rich.carey

So, this weeks rant is about the infamous Twitter and how i don’t understand what it does.

For those of you who have been living under a rock without an Internet connection, Twitter is a social networking website similar to that of Facebook or Myspace but lacking functionality. Launched in 2006 as a “micro-blogging” website for mobile devices it has many-a-famous face on their including actors such as Ashton Kutcher (most followed celeb.) and earlier this year it was even rumoured that the Queen was a user (later dismissed).

The thing is, who REALLY uses Twiter? If we take a step back and analyse Facebook or Myspace’s features you can see that they serve as useful websites for social interaction with the Photo albums, Games, Walls and Status updates (Plus chat facilities). Twitter is basically a massive pile of donkey-balls which operates like a giant “status update database”  where users post uninteresting items of news like:

I would like to point out that this is only partially made up, the actual transcripts are a lot more frequent and 10x duller! What annoys me the most about Twitter is that you don’t comment on an article, you simply update your page with a comment referencing the fore-mentioned article:

10:05am @bbcnews <pointless comment>

Quite hypocritically if you look on the right hand pane it is clear that i have a Twitter account, allthough my reasoning was to reserve my username should twitter ever become useful.  It’s not that I hate Twitter, its just that I (and i know i’m not the only one) is getting fed up of the media using Twitter as a valid resource for news and also every man and his dog microblogging about every interaction said user has.

Finally i did get a chuckle out of Mr D. Camerons statement on the radio the other week “Too many twits, make a twat”

Note:  I have actually found a small use for twitter, which is to let items ‘Tweet’ (Like the man who’s house tweeted) who’s account is private anyway, taking the “social” out of  ”social networking”

Note2:

Click for bigger picture

Rich (Admin) General, News, Reviews, Websites google, review, Twitter

Break time, a time to kick back and relax with my cuppa’ and read today’s latest happenings on Times Online and Digg.  As i sit here sipping my tea-flavoured water from the machine it appears that the Internet is buzzing with talk of the Sony PSP3000 predecessor – the PSP ‘Go’. However despite its weird control layout, the dropping of the failed UMD slot and bluetooth connectivity the only comments i keep reading are “It’s good but it can’t make calls”.

Last time i checked. the Nintendo DS could not make phone calls either, and why? Because these systems are designed as games devices and NOT phones, and at  the risk of offending people, iPhone fan-boys can’t seem to realise this.

Lets for a moment presume that the PSP is “an iPhone contender” , Does the iPhone have fully 3D games which cost millions to develop?  NO. Does the iPhone have a controller layout that doesn’t involve mashing your thumbs against a flat screen in hope your hitting the right buttons? NO.  So why, why can’t they add this in? -Answer: because it’s a phone not a gaming system!!! On a side note, the main argument so far is that it doesn’t have a touch screen, the DS has got that niche in the gaming market, we don’t need another! (and TBH touchscreen games aren’t all that good)

To be perfectly honest, it annoys me enough when i get a phone call when I’m playing the 360 never mind it interrupting and minimizing my game! Overall i think its important to realise we don’t need nor want a multifunctional device , I’d sooner carry a Portable gaming system and phone separately so i don’t have to settle for mediocre quality products.

On a lighter note (and to make this post somewhat useful)  the PSP offers expandable memory still (additional to the 16GB  internal)  and has ditched UMD for downloadable games and is nearly 45% lighter than the 3000  The reasoning behind downloadable games is to lure game-dev’s back as the majority gave up after the ammount of piracy involving the PSP.

Rich (Admin) Gaming, News, hardware apple, iphone, psp, sony

This blog hasn’t really been used in recent months due to Uni Work, however i am still alive and currently have 3 weeks till i start as an IP at IBM Hursley.

More importantly in the world of gaming it has been E3 in the last week or so and it has been unveiled that Sky television will be integrated into NXE along with social networking sites Facebook, Twitter and Last.Fm.  Although the service (Sky) wont be broadcast in HD (initially ) this is a giant step forward towards the ‘Everything in one box’ dream. The 360’s Sky player is rumoured to be similar to their current online ‘Sky Player’ and will be accessible on a Subscription or Pay-Per-View basis (Like Netflix? – never really used it!) Best still, it doesnt matter if your a customer or not!

Sky player in action at E3

The price for this has not been announced as of yet but it rumoured to be similar to the current pricing of renting video’s off the market place – how true this is i don’t know.
However this does come with some rather sad news, an exec at EA games has stated that they have pretty much maxed out the 360 now and its now time to unlock the PS3’s potential.  We’ve been told not to worry though due to Microsoft bringing out motion sensitive perhipials for the 360 in the near future! A note to all fan-boys: Sony might end up with better graphics, but the Xbox will remain better for online gaming – fact.

On a side note, i got my new car the other day! An Audi a3, all i need now is money for the extortionately priced cable from halfords for my CD player!

Rich (Admin) Gaming, News, Software, hardware