Random Things: July Laziness edition

Firefox 4.0 Beta Quick review: Been trying it out since it came out a month ago, and for a beta the browser is looking pretty good. It's still fast, still has all the sexy customizable options, and more importantly it's added some new toys. Probably the most important addition has been the 'App tab', which allows the user to organize their tabs by making certain ones smaller and harder to close accidentally. This is great for stuff like Gmail or any streaming music sites you want playing while you procrastinate work on the web.

So the unorganized web surfers can rejoice, since Firefox 4.0 will organize your clutter for you. Gotta love laziness.

The downside is that since it's a beta, some stuff will be funky, especially anything that uses Flash. Not that Flash really was awesome anyways, but it's more prone to crashing if you try to full-screen a streaming Flash-based video from any website like Youtube. It doesn't happen enough to be an annoyance, but it's still a nagging worry.

God I hate Flash. But that's another story for another day.

Random YouTube video of the month: Freddie Wong has my dream job: making as many awesome and funny YouTube videos as he can. Flower Warfare (embedded above) is my favorite so far, though his hilarious Jedi A-holes short comes pretty close. While he's somewhat hindered by a lack of good actors and writers, he more than makes up for it with his visual creativity and solid cinematography.

Yea, that's right. I'm talking about cinematography in a YouTube video. No matter who you are, all of his videos are great fun, so go check them out.

Pandora: Yea, I'm like a couple years late to the party. So sue me. Now that I've recently gotten a HTC Hero, I've finally gotten a reason to dive into the depths of Pandora. I'm especially loving the way that it connects flawlessly with the Android app on my phone, and of course I'm also loving the superb music selection. Plus it's free. Sweeeeet.

It isn't all hugs and kisses though. After a few days of Pandora killing my battery life and my data plan though, I'm convinced that streaming media apps on any mobile smartphone are extremely overrated. It's great...as long as you're near a power plug and have already ponied up the cash for that expensive unlimited data plan And don't even get me started on how slow streaming video is without 4G.

So to all you ancient, annoying, and horrible FM radio stations; you can live for another day. On the flip side, using Pandora at home has allowed me to seriously test out the App tab on my Firefox 4.0 beta browser. WHAT. DID WE COME FULL CIRCLE? WHATISTHISIDON'TEVE-

Extreme makeover, Intel edition

The iPad may have captured the hearts of yuppies everywhere, but netbooks are the overlooked heroes of portable computing. The enormous touchscreen on the iPad is pretty sexy, but it is utterly useless for those of us who actually use the Internet to get work done. Unfortunately, the most of the netbooks you can buy now have been hit pretty hard with the ugly stick. There's a reason why you'll have a hard time spotting a netbook in broad daylight at you local Starbuck's; faux chrome accents and flimsy plastic casing aren't exactly cool.

Thankfully, for those of us with the gift of eyesight, Intel has the solution.

Enter Intel's new duo-core Atom processor and "Canoe Lake" (huzzah awkward Chinese translations) chipset architecture. Long story short, the new tech that Intel presented promises to allow netbooks to be faster, lighter, and most importantly, sexier. The first two improvements most techies will love, but the last improvement is what all tech geeks and nerds secretly really want in their electronics. After all, they do call it tech fetish for a reason.

It's unfair to compare the iPad and netbooks, since they each do have unique specialties despite having common functionalities. But at least when this new Intel tech hits shelves later this year, we won't have to choose between looking like a nerd and looking like a geek. Trust me, there's a difference.


Source: Engadget

2010, Year of the Touchscreen Tablet PCs

Nuh-uh. Not the iPad. This is the HP Slate. 
 

The iPad might not be worth all the hype, but it sure as hell has kicked off a craze for touchscreen tablet PCs, and they all the new touchscreen tablet PCs happen to look disturbingly similar to the iPad. As much as I docked points for the iPad's lack of certain features earlier, there's no denying it's appeal to the casual user. You don't need amazing computer knowledge to operate one, and chances are most people will overlook the iPad's weaknesses thanks to how intuitive the touchscreen interface is. Touchscreen tablets have great potential to expand the market for portable computers, and this is why everybody's banking on tablet PCs this year thanks to the hype that the iPad has created.

Nope. It's the Fusion Garage JooJoo.

Besides the iPad, the other tablet PCs that I can name off the top of my head are the HP Slate, Archos 7 Home Tablet, and the Fusion Garage JooJoo. Hell, even Dell is rumored to be making one. Quite a lot of tablet PCs, considering touchscreen tablet PCs didn't really fly off shelves before the iPad was launched.

With numerous alternatives to choose from, the future computing is slowly being set into place. It doesn't matter if these tablet PCs lack the processing power and other functionalities of traditional computers, since there touchscreen tablet PCs are promoting the future of multiple-computer household. No matter how much techies and purists like me rail against how trends like these promote aestheticism over functionality, it's undeniably where the consumer culture is currently taking us.

Of course, it's not set in stone that tablet PCs will really take off, as it depends on how Apple and other companies build services around the hardware. But in one day, 300,000 of you seemed determined to make 2010 the Year of the Touchscreen Tablet PCs, so I expect tablet PCs to be here for good.

The Short Story About HTML 5

Since the announcement of the iPad and it's lack of Flash support, some Internet geeks have been championing HTML 5 like it's the next coming of Christ. I'll be frank here. HTML 5 isn't something you should be worrying about right now. For the ordinary users, HTML 5 is a new web coding standard that not only promises to make web browsers more powerful, but also promises to have a plugin-free and web-based future. This means no more annoying Flash updates and more powerful web browsers that offer a lot more functionality.

And it also makes websites look prettier, which is a pretty nice bonus.

The real miracles behind HTML 5 though will only be noticed by web developers. But even if you don't know the difference between Javascript and CSS, HTML 5 still something to be excited for, since it has the potential to make browsing the web much faster and easier. And by that, I mean you can procrastinate on YouTube much more easily with HTML 5, since it gets rid of processor-draining web plugins like Flash. So if it's that good, why should we not be excited about it right now?

Point one; It's not done yet. The Wizards Behind The Internet (as I like to call the fine folks working on it right now) have been working on it for over six years, and there's still a few years before it's going to be officially 'completed'. Parts of the HTML 5 code are being rolled out right now, but those bits of new coding have only moderately changed the way websites are built.

Point two; Even when it's finished, it's not going to be entirely widespread because Microsoft hasn't really been involved in it's development. The godforsaken hunk-of-Internet-junk Internet Explorer is still commanding the majority of the browser market, and web developers don't like using a code that won't be fully compatible with the most popular browser on the Internet.

So if you've noticed all the noise about HTML 5, ignore it. It's much too early to be talking so glibly about it; it has a long way to go before it will be relevant news to the average consumer.

Image source: Webitcet, Gizmodo

The Google Behemoth Strikes Again: Google Buzz

If you accessed your Gmail today, you've probably noticed that Google's added something called Buzz. Some people are calling it Google's answer to Facebook, but that's really a poor way to describing Buzz. Yes, Buzz is Google's new social networking add-on to Gmail, but the two services aren't really comparable beyond that. And that's the problem; Facebook is by far still offers more features, and Buzz doesn't offer anything radically compelling to justify being labeled a 'competitor' to Facebook.

Instead, I think the best way to think about Buzz is that it's enhancing your Gmail experience.You can upload and share decently-sized photos, and if you have Buzz on your smartphone you can 'tweet' your status with a geo-location tag on it so your friends can see where you 'tweeted' from, and all of this is integrated in the Gmail browser. Of course, there's some features that you'll recognize from Twitter and Facebook. Like your Facebook posts, your friends in Gmail can now comment on your Buzz post, and you can have people 'following' you.

Honestly, even if you think of Buzz being an add-on to Gmail, it doesn't really enhance the Gmail experience by much. I have at least 100 friends on Facebook who are constantly on Facebook-stalking, but I have about 10 people on my Gmail list who actively use it for stuff like Gmail chat. Whether you like Facebook's user interface or not, it's impossible to deny the fact that it's much more intuitive and efficient for socializing than Gmail's user interface is.

That said, the additions in Buzz make it a better competitor to Twitter, since it allows much more social interaction with your posts. Even with this positive outlook though, it's hard to deny that it's the awkward late comer to the party; it wants to be popular to be like Twitter and Facebook, but instead of being original, it tries to act like them and fails to appeal to anyone. C'mon Google. We expected more from you.

If I Could Have One Thing From CES...

...it would be this beauty.The only thing I liked from Avatar (the James Cameron oh-look-I-sneezed-and-spent-300-mil movie) were the cool 3D control screens that the people were using, and this 40% transparent OLED laptop is as close as we can get to that. If I had this, I wouldn't need that Aston Martin DBS to feel like James Bond. Screw fancy cars and Sony VAIOs, this is what he should have in the next movie.

Unfortunately, the super-cool stuff are governed by the Law of Coolness: The cooler something is, the less likely it's actually real. This OLED laptop is just a proof-of-concept, and it also has a wacky 1000x600 resolution despite being a 14 inch laptop. The transparency goes away when you bring up anything with a white background (e.g. using a internet browser), and the transparency has no real utility. In addition, the chances of us seeing this in the flesh anytime soon is pretty close to nil, and the chances of this popping up in the nearest Best Buy is exactly nil.

Niggling details aside, this will be on my Christmas wish list for the next twenty years or so. There was about a 1000 other things at CES, but obviously I can only be bothered to talk about something extremely shiny. Obviously.

Source: Gizmodo 

So, Facebook on the 360...

...is extremely stupid. The only cool thing is that you can add people from your Facebook friends list to your Xbox Live friends list. The hitch is that you can only do that if they have already downloaded and installed the small Facebook addition on their 360...which none of my friends have. And I don't blame them, since everyone I know uses their 360 to play games instead of Facebook-stalking.

Unbeliveable, I know.

In a way, Facebook has become its own gaming platform. There are a ton of (rather shady) mini games and personality quizs floating around the social site, and then's there's "games" like Farmville and Cafe World. There's a lot of people that are happily distracted with these games, and companies have taken notice. Mark my words, there will be a Maple Story-esque MMO coming to Facebook soon. And it will be VERY popular.

Everyone is trying to integrate Facebook or Facebook-like social networking into their products. But Facebook is developing too quickly for companies to catch up. The PS3/360 Facebook addon would have been cool...a year ago. Now, there's a bunch of additional things on Facebook that both consoles can't really integrate.

The people behind Facebook and all the Facebook apps aren't stupid; it's only going to be a matter of time before we can share music clips/videos/playlists via Facebook music player, and I wouldn't be surprised to wake up tomorrow to find out that you can blog via Facebook. At this rate, Facebook will take over our Internet social lives.

As for the rest of our Internet time, Google has us covered. Hell, I'm posting from a Google blog (Blogger is owned by Google FYI). How we're going to spend time on the Internet in the near future is going to be interesting, that's for sure.

Tech Predictions for 2010

Instead of having a Best Game of The Year or a List of 10 Things in 2009 That Were Hella Cool, I shall now gaze into the all-seeing crystal ball and look into the future. Let's just hope that I don't look in the wrong place and see my roommate naked or something. Ugh. Anyways, without further ado, Justin's Totally Thought-out Predictions for 2010.

1. 2010 will be a year dominated by gaming sequels - Sequels to Gears of War, Resistance, Halo (ok maybe not a sequel, but it's close), Gran Turismo, Mass Effect, Bioshock, Splinter Cell, and Call of Duty will almost certainly coming out next year. And there isn't an original IP that looks like it will stand out from the crowd.
   
2. The Wii will see a gajillion consoles - Duh.
3. Google will release their much hyped 'Google' phone - Because they can. Headline in 2012: Google takes over the World, Bill Gates sobs.
4. Speaking of Google, Chrome OS will not be released - Official word says late 2010, but I personally doubt it. There's some tech hurdles that need to be jumped, a highly skeptical public that needs to be convinced, and more solid-state netbooks that need to be released.
5. Japan will make another robot for...something weird - Another duh. But I gotta have these freebies in here so this list sounds somewhat legit.
6. The Xbox 360 will continue to be in 3rd place behind the PS3 in monthly sales - This might seem like blasphemy coming from me, but the future for the 360 isn't bright. Of course, I have a very good chance of being wrong, especially if Natal comes out in 2010. But otherwise, Halo: Reach and Gears of War 3 won't guarantee sustained dominance over the PS3 for 2010.
   
7. Apple tablet announced - Cupertino has been playing around with us for so long that it's impossible to deny the existence of one without angering legions of Apple fanboys. Plus, it's guaranteed to sell like hotcakes, and it does make sense, so it's a win-win situation.
8. More torrent trackers will bite the dust - With the departure of Mininova and Pirate Bay to more legitimate shores, it's only a matter of time before unregulated torrent trackers die off. But hey, someone can always place a tracker in Russia or China...
9. Yahoo will be bought by someone - Yahoo's sucking right now, and they're overdue for a change in direction and focus. Either someone's going to shake up the leadership over there, or Yahoo will go the way of Earthlink into irrelevance.
10. I will continue to make a fool out of myself on this blog - Guaranteed.

And yes, I did say hella.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

I went out with a couple of my friends the other night, and to my surprise they were talking about how stupid Twitter is. As revolutionary and mass-based Twitter is, they did a have a point. Nobody cares about what you had for lunch, or about how boring your PSYCH 112 lecture was.

At least, nobody but your stalker does.

That's a bit harsh. I guess friends and family would find your twitter interesting, but even so I'm hard pressed to care about stuff like what people post as their Facebook status. It takes a certain kind of person (namely someone who's probably 17 and loves Twilight) to have friends who demand to know every moment of your waking life. Like the person who tweeted her own pregnancy. Live. As it was happening.

I'm sorry, but what the heck was the doctor thinking? "Breathe slowly, in and out, in and out. Oh, and go ahead and tweet on your iPhone while you're doing this. It's A-OK."

On the flip side, there's interesting Twitters like Shaq's or the various Pokemon ones. So while people can have dumb tweets, there's still some very interesting ones out there. And if you want to tweet yourself? Keep it tasteful and interesting. Trust me, tweeting about how many pounds you can bench won't impress anyone.

It's Not Just Pretty And Shiny, It's Actually Useful

Gizmodo finally released a review of Windows 7, about two months before it hits shelves. Feel free to look through the review if you want, but I'll tell you that the bottom line is you have to get it if you have Vista. Don't let the illusion of choice fool you; Windows 7 is almost a mandatory upgrade since companies and software will eventually stop supporting the infamous Vista OS.

Man, it feels so wrong to type the word mandatory.

To be fair, Windows 7 is an awesome OS that has been proven in the public beta. Hell, I'm thinking about upgrading from XP to Windows 7. And I love XP. Some of the features in Windows 7 are awesome, like the Windows key actually being useful for shortcuts, and the pretty and useful Aero Peek UI for the desktop. Not to mention the fact that it's light-years faster than Vista in performance.

TL;DR, Windows 7 is worth the money. Even if you feel compelled to buy it since you have Vista, there's plenty in there that will surprise you.

On Internet Connections and Master Chief

I've been struggling with my home internet connection for the past couple weeks, which has probably single-handedly ruined my enjoyment of doing nothing over the summer. Trying to troubleshoot network problems is like trying to wrestle a angry shark while trying to weave a basket underwater while being dressed like a giant steak. You just don't know what you're doing, and you want to give up 30 seconds into doing it because it's just ridiculous.

Also, speaking of ridiculous, there's the Halo anime. I can't say that it will suck (the Halo game has spawned a number of best-selling spin-off novels), but I can't say it's going to be good either. Master Chief is hardly a compelling character, but since five of the biggest Anime production houses (Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G, Studio4 C, and Toei Animation) are supposedly handling the animation, at least it'll look good. Hopefully.

Google OS FINALLY Becomes Official

Google's desire to make their own computer operating system is old, old news. But they finally officially acknowledged its existence, and the details that they have released about it so far are very interesting. Their new OS, set for release in late 2010, will strictly be for netbooks, and it will be free. Yea, that's right. Free.

Wrap your minds around that for a bit. It's like those fridge magnets that you get from real estate agents in the mail, except for your computer and infinitely more useful. Bad analogy, I know, but in our present world of expensive-ass software, it's hard to believe a whole operating system can be free. Plus, being for netbooks, Google has an opportunity to expand in a market that Microsoft has ignored for the most part.

A free OS means cheaper netbooks, which is going to be ridiculous. And knowing Google, their OS is going to challenge our pre-conceptions of what an OS should be like. I don't know about you, but I'm freaking stoked about this OS. Hey Google, want to make an OS for desktops?

Source: Wired

Pirate Bay dies, techies everywhere weep

Even though the founders of Pirate Bay lost their trial, I never would have guessed they would sell it. But they did, and of all things they sold it to a company that promises to "compensate copyright owners" for whatever is downloaded on the site.

There's some other stuff that's going to change about Pirate Bay too, but they're all unimportant. Pirate Bay as we know it is dead, since they're going legit. They have already started moving torrent trackers off of the central servers. It's the end of an era now.

The Hollywood and music industry fat cats have won. This isn't about the people who make the music and movies that are pirated, since they get paid relatively squat compared to how much money is made by the companies that own the distribution rights. And let's not mention the fact that the entertainment industry will once again see no reason to change it's outdated physical media distribution methods and its stupid DRM-protected online media.

Long story short, the rich will get richer, and we'll have one less place to grab our media. Farewell Pirate Bay, you guys were awesome when you were around.

Sources: Gizmodo Joystiq