Can you Feel the Force?

I'm not normally one for computer games - or am I hoping to start writing about more games in future on this blog - but I feel compelled to broaden the scope on the types of articles I write here and I'm going to give my first game review.

The game in question is "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed", which is available on all of the latest consoles, but the one I'm focused upon here is the one for the Wii. This game was designed for the Wii, who hasn't always wanted to swing a light sabre around and kick butt? The Wiimote allows you to do just that.

Although the graphics aren't as good on the Wii as those found in the XBox 360 or PS3, it matters little...the game play is what this game is all about. That and the story of course - you take on the role of Darth Vaders apprentice, during the time between Episodes 3 and 4 of the feature films, and your role is to seek out the last of the remaining Jedi....

An impressive storyline, superby game play with the use of the Wiimote as a light sabre and a rather cool new game engine developed by Lucas Arts for this game. Apparently, the enemy in this game act more realistic than ever before, meaning if you take a swipe at an enemies leg with your laser sword, they instinctively reach down to their leg to search for the wound, whilst simulataniously also firing off a few blaster shots at your in the meantime! (More can be found on the BBC Technology website here).

Overall, even though I'm only three Jedi kills into the game, I'm already vastly enjoying and can't wait to progress further. If Star Wars is your thing, this is the game to own, especially if you have a streak of the Dark Side in you!

Its all about the i's and e's

I, I, I…it’s all about the “I’s”.

iPod, iPhone, iPaq, iTools, iTunes, iGoogle, iMac….although predominantly an Apple branding exercise, it seems that everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of sticking an “i” in front of their product or service name. And its not the first time that its happened, think back to the “e” days: eBay, e-mail, e-Services, e-ink,…

It’s something that has only just occurred to me that service and products within the IT realm tend to get labelled with these alphabetized prefixes. Google tried to introduce the “G” prefix with gmail, but that was short-lived after running into trouble with the rights to the “gmail” name in Europe and was soon forced to change their European domain to “googlemail” to comply.

Everyone know what the “e” stood for (“electronic”), but there is a degree of mystic about what the “i” in “iPod” actually stands for. Some say “internet”, others say “information”, others say it doesn’t stand for anything (anymore – which suggests it did stand for something in the past).

If “i”, “e” and “g” are already taken and presumably “f” has been taken too (“f-secure” is a popular anti-virus application), even if it hasn’t caught on in the same way, and “v” is also out as that conflicts with other things such as the “V-Festival” and “v-Day”. Therefore, before the next round of prefixes, I would like to stake my claim to “c”, which will stand for either “Communication” or “Connected” or any other descriptive word that starts with the letter “C”.

Streaming Music

My primary computer is a tablet PC – I find that this is the best solution for me, as I don’t have a desk for a desktop type set up and I like the freedom to move around that I get with the tablet and my home wireless network.

If you’ve been reading my previous blog entries you will also know that my music collection is stored on a NAS (Network Attached Storage) device, which allows me to play music from whichever device I happen to be using when I’m not using my tablet (my Ultra Mobile PC or my Windows Smartphone). There are times when, after a long day in the office staring at my dual screen display, when I don’t want to come home and stare at a laptop screen for the remainder of the day, but I do like to play my music. I find it inappropriate to power up my laptop just for the purposes of listening to my digital music collection.

The solution: the Logitech Squeezebox Duet.

This is a wireless music streaming solution, which consists of a remote control and a wireless receiver box. Simply plug the receiver into a set of powered speakers or into the auxiliary ports of a stereo or hi-fi unit and connect it to your wireless network. Using the “iPod-style” remote control and click-wheel to browse your music collection and click play – streaming of your digital music collection.

Of course, it’s not quiet as simple as that. I had hoped that I’d be able to connect the Squeezebox directly to my NAS using uPnP (universal plug and play), but that was not to be the case. The Squeezebox relies upon a piece of middle-ware known as “SqueezeCenter”. This can be installed directly onto some NAS devices, however reports across the web from those that have done this indicate that the service runs slowly and it can take a while to ‘pull-back’ your music in a timely fashion. So, if you don’t want to run the SqueezeCenter directly on your NAS, you will need to install it onto a ‘server PC’ or on your desktop PC.

I eventually opted to install onto a ‘server PC’, which runs the “SqueezeCenter” software – which is pointed at my music folder on my NAS box. But the results are extremely satisfying, the Squeezebox responds almost instantly and the quality of the stream across my wireless network is perfect (obviously, the quality of the track is determined by the quality of the original MP3 file and the technique used to ‘rip’ the track). The next trick the Squeezebox is able to provide me is streaming of internet radio – this has allowed me to finally switch off and get rid of a old hi-fi, who’s CD player had long stopped working, which was only used for radio. Streaming radio from the internet in this way has got rid of the old crackling FM problems; however its worthwhile checking you can get your favourite local stations before implementing the Squeezebox solution.

As an extra treat to myself, because I was replacing an existing stereo, I bought a set of 2.1 BOSE Companion 3 speakers to accompany the Squeezebox. They are quite pricey in comparison with other 2.1 speaker sets available from other manufacturers, but BOSE do have the credentials to boast about the sound quality their speakers achieve. I’ve never heard sound quality from any other set of speakers comparable with these BOSE speakers, other than my BOSE noise-cancelling headphones.

Whilst these speakers are targeted at the PC market, with the two small satellite speakers and a medium-sized subwoofer, they are extremely adoptable for other purposes too (such as use with a Squeezebox!). The sound quality is excellent, and the build quality is equally has high. The volume control for example is separate from the speakers, but has been weighted and turns like a click-wheel around the top of the control – it just feels good to touch and I doubt never before that the ability to mute the speakers by the merest of touches on the top of the control could be labelled as “cool”, but this just is. It amazes me every time (but maybe that’s just me who gets excited by something as small and simple as this mechanism).

Whilst the Squeezebox may not be for everyone (there are alternative systems and solutions to playing music that may/may not be as cheap – it really does depend on what you want and your existing set ups), but the BOSE speakers I would recommend to anyone who is looking to purchase a set of speakers (and I really do believe that the price of these speakers is reasonable and justifiable when compared to the lower-quality you would get from any other set of speakers).

Chat for Charity

Unless someone has printed off this blog for you, I think it’s safe to assume that you are a computer user – and as a computer user, its fairly save to assume that you use email and possibly instant messaging. If you’re a Hotmail or Live Messenger user, you can now email or IM for charity - IF you live in the US.

All you have to do is sign up and then add a code word onto your email or instant messenger username, the code word relates to the charity of your choice (and there are a fair few to choose from – and hopefully more will sign up). Then once you’ve done the very basics – start sending emails and chatting with instant messenger. What could be simpler?

Only two drawbacks I can see so far, the first is you have to be based inside the US – there is a ‘sign up’ option to be informed when Microsoft extend this charitable cause beyond the US and hopefully it’ll happen pretty quickly. The second problem is, it only works if you use Hotmail or Live Messenger – whilst I use Messenger (quite a lot), I’m not a Hotmail user!

Find out more here and be sure to sign up if you can.

Media Integration

Over the past couple of months, I’ve had my attention focused upon my media devices and a lot has changed as a result. First, as previously blogged my Apple iPod gave up on me and as a direct result switched from iPod and iTunes to the Creative Zen and Windows Media Player….and I’ve never looked back, other than to continue to download my podcast streams from iTunes (which are then immediately copied to Media Player).

My music was then copied and stored onto NAS (Network Attached Storage), and shared with my laptop and my ultra mobile PC (UMPC), for access to the same music libraries no matter which device I was using at the time. Photographs followed and were sent to the NAS for storage. It then became clear that a “Media Centre” type set up was starting to emerge, which was not what I originally intended when I was forced to make the switch from my failed iPod.

More on Media Centre and Squeezebox in future blogs, but the purpose of this blog was in relation to a quote I read from a Microsoft employee regarding the “MP3 Player” market meeting the “Media Centre”. Anyone who’s used Microsoft Media Centre to manage their media may have stumbled across the “Media Extenders” option. This works by allowing your “primary” Media Centre to have “secondary” (extenders), players attaching to the media, in order to stream the content to its intended outputs.

For an example, imagine a “Media Server” located in a cupboard somewhere which has all of the music, photographs, videos and other media. In the living room, you may then have a “Media Player Extender”, which is able to stream the content from the server, in the bedroom you may have an Xbox 360 (which is able to be an “Extended device”), that streams the same media content. This means that all of your media is stored once only and in only one place, to which everyone connects to via the home network.

Microsoft reckons that your MP3 Player should be able to be a “media extender” within your “Media Centre” too – and I agree, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be. Microsoft’s own Zune Player already comes equipped with wireless network technology, which was originally used to share music content with other Zune users, but this technology could integrate the ‘mobile media player’ into the same content as every other “media extender”, allowing you to stream music, video, recorded TV shows and photographs directly to the ‘mobile media player’. Using some additional synchronisation software, you could then copy media to the local storage of the mobile device for enjoyment ‘on-the-move’.

Imagine, for example, recording the latest episode of your favourite sitcom from the TV tuner plugged into the “Media Centre” server. Someone is watching their favourite show on the TV meaning you can’t watch your latest recording there, the kids have the second TV tied up with an Xbox game, so you decide to use your MP3 player – you connect to the server and select your recording. Instantly, it’s streamed across the wireless home network to the ‘mobile device’ and you start to watch. Whilst you’re watching, in the background your music libraries synchronise with each other and update your playlists. At that point, you realise you have to leave – you quickly synchronise the remained of your TV show to your “Zune/mobile media player” and leave the house and the confines of the home wireless network. Because you synchronised the TV to your device, whilst you’re on the train you are able to pick up at the exact point you left off during your recorded programme and watch the remainder of the show.

Throughout that entire scenario, all of the technology exists – (apart from the ability to integrate your “mobile media player” with Media Centre to those described levels). As blogged previous (http://www.deadlyrevelations.com/2008/05/integration-nightmares-dreams.html), the ultimate goal is the seamless integration of multiple devices with one another and this is my next predicted evolution of the “MP3 Player”.
Now all we need is for Microsoft to make this happen and release the Zune in the UK and Europe. Or Apple opens up their devices to work with other platforms other than iTunes (which is extremely unlikely to happen in the near future!).

Requires Exchange....

In a previous blog I speculated that Microsoft needed to up its “Windows Mobile” operating system offerings with “Mobile 7” to recapture some of the smart phone mobile market that has been eaten away by rivals Apple with their iPhone products. New open source mobile OS’s from Google (Android) and from the Linux community (“LiMo” or Linux Mobile), are likely to have a further impact upon Microsoft’s penetration in the mobile OS space.

However, is it all as bad as it seems? My first thoughts were that losing market share in the mobile space would spell a bit of a disaster for Microsoft, however they appear to have played a very different game and one that downplays the effect of a reduced number of “MS Mobile” systems has (if that scenario does play out and users move away from the Microsoft Mobile device in favour of the alternatives).

For a number of years email has been the key business (and commercial) application for a vast number of users and the ability to deliver email to mobile devices in real-time is high on the list of features for anyone purchasing a new mobile phone – and certainly within the enterprise business space, no one does email quite like Microsoft with their Exchange applications. Watching the TV advertisements for the new Apple 3G iPhone demonstrating the “push email” features that are now included, a very significant banner appears across the bottom of the screen which reads “REQUIRES MICROSOFT EXCHANGE”.

This is because Apple bought the license for Microsoft technology known as “ActiveSync”, which allows the mobile device to ‘synchronise’ with the Exchange email server and deliver email in real-time (as you would expect MS use the same technology on their “Windows Mobile” devices). It seems the popularity of Microsoft’s email software, combined with its ActiveSync application, have positioned Microsoft in a very unique and strong position within the mobile market (maybe not the one they originally wanted, but a strong position none-the-less).

Further evidence of this can be found with the recently signed contract between Microsoft and (rather large phone mobile manufacturer/player) Nokia, who have licensed the same ActiveSync software for their Symbian Operating System.

Microsoft may not be as visible within the mobile space as it would like, but it will certainly be a big player within the mobile market space.