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DoorOfKukondu observes: Also kinda annoyed that the BBC hasn’t done a news app. So, I emailed a couple of people I know who work in the BBC. None of them have any influence in that area but they may know someone who might know someone. I’m surprised the BBC hasn’t done a dedicated RSS BBC … Continue reading “BBC iPhone app? No? Odd!”
DoorOfKukondu observes:
Also kinda annoyed that the BBC hasn’t done a news app.
So, I emailed a couple of people I know who work in the BBC. None of them have any influence in that area but they may know someone who might know someone.
I’m surprised the BBC hasn’t done a dedicated RSS BBC News app. Silly.
Mobile Monday this month was on the subject of Mobile Broadcast TV. This is, for the most part, the reception of broadcast ‘linear’ television on mobile devices. For example, Nokia’s recent N96 can receive DVB-H mobile television. Which sounds fantastic until you realise that there are multiple competing standards for mobile television and a receiver … Continue reading “This week.”
Mobile Monday this month was on the subject of Mobile Broadcast TV. This is, for the most part, the reception of broadcast ‘linear’ television on mobile devices. For example, Nokia’s recent N96 can receive DVB-H mobile television. Which sounds fantastic until you realise that there are multiple competing standards for mobile television and a receiver that works great in one country but not at all in another. And in many countries, there’s no service at all. It reminds me of the bad old days when the web only worked on one sort of computer or perhaps as a continuation of region encoding – there needs to be consolidation of open standards. Mobile TV is in the dark ages and is heading further into the cave. It needs a kick up the arse. Frankly, if they can’t agree then I’m all for the replacement with streamed non-linear video.
Yesterday I attended the launch of the MATRIX Report. Arlene Foster, MLA and Minister for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment was accepted the report at the launch:
“If planning for stability and growth is important at times of economic success it is vital at times of economic slowdown. Right now we need forward thinking and innovative future planning which this MATRIX report represents.”
Exactly right – the instinct, and the behaviour shown by the masses of stock dealers out there, is to batten down the hatches, to pull money out of the market. But where are you going to put it? Banks? You need to do something with it – my vote is to innovate out of a downturn.
Today I met with Errol Maxwell of Propertypal. Errol and I have never met though we’ve crossed paths a few times over the years (which is pretty typical for Northern Ireland). Propertypal is a very intriguing competitor for the big property web sites with a bevy of features designed to take the ‘effort’ out of maintaining estate agent properties. Why now when the property market is performing poorly? Easy – estate agents will have to work hard for every sale and a tool like Propertypal will take a lot of the effort and administration out of it. Propertypal will be profiled on the Digital Circle web site in the next couple of weeks.
Been a dry spell (in creative terms) recently. Not that I haven’t been scribbling down ideas but not many of them have been making it to the final product or even beyond the initial drafts. Obviously the work being done with Infurious makes me want to exercise my creativity but at the moment the focus … Continue reading “i am jack’s frustrated creativity”
Been a dry spell (in creative terms) recently. Not that I haven’t been scribbling down ideas but not many of them have been making it to the final product or even beyond the initial drafts. Obviously the work being done with Infurious makes me want to exercise my creativity but at the moment the focus is on comic creators who have made a name due to previously published work. This isn’t an elitist thing, it’s just that the demand for the Infurious Comic reader software has recently gone through the roof. I mean, read this. Paul writes the current Captain Britain comic for Marvel Comics and he’s got a several lifetimes worth of experience as a professional writer for comics, television and novels ( and yes, it would be great to see him on our main label.)
But most importantly, and I really think this is some sort of breakthrough, and something that kept making people go ooh and ahh all through the convention…
The oohs and ahhs (and P.J. got serious people from various serious organisations I shall not name coming over to have a look at his phone as word of mouth spread) were because this is the first comic project that I’ve seen that really takes advantage of the mobile form.
Being surrounded by creative folk (and talking to them seemingly daily) is just highlighting the fact that my creative blog (over at LateGaming) has not been touched in months. Why? Well, I’m totally wrapped up in the stuff I’m doing from day to day – I have two hobbies – one of which pays the bills. The other – well, it’s never going to pay the bills. And the other, well, I enjoy it just as much, it’s just time. Time.
So, I guess I’m going to have to make a concerted effort to be a little more creative. A little more focussed on that.
Comment spam is a pain in the butt – to the point that XCake.org ended up with over eight thousand lines of spammer links and crap because I allowed open comments. This overhead caused a huge load on my MySQL server and it affected performance elsewhere so, in the end, it had to go and … Continue reading “XCake.org is now back up.”
Comment spam is a pain in the butt – to the point that XCake.org ended up with over eight thousand lines of spammer links and crap because I allowed open comments. This overhead caused a huge load on my MySQL server and it affected performance elsewhere so, in the end, it had to go and for just under a month, xcake.org has been sitting idle, dead.
Until tonight.
Tonight I trimmed the Comment spam and removed every single comment. I also required a user to be logged in before they can comment. Smart, huh?
So what is XCake?
Well, I’ve covered it before so go have a look.
Okay, I’m a hundred percent sure you can do better than me with my big inhuman paddles for fingers. Anyone done better? (take a screenshot with a quick press of Power and Home buttons). We’ll hold a competition for the best colouring in soon on the Infurious and Blue Pilot Software web site. Watch that … Continue reading “EyeCandy #1 painting”
Okay, I’m a hundred percent sure you can do better than me with my big inhuman paddles for fingers.
Anyone done better? (take a screenshot with a quick press of Power and Home buttons).
We’ll hold a competition for the best colouring in soon on the Infurious and Blue Pilot Software web site. Watch that space!
Gareth at Hunky Doray writes about ‘ideas and implementation‘: There was an article a while ago about the value of ideas. And when I say value, the article basically said that ideas are worthless. An idea has no value until it is realised. This is no Platonic ideal we’re living in. Only the concrete has … Continue reading “An idea has no value until it is realised.”
Gareth at Hunky Doray writes about ‘ideas and implementation‘:
There was an article a while ago about the value of ideas. And when I say value, the article basically said that ideas are worthless. An idea has no value until it is realised. This is no Platonic ideal we’re living in. Only the concrete has value. There is no need for me to reiterate, but this is a blog, what else is it for? If you have an idea, get your head down and realise it. If you can’t do it, find someone who can. Just get the idea from you head and into a code editor window. Then get it out there. Don’t write about it. Don’t spend time thinking too much about it. Don’t ever think you’re the only person who has thought of it.
Gareth, just write your app and get it out there. If there’s already an app that does the same it proves two things.
I say the first thing because if there’s no product in that space then there’s usually a reason. Granted, we’re in the early days of the App Store so there will be some first timers but if someone else has done the product it shows there’s a recognised need.
I say the latter because you have the advantage of seeing what’s wrong and what’s right with their implementation. Take the plunge.
So, guys, it’s out. You can buy EyeCandy #1, The Masked Marshall in “Mah Pony Must be Punished” straight from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch. We’ve also bagged one video review from Sakura as well as a detailed review from her Dad. So what’s in the package. It’s an 8 page comic … Continue reading “EyeCandy “Masked Marshall” on the App Store.”
So, guys, it’s out. You can buy EyeCandy #1, The Masked Marshall in “Mah Pony Must be Punished” straight from the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch.
We’ve also bagged one video review from Sakura as well as a detailed review from her Dad.
So what’s in the package. It’s an 8 page comic with a bit of humour and great style. It’s also eight pages of colouring-in book with an etch-a-sketch style erase. You can take screenshots of the Comic and print them out for later colouring with pens/crayons. You can peel away the colours and inks with a simple swipe-down so that anyone interested in learning to draw can quickly copy the pencils there and get a neat tutorial in how to draw. Plus there’s a “toy” in the Extras section which shows the pony with googly eyes and makes up to 4 different neighing sounds when shaken. You can see all of this demo’ed on the Infurious web site and you can take it from me, it involves kids like no other game. It’s educational and, best of all, fun!
All this for 59p (or $0.99). We’d really like to hear what people think, what they’d prefer and whether they’d like to see something specific on the store.
And there’s more. It’s going to be monthly at first and we’ve got some top notch artists and writers who are producing content for the platform already so keep your eyes peeled!
The G1 (aka HTC Dream) is out and there’s a lot about it. The Dream is a sleek competitor to the iPhone weighing only 20% more and being only 30% thicker. The shape of the phone makes typing on the physical keys a little awkward but you’ll soon learn new muscle memory to get around … Continue reading “Android.”
The G1 (aka HTC Dream) is out and there’s a lot about it. The Dream is a sleek competitor to the iPhone weighing only 20% more and being only 30% thicker. The shape of the phone makes typing on the physical keys a little awkward but you’ll soon learn new muscle memory to get around that.
The G1 also only comes with a 1 GB memory card so once bought you’re going to have to supplement it’s internal memory with a different card. It supports up to 8 GB cards so you’ll not be plagued with trying to fill a 16 GB phone like you are with the high end iPhone.
In terms of software, you can download some apps from Google’s Android Market which is an analogue to Apple’s App Store though you can be assured that it won’t have the same annoying constraints that have kept the App Store free of low utility apps. At the moment, due to the e-commerce section being unavailable, the applications downloaded will be free but we’re assured this will change in the near future. This is useful because the music player is very basic and there’s no built-in video player so replacements for these apps make the Android Market necessary rather than a nice addition.
Similarly the web browser and photos applications are much more basic than their iPhone comparison but we’re not to consider the 18 months notice that Google had on “how to build a cool mobile phone OS” as wasted.
Android also eschews common proprietary email systems such as Exchange in favour of promoting Google’s own Gmail, Calendar and Contacts services so you’ll be saved from having to configure non-Google services on this device at least until someone else develops a mail program for the operating system.
Like the iPhone, the G1 doesn’t record video or have a complete bluetooth stack which means less features or need for accessories.
Where others, like Walt Mossberg, might consider the G1 to be “less polished and complete than the iPhone“, Gizmodo considers the interface to be “a bit dated and mixed“.
That’s gotta be good, right?
P.S. It does copy/paste.
Stephen Fry writes: Nintendo understands that while play does involve competition, territoriality and rehearsal for war, it also involves silliness, laughter and fun. I adore silliness, laughter and fun. Maybe it comes with being a parent or maybe with marrying a woman who adores it also but I love that we laugh, we joke and … Continue reading “silliness, laughter and fun”
Nintendo understands that while play does involve competition, territoriality and rehearsal for war, it also involves silliness, laughter and fun.
I adore silliness, laughter and fun. Maybe it comes with being a parent or maybe with marrying a woman who adores it also but I love that we laugh, we joke and we get along like kids.
Fry’s essay is an exposition on why the Wii continues to outsell the XBox and Playstation despite both of them being vastly more capable and powerful. And this, like the recent surge in gaming handheld interest via the iPhone (and Apple’s repositioning of the iPod touch as a gaming handheld) is why casual gaming is making some people rich and lowering the bar for independent developers.
Saturday morning as I handed out MURDERDROME T-shirts, I spoke to Jonathan Temples of EO Creative. Jonathan made a bit of a splash a few years ago doing graphics work for CodeMasters.
Looking forwards to today and we have Northern Ireland games companies springing up out of the woodwork – like Blue Pilot Software, Craic Design and a couple of others (who I’ll tell you more about if they give me a release to do so) and for more ‘serious’ gaming, Dark Water Studios up in the far north. I’m absolutely sure that this is the tip of the iceberg with regards to development here in Northern Ireland.
The province has a long and chequered history of being in the forefront of media creation and, to a degree, digital content and it’s satisfying to see that return.
Proving that TIME Magazine subscribes to the same dose of “stupid and misinformed” that so many other online publications have a direct tap into, Anita Hamilton exposes her ignorance with regards to the iPhone and Google’s Android offerings in a hilariously titled piece “Google’s Dream, Apple’s Nightmare?” – a play on the news that the … Continue reading “Android release today. TIME fairy tales.”
Proving that TIME Magazine subscribes to the same dose of “stupid and misinformed” that so many other online publications have a direct tap into, Anita Hamilton exposes her ignorance with regards to the iPhone and Google’s Android offerings in a hilariously titled piece “Google’s Dream, Apple’s Nightmare?” – a play on the news that the first phone offering Android as an operating system is going to be the HTC Dream.
The sweetest part of the Dream is the Android Market — Google’s answer to the Apple App Store. Whereas many Apple apps cost money (typically anywhere from $0.99 to $9.99), at launch all Android Market apps will be free.
Sorry, Anita, but that’s completely wrong. The Market will be a “market” – there will be some apps that are free but some that will cost money. It’s not about free as in price, but freedom as in the ability to put any app you want on there – which has good points and bad points but I’m sure the more astute of you can guess what they are. Helpfully, Anita fleshes this out.
While Apple takes a top-down approach to app development — the company must approve every program that makes it into its App Store — Google will allow creators to upload any application to the Android Market without its review. Sure that means some duds will make it in…
Oh my god. When you see the crap that Apple has permitted into the store (never mind their in explicable removal of some applications which have some real utility or merit), then thinking that the App Store won’t be quickly filled with poorly audited, untested crap which will infest your phone is the wet dream of a naive would-be technology writer. This democratising approach will mean the Android Market will look more like Sourceforge than the App Store – filled with half-baked approaches to applications.
The big announcement is officially today. Won’t it be exciting?