Super Mario Galaxy 2
Any of you guys and dolls picking up any of this week’s new games?
Author: RPadTV
https://rpad.tv
Coffee Talk #149: Console Gaming Without Consoles?
I’ve been thinking a lot about how Google TV, the Chrome Store, and HTML5 can change gaming. Seeing a version of LEGO: Star Wars running on HTML5 and delivered through the Chrome Store made a lot of lights go off in my head (What? You don’t have lights in your head?!?). The next day, Google announced Google TV along with its launch partners. “A-ha!” I said to myself, “There’s the final piece of the puzzle!”
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, Lost vs. Sopranos finale, 24 ending tonight, or Cleveland firing Mike Brown, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about how Google TV, the Chrome Store, and HTML5 can change gaming. Seeing a version of LEGO: Star Wars running on HTML5 and delivered through the Chrome Store made a lot of lights go off in my head (What? You don’t have lights in your head?!?). The next day, Google announced Google TV along with its launch partners. “A-ha!” I said to myself, “There’s the final piece of the puzzle!”
Picture this: playing complex HTML5 games on a Sony television with Google TV built in — no console required! Sure, a web game will never be as impressive as one running on a proper console, but for most people LEGO: Star Wars graphics are completely acceptable. You know the millions of people that are fiending on casual and social games? I can easily see them “graduating” to a more involved experience in HTML5 games. If Google want it, the company could become a big player in the home gaming space.
What do you guys and gals think? Do you see a future playing games without a box and with a service like Google TV? Do you think I’m giving Google too much credit here? I know several of you are still weeping over the Lost finale, but give the matter some thought and leave a comment. I’d love to chat about this with you!
Google’s Chris Pruett Speaks on Developing Android Games
Here are several photos from Google developer advocate Chris Pruett’s Google I/O 2010 panel on developing games for Android. Looking at the slides will give you a better understand of the challenges Android developers face. In addition to developing for a relatively new platform, Android developers have to contend with multiple versions of the operating system floating around on different hardware (various screen resolutions, trackballs, d-pads, keyboards, etc). Optimizing for the latest and greatest version is all well and good, but considering that a large portion of the phones are running older versions of Android and the input options differ from phone to phone, games have to be scaled to work for all kinds of users.
Pruett used his experience creating Replica Island to give developers insights on different approaches to take in creating Android games. One of the coolings ways he took advantage of the mobile platform was tracking difficulty and updating the game accordingly. His game sends back data on where players are dying. He sees the results on level maps containing heat spots that indicated where players were dying the most. With updates, he adjusts levels to be less frustrating and more fun.
Pictures of the map and more can be found below!
(Not a Review of the) HTC Evo 4G: Part I — The First 24 Hours
I’ve been using the HTC Evo 4G for a little over a day and I want to share my initial impressions with all of you. This is going to be the first entry in a multi-part series that (not) reviews the phone. While some sites would serve up a review of a phone based on a day’s use, I think that’s remarkably stupid. How useful is a review based on 24 hours with a consumer electronics product?!? I’m going to approach this series — as much as I can — from a “normal” user’s perspective and not a “reviewer’s” point of view. Remember, these impressions are all from my first day using the phone and my thoughts will probably change after further use. Let’s get to it!
My HTC Evo 4G was ready to go minutes after it was opened. Like all Android phones, you simply type in your Google login information and your email, contacts, and calendar are synced to the phone. Keep in mind that I already organize my contacts on my primary Gmail account (I highly recommend this since you can sync to multiple phone platforms). If you don’t store your contacts in the cloud, basic setup will take longer.
If you’re a light social networker then you’ll probably dig HTC’s Friend Stream application. Also part of the initial setup process, this little app aggregates your Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr friend feeds. It’s a clean and handsome program, but it’s too simple for my purposes. I like to use Facebook and Twitter in different ways and prefer having separate apps for each service. I also follow too many people, which can make Friend Stream a bit overwhelming to look at. That said, I think a lot of you would like it for being a simple all-in-one solution.
The Evo 4G’s 4.3-inch screen is awesome, but it can also be problematic. It’s gorgeous to look at. High-resolution movies look fantastic on it. The problems I had (in the first 24 hours) stemmed from its impressive resolution — 800 x 480. I’ll use YouTube as an example. Videos with the “HQ” label looked brilliant and took advantage of the screen’s size and phone’s horsepower. Older videos and ones from low-res sources look terrible. Low-res movies that look good on a iPhone (480 x 320 screen) can look nasty and pixelated on the Evo 4G. This is absolutely not HTC’s fault and don’t think I’m dinging the phone for having a beautiful high-res screen. My point is that for common usage, the high resolution can sometimes be a curse.
As for touching the screen, I had no problems with the Evo 4G. Some people greatly prefer the iPhone’s touch sensitivity. Several tests have shown that the iPhone’s touchscreen is superior to most screens on competing phones in terms of responsiveness. While I fully admit that the Evo 4G’s screen is slightly less responsive than the iPhone 3GS’s, I was able to to do everything I wanted to with it. Typing, navigating, and using pinch-to-zoom were totally fine for me. This is one area where I recommend trying it for yourself. Some of you will have no problems with the touchscreen. Some of you — particularly longtime iPhone users — will have issues with it.
For web browsing, the Evo 4G uses a modified version of Android’s WebKit-based browser. It’s a fantastic browser that will let you enjoy most web sites to their fullest. By default, Flash (you know that Adobe thing Apple hates?) is turned on and JavaScript is turned off. After changing the latter setting, I enjoyed all the sites I visit on a daily basis. Using pinch-to-zoom to enlarge certain areas of a site was a breeze. During my first day with the phone, I did more web browsing than anything else. Having a great browser and beautiful screen made web surfing a pleasure.
While the Evo 4G can do a ton out of the box, I had to raid the Android Market to make it a fully functional Raymondtron 9000 (I’ve dubbed this phone the Raymondtron 9000 Mark IV). Here’s what I’ve downloaded so far: NYTimes, Barcode Scanner, Foursquare, Pandora Radio, Amazon.com, AIM, Advanced Task Killer, Google Voice, Google Goggles, Yelp, and WordPress. Everything works great so far and I can’t say enough about Android’s ability to multitask. While the iPhone App Store has way more applications than the Android Market, I’ve found everything I need to confidently call it a Raymondtron 9000.
So yeah! I hope you’ve enjoyed my initial thoughts. I still have a ton to go over, including battery life, camera quality, gaming, and more. Those aspects of the Evo 4G will be covered in future installments of this “not a review”. For now, fire away any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer them. Also, if there are any aspects of the phone you want me to examine, please let me know.
Google Celebrates Pac-Man, Confuses Firefox Users
To celebrate Pac-Man’s 30th birthday, Google has a playable version of the groundbreaking game on its homepage (as pictured above). This is very cool…unless you’re a Firefox user. Wired’s Chris Kohler sent out a tweet linking to Mozilla’s Firefox support page. Apparently Google and Pac-Man are confusing the crap out of some people (idiots) and causing genuine issues for a few. Check out the screen grab below.
Some of these people are just morons that don’t understand what’s going on with their homepage. A few of these people seem to have real issues and have attempted reasonable troubleshooting measures, but are still getting Pac-Man sounds. It sucks for people in the latter category. The complaints filed by people that…aren’t so tech savvy are completely amusing and worth a read.
Random Google I/O Photos
Want to see what I saw at Google I/O 2010? Then check out these pictures! I wanted to give you guys an idea of what it was like to walk around the show. Don’t worry, I didn’t take any photos of boring conference rooms where the panels took place. Instead you’ll see funky balloons, cool displays, and hundreds of people waiting in line for a new phone. Check it out!
What Are You Playing This Weekend?
This weekend is going to be tough for my “hardcore” games. I really want to play Alan Wake, but it will probably have to wait a few days. Most of my attention will be going to my HTC Evo 4G — it’s needy like that. I also need two more victories in Scrabble for Hasbro Family Game Night to get another Achievement. So yeah! That’s what I’ll be doing this weekend — enjoying my new phone and winning Scrabble games.
How about you? What’s on your weekend playlist?
Sprint HTC Evo 4G Unboxing Photos
Here are some pictures of the HTC Evo 4G. My first impressions will be up in a few hours (waiting to hit the 24-hourmark with the phone). For now, please check out these photos and let me know if you have any questions about the phone.
Google I/O 2010 Keynote Live Blog: Android and Google TV
Hey guys! I’m live blogging from Google’s big Android keynote today. The Internet in the convention center’s Internet is fixed, so let’s go for it! Keep refreshing for the latest updates (please).
Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra is running the show. The jabs at Apple are numerous. He rants about us not wanting “one man from one company with one phone on one carrier”. Ha.
– I’m skipping the “Android is awesome — look at our stats” part.
– Android 2.2 (FroYo) is official! Here are the highlights.
- Speed — The new JIT compiler speeds up Android two to five times. The benefits can be seen on all hardware. This should make users of the HTC G1 happy.
- Enterprise — FroYo has 29 new enterprise features. Out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange has been okay at best. Google is addressing things will improved syncing, remote wipes, etc. Depending on how good and easy-to-implement these features are, RIM and its BlackBerry phones could be in trouble.
- Tethering and Portable Hotspots — Most of you knew this was coming. It’s still awesome though. Google is showing an iPad tethering off a Nexus One. Ha!
- Web Browser is Two to Three Times Faster — The company has implemented tech from the Google Chrome browser (V8) in Android. It’s a browser speed contest: iPad vs. Nexus One. The Nexus One trounces the iPad, despite the latter having a much faster processor. Of course this is Google’s test, so what else was it going to show?
– Voice recognition will be a big part of Android going forward. The demo is pretty slick. I’m sure the effectiveness will depend on the clarity of your voice. Complex voice searches were made. Phones calls were made too, but that’s been done before. Saying a long, complex search term is much faster than typing it (especially on a virtual keyboard).
– Big cheers for the Adobe and Flash logos. Vic says, “It turns out, on the Internet…people use Flash!” Flash is shown running
– Applications can now be stored on SD cards. This was a huge flaw in the Android ecosystem. It needed to be addressed.
– App updates can now be turned off or run automated in the background.
– The Android Marketplace has been greatly improved for desktop browsers. Users can look at apps, read reviews, purchase apps, and have them beamed to the phone from the browser. That last feature is cool. I would use something like that — explore apps on my PC, make an impulse purchase, and enjoy it on my phone seconds later without syncing.
– Music on your desktop can now be streamed to your Android phone. The music has to be DRM free. That’s pretty cool too.
– It’s the advertising portion of the keynote. I’m not interested in this part. I’m sure you’re not either. I’m going to zone out for a few seconds and catch up on site comments.
– Vic is totally selling the HTC Evo 4G. He better give me one. Developers are getting it today. I want it too!
– Google TV is official! The goal is to bring the best of the web and TV together. The slogan is “TV meets web. Web meets TV.” Here are the four goals for Google TV:
- Less time finding, more time watching
- Control and personalize what you watch
- Make your existing TV content much more interesting
- Mark your TV more than a TV
– A demo of Google TV starts with the interface of a traditional cable/satellite box. Yes, it’s sucky and archaic. The Google part of the demo isn’t working at the moment (oops!). Thankfully Old School is on the screen. Will Ferrell is funny. Ah, it’s working again. It’s being controlled by a Bluetooth keyboard. Google TV has a simple search box at the top of the screen. You’ll get results from TV and the Internet. If you click on a TV search result, it goes to the channel.
– Ha! The demo is failing, but a funny Nic Cage quote entertains the audience. There’s too much nerd interference and it’s messing with the Bluetooth keyboard. They’re actually asking everyone to turn off their phones to cut the interference.
– Another example uses a search for the show House. The TV results give you the option to record an upcoming episode. The Internet results show where you can buy episodes. One result leads to Amazon.com’s online offerings of house. Jumping back and forth from live TV, TV results, and Internet results is seamless.
– Google TV has Amazon and Netflix integration for streaming video fun. Naturally, YouTube works perfectly on the service.
– The speaker’s son loves Elmo but hates all the other characters on Sesame Street. A Google TV search leads to Sesame Street clips that only feature Elmo.
– Searching for specific news clips and sports highlights can be done on Google TV just like you would on a PC. The difference is that you’re watching it on your HDTV and sitting on your couch.
– Integrating TV and Internet can lead to new ways to enjoy traditional content with picture-in-picture mode. The big screen shows TV and the small screen shows Internet content. Examples of watching gold with a live leader board, watching basketball and seeing the live impact on your fantasy team, watching American Idol and following AI tweets are given.
– Google TV as a photo viewer is shown. This part isn’t really impressive or too interesting to me.
– My initial reaction is that some of these features are cool, but some of them are just a glorified version of Web TV.
– Ohhhh, gaming implication — playing an HTML5 game through Google TV. I need to think about that one for a bit. That could be huge.
– Google TV will be initially offered on separate boxes that connect to your cable or satellite box through HDMI. They’ll all have keyboards and pointing devices.
– Google TV can be controlled with Android phones via WiFi. It’s like the future! You can speak into your phone and get search results on your TV. Wow…it is the future!
– Google TV is built on Android 2.1, uses Google Chrome, and has a full Flash plug-in.
– Android apps will work on Google TV as long as phone-specific hardware isn’t required. In addition to web applications — which Google is going large on with HTML5 — users can enjoy Android apps. That’s very interesting.
Pawing the Samsung Galaxy S + Pictures
While the HTC Evo 4G is all set for a June release in America, Samsung has been mum about the arrival of its super sexy Google Android-powered Galaxy S. A Samsung marketing rep would only confirm that it is coming to America in 2010; no specific date or carrier partner has been confirmed. Like the Evo 4G, the thing that stands out most about this phone is its screen. It’s not as big as the Evo 4G’s, but it uses “super” AMOLED technology. And yes, it’s super…thanks for asking. The picture is noticeably crisper and it supposedly doesn’t suffer from the poor outdoor viewing problems of OLED screens.
The form factor is straight out of Apple’s playbook. It’s smooth and curvy in all the right places (sorry, I just wanted to throw that line in). It looks like a slightly longer and thinner version of the iPhone 3GS. However, it’s feels lighter, despite having a beefy 1,500 mAh battery. I love the way the phone looks and greatly prefer its style to the Evo 4G’s.
The interface has some interesting features. There’s a social network hub, similar to the one featured on Motorola’s Blur interface, that collects your Facebook and Twitter messages. There’s a “daily briefing” app that collects local news and weather reports. In general, the interface isn’t as smooth as HTC Sense or Motorola Blur. I am not a fan of Samsung’s TouchWhiz interface, but the Galaxy S’ implementation of Android seems better than prior efforts. It’s just not as good as what HTC and Motorola are doing.
Although the Galaxy S’ 5MP camera is a lower resolution than the Evo 4G’s, I think it offers better images (at least from a totally scientific three-minute test). Samsung has a strong record with camera phones while HTC has been mediocre in this department.
If I had to choose between the Evo 4G and the Galaxy S, I’d lean towards the Galaxy S. The big “if” is the carrier it ends up on. I’ve been burned by Sprint in the past, as has RPadholic thejedirevan. I really don’t like AT&T. There’s a rumor that T-Mobile will be getting this phone, which would make me incredibly happy. Verizon, which has the HTC Incredible, doesn’t seem to need it. Where will it end up? I have no idea, but I wanna know now!!!