Halo 3 @ E3?

Quick update, looks like we might actually get to see a Halo 3 teaser some time during E3; even though there have been tons of rumors about a working beta floating around. Its good to see that Halo 3 will make an E3 appearance and will hopefully live up to the franchise

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Microsoft ready to take on Google's Writely challenge

In response to what looks like a Google run at the Office program suite a Microsoft higher up has stated that Microsoft will be ready for Google should they make a big push into Microsoft's lucrative Office Suite Domain.

Granted Microsoft Office productivity suite won't be going away any time soon, but will a new interface really innovate the technology to the point where a competator such as Google won't be able to match it? If anything Microsoft's change may lead to a few outcomes which the company won't like, the first is that they scare/confuse their current user base and have to switch back to their older interface, i.e. you have a very Office 2003 look and feel. I don't think this will happen but its possible, there is nothing suggesting that people will react to the new design and most people who become confused by it will either relearn it quickly or be just as confused reguardless of Office version. They just can't convince enough people to upgrade, it may be just me but it looks like Office 2007 will be Office 2003 with new UI and some more templates, bottom line people need a reason to upgrade. This is always a problem with Microsoft, it can actually suffer from too much success. Again, this trend doesn't look likely, Microsofts OEM market will guarantee some sort of saturation in the market and the enterprise divisions will do it in time. However, this is most likely to hurt Microsofts short term earnings so expect the Internet critisim flood gates. The last thing, where Google can actually hurt big M, if Microsoft can't compete against a possible Google one two in the office department, it better start rethinking things.

Let me explain, currently the Office Suite is a client side application, i.e. you run it locally on your computer, this is great but what happens if you need to make a quick edit to this document or that in a computer that's not yours. Well this is where Google's Writely acquisition can really muck things up and most importantly the web service will probably be free. Wait, you said Google had a one two punch, where's the two? Well if you can remember back Google and Sun Microsystems said they'd be cooperating on OpenOffice, well if Google can get OpenOffice solid enough to be used by an average user and tightly integrate it with their web services, you've got a huge threat on the horizon if your Microsoft. However, the last factor is the ever lucrative bussiness and enterprise market, which I don't see changing anytime soon as long as Microsoft is smart in its business negotiations. So is Microsoft ready for GOffice? From the looks at it, they aren't but we'll just have to wait and see.

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IGN talks future of RTS

I've been a huge RTS fan ever since I saw a few people playing this obscure game called Starcraft, since then me and my Napoleonic tendencies have been addicted to the genre ever since. Dan Adams over at IGN has a great article about what the genre and what the major players like Blizzard think the genre is going. You can find the article here. Where talks about what makes and RTS and how its changed over time. The article also goes on to talk about the future of Real Time Strategies and where it'll probably evolve into, basically the most successful ones are able to simplify the game play to not alienate it from the main stream but have a great deal of replay ability. So as long as the game play makes sense there is a chance the game might find its audience. I personally think the RTS genre is growing a lot but its having a hard time moving from the PC platform with only limited success on consoles. Really I think once companies start experimenting with game play interfaces like Nitntento and their Revolution Remote, the ability to create better gameplay for the RTS genre will be come easier.

Google Calendar Is Launching Tonight?

If you go to http://calendar.google.com/ you'll notice it seems Google is about ready to launch is calander service that has been rumour for the last few weeks. The only problem is that its not actually up yet but keep checking for updates and possible a review.

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Is Vista too little to late?

At the time of this entry Microsoft Vista is still several months away and is probably under going rigorous testing, that will hopefully show that the new operating system is ready to ship by November. However, the real question is will the operating system offer enough in new features to convince its user base to switch from XP. For any of you who remember one of my first posts dealt with Microsoft's biggest problem, which is getting its user base to upgrade, particularly from an OS which is now much more stable than it's predecessors. You can check out the old post here. Microsoft also has the problem of convincing its users to upgrade their computer hardware, since its new Vista Operating System has much higher system requirements. So can they do it?

The short answer is yes, but its not entirely that simple, Microsoft is influential in the market that it will eventually get its user base to upgrade whether they really want to or not. This is justifiable since even though that a lot of users would be happy with Windows 95, their computers themselves will need to be upgraded or replaced within a matter of a few years. At that point they'll most likely be forced to upgrade operating systems too. Most consumers tend to buy pre-built systems that already have the latest and greatest from the big M since Microsoft has partnerships with just about every major computer distributor in the world, they know that those computers will have their product. The other fact of the matter is that most users just aren't ready to switch from the Windows they know, this is where things get kind of fuzzy. Since Vista is such a big change in the Windows operating system and other alternatives such as Apple's OS X are starting to align in the ways of features; in some cases exceed, Microsoft may start to loose market share if Vista can't do the following, show that its backwards compatible with applications supported by Windows XP in the very least. It must be "secure" the less the user has to worry about malware the better. It must be stable, if Vista is unstable and buggy at release, the change from XP will be extremely slow and will hurt the operating systems market share. However, with rumors about Apple looking to find a way to run Windows applications in their new version of Mac OS X, Microsoft may have to ask themselves if Vista will be enough to silence all of the speculation.

So here is what I think might happen:
        November
        Apple Announces 10.5 Leopard with Windows parallelization of all Dual Core/ Multi processor system.
                - Apple doesn't have the time to re-invent the Win32 API so just using the existing Windows system is the only option
        What will probably happen:
                - Apple release 10.5 with additional media enhancements, making the Mac Mini the new media center alternative, look for an iPod
                tie in somewhere in there.
        Microsoft releases Vista to business sector, major enterprises hold off on the upgrades until internal testing is done
        Vista gets good reviews as a great step in the right direction but lacking in certain features

        January
        Microsoft releases Vista to consumers, its great but people are pissed about the hardware requirements
        What will probably happen:
        Microsoft doesn't release Vista until March and Vendors complain, go figure.

The EULAlyzer: Analyzing license agreements for tricky words and phrases

Just stumbling around the net as usual and every now again you see something that your not sure, if you should laugh at or smile at, this is one of those things. I was looking at EULAlyzer, which is a essentially a quick outliner for End User License Agreements, basically allows to search for key words and see if there is anything funny in your EULA, like your first born must be named "Cookie" if you use our program legaly or something. It sounds like a good idea, I'm just not sure if I would use it.

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Games I really want to play ...

Okay after think about this for a little while I've picked out a few games that I really .... and I mean really want to play ... that may or may not be coming out any time soon. So here is my "top 10 list":

1. Title: Halo 3 (or whatever the next installment in the franchise is).
Platform: XBOX 360
Reason: This shouldn't be too big a shocker for anyone that knows me, give me Halo and I'll be happy. This game got me back into console gaming, yes I'm a converted PC gamer.

2. Title: Half Life (insert next installment name).
Platform: PC
Reason: I was really irked by ending of Half Life 2 and want to know what happens, not to mention this is the franchise that started it all for me, it was my first PC shooter, and for that reason it will forever have a place in my heart.

3. Title: StarCraft 2
Platform: PC
Reason: This is the game that I secretly hope Blizzard never makes, since in my mind there really isn't a better RTS than the original, but to be honest, I'd be pretty interested in what they'd do in it should they try it again. I'd have to play it just to see if they can do better.

4. Title: Spore
Platform: PC
Reason: I liked the Civ games and the Sims, so now we have one that combines the best both worlds, what's not to like? In any case this game seems like a must try in the very least just due to the amount of customization that you can do with your own species.

5. Title: Metroid (Insert random name here)
Platform: Revolution
Reason: No official announcement or anything like that but I wouldn't put it past the big N, for putting this classic franchise and putting it on there upcoming Revolution system. Think about the possibilities of new game play elements in a great shooter such as Metroid would be enough for me to go out and buy one, not that I wouldn't do that already.

6. Title: Devil May Cry 4
Platform: PS3
Reason: This is always a solid game and is visually stunning. This franchise is known for its crazy difficulty but is just a great action game.

7. Title: New Super Mario Bros.
Platform: DS
Reason: Mario is a staple in gaming culture and any true wish gaming list should have some form of the classic icon.

8. Title: World of Warcraft (Burining Crusade")
Platform: PC
Reason: I've played WoW for about 10 days (trial account) and nearly needed a crowbar to remove myself from it, I don't expect too much more from Blizzard on this one, but is it a good enough excuse to get addicted again?

9. Title: Gears of War
Platform: XBOX 360
Reason: This game looks amazing, this could be the game that makes you want to own an XBOX 360. I personally think that this game will be the one game to show the world what kind of power lies inside the latest XBOX.

10. Title: Hellgate: London
Platform: PC
Reason: RPG + Shooter + Former Blizzard Devs? That sounds like a winning combination to me. This is one of those it looks great on paper games, but we'll have to wait and see if this game, really is all its hyped up to be.

Don't like the list or think others should be on it? Put up your comment