7th time the charm

by Matt | Jun 3, 2005 | Tech

I started this post about 6 times already, most of it mundane and stupid so I quit. The result of which is I now have a few different things to mention but that I don’t want to discuss any of them in great detail. I probably will anyways, such is the nature of the beast.

As some (none) of you might have heard, Battlefield 2 has gone gold. It’s ship date is the 21st. I’ve had my preorder for quite sometime now. The DVD special edition with bonus usb headset will be on its way soon. I can’t say I’m excited because that wouldn’t be doing it justice. It’s already gotten E3 Game of the Year by about 4 different media outlets. From everything I’ve read, watched, studied about it, it will truely be a great step in gaming history. If any of you can break yourselves away from World of Warcraft for 30 seconds, I urge you to at least try the demo, which will be out next week.

I can’t even put into words the number of cool things involved in this game. Hell, I couldn’t even do that for the original. If you’ve NEVER played any of this and I’m just rambling, indulge me for just one brief second…

You, and 60 of your closest friends, on dynamically changing terrain, can do a-n-y-t-h-i-n-g… You can grab a gun (from on of 8 classes), and seek out the enemy on foot. You can take control of a 40 ton Abrams M1 battle tank and level the town. You can jump into one of the attack helicopters and rain hellfire missles down apon unsuspecting ground troops. You can take a JSF and Mig jet and dog fight with fully interactive cockpits. Alternatively, you can support anyone else doing any of the above. You can be an engineer and repair damaged tanks, you can be a medic and heal wounded soldiers, you can be heavy assault class and give ammo to all your friends. You can blow up bridge with c4 as a special ops class, you can repair/rebuild them as the engineer. This goes way beyond normal “class” system game play. Each division has a specific roll to play (if they choose to) and you team can take advantage of these to win. Or, conversely, you can take up a gun and just shoot other people, which is equally fun. Battlefield 1942 was revolutionary in the way that you could choose what you wanted to do. You weren’t stuck on foot or in a vehicle and you weren’t limited to a single strategy to win. Deathmatch this is not. Battlefield 2 takes all that “total interactivity” and adds beautiful graphics, a serious kick ass physics engine, more options for every option, and most importantly, a complete sense of teamwork, the thing most online game lack completely.

Have you played CS (or CS:S) and it’s a one man show? “That guy” has a score of 1000 and everyone is kinda just running at each other guns blasing. That is the opposite of BF2. The basic game is “conquest”, or “control and hold” would be more accurate. Capture points are scattered high and low and you must control them to make the other team “lose tickets” or points. When the tickets reach 0, you lose. You can’t take a control point by yourself (at least not easily), which makes some sort of team interaction a must. Even if it’s just “run guns blazing” in a group, atleast you’re doing it with other people.

Anyway, it’s going to rock. I really can’t explain it any more than that. I’ll be playing it, and probably talking about it, for the next few years. I hope to at least see some of you on the battlefield. You don’t have to stay long if you don’t like it. To each their own.

So… battlefield leads me to my team and that leads me to Nagle.

Nagle has been working hard on a new set of logos for me and my crew. I came up with the basic idea and he ran with it. They’re turning out fantastic and I’m very excited about them. Watch this space shortly (probably next week) for a preview of what I’m talking about. I certainly appreciate all his hard work. The look really kick ass. Thanks Nagle.

That’s about all I’ve got time for, Lauren and I are hanging out with Ashley and some friends tonight.

Out.

That seals it

by Matt | May 3, 2005 | Tech

And not really in a good way…

My boss gave me a “gift card” (translation: promo, 1st month free thingy) for Dish Network. They’ve lowered their prices since the last time I took a look at my options for satalite TV so I thought I’d take another look. They have a “top 60” channel package for $24 which has nearly everything I want. Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, ESPN, etc. It doesn’t have G4/TechTV but since they mergered that station has been crap anyway. It also includes the local stations. Now, mentioned (but not discussed) in the brocure is the option for sports packages at $5.99/month extra. $6 isn’t bad if I can add NESN to my package, so I call.

I ask about the basic package, what it includes and doesn’t include as well as installation, how many TVs I get hooked up, that sort of thing. Then I ask about sports. Apparently I hit some sort of cultural barrier when I said the word “NESN” because the lady got all confused. So I rephrased. I said “is it possible for me, being in Houston TX, to get a sports channel from Boston?” The answer was “Yes, you could get the MidWest package and watch MidWest Fox”.

???

“Ok, let me try this another way… I live in Texas, in the south. I’m from Boston, in the north. I’d like to watch baseball, from Boston, the Boston Red Sox. Is that possible?”

“Yes, you could get our Major League Package with your service”

“Ok, and that would be all the games, for all the teams? How much is that?”

“It would only be $169 for the first half of the season”

*cough*

“$169? What about the rest of the season?”

“$249… but it would be better than the single station you mentioned”

“Lets go back to that station for a second… is it possible to even get it?”

“It is, but it would be blacked out”

“Huh?”

“Since you’re not in the local market, you could get the station, but all the games would be subject to blackouts.”

“Ah, I see… well, thanks for your time….” *hangs up quickly*

So, let me get this strait. I could physically get NESN, but I couldn’t watch any games because I’m not in New England? If I was IN NewEngland, I wouldn’t have to try and get NESN extra would I ?!?!?! That’s the whole damn point. I want to watch sports I can’t watch locally. But I can’t, because the MBL tv-rights suck wang.

Arg.

Sidekick II – Second Impressions

by Matt | Mar 30, 2005 | Tech

After delving deep into the phone once it was activated (which actually only took 2 hours instead of the 48 it mentions), there’s quite a few features that are both great and confusing at the same time. With a little practice, I was using the phone like a pro by dinner time. The learning curve is really flat lined and once you get the hang of how one app works, the other all work similarly. So, what are the pros and cons of this thing… well, I’ll tell you.

Pros:
– On initial startup and when the phone rings, the multi colored LEDs under the D-Pad go nuts and produce a trippy AND customization light show. I have mine set to glow, HAL9000 like, pulsing in and out of reds and oranges.

– The scroll wheel is your friend. The little wheel on the right is the most important button on the phone, with one hand you can do anything. I like that.

– The keyboard is easy to use. Even my big meat hook thumbs can get in there and hit the right keys 99% of the time.

– Security in the phone of an innovative “combonation lock” as well as a password for more sensative data.

– Multiple sound levels without going to a menu. The volume buttons used for a phone call double as switches to change the sound levels of the device. Also, the phone has like 10 customizable levels from “extreme maximum loud” to “the led flashes and the phone is silent”.

– Email and AIM are easy to set up and use. Plus, a free email account tied directly to the phone doesn’t hurt.

– Email can support multiple formats (pop, imap, exchange, etc) as well as different levels of SSH!

– Once configured, speed dial is accessable without opening the keyboard through the use of the green “phone” button and the scroll wheel.

– Calandar, Notes and ToDo list are syncable to your computer and are actually handy apps.

– The “ring” menu concept is nicely executed and well designed. You can’t exactly get lost in it.

– Sound quality of the phone is excellent and the speaker phone setting is loud and clear.

Those are some of the highlights. There’s other little things that I like, but these are what come to mind. Now, there are a few things I think they can improve on (or change all together)…

Cons:

– To unlock the phone takes two buttons pushed nearly simultaneously, meaning you need two hands. Not that easy for one handed use.

– The power button is really un-sensative. You’ve got to REALLY push on it to turn the phone on/off.

– The ringtones are few and far between and mostly crappy. Anything outside of the phones defaults you have to pay for ($1.99 per tone) and 99% of them are rap, r&b or soul. There’s a few under the “alternative” and “rock” categories I might use, but I don’t want to pay $1.99 to have my phone shout “We’re on the hiiiiiighway to hell!” everytime it rings.

– It comes with 1 (!) game and it’s an astroids clone. Pathetic. There’s no bejeweled clone and all the others, like the most pathetic version of Battleship I’ve ever seen, cost $5.99 each.

– Email is displayed as folders (inbox, saved, drafts, sent and trash), which is nice, but there’s no way to go strait to your inbox for example. There’s also no way to hide the unused folders (drafts?) and/or folders you don’t use (I don’t save “sent” email). Why should I have to scroll through those to get at my inbox?

– There were no instructions on how to import SIM card phone numbers. It was a feature burried about 5 menus deep. And when it did import them, it imported things like “Chip Cell” as “Cell, Chip” in all caps with the number in the wrong field. I had to retype half my imported numbers.

– In the phone book, you can assign photos to your callers… which is nice… except you can’t import photos. So, you have to have a photo of the person on your phone, taken with your phones camera. That wouldn’t be a problem except the phone only holds 36 photos and you can have 2000 contacts in your phone book. Also, if you want to use pictures for your contacts, you can’t delete them. Meaning, if you have 30 people with photo contacts, you only have 6 pictures left on your camera at all times. Very Weak. The alternative are the built in “buddy icon-ish” cartoon characters. They are perhaps the gayist anime icons ever.

– The web browser is slow. Useable, but slow. The phone downloads the page and then transforms it into a readable and properly formatted size for the sidekick. That’s neat, but it takes a minute or two each time. Bookmarks become very important so you can skip directly to what you need.

– The camera is pretty sad. The color sucks, it’s a very low resolution and it can’t take a picture without direct sunlight to save it’s life.

So, there you have it. Good phone, good email and phone features, it’s just a little weak on the “extras” and if you’re buying a phone like this, it’s really the extras that are supposed to make it or break it right? Well, for me it’s perfect. Just the right blend of what I need with a few extras to make it fun to use. I won’t be taking photos like crazy, but email and text messages will fly.

Oh, and if you want to send me an email directly to the phone, you can send it to my usually nickname at tmail dot com. If you can’t figure out what my usually nickname is, I probably shouldn’t be telling you.

Matt out.

SideKick II – First impressions

by Matt | Mar 29, 2005 | Tech

Well, will wonders never cease. Apparently T-Mobile came through. I guess shipments got delayed because of the holiday weekend. The tracking numbers show that they were delivered yesterday. I stand corrected.

So, the instant I caught sight of the DHL package on the doorstep I immediatly ripped it open. Inside were three boxes, two containing my boss’ new V600’s and a slightly larger one with my Sidekick II in it. I figured I’d give everybody a run down of the phone, from the outside at least, while I wait for it to charge. The manual suggests 4+ hours of charging, so when I get home I’ll turn it on and play with all the features. I’ll give a full review tomorrow once I’ve had a chance to play with it more. For now, it’ll just be my first impressions. Click the thumbnails to see the larger images.

First off, after getting through the packing peanuts and whatnot, the first thing we find is a standard product box, the kind you’d get it you purchased the phone from a store. The box is decorated in “urban flava” to appear hip to the youngins.

Inside the box are the standard assortment of ads and flyers for other crap you don’t need along with the phone and its components. Included with the SideKick II is a hands-free earbud (I refuse to call it a “headset” unless it covers both ears) cord, a standard charger, the phone itself…

…a nifty leather pouch with beltclip (it actually feels sturdy and useable)

…and more manuals and documentation than the space shuttle.

I was impressed with the feel and weight of the phone right off. It feels sturdy and well built, not flimsy and plastic like the Treo I’ve held.

It’s also not a whole lot bigger than my pervious phone, the Nokia 3390.

Sliding the screen up with your thumb reveals the haralded qwerty keyboard. The buttons are the small “chicklet gun” type and appear to be sealed from the elements and grim. They have a nice tactile feel and your hands rest easily on either side for perfect “thumb typing”.

Lastly, on the back we have the very large speaker phone, the camera lens (right most circle), the flash (left) and mini-mirror for taking self portraits (middle).

There you have it. After the Sidekick gets a good full charge I’ll pop in my sim card and call customer support to activate the phone. Hopefully that shouldn’t take too long. After that I’ll have to check out what MegaTones and HifiTones are available for it. From all the message boards I’ve seen, the Sidekick is aimed directly at the urban black teenage market and apparently so are all the wallpapers and ringtones. Hopefully there’s something other than rap available. I wasn’t expecting MegaTone support (actual clips of music), I thought I was stuck with HiFiTones (instrumental pieces of the same music). That was an unexpected surprise. Also, from the press release last month from Danger, they’ve gotten certified as a Java platform by Sun and will be rolling out a new OS via the network later this summer. It’ll be downloaded automatically. It’s supposed to open the platform up a bit and lead to more games, programs and a wider variety of compatable media (ringtones and screensavers, etc). As it stands now, without hacking it you’re limited to whats in the “pay for download” menu on the phone itself.

We’ll see how long Matt keeps his unhacked… bets range from “he hasn’t done it already?” to “by the end of the week”. 🙂