Author: Chris

I will never tell her she’s doing it wrong.

I love getting emails like this one:

No, I’m not being sarcastic. You see, this email came from an iPad/iPhone game called Pocket Frogs. In this game you breed and nurture tiny frogs. You can feed them and race with them with the goal to create new generations of offspring with new combinations of colors and designs. To encourage new users the developers have a messaging feature baked in. You can message your friends to let them know about the app in hopes they’ll download it.

So why do I love emails like this? Because they’re from my daughter. At the ripe old age of five, she’s discovered how to use the in-game messaging – she taps on the frog, then the “Share”, then “Email” and sends a message to my name, stored in her Grandmother’s iPad.

So while I’m staring at code, sitting in a meeting or editing video for 8 hours a day, my daughter sometimes thinks about sending her newest frog to her old man. I’ll never tell her she’s doing it wrong.

The Speed of Things

First, a prediction. This generation of hand-held consoles will be the last.1

How can the multi-year spans between console releases compare to the yearly improvements of devices like the iPhone and iPad? Apple claims that the iPad 2 is 9x more powerful than it’s predecessor. In benchmark testing Anandtech confirms – yeah pretty much.

While it’s early in the life of both the iPhone and iPad, it’s hard to imagine that future incarnations would not continue this increase in graphical prowess.2

Year after year the iOS devices continue to improve while companies like Sony and Nintendo are in a cycle of releasing a device and then supporting it for a few years. The DS was released in 2004 and just this month is being replaced by its successor, the 3DS. The PSP has also been around a while with an original release in 2005. Its successor, the Next Generation Portable or NGP, is planned for a late 2011 release.3

According to this article from Business Insider the iPad 2 is “equal to NGP in terms of raw graphical horsepower”. Wait, that can’t be right. Sony’s much heralded next-generation portable that won’t be released until November is only equal to a device that is in consumer’s hands right now?

I’m not trying to over-emphasize graphics, there are many other factors when it comes to an enjoyable gaming experience. You can ding the iPad for lack of physical controls or the DS for not having many mature games. While smart intelligent readers such as yourself realize this, there are tons of consoles bought due to graphical fidelity over gameplay or library selection.

—

The genesis of this post came to me while laying in bed this evening. I was playing Real Racing 2 on my iPhone 3GS and was struck by a few things. 1) How well this game looked on a 2-year-old phone. 2) How smoothly it ran – no stuttering and load times were all but nonexistent. 3) How well the controls worked on a device without buttons.4

Next to me were a Nintendo DS and a Sony PSP, both loaded with a few top-notch games. Yet, here I was playing a racing game on my cell phone – a game that was about $25 cheaper than similar titles on its console brethren.

So the iPad 2 is as fast as the NGP, which won’t ship for another 9 months and the old cycle of developing a console and waiting a few years to improve is dead. Or dying. Develop, a website about game development noted that next-gen handheld console budgets have tripled. How much are the games going to cost? $50!?

I’ve been able to play the same games over the last 4 generations of iOS devices with out a hitch. In some cases the games are even improved on newer hardware. Meanwhile DS games are fuzzy on the new 3DS and all of my UMD games for the PSP will have to be re-purchased when the NGP is released. :-/

From one perspective, not only are the graphics a huge win, but also the financial and vitality aspects of this new breed of gaming devices.

Photo by sneeu – Licensed under Creative Commons

Top 10 Songs for 2010

It’s about time that I belabor you with my musical likings from the last year.

 

Top 10 songs5 added to my iTunes library for 2010.

  1. Daylight – Matt & Kim – Grand
  2. Intro – The xx – xx
  3. Animus Vox – The Glitch Mob – Drink the Sea
  4. Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ – Hanson – Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’6
  5. Good Ol’ Fashion Nightmare – Matt & Kim – Grand
  6. Difficult – Uffie – Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans
  7. Home – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
  8. Colors – April Smith & The Great Picture Show – Songs For A Sinking Ship
  9. I Hope I Become A Ghost – The Deadly Syndrome – The Ortolan7
  10. Right As Rain – Adele – 19

 

Top 10 released in 2010

  1. Animus Vox – The Glitch Mob – Drink the Sea
  2. Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’ – Hanson – Thinking ‘Bout Somethin’
  3. Difficult – Uffie – Sex Dreams and Denim Jeans
  4. Colors – April Smith & The Great Picture Show – Songs For A Sinking Ship
  5. Rill Rill – Sleigh Bells – Treats
  6. Horchata – Vampire Weekend – Contra
  7. Bombay – El Guincho – Pop Negro8
  8. The Grid – Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy
  9. The Game Has Changed – Daft Punk – Tron: Legacy
  10. If You Think You Need Some Lovin – Pomplamoose – 3 New Songs Woot!


Here’s my lists from 2006, 2008 and 2009 if you’re interested. You can see what else I’m currently listening to on Last.fm.

Everything is Great on the Internet

After posting about why the Internet makes me feel like an idiot my friend Tim had this to add:

Tim: Did you read the slate article I shared re: Facebook makes you sad?

Chris: I have it in the queue.

Tim: I think that goes in to your blog post, if tangentially.

Tim: Everyone is cool on the Internet.

Chris: Exactly.

Tim: No one is sad or imperfect or boring or lethargic.

Tim: Because it is filtered reality.

I didn’t think about this factor when writing the aforementioned post, but man Tim hits the nail on the head.