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| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24175 |  Labotomizer (1674) Sep 26, 2011 - 09:24 am
| Remote desktop client is still there. You can't RDP to Home, but you can use Live Mesh, which is better anyway. And more secure. How many desktops have you owned with more than one physical processor, and Home supports 2 anyway. You are limited to 32 cores per processor.
BitLocker is incredibly silly to use at home. Because of the nature without a central certificate issuing authority to keep your certificates, a PC failure will render your drive useless. Full drive encryption is great but certainly not for the home user.
If PhotoShop Elements did everything you needed would you skip it to save up for PhotoShop Pro? Especially if you didn't need or know how to use the additional features? Just because it says Pro? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24175 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 25, 2011 - 07:21 am
| Why wouldn't you use the home editions at home? This comment comes up regularly. Can you tell me a single feature you need from Pro? Certainly you don't need Enterprise/Ultimate. Do you need support for more than two physical processors? Support for more than 64GB of memory? Support for Windows Active Directory authentication? BitLocker? Branch Cache?
I find it hard to believe any of those are features you need. So why would you insist on Pro? Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24175 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 22, 2011 - 09:36 am
| | Can't imagine still using XP on even semi-modern hardware. Anything dual core with 2GB+ of memory is so much better with Windows 7 than XP. I'm happy they are finally moving forward instead of continuing to support DX9. That's held PC game development back for quite some time now. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24141 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 16, 2011 - 07:11 am
| | Windows 8 is lighter on resources than Windows XP. It's able to suspend apps the way a cell phone would, allowing fast rehydration without tying up processor and memory. While it has the most functionality and a larger disk footprint than any previous Windows OS, it is also much smarter with the resources. The system requirements are lower than Windows 7. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24141 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 15, 2011 - 09:41 pm
| You're probably right but given the focus on tablets, especially in the Metro UI where XBL will likely live it could just mean games targeted for casual, touch based interfaces. In which case it may not be a big deal to you or I but to far more people it will be a big deal. Lot's of people are willing to buy Angry Birds, and if everyone pays a couple bucks and MS gets a 30% cut, then that's a lot of money. And it won't matter if you or I don't like it.
From a business perspective that would be just fine. It would suck though. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24141 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 14, 2011 - 06:00 pm
| It's simple really, at least their reasoning for focusing on console development. Gaming on PCs was traditionally an expensive endeavor. Everyone cites that console gaming has held back PC gaming, yet this is the first generation that is actually true. Previous generations the PC graphics requirements outpaced consoles substantially. Perhaps because different types of games were made for consoles than for PCs. But these days that's all change. Modern PCs, especially as we look into the timetables for Windows 8, should all be able to run games at a level that's comparable to a PS3/360. Once you're at a level where the majority of people can play a game written, then yes, the PC market makes tremendous sense.
Especially if you tie that to a built in app store the way tablets do. It solves piracy and app portability in one fell swoop. Steam already does this. But with Windows 8 likely to show up on everything from phones to high end gaming rigs it makes a lot of sense to have a central location for games. You could see the move in this direction with performance ratings. Now when you buy a game through the apps store and it tells you your PC needs a performance rating of 4+ to play, you'll instantly know if you can play it. Also keep in mind that every single game on the WP7 market allows you to try a demo. If they extend this feature into Windows 8, where demos are no longer an option but a requirement of the store, then you can make sure a game runs on your system before purchasing. Then users don't run the risk of buying a PC game only to find out their PC won't run it. We all have friends who have been in that very situation. People who aren't computer literate and buy a game because it looks cool only to find out their 4 year old stock HP can't run it. This will do away with all those issues. Keep in mind demos are often timed and rather short, but still enough to find out if you can run the software.
And because Steam and other providers will likely integrate into the XBL Hub they will be able to use the same rating system. I think it will be a very good thing. Looking at the Windows 8 client/server products I think we should all be very, very excited where Microsoft may be going with this. Hardware is finally catching up to the vision Microsoft has, for tablets and home PCs, and even phones. It's realistic to think in 2-3 years we'll have phones powerful enough to handle our desktop functionality with a dock driving a monitor, keyboard and mouse. How exciting is that?
I've only been using the developer preview today and it certainly has some rough edges but it has so much promise it's almost hard to put into words. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24141 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 14, 2011 - 08:56 am
| They don't charge for additional features on XBL on WP7 so I don't see why that would be any different with the Windows 8. I think it will be a good thing going forward. I would like to think this means better development of PC games but time will tell on that front. Likely all games will install into the XBL Hub the way phone OS handles it. We'll have to see though.
It will likely be a central place for game management. I'm sure Steam will be able to integrate right into the XBL Hub, the way music providers integrate into the Music hub of WP7. A lot of possibilities, we'll have to see how it plays out. When you look at everything they are doing with Windows 8, both client and server, you can see they are bringing a ridiculous amount of functionality that you can get other places but built into the native OS. This is likely because by the time Windows 8 ships it will be past their probationary DoJ anti-trust settlement.
I've got it loaded on my laptop already, it's pretty sweet. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24118 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 10, 2011 - 03:43 pm
| | I went with a 6870. The price was too good to pass up. I'll add another down the road if games ever decide to start pushing my PC. The only thing I have left I'd really like to upgrade is to an SSD. The price and the fact I'd have to reload Windows for the first time since July 2009 are keeping me away from it. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24118 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 08, 2011 - 08:42 am
| | Oh ya, I agree with you for the most part. I've upgraded recently but for reasons other than gaming, at least the majority of the upgrade. The memory, CPU and drive were all related to virtualization so I can have test lab setup on my PC. If it weren't for that I doubt I'd have upgraded 6 months ago. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Sep 01, 2011 - 09:07 am
| I am on WP7 now. And yes, Swype was usable while driving. With WP7.5 (Mango) the voice recognition is so good I can dictate to my phone, which is obviously safer while driving. I tried so hard to use Android's voice recognition but it butchered anything more than 5 or 6 words. As for the WP7 keyboard, it's not as good as Swype but light years ahead of the default software keyboard on Android. The prediction is especially good, often I'm able to type half a word or less and often times I don't even have to be close to spelling what I'm trying to type. As long as the letters are adjacent to the one I was trying to hit it gets the word 95% of the time. And to be fair I use both thumbs when using the on screen keyboard on WP7.
And on my Moto Q I typed with one hand all the time because of the vertical keyboard rather than a slide out horizontal one. I'm not sure how you'd reach the opposite side of the keyboard without constantly moving your phone around. As far as screen real estate goes, you don't need much if you're responding to an e-mail or text. It's a PITA if you're responding on a forum though as you lose half the text box or more.
I see a hardware keyboard now as an okay feature but certainly not something I require. Which is funny because when the iPhone came out, even when I had my Touch Pro 2, I always thought a hardware keyboard was an absolute requirement. Which is why I took a Droid 2 over some of the possibly better alternatives at the time. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 31, 2011 - 08:45 am
| Have you tried Swype? What you're saying isn't that hard to accomplish. The difference is they aren't always forming full words, or sometimes acronyms, which isn't Swype's strong suit. The reasons you cite for Swype being bad are the same reasons I think it's great. I don't want to have to always use two hands to type. Can you type on your hardware keyboard with one hand? Nope. Not to mention, I'm tracing out the pattern of a word. I'm not stopping for each keypress. Which means I can write a word like "accomodate" in about a 1/2 second with one thumb. You can't match that on a hardware keyboard, or any other on-screen keyboard for that matter.
You're deciding that Swype is inferior without using it but I've used a 5 row keyboad. I've used both. Swype is better, it is faster, and it doesn't require your full attention once you've really gotten used to it. I know where my thumb needs to be to start on the letter Q. I know the spacing between keys. I would rarely look at it as I typed other than to verify it got the word correct. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 29, 2011 - 08:33 am
| | I had the Touch Pro 2, it had an awesome keyboard. I'm still able to beat it, actually typing real words that is, using Swype. Passwords, symbols, numbers, etc? Of course the hardware keyboard is handy. But I very, very rarely used it once I had Swype. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 29, 2011 - 07:18 am
| I think you'll be surprised at how well Microsoft starts doing going into next year. Most analysts are still predicting Microsoft will be second behind Google in smartphone share by 2014. So going into the ecosystem you don't have to worry about it not being there long term, which is good.
I'm sure the Droid 3 is superior to the Droid 2. But our uses for devices vary greatly it seems. SharePoint and OneNote are two features built into WP7 that Android doesn't have an answer to. One thing you're leaving out is games, which WP7 is the best mobile phone gaming platform easily. Tentacles is awesome and Harvest is like a futuristic Diablo on your phone. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24070 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 29, 2011 - 06:56 am
| | And anything GoG sells has been patched and verified to run on modern operating systems, such as Win 7 x64. I'm sure if you dug up some old, old games you'd have issues as they expect direct hardware access. But you can likely get it to run with a little work, fortunately GoG did that work already. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 28, 2011 - 01:14 pm
| | Switch your keyboard to the Swype keyboard. You'll never go back to the physical keyboard on it again. Swype is the one thing I miss more than anything else about Android. I was able to hit 40 WPM easily with the on screen keyboard. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 28, 2011 - 01:11 pm
| You can't compared Windows Mobile 6.5 t Windows Phone 7. They are far, far different platforms. It's not even in the same realm. It's like saying you'll never use Windows 7 because Windows 1.0 sucked. As for applications, the Zune Marketplace just passed the 30,000 application mark in 8 months. That is on pace with Apple and more than double the speed at which Android apps were released. Some of the major ones are simply waiting on the Mango update this fall before they ship (Pandora being the most important one IMO).
I'm curious which phone you have. Every one of the Droid 2s we had were pretty bad. MotoBlur is still there they just hide it better. Why do you think Google is looking to buy Motorola? So they can actually control the hardware and OS platform for at least one of their devices. Hell, if you buy some Samsung phones you can't even install the Google Apps, they've all been replaced by Bing. That's what I'm talking about OEM's freedom to do whatever they wish with the OS.
I was running FroYo on the Droid 2. Thanks to the locked bootloader you weren't able to update it yourself and Motorola doesn't apparently care if they ever update their devices. Most OEMs don't though. They see it as a reason to force you into new hardware.
I'm curious how long you've had your phone. If it's a Gingerbread device then you can't have had it too long and it's probably one of the faster ones out there, so I'm sure you don't have the slow downs. My HTC Trophy is roughly the same speed and memory as my Droid 2 was and it flat out smokes it in performance. In fact, web browsing on it is better than any other platform thanks to IE9.
You can't judge WP7 based on Windows Mobile. It's not even comparable. The only thing Windows Mobile had for it was e-mail. Other than that it blew. As for sales MS has already stated they are in this for the long haul. Plus, the OEMs are starting to worry because Google is f'in them over when it comes to patent infringement. Google gives away the source so they aren't liable for violating patents (whatever your view on the subject, doesn't change the current law) and therefore you have Apple and MS raping the OEMs. Do you know Microsoft makes more off every Android phone sold than Google does because of licensing agreements? Hell, they make more off every Android device than they make off selling their own mobile OS. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 28, 2011 - 01:01 pm
| Pretty standard argument from someone who hasn't used a MacBook. The unibody aluminum design is awesome, their screen quality is amongst the best in the business and their keyboards are excellent. Nothing else rivals them in battery life at the performance levels. It's a very, very solid design.
I despise Apple but to deny that their MacBooks are sweet pieces of hardware is flat out incorrect and shows ignorance. I certainly won't buy just anything they pump out of Cupertino but I would certainly buy a MacBook. Hell, the MBAir is by far the best "UltraBook" you can get right now, and is even priced better than most of the competition. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 27, 2011 - 07:58 pm
| I came from an Android device and WinMo spanks it. Maybe not in user flexiblity but as far as performance? It's awesome. I've had it for over a month without a single reboot, no lag, no stutters. No need for a task manager, no need to root it to make the device functional, no need to clean up OEM crapware. Android's strength is also it's biggest weakness. It being open allows the OEMs to completely bastardize it.
Interface taste aside, WP7 is easily the most stable and slickest OS out there. I think you'd be surprised at how powerful it is too. I've got the last Mango build on it and it's still stable, and so freaking fast. It compares to the newer Android dual core devices with far less processing power. When the new hardware comes out next month it will be pretty amazing.
But everyone has different needs. I need my phone to work, I need my e-mail to work. All the time. Not whenever it feels like it, which is what I would deal with before. Scrambled contact lists I still haven't fully recovered from (close to 2000 contacts). Office Mobile is awesome, One Note is great. And the voice commands work flawlessly. I can use Sync in the car and dictate text messages back to people with 95%+ accuracy. It's easily the most innovative mobile OS out there too. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 25, 2011 - 09:00 am
| I think their laptops are pretty awesome. Not a fan of OSX though.
iPod is a pretty amazing success, I'm still not 100% sure how they pulled that one off. I hate iTunes. My wife has a nano for when she works out so she uses iTunes. Awful software. The Zune software is way, way better.
iPhone/iPad, pretty amazing how they've taken that market. And to make it worse for their competition for the first time they are undercutting everyone else on a product. Unlike the desktops, and to a less extent laptops, where you're paying a slight premium for Apple gear, the tablets are cheaper than the competition. And better. Android blows on a tablet. Windows 7 is better than Android but that's not saying much...
As for interface? I don't know about that. Ultimately this revolutionary mobile interface centers around a grid of icons. And some folders that reveal more grids of icons. In fact Windows 3.1 and iOS look an awful lot alike if you take out the whole touch deal. And higher resolution/prettier graphics. Very little changed in the interface concept though. Windows Phone 7 is a good example of a good, new, touch driven interface for mobile devices. I hope the Metro interface for Windows 8 on tablets is just as good. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24068 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 25, 2011 - 08:54 am
| | Their laptops are pretty reasonable actually, given the hardware design. I know quite a few people who have bought the new MacBooks and loaded Windows 7 on them. They only use OSX to update the Boot Camp drivers for Windows. Although the drivers seem to limit the performance of Windows, but it's still a slick piece of hardware. I was torn between that and an EliteBook from HP, although I went HP because I need to be conservative at the moment. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=24056 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 24, 2011 - 12:23 pm
| I'm with you Jacob. I'm sorry, but I may not need internet at my hotel, especially if I'm on vacation. Many hotels are up to $10/day. If I wanted to play a game on my laptop I shouldn't have to spend that. What if I'm on a 16 hour flight to Australia and wanted to play D3 on my laptop to kill some time? Nope, SoL.
There an awful lot of places that don't have internet. This is stupid and limits their install base. They'll still sell a bazillion copies so they won't realize the loss but it could have been 1.1 bazillion if it had offline mode. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23941 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 08, 2011 - 12:49 pm
| You're absolutely right, it really doesn't matter that much in Diablo. I'm more concerned about down the line though and the implications this will have on their next MMO. If it works and they make lots of cash, which they almost certainly will, then this feature will be in the next MMO. And in an MMO, especially one with any real PvP element, spending that money on gear would give another character a huge advantage. In Diablo 3 that advantage doesn't really matter. In an MMO it does.
This could be bad, basically forcing us to pay a monthly sub so that we can be micro transactioned immediately after in order to stay relevant. Flag this | Edit this post |
| News Link » /news/newsarticle.asp?searchid=23958 | Labotomizer (1674) Aug 08, 2011 - 12:44 pm
| I wholeheartedly disagree with the content consumption aspect of what they're saying. People have been repeating the same content in WoW for years, waiting for the next update. People are leaving because they wrecked the skill system with Cataclysm. They've completely removed any real character diversity, and there wasn't much to begin with, so people are getting bored that much faster than they were before. I hit 85, did my first raid and then Rift came out. Which, instead of dumbing down the entire skill system, expanded on the WoW skill system and made it much, much better. Gameplay is very similar, graphics are better.
Not that I play Rift much either anymore but I'd rather give Trion my $15/month in hopes of them rapidly developing the game, which they are. So I'm happy for now. Rift seems close enough to WoW that after playing Rift for a while even if you get bored with it, you don't want to go back to WoW either. I doubt I'll ever play again. (although I've said it before) Flag this | Edit this post |
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