Category Archives: Reviews
Awesomest Photomanipulationist, Ever!
Have you ever just had a vision of something so awesome that you want to sit down and draw it out for the world to see? You get your supplies together (or fire up Photoshop), sit down, and realize you really suck at art. This happens to me all the time. I get these awesome ideas in my head, but it takes so long to even figure out how I would need to do things that I end up just doing it however I can. After 4 hours of work, it looks like an MS Paint abomination and not at all what I wanted. Instead of sharing my idea, I’ve made it a hollow and shameful shadow of what it should have been.
Thank you, Hyperbole And A Half
Thankfully, there are people with actual talent in this world. One such person goes by the name Rabbittooth, and the guy is an absolute master at photo manipulation.
I came across some of his work indirectly and started Googling as fast as I could to see who the original artist was. It didn’t take me too long to find his gallery and took even less time to declare him my favorite internet artist ever!
Day 65 Without An iPhone
Android: Like a boss since 2008
I have an HTC Rezound. I hate the name. I think it’s an unholy combination of “marketing buzzwords” and “No Child Left Behind”. I don’t particularly like the back panel that feels like a giant Casio watch from the 90′s. The entire thing heats up like a 9 volt wrapped in foil whenever I leave the GPS going.
It’s perfect for me.
And I hate that.
Choosing An Online Storage Service
Some things in this world are easy. For example, if you have the choice between playing Skyrim or Farmville, there is really no other choice but to play Skyrim. It’s superior in every way except for it’s inability to annoy all of your friends every time a cow wanders onto your farm. Of course, in Skyrim, you could kill the cow and make armor from its hide. Just more evidence that Skyrim is better.
Some things, however, are not so simple. For instance, what is your best option when it comes to online storage? Well, it depends on what you are looking for. Do you want to pay for space or do you want it to be free? Do you need more space than is available for free? Do you need complete backup services with the storage or do you just want someplace to stick a few files that’s not on your local computer? There are a lot of things to consider when you are choosing an online storage service. Thankfully, there is now a way that you can see what is out there, how much it costs, and whether or not it is what you want; Top10CloudStorage.com has created a comprehensive site for cloud storage review.
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed anything here at StolenDroids so I thought I’d take a few minutes and tell you about Top10CloudStorage. This is a site that I happened to come across this morning in my daily surfing of the web and I’m glad that I did because they provide an awesome service: knowledge. And best of all, their knowledge is shared with you at no charge! What’s better than free knowledge? Free knowledge that you don’t need to work for.
These guys have basically taken it upon themselves to rate and review the top cloud storage servers, cloud storage providers, online backup providers, and cloud sync services. Granted, there are some companies which fall under more than one category, but they have been rated and reviewed based on each specific category under which they fall. Now, if you want to know if Dropox is your best option for your online storage needs, you can compare it, head-to-head with other providers, such as Mozy or ZipCloud. Should you use Carbonite or MyPCBackup for your off-site backups? Who knows? I’ll tell you who knows: the guys over at Top10CloudStorage, and they are more than happy to tell you which service they think is the best option.
With comprehensive reviews, including reviews from users, Top10CloudStorage.com is a great resource when it comes to choosing storage and backup services in the cloud. I understand that not everyone is in need of online storage services, but the way that the Internet is going, there will come a time when you need to know what your options are. I recommend that you check out them out so that you can make the most well-informed decision. Who knows? Maybe it’ll even get you a promotion at work.
We Survived The Alpocalypse
And when I say “we”, I’m referring to Stark, myself, and all those in attendance on Monday night when Weird Al Yankovic made his triumphant return to Salt lake City as his Alpocalypse tour rolled into town. I’ve been a fan of his for nearly 30 years so there was little chance that I was going to miss this concert..
The last time Al came to town, my wife and I had great seats on the fifth row. Since we decided that it would be a good idea to take three of our kids with us this time, I wanted to make sure that their first concert experience was beyond awesome so I got us some sweet seats on the third row. I guess it could have been better if we were on the first row, but not by much. The seats were pretty amazing and everyone, myself included, loved the show.
The song selection was incredible. It was the perfect mix of old and new and I couldn’t have been happier to get to hear Frank’s 2000″ TV and a bunch of stuff from the 1980′s performed live. (Frank’s 2000″ TV is one of my favorite songs ever. Just imagine having a 166′ television screen!)
I was also very happy that certain songs were not performed. It’s not that I don’t like them, I’d just
much rather see songs like I Want A New Duck and Amish Paradise being performed as opposed to Let Me Be Your Hog. It isn’t a bad song, it’s just not necessary unless you have 30 seconds of time to fill. Also, my seven-year-old son was thrilled when he heard Theme From Rocky XIII. (I don’t think that he knew the Weird Al version, but he is a huge fan of the Survivor version thanks to Guitar Hero.)
For those who missed the concert, here is a list of the awesomeness of which you were not able to partake:
- Polka Face
- Frank’s 2000″ TV
- TMZ
- Smells Like Nirvana
- Skipper Dan
- Party In The CIA
- CNR
- Canadian Idiot
- Wanna B Ur Lovr
- Medley: Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies/Another Tattoo/Ebay/I Want A New Duck/Theme From Rocky XIII/Spam/Ode To A Superhero/Lasagna/Eat It
- Amish Paradise
- Perform This Way
- White And Nerdy
- Fat
- The Saga Begins
- Yoda
In addition to the live performances, those not in attendance also missed out on some highly educational films that taught me that the human brain needs 20 hours of sleep a day and that the only way to cure a brain freeze caused by ice cream is by setting yourself on fire. (Don’t eat ice cream!) I also learned that some people think that dirt is just dried mud and that it will become mud again if you get it wet. (THE FOOLS!) Some of these same people are also under the assumption that ice is just frozen water…
During the show I had two pretty cool experiences. As usual, Al decided to come out into the audience. He happened to come off of the stage right in front of me and start singing to people in the crowd. Had I chosen to, I could have reached out and touched him but since I wanted evidence of my proximity to him, I decided to take a picture instead. The image you see here is that evidence. The guy was close! I always love it when a performer interacts with their audience.
The second cool experience that I had also involved Al and my camera. As he was performing the last song of the evening, he seemed to stare right at me as I was taking pictures. It was almost as if he was posing for my camera. Of course, in a venue full of thousands of people, anybody could think that, but I could swear that he posed for me. I initially kept these thoughts to myself but after the show another concert goer (Stark’s brother who was two rows behind me) made a comment about how Al posed so I could take a picture of him. I wasn’t crazy! Well, probably not anyways. I had witnesses claiming that he posed so I could take his picture. (The photo I’m referring to is at the beginning of this post. Judge for yourself.) Whether he did or did not actually pose really doesn’t matter much but I did get an amazing picture nonetheless.
All in all, I took around 140 pictures throughout the show. Unfortunately, the white balance on my phone was a bit off so most of them are of a faceless Weird Al Yankovic. (They make him look like he moonlights as The Question.) I did manage to get some good pictures though. Here are a few of them. I hear that if you listen to his music while looking at the images, it’s almost like you are there. Nah. I’m just playing with you. There’s no experience in the world like being at a Weird Al concert. And since my kids are still talking about it three days later, I’m sure that they would agree.
A non-professional review of the Alpocalypse CD & DVD set
The cover to Alpocalypse featuring the four horsemen.
What do you do when you’ve been releasing comedy songs since 1978 and made good money from it? You release your 13th album because you still know how to poke mainstream media in the eye. That is exactly what three time Grammy Award winning “Weird Al” Yankovic has done with his new album and music video DVD, Alpocalypse. The victims of this music collection include Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Brintey Spears, Lady Antebellum, Justin Bieber, P!nk, Katy Perry, Owl City, Ke$ha and other artists you may or may not have heard of. For some geeks, Weird Al is the window to some songs that we may not get a chance to check out (since we may avoid certain music categories).
I have to admit that I was initially disappointed by the fact that about half of the songs on Alpocalypse had been previously released on the 2009 Grammy nominated internet-only album, Internet Leaks. I had already downloaded the songs that I felt were the highlights. But after several trips in the car I was happy that I had CNR blasting at full volume out of my windows.
In honor of the title, the four horsemen of the apocalypse will be our rating system.
CD Songs:
–Perform this Way (parody of “Born this Way” by Lady Gaga) Yes despite Gaga’s manager’s attempt to stop this parody from being made, it did get the green light from the costumed one herself. Gaga didn’t even know that Yankovic was trying to get permission for the parody until the twitterstorm hit the intertubes. The action of the fans helped prevent the album from being delayed. The song parodies Gaga’s various costume styles and stage antics. The best line from the song is “I’m sure my critics say it’s a grotesque display. Well, they can bite me baby – I perform this way.” This song gets three and a half horsemen.
–CNR (original song by Al Yankovic) I felt strange reviewing this song since I thought it was the best song on Internet Leaks (and thus already downloaded from Amazon). This is a style parody of the band White Stripes. The excellent lyrics finally puts to rest who would win the strongman battle between internet sensations Chuck Norris and Charles Nelson Riley. Best line from the song is the whole song. Because CNR is a sign of the apocalypse himself, this song earns five horsemen.
–TMZ (parody of “You Belong To Me” by Taylor Swift) This song fits. The moment you hear the parody you wonder why you didn’t think of it yourself when the radio stations were constantly over-playing the original again and again. Yankovic calls out the scumbags who run TMZ and other celebrity gossip shows (and shame on the general public for watching these shows so much). The best line from this song is the background announcer stating “Everything celebrities do is exciting” with a fake sincerity. Had the original not been played so much it may have received a higher rating, but I give it two and a half horsemen.
–Skipper Dan (original song by Al Yankovic) Another Internet Leaks hold over. However this song actually benefited from it’s inclusion on the new album. When I heard the song for the first time, I thought ‘eh’ and didn’t really play it again. I didn’t purchase the MP3 or play the youtube video again. Thus it didn’t get repeat play that CNR or Craigslist did. However while I was driving in my car or listening to the album at home, the true meaning of this song suddenly hit me. It wasn’t just about this guy who’s life turned out the way he wanted. It was about all of us who trudge through a mundane day at a mundane job. There are times I look up at the office and wonder “how the freek did I get here?” So now I appreciate Skipper Dan a little bit more. The best line from the song is “Somebody shoot me ’cause I’m bored to tears.” Originally this song would have received one horseman, but now I give it two horsemen.
–Polka Face (polka compilation) It has been a tradition that almost each Weird Al album has a polka melody on it. Only the “Weird Al” Yankovic and Even Worse albums do not contain polkas. This polka starts off with the traditional Liechtensteiner polka and then spins off into portions of “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga (which is also where the title of the melody comes from), “Womanizer” by Brittany Spears, “Right Round” by someone called Flo Rida (I hadn’t heard of him until now either), “Day ‘n’ Night” by Kid Cudi, the gawdawful “Need You Now” by Lady Antebellum, “Baby” by Justin Bieber (I think that was the only word in the original song), “So What” by P!nk (you mean I’ve been spelling it wrong all this time?), “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry, “Fireflies” by Owl City, “Blame It” by Jamie Foxx, “Replay” by Lyaz, “Down” by Jay Sean, “Break Your Heart” by Taio Cruz, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha (which I had hoped would have been in it’s own parody) and finally the Whatever’s Left Over Polka by Al Yankovic. It’s pretty standard especially since it contains stuff you’ve never heard of. This song earns two horsemen.
–Craigslist (original by Al Yankovic) Another style parody (knocking on the 60′s music group, The Doors) that
Interior shots of the CD/DVD cardboard packaging on Alpocalypse.
was also an Internet Leaks refugee. The song spoofs various ads that one might find on the Craigslist site. The best line in this song was the open letter to the snotty barista. This song was posted at two and a half horsemen on the site.
–Party in the CIA (parody of “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus) I know that Perform This Way was the lead track (and most talked about just before the CDs release) but this song is what makes the album a classic for me. This is the song that I want to listen to over and over again. It’s peppy and disturbing (in a good way unlike Perform This Way) at the same time. Just the title alone tells you it is going to be about espionage and undercover operations and you can hear it before the music even starts. The first time I heard this song, I immediately started thinking about the parody youtube video that I wanted to put together. The best line is “We only torture the folks we don’t like. You’re probably gonna be okay.” Yeeaaaaaaayyaaaa it’s got four horsemen today.
–Ringtone (original by Al Yankovic) While Skipper Dan redeeming itself by repeat listening on the album, this Internet Leaks holdover still falls flat after many chances. So far the most annoying ringtones that I’ve heard from various cells have been the free ones that come pre-packaged on the phone itself. Even then the annoyances have been minor (unlike the major annoyance that we will be talking about soon). I would not have been sad had this song been replaced by a new original from Yankovic. There are no best lines in this song and none of the horsemen wanted to be associated with this song.
–Another Tattoo (parody of “Nothin’ on You” by B.o.B.) Another parody song that made me want to check out the original song at least once. It flows and ebbs smoothly like the original song and basically works for the most part. Yes it is a song about an obsession over getting more tattoos (which can remind you of some people). The best line is the Star Wars reference in the song (Yes I’m going to make you listen for it wuahhahahaha). This entry rates two horsemen.
–If That Isn’t Love (original by Al Yankovic) If anyone believes that the original songs written by Yankovic are not funny, I’ll point them towards this song. When I first hear this song I was wondering what song it was a parody of. According to the credits, it is an original. Yes it is a style parody of Hansen. But Yankovic thought of it, wrote it down and performed it. The best line is about how much milk he is willing to leave in the fridge for his love. Three horsemen for this song.
–Whatever You Like (parody of “Whatever You Like” by T.I.) Yes the name remains the same, but that is the only hold over from the original. Where the original explains how his girl can have what ever riches the singer is singing about, this song talks about how economical Yankovic can be. The best line in this song is “Yea, it’s all about the Washingtons, that’s right.” Three horsemen could afford this song.
–Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me (original by Al Yankovic) Do you remember the song Virus Alert from Yankovic’s last album Straight Outta Lynwood? It was basically a warning to everyone to stop sending those fake, out-of-date and inane virus alert emails. Well Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me kicks up a few notches and screams out the warning this time. Not only is Yankovic pleading for idiots to stop forwarding virus alerts, but all of the other stupid, moronic, idiotic, fake, untruthful and asinine emails that clog up our inboxes. (something I wish some family members would get the hint at) It was so refreshing to hear that someone else is just as bloody annoyed at these smegging things as I am. Yes, the whole song is the best line. There are Four horsemen to end the album with a warning. STOP FORWARDING THAT CRAP TO ME!!!!!!!!!
DVD Videos:
A quick note. The Perform This Way video was not on the DVD. I don’t believe it was done in time to make it to press. I’m certain there will be a future ‘best of’ DVD set in the future. However I thought it was funny when Madonna showed up during the line about how “original” Lady Gaga is.
A second note on the DVD. My copy at least would always run a continual play. I could start a video in the middle of the selection and it would continue onto the next video without prompt. Has anyone else experienced this?
–CNR (animated and directed by JibJab.com) This animated video fits the song perfectly. Charles Nelson Riley declares it so.
–TMZ (animated and directed by Bill Plympton) Where as some videos enhance the song, this video seriously detracts from it. Plympton is well known for his artistry. However the video deviates from the theme of the song and focuses on the ass shot of the actress portrayed in the song. It seemed like it was just stuck in a loop and over-used.
The Alpocalypse booklet, CD (red) and DVD (green).
–Skipper Dan (animated and directed by Divya Srinivasan) Pretty plain and basic, like the song. However it follows the song fairly well.
–Craigslist (directed by Liam Lynch) A live action video that contained psychedelic highlights commonly seen in videos by The Doors. The video compliments the song very well.
–Party in the CIA (directed by Roque Balesteros and animated by multiple artists) Just as the song was extremely awesome, the video enhances this as well. I like how they integrated Yankovic into the animation.
–Ringtone (directed by Josh Faure-Brac and Dustin McLean, lead animator is Steven K.L. Olson) I feel bad for this video. It tries to work with the material presented and follows the song very well. However with the song failing so badly, this video can only take it so far.
–Another Tattoo (animated and directed by Augenblick Studios) The animation seemed a little rough, but that seemed to fit the song. It was able to focus on the tattoos just as the song did.
–If That Isn’t Love (animated and directed by Brian Frisk) This video surprised me by how well it worked. It accomplished its goal in making the song better.
–Whatever You Like (animated and directed by Cris Shapan) The use of live images into animation was very well done in this video. Once again, it enhanced the song.
–Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me (animated and directed by Koos Deeker) When I first heard this song, I wondered how it would be presented. I feared a Virus Alert repeat. However Deeker was able to concisely deliver the message that this song portrays. Probably the best video after Party In the CIA and CNR. I plan to send a link to this video to all of those who annoy me with useless junk.
Packaging and Booklet:
The CD only item protected the CD in a standard jewel case. However I was disappointed to find out that the CD/DVD combo came in a cardboard package. I’m worried that the cardboard will not protect the two disks as well as I would like. Plus the cardboard is already starting to show some wear and tear as I get some use out of the set. I am curious on how the factory scenes in the packaging and booklet fit with the album theme. I’m glad to see that the lyrics are included in the booklet as I know a log of Weird Al fans who love to sing along. I noticed that TMZ was listed as a parody of “You Belong To Me” (where as the actual title is “You Belong With Me”). I did like the photo of Yankovic lounging with the other three horsemen in the back of the book.
Conclusion:
If you are still claiming to be a member of the Church of Yankovia then you already have this set (and probably has it as worn as mine is) and you are probably reading this review to see if it matches your own perceptions. For regular geeks, picking up this set will help you increase your geek cred (roll 2D10 for final results). Ok mundanes, yes you will want to pick up this CD. Despite the inclusion of Ringtone this album is fun and entertaining. From here you can start your path to the Dark Side of Geekdom. We look forward to seeing you on the flip side.
Firefox 5 Launches To No Fanfare And Little Improvement
Mozilla last released a new version of their popular Firefox browser only a handful of months ago. However, we have a whole new version to play with now, thanks to their accelerated release schedule. In keeping with their promise to release new versions faster and with less fanfare, Firefox 5 is already out and in the wild. So, should you jump over to the fox?
Short answer? No.
Long answer? Well, remember those charts I put together back in March? These ones? I’d like you to go back and review them for a moment. In case you really don’t want to, I’ll just rehash the info here:
- Firefox was middle of the pack in SunSpider at 251.7ms
- In PeaceKeeper it was the bottom of the barrel with a sad score of only 3344
- It failed the Acid3 test with a score of 96.25, performing the test 96 times in 0.97 seconds
- It hit 54 fps in the IE9 Fish test
- While I didn’t list the SpeedRead test results, it was between IE9 (4 seconds) and Chrome (26 seconds).
So, how have they improved this old favorite? Well, the HTML5 rendering has sped up considerably, and you can tell the overall performance of the browser itself has been improved (starting the browser didn’t feel like I needed to get out and push as it had before). So, I decided to run the tests again and see how they compared to version 4. Since running the tests last time, my main working computer has become bogged down with loads of problems and is due for a reimage. Since time was tight, I decided to run these tests on my business laptop while on battery (Dell Latitude E6410 Core i5, 8GB DDR3, 128GB SSD). You’ll note I left Safari and Opera off the list this time; I simply didn’t have all day to sit around and wait for them.
SunSpider
Since this was on a new machine, I couldn’t compare these scores with my previous tests. However, to keep some perspective I not only list the total time taking, but also compare how it stacks up with the other browsers. If the fastest time is 100%, each second over will be a set percentage as well. And if one browser is 5% slower than another in my previous tests but is only 1% slower now we will know it improved (I think).
| Browser Name | Time (in miliseconds) | Difference | Previous Difference |
| Firefox 5 | 252.9 | 5% | 9.6% |
| Chrome 12 | 275.2 | 14% | 13.5% |
| Internet Explorer 9 | 240.6 | Winner | Winner |
Internet Explorer 9 was the winner last time too, with very little variance between the desktop time and my laptop. This could mean that IE9 has a much more stable Java engine that isn’t as hardware reliant. Chrome’s .5% deviation could be little more than the CPU dipping a bit (remember, we are on battery) and so doesn’t really mean that much. Firefox has made good progress here, but is still the back of the class.
Peacekeeper
| Browser Name | Score | Difference | Previous Difference |
| Firefox 5 | 4754 | 28% | 68% |
| Chrome 12 | 6612 | Winner | Winner |
| Internet Explorer 9 | 3862 | 41% | 57% |
Peacemaker seems to rely the most on which hardware you are running at any time. Nowhere is this more evident than in Chrome’s scores; despite being an earlier version, the desktop test scored 10468 compared to the laptop’s 6612). Considering the range of tests Peacekeeper puts your browser through, it’s a good chance this is a better indication of how your system will be used in normal day to day browsing. As you can see, Firefox has beat IE9 by a nice degree in this test. Now, if only a browser could get within 20% of Chrome!
Acid3
I won’t bother with a table for this one, as Chrome has passed the Acid3 test since it first came out. Firefox and Internet Explorer, however, have not. Both FF and IE have improved, however, going from 96 and 94 percent respectively, to 97 and 95. I guess a percent can count if you want it to.
FishIE Tank
| Browser Name | Frames per Second | Difference | Previous Difference |
| Firefox 5 | 59 | 2% | 10% |
| Chrome 12 | 30 | 50% | 35% |
| Internet Explorer 9 | 60 | Winner | Winner |
This test proves I have no idea what happens in HTML5 rendering. Despite having a slower GPU, IE9 renders the same amount of fish at the same FPS as before (60). It doesn’t even blink. Firefox bounced between 60 and 58 before finally settling on 59, and Chrome slowly ramped up to 30 and stayed there. One could say that Firefox 5 is better optimized, so despite having less GPU power behind it, it actually did better. Or you could say Chrome requires less power and so didn’t immediately put the CPU/GPU at full throttle. Honestly, I don’t think anyone but the developers could say for sure.
Speed Reading
| Browser Name | Time (in seconds) | Difference | Previous Difference |
| Firefox 5 | 15 | 20% | ??? |
| Chrome 12 | 12 | Winner | 85% |
| Internet Explorer 9 | 15 | 20% | Winner |
In another chapter from the “HUH?” Chronicles, we have this little riddle. In the desktop test, IE9 decimated the competition by completing this test in 4 seconds. It happened so fast I was left reeling. This time, however, it ran at 15 seconds. Chrome almost didn’t want to run the test at all until I remembered I had to change the Canvas 2D rendering by using the about:flags screen. By doing that, suddenly it sped up to 12 seconds. Firefox wasn’t recorded last time, but I want to say it has improved by a fair amount since then.
tl;dr
Just stay with Chrome! Even though IE9 and Firefox can both beat it at certain specialized tests, it’s the only browser that can do EVERYTHING you want it to, at the speed you want to do it. That sounds like an advertising angle, but it’s true:
I want to use an omnibar, but IE9 can’t sync bookmarks. I want accelerated HTML performance, but I’m on a laptop so I need something that will sip power. I want something that will show me the latest and greatest features of the web, but I don’t want a gaping hole left in my security.
See what I mean?
Falling Hyundai . . . er, Skies Liveblog
And here’s our liveblog of the Falling Skies pilot.
Part 1 write-up
- Webcomic led DIRECTLY into the pilot
- Their nukes look way cooler than ours.
- Nice use of the SW battle droids in the strategy map
- Having to choose between two books, likely for the rest of your life, adds a nice touch to the character
- Best way to make me hate these limited commercial interruptions is to constantly remind me that Hyundai is giving them to me.
- Special effects must be cheaper to do in the dark.
- I like how our main character is willing to fight but is more concerned with preserving human civilization, even if it means retreating from his own personal goal.
- Hmm, playing a Cowboys & Aliens trailer seems like an odd choice
- Nice design on the alien mechs!
- Close-up of the dying alien was a poignant moment that a lesser show would have cut in editing.
- They must have asked Noah Wylie to put on an additional 10 years for this role.
- I get that he’s a history professor and so keeps citing military history . . . but what if the aliens have their own history that say they’ve done this before many many times.
Part 2
- The military vs civilians argument. Not seen since Stargate SG1, SG: Atlantis, BSG, SG:U, Eureka, MiB, Warehouse 13, District 9 . . .
- A bow and arrow; is there a reason why no one else was using these?
- Huh, no Hyundai for the second half? A lot of anti-depressant medication commercials though.
- 7 minutes of dialog and . . . THERE’S HYUNDAI AGAIN!
- Battle: Los Angeles blu-ray commercial seems a little redundant.
- Resistance game commercial is just making it laughable now.
- The teacher pointed out how the aliens have six legs but their robots have two. Wonder if we’re ever going to get back to that.
- “Should I hit you? Make it look good?” “No, you should NOT hit me.”
- So I’m getting the idea that this two hour pilot is actually a one hour pilot, and another episode.
- Wow, Billy sure didn’t see that coming. Neither did I. So, humans are going to be our enemy here too?
- So evidently there are a load of mysteries about where the skitters come from, but none of them are going to be addressed in the second half?
So they decided to play the story close to the chest, which means they are planning on having enough time to tell the whole story and let it play out. This is a very good time for science fiction on TV!
Google I/O 2011 – Day 2
The second day of Google’s I/O developer conference seemed to lack in content compared to the first day. It seems as though the first day was geared more towards the direct consumer where the second day was more Developer-centric. However, there were still some items of note that I’d like to mention in this summary.
Google Chrome
Opening up the Keynote was a demonstration of Google Chrome and its upcoming improvements. There is a definite performance boost with more HTML5 and WebGL support. This was demonstrated by running the Fish IE Test on a non-WebGL version of Chrome vs. a WebGL-laden Chrome. This test was created to show off the speed of IE9, and was used yesterday to show off the speed of WebGL with Google Chrome. We see an immediate performance improvement when 1000 fish are rendered at 25 fps. WebGL also opens up the possibility for 3D rendering; we may start to see more graphically-intensive games in Chrome.
Chrome OS
We can’t talk about Google Chrome without also talking about Chrome OS. There are major improvements to the browser’s OS brother and it is starting to look and function more like a real Operating System according to what we are used to. There is now a File Manager so you can browse the local file system, as well as USB flash drives and external hard drives. However, there was no mention on whether or not you could browse network drives.
Native Music and Video playing was added and media will play in a separate window as you continue to browse. This is separate from Google’s Music cloud player that was demonstrated the previous day, and it wasn’t clear if the native music player supported the Google Music Beta or not.
Chrome OS also supports famous web streaming apps out of the box: Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, etc.
Chromebooks
Google Chromebooks were announced to be released June 15th. Currently, there are two manufacturers that have models being released on that day. Both Samsung and Acer will be offering Wifi only and Wifi + 3G models, with Verizon stepping in as the 3G provider. Both manufacturers are powering their Chromebooks with Intel’s Atom Pine Trail platform with a dual-core N570 processor. They both come with a 16GB SSD mSata hard drive and they both weigh 3.26 Lbs. They both come with an HD webcam: Samsung’s is 1MP, Acer’s is 1.3MP. Samsung is touting a 12.1″ WXGA display with a resolution of 1280×800 and Acer’s has an 11.6″ WXGA screen with 1366×768 resolution. Both models will boot in about 8 seconds and have a battery life of about 6 to 8 hours.
With what they are offering, and with the improvements to the Chrome OS, these Chromebooks appear to be powerhouses for cloud computing. It may be a while before we see this hardware being bogged down.
Chromebooks for Business and Education
Google is offering a subscription model for Businesses and Schools. With a 36-month commitment, businesses can purchase Chromebooks at $28 per month per user, whereas schools can purchase them for only $20 per month per user. This subscription includes full warranty support and free hardware upgrades. Since this if offered by Google and not the Manufacturers, I believe that this subscription model will apply to all future Chromebooks that are released.
Angry Birds
We can’t forget the most important announcement of them all. Angry Birds was released for Chrome and is now available in the Chrome Web Store. It includes a special Chrome level, so if you use Chrome, and you are an angry bird, then you MUST check it out.
Conclusion
The Google I/O conference definitely left me feeling overwhelmed. There is so much to take in, and I probably missed a chrome-load of announcements; I’ll try to make up for that with upcoming posts.
Here are a few other items that were talked about during day 2. Let me know if you’d like to know more about any of them:
- New Google Tasks API
- In-App Payments for Chrome Web Store
- Java Port of ROS
- Google Chrome Box
Google I/O 2011 – Day 1
Wow. Yesterday was quite the day for Google. I’d like to quickly summarize everything that was announced yesterday, but there was so much, I might miss something. So let’s get started and hope I get it all:
Google Music Beta
Google’s music cloud service was not only announced, but released yesterday (go here to request your invite). Those of you who listen to our podcast know that I was excited when Amazon announced their MP3 Cloud Player, so it is no surprise that this really has me going. However, unlike Amazon’s service, Google does not offer a way to purchase music (… yet).
Initially, this beta is only available for invitation, of which I have not yet received, so I am forced to sit by the wayside and read reviews until I’m blue. Once I get the invitation, I will be able to write a full review. The idea is that you upload your entire music collection (up to 20,000 tracks) and never have to worry about managing your music physically again. It comes complete with a web interface for playing music and creating playlists, which eerily resembles a famous competitor’s interface, plus there is a music player available for download on the Android Marketplace for mobile devices.
On the downside, from some reviews that I have read, the upload time is really slow; about 50 tracks per hour, which works out to about 4 MB per minute; to upload 20,000 tracks would take you more than half a month. Also, once you upload your music, you have no way to download them again. So if you lose your local copies, and Google’s servers get wiped out, you’re out of luck.
On the bright side, 20,000 songs is roughly 60 GB to 100 GB of storage, which greatly trumps Amazon’s initial offering of 5GB free.
More on Google Music later. Moving on…
Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0?)
Up until now it appears that Google has split it’s Android OSs between mobile phone devices and tablet devices. According to the key-note yesterday, Ice Cream Sandwich will resolve that apparent issue. This version of the OS will target both handheld and tablet devices and eventually also be supported on netbook and laptop devices.
Ice Cream Sandwich will include Honeycomb-like features, zippier multitasking, a new launcher, and more inherent features for home screen widgets.
There’s really not much more to say about Ice Cream Sandwich except for… HURRY UP!
Android Open Accessories
This was another exciting announcement. The Android Open Accessories API will add support for USB to Android devices. This API will be included in the Honecomb 3.1 update, as well as the Gingerbread 2.3.4 update. This will allow many types of external devices to directly interact with the OS, including but not limited to audio devices, input devices, storage devices and communication devices.
Along with this, we get…
Open Accessories ADK
The new development kit for Open Accessories will allow developers more control of their software’s interaction with hardware. Google teamed up with the Arduino open source hardware interface which also opens up the avenue for more custom hardware to be built for android. This kit is currently only offering USB support, but will soon support Bluetooth protocols.
Android 3.1
The Honeycomb update was also released yesterday for Motorola Xoom customers and comes with a few hefty upgrades. The biggest hitter in this upgrade is the inclusion of the new Android Open Accessories API. Other upgrades include native resizing of homescreen widgets and support for the Google TV upgrade coming later this year (see below for info on this).
Google TV to Android
It was announced yesterday that Google TV will become a fully supported Android device. Currently, it is based on the Android platform, but does not have access to the Android Market, and does not support most Android apps. This summer, current Google TV devices will receive an OTA update for Honeycomb 3.1 and will include access to the Android Market. We will also see new Google TV devices from Logitech, Samsung, Sony and Vizio.
YouTube Movies
Last, but not least, the ability to rent movies on YouTube was released yesterday. They opened with 3,000 movie titles and will continue to add more each week. Rental prices range from free to $4.99, with most new releases priced at $2.99. Google has signed license deals with Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Universal and Lionsgate. You can even ‘pin’ a rented movie for offline viewing later on. Android device viewing will be available shortly and will come to tablets first.
Conclusion
The first day of Google I/O was indeed a whirlwind of information. Here is a quick mention of all the other items that were covered during the 1st day:
- Preview of Google +1 button for publishers
- Google App Engine 1.5
- Google Books API
- Android @Home
- Project Tungston
- Style maps and more customization for Fusion Tables
- Google Storage for Developers
- Google Plugin for Eclipse 2.4
- ChromeVox screen reader for Chrome and Chrome OS
- New charts and features in Google Chart Tools
- Improved Google Prediction API
- Announcement of upcoming P2P NFC protocol
- Google Places API
- Improvement to Google Web Fonts
Let me know if you’d like me to write more information on any of these topics.
Movie Review: Thor
This morning I went out and spent $7.75 on a matinee ticket to see the new summer blockbuster Thor. I suppose I could, quite rightly, gripe about the price of the ticket but maybe I’ll save that for another writing. I’ll get to the movie in a moment but first I wanted to comment on some of the trailers that came before it. This will add to the comic book meets movie tie in for Thor, and help pad out the
“pre-spoilers” section of this review.
