Moving Parts: A Droid's Life

Due to personal reasons, I've decided on a haiku review format! WALL-E (voiced by Star Wars sound designer Ben Burtt) is deserving of so much more!

PIXAR's artisans have, most literally, rendered their finest achievement worthy of demolishing any residual prejudices levelled against CGI - as a storytelling medium - forever; a silent story of dystopia and boundless hope!

WALL-E's heroic journey is a deft mix of light and darkness! The last of his kind, chillingly revealed in a silhouetted scrapheap graveyard, WALL-E's only companion, on an abandoned Earth, is a loyal cockroach! Then one, seemingly ordinary, day, a starship arrives, dispatching a probe droid called EVE!

In so many ways WALL-E completes a saga! PIXAR was owned by George Lucas and sold to Steve Jobs. With Ben Burtt's involvement this is further cemented and underscored by the insertion of the iconic Mac startup chime at a pivotal narrative juncture!

Mainstream cinema has regained its sense of wonder and it's called WALL-E!

The Big "Push" Tour

This afternoon I, along with many existing .Mac subscribers, received a surprise e-mail from Apple!

MobileMe Services Are Now Available.

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped.

Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running.

Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too.

We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks.

We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC.

Thank you,

The MobileMe Team

Wii Got Motion

The following statement is -- in its entirety -- Nintendo's announcement of MotionPlus for Wii:

"Nintendo's upcoming Wii MotionPlus accessory for the revolutionary Wii Remote controller again redefines game control, by more quickly and accurately reflecting motions in a 3-D space.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory attaches to the end of the Wii Remote and, combined with the accelerometer and the sensor bar, allows for more comprehensive tracking of a player's arm position and orientation, providing players with an unmatched level of precision and immersion. Every slight movement players make with their wrist or arm is rendered identically in real time on the screen, providing a true 1:1 response in their game play.

The Wii MotionPlus accessory reconfirms Nintendo's commitment to making games intuitive and accessible for everyone. Nintendo will reveal more details about the Wii MotionPlus accessory and other topics Tuesday morning at its E3 media briefing."

My Wii Code: 4054 9122 2571 1110

Apple Store + O2 + IE = FAIL!

It can't have escaped anyone's attention that today ushers in the new Apple iPhone 3G!

To insulate myself from indulging in an act of rampant consumerism (thereby reinforcing the status quo). I've kept clear of Apple Store Princesshay and the O2 Shop, Exeter! Not that there was any real cause for concern...

In a deliciously ironic twist (as noted by Twitter peeps @marceatsworld and @babblestorm), Apple Stores were unable to process activations due to O2's online shop only 'playing nice' with IE and, well, surprisingly the Apple Stores only use Macs and Safari! D'oh! How old school is that? We're living in a so-called platform-agnostic age people! Allegedly... Ask the developers behind Google Lively if you don't believe me (requires Windows XP or Vista)!

If you did succumb to the charms of a new iPhone, please post a comment and fuel the envy! I'm cutting this post short as MobileMe continues to FailMe!

Updated with added coolness!
Yesterday, in a most shocking development, my 'coolness' was cast into doubt! As a Mac-owning blogger that's unthinkable!

Danny Franks linked to this blog in his post Why I Refuse to Blog! Little did Danny know that my legion of peeps would alert me to this disturbance in the force!

I've always been a good sport and there's no such thing as bad publicity in my book! Therefore in the spirit of goodwill and Danny's subsequent genial e-mail. I'd like to sincerely wish Danny every success with his blogging (or not as the case may be)! I'll be keeping tabs. However, rest assured that blasters will be set to stun!

Special thanks to Google for ranking Generation Star Wars so highly in "Star Wars blog" searches!

Indy Poor

In May I announced an upcoming Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull tie-in with DK Books!

DK Books had re-approached me with the idea of a 'give-away' competition following our successful Star Wars and Transformers tie-ins from last summer. But, alas, the matter went no further and for that I apologise!

On the subject of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. As my Twitter (direct link to my profile) peeps forewarned me. The latest instalment in the Indiana Jones franchise was a pointless, overly-painterly, affair! Disillusionment made way for apathy, hence, this tardy cliffs notes review!

Clearly Steven Spielberg was running on autopilot and couldn't curtail George Lucas' propensity for excess! Dull... Vapid! Am I being too kind? Play the wonderful LEGO: Indiana Jones instead!

Look out for my WALL-E review in the coming weeks.

Did the 2.40 firmware update break your PS3?

Sony has pulled its latest 2.40 firmware update, heralding in-game XMB for the PS3, from its download servers!

Users are reporting that their machines 'hang' during boot or become unresponsive during game play! To date my 40GB and 60GB PS3 models are running smoothly with the 2.40 update! However, if you've experienced any serious issues with your PS3, after applying the update, please leave a comment.

Me.com address working for me

July starts with a software salvo for gadget geeks!

Following my weekend away in Colchester, Essex. I've returned home to news of the long-awaited PS3 XMB firmware update, Mac OS X 10.5.4 and a working @me.com address (as reported by MacRumors)!

After 8 years using an @mac.com address, and safe in the knowledge that e-mail directed to my @mac.com account will reach me, I've readily made the switch to Apple's upcoming MobileMe online proposition!

Do you intend to make the move to @me.com or are you happy with the way things are?