Sony Announces On-Demand Video for PS3

Anyone getting bored with their Playstation 3’s plethora of capabilities yet? Not to worry. Sony CEO Howard Stringer came to the rescue today with the announcement of an on-demand video service similar to the current Playstation Store. And the best part, it’s slated for release in summer 2008, which if I’m not mistaken, is like, now. But if it’s anything like the Playstation Home, (which I doubt) who knows when it will be released.

According to Arstechnica.com, no other video titles besides the movies and television Sony currently produces has been announced, but the selection should be plentiful. Great. The thing already is so convenient that you don’t even have to go leave the couch to turn it on or even to buy some games, and now it’ll have a whole library of movies just an X button away. No plans for an integrated soda fountain or popcorn machine have yet been announced, but I say why not? And throw in a blood sugar monitor while you’re at it so we can watch our slow descent into diabetes in crystal clear high definition.

But seriously, being the movie freak I am, I’m really looking forward to this. It only makes sense that they would make an on-demand movie service, and although unlikely, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them create a music store as well. It would be harder to compete in that market with iTunes and Amazon pretty well cornering it, but it wouldn’t take much to develop if they’re already providing video.

I’m not surprised that Sony has been able to do so much with the console. It really is one of the best gadgets I’ve ever purchased and one can only imagine what they might do next, with either the PS3, or, even further ahead, the next-gen Sony console. Any thoughts? I’m interested to know. Drop me a comment or an email.

On another PS3 related note, I found this cool OS X Leopard theme for the XMB today on deviantART and thought I would share it with my fellow Mac/PS3 fans out there. Check it out.

The Joker Looks To Revamp Movie Villainy

Back in 1989, Jack Nicholson sported a purple fedora and a load of lipstick and slapsticked his way to the bank as everyone’s favorite killer clown, the Joker, in Tim Burton’s Batman. Nearly two decades later Hollywood decided to give the Clown Prince of Crime another shot, this time with Heath Ledger behind the face paint in Christopher Nolan’s followup to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight. I loved the first Batman movie mostly because of Nicholson, and his portrayal has already gone down in movie history. It was perhaps my favorite Nicholson performance prior to The Departed. (Although the Shining is close.) But in a time where movie villains have become more sly, greedy slime balls than sick, darkly demented killers, the Joker needs to make a comeback.

For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer to this film, check it out. Ledgers voice is somewhere between Richard Dawson and Charles Manson and the splotchy face paint and grungy hair are ideal for the new incarnation as opposed to the sleek and pristine mask and slick gangster do that had Nicholson looking more a pimp than a murderer. In the trailer when Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) asks if they found any identification on the Joker a policeman responds “Nothing in his pockets but knives and lint.” The perfect teaser to prepare us for this new breed of bad guy. I’m going to say right now that Ledgers Joker could do for villains what Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man did for heroes.

When Ledger’s death was first announced, buzz for this film went through the roof and, while not at all doubting his ability as an actor, I feared that reviews of the film and his performance would lose much of their objectivity due to the tragedy. Now, after seeing several trailers and reading Peter Travers’ review, I know that this performance would have been hyped just as much if not for the added drama. Ledger’s Joker will be this years big character, mixing the debauched brilliance of Daniel Plainview with the demented callousness of Anton Chigurh. He was robbed of an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain and the Academy would do well to pay him back in spades with the first posthumous Oscar in more than 30 years.

I know I’m speaking boldly for someone who has yet to see the film, but I’m a movie geek just as much as I am a tech geek if not more so, and there’s nothing I love more than a great villain. I don’t think great villainy will stop here for this new Bat franchise either. I may be getting light-years ahead of myself, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Aaron Eckhart could knock the role of Two-Face out of the park. I’m not a big sequel guy, but as long as Christopher Nolan is directing and Christian Bale is dawning the cape, I think this could be the superhero genre’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

On a more tech related note, I saw the new Guitar Hero for the DS advertised on TV the other day. I feel bad passing judgement on it without picking up the stylus, but does anyone else find the mere idea of this incredibly ridiculous? Let me know.

Gadgets I Couldn’t Live Without

Let me tell you a little about myself. I live in a town of about 800 people with not much to do. The biggest town within 50 miles has 43,000, and while it provides a little more excitement, with todays gas prices it’s not worth it. I work the night shift for the county sheriff’s office, and as you can probably imagine, it isn’t that busy. So I have to have something to keep myself occupied, right? Here’s a little list of mini-reviews (in no particular order) on the gadgets that help a techie like me get by each day.

SONY PLAYSTATION 3

I’ve been a big supporter of Sony products since I was a wee lad, and game consoles have been no exception, I’ve had a PS One, a PS2, a PSP (see below) and now, the best of the series, the PS3. I don’t know how I could get through those long, boring nights off when every other living thing within a 100 mile radius is fast asleep without a rousing round of Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, Assassin’s Creed or GTA IV online. It doubles as a great movie player for either my extensive DVD collection or my new obsession, Blue-Ray’s. Not to mention the internet browser, the music capability and the full array of downloadable content from PSN.

SONY PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

As I said, Sony has been good to me over the years, and the PSP has really been great for my “anywhere anytime” gaming needs, plus a bundle of extra features. I use the PSP during those long, boring hours at work when I need a quick gaming fix. It’s got everything I need in a portable device, and now with the newest firmware, it even has Skype. Not to mention this lingering rumor of future GPS capability in the US. Also great for movies (UMD or H.264 files on my memory stick) and music (MP3 and AAC files). It also has RemotePlay, allowing me to access my PS3 from anywhere with WiFi and watch movies and listen to music I have stored on there. There’s even talk of possibly being able to play PS3 games on PSP via the app sometime in the future.

APPLE 13″ MACBOOK

Computers have become a nearly essential part of every day life, even in Podunk. To me, nothing makes more practical sense than having one that you can take anywhere. And even more sensible is having one that will be reliable and useful for the maximum amount of time. After my HP laptop that I owned for just over a year and a half shot craps back in January, I needed something that I knew could stand the digital age test of time, (which, isn’t that long really, but you get my meaning) and would be sleek, ultra-portable and ultra-useful to boot. I found my Holy Grail with this little baby. OS X is a dream compared to Windows (in my opinion) and the size and weight are ideal. I was going to go for the MacBook Air, but I needed a CD/DVD drive in the machine and a little more than 80 GB in the hard drive. I couldn’t be happier with this machine and it’s functionality goes far beyond what I could have imagined. I use it as a media server for my PS3 via Nullrivers great MediaLink software, ($15, Nullriver.com) as an alarm clock with a neat little AppleScript I cooked up, as a virtual inventory device for all my gadgets and media with Delicious Library 2 ($40, delicious-monster.com) as my own personal new release cinema with watch-movies.net and of course I wouldn’t be writing this without it.

Apple iPOD

Everyone knows what an iPod can do. I’m not even going to bother to write much about it. I need to upgrade from the 30 GB ancient that I own to an 80 or 160 GB, but it still has a lot of use as far as music, movie and podcast enjoyment in my daily life. I keep notes on it, use it as an alarm, and can even upload all the content of my Delicious Library to it in case I forget what I own or my house burns down while I’m gone and I need a list for the insurance company (god forbid).

There are a lot of other gadgets essential to my day to day that I don’t really care for, like my Motorola KRZR (I’d rather have an iPhone, but contrary to their advertising AT&T doesn’t get service everywhere, and Alltel won’t even support one if it’s unlocked) but this sums up my favorites. I’ll be keeping an eye out for more possibilities as time goes on, and may even have enough to justify a future list.

Songbird Media Player

Is anyone else having playback problems with iTunes? Do a search on Google, and you’ll find the answer to be “Hell YEAH!” I’m a big supporter of Apple products and services, but I’m also a fan of options in all facets of my life, especially with media. It all started a few months back while reading an article in Rolling Stone about someone (or someones..) who had become fed up with the poor audio quality of Beatles CD’s and decided to rip FLAC files to their computer from their collection of pristine Beatles vinyl.

To make a very long story short, they put the files on the internet so other people could get them (search “Purple Chick Megaupload”) and I went after it. I didn’t know what a FLAC file was at the time, but I did know iTunes wouldn’t play it, so I had to find something that would. In enters Songbird, an open-source media players from some of the guys who made Winamp and the Yahoo Music Engine. It not only handles FLAC files but also MP3 (of course), AAC, WMA, AIFF, MIDI, Apple Lossless, yadda yadda plus files with that pesky DRM crap. And the really great advantage is that since it’s open-source, it’s cross platform and developer friendly (not to mention free of course) and there are a plethora of extensions you can download to make it even cooler.

There’s an extension to display your album art much in the same way iTunes Cover Flow does, you can scrobble your tracks to Last.fm (if your cool like me) and you can even download an extension that imports your entire iTunes library into Songbird. It doesn’t play video, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time.

It’s also visually customizable, with a variety of great skins. You can even make it look exacltly like iTunes if you so choose. There’s a built in web browser, eMusic compatibility (via another extension) and you can even search for DRM-free MP3’s with the SkreemR shortcut/bookmark on the sidebar.

Songbird is a great program for open-source purists and the anti-corprate big business haters out there who would rather throw their grandma in front of a train than download anything from Apple or Microsoft. (I love my grandma dearly and always protect her from trains, but a small part of me is with you.) It also seems to correct the skipping problem a lot of my tracks seem to be having in iTunes as of late. (The point at meant to get to in the opening.)

Check it out, (most of you probably have) if you hate it, its not like you paid for it.

The YouTube Screening Room, RIP George Carlin

On June 19th YouTube debuted there very own Screening Room. I haven’t spent much time there yet, but I did have time to check out one of the films currently showing. It’s called Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody? and consists of John C. Reilly (Magnolia, Talladega Nights) standing on the sidewalk administering a one question survey. It’s a somewhat uplifting, somewhat thought provoking effort, and I must say I enjoyed all four minutes and three seconds of it. If you have four minutes to spare, check it out.

The site will update with four new short films every two weeks, and, according to Arstechnica.com, will show feature length independent films on a case by case basis. It’s completely free of course, and totally cool for anyone who, like myself, enjoys the artistry of film.

During the writing of this article, my girlfriend informed me of the death of comedian George Carlin, who according to MSNBC.com, died Sunday of heart failure at the age of 71.

In honor of Carlin, My Take invites you to take a moment of your time and enjoy one of my favorite bits.

The Ten Commandments

R.I.P George

Cloverfield Blu-Ray Review

When I got my PS3 back in November, the bitter, childish format war between HD DVD and Blu-Ray was still in full swing. I was nervous to buy a Blu-Ray for obvious reasons (And also because I read somewhere that Sony wasn’t allowing pornographic content to be produced on Blu-Ray, which didn’t matter to me except that it may or may not have contributed to the death of Betamax back in the day.) But now that the war is over, I decided to delve into the Blu-Ray universe with Cloverfield.

The first thing that attracted me to this was the price, ($20 on Amazon) about the same as your standard new release DVD. With Blu-Rays running anywhere from $20 to as much as $45 in most of my searches, this was either a warning or a selling point.

The film itself looks great in HD. The effects are convincing and the action seemed more intense and engrossing. Even on my 32″ TV I was a little woozy with all the camera movement, but overall it was a pretty decent visual experience. The 5.1 TrueHD Surround Sound added a ton to the engrossing effect of the visuals. It was very appropriately selective on the sounds it put through the back two channels, which is a disappointment with most DVD’s, and I almost had to turn my sub-woofer off half way through, because the intense bass was scaring my dog.

The supplemental features are much like the rest of everything that has to do with the film, very secretive, although there is one feature with the effects supervisor where you finally get to see a scaled down model of the monster. The blooper reel is entertaining, I wasn’t exactly rolling on the floor, but it might be something you want to check out if you’re bored. The big feature of the Blu-Ray was the “Special Investigation Mode” which is a mode that plays the movie in the top right hand corner of the screen while the left hand side has a map Manhattan complete with icons displaying the current in-movie locations of the group of main characters and the monster (referred to as the Large Scale Aggressor or LSA). It also displays little tidbits of information at the bottom of the screen pertaining to the current scene which the CIA has supposedly learned (or assumed) since the events of “Case Designate Cloverfield”. This mode, for me was a big disappointment in that the assumptions on the origin of the “LSA” seem pretty convoluted and only add to the ridiculous confusion. Great for fanboys (or fangirls) but not for someone who just likes the film.

I’ve heard there’s plans for a sequel, but I hope if they make one it doesn’t reveal too much else. This story was great by itself, and I know a lot of people probably will disagree, but I don’t want to know what it is or where it came from and why. Reveals on things like this are always disappointing. No one ever attempted to explain why there was a giant gorilla and a T-Rex on an uncharted island in King Kong. Mystique breeds enduring art. JJ Abrams, if you care what I think, (HA)  please, for the love of great storytelling, don’t try to mess with this reasonably good idea.

Visuals: 8/10
Audio: 9/10
Supplements: 6.5/10
Bang for the Buck: 8/10

Overall: 7.9/10

Celtics, Gambling, Gaming, Gadgets

I know this is kind of abrupt, but I’m a guy with a computer and a lot of time on my hands and I feel like voicing random opinions and shamelessly hoping that someone will care. So here goes…

The Boston Celtics kick ass and I’m really impressed with Kevin Garnett’s passion. (Yes, it’s a bandwagon thing, not afraid to admit it.) In other sports news, you should all be gambling. CentSports lets you gamble for free! Not make sense? Check it out. It’s my new obsession. I’m also obsessed with Nascar 09 on PS3. Not sure why though. The game is a huge letdown from what I was expecting. I’ve just been bored I suppose. I need something as immersive as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in my life again. Pretty psyched about NCAA Football 09 though. And I’m finally going to get my hands on a copy of Call of Duty 4. I’ve heard the campaign mode is short but online is awesome. I’m more of a third person guy, but I’ll give it a shot. Also on PS3, if you haven’t checked out Qore yet, don’t. By the time I got there, all the goodies, like the SOCOM demo and other things, were offline. Unless you’re really bored and want to pay $2.99 to watch five and a half minutes of Veronica Belmont segment intros (which I enjoyed… a lot), pass on this one. I plan on paying for at least two more episodes (if it lasts that long) and I’ll happily keep you updated.

I just bought a USB turntable, the Crosley Keepsake. It’s not what I was hoping, but then again I’d never used a turntable before I got it, so if any true audiophiles out there have any hints, tips or ideas on how I can get the best out of my investment let me know. I bought a brand spankin’ new record with it, plugged it in, recorded side A and then to my displeasure, there was so much noise it couldn’t automatically separate the tracks. So I went all manual on it and was doing fine till the software unexpectedly quit. Hoorah. Did I waste a loada bones on a lemon gadget? Hope not…

Anywho, I’ll be back soon with more random opinions that probably don’t matter. Stay classy.

NASCAR 09 Review

NASCAR games are most likely an aquired taste. Either you’re into them or you aren’t. All of that turning left and blabber from your worthless spotter can be quite, well, stupid if you’re not already a fan of the sport. If you are, then read on.

This game was a lot of fun when I first switched it on a few days ago. Having not played the game since the 05 installment on PS2, the initial reaction was one of great enthusiasm. But, like all things I’ve been highly anticipating, it eventually let me down. The first thing you’ll notice in the game, and in most other reviews you might have already read, Jeff Gordon is all over the place. If you’re a fan of his, you’ll probably enjoy the constant how-to’s that Gordon provides throughout the game. If you aren’t you can just skip through and read the jist of what he said. He can be quite helpful if you’ve never played before. The next thing you’ll probably notice is the new EA Sports trend of hands-on training in every aspect of the game. There’s the Driver’s challenge which runs you through different scenarios on different tracks to familiarize you with the best ways to do the things required to win races as well as help you get a feel for the controls.  Gordon shows you how to do almost everything, so you will know within the first ten minutes everything that the game has to offer. The main thing of course is the career mode, in which you can start out in either the Craftsmen Truck, Nationwide or just jump right into Sprint Cup. You sign to a team and a sponser, and each has a small list of goals for you to achieve. Once you achieve all the goals the contracts reward you with either Performance points or Rep points. Rep points help you get better contracts and Performance points are used to build driver attributes. (You can also get both of these via the Driver Challenges).

This mode started out fun for me, but wore on me fast as the races became repitious and the attribute bonuses didn’t seem to make a huge difference. I haven’t gotten a chance to hit the track online yet, but when and if I do, I’ll update.

Two things I was looking forward to as possibilities in this game didn’t show. One being the small matter of your car number. This may not bother anyone else on the planet, but I HATE being limited to choosing a number between 100 and 199. I think you should be aloud to choose whatever number you want, but I think there’s a licensing thing that keeps that from happening. The second thing I wanted to see was drivers retiring and the ability to take over their ride, ala Kurt Bush/Rusty Wallace. Now, I’m only four years into my career, so this may exist, but I doubt it. Again, probably legal mumbo jumbo.

The graphics are stellar, but then again, on todays systems, poor visuals are a deadly sin. The controls have a realistic feel to them and have great (sometimes too great) responsiveness. I was pleased to find out that it’s still possible to turn damage off and hit the gas full throttle through almost every race to win, careening the wall into every turn. But it’s much mor rewarding to be patient and hold your lines.

Overall, unless you’re as nit-picky in customizations as me, or extremely annoyed by JG, you’ll probably enjoy the game. If you like NASCAR that is.

Funness: 7/10
Bang for the Buck: 7/10

Overall: 7/10