With the success of windows 7 (after then bungling mess that was vista Microsoft is hard at work with Windows 8. The information is starting to trickle out about the new features that are being added to 8.

The biggest and most obvious change is the initial interface that your given when the computer starts up, instead of getting the desktop interface that has been then staple of windows since 3.1, the user is given the windows metro (Box Style) interface from the Windows Phone. It seems Microsoft wants this to become the main way that people interact with Windows, and this targets tablet computers much more than the traditional PC. Each of the boxes are set up as “Apps” which are opened apon clicking, and one of these is a Desktop App which gives back the traditional Windows 7 style interface that we’re all use to.

The whole experience is focussed much more on tablet computers, and the merging of 2 or more computers, Including the ability to access all of your settings and information on a new computer via your Windows Live ID. Videos have been released showing this in action with the simple customizations of microsoft being transferable between multiple Windows 8 computers, however i cant see this working for 3rd Party software not built by mirosoft (like games).

They are also working on a Windows store, which is still in development, but will add extra apps to the metro interface. (*Cough* App Store anyone? *Cough*)

So Far whats been shown is Windows 7, with Windows Phone wrapped around it in a comfortable warm coat… the biggest problem with this is that their trying to merge these two interfaces so they work well on both platforms, touchscreen tablets, and old fashion keyboard mouse PC’s. My opinion it still needs work.

I’ll keep you updated with Windows 8 news as it develops.

It has been quite a while since i’ve updated my blog. I’ve been overwhelmed with uni and just felt i didn’t have time for it, but a twing in me still wants to post reviews of things i’ve been trying in my off time and discuss new technology thats coming.

As anyone with and tech knowledge would have noted my blog has a twing of android in its them, this is an affectation to my distrust and dislike of all things apple inc. and when looking at buying a new phone the temptation to go for the iPhone was there. However after some research and discussion with phone dealers i found a much more appealing option” the Samsung Galaxy SII, which runs… you guessed it Android OS (my first android).

Samsung has obviously developed this in competition with the new iPhone 5 which hasn’t been released yet, and the reviews and sales are showing an impressive liking for this phone. in 85 days 5 million units were sold, and they haven’t even releeased in the US market yet. Interestingly the tablet equivalent of this phone [Samsung Galaxy Tab] has already been in the news because apple is suing samsung becasue it looks too much like the iPad (Apple seem nervous: many other tables look similar to the iPad but only Samsung is being sued.

The phone itself is impressivly fast and responsive, it has a smooth feel to its interface and doesn’t lag at all, it also has some impressive tech like the wifi direct, tetherable hotspots, kies air, etc. The homescreen is fully customizable with widgets and with access to the android market their are lots of options to choose from. Sadly alot of popular apps start on the itunes store and are then developed for android later on, but as the android market becomes ever more popular these apps will eventually be more readily accesable on both.

Having only had the phone for a couple of weeks i am still getting use to it, but the phone matches all the things i require from it and being highly customizable, most things i wanted from it, i can setup myself.

My final thought: It will be interesting to see when the iPhone 5 is revealed how well the galaxy stands up against it.

I like many other have been baffled by the strange changes to the internet over the last few weeks, so after a helpful suggestion from a friend, i decided to create this segment, to discuss the weirdness of the time.

Youtube Video Player: Youtube has recently changed its entire look, in a way to better match up with its other sites [everything google], plus i’d say that its also them paving the way for the introduction of HTML5 to replace Adobe Flash Player, after the security concerns brought up a month or so ago. They changed the player to a more streamline flash version a while back, and are now beta testing a HTML5 version, which looks very similar to the old one.

Youtube Subscription Popup Bar: This is something that youtube has added in the last few day and people aren’t happy. [HULK SMASH!]. its the same basic principal of the list to the right of the video, but it pops up at the bottom of the page. Reports are its buggy, annoying and it sets auto play to on for me so my subscriptions automatically jump to the next one, which is annoying. [what if i wasn't finished watching hotforwords talk about whatever she talks about]

Google Images: “Google launched a new interface for Google Image Search which replaces pagination [fancy way to say page links] with infinite scrolling [scroll more get more ;P], hides the information about the results u

ntil you mouse over an image, shows bigger images and uses space more efficiently. When you click on a results, Google shows a larger thumbnail on top of the web page that included the image.”

That pretty much sums up the google images thing in a nutshell, new interface. Its still a bit buggy from reviews, but if you don’t like it there is a link at the bottom of the page to switch it back to basic view.

Facebook Photos: Facebook photos has changed its format to mimic almost the same change of google images, i can only assume that this is because of the google images change. Its hard to tell because facebook changes so often that its hard to find new information on the lastest changes without sifting through thousand of people bitching about changes from last year, and facebook groups to “change facebook back”. [In a nutshell Facebook sucks and does what it want so deal with the changes.] [No this is me in a nutshell, how did i get into this nutshell?]

Final assesment: HTML5 is coming, and alot of these influential sites are getting ready for the change, these aren’t the first changes and they won’t be the last, just be careful what your clicking, and keep on trolling.

Adam Fox

Senior Detective of Www Branch.

I CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER!!! AAAAARRRGGGG

Watch the trailer after the bump.

In 1 day 15hours and 29 minutes from the time i post this blog entry the season final of Stargate Universe will be wrapped up in a little bow. We already know that there will be a season 2, and from the scuttlebut it will be much better than the first.

My favourite episode would have to be S01E11 “Space”, and i don’t think that will be changed by the airing of Incursion Pt 2.

The show has had up’s and down’s especially because of the cancelling of Stargate Atlantis right before its startup making the fans of SGA think that they were trying to replace it, but as the story goes along i feel that it will get better, and i don’t care what the critics have to say, its still stargate!

DocFox01 A.F.K.

Watch Stargate Universe on SurfTheChannel HERE

The Gruen Transfer returns to ABC on the Wednesday 16th of July 2010

It’s that time of the year and Gruen Transfer returns to the ABC, hosted by Wil Anderson (Not Adam Hills from “Spicks and Specks” LOL) “Each week, Wil is joined by some of the best and brightest minds of the advertising industry, experts prepared to share the ideas and insights that drive them.” The show basically goes through what the ad agencies are doing to make us by stuff and its insightful, scary, and hilarous.

The name of the show is explained below:

“The Gruen Transfer is named after Victor Gruen, the guy who designed the very first shopping mall. The term describes that split second when the mall’s intentionally confusing layout makes our eyes glaze and our jaws slacken… the moment when we forget what we came for and become impulse buyers.” (Gruen Transfer Website, 2010)

I own season’s 1 and 2 of this and have watched them a few times now and it never gets old a must watch i say.

The Gruen Transfer returns to ABC on the Wednesday 16th of July 2010

or can be accessed from ABC iView HERE

or from there website HERE

I give it my highest rating 10 out of 10 stars

Ok so i finally got round to buying and playing Halo Wars, it was $30 at Dick Smith and i just couldn’t say no anymore.

Ok so for those that didn’t know Halo Wars is an RTS (Real Time Strategy = Age of Empires) game, which was actually developed by Ensemble Studios the company that gave the world the Age of Empires Franchise, plus Halo Wars was also there last project before they shut down. (They had been working on a Halo MMORPG [you better know what that means] but it was cancelled because Microsoft decided to swing towards more casual gamer after the success of the Wii).

The storyline is based before the events of Halo and doesn’t actually involve a Halo, but only gets the title of “Halo” Wars because its part of that universe. Other than that its a rather generic story two sides fighting a war, the bad guys fins some super weapons (ships) and so the good guys have to stop them. Oh and theres a smart female in this cast…. oh wait, she gets captured and has to be saved by the hunky guy. DAMN! Ok so i found the storyline weak and the characters a bit annoying, however there was enough engagement from the cutscenes to keep me watching so there is that.

The gameplay, this is the biggest problem with the whole game. RTS games just don’t work on a console, i must say in ensembles defense this is the best RTS thats been made for a console by far, but its still clunky and missing thing and glitchy at times as well.

Selecting units is annoying because you have the option to select all the units on the screen or select them individually or in small groups. What was needed was the ability to select all of the troops of the type you had selected, so you can send your tanks to destroy the base, and have your marines killing the group troops.

Next is the ability to control multiple army’s, there is an option to jump between your forces but it counts all of your groups, so if you’ve got to masive armys attacking from both sides, and 4 or 5 marines around the map by themselves scouting it will jump between the 1st army, then the 1st marine, then the next marine, and the next etc until it gets to your 2nd army, which by this time have been destroyed by the wraith that came up behind them.

It seems the Artificial Inteligence of you Allies in games is really stupid (i’ve watched them try to rush a base right at the begining 3 time never take over a second base and build small armies of weak troops and try picking at the enemy), and yet the enemy are really smart, and will amass a massive army before coming and smashing you.

I’ve played the game through on Normal, as i do with every game to start off with. This makes the story really short, and i flew through it in 10-12 hours with only 2 reset missions (the ones with timers, im a turtler and i built up my army but ran out of time to destroy the enemy.)

Summing up: For a console RTS it was good, but its got its problems which really make it stick out in the Halo crowd.

6 out of 10 Stars (Its Ok)

DocFox01 A.F.K.

Games:Xbox 360
- Halo Wars
- Wolfenstein
- Mercenaries 2
- Halo 3 Online MP
- anything else i feel like reviewing

Games:PC
- Spore

Computers:
- Asus Eeepc 1005HA netbook

Internet Service Provider:
- Internode

Websites:
- Google sites

And much, much, more….

I’d just like to apologise to the 5 maybe 6 people in our little ii-blog cluster that periodically read this blog. My excuse is i had prac and then a whole heap of assignments, but i can show you part of what i’ve been doing.

Basically for my Curriculum IT class with Elizabeth Flucks Dad, i’ve been creating a virtual classroom in secondlife, and i’ve programmed two bot students to appear and interact with the user, what were hoping to do is get funding to hire programmers to create an entire classroom simulation focussing on behavior management.

I will try to be more active on here from now on, but in small doses, so as to not cause more arguments

DoxFox01 out

iPad still SUX!!!

Today i had a Workplace maths class where i observed the class. Then i had a Multimedia class and had to post a blog entry about what i’d done today. And this is it, i think i might set up a blog to relate to my teaching classes, i’ll post a link here later