What towns were abandoned here in the UK? The only thing I can find about that is villages that were forcefully taken over by our army during World War II for training grounds and such.
I concur, I use Spotify which is very similar. I disliked it when I tried it with ad support, but earlier this year I just decided to try subscribing (to try it on my phone and the "Linux preview" version), and I love it.
Even before Spotify I did actually buy my MP3s though.
This is why I often write passwords on completely separate lines. Even so: if I put a period at the end, people still don't realize it's part of the password..
Note that I'm not saying that I actually watch movies on it. I was saying that just because it's possible, it doesn't mean that there is no place for TVs.
this eReader not having touch and also using an onscreen keyboard which has to be navigated using nudges on the "controller" is just so brain-dead as a concept... people will NOT be impressed by it at all...
I think your're misunderstanding the whole reader part of "eReader". I don't get who wouldn't be impressed by this addition to the line up. Bear in mind that they're still selling the keyboard version for those who want it. But I didn't even want a keyboard on my current Kindle, and wish this version was available a year ago.
Sometimes you just want a device that does one job well, rather than one that does everything passably. I can use my phone for everything from telling the time to watching movies, but people still have watches and televisions.
The 3G model will still be able to download books for free, internationally. It just won't have free international web browsing any more. I thought the free web browsing was an insanely good deal for anyone who needed it (I don't need it since my phone's data bill is paid by work). I'm not surprised they're taking that feature away, it must cost them a whole lot of money if a lot of users are generating roaming charges.
Anyway, I've ordered my mum one of the new low-end Kindles. I'd be happy to give her my keyboard version if she wants the keyboard, since I didn't even want a keyboard on mine in the first place. There is no need for it. Whether I'm using my actual Kindle, or the Kindle app on my tablet or phone, I never need to type anything. Most people with a Kindle will already have a much better device for general browsing to hand, and simply selecting the links (or browsing to words to see the dictionary definition - my favourite feature of Kindle by far) with the directional controller will work fine anyway.
It must be nice to be able to speak for everybody!
My comment above had nothing to do with Android, it was directed at iOS. I used to actually choose Windows Mobile over iOS before Android existed, and in fact for a while until Android had proven itself more than just a fad.
I guess Google have YouTube as well, and apparently they were going to experiment with paid content according to some articles I found. I don't think it's available here in the UK though, and don't know how it panned out in the US.
Anyways, all this competition is still good for us:) And I don't think Amazon are going to push for their movies and music being distributed exclusively via the Fire any more than they push for ebooks only being available on the official Kindle devices.
There are plenty of cheaper 10" tablets around now that would be perfect for the uses you mention. You wouldn't even need Android 2, let alone 3.
Apple isn't ahead in hardware at all. When it comes to software, the only lead they have is that there are no dedicated apps for renting/buying TV shows and movies here in the UK. With the iPad you'd just rent TV/movies from tunes. I haven't tried the LoveFilm flash player on Android 3.1 actually, it may be more reliable than by now. Kind of a moot point considering I can stream LoveFilm to my TV with my PS3 though. My Xoom is great for YouTube vids, browsing and Kindle.
By "tablet computing" I assume you mean "the iPad". If so, I agree with you. Once Amazon does streaming to tablet, Android is going to be better than iOS in every way...
I'm quite aware that all home computers, phones, graphic calculators, etc could be referred to as "personal computers", and I know that makes sense, but it's simply not common usage. PC has meant "IBM PC compatible/derivative" for a long time. Witness the "I'm a Mac / and I'm a PC" adverts. Even in my Mac and Amiga days, I didn't refer to them as PCs. I referred to them as Macs and Amigas, or computers.
Beneath A Steel Skye was actually released as an app for the iPad (my flatmate has it). The rest will be available on ScummVM yes, but I think more developers should make new point'n'click style games for all these touchscreen devices. I found this while Googling earlier. Flash does make sense for 2D point'n'click games, though I'd imagine ScummVM makes things even easier since it's specifically designed for them.
I don't think the odds are 1 in 5 for individual developers considering how much crap is out there. The odds are dependent on how good they make the game. It's still possible for a good game to be overlooked, but considering how awful most mobile games are, I don't think it's very likely that it would be as long as a little time and effort is spent polishing it.
I'll assume you meant "home computer games" rather than PC games, since PCs were more used for business than games in the 80s.. so not exactly a fair comparison.
When you start to take into account late 80s and 90s home computer/console games, modern day phone gaming is blown away. In fact forget late 80s and 90s - I'd seriously rather play text-based adventures over the mobile games I've played so far. I was born in 1983 in case you're wondering.
80s/90s style point'n'click adventure games are perfect for touchscreen devices. They're one genre where tablets would have a chance to really shine. I see Tales Of Monkey Island was released for iOS, that's a start. Would have been nice if they released for Android too, though I already completed it on PS3.
These days I mostly play first/third person shooters and racing games btw, I'm not just an story-based-adventure junky. But I think that shooters and racing games using tilt suck. Racing games are best with either a proper fixed-in-place steering wheel, or a joystick. Tilting is lame.
And based on the average pay of a typical game developer (for iOS at least), I'd think twice about investing my time and money in the programming field. Sanitary engineers make more money than programmers, so maybe people should think about engineering instead of wasting their time trying to make money for big corporations. There's no shame in shoveling shit if you can at least get a guaranteed minimum wage from it.
You're clearly not a programmer.
1) Most mobile game developers aren't stupid enough to quit their day job to do it, at least until they hit the big time.
2) These people are the types who enjoy programming for its own sake. Developing games is fun (in fact developing even "boring" productivity apps can be fun, but games are more fun to test:p ). Shovelling shit isn't much fun.
3) Most of these developers are not working for "big corporations", they're self employed.
You can continue to keep your time and money to yourself. The rest of us are happy to enjoy programming even if you don't understand.
Disclaimer: I do get paid to do development, in the engineering/oil industry. No, I don't often write games. When I have I've released them for free, including the source.
Disney seem to make good games. Toy Story 2 and 3 were favourites of mine especially. The earlier platform stuff like Lion King, Aladdin and Herculese were also good. They're one of the few companies that actually seems to get it right when doing a movie to game conversion..
With the amount of shovelware out there, why would you expect the results to be much different though? It will be the same story in almost any non-fungible market in the world.
Slashdot Mirror
What towns were abandoned here in the UK? The only thing I can find about that is villages that were forcefully taken over by our army during World War II for training grounds and such.
Ahem:
(US$ 20 000 000 000) / 30 000 000 = 666.666667 U.S. dollars
I concur, I use Spotify which is very similar. I disliked it when I tried it with ad support, but earlier this year I just decided to try subscribing (to try it on my phone and the "Linux preview" version), and I love it.
Even before Spotify I did actually buy my MP3s though.
This is why I often write passwords on completely separate lines. Even so: if I put a period at the end, people still don't realize it's part of the password..
Note that I'm not saying that I actually watch movies on it. I was saying that just because it's possible, it doesn't mean that there is no place for TVs.
5 inch ;)
this eReader not having touch and also using an onscreen keyboard which has to be navigated using nudges on the "controller" is just so brain-dead as a concept... people will NOT be impressed by it at all...
I think your're misunderstanding the whole reader part of "eReader". I don't get who wouldn't be impressed by this addition to the line up. Bear in mind that they're still selling the keyboard version for those who want it. But I didn't even want a keyboard on my current Kindle, and wish this version was available a year ago.
Sometimes you just want a device that does one job well, rather than one that does everything passably. I can use my phone for everything from telling the time to watching movies, but people still have watches and televisions.
The 3G model will still be able to download books for free, internationally. It just won't have free international web browsing any more. I thought the free web browsing was an insanely good deal for anyone who needed it (I don't need it since my phone's data bill is paid by work). I'm not surprised they're taking that feature away, it must cost them a whole lot of money if a lot of users are generating roaming charges.
Anyway, I've ordered my mum one of the new low-end Kindles. I'd be happy to give her my keyboard version if she wants the keyboard, since I didn't even want a keyboard on mine in the first place. There is no need for it. Whether I'm using my actual Kindle, or the Kindle app on my tablet or phone, I never need to type anything. Most people with a Kindle will already have a much better device for general browsing to hand, and simply selecting the links (or browsing to words to see the dictionary definition - my favourite feature of Kindle by far) with the directional controller will work fine anyway.
Yes, "don't" as in "do not".
It must be nice to be able to speak for everybody!
My comment above had nothing to do with Android, it was directed at iOS. I used to actually choose Windows Mobile over iOS before Android existed, and in fact for a while until Android had proven itself more than just a fad.
Maybe MS plan on making these phones really shitty to hurt Linux's image (considering Android is helping to boost it).
I guess Google have YouTube as well, and apparently they were going to experiment with paid content according to some articles I found. I don't think it's available here in the UK though, and don't know how it panned out in the US.
Anyways, all this competition is still good for us :) And I don't think Amazon are going to push for their movies and music being distributed exclusively via the Fire any more than they push for ebooks only being available on the official Kindle devices.
I think it's a victory for me, the customer, either way :) AFAIK Google don't sell music&movies, and Amazon don't sell search..
There are plenty of cheaper 10" tablets around now that would be perfect for the uses you mention. You wouldn't even need Android 2, let alone 3.
Apple isn't ahead in hardware at all. When it comes to software, the only lead they have is that there are no dedicated apps for renting/buying TV shows and movies here in the UK. With the iPad you'd just rent TV/movies from tunes. I haven't tried the LoveFilm flash player on Android 3.1 actually, it may be more reliable than by now. Kind of a moot point considering I can stream LoveFilm to my TV with my PS3 though. My Xoom is great for YouTube vids, browsing and Kindle.
By "tablet computing" I assume you mean "the iPad". If so, I agree with you. Once Amazon does streaming to tablet, Android is going to be better than iOS in every way...
I'm quite aware that all home computers, phones, graphic calculators, etc could be referred to as "personal computers", and I know that makes sense, but it's simply not common usage. PC has meant "IBM PC compatible/derivative" for a long time. Witness the "I'm a Mac / and I'm a PC" adverts. Even in my Mac and Amiga days, I didn't refer to them as PCs. I referred to them as Macs and Amigas, or computers.
Beneath A Steel Skye was actually released as an app for the iPad (my flatmate has it). The rest will be available on ScummVM yes, but I think more developers should make new point'n'click style games for all these touchscreen devices. I found this while Googling earlier. Flash does make sense for 2D point'n'click games, though I'd imagine ScummVM makes things even easier since it's specifically designed for them.
1995 is after the 80s though. I was saying that in the 80s there wasn't a big IBM PC gaming scene compared to all these other home computers.
I see you aren't a programmer either. Until is a conditional too. As in
until (programmer.hobby_income >= enough_to_survive_on) or programmer.is_dead
{
programmer.make_games_for_fun();
}
I don't think the odds are 1 in 5 for individual developers considering how much crap is out there. The odds are dependent on how good they make the game. It's still possible for a good game to be overlooked, but considering how awful most mobile games are, I don't think it's very likely that it would be as long as a little time and effort is spent polishing it.
I'll assume you meant "home computer games" rather than PC games, since PCs were more used for business than games in the 80s.. so not exactly a fair comparison.
When you start to take into account late 80s and 90s home computer/console games, modern day phone gaming is blown away. In fact forget late 80s and 90s - I'd seriously rather play text-based adventures over the mobile games I've played so far. I was born in 1983 in case you're wondering.
80s/90s style point'n'click adventure games are perfect for touchscreen devices. They're one genre where tablets would have a chance to really shine. I see Tales Of Monkey Island was released for iOS, that's a start. Would have been nice if they released for Android too, though I already completed it on PS3.
These days I mostly play first/third person shooters and racing games btw, I'm not just an story-based-adventure junky. But I think that shooters and racing games using tilt suck. Racing games are best with either a proper fixed-in-place steering wheel, or a joystick. Tilting is lame.
And based on the average pay of a typical game developer (for iOS at least), I'd think twice about investing my time and money in the programming field. Sanitary engineers make more money than programmers, so maybe people should think about engineering instead of wasting their time trying to make money for big corporations. There's no shame in shoveling shit if you can at least get a guaranteed minimum wage from it.
You're clearly not a programmer.
1) Most mobile game developers aren't stupid enough to quit their day job to do it, at least until they hit the big time.
2) These people are the types who enjoy programming for its own sake. Developing games is fun (in fact developing even "boring" productivity apps can be fun, but games are more fun to test :p ). Shovelling shit isn't much fun.
3) Most of these developers are not working for "big corporations", they're self employed.
You can continue to keep your time and money to yourself. The rest of us are happy to enjoy programming even if you don't understand.
Disclaimer: I do get paid to do development, in the engineering/oil industry. No, I don't often write games. When I have I've released them for free, including the source.
Disney seem to make good games. Toy Story 2 and 3 were favourites of mine especially. The earlier platform stuff like Lion King, Aladdin and Herculese were also good. They're one of the few companies that actually seems to get it right when doing a movie to game conversion..
With the amount of shovelware out there, why would you expect the results to be much different though? It will be the same story in almost any non-fungible market in the world.
Peppers stuffed with cheese and covered in breadcrumbs are amazing!