iPhone - Apocalypse Now

So, the word is out. iPhone.



3,5" 480x320 touchscreen, 4-8GB storage, music-video-photo, WiFi - Bluetooth - internet, 3G cellphone with 2MP camera, GPS

It's basically a PSP (black styling, large display, multimedia) - NDS/PDA (touchscreen) - cellphone - Wifi/Bluetooth hybrid, and is actually not that revolutionary at all. However, the fact that this got Steve Jobs' magic touch and the wide iPod demographic (geeks, girls, normal people) will utterly devastate cellphone and handheld companies, like Nokia, who have been pushing multimedia phones with only marginal success amongst cellphone aficionados and business customers.

Another asset will be that iPhone will have access to a properly equipped content management system (iTunes), so that all that multimedia potential actually will be known and used (as opposed to 3G phones and PSP).

The only thing I can think of this thing lacks, is gaming and homebrew access. However, both of which will be resolved soon after the launch by hordes of iPod hackers and fanboys, I think.

Prices are announced to be between $ 500 and $600. Satisfying your brand-snob-and- geek-instinct comes as a huge, free extra.

Why PC pwns PS3 -- part 2

PS3 has arrived on Japanese and American shores. Lines of frienzied users have braved the night to get their grubby mitts on the latest black box of Sony.


After reading the initial specs, I was willing to do this. Now, I just pity the fools. Picture courtesy of Dannychoo.com

Initial letdowns are inherent to any console (XBOX360 disc scratching, PSP/NDS dead pixels,..) and the PS3 doesn't dodge this bullet either. There are a number of defects amongst launch units, these being the most important:

Incomplete backwards compatibility for PS1/PS2
Scattered reports of overheating issues
HDMI failure
Broken/unsupported upscaling for DVD, BD and PS1/PS2

The latter is of course a huge bummer. PS3 is not able to upscale 480p DVD movies or PS1/PS2 games to 720p, 1080i or 1080p. FYI, for all pc users out there: 480p is 640x480 or 720x480 (depending on aspect ratio). 720p is 1280x720, a resolution supported by the majority of recent flatpanel televisions. 1080i is 1920x1080 interlaced, with the actual vertical line count being 540 pixels, and lastly there is 1080p, or 1920x1080. P stands for progressive: something unusual for TV sets, but common for all pc monitors.

This all means that your shiny, $600 PS3 will still make your entire DVD collection and your PS1/PS2 stock look lame on that fancy $2000 HDTV you bought. Of course, this is rather logical, the pc can't magically add pixels or detail to lower resolution video material either. But because Sony had always implied that the PS3 could, it's still a bummer.

What's worse, PS3 games, or at least the launch titles, will have resolution issues as well. The majority of these games are programmed to run on 720p. Ok, no problem you'd say. The problem is that many older generation HDTVs (amongst which many plasma and rearprojection televisions) support 1080i rather than 720p. And here's the booboo: PS3 doesn't scale from 720p to 1080i. What happens is that the shiny new launch games will run in..480p. Read: PS2 resolutions. I can imagine people getting a tad infuriated after having spent hundreds of dollars/euros on stuff (PS3, tv,..) and then being swindled like this.

Ultimately, this is probably a driver (or in console terms: "firmware") issue. RSX (nVidia's PS3 graphics chip) probably has an early set of drivers, in which resolution switching and compatibility with tv sets isn't properly implemented yet. In the worst case scenario, RSX may simply not be able to switch resolutions, and then people are really screwed over. It's like a Ferrari being forced to look like a Datsun.


A Datsun Cherry. Yes, it's this ugly.

The moral of this entire charade? For the same price, you get a GeForce 8800 GTX, which delivers faster, better and fully scalable graphics for a better platform (ie, the PC). You don't have to deal with constant letdowns, ignorant consumer hotlines ("Did you try to turn your console on and off?") or obnoxious forums full of fanboys ("Hah, Wii pwn0rsR0x0rs yoo sOnY bi***es"). If you want a different resolution, simply adjust it in Windows/Vista. If you want to play an older game, there's no fuss or worrying about "backwards compatibility" (or at least it's fixable with easy solutions). In short, you simply plug things in and play. And that's what it's all about, right?


PS3 killer

Why PC pwns PS3

I've always been a PC gamer. Yes I own both a PSP and a PS2, and plan on buying a PS3. But I started off with a 80286 and have been a loyal PC enthusiast for as long as I can remember. I remember when I played Flight Simulator on my dad's lap, learned English because of the CD-ROM talkie versions of Day of the Tentacle and Sam & Max Hit the Road, spent hours playing 4 hour, dialup FFA Starcraft games (in which Racemaniac nuked me several times, and where backstabbing was hideously frequent) and was scared to death when that first headcrab jumped me in Half-Life. So many memories.

Starcraft. Starcraft..just saying it hits me with waves of nostalgia

Okay, I admit, PSP is the single best portable multimedia device ever (screw you, iPod bi***es) and PS2-3 has Final Fantasy (omg FFXIII).

Anime-faced girl elf with gunblade in Final Fantasy? Winner.

But right at the launch of PS3, nVidia and Intel come out with stuff that instantly debunk the XBOX360 and PS3 "next-gen" label. Pff, next-gen. PC invented that word! Next-gen graphics card: makes sense. Next-gen Nintendo? That's just Mario or Zelda looking better and you monkeying with a remote in front of a TV. But I'm missing my point.

The 8800 GTS/GTX are the two new graphics cards of nVidia, and the first to implement DirectX 10. This is the new API (application programming interface) of Vista, Microsoft's new reason to rob you of your Christmas bonus. While I won't delve into the technicalities of it (check here: http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/11/08/geforce_8800/index.html), it means that future games will look better, and your current games will run smoother than reality in HD resolutions (1920x1440). Because one picture says more than a thousand words, here's a pic:

PS3 next-gen, my a**

Adrianne Curry ("Who'll be America's Next Supermodel") will grace nVidia's latest techdemo. Yes she's pretty hot. Yes this is a real-time render. Yes, I've already used half a box of tissues to dispense of drool (the other half is for..other usages).

Intel threw its bomb a few months ago, with the Core2Duo. Shedding the mistakes of the Pentium D series, they've integrated Centrino's mobile platform into their desktop line and strapped some afterburners on its back for fun. Ghz-wise, it's a step back. The midrange 6600 is 2.4 Ghz, but it's 100-250% faster than my (very old) P4 2.6, especially in games and video. Last spring, Apple decided to finally get real and get Intel processors. Perhaps Core2Duo blew them away.

Due to the AGP/PCI-X hoax, I'm reasonably screwed. I'll need to switch cpu, vga, motherboard ànd memory. But if spent wisely, I can get a killer system for 1000 eur - $ 1350. And ultimately, this is an alley I've been ever since I started playing on/using my pc, or even technology in general. The true bottleneck is not pixel pipelines, not transistor-amount, even not the IQ of the capi-de-tutti-capi egghead at the processor plant. It's the size of ones wallet.

Zip Archive Horror

Compressed archives..they've been around since the dawn of the pc age. I still remember that "Games" floppy disk my dad made me. It had a stunning 3 games on them: 2 Accolade racers and King's Quest, which I never played due to the fact that virtual death scared me. They were packed in a zip format, to fit the disk. No problem, since my daddy was a stern teacher and I was a sharp kid.

Until the day that (due partly to the infinite reliability of floppies) one of the zips corrupted. A feeling of disgust, dismay, disappointment and plain destructive urges towards anything in sight already got the best of me at such an early age. My stuffed animals still call that day "Tuesday, Bloody Tuesday".

As time went by, so did everything change in computerland. Except for compressed archives. People still have the uncontrollable urge to squeeze data in an as small as possible size. In a time where you can get external HDs with pocket change; eurekas, hurrahs and general feelings of well-being still accompany data compression.

The reason for this long rant? A corrupted compressed archive download. Of course. 4 files, totaling 720 mb and WinRar not knowing which file is corrupt. Employing all my 1337 computer skills built up by years of negating Windows operating systems, I tried shareware decompressors (btw, WinZip is no longer free), corruption fixers, tried renaming the files to rar - r01 - etc...All to no avail. I then tried redownloading the lot, which I thoroughly hate, and of course, again without result.

Getting close to deleting the blasted files due to 450GB absolutely stuffed with anime and DVD-size TV recordings (World Cup and Tour de France, both with a sour aftertaste but important enough to be kept), I tried consulting Google in a last ditch attempt, hoping that Larry Page and Sergey Brin's algorithms would rescue me. And so did it transgress. Gogole led me to 7-zip. And the damn thing decompressed flawlessly.

So to conclude. Got a nasty multiple file archive that's giving you the finger? Stick to it, and you'll eventually find a key that fits the lock. Don't redownload unless you're 100% sure you've got a corrupted file. Unless you have unlimited T1 access. Or if Google didn't exist.