The Return…
I wish it were more epic. After being in some stage of undeath for nearly two weeks, Colin finally cleared up enough to record. So we took a week off. Eh, our loyal subjects will forgive us… hello? Loyal subjects?
Eh, at any rate, in this week’s episode we are once again joined by our good friend and BostonGeek Maestro Karl Kornfeld. The three of us discuss the iPhone, three-breasted hookers in a future nuclear wasteland (sooner than we thought), and Holiday console numbers. We dip our toes in the depth that is Apple and their new brand, and on Boston in Brief we talk (rant) about violent videogame legislation being authored right here in Massachussetts by everyone’s most loathed ass-pony turdsucker, Jack B. Thompson.
Any comments or suggestions?
Email: colin@bostongeek.com, carl@bostongeek.com
Skype: bostongeek
Voice: 1.617.209.4200
All music composed and recorded by Karl Kornfeld.
Links for KªRL’s shameless plugs at teh end:
http://www.jpanimalclinic.com
http://musicgeekblog.net
I couldn’t give two shits about the numbers for this Christmas. It grossly inaccurate to compare the numbers between the 3 systems this year. Anyone who bases his claim about console success and about system returns based on current reports has his head up his ass. The PS3 has huge mistakes, I wholly grant that. I’m sure by next Christmas that the numbers will be the same. Blu Ray is going to crash hard I’m sure and HD DVD will win out. Fine by me.
I’ll give it until the end of next year until Sony folds and rips the BluRay from the PS3 and rebuild it as the PS3.5 or some shit.
Waah waah waah, comparing systems that were launched at different times is confusing. Waah waah waah.
(note: i’ve not actually listened to this episode yet)
The fact that the systems had different launch dates doesn’t mean you can’t talk about their relative successes, Rem. Demand for the PS3 has been way below what Sony was expecting, even given the high price and initial bad press. Shit, it’s been below what _I_ was expecting, and I had a fucking low opinion of the thing from pretty much day one. And demand for the Wii is way, _way_ higher than I think anyone could have reasonably expected. These are both facts, regardless of how well the 360 sold.
re: iPhone
* non-expandable memory is really, really fucking stupid. shit, even _sony_ gets this right with their walkman/camera phones.
* Jobs did say it was OSX, not unreasonable to think that they ported it to an arm processor.
* not letting people load their own apps on the phone is fucking crazy. absolutely, batshit crazy. your cheap, shitty free-with-contract phone lets you load symbian/j2me on it. and business users, who might otherwise consider using this instead of a treo/blackberry, are screwed if they can’t load office stuff on it.
* also, coming out today: not actually real widescreen. it’s 1.5:1 ratio, which falls somewhere between the 4:3 standard tv and 16:9 widescreeen tv.
Finally getting to the console numbers now.
Remember, the console that shipped the most in December was actually the PS2.
Also, links?
Numbers, btw, can be found here.
This was one of the sources for my whole “iPhone not running OS X”…
http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/07/01/13/1746234.shtml?tid=179
And I didn;t say the systems were returned because they were broken or anything. I said they were returned because no one wanted them.
A new survey shows roughly 54% of a sampling of stores currently have PS3s in stock. without any new shipments in the past week and a half or so.
Wiis, by contrast, are nowhere to be found.
Well, if Slashdot sez it’s not really OSX, who am I to argue?
Oh, wait, a person with a brain. Right.
Actually, if you read past the initial posting, the commentariat over there pretty much tears this guy’s argument to pieces.
Also, sounds like there are actually some Wiis around.
No one wanted to pay the insane prices that were being asked for on eBay. You can’t count returns of people planning to sell them on eBay since they probably had no interest in the system to begin with other than selling it.
Listen, I know the PS3 is not going to win this generation of consoles. I’m just hoping Sony wakes the fuck up and redesigns the console for a new launch at the end of the year with no BluRay in it. They probably won’t, but if anyone at Sony had their head out of their ass they would.
The problem with redesigning one with no BluRay in it at this point, is that they have already shipped games on BluRay media. So, you would be releasing a console that cannot play the games that have already shipped on BluRay media.
And, of course, you have the issue of ego. Sony is not ready to give up on BluRay and concede the media war to Toshiba and HD-DVD. Thus, they will stick with BluRay, which means keeping it in the PS3. The cost of manufacturing the BluRay drive will hopefully come down quickly as such will the cost of the console.
But, BluRay is hardly the only problem with it. That being said, I don’t think there are problems that can’t be remedied over time. And, hopefully the problems will be remedies, as a 3 horse console race is probably better for consumers.
Dude, of course you can count ebay-didn’t-want-it returns, since those are some of the consoles sitting on shelves waiting for people to love them. If there was enough demand for the things, they would have either sold on ebay, or once they were returned.
I think the really scary thing for Sony has to be the rumors of the xbox 360 v.2 I’ve been seeing. Integrated hd-dvd, bigger hard drive, hdmi output. If they can put that out in time for next xmas, and price it between the current 360 and the ps3, Sony be fucked.
Definately, which is why I’m praying someone at Sony will wake the fuck up and rebuild the PS3 without a BluRay. As for games shipped on BluRay, they will either have to say too bad or rerelease them on the different medium.
Of course none of this will happen, but one can hope.
I’m almost convinced to get an HD-DVD drive. Drivers are out to get it to work nice nice with XP. And fortunately, the 120-gig HD will be sold separately for those of us feeling the 20-gig pinch.
Or, I could open the case and replace my current 20 with a new one, but I haven;t gotten up the wherewithal to download all the tools to migrate the filesystem.
I can’t remember where the article was, but apparently the hddvd playback with the external drive is apparently the most taxing thing a 360 can do, since it’s a pure software player. Supposedly zephyr fixes this problem.
By the way Carl, the porn industry has picked HD-DVD as their format of choice, so BluRay will undoubtly fail.
I indicated that in the podcast. I know BluRay will fail. Porn says so.
All hail porn, oracle of industry.
I just wish I had an HD-DVD player to watch the 2 disc set I have at home for a “Pirates”
Is that… ‘Butt-Pirates 2: Hoist the Mainsail’?
I’ve been watching a little too much Mind of Mencia… he did a whole Pirates parody…
Seriously, it is actually called “Pirates”. It was the most awarded adult film of 2005.
And an R-rated version is available in your local Blockbuster. I nearly wet myself when I saw the box in the store a couple months back. Took a look at the back and sure enough…edited version for mainstream sale. Crazy.
i recently got a pellet stove and it is great. Keeps my house very warm. If I wanted to keep my house this warm with oil it would cost a fortune.