Come on, people. This is ridiculous. Sony has no reason to launch the PS3 this year, or even next year. The PS2 is still the king of all video game consoles, with sales several times that of the GameCube or Xbox. It's cheap, Sony is making money off of it (in contrast to the ~$100 Microsoft loses for each Xbox) and it's still the "coolest" console out there. If they released the PS3 this year, it would not only cut into their sales, but force a still-viable product (PS2) out of the market prematurely. Nintendo could have released the GameBoy Advance long before it did, but instead chose to make minor improvements on the original GameBoy because releasing a new system would have been disastrous. Which one would consumers buy...the old outdated one or the new expensive one? Neither. They'll go to a competitor whose product is still cool, i.e. Xbox or GameCube.
My ISP, Internet Nebraska uses Postini, a service which intercepts all incoming email and uses content-based filters to block out nearly all spam e-mail. There are other programs that do the same thing, such as MailAgent. Postini even scans for viruses. For this service, Internet Nebraska charges me a fee of $1 per month which I am more than happy to pay. I now receive one to three spam e-mails per day as opposed to about 50 before I signed up for Postini.
My question is this: Why don't more ISPs use services that are available, like Postini? It's a no-brainer to me, and I can't think of many good reasons not to use it.
Maybe, but then how can Nokia possibly claim that it will sell "millions and millions" of units? Most cell phones come dirt cheap or free already, so why should anyone pay $200 because it has good games? I do see your point about people buying it because it's a phone, not a game device. That fact alone might make the games better, or at least cooler, in most people's eyes, than the GBA. But the market for this thing is going to define the word "niche." It simply won't be profitable for Sega to port a low-framerate version of Sonic to a phone which has a couple hundred thousand owners, who may or may not go buy the game (or download it if that's offered).
This is simply ridiculous. I don't understand Nokia's logic here. It's inferior to the GameBoy Advance in many ways, and priced much higer at that. I feel like banging my head against a brick wall here. Why would I spend $200 (presumably) to get this thing when I can get a GBA for $70, and I already have a Sprint PCS (which does not support Nokia phones) phone that I really like. What market are they going after here? Is it...
The casual gamer? No, they will go for the cheap GBA which has a library of hundreds titles if you count original GB games.
The hard-core gamer? No sir. Any company that spends R&D cash on making a game for the N-Gage will make sure to get that game out for the GBA too. Given the list of current developers, the quantity of exclusive titles will be very small. Tomb Raider will most likely be similar to Splinter Cell--exclusive for a few months.
The gadget geek? Doubt it. Again, price is an issue. But features...let's see...bluetooth? Why would I want to go up to strangers at an airport? You have to stand relatively close anyway, and a regular GBA cable will reach several feet. This thing doesn't even have shoulder buttons. And besides, any gadget-geek worth his salt will already have the GBA SP (http://www.nintendo.com/news/news_articles.jsp?ar ticleID=7901) which is smaller, plays all GB/GBA games, has a lit screen, and 10-20 hour battery life.
I simply don't understand. They're serious, yes, but about what? Proving a point? That games can be played on a cell phone? sheesh.
Personally I'm glad Apple is charging for their software. They make great computers with a great OS, but their software is abysmal. Appleworks is in its sixth version and still plagued with the problems that were around in version 1. iTunes, iCal, iPhoto...all are sub-standard applications that rely too much on interface quirks at the expense of true innovation and user-friendliness. iCal is the worst of the bunch. The fact that all these programs are free means we don't have much room to complain, and Apple has no incentive to improve them. SoundJam and Audion are the best choices for MP3 playing (although SoundJam hasn't been supported by C&G for a long time) but why pay for theirs when you can use the sub-par iTunes for free.
If Apple charges for their software, maybe they'll finally get some due compensation from those people who use it and enjoy it (read: they'll now buy what they've gotten for free in the past). But more importantly, consumers will hopefully pay attention to the better alternatives out there.
(yes, I know they've always charged for AppleWorks. I just used it as an example of their often horrendous software products)
I agree. One game, Yoshi's Island, had Yoshi eating magic puffy things in one level. The screen would warp all out of shape and the music would go haywire and Yoshi would walk around drunkenly. Really makes me wonder what sort of games Nintendo is really selling to our kids. (that's supposed to be a joke)
about Apple's method of pomoting the iPod is its measure of how many "songs" it will hold. Songs by whose definition? Are we talking 3-minute pop ballads ripped at 128 Kbps? Or long metal anthems pulled at 192 or highter bit rates? What about VBR?
The worst example of this *ever* was the season finale episode "Best of Both Worlds Part 1." They had rigged it to somehow eimit a huge blast of energy to destroy the Borg ship. The episode ended with Riker giving the order to fire.
Three months later in the concluding episode, nothing happened at all. The deflector dish did nothing--absolutely nothing. They even zoomed in on it and it sat there emitting not even the slightest blast of energy. It was like the special effects budget suddenly ran out...
Years ago, Apple began including a very small microphone with their macs. It may have been with the Mac Classic, but I'm not sure (and I bet someone will check out apple-history and find out). Anyway, a bunch of recording industry giants, specifically Apple Records, if I'm not mistaken, got all upset because they though the inclusion of a microphone would begin to undermine the musical industry. Why, I really have no idea.
Apple's response? An included system sound entitled "sosumi." Say it out loud...you'll get the joke.
As far as I know Apple has included a microphone on every model (save maybe a few of the original Powerbooks) since then.
I remember one time on America's Funniest Home Videos (back in the day, of course, when it was hosted by the King of Cool, Bob Saget) they had this one where two guys spent all night at a video store stacking up empty boxes. They covered the floor, counters, and racks with those semi-transluscent VHS boxes and knocked 'em all down with one super huge domino effect.
The bummer part was when some dude who got whacked in the crotch won the grand prize for the show.
Elitism drives people away, as does saying "RTFM" or belittling people who choose a different distro from yourself.
Bingo...'couldn't have said it better myself. My brother and I set up a server for our web site GameNerd and neither one of us had touched Linux before. Now, I can hardly stand to look at our litte box in the basement. It's a frustrating mess to do anything simple. Even setting up the NIC required an IRQ value and all the control panel settings were in random places. Getting help from any of my CompSci major friends at school (University of Nebraska) was a lesson in futility. Every time I asked them anything, I was yelled at for being a newbie. Really, how can you fault someone for being new at something? I read the FM, I fiddled with the system for weeks, I got some books, I reinstalled a few times...in the end I just wanted to ask someone. But that never worked.
It's like capitalism...nerds get nerdier...others just switch to the Mac.
"My attitude is, everybody should try competing with Microsoft once in their life. Once."
The cool thing is that Microsoft has tried competing with Sony and Nintendo, and they are losing like crazy to Sony. Nintendo will ultimately beat Microsoft as well, giving them a little piece of long-overdue humble pie to digest for a while...
Battlefield Earth? It sucks, and we all know it. Go to your local Blockbuster, and check out the movie case. Apparently they couldn't find any good quotes to use so they found one, and I'm not kidding here, from "Joblo's movie emporium" raving about the movie's scene transitions. Check it out, it's hilarious.
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Come on, people. This is ridiculous. Sony has no reason to launch the PS3 this year, or even next year. The PS2 is still the king of all video game consoles, with sales several times that of the GameCube or Xbox. It's cheap, Sony is making money off of it (in contrast to the ~$100 Microsoft loses for each Xbox) and it's still the "coolest" console out there. If they released the PS3 this year, it would not only cut into their sales, but force a still-viable product (PS2) out of the market prematurely. Nintendo could have released the GameBoy Advance long before it did, but instead chose to make minor improvements on the original GameBoy because releasing a new system would have been disastrous. Which one would consumers buy...the old outdated one or the new expensive one? Neither. They'll go to a competitor whose product is still cool, i.e. Xbox or GameCube.
My ISP, Internet Nebraska uses Postini, a service which intercepts all incoming email and uses content-based filters to block out nearly all spam e-mail. There are other programs that do the same thing, such as MailAgent. Postini even scans for viruses. For this service, Internet Nebraska charges me a fee of $1 per month which I am more than happy to pay. I now receive one to three spam e-mails per day as opposed to about 50 before I signed up for Postini. My question is this: Why don't more ISPs use services that are available, like Postini? It's a no-brainer to me, and I can't think of many good reasons not to use it.
Maybe, but then how can Nokia possibly claim that it will sell "millions and millions" of units? Most cell phones come dirt cheap or free already, so why should anyone pay $200 because it has good games? I do see your point about people buying it because it's a phone, not a game device. That fact alone might make the games better, or at least cooler, in most people's eyes, than the GBA. But the market for this thing is going to define the word "niche." It simply won't be profitable for Sega to port a low-framerate version of Sonic to a phone which has a couple hundred thousand owners, who may or may not go buy the game (or download it if that's offered).
I simply don't understand. They're serious, yes, but about what? Proving a point? That games can be played on a cell phone? sheesh.
Personally I'm glad Apple is charging for their software. They make great computers with a great OS, but their software is abysmal. Appleworks is in its sixth version and still plagued with the problems that were around in version 1. iTunes, iCal, iPhoto...all are sub-standard applications that rely too much on interface quirks at the expense of true innovation and user-friendliness. iCal is the worst of the bunch. The fact that all these programs are free means we don't have much room to complain, and Apple has no incentive to improve them. SoundJam and Audion are the best choices for MP3 playing (although SoundJam hasn't been supported by C&G for a long time) but why pay for theirs when you can use the sub-par iTunes for free.
If Apple charges for their software, maybe they'll finally get some due compensation from those people who use it and enjoy it (read: they'll now buy what they've gotten for free in the past). But more importantly, consumers will hopefully pay attention to the better alternatives out there.
(yes, I know they've always charged for AppleWorks. I just used it as an example of their often horrendous software products)
I agree. One game, Yoshi's Island, had Yoshi eating magic puffy things in one level. The screen would warp all out of shape and the music would go haywire and Yoshi would walk around drunkenly. Really makes me wonder what sort of games Nintendo is really selling to our kids. (that's supposed to be a joke)
about Apple's method of pomoting the iPod is its measure of how many "songs" it will hold. Songs by whose definition? Are we talking 3-minute pop ballads ripped at 128 Kbps? Or long metal anthems pulled at 192 or highter bit rates? What about VBR?
stupid marketing tactics...
The worst example of this *ever* was the season finale episode "Best of Both Worlds Part 1." They had rigged it to somehow eimit a huge blast of energy to destroy the Borg ship. The episode ended with Riker giving the order to fire.
Three months later in the concluding episode, nothing happened at all. The deflector dish did nothing--absolutely nothing. They even zoomed in on it and it sat there emitting not even the slightest blast of energy. It was like the special effects budget suddenly ran out...
Years ago, Apple began including a very small microphone with their macs. It may have been with the Mac Classic, but I'm not sure (and I bet someone will check out apple-history and find out). Anyway, a bunch of recording industry giants, specifically Apple Records, if I'm not mistaken, got all upset because they though the inclusion of a microphone would begin to undermine the musical industry. Why, I really have no idea.
Apple's response? An included system sound entitled "sosumi." Say it out loud...you'll get the joke.
As far as I know Apple has included a microphone on every model (save maybe a few of the original Powerbooks) since then.
I remember one time on America's Funniest Home Videos (back in the day, of course, when it was hosted by the King of Cool, Bob Saget) they had this one where two guys spent all night at a video store stacking up empty boxes. They covered the floor, counters, and racks with those semi-transluscent VHS boxes and knocked 'em all down with one super huge domino effect.
The bummer part was when some dude who got whacked in the crotch won the grand prize for the show.
How come the new "jaguar" OSX logo looks like it's a cheetah?
Elitism drives people away, as does saying "RTFM" or belittling people who choose a different distro from yourself.
Bingo...'couldn't have said it better myself. My brother and I set up a server for our web site GameNerd and neither one of us had touched Linux before. Now, I can hardly stand to look at our litte box in the basement. It's a frustrating mess to do anything simple. Even setting up the NIC required an IRQ value and all the control panel settings were in random places. Getting help from any of my CompSci major friends at school (University of Nebraska) was a lesson in futility. Every time I asked them anything, I was yelled at for being a newbie. Really, how can you fault someone for being new at something? I read the FM, I fiddled with the system for weeks, I got some books, I reinstalled a few times...in the end I just wanted to ask someone. But that never worked.
It's like capitalism...nerds get nerdier...others just switch to the Mac.
They should buy a server or two from Havenco and take up residence on Sealand (www.sealandgov.com)
"My attitude is, everybody should try competing with Microsoft once in their life. Once."
The cool thing is that Microsoft has tried competing with Sony and Nintendo, and they are losing like crazy to Sony. Nintendo will ultimately beat Microsoft as well, giving them a little piece of long-overdue humble pie to digest for a while...
Battlefield Earth? It sucks, and we all know it. Go to your local Blockbuster, and check out the movie case. Apparently they couldn't find any good quotes to use so they found one, and I'm not kidding here, from "Joblo's movie emporium" raving about the movie's scene transitions. Check it out, it's hilarious.