Are you addicted to technology?

So this question came to me yesterday after a really good friend of mine asked me to talk himself out of purchasing an impulse buy.  Ok let me start this off with a little background.  I am writing a blog about Tech so as you can imagine someone asking a technophile such as myself to talk them out of buying a shiny new gadget is like asking a meth addict to stop making free meth.  Yeah bad analogy but you get the point.  As I was helping my friend I decided the best thing I could do is do a little research about it and tell him the cons of buying it.  In doing so I became interested in it as well.  So yeah that was not a good idea but luckily this thing involved doing exercise more, so it wasn't that hard for me to lose interest in it.  haha.  Which brings me to this point of asking, are you addicted to technology.


My answer is a resownding YES.  For example the other day I found myself thinking very hard that I would love to have an iPad and it would be the greatest thing ever if I had one.  Sounds typical right?  Well except for the fact that last month I won an Amazon Kindle Fire.  Which is an amazing tablet in itself and does everything that I would need for it to do.  But before that during Christmas I received a Vizio tablet on the cheap.  I also own an iPhone 4, a 21" iMac, a PS3, and an older windows notebook.  Now see where the addiction is coming in?  HAHA  Now try and rationalize an iPad purchase with all of these other pieces of technology that I own.  Yeah doesn't hold water in any argument for getting an iPad.  I still want one.  The thing keeping me from it now is the price tag and the thought that there are much more important things and useful things that I could do with that money.  Let alone save the money.

I guess one can say this all comes down to marketing and society pushing us to buy things.  Regardless of the cause though, I still love technology and I probably always will have an extreme fascination with it.  Google Glasses anyone?  The point to take away here is a simple one.  Keep loving technology if you are a geek like me, but remember to take it in moderation and only get things you will use and have a need.  If it helps make a list of pro's and con's.  It helps me sometimes...  I also would suggest making a list of things you want and things you need.  This could always help you realize what should take priority.  

Facebook just bought instagram.

Facebook just purchased instagram everyone's favorite little picture sharing app.  Sadly this means that everyone will now stop using it because its another Facebook thing now.  However, I really don't think the developers of instagram care because they just got 2 billion for it.  Yes you heard that right Facebook just paid 2 billion dollars for the instagram app.  Let's hope Facebook doesn't ruin a good thing.  For more details check out the original article from Lifehacker.

Things the Nerd in me finds cool this week.

Some cool videos I found on the web.  Enjoy.

Project Glass from Google

  So this video makes these seem really cool.  You basically get a pop up notification type system (apparently for your cell phone) in an augmented reality setting.  While this seems really cool and is all powered by your voice I just can't stop this feeling that these are going to be the "WOW, look at that dork with the headset in his ear even when he isn't talking to someone" kind of trend.  Also, they are super nerdy looking, granted these are just prototypes Hopefully they can make these look a little less dorkier.  They hope to have this out by the holidays.  I have to admit that some of the things he does in this is pretty awesome but that is probably just the uber nerd in my speaking.  Maybe this is Googles answer for Siri, something at first that will be  a novel idea that will someday actually be very useful.
Watch their promo video of Google Glasses  here

What to expect from an iPad 3

There are a lot of speculation around what the iPad 3 will have new on it.  I for one do not see anything really drastic hardware wise as the iPad is a solid device.  I would expect to see a processor boost and maybe more ram.  The hard drive space will remain the same as Apple has kept the same amount since the original iphone was released.  I would expect however a hi def screen (aka retina display)  Whether this is actually a retina display or just a bumped up resolution we will have to wait and see in a couple of days.

Will it have Siri?  Maybe, but I feel if it does make an appearance we will see the next phase of what Apple has planned for Siri.  Remember Siri for the iPhone 4s is still in beta. 

Will there be a smaller version of the iPad like a 7"?  If Apple stays on Steve Jobs path then that answer will always be no.  Steve himself said that anything smaller than 10" was too small and it would not happen.   Granted now that Tim is at the helm we will have to see if they decide differently.  I have a feeling though they will not deviate from Steve's ideas. 

I do however see them keeping the iPad 2 in production and start selling it at a much cheaper price to be more of a competitor for the cheaper tablets aka kindle fire.  We will have to wait and see, I myself hope Apple wows us.  I miss the days of the holy crap that is the coolest thing I have ever seen.  I have a feeling its coming soon, if not with the next iPad, but maybe with the iPhone 5 or maybe the rumored Apple TV.

Troubles in Bioware Land?

So this week has seen the lead writer for Bioware games (most recently SW:TOR) and 3 more senior staff members leave this week.  Does this spell trouble within Bioware?
There have been a lot of reports of members of Bioware feeling rushed by parent company EA to get SW:TOR out in time for the holiday.  A lot of people attribute this to the reason for all the complaints of the end game not feeling so completed.  I myself cancelled my subscription after getting max level because after that story ends its just your typical raid and grind dailies that made me tired of other MMO's.  Is this the case why the endgame doesn't seem so polished we may never know.  Regardless, the lead writer according to massively.com has moved on to more of a main stream writing and the other 3 senior staff members have went on to form their own independent game company to produce what they call an MMORTS type of game supposedly involving Vikings.

Also in the new is another one of Bioware's writers who has been trying to take down her twitter account after a backlash from angry gamers for her supposed comments from an interview back in 2006 that was posted on reedit.com saying that she thinks games should also have a skip the combat button and go to the narrating for games because thats all she cares about.  Interesting take of it, don't think it deserves an angry twitter mob but I don't think many people would choose to skip through a games fighting just to see the story parts only.

Hopefully things will start looking up for Bioware.  I am sure that they had already had people in place to take over these peoples positions.

Need some iPhone game love?

Here it is then.   Lots and lots of iPhone games are one sale though today for only $.99.  Including EA and Gameloft.  I must say that I did spend a lot of gift card credit that I had on some games.  I will do some reviews on them this week and tell you what I think.  Some are new some are old but since some of them went from 7 or 8 bucks to $.99 I couldn't pass it up and neither should you!