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forenoon filings

shiny, oh so shiny

retro gaming set to receive a boost on revolution

Friday, March 24, 2006
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

Monday, March 13, 2006
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

Friday, March 10, 2006
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

Friday, March 03, 2006

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

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).


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