OnLive at GDC 09

 I've seen the future and I love it.

Here's a great and descriptive article about OnLive, a service/platform/thingy that may actually revolutionize the way we download, buy, and use games as well as making consoles obsolete. I wish I had the time (but I don't) to write about it a little more.

Be sure to read it, it's great, it's amazing and it sounds like the future. Thanks V for the article.

Cheers

iPhone OS 3.0

       Hello. A few days ago, Apple had a developer conference in which they revealed the new software for the iPhone and iPod touch. the 3.0 OS that will be released some time this summer, and alongside it the new 3.0 SDK ( which is already available as a beta). I have to say it's packed with features, some useful some not so much, some that should have been there from the start, but overall it's going to be a nice release, fixing many problems and making life just a little easier. Here are some of the most waited for and most important features you can expect :

• First of all for developers, the SDK features about 1000 new APIs for you to use while coding. These include, the ability to insert a google map into your app, the ability to add in-app payments ( such as for subscriptions and buying new levels for a game) and many many more.
• Now for the average consumer. Well they added the so much awaited and anticipated copy/cut/paste feature that works across all basic applications. You can now select part of a text, or the whole text and paste it wherever you like whether it is in a note, sms or e-mail.
• They also added MMS support. Yes you can now send multimedia messages, sounds, pictures and even contacts over the cellular data network.
• They finally added search across many applications, not the least being the iPod app.
• Alongside search, or as an extention, they added Spotlight. Yes the same spotlight as on the Mac OSX. Every time you drag towards the right of the home-screen you'll go to a whole new screen where you can search in the entire phone for a name, a number or an address. It finds everything from contacts and songs, to calendar appointments.
• Another new and awaited feature they added p2p ( peer to peer) connectivity  over bluetooth. You can now play multiplayer games over it, and if i remember right you're also able to send contacts via bluetooth from one phone to another.
• They tweaked around different apps, added the "landscape" mode for the keyboard ( meaning the big keyboard) in apps such as SMS and E-mail so you can now write easier and faster.
• They also added some extra support for different calendar appointments stuff ( i never use those)
• They added Push support for many many apps and now developers can encode push into their apps for you to use.
• Safari has a few improvements such as phishing filters.

 There are many many new features alongside these but these are probably the most important and most sought after ( alongside Flash support which is still nowhere near in sight). If you want to watch the whole keynote you can find it here.

In case you were wondering, this update is absolutely free for everyone that has an iPhone ( including 1.0 firmware), and costs about 12$ for the iPod Touch. And it will be shipped some time during Q2 or even more likely Q3 of this year.

That's it. Cheers

Macgyvering Around

Wohoo Oh my God ..it's great to write this. I've had a truly great day in such a geeky fashion.  First of all ..I was asked a few days ago to get together a few pieces to try and make a decent computer out of them that would last for another 3-4 years.  So I put on my " buy geeky stuff"� hat ..and got together an Asus P5QL-PRO, an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.8 Ghz and a Gigabyte GeForce 9600GT GPU. This was only the beginning of everything.

I came back home with  everything and started assembling them. I had no box, so I just put them together on the floor to see if everything checks out and to install Windows. Unfortunately I had no more money to buy RAM so I'm just using my old cards which are 2x Geil 512 ~ 667. So only 1 gig of RAM and Windows 7 still runs excellent, I'm really hyped about it.

When I started to piece everything together I realized I had only one power source powerful enough to get everything running and that was inside my own computer. So I took apart my own PC which was kind of painful to do ..mostly because nothing really fits the way it should inside the box and it's all macgyvered together. Anyway I took out my power source and installed Win 7 on the new PC.

Meanwhile a friend of mine was playing around with my own GPU Asus nVidia GeForce 8800GTS 512. And we got to talking about how it gets really hot ( it idles at 70C) and the box that I have is in no way helping and how there should be a second fan on it.  Then, noticing I actually did have a spare fan around, we reckoned we should do our best to fit it on the card. Now ..the next part of the story is told in pictures so bear with me.

This was what we were trying to do: to fit the fan on the left on the radiator of the GPU after we had taken out the plastic part that belonged to Asus.

We cut through the plastic with a heated blade, making an air intake.

Meanwhile my own PC seeing what we were doing to the poor card had begun to "turn into monster"

After almost 2 hours ..yes that's how long it took us to cut through that useless plastic, this was the end result. A double fanned GPU. And though it may not look much ..that little fan actually keeps my card 20 degrees cooler, maxing out at 61C after 2 hours or heavy ultra graphics gaming. Yeap, that was my day and I have to say I had tons of fun with it. Cheers