Tech News: PS4?, Duke Goes for The Gold, Speaking of Gold...Farming? And More!

It was confirmed today that Sony is working on what they call a "future platform".  This comes as no surprise since in all reality it is probably getting time for the "Big 3" to announce their "next next-gen" platforms and consoles.  Sony has already been dropping info on their NGP (next gen portable) system.  Nintendo has been teasing the successor to the Wii, and Microsoft is claiming their next console is slated for 2015.  So don't fret too much about not having the latest and greatest in console gaming, because the new stuff won't be coming for a while yet.

However, a note to Sony: how about you make sure your existing platforms are buttoned down before making to big of plans for the next big thing...Just something to think about.
Sources:
PS4 http://www.g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/712993/playstation-4-sony-confirms-it-is-working-on-future-platform/
NextBox http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-looking-at-releasing-next-xbox-in-2015-2011-3

For fans of Duke Nukem, go ahead and get excited.  Because this week the Duke went Gold!  That's right.  The date is locked down, gamer's all over have literally waited over a decade for this.  So for those of you lucky enough to have early beta access look for the demo on June 3rd.  For the rest of us, June 14th is our day!  And in the word's of Duke: "this game better be good."
Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/228552/duke_nukem_forever_goes_gold.html

While we are speaking about "gold", if you have ever played an MMO (massively multiplayer online game) you have probably seen and no doubt heard of gold farmers/sellers.  This has typically been a huge business behind the scenes.  The market for gold selling within MMO games has been the bane of the game developer's and players.  Due to in-game gold being ill gotten and trading hands by means of real world cash, the in-game economy can go crazy.  Which causes things to go nuts for those in game who are actually playing.  Players who are in the practice of buying this in-game currency will usually purchase the gold from the seller, who would transfer the currency to the buyer's character accounts.  The buy can then use this currency to progress through the game at an unfair advantage.  Developer's have been cracking down on these practices, but it is near impossible to actually halt this operation.  Other questionable methods of playing are "power leveling", where a player pays a service/website to level up their characters so the actual player doesn't have to.  Both gold farming and power leveling are unfair, and usually are huge account security risks for the owner of the character accounts in question.  Now that the principle behind gold farming/selling and why it is bad for games has been cleared up.

We go on to why we're talking about it.  It appears as though some Chinese prisoners are being forced to be gold farmers in some MMO games at a labor camp in China.  The former prisoner stated that among 300 other prisoners, they were forced to play online games in 12 hours shifts.  This would be after a days worth of physical labor in the camp.  Apparently the guards were using the in-game currency as a means to sell and make money off of the prisoner's online labor.  And if they didn't meet their "quota" they would be punished or beaten.   For more of this man's story, swing by The Guardian for the full article.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam

Sony has now made the free theft protection for PSN user's available.  If you are a PSN user, you should be getting an email soon about this service.

And on a final note, swing by The Deadbolt News for some quick previews an video footage of X-Men: First Class!  And yes, they are awesome!
Source: http://www.thedeadbolt.com/news/1000082/x_men_first_class_5_new_previews.php

Until next time.  Happy Surfing!

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Got my Android Tablet!

Well, this past Thursday I finally bought an Android Tablet.  I chose the Acer Iconia A500.  Best Buy currently carries the A500 for $449.99 U.S.  It rocks the Android 3.0 'Honeycomb' out of the box.  And let me say, it is pretty freakin' sweet.

This isn't a comprehensive review by any means, but I'll quickly hit the highlights.  This tablet is sporting a NVIDIA Tegra 2 Dual Core mobile processor and 1GB DDR2 memory.  The A500 is a wifi only tablet, so no need to add it to your mobile carrier's data plan.  With public wifi being so readily available these days here in my area I don't have much of a need for a 3G connection at this time (this is subject to change).  This device also offers Bluetooth, A-GPS, 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, HDMI, Dual Speakers (with Dolby), MicroSD card slot, 16GB of internal storage, front facing and rear facing cameras.

The unit is slick to use and very impressive.  A lot of people have mentioned on other sites that this tablet is pretty heavy.  Personally, I don't have a bit of an issue with it's weight.  I had noticed that the battery life seemed to dwindle down fairly quickly.  After doing a little snooping around the devices settings menu I found the 'Battery Use' sub-menu which pointed to the 'Cell Standby' process as using a lot of my expended battery power.  After a few minutes of snooping around forums online, I found the simplest fix that has worked for me (without downloading an app from the Google Market).

I simply put the device in 'Airplane' mode and leave it in airplane mode while then activating the Wifi connection.  Wifi will stay turned on and the device will remain in airplane mode as well.  After doing this I have noticed a huge difference in battery life for the better.

The only other issue I have is voice chat is pretty limited at this time.  My wife has an HTC Evo 4G and occasionally  we'll use something like Yahoo IM to do a video chat from my PC to her Evo.  Which works great.  Right now due to limitations on the Evo (running Froyo) Google Talk's videochat is non-existant.  Supposedly the Evo is in line a the update for Gingerbread later in June which should alleviate this issue.  Honeycomb optimized apps are at a premium right now due to the fact that there just aren't that many apps optimized for Honeycomb.  However, most of the other apps I have tried have worked flawlessly.

Now that I am getting pretty familiar with Honeycomb, look for a few reviews to show up pretty soon.  Right now I am playing through Cordy, and have several other games in mind too.  So check back soon.

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Coming Soon?

Life has been fairly busy over the last few weeks.  Between work and being on vacation (away from any and all internet connections, yes I survived) my blog hasn't been very accessible.  So what's ahead for the TechieSmarts Blog?

One of the things I'm hoping to do in the near future is be able to bring a full review of Android Honeycomb.  I'm aiming to get my hands on one of the very nice Honeycomb tablets.  More than likely it'll be the Acer Iconia Tab (unless ASUS spits out a few Transformer tablets and they happen to land in my town, chances are unlikely).

With the access to Honeycomb I'll be able to review Android apps as well (most apps apparently run under Honeycomb) so I'll be able to cater to the Android crowd along with the iDevice crowd as well.

I'm looking forward to making blog posts and videos for this site using solely the Honeycomb tablet (I accomplished this on the iPod Touch and the iPad already).  I'll chronicle this adventure as it happens.

Along with mobile apps and capabilities, I plan on reviewing both 'Global Agenda' and 'Lord of The Rings Online' in the near future.  Especially since both of these titles now have Free2Play offerings, if you've been looking into getting in an online game this is a good time to do so.

Overall it's a fantastic time to be a tech freak and gadget fan.  Holding true to my gaming roots look for more reviews from the mobile genre to be coming soon.  So, sit back and relax and drop by soon for some fresh new content.

Happy surfing!

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PSN Is Back Up...Partially.

Well, Sony has finally pulled through.  Looks like the PSN is back up as far as online play is concerned.  Other features like the Playstation Store are still down.  But I'm sure it'll be following very soon.

So, what now?  Well I'm sure there will be plenty of people ready to flame Sony over when their free games are going to be available.  But as far as I am concerned I can now return to Unreal Tournament 3 and Mortal Kombat's online play.

So what's required to get online now that PSN is back up and running?  Simple, a fairly quick console update is required, and once installed it will require you to change your PSN password.  After that, you're done.

So go forth and play to your hearts content PSN users!

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Ventillation over PSN...Part 2

Okay, my last blog post was on April 29th, 2011.  That was 3 days before I went on a cruise for vacation.  In the time I was gone, I had high hopes that PSN would be restored when I returned.  However, upon my return after a week away, that PSN was still down.  As I was thinking on the whole PSN outage, I got to thinking a little outside the box.

All of us gamers are asking, "When will PSN be back up?" or "What is Sony going to give us for our troubles?". But to be fair, without vendors making software for the PS3 (or utilizing PSN services), what good is PSN?  Think about it from a business aspect.  Business are in a certain market for a reason.  Companies make video games because we buy the video games to play.  These games and software don't just fall out of the sky.  Real time and real money has to be invested into this software in order to make it something we will want to play.

So how are these companies losing out?  Easy.  Once a game is released, it is common that the public release is just the first stage in a game's life cycle.  A lot of companies then role out DLC (Downloadable Content) for player's to purchase and enjoy.  The rollout of this DLC content is solely dependent upon services like PSN or Xbox Live.  If those platforms go away, so does the access and availability of that content.

On another side of the plate, say a game company makes a game that heavily relies on online multiplayer experiences.  That online aspect is lost when it's host service is disrupted.  So why would someone buy a game on a system that would rely upon an online experience that isn't currently available?  After all, we all want what we want, and we want it now; right?  Especially since households having multiple consoles are so popular now.  You may say: "Well, regardless of the platform I buy a game for, I'm still buying it.  The still get money right?"

Sure, that's a correct statement.  However, back to basic Business 101: "Provide in the market where the demand is."  High sales go towards one particular platform, guess which platform gets better support for that title...The one that made them money.  So not only does this whole PSN fiasco trouble us as gamers.  It screws the game makers as well.  If game makers are losing money on a game, label, or brand they have invested millions of dollars on in hopes to make back that money plus some.  Guess who gets the bad end of the stick now?  We do.  The price of games go up.

So when you're trolling the Playstation Blog please try to keep it in mind that Sony had better be busting a$$ to get PSN back up.  I'll be the first to say they haven't been as "transparent" as they should have been.  But at least their are trying to be honest.  Today's post basically reads:

"I know you all want to know exactly when the services will be restored. At this time, I can’t give you an exact date, as it will likely be at least a few more days. We’re terribly sorry for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience as we work through this process."


Is it good for their business?  Nope.  Is there anything we can do about it...Nope.  But, it is what it is.


On another note, Sony is saying that we will have a choice of 2 games from a list of 5 games (that's not that bad, as I am fairly new to the PS3 and probably can find 2 games on the list I haven't played yet).  They are also offering a year of credit/identity monitoring, supposedly offering a free month of PS+ access, and offering a free period of the newly launched music streaming services.  So don't worry fellow PS3'ers, Sony has heard your cries as well.


Now it's unfortunately a waiting game.  Sony is still touting that the service should be back up in a few more days.  But it feels like all along they have been saying: "Just a couple more days."  It'll be interesting to see how the general public handles this in the long run, and don't 
be surprised of any changes that they may make to PSN in the meantime...


Happy Surfing!

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