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I have a bunch of iOS and Android devices , so i find them, and like them the surface rt ok to use for what they can be used for (browsing, typing, consumption, basic apps, in case of RT also office). But i really dislike the notion of schools using such limited devices in classes or pupils using them as their main device during education.
Sorry, but any computing device using class should ideally learn/teach to use full fledged computers and applications for them.
I would like this initiative a lot more if MS did it with Surface Pros.
Doing it with RTs to me feels like just wanting to clear out the stock of the limited capabilities version few would buy, while having a negative impact on the education (system).
While the surface RT is a lot closer to a full fledged computer with proper desktop OS than an iPad or Android tablet, it is clearly still far away from it (ARM etc) that it can’t run any desktop applications, so yeah, not the ideal machine for learning or doing stuff in schools the time of your life where it would be ideal to learn to use a proper computer and more in depth applications.

about 4 hours ago on Microsoft offers Surface RT to schools for as little as $199

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I think for me personally i will play the big Nintendo franchises titles more again once my nephew is a year or two older.
Right now its the case for me that once i play one of those i usually enjoy it, but not to the degree of excitement or wonder at all when it all felt fresh to me with their way earlier iterations.
And also not enough to the degree where i’m excited to buy each of em right away (or at all).
And yeah, maybe i should have pointed that out better, what doesn’t excite me much right now for me personally are the typical Nintendo big franchise rehashes, like the “New Super Mario Bros” games which i find both among the worst Mario games and the least creative ones, too.
Same goes for Zelda for me, while they are all greatly made, i just don’t get excited about em enough to get myself to buy more than one or two of those a year (and i mean one of those big Nintendo franchise games, not one zelda per year =) )

You’re right, besides their big franchises, also more on the ds and eshop, they still do a lot of cool stuff (hence why i think they could probably fare better if they focussed on one system and pushing that to the max than their dual approach where their forces are spread so thin on two platforms and then on the less popular one one gets the feeling of not many nice new creative games for many months in between).

I’m glad you like the idea of the portable that connects to the tv or something like an apple tv rather than the other way round it is now with the WiiU where the main hardware is connected to the tv so one can’t use the gamepad “tablet” anywhere else than in the same room (or one room further if one has fitting wall types).
Really wish Nintendo would do such a massive upgrade in a year or two at latest, if they even intend to continue pushing the WiiU that long at all.
(If not, then the tablets are sure catching up fast, i mean more and more of the android ones will now get streaming to the tv and already have controller support, none has a controller built into the tablet as nicely as the WiiU but even for that compeition is coming up).

Yeah, let’s see what Ninti does, usually they always become their best when they are getting close to a total failure and then often turn it around fully, if not with that (failing) hardware, then with the next, so yeah, hope they can pull it off again this time.

Though right now, with this E3 now, it felt like still way too much of them being over sure (or at least pretending) that it could be just enough to push out a few big franchise games a year and that’ll make it, i think that’ll just hold true for less and less people every year.

Regarding getting older and preferring other types of games in general then: Well, i like many types of games, is till play the odd shooter in between, like bioshock infinite, but then for the really good ones (like bioshock infinite) wish they were not shooters =) (Unless its just for fun mp gameplay)
Then i more and more like adventure games again or korky indy stuff. Sure, in between a big “AAA” title like The last of us catches my interest, too. So yeah, its not me getting less versatile gaming interests, its more not being interested as much in things feeling too samey.

3 days ago on Can Mario save the Wii U?

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Nintendo didn’t make a console like the Wii this time, it is not attractive at all to non gamers and “casuals”.
Heck, most of those would be confused by the gamepad.
So it should be more attractive to “core” or enthusiast people, people like many visiting sites like this one, right? Well, sadly not either, since for that the hardware is just basically a full generation behind.
So that means it would have to sell really great to make most developers/publishers consider optimising for that way more weak sauce hardware to port over multi platform next gen games over to this thing in halfway nice looking/running form.
Add on top the misnomer of calling it WiiU which made most people think it was just an addon for the Wii, and there are already a few of the main mistakes made.
Among the worst mistakes was also that they thought tablets were hip hence made a tablet like controller but didn’t really grasp why tablets are hip. Which is mostly cause one can use them everywhere and there are thousands of apps coming out for them each day, next to the whole interaction being smooth and fun.
Whereas the WiiU has the main hardware in the console base station so can’t be used outside the house.
And yeah, no Android OS, Playstore tc or similar, so not lots of apps for it either (wouldn’t work well anyway since the screen is not multitouch)
Then on top in the launch version the OS and transitioning between menus felt like trying to run windows 7 on an amiga.
Another big mistake is how lazy Nintendo seems these days.
Yes, they pump out a bunch of games like always, but if one is a gamer for lots of years, they feel more and more rehashed.
To the degree where more and more people like me, who loved the Nintendo games growing up feel like: yeah, nice, and sure i’d let my little nephew play those, but really, as long time player Nintendo has very few left to actually wow and surprise me. Sad.

I feel like at this point, besides doing a hardware revision for addressing those above mentioned deficits, their best bet is to lower the price massively and allow indies to develop for it just using a retail WiiU for testing and then also instantly publish on it (like on the google play store).
(And no, i don’t mean html games as they tried to push, i mean full hardware access allowing to deploy unity games etc to it)

Else, yeah, will be tough this time for em.

I really wish they would make a hardware revision with multitouch screen and android OS and playstore on it and the main hardware being in the controller, so then it would actually be a really cool android gaming tablet next to also running all Nintendo games.

Either that, or yeah, i guess its getting towards a time where Nintendo should maybe scrap the home console and go with a portable only (and allow that to also output to the tv). Then at least even if fewer third party support they can still crank out enough own cool games since their focus is not spread thin on two platforms.

3 days ago on Can Mario save the Wii U? 1 reply

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Each year since the very first iPhone update there are these rumours of lower cost iPhone versions and each year the only thing Apple has done is continue selling their previous year’s model at slightly reduced price.
I wonder if they finally offer a really different and way cheaper model or if it turns out to again be just about continuing selling the older model at slightly reduced rate.

5 days ago on Apple said to consider 5.7-inch iPhone and $99 model in several colors

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While it may seem like a nice idea to consumers and some analysts to have Nintendo games on others’ smartphones and tablets, it is a total bullshit idea.
Think about it properly, how would twitch based dpad or analogue stick platformers control on touchscreens? quite poorly.
Who wants that experience can already have it now by using an emulator on iOS or Android.
What Nintendo should do is release something like the WiiU Gamepad but multitouch and with the main hardware internals built into the controller so one can play it outside, too.
If they then on top want to profit from the smartphone/tablet market they could put android on it and the google play store and do a revenue share deal or similar with google for the play store stuff.
Bam, way more content for em next to more earnings.
If they would now instead put all their own main games onto other platforms that would instantly kill off most of the WiiU and 3DS sales, both hardware and software and yeah, not actually such a sure fire bet that they could make up for those lost earnings with putting stuff on mobile for 99 cents a game.

5 days ago on A link to the past: why Nintendo won't make games for smartphones

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Nice article Paul and fascinating philosophical side lines =)
I see a lot of potential for a refined version of something like the Omni but the part i don’t get at all with it is:
Since they are using the Kinect, why didn’t they implement properly interpreting more body movements done being interpreted as game action?
I mean it should be totally possible that it detects sidewards stepping as pressing A/D and moving the gun around for aiming, no?
Why is it only using the W action?

6 days ago on Testing the Virtuix Omni: a walk on the virtual side

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Well, yes, ideally i would like to have windows or mac os but then also all games of all platforms on it, or at least also the Android ones.
Regarding the design of the hardware i like the WiiU Gamepads shape and feel way more than those other options.
To me Nintendo just made a big mistake by not making it multitouch and putting the main hardware into the tv connected console instead of the gamepad so that one can’t use the gamepad outside.

7 days ago on Mad Catz announces Project Mojo Android gaming console, will go on sale later this year

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I like the Mac OS look in Mavericks a lot more than the iOS 7 look, especially regarding the look of icons and controls, so yeah, i’m very glad they are not doing the same there on Mac OS.
I like minimalism but they’re taking it too far on iOS 7 there.

7 days ago on The design of iOS 7: simply confusing 1 recommend

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I like the going away from Skeumorphism where it was over done before. But clear separators and backgrounds for icons and controls have been used for ages for good reasons. It makes peop,e better understand where to tap and what type of control something is. I like the wiggle parallax bg and the animations in the weather app, too, but hiding important info in the weather app or the notifications app by requiring additional swiping or icons reduced to squarish blue line iconography or the homescreen app icons reduced to bad clipart level is too much towards an over expression of minimalism. Apple has to find a better balance, not go from extreme overdone skeumorphism to extreme overdone minimalism.

7 days ago on The design of iOS 7: simply confusing 1 reply

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I couldn’t agree more with the article.
The new functionality in iOS 7 is great (even if it was just long overdue and for most of it other OS had it years before, i’ll lovingly take it =) ), but yeah, regarding the visual design of the OS, especially icons, buttons and the extremist stance on minimalism taken too far regarding look of icons, removing all separators, obvious button and controls backgrounds and borders etc, yeah, they’ve gone way too far into the opposite extreme now of what they had before.
I hope they reconsider that to some degree at least. Right now they did exactly the same mistakes MS made with Windows 8: trying to be slick, modern and fresh by going for so heavy “minimalism” that they end up with worse usability and look (as explained especially noticable when one doesn’t get what common icons stand for or where controls are or end or that important info is hidden and only accessible with additional swipes etc).
Minimalism on Google Design style and level is good, going like MS did is a fail.
Not being a blinded google fanboy, i have products of all major manufacturers, but yeah, both MS and Apple should rethink their UI Design a lot and take a good look at Google to see what the right balance and style of minimalism is.

7 days ago on The design of iOS 7: simply confusing

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What i would like to see would be something like the WiiU Gamepad but with the whole hardware in the controller and multitouch and that with stock Android and Google Play Store and amazon app store on it.
So one could play the games on the controller alone or on the tv and have both game controller controls and touch controls on the gamepad.
That would be cool.
This Mojo thing now, dunno, it could be neat, but the thought of using a mouse or analog sticks to simulate touch cursor control when playing something on the tv, hmz…
Come on Mad Catz, make something like the WiiU Gamepad..

10 days ago on Mad Catz announces Project Mojo Android gaming console, will go on sale later this year 1 reply

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Hope the US government and companies get sued bigtime for this, whatever spy regulations they enforce in the US, it can’t be legal that they do such things with data of the whole world population.
You can’t commit the biggest crazy big brother stalker and spy move crimes against everyone in the name of protecting freedom and democracy.

10 days ago on President Obama on NSA spying: Congress has known about it and approved for years 1 reply 1 recommend

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The changes and additions are a good step, but still MS has to do a lot more.
-They have to scrap the metro browser versions in Win 8 Pro or at least make it be the default that it always launches the desktop browser, no matter if one launches a browser from the desktop or the metro start screen.
-The metro start screen needs functionality to be resizable to any dimensions and be usable as overlay menu instead of fullscreen enforced switch away from the desktop.
-Metro apps have to allow proper windowing functionality so they are not enforced to fullscreen or sidebar snapping
-There should be two buttons on the bar at the bottom on the desktop on the lower right where one can quickly make the desktop app controls components get touch or mouse/keyboard friendly hit area dimensions

Just to name a few of the main ones.

Regarding this line by the article author:
“Curiously, Microsoft still isn’t showing off how the Start button works in Windows 8.1”

Well, it is pretty obvious why MS does that. Because then they can just let the rumor go around that the start button is back which to most people would imply that the start overlay menu (not fullscreen switch away from desktop enforced start screen) is back.
So lots of people say “hooray, the start button is back!!!” Thinking the start menu as they want it is back.
And MS can sell a bunch more copies until people complain again after realizing it is actually still enforcing the switch away from the desktop to that fullscreen thing they don’t constantly want to be pushed in their face.

13 days ago on Windows 8.1 makes video debut ahead of June 26th preview release 3 recommends

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Yeah, sure, we get that, what MS doesn’t get is that it is not a good idea to attempt making your desktop OS all touch friendly in a way which alienates all mouse and keyboard users and generally most existing desktop OS users.
With just a few changes a s i talked about above they could make both groups way happier, instead they are stubborn and insisting on continuing alienating more and more of their existing and potential new users.

19 days ago on Windows 8.1 Start button shown in leaked screenshots

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“And I agree, this is just MS continuing to be stubborn while insisting they’re not being stubborn.”

Exactly, i couldn’t agree more.
Its like as if they know how much negative reaction there is, but some people there are so convinced that they still got it right that they want to revert their decision as few as possible. So people moaned about wanting the start button and wanting their start menu back?
Ok, if has to be let’s put a button there, but hey, we’ll still make it trigger the switch to a blinky fullscreen overlay and see how that goes..

Its just not good, they have to make the metro startscreen resizable and and overlay menu, not one one is forced to switch over to away from the desktop. And yeah, they should also add two buttons on the bottom right on the desktop where one can switch between touch and keyboard and mouse usage for the desktop, so that then when switching to touch mode all the windows desktop controls get bigger (hit areas). Then add proper full windowing and multitasking ability to all metro apps so one isn’t forced to fullscreen or sidebaring them, then throw away the metro browsers on x86 machines so one always gets the full featured desktop browser version, no matter if launched from a metro screen or the desktop.
And yeah, then we’d be talking about something which way more people would like and buy.
(and not return the second day)

19 days ago on Windows 8.1 Start button shown in leaked screenshots 1 recommend

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Microsoft should make the Metro start screen resizable and not fullscreen by default, so that when one launches it from the desktop by pressing the start button it is a small size overlay menu on the desktop as it used to be, not a fullscreen thing one has to switch away to or switch out of.

Placing a “start button” there which still forces a switch to a blinky fullscreen thing away from the desktop is not what most people want.

It’s like someone at MS is super stubborn and really totally doesn’t want to get that people don’t want blinky fullscreen enforced metro stuff on their computers they use for work and not just for just for fun relaxing mode on the couch in touch usage.

19 days ago on Windows 8.1 Start button shown in leaked screenshots 2 replies 2 recommends