forenoon filings: July 2005

public wi-fi hotspots

Friday, July 29, 2005

Here is an idea that I hope soon catches on a bit more: free open wi-fi hotspots.

The UK still lags in broadband take up when compared against countries in Europe and Asia - so perhaps it is a little optimistic to expect immediate seismic changes to occur; but Loose Connection are managing and operating a series of open (and did I mention - free) wi-fi hotspots in Brighton down on the South coast.

Alongside the first wi-fi beach in the UK - they are increasing the number and range in this city - and even have plans to stretch to Wi-Max through Metranet.

Unfortunately, the number of public fee paying hotspots are still too expensive - with some charging up to £5 or even £10 an hour in places, but as this technology becomes more widespread, and outfits such as these become more widely spread - this should hopefully yank prices down to the ground.

All of a sudden, a day on Brighton beach (PSP in tow), seems all the more appealing...

windows is dead. long live windows!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

The offical name for the next major revision of Windows was announced a few days ago. The internal codename Longhorn was given the shoehorn and the offical title is Windows Vista.

This is probably going to be one of the most crucial releases of Windows for Microsoft - which after surviving the anti-trust cases of the late 90's has been seeing it's various markets strongholds being encroached at alarming rates: Firefox's speedy take up against slowly ageing IE; the surge of iTunes and iTMS; the increasing importance of desktop cataloging-searching-indexing and asset management - as displayed by Apple and Google; and also a little-known system otherwise known as Linux.

So far, Vista is featured in the press section over at Redmond -

psp web browser: hands on test

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

The newest version of the PSP firmware is now available for download for Japanese consoles (if you are downloading outside of the PSP's network update, the installer is multi-language; and reports confirm that installation is successful with USA consoles).

Although many are holding off this upgrade (due to its locking out of any emulator programs), Forenoon Filings feels that the emulators that are available are still not on par with many of the real consoles (in terms of game speed and general stability), plus the fact the system that currently holds most interest (the SNES) is already available in portable form!

Onto the new features: The most publicised is the web browser. On completing the upgrade process and restarting, the first thing you will notice is the new globe icon on the main menu to the right of the game icon. You may speculate if Sony is planning on adding new features to this menu. On loading for the first time you are prompted for a WLAN to use. From here on you are free to navigate to your first page of choice. URL entry is done is a similar manner to other text entry on the PSP - using an on-screen keypad, but there are helpful preset internet phrase additions such as 'http://www.' and '.com' to speed URL entry.

Webpages load in good time, although initially it is a little difficult to tell when loading is complete - the small animated circle (bottom right of screen) needs to be made a little more noticeable to make its relation to load progress clearer. Media rich pages that grab ads from other pages cause the most problems as well as Flash enabled pages.

Many standard browser features are included (setting character encoding, bookmark, cache and cookie management), and because of limited screen space - a choice of display modes to select how larger pages are squeezed onto screen.

For imaging and photos, you can now set custom wallpapers that are remembered after powering off and you can even select the theme colour if this month's hue doesn't take your fancy! But don't forget that this console is Wi-Fi enabled - so Sony have now included the ability to transfer any stored image by Wi-Fi to another PSP.

Music playback was the strongest area, so not much has changed here - however supported for AAC, Sonicstage and Wave formats has now been added.

For Tiger users, you will be happy to know that H.264 encoded MPEG4 (also known as AVC) is now an officially supported format!

Going forward, the race will be on for a unified method of content delivery. The software and hardware infrastructure has now been inaugurated, but PSP owners may wonder where they can point their browsers to get optimised video and photos for the PSP's 480x272 screen. The average user will not be to keen to spend hours cropping and converting these kinds of file to the right file format and dimensions.

Whether its an independent publisher or Sony (who could easily leverage content from their own media arm), this will be the next milestone for the PSP.

ceramic white psp lands - 15/09

Monday, July 25, 2005

The earlier speculation paid off - The white PSP is now official; and Sony are indicating more colours may follow.

psp v2.0 firmware - now supports web browsing

A few days ago, Sony updated the firmware of the PSP to version 2.0. Some new cosmetic features have been added to the interface - customisable permanent wallpapers, and (for iTunes fans), full AAC support for audio!

In addition to this, a raft of security hardening measures (notably to prevent memory stick booting and support for WPA encryption in wireless networking).

However, the biggest addition the PSP's feature set is that of a fully functuional web browser. It has been possible to the PSP's DNS set-up to piggy back Wipeout Pure's pseudo in-game browser - but this is the first offical backing so far.

Looking at preview footage of this, it seems that this really a well stocked browser, which will only seem to have problem with Flash enriched pages.

With the proliferation of public Wi-Fi hotspots growing, the PSP looks set to really be a rival to most PDAs as a portable internet and entertainment device.

top ten web fads

Viral emails are so common these days, it seems a shame that genuinely funny jokes and video clips have been somewhat widely infiltrated by a subtle advertising.

But in the days before this was commmon practise, there were a number of memorable such clips and web pages that seemed to have caught the mood of the moment and got everyone talking about them.

CNET have compiled their own list of ten of the most memorable (according to them) - which could be just as interesting for what they have missed off!

scratched discs

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Shiny discs. Lots of shiny discs, but having been a bit careless with a few of them has meant skipping stuttering DVDs and CDs. If this is a situation that has caused you problems and you were on the verge of disposing of some as lost causes then at least give Scratch Busters a try – you will be surprised at how much they can recover and deliver discs back to you as new!

last week summary

Monday, July 18, 2005

Updates have been a bit slow here, but I am beginning to catch up with new developments over the past week. Stories of note that have caught my eye recently include:

The Optimus keyboard which has been blogged on numerous other sites. What is so different about this keyboard? Well each key is a miniature screen that can display a different image depending on the application that is running. Practical implications of this are context sensitive key shortcuts.

A number of changes will be applied to this site over summer, with the aim of having a new frontpage. Domain has been registered and work continues on the new home domain: forenoon.tk. I expect that this will be ready for autumn.

The rise and rise of Flickr continues fast apace. There is such a large volume of both users and photographs that have are available, it is quite astonishing to witness. It will be interesting to see how Flickr will seek to position itself in coming months, as there seems to be the capability for it to rival many established image libraries.

minna daisuki katamari damacy: first impressions

Thursday, July 14, 2005

The new sequel to Katamari Damacy arrived today (translation "Everyone Loves Katamari Damacy"); there is nothing quite as exquisite as the fresh smell of plastic and freshly printed booklets, however the first disappointment strikes when on opening the box one the securing arms for the instruction booklet has broken off in transit is rattling around loosely in it's case. But enough of that - how about the new game?

Its good to see that Namco have realised that there really was not much broken with the first game, so they have left the main mechanics of the sequel untouched.

Whereas the reception of the prequel was always going to a bit unsure, it is clear that the approach to this sequel has been undertaken with more confidence.

Discussions still rage about the new soundtrack and how well it is suited, but I’m glad that new sounds are being experimented with.

Perhaps the most notable new feature is the introduction of co-operative two player mode. Sounds like fun – both players will need to ensure that they are really both pulling in the same direction to get far.

Now a note to Namco USA and UK – don’t change any aspects of the exterior design – this is just what the Western market needs; a game that is all out light hearted fun and not attempting to hide behind a generic shooter or angst filled adventure veneer.

It is true that most people who see the title will be puzzled – but curiosity is a great way to attract new gamers.

need help with those pictures?

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

There has been a long outstanding task here at Forenoon Filings, for breaking the vast white expanse of white wall space. Obtaining the suitable pictures hasn't been a problem, but things get much more complicated when considering exactly where to start drilling holes and how high - quite a dilemma.

If any readers find themselves in a similar predicament, then the Picture Wall Company claim to have an easy and simple solution to assist turning your workspace into a Tate miniature.

make magazine

Monday, July 11, 2005

This will surely appeal to the perennial tinkerers among you; the new magazine Make has been written to showcase and display examples of home made modifications of all types and descriptions.

The emphasis of these projects that are covered are on the homemade and DIY type.

Recent examples have been showing their readers how to make your own R2-D2 or put some rumble into your sofa just name a few.

back to normality

As the city of London gets itself back together, it is imperative that life does return to normal.

Various newsblogs have also played a central role in the news updates. Notable and informative articles have been posted on the Tube Diary, London Metro Blog as well as the newly launched Guardian Newsblog.

It was noted by BBC how they were amazed by the large amount of photo and video surveillance captured by members of public - so we hope that this will all be used to speed the arrest of these perpetrators.

the (unofficial) flickr badge maker

Saturday, July 02, 2005

You may have noticed the Flash generated badge in the sidebar - this is to direct you to my Flickr photo page.

But there is also an unofficial Badge Maker that allows you to put together a faux ID card of sorts!

the ultimate games collections

It seems that the Blast Shack had disappeared quite a few months ago, with only the Google cached copy remaining on search results, but a similar search along these lines to show a collection of ultimate gaming setups and collections hosted on Digit Press.

Surely having these many games would defeat the actual object of owning them - i.e. once in a while giving then a dust off and short play through.

To quote Digit Press' own introduction:

Digital Press Online is dedicated to the "Pac-rats" among video gamers... short attention spans, library-sized collections, consoles precariously wired in spider-web fashion...

Couldn't have been put better!

nec compatibility guide

How gamers have it easy these days. Back in the early 1990's when NEC was still in its console heyday, the variants of its PC Engine grew to such proportions that it required a dedicated Compatibility Guide to show which types of software cards were compatible the various flavours of PC Engine!

podcasting's future

Friday, July 01, 2005

Tao of Mac has an interesting article musing on the future of podcasting. This can be found here. A perceptive piece that brings up lots of questions about how this new feature will develop over the coming months.

In response to the quality of content complaint, let me direct the author to the BBC Today radio program - a fine exception to this rule!