It seems Apple’s pursuit of simplicity in their devices never ceases, and it’s proven all the more true with their latest rendition of the iPod Shuffle which forsakes all the controls on the gadget entirely. The only “controls” on the small aluminum sliver is the On/Off switch that also dictates whether to play the songs on the iPod in order or randomly. The audio player is fully controlled through the headphones, which brings up the newest “feature” Apple has so graciously provided: the ability for the iPod Shuffle to talk back to you (yes, talk!) via VoiceOver which, at the push of a button, speaks the song title.

The absurdness of the device almost has me at a loss for words, I mean, it looks like Apple’s next iteration of the Shuffle line will resemble that of the iPod Flea. I’ve already dubbed Apple’s latest creation the iPod Leech, in the sense that it basically does nothing besides suck your money away. At $80 for 4GB of storage, there are plenty of other small mp3 players that have a physical LCD screen as well as controls to boot in the $50-$100 price range.

Apple gears their newest iPod Shuffle as a “tech-cessory” meaning “a device for those that don’t care and know nothing about technology but want to look cool and upbeat wearing this small piece of metal anyway.” The usability of this device to anyone that has previously owned any other iPod in the this physical plane of existence will be next to none for the sheer lack of any real interface. A major drawback deals with the cheap proprietary headphones that are required to operate the Shuffle. This is definitely not a device for audiophiles for the fact that you cannot use any high-quality headphones to listen to your random playlist. To be honest, I can only see teenagers using this device. Its random choosing of songs as well as the ability of holding up to 1000 songs at 128kbps quality is more than enough for a kid who doesn’t care about his hearing to pour into his head at full blast across the crappy Apple standard headphones.

The only redeeming quality I find in the new iPod Shuffle is its rediculously small size, which will make numerous hacks and mods inevitable. Just like the Gen1 iPod Shuffle Juicy Fruit hack, I can only imagine where hackers will find to put this thing, such as in a BIC lighter, a breathmint case, or perhaps even combine it with a bluetooth headset in some way. I also have to give Apple kudos for making the first iPod that someone can feasibly swallow. I can only imagine the news story of a dancing teenager tripping in his house while listening to this thing clipped to his shirt and it accidentally falling in his mouth and down his throat. I will secretly pray that it happens just so I can see a picture of the x-ray.

The bottom line: It looks like Apple has finally jumped the shark with the iPod Shuffle line, which, it seems, is slowly becoming a trend across all spectrums of the Apple iPod genre. First it was the iPod Nano when Apple released the “Nano Fatty” as coined by the interwebs, which a little later became the iPod Nano it is today, which is exactly the same device that has the original screen turned on its side, a more curved look, and the Shake-to-Shuffle feature. Not to mention there hasn’t been an update to the original iPod line in quite a while. Leo Laporte relates this trend in a good way by saying that Apple is becoming like a car manufacturer by creating newer models that are exactly the same as their older models, but the newer models have “fins” such that to differentiate themselves from the older models. It looks like this is all Apple does now with most of their iPod line – adding fins as features.

Being a self-proclaimed geek and computer nerd, I’ve known of Diggnation for quite a long time, and after watching their announcement on episode 190 and learning that they were going to do a live Diggnation in Austin, Texas for SXSW on March 14, my geek-out meter just about broke the scale (I live just hours away from Austin). This date happens to fall on the same week as my Spring Break, and what better to do for Spring Break than to party Diggnation style? It became almost too good to be true when they further announced that it will be open to all ages, meaning my girlfriend (age 19) and some friends in the Austin area, equal Diggnation fans as well, would be able to attend. As it turns out, however, it was too good to be true. From Digg’s most recent Digg Town Hall webcast episode from February 26 with Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson, it was further clarified that the live show age limit was 21 and over. This depressing bit of news spurred me to write the following email to the Diggnation and Revision3 team:

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Hello Kevin, Alex, and the rest of the Diggnation/Revision3 team,

Words cannot express how incredibly disappointed I am with this age limit of 21+ for the live show in Austin for SXSW, especially after being put under the original pretense that it was for all ages. Even though I am 21, my girlfriend (and fellow fan of Diggnation) is only 19 and we were making big plans on driving to Austin since this will probably be the last time Alex and Kevin come to Texas for a while (she lives in Houston while I live in Dallas). I say “were” because it looks like those plans will not come to fruition now. For the past years that I’ve watched Diggnation (since episode 1) and seen announcements about the live shows, I always got miffed about the 21+ age limit imposed at some venues even though it was impossible for me to go because of the vast distance anyway. Now it seems impossible yet again for I will not be able to enjoy a live show that I can actually attend because my significant-other as well as other friends in Austin wanting to attend are considered “under age” yet over 18 and considered adults.

Obviously the reason for the imposed age limit of 21+ is for alcohol control (there will probably be a bar and also drinking involved…hey, it’s Diggnation after all), but why not implement some sort of system where if a person attending is under 21, then they get large black X’s marked on the back of their hands in permanent marker so that the bartenders know not to sell alcoholic beverages to them? I’m sure it’s not that hard to give bartenders and waiters instructions for one night not to sell any alcohol to anyone with black X’s on their hands, nor will it be hard for the bartenders and waiters to comprehend these instructions. I’ve seen this procedure implemented at numerous clubs and social events in bars and it seems to work fairly well. If the question comes down to man-power to do this, then I’m quite positive people will likely volunteer for this type of crowd-control duty. I’ll be happy to do it myself, and I will be more than happy to send the Diggnation/Revision3 team my contact information to help organize an ID-checking and marking team so that people enter into the venue in an organized and safe manner.

This is the point I’m trying to make here: there are plenty of fans that are old enough to vote or have a license to carry a gun, but at the same time cannot attend the live show of one of their favorite internet-television programs because they are still considered “under age.” I hope this Diggnation live-show trend somehow gets changed for future shows, even if I’m still unable to attend, because I don’t agree seeing such a loyal fanbase treated so unfairly because of their youth.

Not looking forward to not attending,

*personal info excluded*

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In short, my aim is for future live shows to be open to more age groups and not just the “drinking crowd.” It may be too late to change the plans for their March 14 Diggnation, but I want those who were like me – seeing the announcements and wanting to go to a live Diggnation, but can’t because of the distance – and get their chance when a live show finally comes to a city near them, not to be robbed by some miniscule and asinine technicality such as age.  I hope that this age limit of 21 and over does not become the standard for Diggnation’s live shows, and I believe quite a few fellow Diggers feel the same way.

UPDATE:

It seems the age limit for the live Diggnation has been changed back to the original “all ages” age group. The most official proof I could find of this was from Revision3’s blog post about the event.

This Halloween I decided to get more involved than I usually do construct a costume from my favorite MMORPG World of Warcraft. Specifically a warlock in the tier 5 armor set Corruptor Rainment. I went on a 72-hour construction spree with very little sleep in between (approximately only 6 hours), and I have to say I’m very pleased with the final results. Sure I need to do some more slight modifications and improvements, but given the time restraint it went really well. Here are some pictures of the final result. I’m thinking of making a tutorial on how to make some Mantle of the Corruptor shoulders so others can make some themselves. Give me your thoughts by sending an email to me at franklid (at) gmail (dot) com or just commenting on this post. If there’s enough interest I’ll get right on the tutorial and maybe even submit it to instructables.com! Enjoy.

These are the shoulders that I made. They mostly consist of cardboard, duct-tape, and a ton of hot glue. This is what took most of the 72-hours to create, seeing as how they are the most detail-intensive part of the costume. The strips of cloth in between the two shoulder pieces are used to tie around my neck when I put them on, because they are so large that they start to slide down my arms if I don’t have them anchored to something (in this case: my neck).

I wired in red LEDs into the eye sockets of each of the 3 skulls to give them a nice, menacing glow. These were then hooked up to a small battery and switch so I could easily turn them on or off on each shoulder. I’ll go more in depth in the tutorial (if one is made).

These were simple LED eyes that I got from a “Phantom spirit” costume at my local halloween store. The costume came complete with robe, veiled hood, and these electric eyes with faded in and out. The eyes were originally round, so I just wrapped electrical tape around them to form triangles for a meaner, narrowed-eyes look.

Here is the costume in its entirety:

^^Casting Immolate^^

^^Casting Shadow Bolt^^

What it would look like in the dark (sort of).

If there are any questions or you want more photos (or request that I do a tutorial on how I made the shoulders) send me an email at Franklid (at) gmail (dot) com.

Tucked away behind beautiful booth babes, flashy lights, big-rig computers, and jamming speaker systems I found the mobile gaming booth on the vendor floor of Quakecon. Here they had several mobile phones set up running various games such as Orcs&Elves, and I think even Wolfenstein RPG. What caught my eye, though, were the Spore: Origins logos posted alongside logos for these other in-development games. I inquired with the representatives at the booth, and they gave me some interesting info that the Spore: Origins game for the iPhone and iPod Touch will be released on September 7th, 2008.

Here’s a quick video of the statement:

They went on to say that there were actually several iPod Touches with the Spore: Origins game installed and ready for demo! I couldn’t wait to get my hands on one to start playing, and I must say I’m really excited for the final product to reach the AppStore. I only played 3 levels, but the idea pretty straightforward at first: eat or be eaten. You first start off as highest in the food chain, chasing smaller organisms and getting stronger and more evolved with each one you eat. As you progress, however, organisms that will eat YOU come into play and you must avoid them while using the accelerometers to steer your creature into eating the smaller organisms. One really neat attention to detail I noticed was the fact that, in the lower levels, the background of the primordial ooze showed fuzzy images of larger organisms swimming around, giving a sense of realization of how small your start off as.

The customization aspect of it is pretty interesting. Aside from choosing what colors, designs, and even textures your creature can have on its body, it looks like players will be able to add their own personal photos as an option for the creature’s look. While browsing through the customization options, I found an icon of a polaroid picture of palm trees, which led me to this assumption. As the levels progress, more customization options are unlocked. You’ll be able to change the bone structure of your creature, what types of defenses and probes it has (like horns or thicker, tougher skin), etc, etc.

At the end of this post is a video of me giving a hands-on video demo of Spore: Origins. It’s only of level one, and I can upload the others if there’s a large demand for the rest. Keep in mind, however, the video of the demo is very blurry (I can’t control the focus on my Flip video camera), so here’s your warning. Yes, it is also very loud seeing as how I’m on the show floor at Quakecon…and the booth where they featured Spore: Origins was dimly lit.

Quakecon kicked off with a great start today as gamers and game enthusiasts alike gathered around vendor areas and the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) section. Competitions, raffles, free swag, LAN gaming, and hyper-caffeinated BAWLS-infused gamers swamped the show floor the entire day. The highlight of the day, however, came at the id Software Press Conference and John Carmack keynote.

As usual at Quakecon, Carmack likes to drone on and on about game development and his hobby of rocket launching, but if you can stay awake and pay attention through the whole keynote (and the Q&A session afterward) you can walk away with quite a few tidbits of information coming from the id software front. Carmack gave an update on the progress on id’s new upcoming game Rage and squashed rumors of it being a racing game and emphasized that it is a FPS shoot-em-up with a racing quality built in, and the racing doesn’t take up the majority of the gameplay. Along with the update he also presented a revised trailer for the game:

He also said that due to disc licenses from Microsoft’s xBox360 platform, Rage will only span across two DVD’s instead of the preferable three by Carmack. The price of licensing a third disc would cost too much for the software company to allow. Carmack also stated that because the game will be squashed onto two discs for the xBox360, the Playstation 3’s version of Rage on a large Blu-Ray disc will have much better detail and less artifacts.

During the keynote, Carmack also spoke about Doom IV and how id is focusing more on the multiplayer aspect of the game than the previous iteration of the series, Doom III. Co-op for both Doom IV as well as Rage isn’t out of the question, either. He further went on the say that the source code for Doom III will be released (hopefully) sometime next year, and after the release of Rage.

New multiplayer versions of Quake and Wolfenstein are in the works as well. Every attendee at the Quakecon’s BYOC got a key to the private beta of QuakeLive, a multiplayer (free!) deathmatch game that will be played solely online, with statistics, friends lists, and match-making systems organized all through one website. Here’s the trailer shown during the keynote:

Wolfenstein’s multiplayer is in the works as well. Even though Carmack didn’t say much as to a release date they did release a never-before-seen trailer (not even at E3) to the Quakecon goers:

Finally, the mobile gaming scene. Wolfenstein RPG as well as Doom II RPG were announced with a full trailer of Wolfenstein RPG and a teaser for Doom II. My previous speculations of an announcement of an iPhone game from id were partially right in that Carmack mentioned working on a game for the iPhone and that he finds the AppStore great and easy to use and how wonderful a job Apple did on the SDK. However, he didn’t give any insight into which title is being developed specifically for the iPhone and if anyone has any information on it, feel free to post it in the comments. Trailers for Wolfenstein RPG and Doom II RPG below:

No set release dates on when these games will be available. As they like to say at Quakecon about the release dates of games: “it’ll be released when it’s finished.”

That concludes day one of Quakecon, and pretty much most of the news for the rest of the event. If you care to continue for Quakecon coverage as the action unfolds, keep an eye on my twitter feed.

Also, I would like to see how you guys are liking the coverage I’m giving. Feel free to leave a comment below throwing in your two cents on how bad (or good) of a job I’m doing. Thanks in advance.

Blogging live from the Quakecon id software/ John Carmack keynote and a lot has been announced, including Wolfenstein RPG for mobile phones, new online Wolfenstein multiplayer, QuakeLive beta, and a new Rage trailer. If you want a play-by-play, follow my Twitter feed at:
http://www.twitter.com/frankli

More to come later!

From iPhone Alley, John Carmack of Id Software stated that the game developing company has a game specifically designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch in the works. I’m very excited to see what they come up with, and I’m already speculating Id will be announcing the game at this year’s Quakecon in Dallas, Texas. Last year Carmack announced Id’s newest game Rage, which is why I have a hunch that a similar announcement may happen this year. As I will be attending this event, I’ll keep you guys posted on what happens. Be sure to monitor my Twitter feed in between July 31st through August 3rd for developments at Quakecon, and if you are going to be in Dallas during that time and want to find out how to attend, follow this link to get started. Did I mention that it’s 100% free to attend?

The Mac version of the 2.0 iPhone firmware Pwnage tool has been available for approximately a week or so now, and the iPhone Dev Team already has a 2.0.1 update. But now all the poor souls on a Windows OS (including myself) can now share in the happiness (and possibly headaches?) of jailbreaking their 3G’s with the Windows version of the app. On my 1st-gen iPhone I used ZiPhone to jailbreak mine on the 1.1.4 firmware, and I’m a bit wary about this first version of the release, although I’m quite stoked about it nonetheless. Once I cook up some courage I’ll dive in to see how it works out and give you guys an update on what I think. Keep in mind, however, that tampering with your iPhone’s firmware could render it in a bricked state. This isn’t for the feint of heart or those not willing to use their shiny new $199 or $299 handset as a tinker toy.

Mirror:
iphone-hacks.com page w/ firmwares

Hopped onto ThinkGeek for a minute and hark! What is that I hear? Why the sound of a freaking Ocarina of Time! Available for $39.99 (plus shipping and handling), slightly steep of a price but I’ve literally always wanted one of these for myself ever since I got Link’s pixelated mitts on one in the N64 classic. It’s hard to stop myself from sliding it into my cart and checking out with it right now!

Welcome to the launch of eFrankli! The digital blog of whatever interests me, whether it be news stories, technology, gaming, politics, shaving cream, etc. Anything is fair game. If you want to know a little bit about me, refer to the “About” section of the site (or look up and right). By the way, my name is neither Frank nor Li, it’s just my pen name.  I also have a large fascination with technology, so expect to see quite a few articles that will involve hardware/software reviews, DRM/DMCA rants and raves, as well as technology-privacy issues that may catch my eye. Also, I’m a bit of a tinkerer with gadgetry, so I’ll also have updates on pet projects I have going around in my apartment. Things may seem a bit….bare-bones right now, but as time progresses I’ll have a full link section up and perhaps even an area just for reviews. Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget to check in often for updates!

~Frankli