Alright, I’m creating a mashup of favorite tech from 2010 (including gadgets, games, useful apps, etc.).
• Red Dead Redemption – By far my vote for the best game of 2010. Not only did it have great graphics and sound, but it had an excellent and engaging storyline as well. You could spend forever in this game if you wanted to with a full on sandbox, lengthy expansions, and an online multiplayer mode. Every time I thought I had beaten the game, a whole new chapter opened up. I can’t think of another game (except for maybe Uncharted 2), that drew me into the story so well. There was one moment where I really was blown away – you beat a “chapter” of the game and this eerie, heartfelt music comes on as you start to travel home – it was truly amazing. (Call of Duty: Black Ops is my runner-up.)
• PlayStation Move – Yeah, I know, I’m a PS fangirl, but some on, even Popular Science named it in their Best of What’s New in 2010. The precision is amazing. I found it hard to believe that it was much different than Wii, but after trying both, I can honestly say that PS Move is much easier to use and way more precise. Not only does the PS Move pick up side-to-side and up-and-down action, but it picks up forward-and-back movement and every angle at which you are holding the controllers. For example, I tried Frisbee Golf and you can see every single twitch that you make with your controller. It really picks up exactly how you are holding the controller and follows your movement all the way through your release. It’s pretty fun, but I really can’t wait until Killzone 3 is released in February. I think that is going to be the first game that really makes people think twice about PS Move. Right now, I haven’t talked to anyone who’s even heard of PS Move – they’re all Kinect crazy. I think Kinect is amazing – but not because of what Kinect lets the casual user do. Kinect is amazing because it really has some extreme tech that hackers and programmers are taking advantage of such as haptic holographics and such. I think that tech with help further other inventions, but I kind of doubt that Microsoft will start opening the same power up to the casual users. Tere is only so much you can do with your body movements to control a game. I can’t really see how anyone could play Call of Duty with Kinect. But with PS Move it could be amazing. Not only do you have all of the buttons for different functions, but you can use motion control as well. 2011 is going to be a great year for video games.
• Sennheiser RS120 Wireless Headphones – Why didn’t I buy these years ago? Seriously. These things are amazing. Not only are they amazing to play games with, but it’s great to be able to play video games without disturbing John and vice-versa. Playing Call of Duty: Black Ops is a little crazy because they pick up every single sound from the game. You thought surround sound was wild – try surround sound headphones.
• Kindle 3 – Excellent buy, but I’m glad I held out until 2010. This little guy has been beyond helpful. I carry it with me everywhere – literally. The clarity of e-ink and smaller size makes a big difference over previous generations. I also love the graphite color much better than the usual white. I find it so easy to read off the Kindle screen – it actually reminds me of a traditional book. I can read it in the light, load hundreds of books, play games, surf the net, etc. It was great to be able to keep all of my personal reading choices and all of my school textbooks with me on one little device. Ahhhh, Amazon, how I heart thee.
• Roku XD|S – I won one of these from a Mashable contest. I was going to buy one for myself for Christmas, so it was perfect timing. This little device is awesome. I loaded it with MOG, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Newscaster, YouTube, and a bunch of other “channels,” including, a hunting and fishing channel that John loves. They’re pretty wallet friendly since they range from $59-$99. They use hardly any power (they don’t even have a power switch). We are putting it on a junk TV we got as a spare and are moving it upstairs so we can move the good Samsung monitor downstairs with the PS3 running Hulu Plus, Netflix, and everything else as well.
• Dropbox – Okay, I’ve had Dropbox for awhile, but this year I went ahead and started paying for the service. I have the 50GB plan, which even though I think I’ve put everything I’ve done all year in it, I’m only taking up a third of the space. I use it as my default spot to save all of my files so they all get backed up as soon as I save them. I have a feeling it’s really going to save me one of these days. It also lets you keep versions of files, so if you delete or modify one you can go through to any version you’ve ever saved. Amazing. Plus, I can use it quickly and efficiently on my Droid.
• Pogoplug – Last year’s Christmas gift, but this year was obviously the time I used it the most. Great little gadget. They recently lowered the price on the main model and added a wireless adapter for what they lowered the price to so they actually sent all customers who had previously bought the Pogoplug a free wireless adapter. That’s treating your customers right. I keep everything on hard drives connected to this thing and can access them from anywhere (including my Android device).
• Hulu Plus – Yeah, I definitely signed up for this in Beta. Loving Hulu Plus. It is so convenient to watch whole seasons of shows and catch up on shows I’ve missed without having to worry about expiration dates. I was having an issue with watching it on my PS3 or iPod Touch because the ads would blare (which was horrible with surround sound), but it seems like they adjusted that because it hasn’t seemed to boost on ads for awhile.
• MOG – MOG has been my favorite music service of all time – aside from my trial experience with Spotify (but it’s currently only offered in select countries). I no longer find a need to go “find” music and I haven’t touched my iTunes library in months. With maybe one or two exceptions, every single song I have ever tried to listen to has been in the MOG library. I also has a great Pandora-like radio slider where you can pick an artist and then have it find similar songs by other artists (and you can adjust it to mix in more or less variation). You can also create and share playlists, like/dislike songs and search a huge library. Two other bonuses: they have apps for all smartphone operating systems (with downloading/offline listening) and a Chrome web app.
• Square Reader – It’s a tiny credit/debit card reader that plugs into the audio input of Android or iOS phones and allows you to accept payments. It took a really long time to get the card reader because there were manufacturing limitations and such, but once I got it I tried it out and it’s amazing. Not only is it instant, but it allows you to swipe or type in payment numbers, accept a signature, and send a receipt via email. Very cool. And the money was directly deposited into my bank account the next day.
• Evernote – Yes, these are other services I ended up paying for to receive premium access. Evernote just recently hiked up user limits to 1GB, also, so that was an awesome holiday bonus. It’s very convenient for sending myself recipes, taking photo notes, or most recently, for importing all of my Delicious bookmarks in case that service ceases to exist.
• Remember the Milk – Remember the Milk has been a life saver to remind me of tasks and quickly schedule reminders. Plus, these both have mobile apps, Chrome extensions, etc.
• Google & Skype – Yeah, I know, I’ve been using Google for years, but I am especially grateful for Google this year. Not only do I use a ton of Google services for all of my online needs (Voice, Chrome, Reader, Android, Gmail, Picasa, etc.), but Google Navigation and Places saved our butts as we traveled cross country and it continues to be our guide around Seattle. I use Google Navigation for all of my traveling around in car or on foot when I’m not sure where I am going. We were able to see where we were going while traveling cross country, how long it would take, the distance between turns, were easily rerouted, and we can even decide to ignore highways when there are traffic jams due to Husky football games. We lost signal a lot while coming cross country, but our Droid kept chugging because it had already pre-loaded our route. They recently added a lot of offline functionality, so it should be even easier going across. They only time I lost total signal was in the middle of Wyoming and it was all one giant stretch of highway so I didn’t need the Droid anyways. Skype has just been awesome for making calls. I use Google Voice for texts, voicemail, and a main number, but I use Skype to make calls from my computer or from my phone to someone logged into Skype. For unlimited access, $3/month for Skype is pretty great – $0 for Google Voice is even better.
• Xpenser – My personal finance log. I don’t write down transactions – I enter them in Xpenser. This has been awesome for keeping track of every expense. I don’t even bother to look at my bank account with the exception of maybe once or twice a month. The bank was always delayed and I could never rely on the numbers. With Xpenser, I enter everything and can have multiple reports. For example, I have a Primary report, a Pending report, and a personal spending report for each of us. I can add things in the Pending report and move them over to the Primary whenever I need to. I can tag things for business, or as a credit card charge, can add labels, types, notes, dates, and even receipts if I want to. I usually just access Xpenser at the end of the day to record expenses, but when I’m on the road I can whip out my cellphone and send it an SMS to add expenses as well. Oh, and it’s free.
• Adobe Creative Suite 5: Master Collection – The Adobe Creative Suites are always useful. I use at least one program every single day, whether it’s Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Acrobat, Flash, or any number of other program. I need the programs to make it through any work day. The improvements are welcome. I especially like how they finally made the previously-Macromedia programs look like full Adobe products, and I love the content-aware feature in Photoshop. It’s a major time saver.
• TweetDeck – I used TweetDeck a ton during my graduate program to keep up with hashtag conversations. I use the desktop app, but haven’t found the Chrome app or Android app very useful. For Twitter on Android I use Twidroyd Pro.
• TextMate – I’ve used TextMate a ton at work. For some reason I can’t use DreamWeaver to access the server, but TextMate seems to be working just fine – it color codes, allows tabbed browsing, and I just recently read an article about extensions that I’m going to try out.
• ProGaming Glasses by Gunnar Optiks – They add slight magnification to the image on the screen, slightly tint the picture, and reduce eye strain (something I suffer not only gaming, but sitting in front of a computer monitor all day at work). They’re supposed to be around $100 but Amazon, like usual, has them on sale for less than half of that.
Ever since I saw the post Which online music sites do you use and why? on Quora a few weeks ago, I’ve been testing out every music service that I could find online, determined to find the best one. Just this morning I came across the post The State of Internet Music on YouTube, Pandora, iTunes, and Facebook on Gizmodo. There’s a quote that immediately sums up what I’ve been fighting with in my search.
We don’t listen to albums now; we listen to collections of songs. – Tom Silverman
After what felt like the end of my search yesterday, I couldn’t help but feel like all the music that I’ve collected over the past few years in my iTunes library is going to sit stagnant as I adopt any new service. Apple has yet to release a “cloud/streaming” option, but perhaps when that comes it will be the best solution for me. For now, here’s my take on a few services that I have frequently used and a few others that I checked out…
Pandorais a great quick-fix, supplemental service. You pick a song, artist, or genre to search for and it creates a playlist/radio station of similar songs. It automatically saves that playlist/station until you choose to delete it. You can add items to the list to vary what it plays, like/dislike songs, but other than that there’s not much to it. Mobile versions available. Free (Ads, Limited skips, 40 hours/month) – Premium $36/year
Grooveshark is good for creating quick playlists of music you like by selecting it from current playlists or searching for it. Just like Pandora and several other services, you can favorite tracks and save lists. Free (Ads) – Premium $3/month or $30/year
Last.fm is an excellent site. The biggest appeal for me here isn’t the music service itself, but its scrobbler. Last.fm is linked with nearly every other service out there. You connect the service to Last.fm and then any song you play on another service is sent to Last.fm and is automatically added to your profile. This is useful to keep track of your listening habits, to display your history with various blog widgets, and to use with Last.fm’s own recommendation system. Last.fm is vast. You can buy tracks, add them to your library (collection of music), find recommended music, “love” tracks, tag tracks, create playlists, keep a journal, find events, look up charts, etc. Mobile versions available and there are many plugins you can find to incorporate Last.fm into nearly anything. Free – Premium $3/month
Hype Machine & We Are Hunted both are pretty similar. They both claim to have the latest emerging music and they are both pretty limited, but they both have a place in the music service list. Both of these sites, along with TheSixtyOne are excellent places to find new music. They all seem to pretty much focus on emerging indie stars. Free
Rdio’s biggest advantage over another service, MOG, is that they allow you to scan your iTunes library to automatically add “all” of your music to your Rdio collection (it was only able to match a third of my iTunes collection). You can create playlists, keep a running queue, see new releases, recommendations, and top charts. Invite only. $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening
Until Google or Apple decide to finally come out with some sort of cloud/streaming solution, I have decided to settle on MOG as my go-to service. MOG is sort of a cross between Pandora and Rdio. What made me switch from Rdio is that I actually found every song I was searching for to match a playlist of current chart toppers that I had made in my iTunes library. I also really like the Radio slider. When you pick a song/artist to play you can use a slider to decide if you’d like the auto-created playlist to be comprised of that artist alone or if you’d like to stir it up Pandora-style and add music from similar artists. I found this to be the perfect blend of having the music I love in one place while having the option to introduce myself to new music that I will most likely love as well. The more I played around with MOG, the more I grew to love it. Here’s a few things worth mentioning… the pop-out window/player, I’m going to mention the slider again, Last.fm scrobbling can be enabled, you can pick nearly any artist or any song and actually find it available, you can create a queue, pick favorites, create/share playlists, and keep a blog. Also there is what seems like an endless list of playlists from both users and artists. The one feature I’m missing is the ability to keep a library/collection and scan my iTunes, but these are features that support says are coming. It’s one of those things I keep thinking I feel I need because I’m used to it, but at the same time I’m pretty happy with just picking a song, adding a little variety and giving the thumbs up or thumbs down as I go. 3 Days Free Trial – $5/month Unlimited Online Listening – $10/month Unlimited Online & Mobile Listening (Includes Ability To Listen Offline)
Of course there are hundreds of options out there, but these were my favorites… with the exception of Spotify, but sadly, it’s not available in the US and I’m too sore at it to give an explanation of its features.
SlideScreen can either run as a home screen replacement, or as an app that you just call up when you want to use it. There are three main sections on SlideScreen’s “home screen.” The upper section features updates to your email, phone, text messaging, and calendar. The middle section slides up and down and features local weather, time, date, battery power, and a few other icons that would normally be found in Android’s default status bar. The bottom section features stocks, Twitter, and Google Reader updates. At any time you can move the middle bar up to make the bottom section fully accessible via a cycling menu. You can also move the middle bar all the way down to cycle through your top section of personal updates.
The home button can be set to go to your default Android home, or made to go to the SlideScreen home. The menu button, with one touch, brings up your app library with a small area at the top to set 8 shortcuts. With a second touch of your menu button, SlideScreen brings up a choice of Phone or SlideScreen settings.
While it is very slick and a beautiful app, it still leaves a lot to be desired. If we’re adding Twitter support, where’s Facebook or instant messaging support? And where, I ask, is support for the regular Email application. I use Gmail which is nice on SlideScreen, but I also use Email to sync with my nonGmail addresses. Those addresses also happen house my business email. I’d also like some control over how much space each line item takes up, what color they are, and the order in which they appear. Hopefully the developers continue to add features and customization options.
All in all, this app is beautiful. I tested this app via the free version and used it for all of 5 minutes before purchasing the Pro version for $6.99 from the Android Market (SlideScreen). Take a look at the YouTube walkthrough (below) that Larva Labs has posted.
This morning I came across an article on ReadWriteWeb that briefly explored the concept of having mobile web apps versus mobile apps that need to go through an acceptance process. The apps may or may not end up in one of the mobile app stores. I’m a big fan of mobile apps in general.
I have an iPod Touch and have used many free and paid apps which I have purchased through the App Store. I also unlocked my iPod Touch for a time and took the chance to use some apps through Cydia. Recently, I bought the DROID and have been using apps which I purchased from the Android Market. On occasion, I also use mobile web apps.
In a location where phone service is not always available, I use many an app that does not rely on having service. Mainly these apps are for passing time (playing games) or catching up on a little reading with apps like Kindle for iPhone. A good majority of the apps I use on my phone or my iPod do require an internet connection whether it is wireless or 3G. For those apps, I wouldn’t really mind if the apps were replaced by web counterparts. A few web services that I use now (Xpenser, Meebo, Facebook) either only have a web app, or are inferior apps on either iPhone or Android OS and I would rather use the web interface. Some apps lack a user friendly, attractive UI and I would much rather just see development go into a web interface. If it’s something I use frequently, it’s quite simple to bookmark a web site on my phone’s desktop to return quickly.
A clear upside that I can see to a movement towards mobile web apps is that HTML5, CSS etc. is much more accessible than the development tools necessary to create apps for certain app stores. It would most certainly bring an increase in development and the web apps would most likely be accessible from all phone OSs. It would be nice to see apps that were just as good on Android as they are on the iPhone.
Of course, there are many downsides as well. First, it would be hard to charge for web apps, although I suppose there could be subscription type fees applied. Second, like the current stores, there would be an overwhelming amount of shovelware out there and would most likely open the phones to web delivered virus attacks. You would also need a signal in order to access the apps and at first, page transfers will be slower than moving around in native apps.
Native apps are preferred for now, but I’m guessing there will be a big increase in web app development next year, especially as the divide between phone OSs continues to grow. If developers could make a web app that could compete with similar apps across the various app stores and find a way to make a profit, it could start a wave of innovative new web apps that everyone could benefit from.
This morning, I read a great post at the UW MCDM blog, Flip the Media. The post was titled, Social Networks and Video Games by Brian Johnson. The post went on to tell how game companies are just starting to work social networking into their systems and how useful social media integration could be.
When I read the post, it got me to thinking, why has it taken consoles this long to integrate social networking into the systems? Why didn’t PC games jump on the bandwagon a long time ago…and why haven’t they yet? Is they Wii going to jump on at all?
Yesterday, came the release of an Xbox update that added Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm, and Zune support. Here’s a few of the features (accessible with an Xbox LIVE Gold Membership), as listed on Xbox.com:
Facebook: The usual, plus invite friends to play over Xbox LIVE and see your friends up close with full screen photos
Twitter: Read, reply, and post updates to your Twitter feed and keep up to date in real time
Last.fm: Explore radio stations, skip, ban and love tracks as you listen
Zune: Instant-on 1080p HD streaming video, share experiences through Video Party
Update your Facebook News Feed with Trophy and PlayStation store activity. It also enables developers to set specific criteria to publish additional game information to your feed.
No Twitter, or Last.fm support just yet. I seriously hope that they continue to add social networking features to all of the systems. It is a great way for people to share a common interest. You should be able to link to friends and share what’s going on as you play. As Johnson said, it would be great if players could connect and share tips and strategies for certain games as they came across certain areas in games. The Xbox update gives the ability to see which of your Facebook friends use Xbox LIVE and add them to your Xbox friends list. I really hope this is a feature that also gets added to PlayStation eventually.
The gaming consoles are just starting to dip their toes in the water on this one. I hope they decide to jump right in because it it would be great to see everyone connect while doing something that they enjoy.
