OnLive: The Future of Gaming?

Heard about this cool OnLive system? If you haven’t, you’re potentially short information on the future of gaming. For years, PC gaming has been a mess. Xfire was among the first pioneers in the attempt to consolidate PC gamers. It’s slowly evolved into Valve’s Steam service, which is just a distribution service with a feeble attempt at unification. Now, OnLive has burst on the scene potentially changing this overnight.

OnLive is a system designed to allow people to play games on a PC, Mac, or on their TV with each other. That’s not even the best part, however. The best part is that all these games are delivered via the cloud- no downloading required. In the demo below, Steve Perlman (WebTV and QuickTime brain) seamlessly switched from a game of Crysis: Warhead to Lego Batman simply by going back to the home screen and clicking on the game. Not swapping discs, not downloading the entire game, but simply by clicking on it. Also cool about the demonstration was the ability to view a friends’ game live as they see it from the interface. The demonstration team also showed these features on a MacBook and dedicated box connected to the TV, in addition to the Dell Studio 15 laptop. Really, really cool.

Return to Firefox

In the constant see-saw of technology, I found myself using Google Chrome as my primary web browser after having used Firefox for a couple of years (and previous to that, the venerable Internet Explorer). In using Chrome, I loved the speed and the simplicity, but after a few months of usage, I found there were a few issues that were starting to get in the way of the experience. First off, there were a few basic things, such as the lack of form autofill. This is one glaring oversight, and one that perfectly exhibits Google rushing to put out a “1.0” product (considering Chrome was in beta for like 3 seconds).

Even beyond the basics, there were sites that were not compatible with Chrome. The biggest impact initially was in the way of rich text editors on sites being disabled by default or having quirky behavior. This I could live with. Later on, I ran into my biggest issue, which was in the form of NetFlix and sites such as Fox.com.

Over the past several weeks, I have taken to watching more and more video content on my PC or notebook. In particular, NetFlix (now that I have an unlimited streaming package), as well as sites such as Fox.com or ABC.com (for catching missed TV episodes). I love this option, but none of these work with Google Chrome. And I don’t like switching between browsers for specific purposes; I put up with that during the early days of Firefox and I don’t care for it.

After some research and thought, I decided to go back to Firefox, but this time using the latest beta build (at the time, it was 3.1 Beta 2). The new beta includes a Javascript engine that is supposed to rival Chrome’s. In short, it is supposed to be very fast for web page rendering. I installed the beta but uninstalled the add-ons. While I like extensions, I found I didn’t miss them as much with Chrome, and I figured that having less extensions installed would translate into better performance. I went back and installed Firefox 3.1 beta 2, and decided to live with it.

And, as of now, I’m back to using Firefox regularly.

I have to admit, I’m impressed with the quality of the betas (I’m now on beta 3). They have been running smoothly, with no crashes and fast performance. This is far cry from the betas of versions 2.0 and 3.0. I am running a few extensions- the ones that happen to give me the missing functionality from Chrome (but that’s a topic for a future post). There are benchmarks out there that will state Chrome is still faster than Firefox 3.1, but from what I’ve seen, the margin is small, and I don’t notice it on my dual-core machines. To boot, I have the ability to easily view videos on sites that I could not previously.

Chrome will undoubtedly improve, but Google is taking their time with the beta for version 2, and companies are taking their time in making sites Chrome compatible. Considering the web browser is one of the key, central components of computing today, I prefer to have a seamless experience, something Chrome was able to do for the most part. But the areas it lacked wound up being deal breakers. So, for now at least, I am back in the Firefox fold.

Perhaps I’ll try Opera next, though I doubt it.

Steal a Vado HD for $129 at Creative US!

The superb Vado HD, which I just extensively reviewed here, is on sale for $129 at Creative US. Simply click on the image below, add it to the cart, and then enter code VADOHDFRIENDS for the $100 coupon. This deal DOES include free shipping.

Buy it now at Creative by clicking here or the image below!

Source [SlickDeals]

GAMEKISS Brings Back Freestyle Street Basketball

Ah, Freestyle Street Basketball. You left me last year, leaving me bewildered and stricken with sadness. The sport I loved, the game I loved, both wrenched out of my hands as Sierra closed it down.

Behold GAMEKISS. Freestyle Street Basketball is back! The previous client won’t work, so you would need to download the new client, which is about 600MB. Now I don’t know if it was just their servers that day, or my internet, but doing an ordinary download gave me speeds of 17.1 kb/s. That’s pathetic. HOWEVER, with the help of friendly Firefox add-on DownThemAll (Download Manager), I had 10 segments burning up the track as I finished the download in less than the “About 3 days remaining” time from before.

What’s different about the game? Well, not much actually. You can now also level up by finishing missions that also help you train, and there are Episodes which follows a storyline. The servers seem to be more steady now, not as much lag as before. The controls have stayed the same, basically.

So what are you waiting for? Download it here NOW!

Creative Vado HD Reviewed!

Creative’s been long known for its superb audio products, ranging from the still relevant SoundBlaster PC sound cards to the venerable and powerful ZEN line of digital media devices. The first evidence of life in the visual department over at Creative came with the introduction of the Zen Vision:M. Anyone who has spent time with the best device to come out of Creative’s facilities knows that the video quality was absolutely superb. The widescreen Vision:W, which I still use daily, was also amazing. Now, however, Creative adds to the mix a rather different device: one that comes in soley to capture life- this version in stunning high definition. Before you begin this review, let me preface it by saying this: I have not played with, tested, or otherwise touched a Flip camera, a Kodak Zi6, or any other competitor in this sector, so don’t ask. There are plenty of other, wealthier people who have done so- you can use the tubes and Google to find them. But I suspect that very few other people who are in the market for this type of device have very little background with a competitor’s product, and thus will be with me as a ‘virgin buyer’ of pocket video cams. All videos embedded currently have the YouTube HD embed hack enabled, so all videos should playback in HD by default. For full size videos, click through the videos to their YouTube page.

Continue reading for the ten page review.

Review: Creative Vado HD

Creative’s been long known for its superb audio products, ranging from the still relevant SoundBlaster PC sound cards to the venerable and powerful ZEN line of digital media devices. The first evidence of life in the visual department over at Creative came with the introduction of the Zen Vision:M. Anyone who has spent time with the best device to come out of Creative’s facilities knows that the video quality was absolutely superb. The widescreen Vision:W, which I still use daily, was also amazing. Now, however, Creative adds to the mix a rather different device: one that comes in soley to capture life- this version in stunning high definition. Before you begin this review, let me preface it by saying this: I have not played with, tested, or otherwise touched a Flip camera, a Kodak Zi6, or any other competitor in this sector, so don’t ask. There are plenty of other, wealthier people who have done so- you can use the tubes and Google to find them. But I suspect that very few other people who are in the market for this type of device have very little background with a competitor’s product, and thus will be with me as a ‘virgin buyer’ of pocket video cams. All videos embedded currently have the YouTube HD embed hack enabled, so all videos should playback in HD by default.  For full size videos, click through the videos to their YouTube page.

Continue reading for the ten page review.

EFF: Hypocrisy Fresh in Cupertino

Despite the market’s move away from DRM laden digital audio, Apple is adding DRM to their hardware. The new iPod Shuffle unleashed earlier this week will require consumers to use Apple’s horrible white earbuds until a third party makes another compatible set. However, according to iLounge, those third party headsets will require a proprietary chip from Apple to work with the device. I have my own negative opinions on the new Shuffle that many others across the net share, but it seems the company is really looking out for itself, rather than the consumer and third party “Made for iPod” makers during these tough economic times.

Source [EFF]

Creative Console Updated; SoundBlaster Audigy Windows 7 Drivers

Vista and XP users, a massive update has been released for your X-Fi sound card software, Creative Console. You can download it directly from Creative at the Support page for your respective sound card model, or archived here.

For the SoundBlaster Audigy and Live! audio card series, there is a beta release of Windows 7 drivers. As with all beta software, none of this is official and is to be used at your own risk. They’re also at the Support page, and archived on SkyDrive.

Continue reading for the entire lowdown on the Console update.

Fooled Ya! Creative Re-Opening Outlet Store

Despite being closed and empty for a while, the Mariana Square (Singapore) Creative outlet store will soon return to the mall. Creative closed it because of climbing rent, but according to Nothing But Creative, the mall substantially reduced the rate at which Creative was leasing the space, prompting the return to the mall. Nothing But Creative says that the store should re-open in the next few weeks. Creative’s retail outlets only exist in Singapore, but the rest of the world can access the great savings (a $38 ZEN on Creative US!)  on their regional Creative page.

Nothing But Creative: Creative Store to re-open in March

Goodbye to the ZEN UI?

Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead: Creative Singapore is hiring. Despite the global economic crisis and companies cutting jobs right and left, Creative Singapore is hiring some very high end jobs, perhaps ramping up for the launch of their new player. They are hiring in an area that got my attention, though: a new Senior Designer.

The senior designer(s) that they are hiring will be in charge of “creating exciting User Interface (UI) designs for Personal Digital Entertainment devices”. The way they worded it, specifically the whole “creating” part, makes it seem