forenoon filings

flickr shot of the month #7: april 2006

2006-06-06T10:54:00.000+01:00

A great shot this. After a recent experiment, I've realised how difficult it is to photograph animals!

This shot is called Doggy In The Window ( Bunny Lust ) and was taken by DSP.

e3 previews the online battleground

2006-05-10T11:03:00.000+01:00

After observing the success of the Apple's iTunes service and the proof that given the right price many consumers are willing to buy into an online entertainment service, it should come as no surprise that the big three gaming companies are all positioning themselves to make their next three consoles centred around the online experience.

Nintendo, as in previous years (cf. optical storage) has decided to join the online battleground quite late - although when we say join, we mean actively promote a service, as opposed to releasing the necessary add-ons and letting us figure the rest out! But one thing that Apple's iTunes Music service unexpectedly awoke content providers to was the fact that the majority of users do not necessarily want to pay for complete or epic downloads. The $0.99/79p download allows (or even it could be argued) actively encourages bite sized consumption. Nintendo appears to be aiming for that same level of use with its announcement that classic (and - more importantly - shorter) games will be made available to download from their own and SEGA's and NEC's respective libraries.

If the price and organisation is executed correctly, this could easily give Microsoft a strong level of competition. After reading accounts of the Microsoft E3 event, it has shown how much the Live service has grown from strength to strength. Many people were rather sceptical, and prematurely critical of Microsoft for adopting a centrally controlled online environment. The Live Arcade has clearly struck a chord with many users who do not have the money, or more importantly the time to invest in many full length games. One area of Live to watch is its rebirth as a pseudo online independent publisher (following on from Steam).

flickr shot of the month #6: march 2006

2006-04-28T21:01:00.000+01:00

Who would have thought that such a simple to find subject would get march's shot of the month.

I particularrly like the effect of the light and the way it changes the different shades of blue.

This shot entitled Clouds and was taken by mbettik (yes, I know I'm a month late...)

a lot has changed...

2006-04-28T20:57:00.000+01:00

... since we last posted an article of length on this page.

Instead of trying to catch up and re-summarise what is already old news (who wants to hear about Boot Camp again?) - semi-regular posting shall be resumed forthwith.

a slight hiatus...

2006-04-08T20:40:00.000+01:00

... but regular posting will resume in the next couple of days.

A combination of travel, moving house and migrating data to a new hard drive has rather side tracked article composition lately!

retro gaming set to receive a boost on revolution

2006-03-24T21:27:00.000+00:00

New hits of the GDC keynote from Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata.

It has been an open fact that the next console from the big N, will be supporting a download service for classic S/NES games, but what has taken many people by surprise is the announcement that many titles from SEGA's and NEC's back catalogue will be included as well!

When the new controller for this console was revealed, it was remarked in the press how much of a change had come over Nintendo's approach to market - seeing as it had not really adapted well to the changing tastes in the West.

With this recent announcement, it seems that in terms of delivery, Nintendo are making some bold and very calculated moves.

The longevity of the traditional retail delivery models may well be numbered (especially we can see the success of such ventures as Steam); if the various territories' infrastructures are capable, then online delivery of mini and classic games could well be a large part of the market.

It has previously been commented on how the current trend for 2 disc, 40 hour epics would surely peak - and as with XBox Live Arcade, the signs are showing that there is a demand for this.

looking at the viability of mass online storage

2006-03-13T20:40:00.000+00:00

It was interesting to read the "accidentally" leaked reports of Google's plans for getting into the online storage market. Such a move does seem particularly well timed, as the average available DSL speeds increase.

But this development does go some way to show the relative lethargy that has been afflicting Apple's own equivalent – .Mac – for some time.

It is fair to say that GMail may have given .Mac a necessary scare (and in doing so, quadrupled the available storage from 250MB to 1GB to subscribers); but new innovations and advances in the way to use and access your own information online continues to be gradual.

One problem that is often remarked in relation to .Mac however, is the fact that it is not always made patently clear that its many enhancements that are designed for some applications on OS X are unlocked on subscribing (something that iWeb seems to be particularly guilty of). It is widely agreed that the online backup feature is one of the most valuable features – and no doubt OS X could absorb a slight rise in its retail price to have .Mac integrated as standard?

But Apple needs to ask themselves what is the goal of this service. Is it just an add-on to OS X, or will online storage, backup and publishing be a real and viable storage alternative?

Many users now use their computer systems in multiple locations, and being able to get at your documents at all times is becoming more necessary (the upturn in the sales of USB pen drives in recent years surely isn’t an accident?).

news for the web 2.0 age

2006-03-10T21:01:00.000+00:00

A lot of column inches (or should that be pixels?) have been devoted to the growth of Web 2.0 - but two sites in particular have caught my eye recently.

This month's Wired includes a brief interview with the founder of Digg - a primarily technology news site, which relies on user input to vote on favourite stories. This has the effect of democratising the space given to front page stories. While the site is laid out in an easy to read way, spending a few minutes navigating your way through it's various categories really impresses on you the sheer amount of information being pumped through this site (try watching the Digg Spy for any length of time). It would be good to see more filtering or tracking tools provided.

More recently launched for public use is the collaborative news site Newsvine. At a glance it looks and acts like a conventional news site, but closer examination shows that registered users are given the ability to post comments, write articles and seed links - all on equal footing with 'real news'. Once again, community voting pushes the most read/respected articles to the front page.

After a week or two's evaluation period one of these two sites will be given permanent residence in Forenoon Filings' bookmark bar!

flickr shot of the month #5: february 2006

2006-03-03T15:55:00.000+00:00

This month's selection is the first black & white selection so far.

A good balaning between the sky and mountains. I struggle with taking black & white shots, so I'm always interested to see how people can take original black & white shots (I'm deliberately not including various desaturation techniques in Photoshop!)

This shot entitled Black Mesa Panorama was taken by J Michael Sullivan.

calling 'time' on distortion

2006-03-03T15:42:00.000+00:00

These rumour mills are really starting to get out of hand.

Apple’s latest press event came and went, and there has been a wide expression of dismay because the announced products did not live up to the hype. Well, this is an odd assertion to make, because apart from the original press release that went out to selected journalists, all of the associated hype that surrounded this event came from half-baked stories and distorted hearsays that get transmitted so quickly on the many Apple fan sites (I’ve lost track of how many video iPod mock-ups and media centre concepts I’ve seen).

It is admirable that Apple do manage to maintain a semblance of confidentiality in an age where we have gotten so used to advance briefings and press leaks – long may it continue, but a lot of people seem to be getting rather caught up in this hysteria (there really is no other way to put it).

if ms designed ipods...

2006-02-28T19:14:00.000+00:00

We don't usually cover virals, but this video has been doing the rounds at a fair rate recently.

An amusing parody of Microsoft's packaging house style.

how to increase public wi-fi use

2006-02-28T10:42:00.000+00:00

Recent press reports here in the UK have been lamenting the fact that although we have had wireless technologies for many years, the public use of it is still slow in its growth.

Although commercial wireless networks have become more widespread in larger cities - it is often the case that the price of using this a deterrent for extended use. To combat this, and to attract more use of Wi-Fi - it should be the case that public libraries could be used as hotspots. Many libraries have been suffering drops in use since the dawn of the internet - a problem that many have tried to stave off with ventures such as DVD/CD rentals and other media schemes. But to return to this proposal, the library seems to be the ideal venue for lower-cost internet access - without the headache of hardware and software maintenance. The greater number of people that there will be back in the libraries will surely have a knock-on effect on the other services that they provide.

(As an aside recent article on Boing Boing has articulated something that has often been a suspicion of late - that charging laptops in public Wi-Fi hotspots is something that is becoming more and more trying).

february round-up

2006-02-27T15:50:00.000+00:00

This method of summing up recent news seems to be more common here these days, but time has been a rarer commodity during this past month.

Top stories that have caught our attention (in no particular order):

- Finally, there is a way to browse and access your del.icio.us bookmarks from your Mac. I have always found del.icio.us to be rather one sided affair - not to detract from its excellent uploading and sharing features - but sharing and using boomarks while away from you home system has proved to be tricky up until now (The del.icio.us bookmark listing unfortunately does not emulate your native bookmark organisation). This new app called Delibar now offers a new menulet which will draw down all of your accounts' bookmarks for browsing and editing. Caveats on the site warn of its pre-stable release state, so we'll watch this app for some time before installing.

- Mac users have had a tendency to be rather smug when it came to system security. However, to effectively secure your system, you really need to understand the basic security concepts that underpin your OS - this isn't a Mac issue - rather, it's a general computing issue. Most importantly for laptops and notebooks, don't let them get out of your physical control. In the event that this does happen, then you would need to ensure (beforehand, of course) that they are setup in such a way that thieves are given a rough ride if they try to sift through your system. A great starter tutorial is right here.

- Essential reading for any web-site administrtator or designer. Don't make pages that scream!

- A very popular meme that is being spread at the moment concerns the remixing of various Tube and Metro maps from around the world. It started with the world famous London Underground map - that is until TfL decided to issue a cease and desist. This seems to have started something, as lots of city maps have been given the same treatment: Amsterdam, Toronto, Vienna, Washington DC to name a few. Boing Boing is chronicling them.

- Looks like iTunes may have some competition soon - in the form of Songbird. Although there are differing opinions on its feature-set, one thing the designers of this application have realised, is that in this current era of digital music, customers of rival services are being locked into exclusive and non-compatible business models - an anomaly that is only punishing the consumer at the end of the day.

- While we admire the resourcefulness of reverse engineering comments into your iWeb published pages, it does leave Forenoon Filings wondering how such a glaringly standard weblogging feature could have been left out of a retail web publishing program (A similar point could be made for iCal). Let's see what v2.0 will bring...

ruination of a good character

2006-02-18T21:17:00.000+00:00

Just as we finish reminiscing about the great 16-bit era, we notice news of the updating of one the best loved characters of that era.

Hudsonsoft has one of the richest gaming heritages from the early 1990s (giving such well known characters like PC Kid). Their best known character was without a doubt Bomberman. However to view the gaming output of Hudson in recent years, it is fair to say that Bomberman has kept them alive, culminating in the pinnacle of the series with the 10 player Saturn version.

But times, and tastes change and Hudson seemed to be struggling to keep up with the 3D PlayStation generation. How to claw this market-share back? If you are to wholeheartedly follow the advice of the marketing sector, then Hudson follow the crowd and recreate their iconic characters in a post-modern angst ridden setting. But Bomberman? He's just a cute looking cartoon - point taken, but really do they need to resort to such desperate tactics? (The picture above being a case in point - taken from the preview art of the game)

But this panic driven posturing isn't restricted to this company; SEGA seemed to have similar jitters when releasing Shadow the Hedgehog to a confused public last year.

So what causes this? It is heartening to read of the internal struggles and scepticism that Yuji Naka had to face to get Sonic universally accepted inside SEGA. This is often the case with many groundbreaking original IP. Unfortunately as the average gaming budget increases, such risk taking is going to become more and more a rarity (with rare exceptions - Katamari and Shadow of Colossus being two examples that spring to mind).

Forenoon Filings shall keeping a close eye on the development and release of titles such as Loco Roco, Every Extend Extra to counterbalance this trend.

the role of the search engine

2006-02-16T10:45:00.000+00:00

After seeing the news of the various Congress hearings aimed at questioning representatives from the biggest Internet search engines (most notably MSN, Yahoo! and Google) it has left Forenoon Filings pondering about the role that the search engine is taking up.

The amount of information that has become available online has and will continue to grow exponentially, so much so that it is humanly impossible to be able to sift through even a small fraction of it. It is not disputed that the service that search engines provide is becoming more and more valuable.

Commercial companies recognise this – and it is no secret that there are some that go to great lengths to use any means (foul or fair) to ensure that they always top the search rankings.

Although the hearings were mainly aimed at the big three’s dealings in China – it should really prompt us to examine the role of the search engine – they are there to present information based on what a users type in.

But the user queries are fast becoming a valuable commodity. Advertisers chasing that ever appealing connection with the 16-24 age bracket would fight tooth and nail to be able to re-direct search queries and results to their products - often with the aim of falsely ecplising a rival company's product.

Should a search engine intervene in preventing this type of manipulation? It seems like the fair thing to do, but what if the measures or filters put in place wrongly alter good results? Who is then to blame?

Forenoon Filings has not yeat worked out the answer, but the question is there - ready and poised.

a re-appreciation of the 16-bit era

2006-02-14T22:29:00.000+00:00

This may be in some way related to my hasty updating of the PSP's firmware (and assoicated lock out of the emu scene), a general tiring of the current generation's generic offerings; but the 16-bit area of gaming suddenly looks all the more appealing. Coupled with the availability of a number of stable and easy to operate emulator options (found on the PSP, ROM-Nation, MAME and many others), it looks like this will be continuing.

But this musing makes us ponder the lack of history that the videogame scene inherently has built into it. Whether by accident or design, consoles have been designed in the past to be become obsoelent and as such, many succeeding systems from the same manufacturers are often in no way compatible (can't really count the 360; however at least Nintendo are trying to balance this with the Revolution).

The message to all console designers should be to avoid being too quick to jettison the past. As gaming trends are showing that less and less gamers are finishing (let alone getting 50% through) many titles, this should be recognised as worrying sign - especially as many simple intuitive games can be had for (next to) nothing through the emulation scene - a prospect that may very will be inflated when many come to realise the asking price of the next-gen titles.

At least 5-button combos and telephone directory sized instructions aren't required here. For now Darius Gaiden will be keeping the thumbs primed...

flickr shot of the month #4: january 2006

2006-02-01T19:03:00.000+00:00

This month's selection has a bit more of a local (London) flavour to it.

I especially like the composition - and the way the tower looks like it is about to topple on top of you!

This shot was taken by Dave Gorman.

new ds now official

2006-01-28T18:38:00.000+00:00

As previously reported, the rumours of a DS redesign turned out to be true.

The last barrier to the DS's wider adoption - at least in the West - (i.e. its ugly exterior) has been removed. And in iPod white too! Nintendo seems to be firing on all cylinders!

Order are being taken over at Lik-Sang.

three more essential apps

2006-01-28T15:20:00.000+00:00

I thought it would be time to update one of my earliest posts about essential free or low cost apps that have been specifically designed for the Mac.

All of those featured apps have stood the test of time well, so there isn’t that much to add to them, but I thought it would be good to focus on some other apps, plug-ins and extensions that are currently out there.

One year is a long time in software development terms so here are some apps that I have discovered since then:

1. It goes without saying that Quicksilver must get a special and honourable mention. (I’ve already posted a write-up, so I won't repeat myself).

2. InquisitorX (Freeware): This is not really a standalone application as such, but just a plug-in for the Safari web-browser. This applies Spotlight search technologies to Safari’s integrated search bar – so as you type, Google results are matched and displayed. A great and unobtrusive piece of software that greatly saves the amount of typing you need to do; and what even makes it better, is that within the settings, you can add hotkeys for other search engines or websites (such as Amazon, Technorati with many others also). The makers do guarantee compatibility with Firefox and Opera as well, but I have been using it with Safari.

3. Textpander (Donationware): Again, this is just a preference pane add-on, but don’t let this diminish it’s capabilities from your opinions. In short, Textpander allows you to specify shortcuts (called snippets) for any text strings you define. If you find yourself typing phrases or names regularly, then this will be found to be invaluable. For example if you sign off your emails with “Take care, Bob”, then this can be defined as ‘ttcare’. Anytime this string is typed, it will be automatically substituted with the associated full-length phrase – and what is more this is applied to the whole system – so this will work in any application! The possibilities are endless (simple images, and dates can also be imported as snippets as well). Personally, I have used it to shortcut input of regular phrases, HTML codes snippets, names, URLs, email addresses, and as a way of auto-correcting mistyped words and spelling mistakes. Although this software doesn’t cost anything to download, Paypal donations are encouraged to help fund further donations.

skype & voip with or vs mobile phones?

2006-01-19T20:21:00.000+00:00

Skype and Wi-Fi/VOIP compatible phone featured heavily at the CES at the beginning of this month. The models varied, and some even looked like they could do well at retail (they look like normal phones - Netgear had a well featured design going). All very well and good, but if you will be out and about, it won't be a practical option to be carrying two handsets around (or is it just me who has small pockets?).

But to get this technology to be more widely adopted, surely it should be integrated into future mobile phone handsets - i.e. building a Wi-fi/VOIP enabled mobile?

Similarly, having full compatibility with vCard address book formats would mean that storing multiple data fields against each of your contacts would be easier, and supporting a widely recognised industry standard - this would facilitate the retrieval of email addresses, Skype IDs, maybe even work into it a viable IM client.

Barriers? Mobile networks may not be too keen to encourage people to start dialling and talking on networks that they do not have control over (or at least, have no way of extracting revenue from). As we have seen with IM clients on mobile networks, they are developed solely to lock you into the mobile provider's proprietary network - often at a greatly inflated premium.

However, if a company like Microsoft is starting to take this technology seriously, then you know that someone significant has recognised this technology isn't going to go away in a hurry.

more odds and ends

2006-01-19T20:08:00.000+00:00

A little round up of some of the apps that have caught my eye over the last month:

- Google Earth finally got it's offical release on the Mac - and it certainly was worth the wait - now no corner of the Earth will remain unturned! As quick as a sprightly buck, there are already some companies that have begun painting advertisments on their roofs in the hope that they will be photographed next time the satellite passes over.

- Tinkered with Safarilicious, but shyed away from doing a full upload - as my experience of various applications auto-synchronising information has not always been smooth (yes iSync I'm thinking of you); I prefer to know exactly (by way of continuous update dialogue at the the very least) what an application is doing/uploading/changing/deleting. My del.icio.us tagging is now well organised and I don't particularly want it to be steam-rollered to fit in with the wider majority trends (maybe this supra-caution is verging on paranoia?)

- Settings synchronisation seems to be the feature to watch out for. So many solutions for Firefox bookmarks and iTunes playlists - to pick two examples - are seeming to be knocking around, its quite difficult to know which one to plump for. Wait and see for the time being, methinks.

- It looks like the Optimus keyboard concecpt that was featured here last July, may be entering full production shortly.

- After seeing the improvements that have followed in Google's video search engine (the download to PSP/iPod option is especially well received!). In addition to this, I've just noticed that doing a search on a film lists the cinemas near you where its playing (you can even supply a postcode for extra accuracy). Now I'm left wondering - Is there nothing Google cannot index and sort?

- The Time Travel Tube map is a smart innovation. On supplying a station name, the familar tube tube map is distorted around it to show real-time travel times based on estimated travel times and current conditions. This isn't an official TfL project - but it's one to keep an eye on!

- I know Burton have had their winter sport's jacket with integrated iPod controls for some time now, but this offering from Koyono actually looks like a practical proposition - (and one that doesn't require alpine conditions...)

- And finally, digitally stabilised footage of that Bigfoot video, finally proves that he's just a guy in a hairy suit.

early impressions of iweb

2006-01-17T11:25:00.000+00:00

iLife '06 saw the introduction of a new web publishing package called iWeb - bringing the total number of bundled applications to six.

One of the most important things that Apple have noticed about the web publishing market, is that there are very few middle options - easy to use, powerful packages that allow a high quality site to be published. So what are the early impressions?

Positives
After taking this for a spin, this is really the strongest selling point of iWeb - you don't need to know HTML, or even have knowledge of the hows and whys of tags - yet the sites you can produce are incredibly slick looking. Importing your digital assets into your web page is simple as dragging and dropping. It will be interesting to see if future versions will add support for DHTML or Javascript.

If you have never created a web page before, then it is a near guarantee that after 20 minutes using this application, you will have your first web page online - such an achievement is one that must be commended.

Negatives
However, it must be said that for the more advanced coder, it feels that rather too many decisions have been made on your behalf. There is no way to hand edit your raw HTML code within iWeb - so adding extra stat monitoring tools proves impossible (if you were to rely on iWeb as your sole HTML editor).

If you do decide to amended some of the default page names, then when you come to publish, for some reason iWeb mangles the URLs to long alphanumeric strings "" for example - which defeats the object of having an easy to remember page name!

Image formatting also seems to be rather odd - try as I might, my welcome page photo has been rendered in TIFF format - even though the original iPhoto source is a JPEG! Not a good way to welcome dial-up users...

Looking Forward
Perhaps the aspect which upset most users, is how .Mac fits into this application. It has been noted that Apple are doing their best to leverage people into subscribing to .Mac - as all of their web publishing tools are heavily leveraged to this service. This is fine if you subscribe, but Apple need to be careful of forcing their own technical implementations on the wider web community (typical example is Safari's 'feed://' RSS URL notation).

A daring move would be work compatibility with other web publishing services into their software. As Apple is quite late to the self publishing ball, they have some ground to gain from such services as Flickr (highly unlikely now that it is owned by Yahoo!), Blogger (same reason, but owned by Google) and Six Apart.

macworld's social software playing catch-up?

2006-01-12T20:27:00.000+00:00

Now that the dust has settled a bit from yesterday's MacWorld Keynote, lets take a look at what some of these announcements may mean.

(Take a look at Engadget to see a full rundown of what the new products were).

MacBook Pro: Nice looking enclosure - it surprised a lot of people, by being more of a progression rather than a total redesign of the already successful Powerbook look. This is where Apple's Industrial Design excels over so many other similar companies - that they can take so long perfecting something like the lid closing mechanism - a feature that a vast majority of users would not notice - is a credit to design. Looks like iSight integration will be standard across the line. However Apple really do risk annoying some of their third party accessory manufacturers (especially after the 5G iPod resizing) and people hoping to re-use their power adaptors by reshaping the plug (even though it is a very innovative and well thought out progression!)

iLife: A bit puzzling why Apple seems to catch a year and half later on what the majority of the web community has been championing without them. Although all of the tools were well presented and the templates on offer in iLife are of the highest quality, it does makes you wonder who was asleep for the past year in Cupertino (for photocasting, read Flickr) it seems that Apple can be slow in picking up on lifestyle trends such as podcasting and blogging? No doubt the jury will be out on potential improvements over iPhoto 5's reported performance quirks.

ces digest in preparation

2006-01-09T15:46:00.000+00:00

It's been a bit quiet on the Forenoon Filings front lately, but rest assured a summary of last week's CES offerings will be posted.

Also, there some sort of Apple event going on tomorrow, that will no doubt get some attention too...

quicksilver's radial menus

2006-01-06T10:42:00.000+00:00

A recent build of Quicksilver has significantly changed the method of navigating your menus with OS X. After installing the latest build and enabling advanced beta features in the preferences, you must first install the User Interface Access plug-in.

Once this all up and running, on invoking Quicksilver (after a restart), you will be able to invoke a circular radial menu which allows faster and more intuitive navigation of available commands based on your selected application or directory. It must be said that this application has been revolutionary in smoothing the human computer interface.

To ensure you make this as effective as can be, it is worth spending a little bit of time setting up a few custom triggers (iTunes and iPhoto integrate pretty well at this moment in time).

Be warned though! This feature is still a development feature - so don't be surprised if Quicksilver crashes a few times. But as this becomes more stablised in the coming months - this will be a feature to watch as it nears maturity.

As an aside, this makes me wonder how long Finder can continue to exist in its current state - not that it is bad, but the combination of Spotlight's search technology and multiple application launchers on OS X have combined to render the Finder less of a central app to more of an optional aside.