Well, it seems that the iPhone may come to Canada sooner than anyone previously thought, according to the Ottawa Citizen.
A mobile phone unlocking company called PureMobile will be offering the iPhone to Canadians in an unlocked version. They evidently announced a partnership with the 17 year old New Jersey kid who had received a lot of press the last few days for unlocking his iPhone.
Here are a couple screenshots of PureMobile’s website.
Has anybody been following the Google phone at all? Or the Google Linux distro? Well, apparently the Linux distro is dead.
Ok, fine. That’s a little upsetting but they can always change their minds. But maybe that rumour won’t go away because perhaps they’re developing a Linux mobile OS for their phone. Linux as a mobile phone OS gets a lot of attention lately.
Anyway, Gizmodo posted some more info on the Google phone. Seriously, it looks sick. I’ll buy it, that simple. You know it’ll have WiFi, GPS for Google maps, and all sorts of other great features that make the iPhone look like an expensive piece of “aluminum and glass”. Anyway, check out Gizmodo’s post.
I was thinking about the clickwheel on Apple’s iPod and where they got the idea from. I also wondered why this strange circular movement of the thumb is so easy to use.
Well it finally dawned on me. Combination padlocks.
Personally, I don’t use the “pinch and rotate” technique with my fingers to select my combination on my padlocks, I use my thumb over the actual numbered surface. This, I found, was more accurate and quick for me to open up my locker at the gym, in college, high school etc.
Then it dawned on me, virtually everyone has used this type of lock before. It’s a brilliant evolution of an interface everyone has used. Nobody realizes their thumbs have been trained for the iPod for years. Maybe the lock manufacturers should sue Apple. I’d say prior art is definitely established.
Is it just me or is texture streaming an issue with the Xbox 360 or the Unreal Engine, or both? Two of my favorite games, Gears of War and Bioshock, both use the engine (I’m only speaking of the Xbox 360 versions) and both have texture streaming delays at times. At first, I didn’t notice any in Bioshock because I was too freaked out to walk at full speed.
So what’s going on with these streaming delays? We are still in the early stages of this console generation, and I can’t remember seeing these issues on the first Xbox until Halo 2, which basically pushed that system to the absolute limit. I know that some developers are still learning how to program for these systems. However, the Xbox 360 has been released to the public for nearly two years now, and you know the developer boxes have been out even longer. So is it the engine? What’s going on and why is this still happening?
Interesting study considering most of the blu-ray players out there are in PS3s, and most of those people didn’t even realize that it was a blu-ray player. I believe HD-DVD is the superior format, though most people don’t know the facts.
PARAMOUNT AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION EACH DECLARE EXCLUSIVE SUPPORT FOR HD DVD… The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs.
Bye Bye Blu-ray: Paramount and DreamWorks Animation Go Exclusively HD DVD - Gizmodo
Tags: HD
So I, like many today, downloaded the Bioshock demo. All I can recommend is do what I did. Close up the windows, turn up the volume, and site about 3 feet from the tv.
One really neat thing that it did that other games don’t but makes a ton of sense, it has it’s own black level calibration tool at the beginning. Brilliant since the action is intense in large part due to the environment.
One particular encounter with a splicer (the enemies) that stuck out in my mind was in a kitchen. I went at the enemy directly, and when he noticed me he ran around the back way in the kitchen that I did not know even existed, and he started shooting me from there. Marvellous.
The graphics are very good, the art style is stupendous, the enemies are smart, and the atmosphere of the whole game in superb. Very cinematic, and the story has captivated me.
If you haven’t already, download the demo. I’ll be buying the game for sure.