Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2010 > August
August 2010
Stories before bed on the iPad
On a Saturday morning in April, I stood in line at a Best Buy in San Marcos to buy an Apple iPad. We planned to use it as a replacement for my wife’s aging, slow laptop and for me to test out apps and games for my work as a tech reporter.
After I came home and set up the device, it wasn’t long before our daughter Lilly, who just turned 3, grabbed the tablet and wouldn’t let go. I may have stacked the deck in favor of gadget-love-at-first-sight; the Netflix app I’d just downloaded was streaming the movie “The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland.”
Since then, the three of us have all gotten good use from the first of what I think will be a big wave of touch-screen, tablet-sized computers many of us will use at home. But one surprising place the new technology has been a big hit in my family in bed, for story time.
Lilly loves her board books, whether it’s “Goodnight Moon,” her box of Disney Princess books or pretty much anything by Eric Carle. But one way of breaking the routine a bit once or twice a week has been to try out some of the interactive books available on the iPad.
There are literally thousands of apps aimed at kids in Apple’s App Store, but I’ve found their quality and prices to vary wildly. Sometimes, a free or 99-cent app makes you feel like you got exactly what you paid for.
The better ones we’ve found that Lilly responded to best offer not only stories with text read aloud and gorgeous, full-color images, games and some form of interactivity.
The “Wheels on the Bus HD” app, for instance, is a bargain at $1.99. It features a series of scenes on a school bus and a song that can be played in different languages and with different instruments. You can also record your own version of “The Wheels on the Bus” and play it over the colorful story pages. Each page has animations that can be activated by touch. For instance, the raindrops on the bus windshield can be cleared by moving the wipers.
It’s brilliantly designed, but also very short. Even with all the language options, it’s a quick experience that didn’t last us more than 15 minutes.
Along the same lines is “Yertle the Turtle” by Dr. Seuss ($3.99). Expertly narrated, the book can read to you with automatic page turning or kept quiet if you want to read the pages yourself.
One great feature is that practically every object in the book can be pressed and a word associated with it pops up and is spoken aloud. Click on the sky and “CLOUD” or “SKY” are spoken with the word growing and floating toward you. It’s a great tool for kids learning to read, but we found Lilly wasn’t particularly enthralled by the story of the turtle king.
The most labor-intensive of the apps we tried for iPad was also the most rewarding. “A Story Before Bed” isn’t a book so much as a platform for creating your own personalized bookshelf. In order to use it, you’ll need to put the iPad aside and log on to the company’s Web site. Using a webcam, you can record yourself reading one of more than 150 books. Once the video is recorded, you can access it from the Web site, the iPad and some smart phones.
It took us about 15 minutes to record a copy of “Cinderella.” Lilly lay on the bed next to me as I read to my laptop screen. It took a few more minutes to download the book to the iPad, but once it was there, we were thrilled. The video of Lilly and I reading together appeared in a small window. Pages of the book turned along with our reading. Lilly’s favorite feature? The ability to get rid of Daddy by simply pressing a finger on the small video window.
Not only do we have a digital copy of “Cinderella” to browse, but we also have a great video of Lilly and I reading together to view later. It seems like a great idea for parents, military personnel or grandparents who don’t get a chance to read to the kids regularly. The app is free but each book recording costs about $6.99 to record or $29.99 for a year of unlimited recording. A copy of “Itsy Bitsy Spider” is available to try out for free.
By far Lilly’s favorite of the bunch was Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog Read-Along” app, one of several iPad digital books the company publishes based on movies including the “Toy Story” series.
“Princess and the Frog” includes a storybook version of the movie including film clips, songs with lyrics, games, painting and puzzles. You can record your own read-along audio. At $8.99, it’s pricier than many iPad apps, but also packs a lot of entertainment into one package. Lilly quickly got hooked on the jigsaw puzzles; three are included with the app and they can be set to Easy, Normal or Hard difficulties.
We’re not ready to get rid of Lilly’s paper books and go completely digital for story time. But we do recognize that by the time she’s in middle and high school, she’ll probably be doing more reading on phone, tablet or computer screens than she will be via printed textbooks. It doesn’t hurt for her to be exposed to more interactive ways of reading and to develop a love and enthusiasm for words, music and art, no matter the format.
(This piece will run as a Raising Austin column in Saturday’s American-Statesman.)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Applications, Baby-daddy, Gadgets, Movies & DVDs
New ‘Metroid’ and ‘Guilty Party’ on Wii among top new video games this week
New video game releases this week:
“Metroid: Other M” — The background of beloved video game heroine Samus Aran is explored in this collaboration between Nintendo and the Team Ninja game studio, a shooter that takes place between the events in “Super Metroid” and “Metroid Fusion.” The new game is a shooter that allows you to switch between a third- and first-person perspective as you explore a huge space facility. It promises frenzied action, puzzle solving and more drama than in the typical “Metroid” game. Rated T for Teen. $50, for Nintendo Wii.
“Guilty Party” — This family-friendly detective game is a bit like “Clue” mixed with the popular “Nancy Drew” PC games. Up to four players can play competitively or cooperatively to solve a series of mysteries. Players can gather clues, question suspects and engage in mini games that include lock picking and flashlight sleuthing. Best of all, the mysteries can be played through more than once: the ending isn’t always the same. Rated E for Everyone. $40, for Nintendo Wii.
Also out this week: “Dead Rising 2: Case Zero” (downloadable for Xbox 360), “Valkyria Chronicles II” (Sony PSP), “Castle Crashers” (downloadable for PlayStation 3), “Ace Combat: Joint Assault” (PSP), “Brunswick Zone Cosmic Bowling” (Wii), “Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter” (Windows PC), “Camp Rock Final Jam” (Nintendo DS), “Zenses: Zen Garden” (DS), “Prison Tycoon: Alcatraz” (PC), “Auditorium” (PS3), “Sam & Max: The Devil”s Playhouse Episode 5: The City that Dares Not Sleep” (downloadable for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC).
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Videogames
Xbox Live pricing going up, Nintendo DSi prices going down
Good news/bad news, gamers!
Starting Nov. 1, the price of an Xbox Live subscription will rise, whether you purchase it month-to-month or yearly.
According to Microsoft Xbox evangelist Major Nelson (Larry Hryb), prices for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions will go up $10 a year, to $59.99. Monthly subscriptions go up from $7.99 to $9.99 and a three-month subscription will cost $24.99, up from the previous $19.99.
Nelson said it’s the first price increase since the service launched in 2002 and that members who want to avoid the price increase can lock in their current rate now. Luckily, game blogs have been posting online deals where you can get a one-year subscription card for about $40 from several stores. The timing seems a bit odd — it’ll be right before Microsoft Kinect and a line of new Windows 7 phones launch. Is Microsoft trying to make all its customers broke by Christmas?
In less financially painful news, Nintendo is actually lowering the price on its popular DSi portable consoles. Starting Sept. 12, the DSi console drops $20 to $149.99 and the larger DSi XL drops to $169.99. The DS Lite, which lacks the cameras that are on the DSi models, stays at $129.99.
Lowering prices or raising them… I wonder which of these strategies will be more popular among gamers and holiday shoppers!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Shopping, Videogames
The summer smart phone roundup
Photo by Rodolfo Gonzalez/AMERICAN-STATESMAN
In Saturday’s American-Statesman, a roundup I put together of the summer’s hottest smart phone releases runs in the Life & Arts section.
To recap, here’s some of the reviews we’ve run of some of the phones in the roundup as well as links to other write-ups for the ones we haven’t had a chance yet to review ourselves.
- My impressions of the Sprint HTC EVO 4G.
- My review of Apple’s iPhone 4 (on AT&T).
- A mini-review of Verizon’s Motorola Droid X.
- Walt Mossberg on Dell’s Streak mini tablet (on AT&T).
- Engadget reviews the T-Mobile Samsung Vibrant.
- Crackberry’s lengthy review of the BlackBerry Torch (on AT&T).
Got questions? Post them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer them.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Phones, Shopping
Surprising no one, SXSW Panel Picker deadline extended to Sunday
Voters have two more days to pick panels in the South by Southwest Panel Picker (including those submitted for SXSW Interactive). In a blog post, the festival says it will close up voting at 11:59 p.m. Sunday night (give or take two days).
Two more days to pimp those panels!
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Mini-review: Time Warner Cable’s IntelliGo 3G/4G Mobile Hotspot
Photo courtesy Time Warner Cable
Over the last year, companies including Clear, Verizon and now Time Warner have been giving customers the option of cutting the cord on their home Internet connection. Wireless hotspot devices like the Verizon Mi-Fi have the speed and advantages of a USB Internet device you’d plug into a laptop, but is compatible with many more devices. Plus, since it’s Wi-Fi, an advantage to going this route is you can get mobile Internet service on several devices at the same time, say a laptop, a smart phone and a tablet PC.
They vary in price and service cost, but typically cost about $40-$60 a month depending on a data plan (how much you download) and options like whether it runs on a 3G network, a 4G coverage area (faster but limited in range to mostly big cities) or 4G and 3G combined (which gives you the most flexibility, but typically costs more).
Time Warner’s entry into the increasingly crowded field is the IntelliGo, a coaster-shaped 3G/4G hybrid device that’s about as thick as a deck of cards. It’s made by Sierra Wireless and has a far superior battery life to the MiFi I tested last year. Up to five devices at a time can connect to it. It also has a microSD slot that allows you to share files from a memory card with the devices connecting to the IntelliGo.
Unfortunately, I had inconsistent experiences while testing it out. When the IntelliGo connected to Austin’s 4G network, it offered fast speed. The device has a small, monochrome screen that tells you how much battery life is left, the wireless password to use to connect to it and whether it’s connected to a 3G or 4G network. It’s great for troubleshooting, but several times when I supposedly had a solid 3G connection, the device inexplicably stopped responding to a variety of devices including an Apple iPad, several laptops and smart phones.
The only remedy for me was to reboot the IntelliGo, which takes a few minutes. Once rebooted, the device worked normally, but sometimes only for another 10 or 15 minutes before stalling again. One thing that might have been responsible is I did a lot of my testing in New Braunfels, where I live. The IntelliGo, however, said on its display that it had a solid 3G connection, so I’m not sure if the problems were with the coverage area or the device itself.
The IntelliGo costs about $50 with a two-year contract and after rebate and service is $50 a month. If you decide to try it out, I’d spend a day or two taking it to all the local locations you might use it and make sure it works consistently with your Wi-Fi devices before commit to keeping it. As long as you’re within 30 days of purchasing it, Time Warner should accept a return if you change your mind and find it doesn’t work consistently.
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Lines that are probably in that Facebook movie
Since I saw the trailer for the movie, “The Social Network” (embedded below) due out in October, I’ve been a little obsessed with how Hollywood heavy hitters like screenwriter Aaron Sorkin and genius director David Fincher are going to tackle the origin story of Facebook.
Will they portray Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a cocky Harvard geek who got in over his head? Or a visionary Millennial with slightly sociopathic tendencies who cunningly bended the Internet to his whims?
Either way, we know that young people sitting at computers on film rarely makes for compelling drama. Instead, we’re sure to get lots of high-decibel dialog between the characters. Here’s a list of exchanges I absolutely expect will make it into the film:
- “Privacy?! (Expletive) privacy!”
- “Do you have a girlfriend?” “No. I have a website.”
- “Users are freaking out! What do we say?” “We tell them we’re sorry. Then we push twice as hard.”
- “It’s called a Poke.” “Poke? Who the Hell wants to Poke someone on the Net?” “Um, only EVERYBODY?”
- “Say goodnight, MySpace.”
- “We are gonna rule the world. Do you hear me, Sean? RULE. THE. WORLD.”
- “$900 million?! Who do you think we are? Friendster? NO DEAL, JERRY.”
- “You stole our idea!” “I didn’t steal your idea. I had a BETTER idea that fixed all your mistakes.”
- “We need more servers.” “OK, Mark. How many?” “Um… 10,000, maybe?” “Are you kidding?” “Make it 20,000.”
- “Take it down? Do you have ANY IDEA how the Internet works?!”
- “LET them sue us. We’ve got more money than God and more lawyers than we’ve got engineers.”
Got your own lines? Post them in the comments.
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The Linkdown for Thursday, Aug. 26
The Linkdown has a story comparing some of the summer’s new smart phones in the newspaper (you know, that thing they print on paper?) on Saturday. Check it out. We’ll link to it here with a supplemental blog entry before then.
Oh yeah, links! Here’s what you should be aware of today:
- Target is now accepting trade-ins of video games and electronics like iPods in exchange for store gift cards.
- Netflix for iPhone/iPod Touch has finally arrived. The app is free if you already have a Netflix subscription. On an iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi video streamed fast and looked great when I tried it today.
- Brian Reynolds of rapidly growing social games company Zynga will be a keynote speaker at Austin Game Developers Conference Online in October.
- Upcoming tech-related events: the HelpAttack! launch party Friday.Austin Blog-A-Thon on Saturday, Social Media Breakfast on Monday, Austin High Tech Happy Hour on Sept. 9, #BATHH Austin on Sept. 16, Yelp Open Party on Sept. 23.
- “Hello Kitty Online” has launched!
- The popular online game “Wizard 101,” which has a major presence in Austin, will be released in Europe later this year.
- $4.99 iPhone app foils a Dallas burglary in progress.
- iTunes U downloads have topped 300 million. Speaking of Apple, they will probably announce new iPods or a streaming music service on Wednesday.
- In case you missed it: my story from Sunday’s paper about e-textbooks, my There’s a Creator for That feature on “Mountain Bike Trails” and my NPR All Tech Considered segment from Monday on tech and seniors.
- “Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures” public beta has opened.
- Dell ups its offer for 3Par, says it got accepted after H-P crashed the party.
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Austin Blog-A-Thon a go for Saturday
Back in 2007, a flurry of news stories was starting to ask — as social media began to take off — whether blogging was dead (or at least dying).
We answered with a story about the state of blogging in Austin which ran before that year’s South by Southwest (the year, incidentally, that Twitter began to take hold). Since then, Twitter and Facebook have had astronomical growth, but blogging has, if anything, flourished here. Food bloggers, mom bloggers, tech bloggers and bloggers who write about fashion, live music and other Austin-centric topics still find an audience and use social media to promote their writing.
Austin Blog-A-Thon 2010 (or #BlogathonATX) runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at Conjunctured Coworking, 1309 E. 7th Street. While the event itself is sold out, there still seem to be a handful of tickets left for a 6-9 p.m. happy hour where Gina Chavez will perform.
Several volunteer experts will be offering advice on blog how-tos. There’ll be two rooms for writing, a room for setup and tech issues and a room for discussion. A group #BlogathonATX blog on Posterous is already highlighting what some of the participants are working on or will be doing on Saturday.
Based on the event selling out so quickly, I’d imagine this will be a regular event in Austin. Looking forward to seeing some of the blog work that comes out of this.
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‘Mafia II’ and ‘Grease’ bring ’50s vibe to video game releases this week
Video game releases this week:
“Grease: The Game” — Yes, it’s based on the movie and yes it’s got 16 songs from the famous film. While the Wii version emphasizes singing and party play for up to 8 players, the Nintendo DS version is all about dance competitions and allows you to take a photo of yourself to use in the game with the DSi camera. Is the one that you want? Depends on how big a “Grease” fan you are. Rated E-10+ for Everyone 10 and Older. $30-$40, for Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii.
“Mafia II” — It’s been a long wait for a sequel to the 2002 game “Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven,” but the new game benefits from the latest technology with a game engine that seamlessly links outdoor and interior environments without load times. It’s a mob drama with vehicular gunfights, hand-to-hand combat and a story from the original writing team of the previous game. Rated M for Mature. $50-$80 for Standard or Collector’s Edition, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs.
Also out this week: “Gunblade NY and LA Machineguns Arcade Hits Pack” (Nintendo Wii), “Reel Deal Casino Valley of the Kings” (PC), “Ivy the Kiwi?” (DS, Wii), “Martian Panic” (Wii), “Harvest Moon: Grand Bazaar” (DS), “Elemental: War of Magic” (PC), “NHL 2K11” (Wii), “Dreamworks 2-in-1 Party Pack” (DS), “A320 Jetliner” (PC), “Little Bears” (DS), “Riding Academy 2” (DS), “Shank” (Downloadable for Xbox 360), “Worms Reloaded” (PC).
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Mini-review: Droid X smart phone on Verizon Wireless
(Note: this is the first in a series of bite-sized reviews I’ll be doing on Digital Savant. If you want more in-depth reviews of some of these products, visit CNET.com or Engadget.)
The summer of smart phones has spawned not just one but several good Android-based competitors to what I’ve been calling the best all-around smart phone you can buy currently, Apple’s iPhone 4.
Sprint’s EVO 4G, on paper at least, has been the strongest contender so far with several big break-out features that seemed to put it ahead of the iPhone. But a very weak battery makes it a deal-breaker for me and I don’t Android, as a platform, is as mature or intuitive to use as iPhone’s iOS software.
The Droid X, manufactured by Motorola for Verizon Wireless is an offshoot of last year’s popular Droid phone (and different in key ways from its newer Droid 2).
Unlike the original Droid and Droid 2, the Droid X lacks a physical keyboard. It also doesn’t have a front-facing camera like the EVO 4G or run on a 4G network like Sprint’s phone. Like the EVO, it has a big, bright 4.3-inch screen, compared to 3.7 inches on the other Droid phones.
I found the Droid X to be fast, with excellent call quality and Internet connectivity on Verizon’s network. The Android 2.1 software on the phone (it should get a 2.2 “Froyo” software update in the next few weeks) to be reliable and easy to navigate unless lots of apps were open at the same time, at which point the phone bogged down a bit. (App manager are available for download to help alleviate the multitasking overload issue). It also has “Swype” built in as an option, a way of on-screen typing that I’ve found improves the speed of my typing quite a bit.
In the few weeks I used the phone, I couldn’t get it to drop a voice call, unlike the iPhone 4. It has a high-resolution camera and shoots HD video, which it can output to a TV via an HDMI connection (cable sold separately). Like most recent Android phones, it does an excellent job integrating Google services (Maps, Gmail, Calendar, etc.) and provides ways to integrate Twitter and Facebook feeds and contacts. As with the EVO, you can pay a monthly fee ($20 in the Droid X’s case) to turn on a mobile hotspot feature that turns the phone into a Wi-Fi access point. This feature, however, drains the battery quickly.
Battery life overall was significantly better than on the EVO and the phone feels thinner and sleeker than the EVO in the hand even though it’s a bit taller. My biggest complaint with the phone’s design, besides the lack of a front-facing camera, was the physical buttons on the bottom front of the phone. They feel cheap and loose, a contrast to the touch-sensitive buttons on some of the other Android phones I’ve tried lately.
It costs $199 (with contract) and is on Verizon’s 3G network, which is a selling point for some compared to the iPhone. It’s a solid, fast, very well-crafted Android phone that’ll probably get even better with the new software update.
Droid X
Made by Motorola for Verizon Wireless
$199 with two-year contract
Currently runs Android 2.1 software
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The Linkdown for Thursday, Aug. 19
The Linkdown is a little freaked out about its privacy right now, frankly. Writing this from a bunker in an undisclosed location.
Here are some links you should be aware of from locations on the Internet:
- Did we mention Facebook introduced its highly anticipated “Places” geolocation feature?
- Austin’s Sunni Brown analyzes doodles for Sharpie.
- Speaking of which, the Sharpie Liquid Pencil is not as permanent as you might hope.
- Intel is acquiring security software and services firm McAfee for almost $8 billion. Strange!
- Happy hours and other events: Tonight, BATHH; also tonight: iPhone/iPad user group meeting; next week, HelpAttack! launch party.
- Capital Factory’s Demo Day is coming up, Sept. 8.
- Have you Pimped Your SXSW Interactive Panel Picker yet?
- Nintendo has set release dates for many of its upcoming Wii and DS games.
- Rodeoaustin.com wins an Interactive Media Award. (PDF)
- Dell news: buying data storage company 3PAR for $1.15 billion; Michael Dell gets dissed by some shareholders in vote.
- Microsoft unveils games lineup for its Windows 7 phone platform.
- Austin-owned Deals.com offers back-to-school deals.
- Fantastic Fest Arcade lineup, indie game titles continue to fill out in advance of the event.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Gadgets, Internet, Phones, SXSW 2011, Shopping, Videogames
Facebook adds ‘Places,’ partners with Gowalla and Foursquare
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg introduces Facebook Places at the company’s headquarters Wednesday. Photo by Tony Avelar, Associated Press.
Geolocation apps just went more mainstream Wednesday to the tune of about 500 million users. Facebook has added “Places,” a new way to add location data to status updates and to tag friends based on a place. (Whether they want that or not; more on that in a minute.)
The anticipated announcement last night was not surprising. What was surprising was that rather than rolling out its own location-based service, Facebook has partnered with Austin-based Gowalla and Foursquare, two companies that have already made a beachhead in that market and have in turn partnered with media outlets and businesses. Yelp and Booyah are also partners in Places, which will allow Facebook users to “Check in” at locations.
An iPhone app update released last night includes the Places feature, but so far it doesn’t work in Austin. Facebook said it’s working on Android and BlackBerry updates to add the feature, but didn’t give a timeframe on when that will happen.
According to Facebook, you’ll be able to see a place showing who is checked in where you are or where friends are nearby. Mashable has posted a useful guide on how the service works, issues around privacy concerns and what to expect.
Given the flack Facebook has gotten recently over privacy, it’s a little surprising that the feature will allow Facebook users to tag their friends to a location without their permission. Already, posts have gone up on how to disable the feature for those who want to protect their privacy from Places.
Austin’s Michelle Greer posted a blog item last night, “Consider Your Legal Rights When Using Geolocation,” something everyone who plans to use Facebook Places should read first.
What do you think? Is this a feature you’ll use?
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‘Epic Mickey’ intro video is released
An intro movie for the anticipated, Austin-developed game “Epic Mickey” has hit the game blogs. You can see it below.
The game, which is slated for release this holiday season (some game sites have it listed as being released on Nov. 2) is developed by Warren Spector’s Junction Point Studios, which was acquired by Disney Interactive a few years ago.
Spector, one of the most respected long-time video game designers in the industry, has frequently said he’s a life-long fan of Mickey Mouse and jumped at the chance to create a game that modernizes the famous mouse.
The game, which allows you to use virtual paint and thinner to explore a world of forgotten Disney characters, will be available for the Nintendo Wii.
Impressive, huh?
You can see a larger version of the video over on Joystiq.com.
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Pimp Your SXSW Panel Picker 2: The Pickening
But what can you really say about your panel in 140 characters (including link and title)? Just like we did last year, we’re offering a place in the comments for this post for you, the panel organizer, helper or panelist, to tell us why people should vote for your Interactive panel. Feel free to link directly to the panel and give us your hardest sell. Want to see how it’s done? Take a look at last year’s pimpery or this Facebook group specifically devoted to the topic.
If you post comments replying to any of these, please be respectful and stay on topic.
So, here we go. The Second-Annual Pimp Your SXSW Interactive Panel Picker. Take it away!
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Lara Croft, Kane and Lynch star in this week’s new game releases
New video game releases this week:
“Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light” — A new Lara Croft/”Tomb Raider” game is nothing unusual, but this is the first one to be released download-only with new levels promised for the coming months to add to the game. It’ll also add a co-op multiplayer feature to the Xbox 360 game through an update in late September when the PlayStation 3 and Windows PC versions are released. “Guardian of Light” includes the usual array of puzzles, exploration and gunplay, but in smaller, more digestible chunks. Also: undead warriors! Rated T for Teen. $15, downloadable for Xbox 360.
“Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days” — The first “Kane and Lynch” was an over-the-top action game that was even more violent and loaded with machismo than most console shooters. Gritty or gratuitous? If it’s your cup of tea, the sequel adds a new cover system, undercover cops and, charmingly, human shields. Add these features to the usual array of cooperative play, an arcade mode and online heist modes and you’ve got the video game equivalent of a big, brainless summer movie. Rated M for Mature. $50-$60, for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC.
Also out this week: “Gold’s Gym Dance Workout” (Nintendo Wii), “Ys Seven” (Sony PSP), “Victoria II” (PC), “City of Heroes: Going Rogue” (PC), “Challenge Me Brain Puzzles 2” (Nintendo DS, Wii, PC), “Montessori Music” (DS), “Dawn of Heroes” (DS), “Ultimate Crime Thriller Collection” (PC), “Brunswick Zone Cosmic Bowling” (Wii), “Deer Drive” (DS), “Mysteries & Treasures: Adventures of the Mary Celeste” (PC).
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Local Pokémon master does well in Video Game World Championship
Quick update on Aaron Grubbs of Marble Falls, who competed over the weekend in the Pokémon Video Game World Championship in Hawaii.
Aaron was one of three American juniors to advance to the final eight in the tournament and placed seventh overall. For those of you who follow Pokémon, we’re told that his strategy was to use a “Water-based mono team.” His final party included Abamosnow, Hitmontop, Kyogre and Gyratina. He was defeated when he used a “Hammer On” with Metagross, but suffered a critical hit.
You can see more of the results and photos from the event on the official site.
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Video game reviews: ‘Limbo’ and ‘DeathSpank’
This summer, console gamers have been blessed with not just one, but two must-own downloadable games, both costing only $15 and packed with enough entertainment to give you at least a half dozen hours of solid, fun gameplay.
“Limbo,” a dark, starkly beautiful game full of well-paced puzzles and platforming and “DeathSpank,” a frenetic, amusing hack-‘n’-loot adventure game, are completely different in almost every way. But, as I alternated playing them over the last few weeks, I found they were the perfect complement to each other, like watching a season of “Mad Men” and cleansing the palate with episodes of something more silly, like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”
(Full disclosure: I’m currently watching “Mad Men” in between watching episodes of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.)
“Limbo,” available only for Xbox 360 at the moment, is perhaps the better of the two games simply because it ambitiously tries, and succeeds, to go beyond traditional video game mechanics to create a unique mood and sense of place. By that measure, it succeeds wildly. The game is black and white and its grayscale look is as evocative as its simplified silhouetted character design. It’s perhaps the most artsy console game since “Braid.”
In the game, you control a young boy, side-scrolling to the right, across a dark, creepy landscape full of constant dangers. White light spills in behind dead tree limbs. Fog, at times, obscures the background. The boy appears as a silhouette, but his eyes shine like two small jewels.
Did I mention dangers? They are cruel and sudden. Run too far into a gap in the earth and the boy is impaled on sharp spikes, dying quickly. The boy can be crushed by a boulder, attacked by stones thrown by slightly older, eyeless boys or gored by the sharp, deadly leg of a huge spider.
The deaths are disturbing; the dying boy twitches in some, flails and rolls down a hill in others. While there’s no blood and gore, the deaths are all the more disturbing for happening so suddenly and with little fanfare. But, in a technique video games have used for decades, these deaths and resurrections are meant to teach you how to get past a challenge. Through trial and error, you solve the simple physics puzzles or learn what areas to avoid.
The challenges grow more elaborate as the game progresses, adding new layers to the jumping, dragging and climbing skills you learn. This gameplay is not especially original, but it’s employed in such an original-looking environment and so well-rendered that you don’t mind. It also has a bit of a retro feel, reminding me of games like the original “Prince of Persia” and “Out of This World.”
“DeathSpank,” on the other hand, is a well-designed, but mostly silly romp. In fact, while its gameplay might remind you of “Gauntlet,” it feels to me more like NCSoft’s non-defunct low-budget MMO “Dungeon Runners,” which also had hilarious voice acting and a bit of a mocking tone in regards to other popular hack-and-slash games.
In the game, you play boastful hero DeathSpank (who sounds like like the cartoon version of The Tick), an adventurer who accepts quests from townsfolk and then goes around killing bad guys, collecting look and upgrading weapons, armor and abilities.
You spend a lot of time running from area to area, killing x number of these things to bring back this y object to the z character who set you on the quest. It’s the dynamic of hundreds of RPG and MMO games, but “DeathSpank” has a sense of humor about it, filling your conversations with silly non sequiturs (an early conversation with a non-verbal cow is particularly funny) and the quests with goofy objects. Helpfully, the game keeps a list of all your current quests and separates it according to important stuff you have to do and not-important stuff you might want to do.
My biggest problem with games like this is that for a casual gaming experience, it asks you to keep track of a lot of information and console games are never fun to play when there’s too many option screens and text to follow. I frequently had to get up off the couch to get a closer look at some of the mission text or to make sure I was configuring my weapons and armor correctly in the inventory screen. It felt a bit like a game that had been designed for PC play without an interface overhaul before it was brought to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
That said, the game is a nice diversion with a nice array of weapons and upgrades and an appropriately off-kilter cartoon look. It also offers co-op play, allowing you to team up with a buddy for double the loot-hunting.
It’s a nice antidote to the gothic creepiness of “Limbo.” Both games are worth their modest pricetags, and are even better when taken together.
‘Limbo’ and ‘DeathSpank’
Both rated T for Teen
Both 1200 Xbox Live points (about $15) for Xbox 360. ‘DeathSpank’ also available on PlayStation Network, $14.99, for PlayStation 3.
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Finally, the iPhone 4
Photo by Paul Sakuma / ASSOCIATED PRESS
What’s left to say about the iPhone 4?
When it debuted on June 24, the latest incarnation of the device once known to geeks as the Jesus Phone, hundreds of thousands of people lined up to buy the slimmer, faster phone in a frenzy unprecedented even for an Apple product. For those who already had an iPhone 3G or first-generation iPhone and those who’d been on the fence, the new phone seemed the perfect combination of reliable performance and new features, including HD video recording, a much sharper display and a new hardware design that placed the cellular antenna on the outside of the phone.
Then, not long after, many of the same geeks howled in outrage over that same antenna during the “Antennagate” scandal. Overblown by tech pundits who should know better and handled badly publicly by Apple itself, the issue of what happens when you place a finger over the a gap in the metal antenna (a drop in signal quality, perhaps dropped calls). Nobody likes to buy a new product only to find it has a major flaw, but Apple’s solution (free cases or bumpers) and the simple solution of not covering that area with a finger wasn’t enough for people who wanted to see Apple, now the most valued tech company in the world, stumble, badly.
Despite this, after about six weeks of using a pair of iPhone 4 devices that Apple loaned to the American-Statesman for review, it’s not hard for me to say that it’s still the best and most well-rounded smart phone you can buy today. The elegant, beautifully designed “iOS” software, which has always put the iPhone ahead of its mobile competitors, still shines and the improvements to the hardware over the 3G and the 3GS (the device that I use as my main phone) are significant enough to warrant an upgrade and make up for the phone’s two major flaws.
Two major flaws
Let’s get the negatives out of the way first. The two biggest problems I had with the iPhone 4 were the two that you’ve probably already heard the most about. The antenna flaw, an issue I believe to be overblown, is still a problem. How significant it is depends on how much perfection you demand from your tech products and how much blame you’re willing to put on Apple for an oversight like that on a flagship product.
That being said, even when I tried, I could rarely get the phone to drop phone calls by putting a finger over the antenna gap. The best (or worst) I could do was get the call quality to drop to the point where the person on the other end of the line could no longer hear me.
Did I drop calls otherwise? Yes. While driving, in places around Austin where 3G service is not strong, even in my home. But, in my own experiences, I didn’t drop as many calls as I usually do on my iPhone 3GS or on my wife’s first-generation iPhone. Hooray?
Antenna issue aside, this points to the larger flaw in the iPhone 4, the one potential users should be most leery of: it drops calls. Not all the time, not every day, but often enough to be a concern if you make a lot of voice calls.
It might be an AT&T network issue (though I don’t hear nearly as much about other AT&T smart phones that drop as many calls) and continuing iPhone antenna design issues. If you’re an iPhone user you already know what I’m talking about. While we often hear stories of reception problems in New York and San Francisco, Austin’s not immune. The phone’s wireless signal indicator often dropped to the slower EDGE network in areas as problematic as the middle of South Congress or downtown.
That being said, 3G data transmission on the iPhone 4 is usually much more reliable in our city than voice calling.
The iPhone does a lot of amazing things, but making clear, consistent, high-quality voice calls that never drop is not one of them.
Beyond the flaws
So why would you buy a phone that’s not great at making calls? For pretty much every other reason you’d want a smart phone in the first place.
The iPhone 4 is beautifully designed with a lovely, improved, flat design. I was a fan of the curves on the iPhone 3GS, which made it nice to hold in the hand, but the flatter, thinner design of the iPhone 4 is easily an improvement. The metal band and the strong glass on both sides gives the phone a denser, more solid feel, compared to the curved-plastic feel of the 3G and 3GS.
The new “Retina Display” which sharpens up the screen with a high resolution, is impressive, especially if you do a lot of reading on your phone. Games that have been updated for the iPhone 4 have better, more vibrant graphics. Text across the board looks sharper, less pixellated, more like print.
To go with that better screen is a more functional still and video camera that shoots very good HD video and that adds a small, but powerful LED flash. There’s also a new camera on the front of the phone that allows for “FaceTime” calls (more on that in a bit), but the camera is lower resolution than the one on the back and doesn’t shoot photos as well.
HD video I shot on the iPhone 4 looked fantastic, much better than the weirdly formatted video I usually shoot on the 3GS.
Photos were much improved, although the flash tends to wash out images at close range.
The phone’s speed is a bit faster than the 3GS, but not so fast that it blows the previous phone out of the water. It uses a new Apple-designed A4 processor similar to the one in the iPad. It makes the phone speedy and responsive overall (say, when you’re switching apps or loading Web pages), but the 3GS still holds its own in comparison.
FaceTime
The new feature Apple’s been touting the most with the phone with a round of emotionally charged commercials is FaceTime, which allows one-to-one video conferencing.
When it’s available, it works great. When you call someone who also has an iPhone 4 and who is also in a Wi-Fi zone, you simply call and press a FaceTime button that has been added to the phone menu.
The drawbacks, at least for now, is that for most people it won’t be practical. The person you’re calling must own the same phone and if one of you is out and about, relying on the 3G network, FaceTime isn’t available.
In my home, even with an iPhone 4 in my hand and one I left at the house, we found ourselves using the feature only a handful of times and mostly as a novelty. Even with the ready availability and Wi-Fi in our home, it just wasn’t a feature my wife and I found ourselves incorporating into our routines. I suppose if one of us got a dramatic haircut or if I was traveling, we’d have gotten more use out of it, but I’m a little skeptical that this is the must-have feature that people will use regularly outside of special circumstances and special occasions. At the very least, it will probably inspire other phone makers to incorporate front-facing cameras (the Sprint EVO 4G already has one) and video conferencing software.
FaceTime is interesting, but will be a much better feature when it goes beyond Wi-Fi and when people using other phones and software like Skype can communicate with FaceTime users, something Apple has said will eventually happen.
Six weeks of use
We received the iPhone 4 devices, including bumpers and docks, a week after it was released and since that time, there’s rarely been a moment where one of the phones has left my side.
Like the 3GS before, I found the iPhone 4 to have hands-down the best mobile Web browser software available, the best music/video player functions on a mobile device and great built-in tools for e-mail, contact management, calendar entry and mapping.
The closest competitor to iPhone’s mobile OS crown is Google’s Android software and on the phones I’ve tested like the Droid X and EVO 4G, I see definite improvement and areas where Android surpasses the iPhone. Google Maps is better on Android, the way it handles Gmail and Google Calendar syncing is more refined and Android is leading the way on voice-activated commands and functions.
But, frankly, there are many things about Android that are a mess, not the least of which is the mishmash of different OS versions that vary from device to device, the lack of a good built-in equivalent to iTunes that can sync music or video easily and the fact that there’s not any Android phone I’ve seen yet that has as good a display and as easy-to-use software as the iPhone.
However, that could change. Android is definitely evolving quickly.
Over six weeks, though, my faith in the iPhone as the best mobile platform has been reaffirmed both by varied, useful, constantly improving apps that take advantage of the iPhone 4’s new capabilities (multitasking, high-res display, front camera). And, of course, there’s that ecosystem of existing apps, close to 250,000 of them.
In everyday use, the iPhone 4 shines. Its improved battery, which got me through the workday and then some even with very heavy use, is a significant step in the right direction (though travelers will still want to invest in some sort of battery booster). The phone’s software, as has been the case in the past, is a joy to use and very intuitive. And additions from the last major hardware update, like multitasking and folders, have been added an intelligent, unobtrusive ways that are very easy to learn how to use (unlike the myriad of widget and settings menus in Android that are more confusing than they are helpful to any but the most tech-savvy tinkerers).
What’s left to complain about? Apple keeps delaying a white version of the phone. A feature to make the phone a Wi-Fi hotspot is still missing unless you jailbreak the phone and void the warranty. And notifications (of, say, text messages or Facebook alerts) are still clunky and obtrusive compared to the way Android handles them. Also, would it have killed Apple to have offered a 64-Gigabyte version of the phone instead of the 16- and 32-Gigabyte versions that already existed with the introduction of the iPhone 3GS?
Nevertheless, the iPhone 4 is a lot of phone for $199/$299. The only people I’d recommend steer away from it are those who insist on a more open operating system like Android or those who are holding out hope for a Verizon or Sprint version of the iPhone sometime next year.
For everyone else, the iPhone 4 is the top smart phone I’ve tested, the most well-rounded and easy to use one available at the moment.
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News industry secret: we have Super DVRs
Keith Reeves, station manager at Austin’s Channel 6. Below right, Mark Brooks, director of sales at SnapStream Media.
Do you ever wonder how TV programs like “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report” are able to put together such devastating collections of news clips from a variety of sources?
As recently as two or three years ago, most programs like them hired interns to comb through hours of footage recorded on DVRs. Before that, they scoured video tapes set to record news programs and cable news networks.
These days, they use one super DVR system, specifically server hardware and DVR software from a company called SnapStream Media. The company, which was well known for its popular PC DVR software “BeyondTV,” for the last three years has been making high-end DVR products for broadcast networks, TV shows like “The Daily Show” and for universities and city governments for research and media relations.
The City of Austin’s Channel 6 is a customer. The city uses a configuration of “SnapStream Enterprise” that can record 10 channels at a time, storing that information on a server that can be accessed by about 75 to 80 city employees.
“Enterprise,” which is available in versions that record HD or standard-definition programming (the city uses the SD one), does some neat tricks that are similar, but more powerful than your typical TiVo system. In addition to recording and storing months or years of programming, “SnapStream” also stores all the Closed Captioning information from programs as text, which is indexed and searchable.
As an example, Channel 6 Station Manager Keith Reeves plugged in the word “Leffingwell” into the search database and found 1,779 mentions from as far back as April 30. From the list of mentions, you can pull up the clip from the news program instantly, trim the video bit you want down and e-mail it or burn it to a DVD.
City employees who have access to “SnapStream,” including media relations workers, city department managers or council members, can do their own searches and access clips or even set specific programs to record, say if our Chief of Police is making an appearance on CNN.
HD video takes up much more space, but is essential for clients like “The Daily Show” who rebroadcast clips. For universities needing the video for research or Channel 6, which uses the clips for reference and record keeping, the standard-definition version allows them to store more months of video on about two terabytes of hard drive space.
TV stations that use the software and hardware can also use it to send advertisers so-called “Verification clips” of their commercials to prove that they aired at a specific time and date and were placed correctly between other programs. They can also use it to store air checks, they can submit to the FCC.
With the rise of network-based storage and mobile video apps, “SnapStream” is increasingly offering video over the cloud and Brooks said the company is working on ways to transmit the stored video to mobile phones.
Reeves said that before the city switched to this system, they used tape decks and VHS tapes to record local news programs. City employees pulled clips manually. Three years ago, Channel 6 switched to “SnapStream” and now every news broadcast in Austin is recorded. The programs stay on the server for about 3 to 4 months until old programs are cleared to make way for new recordings.
“Now if someone at Austin Police Department wants to search for something, they can do that themselves,” Reeves said, “it doesn’t take any of my staff’s time and they can make copies for themselves.”
The captioning info from city council meetings are also used as the official transcripts for those meetings. Reeves said that while Closed Captioning can sometimes be inaccurate, especially when it comes to name spellings, the city requires its captioning for meetings to be at least 98 percent accurate. Of course, inaccurate captioning means that keyword searches aren’t perfect, but Brooks says that “SnapStream” acknowledges that and searches for workds that resemble the search term, too.
“You can do asterisk searches and tilde searches to look for similar spellings,” Brooks said.
Reeves says the software can also set up messages, similar to Google Alerts, that notify when a search term comes up. For instance, he has an alert set up for anytime “Channel 6” is mentioned in council meetings. The alert is sent out as an e-mail.
The menus would look familiar to anyone who uses TiVo or other similar DVR software. The menus are clean and simple and the programming grid looks like a regular TV guide.
The whole system is mostly for internal use by city employees: Channel 6 doesn’t use the clips it collects or tracks on the air. “Maybe when we do our own ‘Daily Show’ here in Austin,” Reeves joked.
Here’s what the server hardware and PC software looks like:
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REVIEW: ‘Madden 11’ vs. ‘NFL 2011’ for iPhone
‘Madden 11’ from EA Sports includes a look at Jerry World.
Football gaming evolves (again)
I played my first football video game in 1979 when my parents bought the appropriately named “Football” for the Atari 2600. The players (three on a team) looked like boxy aliens, and the game play was, well, not good at all (watch the hilarious YouTube video). But it was football (sort of). That you controlled.
Football video games evolved big time with the arrival of the “Madden” franchise in the early 90s. When I went to college in El Paso in 1992, I packed my Super Nintendo and my new copy of “Madden 93,” which was pretty awesome, despite lacking team logos, player names, real stadiums or complex playbooks. I played it for hours on end when I should have been studying. So did all of my friends in the dorm.
Throughout the 90s and much of this decade, I upgraded to the latest “Madden” game every August (often showing up at Gamestop for midnight releases), and I traded out consoles for the latest and greatest. My enthusiasm for playing football on a video game sadly wore off when I decided to go with a Wii for my kids instead of getting a Playstation 3 or XBox 360. For serious “Madden” fans, playing on the stripped-down Wii version just isn’t as fun.
My enthusiasm is back, thanks to an unexpectedly great offering on the iPhone.
Not only is “Madden 11” on the iPhone, but it has good competition from Gameloft’s “NFL 2011.” There is no competition in the console or PC football game market anymore because the NFL has signed an exclusive licensing deal with “Madden’s” EA Sports. The exclusivity does not extend to mobile yet, and competition is a good thing.
I downloaded “Madden 11” ($7.99) and “NFL 2011” ($6.99) to wage a head-to-head battle on my iPhone 4 for 3.5-inch screen glory. After playing both games almost nonstop for a few days, I can safely say that football video games have evolved again — as much as they did when the Madden franchise first arrived on consoles — and I’m excited to see where this goes.
I’ll score this fierce competition like a football game:
Smooth graphics on NFL 2011
Graphics
“NFL 2011”: I played this first, and I was blown away immediately at how great the graphics looked. The players’ physics are well done, the field looks bright and rich, and the animations are clean. The crowd is a bit flat looking, and the stadiums are not very realistic. It appears “NFL 2011” focused on the look of the actual gameplay. Nothing wrong with that. (Touchdown, 7 points)
“Madden 11”: The stadiums are very realistic, the crowds actually move and hold signs. The turf looks sharp on the iPhone 4’s “retina” display. The players are rendered well, but the gameplay graphics are a bit jerky. After playing 2011 for a few hours and then switching to “Madden,” it was a bit jarring. “NFL 2011” is just smoother. However, once your eyes adjust, it’s not a big issue. (Field goal, 3 points)
The controls on NFL 2011
Control scheme
“NFL 2011”: You get a virtual joystick on the left-hand side to control the players, which is a bit quirky. Guys often run backward or sideways first before you can point them downfield. To snap the ball, you tap near the QB. Handoffs happen automatically. On offense, you get three buttons when carrying the ball on the right hand side: spin, “truck” and sprint. Truck makes your guy charge in with his shoulders, hopefully breaking some tackles. If you shake the iPhone, your player makes a juke move (pretty cool). When passing, you can tilt the phone forward to tuck and run with the ball with the QB. If you want to pass, circles appear over eligible receivers, color-coded to show who is open (green is open, yellow is slightly covered and red is covered). You tap the circles to pass the ball, and the longer you press on the circle, the harder the QB throws it. The passing is a problem, but I’ll get to that later. Overall, the control scheme works pretty well. It’s hard to find the right circle in the heat of a play, though, and I ended up just jerking my phone around hoping to juke my way to the endzone. On defense, you can only change players, move and use the “truck” button to try to break blocks. (Field goal, 3 points)
Your control views pre-snap in ‘Madden 2011’
“Madden”: The control scheme is remarkably similar, with the virtual joystick on the left (though in “Madden” you can flip it to the other side for lefties). The joystick seems to respond a little better than NFL 2011 but is still quirky. The main advantage “Madden” has over “NFL 2011” here is the “slow motion” button. The action moves fast on the iPhone, and it’s a small screen. If you press this button, everything slows down and you can switch players, go for the tackle, make a spin move, etc. It’s a great addition. (Touchdown, 7 points)
Overall gameplay
“NFL 2011”: The game is smooth and fun to play … until you try to pass the ball. This is a deal-breaker. When you drop back to pass, you tap on the receiver to throw the ball. Nothing happens. You tap again. Nothing. You start tapping like mad because the defense is closing in. You try holding down the button instead of tapping. Sacked for a 7-yard loss. This is such a disappointment, and it overshadows all the good that Gameloft did with this game. Running the ball is a breeze in comparison, and playing defense is hard. I expected defensive play to be difficult, though - it’s one of those things that even the console versions haven’t figured out to do very well. Expect relatively high scoring games, even between two good defensive teams. Selecting audibles is easy and you can draw new hot routes for players by making a path with your finger on a little box. The kicking game is a weak point here, too. It’s difficult to learn and master. (Turnover, 0 points)
Drawing a hot route (blue line) in game is fun in ‘Madden 2011.’
“Madden”: Every aspect of the game plays well, though not as great as I know it can. I might be biased on that because I’m so used to playing football on consoles with big TV screens. That being said, the “Madden” on my iPhone is light years better than that version I spent hours on in college, and it holds its own pretty well against the console versions of just a few years ago. What really scores a touchdown for Madden, though, is the “Game Flow” option. Instead of tediously flipping through a playbook, you can let the game pick the next play for you. It does it rather intelligently, and you can always audible out of the play and/or change a route thanks to a really well-done hot route option where you draw right on the field where you want your guys to go. Game Flow does make the game flow smoothly and quickly. The running game is a bit difficult to master, but it serves its purpose. The kicking game is well done, and it’s easy to learn but moderately difficult to master. (Touchdown, 7 points)
Sound
“NFL 2011:” Those who cannot stand the now-retired John Madden will be glad to not hear his voice. However, the announcers on this game are too dry and robotic. The crowd noise is OK but nothing special and the music is pretty bad. Thankfully, you can import your own music from iTunes. (Field goal, 3 points)
“Madden:” John Madden is his usual self, but he seems toned-down compared to the console versions. The crowd is OK, and the music is also nothing to write home about. Again, hooray for the ability to import iTunes music. (Field goal, 3 points)
NFL 2011’s plays are relatively sophisticated, but you can dumb down the playbook.
Extras
“NFL2011”: I found the biggest advantage that “NFL 2011” has over “Madden” is the excellent tutorial. The controls all take a while to get used to on a small touchscreen, and GameLoft did a fantastic job walking you through them. When in tutorial mode, you complete small tasks, such as performing a juke move or a spin move or running the ball. It explains how to do it and lets you try again if you didn’t get it right the first time. The games both lack a franchise mode, where you take a team control of a team year after year, adding rookies, free agents and new food vendors. As nerdy as I am about football games, that is what I miss (it’s also what I missed in the Wii versions). “NFL 2011” lacks a lot of the small touches, though, from in-game individual stats flashed across the screen to the details of what Jerry World looks like. (Field goal, 3 points)
“Madden”: This game’s tutorial is weak - just a series of screen shots, but EA put a lot of effort into all the other little extras, down to the sounds of the crowd, the cadence of the announcers and the ease of the kicking game. Individual stats appear just like they do in NFL broadcasts after plays, camera flashes pop at the start of the game and severe weather, including rain and snow can appear randomly. You can also play “Madden” over Bluetooth against a friend (not tested). There is no multiplayer set up for “NFL 2011.” Next step would be to be able to play over our data plans against anyone in the world. (Touchdown, 7)
FINAL SCORE:
Madden 11: 27
NFL 2011: 16
Both games are surprisingly good, but “Madden 11” is the mobile champ for this season. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, we were all playing Snake on our Nokias. There’s a lot of promise here, and now I’m back in the football game. Hopefully, we’ll see franchise modes soon, so I can start setting the hot dog prices at Cowboys Stadium.
“Madden 11” EA Sports $7.99 iPad version (not tested): $12.99
“NFL 2011” Gameloft $6.99
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The Linkdown for Wednesday, Aug. 12
The Linkdown is mourning the loss of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. Whatever you think about his politics, his “Series of Tubes” speech was an enduring meme we will always remember and treasure (see video above).
Other links of interest this week:
- The Panel Picker for South by Southwest Interactive (and the rest of the festival) is now open for voting. Yes, for real this time.
- The City of Austin wants your feedback on its new Web site design. Remember that kerfuffle?
- Not ashamed to re-use this joke I made on Twitter: According to OKCupid’s user data, iPhone users have more sex. Now if you’ll excuse me…
- Look! Up in the sky! It’s Sky Gator!
- Short-lived Dry Erase Girl Quits Her Job meme exposed as a hoax. A hoax on the Internet? Consider our faith shaken.
- Skype files for $100 million IPO. Demand Media also files, for $1 billion.
- Dell Streak due date: Thursday pre-orders for those who signed up early, Friday for everybody else. $299/$549 (two-year contract or unactivated) on AT&T. The $549 version, Dell says, is not unlocked. It’s still tied to AT&T’s network.
- Twitter’s new policy for deceased users.
- Kitty got no legs or paws!
- “America’s Got Talent” is doing some of its talent scouting on YouTube.
- 30 million Nintendo Wiis have been sold. That’s a lot of waggle.
- Blockbuster is adding video games by mail to its offerings. Is this a way of competing against GameFly instead of Netflix?
- Speaking of Netflix, they’re paying $1 billion to add streaming movies from several additional studios including MGM and Lionsgate.
- The Electronic Software Association says Texas is one of the country’s top states in terms of how much the video game industry benefits the economy to the tune of $490 million a year.
- MTV has selected it’s first Twitter Jockey (Tweejay?). Her name is Gabbi Gregg.
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SXSWi Panel Picker voting delayed, but not for long
Voting for the Panel Picker, which will help determine programing for South by Southwester Interactive 2011, has been delayed.
The voting process, which was supposed to start on Monday, has been pushed back to noon Wednesday, according to Hugh Forrest, the fest director. In a blog post, organizers say they’re still processing submissions.
The voting will be open until Aug. 27, but you can expect that deadline to get pushed back two or three days, which has become something of a habit for the fest.
Applications for Accelerator and the Web Awards are already being accepted.
Did we mention registration SXSWi 2011 is going to be pricier, too?
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Marble Falls Pokémon master is Hawaii-bound
The competition, which takes place in Waikaloa, Hawaii, runs Saturday and Sunday, and brings together players from around the world to battle it out with their stable of virtual Pokémon creatures.
Aaron, who started playing about four years ago, has been practicing the “HeartGold” and “SoulSilver” editions of the Nintendo DS games. The Marble Falls Middle School 7th-grader has also been watching matches online to examine player strategies. “I watch YouTube videos. And there’s a feature where you can watch battles (in the games). People record their battles and post them online,” he said.
Aaron placed fourth in a regional competition in Dallas and fourth again in the national championships in Indianapolis. His mother, Teresita Grubbs, said a lot of Aaron’s family will be taking the trip to support him and that she expects he’ll have a great time.
“He’s very excited about it. He gets to meet different people and make new friends his age,” Teresita said. She said that despite all the hours of practice, he’s still an A student and has stayed on his school’s honor roll. “I had to make sure he maintained those grades if he wants to stay in the competition,” she said.
Aaron and his 10-year-old brother have both competed in Pokémon tournaments. Last year, Aaron made it to the last round of the regionals, but was disqualified for using a virtual creature that he didn’t know had been outlawed in the competitions.
“I got sad and went back home,” Aaron said, “now I’m more careful about the game.”
Aaron will compete in the Juniors division (for those born in 1998 or later). There’s also Seniors competition for those born in 1997 or earlier. Prizes in the competition include an invitation and accommodations for next year’s championship, a trip for four to Tokyo, New York or Oahu and various Pokémon prizes.
(Note: this blog entry corrected on 8/16 to fix error about Aaron’s placement in the regional tournament.)
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‘Madden NFL 11’ hits the field in new game releases
New video game releases this week:
“Madden NFL 11” — Every year, the EA Sports juggernaut tweaks and refines the formula for its long-running NFL franchise. In this year’s edition, featuring cover athlete Drew Brees, the emphasis it on retaining deep gameplay while simplifying the play-calling with a new “GameFlow” system. There’s also a way to play 60-minute games in half the time and new control options and coaching tips. Online gameplay also features new modes and, of course, there”s the usual audio and video improvements to help justify buying the game again this year. Rated E for Everyone. $40-$60, for PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PSP.
Also out this week: “7 Wonders 2” (Nintendo DS), “Princess Isabella: A Witch’s Curse” (DS), “Victoria II” (Windows PC), “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World” (downloadable for PlayStation 3), “Monday Night Combat” (downloadable for Xbox 360).
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Bazaarvoice’s Sam Decker moving on, recruiting successor
Sam Decker, the chief marketing officer of Austin’s Bazaarvoice, announced in a blog post that he’s leaving the company to start a new venture, but will stay on to recruit a successor.
Decker, a 2009 winner of the Statesman’s Texas Social Media Awards, said he’s starting a new company with the blessing of the CEO of Bazaarvoice, Brett Hurt.
Decker has been with the company since it launched in January 2006.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet
There are ‘Camps coming!
On Monday, a column I wrote ran in the paper about the dearth of BarCamp-style events in Austin this year.
Sure, ProductCamp Austin Summer 2010 is Saturday and it turns out there’s also a VideoCamp Austin the same day. (I guess ProductCamp and VideoCamp didn’t figure there’s be much audience overlap in their scheduling.) If that’s not campy enough for you, there’s also a Austin Non Profit Camp on the way. Jon Lebkowsky tells me it’ll be either Oct. 15 or 16, at the ACC Eastview Campus. There’s also a TXGov2.0 conference Jon’s helping organize, probably for January.
Dustin Haisler from the City of Manor tells me that the town will be host to a Gov. 2.0 unconference Sept. 20-21.
It turns out there is stuff going on, it just hadn’t happened in 2010 yet.
Lastly, William Hurley, whom I quoted in the story, tells me that there’s an iOS development camp soon to be announced (I’ll update this post with details when they’re available). He answered questions over e-mail for my column and I wasn’t able to fit nearly enough of what he said into the piece. Here’s some of the answers he gave me last week:
William “Whurley” Hurley: BarCampAustin3 was supposed to be my last camp before handing the reigns over; that’s part of the reason we made it such a blow out event. That was my “thank you, goodnight” moment. When BarCampAustin4 rolled around in 2009 I received a call from the new crew in which they asked “how do you cancel a BarCamp?”. Fortunately we worked with SxSW on a venue and a number of great volunteers stepped up to make BarCampAustin4 happen. When 2010 rolled around I was in the middle of launching Chaotic Moon Studios and though we looked for volunteers, there were none to be found. Personally I wasn’t in any position to give the event the time and attention I requires, and I’d rather not do an event than do it poorly.
There seem to be fewer BarCamp-style events in Austin this year, or at least fewer that are calling themselves “Camps.” Is it a kind of event designation whose time has come and gone? Has it gone out of vogue?
I don’t think it’s gone out of vogue. I think people don’t realize exactly how much work it is. Once they do, very few people stick around. I always advise people trying to do these types of community events to ask themselves one question “do you want to be a community leader, or do you want to do what community leaders do?”. There’s a huge difference between those two. One sounds, and can be glamorous. The other side of that however equates to having more hours than most people work in a full time job stacked on top of your current responsibilities. Most of the time those hours go unnoticed and unappreciated and most people can’t handle that because they’re doing the camp for the wrong reasons to being with. Me, I just love
community. It’s all about the “we” and not the “me” so I’ve never needed that type of acknowledgment or had any issue with putting in the time. It’s a labour of love.
You say the camp scene is changing. How so? What is it evolving into?
I think you’re starting to see a mashup between meetups and camps. i.e. meetups where you have sessions. This is far simpler for most people to plan. It also has the additional benefit of being easier to find a sponsor for; not to mention needing fewer sponsors. I think in the future you’ll see a mashup of traditional events and unconferences as well. Many traditional conferences already include some sort of “birds of a feather” or “barcamp” like event these days anyway. In other words, the unconference movement has been very successful. So much so that it’s inevitable that it will be integrated into more traditional events.
After what happened with the Palm dev camp is it harder to get developers interested in these kinds of events for specific platform development or was that an aberration?
Not at all. As a community leaders, we understood the difference between control and influence. When it came to preDevCamp we set things up so that each community was both a symbiotic part of a larger whole and an autonomous entity able to make its own decisions and function independent of our leadership. The event was designed that way for a number of reasons, the most important that we wanted you not to just participate in an event of this magnitude, but be the architects of its future. Because of this the majority of events still took place and most developers never noticed a difference.
Have more structured, pay-to-attend tech events had to restructure and rethink the way they do things based on last year’s rise of BarCamp-style events?
I think so. Simply put people are tired of the historical model for events. The unconference style event almost always cost less to participate in and delivers more value to the attendees.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, Internet
Study: Austin ranks highly among telecommute-friendly cities
According to the survey, Austin ranks 7th out of 36 cities as one of the best for remote working (the top 10 cities are listed at the bottom of this entry). We spoke to Mark Kornegay, a sales director for Microsoft’s South Central District who talked about the survey’s findings. Kornegay is himself a telecommuter and much of his sales staff of about 90 works remotely.
He says the biggest advantage to, say, working on Lake Travis and conducting meetings online or by cell is avoiding traffic. “There’s cost savings,” he said. “I don’t burn up gas. I don’t deal with traffic coming from northwest. I don’t deal with any of that when I work remotely and I see increased productivity.”
The survey results specific to Austin show that 80 percent of those surveyed prefer to work from home, away from the office, but only 43 percent of their employers are “Supportive of remote working arrangements” and 59 percent work at companies that don’t have a formal policy for telecommuting.
Kornegay, whose company is trying to sell its technology services to companies that can take advantage of software like Sharepoint as well as messaging tools in Windows software, says the survey is part of a way to raise awareness about the advantages of telecommuting. He thinks that as more of our lives are lived through smart phones and social media, that not enough people are using it to get out of the office.
“Probably 10 or 15 years ago, you or I would not be conducting meetings on our cell phones in places we normally wouldn’t be able to conduct a meeting. It’s not a matter of not having the technology,” he said.
Kornegay, a former lawyer, says that the expectation for telecommuting policies at companies are rising as more Millennial (or, if you prefer, “Gen Y”) employees enter the workforce.
Kornegay and I have something in common — we both generally try to work from home on Fridays, sometimes more often if we’re able. At Microsoft, employees who don’t have have a physical office are reimbursed for home work-area costs.
Speaking from experience, I can tell you it’s essential to have a good, reliable computer at home, preferably one that’s as fast or faster than what you use at work. You also need a good, reliable and fast Internet connection and a workspace free from distractions. (Mine is upstairs in its own room, away from the kitchen, living room TV and laundry room.)
Do you telecommute? Tell us about your experiences and habits in the comments. I’m always curious to hear how people work.
Top U.S. cities for telecommuting, Microsoft / 7th Sense survey:
- Boston
- Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville), N.C.
- Atlanta
- Denver
- Kansas City, Mo.
- Richmond, Va.
- Austin
- New York
- Sacramento
- Portland, Ore.
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SXSW Interactive registration rates rise $55-$200 for 2011
Planning to wait until the last minute to decide to attend South by Southwest Interactive next March? It’ll cost you.
The cost of showing up at the festival and buying an Interactive badge will be $750, up from $550 for the 2010 festival. In 2009, the walk-up rate was $495.
Early-bird registration also goes up, from $395 in 2010 to $450 for the 2011 festival. The deadline for early-bird registration is September 24, and registration opened on Monday.
So what accounts for the nearly 14 percent increase in early-bird and whopping 36 percent increase in walk-up rates for the festival? It has a little to do with the spike in paid registration at this year’s festival, which hit the same level as the Music part of the festival. A representative of the fest says it’s meant to encourage early registration and to help organizers better plan the festival without last-minute surprises.
Though an early-bird Music badge still costs more than an Interactive badge ($595 versus $450), the $750 walk-up rate is the same for both. Probably due to the increase in Interactive badge costs, the Gold badge now costs $950 for walk-up attendees and a Platinum pass is $1,250 on-site.
When reached for comment, organizers of the fest said it’s still a bargain compared to other tech conferences. Melissa Smolensky, a spokeswoman for SXSW Interactive, said in an e-mail, “SXSW Interactive’s early bird rate is still really low and the walk-up rate is very competitive in comparison to other conferences. Here at SXSW Interactive we are encouraging people to register early as it is easier to get a hotel downtown and easier for us to plan a great festival for attendees.”
Edited to add, 5:28 p.m.: Smolensky elaborated on her earlier comments, saying, “These walk-up rates are designed in part to encourage more people to register early while there is more hotel availability. Also, the more people who register early, the better sense we have of what kinds of numbers to plan for so that we can produce a better experience for everyone.” (End of edit.)
The increase was the subject of a blog post on Austinite Wesley Faulkner’s blog today. One commenter on the blog said they’ll consider skipping the official fest and attending non-badge events instead. Another said increasing rates will keep out start-up businesses and others who would benefit most from attending.
From 2009 to 2010, the rate increases were far more modest. Interactive early-bird registration rose from $375 to $395 and walk-up was $550, versus $495 in 2009.
Music registration went from $550 to $595 for early-bird and $695 to $750 from 2009 to 2010.
Film, meanwhile, went from $300 for early-bird to $325, and from $450 to $475 for walk-up from 2009 to 2010. For 2011, Film badges are $375 and $550, respectively.
As the festival grows, it’s probably to be expected that rates will continue to increase for registration from year to year, but the $200 increase on Interactive/Gold is the largest spike I can find over the last few years of registration. To put that in perspective, that’s what a new iPhone 4 costs (with a dollar left to buy a cheap app). If you were to lay out $200 in one-dollar bills, side-by-side, it would be the length of 200 pieces of dollar-sized paper.
$200 is a lot, is all I’m trying to say, a hefty penalty for not registering earlier.
Are the rates too high? Will the new rates make you rethink attending the festival in 2011? Let us know in the comments.
Here’s the rates from 2009 to 2011 for SXSW, for comparison’s sake:
2009
Interactive: $375 early-bird, $495 walk-up
Film: $300 early-bird, $450 walk-up
Music: $550 early-bird, $695 walk-up
Gold: $550 early-bird, $695 walk-up
Platinum: $850 early-bird, $1,145 walk-up2010
Interactive: $395 early-bird, $550 walk-up
Film: $325 early-bird, $475 walk-up
Music: $595 early-bird, $750 walk-up
Gold: $595 early-bird, $750 walk-up
Platinum: $920 early-bird, $1,225 walk-up2011
Interactive: $450 early-bird, $750 walk-up
Film: $375 early-bird, $550 walk-up
Music: $595 early-bird, $750 walk-up
Gold: $650 early-bird, $950 walk-up
Platinum: $900 early-bird, $1,250 walk-upPermalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Austin, SXSW 2011
BlackBerry: back in the game?
Photo by Richard Drew, Associated PressIn case you missed this yesterday, Research in Motion, the company behind the BlackBerry platform, announced a major operating system update, 6.0, and a new phone available exclusively on AT&T.
The BlackBerry Torch, pictured above, is a slider phone that features a full QWERTY keyboard, but also has a touch screen. It’s got universal search, more integrated social media options, an improved Web browser and 5-megapixel camera. It’s $199.
It looks like a nice phone, but RIM has some major problems to address. While it’s still a major play in smart phones, especially for business, some surveys suggest that many current users might be looking to upgrade to a different platform in the future. Some tech pundits are even proclaiming that the BlackBerry era may be over. They’re certainly facing some very interesting problems, that’s for sure.
Is BlackBerry losing the smart phone race against Apple and an army of Android-based phones? What do you think? Are you a hardcore BlackBerry user? Is the new Torch phone and new OS enough to keep you loyal?
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‘Disney Sing It: Family Hits’ among slim video game pickings this week
Not a whole lot going on as far as new releases in the video game world (guess it’s the lull between “StarCraft II” and the new “Madden NFL” game). Here’s the best of what’s new, available this week:
“Disney Sing It: Family Hits” — 30 songs from new and classic Disney movies are included in this karaoke game, which can be played alone, with friends as you pass along the microphone, or with up to 8 players singing together in “Family Fun Mode.” You can play back your singing to add effects or receive vocal training from tips from Anika Noni Rose (“The Princess and the Frog”).. Rated E for Everyone. $40-$50 (with or without microphone), for Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3. .
Also out this week: “Castlevania: Harmony of Despair” (downloadable for Xbox 360), “Mystery Tales Time Travel” (Nintendo DS), “Treasures of Montezuma” (DS), “7 Wonders 2” (DS), “Monster Rancher” (DS), “Commander: Conquest of the Americas” (Windows PC), “Dora the Explorer: Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure” (DS).
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SXSW Interactive 2011 open for early-bird business
I’m not sure which is more egregious: the recent “Christmas in July” trend or thinking about next March’s South by Southwest Interactive early in August.
Nevertheless! SXSW Interactive has officially opened its registration doors today. Also today, the festival, which will celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, is accepting applications for the Accelerator, where start-ups strut their stuff in front of a panel of judges. We hope the panel won’t be as depleted and sad as “American Idol” is shaping up to be for next season.
You can also apply for a SXSW Web Award here.
Starting next Monday, you’ll also be able to start voting on Panel Picker submissions.
Interactive badges cost $450 from now until September 24. Platinum badges cost $900 until that deadline. If you like to live dangerously, you can wait until the festival starts and you pay the walk-up rate of $750/$1,250 for those.
See? There’s lots going on and benefits to planning ahead, even if it is August and the festival is seven months away.
Heck, I might even have some eggnog right now.
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