Technology – Page 14

The Netflix Experience – Wii vs. PlayStation 3

I’m late to the party on this one, but I finally tried Netflix. After years and years of ignoring television commercials and banner advertisements for Netflix, instant download movies and TV shows have entered my home. Disks in red envelopes are appearing in my mailbox too. But if not for the Wii and the Playstation 3, I probably would have continued to miss out on the joys of modern day movie rentals. Long gone are the days in Brooklyn, where I would run down to the local video store. As for Blockbuster video, you were cool in the 90’s. But today, a gaming console does so much more than play games.

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nofollow – Apple, That's Not Nice!

I remember watching a history show about the gold rush. I learned a valuable lesson. A lot of people didn’t get rich during the gold rush. The ones that did, it was usually the people selling the shovels to the diggers. Today, Commove launched. I’m incredibly proud of this game. I think it’s awesome. But as I was trying to promote it, I was reminded of that historic lesson. While checking the HTML code on the Commove iTunes pages, “nofollow” hyperlinks were revealed.

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Typing Special Characters on Android and the iPhone

My next game has foreign language in it. I’m currently in the process of adding German and Polish to… my secret project. Yet, it’s a bit frustrating to type special characters. I usually launch Windows Character Map and I try to locate the letters with little hats, dots, accents and slashes. From there, I copy and paste the letters that I need. If this process seems archaic, I was even more bewildered when I wanted to send special characters via text messaging. I wondered if it was even possible. Generally, I have low expectations for mobile device performance. Yet, it was actually much easier to type special characters on Android than it was on my PC.

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The Future of Flash Looks Bad

Adobe Flash, I’m not seeing a bright future for you. It seems pretty clear that HTML 5 is going to be a new favorite. Look at the big three rivals – Microsoft, Apple and Google. Microsoft has Silverlight. Apple just announced the iPad – without Flash support. And as for Google, they do things with AJAX and basic browser features. If video is going to be a standard function of future browsers, why should I keep wasting money for upgrades of Adobe Flash? Why should I force photics.com visitors to use a third-party plug-in? If rival companies are coming to the same outcome, a world without Flash, then why should I support it?

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The iPad – Game Development Inspiration

Considering the frustration that I experienced while developing iPhone / iPod Touch apps, I’m not a big fan of Apple. However, I do like new gadgets. I had seen the hype about a new Apple tablet and I decided to check it out. Surprisingly, I was impressed. The iPad looks like a fun device – great for Internet browsing, watching movies, reading books and playing games. The price is pretty good too. The basic model is only $499. That’s not too bad for an Apple product. I like it. I’m not sure if I’ll actually buy one though, as I have a pretty good laptop, but the unveiling has re-energized me. I’ve been inspired to try Apple app development once again.

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