Trick Or Treat!

Our beggar's night is today. For once this is actually happening on Halloween day.

Pictures here

I Got A Crackberry

For a new project I'm working on, I need a Blackberry to test the java code. So I finally broke down and got one. It's the new Curve 8310 with AT&T.

Here are some initial thoughts.

Pros:

The Blackberry has an active GPS, the camera also has flash. It's very bright. When I used it to take a self-portrait, I forgot to turn the flash off and I was blinded for about 5 secs. The form factor has also come a long way, I remember they used to be so big when I saw them being "the rage" in San Francisco. The phone itself is smaller, but thicker than iPhone. The screen is 320x240. It's bright, the font even supports subpixel antialiasing. That makes it better than Treo, but frankly, the text clarity can't touch iPhone. The 8310 has GPS and 2 megapixel camera, but EDGE only, no wifi. I could've gotten 8320 with T-mobile, in which case, I get GPS and wifi, no camera.

The keyboard is good for a thumbpad. I think it's on par with the Treo. The email on it is both nice but sort of dumb at the same time. The push mail is of course what makes it a crackberry. The thing is, the email client only knows how to "receive" email from a blackberry server. So this leaves you with two choices: either use a company server with BES server software, or use BIS which is a round about way of saying you create an email account with blackberry.net and have your email go there, and RIM push it down to you. You can also setup the BIS system to "pop" up to 10 other accounts to push it back down to you. For someone like me, who is used to having email client that I can setup imap or pop3, and be done with it. It's sort of weird. On the other hand, the push does work very well.

The speakphone is also very clear and loud. Much louder compare to iPhone. The phone has full Java ME porfile. So I was able to install Google Maps, Google News, Gmail app, Y! to go 2.0, Google Talk 2.0 mobile, and Y! IM for it.

It has a slot for MicroSD. I slapped in a 4GB card. The media player is rather basic, but you can set any media to your ringer for anything.

It has the same voice dialing software that Samsung phones also use. I love it, it's accuracy, fast and requires zero training.

The battery life is also quite good. After almost 24 hours of messing with it lots, it still has 20% battery.

The bundled in Blackberry Messenger is a really good idea. Since most people don't have unlimited SMS, but Blackberry plans always give you unlimited data. So this is a good solution to have real time IM with other Blackberry owners using only data packets. The setup is simple, and appears to work quite well. Too bad I don't know anyone else that uses Blackberry. :)

It also has full support of MMS, which is still one of the annoying thing about iPhone. The curve's camera only takes pictures, no video. So same as iPhone in that regard.

The phone also supports Stereo Bluetooth. And uses USB port both for syncing and charging. This is something I also love about my Razr2 v9m.

Cons:

The camera seems to be rather grainy at times. Since I also have a iPhone, the Blackberry by comparison is feels sluggish. From time to time, the screen would freeze for a sec, and I'd be left wondering if it crashed or something.

The SMS app is also poor in terms of UI compare to Treo/iPhone's threaded interface. It sort of has a threaded view, but it just doesn't work very well.

The brower is a joke, compare to iPhone. I can't bare to use it.

The trackball is ok for some apps, but for things say like Google Map. It doesn't compare to touch screen.

I also miss the auto correct as you type figure on iPhone. On Blackberry the closest thing is you can set it to auto run spell check when you press send. For someone like me who sucks at spelling, this is not great.

The unit itself feels light, but somewhat cheaply made.

Also no support with iSync. Boo.

It also doesn't support asian languages. I like the fact on iPhone, I can read Japanese/Chinese/Korean websites/emails/SMS. No go on Blackberry. I'd have to go find a different firmware to flash, etc etc.

Final thoughts:

I think if I didn't have a iPhone, I might have like it more. It does compare better than Palm's new Centro. At least this will be an amusing java programming device.

Gmail Adds Free IMAP Support

Gmail added IMAP support this week. What does this mean? It means finally using Gmail on iPhone won't suck compare to Yahoo Mail.

iPhone uses POP to access Gmail. So your actions aren't synced. For example, via POP when you get a spam mail, there is no way to mark it as spam.

Now with IMAP, to mark the mail as spam, just move it to spam folder.

Instructions on how to setup your Gmail account for IMAP is here. Google even made a YouTube video to guide you through.

September 07 Sales Number

NBD's sales number for the month of September is out. 360 beat Wii for the first time in many month.

1. Xbox 360: 527,800
2. Wii: 501,000
3. Nintendo DS: 495,800
4. PlayStation Portable: 284,500
5. PlayStation 2: 215,000
6. PlayStation 3: 119,400
7. Game Boy Advance: 75,000

On the game sales front.

1. Halo 3 (all versions)--Xbox 360:3.3 million
2. Wii Play with Wii Remote--Wii:282,000
3. The Legend of Zelda: The Phantom Hourglass--DS:224,000
4. Madden NFL 08--PS2:205,000
5. Skate--Xbox 360--175,000
6. Madden NFL 08--Xbox 360:173,000
7. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption--Wii:167,000
8. BioShock--Xbox 360:150,000
9. Brain Age 2: More Training in Minutes a Day--DS:141,000
10. Heavenly Sword--PS3:139,000

Halo wasn't broken down into 3 editions. If it was counted that way. Halo 3 would've been the top 3 spots. In fact, the $129 Halo 3 legendary edition sold over twice as many copies as the PS3's only entry, Heavenly Sword. Prompted one of the analyst's joke on "Clearly, the helmet is mightier than the sword."

Something else that's also hard to see from this chart is, the revenue of the 360 games sales accounts for 74% of the total game sales across all platforms. Continue to support the "360 owners buy lots of games." theory.

40GB PS3 Launches In US, Price Drop One More Time

Sony has announced the 40GB PS3 for US at the pricing point of $399. It only has 2 USB ports instead of 4 ports. And it will not play any PS2 games.

Sony also lowered the 80GB PS3 to $499.

On lacking PS2 backward compatibility for the 40GB model, SCEA CEO Jack Tretton, the removal isn't due to "dramatically reducing Sony's cost of manufacturing", but is part of an effort to "encourage buyers of the entry-level PlayStation 3 to purchase more games designed specifically for the new system."

With the new price drop, this will be the 3rd time in less than 12 month. So much for the original claim of "PS3 is such a good value there will be no price for at least 24 month."

Late Night Walmart Adventure

A couple of days ago, it was a bit after midnight. I was wondering around local Walmart to see if they got in the new games this week yet. I saw a lady wondering around rather lost. It's late, and the store was short handed. So she was waiting for help. Soon the clerk came, and it didn't seem to be going anywhere. She was clearly frustrated. All I heard was "I don't know anything about computers.". The clerk responded "Me either."

She looked at my direction, and said "hey, you look like you know computers.". I said "Well, a little bit. What do you need?" She quickly explained the problem. She and her husband were from out of town. They are staying at a local hotel, which only has wireless. There is only 1 wireless card that the hotel can loan out, but someone else has it. Her husband left his wireless card at home. But he desperately needs to get online to finish something for work tonight. I told her it's not a problem. Her husband show up at this point. I asked them what kind of laptop they have. He pulled it out of the bag to show me. I said "Oh, you need a PCMCIA wireless card." They both go "We have no idea what you just said, but clearly you know what you are talking about."

So I quickly guided them to the right aisle and recommended a couple of choices. She said "Oh, the $70 one is one of the clerks suggested. He said it's more expensive, so it has longer range, and therefore, better." I looked at it and go "No, buy the $30 one. I doubt your hotel supports the range extension protocol. So for what you need, this is as good as the other choices." They grabbed it and started heading to check out. I quickly gave them a run down of installation instructions. He jokingly said, "Can I have you phone number?" I said "Well, if you think you need help." Both of them were completely taken a back by this. They were like "No, just kidding. That's too much to ask." I said, "It's not a big deal. I'm up anyway." After I repeatedly asked like six times, finally they ask for my phone number. They introduced themselves. Turns out they are in town for the annual Acura convention. They have a beautiful blue NSX-R.

They never did call me that night, so I'm assuming my instruction was good enough. :)

Monster Hunter 3 Left PS3 For Wii

Monster Hunter is a series with some interesting history in Japan. Originally released for PS2, the series did ok. The game play is like Diablo in a future science fantasy world. You hunter monsters that look like dinosaurs. It supports online play. The games sold ok on PS2 in Japan. Around 500k units range. The PS2 version of the first game did very badly in US.

Capcom ported the two games to PSP. And both of them are run away hits. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd sold 1M copies right away the first week, and the game together with FF7 Crisis Core are credited for saving PSP in Japan.

In fact, this year, Monster Hunter Portable 2nd won an award for being the new communication medium among Jr. High and High School students. There are hundreds of BBS popping up organizing hunts. Since the PSP version of the game supports ad-hoc only. What this means is, groups of kids get together, and form a 4 player hunt, and also trade items and such. It's a very popular activity.

Monster Hunter 3 was announced to be a PS3 exclusive game. I have friends that bought PS3 in Japan for this. Well, they need to get a Wii now. PS3 version is canceled due to high development cost and low install base in Japan. Wii is the new exclusive home, because Wii has good install base and development cost of Wii games is very cheap by comparison.

PS3 40GB Announced In Europe

Sony just announced the 40GB version of PS3. It will only play PS1 games, but will NOT play any PS2 games. It will be 299 Euro. ($610).

How Bungie Becomes 3rd Party Again

The press release is out now. Bungie is once again privately held. Bungie also made an post.

What does this mean and how did it get here? This discussion and burn out of constantly working on Halo for many years no doubt is weighting heavily on the studio.

They had two choices. Mass exit to form a new company, or talk to Microsoft to work out a deal. The deal break downs like this, Halo is own by MS. Oni and Myth is own by Take 2. Bungie owns Marathon. For Microsoft to go along with this deal, no doubt MS has first right of refusal on every project from here on out. Which means, basically Bungie is really more like a 2nd party company, that will only take projects to Sony/Nintendo/PC if Microsoft says no.

Meanwhile, what Microsoft does accept as a project, Bungie will make a LOT more money. And hey, Microsoft can move Bungie from first party support column to 3rd party support column.

Halo 3 First Week Number, #1 In Japan Too!

Halo 3 during the first week, brought in 300 million total. During the same time period, the worldwide sales of 360 console more than doubled.

Halo 3 was even #1 on top best selling games in Japan this week.

During the firsrt week, over 2.7 million players played online.