Monthly Archives: March 2006

Gaming on the cheap

Posted on by

I’m taking a little break from my Developer Relations position at Adobe Systems to work on some of my own projects, which means no money coming in for a while, which in turn means I won’t be dropping $60 on any new Xbox 360 games any time soon. Although I’d really like to be playing the new Ghost Recon, Advanced Warfighter (which I’ve played at friends’ houses and love), I am instead entertaining myself with Xbox Live Arcade games.

If you have an Xbox 360, you need to spend some time checking out the Xbox Live Arcade. It consists of a couple dozen small, simple, downloadable games across six categories which seem to cost anywhere between $5 and $10, and provide hours of swearing and celebration. To get to the Xbox Live Arcade, go to the Xbox dashboard, navigate to the Games tab (or "blade" as Microsoft calls them), and it’s right there.

I’ve played Hexic HD (written in Flash, I believe), Mutant Storm Reloaded, Geometry Wars Evolved, and Joust. My favorite is Geometry Wars Evolved so far. The graphics are simple, but extremely sharp and bright (on an HD TV), and the movement is amazingly fluid given everything that’s going on on the screen at once. Hexic HD is available for free, and is created by Alexey Pajitnov, they guy who, by inventing Tetris, is responsible for decades of accumulated lost productivity.

You can download a free trial of each game which is limited in some fashion, but works well enough to give you a sense of whether you want to spend a little money on it or not. While playing the trials, your Xbox will ask you about 800 times if you want to "unlock" the full version which gets annoying, but the trial technique is appreciated, nonetheless. Unlocking (in other words, buying) the full version allows you to record achievements that your Xbox Live friends can see, and lets you play the entire game through.

The only thing that bugs me about the Xbox Live Arcade is that you don’t pay real money for the games. You purchase "Microsoft Points" which you can then redeem for games, sort of like the Chuck E. Cheese token model. I guess I don’t mind the model itself so much, but they conveniently leave out dollar equivalents next to points. In other words, you might see that a game costs 400 points which you can purchase quickly and easily right through Xbox Live, but there’s nothing there to indicate how much money that actually is. Convenient. Anyway, the exchange rate seems to be 80 Microsoft points per $1, so games will cost between $5 and $10. Check out the Microsoft Points article on Wikipedia for more information.

Of course, there are other ways to game on the cheap. You can pick up an original Xbox bundle for $179.99 at Best Buy (that actually seems a little expensive to me), a PlayStation 2 for $149.99, or a good old Nintendo Gamecube for a mere $99.99. If you’re into mobile gaming, I strongly recommend checking out the new Nintendo DS Lite (videos here and here) which will save you money over the PSP. And if you’re a do-it-yourself type with no moral objections to this type of thing, you might be interested in knowing that the Xbox 360 firmware was recently hacked.

Comparing noise-canceling headphones

Posted on by

I’ve been a big fan of the Bose QuietComfort headphones for years. My first pair was a cheap, beat-up display model from the Apple Store which I later upgraded after the release of the second generation to take advantage of the more compact and travel-friendly form factor. I’ve used my Bose QuietComfort headphones everywhere from my own office to long international flights, and they have always come through.

But that doesn’t mean they’re perfect. The biggest problem I’ve had with them is interference from GSM phones. You know the annoying ticking you get on speaker phones when someone has their Treo or Blackberry sitting on the table? The Bose QuietComfort headphones let you experience that pleasure directly in your ears. Of course, they are primarily intended for flying which presumably means everyone’s phones are turned off, however when you live in the city and work in sea of cubes, you never know when you’re going to need the little extra peace and quiet from noise canceling technology.

Unfortunately, the interference problem recently got worse after upgrading my wireless network. I went from my ancient Lucent ORiNOCO gateway to the much more impressive looking Linksys WRT54GX, which, in addition to producing a stronger signal, also produces a constant buzz through my QuietComfort headphones. I’m a glass-full kind of guy, though, so when I run into incompatibilities like this one, I look at it as an excuse to buy new toys (fortunately, I had an Amazon gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket).

This time, I decided to go with a much more low-tech solution to noise cancellation: the Etymotic ER6i Isolator Earphones. Rather than sampling ambient noise and generating a correction signal to cancel out unwanted sound, the ER6i headphones are basically earplugs with tiny speakers in them. They cancel noise the old-fashioned way: by physically blocking it.

I just got back from a trip to Seattle during which I had a chance to really give the Etymotics a thorough evaluation. Here’s how they measure up to the Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones:

  • Effectiveness: It’s hard to compare the effectiveness of the Bose and the Etymotic headphones because they actually block different kinds of noises. I found the Bose to be more effective at blocking things like the low drone of an airplane engine, and the Etymotics to be more effective at blocking less predictable sounds, like those you experience in your cube when your co-workers are yapping or laughing at the newest YouTube video.
  • Sound quality: I’m going to say that the two are tied here, but only because my ears are not discriminating enough to hear the difference. I’m sure a sound engineer could tell you which delivers better what, but to me, both sound good enough.
  • Portability: The Etymotics win hands down in this category. They fit into a little 2"x2" pouch which adds no bulk or weight to your bag during a trip. To be fair, the QuietComfort 2 headphones are much more compact than the first generation, but they still add the size and weight of a good sized paperback to your travel load.
  • Comfort. I actually find the QuietComfort headphones to be slightly more comfortable than the Etymotics. The only problem with the Bose headphones is that they tend to tickle the inside of your ears for some reason that seems to be related to pressure after extended use, but in general, I prefer headphones that cup over my ears rather than get crammed inside them. I also don’t like how the Etymotics accumulate ear wax, no matter how clean you keep your ears, meaning they really can’t be shared among people who are the least bit concerned with hygiene.
  • Price. The Bose QuietComfort headphones go for $299, and the Etymotics can be had for about $89.99.

So which would I recommend? It depends on what you need them for, and how important portability is to you. As always, the only true answer is to probably just own both.

The next generation of mobile devices

Posted on by

While logging into T-Mobile’s site the other day, I noticed the new T-Mobile MDA. Looks like a possible Sidekick competitor to me. Features include:

  • Windows mobile.
  • Instant messaging (Yahoo!, MSN, and AIM).
  • QWERTY keyboard.
  • EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution).
  • 1.3 megapixel camera.
  • Bluetooth.
  • SD expansion.

If you’re into Windows products, this looks like a pretty compelling device. I’m completely addicted to messaging features (IM clients and QWERTY keyboards), which the MDA seems to have covered, and I’d love to have EDGE and a decent camera — both conspicuously missing from the Sidekick 2. I wouldn’t mind Bluetooth, either, though I steadfastly maintain that the Sidekick 2 actually negates the need for Bluetooth (the only thing you need Bluetooth for on the Sidekick 2 is a headset, although since I use mine much more for messaging and personal information management than for voice calls, a Bluetooth headset doesn’t buy me much more than just another rapidly depreciating device to try to keep charged).

To be fair, you’d probably want to compare the MDA to the Sidekick 3 rather than the Sidekick 2. Of course, the Sidekick 3 has yet to be released, and there is still no official information available, but according to rumors, it looks like EDGE, SD, and video are all in the works. And I’d be shocked if it didn’t have a significantly better camera than the Sidekick 2. At the end of the day, though, there are all the other things I love about the Sidekick which the MDA just can’t touch.

Microsoft fans might be wise to wait for Project Origami before purchasing their next device. Right now, Origami seems to be a code name for a lot of clip art and technical melodrama, but I suspect it will materialize into something that will compete with the new OQO Tablet. Or if you live anywhere else in the entire world except the United States, keep an eye out for the new Sony Ericsson P990 hand-held powerhouse, proving once again that the US has become the mobile third world.