Cloud Services...

Sorry for the long silence (whomever I am going to apologize anyways), I have written these below lines a while ago but had no chance to form them into a blog post. So here goes nothing and my 2-cents.

In an era which is "the thing most matters is the choice of complete service provider", we are living. Current heavily armed forces are Microsoft, Apple, Google. They serve nearly everything you can think of; from OSes to games, office solutions to cloud services.

And I believe soon we are going to see some posts like "my everything is on Live, how can I migrate to Google?" or "I am an Apple guy, how to go Microsoft way?"

At that point, if it ever happens, in my humble opinion; the one provider who makes this conversion easy and with smaller/shorter steps will win this cloud service war in the end. What I mean is -just stay with me- if a user want to migrate, he/she has to do it manually to the bones nearly... Calendar, music, contacts, other content such as apps, documents etc, etc. Everything must be backed-up first and moved nearly manually right now.

What I am saying is that I believe; if a provider offers to be such a conversion with easy steps possible, that provider will win this "Cloud Servicing" stuff right that moment in my book.

Think like that, sorry but end-user gets dumber and dumber by the moment and such internet based services (even whole networks, providers, etc...) are keeping up by being dumbed down even more. True right? I think so... but moving from one such service provider to the another is still not an easy task. I accept it is not that difficult but it is also the least easy thing to achieve nowadays.

I hope one of the providers will see this opportunity and make a move to end this race, so we can move to the next competition...

Browsers...

We are always going to be in need of, I think so at least, two different browsers... While working on windows, my primary choice is Internet Explorer of course; my secondary is Safari. While I am working or spending time on my home PC, which is a Mac, I use Safari as my primary and Opera as my secondary.

For Windows I use Safari for secondary because of I believe I must have same browsers on different platforms to accept something as, you know, baseline some-kind.

Ok, but why am I not using Opera as my second on the home PC so I still can have a baseline? Then again users who has and utilizes two browsers at the same time of course use their primaries more often. And if I use opera as baseline and the secondary at both environments, my usage will be small portioned (for Opera) and I will be missing the, you know, best of both worlds. Don't take me wrong, Opera is a great browser, but for mobiles you know.

Only if MS Internet Explorer was on Mac too that would change everything...

MSN on iPhone...

Quick post, this will be. Microsoft has just released official MSN App for the iPhone. That's quite awesome, no really, it is a very good thing for MS to do.

BUT WHY IS MSN 8 FOR MAC STILL BETA?!?!?! and broken...?

We have tons of different solutions to use Live Accounts on iPhone. On Mac I cannot say it is true, at least for me. I was waiting for a decent version of MSN for Mac over 2 years now. MS only releases more and more irrelevant(*) apps on iPhone! That I do not understand, please Microsoft; first fix the main platform(**) which is Mac OS X not iOS...

(*): Bing, Seadragon, Tag (however I see a bright future for Tag, still; on iPhone, it is irrelevant in my humble opinion).

(**): Here is the link to the borked version of MSN for MAC 8, which is still in beta and has a lot of known issues... (if somehow it becomes released and gets completely fixed, I am probably not going to bother to edit this post. So I state that this is on 12/07/10.)

Silverlight on iPhone?

Ok. Nowadays, it seems everbody is accepting the truth that Adobe's Flash is too slow to run on low power consumpted handheld devices. Or rather I say Apple's devices, yeah that sounds more appropriate (btw I am an iPhone user and excited about iPad). The thind I wonder most about is, well uhmm, is it true for Microsoft's Silverlight too?

I know for a fact that Adobe's optimizations are "file size" oriented. It is said that developers at Adobe are strictly dictated over patch sizes and new versions in about 3 digit byte levels. Also I know for another fact that Silverlight is CPU-wise optimized. So why not fully support Silverlight instead of so called slow Flash on Safari Mobile. At least we'll have an alternative, and that's better than nothing.

Over a night, things change. Today the video on internets may equal to Adobe's Flash. Tomorrow, if everything played nice by Microsoft, it could be Silverlight in my humble opinion.

1 kg. 3G Please...

What I learn from Apple's 3G is that a kilogram of 3G is $2600. Look at the chart please;
$130 for 50 gr 3G. Rest is obvious; 2600$ is for a kilogram of 3G. Enjoy the new Gadget...

Also there is this funny joke;

Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance

When I had a Nokia N-Gage back in, well let's just say back then, Gameloft was impressive. They did almost always "above the average quality" games. But now things change I see, for inatance; I have an iPhone at the moment and every single gameloft branded game is not even average. They are way below average. I wonder what changed? Because I see many quiet awesome iPhone games that it is clear iPhone can be considered even a handheld gaming console. And knowing that Gameloft was a legend producer in my 'Series 60' years, one wonders.


However, again, one cannot claim that N.O.V.A. is a poor imitation of Halo. It is as good as any game can get on an iPhone. I accept it is a clone, but it is a well made well designed clone. Buy it, you will not be disappointed, although I will not say it may be a turn point for Gameloft or anything. They need more such games to earn the trust of, at least mine, of the wireless gamer community.

Appstoresesesesessss

In recent months there was a leap in numbers of the applications on iPhone AppStore. I wonder if it is ever going to be unmanageable for both sides in the future. I mean the Apple, and the customer. Already, there are so many apps to choose from if you want a specific tool; say a twitter client. And the search is even today started to get messy. I am only guessing here; but I think soon the problems will begin to emerge due to high numbers. Besides I am hearing AppRejectPolicies are getting also out of hand...

And on the other hand, every other major mobile phone or platform company has a store now. To me which is even worse for a customer stand of point. For instance I bought a phone and a multi-platform app for this phone. Then I decided I hate this phone and bought a new one or return/change it etc. Now I have to buy that app again for the new platform. Such Apps are minority right now but I suspect there will be more in the future due to high demand. Apps should be one licence per person, not phone. This will make you customer very happy. Take my words for it 'cause now changing a phone is too easy. Thanks to uncontrollable competition in the market.

Besides, everyone must know by now, in this era copying something is not good enough to get a slice from the pie... You need to better the things a lil bit up for success. I don't see a point opening a store up with so little enhancements and overall quality? Are they doing it because of prestige issues? like "they have it, so must we!". That shouldn't be the way.

It's been such a long time since I wrote but a lot has changed. I begin to write at http://blog.starwars.gen.tr/ and it takes time, a lot of my time. You know I love Star Wars.

And now I noticed my attitude is somehow like Daring Fireball. Respect! :)

Lucasarts Partners Up With Steam

This week's one of the top beautiful news came from Lucasarts. They announced this partnership out of nowhere and made us very happy in the meantime, with both free codes on net and great upcoming news. In the first line, we already had these 10;

1. Armed And Sangerous
2. Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis
3. Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
4. Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
5. Loom
6. Star Wars Battlefront II
7. Star Wars Republic Commando
8. Star Wars Starfighter
9. The Dig
10. Thrillville: Off The Rails

These are all awesome, but one has my love more than the others. LOOM. Oh gosh mmm. Even Republic Commando is my all time favourite game on PC platform, Loom has a special place in my heart.

As many times I stated my soul belongs to Lucasarts. Enjoy the partnership with Steam, go buy somethings.

Maybe they are gonna do more awesome things in the future for us, like Monkey Island and Maniac Mansion on iPhone kind of stuff. Why did I say that? No reason? Wink Wink Nod Nod.

PS: Apple Appstore Policy forbids to announce anything before they are really ready to release.

Windows 7 Performs Better Than I Expected

Hello all, today I want to write about my Windows 7 experience. I have been using it for 7 days now, and collecting data in order to write about it.

I was a Ubuntu user as I said it earlier cause I am in war with piracy personally. I do not pirate anything under any circumstances. Since I am not so rich. I am trying to avoid licensed stuff and stick with share and free ware whenever I can.

Back to business, when my Ubuntu last died, I was trying to install OpenLDAP so I can get some idea first and then decide to use it at work in development environment. Yeah, Yeah I had free time to try it out at home, that wa my mistake. Anyways Ubuntu died and I had no OS CD or DVD at that time except that MS sent Windows 7 RC 7100.

Since Ubuntu died completely at that time I had no internet connection to download anything to recover it or fix it or etc... I hopelessly put the 7100 dvd in. And my trip began.

It was a wonderfully fast installation. Under 20 minutes, and at that point I'll give my computers specifications. But under 20 minutes? wait a minute! Here goes specifications;

• Pentium 4 2.8 GHz Prescott [800 MHz bus]
• 1 GB ram [DDR 400 mhz]
• 160 GB SATA HDD
• ATI x1650

Installation ended in under 20 minutes, I was not impressed but shocked! Because last time I installed a windows on this computer it was an XP SP2 and it took twice that!

Yeah Installation ended anyway, It was a disaster from a point of finding the appropriate drivers. I had no internet connection cause it missed my NIC. I found the drivers that took my 3 minutes or so [yes I am going to count this time as setup time, at the end it was Windows' fault]. I showed the drivers. and excatly like another 3 minutes. It installed all my other drivers, including on board sound card, ATI, some other drivers that belongs to mainboard. Cause as soon as it gets the internet connection there wa appropriate drivers installed and Windowsgot updated too. So yeah it was a clear 26 minutes update. And under 30 minutes I installed the DivX codecs and start to watch movies on my LCD TV.

Along the whole week I noticed Windows is abruptly responsive on my old very old system. I am clicking on something and BAM! It is there, so fast so responsive. You know what it is even shocky that it does whole this with no HDD noise. After this week; I decided to give it a longer term chance, I found my original MS Office 2007 Home and Student Ed. installed it, give this old timer 2 GB more ram [It is now a 3GB machine with practically wings]. It is working like a magic. Looks everything right for the moment we'll see, who knows maybe this RC expired I buy a Windows 7? not go back to free Ubuntu or buy a Mac Mini? Who knows?

PS: Death To Software Piracy! I am living a true developer dream! Everything I am using is licensed or free of charge! YAY!

Chrome OS

It's been rather an exciting week so far. Google officially announced Chrome OS, which got me excited because I never pirate. For instance, I am using Windows only when MS sends an RC copy or something. Other times Ubuntu works for me.

You know at home, I am only using my computer for surfing and watching TV Series such as sitcoms etc. So Ubuntu is pretty much whatever I ask at the moment, but as I always say, if I ever become non-cheap, I'll buy a Mac. This is also because the actual Total-Cost-Of-Ownership wise, Mac is the cheapest system out there. You don't give much time to troubleshoot. Like you do with Ubuntu. You don't pay an overprice check for the Macos. Like you do with MS-Windows.

These are the reasons why I am excited for a new OS announced by Google. It'll be definetely free, and It'll be hopefully doing whatever I need at home. I think this is what I have to say about Chrome OS for now, you can check some details on this good blog here.

So, wassup on the MS side? I am hearing there is a very very majorly big major announcement coming over on Monday. I am anxious to know what it is. My tiny guess is something to do with Silverlight, which I adore nowadays. But we'll see on Monday. I need to be patient.

Till then I'll probably write somethings from the gaming world, there are some major announcements there too this week also.

Peace!

iPhone OS 3.0

It's released, and I got it. I liked it. Here's my quick review on the items that I found important. From most important to least important.

Cut/Copy/Paste: Wow, at last! And it works like a wonder. Having it works on SMS is also awesome. Makes it life easier. Having it works on Notes & Mail is even more awesome than I thought.

Spotlight Search: Mac is not my primary system. Not at home, not at work. But such a search tool is very very efficient, now I understand... It is a definite must have.

Shake to Shuffle: It is good to have this on iPhone because I got used to it on my iPod Nano 4th gen. So this is important for me.

Delete single SMS thing: C'mon, everybody has some secret.

Messaging: Well I so rarely send MMS. I ever used it like 4 or 5 times total in my life, but people I know is using it and sending messages through it, so having it once again is nice. I'll be able to recieve MMSs yay. And overally the Messaging application is very cool.

Voice Memos: If I hadn't bought a paid one already, this would be the single thing that is the most important for me... It is essential. It is so important for me that it was the first application I bought. So having it already makes it the last improvement for me...

Other than these either I have not tested them or they are no important for me. But one must be comment about sharing the internet feature. It is also very essential, but iPhone itself answers all my mobile browsing needs. So I don't care about it that much with iPhone. Landscape keyboard for all other applications are definetely good but not for me I was quite ok with normal one. Safari crashes got fixed they say, it must be good but so far it behaves very well for me anyway. Youtube login, meeh not that important. Multiple iTunes account management is yes kind of good. I can use it if I ever need it, maybe on vacation or away from home and my personal computer. These are all good but only on paper for me anyway. Certain scenerios must be occur so that I can find them like WOW THAT'S SO COOL!

A friend of mine was in need of sending contacts on the air. And at last he got it. I heard another friend who is very happy with new Wi-Fi feature. Heard from noone about notes sync, lol.

So they say there are over 100 new features. But those are the key ones that I tried to cover.

Oh I was forgetting that now Assassin's Creed works. So this must be why Gameloft was silent. Still it is bad publicity and stuff...

Ok, that covers all for me...

P.S: 10 mb edge limit is ridiculous and Sega's Sonic game is still not very good responsive to jump/action button.

Patience as a Virtue

Which I don't have. I have no patience whatsoever. Non at all at least when it comes to the stuff that I am very very interested in like technological toys and stuff. For instance; if it is said it is on June 17, I expect it to have it when I wake up. No compromises. If I'll have it on the next day then don't say it is on June 17, say June 18. And I couldn't care less about the time regions. I don't live in the promising party's coutry. I live in my own home country. And my time and date is set by that. Not their own country. Make it the release dates to my country because I am your customer too, you fartlings!

Although I may understand the boxed goods like electronics, hard copy video games and etc... Not all but to a level, I know logistics and deliveries are bitch most of the time. But it is not acceptable as long as the product itself is a digital download, or something like it, like a tv show or alike. Because everyone cares about their own time actually.

My words are going -especially- to big bozos like Apple & Microsoft. I wonder when this issue will become an actual issue of customer relations and customer appreciation subject. Every big company tries their best efforts to keep their customers happy, but noone thought about ridiculous times, time periods of releases and like, I don't know, help desk working hours? In my humble opinion this should be addressed.

Assassin's Creed, Gameloft, iPhone

Hello, I don't know how to address this stoopeedness? First, Gameloft has released Assassin's Creed portable version on iPhone. I don't want to fix on negativeness of the whole situation, but the game uses their "Hero of Sparta" Engine. And the gameplay experience is as bad as the NintendoDS version. There's not any improvement over that port. Remember the original game [X-Box 360 version etc...], it was a master piece, a state of art... Second, and more importantly, the game is crashing after the first demo for many of the user-base. It has been over a month and there is still no fix. There is no word or explanation or a fix date or an apology of anykind. If this is not very bad publicity for all accounts, I do not know what is.

Dark Side Temptations

I wrote a new journal entry to my Deviantart page here: http://cyricy.deviantart.com/journal/ for all the drama queens and kings out there, I think you will enjoy my last entry (named Joining the Dark Side) so much it will make you... I have no idea what it will make you, just read if you are up to it. Thanks in advance if you comment about it :P .

iTunes

You should have (if any interest) already noticed that I love Star Wars. Anyways, I am watching Clone Wars nowadays with great anticipation. I Liked it a lot. And since it is not originally airing in my country, I am watching it a day or two late by downloading and/or try to catch it on satellite or something like that every weekend. I don't like this a bit. So I decided to give iTunes a chance. I am strictly against Apple Products. But Star Wars can be a great mind changer for me. So I installed, so I got an account, so I bought an episode. Then what the #u##? Resolution is horrible, there are movie artifacts all over the video, it is like a VCD quality or something. Then I try to search it on the web a lil bit, dig some blog and forums. People usually say that it is not that bad (yea there may be something wrong with my "catching the details if it is about star wars" skills), thus I got the idea that something wrong with my settings maybe another software maybe just maybe hardware? I am not sure yet because I didn't have time to investigate if something's wrong with my settings. But at the moment I found it highly very unlikely. Because I have no other problems with any other codec. And I can watch pretty good ".mov" files. Still I'll try to figure it out, but I am keeping my hopes low profile :P for the moment. Anyways; after the video issues I also gave a try to radio services on iTunes. I didn't try it out in details but the result is: Last.Fm FTW once again! Last.Fm Last.Fm Last.FM!