JonesPC

I recently got the dreaded announcement that my place of employment is planning to shut down early 2010. After about a week of shock and disappointment, I started looking at the  things I need to do to prepare. Of coarse that includes getting rid of bills that I don’t necessarily need to have, or could do without. As I go down the list, I come to my  internet service. Right now I pay $60 a month for a 20down/5 up connection.

Now lets not be silly, I’m not gonna get rid of my internet service…I’m not even considering getting rid of broadband or going to the lowest tier. That doesn’t mean that I cant look into other options.

The problem with the “Other options” option is that basically, there is really no other options. Well there are, but they are basically the same. In my area, you have Cox cable internet, Verizon DSL or Verizon fios. When it comes to price, they are all basically the same. Yea you can get lower speeds for cheaper prices but you cant get a “cheaper” service. If you want a certain speed, it will cost the same regardless of the company you choose to get it from.  There are no bargains.

There is an option that I looked into briefly, wireless broadband plans. You have sprint, AT&T and Verizon but if you have ever looked into those offerings, you’d know that your gonna pay about $60 bucks a month for an “unlimited” data plan.  A plan that will put you at a lower speed than the lowest tier that is offered by most wired broadband services and isnt really unlimited because they all have 5gb a month limits.

If you do want to get a look at your options without having to go from website to website, where do you go? Well there are a few websites out there that compile prices or just give you an idea of prices so that you will know what you are looking at if you arent already familiar. Websites like http://www.broadbandexpert.com.au, http://www.broadbandreports.com/, or http://www.thebroadbandguide.com.

Truth be told, with as much as I do on the internet, and now that I will be in the job market and will be using the internet to look for a job and some training, I wont be getting rid of my broadband service anytime soon. Cox will have me for a costumer till I run out of money…or until I find something equivalent but cheaper

As you know, the new “old” e3 is going on this week and as I watch the press conferences and read through all of the information and announcements made by the 3 console makers, I see something that I just don’t like.

WAGGLE!

What is waggle you say? well its the term many use for the Nintendo Wii’s method of control. The motion controller, where you hold something in your hand and wave it around to interact with your video game. Many of these games require you to look and feel silly while you are playing. A lot of times you actually have to stand up in your living room or bedroom in front of your TV to get the most out of the motion controller. swinging or waving your arms.

Nintendo.

As you know, the motion (waggle) controller has been around for a few years and is probably the biggest draw and selling point of the Wii console. I bought my stepdaughter a Wii a few years ago and she loves it, but I have absolutely no interest in the console. At first, I thought “well Nintendo usually doesn’t release games that I’m interested in, but I’ll probably find some fun here and there with that motion controller”

I tried, but I just don’t like that method of controlling.

Microsoft.

At Microsoft’s E3 press conference, they announced and showed off what they are calling project Natal for the Xbox 360. Don’t get me wrong, Project Natal looks amazing. Their method of control consist of a special camera that acts as your very own motion capture unit. You stand, kick, jump, swing your arms, run…anything you do in front of the camera can be translated to some type of control or interaction with the game you are playing. Little things such as pretending to put on glasses, and even voice and face recognition can be detected and incorporated into gameplay. It really looks amazing.

Sony.

Sony also unveiled its motion option for the PS3, which looked to be a mixture of what Microsoft showed and what Nintendo has had all along. You use a camera and hold a “remote like” in each hand. The combination of those items give you a very accurate, 1:1 motion control experience. similar to the Nintendo Wii with the motion plus addon you can swing swords or golf clubs with great accuracy.

The problem?

Like the title of this blog post suggest, I just dont want to waggle. the way things look, video gaming looks like it want to head in a direction where you stand and jump around in front of your TV. I just dont want to do that. I want to sit in my comfortable recliener and relax while playing games. I want to press A to throw a pass, I want to steer a Ferrari with a analog stick and shoot baddies with my trigger finger….Not jump, point, wave and lean.

Sometimes when you are doing a little writing…whether its for school or some other project, you need to count the words you are writing. You can write up what you are writing then go back and count each word yourself. If you are using Microsoft Word or any similar text editor you the counting is done for you. Most blogging platforms don’t have that option. This is quick and easy, but is probably good to bookmark for that time when you may need it. A cut & paste word counter.

You can find it at this URL

http://www.javascriptkit.com/script/script2/charcount.shtml

Here all you have to do is copy and paste what you are typing into the box and it will count the words for you. There is even code on the website if you want to embed the script into your website.

Now that I have a Blackberry Bold, Ive been looking for apps and games to put on it. yea coming from the iPhone, where there are a ton of apps at your fingertips, there has to be a little bit of a search and research effort for things to put on your blackberry but I have found a few apps/games that, for right now, is must haves for me. Figured Id let you know.

VyMail.

One thing that wasnt a big deal for me on the iPhone that I find I miss with my Blackberry Bold is visual voicemail. Luckily, you don’t have to look far before you find a Blackberry replacement. Vymail is a visual voicemail app that I have found to be a must have app for my blackberry bold. Its simple, pretty much does the same thing as the iPhone feature. It lets you know when you have voicemail, it retrieves it so that you can play it on your phone, instead of having to call your voicemail system. You can delete or save it right in the app and it displays the caller information. Vymail isn’t a “push” app, so the app has to check for voicemail at an interval that you set. Also, to use Vymail, you have to create an account with Youmail (this is awesome and free).

Visit the vymail page or if you are on a blackberry, here is the OTA download link

Facebook

The facebook app worked pretty well on the iPhone, but on the Blackberry platform you get a little more integration. On both platforms it does pretty much the same thing, you can view friends, status updates, send messages etc. On the iPhone, the facebook app is working only when you have the app open, the Blackberry app is running in the backround at all times (untill you turn it off) so you can use your phone like you always do and you will get update notifications if there are new messages etc  just like you would get a sms or email notification.

Go here to get Facebook for Blackberry Smartphones

Pandora

Yea theres a Pandora App for your Blackberry. If you ever used Pandora, you know how this works. You start by adding a few of your favorite music groups, then Pandora will start playing songs from that group or similiar groups. You give each song a thumbs up or thumbs down and Pandora uses that information to try to deliver you music that you like. It isnt perfect, but it works pretty well. all the music is streamed over your internet connection. Pandora for blackberry allows you to log into your Pandora account and listen to the channels you have created…streamed to your blackberry.  This app is Free

Visit Pandora’s Blackberry page for download information

This app is not free, but it has definitely been a very addictive Blackberry Game

Puzzlequest Warlords

If you’ve never played Puzzle Quest before, think a puzzle game…like Bejeweled, combined with RPG elements and a story. You pretty much have to go on missions to save a town or something similiar, but to battle enemies, you have to play a bejeweled style game againts them. Be warned, this game is addictive and you will drain your battery if you arent carefull.

It cost $6.99 and you can get it from Bplay.com (click the link)

With all of these apps, make sure your Blackberry and/or your Blackberry’s OS version is supported before downloading.

When I first heard this I thought it was a joke. The Sci Fi channel is changing its name to…. SyFy. pronounced the same way but spelled different. There is even going to be a new logo associated with the name change (will happen in July).

According to Cnet, looks like the name change is all about wanting to trademark the sci fi channel property. and since “Sci Fi” cant be trademarked because of how commonly the name is used and has been used in the past, they decided to change it.

hmmm

While looking for new cell phone apps, I ran across a website that I thought was really cool. Youmail is a service that aims to replace your cell phone’s voicemail system…”a voicemail upgrade” they claim, and I think they are truly right with that statement.

To use Youmail, you have to set your cell phone up to send calls to Youmail instead of your regular voicemail system, which is pretty easy to do and when you sign up with Youmail, they will give you directions.

Once that is set up, You can log into your Youmail account and do a lot of things with your voicemail.

• You can use free voicemail greetings (plenty of choices)  or upload your own.

• You can add contacts or different contact groups.

• You can give each contact or contact group their own voicemail greeting.

• You can have each voicemail converted to text and emailed to you

• You can get a sms notification of new voicemail and its details

• You can view and listen to your voicemail online (at the website) or from your phone.

There is just a lot more that you can do in general and I think its worth checking out….its a free service

Visit Youmail for more info.

Now that EGM-1up.com is gone….well 1up.com has been bought by UGO, a lot of the talent and writers have been spread out, some shows (podcasts) have been axed, some have been changed, some of the people that we are use to listening too on the various 1up podcast are off doing other things. One show that I liked but didnt watch that often was the 1up show….not to be confused with 1up yours the audio podcast. The 1up show was a weekly video show focusing on games and gaming. I thought it was pretty interesting and it had surprisingly good production for a internet video show.

Well as you know, that show is no more, but it lives on at revision 3. Rev3 picked up the show and there are 2 episodes available to watch right now. The name of the show has changed, its now call COOP. many of the members of the 1up show are there but some are missing. the show is still basically the same and if you liked the 1up show, you will like COOP.

Check it out at Revision3.comcoop

Ive been thinking about trying out that somewhat new blogging/website building platform called squarespace. If you listen to any of the popular tech podcast, you have probably heard the ads for the site. It sounds pretty good just from the ads. I recently visited and created a login for the free 2 week trial to see whats up, here’s a brief explanation.

Squarespace is a host and website builder all in one. You pay a monthly fee and everything you need for your website is built in. The storage space, the blogging platform, stats…everything is right there and you don’t need to go several different places…except to godaddy to get a domain name if you want your own domain name.

The part of squarespace that has everyone excited is the built in website builder. you can recreate just about any website template or style with the squarespace tools, without knowing anything about html. its all done with a WYSIWIG interface. you drag and drop and select from menus what you want to add, edit, or delete from the page. you can make simple sites, and if you do have more css or HTML knowledge you can do extensive website designs. all in all, It looks to be the best all in one system out there if you want to build a website, or blog. Now I have to decide if I want to do this blog or my other blog over at squarespace. (only 1 website allowed per squarespace account).

Want to know more? Visit squarespace.com

What would be the purpose of having access to the iTunes app store without installing iTunes? Maybe you are at work and theres no itunes available. Maybe iTunes slows down your computer so much that you don’t want to load it up just to browse? Whatever your situation there is a website that pretty much mirrors the iTunes app store for your pleasure.

app-store.appspot.com has just about everything you would need to do with the iTunes appstore in a web page version. Well, not everything. You cant search or buy/download apps but you can browse the store to see what’s available. Good if you just want to look for something to buy later if you are bored at work.

Each item will inevitably lead you to iTunes which is good and bad. if you see something you like and want to look further, it will load iTunes and take you to the actual page within iTunes. If you decide to do a search and click on search…again iTunes is loaded.

Other than those small things. this “app-store webpage” has a lot of casual use.

Check it out here. (app-store.appspot.com)

Weird tittle huh?  Of coarse you have to guess I’m talking about video games again. The reason I ask this question, I had a little observation about 2 similar games. A while back, I talked about Grand Theft Auto IV, questioning if all the perfect review scores it had be getting was justified. Frankly, I think they weren’t. The game media can be a little over the top sometimes when it comes to high profile games.

Regardless of what I think about the review scores, GTA4 is a really good, well made game. I can go through the list of all the things that was great about that game. There are some bad things but I’m not talking about that right now. The important thing there is to note when it comes to my experience with GTA4, I played till about 39% and never played the game again. Sold the game to a friend and haven’t regretted it once.

Now I agree that the game was a good game, but why did I loose interest?

About a month ago, I bought a similar game called Saints Row 2. In comparison to GTA4, Saints Row 2 is clearly a lesser game. GTA4 is prettier, has a better story, has better game mechanics (in some situations) and is a better polished, better made game than Saints Row 2 in almost every way. GTA 4 also has better review scores than Saints Row 2. Heres a little something to note about my experience with Saints Row 2

I am having more fun, and enjoyment playing Saints Row 2 than I ever had playing GTA4

Why is this? Why is the game that is clearly the better game less fun to play. It makes me think about the validity of review scores and the gaming media. The reason this matters is because somewhere out there, some kid walked into a gamestop trying to decide between GTA4 and Saints Row 2 and bought GTA4 because of review scores.

I take back that statement about the validity of review scores. That was my first thought as I thought about this question but I don’t think it is a validity issue. I also feel GTA 4 is a better game. So I agree, somewhat, with the reviewers. I think the issue here is that the review scores doesn’t always equal better or worst.

On one of the recent  episode of Listen up (use to be the 1up.com podcast). Garnett Lee talked about how he dreaded reviewing the new 50 cent game. His reason? He is having a blast playing it, but for a review it may not fair as well. It is in no way a well made game, but he is having fun playing it.

There is a line between a review score, how well a game is made and how much fun a game is when the average gamer plays it (I say “gamer” to disassociate all of the “non gamer” Wii owners out there, thats a whole different story on its own).  That “fun factor” is ussually left out…when only when you are talking about good games. If you have a well made game and it isnt good, game reviewers love to let you know.  For consumers, I think the best thing is to read reviews and make up your own mind, not go solely by review score alone.