Archive for: disappointment
Update: PS3/Linux installers, the mastermind behind the whole crumbling of the PS3, Geohot himself has some brief, yet hopefully reassuring words: DO NOT UPDATE! Captain obvious, is that you. To be fair, he is working on a work around to “safely” upgrade to the new 3.21 bag of hurt Sony is set to unleash in the not too distant future. And if Geohot’s words are any indication of his determination, his battle with Sony is going to be quite the long, drawn out bloody type we’re going to be hearing about for a while. Hoooah Geohot. Godspeed.
I’m simply amazed at how asinine, anti-consumer, and downright stupid major companies are getting these days in regards to money hoarding/cash grabbing policies. The latest news of kick-in-the-pants fury is brought to us by none other than Sony. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, they know exactly how to piss someone off. Whether it be draconian DRM, lackluster support, or just a poor overall user experience, Sony has at least tried a little bit of everything. Their newest decision however takes them to a new low.
In the latest upcoming 3.21 update for the PS3, the niche option (though insanely useful in my book) to install another OS — in many cases Linux — is being removed. “Don’t worry” says Sony, the upgrade is “optional”. Of course, “optional” in Sony’s world carries a slightly different meaning. In their world, optional means that if you don’t upgrade, you will lose the ability to sign into the Playstation Network and play any content requiring firmware 3.21 or later. Ya, essentially Sony is forcing you to upgrade by making you choose: Linux/custom OS or actually using your PS3 for things other than a paper weight.
The real sting however is that back when the PS3 Slim was announced/released and shown to not support the optional OS feature, Sony promised — promised! — to not remove said functionality from the older machines via software updates even though going forward, new machines would lack the feature. Apparently Sony either has terrible short term memory problems or they just blatantly don’t give a fuck. Fair enough. I won’t give a fuck about them.
Kinda makes me glad I never got a PS3. And judging by Sony’s nice little kick in the pants, any lingering wants are now dead on the spot. Thanks Sony, you just lost a sale. And PS3′s eBay presence skyrockets in 3..2..
**I’ve contacted Sony for clarification, but let’s be real, they’re not going to reply.
Joystiq
By now everyone and their mother has heard of Microsoft’s extremely Apple-esque stance with the upcoming Windows Phone 7. On several fronts, that’s a very, very good thing. On the other hand, comments such as “People don’t use copy/paste anymore” clearly show they [Microsoft] are F*cking stupid (with a capital F no less). Getting everything to be more simplistic and user friendly. Good. Great. Awesome. That’s exactly what they need to do. But overly water down a platform that has traditionally been a power users platform…? There are two very distinct user groups in the mobile sphere currently: (1) The super simple iPhone-like style and (2) the Android-like tinkers platform. In the middle you have the likes of several mobile OS hopefuls. Where does Microsoft sit with WinPhone 7? Well, a week ago I would have said easily in the middle of Apple and Android — a great place to be. Unfortunately, it looks like they’re moving more and more towards Apple every day.
I’ll give the argument that complex information identifying and handling is greatly improved. For example, clicking on a phone number in a text gives you several options, with most if not all being actual useful functions negating the need to copy, navigate, paste. Still, there are plenty of times when copy/paste would be of benefit.
Has the nonsense reached critical mass yet to where you’re already writing off WinPhone 7 as less of a power user’s dream and more of a “childrens toy”?
Oh the wondrous iPad. Apple’s uber tablet that has set out to take the world by storm. So…um…how about that storm eh? According to Crimson Hexagon and a quick, on the fly poll they conducted using roughly 500,000 tweets during the iPad announcement reveal that while the media attention was all Apple, all iPad yesterday, the public doesn’t seem as obsessed. The survey is pretty telling actually. A full 51% of tweets voiced displeasure, mockery, or simple “not impressed” comments in regards to Apple’s latest and greatest. For a device that Steve Jobs claims to be “his most important project ever”, initial reaction is kind of disappointing.
There’s plenty of time to mature though. The iPad won’t be released for another 59 days and with that lull is plenty of time for developers to really create some impressive apps now that they’ve seen the hardware.
Think the gap in time will work in the iPad’s benefit or has the seed already been sown?
Mashable
Yesterday was the big exciting iPad unveiling. Everyone and their mother was tuned in to see what el Jobso’s “greatest work of all time” materialized to be. Make no mistake, yesterday I myself also fell into the hype, excitement, and overall fan-fare surrounding the iPad’s release. But this morning when I woke up, a funny thing happened. Reality set in…
How breathtaking and “revolutionary” is the iPad? If you ask some, it’s like the iPhone all over again — a completely new contender in the “netbook” sized market. Asking others however will net a very different response with some saying that it is merely a bigger iPod Touch/ iPhone without a camera, the same mind numbingly frustrating 3G favoring of AT&T, and of course, no background processing.
Let’s start with the 3G. In short: it sucks. Apple is in deed pushing the iPad as “unlocked” and in the technical sense, it is. The only problem is that the iPad only supports AT&T 3G. There isn’t any support for T-Mobile’s odd ball 1700MHz 3G frequency let alone any CDMA support. In the world of 2010, rolling back to EDGE as a scape goat to call the iPad “unlocked” is deceiving and downright ridiculous. And let us not forget that while Apple does tend to push the technological boundaries as to adopting certain pieces of new tech and pushing out older ones earlier than most, using newer micro-SIMs instead of the standard SIM is a minor annoyance as hardly anyone actually uses them.
Further complicating the 3G issue, you have to pay either $19.99/month for 250MB of data which, let’s face it, is worthless on a device like this. You’ll go through 250MB of data without so much as a blink of an eye. Instead, most users will have to pony up $29.99/month for “unlimited” data. We’ve all seen that word “unlimited” misused so many times before. Now is no different. What’s disturbing is that AT&T and Apple claim that AT&T is actually doing them a favor as normal mobile data plans often reach towards $60+/month. If you cut through the crap, no one is getting a favor. $60 or more per month for mobile data is ridiculously overpriced. Even at $30/month, now anyone whom already owns a smartphone (and fort he sake of examples) and home internet could now easily be paying a bare minimum of $90/month to get internet access on all 3 devices.
If AT&T really wanted to turn around their piss poor reputation and really “wow” us with the iPad and mobile internet, they would throw together some special deal for AT&T customers who use all three: Smartphone, iPad, and home internet via AT&T DSL. Cut this $90/month crap and instead offer a truly “unlimited” plan (both in data allotment and in the sense of number devices you can use it with) and give said customers a flat rate of $50/month for data on all three devices. Want more devices? Charge an extra $4.99/month. It sure seems a whole lot more reasonable than the current scheme does it not?
The 3G situation is but a second on the clock of time however when compared to the even bigger and more glaring omission: The lack of background processing. Time and time again I hear blind Apple fanboys that are so infatuated with their shiny little devices such as the iPhond and iPod Touch, that background processes aren’t needed blah blah blah. Bull shit. They are needed. In fact, they are desperately needed.
For example, without background processing, if I’m listening to a great song on Pandora or Last.fm and want to reply to an email, send a text message, work on an iWork document on the wonderfully redesigned iWork suite for the iPad — I can’t. The OS Apple won’t allow me. Some how Apple managed to create this wonderful ecosystem built on the iPhone OS and leave out the simple ability to multi-task. A human being never does one task at a time. We are always juggling various different jobs, task, etc. So why should a “smartphone” and in this case a freaking netbook/mini computer not be able to multi-task? Remember when Microsoft was planning on releasing a gimped version of Windows 7 Basic that would allow at most, 3 simultaneous programs to be run? They got a media shit storm for it and look what happened — they backed off. Yet in the case of Apple, we again see how they can do no wrong.
Personally, I feel the reliance on a broken 3G network and lack of any real usefulness as a computing device do to the lack of background processes will keep me from ever purchasing an iPad. Don’t get me wrong, while these two are very important flaws with the iPad, there are several more including the use of a 4:3 aspect ratio, not having more games available for demo/at launch, the uncharacteristically and monstrously large bezel, lack of any rich media support (read: video/picture cameras), lack of ports to share content, and the increased difficulty to even use the few available ports (read: adapters galore) are key areas where Apple messed up this whole tablet thing….again.
Yes, the iPad is both a beauty in the night and a disaster in the light. She’ll wow you with her good looks and flashy UI but when it comes down to the meat of why we use computers and how we use them in our lives, the iPad falls short. Even still, it’s the best tablet computer yet. Is that saying something for Apple and their ability to constantly get people talking about their deivecs? Or is it telling of how tablet computers still aren’t very useful to a mass market?
You can’t say you didn’t see this coming…
Amid the fury of media coverage the last couple of weeks in regards to Google’s almost certain move of pulling out of China, it appears the little Android that could is finally feeling the effects.
Seeing as how Google is a huge backer of Android, hearing of delayed product launches for scheduled Android phone launches isn’t very surprising.
If you live under a rock, Google has made headlines the last couple of weeks for it’s sudden and abrupt position on no censorship — regardless of state/country laws. Being that this involves China, you can all guess where this is heading.
At this time, the Android launches are “postponed” according to Google spokeswoman Marsha Wang. Gadget lovers in China would of course a “rescheduled” comment comes rather soon. Looking at the full suite of things going on however means it doesn’t look too promising.
Chime in folks.
Alley Insider
- December 18, 2009 1:51 pm
Isn’t it funny how HD’s dominance as “the” TV tech to have was rather short lived? In some senses I guess it isn’t that short. Looking at the bigger picture however again suggests otherwise. Overly philosophical theories aside, 3D TV is going to explode in the next few years. HD was cool and all, making the best of what a 2D picture could look like, but 3D is an entirely different animal. A fine, sexy, killing machine of an animal I would wager to say.
One of the obvious tools the 3D aficionado of the coming years will need is first a 3D capable TV. With that TV you’ll need some form of 3D content — hello satellite, cable, Blu-ray 3D. Good to go? Not quite there skippy. You need one more item — glasses. While we’d all like to see 3D pulled from it’s reliance on glasses, the ugly truth is you’re going to be in for quite a wait if that’s what you’re hoping for anytime soon. Be thankful for these new age 3D glasses aren’t nearly as ugly or gimmicky as the old red/blue anaglyph versions as you can see from the renderings above.
The pair of glasses pictured above are what a good deal of the 3D glasses that are both paired with 3D TV purchases and bought separately will look like. Red isn’t my personal favorite but if it gives me Avatar in my living room, well let’s just say I’ll deal with it. The only thing that makes your eyes to the double brow lift is the reported price tag of $75+. Youch. That $75 is on the low end as well with prices easily climbing to $150.
Clearly, these glasses and TV’s are not meant for families with children or the clumsy prone. At least not in the near term. As the technology advances and the market becomes more saturated, picking up said glasses at a fraction of the cost will become much easier. Even still, a 2, 3, or more child home would likely want to stay away from 3D TV’s and glasses for the mere fact that replacing the glasses alone could bankrupt them. Sad that greed is tarnishing a great technology and service from the start. But I digress…
Anyone out there ready to drop it big on 3D TV in 2010 and beyond? If you so choose, share with us whether you have kids or not and if that factors in to your decision. Happy commenting 
Dvice
- November 10, 2009 9:03 am
Mark it on your calendars folks. Today is the day that Netflix, once the great and pioneering business in the movie world, is now no more. They are merely an extension of studio lobbyists right hand. The dark picture is far from fictional nor is the 30-day rental ban. As of late, studios have been frantically trying to cook up schemes to return their profits to the more prosperous days when they held an outright monopoly on physical media and content. The internet and digital led way to more consumer friendly technologies and services which in turn caused those deep pockets of studios to dry up. Forget adapting to change and reinventing your business model. It seems instead of actually “getting with the times”, studios prefer to lock down and push their market further into the past with a 30-day rental ban.
I haven’t yet touched and felt the new Storm 2 for myself. But I can assure you I will be heading to the local Verizon store today to give it a try. Am I going to buy one? No! But after reading Zdnet’s review, my initial excitement at hardware based improvements on the latest iteration have effectively been squelched. I already knew that save for the re-worked touchscreen and some good ‘ol WiFI, everything else in the physical sense was more or less the same. But I still hoped that those subtle improvements would give me a more favorable opinion on the 2nd version which were vacant from the first. The lack of any real physical advancments coupled with the fact that the software, OS 5.0, while new, is in reality anything but, means I will yet again find myself dissatisfied with RIM’s touchscreen attempts.
As Highlighted in Zdnet’s review, OS 5.0 for BlackBerry is “nothing revolutionary and barely evolutionary”. Ouch! I don’t say this with hate. I came from a long lineage of BlackBerry usage and still love the platform. I just with the software would catch up into 2007. That’s all. As the reviews trickle in and more people get to play with the device, do you think Zdnet’s and my opinions are going to be shared? RIM really needs to take a step back and rethink their touchscreen strategy. If the Storm 3 is already in development, I only hope they do something major. Because their current progress in touchscreen land is pathetic.
Zdnet
Image Source
Products release dates getting pushed back are never fun at all. Starting with a sentence like that, you know that something now so smile inducing is following. Word is that the much lusted after T-Mobile BlackBerry 9700 decided to hold of it’s coming out party until November 16th. You know T-Mobile better watch out. Starting a string of delays isn’t fun for anyone and this delay in particular is starting to remind me of the delay after delay style launch AT&T’s Bold suffered from. We can only hope this isn’t a Bold delay launch part 2.
The reason for the delay as well as official confirmation is still unknown. All I do know is that this is going to upset a few CrackBerry/Tmo users who were waiting for some 3G/UMA BlackBerry goodness.
And yes, I’ve sent the now standard email to T-Mo asking for some clarification. We’ll see how it goes.
BGR
