December 31, 2006
Filed under: Handsets, Software, Samsung, Java, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS
Contrary to
previous beliefs, it looks like neither Orange nor HTC will have a part in producing the first "Googlephone," and instead it seems that Samsung is slipping in the back door to steal the limelight. When the
Ultra Edition 13.8 (formerly known as the
Z720) got official a few days back, we noticed the relatively unexpected suite of Google apps swarming the mobile's innards, and aside from the handset not exactly abiding by the
Opera agreement that is supposedly falling into place, it seems a good fit for the first Google-infused mobile. Of course, the programs that come loaded are all available as free downloads on supported handsets, but it seems the European-bound 13.8 will be numero uno in what's likely to be quite a lengthy list of
Googled mobiles.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Posted by Darren Murph under Mobile | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: News
Remember when this movie was going to be the next big thing? August was an interesting month, especially for PSP news:
$149 PSP coming soon? CNN reportsThen: "The analyst expects that Sony will drop the price of the PSP to a mere $149, $50 less than what it is right now."
Now: While this would be a smart decision, Sony's still not budging from the $199 mark.
Fun = DS, not PSP, says EA execThen: "There's no doubt that EA has historically bet more on PSP. I think we were excited by the technology, but the consumers have proven that actually what they want is fun. We must never forget that what we need to focus on is fun and so EA is putting more effort behind DS games."
Now: EA may start supporting Nintendo more in the future, but with titles like
Burnout coming in the future, it doesn't seem like Sony fans have to worry.
PSP on Snakes on a PlaneNow: The PSP was prominently featured in the film, which failed to make the impact that the blogosphere had predicted.
Rumor: PSP redesign coming before March 07Then: "Well,
a very believable scan of PlayStation Magazine seem to suggest that Sony's working hard on one, and it's coming very soon: March 2007, two years after the US release of the handheld."
Now: If a redesign is coming in three months, we'd know about it by now, wouldn't we? Or will Sony do a surprise launch? Keep an eye on this one.
New questionable PSP rumors surfaceNow: It's interesting to note that all of the rumors came true, including the most specific one about the PSP Entertainment Pack. Guess some rumors are spot-on, huh?
DevHook reeled in by Sony?Then: "The web host of DevHook has received a cease and desist order."
Now: The homebrew scene is stronger than ever. Many sites are careful about the kinds of files they host, although its not uncommon to find other sites providing some very questionable content.
See entire year in review.Permalink |
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Posted by Andrew Yoon under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: Reviews
File Size: 534MB
Price: $5.99
Developed By: Namco
Published By: Namco
Original Release Date: September 15, 1996
Short Review
Not Recommended. Tekken 2 unfortunately shows its age. There's a great deal of gameplay to be discovered in this treasured arcade classic, but the advances made by
Tekken: Dark Resurrection are so significant that it's difficult to appreciate the technical shortcomings of
Tekken 2. Gamers will have to choose if they'd rather spend $6 for a great classic game, or $40 for an even better modern one.
PSP Fanboy Retro Review: 5.5 out of 10
See all Retro Reviews.
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Posted by Andrew Yoon under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: News, Software, Fan Stuff
What is PSP Fanboy's Game of the Year?
You chose it, by an overwhelming margin:
PSP Fanboy Game of the Year:
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (32% of the votes)
Is there any surprise?
Portable Ops is no side-story, spin-off, or card game. This is the real deal, with console-quality presentation to prove it. The surprisingly deep story and incredibly detailed graphics made
Portable Ops a great game; but the online multiplayer, recruitment abilities and GPS functionality made this a system-defining game.
Portable Ops proves that a handheld game can not only follow in the footsteps of its console brethren, but actually surpass it.
Runners-Up:Loco Roco (17% of the votes)
You know a game is special when it feels like nothing you've ever played before. The brilliant three-button control scheme, colorful graphics, and charming personality made this one of the year's best.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (15% of the votes)
You can drive, kill, chill, golf, swim, and more in this insanely huge follow-up to last year's
Liberty City Stories. The incredible graphics and fantastic presentation values showcase why the PSP is a technical powerhouse.
Andrew's PSP Game of the Year:Daxter (7% of the votes)
Daxter may not be innovative, but it shows how a PSP game
should be made. The silky graphics are made even sweeter by non-existent load times, and controls that make you never, ever beg for a second analog stick.
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December 31, 2006
Filed under: Software
This is not the best way to start the New Year. Unfortunately, no new game or UMD releases this week. But, we're still doing this post so you are not left wondering if we've just plain forgotten given all of our New Year festivity preperations and what not.
Next week should look a bit better. Stay tuned and keep the faith!
PSP Game Releases
PSP UMD Releases
As always, availability is subject to manufacturer delivery (even when nothing is supposed to come out).
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Posted by Ed Stasick under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: Handsets, Features, Reviews, Nokia, Symbian, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS
Even as it celebrates its one-year anniversary in public circulation, Nokia's
N80 keeps on scrapping with the best smartphones the world has to offer. After all, S60 3rd Edition is
still fresher than anything Microsoft or ACCESS has to offer, the 3 megapixel camera is well above and beyond the standard fare, and the 416 x 352 display simply blows lesser QVGA screens out of the water. It makes sense, then, that while we all wait for the
next-gen Nseries devices, Nokia would be looking to extend the useful shelf lives of the elder statesmen in their lineup by
tweaking, bundling, and renaming. Among the devices to get a makeover is the N80, becoming the recently-released
N80 Internet Edition with a slightly revised software bundle and two fantabulous color choices: black and bronze. Since the hardware is identical to the original N80, we'll concentrate on a couple of the Internet Edition's software goodies -- and don't worry, original N80 owners, most or all of it comes with yours, too, or can be downloaded free of charge.
We really can't emphasize it enough: the N80 Internet Edition ("N80IE," if you will) is an N80 through and through. If you like the N80, you'll like the N80IE; if you despise the N80, your seething hatred will run every bit as deep with the N80IE. The similarity carries right through to the handset's model designation in the upper left hand corner, which simply reads -- you guessed it -- "N80." It's great that Nokia's committed to revising its generally stellar smartphone lineup as it ages, but we do think that selling it with a new name is marginally misleading. Our only fear is that a few N80 owners might be duped into "upgrading" to the same phone. Heck, the Pearl Black shell (which looks fantastic, for what it's worth) isn't even new, though Patina Bronze is.
The lion's share of the N80IE's revisions lie within Nokia's new "Download!" client. We love it; it's a concept that no smartphone should go without. Think of it as a streamlined version of S60's Catalogs app -- which is now a part of Download!, coincidentally -- that offers a straightforward, foolproof way to download new apps straight to your phone. In fact, much of the N80IE's alleged new functionality isn't even present on the phone (
Yahoo! Go, Gizmo VoIP, and Amazon, among others), you grab it as you need it using Download!. We found the download and installation process to be quick and utterly painless, despite the fact that we were topping out at EDGE speeds; freshly-installed apps are dropped into the phone's "My Own" folder, ready to run. The client also enables users to buy commercial apps, though we didn't have an opportunity to give it a shot.
After selecting an app to download, it's unceremoniously launched for initial configuration. Notice the second screen of Yahoo Go! where we're asked to select a country. If this isn't proof positive that the N80's American launch was an afterthought on Nokia's part, we don't know what is. Ah,
Cingular-branded N80... we wish we'd gotten to know you.
Some of the new software is nothing more than a thin wrapper around a WAP site or two. Much of Yahoo! Go fits into that category, as does Amazon's offering. We'd like to have seen something a little richer to take advantage of the N80's dazzling display, though S60 3rd Edition's glorious browser makes browsing a breeze.
Mmm, WiFi...
The Barcode Reader and Podcasting apps are two of the cooler downloads currently available. Though not terribly useful, the Barcode Reader did a decent job of reading any kind of barcode we threw at it (QR codes included) -- just set the camera to macro mode and let 'er rip. As soon as a barcode is detected, a box comes up with the detected text, allowing the user to save or discard the data. That's about all it does -- but hey, still cool, especially in areas of the world (read: not this one) where QR codes are commonplace. The Podcasting app does a good job finding, organizing, and synchronizing podcasts on a schedule of the user's choosing. Best of all, the podcasts can be updated in the background -- very handy, especially for folks stuck on EDGE or GPRS that want to pull down a 5 or 10MB 'cast.
All told, our evaluation of the N80 Internet Edition is, like the hardware itself, identical to that of the original N80: it's a
good phone / PDA in EDGE coverage that's made
great when blanketed with UMTS and WiFi. The phone makes a great introduction to S60 for newly-minted smartphone users, while current N80 owners can keep their wallets firmly planted and start digging through the 'nets for the N80IE's added (free) goodies.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Posted by Chris Ziegler under Mobile | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: Reviews
The shooter genre is easily one of my favorites: classics like
Ikaruga and
Gunstar Heroes, demonstrate how much fun it is to blow up lots of stuff with rapid-fire lasers. The aforementioned games have brilliant simple controls, utilizing just two buttons, but they feature great gameplay mechanics that challenge the gamer considerably.
Platypus, however, features none of these attributes.
You know you have to be a little suspicious when the promotional quotes on the packaging don't actually praise the game. Unlike
Ikaruga's
notorious "frothing" quote,
Platypus' box notes that its "graphics are made entirely of clay." Huh? Yes, that's true. But does that say it's good? (No, it doesn't!)
The truth of the matter is: there isn't really anything good to praise in this game. Not even the unique claymated graphics. While unique, the graphics leave a lot to be desired. One of the biggest problems with the game? The claymated bullets. While
Platypus should be commended for not taking place in a generic sci-fi fantasy future like every other shooter created, it fails to take advantage of one of the genre conventions: lasers. Why are lasers such a good thing? Because in games, they're bright and visible. Clay bullets are tiny, gray sprites that blend in with the environment. Even worse, the bullets will sometimes hide behind clouds that are placed in the foreground. Not fun. Shooter afficiandos know that shooters tend to be more about dodging than shooting, but even the casual gamer will be frustrated when invisible bullets continue to destroy their fragile one-hit KO ships.
The backgrounds also leave much to be desired. The repetitive and unchanging backgrounds are visually qutie boring. The claymated enemies don't fare much better, as they seem to be a few frames of animation short of looking smooth.
While the visual presentation suffers greatly (and even hinders gameplay), not much more can be said about the game's audio presentation either. The music is horrifically generic--I've heard better soundtracks from porn movies.
Ikaruga was so beloved by critics and fans because every aspect of the game added to the gameplay: the music was orchestrated to give players auditory cues as to what will happen in the game. Through memorization of the music, players would be able to learn what enemies were coming, and prepare accordingly. Not so in
Platypus.
Unfortunately, there isn't much to enjoy in
Platypus' old-school gameplay. The development team clearly failed to learn that the shooter genre is supposed to have some depth to it. The enemies are uninspired, but even worse: the weapons and power-up mechanics are incredibly limiting. Power-up stars are picked up by destroying a specific group of enemies, and the stars enable you to fire mostly useless projectiles at enemies for a set period of time. Most of the projectiles are too slow, or too underpowered to make them enjoyable. Even worse, there's no strategy behind the power-ups: there's no way to switch weapons, no way to store a power-up. The lack of depth in the combat system is the final nail in the coffin for this horribly underwhelming game.
Shooters aren't hard to make at all (you can make one for yourself at DigiPen). However, it's up to a game developer to use the genre's simplicity to their advantage and create interesting gameplay mechanics and scenarios. The team responsible for
Platypus fails on almost all levels: the graphics, the music, the sound, and the gameplay all fall short of what good game design teaches. The sheer lack of effort placed into this game shows why
Treasure is still considered one of the best dev teams in the industry ... and why MumboJumbo is not.
PSP Fanboy Score: 3.5 out of 10Permalink |
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Posted by Andrew Yoon under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
December 31, 2006
Filed under: Final Fantasy
The
Ivalice Alliance is strong:
Final Fantasy Tactics makes a triumphant return in a remake, enhanced specifically for the PSP.
PSPHyper has some gorgeous scans of the latest issue of Famitsu, showing off the game's new cutscenes and yes ... gameplay too. What a great way to end the year look forward to the next!
[Thanks, Thien!]
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Posted by Andrew Yoon under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
December 30, 2006
Filed under: Features, Reviews, Samsung, Cingular, Windows Mobile, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA, UMTS
The date: November 16, 2006. The network: Cingular. Smartphone meets HSDPA for the first time on a North American market, with the
Samsung i607 BlackJack launching alongside the HTC-sourced
8525. We headed down to our local Cingular corporate store on that fateful day, trying to get a feel for what (if anything) the landmark launches were doing for foot traffic and sales. Much to our surprise -- our very pleasant surprise -- the store is busier than we'd ever seen it, with virtually everyone in the joint inquiring about that sleek new Samsung with a keyboard they've seen on the telly. As it turns out, the store didn't even have any of the bigger, more expensive, less hyped 8525s; the curious customers and would-be customers had all wandered in on the strength of the BlackJack alone. By the end of the day, they'd sold out. What is it about the device that has everyone fired up? More importantly, is it justified?
Before we dive into the phone itself, a quick note on Cingular's intense marketing blitz: "good job." No, seriously. Big Orange's smartphone offerings have never been more than a footnote in its consumer product portfolio, and in failing to expose everyday customers to the overwhelming joy (and, occasionally, intense sorrow) that smartphone ownership brings, the
Audiovox SMT 5600s and
Motorola MPx220s of the world have historically been all but pigeonholed to business duty. With the BlackJack, Cingular has done a complete reversal -- likely in response to Verizon's overwhelming success in marketing the similarly-styled
Q -- pitching young, hip music lovers (and anyone else with a couple hundred bucks to burn) the benefits of putting Windows Mobile in their pockets.
Anyhoo, onto the phone. For all intents and purposes, it looks like a second-generation Q: less plasticky, slightly smaller, and perhaps even a little more purpose-suited. Best of all, we hear black is the new black, so the BlackJack's got you covered in the fashion department.
Unfortunately, the phone's small outline comes at a price: usability. The battery could stand to put out a little more juice (more on that in a moment), and the keyboard is simply one of the tightest we've ever used. Even after extensive practice, we're still not as effective with the BlackJack's microscopic QWERTY pad as we'd like to be. At this point we've sorta come to accept the typos, but we can't shake the feeling that we'd be more accurate by leaps and bounds with wider, more closely spaced keys and another millimeter or two of width across the device.
Further complicating our typing woes was the phone's 220MHz OMAP1710 processor, which did a good job of buckling under the pressure at inopportune moments. Despite the fact that we never mastered the keyboard, we were still able to frequently type emails and text messages fast enough to get ahead of the i607's ability to process individual characters, leading to a frustrating lag between what you're typing and what you see. We also seemed to occasionally lose characters here and there, though with our clumsy digits fumbling over the keypad, it could've been our own fault.
From a productivity standpoint, we won't waste your time -- Windows Mobile is Windows Mobile, and there's not much to report here. Same goes for the utterly unremarkable 1.3 megapixel camera. Cingular and Samsung saw fit to throw in some extra goodies, including a Samsung-designed home screen that replaces Microsoft's default. Good thing, too, since Microsoft's was clearly not designed to work well on a landscape display. We're going to fault Microsoft here for not having the foresight to envision a landscape Smartphone and Samsung for failing to remove the defunct home screen entirely.
One of our favorite tricks on the BlackJack was streaming CD-quality net radio over HSDPA and completing the final leg of the music's journey to our ear canals via A2DP. We tested the setup using a pair of old-school Logitech Wireless Headphones for MP3 and it worked like a champ; our only gripe is the wireless audio's toll on processor utilization. When you're getting your A2DP on, using the BlackJack for anything else is pretty much an exercise in futility -- it'll respond, but
very slowly. All in the name of battery life, we s'pose.
Ah yes, battery life. As we mentioned before, the BlackJack's thin form doesn't allow for much of a battery; draining it completely in an 8-hour period is a pretty simple task with moderate use (particularly in 3G areas). We've caught wind that the standard 1200mAh piece can be upgraded to an 1800mAh one with a new, bulbous battery cover (
sound familiar?), though we haven't had an opportunity to try it. Users expecting the BlackJack to be their day-to-day workhorse are probably well advised to investigate the extra juice.
Bottom line: yes, the BlackJack is (perhaps by design) a jack of all trades and master of none. It's a device of many, many compromises. And yes, Windows Mobile 5 is its same ol' quirky self. Be that as it may, we find that it slots swimmingly between the power-above-all 8525 and the lesser
SYNC, striking a balance between functionality, fashion, and broadband data that no other Cingular phone is able to --
for now, anyway.
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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD Step behind the curtain at Ford Motor. Experience the documentary first-hand.
Posted by Chris Ziegler under Mobile | Comments (0)
December 30, 2006
Filed under: News
The media is so eager to predict Sony's doom in the upcoming year. While both the PSP and PS3 deserve some of the criticism they've been dealt, many ignore the fact that these two systems have a ton of potential, especially when linked together.
Pocket Gamer has broken out of the usual mold and declared 2007 a year where PSP can truly shine, and have its best year yet. Some of the reasons?
- A redesign? It's been rumored quite often. Will 2007 see a DS Lite-like revolution?
- Price drop. The system has been at $200 US since its launch (if you consider the initial Value Pack to add $50 of bundled value).
- Downloadable video content: partnerships with Amazon and other service providers may make the PSP a valuable media player.
- Even better technology: we've seen progressively better graphics each year, and that's on a system running at 222MHz. The PSP is capable of 50% more horsepower: that can launch a whole new era of games.
There are even more reasons listed by Pocket Gamer, but to me it's clear: with an
already excellent lineup of games coming down the pipeline, one should feel pretty excited about PSP's future.
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Posted by Andrew Yoon under Sony PSP | Comments (0)
