Wii Move

Well, they say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, if that's the case then Sony just paid Nintendo a pretty big compliment.

The press event held on March 11 by Sony entertainment unveiled a motion controller for the Playstation 3 called the Wii Playstation Move. The device is slated for release this Fall.


The Playstation Move looks and functions like the Nintendo Wii-mote. The biggest difference I noted was that it's black, and apparently, at least partially dependent on the Playstation Eye USB camera to work.

The Move will feature two hand-held, wireless controls--one for on-screen movement and button tapping, the other for cursor navigation and an analog stick. Demonstrations on the Playstation web-site seemed somewhat lacking in specific detail.

Whether it features controls better than what are available on the Nintendo Wii remains to be seen.

Technight will feature a full review when the Playstation Review is released.

School goes too far

The more prevalent technology gets, the less privacy we all have.

One Pennsylvania student with a school issued laptop has allegedly been spied upon at home via the computer's built-in webcam and a program called boing-boing.

The story should disgust parents and students alike. The schools should have the right to monitor what a child does on their computers. It's their property. They should even have the right to monitor what children do at all times while they are at school--it's their responsibility.

Taking pictures of a child, at home, without his or her parents' consent, that is an invasion of privacy and a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

Stories like this one are only going to get more common as social media networking programs such as Facebook and Twitter continue to blur the lines between a person's public and private lives.

The student may have been doing something he wasn't supposed to on the laptop. That's not the point, there are other ways to prove that such as web search logs and cookies. What we do need to take note of is that what we do can be monitored.

Posting photos on the Internet, making comments on a friend's Facebook profile, tweeting--all of these things can be viewed by far more people than we intend.

Parents you need to inform your children that there is no such thing as true privacy on-line. Bosses and teachers can use it against you. The high school may have been in the wrong, but the trend of monitoring Internet behaviour isn't going to go away.

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It's snowing. Again.

I have lived in Northwest Georgia most of my life, but lately I find myself checking the map to make sure I haven't somehow gotten lost.

Picture this, you are driving down the Shorter Avenue--a four lane road with gas stations, stores and neighbourhoods. All of the sudden, you see a snowflake, a single snowflake drift towards the earth and melt.

Boom! All 93,000 residents in the county crowd the local Wal-mart and buy up all the milk and bread. They act out of fear because of a blizzard that hit Georgia way back in 1993. Since then it has snowed only rarely in Georgia, and then usually less than an inch per year if any.

Because of that, I usually mocked the panicked masses while I threw my swimming trunks in the wash knowing I would probably get to use them soon. Not so this year. For the first time in my life, it has snowed--really snowed twice in Rome in a single year.

I feel like a penguin.

I  have heard several people using our unusual weather to discredit climate change or prove it over the last several days. But the fact of the matter is, El Niño is to blame.

El Niño is a warm-weather pattern in the Northern Pacific Ocean that pulls rain East. Warm Weather, in the Pacific Ocean. The last time El Nino hit North America was in 1999. It brought an unusually rainy year followed by a drought season known as La Nina.

Both phenomenon are game-changers that screw up our weather for several years. The usually warm, mild winters of Georgia are just a nice dream while they are active.

What I want to know is why do people who get by without milk or bread for three weeks at a time need it now?

iPad: well, it's a tablet...

Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the tablet-format iPad to a group of journalists and media enthusiasts today.

Several thousand people tuned in to live blogs hosted by sites such as engadet or the New York Times, myself included. I was less than impressed.

The device sports a 9.7" screen, is .5" inch thick and weighs 1.5 pounds, according to Apple. Jobs described the iPad as being a mobile device meant to fill the gap between iPod's and Macbooks, but compared to Apple unveilings of the past, it didn't revolutionize anything.

The iPad has been described by onlookers as a "giant iPhone." But a better description would be a giant iPod touch. The ipad has no SMS text messaging and no off-line phone capabilities.

There were some nice features. The iPad can run any iPhone app unmodified out of the box. It will have its own version of iWorks for sell, has access to iTunes, the app store and a new feature called iBooks which seems to be Apple's attempt to break into the e-reader market.

However, it didn't show anything that hasn't already been done by other devices before--most of them from Apple. It does movies. So does the iPod. It does the Internet. So does the iPhone and iPod touch.

Like the iPhone, it still lacks Adobe Flash support. It also can't multi-task and has no slots for removable memory of any kind. Unlike the iPhone, it doesn't have a camera either.

The one thing that I do find impressive is the pricing. The iPad will cost $500-830 according to Jobs, depending on memory size and whether its 3-G capable. In addition an unlimited data Internet plan will be available from AT&T for $30 a month without contract.

The iPad probably has a future with people who use their iPhones for playing games and browsing the internet more than for a phone. I have no doubt that Apple fanboys will buy it, but I won't be lining up anytime soon.

Fanboys (and Apple stockholders) rejoice

Apple sent out invitations to reporters for a media event Wednesday, Jan. 27, in San Francisco.

The invitation says "come see our newest creation," according to a short New York Times article by Brad Stone.

Personally, I think its about time. The new product will almost certainly be the Apple tablet computer that has been the subject of every rumor-mongering web-site and Apple fan-boy for over a year, including one of my own.


I'll post again about this once I have a full features list and an idea on just what I think of this thing.

3-D T.V. Are you serious?

The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show which took place Jan. 7-10  in Las Vegas had a few interesting surprises, worst among them was the 3-D T.V.

There are a few reasons I believe this new platform won't work: timing, price and usability.

Timing:

Last year the government forced the switch to digital signal only broadcasts forcing many people to buy new T.V.'s or adapter boxes.

Not only will 3-D T.V.'s fail, but the move might doom other products  that we're already enjoying some success such as Blu-ray players and high-definition (HD-T.V.'s).

Why would I buy a 3-D T.V. when I just bought an HD one in the last couple of years? High-definition televisions have only recently  become popular and have yet to hit market saturation. On the other hand, why would I bother to buy an HD-T.V. if they're already obsolete?

Blu-ray players face a similar crisis. They survived the hurdles of coming shortly after the DVD players became popular, and competed with the now defunct HD-DVD format for use.

However, current Blu-ray players are will be replaced with 3-D capable ones by manufacurers such as Sharp leaving early adopters high and dry. This leads me to believe those same early-adopters may become angry and forego the upgrade.

Price:

High-definition T.V.'s  have only recently come down to the $200 and up range. Now the manufacturers are expecting us to throw those still new boxes in the trash and spend yet more money for a 3-D upgrade. Samsung for instance quoted a price range of $7-12 thousand at the show.

As you will recall, the recession is still going on leaving few with that kind of cash.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that the unemployment rate was over 10 percent nation wide and closer to 17 percent if adjusted for the people who have simply given up on finding a job.

Usability:

Let's face it, this is where everything falls apart for this format.

3-D television sets will require glasses, several manufacturerers are working on proprietary designs, but they all work on the same basic principle--seeing an image with only one eye at a time to give the illusion of depth.

If you already wear glasses, like UGA student Jamie Diamond, 20, of Athens, Ga., this won't work.

"It would be horribly uncomfortable to wear 3-D glasses over my own," Diamond said. "I won't do it. It's stupid."

Another issue to worry about are epilepsy. The rapidly flashing images could lead to seizures, though the industry will probably find ways to make glasses that risk.

Finally, there is the vanity issue. How many americans will want to put on dorky head sets for a slightly better look at John Stewart's desk? I won't.

Whether the 3-D T.V. lives or dies will be determined in the next couple of years, but I wouldn't head to the store for one anytime soon.