slice of koh

It’s hard to believe that a decade has passed, and video games have evolved so much in the past 10 years.  There have been many blockbuster games in the past years, but there are few games that heavily influenced not only the video game industry but on people’s lifestyles and entertainment.  Read on for the top ten most influential games in the past decade.

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Despite yesterday’s snafu with its network, it looks like T-Mobile is rolling out 7.2 Mbps 3G service.  Randomly performed a speedtest on Mobile Speed Test, and my download speed is coming up at 7272 Kps for the smallest file size version.  I tested 2 mb download, and I came out around 4.5 Mbps which is not too shabby.  It’s a good sign they are rolling out a faster 3G network early because T-Mobile took way too long to roll out its 3G service to begin with.  If only I can keep my corporate discount with the new unlimited plans, some new phones (e.g. Blackberry 9700 or GSM version of Motorola DROID), and the same high-quality customer service, then T-Mobile may keep me as a customer for a longer period of time.  It would be even better if T-Mobile announced they’re joining the LTE bandwagon and actually bring 4G service at the same time as the other players.

After many months of rumors and anticipation, Sony Ericsson finally announced the XPERIA X10, otherwise known as the Rachael Android phone.  1 Ghz Snapdragon processor, 4-inch capacitive touch display, 8.1 megapixel digital camera, and the Rachael Android UI… this seems like the Android device to beat despite the likes of Motorola Droid or HTC Hero.

Too bad it’s coming out Q1 2010.  Sony, why are you missing the 2009 Holiday train?  There also seems to be kinks in the pre-production build such as laggy UI and battery drain due to sub-optimal software builds.  Hopefully Sony will work these issues out before the official release.

Gizmodo posted the video for Charlie Rose’s interview with Dan Hesse.  You have to give Dan Hesse credit.  Any executive will do anything to make his or her company look superior to competitors.  A smart executive understands the playing field, recognizes his or her company’s strengths and weaknesses, and will craft a strategy to compete.  Sprint has been in a downward spiral for awhile, but Dan Hesse seems to have a pretty good strategy in place for Sprint’s comeback. Below are some memorable quotes and comments:

“We’re getting ready to launch a couple new Android devices.” – One is HTC Hero, but what are the other ones?  Not only will Sprint launch a lower cost WebOS phone, Pixi, but Sprint is diversifying its portfolio to give the consumers a great selection of smartphones to use on its network.  Does anyone remember when Sprint actually had a cool selection of phones to choose from?  I don’t.

“In 20 / 20 hindsight, it was, yes… the premium that Sprint paid for Nextel was too much.” – Applaud Dan Hesse for recognizing the stupid merger.  There aren’t many corporate executives who’ll admit to management mistakes.  Even fewer will admit to M&A mistakes, especially those that made headlines.

“The biggest impediment to mobile growth is you got processors are getting a lot faster, screens are getting sharper, they use more and more power, and battery technology is not moving very fast… That’s the one breakthrough that the industry needs. It needs battery breakthroughs.” To me, this is one of the biggest issues with touchscreen smartphones.  My G1 dies after 6 hours with moderate usage.  That’s pretty inexcusable, as I’m often out and about for at least 12 hours per day.  With all these hardware improvement designed to eat less battery juice, why do manufacturers not see the beauty of making a better battery rather than trying to make its hardware more power-efficient?  Maybe someone should develop a touchscreen with built-in solar panels, so my phone could be charged with only sunlight.  A smartphone with a big touchscreen and fast processor will be useless if the battery dies in 2 hours.

After this interview, my respect for Dan Hesse has increased significantly.  He truly does understand the business and taking the right steps to make Sprint a viable contender once more.  Is it too little too late?  We’ll see for sure once Q3 and Q4 earnings come out for Sprint.

After years in stealth mode, OnLive introduced itself to the world at this year’s GDC.  OnLive is a new server-based on demand games service that allows anyone with a healthy broadband connection to play any game despite power and complexity.  The concept means that there would be no need to for continuous hardware upgrades (and draining $’s)  to one’s PC.  Is this the end of the console?  

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