New Star Wars 1313 trailer

So it is yet another week of a con and this time around it is known as Gamescon and boy are there a lot of things coming out this week.  One which I love and am excited to see more of, even if it isn't really that much, is the following trailer for Star Wars 1313.  I simply can't wait to be able to play this game.  I have a feeling unlike most other Star Wars games it is not going to suck.

Some Blog Changes

Hey guys sorry for the lack of content lately.  There has been some changes and things happening with me lately that will alter the amount of time that I have to do the blog.  I will be changing up the format a bit to make it more of a simple view.  Also I will instead of posting multiple blog posts each day focus more on individual topics thru out the week.  SO stay tuned for the updates.  In the mean time here is the FLOG for the week.

Inside gaming daily.

Pretty good video showing 14 seconds of Halo 4 and other trailers for some newer games.

iOS 6 will officially do away with the native Youtube app.

With the latest update to the beta of iOS 6.0 Apple has pulled the last embedded Google app out of the OS.  Apple has officially removed the native Youtube app.  Google was quick to point out that they will work on their own version to be released in the app store.

This has good and bad implications.  The first being that Apple has finally removed the last of their dependence on Google out of their OS.  The second is now that Google can make their own app hopefully it will be completely updated which is very long over due.  The other thing that will help Google is the fact that they can introduce their own ads as you would see on the mobile web version.

This will be interesting to see how this plays out and exactly when and how Google replaces this app in the app store.

Gaming on the Go: Agent Dash

This game is a secret agent take on the game Temple Run with a few twists.  You play as an agent trying to do a mission without dieing or failing at your mission.  You can get boosters, guns, and all kinds of other fun little additions to help you get to the finish line of your current goal.  It is a free to play game and available on both iOS and Android.  So go check it out.

Ubisoft tells us how Assassin's Creed 3 is made.

Here we have a video where Ubisoft tells us about their new type of gaming engine and tells us why it is awesome.  As cool as the animation of Conner is in this demo, I have to also admit that the background people just have some really unhuman animations to them.  I would think that at this point in time they could make them a lot better but then again I am no game programmer so yeah there is that.  Anyway check out the video below.

If I was your Droidfriend.

If you like Star Wars then well yeah just watch this is.  It is awesome yet bad (depending on your view of Justin Beiber.)

The Old Republic to go free to play.

We all knew it was only a matter of time but it looks like it has finally happened.  It was announced today that Star Wars the Old Republic will go free to play this fall.  It will be a free to play hybrid technically.  You will have the option of being a subscription member or a free to play member.  The free to play members will have game content up till level 50 with the possibility to get newer content and premium content, which i presume would be raids, for a purchase with in game currency.  With this announcement we learned today that the Old Republic is down to under a million subscribers which is well under the mark that they wanted to maintain.

No Dawnguard for Skyrim on PS3?

One of the big wigs over at Bethesda has just been quoted as saying that they have not promised any DLC dates or promises of any for the PS3 or PC versions of Dawnguard.  As you may have remembered 30 days ago the Xbox got the first DLC for Skyrim called Dawnguard.  This is suppose to be only a 30 day exclusivity and everyone had assumed that the PS3 version and PC version would have been released today or at least very soon.  Apparently by this comment made we can assume that for those versions of the game we can assume it will be a waiting game.  Is it because these versions aren't ready?  or are they just not doing them at all?  It would be really bad I think for Bethesda if they didn't.

The MMO Report.

Here is the MMO report from G 4 this week.  Why?  because Guild Wars 2 and zombies are awesome!  So check it out below for yourself.

OSX Mountain Lion Review

So just like that out of no where with only a 24 hour notice Apple has released OSX Mountain Lion to the masses.  That is if your Mac can actually run it of course.  Older Intel macs such as my iMac will not run this version so it looks like that I am left with OSX Lion.  Now granted this computer is 6 years old now which is amazing in itself that A.  it has lasted this long, and B.  that it has been supported by Apple for this long with all the features of the operating system.  Anyway back to the point here.  OSX Mountian Lion brings with it a lot of features and some bugs as well.  Check out the review below of the features brought to you by TecnhnoBuffalo.

My Guild Wars 2 beta experience.

I was fortunate enough to get to participate in the final Guild Wars 2 beta this past weekend and I can say that so far I really like what I see in this game.

I really like the art style in this game.  It is very different from your typical MMO or most other games for that matter.  I also liked how that the choices you choose within the character creation affect how your characters story will develop.  A pretty neat feature for sure.  I had a chance to play a Human ranger, a Sylvari elementalist, and an Asuran Engineer.  My favorite story line so far is a toss up between the Human street rat story line and the Sylvari story line.  My favorite area I would have to say is the Sylvari starting area.  It is huge and just looks amazing.

The game play style of this game is not your typical MMO style as it is more action based with you having to move and dodge your enemies instead of just standing there and nuking them like WOW.  This took me some getting use to but I like it after I adjusted.  Another neat feature is that your abilities change depending on the type of weapon that you are currently using.  Even though some of the abilities seemed very similar they still had their own flair to them.

Another thing I noticed was that a lot of the intro starting areas seemed a similar mechanic.  Now granted the stories were different they all almost always involved seeing what a map looks like, a plea to help other people, and a giant thing at the end to kill with other people in the area.

I like how that the game isn't too linear but it was also hard to tell sometimes when you have stepped into an area where you will get your butt handed to you very quickly.  Especially when you walk into the middle of a dynamic area event without knowing it.

What I will say about the game is that it will be great for those who like an MMO but do not want to have to pay a monthly subscription fee and for those of you who do not normally play MMO's and like the diablo type of gameplay.

I will leave you with the opening video of the Sylvari area to get an idea of the art-style used for the cut-scenes and a tiny bit of the gameplay.  This game will be releasing on August 28th and I feel it will definitely be worth it.

Wreck It Ralph Trailer.

Thanks to my buddy Ryan for pointing out this cool trailer for Wreck it Ralph.  I can say that until yesterday I never heard of this movie.  I can say though that after watching this trailer I am pretty pumped about it.  Brings back a lot of gaming memories from growing up.

The Flog

Here is your weekly FLOG.

Assassin's Creed III Multiplayer gameplay.

Darksiders 2 Behind the Mask

Motorola Atrix HD review

For anyone who wants a nice Android phone but doesn't have a lot of money this may be the phone for you.  Check out the following review from Technobuffalo.

New Geek and Sundry show called Written by Kids.

Episode one Scary Smash was pretty hilarious telling of a kids story.  I mean who doesn't want to be a member of the S.Q.U.A.T team.  haha check it out below.

Marvell Heroes SCCC 2012 Trailer.

This trailer from Comic Con is pretty much a fancied up version of what we have arleady seen but it is still pretty cool.

My new favorite Online video

Now I know this is old like a few years old, but I just finally watched it so shut it.  enjoy it is awesome!

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

New =3 for Tuesday that was pretty funny.

Can you do a Youtube show in under a minute.  Apparently stimulants are the key to success in doing this.

Sparticus Legends

Do you enjoy the Sparticus series from showtime?  The awesome show about gladiators?  Well it is getting a game from Ubisoft and here is the trailer.

New Planitside 2 trailer

Death is no excuse!

Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Here is a trailer for Injustice:   Gods Among Us.

Samsung Galaxy S3 review.

After taking back the Nokia Lumia Windows phone I got myself a new Galaxy S3.  I have to say that after a week of using this phone I really like it alot.  My only grip right now is being unable to find a case that I want for this phone.

I was afraid that the 4.7inch screen would be way to big and awkward to handle.  But in fact the phone feels very natural in my hand and is very easy to hold.  The phone for it's size is extremely lite.  After having an iphone for so long I had forgotten how heavy that phone actually is.  This I am sure is due to the fact that the GS3 is made of plastic, compared to the iphone's glass.  I will say that even though it is plastic the phone does not feel or look cheap at all.  

As for phone functions the speaker is very loud and calls sound great on the phone and reception seems to be very good.  This phone also offers driving mode which will read your texts and you can either use google text to speech or the new S voice to send text messages.  

Speaking of S voice.  S voice pretty much works just like Siri does on the iphone except that it doesn't have that quirky little attitude that Siri has.  Voice recognition for me has been about 85%  which isn't too horrible I suppose.  I have used it to check the weather, set alarms, text, and call people using the hands free device in my car.  It is a nice addition to the phone that I am sure Samsung will improve upon, that is unless Apple finds a way to sue them for this.

Since this is my first Android phone, I had a lot of playing around to do to get familiar with this operating system.  Yes this is customized with Samsung's touchwhiz but from what I can tell it is not that much different than the stock version of Ice Cream Sandwich.  The thing I noticed right off the bat while playing with this operating system is it's customization.  I can pretty much make my home screens look like anything and organize them anyway that I see fit.  I really like being able to put widgets and app icons where ever I like without having to have my screen full.  I can leave spaces to make each home screen feel open and not cluttered.

Another nice touch from Samsung is the nice dropdown menu that sits on top of the notification window.  You have access to a lot of one touch controls to a lot of settings on the phone.  Ie, wi-fi, gps, bluetooth, and sound.  This makes accessing these settings so easy and painless.

As far as apps go I have every app I once had on my iphone except for one, the new zynga game, matching with friends.  I am sure it will be coming very soon.  App wise, they look great on this huge screen and everything is very easy to read.  Since the screen is in HD, movies and games look very great and sharp.

The phone can also see if your eyes are looking at the screen and if they are not then it will auto dim the screen, if not it will keep the screen from going to sleep.  If you are texting someone and decide you would rather call them, while in that text message simply raise the phone to your ear and it will call that person on that number.

This phone has a lot of other cool functionality like being able to watch a movie or video and still be able to text and view websites while still watching the video in a smaller screen.  It also offers S-beam and NFC capabilities, removable battery, and a slot for micro sdcards to expand the memory.  Check out some of these promo videos to get a good idea of what these features look like in action.




I can honestly say that I really enjoy the Android experience and I can understand why Samsung is the most popular of the android phones.  They do a great job with the phones and add a lot of great extras to the phone.

New Gears of War tutorial.

Here is a tutorial from Comicon about the new Gears of War game.  Check out the gameplay action below.

Halo 4: Forward Until Dawn Trailer

Here is the official live action trailer for the mini series that will play on Machinima before the launch of Halo 4.  It looks pretty awesome.

Bioware to bring back Ultima!

For those of you who remember the beginning days of the MMO genre in games, you will remember the game Ultima Online very well.  So, Bioware has decided to launch a new RPG based in the Ultima Universe, now this is not an MMO, but will be a standard RPG that you can possibly play together with friends.  Oh, and it's free to play.  Head on over to the official site to sign up for the beta!

Borderlands 2 trailer.

This is probably one of my most favorite trailers for a game in a very long time.  Check it out.  Kind of funny.

Assassin's Creed Liberation trailer for the PS Vita

What we have here is a really nice trailer detailing some of the gameplay you should expect from an Assassin's Creed game.  What's nice is that this title is going to be coming to the PS Vita.  Ubisoft has had a lot of success with mobile versions of Assassin's Creed and this one seems to be just as likely to succeed.

Game of Thrones Seven Kingdoms gets a trailer.

Here is the first every trailer for the Game of Thrones Seven Kingdom browser based game.  It looks pretty nice to be a browser based game.  Check out the video below.

Ouya wants to be the next big thing in console gaming.

Over on it's Kickstarter page Ouya has already raised a ton of money super fast.  This is a neat idea that they are coming up with and I would be interested to see where this leads.  Check out the introduction video below and visit them on their kickstarter page for more information.

Medal of Honor: Warfighter Multiplayer game trailer

Here is a neat game trailer for a new Medal of Honor game.  What you see here is basically the only thing that anyone cares about, the multiplayer.

The end of the Windows Phone 30 day challenge.

So the 30 day challenge has come to an end just a few days early and here is the verdict.  I took the Nokia Lumia 900 back to AT&T yesterday.  I really really wanted to love this phone.  It had so much promise and so does the Windows Phone OS.  But the fact that this phone will not be upgradable to Windows Phone 8 and some of the minor software issues I was having, I decided that Windows Phone has some growing up to do, before I delve back into using a Windows Phone again.

The one feature which I thought I would miss the most was the voice to text in the car usage.  However, I found out that there are many apps out there for android phones that do the exact same thing if not better than the windows phone did.  Live tiles are great, but I want a standard notification center where I can see all updates for everything and not have to scroll down my start page to look at each individual tile to see if there is anything new and for that matter I don't want to have to put all my apps on the start page just to see what is new with them.  Also for this to be the first non "beta" phone as the commercials go, it sure did have a lot of hang ups and freezes.
But don't get me wrong this is still a great phone and the platform as a whole has a lot of promise and I hope it really catches on and catches up to iOS and Android.  This phone though, is not for a power user.  There aren't enough apps out there and for those that are out there, the developers seem to neglect them and do not seem to update the apps in a timely fashion like you get on the other platforms.  Microsoft really needs to get on the ball with these developers.

All in all I can say the Nokia Lumia would be a great smartphone for those who do not currently have a smartphone and for those who do not need thousands of apps or the ability to customize everything.

So, I know you are asking, what phone did I get in it;s place?  Did I go back to iPhone or did I delve into Android?  Well the answer may surprise some of you that know me.  I have been known to be a bit of an Apple fanboy but in this instance I went with one of the nicest looking big phones out there.  The New Samsung Galaxy S III.


Don't worry I will be giving you a full review of this new phone later this week.  So far it is really nice though.  Let's see how long the I like this factor holds out after the newness factor wears off!

A quick look at Secret World.

Here we have a nice review from the guys over at Machinima for the new MMO, The Secret World.  Now this game is different from most MMO's because it is rooted in more of the "actual world."  Instead of say most other MMO's exist in some sort of fantasy world.  Secret World, is basically set in the real world except lots of crazy stuff is happening right out of  a Stephen King book.  Now as Matt says in the video the game is different enough from most MMO's and I would have to say it looks interesting but the fact is that I just can't see myself paying another monthly subscription to an MMO, especially when it feels like sometimes more of a job than a game.  I will stick with the free to play varieties thank you very much, Guild Wars 2 anyone?

Anyway check out the video review below.

What the heck happened to van Helsing.

Below is the first trailer for the Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing.

First I must say what the heck?  The graphics are like an upscale version of Nintendo 64 to me, and secondly why does Van Helsing look like a woman in drag?  Anyway check it out for yourself below.

Review of Samsung Galaxy Beam

The guys over at Technobuffalo have a really nice review of the Samsung Galaxy Beam. The beam is a phone that has a built in projector in it as it's main feature. Check out the video below.

End of Nations Developer Diary.

Check out a look into the End of Nations.

Cool Nerdist event called Course to the Force.

Check out the Day one video of the Course of the Force to help benifit the Make A Wish Foundation.

Really cool video by Mike Tompkins

Check out the coolness that this guy can do with  nothing but his voice and the equipment in front of him.  Pretty cool.

Guild Wars 2, developer diary.

Here is a great look into a game that could be pretty awesome.  I also love the fact that you pay once and play forever in the MMO world.

Inside Gaming for Thursday.

Check out the Inside Gaming video for Thursday.

Very Patriotic trailer for Assassin's Creed III

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!

Week 3 of the Windows Phone challenge.

Well here we are three weeks into my challenge and with only a week left I have to say that I am missing my iPhone just a little bit.  Yes the app ecosystem and the maturity of iOS has me wanting it back, but there are still things I like about this Nokia Lumia 900.

First off let me say this is still a great phone with a lot of promise.  Sadly though this phone will not get to be upgraded with Windows Phone 8 so it's lifespan just got cut short by a whole lot.  Let me be clear, I totally understand why Microsoft is doing this, and I agree that it is necessary for the Windows phones to mature and seal their future.

The thing that I don't think I can part with on the Nokia Lumia is the Bluetooth text to speak.  When you have it hooked up to your cars Bluetooth (or a headset) the phone will announce you have a text message and who it is from.  You can then tell it to read it, reply to the text message by speaking and then you can send it all without having to look or touch the phone.  I am using this thing so much I absolutely love this feature.  I honestly do not think I can do without it now that I have been using it as much as I have been.

The other thing I love about the phone still is it's people app, that integrates your address book along with your news feeds for twitter, and Facebook.  I love not having to open a bunch of different apps to quickly glance in with these social feeds.  You can also create groups within the app to organize your info and information to send them.

So what makes me want the iPhone again.  The notifications.  I can say that I love the tiles and the updated info that they give me without having to just see little red 1's or 2's on the corner of the app.  It actually shows me the info that is on that app in the tile.  Problem with this right now is that if the app isn't on your home screen then you don't see any of those notifications.  Yes you will see them as the come in with a top down toast notification but after that nothing.  In iOS and android you can simply pull down from the top and it will show you all the apps that have sent you notifications.  I am kind of missing that.  Now I know with 7.8 update we will be able to make as many small, medium, or large icons on the start menu but I really don't want all those apps on my home-screen.  I like the clean feeling that it is now, not cluttered with information overload like an Android home-screen covered in widgets.

My next complaint on the phone is the freezing.  To be the first "non beta" phone, according to the Nokia commercials it sure does freeze a lot and I think this is just because of the maturity of the operating systems.  Windows Phone is behind several generations and has a lot to catch up on.  Now this phone isn't freezing every day or a lot but other than when my iPhone broke I couldn't tell you the last time that it froze on me.

So what is the final verdict?  Well, for now I will be keeping the Windows Phone, and I can tell you that the two main reasons for this are:  The text to speech for texting feature, and the fact that the iPhone 5 will be coming out in about two to three months.  So, I will update you guys again when that time comes around because also the first Windows 8 phones will be coming out by then as well.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn trailer

Just to get you all hyped up for Halo 4 here is another small teaser trailer for Halo 4 brought to you by Machinima

You will be able to upgrade to Windows 8, on the cheap!

Microsoft yesterday, announced the pricing plans for current windows XP and Windows 7 pro users upgrades.  The pricing will be available online for $39.99 and in stores for $69.99.  This is much cheaper than previous upgrades in the past which were usually well over $100.  This new pricing is in edition to the current offering for anyone who buys a computer from now until Jan 31st 2013 will get the Windows 8 upgrade for only $14.99.

With this pricing Microsoft is being very aggressive with their attempt to bring as many PC's to the Windows 8 platform as possible.

This weeks Flog.

Here is Felicia's holiday inspired FLOG for the week.  Enjoy!

Goodbye Flash for Mobile

If he could I am sure Steve Jobs would say I told you so from the grave.  This past weekend Adobe officially announced it will no longer develop flash for any mobile device.  It will be pulling the app from the Google Play store in the coming weeks never to be seen from again.  If you currently have flash installed on your android phone it will still work, but you will no longer be able to download it again after it is removed.

The ironic part of the announcement is that they gave us this info on the 5th anniversary of the iPhone, the phone in which Steve Jobs said, no to flash, and that flash is not the way of the future for the web on mobile.  Which I am sure partly is due to the fact of the popularity of the iOS devices out there and the fact that they do not support flash.  Most websites have went to the option of HTML5 for their mobile videos and animation content to insure their websites show up properly on the iOS devices.

What does this mean for flash for your computer?  Nothing as of now.  Most websites viewed on your actual computer are flash heavy and will probably remain that way at least for a while longer.  Maybe Adobe has a new format up their sleeve that will replace the flash player, one that I can only hope is much more efficient than flash.

Review of The Amazing Spiderman.

Here is a really good review of The Amazing Spider Man game.  Check out the video below.

Guild Wars 2, gets a release date!

The much anticipated sequel to Guild Wars has finally gotten a release date of August 28th.  This MMO is buy once play for free.  In other words you don't have to pay a monthly subscription in order to enjoy this game and unlike free to play games you do not have to buy certain items or abilities.  You simply pay once play forever.  Check out the release trailer below.

Viggle for Android finally available.

Viggle the tv companion app that lets you earn points for rewards by watching tv, is finally available for Android.

Simply install the app, sign up and let the app listen to what you are watching and start earning points.  It is pretty easy to use and I have myself redeemed several itunes gift cards.  There are a lot of things available for rewards and they change often.  You also get extra points for watching certain shows which Viggle will show you on the What's on button.

Download it and start earning your points today.

The Nexus 7 inch tablet from Google is real.

After many rumors and leaks Google today announced their competitor to the Amazon Kindle Fire.  You have here a Nexus 7 inch tablet made by Assus and being sold by Google for $199.  The specs on this tablet blow the Kindle Fire out of the water and pretty much make this a no brainer of a choice between the two.  Preorders start today and will ship sometime mid July.

The specs are:

1280 x 800 HD screen
Tegra 3 Processor
Front - facing camera
Wifi, Bluetooth, & NFC
8 and 16 gig models
1 gig of ram
9 hours of HD video


This tablet looks really nice and it is hard to believe it will only be $199 as it offers a lot more than the Kindle Fire does and will have full access to the Google Play store which the Kindle Fire also does not have.

Check out the introduction of the tablet below.

Gaming on the Go: Darkside

This is a fun free game for iOS that has you shooting up space junk and enemy ships while circling an asteroid.  The free version offers arcade mode, but it offers an in app 99 cent upgrade you get a few different modes of play.
The graphics of the gameplay look really great but the menu screens just don't seem to match up with the style of the gameplay, but other than that the game is really well put together.  After you get used to the gameplay it will be fun and addictive.  Check it out in the App store today.

Google Nexus Q

So Google had a lot of things to show off at their keynote today.  The most interesting is the Nexus Q.  It is basically Googles answer to the airplay that iOS devices have expect that it offers cloud streaming and control from anyone on your wifi who has an android device.  For $299, though this fancy music streamer is not worth the price to me.  They need to add a lot more than just this novelty to make me want to pay that much.  I would rather have an Appletv, or the new Vizio Googletv for $99.  Regardless though it is a great design and a neat concept so check out the launch videos below.

Dawnguard now available for Xbox 360.

Ready to get your Vampire on?  Well if you have an xbox 360 you are in luck as the first DLC for Skyrim has landed at your door steps.  If you are like me and have a PS3, or a pc then you have to wait a month.  I don't like waiting, but hopefully it will be worth the wait.

Is this the Google Nexus Tablet?

Gizmodo is reporting that the above picture is a leaked picture of the upcoming Google Branded Tablet that is being made by Asus.  It supposedly has a 1.3 Gz  Tegra 3 processor, 1 gig of ram, 16 gigs of onboard storage, a front facing camera, and an IPS display.

It is believed to be a 7 inch tablet to be priced around $199.  While these specs are no iPad killer it is definitely would blow the Amazon Kindle Fire out of the water.  This is probably their main target since the kindle fire does not use Googles own app store but Amazon's own personalized app store, which means Google doesn't get to see any of that money.

This is a nice looking tablet if this is what it will look like.  Will Amazon have a counter offer after the announcement come this wednesday?  We will just have to wait and see if these rumors are true and what if anything Amazon plans to counter this device with.

Spec Ops: The Line releases today.

Just watch this video and tell you me  you don't want to play this game!

Facebook just changed your default email address.

For the reason of simply no one ever used it, facebook over the weekend decided to change everyones default email address to their @facebook.com address.  I really do not see why facebook would try something like this without first asking for peoples permissions first.  Have you ever used your @facebook email address?  Yeah neither have I.   So, on your profile if someone was looking for your email address it wouldn't give them the address you actually use but the @facebook.com address instead.  This is annoying, and I assume you have to go back into settings in order to change this back for yourself.  That is if it will stay that way this time.  I have a feeling that facebook will get a lot of bad press for this and in my opinion it is well earned.  They have no right to change your information that you have specified on your profile page.  If they really wanted us to use their email service then maybe they should of made a better product to for us to want to use it.

This weeks FLOG.

As always make sure to subscribe to the Youtube channel of Geek and Sundry.  Enjoy!

The Windows Phone Challenge, 5 days in.

One week down and I can say I really like this phone.  The thing I have noticed the most about it is the fact that it is different from pretty much any other phone out there.  I also get a lot of comments from people about how much better they can hear me on this phone as compared to my iPhone.  Now that part kind of surprised me and it kind of didn't.  For all the awesomeness of Apple phones their call quality and ability to hear well isn't ranked all that highly.  I can also say that so far I do not miss my iphone at all.

Day one of using this phone took a little bit of time getting used to.  The phones operating system does have a few different mechanics as compared to iOS and Android.  But after I got used to them I actually started to like them.  Case in point if you are on your apps list or your contacts page.  Simply click on a letter and it will bring up the alphabet, tap the letter that the contact or app starts with and it will take you immediately to that section.

 This takes the one grip I had with the UI out of the equation, the fact that your apps are listed in order in one single file line.

Now to answer your burning question.  Does the lack of apps bother me.  This answer for me so far is no, but let me explain further.  First off, I have an iPad so any app I had on my iPhone I have a version of it on my iPad.  As far as games go most of the bigger games I liked to play on iOS I enjoyed playing on my iPad and not my iPhone anyway.  Next as far as the apps available to me.  Spotify, facebook, Netflix, twitter, Nokia's turn by turn navigation, Angry Birds, and Evernote are the apps I use a lot during the day especially at work.  They are all on the Windows Phone and so that is no problem for me there.  Also it was just announced that all the time waster games from Zynga will be coming to Windows Phone in a couple of months so there is that non issue.  Starting tomorrow, I will be back at work, and then we will have the true test of whether I will miss having some apps at my fingertips while at work.  

The things I like most about the UI:  Live tiles hands down are the best and most useful UI element in any mobile operating system.  They are beautiful and so informative.  They change to update you on relevant information pertaining to that app so that you don't even have to open an app to see what is going on with it or have a nasty annoying widget to tell you the weather.

The next aspect I really like is the people HUB.  Here you have your phone book, twitter feed, and Facebook feed all together in one streamlined interface.  So you technically do not even need to have a facebook or twitter app on the phone because all the info you need on the go is integrated into the phone.  It is a nice feature that was really thought out for a true integration.  You can also add your live account, and linked in account to the people hub as well.

If you look at the above picture of the people hub you will notice the contrast of the screen and how the apps are in general set up to be clean and informative to your needs.  To access other parts of the app you simply swipe left or right.  In this case if you swiped left you would see your recent section, which shows all the people you have recently contacted.  Another swipe will take you to your contact page where there is a list of all your contacts.

A side note that you may notice on the above picture, the resolution is not Retina Display but this is a limitation of the current version of Windows 7.5.   Coming from the iPhone it was noticeable at first but I can say I don't notice it much anymore unless I am loading a webpage with small writing in Internet Explorer.  This of course will be fixed in Windows 8 so any newer phones will have much better resolutions on their screens.  The bright AMOLED screen is beautiful though.  It makes the colors on the phone pop and makes it easier to see in bright light.

The next thing I was pleasantly surprised to find was the really great voice command service offered inside of Windows.  It isn't as "fancy" as SIRI and give you quirky comments and such but it can launch apps read your text messages, allow you to voice dial, speak your text messages and send them, ask sports scores, and search the web for you.  All of which Siri does as well (or will do, after iOS 6.0.)  I found this really handy while driving and having my phone hooked up to the bluetooth in my car.  The phone would tell me I received a new text message and who it was from.  I had the phone read it to me and I replied back to that person without ever touching my phone.  I really enjoy that feature.

All in all so far I have had a great experience with the Nokia Lumia 900.  It is a great phone and a cool UI.  The Appstore maybe lacking in exact copies of certain iOS apps.   But for what they don't have their a lot of other apps that do basically the same exact thing or that app will be available soon.  Once this app problem is fixed with Windows Phone it will be a great competitor for Android and iOS.  The UI is such a fresh take and welcomed from the stale never really changing face of iOS and Android.  I will give another update 15 days into using the phone to let you all know how it is still holding up.  I do consider myself to be a power smartphone user so I am interested to see how this app thing holds up during my everyday work  environment.

So far I would highly recommend this phone to anyone because it simply is a nice phone.  If you want the latest and greatest I would hold off on getting a Windows Phone until Windows 8 comes out in the fall.  If you are simply needing a phone that works well and can do most of the apps I have mentioned above then this phone is a definite buy.

What Google Needs to show us this week at I/O

Apple has had their week, showing us what it means to make an amazing Laptop.  Microsoft has had their week, showing the future of computing and how they plan to make their phones finally competitive.  Now it is Google's turn and here is what I think they need to do.

First off they need to fix their tablet problems.  The fact is that most Android tablets suck.  This doesn't mean that their hardware isn't there it's just that barely any developers write apps for Android Tablet's.  The iPad's ecosystem is just too strong when it comes to the quality of apps involved.  Also, now Microsoft has introduced one beautiful new tablet that is very promising, if they can deliver on what they showed off then Android Tablet's will have an even bigger problem.   If the rumors are true and Google announces a Nexus Table this week then hopefully they will introduce something that will make consumers look away from the iPad.  Something needs to be done to make Android Tablet's interesting to consumers.

The second thing they need to do is fix all this fragmentation.  Whether or not you agree or disagree that fragmentation is a problem, when you are about to announce your next version of Android and less than 10% of your users are on the current 4.0 platform, that is a problem.  Google should put their foot down and force their OEM's to get a better upgrade plan in place.  Also, and this is a personal note, I couldn't even tell you what Android 4.0 looks like because almost every android device has some sort of custom UI interface plugged in to what the Phone Manufacturer wanted.  Some of them are nice, but honestly I think it is annoying and sometimes makes Android look like crap.  Force them to change Google, yes you have a huge ecosystem with your Android operating system but do you really have brand loyalty.  Honestly, as annoying as it is that current Windows Phones will not get Windows 8, I think it would be even more annoying never knowing exactly when your phone will get the next version of Android, if it is going to at all.  Seriously the new Samsung Galaxy S III is just being released.  But in a few weeks, just watch and Samsung will release a new phone even better with Jelly Bean on it.  Even though Apple may be slow to update things at least you know that your phone is top notch at least for a whole year, and you know you will get an update even if it's limited (for no reason.) Google can easily fix some of these issues simply by laying down what phone companies must do if they want to continue using the Android operating system.  Don't believe me about fragmentation.  Just check out this picture below, it is a picture of all the devices that one developer must test their apps on to insure that they work correctly.  There are almost 400 devices here.  It shouldn't have to be that difficult.

To kind of some these things up, Google can fix their issues to maintain their current position simply by telling Phone companies what they can and cannot do, and get a regular updating system going for these phones.  Yes that might mean some of these custom skins of Manufactures would have to go, but seriously plain old Android is not ugly, it looks really nice I promise.  They also need to push their tablet market and make it relevant.  If they can show us this week that they can do some of these things or better then maybe they can deflate some of the steam that Microsoft has built for themselves this week.  Microsoft is gunning for them and they have the cash to throw around to make things happen, and even though they have been a sleeping giant in the past both Google and Apple need to not rest on their marketshares.  I am interested to see what Google shows us this week, hopefully it is enough to wow us. 

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut DLC coming this month!

Bioware today announced the long anticipated "fix" the ending of the game.  On June 26th all three platforms will be able to download the DLC extended cut for free.

I for one thought there was nothing wrong with the ending.  For many people though, they thought it wasn't enough.  Even though it was a little cryptic this extended cut is suppose to elaborate  more on the ending of the game.  I do not think however people will get as  many options for an ending as some people would think, as this seems nothing more than an extended version of what happened with the original endings.  I guess next week we will figure out if it was worth the wait.

Nintendo Launched a new 3DS

Last night in a live stream Nintendo launched its new version of the 3DS called the 3DS XL.  XL meaning the screens are getting massive.  The larger top screen measures in at 4.88 inches while the lower touch screen comes in at 4.12 inches.  Another note is that this is a much heftier version of a portable gaming system and does not have a right thumb stick.  Why Nintendo did not announce this at E3 is a mystery, unless they didn't want to take too much attention away from the Wii U.

Sadly this is a pretty ugly upgrade without anything cool to show for it other than a larger screen.  If you live in Japan you better have your own AC adapter as this puppy will not come with an AC adapter.  Apparently this is done to save money, but will launch with an AC adapter in other areas around the world.  It is expected to laugh with a price tag of $199.99.

Blizzard is making some people very unhappy.

In the latest update of Diablo III, Blizzard has started a new policy as to where anyone who buys the digital copy of the game will be in restricted access for the first 72 hours of owning it.  Basically this means that you are stuck at level 13, no auction house, and limited interactions with other players.  This has already caused a lot of outrage but Blizzard is quoted as saying that this is a necessary step in order to combat fraud and to help keep everyone happy while playing the game.  I really feel like Blizzard could of came up with a better way to combat fraud other than this.  I mean they require you to constantly be online to play the single player game already.  You would think they could throw down the Banhammer whenever they felt like it.

Already angered by Blizzard, South Korea is making Blizzard issue refunds to players because of all the Error messages and inability to play the game when it was first released.  It seems that Korea is ran by gamers for sure.  haha.  I can only imagine what they will do once they hear this new twist to the Diablo III mess.

Anyone looking forward to Darksiders II?

Well if you are here is a new trailer video.  Enjoy!

More Assassin's Creed 3 game footage

Looks like we are just getting tons and tons more information coming from Assassin's Creed 3.  Below you will see some information concerning your typical stroll through Boston.  Pretty cool gameplay that falls in line with the other Assassin's Creed games.

Best geeked out babies room ever.

I would of totally have wanted a room like this when I was little.  The video below shows a great looking setup that a father did for his new born baby boy.  It is completely decked out in Legend of Zelda stuff and it looks awesome!

The new Windows Phone Start Screen.

Microsoft released a video showing in detail what sets the Windows Phone operating system apart.  Check it out below.

New iPhone's rumored to be dropping to a 19 pin connector.

Another rumor surfaced today saying that due to size contraints that Apple will be ditching the current 30 pin dock connector in favor of a new smaller 19 pin connector.  This as stated is a chance for them to save space so that they can cram more battery into the new phone.  This however would render pretty much all current accessories useless unless some sort of adapter comes out as well.  Even though that wouldn't be the best looking thing it would definitely make it a lot easier instead of having to go buy all new accessories for your iPhones.

Microsoft announces Windows Phone 8

Microsoft yesterday finally took the wraps off of it's upcoming Windows Phone 8 operating system.  While the future of the Windows Phone just got a lot interesting and promising, the current gen of phones are not getting as much love as they would like.

With the announcement yesterday, Microsoft said that the new Windows Phone 8 will be moving away from the CE core and moving to the NT core.  What does that mean exactly?  What it means is that it will share the same core as the actual Windows 8 operating system and the Windows RT tablet system. So you can in theory make an application for Windows 8 and with just a minor amount of tweaking make it compatible with all three platforms.  This is huge for developers and insures the strength and future of the mobile operating system.  This all comes at a price though as the current generation of Windows Phone 7.5's will not be getting the update to Windows Phone 8 simply because their hardware cannot support it.  But Microsoft isn't leaving you completely high and dry as they will be releasing an update for 7.5 to 7.8 which will give you some of the great features of Windows Phone 8.

Sadly other than the updated start screen there was not very much detail as to what exactly other features the current generation of Windows Phones will be getting.

As far as developers go any app that you have currently made for Windows phone 7.5 will work with Windows Phone 8 without anything needing to be done to them.

It is a bitter sweet move by Microsoft but it was one that had to be done.  If they want the Windows Phone to succeed they needed an updated and great core to their operating system that almost all developers know how to develop on.  With the Windows operating system being the largest and most used operating system in the world, they have insured that all these developers will already know how to make a great Windows Phone app simply by knowing how to make a program run in Windows.

Here is a quick rundown of some of the other features announced for Windows Phone 8:

*  With the addition of the NT core, this brings with it support for up to 64 cores of cpu power, SD card functionality and an increased resolution up to 720p.

* True NFC support in all phones.  Along with this they have made an app called Wallet where you can store all your coupons, credit cards, and giftcards and use the NFC technology to use them without having them handy.  This could mean a lot for NFC actually catching on and not just being a nice trick to have.

*  The updated start screen, where you can change the size of the tiles and add as many as 28 tiles on the start screen from one corner to the other if you wanted to do so, all while keeping the sleek clutter free design of the Windows Phone.

*  Full Skype and third part Voip support built into the operation system.

*  Nokia maps will be the main map application for all Windows Phones.  Currently the Nokia Lumia has a great advantage over most other phones because you get Nokia Maps free along with their outstanding turn by turn navigation app called Nokia Drive.  With Windows 8 all Windows Phone users will have access to these great maps.

As with their Surface announcement exact launch dates are not being discussed.  Only a "fall availability" has been announced.  This is a great and long over due leap for the Windows Phone Platform.  Hopefully with all these changes the Windows Phone app store will start seeing a lot more big name publishers moving in to take up residence. 

This platform is truly an original and stunning operating system that I hope truly catches on and truly compete with iOS and Android.  This operating system has a good chance at succeeding now and hopefully will not see the same fate as WebOS.

Microsoft is planning another conference about mobile phones for today!

Microsoft will hold a conference concerning its Windows phone 8 platform today at 12 Eastern time.  I will be bring you updates as I get them concerning everything announced today.  Looks like Microsoft is determined to make this their week for coolness.

Some of the rumored announcements for the Windows Phone 8 are:

* A move to the NT platform over from the current CE platform.

*Dual core support

*Higher screen resolution support

The thing I am hoping for most is the fact that they will hopefully announce tons more apps coming to their platform as well as my Nokia Lumia 900 getting the update as well.

Starcraft 2 could work on a Wii U?

According to Kotaku, a Blizzard Lead Designer has stated that StarCraft 2 could work.  Now he didn't say they were designing it or even started on a project like this so just calm down.  But it is an interesting statement none the less.  I am sure thought that Blizzard is still very skiddish when it comes to porting their games over to a console.  Even with the Wii U's tablet, there is still no replacement for a keyboard, which is almost mandatory for any serious gameplay for the majority of Blizzards games.  Hotkeys, anyone?

This is still a very fun thought though, what if Blizzard brought Starcraft over to a console?  They would definitely have to redo the control scheme to make it work.  Though I still would not know how they could replace the keyboard in this game.

Another idea would be a port of just the single player only option.  That would be interesting to see in deed.  But hey Starcraft is nice but give me my Diablo III on my PlayStation 3, NAO!!!!

A possible huge leaked document concerning the xbox

Looks like last week was Apples week and this week is turning out to be a good and bad week for Microsoft.  Rumors around the web for the last few days is that the image above was taken from a leaked document concerning the future of the next Xbox console.

Some of what is said is in the document fall in line with the current rumors of a release date set for the next Xbox for next year with a new version of kinnect, along with the just announced Xbox glass tablet apps.  It also mentions that by 2015 there will be an updated version of kinnect that will include glasses (as shown in the above picture.)  According to this document the Xbox is trying to be your complete living room device to include bumped up specs from the current 360, a DVR option, along with more integrated TV functionality.  All for the rumored price of $299.

One other very interesting thing mentioned in the document was Microsoft's plans to buy out the Onlive gaming service.  Who they deemed as a real threat to the console industry if they can get more mainstream.  Would this be to integrate it into the next Xbox or to simply just buy it out to keep it from being a competitor is not truly known from this document.

Whether this will be all true or not is left to be seen.  The original leaked document has been pulled from the website which it was on, but all in all there isn't too many things surprising from this document.  If it is just someones idea of an online prank it was a very elaborate one for sure.

Spotify to offer free streaming radio app.

Spotify just announced that with a new update to the iOS and Desktop applications, they will begin offering free streaming radio music service.  Similar to Pandora it will offer you to select stations based on artists that you like and then will begin playing songs from their music catalog to match that style of music.  It will be ad based (the same as Pandora) and will only allow you to skip a certain number of songs per hour.  It will work for free from their current apps and if you are a Premium member already you will not have the ads and you can skip however many songs you would like.

This is a nice move for Spotify as they have been lacking a true streaming radio station.  I have often wondered why they never tried to compete with Pandora more.  Spotify is an amazing service that I personally decided to use for the premium access and now I can use it for my random song listening instead of just having to open up Pandora on my phone.

This update is rolling out slowly for iOS and Desktop.  Android and Windows phone users, be patient as this update is promised for you guys as well in the near future.

Microsoft finally got their tablet PC right!

Holy Cow, Microsoft made something truly innovative!  This tablet is stunning.  Here is the back-story way back in the late 90's early 2000's good old father of Microsoft Bill Gates thought it would be a great idea to have a tablet PC.  Sadly, even though they  made software adjustments for touch, the OEM's just botched it up and it just didn't work well.  This tablet that was announced last night is basically what that original idea should of been, and I have to admit it looks stunning.  Microsoft just lite a fire under the OEM's to say hey this is what a Windows 8 tablet should be.  Now, go try to catch up to it.

Check out the announcement video below.

Now exactly how well will this go in the market against Apple and all the Google tablets out there?  Well here is the thing Microsoft for the most part is going a whole different route than Apple went with this tablet idea.  Apple believes that a computer and a tablet should be two different things for mostly different purposes.  So far this strategy has worked outstandingly well for them.  However, Microsoft is basically saying we think that the future of the PC is the tablet so their tablets will run Full Windows 8 mostly.  The reason I put the mostly at the end is that Microsoft is releasing two different versions one an ultra thin ARM based tablet will run Windows RT and the intel version will run Windows 8 Pro.  The difference is the ARM RT version will run Metro Apps only (similar to other tablet apps,)  but the fact that the intel version will run Windows 8 PRO means that not only will you have the great Metro style tiles for your tablet viewing but you will also have an actual PC under the hood.  Depending on the exact specs of these tablets (which hopefully we will now soon,)  you can do almost anything that you would do normally on Windows.

The design of this tablet is just great, very thin, very original design but what caught my eye the most is that cover keyboard.  Did you see it in the video above?  It is like Apple's smart cover but instead of just a felt lined inside to the cover you have an actual touch based keyboard built into the cover.  That is a great idea!  Apple please copy that for the iPad, stat!  haha.

Anyway back to the Surface Tablet,  We do not have exact specs, release dates, or price ranges yet, but hopefully we will have all that information soon enough.  (Update:)  We do know that the intel version will have in ivybridge processor and be similar in specs to all the Ultrabooks out there.  Both tablets have front and rear cameras, a full usb port, displayport, an SD card slot, and can come in a hard drive size up to 128 gigs.

Now, I have seen a lot of people talking about this online and saying great hardware but where are the apps!  Well, I do agree they should of spent a little bit more time explaining this concept but guys the apps are already out there (for the intel version.)  It's Windows, any windows app that will be compatible with Windows 8 will be compatible with this puppy.  I think they should of stated this a lot better in their presentation yesterday but the fact remains that this is a full fledged Windows Computer.  Now how will that all translate with the RT version?  I am not sure.  Simply translating Windows phone apps to the tablet may work but we have yet to find out exactly.   This may or not be worth it to the developers out there.  We will just have to wait and see. I for one do not understand why they wanted to make two tablets.  I feel like the true Tablet PC with intel will really take off but I am not sure about the RT version, with very little apps out there for the Mobile Windows platform I think it will be hard pressed to catch up with the iPad's and Android Tablet's out there.  But then again this true Tablet PC could really catch on and with this amazing design and innovation we can only assume it will sell like crazy!

This is a great showing from Microsoft.  How well will it compete will have to be seen, but keep in mind this is technically a whole different ball game when it comes to the tablet market or old ball game if you want to consider the original Windows Tablet PC's.  I am just excited to see Microsoft wake up and start really innovating here.  Finally someone other than Apple is making something really cool!

New FLOG for the week.

Hey guys sorry this posted so late but I am on vacation and my blogger decided not to release my scheduled posts today.  Sadly they are a little dated now (here's looking at you Windows tablet,)  so I will post up some things in the morning about the announcements today.

Anywho back to the point check out today's FLOG episode where Felicia and Robin try to make sushi, while reminding me that it's just easier to go buy it than make it yourself.  Enjoy

OH noes my Iphone go boom and how it will turn into an experiment with Nokia

So I knew that my trusted iPhone 4 was on her last legs.  The home button would take sometimes, 15 presses before it would recognize it and you can imagine how useless the phone is when that button doesn't work.  But I was really hoping that it would of held out till this fall so that I could pick up the iPhone 5.  I was crushed when today my phone (which pretty much is an apendage for me) was not responding to any of the actual button presses.  Turns out after taking it to the Apple store it was determined that something had caused the connection to all the physical buttons to stop working.  I could pay to have it fixed (not worth it by the way) or go ahead and get an iPhone 4s.  I will go ahead and say that I have no desire for the 4s, if I'm going to get a new iPhone it is going to be the 5.  Sadly, I have no extra phones laying around that I could use in it's place.  So the morale of the story is that I had to get a  new phone.  But which to choose.  I thought about Android but I have used them in the past and they are ok, very nice when it comes to customizable features but I don't like the fragmentation of updates for the OS.

To back track a little here in the story, I ran into an old friend the other day and she had a Nokia Lumia 900 (windows phone 7.)  I have talked about how nice the operating system looks and the phone is just stunning.  Well I got to play around with it for an extended amount of time and I really liked how Windows Phone operates.  It is a true, unique operating system.  I really liked it but the thought of the much smaller app store,  kind of made me think hard about that switch.

Here is a neat link that microsoft provides that will demo the operating system from your current phones web browser, check it out for yourself.  So when it comes to tech I really think things through before I make a purchase (OK, I admit sometimes with Apple products, I just buy, but they make it so hard to not do it.)  Anyway, I made a list of all the must have apps that I use daily on my iPhone.  When it came down to it, windows phone had about 85% of those apps and the rest could simply be replaced by apps that do the exact same thing.  I could get Spotify, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Netflix, and Evernote.  I thought that it sucked that a lot of the games I play had no Windows Phone app, but then I thought, Oh wait I have a New Ipad, I still have all of these apps and games.  To be honest, I mostly play all my games on the iPad because of the bigger screen anyways.

So I went to the AT&T store and looked at the phone and played with it for a while.  You just have to see one in person it just looks great.  After talking with the Sales guy, and I explained in our conversation that I have a blog and I could do a write up on my experiences with the Windows Phone, we came to an agreement that I could try the phone for 30 days (AT&T's normal exchange period) but not have to pay the $35 restocking fee if I did not like the phone.  So, considering I needed a phone desperately I bit the bullet and got this phone.  By the way it's only $99.

My thought process was if I didn't like it I could take it back in 30 days or also my Mother's contract, we share a family plan, would be up in August so I could use her upgrade for the iPhone 5 and give her this Windows Phone.  So I have a plan and now I am playing around with my brand new Windows Phone.  So far it has been extremely easy to setup, the one thing I do not like is the fact that you still have to plug it into a computer to update it's software, but that is for a different article.

I plan on giving a video review of what I think of the phone so far, sometime this week.  Then I will give an update next week to see how I am still liking it, and if I miss my iPhone and then again before the 30 day period is up.  So we will see if this Windows Phone is what it will take for me to leave my loyalty for iPhones.  This is my first non iPhone since the original iPhone was released in 2007.   Stay tuned for future updates on this experiment.

Oh look an actual single player trailer for God Of War: Ascension.

Looks like we can finally feast our eyes on a trailer for the single player gameplay of God of War:  Ascension.  Check it out below.

Microsoft Press Conference Scheduled for June 18th.

Microsoft yesterday sent out invites to a scheduled press conference on June 18th in Los Angeles.  It is rumored that they will be revealing there long talked about Windows 8 to ARM-based tablets.  Microsoft however is being silent on what exactly the press conference will be about.  

If this is what Microsoft has in store to be shown off it will be their first big push against the iPad and Android tablets.  They will have a lot of catching up to do, so hopefully they have a lot of coolness to convence people to switch from either of these platforms.  I will admit that the pictures of the Live Tiles look like they will be great and seem like they will be handy for using a tablet, which is the complete oposite of how it seems to work on an actual PC, (for the record I have tried it on an actual PC, the preview version, and it just seems to get in the way and you can't disable it.)  In my opinion Windows 8 is geared more toward a tablet so hopefully they will show how awesome it is at this press event.

Vizio Computers are now for sale!

Yesterday, Vizio had a press release for their new computer line.  We finally get to see what these guys have been cooking up for the last 6 months since their original announcement back at CES.  The most interesting thing is that all of these computers will start at $898.

That is an interesting start point I think.  The best deal here, from what little details we still have from the press conference, is the all in one computer.  Coming in at 24 inches and 27 inches with built in HDMI inputs for your cable box or video game systems and a sub woofer to boot, this is a great deal for $898.

You can tell that they have definitely taken their que from Apple and made these with very minimalistic designs.   I think all of them look very slick and well thought out in design on the outside anyway.  There will also be no bloatware on these computers, which is refreshing when it comes to a Windows computer.  They also seem to offer a pretty good line up of internal hardware including Ivy Bridge processors and Nvidia graphics chips.

On the notebook side some more details that we do know.  The notebooks will all have SSD hard drivers, and HD (1080p) displays.  They are referring to their ultrabooks as "thin and light,"  I suppose this is a way to differentiate themselves from all the other Ultrabooks out there.  It looks like the base price on all these will only get you an i3 processor and an i7 on the high end.  No word on the pricing of those high end models but it is a bit of a bummer that they start at an i3 for this price range you would expect more.

As these start trickling down into store shelves hopefully we will get more info and some detailed reviews of these products.  As they stand they are a fresh look on the windows platform and a welcome change.  I can't help but think for me I can spend $100 more and get an Apple Macbook Air or iMac which may or not be considered better products depending on your side of the Apple love/hate battlefront.  Regardless I am glad to see these finally available for sale and I hope it will reinvigorate the  stale PC design models.