Today I had the chance to speak with Darren Hedges, game director for the upcoming Disney title Tron: Evolution (trailer is embedded above). The much hyped game, which will be released in about two weeks time, is the prequel to the even more much-hyped movie, which is hitting big screens on December 17th.

A few things fell out of my chat with Hedges. First off, he's a huge Tron fan. He says he watched the first movie (1982) in theaters and has been hooked on Identity Discs, Lightcycles and Conscripts ever since. He wanted this game to be great and has genuinely put everything he can into it. Hedges said, he read over the movie script with his developers and decided the movie's plot just wasn't for them. So, working with the film makers they came up with a new script for the game Tron: Evolution. It bridges the gap between the first Tron movie (where the electronic world within the computer is a unspoiled Utopia) to the beginning of the new film (where that Utopia has become a sordid police state). After saying that, I asked Hedges if the game is going to leave players with a sour ending. To which he backtracked a bit and said "I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone".

Next, and more importantly, the whole project (film and video game) was completed in Vancouver! Go Canada! "Canada has really become one of the central hubs for both film and games," said Hedges, before referring to the giant campuses of both Ubisoft and EA and the presence of numerous other developers, including THQ, Silicon Knights, Bioware (I know they are EA, but still) and even smaller guys doing awesome stuff like Pandemic and Fuel here in Ottawa. It's neat to see Disney trust so much to us Canucks, eh. Moving on, Hedges said working closely with the film makers has allowed him to tap on their expertise when it comes to storytelling. It has also given him access to actors, from the new movie as well as the 1982 classic, for voiceovers and it has allowed him to place "Easter Eggs" in the movie that relate back to the game.

"People who have played the game and then go see the movie will hear about something and say 'hey, I did that in the game," said Hedges. He said that kind of interplay between the movie and the game should help hook fans.

On the platform front, the PS3 version of the game will differ from the Xbox 360/PC version. PS3 players will be able to play the game in 3D (if they have a 3D capable television set) and some support for Move has been integrated into the gameplay. The Xbox 360 and PC versions will be traditional controllers and 2D only.

The plot involved the disappearance of a key character named Kevin Flynn and how he has become imprisoned in the Tron universe. Before his capture, Flynn wrote a program to create the character Non (short for Anonymous) which is activated after Flynn's capture. Players play as Non and work their way through the Tron world in an attempt to stop the computer program Abraxas from taking over.

The whole thing sounds great. But, the proof will be in the finished product. I asked Hedges what his team has done to prevent Tron: Evolution from becoming just another movie-based game. Too often games based on movies are just an awful mess. Two recent examples that come to mind are Iron Man 2 and Avatar (which I also reviewed but can't find a link for). These were blockbuster titles with very capable design teams behind them and they were both bad games. Hedges side stepped the issue, saying the team has worked hard to make sure that this title is a success and he believes gamers will respond favorably. He pointed out they even went out and brought in top notch talent to help out with the game, including Daft Punk who has supplied music.

I certainly hope he's right. I like good movies and even more than that, I like good games. So, all I can say is hold your breath Tron fans.  A review of the game will appear in my weekly game column as soon as I can get it out. If you have questions about my chat with Hedges, leave them in the comments below and I will try to answer them.

I will also leave the film's trailer below.

The eruption of Internet based television choices continues to explode. Google TV will be available to American's by the end of this year and then there is the whole Apple TV thing, which I've covered, and now we hear how Crackle (Sony Pictures' home on the Internet) is available to Canadians. Sony was one of the studios suspiciously missing from last week's Apple TV 2 announcement. We are finding out why they were absent, the studio is trying to bypass middle men entirely and forge a path forward on its own with the Crackle brand. Even more interesting is the company's desire to partner with Roger Communications, which will offer the Crackle programming through its Rogers on Demand Website. Quite the coup for Rogers, especially considering cable and satellite companies stand to loose the most if consumers turn away from their services.

The programming available from Sony is interesting, aside from some generic self-made fare, it's also offering some decent commercial free movies such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Double Impact and A Few Good Men, as well as TV shows such as Astroboy,  Bewitched and T.J. Hooker.

While Sony's efforts to get its content out to the web savvy is admirable it only underscores the problems that major studios are facing. Apple TV 2, Google TV, Netflix and others are only the beginning of the onslaught the media companies will soon be facing. Their answer to this coming war for their content is to come up with their own stores, digital rights management technologies and Internet portals (such as Crackle) instead of banding together in order to begin negotiating the way forward for their content. Times are changing faster than the big studios can keep up. Consumers don't like walled gardens. Further more they hate running around the Internet looking for stuff to watch or listen to, which is one of the reasons iTunes is so popular. People want to have access to what they want at the click of a button, which is why I think offerings like Google TV, Windows Media Center and Apple TV 2 are looking more and more like TV 2.0.

Still, until things unfold completely, consumers will be forced to continue to navigate the murky water of online media by ourselves. It's a good thing Crackle is offering some truly awful movies like Red Water to help us pass the time. Stay tuned, more at 11!

- As a footnote to the above, it should be noted that Samsung is apparently jumping on the Google wagon. So, it looks like pretty soon you won't be able to buy a TV that isn't Internet TV ready.

- Duke Nukem Forever has been brought back from the grave... again. This is the game that has been in development for more than 15 years and has won more vapourware awards than anything else I can remember. So, what I am saying is, don't hold your breath. But, just in case you are still curious it's suppose to be released next year.

- The Sony Walkman is outselling the iPod in Japan. Those Japanese love their homemade brands.

-  Today's time waster is The Dad Game. Help Dad stop the evil plans of his evil boss.

- Today's video is from Important Things Things (aka: Comedy Central) which has come up with a way to continue texting without having to drop out of a face-to-face conversation.

What's that saying about those who don't learn from history?

Less then a day after Apple announced it would be bringing iTunes to living rooms around the world for around $100, incumbent cable companies, satellite companies and TV networks have begun their verbal assault, lambasting the idea and stating it's nothing more than a marketing scheme. A passing fad if you will. I guess these executives must have missed a little event that happened in the early 2000s where the music industry made the exact same complaints and put up the exact same fight. What ever happened to that squabble? Oh, yeah. At the announcement in San Francisco yesterday Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs said, come Spring 2011 the amount of music on iTunes will outsell that sold on CDs for the first time. Game, set, match. Well done Apple.

I guess now that the company has one Titanic traditional media industry converted, it's time to focus on the next one.

And, the comparison to the Titanic is a good one, because the way media executives are reacting to the Apple TV 2 announcement is likely the exact same way the crew of the Titanic reacted after hitting the ice burg that ultimately sank their ship. The only difference is, Apple's move into TV and movie rentals is less like an iceburg and more like an ice cream cake that's been left out in the sun. You knew it was going to melt.

Apple TV 2 is not revolutionary. It is evolutionary. In a world of 500-plus channels, people are simply getting burnt out. First off, you can only watch one channel at a time. Secondly, why should the consumer have to pay for a basic package of channels, plus a sports package, a home and entertainment package and HBO just so that they can watch Grey's Anatomy, Monday Night RAW, Holmes on Homes and Entourage? People are paying upwards of $60 per month just so that they can watch four shows per week. That doesn't cut it anymore and a lot of people have been complaining.  Which is why we have seen a plethora of services pop up in order to try and satiate the demographic that would otherwise move to obtaining the content they want through illegal means (pirated downloads).

Dozens have sprung up. Hulu, Youtube's inclusion of a wide-screen format TV channel, Google TV, Roku, Keychest, TiVo, the Zune Marketplace, Netflix and many more that I am likely forgetting. Many of the initiatives mentioned, specifically Hulu and YouTube, are being supported by the very networks who are now rallying against the idea of getting content over the Internet.

The reality is, the world has been moving in this direction for years. People are fed up with overpaying for services. This was a fact that the music industry was forced to face, which is why we watched the price of CDs fall from $20 in the 1990s to around $10 each today. Based on inflation alone, those prices should be much higher. But, competition in the space and the options that new media presents us with (such as buying one song at a time) have forced the industry to re-evaluate the value of its goods (remember, distributing digitally means no packaging, no transportation via trucks and trains, no stores, no store staff, etc.) Some have accepted it, others have not.

Furthermore, people are increasingly crunched for time. Work isn't from 9 am to 5 pm anymore. People work constantly. They get family time in when they can. Finding extra time to watch a TV show or movie is often a luxury and sticking to the timing of a TV network's broadcast schedule is something that many people simply don't want to deal with. On-demand is a must in today's world.

Now, let's bring this back to Apple TV 2. Apple realized years ago that the world would be moving to digital distribution. It took on the music world, a battle it has finally won. Then it added TV shows, podcasts and movies to iTunes. It even tried Apple TV once before, but it failed miserably. The company's first try at Apple TV failed where so many others have also stumbled. It was too expensive and too technical. If my father cannot program the clock on his VCR then he will not buy an Apple TV where he needs to worry about things like log-in info., network storage and downloading content. Plus, the immediate $250-ish price tag would be an instant turn off. And really, if my dad wouldn't be into it, then chances are the mainstream consumer wouldn't either. It should be mentioned that this problem wasn't just Apple's alone. Roku, Zillion TV and even Microsoft Corp. (it should be noted I am a huge Windows Media Center guy) are having the same problems. People like the convenience of cable. They just want to turn it on and have it work. So, Apple went back to the drawing board. What they came up with is brilliant. It's cheap. It's always on and it plugs into a TV through one HDMI cable so that even a monkey could set it up.

Turn on the TV and users are instantly connected to iTunes and it's library of music and movies. Click on a TV show and it starts playing. A 99 cent charge is applied against your credit card automatically. People pay for what they watch. If a person watches four TV shows in a week, they would pay iTunes $16 a month for the service. Watch movies and they pay an additional $5 each. The addition of NetFlix is brilliant because for around $10 a month users can watch thousands of movies and TV shows offered by the Internet-based service (a Canadian launch is coming soon) and then pay iTunes for the few shows that NetFlix may not have offered.

What gives Apple TV 2 its real appeal is the strength of iTunes. The store has seen a total of 1.7 billion songs, 450 million TV episodes, 100 million movies, and 35 million books downloaded so far, and the service has more than 160 million active accounts linked to credit cards. That is simply too much for TV and movie studios to ignore, so expect them to stop complaining and jump on board soon. Don't think Apple is doing this in an altruistic fashion. If the iTunes model applies, the company will be making around 30 cents on every TV show a person watches.

It should be pointed out that when it comes to movie and TV studios (noticeably absent from yesterday's announcement was NBC which owns Hulu), this whole situation is really their own fault. They have recognized that the consumer has changed and they have each come up with similar ways of providing content. The problem is, all of the major studios have been reluctant to work with each other in order to introduce one unified service offering that they can release (think the battle between BetaMax and VHS or HD-DVD and Blu-ray, consumer's want one standard to get behind). The in-fighting over everything from DRM to the timing of releases (some studios don't want movies available online until after the DVD has been on store shelves) has created this opportunity for Apple to pursue. And, if anyone can chase this market down it's Apple. With the company's iPod's, iPhones, iPads and iTunes store they have quickly become the Belle of the Ball when it comes to the world of consumer electronics.

What needs to happen now is, all content companies need to get together and approach Apple in a unified fashion in order to negotiate pricing, availability of content and other issues affecting their programming. The music industry held out when it came to iTunes, each studio trickled into the offices at Cupertino on their own and were locked into the 99 cent song model for almost a decade (the company changed the pricing in 2009 after many studio complaints). Apple won't be alone in this space, but it will be a leader. The studios must recognize that.

Apple TV 2 isn't rocket science. The company is tapping into the future of television by appealing to the demands of today's consumer. The only question is, will the networks cater to the consumer of today or continue to try and resurrect the consumer of the early 1990s? It's time for them to learn from the past.

- Have you ever ended up in business meetings where people use a bunch of Dilbert-like lingo that you don't understand? Have no fear, the Internet is here! Well, specifically Unsuck it! This handy little website takes sucky IT and business jargon and turns it into plain English. Bookmark it, you will thank me later.

- Since we're on the topic of next-gen TV, I should mention that Sony Corp. is showing off it's new Google TV at a show in Europe. See more on that here.

- Today's time waster is Vertical Heroes. Fall from great heights and save the prisoners from orcs!

- Finally, here is a fantastic video (apologies to those of you who may have already seen it) that illustrates the impact technology is having on our lives. If you like tech. you need to see this.

Canadian music retailer hmv has opened a DRM free online music store called hmvdigital. Already the store offers more than five million tracks and is adding 100,000 more every week, it also has the ability to allow purchasers to "gift" music to others, so you can toss a few tracks to your friends and neighbours whenever you are feeling particularly generous. On top of that, hmv is offering a "download manager" which will allow users to sync their music directly onto their iTunes-ready device. Because it is free of DRM, all MP3 music downloaded from the store is available to be transferred onto any MP3-playing device, including Android phones and MP3 players not made by Apple Inc.

Perhaps the most compelling thing about the hmvdigital store is its willingness to compete with iTunes on price. Most newer song downloads sell for $1.29 each, a .10 cent discount over iTunes pricing. The site also has specials on albums and other goodies.

Whether this works and helps to re-instate hmv as a Canadian record industry heavyweight is anyone's guess. The company has been doing quite well recently, reporting record sales, this initiative can only help that bottom line. The more interesting question to ask is whether hmv has undertaken this initiative too late in the game? Online music downloads are in freefall as new services, mostly free, offering streaming music to listeners are taking over.  Services like Last.fm and Pandora are here to stay and may usher in another major earthquake for the recording industry.

- Just when you finally figured out how to block all of those Farmville updates from your Facebook news feed, someone at Zynga has found another way to toss the company's much hated agricultural franchise in your face. 7-11 will soon be sporting Farmville themed merchandise! Yay! So you will never be without your sandwich cart or fun slide again.

- The man formerly known as, and now again known as, Prince has declared that the Internet is dead and the future of the music industry is newspapers (which is good news for me!) Anyways, he gave a reporter from the Mirror in the U.K. an exclusive look at his digs. Check it out here.

- Today's time waster is Baseball! No explanation necessary.

- Just when Apple thought it's Cold War with Adobe was well entrenched, independent developers are dragging Apple products, kicking and screaming, towards playing nice with the Internet video standard. Soon, Apple devices will be running Flash games, websites and media, even if Apple doesn't want them too. Check out the video below which talks about "Frash" for the iPad.

Before I get started here is some great game footage that Microsoft provided us with that I accidentally dumped on YouTube because I just have to share. ... P.S. you're welcome!

Alan Wake preview vid:

Crackdown 2: Nothing is Sacred preview vid:

The videos above were provided by Microsoft and we thank them for that. It should be noted that they wouldn't let us take our own gameplay footage, which was a bit disappointing but still they were good enough to let us play around with two of the hottest exclusives coming out for the Xbox 360 this year.

Now, what is there to say? Well, I can confirm that Alan Wake is finally going to see the light of day. The game, which has been in development for five years, is being printed as we speak and let me say that from the little bit I saw it is impressive. Gameplay is like Grand Theft Auto or Max Payne but the designers have woven the suspense aspect throughout the game so that you will be jumping out of your seats constantly as these possessed people come at you with axes, baseball bats, guns and whatever else they can find. While the "open world" is gone, Microsoft showed us how big the actual area to discover in each level really is and while you can't wander for miles, there is plenty to explore and numerous ways to conquer whatever obstacle may be in your path.

The storyline is cool, if not a little silly. I think back to horror movies when you know the killer is in the house and you are screaming "get out of the house" but the character never does and then gets killed. Well, in one scene Alan is running from an axe wielding maniac through the forest and where does he head? To a logging camp of course! I kinda got a chuckle out of that.

What really makes the game intriguing is the way it has been built in chapters. This allows for gameplayers to play shorter sessions and then shut the game off. Marathon gamers can still play through the whole thing in one sitting if they would like. For those who prefer to work through the game in more casual bite-sized pieces, each chapter starts with a very TV-like "Previously on Alan Wake" and then a recap of the cinema scenes that have already happened, bringing you back up to speed on events and reminding you of some things you may have missed.

To help build up the game before it's mid-May launch, Microsoft also announced the webisodes "Welcome to Bright Falls" the first two are already available and will help flesh out the story behind the title. I will have my full review of the game once it is provided to us, but if you have any questions pertaining to what we saw, please leave them in the comments section below and I will try to answer them.

On to Crackdown 2!

Crackdown was the biggest surprise to hit the gaming world in the past five years. The title came out with little marketing (many people bought it just to get in on the Halo 3 Beta) and went on to become a cult sensation, with friends playing together and using their Agent to blow up the town. Anyways, in this version you are back in Pacific City. The original title ended with a virus being unleashed on the city's inhabitants and this one picks up with millions of people being transformed by that virus into "Freaks", grossly mutated populace, that only come out at night. During the day the city is plagued by a gang called The Cell that is sure to give you headaches.

In order to address some fan complaints Crackdown 2 removes civilians from the city during night time fight scenes. This is helpful seeing as the Freaks like to swarm you in packs by the hundreds and allows players to do some major damage without having them worry about civilian casualties. New weapons have been added and the Agents have the ability to use objects in their environment as a weapon, for example you can break down a streetlight at swing it to beat up your enemies. Or, you can rip out a bus shelter and use it as a giant sledge hammer to beat down the hordes.

Multiplayer is back and this time it wasn't an after thought. Players can have up to four friends in the Co-Op mode and play through the title together. There are also Deathmatch and team Deathmatch modes that allow for up to 16 players. New vehicles have been added including some flying ones, such as helicopters.

Play control is exactly like the first title in the series. Fans of the first will find themselves right at home in the world of Crackdown 2. As with Alan Wake, I will leave my official review for after I have had a bit more time with the title. Leave questions below highlighting anything I missed and I will try to answer it.

Just when you thought the foursome over at Ok Go! were done, we get the video below. There is no doubt in my mind that these guys are masters of social media. If this video doesn't hit a million views by Friday, I will be surprised. It just goes to show you that fresh thinking mixed with social media is a very powerful thing.

In case you aren't familiar with OK GO. The band hit it huge and signed with record label EMI after releasing this video, showing them dancing on treadmills.

I have had a lot of time to think about Apple Inc.'s new iPad device. I have had no time to write about the device, so let me rectify that and answer some of the questions you have been sending via e-mail. First off, I applaud the company for this release and that (for me) is a big deal. The iPad, which is a horrible name and has gotten enough publicity, is a slick device that is sure to boost the profile of tablet computers the world over. It's interface is easy to use and straight forward, it's reported battery life is admirable and in my opinion the blockbuster feature of the device is the 3G wireless plan that Apple managed to hammer out with AT&T in the U.S. (more on this later). Overall it's good news for the industry and it makes Steve Ballmer's much maligned presentation of the HP Slate at CES much less lame.   Tablet computers such as the iPad and Slate are posied to make major in-roads into the world of portable computing. To answer many people who wrote in saying "this doesn't fit in their pocket" and "they would never give up an iPhone for one of these",  neither of those criticisms apply. The tablet isn't meant to replace a smart phone, it's meant to replace a laptop. This is the evolution of portable computing. It's not an attack on the smart phone market it's an all-out assault on the market now dominated by laptop and netbook sales. Netbooks have hammered the market once dominated by laptop computers and devices such as the iPad will cut further into those sales.  One of the driving factors of this push will be students and anyone in the world of design and engineering. Adding a stylus and "e-paper" application to a tablet and suddenly you have the ultimate note taking/sketch recording device. Added to that is Internet on a sizeable screen anywhere you go and the ability to play games, watch movies, listen to music, etc. Plus the form factor is small and even more portable then a laptop, making it perfect for people on the go. Make no mistake, the iPad will be one popular device.

Having said all of that, I have some serious reservations. Most of which have already been noted in this great piece by Wired which blogged the problems before I could. If you don't want to read it I will summarize. There are no standard USB inputs, meaning you have to buy iPod/iPad specific accessories for the unit and can't simply carry over the plethora of devices we already own. Secondly, the battery can't be removed (which sadly looks to be the case with many of these tablet devices popping up on the scene) and as anyone who has owned a laptop/netbook can attest the claim of a 4 or 5 hour battery life goes downhill fast. Battery technologies need to improve further. As it stands, when your tablet battery kicks out the device basically becomes trash. The iPad can't multi-task, which is a huge turn off for me. I always have four or five apps open when I work on my laptop, desktop or netbook and I jump around between them like a grasshopper in a frying pan. It's how we work today. Adding the ability to multi-task should be easy. Jail broken iPhones (don't try this at home it will void your warranty) have it so it's not a restriction of the technology it's something Apple has specified and no one can figure out why. There is no flash support, so half the Internet is out. Adobe is working overtime to find some sort of workaround which uses an app to translate Flash into something the iPad can see. It's all really silly. There is also the aspect ratio, which is old-school TV 4:3, so prepare for black-bar-letter boxing on your movies. Lack of an HDMI out so you can't share the stuff on your iPad with others on a big-screen TV is also puzzling. Oh, and for some reason there is no camera built into the unit. Which is really weird because for some reason this company thinks it's okay to put a camera into it's iPod Nano, which I still can't figure out,  but for some reason won't put one into what is sure to become the company's flagship portable computing platform. Maybe in version 2.0?

Still, the biggest issue I see with the iPad is it's reliance on iTunes. This is DRM (digital rights management) at its worst, a practice I will remind the company it once said it would be moving away from. To me, this is the major knock against the iPad. You can only put Apple approved or Apple made programs onto the device using iTunes. At a time when Microsoft can't bundle a specific web browser with it's operating system due to anti-trust regulations, this just seems ridiculous. The iPad is an Apple made device running an Apple Operating System that can only run Apple-made or Apple-approved software. If you want to do something that Apple doesn't approve of, such as multi-task, too bad. It's hardly an open and competitive ecosystem for developers and it will be interesting to see how the iPad fares against upcoming devices running Google Inc.'s Android or Chrome Operating Systems (based on Linux) which have taken the opposite tact and opened up the devices to anyone to do pretty much anything they want with it.

However, iPad does have a killer "app" and it's not even software based. Somehow Apple was able to wrestle AT&T to drop it's approach to cellphone contracts and allow people to buy data cheap on pay-as-you-go plans. This is huge and has been overlooked by everyone in my opinion. The ability to buy an iPad for $499 U.S. and then get wireless data through AT&T for as little as $15 a month makes this device a must have for students everywhere. Add to that the upcoming ability to get their text books through iBooks and it won't be long before the iPad becomes a university or college necessity. Think of it this way, by grabbing their iPad a student takes all of their notes and textbooks with them where ever they go. The $15 fee ($30 for heavy users) for monthly Internet access ensures that student is connected to the Internet where ever they go and while sitting in class they can use their "textbook" as  their "notepad" (iPad stylus devices are already dropping)  and still have access to all of the Internet based resources that the professor is pointing out. This thing is one serious educational tool and one I would want either one of my sons to have if they were attending university. The AT&T plan is particularly appealing because parents or students can simply stop paying for it during summer months when school is out and resume the plan during winter months. And before someone says it, you can't compare this plan to ones already in place for smartphones because with the smartphones you need to also pay for things like voice, text messaging and various other service charges bringing a monthly bill up to between $60 and $100 a month - a far cry from $15. I can only hope when the device is available here in Canada later this year that cellular providers like Rogers take note and offer a comparable plan.

All-in-all the iPad is a remarkable device for some not so obvious reasons. I, like many others, am seriously underwhelmed by the technology and features of the device but I think the flashy device shines an amazingly bright spotlight (there are no better marketers then the folks at Apple) on the emerging market of tablet computers which are sure to radically change the market of portable computing.

UPDATE: Wow, that didn't take long!

- Here is a very interesting letter from the band OK Go! You remember these guys as the foursome who created that YouTube music video showing them hopping around from treadmill to treadmill at the gym.  These guys are a classic case of tech savvy people who "just go it" early on and used their knowledge of social media to turn their little bar band into an international recording sensation.  Now, it seems with the release of their new album the band wanted to once again reach out directly to fans and allow them to mash-up OK Go music, post YouTube videos of fans signing Karaoke to their songs and do other fun interactive stuff that would ultimately raise the profile of the band's new album and lead to more sales. Their label squashed that idea and moved to shut down everything that made the band successful to begin with. Check out the open letter to fans in the link above for more. It's an interesting behind the scenes look at a progressive  band, publicly warring with its stone-aged label over how to engage people in today's modern era.

- Samsung is working to create new employee ID cards that feature animated OLED screens showing the employees head floating around in free space. I can't wait until my company turns me into a disembodied head!

- Today's Time Waster is Rubble Trouble! Blow things up and smash down buildings to help your construction crew make money.

- Have you ever wondered why modern day disc-based games seem to get damaged so easily when your old school NES games used to be able to take a hardcore beating without skipping a beat. Below is an awesome video to shoe you just how tough those old NES games were. Prepare to be amazed!

Okay, I have been getting some e-mail from people who want to know my thoughts about Nexus One. Seeing as I have this blog, and have been neglecting it (I promise to change that habit starting now) I will spill my thoughts and allow the netizens of the World Wide Webs to pick them apart. First off, much of what we know is in the story in today's paper. But the really interesting thing about this is how it will integrate with Google Voice.  I have reported on why Google Voice is a real game changing app before. The application is a lot like Skype, but the difference is that it tethers your landline to your cellphone. Allowing all calls made to your existing home number to be instantly routed over the Internet, via Wi-Fi, to your cellphone. It also takes voice mail, provides call waiting, text messages, e-mail, etc. In other words, you no longer need a monthly cellular phone bill particularly in cities such as Toronto or Boston (actually, I am getting ahead of myself because Google Voice is currently in U.S. only Beta) where Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. I was talking to Google about how Google Voice factors into the whole Nexus One equation and they were a little hesitant to comment. A spokeswoman simply said, for now customers can't tether the Nexus One to their landline. Underline "for now".

I believe Nexus One is Google's ultimate Trojan horse. This is device (and it's following generations) are more then just a new cellphone. Instead, it will help Google to put a browser in the hand of every person around the world. Nexus One will bring together all of your  Google accounts under one umbrella and once Google Voice exits Beta it will let you make free phone calls too. Now, some people have said, Google Voice runs on other Android phones too. Those people would be right. But, those phones are all sold by cellular companies who have no interest in allowing customers to cut back, or cut out entirely, their monthly cellphone bills. Look at the trouble Skype has had in trying to weasel its way into the world of mobile phones. The problem is only compounded once Google realized that even it's tech industry compatriots are against its efforts to bring free phone calls to the world.  This brings us to the first big brilliant move by the search engine giant. It's going to sell Nexus One itself. So, manufacturers (who are at the mercy of the cellular phone companies selling their product) and cellular companies (who ultimately give the final thumbs up or thumbs down with regards to which apps can run on their networks) have no say in what happens on or with Nexus One. If they want Nexus One, they can go talk to Google, if not then it's not a big deal. And if a customer comes calling with Nexus One, just activate it! The strategy has worked as several networks, most notably those that missed out on the initial craze behind the iPhone, are clamouring to get Nexus One now. So, having said all that, Nexus One isn't just another Android phone.

More so, there are those who have said, "what if you're outside a Wi-Fi hotspot? The reason I pay for cellular service is so that I can get service all the time!" You would be right. Coverage is a big issue. But let's not forget about another initiative that the Giant from Mountain View is quietly pushing, Whitespaces. The Whitespace technologies, which were approved for use in the U.S. by the FCC in late 2008, will open a cross country network offering always connected Internet access to Americans (a Canadian version is expected after our DTV transition in Aug. 2011). And, I do not think that Jan. 4's Google Proposal to the FCC, where the company offers to help administer the Whitespaces database and push up its implentation, was a coincidence. The company said the reason it wants to be more hands on with Whitespaces is because Google "want(s) to work with the FCC to make sure that a white spaces database gets up and running. We hope that this will unfold in a matter of months, not years." The quicker Whitespaces get rolled out, the faster the final piece of the Nexus One puzzle will fall into place.

Google wants to be a carrier. The company wants its products to be available to you always. You need e-mail? No problem here's G-mail. Need to make a phone call? No problem, here is Google Voice. Need to take a message? We'll handle that. Need to search the web? Here's Google Search. Then there is Google Docs, Calendar, Wave, Picasa, Youtube, etc. Everything you need from the cloud and always on. And taking it one step further. For non-handheld devices, such as laptops and desktops, soon there will be Chrome (my thoughts on this to come later).

This isn't pie in the sky. It is happening now. What we are witnessing is Google's very carefully thought out plan to take over the consumer electronics world in a earthshaking way that hasn't been seen since Microsoft Corp. pushed forward with its Windows Operating system.

Nexus One is more than just another cell phone.

- It looks like the popular Nintendo DS is about to get another upgrade. This one promises motion control, HD graphics and a vitality sensor.

- This one killed me. In case you haven't heard, EA is going to shut down a whack of its online gaming servers for some of its "older games". So basically, if you play NHL 08 on your PC online or Madden 08 (all versions) you will need to buy a new version to keep playing head-to-head with other players.

- Today's time waster is The Scruffs, a fun flash-based game that has players point and click their way through the story while helping the family.

- If you are a geek with a ton of time and a new baby (it could happen) then the video below may be instructional.

“It’s time to hero up!”

The newly released Super Hero Squad sees Iron Man and his rag-tag group of Marvel superheroes make their way to video game consoles everywhere in a fun adventure game that is sure to satisfy kids of all ages.

The game, which is based on the new TV series of the same name, features many Marvel superheros and villains that have been re-designed to be more “kid-friendly.” In this game, Hulk is a comical oaf with a permanent smile, Wolverine is a good natured and wise-cracking runt, and Captain America is a drill sergeant who likes to recount his adventures in the old days.

Marvel villains get the same treatment. Mole Man struggles with a gas problem, Abomination seems to have trouble remembering the difference between up and down and the game’s main villain, Dr. Doom, just can’t seem to do anything right. All the quirky characters — which are voiced by the same actors that are on the Saturday morning cartoon —  make for entertaining gaming. Throw in a few less than intelligent minions and THQ has come up with a game that will keep kids happy for hours. Adults may have a harder time keeping interest, but for the kids this one is a winner.

The game sends players on  a quest to find the missing pieces of the Infinity Sword. The sword gives the holder great powers and is the obsession of Dr. Doom, who is determined to reassemble it and take over the world. In a brief cutscene at the start of the game, players discover that during a battle between Dr. Doom and Iron Man, the sword shattered into “fractals” that have fallen over Superhero City. The Super Hero Squad must find the fractals before Dr. Doom can.

Players pick two different characters they can control on each level. Each character has their own powers and abilities. Hulk is the strongest, but isn’t very fast. Iron Man can fly and fire repulsor beams from his gauntlets hitting enemies that are standing far away.

Gameplay is fun and easy. Players simply have to smash everything they see on screen before moving to the next stage. There is no learning curve offering complex commands, simply mashing on the controller's buttons is all it takes to achieve your objective.

The artificial intelligence of the bad guys is quite poor. Some won’t even move before they are smashed, making them easy targets. Cutscenes between levels also leave a lot to be desired. Rather than offering players animated cinema scenes, the story is explained through still images (much like a motion comic) with character voice overs doing most of the work.

The game has two different types of mutli-player offerings. In the story mode, a second player can drop in or out of the game, allowing two people to play through levels side-by-side. There is also a battle mode (like the popular Super Smash Bros. series.)  available in the game, where up to four players can choose from 20 different characters and slug it out.

While Super Hero Squad is short on depth, it’s big on heart and its tough to see any kid not having a blast smashing their way through Dr. Doom’s various troops.

This game gets 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Available on Wii, PS2, Nintendo DS and Sony's PSP

If you have ever wanted to interact with your PC the same way you do with your iPod Touch, Windows 7 may be just what you are looking for.

The new operating system from Microsoft Corp. launches on Thursday and promises, among other things, to help the software maker to leave behind the negativity surrounding Windows Vista.

One of the least talked about features in the new OS is its support for touchscreen devices from its core, meaning it will bring touch functionality to applications and programs that don't have touchscreen compatibility built in, provided the user has a touch-capable PC.

One of the early entrants to the touch-enabled PC space is HP, with a line of Touch-Smart desktops. We tested Windows 7 running on an HP TouchSmart dx9000. The system had an Intel Duo Core processor running at 2.26 gigahertz and four gigabytes of RAM. It retails for $1,749.

The system ran incredibly well without a mouse. Selecting applications was as simple as pointing to the screen and tapping twice. Pictures could be resized by pinching in or out with your fingers, rotating an image was as easy as moving fingers in a clockwise motion and scrolling is done by swiping a digit up or down. A touchscreen-based keyboard, which pops-up on- demand, was also handy although not the easiest thing to use.

While it was easy to navigate without a mouse, it was physically awkward. While Windows 7 does an admirable job of bringing a touch interface to traditional software, the software has been optimized to work with the pointer of a mouse. You find yourself looking for tiny hyperlinks and text boxes to input commands with your fingertips and think, there has to be a better way.

A touchscreen suite of games was included with the DX9000 which showcased how a touchscreen interface should work. One game, called Blackboard, requires the user to pull components from a toolbox, resize and position them on the screen in order to move a balloon through a maze. Players have to grab fans, blocks and other devices using their fingers and splash them into location.

It all worked like the computer interface in Minority Report, point, click, drag and fling components around the screen until they are in position. The game was fantastic because it was designed to be used with a touchscreen.

More software designed specifically for touchscreen devices needs to be released before the touch features built into Windows 7 get the attention they deserve.

On the whole, Windows 7 is a big upgrade from Vista. With 7, Microsoft has aimed to address complaints about top-end system requirements, anemic driver support and lack of cool new features.

Microsoft has made the operating system so it can be installed on older computers -- we installed Windows 7 on a Dell Mini 9 netbook PC with a seriously underpowered single core 1.6 gigahertz processor and it ran flawlessly without crashing. Which means, people who have been running Windows XP on older PCs could upgrade to 7.

To make sure that devices will work in 7, Microsoft has reduced the red tape it requires for vendors and partners to certify their devices as "compatible." The company also took the drastic step of opening the system to the public through a free testing period, which started last fall.

Millions of people have already been using the operating system and sending data about hardware/software conflicts as well as driver problems back to Microsoft for months. Those still using the free trial version should note it will be shut down in February.

Some say a few of the operating system's features look very Mac-like. For instance, the new taskbar allows users to store shortcuts to apps they regularly use. Mac users have had this feature, which they call The Dock, in OSX for years.

Windows 7 also reduces the clutter in the system tray, which used to pile up icons showing every application that was open. Now, a simple up arrow is displayed. To see which apps are running, users just click on the arrow.

But, the important thing about Windows 7 is that it just works. The operating system boots quickly and runs without fault. In the past six months of running the software on my laptop it has not crashed or posed any problems.

With touch functionality built in and a revamped shiny new interface, users who have been waiting to upgrade because of complaints over Vista may find just what they are looking for in Windows 7.

The new operating system hits store shelves Thursday, it will be free with a new PC purchase.

Otherwise it will cost between $130 and $350.

The two biggest forces in social media have formed a pact to allow anyone with a Facebook page to sync their Facebook updates and content with their Twitter accounts. The pact between the two companies is sure to cement their lead in the "social media" field by eliminating at least one step in most people's daily routines. The move will allow people to post pics, status updates and even links to both accounts simultaneously. It will also bridge the gap between the two services, making more alike then ever before, and remove the need for 3rd party applications that can be used to sync the two accounts. It's yet to be seen how Facebook users respond to the new offering. When Facebook updated it's user interface to look more Twitter-like earlier this year, users were anything but happy.

- NASA is putting your ISP to shame. The space agency has a 100mb pipe straight to the moon that it uses to transmit more than 300 GBs of data from satellites and the International Space Station on a daily basis. The next time my ISP tells me that my 10mb connection is being slowed because I am too far from the switching station I am going to ask them why NASA can connect with the moon, but they can't connect with a house that is one block away from the switching station?

-  Check out the Way Back Machine. It's an amazing Internet archive that has cached images of websites all over the web over the years. A search of Ottawacitizen.com shows website images going all the way back to 1996. It's really amazing stuff, especially if you are into "Internet-based archeology".

- Today's time waster is Wheeler. It's a cool little motorcycle racing game.

- The video below shows you why social media has become so important in today's economy. Especially when you figure by 2010 Generation Y (the generation that really gets this stuff) will outnumber the Baby Boom generation.

I'm totally baffled by this Maclean's article that was pointed out to me today. The piece calls Canada a "technological backwater" and claims that "Canada is fast developing a reputation for having a market that’s unfriendly to new technology." Neither statement could be further from the truth.

Where did the author, Colin Campbell, get this conclusion from? Apparently Campbell was upset at not being able to get his hands on a Kindle or iPhone and decided to take a couple of cheap shots at the tens-of-thousands of men and women working in Canada's technology industry. If it were some lame blog making these statements, I would simply let it roll off my back. But, this drivel comes from Maclean's. A magazine that claims to be "Canada's only national weekly current affairs magazine" with "strong investigative reporting and exclusive stories from leading journalists in the fields of international affairs, social issues, national politics, business and culture." If the aforementioned is true, I have no idea what happened with this story. Allow me to do some fact-checking.

Campbell starts his piece by talking about the launch of the Kindle (which is only being sold in the U.S.). He states:

"There have been no shortage of e-book skeptics, but earlier versions of the Kindle have flown off of shelves. Amazon.com sold an estimated 500,000 Kindles last year—and was sold out of the device over Christmas. One analyst estimates it will earn the company over $1.5 billion in revenue by 2012. In the U.S., book sales may be on the decline, but e-book sales are surging. In Japan recently, four of the top 10 bestsellers were released exclusively as e-books." He later says that Canadian publishers are awaiting the arrival of the Kindle as it will help give new life to Canadian books and help them reach new markets and attributes the statement to Diana Barry, the director of digital services with the Association of Canadian Publishers.

Let's pick that apart. While Kindle's 500,000 units sold is impressive, it's nowhere near as impressive as the 3.8 million iPhones that Apple ships every four months. It's also nowhere near as impressive as the 35 million netbooks that will be shipped this year or the 1.17 billion smartphones (including iPhone) that will ship in 2009.Then there are the iPods and other personal media devices capable of reading e-books. Why would the Association of Canadian Publishers be awaiting the arrival of Kindle? Devices to read e-books are available and Canadians have embraced them.

Didn't Campbell just say in his piece that in Japan "four of the the top 10 bestsellers were released exclusively as e-books"? Since the Kindle isn't available in Japan, that should tell us something about how people want to read e-books. The Japanese access their e-books on devices like smartphones, netbooks and laptops. So, how is not having access to the Kindle affecting the Canadian publishing industry? The answer is, it has no impact. The 500,000 Kindles sold in the U.S. are doing very little for the e-book market. That market is being buoyed by the other devices available which is why Google is entering the e-book market. Despite the above, Campbell somehow comes to the conclusion that Kindle's absence  is "infuriating" to Canadians.

Canadians, much like Americans, are not willing to give up on paper yet. When they are, they will find that there are more than enough devices out there capable of providing them with access to e-books (including the Sony Reader, a Kindle competitor).

Moving on.

Campbell somehow comes to the conclusion that the iPhone's delayed launch in Canada has handicapped Canadian software developers and given U.S. developers a leg up in developing applications for the device.

He writes: "Take, again, the iPhone. After it was launched, hundreds of U.S. companies and individuals started developing applications for it. An entire industry has emerged around this one piece of technology. And while Canadians waited for the iPhone, they also missed out on the early stages of that development."

There is a huge difference between a device and the device's Software Development Kit (SDK). Canadians didn't need the iPhone to develop applications for it and hundreds snatched up the SDK, secured developers' licences and jumped into Apple's App Store when it opened. One of those companies was Ottawa's Fuel Industries, which released one of the first games (called Spinner) available for the iPhone.

"When the app store launched we had one of the the first games and it was one of the most popular downloads. It was picked as a staff favourite, it was a Top 25 game for a long time and it still has over a million downloads," said Warren Tomlin, chief creative officer at Fuel.

Despite not physically having the device, Canadians took the opportunities to embrace the technology and create compelling and profitable content. All they needed was an Apple computer to make the applications and partake in "early stages of development". Again Campbell's argument falls flat.

He then turns to the popular Internet TV provider Hulu.com and how it is unavailable in Canada. What he fails to mention is that Hulu is not available anywhere outside of the U.S. He blames the Canadian regulatory structure and strict licensing by TV networks for failing to allow Canadians to watch TV on Hulu. If that makes us a "technology backwater" then the U.K., France, Spain, Japan, South Korea and every other nation would be keeping us company. The problem of accessing Hulu's content is global; leave Canada out of it.

Campbell's article isn't just flawed, it's filled with errors and comments with no attribution or support for his arguments. One of the worst is his statement that Hulu is "set to overtake YouTube in ad revenue." YouTube's ad revenues are expected to be $240 million in 2009. Hulu's revenues are expected to come in around $120 million. Viewers watched more than 5.9 billion videos on YouTube during March, while Hulu viewers watched around 380 million videos. Given the distance between the two competitors I don't think Hulu is set to overtake YouTube in ad revenues in the near future.

Another glaring omission comes when he points out that Cisco Systems line of Flip Video cameras were available in the U.S. months before Canadian stores began carrying them. He fails to mention that Canadians could choose from plenty of competing models with better reviews, including a line of camcorders from Kodak. This may be me nitpicking, but I think it's important to point out. If this is what qualifies Campbell and Maclean's to claim that Canada is a "technological backwater," then perhaps the fact that we have yet to get Kentucky Fried Chicken's Grilled Chicken basket makes us a "fast food backwater." The reality is, the Canadian market is one-tenth the size of the U.S. market and as a result we will always play second fiddle when it comes to the release of new products. Campbell is confusing a distribution issue with a software or innovation issue, the two are mutually exclusive. Insulting our technology industry is uncalled for and given the factual errors pointed out above, Macleans should immediately recall the piece.

Canada's technology industry is rich and vibrant. It has been hit hard by the current economic mess, but it continues to produce. Companies like RIM, OpenText, CGI, Sandvine, Bridgewater and DragonWave are all proudly Canadian and doing some amazing things. Other companies such as Bill Me Later and Cognos (now IBM) and Alias WaveFront all have Canadian roots and have been taken over by U.S. giants for billions of dollars. Cognos still employs hundreds here in Ottawa. To top it all off, the two largest video game production facilities in the world call Canada home. If you want to talk about shareholder value, Canada's leading technology stock index (the SPTSX sub index) returned 71 per cent to investors since the beginning of this year as compared to just 18 per cent on the U.S.'s leading technology index (the NASDAQ composite index). Hardly a backwater.

Campbell's piece says little and, more important, takes away from the real issues facing Canada's sustained technology growth. Despite our early lead in broadband, Canada and the U.S. now lag far behind much of the world in high-speed Internet connectivity. To call your service broadband in much of Europe (including the Scandinavian countries) you have to be offering connections faster than 50 megabits per second. Here, companies advertise "high-speed" of 500 kilobits per second. We have issues pertaining to net neutrality that need to be addressed and even more important are issues pertaining to outdated regulation that make it nearly impossible for government to respond to the ongoing changes in the Internet. Canada still has separate broadcasting and telecommunications legislation, and our copyright legislation has not been updated since 1997. It all needs to be overhauled. We also have serious regulatory issues when it comes to allowing American Venture firms to invest in Canadian companies. Any of these points would be valid in a piece explaining the issues facing Canada's technology industry. Sadly, none of this made it into Campbell's story. He substantiates his points with a bunch of random, easily dismissed anecdotes. Macleans should be ashamed.

Talk about blowing the roof off! The Twitterverse is rife with news about Microsoft's E3 announcement of a new camera with motion tracking abilities called Project Natal. Aside from being able to track a users movement's the camera also comes bundled with voice and facial recognition technology that allows several players to gather and play games in front of it, without mixing up each person. Natal makes playing a game a lot like playing Wii without the Wii mote. To kick a ball, you stand up and kick. To throw a ball you actually throw. But, what blew me away was the way the camera allows you to interact with Xbox's movie library. Just scroll with your finger as if you were doing so on an iPhone, only the iPhone isn't there. You just point in mid-air like Tom Cruise on Minority Report and scroll through your videos. When you find the one you want to play you say "play" and the movie starts up. There was no talk about how this would interface with Microsoft's new Media Player on Windows 7 but one would expect the two to mesh well together and allow you to use your Xbox 360 for movies, pictures, gaming and even Facebook (yes, I forgot about the Facebook announcement and I will get to it in an second) without a control or even a universal remote. People in the U.K. with the Xbox's new SkyTV service should be particularly pleased, as the camera should totally do away with your need for a TV remote. Just say "guide" and up it comes. Scroll through with your finger until you see something you want to watch and just say "play".

This is more than just a "gaming" announcement. As I see it, it's Microsofts nuclear bomb that will finally allow the 360 to become a must have device in the living room. The only question is when is it coming and how much will it cost. Some have heard that the device will retail for around $200 U.S. which sounds about right. But I was disappointed, given the gravity of the announcement, that the company didn't have more definite plans for a release date. Natal has been released to developers, by the time they get games ready for it, it will likely be late 2010 before it is released in stores. So, hold 'yer horses. I'm sure it will be worth it.

Going back to my earlier point, the company also announced that coming this fall people will be able to access Facebook, Twitter and Last.Fm from Xbox Live using their Gold accounts. The announcement is another indication that Microsoft is serious about winning this "console war" and asserting itself as the primary entertainment hub in your house. Being able to Twitter, check Facebook and even listen to music on Last.Fm without ever leaving Xbox Live will be appealing to many. As will the ability to aggregate your Twitter followers or Facebook friends for a quick Deathmatch or garden part on Viva Pinata.

More E3 to come....

An Ottawa legal expert is lobbing grenades at a Conference Board of Canada report, claiming the document is the mirror image of a similar American report released in February.

Michael Geist, a professor of law at the University of Ottawa and Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce law, says portions of the research report entitled intellectual Property Rights in the Digital Economy appear to have come directly from a similar paper released by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a well known music and movie industry lobby group in the U.S.

The Conference Board report calls for stricter copyright legislation in Canada and claims Canada has become the "file-swapping capital of the world."

On his blog (www.michaelgeist.ca), Geist questions much of the information in the report and points out paragraphs in both reports that read in a similar fashion.

"Almost alone among developed OECD economies, Canada has taken no significant steps toward modernizing or clarifying its copyright law to meet or ratify the new global minimum standards of the WIPO Internet treaties," says the Conference Board report released Friday.

The IIPA's report, called the International Intellectual Property Alliance's (IIPA) 2008 Special 301 Report, states: "Almost alone among developed economies in the OECD, Canada has taken no meaningful steps toward modernizing its copyright law to meet the new global minimum standards of the WIPO Internet Treaties, which Canada signed more than a decade ago."

Geist also questioned the sources of funding for the report.
According to the Conference Board, the report was funded by the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network, the Canadian Intellectual Property Council, the Copyright Collective of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation as well as other lobby groups who are pushing for stronger Canadian copyright legislation.

"I would never level a charge of plagiarism lightly, but the shoe fits here," said Geist. "It was written by three of their own researchers, they put out a press release that suggests much of this is original Conference Board research. If it's not theirs, whose is it?"

The Conference Board describes itself as the "foremost, independent, not-for-profit applied research organization in Canada."

Late Monday, the board admitted that one of the paragraphs in the report had not been attributed properly. It said it has fixed that error in an updated version of the report that is now on its website.

"We also acknowledge that some of the cited paragraphs closely approximate the wording of a source document," said the board in a release.

The board said the report was produced as "contract research," adding: "The Conference Board regularly produces custom research. Our guidelines for financed research require the design and method of research, as well as the content of the report, to be determined solely by the Conference Board."

- I'm not sure what it will look like, but apparently Twitter is going to star in a new reality TV show. Just when you thought you couldn't keep up with the Tweets you've been getting already, trust reality TV to add more trouble for you.

- The June 1st edition of the New Yorker will feature a cover drawn entirely on an iPhone with the artists finger. Check it out here.

- Today's time waster is a puzzle game called Gold Strike.