iPhone 4

Well frankly, I'm a little surprised, and then I'm not.  The iPhone 4 is certainly a massive improvement on the current iPhone 3G S, but to me in a few respects it is still a disappointment.  Main features: "Retina Display", A4 Chip, 5MP camera with LED Flash and 720p video recording, 6-axis Gyro control, front facing VGA camera, 802.11N wi-fi, huge battery, and iPhone OS 4 (iOS 4 as it's now being called).  I don't really know much more about iOS 4 than what I saw at WWDC.  It finally does multi-tasking (only took 4 tries), has a unified email inbox which is a nice feature, adds the ability to create app folders, and they've actually added Bing as a default search option (irony...).  The "retina display" is an interesting piece of technology to be sure, but seems a little bit unnecessary to me.  Simply put, it's an extremely high resolution, 3.5" (BOO) screen.  It has a pixel density of 326dpi, which Apple says is beyond the human eye's limit of distinction (meaning you can't see the individual pixels), and a resolution of 960x640.  I'll be honest here, I've played with an HTC HD2, which has a 4.3" screen and an 800x480 resolution, and I could barley tell there were pixels unless I held it all the way up to my face.  So I don't much see the point of a screen with a higher pixel density than we can even see.  But hey, who's going to complain about higher resolution?  Apparently you'll also be able to edit your 720p video recordings with a new iMovie app, but not for free of course.  The phone will have the ability to video chat, from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4, and over wi-fi only until the carrier's networks can handle the extra load.  The eBook reader from the iPad also makes its way over to the iPhone, as well as Netflix and Guitar Hero.  The A4 chip in the iPad clocks in at 1GHz, with a separate GPU for the higher demands of a tablet computer.  Although we know the A4 chip is used in the iPhone 4, no one knows what it will be clocked at, nor what GPU Apple chose to pair with it.  I'd say it's a safe bet that it will clock in at 1GHz as well though, given the plethora of Snapdragon devices that have come about recently, because it will need to compete, and have extra power to multi-task.  I'm not going to bash this guy yet until I've had a chance to see for myself if it's worth all the hype, and I will probably as soon as they're out, so I'll reserve judgment until then!

Things the PSP could improve on

Since I wrote an article on what I believe the NDS could improve upon in future generations, I think it's only fair to do the same for the PSP.  There have been a few iterations of the system, so I'll start with talking a bit about them.  The PSP 1000 was the first, and the 2000 and 3000 came after it.  The 2000 model introduced a new shell for the system that was substantially thinner than the 1000 model, causing it to be dubbed the PSP Slim.  The 3000 shares the shell of the 2000, but gains a new screen said by Sony to be better outside than the original, and a built-in microphone.  The screen itself has double the color gamut, double the response time, and nearly five times the contrast ratio.  Put simply, it's a noticeable improvement.  An entirely new version of the PSP has also recently been released called the PSP Go.  This version features a sliding design that keeps the controls hidden until needed, and a slightly smaller screen with the same resolution.  The other main difference between the Go and Slim is memory.  The Go has a built in 16GB of flash memory and an M2 slot for expansion while the Slim features only an MS Pro Duo slot.  The Go also ditches the UMD drive in favor of download only games. Now as I only have a PSP 3000 running 6.20 firmware, I can only speculate on what could be improved based on my experience here.  From what I have discovered, I think one of the biggest updates is obviously going to be the screen resolution, which can easily be doubled, and the graphics chip, which can easily be bumped up to 1GHz in these current times.  I'm honestly a fan of the slider design, back in high school I designed my own handheld, but I think the controls need a refresh.  I think that keeping one screen with fantastic graphics is fine but make it a touchscreen for easier control inside the games and apps and whatnot, a capacitive touchscreen.  I'm also a fan of having a large amount of built-in memory to store games on, but I think that a handheld should have some sort of cartridges or discs in order to play games across systems.  It would be horrible to lose all the games you'd downloaded if your PSP say, fell in the pool...  Shoot with flash memory being so cheap now, put the games on memory cards.  And to make all the fanboys happy, add a second analog stick to make shooters much much easier :-)  Now on to the software.  Sony has done a good job here, there are a lot of features you won't find in most handhelds, including a web browser, Skype, PSN store, media player, internet radio, remote play with PS3, and a digital comic reader.  The XMB bar is also a great UI.  The only thing I wish, and I know it'll never happen because it's Sony, but the PSP could really benefit from being open source.  It could easily run a version of Linux, or even Android as I believe Sony now has a relationship with Google.  Having a faster processor would also allow for a more functional web browser with support for Flash, making Android look even more probable.  Several companies have shown how easily Android can be skinned to work for whatever applications they need, so lets get to it Sony!

How does this work?

I put my car up on a lift at school today so that all of us in class could look at the suspension since we're learning about it, and so that my teacher could look at the power steering setup.  While we were all standing around it one of the gentlemen was leaning against my car.  My quote was "Boy, get your hands off my car!"  Now, I'm a humor filled, sarcastic person and that phrase coming from me is obviously just my humorous, sarcastic way of saying, "Dude, don't lean on my car."  I thought this was an easier, less jerkish way of saying that so I jokingly said it.  Apparently the word "Boy" used in that context is degrading to some people.  Well, anyone who knows me knows I am in no way racist and in every way sarcastic, so no one I know would take offense to me being an idiot, but this guy was livid.  My teacher explained that the term was degrading to him and I simply said that it didn't make sense.  I mean he is a boy, as I understand it, so I don't see how calling someone who is a boy, a boy, is degrading.  I'm told it's almost like using the N word though.  Now I apologize for offending the guy, and I'll be sure that he knows it was meant to be all in good fun tomorrow after I'm cooled off a bit.  He also proceeded to say that had be been his younger self he would have clocked me.  That's what really set me off, and so I told him that when it was his $26,000 car that he was leaning against I wouldn't say a word.  I just want it to be known that I would have used the exact same phrase had it been anyone else leaning on my car, and had it been a girl, substitute that in for "boy."  I mean honestly we're all grown and in college, if you can't take some sarcasm by now you need to lighten up.  And most importantly, don't lean on my daggum car!  We've ALL been told that by our teacher!   I wouldn't want to pay for a new paint job on a brand new car that's for sure.

Nintendo DS Improvements

In light of Nintendo's upcoming 3DS handheld, I thought I might ponder some improvements that could be made on the current 25 versions of the NDS.  Nothing new or groundbreaking here, just my personal opinions.  I can't wait to see what E3 (2 weeks!) has in store, but I think I'll have a hard time keeping up with my posting at the rate they typically release stuff at this conference.  That's tangential to my primary story however, we'll get there in due time.  Let's start with the DS.  I own two of them, the original, and the Lite.  Between the two, the Lite marks a considerable improvement over the first, or the Phat, as it is referred to by some.  It's smaller, lighter, brighter, and altogether more pleasing to the eye.  After that, the DSi was introduced, with two cameras, web browsing, downloadable games, and an all new firmware on top of a thinner, lighter still frame and 3.25" screens (up from the 3" screens on the Phat and Lite).  Now, right before the official announcement of the 3DS, we are treated to a new version of the DSi, sporting everything the current i model has, but in a much bigger size.  4.2" screens are what this behemoth offers, Nintendo says to cater to the older crowd of DS gamers that have had a hard time reading text on the smaller screens of past iterations.  Now's when I state what I would like to see improved on the next generation of dual screen handhelds from Nintendo.  I personally think that the idea in and of itself is a great one, there are several games I love to play on the DS, but like many Nintendo systems, the best games come from Nintendo themselves, that is to say the games that utilize the touch-screen the most, and the most graphically taxing, showing what the DS is capable of pushing to those 2 screens.  In my opinion, making the screens bigger is a great idea, but leaving the resolution at a miserable 256x192 is pathetic.  It's understandable to leave it at this stage in the handheld's lifecycle, but I'm talking about the future here.  If we're going to be playing games on two 4.2" screens, they better at least have the resolution of the PSP's screen of similar size, which is nearly double that.  Also the same size screen on the HTC HD2 is nearly double the resolution of the PSP!  Clearly Nintendo is a bit behind on that note, but I'm sure they've noticed.  The graphics processors are also severely outdated at this point, clocking in at nearly 100MHz and 80MHz respectively, when we have feature-phones with 500MHz processors now (there is one in my desk drawer).  The graphics are by no means bad, there are some fantastic looking games on the DS (Metroid and Mario 64 I'm looking at you).  I don't think anyone would object to GameCube level graphics in a handheld, and I know they could do it.  Nintendo has a habit of not focusing on performance as much as gameplay, but their games typically tax their own systems the most, and it shows on this system and on the Wii as well.  Again I'm not talking about changing the current system at this point, and I know that with the lifecycle game systems generally have, they are outdated before they are released, but Nintendo should at least be working to put itself ahead at the point of release.  A capacitive touch-screen would also be a welcome, much more finger-friendly touch to future iterations.  Now I applaud Nintendo for keeping themselves at a point where the actual game-play is more important than graphics, and I love to play most of their games no matter how they look.  That's one thing they know how to do, and do well.  I'm not sure what to think about the idea of a 3D handheld, not to mention a dual screen handheld, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in seeing what they've come up with, and how it will treat all the games released to this point.  All in all, I'm pleased with the DS that I own, and the games that I have as well, but I think that Nintendo should be working on the next generation and making it competitive on all fronts instead of releasing so many different versions of the same thing.  Do it right the first time and we don't have to have three different versions on store shelves at once!  P.S. - Keep the throw switch from the Lite, not the power button that you can press accidentally!