Archive | June, 2011
8 Questions About Nintendo’s Wii U
The crowd laughed at the silly name when Nintendo announced the Wii U at its E3 press conference, but their derision quickly turned to amazement when Nintendo showed what its upcoming home gaming system can theoretically do. The trick is in a controller with a 6.2-inch touch screen that streams video from the console itself.
We’re still a long way from the Wii U’s 2012 release, and Nintendo left a lot of questions unanswered, even as it injected a much-needed dose of buzz into the E3 atmosphere. So I’m going to take a page from Harry and tackle the Wii U announcement as a series of open questions.
A Quick Look at iOS 5
7. June 2011
Engadget’s Jacob Schulman has a nice walkthrough of iOS 5′s major new features on the iPhone and iPad.
Sony Announces Playstation Vita, Stays the Course on PS3
6. June 2011
Hand it to Sony for knowing its audience.
Although the Playstation 3 has become a multimedia powerhouse — Sony dropped the nugget that its console accounts for 30 percent of all Netflix streaming — Sony’s E3 press conference was almost entirely about games. The requisite parade of exclusives came first, followed by launch details for Sony’s next-generation portable, now known as the Playstation Vita.
Where’s the Voice?
6. June 2011
And a bonus WWDC question #1: what happened to the voice recognition–provided through technology from the Siri app which Apple acquired last year and/or a partnership with Nuance–which was allegedly going to be part of iOS 5?
Ten Questions About Today’s Apple News
6. June 2011
Almost 38,000 folks turned out for Technologizer’s live coverage of Apple’s WWDC keynote this morning. We had a good time. But as the comments came in from attendees, there was clearly a serious contingent of folks who still held out hope that Apple was going to announce a new iPhone today–and who just didn’t care that much about software and services. For them, no new hardware meant that the event was a letdown.
On Twitter, I responded this way:
Dear everyone who's irate there was no new hardware: THIS WAS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT & INTERESTING THAN NEW HARDWARE.—
Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) June 06, 2011
This was among the most news-packed Apple events I can recall, and in its own way it was one of the most wildly ambitious ones. Apple is finally making the iPhone and iPad into autonomous devices that don’t rely on a Mac or Windows PC. It wants to store vast quantities of data for us and be responsible for safeguarding it and getting it to the right place. It’s making iOS look more like OS X and OS X look more like iOS. It’s not yet clear whether all of this stuff will pan out, and people who already bristle at Apple’s approach to the world will like this new, more fully Apple-centric version less than ever. But if you think the event was a big yawn because there wasn’t a new iPhone that was a bit thinner and a bit faster, you live in a different world than I do.
Microsoft’s E3: A Bang for Kinect, a Whimper for Live TV
6. June 2011
Good thing Microsoft had a packed line-up of Kinect games to show at its E3 press conference, because last week’s big rumor about live TV on the Xbox 360 turned out to be kind of a dud.
Kinect, the motion-sensing, audio-detecting Xbox 360 camera that launched last year, dominated the discussion at Microsoft’s press conference. I counted 15 announcements for games that will either support or require Kinect, plus a revamped console menu designed for gestures and voice.
An Embarrassment of Cool Blogs
6. June 2011
I’m a fan of an annual TIME.com feature called the 25 Best Blogs, but you won’t hear me praising this year’s edition. That would be vain–I wrote (almost all of) the story. And I had an awfully good time doing so. (The picks are based on nominations from some of my TIME colleagues, and some recommendations from my Twitter followers made the list, too.)
The clever folks at TIME.com have also put together a Twitter list of feeds from all the blogs we chose, letting you follow all of them with one click–as I just did.
Apple Makes A Commitment to the Cloud
6. June 2011
“We’re gonna demote the PC and Mac to just be a device. We’re going to move the hub to the cloud.” That was Steve Jobs’ opening remarks as he debuted Apple’s newest service called iCloud. As you’d expect, this is essentially a reboot of MobileMe.
Jobs admitted that its launch of MobileMe wasn’t the best, and that the company “learned a lot” from the experience. It better: Apple is committing an awful lot to the cloud. Contacts, Calendar, and Mail have all become iCloud apps, with their information synced directly to the cloud and pushed out to all iOS/Mac OS devices.
Other apps getting the cloud treatment would include the Mac App Store, which would keep devices synced with apps purchased as well as the redownloading of old apps through a purchase history function that is curiously missing from the current iteration of the Mac App Store.
iMessage: Is it BlackBerry Messenger for iOS?
6. June 2011
While iPhone users already are familiar with the messaging app for SMS, up until now only third party apps could give similar functionality to other iOS devices. Apple answered that at WWDC today with the debut of iMessage.
iMessage seems to essentially be like a BlackBerry Messenger for the iOS platform. You can send text messages, photos, and videos. Like desktop IM clients, you will be able to see when somebody is typing. Also, your conversations would be pushed to all your iOS devices, and you can choose to enable delivery and read receipts.
My question is now, what about interoperability? Will iMessage languish as an iOS only application with no way to contact the outside world? How about support for other platforms — say AIM — which its desktop counterpart iChat has supported for awhile.
We’ll let you know as we get more details…
Here Comes iOS 5
6. June 2011
While iOS 5 is slated to have “200+ new features,” at WWDC we only got to see ten of them. The first is something that probably would remind you of Android: the notifications list. Instead of the old way of notifications being displayed as they arrive, they’d now be in list form accessible by swiping down from the top of the device.
Another new feature is the “Newsstand,” essentially a formal launch of Apple’s subscription option for iOS content. A dedicated section would now be included in the iTunes Store, with a companion app created to read this content exclusively.
Mac OS X Lion: All About The Gestures
6. June 2011
First up on the WWDC plate was the debut of Mac OS X Lion. It really does seem like this version of Apple’s OS is indeed the melding of its iOS and Mac OS platforms. Gestures will play a big part here in navigation, and Apple has made the decision to move to the full screen app model.
Both we are used to in the mobile (iOS) world, so it only makes sense. So does the new Mission Control feature, which pops up apps much like iOS. In our liveblog, Doug Aamoth of Techland made an interesting comment: “Sounds like Apple *might* be planning a slow, methodical phase-out of the common mouse.” I can’t say I disagree with that.
Now Nintendo Admits It Was Hacked, Says No Customer Data Stolen
6. June 2011
As this week’s E3 games conference and debut of Nintendo’s Wii successor looms, Nintendo’s admitting that Sony’s not the only victim of hacktivist ne’er-do-wells—yep, Nintendo was hacked, too.
Nintendo acknowledged a security breach in a statement yesterday, explaining that its U.S. servers came under cyber-fire a few weeks ago, but stressed that no personal user data was in breach. By comparison, Sony’s seen troves of sensitive personal data repeatedly stolen (and reportedly distributed) as hackers took turns assaulting the electronics conglomerate’s many corporate facets.
Live WWDC Coverage This Morning
6. June 2011
Our liveblog coverage of Apple’s WWDC keynote begins at 10am PT at technologizer.com/wwdc11. Come join me, Ed Oswald, and Techland’s Doug Aamoth as we get the skinny on OS X 10.7 Lion, the next version of iOS, and iCloud from Steve Jobs and company.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play Review: Like Being a Kid Again
6. June 2011
Let’s get something out of the way: I cannot justify buying Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play. For as much as I love video games, I’m 28. And that seems a bit old to be carrying around a smartphone with its own set of game controls.
But that didn’t stop me from cracking a huge grin when I slid out the Xperia Play’s set of buttons and touch pads for the first time. This Android handset is the mythical “Playstation Phone.” If only it existed 10 or 15 years ago.
Hours Before Our WWDC Live Coverage…Your Predictions!
5. June 2011
First a promotional message: I’ll be at Moscone West in San Francisco on Monday morning at 10am PT for Apple’s WWDC keynote. I’ll be joined in our CoverItLive room by Ed Oswald, Techland’s Doug Aamoth, and, I hope, you. We’ll be at technologizer.com/wwdc11.
In the meantime, let’s review your answers to the predictions I asked you to make about the next version of iOS 5 which Apple will announce tomorrow. (It’ll also finish up launching OS X 10.7 Lion and announce iCloud.)
Without any further ado…
Now Here, the Biggest Movie Breakthrough in Decades: 2D!
4. June 2011
I enjoyed attending Qualcomm’s Uplinq conference on mobile technology this week. Even the two presentations that involved having to wear funny glasses as stuff in 3D was projected for us–mostly because in both cases the source for the 3D video was a smartphone, which was kind of cool.
As usual, though, my instinctive response was to bristle at the 3D for being blurry and gimmicky. I had a random thought, which I tweeted:
If all we had was 3D TV/movies/games, and someone invented 2D, it would be hailed as a breakthrough. "No glasses–and it's sharp!"—
Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) June 02, 2011
Now on Technologizer...
History Needs Piracy |
7 PC Building Tips |
My Favorite PC, the iPad |
The First Microprocessor |
|
7. June 2011
6 Comments