Haven’t done one of these in a while. If you guys and gals still have your magnets, please send in some holiday-themed photos if you have the chance. For now, please enjoy this excellent picture from RPadholic nightshade386. He put his magnet on a classic WWF — not WWE! — Intercontinental Championship! The Honky Tonk man would be proud.
While I wasn’t high on The Dark Knight Rises trailer, I completely lost it when I saw the trailer for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I loved Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films and I’m sure I’ll dig this movie too. The tech nerd in me (most of me) loves that Jackson is using Red Epic 3D cameras. Those super expensive cameras pack some serious tech and should make the movie look brilliant. Also, Gandalf is cool.
Anyway, kindly leave your thoughts on The Hobbit trailer when you have a chance.
T-Mobile’s HSPA+ 42 and Verizon’s LTE are two great choices for high-speed mobile-Internet access. However, I hear and read a lot of misinformation about what each does and offers. To give you an idea of their respective capabilities, I ran some speed tests in four different areas of Los Angeles using Ookla’s Speedtest.net app. On the T-Mobile HSPA+ 42 side I used a Samsung Galaxy S II (reviewed here). On the Verizon LTE side I used a Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Each test was performed five times. Here are the average results for each location.
Los Angeles (Hollywood)
| Ping | Upload | Download | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S II | 460.2 ms | 0.966 Mbps | 5.618 Mbps |
| Samsung Galaxy Nexus | 59.6 ms | 5.43 Mbps | 11.144 Mbps |
Los Angeles (Silver Lake)
| Ping | Upload | Download | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S II | 166.4 ms | 1.474 Mbps | 8.94 Mbps |
| Samsung Galaxy Nexus | 56 ms | 6.68 Mbps | 14.788 Mbps |
Los Angeles (Union Station)
| Ping | Upload | Download | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S II | 449.4 ms | 1.24 Mbps | 7.792 Mbps |
| Samsung Galaxy Nexus | 50.8 ms | 4.584 Mbps | 6.176 Mbps |
Los Angeles (Koreatown)
| Ping | Upload | Download | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Samsung Galaxy S II | 459 ms | 0.788 Mbps | 8.388 Mbps |
| Samsung Galaxy Nexus | 50.2 ms | 6.244 Mbps | 13.164 Mbps |
As with any measure of mobile Internet speeds, your results will vary depending on coverage, time of day, number of local subscribers, etc. Unlike the batch of tests I did pitting HSPA+ 21 against HSPA+ 42, I was only able to run tests in one city. Although Los Angeles is ridiculously large, it’s only one city and the results are not necessarily indicative of the performance you’ll get (unless you’re reading this article in Los Angeles).
A lot of tech enthusiasts make the mistake of only looking at download speeds when comparing different mobile services. As you can see from the test results, T-Mobile HSPA+ 42 is competitive with LTE when it comes to downloads. In terms of upload speeds and latency, LTE blows HSPA+ 42 away. Unless the only thing you do with your phone is download files, upload speed and latency are important for an optimum Internet experience. If you use your phone for tethering or as a WiFi hotspot, the differences are even more pronounced.
HSPA+ is a great technology and has lots of room for growth. I expect T-Mobile to aggressively increase the download speeds it offers with HSPA+ over the next few years. However, the technology simply isn’t as efficient with data as LTE. While T-Mobile will probably double its HSPA+ speeds several times over the next couple of years, upload speeds and latency will always be behind Verizon’s LTE.
Keep in mind that I’m not trying to dog T-Mobile at all. I’m a fan of the company. It offers great prices and service. For a lot of people, HSPA+ 42 speeds are more than enough. For tech heads that want the fastest speeds across the board, LTE from AT&T or Verizon is the way to go.
I’m totally marking out for WWE programming right now. This has been my favorite period of WWE television since Shawn Michaels retired. A guy that used Twitter to get over and two guys I watched with dozens of other people at Ring of Honor…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, random people paying off random layaway accounts at K-Mart, Rudolph vs. Frosty, or Intelligentsia’s Colombia La Loma, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
I’m totally marking out for WWE programming right now. This has been my favorite period of WWE television since Shawn Michaels retired. A guy that used Twitter to get over and two guys I watched with dozens of other people at Ring of Honor shows are holding championship belts. I love that three guys that work hard and genuinely connect with fans are getting pushed by WWE. While I have an aching suspicion that at least one of the three championship reigns will be short, I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts. Join me as I reflect on three of the current WWE champions.
Zack Ryder United States Champion: I wrote a bit about the crazy phenomenon of Ryder a few weeks ago. As an Internet nerd, I have to give it up to a guy that used Twitter outreach and YouTube videos to connect with fans. I completely respect and admire what he did; WWE management wasn’t giving him an opportunity to shine, so he took matters into his own hands and created his own success. While I’m happy for Ryder, it’s not the same level of excitement I feel for the next two champions.
CM PUNK WWE Champion: I know that a few of you are down on Punk because of his size, but you can’t question his in-ring ability or deny the fact that he has cut the best promos in WWE all year. As you probably know, I’m partial to Ring of Honor alumni and love when those guys do well in bigger companies. Punk also gets mad bonus points for posing with some of my Pokemon dolls for a Games Radar article I did back in the day. I love that my photos of Punk and my Pokemon are on the first page of Google results when you do an image search for “CM Punk”.
Punk is just a great wrestler that has worked hard to get one of the top spots in the business. I think it’s great that he’s old school. I love that he prefers the term “pro-wrestling” over “sports entertainment”. It was nice that he wore a Randy Savage outfit and started incorporating Savage’s elbow drop shortly after Macho Man passed away. Even though I generally don’t trust people who drink, I think Punk is awesome. He’s my second-favorite straight-edge person.
Daniel Bryan World Heavyweight Champion: Before WWE re-branded him as Daniel Bryan, Bryan Danielson was one of my favorite Ring of Honor wrestlers. I believe he’s one of the top three wrestlers in WWE today. His game is just so diverse, mixing outstanding mat wrestling, high-flying moves, and modern MMA twists. Yeah, he’s still finding his way on the mic, but he’s getting a lot better (something John Morrison never did). More importantly, his wrestling is so good that fans connect with him and want to see him do well. It’s weird seeing him (fake) tan and wearing more black than red these days, but he’ll always be “The American Dragon” Bryan Danielson to me — one of the best wrestlers I’ve seen live.
I love the photo above from CM Punk’s Twitter feed. Seeing Punk and Danielson with the two major WWE straps gives me warm fuzzies. It’s great seeing two guys that are superiors wrestlers make it to the top. It’s sweet that two guys that have known each other for more than a decade and have wrestled in hundreds of high-school gyms are headlining shows that are watched by millions of people. In many ways, the photo reminds me of when Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit held those belts. Similar to how Punk and Danielson made their way through the indie scene together, Guerrero and Benoit went from ECW to WCW to WWE together. The two were also great wrestlers that were on the small side. When Benoit and Guerrero were celebrating with their titles at WrestleMania XX, I remember thinking, “Damn. That’s a lot of confetti,” and also, “It feels nice to see that the right guys have the belts.”
Sadly, I don’t have a ton of faith in WWE creative to leave the strap on Danielson. Hell, he only has it now because Mark Henry suffered a groin injury and they had to quickly rewrite the match. It’s too early to tell, but I fear he’ll just be a transitional champion.
I don’t know how long these three WWE Superstars will keep their championships, but it’s great to see that, once again, the right guys have won.
Here’s my favorite videogame commercial of 2011. Surprisingly, it does not star Kevin Butler. I’m a huge fan of the ads starring Sony’s fictitious vice president, but the “Michael” spot outdoes them all. It’s just awesome to see so many different characters from so many different games hanging out in the same room. Worlds collide…and it’s awesome.
Consider this a warm up for next week’s Coffee Talk columns when I’ll be asking you about your favorite game, videogame graphics, electronics, etc. of 2011. For now, please let know what your favorite videogame commercial of 2011 was and embed it in the comments section if you have a chance.
Sony is off to a promising start with the PlayStation Vita in Japan. According to Famitsu (via Andriasang), 321,407 units were sold during the first two days of availability. This is nearly double what the PlayStation Portable sold in its first two days (166,074) and nearly as good as the Nintendo 3DS (371,326).
The PlayStation Vita is slated for a February 22, 2012 release in North America. It will be interesting to see how the U.S. launch compares to the Japanese one. Personally, I’m way more interested in the Vita’s launch than I was the 3DS’ launch. The initial software is just more interesting…and I have a soft spot in my heart for underdogs.
Any of you getting Vitamania yet? How do you think the Vita will fare outside of Japan? Are you surprised by the great success Sony has had with the Vita so far?
Source via Andriasang
Here’s the latest trailer for The Dark Knight Rises. Loads of my friends are raving about it, but it doesn’t do much for me. I don’t think it’s bad at all, but I’m not blown away like some of my friends are. Also, I hate Bane’s mask. I mostly dislike Bane’s entire outfit. Surprisingly, I’m mostly unmoved by the trailer.
How about you? How do you feel about the new trailer for The Dark Knight Rises?
During a multifaceted geek chat with Nerd Friend X, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon came up. As a tech enthusiast and a gamer, I feel obligated to support the show. It helps that I actually dig Fallon’s humor and my buddy Gavin works on the show…
Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, if Tebowmania will die down now that the Broncos’ streak has snapped, your WWE World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan (!!!), or Rooney Mara vs. Kate Mara, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
During a multifaceted geek chat with Nerd Friend X, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon came up. As a tech enthusiast and a gamer, I feel obligated to support the show. It helps that I actually dig Fallon’s humor and my buddy Gavin works on the show. I was surprised to learn that Nerd Friend X hates the show and Fallon. It’s one thing if he doesn’t like Fallon’s humor and the show’s writing; it’s not for everyone. As a gamer and tech enthusiast, I feel that he should support it. After all, nobody else in late night features game developers and tech editors.
I love that Epic Games’ Cliff Bleszinski showed Gears of War 3 on the show. It’s awesome that Naughty Dog’s Evan Wells and Christophe Balestra dropped by to demo Uncharted 3. Microsoft got a ton of press when Microsoft’s Kudo Tsunoda showed Kinect to mainstream America on Fallon. TheVerge.com’s Joshua Topolsky (ex-Endgadget) drops by regularly to tell Jimmy and his audience about the latest and greatest in consumer electronics. Is there a late-night show that’s more nerd-friendly than Late Night with Jimmy Fallon?
Jimmy Fallon, his writers, and his producers are the future of late night…at least the future of what I want late night to be. People that grew up with games and/or obsessed with nerd toys are getting older. I love that there’s a late-night TV-show that covers my interests with respect and enthusiasm. I dream of the day Fallon gets the 11:30 slot, bringing great games and tech content to “the big show”. With your support, he’ll get there.
What do you think of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon featuring videogames and consumer electronics? If Fallon gets an 11:30 show, do you think he’ll continue bringing on game developers and tech experts as guests? Or will games and geek stuff be relegated to after midnight instead of before it?
I had a vision recently. I saw The Undertaker’s legendary WrestleMania streak end. I saw The Dead Man lose to a Holy Man at WrestleMania XXVIII. Of course I’m talking about Tim Tebow. Never mind that the Denver Broncos’ winning streak came to end yesterday. Tebow has the power of light! He’s the world’s only hope against The Undertaker’s dark dominance of WrestleMania.
If Tebow vs. ‘Taker went down at WrestleMania XXVIII, how do you think it would go down? Kindly vote in today’s poll and describe the match you see in your head in the comments section.
[poll id=”142″]
My pal Chris Cross at Tarver Games recently blogged about a few slick company t-shirts. Available now is a sweet Ghosts Attack t-shirt. The shirt features the icon from Cross’ slick iOS game. Coming soon, partially because I pestered him about how cool it would be, is a Tarver Games t-shirt. I’ve always loved the Tarver Games logo. Donkeys are funny.
Picking up a Ghosts Attack t-shirt has been proven by Ivy League statisticians to increase the coolness of your wardrobe by 22 percent. Matching it with some RPad.tv swag (an excellent holiday gift) improves your wardrobe immeasurably. Seriously though, the Ghosts Attack shirt looks great and supports future projects from Tarver Games. Pick one up if you get a chance (please)!
