Author: Doug Groves

dougplanet.com is his personal blog, which is withering on the vine. If you poke around it, you’ll find out that he’s an animator and broadcast designer by trade, usually pushing pixels in either After Effects or Lightwave 3D. If he absolutely had to pick a favourite all time writer, it would be Harlan Ellison more days than any other. If you don’t know who Ellison is, then Doug weeps for you. Doug also likes long walks on the beach, mainly to collect improperly discarded medical waste for an undisclosed project of epic proportions.

Xbox Live going 360 exclusive

February 5, 2010 Doug Groves Microsoft, x10, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, xbox original0 comment

According to a letter today from Marc Whitten, GM of Xbox Live, the original Xbox is definitely looking at it’s sunset months, at least when it comes to online gaming. Support for the original Xbox on the Live service will end on April 15th, 2010. This includes both original titles compatible with the 360 and the downloadable Xbox Originals games. This doesn’t affect the single player experience, as it affects the multiplayer gaming aspect. The largest groups of people to be affected are fans of Halo 2 and Counter Strike….

The videogame history timeline

February 4, 2010 Doug Groves history, timeline4 Comments

It’s not the first time someone has done a timeline for videogames, but the videogame history timeline is the best I’ve seen. It’s a new project from designer Mauricio Giraldo Arteaga, and dates all the way back to Charles Babbage. One of the nicest features is the top bar which not only has a search function, but has a series of tags that let you customize what information is viewable (person, technology, business, console, accessory, game, cultural, other). It’s still in beta, but it’s looking good to me. via [Toronto…

Fallout New Vegas: Fall 2010

February 4, 2010February 4, 2010 Doug Groves Bethesda, Fallout New Vegas, PC gaming, PS3, Xbox 3600 comment

Bethesda Softworks, makers of Fallout 3 have released the above teaser trailer for the all new “Fallout: New Vegas”, which is being developed by Obsidian Entertainment. This is noteable because Obsidian is made up of many former developers from Black Isle Studios, the creators of the original Fallout. It certainly hits many of the same stylistic notes as Fallout 3, with the “golden oldies” soundtrack and retro-future look, and with Obsidian on board will hopefully stay truer to its ‘traditional’ RPG roots than Fallout 3 did. Needless to say, this has…

Aliens vs. Predator demo coming Feb. 4th

February 3, 2010February 3, 2010 Doug Groves Aliens, Aliens vs. Predator, demo, multiplayer, PC gaming, Predator, PS3, Xbox 3606 Comments

The Sega Europe blog has officially announced that a multiplayer demo will be released on Thursday Geb 4th for the upcoming Aliens Vs. Predator game, via Xbox Live, PSN or Steam, depending on your preference. This AvP is set in the future (roughly around the time of Aliens), and will allow the player to take on the role of Alien, Predator or Colonial Marine, and duke it out in a refinery designed to feature areas that will be more suited for each species. From Sega… There are numerous vantage points…

Mobilicity to launch this spring

February 3, 2010 Doug Groves DAVE Wireless, Mobilicity, no contracts, spectrum1 Comment

Data & Audio-Visual Enterprises aka DAVE Wireless, has announced that when they launch their new wireless service in Toronto this spring, it’ll be under the much more consumer friendly Mobilicity brand, a contraction of ‘Mobile’ and ‘Simplicity’. According to their homepage, if you say it fast it sounds like “Moblissity”, but that remains to be seen. Instead of being a national carrier, they plan on focusing on those who ‘live, work and play’ in Canada’s major cities. Some time this spring, Toronto will be the first to get a chance…

Rightware unveils Kanzi 3D developers tool

February 2, 2010February 2, 2010 Doug Groves 3D, development tool, Kanzi, Mobile5 Comments

Late last year, upstart Rightware acquired futuremark’s Mobile and Embedded Business Unit, and out of that comes the Kanzi development platform. Aimed at providing a complete pipeline from 3D content creation to deployment to mobile and embedded devices that support OpenGL ES 2.x and 1.x, it looks to be very scalable. What also makes it very interesting is that the 3D format they support, COLLADA, is supported by just about every 3D animation and modeling application out there. Rightwave will unveil more about Kanzi during Mobile World Congress starting February…

March 1st 2010 – double tech D-day

February 2, 2010 Doug Groves Google Apps, Google Docs, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Windows 71 Comment

Well, Groundhog Day has come, and with it the rodent prognosticators have come to a consensus with regards to how much more cold we’ll have to endure. Don’t let that get in the way of getting a jump on spring cleaning though. At the beginning of March, two things happen that will probably affect a large number of people. First, if you’re using Google Apps, and for some reason still use Internet Explorer 6 (which is still estimated at a shockingly high 10% of all internet users), you’ll start running…

The iPad: Did Apple jump the shark, or is it a tablet for the masses?

January 28, 2010January 29, 2010 Doug Groves Apple, eBook, Gaming, iPad, netbook, tablet10 Comments

Well, iPad day has come and gone, and with it the dreams of many an Apple fan, if our internal emails here at rgbFilter are any indication. In the weeks leading up to the announcement of the new iPad, there was all kinds of rampant speculation. Will it be iPhone OS, or OS X? How big will it be? Will there be a stylus? Will it magically kill both other ebook readers and netbooks in one fell swoop? If you followed the standard commentary, not just in the tech press,…

Episode 22: IPTV

January 25, 2010January 25, 2010 Doug Groves ASRock, Asus, Bayonetta, Book Of Eli, Boxee0 comment

Want to do away with your cable bill? Ryan does, so we take a look at different options, from low cost media players like the Asus O!Play Air, all the way up to HTPC setups using nettops like the ASRock ION 330 or Acer Aspire Revo. We’ve also got reviews of Book of Eli and Bayonetta on tap.

Pure Pwnage Production Shorts

January 22, 2010 Doug Groves Pure Pwnage, TV3 Comments

As many of you may be aware, Pure Pwnage, the wildly popular Toronto based internet show has made the transition from the web to TV show, thanks to an eight episode deal with Showcase here in Canada. As part of the lead up to the premiere in March, they have started releasing a series of production shorts, the first three of which are already online. The shorts so far consist of Jeremy and FPS Doug dealing with acting classes and other requests made by the network. Unfortunately, the clips can…

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 available now

January 22, 2010January 22, 2010 Doug Groves download, Firefox, Mozilla, update1 Comment

If you use Firefox, and haven’t yet got the update notification, verison 3.6 of the Mozilla Foundation’s popular web browser has been unleashed for Windows, Mac and Linux users. Although freshly minted, in my limited testing it does seem snappier than earlier versions, though with my standard 15 tabs open, memory usage hardly seems addressed. From the Firefox blog: Below are some of the coolest features of Firefox 3.6: Personas: Personalize the look of your Firefox by selecting new themes called Personas in a single click and without a restart…

Montreal Musicians and Artists Get Together to Help Haiti Quake Victims

January 19, 2010 Doug Groves benefit, Haiti, Telus0 comment

L’Union fait la force is a group that contacted TELUS last week to help organize a benefit concert in Montreal this Thursday to raise money to help Haiti. The show will be at the TELUS Theatre in Montreal this Thursday and many local artists will take the stage. The tickets are $20 each and all the proceeds will go to three humanitarian organizations the Red Cross, Médecins du Monde and Clowns Sans Frontières. Tickets can be purchase through Admission Network (www.admission.com) and TELUS will also make available a call centre…