The new Samsung Galaxy S4 was unveiled this week in New York City at Radio City Music Hall. It is the successor to the wildly successful Galaxy S3, which has been flying off store shelves around the globe, with over 40 million units sold.
The S4 has been highly anticipated, but also highly “under-wraps”, meaning that Samsung did a great job at hiding what would be in their latest phone (until it leaked 24 hours before). They did better than any Apple launch.
The new S4 is thinner, lighter, and taller at 5 inches, allowing for more screen real estate, something vital in the app era. The S4 also has a 1080p (HD) Super AMOLED display.
First impressions from others say that the S4 continues to have the “plastic-y” feeling of the S3. Also, even though the phone is taller, “it still feels and looks the same [as the S3]“. This could be bad for Samsung because it means that consumers won’t be fooled as easily into thinking that this is the next big thing, when it looks the same as the previous model.
Other “improvements” include a new Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.9 Ghz processor (it’s fast), 2GB of RAM, and either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of storage. The battery is improved as well, but the battery life is yet to be seen.
It also includes a 13 megapixel camera, essentially making the camera even better than the iPhone 5′s (based purely on megapixel count, which doesn’t always matter).
Many tech analysts are asking the question, “is it better enough?” At first glance, it appears to be about the same. This is a problem that all mobile companies are facing right now (except Blackberry, because they are still so far behind), it seems that they’ve hit the innovation barrier. Continue reading →
OPINIONS AND REVIEW: SimCity was released to the North American public on March 5, 2013. It was one of the most anticipated video games for 2013.
Firstly, I’m not exactly a big video game fan. The only video games I’ve every enjoyed for longer than a month are Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 and, well… that’s it. But, I thought that I might enjoy SimCity… I really like the idea of creating a city online, so that’s what attracted me to SimCity.
DOWNLOADING SIMCITY
Downloading SimCity was an absolutely horrible experience.
After buying SimCity, you need to download it and install it, which is to be expected . But because SimCity is distributed by Electronic Arts, you encounter a lot of problems… EA assumes that you are guilty until proven innocent, and because of this they make you run through a lot of hoops just to play their games. One of these hoops is a program called Origin.
Origin is a service run by EA (Electronic Arts), where you can buy games. But, in order to play them you must be connected to the internet (so anyone with Dial-up or slow internet cannot play this game). Those of you tech-savvy people may have already noticed a problem with this. Because they make it so that you must always be connected to the internet, they need to have enough servers for the hundreds of thousands of people who are all downloading the game (maybe even millions of people… the figures are still unknown). There are not enough servers for all of these people, so the experience in general is horribly slow, even if you have Google’s Gigabit Fiber internet, the download speeds for this game is horrible!
Trying my best to download SimCity. (Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)
I also had a problem with the servers, for some reason the game would be stuck at a certain percentage, and I would need to restart the download in order for it to continue, and then stop. It stopped at 10%, I restarted. 13%, I needed to restart. 20%, than I needed to restart. 24%, than I needed to restart. Et cetera, et cetera. Magnae Famae contacted SimCity and we were told: “We are currently looking into this, we are working as fast as we can.” At this point, I’m not even sure if I will be able to do a review.
#firstworldproblems
Looking at the SimCity twitter feed, you can see an endless list of problems with downloading the game, and servers that are down. Electronic Arts needs to change this horrible way of releasing games, that treats the consumer like criminals.
Hi everybody, sorry that Origin is preventing you from playing #SimCity. It's extremely vexing.— Ocean Quigley (@oceanquigley) March 05, 2013
I did eventually get SimCity loaded… let’s start playing! Or at least try…
TUTORIAL CITY
I was able to play the beta, so I know what to expect in this SimCity. I am still forced to do the tutorial.
They give you a pre-made city (more like a town, actually) called Summer Shoals. What happens in this city?
Nothing.
There are supposed to be some pop ups, suggesting ideas, and showing you things to do (I know this, because I played the beta). All that you can do is look around. Yay… $60 well-spent. I contacted SimCity regarding this issue, with no response… I gave EA my money, now they can go take someone else’s.
I loaded the city a few times, going on different servers until, for some reason or another, it just skipped over the tutorial.
@simcity cannot claim city error on every server I have tried so far, I guess this is due to the tutorial not working for me.— K Hargreaves (@wedge22) March 06, 2013
PLAYING SIMCITY
Also not working.
It is safe to say that so far my experience with SimCity was not fun, but was frustrating, and felt like #AWasteOf60Bucks… I thought that maybe after finally getting through all of the hoops, and actually playing the game, maybe it would be better. Maybe I would be able to get over this initial reaction and forgive Electronic Arts.
Nope, nope, not at all.
I started by trying to create my own region (a set of cities in a close area), for just myself to play with. Of course, I get the error “Unable to claim this city.” So I tried other cities in the regions, than other regions, than other servers. None of these attempts worked. EA just didn’t want me to play my game.
I than tried to join a public region. This also didn’t work for a while, but eventually it did. I joined, and was enjoying it for a while.
After leaving the game for a break, I came back and decided to try to create my own region again. It worked! Yes! I was ready to forgive EA for this horrible experience. But, it only got worse.
I was really enjoying creating my cities. I started by focusing in on one city in sandbox mode, than I moved to focus in on another city in the same region. This was when it started going downhill… again.
Crashing.
After about 5 minutes of playing in that 2nd city, the game crashed (not my computer, the game. This means that it is a server error). I tried it again, and it crashed. Again, and it crashed. Once more, and it crashed. Every time I completely lost my city.
One of the very few benefits of running the game on a server (like SimCity does), is that you get off-site back-ups. Theoretically, the game is backed up on the server, so it doesn’t take up any space on my computer (except for the program’s space), and also the server is likely more reliable than my computer. Key word: Likely.
The servers are horrible.
So every time the game crashed, I lost my game. It completely forgot that I ever played it.
Sadly, this is a common issue. There are endless forum pages talking about this issue on the official SimCity forums (and this forum just launched yesterday). I have been watching this forum page, which currently has over 14 pages of discussion over this issue (EA has yet to respond to this forum with a fix).
I contacted SimCity and Electronic Arts for comment, and they have not.
CONCLUSION… THUS FAR
Heading into this, I was expecting a few issues. But this is absolutely insane. I am so disappointed in EA and Maxis for releasing this game. I can only imagine how horribly overloaded the servers will continue to be as the release of SimCity continues in other countries around the world (In particular Europe, which is having its release on March 8).
I decided to publish this review early, in order to try to save anyone from buying this horrible product, that is essentially robbing $60 from each person (and if you buy the Deluxe version it is even worse, at $80).
They did two beta tests, and said openly that they had fixed the issues reported in the beta (which is obviously not true, as I notice many of the primary issues with the beta still in the final release).
I am going to give SimCity a 2/5 stars. Why 2 instead of 1, because when I did play the game (for that short 30 minutes of actual gameplay), I really did enjoy it. This game has great potential, and I hope to be able to release an update later giving a better review, however I am skeptical at this point.
WHY DID SIMCITY HAVE SUCH GREAT REVIEWS IN ADVANCED?
I believe that the primary errors are with the servers and Origin. The game itself, looks great. But because EA believes that you are guilty until proven innocent, they force us to use these servers to prevent any possible chance of piracy (however, it has been endlessly proven that these tactics don’t work, but actually make it worse).
When the people who had advanced copies of the game to review were playing the game, no one else (or very few others) were playing. They had no server issues. I just don’t see how EA will ever be able to avoid server issues with such a big game. I don’t think that we will have the technology for many years to be able to support hundreds of thousands of people playing a game (which is a lot of work for computers to run). And because of this, I believe that EA has eliminated any chances of possible success. And eventually, the servers will cost too much for EA to run, and they will be closed, and we will have all lost our money to EA.
For the time being, do not buy this game. I will update this post with further information as time goes on.
You can see all of the Twitter responses from the SimCity twitter feed here. You can also see their typical response to go to the forums, and never get a response from an EA rep.
DID YOU BUY SIMCITY? WHAT DID YOU THINK?
Images and Video via: SimCity
@simcity I was totally enjoying your game. I left, now I'm in a 20 minute queue. You realize this infuriates paying customers, right?— Alex Robinson (@RepairmanJacked) March 06, 2013
@SimCity My ridiculous 20 minute queue finally reached zero and then went right back to 20 minutes. #EAFuckYourself— Christian Tomsheck (@Winchestur) March 06, 2013
EDITORIAL- The Canadian tech company, Research in Motion had a big day today, with the launch of Blackberry 10. They also announced two new smartphones, called the Z10 and the Q10.
But perhaps one of their larger announcements was that they would be changing their name from Research in Motion to Blackberry. I’ll be telling you why that’s a mistake.
Blackberry 10: The long-awaited OS
We knew that today’s announcement would have a large focus on Blackberry 10, the long-awaited, redesigned Operating System (OS) (with this update, Apple’s iOS now has the oldest design for any mobile operating system).
Some major updates includes, well, a complete refresh of the Blackberry OS. It looks a hundred times better than before.
Blackberry Messenger has been updated to include video conferencing. This puts Blackberry at level with Apple’s FaceTime.
Another feature that may prove to be Blackberry’s savior, is the new feature that will allow for owners to essentially create two accounts on their phone. One for work and one for home. This will be great for people who need their smartphones at work, but don’t want their bosses to have access to their personal phone. Now, instead of having two phones, you can just have one. This feature has been praised widely by Tech Journalists.
Blackberry 10 is launching with 70,000apps, a very impressive number.
Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all strongly integrated into the OS.
Apps
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare, Whatsapp, Amazon Kindle New York Times, The Economist, MLB At Bat, ESPN Scorecenter, CBS Sports, PGA Tour, NHL Gamecenter, SportsTracker, ATP, UFC Cisco Webex, Bloomberg, Evernote, SAP, Citrix, Soundhound, The Weather Channel, eMusic, Slacker, Songza, TuneIn Radio, Paper Camera, Box, DropBox, ooVoo, United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Dictionary.com, Flixster, BBC Top Gear, and Stubhub
Games
four titles from Rovio (Angry Birds and Angry Birds Star Wars are among them),Where’s My Water, Where’s My Perry, 15 titles from EA (including Plants Vs. Zombies, Real Racing 3, Monopoly Millionaire, and Dead Space), 10 titles from Gameloft (including NOVA3, Asphalt 7, Spider-Man 4, Modern Combat 4, and Batman: The Dark Knight Rises), Jetpack Joyride HD, Fruit Ninja HD, Cut the Rope, and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes 1 and 2.
Z10 phone
The Z10 phone is Blackberry’s touch screen phone (as you can see in the photo above). It will be available in black and white models. It is 4.2 inches, and has 356 ppi. It will cost $199 on contract.
It comes with 16GB of storage (up to 32GB SD can be added). Other features include NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, and LTE. The rear-facing camera has 8MP and 1024p video. The front-facing camera has 2MP and 720p video.
The battery life hasn’t been great, according to testers.
Z10 will be available in Mid-March.
Q10 phone
The Q10 phone is the phone with the keyboard. This phone is the one that (should Blackberry succeed), Business and Government users will want, as they tend to lean towards QWERTY keyboards.
Unfortunately, Blackberry has released next to nothing on the specs. All though they have praised the battery life, so maybe it will do better than the Z10.
Alicia Keys, Global Creative Director for Blackberry expects for the Q10 to be released in April 2013.
Name Change
CEO Thorsten Heins on stage with Alicia Keys, Global Creative Director for Blackberry.
It’s never ideal to change your company’s name (don’t look at me, please). Research In Motion decided to change their name to Blackberry at the event in New York City.
They decided to change their name to Blackberry. So, if this all fails. They can’t do anything else without being remembered as a failed product.
If they do succeed, this will have been a genius move. It’s a really risky move that they’re making, and I hope that it works out for them in the end.
Success or Failure?
Of course, it’s impossible to tell just yet. But, I have to say, this is a fantastic product (except for the Battery Life issues presented). Maybe Blackberry really could make a comeback.
All though, many tech analysts say that this is too late. They agree that this is a fantastic product, but it’s just too late.
What do you think about Blackberry 10? Will you be buying a Blackberry? Leave a comment below.
I have been using Office 2013 for the past few months, and I will say that it has been incredible. I am finding this to be the best version of Office yet.
The biggest highlights in this version includes heavy SkyDrive integration (All though I have been using Dropbox), PDF support and editing, new themes/templates, and a refreshed and cleaner design.
The Nexus 4 is here! I was personally very excited about the release. Google’s ‘Nexus’ product line seems to be taking over! The Nexus 7 tablet did amazing on sales! Why wouldn’t it? But that’s not what I’m talking about here!
The Nexus 4 on a hardware prospective, has:
Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Processor
2 GB of RAM
2 100 mAh Battery
8MP rear camera
1.3MP front camera
This phone currently costs $299 for the 8GB model, and $349 for the 16GB model, unlocked. Yes this phone has a strangely low price tag!
This is the first device to be running Android JellyBean 4.2! And being a google device, it will get all software updates! The phone’s front and back are both gorilla glass, and has plastic sides. The volume controls remain on the left side, and the power switch remains on the right. And this phone, does indeed work with wireless charging!
The phone has a GeekBench rating of a little over 2000! That’s crazy! Compared to the iPhone 5, with ratings of over 1600, looks like the phone is incredibly fast, with quite some processing power!
The Nexus 4 can take pictures that have a 360 panorama! It’s just like the Google Maps, Street View experience, but with your own pictures! All of the settings for the camera, are easily accessed but just holding your finger down on the screen. The camera looks very good, although not quite the quality of pictures from phones like the iPhone 5 or the Nokia Lumia 920, the pictures on this phone still look great!
Now I’ve talked a lot of the pros of this phone, now we get into the cons! First off, this isn’t a major issue, but there is no LTE! Google did install a LTE chip, they just didn’t want to sign with phone companies on this phone. They wanted you to be able to put a plan on your phone, that you wouldn’t need a contract for. There are ways you can activate the LTE chip, from what I’ve heard, right now, it can only be done by the following Canadian carriers, Rogers, Bell or Telus.
Also, there is only 8-16GB of storage on this phone! There is not a 32GB or 64GB model, and it does not have expandable storage like many other Android models. The storage size of course is not tiny, however, many people would love to see models with more memory.
These are just my first thoughts on the Nexus 4! I was very excited for the release, and am not disappointed by the results! This is a great phone, especially for the price.
The Start Screen just looks cool, maybe it’s a fad… maybe not.
The boot is incredibly fast, clocking in at 5 seconds.
The apps are great for the most part, all enjoying the new ‘metro’ design language.
The amazing Netflix app for Windows 8 (Photo Credit: Kyle Stewart/Magnae Famae)
8 Cons for 8
I had so many installation problems with Windows 8. I spent hours on Twitter with their support account, and hours more on their phone support. In the end it worked.
This is a massive file. 2GB. If you have a slow internet connection, DO NOT buy the digital download.
Once Microsoft Office 2013 is available, it will cost $99/year. I am not looking forward to that.
The Charms features are difficult to figure out at first.
Is it just me, or are some pre-installed apps taking a really long time to load? Windows Store, for example.
Setting everything up again. Trying to remember all of your passwords (You are using different passwords, right?) is not fun.
Apps are far and few between. The ones that exist are great, but it is a limited selection.
Internet Explorer is still the default browser and is still horrible.
What do you think of Windows 8? Leave your review in the comments.
Kyle Stewart will be publishing his final review before next Tuesday, on Magnae Famae.
Apple has unveiled a 4th Generation iPad, a new iMac, a 13-inch retina Macbook Pro, and of course the iPad Mini, today in San Jose.
iPad Mini
You’ve heard the rumours. Apple was set to unveil a new product at today’s keynote. A new 7.85 inch iPad, appropriately called the iPad Mini.
As you’ve seen above, some people can hold it in one hand. This is something we are seeing a lot in their promotional photos around their website.
“Beautiful from every angle. Incredibly thin and light.”
The iPad Mini is “as thin as a pencil” at 7.2mm. It weighs about 0.62 lbs.
Inside includes the not-so-new A5 processor. The display is unexpectedly only 1024 x 768, not retina.
The iPad Mini starts at $329 for 16GB and Wifi. The Cellular+ Wifi model starts at $459. It comes in with both black and white. Pre-orders begin on October 26th. The iPad Mini will be in-stores on November 2nd.
iMac
The new iMac is 5mm thin. Yes. 5mm.
Apple got rid of the optical drive. This is abnormal for desktops… unless you are Apple.
The new iMac will start at $1229 for their 21.5 inch model.
4th Generation iPad
Unexpectedly, a new iPad was also shown today. What is it being called? iPad with Retina Display. Very creative.
The only differences between the new iPad and the iPad with Retina Display is the speed. It has the new A6X processor.
One more thing. It has “ultra-fast internet connectivity,” and the lightning connector.
This new iPad (I’m talking about the new iPad, not the new iPad), starts at $499.
13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina
Previously, only a 15-inch model of the Macbook Pro with Retina was available. Now, a 13-inch model is also available.
There are no enhancements to this model, just a smaller body and screen.
This new Mac starts at $1699 with 128GB.
Mac Mini
The amazing $599 Mac Mini has (finally) been updated.
It supports Thunderbolt, USB 3, and Intel Ivy Bridge processors.
The Mac Mini has suffered the loss of its Optical Drive.
5 new products were launched today. What do you think of them? Will you be buying the iPad Mini? Leave a comment below.
Apple has sent out the invitations for its iPad Mini event. The event will be taking place on October 23rd at the California Theatre in San Jose.
The event will be taking place at the standard 10AM Pacific (1PM Eastern).
The iPad Mini will be a smaller 7-inch version of the iPad. Rumours also tell us that Apple will unveil a 13-inch model of the retina Macbook Pro and new Mac Minis.
Keep checking back to Magnae Famae for additional coverage on the iPad Mini announcement.
The new Samsung Galaxy S4 was unveiled this week in New York City at Radio City Music Hall. It is the successor to the wildly successful Galaxy S3, which has been flying off store shelves around the globe, with over 40 million units sold.
