FFXIV is almost here

Well I have my pre-order in and got my shipped notification from Amazon so I am all set for tomorrow’s launch of FFXIV for CE. This title is not as new user friendly as some may have hoped but it has some interesting things that have me interested in playing.

In the Beta I have to say that the world looks amazing… Even with the settings set to normal things just look incredible. I can only imagine what things would be like with a super-computer.

Well just thought that I would drop a quick post here since I have not done anything in so long. Tomorrow I should be getting things installed and jumping into the adventure.

BRC

When I was racing each sunday I would head down to Wells Ave. To hit the Boston Road Club training races. Was there recently and am happy to report that the races are still going strong.

iPad still interesting?

Well after some time with everyday use the iPad is still interesting. The biggest ins sue so far has been that many of the apps that are taking advantage of the iPad are not all ready for prime time. I have seen some very good apps and some with more potential than greatness at the moment.

Can you say crash? The biggest issue that I see with many apps is the crash… Now I know Steve would like you to think that everything is smooth but honestly many apps crash. This does make the app marketplace frustrating as there doesn’t seem to be any way to refund a purchase the way the Android store has it’s 24 hour trial deal. So far it is a little hit of miss in terms of finding an app that does has lots of polish. Honestly I have found more games with polish than productivity apps.

With that being said there is still a great deal to like about the iPad. I am starting to believe the analysts that say Apple may have killed off the consumer and small business tablet market already.

Consumption Device

After a few weeks of use I have come to realize that the iPad is best used as a device to consume media and online content. While there are some office suite applications out there none of them seem really polished and ready to use in a real hard core work environment. I imagine as time goes on these apps will get more streamlined and less buggy.

The other big issue behind my thoughts are that the lack of physical keyboard can make it more difficult to “create” content. I am writing this on my iPad but honestly it would be faster for me using some sort of physical keyboard.

Having said that it is an awesome media consumption device. More on this later…

Wow… That is a surprise

One of the most shocking things people comment on when picking up the iPad has to be the weight. I have yet to find a person who doesn’t think it was heavier than they thought. The first time you pick it up it does surprise you.

I am wondering if this is a turn off for some people. While it is a nice screen and great interface the weight of something that you are expected to hold while you consume media is more than many are comfortable with.

Personally I was a bit surprised myself but have gotten used to it now. I do not see this replacing my Kindle for bed reading but for media consumption like YouTube and my video podcasts this has become my device of choice. It also helps that I had a decent iTunes library and not using and iphone any longer had me looking for a place to put it all.

Will have some more comments again but having shown the device to two friends who both commented on the weight I had to post a little something about that.

iPad in the house

Well they got me.. First I thought it would be a good tool for my wife and son so I picked one of them up as a gift After playing around with it for a bit and getting things setup for their trip to Boston and Japan I got caught up in the fun of the device. My wife and son love it and even left the laptop at home for the Boston trip as this will do all that they need while on vacation.

I will be posting a bit more as I spend some more time with my device. I know there are lots of posts about the iPad but I figured that someone that was not interested in the device at launch could be interesting. Thinking of it as an oversized iPhone had me passing up at first. Now I can seem some good uses for it as a travel laptop replacement.

Well look for some comments from time to time on the subject. And of course I am posting this from an iPad.

Quick post

Quick test post from an iPad. Good times at the Red Sox game.

WAR has come to my computer

Warhammer Online has hit my computer and sucked some time out of my nights recently. For those who do not know this is one of those MMO titles like the famous World of Warcraft.

I am not going to write to much at the moment about the title but did see this cool image on the main site today that made me laugh. Actually posting how many people had been banned for selling gold in the game is amusing. For those who do not know there are people who “farm gold” to sell to others for “real world money”. This is not something that most players like and certainly the game developers are not thrilled with. It can be anoying as the in game chat fills with spam from someone trying to get you to goto a website so that you can buy gold from them.

Well anyway.. back to work and then a bit more gaming. I have joined the Drunken Bastards guild on the Order side of the Monolith server. If anyone wants to join give me a shout.

Gshock Riseman in Orange

Looks like Casio has launched a new limited model of the Riseman that I picked up in Japan this summer. This line is called the Men in Rescue Orange. I am not sure if we will ever see these in the US.. (OK I am pretty sure they will never show up here) but they do look interesting. For those who do not know this watch has lots of functions least of witch is time sync with the atomic clock.

Is the Shine off of Apple?

Has Apple lost its shine? Not even going into the current round of issues with MobileMe (not so mobile but hey at least it is free), iPhone 3G and iPods there seem to be enough little problems that are keeping Apple in the headlines.

Here is a perfect example as to why Apple may be loosing its shine in the eyes of some users. I have a friend who recently had his first generation iPhone die on him. The touch screen had several areas that would not register any touches. This is certainly a problem making the phone unusable unless you only want to dial certain nunbers. As any of us would do he took it into the Apple store expecting to get it swapped out or at least some form of satisfaction given Apple’s reputation for customer service.

Upon arriving at the store he was greeted and told that while he did not have an appointment he could be seen since his phone was not functioning. After waiting for some time (understandable with no appointment) he was seen by a “Genius” This person told him that yes his phone was indeed dead and they would be able to replace it for him and it was still under warranty. Best of all this would be free. Great he though.. but here was the catch. While the “Genius” could look at it and tell him that it was going to be replaced he could not replace it for him..WHAT? My friend was forced to head home after making an appointment for later in the day. Lucky for him he could get an appointement for just before closing but if it had been a day like say today.. he would have been waiting a few days to get his phone replaced.

Is this the kind of service that we should know expect from Apple? Have the days of having an issue and getting it taken care of in a timely manor gone by the wayside with the sucess of the iPhone and other apple products. The real killer was that he was talking to someone who could have just replaced the phone for him but he was told to return with an appointment.

For my friend it has made him think twice about the whole Apple iPhone thing. He loves his phone but was not thrilled with the service that he received when something went wrong that was hardware related and under warranty. It seemed that the customers convience was not considered at all.

Well just some more thoughts on Apple. I am hoping that this is going to chage or it was only because of the rush of iPhone users recently.. but based on the appointment schedules I am looking at to replace a warranty power brick I am guessing this is not going to change anytime soon.