Let the Game Begins...or Not Yet?

Yup, guys... HD-DVD and Bluray DVD. Which one will survive? Like movie industry remakes, some people said that this one is the old story of VHS and Betamax. VHS took the lead with support from porn...uhhh...adult industry. The industry printing movies in VHS, creating demand for VHS players (no statistical backup, but it was believed that they influenced consumer demand) and pushing the VHS price down due to economies of scale. Movie industry then went VHS as it allowed bigger margin from lower cost. Betamax has better quality in term of picture, but they lost the biggest selling point, content.
I also believe that iPod video benefitted from the growing service of adult content for iPod, especially outside US. iTunes Store only sells music videos in non-US markets. I bet being able to have porn at your disposal almost anywhere created demand for iPod videos - at some rate. No, I don't have porn in my iPod. :)
I believed that the battle between HD-DVD and Bluray will be decided by adult industry. However, it seems that it won't be the case, as per article here. They decided to wait. They waited for the games industry, the war between XBox and PS3, representing HD-DVD and Bluray. What? So we have a new twist on this remake story....games. Off course, games back then used catridges. They were not part of the equation that time, nor computer industry. So will the success of HD-DVD or Bluray depended on Microsoft and Sony? I think not. It depends on the game software industry. EA, Ubisoft, etc will play major role in this war. They are the ones whom will decide which platform they want to go to more, just like adult industry in previous war.
XBox and PS3 still playing some role, but at the end the content decides. I still believe in that. XBox sold more consoles this year, they are ahead in the game. But it ain't over, nor started. XBox in the hand of users now don't have HD-DVD, they need to fork out extra dollars to buy external drive. Still a question whether users want to upgrade to HD-DVD. Microsoft may wanted to play it safe by not including HD-DVD built-in. They still have option to sell external Bluray in the future. Sony, however, went all the way with PS3 and Bluray. Not surprising as Sony owns Bluray. Sony believes that they have enough content to support Bluray - support from Sony's movie distributions. Still, Sony has to get the buy in from games industry - really, really bad. Sony needs to sell PS3 to them and the customers. Honestly, PS3 is still the cheapest Bluray player in the market, too bad not cheap enough. Sony sees PS3 as a way to penetrate households with Bluray players, and willing to subsidise - PS3 is sold at loss, according to some report. But the market saw it as a game console, not an entertainment centre - as Sony wanted it to be. Game console should be fun, spending a lot of money is not fun, for most of us. Personally, I still go with Nintendo Wii.
There is another player that may actually the biggest player of all. This player tends to lay low and undetected. Pirates. While the others considered content is the biggest investment, for them it is almost none. They can drive low cost production and bring down overall price. They may even drives the production of cheap players. But now they facing a big hurdle. Digital Right Management (DRM). Both HD-DVD and Bluray will implement DRM on contents. My guess is whichever the format they broke first, it will be quickly mass-produced at the quantity unimaginable. Industries will lost from contents, but we will know which one is the popular format.
I am indifference on either format, but it is a hell of a war to watch......

I can't blog Digg to my new blogger! Aaaargh!

I love digg. It let me find news that I like to read, sorted for me. Well, interesting news for me mostly related to Apple anyways and digg has Apple news in separate section. Cool! I also blog the digg news a lot. Sometimes I visited digg site during my lunch break, and I just blogged it so i can read it later at my personal time - talk about dedication, ha!
And today I made a stupid decision, upgrading my blogger to the new - no longer beta - blogger. It seemed like a good idea initially until I went to digg site and click the "blog it" link. digg said that I migrated to new blogger..... Cool, that was what happened, I thought. I just went to profile setting and change the username, I thought. Didn't work. I set up manual setting, didn't work. I started to get nervous...
I went to blogger help, and follow the discussion that led me to the link on blogger help saying that the blogging function on the third party needed to be updated, and only flickr had done so. Aaaaaargh! I want my old blogger back! They supposed to warn me before I went ahead with the upgrade, or did they? Honestly, I didn't pay attention to the terms & conditions. Like normal average guy, I just ticked it to go ahead.....
I want to blog my digg news......:(

Install Windows to a Macintosh USB drive (without Bootcamp).

A guide to running Windows on an Intel Macintosh, from an external disk drive, without using Bootcamp. Earlier guides require the internal drive to be partitioned with Bootcamp, leaving an unused windows partition that just wastes space.

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Poor boy .Mac alternatives

Whether or not you can make do without the annual subscription service offered by Apple depends wholly on your willingness to nit-pick through the alternatives. The following article will break-down available solutions based on the specific “conveniences” you wish to retain while saving a little money in the long run.

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More PC buyers will be going Mac in 2007

"Intel CPUs and dual-booting Windows are just two reasons more people will be choosing the Mac." I see the general buzz around Macs as a reason for those who've been holding off to finally take the plunge and buy a Mac. And the "halo effect" _does_ exist.

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Leopard build 9A321: all the new features listed!

The latest build (9A321) of Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 is revealing several neat features. We gathered all this information in one article for you, Mac OS X fans!

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Long, Hodgman (Mac & PC Guys) win Advertising Award

Justin Long and John Hodgman, the actors who portray a Mac and PC from Apple's current 'Get a Mac' advertising campaign, won a 2006 Garfield Bobby Award in the Best Performance, Male category from Advertising Age. The hands-down winners this year are Justin Long and John Hodgman, better known to you as Mac and PC in the campaign for Apple Computer. Congratulations Mac, congratulations PC.

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Bring your Mac OS X Application in Your Thumb Drive...

Portable iChat, Safari, Mail, iCal, and Address Book

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Teenager receives Zune with preloaded porn

A couple on the south side of Chicago gave their 12-year-old daughter a media player...but it came with a whole lot more than an instruction manual.

read more | digg story

Telstra offers Next G via USB

Telstra has quietly started offering two new ways of accessing its new nation-wide third-generation Next G mobile network, with two new USB modems now on sale. Need to check if it is Mac friendly.....

read more | digg story

Happy Birthday iPod!

I have my iPod available for me most of the time. I carry its charger most of the time. I can't imagine how I go through the boring moments in my life without my iPod. Walking from home to the bus stop, sitting (or standing) in the bus to the office, walking to the office... my iPod spices it up with music in the background.
It used to hold all my songs, but with my ongoing growing collections - and iTunes Store availability in Australia makes it keep going strong, I made my ol' 20 GB iPod store randomly selected tracks from my collection everytime I plug it to my mac mini. I have no solid judgement to get the shiny 60GB model, yet. But how I love it.
And to learn that iPod was born when Toshiba showed Apple its (then) new 1.8" hard drive without knowing the use of it....

Happy Birthday....

Apple looks towards flash-enabled notebooks

"People familiar with the Mac maker say it has been working closely with Intel engineers to implement NAND flash into a future-generation of its MacBook notebook lines. Apple is amongst the best positioned in the PC industry to adopt the technology broadly due, in part, to itssupplier arrangements with the world's five-largest NAND suppliers"

read more | digg story

TechCrunch: Why the new .Mac webmail is important

"I agree that .mac is Apple's most difficult to use product and needs a lot of work. However, I think that the changes are important for one reason: There are very few Ajax webmail services today that allow users to access multiple email accounts. .Mac will be one of them."

read more | digg story

Sony Macbook? Shame on you, Sony!

Sony rips off MacBook design by ZDNet's Jason D. O'Grady -- Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Sony may have taken this one a little too far. The consumer electronic giant's latest notebook looks like a blatant ripoff of Apple's wildly popular MacBook.

Microsofts redesign of the ipod (well its packaging atleast)

Fun-neeee!

Apple + Google = .Mac^2

The Tao of Mac apparently explored further the possibility of a new .Mac services in this post (http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2006-08-30). Funny enough that the title of the post is similar with my previous post with added twist of "^2". I think the post has comprehensive analysis - much better than speculative approach I had.
Anyway, I am glad that this idea still floating around and followed up.

Cool things you can do on a Mac

I am posting this as my own reference on shortcuts and tricks that I think allow me to be more productive/effective using my Macs.

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China - World's Largest Internet Market By '07

The number of broadband subscribers in China is growing at a staggering 79 per cent annually, and will reach 79 million in 2007, consulting firm Ovum predicted in research released today. Recent estimates from Leichtman Research suggest that the number of broadband connections in the US, currently the world's largest market, is around 51 million."

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Why Did Apple Introduce New Products Before September 12th?

This morning, Apple unveiled its most powerful iMac and Mac mini lineup ever, without an announcement. In previous post, it was said 23" iMac but they came out with 1" larger.
With a keynote planned next week, the obvious question is this: why did these new computers drop onto the radar screen before the event? Will there be something exciting in the keynote next week?

read more | digg story

Why Did Apple Introduce New Products Before September 12th?

This morning, Apple unveiled its most powerful iMac and Mac mini lineup ever, without an announcement. In previous post, it was said 23" iMac but they came out with 1" larger.
With a keynote planned next week, the obvious question is this: why did these new computers drop onto the radar screen before the event? Will there be something exciting in the keynote next week?

read more | digg story

PS3 delay in OZ - March 2007?

That is ridiculous. I am not planning of getting one as I already hooked with Wii. I hope Nintendo is not planning to delay Wii just for kicking PS3 in OZ.

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Letterman - I Don't Want a Computer

David Letterman explains why he doesn't have a computer, and no intention to get one.

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Transformers Are in The Near Future

Transformer - video powered by Metacafe

They nailed the mechanism in the RC size. I wonder, once they build the lifesize, where the driver will be once it turns into robot?

Apple's Secret Ingredient

If you look at what Apple's done over the last few years, there's an almost absurd amount of fresh thinking and major leaps forward. At some points along the timeline, things just seem to magically click together at the right places.

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Did Apple Ditch BootCamp?

What happened with BootCamp? In Apple's Get A Mac section. it was said that to run windows, parallel and windows OS required. Does Apple think that BootCamp is not a good idea? Parallel still have issue in performing Windows in the hardware's full capacity - which BootCamp can. Although it is a pain to reboot the hardware to change the OS.

Will Parallel will be the app of choice to run windows rather than BootCamp? But I remembered in the Keynote that BootCamp will be bundled in Leopard...

============From Apple Site===================

Which means, of course, that the Mac may very well be the only computer you’ll ever need. In fact, the Mac’s flexibility — its ability to run both Mac and Windows* — has both customers and columnists very excited.

As Computerworld’s Scot Finnie points out, now you can forget about about having “to choose either the Mac for its superior design or Windows for its wealth of available software.” That’s because “you can have both operating systems on the same computer — the best of both worlds.” Mac OS X and Windows XP side by side. One great computer. Two operating systems. Many, many programs to run.

Talk about a win-win situation. Now you can take advantage of all the benefits of owning a Mac but still enjoy the convenience of starting up your Mac in Windows XP and running a Windows-only game or productivity application when needed. Third-party software solutions such as Parallels Desktop for Mac help make it possible.

That’s a prospect that has the Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg very excited. “You can run any combination of Mac and Windows programs at the same time, on the same screen.” For example, you could “simultaneously download your corporate email in Outlook using Windows while editing a home video in iMovie using the Mac OS.” Or how about this multi-tasking example from Mossberg: “I was able to do email in Apple’s Mail program while simultaneously watching a baseball game in Internet Explorer.”

And the latitude Parallels Desktop for Mac lends New York Times tech columnist David Pogue has him raving: “I just can’t tell you how handy it is to be able to live in Mac OS X but have the flexibility to duck into the occasional Windows program without having to restart the Mac.” How’s that for opening up a whole new world of possibilities?

If you’ve ever wished you could enjoy the best of both worlds, now you can. With a Mac.

*Purchase of Windows and Parallels software required.

Play Simcity for free - If you are using Windows

Play original simcity online - but only works in Windows environment....

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Is It Possible to Surpass World of Warcraft?

A new report from analyst group DFC Intelligence's David Cole looks at the unique path that gave rise to Blizzard's groundbreakingly-populated MMORPG World of Warcraft, including the myths behind its international impact, and the forecast for competitors hoping to break off a chunk of Blizzard's success.

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Apple to release 23-inch Merom-based iMac

Apple Computer in September plans to unveil a new line of iMac computers with faster processors and a little surprise to boot: a stunning 23-inch model.

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Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up

Wow! BusinessWeek Online's writer apparently had the same idea. I wonder who got the idea first?

Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up The two titans are drawing closer together. If they would just combine their offerings, they'd pose a real threat to Microsoft

Bill Gates Praising Macintosh

This is pure gold.....

Multi-Touch Digital Interaction

It was said that Apple had patented the technology, but I am not 100% sure. But I can imagine the possibilities in everuday's electronics. It'd be so cool.

Apple Keynote Bloopers

Some funny clips of Steve Jobs and his gang over at Apple mssing up on their very important keynotes. Nothing is perfect....

iTALK . Apple Cell Phone Spec Commercial

Spec commercial for a new cell phone from Apple by award winning filmmaker Christopher DeSantis with design by Gregory DeSantis. I really don't think this is a real thing and I don't think iTalk is a good name. I don't think MacBook and MacBook Pro are good names as well.

Microsoft Launches Mac Blog

Microsoft's Mac Business Unit (which is headed up by Roz Ho who has been seen at Stevenotes on a number of occasions) just launched their own blog, Mac Mojo. An interesting read which should expand into lots of insightful posts. Certainly beats all those glossy blogs that boil down to nothing.

read more | digg story

China: The Next Software Center?

"China may be world's manufacturing power, but it's hardly renowned as a software center. The world is going to need software center alternatives to India. For one thing, wages are rising in India. And it just isn't smart for companies to rely too heavily on one country. Only China has enough human resources", Liu argues.

read more | digg story

Apple + Google = new .Mac?

Hmmm......this is very interesting news, Google CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt Joins Apple’s Board of Directors. And somehow I got this feeling that Google and Apple had been flirting for some time - as you can see in my previous post.
What could this mean? I am totally speculative, but this may be the beginning of joint effort to create web services available for Mac users, a new .Mac.
There has been a lot of discussion around the future of .Mac in many blogs. Apple had been trying to get Mac users to pay premium for its web services - I was included - with its seamless integration with iLife. I was a .Mac user once and I saw the good value in paying the premium, happy with .Mac mail account, web calendar, and iDisk. But like most people, mail application is the most used facility. Then GMail was introduced, with huge storage capacity and - this is the best part - free. I started to question myself on whether I should stop my .Mac subsription. I decided to run in parallel and I found that I could live without .Mac, so last year I discontinued my .Mac account. Sometime I missed my .Mac account and Apple gave me some cute messages everytime I went to .Mac site. But I never click the renew button. I don't think I want to spend money on that service, although I like it. Google had been giving the service for free - (well, at cost of some privacy intrusion. But I am not a celebrity or a type of person that needs 'top-notch' privacy measurements, maybe I will be at some time, but not now).
I am Googled now. I post my photos from iPhoto to PicasaWeb, export my iCal to Google Calendar, and blog in Blogger. I don't have iLife 06, but what I can imagine is if Google and Apple synergize their product to be ultimate webservice for Mac users, iWeb should interface with Blogger and Google Pages, and my mac email account storage keep on growing in size. And all of these should be free.

Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro Coming Soon?

I was browsing Apple Store Australia - I am in the market for Macbook. And I was just wanted to check out the specials in the Sale page and Apple Store Australia apparently discounting MacBook Pro 15" WHILE STOCKS LAST! I could not think other possibility than MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo is coming on our way.

Well it is almost the end of August, so the rumour that Core 2 Duo MacBook (Pro - looks like it) will be in store in September may be closer to reality.

But I am not looking forward to get MacBook Pro - C'mon Apple, blow my head and give me extacy. Slam those Core 2 Duo in all range, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac!

iChat AV and AIM can do video call!

I think I missed this big time. I checked the articles and some of them were dated back in 2004. Will this be the answer I am looking for?

FYI, I won the bid for iSight. I have paid it out and waiting for delivery.

I blew up my PC

Granted that I did not take care of my PC well. I just left it on forever. For several months I had noticed that once in a while my PC rebooted itself and it became a frequent instance later on. It could probably because of updates or my anti-virus or spyware protection doing their stuff. It could be because of something else, I don't know.
Last weekend I saw my PC box' power led was not on. I thought it was because it just shut down by itself again. But until I tried to switch it on for several times - with the maximum progress of getting the windows welcome screen - that I realised it was (probably) the end of my PC.
I was thinking that I need to find my backup plan for video calling. I only have cheapo PC webcam that is not designed to work with mac. After some googling, I installed macam - and my webcam worked in my mac mini. It wasn't the best solution - the picture quality was less than when it was on my PC - but that should do it temporarily. FYI, I am bidding for a couple of mac webcams on eBay at this very moment.
I also installed the latest Mercury Messenger which supports webcam, winks, and some MSN functions - yet it does not support audio, yet. So I am now using Mercury Messenger for video and Skype for audio. This solution works so far although not elegant.
I am now thinking of getting another mac - with the justification that I just lost a PC. I don't know whether I should wait - or fix my PC, or get it right away. I am not looking forward to fixing my PC at the moment. Maybe after I get the copy of Vista Beta 2, maybe I can think of play around a bit. But now, I did not even want to touch it.
Let's see what happen with the webcam bidding and whether it makes my life better - which I doubt.

Wii Montage

Nintendo Wii Game Montage

Windows Vista Speech Recognition Demo Gone Awry

"Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all." Definitely not what the writer - uh, the speaker - wanted to say. However, Long Zheng from Melbourne (www.istartedsomething.com) said that he had successfuly tried the speech recognition tool in Vista Beta and he said he had satisfactory result. My view on this? No comment. Let's wait until Vista really come out.

I Started Something

I accidently found this blog, www.istartedsomething.com - trying to read the article on Vista's speech recognision module. His writing style has tendencies to support Microsoft and otherwise for Apple. Fair enough. And that brought me to skim through his blog. I would say that it is really nicely done and he showed his enthusiasm. I like it a lot.
He is fairly young and still have plenty of time exploring his passion - nothing wrong there. I even support that as it would give me additional interesting reading material.
He has tendencies leaning towards microsoft product but I think he is also fair in adapting to technology as he insisted on using Quicktime HD format for his video as he believed that it is the best quality format. He also seemed to follow Apple's business strategy - some of his posts showing he looked at articles about Apple, including watching - or at least reading about - WWDC06 Keynote. That is a elegant way to create argument, I would say.
Kudos to you Long Zheng. Keep up the good work.

Brutal Beauty - Alfa Romeo Brera

 
I saw this car for the first time in Sydney Motor Show 2005, and was not yet in the showroom. Now it is available but with hefty price tag - as I suspected for this amazingly beautiful car. Alfa has been one of the most exciting car producers - and being Italian, it has strong emotional character, which I love. The Australian version is actually using Holden Commodore's engine, tuned by Alfa and it has Alfa's direct injection system to give the Alfa feeling. 

I Sneaked a Leopard - But Would I Pick It?

As much as I was excited with the incoming Mac OS X - Leopard, I don't think I am in the market for one with what were revealed in WWDC2006 today. I may need to see when the "TOP SECRET" new things introduced. And yes, I watched the WWDC2006 video stream.
I did not see iChat talking to other protocol. Although someone said you can connect iChat through Jabber Australia, it connects through Jabber's server to MSN. Definetely no video chat. I like the presentation that it can have customized backdrop - photo or video, which could be fun for the first time. After some time, people will get bored.
And it seemed to be able to use the full functionality - and experience - of Leopard, you need new Mac that is powerful enough. I use iMac G3 in daily basis (and my mac mini to store my media as well as playing it). I guess Tiger will be the latest OS my iMac can run in. The time comes soon for me to fork out my hard-earned dollars to pick up Intel Macs - if Leopard is really that good.

Mobile Blogging

I can't sleep yet. I'm too excited knowing that I can do more with my mobile. It may cost me extra dollars for using the internet from my mobile, but I really want to check how whether it works. I bet as soon as I finished this post, I'll be up and check the result from my computer.

[ Sent from my mobile phone using the Blogger widget from www.bluepulse.com ]

PS: I've checked and I think I can go to sleep now. Good night.

Tribute for a Great Australian Car of the Decade - Commodore VE

As well as I like digital technology, I love cars. I still do not see the point of having one at the moment - Sydney is an expensive place to maintain a car. However, I am giving my salute to Holden for its nearly launched Commodore VE. It is a car brought and built from scratch to be GM's global RWD (Rear-Wheeled Drive) platform. And I should say it is a beautiful car. It's bigger and heavier then the previous version - its based model, Omega, has 16" wheels as standard due to bigger brakes.
The VE is also designed with possible application of hybrid engines and all-wheel-drive, if required in the future, as well as smaller engines. But currently it comes in V6 and V8 inheritted from current Commodores.
The design has BMW resemblance due to moved-forward front wheel base. It was designed in 1999 with big vision and added safety features. But I can see that the car is designed with passion (and from Wheel Magazine picture, the designer used Macs).
Overall, it looks like a car that can last. Although in Australia it will have challenge with exclusivity, with VE taxis will be running around the city, it is still a damn good car.

Wii Trailers - Games to be Available in Nintendo Wii

As I predicted that Nintendo Wii will be my game platform for near future - it is a big thing for me, my last console was Sega (can't remember the type), I did some quick research online. I want to see what titles will be available for this platform and will I (and my girlfriend) happy with those titles.
I went to Game Trailers, to check out. The page gave me lists of soon-to-be-available games for Wii, and I can't recall myself played most of the titles - its previous version, to be exact. But I recognised some of the old characters still there, like ol' Mario. I also seen Star Wars in the list - I am not Star Wars fan either, the Star Wars movie I've seen are the first ones (episode IV, V, VI - in the new world). But the games that caught my attention were Wii Sports, WarioWare Smooth Moves, and Dragon Ball.
These games really make use of the new interface of Wii - I bet other games, too, but like I said they did not catch my attention as it looked so complicated. The idea of using the controller as a racket, bat, club (Wii Sport), the way you have to "move" with the controller to control the characters (WarioWare and Dragon Ball). It looks enjoyable just by seeing the player moves, which is beyond the enjoyment watching people playing game on the TV screen. This is real interaction. I can see myself and my friends running around my living room to get score in the game.
Well, Nintendo. You get a plus there - from me. I am just not sure whether my girlfriend is in the same page with me, but I am sold. She is a Playstation user, so I don't know if she is willing to "switch". But I am not a gamer and I think I can "survive" some of your game titles. I may even win some of the Dragon Ball fights.

I Just Tripped My Laptop's Power Cable - MagSafe Seems Like a Good Idea

I was working with my office laptop and had to rush to the kitchen to save my dinner for being overcooked. And I tripped the power cord and pull my laptop almost to the edge of the table. No damage had been done but I could see the worst scenario. My laptop has security feature to protect the data if it falls, but it does not have the feature to prevent it to fall in the first place.
Regardless of some issue with MagSafe - burning jack and all, Apple has a good idea to shoot the root issue of protecting the laptop - and its data. I hope Apple keeps improving MagSafe instead of ditching it.
Nice work, Apple.

Video Game Dilemma

I knew I should not do it. But I did. I started looking at the new game consoles; MS XBox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii. I am not a gamer. The game I play now only online solitaire and online monopoly. So why am I looking at these game consoles? Because they made these consoles possible to do other than running games softwares. Xbox extended itself as Media Centre client. Playstation - with its Blu-Ray player - may be the media centre on its own. Wii, on the other hand, explore more on the gaming experience. At least, that is the way I see it as a non-gamer.
My girlfriend - on the opposite - is a hardcore gamer, at least from my perspective. She bought a computer with bumped up RAM and VRAM to ensure she has the best gaming experience. She can spend hours and hours in front of her computer, playing World of Warcraft (WoW). She interacts with people online to do some kind of mission. She talked with them with Skype-like application, Team Speak, to coordinate the mission. It scares me the way this game make interactions so closer to reality. There is a very thin line between virtual and real world. My girlfriend said she can separate those worlds, but I can see why some people couldn't.
Anyway, she tried to introduce me to games - by bringing Playstation 2 to my place one time - or sending the screenshots of her 'mission' in WoW via email. I am not an anti video games - I am just suck at playing games. Just too many buttons to press and too many combinations. I used to play space invaders, pac-man - with okay performance - and the most complicated game I ever played was Street Fighters and Mortal Kombat (both the first release version). That was the time that I realised I had reached my limit. My girlfriend grew up with Playstation already in the market. She can tap those buttons in any combinations possible - which I like in any other circumstances.
So, obviously she just beat the crap out of me in the games. And she probably thought that I was not a good game buddy. And she is now playing WoW where she can play with other game enthusiasts. I feel left off and always in bad mood if I found her playing that game. Although she came with a very good reason; by playing WoW, she just stayed at home and play with total strangers. Which apparently not always the case as one day she told me she was thinking of going for "off-line gathering" of her WoW team out of town. I can only say - I hate WoW. And I just said it once more over Live Messenger to her - she is playing WoW on the other side of the world as I type this post. She said I was cute everytime I said that - and continued playing.
Enough about me girlfriend and her WoW. It is an endless argument between her and I. But I love her as she is.
XBox 360, PS3, and Wii. If I am to buy a game console, which will I pick? I am not a hardcore gamer, and has no past attachment with previous platform (XBox, PS2 or Gamecube). On paper, Wii should be my good option. It's the cheapest among the three, the games looks amazing and the one that caught my eyes is the way we interact with the game. The Wii controller makes the games (probably) easier to play for people like me; more movements instead of pressing combination of buttons. XBox and PS are more for the high quality graphics, surround sound, processing hungry, out-of-the-world gaming experience enthusiasts, which my character hardly in that area. I was more interested with the current packages offering PS2 with Trivia quizzes and Karaoke - rather than discussing how good the graphics of Halo 2. And the price - AUD600 for XBox 360 and AUD1,000 for PS3 - will not cut to my interest level of playing games. Including after added justification of XBox to be my media center client or PS3 to be my next HD (Blu-Ray) DVD player.
Will I get Nintendo Wii? Most likely. But I will wait until my girlfriend's next visit, and see whether this could be our "bridge" of our video game interest - or the lack of it.

Could Leopard be The Answer for My Dilemma?

Part of my Saturday morning (afternoon in Sydney time - but it's Saturday!) religious activity is browsing through internet to find something new on Mac. I always love these rumour sites because they have some free thinking on what Apple should deliver next. Some are ridiculously funny and far streched and some closer to reality. I would not put my bet on iPhone (or iChat Mobile) yet, although it may be in the pipeline. I still remember Motorola ROKR was introduced last year and I did not see it picked up. The selling point was only the ability to play AAC, yet the storage capacity is far less of a decent iPods. It is still not an iPod alternative and it was not meant to be. The concept of iPhone as communication tool - with iChat interface - may suit Apple better. However prospective buyers still need to budget the increasing cost of wireless internet -assuming will be 3G - usage to use iChat in their phones.
I am not going to talk about iPhone. I am most interested in Apple's direction with iChat. iChat is not the most popular protocol for instant messaging - and video call. It has potential as it delivers high quality video and video conference capability. But it has small user base, Mac users only - and for pre-intel era, who can afford iSight. As I mentioned in my previous post, I had invested a dedicated box running windows, just for video calls. Overkill? Maybe - especially with the fact that I am not a gamer. But it works and it helps my personal life. And the price is justifiable at the time comparing to buying iSight - and its limitation of people I can contact. My loved ones do not use Mac - they live in areas where windows is a standard platform. And with the box comes extra storage, too.
So, if my Mac can use cheaper webcam and do video calls with MSN, Yahoo, and Skype users I will be in heaven. I have been hoping for years - as long as I have been using windows at home. Before I live separated from my loved ones, I only use windows for work. I had Linux box as my media server and I interact with the digital world through my Macs. I did not have the need of video call as I can meet them in person. Now video call is a necessity. I interact digitally with the people I love.
I saw an article released very recently from O'Grady's PowerPage on what to be expected in Leopard, the next Mac OS. And I quickly glance through the iChat new offers.

iChat 4.0:

• 7 way video conversations available.
• A new window with gives iSight feedback and also letting you optimize your video stream how you want to.
• Better Voice over IP integration.
• Folders for contacts.
• Different layout, quite hard to explain, but better.
• MSN and Yahoo integration
• Dedicated iChat widget

Below are my comments on new iChat (possible) enhancements:

7 way video conversations available

Big deal. Unless you are in a business conference in seven separate locations, this function has no big impact for me. It helps if the video call can use less bandwidth so you have better quality picture for slower internet connection.

A new window with gives iSight feedback and also letting you optimize your video stream how you want to.

Maybe good if you have iSight, or new intel-Macs

Better Voice over IP integration.

Hey, this may be good. But I don't use iChat for voice. Hey - I don't use iChat for anything now.

Folders for contacts.

Yeah, yeah. Cosmetics. Gotta see the look and feel.

Different layout, quite hard to explain, but better.

Another cosmetics. I'll do a raincheck later.

MSN and Yahoo integration

Now, this is interesting. Can they do video chat? If not, I'll stick with my ol'box.

Dedicated iChat widget

Uh-huh. Bet it'll drag my iMac G3.

In summary, I am not too impressed with what to offer by Leopard, especially in iChat department. I may get Leopard if it comes with my next Mac. Or I may not buy my next Mac until it comes with Leopard. But definitely I will not upgrade my current Tiger to Leopard. And sadly it seemed that I still have to use my windows box for video chat.

Personal Technology Dilemma

I check Digg regularly. And yesterday I found Google launched the beta product of Picasa Web Album - with iPhoto uploader. More and more Google's services available in Mac, thanks to increasing popularity of the Apple system. I use mac and windows at home - windows at work - because I like the way mac "works", however some applications make more sense working in windows environment.
Mac has been great in managing my personal life. Email, web browsing - flicking from Safari to Firefox as some web apps not Safari compatible, and photo management. I also like the concept of .mac but finally I have to terminate my account as I don't see why I have to pay as the services I use available freely from Yahoo!, Google, - and MSN.
iChat is supposed to be my ultimate video call solution. Video conferencing with multiple users would be my answer to talk with my family and friends that happen to be scattered around Asia - if they have iChat (meaning they are mac users) and afford to buy iSight or new intel based Macs with built-in iSight. Sadly to say, Windows Live Messenger (then - MSN Messenger) running on windows is my answer now. And probably for some more time - it is a free service, people I want to contact mostly has an account - or can apply for free, and I can get cheap webcam for video call. I set up a machine with minimum specifications just enough to run Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, and QQ (Chinese Messenger). It is still cheaper than fork out iSight (or new Macs) and upgrade iLife (if the new iChat can talk with other protocols - you never know), and converting my family and friends to Mac.
I also downloaded Picasa 2 for windows and I am amazed to its resemblance of ease of use of that of iPhoto's. It has the same look and feel, and it gives you option to send photo via your default email client or Gmail. Sweet! It lists down pictures (and videos) in nice layout - and not forcing the user to move to different folder. It keeps original photos after touch-ups. Direct blogger interface - for photo only, not video (I wish they can do video soon). Microsoft should thank Google as this is the answer to iPhoto, because I am hooked.
And this Google new service has made me sign-in to blogger, this blog is the outcome. And my amazemend continues. This is like a multi-orgasm of a man with mediocre technology savviness with limited free-time and budget. The setup is simple and the template available for use mostly has slick design. Just write your thoughts and publish. I have been using different free blogging services and I have not seen the design as slick as what blogger offers. Yes, I am Googled.
However, this does not solve my dilemma. Mac only solution at home (with iLife as its centre activity) has been less attractive with more slick products freely available from Google (and Yahoo - and maybe Live) plus issue in communication solution with non-Mac users. Windows only solution always not my answer as I don't like the way it interacts (I'm not talking about Vista - I have not seen it). I am a Mac fan in nature, but also a functionalist and realist. I am hoping the new Mac OS can give me answer, but I am not hoping too much as I realise we are the victims of business decisions. Hoping iChat user can do a video call (and conferencing) with MSN users is too far off.
So I guess I will be using my iMac G3, Mac Mini G4, Celeron PC, and IBM X41 (office laptop) for a while. Google's support for Mac should help make my life easier with organising my mail, calendar (iCal compatible), and now photos. I am giving a lot of hope with Google now and hope they can move towards neutrality in providing services for Mac and windows users (not putting Linux in the equation yet). I am hoping Google Talk with video that compatible with Mac and windows users. Did I ask too much?

This article is a show of my support to Google in getting its product compatible with Mac (especially older Macs).