Tech

The Wii? Totally, totally worth it. I will say this straight up: if it’s top-of-the-line graphics and abilities you want, the Wii doesn’t cut the mustard. Its sole non-game feature that makes pretentions at being something more than a simple console is the internet access, and even that’s flaky and needlessly slow - for one, where did Nintendo manage to find a 802.11b only chip in 2008? Everything else is focused on the game, and in some ways, that’s what you want from a console, despite everything the Playstations and Xboxen are being sold for. ...

A brief interlude, in which I discuss something that has, frankly, blown my mind today. If you want to get a job in the finance world coming from IT, it would pay well to learn K, a programming language as concise as it is targeted at doing maths very damn well. To provide an example here, the following code: (!R)@&{&/x!/:2_!x}'!R is all that is necessary to list all the prime numbers between 1 and R, the argument to the function. Try doing that in your programming language of choice in even twice as many characters. From all I’ve heard, the interpreter is extremely fast as well ...

Smaller than I expected But slicker than I expected - the sheer speed/responsiveness of the interface beats the crap out of practically any phone, smart or otherwise, I’ve played with. Initial layout a little confusing. I expected the “main tasks” (Phone, Web, Mail, Music) at the top, instinctively. You would get used to it, yeah, but for at least 10 seconds I was searching the main block of icons for the “Music” section. Mobile Safari - could do better, though it’s a far better implementation than nearly any mobile browser I’ve seen yet. The keypad: ugh. ugh ugh ugh. A struggle, pure and simple, especially with my bigger fingers, and the lack of tactile feedback is an issue for speed too. “Autocorrect” saves going back and typing again though, and is pretty easy to use. “Go” button in browser keyboard stupidest idea evar because it’s so damn easy to accidentally brush. Music - wow, this has got to be the coolest part. The iPod is more intuitive, however, and in my (brief) experience the iPhone is less responsive. Text based search would be cool. Overall, as everyone has pretty much already said, a slick little device from Apple; it’s got its place though, and I think it’s pretty unlikely that I’d get (or have much use for) this first round effort.

Facebook came out this week with their real business plan - to leverage the network of people and the information they have on them to create an advertising behemoth. Using the ideas of viral marketing, combined with targeted advertising based on the interests and activities that many users list in their profiles, Facebook hopes to deliver an effective advertising platform that surpasses others simply because of the social power behind it. ...

Apple unleashed the new range of iPods overnight, including the iPhone-esque iPod touch. My take on the new range, especially the naming of the “classic” It looks like they got the headphone jack on the Touch right. No games on the Touch; probably pending update for touch & phone? Wifi iTunes store. Meh. US$200 price drop on the phone! Whoa. Brings it closer to a reasonable price here in Oz =) The price of phone functionality? US$99. That means phone, mobile internet, and bluetooth basically. Apple’s stock dropped 5% from the announcement - clearly, the markets aren’t enamoured of the new range. Has the iPod jumped the shark? Maybe, just maybe. ...