Tech and Specs

It Was Bound To Happen! Nintendo of America Remembered Metroid’s 25th Anniversary

2011-08-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Yeah folks, many Nintendo games have reached their 25th birthday. A post for Zelda's celebration can be seen here. Games like Mario and Zelda were celebrated with lots of gadgets and activities like symphony concerts around the world, soundtracks, a special gold Wiimote, a Flipnote Studio competition, and the release of five games – Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time 3D, Four Swords DSiWare, Link’s Awakening DX on the eShop and the original Zelda for the NES portion of the 3DS Ambassador program.

Then again, Nintendo isn’t doing anything special for Metroid’s anniversary sadly. The only mention of said anniversary is Nintendo making a statement of it at Twitter (picture above). Even knowing that Metroid isn't as popular as Zelda or Mario, it shouldn't be left in the dark like now. Even the N64 skip the release of a Metroid game back then!

Have you ever play a Metroid game? What do you think about this?

Finally! The Calm After the Storm

2011-08-12T16:29:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since my last post. Keeping track of University and other issues keeps me away every now and then, but things should settle down now. Now I will have time to reply to some comments you leave and move around the blog.

Thank you for your patience and support as treasured readers and commentators.

Solar Powered Bikini for Your Power Needs!

2011-08-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

A New York based designer has developed a solar powered bikini that is capable of powering an iPod, so far, during day light. The swimsuit is composed of thin and flexible photovoltaic film strips and USB connectors to power devices.

The designer is taking orders for the solar-powered bikini. Taking under consideration that said swimsuit costs $200. it wouldn't be much more expensive than other swimwear that are just plain. Just imagine the fact of charging most of your gadgets while taking a tan! Sure, for us guys, will have to take a sit a wait for our girlfriends to juice up our gadgets too, unless you fell comfortable using a two piece bikini with no qualms.

I don't know how many girls read this blog actually but, to all females around; Would you wear something like this even if it was a gift to you?

Ready for the new Smash Brothers?

2011-08-04T21:13:00.000-07:00

For those players that have been near the Super Smash Bros. history, here are some tidbits of information about the next iteration of the game for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. The consideration of moving the tittle to a handheld is a difficult one since it is a whole new working ground full of challenges.

For now, Kid Icarus: Uprising, will be released before the end of this year. Once that’s finished, Masahiro Sakurai’s team will move on to the development of the new Smash Bros. Sakurai said on recent interviews that “you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is.”

“I will think about this once Kid Icarus is complete. But as it is a game of a competitive nature, I do not think that any one person should have an advantage. …There are many things that can be improved upon even in Brawl. Also, I think you can base your expectations of the new Smash Bros. once you see how well-made Kid Icarus is. The director of each game is the same, but because I regularly change my team around after projects, we will be able to see how good the team is then.”

It’s much too soon to be talking about the character roster, but when he was asked which other characters can be included in Smash Bros., Sakurai said: “That is completely undecided, but it is true that Nintendo has not created many new characters lately.”

Anyone who have played Melee and Brawl knows the improvements and disasters the later brought. Some examples of improvements are the new adventure (Subspace Emissary) and the variety of the roster of 35 characters. On the other hand, many argue the lack of wavedashing, L-canceling, and other moves that made Melee a fast paced and fluid game. Not to mention some characters that are far over others in terms of tier lists, which makes it kinda monotonous at the times of tournaments.

Have you ever played Brawl or Melee or even Smash Bros. 64? If you did; Are you happy with the evolution or disappointed?

Norwegian Retailer Bans Violent Games Following Recent Attacks

2011-08-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

We all know that violent games are the ones creating a new generation of blood thirsty serial murderers and sick maniacs; Right? The results of the attack on Norway (you can read about it here) are of a nature in which retailers like Norway Coop has decided to ban 50 different video games and toys. Some of the video games in the list are:

Homefront
Counter Strike Source
World of Warcraft
Sniper Ghost Warrior
Call of Duty series

Add to the cake of overreacting retailers a cup of politicians looking for easy-pubic-image to look like the guys in shining armor that will stop violence forever in our society by banning anything they can't understand and some shady studies about how games generate criminals as the topping. As many people argue, it would be wise to ban action movies, horror films, styles of music and other things to restore our world back to the times of peace, like the Inquisition, Medieval Times and let the Samurais and Ninjas with Zombie Pirates come back too!

YOU AS A READER~ What is your position in all this? As a gamer, a family member, a parent.

3DS As a Dying Platform

2011-07-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

At E3 2010 the the 3DS was the spotlight of the event. It had an awesome first quarter for the release, in which it sold over a million devices in Japan only. Then again, as time passes, the little handheld has been loosing it's limelight and becoming less and less attractive. All of this is happening for various reasons that only Nintendo can solve, if possible.Ranging from the lack of software to the unimpressive hardware, one can only ask the following question; How did this happen?

Breaking the two concepts let's take into consideration the fact that the hardware is just a small bump into the existing technology of a DSI, only with a back and front facing camera and a cool but not marvelous 3D feature. When people noticed the lack of powerful hardware, mixed with an unfriendly price tag, everyone and their dog started to slowly go away. This facts bring the next one, which is lack of software.

No one can expect 3rd party developers to create game for a handheld that isn't selling. For Nintendo there is a limit to how long they can sustain a large sales run with only two or three games like Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake (which has been remade like XXX,XXX times already). To this situation, only Nintendo ca try to do something to attract new people to buy and thus bringing new developers.

Let's hope the reduced price tag they made official (from $249.99 to $169.99) makes a difference or we will be watching the slow and painful death of a console/handheld of our recent times.

Game Developers Looking For Some Google+ Slice

2011-07-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a couple of days since I last came here. Moving stuff from one place to another is some big work and yet here am I to bring you a bit of interesting news for those who like social networks and games. It's no surprise that Google+ for all people in general is just a matter of weeks to come but; How about so game developers looking forward to make games for the newborn social network?

For now, many developers and publishers are looking for ways to adapt their games to the Google+ service to diversify themselves and look for other ways to take a slice of the cake. Taking into consideration the fact that Google+ service acquired 10 million user in just 16 days (compared to Facebook, which took 852 days to reach that) we can say it is a pretty big cake we are talking about and taping into such user base is just what any game industry would want.

A clear advantage Google holds is their Android platform for mobiles, which set a precedent with gaming companies and indie developers that could potentially create games for the social networking monster that is on the rise. On the other hand we have Zynga, the biggest developer of games for Facebook, that could run into some legal troubles if it tries to port some games to other platforms. If that were to be true, we could see serious competition from a lot of developers on Google's social networking service.

If you are an avid social gamer from Facebook; What do you think about this?
If you are more of a hardcore gamer or none at all; Does this affect you in anyway?

Are Games Art?

2011-07-26T15:43:00.000-07:00

Of course they are! This is the first time I have ever wanted to do a youtube video post, but this calls for it. As I was looking for art masterpieces around the web, I found this great "making of" artwork of The Legend of Zelda by the artist Ag+. Look at the video and tell me what you think of this greatness and if you don't like, comment about it too. Is good to always have debates from different stand points. If want the picture, here is the link.

If anyone of you have a gaming blog and want to do a review on this, do it! The works of people like this makes you think that there is still people out there that takes pride on the work and do this incredible works.

Time Travel Impossible, Say Scientists

2011-07-24T15:17:00.000-07:00

Well folks, if you ever wanted to go back in time to prevent buying Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles at EB Games back then, you are out of luck. At least that's the claims of Hong Kong physicists at the University of Science and Technology research team led by Du Shengwang. They have proved that a single photon obeys Einstein's theory, which says that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. If that is true, then the idea of traveling faster than light to achieve time traveling using a series of tubes might be impossible.

If you want to find out more of this topic, you can visit this link.

Astronomers Find a Distant Reservoir of Water

2011-07-24T15:15:00.000-07:00

Two teams of astronomers have discovered the largest and farthest reservoir of water ever detected in the universe by humanity. The water found has an, equivalence of 140 trillion times all the water in the our planet's ocean and is surrounding and "feeding" a black hole at a distance of 12 billion light-years approximately. This discovery sure proves that water is part of a our Universe per say and not only part of a few planets scattered around.It's known that water has surrounded us in the Milky Way, either as vapor or iced water, but NASA never expected so much water in single point as huge as that reservoir.
If you want to find out more, you can visit this link.

The Quest Is FINISHED!

2011-07-24T07:14:00.000-07:00

Hi fellow bloggers and newcomers! As you might know, I was creating a webpage to host my blog. After some investment of time and brain cells, I finally finished the page. I thank all of you for supporting me and waiting for me too. I will be Making the long reports on the official page, but this one will remain functional and I will update it with summaries and general info of what the official page has.

I will open the page today to make a test run for 5 days, bring your ideas and critics of how the page could be better and I will work on it fast!

The page is http://technspecs.com/

See you around!

Moving soon...

2011-07-19T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hello fellow readers!

Some might have noticed that I haven't post a thing for a while now. Is not because of the of the lack of ideas or news, is because I'm working to move it as a full website. I would like you to stay tuned for when the day comes. Thank you for your support and patience.

Top 3 Free Applications for Photo Editing (Part I)

2011-07-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

If you don't want to pay a dime to put a sepia effect or black and white looks in your photos using your computer, here are 3 options that let you edit your photos very effectively and without paying a penny.

1. PhotoScape

One of the favorites in the world of photo editing. It is a tool with the best of both worlds, it is easy to use and free. Its very simple interface can appeal to the tastes of those wishing to do their work faster without further complications. If you want to try you can download it from the link here.

2. Paint.NET

This photo editing program has a long history and is one of my favorite free programs. It allows you to do work similar to Photoshop, but requires fewer resources on your computer, making it lighter for your work. For those not used to make heavy editing or to put many details in their photos can think the interface is a bit complicated. Still always good to experiment and learn something new, go ahead and download it from this link.

3. GIMP for Windows

GIMP is a popular free software developed for UNIX / LINUX. This is usually referred to as the "Free PhotoShop" for its similarity in appearance and interfaces with Adobe Photoshop. However, this one is somewhat more complicated to learn and use, but when you have good skills, is a comprehensive editing tool. The version offered in this post is used in Windows and you can use to give it a download from this link.

If you know more or better free software for editing photos, you may suggest them.

Gaming: Tales of Xillia for PS3 exclusive

2011-07-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

From the creators of Tales of Symphonia (GC) and Tales of Vesperia (XBOX 360/PS3), comes a new tittle for the series. Tales of Xillia is the new flagship title of the company. It has been posed as a PS3 exclusive and is schedule to be available in Japan on Sept. 8 of this year.

The game will also be available in bundle form, aside from the stand alone disk, with a special edition PlayStation 3 console. For those that want the game out of Nippon and in English will have to wait a little longer, if they consider throw us a bone and bring it to the U.S.

Meanwhile you might want to feast your eyes on some trailers for now, just don't suffer that much... is only game [sobs]. Here is the link for the latest trailer and another one here.

Nook Color: The E-reader/Tablet

2011-07-14T18:49:00.000-07:00

For all we know, tablets are becoming more popular as well as pricey. You can get an Acer Iconia Tab W500-BZ467 for US $549.99 or a SAMSUNG Galaxy Tab 10.1 for US $499.99 for the 16GB version. As good as they are, they have price tags difficult to swallow for the average Joe. For those of us with tight pockets, there are some options within the cheap realm, yet most of those tablets under $200 tend to be a little weak and buggy.

With a little search around the web we have found that the Nook Color, which is original of Barns and Nobles, is a good rival in the tablet space and its priced pretty well too. For $250.00 you get a TI OMAP 3621 CPU clocked at 800MHz and 512MB of RAM. On the storage side you get 8GB of flash memory, and a microSD slot for additional expansion for up to 32GB. The screen is of the 7-inch LCD variety, and at the 1024 x 600 is just nice for the price range and specs you get.

For those who are studying at a University or just want a Tablet/E-reader, this might be your best option as of now. If you want to expand you knowledge on the device here is a link to Engadget.

Some AMD Brazos prices drop below US $100

2011-07-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

For those looking to mount a descent HTPC (Home Theater PC), some AMD Brazos boards are as low as US $99.99 on Newegg. Said boards come with AMD's E-350 clocked at 1.6 GHz APU paired with a Radeon HD 6310 graphics chip. The protagonists of this deal are Foxconn's AHD1S-K motherboard and ECS HDC-I2.

On the other hand, if want to deal with rebates, you can get an ASRock E350M1 for US $99.99 after the rebate. This board comes with four SATA 6Gbps which makes it a sweet deal.

These boards can be found at Newegg.com or if you live at the side of the Old World at Europe here is the link