Matt Hackmann

MattHackmann

The thoughts and goings-on of some programmer dad.

iPadly Thing

As I sit here, hogging my little brother's bed, typing out a blog post on my own personal PADD, I realize that I do not really know what it is that I want to say. So, I shall talk about the device itself and my opinions on it seeing as I've now owned the thing going on a week.

The Hardware

There is no doubting that the iPad hardware is top quality. It is sleek and has a good, solid feel to it. The screen is bright and crisp, though it does come withe usual glare problems you will get from having a glossy screen (not to mention the fingerprints... Oh, god the fingerprints!) My only real complaint about the hardware is it's lone, mono speaker. It doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't have e crispness you get from two discrete aud channels.

Software

iOS is much nicer and easier to use on a lager screen, but in the end it is still iOS. I will list off a few apps I've found that I feel warrant some attention (food or ill):

Flipboard: This is a feed reader of sorts (it will pull feeds from twitter, Facebook, google reader, etc.), but presents stories in a very newspaper-esque way. It is very clean and sexy to look at and for the price is free, probably the best iPad app I've gotten.

Crunchyroll: It's to anime what Netflix instant watch is to movies. The iPhone app is good, do nit get me wrong, but it works so much bett with the exta screen real estate. Watching stuff from the comfort of my bed on the large screen is quite joyous.

Seaglass: This is a rather sad attempt at a Tetris Attack clone. They've so many on the game physics messed up that it pisses me off. Yu can tell that only mild effort was put into this game and yet I paid a buck for it. Know this, Seaglass creators, you are now my enemy and my competitor. Enjoy your sit ion while you can!

So that's all I have. I am thoroughly enjoying this thing (especially on my home visit as I do not have to drag around the laptop) and it was totally worth the money.

I has a PhD in forgetfulology

My dear sweet mother has a blog entitled "Oh, Crap" where she documents all of life's little FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU moments. Well, perfect being that I am, I experienced a couple of these recently.

Firstly, when I was making a certain video, there is a shot that was taken from inside my refrigerator. Some items needed to be shuffled to make this happen and when I groggily stupored out of my room the next morning, I was greeted by a warm gallon of milk sitting out on my counter. Goddammmit!

Stupid moment number two came not twenty-four hours later. That night I stopped the washer so that I could take my shower. The next morning, knowing that I had washed laundry the night before, I was about to transfer the clothes in the washer to the dryer only to be greeted by a washer full of water. SHIT!

Jetzt mit noch mehr deutsche

Some time ago I ran across a Spanish fandub of my Phoenix Awesome. Well, this time some of my own people have dubbed it in German and I must say, they have done an absolutely magnificent job. They added some extra polish that the original was lacking and I absolutely love it! So, here it is:

youtube video

Could the naming department please step forward?

All the major game dev pressers have come and gone leaving myself with with feelings of excitement and mild depression over failed predictions (more in a second). I'll go through my thoughts for each presser in the order they happened.

Microsoft

I honestly didn't pay too much attention to this conference as I knew it'd be mostly Gears 3 and Kinect stuff. However, I am excited for the Halo CE remake as I've lost the key for my PC copy and hadn't yet finished the campaign. My only hope is that Blood Gulch is one of the maps they bring over because most all of my fond memories of Halo are in that boxed canyon. Also, Halo 4 could be cool.

Sony

I'm an anti-Sony fanboy and yet I watched the whole damn presser. I had a hunch that they'd open with a canned apology and I was right on that. The only thing I really have to say is that I'm very, very surprised that the PS Vita is launching at the price point it is. I'd expected something in the $300-$400 range. Nintendo is really going to have to step it up with the DS if they want to maintain their market dominance.

Nintendo

The showing I was most eagerly awaiting and the only one I put any predictions on. I was right on the Skyward Sword and all the 3DS stuff (including the Smash Bros announce), but dead wrong on the thing I was most adamant about: that touch screen controller. I'll admit I'm not sold, but I wasn't sold on the dual screen of the DS either and that turned out awesome. I am ecstatic happy that the graphics have gotten the severe bump that they've been needing and that's all I honestly hoped for. In the 3DS realm, the Mario game may very well be a system seller for me, but we shall see.

I'm hesitant to place a "winner" label on anybody from an objective stand point. It's most definitely between Sony and Nintendo as Microsoft had yet another shitty showing (granted, no Skittles the tiger this year). Time will tell though.

P.S. Wii U? Seriously? You couldn't name it something like Ultra Nintendo Entertainment System or something?