City Story Game Centre Compatible

When game centre was released there was only one free game with game centre capabilities which was Farmville. Now there are multiple games including City Story. City story has the best game centre capabilities for a free game I found yet. City story allows you to play mini games against random players or you can choose friends from game centre.

To play a mini game you first have to find the mini game function. You can find the mini game function in the main menu

You are then directed to this screen where you can choose if you want to invite friends to play or play against random players in auto-match. In auto-match you can choose how many players you want to play against. It takes at least 30 seconds to connect to other players. The waiting time depends on how many players you invite (more takes longer),If you are playing against a friend or friends it takes longer depending how fast they respond to your request. If you are not inviting friends you can tap the play now button. You can choose how many random players you want to play against too. It does take longer to connect to three other players by then just one so if you want a quick game just connect to one other player in auto-match or just invite one friend to play.

The screen will then look like this while loading

 You will then see this message.

There will then be a final connect to the other player/players. There will then be a countdown once the other player is ready.

 Then you will receive a message telling you what job you get. For some reason I seem to always get a fire fighter. I've only got a doctor once when I played against a group of my game centre friends. If you are a fire fighter you put out the fires. If you are a doctor you click on the buildings with band-aids on them. If you are a police officer then you click on the buildings with police tape on them.

The game then starts. You have a one minute time limit for two players. The time limit does increase and there is a bigger reward when you play with more people. I have played the game a few times and haven't yet got the river and won the game. This seems to be very challenging to get the needed 75 points in tow player games and 150 in three player games

Note:
In game centre in the games you can go to city story and by tapping on the played recently section you can see who you recently played and add them to your game centre friends.

my city I just started so it's still pretty empty




Apple Releases New iPod Nano and Shuffle

Apple has released the new iPod nano and shuffle in the past week. The new iPod nano now was a touch screen. This wasn't a surprise to me considering the success of the iPod touch. The touch screen does make navigation easier on the iPod touch and it will probably make navigation easier on the new iPod nano too. The new iPod is also smaller this is partly to do with the absence of the navigational wheel which has been replaced by the touch screen. The nano does not however have Wi-Fi capabilities. This was a bit of a surprise to me but the new iPod nano does have a pretty small screen and surfing the internet would be considerable more difficult. If people do want devices that have internet capabilities than apple would want them to buy an iPod touch because it is considerably more expensive. Some other new features that the new iPod nano has is that it was a clip on the back which is beneficial to people who use it when they working out and also supports nike+ iPod Another new feature of the new iPod nano is it can play fm which is also a helpful feature. The iPod shuffle hasn't gone through any major hardware changes like the iPod nano. The only main update with the shuffle is the software. The shuffle now says the name and artist for the song you are listening to and now has the ability to have more than one playlist. There is only a minor hardware change and that is the buttons which are apparently bigger.

The First Cell Phone, Oh How Far We Have Come

Dyna-Tac



The first cell phone was invented by in 1973 by Dr. Martin Cooper. Dr. Martin Cooper worked for Motorola and worked on inventing portable products. Dr. Cooper and his team at Motorola made handheld radios for the Chicago police department. Then ten years later Dr. Cooper and his team made the first mobile phone, which was at the time called a portable phone which made more sense due to its enormous size compared to today's cell phones. There was also another company competing to make the first portable phone this other company was Bell labs. On April 3, 1973 Dr. Martin Cooper made the first cell phone call on a Motorola Dyna-Tac near the Manhattan Hilton Hotel in New York City. The phone call was rumored to be made to his rival Joel Engel who was the leader of the Bell Labs research team. The first cell phone was bulky  it was 2.5 pound, 5 inches wide, 9 inches long and 1.75 inches thick. The phone also had to be charged 10 hours for only talking 35 minutes. The first cell phone and many models after that could not send text messages and didn't even have screens. The cell phone was invented in 1973 but cell phone's didn't become popular until the late 1990 when they weren't bulky and had screens and better battery life.

 

Dr. Martin Cooper (inventor of first cell phone) with first cell phone (Dyna-Tac)



The Dyna-Tac dwarfs modern day cell phones



Anesthetic From Half Way Around the World

I first heard about this while watching Daily Planet on Friday where they talked to the doctors involved. On August 30, 2010 the first transcontinental Anesthetic took place. Dr. Thomas Hemmerling and his team at Mc Gill's department of Anesthetic in Montreal used a program called 'Teleseanesthesia' to administer anesthetic to a patient in Pisa Italy who was undergoing thyroid gland surgery. This program controls the drugs that are being administered intravenously remotely. Even if there is internet failure the automated system continues administering the drugs. The program displays video cameras of the patient and also shows breathing rate, heart rate and other vital signs. Before the surgery takes place there is also video conferencing discussing the patient's airways and medical history. This program is still in the works and much more testing needs to be done. Dr. Hemmerling's team from McGill University is working with Dr. Zaouter and his team from the Department of Anesthesia of Pisa University. On Daily Planet they discussed possible application of this new technology one of these was in Africa where anesthesia is performed by nurses who aren't qualified (of course these places would have to have internet connectivity). Many remote places would also benefit from this technology such as northern Canada or other places where there are not many medical personnel. I have heard about heart surgery being performed remotely, but this remote anesthesia is less risky and it wouldn't be as much of a problem if there was internet failure, because of the automated system taking over.

The Burj Dubai

This article isn't as much about computer and computer device related as my other posts but I still thought I'd write about it because it is technology related. The Burg Dubai is the tallest building in the world, standing at 828 meters (2,717 feet); it replaced the CN tower in the record books as the tallest free standing structure a few years ago during construction. It is more impressive than the CN tower too because unlike the CN tower it is a multi-purpose tower and not just used to transmit radio signals. The building of the Burj Dubai started on January 4, 2004 and was finished on January 4, 2010. It has an enormous number of floors, a total of 162 and many of the higher floors are residential, these people must have quite a view. The Burj Dubai is now named the Burj Khalifa to honor the president of the UAE Khalifa bin Zayea. The Burg Dubai has a total of 54 elevators; the elevators are one of the interesting things in this enormous sky scraper. The elevators are double-decker so more passengers can fit and they are very fast, travelling 10 meters per second. To cut time the computer controlling the elevators assigns people to elevators based on what floor they are going to. Passengers first enter what floor they are travelling on a key pad or a touch screen and then are assigned to a specific elevator according to floor number. In the Burg Dubai there is also extremely fast internet speeds up to 21mb/ps. This enormous tower is going to have a large population too there are 1,044 apartments in the Burj Dubai and many hotel rooms. In total 21,000 people are expected to live and work in the Burj Dubai. It is amazing something this big can be built and I'm sure there are amazing thing that contributed to building this monster too such as the advanced computer system that designed it. I'm sure too that there are computer systems too that control the air conditioning to keep this monster cool considering the enormous size and the desert heat.

IBooks also great PDF Viewer

 

White a while ago apple released the IBooks app. This was almost a month ago when apple released the 4.0 firmware upgrade. There are many free books that are available in the IBooks store. There are many classics such as "Little Women" and "Through the Looking Glass". On IBooks you also have the ability to view PDFs and they automatically save so you can view them anytime, anywhere even offline. This is great especially if you want to be able to view manuals. You can quite easily find a lot of electronic manuals on the internet by simply googling the product. Once you find the manual all you have to do once you have the PDF in view in safari is tap on the view in iBooks button on the top right. Once in iBooks you can see the PDF now you can view it anywhere anytime. Viewing the PDF in iBooks you can quickly and easily find information by searching the PDF by tapping on the magnify glass. The only thing I don't like about this application is the speed it isn't the fastest but it is still a great PDF viewer.

ITunes 10 and Ping

Apple has released has released ITunes 10 and with it Ping. Ping is a music based social network Ping resembles twitter in a way because you can follow artists and see their recent updates and also slightly resembles facebook in its layout. You can also follow not just celebrities but other users like you. You can also choose to have people not follow you and there are other privacy options like this. You can access Ping with the new iPod touch 4.1 firmware upgrade by enabling Ping on ITunes 10 and then syncing your iPod. You can add your favorite music and it will be displayed on your profile and music you recently bought will also be displayed on your profile. I don't believe though that it will display music that you just added to your library that hasn't been bought from ITunes. It is surprising how many musicians are already part of Ping and post regularly. It is beneficial for musicians to be part of this new music based social network so they can get their name out there and have their voice heard. The benefit of Ping is probably why so many musicians are already part of this recently released social network. Ping is fairly easy to sign up for if you already have an apple account it just takes about thirty seconds since a lot of information is already filled out. The only things you really have to do are choose the music you want to display on your profile (if any) and your privacy settings. When you add people as friends you can see the music they have bought and what music they like just like they can see the music you like and the music you bought. It will be interesting if and how much this social network increases music sales on ITunes and if new artists are discovered by using Ping.

Super Wi-Fi

There was talk yesterday about faster Wi-Fi that may soon be available. Two years ago in the US the FCC voted to open up the airways between TV channels for numerous uses. Super Wi-Fi was one of the uses that were suggested because of the airways that are now available. Canada is unfortunately lagging behind in the digital switch over so unfortunately super Wi-Fi won't be available until Canada switches over to digital broadcasting Canada will switch over to digital broadcasting on August 31, 2010 this is a full two and a half years after the US switched to digital broadcasting. Super Wi-Fi is supposedly going to be able to travel for miles and have speeds of 15 to 20 megabits. The speed does depend on the Ethernet cable it is hooked up to and a lot of residential connections are not this fast. Broadway and other places that use wireless microphones such as churches, theaters and karaoke bars are concerned about interference that this new technology may cause. The FCC plans to put aside two channels for wireless microphone users to solve this problem. They also plan to include big wireless microphone users like Broadway and sports leagues in their database so devices will no to avoid these airways. There are also issues with TV broadcasting problems but the FCC is trying to solve this possible problem by mapping signals. By mapping signals the devices using super Wi-Fi could be GPS enabled so they know to switch to the right frequency. There are many opportunities that come with this super Wi-Fi technology such as sending video to television sets and computers simultaneously and providing Internet to places where landline or Internet by cable is not available. On September 23 the FCC is having another vote to resolve the issues with this super Wi-Fi technology. The technology industry can't wait for the vote so they can start making devices that are compatible with this new super Wi-Fi technology.

Farmville Game Centre Review

Last Wednesday Game Centre was released with the IPod touch 4.1 update. The only free game so far that is game centre compatible is Farmville.  On game centre you can add friends by email address or by the nickname. It would be better if game centre did have facebook integration. It would be interesting if facebook integration in game centre is in the works for the next IPod touch firmware update. You can view your Farmville achievement in game centre and you can play Farmville from game centre. Farmville on game centre isn't too impressive the racing games such as Real Racing that costs $4.99 on the Canadian store (unsure if price varies in different countries). It seems now though that there are some $0.99 games that do work with game centre. The games don't all seem to be $2.99-$4.99. It will be interesting to see the improvements as time goes by and soon hopefully there will be facebook integration so you don't have to add people by email or nickname. Game centre seems like it would cater more towards people playing racing games than people just playing Farmville.

Wireless Communications are the Future

Every year the number of cell phone users increases. At the end of 2008 there were approximately 4 billion mobile phones in use. Many developed countries more than 100% of their population have a cell phone this is because many people have more than one phone, often people have a work and a personal phone. Even in less developed countries cell phones use is increasing. For example in Africa the use of cell phones is increasing by 50% every year. In many places there was little or no communication now people have the ability to communicate with anyone, anytime and anywhere in the world. In a lot of developing countries the government is investing in wireless communications instead of wired communications. Countries are investing in wireless communications because it is a cheaper to build cell towers than to lay phone lines. A lot of the population of these countries is rural and would make it even more expensive to lay phone lines. Cell phones not to long use to be just a mobile phone without the ability to send text messages (SMS) or browse the internet. Now people can have access to the internet anywhere and anytime. The ability to access the internet anywhere and anytime has benefited business people so they can receive important emails anytime and anywhere. There is also now mobile internet sticks that work with laptops so you can use the internet almost anywhere.

Technology in the Classroom

Millions of children and teens went back to school this past Tuesday depending on where you live. Children packed up their bags with binders, paper, pencils and pens. Apart from taking notes children and teens are now using computers more than ever because of this technological age we live in. There are now interactive boards called activboards. These are great because they go a step further than projectors because they can be interacted with. They can be written on with special styluses and once written on can be easily erased without mess unlike chalk boards which leave residue on the board and on the users hands. Many more schools are focusing on how to give their students more much needed computer skills that are needed in today's work world. Children who have learning difficulties now have the option of having a laptop to help them with their everyday class work. Some children who have trouble writing are also often with provided with laptops. Younger and younger children are being encouraged to type out big projects because this is the way they will be handing in papers as they get into high school and just later elementary school. Technology is now be incorporated in the classroom more than it every has.

How To Download YouTube Videos

First you find the you tube video that you want to download. Once you find the you tube video you want to download you copy or cut the the url.

When I did this I think that keep vid was having a problem because I had to refresh the page and then it only gave me the flv format which doesn't work on iPods (only the mp4 format work on iPod) and you have to have a flv player on your computer to play the video and it is also lower quality. But also don't download the mp4 HD videos because they don't work on iPods either. Keep vid should be working normally soon. Otherwise just google download videos from you tube and there is more sites that do the exact same thing.

Then there will be a box that comes up saying if you want to find, cancel or save the video. Click save.

Then save it as whatever you want.

Then it will start downloading it does take a long time on dial-up but doesn't take long on high speed.

After it is done downloading you can go in Itunes and go to file and then choose add file to library.

Now the video should be in Itunes double check then you can sync your IPod and you'll have an you tube video saved on your ipod.

Videos At Bottom

Added videos at the bottom of my blog. It took a bit of time and ingenuity but I finally figured it out. Had to add the html gadget to my profile page and go from there. Anyone who wants to learn how to do this please write a comment so you can do something similar on your blog. Still need to tweak it so it looks more professional but it's a start. Might put up how to download youtube videos for something different.

IPod Touch 4.0

The IPod touch 4.0 was recently released. The IPod touch has many features that the previous IPod touch models didn't have. Above is an advertisement for the IPod touch 4.0. The IPod touch is definitly marketed for more of a camera and a internet device than a actually IPod. On the apple site it did say it could also shoot HD video and it can also take pictures. This is different from the newer IPod nano which was released about a year ago which was only able to shoot videos. The rear facing camera is only about a mega pixel. This is the same as most phones which don't take to good quality of photos. The photos look okay on the device but don't look good blown up on a computer screen because of their poor quality. The apple site just gives the information about the resolution of the cameras but this is probably a good thing (for them) 960 by 720 resolution sounds better than the amount of mega pixels. The IPod touch comes with many new features such as Face Time like the IPhone 4, cameras, multi tasking which came out a while ago and retina display which apparently is better than the previous IPod screens.

Game Centre Now Working!!!

Last night I noticed that farmville on my IPod touch is now working on game centre. I did reinstall farmville then went and loaded and played it. I then closed it and went to the game centre app and it showed up in the games which i didn't before. I don't know if it was the reinstall that got it working or the server. Here is a screen shots of farmville on game centre. I discussed game centre in my previous blog.

IPod Touch and IPhone Game Centre

Yesterday the 4.1 software upgrade was released for IPod touch and IPhone. With the software upgrade game centre was included. This application provides users the ability to play games with friends or strangers. Currently there is a small list of games that have game centre capabilities most of the games are not free and need to be purchased from the app store. The only free game that has game centre capabilities is farmville. Game centre was only released yesterday and because of this it is not fully operational yet. Supposedly game centre is in beta now and will only be fully operational in early 2011 ( this is only a rumour and more accurate information will probably be released soon). I just downloaded and installed the new update and farmville wasn't showing up in game centre games so it might take a few days. This is a great idea for an app and it is great that you have the option of playing against strangers and adding friends and playing with them. It is unfortunate that most of the games that can be played on game centre do cost money and aren't the cheap ones that cost around $1 the games on game centre are at least $4. Hopefully the amount of games compatible with game centre increases and there are more free games that work with game centre.

Is Blu-ray Going to Replace DVDs? Is it Worth Upgrading?

A few years ago Blu-ray players and discs were released. The Blu-ray discs couldn't be played in a normal DVD player but was the same size but the information on it was burned on it with a blue light instead of the red light used in burning DVDs. There was a lot of hype about Blu-ray discs and Blu-ray players because everyone thought this was going to be similar to the wipe out of VHS. It has been a few years since Blu-ray has been released more and more movies are being released on Blu-ray but a lot of movies are still being released on DVD. Some movies are still being released on both and some companies release both and sell  Blu-ray combo packs with the DVD included but most movies are still released in DVD and Blu-ray. The release of Blu-ray is definitely not like the release of DVD which quickly took over so it got more and more difficult to find VHS. Now with pay per view and more services like Netflix many people decide to order movies digitally instead of having to worry about getting the video back in time. A lot of times pay per view is only a dollar more than renting a movie or sometimes the same price (depending on the price to rent a DVD at your local video store). Blu-ray does boast about sound quality and how much more data a Blu-ray disc can store. Blu-ray discs often have more bonus features.With the release of Blu-ray I have also noticed that DVDs have less and less bonus features because film companies want you to buy the more expensive Blu-ray disc. Blu-ray players also have internet capabilities which regular DVD players don't where you can see bonus internet content. Blu-ray players prices are dropping because it's not as new of a technology anymore but I wouldn't rush out to go get a Blue-ray player until it is harder to find normal DVDs (which are often a lot cheaper than Blu-ray discs).

Laptops For Three Year Olds

It seems that computer companies are trying to target younger and younger audiences. This came especially apparent to me after I saw a dell commercial and one of the kids with a full backpack (the commercial's message was don't make your kids pack too much this school year) was a young school age boy, so not a three year old but not the age of child that you would think of buying a laptop for. Technology definitely does benefit kids but would a child be benefitted enough to have their own computer. Not to mention though how rough kids are with their toys. Would they understand that a laptop isn't a toy and be gentle with it? It's great for kids to have access to a computer but a child but having a brand new computer may be a bit much it's different than a child having an old computer that they can just play on or sharing a computer. I wonder though it one day this will be normal for younger kids to have their own laptops but spending that much money for a brand new laptop doesn't seem a good idea for a child that young. Children definitely are using computers at a younger and younger age and computer skills are being taught more and more to younger and younger kids. I understand a younger child having a laptop for a learning disability but if the child doesn't have any learning disabilities than it does not make sense for a young child to have a laptop.

WiFi Hotspots

During the past few years there has been a increase in Wi-Fi hot spots. More and more restaurants have started having them and have advertised them. A few years ago there were few hot spots; this is probably partly because small Wi-Fi devices (i.e. IPod touches, Nintendo dsis) weren't on the market yet. Many people looking for Wi-Fi access where laptop user but this isn't the case now with iPod touches and even some smart phones such as blackberries and other smart phones  that can also access Wi-Fi networks. Driving through a big city now with an IPod touch you can see how many people also have a home network and how many restaurants have free Wi-Fi. Some smaller restaurants have also have taken advantage of this trend. I saw a  commercial while watching the Tacoma Washington station advertising that Mc Donald's there have free Wi-Fi.  Wi-Fi hotspots are a selling feature for many business people and the everyday facebookers. Hotels often decide to have a hotel wide Wi-Fi network instead of having internet hook ups in each room as it is a lot cheaper. This idea also doesn't discriminate against laptop users (unless very old) but if there are just internet hookups in each room then an IPod touch user can't access the internet. Over all Wi-Fi hotspots are a great idea for restaurants and hotels in this day of fast communication and people always wanting to be connected. Some places that you wouldn't expect to have Wi-Fi hotspots also have them such as hockey arenas and some cities also have a city wide wireless network, but these networks you often need a subscription for.

Face Time Future or Fad?

The IPhone four has come out a month or so ago and with it Face Time was released. Face Time is a "revolutionary application" in the words of apple but the truth is similar features have been on less popular phones that there hasn't been a huge hype about unlike the IPhone 4. Face Time lets the user video call someone using the IPhone 4's front facing camera. In the next few weeks Face Time will also be released on the new IPod touch 4. The commercials for the IPhone 4 were quite impressive and really showcased situations where the feature would come in handy. The truth is though that Face Time only works with  WiFi so it would only really come in handy mostly at home or at a cafe or somewhere else you can get WiFi access. It is not the kind of on the go application that some may think it is. There would be only some situations where this application would come in handy. You can also only use this application if the other person has an IPhone 4. This application might be more impressive if you can use it to talk to people on MSN or facebook via web cam.

Car Elevator???

I thought this was the coolest thing when I first received a chain email titled "new way to park your car" with this link attached to it. I followed the link and to my surprise a video played. At first the voice in the background just talked about the parking problems in Budapest and shows a square that was previously crowded with cars. You then see a car travelling into a parking garage, the driver shortly gets out and parks the car in the small garage. You wonder why the voice in the background calls this area a transfer area because you assume the car is going to stay there but this question is quickly answered. At this point I didn't realize that the car was just temporarily parked in the garage and as soon as the driver pays the car is going on a journey in an elevator. The video continues on to show the car being transported on the elevator to its final parking spot. Next it shows the driver coming back to pick up the car and it being retrieved. In the video it mentions how theft doesn't happen which would be good especially for someone with a high end car such as the Mercedes in the video. I also found it quite extraordinary that it only takes less than two minutes and the longest 4 minutes to deliver the car once the driver comes. It definitely takes often takes a lot longer to find your car in a normal car parking garage depending where it is parked. You definitely have to wonder how much it costs to park your car here but I don't think money would be very much of an object for someone who has a nice car and who obviously has money who doesn't want it to get damaged. This is most likely the target audience considering the car in the video is a Mercedes.

see video here