Ranting Kenya

In general, I’m a fairly well connected guy. I hear about most bits of technology, gadgets, cell phones, video games and the like well in advance of their public unveilings.

Because of this, I’m also well aware of Canada’s delay behind the US when it comes to new technologies and services. When the US annouced way back when (seems like forever now) that you could keep your mobile phone number across different carriers, I was excited to see that rolled out in Canada as well. I searched the net for information, but found none. As per usual, I was upset with the delay.

Now I have the Moto Q (which I waited extra time for in Canada too), which I purchased at a “reasonable” price with a 3 year contract. That was about 6 months ago. Now guess what? Wireless portability comes to Canada. So I’m locked into Telus, when I want to be on Bell’s network.

And what makes this all worse, Bell has announced free in-network calling. FREE. Telus? Nothing.

While I may be willing to stick out this contract since it will be expensive to leave, the first carrier that offers an unlimited EVDO data plan for 99 dollars or less will have my business the next day. Period. I would have even changed my phone number for that.

I can only beg that this rumour will be proven true.

I, Cringely . The Pulpit . The Great Apple Video Encoder Attack of 2007 | PBS

The Great Apple Video Encoder Attack of 2007: Cupertino plans to add H.264 hardware support to its entire line.

What I like most about this is not that Apple is doing it, but because I believe it will force other computer manufacturers to do the same. I can’t see how Dell (for instance) would not at least give its customers the option.

And imagine what it could do for other devices! That’s where things get really interesting. Imagine a mobile phone able to play video quickly, without significantly impacting the rest of the processes on it. My Motorola Q would actually be able to play a video without all the frame and audio dropouts.
Actually, the more I think about it, how are computer manufacturers not doing this already?

To clarify this right off the top, I was already accepted to the Halo 3 beta. I did not buy Crackdown for the Halo 3 beta.That said, I did download the demo. And I played it. And it was ok. I ran around, shot some dudes, died a few times, and I didn’t think much of it. Went back to playing Gears of War, Poker, Geometry Wars, College Hoops 2k7 and whatever else I got.

In the following week or so, I noticed some people on my friends list playing Crackdown. Of course I had heard more about the game itself from Major’s podcast and other web sources. So I went back to the demo, and I tried leveling up. This is where Microsoft made me buy Crackdown, this whole downloading the demo thing is perfectly evil.

Before I knew it, I was jumping from rooftop to rooftop, throwing propane tanks, jumping cars, basically having a blast. One of my “things” about video games is I like to play games when I’m doing things I wouldn’t normally do. That means, I like sports games, but I really like shooting people. Well Crackdown I like a lucid dream. You jump super high and throw cars, neither of which I’ve done in real life.

And then they add character leveling. So I’m leveling up as I go. Now I have the RPG hook in a shooting game. Very hard to put down. This is the first game in a while that I’ve played where late night fatigue is less important than playing “just 10 more minutes”. I’ve had two late nights in a row now, just like back in the day.