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I think you have to be on the same family plan for xbox live. Something about same household or same credit card. I don’t remember. It’s not designed for sharing with friends that’s for sure.

about 10 hours ago on PS4 appearance on Jimmy Fallon highlights Microsoft's struggle to explain Xbox One policies 1 reply

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I don’t see how it was a big deal. I think the audience were just clapping just for clapping’s sake. It was glossed over very quickly and the Knack director guy wasn’t exactly articulate or pushing the issue much. Seemed like a whatever hipster attitude. The idea is still a confusing one and I doubt most people will understand the issue until they actually buy the console and try to play a used game or their comcast is puking out again and they don’t have internet and find out they can’t play their video games either.

Both demos were lame. Don’t they have any big blockbuster games to show off? Or graphically impressive stuff? Seems like a squandered opportunity. Past Video Game Week showings by Sony and MS were much more impressive. Killer Instinct was just awful looking. It looks even uglier than the N64 version. The animations and graphics are just so amateur looking and poorly made. Than there was Forza. Super boring leisure drive with static backdrops and not too technically impressive. I can’t believe Sony used their TV time for such a last gen game like Knack. There was an Xbox 360 game called Kameo: Elements of Power released 8 years ago that is similar but is heavily puzzle based with fully controllable 3rd person view that looks way better than this. Knack just looks like a lame God of War fixed cam brawler with minor puzzle elements and average last gen graphics. That water was not impressive either.

I would not be tempted to buy a new console from watching these demos, when my old console has better looking and less half-assed games. What happened to the new consoles being 10x more power yada yada? These sure look like last gen launch games, or worse. I could probably play that killer instinct game on my ipad.

about 10 hours ago on PS4 appearance on Jimmy Fallon highlights Microsoft's struggle to explain Xbox One policies 2 replies 1 recommend

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Services you don’t give two poops about are worthless.

2 days ago on Microsoft's Don Mattrick defends Xbox pricing: 'We're delivering thousands of dollars of value'

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A whistleblower can be a hero or a villain. Their’s a good argument for both. But this thing is way overblown and a non-issue to begin with. The Patriot Act and warrantless wiretappnig has been discussed for ages in the past, has been passed by Congress, and most people have already accepted it as the current norm. To suddenly be “shocked”, as if you didn’t know there was a 9/11 and that the US has significantly beefed up anti-terrorism efforts since then, is just sheer ignorance. But most likely, it’s just overzealous liberty groups who have never liked it to begin with to suddenly reinvigorate themselves and cause a scene with fake outrage, when they’ve known about it for over a decade. It’s like freaking out that the TSA scans an image of your body when you pass by their checkpoints, and making it into a national scandal. Scandal implies something was covered up and done without people’s knowledge, acceptance, or permission. This is none of those for a majority of people.

There’s also no point in prosecuting Snowden when all he did was reveal basically NOTHING useful that people didn’t already know. Al Qaeda isn’t magically going to change their communication tactics. They’ve known all along they were being monitored. Everyone knows. Even little kids at your local grade school know. He didn’t blow a damn thing. The news outlets are just having a field day to trump up ratings. There are far more important issues to care about. Just blacklist the guy from any government related positions or contracts and call it a day. People can be so stupid.

4 days ago on Standing with Snowden: the nerdy past and uncertain future of a whistleblowing icon 1 reply

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I hope we get a lot more high quality JRPGs, especially since it will only be a two horse race and Sony will take the lion’s share of the userbase. Last gen was when shooters went big and migrated from the PC to console, ruining the whole ecosystem for everyone else. It was all blood, gore, bald headed marines, plotless obscene dialogue, and basically entertainment for the lowest denominator and the crudest people out there. Hopefully people have gotten war weary and less trigger happy in the last 7-8 years. All other genre’s died out in the face of the endless and mindless FPS onslaught. Japanese developers still make some of the most unique, fun, enthralling, and moving games out there, and with a bigger PS4 fanbase, more “mature” and intelligent games will finally be made. It’s not the same blood, guts, ugly brutes, and debauchery the West loves so much, and they may even be enlightened.

4 days ago on What is a next-gen game?

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This is too little too late for Nokia. This should’ve been the 920 to begin with. And for all the talk about how great Nokia’s hardware is, The loose polycarbonate back already destroys that cred. It’s no different than a Galaxy phone, except you can’t remove it to get to the battery. I was already calling it out when they first showed it off, because the back always looks like something underneath it is about to burst out. If it was more of a true unibody like many HTC phones are, I would be more impressed. But it’s just a fat looking metal band that copies the iPhone’s antenna scheme, with a bent piece of plastic on the back that is barely holding the contents underneath in check. And of course it’s basically a 920 through and through, with no improvements. If you skipped out on the 920 over half a year ago, there’s no good reason to return back for the same thing. The Galaxy S4 has so many more features and bleeding edge tech, on a mature and well developed platform. You can also wait for the iPhone 5S, which will have some tricks up its sleeve as well, since they are heavily being pressured to compete with Samsung, beyond just a new iOS. And of course all the other companies’ new and continuing flagships are coming out in a few months from LG, Motorola, Sony, HTC, Samsung, Huawei, etc. Don’t settle for a year old device that was considered mid-range even back when it was first released. The only thing special about it is the image stabilization, and many devices are starting to incorporate their own, starting with the HTC One and Galaxy Note 3, as well as future devices to be released soon. The plethora of reviews have already shown the 8MP sensor on the Nokia can’t compete with the likes of Samsung, Apple, and others when it comes to sharpness and detail.

6 days ago on Nokia Lumia 925 review 2 replies 1 recommend

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This doesn’t convince me of the new Kinect’s utility. If developers are using it in more subtle ways instead of having us flail around, why not just push a button instead? What if I want to scratch an itch, lift my arms up, or a million other involuntary movements? The reason that the first Kinect required dramatic hand waving was two fold. First, it wasn’t advanced enough to pick up subtle motions. And second, you wanted something that people don’t do normally, that shows it was a deliberate input by the user. This subtle movement tracking for these games is gonna cause far more unnecessary interference than actually help in immersion. Buttons are simple. You push it, something happens. It’s hard to accidentally push a button, especially the stiff ones. And you know right away since the button is pressed down, giving instant feedback. Physical is still the best way. If they are going to downsize the use of Kinect to peripheral and subtle actions, why even have it at all? I sure don’t want to be yelling at my TV after a long day. Most gamers and games are made for couch potatoes, who want to use as few movements and as little energy as possible. I have yet to see a game that actually truly immerses you with Kinect, transforming you into a superhuman killing stuff with your own hands. The Oculus Rift sounds far more immersive for that purpose.

8 days ago on Don't flinch: the new Kinect could be the end of motion gimmicks

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I expect no less from a Microsoft forum.

8 days ago on The Xbox one is screwed

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And the stupid people just keep on making threads.

8 days ago on One thing I hate about all this ps4 love right now. 1 reply 2 recommends

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I will never build a PC gaming system again. And I recommend others do the same. It’s a very wasteful and irresponsible use of money in comparison to just buying a simple console that will last you a decade, and its a million times simpler, quieter, and more reliable to boot. As if it hasn’t been proven time and time again year after year, PC gaming is just a niche market that no one cares about because there’s no standardized hardware and piracy is a real bitch. You won’t find a Final Fantasy or a Mario Kart or a God of War or a million other games. Just because Steam has monopolized the distribution system doesn’t mean it’s now somehow a legitimately good platform for serious and big budget games. It still ain’t. PC of course has the lowest barrier to entry, and that’s why there’s so many indie games available, most of which are crap because of its low barrier of entry. A serious indie studio who wants to make money would have already abandoned the PC for a free to play model on a smartphone. So the only thing left are gaming experiments (most indie games are half assed experiments and side projects anyway), the occasional shooter that’s only good for benchmarks (Metro, Crysis) and the odd game or two ported from console just for kicks, that just has fancy particles turned up and nothing else (Tomb Raider, Bioshock). There’s also facebook games and MMOs, basically timesinks designed with quantity over quality in mind and you can run all of them with integrated graphics on your laptop. You don’t need no fancy video card or “gaming” PC.

PC gaming has become even more useless now that modern consoles use x86 architecture and even indie games can publish their stuff on a console. Games haven’t advanced much past the graphics on Crysis over half a decade ago. Graphics power has been very incremental. Even my old ass GTX 260 can play ball with some of the midrange cards in 2013. No one is going to make a game that pushes the PC envelope and forces graphics makers to make better cards or other game makers to compete with them. Even PS3 level graphics cost tens of millions to incorporate in a game. Even more important however, is no one gives a rats ass about minor graphical improvements that require a $1000 card to display. We’ve already reached near photorealism. Going up means heavy diminishing returns. So people are focusing less on graphics and more on everything else that makes a game immersive. From convincing physics to strong social interaction and other aspects of a game that are not graphics based. The PS4/XboxOne has enough power to meet the graphics demands on a 1080p screen already. And the industry is only going to move where the consoles move. Maybe three years down the road you might upgrade your PC rig AGAIN with some $500 card and $300 i9 processor just to play that ONE game that isn’t very good at 4k resolution, but it ain’t gonna look much better than the console version because it was made for consoles to begin with and maybe you might finally grow up and realize that $800 bucks every few years you waste could have been better spent chipping in to get your niece some new braces or flying to Europe for some cultural immersion.

8 days ago on Should I Give Up on Console for PC Gaming 2 replies

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It’s not that suprising, since Sony actually makes hardware for a living. They can cut costs more and are far more efficient at it. The plastic saved just by looking at the size of the two consoles should be significant enough. The other thing is, you are overestimating the cost of the GDDR5 memory and the more powerful graphics core. Yes the memory is faster and more expensive, but not THAT much more. Same goes for the GCN graphics and 50% more streamers. It’s still a mid-range card no matter what. Then of course Xbox has extra ports and circuitry for TV integration and Kinect integration. That also cost money. Sony budgeted their components far more wisely, aiming for gaming power, compared to Microsoft’s lets try to be everything and the kitchen sink approach. Other’s have also said the jaguar cores are heavily customized, meaning Microsoft might have created a less efficient and more expensive one. Then there’s the blu-ray drive, which Sony has a stake in, so they will probably get a nice discount on that compared to Microsoft.

8 days ago on It's Been a Great 12 Years, but I'm Sorry Xbox, I'm Done 2 recommends

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Your just deliberately being ignorant. Shades of Microsoft fanboyism. The PS4 innovates over the PS3/Xbox360 last gen with:

1. Real multitasking
2. A share button and complete social network integration with live streaming, the ability to let a friend play the game for you, etc.
3. Gaikai streaming service for PS3 and older games, and possibly newer ones
4. A touchpad and speaker on the controller
5. They have their own form of smartglass that uses the vita as well as a smartphone app

Most of the “innovation” that you claim the Xbox One has already has an equivalent in the PS4, Wii U, and in last gen systems as well as non-gaming devices like Google TV. TheVerge has already written an article berating the half-assed nature of Microsoft’s TV ambitions. Who gives two Fs about an HDMI passthrough for their cable box? Google tried it and failed. The only other standout thing about the Xbox One is the Kinect 2 integration. How many gamer’s truly give a rat’s ass about it? It’s been around for a few years already on the Xbox 360 and the games are crap. If Microsoft wanted to get into home entertainment control and TV, they are overreaching by forcing it with a game system. It should’ve remained as an add-on only. The “innovation” part of it for gaming died out long ago, as it had been relegated to lame gimmicky motion controller status like the Wii remote or PS Move, only used for awful shovelware and really corny immersion.

8 days ago on Happy for Sony but what did Sony innovate other than bumping PS3 specs? 2 replies 5 recommends

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Oh my god another stupid angst filled superhero movie. I didn’t like Spiderman. I didn’t like Batman. And I most definitely won’t be liking Superman. That’s extra true since I find Superman to be the lamest all-powerful superhero ever, who can only be beaten with technicalities. I liked it back when superhero movies were fun thrill rides, not this whiny slit your wrist melodramatic crap written by psych majors. It’s a heavy handed and contrived way to add depth to something that is fundamentally shallow. If I had super powers (or billions of dollars) I would go and punch out all the whiny privileged losers constantly crying over spilled milk.

8 days ago on 'Man of Steel' review: finally, the Superman we deserve 2 replies

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Unless you really like the exclusive Xbox games (I don’t see any good ones) I don’t see why you would pick the Xbox One over the PS4. The PS4 has stronger specs, will have the same games, will probably last much longer considering Microsoft’s hardware track record, and has less controversial and control freak limitations, like always on connections. Not that there won’t be any limitations, but comparably much more freedom than the Xbox One. And it will probably be cheaper, since it is not saddled with Kinect 2. However, I would not recommend anyone buying 1.0 console hardware anyway. The manufacturing kinks need to be ironed out, the paltry launch lineup needs to be fleshed out, the software needs to be debugged and polished, and the price will drop a bit as well.

9 days ago on Xbox One launching in November for $499 in 21 countries, pre-orders start now 1 reply

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I always thought iOS looked very boring on a phone (it’s fine on an iPad). Now it makes me want an iPhone.If only Apple would release a bigger screen phone. I’m a bit tired of Android. It can be very disparate with too many things going on. I’ve nuked all my homescreens especially, down to two. The widgets don’t serve much purpose as they don’t update when I want them to and usually I want to see more info so I’m opening the whole app anyway. I do find the controlcenter on the new iOS quite hideous though. Anyway, this is a major facelift that will get people interested after the last major change, which was the iPhone 4.

9 days ago on Apple announces iOS 7, 'biggest change' since the introduction of the iPhone, coming this fall

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This whole PRISM leak thing is just so stupid. It’s like going through airport security and freaking out all of a sudden when they scan your bags and pat you down. Hello? You know the Patriot Act passed like, over a decade ago? The world hasn’t ended yet. The government hasn’t used your data for anything beyond counterterrorism. No proof of political blackmail. No naked pictures of you on torrent sites. No widespread subjugation of white supremacist groups that have quadrupled in the past 5 years. Can people be collectively so stupid that they didn’t think wiretapping extended to their emails and pictures and videos and google searches online? That’s kind of the whole point of wiretapping. It’s even more laughable when they freak out over PHONE RECORDS. Those stupid things I throw out in my garbage, if I still used paper bills. The only concern is if a jealous ex gets ahold of them. Far more frightening than any snooping government agency.

10 days ago on NSA whistleblower reveals himself: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things' 5 replies 4 recommends

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Man the Nokia fanboys are obnoxious. They have a strong presence here on TheVerge, moreso than Engadget or any other non-WP tech site. I see a very commonplace Samsung camera you can find at any big box store, with most of the physical buttons removed to accomodate a larger screen. Other than that, it looks like just another camera. But the Nokia fanboys are in full force, with their gif machines and mspaint, with more fervor than usual with their mudslinging as they are being threatened.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 2 replies 2 recommends

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What are you smoking? Samsung does not sell mediocre products. You don’t buy a Samsung washer or fridge because you know its a cheapo budget brand. They have some of the nicest, most advanced appliances around with futuristic designs and metal. Same for their ultrabooks. The Series 9 is still one of the best all metal premium ultrabooks available. Their SSD drives and flash memory is also top class, and processors and chips. Most of the electronics in the iPhone are made by Samsung in fact. They also sell metal cameras.

You may not agree with the plastic build of their phones, but it is not cheap plastic. LG makes the same sort of phones with the same sort of plastic. So do companies like Fujitsu, Panasonic, and Sony in the Japanese market. They emphasize thin and light, which can only be achieved with plastic. Not to mention there won’t be any radio signal issues. Plastic also has far higher yield and quality control. The HTC One is hardly devoid of plastic. It’s thicker than the S4, and has a lot of gaps and lack of uniformity with all the mishmash of materials. Does not feel smooth or even to me. Most notably are the build quality issues. I would agree if the HTC One was an ENTIRE smooth unibody metal design, like a Macbook or iPad, but no one one has a phone like that because its not feasible with the signal attenuation. HTC One has even LESS metal than their older and much more rigid metal phones like the Desire HD. I far prefer a whole unibody feel, and The S4 has achieved that far moreso than the S3. You can also remove the back! The HTC One is just pokey and too many textures and gaps.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 1 reply 1 recommend

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You know there’s a 10x zoom on this thing right? That’s why its called the S4 ZOOOOOOOM. And it just looks thicker because it has a smallish 4.3" screen. The Nokia EOS footprint is even bigger than the regular 5" S4, over 70mm wide.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 2 replies

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This is the same size as any midrange point and shoot camera on the market today. It looks like a Samsung camera as well. You do realize that the Nokia EOS is just a smartphone with a big sensor stuck to the back right? Small lens and NO zoom. Cameras are more than just the sensor. There’s an actual 10x zoom lens on this thing, and probably better image stabilization since there’s actually ya know, room. More room also means more aperture control. You can’t have it both ways. If you want the best and most versatile camera around, you need to deal with the girth. Stop acting like a whining tween who can’t fit something in their tight jean pocket.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 1 reply 1 recommend

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I’d rather get the GSM version. Won’t be tied down to Sprint.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update)

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You are an idiot. Samsung can’t conquer physics. If you want a killer camera you are going to deal with some bulk. The best camera-phone on the market, the 808 Pureview, has a 18mm hump and NO zoom. This thing has a real 10x zoom lens. They don’t come smaller than this. If you are so damn worried about appearances you should just get the iPhone so you won’t “stand out”. People have used phones far thicker than this in the past. It’s still pocketable and no one really gives a rats ass about how you look on the phone, other than your own vanity. It’s even less relevant when no one talks anymore. This is a smartphone after all.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 2 recommends

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The 808 is terrible at nighttime shots. Unless you want to set it up on a tripod and fiddle with controls, I’m sure you can achieve the same results as a 920. For point and shoot night shots the S4 and HTC One are still better than the 808.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 2 replies 2 recommends

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There’s the rumored Sony Honami with 20MP sensor and 1080p 5" screen. There’s not much info on it but I’m afraid its going to be smartphone first and camera second, sort of like the 808 Pureview and EOS. Meaning it will just be a big sensor stuck behind a smartphone and not a dedicated camera with phone capabilities. The RX100 phone most likely will never see the light of day as it would be too cost prohibitive. The camera itself costs over $600. Tacking a dedicated smartphone on it will probably baloon it to $1000.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update)

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You have a weird definition of what crap is. This is the best looking camera-phone available. The only one actually. Built as a camera first. The Galaxy line has always had tons of different things attached to it, spanning all budgets, shapes, and sizes. And this is based on the S4 mini. You know there was an S3 mini right? And an S2 mini as well. No one is gonna confuse a honking camera-phone for the slim regular S4. There’s no such thing as a “hero” device either. Even HTC has a mini version of their “hero” device. Although it would’ve been drool-worthy if this was actually a regular S4 with a big camera, it would not be cost effective and probably be way too big. The previously released Galaxy Camera is already a big honking thing, and it has a SMALLER screen than the S4. The S4 is also already $639. Turning it into a full-fledged camera would probably baloon it to $800-900, and well over $1000 overseas.

12 days ago on Purported Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom pictured in leaked image (update) 3 replies 2 recommends

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I have never owned a Mac in my life, but I acknowledge their superiority over most PC laptops. Back in college several years back, I was a laptop junkie, buying a new laptop every six months and selling the old. I went through 7-8 laptops from multiple brands in a span of a few years. I was never a mobile user, usually leaving them at home or at most moving them around the house like a modern tablet user would. The thing is, they ALL would start falling apart after a month or two or use with very little handling of the chassis. The hinges weren’t so sturdy anymore, the lid would creak and give, the bezels and palmrests would depress, the keyboard would flex more, the entire thing would feel looser and flexier, and the heat produced around the palmrests would create ugly sweat stains on the plastic. I stopped wasting money on laptops from then and just bought a rock solid desktop. I had a partially metal Asus that survived the best, but the brushed aluminum was very scratchy and half of it was still plastic. I’ve mostly transferred my need for bleeding edge tech to smartphones now, buying and selling them ever six months.

I’ve always been smitten by the rock-solid unibody, seamless, and clean aluminum builds of the macbook line. But I was never an Apple person and didn’t know much about the OS and the price was prohibitive. But I’ve played with those owned by friends quite a bit and really, they are the best. The body always feels extremely sturdy with no give and you can one hand it or flail it around and you won’t have to worry like you have to with other laptops. The metal is so smooth and luxurious feeling to boot. Every time I go to Fry’s and check out the other laptops, there are SO many Macbook ripoffs from Toshiba, Lenovo, etc. but the metal is never as seamless or as smooth and premium. The trackpad is also another thing I can’t understand why Windows laptops can’t get right. Does Apple own their trackpad tech or what? You would think a trackpad from synaptics or 3m or whoever that was really great would become the standard instead of laptop companies having to struggle, but it seems EVERY laptop has their own quirky and finicky touchpad made by yours truly, or they keep on implementing a third party one wrong. From sand paper surfaces to dimples to soft rubber, there was never a really good one. The trackpad on the macbook line just WORKS and is super smooth and clean and LARGE. Why is it taking so long to copy that?

Then of course there’s the whole chiclet style keyboard that everyone has also copied from Apple, and yet so many of them have terrible bendy keys and other flaws. Yes technically Sony had the first laptop with chiclet keys, but whatever happened to it? The point is, Apple did it RIGHT, refined and polished it, and everyone is trying to copy them, again. Even Sony is reinvigorated by someone else using their own design right. And did I mention screens? They have always been some of the best in the market, especially the viewing angles and colors. Back when I was buying laptops, I was always angry that expensive PC laptops with bleeding edge processor and graphics came with the absolute sh*ttiest screens while a casual midrange Macbook would trounce them in screen quality. The tides are definitely turning a bit as touchscreen Windows 8 laptops usually come with a nice high-res IPS display, but that has only been a recent development. If you go down the laptop aisle at best buy, you will see row after row of just plain awful washed out poor viewing angle screens, and it’s been true for years.

I can definitely understand the frustration with having a 1080p resolution on a screen that is too small. Macbooks enlarge the ENTIRE system when you change desktop size settings. The way Windows 7/8 enlarges things is still crude, with larger letters being constrained by small bars and a general lack of consistency. I don’t think it’s as bad as the reviewer says though, and they seem to ignore the fact that you can easily zoom, via keyboard or pinch to zoom.

I DEFINITELY agree with the poor build quality of Sony laptops in general. I use to own a Vaio and the plastic build really did start falling apart quite quickly. I’ve also played with the thin Vaio Z laptops. You can’t even open the lid without it waving around precariously and the lid flexing so bad you think the screen will pop out and crumple up. The Viao Pro sounds no different. They are achieving the light weight by literally wrapping the electronics in some foil and calling it a laptop. I would never put it in a bag with a 10lb book or even an iPad, because the iPad would crush it after a few jostles. Why spend $1000+ on a delicate flower of a laptop? It’s pretty unthinkable to me. It’s a real pity, as I do think it looks nice and the screen and electronics are quite sound. It’s just everything physical that you touch and hold, from trackpad to keyboard to chassis, that most notebook makers can’t get right, especially Sony. Ditto to their super hollow plastic tablets that feel like holding the plastic cap to a can of roach spray. Actually the cap is stronger.

14 days ago on Sony VAIO Pro review: 'we're going to war with the MacBook Air' 1 reply

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Another example of how old and gnarled the military complex in America is. They really don’t know a damn thing about cyberwarfare, about video games, about computers, or pretty much anything else post WW2. They understand explosions and dead bodies and things that shoot, but that’s about it. The archaic no-bid contract computer systems they have installed would obviously be prone to attack. They can’t even digitize something as simple as VA records. Now they are blowing more money on a pointless cyberwarfare simulation system so idiots who have no right to be making decisions about it can feel smart and confident about just exactly that, because the situation is so egregiously simplified even a toddler could undestand it.

22 days ago on With Plan X, the Pentagon tries to turn cyberwarfare into 'World of Warcraft' 1 recommend

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It’s way too many PhD egos and money grabbing that is keeping lower cost online courses from becoming a mainstream way of earning a degree. Lets be honest here. How many people actually gave a rat’s ass about the college lectures they were forced to attend? Especially for science courses, you were dealing with some eccentric lost in his own world scribbling on a blackboard, or a foreign professor who could barely speak English, or other’s who were forced to teach while engaged in other matters and didn’t really give a rat’s ass about the class in general. Even in classes like the humanities that justify lively debate and teacher interaction, you are talking dozens to hundreds of students in a 40 minute session. Other than the studious gung-ho Indian sitting in the front row, no one cares to ask and even if they did, time did not permit it.

The physical classroom is just a means of forcing you to learn things and educate yourself. Spoonfeeding the unwilling, especially on the driest subjects and even on the subject matter you are majoring, since its a pipedream that everyone picked the career path they wanted and had a natural affinity towards. Thus it is mostly you, an expensive textbook, a series of tests, and a piece of paper that makes up much of the “education” system. The professors are completely irrelevant. You are paying your life away in $$$ just so some university can give you a set of goals and deadlines for you to teach YOURSELF. The only thing that is important is that stupid piece of paper, and sadly only they have the authority to issue one.

All you really need is a good textbook, a good set of youtube lectures to supplement said book (or vice versa), and a way to take a comprehensive exam that would give you a diploma. It would destroy the status quo of wasting so much time, money, and energy dealing with useless BS extorted from you by the for-profit education system and instead, actually truly educate people in a meaningful and poignant way. And the barrier to entry is basically non-existent, meaning Americans won’t be so stupid anymore. As stupid…

22 days ago on Online classes can be enlightening, edifying, and engaging — but they're not college 2 recommends

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That PSOne looks real ugly. Aside from that, Xbox really is going down the shitter. It’s TV integration efforts don’t go anything beyond cheesy overlays on top of a cable box you have to plug into, with an IR blaster no less. Why not just use the cable box instead of another pointless addon? All the major streaming services like Netflix and Hulu will be supported on PS4 as well. And I honestly don’t know of anyone who would use Kinect gestures and voice commands, even if they triggered 100% perfectly (they so don’t), when there’s a perfectly good low calorie couch potato way of parely pushing on a button on a controller or remote. NO wild hand waving required, or perfect and clear enunciation in a quite room. The Kinect sold well because it had the WOW factor like when the Wii first came out, and like the Wii, people play with it for 5 minutes and then dump it in the closet to collect dust afterwards. It’s a great gadget for mass market use of a once price restrictive technology no doubt, but its applications in a couch potato gaming market and the amount of resources required to make it actually work well with gaming make it unsuitable in the current environment.

Instead of having to subsidize a gimmicky and poorly utilized expensive accessory, the PS4 is making the most of the money it costs by having 50% more shader processing power and literally over twice the memory bandwidth. The case won’t be an ugly cheapo PC case on its side punctured with holes to boot. And to everyone’s delight (except Xbox fanboys), they are really focusing on gaming, every step of the way. From having a gigantic list of developers big and small and courting indie devs left and right, to streamlining the development process to make it as easy as possible, to NOT restricting used games or requiring always on online connections, and not requiring devs to waste their precious resources on Kinect integration and cloud computing integration, everyone on all sides are pleased.

Sony has made so many smart and sensible moves with the PS4, it’s hard for anyone to find fault with it. All the gamer and developer checkboxes have been checked, and its a near perfect gaming console. You really can’t make anything better for the price. This isn’t the Xbox 360 vs PS3 era where the Xbox 360 was an incompatible PowerPC red ring of death time bomb wind turbine still using DVDs and the PS3 was an expensive even more incompatible cell SPU I speak a different language weird architecture alien thing. This time around its all about fitting like a glove in the overarching clockwork, a perfectly tuned and lubricated cog, not hear to revolutionize or make a statement, but to culminate all its past experiences into one extremely polished and finally near flawless system.

23 days ago on Sony woos 'Minecraft' creator with golden PSone, VIP invite to E3 1 recommend

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This sounds like a sinister, backhanded way to force people into an always on connection to Microsoft’s servers and justify the need. Developers already have enough on their plate. Having to take into account resource management with extra cloud processing that isn’t always reliable and somehow meld that together into a seamless and efficient experience is a very stupid concept. The whole idea of a console is static and guaranteed hardware, not a moving target that fluctuates. This has always been the philosophy behind console gaming, it’s dominance over the PC arena that has no consistency whatsoever, and can even be compared to how much smoother the Apple iPhone and Windows Phone are to their less focused, multitasking, and resource hogging rival, Android. Sony’s cloud services are not relying on the cloud for important bits of processing. Much of it is just streaming to allow for instant play while downloading. Once most of the data is there or you already have the full game downloaded, its not needed anymore. The only games that Sony will probably stream fully are older PS3 and PS2 games, because there really is no way around it, especially for PS3 emulation, and since the entire game is processed in the cloud and only the inputs and video are streamed, it can adjust for lag to some degree since it knows which party is being left behind.

26 days ago on Microsoft explains Xbox One cloud gaming in an effort to justify online requirement 1 reply 1 recommend