iBulletpoints

I’ve had my iPhone (or Jesusphone as some like to call it) for 10 days now. I thought I’d share my impressions, presented here in bite-sized chunks.

• First of all, the iPhone is not as stable as you would expect. Safari is probaly the most unstable app on the entire phone. If this is really Mac OSX on a phone, it’s just another reason for me not to buy a Mac.
• Tales of firmware 2.0’s instability are completely true. It seems 2.0 is going the way of Leopard. I experienced the whole range of issues: app crashes, input lag, accelerometer glitches. I’m guessing a lot of people are waiting on firmware version 2.0.1.
• Super Monkey Ball is not worth the money. Either I suck at it or the iPhone’s accelerometer is not up to the job. Bejeweled 2, the other app I forked out money for, is as usual the ultimate casual game and well worth the money. Free games like Cube Runner, Aurora Feint, Tap Tap Revenge and Advent (a.k.a. the original Collosal Cave Adventure) have a lot of potential.
• The appstore has a lot of weird quirky apps like iPint, BubbleWrap and Mixmeister Scratch.
• The coolest of these is without a doubt Phonesaber, the MacSaber’s little brother.
• Social Networking aficionados will be incredibly pleased: Twitterific, Facebook, Loopt,… If you have (virtual) friends you will like the iPhone
• The Apple Remote app is cool, but I don’t really see a personal use for it. Still, showing someone how your iPhone controls your iTunes library via Wi-Fi is sure to cause some “Oooh’s and “Aaaah’s”.
• Why oh why can’t you sinc your Bookmarks and Calendars from Mozilla Firefox or Windows Calendar? I don’t use IE, I don’t need the advanced functionality of Outlook, I don’t want to use Google Calendar and now I’m being punished for that?
• Youtube is fine, but I’d like to log in with my own profile. Maybe that functionality is there, but I haven’t noticed it.
• My biggest annoyance with the iPhone is that I have to use iTunes. I have gone on record in saying that I don’t like iTunes. I don’t like the playlist methodology. I hate that it’s sucks up system resources. I hate that I can’t just create a temporary now-playing list (à la Windows Media Player) without creating a playlist. It does have some redeeming features like gapless playback and Coverflow but in the end I don’t like it.
• The iPhone is a fingerprint and dirt magnet. I’ve already ordered an Invisible Shield to try to limit the effects.
• The battery life is depressing. If you’re just using the Phone, SMS, Mail, Notes, Weather and Stocks apps without Wi-Fi or 3G you’ll be fine. You’re phone will even last for days. Start adding more stuff and you’ll be forced to recharge you’re phone every single day.
• The Google Maps app is really cool. Despite the fact that it doesn’t have voice directions, it’s essentially a full fledged GPS right on your phone. How cool is that?

I’m probably forgetting a whole lot of things but I’m guessing you get the picture. Make no mistake, I love this phone, it’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. I love the Mail, the webbrowser, the cool third party apps. Just keep in mind that despite Apple’s claims it’s not the perfect phone.

My Jesusphone has arrived

I probably won’t be blogging all that much this month, but I did want to share this recent development.

Not that I can use it to call people yet (some issues with the telecoms there), but everything else works great. I love the apps and all round this is a great device.

Terror And Destruction

Ladies and gentlemen…

It’s finally here!

Update: So after al the hubbub and after having watched both the trailer (see above) and the 19-minute long gameplay demonstration, what do we really know about Diablo III ?

• Graphically, it’s a whole new world. The game looks great, the physics previously demonstrated in Starcraft II are present here as well and really increase the immersion of the game world. Most importantly though, the game retains the isometric perspective of Diablo II ensuring that this will be more than just a WoW clone.
• Gameplay-wise we have of course the different classes of which Blizzard has announced two: an old favorite, the Barbarian and a newcomer, the Witchdocter. The skilltree appears to be a mix of memorable old skills and fun new ones.
• Old and new friends make their appearance with Deckard Cain at the forefront. How that old geezer is still alive after all this time is a mystery to me but at least it will once again give us a chance to “stay a while and listen”. An unknown person called “Leah” is also mentioned.
• A somewhat revised health system will make it’s debut. While healing skills and potions still exist, players will be able to use red “orbs” left by fallen groups of enemies to quickly heal themselves. Blizzard claims this streamlines the gameplay. I will reserve my judgment until I can get my hands on the game.
• The interface has also received an overhaul. The familiar health and mana orbs are still there but the potions bar has been replaced by a WoW-style skill bar. The minimap, previously a full screen overlay, has been replaced by a minimap in the corner
• Players will be able to select the gender of every class.
• Players will visit old (like Tristram) and new locations (like Caldeum) in the land of Sanctuary.
• The Arreat Summit no longer exists. The only thing that survived the confrontation with Baal and the destruction of the Worldstone is a giant crater and the Dreadlands. The Barbarian people appear to be all but wiped out.

I’m probably forgetting dozens of things (like have you noticed how Blizzard has incorporated the Battle.Net Secret Gem into the Diablo II website ?) but these seem to be the most important.

With the disappointment that was Hellgate London and the many clones (Sacred, Titan Quest, etc) falling short, it seems only Blizzard will be able to outdo themselves. All I know is I can’t wait to see the results.

Daddy’s got a new toy.

I made a small addition to my dual-monitor setup today. Let me show you.

Let me give you a few specs on the bad boy to the left: It’s the Samsung 245B plus.

• 24 inches
• 1920*1200 Resolution
• 8000:1 Contrast ratio (that’s what the ‘plus’ in the product apparently stands for)
• 5ms Response Time
• 400 cd/m² brightness.
• Fully HDCP Compliant
• DVI-D and VGA inputs
• Height Adjustable & Swivel & Tilt

This is the best monitor I have ever owned! Found it on sale at 50€ less than the regular price. I just had to snap it up. What else was I going to spend that money on? An iPhone? Yeah right, like that’s ever coming out here.

Typically Belgian

So how was the WWDC keynote for you? Did you too suffer through the boring app presentations? Were you too filled with a sensation of euphoria when the worst kept secret in tech history was announced? Did you too cheer when you saw your country among the list of 22 chosen ones? I’m betting you’re going to answer each of these questions with a resounding “Yes!”. But when I ask you if the next day you received the equivalent of being stabbed in the back, your answer wouldn’t be that clear cut now would it?

Yes, it’s true. My sad little country has done it again. Our government has taken a long vacation this past year, our economy is tumbling down the abyss, our language disputes have reached their highest level ever and to top it all off we won’t be seeing the iPhone on July 11th. In all probability we won’t even see the iPhone on July 17th. Quite frankly, we’ll be lucky if we even reach September.

A lot of people are probably to blame and although shoving blame on people usually doesn’t really amount to much, I’m going to do it anyway because quite honestly, I am mad as hell. Not only do we get the iPhone a year later, but on the day that we finally find out when it will be launched in our country, our expectations are killed and replaced with feelings of uncertainty and blind rage.

The most obvious culprit would be Apple, but for once I’m going to spare the rod. Apple would never, EVER have Steve Jobs announcing the various countries and sell dates on stage at WWDC without knowing damn well sure that all of them would be a reality. As far as I know Apple fully expected to sell the iPhone on July 11th in Belgium.

By knocking Apple out of the picture we come to the first real culprit, namely Mobistar. Ignore the fact that their main competitor has a far better 3G network in place, ignore the fact that they were damn lucky to even get the iPhone deal in the first place. The least you could expect is for them to not f*ck it up first chance they get. I’m currently not a Mobistar customer, but I (like many others I assume) was ready to switch, right there and then. Now because of their stupidity, my first impression of them has already reached rock bottom.

But let’s not have Mobistar be the only moronic organisation in this affair. Their little “communications error” wasn’t the only problem, there was also the matter of regulation. Even after taking the Belgian tying laws out of the equation, you can pretty much shift a decent part of the blame on our government. A government that has been living in limbo for more than a full year. A government that has practically made it public policy to do nothing but procrastinate and lie. Sure, delaying the iPhone seems to be but a trivial matter to most people, but in reality it’s just one of the innumerable symptoms of the sheer incompetence of our government.

I’m still going to buy one, if and when it inevitably ships. It’s the phone I’ve always wanted. It’s the phone that should have been launched a year ago. It’s the first Apple product I’ve ever wanted to buy. Too bad that from day one, it’s entry into the Belgian market has already been dragged through the mud.

(Note: I was inspired by this blog post to write this completely subjective and rage-induced rant)

iPhone 3G

Yes, I believe I will buy that

(EDIT: Strike that. Instead let me say that I want to buy it but once again can’t. Screw you Mobistar)

Computex Taipei 2008

Although due to finals my blogging has been reduced to zero, one musn’t ignore the outside world.

Today is the first day of Computex 2008. Bit-tech.net has an early preview and I’m sure we can expect a lot more information coming from Taipei in the coming week. i will be updating this blogpost accordingly.

Computex 2008: Pre-show Impressions

Computex 2008 Starts Today

Eee PCâ„¢ 901, 1000 and 1000(H) Unveiled at Computex 2008

Nvidia intros Tegra for MIDs and smartphones

ASUS prepping WiMAX USB dongle, base stations

Computex awash in Atom-based netbooks, VIA’s Nano a no-show

First VIA Nano-based netbook spotted

NVIDIA gets official with GeForce 9M series of laptop GPUs

Canonical makes Ubuntu Netbook Remix official at Computex

More Details & First Impressions On Acer Aspire One

8.9-inch MSI Wind shows up at Computex

Computex 2008: Antec Skeleton

Have, well, tons of stuff in your car

NZXT takes on Zalman and Antec with new cases

Cyberlink has PowerCinema for Eee PC and Edge TV

OCZ Fatal1ty memory, new flash drives, keyboards

Asus Rampage Extreme – Niche New Features

Silverstone presents The Raven case

Computex 2008: Zotac Display Port 9600GT and Patriot SSD

Computex 2008: Broadcom Unveils New Media PC Technology for UMPCs

AMD announces Puma at Computex

Computex 2008: Asus Eee developments & Xonar HDAV1.3 a/v combo card

Intel says video encoding belongs on the CPU

Asus Demos 22in DisplayLink Monitors

Maloney Talks About The Real Mobile Internet

Asus has GeForce 9400 Hybrid SLI Intel mobo

Thermalright Xbox 360 heatsink spotted at Computex?

Computex 2008: Day 2 - Moving onward

Computex 2008: Day 3 - The man with the hammer

Noctua already offers Nehalem coolers

Plenty of Nehalem boards on show

AMD’s new 790GX and SB750 pictured

J&W 780G mini-ITX has niche HTPC features

Gigabyte G45 board plays HD movies over VGA

SSDs: blindingly expensive for a while yet

Intel releases 4-series chipsets

Computex 2008 Content Index

(Btw: try typing in the word ‘Computex’ in Google image search. You won’t be dissapointed )

Price of succes?

Apparently Twitter has recently been replaced by this webpage.

Don’t really get the marketing effort behind this one but hey, it’s their business .

Commies FTW

It’s a great time to be a gamer.

Screw the Next-Gen.

For all of you who are worried that Microsoft made a bad choice by sticking to DVD-9 in the XBOX 360 instead of choosing a next-gen disc format (like HD-DVD and Blu-Ray), here’s a great (albeit somewhat old) article that should put those worries to rest.

An excerpt:

Much debate has gone into whether or not the DVD9 format is too small for next generation titles. Looking over the data, it’s fairly evident that in fact DVD9 is not too small for next generation games as much as it was too big for the last generation’s. Very few games on the original Xbox came close to pushing the limits of the DVD9 format, leaving plenty of room for growth for the Xbox 360.

Undoubtedly, games will grow. However, technology designed to keep them small and compact will grow as well. In many ways, the debate over Microsoft’s handling of the DVD9 and HDDVD formats is simply a matter of a red herring. People see it and worry about it, but there is little data to suggest there will actually be a problem with it.

The PS3 will be able to store more data with their blu-ray discs, but that won’t necessarily mean that they’ll be any less limited in their creativity. It might simply give developers more room to be sloppy in their programing.