Tech Predictions for 2012

Apple

• The iPad 3 will be released in Q2. The big upgrade will be the display with an increase in resolution to 2048 x 1536 and be called the Retina display. It will launch with Apple’s new A6 chip and upgraded to 1GB of RAM. The front and rear cameras will also be upgraded.

• The iPhone 6, yes I said 6, the iPhone 4s is the 5th gen iPhone, so it makes no sense to call the 6th gen phone 5. The iPhone 6 will launch in Q3 and have the same internal specs as the iPad 3. The glass back will be replaced with an aluminum back like the iPad. The iPhone will be thinner, but won’t have a bigger display because if they make it bigger, it won’t technically be a Retina display. It will also not have LTE as the chips still won’t be power efficient enough, the carriers won’t have complete coverage in the US or Canada and because many international carriers have not even started building LTE.

• iOS 6 will launch with the release of the iPhone 6 and will bring a full release of Siri which will be compatible with all devices that can run the latest OS.

• Apple TV will get new hardware in 2012 that supports 1080p and will launch with iOS 6, letting users download apps, play games and control their TV with Siri.

Google

• Android is number one worldwide and in the US, but in Canada it’s only number 3. By the end of Q3, Android will be number one in Canada .

• Google will launch a Nexus tablet in Q2 during the Google IO conference. It will run an updated version of Android, no not Jelly Bean, just an incremental update to Ice Cream Sandwich. It will have a 10.1″ 1080p or higher display, with 2GB RAM, 32GB ROM and a Quad Core Processor.

• Unlike what many people think, Google will keep Motorola’s hardware business. They will let Motorola do their thing and design phones like they have been doing. But that’s all Motorola will be doing. Google will do the software and keep Motorola devices running stock Android. As a result Motorola devices will likely get updates quicker, just like the Nexus devices. Hopefully as a result, Motorola’s competitors will be forced to improve.

• Google will acquire the 4th major label in 2012 and will continue to expand their music offering. In Q4 Google will launch a subscription service giving users access to Google’s entire catalogue for a monthly fee.

• Google will also launch a news stand on the Android Market with Magazines and Newspapers.

• Google+ will still not come close to competing with Facebook, but it will continue to grow steadily due mainly to the popularity of Android.

• In Q4 of 2012 Google will launch a new Nexus device running the latest version of Android, Jelly Bean. It will be built by Samsung and based off of the Galaxy S III. It will have the same resolution of the Galaxy Nexus, but the display will be upgraded to the Super AMOLED Plus with a full RGB layout. The internal specs will be similar to the Nexus tablet released by Google in Q2 of 2012.

• Android tablets will be the sleeper hit of the year. No one single tablet will match the sales of the iPad. But ever increasing number of tablets, running Ice Cream Sandwich in all shapes and prices from $100 and up will eat at Apples lead. By the end of the year Android will be close to surpassing iOS on tablets.

• And before the end of 2012, Google will release Chrome for Android.

Microsoft

• Microsoft will increase spending on advertising Windows Phone in 2012. Combine that with the help of Nokia’s latest and greatest smartphones and Microsoft will start increasing their market share. By the end of the year they still won’t be close to Google or Apple, but the downward trend will be over and they will have some momentum going into 2013.

• Windows Phone 7 will have 150,000 apps by the end of 2012.

• By the end of 2012 Microsoft will be circling RIM and looking for an opportunity to expand, either through partnership or out right purchase.

• The much anticipated Windows 8 tablets will be meet with poor reviews. The tablets will either have little to no software natively built for it and the full windows apps won’t run well on mobile hardware if at all.

Amazon

• Amazon will release a true iPad competitor, it will be a 10″ tablet built on Ice Cream Sandwich, but modified as heavily as the 7″ Kindle Fire. It will be built with a more powerful quad core architecture.

• Amazon will have one of the best selling Android devices, I say one of and not the best because as of right now it’s only a US product as the ecosystem isn’t fully available in any other country. In the US, Amazon will only be second to only one tablet, the iPad.

• Amazon’s success will bring more developers to Android. Because if your going to build for the Kindle Fire, you might as well increase the market availability and release it on the Android Market.

Check out my Tech Predictions for 2011 which I wrote 1 year ago today. Here’s hoping I do as well 2012 as I did with 2011.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 14,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

For all who haven’t made it into Google+, hopefully it will open it up soon. But for all that have I’m sure most would agree it needs a few changes before they do so. Be patient, your time will come.

So far it’s been a really unique experience. My use of twitter has dropped like a stone and I think it’s the lack of community interaction that’s the cause. If I reply to a tweet that conversation is siloed. If that person has plenty of followers then they have many siloed responses to their post. This approach works quite well for broadcasting, marketing and customer service, but it lacks true open communication between groups of people. With Google+ your reminded it’s really the conversation of a post that becomes the most important part and much like a real life conversation, it can completely flow in new directions.

Others have said it’s like going to a conference. Right now it’s full of tech people, enthusiasts, journalists, developers and investors. The level of interaction is beyond that of anything else I’ve experienced. I’ve had conversations with the developers of games I’ve played and the journalists I listen to daily on podcasts. It reminds me quite a bit of forum discussions, but without all the negativity and anonymous douche-beggary. I’m not sure what Google+ will be like when it opens up and if it will be able to maintain the current level of meaningful interaction but the possibilities really are endless.

I have facebook for people I know and twitter for people I don’t know but with whom I am interested in what they have to say. I also don’t want to use multiple apps to access this information, so I use an all in one solution like Tweetdeck. If I come across something that interest me from facebook on Tweetdeck it loads the website, sometimes desktop, sometime mobile, it all depends on what, because they all have different level of abilities. It really ends up a messy experience compared to the very clean well designed and implemented Google+ app.

As +Bill Gross puts it “So far, on a very limited test, I am seeing more engagement, and more satisfying engagement to things that I post on Google+ with only 1,000 followers than I get on Twitter with 27,000 followers. Is that just because it’s so new and people are really trying it out, or is this a real sustainable phenomenon?”

In just 1 week I already have 26 people who have circled me. It took me months of posting on twitter to hit that level. My interaction is also way up. On facebook and twitter my level of interaction is about 5% of posts. On Google+ my level of interaction has increased by 600%. There is a ‘buzz’ on Google+ I haven’t seen online in a while and I think this has the potential to capture a serious percentage of market share from twitter, facebook, Skype, foursquare, forums, rss aggregaters and even blogs sites like WordPress and tumblr.

But even if it doesn’t topple Facebook which is the more likely scenario it will at least force Facebook to innovate and isn’t that what it’s all about.

Add me to your circle +Dave Loft 

Mobile

Gaming

Other

I could pretty much just post this chart and call it a day. The numbers are taken from the just released data from Quorus Consulting for Canadian statistics and from Nielson for the US numbers. It clearly shows the Canadian market in 2011 mirroring what the US looked like a year before.

So why the discrepancy? Well it’s likely a number of factors but ultimately it boils down to three; loyalty, pricing and marketing.

Loyalty is the obvious one, RIM is a Canadian company and people enjoy supporting a product of Canada. Also since so many businesses, schools and government are built around the blackberry it makes moving to an alternative more difficult.

Pricing is definitely another proponent of slowing down progress and has much to do with Canadian carriers and their three year contracts. I’m still on a contract from my 2008 purchase of a Windows Mobile HTC Touch Pro. To upgrade before August of 2011 I have had to buy my Android phone at full price.

It’s not just contract pricing but also device pricing that has helped Blackberry stay on top. RIM has done well due to inexpensive devices like the Curve and the Pearl. These devices were often given away for free with contract and offered a better experience than the competition could provide at that price point. But Canada is finally starting to get some inexpensive Android devices worth owning that offer the better experience in lower price bracket.

The biggest reason for the discrepancy is marketing and is something that Apple excels at. What has kept Android behind is the lack of centralized marketing. Google doesn’t push Android like Apple or RIM does with iOS and BlackBerry. It’s up to the carriers and manufacturers to do so and as a result the message is fairly fragmented.

It is in this very area that US differs drastically and is all thanks to Apple’s bad decision to limit the iPhone to AT&T. Verizon (AT&T’s biggest competitor) in an effort to stay relevant in the smartphone space heavily promoted Android. The Droid namesake was bought and sold by Verizon with a consistent message, Droid Does. The recent change in Apple’s approach which brought the iPhone to Verizon has done very little to slow Android down. The damage was down and it all started with the original Droid back in late 2009. It was the spark that lit the fire and brought Android to the mainstream and informed the masses of a true alternative to iOS.

No carrier in Canada has done for Android what Verizon did in the US. But with recent increases in Android alternatives on all Canadian carriers and no new iPhone in sight the summer of 2011 could turn out to be a big quarter for Android. I’ll have to come back to this next year and see just how much Canada has progressed.

I’ve been mulling this over for the past week and wanted to share my thoughts on it. Ultimately what it comes down to is that there is no guarantee that the games your buying for your Android phone today are going to work on your next Android device. More apps and games are being targeted at specific devices. At Google IO in the market session it was mentioned that developers would now have even more control over which which device can access the game by not only chipset, screen size and android version but also the specific model.

So now a developer can build a compatible list or a not compatible list. An example of each that recently hit the market is the Netflix app which is limited to work on only five devices and Battleheart which currently blocks many Samsung and HTC devices. The worst part of this is that as the hacking community has shown running a rooted android with the hacked Netflix app can work on just about any device.

Blocking a specific model can result in blocking devices that may have been updated or are running custom software that actually fixes the issue that the device was blocked for. To take it even further a device may be blocked due just to performance issues. Something that a rooted device with a stock ROM running an overclocked CPU can often fix.

Ultimately these updates are great for the average Android user as it will reduce the number of times they will come across apps and games that do not work on their device. But it’s the power users that will ultimately have run into challenges from these changes.

Jump ahead one or two years after your first Android and you may find yourself in a situation where many of the games you have wont work on your brand new device. This will be especially true for anyone who owns a Tegra 2 based device or the Xperia Play. With so many games being made specifically just for those devices if your next device is not a Tegra device or the Xperia Play 2 it won’t work.

This also extends to any 3D game that specifically lists what devices it works on. Next year if you go and buy the latest and greatest phone that should easily be able to handle the game but the developer hasn’t added it to the list of compatible devices. As a result it won’t even show up in the market for you.

So going forward the argument that because it’s an Android device and you bought it from the Market doesn’t give you any guarantee. It kind of puts some perspective on the many arguments against buying from Gameloft because it won’t work on your next device. As it is, no matter where you buy it, there really is no guarantee it will work.

Google also introduced another update to the market, but this one could help alleviate many issues. They will allow a developer to have one listing for their game and it can hold multiple APK’s. This would be helpful for example if you currently own a Tegra 2 device, you would be given the Tegra 2 version. Then for example next year you buy the Xperia Play 2 and then when you hit the market to download your apps you would be given the appropriate version.

Unfortunately by the looks of things in the market this may be more of a dream than a reality. Many Tegra 2 games won’t work on any other platform and the one’s that do like Fruit Ninja and Guerrilla Bob have a higher price for the Tegra 2 version.

Thankfully most developers seem to have the right idea by just adding support to the Xperia Play in the regular version of the game. But I have to give a thumbs down to any developer choosing to build a separate version  for the Xperia Play.

Now before you get too worried about all this just bear in mind this is really only going to affect more advanced 3D games. Most apps and games should work just fine. This issue could also be helped if Google takes a stronger stance and more aggressively enforces the Android Market. The biggest thing Android needs is an all encompassing graphic layer akin to DirectX. This would alleviate the need for developers to write for specific chipsets and would greatly help eliminate compatibility issues. Going forward hopefully developers and Google don’t let things get too far out of hand.

Android

• Honeycomb 3.1 was announced, it includes many bug fixes, optimizations, resizeable widgets, USB Host capability, a new quick control menu and an updated android market.
• Google TV will receive a Honeycomb upgrade complete with apps.
• Ice Cream Sandwich was also announced and will be available by the end of 2011. It will replace both Gingerbread on phones and Honeycomb on tablets as the single unifying OS, hence Ice Cream Sandwich.
• Google demoed Cordy on the Motorola Xoom running 3.1 being controlled by an Xbox 360 gamepad.
• Google will implement time guidelines in Android update cycles with oems and carriers. Unfortunately it’s not a requirement and instead an opt in. Thankfully the support is good and they will be required to update devices for at least 18 months.
• Google announced the Android open accessory API allowing all Android devices to work with third party accessories. Any accessory designed using the API will be compatible with any Android phone or tablet with no cost or approval from Google allowing third party manufacturers to implement it any way they wish.
• Google announces Android@Home which will be used to bring home automation courtesy of Android.
• A new Nexus phone is in the works and should launch with Ice Cream Sandwich at the end of the year according to Andy Rubin.
• Currently Google offers 50MB for in market APK’s on the Android Market and will now provide an additional 4GB of storage for larger Apps. This is huge for smaller developers who want to go big. Currently they would have to provide their own additional storage which can be costly, especially when considering piracy.
• Google is adding new categories to the Android Market. Top Grossing, Top Free & Paid, Top New Free & Paid, Just In, Trending, Editors Choice and Top Developers list to the Market.
• Android Market will soon be available in 99 new countries, bringing the total to 131 countries. This will most likely result in much bigger revenues for developers and an increase in Android hardware sales worldwide.

Chrome

• ChromeOS finally gets a file browser and media player and is starting to looking more and more like a full fledge OS
• Google will charge 5% for in app payments from the Chrome Web Store
• Google will launch two Chromebooks on June 15th, one from Samsung and one from Acer in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Italy and Spain.
• Google will also be releasing a Chromebox mini-desktop targeted at businesses.
• Chromebooks by monthly subscription, cost per user; $28 for businesses and $20 for schools with free software and hardware upgrades. This could be very popular for Businesses and schools. No up front cost, no OS upgrade costs, no hardware upgrade costs and requires less employees to maintain the computers.

Music Beta

• Currently only available in the US and by invitation only.
• They do not have deals with any labels, so it is merely a cloud storage option.
• Install the app on your computer and it will upload your music and playlist to the web for playback from any web browser, ChromeOS and Android device.
• It can handle MP3, MPA, WMA and FLAC which still leaves a few holes but is superior than Amazon’s cloud storage.
• The service currently offers free storage for up to 20,000 songs, no mention of actual storage space but it’s probably 80GB.
• There is no mention of price but Google’s current pricing for storage is $5 for 20GB, $20 for 80GB, $50 for 200GB, $100 for 400GB, $256 for 1TB per year.

Image and story from the National Post

I had quite a few problems with Asphalt 6 when it first came out as I mentioned in my previous post. To summarize, it was too big at 1GB, took too much RAM at over 100MB, it had framerate issues, stability issues, control issues and achievements were not saved. To say the least, it was a complete mess. I had planned to write a review when it came out but instead I just ranted about how poorly done the Android port was.

Well here we are five weeks and two patches later and Gameloft has addressed all of my issues. It now uses less storage at just under 900MB and limits the download to 500MB compressed. It’s now down to 70MB of RAM, the framerate has improved, stability is great, control issues are gone and achievements are working. It is now in a state that I would consider release worthy and I am now going to give it a proper run through.

First and foremost it really is a great game and is easily the best Arcade Racer on Android. The physics on the cars feel a little off and fairly floaty but after a few hours with the game, that issue kind of fades away. Drifting is an absolute blast, once you get the rhythm down. Accelerometer steering is precise and feels just right and for anyone who prefers alternative methods of steering, you will be happy to see a few alternative options available.

The graphics are good, but look somewhat grainy, like it’s not taking advantage of the high res display on my phone. But then on some tracks this isn’t an issue at all. It appears to be the detailed textures used on some levels that have the issue and utilizing anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering would clear it up. Making up for the texture issues are the beautifully rendered cars, lush scenery, great filtering and weather effects. All of which come together to create a great visual presentation.

The game offers a number of ways to play. With Free Race you will be given an option of four modes; Normal Race, Beat ‘em All, Elimination and Collector. Beat ‘em All requires that you knock out a set number of opponents. Just smash your car against theirs and push them into the edge of the track will usually do the trick and is followed by a pleasing slow motion ‘Elimination’ animation. Get used to taking out racers this way as you will need to take out a few racers in each race to rank higher. In Elimination, races the last racer will be eliminated every 30 seconds till there is just three left. With Collector your goal is to collect the most special items and to win, you will need to get out first quickly. In Career you will have four additional modes; Dual, Time Attack, Drift and Under Pressure. Under Pressure is just like Beat ‘em All, except that you have limited respawns.

The game has 42 cars ranging from the Mini Cooper to the Bugatti Veyron, all of which can be customized with paint jobs, decals and performance enhancing parts.  The game provides 11 leagues, 55 events and 12 courses to sharpen your skills on. Then when your ready you can take them online and race with up to six people, locally or over the internet. This game does not disappoint in the value for dollar catagory.

This has been my go to game for the past week whenever I have had time to sink my teeth into it. It’s not the game I pickup when I have a couple minutes while waiting, as it takes too long to load into the game and get racing. But like many Gameloft games, it is the game I go to when I’m looking for a console like experience. The depth of gameplay is beyond most smartphone games and easily provides the same amount of content of a game ten times it’s price. If you like arcade racing games, then Asphalt 6 is a must buy.

Score: 9.0

Official Website: Gameloft.com

For those interested, the game is only for high end phones and must be purchased from Gameloft directly. Games can be paid with credit card or PayPal and with some carriers, carrier billing is an option. Any game purchased can be easily re-downloaded by heading to gameloft.com on your phone and selecting ‘My Downloads’ at the bottom of the page. Login with your email or phone number and any game purchased available for that model will appear. Gameloft games will occasionally check for updates when launched and download them automatically if needed. 

email:  android.support@gameloft.com
phone: 1-800-910-3186

I’m too busy playing the game right now to do anything more than a picture and a few sentences. I will definitely write up a review in the next week or too. Now back to Portal 2 and if you haven’t yet bought this game, what is wrong with you?

I’ve had Guerrilla Bob for about a month and while it’s easily one of the most polished games on the Android market, it just doesn’t posses the longevity to keep me interested. Now to be fair, that would describe most mobile phone games and is exactly why they’re typically priced below $5. I guess I’m just looking for a console experience on a phone and one I know can be done.

I love the graphics in the game and the visual style reminds me of TF2. The textures are clean, beautifully put together and they’re not very detailed. But it works within the style of the game. To go with the smooth graphics is an equally smooth framerate that makes Guerrilla Bob a joy to play.

Cross compatibility is a big part of the marketing behind Guerrilla Bob and is one feature few games have offered. It is unfortunately only local multiplayer and the lacks the essential online multiplayer required to keep me playing the game.

Controls are plentiful with options to auto-aim and multiple dual stick configurations to choose from. If your new to dual stick games, or just want a simpler experience on your mobile, auto-aim is a great place to start. Once you get good at the game you can set the difficulty to hard or just turn off auto-aim.

The game offers ten guns and four characters to choose from, but with only one to start the game. You will unlock more as you play and getting all the guns can take quite a while.

The game offers a few ways to play; arcade, survival and mercenary. Arcade and mercenary are the same game but it changes how weapons are unlocked. In arcade you need to find new weapons hidden throughout the level. While in mercenary mode, you make money by taking out enemies to spend on your weapon of choice. With these two modes your goal is to move to the end of the level and your only job is to shoot. Survivor is the same gameplay in an arena and your scored based on how long you can survive.

What you soon realize is that all of the options available are pretty much the same. I feel if your gonna do just a shooting game, your gonna need more than ten guns. If you want to make your game more than just a shooting game some extra gameplay elements would go a long way. Just steeling ideas from your standard fps will do wonders. Vehicles, mele combat, stealth, cover, defend here, attack this, find the key, disguise as an enemy, something, anything. It just won’t stand as long without another leg to use.

To be fair. this really is me just wanting more complexity from mobile games and that’s something many people don’t care for. Taking into consideration what type of game Angry Mob was aiming to create with Guerrilla Bob, they have definitely nailed the mechanics of the game. It’s when you compare Guerrilla Bob to other shooters available on the Android Market that it becomes a more compelling product. It may have nothing on games like Modern Combat, but it’s really not trying to either.

Guerrilla Bob is the shooter built for a touch screen phone and one that’s accessible to the masses. This is the style of shooter that will have the most success on mobile devices and Angry Mob has built the best of it’s kind. Hopefully they can take that success and return with a squeal that raises the bar well above the the competition, rather than just over.

Score: 8.0

Android Market Link: Guerrilla Bob
Official Website: angrymobgames.com

The sequel to Dungeon Hunter was recently made available for Android and it’s improved over the original in every way. I enjoyed Dungeon Hunter but I stopped playing after a couple hours. Dungeon Hunter 2 has sucked me into several hours of compelling gameplay and has shown me no sign of letting go.

When the game starts you have your choice of three classes; warrior, rogue and mage. Once you get going you will have a further options to customize with one of two specializations and dozens of skills. The game is easy to use, which really goes a long way to making it accessible. The menu and character customization screens are easy to navigate, which is often an issue with RPG’s.

The controls feel much better than the first, especially with the 3 spell buttons being separated which makes them much easier to hit in the middle of action. The only issue I had with control was often getting stuck on objects around the world.

One of the big benefits of the game is in it’s save game simplicity. Since your game save is done automatically. If you have to quit and take care of something more important, your right where you left off when your ready to resume. Which is essential for an RPG on a mobile phone.

For anyone familiar with the first game, you’ll be impressed to know that Dungeon Hunter 2 is five times the size of the first. The variety of levels and enemies are also more diverse, keeping things from getting boring. Dungeon Hunter 2 has a total of 14 Acts and a maximum character ranking of 100. My character was only at level 25 by the time I hit Act 9. So if you find it too difficult, just grind away till you rank up a few levels before taking on that hard to beat story mission. It’s surprising how quickly those earlier challenging enemies become a cakewalk.

The graphics in Dungeon Hunter 2 have improved greatly since the first one. The textures are crisp, the animation is smooth and the lighting effects are impressive. The framerate has dropped a bit from the first game but considering the style of gameplay, it’s not much of a hindrance.

My biggest issue comes down to the dialogue and character interaction. There are no voice actors at work here, so expect lots of reading. Considering the sheer amount of dialogue and the tradition of RPG’s to not use voice acting, it’s not surprising. But it would have been nice to have more camera angles and character animation during this interactions. It may be nit picky but it does leave the world feeling quite static.

It’s great to see them add online and local co op play allowing you to take your character online or off at whim. It’s a great experience when played with someone you know. But you will want them to be beside you when you play so you can coordinate better. Playing online and having no way to communicate with one another takes away from the experience and just makes it more difficult. I would love to see some voice chat capability, this is a phone after all. But it’s hard to fault the game for something that no mobile game has implemented thus far.

This is a traditional Action\RPG through and through and doesn’t make any changes to that tried and true formula. It really is just Diablo II for Android and ultimately it doesn’t get much better than that.

Score: 9.5

Official Website: Gameloft.com

For those interested, the game is only for high end of phones and must be purchased from Gameloft directly. Games can be paid with credit card or PayPal and with some carriers, carrier billing is an option. Any game purchased can be easily re-downloaded by heading to gameloft.com on your phone and selecting ‘My Downloads’ at the bottom of the page. Login with your email or phone number and any game purchased available for that model will appear. Dungeon Hunter 2 will occasionally check for updates when launched and download them automatically if needed. 

email:  android.support@gameloft.com
phone: 1-800-910-3186

So every now and then I check out Gameloft’s site to see if any new games have been made available. Last night I noticed they added Nova 2 to the list of games available to Android with a release date of April 2011. Unfortunately as of the time of writing this the buy now button does nothing. I tried going to Gameloft.com on my phone but the game is not even listed.

It appears this is yet another confirmation in a string of confirmations going as far back as December that Nova 2 is coming to Android. According to what I read at the beginning of April the game is supposed to be exclusive to the Sony Xperia Play for the first month. So we shouldn’t be seeing it for other Android handsets till May. But my experience with Gameloft is that if they are making reference to the game on their site it’s a good chance we will be seeing it by the end of the week.

Keep checking the link below to see when it becomes available.

http://en.gameloft.ca/download-games/android-games/

Product Page
http://en.gameloft.ca/android-games/nova-2-android/?adid=117277

I think I’m having a Gene Amdahl moment – Andy Rubin on Android Developers Blog

I had watched enough trailers, gameplay videos and reviews on this game to put on my Steam wanted list. Unfortunately with a price tag of $60 and no demo available to try I was obviously a bit apprehensive. But that changed on Monday when developer Epic Games made a demo available on Steam. I sat down after class on Tuesday to give it a first run through and boy do I hate it.

The controls in this game are some of the worst I have ever seen. Leave it to Epic to fuck up something so simple as a fps on a PC. The biggest issue is with the mouse and especially high DPI gaming mice. I had to turn the mouse sensitivity all the way down and it was still too much. So I then had to turn my mouse down from 5700 DPI to 800 DPI to get it to move at the right speed. But it still just didn’t feel right and was saddled with quite a bit of lag.

Then there was the menu navigation which had you moving around with W and S rather than the mouse. This is just lazy work on the developer’s part. It might make sense to have your move forward and back on the left stick to move around the menu, but it doesn’t work on a PC. Some menus would actually let you use the mouse (I hate inconsistency) but since I had to turn the mouse sensitivity way down, it felt way too slow in the menu.

The game is also very hollow, monotonous, repetitive and clunky. AI is very scripted lacking any sort of intelligence. Gameplay follows a strict guideline of kick, lasso then shoot. Sure you could just shoot, but the shooting is terrible and when you aim down the scope the sensitivity seems heightened making it more difficult to aim.

Bulletstorms clunkiness comes from the movement and ultimately derived from the controls. You hold space bar to slide, but also to jump over things. So if you slide to an object you can’t just hold space bar to jump over, you have to let go then press again. Not really that terrible, but what it sometimes chooses to jump over is really annoying. In my last game I slid to a barrier and pressed the space bar to jump over it only to have my character jump to the right. It was at this point that I realized my character had jumped into some kind of hole in the game. A hole I could no move, jump, slide, lasso, kick or shoot my way out of. After that I quit the demo, uninstalled it and removed the game from my wish list.

I really have grown to hate Epic in recent years and it mainly stems from their outspoken hatred of things I love. It’s clear from the games I’ve played in recent years that any of the talent they possessed in the past is long gone. Rather than complaining Epic should probably just stick to making Xbox 360 and iOS games where things are very predictable and their customers will buy anything.

Epic should also stop whining about how hard a platform is to develop for. It’s pathetic when a company with a history like Epics lashes out publicly against a platform they don’t like. I for one say good riddance and look forward to what a more capable and innovative competitor will do in their place. But I do want to thank Epic for making a demo available as it saved me from wasting my money on this big piece of EPIC fail.

The studios just don’t get it, if you don’t make the content available legitimately, people will find another way to get it. So far there isn’t an option for Android users looking for a way to watch Hulu or Netflix on their device. The reason for the delay has been blamed on concerns of DRM. The reality is that no matter how DRM is implemented, it will eventually fail. Then theres the other question and arguably the more important one. Who is going to use an Android app that requires a monthly subscription as a means to steal content and share it on the web? It’s far more likely to be done using a cable box and a PC.

Now at least in the US Amazon has an option for Android users to buy and stream videos to their Android device. Unfortunately in Canada, the only option for Android users is to buy a DVD and rip it into a format the phone can play. Which is a rather time consuming process and in the age of digital distribution, rather ridiculous.

I stopped buying physical media a long time ago. I get my music from Rdio, my comics from Comixology, my books from Kobo, my TV from Hulu and movies from Netflix. I try to stay as legitimate as possible but when it becomes more difficult to use, or worse it’s just not available, I tend to head to the types of sources the studios wish never existed.

Rdio, Comixology and Kobo have apps that allow me to enjoy my content on the go. But since the movie and television studios haven’t yet learned what the music labels learned several years ago, they are currently hurtling towards a cliff in Bugatti Veyron at 407 KMH with the brakes from a Volkswagen Jetta. Subsequently customers are being lost in the very holes they created by not offering a competing service.

So what do I suggest for TV on the go? TV Shows Stream, which is available on the Android Market for a one time purchase price of $5 from Loading Home. TV Shows Stream provides as the name suggest a method for streaming TV and it offers more content than Netflix and Hulu ever could.

When you click on the show you like, it will give you some general information about the show as well as a link to IMDb and the option to Add or Delete Bookmark. It’s really easy to use and and is a necessity considering every letter of the alphabet has hundreds of show listings. At the bottom will be a list of seasons with each episode name and number listed inside. Once you click on the episode you want you will be given a list of links to watch from. On occasion some of the links will be dead, hence the reason to have several to choose from.

For fans of Megavideo, TV Shows Stream offers an option to login to your account from the homepage. Without a Megavideo account, you will be limited to 72 minutes of streaming video from their links. For anyone who doesn’t have a Megavideo account I would suggest using Karambavidz or Loombo videos. They offer excellent quality, no time limit and can be loaded into an external video player, rather than played within the browser using flash. The battery life and playback controls on your Android video player is definitely better than the browser.

For anyone looking for movies, I would suggest MegaViewer Movie Streamer Pro. It’s not quite as good as TV Shows Stream. While TV Shows Stream’s UI is very sparse, it’s also very usable. MegaViewer Pro is just badly designed and lacks any options whatsoever. But the biggest issue is the inability to bookmark your position in the movie to save it for later. This issue is made worse with the players inability to fast forward or rewind. But even with those issues as it stands, it’s still the best option for streaming movies to your Android device. MegaViewer’s selection doesn’t have everything, but what it does have blows away what Netflix can offer.

Now the nitty gritty. The act of streaming movies and TV shows you haven’t paid for is not exactly legal, yet it isn’t illegal either. It currently lives in the gray area of the internet where major corporations have yet to sway governments into changing laws with which to prosecute anyone who partakes in it. Currently it comes down to the act of sharing content that will get you in trouble. So wither these apps are OK to use or not really comes down to your personal beliefs and morals. But if you pay for cable, satellite, Netflix, Hulu or any other video distribution service that fails to offer an option on your mobile, you now know of your alternatives.

It’s interesting to see the studios doing just what music labels did ten years ago. They don’t provide an option so an illegitimate option takes it’s place. Then by the time they figure it out and make something available they have to convince people who have gotten used to the free alternative to start paying again. The funny thing is the free alternatives may never have even existed had the studios made their content available from the beginning. It will be at that point that the studios turn to lawsuits to solve the problem they created in the first place rather than try to innovate.

So for now enjoy the freedom while it lasts and give these apps a try. If your interested, bear in mind they do require Android 2.2 and slow phones need not apply. Also don’t expect the longest battery life if you plan to watch a lot of video. With the display on, a data connection in constant use and a heavier CPU load it’s really no surprise to see a significant drop after finishing a movie. So if the morals and stiff requirements don’t scare you away, MegaViewer Pro and TV Shows Stream are truly great alternatives to Hulu or Netflix.

So if you check Direct2Drive or Steam you will see Call of Duty: Black Ops is on sale from $60 down to $45, wait what? Yes $45, but if you check Direct 2 Drive you will see that this weekend only they are offering 20% off all of their games and the discount even works on games on sale. Hence the $36 price tag. Just use the coupon code, marchmadness upon checkout to get the discount.

But maybe you don’t want to use Direct2Drive and like the convenience of Steam, no problem. After purchase you will be given a download link and a product key. You can take your product key without downloading anything from Direct2Drive and activate that key with Steam. Once activated you can actually download the game purchased from Direct2Drive through Steam. If you don’t like Steam and much prefer Direct2Drive you can download the game directly from them instead. But as soon as you go to install Black Ops, it will install into Steam anyways.

If your interested in Call of Duty: Black Ops I highly suggest picking it up this weekend. It will most likely never get this low again till the end of the year. For anyone who does have it already. You can find me on the battlefield under the name o4k3R and you may want to take note when I stab you in the back. Happy Fragging.

Living part of my digital life on a desktop and the other on a smartphone has presented itself with a few difficulties. The question is how to keep what you do in sync between your devices? Sure you can plug it in with a cable and sync your files but who wants to use a cable, especially in 2011. Theres also limitations in what can be done with software like iTunes or even just transferring files in file explorer. Because it’s really more than just files that need syncing. It’s also places, ideas, thoughts, notes and experiences that needs a solution that bridges the gap. In the following article you will read about the 9 apps I use everyday to keep in sync.

The first app I will showcase is Chrome to Phone, it’s a Google app that can be installed on any Android device with 2.2 or higher. It requires a extension in browser to function. If your on your desktop or laptop reading an article and you want to finish reading but you have to leave, just click Chrome to Phone and the site will automatically load on your phone. This app also works with YouTube videos and Google Maps. If you prefer looking up directions before you leave this app is very useful. Hit up Google Maps to chart your route then push it to your phone, saving you from having to map it on the smaller screen.

There is only one thing Chrome to Phone doesn’t do and that’s push links from the phone to your computer. So that’s why Paddy Foran created android2cloud. When browsing on my phone I often come across videos I want to watch, it allows me to push it to my desktop or media center PC so I can watch it on the bigger screen. It’s really the ease of use and how natural it works that it becomes so natural to use.

When I first got my Android phone I really wanted a way to sync my desktop bookmarks to my phone. I downloaded an app to do it but shortly after I realized what a terrible idea it really was. Many of the bookmarks I have saved were just not useful at all on my mobile phone. After some searching I finally found what I really wanted, which was to store the articles I came across. I would use this service to bookmark links that I wanted to read but did not have time too. Chrome to Phone was great for the right now experience but this app was perfect for saving it for later.

The app I speak of is aptly called Read it Later. When I’m on my phone and I come across an article I want to read later, I use Android’s share function and hit Read it Later. The app on the phone actually downloads the text of the article so even if I’m on the subway, it’s still accessible. It also adds the article to my Read it Later online profile. So from the comfort of my desk, I can actually finish the article. Once read I can check it off my unread list and it gets moved to a list of read articles. I also have a plugin in Chrome called ChromeItLater which allows me to store articles for later right from desktop. This app has literally transformed the way I read.

For anyone interested in moving files between the phone and the computer I have two suggestions for you. The first is Dropbox, which allows you to store 2GB’s of data in the cloud for free. You can download the app to your desktop OS to automatically keep a folder in sync with their servers. From any computer you just need to go to dropbox.com where you can download or upload any file you wish. I have dropbox installed at home and at school keeping my class files in sync and with me wherever I go. When I’m on my phone its very easy to upload files to dropbox using Androids share function. To download just load the app and select the file you want, it’s easy to use and has completely replaced my USB drive.

If your looking for a more direct way to transfer a file to and from your Android phone I highly recommend giving Samba Filesharing by FunkyFresh a try. This app requires a rooted phone but is such a good app that it’s worth rooting just for this. The app is dead simple to use, you just need to set a username and password and then your good to go. Once running it will list the address you need t to type on your computer to access the drive. But from a Windows 7 desktop I only had to select network from the file explorer and within a few seconds of scanning the network it will show Android on the list. Once connected you will have full read andwrite access to your SD card to do as you wish.

The next piece of software is 1Password by Agile Web Solutions. This app allows me to have one place for storing your account logins, banking, product keys or anything else you want to keep private. The desktop application is required to create entries and is unfortunately quite costly. But I have tired half a dozen applications that do what this app does and none of them work as well as 1Password. The key to it’s success is utilizing Dropbox to keep the phone and desktop in sync. This app has allowed me to use wildly long and difficult passwords for all my logins I use throughout the day. With this app I just need to remember 1 password to retrieve them, hence the name.

The next app is for the worker on the go. The business man who lives and breathes office software. Word, Excel and PowerPoint editing is not very well represented on Android. So far Google has only made the web based version of Google docs available for editing on the phone. So it’s come to the third party developers to offer an alternative and I have found my favorite in Documents to Go by DataViz. There are three ways to get your documents on your phone and working with Documents to Go. With the first requiring a cable I’m just going to ignore that one and talk about the other two. The second option requires another app, as I mentioned before I suggest Samba Filesharing or Dropbox. The third option is the one I use, Google Docs.

I have completely got rid of Office on my desktop and just use Google Docs for everything now. It’s easy to setup Documents to Go with Google Docs and once done the option for it is accessible right on the home page. This is not an app I use everyday but it’s an app that’s there when needed and it’s a life saver. For the everyday simple note taking a streamlined quicker to get in and out app is recommended. I have tried many note taking applications on my phone and the more I try the more I appreciate Evernote. It’s well polished, quick, efficient and everything I write is available from my account online or my desktop.

Evernote makes an extension for Chrome that I use if I want to take notes about any article I’m reading. When using the app on the phone you can also clip files, pictures of voice recordings to the note as well. The desktop app makes using the service a better experience, especially if you don’t always have a net connection.

The only downside to Evernote is its list making ability. A good way to make to-do lists, grocery lists or any other list your heart desires requires another app. I use CloudList for all my list needs and what I love about it is the syncing and sharing feature. I have a grocery list I share with my wife. We can both add to the list and whoever goes and get’s the groceries can check off the list.

All of these apps will allow you to have a cohesive experience between a phone, tablet, netbook, laptop and desktop. Which as a result frees you up to just use your device and enjoy it any way you will.

I wish I could add something to this by sharing my experience with the game. But as I only played the multiplayer demo there’s not much more I can say than I already have.  After reading many reviews and watching quite a few videos, I can easily say this game is on the top of my wish list. But at $60 I will have to wait for one of Steam’s great sales. At least while I wait I can watch videos of the game, like this launch trailer.

The news hit Sunday that AT&T would buy T-Mobile for $39 Billion. This is bad news for anyone in the US as it would mean that AT&T would now be the only national carrier utilizing GSM. The two other national carriers, Verizon and Sprint both use CDMA. For any jet setters out there, it’s hard to find a CDMA phone that also does GSM which would be a requirement to take your phone with you while traveling.

But I’m not here to discuss the implications of this buyout in the US but instead the implications of it in Canada. The first thing I need to explain is that in Canada, Bell, Telus and Rogers all use the same band (frequency) of HSPA, an extension of GSM that allows phones to work on all three carriers. All of these carriers use the same band as AT&T in the US. The smaller carriers in Canada like Wind and Mobilicity use the same band as T-Mobile, a completely different band of HSPA the other carriers offer. This makes a phone from T-Mobile compatible with Wind and Mobilicity, but not a phone from AT&T, Rogers, Bell or Telus.

AT&T plans are to convert all the T-Mobile towers over to their frequencies to expand their network’s capability. To understand why it could affect Wind and Mobilicity you need to step back and look at these networks from a device manufacturers perspective. For device manufactures, carriers are their customers. Manufactures could justify spending the money designing and building phones that are compatible with the very small carriers in Canada, because they also had a big customer in the US.

Now I’m not saying Wind and Mobilicity won’t get any phones, I’m just saying they just won’t get any good ones. AT&T purchase isn’t just bad for T-Mobile customers, it’s bad for all consumers. I’d like to believe that the FCC would have the back bone to keep this from happening, but we all know that’s not going to happen. So don’t count on getting any new Google Nexus phone on either Wind or Mobilicity after this deal goes through.

GetJar or Get Lost
Rovio’s first mistake came with the release of the original Angry Birds on Android. On the day it was supposed to be launched everyone hit the Android Market to get the famed iOS game. Unfortunately Angry Birds was not on the Android market and after a search on Google it was found to be only available from GetJar. I hit GetJar and tried to download Angry Birds only to find their server was unresponsive. It took hours before I could get the game downloaded and installed on my Android device. it wasn’t till the next day that Rovio finally woke up and just put the game on the Android market.

You Can Get Angry Birds Any Way You Like, as Long as it has Ads
Rovio’s second mistake was making the decision to only offer a free ad supported version of Angry Birds on Android. I would have gladly paid a dollar or two for an ad free Angry Birds but that option was not made available. Anyone who hated ads had to turn to other solutions to get rid of them and that solution turns out to be a rather simple one, an application that blocks ad. With that installed on a rooted device you get an ad free version of Angry Birds and Rovio get’s nothing for it.

Rovio and Intel’s App Up Slip Up
Rovio’s third mistake came with the release of the PC version of Angry Birds. Instead of choosing a major digital distributer like Steam they instead chose Intel’s AppUp store. Another store I had never heard of before so I hit Google to find it and begin the sign up process. Unfortunately the demand of Angry Birds was too large for Intel and the site gave errors every time I tried to register. It wasn’t till the next day that I was able to do so and get in the store to download the game.

Everything the Original Had and More (the More Being Price)
Rovio’s forth mistake was pricing the PC version too high. Five dollars for a game that went for one dollar on iOS and free on Android was quite steep. Not to mention gameplay that just wasn’t as exciting when played with anything but a touch screen. As it is now the price is too much, but if Rovio had made Angry Birds available on Steam and included achievements, leaderboards and Steam cloud support it may have been a reasonable price.

Finnish Birds From Rio only Found on Amazon in the US?
Rovio’s fifth mistake was the decision to release Angry Birds Rio exclusively on the just released Amazon Appstore. When I heard the news I went and setup an account as well as a one click payment to my credit card. I then downloaded the app to my phone and launched it looking for Angry Birds Rio. I clicked on the get app button below only to be greeted with ‘The Amazon Appstore for Android is not yet available in your region‘.  After Googling Amazon’s Appstore availability it appears it’s only available in the US. It’s rather odd that a Finnish company would choose to limit their game only to people in the the US.

Conclusion
It appears that Rovio’s bottom line is to milk Angry Birds for all it’s worth. They will go as far as taking millions of dollars from Amazon and locking out the majority of Angry Birds fans around the world just to line their pocket books. It’s for all these reasons that I think Rovio is run by a bunch of daft cocks.

I have been keeping an eye on a couple arcade racers on iOS and have been waiting for an Android port. The two games I have been looking forward to are Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and Asphalt 6 Adrenaline and the latter was the first to hit Android. My current favorite arcade racer on Android is the games prequel, Asphalt 5. So I was very happy to see Asphalt listed on Gameloft’s site ready to buy for compatible Android devices. Unfortunately this game was pulled from the oven a bit too early and has a few major issues that need fixing before I can recommend this game.

The first issue is the storage requirements. While the game only takes 18MB of internal storage it requires 900MB of the SD card and over 100MB of free RAM to run. Larger games are where were heading but close to a GB just for a phone game will turn many people off. The other issue seems to steam from its heavy use of RAM. The put it bluntly, the game can’t handle multitasking. So if you get a phone call, text or email and stop mid game to answer one of those you may find your game auto closed by the time your ready to play again. If it hasn’t forced closed, it’s very likely to have graphics glitches once loaded back in. In my first race back from answering a text I noticed I could see through the cars and the roads textures. I can tell you seeing buildings and other items through the road is very disorienting.

The other major issue seems to be completely random. Sometimes when I load the game the controls don’t work. When I start a race the car just veers to the right as soon as it starts. There is no way to fix this other than changing control scheme from tilt controls or quiting the game. I’ve loaded the game a few times without issue then it comes back again and it’s very frustrating. An issue is made worse by the inevitable long load times.

The other minor issue I have with the game is the not so stellar frame rate. I’m getting around 30fps which is more than playable but is noticeable and not as enjoyable as Need for Speed Shift and Asphalt 5′s super smooth 60fps. Considering my Galaxy S has one of the fastest GPU’s on a phone I can’t see this game running well at all on any other model.

I do expect Gameloft to continually update the game and will eventually fix all the issues. Asphalt 5 was a little slow and had some issues when it first came out and it works perfectly now. Within the next month or so I will do a review of the game and hopefully by then it will have at least most of the issues I mentioned ironed out. If not it’s back to waiting for Need for Speed Hot Pursuit.

*Update* Asphalt 6 has been updated and it fixes just about everything I had issues with. Hit the link the check out my review.