Doom shows up in id Software's Rage!

Just a couple of days ago we posted a quick note about id Software giving gamer's a little throwback to old school games by including a Wolfenstein 3D room (see link).  Well, as expected by many, news has broken that there is a Doom room as well!  Be sure to watch the YouTube video below by YouTuber: XCVii007r1


If you remember the Wolfenstein 3D room contained an amulet from the original game that you could collect.  In the Doom room, you'll find a 'Space Marine bobblehead' figure.  The inclusion of things like this in games are genius ideas.  What better way to introduce your companies games to the folks who are to young to remember those old schoold PC game, but are now getting into these more mature games made by older developers.  It's almost like finding a timeline of subject matter within the game.  Kudos id Software!

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Crysis is now on the Playstation Network

Crysis 2 was somewhat of a gaming mess with people either loving the game or hating the game.  Crytek finally made the jump and put the original Crysis on the Playstation Market.  For $20 PS3 owners can get a taste of what the original Crysis felt like.  The game is the single player campaign only.

The original Crysis was a huge deal when it was first released.  It became one those benchmarking games, where if someone said their computer was able to run Crysis, you knew their rig was awesome.  And it was once publicly noted that 'Crysis would never be able to run on a game console'.  I wonder how they feel about that now?

So fast forward a few years and now we have it on the PSN.  If you have never played the original Crysis, I would highly recommend it.  It is an awesome game.  And hopefully that awesomeness will translate well in the PS3 port.  For those who have no clue what Crysis is, it's a first person shooter based game where you play  a soldier code named 'Nomad' who wears an awesome "Nanosuit" which grants the person wearing enhanced strength, speed, shields, or cloaking.  You can play the game by running and gunning your way through the enemies or by taking a more strategic approach.  If you need info on the story, watch the trailer:

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Steve Jobs: 1955-2011

Yesterday evening the world lost one of our time's greatest innovators, Steve Jobs.  As one of the few truly visionary people in the technology world, he set out to make a difference in the way the world used and thought of not only computers but technology as well.  Jobs had been fighting a rare form of pancreatic cancer announced in 2004.  Then, in 2009 he received a secret liver transplant.  And in January of 2011, he took another medical leave.  Eventually leading up to his stepping down as Apple CEO in August 2011.

Jobs was the man in the black turtleneck that became so iconic with Apple products.  Thanks to the vision of Mr. Jobs the world was shown how to think outside of the traditional computing 'box'.  Leading the charge for Apple to jump into the personal media player market with the iconic iPod product line that would eventually jump start the 'tablet craze' with the release of the iPad.  And it all came from rather humble roots; as Apple was literally built from ground up originating out of a garage.

As the CEO of a revolutionary company that has helped change the computing experience for the world over it's lifetime; regardless of your opinion of these products or even Apple as a company, no doubt about it Mr. Jobs was successful in building a groundbreaking company.

As for Steve Jobs, your insight and innovation will definitely be missed.  And our thoughts, condolences, and prayers go out to the Jobs family.

And food for thought:
“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?” – Steve Jobs’ famous question to John Sculley, former Apple CEO

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Android App Review: ChannelCaster

Last night I stumbled upon a great little app in the Android Market.  It is called 'ChannelCaster: Social News'.  It's no Flipboard (for iPad) but it's pretty freakin' close.  It allows you to setup news feeds and it displays them as little 'channels' on the screen.  What I like about it is that you can add a news source from just about any website's RSS Feed and it will organize it like a futuristic magazine.

I did this with the RSS Feed from Techiesmarts.com and was so impressed with the way it looked I tweeted it out across Twitter using the built in 'Share' feature (which apparently just links you back to their official website, not my channel-my mistake).  You have the option of making your custom channel private or public for other's to see and interact with.  There are also prebuilt channels that cover a wide range of just about any kind of news you'd want to see split up into different categories.  From entertainment to technology, it's all there.

Currently the app is only available on Android device; but is expected to come to the iPhone and iPad soon.  And it's free to download!

Pro's: Love the layout and presentation of the feeds once the channels have been built.  Love being able to use custom RSS Feeds.  They have a small but growing community as well.  Easily one of my favorite newsreader apps!

Con's: At first the app can be a little intimidating leaving the user unsure of how to interact and add new channels.  After a little playing around, you can easily figure it out.  The Share via Twitter function links back to their official website, not my custom channel.

I'd rate this app: 4 out of 5 stars!

Checkout: ChannelCaster in the Android Market
The official website is: http://channelcasterapp.com/

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Next Ubuntu Video Should Be Live Tomorrow!

Join me tomorrow evening as our latest video in the 'Help Ubuntu!' series *hopefully* goes live!  This video will cover some additional apps that every Ubuntu user should at least be aware of!

Keep watch here on the site or over on our YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/techiesmarts

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Hotmail for Android

Attention Hotmail user's: there is now an app for your Android device.  If you remember, Hotmail is owned by Microsoft, coincidence?  I guess they figured they needed to put some of the money they make from patents from Android usage to good use.  Especially if their Hotmail user's aren't going to be using Windows Phone 7 devices.

The Hotmail apps includes:
-Push Notifications
-View all Hotmail folders
-Send, receive, and view attachments
-Support for multiple Hotmail accounts

Does anyone even still use Hotmail?  If you do, then swing by the Android Market to pick it up:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hotmail.Z7

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India Has a $35 Dollar Tablet

Last year some news headlines hit the world in a storm when it was reported that some folks in India were trying to develop a cheap tablet.  Their goal was simple, to develop a tablet and keep it cheap and affordable.  What they came up with was the concept for a $35 tablet.

Now, first and foremost let's keep this in perspective.  At $35 for a tablet, you're not going to be getting much.  But they endured anyways, and now a Canadian company by the name of DataWind is indeed manufacturing these devices for the people of India.  Don't expect these puppies to show up here in the U.S. or at least not anytime soon.  And if they do migrate to the U.S., I definitely wouldn't expect the tablet to retail for $35.  Maybe somewhere between $50 to $100.  Our tablet market just isn't willing to stoop that cheap quite a yet.

And if they do roll out for $35 bucks a piece, I'd buy one for each room in the house.

So let's take a look at what $35 dollars would buy you in India:
-7 inches of screen real estate.
-2GB storage capacity.
-366MHz Processor
-Wifi
-Running the Android OS (not sure which version)

In other words a 7inch tablet with smartphone guts from 3 years ago.  But for simple tasks like connecting to the web and web browsing; I'm sure it's probably enough.

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