Category: Tech

NYCC Day One

October 11, 2012

We had an early start today, then hopped on a train for a mini-vacation in New York City. As we have the last several years, we’re going to the New York Comic Con!

Today is KLS’s birthday as well, so that makes this little trip even more special 🙂

The show runs Thursday through Saturday, and we’ve got 4-day passes. We got to the city a few hours before the doors opened which was fortuitous, since I had to visit the Australian consulate. With that out of the way, after stops at a few shops (I spent $70 on the new Monster Hunter Jsoanese art book at Kinokuniya!), we headed down to the convention center.

For some reason I had assumed the lines would be small on this first half-day of the con, but as you can see that was hardly the case.

As usual, sensory overload was what followed. Hundreds of exhibitors filling several halls across 3 levels of a gigantic convention center…

Movies and books and comics and games and clothes, toys, cars, food and art. Free stuff everywhere, and even more (do much more!) for sale!

And then, the cosplay:

The major highlight of today was seeing the next Monster Hunter games so prominently featured at Capcom’s booth. I lined up to play the 3DS version and it was awesome. The WiiU version was also playable and has beautiful graphics. I can’t wait for these to be released.

After about 3.5 hours we were ruined. Not only had it been a long day, but we were toting heavy bags full of purchases ($280 in total already!).

We’ve only got to see maybe a half of the total show so far, and even then need to revisit the booths we skimmed today. But now it’s time for bed 🙂

iPhone Panoramas

September 21, 2012

iOS6, the latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system is out. Amongst other changes comes the ability for iPhones to take panoramic photos. Here’s one I just took:

Click on it for a larger view. Not bad is it? Considering how easy the interface is to use, I’m very pleased with the implementation and the field of view. Note that the version uploaded here (not the preview above, the image you seen when clicked on) is actually one fourth the size of the original (which is 8000+ pixels wide and 6MB). I can’t upload the original file due to filesize limitations on the blog uploader.

Here’s a closeup showing the detail level:

I rescaled the above (the actual picture you see when clicked on, not the preview) to double size. You can see it’s a bit pixelated to be sure, but still quite good considering how tiny a fraction of the original panorama this snippet is.

I’m planning on using my phone as my sole camera during my upcoming Australian trip. I was a bit hesitant because I always liked the panorama mode on my camera. While the new iOS version lacks some of the functionality (you can’t change direction or limit angle for instance), it seems to do a very good job.

My New 3DSXL

September 9, 2012

A couple of weekends ago, I purchased this:

It’s the new, much larger model of the 3DS, called the 3DSXL. Nintendo announced this several months back, and since I thought the old 3DS screens were too small and loved my DSXL, I knew I was going to buy one.

So what’s new? Well it’s physically quite a bit bigger, with much larger (90% actually) screens, which are also brighter and (in the case of the top, 3D screen) have a better viewing angle. Physical changes to the hardware are all for the better, such as replacing old membrane style buttons (start, select, home) with actual buttons. The d-pad and analogue stick feel better as well. The larger size also makes the system much more comfortable to hold for me. The speakers are less powerful, which I think is a good thing since the sound tended to distort at high volumes on the old model.

As far as software changes or added functionality – there’s nothing! It’s the same old 3DS software, love it or hate it.

And on that last point… I’m still a bit on the fence. I love Nintendo games, and am happy to pay a tax to play them (ie. buying Nintendo systems), but I truly think the writing is on the wall with respect to dedicated portable handhelds. The 3DS is a nice unit and has some good games on it so far, but I truly question it’s future in the age of iPads and smartphones.

But as long as I have the 3DS I’ll love it and keep playing it. There’s a lot of good games on the horizon, including a new Smash Brothers, a new Mario RPG, a sequel to Luigi’s Mansion (a very underrated Gamecube game) and – most of all – a new Animal Crossing. I’m looking forward to playing all of them in XL style 🙂

Robot Claw