Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2009 > October
October 2009
Thoughts from Innotech
I spent half the day at Innotech Austin, a one-day conference that melds elements of business, technology and marketing, among other subjects.
I’m not a business reporter anymore, so I’m always a little leery of events with such a heavy business emphasis, but on the other hand, I love to be around tech people and hear their thoughts on presentations or just socialize with people I normally only see on Twitter or Facebook.
It would be impossible for me to review Innotech as a whole since there were typically six panels going on at once and I was only able to attend half the day, but from my quick peek around the expo floor and attendance in a few panels, it was obvious that social media is a dominant topic — it was the subject of a luncheon presentation from an Intel social media guru and a fiery presentation from self-described social media ninja Giovanni Galucci. (Never mind that ninjas are supposed to be covert about their identity).
Galucci is a great, energetic speaker, but other presenters I saw were not (or, in one unfortunate case, came across like an olde-timey snake oil salesman).
It reminded me how hard it is for someone to put on a good presentation for a mixed tech and business audience. It’s a problem that plagues South by Southwest Interactive — panels and Core Conversations with fantastic-sounding speakers often turn out to be boring or preaching to the choir in actual practice.
One person whom I greatly respect and who attends lots of conferences of this sort told me today, “I want to hear about stuff I don’t already know.”
It’s a common problem — how do you keep the tech and social media from getting bored with information they already know while not overwhelming audience members with less knowledge?
At South by Southwest, I raved about Guy Kawasaki, who made for one of the most entertaining Q&A presenters I’ve ever seen at the conference. Though his sparring partner, Chris Anderson, was not nearly so charismatic, Kawasaki did an expert job of keeping the tone light, but the subject matter deep and focused. He was fun and unpredictable.
I say this as someone who’s giving a presentation tomorrow to a group of college journalism students; I watched with an extra-careful eye today, wondering if I was relying too much on a PowerPoint slide show and if I’d fall into some of the presentation traps I saw seeing right in front of me.
It’s very, very difficult to give a good presentation to a large tech crowd these days. It’s gotten to the point where an engaging, thought-provoking panel that really gives everyone in the room new knowledge has, sadly, become the exception and not the rule.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet, SXSW 2009, SXSW 2010
Smartphones on the radio
I appeared (in audio form) this morning on NPR’s “On Point with Tom Ashbrook” in an hour-long discussion called “Going Mobile.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, exactly, but it turned out to be a wide-ranging discussion about where the smartphone market is going, how we’re adapting to these new technologies as humans, what the future might hold and what listeners thing about the mobile revolution.
It didn’t hurt that my fellow guests were Mahalo.com founder Jason Calacanis and Wired New York City bureau chief John Abell.
What I got out of it was that there’s lots of curiosity about Motorola’s upcoming Droid phone (and the Android platform in general), about what the future holds for mobile apps and how we’ll continue to adapt our lives as these technologies take over our daily work and home habits.
I was surprised by the number of callers who were bullish about smartphones; I was expecting more of a backlash, honestly. Very cool discussion, though. Go have a listen if you have the time.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Internet, Phones
The iPods, the Zune HD
Back when there were just a few MP3 music players on the market, it was easy to make a recommendation on the best one — it often came down to price and features.
But in the post-iPod age, there’s much more nuance. Do you want a music device that can also download apps, play video games and serve as a mobile Internet device? Do you want a music player that can also shoot video, but is still small enough to fit in a tiny pocket? How about a music player that can play HD videos on your television and can download a practically unlimited amount of music for a monthly fee?
In this way, buying a portable music players is a lot like buying a computer or car — there’s a popular model from two of the big players — Apple and Microsoft — for just about anyone at prices ranging from just over $50 to about $400.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been test driving Apple’s new line of music players including its revamped iPod Nano, the iPod Touch (which recently received a slight speed boost on some models) and its iPod Shuffle, which remains largely the same as the last time we wrote about it, but is now available in new colors and in a 4-gigabyte stainless-steel version.
Microsoft also sent us their latest salvo in the music wars: the Zune HD. While the previous versions of the Zune have barely made a dent in Apple’s music player empire, the HD model should definitely have an audience with some of its very strong features.
Here’s are my thoughts on each.
The iPods
When Apple announced its new iPod upgrades, the biggest changes were in the iPod Nano, the thin, oval-curved, colorful music player.
The iPod Nano.
Not only did the Nano gain the ability to shoot video — only the iPhone 3GS among Apple’s mobile products shares that features — is now has an FM tuner that can pause and rewind live radio broadcasts, a voice recorder, Nike+ integration and a pedometer feature. It comes in nine colors and costs $149 for an 8-gigabyte version and $179 for a 16-gigabyte version. (That choice is a no-brainer: if you’re buying a Nano, spend the extra $30 for double the memory.)
If you’ve seen the iPod Nano before, the physical design is not much different that the last generation — it’s got a pleasing metallic finish, a curvy, design and a small, but bright screen that plays videos and displays photos. The Nano has also picked up the Shuffle’s trick of reading out the names of artists, songs and playlists with its “VoiceOver” feature.
The biggest change, of course, is the ability to record video. A very tiny camera lens on the bottom left side of the back records pretty decent-quality video. When I heard about this new feature, I thought that such a small, light device would be too hard to shoot video on because you’d have constant shaking from tying to hold the Nano still. I shot two videos, indoor and outdoor and you can judge for yourself on the video quality and image stability:
Will it replace your Flip video player or camcorder? Probably not. But if you carry a Nano with you, you’re likely to find yourself relying on it more and more for spontaneous video shooting, the way I do with my iPhone 3GS.
The built-in FM tuner is also a surprise. I took Apple to task from introducing an old technology far too late to its iPods, but it’s hard to argue with how it’s implemented. A plugged-in set of earbuds or headphones serves as the antenna and the Nano picks up FM signals well and plays them clearly. The 15-minute buffer, which allows you to rewind or pause live radio is very nicely done and you can also flag songs you hear on the radio to download later from iTunes. It’s a great feature I thought would be extraneous; instead, I’m pressed with how well it works.
Of all the devices in this roundup, the iPod Nano seems to me to be the clear choice for someone looking for a decently priced, but powerful music player. If you don’t need apps, Internet access or a large touchscreen, the Nano is the best of the bunch in its combination of price, portability and features.
The Shuffle, as I mentioned before, went through minimum changes, but is now available in colors that aren’t so easy to lose in a gadget satchel or even on a dark-colored desk. It’s still a very good player for hitting the gym or a long road trip. I’m still not a fan of keeping the controls on the included earbuds (I never use Apple earbuds; they usually don’t have great sound), but there are other headphones available that incorporate Shuffle controls. Of course, having to buy them separately negates some of the value of a $59 or $79 music player.
The iPod Shuffle.
Other than the iPhone 3GS, Apple would say that the iPod Touch is its top-of-the-line iPod and it recently got a speed boost that makes it snappier, a boon for those designing 3-D game apps for the Touch and iPhone. The 8-gigabyte model ($199) remains at the same speed, but the other two iPod Touch models — 32-GB ($299) and 64-GB ($399) — get the speed boost. It’s most noticeable when doing Web surfing, playing some graphics-intensive games and navigating the icon menus on the home screen.
It’s pretty much the same iPod Touch that Apple says has sold more then 20 million units. Of course, it has access to Apple’s large library of apps (though some aimed at the iPhone don’t work with the Touch).
The iPod Touch.
Many, myself included, were surprised that the upgraded Touch devices did not incorporate a new camera the way the Nano does. Some have speculated that Apple had technical troubles making it happen in time for the September unveiling, but Stan Ng, senior director of iPod product marketing, told me that wasn’t the case.
“Our focus was in the update to the iPod Touch was driving down the price as much as we could without adding anything else,” Ng said. “It’s the most affordable thing to get (people) to the App Store.”
That’s great, but an iPod Touch that still can’t shoot video is a bit of a disappointment. At the very least, the $399 high-end Touch should have included that feature.
It’s easy to begin believing that the iPod is starting to lose relevance as the iPhone and music players and smartphones from other companies evolve, but there’s no denying there’s a gigantic market of accessories, a continually growing list of apps that work on the iPod Touch and new features on the Nano that seem just enough to keep Apple’s dominance in digital music going.
They’re still elegantly designed, have great software and simply work well. It’s very hard to recommend against Apple’s dominating lineup of iPods.
The Microsoft Zune
…But that doesn’t mean we won’t try.
Microsoft’s Zune music player brand has become a bit of a joke as it has failed to catch fire even with those who dislike Apple’s iPod dominance.
But the new Zune HD is serious business. It aligns most closely with the iPod Touch — it has a large, bright touch screen, can download (a very limited number of) apps and has a built-in Web browser.
By far the best feature on the Zune HD is its exceptionally bright, inviting OLED screen. Colors pop more than they do on the Touch and browsing photos and watching video on it is a joy.
The Zune HD also includes HD radio, allowing you to listen to sub-stations on FM frequencies and to glance at station messages and song/artist titles. It’s a nice, rare feature in a portable music player and some may find it the Zune HD’s strongest selling point.
With an accessory dock (sold separately), it can also play high-definition videos on a connected HDTV screen.
The Zune can also be hooked up to a $14.99-a-month unlimited music download service from Microsoft. If you’re tired of your music library and want to connect to a fire hose of new music, this is a good way to do it. The music will only be accessible for as long as you keep this subscription, but it opens up a world of new music, TV shows and other content for a flat rate. With the service you also get 10 permanent music downloads a month. It’s a very good deal for anyone with a small music collection who doesn’t want to invest in creating their own digital music library.
Some will love the Zune HD’s slick, modern menus which have large-typeface words that fly in and out of range, but hang around in the top of the screen in case you want to go back to a previous menu. When playing music, you can see a lovely artist image in addition to the usual cover art. In some ways, it’s more intuitive than the dated click-wheel menus on the Nano.
The Zune HD.
That’s the good. Now comes the bad news about the Zune HD: it’s tied to Microsoft’s Zune software, which in some ways is a complete trainwreck. While a recent 4.0 update is a vast improvement over the previous version, I found Zune 4.0 to be buggy, filled with too many menus that seem at cross purposes and simply hard to use. It’s so over-designed that it actually doesn’t look like it belongs in a Windows operating system environment. Even the flashy new Windows 7 feels vastly different from the lovely, but hard-to-navigate Zune software.
It also is software that isn’t available on the Mac, making the Zune HD effectively a PC-only product without jumping through some major hoops.
The Microsoft Zune software.
It takes a while to simply figure out how to get music, videos and other content onto the Zune using the software. And even then, some video formats won’t convert properly to play on the Zune HD or take a very long time to do so. On the other hand, it can sync wirelessly over Wi-Fi to your computer’s library, something none of the iPods can do at this point.
The Web browser included in the Zune is not nearly as easy to use as the iPod Touch’s Safari browser (which is probably the best mobile browser today) and there are only a handful of apps that are available for the Zune HD.
Using the Zune as a music player was a great experience — it gives you plenty of screen eye candy and sounds good. But other non-music-related features were more problematic. The device’s “Social” features didn’t seem very useful to me and I’m not sure why the device has buttons on the side that DON’T control volume.
Nevertheless, I think the hardware is nicely designed, the screen is absolutely gorgeous and for all the Apple haters out there, the Zune HD is a perfectly good alternative to the iPod Touch. It’ll get better with more apps and refinements to the Zune software, but it would be foolhardy to believe we’ll see it catch up to the kind of refinements Apple has made to the App Store and to iTunes anytime soon.
The Zune HD
At $229 and $289 (for 16-GB and 32-GB models), the Zune HD also seems slightly overpriced given the competition it’s up against. At $199 and $249, it would be a much stronger candidate for your gadget-buying dollar. (It doesn’t help that the AV dock, for connecting it to an HDTV for video/photo watching is a ridiculous $90 extra. And it doesn’t even have the capability to rotate photos you’re viewing on it.)
The Zune still isn’t an iPod killer, but it’s the closest Microsoft has come so far in catching up with Apple on the music player front.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets
Goodbye, GeoCities
Today, Yahoo is shutting down GeoCities, the online equivalent of bulldozing a long-abandoned slum.
In its heyday (forgetting for a moment that GeoCities was derided even then) of the mid-to-late 1990s, GeoCities was a home for those dipping their toes into the World Wide Web.
It didn’t take long before the predominantly ugly, blinking-text-laden, amateur-created Web pages become synonymous with bad Web design. Among today’s 2.0 Web geeks, GeoCities is more punchline than warm memory; you’d say it like you say “Parachute pants” or “‘Miami Vice’ 5-o’clock shadow.”
Let’s not forget that GeoCities was very useful to a great number of people in its time and contained treasure troves of information back when the Internet was a barren landscape of tiny oases.
The L.A. Times has a nice appreciation of GeoCities.
So long, GeoCities.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Internet
Review: ‘Brütal Legend’
The new video game “Brütal Legend” opens like the first track on Metallica’s “…And Justice For All”: It’s a potent, energetic blast of rock that widens your eyes and puts you in the mood.
“Legend,” which stars Jack Black and was developed by revered game-industry imp Tim Schafer is a rock ‘n’ roll fantasy that tries to graft a wide range of gameplay styles into a funny, loving tribute to metal music.
Unfortunately, the actual game itself — the one you play with a console game controller — doesn’t match up to the inspired milieu and the impressive voice acting, graphics, soundtrack and stellar script.
Black plays roadie Eddie Riggs (who looks in the game like Meatloaf by way of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” perhaps an intentional homage), who finds himself waging a war against demons and a fey glam-rock poseur in an almost-medieval metal world of giant amps, literal headbanging rock slaves and demonic landscapes that wouldn’t look out of place on an Iron Maiden album cover.
Riggs must help free an enslaved world; he does it not with bullets and punches but with guitar licks and giant rock stages. It’s a brilliant idea, and for the first two or three hours of the game, it’s easy to believe that the game will be a perfect mix of narrative and fun gaming.
But the game begins to break down by trying to do too many things; it has elements of rhythm games (Eddie gets power-ups when you press button combinations in time with a music chart), has elements of large-scale action like “God of War,” has several driving-game challenges and, ultimately, becomes a giant real-time strategy game involving huge outdoor concert stages.
While it means you won’t get bored playing through the fairly short single-player part of the game, it also becomes frustrating to keep up with all the different kinds of controls and rules for all the different kinds of play. You wish the game would settle into a groove of consistent gameplay, but instead, it feels as if “Brütal Legend” is making up the rules as it goes along. And the core endgame is the giant real-time strategy bits that are the most frustrating to actually play. It’s very easy to lose control of what your army of roadies and headbangers are doing at any given moment.
That said, there’s lots to love: Jack Black is brilliant as Eddie. He’s much less annoying than he’s been in some movies — as he showed in “Kung Fu Panda,” he’s a fantastic voice actor and he doesn’t overplay the character. The game’s storyline is full of clever moments and funny lines (many of them dirty enough to earn the the game a Mature rating). The main menu screen is a fantastically conceived album cover that opens and offers its sleeves to display game options. Leading into it is a live-action mini-movie featuring Black.
Schafer, who gets a lifetime pass for his work on game classics like “Grim Fandango” and “Maniac Mansion: Day of the Tentacle” has crafted a game that, despite its flaws, is still attractive and wholly original. And the voice work from Tim Curry and rock stars Ozzy Osbourne, Rob Halford, Lita Ford and Lemmy Kilmister are a joy to hear. It’s a world gamers should hope to return to; a sequel with more focused gameplay would be worth pursuing.
“Brütal Legend” is definitely a worthy rental, but like a concert that ends without any encores, it leaves you wanting more.
“Brütal Legend”
$60, for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3
Rating: M for Mature
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Videogames
Slacker.com getting out of the music hardware business
Slacker, the company with Austin ties that focuses on music streaming, is discontinuing its G2 portable music player next year, the company’s president Jim Cady told the Wall Street Journal.
The music player, which competes with Apple’s iPod, MIcrosoft’s Zune and other portable music devices, will apparently be pushed to the side as the company focuses on its paid music streaming service, social networking (it recently introduced Twitter integration to its online service) and mobile apps for devices like the iPhone, BlackBerry and Sony Bravia TVs.
The G2 device was introduced in 2007, but was delayed until early 2008, when it finally began shipping to customers.
Slacker is based in San Diego, but has ties to Central Texas, including funding from Austin Ventures. It recently raised another $3 million in venture funding.
So long, G2. We’ll let you know if we hear more about what happened to Slacker’s hardware plans.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Austin, Gadgets, Shopping
The Linkdown for Thursday, Oct. 22
The Linkdown was in hog heaven this week with new Apple hardware and the release of “Windows 7.” But then The Linkdown thought, “What’s going on over on the rest of the Web?” This is what The Linkdown found and now shares with you:
- Is an Apple tablet the key to the future of digital comic books? Andy Ihnatko thinks so.
- You can now share whole folders in Google Docs.
- Austin-based GetYa Learn On, LLC and Abilene Christian University have developed an iPhone app called “Statistics 1.”
- NCsoft seems to have a hit on its hands. Its new MMO “Aion,” was the No. 1-selling PC game in September.
- There’s now a mobile app for the kid-friendly video Web site ZuiTube.
- Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 list includes Austin companies Zebra Imagine, Inc., Medical Present Value, Inc., @hand Software Corp., NetQoS, Inc., Surgient, Inc., LibreDigital and SolarWinds, Inc.
- Memo to Rails developers: The Rails Performance in the Cloud Roadshow comes to Austin on Oct. 29.
- New tech news site: GeekChicDaily. That’s “Chic,” not “Chick.”
- My favorite Halloween video ever (not scary, just awesome): Michael McDonald is trickin’ it to the treat.
- Austin’s Wi-Fi Alliance announces specs for peer-to-peer Wi-Fi.
- A bit late on this one, but LiveStrong’s work with “Blame Drew’s Cancer.”
- Writer’s Bar Camp, Saturday in Bryan.
- Slacker.com now features Twitter integration.
- On my NPR segment this week: “Windows 7,” eco-phones and Finland’s right-to-Internet move.
- Hulu will likely charge for content at some point, possibly as early as next year.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Internet
Digital Contrarian: Five ways Microsoft could still screw up Windows 7
The reviews are in and the news is good for Microsoft: the latest version of its operating system, “Windows 7,” hits stores Thursday and tech reviewers seem smitten with “7.” The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, CNet and others have bestowed praise on it. The snarky gadget site Gizmodo.com used the headline, “Windows 7 Review: You Can Quit Complaining Now.”
On the praise, I can’t disagree. Microsoft sent us a 64-bit copy of “Windows 7 Ultimate” several weeks ago and after a fear-filled ordeal getting my Windows XP desktop ready for the hard drive wipe and migration, I’m a happy camper. “Windows 7” is Microsoft’s attempt at a do-over on its last major revision, Windows Vista, which debuted in early 2007. I avoided the public-relations disaster that was Vista on the advice of negative reviews and friends who used it and grew frustrated with its quirks and sluggish performance.
For me on a pretty high-end PC, “Windows 7” runs fast, doesn’t crash, handles all the software I was running before with a minimum of compatibility issues, and is a big leap forward in attractive, streamlined design. I like the way hovering over a taskbar icon brings up a tiny preview of open windows. I like that I can shake a window and make every other Window on the desktop disappear. I find myself using my Windows 7 PC more often than I used to as it feels, in general, less frustrating to deal with. My MacBook is probably pretty jealous.
That being said, “Windows 7” could still go awry for Microsoft, a company that knows a thing or two about taking a good thing and running it into the ground. There is the matter of Apple, a company that just had its best financial quarter ever and that has all but convinced the buying public that its Mac computers are hipper and smarter than PCs.
“Windows 7” is good, but is it good enough to make people go out and buy new PCs (or bother upgrading their XP or Vista machines)? Here are five ways Microsoft could still lose with “Windows 7’:
1. Continuing to confuse customers — As it did with Vista, Microsoft released multiple versions of “7” with names like, “Starter,” “Home Premium,” “Business” and “Ultimate,” all with different prices, different features and different target audiences. It’s a horrible strategy, and one that serves no one but Microsoft. Release one great version of “Windows 7” and price it fairly for the broadest possible audience. It worked for Apple with the September release of “Snow Leopard,” an update to its Mac OS operating system, which works on all Apple computers that are currently sold.
2. Tone-deaf marketing and advertising — Microsoft had a point with its “Laptop hunter” TV commercials, focusing on the price differences between Macs and some Windows PCs. But the commercials came across as shrill and whiny. Most Windows ads only serve to remind people how much better Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” ads are. And a recent attempt to get people to throw “Windows 7” launch parties for a copy of the OS felt desperate and sad. Microsoft has a great spokeswoman in pint-sized, 4-year-old “Kylie.” Microsoft would do well to stick with Kylie and quit bringing up Apple in its ads.
3. Not wooing XP users — There are many more Windows XP users than Vista users, but Microsoft had made it much harder for those with Windows XP to upgrade. In my case, I had to do a full backup, erase my hard drive and reinstall all of my software, a process that took me an entire week. Microsoft suggests XP users buy a new PC instead; ha ha, good one, Microsoft. The company needs to convince XP users that “Windows 7” is worth the hassle without trying to extract more money out of people’s wallets.
4. Losing the virus war — The more people who get “Windows 7,” the more chance you’ll see viruses and malware that specifically targets vulnerabilities unique to this new operating system. One major virus outbreak targeting it could wipe out Microsoft’s credibility on security in “Windows 7.” They’d do well to keep working to make its security airtight. (Or at least more secure than XP and Vista have been.)
5. Avoiding the bloat — Microsoft wisely has stripped several applications out of Windows that not everybody uses like Windows Messenger and Windows Movie Maker, making them available as optional online downloads. While some users may feel they’re getting less than they bargained for, anything that helps create a more streamlined, less cluttered interface is a step in the right direction. In future updates and patches for “Windows 7,” Microsoft needs to remember that and avoid the temptation of adding extraneous, resource-hogging features and applications that we don’t really need.
I like “Windows 7.” A lot. It’s the first time in a long while that I’ve felt the Mac operating system has some real competition for my computing time. Let’s hope Microsoft plays it smart and doesn’t find a way to mess up a good thing.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Computers
Apple fires across the bow before Windows 7 launch
Yesterday, Apple followed up its strongest quarterly earnings ever with a salvo of product tweaks aimed at continuing the company’s momentum going as Microsoft rolls out its new operating system, Windows 7, on Thursday.
Among the new stuff was “Magic Mouse,” a wireless computer mouse that has no physical buttons, but instead relies on the same kind of multi-touch technology users have become accustomed to on the iPhone and on the trackpads of Mac laptops.
Apple also tweaked the design of its white MacBook, making it a “Unibody” design that uses one piece of plastic for the main case (similar to the aluminum cases on its MacBook Pros.)
The iMac computer got a new design with widescreen monitors at new screen sizes (21.5” and 27”), with upgraded specs that go all the way up to a quad-core processor with an upgraded ATI graphics card (the highest-end 27” model starts at $2,000).
The Mac Mini also got some love with speed upgrades and a new “Mac Mini Server” that can be used to stream video and other content. It costs $1,000.
There were also upgrades to the company’s Time Capsule and Airport Extreme products (slight Wi-Fi speed increases from a tweaked antenna design) and a new version of the $19 Apple remote, now available in an aluminum design.
I went to check out the new products yesterday at the Apple Store at the Domain, but unfortunately, none were on the floor. The new MacBooks had arrived, a store associate told me, but they weren’t on display yet. The other products, including Magic Mouse were still being shipped to the store.
The mouse is certainly tantalizing (if it works as promised), but these are mostly small upgrades designed to make those considering a new Windows 7 PC think twice. And they should — although I’m a fan of Windows 7 (I’ll have a full review posted by tomorrow), Mac OS is still a powerful, refined operating system and with every hardware refresh, Apple makes its Macs more desirable at their respective prices.
If you’re shopping for a new PC or Mac, there’s no sense in rushing. Wait a week or two and see what kind of offers the Windows 7 rollout brings and take a look at Apple’s new crop. It’s a pretty good time to buy a computer, but we’ll probably be seeing even better deals from both sides before the holidays.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Computers, Gadgets, Shopping
Two tech commercials charge aggressively into the holiday season
Over the weekend, I caught two commercials involving tech products that seemed to follow me wherever I went. I saw the commercials at the gym, I saw them at home and I read about them on tech blogs.
The first one was for the Powermat, a device that wireless charges cell phones, portable game systems and other devices (wireless if you have the right adapter, but more about that in a moment).
We ran a review of Powermat and a lower-priced competitor in today’s paper. The commercial below expresses the “WOW!” factor, but I worry that people who see the commercial (which, by the way, is extremely tacky) won’t grasp the downsides of a product like Powermat.
For one thing, it’s not completely wireless unless you purchase separate sleeves or cases for your devices on top of the $99 price of the main Powermat device (which can charge three devices at a time).
The Powermat comes with three little “Powercubes,” white blocks that can connect to your phone, PDA or other devices via a tiny wire and interchangeable connectors. The Powercube lies on the Powermat and charges the device through that little cable. Unfortunately, it’s not really wireless if a wire is involved.
The sleeves, sold separate, cost about $30 each and double as a case. They eliminate the need for the Powercubes and, as such, are more true to the promise of the Powermat. If, say, you have a BlackBerry, you can buy a sleeve for it and keep it on all the time and lay it on the Powermat to do the promised wireless charging.
Obviously, buying all those sleeve/cases can add up (three devices, three sleeves… oh, that’s about another $100) and they’re not particularly attractive as device cases. The one for the iPhone has a pass-through connector for mini-USB syncing, but you’ll have to take the Powermat sleeve off to use any of the thousands of other accessories that use the ubiquitous squat iPod connector.
The store display I saw at Target had plenty of these device sleeves right next to the device, so many I’m underestimating people’s ability to understand how it works. It’s certainly great technology, but it will be even more impressive when smartphones and other electronics have the ability to charge wirelessly built in. I’m sure it’s a technology we’ll see commonly used in the next three to five years, if not sooner.
Did I mention the commercial itself is pretty tacky? Here it is:
The other commercial I saw is for the upcoming Motorola Droid phone, which is clearly positioning itself as the Google Android platform’s answer to the iPhone. The commercial points out the things Apple’s phone doesn’t do, hinting at all the features the Droid will do.
Will it deliver on the promise? Hard to tell when we can’t even see the phone itself in the commercials.
As a shot across the bow, though, it seems very effective. My curiosity is definitely piqued.
Here’s the Droid commercial:
What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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First set of SXSWi ‘10 panels announced
The first batch of panels for South by Southwest 2010 have been posted this morning on the official site.
SXSW says that more than 2,300 panel ideas were submitted via its Panel Picker and that a second round of panels will be announced on Nov. 9. In all, more than 300 panels will be part of the fest March 12-16.
Among the panels that caught my eye in this set of about 110 were, “2009 Iran Election: Women’s Revolution? Twitter Revolution?,” “From Trolls to Stars: The Commenter Ecosystem,” “Media Armageddon: What Happens When the New York Times Dies,” and “What Guys are Doing to Get More Girls in Tech!”
Also sprinkled in the list are panels whose topics I feel like I’ve seen 3 or 4 times before, or panels that are mostly about a Web celebrity who has already spoken at SXSWi, which is unfortunate.
For newcomers to the fest, this is a tantalizing early list, but for those who’ve attended before, a lot of the panels listed so far either seem too general (“Future of Context”) or panels that have literally been on the schedule in some form or fashion for 10 years (“Writing Web Content For A Living”).
Excited to see how the next batch of panels varies from this one.
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Gaming On at Mohawk
“Game On” is not only the set of words you can see next to a gigantic, terrifying representation of my head on the side of the highway, but also the name of last night’s Austin Chronicle/South by Southwest Interactive ScreenBurn event.
Upstairs at The Mohawk, Game Over Videogames had the inside lounge area covered with old-school Mario and Sonic games as well as four-player “GoldenEye 007” for the Nintendo 64 set up.
Wizards of the Coast had a “Magic: The Gathering” tabletop set up in anticipation of this weekend’s big Pro Tour tournament at the Austin Convention Center. (Free for you to go check out.)
Challenge Games showed off their brand-new Facebook 3-D football game, “Gridiron Live,” which has already been written up in TechCrunch. It’s free to play but tokens can be purchased to add players and capabilities. You can play against friends or single-player against the CPU.
The company said they have another big Facebook game in the works, to be released in a month or two.
Axelo showed off their new PC “BAT” controller, which brings tilt-sensitive motion controls (like the PlayStation 3 SIXAXIS) to Windows. It worked nicely in a flight combat game I tried. It’s going to be priced about $120, but a special introductory price will bring it closer to $79.
There were lots of iPhone and Wii games on display, 8-bit music and a “Rock Band” guitar tournament (no love for drummers, unfortunately).
Good time, good space — let’s keep these big video game events coming, Austin.
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Michael Dell and I agree on something
Although Dell recently slipped to No. 3 in the list of the world’s top PC manufacturers (HP tops the heap and Acer just passed the Round Rock-based company), the company’s CEO Michael Dell is pretty bullish.
In a recent Silicon Valley dinner appearance, he said he’s confident Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 7 (out Oct. 22) will will change people’s attitudes.
“… if you get the latest processor technology and Office 2010 with it, you will love your PC again. It’s a dramatic improvement,” he said.
Love! That’s a strong word.
However, with some reservations, I agree with him. Since I went through the process of upgrading my main desktop computer to Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit), I’ve had smooth sailing and good performance.
I find myself using that computer more than my trusty Macbook lately, even though the desktop is upstairs, away from our main living area and bedrooms. Software installations I was dreading have gone off without a hitch and even a tricky remote networking setup my wife needed to install to do some telecommuting worked flawlessly.
All the pain I was prepared for in a new, bug-filled OS have failed to materialize.
Does that mean I’m in love? It’s too early to tell, but I can say with confidence that I’m deeply In LIke with Windows 7. Microsoft has a tendency for over-reach and there’s still time for them to mess up a good thing with bad marketing or patches that introduce quirks.
And I’m recounting my experience on a very high-end PC whose hardware has been tweaked for gaming bliss. Less clear is how well Win7 will hold up on feeble netbooks or older computers that aren’t as speedy under the hood.
If they stay on track and have a good launch, though, it will be very easy for PC owners with the right hardware to feel even more affection for 7.
I’ll have a full write-up on it next week.
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People are still asking: What is Google Wave?
I’ve been playing with Google Wave for about a week now, since a kind Twitter soul was nice enough to send me one of the coveted invites that have been limited to several hundred thousand (at last count) since it debuted.
I’m going to keep this short and simple because the hype on Google Wave has been deafening and the more people who aren’t using Wave hear about it, the more confusing I imagine it seems.
Billed early on as a mash-up of e-mail, IM, Twitter and myriad other things we use now, I think I can safely say it boils down to something much simpler and easy to grasp: Google Wave is like a set of supercharged chat rooms stuffed into your e-mail inbox.
It’s structured like e-mail with a stack of “Waves”: each one contains information about who’s in that message string (with helpful user icons), a date, whether there are attachments and how many actual messages are in each Wave.
When you click on a Wave, a window opens to the right of it and that’s where you can type messages, engage in video chats, start a poll, invite more people to join the Wave and attach files, photos and other media. It’s here that Google Wave most resembles a chat room and one of the fun things about it is that you can see messages being typed in real-time, kind of like the old 9600-baud modem days.
Each window (contacts, inbox, etc.) can be minimized, giving more screen real estate to whatever part of Wave you want to focus on. Unlike instant messaging, though, the messages in each Wave stay structured and stored like e-mail — if you close Wave and come back to it, those chats will remain active and you can pick up right where you left off (or read new bits contributed by other people who have access to that Wave).
That’s all. It’s not as mysterious as people are making it out to be.
However… we are seeing Google Wave with a very limited number of so-called “Gadgets” and “Extensions.” These currently include a Google Map that can be updated by anyone in a Wave, video conferencing, but the potential is that developers will add their own tools to Wave that will, say, include a gadget for including a Twitter stream or playing a Facebook-style game.
In that way, Google Wave is very exciting: it could be to Google what the App Store has become for Apple: a limitless platform that serves as the medium for all kinds of independent development, under the Wave umbrella.
It’s got amazing potential, but right now, and especially with the small number of people on it to communicate with, it still feels very, very early. Give it six months and we’ll see if it lives up to its promise.
Below: some screen shots of the inbox and Wave view:
Want more info and details? Lifehacker has an excellent first look feature that goes into more depth than you may need.
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T-Mobile Sidekick users: you have my sympathies
Over the weekend, many users of T-Mobile Sidekick devices learned that problems they were having with their phones recently were probably due to a massive server meltdown that might cause all of their personal data (phone numbers, photos, settings) to be deleted.
The problem? The phone stores that data on its servers, rather than on the hardware itself, and apparently Danger, the Microsoft-owned company that makes the Sidekick, didn’t have a proper backup. Microsoft warned customers that they might not get their data back and that they shouldn’t remove the device’s battery or allow it to run out of juice before the issue was resolved.
CNet ran a piece featuring Sidekick users telling their horror stories. Puts a knot in your stomach, doesn’t it?
Sales of Sidekick devices were halted today and the brand, in my estimation at least, looks pretty damaged by this data failure.
But at least there’s a silver lining. Hiptop3, a site that’s been following the debacle, says that some customers are reporting having their data restores, so maybe Danger found a way to retrieve some of the information.
One thing’s for sure: ALWAYS have a back-up of your phone data, no matter how much trouble it takes. Until we live in a perfect world, don’t trust your most important data to the cloud.
I’m told on Twitter that the Sidekick is especially popular among the deaf, an added wrinkle to a story that already looks like a big black eye for Microsoft/Danger. As a friend of mine said on Twitter, you should beware when you buy a product from a company called “Danger.”
If you lost your phone data, I’m very sorry for you. It’s not fun at all to deal with a data loss like that.
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The Linkdown for Friday, Oct. 9
The Linkdown is happy not to have had to clean Dillo Dirt off The Linkdown’s feet. That stuff sounds gross.
Links to make it all feel better:
- Local video game tournaments: teen tournament at Round Rock Library noon tomorrow and a “Pac-Man” tourney at 3 p.m. Sunday at Gamerz Video Game Exchange at Lakeline Mall.
- Upcoming guest authors for the game “City of Heroes” will be Bill Willingham, creator of the comic book “Fables,” Rooster Teeth (“Red vs. Blue”) and Scott Kurtz of the “PvP” online comic strip.
- Fusebox Festival event next Friday.
- Popular Mechanics just announced its 2009 Breakthrough Awards
- Austin’s Miro Quartet has its own free app.
- Dell partners with Major League Baseball and nail polish company OPI on laptop designs.
- U-verse ranks highly in overall satisfaction, according to J.D. Power and Associates.
- Austin Public Library offers TumbleBook Library, animated, interactive books for kids.
- More photos from Dell at Austin City Limits Fest.
- San Antonio’s Rackspace brings in some tech heavy-hitters.
- “World of Warcraft” card game and miniatures game tournaments are this weekend in Austin (starting today!) and are free to go watch. It’s at the Convention Center.
- That’s followed by a big “Magic: The Gathering” pro tournament next weekend.
- I revisited the topic of scanning in business cards and also talked about Disney digital books and a bag that can save your wet electronics on NPR’s “All Tech Considered” this week.
Oh, and this is pretty cool, too:
(It comes from this site, and I found out about it from my brother, via this person).
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Austin arcade wins $25k in ‘Save the Arcades’ contest
Austin’s Arcade UFO has won $25,000 in a contest sponsored by Stride Gum called Save The Arcades.
We blogged about it back in August, when Arcade UFO was pitted against three other video arcades, Starbase Arcade in San Rafael, Calif., Star Worlds Arcade in DeKalb, Ill, and Game Galaxy Arcade in Nashville, Tenn.
Gamers voted for the arcade by playing a game on Stride’s Web site called “Zapataur” and racking up scores. Arcade UFO won with 991,512,500 points over eight weeks.
Arcade UFO is located in Central Austin on 3101 Speedway.
Co-owner Ryan Harvey said in an e-mail, “I’m so appreciative to our regulars in Austin, along with our friends and fans from all over the country that chose to donate their points to Arcade UFO and help us win this contest. We will continue to improve Arcade UFO so that it’s not only the best coin-operated arcade in Austin, but on this side of the ocean. For the curious, we’ll be tracking our prize-spending on http://www.arcadeufo.com/, so check back regularly or follow us on Twitter (arcadeufo) to see all of the exciting stuff we have planned come to fruition!”
Arcade UFO owners Ryan Harvey and Crissy Knape.
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Mini-review: ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum’
Ever since “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” for the Atari 2600 ruined many a childhood back in Christmas of 1982, licensed video games — those based on movies, TV shows or other mass media — have been looked upon with wary suspicion. For good reason. It’s only been in recent years that games based on other media — particularly movies or comic books — have been up to snuff. Call it the “Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay” phenomenon: the rare case where a game was better than the source material.
“Batman: Arkham Asylum” may not be better than “The Dark Knight,” last year’s hit movie, but as a video game, it towers, brooding, as one of the best licensed games of this console generation.
Combining refined, ballet-like combat, neat and well-implemented gadgets, a great sense of challenge and pacing, and a great script and voice acting by veterans of the “Batman” animated series, it simply works as a cohesive, finely crafted piece of entertainment.
Stuck in the title’s dank, criminal-infested asylum, Batman must use his wits, abilities and tools to take down the Joker and his minions (including a very entertaining, very naughty Harley Quinn) through a series of challenges. They’re not easy, but they’re also not impossible. The game is challenging, but gives just enough rope to keep you moving through. And it doesn’t hurt that the game is gorgeously rendered, making the slow-mo fighting that much more beautiful to behold.
Sure, there’s no multiplayer modes and the game isn’t built for online play. But it’s a single-player adventure that’s smart, polished and true to the grit and personality of the darker “Batman” films, cartoons and comics. It’s stuffed with unlockable extras and there’s even several downloadable battles (so far, free) to extend the gameplay.
“Arkham Asylum” is a stunner, and a welcome surprise after years and years of sub-par games based on “Batman.”
“Batman: Arkham Asylum”
$60, for PlayStation3, Xbox 360 and Windows PCs
Rated T for Teen
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Twitter is frozen
No, it’s not just you.
Twitter is frozen in time, stuck about an hour ago, with new updated not showing up in people’s timelines.
The site isn’t crashed and you can still view @replies and direct messages, but it seems at the moment, Twitter is stuck in time.
Update: Twitter seems back to normal as of Thursday, late afternoon, but it was several hours where updates were stuck. All seems back to normal now.
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10 simple rules for Tweeting Up
I don’t go to as many happy hours or Twitter meetups (“Tweetups” we call them, much to the disgust of non-Twitter users) as I’d like. Commute. Toddler. Prime-time TV fall season. The reasons are myriad.
But when I do go (or host one), I try to have a blast. Life is short. You have to enjoy this sort of thing because given the way modern science is going, we’re going to end up without 20 or 30 years at the ends of our lives where we are past the point of being surprised or pleased by anything, but still physically able to live on. We will enjoy a hard candy now and then, perhaps, but we sure won’t be drinking at bars and posing for party pics.
What surprises me is how much stress the simple act of meeting up causes for some people. Even extroverts have a tiny bit of social anxiety, but I’ve talked to people in Austin who skip meetups because they think nobody will like them, are paranoid about making fools of themselves or are simply shy.
Let me make it easy like Sunday morning (on a Thursday night) for you with these simple rules for having a good time and fitting in at a local Tweetup:
Don’t stress the dress. Tweetups are generally more casual than business networking events or happy hours sponsored by big companies. T-shirts and jeans are fine, but nobody’s going to give you a hassle if you show up in your more formal work attire because you came straight from work. Dress however you like, just bear in mind the location of the Tweetup.
Leave work at work. Don’t shot up with a resume in hand or expecting to round up some new clients. Some people attend Tweetups for work-related networking, but pitching and business schmoozing should be kept to a minimum.
Drinking, fine. Drunken, watch out. Don’t be the person people talk about the next day who was blitzed out of their mind and was all slurry and sloppy. Be classy. Don’t get hammered.
Photos and videos are usually OK. Especially if you’re familiar with people at the meetup, taking photos and shooting video is usually considered OK. Posting to Facebook or putting up a TwitPic is usually fine, too. But please respect requests if someone doesn’t like their picture and asks you to take it down. Better yet, it never hurts to let people you’re photographing know you plan to put pictures or videos online.
Go @ yourself. What to put on the nametag: generally, it’s your full name, your Twitter ID (say, “@omarg”) and maybe the company you work for. Often, I see people simply put their Twitter ID and leave it at that, but if you’re handle is “@sexymama33” or “#the-dude-abides” please add your first name and save everybody the trouble of wondering whether to greet you at all. Don’t leave that funny ID off completely, though. It’s a good conversation starter.
Bring treats. If you have freebies to give away from your company or cupcakes to share, bring ‘em. I saw someone walk in to a Tweetup with a tray of cupcakes and made friends for life. You don’t have to do this, but it’s a good way to break the ice and get people to come to you as soon as you walk in the door.
Don’t be shy. This is the hardest part to get over for some. I’ve seen more than a few gregarious Twitter posters show up at a Tweetup, look around the room, intimidated, and leave before saying hello to a single person. Later, they post about how lame the Tweetup was. People are there to meet, mingle and socialize. But sometimes you have to be the one to say hi and introduce yourself. Don’t get scared off. If you’re having a terrible time, find the host of the Tweetup and ask them to introduce you around. They’ll be happy to do it.
Watch the gossip. Live-tweeting from a meetup is common, but make sure that in the haze of drinking, laughing and gossiping, that you don’t accidentally post something that you’re going to regret in the morning. Assume private conversations are to be kept private and if you’re unsure whether it’s OK to post something you hear at the Tweetup, you should ask first. Remember that on Twitter, almost everything is taken, by its very nature, out of context.
Bring business cards or something else to write on. You often meet so many people at a meetup, it’s impossible to remember the Twitter IDs of new acquaintances or what they do for a living. Have business cards, or some other form of ID to hand out and have a small pad to write stuff down on (or a digital equivalent - some people take notes and photos of people they meet on their phone). You always think you’ll remember names later and, if you’re me, you never do. Write it down.
Follow up. Add people you met and liked to your Twitter stream or ask them to connect on Facebook or Linked In. Remind them that you met at the Tweetup in case they don’t remember your name or handle. And don’t forget to thank your meetup hosts (whether in person or later on by e-mail or Tweet). It’s a lot of work making sure everyone’s having a good time.
And of course, have fun!
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Austin-born ‘Epic Mickey’ is real, looks spectacular
Back when it was a mere slip of a rumor, bolstered by tantalizing, apocalyptic artwork, we reported on Austin game godfather Warren Spector’s crazy Disney Interactive project, “Epic Mickey.”
Now, according to a cover story in “Game Informer” magazine hitting mailboxes any day now, the game is real. Oh, so real. And it’ll be a Nintendo Wii exclusive from Spector’s Junction Point Studios (which is owned by Disney). Check out the magazine cover art (from Game Informer’s Web site):
The site plans to roll out new content related to “Epic Mickey” over the next month (I’m patiently waiting my print edition; I’m a subscriber).
On offering at the site right now is a great piece about Warren Spector’s Disney memorabilia collection and a video you can see below (see the original in HD on the Game Informer site). It’s a great video with Spector reminiscing about his childhood Disney love.
We can’t wait to hear more about what Spector’s doing with Disney’s stable of beloved characters. Can’t help but hope it’s indeed epic, and as twisted and dark as the artwork suggests.
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AMD and Dell show off new tech backstage at ACL
While Austin City Limits festgoers were preoccupied with mud and music, Dell and AMD were both schmoozing clients and showing off some of their wares behind the scenes at their respective stages.
As reported previously, Dell early on Friday kicked off the fest by announcing a partnership with Napster to provide a year of streaming music and free MP3 downloads on certain laptops sold this holiday season.
The company also talked up its Design Studio and gave a sneak peek (but allowed no photos or video) of the next generation of its Adamo slim laptop. Dell reps hinted that the new version could be here sooner than anyone thinks, perhaps before the end of the year. The silver prototype I saw was certainly thin and light, but the company didn’t allow any hands-on time.
Over at the AMD area, the company touted its new generation of video cards which will allow up to six monitors to be hooked up at once. The current gen is a mix of DVI, DisplayPort and HDMI connections. On hand was a three-monitor setup (video below) showing off what such a setup can do for flight and racing games.
There was also a home theater setup using an AMD-powered home theater PC (HTPC), powering Windows Media Center.
Below are some snapshots from the fest:
Reps from Dell discuss Design Studio (designs from it are posted behind them).
Dell laptops of all sizes adorned the tables backstage.
Winners of Dell’s Sound and the Jury band competition, Bright Light Social Hour.
AMD shows off a home theater PC powered by its hardware.
Three-monitor setup and a racing wheel. Fun!
One of AMD/ATI’s newest video card is exposed to the world, naked and powerful, in this gaming rig.
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I want your social media horror stories
I’m working on a Halloween story about social media horror stories and I want to hear from you.
Seen any terrifying Tweets? Been exposed by a scary status messages?
It might be an awkward situation that got ugly, an embarrassing personal message your boss stumbled upon or an ex who posted a frightening high school photo of you on Facebook. Send your horror stories to ogallaga(at)statesman.com.
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Sorry, iPhoners: AT&T networks not holding up at ACL
I was optimistic that the cell and data networks would hold up for Austin City Limits Festival based on what we were told on Wednesday, but if my experience so far today at Zilker Park is any indication, it’s going to be a miserable weekend for Twitterholics and mobile warriors who favor the iPhone.
AT&T’s services started off well this morning with Wi-Fi and 3G both holding steady. By noon, though, Wi-Fi was beginning to get flaky on my iPhone 3GS, working less and less. I turned off Wi-Fi and used 3G to post Twitter updates, check e-mail and upload photos. Soon, that was becoming flaky, too.
AT&T is encouraging fest-goers to rely on the Wi-Fi hotspots it has set up, but long before 2:30 p.m., when a mass of new people came into the park, they had become unusable.
By the time I set up camp for The Walkmen at the Xbox 360 stage, both networks (3G and Wi-Fi) were completely gone and even text messaging, my fallback for Twitter posts, was warning me that my texts weren’t going through.
It went on that way, with a complete lack of connectivity, until I left the park and was halfway down Barton Springs Road toward the American-Statesman building.
Every now and then, e-mails would pop through or a text would be sent successfully, or 3G would suddenly spring back to life, but I expended a big chunk of battery life simply trying to connect. If you don’t have a spare battery pack to juice up your phone, you’re going to have a hard time making it through a whole day at the fest with your iPhone still working. My advice is to turn off Wi-Fi if you can’t connect right away and maybe even 3G when you’re in a big crowd.
Not working? Try walking all the way across the park. Maybe you’ll have better luck than I did.
Bear in mind, this was early afternoon, before the big rush of people who show up for the evening headliners and who’ll further congest the data network.
It’s disappointing, to say the least. Was it too much to hope that the iPhone’s wireless carrier could keep up with the data demands of ACL weekend?
It seems, from everything I’ve seen the first day of the fest, that it was.
I wish I wasn’t having flashbacks of South by Southwest Interactive.
How are the other networks holding up? If you can read this and have info, let us know in the comments.
Below: three screens of defeat.
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Dell intros Napster service for PC buyers
Backstage at the Austin City Limits Festival, Dell Inc. announced a deal with Napster to provide a year of streaming music service and 60 free MP3s from the music company’s library on some new PCs.
Dell said the deal with begin in late October with computers purchased at Best Buy and will be rolled out on Dell.com in November. Inspiron and Studio laptops will be included, but the company didn’t specify if it will be included on cheaper laptops like the Dell Mini line.
Buyers will be able to stream music for one year from Napster for a year and will be able to download 60 songs from the service. An icon for Napster will be pre-loaded on these PCs.
Also backstage at ACL, Dell gave a sneak peak at the next generation of its super-slim Adamo laptop and touted its Design Studio line. It also talked up Austin’s Bright Light Social Hour, the winner of this year’s Sound and the Jury contest, which the company sponsored.
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Daniel Johnston fans rejoice: ‘Hi, How Are You?’ app is live
Maybe it’s good timing, or just the kind of unlikely success story you’d associate with musician and artist Daniel Johnston, but an iPhone/iPod Touch app based on him seems on track for success.
Crowded amid the more than 85,000 applications in Apple’s iTunes App Store, the game, titled, “Hi, How Are You?” features the iconic stalk-eyed familiar to Austinites and music by Johnston. In just the week since it was added to the store, it already received a glowing write-up in the New York Times (“… a kind of psycho-religious version of ‘Frogger,’ the classic arcade game”) and good user reviews on the store which have given the 99-cent game a four-and-a-half star rating as of this writing.
Johnston performs this weekend at the Austin City Limits Festival; what better time to introduce a cell phone app based on his drawings and music? (Best time to play it: while standing in line for a portable toilet at the fest.)
The game comes from Peter Franco and Steve Broumley of the local game companies Dr. Fun Fun and Smashing Studios. Both men were veterans of Acclaim and Midway Austin, focusing on console games like “BlackSite: Area 51,” “Turok: Dinosaur Hunter” and “Tribes: Aerial Assault.”
For this game, they took a more old-school approach, looking to games like “Q*Bert,” “Marble Madness” and “Crystal Castles” for inspiration.
“It’s a mishmash of those games, put together with some cool music and artwork,” Franco said, “it’s a very refreshing change to work on this project.”
Both were fans of Johnston and have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction so far to the game, which is a trippy, colorful game of platforms, strange creatures and Johnston’s idiosyncratic tunes. “Tons of people love Daniel Johnston and we’re finding that out fiirst-hand,” Franco said.
The core technology for the game, which includes a physics engine, was begun about a year and a half ago, but the creative work on it was done this year. The approval process for the app took over a month as the developers fretted on whether the artwork in the game might be too intense for approval.
“When you unlock an achievement, you unlock some of Daniel’s artwork. It can be provocative, depending on the viewer,” Franco said, “we suspected some of that might have thrown Apple for a loop.”
They withdrew the app at one point, made some tweaks, and resubmitted it, finally winning approval for the Apple Store.
The first day the game was available, last Friday, it sold about four copies. Since then, sales have increased dramatically, though the developers say it’s too early to gauge how well the game will do.
Broumley said there’s a bigger potential for a game like this one to spread among mobile phones than a console game might. “Almost by their nature, they’re viral,” he said, “It’s a quick download. So much media can be seen right on the phone instead of having to see the product in a store.”
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What to expect from your cell phone during ACL fest (Updated)
If you’re planning on going to Austin City Limits Festival this weekend, you’re probably wondering how reliable your cell phone calls, texting or Internet browsing might be.
(Traditionally: not so good. Last year was a big improvement, but in past years it’s been difficult to make calls and access any data services within such a huge crowd of people).
Verizon and AT&T both say they’re bolstering their networks to avoid a connectivity crisis. Verizon says it’s expecting 15 times the normal call volume this weekend at the fest and will be rolling in two COWs (Cells on Wheels), each with a 75-foot antenna for data and voice channels.
Verizon said in a release today that it’s increasing coverage and capacity at several cell sites near Zilker Park “We continually invest in the local network to ensure that devices run better on the Verizon Wireless network throughout the Austin area,” said region president Frank Antonacci in the release.
AT&T representative Mike Barger said that AT&T, which is no longer a stage sponsor this year, will be boosting Wi-Fi service for smartphone users, like those with iPhones.
“Fans on the ground at Zilker Park will be able to connect to the Internet using AT&T Wi-Fi via our hotspots covering festival grounds,” Barger said in an e-mail. He said AT&T is also bringing in COWs, but for sending photos, video or other data, Wi-Fi will be the way to go.
“The majority of our customers have AT&T Wi-Fi access included in their service plans. We’re encouraging customers to make sure their smartphone has Wi-Fi turned on so they can use Wi-Fi to send photos of the shows to friends and update their Facebook and Twitter accounts,” he said.
Update: John Taylor, a representative or Sprint, said they’ll handle ACL the way they do for NASCAR events at the Texas Motor Speedway and for their emergency response for Hurricane Ike: with a cell-on-wheels.
“Our experience has been that the crowds for Austin City Limits are well-served by adding one COW,” Taylor said, “the experience for customers should be seamless.
T-Mobile’s engineering team is also deploying a COW specifically for the festival, “which will help T-Mobile customers attending the festival share stories and special moments from Austin City Limits,” a representative from the company said by e-mail.
Post comments here over the weekend (if you’re able to) about your cell/data experiences at the fest.
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