In a sudden but ultimately unsurprising announcement by Google, a beta version of a new web browser, called Google Chrome, is now available for download. Just when you thought the browser market couldn’t get any bigger, along comes the search giant to offer a unique take on how a web browser should work. And thankfully, they do deliver on at least that part of it. Read more »

I’ve owned an original RAZR cell phone from Motorola for a number of years, but recently I’ve been in the market for a new smartphone that will allow me to do more things while on the go - access multiple e-mail accounts, install useful applications, take decent quality pictures, double as a portable media player, browse the Internet in a real browser (none of this useless WAP stuff) and more. The immediate reply from most people is, of course, the iPhone. But despite how great the iPhone is - I’ve used one, so my opinions are valid - I still have some problems with it. Read more »

A camera doesn’t lie… right? I saw a video today of some fascinating technology being developed at the University of Washington - close to where I live in Seattle - which takes video footage and seamlessly combines it with photographs to selectively increase the resolution, improve the lighting balance, or do a slew of other changes to the video. It’s called the “Spacetime Fusion Technique”, and while amazing (both the technology and the name they gave it), it also made me think about what will constitute authentic videos in the future. Read more »

I recently picked up a copy of Mass Effect for the PC, and I have to say that it’s one of the most schizophrenic games I’ve ever played. While the game itself is fantastic in many ways, I’ve had a constant stream of logic-defying glitches that have actually made me stop playing out of frustration a few times.

I’ve come to notice that many PC games shipped these days - not just Mass Effect - tend to require one or more patches after its retail release to get it to a respectfully stable point. But because the option of updating a game after it’s released is available to developers, it seems like they often use this as an excuse to put sloppy code out to retail. “It’s playable, yeah, but we can always perfect it later!” Read more »

Nintendo’s annual press conference at E3 happened yesterday at 9am, and as I sat in my chair watching a live video stream, I couldn’t help but wonder who was making all of the company’s business decisions. Their business is selling video game hardware and software, and they do this very, very well. As their graphs proudly displayed, they have sold more hardware and more software this console generation than their competitors, Microsoft and Sony. This is mainly due to reaching out to people that would otherwise not be considered video game players. But what they didn’t produce a graph for was how many ridiculous accessories they’ve made available as well. Read more »

I own a Garmin Nuvi 200, one of the newer consumer-level GPS navigation devices available for vehicles. For the most part, I think the device is wonderful, and it’s never gotten me lost… but only because I know how to interpret its instructions. I’ve noticed when other people such as my parents have tried to use the device, they sometimes got confused by its voice-guided directions - “in one mile, keep left, then keep right” - when in fact all it wanted was for the driver to just keep going straight on the freeway, and not take any exits.

But why did this happen in the first place? Read more »