5 "Polite" Suggestions for the Chromebook

It's been a couple weeks and change since my previous article on my Chromebook, and after rereading what I posted, I feel as if I was too harsh. I've gotten more used to the little guy and now I'm proud to say that, despite issues (which all gadgets suffer from in some way), I think the Chromebook is an awesome invention with devastating potential. Most of it's failings can be easily ignored, because it makes up for it with it's innovative strengths. So here are some of the ideas I came up with to improve the experience. I don't know no technical jibber-jabber, so I have no idea if these are even feasible ideas, but there's nothing here too fantastic, and hopefully the men and women of Google are already hard at work implementing these basic ideas.

1. Let the Chromebook run Android Apps

If this topic were a horse, it would be dead and I'd be beating it, but whatever. It's still the most sensible and desperately needed upgrade that could fling the Chromebook quite easily into super-stardom.

Android OS has consistently proven itself through mainly one saving grace, the Google Play Store. With the vast sea of Apps at your disposal, any limitations of the hardware can generally be overcome. Chromebook should be able to rock some sweet Play Store apps. Chrome OS and Android OS are comparable in scope, 2 GB of Ram is more than enough to run your average Android app and a 16 GB hard drive can be stuffed to the gills with all the smartphone classics. Some time ago I owned a BlackBerry Playbook tablet which featured an Android Player, allowing it to utilize selected Android apps. It's the same principle with the CB. There will no doubt be complications with touch-screen involved, but anything that can be done with a finger can be done with a mouse cursor, more or less.

2. More Touchpad Gestures

Dolphin Browser (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The touchpad is really starting to grow on me, it's becoming eerily comfortable. The problem is it doesn't really go beyond scroll and context menu (unless you wanna gamble with those flag things). I want to see all important functions for browsing be elegant scribble-gestures on the touch pad (like a figure skater on the ice). Split the fingers to X out a page, slide them together again to open a new tab, glide them in an up and down direction at once and you open an incognito page or whatever. It's all a delicate dance. This seems to me to be a task less suited for a simple touchpad and better for a full 10-finger capacities touchscreen that's being used as a touchpad. Cause that would be awesome, like having Dolphin Browser-style gestures. Think about it...

3. More Native Apps

It's time to bust this myth that we shouldn't have any native software on Chrome OS, it's backward forward-thinking. Just because Chrome OS began as an internet browser doesn't mean it has to be JUST an internet browser anymore. It's an OS now, it needs to act like it. Chrome OS needs some better native applications to access data stored on the computer and use it. The video player wonks, the music player wonks, the "Files" app is mediocre. Since I finally got Google Drive to work Offline, document editing has been great, but still, Scratchpad wonks, and now that I have GDocs offline, it serves no function whatsoever. I can also list a bunch of functions I would rather do natively than in browser window. Give us a real media player, with playlists and libraries, no more searching through Files, give us a real interface to play with our stuff.

Google Chrome OS on VMWare (Photo credit: berrytokyo)

If 'El Goog' is dead set on us going straight to the cloud and nowhere else, the very least they could do is give us some richer web apps, ones that can go offline and interact with data and files on the SSD. Google Play Music on Android plays MP3s that are natively stored, why couldn't they do the same for the Chromebook?

4. More Free Stuff

The 100 GB of Google Drive space was an amazing sweetener for the new Chromebooks, an offer that was well worth it for choosing a Chromebook as your next mobile computer. Not to mention the ballin' 1 TB for Chromebook Pixel users. Why not do more stuff like that? I mean Google has their entire cloud-service empire at it's disposal, surely it could spare a good deal or two. Why not gives us some credit to buy music or a couple of movie rentals on the Play Store? Why not cross promote and give us some tokens for buying apps for Android? How about just a rebate, sent right into our brand new (mandatory) Google Wallet accounts? This could actually up the competitiveness against Windows and Mac, because they don't give you crap (who else hates only getting the trial version of Office). The Chromebook remains most attractive because it's a cloud surfer designed to command Google's pre-existing internet menagerie anyway, so why not use exclusive deals from said menagerie to hock more Chromebooks. Everybody wins!

5. Do something with the Desktop

I realize this is a petty complaint, but bear with me. It serves literally no purpose. The only option when you click up the context menu is to 'change wallpaper'. It exists solely to exist, it seems, and that's fine for a lot of things but not in an OS, no sir. The shame is there is so much you could do with it. Take Android's cue here and fill it with apps and widgets (yes, Chrome Widgets!), make us want to go back to the desktop from time to time. However, make sure it looks like Chrome and not Android. Clean and simplified, like a kitted-up version of the New Tab screen in desktop Chrome.

Jet Set Radio skating onto Android 'this summer'

Jet Set Radio skating onto Android 'this summer'

One of my unquestioned favorites, looking forward to this download. JSR will also come to Xbox and PS3 via the online stores.

Who wants a 5 inch Ice Cream Sandwich?

AT&T to roll out Android 4.0 update for Samsung Galaxy Note on July 10th Wish I had one... The 'awesomest' update? S-Note gets hand-writing to text function. Things are looking up, kid...

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II Comes to Android

What an unexpected delight!

Listen up all you Sons of Sega, you Genesis Generation, you Dreamcasters, you People of the Blast Processor. Treading in the wake of Mega Man comes this retro futuristic gem from the ole blue blur, Sonic the Mutha-F***in' Hedgehog, always down but never out.

Sonic 4 is actually out for several platforms: Xbox Live, Playstation Network, soon it will be on the various iThings. On the Android side, it's currently only availible for Nvidia Tegra 3 powerhouses, but will become "omniandroidal" soon.

I think this the route that the ailing Sonic franchise needs to take, a return to it's original style. Not everything is meant for three demensions.

$6.99 is a small price to pay for potentially epic nostolgia.

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 Episode II Comes to Android

What is Google Play? Unrelated: what happened to my Android Market app?

The Android Market, Google's bargain bin of awesome, is no more. Raising from the depths comes the enigmatic and slightly perplexing Google Play Store. What's changed? Pretty much just the name. Long live the Google Play Store!

There's more to it than that of course. The whole Play thing is a huge re-branding of Google apps and services under one heading (cause just Google isn't enough) and according to my secret source (the Internet, shhh) it's integrating it's various digital distribution platforms into one convenient system. Ergo and such, you've no doubt noticed some of your "favorite" Google apps receiving new names. The new family includes; Play Music, Play Movies, and Play Books (please keep in mind that some of these services are only available to rich white boy countries, no offence intended to white boys who aren't rich OR to Asian countries who are included in this category) Here's a simple equation I created to clear up this unification, I call it the "Playthagorian" Theorum (get it, lol);

Android Market times the sum of Google Movies plus Google Music plus Google Books equals Google Play divided by the sum of Play Music times Play Books times Play Movies x Android Apps. Thanks 8th Grade Algebra!

What's REALLY new to Play? Well, how about daily deals on apps and music and stuff, much like the Amazon Marketplace with it's free paid app a day idea. Also, remember that new privacy policy they harassed us for so long about reading, because of that, apparently they're also able to hock their ads more effectively. For example, ebook purchases will now effect the ads you see in Play Movies (cause now that you've read the book you need to be disappointed by the movie), which effects the ads in Play Music (cause the movie sucked but the soundtrack was tight), and so forth and etc.

With this fellowship of the ring forged, and Google Wallet acting as Frodo, Google is poising to march to Mount Jobs and... I think my analogy can end there. They're going to be able to directly compete with iTunes for control of the digital media sales market, because while the Play Store looks just like the Market, it's focus is shifting from browsing and buying on your Android phone, to more of a one-stop Google department store you visit on your daily desktop/laptop surfing and pushing the content right to your device. If you have ever used the Market's website to download an app before, you know that it's quite convenient. You browse for your choice in a nice big desktop window, you connect your smartphone to your account, and when you purchase your app, your phone beeps, and you find out it downloaded itself onto your SD card before the "Thank you for shopping..." page even loaded in your browser. Now that's convenience! Now Google want's that ease of distribution for all it's other impulse purchase websites for that obvious, but never mentioned, reason anybody does anything with a computer or the internet, compete with Apple. The Market has always done great, but the three media apps have been struggling since their creation. Sewing them all together and creating a media Frankenstein seems as good a way as any to rebuild interesting, and one brand name helps. However, one does not simply compete with Apple...



Check out this YouTube video from the new The Google Gamer Blog: Official YouTube Playlist for a brief overview;

What effect does this have on the gaming? Nothing I can tell. Games are still treated the same as apps except for the usual categorization difference within the shop, and on your phone they're still just tossed in there with your other apps. It's a travesty that music, movies, and books get individual representation, but games are left to blend in to the background. How great would a Play Games app be, organizing all your grinding and button-mashing and DPSing into one convenient interface that could share to G+ or something. The name even makes sense, as opposed to Play Books, that just sounds like a bad Spanglish translation.

It seems a shame to toss out the iconic Android name for a somewhat meaningless white-washed title like Play. One does wonder if Google is tossing out the old school Android moniker for a slightly more efficient clone that bears the Google logo instead. Than again, if it makes things easier for the customer than who cares. It's also possible we could see the Chrome Web Store eventually march under this banner if Google really wants to integrate everything they could possible sell or paste an ad bar to. They sure have been into that lately.

Check the links for more info and better spelling (though significantly less wit and charm) and tell me what you think of the new Play family. Peace.

English:::
"One company, one store: Why Google axed Android Market for Google Play" from Digital Trends
"The Android Market is now Google Play" from Phandroid

Spanish:::
"¿A dónde fue el Android Market?" desde Esmandau.com
"Google unifica su oferta de aplicaciones y contenido"desde ArteOrebe.com

Chrome Game Review: Kingdom Rush

This may not be the best way to start a review on a Tower Defense game, but I freakin' hate Tower Defense games. I put TDs in a category called "not real" games, in that sort of snobbish, elitist disdain that a film buff might have for your average Action flick. They're casual, the bastards of social games, not the grandiose epics we Hardcore Gamers crave. They're pretty much the same mechanic copy/pasted to every game, with the sprites changing to fit the setting, but no real attempt to be unique or innovative is made. They're the kind of cheaply made game that clogs Androids and iPhones so developers can make a quick couple of cents off the ads. Also, let's not forget that this whole scheme is nearly a decade old, I remember playing lame-ass TDs on Newgrounds and JibJab, and not alot has changed.

Yet as I am typing this I am willed with an awe-inspiring feeling of befuddlement, because I love Kingdom Rush for the very fact that is counters every gripe I listed above with a new, fresh, innovative take on the classic scheme, while at the same time being a quintessential example of a Tower Defense game. I generally like to be befuddled, it's a good feeling, especially when it's about a game I can properly obsess about.

Facts:

This game comes to us by way of the Chrome Web Store, however, it's hosted in like a billion difference places across the web. In fact, the app actually takes you to another flash games site, which is just pointless in my opinion, this app is a glorified bookmark. This is what bugs me about Chrome Apps, most are just straight rips from the website, I was hoping we'd actually get some APPS, you know, mini-programs that can give you an improved experience over the website. Oh well, it's got the potential and I'm patient.

Kingdom Rush comes to us courtesy of Ironhide Game Studio. Let's get critical!

Gameplay:

The bedrock of every game, the bones, the bricks and morter, the roots, the firmament, etc. The great question that defines our medium, does this game play? Very much, sir.

If you've ever played a Tower Defense game, you know the drill. There's a winding path across the screen where various baddies will shlep on threw. If they get to the end, they sack your tower, steal your gold, fondle your wife and daughters, etc. You lose. Your job is to build defenses all along that path and kill those blasted invaders before they get to your goodies. To build more towers to defend, you need to kill dudes and collect gold or it's equivalent to buy them, creating the unique balance of gameplay. This method has been the tried and true mechanic for TDs with little diversion.

Kingdom Rush, however, goes way way beyond that. In KR, you have multiple types of towers to build that  offer different benefits against specific bad guys. Simple right, it's like a matching game.  Well as they start introducing more bad guys, you find that one tower may not be enough for a certain type of monster, you may need one to break it's defense and another to kill it. Than, you start seeing enimes giving power buffs to others and the game changes again. KR really shines in that every tower placed on stage has to be carefully chosen; you need soldiers to create chock points, you need archers and magic to take out flyers, you need armor breakers to gang up on heavies, etc. With all this RTSing, especially in those moments when hordes of heavies stomping towards to, it creates a frantic rush (get it) to put up a defence. No worries, though, you're main job will be to upgrade your defense, and there are a lot of upgrades to make to your towers, including divergent tech trees in the ultimate upgrades. There a plenty of moments where the entire battle hinged on choosing the right upgrade at the right moment, unleashing a powerful attack to exploit a weakness.

In my opinion, this game is both simple enough to get your balance quick, but complex enough to have to constantly sharpen your tactics to handle the massive, massive plethora of bad dudes. Not to mention the Boss fights, nuts, simply nuts. I had a lot of fun

Art:

This game looks good, just plain good. The sprites are that good old medieval style, with a distinctive chibi/cartoon style. Though simple, they are still intricate enough to have a wide array of movements, actions, gestures, etc. I don't know how they knew with would work, but there was never a moment I lost sight of a big guy, never a moment that I was confused between my troops and theirs, and even when the screen was literal covered in bad dudes, I could still maintain control of what was going on and what threat I had to deal with next. This is a well drawn game.

Story:

Beleive it or not, the story telling wasn't bad, and here's why, they didn't do anything stupid. It's a simple tail of a kingdom getting attacked by an evil menace. All the various units were standard fantasy fare, so you didn't need to ask too many questions.

It remined me a lot Warcraft 2's story telling, remember that? A simple, elequently written page of text about the dire straights you're in and what must be done. KR apes this well so that every stage was a plot point in the overall arc. Also like Warcraft 2, it provides a map as a context for what you're fighting for, a nice tough. It's a minor part of the game, but I'm glad to Ironhide put some effort into it anyway, because that's what turns a good game into a great game.

I'm not going to give this a number or a letter or thumb in a particular direction because that's stupid, I'm not into rating games, I prefer to praise them or slam them in my own words, because there's really now adequate system for judging the value of a piece of creative work. I liked this game alot, I started playing it at 6 at night and then looked up later to find it was 6 in the morning. There's your number, I gave it 12 hours of my life. Download it, it's lotsa fun. Peace.

BlackBerry PlayBook gets Android Apps, Owners Step Back from Ledges

So if you're one of the 16 people who bought a BlackBerry Playbook, you've been eagerly and patiently waiting for a savior in the form of "The Update", BB's much needed software gear-up to BlackBerry Tablet OS 2.0 (stupid name) that is giving us access (limited access) to Android Market, letting Android app developers hock their wares to the BlackBerry faithful (but only if they feel like it). If you are one of the rest of humanity who didn't get a BBPB, than please try not to laugh at our "update" that gave us things you got like 3 years ago and still left us like 2 years worth of catching up.

One of the main problems that stunted the PlayBooks was that BlackBerry App World is barren for apps. Seriously, it was embarrassing, there were maybe 40 apps in that stupid market, and adding insult to injury, they were terrible! Like made by children, and only some were of actual use to people (no freaking email client), while most were those lame pointless goofy apps that no one downloads or, god forbid, spends money on. It's a shame too, cause this little tablet is a freaking powerhouse, video looks amazing, HD games look amazing, it's fast, it's smooth. It's like a gifted child who was neglected and uses it's incredible, unfocused talent to hustle tourists (like Good Will Hunting, the PlayBook is the Matt Damon of tablets).

I could go on and on about how this tablet is gimpy and primitive and tethered and under-developed and a late bloomer and a bunch of other anthropomorphic rhetoric, but it's a happy day, the PlayBook's finally going to school, and with a little luck, it will one day grow up to be a mediocre Android tablet. The interface is well done, no crap adapting the Android and BlackBerry Tablet OS control schemes. In fact, I think it might be an improvement to both OSs. You get the simple grace of BBTOS and the graceful simplicity of Android. Good stuff. A few gems are popping up too. For example, Dolphin Browser has been ported over, which is my browser of choice on my Galaxy S. Before, there were no alternative browsers, just BlackBerry's generic web surfer, which was unfortunate because with so few useful apps you spent most of your time using bookmarks anyway. What's great on the PlayBook is Dolphin's gesture controls, which are a welcome contrast to BB Browser's super tiny buttons you have to Five-Finger Exploding Heart technique to get it to register (honestly the Tab close buttons DO NOT need to be that small). Picasa has also got an app, they had one before but you had to pay, and I would say "LOL screw you" to that BB developer, but like most BB developers he's already been screwed by BB (burn!).

Of course, this is RIM, a company that prides itself on having delusions of grandeur, so it's not smooth sailing yet. The Android apps trickle in slowly with no indications that they are any different from the BB apps, so you can't instantly tell the difference between a brand new QNX butt-nugget or an awesome kid-tested, mother-approved Android classic. Also, most apps seem to just be straight rips of phone apps, looking a little fugly on a tablet (but that might just be how it is, cause making apps for proper Android Tablets was never that big, shame too, so much wasted space in these apps). They also feel a bit rickety, like they'll force close at any moment.

All in all, this is a good step for the beleaguered RIM, as soon as they realize it's not 2003 anymore and BlackBerry is no longer the titan of free enterprise communication, the sooner they can stop beating up Chinese flight attendants and get back on track to making tight, gourmet electronics. Virtually everything the BlackBerry brought us years ago can be done now by any other smartphone, and usually faster, better made, cheaper, and open not just BlackBerry users. No one's impressed with your private email server anymore, guys, and BlackBerry Messenger is no longer seen as impressive new form of instant communication, so slick that both Presidents and terrorists a like were using it to plan bombings, but now BBM's a restrictive, out-dated form of communication that every freaking tablet/smartphone can do better and for FREE! If you don't shape up RIM, you're gonna have a breakdown and wind up making feature phones in Indonesia (which considering how big Indonesia is and how popular BB is there might not be the worst outcome)

There I go again. All I want to say is, there are still moves for BlackBerry and it's PlayBook to make. The update was much needed and looks pretty good. Let's see what else you got, you crazy canucks. Of course we'll give you a second chance, you're BlackBerry.

LaseRtRon has been PWND

Little bit of an issue folks.

My computer, though a pillar of the internet community, is showing it's considerable wear recently. It's to be expected, it's been through a lot, now my charger has stopped working, and combined with my battery problems, my good friend is on his death bed. It may be time for the great one to leave the game.

Oh, well, eso paso...

So the blog is gonna get a bit of a breather. In the mean time, chew on this link.

Sony Tablet S Review: A Tablet That Goes Beyond Basics

I'm thinking of getting a Sony Tablet S (Product Site) to replace my computer (whose name is LaseRtRon by the way). There's a good deal at Sam's Club. Reviews make it seem solid, but if you think differently let me in the comments. I know that a Sony product can sometimes be a gamble.

One of the deciding reasons I'm looking at the Sony Tablet S is the fact that it's PlayStation Certified, currently the only tablet to be such. This ubiquitous distinction means it has the privilege of wielding the mighty PlayStation Suite on Android, an app in which you can download and play PlayStation Uno games! I would freakin' love to rock me some Final Fantasy 7 or Soul Reaver on a tablet. However, the suite is a little barren right now, observe the Wikipedia article below.

List of PlayStation Suite Games on Wikipedia

That's chump change, man, small potatoes. Although, it might be cool to play Wild Arms again, I never did finish it. I'm sure they'll add more. Considering how much people spend for nostalgia on the Nintendo Virtual Console you know they would be selling kidneys to get classics like Fear Effect or Bushido Blade, or at least I would, I've got another.

I also really like the Sony Tablet P cause it looks like a big Nintendo DS. It's a design that has made the DS super versatile while being super portable as well. Sony has, at the very least, shown it's still really great at making sexy, black bricks. 

Be back real soon. Peace.

Google Gamer +1

Google Gamer Go!

There is a world of gaming out there, a lifestyle if you will, that is easily ignored and readily dismissed. However, I assert that the internet giant known as Google can provide enough of a gaming experience to satisfy not only our urge to game, but our calling to be a gamer...

Join me as I examine what it is to be a GG, or a "Google Gamer".

There are three main mediums for enjoying Google's assortment of video games. The Android operating system on many smart phones is the most well known. From the Android Market you can gain access to some really high quality games, like those provided by our brothers at GameLoft, as well as the classic time-wasters, like Angry Birds and Words with Friends.

Next is the Chrome Web Store, available to anyone with the Google Chrome web browser installed on their computer (which honestly should be everybody). The CWS has plenty of games that get far more indepth than the ones on Android. It's the classic console vs. handheld distinction.

Lastly is Google+ Games, the social gaming app of the social networking website Google+. It's your basic Facebook-style gaming section, which just fine for a little casual gaming. I'm all about G+ these days, +1ing like it ain't no thang. Join me on G+ at my profile and get my take on the fledgling hangout.

And the best part is, most of these games are free as the breeze, always a plus for a thrift hound (or should I say, plus one?).

I'll get more in depth in the future, until then, may your quests be epic and your grinds be fruitful.

- Julian H.