Say hello to iPhone

I can't iPhone home! So, I'll consider a BlackBerry and iPod duo for the time being!

Obituary notice

This is a transcript of my mother's obituary notice, which I wrote, as it appears in today's edition of Express & Echo newspaper:

Hood, Margaret Neé Woodland

On Friday June 8th 2007 our leading lady, wife, mum and best friend died aged 65 at the RD&E Hospital, Wonford.

Loving wife to Robin, devoted mum to John, beloved sister to Sidney, Norman, Brenda and Allan, cherished sister-in-law to Kathleen, Marion, Alan and Julian, treasured Auntie to Alison, Andrew, Claire, Hazel and Hayley, greatly loved daughter-in-law to Cecil.

Special thanks to all the nursing and care staff at Mardon Neuro-Rehabilitation Centre, Mardon House, Wonford and Lucerne House Care Centre, Alphington.

The funeral service is to be held at Alphington Parish Church on Monday 9TH July at 1:00pm, followed by a private cremation service.

Flowers for Margaret and/or donations to Lucerne House Fund Raising, which enhances the quality of life, for the residents of Lucerne House, and provides access to the community for example trips to the National Trust’s Killerton House.

Donations may be given by retiring collection or cheques made payable to 'Lucerne House Fund Raising' and flowers may be sent C/o Co-op Funeralcare, 119 Cowick Street, St. Thomas, Exeter, EX4 1JD.

WiiWare

Nintendo's official press announcement regarding, its answer to Xbox Live, WiiWare!

NINTENDO'S WIIWARE PAVES THE WAY FOR FRESH GAMES, COOL CONSUMER EXPERIENCES

Nintendo Sets a New Paradigm: One Game Can Still Make a Difference

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 27, 2007 – The search for the next ingeniously ground-breaking video game has begun. At a private developers conference this week, Nintendo announced the introduction of WiiWare™, a game-creation service that will allow developers large and small to create new downloadable video game content for sale by Nintendo through the Wii Shop Channel of the hot Wii™ home video game system. WiiWare paves the way for smaller, more creative games to make their way to the public at lower prices, without any inventory risk to developers. The first WiiWare content will launch in early 2008.

"Independent developers armed with small budgets and big ideas will be able to get their original games into the marketplace to see if we can find the next smash hit," says Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime. "WiiWare brings new levels of creativity and value to the ever-growing population of Wii owners."

The possibilities for WiiWare are limited only by the imaginations of developers. WiiWare provides game creators a simple method by which they can get their games to the public. This approach, combined with the remarkable motion controls of the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™, will give birth to fresh takes on established genres, as well as original ideas that currently exist only in developers' minds. The reduced barriers to development provide developers the freedom to create and an inexpensive, clearly defined path to reach consumers who will ultimately determine which game will become the Next Big Thing.

WiiWare will be posted on the Wii Shop Channel. As with current Wii Shop Channel offerings, users will redeem Wii Points™ to download content. It will support a variety of pricing options. Details about that and upcoming projects will be announced at a later date. For more information about Wii, visit Wii.com.

That's it man, game over man, game over!

Avid gamers should read A gamer's look at Parallels 3 and its ability to play games for Windows when compared to Boot Camp's native OS support.

The conclusion is unsurprising given the inherent limitations of virtualization.

Dirty Pop

Tonight I noticed that the widely reported "speaker popping" issue, affecting Mac OS X 10.4.10, has blighted my Intel-based iMac too! Lets hope Apple quickly issues a patch!

Windows Experience

After installing Mac OS X 10.4.10 Combo Update (Intel), repairing permissions both before and after applying the iterative update. I rebooted into Windows Vista!

Last night I noticed the Windows Update icon had appeared on the taskbar! I double-clicked to see what updates were available, and it was an update for the Windows Live Messenger 8.5 beta.

The update was designed specifically to test Windows Live Messenger updates pushed through the Microsoft Update engine - which you can use within Windows Vista's Windows Update client off the Start Menu. Microsoft is putting great efforts to 'push' updates through Windows Update and Microsoft Update that add to the Windows user experience.

The update to Windows Live Messenger 8.5 offers no new functionality, or updates to the application itself, as it was designed simply to test the functionality of rolling out an update through Microsoft Update. I'd certainly love to see this functionality incorporated into Apple Software Update (part of Boot Camp), thereby eliminating the need to burn a CD replete with the latest drivers!

Time to download the Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (DX10 demo) and test Windows Explorer.

Das Boot

Have other Mac Users noticed any system sluggishness when booting back into Mac OS X 10.4 via Boot Camp? It takes repeated restarts to improve system responsiveness! This will doubtlessly be addressed in the final retail release (as part of Mac OS X 10.5).

Personally speaking, I prefer Boot Camp, to any existing third-party virtualization tools such as Parallels Desktop, despite lacking the option to run Windows Vista concurrently with Mac OS X! If SWsoft would like me to appraise Parallels Desktop, and post a review, please contact me.

Games for Windows

Having now settled into Windows Vista (using Boot Camp 1.3) sans WOW, I'm forewarned of Aero's influence on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard's translucent menubar (Apple's worst menubar decision since Mac OS X Public Beta)!

However, for the time being, I'm much more interested in Microsoft's Games for Windows marketing strategy and Windows Vista native support for Xbox 360 controller for Windows!

I've pre-ordered Lost Planet: Extreme Condition (PC) along with an Xbox 360 Crossfire - Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows and Xbox 360 wireless controller.

Reviews to follow.

Wii Stock

Nintendo fans rejoice! Wii (includes Wii Sports) are back in stock at Amazon.co.uk! Has the drought ended in time for Wimbledon?

Don't forget to pre-order Resident Evil 4 (Wii), reviews suggest that this entry, in Capcom's lauded franchise, is greatly enhanced by game engine retooling. The latest issue of games™ magazine, issue 58, features an excellent article - The Surviving Horror. This looks back at the roots of Resident Evil, its profound influence, and how next generation console technology may shape the future of the franchise. Make sure you own a Wii and a PS3 or Xbox 360!

Free DivX Pro limited offer

DivX Pro is available gratis, for a limited time, on both Mac and Windows. I wouldn't go without this codec and nor should you!