True. But up until a month or two ago, they ran NO advertising for the Mac.
And I'm not saying the ads should be technical. Just show a little iPhoto, Exposé, and just how generally pretty the OS is and I bet you'll get plenty of people interested. Those are relatively broad and easily understood. Things like Exposé just make people stop and say "wow." That's what ads should do.
So you can show a desktop with a family picture. The whole commercial is just the screen. He's surfing on the web with Safari and there is music playing in the background. Suddenly all the windows pop up thanks to Exposé (there is Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, and Office). The user clicks on iTunes and changes songs. After that, he selects a photo in iPhoto and sets it as the new desktop wallpaper, then starts typing in a great looking MS Word document.
"Macs do it all... with style"
That would be an effective ad. Could use a better tag line though. It would certainly be better than nothing they ran for years. The "Mac vs. PC" ads are a great start (I especially like the language one about networking with the Japanese printer). But I think showing off some of the visual flair would be good for them.
I've got to say, I liked the switch ads. I can see ads like that for Tiger easily. "I could never find anything... then I started using Spotlight in OS X". But I do understand that they didn't work (which is too bad).
What I meant about Direct-X 10 was that it will have all the features. Right now the Intel integrated graphics lack pixel or vertex shaders, or both (I don't remember which). Basically, it's a Direct-X 7 or 8 level chip, released during the 9 timeframe. It was lacking features when it was released.
Intel may break promises, but at this point I don't see how they could make things worse. And maybe the ATI/AMD marriage will spur them on too.
I agree about the 9200. That's the thing that bugs me the most. Instead of putting some old (and thus cheap) chip into the machines that runs well, if a little slow, companies put in those Intel chips that barely run games at all then advertise the things as family PCs you can play games on.
Yeah. But Intel has been catching a lot of flack for their integrated graphics, and for good reason. They have said that their next integrated graphics chip will support Direct-X 10 and be able to run Vista with all the goodies. It is also supposed to be able to play games (which their current chips basically can't) which is where they have been catching the most flack. No one expects Intel to be competitive with nVidia and ATI, but their chips should be faster than a 4 year old card from nVidia/ATI.
That will come over to the Mac. In the mean time, if you care about 3D in any form, avoid the integrated graphics. That's not a problem for the power users, but the home users who buy a Mini or a MacBook will be sadly disappointed if they try to run some little 3D game later.
Want to design web sites? You won't believe how many artists and companies want web sites. Make some. Do them for friends and relatives. Make them nice, make them do neat things. Now you've got a portfolio. Look for companies wanting web sites and sell yourself. Make a business out of it.
If you work for yourself (web sites, tech support, whatever) then the hiring manager won't care you don't have a degree. Work your way up and prove you can do what you say and you can get jobs.
What problems? Viruses? None. Spyware? None. Crashes? None. Past that, it's no different. "How do I do X in Word?" has the same exact answer as in Windows. "How do I bookmark a site" is easy in Safari, and if you set them up with FireFox it's just like in Windows. "How do I forward an eMail?" is just like every other eMail software: you click forward.
"How do I get pictures off my camera?" Just plug it in, iPhoto does the rest.
"How do I get video off my camera?" Just plug it in, open iMovie, it does the rest.
"How do I install this printer?" Chances are: plug it in, and choose "Add printer" and it will work. But the setup disk will probably do that for you.
99% of what they want to know how to do is identical. The stuff that isn't often isn't needed on a Mac (upgrading drivers, defragging your disk, scanning for spyware, etc).
Boot Camp may be beta, but it is supposed to be integrated with Leopard. Also, Apple is now recommending using Parallels Workstation instead (both in the commercials and their site).
Apple is not supporting it because they aren't installing it. Just like Dell won't support that copy of Half-Life 2 you bought from your local computer store. That said, for something they're not supporting, they are providing drivers for their computers and providing a nice program so you don't have to do it through some weird hack (like just before Boot Camp was released).
Apple is not selling Windows because they are not setting Windows up for you. It's a Mac. If you want Windows, you can buy it.
Yes, Windows costs $200-300 retail. But you'd be an idiot to buy it that way. You can get XP Pro online for about $75 brand new and perfectly legal. Then again you could use the copy that's on your current PC (if you don't have one, then why do you need to run Windows)? Just use that copy and toss the computer (or wipe the drive and sell it). That's legal. Look! Windows was FREE in that one.
Now how about I ask you this: who cares? If you are going to use Windows on your Mac... you probably would have bought Virtual PC before. Guess how much that costs: $100 + a copy of Windows. Almost exactly what this new way costs. Only this new way is much faster. It's also cheaper if you use Boot Camp instead of Parallels (because Boot Camp is free). To point out the flaw in your last statement: if you only want to run Windows... you won't be buying a Mac.
Suck it up, you'll be glad you did. I did and I've been much happier than I thought I would be. The OS is just a dream to use. It may seem more expensive, but you'll feel it's worth it afterwards. Then there is the software that is included. You get Garage Band, iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc. If you use any of those, they come free and that's a savings over buying some third party product on Windows.
I think if Apple could make some kind of "Borrow a Mac for two weeks for $20" offer, they couldn't keep them in stock. From the experiences of myself, others, and knowing what many people go through on Windows (being a neighborhood tech support guy) I can see it happening easily.
This is the one Mac criticism that I agree with. I switched despite it. I just didn't play enough games on my computer to have that hold me back to Windows. That said, Macs are behind in that respect. Boot Camp improves it, so does the switch to Intel (Macs, especially the laptops, were horridly underpowered). The graphics card issue still needs to be addressed.
There are quite a few people who only play casual games, and the Mac is fine for that. If you want it enough, you can use Boot Camp. Most of the other games that many "gamers" play (like the Sims 2 series) is available on the Mac.
However, the hardcore gamer market is willing to drop HUGE chunks of money on hardware. If Apple could improve this a little, I think they could get another vocal community on their side.
You'll love it, especially if you love the command line environment of Linux. Being able to have both the great GUI and name applications (like Photoshop) as well as a true Unix subsystem and command line you can use were a big factor in switching to the Mac for me.
You mention defrag, and that is one thing I've never understood. In the time I've been using Windows, it has never run well without 3rd party software. In the 95/98/ME days defrag was probably important, but I found that a little program called MemTurbo make the system feel like it just booted all the time. It would somehow clean up leaked memory, or force specific things to be paged, as well as defragment the memory allocations.
Then Windows 2000 came along and it no longer needed that program (hooray!). But NTFS just gets SO fragmented SO fast. Without a 3rd party program (Disk Keeper, set to defrag during screen saver) then any system that gets quite a bit of use will slow to a crawl pretty fast in my experience.
Vista is supposed to have that built in, so I wonder what users will need next to keep the OS running smoothly.
I've got to say, I love my Mac. I used to love 'em, switched to PCs during the late Windows 3.1 timeframe, and then switched back last year.
Macs are growing, and they are growing fast. Apple's US laptop market-share DOUBLED in the last six months. Now one in eight laptops sold in the US are Macs. For an alternate OS, that is huge. And because the MacBook was released during the middle of that period, there was a disclaimer with those numbers that the trend will very likely continue.
And why not? Mac laptops are sexy. They look great. They have almost every feature you could want (I still don't understand why for such a media friendly company, they don't have media-card slots). They are light. They are thin. They are quiet. It amazes me that many new Dells and such have to have their fans on all the time and it's quite audible. When they dare to do anything complex, a little jet-plane enters the room. My Mac (admittedly a G4, although I hear the recent Intels aren't bad at all) is dead silent. It took me like 2 weeks to realize there was a fan in the thing (not that I was looking). When going full-tilt with graphics, it's about as loud as most people's Dells and such are at idle.
Macs have had (and still do) a few issues. Graphics cards is a major one. I hope the switch to Intel helps this more, because my 1 year old laptop has a sorry graphics card compared to what was available on PCs at the time (Radeon 9700 or 9800).
That said, the stars are converging for Apple. They have HUGE brand trust and are "cool" thanks to the iPod. Their hardware looks and performs excellent. The OS is amazing. I've been running Vista for about 18 months in the form of Tiger. When Vista comes out, I'll get Leopard and be ahead again. I help neighbors and such with computers and I can't tell you how many problems could be solved with a Mac. "I want to edit movies." If you had a Mac, you'd have all you need thanks to the amazing iLife. But they were on a PC so they had to buy a FireWire card, video editing software, DVD burning software, and none of it was as easy to use as the Mac software. I know people who can't find their files. They just don't get the filesystem organization (you've seen 'em: everything in My Documents). Spotlight would save them so many hassles. I've set them up with Google Desktop... but it's no the same. Spotlight is integrated into EVERYTHING. Even the standardized File dialogs.
Then there is the Intel switch. Biggest complaint from people I've told about Macs in the past? "Then I have to buy all new software." This is people who run everything from just a handful to expensive things like Photoshop. Now with Intel, you can get a Mac and run those programs though Parallels or dual-booting. End up not liking the Mac (I doubt it), you can run Windows FULL TIME. You have very little to lose for what you stand to gain. If this was available when I was looking, I would have bought a Mac about a year earlier.
Games could use a focus. Apple REALLY needs to advertise the OS. The latest ads were a good start, but I show people my Mac and even little things (the keyboard and screen responding to ambient light) wow them. Apple needs to get people to know about this stuff. Then there is stuff like Exposé that just blows their mind. They have seen NOTHING like it on the Windows side (as opposed to things like Spotlight that have rough equivalents).
My biggest problem with Apple for the last 4 years or so (both as an observer and now as a user) has been their lack of advertising of OS X. They seem to be stuck with an almost word-of-mouth sales techniques. Maybe with recent moves (more stores, going into Best Buys and using Apple personnel to run the Mac section) will help.
The Mac market is already exploding. Just wait to see what happens after WWDC. With the real power desktops out, I wonder how much their market share numbers will jump. What will Leopard do (especially if they advertise it). What will happen in Back-To-School season (between the MacBook and their recent free-iPod-with-Mac-purchase programs), and Christmas?
There is no doubt that what you want is a RadTech BT500. I bought one when I bought my PowerBook early last year. It's a tiny little mouse, and it's easy to carry around. That said, it is comfortable and works great. It looks nice too. Looking at the product page, they've changed it since I bought it. Mine is powered by two AAA batteries, and it lasts a long time. The new once comes with two NiMH AAAs and can be recharged with an included USB cable, which would be nice to have.
Did you keep going, or turn it off? After you do that there are little dialog screens then eventually you get a save point just like between the 1st and 2nd episodes. After you save (or right before?) it pops up a message saying "A new episode has been added" or something like that.
So after a quick look, it seems like this would be the kind of thing to make a game like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Is that right?
I recently managed to get my hands on a copy (they are in the Capcom online store... ORDER NOW!) and I've got to say the game is FANTASTIC. After 2 trials I would have been happy with the game, but it's got a full 5 (I just finished the fourth today). The game is an absolute blast. If you love courtroom dramas, you've got to play this game.
The characters are all great and the stories and good. The murder plots are excellent (they can be tricky). The touch screen isn't used very well in the game (which isn't surprising given it was a GBA game first, I think). You can use the touch screen just fine, it's just hardly ever needed (which is also nice, so you don't need to use it if you don't want to). They have already announced that there will be a sequel both here in the US (hooray!) and in Japan (where it will be a re-issue of a GBA game for the DS). The music is nice (which is a SERIOUS plus compared to most handheld games) and fits in very well (at the right moments in the trials, like when you present key evidence, it changes to a real pumping-up beat).
Give it a try. The game needs support.
It would be great to be able to make something like that, but I'm not creative enough. I wish this genre (and point-and-click adventure games, which I see as a bit similar in some was) wasn't dead over here. What I wouldn't give for another Lucas Arts point-and-click. Loom, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, The Dig, Grim Fandango, and all four games in the Monkey Island series.
I never got to play Full Throttle (which was supposed to be great) or the Indiana Jones games (also supposed to be great). I ought to look into those. I only played the Monkey Island games a few years ago.
"CSS's real benefit was that the layout not only could be changed easily but also could become dynamic: The content is stored in a database and presented as necessary, with instant updates. With dynamic content, it's possible for 100 people to go to the same Web site and get 100 different versions."
What the hell is he talking about? Not only is that not CSS's "real benefit", I can't even figure out how he managed to get the idea that this is what CSS is all about. Did he take one look at the CSS Zen Garden and completely miss the point or something?
That IS the point.
The content is separated from the style. That way you can change the style without having to change every piece of content. This makes it possible to easily swap out content. Take a site like ZDNet. If they had the style encoded directly into every page then when they decided to change the way something looked, they have to go back through EVERY PAGE they put up and change it. With CSS you can change it in one imported style sheet and be all set. You could do things like serve random style sheets to viewers so contents look different. This would have been VERY hard to do without CSS. This makes it easy to make different styles for handhelds, cell phones, printouts, the blind, etc.
CSS may not be tied to databases, but it's ability to ease the deployment and management of dynamic content are one of it's biggest strengths.
I'm guessing it will be like the DS. When you first turn it on for the first time (or when ever you choose to) you'd calibrate it (standard shoot the corners). This would then be stored in the Wii and it would pass the calibrated data to the games, they would never get the raw data. The TV's aspect ratio could easily be stored there too.
I thought about that for a second but I ruled it out. What is the point of putting that on the controller? Unless your controller becomes your controller that you take to a friends house that keeps a tiny bit of data on you (favorite color, birthday, name) so when you start playing it's already configured for you. I wouldn't think enough games would have similar enough controls for that to work. When they do (such as the trigger in an FPS) then the configuration is obvious (are you going to change the fire button from the trigger to a button at the bottom of the controller you can't reach?)
On a PC you have a TON of keys to bind. On the Wiimote, you have 9 (if you include the four D-pad directions).
I don't see the point of storing that on the controller. After all, the system is supposed to have built in flash storage of some size (I don't remember) and you could store that data there. That would make more sense than storing it on the controller.
And on the storing sounds font, just how much of a sound could you possibly fit in 6kb anyway? Standard WAVs are 10MB per minute. If you make that mono, it's 5MB a minute. Cut the sample rate in 4 (to 11khz) and that would give you 1.25MB a minute. Go to 8 bit instead of 16 and things are sounding terrible, but you're at ~600kb per minute. So you could fit 1/100th of a minute of audio in that space. Even if you compress it 5:1 you only get 3 seconds.
And if you are going to use that memory for sounds in-game, why does it need to be non-volatile anyway? Would it really be that hard to download the sound to the controller again the next time they turn on the game?
I don't believe it at all. You can see my other comment in this topic to see why.
That said, I can give you some ideas. One that has been floated around is that you would be able to have a little avatar of yourself that you could put into various games. This rumor seems to have come from the customized characters in the Wii Sports demo. You could use the camera to put your face on the model.
It could also be used more... creatively. Through image analysis you could turn any rough surface (even carpet) along with the Wiimote as a pen tablet type setup. I wouldn't think Bluetooth would be fast enough to transfer high enough resolution images, and to do the analysis on the controllers would be expensive to battery life.
Or you could do something else. Monster Rancher had an interesting idea when they let you put music CDs into your PlayStation to release the monsters in them. There was a little hand-held game back around the time of Nintendo's little Pikachu toy/pedometer (which was kinda fun) that would read barcodes to teach your Digimon type thing (I don't think it was Digimon) new attacks (or something). By using the camera in this way you could put interesting data into the Wii. Release the monsters from your food packages, find the Elfs living in your books with their bar codes. Keep track of your life with Delicious LIbrary for the Wii.
I read this the other day. Most of it was known before. That said, the IGN writer needs a clue.
The Wii-mote features 6KB of "non-volatile" memory, whose exact purpose remains a mystery. IGN Wii speculates that this throwaway memory could possibly be used in conjunction with the Wii-mote's recently revealed internal speaker.
I wonder what the memory will be for. I can't think of any uses, unless it is used for calibration in which case it doesn't matter that much. That said, using non-volatile memory (which did not need to be in quotes, and is probably flash) to store sound clips seems rather pointless and a waste of limited write cycles.
But wait, there's more!
...which means that it is more or less seeing a megapixel image. Whether or not this data can be interpreted into visual information remains unknown, but we're not ruling out the possibility that the pointer could sub as a camera.
I'M ruling it out. That's like saying a mouse with a ball and a 200 PPI resolution could be used as a scanner. To put a live mega-pixel video sensor on the front of the Wiimote just to analyze every image to figure out which way the thing was pointing would be one of the most expensive, slow, battery draining, and stupid ways to accomplish that goal imaginable.
We'll find out more during Tokyo Game Show on Sept 22nd. In the mean time, if you are going to speculate in an article about something, get some kind of engineer to take a glance at your article first so you don't look too wrong.
I don't think it's a terribly bad idea, and it certainly isn't a gimmick. Sega advertising the Saturn as having 3 CPUs when the PlayStation only had 1 was a gimmick (it may have been true, but the PS was clearly just as powerful).
As for the 7 processor thing, that is pure business. Each cell has 8 SPUs. By only enabling 7 of them, they can sell all the processors that would otherwise be worthless for the PS3 because a defect killed an SPU. They do it strictly for yield numbers. This is just like Intel selling defective Core Duo CPUs as Core Solo CPUs by disabling the defective core. It's the same reason DRAM has extra bits in it so the defective ones can be avoided.
The number 7 is just because 8 fit on the chip and they want to be able to have half decent yield numbers (which, from what I've seen (see one of my other posts in this topic) are already terrible).
As for how to split things up, here is a random idea:
Graphics
Sound
Graphics Physics (particles, foot planting, etc)
Logic Physics (collisions, etc)
AI 1
AI 2
Input/Network/Disc
Actually, I think Sony has said to count on one SPU doing OS tasks all the time, so I guess you could take out AI 2. Now ignore the suitability to divide things up that way in the Cell, my point was just that you could divide a game that way.
I read that, and I know that it wasn't given to them two weeks before the show or whatever was initially reported. Still, I think it's a rushed half feature because my guess is that while they have been planning the PS3 ever since the PS2 was released, my guess is that the tilt functionality has only had real consideration since the learned what Nintendo was up to (either through a leak or through the press conference that the rest of us learned about it through).
On the one hand, you're right. I think MS should have done that. Just put all the console up for bid in one giant eBay auction and let people pay what they are willing to.
That said, it doesn't have to be that way. I bought TWO PS2s on launch day in a major metro area for the launch price without having to sit in line from 2:00 AM or something. I could have easily done the same for the 360 launch or the XBox launch without any problem.
But with the PS3 instead of having a choice of trying on my own or paying $1000 on eBay, I will be FORCED to pay $600 if I get it at retail (which I won't until the price is half that).
No kidding. Delays in the system, delays in the cell, delays in Blu-Ray, the price, last-minute half-features (the controller tilt), feature removal (Ethernet hub, rumbling), cell yields of 10-20%, and low laser diode yield. Sony hasn't had ANY good news. Even at E3 when they were expected to make a killing they didn't show a ton of impressive stuff. Sure it looked good, but they didn't look as good as the target renders and they didn't have a large variety of games. They also didn't have much in the big name department (GTA, just a video of Jak and Daxter).
Compare that to MS who while not great did show a wide variety of games and had some good announcements (GTA no longer exclusive to PlayStation for one).
Then there was the "little guy", Nintendo. A fantastic showing of tons of games that got tons of press. People were interested in much of it. Wii Sports, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Red Steel, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and more. Name 7 big upcoming games off the top of your head for either other system.
I've gotta say, I thought the PS3 would be a scarce but big hit with great graphics. Now I'm starting to get much more interested as it seems the PS3 will be overpriced with great graphics and a fair helping of "what are they doing now."
It's all text, all names, and no links. Who ARE those people? I have no idea! I wanted to find out, but it looks like I'd have to Google each and every name.
Have you ever noticed that when Forbes or someone makes a list like this, they at LEAST give each person a few words to describe who they work for or some such?
Slashdot Mirror
True. But up until a month or two ago, they ran NO advertising for the Mac.
And I'm not saying the ads should be technical. Just show a little iPhoto, Exposé, and just how generally pretty the OS is and I bet you'll get plenty of people interested. Those are relatively broad and easily understood. Things like Exposé just make people stop and say "wow." That's what ads should do.
So you can show a desktop with a family picture. The whole commercial is just the screen. He's surfing on the web with Safari and there is music playing in the background. Suddenly all the windows pop up thanks to Exposé (there is Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, and Office). The user clicks on iTunes and changes songs. After that, he selects a photo in iPhoto and sets it as the new desktop wallpaper, then starts typing in a great looking MS Word document.
"Macs do it all... with style"
That would be an effective ad. Could use a better tag line though. It would certainly be better than nothing they ran for years. The "Mac vs. PC" ads are a great start (I especially like the language one about networking with the Japanese printer). But I think showing off some of the visual flair would be good for them.
I've got to say, I liked the switch ads. I can see ads like that for Tiger easily. "I could never find anything... then I started using Spotlight in OS X". But I do understand that they didn't work (which is too bad).
What I meant about Direct-X 10 was that it will have all the features. Right now the Intel integrated graphics lack pixel or vertex shaders, or both (I don't remember which). Basically, it's a Direct-X 7 or 8 level chip, released during the 9 timeframe. It was lacking features when it was released.
Intel may break promises, but at this point I don't see how they could make things worse. And maybe the ATI/AMD marriage will spur them on too.
I agree about the 9200. That's the thing that bugs me the most. Instead of putting some old (and thus cheap) chip into the machines that runs well, if a little slow, companies put in those Intel chips that barely run games at all then advertise the things as family PCs you can play games on.
Yeah. But Intel has been catching a lot of flack for their integrated graphics, and for good reason. They have said that their next integrated graphics chip will support Direct-X 10 and be able to run Vista with all the goodies. It is also supposed to be able to play games (which their current chips basically can't) which is where they have been catching the most flack. No one expects Intel to be competitive with nVidia and ATI, but their chips should be faster than a 4 year old card from nVidia/ATI.
That will come over to the Mac. In the mean time, if you care about 3D in any form, avoid the integrated graphics. That's not a problem for the power users, but the home users who buy a Mini or a MacBook will be sadly disappointed if they try to run some little 3D game later.
Want to design web sites? You won't believe how many artists and companies want web sites. Make some. Do them for friends and relatives. Make them nice, make them do neat things. Now you've got a portfolio. Look for companies wanting web sites and sell yourself. Make a business out of it.
If you work for yourself (web sites, tech support, whatever) then the hiring manager won't care you don't have a degree. Work your way up and prove you can do what you say and you can get jobs.
What problems? Viruses? None. Spyware? None. Crashes? None. Past that, it's no different. "How do I do X in Word?" has the same exact answer as in Windows. "How do I bookmark a site" is easy in Safari, and if you set them up with FireFox it's just like in Windows. "How do I forward an eMail?" is just like every other eMail software: you click forward.
"How do I get pictures off my camera?" Just plug it in, iPhoto does the rest.
"How do I get video off my camera?" Just plug it in, open iMovie, it does the rest.
"How do I install this printer?" Chances are: plug it in, and choose "Add printer" and it will work. But the setup disk will probably do that for you.
99% of what they want to know how to do is identical. The stuff that isn't often isn't needed on a Mac (upgrading drivers, defragging your disk, scanning for spyware, etc).
Boot Camp may be beta, but it is supposed to be integrated with Leopard. Also, Apple is now recommending using Parallels Workstation instead (both in the commercials and their site).
Apple is not supporting it because they aren't installing it. Just like Dell won't support that copy of Half-Life 2 you bought from your local computer store. That said, for something they're not supporting, they are providing drivers for their computers and providing a nice program so you don't have to do it through some weird hack (like just before Boot Camp was released).
Apple is not selling Windows because they are not setting Windows up for you. It's a Mac. If you want Windows, you can buy it.
Yes, Windows costs $200-300 retail. But you'd be an idiot to buy it that way. You can get XP Pro online for about $75 brand new and perfectly legal. Then again you could use the copy that's on your current PC (if you don't have one, then why do you need to run Windows)? Just use that copy and toss the computer (or wipe the drive and sell it). That's legal. Look! Windows was FREE in that one.
Now how about I ask you this: who cares? If you are going to use Windows on your Mac... you probably would have bought Virtual PC before. Guess how much that costs: $100 + a copy of Windows. Almost exactly what this new way costs. Only this new way is much faster. It's also cheaper if you use Boot Camp instead of Parallels (because Boot Camp is free). To point out the flaw in your last statement: if you only want to run Windows... you won't be buying a Mac.
Suck it up, you'll be glad you did. I did and I've been much happier than I thought I would be. The OS is just a dream to use. It may seem more expensive, but you'll feel it's worth it afterwards. Then there is the software that is included. You get Garage Band, iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, etc. If you use any of those, they come free and that's a savings over buying some third party product on Windows.
I think if Apple could make some kind of "Borrow a Mac for two weeks for $20" offer, they couldn't keep them in stock. From the experiences of myself, others, and knowing what many people go through on Windows (being a neighborhood tech support guy) I can see it happening easily.
This is the one Mac criticism that I agree with. I switched despite it. I just didn't play enough games on my computer to have that hold me back to Windows. That said, Macs are behind in that respect. Boot Camp improves it, so does the switch to Intel (Macs, especially the laptops, were horridly underpowered). The graphics card issue still needs to be addressed.
There are quite a few people who only play casual games, and the Mac is fine for that. If you want it enough, you can use Boot Camp. Most of the other games that many "gamers" play (like the Sims 2 series) is available on the Mac.
However, the hardcore gamer market is willing to drop HUGE chunks of money on hardware. If Apple could improve this a little, I think they could get another vocal community on their side.
You'll love it, especially if you love the command line environment of Linux. Being able to have both the great GUI and name applications (like Photoshop) as well as a true Unix subsystem and command line you can use were a big factor in switching to the Mac for me.
You mention defrag, and that is one thing I've never understood. In the time I've been using Windows, it has never run well without 3rd party software. In the 95/98/ME days defrag was probably important, but I found that a little program called MemTurbo make the system feel like it just booted all the time. It would somehow clean up leaked memory, or force specific things to be paged, as well as defragment the memory allocations.
Then Windows 2000 came along and it no longer needed that program (hooray!). But NTFS just gets SO fragmented SO fast. Without a 3rd party program (Disk Keeper, set to defrag during screen saver) then any system that gets quite a bit of use will slow to a crawl pretty fast in my experience.
Vista is supposed to have that built in, so I wonder what users will need next to keep the OS running smoothly.
I've got to say, I love my Mac. I used to love 'em, switched to PCs during the late Windows 3.1 timeframe, and then switched back last year.
Macs are growing, and they are growing fast. Apple's US laptop market-share DOUBLED in the last six months. Now one in eight laptops sold in the US are Macs. For an alternate OS, that is huge. And because the MacBook was released during the middle of that period, there was a disclaimer with those numbers that the trend will very likely continue.
And why not? Mac laptops are sexy. They look great. They have almost every feature you could want (I still don't understand why for such a media friendly company, they don't have media-card slots). They are light. They are thin. They are quiet. It amazes me that many new Dells and such have to have their fans on all the time and it's quite audible. When they dare to do anything complex, a little jet-plane enters the room. My Mac (admittedly a G4, although I hear the recent Intels aren't bad at all) is dead silent. It took me like 2 weeks to realize there was a fan in the thing (not that I was looking). When going full-tilt with graphics, it's about as loud as most people's Dells and such are at idle.
Macs have had (and still do) a few issues. Graphics cards is a major one. I hope the switch to Intel helps this more, because my 1 year old laptop has a sorry graphics card compared to what was available on PCs at the time (Radeon 9700 or 9800).
That said, the stars are converging for Apple. They have HUGE brand trust and are "cool" thanks to the iPod. Their hardware looks and performs excellent. The OS is amazing. I've been running Vista for about 18 months in the form of Tiger. When Vista comes out, I'll get Leopard and be ahead again. I help neighbors and such with computers and I can't tell you how many problems could be solved with a Mac. "I want to edit movies." If you had a Mac, you'd have all you need thanks to the amazing iLife. But they were on a PC so they had to buy a FireWire card, video editing software, DVD burning software, and none of it was as easy to use as the Mac software. I know people who can't find their files. They just don't get the filesystem organization (you've seen 'em: everything in My Documents). Spotlight would save them so many hassles. I've set them up with Google Desktop... but it's no the same. Spotlight is integrated into EVERYTHING. Even the standardized File dialogs.
Then there is the Intel switch. Biggest complaint from people I've told about Macs in the past? "Then I have to buy all new software." This is people who run everything from just a handful to expensive things like Photoshop. Now with Intel, you can get a Mac and run those programs though Parallels or dual-booting. End up not liking the Mac (I doubt it), you can run Windows FULL TIME. You have very little to lose for what you stand to gain. If this was available when I was looking, I would have bought a Mac about a year earlier.
Games could use a focus. Apple REALLY needs to advertise the OS. The latest ads were a good start, but I show people my Mac and even little things (the keyboard and screen responding to ambient light) wow them. Apple needs to get people to know about this stuff. Then there is stuff like Exposé that just blows their mind. They have seen NOTHING like it on the Windows side (as opposed to things like Spotlight that have rough equivalents).
My biggest problem with Apple for the last 4 years or so (both as an observer and now as a user) has been their lack of advertising of OS X. They seem to be stuck with an almost word-of-mouth sales techniques. Maybe with recent moves (more stores, going into Best Buys and using Apple personnel to run the Mac section) will help.
The Mac market is already exploding. Just wait to see what happens after WWDC. With the real power desktops out, I wonder how much their market share numbers will jump. What will Leopard do (especially if they advertise it). What will happen in Back-To-School season (between the MacBook and their recent free-iPod-with-Mac-purchase programs), and Christmas?
There is no doubt that what you want is a RadTech BT500. I bought one when I bought my PowerBook early last year. It's a tiny little mouse, and it's easy to carry around. That said, it is comfortable and works great. It looks nice too. Looking at the product page, they've changed it since I bought it. Mine is powered by two AAA batteries, and it lasts a long time. The new once comes with two NiMH AAAs and can be recharged with an included USB cable, which would be nice to have.
Did you keep going, or turn it off? After you do that there are little dialog screens then eventually you get a save point just like between the 1st and 2nd episodes. After you save (or right before?) it pops up a message saying "A new episode has been added" or something like that.
Nope. Each time you complete a trial, it unlocks the next one. That's all. Wikipedia and GameFaqs both seem to say the same thing.
So after a quick look, it seems like this would be the kind of thing to make a game like Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. Is that right?
I recently managed to get my hands on a copy (they are in the Capcom online store... ORDER NOW!) and I've got to say the game is FANTASTIC. After 2 trials I would have been happy with the game, but it's got a full 5 (I just finished the fourth today). The game is an absolute blast. If you love courtroom dramas, you've got to play this game.
The characters are all great and the stories and good. The murder plots are excellent (they can be tricky). The touch screen isn't used very well in the game (which isn't surprising given it was a GBA game first, I think). You can use the touch screen just fine, it's just hardly ever needed (which is also nice, so you don't need to use it if you don't want to). They have already announced that there will be a sequel both here in the US (hooray!) and in Japan (where it will be a re-issue of a GBA game for the DS). The music is nice (which is a SERIOUS plus compared to most handheld games) and fits in very well (at the right moments in the trials, like when you present key evidence, it changes to a real pumping-up beat).
Give it a try. The game needs support.
It would be great to be able to make something like that, but I'm not creative enough. I wish this genre (and point-and-click adventure games, which I see as a bit similar in some was) wasn't dead over here. What I wouldn't give for another Lucas Arts point-and-click. Loom, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max, The Dig, Grim Fandango, and all four games in the Monkey Island series.
I never got to play Full Throttle (which was supposed to be great) or the Indiana Jones games (also supposed to be great). I ought to look into those. I only played the Monkey Island games a few years ago.
That IS the point.
The content is separated from the style. That way you can change the style without having to change every piece of content. This makes it possible to easily swap out content. Take a site like ZDNet. If they had the style encoded directly into every page then when they decided to change the way something looked, they have to go back through EVERY PAGE they put up and change it. With CSS you can change it in one imported style sheet and be all set. You could do things like serve random style sheets to viewers so contents look different. This would have been VERY hard to do without CSS. This makes it easy to make different styles for handhelds, cell phones, printouts, the blind, etc.
CSS may not be tied to databases, but it's ability to ease the deployment and management of dynamic content are one of it's biggest strengths.
Good Idea: Having breakfast served to you in bed.
Bad Idea: Having tennis balls served to you in bed.
Sorry, I had to. I don't get to use that reference much.
I'm guessing it will be like the DS. When you first turn it on for the first time (or when ever you choose to) you'd calibrate it (standard shoot the corners). This would then be stored in the Wii and it would pass the calibrated data to the games, they would never get the raw data. The TV's aspect ratio could easily be stored there too.
I thought about that for a second but I ruled it out. What is the point of putting that on the controller? Unless your controller becomes your controller that you take to a friends house that keeps a tiny bit of data on you (favorite color, birthday, name) so when you start playing it's already configured for you. I wouldn't think enough games would have similar enough controls for that to work. When they do (such as the trigger in an FPS) then the configuration is obvious (are you going to change the fire button from the trigger to a button at the bottom of the controller you can't reach?)
On a PC you have a TON of keys to bind. On the Wiimote, you have 9 (if you include the four D-pad directions).
I don't see the point of storing that on the controller. After all, the system is supposed to have built in flash storage of some size (I don't remember) and you could store that data there. That would make more sense than storing it on the controller.
And on the storing sounds font, just how much of a sound could you possibly fit in 6kb anyway? Standard WAVs are 10MB per minute. If you make that mono, it's 5MB a minute. Cut the sample rate in 4 (to 11khz) and that would give you 1.25MB a minute. Go to 8 bit instead of 16 and things are sounding terrible, but you're at ~600kb per minute. So you could fit 1/100th of a minute of audio in that space. Even if you compress it 5:1 you only get 3 seconds.
And if you are going to use that memory for sounds in-game, why does it need to be non-volatile anyway? Would it really be that hard to download the sound to the controller again the next time they turn on the game?
I don't believe it at all. You can see my other comment in this topic to see why.
That said, I can give you some ideas. One that has been floated around is that you would be able to have a little avatar of yourself that you could put into various games. This rumor seems to have come from the customized characters in the Wii Sports demo. You could use the camera to put your face on the model.
It could also be used more... creatively. Through image analysis you could turn any rough surface (even carpet) along with the Wiimote as a pen tablet type setup. I wouldn't think Bluetooth would be fast enough to transfer high enough resolution images, and to do the analysis on the controllers would be expensive to battery life.
Or you could do something else. Monster Rancher had an interesting idea when they let you put music CDs into your PlayStation to release the monsters in them. There was a little hand-held game back around the time of Nintendo's little Pikachu toy/pedometer (which was kinda fun) that would read barcodes to teach your Digimon type thing (I don't think it was Digimon) new attacks (or something). By using the camera in this way you could put interesting data into the Wii. Release the monsters from your food packages, find the Elfs living in your books with their bar codes. Keep track of your life with Delicious LIbrary for the Wii.
I read this the other day. Most of it was known before. That said, the IGN writer needs a clue.
I wonder what the memory will be for. I can't think of any uses, unless it is used for calibration in which case it doesn't matter that much. That said, using non-volatile memory (which did not need to be in quotes, and is probably flash) to store sound clips seems rather pointless and a waste of limited write cycles.
But wait, there's more!
I'M ruling it out. That's like saying a mouse with a ball and a 200 PPI resolution could be used as a scanner. To put a live mega-pixel video sensor on the front of the Wiimote just to analyze every image to figure out which way the thing was pointing would be one of the most expensive, slow, battery draining, and stupid ways to accomplish that goal imaginable.
We'll find out more during Tokyo Game Show on Sept 22nd. In the mean time, if you are going to speculate in an article about something, get some kind of engineer to take a glance at your article first so you don't look too wrong.
I don't think it's a terribly bad idea, and it certainly isn't a gimmick. Sega advertising the Saturn as having 3 CPUs when the PlayStation only had 1 was a gimmick (it may have been true, but the PS was clearly just as powerful).
As for the 7 processor thing, that is pure business. Each cell has 8 SPUs. By only enabling 7 of them, they can sell all the processors that would otherwise be worthless for the PS3 because a defect killed an SPU. They do it strictly for yield numbers. This is just like Intel selling defective Core Duo CPUs as Core Solo CPUs by disabling the defective core. It's the same reason DRAM has extra bits in it so the defective ones can be avoided.
The number 7 is just because 8 fit on the chip and they want to be able to have half decent yield numbers (which, from what I've seen (see one of my other posts in this topic) are already terrible).
As for how to split things up, here is a random idea:
Actually, I think Sony has said to count on one SPU doing OS tasks all the time, so I guess you could take out AI 2. Now ignore the suitability to divide things up that way in the Cell, my point was just that you could divide a game that way.
I read that, and I know that it wasn't given to them two weeks before the show or whatever was initially reported. Still, I think it's a rushed half feature because my guess is that while they have been planning the PS3 ever since the PS2 was released, my guess is that the tilt functionality has only had real consideration since the learned what Nintendo was up to (either through a leak or through the press conference that the rest of us learned about it through).
On the one hand, you're right. I think MS should have done that. Just put all the console up for bid in one giant eBay auction and let people pay what they are willing to.
That said, it doesn't have to be that way. I bought TWO PS2s on launch day in a major metro area for the launch price without having to sit in line from 2:00 AM or something. I could have easily done the same for the 360 launch or the XBox launch without any problem.
But with the PS3 instead of having a choice of trying on my own or paying $1000 on eBay, I will be FORCED to pay $600 if I get it at retail (which I won't until the price is half that).
Compare that to MS who while not great did show a wide variety of games and had some good announcements (GTA no longer exclusive to PlayStation for one).
Then there was the "little guy", Nintendo. A fantastic showing of tons of games that got tons of press. People were interested in much of it. Wii Sports, Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, Red Steel, Wario Ware: Smooth Moves, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and more. Name 7 big upcoming games off the top of your head for either other system.
I've gotta say, I thought the PS3 would be a scarce but big hit with great graphics. Now I'm starting to get much more interested as it seems the PS3 will be overpriced with great graphics and a fair helping of "what are they doing now."
It's all text, all names, and no links. Who ARE those people? I have no idea! I wanted to find out, but it looks like I'd have to Google each and every name.
Have you ever noticed that when Forbes or someone makes a list like this, they at LEAST give each person a few words to describe who they work for or some such?