Geek-Weekly

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Tagged: Games

Computer / Games / GEEK / Mobile

Top 10 Best Tech from 2013

I know that there are a lot of articles out there and I wanted to capture what I felt the top 10 tech items for 2013 were. In no particular order…

Samsung Galaxy Note 3

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Ridicule gargantuan tablets all you want. The Galaxy Note 3 may sport a gigantic 5.7-inch screen, but all that screen real estate is awesomely useful, the smartphone offers great battery life, and the included S-Pen stylus is incredibly useful if you like taking longhand notes.

A 2.3GHz processor and 3GB of RAM help power this massive device, and what you end up with is a smartphone that practically eliminates the need for a 7-inch tablet.

Massive smartphones aren’t going away—and the more we use them, the more we like them. And the Note 3 is pretty much the best “tablet phone” around.

 

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Computer / Games / GEEK

NVIDIA’s GeForce Experience gaming tune-up now in open beta

Source: Engadget & Nvidia

imagesNVIDIA wants to tweak gaming performance through its GeForce Experience software. Nvidia has had the new software in testing for over a month now. If you have been curious what it’s all about, then there is some great news as that the company just recently opened the beta program to all of us.

Along with bringing faster and better-looking graphics to the PC gaming masses, the public version widens the optimizations to include Core 2 processors, 2,560 x 1,440 displays and games like Far Cry 3 and Mechwarrior Online.

It’s not yet clear when Nvidia will have the new software completed but with the advantages this could bring to gaming it’s going to me interesting to see what they have up their sleeves. If you are interested in downloading this beta CLICK HERE!

News

Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft: three different views on portable gaming

Source: Engadget

 

Tim Cook says the darnedest things. Why, just last week Apple’s head honcho suggested that iPad users are ditching their home consoles in favor of Cupertino’s favorite slate. Bold words, ones that can’t be sitting well with the gaming industry’s big three. Steady thy rifle, hardcore gamer, Cook has a point: the console wars have shifted irreversibly. Gone are the days of bickering over somewhat similar 16-bit consoles and their supposed lack of “blast-processing”; today’s gaming armies wage war with wildly different artillery. In the pursuit of your mobile gaming dollar, Nintendo toed a traditional line with a new twist. Sony, on the other hand, seems to have bundled every input method it could get its mitts on into its next-generation portable. Microsoft, however, puts the “mobile” in mobile gaming, echoing Apple’s own approach with an Xbox Live platform that eschews dedicated hardware to float across Windows Phone devices as a “feature.”
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Games / GEEK

Got my PS VITA!

Geek-Weely original

I was going to write about the un-boxing of my PS Vita on the 22nd but then I realized that the topic is already overdone. Sure we could review the system specs or the game play but again that’s something everyone is already talking about. So I figured that I would get a few days behind me and share my initial thoughts.
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Expectations:

  1. The screen! What can I say… this is absolutely amazing and probably one of the clearest I have ever seen. The touch screen is extremely fluid with what little content there was to scroll through. This area defiantly exceeded my expectations.
  2. PSP backwards compatibility. Although there are some titles that are being offered on the PlayStation Store I was a little disappointed to find that the copy of Little Big Planet that I got free as part of their network / security challenges last year was not offered as one of the titles I could re-download. Does Sony just want me to buy the new Vita version of the game?
  3. Streaming movies from my home Media Server. Guess what! Not supported. Not that this was an expectation but just as I use the PS3 and the Kids use their XBOX to watch movies I was really hoping that this same feature would be available on the PS Vita.

Design:

  1. The overall design of the PS VITA is truly almost perfect. Sure it’s a fingerprint magnet but so are all other touch screen devices. What I might have done differently is to not go glossy on the back. Similar to the touch-pad on a laptop I think a matte finish could have been done here.
  2. Game cartridge slot. My fingernails are short and opening this cover to put in a game cartridge in a little too much of a struggle.
  3. Memory! Again Sony forces us to use their proprietary memory. This is something that I do not agree with but what are we going to do about it?

Wish list:

  1. Application development is something I would like to see on the Vita. Not the crap you get on Android or iTunes but obviously game or tech related apps. Even an e-mail client to connect to my Gmail. After all the average gamer is communicating via e-mail or getting updates that way.
  2. Alternate instant messaging apps would also help to feed the social aspect of the device.
  3. Improved web browsing. Although the browser is an improvement over the PS3’s it seems to have to re-draw the page after each flick of the finger. This definitely needs some polishing.
  4. Angry Birds! It’s a no brainier… add a few of the top iOS and Android games to the Vita and you will be well on your way to making this system a true gaming platform.

It’s really too soon to see what’s going to happen with this unit but it is SONY and I would like to think they will make this work. Over all I think that this is a great system with so much potential. I for one am very excited to see where this goes.

Computer / GEEK

Happy 30th to the Commodore 64!

Would you pay $1,400 for a computer with less than one megabyte of memory?

Oh yes, you would.

In fact, in 1982 more than 300,000 people did just that, dropping $595 (or, $1,400 in 2012 dollars) to snap up the awesome, brand new, super-powerful Commdore 64 — and all of its 36 useable kilobytes of memory.

The classic machine is celebrating its 30th birthday this week. It was first introduced at the 1982 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Read More Here!

Games / News

PSVITA launched…. in Japan

I know that I have been posting quite a bit when it comes to the PSVITA. And if you know me them you also know I’m pretty excited about this new system from Sony. This past weekend the PSVITA was launched in Japan and as quick as they were sold it was quickly noted that there were problems with the software. Poor touch response and even system freezing were among the complaints that hit sites like twitter. It looks like Sony knew there might have been an issue because what only seemed like hours Sony had released a software patch and apology. As unfortunate as this is it’s not out of the norm. New systems tend to have some bugs in the first few days / weeks of this release.

I’m hopeful that this will be corrected in time for the US launch on February 22nd.