I’ve been testing the Windows 7 beta on my home computer for a couple of weeks now, and right away I have to say I’m very impressed. Having skipped Windows Vista as my primary operating system, the jump from XP to 7 is pretty significant. It’s very obvious that Microsoft has put a lot of thought into how their new operating system should function, but I wouldn’t call it perfect yet. There are still some inconsistencies in the user interface that have been been in use since the early days of Windows, while some other bugs are simply unexplainable. But this is a beta after all, which means anything I talk about here could change at any time. Read more »

If you’re like me and spend a lot of time at a computer during the day, then you probably know the importance of keyboard shortcuts. Rather than looking for a command in a menu somewhere, shortcuts allow the user to instantly perform that command with a quick key combination instead. In this post I wanted to share all of the shortcuts I could think of relating to text entry on a computer, whether it be a long document, a short e-mail, or even programming code. What sets this apart from most other shortcuts is that they are (nearly) universal no matter what program you have open; anywhere you can type in text, these shortcuts will work. The more of these you memorize, the faster and more efficient you will be when typing. Read more »

It’s been about two weeks since my family spontaneously had me pick out a new cell phone on Black Friday; apparently there was a sale just too good to pass up. My old phone, the Motorola RAZR V3, has been in my possession for upwards of three years now, and although it served its function to make phone calls, send text messages and take blurry pictures, it was time for me to upgrade anyway. Since that time, the iPhone has come out, Android has been released, 3G networks have become more commonplace, and there have been a slew of improvements to what a cell phone can actually do. Read more »

In a sudden but ultimately unsurprising announcement by Google, a beta version of a new web browser, called Google Chrome, is now available for download. Just when you thought the browser market couldn’t get any bigger, along comes the search giant to offer a unique take on how a web browser should work. And thankfully, they do deliver on at least that part of it. Read more »

I’ve owned an original RAZR cell phone from Motorola for a number of years, but recently I’ve been in the market for a new smartphone that will allow me to do more things while on the go – access multiple e-mail accounts, install useful applications, take decent quality pictures, double as a portable media player, browse the Internet in a real browser (none of this useless WAP stuff) and more. The immediate reply from most people is, of course, the iPhone. But despite how great the iPhone is – I’ve used one, so my opinions are valid – I still have some problems with it. Read more »

A camera doesn’t lie… right? I saw a video today of some fascinating technology being developed at the University of Washington – close to where I live in Seattle – which takes video footage and seamlessly combines it with photographs to selectively increase the resolution, improve the lighting balance, or do a slew of other changes to the video. It’s called the “Spacetime Fusion Technique”, and while amazing (both the technology and the name they gave it), it also made me think about what will constitute authentic videos in the future. Read more »

I recently picked up a copy of Mass Effect for the PC, and I have to say that it’s one of the most schizophrenic games I’ve ever played. While the game itself is fantastic in many ways, I’ve had a constant stream of logic-defying glitches that have actually made me stop playing out of frustration a few times.

I’ve come to notice that many PC games shipped these days – not just Mass Effect – tend to require one or more patches after its retail release to get it to a respectfully stable point. But because the option of updating a game after it’s released is available to developers, it seems like they often use this as an excuse to put sloppy code out to retail. “It’s playable, yeah, but we can always perfect it later!” Read more »

Nintendo’s annual press conference at E3 happened yesterday at 9am, and as I sat in my chair watching a live video stream, I couldn’t help but wonder who was making all of the company’s business decisions. Their business is selling video game hardware and software, and they do this very, very well. As their graphs proudly displayed, they have sold more hardware and more software this console generation than their competitors, Microsoft and Sony. This is mainly due to reaching out to people that would otherwise not be considered video game players. But what they didn’t produce a graph for was how many ridiculous accessories they’ve made available as well. Read more »

I own a Garmin Nuvi 200, one of the newer consumer-level GPS navigation devices available for vehicles. For the most part, I think the device is wonderful, and it’s never gotten me lost… but only because I know how to interpret its instructions. I’ve noticed when other people such as my parents have tried to use the device, they sometimes got confused by its voice-guided directions – “in one mile, keep left, then keep right” – when in fact all it wanted was for the driver to just keep going straight on the freeway, and not take any exits.

But why did this happen in the first place? Read more »