Columns

Just How Important Are Video Game Storylines?

Don Reisinger, Mar 15th 2012 Discuss [0]

After the successful launch of Mass Effect 3, I thought it would be a good time to revisit the topic of video game storylines. For years, I’ve been told that a nice-looking video game, complete with the latest graphics, will always be successful. However, a game that might not come with all the flashiness but features a solid storyline could very well fall short from a sales perspective.

It’s an interesting concept to think about. In today’s big-budget gaming world, the ticket to seeing a return on that investment is offering outstanding graphics, solid gameplay, and really great multiplayer. And in the event such a game lacks a solid storyline, many of us will look past it.

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Columns

Google+ should’ve squashed Instagram for Android (but it hasn’t)

Chris Davies, Mar 12th 2012 Discuss [0]

News that Instagram for Android is in private beta and will be launching imminently is great for filter-obsessed photographers, but it’s another slap to the face for Google’s Google+ team which could – if it had got its act together – have cut Instagram off before it had even arrived. The camera app already has over 27m users and Facebook-style levels of engagement in its iPhone version, according to Instagram’s co-creators, with its sharing abilities and convenience both cited as key factors in that appeal. Thing is, Google+ was on the way to tick both those boxes, until Google’s teams apparently got distracted.

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Columns

The New iPad to Replace My Xbox? Ha! Fat Chance

Don Reisinger, Mar 10th 2012 Discuss [0]

Have you heard the news? Apple’s new iPad is launching on March 16, and the company and a few game developers think it might be the next big thing in video games. They claim that the device’s Retina Display and quad-core graphics, courtesy of the A5X processor, will be enough to make every console gamer jealous.

Yep, you heard that right. Apple has decided that the time has come to finally take on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with its iPad, and it hopes those competitors are scared, scared, scared.

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Columns

Why Apple Shouldn’t Have Launched the New Apple TV

Don Reisinger, Mar 9th 2012 Discuss [0]

Are you excited about the new Apple TV? Are you planning to buy one the minute you can get your hands on it? Are you drooling at the thought of hooking it up to your television?

No? Me neither.

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Columns

iPad 3′s miraculous battery: the real game changer

Chris Burns, Mar 8th 2012 Discuss [0]

The 2012 version of the iPad has a gigantic battery in it, capable of keeping its fabulous new features in check enough to keep the same battery life as the iPad 2. For those of you that’ve used the iPad 2, you know that this is a feat in and of itself since the iPad 2 is capable of staying powered up for an inordinate amount of time – much longer than the 10 hours it’s rated for. What’s doubly amazing, and what we’re about to discuss below, is the fact that the newest generation iPad not only has a battery that has essentially 40% more power with basically the same physical size.

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Columns

Stop crying about the iPad naming conventions

Chris Burns, Mar 8th 2012 Discuss [0]

The 3rd generation iPad does not have a new name, but neither does the new MacBook Pro, the Apple TV, or the iMac – go home and cry about it. So called “experts” have been weighing in so heavily over the past 24 hours over the “mistake” made by those responsible for naming the newest iPad that you’d think they were stock owners in the company, all of this saying only one thing to your humble narrator: they’re mad that they can’t pigeonhole the product as easily as they could before. What I’m contending here is that not only does it make perfect sense that Apple cut out the numbering system from the newest model iPad in this generation, they should have done it right from the start.

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Columns

iPad HD: Haptic texture could pry open my wallet

Chris Davies, Mar 7th 2012 Discuss [0]

I’ve a confession to make: I wasn’t planning to buy an iPad HD, but my mind has been changed. Speculation about the third-gen Apple tablet has reached fever-pitch, with everything from a Retina Display-style resolution boost to a significant processor jump and better cameras tipped. Despite the improvements, though – and despite how often I’m accused of being an Apple fan-boy in the comments – the upgrade talk had left me cold. So what’s swung me to eye my credit card hungrily? The talk of “Feel Screen” style tactile touch.

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Columns

Consider this: LulzSec’s Sabu didn’t snitch

Chris Burns, Mar 6th 2012 Discuss [0]

Today the words are being skewed, accusations are being tossed around, and there’s no knowing exactly what’s gone on in a case that seems to have suddenly torn the hacker group LulzSec asunder. As the story goes, former top LulzSec man Hector “Sabu” Xavier Monsegur was until last year working with the loosely organized group of hackers and pushing their agenda on the world, no quarter given. Now it seems that his arrest this past June has turned into a guilty plea revealed today in an unsealed court document that points toward the idea that Sabu may have worked with the FBI to lessen his own sentence in exchange for giving up information that lead to the arrest of several of his former compatriots – but it’s not that cut and dry.

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Columns

iPad 3 redefines PCs, not kills them

Chris Davies, Mar 5th 2012 Discuss [0]

Apple’s iPad 3 launch later this week has dragged the “PC killer” speculation back out into the open, with the third-gen iOS tablet expected to further trounce traditional computing as shoppers vote for fingers not mice. It arrives to an increasingly crowded market, however, with not only Android tablets mustering for a second wave, but Windows 8 waiting in the wings. Both platforms will bring potent hardware to take on the iPad, too. As PC manufacturers – especially those of Windows-based tablets – have discovered, though, there’s more to challenging the iPad than throwing specs at it.

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Columns

Can Microsoft Ever Be ‘Cool’ Like Apple?

Don Reisinger, Mar 3rd 2012 Discuss [0]

As I was sitting at my desk earlier this week checking out the stories surrounding Microsoft’s Windows 8 Consumer Preview talk at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I was struck by something: the press event was very long and very boring.

I then thought back to the many, many Apple events I’ve covered. Nearly all of them, with the exception of iOS- and Mac OS X-focused events, are compelling and deliver news from beginning to end. More importantly, they effectively convey the single message that has made Apple so popular: “we’re cool and we know it.”

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Columns

First Batman, then smartphones, then Iron Man

Chris Burns, Mar 2nd 2012 Discuss [0]

As the personal technology landscape advances at a rate that’s undeniably fantastic, we move beyond our obsession with the slightly lower-tech character Batman and advance to the top of the line equivalent Iron Man, as evidenced by the massive success of the most recent film series. Throughout the 1990s we saw a selection of high-cost Batman films and a fantastic Batman cartoon series well received by the public at the time because of their ability to connect with us on a non-super level, there’s also almost always been some sort of representation of Batman on the small screen as well, no matter what year it is. Batman has always been a fantastic character for the average person to relate with because he’s always using tools and technology to help him – he doesn’t actually have super powers, so to speak. There’s another character out there by the name of Iron Man that’s also been around for several decades and represented in a series of cartoons, certainly, but up until now we’ve not had the technology in film production to represent him accurately: this is Iron Man.

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Columns

Why I’ll Never Talk to My TV – And Why You Shouldn’t Either

Don Reisinger, Mar 1st 2012 Discuss [0]

With all the talk surrounding the Apple TV dominating discussions around Cupertino, I thought it’d be a good time to think about some of the features reportedly making its way to that set. Chief among them is Siri, Apple’s virtual personal assistant.

According to the latest reports, Siri would allow Apple TV owners to give all kinds of voice commands, including change the channel, modify volume, open applications, and more. By all measure, it would be like having the same iPhone-based Siri experience on a big television in your living room.