and build an audience as large as Internet Explorer? You can download the beta program for Windows yourself and see what you think.
• Is Dell launching an ultraportable computer on Thursday? The rumors seem to suggest they will.
• Local publisher Gamecock Media releases its long-anticipated game “Pirates VS. Ninjas Dodgeball” for Xbox Live Arcade tomorrow.
• The man of a million voiceovers has died.
• AT&T Wireless customers can automatically donate $5 to the Red Cross to help evacuees fleeing Hurricane Gustav by texting the word GIVE to 2HELP.
• Are new iPods coming? Everyone expects they’ll be announced next Tuesday.
• Nikon’s new D90 camera sounds HOT. HD video recording on top of a top-of-the-line consumer DSLR camera? Too bad I already own a D50 and just bought an HD camcorder earlier this year. David Pogue has already reviewed it and says it’s a fantastic camera, but a bit limited as a camcorder. Also love the idea of that geotagging GP-1 add-on device.
• What I’m playing: “Soul Calibur IV” for the Xbox 360, “No More Heroes” for the Wii and possibly “Spore” for the PC if it arrives in the next day or two for early review.

Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Baby-daddy, Computers, Gadgets, Internet, Videogames