Importantly, Sony stole me from Nintendo as a platform game lover with the Jak games and Ratchet & Clank. After playing either, Mario looks terrible.
When Naughty Dog moved up to the PS3 and made Uncharted, they continued the fine tradition they'd had with Jak & Daxter; excellent platforming mixed with shooting and storyline.
There's no game genre that I'm interested in that Nintendo excels in... but to each their own.
FWIW, I'd say that they're as much the spiritual successor to the PDA as they are a phone. They're not called that because (a) PDAs kind of went of out fashion and declined commercially a while back and (b) they evolved from the direction of the phone market.
I've been waiting to buy a smartphone until I could find one that would replace my old Newtons as personal data managers. Nothing since has truly impressed me until the Android series. With my Dell Streak 5 I can truly carry all my data around in my pocket.
Its one of the few areas I found WinXP more usable than Linux -- I can operate a WinXP box from startup to shutdown without a mouse, where I find Gnome's UI requires a mouse to navigate some options.
If you contact your provider in advance, its sometimes possible to arrange for a data plan in the country you're visiting through them, and avoid the roaming charges.
Also I know its possible to get the pay-as-you-go data plans with cash ONLY if you already own the equipment necessary (ie they only need to give you a SIM). They will not hand over a data stick without a credit card or your willingness to buy it outright.
Thanks for that... honestly... but as a Canadian I'd like to say you're still willing to come spend what money you have left up here;-) We're quite grateful for the oil revenues as well.
I'm still waiting for someone down there to notice that our banking system survived the crash, and might be worth imitating instead of bailing out known failures but ymmv.
We can for NDIS drivers, it'd be interesting to write another binary wrapper for the Windows drivers but it means trusting more non-open code in the kernel's memory space at run time.
Your device is probably going to use more than zero power over all (you own it because you use it, right?) so calculate maximum savings despite using it, at 25W of consumed power.
That's 600 watt-hours a day, or 0.6kWh if my math doesn't deceive me.
By contrast, it sounds like team STB has somehow managed to miss Every Single Development in computer and embedded device power management in the last decade. Ironically, they've probably even managed to achieve an outcome where Intel muscling in with their x86 (barely) SoC designs would actually be more efficient than highly-integrated task specific media SoCs; because at least they would incorporate their laptop power management techniques more or less for free. Impressive work.
This may have a lot to do with platforms that aren't stable during wake from sleep modes. If the DVB conversion or HDMI video output or other device hardware doesn't like being awakened from sleep mode, the box is likely to be a lot more stable when left either "on" or "off" all the time. It would be nice if they ran in intelligent sleep modes like laptops, or a modern smart phone, but I don't think they see a pay off yet in doing that work.
Make a STB based on Android or something and configure it to run at maximum power savings but still wake up on time to record programs and periodically to check on schedule changes and you might save a lot of energy but have a hard time convincing many users to upgrade. In the end you're really trying to sell such boxes to major channels like the cable or satellite company, so every penny counts in that RFP.
Many moons ago there was some deep bitterness from some of the devs at the Ottawa Linux Symposium about the fact that hardware developers weren't actually following the specs but instead implementing their own, then just writing Windows drivers to work around their tweaks.
Since Linux doesn't typically support pluggable hardware drivers from manufacturers (and they often don't care to write them), Linux was trying to communicate using the actual specifications, and failing. This has been a problem for years now, and I have no reason to believe the hardware manufacturers are any less to blame now than they were before.
WP7 has enterprise level integration for major companies? Encrypted personal communications? Secured remote phone shutdowns and application limitation options?
Last I checked it didn't.
Maybe you should brush up on WHY Blackberries are popular.
But the above statement strikes me as rather pathetic trolling - in the history of new computing devices, has there ever been a wealth of software sat there waiting for its release day ready to install on it?
I recall people whining about only having three games to play when the 360 was released.
A year later people whined that there were no games to play on the PS3.
People aren't good at recognizing patterns and deconstructing them into data it seems.
Any app designed for a large screen will need redesign for a small screen. The windows 8 + phone strategy is not going to help any more than Android phone apps work just fine on 10" tablets (they don't).
Sure, a few of them use on-screen keyboards, but you didn't specify physical.
I have yet to meet a single human being who types faster and more reliably on an on-screen keyboard than with a physical one, including with Swype (which I love).
As such, you'll notice that IPad cases with bluetooth keyboards are all the rage, making the IPad a silly detachable screen for a laptop that runs iOS.
As funny as it seems initially, its possible. Microsoft could finally decide to compete by making a small, efficient and fast dedicated browser that doesn't try to double-up as the system's shell interface.
Slashdot Mirror
Importantly, Sony stole me from Nintendo as a platform game lover with the Jak games and Ratchet & Clank. After playing either, Mario looks terrible.
When Naughty Dog moved up to the PS3 and made Uncharted, they continued the fine tradition they'd had with Jak & Daxter; excellent platforming mixed with shooting and storyline.
There's no game genre that I'm interested in that Nintendo excels in ... but to each their own.
The existance of OtherOS is what lead to the cracks, not the removal.
The removal was just too late.
Rare made excellent Nintendo games. That won't be happening anymore though.
lol yeah don't get me started on what "your people" did to the border :)
I've been waiting to buy a smartphone until I could find one that would replace my old Newtons as personal data managers. Nothing since has truly impressed me until the Android series. With my Dell Streak 5 I can truly carry all my data around in my pocket.
This has annoyed me to no end as well. Most importantly, force the machine to shut down and not hibernate, etc. without a mouse.
I used the Win, U, U combo very often.
Its one of the few areas I found WinXP more usable than Linux -- I can operate a WinXP box from startup to shutdown without a mouse, where I find Gnome's UI requires a mouse to navigate some options.
If you contact your provider in advance, its sometimes possible to arrange for a data plan in the country you're visiting through them, and avoid the roaming charges.
Also I know its possible to get the pay-as-you-go data plans with cash ONLY if you already own the equipment necessary (ie they only need to give you a SIM). They will not hand over a data stick without a credit card or your willingness to buy it outright.
Thanks for that ... honestly ... but as a Canadian I'd like to say you're still willing to come spend what money you have left up here ;-) We're quite grateful for the oil revenues as well.
I'm still waiting for someone down there to notice that our banking system survived the crash, and might be worth imitating instead of bailing out known failures but ymmv.
We can for NDIS drivers, it'd be interesting to write another binary wrapper for the Windows drivers but it means trusting more non-open code in the kernel's memory space at run time.
Compute the savings for me please.
Your device is probably going to use more than zero power over all (you own it because you use it, right?) so calculate maximum savings despite using it, at 25W of consumed power.
That's 600 watt-hours a day, or 0.6kWh if my math doesn't deceive me.
Sounds like cautious debugging.
Would you rather have a STB that always records your shows, or one that sometimes doesn't wake up in time to do so?
Sleep states are a PITA ... ask anyone who's dealt with ACPI lately.
Lets put it in water towers so when there's a war, they can be blown up easier.
The energy losses on the wire alone are significant compared to fuel distribution efficiencies.
Fuel + transport -> burn for heat
vs
Fuel + transport -> burn for power + distribution -> convert to heat
Only the last step in the electricity version is efficient.
This may have a lot to do with platforms that aren't stable during wake from sleep modes. If the DVB conversion or HDMI video output or other device hardware doesn't like being awakened from sleep mode, the box is likely to be a lot more stable when left either "on" or "off" all the time. It would be nice if they ran in intelligent sleep modes like laptops, or a modern smart phone, but I don't think they see a pay off yet in doing that work.
Make a STB based on Android or something and configure it to run at maximum power savings but still wake up on time to record programs and periodically to check on schedule changes and you might save a lot of energy but have a hard time convincing many users to upgrade. In the end you're really trying to sell such boxes to major channels like the cable or satellite company, so every penny counts in that RFP.
And you've never heard of sunglasses either?
Many moons ago there was some deep bitterness from some of the devs at the Ottawa Linux Symposium about the fact that hardware developers weren't actually following the specs but instead implementing their own, then just writing Windows drivers to work around their tweaks.
Since Linux doesn't typically support pluggable hardware drivers from manufacturers (and they often don't care to write them), Linux was trying to communicate using the actual specifications, and failing. This has been a problem for years now, and I have no reason to believe the hardware manufacturers are any less to blame now than they were before.
Meh, I prefer set-top boxes that let me watch my Netflix via my TV and surround-sound system without paying the PC premium. YMMV.
WP7 has enterprise level integration for major companies? Encrypted personal communications? Secured remote phone shutdowns and application limitation options?
Last I checked it didn't.
Maybe you should brush up on WHY Blackberries are popular.
I recall people whining about only having three games to play when the 360 was released.
A year later people whined that there were no games to play on the PS3.
People aren't good at recognizing patterns and deconstructing them into data it seems.
Any app designed for a large screen will need redesign for a small screen. The windows 8 + phone strategy is not going to help any more than Android phone apps work just fine on 10" tablets (they don't).
I haven't met anyone who doesn't need a keyboard.
Sure, a few of them use on-screen keyboards, but you didn't specify physical.
I have yet to meet a single human being who types faster and more reliably on an on-screen keyboard than with a physical one, including with Swype (which I love).
As such, you'll notice that IPad cases with bluetooth keyboards are all the rage, making the IPad a silly detachable screen for a laptop that runs iOS.
We still sell Netbooks to customers, and they're available at every store in town here too near Toronto, Canada.
Just because phones and tablets are getting all the buzz right now doesn't make a product dead.
Silly media junkies.
I've read it ten times now and what you said does not appear to be a reply to what I said.
Feel free to elaborate, because I both agree with you and have no idea what it has to do with my comment.
As funny as it seems initially, its possible. Microsoft could finally decide to compete by making a small, efficient and fast dedicated browser that doesn't try to double-up as the system's shell interface.
I doubt it though.