Andy's Blog

Games: the iPod's next great leap forward?

Ever since Apple came out with the one-two punch of the iPod Nano and Video iPod last year, I have been wondering where they are going to go next. One of the reasons for the rapid growth of the iPod has been Apple's relentless innovation with the device itself, not just from the growth of the music store.

Of course, I consume all of the Apple rumors and speculation that I can, but I have noticed a confluence of events recently that have really got me thinking about the iPod. And I think that Apple could be on to something "really big" with the iPod.

Going back as far as February, there have been rumors that the next iPod will feature a 3.5" or 4" screen that occupies the entire face of the device, and that control will come via a touch screen. Here is a mockup image of such an iPod that I found via MacRumors:

Mockup of an iPod where the entire face is taken up by a display, and control is via a touch screen.
Image source: MacRumors

According to the rumors of the time, Apple had perfected some new sort of touch screen technology that allows the screen to register multiple simultaneous presses. With current touch screens, if you press one finger on the screen, everything will work fine. However, if you press two (or more) fingers on the screen simultaneously, then the touch screen will no longer report accurate results. Such a touch screen would provide for a pretty amazing model for user interaction, which I realized when I viewed this demonstration by Jeff Han.

So, while an iPod with a large display and a wicked touch screen all crammed into a package much smaller than those clunky Windows Portable Media Players is great and all, I don't think that this is the end-game for Apple. The one hallmark of Apple's latest resurgence has been for them to not rest on their laurels and reap fat profits until the well is try, but rather to continue to push themselves, and continually out-innovate their competitors.

This is what makes the recent spate of rumors about Apple ditching long-time iPod CPU supplier PortalPlayer for a new vendor so interesting. If these rumors are to be believed, there is more going on with the next iPod than just the display and control technology. Apple is also radically changing the guts of the iPod. But why? The reasons could simply by to reduce size and weight, or to increase battery life, but I think that Apple is onto something greater.

And I think this, because it is now rumored that Apple has selected nVidia to provide the graphics chip for the new video iPod. And why would Apple go with nVidia - well, it seems pretty obvious it would be to get a chip that is capable of doing 3D graphics, but on a power budget (a chip which nVidia definitely has).

Up until now, I have mostly disregarded rumors of Apple bringing games to the iPod. My reason for dismissing these rumors have been due to Apple's near religious focus on keeping the iPod simple, and due to the fact that the click wheel, while great for navigating a huge music library, absolutely sucks for gaming.

But a touch screen (especially an advanced one), on the other hand, doesn't suck for gaming. To believe this, all we have to do is examine what Nintendo has been doing with the DS.

The Nintendo DS is Nintendo's latest portable game console. When it first came out last year, it was largely panned by the press and the pundits, for it's gimmicky nature. The DS features two screens, a microphone, WiFi, and a touch screen (including a stylus). However, Nintendo is having the last laugh, as DS sales have been through the roof (especially in Japan, where the DS is absolutely destroying the Sony Playstation Portable). The reason why the DS is doing so well, however, has to do the with the first rule of video game consoles: "it's all about the software, stupid". Basically, Nintendo and its 3rd parties have been releasing a steady stream of great games, that have taken advantage of the unique hardware in the DS in innovative ways.

In particular, Nintendo has been trying to make portable gaming appeal to a wider audience - including women and older gamers. Nintendo has hit these markets, first with the Nintendogs games, and now with games like Brain Training. More importantly, these games have been selling, which proves that there is a market for games that aren't designed for boys age 16 - 22 in mind.

But, what does all of this talk about Nintendo have to do with the iPod? Well, Nintendo has shown that using a touch screen for gaming works great. And again, Nintendo has shown that there is a huge untapped market of people who will pay to play video games. Now, let's examine our proposed iPod again. Touch screen? Check. Graphics chip capable of producing 3D graphics? Check. Market share that covers a wide range of demographics (including women and people over the age of 30)? Check again. Based upon this line of logic, the iPod is an absolutely killer gaming platform that is just waiting to be born.

Think about it -- Apple already has a perfect distribution mechanism in the form of iTunes. Want to buy a game for your video iPod? Simply purchase it in iTunes, and it will get synced to your iPod automatically. Want to play a game? You can find it easily with the on-screen scroll wheel, and it boots nearly instantly, thanks to the fast hard drive (or flash).

The only piece of the puzzle that Apple is missing is the platform. In order for the gaming iPod to succeed, it is going to need to have some killer games (remember the first rule of video game consoles?). But, launching a new platform in the world means that over-tax game developers would have a new, non-standard, platform to support. Normally, there is a huge chicken-and-egg problem when a new platform is launched. Apple can sidestep this beautifully, however, because they will be able to sell millions of these things without it being able to play a single game. Once a large market presence has been established, game developers will come running.

But it would be better if the gaming iPod supported an existing platform. One idea would be if the gaming iPod ran a slimmed-down version of Mac OS X. In that way, games written for Mac OS X could run on the gaming iPod. I don't think that this idea is very feasible, because any modern game written for Mac OS X has insane hardware requirements, which the gaming iPod won't be able to match. Worse still, games written for Mac OS X won't be written with a touch screen in mind, which you would need to do when targeting the gaming iPod.

So, what about supporting a platform like BREW? Supposedly, Microsoft's upcoming iPod "killer", the Zune player, is going to support games written to the BREW standard. I don't find this idea to have a lot of weight, because it would be hard for BREW games to take advantage of the iPod's unique controls, and the BREW standard seems to really be optimized for use on mobile phones (which have external network connectivity).

And now, of course, we should cue the crazy rumors of Apple buying Nintendo. While such a move would certainly solidify Apple's move into gaming (and get them several platforms to boot), I don't think it's going to happen. The two companies are far too different. Some sort of partnership, however, does have potential.

Well, while I may not have the gaming platform puzzle sorted out, I definitely think that the gaming iPod is going to happen. While the rest of Apple's competition struggles to come up with a player that bests the current generation of iPod, Apple is going to leapfrog everyone (again!) and move into the realm of gaming. Such a move would definitely put the hurt on the PSP, and it wouldn't be so hot for Nintendo, either. But at this point, the tea leaves are saying that this is going to happen.

2007 should be quite an interesting year. :)

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Sony, Nintendo, iTunes, iPod, Analysis, Rumor

Muse live in San Francisco

Kevin and I rolled up to San Francisco tonight in order to catch one of our new most-favorite bands, Muse, kicking off their U.S. tour in San Francisco:

You can make out lead singer Matthew Bellamy projected on the big screen.

the quick summary - Muse was amazing. They played for about 90 minutes total, and the first third of that was one of the hardest rock shows that I have been too in awhile (and I have seen Tool quite a bit lately, so that is saying something). Muse, as a band, is a bit hard to pin down, and the concert certainly reflected that. They definitely slowed things down, and exhibited some songs that had some different beats.

I just like how the lense flare came out in this picture.

I have only memorized one Muse album, 2003's "Absolution", so most of the songs that I heard tonight were new to me. I'm guessing that most of them were off of their latest release, "Black Holes and Revelations" (which just came out on July 11th). After hearing what I heard tonight, I am definitely going to have to buy this album. However, some of the highlights for me were the songs that they played off of "Absolution", which included (in order): Time Is Running Out, Stockholm Syndrome, Hysteria, and Butterflies & Hurricanes. Those four songs were simply breath-taking live.

My wimpy camera phone caught a nice reflection from the lights.

The venue, the Concourse at the S.F. Design Center, was basically an open floor in a barn-shaped box. The ceiling wasn't very high, which meant that the stage couldn't be very high off of the ground. This, combined with a flat floor, and an abundant amount of tall people (where did the all come from?), made it pretty darn hard to see Muse (and poor Kevin certainly wasn't fairing any better). Other than that, the acoustics were fine, and Muse sounded fantastic. So, it wasn't a total loss.

This photo gives you a good sense of how the stage was laid out.

Like Tool, Muse had four video screens setup behind the stage, which projected various images during the show. Unlink Tool, these images were meant to stay in the background, and not be the entire focus of the live show. I really liked some of the images that Muse displayed -- a silhouette of horses galloping, waving lines, a rotating grid, etc. In addition, they also occasionally displayed live images of the band and the audience, sometimes distorted in real-time with effects.

All-in-all, Muse rocked my socks off, and provided one heck of a time. I really, really, really need to buy their new album now.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Muse

How United keeps its birds in the air

So, as boarding was winding down yesterday on my United Airlines flight from Chicago O'Hare to San Francisco International, one of the flight attendants noticed that one of the overhead bins would not close. Of course, this happened to be the bin where my bag was located, and so as they emptied it, I was forced to stuff my bag under the seat in front of me (which I hate doing, by the way. It is a good thing I was traveling light). But even with the bin empty, they couldn't take off with the bin door ajar (some sort of FAA regulation or something, I guess).

So, in short order, a United mechanic appeared, in order to "fix" the door before takeoff. His solution? Duct tape:

Duct Tape, holding the overhead bin door shut for our flight.

Truly, a mechanic after my own heart. I was gladdened to see that Duct Tape is so truly universal, that it also helps to keep 757-300's in the sky. :)

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Duct Tape, United Airlines

PZEV vs. SULEV

As my car search progresses, I have been spending a lot of time thinking about emissions, and what sorts of cars I can get that will lower the amount of pollution that I produce while driving. In California, the Air Resources Board has produced several different emissions certification levels, for which all new cars are tested against, and the appropriate labels are assigned.

The most rigorous emissions standard is called PZEV - short for "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle". But the only definition for PZEV that I could find, is somewhat confusing:

"A PZEV-rated vehicle is 90% cleaner than the average new car and also has near-zero evaporative emissions."

So, that sounds nice and all, but what the heck are "evaporative emissions"? My googling didn't produce anything of note, but luckily my dad turned up a PDF that did the trick. I really recommend reading that document - it not only explains what evaporative emissions are, but it also goes into some detail about all of the emissions that come out of a car's tailpipe.

I think that the main problem that I'm having is that all of the emissions standards up until now have been geared towards reducing smog. And while that is great and all, I'm on a mission to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases (i.e. CO2) that I put into the atmosphere. And unfortunately, the government really hasn't started targeting this yet, and so the only real solution available is to "burn less gas".

Which, of course, hybrid cars are supposedly pretty good at. While I was in Chicago, my dad and I went to a Toyota dealership, where they had 2 Camry hybrids and 3 Priuses on the lot (as compared with Toyota dealers in California, which don't ever appear to have these cars in stock). And while neither car impressed me enough that I absolutely had to buy on the spot, what was even worse was that I didn't really see super-awesome gas mileage on my short test drives. It seems that in order to see the true benefits of a hybrid car, you not only need to drive in traffic conditions that suit the vehicle (primarily city driving), but you also need to modify your driving behavior.

Ug. I thought I would just be able to buy a hybrid and be done, but it is actually going to take a lot of work to re-train myself to drive more efficiently.

So, I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I think I'm going to need to spend some time researching purchasing carbon credits next.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Global Warming, Cars, Toyota, Prius, Hybrid, PZEV

At the Taste of Chicago with Mark and Laura

On Monday, I journeyed into Chicago to hit up the Taste of Chicago with Mark and Laura. As it turned out, we bit off a bit more than we could chew with this idea, both figuratively, and literally:

Mark, about to chow one of those giant turkey legs in one gulp.

The day before the 4th of July is always the biggest day of the taste, and I heard that approximately 1.1 million people were at Grant Park that evening. When we first got there at around 6:30, the crowd was large, but manageable. When we left at 8:30, it was so crowded that we could barely move.

So, I really didn't mind leaving and watching the fireworks on TV instead.

Anyways, hanging out with Mark and Laura was fun, as always. They were super-nice to waste an entire evening of after-work time messing around in Chicago, and then driving me to the train station afterwards.

Thanks guys!

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Chicago, Taste of Chicago, 4th of July

The Nokia store in Chicago

After seeing Tut, I pulled my dad off to check out the new Nokia store on Michigan avenue:

All-in-all, I can't say that I walked away terribly impressed. While Nokia did have a nice array of phones on display to be pawed at, and the staff seemed knowledgeable, the whole experience wasn't as "sticky" as a trip to the Apple store. The main problem, as I see it, is that none of the phones that I saw on display were "on the network". So, that means that it was impossible to test things like the WAP browser, e-mailing photos to friends, etc. Basically, since mobile phones are meant to always be on the network, a good chunk of each phone's functionality was untestable.

Lame.

To contrast this with the Apple store, you can try out basically everything before you buy. All of the machine are on the Internet, and you can run any application you want. That is how you should run a store.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Chicago, Nokia

Tut

My folks were interested in checking out the King Tut exhibit at the Field Museum, so on Saturday the whole family trucked down to Chicago to see it. Apparently, tickets are fairly expensive (in the $22 range), and the exhibit is so popular, that your ticket only entitles you to see it for a certain period of time during the day.

The exhibit itself is pretty decent. The intricate artistry of the artifacts that were found in Tut's tomb is amazing. Some of the pieces rivaled what can be made today, and made it clear how the Egyptian civilization was an important milestone in humanity's evolution. The only real let-down was that Tut himself isn't actually a part of the exhibit. They have a life-size projection of the mummy's bones, but no mummy himself.

One odd thing - they are really pushing the audio tour (which we didn't have), which makes for a bit of a surreal experience. Mixed in with the ambient noise of the exhibit itself, are the muffled headphone noises of all of the other exhibit attendees. With their headphones on, it was almost like these attendees were little drones, immune to casual interactions with their fellow participants, absorbing the knowledge of Tut like a sponge.

And when we all finished, it was lucky that we could be re-united in the almighty gift shop. The tackiest thing that I saw was the King Tut kleenex dispenser:

Blow your nose with tissues from Tut's nose!

Yikes.

And I almost forgot, there was one really annoying thing - while touring the King Tut exhibit, all photography is prohibited. So, I don't have any pictures from inside of the exhibit, to remember the experience by. Totally lame.

-Andy.

Technorati Tags: Chicago, King Tut, Field Museum

4th of July wrap-up

Well, I'm back in California after my trip back to Chicago for the 4th of July holiday. My day today started at 5 AM central time, so by this point I'm pretty tired. Thus, I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures on my blog in order to recap my long weekend:

Scout's doing pretty good for an old guy.

All in all, things went well. United did okay with the flights, I didn't completely and utterly over-eat (although it was close), and I got to visit with a lot of people. Sara is trying to get me to go back next month for what might-could be Sleater-Kinney's last performance ever, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen.

-Andy.