rgbFilter – Page 69 – For the pixel pusher in you.

8 bit Left 4 Dead. I don’t think Nintendo would have released this…

November 18, 2009 drsquid classic gaming, indie gaming, Left 4 Dead, NES, PC0 comment

This, believe it or not, is a real game, coming from EricRuthGames early next year. The flagship title of the PixelForce NES de-makes is Valve’s Left 4 Dead. This game play footage gives you an idea of what the project looks like in action and how it plays. As you can see, it’s a standard top-down 4 directional action/shooter. Remade in the NES retro style, the resolution is at 256 x 240 and features 16 colors and a 4 sound channel soundtrack. Now, let’s just get this out of the…

Bell also magically makes the SAF dissappear

November 17, 2009November 18, 2009 drsquid Bell, Rogers, SAF, Telus, Wind Mobile, Wireless0 comment

With the consumer backlash against made up wireless fees growing, Bell is rumoured to be to joining Rogers and Telus, and getting rid of the hated $6.95 ‘System Access Fee’. According to an internal document, leaked on The Mobile Ninjas here, on Nov 20th Bell “will no longer be charging” the SAF Effective November 20th, 2009 Bell Mobility will be launching new pricing for all existing post-paid plans & will no longer be charging the $6.95 system access fee. Review the job aid for more details. However just like Telus…

Flash 10.1 pre-release available

November 17, 2009November 17, 2009 Doug Groves Adobe, Flash, ION, Nvidia5 Comments

The long awaited version of Adobe’s Flash with support for video card (GPU) acceleration is now available for the PC in pre-release form. The new version offloads much of the video processing to the GPU, allowing for what is said to be much better playback performance. This is especially good news for those looking to add inexpensive ION based PCs to their home theatre setup, or want better Flash performance on their netbooks, as Flash based video is just about the only format that has playback issues in high definition. …

Amazon Kindle available in Canada

November 17, 2009 Doug Groves Amazon, Kindle2 Comments

Amazon has announced that the Kindle ebook reader is now available in Canada, which bring an integrated ebook reading experience to the market. Besides books, Canada will have wireless access to over 90 newspapers on a single use or subscription basis. In the US, customers can browse and buy books directly through the device using a 3G connection, for a fee of 10 cents per book. There is a similar deal with one of Canadas wireless carriers, but as of yet that carrier hasn’t been announced. If you’re interested in…

Episode 020 – Mobile Madness

November 15, 2009November 16, 2009 Doug Groves Bell, droid, HD2, HSPA, HTC, HTC HD2, iPhone, milestone, Motorola, Motorola Milestone, Rogers, Telus16 Comments

After taking a hiatus, which allowed us to catch up with our Fan Expo footage, we’re back on a regular schedule. Given the big news in the mobile phone space over the past couple of weeks, we talk about the new Bell / Telus HSPA+ network, and some of the new phones they’ve introduced (or soon will be) such as the Motorola Droid/Milestone, the HTC HD2, the end of Rogers iPhone exclusivity and much more. If you’ve been contemplating switching, or getting a new smartphone, then this is the episode…

Inside scoop on Modern Warfare 3 via The Onion

November 11, 2009 Doug Groves 1 Comment

Ultra-Realistic Modern Warfare Game Features Awaiting Orders, Repairing Trucks Modern Warfare 2 has only been out for a day, but The Onion managed to get some details on the inevitable sequel. The missions in this beta are looking to be even more true to life, and vary from the very easy “Pose for photo-ops for Thanksgiving media reports” to the more challenging “Settle the debate on who’ you’d rather have sex with: Jessica Biel or Shakira“. Infinity Ward isn’t known for adding such subtle role-playing elements, and it’s nice to…

Trio of Acer convertible tablets announced

November 10, 2009January 28, 2010 Doug Groves 1420P, 1820PT, 1820PTZ, Acer, convertible, Laptop, multitouch, netbook, tablet, Windows 72 Comments

Netbooks have been with us for a couple of years now, and although the market has been one of the largest growing consumer tech sectors, there’s been little innovation beyond increasing screen size and the blurring of lines between netbook and laptop. Sitting squarely between the netbook and laptop markets are ultra thin devices that range from reasonably priced products like the Acer Timeline to the ultra expensive and stylish Dell Adamo and Sony Vaio X. I had a chance to play with the Acer 1410, and found it to…

Smart Phone OS market growth: RIM the winner

November 10, 2009 Doug Groves Blackberry, iPhone, Nokia, Palm Pre, Windows Mobile0 comment

Canalys, which is an independent technology analyst group, has released its latest numbers on the global smart phone market, and there’s some interesting stuff in there. Overall smart phone growth was 4%, with the largest regional growth was 26% in APAC (East Asia, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Oceania), and North America saw a 5% increase, while EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) actually dropped 6%. The overall 4% growth is much smaller than the 13% growth last year, and some of this could be attributed to the global economic…

Motorola Droid (Milestone) coming to Canada in January, exclusively on Telus

November 10, 2009November 10, 2009 drsquid Android, droid, HSPA, milestone, Motorola, Telus0 comment

On Friday, November the 6th, the heavily hyped Android 2.0 Droid smartphone launched on the largest US carrier, Verizon. The Droid is another phone in the long list of iPhone killers, but unlike the other pretender’s to this crown, it really seems to have all the right mix of features and cool to succeed – with commercials like this, these, and good early reviews here and here. However the biggest news for Canadians is the news that Droid will be coming to Canada in Q1 2010. When I started writing…

Telus HSPA network off to rocky start, iPhone and HTC Hero in tow

November 10, 2009November 10, 2009 drsquid Bell, Hero, HSPA, HTC, iPhone, Rogers, Telus2 Comments

A day after Bell’s Nov 4th launch of their new HSPA network Telus’ went live. Like Bell, Telus’ flagship handset is the iPhone, but unlike Bell the remaining handset selection is a lot slimmer at the moment, lacking any lower end phones. Telus is exclusively selling the HTC Hero, an Android 1.5 phone, and the LG BL40 ‘New’ Chocolate, and with Bell they have the Blackberry Bold 9700 and like Rogers the Nokia E71 qwerty. Hopefully this line up will expand, and there are already unconfirmed rumours that the Samsung…

Boxee Media Center Beta arrives Dec 7

November 6, 2009November 6, 2009 Doug Groves beta, Boxee, event, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows0 comment

Boxee, the social media connected media center, is having a beta reveal party on December 7, 2009. The software has been in alpha for the past year or so, and brings a wealth of online content to the living room interface, whether you’re running Windows, Linux, Mac or Apple TV. From the annoucement: At the event we will demo the new Beta, launch new applications from partners and start a 4-weeks early-access for users to test the Beta before we release it to the public at CES on Jan 7th….

Mass Effect 2 gameplay footage

November 6, 2009 Doug Groves Mass Effect 2, Microsoft, Xbox, Xbox 3600 comment

If ever there’s a time to just sit back and chill, it’s a Friday afternoon when watching the clock slowly move to 5. To help it pass faster, Joystiq posted 9 minutes of game play footage from the upcoming Mass Effect 2 using the current build. Even though the video isn’t in HD, the level of texturing, and details in animation and environment are an obvious improvement over original. There’s some NSFW (or as I like to call it NSFFoxNews) language in the beginning, but beyond that, everything is shaping…