Tag Archives: News

Feb 03 2009
Life in general

Windows 7 SKUs – How Microsoft fails as they improve

Microsoft confirmed the 6 SKUs of Windows 7 today – Starter, Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate. At first glance, this seems pretty bad, even worse than Vista’s nightmare melange of SKUS (as this seems to have 2 more SKUs than the previous OS). However, if one takes a closer peek, it becomes clear that this is actually much better than Vista (while simultaneously still being pretty bad).

Let me explain a bit. Windows XP basically had two SKUs, Home and Professional. There were other versions too (Media Center, x64, etc), but it basically boiled down to Home and Professional. This is pretty self-explanatory, and in my opinion this is really as complicated as it has to get. Average users can use Home just fine, while people who need more features for work or ‘enthusiast’ use can get Professional. This is simple enough, not quite as simple as OS X’s single one-size-fits-all edition, but it works (and in some ways, is better than the single blanket edition, until you need to use a feature from Pro edition that simply isn’t available in Home no matter what you do…)

Windows Vista complicated things pretty horribly. The Vista SKUs (as most people know them) were Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. In addition to these, Vista Starter and Vista Enterprise also exist, but are not purchasable by most consumers. Home Basic ws an extremely crippled version of Vista, lacking almost all of the new features of the OS, and not really worth anybody’s time or money. Home Premium added most of Vista’s features, and was suitable for most people’s use (the XP Home of Vista). Business added business-centric features, but removed many of the home-use features (such as Windows Media Center), and Ultimate simply includes everything. If this is confusing to you, don’t worry, it is confusing to most people. Vista didn’t sell that well, and it’s not much of a surprise.

Now, Windows 7 has the same SKUs as Vista, at least in name. As with Vista, most people don’t need to worry about Starter or Enterprise, as these are only available in developing countries and to big businesses, respectively. For Windows 7, Home Premium is still suitable for most people’s use, as it includes basically all of Windows 7’s main features. Business adds to these features, but it includes all the features of Home Premium. Ultimate adds a few more features, being the most complete edition, however it seems like Ultimate is a bit unnecessary, as Business edition includes practically all of the features as well. Accordingly, Microsoft is going to be reducing the shelf presence of Ultimate edition by a lot for Windows 7, pushing customers towards Home Premium or Business.

Now, what about Home Basic? Home Basic wasn’t useful for anybody in Windows Vista, and Home Premium is being set up to become the default Windows 7 SKU, so what is the point of Home Basic? This is one of the reasons I’m still very disappointed in Microsoft. In Windows 7, Home Basic and Ultimate editions are not going to be seen by most people, and don’t even really have a purpose anymore, so they are just complicating things unnecessarily. The two of them should be dropped entirely, and Home Premium should become simply ‘Home’. Personally, if I go into a store and I see ‘Home Premium’, I’m going to be confused if there isn’t a ‘Home Basic’ somewhere around, it just makes no sense to have only a Premium edition.

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Nov 03 2008
Life in general

A Winner is You! ('You' being anyone who uses the internet)

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said last wednesday that if he is elected to the presidency, he will reinstate Net Neutrality for his first year in office. If you don’t know about Net Neutrality, it is a movement to keep the internet a level playing field for everyone, meaning that internet service providers (AOL, Comcast, RCN, etc) cannot block access to certain websites and give faster access to others. If this were the case, big corporations would pay ISPs to have faster access to their websites, and access to websites that cannot not pay up would be blocked.

This is obviously something that any normal person using the internet does not want. It goes against the first amendment to the Constitution, and would make it very difficult for websites like Zibland to continue to operate, due to inability to pay for good service like a website the size of CNN.com would be able to do. Senator Obama is apparently a very strong supporter of Net Neutrality, just another reason we should all be voting for him tomorrow.

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Jul 19 2008
2 Comments
Life in general

E3 2008

Well that was disappointing! What did we get out of the Electronic Entertainment Expo this year, boys and girls? Let’s see. Microsoft unveiled their best-kept-secret-ever, the clearance of 20gb 360s to make way for 60gb 360s, as well as the motion-sensitive…microphone controller?

I mean, we’ve been hearing rumors about a motion-sensitive 360 controller (to compete with Sony’s SIXAXIS and more importantly, Nintendo’s Wiimote) for months now, and I have to say, I’m disappointed. A karaoke microphone? That’s…um…that’s great, Microsoft. Thanks a bunch. Other than that, there was the Dashboard redesign, and the news that Final Fantasy XIII is being made for the 360 as well as the PS3. Whoop-dee-doo.

What did Sony have for us? Let’s see. Well, there was that neat little presentation of their fiscal year using LittleBigPlanet, that was cool I guess…Not really news, but hey, it’s LittleBigPlanet. I’m not complaining. There was the launch of the video store, about freakin’ time, Sony…And now you can use one login for the PSN across all your machines, as opposed to one account for each. Again, this should not be something that’s happening more than a year after the PS3’s launch. All in all, no news from Sony.

Well how about Nintendo? Oh yes, Nintendo gave us a game, a toy, and two peripherals. Hooray, big news day from Nintendo, right? You might think that. The game? Animal Crossing City Folk, which is basically Animal Crossing Wild World (the DS iteration of the series), except with a city area (accessible by everybody), and a few graphics updates to bring it in line with the Gamecube version of the series. In other words, it’s basically a port of the older game. In other words, it barely counts as its own game.

Next up, Nintendo’s Wii Music. This is the “toy” I mentioned earlier. I call it a toy because it isn’t a game, even Miyamoto has said that it is not a game. It is a non-game, with no plot, no back-story, no characters, no objective. I call that a toy, not a game. Also, the thing isn’t news, because it has been demoed in some form at every E3 since the announcement of the Wii. The “news” is the ability to use the Wii Fit, Nintendo’s balance board in addition to the Wiimote to basically just make music. Think of it like Rock Band, but without real songs or objectives.

Finally, the two peripherals. First off is Wii Speak, a multi-directional microphone that sits on top of the Wii Sensor Bar and allows for audio chatting in online games. This, not unlike the PSN’s video store, should not be something new after more than a year on the market with online services. The second peripheral, the MotionPlus, is just as ridiculous. It is a little knob that plugs into the bottom of the Wiimote, and according to Nintendo, improves the motion-detecting of the Wiimote to make on-screen movements match more closely to the actual movement of the player’s hand or arm. Now I don’t know about you, but it seems to me like this peripheral does…what Nintendo originally promised the Wiimote would be able to do. That seems more than a little lame to me, but hey- it comes with a free game: similarly to the Wii coming with Wii Sports, and the Wiimote coming with Wii Play, the MotionPlus ships with Wii Sports Resort.

So yeah, disappointing compared to previous E3s, but it seems like every year the convention is getting more and more pitiful and less appealing. Oh well, we still have Leipzig and PAX to look forward to!

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May 16 2008
Life in general

Boston Apple Store Opens!

The New Apple Store

I went to the opening of the Boylston Street Apple Store yesterday, and got a free shirt! It’s green and resembles the teaser signs that were covering the windows a week ago. Also received a free red iPod Sock, with the date embroidered on the tag. It’s actually larger than the old socks I was using, my iPod Touch can actually fit in it.

Red iPod sock

The line was about a 2 hour wait, but very much worth it. The inside of the store is beautiful, lots of glass and steel. Very Apple. The entire staff (hundreds of people, way more than one would expect, even for the second largest Apple Store in the world) ran by us at one point while we were in line and got people to cheer and clap for them, and then they returned the favor for us when we got inside. The staff was literally lining the stairs and surrounding the door, clapping and cheering everyone who came in the store on.

Apple staff cheers on the guests

The store itself is extremely large. The first floor is all laptops (with at least 3 tables of MacBook Airs alone), the second is desktops, iPods, and iPhones, and the third floor is entirely customer service (with multiple demo stands for classes and other events, and a gigantic genius bar, spanning the entire wall). The centerpiece, the glass stairs, is extremely cool, with frosted steps with some sort of rubberized grip to stop people from slipping, I guess.

The glass stairs

The best thing about this Apple Store is that it’s the first one that I can actually walk to. It’s right around the corner from the Hynes T stop, whereas all the other Massachusetts stores are in malls.

As always, more pictures can be found in my gallery…

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May 12 2008
2 Comments
Life in general

Spore/MassEffect to Use SecuROM DRM Scheme, EA Descends to Ninth Level of Hell

Apparently, Electronic Arts is planning on releasing two of their biggest PC titles this year, MassEffect and Spore, with the SecuROM DRM Scheme. For those of you who don’t know, the SecuROM DRM was included with BioShock, gave owners of the game living hell. For example, should you have to reinstall the game, you would have to call SecuROM to get a new registration code. There was also a lot of fear that it was installing a RootKit on systems (which would allow it to execute commands under the root, or administrator, user account without requiring any passwords or notifications).

Obviously, the announcement that SecuROM was once again going to be used as the copyright protection in popular pc games sparked an outcry from pc gamers. Originally, EA said that SecuROM would check with its servers every 10 days to re-authenticate the game, but they recently took back that statement, and are now saying that it will only re-authenticate the game when you download additional content off the internet, meaning fewer unwanted internet connections.

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Apr 28 2008
Life in general

Boston Apple Store Shaping Up (Again)

When I was on the IFO Apple Store website today, I came across this picture of the soon-to-be Boylston St. Apple Store:

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Apr 13 2008
Life in general

Scientology Protest

Yesterday I participated in a protest against the Church of Scientology, particularly its practice of separating its members from their families and not allowing any outside contact. The protest was named Operation Reconnect, and was run by Anonymous, a leaderless group of anonymous internet-goers. Since the group is anonymous, everyone wore masks, giving a very impressive effect. I have uploaded all of my photos to my gallery, and you can find others on the Non-Violent Uprising wiki.

For more pictures, visit my gallery.

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Apr 09 2008
Life in general

Uru's Final Day

Well, this is it. The final day of Myst Online: Uru Live. Tonight, at midnight (mountain time), Cyan Worlds and Gametap will pull the plugs on the game servers, shutting down the game for the foreseeable future. I plan to be online up until the very last moment, should anyone care to join me. Also planning on video recording the last 5 minutes or so, for the memories. You can expect that to be up sometime tomorrow.

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Apr 04 2008
Life in general

Boston Apple Store Shaping Up

As you can see on the Birth Of An Apple Store site, the Apple Store outside the Hynes is shaping up pretty well. I’ve walked past it a few times to check it out, and apparently a giant Apple logo has now been installed:

I’ll be at the grand opening, whenever it’s announced.

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Feb 04 2008
Uncategorized

Uru Live to Discontinue in 60 Days

Cyan Worlds and Gametap have just announced that they are not going to be producing a second season, and that Uru Live will be removed from the Gametap servers in 60 days. I’m going to cancel my subscription in 60 days in protest.

Hi Everybody,

I have some news that some of you have probably not been looking forward to. GameTap has decided to discontinue the operation of Myst Online: Uru Live.

The decision was a very difficult one and was made for business reasons rather than due to any issues regarding the design and vision of the amazing world that Cyan Worlds and Rand Miller have brought to us. Despite the great Myst Online experience coming to a close, Cyan is still a very valued partner of GameTap, we are on excellent terms, and we look forward to continuing our relationship in the future.

Many of you have made good friends while playing Myst Online, so here is the bittersweet part. Although Myst Online: Uru Live will be completely shut down in the near future, the game servers will remain live for the next 60 days. During that time, both newcomers and existing players can continue to experience the amazing world of Myst Online, explore the game’s many Ages, and interact with other players in the game and on the MystOnline.com website and forums. After 60 days, the title will be removed from the GameTap service, though MystOnline.com will remain live and active for fans to continue to share their passion for this important game franchise.

I know this is not the news fans of Myst Online wanted to hear. I want to thank all of you who have been extremely supportive of the game and made this grand experiment in an alternative MMO format so much fun. All of us at GameTap also want to thank you again for your tireless enthusiasm for the title.

There has been a clamor for information about the status of season 2 for some time, and the reason we haven’t announced anything sooner is because we have literally been examining a wide variety of possibilities for maintaining the game, but in the end, we had to bring the exploration of the great cave to a close.

So thanks again for supporting us as we launched this truly unique game. GameTap is still committed to exploring new genres of gameplay and encouraging bold visions. If you haven’t already tried Season 2 of Sam & Max, give it a try, it is as anarchic as one could hope. And I can tell you from first hand experience that the upcoming Grimm is novel and exciting experiment as well.

Ricardo Sanchez
VP of Content and Creative Director for GameTap

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