McPhee
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Everything posted by McPhee
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I think it's a no for the InTouch Max, all depends on whether or not it sells well and LG decide they want to upgrade it. Had a look around and there doesn't seem to be any kind of hacking community for the phone, so it's unlikely to gain any updates by other means. HTC and Motorola are the two best bets for Android devices really, they been working closely with Google on their handsets and definitely have updates in the works for all/most of their handsets.
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If you plan on playing a lot of games and want them running at maximum on high resolution displays (or multiple monitors) then get an ATi 5850 (£200-£220). It's slightly more powerful and slightly cheaper than the GTX285 while having lower power requirements and producing less heat. It also packs DirectX 11 and Eyefinity (multi-monitor) support. Seems like a no-brainer unless you want to buy in to 3D Vision. If your gaming requirements will be lower then the 5770 or GTX250 are both pretty good purchases. To put it in perspective, I'm running a less powerful card than both of those and yet I can max out all of my games on my 19" monitor and it even makes a good go of things on my 1080p TV. Tom's Hardware rate the 5770 as the best purchase at both $145 and $165 (USD) price marks, and as being a good purchase for resolutions of 1080p and below. Certainly a more sensible purchase for someone just looking to dabble in PC gaming. I'd lean towards the ATi card again, it's newer tech and more likely to hold value. It's not the falling pound that's caused that. The price of flash chips in general has flown through the roof. RAM, SSDs and flash memory are now expensive no matter what currency you trade in, all down to a sudden surge in demand from the mobile sector (cheers Apple, your iPad is costing us money before it's even on sale! ). You're right though, prices will come back down again. The lack of value in the pound is what's caused stagnant prices elsewhere in the market though. Intel's i7 920, for example, is exactly the same price as it was last year. Same with most components, though case prices have increased again.
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This is why I sold the game. Worked out how easy it is to cause havok and top the tables just by legging it around the map stabbing people. Gets boring after a day or two
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Do we have a "not funny, but actually totally awesome!" videos thread? If not;
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From what I've been reading elsewhere that isn't quite the whole story. Call of Duty is licensed by Activision from Infinity Ward as part of the contractual agreement between the two companies. Jason West and Vince Zampella got sacked because they were talking to other game publishers about moving Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty franchise when the contract expires in October. By sacking them and hiring favourable replacements Activision will be able to keep Infinity Ward and the Call of Duty franchise. I can't see this being the end of things to be honest. If the above is true I'd expect huge staff walk-outs over the next few weeks and they'll likely set up a new studio (with or without the CoD franchise). If it emerges to be true though I will be boycotting all Activision games from now on. Shouldn't be too hard, the only game they have coming out that actually interests me is Starcraft 2 and that's going to be shit anyway (*cries*).
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I love Valve (more than companion cube?) What a barmy way to announce a new game lol
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PvZ is probably my favourite iPhone game to date. Pure awesome! Played the PC demo a while back but I never got around to actually buying it.
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Hit the nail on the head. I've given up now. I just use defensive armies and try for victory through technological/financial supremacy on the rare occasion that I play it any more.
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"New combat system" has me intrigued. I picked up CivIV recently and that's the bit that put me off. I'm used to Total War and Civ seems so random and (at times) unfair by comparison.
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Got the same problem as you Rain. Some days I can't even stream YouTube, I have to let the video load first! I'm eagerly awaiting LTE or WiMAX, it seems like BT have no interest in solving my speed issues so hopefully Vodafone/Orange/O2 will.
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Windows Mobile always had the problem where software developers were having to cover up to a dozen different display resolutions and countless different hardware set-ups. It made developing for the whole community awkward and you would regularly see programs only made for specific devices, hardware set-ups or resolutions. The same problem can be seen with Android. Before the release of the Droid and Android 2.0 there was one handset that had real issues with Market software, the HTC Tattoo. It was running a QVGA display, and very few bits of Android software supported that resolution at the time (I don't know if the situation has changed). Looking ahead it won't be the end of Android's problems. There's software heading to the market that won't run on the older devices (even if they get the 2.0 or 2.1 updates) because of hardware incompatibility and manufacturers are continuing to use whatever resolutions/hardware set-ups they feel like. Both Microsoft and Nokia have suffered from this problem in the past. Nokia chose to fracture the Symbian Foundation and keep their own devices separate from everyone else's (almost killing Symbian off in the process). Microsoft's solution is to spec Windows Phones themselves from now on, meaning that outside of cosmetics and branding there will only be a few different models of Windows Phone. I'm wondering what Google's solution will be? Android is a great OS but I do think Google have a lot of work to do and they really need to get a move on. They've pretty much had free reign this past year, with Nokia and Microsoft temporarily out of the picture, Palm struggling to shift handsets and Apple releasing a bit of a lacklustre update in the 3GS. By the time 2010 ticks by though they really need to have Android sorted out. They need to add incentives for developers to build applications for it and remove the current crappy (from the developer's point of view) T&Cs. They need a proper media experience, including some form of syncing software. And most of all they need to polish the OS and make it look snazzy. Android 2.1 seems to have taken steps in the right direction, it's all a matter of time (and how long it takes them to sort it out).
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Well, Microsoft have lifted the lid on their new mobile OS. Windows Mobile is dead and it's been replaced by Windows Phone. Details here; http://gizmodo.com/5471805/windows-phone-7-series-everything-is-different-now Or the short version; the Zune HD's interface on a mobile phone. Strong integration of Windows Live (People, Mail, Messenger, Photos), Xbox Live (Games, messaging, Achievements/Gamerscore), Bing (Search, Maps, Phone Search), Zune (Music, Video, Marketplace, Pandora!) and Facebook. New version of Office Mobile (with over the air syncing of files). They're working closely with hardware manufacturers and carriers to try and tie the whole thing up in to one neat package instead of the mess that was Windows Mobile (and to an extent is Google Android). See it in motion; http://www.windowsphone7series.com/ There's more to come, Microsoft has said as much. This was just a quick overview of the OS and the sort of capabilities the phone will have. So far, if they get some good hardware on board I'd be happy to buy a "Windows Phone". It's what I expected them to do, but more critically what I wanted them to do. I'm sure Apple will match the stuff seen here as closely as possible with iPhone OS 4.0, but they don't have Xbox Live or Office which to me are the really big selling features. As a side note, that blue they're using on the Start screen is eurgh The green and orange look much better!
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HTC have the Nexus One and Bravo due out over here in the next couple of months. Both run similar hardware to the HD2. There's quite a list of handsets coming before the summer. I'd at least wait a couple of days until Mobile World Congress is over as there's quite a few handset unveilings taking place for Q1 and Q2 this year.
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Graphics Card go BOOM! Replacement Recommendations?
McPhee replied to Sprout's topic in General Chit Chat
Were you happy with the performance of your old card? If so it wouldn't cost a lot to replace it with something equivalent. Otherwise, Nolan's suggestions are a good bet. -
The demo is a bit crap anyway so you're not missing much. Got good expectations for the game, despite the limitations I had some good games this evening! The demo needs a tutorial and Team Deathmatch though, in it's current state it's likely to turn more people off than it draws in. The learning curve is quite high so Deathmatch was a really stupid choice of mode for the demo...
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Three do some pretty strong deals. Their coverage is supposedly better than O2's too (based on Ofcom's findings, though that was just coverage with no mention of speed or the quality of coverage). Difficult to say really. You'd likely get better coverage and a faster connection from Vodafone or Orange but neither network will be as cheap as your O2 deal or Three's tariffs. Oh, and a last thing. I've noticed a lot of PAYG mobile BB tariffs have the credit expiring after 30 days. That'd be the decider for me, sounds like a right crappy situation.
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Nope. The iPad uses a new type of SIM...
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Downloading the PC demo now. Will do the 360 one while I'm at work tomorrow. Cannot wait! Hearing it's pretty darn good from various people
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I'd actually agree with most of that, except for a few things. Movies-wise the aspect ratio and codec support on many other devices are better. And for web-browsing they really need to give Safari Mobile the ability to load multiple tabs at once. Winds me up on the iPhone that I can't read one page while another loads. Also (from one of your earlier posts) the price ain't gonna be £350. The US price is $499 before tax. Once VAT, import duty, shipping and other costs are taken in to account I'd bet on £450. Still a good price for those who can afford it, but it's hardly an essential enough product to warrant the cost. On a slightly unrelated note; I could kill Apple for their iBook pricing. Publishers are rebelling against Amazon already and making moves to increase prices. It sucks. Maybe. It'd seem like a bit of a waste of money on Apple's part though. Most devices tend to have an empty space inside where the 3G module would go.
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It'll be possible. "All" someone has to do is rewrite OS X for the ARM instruction set and bypass all of Apple's security features.
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Your not alone there Daft. Looks like a nice bit of kit! Best thing I've seen for portable computing since Sony's VAIO P in my opinion (I'm just hoping it doesn't carry the VAIO P's price tag!).
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For those of you that haven't seen it already; http://www.zavvi.com/games/platforms/pc/aliens-vs-predator/10051955.html AvP, £16.95 Enjoy
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Hang on... the iPad can't right click either?!?!!?
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Correction, you can whack any microSIM in it. You won't be able to use just any SIM card, it simply won't work. Likewise, you won't be able to use the SIM out of the iPad in anything else (until and unless other devices start using microSIMs).
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I HATE Apple as a company. They suck. They steal trademarks and patents from other companies, license tech without paying for it and have a general "Who cares, we'll deal with the court case later. It's just another fine." attitude. Don't confuse that with hating on their products though. They have some cracking products (iPhone, iPod Mini, Macbook Pro, Cinema Displays) and some stuff that's not so great (Apple TV up until last year, Macbook Air, iPad, current iPod Shuffle). The only reason why there's such a large backlash when Apple announce a bad product is because they don't go low-key, they still announce it with a song and a dance and tell everyone how wonderful and perfect it is. It's kind of unfair to use a $500+ device to beat on a market segment that starts at $200, don't you think? The iPad vs Netbook comparison isn't even vaguely relevant. They don't have the same uses and you don't use them the same way. It's also highly embarrassing when you consider what the average netbook can do that the iPad can't. Still, it's been an interesting 24-hours. If anything it's made me realise the potential of the tablet. If someone can get a cheap one (sub-£200) to market with a decent web browser (Google Chrome OS?) and eBook functionality (possibly using that clever screen from the Notion Ink Adam) then I could definitely see me using one as a complementary product to an ultraportable laptop and smartphone. As for the iPad? It does too much in a "not as good as other devices I own" kind of way to justify the price tag for the web browser and ebook reader alone.