The New XBox Experience (NXE) is nigh...

As previously announced, XBox Live is currently down and undergoing (what I imagine) hardcore maintenance/upgrading session. Not to worry however this is only for the next 24 hours and is all for the greater good.

Here's to re-inventing the XBox 360,

Cheers.

The Shady Geek

I've been a busy bee

After a nice week of doing nothing I've posted 2 new video's up on my YouTube channel. One is a response to David 'TheCreativeOne' DiFranco's back to school question and the other is an infamous update vid with smaller tech related stories crammed into one for your viewing pleasure!

Enjoy

Shady Update 1:


RE: What classes are you taking in fall 2008?


The Shady Geek

New Macbooks? I can't decide...

With all this talk about Apple's new line of Macbooks and a bunch of circulating fake pictures to accomodate them, I do feel rather excited simply because it's got me thinking. What if Apple did create the smaller Macbook's out of Aluminium to match the rest of their product range? What if the new Macbook Pro has a glass screen-like trackpad? Blu-Ray drives? Tapered edges? These are all of the things that cross our minds when (in my eyes) the most creative company in the world gets their design team cracking.

Only time will tell, all I can say is that I almost bought myself a Macbook Pro as opposed to my new iMac and I'm glad I didn't. After utilising all of that power on my iMac I've repeatedly asked myself do I want all that gloriousness on a portable? I certaintly don't think I'd be pushing it to it's extremes. The truth... as a power user I do but at the extra cost I probably dont actually need it but I wasnt too keen on the white plastic on the current Macbooks. If Apple wrap them in the nice sturdy aluminium (which I think they will to keep consistency with their other products) then I will glady settle for a souped up Macbook.

Bring on the innovation (and empty wallets!).

The Shady Geek

Microsoft Ad's - Phase II

Ok so here's the story, after just 2 adverts from Bill and Jerry Microsoft have scrapped the entire project and Jerry gets to walk home with $10 million for a few days work, pretty decent if you ask me. Now it seems that Microsoft have moved onto their second wave of ad's focusing more on a message rather than the subliminals that we've all been used to from them.

The new ad takes Mr. 'I'm A PC' (look-alike) from the Apple switcher ad's (and uses him to start showing a positive point about the PC market. Clearly showing diversity from all extremes is excellent and kind of puts Apple in their place if you ask me about who's boss (and who pretty much owns the PC market!).

I think the ad is a great comeback and could potentially clear the path for them to start producing more of them actually focusing on products.

Check out my YouTube discussion about this for my full thoughts:





1st Ad:




2nd Ad:



3rd Ad:


The Shady Geek

I'm not gone

Hey guys, I know I haven't posted anything in the past week, it's just that I've been up to my neck with personal stuff thats pretty much running my life right now, but I am aware of the new iTunes, Let's Rock event results, Jerry Seinfeld getting fired etc. I'm still on top of it, so once all is said and done I'll be posting up again. Only a matter of days now.

Cheers

The Shady Geek

The Spores are here!

Ever since Spore Origins was introduced at the iPhone roadmap event back in July I eagerly anticipated it. It was yesterday that it slipped into the App Store under the radar. So low-key that I only heard about it's release on MacRumors. There was no front page feature or anything of the sort in the App Store about it. It wasnt for a few hours after the US release did the UK one become available. But once it did I knew it was going to be a big one. I was right, 80MB's right to be precise so I was glad to leave it to download over night while I got a few hours kip.

To sum it up, your in control of a particle (spore) like creature to begin with, but as the game progresses you earn your stripes by eating everything that is smaller than you and "upgrading" your creation with new senses such as eyes, pinchers, shields and basically anything to help the little fellow along its way. Sounds simple, and for the first few levels it is until the larger enemies are introduced. I became accustomed to the iPhone's accelerometer controls very quickly and believe that these are the types of games that shine and show the iPhone's unprecedented abilities.

£5.99 (UK) / $9.99 (US)



The full review can be seen here on my YouTube channel, so be sure to check it out

Shady Geek

Microsoft's BACK...Sort of

When watching an advertisement for the first time I really try to take things with an open mind and try to see the message behind it, in this case I feel a little different. Now bare in mind I'm a new-born Mac switcher so my 15+ years of computing have all been based around Windows up until a month ago, and as much as I'm fed up with windows I don't hate Microsoft. In fact I would love to see Microsoft come out with an operating system that did everything that they say it can do plus more, yet have the stability of a hundred horses! Also with Windows 7 just around the corner now would seem a great time to gain the public's trust and lightly start promoting it.

But I'm a bit skeptical. I've just watched the new ad featuring Jerry Seinfeld (who is earning a whopping $10 million for his presence) and came away thinking that Microsoft just wanted to make a humourous short film rather than to dictate something substantial enough to actually make you feel good as to what Microsoft is doing.

I wont go on too much about it because I've already aired this out on my latest YouTube video (which can be seen here.)

So take a look for yourselves and feel free to leave a comment either here or on my YouTube page.



Shady Geek

2.0 or second attempt?

One of the first apps I downloaded when the App Store launched for the iPhone was Facebook.

Excited as I was to see that there was finally a native application that would take advantage of all of the lovelies that Steve Jobs promised us in the 2.0 firmware, I felt let down and in some ways betrayed. Why you may ask. Well quite simply because the native app is...how do I say this...Crap! So many features were missing, to the extent that the web-app version of Facebook was far superior and correct me if im wrong but native apps were supposed to do what web apps couldnt, hence the raving and ranting that Apple made about the SDK.


I finally feel that my internal betrayal has been made better by reading that Facebook 2.0 would be launched some time soon.

What does this mean?

Well...you can finally view an informative yet useful home screen that actually shows profile updates, picture uploads, who broke up with who, along with the 'as-seen-before' status updates. A completely redesigned application that looks as good as it sounds. I can hardly wait.

I am a Facebook junkie, and this is what I need.

Shady Geek

(screenshot courtesy of Facebook)

More than just chrome...

Right, so I've just had half a day to test and play about with Google's new web browser called Chrome. Without trying to make this sound too much like a review I'll just say this...WOW!

How can a Beta browser be this good? It really is nice to see that there is still some decent development going on out there.

Now this isn't like the other browsers out there; firstly the search and address bar are one, thats right...it took me a while to figure that out, so kudos to Google for that. Secondly the tabbed style browsing is slightly different. Where most browsers tend to keep tabs stored under the address bar, Chrome has placed them at the very top of the screen, so far up that there is no title bar for the window itself! Do I like it though? To be honest I dont know whether I like it better or not, but the fact that it hasn't bugged or annoyed me is good, so technically I should like it but maybe because it isnt a "wow" feature, I wont give it a "wow" applause.

Other than that it's very fast, fluid and based on Safari's open sourced webkit engine. So don't delay and try today!

It can be downloaded at: http://www.google.com/chrome.

If Google can pull this off i'll be an instant switcher (and I've only just switched to Firefox 3!)

Shady Geek

It starts...

Hey guys, 

Everybody is doing this whole blogging thing so I thought i'd get in on the action and create my own. 

In case you don't already know, I've just started my own YouTube channel which is another reason as to why I started this blog, mainly to compliment the videos and to post minor topics which don't necessarily require the need of posting a full blown video. This isn't me saying i'm cutting them down (even though I've just started, because I love making them), it just means I'll have more space to get my thoughts out. 

Anyways I wont make this too long because nobody likes reading a novel online, but instead thanks for taking the time to check out my blog, and dont forget to subscribe or at least check out my videos http://www.youtube.com/shadyarmik. 

Let the posting begin

Shady Geek