Here’s an awesome version of Cee Lo Green’s “F**k You!” performed on an iPad using NESynth. It’s fantastic hearing a modern song in classic NES sounds. It’s also completely cool that this was done on an iPad. Check out the clip and let me know what you think (please)!
Category: Mobile Tech
Final Fantasy VII Bundled with U.S. Xperia Play
Huge announcement on the American version of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play — it will come bundled with Final Fantasy VII!!! I’ve been calling for this move early on. It’s a brilliant way for Sony Ericsson to attract gamers to the Xperia Play and for Sony Computer Entertainment to attract gamers to PlayStation Suite for Android. FFVII is one of the most popular and beloved games of all time. Launching the Xperia Play with Android version is just a sharp, sharp move.
Also, look at today’s date.
PlayStation Games Hit Android Market
To prepare for the launch of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has added several PlayStation games to Google’s Android Market. Titles include Cool Boarders 2, Destruction Derby, Jumping Flash, MediEvil, and Syphon Filter.
Hopefully Sony will flood Android Market with quality games. The Android platform is a joke compared to iOS in terms of gaming. Great PlayStation games for Android will make the joke a little less funny.
Any of these PlayStation games for Android interest you?
Amazon Android Kindle With a Dual-Mode Display?
Ars Technica brought up a fantastic idea for a Kindle-branded tablet from Amazon featuring Google Android — why not have it use a dual-mode display to make it suitable for reading and multimedia computing? It’s purely speculative at this point, but I completely agree that it would be fantastic for a Kindle Android tablet to use a dual-mode screen from Pixel Qi. Here’s a clip from Ars:
The Amazon tablet speculation has attracted criticism from some naysayers who don’t think that Amazon would settle for building a device with tablet-like battery life and crappy outdoor screen visibility. You can’t call it a Kindle if it’s only going to last for eight hours, right? I think the solution to that problem is simple: use a dual-mode display like the kind engineered by Pixel Qi.
The hypothetical Amazon tablet tablet could have a “Kindle” mode where the display gives you high-resolution sunlight-readable grayscale rendering. You could easily use it as either a tablet or an e-book reader. It’s still not going to deliver Kindle-length battery life, but it would be a pretty good compromise. I would want to buy a $250 Amazon tablet, and (if the enthusiasm for the Nook Color article means anything) there is a posse of like-minded readers who would too.
While no official announcement has been made, most pundits believe that an Amazon Android tablet is inevitable. The company is lining up services that would be perfect for its own tablet. The Amazon Android Appstore, Cloud Drive, and Cloud Player are nice on their own, but would be fantastic with tighter OS integration.
Last week I was pretty confident that Amazon would offer its own Android hardware by the end of the year. With the company’s recent moves, I’d actually be shocked if it didn’t happen. I’m also (not so) secretly hoping that this dream tablet would be available to Amazon Prime subscribers for free or with a steep discount. Prime subscribers are some of Amazon’s most frequent purchasers. Giving them another way to purchase goods seems like a good (and evil) idea.
Anyway, kindly let me know if you’d be interested in an Amazon Android Kindle with a dual-mode screen that allows for great book reading and multimedia.
Coffee Talk #327: The Last Gen of Pure Gaming Portables?
Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more…
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, Sin Cara debuting the day after WrestleMania, Angelina Jolie’s boobtastic comic book, or Stumptown’s Indonesia Sulawesi Toarco Peaberry, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Handheld gaming is at a crossroads. Largely due to the increased gaming capabilities of Apple iOS products, I don’t think it’s enough for a portable gaming system to be focused primarily on games. With that in mind, do you think that the Nintendo 3DS — which is almost all about gaming no matter what Nintendo claims — will be the last handheld system of its kind?
The original PlayStation Portable was, perhaps, ahead of its time. In addition to great games, it offered strong multimedia capabilities (music, movies, photos), web browsing, communication (Skype), and more. It’s too early to tell, but it looks like the upcoming NGP will bring it all together, offering gaming, social networking, streaming movies, Internet access, communications, and multimedia in a much tighter way than its predecessor.
Will the next generation of portable gaming systems be multifaceted devices? Or will a gaming-focused experience still dominate at the end of this decade? Is the future of portable gaming more NGP or more 3DS? Leave a comment and let me know (please)!
Amazon Cloud Player Beats Apple and Google to the Punch
Amazon has launched a streaming music and an online storage service called Cloud Player
This is a bold and exciting move by Amazon. While the company’s MP3 store does well, it’s still way behind Apple iTunes. Offering cloud services (not to mention generally lower prices) could help attract more customers away from Apple. Both Apple and Google are known to be readying cloud-based music-services. Amazon has beaten its competitors to the punch and there’s always something to be said for being first.
Furthermore, Cloud Player looks like another facet of Amazon’s future Android strategy. Last week I speculated that Amazon will almost definitely have Amazon-branded phones and tablets running Google Android. Can you picture an Amazon Android phone with perfect integration of Amazon’s Android Appstore and Cloud Player? Wouldn’t a phone or tablet that offered simple purchasing of Amazon goods — both digital and physical — be a potentially huge moneymaker for the company? It seems so brilliant…and scary.
Let me know what you think of Amazon’s Cloud Player and Cloud Drive (please). Are they services you’d definitely use? Or does music in the cloud not interest you?
Amazon Android Appstore Offers Nifty “Test Drive” Feature
Amazon’s Android Appstore already offers a compelling alternative to the Google Android Market by giving away paid apps daily. Amazon’s Android Market competitor has gotten even more interesting with its “test drive” feature. This nifty bit of code allows you to try and experiment with an app from a PC using a virtual phone. Allowing users to tinker with possible purchases should lead to higher buy rates. At the very least, it keeps customers on the Amazon site, which can lead to all sorts of purchases.
If you have a chance, check out test drive on the Amazon Android Appstore. I think it’s a fantastic feature that further differentiates the Amazon Android Appstore from the Google Android Market. How about you?
Coffee Talk #326: Debating a Fall Release for the iPhone 5
Since 2008, Apple has announced a new iPhone model at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It looks like that will not be the case this year. Should Apple continue to launch iPhones in…
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, the brilliant mic work by Shawn Michaels, Triple, and The Undertaker on last night’s Raw, Jose Canseco’s evil twin, or Barry Bonds’ ex-girlfriend’s entertaining testimony, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.
Since 2008, Apple has announced a new iPhone model at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). It looks like that will not be the case this year. The Loop — one of the most reliable sources of leaked Apple info — has reported that WWDC 2011 will be software only. Taking the rumor a step further, TechCrunch’s sources told it that the next iPhone (iPhone 5? iPhone 4G?) will be announced in September for a Fall 2011 release. If the second rumor is true then this could mark an interesting shift in Apple’s consumer electronics strategy.
Traditionally, Apple’s September events have focused on the iPod. With the crazy success of the iPhone and iPad, the iPod has become less important. Some have argued that it makes more sense to release the next iPhone later in the year in order to make it one of the most desirable holiday gifts around. The counter-argument is that Apple already has a hard time meeting demand for iPhones when they’re released in the summer; compounding the release of a hot new product with the holiday rush would be a recipe for disaster.
Does Apple even need a new iPhone this summer? The iPhone 4 (on AT&T and Verizon) is still selling at a brisk rate. Additionally, pushing the release to later this year would give Apple a chance to implement a next-gen LTE radio that’s more battery efficient while allowing the next iPhone to take advantage of the outstanding speeds offered by Verizon LTE. The counter-argument is that over the next few months there will be several Google Android phones with 4G speeds, dual-core processors, qHD screens, and more. Some say Apple has the luxury of time. Others don’t.
How do you think things will shake out? Will the iPhone be announced at a later date this summer? Or will it be announced in September? Should Apple continue to launch iPhones in the June/July? Or will it make more bank kicking things off in September/October? Kindly vote in the poll and share your thoughts!
[poll id=”108″]
4G Shootout: Sprint vs. T-Mobile vs. Verizon
American mobile carriers are in another pissing contest. This time around it’s all about 4G broadband — or really 4G-like speeds, since none of the technologies being used today are actually 4G. Sprint, using WiMax, was the first carrier out of the gate. T-Mobile followed by upgrading its network to HSPA+. Verizon recently launched its LTE network.
3 Carriers + 3 “4G” Technologies = Confused Customers
To give you an idea of the real-world performance offered by Sprint WiMax, T-Mobile HSPA+, and Verizon LTE, I ran some speed tests in three cities. I used a Sprint Epic 4G, a T-Mobile G2, and an HTC Thunderbolt at LAX (Los Angeles), SFO (San Francisco), and JFK (New York) — you know, the three American cities that matter *joke*. Here are the results.
Los Angeles
| Ping | Download | Upload | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint Epic 4G | 333 ms | 3.85 Mbps | 1.52 Mbps |
| T-Mobile G2 | 87 ms | 1.25 Mbps | 0.89 Mbps |
| HTC Thunderbolt | 91 ms | 13.4 Mbps | 27.74 Mbps |
San Francisco
| Ping | Download | Upload | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint Epic 4G | 371 ms | 7.11 Mbps | 1.53 Mbps |
| T-Mobile G2 | 114 ms | 0.91 Mbps | 0.87 Mbps |
| HTC Thunderbolt | 83 ms | 16.31 Mbps | 27.77 Mbps |
New York
| Ping | Download | Upload | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sprint Epic 4G | 80 ms | 4.10 Mbps | 0.96 Mbps |
| T-Mobile G2 | 80 ms | 3.09 Mbps | 1.72 Mbps |
| HTC Thunderbolt | 108 ms | 13.55 Mbps | 32.34 Mbps |
As you can see, Verizon’s LTE network beats the crap out of Sprint’s WiMax and T-Mobile’s HSPA+ networks. However, there are several things to keep in mind. First, Verizon LTE just launched and there aren’t many devices available for it. As more users pull from the network, speeds will go down.
T-Mobile’s results at LAX and SFO were interesting and a sign of the network’s limited range; I regularly get great speeds on T-Mobile in the actual cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, but the airports were another matter. The company has also started rolling out a faster version of HSPA+ that hits a theoretical max of 42 Mbps. It’s only available in three cities at the moment, but should hit 25 markets by mid-2011. Early tests show that real-world speeds of “HSPA+ 42” are inline with Verizon LTE speeds.
Most importantly, there are several reports of Speedtest.net not handling LTE upload tests properly. Verizon claims that uploads on the Thunderbolt hit anywhere from 2 Mbps to 5 Mbps. I would ignore the the upload results I pulled on the Thunderbolt.
As always, it comes down to network performance where you live, work, and play. These are just data points from three airports. While they show the relative performance of three 4G networks in these areas, the results could be very different in your neck of the woods.
If you have any questions about the results and my 4G experiences, fire away in the comments section!
14-Year Old’s Astute iPad 2 Analysis
I was really impressed with JP Teti’s analysis of how the iPad has opened up computing to more people than ever. So many tech writers focus on the iPad’s limitations and Apple’s “walled garden”. Few of them write about how it has made personal computing more accessible to a broad audience. I don’t agree with all of Teti’s points, but most of his arguments are sound. Here’s an excerpt:
The iPad is actually opening up technology to more people. None of this crap about it being closed is accurate. By giving people freedom to explore the app store without having to worry about anything (except their wallets), Apple has possibly made the best move they could make — by locking down the iPad’s installation sources. That’s the one that’s the most helpful for the general state of technology. Apple is encouraging people to explore and play around. The iPad only does less than a regular computer to us geeks. To everyone else, it does more. This is what Motorola and Google and Samsung and BlackBerry and everyone else, with the sole exception of Apple, do not get about “open” computing. It’s powerful, but for ordinary people, it’s too powerful.
Tech writers — especially those in San Francisco — often get caught up in their own little world. It’s funny that an eighth-grader was able to see something that escapes so many people that are paid a lot of money to cover Apple products.