Idealty's Domain: Let's Talk Tech

     Now that Nintendo has jumped the gun and announced their next generation game console called the Wii U, there is a ton of speculation as to when Sony and Microsoft will follow with their next gen systems. In past console generations, the average time of a console cycle was about 4-5 years. This does not mean that in 4-5 years a system would stop being manufactured and disappear. Rather this means that there was typically a gap of 4-5 years between new consoles from the same company even if they would sell concurrently for some time (i.e PS1 -> PS2, SNES -> N64). This fall, the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be 6 and 5 years old respectively which is well past that established life cycle. Yet, both the PS3 and Xbox360 are still enjoying healthy worldwide sales, have plenty of games coming in the next 12-18 months, and still have not reached the magical price point of $199 (max price for all Skus) which is traditionally when most systems see their large...

After several months of speculation, Sony finally confirmed the successor to the PSP (PlayStation Portable) codenamed NGP (Next Generation Portable) in January 2011. Later at E3 2011, Sony confirmed that the final name of the device will be PS Vita ("Vita" is Latin for "life"). The new handheld will be a powerful one, featuring a Quad-core ARM CPU and PowerVR graphics processor generating near PS3 quality graphics. It also features a camera, 6-axis motion controls, front multi-touch screen with a rear touch pad, dual analog sticks, Wi-Fi and 3G all for the amazingly price of only $249/$299 (non 3G/3G model). That is the same price as the recently released Nintendo 3DS but with much better technology and some intriguing games in the initial lineup. Could the PS Vita be the slam dunk Sony hoped for with the PSP and finally dethrone Nintendo's lock on the handheld market? Like the PSP But Better While Nintendo has taken the approach of creating unique handhel...

At E3 2011 a few weeks ago, Nintendo finally unveiled their successor to the Wii called the Wii U. Interestingly enough, the actual unveil did not show the actual hardware or any live demos of software which was disappointing. All Nintendo showed was a few marketing video to illustrate what the system and it's new tablet controller can do. What is the Wii U? Well, for all intent and purposes it is aWii with better HD quality graphics and a new tablet like controller with its own screen. While actual hardware specs have not been confirmed by Nintendo, we do know that it is capable of displaying full 1080P HD graphics (finally), that it is fully backward compatible with standard Wii games and accessories, and that the tablet controller combines traditional buttons with motion controls and the new screen. In a sense, you can think of the system as bring the DS experience into the living room but with more flexibility in how the two displays interact with one another. Definitely w...

I'm happy to announce that Idealdomain will now be featured under the gaming topic on Alltop.com . For those that do not know, Alltop is a sort of online library of websites and blogs for a wide variety of topics. Please visit the site to check it out (Click the banner on top). Also, you can view my personal library of news feeds for various topics at http://my.alltop.com/idealty .

 (This discussion is purposely excluding the PSN hack which is irrelevant to main issue in this article) In 2010, the game industry was buzzing about what was shaping up to be a monstrous 2011 for the PS3. With a huge lineup of quality games that dwarfed the competition, many of which were sequels to critically and commercially successful titles, it looked like 2011 would be a year of dominance for Sony. With Playstation exclusive games like LittleBigPlanet 2, Killzone 3, MLB'11, Motorstorm Apocalypse, Socom 4, Infamous 2, Resistance 3, Uncharted 3, and the return of Twisted Metal just to name a few it appeared that Sony was going to be delivering hard hitting games throughout the entire year and finally regain its dominance. However, taking a deeper look reveals that things may not be going according to plan. The presumed success of many of the titles I named was largely based on success of their predecessors. The much hyped Killzone 2 delive...

 Game Companies Attacked Hackers declare war on world April 17th 2011, a day that will live in infamy in gaming history. Of course, this is the date that the Sony Playstation Netowrk (PSN) was first taken down due to unauthorized intrusion on the PSN servers from hackers. This event had two significant consequences: first it prevented nearly 50 million PS3 and 70 million PSP owners from accessing any of the network features of their respective systems (i.e online play, playstation e-store, trophy syncing, etc), and second it exposed over 100 millions user accounts to hackers including emails, passwords, usernames, download history, and credit card credentials. Naturally, panic insued more so because hardcore fans could not fathom life without being able to sync their trophies to watch their trophy level increase or get online with their buddies for nearly a full month. In all seriousness, it was one of the largest hacker events in the internet age and ...

So I'm going to resurrect this blog in order to get a couple of things of my chest. Looking back at where the world was when I started this blog, it's amazing to me just how much has changed. Personal cell phones are now the standard and manadatory even for children as opposed to a luxury. Elementary schools around the country has traded in their textbooks for Ipads. The desktop PC is quickly becoming a niche "legacy" product relagated to mostly students and professionals. And the world is going smartphone and tablet crazy. With so much going on, I wanted to express some of my ideas on several issues and see where it goes. I'll be posting several topics over the next few days and look forward to seeing what some folks think.