In two more rounds of sweeping changes made to Glitch (that I’ve decided to cover together, as they’re related), Tiny Speck has added the new Imagination (iMG) system, as well as the long-awaited housing reset. The imagination change (and the user interface changes that go with it) possibly marks the biggest change made to the game since I’ve joined (and possibly since it’s inception – even though I’m not really familiar with the game’s history before last November). Once again, this review will include not only facts, but also my opinion on the changes (which, aside from one major thorn, is mostly positive).
Imagination
Imagination cards, and some new UI bits
The first of these recent rounds of changes was the conversion to Imagination. Imagination, commonly referred to as iMG, is the replacement to the old experience (XP) system. Earned by the same actions that earn XP, including gathering iMG quoins, which replace XP quoins, and new Qurazy Quoins (which give huge amounts of iMG), seen below (although upgrade cards exist that increase the amount some of these actions can dish out), the primary difference is that imagination (which I’ll refer to as iMG for the rest of this review) is spendable. The player is dealt three cards, which they can re-deal for free once per day. They can then purchase one or more cards using iMG. These upgrades include improvements to Super Harvests, improvements to learning speed, increases to one’s energy tank, and increases to one’s quoin multiplier, as well as some pretty random stuff. My upgrade video will primarily showcase energy tank and quoin multiplier cards, as I’d already purchased most of the unique upgrades during the conversion.
An iMG Quoin (the small purple one) and a Qurazy Quoin (the large white one)
A selection of my purchased upgrades
Supposedly the experience is to be different for a player new to the game. For those who have already been playing, our XP was converted to iMG (and our levels dropped accordingly – Level 60 players were moved to Level 42). Note that I said “levels.” This means that in addition to being spendable, a lifetime count of iMG earned is also kept. This determines one’s level, in the same way as XP previously accomplished this task. However, one’s energy tank (or mood tank, which is now tied directly to energy tank) is no longer level-dependent. At the time of conversion, energy tanks were, however, assigned based on level (level 60 players received energy tanks of 1610). Now, energy tanks can be upgraded using cards, allowing for absurdly high energy tanks. Mine, for example, is 5990 at the time of this writing (for comparison, level 60 players had energy tanks of 2860 before the conversion). While it is not my goal to cover strategy in this review, it is worth mentioning that the community as a whole questions the value of having a large energy tank. I find it convenient, but it does vastly increase teleportation costs, and it does make mood harder to manage, although mood is a non-issue if you have a supply of the Rookswort herb to munch every ten minutes. Following is a video demonstrating the upgrade card system.
Some of the “upgrade” cards are not actual upgrades, but purchasable items. These include the Reshuffle Card, and the Get Out of Hell Free Card. These cards are also much cheaper than the upgrade cards. The Reshuffle Card allows additional reshuffles to one’s hand past the one allowed per day, and the Get Out of Hell Free Card allows you to leave hell with full mood and energy (normally, one leaves hell with almost empty mood and energy). These cards can also be found on the auctions.
The upgrade card system, if used wisely, allows a player new abilities that really enhance gameplay. One of my favorites is a card that increases the amount of seeds received when shucking herbs. While a lot of the upgrading felt like buying back things I already had as parts of skills, this isn’t much of an issue since at the point of conversion, almost anyone who had played much at all received so much iMG that it was easy to buy back all the abilities one might have had before the conversion, and more. Actually, as far as new players are concerned, I see this as a good thing. Previously, you could basically just sit around and learn skills all day, and never play the game. One could become “really good” at Glitch, and never actually enter the world (in reality, some skills were tied to a few easy to earn achievements, but almost any of these could be earned in mere minutes). Since the only way to earn iMG to purchase these upgrades is to actually play the game, this now requires active involvement in the game in order to improve one’s character. As it should be. It’s only fair that in order to become good at something, one should invest time in doing so. It’s how it works in the real world and in most games, and now Glitch also works this way.
User Interface Changes
Many user interface changes were implemented at the time of the iMG conversion. Look back at my first review, then look at the following screenshot.
Different, huh?
I don’t really know how to describe why, but as a 99% generalization, I like the UI changes. It’s more modern, or something like that. Energy is now represented by the curved bar near the top left. Mood is now represented by an image of your player avatar in the same location, whose expression changes based on your current mood level. This also replaces the player menu that used to be present in the upper right corner. Click the mood image (or your name above the image) to access the player menu. And in perhaps the most controversial change of all, the magic rock (or familiar) that used to occupy the center of the screen is now gone. In addition to the keyring upgrades, the functions previously accessed via the magic rock are now accessed by means of the iMG menu, as seen below.
The iMG menu
While I also think the magic rock was a nice, uniquely Glitchian touch to the game, and will be missed, I’m rather enjoying the new UI for the most part. I do have two minor complaints though. The first is that the new UI seems to add a little more lag to the game. The second is a “scrolling” behavior that has been added to the iMG, energy, and currants meters. If one of these is increased or decreased, as opposed to quietly changing to its new level, it now increments toward that level, much as the display on a gas pump might. And, to me at least, it gives the impression that even a small change to these is actually much bigger. I don’t know why it gives me that feeling. Maybe it’s just because so much attention is being drawn to it. But to be honest, I really don’t like it. Now, onto the housing reset and related stuff.
The Housing Reset, Construction, and Imagination (Again)
First let’s briefly revisit cultivation (along with a not-so-brief video), which I covered in my previous review, and how it now relates to Imagination. Now that housing has been reset (meaning houses, yards, and home streets have been restored to their default states, and old houses are gone), cultivation items cost iMG (like upgrade cards do), and all changes to stuff are permanent (as in they won’t be reset again). Unlike upgrades, housing-related upgrades are exceedingly cheap. By “exceedingly cheap,” I mean possible to max them all out with about one day’s worth of iMG grinding. It’s worthy of note that I’m only talking about upgrades that can be purchased with iMG right now (enlarging one’s home street and back yard, and placing cultivated items in these locations). Housing expansions, which are performed using a Construction Tool, are quite a bit more involved. I actually managed to fully expand my house in one day, but I found doing so exceedingly taxing (it’s worthy of note that it probably is not intended to max out one’s house in one day; this was just something I really wanted to do). In addition to now costing iMG to cultivate one’s street and yard, players are no longer limited to one of each resource per home street or yard. The only limit now is the size of the land on which the resources are to be placed (I have thirteen tree patches on my fully-expanded home street). The price of any size increase or resource goes up with each of that increase or resource purchased, but it’s only by amounts that any player with an efficient iMG-gathering strategy would find trivial. In summary, cultivation now costs iMG. But it’s fairly easy to max out all cultivated resources, as opposed to upgrade cards, which keep appearing indefinitely.
The Housing Reset
Yesterday, housing was reset. This means that all customizations a player made to their house, home street, and back yard, were reverted, and the house was returned to a template state. This was only planned to happen once, meaning now players can customize their houses with confidence, knowing that their changes are now permanent. This has four major implications. The first is that old houses are gone. New houses are now the only houses. Old houses, while inferior to the new ones, will live on in screenshots we’ve taken of them days before the reset.
There used to be a signpost leading to my old housing quarter here
The second is that furniture items can now be crafted. We’ve been given a small selection to start with, but beyond that, furniture items are crafted using a Construction Tool (this also includes Wall Segments, used to expand one’s house). Resources needed to do so include Planks, other wood items made from Planks using a Woodworker, metal items made using a Metalmaker, and Fiber (and fabrics made from Fiber) and Snails (obtained from the new Fox and Sloth). Following is a video demonstrating construction and house expansion.
The third, visible in the video above, is that many upgrades to furniture (as well as most wallpapers, floors, and ceilings) now cost credits. I’ve always wondered how Tiny Speck stayed afloat, considering previously the only real gain acquired from purchasing credits or a subscription was extra clothing and vanity items (although it was more than worth it anyway, in my opinion at least). Since you’ll likely want lots of (upgraded) furniture, this may finally provide them with what I’d imagine to be much-needed income. Which is great news, because I really want Glitch to stay around for a long time (and ad-free; I admire the fact that TS respects clean user interfaces and doesn’t try to gain revenue by placing advertisements in the game or on the Glitch web site).
The fourth change brought about by the housing reset is what happened to the items stored in our old and new houses. They were placed in Moving Boxes, which were placed in our newly-reset houses. This is the major thorn I mentioned at the beginning. Unpacking these boxes left all your items in a huge pile on your floor.
Really? FML.
As seen above, for those of us who hoard things, this was unpleasant. I know I managed to pick up that mess in a few hours’ time (I made sure to clean it up completely so I could create the review screenshots and videos), but organizing all that stuff was not fun. As picking up Moving Box contents won’t affect new players, and those who play the game already have already suffered it once and shouldn’t have to again, I won’t focus on this much. Suffice it to say cleaning that up was extremely unpleasant and tedious.
Where from here?
Aside from group halls (which the staff have been rather quiet about lately), imagination and the completion of housing mark what more or less amounts to the completion of what we were promised at unlaunch. And Tiny Speck has delivered on those promises and more. The game is almost completely different now than it was before the unlaunch. While I don’t know what all TS has planned for the future, it seems like the most sweeping changes are now in place. Stewart Butterfield (the creator of Glitch) has suggested that player-driven vendors and craftybots (used to automate crafting) are some of the next things to be in the works. I look forward to these upcoming changes, and trust that they’ll be every bit as impressive as the previous ones.
Roughly a week before I began writing this review, I achieved a major milestone. According to Wakoopa, I have played Glitch for over 1000 hours. (that’s approximately one month and eleven days of time spent in the game). So I decided to celebrate by writing a review. There are already plenty of reviews out there, so I intend for this one to be different in several ways. First off, I joined Glitch after having read a review of it, which is partially why I decided to write this one. The review was more so interesting facts about Tiny Speck than a proper review of Glitch, so I’ll take it upon myself to provide that (among other things, it included only a couple of actual gameplay screenshots, and no video). Even if more comprehensive reviews do exist (I’ve honestly only read that one), they’re still most likely out of date. Glitch unlaunched several months ago, and much has changed since then. In fact, the biggest change (the imagination conversion; more on that when it happens) is yet to come. My bet is on Tuesday…
This brings me to another way in which this review will be different than any others you may find out there. As Glitch is currently in a state of near-constant change, I’ll try to review new content as it’s released (however, this review will cover the game in general, while emphasizing on the direction the game’s going so far). This will hopefully allow me to provide new direction for my blog itself, as I’ve been rather starved for content lately, despite promises to the contrary. A final note before I begin: If you’re looking for a purely factual review, stop reading here and go somewhere else. I tend to be highly opinionated on all things Glitch, and as such, I have no intent to spout out facts without giving my personal opinion of the gameplay elements involved. With that being said, let’s get started!
General Gameplay
Housing
Me, standing under a sampling of my trophies (click to enlarge)
There really is no “point” to Glitch. This is reflected in the game’s very own slogan (see below). That is, there is no singular goal to achieve, although this is contrary to what the Glitch Wikipedia article, by far the worst piece of literature I’ve seen on the subject, may otherwise lead you to believe. Time travel is not, in fact, a core gameplay element, and, as far as I know, is only part of an early quest. There are, however, many separate goals to achieve. Gaining experience points (which, most likely next week, will be converted to a new system, imagination, which is basically like spendable xp that still retains a lifetime count that determines one’s level), earning achievements, and collecting currants are the most significant, although others, like completing quests and fighting the Rook often come into play. A recent hobby many people have taken up is decorating one’s house (a small section of mine can be seen above), which is now possible due to the much-improved new housing system that Tiny Speck is in the process of transitioning to. Almost everything in new houses is customizable, from the wallpaper, floors, and ceilings, to the decorations. This is opposed to old housing, seen two screenshots down, that cannot be customized at all.
“Do stuff. In a game.”
Old housing had several templates to choose from, but the templates can’t be altered… at all
There are indeed several kinds of old housing to choose from, however what you see is what you get. The exterior, interior walls, ceilings, doors, furniture (however most furniture in old housing is merely part of the background), etc… cannot be customized to any degree. I won’t focus much on old housing, besides pointing out its deficiencies, as old housing is quickly on its way out.
Decorate Mode, along with a sampling of upgraded and non-upgraded furniture
Housing customization takes place within Decorate Mode. Here, one may make enlargements to their house, change the wallpaper, flooring, and ceiling, or add and remove furniture. Above, in the furniture tab, is a view of a category of furniture items, in this case seating (entirely ignoring the fact that a sitting posture does not exist in Glitch; you can always stand on the chairs though…). The items can be dragged into the game window to place them in one’s house, and from there can be “upgraded” to one’s choice of styling.
A furniture upgrade window
The exterior of my house, located on my home street
Here the exterior of my house, as well as its location, my home street, can be seen (for what it’s worth, it isn’t possible to stand on some houses, and even some of the platforms on my house, that look like actual surfaces, can’t be stood on; not really a major review point but it still really bothers me). Notice how the inside of my house is much larger than the outside (interior and exterior size are completely independent of each other, and exterior house size is, in fact, static). That being said, it is possible to expand the size of one’s home street (or back yard; home street and back yards function in the exact same way, but are customized independently).
Customization menu for my home street
House Customization (Exterior)
Both the street background (and background music – I was overjoyed when this was announced as I wanted the Uralia theme music instead of the much-overused Groddle Forest theme that formerly applied to all backgrounds) and house design are customizable. The background has one of ten or so predefined choices, and houses have seven base styles. These base styles have many further customization options (for example, the House of Whimsy design has an average of nine different choices for each customizable area listed). This alone makes new home streets much preferable to old housing quarters (which were basically just lines of the old-style houses, all on one street). But wait, there’s more!
Cultivate mode on home streets
Another feature of home streets (and back yards) is Cultivate mode. Unlike old housing quarters, which were barren lots usually containing nothing but housing (a few housing styles did have some resources, although they were template-based and not customizable by residents), home streets can be cultivated by their owners. This means that resources (which will, in the future, cost imagination, described earlier) can be placed on one’s home street. These resources are consumed with use, and must eventually be repaired. For example, herb plots, the item which breaks most often in my case as I’m using them to grind herb-related achievements at the moment, require lumps of earth and guano to repair. The ability to have customizable resources on home streets, coupled with the ability to link your home street to those of five friends, has led to interesting player-created developments, such as housing resource routes. These routes so far have been designed around harvesting trees, and due to their organization, have easily been the best way to gather large numbers of tree-based resources. These are particularly useful for finding usually hard-to-find resources, like planks, which have also met increased demand as they’re likely to be necessary for building furniture and upgrading one’s house, once those features are available in their final form.
Gardening
1200 words and we’re just getting started! Let’s move off the topic of housing now, and onto actual gameplay mechanics. First up is gardening. There are two kinds of gardens: crop gardens and herb gardens. This used to be more significant before the introduction of new housing (while no longer explicitly on the topic of housing, almost any other topic easily ties back into it). Previously, the kind of house you chose to have determined what kind of gardens you had. Bog houses had herb gardens, and all other houses had crop gardens. Tiny Speck has responded by allowing new housing to contain any kind of garden you wish (this also comes as a consequence of the fact that new housing is not tied to a specific region). I’ve created the following video to demonstrate the mechanics of gardening. While crops and herbs serve different purposes, I will only demonstrate herb gardening in this video, as crop gardening and herb gardening essentially follow the same process. The only real difference is in how seeds are obtained. Herb seeds are obtained by shucking the herbs, and crop seeds are purchased from vendors or by feeding the crops to a Piggy, who will then plop out seeds (in a pleasant contrast to the nerfings mentioned later, this has recently been enhanced to allow more than one packet of seeds to be obtained at a time through feeding).
Mining
I’m not entirely sure an MMO exists that doesn’t include mining. Glitch is no exception. However, it has mining, with some strange (and sometimes completely illogical) twists. For instance, you get rewarded with bonuses for mining cooperatively with other players. Four kinds of rocks exist (beryl, dullite, metal, and sparkly). Metal can be smelted into ingots, and the other rocks can be crushed into elements, which can then be used for assorted alchemical purposes such as creating powders and rubbing plain metal ingots into other kinds, which can then be used in crafting.
Animals
Up until last Tuesday, there were three primary kinds of animals in the game from which one could harvest, Butterflies, Chickens, and Piggies. In yet another demonstration of how Glitch brings innovation to the mostly stale MMO genre, Butterflies can be milked to receive Butterfly Milk, Chickens can be squeezed to receive Grain, and Piggies can be nibbled to receive Meat. The amount of these items that you receive is dependent upon your Animal Kinship skill, and at lower levels of this skill, additional action is required before these actions can be successfully performed. Assuming you have the Animal Husbandry skill, you can also use Chickens to incubate eggs.
Introduced on Tuesday were two additional animals, the Fox and the Sloth. Foxes are harvested for Fiber (for future use in furniture crafting), and Sloths chew Metal Rods into Snails (assumably for some construction use; a snail is a half-screw, half-nail item – see below). Foxes and Sloths were introduced along with five new gameplay regions and a few new streets in existing regions. I particularly enjoy the mechanics of harvesting the new Foxes. Difficult? Yes. But it’s far less “grindy” than the mechanisms for harvesting the old animals (watch the video above and try to imagine finding pigs and harvesting each one twice [the limit with a maxed out Animal Kinship skill] for an hour or more).
Snail
Trees and Other Resources
There are eight kinds of trees in Glitch (Fruit, Bean, Gas, Spice, Bubble, Wood, Egg, and Paper). The items harvested from these trees are used in cooking and other forms of crafting. Multiple other resources abound, including peat bogs (used for making fuel cells for machines), jellisacs (also used for making fuel cells), barnacles and fireflies (used for making crystals and crafting a few other items), and dirt piles. The following video gives a brief overview of some of these resources.
Commerce
Auctions
I’ll be totally honest, Tiny Speck has really screwed the pooch on auctions. They’ve stated a goal of encouraging more trade between players, and as such are phasing out vendors. Okay, I get the recent vendor nerf (vendors now sell higher and buy lower). But if you’re trying to encourage trade between players, why make auction items take about eight minutes longer to be received? You want to nerf the undesirable action, not the desirable one. This is without even going into the asinine fees associated with using the auctions. That said, sometimes it’s unavoidably necessary to use auctions. They’re great for finding (almost) any item you may need (with some exceptions; see below).
The latest auctions
Marketplace Forum + Marketplace on the Go
Among the many shortcomings of auctions is that many items (generally either really worthless items, or really valuable rare items; although cubimals spread this entire spectrum) can’t be auctioned. Furthermore, you again have the ridiculous taxes on auctions. There exist two major solutions to this problem; one official, and the other player-created. The official solution is the Marketplace forum. This allows players to discuss and facilitate trades. A player-created solution also exists, in the form of a group called Marketplace on the Go. It allows bargaining to take place within a chat/IM-type setting, as opposed to the threaded forum styled official solution.
Final thoughts (or are they?)
For all its shortcomings (really, the only ones that need to be addressed at this point are those involved with auctions; and making sure that annoying Groddle Forest banjo tune actually stays in Groddle Forest – although they’re making decent headway on that), I can still safely say Glitch is the best game ever. Why else would I average six hours a day playing it? Plus, Tiny Speck has pretty well proven that they’re quite capable of addressing shortcomings. I’ll once again use as an example the housing system. The old system downright sucked (well okay, it seemed fine back when we didn’t know any better; but when presented with something better, we realized how awful it was). The new system isn’t even quite finished, but already, it’s vastly superior to the old housing quarters. I haven’t made much mention of this yet, but possibly the best thing about Glitch isn’t that it’s a great game (and it is; you’ll never find better), but that it’s got an awesome community. That’s not to say that there aren’t a few bad apples. Just like any other MMO, you will run across the occasional griefer (word of advice here: don’t let random people in your house; it’s one of the most common ways they steal things). But in most cases, griefers aren’t a perpetual issue, just an occasional annoyance. More often than not, the people you run into will be either benign, or friendly and helpful. I’ve been playing Glitch every day for close to six months now, and there’s a reason: An MMO with lots of new ideas, coupled with the best community on the internet is a winning combination.
I usually don’t assign scores to products that are beta/pre-release, but Glitch couldn’t be any more deserving of this rating.
Overall Rating: 11/10. (yes, that’s eleven of ten)
While there are still many changes to come, that I will assess in future posts as new content is released, I’m certain that Glitch will only get better.
Thanks to Zen Kitty for help with the review, and to Scarlett Bearsdale, Kristen Marie, and Saucelah for corrections/suggestions!
I’d like to end with this screenshot, just because it looks cool.
One short year ago, I reviewed the Mac OS X Lion Developer Preview.And now, it’s time to review the Mac OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview OS X Mountain Lion Developer Preview (Apple has dropped the “Mac” prefix from the name, as seen below).
The About This Mac screen
This morning, Apple completely unexpectedly announced OS X Mountain Lion. The announcement was odd for two reasons. 1. Apple usually holds an event for these announcements. 2. Major versions of (Mac) OS X are usually released every three years. Lion was released to the public last summer.
As for the name? You heard it here first. Five whole months ago, I predicted that the next major version of OS X would be named Mountain Lion. And what better day to find out I was right than today yesterday (my birthday)?
Edit: I began writing this review on the 16th; my birthday, and the date of the announcement. However, I published the post a little under an hour late – on the 17th. Most of the post is intended to be read in the context of the announcement date as opposed to that of the publishing date.
Finally, my apologies for the nearly three-month hiatus I’ve taken from blogging. I’ve been busy playing Glitch. It’s fun. You should try it. Furthermore, there really just hasn’t been much to discuss lately. However, I have much additional content planned for the [very] near future, so I think I’ll more than make up for it.
Now, on to the actual review. For this review, I’ve upgraded my MacBook Air from 10.7.3 to the Developer Preview (I haven’t tested it thoroughly yet, but some apps indeed don’t work, and I wouldn’t recommend using it outside a test environment simply because it’s pre-release software; besides, I’m testing its suitability for day-to-day use so you don’t have to ).
The testing system: my trusty MacBook Air!
On first glance, Mountain Lion isn’t all that different from its predecessor. In fact, take a look at the desktop (click for a full-size view).
A 10.8 Desktop: Look familiar?
As a matter of fact, the only obvious difference from Snow Leopard is that little target icon in the upper-right corner, where the Spotlight icon (which is now immediately to its left) used to be.
Before we get into what the little target icon actually is, let’s summarize some of Mountain Lion’s major features: Messages, Notification Center, Game Center, Reminders, Safari 5.2, and Gatekeeper, just to name a few.
The target icon is for Notification Center, which, much like its iOS counterpart, and the name itself, suggest, is intended as a central place to view notifications.
When clicked, the target icon will display Notification Center, which is currently limited to Apple’s own apps. Third-party apps will most likely need to be updated using the new SDK in order to support new notifications. As iOS already had notifications, that just underwent a style change in iOS 5, no developer intervention was required. However, since OS X never had an official notification system, apps will require modification (and will hopefully move away from Growl, which has since become yet another example of Sonyfication, a topic I plan to revisit [again] in the near future).
Notification Center in Mountain Lion can be configured using options extremely similar to those available in iOS.
As in iOS, notifications have two styles, Banners, and Alerts. However, while these notifications look completely different in iOS, the two look fairly similar in OS X, with the only major difference being in their behavior: banners slip out of view on their own; alerts require confirmation.
This is a Banner (if the text of the message that caused the notification didn’t make it clear enough)
Above is an example of a Banner, triggered by the Messages app (which will be another main point of my review – covered shortly).
And this is an Alert
Next up: Messages.
Apple’s new Messages app apparently serves as a replacement of sorts for the old iChat app. It now supports Apple’s own iMessage service, as well as a couple of other instant messaging services.
However, this review will focus solely on the iMessage functionality of the app. For the purposes of this review, I’ll be sending messages to myself, on the same Apple ID, using my Air on one end, and my iPad on the other. As a result, all messages will seem to echo. Note that under usual circumstances, this would not happen.
An iMessage conversation. With myself.
You can also add media to iMessages (to do so, drag an image into the message text box). And as expected with iMessage, read receipts, as well as delivery and typing notifications are also present.
Interestingly enough, the emoji didn’t show up on my iPad. They showed up as the text “:-)”
I’ve been wanting iMessage on the Mac since it’s been introduced to iOS. But it does have one rather annoying and major flaw: its behavior when the app is closed.
This is all you’re getting
If the Messages app is closed, the only indication you’re given is the little red bubble on the app icon; assuming, of course, you have it in your Dock. Is that really expected to get my attention? Obviously, some push service is running in the background to activate that little red bubble, so why not give me a notification, like the ones I’m presented when the app is open? If notifications are to be truly useful, as they are on iOS, they need to be able to notify you even when an app isn’t open. Now I do realize something here: Messages is a chat/IM client, and most software of that type does have to be open in order to notify you of new messages. However, Messages and Notification Center take cues from iOS, and the expected iOS behavior is to provide notifications, even if the app is not running. Besides, the infrastructure already exists. Just make the push service trigger something a little more… substantial.
Moving on to Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is a new security feature in Mountain Lion intended to protect the user from malicious software. It allows the user to allow only software from the Mac App Store to run (similar to how iOS devices work), software from the Mac App Store and Apple’s new developer identification program, and then the option that represents the way things have always worked: the option that allows the user to run everything.
If the option is changed to one of the other options, software that has not been signed with an Apple-provided certificate will not run (unless the application has always been run before, in which case it is “grandfathered in” and will run anyway).
If one attempts to run such software, they are greeted with this somewhat intimidating message:
I will personally keep this feature disabled.
Also in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion is Safari 5.2, which brings with it a few interesting features.
Perhaps the most obvious is that it ditches separate address and search bars in favor of a combined bar in the spirit of Chrome’s Omnibar.
Justin Bieber, in my search bar? Gross…
Also among Safari 5.2′s new features is Twitter integration, once again, much in the style of its mobile counterpart (Tweet Sheets, as they are called, are also available in a few other apps, and will most likely be accessible to third-party apps via the SDK).
Also worthy of mention are the following changes:
1. The address bar will now highlight the domain of the URL, and lighten the remaining parts.
2. The Reader button is ever-present, even when not available for use.
3. Rather annoyingly, tabs will span the width of the window… even if there are only one or two. Looks a little tacky if you ask me.
Features I have not covered in this review include AirPlay mirroring (which is once again something I’ve always thought the Mac should have; and pushes me ever so slightly closer to considering an Apple TV, although I think I’ll still hold out for apps), Reminders, Notes, and Game Center. As I do not have an Apple TV, I won’t cover AirPlay mirroring. As Reminders, Notes, and Game Center are almost painfully identical to their iOS counterparts (furthermore, all but Game Center are painfully simple and borderline useless; and Game Center doesn’t do much thus far, for lack of compatible games), I’ll mention them briefly in passing; however, they do not really merit much attention.
Reminders: It’s that built-in to-do list app you may or may not have always wanted
Reminders in Mountain Lion is basically the same as its iOS version, sans the really cool geofence feature. And without that, it’s generally a really basic to-do list app. I’ll most likely never use it, but I do give it props for looking cool.
Notes: Noteworthy, or not?
Snazzy-looking? Yep. Useful? Debatable. On iOS, Notes is a useful app. The user generally doesn’t want to mess around with files and their organization on a handheld device, so a note-taking app with its own internal database works there. But on the Mac, there already exists TextEdit. Do we really need this? Apple’s site mentions a feature that allows you to “pin notes to the desktop.” Not exactly. You still have to have the app running for them to show up, and they still retain the basic appearance of app windows, complete with the stoplight buttons.
Finally, of what are the three most seemingly direct iOS ports, the most significant: Game Center.
Just like Reminders and Notes, Game Center looks like a blown-up version of its small-screen sibling. And for now, serves the exclusive purpose of displaying games and achievements from those small-screened siblings. While Game Center’s cross-platform nature is its greatest strength, until it’s improved upon, in both its iOS and Mac forms, I don’t really see it altering my Mac/iOS gaming experience. Its use is somewhat limited as compared to something like Xbox Live. However, it would most likely be best to wait to pass full judgment on the OS X version of Game Center until games that support it are available (which most likely will be after Mountain Lion’s release this summer).
In conclusion, Mountain Lion is a minor release mostly similar to its predecessor. Notifications and Messages will most certainly be the most significant attractions, if Apple can work out the kinks. With the summer deadline they’ve given, they’ve got more than enough time to do so. The question is, can they polish these features enough to make their new “minor-ish major release every year” release schedule attractive to users and developers? Only time will tell.
Roughly seven months ago, I posted about what I called Sonyfication, a term I created to describe the acts of a company that promises and delivers features, then, out of nothing more than pure greed, removes them. The namesake of this term was, of course, Sony’s removal of the OtherOS feature of the PlayStation 3. My first usage of the term was aimed at Spotify, who initially offered free (but with advertisements) unlimited listening, then altered their free plan to enact severe limits on listening after six months of membership.
Today, Glitch has announced that it’s “unlaunching.” That is, they are returning to a beta stage. As an end-user, and as a developer who understands (at least to some small extent) his responsibilities to the end user (oh, and let’s not forget, a huge fan of Glitch), I figure I have a few things to say about this.
Before I begin, let me make one thing clear: I am not comparing Tiny Speck (the developers of Glitch) to Sony, or to Spotify. I have nothing but the utmost respect for Tiny Speck, and nothing but the utmost of loathing for Sony and Spotify. Tiny Speck is not doing this unreleasing of Glitch for profit, but to make the world of Ur a better place (unlike Sony and Spotify, who clearly performed their actions as a malicious act of greed). I applaud their motive, but I’m worried that the results may still be disastrous. So I’m not entirely confident that the term Sonyfication is appropriate here. However, for lack of a better term, it’s what I’m using.
Quoted below is my comment on the Glitch forum topic on the issue, verbatim, and in its entirety (but with some formatting added):
I’m going to add myself to the list of “please no reset” people. As much as I’ve always wanted the honor of “being in the beta” and getting a pickle and all that jazz, I’ve realized something. None of that will make up the 99 hours I’ve devoted to accomplishing stuff in the last three-ish weeks. I’ve more or less renounced real life in favor of spending more time on Glitch, although if I lose all I’ve got on here, I may not come back. I feel really sorry for those who are up at levels 50-60. The amount of time they’ve had to spend doing rather menial tasks in the game (I’m looking at you mining) is incomprehensible to me. The previous resets (while I can’t actually speak for those who had to deal with them, as I had not yet signed up) made sense. If people sign up knowing it’s in beta, then they sign up expecting the worst. However, many people, myself included, signed up after this period, and expected smooth sailing (I’ve written about this kind of thing before; companies like Sony and Spotify have promised features then later removed them, in an act I’ve termed “Sonyfication”). While I’m a developer myself, and certainly acknowledge the fact that software can have bugs after launch, as I am also an end-user, I realize my responsibilities toward the end-user as a developer (e.g. making it a priority to cause as little disturbance to users as possible when there are indeed bugs).
One possible solution (I realize I’ve never developed anything on as large a scale as Glitch; so correct me if I’m wrong on this) would be something like what Chrome does. Have a “stable channel” (e.g. Glitch as it is now), and a “beta channel.” Then, completely informing them of the possible repercussions (resets included), allow them to opt into the “beta channel.”
That said, and to attempt to end on a somewhat positive note, I’m glad to see that things like housing and the ability for more player control over the world are being addressed. Remove the ability for players to kill each other by splank fight, and I think Glitch has the opportunity to become the perfect game (the lack of violence as a core gameplay element is key, in my opinion, and I applaud Tiny Speck for making such strides in this arena; also, I realize that the term “perfect” is subjective). For what it’s worth, I’m not offended by or opposed to violent games. It’s just not my cup of tea.
You already posted that there. Why repost it here?
A couple of reasons. First is visibility. My comment will quickly be buried in that forum post. Here, it will remain at the utmost level of visibility for, at the very least, the better part of a month. Second, is out of my respect for Tiny Speck. The Glitch forums are theirs, not mine. I have a bit more I’d like to say on the topic than what I said there, but I respect that the Glitch forums are their home turf, so I’ll instead post the extended version here.
So I’ve always wished I were in the Glitch beta, as I felt, until today, that in order to really be part of the community, it’s a prerequisite. Furthermore, and partially for the same reason, I’ve always wanted the Special Item That Only Beta Testers Get (aka Señor Funpickle). However, what I never really gave much serious thought, is that sure the pickle says you were in the beta. But that’s not much of a real accomplishment. It’s actually just a stroke of luck, being in the right place at the right time. What really struck me in light of this was my reconsideration of a Glitch who was level 59 for as long as I could remember, then finally accomplished reaching level 60 (by comparison, I’ve attained level 30 at the time of this writing), and another Glitch who was in the beta, but has only attained level 8. Let’s assume the level 60 Glitch wasn’t in the beta. Still, it’s obvious as to which one was more devoted to the game. So really, a special item doesn’t properly make up for resetting one’s level, as it isn’t an accurate indicator of the amount of effort and time one has put into the game. Upon giving this some consideration, my advice to Tiny Speck would be to provide an additional piece of information on each player’s profile, stating “Pre-Reset Level: [level number].”
In addition to level number, the other thing I’m most concerned about is cubimal collections. I’ve, admittedly, only recently started collecting cubimals (for those who do not play Glitch, just know that a cubimal is a collectible in-game item, often of excruciatingly high value). However, I have a little over half the different kinds of cubimals in my collection (sadly, the more common half of the cubimal spectrum, in general). Of these, a couple were obtained from Cubimal Boxes, and the rest were obtained by trading with other players. This is cause for alarm. What if, after post-reset, these other players are no longer able to trade cubimals at the same prices I paid for them the first time?
At this time, I’d like to reiterate the ultimate moral of this post: the responsibility of developers toward users. Especially after launching my first paid iOS app, I’ve learned some of these responsibilities quite well. Like see that “App Support” link up top? In my opinion, it’s unnecessary clutter. It’s also the first time that my blog contains content that I don’t really want. But Apple requires that I offer a support page (maybe in the future, I’ll create a support page separate from my blog), so I have to put it there. Returning to Glitch, the subject of this discussion, I understand the previous resets. As far as I am aware, it was made quite clear to users that they were part of a beta, and that there would be resets. However, for those of us now, who signed up to what we thought was a finished product, the ethics of the situation have changed. A beta was not what we signed up for. Stuff like resets wasn’t part of the deal. So I leave Tiny Speck with this challenge: No more resets, please. And I do understand that you’re working for the good of the community (and I’m deeply sorry that I had to mention the likes of Sony and Spotify in this post along with the good guys). Even if you do have to perform a reset in the course of this (and I’d also like to remind the reader at this point that they said it’s extremely unlikely, and to apologize for my “the sky is falling” tone), I won’t lose any respect for you. Will it perhaps preclude my return after such a hypothetical reset? Yes. But that’s more so my fault than theirs. I simply can’t bring myself to spend the many hundreds of hours to get back to where I was. Ultimately, Glitch is a free game, and I suppose Tiny Speck doesn’t really have an obligation to go out of their way to avoid a reset. But I challenge them to go above and beyond what’s expected, as they’ve already more than proven that they can, and to ensure a seamless user experience by avoiding a reset. I have faith in them, and until some terrible reset comes, I shall continue to play Glitch in every possible minute I can find.
I’ve been waiting for this day for a long time. I finally get to release my first Mac app. I’ve been sitting on this for quite some time now, waiting for a time when I’ve got nothing else to post. And in the mean time, I lost the source code for the Mac app, meaning I had to spend the last couple of days rewriting it from the Windows C# version.
A little back story. Way back in June, I released version 1.0 of a tic-tac-toe Windows app. It only supported a two-player mode. At the time of release, I suggested that I may write a version 2.0, that will include support for playing against the computer. I finished that version only a couple of days after releasing the first version, and, as I said, have been waiting to release it.
I’m glad I did. Recently, I’ve learned Objective-C. Meaning now I can release version 2.0 for both Windows and Mac. Both versions support the ability to play against the computer.
The Mac version
I believe it will only run on Lion, but it should be capable of running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode (probably should’ve taken a better look at the build settings).
No, I have no plans to release a Linux version. Ever. Okay, maybe if Linux ever actually attains a decent level of market share… although I guess that’s still never.
I do, however, intend to release an iOS version. It will have features not in the Mac or Windows versions, and will cost $0.99. It’ll be a universal app, and I hope to have it in the App Store by the end of next month.
Today, the world has lost the greatest visionary it will ever see. Steve Jobs has passed away at the age of fifty-six. Even if you’ve never owned an Apple product, whatever device you’re using to read this right now was indirectly a product of the vision of Steve Jobs. Apple was the first to do such things as use a graphical user interface, or to do away with things like floppy drives. While the world will never be the same without him, I hope that Apple will continue to remember the ideals of Steve Jobs, and continue to make products that feature a perfect blend of form and function.
People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
- Steve Jobs, November 30, 2003
I know everyone else has already posted this same video, but there’s a reason for that. Amazingly inspiring speech.
It’s a given that Apple is going to announce a new iPhone tomorrow (October 4). Nobody doubts that. But for the last couple of months, I’ve been following this insane barrage of conflicting rumors that we’ll have an iPhone 5 with a four-inch screen, LTE, and even the kitchen sink; or that we’ll have an iPhone 4S with an A5 and a better camera. Or, we’ll have both. Or, we’ll have both, as well as a continuation of the iPhone 4. Or, as MacRumors has posted today, we’ll have all of this, in addition to the continuation of the iPhone 3GS. Most ridiculous of all, there are now rumors that the iPhone 5 will be exclusive to Sprint. It seems that these rumors have reached a fever pitch today, with all the sane rumors fading out in favor of the most absurd. So I thought I’d try to bring back the sanity by clarifying what will most likely happen tomorrow, going through some of the major rumors one by one, and providing my reasoning behind why a given outcome is to be expected.
Steve Jobs will not do tomorrow’s keynote.
We all want to see Steve Jobs perform tomorrow’s keynote. Let’s face it – he’s the best presenter in the world, and there will never be another like him. Furthermore, Steve Jobs was Apple. Without Steve, there will be no Apple. At least, that’s what most people, myself included, tend to believe. And that’s exactly why Steve will not do tomorrow’s keynote. Apple has to show us that we’re wrong on this, and that Apple can continue to exist without Steve. Tim Cook will be the major figure at tomorrow’s keynote, to better position him in the public view as a capable leader.
Sprint will not gain iPhone 5 exclusivity.
I shouldn’t even have to explain this one. One of today’s rumors says that the iPhone 5 will initially be exclusive to Sprint, and that AT&T and Verizon will meanwhile be stuck with the 4S. Sprint, as compared to the likes of AT&T and Verizon, is a relatively minor carrier. Why would Apple commit suicide by placing the fate of the iPhone in Sprint’s hands and turning their back on their already enormous consumer base? They won’t. This is just Sprint coming out in the open about their wet dream, and nothing more. Apple would never ditch the two largest carriers in the US in favor of a smaller one.
The iPhone 4S will be the only iPhone announced tomorrow.
Perhaps the most pesky next-gen iPhone rumor is that the redesigned iPhone 5 will have a bigger screen. Two things:
A. The iPhone always has had, and always will have, a 3.5-inch screen. While up until 2010, there was nothing to ensure this, there is now the iPad. The primary difference between the iPad and the iPhone is screen size. Apple wants owners of iPhones to also purchase iPads. How do you make sure this happens? Keep the devices radically different. And since screen size is the only real difference, it will remain so. If Apple gave the “iPhone 5″ a 4 or 4.5-inch screen, it would then become satisfactory for many of the iPad’s purposes (books, full-time web browsing, productivity, HD video). The iPhone 5 would then begin to cannibalize iPad sales. While I would still purchase a hypothetical upcoming iPad 3 after owning this hypothetical big-screen iPhone 5, I am not the average consumer. I’m an Apple geek. I blog about Apple, and code for Apple’s platforms. I need a large range of Apple devices to do these things well. If Apple makes it, I have to have it. The average consumer… not so much. They buy a device that meets their needs, and most likely won’t buy an overlapping device.
B. Screen size aside, there will not be a redesigned iPhone 5. It will be the iPhone 4S. Notice that there have been no leaks of parts for a redesigned iPhone 5. All the parts indicate an iPhone 4S. Furthermore, the name has even appeared in recent iTunes betas. As much as I’d like an iPad 2-like design for an iPhone 5, what motivation would Apple have to do this? Once again, Apple still wants to sell iPads, and wants the iPhone and the iPad to remain differentiated.
The iPhone 4S will basically be as the more sane rumors have described it.
It’s more or less a given now that the iPhone 4S will have a dual-core A5 processor, as seen in the iPad 2, and an eight-megapixel camera. It will keep the design of the iPhone 4. I’d also say that Assistant is more or less a sure thing. However, Assistant won’t be this huge revolution everyone’s making it out to be. Remember how much Apple hyped up FaceTime, saying it’s the future of calling? Now, how many people actually use FaceTime, apart from trying it out when they first get a device that supports it? Assistant will be the same thing. It’ll be cool. It might even work well. But nobody’s really going to use it much because the way we interact with our phones today works and works well, and speech recognition just really isn’t as great as people make it out to be.
Perhaps more debatable is network support for the iPhone 4S. I can see the world phone thing from two different sides. From one viewpoint, you have the fact that Apple would just have to manufacture one model. From the other, you have the fact that most iPhones sold are still carrier-locked (and the carriers will never have it any other way), so it still doesn’t carry any other real benefits. LTE’s not gonna happen though. I believe only five US cities have it on AT&T. The technology simply isn’t widespread enough to be of any real value. Furthermore, it’s still too much of a battery whore. Until new, more efficient, LTE chipsets are out (supposedly next year), Apple won’t put it in an iPhone. Plus, about that time, LTE may be widespread enough to be of some actual use.
Then we have HSPA+. I’m expecting it. Why? I guess it’s because why shouldn’t I? HSPA+ is far more widespread than LTE (in fact, the town I live in, which is by no means significant in any respect, has it). 3G is getting a bit slow to do a few things, and with iCloud about to be released, more speed certainly helps Apple provide a better experience with their devices and services. Plus, as far as I know, HSPA+ is far less of a battery whore than its LTE cousin.
The lineup will be as follows: 8GB iPhone 4, 16GB and 32GB iPhone 4S.
I’ve already explained why Apple will not be releasing an iPhone 5. The next thing to answer is why the 3GS will be no more. I myself am a 3GS owner, and trust me when I say it’s beginning to grow long in the tooth. It’s running iOS 4.3.3, and it’s starting to get pretty slow. No doubt iOS 5 will make this even worse. Not only will Apple not want to sell a device that feels slow (seriously, that’s Android’s thing), but it’s inevitable that the 3GS will not support iOS 6 next year. And Apple won’t want to be selling a device that won’t be able to run the OS announced the day after it’s finally discontinued for good. Anyone remember Windows XP, that really old OS that just won’t go away? If Apple kept the 3GS around any longer, it would be Apple’s XP. It would be something supported far past its useful life.
I hope this helps sort out the endless stream of iPhone rumors that have been going around. I know I didn’t touch on things like NFC (but really, read the bit on LTE and apply the same reasoning), and I know it’s possible that I could be wrong, but I’m reasonably sure of everything I’ve written here. Go ahead and bet on it. As for me, if Apple allows pre-orders tomorrow, I will be pre-ordering my iPhone 4S promptly.
I apologize in advance for a post that may turn out significantly shorter than usual, but I haven’t posted anything here in awhile, and my thoughts on this topic are too long to express effectively on Twitter, so I guess that mandates a writeup here.
Edit: Apparently I had more to say on this topic than I thought I did.
A few minutes before I began writing this, a person I follow on Twitter (@arkon) suggested that OSX will soon become iOS. And this is by no means an original thought; it’s a fairly widespread rumor, which is why I now feel the need to debunk it.
I’m not saying these rumors have no basis; the incorporation of many iOS-like features into Lion would indeed seem to suggest such a merger of OSX and iOS. I’m simply going to provide the other side of the story, reasoning why such a thing won’t happen.
The conversation went something like this:
@justindaigle: Leopard -> Snow Leopard. Who wants to bet we’ll go from Lion to Mac OS X 10.8, Mountain Lion?
@justindaigle: @arkon Your reasoning behind that is…?
@arkon: @justindaigle I’m kidding, since it doesn’t seem like it’ll be very powerful, but instead move more towards the simple iOS-like stuff.
@justindaigle: @arkon OSX will never “become iOS.” My explanation’s too long for Twitter, but too short for a blog post, unfortunately.
Ultimately, I’m not satisfied with any solutions between a tweet and a blog post, so I’ll go ahead and explain it here.
Why will OSX never become iOS?
Simple. If OSX became iOS, we wouldn’t have a development environment for either.
Consider how iOS development is done. One obtains a developer subscription from Apple, then develops the application in Xcode on a Mac, then installs the application on his developer device(s).
But what if one doesn’t have a developer subscription, and wants to test the waters of iOS development (using an Apple-provided solution; obviously, the better solution is to bypass the need for a developer subscription by jailbreaking)?
The developer (assuming for the purposes of this post that the developer in question does not jailbreak) would then use the iOS Simulator.
Okay, so where are you going with this?
As it stands, the Apple-endorsed solution for testing iOS code without a developer subscription is the iOS Simulator. What would happen if OSX were indeed to merge with iOS, as the rumors in question suggest? There goes the ability to practice Mac development. If you had to purchase a developer subscription to develop Mac apps, how would you try out Mac development first? Using a Mac Simulator? But what would be the point of simulating a device on that very device? My point is that unless Apple radically changes their policies on iOS development (which they probably never will), it would be completely unreasonable to merge OSX and iOS. As long as the iOS development system remains as it is, iOS (along with its development processes) and OSX, while built on the same Darwin core, will remain radically different operating systems.
Developer tools are a requirement for any mainstream operating system. An operating system is only useful if it can run third-party software. If Apple did indeed plan for Macs to run iOS, this would mean that they would have to allow Xcode for iPad, along with the ability to build and run apps created with it on-device. As Macs would be “just another iOS device,” Apple would have no reason not to at that point. As much as I dream of Xcode for iPad (and Apple’s current “PC-free” ethos being promoted with iOS 5 would seem to support this, as they stated that many people are choosing to buy iOS devices without owning any other computer), I just can’t see Apple ever doing this. I don’t think Apple is going to give up the $99/year fee, or the App Store as the sole iOS application distribution platform. Ultimately, merging OSX and iOS would require Apple to allow the execution of unsigned code on both platforms. While this is the way it’s always been on the Mac side, doing so on the iOS side would require that Apple allow what happens on the Mac side (applications distributed by means other than the App Store) to happen on the iOS side. And believe me, if it were allowed to happen, it would happen. At first, I was somewhat perplexed at the lackluster adoption of the Mac App Store. But developers simply don’t want to fork over 30% of their profits to Apple, and if given another option, they generally will take it. I suppose Apple always has the option of requiring a developer subscription to develop and test Mac apps at all, but I highly doubt this will ever happen. First of all, the enterprise would be extremely unhappy. Many firms have thousands of computers, and if a larger one were suddenly required to have provisioning profiles for every Mac in their organization, just to run apps that for any reason must remain in-house (whether because they contain sensitive internal information; or because the application, while absolutely necessary to the organization, would not be approved for the App Store), an incredibly over-complex situation would result. Furthermore, some developers (like Adobe) will never hand over 30% of each sale to Apple, because it would simply be too much of a loss. And no Photoshop on OSX… err, Macs running iOS, would cause a lot of Mac users, myself included, to seek an alternative platform. So ultimately, if Apple would ever merge OSX and iOS, making Macs just another iOS device, they would be faced with two extremely undesirable options: making OSX more closed, or making iOS more open. And while it seems this is where things are headed, Apple has ultimately come as close to this goal as they possibly can without having to make this incredibly difficult choice.
In summary, Macs will always be Macs, and iDevices will always be iDevices.
The most prominent rumor that currently exists is that the Apple TV won’t get a hardware refresh this year. This goes against previous rumors that it would be getting an A5.
Why does it matter that the Apple TV won’t be getting an A5?
Big-screen gaming takes a lot of horsepower. This more or less confirms that the Apple TV won’t be getting an App Store any time soon.
This is an example of the classic fable of the tortoise and the hare. You know, the one where the tortoise challenges the hare to a race, the hare quickly advances past the tortoise in the race, then grows over-confident and proceeds to take a nap, only to wake up and find that the tortoise has won.
While it may not seem like much, this children’s story paints a perfect picture of the TV set-top box market.
Apple is accepting the fact that it’s “winning” the set-top box market, so they’ve simply decided that they’re not even going to try to accomplish anything further. They’re doing better than everyone else, for now, so they’re happy that their product is the best, even though it isn’t really even good.
As an example of by how much Apple is currently ahead in this market, returns of one of its competitors, the Logitech Revue, have actually exceeded its sales this quarter.
However, while the hare sleeps, I expect the tortoise to make its comeback.
Here’s why.
The Logitech Revue is a flop for two reasons:
A. Its exorbitant price tag ($249).
B. It does the exact same stuff the Apple TV does. Just like everyone else in this situation, when two products do the exact same thing, I’ll go with the Apple option, especially when it’s quite a bit less than half the price of the alternative.
However, Google TV/the Revue is stepping up its game. They’re slashing the price of the device to $99 (the same as that of the Apple TV), and bringing an app platform to it. And an app platform (primarily for gaming) is exactly what people want. The current consoles suck (see my last post), and the market’s ripe for the picking, by a new kind of “console,” one that isn’t designed explicitly for gaming, but does it as an auxiliary function. The era of FPS after FPS after FPS is over. People are ready for the rise of casual gaming on the TV, as has already been seen on the smartphone and tablet platforms. Ultimately, this is the finish line in the metaphorical race of the tortoise and the hare.
So hasn’t the Roku won the race? It brings Angry Birds to the big screen.
Don’t kid yourself. Yes, the Roku brings Angry Birds to the big screen, and as much as I’ve used that as the example of what people (myself included) want to do, that really made me rethink what I want. Yes, I want Angry Birds on the big screen, but if that’s the only thing I can do, I’ll finish it pretty quickly, and then have nothing to do with the device for the two months until the next update. What we really need is a proven application platform (therefore the only real potential competitors are Apple and Google) on the big screen (hopefully including Angry Birds). Unfortunately, Apple seems to be resting on their laurels here and not acknowledging what they could unleash on the Apple TV platform. Then again, Steve Jobs did call it a “hobby,” and maybe he doesn’t want it to become anything more than that.
What of AirPlay mirroring?
It’s a glorified VNC client. No really, it is. Okay, so it’s not technically using the VNC platform, but why wait for iOS 5? Just install Veency on your iPad and port a VNC viewer to the Apple TV, and you have AirPlay mirroring. It’s not the same thing, but it does the same thing. Yet AirPlay does sound kinda stupid when its significance is compared to such a simple hacked-together solution, doesn’t it? Plus, this raises the price of the Apple TV from $100 to $600, considering you need an iPad 2 to use it. Yes, I have an iPad 2, but I want to run its apps on the device they were designed for, not on my TV. The only solution here is native apps.
So who wins the race?
The tortoise, of course. The Apple TV might be a vast expanse of space ahead of Google TV products such as the Revue now, but with the Revue’s new-found lower price tag, along with the promise of the Android Market within a couple of months, all while Apple puts no real effort into improving the Apple TV, the status quo isn’t going to last.
Android Market? Yuck.
Yes, I know. But Java apps are better than no apps, and Angry Birds is Angry Birds, regardless of the language it’s been ported to.
Still, it’s quite unlike you to be critical of Apple. Why the change of heart?
It isn’t a change, it’s a one-off thing. I still have a general dislike of Android, but I still have to respect its occasional merits.
You should really be asking, “It’s quite unlike Apple to rest on their laurels. Why the one-off change of principles?”
Look at the iPad. It dominated, and still dominates, the tablet market. Yet Apple didn’t stop with the original. They brought out the iPad 2, with a dual-core A5 processor, significantly thinner and lighter form, and dual cameras, while still managing to deliver the same excellent battery life. I bought both the original iPad and the iPad 2, yet I’m still not sold on the Apple TV, and at this rate, never will be.
I guess the difference is that not only was the iPad the best product in its class, relatively speaking, it was also an awesome product, absolutely speaking (as is the iPad 2). The Apple TV, on the other hand, while currently the best in its class, relatively speaking, is a lackluster product, absolutely speaking. Apple said it’s only a “hobby,” and they’ve made that not only their goal, but their limit, for the product.
Today I’ve made an important decision. That decision is to never buy a Microsoft product again.
So a few weeks back, my Xbox 360 failed with the Red Ring of Death – strike one, your product sucks.
The Xbox 360 has a hardware failure rate of slightly over fifty percent. I dunno how anyone finds this sort of thing acceptable, but it’s easily the highest failure rate ever of any gaming console.
I called my friend up and had him try to fix it. However, he couldn’t get it to work again. He later told me I can get MS to fix it for free. So I ship off my Xbox (using packing materials that cost me nearly $20), expecting to have it repaired. I thought it was admirable of MS to offer a three-year extended warranty on the consoles, until I realized they’ll try to get out of it by any means necessary. I proceed to get an e-mail (well actually two e-mails for some reason) informing me that they’ve detected tampering with the console and won’t repair it.
So I call up their tech support to try to get them back in line. I tell them that I know someone who had also attempted to have my friend repair his 360, and MS serviced it anyway. They called BS on this, even though I’m completely sure my friend was telling the truth. They then proceed to pitch me on some $120 out-of-warranty repair service. They seriously think I’m dumb enough to be paying $120 for something I’m supposed to be getting for free. As if this wasn’t outrageous enough, I only paid $80 for the console. Yeah, people complain about Apple being pricey, but Microsoft are a bunch of outright scam artists. Okay, I give up on getting my console serviced. If you want to be a bunch of thinkheaded douchebags, so be it. Strike two, your service sucks.
Remember that I paid almost $20 for the materials I had to ship the thing off in. I thought it was a worthy investment, because I expected MS to actually service my Xbox. I proceed to demand that they refund me this money, as it was obviously a complete and total bust. I spent $20 for nothing. Once again, they refuse. Strike three. You can’t even make basic amends to your customers.
Anyway, MS sent me a survey a few days back, and I’m quite glad I waited until today to answer it. I forgot to mention in it, that this was by far the worst tech support experience of my life. Wait times of an hour or more? I can deal with it. Foreign accent I can’t understand without hearing the statement repeated a million times? I can deal with it. Treat your customer like crap and tell him “Screw you and your investment in a console, its accessories, and the many games you have for it”? I can’t deal with it.
As far as I know, the jobs of these people depend on answers to surveys like those. I put in highly negative answers fully well knowing that the customer support representative will probably lose his job, and I feel absolutely no remorse about this. If he chances to read this, I offer him this advice. Tech support (or any job where you deal with customers) isn’t the job for you. Until you learn that age-old motto, “The customer is always right,” you won’t last five minutes in such a setting. Harsh, yes. True, also yes.
Not like it matters, since I don’t have the money for a game console anyway, but all the current consoles suck and I give up on the concept for now. I’ll wait for a new player (cough cough Apple… please?) to enter the game console market. The Xbox 360 is a poorly made POS, and the PS3 steals people’s credit cards. I think there’s some third console on the market, but its general unimpressiveness causes me to always forget about it.
The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t buy a Microsoft product. They don’t care about the customer. At all.
"Tandem, is that kind of like spooning? Mommy doesn't allow me to watch porn, especially not gay porn starring people in fake police uniforms." - anakata
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